Friday Might Be The Day

Yesterday morning, Mama was really stressed.  She was on the phone almost all morning with lots of different people.  We didn't know buying a new home had so many steps to it.  She needed to get this motor home paid off, so she had to get the money wired to them.  It turned out to be easy after she got the proper forms, etc.  We are still waiting for a letter to be faxed or a title to arrive by mail showing we own it.  She called about insurance and got some quotes.  She still has questions on those.  She found out that the place we are buying from takes care of the licensing for us and that is really nice since the lines here for registering vehicles are very long.  She asked if they could do the Jeep, too.  BOL!  They said no.

This is what might be our new home.  The sun got in the way.  Mama says it is a pretty rig.

The inspection of the new motor home will take place tomorrow.  We are hoping we can bring it home on Friday. It is still possible that the deal could fall through on Friday.  If they decide Goldie isn't worth as much as they told us, we may just walk away from the deal.  Dad said their offer is really low and he will not take less.  Mama agrees.  It will be a pain waiting there all day and then not have the deal go through.  Yes, this adds to Mama's stress level. 

A better shot of the dining area.  The bedroom is in the background.

We are in the midst of deep cleaning here.  We didn't know Goldie could sparkle so much.  BOL!  I think the refrigerator will be cleaned today and the freezer defrosted.  Mama has to do laundry this morning.  She hopes it is the last time she has to do big loads there.  She will be keeping her wagon because she will take blankets to the laundry room to wash them because our new washer is pretty small.  People love Mama's wagon.  She thought it was funny it came with cup holders, but you know what?  She uses them!  It is rare not to see the wagon without a soda in the front of it.

Mama has to clean the carpet.  It's a good thing she is waiting until the last minute because I got sick on it last night.  Sorry Mama.

The Shower.  It is a little bigger than ours now.  No, it is not slanted, Mama is.  BOL!

Our beds are on their way!  They will be here between Thursday and Monday, but they are estimated to be here on the 6th.  Isn't the 6th Wednesday?  Not sure, our calendar has been packed away.  We hope they arrive before Monday.  Dad would probably prefer they arrive on Friday so that we don't have to tote them all around.  We will probably put them in the Jeep until we get the new motor home.

The bedroom.  It has a lot of storage.

Mama is feeling much better and is not nearly as stressed as yesterday.  Her main focus now is getting things cleaned.  She says there is a lot of dog hair.  Well, it is not mine.  It must be Scout's.

A glimpse of the bed.  Not a good picture.  The big mirror is the closet.  Much bigger than ours now.

Ack! I just looked at the clock.  I need to get off the computer so that Mama can start her day.  There is lots to do here.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Thinks The New Rig Looks A Little Too Classy For Him

We May Be Parting Ways With Goldie

What is this?  It's the floor plan for the motor home that Mama and Dad have a contract on.  Yep, they found one.  It has four slides.  It is a 2006 Newmar Ventana - 39 feet.  We can't say for sure it is ours yet because it has to pass some inspections.  Dad is having a mechanic check it out and the dealership will also inspect all the things on the inside.  There is a ton of things that we have to do this week and Mama is feeling overwhelmed, but if she can get the house ready to sell in six weeks, she can do this. We have to have our motor home inspected before we trade it in.  We didn't realize we had to have a Texas inspection. It makes sense that they don't want to buy something that isn't inspected.  We will have to spend the entire day at the dealership while they check out our motor home.  They said it takes several hours. We will then move all of our things into our new place.  We are not for sure when that will happen, but it could be the end of this week.

Mama tried to take pictures of the motor home, but most did not turn out. There was another couple that was very interested in "our place" and they kept getting in the way.  The folks looked at this place for four hours.  They made an offer on that first one that Mama LOVED, but once again they were rejected.  Dad made an offer on this one, but they were rejected.  They came home and thought about it and went back with another offer.  This is really Dad's dream motor home and really didn't think we would be able to afford it.  He decided not to let it pass by.  It is very well insulated as far as motor homes go.  It is a very well respected name in the motor home business. 

It has a king sized bed and the bedroom is not small because it has two slides. King sized beds are not all that common and finding one with enough room is even less common, at least in the rigs that the folks have seen. It has a four door refrigerator with an ice maker. Our current one is half that size.  The shower is a decent size.  The cabinets are cherry.  There is a spot where we may be able to add an electric fireplace.  Oh, yes, it does have a washer/dryer combo!  The only thing that it doesn't have is an automatic awning.  It's the only one they have looked at that didn't have that.  Dad said we will have it added on in the future. They thought about doing it immediately, but then they had to pay a little more than they planned and there went the awning for now.  BOL!

Here are few photos to tease you.  We will give you a tour once we get it home.

The couch will have to be covered since it is leather.

The kitchen. We didn't really gain any counter space.

We will remove some of the chairs to make room for my bed.  This window goes down close to the floor, so I am putting my bed there.  We may remove the whole table to give us more room and build a desk. 

Mama ordered our beds last night.  Yes, we will be sleeping on the floor again.  Scout says she will sleep on the King sized bed during the day.

We are very excited, but Mama is stressed.  What is new, right?

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Hopes He Likes His New Bed And Motor Home

It's Another Beautiful Day In Our Neighborhood

We have had beautiful weather for the past three weeks or so.  We had about two weeks of cold, rain and wind at the end of December and beginning of January.  We were thinking "What the heck?" Now we are wondering if winter is over here.

We love the palm trees here.

Scout is happy this morning. 

Dad arrived home last night. Scout gave him the cold shoulder.  BOL!   I was excited though.

The folks are going to look at that motor home that Mama doesn't think has enough storage, but has the wall of windows.  Dad is interested in it and thinks he can make it work. He said we have to get it at a really price though.  It has low mileage, but the description says it doesn't have a generator.  We hope that is just a typo.  We know it had one at one time.  We need a generator so that we can have air conditioning while we are driving down the highway. It will get too hot for us in the back without the big air conditioning running.  It also needs new tires.

The wall of windows.  There are six total.

Mama said she would take the chairs away and our beds would replace the chairs.  She would probably keep one chair and place it in front of the table.  I think it would  be cool to have windows that I could easily look out. 

Dad mentioned that he might make another offer on the motor home that Mama loves.  Mama said she is sure the man will reject it, but Dad said it doesn't hurt to try. 

The folks ate out last night.  Mama is behind on her restaurant blog again, but she did update it this morning with the place they ate at last night, Buca di Beppo Italian Restaurant.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Likes Living In Texas

Dad Comes Home Tonight!

We have been pretty busy here with Dad being gone. Tuesday, Mama stayed home with us all day except for doing laundry. Tuesday night, the pizza man came by with a pizza and cheese bread sticks. Mmmmm! Yesterday, Mama looked at two new motor homes that came in. She liked one, but we would have less storage space than we have now, so it doesn't make sense to buy that one. The price is really good and it is in really nice condition. It's too bad that the storage is so bad. It has a whole wall of windows which would be fun to lay by and watch people go by.  We will keep looking.  She then got her haircut and did some shopping.

Dad didn't call us last night. Mama said it must be too busy for us. :-( We know he was scheduled to go to a rodeo last night.

It has been so windy here. Yesterday, Mama said she was our anchor and we were hers and together we managed to stay on our feet during our walk.  Scout and I thought it was like riding in the car with our heads hanging out.   A man yelled out to us "I'M FROM KANSAS. I COULD HAVE STAYED HOME FOR THIS."  BOL

Yesterday, we had comments on Scout's beauty.  It doesn't bother me when people say Scout is beautiful. I hear it on a daily basis on our walks. Everyone thinks Scout is beautiful. They love her "stripes".  I guess they don't notice my brindle face.  Mama says I am cute and that is enough for me.

Scout has taken some beautiful photos.

I am just a fun guy.

Sometimes we take fun photos together.

Today, on our walk, Scout started limping.  Mama checked her foot and found a leaf.  She then found a piece of mulch.  Scout must have a lot of storage space between her pads.  BOL

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Is Glad That Dad Will Be Home Tonight

Wordless Wednesday 1/30/13

Scout,
The Greyhound Who Is Not A Camera Hog Like Her Brother

George Ranch Historical Park

I am not happy that Dad is in Dallas.  Last night, we went for a walk and a Jeep passed us.  I thought for sure the Jeep was ours.  I insisted we head home.  When we got in the motor home, I checked the recliner because that is where Dad usually is, but he wasn't there.  I kept one ear up until bedtime.  Mama gave us bully sticks, but it didn't help.  A few more big sleeps and he will be home.

The folks visited George Ranch Historical Park on Saturday.  This is a place that follows four generations of the same family  There are four houses. The workers are all dressed in period clothing.  The first house was a log cabin that was built in 1830.

Worker at the 1830 in cabin.

1830's house

  

The next generation lived in the 1860's house.

1860's house

Demonstration on the six layers of clothing that women wore.

The next house was the 1890's home.

Inside the 1890's home.  This guy is dressed in wool. 

1890's home

Family Cemetery near the 1890's home.

The final house was the 1930's house.  Mama didn't take any photos of the outside of the house.  Here is a tree that was supposedly planted when the house was built.  There is a tree house around it now.

The kitchen of the 1930's house.  It had a dishwasher, electric stove and huge refrigerator. 

When the folks arrived, the first thing they did was eat.  They stopped at the Dinner Bell Cafe.  Mama thought it would be fun. It looked cute.

The food was not very good.  The cook said all they had was a microwave to cook with, so they ate a microwaved hamburger. 

Mama was really sorry she chose eating here instead of eating at the chuck wagon.  The chuck wagon meal would have taken a lot longer and with all there was to see and do here, they were here five hours anyway.   It would have been an experience having their meal prepared at the chuck wagon though.

The chuck wagon.

 After lunch, the folks went to a demonstration by cowboys.  They showed how they round up long horn. 

 They round them up very carefully and they said they suggest where they should go.  Those horns are big and sharp.

They saw a roping demonstration and another cattle demonstration.

This guy's horns are 6 feet across.

There were alligators.

There were chickens.

This is the blacksmith.  He gave a demonstration.

It was about a mile walk to go around the property.  There is a tram that comes by about every half hour.  House tours are every half hour.  The cost is $10 per adult.  No pets are allowed.

Mama said it was a fun place to visit.  She wanted to do it last year, but we were on the opposite side of town and it would have probably taken them 1.5 hours to get there.  She said she always didn't want to visit when it was hot out, so she was glad she was able to visit in cooler weather.

Mama took over 130 photos.  She took a lot of the interior of the homes, but I thought it would be boring to post them all here.  Sorry, Mama.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Still Needs A Cowboy Hat

Dad's In Dallas

Dad left this morning for a business trip to Dallas.  We are not missing him yet because he is normally gone at this time.  We will miss him tonight.  He will come home Thursday night. 

Mama has the car this week, so she has already been out running around.  She went shopping in Missouri City which is ten miles away.  She brought home hot wings, nacho fixings and yes, chips.  She said it is a junk food feast this week.

The folks were really business this weekend.  Dad was off on Friday. They made an offer on the motor home they like, but the guy turned them down.  We will keep looking.

Saturday, the folks when to a ranch with real cowboys!  We will tell you more about that later in the week.

Yesterday, we went on a hike!  We went to the Houston Arboretum which is about ten miles from here.  They have some really nice hiking trails.  We liked them because they are only for walkers and not cyclist or joggers.  The last place we went had a lot of joggers and cyclist and it was a pain getting out of their way the entire time.  The arboretum was not very pretty, but we still had fun.

 There are a lot of boardwalks.

I hear something.

I hear it, too!

 The trails are very well marked.  Dad announced that we could go on the outer trail, but that could be long.  Scout refused to go when she heard that, so Mama had to walk her instead of me.  Mama makes it seem more fun than Dad does, so Scout walks better with Mama.

 Here comes another dog!  We met a few nice dogs yesterday.  There was a man with five dachshunds and they were not nice.  They even started fighting with each other as we passed by them.   It was a little scary.

 There were a lot of trees in pots.  We are not sure if they are digging things up or planting them.

It definitely looks like winter here.  In our resort, we have trees that don't drop their leaves, so it looks very green.  It was kind of depressing to see this.

There is a whole other section of trails we didn't get to yesterday including a boardwalk over a swamp.  We plan on going back soon and completing the rest of the trails.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Is Still Tired From His Hike