Our Christmas Vacation

Our trip back home was great.  It was a long, but uneventful trip that lasted 16 1/2 hours.  We got to see all of our families and most of our friends.  It was extremely cold when we arrived plus there was still snow on the ground from an earlier snowfall. 

He's so cute in his new tartan coat.

The snow melted within a few days and I was able to rake up and bag all the leaves.  I filled 13 bags and 3 trashcans.  The recycle guys probably weren't real happy with us, but they've passed our house up for 3 months without having to stop.

One of the highlights while at home was the Ugly Christmas Sweater party at Dennis and Ann's. 

You wouldn't be smiling either if you were dressed like this!

The 5" of snow that fell on Christmas Eve was not what we wanted to see, but I must admit on Christmas morning, it was beautiful.  It didn't slow down any of the shoppers on Friday afternoon when we ventured out. (Yes, we braved the Galleria, just to watch since all of our shopping was done.)

After our family Christmas's on Friday night and again on Saturday, we took the tree and the few decorations down and packed the truck for our early morning start to get back to warmth and sunshine, and a chance to quit eating non-stop.  I think all we did was eat and drink while home, without one iota of exercise.

At 3:15am Sunday morning, we started our very long trip back to Victoria, TX.  We took a shorter route (by 100 miles) from the route we took home.  When we first started, our new GPS had us arriving at  6:15pm - plenty of time to make Sunday night ice cream.  Little did we know that half the people in Texas would be traveling on I35 south of Dallas.  We came to a screeching halt and crawled for almost 100 miles at no more than 30mph.  Soon our GPS had us arriving at 7:45pm.  It took just shy of 18 hours to go the shorter distance on much worse roads.  Not one of our best decisions, but at least we didn't have to pay the $18 tolls in Oklahoma. 

We actually arrived at 8:00pm, safe and sound with no problems along the way.  After walking a very excited Butch, we dumped all of our stuff into the trailer and headed off to bed.

Monday morning we discovered that our electric hot water heater was no longer working.  Once you open up the hot water heater compartment outside, every guy within 10 spots shows up to see what's wrong and to offer advice. After a few false starts Mark found a drawing for the heater and determined what was probably the defective part. The local RV dealer agreed and sold us a replacement part. We are now back to making hot water with electricity instead of propane. This is good since we get electricity free.

J.C., our neighbor from just south of Springfield MO, was an engineer for the MO Highway Department so he had lots of useful advice. Mike is standing around with his hands in his pockets, and Dave - not sure what had his eye.

Tonight we played Canasta and once again the men beat the women. Tomorrow we start a stretch of four days in a row running the RV park. It seems as if everyone waited until Christmas to head out this year and they are passing through Victoria in record numbers. We should be very busy. We also have to set up for the New Years Eve party since it falls on one of our work days. This should provide good stories for the next Blog entry.

Almost Homeward Bound

The day after the big parade was a day of rest.  The weather had gone from 85 and sunny on Saturday to 60 and cloudy on Sunday.  Except for a trip out to get a newspaper, we stayed inside until ice cream time at 6pm.  We were watching Tiger golf all afternoon.  Even though he didn't win, it was still nice to see him out there. 

Last week I posted that Mark had knelt down in a fire ant hill while we were inflating our kayaks.  We thought that he had escaped with no bites; we were wrong!  He's been waking in the middle of the night trying to find something to stop the itch, as well as the pain.  He counted over 20 bites.  

Monday we headed to the movies to see the latest Harry Potter movie - The Deathly Hollows, Part One.  It was a great movie and now we just wait until next summer to the final movie.  We were in the theater for the 1:00pm showing ($5) with four other people!

Today we found this trailer on the parking lot of Academy, the sporting goods store in town.

Two sheep in a pen, with coats on.  Things you don't see at home.

Tuesday we had to work because we will be gone for the next two weeks.  It was a mostly boring day, but I knew that I would be getting off work at 5:30p instead of 7:00p.  There were lots of rigs still coming in, but the park had obtained tickets for The Victoria Christmas Pageant presented by the Northside Baptist Church.  This was a HUGE production with over 300 people involved in the show.  This was the 26th year that this church has performed a Christmas pageant.  They do two shows an evening for seven nights in a row.  This was a free show with a request of a canned good for a local food bank.  Besides the 300 people, there was a camel, a donkey, and several baby sheep.

Today we started preparing for our trip back home next week.  The awning came down, the hitch came out of the truck, and we headed out to get munchies for the road and diesel for the truck.  Diesel at most gas stations is now $3.09/gallon.  The Murphy Oil at the other end of town is still selling it for $2.85 so everyone goes there.  As luck would have it, it's right near the Buffet City.  One last chinese buffet for a while. 

Butch is starting to get worried.  I dug out our collapsible suitcases to put some of the stuff we must take home with us in.  His little brain is telling him that we're leaving without him - little does he know, he's along for the long haul - all 14+ hours to get home on Monday.

Since we're working all weekend, this will be the final blog until after Christmas.  MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

Parading Around Victoria

Parade Day at last!  After more hours than we want to count, the float was deemed complete around 2:30 Saturday afternoon.  That was good since we had plans to all load onto the float and drive it over to the staging area at 3:30pm. 

Erik and Mark making sure the sound system works before we leave the park.  He blasted Christmas music throughout the parade route.

Since the parade didn't officially start until 6:00pm, everyone spends the 2 1/2 hours beforehand putting the finishing touches on their floats, and then walking around looking at all the other ones. 

These two cars have every imaginable piece of crap glued onto them.  Everything - buttons, shells, silverware, musical instruments, pearls, beads, animals, lights, skulls, etc.  They usually sit inside a building downtown; it was nice to see them up close.

The Lazy Longhorn RV Park float - "Camping and Christmas Brings Families Together"

Our float had a tent, four chairs around a campfire, a Christmas tree, and lots of lights.  Tania, Pam, Linda, and I sat in the chairs around the fire.  The fire was very hot, especially since it was still 75 degrees at parade time.  Erika sat inside the tent; Gene drove the truck while Mike rode inside with him, yelling Merry Christmas over the loud speaker.  Bringing up the rear was the very popular mini-Winnebago golf cart, driven by Erik and Mark.

Note, there are no windows in this thing.  They could only see right in front of them.  This did not stop those two from driving all around the float if they had the space to do so.  The parade was televised live on TV last night.  When Erik and Mark got in front of the camera, they did about five 360s in the street, gaining laughs and cheers from everyone in the crowd.

Yes, that's a sewer hose coming out the back of the mini-Winnie.  Fortunately the guys didn't have to use it.  What you can't see is the beer up front.  Not sure what the penguin was all about, but Mark said that it saved them when the parade was over.  They rode the cart down the roads back into the park.  The penguin and Christmas lights were the only lights they had since the cart has no headlights.

Since this was our first Victoria Christmas Parade, we weren't sure what to expect.  We were pleasantly surprised.  This event is huge in this town.  This morning's paper estimated the crowd to be between 20,000 and 30,000 viewers.  It was a lot more fun than we expected.  We were worried about the waiting time before the parade started, but Tania had packed food and we also had coolers full of adult beverages.  The only bad part about being in a parade - you don't get to see the parade!  There were over 150 entries (floats, marching bands, etc.) in the parade.  Unfortunately, our float didn't win any awards.  Judging from the claps, cheers, and laughs from the crowd, the golf cart was the hit.  Erik and Mark are already deciding how to make it better for next year.

Parade Preparations

It's been a crazy week.  We worked Monday and had a very busy day with lots of people passing thru. 

Tuesday was ladies day out - lunch and shopping.  We started out at Halepaska's bakery for soup and sandwiches.  Next we stopped at Hall Electric and Design Center.  This is a very high-end furniture store, with very expensive chandeliers, mirrors, furniture, etc.  They also have 24' decorated Christmas trees throughout the store.  All were for sale, as well as the ornaments.  Most ornaments sold for around $20.00 apiece. I sat on a couch that was on sale for $15,000, and it wasn't even comfortable!

Our next stop was the local Shop the World.  They, too, had Christmas decorations and trees for sale, but much cheaper.

I could only get about 2/3 of the tree in the picture.  The snowmen were about 18" tall.

Most of the week has been spent preparing for the Christmas parade.  Erik decided that the float was going to be a "camping" scene, with a golf cart following the float during the parade.  He had a design in mind, but didn't want to share with those of us who were actually building and decorating it until Wednesday this week. 

There is no theme for this year's parade, but one of the requirements is to have LOTS of lights on all floats.  Since we were so busy working on Monday, we didn't get to (or have to) work on the float until Tuesday and Wednesday.  Thursday we worked, but it was a very boring work day.  The phone only rang 3 times all day and the weather was too nice to sit inside.  I read by book on one of the rocking chairs while Mark and Erik decorated the golf cart all day.

This is just the first part of the decorations.  Today Erik worked on it for a few more hours.  I'll have to post more pictures tomorrow right before we get on the float. I'm very excited, I've never been in a parade before.

Today it was 82 degrees, sunny, and no wind so we decided to head to Saxet Lake with our new kayaks.  As luck would have it, when Mark got his kayak out of the bag, he set it down on a fire ant hill.  Fortunately he didn't get stung. 

It took about ten minutes to get them blown up and into the water. 

We had a great time and can't wait to take them out again, only next time we'll head over to the Gulf coast.

ow that a few more winter Texans are in the park, Norm and Sheryl hosted the first of many happy hours. 

 

Tonight was the first night of bingo for the season.  I won one game and got $3.50 for it.