Surprise!

Yesterday we had some wild weather going on around us (rain, tornadoes), and we haven't been able to get together with Jill and Glenn yet, so we decided to just stay put for another couple of days before moving on.  We have no real reason to hurry anyplace until we can check into our park in Galveston after the first of the year, so we thought we'd just play it safe.  Good thing we did... Here's what we woke up to:

Not much snow by Michigan standards, but enough that trying to pull the RV would have been interesting.

Budger and Bo have figured the best places to be when we've got to run the heat:

We decided to drive to Granbury to try out a good chicken place that Jill had told us about, and we also wandered through some antique stores, a furniture and decor place, and a sports store.

Babes Chicken House:

The food was amazing!  You order your meat (choice of fried chicken, smoked chicken, chicken strips, fried fish, or chicken fried steak) and then they bring you bowls of green beans, creamed corn, mashed potatoes and gravy, tossed salad, and biscuits to serve yourself family-style.  And you can keep getting more of the sides if you want.

Look at that chicken fried steak!  It took up the whole plate by itself!  I only ate half of it!  Brad's smoked chicken was really good too, and he's ready to try smoking a chicken himself.  We were also told they have amazing banana pudding, so we got some to take with us and have at home later.

Every so often the waitresses would stop what they were doing and dance in the aisles.  Here they are doing the hokey pokey, with some customers joining in.

Very cool decor in the restaurant.

In the sports store we went into, I wasn't surprised to see a lot of things for the various Texas schools, and even Oklahoma State and OU... I was surprised to see these things, though.

After finding a place to fill our propane bottle, we headed back home, in desperate need of a nap!  A fun day... But tomorrow we are absolutely positively getting together with Jill and Glenn, no matter what the weather throws at us!

Back Acre RV Park, Garner TX

We took off very early this morning... Before 6:00... to beat the rain that was coming in.  We did a pretty good job missing most of the rain, just getting showered on a few times for a couple of minutes. That meant we got to our park near Weatherford very early, about 11:30 this morning.  

We were headed to a park called West End, and somehow ended up at Back Acre.  It took us awhile to figure out what was going on, and where we actually were, but the owner here had a good laugh about it.  I've finally figured out that Google Maps has West End located wrong on the map, probably because the park is on a different road than the listed address.  If this park hadn't been here, we probably would have found the original one, but we got the same price, so all is well.

After hearing that I have a family connection with the owners of a place called Texas Hill Country Furniture, and the BBQ place next door, Natty Flats, we had to go check that out for dinner.  The family connection is... Keep up... My mom's cousin's husband's cousin is the owner of the store.  Anyway, the store had really cute things in it... Wish I had room to buy something from there!  And out front is the World's Largest Cedar Rocking Chair, as certified by the Guinness Book of World Records!

The barbecue place was fun, too.  A no-frills place where you share a long table with whoever else happens to be there.  I snapped this picture quickly between families.

The park where we're staying is definitely no-frills but a cute little park, and the owner seems to be a nice old man, despite the lady next to us telling us he was cranky, except not such nice language.  We took a quick walk to the pond before dinner.

When we went into the furniture store, the temperature was 78 degrees.  When we came out 15 minutes later, it had dropped to about 50, and it's still falling.  East of us in the Dallas area, there were tornado warnings.  We seem to be in for more falling temps, and rain, tonight and tomorrow.

Christmas Day!

Santa was good to us this year!  We both had kind of themed presents... Brad's centered around fishing... A collapsible fishing pole, and reel, a portable fish scale, and a stake to stick in the sand to hold his pole while surf fishing.

And mine revolved around the Royals... A BBQ set, a new iPhone case, and fuzzy warm lounge pants.

And those go right along with one of the birthday presents Abby and Jordan gave me...

I was pretty lazy most of the day, after we took a nice long walk with Budger this morning... It is very hilly around here, by the way!

Brad spent most of the afternoon smoking a turkey breast for our Christmas dinner.  The wind was not his friend today.  He finally had to put the grill in the back of the truck to keep the fire from going out.

A couple hours to go

And done!  Oh my, was it good!

Our complete Christmas dinner... Smoked turkey, cheesy-bacon mashed potatoes and gravy, and fiesta lime corn.  I realized after I filled the plates that we had done a whole "yellow" meal.  Not so photogenic, but it was yummy!

A big thunderstorm is supposed to be coming in late morning tomorrow, so we are packing up what we can tonight, and getting the truck hooked up, so we can take off early tomorrow morning and hopefully miss the worst of it.  We'll see how our plan works tomorrow!

Christmas Eve

We took a walk down to the lake this morning... Well, to both lakes, as we're positioned between Lake Eufala and Onapa Lake.

There are a couple of islands we'd like to kayak to, if we get time.

Wooded, rocky shoreline.

A little creek that connects the two lakes.

And some cardinals were keeping an eye on us.

Brad got our Christmas Eve roast going in the smoker before we left... We had to take a peek when we got back.

And here's the finished product!  Oh my, was it yummy!

And our complete Christmas Eve dinner:  Roast beast, sour cream and onion potatoes, and salad.

Santa was sneaking around the park this evening when we were leaving for Christmas Eve service.

We went to the First United Methodist Church for Christmas Eve Candlelight Service.  My absolute favorite service of the whole year.

This car was parked next to us... Not often you can arrive at Christmas Eve service in a convertible!

When we got back to the park, we saw what Santa had been up to... Luminaries lined the driveways.

Our Christmas Eve snack-fest!

From our camp site to yours!

Onapa Campground and RV Park, Checotah OK

We're back in Checotah, heading south this time.  We decided to try out a different park that is closer to the highway and a little closer to town, just so we can compare, since this seems to be a good stopping place.  This is a smaller park than the last one we stayed at near Checotah.  A young girl about 14 or so came running up to us as soon as we pulled in, and guided us to our spot, which is right across from the office, so great wifi again.  The park seems to be very family-friendly, as there is a small playground, pool, and basketball court right across from us.  Brad had to try out the basketball court as he explored the park.

We are right beside the storm shelter, which it doesn't appear we'll need, but I read about some RV-ers in North Alabama that may be concerned about that tonight.

There also seem to be a few tiny-house-type cabins for people to rent.

We had a few things we needed to pick up at the store before the Christmas Eve madness sets in, so we decided to eat out since we were going into town anyway.  The best rated restaurant in Checotah was El Jarocho Mexican Restaurant, so we tried that.  Very good and authentic!

We also picked up some tea lights so Santa could have a candle... I think we're all ready for Christmas now.  

Last day in Kansas City

We spent the day today at my sister Wendy's house.  David and Brad had a couple of fix-it things to work on in their new house, and I got to spend the day visiting with Wendy, my mom, Mallory and McLain,  and Kendall and Grace.

Tomorrow we start heading south, toward warmer weather.  It hasn't been too terribly bad, weather-wise, here in the KC area, but it sounds like we may be just missing a mess moving in.

Till next time, KC!

Fun day in KC

Today I went into KC to hang out with Mom, and Kendall and Gracie came over to visit too, and we all decided it was a KC BBQ kind of day, so we went to have lunch at Joe's KC.  Unfortunately, so did half the city. The line to get in and order was going out the door!  After we stood in line for about 15 minutes, Gracie helped us decide... We'd order it take-out and go back to Mom's.  We were able to order from the take-out counter right away, and got our food in about 5 minutes.  And they had burnt ends for the lunch special!

Mm-mm-mmmm!

Tonight Brad and I met Rachel for dinner at the Salty Iguana.  Good food, good conversation, lots of laughs!

Then Rachel showed us this store called Scheels.  Very cool sporting goods store, with a Ferris wheel inside.  Well, we had to try that!

We were up very high!

And just in case you were wondering, it actually is possible to fit three adults in one seat on the Ferris wheel.  Rachel may or may not have been half falling out, though... Especially when Brad broke the rules and rocked the seat.  Of course, I broke the rules, too, by having my phone out once we started moving.

Then we went to the Deanna Rose Farm to see the Christmas display.  Very cool!  You park, and turn the radio to the right channel (and turn the headlights out, right Rachey?) and watch the display up on the front of the barn.

And there was a special Kansas City message.

Fun day!