Back in Louisiana

 

Sherri and I returned to Louisiana to day. We arrived in Lafayette about 4:30 and checked into our hotel room. We will be here for the week and then head back West to the lake. From there we truck off to  Granbury Texas.

Our schedule looks full from now until the end of the year. We have several sets to do in Southern Louisiana this year and then next year we have many sets scattered all over the eastern half of Texas.

In the mean time we are working on our home base camp. We will have our water tap installed soon and then we hope to have the septic tank put in before Sherri retires. All these things we want to get done before we go on a fixed income.

I have another fence to install and then we are thinking about enlarging Sherri’s barn by moving my workshop out. I will have a larger workshop built of the side of the barn and Sherri will have a bath and sewing room built where my work shop use to be.

We have many plans and hope to work them all in before Sherri retires. This will give us a comfortable place to stay and rest when we come in off the road for a spell.

OK now I have a question for someone out there to answer for me. I have been trying to comment on different journals and found that my Google Account will not get me in. I am signed on and some of the journals I can comment on with no problem… but some say that I cannot access this page? I am sure something has been changed on some of the accounts that I cannot access but I don’t know what…and I don’t know what to do to  comment on them.  Maybe those people don’t want me commenting LOL. I don’t know but if you can tell what I have to do to access all my friends journal for a comment now and then I will be forever thankful…

Somewhere in Time  

Fixing Up And Tearing Up

This morning I was laying in bed wondering if I should get up or turn over and sleep for another hour. The turning over part did not happen due to the fact that Sherri made me get up. She wanted me to get up and make some phone calls that I had been putting off for some time. We also were going to go down to the water company and get our water tap.

While out we planned on going by the Stone and Gravel place in Terrell. We wanted to get some washed river rock for the barn. We had cleachy in the beginning but it causes so much dust and if it gets wet…well it is not pretty.

What is really nice about the rock is that fact that you can walk bare footed on it and it does not hurt your feet. We also got some Oklahoma Flag stone for a walk way and fitted them all together. It all came together nicely.. We had ordered 8 yards of rock and I thought that it would not be enough to do the barn. I was really surprised to see that we had enough to do more than just the barn. We will have enough to do the yard off the porch. I want to lay brick for the BBQ area and then put the rock around it.

This is the fixen up part of the story and now I have to relate the tearing up part. The Motorhome was in the barn while we were doing half of the drive. Upon finishing that side it was time for me to pull the Motorhome out. The remaining part of the rock pile was on the passengers side of the RV so when I pulled out the Motorhome listed to the side and the back bedroom slide awning roller caught the left side of the barn opening. Crash was the first sound I heard then it was Sherri screaming STOP! I jumped out and went around to the drivers side and saw the damage to the barn and immediately started looking for any damage to the Motorhome. There was none that I could see at that time and was thankful for that.

Corner of the barn on the left bent by the awning roller on the right

 

We left the Motorhome where it was and finished what we could behind it. I was not going to move it again until the pile of rock was cleared out of the way.

We finished up all we were going to do that day and slept in the Motorhome where she sat… half in and half out of the barn. We left all the slides in for the night and slept quite comfortably.

The next morning we were up early to continue with our rock spreading. Sherri had to leave for Home Depot to pick up some ground cloth and edging for the side yard. While she was away Rodney and I pulled the Motorhome out of the barn without any problems. We checked the bedroom slide and found it to be in good working order.

After getting our house parked in the alley behind the barn I finished up some more loads of river rock and called it another day…

 

Somewhere in Time

Good to be Back

 

We left for the lake around 4:00 and took Hwy 80 all the ways to Wills Point. Traffic through the towns was light but the traffic lights still held us up. I just hate it when lights turn red and there are no other cars coming on the side roads! You set there for the longest waiting on no one and then it becomes your time to go and one car shows up on the side road and they have to wait for no one. There must be a better way.

We pulled into town and stopped at the Post Office located on 4th St. This Post Office has the worst parking lot of any establishment in town. The apron to enter on is so bad you cannot go more than 2 to 3 miles per hour coming in or you will be thrown from your vehicle (with seat belts on).

Being that we are out of town so much we accumulate quite a bit of mail over time. It takes a few minutes to check and see if it is all yours. Many times we get mail to individuals that once had this box many moons ago. We have to sift through all that and then sift through all the junk mail that belongs to us. This takes some time and then we pile it in the Jeep to take to the lake for further inspection.

Once at home we unloaded all our travel gear and took the dirty clothes to the laundry room for washing. It is nice to have our own laundry room here at the lake. We plan on adding on to the existing room as soon as we can afford it. Sherri wants a bath and small kitchen put in where my shop is now. This will allow me to build a little bit bigger shop which I will attach to the barn. This project may be coming up this Fall.

We settled in and made us some diner. I whipped up some sausage and eggs with hash browns and Sherri ate some left over pizza from lunch. We were both full and sat down to watch all the season premiers.

The Big Bang started off and the Mentalist ended it. We love Thursday night shows. This year looks like they will have some good ones on to watch.

Our new Motorhome is not wired up for two signal reception off of the Tripod. This means I cannot watch one show and record another at this time. I will have to run me another coax to the box from the antenna so this will be enabled. There is always something to do here…

Somewhere in Time

Traveling Many Places

Sherri and I have been moving every day now for a week. We are here in Longview for the night and then we have to go to Hallsville. We work the day at each town and then move to the next.

We will be able to return to our Lake property this weekend…but then that means I have to work on my projects there. No rest for the wicked!

The weather has been real nice of late. We have enjoyed the cooler morning temps and the evenings have cooled off as well. I hope that this weekend turns out to be cool so I can get some outdoor chores done.

I have to go now and get something to eat. I have Internet as long as we are in the Hotel rooms. I still have not got the Cradle Point working. Maybe I will be able to get it fixed this weekend when we get back to our place…

Somewhere in Time

Dog Kennel at the Park

I was awake this morning bright and early…well let me leave off the bright. It was still dark outside and I did not really want to get up. Get up I did and once again down to the kitchen for that morning fuel we refer to as coffee.

Sherri was not feeling well today and she had slept on the couch so that I would not keep her awake with my snoring and mumbling that I do. Yes I have to admit that I make a lot of noise while sleeping…it does not keep me from sleeping soundly and I wake up in the morning quite refreshed!

We turned on our computers and sipped on our coffee. Neither of us could get on line using the Cradle Point. Finally Sherri had to plug the Verizon Wireless Stick straight into her computer where she got on line without any problem. As for me I still can’t get on line. When I go to connect to our Hot Spot it does not come up as we had named it. It now comes up as another name and it is not secured? I will have to reload the Cradle Point I guess to get it back?

While trying to get on line we noticed the RV across the park from us had set up a kennel to house their dogs. Yes I said dogs (plural)! We sat there watching out the window counting the dogs in the kennel and then we starting the other dogs which they brought out of the Motorhome and they began to switch the dogs outside with the dogs inside and when all was said and done we counted twelve dogs!!!

Now I don’t want you to be mislead here. I am not talking about small dogs…although they did have 5 smaller dogs…I am talking about big dogs! About knee high dogs! And when these folks left to go to the casino all 12 dogs stayed in the Motorhome! I don’t see how there was room in there for the owners with that many dogs?

I am not anti dog by any means but 12 dogs is a bit much…and dogs the size of a grown man. I would have to have another income just to feed the dogs!

Well those folks moved out and took the dogs with them. Now it is quite here without the dogs barking at ever passer by. The man directly across from them was not at all happy with all the commotion that these dogs caused. They could not even set out without the whole kennel raising cane.

We will be here for a couple of days and then we are heading back to the Lake to rest and get some things done there.

The heat is letting up some and next week is suppose to be a great improvement over this week. I will be so glad when things cool down…

Somewhere in Time

Moving to Louisiana

 

We woke up this morning shivering with the covers pulled up to our noses. I guess we had turned the AC down low last night and forgot to turn it back up. I just hated to get up but then I knew that this was a moving day.

We made our coffee and then went out to the patio to visit. Rodney and Becky came down when their coffee was ready and they joined in the conversation. We talked about our up coming retirement. Becky and Sherri will be retiring about the same month. Rodney and I have been retired for some time and we sure would like for them to join in our ranks.

We sat there on the porch until 12:00 when hunger over took us. We parted ways and wished them a good week. They wished us safe travel.

Sherri and I finished up our chores and got the Motorhome ready for travel. It was almost 4:00 when we finally hooked up the Jeep and headed off to the State Park to dump. Trash put out and black water tank clean we headed out the gate on our way to Louisiana.

We stopped at the station in town and filled up the tank. I checked the Jeep one more time and then pulled out. We headed out to the Interstate and turned East. We had been driving about an hour when one of our friends called us to let us know that there was a Wild Fire on I 20. They suggested that we take a detour when we get to Marshall Texas.

The smoke could be seen as far as 25 miles from the fire.

Residence lined the road waiting on word about their homes and property.

Soon we were past the traffic and back up to speed. Looking back at the fire

We stopped at a roadside park down the Interstate and took these pictures of the Sun behind the smoke.

We pray that lives were not lost…and pleas God let it rain…

When we got to the exit that we were suppose to take I was staring off in the distance looking at the plume of smoke coming off the fire. Sherri was taking pictures…watching the news on TV and surfing the Internet for information about the fire. Well needless to say I missed the exit and the next thing we knew we were in a line of traffic moving very slowly.

The news station said that a truck had wrecked on the Interstate and a fire ensued. Before the Fire Department could arrive it had spread into the pine forest on either side of the highway. It was so sad to see the burnt trees and under growth…but sadder yet was the people that had to be evacuated from their homes. As we moved on up the Interstate we could see the Highway Patrol blocking off side roads that lead to the fire area and see the folks that had been evacuated standing along side their cars and trucks waiting for word on their homes.

We were delayed for about 30 minutes and soon the highway opened up and we were on our way. It was only about 28 miles to our destination and the traffic was fairly light now.

We arrived at Diamond Jacks Casino RV park about 7:30 and got our site. Sherri dropped the jacks and found that the front wheels were coming off the ground. Not a good thing so we had to drive up on our leveling blocks and once again put down the jacks. Soon all was well and we were level.

We had some Steamers for diner and believe it or not we stayed at home and watched TV. No we did not got to the Casino!! Can you believe that..

OK I bet we find ourselves there…

Somewhere in Time

Fire Fire Everywhere

 

Sherri and I woke up this morning to the scent of burning grass and trees. What a terrible thing to wake up to but at least it is not our yard or trees burning. We turned the TV on to see where all the fires were and realized that they were East of here. If we don’t get rain here soon those fires may be in our backyard.

Setting there drinking our coffee and thinking about all the people out there that have lost their homes. We just could not imagine the void in those people’s lives when they saw their homes burned to the ground.

We sat there the rest of the day planning our next trip. We have to work in Louisiana next week so we will take the house with us. You know we never leave home.

After reading journals and playing a few games on line we fixed us some diner and then sat down to a little TV. It was not too long and we were ready to turn in for the night. I have to dream about cool weather in another place…

Somewhere in Time  

I Can’t Believe This Weather

 

This morning I woke up trying to find the blanket on the bed. I am cold where is that darn blanket!? HUMMMM…why am I cold…said Joe? I know the AC is good in here but not that good. I got up to investigate where the blanket was and remembered it is summer time and we don’t have a blanket on the bed. I went to the bathroom and noticed that the sun was up and that is when I heard Sherri rattling around in the kitchen.

I went back to the thermostat and turned the temp up some. Then I went into the kitchen and fixed me a cup of coffee. Sherri said you wont believe the temperature outside this morning. We took our coffee outside and sat on the patio. I could not believe how cool the air was and the breeze was out of this world. We went from 105 to 65 overnight. That is Texas weather…one day hot next day cold.

I was going to hang the screen doors on my porch. I had planned on going to Home Depot to get some jamb material but after enjoying the weather and the cool breeze I just decided to put off the work. Sherri and I sat on the porch for some time and soon Becky and Rodney came over and we all visited for some time. Time got away from us and before we knew it it was 1:30. Becky wanted some of my special hot sauce so we headed down to here RV to put together some dip.

 

I mixed up the dip and we decided to head back over to our Motorhome and put together some chili and hot dogs. We had a good meal and then spent the rest of the day just reading journals and Facebook. We put Becky a Facebook page together so she could communicate with others. Sherri said she will be her first friend. You go Becky!

That is about it for today. We had a good Labor Day and hopefully a good week…

Somewhere in Time

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Visitors

The AC woke me up this morning. I had it set on Auto and when it kicked on I woke up. Now I know it must have come on several times during the night but not once did it wake me up. Maybe I was not ready to get up?…OH well…it was close to 7:00 am so it was time to rise and shine.

Jennifer…our youngest daughter and her three girls had spent the night with us and we got to use our bed in the living room for the first time. I had watched the guy at the dealership show us how to use it but I did not remember all he had showed us.

I did find the air pump and the valve to screw it into. That was half the battle but getting the cap to stay on the valve was mind bending. It kept popping off so finally I had to hold it shut while I pumped air into the bed. Low and  behold the cap held as soon as I got some pressure behind it. I had the bed pumped up in about 30 seconds and soon all the kids were tucked in.

 

They all decided to sleep with their Mom. Now that had to be a feat in itself. I don’t know how anyone got any sleep but then I did not have to sleep with them so I did not care.

The next morning I took a picture of the flop house just to show everyone how many people could sleep in one of these beds.

They all stayed until about noon and then they all packed up and left for the Waterpark where they live. It did not take long for them to say good-bye…they were headed to a lot more fun than MaMa and Poppa’s house. Funny how grandparents seem to slip down the importance pole…

Somewhere in Time

Fence is Fixed

The room was dark when my eyes opened…

If you’re older… you know you might get up one or two times a night so you’re never sure what time it is. Well this morning was no different from all the other mornings I have woke up in a daze. I had to wander off to the bathroom to check the time…that is the closest clock to the bed…and saw that it was almost 7:00 am!

I wanted to get up earlier than that so I could get started on putting my fence back up. I don’t know if you read the post about the storm that blew through here the other day taking out my fence. Word has it that it took my neighbors boat and blew it down to the back of his place. The neighbor directly behind me said that the wind did not last more than 3 minutes but in that time it took out a lot of stuff…to include my back fence.

That is the only damaged that I surveyed upon my arrival yesterday. Well I should add that the new carpet on the patio was blown around some but not much else was damaged.

OK that being said I drank a quick cup of coffee and then headed out to my shop to gather up some tools to get started on the repair. The fence had just been pulled away from the 4x4 post and was still intact. All I had to do was lift it back up and fasten it back to the post. This took all of about 45 minutes and then I was on to another chore.

Believe it or not weeds have grown up along the side of the barn and they were green! Can you believe that? The only water we have had around here has been the dew. I guess that is all a weed needs to survive. Once over them with the mower and back at them with the weed eater and that chore was also complete.

By this time the mercury had crept up the tube to about the 89 mark. I could feel the sweat starting to bead up on my forehead. Time to coast now inside under the AC. I felt good about the fact that I had got as much done as I had in a short period of time. I am sure that tomorrow morning I will have to complete some other chores that Sherri will think up…

 

Somewhere in Time

Time to Move on

I got up this morning and found that Sherri was not in bed. I went to the kitchen to make coffee and found my bride on the couch fast asleep. She woke up when I started making the coffee. I heard a faint good morning come from her. She said that she got up a 4:00 am and started to make coffee but decided to lay on the couch for a little while.

We poured our coffee and then started to plan our move for the day. We are planning on leaving about 10:00. This should allow us to miss the morning traffic. We will have to drive through Ft. Worth Dallas area and that traffic can be real bad if you get there too early.

When we get to the Lake we will have plenty to do. I have a fence to fix and Sherri has a lot of wash to do. The Jeep needs an oil change so that will take up some more time.

I am not sure where we will take off to next but I am sure we will have an adventure there…

Somewhere in Time