Hot, Tiring Day

We emerged from Venture this morning to set out on our walk, and a gentleman hailed us. Ken said that he had been walking back and forth for a while, probably waiting for us to come out. It turned out that he and his wife are Excel owners. They had driven down from near Lawton, Oklahoma, so that the wife could get her free two days in training to learn to use her brand new quilting machine at Linda's Electric Quilters across the street. I guess the husband was at loose ends and happy for an excuse to talk to someone.

We headed over to Denton to stop at Camping World to pick up some tire valve extenders to replace the ones that the mechanic had decided we didn't need. This was the first time we had approached the store from the east, and of course we managed to get confused, especially since Google Maps was mistaken about the location and directions. We finally pulled into a parking lot and looked up the Camping World website for directions to the store.

Of course we had to spend some time looking through the store. After we made our purchases, we went back to Venture to eat a quick lunch of pb&j sandwiches and bananas (sounds like the school lunches my mom used to pack for me). Then we decided to stop at the RV consignment lot next door to check out some high end fifth wheels. We saw some features we liked in several, but overall we still prefer our Excel. Most of the ones we looked at had inadequate CCC (cargo carrying capacity) for fulltime use.

We pulled into our new campsite in Decatur in the mid-afternoon. First, as usual, we cleaned the bugs from the endcap. It's much easier to do standing on the truck box when the trailer is still hitched up. Then I climbed up on the roof and trimmed back some overhanging branches. None were very large, but they were making scraping noises on the roof--the kind that keep you awake at night worrying about your rubber roof and such.

By the time we were set up, it was nearly time to fix dinner. We were really wiped out, probably at least partly because of the 95 degree plus weather with high humidity. After resting a while, we went over to the pool and took a quick dip while the chicken was in the oven.

On our walk tonight we spotted this interesting rig. The signs on the car say it's a tent camper trailer for a motorcycle or small car. It's very cleverly built.

We got our mail today. The campground had agreed to receive it and hold it for our arrival. Ken commented that we get boatloads of letters from Social Security and Medicare and Blue Cross. Guess that's how you know you're getting older.... I got a letter saying that I am now eligible for a spousal benefit, since Ken is starting to collect Social Security. It's a whole $6.30 on top of the amount I collect on my own earnings record. Woohoo!