Well Hello Again!!! I hope everyone is doing well. I know it has been quiet a while since I have blogged last. And a LOT has happened. In my last installment, I spoke about my 23 and Me discovery. Yes, I have a daughter that I was unaware of. She is about to turn 30 in just a few short weeks. Since that discovery, my wife and I have decided to fore-go the plans to live on the open road for 5-10 years and instead, we have purchased and settled in to a Beautiful Cape Code style home in a small, quaint, little town located in Middle Tennessee. We are at the southern tip of a huge National Recreation area known as Land Between the Lakes, (or LBL according to the locals). In the last past I mentioned that I am a "Lifetime Scholar" and that being the case, I have decided to pursue, and have now obtained, my Tennessee Real Estate License. As I gain experience I have decided to zero in on Vacation / Recreation type properties as well as Specializing in helping Military Families to r...
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My 23 & Me Discovery
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An amazing thing happened to me last week. But, before I tell you what it was, I would like to give a little bit of a back story that directly pertains to this amazing event. Many, well, MOST of my friends and acquaintances know that I spent quite an extensive length of time in the Foster Care system in Texas when I was a young child. Approximately 4 ½ to 5 years. I am not going to try and go into any detail as to why this occurred, but I will say that I have never known, nor have I ever had the opportunity to know my biological father. I was reunited with my mom and siblings at the age of 9. My mom had remarried to the man that I call “Dad”. He was, is, and always will be a good man and my ‘Dad’. However, over the years I have had a curiosity inside me that has urged me to want to locate and learn about my biological father. I have questions like, “Where have you been”, “Tell me about your health history because it may be important”, and things like that. Not because I am looking...
Cafe's, Grills, & Places to Chill (part IV) "Ranch Hand Cafe" - Cleveland, TX
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Okay everybody. As you all know, we like to go to local “non-chain” restaurants in whatever area we are in at the time. We were given a recommendation to go to a restaurant in Cleveland, TX called the “Ranch Hand Cafe” and we were told that they had the very best chicken fried steak. We were also told that they had ginormous and delicious onion rings. So of course, we had to go check it out. Now, the Ranch Hand is located at 24626 TX-321, Cleveland, TX 77327 and they are op en 7 days a week. My wife and I decided to go for dinner and when we pulled up it honestly looked like an old run-down mom & pop restaurant, (those are usually the VERY BEST places to eat). It is an old red building with a tin roof, and it is actually very quaint and inviting. If you are facing the front of the building from the road, be sure and look out for the odd mannequin montage in the yard of the home to the right. When we arrived, we were immediately welcomed by the hostess at the front desk. ...
Cafe's, Grills, & Places to Chill (part III) Enchanted Rock State Park - Texas
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Well, hello again!!! I hope that everyone out there in cyber-land is doing well. It has been a while since my last post. I have no excuse other than I have just been SUPER BUSY checking places out to write about! (Hey, I am a poet and didn’t know it. Actually, that’s a lie. I did know it. I just thought I would start with a little humor). Anyways, this particular post is going to be kind of a series because there is a lot to talk about. We, (and by “We” I mean my wife and I), recently took a day trip in the hill country of Central Texas. We went to Enchanted Rock, which I will talk about in this post, and then we went to Fredericksburg, (which will be the rest of the aforementioned ‘series’). So, let me just dive right in. If you are unfamiliar with Enchanted Rock, then this part is for you… “Once Upon a Time…”, (ha-ha, gotcha). Seriously, a very long time ago, (Wikipedia says 1 billion years ago but I personally do not believe the earth is that old. That is a post for a...
Life on the Open Road (part 3)
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Well, Hello Again!!! I’m glad you stopped by for this installment of ‘Life on the Open Road’. So, yesterday, my wife and I took our first voyage with our rig. (Meaning...We pulled our camper for the first time with our truck). We have now relocated to a small RV park just outside of Lake Buchanan, TX. However, that is not what I would like to share with you in this installment. What I WOULD like to share though, is our recent experience at the RV park we just left. It is located just off Interstate 35 at exit 304. Many people know this as the “Bucees” exit. The name of this RV park is “Belaire Junction RV Park”. (No, Will Smith is not here. I did tell my wife however that I could be the new 'Prince of Belaire'). Belaire is a Brand-New Park that opened its doors in October of 2020. They have 27 pull through sites and 90 back in sites. They also have a very nice, gated pet exercise area with “pet” playground equipment. In addition to that ther...
Life on the Open Road (part 2)
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Hello every-body!!! So today, June 4, 2021, marks exactly 5 weeks that my wife and I have been living full time in our RV. We have been in the same place since we moved in, right here in Central Texas, at a NEW RV PARK called Belaire Junction. This is a FANTASTIC park, and I will tell you more about it in an upcoming post/review. Trust me, it will be worth the wait. The purpose of THIS post is to say that we are preparing to leave this location and begin our summer travels next week. As this day approaches, I feel confident that we are almost fully prepared to take our Maiden/Shake Down voyage. We have not actually pulled our 5 th Wheel yet as we did not have the vehicle to pull it with until after we moved in. (We had it transported to our current location). So, now we have the vehicle, it’s a Ford F-350 DRW Super Duty. Plenty of pulling power. Let me explain some of the lingo for those of you reading this that are not familiar with RV ...
Cafe's, Grills, & Places to Chill (part 2)
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Over the weekend my wife and I decided to get out of the RV for the day since the weather was nice here in Central Texas. We had been talking about a few options the week before about what to do and we agreed that we would go and check out Dinosaur Valley State Park in Glen Rose, TX. Glen Rose is located approximately 54 miles south-southwest of Fort Worth, and it is located approximately 90 miles north-northwest of Temple. We drove up for the day and had a great time. Some of the attractions were closed due to the super weird weather we have been having in Central Texas lately. We were able to walk through the Dinosaur Trail that has numerous species of life size dinosaur statues along with plaques that give their names and information. We also did the “geocache” mining where you get to sift through a bag and/or bucket of sand and find gemstones or small dinosaur bones and petrified Dino-poop. The dinosaur track trail was closed due to weather ...