Texas and back again....2009

Ummm . Hi!
When last we blogged we were happily abiding on the beach in Texas.

One day while beachcombing I met a couple from Missouri, Chuck and Louise. Louise, finding a kindred spirit in me, invited Les and I to go beachcombing at Matagorda Bay. Of course, I jumped at the chance to get to another beach and all of the unusual shells it might offer. We had a wonderful day at the beach and decided to make a date to go to Rockport, TX, to the Maritime Museum there. So a few days later we drove to Rockport and spent the day going through this wonderful museum, shopping, and had lunch at a popular restaurant in the area.

Days just sort of run into each other. Beautiful sunrises and sunsets…. Just when you think it couldn’t get any more beautiful, it does. Sea gulls, herons, all sorts of water fowl, from little tiny ones that scamper along the shoreline to the big ugly pelicans…. How are they able to fly, anyway?

The shoreline changes from high to low tide, as well as from the large tankers that use the bay, much to the distress of the homeowners along the waterline. One day the people on the last property that I walk in front of had to completely rebuild their concrete barrier because of the erosion. It blocks me from walking there now, but how can I blame them when they are losing yards of beach every year? Besides, it makes a nice little cove for them.

There were several very windy days, with clouds tossing around as much as the waves. Really churned things up and brought up a lot of interesting sea glass and shells. During one of the days we were beachcombing I found a piece of blue glass that may very well be a treasure indeed. It is either an emerald cut blue sapphire or a piece of plain blue glass. Maybe one day I’ll even find out, meanwhile, it’s my treasure!

Chuck and Louise said goodbye to us on Friday and on Wednesday, Jake and Jessica, Les’ son and his fiancée, arrived to stay for a few days. We had a great time with them. We took them to a couple of our favorite haunts, did some fishing, some crabbing and, of course, beach combing. Jessica had a great eye for sea glass and seemed to enjoy walking the beach. Reluctantly, we said goodbye on Sunday morning and bright and early Monday morning, Joe and Beatrice pulls up.

Joe and Beatrice is the couple that invited us to Manitoulin Island, Ontario, Canada, last year and we’ve been waiting to meet up with them at “our” beach since we got there. Their arrival made it a little easier to “let go” of Jake and Jess. We got together that evening to catch up on news of each other’s family and prepared to visit for a week or so before they headed back home.

However, the next morning I received a call from my sister, Melody, telling me that our sister, Shirley, and her husband, Rick, had died in a house fire in Tillamook, OR, the night before. Hurried arrangements made I flew to Oregon to be with my sisters and Dad, along with my children, who had great memories of their Aunt and Uncle. Thank you to those who heard about this tragedy and contacted me and my family with their condolences.

I returned to Texas in time to say goodbye to Joe and Beatrice, with promises to meet up with them on the island in July. I started mentally preparing to leave my beach. Walking the beach is great therapy. But both Les and I were ready to head for home.













First night off the beach we stayed in a RV Park in Victoria, TX. Electricity and everything! We heard that a big snow storm was headed for Oklahoma and Kansas, so we decided we really weren’t in any big hurry to get home. We stayed two nights and enjoyed the RV park, especially in the evening when over a dozen deer came into the park.

Then we headed to Morrison, Oklahoma. Our friend Peggy, perhaps you remember her as our cruise partner, had managed to break both of her ankles (mis-stepping off a curb, breaking one ankle, bouncing off her van, and then breaking the other one, trying to “save” herself). I decided it would be a good idea for us to go up and “take care” of her as she was having a difficult time getting around. We stayed five days and had a blast! We didn’t let her get much rest as we were having too much fun going out to dinner(s), going shopping, and visiting with her and her family.

Then, it was time for us to go, as Wichita thawed out and the snow disappeared. We got all the way to Winfield, where we decided to camp at the fairgrounds where the Walnut Valley Blue Grass Festival is held every September. Since it was “04/04, we celebrated our anniversary with a dinner and a movie – “Knowing”, starring Nicholas Cage.

The next morning we were home.

‘Til next time, take care, will ya?


Joy
and Les

---Les' Readers Diegest Version---

- Got back from Cozumel/Progresso Cruise.
- Stayed on Gulf Coast Beach from Mid Jan. Till the end of March.
- Had some axle trouble on the camper and got it Fixed in Port Lavaca, TX.
- Joy went to Oregon to attend her Sister and Brother-in-laws Funeral. They died in a house fire.
- Jake and His fiancée, Jessica, came to the beach and we caught fish and did some crabbing.
- Met some good people on the beach and some old friends.
- On the way home to KS. we stopped and visited Peg and Gary in Oklahoma. We stayed several days, to help out. She had slipped and broken her left ankle in two places and her right ankle in one place. When I told Jake about it, he said "I'd stay outa them kind of places."
- Spent our 5th Anniversary at the Winfield Kansas Fairgrounds/campground. I know I set the bar kinda high last year, taking my wife to Wendys and staying the night in a WalMart parking lot. This year we camped with Electricity, I took her to a real set down/get waited on restaurant, and a motion picture (it was a talkie in color). Sorry guys, I don't mean to put so much pressure on ya.
les

2009, our adventures continue . . .

Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to Les and Joy’s Excellent Adventures …

Now I know it’s been a long time since we wrote anything…. Way, long before Christmas, before Thanksgiving, before Tiffany's baby shower, even before I took off for my holiday visit with my Pacific Northwest family and friends, leaving Les at home to suffer through the first snowfall of the season. He was sweet enough to send a picture taken from the front room window, so I wouldn’t miss out too much. Isn’t he the sweetest?
In Oregon I got to visit with my friends and my KP family, and participate in some of my favorite holidays traditions with my family – (the sister slumber party and sister/niece luncheon, etc.). As ever I had a great time and the three weeks, ended way too soon, but I needed to hurry back to Les and start preparing for our holiday festivities.
It seems to take twice as long anymore to decorate and undecorate for Christmas. Is it that I’m getting old, or am I just getting lazy? I think it took me three days to decorate for Christmas and even longer to undecorate! We celebrated with a family dinner at our house, with all Les’ children and their mom, on Christmas Day. It was just like old times, with wrapping paper flying, corks popping and the smell of roasting turkey! So after the un-decorating, preparing the Casita for departing, and the wedding of our next door neighbor’s daughter, who grew up next door to the Mosers (They sure know how to throw a party) we were up and out of town. . .
Headed over to eastern Kansas to visit my cousin Clyde and his lovely wife Jacquetta in Parsons, KS – stayed one night and caught up on things with them and then headed on down to Texas, via Hugo, OK and Livingston, TX and then bright and early on January 13th we arrived at our favorite beach, outside of Port Lavaca, TX. Ah-h-h the sound of the surf and the gentle blowing of the wind! Didn’t take me long to get out on the beach and start finding shells and sea glass. This year I am also into finding little bits of coral. Why? Because they are there. So, because I have only a week before we leave on our cruise, I frantically gather as many shells, rocks and glass that I can as I’m finding that it’s almost a manner of honor that I take as many of these treasures as I can, home with me.
Before we know it we are off again to meet up with our friends, Peggy and Gary, to go on the cruise to Cozumel and to Progresso, Mexico. We met Peggy (and her mother and sister) on the 2001 Scotland Bus tour and meet up with her (and her sister) at the Oklahoma Blue Grass Festival every year. We drove into Galveston on Friday so we wouldn’t have the stress of that trip on the same day that the cruise started. Had a great time at Galveston, even though it is still pretty roughed up since IKE hit. There are still big piles of lumber and pieces of buildings pushed off to the side of the road, houses with tarps nailed on the roofs to keep the rain out, and many of our favorite shops are still closed – some never to reopen. I was all set to go to a restaurant that we found, to have a Muffalotto sandwich, but that was one of the restaurants that were closed. We managed to have an outstanding lunch at Fisherman’s Wharf, so all was not lost.
Early afternoon the next day we were in line to get on board for our cruise through the Carnival Cruise Fun Ship, Ecstasy.
Now neither Les, nor I had been on a cruise before so we had little expectation, except that from all I’d ever heard the food was outstanding and plentiful – I’d say that is an understatement! The food was wonderful! The stateroom, large and airy, everything was so clean, and everyone out to have a great time.
So, the first night we come in, unpack, wander around the ship, get a few drinks, attend an orientation, and then go to a boat drill. Shades of Titanic! Of course, they assure us that there are plenty of life boats and rafts and life jackets. I’d say they do, but as we are standing out there in the cold wind, couldn’t they just be a little quicker in explaining things? Then we walk in to the main area where there is a big atrium, a glass elevator that runs up and down about five floors, to the top floor where the ceiling is glass… and I’m thinking, “Didn’t I see this in the Poseidon Adventure?” OK, so get over it!
We got dressed for dinner – Yah, “dressed” – Les is wearing his normal blue jeans and polo shirt, I’m wearing a blouse and blue jeans, and thank goodness the dress code was liberal for us simple folks. Dinner is awesome – can’t even think of what was on the menu that day, but we had prime rib, lobster, salmon, grouper, shrimp, lobster bisque, escargot, caviar . . . every evening is an adventure to say the least. Chrystal, china, linen napkins, and lots of silverware that Les is very possessive of, when the waiter looks like he is going to clear it away – with every course they’d rearrange the silver that was left, taking away the ones we wouldn’t need . . . it was almost too much for that small town boy! We could go to the Wind Star Dining room all three meals, but now and then we decided to go to the Lido Deck for more casual dining (there’s only so much class that Les can take!)
They had evening shows that have been very entertaining, and the Cruise Director was a hoot. We saw a “Newlywed Game” – the contestants consisted of a couple that had been married 5 days, one couple who had been married 14 years, and the final couple who had been married 51 years. It was awfully funny! The older couple won, the couple that had been married 14 years almost came to blows – of course the newlywed couple was just cute! We also went to trivia contests, a Hairy Chest Contest (where one of the contestants had shaved a happy face on to his chest), a passenger talent contest, and some comedy programs.
We stopped in two places, Cozumel, and Progresso. At Cozumel, Peggy had done her homework and found a “Submarine Ride” that went to 100 feet. So, yes, Diana and Tish, I have gone down in a Submarine, only 108 ft, but a submarine all the same. It was a great ride and after 45 minutes seeing the fish, coral, sponges, etc., they settle the sub on the bottom of the reef for a few minutes and then over the intercom, they play “2001: a Space Odyssey” as we slowly rise toward the surface! It was great, and then to the tune of the Beatles, “Yellow Submarine” the “Voyage” comes to an end.
Peggy and I did some shopping on Cozumel and Les found a gorgeous Amethyst bracelet for me! We had a nice meal and lots of Tequila and beer before we went back on board the ship. We were pretty tired so we took naps and then went to dinner. Somewhere along the way, the ship started rolling - Just short of eating all of my Norwegian Salmon I decided that some nice fresh air may do me some good. It did, and without disaster I found my way down to the infirmary to pick up some sea sick pills.
The next day we hit Progresso. Les was much more impressed with Progresso than I, but oh, well, we had a great time, so what’s bad about that? After Peggy and Gary met back up with us in Progresso we had a few drinks and lunch and then Peggy and I went for a massage. Hah! We bargained for an hour massage, and it was great, BUT, when they took our watches off our wrists while we were drowsy in the sun, they reset our watches, CHEATING us out of 15 minutes of our massage. How fair was that? Les thinks that it’s hysterical; I think it was pretty dirty! J Anyway, we got back on board, no worse for the wear and richer for the experience and the beautiful ring I bought.
What really surprised me was the emotions I had on the last night onboard. No more chocolate on our pillows and funny "towel" animals awaiting to say goodnight to us . . . sniff. Then when we were saying goodbye to our table mates, Linda, Tami, Ted, and Merrie, and our waiters, Gedes and Johnny . . . for crying out loud, it was like the last day at camp, where all of a sudden you don’t want to go and leave your new friends. Sniff. Hey, guys! We love ya!
The next day we were back in Galveston, saying goodbye to Peggy and Gary, which wasn’t so bad ‘cause we know we’ll see them for a long weekend in October at the Oklahoma Blue Grass Festival! Thanks, Peggy, for inviting us to go along with you and Gary on this cruise, we had such a wonderful time! For those of you who have not had a Carnival Cruise Fun Ship experience, we cannot recommend it more highly.
We decided to try to take the short road out of Galveston, back to Port Lavaca, which goes by Galveston State Park. Someone had told us that the road was closed, but we had plenty of time and we were interested in the shape of the little towns past the State Park. So, taking our lives in our own hands we headed out. We found that although there was plenty of damage on Galveston Island, once we were back on the mainland there seemed to be as much, if not more . . . we saw more tarps on roofs, pilings where once were houses and then we saw the sign, “Road Closed, No Through Traffic, Travel at your own risk”. Okay. Off we go. Parts of the road had fallen away and road crews had filled in with sand and gravel so most of it was passable. Some parts of the road were totally gone, some just crumbling away. Then we were directed to drive on the beach for some miles. But we got through.
Back to the beach for us. The first night it was sooooo cold, but we had each other to snuggle up to and plenty of covers, of course, I was up at the crack of dawn, beachcombing. I have a ways to go before I gather up as much stuff as I did last year. We’ve decided that we may just stay here instead of heading further South to “The Valley” – if the weather holds up.
We have been joined by Les’ brother Jim and his lovely wife, Georgia, and family friend, Jim and his mother Velma, who will stay a few days at least, longer than that at most! Again, I’m sure, depending on the weather. I’m having fun having someone to share my beachcombing with.
So, til next time, take care all, y’all!
Joy
& Les
Les’ Readers Digest Version

-After staying home for a couple months we are ready to head for warmer digs.
-We went to or neighbor girls wedding (Melissa and Toby) on Jan 10. They done it up right.
-Left Wichita on Jan 11, made it to the beach on Jan 14.
-Stayed on the beach till Jan 23, then we went to Galveston for a Cruise. We went on a cruise from Galveston to Cozumel Mexico, then over to Progresso Mexico and back to Galveston.
-We are back on the Beach. My brother and his wife visited us for a few days. It was a good visit.
So, the fishing is crap, the wind is blowing too much, it is warm, the sun is shining a lot, LIFE IS GOOD. I was a feeling soo goood that we even went to church this morning. Boy, those ol Baptist ministers can still whup a guilt trip on ya.

... on to Winfield, Milford Lake, Topeka, Guthrie, Albuquerque . . .

We left Portland at 6:00 pm on Sunday night, September 14th, and after a concentrated effort, arrived in Wichita on Tuesday, September, 16th. We spent one night in our own bed and then were off to the 37th annual Walnut Valley Blue Grass Festival in Winfield, KS. This is a major blue grass festival that people from all over the world come to. Les has come to it since 1994 and I’ve gone since 2003. Anyway…. We had been getting weather reports from family and friends since Kansas had quite a bit of rain this year. The bottom line is that it flooded big time and the camping area at the festival itself was flooded out and they had to relocate the campers at Oxford City Park and Winfield Lake. Our group split in to two groups and we ended up with our friends Bill and Roxy, at Winfield Lake which is about 15 miles away from the festival grounds. Sadly, the other half of our group was at Oxford which has about 8 miles away from the festival grounds – on the other side of the city – as well as the group we like to visit and listen to their music in the days before the festival starts. It was a bummer not to be able to enjoy the pre-festival jams, but we had some wonderful musicians in our camp, namely Bill and Tim, see picture above, who we listened to as much as they’d play. Saturday, Les’ daughter, Susan, came with her little girls, Taylan and Kandance, and spent the night – really livened up the campsite. We spent the day listening to the music and enjoyed the festival. We left the festival the day it ended, Sunday, September 21st, and all agreed that they’d be glad to return to the Pecan Grove at the Winfield Fairgrounds.

This time we stayed three nights at our house before we headed to the Casita Rally at Milford Lake, which is north of Wichita and straight west of Topeka. There were eleven Casita’s that were there during the weekend. It was a lot of fun to get to meet with other Casita lovers and see what they’d done with their Casita’s. We had so much fun and can hardly wait to meet up again next year.

We left Milford Lake on Saturday, September 27th, drove on into Topeka and stayed at Les’ nephew and niece’s house (Adam and Fawn). On Sunday we made our annual trip to the Bonner Springs Renaissance Faire. It is too much fun going back in time on Sunday at the fair, eating Turkey legs and drinking Mead, seeing Fairies (see unnamed fairy above) and pirates, watching the shows, visiting the vendors, including my favorite jewelry shop!, and spending time with Adam, Fawn, RJ, and Alias - see picture below.
Monday I got a treat from Mother Nature. Fawn planted Milk Weed plants in her flower beds to attract Monarch Butterflies. She ended up with a lot of chrysalis in her plants and on the side of their house. We’d looked at them the day before and thought maybe they’d start hatching. I came over before we left for Wichita and found that three butterflies had just emerged and a chrysalis was looking very different than it had yesterday. I went back to look at the just emerged butterflies, took some pictures, then turned back to the chrysalis and saw that it had cracked at the bottom. I got my camera reading and on movie mode and started filming. I got a great little video of the butterfly emerging from its chrysalis! The first picture below is of the chrysalis just before I started filming, the second was minutes after I stopped and the third was just before we left for home.
October 2nd we were on our way to Guthrie Bluegrass Festival in Guthrie, Oklahoma, meeting up with the Peggy and Lennel, the sisters we met in Scotland in 2001. We stayed four nights there at Guthrie, listening to the music and just kicking back with our friends. Les and I had our first taste of volunteering at a festival. Free T-shirts and admittance tickets for the whole festival – what a deal! While we were kicked back and drinking a bit, when Peggy got a call from her travel agent who had a great deal on a cruise in January… before we knew it we were booked for a cruise – January 25, five nights, to Progresso and Cozumel, Mexico. Early Christmas present to ourselves for after Christmas. I am sooooo excited as I’ve never been on a cruise before (neither has Les). What a great group to go on a cruise with. Peggy, her beau, Gary, and Lennel. Part-ty!

After Guthrie we headed over to New Mexico where we were slated to help crew our friends, Lauren and Suzanne’s, balloon ("Call Me Crazy" picture to the left) at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta We took our time and arrived in Albuquerque on Wednesday. On our way to our Wednesday night campground we were treated to a view of the balloons that had launched earlier that morning, floating down the valley, in plain view of the freeway. We laughed at the news reporter that suggested the locals go out and check their back yards for balloons, but saw that a couple of the balloons looked to be landing in the area. On down the road we visited the Petroglyph Monument and went on for a 2 ½ mile walk, seeing up to 200 petroglyphs that were reportedly several hundred years old. They were interesting, but Les and I couldn’t help but think that the petroglyphs we saw in Alaska were much more impressive. Also, it looked to me as if some of the petroglyphs were made by vandals, rather than the local ancients. How sad!

We decided to go on over to our campground by the Balloon Fiesta, even though we were a day early and we were happy we did. We got in touch with Lauren and ended up having dinner with not only Lauren, but birthday girl, Alex, Thumper, Alan, Eddie, and met up with Dana’s sister, Debby and her husband, Greg. The next morning Les and I went onto the fiesta grounds and volunteered to crew with another balloon as Lauren’s balloon had sustained some damage and wouldn’t be repaired until the afternoon. What a great time helping launch “The Little Pirate”. It was hard for me to focus on my “job” while other special shape balloons were launching and flying directly overhead! It was awesome and a good thing there were more people than were needed crewing on that balloon! Lauren got his balloon back late in the afternoon. We had a potluck on the launch site and spent the evening watching the “Glowdeo”, which is when they inflate the balloons and then use propane to light up the balloons. They would light up individually and then in unison…. Major cool! After the balloons were put away then they had a wonderful fireworks display that impressed even me. (After the Fort Vancouver displays I’ve seen that’s a little hard to do.)

The weather started acting up and we were lucky that balloons were launched on Friday – we got to see the special shapes launching again and Lauren’s balloon was launched offsite. We walked around the Fiesta grounds with Doug and Dana, taking pictures and watching the balloon competition. Even got some pictures of Lauren’s balloon. We spent the afternoon visiting and enjoying the company of the whole "Call Me Crazy" crew (pictured on the right). Things slowed down after that as the wind picked up and there were no balloons launched the rest of the weekend.

If you ever have the opportunity to go to the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta, do it. It is indescribable! Even I am at a loss for words to adequately express just how awesome it was to see the multitude of balloons in the air at one time. After the special shaped balloons were launched from the fiesta grounds, then the regular balloons started coming in from the offsite launch sites. There were competitions set up, money and car giveaways for those who could maneuver their balloons close enough to grab the keys or envelopes set up on long poles. Scores of balloons were overhead in brilliant colors against the blue sky! For more pictures (no, not taken by me) here’s a website for ya! http://www.balloonfiesta.com/gallery_2008.html

We left Albuquerque on Sunday, October 12th, and headed up to Moscow, Kansas where my cousin, Danny lives. (That's Danny and I pictured on the left.) He’s 70 years old and lives on the Homestead that has been in his family for years. (How many years would that be, Clyde?) His mother and my father are siblings. Danny and Clyde are brothers – if you remember from my letters this winter we stopped by Clyde (and Jacquita)’s in Parsons, KS, on our way down to Texas. We stayed in Moscow two nights and Danny took us in to Liberal, KS, home of Dorothy (and Toto, too) to go to “Dorothy’s House” and to the Midwestern Air Museum. There I was, escorted by Danny and Les, walking down the yellow brick road! Just imagine! J They had a very nice OZ Museum and tour of Dorothy’s House. . . Oh, ya, the Air Museum was interesting too.
Wednesday, October 15th, we parked the Casita in the driveway.
. . . . and this blog is up to date! HooRah!
Take care!
Joy
And Les

Les’ Readers Digest Version:
-Drove 1700 miles from Portland to Wichita.
-Went to Walnut Valley Music Festival.
-Went to Casita Camper Rally at Milford Lake Kansas.
-Then over to visit Nephew Adam and family in Topeka. Adam and family were not home when we arrived, and I set off the home security system. Got to meet one of Topeka’s finest Police Officers. Oh well the system works……. We all went to the Kansas City Ren Faire, the next day, in Bonner Springs, Ks. A great family (their boys are such a hoot) and a good time.
-Went to the Guthrie Oklahoma Bluegrass Festival. What can I say, good music, good friends, and good hooch.
-From Guthrie we went to the Albuquerque to the Hot Air Balloon Festival. Good friends, way, way cool Balloons, sunshine.
-Stopped in to see Cousin Danny, on his farm near Moscow Kansas. I enjoy listening to what he has to say. Good stuff.
-I guess I’m staying home till after the first of the year. Joy is flying to Portland for Thanksgiving. Then we're off to Texas for warm weather. Then up the east coast, back to Lake Huron, and over to Prince Edward Island……..