March 25 - April 1.  Lake View RV Resort, Houston, TX

After an overnight stay in Scott, Louisiana (a campground waaaay too close to I-10 with a ton of traffic noise), we arrived in Houston.  As we traveled along I-10 and entered into Texas,we pulled into a rest area for a break and some lunch.  Imagine our surprise when we found the Blue Elbow Swamp and a great wooden path to explore & stretch our legs.

Turtles in the Blue Elbow Swamp

We knew going in that the campground in Houston was near the downtown area.  It was a very nice campground and really quiet, but fighting the downtown Houston traffic and roads was nerve-wracking to say the least.  

We're here to see our niece, Lea and her daughter Nicole and Lea's partner Susan.  That helped to make any other difficulties seem irrelevant.   Bob hadn't seen Lea since the late 1980's and I'd never had the chance to meet her.  This was a truly joyous reunion !!   We got to spend lots of time chatting about family members (past & present) and we brought pictures from Lea's grandfather (Bob's dad) with us.  When her grandfather passed away, lots of pictures were sent to Bob & me.  We separated out the ones pertaining to Lea and her part of the family and brought the originals to Lea.   Of course, we made copies of some of them for ourselves. The portrait of Bob's dad (below) was a surprise that Lea found among her things to show us.

Bob taking a picture of a portrait of his Dad.

St Arnold

Lea, Nicole and Susan are all young enough to still be working during the day, but on Saturday, we went to the St. Arnold's Brewery..... oldest craft brewery in Texas, for a few hours of watching how their beer is made and sampling a few varieties.  Very interesting and tasty too!

Lea, Susan and Jan about to enter St. Arnold's

Jan and Susan ready for more samples!

Brewer adding yeast.

St Arnold tending to his "flock"

St Arnold's "tap city"

Jan, Lea and Susan enjoying the samples.

Bob, Jan, Lea and Susan toasting the latest sample

If we mentioned any genre of food, Lea seemed to know (or have friends who knew) where to find it.   During our stay, we had wonderful cajun food, Mexican food, seafood and Bar-B-Que.  Yes.... there's probably a couple of additional pounds on our bodies at this point.   Everywhere we go the food is delicious.  Lea prepared dinner for us several nights.  One night, in particular, she fixed a seafood sculpture ... fantastic shrimp cocktail, crab legs in crushed ice and steamed lobster along with baked sweet potatoes and salad with strawberry shortcake for dessert.  Holy Smoke ... it was great !   And yes, the crab legs were as tasty as they look in the picture.  Lea is a fantastic cook and even our "casual" dinner of hamburgers and hot dogs on Sunday was made extra special when she re-created the chili sauce from our favorite hot dog spot in Toledo, OH.  The chocolate dipped strawberries didn't hurt either !   We were all pretty mellowed out after an afternoon of St Arnold's brews and Mexican Train (we taught Susan how to play) while snacking and sitting around the pool.

Crab leg part of the seafood sculpture.

Nicki, Lea, Susan and Jan around the Mexican Train table

Lea and Bob

When we arrived in Houston, we found that the electrical outlets near the dining table were no longer working.  A day or two later, the drain in the bathroom sink was leaking and broke.  When Jan opened a drawer in the cabinet near the dinette, it came off it's tracks.  Yeow !!  By watching a YouTube video, we found out how to get the drawer back on it's tracks.  While wondering if anything else could go wrong, we made a trip to Home Depot to pick up supplies for the plumbing problem.  The credit card we tried to use was denied.   Thank goodness we don't travel with only one card.  A call to the card company determined that it had been denied because we've been traveling all over the country and they thought it might be fraudulent charges, but we got that corrected.   The plumbing supplies from Home Depot and Bob's nimble fingers got the bathroom sink problem fixed.  A call to the coach manufacturer, Tiffin, clued us in to a potential solution for the electrical problem.  Yup.... got that one fixed, too !!  However, while fixing the electrical, Bob noticed that several wires in the channel of the slide with the dinette table looked frayed.  This was beyond our capabilities, so we took the coach into the local Tiffin RV dealer, DeMontrond RV.  They had planned to look at the problem on Mon (3/31), let us stay in their parking lot overnight and hopefully fix the problem on Tues (4/1). 

As of Mon (3/31) at 5:30 pm they had actually gotten the work done and we scrambled to find a campground about 15 miles away from Houston in Spring, TX.  Seems like a nice campground so we've paid for a week and will try to get things (like this blog) caught up a bit.  We also hope to finalize our income taxes and keep Uncle Sam happy along with deciding how to approach the next leg of our trip.

Happy April Fool's Day to all !!

March 19 - March 24.  Pensacola RV Park, Pensacola, FL

Foley, AL is only about 45 minutes from Pensacola, FL so we've back-tracked for a visit with our cousins Mary & Dan who live in Pensacola.  They've been part-time RVers for many years and they've been another great resource for some of our questions before we jumped into the RV pool.   They actually gave us many back issues of MotorCoach  and RV magazines that provided some good tips.  Did we mention that our cousin is a retired naval officer who was stationed all over the world during his career? 

Evelyn, Alexis, Mary & Dan

Evelyn and Alexis

 Mary & Dan welcomed us with  a wonderful dinner the night we arrived and invited their daughter Evelyn and granddaughter Alexis to join us.   We hadn't seen Evelyn since she was 5 years old and now she has a teenage daughter.  Way too many years since our last visit.  They also have a son, Dan Jr, who we've never met, but he and his family were under the weather during our visit and we weren't able to get to meet him this trip.

Jan with Bailey, Alexis with Angel and Bob

A "Blue Angels" jet

Early bi-plane

One of many jets hanging from ceiling

Jan & Mary touring

On Thursday (3/20) we toured the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola.  What a fascinating collection of Naval aircraft and we got to see an IMAX movie called The Magic of Flight about the Blue Angels.  We also heard that the Blue Angels were back in town after a show in California and would be doing practice runs on Tues (3/25) and Wed (3/26).  Sure wish we could have extended here to catch some of their practices, but we did find out that they'll be doing a show in Dayton, OH in late June.  Guess who's planning to take the coach on an outing to Dayton about that time?    After the museum, we had dinner at an Irish Pub  ---  Bob still had seafood and Jan had a burger.

Hanging "Blue Angels" jet display

Bob in the pilot's seat...ready for take off !

F-14 like we used to see in VA Beach

 

A stealth jet drone

Friday (3/21) we were able to see Fort Pickens and the beaches at Pensacola and then enjoy some fresh catfish at a local restaurant.  Dan kept hinting that he was working on a surprise and by Friday, we found out that he was planning (with our consent, of course) to get us a ride in a glider on Saturday.  The day was gorgeous and Jan went first for a 30-40 minute ride in a glider plane at about 3,500 feet.  It was totally awesome and then Bob got a chance to go.  The pilot was terrific and explained about air thermals and actually let Bob fly the glider for awhile.  WOW !!!!  During our rides, we chatted with the pilot and discovered that he'd gone to school at the Univ. of Michigan which is a school close to both of our hearts even though neither of us ever went to school there.  It's close to our childhood homes in Toledo, OH.   

 

Jan's ready to go . . .

Cockpit is closed and we're off!

Tow plane has the glider

We're coming back in to land

 

She sure looks happy !

 

Bob's turn

He's in the air

Dan is a Liturgical Assistant at his parish and assisted the priest during Saturday afternoon mass.  It  was extra special for us to be there and he requested that we bring up the gifts during the mass.  

Dan attending the altar after mass

The neighborhood gang out for an afternoon chat & beer

One of the nicest aspects of Dan and Mary's neighborhood is that they often gather in their street on nice afternoons (especially the guys).  Gives them a chance to chat and relax with a little beer.

We pulled out of Pensacola on Monday (3/24) headed for our next stop in Houston.

March 15 - March 19.  Bella Terra RV Resort - Foley, AL

Our blog has suffered while we've been out-and-about having a good time.  Since the pictures seem to take more time than the words, we've decided to take a new approach.  We'll try to keep things more timely by writing the words and letting everyone know where we are and then hopefully go back and add some pictures later on.

After an overnighter in northern Florida, we arrived at Bella Terra on Saturday afternoon.  Our friends, Kathy & Larry from New Jersey who are full-time RVers have been staying here and we've been anxious to see their new motorhome.  They traded in their 38' Tiffin Allegro RED coach for a Tiffin Allegro Bus 45' coach late in 2013.  Even though we've considered RVing for several years, they were most helpful in getting us started on this way of life. They were very patient with us when we asked a gazillion questions about the process and offered lots of guidance for selecting campgrounds that aren't too rustic.  There's roughing-it and then there's roughing-it!

They fixed a wonderful dinner for us the night we arrived and we got to meet good friends of theirs who are full-timers -- Kim and Christy.  Since St. Patrick's Day fell during our stay here, the resort held a potluck lunch with corned beef, cabbage and all the trimmings.   Of course, at dinnertime, we headed for a restaurant that served green beer.  We sure have been eating well on this trip.
 

Kim & Christy, Kathy & Larry, and Jan with their green beer

On Tuesday (3/18), we drove to Fort Morgan in southern Alabama.  The fort was built in 1833 and has been used during 4 wars....Civil War, Spanish-American War and WWI and WWII.  We had a wonderful afternoon of exploring the old fort and being amazed at how much of it is still standing.  Jan found herself wondering if her great-grandfather, who served in the Spanish-American War, had ever spent time at Fort Morgan. 

One of the cannons at Fort Morgan

A view of part of the fort from above

The entrance tunnel to the interior of the fort

Better view of the tunnel

One of the walls

Inside the fort

Another view inside the fort

A view out one of the windows

From the interior courtyard

Does this look like two faces staring at you?

Jan walking in the tunnel

One of the passage ways

The interior entrance to the fort

Our favorite photographer

 After our tour of the fort, we joined Kathy, Larry, Christy & Kim for another fine meal!  Most of our dinners were at seafood restaurants and the food was delicious !