The Adventure Continues

 

You know I have been remiss about posting pictures on my journal for the simple reason....I don't post enough. Well being on the road working and spending more time than a person should wondering the highways in north Texas and Louisiana I just have not taken any pictures to upload. Well that has all changed now that I have been at home for a while and enjoyed some time there.

We are now spending some time in a COE park that we love and I have taken some pictures.

 

 

We have had an interesting time off this past week. One that I would not wish on any soul out there. We have a way of turning it all into a good story to be told around the campfire. What is so unique about our stories is that they are all true. I guess I have enough material to be a stand up comic but then I would not be out on the road having fun!

This morning I will be putting on my new tailgate that I purchased at Camping World. I got the 5th wheel tailgate that allows you to keep the gate up while you load your RV. This should  be a good story to relay to all you Want-to-be-Mechanics out there. The Speedster is about to take on the tailgate installation instructions with pictures provided by a 12 year old Dyslectic Korean boy.

 

Stand back and take young children inside. The following could turn ugly and I don't want anyone shocked...

Step 1: Open box with pocket knife.

Step 2: Get antiseptic ointment and bandage for cut on thumb

Step 3: Clean the blood off the instructions so you can read step 4.

Step 4: Inventory all parts and make sure they are there. Compare parts to picture provided on page 2 of instructions. Some pictures may not be legible due to low res printer...and blood from cut thumb.

Step 5: Make sure you have proper tools available to complete project. Also a College degree in engineering could be of some help.

Step 6: Install tailgate in the area that the old tailgate use to occupy.

Step 7: Check installation by burning rubber out of the driveway. If the  tailgate stays on you have done a good job. If not go back to step 6.

Got a new rug for the patio. Pictures attached. We love our patio no mater where it is. The picture above is that of our patio at the COE park. Early morning and late evening we have plenty of shade and really enjoy setting out side. We listen to music and watch TV on our outdoor entertainment center. Coffee just taste better outside in the morning with the birds chirping all around you. This will be our biggest entertainment...the patio and the backyard...where ever it might be...

Somewhere in Time

  

Murphy's Law...Alive and Well

 

Sherri and I have to pull up stakes this morning and head West. We have an appointment to drop off the RV at Explores USA on Sunday morning and then head the opposite direction. We are scheduled to be in Southern Louisiana for the next 3 weeks...and then start working our way North to Alexandria. We are excited about being in Southern Louisiana because there is so much there to see.

The morning came and we were up a little later than usual. We had some last minute preparations to make before we lifted the landing gear. We had some wash to do and then I had to trim up the grass some. I had to put away all the items that seem to make their way out of the barn and into the yard. This was all accomplished a little before 2:00 and by 2:00 we were loaded and ready to leave.

We made it out of the drive and on to the county roads to town and then the State Highway out to the Interstate. Soon I was on cruise control and blending in with all the other drivers. There was those texting and those visiting with the folks in their back seats. Seems no one was paying any attention to their speed or where they were going. Over time I have become use to these type of drivers and today was no exception. We made it to the park with no problem. The traffic was light most all of the way.

We arrived about 3:30 and set the landing gear and I did the hook ups while Sherri put the slides out. It did not take us long to get all that done so we decided to go and eat. Today was Enchilada Wednesday at El Fenix. There was one down the Interstate from us so that is where we headed. After eating Sherri said that we should keep heading south and visit with Rodney, her brother who is in a Specialized Care Center recovering from an infection in his leg.

We arrived there about 5:30 and Becky showed us where to park. There is a Church parking lot across from the care unit and being a week day it was not in use. We had a real nice visit with Rodney...who by the way is doing good and on the road to a full recovery.

We said our good-byes to Rodney and Becky and went outside to the parking lot. Before I could cross the street I  could see that it looked like my tail gate was down and the first thing I thought about was my hitch! I was straining to see if it was still in the truck when it dawned on me that I had not let my tailgate down!...It was gone!

The police were called and report filed.We had to wait for an officer to arrive...Thank Heavens I was not calling for an Ambulance! We waited until about 8:00 and the officer arrived. That being handled we pilled in the truck and sped on off toward the park. The gates close at 10:00 and you don't get in after that time no mater what.

"Mater what" happened when we got about 5 miles from the lake the state road crew had decided to start working on the roads. Yes we hit a line of traffic that made LA look like a picnic! We sat in traffic for more than 2 hours before we saw the first signs of a road crew doing anything. We were 3 1/2 miles from our turn off when Sherri noticed the clock on the dash and let out a screech. Whaaa... I thought we were about to hit something...She said we can't get in the park after 10:00 and my very soul dropped from me.

We made the exit and rushed to the park only to find the gate locked up. No one around and no one to call. This is a fine state of affairs I said. We can just leave the truck here at the gate and walk down to the RV and I will come back in the morning to retrieve the truck. Well having had the tailgate stolen no more than 2 1/2 hours ago Sherri said no to that. "I am not leaving our truck un-attended" she said..."They will steal what we have left". OK so the hike is out...We can go to Wally World and spend some time there and I can pick up some survival supplies and we can just sleep in the truck tonight.

Sherri was not at all comfortable with that but then the only thing left to do was rent a motel room for the night. Well at $100. a night I just as soon get mugged in the truck...I would come out cheaper. Wally World parking lot was voted the place to stay for the night. Survival gear in hand we found us a nice place to park and slipped the truck into our new camp site. One thing we had failed to consider here was the temps. It was still 85 degrees and no way we could sleep in the truck with those temps. OK so we need to find an angle to park at so the slight breeze might cool us enough to sleep.

After many parking places and many parking lots we headed back to the main gate at the park and turned in for the night. I did not care at this time about being mugged and rolled the windows down so the air came through. Soon we both drifted off to sleep and put our lives in the hands of what ever good luck we had left.

Morning came and we were both still breathing and the truck was in tack minus the tailgate. It was still about 1/2 hour before the gates would open so we headed to McDonalds for breakfast and a hot coffee. We soon were able to laugh somewhat at our dilemma...and vowed never to repeat this again as long as we are on the road.

It was so good to get back home and take a shower. We both climbed in our recliners for a short nap. Before we knew it we had passed to the other side...

Somewhere in Time

Baptist Convention and a lot of noise

Sherri and I are staying in the same hotel with over a hundred Baptist Convention goers. They brought their children and you know where I am going from here. Yes the noise level is really up there until about 10:30 when all the folks drag their children off to bed.

We both climbed into bed last night about 10:30 with the intentions of watching some TV. Well as it would have it we both fell sound asleep but kept waking up when another door down the hall would slam shut. At one point there must have been 15 people outside my door talking and laughing so I open the door and asked them if I could help them. Well I got the stair...you know the one that says were we bothering you? Well yes my stair said back at them...no words were exchanged but I know they understood what would happen next if they continued to be so load.

It was quite the rest of the evening and Sherri and I went right to sleep without any further problem. During the night I did wake up with my shoulder hurting me. I had pulled a muscle last week and it had been irritated while mowing and working some this week. I had to take some meds and soon fell back to sleep and slept the rest of the night.

We woke up with the phone call from the front desk and got ready for work. I slipped out early and got our breakfast and took it to the truck. Sherri was out soon after I started the truck and we were off to the store. This should be a good day to work...

Somewhere in Time

Mowing out at the lake

We arrived home to see the grass much too high. My goodness what will I do when we hit the road and we are away from here for some time? I guess when I get back from our travels I will have to cut the grass with a machete.



Before we arrived home we met our daughter in town and she invited us to go eat with them. It was Emily's birthday so we wanted to share in the celebration. We went to Two Senoritas and had a real nice party. Frank...my son in law picked up the bill which was real nice. Thanks you two for feeding us.



We visited for some time and then we all went to Wally World to pick up some things for the weekend. That took some time and before we knew it the clock on the wall reported it to be 11:00 pm. Sarah decided to come home with us and spend the weekend. She is a good house guest. She sleeps until 12:00 noon and then plays on the computer...and plays with the Wii...eats very little and is hardly ever heard from.



We got in bed about 1:00 am and the morning came real soon. We were up with the birds and after coffee I was out pushing the mower about 7:00 and mowed until 10:00. We had a 104 heat index and it sure felt like it. I put the mower up and then came inside to shower off and put on dry clothes.



We spent the rest of the day inside trying to stay cool. We just can't stay here in the summer so we have to figure out where we will go during this time of the year. We do know that we will be here in the fall and the spring because the weather is OK then.



We got our electric bill for last month and it was $140.00. That is not bad for staying every day with the AC going...fridge in the barn plus doing the wash there everyday. This sure saves us a lot of money each month and we hope to do the same in the fall and spring.



Well not much going on down here in our part of the world. We will be back on the road doing our thing and counting the days until we are headed your way...

Somewhere in Time

Work with fun mixed in

The phone was ringing this morning telling me it was time to get out of bed and into the shower. I had left a 4:45 wake up call at the desk last night and sure enough they came through for me. I really was not ready to get up but then that did not mater I had to.

Sherri was still sleeping when I slipped into the shower for my morning wake up. I have to stand under the shower for some time and then drink great quantities of coffee to get myself on the road to work.

We both got dressed this morning in record time and when I looked at the clock it was just 6:00 am. Breakfast is not served until 6:00 so we had to kill some time. I read some journals and posted on mine. This took up some time and when it was time to go down stairs and get my free breakfast coupon I found that there was several people waiting in line to check in. We have to be at work at 7:00 and I get a breakfast to go, which requires me to get down there get my coupon fix my to go box jump in the truck and get to work in about 15 minutes which leaves me 15 minutes to eat! Today with all the folks in line at the desk I just had to go to the buffet and see if they would let me eat without the coupon. Sure enough the lady saw my plight and let me go.

We arrived at the store and I had about 10 minutes to eat my breakfast...which is no problem for me and I finished in record time. I got our tools and went to work and finished up around 5:00. Then it was time to head back to the hotel. When we arrived we met up with some of the others in our crew and we decided to eat at Sam's Town Buffet. I call the the shuttle and we road over there and were dropped off at the front door. Ate our dinner and took the shuttle back to the hotel. It sure was nice not having to get back in the truck and drive.

Notice I did not say we stayed and gambled because we didn't. That is correct we saved our money for...

Somewhere in Time

Back to work

I woke up this morning realizing that this was the last day here in paradise. We have to leave today and go back to work far far away. I rolled on out of bed and noticed that Sherri was way ahead of me. She was in the living room working at the desk and drinking coffee. I guess I must have missed the wake up call? I poured me a cup of coffee and went back to take my shower and get ready for the day. Before we could move we had several chores that had to be handled before we took off.

I got my shower finished the first cup of coffee and poured the second. I got all my receipts together and sat down at the dining room table to finish my expense report for June. Yes I know it is almost the middle of July. I just can't get disciplined enough to do my receipts each day! I am looking forward to not doing them at all...but then being paid to travel is not all that bad.

It was getting on to 11:30 when we finished our reports and thought about eating some lunch. We did not have anything quick except tuna fish so Sherri whipped that up and we had it for lunch.

Now it was time to get the RV ready for travel. We have a long journey...about 1 1/2 mile to the lake lot so we have to be get started. I am being funny now...I have to dump real good so that for the next few weeks at our lot we will not have to dump. When that time rolls around again we just pull up stakes and head back to the State Park for a day or two and clean everything up. Not a bad deal really and it gives us a break from the same old place all the time.

The State Park at Tawakoni is a great park and if you are ever in that area I highly recommend it to you.

We arrived at the lot and Sherri backed me in. This time we pulled over a little further so we could park the truck next to the RV. It all worked out well and by having the extended culvert we had no problem backing in! I was happy we spent the $ to get that done.

Well we did some wash and cleaned up some stuff and then it was time to finish packing and load the truck. I never load the truck correctly but I gave it my best shot. Sherri started out driving and then we stopped at a rest stop and I took over. The trip to Louisiana seem to take longer but we passed the time listening to our new CD's We have some sixty's music we bought through a contribution to Public Broadcasting out of Dallas Texas. We have all the hits from that time and then all the Beatles's and Rolling Stone's greatest hits! That all helped pass the time and soon we were in Shreveport checking into our hotel.

We met Becky and Rick down in the lobby and made plans for our dinner that evening. We walked down the street to the Blind Tiger and had a wonderful meal and a great visit. Caught up on everything since our last meal together...three days ago...then headed back to the hotel.

Tomorrow will come early so I better head on out of here and and get some sleep and dream of times to come...

Somewhere in Time

At the State Park and loving it

 

Sherri and I arrived back at the lake Thursday night late. We had to take Hwy 80 from Louisiana due to road construction on I 20. This took longer than usual, due to all the towns and stop lights that we came to. If you weigh out the travel on I20 under construction then we saved some time.

We turned in soon after we arrived and got a good night sleep. Morning came real fast and we were up before the sun was too high in the sky. I went to the kitchen and made our coffee. Soon we were setting and enjoying each other's company and drinking coffee.

Our jacks are fixed now so we can hook up and go to the State Park and dump our black tank. We have been on full for some time and we are in need of some relief. When we had finished our coffee we began the task of loading up the RV and packing down the inside stuff. Sherri got all her stuff done I did my part outside. The jacks worked good and soon we were sucked in...loaded up...and trucking down the road. We had a two mile trek to the main entrance of the park. Upon arrival the volunteer at the gate told us that they had been broke into and we would have to go to the temporary desk out front of the office to check in.

We pulled over to the side and went to check in. All I had planned on doing was paying for the dump and getting my new park pass. Well as things would have it they had a sewer site open and we had a half price coupon...so we just decided to stay a couple of nights.

So here we are tucked into our site and enjoying the peace and quiet here. We will get some rest now before have to head back out...

Somewhere in Time

Back in Louisiana

 

Yes we are back in Louisiana this week and probably for the next month! I don't mind because we like the river and the casinos. We always find things to do and see and plenty of places to eat. Our whole crew loves it here and we all have a good time visiting and eating out together.

We arrived Tuesday morning about 9:00 am. That is the time we were suppose to start work...and barely made it. Not to worry most all the other team members were also late in arriving so nothing was said about our late arrival.

We put in our time and then headed over to the hotel to check in and get settled in our new room. We got our cards from the desk and went up the elevator to check out our new home for the week. We were one floor below our room last week...which by the way we had requested for this time too. I noticed that the AC was not performing as it should and the room was rather hot. About the time I noticed that and was about to push some buttons there was a knock at the door. Sherri went to the door and met the maintenance man. He said that they had just checked a man out of this room because the AC was not working. He wanted to know if we were having a problem. I told him yes and that we needed to have another room. We contacted the desk after he failed to get our AC to come on and soon we were moving up stairs to another room.

OK now we are in another room with an ice cold AC unit that Sherri wanted turned off as soon as we got in the room. She did all her disinfecting and cleaning. We told our friends Becky and Rick that we had moved and asked if they wanted to go and eat. We decided to eat downstairs at the restaurant. This way we did not have to give up our good parking place. I did not really want to drive anyway so all was good...until we ordered our food and waited and waited and waited for our meal to come out. We waited for about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Now normally I would never wait this long for a meal but we had got to talking and ate a salad and had some drinks and before we knew it we had been setting there for some time with no food in sight.

I motioned to the waitress and informed her that we were on our way out due to the fact that we had to eat before 9:00 pm. Out the door we went and found ourselves headed for Sam's Casino and the buffet. It was close to 8:30 by this time and we finally got some food. I sure was glad to eat after waiting so long.

Not all was well, however seeing as how after we ate and climbed back in the truck I took the wrong turn out of the parking garage and bingo was lost down town on one way street that were all going the wrong way. We finally got on the right road to take us back to the hotel only to find a train blocking that road with a long wait to boot.

OK it was getting on to bed time when I finally got the truck turned around and found another route to the hotel and got us parked for the evening. It did not take me long to get my shower and climb into bed. I was fast asleep...

Somewhere in Time

Back in Cyber Lock

 

Sherri and I returned from Louisiana on Thursday and settled back in after a tuff time of unloading all the junk we had to take for the two week stay. We had all kinds of suit cases and bags of dirty clothes and the list goes on. It was nice to get home and spend the night in our own bed. We had no problem falling to sleep and I did not even turn over the whole night. Woke up the next morning in the same position I fell asleep in.

It was cloudy when we both slipped out of bed and down to the kitchen to make coffee. Sherri beat me there and had the brew going when I made my way past her and sat down in my recliner. The coffee was sure good and I really...for the first time in two weeks...enjoyed two cups! We have not had the time to drink that much coffee on the schedule we have been keeping in Shreveport. Now it is time to stop and smell the roses here at our lake lot. As much as I would rather be out in the mountains this week being here is saving me RV rent and electric.

We have a lot to do today. We have a ton of laundry to do and things to clean up around the lot here. I have to mow some and straighten up the junk I dropped off in the barn. One problem is slowing me down this morning and that is the fact that it is raining and does not look as though it will stop any time soon.

I still don't have my jack fixed yet. Now they are saying that the motor toasted when the gears went out in the shaft? I hope this is not going to be on of those things that escalade into a situation. You know what I mean. I hate to get upset about trying to get things done right. Not being able to get this to the dealership has really made the problem tuff. Going to the road tech is OK but you have to go through all the red tape of getting everything OK'd and so on. I will keep a positive attitude the rest of this week but next week I might have to let the rockets fly...

Somewhere in Time  

Had a great weekend

 

Sunday

I could hear Sherri's alarm going off this morning. Sounded like it was in another room but I knew it had to be here in the hotel room with us. I just put a pillow over my head as soon as I realized it was Sunday morning and I did not have to get up. What seemed like seconds past and I woke up again this time with the sun peaking over the horizon. I looked over in the corner of the room and saw Sherri staring at here computer screen. She was already up and working on her report.

I just could not bring myself to get up and get going. My head was stopped up and I had a sinus headache that would not stop. I am not sure what brought that on but it was there pounding away. I got up and took my shower got dressed and we went down stairs to eat breakfast. I thought that if I could eat something and then take me some sinus medicine that I would be OK.

I had the French toast and bacon. Sherri had the same thing followed by a fruit bowl...and we both had the coffee...which by the way is so good here. I have to find out what kind they brew and get me some.

We finished our breakfast and headed back upstairs to play on the computers for a while. We needed to go to Penny's to get me some shirts but the stores don't open early. I did go later and found me some shirts at the Big and Tall shop that fit good and were very inexpensive. We then headed over to the casino to do some playing. Harrah's was the selected place to do that. When we arrived we found it not so crowded and had our pick of machines. That is the way I like it.

I started out with $10.00 and ended up with the same amount. Sherri played her $20.00 in and came back with $7.00. The important thing is we had fun and returned home after our free buffet. Yes we got a free buffet for playing so much...rather Sherri got us both a free one. I don't even get mail from them.

The rest of the day was spent in the hotel room shopping on line and reading journals. I planned several trips that I may take...

Somewhere in Time

We are off for the weekend

What a great morning this is going to be. I was laying in bed and when my eyes opened I could see the sun just peaking over the horizon. Being up this high in the morning you get to see some of the best sun rises. The one this morning as especially great because I am off today and get to enjoy going and doing what I want to.
Sherri and are planning on going to look at some RV places today...did I say we were going to buy one....NO...I just said we were going to look. We love to shop RV and see what is new in the industry. You can learn a lot if you shop around and see what is out there. I would like to see what it would cost to put the "Big Foot" system on my rig. The hydraulic leveling would be nice to have.
We wanted to go before it go hot and we plan on eating breakfast downstairs in the hotel restaurant. We get a free breakfast here so why not use it. There are several places here to go and look and we plan on hitting them all. We had planned to ask Cheryl and Don to go with us but found out that they are going to the coast for the weekend. They wanted to go before the oil slick hits. Can't blame them for that.
Well better pull up stakes here and head down to eat. I will try to get some pictures of our findings for tomorrows journal entry when I post it....

Somewhere in Time