The Merry Marsden Travels

We have experienced our first Christmas as Winter Texans (WT). On Christmas Eve we attended a Candlelight Service in the Trophy Gardens Clubhouse - followed by fingerfoods - yummy. On Christmas Day, we had a potluck Christmas Lunch with 300 other WTs in the Clubhouse. There were 12 large tables set with each table having their own potluck - ours had ham and turkey. The food was great and plenty of it so we went back at 5:30 for leftovers. We did manage to take a walk inbetween the feasts. My Christmas present from Don was an hour lesson with a golf pro at a local golf course that our neighbour here arranged. I learned alot but time will tell if anything sunk in. Don must have been watching because he almost had a hole in one yesterday. The little ball stopped 4 inches in front of the hole on the 7th green. Today I too k off for an adventure to the coast - a 2 hour boat tour out of a marina on South Padre Island. The tour was arranged with the tour bus that is onsite at Trophy Gardens ...

Wed. Dec 22/10 Thought you might be wondering if we are keeping busy - and yes we are. We go golfing on the 9 hole Par 3 golf course that is attached to our park every day - no charge and noone laughs at our pathetic strokes. The weather has been lovely with mid day temps in the 80s so we spend some of the afternoon at the pool and may get back in some time in the evening. I have been teaching a morning exercise class 2 x per week. An exercise class runs Mon-Friday but when I don't do it, it is Richard Simmons or Debbie Reynolds so mine is a change for the ladies here. We are in a new site in the park this year so we get to meet new people - most people are older than us - alot from Iowa, Missouri, Ohio, Minnesota, The Dakotas - very friendly. Yesterday Don gave me an early Christmas present - my first golf lesson with a pro at a nearby club. This was arranged by a neighbour here who works parttime as a marshall at that club. It is amazing how many things I was doing wrong. The nei...

Yes we have been here for a day now. It is windy but it is a warm wind. We started out at 6AM on Saturday morning and headed down the 401 and crossed over at Sarnia. We were ahead of the bad weather predicted. We travelled through Michigan and rain started in the late afternoon - but the temperature was above freezing so we were fortunate. We stopped for the night in Seymour Indiana. On the road again the next morning at 8 AM and the predicted cold temperatures had moved in but it wasn't snowing when we got going. The snow caught up with us before Nashville and the road to Memphis was hazardous with many cars in ditches due to slippery conditions. We were fortunate to be able to go around a pileup thanks to following a trucker down an off ramp and up the other side - the collision was on that overpass bridge. By the time we reached Memphis, the sun was out and there was no more snow. We spent Sunday night in Grenada, Mississippi - in a hotel room still because the temperature was w...

In 2 days we leave for the southern USA. Stay tuned.

McKenzie Tessel Wedding

Friday, April 9/10 Lakefield, ON Canada After a lovely Easter visit with Tom and Diana in Virginia and an overnight hotel in Altoona and a wonderful bed and breakfast stop in St Catherines on Tuesday night we arrived back in Lakefield on Wednesday. We calculated we travelled over 10,000 miles (16,000 km) since we started this journey on Dec. 19/09. Our Ford truck gets 10 miles to a gallon of diesel fuel when it pulls the trailer so that is over 1000 gallons - at around$3 a gallon - you do the math. Our campground fees totalled about $2000. But the memories of the places we visited and the wonderful people we got to spend time with is priceless. Looking forward to our next journey! We are still rookie RVers but we have learned a few things on this trip which will make the next one easier. Thanks to everyone who had the patience to travel with us via this blog. Mary and Don signing off. Adios amigos!

Thursday, April 1/10 New Bern, NC We enjoyed the beautiful sunny day today to look around the historic downtown are of New Bern, North Carolina. We are parked for these 2 nights in a small RV Park outside of New Bern. New Bern is a town of 28,000 on the East Coast at the mouth of the Trent and Neuse Rivers. It is celebratin g it's 300th anniversary of its settlement by Swiss explorers. New Bern is na med after Bern, Switzerland. "Bern is Swiss for bear so there are decorated fiberglass bears around the town for the anniversary. Also there are "historical hydrants" painted like historical characters important to the town. They also have a Firefighter's Museum here but we didn't tour it. We walked around the historic downtown area viewing the historical homes. It's most fa mous attraction is the Tryon Palace. This North Carolina government house, built between 1767 and 1770 by Royal Governor Wm. Tryon represented the British crown and became NC's first ...