The nephews, Levi, Shay & Tyler and neice, Lexi on Christmas Day

Lexi and Shay busy with the computer!!!!

Merry Christmas from Montana!

Dec 24 – 28, Mon – Fri ... On Christmas Eve, most of the family attended a candle light church service. Dixie’s sister, husband and three boys drove to Great Falls from Hogeland for Christmas. We had dinner at Dixie’s mom and dads that evening. Dixie’s brother, Danny, was scheduled to arrive on a flight from Palm Springs but it was delayed due to a mechanical issue with the plane. He and his daughter made it to Salt Lake City where they overnighted and caught a flight to Great Falls on Tuesday morning. On Christmas day, Doug and Fran had everyone over to their place for dinner. Needless to say, we had a wonderful time with family and especially the kids. As a Christmas gift, Doug and Fran gave the two oldest nephews a trip to Disneyland in January. Before they were told of it, however, they had to solve several scavenger “clues”. Once they did that, they learned of the trip. They were very excited because neither of them has ever flown on a commercial jet. On Thursday, Dixie spent most of the day working on medical billing claims. This is a job she is being trained to do by her sister-in-law, Fran, who has a home business doing this service. On Friday we headed back to the ‘farm’ to spend a few more days.

Dec 17 – 23, Mon – Sun ... “The farm” is located in and around Hogeland, MT, a small farming community in North-Central Montana about 12 miles from the Canadian border and province of Saskatchewan. On Monday, we drove with Dixie’s parents the 175 miles from Great Falls. We had a great time visiting with Dixie’s sister and family (we attended a wonderful school Christmas program of their 10 year old son) as well as her brother and sister-in-law. The weather cooperated too; it was cool but sunny most of the time. Back in Great Falls on Friday, Mike called the Dometic Corp yet again. He spoke with a Customer Service manager in an effort to get them to come up with a better solution to our refrigerator dilemma. Unfortunately, the news was not good. Although the part is in the states, all Dometic distribution centers are closed until January 2nd. This means that the part can’t be in Rockport until about January 7th so more changes to the Western itinerary are forthcoming. We’ll likely stay in Great Falls until about the 4th or 5th of January rather than go back to a motorhome with no working refrigerator. We’ll deal with it while spending some quality time with family. On Friday, we drove in and around Great Falls with Doug and Fran, looking at some townhouses and condos. We’re not all that serious about buying right now, just seeing what’s out there.

The Rockport Pier

Leaving Rockport ----TEMPORARILY!

Dec 10 – 16, Mon – Sun ... Tuesday evening, we went to dinner with our RV friends Bob and Jeanne that we met while at Bay View RV park. It was “Tuesday night special” night at The Big Fisherman restaurant where beer was a buck and the chicken fried steak dinner was $1.75. The total bill for the four of us was $10.51. Naturally, at these prices, Mike quickly asked for the check. What a guy!! We also figured out that our air conditioner, that quite working a few days before, really worked fine that the problem was in the rv park's breaker (that was a relief, one less problem to deal with) On Thursday, we paid a visit to Camper Clinic, the people who we are working with on the repair of our still broken after 21/2 weeks refrigerator. The manager we’re working with called Dometic Corp again in an effort to find out when our replacement part will arrive in Rockport, Tx. He was told it could possible arrive by next Thursday the 20th. With that lovely thought we decided to call Dometic Customer Service ourselves. The person Dixie spoke with told her that more than likely, the part would not arrive until after the first of the year, as in 2008!! (They’re made in Sweden) With that we decided to leave the mh with them (no charge for storage) and fly to Montana to visit Dixie’s family. On Saturday we dumped what was left in our cooler and headed to San Antonio where we overnighted. We left our car at the hotel and managed to get on a Northwest flight to Minneapolis and then on to Great Falls. We arrived at 1pm on Sunday without any glitches!!! We had a wonderful dinner that evening at Bill & Gloria’s. Tomorrow we will head to the farm for a few days!

The largest oak tree in Texas....33 ft in circumference & an 84 ft crown spread.....one big tree~

The pelicans lined up and getting their Sunday morning sun!

STILL in Rockport without a Refrigerrator!

Dec 3 – 9, Mon – Sun ... It’s obvious that someone is testing our patience because nothing positive happened with regard to our refrigerator issue this week. They tell us “maybe next Wednesday or Thursday” the part will arrive. We’re beginning to think we will be spending the winter in Rockport, Texas waiting on parts. (To add insult to injury, on Sunday, we discovered one of our air conditioners would not work). Tuesday evening, we stood in line for an hour to eat a complimentary fish dinner provided by the city of Fulton for all the winter Texans. We had a good time meeting and talking with another couple while waiting in line. The food, however, was worth the wait. Dixie visited a local Chiropractor three times for a problem with pain in her shoulder and arm. We drove through Goose Island State park and also saw what is know to be the largest Oak Tree in Texas which is over 1000 yrs old. On Sunday, we rode the bikes eight miles along a beach road and into the city of Fulton. While taking a walk out on a pier, we observed a dolphin in the choppy bay waters.

The 'girls' --- some Austin & Houston friends. This was first thing in the morning prior to everyone getting ready for the day!

The Farmhouse in Roundtop that we stayed in. They have a beautiful house and property in the hill country. We toured the several acres on 4 wheelers and a golf cart! We even checked out their 'brangus' cows & bull.

Extended stay in Rockport -- problems!!!!

Nov 26 – 02 Dec, Mon – Sun ... For some unknown reason, our refrigerator was not cold when we got up on Monday morning. We went to Walmart and bought some ice chest and ice, used two we had, and placed everything in them, hoping to save our groceries. Mike called Camper Clinic and told them our problem and asked them so send someone out to look at it. On Tuesday afternoon, the tech arrived and within 5 minutes gave us the bad news that the cooling unit had to be replaced. Our thought was, great ... two weeks out of warranty and the two year old refrigerator quits. The guy we’re dealing with at Camper Clinic said he would get his warranty person to call Dometic Corp and see what they would do. In the mean time we bought more ice. Late Wednesday, he called and gave us “good news – bad news. The good news is that Dometic will take care of both parts and labor. The bad news is that they have to order the parts and the work can’t be done until next Tuesday or Wednesday. Later, we decided to drive the 45 miles to Corpus Christi and did a bit of shopping. Since we’re going to be another week without a fridge we decided to purchase a large ice chest. We also are using the refrigerator itself as an “ice chest” by putting ice and food items inside. Obviously, over the next several days, we’ll be cooking as much of the food as possible.
Dixie was suppose to meet some Continental friends in Austin for a ‘girls’ weekend in Roundtop. Since we were still in Rockport she decided to fly to Houston on Friday and drive to Roundtop with the Houston girls. They spent Friday night there and then drove back to Houston where Dixie attended the annual Houston Presidents Club party. She arrived back into Corpus Christi this morning.....ready for a nap. Sounds like it was a couple of short nights! We received our GPS so Mike spent the weekend playing with that. Still buying ice & trying to keep our refrig. items somewhat cold!!!