What Have We Been Up To in Houston?

We've been in Houston for almost three months and now we're getting ready to leave on Saturday and head West for a few months.

We came here primarily so I could spend time with my ailing Mom and help my sisters with her care. It's been a very challenging time dealing with hospitals, nursing homes, medication issues, etc., but Mom is now settled in at a small group residential home and they are taking good care of her. This has not been an easy journey for Mom or for her daughters, but we are extremely fortunate that our family works well together as a team.

I have also really enjoyed spending time with Dad, and my sisters Pilar and Catherine and their families. My nieces are growing up so fast, that I feel if I look away for a moment they'll be grown and gone. Rachel is a high school senior and an outstanding student. She has been accepted to several very good universities, and also been offered a number of scholarships. So she is in the enviable and much-deserved position of being able to take her pick. I am very proud of Rachel and happy, happy that she is reaping the benefit of her hard work. Sarah will be starting high school in just a few months, and she is also an excellent student - I have no doubt she will also make her mark in high school. They are both great kids and I love them dearly.

In early December, Pilar and John hosted a gathering at their home in Beach City for Lynda's birthday. We boarded Sydney and Barley at a nearby Pet Paradise, and spent the night at Pilar's house. Catherine, Roger, and the girls also stayed over and we had a very nice time. And Lynda got her Angel Food cake, which is her favorite!

One afternoon, I went with Catherine to take Sarah to her horseback riding lesson and we ended up chatting with a woman who told us that HEB has great snow crab legs. So we decided to have a crab feast! About a week later, Dad came over to Catherine's and Lynda and I picked up a bunch of snow crab clusters, baby potatoes (which we roasted), and corn on the cob. Yummm!

Christmas was bittersweet this year: on one hand it was wonderful to be with the family, and the kids make the day so much fun, but Mom was not well enough to be with us and we missed her. Nonetheless, the company was great and the food delicious. As always, Catherine and Roger were gracious hosts!

Lynda went to Tennessee to spend Christmas with her parents. But before she left, Rachel and Sarah gave us a Christmas decoration for our motor home.

We have also been able to visit some friends here in Houston, including Donna and Charles, Brad, Noreen and Ron, and Don and Lois. This was the first time Don and I have seen each other in 23 years and it was great to catch up! And we also met up with Debbie and Wayne, RV friends we met in Alaska a few years ago... they were working at the KOA near Lake Conroe and we met them for lunch at Vernon's Kountry Katfish.

Houston is a city of amazing diversity, and we have thoroughly enjoyed a variety of Indian, Thai, Vietnamese, and Tex-Mex food over the past three months. Coming from Knoxville, Tennessee we are not used to so many choices of so many types of food. We love it!

Now that things with Mom have settled down, we've decided to travel for a few months. We're leaving on Saturday and will return to Houston the middle of May so we can visit Mom and attend Rachel's graduation.

What I Learned in Houston

After spending three months in Houston, I realized I learned a few things:

#1 - Driving in Houston really is NASCAR for the masses. Houston drivers are aggressive and in a big hurry to get where they're going. I was talking with a sweet little old lady (a Houston native) at Fallbrook RV Resort and she pointed to her brand new shiny F-250 and said, "I figure I'm bigger and people will just get out of my way."  Yep, that about sums it up.

#2 - You can't see the stars at night. The city is too big and produces so much ambient light that it never gets really dark enough for the stars to show.

#3 - There is a lot of bird life in Houston. I observed that Killdeer are nocturnal and are very noisy at night. Grackles in Texas are big and beautiful; they seem to reside in parking lots, feeding off  dropped french fries and squawking from the roof-racks of parked cars. Texans ignore them. Hawks are very abundant: while driving around Houston, I saw many hawks perched in treetops along the side of busy roads. I'm not very good at identifying types of hawks, but I'd guess them to be Redtails.

#4 - There are some beautiful sunrises and sunsets over Houston... although it's possible the smog may cause some of the pretty colors and patterns.

RV Improvements and Maintenance

Since being here in Houston, we found time to take care of some preventive maintenance on the motor home and make a couple minor modifications:

• Took the motor home to RV Masters for service: oil change and lube; replaced the fuel filter; topped off the differential fluid; and inspected the wheel bearings, emergency brake, and brake system
• Repaired one of the fog lights
• Replaced the water pump
• Replaced the faucet set for the outside shower
• Replaced the Dicor sealant around the TV antenna and refrigerator vent
• Applied Eternabond tape to the roof on each slide, to prevent water intrusion
• Washed and waxed the motor home
• Sealed all exterior windows with 100% Silicone
• Installed illuminated switches for the hot water heater: Blue for LP mode and Amber for Electric mode

And we've added a few gadgets to our collection:

• A Kobalt 120-PSI 120-Volt Horizontal Electric Air Compressor, capable of inflating everything we have, from the Dolphin's 22.5" RV tires to our bike tires. This is a light-weight, inexpensive ($50) piece of equipment that takes up very little space
• A wireless thermo-hygrometer with remote sensor, which we use to monitor the temperature in the water distribution compartment
• A Thermostatically Controlled Outlet, which turns on at 35°F and goes off at 45°F. We use this with the drop light in the water bay, so the light automatically comes on when the temperature gets close to freezing