Thanksgiving in Las Vegas

November 26, 2011

The turkey is reduced to leftovers in the freezer. The tree is trimmed. We are awaiting our umpteenth football game of the weekend, Tech and Baylor. We managed to avoid the shopping freenzy so far, but also have no presents for Christmas yet.

This is our first holiday season back in a stick home so the traditions of decorating and trimming the tree have brought back many memories. It was great fun to set up the manger, arrange the Santas, and hang ornaments. I haven't seen these treasures for 3 years. The best part is remembering the family, friends and students who gave us so many of these items. I have parts of 2 manger sets, 1 from Mom the other was Aunt Janice's. I remember the Kerrville after Christmas sale at Schreiner's with Mom when I picked up our Christmas pottery. Mom and I were both proud of the low, low price. Setting up the tree on the day after Thanksgiving was something we always did with Bill and Betty when we were in Waco.

Since it has been awhile, a few things slipped our collective memory: what happened to the tree stand? we only have 1 strand of lights? did you find the ornament hangers? But all the dust has settled and I have swept the tree needles yet again and it's time to catch up on correspondence.

From my perch on the sofa I can admire the sunset over the mountains, the tree, and the large screen TV. Life is good! It must to time to post on the blog!

We've been reminising our most recent trip and planning the next, but for now we are hanging out in Vegas. New traditions are good!

Living in Vegas

Look left: view of sunset over the western mountains. Look right: Rangers up by 2 over the Tigers. I guess there is not much to complain about, but somehow I find a way. In a minute we'll flip to catch up with the Raiders and Aggies, so I am truly multi-tasking.

We took a sports break today to take a short drive and hike. We are about 10 miles from the entrance to Red Rock Canyon National Park, geezers like Russell get in free. We hiked the Calico Hills for about 1.3 miles. The up, down and around made it more of a challenge than it sounds. It was a perfect day, evidenced by the number of folks who made the same decision we did to get out of town.

The Calico Hills are perfectly named. Orange, white, black, marmalade striped formations heaped in great globular mounds reminded me of a book Kyle got from my Aunt Mab when he was slightly more than a baby. We loved how the calico cat ate everything in sight to become The Three Hundred Pound Cat. I could just imagine him and an entire herd of such cats eating themselves to a frozen state, sleeping off the Thanksgiving dinner of all time. Perhaps I spent too long in elementary classrooms.

But now back to the reality of an opened patio door, no screen needed, with the mountains etched against the last glow of clear sky. A pine tree off of our patio frames the twin palm trees that appear to top the more distant peaks. Oh and Tech just scored again. Some things just don't get any better! Yes they do! A NELSON CRUZ HOMER!

A New Home in Las Vegas

Last night Russell commented that it has taken 2-3 months but we were finally settled. Looking at the calendar revealed that it had just been 6 weeks. Some things just feel like they last longer.

During our long-planned trip from Texas to Chicago in July and August, our Las Vegas condo closed and our stored furniture and boxes were shipped from Waco; all with a lot of help from friends and the internet. We left Indiana Dunes early August 11 and arrived in Vegas 1780 miles and 3 days later. Between the 14th and Labor Day Russell and Fred, handyman extraordinaire, painted, floored and plumbed. In the 3 weeks since Russell and I have been cleaning, sorting and moving in. The RV is in storage nearby ready for our next trip.

We are enjoying our new home! At 1200 square feet, it is small, but 3 times bigger than what we are used to. We love getting reacquainted with our stored stuff; it makes us smile to seeing our paintings and hear the clock chime. We love our view! the mountains west of town display wonderful sunsets, more smiling. We love meeting new neighbors and finding cool spots in Vegas. There is more work to be done, but the has-to-be-done parts are behind us and we are beginning to enjoy our new home.

More later to fill in the gaps about crossing the mid-west and seeing 7 new-to-us states.

A New Home

Indiana

We swung by Indianapolis on our way to Lafayette, and I am talking about the briefest of glances. I'm sure there is a city there, but you can't prove it by me. We only saw a couple of freeway systems under construction. The signage was so poor we were flying on guess work, not our best method of navigation. But! we made it and we were soon cruising into our campground on the Wabash River east of the city. Stately trees created a canopy that shaded and cooled.

We took in the local sights: the Tippicanoe Battleground, Perdue University (thought about our friend Tom who was a proud alum), the county courthouse, Walmart and Home Depot. The Erie Canal that connects Lake Erie with the Wabash, built long before statehood, ends at Delphi, a town just east of our campground. We talked about going but ran out of steam. A tour boat runs on the weekend, not weekdays. That would be a trip worth taking.

We woke up Tuesday night to heavy rainfall and heavier limb-fall. A thin but long dead limb landed on the roof just over our bed in the early hours. Fortunately nothing was hurt and the refreshing sound of rain was really nice. Temperatures were cooler that morning, but in a steamy kind of way. This morning the air was crisp, clean, and significantly cooler. Maybe 100 degree days are gone for this trip.

We are now just up the road at Fair Oaks. The park is just beautiful, wide sites, well treed (but we finally have satellite access with ease) there is a lake and several trails. Chicago is less than 2 hours away, so driveable for a day trip. I'm getting excited about my first visit to the city.

New Territory!

The weather did cool off in Tulsa prior to our leaving on Tuesday morning, bring much needed relief to the area and us. However, our stay there was about organizing and meeting up with the Rutherford's. While there, we did take advantage of a wonderful farmer's market. We cooked fresh eggplant, greenbeans, zuchini, tomatoes, it was all wonderful.

The drive northeast to Missouri was blessedly uneventful in terms of road conditions, weather (even a smattering of rain!) and ease of driving. We stopped in Dixon at a very out-of-the-way spot on the Glasconade River. We enjoyed the peace and quiet of this country setting, even took a dip in the river, heavenly. The river is spring fed, a bubbling 42 gallons a minute. Hunter was our local guide, a friendly 5th grader who was also escaping the heat in the river.

Our next travel day took us through St. Louis (why didn't we plan a stop here?) to Illionois. Driving northeast on I55 the major landscape feature is CORN! It is indeed King here, rising at least 6ft, going on for miles. We are camped just south of Springfield at the Double J, a wonderful park. We spent yesterday in downtown hoping to see a bit of the Lincoln sites. We were all amazed at the show that Springfield puts on!

A Civil War "Vet" led the tour of the Old State Capital where we met President and Mrs. Grant. He spoke about growing up in Ohio, the son of a successful tanner. Grant lived in Illinois at the start of the Civil War and worked at the State House. We walked to Lincoln's home and neighborhood. The National Park Service manages this area. There is an interesting display about the process of excavation in one home. The Lincoln home is wonderful, especially since Abe himself arrived during our tour. He talked to folks and led a parade to the depot for his trip to Washington as the president. We heard his farewell speech and then a "press conference" a week after Bull Run.

There is so much going in to make history alive you could spend several days in this small downtown and still not see it all. We head back today for a walking tour of the Lincoln neighborhood and a visit to the museum. I expect them to be wonderful, and then I think we will be ready to say so long to the Land of Lincoln.

PICTURE: Abe leaving his home for Washington. The hat sits on the desk occupied by Lincoln while in state legislature, now occupied by ME while listening to Pres. Grant.

Points North!

We picnicked near the bank of the Red River on our way to Tulsa. Most of the trip was highway, but some sections of the east Texas drive had us anxious to get to the Indian Turnpike of Oklahoma. We did not know when we had it good! It was nice to have a thruway, no lights and minimal traffic, but the road conditions had Russell wanting to collect money at the tollbooth for enduring the rough ride. Oklahoma calls itself "The Turnpike State." They actually take pride in taking your money at every off ramp. To end with a more positive comment, we did enjoy the forested rolling hills.

AND what do you call Tulsa if Dallas was a steambath?

It may be less humid but that is small consolation for increased heat. Even in Dallas our A/C cycled off for long periods of time in the pre-sun mornings. Waking up in Tulsa today we could hear the air conditioner cut off only very briefly before kicking into action again.

However, the day must be met and we had things to do. Post office, new car tires, and haircuts made for a full morning. We took a nice stroll through a really good farmer's market and picked up more vegetables than we can possibly eat. Good thing the Rutherford's are arriving tomorrow to help with that.

We'll be here until Tuesday morning when we head north and east:
Springfield, MO;
Springfield, IL;
Lafayette, IN;
Fair Oaks, IN;
and finally Indiana Dunes, IN.

The last 2 locations are within an hour of the true destination: CHICAGO!

According to the weather map, we are literally hitting all the HOT SPOTS. Looks like we could be almost anywhere else in the USA and be cooler. Can we plan a trip or what!