Progress!

We are happy to report that we have finished one stage of our photo project: all our photos from both our computers have been organized into one series organized by month. We've made a backup copy on a portable hard drive that we'll leave at Ed's house, and the master copy is on Ken's laptop. Yay! Now we can move on to doing more culling--and then adding captions, etc. Ken, of course, will continue to tweak photos.
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Another Big Move

Today was our big move—all the way from site 110 to site 130. In between we made a trip to the dump station to empty our tanks, so we’re all set for the next five nights here. Site 130 is a double site and faces the water, so we have a great view. I drove up to the gate to check out and check in, and on the way back I finally saw a deer, just as it disappeared into the woods.

We grilled some chicken and ate dinner at our picnic table (actually, one of our picnic tables), looking out over the lake and watching the boaters. After dinner we walked down to the boat ramp to watch the sunset before taking our evening walk.

The weekenders have left, so the campground is quiet and peaceful.
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Visiting Marshall, TX

We made a trip to Marshall today to do our laundry and shopping and get diesel. As usual, we tried to locate a laundromat using the Maps program on our Droids, and it sent us on a wild goose chase. The first place was a regular laundry, and closed on Saturday afternoons to boot. The next two places didn't exist. Finally we identified another laundromat on Superpages and headed towards it with some trepidation. Finally, an open working laundromat! Success. And it had high efficiency machines too.

When we started out on our evening walk, we immediately noticed some raindrops. We hadn't expected rain--but we got a bit of a thunderstorm, so we cut our walk short.

We watched an episode of Masterpiece Mystery we had Tivoed. It turned out to be a repeat of one we had seen last year, but we didn't remember the murderer until near the end, so we watched it anyway. Read more!

Walk in the Woods

This morning we again took our walk first thing, before breakfast, to beat the heat. We headed for the hiking trail we had spotted last night. It turned out to be mainly what looked like a Jeep track. After a while we came upon a small clearing with a deer blind. Yikes! There must be hunting allowed pretty close to the campground. Fortunately it doesn't seem to be hunting season, but we didn't see any deer--nothing bigger than a squirrel. We heard birds singing and crows making a racket (they definitely don't sing!).

The trail didn't seem to be leading anywhere, so we turned around and walked back out. When we got home it was still pleasant, so we had breakfast outside. Later in the day it is too hot and humid to be comfortable outside. After breakfast we took our laptops out to the picnic table to review photos. We're working in one-hour stretches on harmonizing our photos.

Ken got the gas grill out. It's our new Weber that we've only used a few times. He likes the electronic ignition. He grilled some turkey burgers for supper. Read more!

Quiet Day

As we promised ourselves, we are taking some time out from visiting and sightseeing to just relax. This morning we took our morning walk before breakfast, before the heat could build up. One nice aspect to this campground is lots of shade, which also helps keep the walker cool.

We worked some more on our photos, hoping soon to get them all coordinated anyhow. Then we'll want to cull them and add captions and tags--it's a never ending occupation, but also good for our memories.

Tonight on our evening walk we were out after dark, and we spotted a hiking trail sign, at a place we had passed at least three times before without noticing it. We'll go explore there tomorrow in the daylight. Read more!

Exploring Brushy Creek

We walked around the campground this morning, checking out the sites and the lake. The Corps of Engineers has done their usual good job here, with well spaced sites terraced up from the lake. Each RV site has a paved pad, a concrete patio with an aluminum picnic table, a lantern hanger, and a fire pit. All have water and either 50 amp or 30 amp electric.

Some are pull-thrus, including site #130, the site we will move to next Sunday. It's also a double site. We didn't need a double site, but it was the only one left when we made our reservations. We'll appreciate the opportunity to move after five days, since that means we'll have a chance to dump our tanks.

The water went off this morning. Fortunately we had some in our freshwater tank, so we just had to turn the pump on. While we were out walking, we came upon these workers fixing the water supply.

We walked over to a remote group of tent sites, where we spotted this egret. We decided to sit down and watch it fishing for its breakfast, but it flew off.

After supper I decided to make some banana bread, so I got a chance to use my new bowls. They worked great!

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Move to Brushy Creek

Today turned out to be a rather long day. We got to bed late, so we decided to get up later than usual. It was after 11:00 a.m. when we pulled out of our campsite at Lake Park in Lewisville and headed east to camp at Lake of the Pines. Our first rest stop was at the Tanger Outlets. This is *not* the way to speed up your trip! We did find the silicone wine stoppers we were looking for.

Along the way our GPS and Droids didn't entirely agree on a route. At one point we stopped to check the map, and a lady stopped to help us out. Only she didn't know how to get where we wanted to go, but she was unwilling to admit it. "Let me see that map book!" she said. Finally she said we were headed the right direction and left. We started to see signs for Lake'O the Pines, which was very reassuring, but then we came to Tejas Rd., where our GPS said for us to turn--but no signs.... We came to a T in the road and stopped to regroup, and that's when another lady decided to *help* us.

She said, "Are you looking for the campground? That's the way to go." When I asked, dubiously, if we could get through, she said sure. So we proceeded, and the road continued to narrow among the pines. We came to a locked gate. The road continued, but we decided not to. So I turned around (keep in mind that we are about 50' long, so it wasn't a 3-point turn!). We went back out to the highway, and soon we came to the very welcome Corps of Engineers sign for Brushy Creek. Yay! When we pulled up at the campground entry kiosk, they said "Marks?" and welcomed us warmly.

The campground and lake looked so inviting that we relaxed and moved into our spot--easy access, nice paved pad, shade, but no trees in the way of the slides. Well, mostly not in the way. Ken's view out the dining table window is a bit obstructed by the large pine trunk about 8 inches from the window....

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Last Day in Lewisville

This morning Ken finally managed to have his upper GI and abdominal ultrasound. The results seemed encouraging--only a small hiatal hernia. While Ken was having his tests, I stopped over at Ed and Julie's briefly and caught these cute photos:

Then I took the Silverado in to a Chevy dealer to have a recall "service" performed. They permanently disabled the windshield washer fluid heater. This was the second recall on that item, which we never planned to use. In return, Chevy is supposed to send us $100 compensation.

After I picked Ken up at the hospital, we went back over to Ed and Julie's for a final visit, shower, and laundry.

Jesse loves Grandpa Ken's shoelaces!

We got home just in time to fix a quick supper before I returned to watch Jesse while Julie took the older kids to see Ramona and the Beezus. Ed left today for a business trip, and the kids miss him most the first evening he is gone, so the movie would make a good distraction.

This time it was much easier to get Jesse to sleep, mainly because I had learned a bit from watching Julie. I lay down on their bed with him, and he immediately started to relax. After just a little fussing, he was sound asleep.
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Sunday, Sunday

I was feeling much better this morning, finally. After brunch, we took our walk, ending up where the truck was parked, outside the campground. We drove the truck back to our campsite and then spent some time cleaning up and rearranging the truck box, putting the new oil in, etc. By the time I had finished that, I could have done the backstroke in my accumulated sweat! I had almost forgotten how oppressively hot and humid Texas can be in September.

It was afternoon by the time we were ready to head over to Ed and Julie's. Ed and Sam and I went to Costco, while Julie and Jesse went to Tom Thumb, and Ken and Cate stayed home. Costco had its usual weekend crowds, meaning we had to hunt for a parking space and fight our way through some of the aisles, but both Ed and I found plenty that looked good (Compari tomatoes, strawberries, whole grain bread, chicken, and more). Sam had a little nap in the cart, with his head cushioned by my reusable shopping bags, but woke up when Ed pushed the cart into the cold produce room. Must have been a bit of a shock to find himself refrigerated! Sam was very proud to carry the receipt to the checker at the door, who joshed with him and drew a smiley face on the receipt.

Cate and Ken had been enjoyed the peace and chatting. Cate played some computer games and watched TV. Ken no doubt did some of the same.

Ed marinated and grilled some delicious chicken for dinner. I fixed some butternut squash, mashed with a little butter and cinnamon, that Jesse really liked.

After dinner Ed and Cate and Ken and I played Ingenious. Cate and Ed had played a two player game this morning, and Ed reported that the game board got closed off amazingly quickly. The other three players left me in the dust. Ken won by a hairsbreadth.

Sam and Cate pose with me and my birthday presents.

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Quality Time With the Grandkids

We always try to give Ed and Julie an opportunity for a "date night" while we're here. Tonight they finally had a chance to see Avatar in 3D--the special re-release with "never before seen" footage. They really enjoyed it--and the chance to get out together. We had fun with the kids. Cate was a big help. She made some hot chocolate, and Ken commented that she seemed to know where everything chocolate was in the house.

After a bit, Jesse got hungry and fussy, probably because of his emerging tooth. He ate the rest of his baby food Julie had set out, along with some baby finger food. When he ran out of interest in food, I changed him and got him to sleep. Sounds easy, huh? Jesse doesn't want to miss anything, and his teeth were bothering him, so keeping him calm and relaxed until he finally fell asleep meant I got to spend plenty of time baby cuddling, but not so much playing with the older kids.

By the time Jesse was asleep, they were ready for bed too. We got into pajamas and picked out books to read, and soon they were asleep too. That's about when Ken and I turned to each other and said, Avatar is a long movie. It started at 7:30 in Plano. Guess that means we walk into the campground tonight. The gates close at 11:00 p.m.

Since the weather was nice, that wasn't really a problem. When Ed walked in the door, he said he had expected to find us asleep in his bed and a note telling him and Julie to find a couch!

Here are some interesting vehicles parked in the campground. At first we thought the one was just a hippie van, but then we noticed the front window is painted and it's evidently being towed.

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Birthday Celebration

This morning we got up early so we could stop by the doctor's office on the way to the hospital for our tests. We dropped off an SASE for our lab results and a printout of "The ABCs of Providing the Initial Preventive Physical Examination" that I found on the web, which included the correct codes to bill Medicare for the physical (as well as the required elements, not all of which we got).

Chris and Annie called to sing Happy Birthday to me. It's always wonderful to hear their voices, but I wasn't feeling too well, so the conversation was short.

Then we went over to the hospital to check in for our tests. Ken was scheduled at 9:30 for an upper GI and an abdominal ultrasound, and I was scheduled at 10:45 for a mammogram and bone density test. We were standing at registration when we realized that a) I couldn't find my wallet with my ID and insurance cards and b) Ken was supposed to be NPO, but had forgotten and eaten breakfast. So he had to reschedule his tests (for next Monday) and we had to go home to get my wallet. When we got here, I realized that it had been in my purse all along, just in a zipper compartment I hadn't checked. At least I did get my tests done successfully.

We went over to Ed and Julie's (they live near the hospital) to wait for Park Place to call about the truck. Ken ended up going to get the truck, and I took a nap. Kelley came over in time to help with the kids while Ed and Julie went to a doctor appointment.

When they came home, we had pizza and salads for dinner and then I got to open my presents. Cate gave me a ring with a jewel on it, and Julie had knitted a scarf for me. Terri sent some silicone bowls I had on my wish list, and Chris sent an Ingenious game. He and Annie and Ken and I had played it while we were in Yellowstone this summer. It's a tile laying game with some "ingenious" twists.

Kelley had baked a pineapple cake and Ken got a frozen mud pie, so I got to blow out two candles (glad it wasn't 65!). After cake and ice cream we played Ingenious. Sam was "helping" his dad, so Ed didn't get to see his tiles much. Cate and Kelley played together, and Ken and I played. Ed almost won, with five of his six colors ingenioused, but then he didn't draw the right tiles. Cate ended up sneaking past all of us, so her team won.
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Lee's (Un)Birthday

Today was my 65th birthday, but I was a pretty sick cookie, so we decided to make it my unbirthday and celebrate tomorrow instead. I definitely had a fever and overall aches, etc., as well as a very painful arm where I got the pneumonia and tetanus shots. Tomorrow is sure to be a better day.

I did get lots of birthday greetings (phone calls, ecards and Facebook postings), so I know a lot of people are thinking about me. Thanks, everyone!
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Welcome to Medicare!

This morning we got up early to find it still raining heavily outside, as it had all night, so we didn't get a morning walk. What we did was head over to Flower Mound for our appointments for our one-time-only Welcome to Medicare Physicals. We got there a bit early for our 8:00 a.m. appointments, an achievement in itself for us.

The experience was not as satisfying as we had hoped. The office staff appeared never to have heard of the Welcome to Medicare physical, despite my having specifically made an appointment for it. Neither the doctor nor the staff seemed at all concerned. They generally thought Medicare wouldn't pay for the tests we got, but their only response was to get us to sign two copies of forms indicating that we would pay if Medicare didn't. Sheesh!

Neither of us cared for the doctor. She seemed to us to have a breezy manner that waved off our concerns. She didn't listen well at all. For example, I asked for three vaccines (flu, pneumonia, and tetanus). She asked the nurse to give me the pneumonia shot. I asked about the flu and tetanus. The nurse came back in after a while and gave me a flu shot and asked if I had talked to the doctor about the tetanus shot. You get the picture.

For both Ken and me she changed medications without any explanation at all of why the new ones would be better. We did both get blood work done and EKGs. She referred me for a mammogram and bone density test, and she referred Ken for an upper GI and abdominal ultrasound (in case his gall bladder might be involved in his acid reflux). Fortunately we were able to schedule all the tests this Friday morning.

Welcome to Medicare, indeed! We're thinking we'll try again to find a doctor in the Rio Grande Valley, where we actually spend more time than anywhere else.

Some good things did happen today. Aunt Iris called and sang Happy Birthday to me (every year she thinks my birthday is the 8th, but better early than late!). A package arrived at Ed's for me from Bits and Boards, clearly a birthday present from Chris. Ken sent me a day before my birthday ecard. I've gotten greetings from several people by email or Facebook. Beth tells me I'm only as old as I act (not feel)!

In the late afternoon the sun came out! We went for a quick walk before going over to Ed and Julie's for dinner (yummy parmesan crusted baked chicken). Afterward we played Wii, of course! Both Cate and Sam are very enthusiastic about the games.

Jesse was feeling a bit under the weather today, with two teeth trying to poke out of his gums. I'm definitely feeling under the weather tonight. After three shots I have a very sore arm and headache and chills.
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Truck Repairs

Sadly, our truck needs lots of TLC--and new front brakes (again). We took it in to Park Place this morning. Ed was there to help us out--and to take his minivan in for brake work too. We were told some time back (in early July, when we were in Jackson Hole) that our rotors had small cracks and needed to be replaced. We decided to wait until we got to Dallas. Park Place has worked on it before, we trust them, and we get Ed's employee discount. What's not to like? We needed some routine maintenance done too, since the truck now has over 52,000 miles on it.

Our next stop was at Carrollton Eye Care, where we got our annual eye checks. Ken has been seeing some flashes and floaters, which Dr. Buthod said is due to vitreous separation. The symptoms may go away, they may stay the same, and they might get worse. If they get worse, the problem can be corrected by laser surgery.

We stopped at Office Depot on the way home, where Ken picked up a laptop sleeve for his new laptop (I'm inheriting his old case) and a small lapdesk. We also couldn't pass up a 4 GB thumb drive for $7.99--amazing how much the price of storage has come down.

Later in the day we got a call detailing some of the costs for our truck repair--just under $900, with more possibly to come. Just one of the costs of this lifestyle, we say, as we bite the bullet and tell them of course we need the work done. We're hoping we've learned our lesson and now know how to use the electric trailer brakes and the truck transmission to do way more of the work.

We spent several afternoon hours pulling together our medical records and concerns and filling out the online new patient forms for our doctor visit tomorrow morning.
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Labor Day!

Ed and the kids were planning to come home from Longview around 5 p.m., so we spent the day laboring--working on our music and photo files. We're actually making progress--I'm sure we are! This does give us a chance to see our old photos and be reminded of all our great family and friends.

We took a break to eat an early dinner. I went over to Ed's and visited and played Wii with the kids, while Ken stayed home and worked on his files. He's learning a new photo organizing software program called IDimager. It appears that it will save metadata in at least three different formats, so when we put captions and tags on photos, they won't disappear when we open them in a different program.
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Visiting Julie and Jesse

Today Ed and Cate and Sam were in Longview, so we had a chance to visit with Julie and Jesse. We took our laundry over and were impressed by the new electronic washer and dryer, which did a very good job.

What to do on a free day? Oh, yes, shopping. We went to Costco first, where we stocked up on some of the food items we usually get there. In addition, we found a 500 GB Western Digital hard drive on sale, just the thing we needed for Ken to back up his computer. And we found a set of three stainless steel, BPA free water bottles, each with its own neoprene sleeve, which of course I couldn't resist. (Ken says it should be years before we need any more water bottles.)

Then we went to Ikea, hoping especially to find a mirror with scissor type extension like Kelley had got there, but no luck. As always, we did enjoy looking at all the creative and colorful Ikea items and ideas. Julie got a couple of things, including a roll of paper for the kids' easel, so the trip wasn't entirely wasted.

(Note: the next day, I found the mirror online at Amazon.com, so I went to the Ikea site and checked inventory for the FRACK mirror. It said the Frisco store had 154 of them. The next day I called, sat on hold for over 10 minutes before finally getting a live person to tell me that the computer inventory was in error. They were out of stock, but expecting some sometime next week--when we won't be here anymore. Darn!)

Grandpa got to sit in the back seat and keep Jesse happy on the way home (a trick mainly accomplished with treats).

I happened to notice this very cute picture on Ed and Julie's computer desktop, so of course I grabbed a copy:

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Labor Day Weekend

It's Saturday, and officially Labor Day Weekend, but you'd hardly know it from the activity here at the park. We did see some groups of picnickers, boaters, and campers, but not as many as we expected. There are empty campsite in the campground even. Maybe more people will show up tomorrow or Monday.

Ken was very happy to watch the Michigan Wolverines beat the University of Connecticut on their first pre-conference game, especially since they won by 20 points. Notre Dame next week may pose more of a challenge.

We managed to finish coordinating our music today, so now Ken has all the music files on his computer. We still have lots more photos to work with. We have to remind ourselves to stand up and stretch regularly. Otherwise we'd just become glued to our chairs in front of the computers!
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Moving Day

Today we moved on to Lewisville, one of our favorite urban parks. On the way we stopped in Denton to have lunch with Kelley. It was great to see her again and get updated on her life. We went to Luigi's Pizza and shared a really good Neapolitan pizza and salads while we talked.

We next went to Camping World to look for a few small things we needed for the rig (always something). Then on to Lake Park. This time we got site #73 in the 50 amp row, which is usually reserved for larger rigs, mainly motorhomes. We're glad to have the 50 amp to run the air conditioning. Even though the heat wave has passed, it's still over 90 and humid here.

Once we got settled we headed over to visit the kids. Cate and Sam ran out to greet us--and both of them had the same first words: "Did you bring your Wii???" Sad to say I had forgotten the Wii, but I promised to bring it the next time we came.

Jesse has really been doing lots of growing and learning new things since the last time we saw him in April. He just turned seven months old and is becoming both verbal and mobile. He also knows when strangers approach, and he sometimes takes a while to warm up to new people. We gave him plenty of space to get to know us, and by the end of the evening, he was flirting and smiling at us and letting me hold him (although he did give me some long inquiring looks).

After dinner Cate and Ed and Sam and I played Chinese checkers. Cate really likes to set up the long jumps. Ed and Sam beat us--they had the longest jumping superhighway!
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More Rain

It's easy to tell we're back in Texas. When the weather forecast says thunderstorms are possible, we actually have a storm! Last night we saw an impressive display of heat lightening off to the east. We figured that the storm was probably moving away from us, but all night long the rain pounded down. The rain gauge showed nearly an inch of rain. The good part is that the soil is so sandy that there were no puddles on the ground this morning.

We took some bags along on our hike, hoping to find the muscadine grapes we had noticed before. We didn't find any grapes, but we did come across lots of deer hoof prints. Most of the "wildlife" we've seen here has been millions of grasshoppers. If we liked fried grasshoppers, we'd have a feast!
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Medicare Day

Today I woke up and thought--it's September, and I'm officially on Medicare. Wow, I must really be getting old.

Not much happening today. We did some laundry and watched the rain and spent some time working on our photos and trip planning. We played some more pool, and this time Ken just won a couple of games outright and let me win one. It's good to have some low-key time.
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