Livingston, Tx

Hello everyone. We are in Livingston, TX now, leaving in the morning toward San Antonio. We will be spending 3 or 4 days there before moving on west. We spent the day geocaching in this area. Found 6 out of 7 we went for. The seventh one we chose not to go for because the park where it was at cost to enter and it was getting late in the day. Didn't know if we would have time to find it before dark, so headed back to the rv. The campground we are in has some kind of activity every evening. Tonight was ice cream, so we had to go to that, darn...lol.... We met a couple from Alaska and got a bunch of tips about our trip up that way. They are going to email us a list of things that they think are a don't miss it. We went to a bon fire last night and enjoyed our chat with other rvers. Would stay here longer but still looking for warmer weather. Been nice in the day time but real cool at night.

Till next time
Duane and Louise

Back on dry land

We are back on dry land once agan. In Celina, Tx till Wensday then over to Kilgore, Tx for a coupe of days before heading south. The weather on the criuse was perfect, 70's at night, low 80's during the day. We had a great time visiting with our friends that went with was. Went to Mexico, Grand Cayman, and Ohco Rios. Louise loved the snorkel time she had at Ohco Rios. We had a hard time getting her out of the water when it was time to leave. As for me, I ate way to much. All my pants must have shrunk while on the trip. lol I guess I had better get back on the ole diet.

When we leave Kilgore we will head to Livingston, Tx to the Escapees park for a few days. After that we have no set plans for a while. All I know is we will be going to Big Bend National Park, then on to Califorina. No time table set for that. I will set up the Alaska ferry part of the trip sometime this week. That will put us on a time frame for that part. That will be in June. Till then we plan to wonder a bit to see what we can see.

Till the next time

Duane and Louise

Going on the cruise

We leave tomorrow morning for our cruise to the Western Caribbean. We will visit Costa Maya, Mexico, Grand Cayman, and Ocho Rios, Jamaica. The cruise is 7 days returning Sunday a week. After that I have an eye doctor appointment, then the TRIP begins. We'll be leaving on the trip to California and then on to Alaska. I won't be posting anymore till we get back from the cruise. Hope we don't get to sunburnt. lol It is suppose to get cold in Dallas next week, good timing huh. It is suppose to start warming up the weekend we get back. Hope the weatherman isn't kidding to us. Louise went to doctor today and was told she could take off the funny shoe!! Just in time. Her foot is healing fine. She was told not to do any rock climbing for a while yet but walks on the beach was ok.

Till we return from the beach
Duane and Louise

Christmas

We had a great time with Christmas. All of the kids were here in Celina, Tx for a few days. We all recieved a lot nice things and ate way to much. The kids that came from out of state all got home safely. All is well.
We had a chance to meet a few couples that are also fulltiming. We are hoping to meet up with them down the road. Had a great time sharing stories about our adventures. We will leave on the cruise on the 14th. After that we will be off on our long trip. Sure hope the money holds out....LOL

That's it for now

Till next time

Duane and Louise

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL

This is our little tree.
Merry Cristmas to all who come here to follow us through our travels. We are in Celina, Tx babysitting dogs and fish while the kids are in Ohio. The young'uns will get in round 7 pm tomorrow evening. I will have to brave the Dallas airport once more to pick them up. If I survive the trip, we will have Christmas at Duane and Brandey's on Friday. The whole crew should be here this year. We are looking forward to the get together. Once we are back on road I will try and post to the site more then I have been. Hopefully I can take a lot of good photos to post.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL

Duane and Louise

In the woods at Jeremy's

Hello from Texas
We have been sitting in the rv park here in Kilgore for a week and a half now. Louise has been working on a quilt and I have been going to Jeremy's sitting in a hunting blind. She finished the quilt tonight and I got this picture of a bobcat. It was almost to far away to get a really good picture of it, but this one turned out pretty good. We'll be here till after Louise goes to the Doctor. She is getting around pretty good now. We hope she can take the cast off after the appointment.

Till next time
Duane and Louise

Sitting still

We are now staying a rv park near Kilgore, TX. Louise is doing good with her air cast. She is going back to the doctor on the 18th. Hopefully she will be able to get around without the cast after her appointment. We will moving over to Celina, TX after she sees her doctor. We'll be spending a couple of weeks there at Duane Jr. and Brandey's.

Till next time

Duane and Louise

The Foot

We are back at the rv park where it all started, Miss Ellie's RV Park. Returned here so we would be closer to the doctor Louise was going to for her foot. She now has an air cast on her foot. It allows her to put some pressure her foot without it hurting to much. She returns to the doctors on the 18th to see how things are healing. We are going to stay at this park for a week, then move over to Jeremy and Jennifer's for a while. We'll be in Texas till after the first of the year.

Till next time
Duane and Louise

OUCH !!!

Today we spent the the day at St. Andrews State Park. The beachs were really pretty with pure white sand. Now the bad part......Louise was climbing around on the jetty rocks looking for shells. This cute little raccoon distracted her and she took a missstep on the rocks. She heard something crack in her foot. We toured the rest of park, went to get something to eat and stopped at underwater museum. After we left there her foot was really hurting her so we decided a trip to the emergency room was in order. BROKEN FOOT !!!!!!! She has a splint on her foot with an ace bandage holding it in place and walking with crutches. The hospital told her she needed to go see an ortho doctor. Tomorrow we will be heading back to Texas so she can go to our home doctors. We are about 750 miles from home base. I will take a couple days to get home. Louise will call our family doctor tomorrow to set up the appointments. Other then that we are having a really good time. We will be in Texas till after Christmas and a cruise we are going on in January. Hopefully Louise's foot heals in a hurry and we can be off again.

Till next time
Duane and Louise

Back on the road

We are on the road again. Left Georgia this morning heading to Florida. Stopped at this lighthouse and wildlife refuge at St Martin, Florida. Then it was on to Carrabelle, Fl to see the smallest police station in the country. We drove to Mexico Beach, Fl. to a camp ground to spend a few days while we do some sight seeing. We'll stay here till Monday then move on again. Should be back in Texas about the second week of December. Just taking our time going across Florida catching a few sights on the way. I have internet here so I can post a little more often, at least till Monday....lol

Till later
Duane and Louise

Well it's been a while since we have had access to the net. We are in Quitman, Georgia till Monday then it's off again. We stopped at West Point Lake the first of November to spend time fising with Uncle Sie. Uncle Sie is John Harmon's uncle that we went fishing with when John was alive. We had a great time but it was COLD. I had to wear coveralls to fish, that just isn't right...lol. We did catch some really nice crappie. Louise stayed in the motorhome and worked on the quilt she is making. The lake veiw pic is from West Point Lake. After we lleft there we headed for Quitman where the Cooks live. I worked with Terry and his wife Cathy in Dayton at the GM plant. We have been there for a couple of weeks now. The pic of the geese was taken looking out the window of our coach in Cook's yard. Went to a few museums while here and did a little geocaching. We plan on leaving on Monday and head for the coast of Florida. We're going to travel the coast back Louisiana, then on north to Texas. I hope we have better access to the net from now on. We are in the only dead spot around here.

Till next time
Duane and Louise

Georgia

Well it's been a while since we have had access to the net. We are in Quitman, Georgia till Monday then it's off again. We stopped at West Point Lake the first of November to spend time fising with Uncle Sie. Uncle Sie is John Harmon's uncle that we went fishing with when John was alive. We had a great time but it was COLD. I had to wear coveralls to fish, that just isn't right...lol. We did catch some really nice crappie. Louise stayed in the motorhome and worked on the quilt she is making. The lake veiw pic is from West Point Lake. After we lleft there we headed for Quitman where the Cooks live. I worked with Terry and his wife Cathy in Dayton at the GM plant. We have been there for a couple of weeks now. The pic of the geese was taken looking out the window of our coach in Cook's yard. Went to a few museums while here and did a little geocaching. We plan on leaving on Monday and head for the coast of Florida. We're going to travel the coast back Louisiana, then on north to Texas. I

Taking it easy

Here are are a few pictures from the rodeo we went to on Sunday. We had a good time. I was told today that the coach should have it's new radiator by Friday. When we get her back we will take it to Duane and Brandey's to load our things back in it, then to Jeremy and Jennifer's to gather the rest of our stuff. Next we should be off to Georgia if nothing else slows us up. Right now we are just hanging out waiting. We will go over to Denton to Campers World to look around maybe tomorrow. May just drive around site seeing some.

Till next time
Duane and Louise

Still in Texas

Well we are still in Texas. We were to have the radiator in the coach fixed on Friday, but that turn into a real mess. When I called to set up the appointment, I told the service writer that the coach was a Monaco with a Cummins engine and the radiator was leaking. The guy set up the time to bring it in. We had to wait a week and a half to get it in. When I arrived the man on the desk told me that they didn't work on Monacos. He said that the radiator was the responsibility of the chassis manufacture, go figure. I called Monaco support, he said that the closest place to have that worked on was in Dallas. I told him that I didn't want to drive it that far with a bad radiator. He talked to the man on the desk for 10 minutes, then told me if I wanted to pay for the work Monaco would pay me back as long as the repair people followed their rules. I went back in to tell the guy to go ahead and fixed it but was told that they would not follow the rules from Monaco. Sooooooo, I call Monaco back and they say I would not get payed back if they didn't do it right. I told Monaco to set up the appointment in Dallas. Got to Dallas with no overheating. Got up the next day to find antifreeze under the coach. We take it in to the repair center on Monday. We are staying at Duane and Brandey's house while the coach is being repair. When we get the coach back we will be off to Georgia for a while. We were going to go to Fort Lauderdale, Fl for Louise's aunts 91 birthday. Got a call the other day that she had passed away. So I don't think we will be going there now. We will spend 3 or 4 weeks in Georgia then head back to Texas for Christmas.

Till next time
Duane and Louise

Back in Texas

We stopped at Meramec Caverns for a couple of days. The campground is right on th river and very pretty. Took a tour of the cave and really enjoyed it. The stalagmites and tites were really cool. I liked this tour better then the one of Mammoth Cave, much prettier. When we left Meramec we headed for Branson, Mo. We stayed at the Escapees Park in Branson. This park was nice and best of all cheap.....I'm all for saving....lol.... While in Branson we went to the Circle B Chuckwagon dinner show. They served dinner before the show. The music was all cowboy songs. We had a good time there. The next evening we went to an outdoor drama at the Shepherd of the Hills theater. It was a good story about the people of the Ozarks. During the day we traveled around the area, took a hike, did some geocaching and saw lots of pretty scenery. The weather there was nice, not to hot. The trees had just started to turn thier fall colors. The color would have been great in about 2 weeks, but we couldn't stay any longer. We left Branson and headed south. The first night out we stopped at a Walmart for the evening. When we got up the next morning I noticed that a tire on the Jeep was low. I took it over to the tire repair in Walmart to check it out. Bad choice!!!!! I stood there for 5 hours waiting for them to fix it....SLOW..... Leaving there Louise decided to take the the scenic route over the mountian into Oklahoma. Of coarse she wasn't the one driving. The drive was REALLY curvy and REALLY steep up and down. I got to see the sights when I pulled off at the turnout vistas. It really wasn't too bad of a drive for me, at least there weren't any drop offs with no guardrails to deal with. We stayed at Broken Bow, Oklahoma Saturday and Sunday, then drove on in to Jeremy's on Monday. When we arrived there I notice antifreeze dripping from the radiator off the motorhome!! So I made am appointment to get it looked at, of coarse they can't do it till Friday the 20th. We will stay here till that's fixed, then off to Georgia.

Till next time
Duane and Louise

On the road again

We left Troy, Ohio on Tuesday and stopped at our friend Barbara's house for an evening. On Wednesday we headed west. We stopped at Terre Haute, In for the night. Louise has a niece that lives there, so we got to visit her and her husband for a while. Off again to Missouri and big arch. We took the tram to top, pretty cool. It's a long way up there!! After the arch we were off to Meramec Caverns where we are spending the night. Tomorrow we will take the cave tour. From there I think we will go to Springfield to the big Bass Pro Shop.

That's it for now
Duane and Louise

Back in Troy

We are back in Troy, Ohio for a couple of days. We went the rv rally in Van Wert, Ohio this past week. We had a real good time. Went to a lot of classes on rv care and a couple on traveling the country. Found out a lot about work camping. Went to a class on working for the U S Park Service and a class on going to Alaska. The night time entertainment was pretty good. We really enjoyed ourselves.
Left Van Wert on Friday to go back to Troy for the blacksmith convention. I got to see a lot of my old friends from my smithing days. I watched several of the demonstrators and kind of got the urge to do some smithing, but no place to put the forge in the rv......lol

We will leave Troy by Wednesday morning. We are heading back to Texas for my doctors appointment. Not sure how we will go yet. Thinking of going back through Missouri. Maybe stopping at Branson. We will let everybody know when we know.

That's it for know

Duane and Louise

Troy, Ohio

We're back in Troy for a couple of weeks. At this time we are parked in the driveway of our friend Bob. We were going move to our daughter's, but the yard was too soft from the rain. Bob was kind enough to let us stay at his house and provided us with water and electric. It's great to have good friends. This week we are taking care of our grandbaby during the day. Ain't she a cutie !!!! She will be 2 on the 11th of September. She's having her birthday party on Saturday.

We will be going to the Escapees rv rally in Van Wert, Oh. on the 17th thru the 22nd. Then it's back to Troy to the Southern Ohio Forge and Anvil annual blacksmithing convention. After that we will be off again. Planning on stopping by Louise's brother Ed's house then moving through Missouri on our way back to Texas. We have doctors appointments on Oct. 11. I have to have my scans done to make sure they got the cancer out. That done, we are off to Georgia for a while.
That's it or now
Duane and Louise

Canada

another overlook
lake overlook
Louise behind the falls
gone fishing

View from the hilltop

We spent the last week in Canada fishing and hiking. We met Stacy and Carrie there and had a ball. The bad thing was there was no internet but it was fun. We worked our way through Michigan staying in casino lots and Walmarts most of time. Driving across the Mackinac Bridge was a real treat in the MH for the first time. Pretty scary!! Stopped at the Soo Locks to watch the boats go through, then over the Soo Bridge into Canada. Fishing was not real great because of the weather changes but we caught enough to eat. The girls and we went for a 7 mile hike up a mountain to the "view from the hilltop". One day we went geo chaching, found 3 of the four we went after. Did a lot of hiking that day. Our little boat did a good job with the 4 horse motor we bought on the way up. Caught fish evey day, just not many. We had our mail sent there and had to stick around for it to get there. We were planning to leave on Saturday, the mail got there Monday about 2 PM. As soon as we got it we hit the road back to the States. Pulled into Troy, Ohio Wendesday afternoon. We will be here till time to go to the Escapees rv rally in Van Wert, Oh.
That's it for now.
Duane and Louise

Michigan

Mowing the field.

This is a clock tower at Greenfield Village, the men ring the bell.

We're on the move again!! We had everything fixed on the coach that we had signed up for and took off for Michigan. Spent the first night in Cabela's parking lot, it's free!! Then we were off to Ypsilanti, Mi to a KOA camp ground. It was real nice but real expensive. Stayed there for 3 nights while we went to the Ford Museum and Greenfield Village. We spent from 9:30 till 5:00 walking and looking both days, boy were we tired. The bad news is my camera went haywire and I had to send it back to the company for repairs. I still my old camera so I can still take pictures. Friday we left for parts north. Stopped at a Flying J for the night. They have wifi here so I get things done that need to be done on the net. We are working our way to Canada as slowly as we can. Have to be there Aug 19 so we have a few days to hit some other sights. Going to stop at Mackinaw City and then Mackinac Island for a few days of sight seeing.

That's it for now

Duane and Louise