Happy Hump Day #2...

This will include everything from people, places and things in my life and are high on my "smile" quotient--in no particular order...

Today's Happy Hump Day is my Pocket Hose!

First, this is NOT an advertisement and I did buy this hose.  While parked for 3 years in the same general area of MO, we had a long 75 ft traditional hose that I used to water.  At this point I am going to begin to sound like a commercial, but it really did kink and was bulky and to be quite honest, I sometimes didn't water as I should or worse, when I emptied the black water tank, I didn't flush as I should have because of the weight and more important, the unwieldiness of that monster.  And then it would invariably kink!  Every time!

When we were moving, I gave away the big hose and popped for this little jewel and have found it to be exactly as advertised!  I got the 50 ft version at Wal-Mart which is light, doesn't kink and does the job.  What more can I ask?

So, with that, I show you what I am doing with it:

By the way, I just put the flowers in the week after Mother's Day, so they haven't had a huge amount of time to grow but you get the idea!

So, my light pocket hose that doesn't kink and is easy to pack and doesn't take up a bunch of space in the camper when moving is making me smile today!

What is making your hump day happy?

Who Needs A Camera? [Giveaway!]

Okay, I NEED a camera!  I went to use my Olympus Stylus 710 (that I got one year in the dinosaur age on Black Friday) the other day and Poof!  Nothing!  Battery was good but camera is dead.  Darn!

Then I saw this:

Okay.  Heck Yeah!  How cool is this?  So, all, if you enter and win, please remember ME????!!!!!  K?

Please note that this giveaway if from Canon and not from me.  You have to go to their website and click "Like" and follow the directions.

Good luck!!!!!

Happy Father's Day...

Hope everyone is having a great Father's Day!

Happy Hump Day #1...

As I was sitting in church one Sunday listening to the sermon (yes, I really DO occasionally listen to the sermon LOL) the minister was speaking about Happiness.  One of the things that help us with our happiness quotient is thinking about the things in our lives that make us Happy--AKA, Counting Your Blessings...By looking for the good things in our lives, we begin to gradually SEE more good things and then we begin to FEEL more happy and then our lives begin to BE more happy...

I have to admit that at this point, I quit listening and started thinking about all of the great things that are in my life and that made me want to share those things with all of you.  My whole day was just so happy as I was thinking about those things, that I smiled and relaxed all day!  Fun!

I have a collection of photos that scroll through on my desktop that just make me smile everytime I see them.

So, with that, Happy Hump Day was born...

This will include everything from people, places and things in my life and are high on my "smile" quotient--in no particular order...

Today, I want to share with you this picture that comes up on my desktop from time to time and always makes me smile...

This is my hubby Gman and my brother Tom.  You may remember Tom from the tour of his Victorian House at Christmas.

It was not until we purchased our car, Junior, that I found out that back in the '70's my brother and I were both NASCAR fans!  He was and is a huge fan of Dodge and The King (Richard Petty) while I was a fan of Buddy Baker (remember the Gray Ghost?) who interestingly enough mostly drove GM cars.

Check out the shirts--Dale Jr #88 (though the #12 hat might be for Justin Allgaier (lil gator) in NNS or Brad Keselowski in NSC--hmmmm...which one?  We'll never tell!)  And Carl Edwards #99.  Yes folks, competitors really CAN get along!  :)

This was taken at the Dodge Dealers 250 NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Gateway International Raceway (now Gateway Motorsports Park) near St. Louis, MO at the last NASCAR race to be run there on Oct. 23, 2010.  A friend of mine was able to get us great tickets to the race and what a fun day it was!  A perfect day for a race.  A good race with Keselowski and Edwards dukeing it out right to the finish line where Keselowski came across the finish line first and lil gator coming across 3rd and Edwards finishing 5th...

And we ended the day with a stop at Longhorn Steakhouse on the way home.  YUM!!!!

It was such a fun day all around and we had a trio of fun!  A smile still crosses my face every time I see this and think about the last NASCAR race at Gateway...

So, what have you done that makes you smile????

Mother of Invention Monday...

This is just for some fun.  If Necessity is the Mother Of Invention, some of these are funny, some may make you scratch your head and some are just downright clever!

As many of you know, we are RV'ers...

I've often wondered what we would do if we got to the place where we could no longer drive and then I found THIS beauty!  :)

Have a great Monday!

The Road To...Part Deux...

Just in case you missed part one, check it out here...

Back on the road after changing the tire in Ardmore, OK and missing the snow as well, we headed south once again.

 We stopped at the rest area and travel center on the Texas border.  Isn't it a lovely building???

I was checking out all of the flags flying over the building.  I could pick out the American Flag, of course and the Texas flag.  That one on the left looks like the Mexican flag.  Not sure about the two flags in the middle of the grouping.  The one with the French Fleur de lis was interesting.  I asked the guy working in the parking lot why a flag with French Fleur de lis was flying and was told he thought it had something to do with purchasing the land way back.  I am guessing he is speaking of the Louisiana Purchase?  Could make sense of course...

Anywho, I was intrigued by this monument:

With Memorial Day fast approaching during my trip, it was certainly a great opportunity to stand and read the memorial and remember all of those who have fought for this country which I love so much!  Thank you to all of the vets who have served and their families who were left behind while they gave.  My dad was a navigator in the Army/Airforce in WWII flying in the flying fortresses.  He even sat in that glass bubble under the plane as a gunner.  For someone who doesn't really even like to fly, I can surely say that he has a LOT more guts than his daughter!  Wow!  My dad rocks!

After a bit of retrospect, I walked around more of the area...

So, welcome to Texas!

On down the road we went.  I stop at half a tank of gas on my truck to check the tires for wear and to see if they are getting too hot.  I also like to make sure that I have plenty of fuel to make it to the next fuel stop.  Of course, with the pick-up pulling a 30 ft 10,000 lb camper, we get to stop quite a bit!  :)

The navigator took me to the west of Dallas by Ft. Worth and the Texas Motor Speedway!

Though I was not driving Junior, our 2004 Monte Carlo Dale Earnhardt Jr Special Edition, my heart was aflutter!  We do plan to take in a race or two while down here in Texas for sure!  

So, on south we drove and the navigator took us to Hwy 130 which is a toll road.  Now, I have been on my share of toll roads and usually you stop and get a ticket and then stop when you exit and pay.

Nope.

Just kind of drove on to the highway and while there were toll areas, there was no place to toss coins or stop to pay the toll.  Signs said TXTag or pay by mail left lanes.  I finally just decided to continue on and let the police stop me since I saw no place to pay them.  I am waiting to see if I get a ticket or something in the mail.  How interesting.

On the other hand, the speed limit is 80-85 mph on the toll road.  Of course, pulling the camper I could not drive that fast, but wow!  We have taken that road several times since and our car, Junior, LOVES that road!  He gets to stretch his cylinders and run a bit.  ;-)

I am driving along and a guy passing points at my camper so I pull over and yep!  ANOTHER flat tire!  Good grief!

I am literally in the middle of nowhere.

I call AAA and tell them that no I do not have a spare tire--that was used in Oklahoma!

They offer to tow the camper.  Well, if you could drive the blankety blank camper with the flat, I would DRIVE it to a place!  Doh!!!!!

They did, however, give me the names of a couple of places that will bring a tire and replace it on the roadside.  I called and the guy was a ways away and would be about an hour or hour and a half.  Okay.

That taken care of, I got the dogs out of the truck so that they could stretch and do their duty and get a drink and then we piled back into the truck.  Mommy had to use the ladies room as well but as I said, I was in the middle of nowhere.  This is the time, folks, when I am very happy to have my house behind me!  :-)

That finished, I kept the a/c on in the truck, the temps being about 90 degrees and sunny.  It was so crazy thinking that just yesterday I was worried about snow and today, it is summer!  I was able to show off my pedicure though!  Finally!  :)

I got to read the rest of my book on kindle while waiting.  I was reading John Grisham's book, The Racketeer. It was very good!  And, it certainly made the time fly!  I can really recommend this book!

I started The Hunger Games and can I just say, it is really good!  I am still reading it--since I don't just sit and read very much at this time of the year because I spend a lot of time outside, but I really do like it!  If you get the chance, you might have a look at it...

The guy got there with my tire, took the bad tire off and mounted the new one on the rim, put it on the camper and lightened my wallet a LOT and I was on the way again.  As it turned out, I was only 45 minutes away from our campground...

My poor hubby was so excited to have us arrive that he gave up the hotel room in which he had been staying for a few weeks until we could arrive.  He beat us to the campground and a good thing he was first because I did not make it until after the office closed.  Thankfully, he had paid and taken care of our registration and was waiting outside of the security gate for me.

I pulled in to our lot and miracles DO happen, folks!  The lot was completely level!  I didn't have to do ANYTHING!!!!!  If you are a camper, you KNOW how rare that is!  Wow!!!!!

We got our 4 happy dogs out for a little walk and stretch, I unhooked the camper from the truck and hooked up the electric and water and the dogs got to eat.  Boy were they happy!

Gman and I went to town and took a little tour and decided on chinese food for supper--buffet--quick, easy, yum and back to the camper so Mama could collapse.  It had been a long couple of days on top of a long couple of weeks but I was HERE and the whole family was once again together!!!!!  In Texas...

The Road To...

Hi y'all...

I have a lot of catching up to do!  Wow!  A lot has happened in the past year and I have been remiss with my blogging...

We have had a few changes in our lives.  Here's a hint:

As always, it has been exciting!  :)  We don't call ourselves "The Murphy's" for nothing!

Gman had already headed out...

I was all set to travel.

The Mother Ship was all cleaned and closed up and ready to travel.  More on the cleaning thing later...

Rocky was ready to travel and the dogs and I were staying in him until it was time to go since the Mother Ship was all closed up and ready to go when our driver was ready to move her later.

I got up on the day I was going to head out and...

Snow and Ice and Freezing rain all the way down I-35 from Kansas City to Wichita in Kansas.

Now, let me just say this was not in Dec, or Jan, or Feb or even March.  No, this was April.

April 23rd to be exact!

So, I stayed an extra day.  I had a Doctor's appt on April 24th in Wichita, but hey!  He can wait right?

The next day I took off for Wichita, Kansas.  All went smoothly and we arrived safely--but man was it cold! You know, I had a new pedicure and had not had the chance to show off my toes at all!  Grrrrrr...or maybe Brrrrrrrr....

The next day I picked up Gman at the airport so that he could visit his doctors, we could see a bunch of our friends and then we hung around so that we could see our son.  We just LOVE seeing and visiting with our son.  He is such a great guy--hard to believe he is ours!  :)

Went to Sumo--A Kobe style steak house--with friends...Great time!

Taken with my cell phone--sorry!

I was scheduled to leave Wichita on the 30th to arrive in Austin, TX on May 1.

But...

Can you believe it?????  SNOW!!!!!  Yes, snow was supposed to head into the Wichita area clear down through OK on the night of the 30th, but I had a doctor's appointment in the morning.  I went to the doctor, had lunch with a friend and then got on the road.  I looked at the weather forecasts and determined that I needed to get to Ardmore, OK in order to be south of the snow that was coming in.

I got just north of Ardmore and spent the night at a place called Arbuckle Adventures, a little bohemian campground that is a bit off of the beaten path.  I was actually headed for another campground when I was waved down by the owner of that campground to be told that they were full but if I wanted a pull through I might try the place across the bridge and to the right.

I pulled in and was surprised to see red clay roads (okay, Oklahoma has a LOT of red clay!) that were not exactly smooth.  I was met by the host, a very nice man with gray hair that was in a braid running down his back past his waist.  As we talked, he told me he was 77 years old.  I seriously would not have put him more than 55 or 60!  Such a nice man!

Just pull into any place on the grass and hook up to whatever I needed--water, electric, sewer or any or all of it.  $25.  Wow!  Not bad!  But pull in on the grass????  Unbelievably, once I pulled in, it was completely level and I didn't have to do anything to it!  You guys who travel in campers know what I am talking about!  You have a hard time finding level spots--even when they are not just grass!!!!!!

The showers are in that cute building on the right.

I was told that the restrooms and showers were open and you simply could not run out of hot water!  The shower buildings looked brand new and in great shape!  The grounds run along the creek and there is a nice open shelter there as well.  It really is lovely, quiet and I will stay there again.

Look at the size of that open shelter!  You could have quite a party in there.  Oh and the square thing between the shelter and bath house is a huge fire pit!  The pipes running around the pit are tall enough to sit on.  NICE!

The next morning the dogs and I hopped in the truck and took off before any stray snow reached us...

I stopped in Ardmore at the Flying J.  I filled the tank and went in to the potty.  Coming out, I saw a low tire.  I checked it out and it was definitely low, but they had an air machine so I pulled over to a parking space to check the tire to be sure it didn't have a nail or something and by the time I pulled to a parking spot, it was completely flat.  Baaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh....

Called AAA to come and change the tire--about 45 minutes later a guy with sleeves torn out (envision Larry the Cable Guy Shirt here) pulled up in an older vehicle.  He said he was called by AAA but needed to go get his truck--it would take just a short time.  Okay.  I am sitting at Flying J so I decide to get some breakfast while I am waiting.  He chugs up in a really old Dodge Ram--I mean really old--and used a LOT.  But, he took care of the tire in quick order, put the spare on and we looked at the tire to see that there was a gash in it going across the tread--not in the sidewall.  Strange.  From the size of the gash, it had to have happened at Flying J because it would not have held air any time at all if it happened on the highway.

So, tire change done, the dogs and I headed south once again...