May 25, 2012

We spent all day getting our stuff together for our trip to the Great Lakes.  Tomorrow we will hook up the trailer and drive to Freeport where Jim and his brother have a house on the Intracoastal Waterway near Surfside Beach.  We'll spend the Memorial Day weekend there before heading north.

May 26, 2012

We went to the storage lot and picked up the Casita this morning and drug it back to the house.  We loaded it and then took off to David and Jim’s house on the Intra Coastal Waterway in Freeport, Texas.  David lives here full time.  At the house I noticed the outside door to the hot water heater was missing.  Jim doesn’t know if it was on the Casita at the storage lot or if we lost it somewhere in between there and home. Jim thinks it was stolen for scrap metal by a petty thief.  We have had a couple of other instances of vandalism to our trailer at this place even though you have to have a gate code to gain access.  We notified the staff last Monday that we will be canceling our site there.  After we return from the Great Lakes we will be storing the Casita at my mother’s house.  It’s about 55 miles from our house so it won’t be as convenient to get to it as before.

We arrived at Freeport and got set up.  I fixed a broccoli salad to contribute to tonight’s dinner and then Jim wanted to go try to find some geocaches.  There were a couple in Surfside but one was infested with sticker burs and cacti and the other was in the middle of a park at the jetty overrun with families because of Memorial Day weekend.   We came back and sat outside and watched the traffic go up and down the Intra Coastal waterway.
 

May 27, 2012

We slept with the door open last night so we could get a good breeze through the Casita.  All of the windows were open and the shades were up.  It was very bright when the sun rose so we got up early.  After breakfast we drove to Lake Jackson and went to Lowes and WalMart.  More of David’s friends came today and there was a total of fifteen of  us.  The young people fished today and Sierra caught her first fish.  It was a redfish.  Taylor caught a really interesting looking fish.  David said it was a Sheepshead.  It had the strangest looking teeth.  They looked like human teeth.

David got crawfish this morning and we had them for dinner tonight boiled with potatoes, corn and sausage.  I made a slaw recipe that has ramen noodles in it.  I also made a banana pudding and there were chocolate cupcakes and some really good deviled eggs.  We watched the activity on the Intra Coastal and sat outside and enjoyed the day.  After noon the traffic got so bad on the road to Surfside that the police closed it and wouldn’t let anyone else go toward the beach.  It was reopened a couple of hours later.

May 28, 2012

We loaded up and left Freeport this morning and drove to our house.  I had to pick up some stuff I had bought for mom and leave it with my brother, Elton, in case she needs anything while we are gone.  I also watered the lawn and flowerbeds.  We are leaving the Toyota in the barn at mom’s house in case Elton or Allen need to take her anywhere.  After driving to my brother’s, we went to see mom and played bingo with her.  She didn’t win today.  We stopped and picked up Subway sandwiches for dinner and watched the first episode of “Hatfields and McCoys”.

May 29, 2012

I fixed migas and bacon and biscuits for us at breakfast.  Elton got ready to go camping near Coldspring, Texas with a lady friend of his.  We took the Toyota to my son and then went to visit my mother.  She finished reading a library book we checked out for her and I took it back and got her another one.  We stopped for gas at Wal-Mart in Liberty and then drove to Jim’s sister Judy’s house in Troup, Texas near Tyler.  She fixed a nice dinner for us and then the three of us went about a half mile down the road to a cemetery and found a geo cache.  It was in a small film canister tethered to a big oak tree.  We went back to Judy’s and watched part 2 of “Hatfields and McCoys”.

May 30, 2012

Thunder woke us up this morning and I had to close the Casita windows and the wing windows on the Silverado camper cover.  We got 1/4 inch of rain.  Judy drove us into Tyler and we did some shopping and had lunch at B J’s Brewhouse.  On the way back to the house we found three geocaches.  One was behind the “Welcome to Tyler” sign on Broadway (Hwy. 69), one in a tree at the New Life Church on Hwy. 69, and one in Whitehouse, Texas, behind a computer store.  A man came out to his car and saw us and asked what we were doing.  We told him we were looking for a geocache.  He smiled and said he was the one who had placed it.  He told us to come see him after we found it.  Jim went and told him we left a trinket in the cache.  At night we watched part 3 of “Hatfields & McCoys”.

If anyone is interested in geocaching, here is where you should go - www.geocaching.com.

May 31, 2012

It rained another 1/2 inch after midnight and through the early morning.  Judy went to her grandson John’s (Bubba)  kindergarten graduation this morning with her son, Tom.  After she returned we got the Casita hooked up.  We drove into Troup and filled up with gas and stopped at Brookshires to get some groceries.  Our first stop after that was Casita in Rice, Texas.  Jim bought a new outside door for the hot water heater to replace the one that was stolen.  He also bought a clear panel for the screen door to replace our black one.  A couple of push buttons on our cabinet door locks were broken and Casita gave us two new ones.  We drove to Waxahachie Creek Park on Lake Bardwell and got an RV site.  We have a pretty view of the lake.  After dinner we took a walk through the park and then came back to watch the Astros game and update the blog.