Saturday, May 24, 2008

Our vacation thus far

April 7-12 - home to Fredericksburg, Kingsland & Burnet
Had a great breakfast with Mom before leaving & then caught a tailwind all the way to Deming NM. Things are boding well! Nascar was on the move from Dallas to Phoenix. We don't know the drivers but are sure we would have been impressed if we did. We saw countless trucks & motorhomes. Had our first tornado warning in Fredericksburg. No tornado but lots of wind & hard rain. Kind of exciting, actually. Lots to do in Fredericksburg - mostly food related. We found the home of raspberry chipotle sauce. Discovered a couple new favorites as well as splitting a piece of the best peach cobbler. We visited Luckenbach & aren't sure what Waylon, Willie & the boys did there but it's quite cute. A dyed hot pink pig wearing sunglasses won the Burnet (pronounced Burn It) Bluebonnet Festival pet parade. Our big anniversary celebration in Burnet consisted of dinner & the demolition derby.
April 13 & 14 - Austin
Stayed at the beautiful McKinney Falls State Park. Our site was huge & had lots of grass, trees & shade. Hiked to upper & lower McKinney Falls. We visited cousins Yulah & Lee at their beautiful home perched above Austin & had a great dinner. Their view of downtown is amazing. Toured the State Capitol which is huge & beautifully built with terrazzo floors, limestone walls, ornate wooden doorframes, columns, etc. The desks & chairs in the Senate chamber are original. The House members were a little more clever, in that they have replacement chairs that look much more comfortable. We did a quick driving tour down 6th Street but it was before the evening hoopla began. We had important lounging under the trees to do back at McKinney Falls.
April 15-23 - Alfa Rally in Montgomery
We arrived a day early, hoping Jon & his team could fix our no-longer-retracting tip-out. It retracts, but only if Dennis stands on the bed & pulls like crazy. The guys got right to work & all is now well. Thanks to all of them - and we're sure to Richard as well for pushing us near the top of their to-do list. We toured NASA in Houston, which was really interesting. The rally was much the same as last year, with one exciting twist. Dennis & I won the grand prize - a free Adventure Caravan to the Oshkosh air show. Approximately $2500 value AND it starts the day after we drop Mom off at the Milwaukee airport. Talk about fate! Larry & LeeDelle were not so lucky. They are coming with us but had to pay for their trip.
April 27-May 4 - Cruisin' with the Kaspers!
Took a brief detour in Galveston to the Spot to say "hi" to Mom on their webcam. Arrived at the ship early & they whisked us right onboard. Carnival surprised us by being much nicer than we all expected. Great food, shows, drinks & activities. Nearly 3,000 passengers but the ship never felt crowded. Two days at sea, then Jamaica. We learned about the island during our trip from Montego Bay to Ocho Rios. Hiking Dunn's River Falls was hectic but lots of fun & quite pretty. Teamwork was definitely needed to climb some of the inclines. The next day was Grand Cayman. Wow, beautiful. We rode Wave Runners to the stingray sandbar. Oh my gosh - could not believe this was my idea. Dennis, Larry & LeeDelle really enjoyed it. I DO NOT like fish of any sort & spent most of my time avoiding contact but did pose for the stingray on the back & kissing the stingray pics. Ick! We jumped on our skis once the big tour boats arrived & headed to a reef for some snorkeling. Dennis was messing around doing slow tight circles when a "rogue wave" flipped us over. We scrambled back up before the others knew what happened. Dennis & Larry had another wild ride over the sizeable waves on our way back to the harbor while LeeDelle & I hung on for dear life...and screamed...and laughed. We spotted a huge iguana sunning himself on the seawall of one of the homes we passed. Our last port was Cozumel, where we hired a van for an island tour. The Caribbean coast was beautiful. We had a great fish taco lunch & enjoyed the sea breeze at Playa Bonita. Now we're understanding Mexican beach vacations! We had one more day at sea before returning to Galveston. There was a lot to do on the ship & plenty of time for relaxing.
May 5-10 - Oklahoma bound
We spent 2 days after the cruise resting & doing laundry. Checked in with Mom & learned the Alfa factory shut down on April 30th. We're more worried about Richard getting laid off than our motorhome. Guess we'll just have to wait to see how it all plays out. Arrived at Kermit & Becky's house, friends we had met on our Alaska cruise many years ago. They have had quite a year, with a flood destroying their beautiful home & several other troubles. Despite it all, they are still so much fun to be around. Dennis got to ride all around town with Kermit & play farmer. We also took their ATVs out to the hills, visited a local winery & had many great meals.
May 11-24 - OK to AZ, AZ to OK
We decided to surprise Mom for Mother's Day & drove home in the Jeep. We called Sunday morning to tell her Marcie had dropped off a surprise. We were standing in the driveway when she came out, then went inside to make breakfast & mimosas. The look on her face was worth the 14.5 hour drive! While home Barb got to attend a Girls' Night Out party & we caught up with many friends. Barb also got to take her friend Debbie to lunch to celebrate making the Deans List & being invited to join her college's honor society. Debbie works full time, raises her grandson & is a past graduate of the Women Living Free program so this is a huge achievement. Our return trip to retrieve our motorhome from Kermit & Becky's house took us through Ruidoso NM & Quartz Mountain OK. We spent one more night with Kermit & Becky then got out of their hair. Harvest is next week, so Dennis really wanted to stay!

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Dennis & I have entered the computer age! Friends & family have asked us to send travel updates, so this our attempt. Enjoy!