Chaplin (Toto) - I don't think we are in Kansas anymore!

Roger here.... We are DEFINITELY not in Kansas anymore, as you can see from the picture of Chaplin and me standing next to a tree that actually had green leaves and some kind of purple fruit. We have traveled to Arlington, Texas (between Dallas and Ft. Worth) where the daytime temperatures are in the 60s and the sky is sunny. (By the way, do you notice how skinny Dianne has become?)

Doesn't she look great! She lost eleven pounds working at Amazon and is determined to keep off the weight. I lost ten pounds. We are both stronger, more flexible, and feel great.

The restart to our adventures started very early Sunday morning, as we began an eight-hour drive from Coffeyville, KS to Arlington via Tulsa (impressive skyline) and Oklahoma City. The highlight of the drive was a stop at the Texas welcome center, where I picked up so many brochures and maps that the friendly Texas lady at the counter insisted on giving me a bag to carry them. (It was a really cool rest park). Sacajawea, our GPS, successfully (sometimes she DOES make mistakes) directed us through the congested Fort Worth traffic to our campground for the next two nights. We are staying at the Treetops Carefree RV Resort,

a beautiful wooded park in the middle of Arlington's hectic shopping area. (Dianne here: For our Indiana friends, think of Castleton Square on steroids, and that will give you an idea of the area surrounding this RV park!)

We were amazed to find such a restful place in the middle of suburbia. More good news, surprisingly, through all the trees, our satellite found a hole to the southern sky, so we have internet and Direct TV.

The purpose of our stop here was to see my first cousin, Beth, and her husband, Russ, and their daughter, Becca.

Beth and I were in the same grade and in the same school from kindergarten to high school graduation. She was like a sister to me. Her husband, Russ, was one of my good friends. We last saw them at their home in Chattanooga last spring, and were surprised to learn that Russ had been transferred to the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. Since we were driving straight through Ft. Worth, we had to stop to see them.

Sunday night, after we got settled at the campsite, we went to their house to watch the finale of Survivor while we enjoyed Beth's delicious homemade beef-vegetable soup. Dianne and I have watched every edition of Survivor since its outset many years ago. It was fun to watch it and share views about the characters with friends.

Today, we spent the afternoon in Ft. Worth, one of the prettiest cities I have seen, and traveled a few blocks to the historic Ft. Worth Stockyards.

What a neat place! It is filled with shops,

restaurants, honky tonk saloons, cowboys, horses, and more Texas atmosphere than you can imagine. The sidewalks have stars imbedded in the concrete every few feet with the names of famous Texans. The first indoor rodeo arena in the country dominates one side of the street.

We walked inside to take a peek - really cool

(sorry for the dark picture).

We missed the twice-a-day driving of longhorns down the main street, but we did get to pose next to a neat car with long horns on the front grill.

We also got a great shot of Beth in the cheesy, but fun, jail,

and Dianne in front of the water tower.

The cowboys and tourists riding horses down the street added to the atmosphere,

as did the cowboy music coming from the restaurants and bars.

We were all hungry after all the walking, so we stopped for lunch at one of the Texas barbecue restaurants, Riscky's. I was drawn to this particular restaurant because it advertised Texas Deep-Fried Pickles. We shared an order as an appetizer and they were as good as I thought they would be.

Notice all the grease in the picture - good thing I took my cholesterol meds this morning. The place had a great atmosphere and the food was delicious. Russ had a cheeseburger. The rest of us had a BBQ chopped brisket sandwich with Texas fries - yummy.

The funniest moment of the day happened as we were driving out of the parking area onto the brick street. One of the cowboys waved to us. Russ and I smiled and waved back. Then he waved again and pointed. We both thought he was trying to get us to notice an attraction or a business. Then he waved, smiled, and pointed again. A jolt of reality helped us to realize that we were turning the wrong way on a one-way street. After a roll of the eyes and yet another wave to the cowboy, our third one, we turned the car around and waved to the cowboy one last time.

The rest of the day went quickly. We stopped by the motor home to give the dogs some exercise, went back to Beth and Russ' house, ate some delicious lasagna for dinner, and said goodbye until the next trip through Texas.

On to Austin tomorrow.

Short note from Dianne: I couldn't resist including a photo of the back of my commemorative T-shirt that I EARNED through sweat and exertion from working at Amazon these past few months. I actually wore shorts and a t-shirt all the way through December at work. Walking 6+ miles a day carrying a 3-pound scanner, heavy lifting, stooping, squatting, climbing stairs for 11 hour shifts with no place to sit (except break room) all helped me to shed the pounds I wanted to lose. My goal now is to KEEP THEM OFF!

All in all, it was a good experience for me, and Roger and I made some really good friends that we hope to cross paths with again someday. The good thing about that is, we all live on wheels and can keep track of each other through travel blogs, e-mail, etc., so we'll know when we're in the same area of the country.

We've been blogging for a little over a year now, and our visitor map has just re-set for the next 12 months. Here's a photo of what it looked like for Dec. 2008-Dec. 2009.

file:///Users/diannenorris/Pictures/2009%20ClustrMap.webarchive

I'm including this link mainly for myself, as we also use our blog as kind of a scrapbook of our adventure. (A perfect scrapbook that takes up no space or weight in the motorhome!) I was astonished to see where some of the people were who read (or at least clicked on) the blog -- even Iran! The Hawaii spot was of course our daughter. The spots get larger upon repeated clicks. It's really fun for me to see where our readers are!! Thanks to you all, and I hope you continue to follow our journey with us!

Getting Ready to Leave + Old Photos of a Memorable Trip

Roger here... No pictures this time - really nothing interesting to photograph. We just wanted to let everyone know what we are doing, and more importantly, WHAT WE WILL BE DOING.

Dianne here: Since we don't have any recent photos to add, I added some photos from

the trip that Roger describes in the blog.

You'll note we look younger

in these photos, because it was about ten years ago. Of all the trips over the past 37 years of our marriage, I have to say this trip to several parks in Utah and the Grand Canyon was my absolute favorite! We were just getting back into camping after having sold our pop-up in the late 80s. We cooked over a fire with a dutch oven. Roger's secretary at the time quipped that we'd probably be snapping at each other before we hit the state line, but we spent three glorious weeks and had the time of our lives! I still think Bryce Canyon is the most beautiful place on earth,

and I can't wait to go back. And, yes, the sky was really that blue!!

On that same trip, we were also able to free-camp RIGHT ON THE NORTH RIM OF THE GRAND CANYON.

We set up our chairs and watched the sunrise and sunset each night. It had taken us an hour to get to this spot down a gravel road. There was no one around for MILES. The last shot shows me cooking at our campsite with our dutch oven.

Roger again: Our only other visit to Texas, other than an educational conference that I attended, was a glorious one-day trip to the Alamo Bowl. At that time we belonged to a travel club that specialized in one-day trips, flying out extremely early in the morning and returning late at night. We spent the day wandering along the River Walk in San Antonio and had a great time as Purdue upset 4th-ranked Kansas State at the Alamo Bowl. It was the beginning of the Joe Tiller era at Purdue. Kansas State was unhappy to not be in a more prestigious bowl. It was a sweet win that even Dianne enjoyed. (She has been known to read books at football games, much to my chagrin).

This time we will be spending most of the winter in Texas. We will start in the Hill Country, near Austin, where we will spend Christmas and New Year's Eve. The next stop will be a two-month stop at Bentsen Palms Village RV Resort in Mission, in the Rio Grande Valley, with visits to South Padre Island and the gulf. In early March we will travel along the gulf (TX, LA, MS, Al, FL) on our way to see our daughter and granddaughter in Ft. Myers, FL.

So, after a long time in Kansas, we are hoping to have a long stretch of interesting things to see and do IN A WARMER CLIMATE.

Things are winding down at Amazon. Dianne's last work day is one week from today - none too soon. Our jobs at Amazon have been interesting, and I must say, educational. The compensation, free camping sites as well as a decent wage (including lots of overtime hours), have been good. BUT, we have been here since early October. It is cold (9 degrees one night - we stayed warm inside). It is time to spend the money that we, mostly Dianne, earned. And... the boys do not like peeing and pooping in the freezing weather. The walks have been short and purposeful.

Next stop - Texas, pretty much a new state for us.

Our first visit was about 10 years ago. We were in Amarillo on the way back from a memorable trip to southern Utah. We were camping in a mini-van with a tent extension - no air conditioning. It must have been 90 degrees that night and the campground was noisily located between a railroad track and an airport. To make matters worse, there was a serial killer in Texas at the time, whose victims were all located near railroad tracks. I got up in the middle of the night to take a cool shower to rinse off all the sweat and had just fallen asleep when Dianne elbowed me in the ribs and said, "I can't stand this, WE ARE LEAVING, NOW!" I complained that I had just fallen asleep and that it was 2:00 a.m., to no avail. No reason to argue when Dianne's mind is made up. Her mind WAS made up, so we broke camp in the middle of the night and headed for Missouri.

A Quiet Thanksgiving

Roger here....

Dianne worked five, eleven-hour days this week so we did not have much time to discuss what we would be doing for Thanksgiving. Luckily, Thursday was not a scheduled work day for Dianne; otherwise, she would have had to work.

Last year the temp agency we work for organized a dinner for its workampers - not this year. We checked to see if any local restaurants would be open - no. We heard that we could drive fifty miles and eat at one of the local casinos, but since neither one of us are gamblers, that did not have much appeal. The only two feasible choices were to eat a normal meal in the motor home, OR to fix Thanksgiving dinner in the motor home. The first option seemed a little dull, sooo.... having the rookie cook, me, cook the dinner sounded like fun. How difficult can it be to roast a turkey? Dianne thought it would be great fun watching me try.

I was able to find a crock pot turkey breast and dressing recipe in Dianne's computer files. On Tuesday, I drove her to work at 4:30 a.m. so I could have the car to go to the grocery to buy the turkey breast and the fixins. It was actually kind of fun - much better than stowing merchandise at Amazon. The local Coffeyville ladies thought it was a hoot as I examined several varieties of frozen turkey breasts.

During the next two days, I kept myself busy thawing out the turkey in the fridge - hard work. On Thanksgiving morning I doffed my chef's hat (a retirement gift from my friend, Chris Graves - long story).

Since Dianne did not have a chef's hat and was not allowed to cook, she got to wear the plastic netting from the turkey breast. We are so festive here in our motor home.

The fun began with Bloody Marys garnished with fresh celery stalks served in our finest souvenir plastic cups.

The cashier at the Coffeyville liquor store did not like my choice of Bloody Mary mix, sending me back to get a bottle of very spicy Zing Zang mix. I am glad she did - so good that we drank them before I had a chance to take a picture!

It took a while to mix up the ingredients for the crock pot, but since the turkey slow cooked for eight hours, most of the day was pretty quiet. Dianne spent time looking at maps and info to get ready for our much anticipated sojourn to the warm weather in southern Texas - can't wait.

Since Purdue and the Colts were not playing, I spent most of the day channel surfing and relaxing. (By the way, I was able to see my 6th ranked Purdue Boilermakers beat 9th ranked Tennessee in the Paradise Jam in the Virgin Islands earlier in the week - quite a game!)

When it was time for dinner, the boys hovered around Dianne

for the inevitable handout that they knew she would give them. We enjoyed turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes with gravy, and pea salad. Dianne also had cranberry salad prepared by the skilled hands of local grocery personnel. Dessert was pecan pie, also from the grocery.

We received phone calls from both our daughters, Robyn and Amanda - wish they (and our granddaughter, Kaia) could have been with us. Robyn finished her performance stint on the NCL cruise ship in Hawaii and is back in Chicago. She will be moving to Los Angeles at the first of the year. Amanda is still doing well in Ft. Myers, Florida. We will be seeing her and Kaia in March. Otherwise, it was a pretty quiet day. Food, naps, TV, reading.

And what of the leftover turkey????? Turkey salad the next day.
(Dianne here: Both meals were DELICIOUS. All I can say is, WHATTA GUY!!!)

Books & Products I've Seen at Amazon

Dianne here:

In honor of Black Friday (something I never cared about before as I'm NOT a shopper), I decided to write a blog about some of the interesting products and books I've seen while working at Amazon this fall. After weeks of being frustrated by not remembering interesting titles, etc., I finally wised up and scribbled down titles and names as I came across them. (No time to spend on this at work, so I hope I can read my scribbled-shorthand list.) I will try to add a link to the product at Amazon, if you want to read more about it or find it for yourself. The Amazon web site has customer reviews on most of their products that are helpful. I am NOT trying to get my readers to buy anything; just throwing out ideas and sharing interesting "Amazon Sightings."

I learned, for example, that I can buy my makeup from Amazon. Before, I ordered it from Sephora, but at Amazon I've been enrolled in their "one-click" order program for years, so it's just easier for me to order things there. My friend, Nancy, recommended this makeup to me last summer, and I really do like it, especially if I'm in a hot or humid climate. It feels like no makeup when you wear it:

Bare Minerals Makeup:

My brother-in-law has a nifty pillow for his GPS that he can move from car to car, to hold it steady on the dash. Our GPS, "Sacajawea," tends to wiggle and move in its permanent holder. We've even resorted to scotch tape to hold it steady. Now that I know I can order these pillows from Amazon, I plan to get one. I have stowed two different ones, one made by Garmin

and one by Tom Tom. I plan to research to see if Mio makes one also.

I've heard others rave about French-Press coffee makers. I've seen really nice ones, but I came across a practical one for the RV by Bonjour that is advertised as unbreakable:

Along with a milk frother:

I've seen lots and lots of gingerbread house kits in outbound totes moving along the conveyor belt, and I've stowed some nifty advent calendars.

Yesterday I stowed lots and lots of these Weber grill handle lights, and wrote it down thinking Roger might want one for ours. Unfortunately, they don't work on our baby grill, but it looks like a nifty item if it works for others:

Other things I've seen are lots and lots of cameras (Sony and Canon), toys of every description, baseball caps of every team, the list goes on and on and on....

Roger and I love Seinfeld-type humor, and our daughter (a professional comedy performer) turned us on to "Curb Your Enthusiasm." When we lived in our sticks-and-bricks house, we used to rent them from Netflix. We don't subscribe to HBO, because we wouldn't watch it enough to justify the cost, so that is the only way we could view it. Now, we no longer have Netflix in our new roaming lifestyle, so I was delighted to see that we can order the "Curb" DVD series on line, and can order it by season so that we can get just the ones we haven't seen.

(Note: Do not watch this series if you are easily offended!)

I have also stowed a lot of DVD series of old TV shows. Some of them surprised me, as I had no idea they were available:

The Donna Reed Show

Gunsmoke

I love Lucy (complete series)

Hogan's Heroes

The Waltons (complete series)

I had a lot of trouble finding a bin large enough for the Waltons series of DVDs. I finally had to take it to a special section for oversized items.

There are many others; these are just the ones I actually saw. If there is another one you are interested in, I'll bet you could find it if you browse under the correct heading.

A favorite movie for RV'ers is now available on DVD, too, Lucy & Desi in The Long, Long Trailer

I saw a design coloring book that I would like to use myself!! I immediately thought of my daughter, Amanda, as she is very artistic and loves to draw designs like I saw in this coloring book. It would be too intricate for a young child to color, but looks like fun to me at any age.

I saw a Christmas CD by Andrea Bocelli that my friend, Nancy, would like:

Amazon also sells used books. When stowing a new book the other day, I put it on a shelf next to an old, used book entitled "Texas" by James Michener. I definitely plan to order this book (used, from either Amazon or Half.com) if I can't get a Kindle version, because Roger and I will be spending this winter in the state of Texas, our first-ever actual visit there (aside from driving across the panhandle on Route 66 one summer). One of my favorite books of all time is "Centennial," also by Michener, so I assume I'll enjoy "Texas." (I haven't figured out how to underline items in blogger, so I apologize for the quotation marks.)

Other favorite books Roger and I have read that I've seen and/or stowed, include: "Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follett;

"Timeline" by Michael Crichton (a favorite of mine)

"Black Cross" by Greg Iles (Roger liked it and I'm reading it now on my Kindle.)

One funny book title I saw the other day was: "Why My Third Husband Will Be a Dog." I don't know anything about it, but I thought the title was funny.

Another was "How Dogs Think."

Roger and I watch the Biggest Loser reality series. They have a cookbook out now

and exercise videos that I have seen and stowed.

A cute photographic book I saw (also thought of my daughter, Amanda) was "Monkey Portraits."

It has chimps, orangutans, and monkeys of all descriptions, some posed in costume.

I thought of my other daughter, Robyn, when I saw a guide book about moving to Los Angeles.

She's planning to move to L.A. next month. She has lots of friends already living there, so she may not need the book.

I plan to ask Roger if he wants the "A-Z Crossword Dictionary."

I might want to re-read some Erma Bombeck books (haven't read them since the early 1980s and I love her humor.) I stowed one the other day appropriate for Thanksgiving entitled "Family - The Ties that Bind...and Gag"

My fellow Scottish descendants might enjoy "How the Scots Invented the Modern World."

I never would have known about such a book if not for stowing it at Amazon! That's another one I plan to buy and read.

There's a book entitled "Make Money Teaching On-Line."

(I thought of Roger, although he's pretty good at retirement and might prefer the A-Z Crossword Dictionary!)

Last, but not least, I stowed a true-story book entitled "Saving Cinnamon." The title caught my eye, because our beloved grandpuppy beagle is named Cinnamon. This book is about a dog that was rescued from the war zone and sent to the U.S. I didn't have time to flip through it at work, but it looks like a heart-warming story, just from looking at the back cover.

There you have it: Amazon sightings that interested me, with no criteria other than that!

Pampering Dianne

Roger here.... I am actually having fun pampering Dianne when she gets home from work. It makes us both smile, and at least I am doing something to help Dianne as she brings home a little bit of the cash that will help us pay expenses for the rest of the year. I thought it would be fun to document the new daily "welcome home" routine.

The process begins during each afternoon with the preparation of supper, snacks, and a hot epsom salt foot bath (hot water added every day at 4:40 p.m.)

When Dianne arrives at around 4:45 p.m. I greet her at the door with a glass of wine. Followed by a few short steps to the foot bath. Jasper usually nuzzles Dianne at this point while Charlie the Cat determines that the foot bath water is not drinkable. Snacks are then served, humus today, (Dianne here: Ha!! I pointed out to Roger that I would NOT eat humus, but I love hummus!! That's what happens when your proofreader is at work....) followed by pillow fluffing and then dinner.

We need to eat early because we only have about an hour to watch any of our recorded TV programs (Friday Night Lights, Survivor, The Amazing Race, Grey's Anatomy, Saturday Night Live, Two and a Half Men, 30 Rock, The Office, and any Purdue or Colts games) before Dianne reads in bed for a half hour and dozes off at 7:30 p.m. She gets up every morning at 3:30 a.m. to get ready for work. A side note... Dianne does not actually watch the Purdue and Colts games, but she will watch the last two minutes if they win.

Speaking of Colts games, after Peyton and Company pulled off that amazing finish last Sunday, I dug out our Colts banner from one of the bays. We don't have one of those outdoor flag holders so I figured out a way to display it through the front windshield. It is back lit with one of the adjustable motorhome lights. It looks pretty cool from the street.