02-07NOV08 - Kerrville, TX (one journey ends, our's continues)

On Sunday Dan flew to San Antonio, where he met up with middle brother, Shawn, and drove to Kerrville. Although Dan Sr’s health appeared to have taken a turn for the worse, it was not un-expected and had been discussed by the doctors. However, it was believed that there would also be a rebound, or two, before his passing and the doctors were talking weeks not days.

Early Monday morning Sharon, Shawn & Dan visited Dad, at that time he was coherent and thanked Shawn for visiting. By the afternoon he was extremely tired and not very coherent. When we returned Tuesday morning, he recognized us but kept passing in and out of consciousness. Shortly after lunch he expired.

We won’t recount the sadness and the tears, but rather share something that was unexpected and nice. Dan Sr had only been in TX less than two years, and never was truly happy there. From our vantage point it appeared he had little, to no, social interaction with anyone in Kerrville. However, he did routinely go to Chili’s everyday for lunch and a toddy; and would also return a couple of times a week for dinner and a toddy. A couple of his acquaintances from Chili’s did visit him at the VA and Skill Nursing Facility. On of them, John, talked to Sharon and suggested that we all meet at Chili’s, Thursday at 5PM.

Before the appointed time on Thursday, Tim took Dan Sr’s car and parked it the handicapped parking spot that he routinely used. There was no mistake that it was his car, because the passenger side was severely scratched up from front to rear from his last mistake behind the wheel before we got him to stop driving. Apparently the car caused a couple of double takes by the regulars and the staff. In preparation for our visit to Chili’s, Sharon prepared a bulletin board with many family photos; in addition we brought his Air Force certificates and his service cap.

When we (Dan, Shawn, Sharon & Tim) arrived at Chili’s we found a handful of people who had placed flowers and his glass (and we mean his glass, it was not a Chili’s standard glass and bartenders were instructed no one else was to be served in that glass) filled with Tuaca (Italian Liquor) on the bar in front of “his” barstool. To this we added his favorite hat, which he always wore on his trips downtown. Within minutes there were over twenty people gathered around the family pictures telling us what a great guy Dan Sr was. So a situation we were not sure of, turned out to be very nice “Irish” wake, that would have pleased Dan Sr and we found very enjoyable.

In addition to the sad details and legal necessities, Dan & Tim found time to take brother Shawn sightseeing to the River Walk in San Antonio, the Alamo, and the Mission Trail to Mission San Jose. And also took him with Sharon on the required trip to Luckenback. Shawn, who also owns a Harley Davidson motorcycle, kept saying he would be riding everyday if he lived in TX.

http://www.nps.gov/saan/index.htm

http://www.elcaminorealdelostejas.org/

On Friday Shawn flew back to the Seattle area; and Dan & Sharon met with the lawyer to probate the Will. Then first thing Saturday morning Dan jumped into the MB that Tim & Sharon had kindly stored for half a year, and started driving back to Houma.

27OCT-01NOV08 - Houma, LA (houma sweet houma)

One of the interesting things about our return drive to Houma was the diesel prices enroute. No matter what the price of a barrel of crude, the price of gas or diesel in Texas is almost always lower. But due to the recent really high prices we have learned to check numerous websites on the internet to determine cheapest price down the road. Lo-and-behold we discovered that diesel was sixty cents cheaper per gallon than any station in Texas, in our old home town of Houma! So we decided try and make it to Houma without refueling enroute, and we succeeded.

As we traveled from TX to LA we began to see the evidence of hurricane damage from Gustav and Ike. Although neither storm was as powerful as Katrina they caused more damage in Houma and even inland in Baton Rouge. The reason for this is that while the winds were lower, they were sustained for a longer time from one direction because the storms moved so slowly. So when we finally made it to Houma we found a tremendous amount of wind damage that did not occur during Katrina.

The primary damage was roof, trees and fences. One month after Gustav many houses still are covered with blue tarps, and hundreds of roofing crews work six days a week to accomplish all the needed repairs. In fact, the Civic Center parking lot where we have parked our RV in the past is overflowing with RVs, trailers, tents, etc, for all the “temporary” workers in town (habla espanol?). Unfortunately our daughter and son-in-law’s, Rebecca & Raymond Pitre, house received roof damage and they are in the process of finding a reliable contractor. Needless to say, Home Depot and Lowe’s constantly busy and half the parking lots are devoted to staging roofing material, cement and plywood.

Soon after our arrival it was time for Halloween. Since this was the first for Rebecca and Raymond in their new home, in the new neighborhood, they may have gone slightly overboard? They bought way too much candy and had a couple of animated figures that Dan felt might be too intense for younger kids. One figure was a guy with a “phantom of the opera” mask. To Dan this guy was pretty scary already, but when his motion sensor detected motion, he removed his mask to reveal an acid scarred face. We quickly learned to turn him off for kids younger than five.

Regrettably, soon after our arrival in Houma, Dan’s sister Sharon called to say that Dan Sr’s health had taken a turn for the worse. It was decided that Dan would fly back to Texas on Sunday, 02NOV.

25/26OCT08 - Livingston, TX & Kinder, LA (no pictures)

As we normally do, we took two days to drive from Sharon & Tim’s to Houma, LA. 1st stop was the world headquarters of the Escapees RV Club, which we are members of. For complete details on Escapees see the following BLOG entry:

http://theryanrvexpress.blogspot.com/2008/04/27mar-02apr08-livingston-tx-we-werent.html

2nd stop was the Coushatta Casino in Kinder, LA. As usual we were not lucky playing the games of chance. But it turns out that we were there on the one day a month that they “celebrate” all the birthdays in that month. We won’t say whose birthday it was or how young that person was, but we were treated to a free brunch buffet and several chances at drawings for birthday people only. As we all know there are no free lunches; and the Casino was the real winner as usual. For more info on the Casino:

http://theryanrvexpress.blogspot.com/2008/04/03apr08-kinder-la.html

05-24OCT08 - Kerrville, TX

After our five day dash from the Pacific NW to the Hill Country of Texas we set up camp at the Dan’s sister Sharon & husband Tim Tompkins’ in Kerrville, TX. For those of you who have followed this BLOG for some time you know that we usually visit with them (and Dan Sr) at least twice a year; usually enroute or returning from Washington State. Obviously the next order of business was to visit Dan Sr at the medical facility and check on his condition.

Dan Sr’s diagnosis is that he has a metastatic cancer in his lungs that either originated in his lungs or somewhere else. The Doctors do not have a definitive diagnosis because Dan Sr refuses further tests or treatment. Dan’s dad is now in a Skilled Nursing Facility where they try to make him as comfortable as possible while encouraging him to participate in therapy to improve his strength. As a result of their efforts his overall health has improved.

We settled into a routine of daily visits with dad, catching up on routine maintenance on the RV, family dinner and card games. In addition we found time to do some sightseeing such as a Hot Rod show at the local Harley Davidson dealer in Boerne; and the always required visit to that place “where everybody is somebody” - Luckenbach.

http://www.luckenbachtexas.com/

Since Dan Sr’s health had improved, we decided to head to Houma, LA, to assist Rebecca and Raymond make repairs to their house, which received roof damage during hurricane Gustav.

30SEP-04OCT08 - Various, USA (no pictures)

Needing to proceed as quickly as possible to check on Dan Sr's health, we made the approximately 2300 mile trip to Kerrville, TX in five days. We won't bore you with the monotonous details of the drive, but here are the places we stopped enroute:

30SEP - Fairchild AFB, Spokane, WA; see our 19JUN08 BLOG for more info on Fairchild AFB & Spokane.

01OCT - Butte, MT; while here we noted many locals leaving the check-in office with brown paper bags of varying sizes. Turns out owners of RV park also fry up some of the best fried chicken, and fish and chips we have run across!

02OCT - Sheridan, WY; dry camped in the same Wal-mart parking lot discussed in our BLOG of 14JUN08.

03OCT - Colorado Springs, CO.

04OCT - Lubbock, TX.

26-29SEP08 - Monroe, WA

Upon Dan’s return from his business trips we directed our attention to clearing & cleaning our property in Sultan. We had had some trees removed and we needed to clean up all the debris left over. In addition we finished closing-in the small barn so that we could store tractor out of the weather when we finally head south once the NW rains start. At the same time we were able to sell our Ford Ranger and now have only one excess vehicle left to get rid of.

Our intentions were to completely clean the property so that we had a clean slate for building some sort of RV garage/apartment next spring. Unfortunately Dan Sr’s health had been deteriorating over the last few months; so we have decided to stop work and quickly head back to Texas.

13-25SEP08 - Everett, WA (and dry lake & red stick)

The Saturday after the Pig Roast was a small Memorial Gathering for Uncle Bob Harris who had succumbed to cancer. Many of the maternal relatives we had seen at the roast were again together for this bitter, sweet, occasion. Although it was good to see Aunt Madeline and cousins Stephanie & husband Ron, Sheila & husband Mike, and Robbie; we wish the circumstances could have been different. The last we had seen Uncle Bob was almost exactly one year ago on a previous RV trip to Washington, see our BLOG for 07-11SEP07.

http://theryanrvexpress.blogspot.com/2007/09/070912-kittitas-wa-aloha.html

Uncle Bob was one of the Greatest Generation having served in the 10th Mountain Division during WWII. After the war he was a life long avid skier. In fact, he and his wife Madeline, were Ski Patrollers at one of Dan’s favorite ski areas, Stevens Pass, for decades. Fortunately, they were never on duty when Dan had his run-ins with the Ski Patrol.

Although the reason for the get together was sad, it was a beautiful day with fond remembrances of his life along with continually video photos from his entire life playing on the TV. At the end there were several champagne toasts to the many good things he accomplished.

First thing Sunday morning Dan departed for Playas (aka Dry Lake), NM, on business. Playas was a true company town built from scratch by Phelps Dodge in the 70s. Turns out Phelps Dodge built a brand new copper smelting plant in the middle of the NM desert, and the town of Playas was created to house the workers. The town had everything needed – medical clinic, school, two churches, fire house, bar, bowling alley, community center, houses, etc. To Dan it was very similar to most military bases he has seen.

When the price of copper plummeted in the 90s, Phelps Dodge closed the smelter, kicked everyone out and walked away. Eventually the state acquired the property and created a branch of New Mexico Tech University called Energetic Materials Research & Testing Center. Dan can’t tell you all that they do here, but he can tell you they blow up things. We’re talking C4 plastic explosive, and his favorite hundreds of pounds of ammonium nitrate!

http://www.emrtc.nmt.edu/

Unfortunately there are no accommodations in Playas. So Dan had to stay in Deming, NM, 70 miles away! Some of you may recognize that we had been in Deming previously; for others see our BLOG for 25/26OCT07. While in Deming Dan discovered a very unique restaurant called the Adobe Deli. The Deli is ten miles out of town and is in a cinder block school building that is probably 40 years old. The school was small with maybe four class rooms and small gym/multi purpose room the size of a half court basketball court. The bar and restaurant occupy the gym, and they serve the biggest and best steaks, along with fresh Maine lobster. The prices are not cheap but the food and atmosphere are worth it.

http://www.adobedeli.com/

Dan returned for one day Sunday, 21SEP08, and then departed for another business trip to Baton Rouge (aka Red Stick), LA, that Monday. The good thing about this trip was that Dan was able to take time to visit our daughter Rebecca and husband Raymond Pitre in Houma, LA. Although Baton Rouge is well inland from the Gulf of Mexico, the effects of hurricane Gustav were very evident. Although Gustav was only a category two by the time it passed over Baton Rouge, the direction of the winds and the sustained velocity made it one of the most powerful the city ever experienced. There was no flooding but a tremendous amount of roof damage and thousands of oaks toppled over. Just reaffirms our decision to sell our house and get away from the Gulf of Mexico. Dan returned Thursday and hopefully that is it for business trips for the year.