HOME AGAIN

While we realize that "Home Is Where We Are Parked", it's always nice to be parked at our Grandview home. We got here about 3:00 Friday afternoon. Our trip from Gladewater was uneventful. We came "through the country" down Highway 31 through Athens and Corsicana and across to Hillsborough. Rebecca and girls were here when we got in and helped us get the trailer set up. Rebecca and family have gone to Denton today to have Christmas with Drew's Mother and Dad. Rachel is feeling bad so we haven't seen them yet. They called a little while ago and said they would be up after a while.

It is nice to have my reliable internet back. It seems really fast compared to some that I have had recently. I will try to get a little something on the Blog ocasionally while we are here. We will be here until after Christmas and will probably go somewhere after that.

Gladewater Texas

Got a picture of the Mississippi River Bridge in the rain. Emily said that the first time Rachel crossed the old bridge, she said that she wanted her daddy.


As predicted, it did rain all day yesterday. We left Vicksburg at about 10:00 this morning and got to Gladewater at about 4:30. We found a nice RV park here and it has Wi-Fi. It was a nice day for travelling, but we get tired pretty easily. We are only about 150 miles from home so it won't be too hard a trip when we head out.

Two pictures of our camp at Shallow Creek RV Park.

Vicksburg Mississippi

These pictures are at the Williamson Cemetary and our camp at Lake Lurleen

We finally left Tuscaloosa Tuesday morning. They had to put Emily's Aunt Viva in the hospital with heart and breathing problems. We stayed for an extra three or four days and decided to go on since she was in stable condition. We made it to Vicksburg, Mississippi by about 5:30 Tuesday afternoon. When we woke up this morning it was raining and looks like it will continue all day. We will probably just stay in and rest; Emily is tired from sitting in the hospital for three days. Also, she is coming down with the cold that I am finally getting over.

Happy Anniversary & Birthday!

Happy Birthday Dad!

Happy Anniversary to you both. For those of you who don't know, Mother Always said she got married on Dad's birthday so he would never be able to forget it. Well, it's been 42 years, Mom...............Has it worked out for you!

Sorry I wasn't able to call, we went directly from school to Jump Rope to Basketball to Choir concert. The kids had to be at the school for choir at 6:30, the concert started at 7:30 and we finally got out of there about 9:15. We then had 2 hours of homework. I think Junior High is going to do me in! Pray for us, it's semester exam week this week. Miranda is really worried about having to take test over "every thing I've has learned all year. That's alot of stuff." I know she'll do fine. But she worries about it none the less.

I hope your Birthday/Anniversary was greatand know that we were thinking about you even if we didn't call! We'll have a party when you get back home!

I love you both!
Rachel

Violin Concert

Here are a couple of pictures from the Dominick's and Carly's violin concert. After the concert we went to Charlie and Lilly's to help Charlie put up his Big Christmas tree. You can't really tell from the picture, but it is 34 feet tall.

Love you lots!
Rach

Lake Lurleen State Park - Alabama

We made it to Lake Lurleen State Park at Tuscaloosa, Alabama at about 3:00 Wednesday afternoon. We had a good trip from Memphis down to Alabama. Diesel fuel keeps getting cheaper and that is nice. We got it as low(?) as $2.27. We came straight to the park and got set up and then went to visit with Ruby for awhile. The State Park is full of FEMA trailers and we got the only site with full hookups that was available. The trailers all look like they are set up for the long term complete with pvc sewer connections and 250 gallon propane tanks. They put all the trailers on concrete blocks and strapped them down. Leave it to the government to waste money every chance they get. There are probably 50 or more of the trailers here.

Thursday we went back over to Ruby's house and then we all rode over to see Jack and Viva. They had already eaten lunch so we took Ruby out to eat. It started raining so we took Ruby home and went back to the trailer. At least the weather is not too bad. The sun came out this morning and the temperature is about 40. It didn't get below freezing last night.

Memphis Tennessee

We got away from Branson at about 10:00 this morning. The temperature last night was about 16° and it was about 20° while we were hooking up. It was very cold so we were glad to be on our way south. We came down US 65 to Conway, Arkansas and then west on Interstate 40 to Memphis. It took a long time from Branson to Conway because the road was up and down and winding constantly. We stopped at a McDonalds just north of Conway and ate lunch.

We have stopped at an RV park in West Memphis that we found in the Trailer Life book. It seems to be pretty nice although we got in after dark and haven't seen much. It does have Wi-Fi so that's good. We just hooked up electricity and didn't unhitch from the truck so it will be fairly easy to leave early in the morning. We only put out the bed slide. We have come 300 miles and only have about 250 left to get to Tuscaloosa. Hopefully it will be a little easier day tomorrow.

You can check out our direction of travel Here

Branson Day 49

It got to down to 18° last night and was cold all day today. They are also forecasting snow in the next few days. Therefore we will probably hitch up in the morning and go south. We are planning on going to Alabama to visit Emily's relatives. It is about 550 miles from here to Tuscaloosa so it will be two moderately long driving days. We will try to make it to Memphis by way of Little Rock tomorrow. That is about 300 miles which is farther than we normally drive in a day, but we don't want to get caught in bad weather. It will all depend on how early we can get hitched and leave. It won't be too easy at 16° in the morning, but I did get the holding tanks drained this afternoon.

Emily went shopping around Branson this afternoon. I stayed in since I am coming down with another cold. Tonight we went to eat at Clockers Cafe in Old Downtown Branson. Emily went Here so we had dessert tonight and will have some for breakfast in the morning.

Branson Day 48

We went out to eat at The College of the Ozarks dining room at noon today with Jim and Kris Todd. Jim and Kris are camp hosts here at Turkey Creek and are leaving in the morning to go serve as hosts in another Escapees park in New Mexico. After we ate we went for a drive to a resort south of Branson on Table Rock Lake. Tonight the park has it's regular Sunday night ice cream social. We don't always go, but will probably go tonight since it will be Jim and Kris' last night. It was pretty today but stayed fairly cool and windy.

Note that I have learned how to put links to websites of interest in the blog posts. Maybe that will add a little insight into places and things. Just click on the underlined text to go to the link.

Branson Day 46

We went to the Bart Rockett show tonight and had a really good time. This guy is just getting started in Branson and is very talented and down-to-earth. He does magic and comedy and has singers and dancers. There were not many people in the theater; probably only 150 or so. He made jokes about the small crowd and said that if he knew this was all that was coming, he would have just had us over to his house. See more about Bart Rockett Here.

Branson Day 45

We just got back from the Dixie Stampede Show. We enjoyed the show and the food. This is probably a Christmas version of the regular show. All of the horseback riding and wagons and buggies was done to a Christmas theme and costumes. There were races (both horseback and buggies), ice skating, singing, ostrich racing, pig races, a Manger scene complete with camels and an angel coming down from the ceiling, and a comedian. The meal consisted of a whole roasted chicken, smoked pork, corn-on-the-cob, potato, soup, and an apple turnover. All of this was eaten with no silverware just fingers. I suppose that this is similar to Medieval Times in Dallas.

There was a preliminary show in a smaller theater that was a comedian/juggler. He was good and the show lasted about 45 minutes.