Sunday, November 27, 2005

Lake Degray State Park

Lake Degray is a nice state park. It is just a few miles to Hot Springs, AR. We have spent a week there for Thanksgiving (2005). The fall colors were beutiful. The lake is large and camping area of the park is covered in large mature trees.











The camp sites are nice. This is a large state park with a lot of camp sites. They don't provide full hookups but they do have several dump stations located in several different areas in the park. We look forward to camping this state park again in the near future.

Sunday, June 12, 2005

True Entertainment

We must have been great entertainment for everyone in the park the first time we took the motorhome camping. I know the people camping around us must have had a good laugh watching us get our new rig all setup.

We bought the motor home on a Saturday and took possession on Wednesday. We were both so excited. We couldn't wait for our first voyage.

We decided since we were new at this RV thing that we would take our first trip to a near by camp ground at Lake Lavon. I wasn't retired yet and didn't have any vacation scheduled for awhile.

We had one free weekend to get acquainted with the new rig. My Mother went with us. She is such a good sport and is always up to new adventures! It amazes me, no matter how many books you have read or how well you paid attention or detailed your notes are when you do the walk-thru with the dealership, you will suddenly become brain dead when you hook things up for the first time.

It took us about an hour to do a normally fifteen minute job. Mother and I were pulling out hoses and cords as Dawn read from the instruction manual what to do next. Needless to say it was quite an event but we got it hooked up.

There are so many small things that have to be done just to set up. With time I know it will get better. For now we will spend the next two days reading and learning all about this new rig and all it's gadgets. Once we had it all figured out, we were excited to go on a real trip.

Monday, June 6, 2005

We Bought A Motorhome


It all started with the upcoming remodel of the house. After some serious discussions regarding where we would live while the house was being gutted and remodeled, we decided to take a go look at travel trailers. Some friends of ours lived in a travel trailer while they were building there house so we thought that might work for us. We could remain on the property while the work was being done. We made a list of places that sold travel trailers and set out to explore the unknown. We knew it would take several days to look at all there was to see. We set out early one Saturday morning and off we went.

The first dealership we came to was Holiday World of Dallas. This looked like a great place to start. They had a large lot full of trailers. We spent several hours checking out the different trailers. We couldn't believe how many different sizes and styles there were to choose from. The salesman, Rodney was great and just let us roam all over the lot. We must have asked a thousand questions. He didn't seem to mind and was very helpful. We decided it wouldn't hurt to look at the class "C" either. We discussed how nice it would be to have something that we could drive instead of pull. Rodney explained that the class "C" come in all sizes as well and that he had a motorhome on the lot with more living space. We explained to Rodney that we didn't plan on spending a lot of money and that is why we didn't even venture over the motorhome area of the lot. He told us that we really should take a look at the motorhomes just so that we could do some good comparison shopping.

The first motorhome we looked at was a monster of a rig. Wow! It was decked out with a beautiful color scheme on the exterior and the interior was nicer that most model homes we have been in. The price tag would be an even bigger monster at two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. We laughed and told Rodney this was not for us.

He then insisted that we look at one more motorhome before we left. It was new but a year old and had a lot of the same amenities. We agreed to look at it before we left to visit the next dealership on our list.

Rodney lead us over to the motorhome he wanted us to see and then told us he would be back in a moment to go ahead and look it over. This one was not as large as the last one we looked at but was just as nice. The interior was done in earth tone color scheme and it had a nice layout. It was beautiful. We explored the interior and both thought that a maybe a motorhome was more what we wanted. We made a very big mistake. We fell in love with this motorhome. Rodney returned a few minutes later with keys in hand and started her up. It only took a minute for the air conditioning to cool the space down. Rodney explained about all the gadgets that this rig came equipped with. It has large ford engine, automatic levelers, back-up camera, two air conditioners, large holding tanks and a lot of other extras. This unit is a year old and the owner of the dealership was able make a good deal on it so could move it off the lot.

I don't know about this. It is so large. This thing is thirty-two feet long and twelve feet tall. I have driven school buses this size but this is a rolling house!

Rodney assured me that it was easy to drive and offered to let us take it for a test drive. I said, no. I didn't want to be responsible for damages I might inflict on this big beast if I ran over or into something.

He invited us us to come into the office and he would give us more information on it. Dawn loves numbers. She and Rodney spent an hour talking and going over numbers while I paced the floor. This was too mush too soon. This was our first dealership. Besides this thing was huge and I wasn't sure if either of us would be able to handle driving this thing down the road.

Well, an hour later we were the owners of a new motorhome. I still couldn't believe it. We were scheduled to return on Wednesday to take possession.

I was a nervous wreck. What on earth have we done?

Sunday, February 27, 2005

Mexico Cruise

It was a cold December day when we decided we needed to go somewhere warm like Cozumel, Mexico. We search the Internet and decided to take a cruise. We booked our cruise for February.

This was my first cruise and I wasn't sure about it but Dawn assured me it would be a lot of fun. We couldn't wait for February to roll around. We were boarding the ship in Galveston, Texas. We packed up the car and drove down the day before our cruise.
The following morning we boarded the Carnival Cruise ship. We had a small room with twin beds and a tiny bathroom. We did have a window which was nice. I was a little nervous about this small room.



The ship pulled out of Galveston heading to Cozumel Mexico.










There was a lot to do on this huge ship. They had live entertainment around every corner. We lost money in the casino and ate some fabulous food. Cozumel was great. We shopped and spent the day exploring the island.

We both had been to Cozumel before but it had changed in five years. You will never get hungry on a cruise ship. I have never seen so much food or food turned to art. The cruise was wonderful and we did get some sun and had some fun.






Saturday, January 1, 2005

Life is A Journey

"Life is a Journey, Not a Destination"

 

We started out just raking up miles on the car odometer. We would drive the country roads of north east Texas. We have traveled miles down roads only to discover a Dead End sign.

We expanded our horizons and took a ten day road trip of the Lone Star State.

We happened onto some interesting little towns and people. We have flown to Colorado, rented a car and spent ten days exploring the mountains. What a beautiful place! We have done the Colorado thing a few times.

Places we have flown such as, Illinois. explored Chicago. Florida. explored Miami, South Beach and all the keys. Key West was Great! Puetro Rico, Explored the island. Las Vegas. Did that a few times! Lost Money but, snapped some good pictures. California, there we have visited Los Angeles, Hollywood, Redondo Beach and San Francisco, Mexico, Cancun, Play del Carmen, Yucatan and Cozumel. Beautiful beaches.

Cruises we have been on such as, Mexico and explored places like Mazatlan and Cabo San Lucas. 


We have driven to Savannah, Georgia. Visited Paula Deen's Place. Had lunch at Mrs. Wilkes.

The southern cooking was delicious! We look forward to doing that again.

We have driven the motor home thru Louisiana, Camped in Slidell, Shreveport and New Orleans. Mississippi and camped in Bay St. Louis. That was before the hurricane.
Florida and camped on the beach.

We have a great time no matter where we end up.  But the truth of the matter is that we love driving the roadways. We enjoy having the privilege of not having a schedule. We can go as far or as near as we like. When we like.