2012-04-14 Mama's in Bridge City,TX

1st stop after the Rally was a one nighter in Stephen F Austin State Park just west of Houston Tx

A nice park ... but ... a haven for Black Flies and No See Ums !

One of the maintenance workers told us about 'Pure Vanilla Extract'

1 ounce mixed with 1cup of water in a spray bottle works wonders !!

We arrived at Mama's house in Bridge City and parked in the front yard

In 2008 Mama's house was destroyed by hurricane Ike

There was 8 foot of brackish seawater where our HH is parked

Bridge City took a direct hit by Ike as it hit landfall

Susy's brother Robert had been through several hurricanes and decide

that he was not going to leave home for Ike

Robert has since changed his mind about riding out a hurricane ! :)

Bridge City was devastated and has done a fantastic job of rebuilding

This is Susy's sister Teresa's youngest son Tyler. He thinks uncle Steve is awesome.
I got quite a work out trying to keep up with him. He is a little hurricane himself and fill of Hugs !

This is Jayden, One of Susy's brother Randall's children. Lots of energy and not afraid to climb anything

 

Teresa and David brought a turkey and we had a family get together at Mama's

Mama and Bud

David Susy's younger brother

As a young boy from Buffalo NY, Bud was a strapping big guy

which enable him to enlist in the Army during WWII at the tender age of 16 and was at the storming of Normandy Beach

During High School Bud was a wrestling phenom and went on to become a Pro in the 50's and traveled all over the world

After his wresting career he became a heavy equipment operator and ran his own company

He did much of the land clearing and foundation work on Lake Livingston in Texas

He showed me pictures of a lot of  Dozers and Cranes he has owned/operated

Of course Miss Susy decorated our RV while we stayed at Mama's

Where does she store all this stuff ??

Oh BTW we did need assistance from a tow truck to get out of Mama's front yard

Where is Bill Teetz when ya need a GMC !!

This was one picture of a home in downtown Bridge City after Ike

They have done a great job rebuilding the city

Next stop is Livingston Tx to become residents and register our 5th wheel and Truck

Found out that because our truck and trailer are more than 26,000 lbs combined weight

I get to take a test for a Class A Non Commercial license.

Lucky me LOL

Cya soon

2012-04-05 through 11th Hill Country Rally @ Johnson Park in Kerrville,Texas

We arrived the day before the rally started and were given the 1st spot coming into the park.

I thing it was because Susy has a certain reputation for Bling Bling ... Our spot was very colorful and lively !!

Stan and Connie were just awesome !!

They created and organized the Hill Country Rally and did an A++ job of it 

Stan kicked things off welcoming everyone and reminded us to HAVE FUN

What ever .. That's like telling a duck to enjoy the water :)

I can't say enough about the effort they put in to make sure we had a good time

They handed out goodie bags that included lanyards with name tags

If you were caught in the park without a name tag you paid a fine to the duly appointed Sheriff

On the last day of the rally someone was to win the lottery and collect all the fines !

Man, we didn't win any money but the tags sure helped us remember names

There were quite a few familiar faces and a few less familiar names and a lot of face we had never met

We came away with a lot of new friends which is one of the BIG pluses in RVing

Happy hour is a great time around Hitchhikers gatherings and so we did our best to get Happy quickly

I have no clue why some of these pictures did not reduce when I uploaded them

I Swear I did not start Happy Hour early !!

I sure had fun jamming gidfiddles with John & Christine and Rob

I just mess around but they were really good.

Really looking forward to meeting up again since I have been practicing :)

These rallies never lack for good food and here Mel, Greg & Stan fired up their grilles cooked up a storm

Many in the group are attending other rallies later this year

This group got together to start planning a loose caravan between the August M&M rally in Manistee Michigan and the September G&G in Custer South Dakota

So many decisions to make - Is it time for Happy Hour yet ??

A large group went to Ludin ( Luch/Dinner) at a very good German restaurant in Fredericksburg

I must give credit to Judy Bahnmiller and I think Connie Browning for making the arrangements and calling ahead to make sure the restaurant could handle all of us

The guys were in charge of getting steaks before going to the 11th Street Cowboy Grill

The demands on us are so heavy that we first had to stop and fuel up so we could carry out our mission

We were able to spend more time with John and Christine at this rally and hope to meet up again this year
I can't find any pictures but we set up our Karaoke machine after dinner and had a good time singing

All good things must  end and so we bid farewell to those that had to leave while we stayed on another day and several stayed for another week .. and then there was poor Stan & Connie who stayed until the end of May work camping at Johnson Creek Resort

Many of us that stayed past the rally gathered at the Apple Orchard for some goood burgers

I had to take this picture since Miss Susy pointed out that it fits her life philosophy

I took that as a not so subtle hint that I might have to look for another gig

Thanks Paul for taking so many pictures

This is a neat portrait of the Hauling Hitchhikers that were at the rally

We were not very far from Lukenbach Texas and I would never have forgiven myself if we did not make the trip to see the town that Wayon Jennings immortalized in song.

I was shocked that what you see in the picture is almost all there is to Lukenback

The next day we headed out toward Bridge City Texas to spend a couple of weeks visiting Susy's family

Cya soon