Saturday night, we spent the night in Quanah, Tx. Had dinner in a cute little restaurant that looks like a train depot, complete with peanut shells on the floor.

Then we spent the night in the dirt parking lot of Dutch's. (a little hole in the wall cafe' that has killer Cinnamon toast with butter on both sides of the toast!!)

From there, it was about 4 hours home.

Now starts the transformation process.....roof rack, massive front grill guard and (of course) the K9 Unit Rescue letters on the sides!!

Saturday was Valentine's Day and we woke up in Trinidad, Colorado. Drove all day, Jimy spent all day on the phone, with truck stuff, we watched the Nationwide race at Daytona then decided to stop in Quanah, Texas.

We spent the first night on the way back in the Costco parking lot in Bozeman and had dinner at Outback. The next day we drove to Casper, Wyoming and met Jimmy's cousin for dinner. We stayed in a nice KOA campground in Casper then left the next morning for Denver.
Jimmy spent hours on the phone (work) and we missed a turn, so we took a 12.5 mile "shortcut" which reminded us of being back in Alaska...a gravel road!
We pulled up in front of our friend Harvey's house and spent a couple of days there. Friday morning we woke up to 4 inches of snow on the ground! A real pretty dusting! Then we had to be in the Wal Mart parking lot for a mobile tech to work on the bus 12V heater, he finished in about 30 minutes. We met Harvey and went to P.F.Chang's for late lunch.

Sunday started with a phone call to the people selling the Hummer, and they gave us the GPS numbers to their house! ( they obviously don't speak 45' bus!) As we drove further and further into the country the road turned into a sheet of ice! (note the picture of the road...it was plowed, but no where to turn around)! Luckily, you could keep going.....tenuously.... and get back to the main highway.
Lunch at IHOP, a stop at Petco to get Shadow a new bed (for the Hummer), then Jimmy had to wire the Hummer for towing which took a couple of hours in the parking lot....thank heavens the weather was sunshiney and warm in the sun!

January was a pretty ho-hum month, just work, etc. But, then came February. Jimmy had found one of the two yellow Hummer H1s built in 2004, on eBay and bought it! (I knew he couldn't last a year without one) The one catch was, it was in Kalispell, Montana! For those of you who don't have a map, it is about 100 miles from the Canadian border! So, on Thursday,,,,we loaded up the bus and off we went!

We stopped in Clayton New Mexico and spent the night in the parking lot of a quaint little cafe, where we could wake up in the morning and go in for breakfast, Then on to Denver! We stopped in Denver and saw our friend Harvey, (My very own personal Harvey the rabbit!!) ( My best friend since kindergarden). We parked in the Nordstrom parking lot and he came to get us. He was going to go with us to Montana, but some audit at work (UPS) was scheduled, so he couldn't go. So, after a nice visit and dinner, off we went! The weather was nice, so Jimmy drove hours and hours......we stopped in Buffalo, Wyoming and ate at a cute place called the Hoot and Howl, where we played a rousing game of "Fact or Crap" while we waited for our meal. (speediness was not on the menu!)

We spent the night in the Wal-Mart parking lot in Polson, Mt. (about an hour from Kalispell).

Merry Christmas!!

Christmas, this year, was spent in Spicewood, Tx. , at my brother's house. The dogs (except for his "Cosmo" and my "Nikki") all got along and the boys finally got the 1964 Falcon, running. The weather was nice, 75 degrees, but windy! I got the boys all new "leatherman" kits ,
and GPSs. The girls I gave Coach purses and make-up kits. I got Jimmy a new iPhone 3G and he got me a new HP Touchscreen computer!!!! Really neato! I feel like those people on CSI that touch the computer screen and drag around different screens, cooool!

On the way to my brother's house, for Christmas....we stopped off at Jimmy's aunt and uncle's house for a visit....they have acquired 8 (count 'em 8) Feral cats along with their own 2 Devon Rexs. The first one in the picture is one of the inside cats..Lincoln. I call him the Halloween cat! All the others are a momma and her kittens and they stay outside.

Christmas dance!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

On November 29th, 2008....a really rare sight in the evening sky! The Moon, Jupiter and Venus appeared togther! A sight that won't reappear until the year 2052......I set up my camera on a tripod and had to take a time exposure....pretty cool, huh?

(thank you Maricruz...for your comment)

Then,

Thanksgiving week, I got to have my FIRST big meal, on my new table! Impressive, huh? We had a housefull....the boys (my brothers) and their wives, brought their dogs, and I have Shadow, Nikki, and my 2 cats and Buster (the bird). We had to have a schedule to let the dogs out in the yard! (unfortunately, they didn't all get along).
Then, on Friday, Ty and Sandie had to leave, so Jimmy and I took Gaylord and Gloria out to the lake to ride on the big boat.....all in all, a nice weekend.

This month was quite a blur. Jimmy and I got an early Christmas present "for us" and bought a new "SPA" . It's really neat, wonderful jets, color changing lights, waterfall, a fountain, stereo speakers, satellite radio, mp3 hookup,.........Jeez! A much needed relaxation tool, since we just hired eight (count 'em 8!) new drivers!

Then one of our friends from Oregon was in town for business, so we talked him into playing golf out at The Cliffs (the golf course at the lake), Jimmy hasn't hit a golf ball in years....so it was interesting, to say the least! BUT.....the scenery was beautiful!

Probably, one of the neatest things we did, this month....was this.
One of the Fedex dispatchers, Natalie, helps a particular shelter for Battered Women. (She WAS one about 12 years ago), so she asked some of the Fedex contractors to bring some things to help, so she filled her car up.
Friday night, Jimmy and I and Rick (another contractor, friend of ours) went to WalMart and Sam's and loaded up 4 shopping carts at WalMart and the back of Rick's pickup truck at Sam's (about 2 grand's worth of food and supplies), and met Natalie on Saturday morning.
We took all the stuff to the shelter, at an "undisclosed" location...no address, just directions (wild,huh?)
None of the women or children were allowed to come out, because there were men around, until after we all left and the doors were locked. Then I remembered all of our old cell phones...even though they are not on a service, they will still dial 911.
Anyway, it was a really cool experience, they director told us it was about 3 months worth of food.

My brothers and their wives will be here for Thanksgiving, so I'd better go and get ready!

During the month of November, we went to the lake, Mitch (Jimmy's 26 year old nephew, broke his ankle......skateboarding!)
Jimmy has been working a lot, on paperwork, with occasional driving, and we have hired eight new drivers! WHEW!
This economy, taking a dump, has really hurt a lot of people, but the driver pool has increased!
The world may be going to hell, but at least we can all afford to drive there, now! ha!ha! (gotta find SOME humor)

The last of October, brought the NASCAR race to Texas on Halloween weekend! There were a lot of crazy people dressed up, but my favorite was the hanging skeleton of Kyle Busch (driver of #18)....(everybody dislikes him....he's a very talented driver, but horribly arrogant and rude).
We met friends from Tennessee, Texas, Mississippi, New Mexico and even Louisiana., had a blast!
In the meantime, Jimmy was working, between races.

Well, this weekend, my brother came to town and there was a car show at Texas Motor Speedway. so Jimmy and I took the bus and headed up there. Unfortunately, we didn't get to make it until Sunday, and a lot of them had left....but my brother saw it on Saturday and said it was fabulous! I got a few pictures...my favorite was the green Cadillac!
Jimmy got called by a local RV dealership, to install a satellite dish on the roof of one of the motor homes that they had just sold. Evidently, they do not do that , nor do they even know how, so they wanted to call Jimmy in the future, for more of these. ( anything for money.....ha!ha!)

Well, Jimmy has a new endeavor.......the Titanic! We had seen an ad for a guy selling a 43 foot Wellcraft, Portofino, one weekend when we were at the lake, so we decided to go look at it.

When we drove up to it, in the boat, Jimmy noticed that it was sitting lower in the water, than it should have. When we stepped on board, in the cabin, the carpet went "SQUISH"... somehow, it was sinking. The engines, batteries, etc. were 2 feet under water! Needless to say, Jimmy called the guy and said "Do you know that your boat is sinking?" He freaked and called his worker to go to the dock and see what he could do. In the meantime, Jimmy had found a fuse and switched it into the bilge pump, so one of them worked....for a little while....and pumped about 6 inches out of the boat. The batteries had corroded so bad that the posts rotted off. All the wiring harnesses were ruined, the whole boat needs to be rewired. The inside was all mildewed and moldy..the walls, etc. were awful! (They had just put new carpet and upholstry in) The couches had leeched the stinky water and were ruined....it was so sad!

Anyway, the guy who owns it says the insurance company will pay for everything and he and Jimmy have yet to work out the final deal, but we spent the last weekend in the boat slip, working on the boat. It has not regained any water, and no one can find where the water came from. Jimmy drained the motors to check for water in the oil, but they seem okay. Saturday, he got one engine started, and it actually sounded nice and smooth. The starter is shot on the other one, so he "Jimmy rigged" everything and basically "hotwired" the second motor. Once they were running, we took the boat out on the lake (as you can see from the picture) and it ran fine. It seems to be a sound boat, but needs to be rewired, water pump, bilge pumps, one of the a/c pumps replaced and the interior re-done. But, if the price is right, Jimmy has a new project!

Since we are not ready to build our house at the lake, yet, this would suffice, for awhile.

My $470.00 Iced Latte! (the tow bill was 470)

Well, I have to tell you about my $470.00 Iced Latte from Sonic..... We were on our way to the lake, for the weekend before headed to Bristol for the NASCAR race when (1/2 mile from our house) I announced that I would like a Sonic drink....... there is a wide place in front of it, where you can pull off and park. It had rained, so there was a mud puddle... Jimmy saw tire tracks going through it so he pulled in....the front tire went through it, no problem....but when the back tires got there. the soft ground gave way and KAPLUNK! we were buried up to the bumper! the bus was leaning over so much, I thought it would roll.....luckily, Jimmy had our semi-wrecker guys on speed dial, so here came the calvary!
Unfortunately, there is nothing really to hook onto but our bumper ball, so with the steady pulling backwards, and Jimmy driving, he put it in reverse, and they slowly pulled it out!