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Showing posts from October, 2015

Feeling No Pain

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The family reunion was great, the gathering of the McFarlin/Adams clan is always a pleasure.  Seeing all the aunts, 1st, 2nd, & 3rd cousins, my brother and his family and Mom and Tommy, it doesn't get much better.  But after 1,100 miles of driving alone and four nights in a hotel I was anxious to get home to Cyndee.  I spontaneously woke up in the wee hours of my departure day and found myself in the car and getting on down the road just a few minutes after 4:00 AM. I had just put the first fifty miles behind me, driving on the two lane Texas State Highway 152.  Pampa was long out of sight behind me and the lights of Wheeler not yet visible ahead of me.  It was moonless and pitch black, the lights of my dinky rent car forming a bubble of light hurdling down the deserted road.  Having the road to myself I had that rent car wound up pretty tight and making good time.  Then I saw something move in my peripheral vision. It came from my left, first ...

Solo Road Trip

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Heeding to Cyndee's insistence that I attend my family's reunion in Texas over the 4th of July weekend I began preparation for making a solo 2,200 mile, 6 day road trip.  After talking it over, it made more sense for me to rent an economy car and drive it while leaving Big Gulp with Cyndee.  It was a no-brainer to do 2,000+ miles in a 32 mpg gasoline vehicle rather than a 12 mpg diesel truck. The reunion was also a good opportunity to fill in some of the gaps in our genealogy research as well as print reports of the information we had for those that were interested in it.  But this meant packing a computer, 20" monitor, all-in-one color printer, copier and high resolution scanner.  And of course all the assorted cables, power cords, extension cords, multi-outlet surge protector, etc., etc.  You get the idea, the sub-compact rent car was loaded to the gills with all that stuff plus my clothes, a big ice chest and two giant pies from Sam's Club. Historically w...

Whew Weee, It's Hot! And New Duties

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One of the big deals about us living full time in our RV was that we would be able to follow agreeable weather throughout the year.  Our first two summers worked as planned, we were at high elevation and didn't use our air conditioners once. Nestled in the high elevation and tall, cool ponderosa pines for the summers of 2013 and 2014 The two winters were not quite as warm as we had planned for. Frozen In Big Bend the weekend before Thanksgiving 2013 Big Bend National Park in the Chihuahua Desert and Fort Frederica National Monument on coastal southern Georgia both experienced, according to the locals we talked to; "The coldest winter in 30 years." Moss draped oaks on St. Simons Island It looks all green and warm but appearances can be deceiving. We had below freezing nighttime temps more nights than not. Enjoying outdoor activities usually was not an option.  But overall it has been great because we did not swelter through another sout...

Big City Perks

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Our original motivation for taking a volunteer position at Chattahoochee Bend State Park was its proximity to Atlanta, and our new grandbaby.  But with Father's Day approaching it is also offering a lot of options for what a dad may ask for. And what dad wouldn't want baseball and bar-b-que?  The Braves were playing the Red Sox mid-week.  With a poor showing in recent weeks the Braves were not exactly selling out Turner Field so there was a large selection of seats to choose from.  Cyndee picked a couple of seats behind first base and about two dozen rows up from the dugout.  We went all-out and got advanced parking too.  I paid for one spot but I'm pretty sure that Big Gulp is not going to fit completely inside one of those tiny, tight spots in the on-property parking lot. Great seats.  Even better when the sun goes down and takes the edge off the heat. It had been a long time since we had attended a game as a family.  Our now 27 year-old...

Blackberries and Red Bugs.

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The last post ended with Mother's Day.  Now, about a month later we are at Father's Day.  The weather has dried out considerably.  My zero-turn mower skills have improved drastically but now instead of avoiding a slide down a wet, slippery slope and rolling over I am maneuvering through giant clouds of dust.   When I take my shower after mowing I am reminded of when my brother and I were little kids and Mom would declare she could grow potatoes in the dirt in our ears. For weeks now I had been doing battle with some of the sharpest-thorned vegetation I had ever encountered.  There were dense patches of long, six to 10 feet, stalks.  The stalks were green where the growth was new and brown and woody for the previous seasons growth.  Most of these brier patches had added three feet to their height between when I started mowing in mid-April and late-May.  To mow the border between the manicured part of the campground and the natural woods requi...

Just Chugging Along

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Chattahoochee Bend State Park (CBSP) is a new park, first opened in June of 2011.  The 2,920 acres the park sits on was purchased from a forest products company.  The main logging road in was paved and all other logging roads were blocked and nature allowed to take them back.  It is a bit odd to be on one of the hiking trails and suddenly step into a wooded area where all the trees are perfectly aligned and spaced like rows of corn, a remnant of the managed forest era. To build the two campgrounds they clear cut and bladed smooth everything within the campgrounds.  Utilities were laid, roads paved and campsites graveled.  A few trees, most of them maples, were planted and hunks of ornamental grass were plugged in here and there but for the most part the campgrounds are shade-less with a lot of bare clay.  One day, when the maples mature, the campgrounds are going to be spectacular.  But for now, the newness and semi-torturous path to get here have ke...