December 2016

December finds the Wandering Wickett’s still in Hickory, NC enjoying the area and spending time with our daughter. http://www.rvparky.com/trip/4703505275682816 Susan and I pretty much concentrated our time with our daughter and didn’t really do much site seeing as our MAIN reason for coming to NC this time of year was to celebrate our daughter’s graduation from Appalachian State University in Boone, NC.

Taskina graduated Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science Business Administration. Her major was in Management and she had a major concentration in Human Resource Management. 

We were pleased to share this happy event with my dear mom who made the flight from Oklahoma to Charlotte, NC. We picked Mom up from the airport on Dec 9^th and made the trip up to Boone where we camped in a hotel for a couple of nights.  Our Saturday morning started bright and early as we had to be on campus by 9:00am for the graduation at 10:00am. Did I mention it was also 20 degrees and the wind was blowing about 20 MPH?  I am pretty sure that was the coldest temperature Boone had had this year (2016). Anyway, we made it to the graduation and enjoyed it immensely! It is such a great feeling to sit and watch your daughter be rewarded for all the hard work she has put in over the past four years. Of course the ceremony was followed by pictures. LOTS of picture and celebrated that evening with Mom’s homemade tacos – per the graduate’s request.  We left Boone on Sunday and head back to Casa Wickett in Hickory to spend the night as mom had to be back at the airport Monday morning.

It was sad to say bye to mom and even more sad to say bye to our daughter, but when the 14^th arrived it was time for Susan and I to start our slow trek to Texas. So G’bye Taskina and G’bye North Carolina. We had a great time once again and look forward to the next time we will be together.

We made the 14^th a short day and stopped in Sevierville, TN for the night at the Riverside RV park once again. http://www.riversidecamp.com/ This is where we had stopped on the way to NC and saw no reason not to visit again. As we were in no hurry we decided to stay a couple days and take in the sights. We rode over to see Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg as we wanted to see what damage they suffered during the fires in November. Yes, many people and businesses were devastated but I am

happy to say the towns are up and running and tourists were walking the streets. We were actually very surprised to see both towns suffered little apparent damage from our vantage point as tourists. The news made it sound as if both towns were virtually gone and while there was damage it was not at the level of devastation expected from what we saw on the news. This was our first venture to either place, but we have vowed to return at some point, some year in early spring or late fall. Wow, they are cool is the least we can say….But man I bet they are busy in the summer! LOL

Next stop Henagar, AL and the home of my best friend in the world, aside from my wife, Karen Blansit. We set up camp in their yard for a couple of days and caught up once again. Karen and I have been friends since the mid 90’s where we lived across the street from each other in Oregon. Karen was concerned the first night as the weather was calling for possible tornados….nah, we were fine. I tried to tell her to trust me…lol Much time was spent catching up and just enjoying good conversation.  Karen also took Susan and I to a local nursery where they decorate for Christmas. I never thought I would say that, but I was truly impressed.  Always good to see when a small town business had the knowledge and skill that could easily compete in any metropolitan area and set the standard. Just in case you were wondering, this is a florist type nursey, not a baby nursery…lol AND besides more themed Christmas trees than I can recall - I also found a real life elf while we were there! Unfortunately we were only able to stay at Karen’s for a couple days and we were off again.

As we continued our trek heading toward Texas, we stopped in Meridian, MS at Benchmark RV park. http://www.benchmarkrv.net/ This was a nice little park that offered Passport America discounts, so it was also nicely priced. This was where I realized we had no zone one (living room) heat in the coach. Oh and it was cold and raining…lol So for two days I learned a ton about my heating system and how it actually worked. Through trouble shooting I learned that my heating system was fine - good deal as that is very expensive but my thermostat was the issue. I also learned my thermostat is an entire computer system consisting of circuit boards, zone control modules and tons of wiring AND it is not made or supported any longer. LOL it was starting to sound like a Gov’t project. Lastly I found out there is ONE place in the country that can completely rebuild the entire system, IF you remove it all and send it to them in Ohio where they will gladly rebuild it and have it back to you in 4 ½ weeks…. Uh wow, how to not have heat or AC in your home for 4.5 weeks. I will figure it out. But were headed back to Texas and at least slightly warmer temps.

As we continue at a slow bell to TX we made a couple more non-eventful overnight stops in Vicksburg, MS http://www.ameristar.com/vicksburg/rv-park and Marshall, TX at Laguna Vista RV park http://lagunavistarvpark.com/. We had stayed at Ameristar a few times before so knew what to expect. We had never stopped at Laguna Vista and it was little more than a parking lot but hey, they are also a Passport America park so for the price one night was just fine. It was clean and all gravel. Mostly oil field workers that lived there, but no issues at all, owners were very nice. We did learn that their name, Laguna Vista really means “look at the neighbor’s pond” in English…lol

Then just like that we had completed our 9 day trek across 1148 miles and arrived in Willis, TX at Thousand Trails Lake Conroe for our winter stop.  It was almost as if we had returned home as this is our home park within the Thousand Trails network and where we started our full time RV adventure on 10 Aug.  This stop really is a place to get caught up on medical appointments for Susan and I more than anything and trust me, we were full of medical appointments…lol

We had thought we would be alone this Christmas. But this was not to be the case. My Uncle Raymond and Aunt LouAnn who have tracked and visited me all over the country for years  graced us with their presence once again…lol! They had been in Houston visiting their boys and grandson and were passing by on their way home. We had a great visit and were able to catch back up before they had to hit the road again. Glad they were able to stop by!

Our day was good, we were not able to spend it with the kids, but it was enjoyable none the less. Susan fixed one of my many favorite meals for Christmas dinner, TACOS…lol and baked a great cheesecake for desert. That was all topped off by opening gifts from our daughter, thanks for the Moonshine….it is great!

Christmas in south Texas tends to be pretty nice weather and this year was no different. Temps in the mid 80’s and mostly sunny made for some great walks with my darling wife. The past few months have been very hard on me health wise and Susan has been doing her very best to help me out by encouraging frequent short walks and staying with me to provide her support. Now if all of that were not great enough, the entire day was topped off by a nice night time sit in the hot tub. Nothing like being in a hot tub at 9 PM on a clear night with temps in the low 70’s on Christmas. Gotta love it!