San Antonio, Texas

We sold our car and got a rental car, drove to San Antonio on Friday November 20, speed limit 80!! Missed rush hour traffic. Found our hotel, the Wyndham on the RiverWalk, 3 1/2 stars, got through Hotwire, about $60/night. Took car to airport to return, only got lost once! The hotel was right next to River Walk, truly a beautiful place, lots of tourists walking along, but I got no pics! Rocky and I sure enjoyed it. Saturday did a Hop on Hop off tour, from Groupon, $27 for 2, good for 2 days, first stop: The Alamo. Sat and watched the Nat Geo movie, nice for those who can't stand for very long. Next stop: The Mercado, had lunch at Las Margaritas, great place for people watching, prices not too gougy. Wandered around the market, found open chairs for the free Ballet Folklorico show. Caught the tour bus just in time and back to hotel, for another walk with Rocky on the RiverWalk. Our tour guide/driver was surly and stringing together sentences just to be talking, it was kind of comical and disappointing.

Massive tree in Courtyard of the Alamo, if this tree could talk!

Doorway to Alamo, free but a long line.

Smack dab in the middle of the city.

Horse and carriage tours are available but I am too cheap! That's our tour bus on the right.

Ballet Folklorico dance - the women who took up arms and fought in the war. ( Can't remember which war)

The littlest dancers! So cute!

The caballeros

Churro Santa?

Big Beautiful horse

Wow, I am a sucker for carriages!

Ready to Move to Hawaii

Where are we now? San Angelo, Texas Where are we headed to next? Hilo, Hawaii

We left Moses Lake on July 31st. Mike had a colonoscopy the Monday before that and was diagnosed with colon cancer, an awful 32nd anniversary gift. Had to get to San Angelo, Texas as I'd been offered a 13 week contract job at Shannon Medical Center the day before his diagnosis and had to be making $ to pay those upcoming medical bills. It was a long hot drive. Made it here with 2 days to spare! The people at Shannon were nice to work with. Mike had surgery on 9/11 and did great. Went home on 9/13 and did great for a few days then became septic and headed back to ER on 9/16, surgery had to be redone on 9/17, then of course had all possible side effects of bowel surgery, with nausea, vomiting and all that fun stuff. He did not sleep for 4 days and was fairly entertaining, laughing at the chihuahuas on his feet, picking at stuff in the air etc. Finally got to go home on 9/26. It was a long awful time. But enough about that! We are leaving San Angelo tomorrow for San Antonio, then on to Hilo Hawaii. Woo Hoo!!!! I have a condo (hopefully) rented and sent someone a deposit on a car, I know, never send $ to someone you don't know but it's worth the gamble! If it's a real car when I get there then I won, if it doesn't exist I got ripped off! Stay tuned!

Mike all healed up, with one of the many Ewe's that they have all around town, cattle is not king here!

The front lawn of St John's Campus where I worked at Dialysis clinic and Long term care. This tree was filled with Monarch butterflies! Apparently this is a stopover point on their way to Mexico!

New restaurant in town, I heard the line wound around the block. There is at least 2 restaurants on every block here!

The HEB store, an adventure in grocery shopping, all the dietitians shop here!

Crawfish for sale!

Downtown San Angelo, this bordello was open till the '50's and now is a restaurant with marginal food but great atmosphere.

Looking down the hallway of the bordello, each girl had her own room each with a screen door.

Parlor with original furniture.

What is 6 1/4 cents?

Typical scenery in West Texas, mesquite trees and cactus, every time someone burns a slash pile I start thinking "Mmm Steak!"

These cactus grown everywhere!

Bought this car for $1000 when we got here, sold it for $1000 the day before leaving hre!

I heard this a lot in Texas, usually with a "Y'all" as in "Y'all have a blessed day." It kinda grows on you.

Work Camping in Moses Lake Washington at Pier 4 - May-July 2015

Yes I am still alive and kicking. We made it out of California to Moses Lake without breaking down, that's a plus. I spent the summer work camping at Pier 4, which let me spend time with the in-laws, get Jenna moved to Cheney for college, visit with Wade and friends at Bonner General and have doctor's appointments and had a nice visit with my Uncle Mike and Aunt Rae. For the uninitiated work camping means you work at the campground/RV park in exchange for space rent/utilities. I did earn the minimum wage. It actually was a great experience, though you have to ask your self this: why would a licensed, college educated health care professional want to spend the summer scrubbing bathrooms??? Well, I found myself wondering the same thing, but it was perfectly mindless work and great exercise, I could go to work in shorts and sandals without caring about what my hair looked like. I was done in time to watch the Price is Right, how many years have I stood in patient's rooms trying to sneak a glimpse at the Price is Right? It haunts me still. (smile) Stay tuned!

Mount Shasta in Northern California

Casino in Southern Oregon, spent the night in the free RV park

Nice Free RV park, they shuttle you up to the casino so you can lose your money!

A family of 2 adults and 2 kids live in this bus, they were panhandling at a rest area in Oregon. 

They keep chickens in a coop on the roof of the bus! They hope to expand in to meat rabbits the dad told me.

The Oregon/Washington border. All of Washington is NOT green.

NOT! And super Windy in The Dalles!

Impressive eagle statue at the Seven Feathers Casino

Mothers Day
 I cooked a Thanksgiving dinner, as my Sister-in-Law had brought a turkey, but it turns out she didn't know how to cook it!!!

Bass fishing in Lake County, goodbye Konocti Vista Casino and RV resort!

Done with our winter job in Lakeport, time to move out of the Casino parking lot!!
Konocti Vista Casino sits on Clear Lake, they have a nice marina and bass tournaments almost every weekend. Bass fishing is kind of a big deal here! Saw lots of fancy boats, it's catch and release only, rumors are that the fish in general is not safe to eat, due to mercury content. The RV park is essentially a large parking lot with over 100 hookups, they have a nice dog pen that Rocky thought was his own private yard. There is very little management oversight which was fine with us, you could spread out if you wanted, we took up 2 spaces and no one said a word. I did see a gal drive her rig up, wash it, fill up with water and then leave! RV park guests can use the dock and the swimming pool. Not cheap though, there is no real monthly rate discount, if my contract hadn't covered half my space rent things would have been bad!

ESPN was here

Big bags of Bass

Boat Launch

picnic area

RV Park

Tour of Lillie Langtry Estate and Vineyards

For an early birthday present I booked a private tour of the Lillie Langtry Estate, on April 11th. I've found that the "youngsters" don't know who Lillie Langtry here's a bio from website "The Jersey Lilly".:

 A Deans daughter, a sister to six brothers, a wife to a wealthy merchant, an acknowledged beauty, a society A-List guest an artists model, mistress to a future king, inspirer of poetry and plays, society hostess.

Lillie Langtry went from wearing only one dress to being acknowledged leader of fashion, from being socially inept to societies "must have" and when she lost favour and was nearly bankrupt she re-invented herself as an actress and entrepreneur.
She made advertising socially acceptable, toured America with her own acting company, started a winery in America and was a successful owner of race horses. She amassed millions and spent with equal extravagance, the centre of attention wherever she went. Intelligent humorous, fascinating to both men and women she was admired and idolised by people from all walks of life.
At home in the company of Princes and Presidents, artists and poets or simply alone in her garden. Envied, respected adored and lampooned, her fame spanning over half a century.
Throughout her life she left a trail of broken hearts.
A controversial figure who challenged Victorian society's attitudes to women, but was no suffragette.
A unique individual who was years ahead of her time.

 

We met our tour guide Scott and off  went we in the Ford Explorer with a cooler of wine and a picnic basket with boxed lunches. We went four wheeling through the vineyards, saw the original grapevine planted by Lillie herself in 1888, or so he said, then went to Lillie's actual house and ate our delicious lunch in her dining room!! I was thrilled to see the house as this wasn't part of our tour.
The estate consists of 21,000 acres, a private golf course which gets used by about 50 players over the year and costs $100,000 to keep green, per Scott. And the wine was spectacular!!
Tons of vineyards of all different grapes, making wines some of which, I confess, I had never heard of! The grapes are picked by hand by (legal) migrant workers, they get paid $30/ton and a good picker can pick a ton an hour! Hard work for sure.
After the tour we carried on to Twin Pines Casino and hotel, where Mike won enough to pay for the day!! Sweet!

Impressive entrance

View of lake on the estate from Cellar

Free Picnic Area

Lilly's original vine, still trying to produce grapes!

Just a beautiful day!

The rows in the older vineyards are far apart, big enough to drive through.

The fireplace in the Parlor

Flat screen TV in the Parlor looks out of place.

The view from the master bedroom.