Back on the Road Again-Monaco Pre-rally in Moultrie, Georgia

We left McKinney, TX Thursday morning and headed east. We are going to our second rally of this year which is the Monaco Pre-rally being held this year in Moultrie, Georgia. We were here two years ago as participants and this time we are working the MCD Innovations booth at the rally. 

We are looking forward to seeing many friends. We arrived about 4:30pm (EST) at the Moultrie RV Park after driving several days in the rain. That in itself is not so bad but having windshield wipers that are stripped and when one uses them while traveling over 40 mph they tend to swing off the windshield and become non-functional. I then have to stop, remove them, tighten them back on, and continue down the road. I used a little Rain-X to try and see a little better on my side of the windshield and that helped. Since we are at the Monaco rally, I will try to buy a couple of wiper arms from them...We'll see if that works out.

Hopefully I will have some photos for the next post. Too tired to shoot anything tonight. Tomorrow we set up the booth. We have to tote all the booth parts to the venue from the coach with the car so that should be fun!!! We'll see how many trips we have to take. I'll report more as the week goes on.

Welcome To Our World!

With a bunch of new snow on the ground (at least a bunch for Texas), Peg decided it was a beautiful sunny day and the perfect time to make a snowman! Up until this point, the snow was too dry to make a snowball and roll it, but with the temperatures into the 40's, the snowball makin' was perfect.

There were three couples in the MCD lot and Peg got donations of carrots for the snowman's nose and buttons and some rocks for the snowman's eyes and other buttons. Peg added her hat and scarf to perfect the look. A few branches were acquired for the snowman's arms and hands and, voila, a three balled snowman arose...Three balled?!?! Anyway, she had a good time and I stood by for moral support in her endeavor.

Sure can't wait for warmer weather. We will be traveling to Georgia soon for two RV shows and, hopefully, the weather will cooperate!

Winter is Hell in McKinney!!!

Since January 31st, winter has really descended upon Texas and in particular, McKinney. I know I have not added to the blog for a while but this week is really worth mentioning. On Tuesday, February 1st we were greeted with a nasty storm which rained down sleet and freezing rain. Peg and I thought we would be smart and pulled our motorhome slides in to save the awnings that cover each slide. On Tuesday the temperatures plummeted and we were stuck living in our normally roomy motorhome with all the slides in. As you RVer's know, this is not a wonderful amount of living space. It becomes pretty tough, especially after being closed in for three days. The temperatures did not get above 20 degrees during the day and at night it was in the single digits. I could not get to my jeans in the drawer, so I was stuck in shorts for a couple of days. Now that was a topic of conversation around here!

I tried to open the slides during the day on Wednesday and they opened part way and then I could see the tops bending in as the toppers were so iced up they were keeping the slide from deploying. I also heard a bang and the topper roller actually came out of the center support arm and rollers so it was very difficult to get the topper material to rollback in. I barely opened my jean drawer, got jeans and then I went on the roof and rolled the fabric as Peg brought the slides back in. No way would I do that again until they were thawed out!

On Thursday we decided to try and get the motorhome unstuck from the ice (jack pads, tires and power cord) and make our way across the icy parking lot and into the factory at MCD to try and thaw out the slides and the entire motorhome. MCD has a very large garage door that will accommodate our motorhome. After fighting the ice, chipping out the leveling pads and trying to get the back engine compartment door open so I could plug in the engine block heater (used a hair dryer to melt the ice from the locks), I moved the coach inside and it stayed there the rest of the day. I was able to fix the center roller mount while it was inside. Finally, after a couple of hours, I was able to move the slides out. I left them in that position to dry.

We left the building around 5:30pm with the slides functioning and moved back into our site. This time I put wood blocks under the jack pads and got the slides extended quickly. Ahhhh...room again!

Wouldn't you know it, it began snowing around midnight on Friday and here we sit in about 6" of snow. There are a few other folks stuck here with us waiting to get their shades installed, but the factory has been closed most of the week so work has been slowed to a crawl for the most part.

As you can see, I took my position on top of the coach and began getting rid of the snow. I HATE winter! Hey...Can anyone say snow in Dallas for Super Bowl Weekend!!!!!!

Ft. Worth Stock Show and Rodeo

Peg's nephew James wanted us to experience some of the big events in Texas. He said we had to go see the Ft. Worth Stock Show and especially go to the rodeo there. We said okay and got on the road early today (Sunday) and headed for Ft. Worth where James lives. We arrived around 10:15am and parked our car and climbed into James' vintage Cadillac to ride to the stock show. It was a short trip and since James has been there several times, he knew just where to park for a short walk to the event and no charge to park.

We first saw the livestock barns and went in and out of all of them. We checked out the sheep, goats, rabbits, chicks, ducks and the cows. We even saw a new calf and its mother in one of the stalls (see photo). There were several bulls there as well. Every farmer was continually cleaning up after their animals. That is a big job in itself. Many were grooming their stock so they could be presented for awards and ribbons. We observed a cow judging in the arena near the stock yards.

After we wandered a while, it was time for the rodeo. I am not sure if I had ever been to a rodeo before, so we was looking forward to it. The rodeo lasted about two hours with no break, but the time went by rapidly. I took a few photos, but more video. These cowboys are a tough group and are gluttons for punishment! They even had a Future Farmers of America event where the kids went after cows to try and collect money. It was called Cows for Cash (see photo)! pretty funny watching them try to drop and tie up these calves. They all did pretty well though.

After the stockyard, we went to my favorite place to eat, IHOP. It was getting late, so Peg and I headed back to McKinney and to the motorhome. It was a nice day and we got to see something different and experienced some of the rodeo events that are so popular here in Texas.

November is Birthday Month in the Grich Household

As the title states, both Peg and I have birthdays in November.  My day came first on November 11th, Veteran's Day, with little fanfare. We got up a little early and went to iHop to cash in my birthday certificate for a free breakfast meal...A rootie tuttie fresh and fruity!! Say that fast 10 times! And since I turned 55 today, I am finally a senior citizen and entitled to 10% off the total bill, which amounted to Peg's breakfast.

I did have to work today, but it was nice to see my 55th birthday. After work, Peg made me my requested dinner of homemade lasagna. She made it the way my mother cooked lasagna and it tasted every bit as good. A bottle of wine topped off the meal and the evening. Peg got me a DVD, fresh roasted coffee beans and some great cookies. I also received many e-mails from friends across the country and a call from my sister Phyl and brother Bob wishing me Happy Birthday. It was nice to hear from everyone.

Brenda, Sue, Peg, Paul, Jim and John

Next up was Peg's Birthday on November 18th. Just to be fair, she had to work on her birthday too. Again we got up and went to iHop to cash in Peg's birthday certificate for, you guessed it...A rootie tuttie fresh and fruity!! It was less crowded today since all the kids that were here on Veteran's Day (because they had the day off) were back in school.

That evening after work, we got together with two couples, both RVing folks. We've known Paul and Sue for several years after we met, of all places, at an RV dump station in Georgia after an FMCA rally. New friends, John and Brenda, were our neighbors here at MCD for the week. We all went to the Genghis Grille in McKinney. It was a really good time and the food was equally as good. Peg had a good time especially when the servers came over and sang for her and she partook of a free desert.

After dinner, we all went over to John and Brenda's coach to relax and enjoy the rest of the evening. Glad we had some nice folks to share the day with. Oh and Peg got some black jeans and shoes from me (she shopped for them) and a nice bouquet of flowers from John and Brenda.

Texas State Fair....The Big Tex!

It was a beautiful day in this part of Texas and Peg and I had planned on going to the Texas State Fair in Dallas. We had heard so much about it we felt we would be missing something if we did not show our faces there. Peg's nephew James and friend Mark suggested we drive to Mark's house and we could pick them up and head to the train station. We would take the train directly to the entrance to the fairgrounds. Since they wanted $15+ to park a car and only $4.50 each for the train ride, we felt it was more convenient to ride the train. We heard some folks had to wait almost an hour to park once arriving at the grounds because of all the traffic.

The drive down to Dallas was fine and taking the train was a good move. We actually took two trains to get to the State Fairgrounds but you could ride all day for the $4.50 fair. The train was a bit crowded but we managed to squeeze in and found ourselves at the front gate with many other people. The line moved quickly though.

We headed for the car show first since it was the first thing on our route. Mark was looking for a new pick-up truck so we wandered through the massive indoor display. I had my eye on a forest green Viper (pictured) but the $80,000 price tag brought me back down to earth.

It was almost lunchtime so we headed for the food court and the fried everything. Yes, the Texas State Fair is known for its fried food...fried coke, fried moon pies, fried lemonade, fried coffee, fried smores, fried frito pie, fried beer, fried magaritas and almost anything else you might have a hankerin' for fried! We opted for some of the world famous corn dogs on a stick...tastee!

Next it was time for the dog show in one of the arenas. The dogs dove into a pool, caught frizbee's and raced over barriers. We ate our corn dogs and watched the show. Next we visited a John Deere display and Peg standing next to one of the units shows just how big those tractors can be!

We moseyed on over to the horse arena and watched a show performed by a horse whisperer. He trains horses that they take in when no one wants the horse or when a horse can not easily be trained. t was a good show but we were in the direct sun so we were ready for some shade when the show was over.

We headed for the 4-H barns and saw the horses, cows goats and Longhorn cattle, like this one. Pretty wild rack of horns this guy had. Would not want to be in an open field with him!

Another building had model railroad trains running through flowers in a hot house type atmosphere. Also in that building was a pumpkin carver. He was no ordinary carver as you can see by the picture I shot as he was telling his story and carving large pumpkins. Some pretty cool designs!

Next we entered the amusement ride area and James wanted Peg and I to go on the ferris wheel. This is one of the big attractions of the Texas State Fair. We had enough tickets left for one of us so I told Peg she could go. Not a hard decision on my part. By the way, tickets are used to purchase everything at the fair. That way, the merchants do not have actual money to deal with and I am sure that keeps any potential robberies to a minimum.

Here are a couple of shots Peg took from the ferris wheel. I think she and James got one non-stop revolution on the wheel after everyone was loaded and that was it. The entire process of standing in line waiting to get on the ferris wheel to when they got off took about 45 minutes! I guess it was worth it to say you did it. One photo is James and Peg on the ferris wheel and the other is a birds-eye view of the City of Dallas and some of the fairgrounds.

By the way, for those of you not familiar with the fairgrounds, we walked right around the famous Cotton Bowl stadium where the Texas Cowboys play football.

This is an addition to this post I almost forgot about. Actually, it was the highlight of our visit to the fair. We went to the bird show at the amphitheater and it was fantastic! I tried to included a video clip from the show for you to watch, but blogger would not accept it! Sorry about that...They did have some beautiful birds big and small.  The Condor had a 10 foot wingspan and if flew into the audience, not by design, and them walked to the stage! Wow, a few people were a bit frightened when it landed. They said that never happened before. I thought it was pretty cool! The show was well worth going to.

It was pretty late by the time we got back home. We went to dinner at Luby's in Dallas and then drove back to McKinney. We can now say we have been to the Texas State Fair!

Octoberfest/Fondu At Dave and Marie's

Dave and Marie came back into town (McKinney) for doctors appointments and we got together a few times for some fun and relaxation. I am combining two events here because I want to get these online and it is a little quicker!

First we traveled to downtown McKinney for the big Octoberfest celebration. The square was filled with music, dancing and of course, drinking! Rain was threatening, but it held off while we were there. Dave and I sampled some of the German beer and Peg and Marie partook of the wine. As you can see, there were German dancers and an umpa band ringing music into the air. Looked like everyone was having a good time. We also walked around, visited a few shops and took in the whole event.

While we were watching the dancing, I noticed a sign on the light pole stating that McKinney was voted the 5th best place to live in the country by Money Magazine. I guess we chose a good area...or did it choose us?

About a week later we were invited to Dave and Marie's motorhome, which was parked at the Lighthouse RV Park in Melissa, TX about 7 minutes from MCD. We were treated to a cheese fondu which Peg and I don't remember ever having! It was tasty and add some wine, sausage and good conversation and it was a really good night. So nice to see Dave and Marie again. Since we are a little off the beaten path, it helps to have friends visit occasionally. We'll see what other trouble we can get into in the next couple of weeks that they are here...