My Thoughts and Prayers to Those in Moore, Ok

Our final leg in this trip took us through Moore, OK ..... the day after that darned tornado.  So sad.

Traffic on I35N came to a standstill just north of Norman, OK.  And it was a grey, rainy day to boot!  This is what it looked like when traffic came to a stop.

Three lanes of traffic, going nowhere.  To give you an idea of how much traffic there was....

This is taken as we crept around a curve.... See all of the taillights ahead of us??  This continued right up until we got to the place where the tornado had crossed the highway.

And no, this photo doesn't do the devastation justice.  

All of the exits to/from Moore on I35 were closed, so one has to wonder where or why all of these people were on the road.  It took us 1 1/2 hours to go from just north of Norman to just north of Moore.  That is approximately 10 miles.  

On a lighter note, today was "empty the trailer, clean the trailer, and do laundry day".  Ugh.  This is the "not fun" part of tripping around in a fifth wheel.  When I'm making trips to/from the trailer and putting things away around the house, Ginger tends to follow me and that wears her out.  Today, she decided that we have WAAAAY too much laundry to do after a trip, so she decided to take a nap in the piles of dirty clothes!

She can always make me smile.  :)

Storm Damage and Coordinated Paint

I mentioned yesterday that we are going home to storm damage. On Sunday, some pretty severe storms moved through the Wichita area. We actually "watched" them online. Our local Channel 12 has an app that includes their "always on" weather. So I cued that up on the iPad and we watched the full time coverage live. You could hear the hail hitting the roof of the studio. And since they are only a couple miles down the road from our house, it was a pretty good bet that we had some significant hail too.

And that would have been a sucker bet.  Our next door neighbor called later that evening to let us know that we have some damage to our house.....  a broken window, damaged siding, etc.  Another neighbor kindly went over and took some pics to send to me......

This is the window that was broken out.  Luckily it is a dual pane window and only the outer pane is broken.  Notice the eave on the right..... the hail pretty much chewed away all the paint, and likely some of the wood.

This is a pic of the driveway, it has some of the glass from the window (guess I'll be sweeping the drive before we pull the trailer in!) and a chunk of the fancy wood fretwork from the eave peak.

This one is the trim above the garage door..... dang hail!

We have a young purple robe locust tree on the southeast corner of the house, in the back yard.  This is the third or fourth tree we have planted there over the last 20 years.  Looks like we'll be re-seating this when we get home.  

This is a pic of some of the hail stones from one of our neighbors.  They also sent me a pic that showed one stone MUCH larger than a quarter.  They also tell me that the winds were in excess of 70mph during the storm.  Not quite a tornado, but very close.  

On a lighter note, I just have to include these pics.  We stayed at the same RV park in Denton, TX coming and going to Galveston/San Antonio.  This RV was there both times.  Really a beautiful RV.  

But what really caught my eye was this darling Fiat tow car. 

 Notice the coordinated paint job?!?  Grin. Nice!

We are actually on the final leg of the drive home right now.  In fact we are passing Moore, Ok right now.  More on that sad sight later.

A 2 Hour Commute. What?!?

Yesterday we made a couple of trips into San Antonio.  We went in the first time to check out a couple of rv parks on the west side of town..... For future reference. They are both just south of Seaworld, which btw, is a FUN place!  And both of them look to be very nice places. We will definitely try one out next time. 

Anyway, our commute to/from Boerne and San Antonio is along I10. As we headed back to Boerne, we ran into a couple of wrecks. One was on our side of the highway....a uhaul moving van had overturned. And just after we got going from that, we saw another wreck on the other side (south bound lanes). I counted at least 6 cars in that one. Those folks were definitely not having a good day. 

Anyway, we went on back to the trailer to take care of some things and basically piddle around for a while. 

A couple of hours later, we decided to head back into San Antonio so that we would have time to visit with Rochelle and Roy before dinner.  I could see on google maps that I10 was still a bit clogged, but every time I checked, the clogged area got a bit smaller. 

Bah. Then, as we got stuck in traffic, the clogged area on google maps just started growing!  What should have been a short 25 or 30 minute drive turned into a 2 hour commute!  And yes, we were both a bit cranky. 

We figured that they were still cleaning up from that 6 car pile up, but saw no sign of it. When we got to where the uhaul wreck had happened, we saw that they were finally hauling the uhaul out of the center median. Unfortunately, they were blocking all but one of the south bound lanes to do it. Argh!

We soothed our ruffled feathers by going out to dinner at Pasha, a Mediterranean restaurant. They start your meal with fresh cooked naan. Oh yummy!  I had a rice bowl that had basmati rice, salad veges, and gyro meat. Dang, now I'm making myself hungry again. Grin. 

The three of us headed back to Boerne after dinner.... 

And today, we packed up to start the long trip home. And given the storm damage it sounds like we have waiting for us, it IS time to go home. But more about that in the next post or two......

BoerneFest

Shopping and heat...... What a combination!

This weekend is BoerneFest weekend.  If you've read my blog before, you KNOW that I love small town festivals. 

This one was actually more of a small town block party.  Mom, Rochelle, Roy, Caroline, and Kaitlyn came from San Antonio to join us in exploring downtown Boerne.  And no, that isn't a long drive.  :)  Only about 30 minutes north of where Roy and Rochelle live.

We wandered around the town square and scored some Texas grown and made olive oil as well as some pretty macrame necklaces.  Yes, I know..... I DO make jewelry.  But sometimes another jewelry artist's work catches my eye.  In this case, I just couldn't resist.  I'll try to include a pic of the necklace in a later post.

On the way to lunch, we strolled by a pickle place.  Seriously.  They had some samples out so, of course, we had to give it try.  Mom says they tasted a lot like the pickles that Grandmother Morris used to make.  She ended up with a good size jar and we ended up with a small jar of them.

The same store was also a junk/antique/overstock store -- with a very eclectic mix of items.  The girls found some shades that perfectly complemented them.  Here, Kaitlyn models her new sunglasses.....

And Caroline models her new shades.......

Both are too cute!  :)

Then we walked down to a local restaurant for a late lunch.  It was a little bit of a hike.... and the high temp today is about 97 degrees.  And lordy, it is humid!  Before we left Wichita, I had been wishing for a bit a summer because it seemed like winter just didn't want to let loose of us.  Now, I'm thinking that wasn't such a bad deal.  Grin.

Had to do a few pix while we were waiting for our food.  Rochelle and Kaitlyn, looking lovely despite the heat.

Kaitlyn and Roy..... they look ALOT alike, I think.

Max and I..... dang, when the heck did I get old?!?!?

Caroline and Mom, looking lovely as well!

Where did we eat?  Well, The Dodging Duck, of course!

I had an awesome wurst platter, complete with a yummy soft pretzel and German potato salad.  The girls split an antelope burger and said it was very good.  Max had a regular burger and judging by the lack of leftovers, thought it was good as well.  :)

Why is it called The Dodging Duck?  Rochelle speculated that it was because you have to dodge the local ducks to get there.  Just across the street from the restaurant is the Cibolo (I think) river.  They have a beautiful river walk alongside it.  And.... they have PLENTY of ducks and geese along the walk. Ergo...... The Dodging Duck!

Time to Golf!

After all of the domestic work yesterday, we decided to treat ourselves to a round of golf today.  It was the first time out this year for Max and the second time out for me.  The scores weren't pretty, but the views were!

We golfed at a place called Tapitio Springs Ranch Golf Resort.  It is also a lovely housing community with some amazing homes.  This is the view of one home from one of the greens on The Lakes nine holes.  As you can see, the day started out very cloudy, misty, drizzly, and cool. 

This is before the scoring mayhem began..... I could still get him to smile.  :)

And I couldn't resist a pic of this home on The Valley nine holes.  Seriously?  It looked like a hotel or resort building.  But really, it was someone's (very expensive, I'm sure) home.  Nice cliff view they have there.

By afternoon the clouds burned off and the sun came out.  And boy-oh-boy, it was hot and humid!  With temps in the upper 80s or low 90s and humidity about the same.  Or so it felt like!

On one tee box, Max told to to come over and bring my phone.  About half way across the tee box, he pointed out a doe that was trotting away.  And then he pointed this out.....

If you can't tell from my awesome photography, it is a fawn.  She is laying with her back towards the camera (the white spotted area) and is looking back at me.  The baby was about 2 feet down the slope from the tee box.  Apparently, mama was trying to lure us away from the hiding spot.  I'm so glad that Max spotted this!

We finished the day just down the street at the Dog and Pony Grill.

Thankfully, no, they don't offer dog or pony meat.  Yuck!  They do offer some pretty excellent burgers. I had the black bean vege burger and it was yummy.

After a walk around the rv park with the girls, we are ready to call it a night.

Midpoint

We are at about the mid-point of our current adventure and that means...... cleaning!  Woohoo!  We had a ton more of rain during the night last night (at least 3 separate storms moved through during the night), so it was too mushy to do anything like golf today.

We actually started the day at the local Boerne YMCA.  Not as big or nice as what we are used to in the Wichita area.  But it was usable.  After a week away from the gym, it felt good to get a workout in.

And after that we did laundry and cleaned.  One would think that a place this small (somewhere around 250 square feet of living space), wouldn't take long to clean.  Well, you would be wrong!  :)  Between cleaning and traipsing back and forth to the laundry room, it took most of the day.  Ah well.  Had to be done.

We rewarded ourselves with dinner out at the local German restaurant.  Boerne is a German-heritage town.  So I'm kinda surprised there is only one German place in town.

The food was okay (albeit pricy) at Little Gretel, but I always compare any German food I eat to the food at a place in Wurzburg that Rochelle and Roy took us to when we visited them.  Nothing ever seems to be as good as that place!  You can't really see it from this photo, but they claim on the sign that they have restaurants in Prague, Mexico City, San Antontio, and Boulder.  Eclectic mix of towns, eh??

About a block down the street from the restaurant was a lovely and small outdoor art gallery and sculpture garden.

They had some lovely kinetic sculptures that were moving rapidly in the wind of today.  

This pic doesn't do it justice.  The glass colors were vibrant in the sculpture and there wasn't anyway to get a pic without the power lines in the background.

They also had other types of outdoor art, including many bronzes and other metal sculptures like this one.

There were several HUGE metal cactii sculptures that were in bloom.  Even the lovely blooms were of metal.

We came home just in time to take the girls for a walk around the RV park before it got dark.  Not nearly as nice as a walk on the beach!  :/

Along the way......

We had heard about a place called Buc-ee's..... both from the billboards on the way from Houston to Galveston and also from Roy and Rochelle.  

I had actually googled the place on the trip down to see if it accommodated RVs.  One reviewer said that it is a "convenience store on crack".  :)  We decided to stop on the way to San Antonio and we can attest that they were VERY busy.  They offer anything that you could want in this place, I believe.

Another reviewer or two raved about their clean bathrooms.  In fact, they boast on their web site about having the cleanest bathrooms around.  And yes, they WERE pretty clean.  But what I found interesting were the lights over the stalls.  If you look really close, you can see red and green lights, indicating whether or not the stall is occupied.  Helpful..... now you don't have to walk down the row testing every knob.

So yes, we DID the tourist thing.  And even bought some Buc-ee Beaver Nuggets, which are some sort of sweet coated corn puff.  They are TOTALLY addictive!  And of course, the girls got some new toys -- a Buc-ee disc.  Right now I am watching Gabi try to destroy hers.  Grin.  

Traveling must wear the girls out.  At one point in today's drive, I looked back and saw this.

Sweet!

Moving Day

And now it is time to move on to our next stop.  But first, one more pic of Galveston....

This is an ocean inlet on the west side of the rv park. Every time we leave the park, this is part of our water view. 

Before we left Galveston, I specifically asked Max if we were planning to stop at the Camping World on the west side of Houston. I have a couple of strings of solar lights that I wanted to exchange. But could do it at any of their sites, so wasn't too worked up when he said no. And he was pretty emphatic with his "no". 

Apparently he changed his mind. Grin. Since we did end up spending a little quality time there today!  I got the lights exchanged, plus picked up a few other things, of course!  Can't wait to try out my new color-changing LED dragon fly light strings. 

We finished out the stop with a yummy roast beef from the Arby's in the Loves Travel Stop. Yes, normally we fix our own lunch. But at this point, someone REALLY needs to go to the store to get fresh bread, a one other things. ;)

So anyway, we are headed to San Antonio now.  Well, technically we are headed to Boerne (it is pronounced like the name Bernie). It is a small German town located north of San Antonio. Since we weren't too fond of the rv park we stayed at the last time in San Antonio, we decided to try something new.  It looks very nice. We will know in a couple of hours!

Girls Day Out

John went home to Houston last night.  Roy headed back to San Antonio today.  And Max decided that he needed a little "me time".  So we had a girls day out today.  Nice!

We started by going to have Kaitlyn's passport renewed.  Even though she graduated, she is heading to Costa Rica for 6 weeks of school this summer.  Hmmmmmm, she sounds like she is becoming a professional student -- just like her aunt was!  :)

After that, we went over to the island (I think it is Pelican Island, but will have to ask one of the kids) where the campus is so that we could shop the sales at the book store.  And yes, I DID buy yet another A&M t shirt.  But it was on sale!

We came back to the main island for lunch at a place called Eatcetera. 

The food was yummy... as you can tell by the debris on the table.  And today was red/orange shirt day apparently!

After lunch it was back to Pelican Island to visit Shell Beach.

This is at the pier that comes out from one of the University buildings onto the beach.  It is just next to where the University's ship is normally docked.

Folks, this is LITERALLY a shell beach.  This is exactly what it looked like underfoot, all up and down the beach.  It is a shell collector's dream.  We spend quite a bit of time combing the beach and came away with quite a haul.

Mom really wanted one the shells that looked like this one.  But every one that we picked up and turned over had an occupant.  I finally found an intact circular one and checked it very carefully to make sure it was vacant.  It wasn't quite as pretty as this one, but she decided it would do.  I just got a text (with video) that it DID have an occupant.  Apparently, they were examining their haul back at the apartment by laying all the shells out on paper towels and that one started moving!  Ack!

After Shell Beach, we came back over to Galveston Island for a trip into Murdoch's..... which is THE tourist spot in town.  Yep, came away with a few things there.

Then to kill some time before meeting Max for dinner, we went down to the east end of the island.  This is where all of the ships that we can see lined up in the Gulf from our RV park come to port.... well either here or on up to the port of Houston.  

This container ship was just heading out of the harbor when we arrived.

But as you can see in the background, there were plenty of other ships line up to come into the harbor!

We ended this evening with pizza at a fantastic Italian restaurant -- Mario's at 7th and Seawall Blvd if you are interested.  They even have daily fresh made gelato.  Yum!

Another sunny day at the beach!

I mentioned yesterday that Rochelle and Roy came over and we all went on a beach walk.  Of course, I forgot my phone so didn't get any pix.  But Rochelle came through with her phone!  Grin.  So here's a look at Max and I, along with the girls.

And here are Rochelle and Roy..... with the dunes in the background.

We took another walk this morning......  Just Max, the girls, and I.  

This is on the way out..... before the girls got tired.  :)  Ginger IS doing better since Max didn't have to carry her at all this time.  At 13 years old (almost 14), she still gets around pretty darned good.

If we stayed here very long, I think that I would have to invest in a tide table -- 'cause I can never really tell if the tide is on its way in or on its way out!  

This is one of many sand castles left by the hoards that were at the beach yesterday.  I'm just not sure if it withstood the tide or is about to be assaulted by the tide!  :)

And speaking of staying a while......  we were visiting with one of our neighbors yesterday morning.  They had come to Galveston (from California), planning to stay 2 or 3 days.  Instead they had been here 2 weeks!  She said that they really like the beaches here.  Not sure where they were headed next, but I did notice that they are gone this morning.  What a great life!

Oh, and one other thing from our walk..... we saw the Sea Turtle Patrol!

I stopped them on their way back down the beach to ask for a pic and they were very gracious.  Apparently they are sponsored by A&M.....  the girl on the right is a student there.  They hadn't spotted any turtles today.

Happy Mother's Day!

What an awesome day..... and a beautiful Mother's Day!

First of all, the rain has finally left the area.  We woke to sunny skies and light winds.  Okay, the FIRST time Miss Gabi woke us up, it was still dark outside.  And yes, even the second time she woke us up.  But by golly, by the time we finally all got out of bed, the sun was shining.  Grin.  

Rochelle and Roy came over and the four of us, along with the dogs, took a long walk along the beach.  Ginger made it a long way before having to be carried this time!  At 8 or so in the morning, there aren't many folks around so it was a nice walk.  By this afternoon, the beaches were packed.  Just adjacent to the stretch of beach in front of the RV park is a stretch of beach where vehicles are allowed.  We happened to look over there this afternoon and it was so packed that I'm not sure you could have gotten another vehicle out there!  

This is the beginning of a loooooong line of vehicles along the beach.  It was incredible.

After a nice long walk, we went to the girls apartment for breakfast.  Kaitlyn, Caroline, John, and Quinten (Kaitlyn's boyfriend) made a very nice brunch of quiche (with homemade crust no less!), homemade greek yogurt blueberry muffins, and fresh fruit.  Nice Mother's Day brunch!  Then of course, we opened a few Mother's Day gifts.  :)  Even tho' I'm not a mom, the kids got me a lovely pair of earrings.

They are a beautiful fused glass!  They found them in an outdoor market in Houston (where John now makes his home).  I'm a pretty darned lucky aunt!

This evening, we all trooped back to the RV park for a cookout.  Nothing like grilled brats.  Yummy!

Now we are all kicked back, trying to digest yet another awesome meal.

It's Official!

Today we got to go to Kaitlyn's graduation.... We are soooo proud of our latest college graduate!

And her parents are very proud (and I'm sure, a bit relieved) as well.

After surviving, er, um, attending (grin) another graduation ceremony, we all went out for lunch.  Good grief..... all we seem to do is eat down here!  It definitely will require a few trips to the Y, once we make it to Boerne.

Then it was on to the twin's apartment for graduation presents.  That is always fun!  You can tell just how much by Remington's reaction.

Apparently, atop the tv stand is his favorite, warm place to lay.  

We had another restless night of thunderstorms and wind.  We finally made it to bed about 11:00pm.  The weather radio started yelling at us about 11:30.  Then the girls did a jailbreak from their penned area about midnight.  Then they did another jailbreak about 12:30.  After that one, they got to sleep in the big bed.  sigh.  

The local weathermen assure us that the storms are done for a few days now.  Yay!  It is sunny and warm -- about 80 -- this afternoon, so I can't complain too much now.