Winter in Texas Day Four – Trouble at Ann’s house
Everything’s bigger in Texas!
New Years Eve morning 2018 we rolled out of Cajun Palms, heading to “Cousin Ann’s house” in Montgomery, Texas. Montgomery is a suburb north of Houston, some 250 miles from Cajun Palms.
After a nice drive including a couple hours on a rural 2 lane, we were in front of Ann’s house.
We’d been here before, with our 40′ Monaco, and I’d gotten that coach in her long skinny driveway and parked by the side of the garage for a great couple week stay.
This time, in a 45 foot coach, I’m not so lucky. The driveway crosses a ditch, and flares only slightly to the street. On the near side is a big brick mailbox. 
To get away from the mailbox, I drove to the end of the street and did a 3 point turn in the cul-de-sac, then tried to swing wide, miss the mailbox, and make the turn into the driveway. I got the wrong angle and the rear tires tracked in too tight. Carol managed to get my attention before the right rear dropped into the ditch, and I backed out. I figured I’d back off the road to get a little more room to make the turn. This is when everything went terribly wrong. It had been a very rainy month, and the ground was very wet. When I tried to go forward, I had no traction at all!
I found I could go backwards a little, but 
any attempt to go forward, the tires spun in the wet mud. Rather than dig in further, I just called coachnet and waited. 
Coachnet is our Emergency Road Service company, they specialize in these big coaches. After an hour this little bitty tow truck showed up. I greeted him with “you’re kidding right?” It seems Coachnet was trying to get out cheap. He hooked this little chain to my front suspension, and tried to move the coach by driving his truck forward. It wouldn’t budge. No movement at all. He took his toys and went home. I didn’t even get a picture, but it was an Isuzu flatbed, the kind you would pick up a car with. Not even close. I called Coachnet back, told them the story, and an hour 
later a properly giant truck backed down the street to the coach. This thing was huge! Somewhat other worldly looking too. It was dark now, and he had some huge lights on the back of this truck. Big thanks to Milstead Automotive for their quick response, fabulous equipment, and great operator. In a matter of minutes, he pegged the truck down with it’s rear legs, set a pulley to keep the chain below the front of the RV, hooked a fabric strap to the RV’s frame, and just winched my baby out of the mud. It was so easy!
It seemed spending the night on the side of the road was a smart thing, so I put the slides out on the curb side, started the generator, and called it good. We went inside and enjoyed a nice dinner by Ann and Carol. I went out and turned in early, and they stayed in the house and talked half the night. Cousins had lots of catching up to do.
Winter in Texas Day 3
Now this is what I’m talkin about! Woke up this morning (way to early again) to a 73 degree outside temp and a nice ocean breeze coming in the tiny windows next to our bed. After waiting out a brief rain shower, we took the dogs for a walk right about dawn. Fantastic.
After day 2 in a mudpit, and day 1 in a basic campground, I asked my friends in the Entegra Coach Owners Group on Facebook if anyone knew of a nice RV Resort between Hattiesburg and Houston? It didn’t take long for a couple people to suggest Cajun Palms RV Resort. This place is First Class. Big spacious concrete sites, very wide, easy to get in and out of, plenty of paved patio space. Unfortunately the pool, water park, spa, and poolside bar were closed for the winter. I’d love to come back here when all the amenities were open. Maybe we’ll do that in the spring? The “upper deck bar and grille” were open, doing a big New Years Weekend thing.
We decided to skip the planned leftovers, and went to Pat’s Fishermans wharf Restaurant nearby in Henderson. Pat’s is a cool and kind of eclectic place, out at the edge of town across a bridge, right on the bayou. They have a really big spread there, much closed for the season, shops and touristy things that I would have loved to explore. Again, a return trip with more time is in order. They made a decent and strong Margarita, and I had the:
Creole Shrimp Dinner…………………………….$25.95
(Caught on Shrimp Boat Patrick)
Fried, Boiled, Cocktail, Cup of Gumbo, Etouffee over Rice,
Pie, Stuffed Bell Pepper, Boulette and Hush Puppies
This was a BUNCH of food. I only left behind 1 cold cocktail shrimp and half a hushpuppie.
The staff at Pat’s were very accommodating to Carol’s allergies. A Cajun seafood place is tough when you are allergic to gluten and seafood! The dining room manager worked with Carol to produce a very tasty Chicken and baked potato dinner, and so far the next morning, Carol has no sign of being poisoned, so that’s beyond good.
This was a short day at only 230 miles. I took the long / scenic route, stayed on I10 around and through New Orleans. The causeway’s next to the lake and through the swamps were extremely cool, though they woulda been better if the world weren’t still socked in. Visibility was around 500 feet, but it was clear in the city itself. We saw the Superdome, and sat in some traffic even though the game had all ready started. We pulled into Cajun RV at 2:15, and had some time to relax as well as nice surroundings to relax in. I even pulled out our comfy chairs, opened up the outside TV, and we sat on the patio and watched some of the Bears game!
While we were hear, we struck Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana on our States Visited Map.
The Bears won, and we woke up to a nice ocean breeze and 70 degree temps! It was great to sleep with out windows open. We walked the dogs at dawn, between some passing showers. Today we’ll roll to Houston, and driveway surf at Cousin Ann’s place. It will be 250 miles, maybe a 4 hour drive.
Winter in Texas Day 2
No longer a boring title, it’s now a “THEME”!
This morning we woke up at 5:30 in Wills Creek RV Park in fort Payne, Alabama, and managed to get rolling by 10 am. That’s actually pretty good for us. No idea where the time goes. Does anyone else pick up a phone or a laptop in the morning and have FaceBook suck your braincells out for an hour?
I finished our stay here by pumping the tanks and walking the dogs.
So we rolled at 10 sharp, and pulled into “Forest County RV Park” a little before 5:00 pm after covering 352 miles. I could have gone farther, but Carol is suffering, and it seemed a good time to stop. Also in Hattiesburg, I put $205 worth of diesel (73 gallons) in the tank.
Thank you President Trump, my cost for a fillup is down about seventy five bucks from last year. #MAGA.
It was mostly a nice drive today. Good new smooth road. Some cloud, some sun. The last 50 miles or so it clouded up hard and the sky opened up. Alternating rain and mist, the kind where you just can’t find the right setting for the wipers. Coach was great. Cruise locked on 70 the whole way, as always.
This “Forest County RV Park” will just have to do for an overnight. It wants to be like the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, but just doesn’t quite pull it off. The concrete pads are way way way to narrow, it’s real hard to keep wheels from falling off the surface while backing in. With all the rain, it is a muddy mess here, 6″ deep ruts everywhere anyone got off the pavement, endless red mud. Just a mess. They do have full hookups, but the power is just 30 amps. I guess that’s all the horse trailers need? Only maybe 2 regular RV’s in here.
Oh well, it will be fine, and we’ll roll out in the morning.
Winter in Texas Day One
Wow, thatsa boring title. Accurate, but boring.
East Tennessee isn’t Chicago when it comes to winters, but it’s still cool and cloudy and rains a lot. So we planned to take off after Christmas and head south. We have the month of January reserved at Gulf Waters RV Resort in Port Aransas, TX. This place is top of the line and beachfront on the gulf.
So we left today, December 28. Carol had to get her allergy shots and go to Food City for groceries. I closed up the bus and went to Pilot for fuel. Carol met me there and we put away the groceries, made some “eat in our laps” lunch, hooked up the Jeep and headed down the road.
Traffic SUCKED. It had been raining for the last 24 hours, and still kinda was. Lotsa people on the highway going into Knoxville, and even more on the westside heading out. I75 south had it’s moments too. It sure was nice to be on the road again. The new coach handles like a dream. Smooth. Quiet. Comfortable.
The clouds are just breaking up!
Welcome to Alabama
Anyway, we got rolling out of pilot at 1pm, drove through Chattanooga, across a piece of Georgia, and into Alabama.
We ended up at the Mills Creek RV Park, in Fort Payne, Georgia. It’s a nice lil place, nuttin special but clean and decent, full hookups and pullthrough site so I didn’t have to unhook the Jeep.
Dinner was Delicious. Carol whipped up delecious garlic steak bites, and I made a salad.
Tomorrow, we’ll continue south and west. Still not sure if I want to go through “The Big Easy” or not. I’ve never been there, but it might be fun. On the other hand, I hate big cities, especially driving this bus through them. Maybe Biloxi?
Regardless, either is more than a day’s run.
I need to start blogging again… (and more often.)
As many of you know, a little over 2 years ago, we settled in East Tennessee and bought a house.
Since then, we just haven’t done many blogposts (not that we blogged enough when we were travelling.)
I’ve got lots of reasons (excuses) for that, including:
I need to collect and organize my pictures.
I need a better editor so I can make my posts look better and be more flexible on different size and mobile screens.
I need TIME!!!!!!!!!!
But hell, mostly I just need to make time. It’s not easy. I spend so much time and energy every day working on this house, plus Carol and I go out a lot. We’re here for the GSMNP (that’s Great Smoky Mountains National Park), we go to the park every chance we get, and from here on Douglas Lake south of Dandridge, it’s near an hour each way.
I have a lot to blog about.
I’ve been doing some mods on our new Entegra Aspire Motorcoach.
We’ve decided our 2010 Jeep Liberty is going to continue as a keeper, and are nearly done catching up on somewhat defered service and maintenance.
I’ve gotten a LOT done on this old ’70’s ranch house.
I’ve been wanting to go back to the beginning and do “Campground Reviews”.
I want to get a forum going on this site, I need to hear back from people that read what we wright, one way conversations are boring.
Oh, and the BIG NEWS! We’re going south for the winter! We have reservations for January at Gulf Waters RV Resort in Port Aransas, Texas!
We’re hoping to be able to get to Arizona in February, then back to Dandridge to finish this house and get it on the market for sale.
Both Carol and our niece Kayla have been bugging me to just get it done, so here, without forther ado(drumroll please), is a BLOGPOST!!!
When In Wisconsin We MUST Do A Supper Club
Ahhhhhhhhh, Wisconsin…
Dairy farms, local beers, cheesehead hats, deer running in front of your car on the highway…
And Supper Clubs!
By definition a Supper Club is a dining establishment, typically found in the upper Midwestern states, and located in rural areas on the edge of town. The Supper Club became popular in the 1930’s and 1940’s as a destination restaurant – meaning you would go there and spend the whole evening in the Supper Club. Typically, you would start out with cocktails at the bar (The Old Fashioned was a favorite cocktail choice), followed by dinner in the restaurant, then back to the bar for a nightcap and entertainment. The menu is typically very limited, with steaks and fish/seafood most popular, and the food is typically made-from-scratch fresh.
So, as we have found ourselves in Wisconsin while Jim gets some work done, and we LOVE local, kitschy places, we just knew that we HAD to find a local Supper Club.
Our choice? The Roxy Supper Club of Oshkosh, Wisconsin! 
Where the leisure suits are bad, but the food is oh so delicious! 
As is typical of a Supper Club, our meal began with soup & a salad. Our soup was Chicken & Dumpling, and the salad was a typical garden salad with (of course) Ranch Dressing. Now, let me tell you the difference between a “southern dumpling” and a “northern dumpling” because there is a HUGE difference. In the south, “dumplings” are made with flour, water, and a little vegetable shortening. They are rolled out with a rolling pin and cut, to almost resemble more of a noodle in looks and consistency. They are lighter in weight than a “northern dumpling”. The Midwest version, or “northern dumpling” is also made with flour, water, and egg instead of shortening. The batter is made much thicker and heavier. These suckers weigh about 4 pounds each! When dropped into your chicken soup, this soup (which is supposed to be an appetizer) is now heavy enough to feed you, your neighbors, and half of your hometown with one bowl full. Maybe it’s because it’s cold as hell up in the north in the winter time, and you need this hearty food to keep you warm? Whatever the reason, this hearty soup was enough to fill me up. However, I had not even had my main course placed in front of me yet! (See that giant ball of dumpling in the middle there? Enough to feed starving children in a third world country. For a week.)
Oh, but lets continue on to the main course shall we? Jim ordered Prime Rib and I got the ham. My dinner came with dressing with gravy, and (guess what?) a DUMPLING! Yes, that thing that’s cut up on the left of my plate is another dumpling! See how thick and doughy it is? Needless to say, I did NOT even come close to finishing this plate full of food! It was delicious, but holy heck, who can eat that much heavy food???
What I loved about The Roxy: The atmosphere/people – the bar area was awesome, with friendly folks all welcoming each other/sitting together/conversing.
The food – If you weren’t full to the top and ready to burst when you left there, you’re a pig – plain and simple.
The bad suits, crumbs on the floor, kitschy small town atmosphere. LOVE me some kitsch!!
Rating: Two big thumbs up! Would totally go again!!
Magnet Board
One of the things we enjoy doing on our travels is hunting for the perfect magnet to commemorate our time in each location. Years ago we chose magnets as souvenirs because they’re nice and small and they travel well. We always stuck them to the fridge in our old coach, but they don’t stick to this Samsung in the new bus! So we had to find a new way to display our beloved souvenirs.
Today we took down the factory picture, and installed a sheet of metal in the frame!
It took an hour, pliers, tin snips and a level. It only cost $20 for the metal at Lowes.
Now our grocery list and travel memories are back where they belong.
And there we are with our finished project! Our grocery list has it’s home, and all our magnets. Those magnets sure do bring some memories. The Red Rocks of Sedona, The dark night sky of Organ Pipe National Park. More than a couple beach scenes. It does look like we have some free space, gotta hit the road for a new destination to get some more magnets.
Do you have any suggestions where we should go?
The Funniest Thing Happened in Tampa!
Ditching The Cold
It was January in Tennessee and it was cold (yes, we are wimps now). So cold we might have been back in Chicago again! We decided we had to escape! Good thing our house has wheels! We’d been talking about going to The Keys, but that was so far and so full of snowbirds that is was impossible to get a campsite. We looked at weather maps, and settled on Tampa. Tampa had a lot going for it. Far enough south to be warm. Near The Gulf, so beautiful views. Home to the largest RV dealer in the world, LazyDays, where we’d purchased our Monaco motorhome 9 years ago.
Tampa RV Supershow
So we made a phone call and got a site reserved at LazyDays campground. We threw a bunch of stuff in the bus and pointed her south. And lo and behold we’d arrive in time for the last 2 days of the Tampa RV Supershow! Who knew??? (Snerk!) We love RV shows! This show was so big that even though we limited ourselves to only looking at Diesel Pusher Motorhomes, we couldn’t see them all in 2 days. We had no intention of buying a new RV. Our Monaco was just fine. OK, past due for an oil change and a full chassis service. And those 8 tired old Monroe shocks. And the back tires were almost aged out. Oh yea, don’t forget about the rotting slide floor, and the leaky bedroom slide, The dying refrigerator, and the worn out furniture…
LazyDays RV Tampa
I’m not even sure how this happened (cuz ya know, we weren’t buying a new motorhome), but the Monday after the show, we met Jason, our new LazyDays salesman. He showed us a bunch of RV’s. We really liked the Entegra’s. Oddly this brand was not on our radar, we’d even skipped them at the show. They were pretty, but a bit above our price range. The next day we went to General RV to see what they had since they handled the Monaco’s and Holiday Rambler’s. But they didn’t have the one we’d fallen in love with at the show, and we didn’t really click with that dealership or the salesman.
We Bought The Entegra!
And then Jason called to tell us, “We just took in an Entegra trade-in that has everything you want, and since it’s a year old it’s in your price range.” We told him we’d be in in the morning (no hurry, cuz we weren’t buying a new RV anyways). He said “Hurry, it’s not gonna last.” The next morning we showed up and she sure was pretty. A 2017 Entegra Aspire. A 45 foot long tag axle rig, bath and a half, and a king bed. It has the countertop extension Carol wanted, and the expandable couch. A conventional dining table and freestanding chairs. We don’t have to turn our heads to watch TV! Beautiful cherry woodwork. A 450 HP Cummins ISL9 with a side radiator. 49,000 pounds of pure muscle. Carol said, “I’d live in that” and I said, “Where do I sign?”
I’m still not sure how this happened, cuz we weren’t buying a new RV!! But a couple days later, we moved across the street to the Crown Club delivery area, and moved into our new RV! HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?!?!?!?!???
Rent Your Own RV
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Two Great Days At Cedar Key in Florida
We left Tampa with our new (to us) RV on Sunday (will post the new RV soon) and headed for Cedar Key. I’m not even sure where Jim heard about Cedar Key or why he wanted us to go there, but I’m glad he found this cute little gem of a town! Eclectic doesn’t even begin to describe this town – it’s part history and the other part hippie. We only had one full day there, but we made the most of it and saw a lot of the area. We will definitely be back there to spend more time some day – it’s quickly become a favorite spot. We stayed at Sunset Isle RV Resort and Motel. Unfortunately we were unable to get a beachfront spot, as we booked the place Sunday morning (we were happy to get any spot!) I highly recommend a beach spot if you can get one – the sunsets are spectacular overlooking the Gulf Of Mexico and out onto the tiny islands that dot the Gulf there. 
We also walked down the road a bit to Low Key Hideaway RV Park. There are only a few RV spots there – all are beachfront with a small deck for sitting on and all were reserved when we called there. However, we did walk around the resort a bit and it looks like a very colorful and fun place to stay as well.
We spent the day either walking around or driving around pretty much the whole town (it’s pretty small). There are several old falling down docks with nothing left but the pilings, that the local birds like to hang out on. 
There are old wood buildings that look like they’ve been there forever, housing restaurants and stores right downtown. 
We stopped and had lunch and a Margarita at 83 West, a kitschy, fun restaurant with seats at windows with no glass right on the water, with the birds enjoying the afternoon sunshine on the old dock just outside our window. We even got to watch a trio of dolphins playing in the waters outside our window. The food was great (we had crab dip and shrimp and fries basket). 
All in all, the food was great, the people were nice, and the sunsets were spectacular. We can’t wait to go back soon!
A Very Personal Post
Hi guys! This post is going to be very personal. And maybe a little heartbreaking. Grab a cup of coffee and read…
Tomorrow is February 1. February is Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Month. I guess it goes along with it being Valentine’s Day in February as well (hearts and all). Now honestly, Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Month was never anything that I paid a whole lot of attention to. Until it happened to us. 1 in 110 kids are born with some sort of congenital heart defect. My Grandson is one of them. Kaison was born with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. The simple explanation is that Kaison was born with only 1/2 of a functioning heart. 
As you can see in the photograph, the left ventricle is very very small. This is a VERY serious heart defect. Many children born with HLHS don’t live. In fact, any children born more than about 25 or 30 years ago did pass away – there was no treatment options available for babies born with HLHS. Sometimes people ask me what Kaison’s prognosis is and I honestly cannot answer that question. There are no people older than about 30 that have HLHS to know.
The treatment for HLHS includes a series of THREE open heart surgeries. I’m no cardiologist so I really don’t know what each surgery entails – I just know that it’s completely heartbreaking to see your 2-day old Grandson look like this:
I want to bawl my eyes out just looking at this picture again. Anyways, Kaison is now 11 months old and has had the first 2 surgeries and now looks like this:
Seriously, do they come any cuter??? On February 18, he will be 1 year old. We are so incredibly blessed. Just this week, 2 babies that I have been following with HLHS passed away. One was 2 years old and the other was only 7 months. I can’t even imagine…
So the point of my post here is two-fold. My first question is this: How the hell do I get in my RV and leave this cute face for any length of time??? Right now we are in Tampa (by the way, we bought a new RV!!! I’ll post about it later!) and I’m dying to squeeze that little face that’s now 600 miles away from me. I miss him and my granddaughter so much it aches. So how can I ever drive away for months at a time? It seems impossible!
The second point of my post is this: To increase awareness of congenital heart disease. This beautiful video was shown recently on The Today Show. Each year, 40,000 children are born with some form of congenital heart disease. In a world of tubes and oxygen, surgeries and beeping monitors, parents and medical teams battle to keep their tiny hearts beating against the odds – but it’s the children themselves who are the true heroes. Please take 4 minutes and watch:
Congenital Heart Disease Video
Also, if you can find it in your heart (pun intended) to donate to Addy’s CHD Research Fund HERE. This money will be used to fund further research into congenital heart defects and to raise awareness of this terrible birth defect. In fact, when our Kaison was born, we had his cord blood banked. Mayo Clinic is now starting research on using this cord blood to help these children regrow the missing part of their hearts – how awesome would that be??? You can follow our Facebook page here at Kaison’s Journey With Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. Please feel free to give our page a “Like” and join our group of supporters!!
From the bottom of my family’s heart, thank you for reading this post. Thank you for taking the time to learn more about congenital heart defects. Thank you for your donation to Addy’s Fund if you did so. God bless you all.
Carol & Jim
Jake, Samantha, Kaison and Willow Mellema