Expect Change

We went in this morning for the 8:00 a.m. volunteer meeting and guess what? Thinkgs have changed again 8-) Suddenly we weren't driving today. Instead we were scheduled for the 4:00 p.m. kitchen duty. It turns out that one of the couples will not be able to make it, so the schedule was completely reworked.

So, figuring we were free until 4:00 p.m., we headed out on our morning walk. We went over to the Escapees campground office, where they sell Escapees merchandise, to pick up a lanyard. Some of the other folks here wear them: it simplifies putting on your name badge along with a CARE Volunteer badge and a CARE bear.

We were on our way back home when my phone rang. It was Dan (the volunteer coordinator) calling to say that the lady who was supposed to come in today to do the residents' laundry would not be available and asking us to do the job. I told him we had to make a quick trip to the grocery store and we'd be right over.

Fortunately the housekeeper, Lesley, had actually collected and started some of the laundry. She went and picked up some more, so we had plenty to do, especially keeping track of whose laundry was where and how they wanted it done. Some want their clothing on hangers; others want it all folded. There were several special requests. We were making pretty good progress when we found out that there was one more resident who needed her laundry done. Her file card had not been pinned in the Thursday section of the bulletin board.

Another complication is that the machines have to be sanitized between residents, which means running an entire cycle with a sanitizer, plus one of the three dryers isn't working. We were definitely finding it a challenge, but (mostly) keeping things running smoothly, when Myrna, Dan's wife, showed up to take over and sent us home to rest up before our 4:00 p.m. assignment. (Thanks, Myrna!)

We were back over at CARE to help with the evening meal and cleanup. The good part is that we got to eat crawfish etouffee over rice with salad and banana pudding before we had to go help with the cleanup.

Friday mornings are special at CARE. Bobbie fixes a big breakfast, and lots of outsiders come to eat. She gets in very early to start. We don't have to be over there until 6:30 a.m.!
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TIRED!!!

We started early this morning so we could shadow Brad and Jacalyn, who were assigned to 8:30 kitchen duty. Dan diverted Jacalyn to doing residents' laundry, so Brad got the job of teaching us the ropes. We were on our feet from the time we arrived until we sat down briefly to eat lunch before jumping back up again to clean up.

We met Bobbie, the cook, and Calvin, her husband and assistant, who were already hard at work preparing the noon meal. They were very kind and helpful to us newbies. Joe, who is in charge of dishwashing, also took the time to teach us and to give us encouragement.

I found out that Joe is also a barber from way back and cuts hair for the CARE residents, volunteers, and Rainbow's End residents, as well as some community people, so I made an appointment for right after our shift ended to get my shaggy mane trimmed. Joe did an excellent job--and threw in a scalp massage to boot!

During the break between lunch cleanup and showing up to help with supper, Ken went over to talk with Bud and Pearl. He's driving them to Kingwood for a doctor's appointment tomorrow. At 4:00 p.m. we went back to work. More like...we dragged ourselves back over to work. I ran into Dan, the volunteer coordinator. When he saw how tired I was, he suggested that we not stick around for the whole shift. Supper is a more lightly attended meal, and they had it covered, so we stayed to help with prep and serving and then headed home.
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Volunteers!

We went to our first volunteer orientation today. It started at 1:00 p.m., so we thought we'd have plenty of time to pick up our mail afterwards (the mail window is open 1-4). Wrong! We finished up around 4:20 p.m. and needed to be back at the CARE Center by 5:00 p.m. to shadow the on call volunteers. We only had time for a quick salad and deep breath before heading back to the Center.

5:00 p.m. is the evening meal time from Monday through Saturday. The on call volunteers keep a record of who is there for the meal and generally help out in the dining room. They also get to eat if they wish. Tonight the menu was pizza and dessert. After the meal we were watching the folks in the kitchen, and they asked us to come in and watch what they were doing. Before we knew it, we were washing dishes. The idea is to learn by doing! We earned our little Care Bears today.

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Tyler to Livingston

We got up this morning excited to be opening a new chapter in our RV adventures, but first we realized we had forgotten to take a photo of our site at 5 Star RV Resort in Tyler, so here it is:

Our site at 5 Star RV Resort in Tyler was pretty basic.

As you can see, we had already started getting Venture ready for today's trip. We decided to take our morning walk around another part of the "trail" shown on the park map. As we started out, the owner stopped by on his golf cart to give us some advice. He said that he had some arrows ready to put up to direct people along the trail, but they aren't up yet. We did manage to have a nice walk in the woods. It was cool, so for the first time in many weeks, we wore our jackets on the walk.

We left for Rainbow's End around 9:40 a.m. for the 150 mile trip. We made a couple of stops to change drivers and to check out a produce stand. We were disappointed that our Verizon cell and data service were very spotty along the way. At one point I realized I had a voicemail, but I had to wait for a while to retrieve it, since we had no cell service. When I got the message, it was from Dan Duryea, the volunteer coordinator at CARE. He was calling to let us know that a space was already available for us in the CARE volunteer area, since they only had two teams of volunteers in September.

That made it easier for us. We had expected to stay in one of the regular campsites until our volunteer month started on Friday. There are seven volunteer sites, all in a row behind the CARE Center, and we chose one in the middle, site #39.

View of Venture in site #39, looking toward the back of the CARE Center.

Looking towards the south.

After we had lunch and got set up, we read over the new volunteer manual (extensive and very detailed)--most of which we'll have to read over many times. Then we went over to talk to Dan and find out our assignments. He talked with us for a while and gave us our "Care Bears."

We have a volunteer meeting tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. at which we'll learn lots more, we're sure. Meanwhile we walked around and met lots of nice people. One was a resident in a wheelchair who told us (cheerfully) that he was in a bad mood!
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Last Day in Tyler

Today was our last day in Tyler. We took the opportunity this morning to walk the trail and see the little pond. The trail wasn't much, but there was a swing by the pond, which actually had a few lily pads with blossoms.

We went over to Dick and Carol's afterward and ate the rest of our pizza from yesterday (still good) and more pumpkin custard (definitely still yummy!). Then Carol and I went shopping for a new swing set while Dick and Ken stayed home and watched the Dallas-Houston game.

We went first to Atwood's Ranch and Home Store, where we found only one swing set that didn't look too appealing. However, while looking for the swing set, Carol came upon a porch glider for a good price. She'd been looking for one since the tree the swing was hanging from fell down, so she decided to buy it. A store employee helped us load it in the back seat of the truck.

Then we drove to Spring Creek RV Resort to check it out. The sites were larger than the ones where we are now, and the parked looked more appealing and shady than this one, so we'll give it a try the next time we are in Tyler.

After a quick stop to pick up some groceries, we headed next to ToysRUs, which had advertised a wooden playset marked down. They had two left, so Carol grabbed one. Again a store employee helped us load it up, but this time the packages were *much* larger and heavier. They fit well in the truck bed, and Carol got Robert and some neighbors to help unload everything at home.

We got there in time to finish fixing the lasagna (Ken had done some of the preliminaries while we shopped). Debbie and family came over for dinner and games. Ken fixed salads. Carol had made brown bread, and we had pumpkin custard with ice cream for dessert.

Little Sam has grown quite a bit since we saw him last. He's a very smiley baby. While we were playing Rummikub, he was jumping in his jumper and put himself to sleep:

We finished the evening off by playing a few rounds of Boggle. A good time was had by all.
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Garage Sales and Blues Brothers

This morning Carol and I got to have some fun going to garage sales together. It's always interesting to see what finds are out there. There weren't very many sales, but both of us got some good bargains and had a good time looking.

Ken came over a little after 10:00 bringing laundry to do. Mostly we just hung around and talked. In the afternoon Carol and I did some grocery shopping and looking at swing sets.

After dinner tonight we watched one of my "finds"--a DVD of the original Blues Brothers movie. I hadn't seen it in many years, and the others had never seen it. A lot of the special effects are a bit dated (the movie came out in 1980), but the movie was still very funny (although some scenes run a bit long). I really enjoyed the original blues music, including performances by Ray Charles, Cab Calloway, and Aretha Franklin.
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On to Tyler

Our time at Brushy Creek has come to an end. We took our final walk around the campground and saw all the new weekend campers, including a large church group and several boaters. Then we were off to Tyler and new adventures. We are staying at 5 Star RV Park, just south of I-20. It's pretty basic: full hookups and a place to park. Unfortunately it's also been a bit noisy and the pet owners don't necessarily clean up after their dogs.

Around 5:00 p.m. we drove over to Dick and Carol's. It was great to see them again, as always.

They took us out to dinner at Bernard's Mediterranean Restaurant for my birthday. Bernard's is an upscale place featuring Greek and French cuisine. Ken and I shared a pasta dish, Ravioli St. Tropez (cheese ravioli, served in a sun dried tomato with baby shrimp and crab meat). It was delicious, and so was the fresh hot bread and olive tapenade.

The ambience and service were quite good. Here you can see the black napkin the server swooped in to trade for Ken's white one, to avoid the possibility of lint!

After dinner we had a chance to play Rummikub, which Carol had received as a 70th birthday gift. Dick won the first round, and Ken won the second.
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Getting Ready to Move

We're getting ready to move tomorrow, so today we got some chores done. Ken checked all the tire pressures and added air to the trailer tires. We made a new cover for our small propane tank and gas can, which sit in the truck bed in a rectangular milk carton. The old cover had shredded in the wind. I did some cleaning and organizing.

This evening we took another short hike marked on the map given to us by the Corps of Engineers guy. Again it was on a hunting road, but this one has clearly fallen into disuse. We had to wade through weeds and climb over a fallen tree. We did see one deer along the way. It was very near dark, and the road was not easy to see in some places, so we had some sense of victory when we emerged unscathed from the woods.
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Short Hike and a Trip to Jefferson

This morning after breakfast we set out on a short hike in Brushy Creek, actually along a hunting road. We had walked in part way a couple of days ago and finally got a map yesterday.

The Corps of Engineers guy who gave us the map told us that the "trail" is really a hunting road maintained for a special annual hunt. It's for disabled hunters, and there are several "Wildlife Feeding Plots" along the way, including this one, which also has a blind.

It's a good thing we had the map, because we came to a T in the road at which we would not have known which way to go without the map.

We emerged successfully back onto the road we had started on, but up towards the entrance. The entire trip was only just over two miles. We heard but didn't see many birds (except for buzzards and crows). We did spot a couple of deer.

We did some trip planning for a while before lunch. Then after lunch we drove to Jefferson to see what we could see. It's a quaint small town with lots of antique stores, so we browsed lots of antiques and miscellany. One store was called "Granny Had It." I recognized many of the items in the stores from my childhood. Suddenly it came to me that I was now Granny! We stopped at the City Drug, known for its soda fountain, in operation since 1953. We had a hot fudge sundae and a chocolate milkshake, both made from Blue Bell ice cream and quite authentic tasting!

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Cabin Fever

We got a bit of cabin fever today, so we decided to make a trip out to see more of Lake ‘O the Pines. We stopped at the Corps of Engineers Project Office to see if they had any maps of hiking trails. The folks there were very friendly and helpful. Although they said they don’t really have any hiking trails, they did offer us some maps of the hunting access roads that the one guy had hand drawn. They also gave us a Texas road map—yay! We really needed a new one.

We checked out the Buckhorn Campground, the next one north on the lake from Brushy Creek. It's a nice campground--but not as nice as Brushy Creek. If we stay in this area again, we'll probably come back to Brushy Creek. On the way back in to our campsite, Ken finally got to see some deer, and they conveniently posed for us.

Tonight we finally decided it was cool enough to enjoy a campfire--and it was, if we put our chairs back far enough! We did enjoy the chance to sit out and watch the flickering flames.
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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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