Picnic

Today, instead of our driving in to Tyler, the Tyler folks came to visit us. Dick and Carol came in Carol’s Prius, and the Friths arrived in their car just before 4 p.m. The campground was pretty quiet by then, since most of the weekend campers had left. The arrival of Christine and Robby definitely livened things up.

Robert, Debby, and Dick at the picnic table

I made a big pot of veggie chili, Ken fixed some coleslaw, and there were raw veggies and grapes. Carol supplied brown bread and butter. For dessert we had homemade applesauce. Afterwards we walked over to the lake and watched the ducks and the paddleboats. Robby was concerned that one duck was all alone, but later we saw that duck and another heading towards each other until they met in the middle of the lake. Christine skipped stones.

Fun by the lake

Ken built a nice fire, and I went to get the makings for s’mores—only to find that we didn’t have any marshmallows, drat! So we had popcorn around the fire instead. Everyone enjoyed just gathering around and looking at the fire.

Carol snaps a shot of her favorite subjects

Dick and Carol made their goodbyes and left before it got totally dark, but Robert and Debby and the kids stayed for a while. Robby ran around with a flashlight, shining it on everything. Christine gathered leaves and pine straw to thrown on the fire, which was burning down. When they left, it had been solidly dark for some time, so I was surprised to see that it wasn’t even 7 p.m.!
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Fun in Tyler

This morning I got up early to go garage saling with Carol. She had scoped out the ads and knew where each sale was located and was familiar with the neighborhoods and with the people who have regular sales. As you can see, she has this down to a science, and she has lots of garage sale finds to show for it. We each found several good items. My prize was a boxed set of David Sedaris audiobook CD's, which Ken and I will enjoy listening to as we travel. The morning brought back happy memories of old times in Nacogdoches when I would often accompany Carol on her garage sale forays.

Afterwards Carol invited me to go to aerobics with her. I was glad to have a chance to exercise, and I even remembered a lot of the step routines, but after about 20 minutes I realized that I was tiring quickly. It's clear that I'm really out of shape!

Ken came in to town around 11 and he and I went shopping. We had some things to get at Target, and we wanted to check Best Buy for Droid cases. We looked several places and finally decided to wait until more Droid accessories are available, which we expect they will be soon.

After a quick lunch we watched a DVD that Debbie had brought over: State of Play starring Russell Crowe and Ben Afleck. It was a fast paced political action thriller that we all enjoyed. I was especially glad to see Helen Mirren as the editor.

Then Dick and Carol took us to Luby's Cafeteria for a yummy dinner and then to a rhythm and blues show at Caldwell Auditorium. Lead singer Edwin Holt belted out songs from the repertory of Ray Charles and Sam Cooke. We all enjoyed his rendition of "Under the Boardwalk" with backup singers reminiscent of the Raylettes. The concert was unusual because members of the East Texas Symphony Orchestra played along with the sax, drums, trumpet, and electric guitars, so on one side of the stage was a dais where the conductor stood.

Edwin Holt and his group entertain the Tyler crowd.

Ken was having a problem with his Droid today--the sound had almost no volume, even turned up as high as possible. He finally called Verizon customer service
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Missing Day

It's 4/10/11, and I just noticed that I had no blog entry for 11/13/09. What to do? I checked my email, Quicken, and our photos.

One thing that evidently happened this day is that my new Droid was activated--yay! I got a "Welcome to Android" message from the Android Team.

We spent time at Dick and Carol's--I found one photo taken this day, of Ken with Robby in their living room. We didn't spend any money, so I guess we didn't go shopping.
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Arrival in Tyler

We left Livingston this morning after a very restful and enjoyable stay of nine days with no sightseeing beyond going to the library. We were glad to be "home" and really surprised that it had been 17 months since our last visit.

Our journey today was through the East Texas woods and small towns like Diboll and Alto that I remember from my years in Nacogdoches. We traveled north on Highway 69, which is a high speed four lane highway for most of the distance to Tyler, but is not limited access. We stopped just past Alto at a nice picnic area and ate lunch outside, enjoying the sunshine and mild weather.


After arriving at Tyler State Park and setting up, we headed over to Dick and Carol's house for a happy reunion and homemade pizza. Debbie's daughter, Christine, was there already, and Debbie stopped by later for a visit with Robbie on her way to Messiah practice. Robbie stayed and entertained us all.

We played some Boggle, and Christine held her own quite well. She is allowed to use 3-letter words, but found several longer words too. She is really growing up.

Our mail and package were waiting for us, and Ken could hardly wait to see his new Droid, but he did hold off on activating it, waiting until we could both do it together.

Activating our Droids turned out to be rather frustrating, since the signal at the park is not too strong. Ken was able to get his activated, but activation failed numerous times on mine, and then the screen went blank just after the advice to dial customer service from a landline. Maybe tomorrow.
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Last Day in Livingston

Today is our last day here for this trip, so made some preparations to leave. We returned the DVD of Bowling for Columbine we had borrorowed from the library here. We picked up our mail at the mail window so we wouldn't have to pay to forward the junk. Then we went downtown to the library and returned the DVDs and books we had borrowed (except that when we got home, we realized me had missed one, oops, so we'll have to take it back tomorrow). We picked up some groceries and some windshield washer fluid with bug remover.

The last item is not to clean windshields, actually, but to dissolve bugs on our end cap. Pretty much every time we travel, some bugs splatter on it and are a pain to get off. I found a suggestion on a forum to try the windshield cleaner. When we got home I put some in a spray bottle and checked it out. It did seem to work, but we'll have to wait until we have a full crop of stubborn bugs to see how well.

We've been having an ongoing problem with our refrigerator, with water dripping from the fins into the refrigerator compartment. The drip tray seemed to regularly overflow or freeze rather than directing excess condensation toward the drain hose at the back of the fridge. We had looked at the back of the fridge before but were unable to see what was wrong. Today we just reached in and pulled the end of the hose out so we could see if it was plugged up. Sure enough, it was. Curiously the plug was a molded plastic piece that looked like it was made to go in there, but we could see that the water couldn't drain with the plug in place, so Ken pulled it out with a pair of pliers.

We nearly tossed it at that point, but I made one last search of the web and chanced upon a forum discussion that mentioned that the plug should have a small drain hole. I poked a needle through, and now ours does. It must have been defective from the beginning. The plug is in place to keep insects out of the hose. We are so proud of ourselves for solving another problem through persistence and detective work, especially since we don't see ourselves as being especially handy.

During lunch we watched the bonus material DVD that came with E.T. The footage and description of making the original movie were very interesting, especially the way Spielberg worked with the kids. The material on the creation and working of the alien was quite amazing. We always know that what we see on the screen is an illusion, but seeing behind the scenes to view the ingenious ways that E.T. was animated was really eye opening.

This afternoon I won an Ebay auction for a Corning spouted saucepan to replace the one I broke a couple of weeks ago. Yay! If I'd realized how hard it is to get these things, I'd have been more careful with the original one. I lost another auction for one last week when someone outbid me by 50 cents at the last minute, so this time I was glued to the screen as the seconds ticked down.
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Bike Ride

We got out on our bikes today, just around Rainbow's End. We like looking at what various people have done with their property. We stopped at one home that is for sale and almost bought it (just kidding, but we really liked what we saw!). It had 3 hookups, so all our friends could come visit.

We also dropped off our applications to be Escapees CARE volunteers next October. We'll spend the month here helping with things like driving people to doctor's appointments, running errands, helping with meal prep and cleanup, etc. We think the work CARE is doing is really important--and we might need it someday!

We stopped by the club library and picked up a DVD of Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine. We had not seen this documentary before, and it had quite an impact on us. These are things we usually put out of our minds so we can get on with our lives, but of course the young people who were wounded at Columbine, like the multitudes of other victims of gun violence, can't so easily ignore it.
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Better Day

Today was definitely a better day. I even went out for a short walk and to the store.

We watched the DVD of E.T., the Extraterrestrial that we got from the library. The case included the original version and a 2002 version, released on the 20th anniversary. We decided to watch the 2002 version, with enhanced special effects. The story requires a lot of willing suspension of disbelief, but the performances and the special effects were still magical.

I made it to page 211 in the Dawkins book, which is at 95 million years ago, but the book goes back 4 billion years, so there's lots to go yet.
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Sick Day

I spent most of the day today on the couch, reading, doing sudokus, watching TV, or resting. In the morning I did not have a fever, but it was back in the evening. I'm reading The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution by Richard Dawkins, a 600+ page book. I started it in Portland, but didn't get very far, and was glad to find it again at the library here. Maybe I'll get further this time.

Ken has been reading a biography of John Adams by David McCullough, which he finds especially interesting since we recently visited his birth home, his later home, and his library and other historic places in Boston.

We watched a Nature episode on the black mamba. It was especially interesting to see the snakes being anesthetized to have surgery to implant radio transmitters.
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Not a Great Day

The morning started out okay, except that I seemed to feel tired out from breakfast and a shower--never a good sign. As the day wore on, I felt worse and worse and finally took my temp. It was elevated, so I took an aspirin. A couple of hours later, it was 101, so I decided I am officially sick (but hoping that I don't have a serious case of the flu). We called all around over the last few weeks, looking for flu shots, but there have been none available.

On the other hand, for Ken it's a red letter day. He ordered our Droids online to be sent to Carol's house, so we'll probably have them in hand next Thursday. As a partial offset, we suspended out Hughesnet internet service for 6 months. We won't be out in the boonies during that time--in fact, we'll spend most of it in the RGV. At Bentsen Palm we can get a cable modem and have highspeed service, and other than that we'll be in EVDO territory, so the Verizon broadband modem will work fine--and hopefully the Droids will too.

We are trying to get some of our routine maintenance done. Today, Ken drained and flushed the hot water heater.
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Gorgeous Day

We ate lunch outside today, remarking on what a gorgeous day it is (76 right now and sunny). Unfortunately, some pesky bees thought our lunch looked good too.

We did our laundry this morning. At the laundry room I saw a card on the bulletin board offering haircuts (your place or mine) in the park, so I called and scheduled a haircut this afternoon. How convenient is that? I sat outside of Bonnie's motorhome and chatted with her while she cut my hair. I biked over to her site, and along the way my wallet fell out of my pocket. Ken called to tell me that some kind person had returned it to him. I felt very lucky to be in an Escapees park (and made a note never to carry my wallet in those pants again....).

We finally got around to sending in an application to join the Boomer BOF. BOF stands for Birds of a Feather, and is what the Escapees call their interest groups. The Boomers describe their group as "primarily a self-actuating social group of active, 'younger' full and part-timers." They use a website and bulletin board to let members tell what they are up to and issue invitations to other Boomers in the area to get together.

I made spicy black bean cakes for dinner, inspired by a recipe from the Splendid Table. They turned out quite good--just as promised: crispy and brown on the outside and creamy inside.
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Busy Day

Ken started out this morning volunteering at the CARE Center helping to set up a model railroad for the holidays. He spent most of his time putting track together. I went to the morning line dance session and had fun learning a few new easy dances. I was glad to find that I still remember the basic steps.

I guess you're never too old to play with trains...

This afternoon we went out to get groceries. We also stopped at the Red Barn Builders Supply. They offer Escapees a discount on propane, so we got our empty tank filled. We also got some treated lumber to use for leveling boards.

This evening we went to the Activities Center for dinner. The menu included meatloaf, mashed potatoes, veggies, salad, and pineapple upside down cake. We chatted with some of the people at our table. One couple, Johnny and Dot, are here for the RV Boot Camp that starts tomorrow, and then they are on their way to the Rio Grande Valley. They've been RVing for 20 years, so we're a bit skeptical that they'll learn much. We also talked with a widower who owns property here at Rainbow's End. He indicated that he plans to sell soon and buy a stick house in Pennsylvania, where he used to live.

Our neighbors moved out today. We noticed the guy was tying their bikes to the bumper in addition to having them on a platform rack similar to ours. I went over to talk to him and found out that they had had one bike come partially off the rack. He also said that it helped stabilize the rack (ours is very wobbly). He had had a welding shop weld some of the joints that had too much play in them.
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Chores

We had another unexciting day today. We reorganized some of the stuff in our basement storage (we always enjoy organizing). Ken replaced the batteries in the atomic clock and remote thermometer.

I defrosted the refrigerator/freezer because the temperature of the refrigerator compartment had gone up. When I talked to Terri later, she said that she had never defrosted a fridge . . .

We heard that Debbie Frith (Carol's daughter) had an ultrasound and found out that she is having another boy, to join daughter Christine and son Robby. Congratulations to the expectant parents and grandparents.

We watched parts 1-3 of a Peter Whimsey show on DVD, the Five Red Herrings. I think Ken has figured out the murderer, but we'll have to wait until we watch part 4 tomorrow to be sure.
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Back to Rainbow's End

We headed back to Livingston today to spend a week or so. After we set up we ate lunch and then drove to Murphy Memorial Library. I got a library card when we were here in April, 2008, more than 18 months ago. My objective today was not only to browse the collection to find some books and DVDs to check out, but also to sign up for access to online resources. I couldn't do that last year, because the library requires that you have a card for at least 6 months without having too many fines or overdue books. Since we haven't been here, it's clear that I haven't incurred any fines.

We are camped in a wooded area, very attractive. We thought we might not be able to get a view of the southern sky for our Qube, but Ken was successful in finding a hole in the trees.



When we took the bike cover off the bikes we discovered that Ken's bike had come loose from its clamp and had gotten pretty badly banged up. It's fortunate that the cover was strong enough to keep the bike from falling, but we'll have to figure out how to insure that the bike doesn't come loose again.
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Another Quiet Day

Not much happening around here today. We played some pool (Ken whupped me), and I went for a short walk. We did some research and made a reservation for a campground near Georgetown, TX, where we expect to stay November 29 (now that's advance planning). It's called Berry Springs RV Park, and sounds like the sort of place we might want to stay a week at, but we'll actually just spend the night, since we'll be making tracks for the Rio Grande Valley. It's an Escapees discount park and the very first one we've encountered that offers complimentary laundry facilities.

Chris invited me to try out Google Wave, which is in limited release while it's being tested. It's billed as a "an online tool for real-time communication and collaboration." The demos look very interesting, but unless you're doing collaborative work with documents and visuals, it may not be very useful. It was very cool to be able to drag a photo into a conversation and have it just appear there. I could see using it as an enhanced instant messaging system, but it doesn't have some of the very positive features of IM--like, for example, a useful alert to tell you that something has been added by another person.
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Sunny Day

We had a quiet day today, with only a stroll by the lake to get us out of our chairs. We both worked on cleaning up some computer files, made a couple of phone calls, and watched a little TV. (This is for all you folks who say we are busy, busy, busy ....)

There's still a big empty space we are aware of where Sweetie used to be in our lives, and it's thrown me a bit off balance. I'll have to make more of an effort to get out and meet people and get some fresh air and exercise, since I no longer have a sweet dog to walk.
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Happy Halloween!

Terri called today from Salem, MA, scene of a giant Halloween festival, where she and Blake and Molly were exploring the haunted happenings and enjoying the costumes of fellow revelers. We had a much tamer celebration, with a lasagna buffet, costume party, and dj dance at the clubhouse. We didn't stay long, partly because of the many people smoking indoors.

Spooky aliens, watch out!

We played some Rummikub, with Ken winning one and me the other.
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Rematch

The rain seems to have let up, fortunately. We went shopping and got some orange tee-shirts with black alien faces to wear for Halloween, since the campground where we are staying has a Halloween party planned. I also got some canvas to use for a project: making shoe pockets to put along the side of the bed.

That's our Qube with the lake in the background

We played Upwords again, and this time I won both games, so we are now even.

Today has been pretty rough for me. I gathered all of Sweetie's things and cleaned them up and did a load of laundry. So now there's an empty space where Sweetie used to be, in the trailer and in my heart.

I took the opportunity of a letup in the rain to clean the bug remains from the endcap. I wish someone would invent an efficient, nontoxic bug dissolver. This job always involves lots of scrubbing.
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Sad Day

Today is a very sad day for me. My friend and companion of the last 15 years has passed on. Sweetie was 17, which is pretty old in dog years, and she had been going downhill for a while. It is very hard to say goodbye to her.

We are camped in the middle of a sea of puddles. It's been raining pretty much all day, sometimes hard. Unfortunately, our leaks are back. It's an altogether depressing day.

We played some Upwords today. Ken won both games. I'll have to demand a rematch tomorrow.
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Fingers Crossed

We climbed up on the roof today to see if we could find the source of our living room leak. We discovered that the weather boot on the coax leading out of the TV antenna had slipped off, so we replaced it. We also lubricated the TV antenna as directed with silicone spray (partly to make it operate more smoothly and partly to help insure that the rubber ring inside doesn't dry up and cause a future leak).

We also replaced the duct tape on the bed slide. It's raining now, and we're supposed to have a "gully washer" tomorrow according to one of the locals, so we'll have a good test of our repair measures. Here's hoping we have our fingers in the right holes in the dike...

It was supposed to be sunny today, and we did see the sun this morning, but the rest of the day was overcast with scattered drizzle. It was warm, though, so that's one good thing. We took a brief walk and found the mosquitoes or some sort of biting bugs.
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Move to Porter

We've headed a bit farther south--in search of some warmer, dryer weather. Today we actually saw the sun, and the high was near 70. We're camped overlooking a 12-acre lake. As usual, there's freeway noise, and a train, but it's still rather peaceful, with egrets stalking about on the lake.




We had a day without rain, so things have had a chance to start drying. Tomorrow is forecast to be mostly sunny and warmer. We'll have a week here and plan to get some chores done and just relax.
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