We Are Ready!

Joey and Scout,
The Greyhounds Who Are Wishing All Their Friends A Happy New Year

A Visit To The Texas Prison Museum

We have driven past the the Texas Prison Museum several times and the folks decided to stop in yesterday and take a look around.

The prison museum tells the history of the prison system in Texas.  Mama said it was pretty interesting.  There were many items on display that prisoners have made.

Furniture made by prisoners.

A saw blade with several sketches by a prisoner.

A chess set made out of soap!

Jewelry box made out of match sticks.

A stump carved into several heads.

Old Sparky is on display.  It is the electric chair.

A cell that visitors can explore.  Mama said she felt very closed in just being in the cell.

There were several newspaper articles about the deaths of Bonnie & Clyde as well as this pistol.

The museum has a gift shop and many of the items are made by in the inmates such as leather wallets, some wood items and badges. 

Mama enjoyed the museum.  Dad said it was okay, but it wasn't a must see for him.

The folks ate lunch before they visited the museum.  Dad wanted to try a restaurant that was ranked as number one on Trip Advisor.  The folks had a heck of a time finding it.  GPS told them they had arrived when they were in front of a cemetery.  They kept circling around and finally found it.  The signage was hard to see and the restaurant was in a double wide trailer.  The folks decided to try it anyway because the reviews were so good.  Another family came in while the folks were there and also commented on having a hard time finding it.  Dad said it just shows that social media can really help small places because that is how people are hearing about them.

The restaurant is small. The furnishing is quite simple.  It looks like they probably bought all the table and chairs at garage sales, but it works.  The staff was very nice and checked on the folks several times.

BBQ at Bennie J's Smoke Pit

The folks both ordered ribs and brisket and they both said it was really good  They have not been impressed with BBQ in Texas, but this was by far the best.

We have another Ninja update.  Mama fixed Cornish hens this week.  They were good.  She baked the Cornish hens and then seared them at the end.  That is not the normal technique, but she wasn't happy with how the skin looked without the searing.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Wonders What 2014 Will Be Like

Our Year In Review - Part 3

The second week of August found us in Sycamore, IL which is near Chicago.  Mama loved this small town.  She was able to walk to shops and restaurants. It was here that Buddy, the scooter, came into our lives.  Mama was able to ride Buddy in Sycamore and DeKalb.

Our campground.

 We attended the Mutt Strut where we met Bryn, Scout and their folks, Donna and Chris.  Donna reads our blog and she identified that we were in the town next to her and invited us to the Mutt Strut.  It was a lot of fun!

Us and Bryn and Scout. Yes, another Scout.  BOL!

The folks found a lot of things to do in this area such as visiting Ronald Reagan's boyhood home, John Deere Historic Site and a car museum was much more than a car museum.  Oh, we can't forget the sock museum. 

Monkey Sock Museum

We were supposed to stay here until Thanksgiving, but Dad's work plans changed and we were went to Kansas City at the end of October.

We enjoyed our time in the Kansas City area. We actually stayed in Platte City, MO.  There is so much history in the area.  The Pony Express started here.  Jesse James grew up here and was killed here.  Harry Truman is from the area and the folks toured his library as well as his home.  The WWI Museum is also here.

The campground was decorated for Halloween.

Harry Truman's Home

Scout relaxing at Basswood RV Resort.

We left Kansas City at the end of November and headed home (St. Louis area) to visit family for Thanksgiving. 

We arrived in Houston on December 2nd and that is where we will finish 2013. 

2013 has been good to us. We have explored and sniffed new areas. We have made new friends along the way. We have found some places are hard for us to leave and others we are thrilled to leave.  BOL!  Where will 2014 take us?  Stay tuned as our adventure continues.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Is Not Tired Of The RVing Lifestyle yet

We Gave Dad His Gift This Morning

We kind of messed up last night when Dad came home, so we decided we better give him his Christmas gift early.  How did we mess up?  Well, we totally ignored him when he came home. Why did we ignore him?  BECAUSE MAMA HAD FRENCH FRIES!  It is really Mama's fault.  We couldn't resist the french fries. They were McDonald fries for gosh sakes!

Scout and I talked about it after the folks went to bed and we decided we better give Dad his gift this morning.  Mama put it in the cabinet with the coffee filters so that Dad would see it right away.  What did we get him?

Doesn't it look like us?  Mama showed it to us online and we decided we had to get it for Dad.  It is not from a photo of us.  It is just a design from an artist, Kelli Swan and it looks just like us. He likes to show his co-workers photos of us and now he can just take his coffee mug to work.

We ordered the matching ornament for Mama.  As you can see, she likes collecting greyhound ornaments.

We are going to have a quiet Christmas. The folks are going out for steak tonight and then tomorrow, Mama is fixing a big dinner.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Doesn't Think It Is Fair To Have To Choose Between Fries and Dad

It Looks Like We Need The Fun Police Here

Last night, we walked to the fenced dog area.  Scout said "Joey, let's play."  I said "Okay".  We started zooming around.  Scout was in a crazy mood and pretended like she was going to plow into Mama.  Mama told her to slow down.  The next thing I knew, Scout and I got into a squabble.  Mama yelled at us to quit and she put our leashes on to take us home.  It was dark, so she couldn't check us over completely.  As she we were walking, she noticed that I kept licking my nose. She then saw it. Scout had bit my nose!  That's right, she bit the tip of my cute nose.  Can you believe that?  Mama got us home and she kept blotting my nose because it was bleeding.  It wasn't bleeding a lot and it didn't really bother me. She gave us a frosty treat because that is her way of determining if we are okay.  BOL!  I ate it, but she realized that me licking it was causing my nose to continue bleeding.  She called Dad and told him and he told her that it wouldn't have happened if the fun police was in town.  I don't know about that, but I bet he will be even more strict now.

Oh woe is me.

Scout never said she was sorry, but she did seem a little upset. I think she was more concerned that she was going to get in trouble than my injury.  She did give me a kiss this morning when we were walking, so I guess that is her way of trying to make up to me.

Don't let her innocent look fool you...her teeth are sharp.

 Mama said to tell you that my nose is okay and it looks much better this morning.  I was hoping to play it up a bit.  BOL!

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Hopes Santa Feels Sorry For Him Since He Has A Nose Injury

Cookie Tasting 2013

Yesterday, Mama made fudge and no bake oatmeal cookies.  I was not allowed to taste them due to the chocolate. 

 This afternoon, Mama decided to make peanut butter blossoms and she said we could taste the peanut butter part.  Scout did not participate because this is what she was doing during the cookie tasting.

Scout was too busy sleeping to taste peanut butter cookies. She is asleep but her eyes are open. She is scary sometimes.

I'm ready for my cookie tasting.

Yum, yum, yum!

Oops, I drooled...sorry.

Very good, Mama!  Another please!

These are the cookies. We used refrigerated ones because we only  have one oven rack and it would take all day if we had to bake homemade.  I did not taste the chocolate, just the cookie.

This is how a greyhound should look when they rest, not like Scout. BOL!

We have a Ninja 3 in 1 update for those that are interested.  Mama made spaghetti in it last week and it was so simple and fast.  She browned the ground beef and mushrooms in it and then changed it to the bake mode because that is what the recipe said to do. She added the sauce and the noodles.  The recipe called for a pound of spaghetti.  Mama only had a half pound of angel hair pasta, so she knew the cooking time would be less than the half hour the recipe said.  It was probably about ten minutes and it was done.  It was good!

Spaghetti in the Ninja

Mama tried ribs again. This time she used the St. Louis Style ribs.  The ribs turned out really good, but had more fat than the baby backs she tried earlier.  She was impressed by how good they were though.

Mama also made another roast this weekend, but didn't take photos. She used condensed mushroom soup and dry soup mix and she said it was really good.

Mama is still trying to figure out what she wants to fix for Christmas dinner in the Ninja.  It will either be ribs, chicken or a roast.

We met a lady yesterday who said we were beefy looking.  I don't think it was a compliment, but since I like beef, I was not offended.  Mama told her that our vet said we look fine to him.  Mama also said that you can't hide anything when you wear white and I am in white fur.  BOL!

We still need to finish Part 3 of our year in review.  We just decided the cookie tasting was more fun today.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Only Has One More BIG Sleep Before The Fun Police Is Back In Town

Our Year In Review - Part 2

June found us in Fort Lauderdale, FL.   We stayed in a RV resort that was basically vacant.  It didn't look vacant as there were many mobile homes there.  It was eerie because the place seemed to be frozen in time.  There were bicycles on front porches, but most of the windows were boarded up just in case a hurricane came while the owners were away.  We actually got scared when we saw a man walking through the resort one day.  There were so any stray cats there.  Mama got scared a few times when putting trash into the dumpsters because cats would come flying out at her.  I enjoyed the cats, but Mama was not as happy with them.

Our site in Fort Lauderdale,

It was hot there. The evenings were nicer than the mornings. We enjoyed walking in the rain here.

Some of the vacant homes in the campground.

We were told that this place is "wild" from November through April. It fills up with French Canadians. We can only imagine how active it must be right now.

Mama declared this place to have great burgers and the best fried pickles.  Unfortunately, there are only locations in Florida. 

The beaches are beautiful, but very crowded.

In July, we drove back to the St. Louis area for two weeks to visit family, doctors and to have some work done on our motor home. We stayed at Bennett Springs for a few days where Dad enjoyed trout fishing.

At the end of July, we headed to Memphis for two weeks.  The first week, we stayed at the Graceland RV Resort.  Mama and I really enjoyed staying there.  Scout said it was too hot.  Mama and I walked to the Graceland gates a few times and also to the Graceland shopping area.  It was fun!

Visiting the shopping area of Graceland.

Me in front of the Graceland gates.

Standing on Hound Dog Way

The folks have friends, Lee and Donna, that live in Memphis, so they got to meet us. We enjoyed meeting them. 

We moved to West Memphis, AR for our second week of our stay in the Memphis area.  We stayed at a campground that was right on the river.  We watched the barge traffic.

The sky was pretty here.

We came across this while hiking in the woods.  BOL!

We will conclude our review on another day as we can see a few of you are dosing off.  BOL!

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Is Trying Decide What Location He Enjoyed The Most

Our Year In Review - Part 1

We were listening to Christmas music the other day and Mama started talking about the places we have visited this year.  It seems like each place has touched us in some way either with the people we have met or just the places we have visited. We decided to do a brief year in review.

 We ended 2012 and started 2013 right here in Houston in this same campground.  While we were here, we sold our house and purchased our motor home.  We officially became full-timers and, yes, Texans!  When we arrived back here this month, we walked the campground to see who was still here that we knew from our previous visit.  We were really hoping to find the nice couple who brought Mama a Subway sandwich for lunch one day.  They noticed that she was alone during the day and thought she might like a sandwich.  Mama asked if they would be back this year and the lady said she didn't know.  She said they were getting older and she was not sure if they would make the trip again. They had been doing it for a few years.  Unfortunately, they are not here and we hope they are okay.   There was also a couple with a German Shepherd that we hoped to see again.  He was working really hard to train his dog and we would see him running with the German Shepherd a lot.  He is from Canada and we were told they went back home, but they will be returning.  They are not here yet.  Sadly, we have learned of a few people who have died.  We are located near the medical center and there are many patients that stay here while receiving treatment.  Do you remember the Weimaraner who used to use the dash of his motor home as a bed?  Well, his Dad got sick and died.  :-(  The Weimaraner is now living with his family in Florida.  We hope he has a nice yard there.

Us in the dog area in our park.

Our old place.

We left Houston and arrived in Denver on April 1st.  Denver is where the nice lady gave us bags of groceries as she was leaving the campground.  She said they stay in Vail, CO each year during the winter, so they are probably there now.  Denver is also where I made my "great escape" during blizzard conditions.  Yeah, we probably shouldn't talk about that too much.  Denver was not Mama's favorite place. We received 22" of snow in three weeks.  We had to keep the slides in quite a bit and it was cold.  It was there that Mama decided she was not good at winter camping.

Scout enjoyed laying on the beach at the lake in Denver.

Lookout Mountain

The log cabin which we walked to almost every day.

May found us heading to Dallas which was our next destination, but we stopped in Amarillo for a few days first.  We had a lot of fun there even though it was really windy.  We had a site where we had our own dog run.  We also went to Cadillac Ranch and did some painting.

The folks visited the RV museum.  This bus was in the movie RV.

They ate at the Big Texan Restaurant and really enjoyed it.

 Out next stop was Arlington which is near Dallas.  We met Miss Woe there.  Miss Woe is a greyhound that lives in the RV park with her folks.  We were really thinking of her when they had that ice storm recently. The campground posted photos of the ice storm and we were very thankful that we were not there.

Our site in Arlington.

I really liked this campground because of all the squirrels.  We sat outside a lot there.  We had a pretty good size yard.

Memorial Day 2013

The folks visited the Sixth Floor Museum which is also known as the Book Depository.  That is where Lee Harvey Oswald fired the shoots that killed President Kennedy.  Mama said she learned a lot.

Since we are only to the end of May, we will continue this on another day so that no one falls asleep on us.  BOL!

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Is Really Lucky To Have The Entire Country As His Backyard