Went to Fort Worth Stockyards & More

Hi Folks, 
We are still in Texas, and had a break in the weather,
so we three went to Fort Worth.  Visiting the Texas
Cowboy Hall of Fame Museum has been on my bucket
list for as long as I can remember, so I'm really glad
we finally got the chance to go there.  There was far
too much to see in just one day, so this location will
remain on my list for a return visit another time. 
This was our first view of the area. 

 

 

After parking the car, we went for a walk on Exchange Street.  We went looking for Billie Bob's Steakhouse.

 

We went inside and looked around the lobby area.

They have a $2.00 per person cover charge just to get

inside.  We asked to look at their menu, and both

Jim and Mary decided they didn't want lunch here.

It would have meant quite a wait, and we wanted to

keep moving.  Before having lunch at Risky's

Steakhouse back on Exchange St. we walked though

a building with stores and more.

 

This picture of my favorite singer, Willie Nelson,was

on the side of a bull statue.

 

This statue was on a balcony above Risky's, where

we had a yummy lunch.  Jim also had a mug of a

local beer that he said was very good.

 





 

On the sidewalk there were stars like this for many of

Texas' hero cowboys, including Wyatt Earp, Bat

Masterson, the Lone Ranger and Tonto, to name

just a few.  We had to check each one out though.

 

This was just one of many interesting horse drawn

wagons we saw in the museum.  There were areas

devoted to each of many rodeo cowboys, and clowns.

 

They even had a section devoted to members of the

Dallas Cowboys team!

 

It was a really neat museum, with much more to see,

but I will only include one more picture from it.

 

Today we went to a 50's diner called Yesterday's.



It was really cool!  There were many pictures of
stars like Marilyn Monroe, Lucille Ball, James Dean,
and more.  There was alot of Elvis Presley memorabilia.
The food was named after celebrities like the Big
Bopper, Bing Crosby, The Duke, Batman & Robin,
and even Zorro!  Below I'll include a few pix from this
cute diner.

 

 This pink cadillac was a wall mirror in the ladies
room!





 I couldn't leave this guy out, since he WAS a major

heart throb in his day.

 

We had a great day and now we are home with

our furry children.  Thank God the rain that was

forcast held off for us.  We have been warned of

possible major thunderstorms, and maybe even a

tornado, but we know God will not allow any harm

to come to us.  Take care and remember:

Keep the shiny side up and the rubber side down.



Our Second Week in Texas

Hi Folks,
A couple days after we got here, we (meaning Jim
of course) noticed that the vent cover over our
refrigerator was badly shredded!  So after calling
Camping World in Denton to make sure they had
a replacement cover in stock we drove over and
got a new one.  On the way we passed this wrought
iron cowboy.  I thought he was kinda cute!!!!

 Anyway, we got

the vent cover, 

and went home so 

Jim could put it up

before we got rained

on.  The Weather 

Channel has warned

of rain almost EVERY

day since we got

here, but mostly it has been cloudy, then clears

up after only a sprinkle or two.  Today, it decided

to really let us have it!  Buckets and buckets of rain

this afternoon and evening.

Before all this rain, after a trip to the post office

and a shopping trip to Wal-Mart, we took a drive

around this very large campground.  I caught

this sight while we were in the back portion of

the park, called Hollywood.

 







 There were two of these beautiful creatures

and they just stood still and watched us, to see

what we were doing.  I was amazed that they

didn't run when I put my window down to take

pictures.  When another car came up behind us,

then they ran away.

 

 

All in all, it was quite lovely to see them.  We

barely got back to our wheel estate before the

torrential rain began.  We were glad to be home

and dry!  I made a crock pot full of split pea soup

for dinner, seemed right after a day like this.

A friend of mine had a tip she thought I should

share today.  Since many people use too much salt

on their food, and the use of the salt shaker may

be  more from habit than from any need for the

taste of salt, she suggested taping over a few of

the holes in the top of the salt shaker.  This would

allow the person to shake, shake, shake without

using too much salt.  I don't add any salt when

I'm cooking, and mostly season with garlic

powder and Mrs. Dash's Salt-free seasonings, so

I let Jim use some salt at the table.  She also said

one could use a little food coloring in the salt

shaker, but I REALLY don't think I want to see

blue salt on my scrambled eggs!

Today a very dear friend of mine from California

called to tell me that her husband had been on a

motorcycle trip in Texas with a buddy of his, and

was in a terrible accident.  He ended up with a

skull fracture, a fractured femur and ankle, and

a broken thumb.  After his extensive surgery to

fix the femur and ankle, they wanted to fly him

back to California with a travel nurse.  This was

going to cost them over $12,000!  Like most of us,

she did NOT have that kind of money on hand, so

she flew there and accompanied him home by a

commercial flight, for much less money.  I mention

this because last month when we were in St.

David, AZ we went to a seminar, and signed up

for SkyMed.  If an emergency occurs, they will

fly someone to be with you, and fly you home or

to another place for care, at NO cost to you.  I

had NOT planned to sign up for it, until I heard

how much such things could cost.  And even then,

I was still skeptical that it would be THAT pricey.

Now I know it really can be that expensive.  We

signed up for the monthly pay plan which is very

affordable.  I am not telling about this for any

reason of personal gain.  I just want to share this

in case any of you have heard about this and have

thought "This would never happen to me".  All I

will tell you is, I'm glad we signed up for it when

we did.  Keep the shiny side up, and stay well.



 

At Last We're at a Thousand Trails Preserve!

Today we arrived at Bay Landing, a Thousand
Trails Preserve in Bridgeport, Texas.  After all the
stress of the RV problems, this is such a delight! 
For reasons I won't pretend to understand, I was
not able to download some of my pictures the last
time, I wrote my blog, but today I was able to do so.
First, are the pictures of retired Pastor Ric and his
wonderful wife Wendy.

 Next are pictures of Elizabeth & Mike Kearns.

 This picture is of Annalee & Wayne Long, and
their newest family member, Gila.  These

 are friends of ours we worked with in T or C.
The next is a picture of where we went last
Saturday in Alamogordo, NM.

 This is another picture of our wheel estate at the
lovely park we are in now.  As you can see, the
sites are large, grassy and tree shaded.  It's really
nice here.

 This last picture is of our friend Mary's van
camper.  I think I mentioned already that she
has been traveling with us since we got to
St. David Resort in Benson, AZ.  She is going to
travel with us while we are here in Texas for the
next seven weeks, then north for about three more
weeks.  The details of our travel plans will be
shared as we move along.

After the exhausting trip from Van Horn, TX
to Odessa for the repairs, we spent the next two
nights in a small RV park in Baird.  We had only 
planned to be there one night, but yesterday
morning the weather report warned of high winds
and gusts up to 50 mph, so we decided we might
be better off staying put for one more night.  I do
think we made a good choice, as the weather got
worse, with rain, thunderstorms, and hail stones.
There were reports of serious damage to mobile
homes, and downed trees.  We only got a light rain
and the wind gusts last night.  This morning it
was cloudy and cool, and sunny this afternoon!
We will be here for fourteen days, so after a day
or two of rest, we will do some sight seeing and
post more news about the points of interest in 
this area.  Annalee emailed me that Wayne Scott
is in the hospital, in ICU, in Albuquerque, NM
with pneumonia.  Some of you may also follow 
his blog, so please pray for his recovery.  His
wife wrote to me that she thinks the worst is past,
but says he was one sick puppy for a while.  That's
all for today, so I'll close for now.  
Keep the shiny side up!  

Arrey, NM and Beyond!

Hi Friends and readers,
I'm sorry it has taken me a week to write another
post, but it has been a very busy week for us.  As
noted, we spent a wonderful week in Arrey, NM
and visited some very dear friends.  We got to go
to church with retired Pastor Ric Miller and his
marvelous wife Wendy.  We went to their house
for dinner one night, and they came to dinner at
our wheel estate.  I realized I have not posted a
picture of our " traveling mansion" so I would
like to do that now.

 

Another day we went to lunch in T or C with a

couple of friends named Elizabeth & Mike.  Last,

but not least, on Friday Annalee & Wayne Long

came over for dinner.  We got to go to church

with Ric and Wendy twice while we were there. 

On Palm Sunday we went to the Pentecostal

Church in Garfield and on Good Friday we went

to the 1st Baptist Church in T or C.   I really

appreciated a sermon that made me realize we

often gripe when things don't go the way WE think

they should and forget that God has a plan for

our lives, and we should be always grateful that

He loves us, and know He is watching over us. 

After leaving Arrey, we went to Alamogordo,

and spent a night outside the "Heart of the Desert"

at Eagle Ranch.  We bought pistachio nuts, some

tasty Pistachio Rose wine, Malvasia Blanco wine

(a big favorite of mine) pistachio caramel corn,

and green chili popcorn.  The weather could not

have been nicer, and we had a lovely evening

there.  The next morning we made our way to

Van Horn, Texas for one night at the KOA.  When

we unhooked the tow car, the battery was totally

DEAD.  Jim put a charger on it, but in the morning,

it did not respond at all, even when our friend

Mary tried to jump start it off her camper.  The

nice people at Napa auto parts delivered us a

new battery, and a neighboring camper had a

small socket Jim needed to remove the old

battery and put in the new one, so we got back

on the road, albeit a few hours later than we

planned.  Later the same day (yesterday, by the

way) our RV surprised us with the "change oil"

light coming on while we were driving on I-20 across Texas.  First we stopped at a rest area

and Jim added some oil, but the little bugger was

 not satisfied with that.  As we continued east

we were treated to the very annoying sound of

an urgent alarm going off.  It was telling us we

had lost oil pressure and we needed to change

the oil NOW!  We stopped in Pecos, TX, but we

found out there would simply be NO place to get

the oil changed until we got to Odessa, about 60

miles away.  We called ahead and set out for

that location.  We got about 20 miles down the

road when the alarm became much more

insistent, and we knew we could not make it

there under our own power.  We exited in an

unfortunately very remote area, and it took the

Auto Club three hours to get someone to come out

to tow the RV to Odessa.  We ended up getting

there after 11 pm.  We set up the RV for the night

and set our alarm to wake us up at 6 am.  We had

to get up early as we had a 7 am appointment for

the oil change.  Since they were so efficient and

reasonable in price, we got the oil changed on the

tow car too.  Let me tell you that the people at

B-Line Lube on 2nd St in Odessa, Texas provided

excellent service at a very reasonable cost!  We

were back on the road by 9 am!  We stopped at a

rest area to walk our dogs and have lunch, (since

we didn't take time for breakfast) around 11 am,

and got to our camping location before 3 pm

today.  After the long day we had yesterday, we

were glad to get here and rest!  The lesson that

we learned from these events is this.  One could

gripe and moan and say "why did all this have to

happen to me?", or look at it as we did.  Thank God

we had a dead battery while we were in a park

where we could get someone to deliver us a new

one, and there was someone there to help us when

we didn't have the right size socket to change it.

Again, we thank God for sending us a tow truck

driver who could safely transport our "home" to

where it needed to be for service, and we got the

service we needed.  All that did not happen by

chance.  The outcome could have been terrible if

we had blown our engine.  We feel very Blessed

that our Heavenly Father God watched over us

and provided for us, as He always does.

Take care and enjoy the road!