It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

The Christmas Season has arrived. We normally start our activities on the weekend prior to Christmas. That is when we have our two oldest grand daughters, and their mothers, over to eat and exchange presents. Our oldest grand daughter, Emma, has a younger sister, Lily, that we have pretty much accepted as one of ours. The next grand daughter, Aurora, had her cousin, Tyler, join her this year. So, this past Saturday evening we had four beautiful little girls, all under the age of five, here. Here are all four posing with Grandpa and Grandma. From left to right are Lily, Aurora, Emma and Tyler.

Joanne and I have already exchanged gifts. She wanted a new trunk type chest to replace the cedar chest at the foot of the bed. The cedar chest was fine if we had stuff we needed to store for long periods but she likes to use it as an extension to the clothes chest. Everything that was put in there came out smelling like cedar and had to be laundered before it could be worn. I found what I thought she wanted but thought it best to have her approval before I bought it. So she got her present a couple of weeks ago.

When I was asked what I wanted for Christmas all I could come up with was another gun. We are blessed that we really don't have a need for anything and are able to live comfortably although probably a bit conservative. I have several hand guns that I enjoy taking to the range but have never owned a long gun. I am now the proud owner of a Henry Repeating Rifle. This is one of the rifles that was used in taming the west. It shoots .22 magnum shells. Took it to the range today for the first time and was pleasantly pleased with the way it handled.

We have traditionally gotten together with Jo's family on Christmas Eve and my family on Christmas Day. Now our Christmas Eve get together is down to the two of us and her mother. Some years Carrie, Jo's niece, is able to join us but she usually is with her family at her in-laws house. Christmas Day we will have the Stone clan at our house again this year. My parents, all three of my brothers and their wives, one nephew and one of my sons will be with us this year. We also include Jo's mom in all the Stone activities. Christmas looks to be another fun gathering of family.

Another outing with Birds of a Feather--Part II

Our meeting with the Birds continued through the weekend. The afternoon Saturday was spent watching our Oklahoma State Cowboys beat up on Iowa State.

During the evening we had our annual, end of the season combination Thanksgiving/Christmas pot luck dinner. As is normal in these affairs the food was plentiful and fantastic. After dinner we had our annual gift exchange. Of course, we do ours with a good round of Dirty Santa. Was not as lively this year as in the past since the guy we usually pick on did not get his number called until towards the end. After dinner and festivities we all adjourned to watch the Oklahoma Sooners get mauled by the Nebraska Cornhuskers.

Sunday morning was time to break camp and head for home. Spent Sunday afternoon winterizing the coach and it is now put away in the storage lot for the winter.

Another outing with Birds of a Feather

We are out in the coach for, apparently, the last time this year. Our local RV club is having it's final 2009 meet this weekend. We locked up the house and came over to the Twin Fountains RV Park on the east side of Oklahoma City this past Wednesday. The rest of the club came in on Thursday. Today the group decided to visit the new Oklahoma History Center that is located over by the State Capitol Building. This is a great facility with many displays on the different aspects of the development of Oklahoma and on the Oklahoma people who have made this a great state. One very nice exhibit is a replica of the Winnie Mae, the famous plane that Wiley Post flew around the world. (The real Winnie Mae is in the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.)

The front of the History Center faces the Capitol Building. The Oklahoma State Capitol Building was built in the 1920's and 1930's. At the time they ran out of money and were not able to include the dome that was in the original design. For many years the building, which was built from native stone brought in from quarries in the southwestern part of the state, sat without a dome. Over the years there were many movements to add a dome but they never seemed to get off the ground. Finally, in the 1990's, we got a Governor who made up his mind this was going to happen during his term. The building now has the dome that was in the original plans.

Back at the campground our club has eight members coaches here this weekend. The park requires us to have at least 10 coaches to be able to use their rally room without charge. Since we only had eight we were going to have to pay $50.00 per day to be able to use the room after 7:00pm. Jo and I have an RV friend, through the Monaco groups, that just happens to be on his way from California back down to Florida, where he spends his winters. He also had a traveling companion who is in her own coach. They were planning to stay here at the same park this weekend while they do a little sightseeing in Oklahoma City. Soooo, we just added them to our club for the weekend and now have our required ten coaches. We are not only enjoying our visit with Fred White and Pat, his travel buddy, but have included them in our group. Tonight we all went down to Bricktown, the downtown OKC entertainment district, for dinner at Toby Keith's I Love This Bar and Grill for dinner. The seats in the waiting area are Ford pickup truck tail gates. Fred, Pat and Joanne tried one out while we waited for our table. With the campers plus another couple of visitors for the evening we had 17 all total in the group for dinner. Hope Toby appreciates our business tonight.

Tea Party Express II comes to Oklahoma City

We had the privilege of attending the Oklahoma City stop of the Tea Party Express II this evening. The original Tea Party Express covered much of the country this past summer. Tea Party Express II is going to all the states that were missed the first time around. The OKC stop was held on the north steps of the State Capitol Building. The local activities started around 5:00 pm with a kind of an open mic for local people to speak. The Tea Party Express II buses were scheduled to be in town in time for them to start their program by 6:00pm. They were coming from Wichita, Kansas, where they had done a 1:00pm program so they were running late. It was close to 7:00pm before the national group got started.

All the people who are traveling with the Tea Party Express are volunteers. They have taken time away from their normal lives and jobs to spend several weeks on a bus, performing several times per day. As stated, they were in Wichita at 1:00pm and then came on to Oklahoma City. After the performance here they will leave for Amarillo, Texas, where they'll spend the night and do a show tomorrow morning. These are dedicated Patriots speaking out with their conservative beliefs. The crowd turnout here in Oklahoma City was tremendous, as they have seen in most of the cities where they have been. It was hard to estimate how many people turned out but the North Capitol Plaza was packed with people spreading out in several directions. There were several hundred people out there tonight.

Not only do we agree with what the Tea Party people have to say we also went to see our good friends, Ron & Kay Rivoli. As I have posted in previous entries Ron & Kay perform their Rivoli RV Revue throughout the country. They have performed at many of our Monaco America rallies, including the one last month in Gulf Shores, Alabama. They will also be performing at the Monaco America rally in Hutchinson, Kansas, in May 2010. We really enjoy their music and are glad to be able to call them our friends.

Sweet Home Alabama--Day 17--Home

Spent part of the day yesterday trying to find out the problem with the windshield wipers. Checked all the fuses and found none that had blown. Checked the motor that operates the wipers and found that it was hot to the touch. This should not be since the coach had been sitting overnight with the ignition turned off. We (Don & I) decided to spray everything to do with the wipers down with WD-40. This seemed to work in that it loosened up the motor and we could manually move the wiper blades. We folded the wiper arms away from the windshield and they appeared to work fine. We could also get the system to work if we only put the driver's side arm up with the blade on the windshield. Put both up and everything stopped. Final diagnosis: The motor is going out and is not currently strong enough to operate both wipers. We wound up removing the arm and blade on the passenger side until I can get a new motor. We also coated the windshield with Rain-X. Turns out this is great stuff.

We left Don and Vicki Leith's house around 9:00 this morning in another rain storm. Was very impressed with the Rain-X on the windshield in that we seldom even had to turn on the wiper. The rain just streamed completely off the windshield. We drove in rain all morning. After a stop in Russelville for fuel and another stop a few miles later for lunch we finally crossed the state line and returned to Oklahoma soil. We arrived home about 4:30 this afternoon, just in time to pay the lawn guy as he was just finishing up with the mowing and edging. The coach is now in the driveway waiting to be unloaded. That will happen later this week.

This was a great trip. We got to spend time with some old friends, met some new ones, had some great entertainment and ate a bunch of fabulous food.

Sweet Home Alabama--Day 15

We are still on the road but no longer in Alabama. We loaded up Saturday morning and pulled out of the Gulf Breeze RV Resort around 9:00am and headed up U. S. Highway 98. This road took us up through Mobile and across Mississippi to Hattiesburg. From there we went north to Jackson and then west into Louisiana. After turning off Interstate 20 onto U.S. 65 we stopped for the night in Oak Grove, Louisiana. Our plan was to spend the night at their Wal-Mart but when we got into town we saw a sign that directed to a city park with RV hookups. Turned out they had 30 amp electric and water and the cost of free. We always like free. We were unable to get any TV reception in this town so we decided to watch one of the movies I had picked up recently when a video store in Oklahoma City was going out of business. The movie starred Jennifer Aniston and it turned out to be one of the worst movies I've ever seen.

We had beautiful weather to drive in all day Saturday. The sun was shinning and there was not a cloud in the sky. Unfortunately it did not stay that way. About bed time it started raining and continued to rain all night. When we got up this morning it was still raining. We pull out of the park around 9:00 am and headed north on U.S. 65. We had about 240 miles to drive and it was in rain all the way. After about 20 miles our windshield wipers were having a hard time working since we were driving directly into a heavy wind. At that point they stopped completely not to come back on for the rest of the trip. So, we wound up driving just over 200 miles in a blowing rain storm with no wipers. The only saving grace was in the coach we sit up much higher than the regular car traffic and could still see the road.

We arrived in Greers Ferry, Arkansas around 2:00 pm and are now set up beside our good friends home. This is our third visit to Don and Vicki Leith since they built their new home. To make it welcoming to their RV friends they have two RV parking sites adjacent to the house, complete with concrete pad, 50 amp electric, water and sewer. They also have a WiFi Internet connection for those of us that don't carry telephone company air cards or other means to reach the Internet.

The Leith's took us out for Bar-B-Que this evening at a local place. Tomorrow I'll start trying to figure out why the windshield wipers on the coach decided to quit working. Hopefully it is just a blown fuse.

Sweet Home Alabama--Day 13

After wrapping up the rally last night today was a day for sightseeing. This our final day down here in Southern Alabama.

Got around this morning and drove out to the far end of Mobile Bay to Fort Morgan. This was a very important site during the Battle for Mobile during the War of Northern Aggression. (People from the north call it the Civil War but a study of history will show there was nothing civil about it.) This fort is now maintained as a tourist attraction by the State of Alabama. Adjacent to the fort property was a fishing area maintained by the state. The bird pictured here was standing watch on two fisherman, hoping they'd throw some scraps from their cleaning his way. It was curious that he only had one foot but that did not seem to bother him. He flew away when we got too close.

After wondering around the fort we drove back into Gulf Shores to have a late lunch at Lulu's at one of the many marinas in the area. We had a great seafood lunch in an open air facility followed by some more driving along the beach front, admiring the home and condos along with the beautiful white sand beaches.

Later in the day we met up with two other couples from the rally to take a boat cruise, on the Southern Rose, to see the dolphins. Usually the tour boat goes out into the Gulf of Mexico on this trip but the Gulf was way too choppy today for that. We had about a two hour tour of the inner bay that is part of the Inland Waterway. We did see several dolphins as they swam around us and feasted on fish that they caught. As the dolphins surfaced a person had to be quick with the camera to get a picture. In most cases by the time I was able to take the shot the dolphins were back under water.

This has been a good week in Southern Alabama. We will reluctantly head out tomorrow morning, working our way back to Oklahoma. One highlight of being at a rally is we usually have a vendor that will detail out our coach. We had our pressured washed and a complete wax job done on it, including the roof. This is a major job that I have been reluctant to take on myself. Here is a picture of our coach today after they new wax job.

Sweet Home Alabama--Day 12

We wrapped up the Monaco Fall 2009 Rally this evening here in Gulf Shores, Alabama. This has been an outstanding rally and everyone seemed to have a good time. Most of the morning was spent at the information/registration desk accepting money from our members. As the club treasurer I have the responsibility of collecting all the funds that come in and to maintain the accounts. We have just started our membership renewal drive for calendar year 2010 so many of our members paid their dues during the rally. Additionally we have already received 26 applications, with full payment, for the Spring Rally that will be held in Hutchinson, Kansas, starting May 25, 2010.

This evening the caterer served us all a fine steak dinner with all the trimmings. After dinner was an evening of Bingo for those that wished to participate. I am worn out and had a splitting headache, which it seems I've had since we arrived down here, so I cam back to the coach to clean up the financial books and do other paperwork that goes with putting on a large rally.

The main part of the clubs First Vice President is to put these rallies together. The person who is currently in this position is Gary Granat from Indiana. He has served in this position since early 2004 and has done a tremendous job. Not only is he responsible for securing the site for the rally but he books the entertainment, catering, lines up vendors and the dozens of other things required to be successful. This is his last year in the job since he has elected to step down and let someone else "have all this fun". The Hutchinson rally in May will be his last in this capacity. The picture is of Gary presiding over the session prior to dinner tonight.

Sweet Home Alabama--Day 11

A rather slow day at the rally. I spent most of my day at the work station I set up in the Information/Registration Building. This is the one building here at the Gulf Breeze RV Resort that is not air conditioned. Earlier in the week it was stifling to stay in there with the high temps and humidity. Night before last a cold front moved in and the temps are very comfortable and the humidity levels have dropped drastically. (We actually had to sleep under a blanket last night.) The main building that we have been using for our meetings and meals/entertainment is on the edge of a small fishing lake. The building includes both an indoor and outdoor swimming pool and an indoor hot tub, along with a large hall with kitchen and a couple of smaller meeting rooms.

This afternoon was the traditional "pet walk". This was started a few years ago by one of our members. Everyone brings their pets and parades them around. (Nancy Cormier and her husband Dave were charter members of Monaco America. Nancy not only started the pet walk but would also be at the gate at the beginning of each rally to greet each and every coach to share treats with the members pets and make sure everyone knew their pets were welcome. We all just referred to her as the Dog Lady. Unfortunately Dave passed away this past year and Nancy has retired from the RV lifestyle.) The Hill Company, the maker of Science Diet pet food, provided a large supply of items as prizes for the pets at today's walk. Another couple who attend all our rallies have two miniature schnauzers so Buddy Joe had some company. (Buddy is the one wearing the Rebel Flag bandanna.)

Sweet Home Alabama--Day 10

Today was the first full day of the rally and started off at 7:30 am with a full breakfast served by the caterer. Spent most of the day in the Information/Registration Center collecting membership dues for 2010 and rally applications for our Spring Rally next May in Kansas.

The evening activities started off with a cocktail hour at 5:00 pm followed by a pasta dinner, again served by the caterer. Our cousins, Yvonne and Bob, joined us for dinner and the entertainment tonight. They seemed to have a good time and had the pleasure to be around a bunch of friendly RVer's. The picture to the right has all six of us ready for dinner: from left to right, Rick, Bob, Bill, Nancy, Yvonne and Joanne.

Our entertainment tonight was the Rivoli RV Revue. Ron and Kay Rivoli do a fantastic job performing their original songs, mostly related to the RV lifestyle. One of my favorite numbers is "I'm a gator hater" about those rubber gators (pieces of truck tires) that we find in our path in the road and the damage they can cause when hit by one of our RV's. They also got a standing ovation when they did their "Dial 1 for English". The video of this song has been the number one played tune on You Tube and now has had over thirteen million views. To view this video go to:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEJfS1v-fU0