Happy Halloween!

I went over to Carol's today to visit and do laundry. We watched syndicated reruns of NCIS. We've seen many of these before, but they're still enjoyable (partly because we seldom remember whodunit!) Carol made another loaf of pumpkin pear bread--definitely yummy! She had also made a recipe I had mentioned liking: aromatic noodles with lime peanut sauce.

Matt from Morris Metal Works called. We're trying to figure out how to get our trailer brakes fixed, which is a problem because the truck bed will probably not be finished this week. They'll call back tomorrow with an update.

Aunt Iris called tonight. She sounds great. I asked if she was using a walker, and she said a resounding "No!" It's been ten weeks since her hip replacement. She says she went back to driving at five weeks. She recently climbed the stairs at church to the second floor and walked back down. She's still having physical therapy, but only twice a week now.
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Halloween Concert

It warmed up a bit today, and the sun was shining. Definitely a good day. We biked this morning and ended up at a small country cemetery. We walked through the cemetery, pondering mortality and history. One of the graves listed a birth year of 1797, and the most recent burials were this year.

This evening we went to a free Halloween concert by the Tyler Community Band at Caldwell Auditorium. The concert was called "Wickedly Delightful" and featured all the band members and some of the audience in costume. One of the featured pieces was a medley of tunes from the musical Wicked.

We had our choice of seats. Evidently the concert was not well publicized, but Carol had found a listing in the paper. She's very good at that kind of research and had cut out several announcements of events and performances she thought we might enjoy. This one was fun, with some rousing music--and only 45 minutes long. We enjoyed it.

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A New Tradition

Tonight we took Dick and Carol out to dinner at Villa Montez. They took us to this delightful restaurant for Easter dinner last April. This evening, we were led to the very same table overlooking the rear garden. We again found the staff friendly, the ambience comfortable, and the food interesting and tasty. Carol ordered the vegetarian burrito. When it arrived, everyone at the table was definitely impressed. It was the most imposing burrito I've ever seen, and Carol pronounced it delicious too.

We'll be back. In fact, we're planning on making Villa Montez a tradition on our visits to Tyler.

As we left the restaurant, we passed some red cannas. They are past their prime blooming, but Dick found one blossom. We thought this photo was especially apropos because Dick won a recent poetry contest with his poem, "Red Cannas."

This morning we biked north on the under-construction tollway. We hadn't gone far when we came to a crew laying pavement, so we turned around and headed back south. One of the contractor trucks stopped, and the driver said, "You do know this is an active construction site?" This was the first time our presence was questioned. We told him that we were being careful and had turned around when we came to the construction, and he went on his way.

We continued south past Hwy 64 and on to the roadway we have traveled before, but we soon saw more active construction, so we turned back again and headed home. We'll stay off the tollway during work hours from now on.
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Friths Visit

We went over to Dick and Carol's today at lunchtime. The Friths were invited, and we looked forward to spending some time with Robert and Debbie and their kids, Christine, Robbie, and Sam. Debbie came over first, bringing Robbie and Sam. They hadn't been feeling well last night, so Debbie stayed home with them while Robert and Christine went to church. They arrived a bit later.

Carol had picked up some assorted sandwiches from the Corner Bakery. One interesting kind was fresh mozzarella and tomato. We played some Boggle and learned some new Boggle words, like greek (no caps), lite, and dimer. Playing Words With Friends has also added to our vocabulary--as in "What the heck does ---- mean?"

Both Robbie and Sam are high energy little boys. Robbie tried on some roller skates and practiced moving around on the carpet in them. He would really like to ice skate. I played "Go Fish" with him for a while, and he told us about his carnivorous plant collection. Sam is being much more sociable. He even said "Bye bye" to us when they left.

Matt called and talked with his parents and sister for quite a while. I called Ed, and we talked quite a bit too. I was glad of the chance to hear about what's going on with his new home and job.

Dick and Carol and Ken and I watched "Call the Midwife." As usual, the characters and situations were quite engaging and thought provoking as well as enjoyable.

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Biking and Friends

This morning we biked out the county road we walked earlier by the airport. We had seen signs pointing to an RV park and Breckenridge, so we decided to explore further. The RV park turned out to be a small place in the woods, populated by only long-term renters in small travel trailers. We watched a couple of planes take off from the airport.

Breckenridge on the other hand was quite intriguing. An assemblage of newer brick buildings, flanked by a swimming pool, greenhouses, and RV park, it sparked our curiosity. When we got home we looked it up on Google and found that it is a church sponsored facility for those with "mild to moderate intellectual disabilities."

Later we went over to Dick and Carol's. Ken worked on a video of Dick reading his award winning poem, "Red Cannas," at a meeting of the local poetry society. The video started out upside down, so it needed to be rotated. Then some difficulties arose when we tried to email the video: it arrived as a jpeg instead of a video. Ken managed to clear all of the problems up.

Carol fixed salmon for dinner. Dick went to church, where he was scheduled to lector, and Carol took us to the Tyler Civic Theater production of Wait Until Dark. Unfortunately it was less of a thriller than we hoped; we agreed to leave after the first act. That was disappointing, especially since the Christie play, "The Unexpected Guest," that we saw here last year was so good. In fact, we've seen several entertaining performances in Tyler over the years. I guess that means our percentage is very good.
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Fall Weather and Guests

Carol and Dick came over for dinner tonight. Of course they got the grand tour of our new home. Like us, they immediately noticed the big windows and nice views.

During the night we heard rather steady rain, and it was still raining when we got up. A cold front had arrived during the night, and it was quite chilly too. We waited to take our walk until the rain had stopped and the temperature had risen at least a few degrees, though we still bundled up to go out.

We walked east, toward the airport, and then south along a county road that borders the airport to the west. The road had recently been resurfaced, and there were trees all around, so it was a pleasant place to walk. We passed more than one large ranch type places along the way. Tomorrow, if the weather cooperates, we're hoping to ride out along this road. Signs at the intersection point to an RV park and a development, which we haven't seen yet.

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Biking the Toll Road

This morning we headed toward the 49 Tollway under construction just west of the campground. The road is, of course, closed, but no one bothered us as we biked along. The only other vehicles on the roadway were trucks carrying road construction materials, which barreled past in both directions.

We were puzzled by what we saw along the roadway. It is clearly not wide enough for a divided highway with two lanes in each direction, but we couldn't see any parallel roadway being constructed. Finally we came up with an idea: maybe there wasn't enough money to build the whole thing at once, so the one roadway would temporarily be used for single lanes in both directions. When we got home, Ken checked online and bingo! we were right.

Lots of wide open spaces

Hwy 31 seen from the toll road overpass

We rode eight miles altogether. Most of the route was either level or only gently rising and falling, but there was enough challenge to let my leg muscles know they needed to get to work. We made our round trip journey along the tollway for free, but drivers will have to have toll tags--or pay extra if they have to be billed by mail.
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Visiting

This morning we headed for Carol's with the back seat full of laundry. We stopped for diesel. It took two of us to manage the fueling process: I held the filler tube up, stretching it so that it wouldn't fold over, and Ken handled the nozzle. We managed to fuel up without incident

Carol had lunch planned and dessert ready when we walked in the door. The smell of warm pumpkin pear bread wafted through the house. We had our dessert early, of course. Debbie and Sam came over for lunch and a visit. Carol made a great spinach salad and a carrot ginger soup--a recipe that uses the immersion blender we gave her for her birthday a couple of years ago.

After lunch, Carol drove us to the Senior Health and Living Expo. It had all the expected booths for assisted living facilities and such. We found a few that caught our attention, like this one for the hospice that Dick volunteers for.

East Texas Medical Center was offering several free health screenings. Ken and I both had carotid artery screenings, something I've been wanting to do for a while. We both passed the test with good blood flow.

After we were done looking around the Expo (and picking up some candy and pens and other freebies), we walked across the street to the Tyler Municipal Rose Garden. At 14 acres, it's the largest rose garden in the nation. We strolled through, delighted by the array of roses blooming all around us.

Lovely Nacogdoches rose

Christine walks over to her Nana and Papa's house after school. Today she came in telling Carol that she needed to make stovetop candies for a school project. What a sweet deal!

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Brake Repair

Our top priority today was figuring out how to get our brakes diagnosed and repaired. First we talked with Ken U. at New Horizons. Of course he asked us to get someone to look at the brakes and call him. Not as easy as it sounds. We researched some possibilities on the web and called several repair places. No one would agree to come out and pull the wheels, and most places said they just couldn't handle the job even if we brought the trailer in.

We broadened the search and finally found a place in Whitehouse, about 12 miles south of Tyler, that agreed to do the work. We made an appointment for Monday, November 5. Now we're just hoping that these folks will be able to identify the cause of the problem so it won't recur again.

We got our absentee ballots in the mail we picked up at Dick and Carol's yesterday, so today we filled them out. Now we just have to put them in the mail. Given Texas politics, our votes won't actually change any outcomes, but we'll be part of the popular vote count in the presidential election anyhow. We've done our civic duty.

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Bob-Tailed Truck

We set our alarms for 5:00 a.m. and headed for Mt. Pleasant. We arrived at 8:15 a.m. and had a final talk with Bob and with Matt Lee about the work to be done. Meanwhile Rachel moved some comfortable chairs into a room in the mobile home which is being remodeled for use for offices for the new Morris Metal Works facilities. We headed out for our morning walk along the frontage road, and again we had company--three friendly neighborhood dogs.

We had brought our computers and our lunch, prepared to wait for most of the day. I took advantage of the nice bed in the room to take a nap. At 12:30 p.m. Matt returned with our truck, ready for us to drive home. We walked out to look over our much changed truck. With the bed removed, we could see some of the innards sticking out, but a sheet of plywood was attached as a protection, covering the rear half of the bed. The truck is drivable, but not beautiful, and as we were told, the ride is much rougher without the bed. We'll be glad to have our truck back in a week and a half or two weeks, with its newly modified bed.

Since we were leaving Mt. Pleasant earlier than expected, we called Carol to see if we could stop by for a visit. Carol said that Monday was her light day and that they would be home all day. It was wonderful to see her and Dick again. Carol gave us a large bag full of all the mail and packages she's been saving for us.

Dick has been having some back issues, and he had gone to a chiropractor this morning. He's resting his back and taking anti-inflammatories. Both Ken and I could certainly empathize, and we hope he's feeling better soon.

After school, Christine walked over to her grandparents' house, as she does regularly. She is definitely a teen now and has her own cell phone. Carol says she gets and sends lots of texts. We're hoping to see the rest of the family during our visit, but we needed to get home.

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On to Tyler

Sunday morning, as usual, meant that we had fewer squares on the floor--but not less great dancing. The final half hour of the weekend was calling by Lee Kopman.

After the dancing ended, we had lunch and got ready to move on to Tyler. It was late afternoon by the time we pulled into town. We stopped at a red light, and a can next to us got our attention to tell us that our brakes had been smoking on Highway 69 as we came into town. We were only a few miles from our destination, so we continued on to RV Parks R Us. When we stopped, we checked the trailer wheels. As soon as we got out of the truck, we could smell the brakes, and it turned out that the same two wheels that had locked up before were severely overheated. We are feeling very discouraged and frustrated that this problem is still going on.

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Dancing Our Feet Off!

Dancing started this morning at 9:30 a.m. and continued (with breaks) until 11:00 p.m. We had an Intro to C2 session with Lee Kopman. He workshopped Sets In Motion, a call he wrote (among many, many others). We've heard it called often, but of course never understood the patterns. It actually flowed well and was reasonably straightforward.

At noon we went to Roma's for our big meal of the day. We had Roma's special pizza with spinach and mushrooms and red onions and fresh tomatoes, along with house salads. Everything was delicious, and all our friends enjoyed their meals too. After the afternoon dance sessions, we got a light snacks/supper together and shared it with our friends. Steve and Jan hadn't seen the new rig yet, so they got the grand tour.

During the evening session I realized that I was tired--and my joints were complaining after all the hours of dancing on concrete floors. We left at 10:30 p.m., before the final session, and headed home to rest up for tomorrow's dancing.

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Paris and Friends

We left Lewisville and headed to Paris, TX, for the TEXPACC square dance weekend, which we attended for the first time last year. We joined our friends Hardy and Judy and Steve and Jan for dinner at the Roadhouse. It was old times--almost as if we hadn't been apart for the summer. We got to hear more about Steve and Jan's adventures as gate guards at the oilfields of south Texas.

Dancing started at 8:00 p.m. and went through 11:00 p.m., with each caller having half an hour and calling two tips. We had spent some of the time driving today in reviewing the calls, although we hadn't made it completely through the list. We did okay and had lots of fun.

Two of our favorite RGV callers were there: Darryl Lipscomb (accompanied by Decca)and Joe Saltel. We very much enjoyed having other outstanding national callers challenge and entertain us: Tim Ploch, Bill Haynes, and Lee Kopman. We danced with many of our RGV friends, including Jim and Jane Booth, Dick and Mary Ann Drake, and Floyd and Donna Gardner, along with lots of other folks.

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Biking

We finally got the bikes down today and went for a couple of rides around the park and the adjacent neighborhood. It was nice to give our legs a stretch and a bit of a challenge, but not too much.

We also did just a bit more cleaning.

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Plans Change

We're off to Paris this weekend--Texas, not France. That's where the TEXPAAC square dance weekend is held every October. We're looking forward to seeing our friends and dancing to some great callers.

We found a brand new RV park in the Tyler area called RV Parks R Us. We needed a commercial park because the state parks have a 14 day limit. We're not sure exactly how long our truck modification will take. While the truck bed is off the truck being worked on, we won't be able to move the fifth wheel, so we needed a good longer term place to stay. We're hoping this turns out to be a good choice.

We got up very early this morning--at 1:45 a.m. actually--so that we could watch the episode of Upstairs Downstairs that we missed on Sunday. Of course we went back to bed afterwards. We'll be doing te same thing tonight, this time to watch Call the Midwife.

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Ken Returns

Ken visited with his sister Romaine today. They looked over a set of slides their mom and dad had made, including family photos and lots of vacation photos. Many of the vacation photos turned out to be of places we have also visited, including places like Lomita Chapel in Mission, TX. Family photos included slides of Jeff and Rebecca when they were small and family celebrations at Ken's house when he was growing up.

He flew back to DFW, arriving this evening just after 8:00 p.m. It was much less frustrating to visit the airport this time, partly because there are fewer construction closures during the week than on weekends and at night.

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Gord's Services

Ken picked up his sister, Romaine, and they drove to Walburn Chapel in Muskegon for the visitation and services for their older brother, Gordon. All of Gord's six children were there, along with many grandchildren and other relatives and friends and neighbors. The touching eulogy by his friend and neighbor and words from Megan, one of the granddaughters, left no dry eyes in the chapel. Gord was clearly much loved.

I took advantage of the free time today to do some thrifting, but didn't actually buy anything except one pair of capris. I find treasures often enough that I keep going back. At Big Lots I had more luck: I found some screen protectors from my new iPad.
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Airport

This morning we got up early so that we could leave by 7:00 a.m. to take Ken to DFW, Terminal B, for his American Eagle flight to Grand Rapids. It's a good thing we allowed plenty of extra time, because between the construction and the inherent confusions of DFW traffic flow, we did plenty of looping around trying to figure out where to go. Bottom line is that Ken was at the gate in plenty of time. It still took me quite a bit of going in circles and feeling totally frustrated by all the barriers and detour signs before I finally made it back out of the north entrance. Mission accomplished!

On the way home I stopped to get some diesel and to pick up some groceries at Krogers. Ken had an uneventful flight and actually landed earlier than expected.

I was expecting a quiet day with not much doing, and it started off that way. The most exciting thing I did was add some water to the fresh water tank and drain some from the gray water. Then I got a call from Kelley. She had come home from work early, and she and Mason invited me over for dinner.

I drove over to Frisco, about half an hour away, and found their house without any problem. It's a lovely home, and they share it with Mason's two dogs, Astro and Comet. Mason made shrimp gumbo for dinner--spicy and delicious! I got the grand tour of the house and made friends with the dogs (especially Comet). We talked about My Fit Foods and Mason's school plans.

Nice place! Kelley has, as usual, some creative Halloween decorating ideas.

We tried to Skype Terri, but she was evidently away from the computer. I was getting sleepy, so I said goodbye so I could drive home before falling asleep!
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Great Park

Lake Park is a great community resource. Today as we walked around the park we saw a high school cross-country meet in progress. Hundreds of students running around, having fun, being teenagers.

We walked past a pavillion full of people, clearly celebrating. The baseball fields were full of players. We saw anglers and boaters on the lake and frisbee golf players among the trees. The campground is nearly full of campers. This lake and park are full of life.

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Warm Day

We've been seeing flags and blue tracks on the grass, so we've suspected that some special event is coming up. This morning on our walk we talked with some folks who were setting up for a 5K run sponsored by the local high school. They said students from 20 area high schools would participate in the run tomorrow morning. Later we saw a man adding water to a large tank on a cart. He had blue hands from handling the blue tracker dye he was laying down to mark the course.

Today was warm and sunny. We even ran the air conditioner for a while this afternoon. Later we opened the windows and turned on our exhaust fans. I made the mistake of standing with the remote control pointing towards a fan, but with the new fire and smoke alarm in between. The IR signal caused the alarm to go off, but fortunately only for a short while.

We worked on our water filters today. Our sediment filter is reusable, so we washed it out. We replaced the secondary carbon block filter. Then we experimented to see if we could determine what is causing our water flow to be so low. The filters are rated for 3-4 gallons per minute. The park has reasonable water pressure at around 45 psi. We measured the flow rate just after the filters and found 3 gpm. Inside at the kitchen sink, we found only 0.8 gpm and at the shower 1.1 gpm. This is discouraging. We must have some constriction in our system, but where? When we return to Junction City, we'll ask the service folks to see if they can locate the problem.
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10-11-12

That's today, 10-11-12. Thanks to Hardy for announcing this special day.

We are back at Lake Park in Lewisville. This is not quite what we expected when we left yesterday morning and headed to Mt. Pleasant. We had a 10:00 a.m. appointment with Morris Metal Works. We dropped our trailer last night in order to level it, and we left it in the parking lot while we went to our appointment.

We met with Bob Morris and went over the work we want done and listened to what he had to say. The decision was made to have him cut down the pickup bed by around four inches, to provide more clearance between the truck bed rails and the trailer overhang.

We plan to return to Mt. Pleasant when our square dance weekend in Paris, TX, ends. They will begin work on Monday morning, 10/29. That day they will remove the truck bed and put in a temporary wood deck. They expect the work to take two weeks. We are looking forward to being able to drive without the constant threat of hitting the truck bed rails. That happened again today when we tried to pull into a parking lot in Greenville to eat lunch. The margin between the road bed and the parking lot had too much height difference, and we had to back out onto the highway, blocking traffic. Not our favorite situation.
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Sad News

We received some sad news today. Ken's niece, Shellie, called to say that her dad, Ken's older brother, Gordon, had passed away last night. We had been expecting the news, since his health had been deteriorating and he had been in hospice care at home, but it is still hard news to hear. Ken will be flying to Michigan on Sunday to attend the services on Monday.

Obituary for Mr. Gordon "Gordy" Arnold Marks

Mr. Gordon “Gordy” A. Marks, age 82, passed away Wednesday, October 10, 2012 at his home. He was born March 24, 1930 in Muskegon to Albert and Gertrude (Kempker) Marks and was a life resident of the area. On February 3, 1951, he married the former Janet M. Hassett in Muskegon and she preceded him in death on October 7, 2006. Gordy worked as a truck driver for Thill Oil Company and retired from Brenner Oil Company in 2001. He enjoyed fishing at his cottage and traveling to see his girls. SURVIVORS include 6 children, Katharyn (James Klimaski) Marks of Silver Spring, MD, Pamela (James) Fitzsimmons of North Muskegon, Linda (Ronald) Shafer of Newport, NC, Michelle Marks of Pasadena, TX, Michael Marks of Roosevelt Park, Patrick (Jeannie) Marks of Twin Lake; 8 grandchildren, Jacob, Megan, Patrick Jr., Chelsea, Karah, Brittany, Phylisha, and Gracyn; step-mother, Geraldine Marks of Dunedin, FL; 1 brother, Kenneth (Lee) Marks of Mission, TX; 1 sister, Romain Vandenberg of Allendale, MI; and special friends, Jean Stone and Judy Jacobs. A MEMORIAL SERVICE will be held 11:00 AM Monday, October 15, 2012 at The Walburn Chapel, 1547 W. Sherman Blvd., (231) 759-8565 with Pastor David Selleck officiating. VISITATION will be held one hour prior, 10-11 AM Monday. IN LIEU OF FLOWERS, memorial contributions may be directed to Harbor Hospice

Meanwhile, we proceeded with our planned move to Mt. Pleasant, TX, where we have an appointment in the morning to talk with a company that may be able to cut down the sides on our truck bed to give us more clearance for the fifth wheel overhang. We're spending the night tonight in the Walmart parking lot.

Chris called tonight. It was good to hear his voice. He said that Ed will be in Portland next week, and they're picking him up at the airport to go to dinner. I also got a chance to talk with Anara. She told me that she had joined a cooking club at school. Their first project was making a stir fry.

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New Fire Alarms

We drove to Colleyville this morning, through morning rush hour traffic, for Ken's 8:00 a.m. appointment with an endodontist. Fortunately, the advice was good. The doctor says the infection in the root canal has probably been there for years and could go on for years more without causing any serious problem.

Our next errand was to go to Target to pick up a couple of dual sensor smoke and fire alarms. We heard Mac the Fire Guy at the Sedalia Escapade, and he said that it was important to have both photoelectric and ionization sensors, especially in an RV, where most fires begin in the 12 v wiring, smoldering rather than open flames. The model we got is by First Alert, and it has a really convenient feature: if there's a false alarm when you're cooking or whatever, you can just point your TV remote at the detector and press the channel or volume button for 3 seconds to silence the alarm. Ken will be happy about that.

We walked around the park today, enjoying the views of the lake. We saw a couple of herons looking for dinner in the shallows. We saw lots of grackles and doves and flickers.

Tomorrow we'll leave and drive to Mount Pleasant. We have an appointment Thursday morning to take the truck to Morris Metal Works to talk with them about cutting down our truck bed. We called a nearby RV park, figuring that in October they would likely have lots of spaces, but not so. Oil field workers have taken all the available slots. We'll probably end up at Lake Bob Sandlin State Park, which is a bit further out and heavily wooded.

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Kelley and Mason Visit

Kelley and Mason came over this evening, and we had a great time. We showed them around our new home. They told us all about their experiences as Tough Mudders in Austin this last weekend, and we agreed that they must be very tough to have managed to complete the challenging obstacle course.

We ate salad and pizza and baked apples and ice cream and watched the Treehouse of Horror XXIII. Kelley brought us some of the healthy prepared food that her company, Fit for Life, sells. We heard about Mason's plans to become a middle school science teacher. Altogether it was a wonderful visit.

Aren't they cute?

We had a very busy day today, starting with dental appointments in Grapevine, TX. Ken had a small cavity filled, and he got a referral to an endodontist for an infection in a tooth with a root canal. His appointment is first thing tomorrow morning.

We had some shopping and errands to do. First we got our truck inspected for the first time. It has not been in Texas before since we bought it in Kansas in April. Of course it passed with flying colors. We went to a Ford dealer and a NAPA auto parts store looking for a valve stem extension for the inner dually tire where the flexible extender that flew off a couple of weeks ago. No luck. We stopped at a Lowe's looking for a hose repair kit for a 1/2" hose (again, no luck). Then we went to Sprouts, where we found lots of organic produce and other goodies. Then on to Walmart, where we located another Aladdin coffee travel mug. We stopped by Pizza de Mia Madre to check into what kind of pizza to order, and we went to May's RV, where we found some valve stem extensions we hope will work.

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On to Lewisville

Today was a travel day, with most of the journey going south on I-35. We stopped at a Flying J to get propane and have our rig weighed, but it turned out that no one was there to dispense propane. We stopped at a Love's further south and got propane. Then we stopped at Camping World. It was late and chilly when we got to Lake Park.

The lady who checked us in was not happy that we do not have a Texas safety inspection sticker, but we reassured her that we had just returned to Texas and would get inspected tomorrow. We're in site #6, one of our favorite sites, with a long sweeping vista across the lawns to the lake. The site is fairly narrow, and we were very happy to be able to back into it without much trouble. All the grills in the park are wrapped in black plastic garbage bags to enforce the burn ban.

I tried to call Kelley, but I didn't have her new phone number, so I messaged her on Facebook. She called me, and we made plans to get together tomorrow night. She and Mason competed in an Extreme Mudders event yesterday, and today they are recovering. Tomorrow Kelley will be back to work.

Shellie returned to Michigan recently and found her dad, Ken's brother Gordon, is very ill. He has been going downhill for a while, suffering the effects of some strokes, but recently has taken a turn for the worse. We're thinking that Ken may need to make a trip to Muskegon soon. Shellie has been doing her best to take care of her dad, and this must be really tough on her.

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Bass Tournament

Our neighbors are bass anglers, serious ones from the looks of their boat. We stopped by yesterday to chat and complimented the boat. The owner proudly told us he had found it in BoatTrader.com and gone to Georgia with his brother to pick it up. He said it was ten years old, but it certainly looked very well and lovingly cared for. The guys said that they were at the lake to compete in a bass tournament scheduled for today.

This morning the boat was gone. This evening it was back, with its cover fitted over it. We asked how the fishing had gone. It turned out they had won second place. They'd rather have gotten just one more big one and come in first, but second is pretty darn good too.

It was very chilly when we got up this morning. Our electric fireplace in the living room and a small ceramic heater in the bedroom soon made it pretty cozy. When we stepped out to go on our walk, the wind chill made us shiver, but we managed to generate some body heat by walking quickly.

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More Trails

Today we walked around the historic Platt district, starting at the Vendome Well, which now looks like a rather weak fountain. It still provides enough water to supply the pools in the Flower Park area, which once was full of flowers tended by the townspeople. Now it's a green park with no flowers to be seen.

We crossed the historic bridge, built to support the weight of a team of four horses at a full gallop, and came to the Black Sulphur Springs. The mineral content of the water was immediately evident. People used to come here and cover themselves with the mud, hoping for cures from arthritis and skin ailments. Their confidence in the healing power of the water must have been in direct proportion to the stench!

We drove over to the Bromide Springs and walked around. Then we drove through the Rock Creek Campground. It is definitely mainly suited for tents and very small RVs. We drove up the Bromide Hill and checked out the overlook, which provides a sweeping panoramic view of . . . treetops! For people surrounded by trees who could never see the horizon, this must have been a striking sight.

We decided to hike from the hill to the Rock Creek Campground and back. We started out, heartened by the clear, graveled trail. After a while, we found ourselves again casting about, looking for the trail. After a bit we gave up and retraced our steps to the truck.

On our walks this morning and this evening we were accompanied by a very friendly dog. He had no collar, and his fur had collected lots of stickers, but he seemed happy and well fed. He bounded ahead sometimes, but always circled back to collect some petting. We spotted a flock of wild turkeys on the road ahead. So did the dog, and he immediately gave chase.

[photos later]

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Trails?

This morning we drove around to Buckhorn Campground to check it out and to hike the Buckhorn Area Trail, described on the trail map as leading along the lake from the first picnic area to Campground Loop D. We parked at the picnic area and found the little sign with a hiker icon that marks hiking trails.

Unfortunately, that's the last sign of a trail that we found. We struck out in the proper direction and searched for a trail with no luck, so we just walked along the lake, mainly in the lakebed that was exposed by the low water level. We saw some geese standing on a sandbank. They saw us and started to make loud alarm calls and then swam away. A duck seemed about to take off across the lake, but instead of lifting off it dived.

As we came close to the campground we finally found a definite trail. Unfortunately much of it was along deeply eroded channels or over exposed roots. We enjoyed walking through the campground. Then we decided to try to trace the trail back, starting with the part we had discovered leading close to the campground. After a while we realized that the trail had disappeared and we were circling back toward the campground. We gave up on finding the trail and walked back along the road to the parking lot where we had left the truck.

A park worker who had seen us strike out earlier was weed whacking. He asked if we had enjoyed our hike. When we told him we hadn't been able to find the trail, he said that he had suggested to his boss that the trail needed clearing, only to hear that it wasn't used enough to warrant clearing. That sounds a bit like a Catch 22--not many people will hike a trail they can't find!

After having a sandwich at Subway, we went to the Vendome Well and Flower Park area and walked around. We found the Black Sulphur Spring--first by smelling it. Then we drove to the Rock Creek Campground and Bromide Hill. The map showed a trail from the hill to the campground. We started along it, happily noting that it was a well-marked trail and easy to follow. Then it also played out. We ended up backtracking, glad that we had the GPS crumb trail to follow.

[photos later]
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Exploring the Springs

This morning when I stepped out to drop some trash in the bin across the street, a car stopped, and a couple said they had noticed we were Escapees. They said they had been Escapees and wanted to join again, but needed contact information. We introduced ourselves. The couple’s names were Ken and Anne (but you can call us Ken and Barbie, she quipped). They have been full timers in the past and used to volunteer as camp hosts for the National Forest Service.

For our outing today, we went to the information center for the Chickasaw National Recreation Area in Sulphur, OK. It’s in the Chamber of Commerce building, but there are two front doors. However, when you step inside, it’s one big room. We got a map of the park and asked about the waterfalls we had heard about. The woman behind the desk answered, “We’re all dried up!” Behind the desk, we saw an artist’s conception of a grand visitor center, dated 2001. When we asked about it, she said that it had never been built, because the money had run out.

We went next to the Travertine Nature Center, which functions as the main visitor center, where we saw a brief video of the history of the park and bought a trail guide. We sat by the Travertine Creek, which right now is more like some standing pools, and ate our picnic lunch.

Then we set out on the trail to the Antelope and Buffalo Springs. The area is described as an “ecotone”—a region where different ecosystems come together. As we hiked, we sometimes could see deciduous forest mingling with prairie grasses and spotted here and there with prickly pear cactus.

In the early days, people came here to “take the waters,” since the mineral springs were thought to have healing powers. If anyone came now, they’d have to take the dry dirt. The drought has been so severe that the springs have totally dried up. As we hiked, we saw lots of grasshoppers and some butterflies. We startled a flock of doves that flew ahead of us. We caught a flash of tan and watched three deer moving along the creek as they browsed.

When we got back to the Travertine Nature Center, we continued along the creek for a while to find “Little Niagara,” a dam built by the CCC that makes a waterfall—when there is any water to fall. At this point we had planned to hike a bit farther, but it was hot and I was feeling a bit dehydrated, so we decided to go grocery shopping and head home.

After a rest, when it had cooled off a bit, we got the bikes down and pedaled over to the boat launch and marina. At least, we pedaled most of the way. Part of the time I was walking my bike uphill and muttering about being out of condition and part of the time I was flying downhill. We’ve been saying we needed to bike some hills to get back in shape, so I guess we’ll have our chance the next few days.

[photos later]
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Lake of the Arbuckles

When Trailer Marketing opened this morning, we pulled into a service bay, unhitched, and raised the trailer on the Bigfoot levelers. Then Todd and his workers checked out our brakes. They determined that there was a lot of air in the system, so they bled the brakes. That was a quick fix--we hope.

The air in the lines could have been there either because the lines were not properly bled when the new parts were installed, in which case the problem is now fixed. Or it's possible that there is a leak in the system somewhere, in which case the problem will recur. We'll have to wait and see.

It was a little after 10:00 when we left Oklahoma City. We decided to move on to Lake of the Arbuckles, which will leave us only about 120 miles to travel on Sunday to Lewisville. Todd recommended it enthusiastically. The lake is part of the Chickasaw National Recreation Area, near Sulphur, OK. We were looking for a first come, first served site long enough for us and reasonably easy to get into. We were very lucky to find site #20 available. It was a bit tricky to back into it: on our first approach, we nearly scraped the rear skirting on the driveway, but we maneuvered again and finally made a straight shot back into our slot.

We don't have a view of the lake, exactly, but neither do most of the RV sites. Many of the tent sites are along the lakeshore.

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Oklahoma City

This morning first thing Ken called Ken Ulmer to get his recommendations and approval for getting our brakes checked and repaired. He suggested calling a local repair shop. We looked for Dexter service in Oklahoma and found a place in Oklahoma City, on our route to Texas. We called OKC Trailer Marketing and talked with their service department. They suggested we plan to spend the night parked outside their gate. The service department opens at 8:00 a.m., and they thought they would be able to take care of our problems tomorrow.

We hiked out to another small lake. Fortunately, the trails have dried up considerably, so we didn't get any red mud on our shoes today. The little lake was muddy, and the water level was low, but it was still a good short hike. We passed a small canyon on the way and enjoyed the view from a hilltop.

Next we drove to the nearby town of Depew, where we had our mail forwarded to General Delivery. The post office was closed for lunch from 12:00 to 1:30. We arrived around 1:15 p.m. so we had time to look around the town. Fifteen minutes was more than enough. Downtown Depew is pretty much a ghost town, it seems to us, with a proud history. It's located on historic Route 66.

Most of Depew appears to be closed businesses and demolished buildings. One small cafe, an oil well service company, the town hall and police station, and the post office were all we found open as we walked up and down Main Street. The town hall included a small informal paperback library and a row of church pew type benches that made up the courtroom. The postal worker handed us our mail cheerfully when he opened for business after his lunch break, and we were on our way.

We drove to Oklahoma City, first along Route 66 and then on the turnpike and freeway. We found our repair place and jockeyed the trailer into position outside their gate, as they had suggested. About that time a man from the adjacent Freddy's Tires came over to offer us the use of their parking lot if we wanted. He also mentioned that the state fairgrounds just across the street had an RV park. We decided to stay where we were. It was fortunately level, so we didn't have to unhitch, and it will be very convenient to pull into the service area when they open in the morning.
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