Another Lazy Day

Not a lot of energy today. About the only thing we did was go grocery shopping. Good thing we have frozen leftovers for days like today!

The park is having a Halloween bash, but we're being homebodies. Hope all you spooks and goblins and witches are out there having fun! Read more!

Anticipation

Since we now have a Texas room (aka guest room) we are looking forward to having visitors. The first ones in mid-December will be my daughter, Terri, and granddaughter Molly. Molly, a freshman at UT Arlington, will be finishing her finals on Friday the 13th of December (that sounds a bit ominous, but I'm sure she'll do very well!). She and her mom will fly down to visit soon after that.

The next week, my son Chris, his partner Shawn, and my granddaughter, Anara, will fly in from Portland to stay for Christmas week. We are delighted to be looking forward to having our first visitors. Now we just have to plan some exciting things for them to see and do while they're in town (while also leaving some time for relaxation and maybe some game playing).

Meanwhile, Ken appears to be completely well, but I've gotten worse again. I think maybe I have a sinus infection. We'll see how things go tomorrow. Read more!

Back in the Rio Grande Valley

We took one last bike ride to the 75 Acre Lake this morning before saying goodbye to Choke Canyon and heading south to the Rio Grande Valley for the winter. We can definitely tell that we've moved south: the predicted low tonight is 79 degrees, and the highs are in the 90's this week.

We took a walk around the park and greeted friends before hunkering down for the evening. We had leftovers for dinner (thank goodness for leftovers!), and then I spent the rest of the evening on the sofa, just not feeling up to snuff yet. We're looking forward to seeing more friends in the days to come. Dancing starts next week, and I'm counting on being completely well by then. Read more!

Wild Turkeys!

Okay, so since day 1, when we saw a large flock, the wild turkeys have made themselves scarce. I've been carrying a camera on our walks and bike rides, hoping for a shot. This morning a flock walked along the edge of our campsite.

Later we took our walk, and as we were walking around the shelter area, turkeys again. I’m satisfied. Now it would be nice to spot some other wildlife.

This evening we biked to the opposite end of the park, where there is a large day-use area. We saw some folks at one of the fish cleaning stations, so they must have caught some fish. Except for us, anglers seem to be the only current park users. Nearly every campsite has a boat trailer nearby.

I’ve been doing a lot of sleeping, hoping that means healing. We’ll actually have to set an alarm tomorrow morning if we expect to get on the road at a reasonable hour. One good thing about heading to the RGV is that we’ll have a more reliable Internet connection. It would be really good if Solstar would expand to cover Green Gate Grove with their cable internet. Read more!

Another Very Quiet Day

We're still not feeling well, although Ken does seem to be feeling better, so I guess there's hope. We went on a walk this morning. After a few minutes we returned home and put on insect repellent to keep the biting bugs at bay. We walked through the shelter section of the park and noticed these two boys sitting on a tree branch. I thought they were photogenic, and so did their mom.

This afternoon Ken spotted an armadillo in our campsite. We'd had our eyes peeled, because we expected to see some armadillos, but up till now haven't seen any. Now we know we're in Texas.

This evening we biked to the 75 Acre Lake. The sign had piqued our interest. It's a small lake, separated from the big main lake by a levee. It's evidently full of catfish, and very large alligators have been spotted here and in the main lake. We thought we'd left the alligators behind when we left Florida and the Gulf coast, but evidently they make their way inland too.

The itching from the welts on my face and head is keeping me awake at night. I hate biting bugs!


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Very Quiet Day

We are both still feeling under the weather, so we didn’t do much today except rest, walk, eat, and watch a little undemanding television.

On our morning walk we went down to the lakeshore. To approach it requires threading your way through tall stands of vegetation. Some of it is flowering, and the butterflies evidently find it irresistible. We were surrounded by clouds of them.

Unfortunately, the no-see-ums also surrounded us. As usual, I was bitten around the face along the hairline, and the bites raised big welts and are continuing to itch. That’s what reminded me that we had the same problem the last time we were here. I’m not going out without insect repellent again.

This small song bird posed for the camera. A quick look through the bird book did not yield a positive ID.

This evening we decided to stay on the roadways, and I put some insect repellent around my face, but the nasty bugs still zeroed in on me, although I did get fewer bites. I took a camera along on the walk hoping for some shots of deer or turkeys.

We had had almost finished the walk and were nearing home when we finally spotted a group of deer in the campground. They were quite near the Majestic and watched us warily, but didn’t trot away until we got too close for comfort. These deer are definitely used to people.

We have re-recorded the Ken Burns National Parks series and are watching the episodes for the third time. We learn something new every time we watch and gain an even greater appreciation of the hard work and dedication of the many people who have worked over the years to create, protect, and promote our national treasures.

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On to Choke Canyon

We left McKinney Falls this morning. Well, actually, we left just after noon on our trek south to Choke Canyon State Park outside of Three Rivers, TX. For the first few years that our travels took us south, we regularly stayed at Tips Park, which is in Three Rivers. That’s not possible now, and the landscape around this area has changed.

Now there are lots of “RV Parks,” but not the type we stay in. There are lots of "cabins" (which includes motel style accommodations). They are all filled with oil field workers, brought here by the fracking revolution. Highway 72, which we take from Three Rivers west to the Calliham Unit of Choke Canyon, is being widened and resurfaced, which it certainly needs because of the endless flow of trucks and oil field equipment.

Unfortunately, we had a long wait on that account. A long stretch of the highway is limited to one lane traffic, so it’s being controlled by flaggers. We got caught in a very long traffic jam on I35 too, caused by a traffic accident. The end result was that we arrived at the campground at 4:15 p.m., rather later in the day than we prefer.

We got a nice site with a view of the lake, site #131. After getting set up, we biked around the park. It’s the first time we’ve really been in a rural setting for a bit. The bonus is that we see much more wildlife. We saw lots of deer, including bucks with some nice antlers. Sometimes we saw just one or two, but one group must have had nearly a dozen, with different sizes and shapes, but only one buck. We also saw large flocks of wild turkeys. Overhead were more than a dozen circling turkey vultures, gracefully spiraling in the thermals.

Both of us are suffering from colds right now, so we sound rather pitiful with our sniffling. Good thing we have a few days here to recuperate and rest up before going on down to the Rio Grande Valley. Read more!

Inequality for All

The highlight of our day today was a trip this afternoon to the Regal Arbor Cinema 8 at Great Hills to see Robert Reich's documentary film, Inequality for All. Reich was Secretary of Labor under Clinton and is a tireless crusader for the shrinking middle class. The film is both informative and engaging, even entertaining, which is a lot to say about a presentation on economics.

After the film we went to Whole Foods, right around the corner. Then we made our big mistake. We got on I35 south through Austin at 5:00 p.m. So did about a million other vehicles. We retired and left LA to get away from this stuff! We ended up eating at Subway before going to do our laundry and finally made it home around 8:30 p.m.

Tomorrow we'll leave Austin and make our way to Choke Canyon State Park, near Three Rivers, TX. We stayed there two nights with friends on our way to the New Horizons Owners Group Rally in Kerrville this spring. There's lots more to explore there, and we plan to spend some time just soaking up the peace and quiet. Read more!

Great Visit

This morning Ken and I took a quick bike ride before I left to go visit Loretta. She and John have moved to Austin. Well, actually they are still pretty much in the process of moving, with boxes of books especially waiting for shelving. Their home is in southwest Austin, out near Dripping Springs, in a newer master planned community. It's lovely, but Loretta points out that they seem to have less room than in their old home in Nacogdoches. When I arrived, Teresa was taking advantage of the quiet space of a back bedroom. Her three children, Joe, Isaac, and Helen, were at home with a babysitter. John was at home too and we greeted.

Loretta drove us to a convenient trailhead in the neighborhood. The developer has put in quite a few trails, but no maps are available, so Loretta is exploring. We walked about three miles, which gave us lots of time to talk. Afterward we went to the Nutty Brown Cafe for lunch and continued our conversation. Then we went back to the house and carried on conversing. Teresa had gone home, and John was out shopping, so the house was very quiet. It is situated on a hill, so the homes behind, on a lower level, are less visible, and some mature trees provide a green vista. The have a large fence back yard with two bird feeders and a bird bath. Loretta especially enjoys watching the variety of birds that visit.

After reluctantly saying goodbye to Loretta, I headed home, stopping on the way at the Westlake Central Market. As some of our friends have reported, it is huge, very much like an HEB on steroids! Everything is on a grand scale, starting with the produce department, which has a broad selection of organics. It's actually a bit overwhelming to a new shopper and rather expensive. Fortunately today I was handed a flyer with a coupon for $10 off a $50 purchase.

Back home, I realized that I had completely forgotten to take any photos today, so this blog entry will be just plain text, darn it! Next spring I will definitely plan to take my camera along.

On our walk tonight Ken's back was bothering him, so we didn't walk very fast. That probably helped us to spot some deer feeding along the roadside. They looked up in our direction but continued to feed for a while. We held quite still, realizing that deer don't see well, but are sensitive to noise and motion. We didn't have the camera along, but it was already too dark for photos anyhow: the dark colored deer didn't stand out against the dark foliage--at least until they turned tail and bounded off, showing off their white flags. Read more!

McKinney Falls Again

We traveled today from Bellmead to Austin, a reasonably short trip at 115 miles. It was a glorious fall day, mild and sunny with unclouded blue skies. The trip was uneventful except for having to wait in line at the Flying J to get Blue DEF at the pump. The two trucks in front of us in the lane we chose took their own sweet time.

Texas state parks do not have site specific reservations, so when we arrived at McKinney Falls State Park just south of Austin, we found that the two sites at the top of our list of possibilities were already occupied. The nice ranger suggested that site #15 would be easy to access. It's one of the few 50 amp sites and should be an easy back in.

It would have been, too, except that the road outside the site had a tangle of low hanging tree branches. We could drive through the middle of the road with no problem, but when we started to cut to back into the site, it turned out to be impossible to avoid some heavy branches. After nearly an hour of trying (and climbing on the roof to trim some of the smaller branches), we found ourselves backed in to the grass near the site driveway but unable to go further back so that we could maneuver. Our skid wheels were digging into the turf, and the rear skirt was on the ground. Reluctantly we gave up and moved on to find another site.

We ended up in site #12. It took some maneuvering, but we successfully placed the Majestic on the drive. It turned out to be a really nice site for us, so all's well that ends well. We sat outside and enjoyed the beautiful setting. Ken even spotted a cardinal hopping about in the bushes only a few feet from our chairs.

This morning on our walk we passed a house whose clever Halloween decorations caught our eye.Trick or Treaters beware!

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Travel Day

We did our usual pack up and hitch up routine this morning and then went for a bike ride. When we pulled out, Dave and Cindy were still there. Unfortunately, they were unable to air up their motorhome. They had called Coach-Net, and just as we were leaving a repair truck showed up, so we hope they were soon on their way.

The trip south was pretty straightforward today, except for lots of highway construction, which closed several exits and slowed traffic a bit. We got to our stopping point for the night, the Bellmead, TX, Walmart, about 5:00 p.m., went for our walk, and fixed tacos for dinner. We're trying to conserve electricity, but we did run the generator for a while to use the microwave.

Tomorrow we'll move on the McKinney Falls State Park near Austin. It looks like the weather will be pleasant during our visit. Read more!

Diehard Dancers

Sunday morning of a square dance weekend is always a bit bittersweet. A great time is winding down, but some of the best and most enthusiastic dancers stay till the very end. Some of the best callers are there to entertain and challenge--but your brain may be coming to its limits. A time to say goodbye and thank you to fellow dancers and to the callers and staff who made the weekend possible.

Cindy, Dave, Char, and Glenn show off their tiedyes!

Lilith regales Quiz and Toni with tales from her early days

Dancing's over....

Most of the rigs hitched up and headed out this afternoon, leaving us with a couple of motor homes, one belonging to Dave and Cindy. We took the opportunity to take a bike ride around the neighborhood, enjoying the blue sky and sunshine. Paris is definitely a small East Texas town, with farm scenes mixed with residential areas. Here's a horse that whinnied as we passed on our bikes.

Later we walked around some of the same area. We visited the cemetery where we passed a funeral yesterday. The stones range from very old to very recent and tell stories of lives short and long. As usual, a reminder of mortality and history.

This evening I talked to Ed and Julie and Cate and Sam (guess Jesse wasn't near the phone). I tried to use Google Hangouts on my laptop. It worked, except for one key factor: no sound. I ended up making just a voice call on my iPhone. Guess I'll have to experiment some with the laptop. I haven't had any problems on my phone or tablet using Hangouts... Ed is fighting a cold, maybe a sinus infection, but otherwise seemed in good spirits. The big news is that they have a new puppy, a six-month old Yorkie/terrier mix they've named Bailey. Bijou and Charlie are still figuring out how she fits in the hierarchy. Cate took a test for gifted and talented programs--I'm sure she must have done well on it.

Tomorrow we'll drive to the Waco area on our way to Austin. Read more!

Dancing All Day and All Night?

Dancing started this morning at 8:30 a.m. and ended tonight at 11:00 p.m. Of course we had breaks for lunch and dinner, but all in all it was a lot of dancing for one day! We enjoyed the opportunity to dance to some of our favorite callers.

Lee Kopman called the first session in the C-1 hall this morning, billed as an introduction to the next level of dancing (in our case, that's C-2). He taught two calls. The first, Sets in Motion, is one that he wrote (of course he wrote most of the calls in modern square dancing, I think). Lee taught us Sets in Motion last year at this weekend, but of course we had entirely forgotten it. If you don't dance a call, it doesn't get imprinted on the brain/body. We are hoping to take C-2 lessons this winter in the RGV, so we'll be expected to actually remember this stuff! Lee also tossed in a brief but very versatile call, Bounce.

Lee at computer

C-2 dancers (we're hoping to join them next year)

This evening we joined a group going to Ta Molly's Mexican Restaurant for dinner. At our table we had Glenn and Char, Marty and Kit, Hardy and Judy, Decah Lipscomb, and another couple we didn't catch the names of. It was a lively group, and I think we all enjoyed the food. Ken and I split the Baja Fish Tacos.

This evening's dancing was great. Some of the C-2 dancers actually came over to dance with us, so we had four squares part of the time. The dancing was challenging (of course) and the choreography interesting. As always we were glad to see Joe Saltel and Darryl Lipscomb, two callers who winter in the RGV, so we get to dance to them regularly (lucky us). We also very much enjoy Bill Haynes and Tim Ploch--and of course the "Square Dance Man" himself, Lee Kopman.

One thing that makes the fair grounds in Paris not the best for this kind of weekend is that the venues for the various levels are so far spread apart. This causes two problems: one is that the dancers can't easily slip from one hall to another to dance with their friends who are dancing at another level. Another, and in my mind more serious issue is that it takes the callers quite a while to move from one hall to another, which definitely cuts into the dance time. This problem is exacerbated when the callers are assigned to call for only half an hour at a time. Even with these issues, the weekend is a great time that we really enjoy a lot.


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Dancing Starts

Dancing started this evening at 8:00 p.m. We are helping with the "hall monitoring" for the C-1 hall. What that means is that we keep track of dancers as they enter and leave the hall and make sure they sign in and out. We also run the computer program that assigns dancers to squares. Fortunately, we're not the only ones doing this. Glenn and Char are taking turns with Ken and me, an hour at a time. I've done it before, at AACE a couple of years ago, and it's much easier here in Paris because we have fewer squares and a smaller hall to keep track of.

Glenn and Char at the computer

This evening we had four squares tops in the C-1 hall, and much of the time only three. That didn't keep us from having lots of fun. We spent a fair amount of time earlier in the day reviewing the calls. We haven't danced since last May, so we needed to kick start our brains a bit!

Darryl getting ready to call

We were happy to see Jim and Jane Booth in the hall. We dance with them every winter in the RGV. We recognized several other couples from dancing with them here in Paris last year and the year before. We did see some other friends, but only in passing as they were headed to the C-2 hall (Terry and Linda, Kit and Marty, and Hardy and Judy). We heard that C-2 had only two squares tonight. We're definitely hoping for more squares tomorrow.

Unfortunately I started having symptoms of a UTI this morning. I have meds that I got in Mexico stashed to deal with this, so I started right away on antibiotics and was much better by this evening. It is a big pain to have to try to track down an urgent care and get an RX, and it introduces a delay during which the bacteria have a field day. Read more!

On to Paris

We biked over to the airport this morning. It's a good place to bike around, with little traffic and some interesting sights. We saw an American Eagle plane pulled up to a gate, but we didn't have time to hang around to watch it take off.

Back at RV Parks R Us, we finished our preparations to move to the Red River Valley Fairgrounds for the TEXPACC weekend.  We got a late start, so we stopped to have lunch at a nice rest area on I-20 after just half an hour driving. We arrived at the fairgrounds and checked in with the office. We thought we'd be in the gravel parking area, but there was concern that the space would be needed for cars to park, not only for the square dancers, but also for a big special event in the building right in the middle of the square dance venues. We ended up deciding to park in the grassy area, but we definitely tore up some of the grass. It has been raining, and we're very heavy.

After we were set up, a Newmar Mountain Aire motorhome set up nearby. It turned out to be Tom and Jackie. We've danced with them in the RGV. They are upper level dancers, but sometimes they come to Joe Saltel's Wednesday evening dances.

Around 4:30 p.m. Hardy called. They were inbound, and we planned to go to dinner with them. When they arrived, after the hugs, we decided to go to the Road House Family Diner. That's where we went last year with them and Steve and Jan.

This time Hardy got his ribeye, and Judy got her grilled chicken breast. We got salads from the salad bar. Then we sat and watched Hardy and Judy eat, waiting for our grilled catfish. We waited and talked and waited. After a bit we went up to the counter to ask where our food was. Evidently somehow our order got lost, because then we waited some more. Finally our food arrived. It was good--maybe partly because by then we were really hungry!
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Leak

It rained all night last night. I was anxious to find out whether our leaks had been fixed. Ken reported that the carpet in his closet was dry--excellent. However, in the kitchen I was very unhappy to find water seeping from under the stove and fridge. It was only a little, so I guess that's progress, but the bottom line is that any leak is very bad for an RV.

Today was our last day with Dick and Carol and Debbie and family. Dick and Carol treated us to lunch at Villa Montez, the "mansion on the hill." We're pretty sure that we were at the same table as the last two times we've gone to this restaurant. This time Carol insisted that we were celebrating Ken and my birthdays, a bit belatedly. Next spring we'll have to celebrate their birthdays (which actually occur in the spring).

Carol had to go back into work for a bit in the afternoon, while we caught up on our laundry. Afterwards the Frith family came over. Robert had some reading to do for work. Carol and Debbie and Ken and I played Boggle--another family tradition. We each won a round or two, and everyone had fun.

We said goodbye and headed back to get ready for our move tomorrow to Paris to reunite with old friends from the RGV for the TEXPACC (Texas Plus Advanced and Challenge Convention). We haven't square danced since May, so we'll have to do some quick reviewing before the dancing starts Friday evening.

Tonight we had to put DEF (diesel exhaust fluid) in our truck. We've been very comfortable using the DEF at the pump available at most truck stops, but this time we got the warning that we were running short on DEF we haven't seen any truck stops. We had to buy a container of DEF and pour it in ourselves, not something we enjoy doing! Read more!

Rainy Day

We've been hoping to get some real rain to test the repairs to our leaks. It's been raining steadily for hours now, and so far, so good.

This morning Ken took the truck in to have the alignment corrected. One of the front tires was showing uneven wear. When the repair was done, the mechanic mentioned to Ken that the hubs were locked so the truck was in four-wheel drive. How did that happen? Ken asked the guy to unlock them, so now we're in normal two-wheel drive. We certainly never locked the hubs, so we're thinking they must have been that way for a long time. Maybe our fuel economy will improve now.

While Ken was out with the truck, I defrosted the freezer and cleaned out the fridge.

This afternoon we went over to Carol and Dick's with the fixings for dinner. Carol has a long day on Tuesdays with work both in the morning and in the afternoon. We had baked dijon salmon, harvest grains, and fresh green beans. Carol fixed a spinach salad and brown bread, and she had made stovetop candies, so we had dessert. We enjoyed spending time with our friends and ended the evening by watching a new episode of NCIS, which is one of Carol's favorites. Ours too: we watch it in syndication.
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Picnic

We had a lot of luck today: a lot of rain was predicted, and it rained fairly heavily in some parts of Tyler. Here we had only a spotty light drizzle, and it actually didn't rain during our picnic tonight. Robert had to work, so we had Debbie, Christine, Robby, and Sam plus Dick and Carol over for burgers.

We borrowed a small folding table and five folding chairs from Carol, because we don't have a picnic table at this RV park. We set them up under the awning. Ken had the Weber grill set up on the tailgate, so this was actually a real tailgate party. We had turkey burgers and Boca Spicy Chik'n Patties along with corn on the cob, beans, coleslaw and veggies. We also had watermelon, but it turned out to be absolutely tasteless, so we ended up tossing all of it in the trash. Fortunately Carol had baked some chocolate chip cookies, so we had a sweet ending.

Christine's first words? "Do you have wi-fi?"

Debbie, Christine, and Sam. The Weber is on the tailgate behind them. (Thanks to Carol for taking some photos; we were too busy to think of it!)


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Our Town

Today we went to Tyler Junior College with Carol to attend a performance of Thornton Wilder's "Our Town." The three acts and two brief intermissions ran for two hours, but we were drawn in from the beginning when the Stage Manager introduced us to Grover’s Corners, a fictitious small town in New Hampshire at the beginning of the twentieth century. The three acts are titled Daily Life, Love and Marriage, and Death and Eternity.

Through the play, Wilder shares with the audience his views on the value of the minutiae of human life and the power of human relationship. The characters show us the need to recognize and celebrate the daily moments of life and the enduring. It’s a minimalist play with little in the way of scenery or props. Wilder explicitly chose this approach to encourage audiences to enter into the life of the town in imagination.

In act III, Emily, one of the main characters has died in childbirth. She joins other members of the community in the graveyard. Our sympathies are moved by the grief of her husband, George, but also wrenched by Emily's growing recognition that during her lifetime people seemed to be going about the motions of life without really engaging on a deeper level with the people and experiences.

The TJC cast turned in some remarkable performances, and the staging was persuasive. We're looking forward to attending more TJC performances on future visits.

The stage manager chats with audience members after the play (pardon the shaky iPhone photo).

Courtyard and reflecting pool outside of the theater.

This evening we watched Last Tango in Halifax with Dick and Carol. Our emotions were moved by the clashes and misunderstandings of the characters and the near death of Alan. Ken said "Three for three." Captain Phillips yesterday, Our Town today, and Last Tango this evening all involved intense emotions.

As usual, I forgot to turn my phone back on after the play, but later this evening I talked with Edward and Chris. Read more!

Movies

We watched two movies today. The first was at a theater. The second was a documentary we had recorded on our DVR.

Carol, Debbie, Robert, and we went to the Times Square theater to see Captain Phillips. It was an intense, gut wrenching thriller, but one with psychological complexity and global ramifications. The final scenes left me shaken, even though I knew of course that Captain Phillips survived. The US Navy "saved the day" but the viewers are left to ponder the implications of increasing globalization and capitalism that leave both Captain Phillips and his kidnappers helpless in their grip. My main motive for going to see the film was the chance to watch Tom Hanks in action. He did a superb job and should definitely garner an Oscar nomination for the title role.

And all that was just the matinee. After dinner Dick and Carol and Debbie came over to watch a POV film we had recorded, titled "Neurotypical." I had never heard that term before, but Carol and Debbie were very familiar with it. The film explores what it means to have a diagnosis on the autism spectrum. "Neurotypical" is what some people with such a diagnosis call neurologically "normal" people. The filmmaker raises questions about the great diversity in humanity and the ways in which labeling people who fall outside of some societally defined norms (one person asks if the DSM IV has a label for people who fall at the opposite end of the spectrum: the "hysterically emotional"}.

Lots to think about.

This morning Carol and I went garage saling. It's a tradition of ours. Carol is a pro at it and goes weekly." She zips around in her Prius and doesn't dally at sales, either. Kind of a garage sale surgical striker, she zooms in and with her sharp eye quickly identifies the items she is interested in. I picked up a few things, but not much this day. True bargain hunters are not deterred by lean pickings one morning: you never know when you might find a treasure. Read more!

Visit and Laundry

We headed over to the Hurzeler house this morning with our laundry packed up and ready to do while we visited. We got to see Debbie and Robbie and Sam--always good to catch up with them--and Christine came over after school.

Dick went to a poetry meeting in the afternoon. Tomorrow he has an all day get together out of town with another poetry group.

Carol had saved up back issues of Vegetarian Times and some wellness newsletters she gets. I always have plenty to read at Carol's, and she also brought out a book called Killer Nurse about a real life case in Lufkin.

Of course she also had a puzzle underway, one with 1000 small pieces titled "Phoenix." The puzzle picture was a collage of familiar landmarks and signs, each one quite tiny. Carol doesn't care for puzzles with lots of monochrome pieces, like sky. She finished a similar "Cleveland" puzzle yesterday and gave it to me. Right in the center is the square downtown with the Terminal Tower and the Society National Bank building where my dad once worked as a junior partner in an accounting firm. Lots of memories.

Carol made a delicious recipe from Vegetarian Times for lunch: Moroccan Potato, Carrot, and Chickpea Stew. She also had some marinated veggies in the fridge. We really enjoyed both of these and plan to make them ourselves, so I've hunted them up on the internet and copied them to my Evernote recipe list.

I came over prepared to spend the night if there were garage sales in the offing for Saturday morning. Carol likes to get an early start, and several ads said their sales would start at 7:00 a.m. Everyone here goes to bed early, so I retired to my bed to read about 8:15 p.m. By 9:00 p.m. I was nodding off over my book. Read more!

Moving to Tyler and Sad News

We got an email from Beth with the sad news that my cousin Hazel's husband, Mike Magee, had passed away. He was in hospice. I was shocked at the news because he was so full of life. The last time we saw him was in September 2011. He was older (as all of us are) but in fine spirits and seemed to be doing well. It was great to have a chance to visit with Hazel and Mike and the rest of the family in New Bern. Mike had been struggling with Alzheimer's and had recently had radiation for a brain tumor. Aunt Iris said that the doctor had reported that he had cured the brain tumor but killed the patient. Mike will be sadly missed by many, but especially by his twin grandchildren, Sean and Claire.

This morning we went for a final bike ride in the park before packing up and hitching up to move to Tyler. We're staying at RV Parks R Us, the park we stayed at last year. The staff are very friendly and helpful, and the sites are large. There are some small trees, and the grass is actually green. The host says that Tyler got 5" of rain one day and everything greened up.

After dinner we went over to Carol and Dick's house. All was peaceful there: Debbie and the kids had gone home. There are signs all over that kids are there regularly. You can almost hear the echoes of their voices and their energy.

We'll go back over tomorrow with our laundry and spend the day catching up.

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Exploring

We went on a bike ride this morning, starting north on Mill St. It parallels I-35 and skirts the lake. At the north end of Mill St. there's a sign for a park, but not much there except for some grass and a few sections of broken concrete that stretch between the lake and the lakefront condos. We've been to this park before and seen the marina to the north.

This time we followed a path through the woods and emerged closer to the marina. In the small parking area were a couple of police cars and a "Crime Scene" van. Some sort of investigation was in progress along the overgrown hillside leading down to the water, but we continued along the shore. Eventually we came to the Eagle Point Marina. It's quite extensive, and we biked and walked around, checking out the impressive boats--including many yachts no doubt belonging to members of the Dallas Yacht Club, est. 1954.

After lunch I went out thrifting. It was pretty much frustrating. The first place I went, the CCC Resale Shop, was closed for remodeling. Then I went to Thrift World and Thrift City. As I pulled into the Thrift City parking lot, I noticed another resale shop with a big "Now Open" sign. Altogether I managed to spend $6.95 for two shirts and a rather nice wooden place mat/trivet. Not my best thrifting day. Part of the problem is that neither of the large thrift stores has a dressing room, and of course they do not allow returns or exchanges.

This evening we watched the final episode of Earthflight on PBS. We've been amazed by the entire series, which includes breathtaking shots of birds in flight on six continents and bird's-eye views of spectacular scenes. The final episode is about some of the techniques used to capture the amazing video. One flock of geese is fostered by a photographer and his family from the time they hatch--he's their "mother." Amazing.

Tomorrow we'll be moving on to Tyler. Read more!

Kelley and Molly Visit

Kelley and Molly came over this evening for dinner and a visit. It was really great to see them both. Kelley came over when we were here last (was that only a couple of weeks ago?), but we hadn't seen Molly since we saw her and Terri at Ed's house the end of June.

The butternut squash lasagna went in the oven late, so we had plenty of time for a walk along the lake as the sun was setting. The red glow of the sunset lit up the clouds dramatically. We watched the boats on the lake. The folks in one speedboat towing a tube apparently were having so much fun that they just kept on going as the darkness grew around them--and they had no lights!

After dinner we sat at the table and chatted over tea and dessert. Kelley brought turtle cheesecake--very yummy.

The girls were reminiscing about our house in Long Beach. They were living in Coronado and came up to help us move. Molly remembered lying in the living room with their feet up on the fireplace singing the theme song to the cartoon Sagwa the Chinese Siamese Cat:

Hao peng you, hao peng you,
Sagwa shi wo de hao peng you
Hao peng you, hao peng you,
Sagwa shi wo de hao peng you...
Sagwa, you're my best friend..

Of course they sang the song with a lively lilt. Obviously they loved Sagwa! (I guess I'm too old--I've never seen this show.)

I totally forgot to ask Molly to show us her new tattoos, which she posted on Facebook. They include the words "I am in the birds that sing, I am in each lovely thing. I'm looking forward to seeing her and Terri when they visit this Christmas vacation.
Read more!

Back in Texas

We left Oklahoma this morning, after a brief detour to the Bargain Lady II in Ardmore. I bought a pair of really nice jeans and some capris there Saturday, only to find when we got home that they still had the anti-theft devices attached. Darn!

The trip today was straightforward: straight down I-35. We stopped at the Texas welcome center just inside the border to have lunch and pick up a new Texas map.

As usual, we're staying at Lake Park in Lewisville. Surprisingly, the park is full and we were lucky to get a spot: someone had just cancelled before we called. I wondered what was going on that the park was full this time of year. No mystery: the government shutdown shut down Hickory Creek Park Campground (Army Corps of Engineers park on Lewisville Lake), and all campers were asked to leave on October 1. Many of them moved to Lake Park.

We had to be very careful backing into our site because of the trees, and our satellite dish didn't much like the trees either. However, we found 94 over the air stations using our antenna. Site #78 is not our favorite site, but we're very glad to have it! Read more!

Tucker Tower and Buckhorn Trail

It was definitely cooler this morning, so before hiking we decided to go check out the nature center and the renovated Tucker Tower. The nature center is very well designed, with attractive and informative exhibits. We watched a couple of short videos on the creation of Lake Murray State Park, the first state park in Oklahoma. It was the New Deal, the CCC, and the WPA that made the purchase of the land and the construction of the possible, in partnership with the local community.

Tucker Tower itself is an impressive example of what can be accomplished using mainly hand tools and hard working young men. The CCCers earned just $30 a month and sent $25 home to help support their families. The tower was originally intended as a summer retreat for Oklahoma governors, but its construction was interrupted by WWII, and it never ended up being used for that purpose.

After climbing the Tucker Tower and getting a bird's eye view of the lake, we descended and headed out on the main trail in the park, the Buckhorn Trail.

The first part of the trail runs near the lake, but then it turns inland to go around a couple of fingers of lake. Somewhere in the middle, we must have strayed onto one of the many other trails that criss-cross the area (just after I mentioned that the trail was easy to follow, unlike the one at Defeated Creek where leaves covered the forest floor and obscured the trail....).

After a bit we turned around and hiked back out. Along the way we were passed by a couple of mountain bikers, but met no one else and spotted no wildlife, except quite a few butterflies.

Tomorrow we'll leave for Lake Lewisville. To prepare for the trip, Ken added air to the truck tires to bring them back up to spec.

This evening we turned on the fireplace and wrapped up in our fleece throws to watch a recording of Last Tango in Halifax. We more or less watched it, in between nodding off and rewinding. Read more!