Last Week in Texas

November 12, 2017

Well we now begin our last week in Texas. I'm really sorry to leaving, it's been such a wonderful visit with old friends and family but it will be good to be home for Thanksgiving and catching up with family and friends in Missouri. Then we will be headed up to Rhode Island, the state of my birth for the month of December.

We found out what happens when you ignore the sensor on the grey tanks. The water bubbles up and stays in the sink. I was in the middle of cooking and we planned to get to the dumping when we finished breakfast. Nope, I was using the kitchen sink and it gurgled and wouldn't go down. Kind of like a clogged sink at home. I yelled at Richard to "empty the grey tanks," which he immediately did. Sure a lot easier that clearing a clogged sink at home.

We've done some fun things and learned some new things about RVing. We were having problems with the wifi and while streaming Netflix and HBO it was taking lots of waiting time. We went to Best Buy and Walmart and they were no help. Everyone wanted to sell us a booster but we don't have a modem that is hooked into an internet connection. That much I knew. We called the AT&T store to see if they had something and they were clueless as well but did direct us to call the AT&T technical assistance. Finally we got some answers. Without buying very expensive roving Wifi equipment she said if we just want to stream off our HotSpot, turn off the wifi from the RV Park, which is what we were using. Just stream from the HotSpot and see if that didn't work. That's what we have done and we've had no problems since. Mind you we are 45 minutes for Houston so we're in a pretty good covered cell area. Not sure how this would work in the woods or some parks. We'll have to see. But we have Dish Satellite, cable through the park and now streaming with the Hot Spot. I think we'll survive. I don't even much like TV but Richard is definitely addicted and it is nice to go to bed and watch a movie now and then. I'd rather be listening to my audio books and as long as I have electricity and can charge my phone or IPAD I'm set.

I continue to enjoy cooking everyday and trying new recipes something I never had time to do. I made a delicious homemade easy chicken pot pie and a quinoa chili the was vegan and magnificent. I was so proud!!






We walked all over the boardwalk in Kemah, Texas which is on the gulf and it was awesome. It's all lit up at night with lots of restaurants and shops and amusement parks. I wanted to ride the Ferris wheel but we didn't. We ate a an awesome seafood restaurant, Landrys, and it was to die for. I had fried oysters for the first time. Not as good as calamari but almost. I had stuffed crab and fried shrimp. It's a wonder my gout hasn't flared up but I've been drinking gallons of water to keep it away.





On the way back to the RV park from Kemah, which was a 2 and 1/2 hour trek due to the traffic,(man I don't miss the traffic here. It is horrendous) we drove past the hospital that both my kids were born in 45 and 47 years ago. It's in the middle of downtown Houston and it took us 25 minutes to get there 47 years ago. Now it would have taken us an hour and 45 minutes to get there. But now they have a huge hospital every 30 miles it seems here. We pass more hospitals than we do schools. Houston is truly a medical center. Anyway the hospital still looks the same, just bigger. It brought back so many memories and of course we talked about them all as we were still over an hour from home. I was 17 and 19 years old. What was I thinking? The first one, Sherry, the doctor barely made it. The second one, Ty, the doctor didn't make it. But I was given "gas" back then so I was out of it. Yes it was in the way olden days when they did things like that. And even though I begged for them to let Richard in, husbands were to allowed into the "birthing rooms."



The weather has been perfect. Low 70's in the day and 50's at night. I hear it's freezing at home. While I prefer cold over heat, this weather has been the best and allowed us to eat out at night and enjoy the outdoor TV.



And then yesterday was Veteran's Day so we went to breakfast with a friend who was a Veteran at Denny's. And I let everyone I know how proud I am of my Veteran father. We were always so proud of him as you can see in the picture below. This picture is a day when his ship returned home after many months without him and we were so happy to welcome him home. I was holding his hand and he was holding my baby brother Brett. My mother, Brett and my sister Robin all celebrated in heaven on Veteran's day I hope, because they are all gone. But they are together!! I miss them everyday and especially miss them on days like this. But I'm so thankful to still have my 89 year old father with me.







So we're relaxing today and expecting Richard's brother to come for a visit. Plan to enjoy the rest of our time in Texas. It's so different knowing and visiting so many people while we're camping. When we have a busy day, it makes me long for the lazy days we've gotten use to. 

I finally understand why old people get a rap for being nosey. I can't tell you how much we just observe and watch people now. We are curious about whatever anyone around us is doing. Sometimes Richard embarrasses me and heads over to find out what our neighbors are doing, where they are from, how long they've been doing this. It's amazing how much complete strangers tell each other or maybe we all just understand each other. But one day we were eating lunch and watching the family next to us. They were all dressed up and loading picnic stuff in their car. We were making up all kind of scenarios of what they were up to and that's when I told Richard, "we are turning into nosey old people. We need to stop this." But honestly people are so interesting and for the first time we have the time and energy to actually observe and create cool stories about them. We eventually found out that they were going to a wedding and then a picnic and had a change of clothes in their car. We were so relieved to find out the true story!!!!

To next week!!!!!