Evacuated Again

We woke up this morning to find that we were in the middle of a major storm and tornado warnings. Torrential rains were flooding the campground. We quickly packed a few things and drove to the nearest restroom to wait it out.

When the rain let up we went back to the rig, only to find water pouring down on the corner of the entertainment center. We had to work quickly to rescue our Jetpack and a Samsung phone we use to stream radio. We threw towels over everything and put a dishpan under the stream of water flowing from the cabinet above.

After we finally got to eat some breakfast, the rain had stopped, so we walked out to see what was going on in the campground. We had heard that the Onion Creek was flooding. It's usually a smallish stream, but not today.

At 4:00 p.m. we heard that the campground was being evacuated. Everyone had to leave, but fortunately by this time the water over the road out of the park had subsided, so we hitched up our home and headed out, gypsies with no place to stay. We called the outlet malls in San Marcos, about 30 miles south. The Simon Premium Outlets turned us down, but the Tanger Outlets said we were welcome to park in their parking lot overnight.

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Photos and Friends

After breakfast and a walk around the park, I went off to meet Loretta to go out for lunch and to visit, while Ken stayed home and spent some time with his new camera at the upper falls on Onion Creek. The area is a popular swimming hole and features some interesting bald cypress trees.

Meanwhile Loretta and I went to Kerbey Lane Cafe for a long lunch and visit. Then we drove to Central Market, a huge grocery with a wide and sometimes exotic assortment of food, including beautiful displays of organic produce. Next we went to Panera Bread for some dessert to celebrate Loretta's upcoming birthday and more visiting. Somehow the time flew by, and it was after 5:00 p.m. She called John and I called Ken to assure them that we were indeed coming home for supper!

We even took some selfies 8-) Read more!

Barton Creek Greenbelt

Loretta and I met today to hike part of the Barton Creek Greenbelt trail. We accessed it at the Gaines Creek & Twin Falls Access Point on the Mopac Expressway.

This time, there's actually water in the creek, and there were even some people in the swimming holes. It was a very warm day, but perfect for hiking in the shade of the lovely trees that line the creek.

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Georgetown to Austin

This morning we took a walk around the area that led us to Rivery Park, an unexpected island in the shadow of I-35. It has a wet pond, designed to mitigate the impact of runoff from the large Rivery Park development. The playground equipment is scattered about and quite whimsical.

When we arrived at McKinney Falls State Park, we decided on site #12. It was a bit difficult to get into, but will work well for us.

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On the Road to Georgetown

We left Tyler this morning and headed south toward Austin. We had planned to stay in Bellmead, but ended up eating lunch there and continuing on to Georgetown. Now we have less than 40 miles to go in the morning. That's good, because Texas State Parks do not permit site-specific reservations, so we want to arrive at the park around 10:30 a.m. to be sure of the best selection of available sites.

Quiet corner of the Walmart parking lot Read more!

Dinner and a Murder

We usually celebrate having made it through another birthday by going out to eat with Dick and Carol. Today we went to one of our favorite restaurants in Tyler, Oliveto Italian Bistro. As usual, the food was good, and we enjoyed the company.



Later we attended a matinee performance at the Tyler Civic Theater: Murder by Natural Causes. The show was dramatic, with plenty of plot twists and turns. It was so absurd at times that it invited laughter, despite the deadly serious story of a wife trying to get her husband bumped off. We all really enjoyed the show.





After the show, we said goodbye to our friends and headed back to RV Parks R Us to prepare for our move tomorrow. Read more!

TMA and Visiting Friths

This morning we went to Fresh by Brookshires, a huge store with a large selection, hoping especially to find decaf Constant Comment and decaf Red Rose teas. We did find the Constant Comment, but not the Red Rose.

Afterward we went over to Hurzelers' house to meet up with Dick (Carol was at work). We walked over to the Tyler Museum of Art, which is on the TJC campus.

Our mission was to see an exhibition of Ansel Adams photography that featured his early works. We recognized many of the subjects from his later work at Yosemite, but the format was much smaller. He issued a portfolio titled Parmelian Prints of the High Sierras, in 1927, and many of the prints we saw were subjects in that book.

The other current exhibition was of granite sculptures by Candyce Garrett. We viewed the ones in the exhibition hall, but there are more larger pieces placed around the campus.

When we returned to the house, Carol had arrived, and after school the Friths came over for a brief visit. Robert, Debbie, Robby, and Sam came, but Christine was busy with some after school activity.

Robby loves to work on the computer. He was showing Sam videos of tornadoes

The new middle school on Golden Rd. at the end of the block, the Moore MST Magnet School, opened this fall. We watched the construction on our previous visits. It's a most impressive building and, from what we hear, a most impressive school. It's a magnet school for math, science, and technology. Carol says Christine regrets that it was not open during her years in middle school, when most of the classroom were in portable buildings.

school

school

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"Welcome to Tyler, the Rose Capital of the World"

When travelers arrive at Tyler Pounds Regional Airport, they are greeted with these words and the city's logo red rose. Today we drove to the airport for our exercise walk. It's an attractive locale, with low traffic and easy walking surfaces. After spending some time in the sunshine, we moved indoors and finished our walk in the air conditioning.

Afterward we went over to Carol and Dick's to visit. Tomorrow we'll join Dick in a visit to the Tyler Museum of Art, which now has an exhibition of Ansel Adams' early works.


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Friends

We are in Tyler for one of our regular visits with old friends Carol and Dick. As usual, Carol has her puzzle table set up, and we chat while hunting for elusive puzzle pieces.

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Back in East Texas

Dancing concluded at noon today, and we moved south to Tyler, where we'll be visiting Carol and Dick and family for the next week. We're at RVParks R Us, where we have stayed before. The managers specialize in East Texas hospitality. They seemed genuinely happy to see us again.

We have stayed at this park before, but last spring it was full. We're glad to be back. It's much more conveniently located for visiting in Tyler, and the RV lots are quite spacious.
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Paris, Y'All

Today we arrived in Paris . . . Paris, Texas, that is. We are here for the 35th annual TEXPACC square dance weekend. (TEXPACC is the Texas Premier Advanced and Challenge Convention.) The dancing is at the Red River Valley Fairgrounds, and that is where we are camped. It's not a cushy resort, but it sure is convenient for the dancing!

Some of our friends were here already when we arrived, but most people will show up tomorrow, since the dancing starts tomorrow evening. Meanwhile we are boning up on our C-2 calls, which we have not danced since AACE in Indianapolis in June. Read more!

Last Day Fun

We celebrated our last day of visiting with a long walk in the park, or was it a walk in a long park? We walked out and back on the Walnut Creek Linear Park Trail with Julie and Molly this afternoon.

This evening we all walked over to Mama's Pizza for dinner. The kids enjoyed playing the games.

Unfortunately our final "adventure" today wasn't any fun at all. As we were nearing the driveway of our RV park, we heard a scraping noise that sounded like it was coming from our truck. Once we cleared the entrance, Ken stopped and I jumped out with a flashlight, only to find that his bike had jumped off the bike rack and was being dragged on the ground! We put it back up on the rack and drove to our site. In the morning we'll assess the damages. This may lead to our buying new bikes a bit sooner than we had planned. Read more!

Date Night and Visit

This afternoon Julie and I took the kids to the nearby Cinemark 12 to see Hotel Transylvania 2. The kids enjoyed it. (Later we heard that the movie had taken the number two slot at the box office this weekend; why that would happen escapes me.)

Ed and Julie were going out to eat and to a concert this evening, so the grandparents volunteered to take Cate to her soccer practice and game. We got back from the movie and switched gears. Cate got ready for her game and we loaded the truck and headed out. Traffic was congested, so we were running late getting her to practice. Just as we almost got to the intramural fields, we were stopped in a long line of traffic while band members from a very large band carrying their instruments were crossing the road. It turned out that regional band competitions were being held at UTA today.

Kelley and Molly joined us at the game, and afterwards all of us headed back to the house. Everyone worked together to put the finishing touches on dinner. Afterwards we visited with Kelley and Molly, and Ken showed a slideshow of part of our trip to France. Molly had been to Normandy and recognized many of the sites there.

After the girls left, the kids got ready for bed, and I read some books to Jesse. A couple were about animals other than dinosaurs that were alive in the era of the dinosaurs. The final book was one of my favorites: The Monster at the End of This Book.

Ed called about 8:30 p.m. to tell us that the concert hadn't started yet, so they'd be home late. Both Ken and I were dozing in our chairs when Ed and Julie got home after midnight. (That's usually past my bedtime, and we have to get up early in the morning.) Read more!

Scenes from a Visit

Cate has inherited her mother's interest in painting--and her talent.

Sam is immersed in his game.

Jesse is watching something on Netflix.

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Loyd Park

We drove over to Loyd Park on Joe Pool Lake today. It's one of the places we wanted to check out as possible places to stay on future visits. Right now part of the campground is still closed due to flooding last spring, but we were able to walk through. We found only a very few campsites that would work for us, all in the currently closed section.

After touring the campgrounds, we took a walk along one of the trails in the park.

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