The Travels of the Agnew Family

My brother-in-law took 1/2 a day off so we could have some adventures. First adventure was rides on the motorbikes. Darryl currently owns two bikes --- the mini-van model and the fun model. I donned my sister's jacket and helmet and off we went.


The "mini-van" model. Very comfortable, lots of handles to hold on to.


The "fun" model. Darryl got a big hug each time he sped up or slowed down as he was the only grab handle. I also determined that you need to be aware of where you put your feet. One foot was on a foot rest, the other foot unfortunately was resting on the muffler. Very embarrassing when you can't get off the bike because your shoe is melted to the muffler. Don't worry the muffler is OK - I was able to peel most of the rubber off, so Darryl only has a little piece to clean up.


Ready to go to the Kilgore Oil Museum.

The museum was quite interesting. One section has information on drilling wells and the oil industry and other section was a mock up of Kilgore in the 1930's. The movie theater showed a good movie showing a history of Kilgore and footage that was shot during the oil rush.


I know that thousands of people went to Alaska during the gold rush but didn't know thousands of people went to Texas for the "oil rush". Also there was a lot of rain during the "oil rush" making muddy roads that were almost impassable.




The museum also had an elevator ride through the ground to the oil. It consisted of an old elevator that they shook around and a couple of puppets explaining what you saw.


A colleague of Darryl's had sent an e-mail around the office telling everyone about his decorated house. I think there's 30 thousand lights that are set to music. The show lasts about 30 minutes before it starts to repeat.


Just before songs about Frosty the snow man, he inflates, when he's done his part he deflates.

Arrived in Tyler Texas where my sister, her husband, three children, four grandchildren and one dog live. Sarah the oldest granddaughter was really looking forward to our visit .... actually really looking forward to playing with Zaph. The entire family was at my sisters when we arrived just in time for supper. Surprisingly Timmy, the just turned four year old remembered us and Zaph. My sister decided that she wanted photos as this is probably the only time we'll all be together and luckily I brought the camera with us.


Omar (5 yrs old), my sister Carol holding Sofie (40 days old), Sarah (8 yrs old), Timmy (4 yrs old), my brother-in-law Darryl.






Andy and Zaph

Funny how my sisters kids avoided being in any photos.

The sun was shining, the forecast was predicting 70F and Ed was feeling a bit better so it was off to the Memphis Zoo. The big attraction at the Memphis Zoo and the main reason I wanted to go to the zoo is the Pandas. Two years ago we visited the zoo but I was ready to go again.


I didn't know that Panda's have a sweet tooth --- Lu Lu loves apples.


but he's also quite happy to dine on his bamboo


snuggling under your favorite blanky is not a bad way to spend the afternoon














The kookaburra sang us a song then puffed up ... not sure why

Very quiet day today. Giving Ed lots of time to rest so he can beat his cold. I was surprised that there was barge traffic on the river today --- thought with everything being closed these guys would take a day off as well.


The upper floor of this building was a laundry room till the flooding last spring covered the building.

As it was only a four hour drive to Memphis we were in a panic to leave early, which was a good thing. If you stood in the doorway of the trailer you could see the highway and the highway going south was moving very, very slowly. After talking to our neighbors from Flesherton for awhile we noticed that the highway was beginning to move so only a half hour later than we were planning we drove out of the RV park. Just outside of Memphis we noticed a slow down on the opposite of the highway, another accident with a backup of at least ten kilometers. The vehicles were being removed as we drove by so the backup shouldn't have gotten any longer.

A couple of sites down from us in the West Memphis RV park is a couple from Parry Sound. They are heading to Bentsen Palm RV park which is just outside of Bentsen state park where Ed, Zaph and I like to walk. (about a five minute drive from Oleander).

Ed's cold is progressing so it is a good thing that we are staying put for a few days. Hope he's feeling better by Sunday. In the mean time we can watch the barges go by.

We had hoped to drive to Memphis in two days but we only managed Nashville, which is where I'm writing this.

The goal had been to leave home by 9:30 Monday morning and hurray!!! we did. The drive was uneventful till we approached the toll booth for the Bluewater bridge in Sarnia. The traffic was light on the highway but as we neared the toll booth it was suddenly jammed up. Think they were setting up some pylons as traffic began to move again once the pylons were in place. Another reason for the traffic jam was the entire bridge was full of vehicles waiting to get through the US border. As we neared the border we could see that just about every vehicle was having to open their trunk and it was searched, also a larger than normal number of vehicles were being pulled over for a thorough check. Lucky for us, Winter Texans were not on the list for the thorough checking. A couple of questions and a quick check of the trailer and we were on our way --- only a bit more than an hour. Troy, Ohio Walmart was our stop for the night.

As we were pulling out of the Walmart parking lot this morning the rain started. Not a happy light rain but a visibility obscuring heavy rain. After a couple of hours the rain let up but winds also picked up. We pulled into the Tennessee Welcome Center a little after 2pm to have lunch. Decision time, we could either drive half an hour and stop at a campground outside of Nashville that we've stayed in when we visited Nashville or we could drive another four hours. Ed opted for Nashville. The cold I gave him was wearing him down plus the drive had been very tiring. Tomorrow is suppose to be nice so it should be a better driving day.

We were busy hooking up the trailer when our neighbor came out to say hello and comment on our trailer. Neither Ed nor I noticed that the trailer we parked beside was a Titanium. Turned out our neighbors are from Flesherton and our taking their time driving out to Arizona.

Can't believe it's that time again. We'll be hitting the road tomorrow morning heading south for the winter. The cool weather and a fall cold have made me ready to go and find some heat.

It's been a long while since I've updated my blog so I had better get to it.

My last trip to Burlington this year was on November 3rd. I'll miss seeing my mom but I'm happy to be done with the drive for awhile.

November 10th was pottery show setup day. Once a year my friend Lori, who throws "pots" for a hobby, has her annual sale in conjunction with the Frederick Street Art Walk. This year I talked Ed into driving down to Kitchener with me .... he helped a bit with setup but mostly went shopping to the stores he never gets to, i.e. Waterloo Surplus, Orion Electronics, etc. Zaph stay home with our neighbors Rob and Ellen --- ensured a long walk and lots of attention.

November 11th is Remembrance Day in Canada and this is what it looked like when we woke up.





The sun was shining just before 11am when we started walking to the cenotaph for the Remembrance Day Ceremonies. About 5 minutes into the ceremony the snow started, by the end we looked like a bunch of snow men. The ceremony was very nice and well attended.

Saturday November 12th was the Frederick Street Art Walk and this year for the first time I attended. My friend Gwen from Brampton wanted to go, so my friend Anne and I drove down to Kitchener to meet Gwen. It was a beautiful day for the art walk and was well attended. The three of us went into at least half of houses on the walk.

November 13th was our last visit with Ed's sister Sonya. Orangeville is about half way between Sonya's house and our house, so we met at the restaurant where we met the year before. Think this might become an annual ritual. Enjoyed a nice lunch, had a good visit and walk about town.

A new restaurant opened in Walkerton a couple of months ago so we decided to try it. We went there with our neighbors and had an enjoyable dinner.

November weather couldn't be much better, in general it's been warm and not too wet. Ed decided that we should take advantage of the good weather and pack the trailer early. A heater is running in the trailer but it hasn't had to work to hard, well that is until today. It's hovering around freezing and has been snowing off and on all. Reminds we why we are going south.

Another couple of weeks have flown by. In that time we celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving late by having turkey dinner a week late, traveled to Burlington twice, once to celebrate my brother's 63rd birthday (it's funny how the age difference between us gets bigger every year, I like 49 a lot) and the second to visit my mother and take her to an appointment. Halloween has also come and gone --- 25 children came to the house this year, a record for us.

The count down is now 20. Reservations have been made for two of our stops on the way south ... decided they would be a good idea as the dates co-inside with American Thanksgiving. The trailer was moved from the side yard to driveway, the furnace, stove and refrigerator were checked to make sure they are functioning correctly. Organizing and packing can begin.