Travel Blog by Arlon Boozer: Year End 2004

Kathi and I celebrated or 40^th wedding anniversary in October 2004. When we returned to the Houston area in November she had her wedding ring restructured to commemorate the occasion. Both our sons were living in California. We split our time in the area between the Almost Heaven RV Park in Manvel and the Green Caye RV Park in Dickinson. The Green Caye RV Park was much better with paved roads and paved sites. We were thinking like RV travelers, which means when we got into town for the holidays our next thoughts were of leaving for our next adventure.

There were a lot of rainy days the end of November and into December of 2004. At years end we had some bad times. My cousin, Lloyd Bowden died of bone and liver cancer and we attended his funeral in Nacogdoches. My brother Mike had a leg amputated. He had little feeling in his legs due to diabetes and slept with a heating pad on his leg, which caused a burn that would not heal. The burn got infected resulting in loss of his leg.

We also had some good times. We visited several times a week with my sister, Carol and her husband Lloyd. She and Kathi walked a lot and Lloyd and I joined the walks occasionally. Carol walks so fast, I had trouble keeping up with her. Kathi and I got all our doctor visits taken care of and received new prescriptions for the coming year. We caught up with local friends and relatives. We spent Thanksgiving at a family get together with our niece and nephew Shanna and John Clark. Our youngest son, Christopher flew into town from Twentynine Palms for a two week Christmas leave. On Christmas Eve, Kathi made dressing for Christmas Day and we picked up our oldest son, AJ at the airport. AJ was the first to get to sleep on the fold out bed made from the couch in our motorhome – he said it was comfortable, but I was skeptical since he is 6’ 7” tall. On Christmas day we awoke to a blanket of snow on the ground – snow was so unusual in the Houston area. We spent Christmas day at home with AJ. Christopher spent Christmas with his girlfriend and her family.

As soon as Christmas was over we were all ready to get back to our normal lives. AJ had to get enrolled at San Francisco State University, so he only stayed with us a few days. Christopher was going to be deployed to Iraq when he returned to California. Kathi and I spent New Year’s Eve at home watching the fireworks through the windshield of our motorhome. Kathi always makes black-eyed peas and cabbage on New Year’s Day. I ate the peas, but left the cabbage for her.

With all our medical needs attended and the holidays over we were ready to hit the road again so we started planning our next trip. We were headed back to California to see Christopher and his friends off to Iraq, then back to the San Francisco area to visit AJ. We went to the laundry and got all our clothes washed and stowed for travel. We spent the night at Freightliner to get our oil and filter changed. We visited with my sister, Carol and her husband Lloyd and they told us they were ready to get out of town, also. They have been RV travelers longer than we have and I think Lloyd keeps the maps in his head. He always knows what’s next. Kathi and I had to do a little more planning.

Next: 2005 trip back to California