Dinner with the Brown’s of Little Rock!!

Larry and Sue Brown are famous, maybe not in Little Rock, but on the TRVN RV forum.  For readers familiar with TRVN, their screen name is “dabusandus”. 

Last January while we were in Red Bay, AL at the Tiffin factory for repairs, we heard about a fellow Tiffin owner in the Tiffin Service Center campground who fell off a step ladder while cleaning ice off his slide-out toppers.

Word spread all over the town about a poor guy who was innocently clearing ice, when his wife pushed him off the ladder….. or so, that’s the way I heard the story!!!  Seems she had told him to bring the slides in the night before, but like a stubborn husband (I get called that a lot!!), he did not think it was necessary (again, sounds like me!).

His ankle was badly injured, broke, I think, and she had to leave in the car to take him home to Little Rock, and then she returned to “manage” the remaining repairs and modifications.  While getting the Diamond Shield rock protector replaced on the front of my Bus, I met her in the Mechanical shop where her Bus was getting repairs. 

We talked a while, and I made arrangements to take Patsy by her coach later in the campground to meet her.  However, the DS guys finished us up earlier than I planned, and we headed out of town and Southward to avoid the snow that night.  I called her and told her we would meet up sometime down the road.

While in the Downtown Riverside RV Park, I noticed a total of 5 Tiffin coaches parked there, and posted on TRVN to see if any of them were on the TRVN forum.  None ever replied, but I did get a PM from Sue inviting Patsy and I to dinner.  We accepted and they picked us up at the Bus on our second to last night in town, and treated us to a great meal.

After giving us some choices, we ended up at Doe’s Place, and we had one of the best steaks I have ever eaten!!  We also had a dozed tamales as an appetizer.  The server gave us a plate for the tamale  “WRAPPERS”, which sounded odd to me, since we use and call them shucks.  I guess Non-Texans can wrap them any way that they want as long as they are that good.  I even took two leftovers home and had them for lunch the next day!!

One the way to the restaurant, Larry seemed to be preparing us for the appearance and location of the building.  As I remember, he used words like DIVE, and others, but that didn’t bother me.  If he said the food was good, that was great with me.  However, as we got near the restaurant, he told me that a lot of big-time politicians ate there………. giving me bad visions of Hillary and Bill, as well as other crooks, er political leaders!!

If all worked out great…. a great meal, even better company, and no politicians, at least, that I recognized.  The food and conversation was so good that I forgot to take pictures until we were leaving.  Here are a couple of pictures of Patsy, Sue and Larry standing outside the restaurant…

I talked to them about attending the Texas RV Rally in Canton, TX next April that Patsy and I are helping to put together with other Tiffin friends, and you can see the brochure in Sue’s hands.  Also, note that Patsy is carrying my tamales!!

After taking the above picture, I noticed the sign on the building next door, and had to take a picture……

Larry explained that the “Dog House” building was something of a banquet hall for Doe’s Place.  I don’t know if it was formally a “dog” business or was name for the politicians that dine there!!  The night we were there, there was a tour bus full of people that were dining in there.

It was a great evening with good food, and excellent dinner company with a nice couple of RV’ers!! 

Thanks Larry and Sue……… We’ll see you down the road.

A Little Rock Arkansas Road Trip with Grandkids

We left home on Wednesday and headed toward Little Rock with our Texas Grandkids, Matthew and Aubrey, aged 10 & 9 to see our 4 year old granddaughter, Rachel, in Little Rock.  This was the maiden voyage for our new YETI drink mugs, which were gifts from our Son and DIL, for Mothers and Fathers day!

Aubrey likes to be the navigator, but I made the mistake of showing where the GPS shows the speed limit and actual speed, and now it is like having another wife sitting there!!!

Of course, every trip that goes via highway 59 towards Houston requires a stop at Prasek’s for kolaches!  With Matthew along, this trip was no exception….

We took a little longer route through Lake Charles, LA to meet with Mark & Sue Didelot to pick up some items that they picked up for use in Red Bay……. some of this year’s Tiffin T shirts, and three ‘high density’ pillows from a factory in Belmont, MS.  Patsy had previously purchased one of the pillows at the Allegro Club in Red Bay, and wanted one to keep in the house.  I decided I would get a couple also!

Along the way, we had a ‘tooth falling out’ event, and the tooth fairy even found us on the road!!!

We stayed only a short while, and then headed north through Louisiana.  We overnighted at a Wal-Mart in Hope, AR with the generator running for air conditioning, and drove into Little Rock on Thursday morning.

Our purpose was to visit our youngest grandchild, and to allow the cousins to get to better know each other.   For the past three years, this has been an annual tradition.  We get season passes to a local water park, Wild River Country Water Park. Here is a collection of pictures of Rachel and others ( in the first two pictures, she is riding down the chute by herself!!…………

In the Lazy River with Aubrey and her mom….

On the Lazy River with two tubes, and with Matthew and Pappaw…..

On the River with Matthew and Aubrey and then, ready to go back to the Bus………..

We spent a lot of our time at the water park, but also visited the Clinton (ugh) Presidential Library to see a “Dinosaur” display that was on display……

The Downtown Riverside RV Park, where we normally stay is located just across the river from the library, behind the bridge.  It is a pedestrian bridge, and drops into the RV park

Here’s a picture of Aubrey and Rachel on the bridge……

The following are miscellaneous pictures of the kids having a good time, and me trying to get some good pictures for Grammie’s frames around the house and Bus!…….

One day, we had hamburgers at the Purple Cow Diner.  Afterwards, Aubrey and Rachel had ‘purple’ ice cream…… and Rachel was showing off her purple lips……….

Aubrey and Matthew brought some of their money along that they earned in the neighborhood, and were anxious to spend some before we left Little Rock.  Aubrey wanted a nice pair of sunglasses and Matthew wanted something that could get him in trouble when here got home and in the pool. I took them to a Wal-Mart, and he got a diving torpedo, and a water gun.

Patsy and I went to dinner one night with another TRVN member couple and that will be covered in the next post.

The Wood’s Mini Rally

Some RV’ing friends, Ron and Kathy Woods, invited us and another couple, Tommie and Ann Stuart, to spend a long weekend at their beach home on Crystal Beach, TX.   We drove (our car) to Crystal Beach on Thursday morning, arriving about an hour before the Stuarts.

For me, a day at the beach each summer is about my limit!  It is hot and sandy, and you get all sticky!  However, I never did it via a ‘beach house’!!  It made a lot of difference for us.

We did not take a picture of the outside of the house, so I stole one from Google Maps………

and here are some pictures from the balcony on the second floor in the back …….

In one of the pictures, you can see Ron being the porter and carrying bags up the stairs for Tommie and Ann, and in the last picture, you can see Tommie carrying his “portable Bar” up the stairs!   Next is a better picture of his portable Bar…

On the first floor, The Wood’s have a nice place to BBQ and party…..

Here is a picture of mine and Patsy’s “suite”………

We spent Friday on the beach on the beach.  We set up the Wood’s portable awning on the beach along with chairs.  We enjoyed the water and played games.

On Saturday, we piled into Ron’s car and drove into Galveston for touring and eating.  We ate at Willie “G”’s Seafood and Steakhouse and it was an excellent meal.  Here are two of our meals…….

After lunch, we walked through a few shops, and in one of them, I found a couple of T-shirts that I liked…….. and they fit my personality!

Eventually, we then headed to a souvenir place where we found some nice chairs to rest.

Sunday, we rested and played some more games…… Washer Toss and Farkle.  The ladies won one round of Washer Toss and a single game of Farkle, but the men won all the rest of the games and ended up being the big winners for the weekend.

Of course, we were all winners with the great fun and food that we had all weekend.  Kathy prepared a lot of very good food, which included all the boiled shrimp with Ron’s special sauce that we could eat during three of the meals!!! 

It was a great weekend.  Thanks Ron and Kathy!