12-25-10 MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM TEXAS

MERRY CHRISTMAS We're going to the park's Christmas dinner today. I skipped breakfast so I'll be hungry ! It  cooled down to 55 today and it's funny to see people walking around with heavy coats, gloves & even ear warmers on. Crazy winter Texans !! The weatherman says it's gonna warm up again tomorrow. Our new little ceramic heater is working so well that the furnace hasn't kicked on at all. It's been nice in this park, it's close enough to town that we've been able to use the bikes to go shopping. Having an American Legion just a little ways down the street has been good too! We've managed to build up to 2 or 3 miles on the bikes just like last year. We've made a resolution to keep this up when we get home, don't know why we let that slip last year, it's a good workout that we hope to maintain. We've managed to get in the pool & hot tub a number of times and it's been terrifically relaxing. Yesterday was interesting. I had a flat tire on my bike and one of our neighbors gave me a patch kit. I patched the tire. A stupid sand burr caused a leak! I was puttinf air in the tire a obviously got carried away with air pressure and BAMMM! Yep, you guessed it. Catastrophic failure. Another neighbor came over and offered a ride to Wally World so we took off, got a new inner tube and completed repairs..Yahoo! On the road again. The explosion, by the way, was quite loud and Heather just about jumped out of her chair,where she was engrossed in her book. A lady from across the street hurried over to see if we were okay. She said she was in her bathroom and the BOOM scared thd shi*** out of her. LOL  We hope everyone has a great Christmas..REMEMBER..LIVE YOUR DREAMS AS TIME GOES BY QUICKLY...Charlie & Heather

Tue 12-21-10 La Feria TX Kenwood Resort

We checked in Sunday late afternoon..nice looking park..got the rig all connected then went exploring the park..good layout, clean restrooms, and the pool !!!WOW! So we decided to soak in the hot tub and jump into the pool, aaahhhhhh!!!.& it's right next to our site.. it's a balmy 70+ and sunny. I'll take all of this we can get.. we rode our bikes around town and found a  friendly neighborhood American Legion close by and a liquor store..within walking distance are all the little stores you'd need, and a few fast food places. Yessiree, all this is great..they also have a fantastic pool/billiards hall in the park. We tried that out today.   5 Nice tables, new felt and very level with plenty of room. The park sponsors lots of activities. Heather played euchre last night and the agenda for the holidays sounds like fun. It's so nice here that we registered for 2 weeks to get thru the holidays and may stay longer. I see why "Winter Texans" head for this area every year. We talked to a few campers, that have been coming here for years, and they say it seldom gets cold. Everybody waves and smiles and ask you to join the fun, which is pleasant. Hope you all are enjoying winter. REMEMBER..LIVE YOUR DREAMS AS TIME GOES BY QUICKLY..Charlie&Heather

12-17-10 Mustang Island TX

WOW I can't believe it's been 5 days since last blog !! It's been a fast week for us. After Austin we went to San Antonio and toured the Alamo..it's right in downtown. We were impressed with the cleanliness of this metropolitan city. The Alamo is a real piece of American history. The first thing they do is show a historical movie about it, then a self guided tour is in order. The suprising thing about that place is it's free, unlike other places. Downtown San Antonio is very inviting and pleasant to walk around. There's a river that runs thru it and it has boat rides to see all the sites. It's called the Riverwalk and is a must see.. Then we headed to Corpus Christi and camped a the State Park and toured the Air Craft Carrier "Lexington"..man, it's big !!It took about 3 hrs, and if our legs could take any more could've been 2 more hours, to get  thru it and another piece of history is in our heads. The heroism shown by it's crew is mindboggling!! Now we're on Mustang Island east of Corpus Christi and camped between the dunes..tomorrow is beach walking day.. I called our next destination to make reservations near Brownsville so you probably won't see any new blogs for a couple of days. We may even stay awhile soon, the Holidays are coming. Most Campgrounds have things planned.and we're ready to stop for awhile. Hope y'all are in good health and spirits..REMEMBER...LIVE YOUR DREAMS AS TIME GOES BY QUICKLY...Charlie&Heather

Monday 12-13-10 9AM

Coming at ya this morning from Austin Texas, state capitol of Texas..Stayed at McKinney State Park for 2 days. It's in the SE corner of Austin and only a few miles from Tom's house. Do you all remember Tom from his work at the Back Door about 3 years ago? We all visited yesterday and saw his beautiful home. He's still the go-go guy we all knew. He's got a great Labador called Turbo that's well trained. Had good conversations and shared a pizza at his place. Got back to the park about 9PM and called it a night.  Today we move down to San Antonio to see the Alamo, it's about 1 1/2hrs away. We did get a chance for a bike ride around the park and saw the upper waterfall of Onion Creek here in the park. It's an amazing outcrop of rock forming a natural dam and a waterfall. It's quite a sight to see. This park is very nice with lot's of room between campsites. They've got a pretty good scam going. The rules say no collecting firewood from park grounds but they 'sell' wood. They get $1 a log !! A log is a 20" piece about 4" around !! The way we figured it'd cost about $20 to have a 3hr fire. Jimmy oughta get in on this racket! At that rate we figure our at home bonfires were worth aguzzillion bucks. LOL ...Hope all our friends at home in Mich are surviveing the winter blast. We think of you often. See ya next post...REMEMBER, LIVE YOUR DREAMS AS TIME GOES BY QUICKLY......Charlie&Heather

HEATHERS BLOG

WE R IN AUSTIN TEXAS NOW. WE SOON WILL SEE TOM!!  YEAH I WILL SEE HIM 4 THE FIRST TIME AFTER I CAME TO THE BACK DOOR. HE WAS SOO NICE TO ME THAT FIRST TIME THAT'S WHO KEPT ME COMMING BACK. WELL TONIGHT WE SEE HIM.  WE REALLY R HAVING A WONDERFUL TIME HERE. A BIT WARMER THAN OTHER PLACES, BUT STILL A BIT COOL. WE R IN MCKINNEY STAE PARK. AND PLAN TO GO TO CORPUS CHRITSTI NEXT, AND THEN TO THE SHORE ONCE AGAIN, AS WE LOVETHE OCEAN. WE HAVE KEEP IN CONTACT WITH A FEW OF U, BUT NOONE ELSE, AND U KNOW WHO U R. THE VEGITATION IS LIKE MICHIGAN EXCAEPT 4 THE FLOWERS AND ANIMALS. OH MAN WHAT CAN I SAY. I'M LOVING THIS SOOOOOO.... MUCH I CAN'T WAIT TILL WE DO FULL TIME. I HATE TO LEAVE OUR HOME, AS WE HAVE DONE O MUCH TO IT. BUT ALL GOOD THINGS MUST CHANGE FOR THE FUTURE. WE LOVE ALL OUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY BACK HOME. WE DO GET HOME SICK ONCE IN AWHILE. WE TALK SO MUCH OF U THERE. THINGS THAT REMIND US OF ALL OF U.   HAPPY HOLIDAY'S MARRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR. HAVE LOTS OF FUN FOR US. LOVE YOU ALL.

12-07-10 Kinder LA

OKAY, we're done with Louisiana. Recieved our mail from home and enjoyed the stop. Saw what we could, left some to see in the future. Now it's off to Texas in the A.M.. we're going to Crystal Beach, TX on the Boliver Penninsula, East of Houston, about a 3 hour ride from here ( according to Rand McNally...ha ha )...just a small community but only a 1/4ml walk to ocean. I don't know how long we'll stay. Remains to be seen, depends on the campground and the area..that's the fun of our lifestyle, if it's nice, okay..if not, move it on down the road. That's why we only pay for 2 days and if okay we extend it. Saves any argument about checking out early. It's 5:30PM so we're into Happy Hour and cooking Chops for dinner. If I know me I won't sleep well tonite as I get geeked the day before travel thinking about the next day's adventure. You always wonder what the next move will bring. It's part of the fun of it. I'm hoping the closeness of the ocean can be heard and the beaches allow some good beachcombing. We've been watching what the weather back in Michigan is doing and it ain't pretty. The weather down in Texas is only 50 to 60 degrees warmer but that's okay (grin-grin). Last night we tried what was advertised as a Cajun food spot and it turned out to be glorified fried food. It was a letdown but edible.I guess I better flip the chops and open another pop so bye for today and REMEMBER..LIVE YOUR DREAMS AS TIME GOES BY QUICKLY...Charlie&Heather

12-04-10 KINDER, LA

Well, we took a little trip to Cameron, La and toured the Creole Nature Trail..this trail was one of the first nationally recognized trails..it's a whole lotta swamp to us yankees at first glance..We found out why it's important..it's got birds, lots of birds..endless birds because it's one of the south's most important stopovers for several of the country's migratory routes.. We didn't even know the country had that many migratory routes..the walkways and driving trails take you thru a lot of habitat for not only birds but a lot of other critters important to ecological balance..We could have done the whole tour from our camp in 8 hrs but decided to stopover for the night in Cameron, La. at an RV Park on the ocean and we were able to watch lots of ships come & go and while we were there learned a little about the area from the locals...the town was devestated by hurricane Rita and really has never recovered...for example...we wanted to find a place to eat and there's only 1 restaurant open and it's an outside eatery because if they built a building it'd have to be 14ft in the air, on stilts!! as is anything new in town and it's cost prohibitive..the town lost 70%% of it's population and they don't expect it to ever be the same..We took the Tioga across the river via a ferry that only takes 5 minutes  for a $1 fee. because a bridge would be cost prohibitive..From Cameron we headed North to Lake Charles, ate some lunch and hit Walmart for our weekly supplies and got back at our CG about 4PM..did some laundry and NOW it's HAPPY HOUR ..Actually it's all happy hour when we're on the road :)  Gonna explore to the North tomorrow so stayed tuned til next blog and REMEMBER, LIVE YOUR DREAMS AS TIME GOES BY QUICKLY...Charlie&Heather

12-2-10 Kinder, LA

Now we're at Quiet Oaks RV Park in Kinder, LA..we'll be here for a week so our mail can catch up with us..gotta do that once a month or so...tomorrow we plan on a tour thru the Creole Nature trail in SW LA..some driving and some walking..it's a 150 mile tour so we'll probably do a 1 nighter, 1/2 way thru, at a camp in Cameron, LA as they have some beachside sites available....that would be interesting, especially if we get to see a sunrise over the Gulf of Mexico...according to internet info the area has some Cajun Food spots that we'll partake..YUM !!!...Gonna have to cross a fiord with a ferry (boat y'all) so we'd like to do that in the daylight..met another camper here that may caravan with us , that'll be something new.. got rather cool out last night, down to 37F, BBRRRR..but it got up to 68F today and was warm enough to clean the windows so we can get some clear pictures during our trip..so all I gotta say is "Wake up alligators, here we come !!" Join us in a day or so when we BLOG again for a full report on the tour...REMEMBER..LIVE YOUR DREAMS AS TIME GOES BY QUICKLY..Charlie&Heather