Staying in the State Park

 

The day got started about 5:00 am and we scurried around getting our showers and getting dressed. Coffee was extra good this morning for some reason there are mornings when coffee means more to me than others. Must be how I slept the night before?

We went to work and soon it was time for lunch. We again went to Tracks and I had a salad. Sherri also had a salad with chicken. We went with all the other people on the set and visited. We enjoyed going out to eat with all but soon we had to return to the store.

We finished up the shift and packed it in. We were headed to Carrollton to pick up our grandson. He is going to stay with us for the weekend. We bought him a new car seat with lights on the sides so he could see at night. Don't really know what he will be looking at but he has lights just in case he needs them.

We picked up the little guy at his house and then headed to the State Park. We did not arrive until after hours so we had to check out the available sites on the board posted outside the office. We noted they had several spots with sewer so we picked out a pull through and parked. Not our first choice but it will do for the short week end we have. There are some sites in a cul-de-sac that has little or no traffic...which is good when you have a little one ridding a tricycle around at break neck speeds. But we had to settle for a pull-through on the major road and we had traffic all weekend long.

Had a wonderful time and really enjoyed playing with my little buddy. We made a campfire and sat around it until late. We went inside and watched a little TV. The boy fell asleep as soon as he got still and I put him in bed. Sherri and I sat up for a short while and then we too went to bed.

We had a wonderful day and look forward to tomorrow and new adventures here...

Somewhere in Time  

Happy Mothers Day

 

 

Happy day to all the mothers out there. I live with one of them...Sherri the mother of my children. I could not have asked for a better mother for my children. She is a giving person...who gave all her life not only to the children but to her parents and mine. If medals are to be handed out in heaven Sherri will be one of the recipients.

Thanks dear for all the love and devotion you have given to our family. We all love you and respect you for your loving manner. There is no way we could ever repay you for all the love you have given to us and we will always love you for it.

Dear I love the adventures we have had and will have...

Somewhere in Time

I just had to laugh

 

This morning was like all the others. We got our free breakfast...free coffee...and we were ready to go for the day. We loaded up in the truck and headed down the highway. It did not take long and we were pulling into the parking lot before we knew it.

We had a good day which went real fast. I like it when the day goes well and the time flies by. We ate lunch at Tracks...the theme there is trains...DUH! They have trains everywhere and one that runs around the outside wall of the dinning room. Pretty cool place to eat and the food is reasonable there.

After work we went straight to the motel and I laid down and took a nap. Sherri sat at the computer and chatted with our son and several of our RV friends all around the country. So many of our friends are scattered to the four winds. We have to check in every day to find out their location. When I get out on the road I will be in one place for some time so you will not have to check in as often. Some of the folks we know are on the go almost everyday. They have a lot more funds than I...to just keep going and going like the Energizer Bunny.

I had to laugh today when one of our friends commented on me spending too much time wondering why and another giving me more to think about. Brail on a drive in bank machine??? Good one Jim...I have always wondered what group of people in our government sets down every day and come up with these ideas. How much do we pay these morons and how can I get one of those jobs. 

If the citizens of this country...I mean the legal ones...took time to see where all our tax dollars go and how much bang for the buck we are getting from them we would all make a change here. When our President said it was time for change...he was not kidding.

That is all for today...I will keep wondering...

Somewhere in Time

Wonder Why

 

Alarm went off this morning and I told Sherri she could shower and get ready first. I was just too tired to get up that early and start getting ready. I just had this lazy streak shoot through me and I could not shake it.

Sherri was out of the shower in record time...or maybe it appeared that way because I was sleeping. Then it was my turn to shower and get ready. Got in the shower and really did not want to get out. Wanted to lay in the tub and let the water run over me while I slept for another hour. Can you do that???

Got through getting my morning chores done and it was time to go down and get some coffee. I can't go without it. I don't know why it does not stay with me long. No way I can drink coffee before I go on an extensive drive. The drive to work in only 5 minutes so I will risk two cups this morning.

We made it to work in good time and found that many folks arrived early today. Being an empty parking lot every day...one does not need to worry about a good spot to park. Soon the rest of the crew showed up and we went inside to get her done.

My topic today is "Wonder Why" I wonder about things that I don't understand and like to ask the question WHY. One of those questions I will pose to you today is why do they have Handicap spaces at Sonic? Now when I go to Sonic I stay in my car...punch the button a voice comes on the speaker and takes my order. When the order is ready no one says come and get it so I can stay in my car and a person brings it out. Now if I don't have to get out...why would a handicap have to? The Sonic here has...not one...but 5 handicap parking spaces and they are all just like the non handicap spaces.

That is my question for this week. I am sure there is a good explanation and when I read about it I will feel so much better.

Sorry I have not uploaded a bunch of pictures to the journal here of late. I have really not had any photo moments this last week. I hope to capture some good ones to put on soon. Until then you will just have to put up with my words written here...

Somewhere in Time

Staying on the Company Again

 

Sherri and I dropped the house off at the lake and headed out...homeless. We are staying in a motel now and we are being wined and dined by the company this week.

We woke up this morning with frost on our noses. I had turned the air down last night because it was so hot and when we woke up it must have been 50 in the room. Sherri was rolled up in a ball of covers and I could hear her muffled cries for me to turn the air off. I had to laugh it was cold and she was not about to come out of her cocoon until I had the room warmer.

We got our showers and got dressed and headed down stairs to the breakfast bar for some coffee and nourishment. I had the waffles in the shape of Texas. Sherri had a little ol muffin that would not have stayed with me more than an hour.

We finished our breakfast and then loaded up in our ride and left for the store. We left in plenty of time to get there...not ever having traveled to this store from the motel we found that we did not need to leave quite that early. We were in the parking lot about 15 minutes before time to start. Tomorrow we will have some extra coffee time for sure.

I would like to thank all my readers out there for sticking with me through the times of dull writing. Yes I know that when we are on the road working we don't have a lot to report. We just get up and drive in and then go out to eat and back to the motel. Not much of an adventure to write about but I do try to keep up the diary of daily events in my life so  that one day when I am confined to my home I can read about all the wonderful times I had exploring.

I hope that you that have journals out there keep that in mind and try to keep up with your daily routines and what all you do so that you will have some interesting reading later in life. I hope that someday my children will enjoy reading about what I did and where I went. Maybe if they are as lucky as I am they too will get to travel and see some of this great land before it falls into the hands of who knows who...

Somewhere in Time

Bad weather in east Texas

 

Yes it is Spring time here in East Texas Dorothy and we have tornados bouncing all over the place...

Last night Sherri and I sat here in Louisiana trying to watch our crime show and the weather guy would break in every 10 minutes and tell us all about what was going on. At one point he was telling us about the location of a confirmed possible tornado. Now I may not be a meteorologist but I have never known of a "confirmed" "possible" Tornado. They kept going over the area that they thought the tornado was in and then told everyone to head for cover and then kept telling them where the tornado should be if it is in fact a tornado. Now if these people are hunkered down in the safe room of their house with a mattress thrown over them how are they going to be watching this guy tell them where it is? If it is possibly a tornado then who confirmed it?

Moving right along...Sherri and I headed east after our week in East Texas. We are now in Louisiana and hunkered down in a casino waiting out the storms. Sherri did well, our first night in the casino and won enough to gamble today. We went to Harrah's at the race track and there she won us both a free buffet. Go Sherri go!

The horse races are going on now through September. The track was being readied for today's first race and the crowd was growing. We slipped into the buffet before the onslaught of race fans hit. We got our assigned seating and got our first plate full of food and when returning to our table we noticed the line to the buffet was growing rapidly. What timing on our part.

We finished eating and decided to vacate the casino to keep from getting crushed in the crowd. We headed to the Valero to buy diesel and then to Kmart to look around. We had not been in a Kmart in years. We found a few bargains in there but left them behind for someone else.

We left there and ventured south of town to visit a Target and a Wally World. We found a new car seat for Kris and got some laundry soap. We desperately need to wash clothes today.

We loaded up all our clothes and went to the laundry mat across from the RV. Very convenient because I had to make 4 trips back to he house to get all the stuff I forgot. I did get my walk in for the day so two birds were killed with one stone!

Laundry  being done Sherri and I settled in for what would be our last night here in Louisiana. Tomorrow we have to leave for our home base. Yes the work week starts all over Monday and we have to be...

Somewhere in Time

A trip to Irving Texas

 

The phone alarm was going off and I just laid  there. Why is the alarm going off this morning? I don't have to be at work...Oh yes I have to drive to the warehouse in Irving to pick up some equipment for the store we are working at. They were suppose to deliver it to us but that did not work out so they are paying us to go and get it.

We drank our coffee and talked for a while. We were in no hurry to hit Dallas traffic this early. We decided to take our time and get there after the traffic had died down and then we could scoot across town much faster and get on back.

This was going to be an all day deal so we planned on eating along the way. Sherri had breakfast here and I decided to wait for lunch. Not being real hungry I took my shower and got ready while she finished eating and then she got ready and we headed out.

The drive took about 3 hours from here and then we had to remember how to get to the warehouse. It had been some time since we had been here and we were not real sure how to go. Beside not being sure we had come in from a different direction the last time and that was confusing.

The GPS got us in the general area and then we recognized the building and we were home safe. Did not take long to get all our equipment loaded and we were back on the road to east Texas. We would stop along the way and have lunch and then drive the rest of the way back. We planned to stop at our barn on the way and drop off some extra equipment we had picked up. We also would drop off some items we had accumulated over time that we did not need in the RV.

Then it was back to the house. By the time we reach our part of the country we were ready for dinner. We elected to stop at a family restaurant we had spotted some time before. When we arrived we noticed that they served a Dairy Queen type of menu and we were not really wanting that type of food so we backed out of there and drove to the Mexican Restaurant down the street and had some cheese enchiladas.

Back to the campground after a long drive. By this time my back and legs were sore from all the driving. I really don't like long days of driving. I will be among the RV'ers that like to drive about 3 hours and then park for a while.

Not much else happen today...just one of those days...

Somewhere in Time

Love the park...but it sure is dark!

 

 

It is hard to tell but the light shinning off the tree mid picture is a raccoon peaking out. Yes it is dark here for sure

WOW!! talk about DARK!!! The piney woods gobble up all the light early on just before the sun goes down and when it does...baby it is dark. When we went to bed last night I peeked outside and there were no lights what so ever. I listened to see if I could hear anything and there was no sounds at all. We decided to turn on the fan in the bedroom so there would have some sound. We can't sleep without some kind of noise. That started when we moved from the city to the country some 35 years ago. Love the country but the quite??

We took off for work and did our thing...then it was time to eat lunch and we decided to try the Mexican food place in town. Not much to choose from here so we ate there. The food was not bad at all...I think tomorrow we will have to try the Dairy Queen.

Time to go home came quick...I was surprised when I looked and it was time to head to the house. We did not actually head to the house we headed to Atlanta to check on an RV park there. Amazing Grace RV Park was on Boggie Blvd in Atlanta. Well Glennie...our GPS took us right there. When we pulled in Sherri informed me that we would not be staying there. Number one the road going in looked like the highway going out of Kuwait after Desert Storm. There was no definition to the campsites...just power boxes with water faucets on them...no numbers and no idea where to back-in or pull through. I don't mind pasture parking but I like to know where my home is going to be setting.

We left there and headed to another RV park in the town we are working in to see if we could stay there. Well that was a mistake! WOW...there was no way we would leave our home here without an armed guard. What a disappointment. Some little towns have real nice City Parks that you can stay in at a reasonable price. This park we would not stay in if it was free!

OK so we will stay where we are and drive the extra distance. We are only 25 minutes from work...we pull out of the gate...turn right onto the highway and head into town. Doesn't hurt to look around though.

After all the exploring we both were hungry so we decided to head into town to get some BBQ. We stopped at Outlaws BBQ and ordered. Sherri got the sliced beef with two sides and a glass of tea. I got the two meat plate with two sides and a Root Beer. Let me tell you this was good BBQ. I had the ribs and chopped beef. We did not leave there hungry.

Took a hike around the lake and took some pictures to remember my adventure. This is really a great State Park. The only sites that accommodated our size RV are the pull through sites...which by the way have sewer. 

Back home to watch TV for a while. We do not get Satellite here in the deep woods of east Texas. I tried the dish everywhere I could find a break in the trees...to no avail. We are now on antenna and get one digital channel that does not pixilate every five seconds and 4 Mexican channels that are clear as a bell. What is the deal with that? I guess I need to bone up on my Spanish so I will have something to watch when I am in the wilderness.

Well we are both tired so it is time for bed. Been a wonderful day filled with new places never before seen by either of us...

Somewhere in Time        

Moving East

Sunday morning...time to get up...need to get ready. Yes we are headed out east to a new site. Wont have the "It" factor we are leaving behind but it will be new. I like to be in new spots now and again...but when you find one like we are in now...it sure is hard to give it up.

 

Above are some pictures of the "It" site and I have to leave it for now.

We had planned on being in a motel this next week but those plans changed overnight. We are now headed to east Texas to spend a week working there. We will not be too far from our friends Weldon and Sandy http://mtnairetravlers.blogspot.com/ ...by the way if you read this we will be calling you.

Most of the time when we work these stores we spend two weeks setting them. That will mean that we will need to extend our stay for another week. We both love east Texas but are real leery about the weather this time of year. I hate to even say the word....Tornado...but this is the time of year that you do not want to be in this area. I guess it is much the same as Hurricanes to the coastal people during that season.

OK so this morning is a pack up and move day for us and we have to prepare ourselves for this. We sat down as usual and drank our two cups of coffee and talked about our future trips to places we want to go. This has become a ritual with us and we love to dream and plan...even though we can't go as yet. We know that the time for that will come soon enough and when it does we want to be prepared.

We have been looking for a new home base in Arizona too. We would love to be there in the winter so we have shifted our thoughts to finding someplace there that we could have a home base. This would also keep us closer to California and Colorado and all the other states we have not seen yet. We find that in Arizona you could stay for many more months due to weather conditions than most places around the country. This would make that move more cost effective.

We got everything packed up and pulled up at the dump station about 10:00 am. Got that done in short order and pulled out of the park and onto the interstate. The trip was uneventful and we enjoyed the scenery along the way. As you go further east the Pines get taller and the Oaks are bigger. We noticed how much the landscape changed and the hills got closer together.

The road to the park seemed to close in on us as we came closer to the gate.

 

The Pines are taller and taller and taller and then they start to fold over the road and block out the sky.

Then we pulled into our new site and "It" happened...again. Is that cool or what...we hit another "It" and we were happy!

Sherri likes her new home and shows it.

Now it is time to get everything set up before the sun goes down....

Somewhere in Time

Rain is here again

 

 

Nice time out with the kids.

Woke up this morning with rain hitting the roof. I could feel the RV moving a little with the wind. We have more wind than rain and when it hits the trees it blows the accumulated water in the leaves onto the RV and you would think we are having a down pour.

After the second round of water pellets slapping the roof I decided to get up and get some coffee going. I went back up stairs and took my shower and got dressed. I was a little tired this morning due to the fact we were outside late visiting our son and his new wife. We took them out to dinner at a Chinese Restaurant that Jason had suggested. We had an enjoyable time with them and ended the night at their home.

Jason and Susan have put together a real nice home. We are so happy for the two of them. Many hours of work have gone into the house and the end results are very pleasing to the eye.

 

Jason and Susan's home

Their neighborhood

Jason being his funny self...love the hat son.

Susan is working on furthering her education in education. She is working toward a masters so she can pursue a principles job and on to superintendent of schools. We are very proud to have a daughter with so much ambition.   

We will be working today and if it rains who cares. The only thing that I don't care for is the fact that I have to drive in the rain to get there. When you're inside you don't know what is happening outside...and really don't care.

The day was a long one with having to work at two different stores in two locations. We got home about 5:30 after stopping at Wataburger for a sandwich. We ate and watched our soap opera and then read blogs on our computers. We have been looking for a winter location for some time now and this was one of the projects that I had been working on. Some of the places we looked at had waiting list as long as 7 to 8 years...well you know I would be too old to go there if I had to wait that long.

We did find some SKP parks that looked real nice with shorter waiting list but we will continue to look until we find the right one. We want to lease not buy. If anyone out there has information on nice parks with lease options in warm winter climates give me a shout.

Better get out of here now I have some blue jobs to get done before the next rain hits...

Somewhere in Time

Nice Warm Night and a move to the site with "It"

 

 

This is our new site down the road from where we were. We are on a point with the lake on three sides. This is one of the nicest in the park. We will be coming back here for sure.

We slept with the AC on last night. It has been warm here at night lately. Last night I think the low was in the mid 60's. When we woke up it was nice and cold in the bedroom. I really did not want to get up this morning. I heard Sherri down stairs so I decided to go ahead and get up. I was just laying there playing like I was somewhere far away with a view of the mountains. If I get up and go to the window my dream will end...so I just laid there for a while.

OK it was time to shake hands with reality so I managed to get up and take my shower. I looked straight up out the shower stall skylight and noticed it was cloudy. I could see the limbs of the trees swaying and knew that we were on the verge of some weather...what kind?

I finished my shower...made the bed...got dressed and went downstairs to get me some coffee which Sherri had prepared. We commented on the fact that we have been drinking motel coffee for two weeks and it was good and cheap too. We have a co-worker that collects the coffee out of his motel rooms and we do too so we have a good supply for the month.

Sherri was at the computer and so I sat down at mine and started reading journals. There are so many that I have not had the chance to read in so long! I read and read trying to catch up with all my good friends out there. So many of witch are traveling back up north...east and west. We on the other hand just circle like hawks looking for their next meal.

Next week we will be on company expense and will not have to worry about meals. We will leave our RV here and travel south and stay in a hotel for the week. All expense paid trip...with one catch...we have to work. But then not that hard and we get to eat real good.

Today we have to move sites within the park. We will be staying here through next week and the only way to do that was to move to sites that were available. We had to go by the dump for the black tank and then headed over to our new site. We are now right on the lake and what a great site it is! I wish we could stay here for the week but it is only available through Sunday and then it is reserved. We will have to move across the cul-de-sac to another spot on the lake.

This is the back of our site...appears we are in the wilderness

This is the southern view from our site

This is the northern view. Here I set this close to water and no boat!

We sat around most of the day just reading and then did some cleaning. For the most part we did nothing at all and enjoyed it immensely. We look forward to more of these days...

Somewhere in Time