Thursday, July 24
With the grandchildren and their parents gone, it was time to do some serious cleaning in and around Big V. Barbara started at the front of the coach and I started in the back and we dusted or wet-wiped every surface, cleaned mirrors and glass, vacuumed carpets, and swept and mopped the floors. I even managed to fix the doorknob to the bedroom...it had gotten stuck in the closed position when Jimmy was changing clothes the other night and we had to pry the latch open with a knife and then remove the entire assembly. I shot the assembly full of WD-40 today and got everything working again. Gotta love WD-40, for nearly everything that is supposed to move, but doesn't!
Next was laundry time. We normally do laundry every couple of days, just to keep from getting behind, but we hadn't been willing to give up grandkid time for laundry time, so we were pretty far behind.
We loaded the laundry hamper and all the towels that wouldn't fit in it into the car and drove over to one of the laundry rooms and filled several washers. While our clothes were churning, we went out to the pool deck for some quiet time and reading.
When the clothes were all washed, dried, and folded, we put them back in the car and returned to Big V to put everything away.
By then, it was time for lunch and some downtime before making a shopping list and going to Walmart in Burleson to get supplies for tomorrow night's big family get-together.
We were both suffering from Sonic Deficiency, so later in the evening we drove the six miles down I-35 to Alvarado for the cure.
Back at Big V, we settled in for a quiet evening of computer time and getting caught up with the world's events when disaster struck; Barbara's laptop crashed...not just a simple crash that could be fixed with a reboot or restart, but a total crash, from which there would probably be no restoration.
There was nothing to do then except share the one working laptop, a feat that wasn't particularly disastrous, but did remind us that we do not play well with others (or each other) when it comes to sharing a computer.
We did manage to get a blog published, but gave up trying to share the laptop as a lost cause and went to bed to read real books.
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Friday, July 25
It was a good thing we got all the housework and laundry done yesterday, because we spent nearly the entire morning at Best Buy, trying to make a decision about repairing vs buying a new laptop for Barbara.
After explaining what we were experiencing and hearing our options, we decided, after being told by the salesman that the Geek Squad could check out the Samsung today and give us some answers, to purchasing a new Dell laptop. We then returned to Big V to get the Samsung and returned to Best Buy to hand it over to the Geek Squad for diagnosis. We were told that the worst-case scenario was that nothing could be done with the crashed computer. The best case scenario was that the problem was a bad hard drive that could be replaced and the data files recovered.
The representative reiterated that they should be able to do the diagnosis and retrieve and load the data files to the new Dell by the end of the day.
Having done all that, we decided we'd get lunch at Panda Express. Leah and Ryan had just returned from church youth camp, so we asked them if they wanted to join us, but they said they were exhausted and just wanted to sleep. Besides, we'd be seeing them later today anyway.
So, we got our orders from Panda Express and once again headed south on I-35 W to Jellystone Park and Big V to enjoy lunch and get a little rest.
Not long after finishing our meal, we got a call from John saying that he, Carol, Randi, and Nick had arrived from San Antonio and were at Leah and Ryan's house. Since car passes for Jellystone were at a premium, we drove to the kids' house, visited awhile, and then loaded all of us in two cars to go back to Jellystone for the evening.
Later, Barbara's sister Nancy and her family drove in from Cleburne, so we had Nancy, Tom, Brandi (Tom and Nancy's daughter), Keylin (Brandi's daughter), John (Barbara's son), Carol (John's wife), Randi, (John and Carol's daughter), Nick (Randi's boyfriend), Leah, Ryan, and us, all gathered in and around Big V.
I fired up the charcoal grill to cook hot dogs and warm up some hamburger patties while Barbara fried up her mixture of diced yellow and zuchinni squash, red potatoes, onions, and peppers. Nancy brought a squash casserole, and soon we were eating likje kings and queens and having a wonderful time with multiple conversations rolling all around the group.
John, Ryan, and Nick left the group early to go to the vet and get Leah and Ryan's dogs from the kennel, but the rest of us spent time cleaning up the mess, sharing stories and getting caught up on each other's lives.
When Tom, Nancy, Brandi, and Keylin left, the rest of us loaded up and went back to Leah and Ryan's house to continue the visit under cool air conditioning. It was a great evening, but as it started to get dark, Barbara and I decided we were exhausted, so we said our goodbyes and returned to Big V for showers and a good night's sleep.
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Saturday, July 26
We figured the kids would be sleeping in at Leah and Ryan's house, so we did some sleeping in of our own in Big V.
When we finally did get going, we passed on having breakfast with the bunch (we were trying to stay faithful to our diet...well, as faithful as possible, anyway) having our usual breakfast before heading to Walmart to buy food for dinner tonight (which was definitely NOT on our diet.
When we got to the house, we unloaded and put away all the groceries and then the girls took off on a shopping spree.
We guys didn't document our morning, but we did make visits to the Army/Navy store (where I could have dropped a couple of hundred dollars easily, but didn't) and a gun shop, before going to Walmart for some last minute items for tonight's cookout.
We all returned to the house for a bit and then the girls, except for Barbara, went off to see a movie. Barbara and I began work on a couple of batches or Big Red ice cream, a staple for all family gatherings.
I went outside to oversee the churning operation and Barbara stayed inside to prepare potato salad.
It took a while, but once the ice cream was done we had the guys (and us) test it to make sure it was good enough for human consumption.
After the ice cream was packed in ice and salt and covered with towels and the potato salad was chilling in the refrigerator, Barbara and I cleaned up our mess and then made another trip to Best Buy to find out what was going on with the computers. One of the guys on the Geek Squad had been very rude to Barbara earlier in the afternoon, and when I called about the progress (or lack thereof), he told me the computer was "in the queue," which was evidently his stock answer whenever he didn't want to deal with a company.
When we got to the store, we talked to a young man who said that the new computer was ready last night and they should have called us. He apologized profusely for the bad manners of the other employee and set about making everything right, including overseeing the orderly transfer of all the data files and teaching Barbara how to use the new programs. We still had to leave the Samsung for a few days so they could run diagnostics on it, but we were prepared for that. At least Barbara had a working computer and a little training on how it operated.
We returned to the house and began preparing the food for tonight's meal. I was going to grill country style pork ribs, chicken breasts, and sausages, while Barbara oversaw all the other aspects of the meal.
When the girls got back from the movie, we all just sat around and visited while the meat cooked on the grill.
The evening was great fun as we laughed, almost cried, shared stories, took photos (lots of photos) and threw caution to the winds in regard to diets.
It was a wonderful evening of family fellowship, but as it got dark, it became time for us to say our goodbyes and head back to Big V. John, Carol, Randi, and Nick planned to head for San Antonio early the next morning, so we have them special hugs all around, thanked them for coming to see us, and wished them safe travel on their journey home.
We made it safely back to Jellystone Park and Big V, where we immediately cratered... totally exhausted from a wonderful day and ready to get a full night's sleep.
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Sunday, July 27
Ryan and Leah usually attend the second service at Nolan River Road Baptist Church in Cleburne, so we got some additional sleep-in time this morning before getting on the road to join them. We heard some great new music from the Praise Team and another timely and wonderful sermon/lesson from Pastor Larry York as we sat with the kids and met some of their friends.
We forgot to take the camera along this morning, so there were no photos...guess we just didn't look at our daily checklist.
The kids were going to return home to crash after their very busy week and told us they probably wouldn't come out to Jellystone to see us before we leave, so we had hugs all around and said our goodbyes before returning to the park and Big V, where we warmed up the leftovers from yesterday's Panda Express meal, had a little Big Red ice cream for dessert, and then went to bed to read a few pages of our books before taking our nap. We just didn't realize how totally exhausted we were from all the week's activities!
When we finally woke up and began moving around, we started getting things ready to pack and return to Mineola tomorrow. One of the biggies on our list was to go through the storage bins, get rid of some things we haven't used in four years, and generally reorganize the bins so they'd be ready for the next trip. We did some of the same inside, although it wasn't as cluttered as the storage bins.
By evening, we had things pretty much the way we wanted them. Barbara put the final touches on the inside and I downsized the patio area so we could sit outside tomorrow morning if we chose to do so.
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Monday, July 28
We hadn't planned to get away from Jellystone until around 10:00 this morning, but we both woke up early and refreshed enough that after a quick breakfast, we finished getting Big V ready for travel, hooked up the car, and pulled out of the park at 9:00.
Traffic was fairly light all along the way, so we easily merged onto I-20 from U.S. 67 and made our way to Mineola...where we hit the first traffic jam of the day. The highway department was repaving Loop 562 main intersections, and we waited in line for nearly 30 minutes just to go a half-mile to the Walmart parking lot to unhook the car.
We had to take some back roads just to get from Walmart to the house, but within another hour, we had unloaded both Big V and the car and then headed out to Our Little Lot to park the motorhome.
We had to go behind Walmart and back through the parking lot to get on Texas 37 and noticed a lot of flashing red and blue lights as we got on the road. It seems that southbound cars had a mighty collision, causing southbound traffic to be backed up for a couple of miles. Since we were northbound and that lane was open, we got out of the traffic jam and didn't encounter any other problems along the way.
Once we got to Our Little Lot at Holiday Villages of Lake Fork, we parked Big V under the shed, checked for anything we might have missed in the unloading process, then hooked up the electricity, closed her up.
Back at the house in Mineola, we spent the rest of the afternoon resting, decompressing, getting the house back in order, and reflecting on what a blessing the past ten days had been; God is Great, and God is Good...all the time!!!
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Back home again in Mineola, Wood County, Texas,
Jim/Dad/Gramps and Barbara/Mom/Grams/Gramsy
