Doing Laundry in Tyler Texas

 

Night shot of the RV Park sign. Not that good of a picture but then it is not that good of a sign.

After getting set up yesterday we headed to our favorite Chinese Buffet here in Tyler. It is on the loop if you ever come through here and I can guarantee good eating.

This morning I woke up to Sherri moaning something about not going to work. I thought she was having a bad dream until I realized that she was awake and trying to get up out of bed. Not sick she said just did not want to go to work…anymore….ever. I think this is the start of a new thought process she is going through. I never advise her in this area of thinking because it is not mine to advise one on ones life. I live mine to the fullest and will continue to do so until the good Lord calls me to the last campground.

We had our coffee and she directed me on how to do the wash this morning. She had all the clothes sorted in loads that she wanted done and it is my duty to see to it that they all get done.

We also talked about how much fun we were having with the folks in Hickory Creek and how we hated to leave and come here to Tyler. We both know that we will only be here for one more day and then it will be time to pull out and head back to the lake. I think this is what had Sherri hating to go into work…the fact no one else was having to go. Gina told us about Rollie doing the same thing when they took their long trip out West. He was retired in two weeks following the trip.

Sherri left about 6:30 and I got up and did the dishes. I then did two loads of laundry in our washer and readied them to go to the dryers down at the laundry mat here in the park. She likes to do our whites here and I would have dried them here too but our dryer is still on the outs. I took the wet clothes to the laundry and while I waited for them to dry I worked on some picture sorting on one of my disk. I just had pictured stored in all manner of ways and so I decided to name them and place them in folders so I could find them easier. I got that done just about the time the clothes got dry. I got loaded up and went home.

It had started to rain about the time I reached the RV so I put off doing the other two loads until the rain let up. This was an opportune time for me to take a nap. Sherri cannot figure out how I can lay back and take a nap just any old time of the day. I guess it is just a God given gift that I can do this. I sure feel better after I nod off for a while.

Well I am back in the laundry room doing the other two loads and writing this journal. It sure is nice to be able to take my computer anywhere I want and post. I will have to finish this later, however, I have laundry to dry now.

When I got home I found that Sherri was back from work and playing on the computer. She had a long day and needed to unwind from all the hassle of work. I decided to make chili while she was on the computer but after browning the meat I found out we did not have any chili mix! Oh wow was that a downer. I am not one to make things without directions so Sherri took over and made a wonderful chili from nothing. I will have to learn how to do that. She has had 40 years of experience so maybe in 40 years I will be able to create dinner.

We ate and watched some of the new shows coming on TV. It was not too long after that we went to bed. Tomorrow is a travel day and we need to get some sleep. Guess I will see all of you tomorrow or….

Somewhere in Time

Monday Morning and Time to Leave

Sunday night was a hoot with the get together at Rollie and Gina’s house. The skunk attack and the sound beating that we received from the women was our high lights for the night. Now it is Monday morning and time for us to gather I belonging together pack them away and get ready for our journey to Tyler Texas.

Sherri and I  got up about 6:00 am and made our coffee. We poured the first cup and sat down to visit for a short time in the living room. Soon the computers were drug out and we slipped off into our own little world in cyber space. We have this time apart to gather all the information on our dear friends near and far. Sherri on Facebook and me on the journals we compare notes later to see if either one of us missed anything. It is so good to have all of you out there reporting on what is going on in your lives so that we can follow you through your adventures. Even though we are creating our own adventures with Dreamers we still like to know what all of you are doing from day to day so we can share in your fun. We comment sometimes and then other times may not but we do read and enjoy so many journals of so many friends.

What a wonderful life this is…being out and about traveling and enjoying new found friends and sharing time together visiting…exchanging stories…and making memories that we will carry through time. All the years we were in the hustle and bustle life style…working and trying to gather up material things to make us happy… and later finding out that those things were not what made us happy at all. Then spending all that time working hard to pay for those things…not realizing how much we were missing in life. Now that we are living this life style it all comes clear to us that being with kindred spirits and sharing adventures and ideas is really what makes us happy. Wow, if only I had known the feeling I have from this experience years ago… I could have staged my life so differently. I have to thank the good Lord that I did wake up early enough to make the shift in life to do what we are doing now.

I have read were people write about holding off until the right moment in life to shed those shackles of worldly endeavors. So many set time frames and goals so far out that they will never reach the one thing that will set them free. Life has no guarantees…you have heard that too often…but it is so true and you must reach out and grab the opportunity as soon as you can so you have time to really enjoy it. I cannot tell you how much fun Sherri and I have experienced just in the last few days. Spending time with friends sharing our lives and laughing about our problems and mishaps that at one time were devastating our lives but now are put behind us and shaded over by a new adventure with spirits of the same dream.

I could go on and on about this…but until you get out there and experience this for yourself you will never understand what I am writing about. Only those of our number that have “Gathered” together really get it. 

How many people do you know that “Dump Together”. Yes that is what I said Dump. Sherri and I were getting ready to leave for Tyler on Monday so I told Rollie and Mike that if they needed to they could borrow my honey wagon to clean out their thanks. You see here at the COE park we have no sewer connections. Rollie told me that he would appreciate that and he would call me Monday morning before I left and set up a time for us to dump together.

 

Yes Rollie, I don’t know when I have had so much fun. We should do this more often….Sorry Mike is not here to join in the fun.

Rollie and I pose together before our trip down to the dump. Most guys would be posed with a deer or a stringer of fish….but not us we have our Honey Wagon!

We got the dump thing done and then we parted ways. I told Rollie and Gina that we would be leaving about 2:00 so we would see them Wednesday about 4:00 when we returned from Tyler. Rollie thanked me for the dump and I was on my way.

Mike had told me that he thought that he and Leslie would be OK until we returned so he would not need my services. Well as things would have it Mike checked the old gauges Monday and decided to drive over and borrow my wagon. He would not get my expertise help, however, because about this time I was deep into loading up to leave. So I gave him a 2 minute block of instruction on how to dump and sent him on his way. All is well and no stories were related to me about any mishaps. Too Bad!

We got hitched up and decided to pull out about 1:00 and as we were pulling out Gina and Rollie pulled up on their bikes.

 

We almost missed them and were glad that they came when they did.

As things would have it they followed us down to the dump to see if they could witness first hand a mishap with Speedy at the dump site. Too bad gang no problem today…but stick around ol  Speedy…because you never know when things might happen…

Somewhere in Time

 

And The Fun Just Keeps On Coming

Here we all are at Rollie and Gina’s RV for hamburgers and hot dogs. We found that rather than eating out and spending all that money we can eat good and laugh longer right here at home!

Here are our gals…they fed us well and then beat us at “Battle of the Sexes” game. Us guys decided that it is biased toward women and we were cheated by the rule book.

We have had so much fun here and today it must end for a while. Sherri and I must head up to Tyler Texas for two days and then we will return here for a few days.

The only real high light so far on this adventure is where Sherri left the shower head dripping and filled up the grey water tank. Four trips later to the dump with my 35 gallon Blue Boy we were back on empty. I am not sure how much water came out of the over flow on the tanks but it was running down the street when I noticed it. It is a wonder that the Ranger did not come by and site me for it. Oh well all is taken care of now and Sherri says she learned a lesson on washing her hair in the shower…

One trip to Wally World for Rollie and I and over to the gas station for diesel at $2.33 a gallon was about it for the day. We met at Rollie and Ginas house for a cookout deluxe and a tour through their truck. Mike and I are awe struck at the room they have to travel in. Rollie has done an outstanding job fixing the unit up for RVing.

Being beat soundly at “Battle of the Sexes” followed by a wayward skunk holding us hostage in the RV we had a fun time. Actually while sitting and visiting we all started smelling something…we all looked at one another…thinking it might be one of us. It did not take long to realize that it was a skunk! Rollie stuck his head out the door and shut it real fast…he said that it was real bad outside. Then Rollie had a sneezing attack from the sniff. We waited for the breeze to clear the area before we headed out to the trucks to go home. Rollie and Gina walked us down to our trucks with their flash light and helped us look for skunks.

Thanks Rollie and Gina for a fun night and good food. We will have more nights together before we part ways and head off to parts yet planned….

Somewhere in Time

Now This Is Fun

Why are these people so happy?

Sherri is thinking about skipping work Tuesday so she can stay and have more fun.

There was plenty of food for all and no one left hungry.

Mike is having a tuff time figuring out this game.

Don and Cheryl are not happy about leaving tomorrow for home.

Rollie waving to the Dreamers that are not with us today….wish you were all here.

These pictures say it all. We had so much fun eating…visiting…playing games. We are all ready to stay till the end of the week. We are making plans for tomorrow and this day is not over yet.

Monday we move to Tyler Texas for 3 days and then back here to rejoin our Dreamer Friends. We extended our stay here until next Sunday at which time we have to move down the road to Seagoville Texas. We will be staying at an RV Park on Interstate 20. I hate to see our time here come to an end but I know that we will all be back together in just a short while…

Somewhere in Time 

Good-bye Arkansas Hello Texas

WOW it is Friday and we are packing it up to go to Texas. We are water logged to say the least and ready to dry out in the Texas sun shine. Our destination is Hickory Creek RV Park…yes the COE park we always return to when we are in that area. Sherri and I were up early to get ready. We normally do not have coffee on a travel morning due to the diuretic  that coffee is. Hey we are throwing caution to the wind…we may wet our pants on the the way to Texas…but what the heck.

We got everything stowed away and I backed up to the hitch dropped the RV down and latched it up. We were on the highway in no time… West bound and down. At the other end of our journey were Dreamers…waiting on our arrival. We were really excited about getting there and seeing Don and Cheryl…Mike and Leslie Rollie and Gina. They had all arrived early at the park and we were held up by this rain. At last we were on our way…a five hour drive was in front of us but we would past the  time by talking about future adventures and playing the RV Game. Yes the RV Game…we count the number of RV on the road…the first one to call it gets the count. How simple have we become in our retirement????

We finally arrived at the RV Park and all the gang was there. We immediately made the dinner plans and Mike and Leslie house was chosen as the spot for the party. We all made it over there about 5:30 and the grills were readied for the meat. Drinks were served and stories were told and laughter was heard through out the park. All it takes is a few Dreamers to get together and fun is bound to follow.

Rollie and Mike manned the grills…Don and I were there for moral support. Dinner was out of this world and everyone ate too much but then that is what it is all about. Many embarrassing stories were told about me…but it did not stop me from eating and I stuck it out. This was so much fun…we were planning tomorrows get together before we even left. At 10:00 we had to break it up due to the quiet time.

And that was the way it was that Friday at the lake….

Somewhere in Time

Resorting to Resorts

Eyes blinked this morning every time a rain drop hit the roof! GEEEE it is still raining here in Arkansas. I went down to the kitchen and Sherri had already made the coffee. She was curled up in the recliner working on her time sheets and work schedules. I poured me a cup and settled into my recline beside her. She put her computer up so we could visit for a bit before it was time for her to get ready.

She is going to Malvern just up the road from where we are staying. Her available time to work is dwindling down due to the long hours and the number of days she has already worked. She only works part time but this week she has had to go over her hours to get all the layouts done for the stores she was assigned. Normally they work in teams but this week Sherri has been working by herself and it is taking her longer to get the sets done. Tomorrow she will be working in Camden and she will only have about 3 hours available to work.

As we sat there drinking our coffee we decided to get a hotel room in Camden and go down there for the day. I will stay in the hotel while she puts in her 3 hours and I will use the swimming pool and work out room….Oh yes the workout room. I know what you are thinking…I will not be as foolish this time as last. Maybe I will spend more time in the pool. It has been raining every day so why sit in the RV when I can use all the facilities in the hotel and have something to do.

Sorry for the quality of this photo but if you look closely it is raining and we could not get out.

Sherri got home about 1:30 and we grabbed a bite of lunch and then packed up our stuff and left for Camden. On our way there we decided to stop by the White Oak State Park just north of Camden. We thought if we came back up here it might be a good place to stay. Sure nuff when we got there we found a great park with lots of room to pull in (Big Rig Friendly) and what a view. It is located right on the lake and is really clean and well laid out. Your not stacked in on top of one another. I know that this will be a for sure camp to return to in the future.

I got this photo on line…It is raining too hard to take pictures from our truck.

From there we headed south toward Camden and the Comfort Inn. We found out upon arrival they have a lot for trailers and if we decide to take our RV we could park it in the lot and stay at the hotel. This is all helpful information for us on the road people.

This is the trailer lot. I took this out the window. Still raining here!

And this is the Wally World just across the street! How cool is that…

We got settled in the room and starting making plans for diner. Sherri was not feeling too good after eating the BBQ at lunch so she wanted something not so spicy. We pulled into the Sonic for a burger and a Shake. That hit the spot and then it was time to go to Wally World and drop a couple of dollars. That behind us we went back to the hotel for the night. Showers and a few minutes of TV and we were off in LaLa land…

Somewhere in Time

Did I Say It Was Raining Here

AHH…it is Tuesday and I woke up to the sound of rain on the roof of the RV. I have been listening to this sound for some time now. Seems like it has been raining for a month. Really it has been raining since we arrived in Arkansas. I don’t know if they are behind on rain in this part of the country but I would guess that they are soon to catch up.

Sherri and I sat in the living room listening to the rain and enjoying our coffee. I would love to have had some bacon and eggs to go with that coffee but that was not going to happen this morning. Once again Sherri is heading out to work this morning and wont return until 3:00. I will set around wishing that I could clean on the RV but that wont happen either. This weather has kept me inside most all the day. I ran over to the office to extend our stay here and that is about the only time that I left the RV. We had decided to go ahead and stay here for the next two days while Sherri works the next two towns and then we will head to Lake Lewisville where we will meet up with Don http://rvdaydreams.blogspot.com

and Rollie http://ginathurston.blogspot.com/ We are all planning on going to the RV show in Dallas Texas. Not real sure when we will all go but that is the plan. Sherri and I will not arrive there until Friday morning about 12:00 noon. I have to contact all of them and let them know that. We wont be leaving here until Friday morning due to the fact that Sherri has to meet with a Store Associate on Thursday and will not be able to return to the park here until after checkout. So we have to stay over a day.

This is the view out my dining room window. It really is pretty here. Wish I could go outside and enjoy it.

View out our back window. I just love the trees here…being from West Texas this is really nice.

I ran over to the office to extend our stay and snapped this picture. Well at least I made it outside.

Gosh I wish I could tell you how much fun I am having but with all this rain I have not left home. I listened to the weather channel and they say this will continue through next weekend! This could be a long lonely….

Somewhere in Time

Moved on to Arkadelphia

Monday morning arrived very wet in Hope Arkansas. We got up about 6:00 am and made our coffee. Sherri had to be at work at 8:00 and we had time to visit. She did not have far to drive from the RV park here so she did not have to rush. She hates to rush to work and I don’t blame her. Time seems to past fast, however, and soon she was having to get dressed and go out the door.

The rain came down all day here and I had little to do other than read some journals and. I have a good connection here but with not much to write about I just posted a news gram.

Check out time here is 11:00 am and I had told the guy checking us in that we might be a couple of hours late checking out due to Sherri working over. He said it would not be a problem so when she was two hours late we did not have to rush to get out. We really wanted to rush out of this place…being that it is not our kind of park…but it was nice of them to let us stay past the check out time.

When Sherri did arrive we pulled in the slides and I loaded up the outside stuff and before we knew it we were on the road to Arkadelphia. We had scoped out a Corp of Engineer park at DeGray Lake. We would go there first and see if they had any sites we could get into. So many of these older park sites are so short, longer RVs cannot get into them.

We arrived at the lake about 3:30 and I went in to see if they had any sites available for long trailers. Betty, the attendant was very nice and directed us to two sites that were long enough for our trailer. She took my information and told me that she would call me and see which site we took. When we  got down there we tried the first site and Sherri was not real comfortable about us parking on a grade. The second site was not much better. While we were trying to park in the second site Betty called. She said, “This is Betty Buck in the Booth”. Betty Buck in the Booth! I almost laughed…sounded like a comedy act. “Hello Betty Buck in the Booth” I said. We could not get into any of the sites that were there so I told her that we would just have to find another campground. There were some sites there that could accommodate our RV but Sherri is not one to perch on a hill and the ones that were flat and easy to get into were taken.

 

We found out that most all the sites at Edgewood park are not long enough for a large RV like ours.

We found several that we could get into but they were either taken or too steep for Sherri. She is a flat country kind of girl.

We said our good-byes to Betty Buck in the Booth and went back down to Arkadelphia Campground and RV Park. It is located just off the Interstate. We stopped in there and were assigned a real nice site next to a pond. These sites can accommodate two RVs back to back? I have never seen such a layout but it works for me. We have a nice place to stay for the next 4 days.

We got set up and then started thinking about where we were going to eat. We have such a tuff time picking places to eat. Sherri’s company pays for our food so we have a wide choice of places to pick from. We chose Cracker Barrel, just down the street from the RV park. We had a real good dinner and then went home to relax. I was going to get on chat but after I got home I kicked back in the recliner and fell asleep. Sherri woke me up about 10:00 and sent me off to bed. It did not take me long to get back to slumber land….

Somewhere in Time.

We Arrived in Hope Arkansas

Sunday morning I woke up to rain coming down…and I do mean it was coming down! It started raining Saturday and it rained all day. Here it is Sunday morning and it is still raining. We have needed some rain in this part of the country for some time and now we are getting it. Coffee is ready and Sherri and I are putting the finishing touches on our travel plans. We had a couple of cups and then started getting ready to hitch up and pull out of here.

I went outside to dump and clean some of the hoses that have been in the mud for the last couple of days. I had to take down out dead Satellite dish…that no signal catching waste of time! When you are in the boonies and trees are all around you…a signal is the last thing that you will get.

About 12:00 noon we fixed us some lunch and when we finished eating we completed our check list for moving. About 1:00 we were ready to get out on the highway and head towards Hope Arkansas. We could not wait to get to the birthplace of Bill Clinton…our idol. Yes sure nuff we passed by his birthplace and forgot to take any pictures. Sorry maybe the next time I come through here I will get some photos. I know where this town got it’s name. Someone got here and after being here a while hoped they could get out. I “Hope” none of my faithful readers are from Hope…I sure don’t mean to be ugly about this town but really it does not have much to offer.

Well before I dig a hole I cannot get out of I will move right along. We are only staying here one night so we were not to picky on where we stayed. Believe me when we got to the “Village Inn and RV Park” our plan had worked we picked a real looser RV Park. At one point in time…that point is yet to be located…this may have been the best RV park in the world. Since that point, however, it has been on a down hill slide into what we call Hell. Words cannot describe the state this Inn has fallen into. When we first arrived here we thought it was abandoned but soon noticed that some of the doors to the Inn were open and there were people actually staying there. Some rooms the curtains were blowing out the windows and and you could tell that some of the glass was broken out. The RV Park itself was not all that bad but it was not too far from falling into the same abbess the Inn was in. The sewer connections here are just out in the grass. You have to locate them by walking around and poking your toe in the ground. It was just a hole in the ground and we had to assume that this was the sewer? When Sherri saw the water connection she would not let me hook her hose to it. The connection was down in the ground and rain water had filled the hole. “Your not putting our good hose in there”, she said. As luck would have it I had enough water on board to last us one night.

Not many places stay open late on Sunday so we were lucky to find this restaurant. Food was not bad. 

Hope has one thing going for it….The largest Watermelons in the world! Now that is something to put you on the map…besides a President

 We got set up and then went out to eat Mexican food at Dos Loco Gringos. They had decent food and we enjoyed it. We left there and went across the street to the Wally World to fill the truck up with diesel at $2.43. The diesel on the highway was $2.69. We finished there and then headed off to find Fair Park…which had an RV Park. We found the signs that lead us to the park an once we arrived we soon realized that the Village Inn and RV Park looked pretty good. Wow we had several more RV Parks to scope out but decided to stop while we were ahead.

Sherri will be working tomorrow until about 12:30 and then we are headed out to DeGray Lake. We will be staying there for a couple of days. I will have a full report on our location and the excitement that will follow. Wow am I over exaggerating. DeGray is a beautiful lake and Sherri and I are looking forward to seeing it together…

Somewhere in Time

Tawakoni State Park

Friday morning we woke up to another cloudy day. Sherri did not have to work and we are going to spend the day enjoying the park here. Coffee was made and we set outside on the patio. The weather was delightful and the wind was blowing just enough to cool you off. Why couldn’t the weather be like this all the time? We will enjoy it as long as it last. We also have an Internet connection here and Sherri jumped on to see where she was going this next week. According to the posted work schedule she would be in Arkansas next week and a call to her boss confirmed this.

We spent most of the morning planning our route there and checking on places to stay. Sherri found a park in Hope Arkansas that we could spend one night at and then move on to our final destination…Arkadelphia. On our way back we wanted to try out a State Park close to Poison Springs. I will have to call and see if we can even get it there. If anyone out there knows anything about this park let me know. We also want to check out DeGray Lake while we are up there. I have read many good things about this lake. I am not sure about the campgrounds and whether or not we can get in there with our rig. 

OK so now we have that all planned and we can do something exciting like go buy groceries. We are in need of supplies. We have not been to the store in some time and our food stuff is running out. We don’t like to haul too much when we travel and usually stock up once we reach out destination. We are out of so much that we will have to stock up some and then finish out our list once we get to Arkansas.

We closed the restaurant down and were very full when we left. Thanks Jim for the dinner!

One thing I missed posting was out trip to Canton Texas to see Jim and June…my sister and brother-in-law. We went to their trailer late Sunday night. We had such a good visit. It had been some time since our last visit and we really had a good time. We decided to go out to eat and found a good Mexican food restaurant. We had a real good meal and visited more. We are trying to make some plans on going to Galveston and staying for a month just to spend time with them. We have so much fun when we are all together. I am sure these plans will get made and we will have time together….

Somewhere in Time  

I Have an Internet Connection Thursday

 

We woke up Thursday morning and Sherri and I had our coffee together visited about our up coming move. We had no idea where that would be and that is what the conversation centered around. We turned on the TV to see what the up coming weather was going to be and it appears the weather men don’t know much about that either. They did agree on one thing that we would be getting some rain…did not know when but we should get some. That is when we decided to leave our lake property and go to the State Park just down the road. No mater where we would be going we would have to leave here and if it rained that might be a problem. We both agreed that we should hitch it up and pull over to the park as soon as Sherri returned from work.

I spent most of the time Sherri was gone putting up all the tables and chairs we had out. I just wanted to be ahead of the game and it was cool outside. One thing about it lately the weather has been bearable in the mornings to get some chores done.

When Sherri got home she did all the inside stuff and we hitched up and headed over to the park. We arrived at the gate about 3:00 and I went inside to see what they had available. The ranger at the desk said that the computers were down and I could just drive in and park and come back tomorrow and pay. Sherri and I already knew where we wanted to park so that was no problem. We went right to our favorite spot and found it vacant. We got set up and I notice off to the East that there was some dark clouds forming up. It is not too often we get rain out of the East but this weather was coming from that direction. We were both happy that we had decided to leave and come here. I got the tanks emptied and cleaned out real good and then went inside to relax.

  

Not much to look at but here is the connections for the washer in the barn. Of course I will have to insulate and  sheetrock this area and it will look much better when I complete that.

Here is the outside connections I made. We have to put them above ground just in case we have to move the barn again someday.

Next week the man comes out to put in my driveway and then we will not have to worry about weather forcing us to leave.

Another good thing about the move is that we will have an Internet connection for the first time in a week. I will be able to post again and maybe find the time to chat! That will be nice…I sure miss all my friends out there…

Somewhere in Time