It is Friday and we are on the road

Last night we decided to get up early and be on the road by 7:00. Well it is 7:14 and I am sitting here in my Captain America Sleeping Shorts… posting. Sherri is taking her shower and yes Carolyn we did make coffee and we sat down to make a plan. It is easy at night to say I am not going to make coffee in the morning. When the morning gets there and you are trying to roll out of the sack and you think to yourself…no coffee? Hey the plan changes real quick.

We got through with our coffee drinking and we then got busy with the break down inside the RV. You know all the stuff you have to put away for safe keeping during the ride down the highway.

When that was done I proceeded outside to get all the blue jobs done and Sherri finished up the pink. Then it was time to back it up and hitch it up…as my grandson says. 

We did get on the road about 10:00. It was only a 1 1/2 drive to the lake property so we would be there in time to get all our stuff set up and ready to live for the next two days.

You can’t really tell but we are headed up a pretty good grade here. East Texas has some rolling hills. It reminds me of North Carolina and Virginia.

  Sherri and I love all the trees along the road ways. Unlike West Texas you can’t see off the side of the road too far here. Sherri was fussing at me for taking pictures while I was driving. She is not into picture taking so I have to do it myself.

When I got there I had to hook up the electric to the barn and run a water hose from Rodney’s property over to our RV so we would have water. It did not take long for me to get the power run and  before long we had AC and a nice hot shower. Life is now good at the lake.

We pulled up to the lot and Sherri got out and directed me right in. We parked parallel to the barn. My electric hook up is at the rear of the barn this side. I had to use my extension cord to plug in. After turning on both AC’s I did not have that much of a voltage drop…so all is well using the extension.

Later that afternoon Sherri and I decided to sit outside. It had cooled off somewhat  and we put the rug out and the lawn chairs. I plugged in the fan and got us a breeze blowing. While sitting on our “Patio” Sherri said, “Wouldn’t it be nice to have a deck on the front of the barn”?

The front is kind of plane with no steps or deck. It did not take Sherri long to realize we needed some change.

She came up with this idea and soon she had it on paper… and not long after that we were on the way to the Home Depot to pick up the lumber. Now for those of you that know Sherri…she is quite the designer. She designed and I built two of our homes that we lived in over the past 35 years. This deck was no big deal for us so we got the lumber and brought it back home. We would  get started on it first thing in the morning.

That just about did it for Friday. Traveled from Tyler to the lake property and now we are settled in with a project to do first thing Saturday.

By the way we cannot get a signal on our Air Card at the lake so I am putting the next two days together and then I will upload it on the journal Monday morning when we get to Shreveport. A little TV and then we were off to bed.

 

 Saturday at the lake

WOW….it sure is quiet here! Not a sound from outside could be heard. The sun was not up yet but there was a light pink in the sky that told me that not too long from now the sun would be up in full force. I got out of bed and went down to the kitchen to make some coffee…had to have coffee before the head would clear enough to start sawing boards. Sherri had the plan all drawn out and had approved all the specs…I started measuring and leveling the deck to the barn and before long we had a nice deck framed up and ready for decking to be nailed down.

Sherri sat down to rest after loading all the deck material to the frame. She just laid it up there…it was way too hot to nail down.

It was about 12:00 when we got the last piece of decking set up on the frame. I told Sherri that it was too hot to continue on today so we took a break to admire our handy work. While sitting there Sherri said that we needed some steps to get up on the deck. Originally we did not think that the deck would be this high off the ground so no steps had been planned. Now that we were looking Sherri was right we would strain to step up that high every time  we wanted to get on the deck.

Sherri once again designed what she wanted in the way of steps and once more it was on paper and again we were on out way down to Home Depot for lumber. This time Rodney and Becky went with us and we decided to make a lunch date out of our trip. We needed to go by Explore USA…the RV dealer in Canton Texas…to see the Cari-lites that they had on the lot. Rodney also needed a filter for his Carri-lite and thought we might find one there. So while in Canton we went and ate Chinese food and then ran all our errands in Canton. From there we headed to Terrell Texas to the Home Depot and loaded up the extra lumber we needed for the steps.

Back to the lake we headed with our step material. On the way home Sherri wanted to take a different route so she could see some of the area of the lake we had not seen in some time. It took us a good 2 hours to get home and by the time  that we got there it was getting too dark to finish our deck. We would have to get up early Sunday and finish the job. So we just sat around and visited with Rodney and Becky until bed time. 

Sherri and I were both just worn out from the day of construction so it did not take long for us to fall asleep.

 

Sunday Morning Day of Rest….Not 

I think this morning is quieter than Saturday morning! I lived out in this part of the country for years and I had forgotten how quiet it was here. Geee if it was not for our internal alarm clocks we might sleep until noon.

The sun was up when we both crawled out of bed… we both went down to the kitchen to make coffee. It is Sunday morning and we have to get going to finish our deck…clean out the shop….mow…and pick up all the scraps from building. We need to get this all done before 2:00 or 3:00 so we can pack for Shreveport.

Sherri got to work on nailing down the decking while I built the steps. She was really busy trying to nail and watch me…to make sure I built the steps the way she wanted them. “It is tuff being the designer and builder”, says Sherri.

I built the steps in short order and Sherri nailed down the decking. Not only is she a good designer she is a good carpenter too. She always said that I should have married a man…because she has always had to work like one. She may have had to work like one but she never has looked like one. No dear I made the right choice in life and you know you like building new things.

Not much more to go now. It is still early morning so the temps are low.

We are planning on putting a roof over the deck at a later date. We will stick with the gambrel roof style.

We still need some steps on the side where the RV sets. Sherri has those plans already for the next visit here to the lake.  

Sherri says her next project is to put a patio out front of the deck. Not bad for two old folks just passing through.

We did get all the chores done by 2:00 and while I was finishing up some things outside Sherri went in to pack all our clothes for the trip. She was ready about 3:00 and we loaded up the truck and pulled out for Shreveport. It was an uneventful  drive through the piney woods and before long we were in Shreveport. We passed the exit to the Holiday Inn where we were booked for the next four nights. Glennie our GPS was mad at me and not talking. She was pointing but I was not looking and I just went right on by the exit. Sherri told me that I missed it so I had to fuss at Glennie but to no avail. She finally started talking to me after she saw that Sherri was getting on to me.

Just about to cross over into Louisiana. Glennie is not talking to me for some reason. She is pointing the way, however.

This is the Holiday Inn we are staying in. It is located on the Red River. We stayed on the Town side away from the train noise.

The River Side is pretty but the train that runs on that side can be annoying at night. Sherri preferred this side…which isn’t all that bad. All the casinos are just down the street here.

We got checked in and then started planning where to eat dinner. Sherri found a Texas Roadhouse not too far from the hotel and we went there to eat. We had a real good chopped steak and salad. We ordered a brownie for dessert and that put us over the edge. Diet went out the window with that but I will walk it off tomorrow.

We got back to the room about 9:00 and I jumped on chat for a short period of time. We were both worn out from building and then packing and driving…it had been a long day for us  both. Sherri Bejeweled for a short time and then we decided to hit the hay.

So that should catch us up for now. I will be back to let you know how our first day in Shreveport goes. Until then have a great day and above all have fun….

Somewhere in Time