Here we are, on the road: We’re in Frankston, Texas

Saturday Night, February 20, 2010 Lorraine’s report

I’m writing this early for Sunday, we will be on the road Sunday, heading south to eventually end up in New Orleans, LA to meet up with Chuck’s brother, Brad. Currently, we are in Frankston, Texas, visiting friends, Bill and Barbara. We met them our first year out in Morgan Hill, CA at Thousand Trails.

Last Sunday we were at Connie and Manuel’s home in San Antonio, TX. We went with them to a nice champagne brunch at Lackland Air Force Base, followed by a tour of the base. It was a beautiful day and we all had a fine brunch, all the time visiting and enjoying each other’s company. After that we all went to rest, and I think Chuck and I did our blog. Connie remembered they had a wedding to attend later on in the afternoon, so we just enjoyed a quiet evening at home.

Monday found us packing up, and getting ready to leave. We sure do thank Connie and Manuel for such a wonderful time, the guided tours and all their hospitality. It was hard to leave, but they left with us, only heading a different direction. They went to Red Bay, Alabama to the Tiffin Factory to have some work done on their Phaeton Motor Home.

We went on to Victoria, Texas to see our friends, Richard and Patsy. We met them in Quartzsite, Arizona the first year we went there. We got in around 2 and visited with Richard, Patsy and Richard’s 91 year old mother, Dorothy. It was a very nice visit. Then Patsy was off to pick up her two grandchildren, Matt and Aubrey, from day care and bring them home for dinner. While Patsy was out, Richard took us over to where he stores his coach to see all the improvements he’s made to their bus, very nice. Then it was home, dinner, and we also got to meet their son, Rick.

Tuesday, Patsy had breakfast for us; then we went out to see the house their son and his wife are building. It’s big and going to be really nice. Richard then took food by his mother’s house for her lunch. After that we were off to Corpus Christi.

We had a great day for the drive, the sun was shining and it wasn’t cold or windy. We went to Mustang Island, where Chuck drove our car on the beach, and I had to put my toes into the water; the water was 52 degrees the sign said, warmer than in Washington.

We had lunch at a local restaurant, Moby Dick, where Richard and I had nice big fresh shrimp, Chuck a big burger, and Patsy some kind of crab; good food, good friends, what more can you ask for.

We continued on to Padre Island then into Corpus Christie. From there we headed home, getting there after dark. Everyone was hungry so we stopped and Chuck wanted to try “What a Burger” burgers. We ended the day playing “Pass the Love”.

Wednesday Patsy had her errands to run, but when she returned, she and I went to tour some of the old homes in Victoria. We saw some beautiful old homes. Chuck and Richard stayed busy at home. Patsy and I checked out several shops, and met the guys for a late lunch at a Mexican Restaurant. After lunch, she picked up Dorothy to take her to Bingo, then went on to pick up Matt and Aubrey after day care and headed home with all of us. Patsy went to her group that she plays Bunco with and we headed home, another very nice day for all of us.

Thursday, Patsy again made breakfast for us, then ran her errands. While she was out, I ran a couple of errands. We all finished by 2 pm and I made up snacks for us so we could spend the afternoon playing cards again, since she was substituting for a different Bunco group that evening. We had a fun time playing “Pass the Love”. Patsy made a wonderful ham dinner with all the fixings and cocoanut cake for all of us. Her son, Rick, his wife, Lora, and Matt and Aubrey all came. We ended up teaching Lora, her daughter in law, how to play “Pass the Love”. Chuck was the big winner of the evening.

Friday found us packing up and leaving Richard and Patsy. We thank you both for making us feel so welcomed and wanted, especially since you had just gotten home from your trip to Red Bay the day before. We had a grand time meeting your Mother, Richard, and your son and his family. Thank you for everything!!!

We drove from Victoria, TX, northeast to Frankston, TX, which is above Houston, and is about 280 miles from Victoria. We called Bill/ Barbara and they gave directions to get to their lake front home. We unpacked and set up, then visited with Bill and Barb. Barb fixed us a nice dinner, and we visited some more. They sure have a nice piece of property here on the lake

Saturday, we all went to breakfast, then Bill and Barb took us on a tour to some huge homes in Tyler, TX, just down the way. We came back to the coaches, visited some more then they took us to eat Texas BBQ.

While I love seeing and visiting with our friends, it sure is hard for me to say, “See you down the road”. I’m going to miss all of our great friends we’ve visited in their homes these past two plus weeks. They have welcomed us both with open hearts and arms. They have invited us into their homes to meet their families, taken us around, joked with us, and eaten with us. We have enjoyed each and every one of you and all of the many kindnesses you have shown us. When we left to go on the road three years ago, we didn’t know what we would find. We are so blessed to have found such wonderful people we can truly call our friends. Thank You, God!

I’m so sad to have to tell you, our very nice friend and our daughter’s father in law, Bill Branom, passed away Saturday, Susy called me late tonight to let us know Bill had passed. She couldn’t talk, she said they were trying to get on a plane to head north to Seattle. Bill was such a very nice man, he would give you the shirt off his back if you needed it. We will sorely miss him. Mark, Mary, Johnny, Christina, and Robby, we are so sorry for your loss, you have our deepest sympathy. May God guide you through this difficult time and put his healing hands on your heavy hearts.

Until next time……Lorraine

2/21/10 Chuck’s Report

It is with heavy heart I report about my son-in-law’s father’s passing yesterday. We got the phone call very late last night. Bill was a very kind soul and will be missed. He fought a hard fight but lost it to that villain CANCER. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends who will miss him. He left a very large hole in lots of people’s lives and it will not be easy to say goodbye to this kind man. Bill, we will miss you!

For the past three weeks we have be enjoying our visit with friends we’ve met on the road in the last three years. We started out with Steve/Sandy in Vado, New Mexico, Manuel/Connie in San Antonio, Richard/Patsy in Victoria and now Bill/Barb here. We probably wouldn’t have met any of these friends if we hadn’t made the decision to head out in our motorhome in Oct. of ‘07. Everyone tried to show us a portion of their unique part of Texas while we were visiting them. Each place is very different and we enjoyed all three. We never did make it down to the Rio Grande Valley but that’s ok, we got to visit with friends in three parts of Texas.

Sunday we went to brunch at Lackland Air Force Base with Manuel/Connie. We had a good breakfast and enjoyed a quite time just visiting. Later that afternoon they had to go to a wedding so we started getting ready for our departure the next morning. Manuel/Connie were leaving on Monday also, they were heading towards Red Bay, Alabama for repairs/upgrades on their coach and we hope to see them there early next month. For more information about our time with them and to follow their adventures and travel, you can see their blog at: http://esparzacm.blogspot.com/

Monday afternoon we got set up in Richard/Patsy’s driveway. We met them three years ago on our first trip to Quartzsite. They had camped with our group the year before and invited us to come along that year. We were both in Q once again a year later (they didn’t come out this winter) and we traveled to Mexico with them too.

We then headed out to see his coach in storage and see the results of repairs and upgrades they had just completed in Red Bay. For the next two days we explored the area including Corpus Christie, Mustang Island and North Padre Island. These areas are some of the popular winter snowbird destinations and we wanted to look them over to see if we would do a winter in the area some winter.

We also were able to meet some of their family, Richard’s Mother Dorothy, their son Rick and wife Lora and two grand children Matt and Aubrey. We ate too much of Patsy’s cooking, played cards (Richard played a good host and lost most of the games, ha) and visited with them. They really took us into their lives for the four days we were there and we thank them for that. For more information about our time with them and to follow their adventures and travel, you can see their blog at: http://kingrl.blogspot.com/

Once again we took to the road and headed to visit more of our friends, this time North to Frankston to see Bill/Barb. We first met them at Morgan Hill 1000 Trails park two years ago, met them again this past summer in Oregon and have sent e-mails back and forth to keep up with their adventures.

They have a very nice place right on the lake with spots for two RV on the pad facing the lake. We got set up and went over to their place where Barb had prepared a dinner for us. We visited with them until my eyelids started slamming shut so bid them goodnight and returned to our coach.

Yesterday they took us out to explore the area around here a little bit. We headed into Tyler, toured some of the subdivisions, wow, what homes. Bill said there are doctors, lawyers, politicians and people “in oil” that built houses and live there. I know I wouldn’t want that big of a house and all the upkeep it would require anymore, I like our little house on wheels and the ability to change our front yard whenever we like.

We went out to a local Bar-B-Q spot last night for some authentic Texas Bar-B-Q. Afterwards, we returned to their place for some more visiting before returning back to our rig for the night. Lorraine and I started writing our blog last night as we will be on the road this morning.

This morning I woke to cloudy skies with a little rain, I got wet taking Misty out for her morning walk. We will be getting ready for travel today although we normally don’t like traveling on Sunday. Our stop for the night will be in Lake Charles, La. We plan on leaving there on Monday and heading into New Orleans where my brother from St. Louis will be driving down to a) visit with us and b) escape the winter weather in Missouri.

After New Orleans we plan to complete our trip to Red Bay, Alabama with one overnight stop along the way. Once we are in Red Bay, we plan on being there awhile as most of the techs work on “Alabama time”. They do a great job but never seem to get in too much of a hurry. So we will probably be there for 3 weeks or so but don’t have a firm destination in mind after that, just back to our wanderings. We will be trying to set up our spring travels soon and try to find a place for the summer as well. Tough life!!

So once again, that was our week in review. Now for some pictures and I’ll try to get this posted before we head out this morning.

Lorraine, Connie, Manuel & Chuck, Connie and Manuel