Our" welcome home" from the side of the house and the garden.

Blue Bells along the highway

March has gone the same way as did February.

We had a busy March but tried to enjoy it as much as possible. Tippy continued her physical therapy which was the big thing for each of those days and if you combine PT with grocery shopping and laundry it made the weeks go by pretty quickly. We got up to Arlington to see the kids briefly on the weekend of David's birthday, March 15. We did some shopping and hung out with the grand kids a bit before we headed to Louisiana on Sunday to have some work done on the coach.

My friend Dick Albritton does work on Alfa coaches, he is a member of our Alfa Club, and he does a great job with the things he does. He has some innovations that make life easier in the coach, some things that make them quieter, and some things to improve the esthetics's. In our case we had the seals on the slides replaced to cut out some noise and make it easier to heat/cool the coach. We also had the exhaust pipe redirected to the side of the coach rather than down to the ground. This eliminates the coach stirring up the dust while on dirt roads and thus keeps the back of the coach and the car much cleaner. We also had him change one of the dump valves from an electric to a manual.

Dick has hook-ups for about 6 motorhomes and has invited us to stay anytime we are in the area. We were there Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday before heading to Kinder, LA, about 170 miles south, for our Alfa club Rally. Tuesday was a beautiful day so I did a Golf Digest visit to a club called Squire Creek in Choudrant, LA. It is a Tom Fazio design and was really a great course. It is a candidate for Best New Private Course for 2009.

We had a nice day to drive to Kinder and got checked in and set up without any problems. We had stayed at the park a couple of years ago and it is quite nice. It is part of an indian hotel, casino, and golf course and is really nice. We didn't get to the hotel/casino, do you think, but I did get to the golf course twice and it was very nice. Dick and I played on Thursday and my friend and fellow club member Dale Bowman joined us for Friday.

The rally went well, no clubhouse so we had a tent but the weather cooperated and the only problem was the sun in your eyes. One evening we drove to DI's restaurant, about 25 miles away, for a terrific Cajun meal. I had oysters on the half shell, frog legs, and some of a friends boiled crawfish. Mmmmmmmm good!! To say we left full would be an understatement! The Wagon Master for the rally cooked up a gumbo for dinner on Saturday evening and it was simply delicious!

We left Kinder on Monday to drive the 90 miles to Beaumont, TX. We had never been to that area, just driven through, so we decided to spend a little time there. Our friends Jack & Carol, from Alfa Club, took us out to dinner on Monday evening to Floyd's and we had another fabulous meal. Boy it sure sounds like we are eating a lot. We were able to get the coach washed and waxed while we were in Beaumont so it was a good stop.

On Wednesday we headed for home, about a 200 mile trip. The day was bordering on rain but we got only a light mist at one point in the trip, just enough to help get the coach dirty. We drove home on US 287, one of those Red Roads, and had a lovely drive. We found a nice picnic area that would accommodate the coach and we stopped for lunch and walked Alex. The Blue Bells were out in force, as you can see from the picture above, and they enhanced the beauty of our drive. They are the Texas state flower but they only last for a few weeks around Easter time.

We arrived home safely to find many of our flowers and plants in bloom and looking really pretty. It was like a welcome home present. I hope you can appreciate the beauty in the pictures above. We will be here at home until our summer trip begins in June, unless something unexpected happens. We might do a short trip to see the kids between then and now but who knows.

Tippy is now walking with only a cane and doing great! She is going to try driving this week so we will see how that goes. She is done with PT but is still doing her exercises and walking as much as possible. She walks in the stores pushing a grocery cart and gets along just fine. I have been working on odd jobs around the house and doing a little woodturning in between. I have done a couple of potpourri bowls with pewter inserts on the top and they turned out pretty good, if you don't mind me saying so myself. I have also made several salt & pepper mill sets out of different types of wood and I have identified some some products to finish them off and protect them.

Well that gets you pretty much up to date so until next time enjoy the pics and be safe.