RVing and the COVID-19 Virus: Is There Light at the End of the Tunnel?

17 Jan 2021 Leave a comment

by Betty Huffman in Christmas, Family, Retirement, RV-ing, Traveling, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I know that you all have probably thought that I have dropped off the end of the earth. It has been a long time since I posted anything. I am sorry about that.

This post will probably NOT be the most interesting post I’ve ever written. Therefore, I feel the need to occasionally post some “fun” photos for your viewing pleasure. 😉

Ricky and Lucy are always playing.

When October 1st came around, we left our good friends, Darrell and Malia, in Wisconsin and headed back to Missouri. We spent about seven weeks in Missouri visiting family.

When the time came, many of the “guys” in the family met at the farm in Thayer for deer season. The wives had some much needed “down” time; well, at least I did! When you live in an RV, time alone is a rare, precious commodity. While in Missouri, we enjoyed time with our parents sharing meals, watching TV, and playing cards, of course!

This is the new, homemade deer stand. It is huge!

Look how BIG it is.

This is our grandson, Jackson, enjoying the deer stand’s protection from the cold wind.

While in the STL area, Ricky and Lucy were old enough to have their surgeries so there would be NO puppies. Of course, they had to wear the “cone of shame.” They actually did pretty good adjusting to the cones while still chasing each other around my dad’s house.

Around mid-November we headed south to Foley, Alabama (warmer weather). We chose Foley so we wouldn’t be too far away to return to see family for Christmas. Foley is about 10 miles from Gulf Shores, AL, and the shoreline of the Gulf of Mexico. We’ve been in this area several times before, so we really didn’t need to “go exploring.” We walked along the beach numerous times and had a relaxing time.

This COVID-19 virus thing has really changed the way people do their RV/camping now days. Everyone is cautious and stays at least six feet away. Five o’clock Happy Hour is not so happy anymore. Most places have indefinitely suspended planned, group activities. People are still very friendly, but it’s just NOT like it used to be.

I was beginning to think COVID had gotten the best of us all. However, with the first vaccines being given recently to healthcare workers, I think we can reach “herd immunity” sooner than later! There just might be light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel! 👏👏👏

I am happy to report that Jack and I have avoided this virus, and we hope and pray we can continue to do so. For the most part, all our family, on both sides, have been fortunate to avoid it. I’m sad to say that we’ve had friends who have gotten it. Some had SEVERE symptoms and will have a lengthy recovery time; others have not been so fortunate and have passed away. 😱 We have been greatly saddened by each call we have received informing us of COVID infections and deaths. May God help us all to stay healthy and get rid of this virus! đŸ™đŸ»đŸ™đŸ»đŸ™đŸ»

We did make a “shortened” trip for Christmas Day. We went to Edmond, OK, to see our youngest son, his wife, and our grandkids. Our oldest son decided not to come because he would have to fly to get there. He didn’t want to risk being exposed to COVID on the plane and passing it on to us. Also, we did not make our usual “rounds” in Missouri because we didn’t want to risk exposing OUR 90+ year old parents if we picked up the virus. It was definitely an unusual Christmas. Here are some photos of Christmas Day.

Jade (left) and Kylee (right).

Jackson (in the background) and Mike’s wife, Jennifer (foreground).

Jade

Kylee and Finn, their little Maltese.

Jackson

Our two sons: oldest, Jeff, is on the phone screen and youngest, Mike, is in the foreground.

Our annual family Christmas photo: COVID style!

On January 1st we headed to Florida in order to get further south, visit with some dear friends (after we isolated for the appropriate number of days), and see our oldest son. We will be here until April 1st. Hopefully, we will be doing some visits to outdoor places, so I can blog about them.

So, for now ….. “On the Road Again!”

Betty

Brrrrr…….It’s Getting Cold Outside!

25 Nov 2017 1 Comment

by Betty Huffman in Christmas, Christmas Decorating, Family, Grand Kids, Holidays, Retirement, RV-ing, Traveling, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Our basic plan of travel is to go North in the summer and South in the winter.  Neither one of us likes the cold much anymore, and I totally despise the summer mega heat and humidity I have lived in all my life.  When your home is on wheels, you can follow the nice, moderate weather all over the country.

We have been making our “south for the winter” plans these last few months. Because we wanted to stay within a reasonable driving distance so we could spend Thanksgiving and Christmas with family, we looked at some RV parks in the northern part of Texas.  We found several places on the internet that looked really nice that were around the Dallas/Fort Worth area.  We wanted to arrive around Nov. 15-16 and leave around January 10-11.  However, when we started calling around, we were having trouble finding a place that had any class A motor coach RV sites available (next year we will have to call earlier).

A little over a month ago we finally lucked into a place called Wagon Master RV Resort in Sanger, Texas. THIS IS WHERE we are right now! Sanger is a little northwest of Dallas (approx. 50 miles). This location is about a two hour drive from Moore, OK, and the grandkids (and Mike and Jennifer, too!). We drove up to Moore, OK, in the car for Thanksgiving.

Jennifer is a great cook, and we had a wonderful Thanksgiving meal with all the trimmings. At the end of the summer, Mike got a smoker, and he wanted to try cooking a turkey in it. Jennifer decided to cook one turkey the regular way in the oven, and Mike would smoke one outside. BOTH were absolutely delicious! I didn’t get any pictures of the full meal, but here are a couple of the turkeys.

The smoked turkey BEFORE and AFTER:

When we arrived Wednesday afternoon, the grandkids had started working on a 1,000 piece Christmas puzzle. It was a pretty hard one in my opinion. We all worked on it at one time or another. Some of us were better at finding pieces that fit; others of us were frustrated at times and had to leave the table. We finally finished the puzzle about an hour before dinner was ready. Here’s a couple of pictures:

We are not big on Black Friday shopping, so we stayed at Mike’s house and watched a “traditional” movie then helped decorate their Christmas tree. Can you guess the movie? Actually, we watched Christmas movies all day long while decorating!

Yes, that’s the Griswald family in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation!

Yes, that is the movie The Elf on the television!

Last Christmas while we were at my parents’ house, Mike found an old train in mom and dad’s mega collection of Christmas decorations. Mike told my dad (unknown to me) that he had always wanted a train set to go around the Christmas tree. My dad said they had not used it in years, so he gave it to Mike. Mike was like a little kid when he got the box out to set up the train around the tree! Here it is in all it’s glory (click the picture to watch):

I think the video was turned when I uploaded it. Hmmmmm? đŸ€” I have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA why that video turned sideways. Maybe some day I will actually figure it out. Oh, well…..

We will drive up to Moore, OK, in the car again for Christmas, and our oldest son, who lives in FL, will fly to OKC to join us. After Christmas Day we will all drive on to Springfield, MO, to have Christmas with Jack’s family, and then on to STL to have Christmas with my family.  Jeff will fly home to FL after the New Year, the grandkids and family will drive to OKC, and we will drive back to Texas.  It will be a long drive back to Sanger, TX, but it will be worth it to see all our family at Christmastime.

Back in June (while we were still living in our house in Dexter) we discovered that some friends of ours who had just purchased an Airstream trailer were going to spend two months in the Phoenix, AZ, area this winter.  They asked us what our plans for the winter were, and when we said we weren’t sure, they asked us to join them there.  So we called the same RV Resort where they had their reservations and made our reservations. Therefore, we will be in Buckeye, AZ, from Jan. 15 – Mar. 15. Starting Mar. 15, we plan to spend about four weeks exploring New Mexico.  Then we will be coming back to the STL area some time mid-to-late April to stay another month.

St. Louis is kind of going to be “home base” for us.  I can help with my parents, and Jack can run down to Springfield to spend time with his mom.   Then, some time in late May, we will be heading north for the summer.  Exactly where we will go up north hasn’t been decided yet. We are thinking Michigan or the Wisconsin Dells.  We will need to get busy, make our plans, and get reservations real SOON! I’ll let you know where we decision in the near future.

So, for now …. “On the Road Again!”

Betty

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