Sat. Jan. 23, 2010 - Austin - Day ONE...

Thurs. Jan. 21st - PICKLEBALL!!!!

FINALLY the temps. are in the 70's - The TEXANS are saying that WINTER is OVER!! I hope they're right.
We were able to play for 2-3 hours the last two mornings. AND as ALWAYS have made new friends on the court and have run into some old friends from Florida. Here's Keith and Bill - a new friend and good player.

Bill just gets so excited..:)

This is Mel..another new friend. The sad thing about this park is..they have 2 BEAUTIFUL tennis courts that are NEVER used...and then there's these 2 pickleball courts with only one net and are in need of repair. They say they're getting the paint and will be painted...and that a net has been ordered. We are told not to hold our breathe:( Oh well...

For those who play P-ball...just look at all the lines!!! Who can remember which lines are the "kitchen" lines or the back lines.? It truly was a challenge to keep your eyes on the right lines. Linda and Will are in the far court....more new friends.

Mell on the left and Morgan on the right. Wayne showed up after I left with the camers:( We met them in FL.

Wayne and Morgan are good players.:) Here again...can you see the two lines for the back court!!@#$$$!!

Wed; Jan. 29th - Dinner and MX Train!

Drove over to Carl and Kathryn's to enjoy an evening together. Keith took the left-over pot roast and made it into a delicious stew while Kathryn and I looked at the maps and shared recipes etc. She really liked having the supper made for us:) Carl did too...he said we could move in for awhile:) The meal was so good.

After dinner we played more MX train. I won again and keith came in second...WISH we were playing for $$ Ha. Can you see how Keith's getting into mixing these dominos? Look at those eyes!!!

Kathryn and Carl never had our Kahlua...so we surprised them with a bottle and the creme for their anniversary.

Cheers! Now Kathryn is hooked on this drink too...just like Judy!!! We had to give the recipe and a van. bean so they could make their own once we're gone!

Tues; Jan. 19th - Go - Go - Go...Day!!!

At 7:30 a.m. we were on our way to Strouhal Tire to have the front end aligned. They could not have nicer and we were so happy with the service we got. The front end was fine..but the toe-in was off slightly. Keith now has piece of mind ....you see when we first got to the campground we had the front end up on some blocks so I could level the RV... he was very unhappy with how the one tire looked.. At any rate...it's fine now.
We would highly recommend Strouhal Tire if you're in the Conroe area and need service. The address is: 11120 North Hwy 75, Willis, TX phone 936-856-2812. We were on our way by 8:15 a.m:)

Next Keith was to call Carl and the two of them proceeded to change the oil int he RV. What a good friend Carl was to help Keith out:) Now that's done too! Another project crossed off the list.

This is a better camp site than the one we has at first... Must happier

If you've not been to Conroe...these are the pull thru sites and IF you can believe it...another RV would be able to park right next to us.. You can open your windows and knock on the RV next door! It's great if no one parks next to you...then you have plenty of space.

I took a picture of these horses for John....hope he enjoys them. They were right next to our late lunch destination...

The CHEESECAKE FACTORY...to celebrate our 41st anniversary with Carl and Kathryn...their anniv. is th 25th..:)

This is the view that greets you just inside the doors.

Don't they just look yummy?

They escorted us by this long bar...oh the colors were just beautiful with the sun shining in from behind the bottles.

Sorry these photos didn't come out better but the lighting was just not right... It took us quite awhile to decide on what we were going to have...EVERYTHING looked good.!

Keith did his best to get some photos, but like I said..you can see the glare from the sun. But we're not complaining about having the sun shine!no no no.... Temp. was about 66 and it felt great.

As most of you know,..Keith just LOVES crusty breads... they kept bringing these baskets to please us all...

I ordered the LUNCH SIZE portiion *(if you can beleive this) of bbq ranch chicken salad. Topped with onion rings that were the best I've ever had.

Keith and Kathryn ordered the Cobb lunch size salad:)

Carl ordered the sheperds pie - lunch size portion! Ha.

For dessert, Kathryn and Carl ordered the white choc. raspberry cheesecake to SHARE....

And Keith and I ordered the Coconut Creme - Coconut Cheesecake with Coconut Custard and Choc. Coconut Crust....TO DIE FOR!!! Oh MY GOSH!!! mmmmmmm

Carl drove us all over Conroe and around Lake Conroe... It goes on forever...looks more like the oce

And as the sun was setting in the west...we drove by this boat dock...brought back great memories of all the times we took Dad's boat out to Blue Marsh Lake in PA... We sure had some good times out there with the whole family.

When we get back home...or someone with a lap top can show these to Dad...I know he'll enjoy them:)

We went back to Carl and Kathryn's to sit and show photos and laughed at all the stories that were told ....If you run into Kathryn - ask her about going to her Aunts house and eating choc. cake!! It's a HOOT..

Monday- Jan. 18th - 41st Anniversary!

Yes, another year rolled around and Keith and I have been married 41 years. Carl and Kathryn's church has a covered dish and games night so we celebrated with them and 19 other people... It was a lot of fun ....and not just because I won and Keith came in second at the end of the night!! Ha..they said we don't need to come back next month..

Between 6 and 6:30 everyone shows up and here's the start of the food collection.

Don't know what happened to this picture but it's all the food ready to be eaten.

Oh BOY, was it good...don't you find that churchs' have the BEST COOKS!!!and the desserts..mmmmmm

Sat. Jan. 16th - It RAINED all the way to TX

There isn't much to show because this is all we saw out the window all day!

At first glance this looked like snow instead of water.

Into TX and Lake Conroe....drove from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. It was good to finish the drive today.

Sunday - Jan. 17th - Carl & Kathryn

We met Kathryn and Carl in Orlando about 5 years ago...became good friends thru our love of VW's:) Last year they came to Hershey and we got tog. So, here we are in Conroe visiting them and they are treating us so very good. Picked us up for church at 10...then to the chinese buffet for lunch after driving us all around the town.:)

Just inside their church is this fountain...and although it wasn't running, it's just beautiful.

This is the front of their church....Everyone was so friendly and welcoming. We really enjoyed the service.

Every member has a cross on this wall.

After church we went to the Sam Houston Statue ...inside the information building was this stained glass flag of Texas.

Yes, Keith and Kathryn are at the very bottom of this photo....Just to let you know how LARGE this statue is.

Again the information we received from the visitor center was wonderful and the lady was so kind and helpful..

They took us to the OLD Huntsville Prison and by the New Prison ....and to the Prison Museum.

And here we are in a jail cell...!!! Let me out of here!!!! By 6:30 p.m. we were back at the RV after a long, but wonderful day with Kathryn and Carl. We wouldn't have seen nearly as much without them.:)