Happy Halloween!

We went over to Carol and Dick’s around 11:30 a.m., so we all could beat the crowds at the Potpourri Restaurant.  This was our birthday treat and a chance to check out the place where Dick’s 80^th birthday celebration will be held.

We all had the Soup an Salad and Potato Bar, which had quite an array of prepared salads. After lunch we did some window shopping in the store that surrounds the restaurant. It’s an eclectic boutique shop, with something for everyone, including lots of Christmas decorations just to get everyone in the holiday spirit.

But wait! That’s the wrong holiday—today is actually Halloween. This evening on our walk we saw lots of little costumed kids trick or treating in the neighborhood. Dick was handing out little boxes of raisins and bags of pretzels. We stopped to chat with several of the neighbors and take photos of their decorations.

We've been wondering if the neighbors across the street were going to put up their haunted house tents for the "Nightmare on Eagle Street." It turned out that the attraction had been moved to the rear of the house, and expanded. We didn't go in.

Another neighbor had transformed their garage into a Halloween party room, where lots of kids and adults appeared to be having a great time.

Carol took our photo standing by the skeleton on the front door. It's eyes light up with a baleful red glow. We are wearing our standard Halloween costumes: weird alien shirts we've worn for the last several years.

Of course many of the older kids were at the Friday night football game. Carol picked up Christine and a friend and taxied them to the game. Fortunately the friend's mother was in charge of getting the girls home.

Read more!

Mirror, Mirror

We realized yesterday that our broken towing mirror would probably prevent us from getting a Texas safety inspection sticker—and our sticker expires tomorrow. So this morning I removed the black electrical tape that’s been holding things together. I pieced together the parts of the amber turn signal lens, and I put clear tape over the shattered mirror parts. I tried to reinsert the mirror in the frame, unsuccessfully.

What to do? We talked about our options and checked out the law and found out that we have a five day grace period, so we’re legal until next Wednesday. I had done some extensive searching for replacement parts soon after the accident and come up with nothing, but today I found what I hoped was the correct replacement mirror. It's being delivered to Loving Honda in Lufkin, where Edward works, and where we will be next week when it arrives. Unfortunately I realized later that it's the wrong item, so back to the drawing board.

We went over to Carol and Dick's this afternoon, taking along the ingredients for black bean and yellow squash stew. That's a recipe I got from Carol and one we really like. The secret ingredient is peanut butter.

Carol made an interesting vegan desert called mint brownies. Since they have no sugar, all the sweetness  comes from chopped dates. The frosting included fat free cream cheese, mint flavoring and a cup of baby spinach leaves (presumably to make it green). (The vegan version calls for soaking cashews and grinding them up instead of the cream cheese.)

Ken has been working on organizing our recent photos, deleting some and adding captions and locations to the rest. This is an ongoing project that keeps him busy. It's so easy to take lots of digital photos.

Right outside our window there's a bluebird box, but it's apparent that the wrens have moved in.

We watched an old episode of Doc Martin. It's one of Dick and Carol's favorite PBS shows, but we don't get it on the national PBS feed.

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CESSE at TJC

We went over to Dick and Carol's at lunch time today. Dick was attending a luncheon to meet the new volunteer coordinator for Heart to Heart Hospice. Carol and Ken and I were going to lunch at Potpourri House, but when we arrived there, all the parking spaces were full. Carol figured that meant the tables were full too, so we decided to go home for lunch and come back Friday. Potpourri is the restaurant chosen for Dick's 80th birthday celebration in 2015.

This afternoon we went to CESSE, the TJC planetarium. We bought day passes to see all three shows (25 mins. each) and go to the exhibit area, which right now features an earthquake exhibit. The three shows this afternoon were Cosmic Journey, Earthquake, and Black Holes. The facility is brand new, with comfortable seats and a great sound system. The shows all had spectacular visuals, but they seemed rather slow moving to us.

In between the shows we went to the exhibit area. Along the walls are portraits and brief information of a selection of astronauts and scientists. I especially liked Neil DeGrasse Tyson's vest 8-)

The earthquake part of the exhibit included some videos and interactive displays, including a simulation of the movements of the continental plates over the millennia. That exhibit is controlled by the viewer. You turn a knob to move the simulation back in time or forward in time. It was amazing to see the various configurations the plates have had over millions of years and to see the projection of the continuing plate movements over a couple more million years in the future.

Carol left after the second show to go home and prepare dinner. We stayed and walked back to the house after the third show. It's a pleasant one-mile walk, and we arrived to find some delicious food waiting for us (or in the case of the pumpkin pear bread, in the oven).

Carol went to her choir practice and Ken and I went grocery shopping on the way home. We haven't been able to find the unsweetened organic soy milk we prefer, and tonight was no exception.

Jeff called to tell his dad that he's buying a Mercedes Benz. It's a 2011 model that he is purchasing from Car Max. To get the color he wanted, he's having a car shipped from Delaware. Read more!

Visiting and Laundry

We went over to Carol and Dick's house this morning. Carol was home on her one hour break from work. On Tuesdays and Thursdays she usually has a longer work day and gets home after 3:00 p.m. So we had time to have a hug and a chat before she left.

Meanwhile, we brought over all our laundry from the last two weeks. We didn't want to break up our week on the lake with a drive to town and a laundromat. Fortunately Carol has a large washer and we had plenty of time, so we got it all done.

While the laundry was running, we took our walk. Major construction on a new middle school is underway, so all of the temporary classroom buildings are crowded around the old school while the rest of the block is being given a complete makeover. The school is scheduled to open in the fall of 2015, and lots of workers in hard hats were busy working on it. We walked farther west and then through the Tyler Junior College campus. We were particularly struck by the new Planetarium building, which has large letters around the top proclaiming it the Center for Earth and Space Science Education (CESSE).

Later Debbie came by with Sam and Robby to visit for a couple of minutes. She was dropping off Sam and taking Robby to his Cub Scout meeting before going to her choir practice.  Meanwhile, Robert was at work and Christine was at an after school practice for the school fall musical, Oklahoma! It takes a lot of coordination and taxi service to get all the kids to all their appointments and activities. I rode along with Carol when she went to pick up Christine after her practice and then to drop off Christine and Sam at their house. Christine was in charge of Sam until one of her parents got home. Whew!

Carol had leftovers of an interesting new recipe, fruit and nut chili, which we ate for lunch. She had spinach lasagna waiting in the fridge, along with brown bread. We brought some salad. No one goes hungry at Carol's kitchen! Read more!

We're Back at RVParks R Us

After breakfast and making preparations to head out this morning, we took a final bike ride around the park. We circled the Deer Haven camping loop, where we saw five occupied campsites, and rode through the Buggy Whip (equestrian) area, where all the campsites were empty. We saw one horse trailer leaving the park the day we arrived and haven't seen any evidence of horses since.

We rode over to Sunset Cove and Eagle Point, where we walked out one last time to see the lake and a few water birds. We have not seen the pelicans and cormorants again, so I guess we were lucky to spot them once during our visit. Then we were off to Tyler to visit Carol and family. It's only a 90 mile drive, but we stopped for groceries--and for lots of red lights. We pulled into RVParks R Us after 3:00 p.m.

We're in site #56, near the front. It was an easy site to back into. We got set up and then took our paperwork back to the office. Linda is one of the managers, always friendly. She's celebrating her birthday tomorrow.

When I called to talk to Carol, Dick told me that she had gone into work. She called later, and we agreed to go over in the morning. Read more!

Walk on the Beach?

We had another quiet day today, made even quieter by the departure of nearly all of our fellow campers. This evening we walked down to the lake again. We saw people in the water yesterday, so I guess they were considering the lake shore to be a beach, but there's no sand. Instead there's a wide expanse of dried up former lake bottom. It's mostly dried up, but there are large patches near the water that are spongy.

We walked along the shore just at sunset, and the golden orange light was still illuminating one bluff. We saw the usual herons and lots of deer tracks. We've seen only two small deer since we've been here, but clearly many deer have been down to the shore to drink. Read more!

Weekend--and Coyote Run Trail Again

As usual on the weekend, the campground has filled up. On our walk this morning, we noticed these two Casitas in neighboring sites. I talked with the owner of one, and he confirmed my hunch that they were friends.

Kids and bikes and campfires and just lots of people having fun in the outdoors. We like to see that.

Tonight we went to a ranger led night hike. The Coyote Run Hiking Trail looks much different in the dark than it does in daylight. We even spotted some glowworms, which we had never seen before. We didn't walk the whole trail, of course.

When the group stopped, the ranger had kids pick a crayon from his bucket in the dark and write their name on an index card along with the color they thought the crayon was. All the white lights were turned off, and the kids weren't supposed to look at the color name. The idea was to demonstrate that the cones in the retina don't operate much in the dark, and the rods see only black and white and shades of gray, so color vision is quite limited in the dark.


The ranger had told us in the parking lot that we were going to play a game to demonstrate echolocation, with kids playing the roles of bats and trees and such. We decided to leave before the program ended and walked back out to the parking lot by ourselves after telling the sweep (a camp host) that we were leaving. It was great to be out in the real dark and be able to see the stars.

We spent some time today trying to figure out the Medicare Part D RX plans for 2015. That's not much fun. Tonight we watched the season finale episode of the Bletchley Circle, which we had recorded some time ago. Read more!

Coyote Run Hiking Trail—Again

Cooper Lake State Park publishes a trail map, but it has very few trails. There’s an extensive equestrian trail near the Buggy Whip Equestrian Camping Area. There’s a half mile nature trail in the Honey Creek Day Use Area. And there’s the Coyote Run Hiking Trail, a nearly five mile round trip in and out trail in the far eastern area of the park, starting at the Heron Harbor Day Use Area.

With little water in the lake, we're the only vehicle in the parking lot at the trailhead, which also serves the swimming beach (closed) and day use area.

We hiked this trail the last time we were here, but didn’t remember much about it. Turns out that’s because it’s really not very memorable. The trail is fairly wide and mostly level. It winds through forest and “pocket prairies.”

Several points of interest are called out on the trail map, but we were unable to locate some and others weren’t much to see. For example, “Harper’s Hill” at 33° 17' 39.42"N 95° 38' 15.65"W gets this description:

In spring 1873, George Harper built and operated Harper’s Toll Bridge near this hill, one of very few crossings along this part of the South Sulphur River. For 10 years, travelers heading to
Sulphur Springs and other points south paid 5 cents to walk across the river, 10 cents to cross on horseback, 15 cents for a single horse and buggy, 25 cents for a team of two horses or oxen
pulling a wagon, buggy or carriage, 50 cents for four horses or oxen, or 75 cents for a team of six.

Notice that the toll bridge is actually nowhere near the map coordinates or the trail. You can’t even see a river. Nothing marks that spot except a rise in the ground and the same trees and leaves as the rest of the trail.

We did see a couple of squirrels and some butterflies and maybe a mockingbird. We also saw evidence of the devastation caused by wild hogs rooting and tearing up the ground.

On the way home we drove through the campgrounds and noticed lots more campers—and lots of orange cones marking sites. A local couple explained that local people call the park and the workers mark sites for them. I guess this is technically different from reserving sites, since Texas state parks do not offer reservations on specific sites…..

This evening we finally watched the last episode of season one of Last Tango in Halifax. We really like Derek Jacobi, who plays Alan. He and Celia were sweet on each other as teens but were separated by an accident of fate. Years later their kids get them onto Facebook, and they are reunited. It’s basically a British soap opera, but wildly popular. Somehow we managed to miss recording Season Two this summer, but we’re sure the episodes will air again.

Read more!

Biking and Sunset

We biked around the park today. We went to Sunset Point, where we saw this large fishing pier with no water anywhere near.  Then we pedaled to the Eagle Point Screened Shelter area. There we found a mowed path out to a grassy area, a great place to watch the sunset. Ken got some interesting bird photos.

On our last visit here in 2011 we saw a very large flock of American White Pelicans and Double Crested Cormorants migrating together. Today we spotted a similar flock, but it was rather far out in the lake and smaller than the ones we saw on our earlier trip.

Later we drove back out to Eagle Point to watch the sunset. Our campground loop is surrounded by trees which block the western view. We took our chairs out on the point and enjoyed watching some Great Blue Herons fishing for their dinner. Then we watched the setting sun until it disappeared under the horizon. It's was very quiet. We could hear a chorus of frogs and some twittering birds.

It's Thursday, and a few more campsites on our loop are occupied. We figure they're here for the weekend. So far they haven't been noisy.

We watched a NOVA episode we had recorded, called Earth From Space. We've actually seen it before, but it was well worth watching again. The amount of data the scientific satellites collect is awesome, and the relationships that have been established are very interesting. From space, the Terra satellite can measure the surface of the earth down to 1/4 inch. It has observed the swelling of the earth around volcanoes when they were about to erupt. 

Satellites report that a staggering number of lightning strikes hit the earth each day, on the order of 6000 every minute. The power of the bolts splits nitrogen, and the resulting nitrates and ammonia fall to earth with the rain and fertilize the planet. The complex interrelationships that have been observed by the satellites makes me think of the whole earth as a single giant ecosystem.

Ed went out today to check out the Lufkin VFW campsites for us and sent photos. The sites are on grass and look quite negotiable to us, at least unless there are very heavy rainstorms just before our arrival. It could get muddy fast.

Read more!

Another Very Quiet Day

We really love the peace and quiet here. There's not even a train. (Ken says, "How can it be a campground with no train?)

We walked around the Deer Haven Loop and the Oak Grove tent camping area. We even found a way out to the water without having to make our way through too many thick weeds. As we walked along the shore, we saw a great white heron, a great blue heron, and some little unidentified shore birds.

We showered at the shower house, because we don't have a sewer connection. When we were walking back, another couple was walking along (must be from the motorhome, we thought). They commented that they really like to come out here during the week because there aren't any crowds. This evening we did see one new trailer on our loop. That makes three rigs, in addition to the two host sites.

I changed my passcode for my iPhone a couple of weeks ago to a long passcode--and promptly forgot it. My phone still responded to my fingerprints, but today I finally decided I had to fix the situation. That involves erasing the phone and restoring it from an iCloud backup. Everything went pretty smoothly, except that our network is so slow that it took a couple of hours to download all my apps. I think I'm finally up and running again.

We've been watching a PBS series called "How We Got to Now." Tonight's episode was titled "Glass." It's amazing to trace all the innovations flowing from the development of clear glass and to see all the collaboration at work along the way. The culmination of the show was a view of one of the massive fiber-optic undersea cables "in a secret location." Read more!

Peaceful

We slept in today and didn't do much. This morning we walked around Bright Star Loop and over to the day use area. We pretty much have the place to ourselves. Besides the two host couples on this loop, only one other site is occupied, and we haven't seen anyone outside the motorhome. A Roadtrek spent the night last night but was gone by the time we walked.

We saw a couple of armadillos today and heard a few more rustling in the leaves. We see vultures circling overhead, but mosly it's pretty quiet and peaceful. The high today was 80° with little breeze.

Ken spent some time today organizing and tagging our photos from Hawaii. I researched prescription drug plans for 2015, definitely no fun, but necessary, and worked on some of the blog entries from our Hawaii trip. It's hard to sort things out after the fact, so I'm motivated to keep up with the blog, but the whirlwind of a trip to Hawaii (or our earlier cruise to Alaska) just doesn't have much space for blogging. Read more!

On to Cooper Lake State Park

We had a short trip today, only 36 miles, so we didn't leave until after lunch. After breakfast we made preparations to leave. Then we took a nice bike ride and went grocery shopping. When we arrived at Cooper Lake State Park, we noticed quite a few overhanging branches, but we made it back to Bright Star Campground okay.

We selected site #30, a long pull through/aside. Site #15, our favorite site, the one we had the last time we were here, was already occupied, but we had our pick of the remaining sites. On Monday afternoon there are few other campers in the park.

On our walk we heard the telltale rustling in the autumn leaves: an armadillo was foraging nearby. Ken spotted it, not far from us. Read more!

Die-hard Dancing

Our final square dance session for the 2014 TEXPACC (Texas Premier Advanced and Challenge Convention) was from 10:00 to 12:00 this morning. We spent the first hour in the C-2 hall and the final hour in the C-1 hall. We moved there to give our brains a rest and to visit with some of our Valley friends. It was fun dancing with them, but we found even C-1 a bit challenging by the end of the weekend. We danced three hours on Friday evening, two and a half on Saturday morning, two and a half Saturday afternoon, three hours Saturday evening, and two hours this morning.

We are spending the night at the fair grounds, but all the other rigs have pulled out, so we have the place to ourselves. We watched one of the Masterpiece Mystery shows we had recorded. This evening we took a walk. Tomorrow we'll move less than forty miles to Cooper Lake State Park in Sulphur Springs. Read more!

All Day Dancing in Paris

Today was a full day of dancing with friends, being challenged and having fun. We started at 9:30 a.m. and danced until 10:00 p.m., with breaks for lunch and dinner.

Most of the time we spent in the C-2 hall, but we spent some time in the C-1 hall as well. We did better than I thought we might, but not as well as we’d like. The only way to improve is to get plenty of floor time, which is what a weekend like this is especially good for.

We joined a group for dinner at the Sirloin Stockade, which has an extensive buffet, including a rather nice salad bar. We sat across from Hardy and Judy. At an adjacent table were Jim and Jane, Arnie and Sue, and Dick and Mary Ann. I find it difficult to talk with more than the people across and next to us, but we enjoyed the company. We heard a little about Hardy and Judy's cruise to Russia this summer. We're looking forward to seeing some of their photos and hearing more when we get to the Valley.

Sirloin Stockade

After the dance tonight, the callers entertained the dancers at an afterparty. Bronc Wise played his guitar and led a sing-along. Then the door prizes (provided by the Paris Chamber of Commerce) were awarded.

Bronc Wise entertains

Marty and Hardy, fearless group leaders for a gag song

Finally it was time for the main event: an ice bucket challenge. Darryl showed a video of his own dousing with the wicked cold stuff, during which he challenged Tim Ploch. Tim looked shocked. He's always dressed in a white shirt and gray western suit with leather boots, so he was encouraged to take off some of his clothing for the challenge.

Of course after a drawn out interplay, when he removed his clothing, he was wearing a striped union suit. Obviously he was in on the joke. Darryl then auctioned off the right to pour the ice water over, which went to a gentleman who bid $50. Of course all proceeds went to charity. Tim evidently survived the ordeal. It's definitely not my cup of tea, but the audience seemed to love it.

Tim Ploch in his striped underwear, ready for the ice bucket challenge

Tomorrow dancing starts at 10:00 a.m., so we get an extra half hour to sleep. We are both mentally and physically exhausted, so every little bit helps. Read more!

TEXPACC 2014

We got our walking exercise this morning by walking to the Paris Post Office to pick up our General Delivery mail. We were greeted all along the way by cheerful, smiling people. When we got home and opened our mail, we found that most of it is about our health insurance, which was once handled entirely by Northrop Grumman. Nothing like progress!

We spent time today studying C-2 calls, using Taminations. It's a website, but it's also an app on Android and IOS and remarkably helpful. It's hard after a summer without dancing to get our brains back up to speed to dance this weekend.

We were delighted to answer a knock at our door to find our friends Hardy and Judy there. We were hoping they would come but hadn't heard from them, so we didn't know if they would make it or not. Guess the ominous birds hanging about in their trees and the coming winter weather chased them south!

It was definitely old home week when we went over to the registration hall. Lots of our friends from the Valley were there. We danced in the C-2 hall--or rather, we attempted to dance C-2, with a lot of help from our friends! The final half hour was star tips, so we went over to the C-1 hall for that. Lots of our favorite callers are here: Tim Ploch, Ross Howell, Darryl Lipscomb, Bill Haynes, and Bronc Wise. We miss Lee Koppman, the grand old man of square dancing. He and Lillith are such a presence wherever they go, and their absence left a hole in the evening for me. One of the couples we danced with were from one of our old clubs in Southern California: the Trailblazers. They too have sold their home and hit the road to become RV fulltimers.

Our house has been invaded by an army of flies. They just keep coming, no matter how many we kill. I sure hope they quit soon! Read more!

On to Paris! and Happy Birthday, Aunt Helene!

The day started out fine, with a clear blue sunny sky and mild temperatures. We got ready to hitch up and then went for a bike ride, staying near the lake to enjoy its quiet beauty. Then we put the bikes back on the rack, hitched up, and headed out.

Site #68 at Lewisville Lake Park

The trip was more stressful than we expected. We ran into lots of construction slow-downs and such, so we didn't get to the fair grounds in Paris until almost 5:00 p.m. Four rigs were here before us, so we tucked into the last 50 amp site on the end, site #12. That means the utilities are on the wrong side, and they are located against the fence, at the back of the rig. That worked out fine for our electrical connection. Ken had to add addition hose to make the fresh water connection, and there's no way our sewer hoses would reach, so we just plan to dump at another site before we leave Monday.

We saw Glenn and Char and Bob and LaDone when we arrived, and lots more folks will be coming in tomorrow.

We are next to Glenn and Char's Excel--reminds us of old times.

Tonight we found out that our internet data service provider, Millenicom, will no longer be offering Verizon service. Verizon is acquiring all of the Millenicom Verizon accounts. That means all existing Millenicom customers, including us, will be contacted soon by Verizon. We have no idea at this time what our options will be, but they will certainly be much more expensive than the plan we have now. Darn it!

We have been studying the C-2 calls in preparation for this weekend. Tonight we used Taminations to go over several. The animations are very helpful.

I called my Aunt Helene today to wish her a happy birthday. She turns 94 this year. She said that Kathy and Peggy had been to visit and sounded quite cheerful. Read more!

Bike Ride

We got the bikes down today and rode around the park and the nearby neighborhood. It's largely flat land, so we didn't have to work too hard. We'll ride again in the morning before we leave.

We are studying C-2 calls trying to get ready for the square dance weekend in Paris, TX, we are attending this weekend. It's been a long time since we danced, and we're very new C-2 dancers. I keep reminding myself that errors are part of learning and that other people will help point me in the right direction.

We did our laundry at the park laundromat this morning. We haven't had to use it much, since we always did our laundry at Ed and Julie's when they lived here. The location is very convenient, but some of the machines were out of order. Next time we'll probably go to an outside laundromat unless they have fixed things up. Read more!

Movin' On

Yes, we moved today, a grand total of several hundred yards. We moved from site #24 to site #68. Despite the frustrations of that move, our former neighbor came over to congratulate us on our cooperation. Score! We get to stay over two move nights, plus our satellite dish now has a view of the southern sky.

The weather improved today too, so we enjoyed our walks along the lake shore under sunny blue skies. We saw a little blue heron, a great white, several ducks, and a cluster of smaller white water birds too far away to identify. Read more!

Thunderstorms!

Last night the thunderstorms were quite impressive. It sounded like the lightning must be striking very close, the thunder was very loud, and the wind was rocking the rig. Fortunately most of the storm was past by the time we got up, but the day was windy and chilly. We went to the Vista Ridge Mall to walk and then to Costco and Albertson's to do some grocery shopping.

We wanted to get our flu shots, but Albertson's didn't have the high dose Fluzone. We called CVS, but they didn't have it either. We ended up going to Walmart for our evening walk and to get our flu shots. Tomorrow we're expecting much better weather, which is good, since we have to move to our new site in the morning. Read more!

Visiting with Kelley and Molly

We moved on to Lake Lewisville today. We are in site #24, a pull thru with a view of the lake. We really enjoy being in this campground, partly because of the lake and partly because of the great memories we have of past visits. We took a walk after lunch and saw our old friends, the killdeers, still running along the edge of the lake and making their high pitched cries.

The only drawback of our current spot is that it has no view of the southern sky for our satellite TV, so we have actually put up our batwing antenna and watched KERA live. We are really spoiled by the convenience of our DVR and sorry that we missed recording some programs, but we actually have so many recorded that we don't have time to watch them all.

We stopped by to talk to the lady at the office about the possibility that we might be able to stay Tuesday and Wednesday nights if there had been a cancellation. It turned out that someone had actually no-showed, so we will move to site #68 on Tuesday.

This evening we went to Romano's Macaroni Grill at the Vista Ridge Mall to meet the girls for dinner. The trip there had a bit of excitement. As we approached the exit, sirens wailed and lights flashed. Several police cars converged near us, including one that was forcing its way through the freeway traffic, which pushed us off into a right turn lane. Fortunately we were still able to get to the restaurant on time by driving through the mall parking lot.

Sisters! Kelley and Molly

We ha a great visit catching up on what's going on in their lives. Molly is working as a server at a Mexican restaurant in Arlington called Campo Verde. It's her first job. Of course she's also going to school. And Kelley is going back to school at North Texas, where she will first take prerequisites and then hopes to enter a program to become a physician's assistant.

Will wasn't able to join us tonight because he was closing at My Fit Foods. It's his last day there. He's starting a new job as a juvenile residential officer in the Texas Juvenile Justice Department.

We were excited to hear about all the new things happening in everyone's lives. We hope that Kelley and Molly will be able to come with Terri to visit us this Christmas in South Texas.
Read more!

Cold Snap!

Yesterday the high was 90°, and tomorrow the forecast calls for a high of 80°. So how did we end up with a rainy overcast day with a high in the low 50s? Not our favorite weather. We bundled up to walk and turned on the electric heaters.

Tomorrow we'll head for Lake Lewisville. We could only get in for two days, but that will be enough to get together with Kelley and Molly. We're meeting them for dinner tomorrow. Read more!

Dark and Stormy Night

We are staying at Hapgood Park, a city park in Henrietta, TX, where we stayed four years ago. Nothing much has changed, except that the price of a site has gone from $7 to $15. That's what I call inflation, but still a bargain for full hook ups.

We went for a walk soon after we arrived, taking our umbrellas along because it had started to sprinkle. It quit shortly, and the sun came out. We were snug in our home after dinner when the rain started again in earnest, with rumbling thunder and sharp cracks of nearby lightning strikes! We haven't been in a heavy thunderstorm in a long time, just a reminder that we're back in Texas. Read more!

Back to Texas!

We drove from Tucumcari to Hedley, TX, today. We're spending the night at the Donley County Safety Rest Area. It's an interesting place, designed to represent the railroading history of the area as well as its Old West heritage and the arroyos used to drive cattle to market before the railroad. It's good to be back in our "home" state, even with the wind and flies and "Watch out for rattlesnakes!" signs.

The picnic area to the right has some train cars and is designed to look like a train platform. Inside the building are lots of displays, including a stack of old-timey luggage looking like the train porters just stacked it up for loading.

Another exhibit inside offers a choice of various videos. We watched one titled "Happy Hour Failure!" that was created entirely in Tweets and texts telling the sad tale of a friend arrested for DUI who finds himself without a driver license, in court and doing community service, broke from paying lawyers and court costs, etc., and out of a job. His "friends" have plans--but no room in the car for the luckless drinker. Well designed and pointed, we thought.

We found out today that Ed will be flying back to Atlanta and driving the family back to Lufkin the first of November. Of course we changed all our tentative plans and now expect to see all of them the first week of November. Yay!

Tomorrow we'll move on to Henrietta, TX. Read more!

More Exploring (and Laundry)

We went to a laundromat this morning and then walked around the neighborhood while the clothes washed. After we put them in dryers, Ken stayed to monitor and fold laundry while I drove to the St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store. It was fun to browse, but I didn't find much.

We decided to walk over to Del's Restaurant for lunch. The park manager recommended it. They have a good soup and salad bar, and we enjoyed the grilled chicken breast. When we went to the counter to pay, I noticed packs of candy cigarettes on display. The cashier said that they were a best seller. I wish people would not offer such things to kids.

We saw murals and other interesting sights on our evening walk too.

[photos later] Read more!

Tucumcari

We traveled to Tucumcari, NM, today, on I-40. It was a shorter trip, only 146 miles. We stopped at a rest area for lunch. It could use some maintenance, but at least it was open. The picnic tables and shelters seemed to be in good condition.

We stopped at the Flying J in Tucumcari to get diesel and Blue DEF. We had trouble getting the DEF: the pump didn't want to work. It took a maintenance guy and then the manager to get it started.  We will be glad when all diesel pumps, including those for "cars and RVs", have Blue DEF at the pump.

We are staying at the Historic Route 66 RV Park (formerly KIVA). After we got settled, we drove to the Chamber of Commerce to pick up some info about the murals in town. Armed with a map and a list, we walked around the downtown area. One mural was painted inside the men's restroom at the True Value Hardware. An employee cheerfully led us to the restroom and opened it so we could see the mural, on two walls and the ceiling.

One rather overwhelming impression we had is that Tucumcari has suffered badly from the financial crisis. Not only are many stores closed, but many buildings are falling down and have warning signs (like "this wall is unstable when windy").  Tomorrow we'll go out to find more of the murals. Read more!