Paul Greer, Post Commander of #145, Leesville, LA invited Paul to participate in Memorial Day 2010 ceremonies !

Lucy loves his little orange tractor !

When we were eating at Catfish Jct. , Lucy noticed that all the waiters and waitresses carried extra silverware in their pockets, she asked what that was about, our waiter Justin told us , when a customer dropped a untensil on the floor, they were right there with a replacement. Then she noticed the waiters had a little string hanging out of the fly of their pants, "What's that for?, she asked, he said, " Oh, that's for pulling your penis out when you go to the bathroom at work, then you don't have to touch it!" Then Lucy said," How do you put it back?" Justin said, " I don't know about everyone else, but I use the spoon!"

Wasn't THAT a party???? We are now into the fourth or maybe fifth day of celebrating Lucy's birthday, I'm not allowed to put her age on the internet but the clue is somewhere in those previous figures! We are definitely not allowed to post any photos or videos of the celebration without her permission! Stay tuned!! Wednesday we went to her all girls gathering and enjoyed the pool, they allowed Andy and I to attend, just this once! Then Thursday was her actual birthdate, I crushed six dozen beer cans and there were only six of us here, then there were the other empties! Friday we went out to Catfish Junction, I ate frog's Legs for the first time and also alligator, Trish settled for shrimp! Today Andy has ribs roasting, then we are off to the Saturday night Legion dance, then Sunday I think there will be another party, and then Monday, Memorial Day , it will be something different, eating and drinking at the Legion. Life in Louisiana is tough! The two legions in town and the Veterans of Foriegn Wars club all get together and celebrate the memory of all those that have given their lives since the Civil war.

Two really cool pool boys Lovin the Luxury at the Laverty Resort !

Reflections of a Texas sunset !

Paul & Trish leaving the Sunny South in seven days and heading for Nova Scotia, via Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, New Brunswick.

Here are Canada's real "Snowbirds" flying over Comox!

Living in the lap of Luxery at the Laverty's in Leesville, Louisiana, and loving it! We spent ten of the hottest days ever in East Texas , the camper was like a sauna, we hosed each other down every fifteen minutes, slept fitfully and woke up sweating each day! Now we are here ,Trish (says our second home), with the LSU cold beer cooler, their new pool, air-conditioning, our own bedroom and bathroom, the LSU deck with the thermometer reading 100 degrees in the shade just like Lucy said! What is LSU, the joke is that LSU means Louisiana State unemployment,but it is actually Louisiana State University, a bar closed recently that had a LSU theme and they were able to purchase a lot of items! We have searched high and low across America for hawk jewellery,without any luck, Lucy gave Trish hawk earrings for her birthday that are just lovely.
Andy is from Scotland, where they don't celebrate Queen Victoria's birthday very enthusiastically, Lucy is from Louisiana, she wanted to know why in the hell we celebrate a dead Queens birthday , so they didn't join me when I sang God Save the Queen!

There she is, the birthday girl, sneaking another look at the pool boys long pole !

Trish seems enchanted with the pool boy, something to do with his long pole!

One of our hawks watching over us !

Sonny is still close to us !

Here I go again about prices in the South, we bought pork loin ribs for Trish's birthday, already cooked for 11.00 bucks, couldn't buy it raw at home for that! A forty -ouncer for 12.99 and a large bag of ice for 99 cents! Also thirty beer for 13.99! And of course the Lambrusco for 6.49!
Wasn't that a party!! We are totally chilling out on Lake Livingstone! Met an old fellow, 85 years young,loves to tell stories. He grew up in Texas, but all his relatives were in Alabama, anyway, he once went to the Mardi Gras, in New Orleans, this guy kept bothering his mother-in-law, kept trying to hold her hand, he got tired of it and approached a policeman, the guy gave the policman a card, on the card it had an address and a message, if this person is bothering anyone, please send him home in a taxi to this address and we will pay for it! Later he told his mother-in-law that he knew there was something wrong mentally with her harraser. Who the hell else would want to hold her hand???

Gimme East Texas over West Texas anytime, we prefer thunder and lighting storms to those relentless winds ! We're 'laxing on Lake Livingstone, not too far from Louisiana. This place has a pool, hot tub, exercise room, laundry, lake, beach, wi-fi, TV room (which we never use) and lots of sunshine, the only negative is the humidity, a couple of good thunder storms gave us some relief! The only other relief is to stay in the pool! Hot tub and humidity don't seem to go together! Yesterday we went to Texas Trade Days, ( read up-scale flea market) lots of nice arts and crafts along with guns galore! Looking forward to Memorial Day in Leesville, I brought my Legion uniform and plan to take part in their celebration! Next day we will head for home!

Our next stop will be our home away from home !

Smokey The Bear and Trish my dear !

Bears may sh__ in the woods but in New Mexico they use the urinal !!

Fishing illegally in Texas !

Not just New Mexico can claim Aliens, we witnessed them landing in West Texas !

Trish, the glasses grew with the legend !

Another Sunset in Texas !

Outside an "IceHouse" in East Texas !

Spent two nights on Lake Waco, wind was relentless, it just tires you out! Returned to Marquez, hoping to see Bubba again at his BBQ, turned out is was closed, his son-in-law went to Iraq. Camped near Huntsville , Texas, the prison museum has their old electric chair, it's called "Old Sparky" . Today they just give them the needle and they do it often, does my heart good when I read they have done away with another monster in Texas! One thing about it, they won't be able to kill again, unlike Canada.
We drive around 55 mph most days on our trip, but on Friday I asked a cop in Huntsville to escort me to the hospital because Trish was having a bad reaction to a bug bite, we did over 60 mph on city streets at times, went through two red lights, she spent a couple hours there and left with a script for antibiotics. She is well now and we are on Livingstone Lake in East Texas, staying for a week. The west Texas winds can drive you batty, for more than two weeks, from the time we entered New Mexico until now, it blew at least 25 miles an hour, day and night! The first day we almost got blown over , I swear two wheels were off the ground at times, winds up to 65 miles an hour on the desert! We haven't met anyone in Texas yet, that likes Obama!

Took a two day break in a Corps of Engineers park near Coleman , Texas, , lovely, 407 sites and Sunday night when everyone else went home we had the whole park to ourselves. Still fighting the winds on the highways, can't wait to get off these panhandle plains. Seeing lots of butterflys and of course our hawks, seen a hawk with a rattlesnake in it's claws, the butterflys are in and out of our camper! The Texas prison system is tough, no air-conditioning on the transport buses here! We met a few tough Texans in an RV Park last night, the lady who owns the park told us her husband bought her a backhoe for their 56th wedding anniversay, a cowboy there in his motor home told us stories of her operating it and a bulldozer to build the park! The cowboy was 73, and has two sons and two grandchildren in rodeo, he attends them all and sells cowhide throws and Indian Jewellery! He would like to see Texas break away from the states before he dies!

Headed for Lubbock, but could see a major dust storm miles ahead and turned around, instead ,did laundry and shopped, the next day very little wind so off we went again. Made it to the Buddy Holley Center,It is in the old train station, much the same as Hank Snow Museum in Liverpool at home. We learned that Buddy Holly, even though he died in a plane crash at 22 years of age was very influential, the Beatles, Elton John, & The Rolling Stones all say when he toured Britian, they wanted to become like him and the Crickets. Elton John wore unnecessary glasses to look like Buddy. Peggy Sue, That'll be the Day, were great hits in the 50's.
It was 35C the day we went to Lubbock, the C stands for Canadian! The wind was very high coming back from Lubbock, we are damn tired of the West Texas Winds, getting off the Plains and heading further South! We camped at Colorado City at SpeakEasy RV Park, nice people!
Two more weeks in Texas, than we enter Louisiana!!!

Camped in Alamogordo, NM , Trish had an issue again with bug bites, she has a bad reaction to them, we decided to drive to Roswell and if she didn't improve we were going to emergency. We drove through Ruidoso, NM , we went to the Billy the Kid center, very interesting! Smokey the Bear started here also, but we passed on the celebration days! Roswell is famous for aliens, we stayed at the Bottomless Lakes State Park and did not see one spaceship, but the stars were fabulous! Trish felt better at the end of the day! The "very first" thing we saw entering Roswell was a sign showing Ronald McDonald getting out of a spaceship to order a burger!
Cowboys used to tie a weight to their lariats, then join lariats, and try to measure the bottom of the lakes, but the underground springs that feed them would float their weights, so they called them bottomless! Turns out they are actually about 90 feet with modern measurements.
We stayed an extra day at Bottomless Lake, very beautiful and peaceful! Today we are settled in a free, yes totally free RV Park in Brownfield, Texas, complete hook-up and wireless internet for free, only 5 days allowed , but they know what they are doing, even on our limit of $99.00 a day, we will probably spend $400. while we are here, gas, propane, groceries, beer, wine,new door handle, etc. ,etc. We weren't going to go to Lubbock , forty miles north, but we changed our minds, Brownfield is dry in more ways than one, can't buy whiskey here, tomorrow we are going to Lubbock for liquor , and also the Buddy Holly museum, and then return to Brownfield and our free camping! Luckily, you can buy beer and wine in Brownfield, because we totally ran out last night. We were able to get our usual 30 beer for 16 bucks ,boneless pork tenderloin chops for 95 cents a pound, Lucy, they also had Lambrusco, one night without Canadian Whiskey will not kill us!!!

Hooray, Hooray it's the second of May, outdoor screwing started yesterday. We didn't get a chance to blog yesterday, we were too busy. Travelled some scary mountains again, not a guard rail to be seen, we hope we never see another mountain. Travelled through the White Sands Rocket Range all day, the scene of the original Atomic Bomb explosion. Reminds me of one of my favourite jokes: You ask someone, who said: "We will fight them on the beaches, we will fight them on the sea, we will fight them in the air", answer: Churchill. Who said ,when he left the Phillipines, "I shall return", answer : MacArthur, then ask, Who said: "Holy jumping, jumping, jumping,jumping,jumping Jesus, what was that??????" Answer: The Mayor of Hiroshima!!!
Talking about the Phillipines, we travelled through the desert on the Bataan Memorial Highway.