Let Us Not Forget

  Battle of Iwo Jima - Tuesday, February 23rd was the 65th Anniversary (I was only eight years old) of the raising of the American flag at the Battle of Iwo Jima. Everyone knows the famous image of the soldiers raising the flag in Iwo Jima, but did you know that when this historic event actually happened, the flag you see in the iconic photo was actually the second flag they raised on that day because the first one was too small?

The photograph, taken at the top of Mt. Suribachi after the American Marines had fought their way to controlling the mountain, beating back the fierce Japanese fighters. The Marines planted a flag to commemorate the courage and bravery and achievement of their fellow troops.

But two hours later, it was decided that the flag they planted was not big enough to really capture the moment, so they went back and planted another, setting up the most famous photo-op perhaps in American history. You can read more about this historic battle by clicking here.

The Marine Corps War Memorial (also called the Iwo Jima Memorial) is a military memorial statue outside the walls of the Arlington National Cemetery, in Arlington, Virginia.The memorial is dedicated to all personnel of the United States Marine Corps who have died in the defense of our country since 1775.

About three years ago while in the RGV with friends Mark and Dortha with Rving with Poppa, we drove over to Harlingen, TX and visited the the original plaster working model of the statue at the Marine Military Academy, a private Marine Corps-inspired youth military academy. The Academy is also the final resting place of Corporal Block (one of the flag raisers from this area), who was killed in action on Iwo Jima. So….Let’s not forget this day in our history.

The snow predicted for Tuesday night never materialized. After Tuesday night our weather turned to sunshine and a little warmer temperatures for Wednesday and Thursday. Our crowd wasn’t to bad Thursday in fact our sales for about a two hour period were better than all four days last month. Go figure.  Today we are colder with overcast skies and a little rain throughout the day. Our high today was 47F which occurred this morning at 10am.  The weather I guess is keeping our crowds at bay as we hardly have no one in the Pavilion and the parking lot is no where near full. Tomorrow the weather man is calling for plenty sunshine and a little warmer temperature. We are hoping there is a lot of people out there that has cabin fever and will want to get out tomorrow.

Until next time…MtnAire Travlers.

It’s Snowing…..Again!

   It started snowing around 8:30 am this morning and continued most of the day. Fortunately, it stuck only to elevated surfaces, the ground was just to warm for it to stick. As I write this it has started snowing again and the flakes are much bigger.
It’s also getting colder so just maybe by tomorrow we may wake up with snow on the ground.
Spent about 45 minutes on speaker phone with John from Apple in Sacramento, CA who was gracious enough to walk me through syncing Sandy’s Iphone 3GS to our ITunes library. She is now good to go and all that’s left for her to do is add her favorite contacts which she will have to do manually.

I received an interesting email today with the subject of “Amazing Anagrams”. Some of these were as follows:

PRESBYTERIAN:
                    When you rearrange the letters:
                   BEST IN PRAYER
ASTRONOMER:
                    When you rearrange the letters:
                    MOON STARER
DESPERATION:
                    When you rearrange the letters:
                    A ROPE ENDS IT
GEORGE BUSH:
                    When you rearrange the letters:
                    HE BUGS GORE
THE MORSE CODE:
                    When you rearrange the letters:
                    HERE COME DOTS
SLOT MACHINES:
                      When you rearrange the letters:
                      CASH LOST IN ME
ELECTION RESULTS:
                      When you rearrange the letters:
                      LIES - LET'S RECOUNT
THE EYES:
                    When you rearrange the letters:
                    THEY SEE
A DECIMAL POINT:
                     When you rearrange the letters:
                     I'M A DOT IN PLACE
AND FOR THE GRAND FINALE:
                     MOTHER-IN-LAW:
                     When you rearrange the letters:
                     WOMAN HITLER

This has got to be one of the cleverest E-mails I've received in awhile. Someone out there must be "deadly" at Scrabble. This is also a dead giveaway that I didn't have a lot to write about today.

Until next time….MtnAire Travlers.

March 2010 First Monday Canton

Friday February 19, 2010

We were up by 6am as I had some last minute make ready chores to complete before we headed out to Canton. I hate having to do this when its freezing outside. The old fingers get so cold it makes it difficult to do things like hitching the Jeep up and unplugging the electrical power cord and TV cable. In cold weather the 50amp cord is very difficult to coil up in the electrical bay. Finally all was done and we pulled out at 7am. This was probably our earliest departure time as we had several stops on the way due to school buses picking up their precious cargo. Arrived in Canton without incident around 10am. Set up the home behind our booth and headed out for our breakfast/lunch at the Dairy Palace. We share the Country Breakfast which consisted of two eggs, three beacon strips, two pancakes, hash browns, two toast and gravy for $8.39. Sandy and I have been regular customers of the Dairy Palace so long that we know one of their cook’s, Javier, who if he see’s us walk in knows what we want and will start fixing our breakfast before they can take our order at the counter.

Saturday February 20. 2010

This was a pretty laid back day for us. We did do some cleaning inside the home. Watched TV, read emails and blogs. The weather was just not cooperative at all to allow any outside chores. Drizzled on and off for most of the day. Watched Kyle Busch take the Nationwide race at Fontana. Danica Patrick finished 31st, three laps down, in her second start in the series.

Kyle Busch has won three of the past four races at Fontana. I am also seeing some maturity in Kyle. I’m sure Joe Gibbs his car owner has had a lot to do with that. We did not set up our booth today as we decided to hold off till Sunday where it was suppose to be a little warmer. But , living in Texas you never know what to expect.
Heard from my mom’s realtor and in her email she felt pretty good about being able to close on the home this next week. You just won’t believe how long we’ve been waiting for this event. It seems for ever but in reality it has taken just about a year.

Sunday February 21, 2010

We set up our grids, tables and electrical in our booth. Will not put product out till Wednesday. Another laid back day. Worked on financial books, read email and blogs. We watched the Auto Club 500 Sprint Cup race which ended with our not so favorite driver winning. Junior had some misfortunes and finished 32nd twelve laps down due to mechanical failure. Our neighbor from Lufkin called and said they would not be here today. Instead they will come in on Monday thinking the weather would be a little nicer. This leads us to……..

Monday February 22, 2010

The weather turned colder over night and the sun did not appear all day. The weatherman blew it again. We hung around the home thinking our neighbor would show up any time so we could help them set up. 10am came and we called and they were on their way. We advised them we could not wait any longer as we had some things we wanted to do in Tyler, TX. Sandy has been wanting to take me to our favorite Mexican food restaurant in Tyler, Gilberts El Charro. They have the best Tex-Mex Food in northeast Texas. Their enchiladas are the best I’ve ever had. After lunch we made the usual stops two used book stores, Bed & Bath, Target  and Wal-Mart. We headed back to Canton arriving about 3pm and our neighbors had set up and returned to Lufkin. We are expecting some snow/sleet and perhaps rain tomorrow. The system is now just west of Fort Worth and headed our way. I sure hope this gets all out of here before the weekend. We don’t need another bad weather Canton weekend.

On our way back to Canton we stopped and viewed the grounds of Roseland Plantation (picture from website)http://www.roselandplantation.com/ about 8 miles west of Tyler off Hwy 64. We’ve passed this place so many times but never stopped.  We did not take the time to tour the facility but if you are ever in the area and need a Bed and Breakfast this would be the place.
This just about brings us up to date with our going on’s since our last post. We wait to see what our weather will be like tomorrow.

Until next time….MtnAire Travlers.

Catching Up

Sunday February 14,2010

Other than celebrating Valentine’s Day we didn’t do a whole lot. Watched the Daytona 500 with my driver Dale Jr coming in second was a little disappointing but Jamie McMurray’s win is alright with me. I was happy for him. He deserved it. He had been  been through a lot with him losing his former ride with Roush Fenway Racing.

Hummm…I wonder if perhaps Dale held back since this was his Dad’s and former racing team owners car. We’ll never know but considering everything the two hour delays for repairing the track and the new rules put in effect it turned out to be a pretty exciting race.

Monday February 15, 2010

We were up at 6am and ate breakfast at Arnold’s with BIL James. The special for that morning was two eggs, two bacon and two toast for $2.75 ea. Don’t believe you can eat at home that cheap. The wind came howling out of the north all day with gusts up to 40mph. Helped BIL James install a Blue Flame propane wall heater in one of his buildings. I accused him of making this his dog or getaway house as the next thing he wants to add is a TV. Heck… I just might want to join him over there myself some time when I get in the doghouse with Sandy. hehehe.
Because of the high wind spent most of that afternoon inside working on books, computer and blog reading.

Tuesday February 16, 

The north winds were still raging. Perhaps we are having early “Roar Like A Lion” winds of March in late February? Today was dump the holding tanks day. Sandy hooked the blue boy to the Bad Boy battery powered 4X4 ATV and drove over to the side of the motor home where we drained the black holding tank into the blue boy and than dumped it. The gray water was next and it took two trips with the blue boy.
We had lunch at The Wild Flower in Hugh Springs with BIL James and his sidekick Wendell. Chicken fried steak, turnip greens, red beans and jalapeño corn bread was the the main buffet. Yummm!

This brings us to today
Wednesday February 17, 2010

We were up early and joined BIL James for breakfast at Arnold’s one egg, two beacon and one toast $1.75 ea. Now that's not bad. The winds have subsided and the sun is bright and warm. Our high today is going to be 53F. Spent the morning cleaning the leather furniture in the motor home. We use a kit that was provided when we purchased our La-Z-Boy chair two years ago. Its called Stainsafe leather protection program. It consist of a leather soft cleaner and leather protection cream. Did a pretty good job on all the chairs and sofa.
Sandy took her mom to Hugh Springs to get her hair cut and do some laundry at her mom’s when they got back. I stayed back and started the process of getting the home ready for travel this Friday. While helping BIL James install the Blue Flame heater I noticed a Porter-Cable pancake air compressor setting behind some boxes. It looked new and I naturally inquired about it since it was something I have been wanting to buy to air up the motor home tires. He said he picked it up at a pawn shop for $100.00 and it was particularly brand new. I asked him if he was interested in selling it and for how much. He said he would make me a “BIL” deal I couldn’t refuse. Still waiting on the deal but in the mean time I am using it now instead of the huge Craftsman vertical upright compressor that I’ve been using. In the morning I go in to VA to have blood work done. I have now been on Coumadin for a month and it's time to check the PT/INR of my blood. The PT/INR test checks to see how fast your blood clots. My healthcare provider has decided that  my PT/INR numbers need to be somewhere between 2 and 3. Last checked it was a 1.7.

Until next time….MtnAire Travlers.

Here Yesterday Gone Today

The snow we had Thursday and Friday has just about all melted away. This morning when we woke up and look out our window we saw very little evidence of snow. However, the birds particularly the Robins were plentiful. I guess the moisture in the ground was driving the worms and grubs to the surface and the birds were having a feast.

We had to go into Longview this morning to pick up Sandy's moms prescriptions. While there we made a quick visit to Best Buy where I used some of My Rewards gift coupons to purchase a Ipod universal dock with remote for Sandy’s Valentine gift tomorrow. This reminds me  we wish all of our family and friends out there a Happy Valentine’s Day! She wants to play our Ipod Classic through our home entertainment system and this will allow her to control the Classic remotely. The (IR) infrared remote will allow her to control playback, volume control, next/fast forward, menu and play pause with just the touch of the remote. She is also reading up on how we might be able to use this devise and get a cable to our TV where we can play music videos from the Classic to the TV. Not quite sure what's all involved here.

Until next time…MtnAire Travlers. Have a…………

Winter Wonder Land

  It snowed here all day yesterday and through the night. We awoke this morning to a winter wonder land. Our overall snow fall was somewhere between 5”-6”. We were up early this am to have breakfast at Arnold's with BIL James. It was so exciting for Sandy as she crunched through the snow to the truck. We were the first to make trails in the snow leaving out of here. The highways were well driven therefore it wasn’t any problem navigating over to the restaurant.

After eating Sandy and I decided that we wanted to take a drive to see the country side. The snow gave everything that tranquil, pure and clean look. Come along with us as we share just some of the pictures of our wintery Northeast Texas.
As we leave our driveway

 

 

 

Farmers Trucking down the way on Hwy250

Headed East Hwy 250

A farm

Lake O The Pines north of town

Our First Methodist Church

Return to Lone Star

Crossing Lake O Pines on south side of town

Opposite shoreline

Returning to Motor Home off Hwy 729

We realize this is a light snow event compared to the Northeastern part of the US and our neighbors in Canada. But, you must understand us Texans don't see this event to often. So…its a big deal to us.

Until next time….MtnAire Travlers.

Houston… We Have Snow In Lone Star TX

  Yep! as I post this journal we have a pretty good snow fall here in northeast Texas. This is our fourth snowfall since we retired to this area ten years ago. At the rate it is falling  now I’m sure we will have a pretty good accumulation by this afternoon. I’ve called my SIL Pam in Longview and asked her if she wanted to drive up and make snow angels and snowmen. She said she would pass. My BIL James has a dually Dodge truck with four wheel drive and he said later this evening if it keeps this up he will grab some chains and head out towards I-30 to earn a little money pulling people who drive crazy in this stuff out of the ditches. If it does keep this up I will post some more pictures for my family down south of here.

Yesterday we took a drive into Longview and on our way in we finally stopped at an old cemetery we’ve passed a hundred times to learn a little about its history. The Cemetery was the Old Coffeeville Cemetery. Coffeeville is a ghost town in Upsure County, East Texas. It hosted a Civil War training camp, but after the war it was bypassed by the Southern Pacific railway. Most of the grave markers were so old you could not make out the information on them. Those that you could see seem to be dated in the mid 1800’s and tied to the Civil War.

  Over all I bet there wasn’t but 25-30 grave markers in the cemetery. One particular one stood out as perhaps the oldest in the plot. This was just a pile of rocks and the head stone was just a large rock with no markings. We also found a Walker grave marker which is Sandy’s maiden name. May have to do a little ancestry search to see if they are part of the Walker clan.

After this stop we drove to the AT&T Wireless store to look at cell phones. Sandy’s 2 year contract was up and she said I could use her renewal date to up grade my Go Phone which replaced the Motorola phone I dropped in the water bucket when doing the floors sometime back.

Well guess what with all the smart phones now you have to take out a data plan which costs between $20-$30. So, Instead of getting one of these I told Sandy to go ahead an update her Iphone 3G to the 3GS and I would take her old 3G. We are now a Iphone family. We set around last night playing and adding Apps to our phones. I guess when you are retired and have incumbent weather like we are having this winter there’s nothing better than a family jam session of the Ol Iphones. Didn’t mean this to be so long and probably boring to most  but unlike those who are in the Southwest part of America there just not a lot going on. Other than the snow of course which by the way has really accumulated. Maybe 4”-6” before its over.

Until next time….MtnAire Travlers.

SUPER BOWL XLIV

  Who Dat won the Super Bowl? The New Orleans Saints, that’s who. Ain’t kidding. They can now put away those paper bags.

Until next time….MtnAire Travlers.

Our Day In Shreveport

Sandy and I were up Friday morning a little earlier than normal. BIL James wanted us to join him at Arnold’s for breakfast. He was headed to Tyler TX to purchase a John Deere tractor with a back hoe. His job was requiring more usage of this type of machinery and rather than rent/lease one he decided to just buy one.

After breakfast we headed out to VA Shreveport LA for my Echo Cardiogram. We left earlier as Sandy wanted to get in some shopping before my 2pm appointment. We decided we would drive buy the new RV Park that's being built off I-20. We took exit 3 near the Flying J and turned left on Greenwood Drive and drove about 2 miles and there she was Southern Living RV Park. They had most of the sites completed and probably half occupied. The office and the laundry room have not been completed. They have a park host in one of the sites up front phone number 318-470-7671. We drove through the park and glad we did as the RV’s that were parked on the south end all have 3” to 4” wooden blocks under their right wheels. The ground has a definite slope north to south. The closer the site was to the freeway the worse it got. Also the sites were not concrete as we first thought. The roadway’s are concrete but the sites were gravel. I am sure as they get more amenities this will be a nice park for overnighters and/or casino goers. Just make sure you have some blocks with you. The casinos are about 11-13 miles further east on I-20.

We went to some of Sandy's stores Target, World Market, Bed and Bath, and Best Buy. Sandy has been wanting to play her Ipod Classic or Touch through our home entertainment center so we would get the quality sound through our speaker system. Sure enough she found exactly what was required a Audio two RCA jack with a single mini jack post for this connection. When we got back to the MH she connected it up and it worked fine. Good job Sandy!

We arrived at VA about 1pm and set in the parking lot for a while before going to my ECHO appointment. Got there about 45 minutes early but they saw me right away and finished about 30 minutes later. I’ve never had one of these so you bet I was surprised seeing my heart working on the monitors screen. The sound…. well I could have done without that. The swish….swish…..swish of the blood flowing and the valves opening and closing appeared to be doing their jobs. They tell be it will be sometime next week before they will know anything. A cardiologist has to review it. While there I had my blood checked at the Coumadin clinic. I am getting closer where I need to be and won’t have it checked again for two weeks.

I guess we want see the sun for a while. We were suppose to have sun today but he never made it. Another front is headed our way Monday and we are to get colder again. Sure wish spring would hurry up and get here.

Until next time….MtnAire Travlers.

Wet But Busy Day For Sandy That Is

The rains settled in early this morning (around 2:30am) and they never let up. It has literately rained all day and it looks like it will stay through the night. Unfortunately this was the day Sandy had to take her mom to her two doctors, lab for blood work and visit with her sister in Longview in between the doctor appointments. BIL James called about 6am and asked me to join him for breakfast at Arnold's. Sandy left to pick up her mom around 6:30 am (she didn’t get home till 5pm) and I stayed home watched TV, napped and read email/blogs. Tuff life I know  but someone has to do it. I did get around to the dishes and vacuuming chores while she was gone.
Today was the TCM Classic Movies on World War II. One of the movies was the story of Paul Tibbets the pilot who flew Enola Gay and dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. I had forgotten a lot about this historic event but the movie refreshed my memory and I also went to Wikipedia to enlighten myself even more.

Tonight I am watching the Budweiser Shootout Practice and it sure feels good to see NASCAR returning to TV. I can’t wait for the big race The Daytona 500 that starts Sunday February 14th. I understand the NASCAR bosses have lightened up on the bump-drafting rules for Daytona and Talladega. So, now its back in the drivers hands and I honestly believe we will see better and more exciting racing. Speaking of exciting no less than twenty minutes into the practice session tonight they had a seven car pile-up. Bring it on baby!!!

I received a call from the realtor inquiring if my mom had a valid photo ID like a drivers license. I told her I was sure she did but it was not a valid license as mom is 92 years young and has not driven her car in at least eight years. It turns out that she will need this during the closing which we are hoping will be next week now. I’m told its something to do with The Patriot Act that is requiring this documentation???

Tomorrow we travel to VA Shreveport for my ECHO cardiogram. Keep me in your prayers that this turn out okay.

Until next time….MtnAire Travlers.

A Day At VA Shreveport

We returned from Canton Monday morning arriving in Lone Star around 10.30 am. This was after we topped off our propane tank. After getting the motor home plugged in and set up we took what little earnings we made for the month to the bank in Mt Pleasant. We also picked up supplies for Sandy’s mom and ourselves at the local Wal-Mart.

Sandy and I were up early today as I had a full schedule of clinics and blood work at VA Shreveport. My doctor has put me on Coumadin and until I get the PT/INR to the level he fells it needs to be I will have to have the ol’ blood checked at least once a week. This stuff is pretty serious as if I get my blood to thin I could bleed to death. After this I journeyed down to the Sleep Apnea clinic to see if I qualify for a CPAP machine. I learned I must first undergo a sleep in at VA where they will place all these electrodes on my body and monitor me sleeping one night. Boy! I guess this is the price I’m having to pay for not taking better care of myself.

On our way over to VA we saw the evidence of the tornado near Waskom TX that came through there about three weeks ago. That was the week we had four tornado warnings in our area and the one that touched down in Canton. There was heavy damaged to several homes and many trees knocked down. The picture of the buildings didn’t pan out.
Shreveport now has a new RV Park just off I-20 exit 5 that finally has opened. Don’t know the name of the park as they have no sign up yet but when we drove by today the park was just about full already. We’ve watched the progress of this park each time we have gone to Shreveport. There are no trees and the sites and road appear to be all concrete with grass between each site. There are pull troughs and back ends and the best we could tell fairly good spacing between sites. We will check this out this Friday when we go back for my Echo cardiogram. Like I said “had I known”.

  Sandy’s mom Alice will be 89 years young tomorrow. So, the family had a surprise birthday party for her tonight at her favorite restaurant “David Beards” all you can eat catfish. Believe me this lady can eat the fish. I didn’t do to bad myself. Our little group went through several platters of  fried catfish, french fries, cold slaw, hush puppies and fried shrimp.

Also in attendance where the following:

Sandy’s sister Pam and her husband Mike

Sandy’s brother James and his wife Bev

We all came home stuffed!

Happy Birthday Mom Alice!!

Until next time….MtnAire Travlers.