Krispy Kreme and Squirrels

There is a Krispy Kreme donut place across from our campground.  Every morning, Mom and I walk to end of our street and just sniff the air.  Mmmm.....donuts!  Mom surprised me on Valentine's Day with Krispy Kremes.  They were everything I imagined.  I chattered until I received a bite.  The glazed donut melted in my mouth.  I chattered some more and Mom laughed at me.  I think I am hooked!

The squirrels here are not very smart.  I almost caught one today.  He ran really close to me. I spun Mom around and started chasing him.  I don't think Mom will let me get that close to one again.  It sure was exciting, just ask Mom! 

There is a couple from Australia that are staying here for just a few days.  They are traveling around the world in their RV.  Can you imagine?  They are here to see where JFK was killed and then they are moving on.  They are not interested in touring J.R. Ewings house. BOL!  They are on their way to South America.  They thought I was cute and Mom talked way to long to them.  I get bored after a minute of talking.  Why do people talk so long?  Just say "hi" and move on.  That is what dogs do. We sniff butts and move on.   Mom thought they were really interesting.

This is the back of their rig.  The top part comes down when they travel.

Here they are leaving for a day of sightseeing.  We will try to get a front view of their rig tonight.

In other news, Mom has started cooking with a cast iron skillet.  She is tired of replacing frying pans every six months and cast iron is supposed to last forever if you take care of it.  She has been using it for a few weeks now.  She likes it, but she is still not happy with how our fried eggs are turning out.  I think she just needs to practice with more eggs.  

Our weather has been really nice the past few weeks.  Our temps have been around 70.  Mom has been riding Buddy all over.

I like it here.  The dog park is nice.  There is one for big dogs and one for dogs under 25 pounds.  Mom actually lets me run here.  She says it is the perfect size and there are not things that I can run into.  Several people have commented that I look so happy when I am running.  Mom laughs when I run because I run in a crazy way.  I like to bounce around.  It's fun.

Me watching a cat.  Yep, there are lots of cats here.  Cats and squirrels!

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Is Hoping More Donuts Find Their Way Into His Mouth

Top O' Hill Terrace

 The folks took of a tour of Top O' Hill Terrace.  Top O' Hill Terrace was known as "Vegas" before Vegas. In the early 1920's, the property was a tea room which also served meals.  In the late 1920's, Fred and Mary Browning purchased the property and converted the facilities into a casino, adding an escape tunnel and secret room for hiding the gambling paraphernalia during raids. Many famous people visited the casino.  John Wayne, Liberace, Bonnie and Clyde, Clark Gable, Bugsy Siegel,  Benny Binion; Ted Hinton,  Hedy Lamarr, Lana Turner, Marlene Dietrich, W.C. Fields; stripper Sally Rand; reclusive businessman Howard Hughes; boxers Jack Dempsey and Max Baer; band leaders Tommy Dorsey and Tex Beneke were among some of the visitors.

 There were guards at the entrance to the hidden casino and only certain people were allowed inside.  If the police showed up for the raid, the guards pushed a button which sounded an alarm in the casino.  Items could quickly be stored in walls and secret rooms.  Gamblers would escape through hidden tunnels.  This worked well until one guest who had a cast on his leg fell in the tunnel and couldn't get up.  All the people behind him were trapped in the tunnel and they were all arrested.  In 1947, officers crawled up in the hill and caught the gamblers by surprise.  The casino was shut down for good.  In 1956, the property was bought and it became a Baptist college.  It remains a Baptist college to this day.  I forgot to mention there was also a brothel on the property in the casino days.

The tour guide has been researching the history of this place for the past 14 years.  Her husband is a pastor.  She said they have never allowed a deck of cards in their home, but she has bought poker chips and roulette wheels for her tour.  She is really dedicated to finding out all she can about the history.  There is one tunnel that has been uncovered, but she thinks there are probably five in total.

The tour consists of sitting on some really hard wooden chairs from the casino days and watching a slide show for about 1 hour and 15 minutes.  Vickie Bryant, the tour guide, showed various items that have been donated to the museum. Then, the tour group rides a golf cart to various places on the grounds.  On weekends, visitors can see the one tunnel and secret room that have been found. It cannot be toured during the week because you have to go into the kitchen of the cafeteria and they prepare food during that time.  The tour is a donation of $5 a person.

One of the two tours that the guards used.

Backside of the entrance.

The tea garden

The fountain inside the tea garden.

Inside the tea garden

Another wall of the tea garden.

The tunnel coming out of the building.

View from top of the tea garden.

 The folks said the tour was interesting. It would be even better if guests were allowed to walk through the tunnel.

On the way home, they saw this:

Dad thought it was really funny.  It is not funny that Carolyn died, but it is just worded funny.  He wonders if Carolyn was on the waitstaff.

If you are interested in learning more, there are several short videos about the Top O' Hill Terrace. Click here: Top O'Hill Terrace.  Click on the left hand side where TV stations are listed.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Is Getting A Reputation With The Squirrels Here

Shhhh

 

 

I said "Shhh!"

You have to be very, very quiet.  I am hunting squirrels!

You have to walk softly.

There he is!

He thinks I can't see him.

Gotcha! Well, we gotcha with our camera.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Prefers Squirrels Over Rabbits

Bye Bye California!

We were supposed to stay in California until the end of February, but the job ended early.  Mom was more than ready to leave.  It is so expensive!  Our rent wasn't terrible like in San Francisco, but we had to pay electric here.  We didn't there.  Mom asked several times what the rate was, but she could never get the answer.  She found out that it changes each month.  How can that be?  It is also on a tiered plan.  The more you use, the higher the rate.  The rate starts out at $.10 a kilowatt which is cheap, but then it goes up to $.30 a kilowatt.  Want to guess which rate we were at most of the time?  They also charge an additional fee.  Mom found out that it is a fee that the park just adds to the bill.  That is a first for us. We paid $445 for five weeks of electricity. Their fee was $119.  The final week there, we switched over to using our propane because we found out a guy would come by to fill up our tank.  It would have been cheaper to use propane the whole time, but unless a truck comes to your site, it is difficult to get if filled. While we really liked Southern California, we were ready to get the heck out of the state.

We left on Saturday and drove to Picacho, AZ.

We stayed at a KOA. 

Frankie's Restaurant

 They had a real restaurant on site.  The folks ate there and really enjoyed their steak dinner.  They said it was better than some steak houses.

The steaks were grilled here.

I liked the dog park.

On Sunday, we had planned to stop in El Paso but the weather changed our minds.  High winds were predicted for Monday, so we drove two more hours and stayed in Van Horn, TX for two nights.  We drove longer on Sunday because we decided to stay parked on Monday.  That meant our drive on Tuesday would be much longer than planned.

This was the rest area where we ate lunch on Sunday.  It was windy there.

View from the rest area.

We were given a site with a nice view of the sunrise.

Our view.

Mom and I sat outside before the wind kicked up.

Yep, it got windy and dusty.

 We are not sure how high the gusts were, but they had been predicted to possibly be 60-80 mph and that is way too windy to drive a motor home.

 We bought our slides in because the wind was making our slide toppers fly up too much.  We were scared they would tear.  It got quite cozy inside. 

We were able to leave on Tuesday.  It was still windy.  We watch the sun come up as we drove down the highway.

Tuesday was a long day of driving, but we arrived safely at our destination near Dallas around 5 p.m. We are staying near the place that we have stayed two times in the past, so we know the area.  The folks are excited to be able to eat at their favorite restaurants again.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Still Needs A Cowboy Hat