On the Road Again . . .!

I can hear Willie Nelson as I type!

We made it back to Las Vegas without a 'hitch'. As always, goodbye's are tough for me, so we try not to prolong them. But the tears still came - and still are at times - when I start thinking about all we are missing by not being at home. I just basically 'want it all'!

Hayden was his usual sweet, ornery self when we stopped by Roger's folks one last time. He'll be talking by the time we get home in September. We did 'shuttle service' for Hunter for her morning pom practice, and our last sight of her was headed off with the pom squad for some extra practice before competition. One of the best things about being home is having the kids - big and little - pop in and out of our day.

Shelly provided taxi service to the airport and we breezed through with time to spare. We awarded our "Grump of the Day" award to the TSA (security) gal at the metal detector. Roger and I were both 'thinking it' when the lady behind us gave voice to it. I'm all for security - and realize they are doing their job - but for the life of me, I can't understand why one agent checks your ID and boarding pass before they let you in to security, then three feet later at the metal detector, they have to re-check it! It seemed to be 'shift change' - and I'm hoping she was about through for the day - so her attitude didn't have much chance to 'spread'!

Lucked out and had some 'room' on our flight to spread out a bit. However, about 30 minutes before landing, we hit wind which made for a very rough time. Not being partial to flying anyways, I was a bit 'green around the gills' before we finally hit terra firma once again. I looked at Roger and said, "It's a good thing this is our destination, for you would have a hard time getting me back on one of these right now!"

A short taxi ride back to the campground - and we even got a taxi driver who spoke English! Dropped our luggage and headed out to meet a friend from Florida, who just happened to be winding up a week in Las Vegas. Had a very nice evening, delicious meal - but by 10:00 p.m. my day was really catching up with me! Course 10:00 p.m. in Las Vegas is midnight in Oklahoma! She cleaned out her refrigerator & pantry and sent it home with us, for she flies back home Friday morning. It saved us from having to do a 'late night' Wal Mart run to have milk for our cereal this morning!

Today we are off and running again, headed north to Lake Tahoe - then Placerville, CA - then back across the mountains to Reno, NV, before heading due east to Wendover, NV (on the opposite side of Nevada). A couple of long driving days ahead in the next week. With 71 parks left to visit this season, I'm trying to think of them in 'groups' of 10 - makes it seem not quite so bad!

Time At Home Running Out

As Memorial Day is here, our time at home is winding down - and we find ourselves 'cramming' all we can into these last few days.

Since I last 'blogged' - Wes & Nick have headed to Virginia for a three week visit with the Quisenberry side of the family. Hunter finished up her time at Barnes Elementary by performing in the annual talent show.

Friday found Hunter and Grandma Twylah headed to the mall for some early birthday shopping. Getting to spend time one-on-one with the grandkids is my favorite thing. You learn so much about them when you just listen to their non-stop chatter. Although we bought some 'necessary' stuff, we also took time for her to try on several outfits at the American Eagle store - where she found 'the' outfit (a bright orange polo and hot pink 'roll-up' sweats). One of my cardinal rules when I go shopping with Hunter is letting her make the decision (as long as it is 'decent'). That's all part of growing up - and I love the 'fashion' show I always get as she tries on different 'looks'.

Later that evening everyone showed up for supper - and I then got to spend the rest of my evening sitting outside watching Hayden. He is our 'outdoor' boy - and he is happy - as long as he is outside. Last night he discovered cousin Nick's "Green Machine" and spent the entire time riding it and pushing it. He is definitely going to be our 'mechanic' - as he is utterly fascinated with anything that has wheels. It's amazing to watch his mind work. Just in the 2 weeks we've been home - we have seen him change. Seems like each day he has mastered a new 'skill'. Wish we could 'freeze' him at this sweet, innocent age.

A good day - and then I woke up this morning! Felt like I had been run over by a Mack truck! Thankfully today (Saturday) has been a quiet day for me. Spent most of it making up a batch of 'lumpia' that the big boys had requested. Just sent Shelly home with a bag full for Randy, and will cook up a batch for Russ & Roger this evening.

Dandy Pecan Sandie Dessert

Here it is! The yummy dessert mentioned in my last blog.

Dandy Pecan Sandie Dessert

20-25 Pecan Sandie cookies (crushed)
1/2 cup melted butter or margarine
1/2 of an 8 oz. container of Cool Whip (thawed)
4 Pecan Sandie cookies (crushed) for garnish
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 large box instant vanilla pudding (prepared according to package directions)
8 oz. cream cheese, softened

In a 10"x10"x2" casserole dish, mix crushed cookies & packed brown sugar. Add melted butter. Mix together & press in bottom and sides of dish. Chill in freezer while preparing filling.

Beat cream cheese until creamy and smooth. Add to pudding a little at a time, until well-blended. Spread over cookie crust. Spread Cool Whip over pudding mixture. Garnish with the four crushed Pecan Sandies. Chill & serve.

(The recipe doesn't call for it, but I could see using fresh strawberries and/or blueberries for a 'red, white & blue' Memorial Day treat.)

More on the story: I've made this twice since posting this. The first time I made it exactly as the recipe. I did discover that it is easier to add the pudding to the whipped cream cheese a bit at a time - rather than adding the cream cheese to the pudding. (Don't ask me why?!?)

The second time I made it, I reduced the amount of milk I used to make the pudding to 2 1/2 cups - which made a thicker pudding. I also added a capful of lemon extract (which is about 1/2 teaspoon). I then put the completed dessert in the freezer for a couple of hours, moving it to the refrigerator about an hour before serving. The 'thicker, frozen' consistency made cutting it in squares for serving a breeze. One of my sisters also mentioned that freezing it would make it easier to take to a church dinner - or family picnic - as it would stay cold longer.

Mother's Day & Four Generations

For the first time in 6 years, we are home for Mother's Day. . . and it was the perfect opportunity to snap a shot of four generations of the Hughes clan. Great-grandpa J.C. (79), Roger (58), Russ (37) and Hayden (19 months).

We gathered at the home of Roger's folks - as always - and enjoyed a lunch of grilled hamburgers with all the trimmings. The afternoon was spent visiting, playing "Moon", and enjoying the spring weather of a beautiful day, with plenty of room for the kids to be kids. Roger's sister, Judy, was 'in charge' of providing the dessert - and her Pecan Sandie pudding was the hit of the day (although the home-made chocolate chip cookies ran a close second). No left overs to be had of it, and everyone insisted that it was a 'must have' for any future get-togethers. I'll have to get her recipe and share it on my blog.

We hit 'home turf' Thursday evening, and we are enjoying every minute of 'chaos'. It's so good to have the kids in and out. Saturday evening found Nick & Hunter spending the evening with us, and Hunter brought a couple of board games over - and talked Grandma Twylah into making it a threesome. Playing "Deal or No Deal" and I was beating Nick . . . at which time he informed me that "Grandma's aren't supposed to beat grandson's". I gently shared that THIS GRANDMA plays to win, and so he might as well get used to it! Actually Hunter ended up beating us both!

But I won him over later that evening when I produced his favorite 'fried chicken & mashed potatoes' for supper. Thankfully, this generation's preferred 'fried chicken' is Tyson's chicken planks . . . and my version of mashed potatoes is 'instant', keeping it a pretty simple meal to produce on short notice.

As the time to call it a day approached, they contrived to spend the night with Grandma & Grandpa. Thinking it was because they had missed us so, we soon discovered the real reason was because they had caught a baby toad and wanted to make a 'habitat' for it - and keep a close eye on it! Grandma ended up contributing some 'supplies' for the habitat, with the stipulation that it absolutely could not be brought in the house! So "Lucy, the toad" spent the night in our garage, and then made the trip to the Mother's Day get-together, before being set free in Great-Grandma's flower bed.

Actually it was a big hit with the little ones, and we all got a good laugh out of watching Hayden stick his finger in the box to touch it. Each time he did, he would get so excited he would jump up and down, laughing. It's a wonder we didn't give the toad a heart attack!





Having little ones around is just so much fun!

Thought our day was ending when Russ invited Roger to ride over to one of the job sites with him. I elected to stay behind and get reacquainted with my recliner - and catch the 'Survivor' finale. Roger got home in time to catch the last hour - and then we watched the first hour by catching it on the 'west coast feed' with our DirecTV. We've never gotten in to TiVo, etc., but we sure find having both the East Coast and West Coast feeds come in handy.

Seems our bodies are still atuned to Pacific Time, as it is now midnight, and we are both still awake. Thankfully, we can sleep in a bit in the morning.

Tunnel Vision

Oh, my! I guess you could say we had a case of 'tunnel vision' - as we set our focus on May 8th - and our flight home to see the family - especially the grandkids!

The pace was demanding, but we had a goal. Our last post found us in Cedar City, Utah. From there it was Beaver, Richfield, Fillmore, Green River, Provo, Salt Lake City, Ely (Nevada) and . . . finally . . . viva Las Vegas!

Utah & Nevada are beautiful, but desert sand is not my favorite landscape material, especially when the wind is blowing! And blow it did, especially in Green River. We were beginning to wonder if we would survive our night with our slide-out awnings intact.

But all was not lost, as we found yet another Cracker Barrel as we arrived just south of Provo - and stopped for another lunch. This time it was not taken up with a conference call and we were pleased to find that the special that day was their turkey & dressing - a real treat.

We have been a bit adventurous and taken some of the 'roads less traveled' as we wound our way around Utah, visiting the "Open All Year" parks. We are definitely seeing some new scenery and, although very desolate, it is beautiful in its own way.

After our visit in Salt Lake City, we headed west - past the Great Salt Lake and the salt flats, just across the Nevada border to Wendover (which put us back in Pacific Time), and then south to Ely. Now Ely is truly in the middle of nowhere! In fact, the best seller in their store is a t-shirt (36 dozen a season) - that says "Ely, Nevada . . . 398 miles round trip to the nearest Wal Mart!"

Our last day of driving was long - south to Las Vegas - but again, gorgeous. We saw a side of Nevada that neither of us had ever seen (but it is still desolate!)

Las Vegas KOA at Circus Circus is a company-owned property - and they treated us like royalty. Since we had a couple of parks that we had to bypass due to conflicts, we ended up with 3 nights in Vegas before our scheduled flight home. Since we are not gamblers, Las Vegas doesn't really hold much attraction for us, but it isn't always we have time to stop to have routine maintenance done on the truck, etc. So Tuesday morning Roger headed to the nearest dealership to get the computer 'tweeked' and the oil changed.

And I did absolutely nothing ('cept take a couple of naps!) I really intended to turn it into a 'house cleaning' day, but the recliner - and a good book - won out. I figured I would probably have trouble sleeping that night, but nope! Think I'm more tired than I really knew.

When the truck came back that evening, we headed out to sample the famous West Coast "In N Out Burger". Now we've had two different sources tell us that this is the BEST hamburger! They have three items on their menu: hamburger, cheeseburger and a 'double double' (that's double meat/double cheese). We went with the 'double/double' - and found it to be a decent burger - but NOT the best we've ever had. Frankly, we'll take our Sonic cheeseburger any day! And, it doesn't hold a candle to Oklahoma's claim to fame - the Del Rancho Steak Sandwich Supreme!

I had to laugh, for these 'burger joints' are so busy that there is always a long line. So we "Okies" get to the register and order ours without the "spreads". We felt a bit like the guy in the credit card commercial when things come to a 'halt' when he tries to pay with cash! The poor kid behind the register had to stop and actually 'think' for a bit. (Afterwards we were told that it is the 'spreads' that make the burger!) Oh, well.

Wednesday we spent the day doing the review at this huge park (375 +/- sites). They graciously loaned us a golf cart, and by 2:30 p.m. we were 'finished' and it was time to break out the suitcases and start packing for our trip home.

I'm sure the airport security had to 'wonder' at our cargo. Since we had left a well-supplied closet at home, we only had a few 'necessities' - and, of course, Roger's DirecTV 'box' - so we have TV while we're at home. Bet they don't find many of those in the average suitcase.

Russ and Hayden picked us up at the airport. Hayden just wasn't 'sure' about us, but it took Grandpa Roger all of about 2 minutes to have him giggling and jabbering as we made our way home through rush hour traffic. Pulled in just in time to get a hug from Hunter, before they had to rush off to the Mid-Del Choir concert. We did a quick walk-through of our house, jumped in the Blazer and headed to the Carl Albert middle school spring band concert. I told Wesley that I bet we traveled the furtherest than anyone else to get there!

Finding that everyone else had eaten . . . we made a quick stop at the grocery store to pick up our beverages of choice (Diet DP and Diet Coke) - and then made a bee-line for the Del Rancho to pick up our supper. Got back to the house to find the big boys on their scooters and skate-board, and before long Russ & Hunter popped in. Made for a late night for a school night - but Grandpa and I loved the 'chaos' of having everyone around! That trailer can get awfully 'quiet' when we're out on the road.

It's so good to be home! Told Roger I felt like we were staying in a 'fine hotel' (although it's a bit dusty . . . and no one comes in to make up the bed!) Today (Friday) will find us stopping in to say 'hi' to the folks, having breakfast at Jimmy's Egg, and making a supply run to Wal Mart and Sam's so we can 'eat' while we're home.

I'm betting this will seem like the shortest 3 weeks in history!