A Sad Day in the Family

 On New Year's Day, 2026, we received a sad call from back in Michigan that was not a good start for our family this year.  Bill's older sister, Sally, was found dead in her yard at home near Portage, Michigan.  It is believed to be from natural causes as she had heart problems in the past.  Last summer our family honored her at her 80th Birthday.

Sarah Elizabeth Varnell 2045-2026

The Welcoming Group Arrives

 The skies are staying clear and the weather is warming up.  We awoke on Wednesday morning to find this curious group of gawkers  looking in our back RV window.

They are Rio Grande Turkeys and they soon wandered back into the Texas State Park.

so.......

Later........

  

A visit to the RV park woodworking garage soon revealed that our old bikes, that we had put into storage 22 months ago, were still around and had not been thrown away.  Bill walked each down a rickety set of stairs to find four very flat tires and two very dusty old bikes.  Amazingly, the tires will still hold air and we now have  two usable bikes with which to ride and explore.

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December 2025 We Leave and Arrive

 We put away our beautiful spacious Christmas tree on the evening of December 25, and got up Friday  morning to head south through freezing rain.  It was white-knuckle driving until about Grand Rapids when the temperature finally rose above 32 degrees.

Traffic was not too heavy on the day after Christmas so we made it to Mt. Vernon, Illinois and stayed over night at a beautiful Comfort Inn.  On Saturday we drove almost to the top of Texas and spent the night at a Hampton Inn in Texarkana, Arkansas.  The weather was very foggy and overcast both days of travel.  We have become discouraged that both of these hotel chains, and maybe all today, allow guests to bring dogs and other pets into their rooms.  We both had a few congestion and breathing issues at both locations.

On Sunday evening we arrived in McAllen, Texas just as the sun was setting on the clear, dry desert floor.  We stopped for supper and Karen got to flirt with this cute taxi driver who tried to pick her up.

We stayed over at a Wyndham Garden hotel in downtown and had a tasty meal at Buffalo Wild Wings with a much younger Hispanic crowd.

   

On Monday morning, 12/29/2025, we drove into Bentson Palm Village Resort to find Karen's baby looking in pretty good shape after a 22-month absence.

More to come another day.......

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December 2025. Back to Texas

 Bill and Karen are traveling back to Texas after a year off with an open heart procedure for Bill.

We are trying to remember how the Blog works, and if we do...we will add some news and some pictures of our travels and adventures.

Australia - The Long Sad Experience Getting Home

 Our 14-hour Delta flight back to Los Angles had problems.  Therefore, we had problems.  A female passenger on the plane got sick and we were redirected to Hawaii so she could disembark and get treatment.  All 208 passengers were told to get off the plane and go through customs.  We had to get all our luggage and try to clear customs at 1:00 AM when the airport was almost deserted!  Then we were told we had to find our own flights to get back home!  What a nightmare.

Bill had never been to Hawaii before.  Now he never wants to go back.  

This sign in the Honolulu airport was interesting. The airport was old and outdated, and people there were not happy to see us.

It looked beautiful outside when the sun came up but we were stuck at the airport!

Why Delta could not drop the sick woman off and then continue on to L A is a question we never got answered.  Maybe it had to do with the flight crew hours worked? or another crew could not be found to take over.  Who knows?  Anyway, we called Delta headquarters and finally found a plane leaving later that morning for Detroit so we booked it.  Trouble is, we three had to sit in the cheap crowded seats at the back of the plane from Hawaii to Detroit.  Tight seating and the food was bad!

But we made it home to Grand Rapids about 9 hours later than we should have.  We were home in Frederic by 2 PM on Monday May 6 after a stop in Cadillac for supplies and lunch.  In all, we had flown on nine different aircraft and for the most part had a fun and interesting trip below the equator.  

PS:  For anyone so interested:  water going down a drain below the equator does flow in a counter-clockwise direction while ours up here goes clockwise down the drain.  Also, we could see stars in the sky down there that we will never see up here.  

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Sydney Part 2

 On our second, and last full day at Sydney, we hopped back on a bus that took us to the famous Australian Museum downtown.

Here are Francis and Karen at the museum entrance so you can guess who took this picture.

The museum was easy to find with these two giant fellows out front.

There were thousands of excellent displays like these two Pachyderms.

Here is a giant turtle with his outer shell removed.

After many years of wonder, we finally found out where the Lone Ranger and his horse, Silver, ended up after they died.

In the museum gift shop, Bill found these spotted rocks for sale.  He thought they were rather interesting.

On Sunday, May 5 we had to get up very early with our bags all packed to catch a ride to the airport for another $100 taxi fee.  We left Sydney for LA at 9 A.M. and ran into problems.  The last blog on this Australian trip will explain.

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Sydney Australia Part 1

 On Thursday May 2 we arrived in Sydney and checked into a 2-bed, 2-bath small apartment on the 13th floor of a high-rise building in the Chinatown section of this largest Australian city.  We grabbed some provisions at a close grocery store and hopped on another red bus the next morning for a tour of the city.

We enjoyed seeing more green plants growing on the side of this tall apartment building.  The air seemed clear and clean in Sydney and we think green plants like this were helping.

This entire building was covered with these strange dark metal screens

Here is the famous Sydney Opera House.  It was raining with a crowd in front so we did not stop to visit.

This is a post office sign down under.

This was a sign for a museum that was all about nautical business and history. Clever name, right?

When we stopped for lunch at our first Australian McDonald's, we took a picture of these two birds that were begging for french fries.

How would you like to live in this town, and write a city name this long every time you wrote your address?

This store only had vending machines with no human staff.

Lots of toys and such to be had if you knew how to pay and get the items out???

Just like Melbourne, Sydney was very clean with amazing architecture.  A bit crowded  but people were polite and we had many sights to see.

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