New Blog and We're Back..............

WELCOME TO THE NEW BLOG. This is all new and in an easier format than the last one.

WE ARE BACK from Texas and New Orleans. Not only was this a business trip for me, but it was also a pleasure trip to see my daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter.
The drive to Texas was uneventful, driving all the way through Tennessee, and the endless State of Arkansas. When we got to Texas, the GPS instructed us to take a two lane road for the next three or so hours. That was an education. In this very rural part of northeast Texas we saw lots of interesting things including a 30-passenger commercial airplane for sale in someone’s front yard. In Tennessee, some of us have yard sales with minor junk for sale, but in Texas they have planes for sale in their front yards. I guess that proves the “everything’s bigger in Texas” rule.
True to the “when Mel drives we get really bad weather” rule, we ran into a vicious thunderstorm in the middle of somewhere, Texas. Lightning, thunder and the obligatory torrential rains hit on the two-lane road. It was reminiscent of last summer when we were driving from Vegas to the Grand Canyon and I got the “driving in the mountains thunderstorm from hell” outside of Flagstaff. In one hour, I drove through a dangerous thunderstorm, complete with hail and a thirty-degree temperature drop. While Vince slept, I felt the rented Jeep skidding off the road as we went up and down a mountain. During the second half of that hour, I drove through a “controlled burn” by the U.S. Forest Service. Blinding smoke and near suffocation made me wonder was an “uncontrolled burn” would be like?
After getting a day of business out of the way (I am consulting for a children’s music company franchise in Ft. Worth), we had some fun with Clarissa, my wild two-and one-half year-old granddaughter. After endless showings of “The Wiggles,” “The Music Man,” and “Mary Poppins,” we escaped for a night to a casino just over the border in Oklahoma. Suffice it to say, we’ve been to better casinos.
Last year, we wandered through some of the nicer casinos in Vegas – Venetian, Bellagio, Wynn. This was very different. Most people we saw were probably in the Witness Protection Program. We won $10 on the slots and cashed out. We decided we would forego any more cheap casinos.
Despite the 99-degree heat and “The Wiggles”, we had fun!
AND IT’S ON TO THE CAT SANCTUARY AND NEW ORLEANS….