It is OVER!!

The appraisers were able to come out yesterday, because the forecasted rains never did come. So, at 9:30am sharp, they arrived and went about their appraising. They started with the outside, measuring the entire house, then they walked around in the yard and the field, observing, I'm sure, but I think a small part of it was to enjoy the surroundings and relax for a few minutes. Guillermo walked around with them in the field, answering their questions and pointing out various things. They measured the two greenhouses, our driveway and the back patio also. Then it was time to look at the inside of the house. They went into each room, making notes as they stood in each room. We sure wish we knew what they were writing!! When they were done, they talked with us quite a while in the living room about our situation, the buyout, the rumors and quite a few other things. They were really nice people. Now let's just hope they will be as nice on paper. They left at 10:18am, and after they were gone, Guillermo and I felt so relieved.  We were like, "It's over!!! It's over!!!" Of course, that was slightly tempered with, "Let's hope we get a decent figure back from them". But anyway, how nice it felt to finally get this appraisal thing out of the way.

Rain delay

Today was supposed to be the day that Bexar County was going to come out and appraise our home for the buyout. We were totally prepared. The house was in the best shape it could be, the yard was beautiful. We both worked so hard the last few days and especially yesterday, to get the house and yard looking its absolute best. So, we were just disappointed when storms came through in the morning, we knew Bexar County was going to call and cancel, and they did. It was for the best, really, because it rained hard all morning, so there was no way they could have done what they needed to do. Still, now we have to continue to wait. The appraisal has been rescheduled for Thursday morning. There is rain forecast again for Thursday, but supposedly it won't be until the evening, so hopefully we'll get the appraisal in before then.

Celebrating Linda's birthday

What a nice dinner we had today at La Fogata! The evening was beautiful, and La Fogata is such a beautiful place to have a dinner, whether eating inside or outside. We opted for inside today. All the food we ordered was delicious as were the margaritas and dessert. All in all, it was a great evening!

And how about this blind snake that Guillermo found yesterday.  It was SO hard trying to get a picture of it.  It was wiggling like crazy!!!

But it found an ingenious way to get away from us.  It slid into a sidewalk crack, and there was no way we could get to it.  It slowly traveled the length of the crack as it slid into the garden.

  All we could do was watch it slither away, which was fine with us.

This picture is as it was getting into the crack.

Getting serious

We've been doing little things here and there to the house since we got back, and today we tackled some big projects. Guillermo washed the siding all around the house, and I did some touch-up painting inside the house. The appraisal people are coming on Monday at 9:30am, and we will be ready for them!

Fortunately, the weather has been beautiful the past two days, and it's expected to be nice the next two days, also. The one thing is, they're forecasting rain for Monday, so we'll see if the appraisers still come, even if it's raining.

Lots of rain

Guillermo and I have been doing little things around the house, in preparation for our appraisal on Monday. And last night we got a lot of rain. I stayed up till almost 3 monitoring the radar, while also texting the neighbor about the weather. It was a good way to sort of keep our minds off the rain and how the radar looked.

We are in Texas!

October 14th
Yesterday, it was unbelievable.  We went from 37 degrees in the morning in York, Nebraska to 83 degrees as we approached the Texas border!  By the time we got to the first rest area in Texas, we were burning up in our clothes.  We quickly shed all the unnecessary stuff while at that rest area!

We got to Greenville around 6:30pm, and we headed first to John and Elaine's church, where they were having Handbell practice.  We watched them until the practice was over and then we all went out to eat at Chili's. Amy joined us, too, and we had a very nice evening together.  It was a humid, foggy evening and it was great to be back in Texas!

October 15th
So, today, we walked around outside with John and Elaine, then had a quick breakfast before John had to go back in to work for a meeting. After he left, we all got into Elaine's car and we drove to Walmart to get a few things for Kyrielle and Adelae, as we would be seeing them later on that day. After shopping at Walmart, Elaine drove us around some areas of Greenville where there are some beautiful homes. We were impressed at how much Greenville has grown!! Back at her place, we packed up the car, yet again, and took off for Killeen around 10:30am. For some unknown reason, we were of the opinion that John's house was on the north side of the freeway, and that we would have to make a right onto the freeway to start heading west again. So there we were, traveling along the highway for a good twenty miles or so, when Guillermo sees a sign that said how many miles it was to some town in Louisiana. That made him look at the direction indicator on our mirror and that is when he realized that we were traveling east - in the complete opposite direction of where we needed to be going. We got off at the next exit, and then kept driving and driving, never coming upon a way to get back on the highway in the opposite direction. That's when we realized that the feeder road was two way anyway, so we turned around and got ourselves going in the right direction a short time later. Whew!!

When we got to West, Texas, we exited the freeway, and stopped to buy some Kolaches. We bought a dozen, thinking we'd give half to Anthony and Sarah. We called Anthony shortly before we got to Temple and he gave us the directions on how to get to his place. The directions seemed complicated, but as we drove them, we saw how everything fit right into place. We got to their home around 3:30pm and finally got to see, IN PERSON, the people we had been communicating with over the computer. A little while after we got there, Kyrielle woke up and it was so nice getting to be with her for a little while. She is so precious. She took to Guillermo right away, and brought him several of her toys for them to play with together. Adelae woke up, too, and it was fun holding her!! We enjoyed sitting all together in their living room, talking and looking at pictures and time flew quite fast!
While we were at their house, we got a call from Calgary, from the people who own the condo we had stayed in, asking us if we had left any clothes in the dryer. They said the next tenants had found a bunch of clothes in the dryer when they checked in. So, we called Fernando and asked him to check into that for us. (Turns out it WAS our clothes!)
Anyway, at around 4:30 or 5, we decided to go to Outback for dinner. We had a nice leisurely dinner there, getting to know Anthony and Sarah and Kyrielle and we didn't leave Killeen until 7pm. Kyrielle cried as we were leaving. I tell you, she is just precious!!

We got to San Antonio at 9:30pm. It was good to be home, and we now have so many more beautiful memories!!

Some scary driving there

October 8 - Thursday.  There was lots of snow today!
Fernando and Eva fixed all of us lunch today in their apartment!!  They fixed two different Thai dishes and they were absolutely delicious.  One was a Coconut soup and the other was Pork lettuce wraps.  My goodness, those two can cook, and they definitely have a back-up occupation if all else fails!

After lunch, Guillermo and I went back to our place and slowly started getting things ready for the dinner we were going to fix that evening for everyone.  We had fun getting the Sangria and getting all the ingredients prepared for the meal.  It was a pleasure to work in the nice kitchen of the place we were staying.
Around 6, everyone came over and we all feasted on Guillermo's famous Chicken and Rice dish, green beans, delicious baguette bread, sangria, and for dessert - lemon tarts.  After dinner, we said our goodbyes to Eva's parents, as they are leaving early in the morning back to Sweden.  It was sad, knowing they would be so far away after tomorrow.  We really enjoyed spending time with them, and are forever grateful we were able to meet them.

October 9 - Friday  It was COLD today!!!
We met Fernando and Eva for lunch at Nellie's on 4th St.  It was a very good lunch, and the portions were HUGE, so we were able to take some back home for our breakfast tomorrow.  After lunch, Guillermo and I stopped by the nearby liquor store to see if they had any affordable wine glasses, and they did, so we bought it and also got to sample some wine while we were there!
We did a little packing in the afternoon, and in the early evening, went over to Fernando's place before heading out to where we were going to have dinner.

We finally were able to find parking at this Thai restaurant that we had tried to go to on our previous visits, but had been unable to because of the parking situation.  Today we had success!  What a wonderful last meal we had with them, it is a very nice memory for us.  We went back to their apartment with them, said our sad goodbyes to them and then drove out of their parking garage for the very last time.  We were both quite sad.

October 10 - Saturday
We got up early, ate the left-overs from Nellies for breakfast (bacon, egg, potatoes), packed up the car and following Fernando's excellent directions, found our way out of Calgary and were on our way east towards Saskatchewan. Saskatchewan is basically flat, with lots and lots of farmland. Almost the entire drive was with snow blowing down and around on the road - sometimes it would actually snow a little. We stopped at a nice country cafe in Medicine Hat for lunch. The weather was really cold and there was a little snow falling. We continued on Highway One and between Swift Current and Moose Jaw, there is a shorebird observatory visible from the road, and what a huge place it looked to be. It seemed a perfect place for birds to gather. Then shortly after that, we passed through some rolling hills, where the landscape looked totally different. With the snow on those hills, and the road begining to be covered with a little snow, and the way the hills were, I felt we were in a totally foreign landscape. It was just beautiful and very impressive. Arriving in the town of Moose Jaw was like arriving in Antarctica. The kind of buildings that were there and with the snow all around, it reminded us of some remote place in Antarctica. The rest of the town, though, looked like any other city. From Moose Jaw, we started heading southwest toward Weyburn, where we planned to stop for the night. We briefly entertained thoughts of trying to get past the US border that evening, but with the way the roads were, we felt it wouldn't be wise to be attempting that with darkness approaching. We stopped at the Travelodge and got a room. Cold Cold Cold here in Weyburn!! But even so, we left our warm room, and walked across the parking lot (amid snow flurries) to buy some hamburgers at an A and W. As we walked back to our room to eat our hamburgers, we laughed that they'd probably be frozen before we got back to our room!!! We didn't see much of Weyburn - too cold to get out and sightsee.

October 11 - Sunday
We were shocked when we woke up in the morning to see how much it had snowed overnight. We just thought there'd be periodic flurries all night, and so maybe a dusting in the morning, but it looked like it had actually snowed. There was no breakfast at our hotel (unavailable on Sunday mornings), so we ate what we had in our food box and then went out to take care of removing the snow from our car so we could pack it up.

 When we left the parking lot, we took a right down the road, but then immediately began to doubt if that was indeed the correct way to go. So we turned around, and drove back past the highway we came in on, to see if we'd see a sign for the US border. We didn't see one anywhere, but after looking at how we came in, we were pretty sure that we had started out on the right road. The roads were very snowy here in Weyburn this morning, and driving very slowly seemed the best way to deal with those roads. So, from Weyburn we headed straight south towards the Port of Oungre on a small two lane road. Along this road was where we saw all the nice scenes with snow-covered hay bales and we saw lots of flocks of Canada Geese and Snow Geese.

 Our side of the road appeared to have been traveled by a few cars, but the other side of the road was hardly visible, covered with so much snow. Once we got to the little town of Oungre, the road seemed to get even worse. For a little while there, I felt a little scared, I guess since I was driving. This little two lane road was so desolate, there didn't appear to be any signs of life anywhere, and now the road had practically disappeared under untouched snow. I guess that's what worried me - it looked like maybe only one other car had been on that road that morning so I pretty much had to drive on snow. At one point, I couldn't even see the center divider line. I wondered to myself if it had been wise to have chosen such a small out of the way road in such weather. Driving slowly got us through those last ten miles, though, and it was such a relief to see the border station!!!
Northeastern North Dakota was just as desolate and snowy as what we had gone through in Saskatchewan.

Slowly though, we started seeing less and less snow the farther south we went.

  We stopped in Williston, North Dakota to have lunch at a Subway there and we were surprised, that even though it seemed we were out of the snow at that point, there were snow flurries in that town. From Williston, we drove through some absolutely beautiful countryside, crossing the Missouri River where Lewis and Clark had traveled. We thought about what they could have experienced so many years ago, and if the weather was nice for them when they passed through here, how they must have loved this area. North Dakota is actually a beautiful state!!!
We drove to the North Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, and drove around on the loop. At this point, we were beginning to think that we probably would NOT make it to Fargo that evening. It was already early afternoon, and there was no way we'd get to Fargo before 9 at night. So, we decided we would visit the South Unit of the park, also, and then try to get a place to stay nearby. We drove to Medora, which is at the entrance to the park, and looked around the little town. There seemed to be only two things open - a bar/restaurant type place and one hotel. We got a room at the hotel, and then drove into the park. The loop in the South Unit was much longer, and we saw some beautiful scenery. We enjoyed seeing the Prairie Dog towns, and stopping at all the overlooks for the views. We drove up a little dirt road to a hill with a viewpoint on top. Guillermo walked all the way up, but I didn't - it was starting to snow again and I didn't think we'd be able to see much of anything. On the way back to the hotel, I saw an Elk in the distance jump over a creek. That was neat!!

Roosevelt National Park

There is a HUGE prairie dog town in this park.

As we were leaving the park, we could tell that it was getting ready to snow!

Back in Medora, we pulled into the bar/restaurant and were delighted to find that they served all kinds of food. The Pina Colada they served me was one of the best!!! When we got to this place, there was only one other couple eating there, but by the time we left, the place was full. This place was a godsend for all of us staying in Medora, if they hadn't been open, we don't know what we would have eaten that night. Actually, Medora looks like it would be a precious town in the summer. It has all kinds of neat little shops, that I wish had been open.

October 12 - Monday
Once again, we wake up in the morning, look outside and are amazed at how much snow fell during the night! We were a little apprehensive about how the road was going to be on the way out of Medora to the interstate. Some really nice ladies talked with us while we wiped the snow off our car - they even let us use their ice scraper since the ice was pretty thick on the windshield. As we left the parking lot and got out on the road, Guillermo approached the first stop sign, applied the brakes, and just slid out into the intersection. Fortunately, there was no one else on the road at that time, so it was ok. He drove slowly up the little road to the interstate and we thought things would be just fine once we were at the interstate. Things were better, but only one lane was open on either side of the highway. So for about an hour, we had to be really vigilant as we drove, especially crossing over bridges.

The stop sign where our car wouldn't stop at is behind those trees.

We stopped for lunch at a Cracker Barrel in Bismarck and then we were on our way to Fargo.
Shortly after we arrived at their house at about 4pm, Delia took us for a nice walk along the Red River, then along a nice little leaf-covered path in a pretty forest and then out through a nice neighborhood on the way back to her house.  It was COLD, and there were a few snow flurries but it was a great walk!  We jokingly call it "the walk to Bismarck". We enjoyed dinner later at their house, and it was fun visiting with Michele and Daniel, too!  Later, we all sat around in the kitchen until late, just talking.

October 13 - Tuesday Mike joined us for breakfast this morning, so that was nice to be able to see him too!  

We left Fargo at around 10am, and we had an easy drive most of the morning.  We stopped in Sioux Falls for lunch, and when we got to Sioux City, it started raining, and we had rain the rest of the day.  So, that made for a slower drive, and we didn't get as far as we wanted.  We had hoped to get to Kansas, but stopped for the night in York, Nebraska.  After checking into a hotel that claimed to have wireless internet, and then setting up the laptop and not being able to connect, we asked for a refund, and switched hotels.

Enjoying Calgary

Catching up on the blog:

Monday October 5th
Guillermo and I checked out of the Bed and Breakfast we were staying at after having a wonderful breakfast there.  We were delighted that the owner gave us a Park Pass when she heard we were going to Banff that day because that saves us a hefty entrance fee!  We promised to bring it back to her on Wednesday.
We met up with everyone at Fernando's place and packed up our cars and took off for Banff.

Here is everyone in Banff.

Pretty mountain by Banff

Once outside of Banff, Fernando got on the Bow Valley Parkway, where we hoped to see some animals, but we didn't see anything.  We stopped and had lunch at a nice little picnic area called Mosquito Creek.  The picnic tables and benches were covered with snow, so even though we wiped the snow off, everything was still wet.  We found a nice big flat dry rock, put a sheet over it and that's where we spread out our picnic supplies. It was cold while we ate, but the sun was warm and the sound of the nearby creek was lovely. Two ravens kept an eye on us while we ate, and waited patiently for us to leave in the hopes there'd be some little tidbit left to munch on.

We stopped to admire the beautiful views

As we drove further on, we stopped at the Crowfoot Glacier and our next stop was Peyto Lake.  We did the slippery, icy hike to view Peyto Lake surrounded by beautiful weather, snow on the trees and lots of snow on the ground.  All of us did a little bit of sliding every now and then, but it was to be expected, with all the ice on those trails, and some of those trails had quite an incline to them!

Starting out on the trail to the lake

From Peyto Lake, we drove to the Columbia Ice Fields, parked the cars and then hiked up a steep trail to the edge of the glacier.  That was so amazing to see and it was really awesome to be standing at the point where the glacier is retreating.

On the way back to Lake Louise, we drove slowly, hoping to see some animals.  We stopped once at a place where we thought we had seen some moose, but they were gone.  But, while stopped there, Eva's father spotted some mountain goats WAY high up on the mountain, so at least we saw those.  We drove on to where we would be spending the night - at the Baker Creek Chalets.  We got our little chalet, unpacked a few things and then drove into Lake Louise to have dinner at the Deer Creek Lodge.  We had excellent food there, and good wine!

Tuesday October 6th
In the morning, some got up at dawn to go look for animals.  When they got back, it was disappointing to hear that they didn't see one thing.  Guillermo and I decided to take a walk out to the railroad tracks, where people in town had been saying they've been seeing bears.  Eva's parents decided to join us.  So, we walked out there, along the river, through the forest, back along the river, crossed the tracks again, and walked along the river and through the forest on the other side, but we didn't see one animal.  We were so disappointed, but it was nice to walk in the forest and by the river. It was a beautiful morning.

After breakfast, we packed up and drove to Lake Louise.  The weather was cloudy, so it really wasn't a good day to see the lake, well, at least not as pretty as it could have been had there been sun.  The lake is pretty no matter what the weather is like.  After Lake Louise, we drove to Banff, had a nice lunch, and then did a little shopping.

Back in Calgary, Guillermo and I checked into our new place, which is a nice little condo.  Same price as a hotel, so we are really liking it here.

 Eva and Fernando had a soccer game to play, so Guillermo and I went to Safeway, bought items for our dinner tonight and took it all to their condo and cooked it.  When they got home, we all had a nice spaghetti and meatball dinner!!!