February 26, 2017

 Here is another “Places We have Been and You Should Go Too”:

Navajo Nation's Monument Valley Park
Southern Utah and Northern Arizona

 Owned and operated by the Navajo Nation, Monument Valley is one of the most unique and beautiful places in America.  It is said that the park is the most photographed place on earth and after visiting there weJoyce can understand why.

 We stayed at the Gouldings RV Park which isn’t cheap (we paid about $50 a night) but it is the only gig in town.  However, staying there puts you are right in the middle of the park with very nice amenities and close to other attractions.

 We highly recommend you take the Deluxe Tour that can be booked in the campground office.  Riding in the back of a pickup, you’ll get a narrated tour of all the major monoliths and beautiful rock formations.  Photo stops are made at John Ford’s Point, the Three Sisters, the Totem Pole and more.  Since most of this tour is in the restricted areas of the park, you will visit areas that can’t be seen when you do a simple driving tour including the Anasazi Petroglyphs, Moccasin Arch and more.

February 17, 2016

 We’ve had to make a small change to our trip back west this spring.  We’re not going over to visit Big Bend National Park this trip due to not being able to get a reservation.  Waited just a tad too long.

 So, if you are in the El Paso area and want to get together we will be staying at Fort Bliss the 4th and 5th of March.

 Ordered our filters and oil at O’Riley’s Auto Parts to have the RV serviced.  All that came to $344 and we will have to pay a service tech $150-$200 to do the work.  The good news?  We won’t have to mess with this again for 10,000 miles.

 The weather here in Von Army is starting to get really nice.  Temp’s are in the high 70’s to low 80’s right now and no major storms are in the forecast.  In fact, tomorrow’s forecast is for a temperature of 87º.

February 20, 2017

 Yesterday afternoon we met John and Marleen Breitenbach at Down on Grayson for drinks and an early supper.  John flew with the 7th and 708th Military Airlift Squadrons at Travis AFB and later went to work for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.  He now works for Northrop Grumman in their Contingency & Deployment Operations division as a Deployed & Flight Operations Manager.  It was great to see John & Marleen again and we had a great time talking about the “old times”.

 Last night we had some really strong storms move through this area, a few developing into severe thunderstorms on the north-east side of San Antonio.  The thunder and lighting woke me up at 10:15 so I got up and checked out the weather radar.  At just about that time a huge cell was passing just a short distance to the east of us with a lot of hard rain and lightening.  The National Weather Service issued a tornado warning around 11:15 that affected areas in the north-east side of San Antonio.  A small tornado touched down near Randolph AFB causing a lot of damage to homes, cars and trees.

February 21, 2017

 We took the RV in to a shop near here to have the oil changed, fuel filters changed and do a chassis lube job.  They worked on it for two hours and charged us $238 labor.  That included the fee for disposing of the old 18 quarts of oil.

 So, with the parts the total came to $582.  The last time we had all that work done was in Oakridge, OR and the technician charged us $640 total, just $58 more and we didn’t have to get all the parts ourselves.  Guess we will have it done in Oakridge the next time.

February 24, 2017

 On Wednesday the 22nd Joyce and I drove up to north San Antonio to visit with Dave Spector, a former flight engineer who I served with in the 7th MAS at Travis AFB.  Dave had a very interesting career flying the C-141 and the VC-137 (Boeing 707) with the 89th Airlift Wing at Andrews AFB, MD. 

 Dave decided to go into the leadership side of the Air Force and served as the Command Chief at 20th Air Force at Francis E. Warren AFB, WY.  He then was selected to lead the Airmen of the  Air Mobility Command as there Command Chief.

 Here are a couple of articles about Dave:
   http://www.amc.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/145475/amc-command-chief-retires-reflects-on-air-force-commands-importance-career/ 

  http://www.warren.af.mil/News/Features/tabid/3772/Article/333475/20th-af-command-chief-prepared-to-lead-make-difference-in-few-airmen.aspx

 On Thursday we drove over to Goliad so that Joyce could meet up with the “Cackling Hen” ladies at the Commercial Street Bar.  We had a nice time visiting with everyone.

February 26, 2017

 Yesterday Joyce and I went to see the Extreme Bulls Day at the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo.  I think we both agree that this was the best one we have seen.

 To make the show even better they had the PRCA Freestyle Bullfights.  This has to be one of the craziest thing we have seen in a long time.  The rodeo bullfighters are in the arena with a very mad bull where they try to mad him even madder and play with him for sixty seconds.  Here are some links to view some of the action:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f099EQAsKP0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuEQv1o32GQ

Mutton Bustin'

This young man slipped to the side of the animal and wouldn't let go to save his life.  Winner, winner!

 

Freestyle Bullfighting.  Craziest thing we have seen lately!

The pickup men had a heck of a time getting this guy our of the arena.

After the rodeo we met up with friends for supper.

Dave, Mike, Jan, Ronnie, Joyce and yours truly.

 We’ll leave it there.

Barry & Joyce

February 17, 2017

February 11, 2016

 Barry & Joyce’s Adventures have really been extra adventurous this past two weeks.

 As I said in the last post, we left Galveston on the Liberty of the Seas the 29th headed to the Western Caribbean.  Our first stop was in Cozumel, Mexico and since we have been here several times before we decided to just stay on the ship.

 Next was a stop in Grand Cayman.  Again, we had been here a few times but we did take a guided Land and Sea excursion just for something to do.  Did you know there are a lot of banks in Grand Cayman?  I think we passed at least fifteen just in the downtown of the city.

 Our next stop was in Falmouth, Jamaica where we stayed on the ship and relaxed.

This is where our trip really took a turn.

 As you know we put our RV in the shop on January 27 to have some work done on the roof.  On Friday the 3rd we gout an email from Iron Horse RV informing us that they were delayed by cold weather causing them to be behind.  The new “ball park” repair date will be February 13th.  Well, ain’t that just ducky.

 So what do we do now Ke-Mo-Sabe?  We talked about just taking a trip somewhere in Texas but that would have really been expensive.  Also, since the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo was getting ready to start we thought hotel rooms would be at a premium.  After a lot of discussion we decided to ask about the possibility of just staying on Liberty for another week.

 Joyce went to the next cruise folks who said that the ship was completely booked but would let us know if they got a cancellation.  On Saturday she went down to see what was going on and sure as heck they had a stateroom open up.

 The cruise staff quoted a price but Joyce asked to use their phone to call the Royal Caribbean reservation center in Eugene, OR.  They told her that they could beat the ship’s price so with all  the discounts including free gratuities we got the second week for just over $1000.

 As full-time RVers we carry an insurance policy similar to folks that rent a place to live.  A feature of that policy is “trip interruption” coverage that will pay us $100 a day up to a maximum of $1500 for lodging and incidentals.  Since it was a weekend I couldn’t call the insurance adjuster handling our case to get approval but we think at least seven days will be approved.  At least we hope that will be the case.

 When we got to Galveston the Diamond Club Concierge escorted us off the ship and through customs then right back on the ship.  They even moved all of our luggage from our old room to the new one for us.  Now that is great service.

 After two days at sea we pulled into Roatan, Honduras.  Again, Joyce and I have been here before but we did take a excursion that toured the island.

 Our next stop was in Belize City, Belize where we stayed on the ship and relaxed.

 Next stop, Cozumel, Mexico.  Been here, done that.  We did make a quick run to a pharmacy for some skin cream and a couple of t-shirts.

 So, after two weeks on the Liberty we made it back to Galveston Sunday the 12th but not without some drama.  The ship was held at the mouth of the channel for several hours due to very dense fog so we didn’t get into the port until about 9:30.  With that delay we didn’t get off the ship, through customs and out to our car until 1:30.

 After a quick lunch on the way back to San Antonio we finally made it to Randolph AFB where we had a reservation about 5:30.  We were pretty darned tired so we just found a nice Chinese restaurant close to the base for supper and hit the bed early.

February 14, 2017

 On Monday I called Iron Horse RV to check on the status of our house and guess what?  Yep, it isn’t ready.  We then drove over to the shop so we could get a few things out of it and in our best guess it looked like they hadn’t even started the work before last Thursday.  We talked to the body technician we said he might be able to get it done on Wednesday, Thursday at the latest.

We were able to stay in the suite we are in at Randolph until Wednesday and if the shop doesn’t get it done then the manager said he will find something for us in the Bachelor Officer’s Quarters.

 We had tickets to the San Antonio Rodeo last night where John Fogerty played after the show.  Did you know the John is 71 years old?  Believe me when I say that he can still rock the house with some of the best rockin’ roll ever. His son Shane played rhythm guitar who is an outstanding musician in his own right.  And, he recently graduated from the University of California with a 4.0 GPA.

February 16, 2017

 We finally got our house out of the RV hospital yesterday and she looks a lot better with the dents and peeling clear-coat fixed.  All of the work cost us a few bucks (well, more than a few) but if we had let it go much longer the clear-coat would have peeled all the way down the front and back.

February 17, 2016

 What could be better that going to a rodeo in Texas?  When Willie Nelson is playing after the show that’s what!

 Yep, last night we did the rodeo again and then Willie did his show.  Since he is 83 years old I’m sure I will never get to see him perform again live in my l lifetime.  “Lil’ Sister” Bobbie had to be helped on and off of the stage but when she got behind the keyboard you would think she was twenty again.  The band played a lot of Willie’s songs including “Crazy”, “On The Road Again”, “Roll Me Up And Smoke Me When I Die” and many more.  Willie did a great job playing his guitar “Trigger” and sang his heart out during the show.  It was great to see Paul English step up to play drums on “Me and Paul”.  Micky Raphael, probably the best harmonica player ever did some amazing solo’s as well.  Here is a really cool web site about Willie:  http://theboot.com/willie-nelson-birthday/

 By-the-way, it is believed that Trigger is the most valuable guitar in the world and if sold today would fetch about $900K.  Willie bought the guitar sight unseen for $750.

Let's Rodeo!

Until next time.

Barry & Joyce

February 1, 2017

January 15, 2017

 Good morning from St. Augustine, FL. where we are visiting Michelle and her family for a few days.

 On Friday morning we closed up our rig and drove up to Austin to catch a flight to Orlando, FL.  Most of y’all know I hate flying these days but I have to say that this trip on Jet Blue was pretty darned good.  Jet Blue touts they have the most leg room in coach class and that was true.  Also, all of the employee’s we had contact with were outstanding and treated you like they really enjoyed helping you, especially the flight attendants.  Some of the major carriers here in the US should send their employees to Jet Blue’s training academy where they might learn a thing or two about customer service.

 Picking up our Budget rental car was very easy using their Fastbreak service.  They gave us a fairly new Toyota Camry that got the job done nicely.

 After some hassle getting over to I-4 out of Orlando we made our way up to I-95 arriving at Michelle’s house about 1 AM.

January 16, 2017

 Today we all drove up to Jacksonville for a trip to Totally Wine which is very similar to BevMo’! stores on the left coast.  They had some very good sales going on so we stocked up.

January 17, 2017

 We took the kids up to the Museum of Sciences & History in Jacksonville.  One of the highlights was the Anne Frank: Voices of Hope exhibit.

Abby and Skyler eating fried ice cream for the first time.

January 19, 2017

 We got up very early yesterday morning for our drive from St. Augustine to Orlando.  The drive down was relatively easy and getting the car turned in was painless.

 Both of us had a TSA pre-check so clearing security should have been fairly easy.  Well….not so much.  One of the officers told us if you have two computers in a bag to remove one.  Then here came the officer from hell who yells at us to put “everything in the bag”.  Ok, we did that.  Then Joyce and I had our boarding passes in our hands and Officer “Ratchett" says, “I SAID EVERYTHING IN THE BAG!  WHAT PART OF THIS DON’T YOU UNDERSTAND?”  She even grabbed my pass, opened my backpack and stuffed it in one of the pockets.

 Then she says that Joyce had been randomly selected to go through the Xray machine.  When Joyce got on the other side she asked another officer if that is normal procedures.  He said no it wasn’t and that the other person just got a promotion and that she was just flexing her muscles.  When we got to our gate Joyce called the TSA to complain.

 It was really great to see Michelle, Harold, Abigail and Skyler again.  We’ll do that again soon.

January 21, 2017
 Yesterday Joyce, Dave, Jan and I went out to Lackland AFB to attend a Air Force Basic Training graduation ceremony.  Dave and Jan had never seen a formal military parade and to say they were impressed was an understatement.

 On Sunday Joyce and I along with Dave and Jan drove up to San Marcos to do some shopping at the Tanger Outlets.  Joyce found a couple of things and I scored a new sport coat that was marked $200 for $63.  After all of that shopping we went to the Cracker Barrel for lunch.

 We also toured Kissing Tree, a new 55+ housing development being built near San Marcos, TX.  This is going to be a beautiful place when it is finished.

January 28, 2017

 Good Morning from Alvin (near Houston), Texas.

 Yesterday we got up early, pack up our house and took it to Iron Horse RV in north-east San Antonio to have to roof work work done.  There are several dents caused by who knows what and some fading of the clear coat that looks horrible that needed fixing.

 After getting that done we jumped on I-10 and drove to Houston to a mall where Joyce picked up some pants that she ordered.  The drive wasn't too bad until we got to near Katy where the traffic came to a stand-still.  There was a really bad accident that was actually on the westbound side but with all the rubber-necking going on we came to a stand-still for some time.  Read about it here:  http://abc13.com/traffic/i-10-shut-down-in-both-directions-waller-co/1723889/

 We are spending two nights here at the Holiday Inn Express and on Sunday we’ll get on the Liberty of the Seas for our cruise to the Western Caribbean.  We have been to all of the ports on this one before so we’ll probably stay on the ship most of the time.  We do have a trolly tour booked in Grand Cayman.

January 30, 2017

 Good morning from somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico.

 After having a leisurely breakfast at the hotel we left Alvin and drove down to Galveston.  Parking was a piece of cake and what is really cool, it is free to disabled veterans.  If you are taking a cruise out of there and qualify, here is the link to read more about it:  http://www.portgalvestonparking.com/american-veterans.shtml

 We got on the ship about 12:30 and started checking out the ship.  Liberty is a Freedon-class ship and little larger than the Voyager-class and has more amenities. 

 Gotta go for now.  More later.

Barry & Joyce