Big Catch-Up 5-18-19 to 2-19-20

Talk about your poor correspondent, I have been away from the blog far too long.  Don't know if anybody is even checking anymore. But here goes a snapshot of the past 18 months.

When I last left off we were in the desert near Roswell, NM, volunteering at a National Wildlife Refuge.  We were finishing up and about to head to Junction City, KS where our 5th wheel was built for a slew of repairs.  Roof leaks being the big ticket item.

Our first stopover after leaving Roswell was Wolfforth, TX, a small community on the south side of Lubbock.

Mesa Verde RV Park (South Lubbock)

One of my favorite places to get sturdy shirts and pants for being in the outdoors is Duluth Trading Co.  They just opened a new sticks and bricks in Lubbock and we there with bells on the next morning.

Duluth Trading Co. in Lubbock, TX

Up until this moment the only way I had been able to shop this business was on line.

From Lubbock we headed north to Borger, Tx to spend the 4th of July with family and friends.  The choices for places to put an RV are limited in this small community.  Most things are geared toward supporting contractors that are in the area for the refinery and petrochemical jobs.  We ended up picking a spot that was closest to my mother's and had full hook-ups.

Urban Hidden Acres RV, Borger, TX

Getting level at this campground was a challenge.  The slope was on a diagonal and it challenged my leveling system.  I didn't have enough stroke on one leg and had to use blocks, first time in seven years of full-timing.  Storage tanks for the refinery can be seen in the distance.

It was nice being with family for the 4th but we had an appointment looming at the New Horizons factory.  It was time to start meandering that way.  Next stop, Dodge City, KS.

This is a return visit for us.  Last time we were here was on the shoulder season and not everything was open.  This time we are here in the heart of tourist season and everything is running full tilt.  We also payed a return visit to the same campground, Gunsmoke RV.

Gunsmoke RV, Dodge City, KS

One of the places that was not accessible the last time we visited was Boot Hill.  We made it there this time and reading all the clever epitaphs and headstones was entertaining.

Boot Hill, Dodge City, KS

Now it's hurry up and wait.  Got to get to Junction City for our maintenance appointment.  As a manufacturer that specializes in catering to full time RVers New Horizons accommodates us by working around letting us continue to live in our RVs while repairs are being made.  We exit the RV at 7:30 am, buttoned up and disconnected from services.  The maintenance guys move the rig into their shop and we go hang out in the waiting room.  Not luxurious accommodations but comfortable.  Notice the old square tube TV.

Somewhere around 4:30 they pull the rig back out and we hook everything up for the night.

New Horizons Maintenance Bay, Junction City, KS

Normally the above described arrangement has worked well for the two to four weeks our repairs have taken in the past.  But this time not so.  Our roof leaks have caused enough damage that they are going to have to decapitate two of our three slide outs.  The rig is not going to be livable for at least a week.  Since we have to be in a hotel we thought we might as well make a road trip out of it.

We headed north to Deadwood, SD, using it as our base of operations for taking in the sights.

Deadwood, SD

Deadwood Mountain Grand would be where we laid our heads at night but it was its own attraction too, being an historic building (mining operation) and casino.

Deadwood Mountain Grand, Deadwood, SD

We struck out each day to explore someplace new.  Since we had never been to this part of the country it wasn't hard to find new things to us, this region of the country is packed with stuff.

First stop, Custer State Park.

Custer State Park, SD

Custer State Park.  Prong Horn Antelope.

Custer State Park.  Wild donkey.

Wind Cave National Park too.  Sadly access to the cave itself was prohibited because of an elevator malfunction.  That was also a problem when we visited Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico.  Seems to be a theme developing for the National Park System.

Wind Cave National Park, SD

The Needles Highway is an extraordinarily scenic drive with hairpin turns, narrow lanes (about 1 1/2 lanes wide) and even narrower tunnels.  We could only drive about half of this road because Big Gulp was too wide and tall to fit through several of the tunnels.

Needles Highway, SD

Of course what trip to SD would be complete without a stop at Mt. Rushmore?

By the same token, Crazy Horse.

A day spent in our base of operations found us visiting the cemetery where Wild Bill Hickock and Calamity Jane are buried.  This cemetery is on top of a mountain on the edge of Deadwood.

From there we went a little more far flung the next day and took in a grand sight in Wyoming.  Devils Tower.

Another day, another National Park.  Badlands was our last stop before returning to KS.

When we returned to KS they should have had enough time to replace the roof/ceiling of our two slides and we could go back to living in our rig while they finished the rest of the repair work.  But instead we discovered that the minute we left town they stopped working on our rig and moved to others.  We had to buy another week in a local hotel while they did the work that should have been done when we were gone.  Lesson learned.

Almost a month after arriving for our scheduled repairs we are pointed east with a plan to arrive in Georgia by the end of August.

On August 10, 2018 we struck out on a southerly course from Junction City, KS and did our typical four hours of driving time.  That was just enough to get us to Bartlesville, OK, a place we lived once upon a time and where both our kids were born.  It was a quick one night layover at an RV park that had only been in existence for eleven months.  This plot of land was a former water park and go-kart track that had been bulldozed flat, copious amounts of fill added, RV utilities installed and called it an RV park.  Definitely not a destination "resort" but the things we cared about for a one night layover were perfect - power was solid and water was tasty.

The next day's four hours of driving got us to Texarkana, TX.  We visited a familiar campground, Shady Pines RV Park.  This is a classy place and we always enjoy our stay.

Shady Pines RV Park, Texarkana, TX

 Just down the road from the RV park is an Amish furniture store and pantry.  We love the pantry, they have the best cured meats, cheeses and crackers of anywhere we have ever been.

Our plan was to linger in Texarkana a few days but we were getting anxious about seeing our kids in GA.  And as an added bonus our second grand baby was on the way.  Our daughter had asked Cyndee to be her doula (a person in the delivery room helping with the birth, sort of a mid-wife but not physically managing the birthing, mostly coaching (different than what the husband/dad does).  So we hitched up and continued our trek east.

The next four hour leg found us in yet again another familiar RV park in Byrum, MS.  We had stayed at Swinging Bridge RV Park a couple of times before in years past.  It had always been a little on the rustic side but when we arrived this time it was just plain run down.  Driveways and pads were deeply rutted and muddy, hookups were iffy-looking and there was no longer any management on site.

Swinging Bridge RV Park, Byrum, MS.

The park seems to have drifted towards being a place for long-term visitors and neglected the part of the campground that was designated for those of us transiting.  The picture above makes it look far more pleasant than it was.  We had to put this park on our black list for the future.

Up next, Gadsden, AL.  Four and a half hours of highway time on this day (August 12, 2018) with the destination being River Country Resort.  And it really is a resort and it really is on the river.  The river being the Coosa River.  It is interesting that the Coosa is the confluence of two rivers, one of them being the Etowah.  The Etowah is the river that is impounded to form Allatoona Lake in GA, our final destination for this trip.

River Country RV Resort, Gadsden, AL

Upon arrival we got a personalized golf cart escort to our pad and our host helped get us positioned for optimum location to utilities.  As requested, we got a spot that was in the open so that we didn't have to fuss with trying to get a satellite signal between trees.  Most of the resort goers were tucked into the heavily wooded section of the park so we practically had our section to ourselves.

This place had paved walking trails along the river with bench swings scattered along the way.  There are THREE swimming pools, one of them an infinity pool next to the river.  A really neat feature was a miniature church just feet away from our pad.

River Country RV Resort Church

The resort also had a marina and private boat launch.  The road that our pad was on lead directly to the ramp.

River Country RV Resort Boat Ramp Access

Despite our desire to get to GA as soon as possible, the agency we had worked out a volunteer agreement with did not have a space ready for us to move into just yet.  Great reason to take in a few extra days of resort environment.  And to top it off it we had just had our forty-something wedding anniversary, great place to celebrate it.

After a few days of R&R we got the green light to move into Allatoona Lake Volunteer Village.  The town most closely associated with this is Cartersville, GA.  We had been here before, first as contract gate attendants and then in the fall/winter of 2017 as volunteers.  Our return was happily anticipated by all.  Us because we were coming in for the arrival of a new grand baby and the Corps of Engineers because we were already trained in their operation, background checks still valid, driving certificates were still valid and computer "safe use" certifications were still in effect.  We were going to come in and hit the ground running.  And we did.

Allatoona Lake, Volunteer Village

The Volunteer Village is a sweet set-up.  Spacious sites, asphalt drives, concrete pad and patio, large picnic table, fire ring, grill, good utilities, and a community room with full kitchen and refrigerator and chest freezer.  Plus a laundry room with large capacity machines.  We know this bunch up here, there will be potlucks and holiday gatherings with many hands making light work of all the assignments we'll have.

And before I finish up with the summer of 2018 I should mention that we were not the only ones having an adventure.  Our son, Chad, got a wild hair and just up went to Peru.  The pinnacle of his visit (to me) was a trek to Machu Picchu.

It is still peak recreation season in North Georgia.  We immediately were dropped into the schedule for all the support jobs for the recreation department.  One of which is manning the after-hours phone calls and radio dispatch.  This puts us in the office on the front desk of the visitor's entrance.

The front desk is directly across from the interpretive exhibit (above) and is dark in this picture because the building is closed when volunteers are manning the desk during the night and weekends.

Behind the desk are multiple monitors with an array of security cameras, two multi-line phone systems and a radio base station.  All of which stay very busy while there are 500 campsites, 9 day use areas and thousands of boaters during recreation season.

The Corps at Allatoona is also active in promoting public water safety.  They have a very active awareness/training campaign that participates in county events with the three counties that encompass the lake as well as their own events and in-school programs.  There is a plethora of literature, trinkets and promotional items that are provided at every event and thousands upon thousands of bags of this stuff have to be assembled.  Another volunteer job.

Cyndee making bags for water safety education events.

The fall of 2018 found us doing a pretty repetitive routine of digitizing documents from as far back as the 1940's (plus designing/creating the database to store them in), logging financial data for campground revenue, and designing a database to organize/track volunteer hours, and then enter hours that had been recorded on paper for the past year.  Weeks of data entry and organizing.

My brother and I talk on the phone but it has been a long time since we were together on a major holiday.  This year I got the bright idea to get the whole Georgia clan together and road trip it to Texas for Thanksgiving.  We checked out flying to Dallas but for six of us it was going to be too steep financially.  Instead we rented a Class-C RV.  We got one that was best configured for comfortably seating six people all the while balancing the weight load from side to side.  Didn't want to spend 40 hours driving with an RV tilted to one side.  And we also wanted a well appointed bathroom (well, as well appointed as you can get in a rental Class-C) because with six people, one an almost four year old, a pregnant lady and two seniors we didn't want to have to be stopping at every gas station we passed.  The RV would not be used for sleeping.  We were going to do the 20 hours, one way, non-stop.  We had plenty of drivers to share the driving, it was just the four year old strapped into a child seat for 20 hours that I was concerned about.  When we got to Coppell (a suburb between Dallas and Ft. Worth) everyone would have their own hotel room to stretch out in.  It was just a matter of getting the drive done.

We had great weather on our outbound leg.  And since it was Thanksgiving Day, we practically had the road to ourselves.

West -bound, Crossing the Mississippi on Thanksgiving Day 2018

The varied work schedules of everybody on board meant that we had to travel on Thanksgiving Day.  Our Thanksgiving Day feast would have to wait until Friday.  We also had good news in that my mother and her husband would be making the eight hour drive down from the Panhandle to join us.  By the time my brother's kids come in from another Dallas suburb and New Mexico we'll have fourteen at the dinner table.

So, for entertainment my brother got us tickets to an event at the Gaylord Texan called 'ICE!'.  The Gaylord is a huge hotel and convention center.  They have taken their convention center and sealed it tight, added massive refrigeration units and put in some of the most amazing ice sculptures you've ever seen.  The tickets to the event come with explicit instructions to bring warm gloves, something warm to cover your head, and a coat.  On top of all this they will also issue everyone an arctic-grade parka to put on over whatever you come in.  That's all well and good but the Georgia crew did not exactly pack for an arctic expedition.

The "gang" at the entrance to 'ICE!'  Not exactly dressed for 20-below temps.

There was lots of scrounging around at my brother's house for extra gloves and hats and we got everybody pretty much covered.  Just beyond this photo spot was the coat room.  Not a place where you leave your coat but a place where they give you a coat.

Getting bundled up for entrance into 'ICE!'

Your choice of coats was blue or blue and huge or gigantic.  It was entertaining watching everybody getting covered and sealed against the intense cold that was to come.

Once inside you wind your way from room to room, each with many huge sculptures.  There was a theme:  The animated Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer movie.  The elf that wanted be a dentist, misfit toys, Rudolph, Yukon Jack, and the Abominable were on display.  You progressed through the story as you made your way through the tour.  Near the end of story/tour was a huge room with an ice castle of sorts with slides.

Except for my family and the banners hanging from the ceiling, it is all ice.

The four year old, wrapped in her dad's parka is making good use of the ice slide.

The Gaylord Texan decked out for the holidays

The Gaylord Texan

Many thanks go to my brother and his family for having us for the holiday, we truly enjoyed being together.

But as with all good things, they come to an end and we had to get back on the road.  The trip back to Georgia was nothing like the drive out.  We were on the road with a gazillion other Thanksgiving holiday travelers on the Sunday mad dash to get home.  And it rained for most of the I-20 traverse.

But I'm proud of our little troupe.  We got through the twenty hour drive and had everybody home early enough that they could get a fairly decent night's sleep before work the next day.

The drive from Texas was wet but it was not a singular rainy day for November.  North Georgia as a whole had been having many days of rain all month.  With this part of the country being heavily wooded with conifers and hardwoods it is not uncommon to simply have trees (primarily pines) just fall over when the ground gets saturated and a little puff of wind comes by.  As luck would have it, our campsite suddenly had three pines, all over 75 feet tall, die.  And with the recent soaking they were showing signs of falling.  Once we reported the situation the Corps scheduled a crew to come out and alleviate this dangerous situation.  But to do the work we have to pack up our rig and move it off the site.  Due to the lay of the land they are going to have to drop the trees right where our fifth wheel is sitting.

In the photo above they are securing a rope high in the tree to be able to pull it in the direction they want it to fall.  Below, after an expert cut, the tree begins to fall exactly where it needed to.

We were all watching (about 12 of us) the tree fall and were expecting the normal "WHUMP!" when it hit the ground but instead there was a thunderous report as if a howitzer had been fired.  Everybody had a reflexive duck and cover response.  Once everybody regained their calm and got dry underwear we looked at the downed tree and found that it had shattered it's top half.  It laid in the driveway in splinters.  This part of the tree was going to have to be removed with snow shovels and a brooms.  Don't know why it did what it did but it made for a memorable day.

Things settled back into a routine for the remainder of the fall.  Six of the seven campgrounds were closed for the season by the end of October and were were doing security patrols again.  Then there were the odd jobs between regularly scheduled duties.

Somebody thought that the parking lot to one of the fishing jetties was a good place to dump trash.  Cyndee and I checked out a truck and did a two-person clean up detail.  And since it is the government, it is never a simple thing.  All this trash had to be sorted and weighed for recycling and reporting purposes.

The previously mentioned heavy woods of north Georgia produce a remarkable amount of leaf litter in the fall and winter.  So much so that roads are so covered you can't tell where the pavement ends and the ditch begins.  The above picture is Cyndee on a tractor fitted with a huge PTO-driven blower getting all the leaves and pine needles off the roads of the one campground that is open year 'round on Allatoona Lake.

Another annual fall event is the Allatoona Great Lake Cleanup.  Each fall when the lake level is drawn down to its winter low a clean-up party is thrown with more than a thousand attendees.  We had two assignments - photograph the event and set-up and operate a water safety booth at one of the two operation's bases for the day.

Allatoona Great Lake Clean-Up 2018

 The above is one of several hundred photos Cyndee and I took on this day.  The weather was gorgeous and being on the lake was a great pleasure.

Water Safety Booth at Galt's Ferry Day Use and Beach

In addition to getting around most of the lake and photographing hundreds of participants we also set up and manned a water safety booth at one of the two bases of operation for the day.  There was a big feed put on for the cleaner-uppers and exhibitors from local law enforcement, fire and EMS were all on hand.  Notice the orange bags on table?  That's the same bags in the picture of Cyndee making them about half way down this post.  We gave out about 500 on this day.

Feeding Clean-Up Volunteers at Galt's Ferry Day Use

Another annual event is Shop With a Hero.  Each year in early December the county of Bartow (the county in which the Corps of Engineers Project Management Office lies) holds a charity event that hosts between three and four hundred children.  These children in need are paired with a Hero (Law Enforcement, Fire, EMS, Military, Corps of Engineers) and taken shopping at the local Walmart.  Each child has an account that has is funded with $100 for clothing and $50 for anything else they want.

While the event may have three or four hundred kids registered, the event is actually much larger.  By the time moms, dads, grandparents and other extended family come with each child, plus the 150 or so Heros, the attendance easily tops 1,000.

The first order of business is to get everybody fed breakfast.  Biscuits, sausage, scrambled eggs and lots and lots of donuts are consumed.

Breakfast is served!

We got some schmoozing time with The Man himself.

After breakfast there is a drawing for several bicycles and a couple other big ticket items.  Then it was off to the buses for the parade to Walmart.

Bus arrival at Walmart

The twenty-some-odd buses are given a police escort (lights, sirens and all) on a winding route to Walmart, giving time for all the Heroes to get from the convention center to Walmart and form the queue for getting paired with their family.

Then it's off to the races!  Throngs of shoppers descend first on the clothing isles and then the toy section.  It's not mayhem, but close.

Ranger Davis with His Family and Cyndee Keeping Tabs on Things.

Ranger Purvis with His Family at Checkout.

All the rangers at Allatoona Lake are our bosses in one way or another but the two above more so.  Ranger Purvis is the Volunteer Coordinator, he's the big boss, I call him El Patron.  Ranger Davis is someone that Cyndee and I work with closely in doing support for the recreation group.  He directs the more detailed day to day work we do.  He gets the title of Jeffe.

The winter of 2018 found us enjoying being with our kids for the Christmas and New Year holidays.  Corps work was routine and repetitive but that is normal for this time of year.

January saw us making a hasty trip to Austin, TX because of a death in the family.  The drive tires on Big Gulp were not in condition for that kind of distance, they are overdue to be replaced, so we rented a small SUV (the smallest vehicle we could get that I was still able to get my legs under the steering wheel and head off the roof without ducking).

It had been a long time since we had been anywhere of some distance in anything but Big Gulp.  We were both taken with how smooth and quite I-20 could be.  This was a harbinger of things to come.

One of our volunteer neighbors in The Village needed somebody to dog sit for her while she was away for few days.  Since the dog was a Siberian Husky we jumped at the chance.

Bella, the Siberian Husky comes for a sleepover.

Cyndee and I had Siberians for 35 years and we dearly love this breed and their quirky behaviors.  They are not territorial or protective (they have never met a stranger), they have absolutely no traffic sense (they will walk right in front of a bus, that's why you have never seen one used as a service dog) and they are consummate escape artists.  And they can prove to be extraordinarily destructive chewers if they become bored.  This combination of traits proves to be too much for people that thought they were getting a "regular" dog.  Those folks usually last for about two years before they give the dog up.  Dog pounds, shelters and rescue clubs are chock full of two-year-olds.

Bella is a senior at the ripe old age of 11.  Typical life span is about 12 years and we have had them pass on us as young as 9 (brain aneurysm) and last as long as 18 years (we got really good at geriatric dog care).

The day of the arrival of the new grand-baby is approaching too.  February 2019 was for the shower,  getting there required a little extra effort.  We continue to get rain and we continue to have trees that just fall over.  On this cold Saturday morning we had one drop completely across the road just outside our entrance gate.  We had to turn around and go back to the camper where I got my cold weather work clothes and gloves so we could help remove the tree.

Trees Be Droppin'

We were a little late for the shower but still early enough to help with all the prep work.  Tables had to be set and there were flowers to be arranged.

Helping Daddy and Memaw, the four year old is in hog heaven.

Our four year old granddaughter is pretty excited about becoming a big sister and as an extra bonus she is getting to help make the flower arrangements for the tables.  Devices and screen time are not even on this kid's radar.

This post is getting pretty long, so much for a "snapshot".  I'm going to end this one and start another to cover the rest of 2019.