The Ouseys in Victoria Page

The last blog of 2004.

We find ourselves in Abilene for New Years celebrations. We went out for a fancy dinner at the Texas Roadhouse last night figuring that we would cook in tonight. Wow I had a rack of ribs to die for. Carolyn really enjoyed her steak Kabob. There did not seem to be fear of "mad cow" at this steakhouse, it was busy, busy. We went shopping today for some goodies to make a nice dinner here in the motor home. And we will be thinking of family and friends as we bring in the New Year. So have one on us, and we will have one on you. Happy New Year to everyone.

Arrived at Abilene and are going to stay here for a few days, and have a look-see around. Staying at Tye RV Park; which turns out to be just the other side of I-20 from Dyess Air Force Base. We are just North of the base and with the strong south wind; we discovered we were on the approach end of a runway. We have had B-1 bombers practicing landings and take-offs all day. They fly just overhead and low just before they land; it is actually quite a thrill. Got some excellent pictures. Hopefully it doesn’t go on all night. The thrill will be gone. Probably some pilots getting the qualifications in before years end.

The strong south winds, has kept it clear and warm during the day, but cool at night. However, we may get some rain, at least according to the forecast, but what do they know. I see snow is forecast for Seattle/Victoria. My California has had its problems, on the heels of the fires, now rains turning the burned out areas into mudslides that are wrecking havoc. Just saw on TV that Las Vegas was blanketed by snow. Good thing we aren’t there yet. Crazy weather.

Friends of ours, Kathie and Andy, were to travel into Washington and Oregon States. They were to leave Victoria on Christmas day, however, on their way to the Ferry, the muffler and exhaust pipes fell off and entangled in their rear wheels of their Motor-home, utterly destroying one tire on one the rear Dual tires. To say the least they didn’t go on their trip. Good thing they were going slow and not at speed on the I-5 in the middle of Seattle, it could have been really disastrous. We are happy they are OK. Looking at the snowy conditions in Washington State it was probably just as well they cancelled the trip. Bus size tires (22.5inch) take some time to order and get in; they expect them in 8 days. It got me thinking and so I got under my rig and thoroughly checked the exhaust system, it seems safe.

Just in case I don’t get to blog tomorrow, you’all have a Happy and Prosperous New Year.

Our coolest night was last night, about 28 on the Fish Scale. However, bright and sunny this morning and warming up fast. We are about to leave Oklahoma and head to Carlsbad where we meet with Rob and Sue, who currently in San Diego. We meet them at the Caverns on the 3rd. We had a terrific time with Jack and the boys. We had a fun day in the park with them as Jack recovered from a case of food poisoning. He ate a few shrimp that had obviously turned. He was the only one to eat them. He is fine today. Got an Email from John and Sue Van Shaik and they will be in Quartzite by the 16th of January and wonder if we will be stopping by to see them. There is a good chance that we will. Gotta go, Carolyn just came in with the "get of the damn computer look" that she is so good at producing. Bye for now.

Apparently my Dec 22 blog did not Post. so I reposted it, (still dated Dec 22).

We did Christmas with Jack and his boys on Christmas Eve, and then the boys went back to their Mom for Christmas day. The 3 of us enjoyed Christmas day, contacting family members. We spent time with Dennis, Catherine and our Mom (in Winnipeg) and their daughter; Margot and her husband Joel (in Vancouver) on the Internet with live webcam pictures and all. Amazing this new technology. Also phoned our kids in Victoria. Carolyn was heard to say “I miss the kids, this (being away for Christmas) is not as much fun as I thought it would be.” Despite enjoying being with Jack and his boys, whom we enjoyed immensely, we realize that we really miss being at home for Christmas, family-wise as well as friend-wise. So it is unlikely that we will be away for Christmas, at least, for next year. We will probably go away again, but it will be after Christmas. This weekend we will be preparing for our departure for Carlsbad Caverns where we will be meeting Rob and Sue, who left Victoria on the 24th in their motorhome.
Strange enjoying the holidays, in temperature hovering around 60 degrees, on the “fa, re, me, doh” scale. Been sunny, sunny, but also blazingly clear at night. So temperture drop all the way down to 46. They are forecasting some rain for tomorrow.
TTFN

Thanks to all you sent Email Christmas wishes and thank you to the fine vocalists in Victoria, namely the Prices, McKeevers, Hutchins and Tim for their “harmonic” version of “We wish you a Merry Christmas” left on my Brother’s answering machine. On that note:

We Wish you a Merry Christmas
and
a Happy New Year.

Gary & Carolyn

We enjoyed our stay at Harlingen and figure that just may be a place we would like to return to someday. A couple of days on the road and in Walmarts and we have just returned to Bro Jack’s in Tishomingo OK. He has the boys here for today and tomorrow, Christmas Eve, but he doesn’t have them Christmas Day. So we will do Christmas with them tomorrow and have Christmas dinner with Jack on Christmas day. We arrived just as Jack was “Yahoo”ing with Bro Dennis online with webcams and all. So we chatted awhile; all in preparation for doing it again over Christmas when our Mom is at Dennis’s. She enjoys seeing her 3 boys online together.

Beautiful sunny crystal clear day here in Tish, tho, it is that way due to the cool North wind blowing in. Temperature is about 58 on the Frosty scale. The mailman cometh via Jack’s, thanks for the Christmas cards, Lyn and Alan, also Tena and David. Thanks to Megan and Ben for the Christmas greetings, letters and pictures too. Thanks Kathie for the box of chocolates, they will be a real treat. And thanks to me Mom for the card and cheque too. Now to catch up on the email.

TTFN

Yesterday we went touring Pharr; 30 miles to the west of Harlingen. We had an excellent Mexican lunch in appeared to be an authentic Mexican restaurant. Mostly Mexican’s eating there anyway, so it must have been good, right? We quite enjoyed it, even had some Mexican music, one on a guitar and the other on a harp. Yep a harp. We saw many Motorhome places so checked them out to, the ones where they sell them. We saw one in particular that we liked, an “Allegro Bay” by Tiffen Motor Homes. It was beautiful, two slides etc… and well I don’t have the space to go into it here.

Today mostly prepared ourselves to leave and return to Bro Jack’s for Christmas. We did, however, take time to see “Lord of the Rings” the “Return of the King”. The final one in the trilogy and like the others it was excellent, amazing what they can do in films as far as Graphic enhancements go. Well done all round.

Gotta go be back on-line in a couple of days.

We headed for South Padre Island for the day today. It is a world of difference from North Padre Island. The North end has very little in the way of resorts, whereas the South end is far more populated and has many resorts, condo’s, etc. The beach, however, is the same; long, fine sand, and beautiful; of course, no end to the T-shirt shops, therefore, we had to stop and buy one. The weather, since we got here has been sunny, and warm, about 73 Filibusters. No wind and very dry. The nights were near frost though the last two nights. We saw, “Whaling Wall” #53 done by Wayland, spectacular as usual. A very enjoyable day all round. Have met a few other Canadians, mostly from Ontario, although we met a self appointed “welcome to the neighbourhood” welcomer from Quebec. He had lots of good ideas, some of which we actually used. We also finalized arrangements to meet Rob and Sue Robinson at Carlsbad Caverns on or about 4th January 2004.

TTFN

Before we departed Lackland AFB, Carolyn got hold of her brother Lewis. We were unaware that he had gotten a buyout from the company he was working for in Calgary and he had taken his leave and returned to his old stomping grounds of Saskatoon. He was quite happy with the buy out, a year’s salary and that gets him past his 60th birthday when he can get his CPP. He feels well and is doing well. He will spend Christmas with friends, which is quite different for him as he always spent Christmas with us in Victoria. Apparently he will be visiting Victoria in the May/June time frame.

We left Lackland AFB and headed for Padre Island. We passed through Corpus Christi to North Padre Island and set up camp at the National park on the island. The Island is very flat and composed of mostly vegetation-covered sand dunes. It happened to be very windy and we only spent two days there. The first day the winds were from the South (gusting to 40 mph or 65 on the Kilofast scale) and warm but they swung around to the North last night and got cool, well cool for around here, mid 50’s. Anyhow, we enjoyed the island but decided` due the wind` to leave and head further south. Today we arrived in Harlinger and pulled into the Sunburst RV Resort. We are between Brownsville and Pharr, two places besides Harlinger that we wanted to check out. We got a good deal $42 for 4 days because we belong to Passport America, (50% off). So we will stay 4 days and do day trips from here. We will then head back to Jacks for Christmas. Got modem access here, so more later.

We spent the day looking at Motor-homes up at New Braunfels. We thought we would see what was available around here, not that we would buy anything, but there are so many dealers in the area that we could see a broad range of models. There sure are many makes models and floor-plans. We saw some really nice rigs and they look so reasonable in US Dollars. One thing we have noticed being in this one for nearly 4 months, we could use the floor space that slides would provide.

We are fine and healthy. The area is rife with the flu (epidemic proportions they say) and we are taking every precaution to prevent our catching it.

We will be making our way to Corpus Christi tomorrow. We may be staying at Naval Air Station Campground, space permitting, or San Padre Island National Park, probably both. We want to spend some time on San Padre Island so we will try to get into the park, unfortunately they don’t take reservations.

Some national parks don’t have Internet access so we may be we will be off line for a few days. TTFN

Dennis took issue with my comment. ("We took the day off to shop and relax" Bwahahahahaha. This is a quote from Gary's blog. They have nothing but time to take off.... unless golfing is considered work!? )

It is touristing that we took time off from. Being a tourist is hard work, one has to plan and pack all sorts of stuff, like maps, hats, suntan lotion, cameras, binoculars, jackets, umbrellas (just in case), etc; and you have walk forever, to see a lot of stuff like River Walk, the Alamo and whatever. That gets some tiring. So we take “time off” to do “normal” stuff.

We got some rain last night the first we have seen for a couple of weeks. It has been extremely dry here and Oklahoma, in fact they have been in an official drought for some time.

Just noticed that the temperature in Seattle is warmer than Dallas today. We are at 54 deg on the warmer than centigrade scale. Well must get back to tourist stuff again today, going to be tired tonight. Will have to take time off and relax again tomorrow. Whheewww!

We are still at Lackland AFB. We will hang around here a few more days. Enjoying San Antonio too much to leave just yet. Got to get on the golf course again, maybe tomorrow. Very relaxing, weather great except for the winds yesterday, gusting up to 60 km/h. However, sunny and warm (around 70 southern degrees) just the same. Took the day off today to shop and relax. We put up some Christmas decorations in the rig and a lighted spiral tree (2 ft.) outside. Haven’t decorated our small tree yet. Well must go “West Wing” is on.

After a day of catching up on household type chores we went back to downtown San Antonio and back to the River Walk to see what it looks like at night and decorated for Christmas. Simply spectacular. We ate a fine meal at a Mexican Restaurant right on the canal edge and then took a river cruise to see all the sights along the canal. Very enjoyable and informative. It reached 72 deg, or 22 centavos, and was still around 68 this evening, shirtsleeve weather out amongst the Christmas lighting, hmmm, what’s wrong with this picture? I would put pictures up on this site, but since I am periodic dialup the download would take too long and besides that I haven’t figured out how to do it.

Dec 9th is Darling Daughter Lyn’s birthday. I hope she has a good one. Happy Birthday Dear. Actually it was Michael’s (Nov 16) and David’s (Nov 30), and although we remembered, by card and email I forgot to mention it here in the blog. While I am on the family, Noni has started her new job as the Events coordinator and Manager of the two restaurants at Cordova Bay Golf Course. Guess I’ll have to golf Cordova more frequently now.

Speaking of Golf. Two fine courses on Base here; one at Lackland Air Force Base and the other at Kelly Air Force Base even though less than a 2 miles separate them. Wish my game was as good as the courses LOL.

Healthwise, we are all in good shape. The flu is running rampant in San Antonio and so far so good, as we haven’t caught it. Mind you we both have a mild sore throat today????? Well we will take our vitamins and go to bed. Nighty Nite.

We have set up at Lackland AFB; much the same as Fort Sam Houston, except we also have CATV and free laundry too. We’ll be here a few days.

Today we headed downtown San Antonio. We toured “The Alamo”; the original site of the Alamo. A very sacred spot, even had to remove headwear to enter and view the interior and museum pieces. We then found “River Walk” which is a couple of miles of Canal, located below street level and connecting to the San Antonio River, very spectacular. The walkway is right along both edges of the river. Many, many restaurants and you actually, in spots, walk amongst the tables; many waterfalls, bridges and hotels too. At one point there is a stage on one side and the stadium seating on the other. It was here that we saw a “Birds Of Prey” demonstration show, which was exciting with hawks, and owls flying about. Behind this seating was the old town “La Villiata” We happened on a reenactment of the signing of concessions that occurred a couple of hundred years ago between Texas and Mexico.

Much more to see, but had to get back to his highness Sir Chuffley. Poor little guy gets left behind too much as far as he is concerned, but he is a good doggy. Well we have a few days to see more. TTFN

We are currently in San Antonio at a campground in Fort Sam Houston Army Base. These Military Campgrounds are really neat. They are so well serviced and clean. Easily compares to twice the price for an equivalent Civvie site. Plus easy access to internet etc. We are making great use of them. This one takes reservations, not having made reservations, we are here only one night. We will move to Lackland Air Force Base campground on the other side of town. They don’t take reservations and have space available. We will stay there a week likely, lots to see and do around San Antonio.

Man what a military presence here. There 4 Air Force Bases alone: Lackland AFB, Brooks AFB, Kelly AFB, Randolph AFB as well as Fort Sam Houston (Army) and Bullis (Army) all in or near San Antonio. Not to mention, local reserve unit and National Guards. We passed a national guard area on our way into town that had more rolling stock than CFB Esquimalt combined. Boggles the mind it does.

We are doing our Christmas cards and will mail them today. I would suggest to everyone that there is no point sending us any. If you use our home address we won’t see them until March, hardly timely. Email greetings are certainly sufficient. Christmas feels strange down here what with the warm weather and, trees still in leaf. Having said that they do expect a “Canadian” cold front this far south (29.5 north latitude) tonight with a light frost warning. We are being blamed for bringing it with us and I am beginning to think they are right. LOL.

TTFN.

Here it is Tuesday. We had a nice visit over the weekend with Jack’s boys. They sure have grown. We did a trip to Durant, my second time there. Jack and I went last week where I saw most of the SOSU campus where Jack’s works and his Visual Arts center. Quite an establishment. He is very happy working there. Also went to Denison Texas where he had some of his sculptures at an art show, to pick them up to return them to the storage at the university.

I had some problem with overheating with my Toad (towed- the Sunfire). It was over heating slightly so we didn’t get to visit some of the sights that we had planned. Of course it happened on the weekend so I couldn’t get it fixed until Monday or Tuesday. I got the car fixed this morning. All it needed was a new thermostat and new radiator cap, so it is all ready to go. I also managed to change the oil and grease the Motor Home, myself and Carolyn did a “spring cleaning” inside. So it is ready to go too

The boys went back to their Mom Sunday evening. It was good seeing them again. They are such a loving pair. Besides Jack’s dogs, Lucky and Molly, he has a new cat Smokey. The cat is a real sweetie, and was on my lap most of the time, which makes it hard to type with a cat worming her way under my hands all the time.

Tomorrow we are on our way to Texas. Probably will stay in the Dallas area. Am going to miss this High Speed connection I have had the opportunity to use for a week.

Talked to my Mom yesterday and she is improving all the time. The pace maker is fine but it was the psychological adjustment that took time. She had been fearful of moving much, thinking she would disconnect it somehow. She is pretty well used to it now. She appreciates all the letters, cards, and flowers that everyone sent. She quite enjoyed the note from Tena included with their card.

Hey, you know they got WalMarts all over the place around here. Walmart heaven, for those so inclined.

Till next time