First of all, we wish everyone a very merry Christmas! It is hard to believe that this month is already half over to say nothing of the year!
We arrived in Colorado and set up camp at the Riverview Campground and RV Park in Loveland, CO. We were there to visit my good friends, Carol and Al Valdez and their daughters, Jorie and Tami and Jorie’s two kids, Alexandra and KJ, both just the cuties! Carol, Tami and I had an enjoyable time in Denver at the Exhibition Hall viewing lots of Christmas food, crafts and goodies. It was a tradition for us when I lived there for 10 years. It was bittersweet renewing that old tradition. We also had a great time visiting with old friends (and Dave making new) as we went to Karen and Gary’s for an evening. Had lots of catching up to do and not enough time! We enjoyed an early Christmas present of snow that evening in the middle of November. Karen and I exchanged snowballs, my first in many years! I also fixed the Valdez’ their favorite meal of my lasagne, green salad, homemade bread and chocolate mousse. Mmm! Mmm!
I got my hair done by Carol’s gal and she did a GREAT job and I paid 1/3 of what I pay in California! Carol and I teased Dave and told him he wasn’t going to BELIEVE what I paid for my hair. He was freaking out that I would pay three times as much. To say the least, he was pleasantly surprised at how much I didn’t pay! Carol and I took a long, lovely walk in the snow covered neighborhood and to the library out in the countryside. Made me miss my old haunts. It is lovely there in the snow. I loved it! I hated to go! But time moves on and Dave was rarin’ to go hunting by the first of December in North Carolina. So we packed up and…
So much snow had fallen in Loveland that it froze in big piles on the top of the slide-outs. Being the greenhorns that we are, Dave told me to put the slide-outs in while he went to the office to settle up. Great! I will just push the button and the slides will close up and we’ll be on our way! One of the earliest we have left for our next destination! Yahoo!
CRACK! CRUNCH! GRIND! What is wrong?? As Dave came back, he looked at the bedroom slide-out, which goes in first, and knew there was a problem when he saw it all cattywampus! Who knew that there were covers available for slide-outs that prevent snow from collecting on the tops? NOW we know! The hydraulic rod bent to almost a “U”! OOPS! It was quite comical, in retrospect, as we scraped the morning away on all three slide-outs! The bed itself was almost vertical as I chopped the ice away from the inside. Dave was outside high on the ladder chopping away at the other two. He had to take the hydraulics apart and winch in the bed and hold it with straps so that we could travel. We finally got on our way two hours later and headed towards Kansas. We spent the night at another WalMart in Hays, KS and drove to Holton, KS the following day. There we spent a delightful four days with Ron and Kathleen Cobb. I have known Ron for over 50 years. His parents and mine were best friends in Santa Barbara. Kathleen and he have been married for 12 years and this is the first time I was able to meet her. She is a wonderful artist who paints and photographs. I loved seeing her work. They are the consummate hosts who took us to Ft Leavenworth, the Army post, and to a delightful little burg in Missouri called Weston where we had a delicious lunch at a restaurant owned by Kathleen and Rebecca Mayer, two young women who are sisters. If you ever pass through the town the restaurant is called “The Vineyards”. It was delicious! They take turns between the back and the front of the house so they are multi-talented. We were reluctant to leave Holton, as we were having such a wonderful time. Ron even went so far as to find several properties for sale with us in mind! He and Dave connected as only two Army guys can! I was also able to visit with Ron’s mom, Phyllis, with a delicious meal and catching up on all the family news. I had a nice visit shopping the town square with Kathleen’s daughter, Bonnie, as well. It was nice to meet her also! Thanks, y’all for a wonderful time!
From Kansas we drove through to Nashville, TN. We drove through Missouri, Illinois and Kentucky at night and couldn’t see a thing! I drove the majority of that stretch and in St. Louis I nearly creamed someone getting on to the correct route. I had just come over the bridge and the turn-off was, boom, right there! I am VERY long and all I could hear was someone laying on their horn and I’m a comin’! I could not see them at all but I could sure hear them! Talk about road rage! She rolled down her window and swore at me to no end! “I’m sorry!” was all I could say! Thank God there was no one else on the road and she could recover! I hope I don’t run into her somewhere else on the road! I be a dead person!! After all was said and done, we arrived safely at another WalMart in Nashville, TN. From there we drove to Dave’s brother’s home in Knoxville. We stayed there a week, waiting for the part to fix the bed, which Jim, Dave’s brother, helped with. Thanks, Jim! We enjoyed having Thanksgiving with Dave’s family, Jim’s wife and niece as well as Dave’s mom and Jim’s in-laws. On Thanksgiving weekend, we took Mary, Dave’s mom, up to Gatlinburg, through the Great Smoky Mountains, to Cherokee, NC. It was very crowded so Dave and I went up the following Monday when all of the tourists had gone home. The mountains are beautiful. Everything is so green alongside the roads. Very different from California’s dry fields! We had fun traipsing around Gatlinburg by ourselves in a bit of a rain. We were able to find an indoor craft show which was fun. We had a nice time chatting with the local artisans who all had something unique to offer.
We left Knoxville, TN on Dec. 3 and arrived at Banjo Creek RV Resort in Asheboro, NC the same day. Dave’s dad and brother and sisters and cousins all live in the Randleman area. I have enjoyed meeting all of them, the last few just yesterday at a lunch Dave’s stepmom provided at the Cedar Springs Friends Meetinghouse. Dave had a three day hunting trip with his dad. He harvested a doe and we have just enough room in our freezer for 14 tenderloins. Dave has started marinating some for dinner tonight. I have been busily baking Christmas goodies for all of the kids. Now I need to get them all mailed off. I must find boxes. The things I have to mail have somehow expanded exponentially! I don’t think the US Postal boxes will be big enough! We have also had printed about 1/4 ton of postcards so if you would like to receive one, please email me your address. I do have some addresses and Dave has about 250 so if you are not sure we have yours, please send it along so that we can keep in touch via snail mail. As of January 3, our address will be 602 S Main St #797, Crestview, FL 32536-4252. For now, you can mail us c/o Harrison Gray, 5953 Davis Country Rd., Randleman, NC 27317.
Merry Christmas to all and may you receive all the blessings Jesus has to offer!
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