grandkids - Here and There

Sightseeing review: Columbus, TX

November 10, 2014January 27, 2024 grscott

Columbus, TX is a lovely town with a historic downtown with several historic homes and buildings. There’s plenty of shopping and all types of eating places. The town is divided between the I10 commercial area and the old town area. We happened to visit during the Folk Fest 2014. Two of the streets by the courthouse were blocked off and there were vendors selling crafts, clothes, food and other items. The funnel cakes were, as always, a big hit with me! Our grandchildren, Sarah and Matthew, were fascinated by the glass blower at work. We could hear folk music being performed onstage as we walked and enjoyed the booths and looking inside the old Opera house. We toured the local museum which is located in the original water tower and fire house. The Vintage car show was fun. We enjoyed seeing the work that had been done to make the classic cars look new again. We especially enjoyed going to the City park where a small military camp was set. We chatted with the re-enactors there who told us about their weapons and uniforms. We then watched a re-enactment of an 1836 battle between the Texas army and the Mexican army. They shot off cannons and black powder guns giving us an idea of how the battle might have looked and sounded. I always enjoy small town events and having our grandkids along made this one especially fun for us.

RV Park Review – Green Caye – Dickinson, TX

April 11, 2014February 1, 2024 grscott

Green Caye is an interesting place. The property is huge with not only a big RV Park, but a lighted par-3 golf course, a mobile home/apartment/condo/townhouse section, and a self-storage. These all exist on the same property but operate totally separate from one another (in other words, no free golf).

The RV Park is a mixture of travelers and permanent residents and everything in between. There are many pull through sites and just as many back ins. The pull-throughs are close together, narrow and long. The back-ins are wide enough for two vehicles to park side to side and deep. The sites and roads are all good concrete.

This place is just a place to be. There are no activities, no pool, and the RV park offers no playground for the kids. Of course, nearby is NASA, Galveston, Kemah boardwalk, and all Houston has to offer.

There is only one bathhouse/laundry and, the way the place is laid out, there are many sites a long way from it. Some of the permanent sites are filled with “stuff,” but generally are reasonably kept. At the same time, there are several high dollar rigs here. Again, Green Caye is an interesting place.

If you plan on coming to Green Caye you probably need to know that our interactions with the office left a lot to be desired. When we arrived the young lady at the counter told me we had canceled our reservations and there was no place for us. Her attitude was that that was all there was to it. We insisted that we had not canceled and that we wanted our reservation to be honored. After some angst, low and behold, there was a place for us after all. Then after two months we left for a month, this time being sure we had written confirmation of our reservation. We arrived on the appointed day and a different person behind the counter reported that while he showed we had a reservation that someone else was already in the site. After 20 minutes or so, he found that someone had changed our site number. Then, when we prepared to leave, I attempted to turn in the gate remote controls on which I had made a $70 deposit. Alas, there was no record of my having the remotes. After 30 minutes or so and a phone call the decision was made to return my deposit to me. The moral to this story is: confirm your reservations, then confirm them again. Keep your paperwork handy and keep your fingers crossed.

I don’t think this area qualifies as a draw for Winter Texans. During January the weather was especially cold with ice storms and school closings. At the same time, people visiting the Galveston side of Houston but not wanting to pay Galveston RV Park prices might want to keep Green Caye in mind.

And if you happen to have two precious grandchildren in the area, well, then this is a terrific place to spend a few winter months.

Other reviews are here.

At Nazarene General Assembly

June 24, 2013January 31, 2024 grscott

As we planned our summer adventure the “anchor” was Nazarene General Assembly in Indianapolis. If not for this big event we would likely have traveled west instead of to the Midwest and points east. For those of you who aren’t associated with our branch of the Christian family tree I’ll explain that every four years Nazarenes from around the globe come together for a big family reunion of sorts. There’s also some business to be conducted: elections and resolutions and the like; but this is mainly a celebration that draws not only elected delegates from over 150 world areas but folks like us — whom I call “Nazarene tourists.”

For us, Indianapolis has lots of pluses. This is our family’s home territory and there are lots of cousins and other relatives around. We enjoyed seeing our cousin Kathy Schreiber and her clan on Sunday morning.

Our family from Texas came too. Scott and Cherie and Matthew along with my sister Susan came because our wonderful granddaughter Sarah qualified for the big World Bible Quiz that took place on Saturday. “How’d she do” you ask? Well, let me tell you: she and several hundred others came home with the gold! We’re proud of our Sarah! On Saturday evening the whole gang sat together in the worship service: us, Scott and Cherie and the kids, Susan, Jackie’s brother and sis-in-law Jim and Phyllis. We even had our good friend Marsha with us. So our little group took our own bit of space in a crowd of over 15,000.

There were thousands of Nazarenes in Indianapolis. The Sunday morning worship service alone drew over 20,000. We saw lots of friends including folks who were at our wedding almost 44 years ago. It is so much fun catching up with so many people we’ve known in the past or who are friends of ours on Facebook or NazNet or elsewhere.

Our Indianapolis stay has been Nazarene all the way as we’ve been camped at the Indianapolis District, Church of the Nazarene campground at Camby just outside of Indianapolis. This is a grass campground and, because of the limited number of full hookup sites we’ve had only water and electric. It wasn’t much of an inconvenience because we spent most of our time at the convention center anyway.

On Sunday afternoon there was a big thunderstorm with considerable wind. There was some tree damage, including one big tree that came down. Thankfully, no buildings or campers were damaged.

Jackie and I really enjoyed General Assembly, especially seeing our family. Now, though, we’re ready to head for Ohio and back into our “normal” full time RV activities.