What A Week…Disaster One…Diaster Two… Thing's Looking Up

Oh where to start???/ I guess we need to go to the positive things that happened last week. Sandy and I  spent the first weekend in November doing that annual purge…..if you haven’t used it in one year out it goes. We went through every drawer, closet, shelving and crease of the motor home and ended up with three piles. One to the trash, the  second to  Goodwill and third to our 18ft cargo trailer we used for storage and seasonal clothes. I also added some wood and metal shelving to one of her cabinets in the bedroom. With this purge she was able to gain two cabinets over my Lazy boy recliner her groceries, chips, bread and crackers. We were quite proud of our accomplishments.

It was the cargo trailer storage stuff that set off disaster #1. I had came from the shop after dropping off some items in one of our metal cabinets and the brilliant idea popped into my head and  I said…. “Hey it would be a good idea to pull the Jeep out of the storage shed  and back it up to the motor home where we could load up the Goodwill bags as well as those items designated to the cargo trailer.” Now mind you Sandy does not like me backing the Jeep from this spot as there is a 4” diameter pole there holding one corner of the shed up and you guessed it it happens to be on my bad eye side. But, shucks I can handle that I’ve done it many times before. Sooo I hopped  the Jeep   proceeded backing……. yep you  guessed it my turn was to sharp. The next thing I heard was crunch and the shed went to shaking. I didn’t want to get out and look to see what kind of damaged I did on that side so I pulled up and proceeded  to back deeper before my cut. After I pulled into the front of the motor home I slowly walked around to the passenger side  and to my surprise there wasn’t any apparent damage to the body. Whew how fortunate can one get then I heard this psheeeeeeeee,  looked down and the right rear tire was going down. I looked closer and yep there it was about a 4” gash in the tire and my aluminum wheel was ripped all the way across. What had happened is I turned into this  metal plate. Look closely and you see the rubber from the tire on the plate.
So now we have to buy a new tire. Why didn’t I listen. Yep, Sandy  was quite upset with my dumb move. So Tuesday morning off to Sam’s we go prepared to lay down about $150-$175. When I told the service tech what I needed he said let me go look at the tire and I’ll be right back. About ten minutes later he came rolling the new tire up to the counter and said lets see with the adjustment we will allow you owe us $70.00. Wow can’t beat that deal at all so we got our first lucky break. By the way had he not allowed for the adjustment we would have paid $150.00 plus tax.

Now this brings us to last Thursday and disaster #2. I was out at the cargo trailer helping Sandy rearrange the trailer and we started several Goodwill bags. To get them out of our way I placed them on the ground just outside the cargo doors so all we had to do was throw them into the Jeep and head to Goodwill. We had some shelving units in the back of the trailer and I wanted them out to gain more storage space. There were four units (we used these back in the days of woodcrafts) so one by one I proceeded to gather them up and walk around with them to the side of the trailer. Yes….. you can see it coming can’t you…..Disaster #2. It was the fourth unit that did the trick as I walked around to the side I tripped (yep on them bags for Goodwill).

The next thing I knew was I heard Sandy yelling to the top of her lungs …”What happened!!!!!1… What did you do!!!!!!.” Then I looked up and saw this black cloud that has been following me around all that week and I heard a voice …You Jack Wagon!!!!! there is just something about you that really ticks me off!!!!! I had tripped and fallen on my left side probably for a brief moment I was knocked completely out. As I tried to gather myself I felt this screeching pain in my left rip cage and the left side of my face was throbbing. I tried to get up and just couldn’t. After about ten minutes while I finally regained some abnormally I finally got up and heard Sandy say we need to go to the Emergency Room. After calming set in I decided that I wasn’t hurt that bad and saw no need for a trip to the hospital. So I was able to walk back to the motor home and that is where I’ve been except for today I felt good enough to go to Longview VA for my blood work.

My left eye and only good eye swelled just about shut where I had difficulty in seeing and reading. My left side hurt so bad I could not type on the keyboard, sleep in bed, dare not cough or strain. I remembered a horse liniment that my mom used for her arthritis called Absorbine Veterinary Liniment. This stuff really has helped my side as now I’m able to lift, walk, set and turn without a lot of pain.

I fell it will get better each day it just about has to as next week we are off to Arlington TX for a Country Peddler show the weekend before Thanksgiving.

Our set up is not all that time consuming but it will entail lifting and carrying out displays and product from the Jeep to the Convention Center. We also hope to sneak in a brief visit with Mark and Dortha.

Until next time….MtnAire Traveler's.

Just Some Of The Many Atmospheres Of Canton

November First Monday at Canton was as expected…..a barn burner. The weather corporated and the crowds showed up all four days. You couldn’t ask for a more perfect weekend with our lows in the upper 40’s and our highs in the upper 70‘s. Parking was wall to wall, some Rver’s dry camping on the grass and in the parking lots and we’re told some were illegally parked as you could hear the loud speaker system blaring “move it are be towed”.

I thought I would give a sampling of just some of the merchandise that you can find at this place. Remember this is only a few of the many vendors that are here. We understand that there is approximately 7,000 vendors between the City, Lewis’s, Old Market Place, On the Mountain, Dog Alley, and The Market Place. If you don’t find it here it doesn’t exist.

One of the many parking lots. This one is behind our booth.

Typical crowd in our Pavilion 4000 Saturday.

The Junk Man’s booth. One mans junk another's treasure.

How about some plants?


Wisconsin Cheese.

Furniture‘


Seasonal Wood Crafts

Clothes


Anybody for a bath.

These are just some of the things you’ll find here. If you are traveling to the RGVC or Southwest and happen to be in the area stop by and say hi.

Until next time….MtnAire Travlers.

Lordy Lordy Look Who's Going To Be Forty

October 28th our youngest son, Tim will reach that milestone of mid-life ....40 years old. Usually this midlife crisis means a Harley, grow a beard, wear a do-rag, OMG I'm getting older and I need/want to do it all now. I don't recall my 40th but I'm sure being a guy I did go through this stage in my life.
When it comes to his job Tim is a workaholic and gives his company a 110%. He loves his daughter and family. Tim, Sandy and I love you very much and wish you the best on your 40th.

Until next time…..MtnAire Travlers.

November Canton, Friends and Double Whammy

We arrived at Canton a little later on Friday due to our late start that morning. Upon arrival we were surprised to see the number of RVer’s that were already here. Usually this is a good sign for that many to be here the weekend before First Monday. We had a very nice thunderstorm hit Saturday evening that dumped about 2” of rain on us. There were more thunderstorm alerts for Sunday as well.

Our friends Mark and Dortha arrived here Sunday afternoon around 3pm. After they got into their spot they came over to our home. It sure was great in seeing them again. We set and visited and caught up on all their summer travels. Boy, what a grand time they had these past four months…..what an adventure.

Sandy made an excellent taco salad for our dinner and while visiting the weather siren went off indicating a severer weather system was near and may have a tornado in it. There were reports of large size hail in some of the storms so we drove both Jeeps over to park them under the pavilion. That was the first bad weather alert as later in the evening we had the second system roll toward us that had heavy thunderstorms, lighting, and winds. We headed to the 
bathhouse for protection from the storms. Both systems supported 
tornados but none touched down in our area.

The second system came from the same direction as the first one. 
Reports said it was just as bad as the first and off to the bathhouse 
we go for the second time. We called Mark and Dortha to give them a heads up. They chose to stay home this time. In fact there were only three couples there this time. In all we had a total of 54 weather alerts between the two storms. We are so thankful all we got out of it was just the wind, very little rain, no hail but lots of thunder and lighting.

Monday we were up and traveled to Tyler (see Mark and Dortha’s blog for what we did while there). They treated us to the best BQ we’ve had in a while at Rudy's Bar-B-Q. Let me tell you this was absolutely the best I’ve had bar none. I had a sliced brisket sandwich that had at least five or six slices of brisket. Boy was it finger licking good. Their cream corn was out of this world. We sampled their turkey and it is AMAZING!!!

After returning we were to full to eat dinner so we joined in on our neighbors (Bob and Sandra’s) happy hour. We all adjourned around 9pm as Mark and Dortha were getting up earlier for their ten hour drive to the RGV.

This morning they were off around 8:30 am and headed out. We wished they could have stayed longer but we understand. They have a lot of work to do to their coach house at Retama  Village. We had a grand time even though it was short.

There they go!

If you will look real close this photo shows the early arrivals for our November show this weekend. The RV spots are now more than half taken. Come Thursday I would expect them all to be full of Rver’s. We had to go to our Post Office in Diana this morning to pick up some inserts that our supplier mailed to us but did not arrive in time. On our way Sandy and I counted at least sixteen motorhomes and trailers heading west. We assumed most of these were winter snow birds headed South to the valley or to the Southwest.

Until next time….MtnAire Travlers.

What A Special Day and What A Grand Event

Yesterday morning Sandy and I were up at 4:20am. We pulled out at 5:15am and headed south on Hwy 259 to Henderson where we stopped for breakfast at Whataburger. They remodeled the place about a year ago and their theme for the inside was electric guitars and surfboards.

It wasn't long before sunrise and the trip to Rosemont took four hours. When we went into moms room she was napping and when she awoke what a surprise.
Dren my sister arrived shortly afterwards and Sandy and her proceeded to help mom get dressed for her big day.





  What a day it was. We had 23 people who showed up to help mom celebrate this special day. The facility at Rosemont fixed a wonderful meal for everyone. You had a choice of either Salisbury Steak or Cranberry Chicken with potatoes, carrots and rolls.

Her 93rd birthday celebration started shortly after lunch where she was presented a great cake and we all singed Happy Birthday.
The Blasingame (their maiden name) girls Waden, Joan and Barbara were responsible for organizing and getting this great event together for all family and friends.  They have always shown and given so much love to mom. We are so grateful for them. Of course my sister Dren, who is the primary care taker for our mother, was also involved and she brought that wonderful cake.
 

All good things must come to an end. Most guests headed their separate ways about 2pm. My sister, Sandy and I stayed and had dinner with her before heading out back to Lone Star around 6pm. Before leaving though Sandy wanted to make that stop at the HEB her favorite grocery store to pick up some item's you don’t find at other stores.

What a day we all had. We sure were glad we were headed West as the East bound traffic was bumper to bumper. We arrived at the Motorhome at 11:30pm.
We were up a 6 am this morning and was on the road to Canton by 7am. When we pulled into the parking lot we knew right away this was going to be a good first Monday crowd. There were about five 5er’s already here and they had about six spaces blocked off for future arriving friends. We just hope the weather holds up and if it does this First Monday will probably be bigger than last month. Our friends Mark and Dortha from Ft Worth hopefully can make it here Sunday before going to the RGV.

What about them Texas Rangers!!!!!!!!! First World Series ever.

Until next time….MtnAire Travlers.