San Antonio

Today we awoke to a bright blue sky and that delicious feeling of having NO plans. We readied ourselves, had cereal and a pear, secured another night at the San Antonio KOA, and then went across the street to wait for the city bus.

Right on time, the bus arrived, and, before we knew it, we were at the Alamo! Jack loves historical places, and so do I, so we relished the Alamo and its museums. I loved the model of the compound as it looked back in 1836, with the thousands of Santa Anna's troops surrounding and marauding the 200 Texas soldiers holed up in the former church.

I think that the title of "hero" is tossed around too much, and too many of us are credited with "bravery." But these people who proclaimed "victory or death" and sent out letters begging for more help with the defense of the compound... heroes. No question in my mind. Brave? You betcha. This is a moving place to be -- a shrine to some great Americans.

Next we went to the River Walk. There are dozens of riverside cafes, offering all kinds of refreshment for the city's locals and for us tourists. We shared a meal of 2 beef tenderloins, a baked potato, and baked beans.

Sharing a meal is a great way to save money. This lovely meal cost us less than $25, including tip. The other thing we accomplish when we can agree on a meal to split is that we don't eat too much!

After our delicious lunch, we walked over to the River Center Mall and found a hair cutter, who sold Jack and me each a haircut. Mine's shorter than it's been in a very long time, but... it's cute!

Next, we walked the 10 blocks or so down to the Market Square. This is a huge shopping mall of Mexican goods of all descriptions. We escaped without buying anything, but it was cool to look at all the brightly colored and shiny objects.

Back to the River Walk, we were ready for a break. A guy hawking his cafe's Happy Hour lured us in, where we each enjoyed a margarita and shared a plate of onion rings -- all for $6, including tax!

I'll have time to go through my photos soon. I'm just now downloading a bunch, including ones from Huntsville Rocket Center and Disney World!

Arriving in San Antonio

We arrived last evening in New Orleans, thinking that we'd go into town today, eat at the French Quarter, groove on some jazz.... but then the lady at the campground told us that there was a hurricane which might affect the city. Well, the memory of Katrina and the still-very-present damage from that storm are too recent in our memories. So we opted to leave there this morning, not having enjoyed ANY gumbo or crawfish etouffee.

We drove like maniacs, instead, going 540 miles, and making it all the way to San Antonio! We're at the KOA, which is close to downtown and right on the bus route. We had a hotdog feast, sponsored by the campground, met some fellow campers, and we're happy to be here!

Gulf Coast

We're having a great time! We are moving slowly along the Gulf Coast in the panhandle area of Florida right now. We had a lunch of mullet (a fish that they have down here and it's GOOD!) and beans yesterday, and just snacked (Jack soup and popcorn and Janee cereal) last evening.

My somber news is that I am not going to make my weight loss goal, unless I change the date. 130 is still my goal, but this last 8 lbs has proven to be pretty sticky. My actual goal is to keep 130 for the rest of my life, so I suppose the date doesn't matter that much. How about if I make it by Christmas?

I'm starting to notice little things that signify that I'm lighter, besides just the number on the scale. I find that my rings fit more loosely and so do my jeans. I don't feel as overall stodgy as I did a few weeks ago, either, so .. that's good!

DisneyWorld

Jack and I have had a wonderful vacation at Disney World. We arrived here on Saturday, at Fort Wilderness Campground. It is a wonderful campground, with large, well-equipped, very clean sites. There's plenty for families, and conveniences of all sorts. It's just the Disney experience for campers!

We didn't want to use a park admission for just a small part of the day, so we hopped a bus over to Downtown Disney. Since it was Halloween, we got to see the trick-or-treaters, so cute dressed as princesses, pirates, witches, and more. We ate a very good dinner at Portobello's.

Sunday we went to Epcot, and spent a long day there. We met Michele, Jack, Matthew, and Katherine there, and went with them on a couple of rides before they had to go, to meet friends. Jack and I stayed for dinner and then for the fireworks, which were spectacular!

Monday we started out the day at Wild Animal Kingdom. Again, we met the kids, so that was fun. We went with them on the Expedition to Everest and some other things. When they took off for their dinner reservation, Jack and I took some photos around the Discovery tree and then had our own supper.

Later that day, we used our Park Hopper tickets to head over to Magic Kingdom. We'd planned to meet the kids there, but we ran out of energy and came back to the campground on an early bus. Before that, though, we did get to see the light parade and the fireworks!

Tuesday, we decided to have a park-free day. We slept in and just walked around, exploring Fort Wilderness a bit. This is a huge campground! Later in the day, we did head out to Downtown Disney, grabbed some grub, and then came back to the campground. The kids came over here and we fixed hamburgers and chips for them. We walked them to their boat back to their resort, and we said our goodbyes. They left today to return home.

So today we opted to go to Hollywood Studios. We did the Aerosmith ride -- a very fast, very dark, and very intense rollercoaster ride. We did the Hollywood tower (fun!), and saw 3 3-D movies. We did the backlot tour, and .. just about everything else. The park was uncrowded, so the lines were short.

In the afternoon, we decided to head over to Epcot for some dinner. We first explored Innoventions, where we got to ride on a Segway, sent a couple of photos to ourselves, and made a video game featuring ourselves running and jumping!

Dinner proved to be a little complicated. We had decided that we wanted to go out for a nice dinner, but all the nice places seemed to require reservations. Morocco was the exception, though, seating us immediately for what turned out to be a delicious dinner with a belly-dancing show!

After our dinner, we called Linda Osborne from Big Rapids. She had called to tell us that she was going to be in Disneyworld visiting her daughters, so... we got to meet with them! We hopped a bus over to Downtown Disney for our rendezvous and had a nice visit. Whew! What a whirlwind Disney trip! We're both pooped!

Ocala, Florida

It's almost too warm today! Well... almost. :) We're actually enjoying the humidity and the 80+ heat of the last couple of days!

I am feeling much better now, having recovered completely from a bout of awful flu, it seems. I was really knocked out by the silly illness. Feverish and coughing my head off, I was unable to even *drive* till just yesterday.

I was mostly recovered when we arrived at Ken & Judy's near Huntsville, AL. We stayed in the RV, but enjoyed time with them as well as time to explore the Huntsville environs. Yesterday we left there, and drove on down as far as Dothan, AL. The campground was adequate but.. not at all fancy.

Tonight's campground is much nicer, and Jack took the opportunity to do our laundry, while I caught up on my email. I cooked dinner, using some frozen cooked hamburger, rice, canned tomatoes, part of an onion, a clove of garlic, parmesan cheese, and spices. Mmmm, it was GOOD!

On the Road Again!

Tonight finds Jack and me in Cornersville, Tennessee! We left Paris on Thursday morning at 10 am, all loaded up, and the new house in good hands. We drove to Brownsburg, Indiana, and stayed Thursday night with Annette and Steve. Friday morning, we drove on down to Louisville, where I had a meeting with Danny, my financial guru.

Angie and George were out of town, but they graciously permitted us to park in front of their house and to hook up to their water and power. We didn't see them till Saturday night, when they each flew in on separate planes, from separate destinations. They had been traveling since Labor Day, so they were happy to be home.

We went out to breakfast at KT's, to celebrate my 53rd birthday, and then Jack and I packed up the hoses and cords and headed on down I-65 to Nashville. There we visited Jack's friend Diane, and her husband Max.

Meanwhile, I've been sick. I had my flu shot in Big Rapids on Wednesday, and I started feeling puny on Thursday. I felt a bit punier on Friday, and then ydy I was a mess. Today I'm feeling better again, with no more fever, cough is much less, and my throat is not sore now. The hardest part is the sheer exhaustion. I've been unable to drive more than an hour at a time, before I have to rest, or even nap. And this morning, I felt too sick to attend church, so we missed for the first time since we were at Big Bend in Texas.

Yesterday, we went walking around on Alta Vista in Louisville, and I got some photos of pretty leaves:

Here's a photo inside the chapel at one of the beautiful seminary campuses:

I Love real Silverware!

For those who know me well, that is not real news. I've been using sterling flatware for my everyday eating since my grandmother left me hers in 1986. I never knew the name of grandma's pattern, but it is very simple, and well-used since the early 1900's when she was married. It's engraved with an M. The remarkable thing about her flatware is that there are literally dozens of serving pieces -- from meat forks to lemon forks and pickle tongs. The unfortunate thing is that there are only 5 dinner forks.

I took custody of my mother's sterling when she passed away in 1999. It too has just 5 dinner forks, though there are also 5 salad forks, more spoons, and 6 knives. She had only a few serving pieces.

I've been eating happily off of these two sets, quietly wishing that they were the same pattern. And I also quietly have been combing antique shops, looking at more sterling.

On Friday, I got lucky. Jack and I were in downtown Big Rapids, and visited the Big Rapids Antique Shop. Darlene showed us a set of sterling flatware which we both just loved. It's Reed & Barton Diamond pattern and there are 8 six-piece place settings (salad, and dinner forks, soup and tea spoons, dinner knife, and butter knife) and 14 serving pieces! I bought the set!

Yesterday, I polished each piece and .. my goodness, what a shine they make! Today we'll shop for a drawer divider large enough for such a magnificent set of silver.

I am not sure exactly when my love affair with sterling began. I remember eating from grandma's silver when I was a little girl. Of course, I remember the family dinners with my mother's sterling. And my Auntie Dots told me of her grandmother. She explained why she always ate ice cream from a sterling spoon. "Plate leaves a taste..."

I suppose it reminds me of a more genteel time -- a time when ladies had more time to set pretty tables, when people enjoyed entertaining friends, when people moved a bit more slowly and savored the finer things. That's where I am now. I have time to set a pretty table, I love having friends over for dinner, and I love taking the time to drive off the big roads, seeing smaller communities and .. just taking time to smell the lilacs. And I love my sterling silverware!

Drizzly and Cool

We have had a few really great days. Annette and Steve came up on Friday night, and we enjoyed a fine weekend with them. Saturday, we took them on a short tour of Big Rapids, dined at Pepper's, and then went to ArtWorks, our gallery which features the work of area artists. Annette bought one of Jack's prints, and I found an awesome wood burl bowl, which I'm using for a fruit bowl. I also bought some vegetable painting prints to frame for the kitchen.

We played ping pong in the evening, and that was fun! Steve had never played before, which I found hard to believe, since he caught on so fast. Jack fixed us Rock Cornish game hens, potatoes, and corn, and I made zucchini sautee with onions, tomatoes, basil, and parmesan.

This morning I had my ear congestion cured, much to my delight. This is only the 2nd time that I've had to do this, and it was not altogether pleasant. I am wondering how normal people get seen by a doctor when they need to be. The RN at the ER told me, however, that I was the 12th person whose ears she had irrigated already today.. and this was just noon! So I guess that going to the ER *is* normal for silly little things like this? I tried the local Otolaryngology office first, and they said October 12. No way could I have lasted that long! Turns out that I have a middle ear infection, and I have drops that are going to cure me.

So, with me feeling sort of puny, we just gomed out for most of the day. Late in the day, we did play a few rousing games of ping pong, and I got all caught up with Facebook. And we both had a few naps.

Drizzly and cool today, and we actually tried out our furnace to be sure that it worked. It worked so well, in fact, that we considered staying here for the winter! Well.. LOL not really, but it sounded good.

Socializing

We've enjoyed having some people over to our new house, over the past couple of weeks. Jack loves cooking, as do I, so it's just been really fun. We have had two small dinner parties, and we had the joy of hosting our church's PITS group last Sunday.

PITS is always fun, but it was super-special having them HERE! When people get a new house, the PITS group blesses the house with glitter! We are still finding it around in funny places, and it makes us laugh every time.

For PITS, the hosting household usually does a meat and drinks, and the other people bring side dishes and desserts. Jack did 4 chickens and a big rack of ribs, and it was all delicious. (Note to self: 2 chickens and 2 racks of ribs would have been better.)

I enjoyed giving tours of the house, and Jack entertained the men outside. The weather was lovely, as it has been for weeks now.

We've actually gotten some rain the past couple of days, which has been fun for the geese! The sandbar outside our house has just about disappeared under the rushing Muskegon!

We just returned from a trip to Indiana, where we had to exchange our table top. Why? Well... the leaf that Gerdt Furniture had given us didn't fit, as we discovered when we were setting up for PITS! Jack brought the whole top, just thinking... just in case. Well, the leaf that they had ready for us didn't FIT our table top, so they had to exchange the whole top!

Our main purpose of the Indiana trip was for Mary Elizabeth's 90th birthday party in Bloomington. It was great fun, and it was exciting to see all the people from her family, and to catch up with some old friends.

After the party, we went over to Bob and Ann's, and were happy to have a visit with them and to see them doing well.

In Indiana, we also got our Verizon MiFi card activated by Edward, a great guy at the Verizon store in Brownsburg. Even though we are in a "trust market," because of the Alltell purchase, he didn't have access to our account, but he made a call and got it taken care of for us! He was so competent and helpful.

The MiFi card is great! It goes along with the Verizon data plan that I've had all along, but enables me to "host" up to 4 other computers with WiFi. That means that Jack and I can be on the internet at the same time! Woo hoo! And it works! It works well, and fast.

Getting Settled

We are getting settled nicely into our new house. We have almost all the furniture in place, and just a few things yet to buy. Jack is going to build us a bed for our Master Bedroom, as you see here. We have to get or build nightstands for that room.

I love the Master bathroom and the closet with clothes chute!


We are going to procure bookcases for the Library/Music Room, and that will complete this room.

Downstairs, the Game Room is shaping up, as is our #1 Guest Room.

But our forest-setting guestroom is on hold. That is because the log beds that we got are too BIG! I had been laboring under the illusion that twin beds are 36" wide. The beds that we got, with the big logs, are actually 50" wide. The nice folks at the Rustic Log Furniture store are going to help us out, though, by letting us exchange these for smaller beds. I didn't take photos of the #2 Guest Room full of unassembled logs!

Here is the kitchen:

And here's the dining room:

The living room:

The Library/Music Room:

Views down the hallways near the front door:

Here's our screened porch:

And some views of the river:

Here's the river deck, and the staircase leading down to the lower deck:

Here's a photo of the ladder that Jack built: