Happy Birthday Tim

Since we will be at Canton on our youngest sons, Timothy Dwayne Roffe (a.k.a. Tim) 39th birthday October 28th, we want to take this opportunity to wish him a big Happy Birthday! We are real proud of him. Not only is he partly responsible for giving us our first Granddaughter, he’s been a great Father, and Provider for his family. So, Son have a great day and remember you are one year from the BIG 40!!!

Tim is probably going to be upset with me but I would like to share a several  funnies when he was younger. 1) Sandy took him to the doctor for up date on his shots and she accidently locked the car with the keys in the ignition. She fretted what to do and a man drove up and parked next to them. Tim said…  “ that man has some keys ask him if you can borrow his to unlock the car”. 
2) This guy just loved riding his big wheels (he wore out three or four). This little guy just drove the wheels off them. You could hear him coming from the noise they made due to their plastic wheels.3)  Tim did not like anyone going into his bed room especially Holly our Schnauzer. We always knew when he would eat an apple. He would drop the core into the garbage can. When he left his room Holly would go in turn the garbage can over and proceed to eat and leaving a mess. Then when Tim returned we could hear Hollyeeeeeeeeeee!
4) When he was small we took him and his older brother Tony to Six Flags in Dallas TX. Not a good place to go with him as Tim did not like long lines and rides with any height to them. If he wanted to do a ride we literally had to force him to stand in the long lines. They had a parachute jump which I made him ride. He screamed “bloody murder” all the way down. Looking back now this was not a funny  as this could have caused the little guy to have had heart failure.

There are many more stories I could share about this guy, but I believe I’ve shared enough for now. Tim what a difference 39 years have made. You have grown into a fine young responsible man. Sandy and I are very proud of you. We send our Love on this special day.

Until next time….MtnAire Travlers.

Water Water Water

We have had another bout of continuous rain and all of the creeks,rivers, lakes, streams and livestock tanks are at their fullest or running over. The rain started last night about 6:30pm and hasn’t let up yet. We drove to Longview to get supplies and groceries for Sandy’s mom since we leave tomorrow for out monthly jaunt to Canton. The water ways , low lying fields and even the City of Longview golf course was standing in water.

This what’s remains of the system that passed through last night and today. It has let up and we should start clearing this evening. Naturally this will shut down Sandy's mowing job for perhaps anther 7-10 days. Tomorrow it’s suppose to be clear and colder which makes it ideal for traveling day.
Yesterday evening before it started raining I went out side the MH and not only startled myself but also two deer over in the open field where my BIL has put out some corn. hummm I wonder what that means. They didn’t run off to far as when I came back into the MH about 15 minutes later they were back eating again.

Sandy took this Historical Marker picture with her Iphone Camera yesterday on one of the roads they were mowing. (Click to enlarge)

I have always liked history and have an interest in what our forefathers must have thought as they traveled the country sides. Notice the marker mentions Port Jefferson which I mentioned in a previous post.

Until next time….MtnAire Travlers.

Mom’s 92nd Birthday

The Lord is good and has blessed our family and friends with our Mom for 92 years. She will be 92 years young on October 21st. She is currently living at Rosemont assisted living near Houston TX. While she doesn’t get around very well the Lord has blessed her with a sharp mind and sweet spirit. When we first suggested assisted living she like any of us would objected to the move but now loves it. I might add the staff and nurses at Rosemont has adopted her as one of their ambassadors. When a potential family comes to check out Rosemont for one of their love ones they bring them by Mom’s room for answers to any questions they may have about the facility.

One of my cousins (Wadene) wrote a tribute to my Mom on her 90th birthday and I feel this just about covers it all. I only wish I would have been the one that wrote it. Here goes.

Mary Ellon Roffe

A few words won’t do justice to the feelings that I have for you. You have been such a great influence. I am so thankful that you have been in my life, and I will be eternally grateful for the wonderful role model you have been for me. I don’t know if you remember very much of the service that Jackie Bailey had for Daddy, but, Jackie’s words fit you as well. As a member of our family for so long, he knew Daddy well. His conversation was about the words that portrayed such a wonderful person......Laughter, Labor and Love.

You have the most wonderful laugh, and you enjoy laughing. You can make anyone smile. You have a special gift that can heal a hurting heart. One of your most enriching qualities is that of wanting all of us to be happy. Your wonderful happy personality is a great gift. I can’t remember a time when you and I started out crying together that we didn’t end up laughing. So few people have this quality. You are a Great Lady of Laughter!

There has never been a woman that was as hard working as you. You have been a great leader in your family, as well as your extended family. You never thought any job was too large or too hard. You really enjoyed the challenges that life handed you. From running a Western Auto to pumping gas, you never found any job that you would not tackle. You were a wonderful life partner to Uncle Leamon. You two made a great team and accomplished so much together. You were such a support in his life. You are a Great Lady of Labor!

God never placed another woman on this great earth that has the love that you do. You find the good in the worst. You hesitate to put others down, but rush in to encourage them with your enduring love. And you don’t just love your family. You love your church, your community, strangers, and your God. I am so very grateful for your love of family. As you and I have aged, I have tried to pattern my life after you. I would love to be the person you have been. I can speak for the entire group of H. R. and Julina Blasingame girls when I tell you that you have been the one that we have always looked up to and admired. Every generation of family needs a Mary Ellon. Someone that teaches the next generation what it means to love. Someone that lives by example. No one has ever loved as much as you do. You are a Great Lady of Love!

You are an angel on earth. I am so blessed to be your niece. I love you so very much. God made you so special. I know you will enjoy your birthday party because you love everyone and feel so honored that they are there for you. If you are up to it, I would love to celebrate your 95^th. I think five years at a time is a possible goal. You are truly an Earth Angel..

All of my love forever,

Wadene, and The Rest Of H. R and Julina Blasingame Girls

Mom and her Girls

Until next time….MtnAire Travlers.

Back To Work Day for Sandy

I was awaken this morning by the sound of “CLICK…CLICK” I turned  looked at the alarm clock and it was 5:35 am in the morning. I said to myself “What is that strange noise”. I turned back and there was no Sandy laying beside me. For those of you who live in an RV that click click sound was the opening and closing of our refrigerator door. Sandy was up getting herself ready to go back to work. I laid there for a few minutes and decided I would get up. Sandy said its pitch dark outside why are you getting up…. go back to bed. I thought about it for a micro second and laid back down. The longer I laid there the more guilt trip I had because when I was in the working world Sandy always would get up to see me off to work. So I decided to go ahead and get up. There was a little fusing but she finally gave up. Besides today is garbage day and if you don’t have the can out by 6:30am you will miss the pick-up.

After taking out the garbage, Sandy walked over where her brother was waiting for the workers to show up. I went over and joined them on the little porch of the storage building and they were going over what they wanted to accomplish today. All the workers finally arrived and off they drove to do today's mowing. They haven’t mowed for two and half weeks because of the deluge we’ve had during that period.

Tomorrow will be my Mom’s 92nd birthday which we will miss due to Sandy having to work. I plan a special tribute for her in my next post.I know one thing she has really missed having my sister Dren drop by for a visit or do her earns. The doctors say she want be able to drive for a least three months. Me being a betting man I bet it will be sooner. Thanks to other family members who live in the Houston area Mom is been taken cared of by them. My two cousins Wadene and Barbara particularly look after her during the absence of my sister. I am so grateful they are near Mom and have the love to attend to my Mom’s needs.

Until Next time….MtnAire Travlers.

Non-Eventful Day

Slept in this morning while Sandy was up early as she thought surely they would get to mow today.  Her brother called about 7:45am and said the TXDOT guy called and said give it one more day. Sooo they will try again tomorrow morning. The day started out cool but as it progressed we were using the AC in the Jeep. We drove to Mount Pleasant to our bank and then swung down to Longview for some shopping. I was wanting a gas leaf blower as the electric leaf blower limits my usage according to my extension cord length. With fall upon us the leaves are falling everywhere and its becoming to big of chore for me to rake them. My sweetie who has always helped me  rake has a real job now and won’t be by my side.
Lowes and Home Depot both had limited inventory to look at. I could not decide between a Poulan or Weed Eater brand. Of course there are the Stihl and Echo leaf blowers which are very nice but they are above my budget. Will go on line to see what I can find and learn.

We made our usual visit to Wally World for supplies for Sandy’s mom and us. I read on Karen’s and Steve's journal at Rv’ing:Small House…Big Backyard where they rated a ThermaCell mosquitoe repellent which is hand held or set next to you that would repel mosquitoes within a 15ft diameter.  I purchased one at Wally World and guess what it works!

I don't know if you have ever seen the “As seen on TV” Handy Switch that allows you to do the following:

Tired of fumbling around in the dark?
Too lazy to get out of bed to turn the lights off?
Handy Switch is the amazing remote control light switch that turns on any lamp in any room!
Easy to install, no tools, no wiring, no mess! You simply plug the receiver into an outlet, and then plug your lamp into the receiver. That's it!
Each switch comes with a special adhesive that lets you stick your Handy Switch to any surface, then remove and re-use in any location you choose.

Well we use one for our table lamp in the MH

Instead of reaching under the shade
I now simply reach for the switch next to my recliner. (Also when we go some where and know it will be dark when we get back I remove the switch from the mounting plate and set it on our dash. When we come back and rather than fumbling in the dark i reach over and turn on the table lamp).
  My sister called and said she was moved to a private room in rehab. She sure sounded good and seemed to being her old self again. Thank you Lord for what you do in our life's.

Until next time….MtnAire Travlers.

Just Have To Love These Kind Of Fall Days

This is another one of those days  you wish you could can and open it just anytime you want it. You could not ask for more perfect weather our low was 42F and high 67F. This allowed me to go up on the roof and seal some of those cracks I found in the seals of the MH roof. We also feel the weather has been good enough to help dry out the highway right-a-ways and allow Sandy to return to work in the morning. Here are some more photos of our outing yesterday.

This is a classic we saw in Jefferson yesterday a 1957 Ford Tbird.  It was in the parking lot across from the police station. This lot is also the small RV Park I mentioned in yesterdays blog. Notice the electrical hook ups in the back of the lot. There were several RV’s in  the lot and for some reason I couldn’t find the digital photo.
This is another classic we saw parked on the main streets in Jefferson. It says Land Yacht on the side. I believe it might have been one of those streeeetch limos at one time. 
Along this highway to the lake I had hoped to capture a photo of 10-12 deer crossing the highway, As you can see I failed…. couldn’t get the camera on and focused fast enough.
Chevron full service station in Lone Star. They put out decorations for each seasonal event. This happens to be for the Fall.

Until next time….MtnAire Travlers.

An Outing For Mom Alice

We awoke to another gorgeous day. Temperature around 46F and the forecasted high was going to be in the high 60’s. While reviewing the college football game schedules for TV a thought came to mind “Why waste this day being inside” go do something  you’ve been wanting to do ever since we had all this rain. That was to go to the Lake O’ the Pines to see the COE campgrounds and dam. I asked Sandy to call her Mom to see if she would like to join us. So, follow our outing and the sights we saw. We drove to (click on photos to enlarge)

Where we picked up Mom Alice

We drove down some winding roads
 
and arrived at
  
sail boats 


a mallard duck family

notice how high water is it covers a campground

the dam
 
the other side releasing all that rain which explains
why our creeks and lake here are so high
 
Afterwards we drove to Jefferson, TX about 11
miles east of the lake. Its one of Texas’ most
historic towns. More than 30 structures bare state
historical medallions, many antique shops, bed &
breakfast, and historic home tours.
 


a very small RV Park down down
 



Scarlett O’ Hardy’s Gone with the Wind museum features
one of the largest private collection of memorabilia from
the epic story of the Old South.

Then we drove to the Big Cypress Bayou, featuring  river
port history of Jefferson. Jefferson became early East Texas
river port of entry. Big Cypress was then (1836-1840)
navigable by steamboats from New Orleans.

On our way back to Lone Star we drove by the following sites:
Old Texaco Station

Historical Marker for worlds first ammonia refrigerant
ice plant (1873)


There were a lot more photos of things we saw on our outing.
Mom Alice said “she really enjoyed her day and sights”. She said as she left the Jeep that prior to today she was having one of those four wall syndrome days. I guess that is the same as cabin fever.

Until next time….MtnAire Travlers.

Oh…. we got back just in time to see Colt McCoy take the knee to end the Red River Rival game. The Horns barley walked away with a win but I’ll take a win anytime.     No. 3 Texas 16, No. 20 Oklahoma 13.  
I also feel Sandy and I won today as we certainly made one dear  lady's day as well.

 

 

 

 

 

The Sun The Sun

Yesterday morning we woke up to this pleasant surprise...the sun. We haven’t seen this guy in a little over two and half weeks. Boy was it a nice day both temperature wise and the most beautiful blue skies you’ve ever seen. Now this is what I call Fall.This naturally was an opportunity to break that old cabin fever and get outside for some chores. I help Sandy’s brother and his weed eating crew. We cut tree limbs, pulled under brush, trimmed hedges, raked leaves, and hauled four large trailer loads of all the trimmings to his land for burning. After that I jumped on the mower and mowed the three acres here where we base. A very tiring day but I enjoyed  every minute of it since we’ve been cooped up for so long.
I also went up on the roof of the MH with my leaf blower to blow off the leaves that had accumulated. While up there I noticed several  joints  needed to be re-sealed. Maybe today will be a little warmer than what it was on Friday.
My sister moved to rehab yesterday and they plan to keep her there for a least two weeks. We talked to her and she sounded a lot stronger, They removed the tubes which were down her throat and she is now eating food. We are so thankful for her continued recovery.
Until next time….MtnAire Travlers.

Some Motor Home Improvements/Modifications

I have been following Karen’s and Steve's journal at Rv’ing:Small House…Big Backyard were they have been posting some modification’s/improvements they’ve done on their motor home. I want to tell you they both are very talented people.  Check them out by clicking  on the above hyperlink.They’ve  done some neat modifications which some have inspired me to tackle on my motor home.

My first modification was to install a power strip up front on the dash of the passenger side. The manufacture installed a duplex receptacle of all places on the top side of the inside of the glove compartment. You had to get on your knees to see to plug any thing into the receptacle. This was particularly frustrating for me due to my poor vision of the right eye due to an unsuccessful torn retina surgery repair. Soooo …what I did was removed everything from the glove compartment and drilled a hole large enough into the side wall for the plug of a power strip to pass though from under the dash. Before drilling I checked around the glove box to make sure their was no electrical wiring in the way of my 1” hole saw. See photo below.(Click on photos to enlarge)
I routed the 3ft cable under the dash board. See photo 
This is the finished project. Now I will have no more problems plugging in to this outlet and we don’t have to leave the door open when something is plugged in. Thanks Karen and Steve for the great idea. Its a good thing. 
I have some other ideas that I will try and depending upon how they turn out will mean whether or not they get posted. I usually rely on my good friend Mark Hall at RVing With Poppa to be my better eyes and expertise installer. Since he has been on the road for about ten months and just returned to base I will save some of the bigger ideas for him to help me do the next time we travel to Ft Worth for a visit.

Until next time….MtnAire Travlers.

Proper Towing Wreckers For MH With Front Wheel Suspension Systems

If you read Randy’s blog at The Roadrunner Chronicles you will learn  all the grief we motor home owners with front wheel suspensions can have when having a wrecker tow it. In Randy’s case his engine just died going down the highway and he called his emergency road service provider to send a wrecker. After three attempts he finally had a wrecker show up with the proper towing attachments for towing coaches with independent front wheel suspension. Like this one. I hope Randy doesn’t mind me using his photos to illustrate the proper tow wrecker.

Notice the lift and saddles that the front wheels rest in. I’m told this is the only type wrecker that will tow this kind of motor home. I post this as we had a similar experience  about five years ago where we waited along the side  the road for nearly 14 hours before our emergency road service provider finally sent the proper tow wrecker. It took two attempts though.
Also notice the service guy under the rear side of his coach. He his disconnecting the drive shaft for towing. I bring this out as after we had our problem (front tire blow out) fixed and headed out again we had a sever vibration occur at 50+ mph. We called our road service provider again and they sent out a mechanic who reinstalled our drive shaft properly. The wrecker driver when he reinstalled it did not do proper phasing of the drive shaft. So, make sure you have him use the proper phasing technique when reinstalling the drive shaft. I’m not quite sure how to describe what to look for but I understand the proper alignment of the u-joints has something to do with it.

Randy said this wrecker company knew exactly what they were doing and towed their coach to the dealer without incident. I do not know the proper name for the towing system but make sure the wrecker that is sent has the capability of lifting from the wheels.

Will believe it or not another day without rain very cloudy and overcast though.

Until next time….MtnAire Travlers.

Just Maybe We Might Start Drying Out

Except for a few sprinkles this am we have finally gone through the day without rain. Yeaa! The ground is so saturated Sandy’s brother says they probably wont mow again until sometime next week. We had breakfast again at Arnold’s with her brother. He was having some of his weed eaters come to his property to do some trimming of underbrush, tree limbs and general clean up. They did a pretty good job and will start stretching the fence wire to the fence posts they put in this spring.

We needed to go into Longview for supplies. On our way in we saw every creek, stream and river to be way out of their boundaries. Lake O’ the Pines was the fullest we’ve ever seen it. Sandy’s sister called yesterday evening and advised the local news channel showed a feature of the flooding at Canton. We go here every month to sale our purse inserts. She said they showed several of the Pavilions with three to four feet of water rushing through a lot of them.

My sister surprised us last night by calling. She has finally moved to a regular room and will be there for rest of the week and then go to  rehab for probably two weeks. We continue to lift her up in prayer for a complete recovery.

Until next time….MtnAire Travlers.

Can You Hear That!

As I write the rain is torrential. Another night of pitter-patter and the forecast says it going to do this all day. I’ve never been in so much rain in all my life. The mosquito's look like vultures and they  swarm all over you when you step outside between deluges. This is out it looks for us now.

Bam! Just killed a mosquito on my screen. Went to the local cafe, Arnolds with my BIL for breakfast.It was full of locals.They all agreed this is the most rain they’ve ever seen in September-October. I know this has to be boring for most of you out there, but this is about the only going-on’s right now for us..
In April 2008 we traveled with Mark and Dortha at RVing with Poppa to Port Aransas TX for the sand art festival. They had beautiful sand art similar to these photos emailed to me of the Oregon Sand Art Competition.

  

 

 

 

 

 

When we went to Port Aransas that year we stayed at Pioneer RV Park. At that time The Last Resort RV Park in Rockport , where a lot of the RV-Dreamers will be staying this winter,  had not finished adding their new sites. Here are some photos of the Port A Sand Art Fest.

Do you notice a difference in the sand color between the Pacific and Gulf coasts? Also the Pacific coast sand appears to have more texture than the Gulf coast sand. Since we do First Monday Canton every month we have to plan any trips we take in between Canton’s and they usually have to be within a two day drive of base due to our aging mothers. Maybe we can plan a trip this winter to meet up with some of the RV-Dreamers down in Rockport TX.

Well I need to get back to building pontoons for the MH as if this rain keeps up we’re going to need them.

Until next time….MtnAire Travlers.