26-28 January 2019 It’s Done!

David made a big push to finish waxing the Wanderer since there was a cold front coming in that will take the temperatures down too low for waxing. Saturday he was on the roof getting to areas above the slide outs he cannot reach on the ladder. He has also been treating the upper seals on the slide outs to protect them from elements. He noticed that the air conditioning covers had scratches in them from low hanging branches we apparently hit. After kneeling on the top of the slide outs, they shifted slightly and we had to pull them in slightly then run them out to reseat them. Unfortunately we forgot one of the windows on the end of the dining slide out was open so in the process of pulling it in, we bent the window slightly. Not enough to require an immediate fix, but something we will need to address at some point. What can you say, stupid stuff happens! Sunday David polished out the marks on the paint from some branches that had rubbed up against dining slide out before being able to wax it. Monday he wrapped it up by polishing out more branch marks around the garage door and waxing the rear cap and the area around the garage door. With that, after a month, it was finally waxed from end to end! Many folks stopped by as David was working over the last month to chat about our New Horizon and many invited him to wax their rigs as well. An invitation he politely declined time and time again. We also have gotten many complements about how beautiful our Wanderer is!

Wax on/Wax Off

Beautiful Shine!

We have been looking at the other RVs over the last several months and seeing the awnings over the slide outs on their fifth wheels and class a motor homes. Currently, David has to climb up on the roof and sweep (or wipe off the water) and sweep off the roofs of the slide out since any debris on the slide out roofs will damage the seals. So we contacted New Horizon, the manufacture of our fiver, and have reached an agreed price for parts and install of awnings over the slide outs. We also decided to add another shade awning on the dining room slide out. They will also be doing some warrantee work on the Anderson Valve we (and others) have been having problems with and we will have then check out the window. We set a date for when we will pull into the plant in Junction City Kansas. So that, combined with some meetings David has to support in Albuquerque in early April have set our schedule for the next several months. So after reviewing the map we have started planning out our travel. We want to hit Kerrville in the heart of Texas Hill Country, Del Rio Tx down on the boarder, Big Bend for several weeks, Carlsbad Caverns NP/Guadeloupe Mountains NP, and Las Cruces New Mexico! David already informed his customers that he will not be able to travel for work through at least early April since we will be four or more hours away, one way, from a commercial airport for the month of March. So we have started making reservations at RV parks in those areas. We will pull out of Spring on the Feb 18^thand finally be back on the road. We are so looking forward to it!

21 - 25 January 2019 What Government Shut Down?

David traveled to Washington DC this week for meetings associated with his consulting. Given all the press coverage he expected delays and long lines at the airport. On the contrary, there were no lines at TSA, all his planes ran on time, the restaurants in DC were packed as usual. In other words the opposite of what the news accounts were claiming. Meantime, Leslie held down the fort in Spring Tx. She spent time with her sister and Olivia, almost a whole day with Apple tech support getting issues with her laptop resolved and continuing to sort through her CD collection. After picking up David at the airport Friday night we joined Cynthia, Felix, Olivia, Lauren and Brian for dinner.

20 January 2019 Church Membership

Ever since Leslie and I first started dating, we have both thought we should join a church. But between her work schedule and mine, Sunday was the only day we had together to our selves. It was also the first day Leslie had off from work for the week and she always slept in from exhaustion. Now that were both retired, we are RVing and did not think we could join a church since we are constantly moving. After attending church services with Cynthia and Felix at the Woodlands United Methodist Church over the last several weeks, we decided to join the church. Today we took our vows and became official church members. We really like the ministerial staff of the church and they broadcast their services over the internet so we can still attend services remotely while on the road. It’s a great church and everyone is so nice, we knew it was the right place. Since we think we will be back here to park over the winters, so we can attend in person then and remotely while on the road. Of course, after Church we went to Tex Mex for lunch!

19 January 2019 Big Sam

The day was bright and sunny but a bit windy. We decided to drive up and visit Huntsville, TX. Huntsville is home to a gigantic statue of Sam Houston that overlooks I-45. We have driven past this statue dozens of times and never stopped. Since it was only 20 minutes up I-45 from Spring, we decided to drive on up to visit Sam. The statue of Sam Houston was built in the early 1990s by the city of Huntsville. Sam Houston lived in Huntsville when he was not in Washington or the capitol of Texas. Sam Houston lead the army of Texas to defeat Mexico in the Texas war of Independence. He had been sent to Texas by President Andrew Jackson to help stir the Texans to revolt. Prior to his travel to Texas, Sam had been Governor of Tennessee. After winning the war of Independence, he served as the President of the Republic of Texas twice and after Texas joined the United States, he served as its Senator in Washington and then as Governor of Texas. He resigned from the office of Texas Governor in 1861 when he refused to take an oath to the Confederate States and passed away in Huntsville in 1863. Quite a legacy. 

Anyway, the visitor center for the statue is small so we drove into the town of Huntsville and explored the town square. The only things keeping the town going are the six prisons in the area and the Sam Houston extension of the University of Texas. The downtown area looked pretty run down. Afterwards, we drove to Huntsville State Park and explored around to see if it was a possible camping site in the future. The RV spots were pretty short and very unlevel. Not really a place to bring the Wanderer. Later that evening we went over to Cynthia’s and Felix’s for dinner. They are babe sitting little Olivia for the weekend. So we had a chance to spend time with her and try and give Cynthia and Felix a break. That child has an abundance of energy and likes to get into everything! ;-)

Sam Houston statue in Huntsville, TX.

The Babies! (Olivia, Millie, Zorky)

18 January 2019 Karate Kid

The day was cloudy and cool. A perfect day for waxing! David made great progress on waxing the Wanderer, pretty much completing the drivers side except above the large kitchen slide out. It looks great. This is the south facing side in our current parking spot, so it was a perfect day to wax that side without the sun interfering. Of course people walking around the resort and our immediate neighbors had to stop and visit, so it was not all just Karate Kid (wax on/wax off). He received several requests to come and wax other folks RV when he finishes with the Wanderer! He is now 2/3rds complete. Two more good days and he should finish up. Then its time to do the truck! ;-)

Leslie took the day to do some deep cleaning inside since David was out of the way. Seems there is always something that needs cleaning.

17 January 2019 Spring in our step

We just could not stay put any longer. We realized there are things we had wanted to see while we were here and had not done a single one of them yet! So we drove into the old town area of Spring, TX. It’s a quaint little old town area with unique shops and plenty of cafes. We stopped in one of the cafes for a light lunch but David saw their home made carrot cake and had to have a piece for desert! Yummm! So much for light! Then we wandered through the shops, not really looking for anything in particular. We were not ready to start Christmas Shopping for this year yet! It was a very pretty day and we could not resist wandering around.

Later that evening we went to the Woodlands Convention center where we met up with Cynthia, Felix, and some of their friends for the Taste of The Woodlands. When we pulled up, we realized they were sending folks into the parking garage. We pulled up to the parking guard and asked if their were other options since our big truck did not fit in parking garages too well. He sent us over to the valet parking only to find they also park in a garage. After looking over our truck they decided to park us up front with all the expensive cars. It looked pretty funny with our big truck parked next to expensive sports cars! Many of the top local restaurants set up booths and offer tastes of their cuisine. The local craft breweries were present also so we wandered around tasting the different restaurants and enjoying local brews. We had a great time and selected a couple of restaurants we need to visit before we pull out.

International row (Dutch, German, Texan), Spring Tx.

Best Boutique in Spring, TX.

Watch out for the Loose Caboose in Spring, TX

The Tasting Panel!

Taste of Woodlands

12 – 16 January 2019 Filter Surprise

David continues with his waxing efforts. He is roughly half done with the Wanderer. When he changed out the built in water filter for the Wanderer, we took it apart to see what it has been filtering and were surprised by the amount of stuff in the filter.  Ick!!! David had lots of telecons for work this week, so we stayed close to home. After being in the same place for the last two months, we are starting to feel the wanderlust tugging at us again!

7 – 11 January 2019 Back to Fort Worth

David drove up to Fort Worth for the week for work meetings. Leslie held down the fort in Houston. In the evenings David got together with our friends Jim, Kelley and Rick one evening and Michael and Gale another evening. He also went and had his yearly physical while he was in town. His doctor says he will live for a while yet. Meantime Leslie sorted through her extensive CD collection and decided what she needed to keep and what she could part with. Exciting stuff for both of us! Ugh…

Later in the evening we went to Perry’s Steakhouse with Cynthia and Felix to celebrate Leslie’s Birthday in style. 

3 – 6 January 2019 Back to the Mundane

After the last few weeks of holiday celebrations it is back to the mundane. We had tons of laundry to catch up on and maintenance to do on the Wanderer. David continued his waxing task. He has roughly a quarter of the Wanderer waxed. Its taking more time than he expected since he is having to polish out marks on the paint where tree limbs have rubbed against the Wanderer. We investigated going to the Houston Space Center but the visitor center is closed due to the government shutdown. 

26 Dec. 2018 – 2 Jan 2019 New Years in Canton

Sorry it has been a while since we posted. It has been a busy time.

We flew up to Canton on the 26^thto visit with our Ohio Family. The first evening in town we had a pizza dinner with our cousins Beth, John and Amy and caught up on the last few months since we had been in town. It was the only evening available with everyone in town and after weeks of holiday dinners, we all wanted something simple for dinner. We drove down to Bergholz to visit with Aunt Joyce one day and stopped on the way back to visit with Veronica’s older sister Helen and her daughter Linda. A good time was had by all. We met up with Diana, Ron, Bob, Darlene and Cheryl, Veronica’s side of the family, for dinner at Cracker Barrel another night. The rest of the time we hung out with Veronica and helped her with some things around the house. We rang in the New Year quietly at Veronica’s while watching the ball drop in Times Square on TV. It was with great reluctance we left Veronica and flew back to Houston on the second. Once we got home, we realized we had not taken any pictures the entire time we were in Ohio!