Week 1

   Well, it;s been a week now and we are settling in.  I have found a job with an immunization clinic.  Everyone has probably seen one, they are set up in all the Walmart and Sam's Club locations around the country.  It sounds like a good job and I will actually be making more than I was in TN.  I get to choose my location and hours and there is a Walmart about one mile from us.  I am waiting to get the online training program from them and I will begin work on Aug 1st and it will run through November 1st, by then I will have reached the limit I can make according to Social Security.  Karen has her name in at several temp agencies but they  haven't yet come up with an actual position for her.  It will be nice to get back to work.  This whole adventure would be a lot more interesting if we had a little money to actually do something with.  There are many things around here that we would like to explore but have to put that off for awhile and get back on our financial feet again.  The rent is paid and there's food on the table so life is good.
  Karen and I have been looking into churches in the area and went to mass on Saturday night.  We figured we would try several and then settle down on one that we could get involved in.  After hearing the list of the names of the different parishes I told her we have to go to Our Lady of Perpetual Help,  that is the name of the parish I was baptized in, although that one was in Brooklyn, NY.  It was a nice service and in English.  They have 5 masses there including the Saturday night mass.  The Saturday night mass and the 9 & 11 O'clock masses are in English.   We will try a different parish next week and since there are about 20 Catholic Churches listed we should be able to find one close that we feel we can fit into and contribute to.
  The RV park we are in is on summer hiatus you might say.  There was a landslide so they had to empty the pool to keep the pressure off the walls since the landslide involved the earth wall that supported the pool.  That is all fixed now and they have refilled the pool.

   It really looks nice and should be open in a couple of days.
The lake, right now, looks like a barren wasteland.  It is in the process of being filled again also.  Apparently, because of dry conditions, during the summer they lower the level of the lake.  You can hear the water pouring into the lake  and it seems like it is a lot of water being fed into it but the level of the lake barely changes day to day.  I have picked out a landmark so I can see if it is rising each day.  It is going to be beautiful when it is full.

 Karen says that she is becoming addicted to watching the palm trees sway in the wind.  It is always breezy here from a light breeze to really gusty conditions and it is somewhat relaxing to just sit there and watch it.  The climate here has really been nice.  Like I said there is always a breeze and the humidity never gets that high so it is pleasant most of the time.  the people that we have met here are very friendly.  There aren't too many that are here right now and we are waiting to see what it is like when the park is full.

See  you down the raod,
Don & Karen

Mission, TX ... finally

  I will try to keep all the info correct and in order, it has been a long four days.

  We finally got on the road Saturday morning.  We made it to Harrah's in Tunica, MS without incident.  They have a really nice RV park there and with the Good Sam discount it is about the most reasonable place you can stay.
  We went into the casino only for the purpose of visiting Paula Deen's buffet.  What a meal, the food there is unbelievable.  We both had the prime rib and it was just wonderful, melt in your mouth beef.  OK, I got $5 in free slot play and used it all at the rate of a dollar a minute.  Karen and I both tried our hand at some games for $20 and well that was all we really had to spend there.  Back to the RV and get some rest for the road the next day.
  Sunday we left Tunica at 9:00 AM heading for Bryant AR to see Karen's brother Kenny whom I had never met.  We got to mile market 213 on I-40 in AR.  A semi-tractor had flipped over and blocked the lane.  The bad part of that is that it happened at the exact spot where the roadway narrowed to one lane for construction.  We were stuck in that traffic, at a complete standstill most of the time, for almost three hours.  Karen had to call her brother and let him know that we were not going to be there for lunch.  Arkansas has some of the worst roads I have driven on so the fact that they were working on it was a relief and except for the accident it moved pretty freely the rest of the way.  We had been planning on having lunch and then continuing on to Dallas that sameday. Well, all that construction put us so far behind that we decided to stay overnight in Bryant AR.  Kenny was nice enough to call ahead for us got us a spot at the I-30 RV park for the night.  We didn't even bother to unhitch the trailer.  We just hooked up the electric so the girls (Prissy & Duchess) could have the air on while we were gone.  We leveled the trailer and went with Kenny and his wife Janet to their home.  We had a really nice visit it was great to get to meet them and their three sons, catch up on some news and leave some history, in the form of old photos, with them.  Thank you Kenny and Janet for your hospitality.

  Monday it was off to Dallas.  Of course Karen had been on the phone with everyone letting them know that we weren't going to be there and tell them our change of plans.  On our way there we were flagged down by someone in the next lane who we thought was telling us that our lights were blinking.  Everything seemed to be operating okay.  I tried the lights and they seemed to be fine and the brake controller was telling me it was connected but, the next chance we had to pull off I went to check the connection to make sure that it was secure and everything was working.  It was then that I realized he had been telling us that the license plate was loose.  I took it off and put it in a side window for the time being hoping we wouldn't get stopped for it.  That didn't seem to be a problem and we never did get stopped.  We got to the Destiny RV Park in Denton Texas without further problems and checked in to our site.  Again we parked, hooked up electric, and leveled the trailer and left it hitched to the Denali since we were heading out first thing in the morning.  We had now discovered that we had no money in our bank account.  Some unforeseen debits popped up and now we were traveling cash in hand.  This truly has been an adventure.  Our granddaughter MacKenzie and her boyfriend Evan, who attend University of North Texas in Denton, came and picked us up and we then all went to our friends Rose & Rod's house.  Everyone went in for a swim, well except Rose and me.  They have a wonderful home and it was great to see their daughters Rachael and Becky again.  After everyone got out of the pool and changed we went to meet Rod at Romano's Macaroni Grill for dinner.  It was a wonderful evening of catching up and getting to know each other.  Thank  you Rod & Rose for a wonderful dinner.

  After dinner we went with Evan & MacKenzie to see her new home.  It is a really nice house and we got to see her new puppy Domino. He is just big enough now to fit in your hand.  Thanks for chauffeuring us around town pointing out the highlights as we sped by.
  Tuesday morning it is off to San Antonio, whoops, I mean Mission Texas.  Since we were now lower on funds than we anticipated we decided to go ahead and make the long trip all the way to Mission and not have to spend money on an extra nights stay.  Before we left I decided that since the license plate still had the frame attached I would just duct tape it to the bumper of the trailer.  We repacked the trailer with all the tubs disconnected the electric and raised the leveling jacks and we were off.  Thank God for the Good Sam Club card for Pilot/Flying J we knew we would be able to have enough fuel for the trip.  Using this meant that we would have to alter our route a little bit so that those stops were within our fuel range.  This was nice though since we hadn't been to this part of the country before we got to do a little exploring.  We ended up going through Laredo and seeing some of that city since we were no longer on an interstate.  I will say that Texas has some of the nicest roads you could travel.  As is to be expected in Texas they are all big.  They are all well maintained also.  There was a lot of construction going on but most of it did not interfere with traffic as it was new construction of roads and not just repairs.  On hwy 83 after we left Laredo there was quite a bit of construction on that road also.  We ran into some very heavy rain right after dark that did slow us down a little bit but it ended soon and we continued on.  The speed limits in Texas are higher than "normal" and we had a lot of people passing us.  I tend to be a little on the pokey side and some of the speed limits seemed a little extreme.  At one of our many stops I thought to check and see how the duct tape was holding up and see if I needed to reinforce it at all.  The duct tape was in almost perfect condition,  there was no license plate attached to it but the tape itself was fine.  Somehow the plate had come off the frame.  Well, I guess we'll have to call and see about getting a new one sent to us.
  We arrived at Lake Canyon RV Park at about 10:45 that night.  Needless to say there was no-one in the office but Karen had called to let them know that we would be very late and they left our site location for us on the office door.  We backed into the site, emptied the tubs and set up what we had to and relaxed for a little while then off to bed.
  This morning we went to the office to check in and everyone seems so nice.  We drove around the park to see what it is like.  There are not a lot of people here at this time of year, about 20 according to Kelly in the office.  We have driven around a little to familiarize ourselves with the area and we like what we see so far.  Our adventure has finally begun and we are looking forward to whatever lies ahead.

See you down the road,
Don & Karen