Stone Mountain House; Visit with Janice Strang

On Saturday, May 16, 2015, we drove down to our house in Stone Mountain to look at it and make sure everything was still OK with it.  Leon met us there and we all walked around the property.  Evidently the grass and bushes had grown up a lot and Leon mowed and trimmed the bushes all around the property.  One shock was that someone chopped down one of our trees in the back yard.  Leon said the leaves were still green when he was there earlier, so it had just happened within the past week.  Not happy about that, but nothing we can do about now.  We also discovered that someone broke in and stole the safe that we had concreted into the floor underneath the basement steps.

Tree chopped down

Frances Kerch - Laid to Rest

On May 12, 2015, Frances Kerch (Jim's Mom) passed away.  She appeared to be in good condition on Mother's Day.  Jack went to visit her, and she also talked with Jim, Jacklyn, and other people. On Tuesday morning she fell in the bathroom.  Jack found her there and helped her back into her chair and said he would come back later that afternoon to check on her.  The staff brought her lunch and a friend of hers stopped by during lunch only to find her in an unresponsive state.  The staff came and discovered that she had passed away. 

Washington on the Brazos Nat'l Historic Site, Washington, Texas

Located on 293 acres of lush park land, the picturesque Washington on the Brazos State Historic Site gives visitors unique insights into the lives and times of the 59 delegates who met on that very spot on March 2, 1836 to make a formal declaration of independence from Mexico. From 1836 to 1846, the Republic of Texas proudly but precariously existed as a separate and unique nation. Washington on the Brazos is, indeed, “Where Texas Became Texas.”

Painting Yogi Bear & Boo Boo, Lone Star Jellystone Park

We were still working at Jellystone into 2015. During the winter the Yogi Bear and Boo Boo statutes were taken down from the pool area and brought into the Recreation Center to be painted.  I was the lucky one who got to paint them.  The statutes are pretty big and a lot of fun to paint.  Yogi Bear sits on top of the kiddie pool and Boo Boo sits at the bottom.  Boo Boo is also asleep in his flower bed.

Yogi Bear

Christmas with Josh and family

Since we were working at the Yogi Bear Jellystone Park in Waller, Texas during 2014 through the middle of 2015, we ended up spending part of December there. We were only open on weekends, and set up to have Santa Claus and Yogi Bear sitting in the activity center where the children would come to sit on Santa's lap and talk to Yogi. After we closed for the rest of the winter, we went to Houston to spend Christmas with our family. Jacklyn & Joe flew in from Florida, and Jim and I drove down, leaving the RV at Jellystone. Josh & Karen live about 1-1/2 hours from Jellystone, so it's not a bad drive.

We were glad when the season at Jellystone ended. Halloween was five weekends of hard work with no break between that and the start of Christmas weekends. We were glad when it was all over and we were able to get away to visit with our family in Houston.

Easter, July 4, Halloween & Christmas at Yogi Bear Jellystone Park, Waller, Texas

The Activity Directors who were originally hired to run the center quit, leaving us without any clear direction as to how to run the center. The kids and other workers began to look to Jim & me for guidance.  (Yikes!) I did not make decisions without talking with the three who worked here last year, and the two other workampers who owned a campground for 20 years, and getting input from them. Kathleen especially is a wealth of knowledge; I would guess she is in her early 70's but has the energy of a young woman and seems to really enjoy working in activities.  She is quite an asset and if our new managers do not listen to her about what occurred last year in Activities with the pancake breakfasts, games, and theme weekends which the guests love, they are fools. Unfortunately, none of the three were here last Easter, but started working around Memorial Day, so we don't know how last Easter went.  We will see how it all plays out this summer. 

Here is a picture of the parents and kids waiting for the hunt, and did not even get all of them in the picture.

RV Life from a dog's perspective

After reading the posts from our friend Makena Anderson, we decided it was time to write a blog about our perspective on RV life.  We sit in the trailer all day while Mom & Dad are at work - they come home at lunch and we are very glad to have them come and see us. It does not take them very long to eat lunch and then they are back to work again.  It seems like forever before they come home and we are very, very glad to see them. This was the year they worked at Yogi Bear Jellystone in Waller, Texas. We had a real nice field where Mom let us loose so we could get our daily running exercise.

The best part of our day are our morning and evening walks.  Mom gets up real early - even before the sun comes up - to take us out to walk in our favorite field where we hunt for critters.

Our Field