Chicken Fried Steak and Cafe del Rio...Texas Style

Alabama in the rear view mirror (well, sort of!), we headed down the Natchez Trace last Sunday and scooted into East Texas, looking forward to a visit with Donna and Keith...oh, and of course, to the world famous Cafe del Rio. Donna and Keith introduced us to this "best of the best" Mexican restaurant on our last visit, and those warm tortillas served with honey and butter have been on our minds for awhile. We were not disappointed!!! They were, once again, simply the best!!! And what a fun time we had visiting!!!

How do you like this abode??

You may remember that Keith and Donna, sadly, lost their home in a fire last July. It was such a sad sight to see their once lovely home in ashes. And, adding insult to injury, on December 23rd a tornado destroyed the towering trees, grounds, fences and and some of the lake. It is heartbreaking to see it, remembering what an inviting bit of paradise their home was. They have handled the loss well, and moving on, they purchased a new home and are making it their own. (See photo above! :) or maybe not?)

In the meantime, they are staying at Southern Stable B&B, which is an inviting Texas style home and working ranch. They have the entire B&B to themselves, so we all had a little fun in the purely "Texas style" rooms.....

Donna and Molly in "Miss Kitty's Room"

.....and on the porch............

....and in the yard.......

.... and in the Barn...

Don't Mess with Texas!

Then there was another great dinner at Ralph and Kacoo's in Lufkin.....
...where I had the biggest Chicken Fried Steak I've ever seen.......

mmmm, mmmmm, goood! (Thanks to Keith for the photos borrowed from his blog!)

We played some mighty competitive games of Hand and Foot, in which the gals were the victors, and just enjoyed the wonderful companionship and hospitality of these fine folks!! We hated to leave them but we had more Texas fun waiting on us, so we had to mosey on.

Oh, and that top photo....well, that's just the outdoor bath house for the B&B...Texas style for sure!!

HUGS!

Red Bay, Alabama

Well.....what can I say about Red Bay, Alabama? Not that much, really. Bob and I often talk about the fact that there is always something that we just love about every place we have been, and at first, we thought that Red Bay might prove to be the only place that would not be true of this. It's a little Southern, working class town, in NW Alabama. Not normally too awfully cold in Winter, except the past two weeks have been "exceptionally cold" (i.e. FRIGID!) And we are not that happy about being "stuck" here for what will probably be at least a month....but we are making the best of it.

And , of course, it is the home of Tiffin Motorhomes, that alleged wonderful, quality manufacturer. And for all of the "Tiffinites", coming here is like a pilgrimage to Mecca. We were actually looking forward to our first trip up to Red Bay with the new motorhome. As it turned out to be so cold and the work has turned out to be so invasive, we are not really enjoying ourselves much. The exception has been that we met some wonderful folks from Marathon, FL, Bobbie and Chuck Bayles and we had great fun "feeding" off of each other for new and innovative ways to "redecorate" these new motorhomes! They got "released" this weekend and headed down to Marathon...so we will miss these guys that we enjoyed so much!! But we'll meet these two fun folks again!!!


And then some other SKP's arrived, Norm and Mary Schrer and Beth and Wayne Roberts so we've had some little Happy Hours and even had our own Super Bowl party last night. Beth and Wayne are former Escapade Directors and they have great stories to share; it's been wonderful sharing time with these folks!!

So we are making the best of a not-so-good situation, and we are actually finding there are some things to love about the town of Red Bay...we have become "regulars' at Swamp John's and Katie Kake's....the people here are so wonderfully Southern....and they serve Chocolate Gravy for breakfast!

We're still looking for some of that Tiffin kool-aid, but it has eluded us thus far.....maybe yet, there's still plenty of time left for us here in Red Bay, Alabama.

Back to Sleepy Hollow.....

After those few frigid days in the middle of January, the weather decided to behave itself and it has been delightful in Florida. Nice sunny days in the 70's and mild nights...good flipflop and shorts weather!!

So, after we finished up at Lazy Days we moved back up to Florida Grande for a week or so to visit our neighbors and get ready to head West. Norah and Howie were already at FG, so we did our usual routine of projects, eating, cards, eating, visiting, eating...and so forth. Bob and Howie got the Honda set up to tow and the solar panels mounted on both of the motorhomes. I think we are all anxious to be traveling now!

Before we headed out, we wanted one last visit to Sleepy Hollow over in Floral City for their famous $5.00 steaks on Saturday. So word got around and we all headed out to the biker bar under the Spanish Moss.....

Above..... Florida Grande folks...all full of steak!!

Helen, Maryann & Molly (Above left) and Bob & Molly, Maryann & Bill, Paula & ..oops, missed Tom! (Above right)

The weather was perfect for those grilled steaks and the company was even better!!

Helen and Bill along with Janice and Dean came down from The Wilderness, Paul and Connie came from Ocala, Joe and Marcia and Walt and Donna drove up from Tampa, ...Tom and Paula joined us at the MH in Webster, as did Maryann and Bill from Lakeland and we caravan-ed over to Sleepy Hollow!

More good times and good food at Mariachi's!!

It has been awhile since we were all together, so many of us headed back to FG to see the new motorhomes and to have a little more time to visit!! As the day wore on, it was decided that we needed to finish the day off up at Mariachi's Mexican in Bushnell, where we had spent many enjoyable times last winter. The food was really great; we did miss our favorite waitress, Felice, as she has joined the Army..but her nephew took pretty good care of us.

Good friends, laughter, flipflop weather, and a great little Southern Rock-N-Roll band...all under the Spanish Moss ....I'm not sure it gets much better than this!

So the end of January finds us leaving the lovely Florida weather and heading to Northwest Alabama....yes, indeed, on to Red Bay!! Whatever are we thinking?????

It's going to be c-o-l-d up there!! I am going to miss my flipflops!

The Ides of January....

Yes, indeed, January is half over and I'm still on the first week!! The good news is we are all moved into the new motorhome and it is warm again! We are still at Camp Lazy Days and I have not cooked in over three weeks....yikes!...but not to worry....they feed us three wonderful meals every day at the Crown Club so Bob is not starving to death.....as a matter of fact we don't even want to think about the pounds we have probably gained!! And we discovered those new little Jello Mousse Temptation thingys.....and they are indeed, tempting! Yes, they are sugar-free and only 60 calories of pure dark, rich fluffy chocolate, so of course, we must have dessert every evening when we return to the motorhome. Yes, I think I am liking this "not cooking" thing! Besides, it will keep my new kitchen looking just like new forever! :) Why didn't I come up with this plan sooner??? If only I can convince Bob that he just needs to eat popcorn and Jello Mousse Temptations as a regular diet, I would have it made. But, alas, my meat and potatoes guy is not going to fall for that one. He does, however, like to eat out!!! (He just plain likes to EAT!) :)

It has been so cold here in Tampa that the Spanish Moss must be frozen and all of the other plants are surely dead!! But we have had a great time here as someone is always coming in to visit. Lots of folks from Florida Grande have been down and joined us for Happy Hour or lunch. And Sunday Paul and Connie Anderson had us all up for lunch at their place in Ocala. She is a great cook and it was fun to spend time with them again, along with the Nankivell's and Howie.

Good buddies..Howie, Connie, Paul, Paula, Tom and Bob

Doug and JoAnn (yes, Filmore's parents!) came by last week and we had a delightful visit with them, despite the cold temperatures. Howard and Linda Payne came down to Tampa for the RV Show and we met them along with Doug and JoAnn, Bill and Debbie, Arlene and Kevin and Jackie and Tony Albacini for dinner on Wednesday evening. Howard and Linda had organized a little "Meet and Greet" at the Tampa Show for Thursday so we all gathered there for a little visit. Oh...and it was 73 degrees and sunshine for the day!!! We were some happy campers!! :)

I had gotten an email from Maryann and Bill Parham who have been reading "the blogs" and met Bobbie and Jim Chapman in Coffeyville, KS. They are here in Leesburg and drove up to meet us all today at the show. What a lovely couple!! We made a plan to visit our favorite Saturday haunt, Sleepy Hollow on Saturday the 23rd....so if you're going to be near the area, plan on meeting us for those great $5.00 steaks at Sleepy Hollow! We sure look forward to seeing them again!

Bill, Maryann, Jim and Bobbie

Of course my camera is "somewhere" in the MH, so I "borrowed" this photo from Bobbie's blog!!! Thanks Bobbie!!

It was also really nice to spend some time getting to know Howard and Linda Payne better...they joined us for Happy Hour at Lazy Days and we spent a lot of time just chatting and laughing, and of course, solving all the world's problems. RV'ers are such a friendly lot and we are truly privileged to meet so many wonderful folks. Howard and Linda share so much of themselves with everyone...we really enjoyed our time with them!

Bill and Helen Moll are also here in Tampa so we're meeting for breakfast at Cracker Barrell this morning!! And it's going to be 75 degrees today!! Yes, indeed, life is good and my toes are warm again!! Where are my flipflops??

Oh, and that lovely frozen fountain marks the entrance to Paul and Connie's place in Ocala...that was on Sunday. Somehow it just seems wrong for fountains to be frozen by the palms!!! That's my story, though, and I'm sticking to it!! I just hope I never see it again!!

Hugs to everyone, and I hope it is warmer, wherever you are!

Happy New Year!

Well, a new decade has dawned, and it only seems like yesterday that we were all preparing for "Y2K" and planning our New Year's Eve party for the new millennium....

We spent this New Year's moving into our new motorhome....yes, we have been looking for quite a while, deciding whether to keep our much loved Dynasty, or move to a newer RV.....and ultimately, Norah and Howie helped align all the stars, as they wanted to buy the Dynasty.....so we decided on a new Allegro Bus, and Norah and Howie began their trek Eastward and we all met at Lazy Days on Thursday to do the deed!!!

Bob and I are exhausted from moving way too much stuff into the new motorhome, but we finally got it all into our new little cabana, and Howie came over this afternoon to drive the Dynasty into their "moving site" a few sites down from us. That was a truly sad moment for me, as we have had so much joy and so many good times in the Dynasty....but now it is their turn to create more memories and I know they will. At least we'll get to visit it now and then!!!

Santa was very busy this year!!

So, it is both an exciting and busy time for us, as we get everything in place on the motorhome and finish the delivery inspections and let them fix all of the little "quality control" issues....we had no idea this would be so much work!!! I think we will need a vacation soon!!

Happy New Year to everyone and we wish you health and happiness in 2010!!

HUGS!