1 Jan to 8 Jan 2011--- We have arrived in Weslaco

As mentioned we spent New Years Eve in South Padre Island with our friends from Med Hat, Don and Shirley Meakin and their freinds ( now ours ) Ron and Mel Meyers from Ottawa area. We had a great Sea food supper at a local restauraunt and then returned to the Meakin's time share to await midnight. Since we were all tired we agreed to used the New York time as our New Year. the next morning 1 Jan we all had breakfast in S. Padre and then we travel the hour and 15 min drive to our winter home at Southern Comfort, which, incidental ,we rented sight on seen . However, it was only 10 houses from Al and Doreen's winter home here so we felt comfortable that it would not be a dump.

We first met the landlord who escorted us to our house ( a 1 bdm room park Model ) and he gave us the tour and then we began to unpack the VAN. I'm sure the VAN was saying "Thank You " because that baby was loaded ( maybe overloaded ) for the 3000KM trip. By noon we had the Van unload and most of the clothes etc put away or better still , out of sight. Since Joe and Terry, other friends from Med Hat, were parked a couple of hundred yards away we dropped into say Hello. We had the perverble cup of coffee gave the news updates from home. Then we made a quick trip to Wal-mart to get some groceries and refeshments. Around noon Holly and Larry Nahachewsky ( better known as the Naha's ) dropped by as they knew we would arrive around 1 Jan. The Naha's were teachers at the Military base in Shilo and we became friends in 77 to 81. I taught their 2 boys hockey and they taught our boys... I'm not sure what our boys learned from them but I know our boys went on to Higher learning and their boys did not turn out to be Hockey Player. Actually, their boys are teachers.

During our chit chat with the Nahas' along comes Don and Glenna Carker ( ex-military from kingston ) who are very close friends of the Ludwars. In fact the Ludwars and the Carkers took a trip to New York City in Sept. the Nahas' and the Carkers were nice enought to refuse a coffee, knowing full well we were not organized yet.

after our friends left we again started to organize our winter home and to find out and make a list of our needs from the " dollar store " . You always need something from the Dollar store. Also, the Satellite Dish would need to be install soon as we need the news ( maybe the sports) from home. first I had to meet my neighbours as I might have to encroach on their property to find the Satelite. Also we had an invite for a 5 PM supper with the Meakins who live at another park a few miles away. About 4 PM our neighbour , Wayne and Karen Cote, (Wayne is also the Ball Team coach), came over to welcome us but mainly to advise me that we had a 9:30 ball game on Tuesday. I played with Wayne 2 years ago so we did know each other. They left around 5 PM so we had to rush to our supper invitation at the
Meakins. Althought the drop-in visit curtailed our " organizing" of the house; the up side is that we got some Happy Hour invitation which i'm sure we can fit in to our schedule. The meal at Meakins was excellent as usual as Shirely is an excellent cook, with Don's help of course.
The priority for the next day was the Satellite but with my expertise in this area I had it up and running in a couple of hours. I did have to disconnect the landlord's DISH satellite as I needed his cables that ran thru the house. I did bring a 2nd TV so I had to run a new cable to the bedroom as Carroll and i do not " always" watch the same program. During the next two days we ran back and forth to the Dollar Store and Walmart getting the things we forgot the previous day.
I must also mention that our friends Terry and Joe Egan from Med Hat invited us for supper the 2nd day after our arrival. Keep those free meals coming.
On Wed we decide to got to Sam's Club and spend the required 200.00 on meats an other necessities or as we say to justified the trip; " to buy the Big things we need'. There is no Costco here. On thursday we ( mostly Carroll ) decided that we should skip over to MX which is only 7 mi away. I needed a 3.00 haircut and she needed a 15.00 Pedicure. The beer is only 1.50 a bottle while I waited for Carroll. I also needed to pick up the required two bottles of Duty Free Booze. I got a L of Drambuie and a L of Baileys for less than 40.00.
Unforetunately I chipped a tooth so we will be going back over to MX to the Dentist on Wed or Thursday to have it repaired. I will likely need a Root Cannal and a Crown and i will be shocked if it cost over 500.00 dollars. My Insurance company would love us to get all our denal work done in MX.
My expertise on the satellite was about to be tested. During a noon hour news cast the signal started to fade so I thought i would " Tweak " it a bit. I tweaked it alright ; I lost the signal forever. I did not have the signal bearings nor did I bring a compass. My normal method is to aim the dish south at 60 degree, way it back and forth and the signal is usual there. But No Luck this time. So i notice a Starchoice dish down the street so i venture down to check the bearing. The owner said go ahead and check the bearing, however that guy over there from MT has a meter and he is good at setting up a dish. Since I was losing my touch I venture over to to see this guy. He looked at me and said Hey! I know you... You hired me in 1981 at Shilo, MT and i have been forever greatful. I stayed there for 20 yrs and eventually became the Carpenter Foreman until i retired. I did recognize him , mainly for his Dutch accent but I hired him because he was in charge of a project and did a excellent job. Now I had to set up the Satellite because I can not live without it. I ended up moving the Satellite to a vacant lot about 30 ft away. I did bring lots of cable with me ... just in case. Shortly after i moved the satellite I got the signal again. so now all is right in the World again.
On Saturday we joined the Meakins and went to an outdoor Music Fest which was a celebration for Elvis's birthday. The show was from 1 PM to 8 PM and was mostly singers who thought they were Elvis. I will admit, most of them were good but 7 hours sitting on a hard chair and listen to the renditions of Elvis was a little much for me. You can say that i have been to this annual Music fest twice: First and Last. The next Blog will be about our 2 nd week but should be much shorter. cheers. Tom and Carroll

DEC 2010

As mentioned in the previous Blog, Dec was spent getting ready for Christmas and packing for our trip south to TX for the winter, along with tying up any loose ends that tend to jump up and bite you in the ass at the last minute. One loose end that just about bit us last year was our Drivers Licence. As you probably know,we in AB have a 5 yr licence and the licence Bereau advise you one month in advance that your licence is about to expire. However,our birthdays are Jan and Mar so we would not be notified until Dec and we left on 1 Dec so the notice had not arrived yet. For some unknown reason Carroll thought to check our expirery dates and sure enough they would have expired while we would have been sitting on the beach in MX, slurping on a cool one. There are two things that can spoil your vacation while in a foriegn country and one is a lost PassPort and the other is an expired drivers Licence. A friend of ours was advised by the Custom agent that his licence was expire, as he was travling by car from MX to Belize. He did finally get his re-newed licence sent fron AB to MX but it took about 3 weeks and a lot of " Butt Kissing " and a very co-operative courier company. Anyway, that is only one loose end one must consider.
Well, all the Christmas gifts were wrapped so that was one huge job completed. We had to do some "winter" packing as we where going to Clark's place in Ft. McMurray for Christmas from 23 DEc to 26 Dec. As they say in Ft. Mac, they have 2 seasons: Ski Doo Season and Tough Sleding, so we had to be prepared. As it turned out, the weather was great.
However, our preparation turned a little sour. Our plans were to leave from Todd's place after on the 27 th Dec and our very close friends, Al and Doreen Ludwars were leaving from their son's place in Cranbrook, BC on the same day so we would have met somewhere in MT and tailgated each other on the way to TX as they have a winter home there. On 12 Dec the Ludwars called to invited us for supper which we accepted. around 9 PM we departed for home and said our goodbyes , hoping to meet them as pre-arranged. We had to leave home on the 21 DEc to go to Todd's and then to Clark's on the 23th. The next day at 8:30 (13 Dec) Doreen called to say that AL had passed away during the night for no apparent reason. Needless to say disbleif, shock and panic set in but we managed to rush to Doreen's side to see what we could do. The Ludwars have a son in Scotland so the funeral was delayed until Friday so he would have tome to get Medicine Hat. Not to belabour the point but this week was a whirlwind for us as we had to leave on the tues (21 Dec ) for our trip to Ft. Mac.
Our Christmas trip to Ft. Mac was great as we have not had Christmas with them for a few years, mainly because we leave around 1 Dec. On the 26 th we returned to Todd's house and his family opened our gifts on the 27th. It was delightful to see them open gifts, especially the 18 month old Twins as they were too young last year. We gave the Twins and Rhett a battery driven quad for a present so we spent the 27 th watching them power around the basement, sometimes running into the pool Table.
On the 28 th we left for TX, albeit a very heavy heart since the much anticipated trip with the Ludwars was not to be. Our trip took 3 night's and 4 days but foretunately it was uneventful as we were one day ahead of the snow storms that were chasing us. On 31 Dec we thought we would stop in San Antonio and take in the New Years festivities, assuming they would have a big party on the River Walk. After searching the Web , we could not find anything except a family type party in a Park in the late afternoon so we deferred. Our next option was to go to our Rental Accn in Weslaco at the RV park which was about 4 hours away which would get us there around 3 or 4 PM. However after leaving San Antonio Carroll recalled that our friends, the Meakins, who are Winter Texans from Med Hat, had invited us to join them in South Padre Island for New Years Eve. We had declined the offer as we did not know our plans at that time, which was about mid Dec. Since we now had a recently acquired Cell phone ( called a Tracfone ), a WalMart special for 10.00 USD , we called the Meakins to see if the invite was still valid and it was, so we diverted to South Padre Island and went out for a Se food supper with the Meakins and met there friends Ron and Mel from Ottawa. cheers. The next Blog starts on 1 jan 2011. T and C

Mid Oct to Mid Dec

This was a slow period for us as we needed to find a House sitter for the winter, making a list of items we needed to take to TX and to set these items in a room ( the office ) so that nothing would be forgot ( forgetting something is our strong suite ) and for Carroll to complete her Christmas shopping for the G/kids. I will never know why, but she always ask me what to buy and my answer never changes... give them a cheque. Apparently there is an unwritten law that says; only Kids over 10 yrs can have a cheque. Those under 10 yrs, of which we have 6, must get presents and the more the better. Also , the only limiting factor is when you can not get anymore presents in the Grande Caravan.
This also is the time period where we start having " Goodbye suppers " for those of us who are going south with the few who are deicated G/parents and stay home and help to ride herd on their G/Kids.
This is our Eleventh year for looking for a "House Sitter", and i must say they have all been great. We mostly get Farmers from Sask as they like to come into Med Hat for the winter and four of them have purchased a home in Med Hat and become our friends. We always interview the potential candiates in our home as we do get some losers but they are far and few between. This year we found two excellent people . One was a single lady, a school Teacher who is retiring in June and the other a young single fellow who lost his home in the flood in Maple Creek. We (mostly Carroll ) chose the School teacher and so far she has advised us that she just loves it at our home. Carroll will like it much more if she cleans the house before she leave because that means the spring cleaning will be done.ha ha
We also have coffee with many of our friends on a weekly basis just to ensure we have each others email address and to ensure that we all keep in contact because we are Senior , we are curious and we are noisey and we must keep up with the lasted gossip from home. We have to keep in contact because some go to Phoneix, some to Haweii , some to CA, some to Yuma and of course MX.
Usually by Mid Dec I practice packing the Van just to make sure everything will fit in or we have to make a decision on what items " don't make the cut". The Starchoice satellite is a " First Rounder " so it can not be cut but the bread machine can be cut as another friend in TX has one and we can borrow it if nec. And the beat goes on and on!!! Oh, my ball equipt is also a " first Rounder", but I forgot to bring my bat. Man is that a sore spot with me.. how did I forget a bat. We usually take too many clothes so this year we really made sure any items was nec. Heck!! I only need 2 pair shorts; one I'm wearing and another in the wash. ha ha.
As it turned out, everything we needed fit into the Van but it was loaded. The next Blog will start about mid Dec. cheers. t and c

Oct 2010 World Senior Gamesand our Return Trip

We arrived in Mesquite, NV which is 47 Mi south of St. Geo, UT, in the early afternoon of 29 th Sept or at least on the thursday and checked into our hotel and managed to have a Meet and Greet with the team. Incidently Meet and Greet is a nice word for Beer and Munchies. This tournament is considered a warm up for St. Geo but like any tournament you would like to win. However, we usually end up playing American teams that are from a higher division that we are but at least we get to play ball in Oct and the weather is usually hot; sometimes too hot.

We had to play 5 games in 2 days so we had to play 2 games on Friday afternoon and 3 on Saturday. The 1st game on Friday was against a team of our calibre and we managed to beat them in 7 innings. The 2nd game was against a team from Florida that we had met several times in St. Geo over the years. If memory serves we correctly we always seem to beat them but not easily. This time was no different. However, in 5 inning I was about to make a routine catch when i somehow managed to stick my index finger on my right hand into the glove just as the ball arrive and of course I split my finger. It looked bad , especially the blood running down my hand and arm but a couple of bandaids stopped the bleeding and i was able to throw the ball and hold the bat. It didn't really matter how sore the finger was as we only had 11 players so i had to play. Bottom of the 7 th and the game is tie and we are up with 2 out. Next batter gets on 1st; next player hits a double so we have a guy on 2 nd and 3 rd. You guess it; I'm the next batter and if I don't get a hit we go to extra innings and it is 104 F and we are beat. Just as i stepped into the batters box the FL coach calls " Time Blue ". ( Blue is what the Americans call the umpire ) He walks out to the pitcher then say to the umpire , I want to walk the next batter. I could have kiss him because i did not want to get out and send the game into extra innings and better still our next batter was a good hitter.

Anyhow, our next batter hits a one hopper to the shortstop and i thought "Oh No " extra innings in this blasted heat. Then our guy on 3 rd ran home but a force out at 3rd was the play but no body covered it and nobody covered 2 nd until it was too late as I slide safely into 2nd. We won the game and there was some Pi!!d of players on the FL Team.

On Saturday we played a team from Dorchester, ON and we thought we had another team of our calibre... boy , were we ever wrong. These guys sure could hit and they "Mercied" us in 5 innings. Anyhow we won 3 of the 5 games and considered the tournament success.
On Sunday we moved to St. Geo, UT; This tournament is really Professional and everyone has to sign in and produce identification as to their age and assigned team. This the best and biggest tournament that we ever played in with at least 355 teams althought I'm not sure of the final count. I think they have 27 diamonds. We played 8 games in 4 days and we never lost any of the games. However the gold medal game, which we won, was against a team from Alberta.

On Friday, after the games were over, we decided to do some touring of the National Parks in Utah .If you have never seen Zion Park and/or Bryce Canyon you should add it to you "Bucket List ". You can not imagine the view of Bryce Canyon and it is worth doing a "Goggle" before you go.
From here we traveled thru the Mountainous area of Utah and the gorgerous veiw never seems to end until you hit the Interstate on the road home. However , with the Eslers; preplanning is not an issue... we never do it.We feel that whatever happens .. just happens.
On the Sunday evening before our Thanksgiving Monday holiday we stopped in Helena, MT overnight. We grabbed a motel room and decided that we would buy some chicken and salad at the grocery store, eat in our room and take a rest from the travelling. We went to bed around ten and about Midnight Carroll started to get a very bad pain at the top of her stomach. She had the same type of pain earlier in the week after eating supper so she assumed it to would pass. I awoke at 4 AM and she was sitting in the chair holding her stomach. She still thought the pain would soon go away but by 6 PM it was still there and getting worse. So I went to the store and got some Peptobismo but it was of no help. At 7 AM it was obvious the pain was not going away and it must be serious. In leiu of going to the hospital in Helena , Carroll agreed that we should head for Medicine Hat so off we went. Medicine Hat is about 6 1/2 hours from Helena if you drive at 130 KM/H which I did. The only glitch was the line up at Customs in Cotts, AB which could be up to 2 hours and we could not afford to wait that long with Carroll's pain getting worse. so I decide to drive to wild Horse which is a 12 hour crossing but usually only has about 4 or 5 people in the line up, even thought it was about 20 miles further. As luck would have it there was nobody in the line up. A young lady was the Customs Officer and Carroll explained her condition so she ask a couple of question and said get going and good luck. One hour and 15 mins later i delivered Carroll to the Medicine Hat Hospital emergency entrance. Luck was with us again as there was NOBODY in emergency. It was amazing, so they rushed Carroll into a room and by the time I parked the car she was already "Hooked Up". By 4 PM they had the pain limited to bearable and they started test to verify the problem. The Duty Surgeon assumed it was a Gall Bladder but needed several test to prove it. It was decide to keep Carroll overnight and do an Ultrasound the next day. The Ultrasound proved positive so the Gall Bladder had to go. However, there seemed be lots of bad gall Bladders but the Surgeon added Carroll to the end of his operating day after the last scheduled patient on the Wed. Carroll finally got home on Friday and started her life without her Gall Bladder

Med Hat to the world Senior Games

About 30 Senior ball players from Med hat are heading for St. Geo, UT to play in the world Senior Games. Med Hat is entering two teams this year, 60 to 64 and 65 to 69, which is the age bracket for me. We did not have enough 70 + this year so many of the 70,s are playing for other teams throught the province such as St. Albert, Stettler, Calgary and a few are on an american team.
This has been an Annual event for 25 years and has grown to a total of approximately 10,000 participants over the 2 week period. I use the word participants because you can hardly call Crib and Wisk a sport. The majority of the participates are ball players since there are 350 to 400 teams over the 2 week period.
They have about 24 ball diamond in St Geo and they are the best I have ever played on.
We actually have a warm up tournament in Mesquite , NV on this Friday and Saturday and then move to St. Geo on Sunday to start play Monday.
Many of the ball player from Med Hat leave a week early to golf on the way down. The weather in southern Ut, ( below Salt lake city) is warm so golfing is still on. Incidentally the temp in St. Geo yesterday was around 100F, I think that is about 36C. Thankfully it is cooling off on Monday to 85 F.
Carroll and I , along with several others left on Wed and we will be in Mesquite, NV by 4;30 or 5 PM Thursday. IT is sort of a calvacade of Alberta cars on I-15 as there are many teams from Edm, Calgary, St. Albert, etc heading down. Unforetunately we end up playing teams from Albert due to the luck of the draw and in fact we play Edm on tues morning. We have already played them in 6 tournaments this year.
The trip down is very boring , mostly since we have driven I-15 many time while heading south each winter. It is 3 hours to the border from Med Hat, then I pick up my 2 bottles of Crown Royal at the duty free, Cross the border,and head south. There was nobody ahead of me today which is nice. After that it is 8 more hours of 120 Km/h until we reach Idaho. The speed limit in MT and ID is 75 MPH so 80 is the norm.
I picked up a case of beer ( MGD ) yesterday, 30 cans for $20.00. That would cost me $50.00 in Med hat.
It is now 6 AM on thurs so we will have breakfast and hit the road. Apparently the beer in Mesquite is held on ice until we get there. cheers t and C

Chilliwack and Comox, BC 10 Sept 2010

We arr in Chilliwack on Friday afternoon and easily found our Hotel. Our meet and greet for the EGS Tech Reunion was scheduled for 5 PM at the old CFB Miltary base. For any of you retired Mil pers who served at CFB Chilliwack, you will not recognize the base, as it has been taken over by several gov't dept such as the RCMP, Fraser Valley Colloge ( now a university ), a trades training school for the province and several others.

We first met Dave Connolly at the hotel, who was in boot camp with me in 1962 however, I do see him often as he lives in Calgary. Dave was the driving force behind this Reunion , althought Rene and Caroline Gratton did all the organizing for the reunion and is to be congratulation on a job well done. We then went to the ASU mess at the base where we met all our friends and their spouse. We swapped stories as usually , talked each others ear off and had a typical "happy hour " meal . We all called it a day about 10:30.

The next day we had a scheduled tour of the Military Museum , whiich of course is also on the Base property. Before the tour we went to visit Al and Elaine Dempsey, who was my boss in Shilo ( 1978 to 81 ) and who we have kepted in contact with over the years. Al's civillian job for 9 years was to help develope the old PMQ area ( Military Housing ) and the area has been re-done to a very up-scale subdivision. Al and Elaine gave us the grand tour of the base proper, the MQ area and the local area.

After the museum tour we all met again for a supper at a local resturaunt which lasted until 10:30 PM. A Brunch was scheduled for Sunday at 10 am but we had decline as we had to catch a ferry to Comox.



We had to be in Comox at 2 PM to meet our friends Shirly and Bob Carlyle before they left on a camping trip. We did manage to have a 2 hour visit with them. We finally arrived at Helen Mazarolle place ( our B and B ) for the next 3 days and to catch up on all the nec gossip since we had not seen Helen for 2 years. Helen made us a wonderful Salmon supper, knowing full well we parire dogs did not need beef when we are near the ocean. We will call some of our many friends in Comox to sqeeze in a coffee session to catch up on their happens.

The next chapter awaits. cheers. T and C

Summer of 2010

I have decide to do a Blog on our happening for this past summer, which was not all that exciting but some addressees may be interestedso here goes.
In april on our return from MX I was still suffering from what the doctors determined and I was convinced was Acid Reflux. This problem was so bad that i could not cut the lawn or play ball without an attack. However, i was also getting some mild chest pains so I insisited on seeing a Heart special who immediately sent me for an angiogram. The angiogram showed that i had a few slight restrictions in my arteries but so does 90 % of the people my age including most doctors. The Heart special then decided that I must have a stomach bacteria called H-Pyloria and he spoke to the Specialist who had tested me for the same thing a year earlier. I was again tested and found to have this bacteria so I had to take some antibiotics twice a day for 2 weeks and I had to go on a NO ALCOHOL diet. Such is life. After this treatment I believe i am now cured . Also i'm back playing ball which is most important.

Now for the travelogue.
We left home today, 7 Sept, heading for Chilliwack BC to a Military reunion. However, our first stop is at Todd's place in Okotoks for a G/Kids fix; tomorrow it is off to Todd's cabin near Fairmont Hot Springs, BC on Columbia Lake ( just built this summer ) to install some blinds that Carroll found in the Budget Blind store that where mis- measured or the wrong colour for someone. She found several blinds with a retail price of 900.00 for a bargin price of 145.oo cash, no invoice. She is always looking for a bargin. We will stay overnight at the cabin, and then head for Kamloops to visit and overnight with Joe and Marg Barker who have been friends since the earlier 70's and of course where also in the miltary with us.
On Friday we will head to Chilliwack to meet with out Military friends, some we have not seen for 30 years so it will be great to swap stories. We will have a meet and greet on Friday and a dinner on Saturday evening with some tours during the day. On Sunday we are going to Vancouver Island ( Comox ) to see a close friend , Helen Mazerolle, who lost her husband 2 years ago and who we travelled with for years. Since we lived in Comox for 6 years we will no doubt visit many other friends.
We will return to Todd's place on the 17 th Sept as the Twins ( Megan and Quinn ... 16 months old ) would like us to babysit them while Mom, Dad, Emily and Rhett go to a wedding in Edmonton on Sat and Sunday.
We will return home on Monday until the 29 th Sept at which time we will leave for Mesquite , NV to play ball in a 2 day tournament on that weekend, then we move to St. Geo, UT ( 50 miles ) to play in the World Senior Games starting Monday which hopefully will last 5 days.
We will do some touring to places like Zion national park and Bryce Canyon on our way home and expect to be home on the 11 th or 12 th on Oct. We don't have any plans for the rest of Oct and \Nov so we close this saga for now.