Horns, Thorns, Fangs & Stingers

Since departing Dublin, Tx we have been without an internet connection or mobile phone service so this post is coming after a few days break. 

The trip from Dublin to Caprock Canyons State Park was almost a six hour drive, after a number of stops.  We did make it on just one tank of fuel, but only barely.  However our bladders just can’t go that long.  The landscape got so sparse on settlements that one time there was no option other than to pull over to the side of the road and open the rig and use our on-board facilities. 

Traveling north and west for nearly 300 miles brought on a significant change in geology and climate.  We moved from the low, rolling plains and Oak and Cottonwood covered hills and ravines to the high plains with its climb of over a thousand feet in elevation, scrub mesquite, massive farm fields, three-digit temperatures and one-digit humidity. 

 

Long, straight roads from which you can almost see the curve of the earth.

We flowed into the campground like lava.  It was the middle of the afternoon and the campground check-in parking lot asphalt was sticking to the tires.  If you have been keeping up with these posts you know to expect me to say we got the A/Cs hooked up and headed out to find a bite to eat while the camper cooled down.  But not this time, the nearest open eatery on a Sunday afternoon was over 50 miles away.  In fact, there was almost nothing from a shopping or dining perspective anywhere nearby.  At least I could get diesel, and thank goodness for that because I was on fumes.  Another feature that came with the new location was wind, lots of wind.  When you are 13’ tall and 60’ long it does not take much wind to really up the fuel consumption to keep things moving down the road.  I can’t even bring myself to calculate what my mileage was. 

The last time we were in this State Park was 30 years ago this month.  Things are really different.  Back in ’83 it had just become a state park.  Other than a few trails, there was no development.  Now there is an RV campground with water and electricity as well as numerous walk-in and back-country tent camping areas.  There are multiple interpretive kiosks, a bison herd, lake and equestrian campground and trails. 

I really like the RV spaces.  They are wide spaced and the mesquite brush is thick enough between sites that it is hard to tell you even have a neighbor. 

Wind is such a prominent feature that the picnic tables have built-in wind breaks.

Cyndee is liking her new front yard.

 

There are no spaces behind us at all so we can open the blinds on our rear picture window and watch the wind whip the mesquite around and keep an eye out for critters.  And have we ever been seeing critters!

 

We saw our first rattle snake today on the drive in.  It was big fat one about 4’ long just boogying down the shoulder of the road.  No pictures, we just had to enjoy that one as we slipped by at 65 mph.  But once parked, the camera came out and animals started making themselves available for portraits.

 

 

Two mule deer wondered through camp at sunset.

These guys were everywhere

A herd of buffalo free-ranges throughout this 15,000 acre park. 

One of two tarantulas that wondered through our camp.

These rodents are cute to many but can be
a serious pest to the rancher and farmer.



Prairie Dog Towns are common in this area.
But this one was next to the campground bath house.



The bull of the herd.  He preferred to keep to himself, grazing in a deep draw
where the sage brush was tall and thick.  I got this portrait of him from about a half mile away.
Photo heavily cropped and enlarged.

Unlike the lizard on the post, this one was camera-shy.  I had to chase
after him and get this shot while on the move.

Millipede

There is a saying about the flora and fauna of this part of Texas, everything either has a horn, thorn, fang or stinger.  Just from the few things we have seen so far, it appears to be a pretty accurate description.

 

We got to do a little hiking on our first morning in this canyon, before the temperatures soared.  Our memory of it being a beautiful place was not wrong.

 

 

 

The park had experienced deluge of a rainstorm just 4 days before we arrived.  They got four and a half inches of rain in two hours.  That is almost a third of their annual rainfall in a single, two-hour event.  Signs of damage to roads at low-water crossings were everywhere but the good part was that deserts respond quickly to the little rain they get.  The canyon was green and little blooms were everywhere and you could see the cactus were just going to explode with blooms in a few more days.  But the contrast between the red clays, white gypsum and deep green of the waxy vegetation was spectacular.  Don't forget, you can click on the photos and they will enlarge.

Our second day started with much lower wind speed, as it usually does.  Mornings tend to be calm but as soon as the heat starts rising, so does the wind.  Our excursion into the canyon on the first day was all the way in to the area known as the South Prong.  Today we visited the North Prong.  It was getting hot fast so we set a short goal of hiking out to the "notch" and back.  It is a place where the trail passes through a V-notch (some natural erosion, some trail-built), in a butte that leads into a wide area of the floor of the canyon.

 

 

It did not take too long before it was too hot to be traipsing around the canyon floor.  We retreated to the air conditioned comfort of Big Gulp and headed out to another part of the park.  It is not in the canyon proper, rather, it is 90 miles of a rail-to-trail conversion.  They took this old rail line, pulled up all the rail and cross-ties, added a layer of gravel and made it available for hikers, bikers and horses.  This trail has the added feature that there are at least six trestles to cross and one tunnel that is now home to a large population of Mexican free-tail bats.

The tunnel was about five miles in the direction the above photo was shot.  But this was not a 10 mile walking day for Cyndee and I, or anybody else either.  At 104° it would have been a challenge to enjoy the walk.

Time here is too short, after two nights we are moving again.  This time to Palo Duro Canyon State Park.  On our way out we made a stop at the park headquarters to meet the park volunteer coordinator in person.  This is who we will be working for next spring for 60 days.  We hope it works out but there may be a showstopper.  The Texas State Park System requires volunteers to acquire a "non-owners liability insurance policy".  So far, of six insurance companies that we have contacted they all looked at us like we had two heads.  They said there was no way they would accept liability for state-owned equipment.  Evidently Progressive Insurance will add it as a rider to their policy, but you have to have your insurance with them.  That is fine, but they won't write a policy for full timers.  We have us a catch-22.  The volunteer coordinator is going to call headquarters in Austin and see if they will waive the requirement or come up with some other alternative.

So long Livingston, hello Dublin

Yesterday was a slow day, just getting everything packed up for the trip to Dublin, Tx.  And beginning at 6:00am, while it was still not hot (it never got cool), I washed the rear exterior of the camper and then washed Big Gulp top to bottom.  I can't have my bride riding around in a grungy chariot.

Today I rolled out of bed at 4:30am and started doing final preparations for hitching up.  Cyndee,,, not so much.  She came along about two-and-a-half hours later.  But we still did great at getting everything together and getting connected to the new hitch.  Seeing how well this new hitch works I now realize how really old and tired my other hitch was.

There was plenty of time to write posts yesterday, unfortunately I had maxed-out my data plan on the jetpack.  We have to stay off the jetpack until our service rolls over on the 26th.  Our voice minutes ran out as well.  We are text only on the phones for a few days.  But we are back online tonight via free Wi-Fi at the Camel Stop RV Park in Dublin.  I guess I really hammered the phone lines doing all the things that had to be done to be a Texan.

The morning started in hot, humid East Texas where there has been plenty of rain and green meets the eye from every view.  As the day aged we eased towards the central plains of the state.  The temperature rose significantly and the humidity dropped precipitously.  Lush green was replaced by varying hues of yellow-green and brown.  You could tell that rain had been present at one time, maybe in late spring, but by the look of things today it has been too long since the last one.  Wind also became a more and more prominent feature as we traversed north and west.  Not because of storms or anything like that, it just blows.  When you grow up in wind country you learn at an early age to never let go of a door you are opening or to set anything down lighter than an anvil or else 'the wind 'l have it'.  Stepping out of a camper is a tricky thing in the wind.  You are pretty high off the ground and the steps are steep.  The wind can grab the door and throw you out on your ear.  We are having to recall our old habits for living in wind country.

But the day was not just about the weather.  We stayed on TX-6 for a good part of the trip and this road took us past some spectacular ranch and farm houses.  Some were modest in size, some were absolutely enormous, but they were all gorgeous.  Most were built using traditional materials for the area such as limestone or rock, and you could see community pride in the little towns we passed through by the way they took care of their homes and public buildings.  The county courthouse in Centerville blew me away.  Built in 1886 it is a structure that seems almost gothic.  It had a prominent clock tower and large, rough-cut limestone blocks.  I really wanted a picture of this structure but there simply was no place to park 60 feet of truck and trailer.  We had to keep going.  However, after parking the camper we went into Stephenville for a diet cherry lime-aide from Sonic.  Stephenville had their own old courthouse with lots of character.

County Courthouse, Stephenville, Tx

We pulled into our RV park just outside of Dublin a little later than we had hoped for. 

Nice, long, level spot.  That tall bush to the left is what passes for a tree around here.

Very clean and spacious park.  If we had satellite there would be now worry of obstruction.

It was mid-afternoon, scorching hot and we had not stopped to eat.  Starving, we unhitched, plugged in the electricity got both A/Cs cranked up and promptly left to find someplace with food and air conditioning.

That someplace turned out to be Woody's Wood Fire Grill.  It was practically across the street from the campground.  It looked a little questionable but we did not really see anything that grabbed our attention when we passed through Dublin either.  So we crossed our fingers and went in.

Big Gulp was almost as big as the restaurant.  And yes, we were the only ones there.

Not bad, it was more a bar than it was a restaurant.  We were starved, if they had something to eat we were going to stay.  Which brings up another adjustment, one I wish I did not have to make.  In Texas the restaurants still offer; "smoking, or non?".  I have traveled all over the world and the U.S. and with the exception of some of the smaller villages in Taiwan and Texas there is no smoking allowed in the restaurant, period.  Having a smoking section in a restaurant makes no more sense than having a peeing section in a swimming pool.  Okay, I'll get off my soap box.

So, we are going to try to stay on the reservation with our diet and get a grilled chicken salad or something of the sort.  But then the menus are laid in front of us and there it is, with a picture and everything, a great big 'ol chicken fried steak.  With gravy and potatoes and griddled Texas toast.  We both ordered one.  I'm going to hate getting on the scales in the morning.

Neither of us had eaten such a heavy meal in a long time.  They practically had to roll us out to Big Gulp.  Now I remember how I got to be a double XL.  But it sure was good.

We went back to the camper until the day started to let go of some of the heat and took Big Gulp into town for its second drink of the day.  It took about 64 gallons of fuel today, but I did start the day with only three fourths of a tank so I did not burn all 64.  Tomorrow we'll start with a full tank and should be able to make the three hundred miles to our next campground.

With essentially everything done, today was going to be a day of leisure.  I was going to get caught up on writing my posts, this being the third one today, and do some reading.  But instead I get a call that my hitch has arrived.  Excellent!  We get in the truck and head about four miles down the road to West RV.  These are the folks that agreed to accept the motor freight for me.  As I pull in, they are lifting the pallet with the hitch on it down off the back of the eighteen-wheeler.

I pulled the two clevis pins that hold the head on the old hitch and lift it off.  Then one of the mechanics and I pull the two pins each that hold the hitch to the mounting rails.  Then we lift and slide about 150 lbs of iron out to the tailgate where two other guys lift the old one down and the new one up.  Ten minutes later the new hitch is pinned in and the head is on.  I am in and out of West RV in less than thirty minutes.

Old, tired hitch

Shiny, new hitch

Click any picture to enlarge

I guess I should probably wash the bed of the truck and use some ArmorAll or something so that the bed looks as good as the hitch.

I asked the folks at West RV what I owed them for my trouble and they just waved me off.  They said since I was leaving all the old iron with them it was worth more as scrap than the thirty minute shop rate they would charge.  Now I don't have to dispose of anything and they get a nice little check for the scrap iron.  A good deal for everybody.

I have also spent some quality time on the phone with the technicians at SolidSignal.  They are the ones that are getting me hooked up with DirecTV satellite service.  The technician and I agreed on the best equipment for the job and they got it boxed up and headed to Kansas for me.  We will be getting what they call a Genie HR-44 receiver and a wireless client.  I wrote about the amazing things the Genie can do in a previous post.  Plus, there will be a wireless client sitting in the cabinet above the TV in the bedroom.  The Genie will stream the satellite signal to the client and the client will feed the signal to the bedroom TV via an HDMI connection.  And to top it off, the remote will be an RF (radio frequency) transmitter.  We will be able to use all the remote features with the client, even though it is closed up in the cabinet.  Really cool. 

We have not had even the slightest hint of a TV signal since we got to Livingston.  Cyndee and I both are jonesing for some mindless TV, Fox News and Leno.  We should be able to get two or three channels once we get to the panhandle but we'll really be set once we get to Kansas.




Up and going early again today.  When does the leisurely life of retirement happen?  We are off to Lufkin so we can get into the social security office and apply for "modern" SS cards.  And that is so we can have our multiple forms of identification to get our driver licenses.

I remember that in my youth Texas was a state that was rated as having the best roads in the country.  I think they have let that slip away from them.  Both the roads to Conroe and Lufkin were what I remembered about them being roomy with large, paved shoulders but they were not smooth.  They are not rough because of pot-holes or cracks or things like that.  They were just beaten down into dips and bulges that made for a less than comfortable ride in a big old stiff-suspension truck.

We found our way to the SS office, took our number and waited to be called to a window.  Happily it was not long and the request for replacement cards was a breeze.  It was early still when we finished so we took the opportunity to go to Sam's Club for some groceries.  In preparation for being in places where getting access to fresh food will be a challenge, we have been trying to stock up on things like dried onions, herbs and mushrooms.  We have been finding everything except the mushrooms.  According to their website, Sam's should have big containers of Tone's but we have been to three different Sam's in two states and have not found any yet.  We may have to resort to an internet order.

On the drive back to Livingston, Cyndee is starting to show signs of taking pressure about the driver license test.  We do not get to just roll our Georgia license over to Texas.  Texas has laws that require different classes of licensing based on the weight of your vehicle.  And it does not matter how much, or little your vehicle actually weighs, the decision is based on it's maximum rated capacity.  Anything rated at 26,001 lbs or greater requires an exempt class-A license.  In other words, a commercial driver license that is not valid for driving for hire, just personal use.  But you have to take the truck driver/commercial test.  Big Gulp only weighs 9,000 lbs sitting at the curb but is rated for 33,000 lbs.  We're taking the commercial test. 

The study handbook for the test is 155 pages of small type that goes into great detail about load rigging, clearance lights placement, weight, shifting, braking, taxi cabs, busses and just tons of other stuff that have nothing to do with pulling an RV.  It is what it is, we have to get through it.  Our evenings have been spent reviewing the handbook and asking each other questions out of the study guide.  Cyndee even found a trucking company website that had practice tests.  We both took, and failed these tests a couple of times.  But we finally got to the point we could pass.  Today we are going to do it for real.

This time the TDPS was satisfied with all our documentation and started putting us in the 'system'.  Digital fingerprints were taken first, then we had to step up to the blue screen for the photo.  The camera is on a fixed mount and operated digitally by the agent.  She does not touch the camera, in fact she sits about 3 feet away.  So when it was my turn, I stepped to the spot and watched a perplexed look come over the agent's face.  It would seem that the range that the camera can 'see' does not reach to my height of 6'5".  The agent kept asking me to back up but I was already pressed against the blue screen so I offered to spread my legs and squat down.  When I did I suddenly heard a bunch of muffled laughter.  It would seem that all the people waiting in line were getting a kick out of my situation.  Glad I could provide them with a little relief from a mind-numbing process.

Cyndee got seated at a computer station for the 20 question test first.  She got started while I fumbled through getting my picture taken.  But when I sat down at the computer next to her, mine would not recognize my login credentials.  I had to wait while the agent was processing somebody else for a license.  Now mind you, all this is in close quarters.  Cyndee and I were sitting shoulder-to-shoulder and the counter where the agent was is no more than five feet away.  I was trying to mind my own business but I kept hearing Cyndee making sounds like she was trying to lift a heavy load or something.  I briefly turned my head to see if she was okay and I could see that she was stuck on a question and sweating the answer.  I had no more than looked Cyndee's way when we heard a voice say; "Keep your eyes on your own screen!".  We both looked over at the agent who was leaning around the person at the counter and looking at us with a smile of amusement on her face.  "Yes ma'am."  And again there was muffled laughter from the crowd.

But that is okay, we both PASSED.  Cyndee was so excited she danced all the way out to the truck.  And she danced in the seat on the way to the campground.  And she danced into the camper.  It has been awhile since I saw her this jazzed up.

But hold on sports fans.  That is not the end, we now have to take the driving test.  And it has to be in a truck with a trailer that is of the weight class we are getting the license for.  The schedule for the driving tests is pushed all the way out into the middle of next month here in Livingston.  We cannot hang around that long as we have to be in Kansas by the 8th of July.

We have a dear friend up in the panhandle of Texas, who also happened to be my roommate in college and in our wedding.  He has a business that has heavy equipment and he is going to let us borrow a truck and flatbed trailer to take our test with.  This way we will not have to pack up our whole house and take it down to the DPS and drag it all over town for the test.  And that means that Cyndee will get to practice driving it for a couple of days before the test.  Plus, the flatbed will be easier to do the backing part of the test.  Yes, Cyndee is going to have to drive a medium duty truck with a trailer and turn corners without running over curbs, or worse, and do a backing test.  We hope that they will just ask us to back in a straight line.  Some testing places actually want you to parallel park!

We are going to start drifting north on Saturday.  We have a few days in a couple of state parks between here and the panhandle, but we will get there the weekend before the 4th of July.

Three days of learning the finer points of what has to be done to become a "legal" citizen of The Great State of Texas.  It ain't pretty.

Despite reading all the different state websites for vehicle registration and driver licensing over and over months in advance of returning to Texas (where we were both born and lived for 29 years), it was still a laborious and start-stop process.  And things have to be done in an exact order too.

Before you can get your driver license, you have to register your vehicles.  And before you can register your vehicle you have to pass a state safety inspection, on anything you put on the highway.  That means that we had to pack up the RV for travel, pull in the slides, disconnect all the hook-ups and hitch up just as if we were going on a major trip.  But we were only going to the local auto repair shop that does inspections.  It should have been a place just a couple miles down the road we are on but on this particular Monday that shop was out of inspection stickers.  We had to instead drive 15 miles; 5 miles down and through the town of Livingston and then another 10 miles west to Onalaska.  Onalaska is a little town on Lake Livingston, it has three stop lights and we turned at the second one to find Wayne's Tire Shop.  Wayne's had the right combination of stickers on hand and a driveway large enough and flat enough for big rigs to maneuver.  It was not ideal though, we had to hunt for a place to pull into the dirt driveway that was level enough not to drag the rear of the trailer.  There was one spot at the far end of the lot.

They got right to us and instructed me to pull into the garage bay.  "Really?"  "Yes, just stick the front of the truck in as far as you can without hitting the trailer on the garage door."

I wheeled around and tried to get as straight as I could with the space available.  I got most of the cab of the truck in and they seemed to be happy with that.

It seems that all this maneuvering and squeezing in was just so they could get their bar-code scanner within reach of the door jamb of the truck.  Other than that it was just flash the lights, honk the horn and turn on the windshield wipers.  I paid the fee (actually just another tax) and spent the next several minutes backing my way out, dodging cars that had come in and parked around me while getting inspected.  The guy that did the inspection was nice enough to help direct me through the maze and watch traffic for me on the highway that I had to overhang to get out.

Back to the campground.  We again backed in and precisely positioned the camper so that the slides would not hit the water spigot on one side or the trees on the other.  Cyndee does a great job giving hand signals and staying in view of my mirrors.  We get the job done almost silently.  A lot of times you can hear other couples yelling at each other, sometimes heatedly while trying to get backed in.  It usually turns out to be entertainment for the surrounding campers.  We do what we can to stay off the entertainment agenda.

With the camper back in its place and all hooked up, we got the A/Cs running and with inspection certificates in hand, we headed to the tax commission office back in town to register the truck and trailer.  It is a long story and took the rest of the day, but dozens of documents later and $800 in taxes, our vehicles are official Texans.  Cyndee and I are not yet, but the equipment is.

It has been a long time since I saw a tag on the front of one of my vehicles

But the day was not quite over yet, we had just enough time to get down to the TDPS (Texas Department of Public Safety) to get our driver licenses.  I don't know how many of you have had to renew your license since the Patriot Act came to be, but it really has made getting a license or state issued photo ID an arduous process.  One of the multiple forms of ID that you must present is an original social security card.  I had one, Cyndee did not.  Mine was the one my parents got for me somewhere back in the 1950's.  It was pretty much a machine-printed, thick, almost cardboard paper.  It was in mint condition but when I showed it to the agent they said it was "too old" and that I would have to get a "modern" one.  And it did not matter that we both had valid passports.  You would think that those would be the highest form of identification.  Nope, still have to have the SS card.

You can apply on-line for a card and wait several weeks or you can go to a social security office in person and still wait several weeks for the card.  But with the in-person visit you get a certificate with a government document control number on it that the TDPS will accept in lieu of a SS card.  All of that is well and good except there is no SS office in Livingston.  The nearest one is an hour away in Lufkin.  We now have our to-do list for Tuesday.

Saturday was another hot day but I got an early start and washed the bugs off of the front of the camper and did a full wash on the truck before the sun got too high.  Then we took a short road trip and explored Conroe, TX, about an hour away.  As native Texans we have always known of Conroe, we even have family that live in the area.  But we have never been there and were surprised to see how much of a city it was.  I think we saw all the national brands of shopping and most of the major chains of eateries.

One of our favorites that we did not have in GA was Cavenders, a western wear store.  When we saw it, we pulled right in.  I had been looking for a specific kind of belt for months without luck, within 10 minutes of going in Cavenders I had one in my hand.

The great state of Texas is one that requires a license plate on both ends of the vehicle.  Since Big Gulp was built in Tennessee and Indiana, then delivered to Georgia, where they do not have front plates, it did not have a license plate holder on the front bumper.  It is going to be necessary that I acquire and install a front plate holder.  I had tried the Ford house in Livingston but the parts department was closed on Saturday.  As we were on the southern end of I-45 as it passed through Conroe we spotted a Ford dealership.  I made a quick exit and headed over on the chance that they were a big enough operation that they would be working on Saturday, and they were.

I pulled around back trying to find the entrance to the parts department but found something else way more interesting.  A Ford GT Saleen.

Look through the back window.  That is a supercharger sticking up in there about six inches away from the drivers head.  Since this thing makes the ground shake when it is turned off, I don't think a conversation is something that can be carried on while going down the road.  I still want one though.

I got my plate holder and a new brake pedal pad and we got back on the road to Livingston so we could get there in time to try out a Mexican food restaurant we've had our eye on for supper.  The menu had a Tex-Mex section that we both ordered from.  So much for the diet, again.  The place was packed with people, and for good reason.  The service was good and the food was better.  Then we really fell off the wagon and went over to Shrimp Boat Manny's for another slice of the fried pecan pie.

Sunday (Fathers Day) was mostly down-time for us.  Cyndee did not even get out of her night gown until after 4 in the afternoon.  I piddled around, installed the front license plate holder in anticipation of being successful at the tag office on Monday.  Since we only get a TV signal for about 30 minutes a day, we listened to a lot of music and watched 3 movies on Blu-ray.

Finally, around 5pm we got a wild hair and decided to run to Lufkin (about an hour away in the opposite direction we went for Conroe).  We got there just in time for the peak supper rush at all the restaurants on Fathers Day.  We spotted another favorite place that we did not have around where we lived in GA, Cheddars, and pulled in.  People were standing 15 deep but they must have been waiting for big tables because they sat the two of us in about 5 minutes.  The menu was extensive enough that we were able to stay on the reservation with our dietary needs.

The sun was setting just as we went in so it was fully dark when we came out.  We drove a lap around downtown but the place was a ghost town so we pointed Big Gulp south and headed back to Livingston.  It was a pretty night.  We still have not been anywhere dark enough yet to see stars like we used to when we were kids.  Maybe when we get to Caprock Canyons.

So hot Tarzan couldn't take it...

Well, maybe not that hot but we knew coming to this part of Texas at this time of year was going to mean being exposed to some heat, and we were not wrong.  Temperatures for the two days we have been here have been in the mid-90's with the RH in the mid-80's.  The heat index has been hovering between 105° and 110°F.  I don't care who you are, that right there is hot!

It may be hot but it is a nice spot.  This is a typical commercial campground with rigs spaced pretty close together.

From the driveway you can see Cyndee's geranium on the picnic table (click to enlarge).  So far she has kept in good shape across five states.

While we had hoped for quick resolutions to getting all the legal documents changed over to Texas paper, it is no big surprise that it is not happening that way.  The tag office is closed two days for renovation.  The place that we should be using to get our truck and trailer's safety inspection sticker (required to have it in order to get your tags) is out of stickers!  We'll have to drive a ways to find a place that does big rigs like ours.  We are going to hook up the rig on Monday and drag it over to Onalaska, TX and see if we can get stickered there.

We also had an air bag failure on our 5th wheel hitch.  When I called to get repair parts I was told that my model was so old (12 years old) that they no longer made replacement parts for it.  I had to order two towers (the frame that holds the air bags) and a yoke (the cross-bar between towers that the hitch head is mounted on). 

If one air bag goes flat, they all go flat.

Except for the Binkley hitch head I am getting a whole new hitch.  That's okay except for the chunk of money that was not budgeted for it.  I worked out an agreement with a local RV repair shop to let me use them to send the crate of motor freight to them and then they will help me lift out the old frame (about 200lbs), drop in the new one and dispose of the old iron for me.

All of this is well and good except that it will be the middle of next week before I can even begin to think about seeing the crate arrive.  I am pretty sure we will be going to the RV park office and signing up for more days here in Livingston.  We may loose our whole time we had allotted for staying in Caprock Canyons State Park.  Oh well, such is the life of a full timer.

The lawyers that I had been working with via email for the past couple of months said; "Just come on in and we will get those wills and power of attorneys ready for you".  Today I learned that 'just come on in' is code for call for an appointment and we might get to you.  The earliest anyone can see me is in five days.

All this running around trying to work with the different services has given us a small look at the community.  Livingston was voted into existence in 1846 as a town and as the county seat.  A few prominent structures were built in the years prior to the Civil War but most of the original families that owned them lost their property brought on by the hard times of the war.  Post-war times saw the construction of a brick factory with several buildings still standing made from some of the first bricks made locally.

In typical fashion of the time, the town built a square where the county courthouse was erected.  The community has pride in its heritage and has done a good job of keeping the place looking nice.

 Like many of the public buildings built in this part of the country at the time, it is built of limestone, has a columned entrance and 12 foot ceilings.  The gazebo is a very recent addition.

On our first day in Livingston we had been driving all day, starting at the Mississippi River that day and pushing hard to get to our destination.  While I did say in a previous post that it was a beautiful meander through the moss-draped woods (and it was) we did stay at it and for-went stopping to eat.  By the time we got checked in, parked and hooked up I was so hungry that my bellybutton was rubbing a blister on my backbone.

The camper was heat soaked from the day's drive, there was no way we were going to go in and try to fix something to eat.  The best thing to do was to get both the A/Cs going full blast, leave and let them do their thing for an hour or two and come back to a cool little cabin.  So we headed into town, about 6 miles away and started looking for some grub.

It was rush hour traffic in this little burg so I was having to watch my driving but Cyndee's keen eye caught sight of chance at a good supper.  We pulled into Shrimp Boat Manny's, a Cajun place.  SCORE!  They had po'-boys, read beans and rice, gumbo and my favorite, etouffee (crawfish that is).

Cyndee ate way more sensibly than I did.  She had grilled chicken salad for her main with a little cup of red beans and rice on the side.  Me, I couldn't help myself, I had to have some etouffee.  A huge plate of white rice smothered in that Cajun roux with mud bugs all through it.  It was everything I had hoped it would be.

We thought it was as good as it could get until the waitress told us about a new desert they had - fried pecan pie.  Oh my.  They take an already outstanding piece of pecan pie, dip it in cheesecake batter and then deep-fry the whole thing.  Even though we split one piece between us, we both had to go home and sleep it off.  Neither one of us is used to eating like that anymore and it carried both of us well into the next day.

We have a couple days of downtime since everything we need to do is closed on the weekend.  If the heat is not too oppressive we'll do some exploring.

 

The nomading begins.

It was a warm and muggy start to our adventure this morning but we are on our way.  Cyndee got ready faster this morning than I have seen her do in the past several months.  We were ready to go almost 2 hours before I expected we would be.  Some of the neighbors saw us hitching up and came to see us off as did a friend of mine from work.  A very nice way to start the day.

The hardest part of the day was getting through Atlanta.  It took almost two hours to get from just north of the city down to I-285, around to I-20 and just past Six Flags on the west side of the city.  And nearly 15 gallons of fuel too.  While I used the same 15 gallons in the next two hours, we traveled significantly farther.  By the time the day was over today we had used 90 gallons of fuel and made it across to Vidalia, Louisiana.

We are comfortably parked in an RV park that is right on the edge of the Mississippi River.  It is gorgeous in here.  They have been getting plenty of rain and everything is lush and green.  The river is running bank-to-bank and the mosquitos seem to be doing well too.

The park gave us a spot fairly close to the office and our WiFi signal is HOT!  Best connection I have had since giving up the hardwire connection at the house.  Besides being in a great location for a WiFi signal, it is just beautiful spot.  Just step out the door, look left and there the Mississippi.  Look a little further left and you can see the two bridges that connect Louisiana and Mississippi.

We managed to get out and take in a couple of the sights before it got dark.  The RV park has a river walk on top of the levee.  Lots of people waking, pushing baby strollers and dogs on lead.

Tomorrow will be another five or six hours of driving and then we will be in our "home base" in Texas for the next couple of weeks.  We'll take our commercial driving test there.  But I am not sure how ready we will be.  Cyndee tried to study the manual today but every time I looked over to see how she was doing, she was asleep.  Yeah, the manual is a real snoozer.  But we will have to figure out how to get through it somehow or we will never pass.

More later.

It's Back On.

Cyndee's doctor visit was today and all the news was good.  We have been given the green light to travel so we will be pulling out of Georgia first thing in the morning.  We have about a 7-hour drive ahead of us that will have us pulling into Natches, Mississippi for a one night layover and then another 5 or 6 six hours of driving the next day to get us to our official domicile in east Texas.

We also got a phone call from the tax assessor's office in regards to the vehicle registrations that I sent in.  Despite using exactly the papers they sent me and following the instructions they sent with the forms, it would seem that nothing is right.  Our tags will not be waiting on us when we get there.  It looks like I will have to spend some quality time at the tax office getting the registrations straightened out.

Putt-Putt is gone.  We dropped her off at CarMax immediately after returning from the doctor.  Cyndee cried about giving up that car about as bad as she did when we lost one of our beloved huskies.

The rest of the afternoon was spent getting everything ready to travel.  I put a few gallons in the fresh water tank, just enough to take showers in the morning and have water to flush the toilet.  The water and sewer hoses are all stored, the synthetic grass mat is rolled up and in the back of the truck along with the collapsible ladder and 30 gallon blue tote.  The roofs of the slides have been swept clean and will be ready to retract without worrying about debris damaging the seals.  The "office" has been disassembled; monitor, docking station, keyboard, mouse, laptop all off the desk/dining table and on the floor with blankets insulating one piece from another.

It has been so long since I last used it, I am having to get the instructions out for the leveling system and refresh my memory on how to work it.  If everything works as it is supposed to, it should remember exactly where it was to unhook from the truck and with the push of a button return to that position so that I can hitch up.  That will be pretty slick if it works but I had to "reboot" the rig one day by doing a full power-down, including activating the battery disconnect, so I am not sure if the leveling system was able to keep its memory intact without power.  We'll see.

Summer arrived today, it is hot and humid.  Temps broke 90F for the first time since last summer and the RH is in excess of 80%.  It feels like a sauna when you step outside.  Tomorrow will be the first test of how well the large refrigerator will do at keeping its cool while motoring down the road in the summer heat.  Our former single door fridge would just barely hang in there, this one is twice the size.  I think it will be alright but I am anxious for it to prove itself.  It will get its chance starting early tomorrow.  As soon as I pull the plug on the shore power it will automatically switch over to propane and 12V power.  If we get to Natchez and the ice cream is not in a puddle in the bottom of the freezer, then it will be a good day.  And if that is all it takes for it to be a good day for us, then we are blessed.

T -1 day until departing Georgia.

Making Progress

Cyndee seems to be healing properly following her surgery.  The doctor appointment is in a couple of days and we anticipate we will get the green light to travel.  With that in mind we have been doing things to get the rig ready for travel.

We also got a break in the weather so it was off to the local detailing shop to get Putt-Putt gussied up for her date at CarMax.  Everybody commented repeatedly how good she looked and in what great shape she was.  Then came the insult in the form of an offer.  Ridiculously low.  Or so I thought.

I took Putt-Putt to two other dealers that advertised out-right purchases of used cars.  To my dismay they both offered exactly the same amount which was 25% less than what CarMax offered.  So, Tuesday, as soon as we return from the doctor's office we'll get Big Gulp and take Putt-Putt to CarMax.   It will be Cyndee's first time to drive since the surgery.

We have had the PT Cruiser three years this week.  The offer we got from CarMax represents a 66% drop in value in the short time we have owned it.  Wow!  I guess it would have been nice to be able to do a private sale but it was our decision to be able to use two cars right up to the last day before departing GA.  I now know what that convenience decision cost.

Tomorrow we will take the cable box back to Comcast and switch back to just over-the-air TV.  We'll do that for about a month, just until we get to Kansas for the installation of the satellite dish.  I'm going to miss Through the Wormhole and The Universe and the Science Channel in general.  That should all come back once the satellite service is up and running, but it's going to be a long month.

On the other hand, I have three new books that should do well to fill the TV gap.  All three are by the author Sue Henry.  These are short, not overly complex murder-mysteries but a common thread in all of Henry's books is that they are set in Alaska.  That is what keeps me coming back to this author, I really like use of the culture of Alaska, its rugged geography and the ever-present weather that drives Alaskan's daily behavior.

T -4 Days (and counting again) until departure from Georgia

Drama

The green-backed winged beast has returned.  I think he (I don't know what gender it is, I am just going to go with "he" out of convenience) has gotten a little more comfortable with me sitting on the other side of the glass as he hung out a little longer affording me a little better chance at getting a clearer shot.

It is still not National Geographic quality but at least it is more than just a blurry blob this time.  Shooting through the window screen and the tinted window really degrade the quality.  I held the trigger down and burned through about 15 exposures to get this one usable image.

After several dips into the sugar water he decided to take a more direct interest in me.  After a distinct gaze through the window I think he decided he objected to being watched and zipped out of sight.

But that was not the end of it.  I noticed some movement on top of the feeder and leaned in to take a closer look.  Awesome!  A small spider had snatched a little wasp right out the air, no web, no trap, no bait, just SNAP and that wasp was lunch.  Wildlife drama in miniature.  Both of these critters were tiny but unlike the hummingbird, they held still long enough to at least let me attempt to focus properly.

 Plus, I was able to go outside and shoot this macro-style, with no window between me and the subject.  The spider was not as skittish as the hummingbird and in no hurry to interrupt his meal.  I have to emphasize how small these guys are.  You could have put them on the thumb-nail of small child and had room left over.  I had to get close and go full out with the 300 mm lens.  Still, these posted shots are heavily cropped and enlarged.  But I like the results.  I am really enjoying my retirement gift from the folks at work.  Don't forget to click on the photos to enlarge them for a closer look.

T -4 days until departing Georgia (clock stopped and holding)

Holding Pattern

Just hanging out, waiting for the doctor's visit next week that will hopefully release us to travel.  In the mean time we are just piddling around and fine tuning the stock in our pantry.  It's not like we are going to be somewhere that we cannot get groceries, but once we get going we are going to be very busy for several weeks.  Time to grocery shop will be limited.

We are also starting to get Putt-Putt cleaned up and ready to take in to CarMax, but the weather has been uncooperative.  It has rained mud balls the last several nights and we have heavy rain predicted for the next couple more.  We'll see if we can get it in after the weekend.

After trying to attract humming birds for weeks with no success and then finally taking down the feeder in preparation to leave, we put it back out after finding out we would be around a few more weeks.  It was more of something to do rather than really expecting anything but, surprise, a humming bird started showing up.  It was just barely a blur at first, you weren't really sure if you saw something or not.  But now, after a few days the little beast is hovering and taking longer drinks.  Now we can at least see that he/she is green, and really small.  I am used to seeing ruby throated ones, but this one is about half that size.  Even though it has gone to taking longer drinks, it is still moving rapidly, too rapidly for my camera to catch a decent shot.  I have had to shoot through the window, and screen.  Between the tinted glass and low light levels it has been a challenge to get a sharp picture with good color saturation.  But here is what I got:

Not my best photography.  But I did try to "stalk" it.  Cyndee had gone to dinner with friends from work so I got out a camp chair and set up with my camera several feet away.  I was being patient but nothing was happening.  After awhile I heard some rustling at my feet and I think I found at least a contributing factor to not seeing a bird.

Kitty Cat, the campground cat had walked up to hang out with me and wait for tasty morsels.  She has come to like us a lot as the big bird feeders we kept stocked provided her with ample hunting opportunities.  She had become quite adept at catching doves that preferred to scratch around on the ground under the feeders.  I don't think the humming birds have anything to worry about but they are a skittish bunch and decided to stay away.

Cyndee's doctor appointment is early next week, so, kids, if you are reading this and we get the green light from the doctor, you are now off the hook for Mom's birthday and Fathers Day.

T -4 days until departing Georgia (clock stopped and holding)