Susan, Cory and Samantha (a little girl whose mother DIDN'T want to ride an elephant) mount up at the KC Renaissance Festival.

And no, I wasn't CHICKEN--but I had the camera! And isn't Susan looking great? She's lost 70 pounds since the first of the year!

Sister Gwen in the dining room of her beautiful new house in Lawrence.

The Lawrence, Kansas Aussie pack--from left, that's Zachary, Autumn, Maddie and Sky Valentine. (There's nothing wrong with Autumn's eye--the camera just caught her in a blink.)

Here's how the big bridge looked from inside the B.A.T.

The road was familiar, so my navigator went off duty.

Ever wondered how three dogs fit in the backseat of the B.A.T.? They get a little cozy.

The front view of our new home--the house faces south, the best direction when the Canadian border is only a mile to the north.

The house sits on a double lot, so the yard is HUGE! This view is taken from just inside the northeast corner of our back fence. The screenhouse is 14x14 inside, screened all around and glassed on every wall but the south (facing the sliding patio door off the family room). It's also wired and has a light and ceiling fan. It will be the perfect spot to host summer barbeques.

Primary requirement--there must be room for the 5er! As you can see, we stayed quite comfortably in the front drive (after one of Cory's cousins came out and added a 50amp plug outside the garage for us--until then, it was HOT without A/C.) The silo-like structure to the right is the original Sault Ste. Marie water tower, constructed in the 1860s, and behind the trailer you can just see the spire and roof of the Seventh Day Adventist church, which owns the empty land to the east of our house.

The family room was our biggest project--the only wall that wasn't wood paneled was papered...badly. We tried to strip and paint, but finally gave up and paneled it with this striped wallboard. Turned out nicely...

The kitchen is very large. The electric range will eventually have to be swapped out for gas, and we'd like to find a way to lighten the dark color of the cabinets (without painting--they're oak), but the layout is convenient and there is plenty of room for ALL Cory's appliances and gadgets. At the far right end is a closet that contains the washer/dryer.

The dining room is small, but we've never had one before, so we love it! At the left is a built-in computer hutch--handy for the high-tech cook!

The living room is large and well lighted. Note the built-in bookcase near the hallway and the ceramic tiles at the entry.

The smallest of the three bedrooms took up a good bit of our rehab time. The closet needed to be stripped of shelving, repainted, and a rod rehung. And these built-in cabinets were looking a bit sad. This is the BEFORE...

And this is the AFTER!

We had Cory's nephews for a week, and naturally, we went to the water park. Ask Cory how she enjoyed the ride!

We remarked on the 15th that the anniversary was coming, then on the 19th that it had passed...and both agreed that it hardly feels like we've been traveling for a full year.We're still having a great time, still looking forward to the next destination, still making notes on the things we didn't see or do in every area so we can see and do them "when we come back." And there are so many places we want to go back to...

Meanwhile, we are counting our blessings--we saw Jackson, Tennessee BEFORE the tornado hit there last night! The same storm front nailed us with hail and winds heavy enough to rock us in our sleep last night--Cory got up and retracted the TV antenna because she was afraid it would be ripped off! Thank goodness, no funnels here. You know those things arrive and ask, "Where's the trailer park?"!

A few days has turned into a few weeks. On day 4, while getting us hitched up to move out, I stepped into a hole in the lawn and twisted my right ankle. (The hole was invisible because the mower had cut all the grass to the same level.) It swelled so fast and hurt so bad that I was sure something was broken, but the x-rays said not. I was on crutches for a couple of days, then said "the he** with that." Limped around pitifully for a week or so, wrapping and icing when home, but I'm now walking fine, with only a little residual pain and swelling each day. However, I tried to drive again yesterday and that's still too much for me. So we're just staying put for a while, until I'm healed. Cory's been doing the driving for our daily running around, but she's not ready to take on the driving with the rig behind us!

We're not grumbling, because we're in a fun spot. This is the gambling mecca of the South and if Antoinette hadn't clued us in, we'd never even have known it was here. It's about a half-hour south of Memphis, and there are 9 different, Vegas-style casino complexes here, all on their own huge acreages, scattered along a 10-12 mile tangle of nicely improved back-country roads. There's no town here, not even a bar or grocery store, just cotton and soybean fields and an occasional gas station in between the Grand, Bally's, the Horseshoe, Fitzgeralds, the Hollywood, Harrah's, Sam's Town, the Gold Strike, and the Sheraton.

Naturally, we've had time to visit all nine, and we've discovered "comp heaven." We've eaten out every night since we arrived, and we've yet to pay for a meal. We just go play for a couple hours, then ask for a buffet ticket! So far, we know we've eaten more than we've lost! The Hollywood serves whole Maine lobster on Friday nights--between us, we ate six of them last Friday night, and we also walked away with about $175 of the casino's money that evening. What a deal, huh? And we're staying at the Hollywood's RV park, where we get full hookups (including phone at the site!) for only $10/day. You can't beat that anywhere! It's a nice big pull-thru spot, with concrete pad and a good size lawn, too. We get free use of the hotel pool/sauna/exercise room, and there's a big fenced dog run here in the RV park. Unfortunately, the dogs have not yet visited there. If you try to walk our kids one at a time, the ones left behind bark enough to get us tossed out. Usually, I could take them all at once, but right now, I can't take the chance of getting jerked off balance. And Cory can't handle them, either. But they enjoy spending time on their leads with the nice grass.

There's a big music festival on Beale Street in Memphis the first weekend in May, and we want to stay to attend. Then we'll head north toward Chicago...

But we got to glimpse Dolly herself as she paraded through the grounds (twice!), they still had the glassblowers and the blacksmiths, and you can still go through every gift shop and booth without seeing Dolly merchandised. There is not one poster or t-shirt bearing her picture, not one CD on sale. She's still promoting Tennessee entertainment, crafts and culture, not herself.

I met Dolly once myself, a hundred years ago when I was a country DJ in Montana. She headlined at the local State Fair and I introduced her. I remember standing next to her backstage when we were introduced, looking down (have THAT picture in your mind?), and saying like some backcountry dufus, "Dolly, I am your biggest fan." She looked up (way up) and laughed, "Well now, girl, I believe you just might be!"

Lynn drove down from Chicago on Sunday to join us for her spring break. The three of us toured Graceland yesterday...and I must admit, I had more fun than I expected to. It was interesting to see the 70s immortalized in a wealthy man's home--just like the rest of us, he had shag rugs on floors and ceilings, with lots of wood paneling, gilt, velvet and fake fur. It was like a time capsule...and rather surprising to realize that the King really lived rather modestly, considering his stature. We heard and saw dozens of performances on video and audio, and saw tons of memorabilia...we walked rooms and rooms of his gold and platinum records, music awards, humanitarian awards and charity recognitions. We even got to see the famous pink '56 El Dorado, as well as his Stutz Bearclaw limos and his private jet, the Lisa Marie.

We're going on to Nashville today, then we'll be in the Knoxville area on Saturday for the opening day of the season at Dollywood. Since the shows at the Opry are only on Friday and Saturday nights and Lynn only has one weekend with us, we decided we'd rather spend it in Pigeon Forge. We almost missed that, since Saturday will be the first day of the season and Lynn has to be back driving her bus by Monday.

March 21, 2003 Meridian, Mississippi
We’re wending our way toward Bowling Green, Kentucky, where we’ll meet up with our friend Lynn late this month. She drives a school bus, so she’ll be on spring break. We plan to do a bit of traveling together, probably hit Nashville and Memphis, then get her back to Kentucky so she can drive back home.

It was stormy here--pleasant  days, with temps in the high 70s, but we had 2-3 inches of rain most nights. Happily, our site had a concrete pad, so we were in no danger of bogging down. But the dogs and I experienced Louisiana swamps first hand--there wasn't a square inch of grass in the RV park that wasn't flooded and marshy! We made sure the dogs got their heartworm shots, because the bugs were out. (Barney also got his teeth cleaned. He still hasn't forgiven us.)

We figure we saw more parades in the month we were in Louisisana  than we have in the last 10 years…and we have about 20 pounds of beads to prove it. While we were in the area, we did a swamp tour, visited an above-ground cemetery, and took a carriage tour of the French Quarter. We drove the longest bridge over water in the world (23.5 miles) and visited the Harrah’s casino in downtown New Orleans (had to—couldn’t find anywhere else downtown to park the B.A.T.!). We ate muffaletto sandwiches in the Central Grocery down in the open market, and had ettoufee and jambalaya on the second floor patio of a restaurant overlooking Bourbon street. We saw street performances—air brush artists, an escape artist, tap dancers, a Calypso acrobat team…and of course, music. LOTS of music!

A few notes on the local jargon—everyone called us “baby”, including waitresses, cashiers, tour guides and gas station attendants. At one restaurant, the young lady waiting on us failed to say it; I asked where she was from—Arizona. That explained it! And in Louisiana, if someone "passes a set of eyes at you," they've just given you SUCH a look! No one passed a set of eyes at us, though...everyone was universally friendly. And the Mardi Gras spirit was everywhere. A great place to celebrate our respective birthdays!

February 25, 2003 Abbeville, Louisiana
We’re in Louisiana. Betty’s RV here in Abbeville is living up to its billing—the friendliest park we’ve visited yet. Betty is probably in her late 50s, about 5’2” tall, red-haired and rowdy, with a thick Luziana accent…and when we met her, she was positively draped with what looked like about 5 pounds of Mardi Gras necklaces.

When we pulled in, she walked out to meet us carrying a wine glass, greeted me by name (correctly!) and told us we’d arrived right at happy hour. The park is small and overcrowded this week with Mardi Gras visitors, their trucks and rigs, so I had to do some pretty fancy backing up to get into the site (Cory even had to go out and block traffic on the road outside the park for me). But with Cory directing me, I did it, first try, with everybody in the park sitting on Betty’s patio watching! Once we got unhitched, we walked over to the party. That’s when they told us that the guy who pulled out of that spot Sunday morning took nearly an hour to back into it last week…and his trailer was 6 feet shorter than ours, and the big motorhome we had to serpentine around wasn’t there then. We actually got a round of applause. That led to a round of storytelling that lasted nearly an hour. We laughed, ate homemade chili and met everyone at once. We were told Betty’s is a “bed-and-breakfast experience for RVers.” I’ve never stayed in a B&B, but this place is another reason to love this lifestyle. What a hoot!

February 16, 2003 Houston, Texas
Still on the way to Mardi Gras, we stopped for a few nights outside of Houston. Hearing that there was a world championship barbeque cook-off at the Astrodome, we headed into town for a day. Good eats and a carnival, too!

February 15, 2003 South Padre Island, Texas
Time to head for Luziana. We had scouted out Mustang Island, a state park,  on our last trip through Corpus Christi, so we spent one night close enough to the Gulf to be lulled to sleep by the surf. Beautiful--and good cell service, too! We'll be back.

February 9, 2003 Brownsville, TX
Tuesday, we had our first Mexican dentist appointments. Now get this--I had a cleaning and a checkup, Cory had a cleaning and a major filling replaced. (The $250 filling she had done in Lake Tahoe last summer fell out months ago.) Total bill: $65. For both of us. She's going back next week to get some more work done, including a crown she's been putting off for about two years. Last figure she got from our dentist in Bensenville was $700+. It's going to cost less than a third of that  to get everything done in Mexico. And after our appointment, we asked where we could catch the bus to the bridge to cross back over to Brownsville, so we could avoid another taxi ride. The receptionist didn't speak English well enough to understand our question, so she went to get the dentist, who was born and educated in Texas. He said, "You don't need the bus--I'll take you there myself." So, off we go to the border in his Lexus...with instructions to call before we walk across the bridge next time and he'll pick us up, too!

February 2, 2003 Matamoros, Tampa, Mexico
Yesterday, we went into Matamoros for the first time…it’s just across the Rio Grande from Brownsville. (We had planned to go earlier, but I took a bad fall on a diesel spill at the gas station…really messed up my back for a while, so we held off. Feeling much better now, though I’m a little stiff today after all that walking yesterday.)

January 22, 2003 Brownsville, TX
We've been seriously enjoying being "winter Texans"--that's what they call us snowbirds round here. We were in the Corpus Christi area for about two weeks, but they were having a cold snap. Seriously, the news promos last week went like this: "The three Ps--People, Plants and Pets--how to protect them from  the coming DEEP FREEZE! Details at 10..."

Anyway, since it was SO cold, we headed even further south. We arrived in Brownsville on Sunday. Yesterday, it was 76 degrees. Cory was in cut-offs. They say we may see 80s before the end of the week. I knocked off a little early this afternoon and we took a half-hour drive over to South Padre Island. Pretty much a typical beach resort town, nowhere as attractive (to us) as North Padre—the most interesting part of the trip was driving north on Highway 100 until the drifting sand covered too much of the road to go any further. It was just like driving through drifting snow, but warmer. MUCH warmer!

January 5, 2003 Corpus Christi, TX
Friday, we arrived in Rockport-Fulton, just about thirty minutes north of Corpus Christi. Now, we don mean to make all of y'all up north jealous or anathang...but it's 73 degrees and sunny in the daytime in these parts!

Today, we drove south through Corpus Christi and out onto Padre Island and the national seashore there. We found a 63-mile long stretch of RVer boondocking heaven. The beach is about 150 yards deep and hard packed, and up along the dunes, for miles and miles, one finds every variety of trailer, fifth-wheel and motorhome, from the little vans to the big diesel pushers, old rustbuckets to brand-spankin' new $100K coaches. Everyone faces their rig to the Gulf, and about half sit in the shade of their awnings reading or watching TV while they keep one eye on a fishing pole resting in a six-foot length of PVC pipe right at the waterline.

There are no hookups and we have no generator to run my computers, so we can't join them...this time. But I have my eye on a Honda EU2000i that's supposed to run very quietly and weight only about 45 pounds...

January 2, 2003 Houston, TX
Happy in Houston...we had planned to pull out after only a single night here in Space Center RV Park, but once it occurred to us that the place ISN'T named for its spacious sites...duh, it's Houston! Since I'm still officially on vacation, we paid for another night and headed for the Space Center.