Safe and Sound in Denton Texas

Yesterday we took the shuttle over to the Horseshoe Casino which is also owner by Harrah's which is owned by Caesars in Las Vegas.

We like this one a bit better than Harrah's new Casino, because it is bigger. Katie as usual did her thing and massaged the machines to pay off. She keeps me with enough winnings, so that I can make a few bucks as well. It was a bit hard slugging, and we found they are not as loose as the Casinos in Winnipeg...but...at the end of the day $800 US net to add to the day before. So the total is $1,480...pretty darn good for two days fooling around.

A pretty site!

Didn't have a great sleep again as the furnace in the room has a strange rumbling noise every once in a while. We had the maintenance guys have a look, but of course it did not do it when they were there. I thought I would be very tired for the 10 hour drive to Denton today, but I surprised myself and I drove the whole way with little trouble feeling too tired. We were on the road by 8AM and arrived in Denton at 5:45PM. It was -5C when we left Council Bluffs and +28 when we arrived in Denton.

We checked into the Best Western Premier where we always stay in Denton, and are going to hunker down for the night, as we are both tired.

Tomorrow we hope to be on the road no later than 8AM, sooner if possible, as we want to take the Ft. Worth bypass early to avoid the traffic later on.

We have about an 8 hour drive to our Mobile Home, in Paradise Park, Pharr, Texas. We are looking forward to getting settled.

We heard from Sister Maureen, and we will meet her at the nuns residence on this side of the border, on Monday afternoon, and go with her, and Ken and Vickey, and we will get to see our girls!!! Yes!!!

It will be very interesting to see their new "upscale" temporary residence. We just hope they have windows and doors installed now, and electricity and water.

Safe and sound in Council Bluffs

We left Fargo at 8AM and got into Council Bluffs at 2. Travel was pretty good except for the wind. It caused snow blowing across the highway for the first part of the trip. It didn't cause a whiteout but was pretty close at times. We were always able to see the lane markers though, it was just a little tough driving because the wind kept trying to push the car. The further we continued south the better it got though.

It was -20C when we left Fargo and +1 when we got to Council Bluffs. There is virtually no snow here which is great.

Forgot to mention in last post, as we were driving, Katie said look at the rainbow. Sure enough it was plainly visible, strange site when there is no rain. Katie took a picture through the sun roof, doesn't really do justice to the rainbow but a weird occurrence nevertheless.

We checked into Harrah's and got our free room. Very nice spacious room with marble floors in the bathroom and gold fixtures. Not as nice as the presidential suite we were in last year, but now they found out who we really are....no one!

After we got settled it was off to the Casino downstairs. After some heavy slugging by both of us we managed to come up with $680 profit for the night.

The Loot

We stopped to have supper at the buffet, that was a mistake as the word "buffet" always means "eat too much".

We are here for another day, so tomorrow Thursday we will go the Horseshoe Casino which is still part of Harrah's chain but in another area of Council Bluffs. We like that one, it is a bit bigger, but we will see if it will be good to us today.

more later....

More loot tonight $800, we have a ten hour drive to Denton Texas tomorrow...so will update the blog about today...after the drive...

more later...

Easy Time to Fargo

The drive to Fargo was good. There was lots of blowing snow across the highway, but not enough to make it hard to see the lanes.

We took our time getting packed this morning, and left Winnipeg before 12. We got to Fargo and the Best Western Kelly Inn just before 3PM.

The room is nice and clean, we stayed here last year as well.

We went to Santa Lucia for supper and had a very good pizza. We were both hungry as we did not have lunch.

We get to go with Sister Maureen on Monday afternoon to see our girls. We are excited to see them and really curious about what their new temporary residence looks like. Can't wait.

Tomorrow it's off to Council Bluffs about a 7 hour drive.

Filled up with gas tonight, was that ever COLD!!!!!

Looks like good travelling again tomorrow, just dreading starting up the car in the morning.

that's it for today....Katie is so glad she is finally on holidays.

more later....

Almost that Time!

Katie and I are getting ready to leave for Texas on Tuesday. We are planning on stopping in Fargo ND for the night, then on Wednesday morning we will have about a 7 hour drive to Council Bluffs Iowa.

We have arranged two free nights at Harrah's Casino, the same place that gave us the Presidential Suite last year on the way home. That was awesome, especially since Katie took a bunch of their money.

Then on Friday, the plan is to drive to Denton Texas, and stay at the Best Western Premier, that we normally stay at on the way down and back. It is an awesome Hotel!

On Saturday morning, the plan is to be on the road early, to avoid as much traffic as possible around Ft. Worth, and we are looking at about an 8 hour drive to our Mobile Home in Pharr, Tx.

We are looking forward to seeing the girls we sponsor in Neuvo Progreso Mexico, so they can attend school. We have formed an instant connection with one of the families which has two girls, Karelly and Livy and a little boy Eric.

We sponsor Livy, and one of Katie's work mates is the sponsor for Karelly. We love both those kids whether we sponsor them or not. They are actually like part of our family now!

Trouble is, the house they were in, and I use the term loosely, was sold just over a week ago and the owner gave them only a few days to move out. They virtually has no where to go. Fortunately the kids' father who works for either a Dentist or Doctor in Progreso, phoned the owner of a house next door to him which was vacant. The house was vacant because the drug cartel trashed the house. It had no windows or doors. The owner said the family could stay there rent free for keeping it up.

This is the house they were forced to move out of...

Sister Maureen and her helpers Ken and Vickey, managed to find them some windows, but Katie and I aren't sure about the doors and we're also not sure if they have electricity and water.

We volunteered to send some money to help in case they need a carpenter, but so far Sister Maureen has not indicated that we should do that.

The family does not want to put too much money into the new temporary space, as there is no guarantee how long they will be able to stay there. They would like to stay until the girls are out of school in July, and then what?

The family moved to Progreso from Monterrey, because they didn't feel safe there. Now they are not feeling safe here either, but for a different reason.

If they decide to move back to Monterrey, we would lose the ability to spend time with them, get hugs and kisses from the girls, and watch their faces as they open the presents we bring them. We love spending time with them despite the language barrier. If they move, we would be very sad, like losing members of our family.

Katie and I are going to do whatever we can when we get there to help them to stay if they wish. We hope that is what they want, and we can help to make that happen. We will try and get answers to ways we can help.

So as excited as we are to start our annual journey, and the fact that Katie really needs this holiday as she has had a very busy year at work, we are anxious and worried about our girls!

more later....