HAPPY NEW YEAR from New Iberia, LA

We arrived at my brother and sister-in-law's in New Iberia mid-afternoon New Year's Eve after spending two nights at Diamond Jack's Casino RV Park in Bossier City, LA. After we got the motorhome set up in their back yard, we celebrated New Year's Eve with a delicious meal of grilled steak, baked potato, salad and garlic bread then took a nap so we could be up to see the New Year in--is that a sign of getting old or what???!!!

Here are some pics of where we park at Jerry & Ibelis's (views are from their patio, from the front of the pad and from the back of their property with their house in background):



Things have been pretty busy since I last posted (including a second surgery on Roger's mom's arm), but we had a nice Christmas with the family in Fort Smith. Spent Christmas Eve at Rick and Julita’s (Roger’s brother and sister-in-law) where we had fun watching all the grandkids open presents, then Christmas Day was at Tracey and Mark’s (our daughter and son-in-law) for our traditional Christmas dinner.

Here are a few pics we took Christmas of (Mom) Elizabeth, (grandson) Timothy, and (grandaughter) Amber....sorry, no good pics of the rest:



Roger’s mom is still in the rehab facility, but we “sprung her out” for both occasions. She’ll likely have to be re-located in a couple of weeks since although therapy is helping her “maintain“ her strength, the rules say that the patient has to actually show "improvement", which she‘s no longer doing. However, the weather had started getting too cold, so rather than deal with the problem of trying to keep the water lines in the Zephyr from freezing, we decided to come to my brother’s in South Louisiana until time to get her moved again. At that time the plans are to leave the motorhome here and just drive the Explorer back to Arkansas.

We stopped in Shreveport/Bossier City to visit some friends--and to get the oil changed in the motorhome at the Petro Truck Stop that charges about $150 less than the places around Fort Smith. Angie, a dear friend from 35 years ago when we lived in Shreveport, came to the RV Park while Roger took the motorhome to be serviced. We drank coffee, caught up with each other’s lives, played the slots for awhile then had lunch while waiting for Roger to return. I had a run of luck and left with $200 of their money! That, added to being able to spend time with one of my best friends, made me very happy!

Angie left when Roger got back and we then went to see Billy and Linda, some friends we’d met in Colorado a few years ago. They’d had a bad car accident about three years ago and Billy was so seriously injured that they had to give up RVing and just recently sold their motorhome. It was great to see them again and to see Billy doing so much better than he was when we were here two years ago. We had a really nice visit.

I'll be back when we have more news to post, but just wanted to start the year off with an update--and to again wish all our friends and family who are following our blog a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous 2009!