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chickensarentcheap · 4 years

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Best Part of Me - Chapter 4

Warnings: none

Tagging: @c-a-v-a-l-r-y, @alievans007, @thunderintheshadows, @innerpaperexpertcloud

While it is a more peaceful existence, it is often a lonelier one. The safety and security of seclusion at times feeling like isolation. Their property…their home itself…is beautiful beyond anything she could have imagined; surrounded by the sights and sounds of nature, the dense and lush woodlands and the pristine beach and majesty of the ocean. Aside from the noise and activity of their own residence, they are very much shut off from the rest of the world; two hundred yards from their closest neighbour, tucked at the very end of a three kilometer stretch of recently paved road. Weeks can pass by before she even sees another human being, let alone speaks to them. There’d been scares and complications during the last three months of her final pregnancy and she’d had to relegate herself to living the life of a ‘shut in’ for the sake of both her health and that of her unborn daughter; never leaving the property aside from specialist appointments. Addie had been an incredibly determined little girl; wanting to make her debut long before it was safe for her to do so. It had been nothing short of a miracle when the doctors had managed to tide things over until week thirty-four, and everyone that had been providing care had thought she’d been in the NICU for the long haul. Only for her to prove them all wrong; being released after only a week and a half.

A fighter. All five pounds, ten ounces of her.

Normally Esme would spend the first part of her morning -after the older kids had been shipped off to school- on the beach; Addie in the carrier strapped to her body, Declan toddling along beside them, allowing him to stop every so often to splash and stomp in the water or play in the sand. Today they walk the road instead, Mac’s leash secured around her waist, one hand pushing the baby in her stroller, the other tightly gripping Declan by the wrist. He is quick and has no fear and won’t think twice about bolting into the woods or onto someone else’s property.

The pavement is hot but comfortable against their bare feet. It was one of the things that she had found so unusual at about Australia at first; no one ever seemed to wear shoes unless going into businesses, and even then, occasionally footwear would be noticeably absent. It is one of the charming ‘quirks’, going hand in hand with their laid-back natures and accents and hilarious slang words. An entirely different way of life; a refreshing and welcoming change of pace. Everyone seeming much more relaxed and calmer. Friendly. Always willing to help one another out, whether friends or strangers. And while Colorado had been lovely in its own right, it often felt too ‘fast.’ That life was constantly hectic, barely given you a chance to catch your breath, never mind admire your surroundings. Everything about Australia is incredible to her; the scenery, the people, the way you just take time to enjoy everyone and everything around you.

But it is still lonely at times. Outside of her own family, she doesn’t really have a life; no relatives that can visit, no friends to talk to or hang out with. It has been that way for years; long before she’d ever met Tyler. Once her first marriage had disintegrated, she’d begun the long and arduous journey of ‘rediscovery;’ more than content with the job she had, jumping from place to place, and living out of suitcases, never forming bonds, or putting down roots. She’s older now though; almost thirty-six. And lately she’s found herself craving more. She had thought that she was perfect content with just being a wife and a mother, but her heart has begun to yearn for something extra. Mom friends that she can talk to whether it be face to face or through a text, other women she could have lunch dates and engage in ‘girl talk’ with. Needing to be more than that someone’s spouse. Someone’s mother. Needing…wanting… to exist outside of the comforts of those two realms.

And she feels guilty for that. As if she’s taking every thing she already has for granted. That she is makes her selfish for wanting more and she should just be happy with the way her life already is. She has a lot more than a lot of women in the world: a supportive, loving, and helpful husband, five beautiful and amazing kids. Shouldn’t that be enough?

****

It is a beautiful morning. Brilliant sunshine, the sky a vivid shade of blue and cluttered with enormous, pure white clouds. The temperature is always cooler where they are; a few to several degrees lower thanks to the abundance of trees and the winds that roll in off the ocean. And she is comfortable in a pair of tattered and weather jean shorts and a hoodie over her t-shirt, one of her husband’s ball caps pulled low over her eyes. It’s become a habit that she wishes she could break herself of; a hat used more for disguise than a cute accessory or protection from the sun. That paranoia still lingers; that there could always be someone out there watching, hell bent on revenge and looking for the perfect opportunity to enforce it.

The walk is slow going; Declan routinely stopping to investigate things, whether it be rocks and sticks he finds particularly interesting, or wildlife that lingers at the tree line that he wants to watch. He is infinitely curious about the world around him, noticing everything and anything, big or small. He hasn’t met and animal or person he hasn’t liked, and vice vera. Out of the five, he’s the ‘charming’ one; able to melt hearts with those striking blue eyes and mischievous smile. Extremely affectionate and loving to everyone he meets, even old ladies in the grocery store who always seem to be enamoured by the thick red hair and the outrageously long eyelashes. While Esme may be biased -as all mothers are- he is just damn cute. A sweet little personality to go along with an even sweeter face. And she can’t resist pausing to take pictures of him with her phone; so adorable in his backwards baseball hat, loose tendrils of hair sticking out at the ears.

She sends one of the photos -of Declan holding a baby garter snake and flashing that trademark smile that crinkles the corners of his eyes (his father’s smile)- to her husband’s cell, along with a text that reads: see what cute babies you make?

The house closest to them has been up for sale for three months; a one-story white stucco place with elaborate Japanese inspired front gardens and an interlocking brick driveway. The property itself is much smaller that what they own, but no less stunning. She notices that not only has the ‘for sale’ sign been taken down, but there’s a bright blue Suzuki hatch back in the driveway; tailgate up, surrounded by boxes being unloaded by the home’s new owner. A tall, statuesque blond with vibrant pink, purple, and aquamarine highlights in her shoulder length tresses. And she watches -albeit briefly- as the woman continues to remove items from the back of the car. The couple that had lived there before had been in their eighties and absolutely hated kids and would complain about Millie and the twins ‘running wild and unsupervised’ in the road despite the fact that their father would have been less than ten feet away. Never directing the complaints to Tyler himself, but waiting until they’d see him leave and then knock on the door to confront her. So it’s nice to see someone younger. That hopefully won’t be such a miserable asshole.

The front door of the house has been left open and a pug comes waddling out; immediately noticing them at the end of the driveway, which starts off a round of barking from both the smaller dog and Mac and absolute excitement from Declan who begins repeatedly shrieking ‘oggie!’ and tries to yank his wrist out of her grasp. He’s incredibly strong for a little guy; heavy, solid, and powerful. And Mac -still barking yet thankfully not bolting- parks himself right in front of the toddler to block his path.

The woman in the driveway smiles and waves to them in greeting, and that’s when Esme makes the ultimate mistake; letting go of her son’s hand to wave back. He seizes the opportunity; taking off up the driveway the second he feels his mother’s grasp release.

“Oh my god Declan! Get back here!” she bellows, and unleashes Mac from around her waist, allowing the dog to chase after him. At the most he’ll grab the toddler by the back of the shirt or knock him to the ground. He’s done it before with each one of the kids; showing an incredible instinct -and with no training- to protect the little humans. “Declan William!” she hollers as she hurries after him and the dog. The latter now making friends with the initially startled pug; the new homeowner scooping Declan up and settling him on her hip.

“Well hey there cutie,” the blond gushes, gently taking hold of his hands as he tries to tear the unique and colourful glasses off her face. “Who are you?”

“This is Declan,” Esme responds. “And he’s not usually this much of a shit head, I swear.”

“You’re just a curious little man, aren’t you! You just wanted to come and meet Stan-Lee. Here, let me introduce you…” their new neighbour drops down to one knee and places Declan on her thigh, taking his hand in hers and then running it over the pug’s fur. The toddler giggling with the dog licks at his hand. “See that? He likes you already! He loves to meet new friends. Especially little ones.”

“I am so sorry,” Esme can feel the blush in her cheeks. “I’m usually not that stupid. Letting him get away like that. Especially on the road. Although no one but us ever comes down this far. We used to get people that would speed down here and park on our property to get into the woods. But we own all that, so my husband went out and scared the crap out of them with a hunting rifle and they never came back. You must think I’m a shitty parent.”

The blond waves off the mere suggestion. “Not at all. They get away sometimes. No matter how hard we try to stop them. Not to mention he’s crazy strong! Two? Two and a half?”

“Seventeen months. I know. He’s absurdly tall. But so is his dad. I am sorry he ran over like that. Bothering you and your dog and…”

“It’s no bother. Honest. I’m Salena,” she offers a hand, and Esme accepts it warmly.

“I’m Esme. And that’s Mac,” she nods at the German Shepherd as he playfights with the pug. “It’s actually Macaroni. Don’t ask. My son named him. And this is Adeline,” she gestures to the stroller. “Be we call her Addie.”

“Is this your little sister?” Salena speaks to Declan as she places him on the ground and takes him by the hand, leading him to the stroller. “How about you show me your little sister. I bet she’s a cutie, just like you. May I?” she asks Esme, taking hold of the corner of the blanket that covers the buggy.

“Of course.”

She peels the blanket back, then places a hand over her chest. “Oh my gracious! Look at you, pretty girl! Aren’t you just a darling! You’re just new.”

“Very new,” Esme confirms. “Only two weeks.”

“And you already look like that?” Salena looks over the top rim of her glasses as she eyes Esme from head to toe.

“Please! The clothes hide everything, trust me. I’m huge. And I feel gross.”

“You’re crazy! You look amazing. Are these your only two?”

“No. There’s three more,” she says, and the neighbour’s eyes widen. “Five-year-old twin boys and a soon to be six-year-old daughter. I know,’ she laughs. “I’m crazy.”

“I just can’t believe that body’s had five kids. Five’s the limit?”

“Four was the original limit but by husband wanted one more. I don’t know who is more insane. Me or him.”

“Well if these two are as beautiful as they are, I can only imagine what the other three look like. The red hair comes from your husband?”

“His mother. Declan’s the only one with it. The other three are blond. Or light brown. Whatever you want to call it. And the last one is all me. Which I feel I deserved after having four that look and act exactly like their father. All that work and getting fat and I don’t get one that looks like me? That is some bullshit.”

“Would you like to come in?” Salena inquires, nodding towards the house. “I have a breakfast casserole in the oven, and it is way too much for just one person, even with leftovers.”

“We shouldn’t. We were just on a walk before lunch and we don’t want to impose or…”

“You won’t be imposing at all. We can sit out back and chat some more. You’re the first person I’ve met since moving to Cookstown. I was staying a hotel right in town while waiting for the house to close. It would be nice to have a friend that’s close by.”

It’s tempting, and as much as she loves the idea of having a friend…especially a neighbour…she knows Tyler will be hesitant. He’s severely overprotective. Beginning after Dhaka and becoming increasingly worse over the years, hitting its peak after the McMann incident. In his mind, everyone is a possible threat. Including the neighbour with the funky glasses and the colorful hair.

“Just stay for a little while,” the other woman urges. “Just for something to eat and a little chat. I don’t bite. I promise.”

“It’s not that and it’s not you, believe me,” Esme attempts to explain. “This is going to sound really weird, but things went really bad before we moved here and I’m a little…apprehensive…when it comes to new people. It’s not personal. I swear. It’s all my own issues.”

“I promise I am not a serial killer. Just come in and have some lunch and let me spend some more with this cutie pie,” she tickles Declan’s stomach until he’s giggling hysterically and beaming up at her with the utmost adoration. “Just an hour,” she says. “If I bore you or I annoy before then, you can leave. I won’t hold you hostage.”

“Okay,” Esme finally agrees, as Salena scoops Declan up once more and leads the way towards the house.

****

He receives the text message just as he pulls his truck up in front of his father’s new place; a small, cottage style bungalow in a newly established retirement and nursing care community in Port Douglas. It had been bittersweet when he’d eventually found out that the old man had sold the family home. The years there hadn’t all been horrible; there’d been a handful of good memories made between those four walls. That house was the last physical tie that Tyler had had to his mother, and the new owners had bulldozed it with plans on custom build for the lot. The demolition had finally erased all the dark secrets that the place had once held. All the cruel words, all the tears, all the holes in the walls, all the beatings.

Killing the engine, his pulls his cell from the side pocket of his cargos and checks the message. A slow smile spreading across his face when he sees the picture of his youngest son, and the words that his wife had sent afterwards. If there is one thing they excel at, it’s making beautiful children. And the activities that help with the actual creation of them. He texts her back, telling her that they’ve just reached his dad’s place and have two stops afterwards close to home. That he loves her and the kids and will see them soon.

He begins to ask where she is but decides against it. It will only irritate her if she feels as if he’s keeping tabs on her and attempting to control her. She claims he’s overprotective to the point of suffocation, something that the therapist had said they’d touch on in the next session. Why he is the way he is and what he can do to either control it or stop it altogether. Tyler doesn’t necessarily want to be that way; he doesn’t want her to feel as if he’s locking her away in the house and controlling every move she makes. But he’s already come so close to losing her. Twice. And he doesn’t want to take the chance of there being a third time.

So he doesn’t ask. Even though it gnaws at his stomach that she’s out there. Off the property. With two of his kids in tow. Instead he pockets his cell, pulls the keys from the ignition, and then finishes the coffee that sits in one of the cup holders between the front seats.

“How are we going to explain me?” Ovi inquires. “Am I just going to be some guy that you hired or…?”

“He already knows all about you.”

“How much does he know? Or what does he know?”

“Your folks were friends of mine and Esme’s, they died, left us you in their will. Nice and simple. It doesn’t need to be complicated.”

The lying never stops. Not when it comes to the old life. To the old Tyler. But at this stage in the game -with his father not functioning properly in the first place- he doesn’t see the need to burden the old man with the truth. Chances are he’d be extremely pissed and/or disgusted and wouldn’t even remember what he’d been told the next day.

“And you think he believes it?” Ovi asks.

“Mate, I don’t even know if he knows who I am anymore. Chances are he doesn’t even remember I have a wife and kids. Or that I even told him about you already. But if he asks, that’s what we tell him. Got it?”

Ovi nods.

Tyler opens the compartment between their seats and fishes out the extra bottle of anti anxiety meds. It’s always smart to have them on hand; never knowing what situations or environments will bring on an attack. But he can already feel the heaviness in his chest and the dryness in his mouth, and he takes three of the pills and places them under his tongue, waiting for them to full dissolve before putting the bottle in his pocket.

It’s a hell of a way to live. Having to dope yourself up just to be able to get out of the goddamn car.

And he’s plain fucking sick of it.

****

The personal support worker greets them at the front door; a short and stocky Aboriginal woman clad in brightly patterned scrubs and bearing a name tag that identifies her as Maggie. She as kind, almost sad eyes, and a soft, pleasant smile and her grip is deceptively strong when she shakes their hands.

“You must be Trevor,” she addresses him.

“Tyler,” he gently corrects, and removing his sunglasses, hangs them on the neck of his t-shirt.

She offers an apologetic smile. “He told me he was expecting someone named Trevor.”

“Trevor was his brother. My uncle. He died twenty years ago. But I’m Tyler. His son.”

“This happens, you know,” she sighs. “Moment when they can’t remember the people in the present, but they remember the ones from the past. It isn’t personal. It’s just the disease. It’s a cruel thing; what it does to people.”

He nods in agreement, trying to at least appear sympathetic. But he feels nothing. No empathy. No pity. No sorrow that his father is slipping away. No regrets that they’ve let the years go by without even attempting a reconciliation.

“You just moved back, I hear,” Maggie comments, as she leads them from the front foyer and towards the back of the house. “Were you gone long?”

“Five and a half years.”

“That’s a long time to be away from home. What made you come back?”

“I came into some money and I was able to retire early,” Tyler explains. It’s not a total lie; that part did happen. It just wasn’t as easy as he’s making it sound. “My wife and I decided this was the best place to raise our kids.”

“Well I can’t argue with that. Is this them?” Maggie pauses in the hall between the living room and kitchen, nodding at the frame photographs on the wall. “Your kids?”

It’s their school pictures from last year when they’d still been in Telluride. Before they’d ever heard of Michael McMann. And one of Declan when he’d just been a baby; not even crawling or walking yet.

Tyler nods. “They’re a year older now. And we added another. A little girl. Two weeks old.”

Maggie arches an eyebrow. “You’re telling me you have five kids?”

“Yup.”

“Five kids,” she breathes and shakes her head. “Boy, you’re either both brave as hell or you’re both just plain crazy.”

“Maybe both?” Ovi suggests, and then laughs when Tyler directs a playful elbow into his stomach.

“I actually have six kids,” Tyler says. “If we count him,” he jerks a thumb over his shoulder. “When he’s not being a smart ass.”

Maggie looks Ovi up and down. “You’re one of his…” she nods at Tyler. “…kids?”

The young man nods.

“And just how does that work? When you look like you do…” she looks at Tyler, then at Ovi. “…and you look like you do.”

“They took me in,” Ovi explains. “Six years ago. After my parents died. It was in my mother’s will. That I was supposed to go to Tyler. So…. here I am.”

“Here he is,” Tyler confirms, and tousles Ovi’s hair. “Congratulations. It’s a boy. All six foot one and two hundred pounds of him.”

“He’s not my father, but he is my dad,” Ovi says. “And that’s good enough for me.”

Maggie gives a slow nod of agreement, and then once again leads the way down the hall. “Your father insisted we put those pictures up as soon as he moved in. He’s extremely proud of his grandkids.”

Tyler doubts it. On both counts.

“He’s having one of his ‘okay’ days,” she says. “Woke up knowing what day is, what month, what year.”

“But thinks his dead brother is going to show up,” Tyler tosses out. And again, nothing. Not even the slightest hint of sadness. The man doesn’t deserve any. Not after the life he’s lived. Not with all the things he’s said and all the things he’s done.

“He may have just screwed the name up,” she suggests. “I mean, you’re his son. He obviously knows your name.”

“I haven’t been his son in a long time,” Tyler says. It doesn’t hurt to admit. It just is what it is. In the same way that Ovi may still bear the Mahajan name, but his father had stopped being a part of his life a long time ago because of his own selfish and evil choices. Just as Tyler’s old man had destroyed their relationship with the use of a belt or a fist or whatever else his father could get his hands on.

“You’ll always be his son,” Maggie’s tone has a scolding tone to it. “He helped give you life.”

“That’s about all he did. He knocked my mum up. That’s it. I know you mean well, but you shouldn’t be lecturing about how things are between him and I. I lived with him. You didn’t. So how about we just cut the chit chat and you mind your own business.”

She holds her hands up un surrender, then nods towards the sliding glass door that leads out onto a small patio. “He’s out there. Likes to sit in the sun and listen to the birds. He’s a very sweet man. Very gentle. Very good to us.”

Tyler gives a derisive snort. It will be a cold day in hell before he acknowledges any of those traits. Because before the old man’s brain started going on him, he was a tyrant. Controlling and manipulative. Drinking far too much. Treating his mother like a slave and then degrading her and beating her if she dared stand up for herself. And when she’d died, all that cruelty and abuse had been turned onto his only child. He could forgive what his father had done to him, but there’s no goddamn way he’d ever forgive him for what he’d done to his mum.

****

His father sits in an old porch swing; frail and sickly looking, a far cry from the man he’d been the last time Tyler had seen him six years ago. When he’d still carried himself with a hint of cockiness and superiority; shoulders still broad, eyes still icy and intimidating. He’s a shell of his former self, and Tyler almost hates himself for viewing this as a form of karma. That after years of treating people horribly, the old man has been reduced to needing help from complete strangers to perform even the smallest of tasks.

“William, “ Maggie speaks from the doorway. “You have company. Your son and your...” she looks at Ovi for clarification as to just who he is.

“Grandson,” Tyler finishes for her.

“Your son and your grandson are here,” she continues. “They’ve come to visit.”

Tyler gives her a small, appreciative smile and then waits until she steps back into the house and shuts the door before turning to Ovi. “Why don’t you go and find that list he supposedly made of the things we need to fix. Probably on the fridge or the kitchen table or...”

“TV,” his father speaks up. “It’s by the TV.”

Tyler smirks. “Go check there. See what you can do on your own. I’ll be in in a few.”

Ovi nods, then gives a nervous smile and a small wave when he notices Tyler’s father watching him, a puzzled look on his face.

“Go on,” Tyler encourages. “I need a few minutes here.”

“Okay,” Ovi agrees, and slips back into the house.

“Hey dad,” Tyler greets, as he grabs one of the patio chairs and places it facing the swing, sighing heavily as he sinks down into it. “You know who I am right?”

His father nods, then leans forward and takes a hold of Tyler’s chin, turning his face to one side, then the other. “They let you keep that fur in the army?”

“I’m not in the army anymore. I haven’t been in it for a long time.”

“The war is over? They sent you home? From Afghanistan?”

“I was in Afghanistan sixteen years ago. The war’s been over for a while. That one at least.”

“So you’re home now?”

Tyler nods.

“I don’t know if I have enough room here for you. There’s not a lot of space. I had to get rid of the old place and downsize and...”

“Dad, I have my own place to live. In Cookstown. With my wife and my kids.”

He looks puzzled. “You have more than one now? When did that happen? Wasn’t Sarah just getting ready to have Austin?”

Tyler sighs and runs a hand through his hair, then over his face. “Sarah and I haven’t been together in a long time. Since Austin died. That’s almost sixteen years ago now.”

His father cocks his head to the side, confusion in his eyes and lining his face. “It is?”

“I got married again. You were at the wedding. In Sydney. Same little place you and mum got married at. Near the opera house.”

“Tiny little dark haired thing?”

“Esme. You made a joke about her having a weird name.”

“Esme...Esme...” his eyes squint as he tries to remember. “...cute wee thing. I like her. She’s a sweetheart. You’re still married to her?”

“Six years and counting. She’s still putting up with me somehow. Do you remember meeting your granddaughter? Amelia? I brought her to the old house.”

His father nods.

“She’s going to be six in a couple months. I’ve also got twin boys that just turned five. Tyler and Tanner and another boy that’s seventeen months, Declan. And we just had another baby two weeks ago. A little girl. Adeline.”

The old man smiles. “Your mother’s name.”

“We call her Addie for short.”

“That’s nice. Real nice. That you named her after your mother. She loved you so much, you know. Your mother. You were her pride and joy. The light of her life. I’d never seen her so as happy as she was the day you were born. She was a good mom to you. A real good mom.”

“Yeah....” Tyler clears his throat noisily, trying to rid himself of the lump of emotion that sits squarely in his windpipe. “...she was.”

“She’s a good mom? Your wife?”

“She’s an incredible mom. I couldn’t have asked for a better mother for my kids. Or for a better woman to give me children.”

“Six years?” his father asks. That you’ve been together?”

“Six years and a couple of months,” Tyler confirms. “I haven’t screwed this one up. Not yet, anyway.”

“Must be a good woman. A strong woman. To put up with the likes of you. You’ve always been a handful.” It isn’t said with malice; there’s a soft smile curving the old man’s lips.

“She keeps hanging in there. Keeps giving me another chance every time I screw up. Which has been a lot, unfortunately. But she never gives up on us. On me.”

“Don’t let her get away. You’ll regret it if you do. And treat her right. Don’t make the same mistakes I did. You’re better than that. You always have been. You’re better than me. Thank Christ.”

“Well I guess that’s one thing I do have to thank you for,” Tyler muses. “Showing me how not to be.”

“And you’re back home? In Australia?”

“We were in Colorado. We just move back six months ago. We should get you out to the house. You’d love it. It’s right on the beach. Awesome spot. And you’d get to see Amelia again. And meet your other grandkids.”

His father smiles. “I’d like that.”

“Maybe for Amelia’s birthday,” Tyler suggests, and then stares down at his hands; palms up, studying all the callouses and scars that years on the job have left behind.

There’s so much he wants to say. Things that he needs to get off his chest in regard to the nightmare that he’d lived through growing up. He wants to punish his father; make him feel even the slightest bit of regret and remorse for all the things he’s said and done.

But he doesn’t. Because whatever he says will never come close to the torment that’s always taking place in father’s broken mind.

#tyler rake #tyler rake fan fiction #tyler rake fan fic #extraction #best part of me #chris hemsworth character

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halfgclden · 4 years

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Camping and Cosmos and Crinitus (oh my) | Jordan&Caspar

Date: Late July, 2020

Summary: two bros, chilling at a campsite, zero feet apart cause they are gay

There was a certain nostalgia that came to Jordan as he walked through the woods, a small pack on his back as he followed Caspar to what he'd said was a great spot to see the stars from through the trees. This nostalgia was of course interrupted by the fact that he was with Caspar, holding a leash attached to a dog that kept straining against his harness, and in woods that he had not camped in before. This left it familiar with a slight edge of bittersweetness, which Jordan was unsure about, but still enjoyed.

When they'd gotten to the campsite, they were eager to set everything up so that they wouldn't have to rush later. The process was not unfamiliar to them, but it still took time, and the sun was hanging low by the time they'd finished, not quite sunset, but early evening. Jordan enjoyed the fact that they were fairly far removed from camp, from deadlines and seriousness. Here it was still, and it was good. Jordan inhaled slowly as he took a seat on the ground in front of his tent. "Do you come out here a lot?"

Caspar had picked this particular spot for the clearing in the above treetops which happened to give way for a great view of the stars. It'd been awhile since he'd done camping like the way these two had planned for tonight. He had become used to opting for a cozy night-in instead, but this was just as much a part of him as taking a great nap was. Even though this little camping trip had been inspired by nothing more than clearly seeing the night sky, it began to feel like a proper holiday once everything was set up. Cas had finished poking at the small fire he'd managed to build and took a few steps back so that he could answer Jordan's question. "Not too much lately," He confessed and then joined his friend on the nearby ground. "I like being outside so much though, I should get back into it," He thought aloud and with a shrug. "Which is why it's so cool that you agreed to come out here."

Jordan watched as Caspar tended to the fire, and unclipped Crinitus from his leash when the puppy seemed calm enough not to immediately bolt into the woods. He nodded at Caspar's answer, pulling his knees into his chest and resting his elbows on them. "Ah, yeah, well, y'know." He pressed his lips together, annoyed at himself for being so inarticulate in response. "Sure love me some outside." He smiled at his friend and shrugged. "Nah, I just haven't been out camping in a long time, so you suggesting it was actually pretty cool. And these woods are different, so it's... I dunno, cool to change it up?" He laughed and shook his head. "We really said fuck being comfortable and having a mattress, huh? Time to sleep on the ground tonight."

Caspar was pleased to have the chance to be sitting there with the company they kept by their side. "Crikey, we defo did. Fuck mattresses, huh?" He chuckled lightly, but was still maybe just a bit self-conscious as well (and seemingly for no serious reason). Having listened to Jordan talk in the way he so naturally did made Cas feel better. His embarrassment was a fickle thing and he leaned back. Jordan's specific brand of humor was much appreciated. "Wait, what’s the scenery like back home for you?" He asked.

Hearing Caspar swear was always funny to Jordan. It sounded less than natural, but not exactly stilted, and combined with the Australian slang, he found it strangely adorable. He didn't seem to notice any embarrassment coming from his friend as he shrugged, watching the fire that Caspar had set up. "Depends on what you count. First place I ever went camping was in this place where in the winter we only had four hours of sunlight, and I shit you not, I went dogsledding more than once." There were few fond memories of the Yukon in Jordan's mind, but camping was some of them. "In the summer, there was all but four hours of sunlight, and that's when we went camping. When it was hard to sleep and we'd end up sleeping anyway because we were all sticky and tired from hiking all day." He smiled to himself, then looked down. "And then, where I'm... I guess from now, like, where home actually is. That's way more forest, way easier to deal with. It's in the Pacific Northwest. Got the whole temperate rainforest vibe, bears and cougars and shit. The West Coast Trail and the like. Trees bigger than you can probably imagine, half the firewood is wet." Jordan shrugged once again, feeling rather exhausted from talking so much. "What about you? How's it camping in Australia?"

Caspar listened to Jordan's answer and shifted his gaze from him to the fire and back again. "Wait, wait, dogsledding?" His interest was caught by the mere unexpectedness of it, or maybe it was only unexpected because Caspar hadn't seen snow until he came to camp. "Like that one cartoon feature where the wolf-dog saves the sick children?" He asked but then chuckled. "I love that. I didn't think people really did that. I think that's so interesting," He commented and continued on with his trailing spoken thoughts. "The vast differences in the places around the world are so..." He tried to think of the right word but he doubted he got the right one. "Astounding?" Cas shrugged. "I personally would love to see those giant trees. I bet they're nothing like I've seen," He said. "Aussieland's cool because there's... I guess you'd call them jungles? It's not wet like the Pacific Northwest. You can find firewood easily and there's so many places to walk and explore, but you gotta look where you're walking." He described.

Jordan couldn’t help but groan when Caspar mentioned the animated movie that had been etched into his memory. “Fuck off,” he snickered, shaking his head. “Yeah, just like fucking Balto.” He rested his elbow on his knee and his chin on his hand, looking at and actually listening to Caspar as he continued to speak. “Yeah. You and me could wrap around either side of some of them and have trouble holding hands on the other side.” Jordan hummed, trying to imagine a hot jungle, but just kept imagining clips from Jumanji. “Because of wildlife? Or flora? Or both?”

Caspar watched as Jordan reacted to Balto being brought up and he giggled mostly because it wasn't expected. He then leaned back and his mind began trying to visualize how big the tree would really have to be. When it got to the point where he couldn't fathom the width any longer, he reached his arm over so he could give Crinitus a few good scratches. "Oh, uh, both? There's trails back home with different rankings that're supposed to let you know how rough it's going to be. Some are rocky, some are covered in roots or vines," Cas responded and sat normally again. "There's snakes and stuff too, but if you keep an eye out as much as you can, everything's fine. If you leave them alone, they'll leave you alone..." He shrugged. "The stars must be visible all the time there during the summer though, right? I think that'd be cool, not only the stars but to live like that without sunlight."

Jordan couldn't help but smile when Caspar giggled, laughing quietly as well, happy that his amusement landed well. "I get that. Like, fuck though, I know you said the coral got you, but you ever get bitten by a snake? I feel like that shit is hardcore, especially with how much wants to kill you out in Australia." He nodded. "Oh yeah, I can kind of tell what time it is from the stars. Or... I used to. It's harder here." He shrugged and leaned forward. "It's like, you know how some people can tell time from the position of the sun in the sky? Like that. But," he said, jumping to a new subject, "you have totally different constellations, yeah? I guess you know both by now though. You know much about the myths around the ones in the southern hemisphere?"

"Nope, no snake bites," Caspar proudly announced but listened to Jordan as he talked about the stars and the sky. "I'm not the best at telling the time from the sun, but I can usually spot a constellation in no time. I'm probably better at spotting the southern ones, but I don't know. It's been awhile since I've seen them," He smiled warmly. "But, down under, I don't know if things want to kill you. There's not... psychopathic spiders out there," He snickered and began digging through his nearby pack. "But, uh, yeah, I know some myths," He focused back on Jordan and held him out a bag of marshmallows, but kept talking. "One of my favorite's is a star cluster that used to be called 'the herdsman' back in ancient times. Everyone now thinks it looks more like a kite though, so it's cool because it's adapted with the times," Caspar kept the chocolate and the crackers in his hand, although raised them to bring attention to his idea. "I can tell you more, but should we make this camping trip official?" He questioned, smiling again.

"Yeah, also using a phone or a watch works better than anything. But when you're eleven and camping, you don't really have that shit." Jordan tilted his head at Caspar and raised his eyebrows. "Wait, wait, wait. You're telling me there's not spiders that have been premeditating my murder? Bullshit. They have eight legs for a reason. Six of those hands can hold guns and they can still walk. I know they're up to something." He grinned, clearly amusing himself as he eyed the marshmallows in Caspar's hand. "It's pretty cool how shit like that develops, yeah. It's like language and sayings that we have no idea where they come from." He sat up a bit straighter and stood. "Absolutely. I'll grab us some sticks. Keep telling me about the herdsman though, unless that was it," he said over his shoulder as he walked to snap a few sticks off of a nearby tree. "Sure hope this isn't a dryad."

Caspar chuckled at the mental image of a big spider holding guns while walking around at the same time. "Those little sayings are called idioms," He casually mentioned and then opened the bag of marshmallows. He left the fetching of the sticks to Jordan. He glanced at Jordan and chuckled again. "I think a dryad might let you know, if that's the case," Caspar set up two graham crackers and put chocolate on both. "But, um, the herdsman has a supergiant star that helps make up it's constellation. It's the fourth brightest star in the whole sky and it's an orange-red color." Cas described more about the topic of astronomy.

Jordan nodded. “I’m a fan of them. I think what I like best are malaphors, though.” He pulled out a pocket knife as he returned to sit down next to Caspar again, whittling away at the sticks so that they would be pointy enough to stick into the marshmallows. “That’s when you take two idioms and smash ‘em together. Like, ‘we’ll burn that bridge when we get to it’ or...” He held out one of the sticks to Caspar, then chuckled. “A bear in a glass house is worth two in the woods.” He nodded. “Fuck, that’s cool as hell. I’ve never been big into space, but the fucking vastness of it all is crazy. Like how half of those stars are burnt out, but we’re so far away we can still see them. That sort of shit fucks with my head, you know?”

"Those are ace," Caspar giggled at the malaphors that Jordan had prattled of. "You’ve opened this can of worms, now lie in it," He added his own with a proud little smile. His eyes then twinkled as he remembered something else that had seemed interesting about space and pertinent to the conversation as well. "They actually just discovered a new galaxy not too long ago, I think last year some time? But it's bloody far away from us and kind of hard to see because of space dust but they've got the tech nowadays," Cas said. "It definitely fucks with my head, but in a good way. I like contemplating different stuff though, I guess."

Jordan grinned, his own eyes glinting as Caspar added one of his own and he chuckled along. “Looks like malaphors are our piece of cake.” He nodded as he listened to Caspar and took one of the marshmallows to skewer on his stick. “Is it visible with the naked eye? Probably not, if it’s that far, especially with how much light pollution there is now. Have you ever listened to those things that are like ‘what the planets sound like’? There’s something going on with Jupiter that is just fucking nuts, man.” He shook his head and tilted his marshmallow towards the fire, sitting far enough away that he could barely feel the heat against his legs with his pants. “You seem thoughtful a lot of the time.” He smiled, watching Crinitus chew on a stick beside him. “Can call it spacey, if we ignore the negative connotations.” He leaned back a bit, but kept his marshmallow forward. “I was thinking about taking an astronomy class next semester for my science cred. I always really liked physics and shit like that, but I don’t know if I can be bothered to deal with quite that much work with all my other classes.”

Caspar shook his head to silently answer Jordan about the newfound galaxy being visible to the naked eye. He smiled while he did so because he simply enjoyed listening to his friend speak. He took the other stick Jordan had sharpened and skewered himself a marshmallow. Cas began letting it hover over the flames. "I like spacey, we can defo ignore the negative connotations. Tai actually calls me Cosmo a lot, so its kind of a perfect fit," He casually expressed as he watched his treat with intention. "I think that class'd be a beauty. I would help you if you really did end up wanting to take it. I wouldn't want you to overload yourself though," He shrugged after his offer, Cas was still smiling, and looked over at Crinitus. "—He's being such a good boy." He spoke as his trailing of thoughts shifted to the the dog for the moment.

Jordan rotated his marshmallow slowly, though it was too far from the fire to start browning yet. "Yeah, I thought that was pretty clever, actually. Very aussie of you guys." He smiled at Caspar. "That'd be ace." He squinted, unsure if the word felt right in his mouth. "I don't think it'd be too much of an overload. I hear the prof is pretty good, and we get to take trips out to an observatory." He pressed his lips together as he thought about something. "If we wanted to, we could probably look into making a trip up there, where the light pollution is less bad. Me you and Tai could all chill out and look at the stars up close." He glanced back over at his dog and smirked, shaking his head. "He's kind of an idiot, but he listens pretty well." He leaned back and grabbed his jacket from where it was sitting behind him, and pulled out a bag of jerky that made Crinitus's ears shoot up, his attention now on Jordan. He looked at Caspar and held out the bag to him. "Wanna give him a treat?"

"Ace?" Caspar repeated and lightly chuckled. "You're sounding more and more like a true blue Aussie bloke every day," He teased and bumped shoulders with Jordan, but made sure it wasn't too hard because of the fact they both were still roasting their treats. The idea that his friend had posed about taking a trip out to an observatory was too good to pass up. "I would love to do that... And with the two of you? I think that'd be a fantastic idea," He chimed back, fully agreeing to the proposition, but his eyes were on the bag of jerky. "—Oh, yeah, can I?" He asked with an excited expression but took the bag from Jordan as it was offered. "Crinitus," Cas called out even though it was redundant because the dog's attention had already been caught. Managing poorly to juggle his marshmallow stick, he opened the bag and picked out a piece. Caspar tossed it to the dog. "I think he deserved it," He confirmed to Jordan with a pleased smile. It lasted only a second longer because he then realized his marshmallow had caught fire. Caspar dropped the bag of jerky so he could tend to it before it got too burnt. He laughed as he attempted to blow out the fire and when it was done successfully, he began inspecting it. "Ah, what a fool I am." He joked regarding the state of his marshmallow.

Jordan nudged Caspar’s ankle with his foot as Caspar bumped him, keeping his stick in place as he rocked from one side to the other, an almost shy smile making its way to his face. “Shut up.” He laughed, ducking his head. “Catch me never fuckin’ saying that shit again.” He turned his stick slowly again, smiling to himself and not looking directly at his friend. “We can go some clear night or whatever, I can figure out the deets.” He reached over to grab a piece of jerky himself, smiling at how pleased his dog seemed from the snack. His eyes grew wide at the sight of Caspar’s marshmallow catching fire, and let out a small breath of relief when it was put out, pulling his own stick closer to prevent the same scenario from happening to him. He snickered at Caspar calling himself a fool. “Absolute buffoon.” He smiled, then held out his own marshmallow towards his friend. “Uh, we can switch if you want. I don’t mind burnt food,” he lied.

Caspar laughed and didn't take the other's words too hard and, when the marshmallow was not on fire any longer, he smiled over at Jordan. He realized Jordan was offering his own marshmallow and shook his head. "Oh, no, no, I can eat it. No worries," He assured him. "It's just a little bit more done than I try and go for, but I don't mind either. There's a fine line when roasting 'mallows." He said and began putting the rest of his treat together. When it was done, he took a bite and gave Jordan the 'ok' sign with his fingers and smiled with a closed mouth as he chewed.

Jordan smiled, happy that he didn’t actually have to trade marshmallows with Caspar. He’d regretted the offer as soon as he made it, but it wasn’t the type of thing he would have gone back on. “Dope, I’m sure it’ll taste fine with everything else anyway.” He rested the stick between his knees and pulled the outside of the marshmallow off, stuffed the chocolate inside, and then put the graham crackers around that. He held it up to Caspar. “Mess-free s’more,” he explained before he took a bite.

"Whoa, you're a genius," Caspar pointed out as he observed how his friend put together his s'more. "Where'd you learn that?" He smiled, curiously as he began to eat his much more messy s'more than Jordy's. "Or did you just figure it out on the spot?" He chuckled.

Jordan brightened at the praise, and sat up a bit straighter. He took a bite of his s’more and spoke around it, holding a hand in front of his mouth. “My sister actually made it up. I was kinda fine with getting all sticky, but for some reason it seemed to bother her.” He laughed. “But she’s not here so maybe I should take the credit for being smart as hell.”

"Crikey, I'll totally give you the credit," Caspar said while finishing up his s'more. "I'll pretend I didn't hear anything but you being wicked smart..." He assured the other and, with eyes on Jordan, a smile grew warmer and wider on the pale boy's soft expression. "I want to know you more, Jordy," He commented; turning more to face the other. "Can I ask what your relationship with your sister's like...?" Caspar asked then immediately realized something. He exhaled although he barely let his content features falter. "—Sorry, I kind of assumed you weren't talking about sisters here, right?" He asked to confirm.

Jordan smiled at the compliment, dropping his hand since he wasn't eating and speaking at the same time. The sincerity of Caspar's next statement made Jordan shift slightly, turning his gaze to his dog once more in an unconscious effort not to make too much contact, though he did have to admit that such a comment was pretty funny next to what he found to be a rather ridiculous nickname. He raised his shoulders in a shrug. "Uh, yeah, not..." Jordan didn't always know what to call his relatives at camp, he supposed that someone else calling them sisters was fine, because when you got down to schematics, that's technically what they were. "Yeah, I... I dunno, I know everyone here except me is real close with their half-siblings at camp, but..." He shrugged, rubbing the side of his neck with one hand. "I don't know, me and my sister, like, my actual sister, we've been through a lot together, and I feel like counting these people that my godly parent who I haven't even met happened to also parent is... I don't know, it feels like it discounts things." He stretched his legs out in front of him and sighed, though it was somewhat of a groan. "Ugh, that wasn't even the question." He felt stupid, feeling the need to explain himself when he wasn't even being confronted, and turned his face away from Caspar. "We're close. Less now than we were, since we're... physically far, but she's one of my favourite people." His skin crawled as he thought about how vulnerable he felt, and he put the s'more down on his knee so he could pick up the sick again and dig it into the ground. "You don't have any siblings, right? Excepting your camp ones. That why you guys get along so well?"

Caspar understood what Jordan was talking about. He felt the need to assure his friend that his point of view was valued, especially after he heard him groan, but remained silent as to let him finish with all of his thoughts. When Caspar was posed with questions to answer, he smiled warmly under the crackling hues of the amber-colored fire. "Oh, no, I actually have two brothers, and a sister back home in Brissy, too," He shrugged, realizing he never revealed that information earlier. "They're all cool in their own way, I guess, but... I always felt like the odd one out around them?" With his hands free again, he dusted them off and cleared his throat. "With, um, the way you explain it, uh, makes sense..." Caspar expressed. "I was adopted so there's another reason why I felt like a black sheep," He casually added. "But I learned family's what you make of it. So, uh, we're obviously not exactly the same... But, in a way, your situation and my situation is flipped, yeah?" He observed. "I get along better with my family, or whatever, here and it's just not the same with you and I don't think that's anything to be ashamed of, you know? We're like puzzles pieces, we only fit in where we fit in." He said.

Jordan stole glances up at Caspar as he spoke, not wanting to seem like he was too interested in what the other boy was saying, though he was. He wiggled the stick into the ground and let go of it, leaning his hands back on the log as he gave Caspar a small smile. "Hard to think of you as the black anything," he quipped quietly, but let him continue. He twisted his finger around a piece of hair as he nodded at his friend, then looked down at the stick again, afraid that he was looking too long, or that Caspar might look back at him processing how well he could relate to his words. He felt somewhat bare, as though Caspar really was getting to know some part of him, and he didn't know exactly how he felt about it, but he could definitely tell that it wasn't all bad. "Yeah, that makes sense." He felt rather inarticulate after the speech, but didn't mind too much; not everyone could be a poet. "We're mirrors." He smirked a bit. "And that's not to say that I don't care about the people in my cabin. I think... I dunno, they're all my friends. It's just different, yeah." He rolled his neck. "But anyway, enough delving into my inner psyche. What about knowing you? Tell me something I don't know."

Caspar could empathize with the uncertain feeling that came with getting closer with another but, in this setting, he wasn't all that uncomfortable. He smiled at the comment about being mirrors. "Mirrors, I like that," Caspar expressed and then nodded. "And, I get it," He added with reassurance once again. He then chuckled lightly. "—But, wait, did you know my natural hair's a kind of dark brown? You can only see it in old pictures of me. I've been messing with hair colors for a long time though, and I've had tons," He described and then put more thought in regarding his past and a fact he could tell Jordan. "But, uh, let me think of something else," Caspar lightly and contently sighed. "Um, I don't know what's interesting, but I'm allergic to apricots? I believed in fairies when I was a little kid?" He offered up. "Um, sometimes when I first wake up, I think I only see in black and white? The colors come back right away but for a second, I swear." He chuckled again and shrugged.

Jordan pressed his fingers into the log, feeling the grooves as he continued to listen to Caspar. "When'd you start dyeing it?" He felt weird thinking about Caspar with dark hair; and though it was fairly obvious that his natural hair colour wasn't stark white, it felt like it suited his friend more. "Just apricots? How'd you find that one out?" He smiled. "I'm surprised you don't still believe in fairies. They seem like your vibe. And we know that monsters and shit are real, so why not?" The last fact made Jordan's eyebrows shoot up excitedly, and he reached out to rest a hand on his dog's head when he rested his head on his leg. "Does that fit into you seeing auras? Do you dream in colour?"

"I dream in black and white very rarely but, when I'm dreamscaping and in control, I try to make them all as colourful as can be. Although, I'm not sure if the lack of it when I wake is related to the whole aura thing..." Caspar explained to his friend. "It's an interesting concept to think about, it probably is related," He responded while endearingly watching Crinitus show affection to his owner. "I'm not sure exactly when I started with my hair either, uh... Maybe a year before I came to camp?" He thought aloud. "It was bloody impulsive when I chose to change it all, but ended up just sticking with it, so," With a proud little smile, Caspar's train of thought quickly shifted from colors to the next topic he wanted to reply to. "—Oh, by the way, my experience with apricot was only my worst reaction," He casually clarified. "I'll swell up and get hives if I eat certain types of nuts, kiwi, or peaches too. And, actually, a breakfast parfait got me officially diagnosed," He explained with a small shrug and pressed his palms down onto the log as well. He looked up at the stars now and leaned back slightly to do so. "Also, I think there's a part of me that still might believe in fairies, if I'm being fully transparent. There are stranger things in our lives, I agree..." Caspar then hesitated for a moment but eventually spoke again yet softer this time. "If you get tired, will you tell me?" He asked.

"I think it'd be kinda fucked up to dream in black and white. But, I guess I could do that and just not really remember. Colours aren't what I remember from my dreams. It's cool if it is connected to your aura thing. Kind of hard to see if it does though, I imagine that's hard as fuck to research." He glanced at Caspar once more. "I like the white. I think it suits you. Like a blank canvas." After a pause, he added, "or some shit" to sound less like he was waxing poetic. "A breakfast parfait?" Jordan asked incredulously, laughing. "Dude, you're telling me yogurt almost had you kick the bucket? Incredible. I would love for that to be listed as my cause of death, honestly." He nodded in agreement to the sentiment that there were things much stranger than fairies. "I dunno, why can't people with wings exist if I can just be..." He motioned indistinctly to the woods but didn't actually teleport, far too comfortable to. After Caspar spoke, he exhaled a small laugh, smiling at his friend. "I'm always tired." He didn't look away, instead resting his cheek against his own shoulder. "But yeah, I will. Same for you?"

"There's certain books on auras and such but it's hard to sift through what's real and what's just been guessed by the author," Caspar summarized but then readily blushed upon hearing Jordan's compliment regarding his bleached white hair. He tried hard not to react any further and let the conversation continue. "Crikey, not the actual yogurt," He chuckled, shaking his head but finding his friend very amusing. "Just the nuts and fruit and stuff," He clarified but was smiling nonetheless (especially as he watched Jordan rest his cheek against his own shoulder). "I'm always tired too," Caspar agreed and scooted closer to Jordan. "We can go lay down soon?" He suggested and had realized that he was probably done with snacking on s'mores for tonight anyways. He pulled his sleeves down over his hands. "You can also use my shoulder instead if you want, until then? I don't mind..." Caspar gently offered as the untended fire seemed to not be as bright as it once had.

"Yeah, I guess it's hard to do hard research on shit like that. Like dream interpretation. Not like there's a lot of hard science in what I do," Jordan said with a shrug of the shoulder he wasn't leaning on. "I'm gonna keep saying yogurt, I think, sounds funnier." He grinned impishly at his friend, then picked up the s'more resting on his knee to toss into the fire so that his dog wouldn't end up eating it. At Caspar's suggestion, he picked at a thread in his jeans, then scooted slightly closer, trying not to move too much as to not disturb a half-asleep Crinitus. "If you want, I can snuff out the fire, and then we can watch the stars like we planned to." He tipped his head to the side and rested against Caspar's shoulder, looking out at the woods. "And if you want, we can form a chain here. Since I'm on you and Crinitus is on me, you can get a dog pillow," he joked with a small smile.

"You need a Teleportation 101 class," Caspar snickered to himself at his silly little joke. He then playfully rolled his eyes at Jordan after hearing his comment regarding the yogurt. His expression was somehow still soft even as he rolled his eyes. He felt good in the moment his friend rested their head on his shoulder but, then again it always felt this way being there for someone. He tried to maneuver himself to get a look at a sleeping Crinitus by Jordan's feet and was pleased by the sight. "That's probably how it's going to be in the tent tonight..." He responded. "A cuddle pile, if you will," He commented "...And, I do still want to look at the stars, but we can do that whenever you're ready to put out the fire. I can wait, but I don't want us to get too tired beforehand." He explained.

"Hey." Despite trying to sound annoyed, Jordan's tone was much more amused than anything. "I'm at least in the 200s level, cut me some slack." He raised his head as Caspar moved, as well as to look at the fire. "Are you someone who just latches on to the nearest thing when you sleep? Or are you a starfish?" He raised his arms and cracked his knuckles, then wiggled his fingers in front of him, muttering a low incantation. Crinitus lifted his head to watch as the fire smoldered and went out, leaving a trail of smoke curling into the sky. "Alright, boy with white hair, tell me which planets are making me sad."

"Sorry, sorry," Caspar apologized for the silly '101' comment and bashfully ducked his head especially while Jordan raised his up once again. "I am usually one who clings to whatever's near," He smiled. "So if that makes me a starfish?" He rubbed his knees with his palms and then slightly shrugged his shoulders. "I guess I am one, watch out for my tube feet," He joked with a tone of voice where it was clear he was already becoming tired. Caspar wiggled his fingers along with Jordan in reference to their past conversation but eventually dropped his hands again. He shifted his eyes up to the stars in the night sky. He was smiling more-so now at the little nickname. "-Hm, well, you're an Aries, right? That means Mars rules you, it represents the beginning of all beginnings... It is our first breath and our first scream, being the one responsible for the body we have and the, um, incarnation we are in at the moment..." Caspar looked back at Jordan to make sure he really wanted to know this kind of stuff. "Uh, it's associated with karma and instinct, but I think it's really just an unconscious animalistic nature we don’t give enough freedom to..." He cleared his throat and quickly looked back at the stars. "I'd have to know more of your birth chart to tell you more."

Jordan laughed at the tube-feet comment and wiggled his fingers back at Caspar. “Oh my god.” He shook his head and looked up at the sky as his friend began describing what his sign meant, eyes flicking back to him after a moment. “First breath and first scream? Dude, that’s metal as fuck.” He laughed. “Animalistic nature. Dunno if that’s my deal, but the sound of it is cool.” He pressed his palms into the log and looked back to the sky. “Kendall knows my birth chart. Made me literally call my mom and find out what time I was born.”

"Oh... Yeah, I guess it is," Caspar chuckled a little embarrassed by how he had explained Aries energy. "But I meant more like, uh... Acting on impulse and doing what you want without abandon, not, um, running through the woods on your hands and knees or something silly," His palms had already been pressed down onto the log as well and he stole a quick glance of Jordan here and there as they sat and watched the stars. "That's what I would've had you done too," He smiled softly. "I can probably reach out to her to get a look at it? So I can tell you more of my, uh, interpretations?" Caspar suggested. "Unless you feel like she's covered it all with you already. If so, that's okay too..." He covered his bases in his reply then yawned but remained stargazing.

Jordan laughed at the idea of them running around the woods on all fours and moved so that he was resting on his elbows instead of his hands, more reclined as he watched the sky through the trees. “Yeah, you’ll have to find her for that. I don’t really remember any of it. I think she mentioned pretty much every sign at some point, and I don’t really prescribe to Greek zodiac and myth too much, so I didn’t retain much.” He looked at Caspar. “It’d be cool to get your take on it, though. But what made you so into Greek constellations when you were born in a place where you didn’t even see them? Unless you only started studying them here.”

"Okay, yeah, that's perfect. I'm excited to get a look at your chart," Caspar confessed and happily continued on in response. "I'll try and make it exciting for you to learn about," He explained with assurance and then shrugged because he wasn't sure of how to answer to the question that had been asked. "...Oh, uh, hmm,I guess that I was into them because I knew I was a demigod since I was young? I always have been in love with the stars too. Greek constellations came easier to me and I had already learned all the ones down in the southern hemisphere," He shrugged. "The cosmos are a constant in my life."

Jordan exhaled something that could be interpreted as a laugh. “Learning is always exciting.” He was serious about the sentiment; not entirely sure that the subject was up his alley, but willing to hear Caspar out. “Oh,” he said as he tilted his head to look at his friend. “Fuck, forgot some people just knew that shit. I didn’t know until I got here, and I was still pretty sure I was making the whole thing up or something.” He shrugged one shoulder and looked back up at the sky, covering his mouth with the back of his hand as he yawned. “That’s fucking sick. To be into something all the way from when you were young.” He let out a small “oof” as his dog put his head down on his stomach, and reached down to pat him as he yawned again. “Maybe... bedtime soon. But you can keep telling me about the sky. I promise I’m still listening.” The words seemed too sincere to leave it there, so he continued. “Maybe just slow down if you hear snoring.”

"I like that about you. You have an open-mind," Caspar complimented and sent a tired little smile over Jordan's way through the firelight. "Imagine all those feelings, but not being able to do anything about them. I couldn't get away from my family until I just turned sixteen? But I knew I was destined to come here as soon as I heard about camp... And, it wasn't getting safe in Aussieland, so, it was defo complicated all around," He shrugged as he explained a little bit more about his past and, maybe only because Jordan did, but Caspar yawned as well. He nodded before he could speak. "Yeah... I think that's a good idea. We can go lay down right now?" He stood and rubbed his eye.

Jordan exhaled a small laugh at Caspar’s observational compliment. He could his friend smiling at him from the corner of his eye, but kept his gaze trained upwards as he listened to him continue to speak. “I... can imagine.” His own perspective was much different, but he didn’t offer it, since it felt less like relating to Caspar and more like telling his own story. He finally tilted his head to the side to look back at Caspar and gave him a small smile as well. “It’s nice you had somewhere to escape to.” He followed his friend, pushing his dog’s head from his stomach so that he could stand as well, and stepped far enough back so that he felt comfortable enough to extinguish the fire. As he pressed his hands together and mumbled, it glowed bright for a moment, then smoldered, and Jordan picked up a water bottle to toss over it and put it out fully. He yawned and stretched, his back cracking as he did, and nodded at Caspar. “Crinitus doesn’t normally get to sleep with people, so he’s gonna fuckin' flip.”

Caspar moved away from the fire as well and, for the most part, let Jordan handle extinguishing the flames. He watched with tired eyes and, when it was fully out, turned to go over to the tent. "Awe, I'm glad then," He responded and the thought of falling asleep with a dog instead of several white cats made him chuckle lightly. He unzipped the entrance and climbed inside. He got all comfortable and knowing that he was going to get to dream only seemed to make him feel more tired. "Hm... I think..." He mused and, even though he had only gotten horizontal moments before, his eyes were heavy. "That today was a good day...." He managed to say before closing his eyes. For a little bit longer, he tried responding but it mostly came out as non-verbal little hums. After seemingly falling asleep, it only took a few moments before Caspar naturally nudged closer. Along with Crinitus, they cuddled up to Jordan in a warm little pile and that night Caspar dreamed of tide pools.

#chatzy #camping and cosmos and crinitus #c: jordan #c: jordancaspar

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travelingtheusa · 6 years

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TEXAS

18 Jan 2019 (Fri) – First stop was at the Dallas Diner for breakfast next door to the Elks Lodge. We both got senior breakfast meals – 2 eggs, bacon or sausage, hash browns, and a biscuit. It was good. Then we did the laundry so I could have some clean socks and underwear to take with me on my trip. While the laundry was drying, we drove to the nearest Navy FCU 17 miles away. I deposited 3 checks and asked if they could cash a $20 check I had made out to me. For some reason, it would not photograph for mobile deposit to USAA. The clerk said it was the background on the check that was preventing the picture (apparently, it is a common problem). Since I don’t have a personal account at Navy FCU (just the SMART Nomads business account), she had me deposit the check in that account and withdraw $20. It was an in-and-out transaction.

After we brought the laundry back to the RV and put everything away, we grabbed Bonnie and drove to the park at White Rock Lake. There was a large dog park there and we wanted to give Bonnie some social time with other dogs. There were at least 20 dogs running around the large dog park, and another 20 in the little dog park. Bonnie wasn’t interested in interacting with anyone. She sniffed, peed, and pooped but did not play. We took her out of the park and went for a walk along the lake front. There were many birds on the water and in the trees. The sky was heavily overcast and the temp was in the low 50s. The forecast for today was 68 degrees but we did not see it get that high.

I am feeling a little anxious about my trip to New York. Winter Storm Harper is headed to the northeast this weekend. Temps are projected to be in the single digits with snow and sleet and flash-freeze conditions. Why am I going back to New York in January??? We will have to adjust these visits back home for more temperate times of the year.

17 Jan 2019 (Thu) - We went to the mall so I could pick up a few things for my trip to New York then went to AMC Movie Theater to watch “Replicas” with Keanu Reeves. It was OK. Keanu just couldn’t pull off acting like a scientist. We stopped at PetCo to pick up a few cans of food for the animals, and stopped for lunch at Saltgrass Steak House. We were back home by 5:00 p.m.

16 Jan 2019 (Wed) – We packed up, made a stop at the dump station, and headed out from Caddo to Dallas. It looked like some kind of stevedore had worked around the campground last night. A lot of grass was dug up. We figured it was either (or both) possums and javelinas. They like to root in the ground for grubs and worms. We never saw any wildlife other than deer during the 9 days we’ve been here.

We stopped for lunch at McDonald’s. Paul pulled into a WalMart parking lot and I walked across the street to get the food. Of course, we had to include a burger for Bonnie and Sheba.

Traffic was pretty good most of the way. When we got to the last few miles, the GPS goofed up. There is construction in that area and we guessed the GPS was trying to put us on a road that wasn’t there any more. At any rate, we managed to find our way to the Elks Lodge.

The Lodge is on the outskirts of town near Garland. There are 7 sites lined up along the back fence with water and electric hookups. I had called two days ago and made a reservation for the one and only empty site. When we arrived, there was a motor coach in our site. The guy didn’t know it was reserved. There is a sign on the front door of the lodge that says the sites are first come, first served. It is a confusing system. They were gracious, however, and moved over to park by the fence. We pulled in and set up.

Once set up, we drove into town. It seems like all the stores we shop at are close by on the main road. Kroger is two buildings over. U-Haul (where we get propane) is a mile and a half down the road. Between here and there, there is a PetCo and a Lowe’s along with dozens of other stores and restaurants. Very different from the last place we camped. lol.

We got the propane tank refilled, refueled the truck, and picked up groceries at Kroger. We also picked up dinner and took it back to the RV. After we ate, we went into the lodge. The parking area is gated and we needed to get a key card for the gate. We also asked about extending for an additional 3 days. We had reservations through to January 25. I will be in New York from the 19th to the 24th. The weather forecast is for a fierce winter storm to hit the northeast. We figured we should extend a few days to the 28th just in case my return flight gets delayed by the storm. There was a little confusion as to who had reserved the site, but the gal finally said they hadn’t paid so we were set.

The lodge cooks dinner every Wednesday night. Tonight’s meal was tomato soup and grill cheese. We had already eaten so we passed. Next Wednesday Paul will be able to enjoy a meatball sandwich if he wants. They are also having a steak dinner on Saturday. I called and made a reservation for him. We had a drink and returned to the camper.

15 Jan 2019 (Tue) – Again, we stayed in the campground. Temps never got over 50 today and the sun never showed its face. We have been using a 30’ leash to walk Bonnie. She has been enjoying the extra freedom very much. It’s also given us a better walk. We don’t have to stop all the time so she can sniff at something. She has room to walk ahead, stop to sniff, then catch up to us without getting pulled on the 6’ leash. Everyone is happier with the walk.

14 Jan 2019 (Mon) – We stayed around the campground today. Temps still cold and skies overcast. A second camper showed up overnight. Now there are four of us in the campground. The tenters left.

13 Jan 2019 (Sun) – We stayed around the campground today. The temperatures remained in the 30s all day. A new camper showed up and the motor home left. I spotted a campfire on the point where the tenters had been. Guess more tenters are staying here for the weekend.

12 Jan 2019 (Sat) – We drove 45 minutes north to Graham today. The Post Office Museum and Fine Arts Center was closed. There wasn’t anything else to see in the town. We drove around looking at the buildings and homes. It looked very much like a western town – not rich, not poor although there were some very run down areas.

We stopped at the number one rated restaurant (according to Trip Advisor) for lunch. Neri’s on the Square was housed in an old historical building that has served as a mortuary, an antique stop, a hardware store, and a restaurant. The building was large and very open. There were paintings right on the walls and a set of stairs going to the second floor. The waitress was a little weird. Paul thought she was mentally challenged. I thought she was a young kid who was just given the job, was coached to be upbeat and smile all the time, and then was let loose. She was extremely enthusiastic, gesticulated a lot, and ended every sentence with a breathless smile. The food was good and we enjoyed the meal.

On the way back to the campground, we took time to drive around Possum Kingdom Lake. We drove through neighborhoods and summer retreats that were pretty deserted. We found the Brazos River Authority Observation Point and Possum Kingdom Reservoir created by the Morris Sheppard Dam. The dam was built as a flood control and water conservation project in 1941. It is over 2,700 feet long and 190 feet high. A very cold wind was blowing so we did not walk around the observation point for very long.

We stopped at WalMart to pick up some nice crusty French bread to have with the potato soup I made yesterday. They had French bread but it wasn’t crusty. They need to come to New York to see what REAL French and Italian bread is like. We settled for a frozen loaf of garlic bread. It was OK but didn’t hit the mark.

11 Jan 2019 (Fri) – It rained during the night and intermittently all day today. We drove south to the town of Breckenridge. First stop was at the Swenson Memorial Museum. The museum was all about Stephens County. It consisted of two floors located in the former First National Bank building. The place was packed with artifacts and photos. There was a resident of the town who was an amateur photographer who took pictures of everything. Because of that, they have pictures of every aspect of life in the late 1880s through the early 1900s. It was a very interesting museum. We spent about two hours wandering among the exhibits, followed (most of the time) by the curator who kept up a rambling story about the town’s history and its colorful occupants. The curator recommended two restaurants for lunch and also suggested we go to the Breckenridge Fine Arts Center after the Swenson Museum. We thanked her and left.

We had lunch at the L&L Family Restaurant. It was very local. Paul and I both got fried chicken with mashed potatoes and cole slaw. The potatoes automatically came with gravy without the waitress even asking if we wanted it. We were able to bring home enough left-overs to have supper later.

After lunch, we drove to the Breckenridge Fine Arts Center. What a great stop! The ladies of the town compete in the Festival parades in San Antonio and Tyler. They donate their beautiful gowns to the museum for display. The curator brought us back into the exhibit room where we could see the gowns close up. The gowns are worth thousands of dollars and reminded us of the costumes they create for Mardi Gras. Another room had a doll collection on display, and another had the most beautiful and stunning water colors we have ever seen. A temporary exhibit had paintings by an impressionist artist who actually came in to get her pictures just after we finished viewing them. Talk about timing!

When we got back to the campground, we did the laundry in the campground’s two washers and two dryers. An RV was just pulling in. The other two that were here left yesterday. It is pretty deserted in the campground now. The distance the park is from main routes might have something to do with the lack of campers. We are enjoying the beauty of the park and the lack of crowded facilities. The weather has been more in the normal range – high 60s in the day; 40s at night. The weather forecast for the weekend is for lows in the 30s. Looks like we will have to turn off the water at night again.

10 Jan 2019 (Thu) – We drove into the town of Mineral Wells today, 51 miles northeast from here. It took almost an hour just to drive the park road to get to the main route. There wasn’t much to see in town. It is obvious the town is barely hanging on. There were many stores closed up and dilapidated buildings with broken windows lined the streets. The Baker Hotel, which opened two weeks after the great crash in 1929, was boarded up and the inside gutted. We walked around it. Then we drove to the original Mineral Water Company. They produced Crazy Water in both liquid and crystal form. The water from wells in the area had several elements in it, to include lithium. Early settlers found the water made sick people better. Soon, in combination with the oil boom, Mineral Wells swelled to a population of 30,000 people. People came from all over to drink and bathe in the water. Then the FDA was formed and better medical treatments were discovered and the town kind of faded away. We stopped to eat at the Mesquite Pit. The food was good.

We got back to the campground a little after four. Paul said we drove 117 miles for lunch.

9 Jan 2019 (Wed) – We spent the day relaxing. Just stayed in the campground and enjoyed the day. There are only two other RVs in the park. Paul spotted a couple of tents on another point. They had a campfire going. We agreed we needed to get some firewood.

8 Jan 2019 (Tue) – We packed up, used the dump station, and hit the road at 9:20 a.m. It was a long drive from San Angelo to Caddo (5 hours). We stopped at Cracker Barrel for lunch. The food was good as always.

We pulled in the Possum Kingdom State Park campground at quarter after two. The campground is very far off the main route and away from any local towns. It was 17 miles on the park road from the main route to the campground. The town of Caddo was very small and Trip Advisor has nothing listed for it. We might explore some of the small towns around the area but there isn’t much here in this part of Texas.

Our campsite is right on Possum Kingdom Lake. So far, we have not seen any opossums but there are lots of deer in the area. There are only 2 or 3 other campers here. It is pretty isolated. We have electric and water hookups and will have to find a dump station when we leave.

7 Jan 2019 (Mon) – We went out to get fuel and groceries in preparation for our move tomorrow. We stopped at the Pack Saddle for lunch. Their ribs were so good last time but not this time. The meat was tough and less flavorable. That was very disappointing.

6 Jan 2019 (Sun) – We spent the day hanging around the campground today. Made a reservation at our next campground – Possum Kingdom State Park in Caddo, TX. I wonder if there are a lot of opossums in that park?

5 Jan 2019 (Sat) – We went to the Railway Museum of San Angelo this morning. It was a small museum located in an old depot. There were several train setups but only one worked. The most interesting thing was the list of depots between the start of the line in Kansas City to its terminus in Mexico. Almost every station had its name changed over time, which seemed unfair to earlier settlers. Stations would be named after a family member or someone who settled the town then years later it would be changed to honor someone who served on the railway board or donated money. Outside were five rail cars – two engines, one caboose, and two cars.

After the museum, we went to the Cork & Pig Tavern for lunch. It was odd to have a place with such a name and there was very little pork offered on the menu. Paul and I wound up sharing a pizza.

Following lunch, we went to the Chicken Farm Art Center. It was a former chicken farm that has been converted to an artists’ compound. Some artists live on the property; two of the chicken coops were divided into small shops. Most of the wares were handmade items – soap, jewelry, ceramics, clothing, etc. There was a group of musicians sitting around in chairs in the courtyard. It was more like a jam than a performance.

On the way back to the campground, we stopped at PetCo and WalMart.

4 Jan 2015 (Fri) – We went to lunch at the Pack Saddle BBQ at noon. The ribs were excellent! Paul had a brisket dish, which was also very good. We returned to the campground where Paul continued to insulate all the cabinets in the RV.

I got a notice from USPS that our forwarded mail would arrive on Monday. I had asked for it on Saturday thinking they would send it out on Monday and it would arrive on Friday or Saturday. Escapees didn’t send the mail out until yesterday so it won’t arrive until Monday. Consequently, I had to go to the office and extend our stay here for one more day. We were planning to leave on Monday but now our departure date is Tuesday.

The weather was soooooo much nicer today. It was 33 degrees when Paul got up this morning and it climbed all the way into the high 60s today. Hopefully, the cold front has passed and the weather is returning to normal.

3 Jan 2019 (Thu) – We drove into town and had lunch at Miss Hattie’s Café and Cathouse Lounge. It was in an old bank building built around the late 1800s. It had the original tin stamped ceiling and red brick walls. I had pot roast and Paul had fried shrimp. The food was good.

After lunch, we walked down the street to Legend Jewelers where we bought tickets to see Miss Hattie’s Bordello Museum. Three more people joined the tour and we all walked up a double flight of stairs over the jewelry store to where Miss Hattie ran her bordello. There were some original pieces from the actual bordello, and the rest was furniture and artifacts from that time period. We looked into bedrooms where there were story boards recounting the tale of each of five mistresses. It was a very interesting tour.

We then drove to San Angelo State Park on the outskirts of town. It was a very large park with two separate entrances. First, we went through the south entrance. There are long horn steers and bison kept in this area. Unfortunately, neither were near the road. There were some pens in the distance and it looked like several bison laying on the ground nearby.

We then drove back out onto the main road over to the north entrance. There were campgrounds on either side of a creek but not many people camping. We poked around then left.

2 Jan 2019 (Wed) – It was 30 degrees when we went to bed and it was 30 degrees when we got up this morning. Brrrrrrr. WTH??? It’s not supposed to be this cold way down south here in Texas! There have been all kinds of winter advisories and storm warnings for the past two days. The weatherman reported today that temperatures across the nation are 20 to 30 degrees below normal.

We went back to Lowe’s today and picked up half-inch pipe insulation tubes and stuffed them under the edge of the kitchen slide. There is no insulation under that slide and it is noticeably colder in the kitchen area. Paul completed insulation of all the cabinets and closets today. We’ve had to disconnect the water hose for the last two days. The water pump is an on-again, off-again, affair. When the weather gets warmer, Paul will try to figure out why it keeps shutting off.

I looked up the number one restaurant on Trip Adviser and we went there for lunch. What a weird experience! The name of the place was listed as Peasant Valley Restaurant but the sign outside said PV Deli. It was an old house-turned-restaurant. We walked through the main door into a large dining area. To the left was another room with a couple reading a menu on a chalkboard. We assumed it was the lunch menu, so we walked over and read it, too. Then a mentally challenged young man told us that was the dinner menu (it was just 11:45 a.m.) and he handed us some photocopied menus to choose from. We walked back into the main dining room, took a table, and reviewed the menu. The young man tried to answer questions but he was extremely difficult to understand. Every time I asked him to repeat himself, he said something different. I tried to order a chicken salad sandwich but he said there was no chicken.

I was beginning to feel really uncomfortable and somewhat annoyed about the whole place and told the young man we were leaving because I wanted chicken but they were out of it. Then a young woman came into the room, stated that the young man was her brother and sometimes talked too fast, and said there was plenty of chicken; just not chicken salad. Too embarrassed to leave, we sat back down to look over the menu again. She told us when we decided what we wanted, we should walk down the hall and place our order at the counter. We got up and walked down the hall to place our order. There was a sign on the wall that said if you didn’t know what you wanted, get out of the line and don’t come back until you know what you want. I wound up ordering a Rueben sandwich. The whole thing was just weird.

When we got back to the campground, we packed up the dirty clothes and did the laundry at the campground. They have two washers and two dryers, which is enough for us. While the clothes washed and dried, we tried to put together a puzzle. There was a shelf in the room with books and puzzles. We didn’t have much luck. Neither one of us had our glasses and got a headache after a while.

The temps never got out of the low 30s today. Paul spread cat litter on the steps because they were slick with ice. Hope this cold spell passes soon.

1 Jan 2019 (Tue-New Year’s Day) – It was very cold today. We went to Lowe’s and picked up some silver insulation sheeting to put in the windows. I worked on the caravan book for May; Paul measured and fit the insulation in the windows. It’s a little disturbing not to be able to see out the windows. One of the best things about this RV is the panoramic views out the windows. Oh, well. If it keeps us warmer, I guess it’s a good thing.

31 Dec 2018 (Mon) – It started raining last night around 8 or 9. Some times we had thunder and lightning; sometimes there was just a gentle rain. The ground was pretty wet this morning.

We drove into town to the post office and got the address to have our mail forwarded. Then we drove to Fort Concho. It is the most intact Indian Wars Fort in the U.S. There were about 20 buildings arrayed in a horseshoe around a large parade field. A couple of the buildings were open to tour but most were closed up. There were more than 40 buildings on the fort at one time but many were torn down over the years. Like many frontier posts, it was only in service for 23 years then abandoned by the military. We walked around the fort, looking in the few buildings that were open. There was also the Museum of Telefony located in one of the old buildings. It was quite interesting to see all the very old phones back from a time when telephones were first invented. Today’s kids wouldn’t know what to do with them.

After exploring Fort Concho, we went to lunch at the Angry Cactus. It was a bar and grill decorated in some very unusual ways. There were pots turned upside down hanging from the ceiling as lights. They used old fashioned light bulbs to give an old look to the place. They had a special - $5 margaritas all day along with tacos or taco salad. We found the food very good.

On the way back to the campground, we stopped in the San Angelo Nature Center. It was a parking lot fronting on a lake. Not much wildlife to look at. We stopped at the Hotel Concho. It is now out of business. The first two floors are used by local businesses. They were setting up for a wedding at 5 p.m. today. It was a beautiful old building.

We also stopped at H.E.B. and picked up groceries then ran to PetCo to pick up pet food. The town of San Angelo has almost 96,000 people, yet much of the town is run down with many broken windows and boarded up buildings. It feels like they are struggling to keep the town going. Hope they make it.

30 Dec 2018 (Sun) – We took Bonnie on a long walk around the campground. It was 37 this morning and never got warmer than 45 degrees. When done, we drove into town to the San Angelo Visitor Center. It was a very fancy building with a small office. There were two elderly gentlemen there who were very happy to tell us everything there was to know about the town. After getting a handful of brochures and flyers, we walked down by the Concho River. There were Christmas light displays set up. We decided to come back after dark to see the light show.

We had lunch at Zero One Ale House. It was an old building with a tin ceiling and brick walls. I had roast chicken with seared asparagus and deep fried potato balls. Paul got a signature sandwich. Everything was delicious. We brought a pint of potato soup and left-overs home for dinner.

At 6 p.m. we drove back into town and drove through the Christmas lights display. It was especially nice because they were set up along the river and the lights reflected in the water. It was like a two-for-one show. Bonnie seemed to enjoy the ride.

29 Dec 2018 (Sat) – We packed up and pulled out of Fredericksburg at 10 a.m. The weather was cold – in the 30s all day. We drove three hours to arrive at Goodfellow AFB Recreation Area a little more than three hours later. There are two parts to this campground – a new part and an old part. The old part has full hookups and looks like it’s full of long-termers. That area has lots of trees. The new part is in a parking lot with just electric and water hookups. There are no trees and no wifi either. After set up, we drove to the office and checked in. Then we drove over to the base (the campground is five miles off base), and shopped for a few things in the base exchange. We returned and just tried to hunker down and stay warm. WTH?? This is Texas!

28 Dec 2018 (Fri) – After Bonnie’s walk, we went next door to Nury’s for breakfast. I tried something called Divorced Eggs and Paul had biscuits and gravy. The food was good (again). Sorry we discovered this place so late in our stay. We would have eaten a few more meals there.

At around 1:00 PM, there came a banging on the door. A campground employee was asking when we were leaving. Apparently, the schedule said we were leaving today when we thought we were leaving tomorrow. We walked up to the office and found conflicting information in the files – one item said we were leaving today; another said we were leaving tomorrow. The clerk told us the winter Texans were coming in today and the campground was full. After some discussion, we had to move from site 80 to site 1. We called and made a reservation at our next place arriving tomorrow so we needed to stay here one more night. Luckily, they had a spot.

27 Dec 2018 (Thu) – We spent the day taking down the Christmas tree. We sure do have a lot of ornaments! We also went next door to Nury’s International Restaurant for lunch. It turned out to be something like a Mexican restaurant but with an eclectic menu. There were the usual tacos, enchiladas, and quesadillas, but there were also some other more exotic offerings – coconut shrimp, egg rolls, etc. The food was good and the staff was super friendly.

26 Dec 2018 (Wed) – At noon, we rode into town for lunch. We wanted to go to a barbecue place but it was closed for Christmas vacation. That was disappointing. So we stopped at Hilda’s Tortillas. The parking lot was full, which is always a clue that the food is good. And it was. We took a quart of chicken tortilla soup home for dinner.

Thunderstorms rolled in tonight. There was also some hail. The TV news reporters were all warning about heavy hail and tornados. It was a little scary.

25 Dec 2018 (Tue-Christmas Day) – We stayed in the campground today working on putting together the caravan book for next May. At 12:15 p.m. I prepared green beans for the potluck luncheon and at 1:00 p.m. we went to the community center for the campground Christmas meal. I think everyone in the campground must have been there along with a few family members. The hall was full! We haven’t seen that many people at the other two events we have been at. I would have made more beans. As it was, the meal was delicious. The choices were very plentiful. The dessert table was laden with goodies. We came home stuffed.

24 Dec 2018 (Mon) – We did the laundry today. At 6:30 p.m. we went to the Fredericksburg United Methodist Church for their traditional candlelight service. It was similar to home with a few minor differences. The minister went on a little too long with his sermon but it was a good message. I always loved the Christmas Eve candlelight service. It became especially important to me as my children grew up and left. Our daughter would come back and attend the service occasionally. At those rare times, I would feel close to her again as we sang “Silent Night” and hugged one another. There is no more closeness with my children today. Not like it was when they were bound to me as children. Now they have families of their own and that special parent-child closeness is gone, only to be recaptured in rare moments like the Christmas Eve service. I miss my babies.

23 Dec 2018 (Sun) – We stayed around the campground today. At 5 p.m. we went to a Christmas Eve Eve party. Everyone was supposed to bring an appetizer and grab bag gift. Unfortunately, the “bag” was supposed to include a gift bag to put your gift in. We just wrapped our pathetic little gifts and they were the last ones to be chosen. Now I know. The appetizers were all good and included a couple of dessert items. We both got wine for our gifts.

22 Dec 2018 (Sat) – We went to Becker Vineyards at 11 a.m. for a wine and food pairing. It was very nice. There was just one other couple and us in the “special room” where we had our tasting. A young woman gave us samples of five wines, each with a special tidbit to eat with it. It was all very good. Afterward, we went into the general tasting area and bought a glass of wine to drink out on the patio. We also picked up some water crackers, fig jam, and truffle honey as well as three bottles of wine.

We then drove to the grocery store and picked up some items. This time we remembered to pick up some meat to put Bonnie’s pills in. We also drove down the road to find the United Methodist Church in town. Now that it’s located, we will attend service on Christmas Eve. We stopped for lunch at a very German restaurant – Friedhelm’s Bavarian Inn. The food was very good.

I started a diet on December 10th. I had a great initial start – lost 8 pounds in 4 days. Then I lost not an ounce for the next 7 days despite strict adherence to the program. When you don’t see any progress like that, you feel like giving up. Who starts a diet just before the holidays any way? Unless you deliberately want to sabotage your efforts. Yesterday’s appetizer event followed by last night’s outing to the Airport lounge was the final straw. That break with the diet was cemented by today’s exotic food samplings. Guess I’ll have to get back on the diet train as a New Year’s resolution. *sigh*

21 Dec 2018 (Fri) – We drove into town and picked up a few items at WalMart. Then we drove out to the Old Tunnel State Park, about 12 miles out of town. There was a short hike down the trail and back. They have benches where people can sit and watch the bats emerge from the tunnel at night. Just like they do at Carlsbad Caverns.

The 920-foot tunnel was originally built in the 1910s by the townspeople themselves. They needed a route from Fredericksburg to San Antonio. It ran for three years then was scrapped in the 1940s. Now the tunnel is home to 3 million Mexican free-tailed bats from May to October each year.

We discovered a café next door. When we checked Trip Advisor, the café was rated 5 out of 89 restaurants in Fredericksburg. It was a small café with yellowed signs on the walls. There was a wood burning stove sitting in the middle of the room and a column supporting the main support beam with signatures all over the column. I ordered chili and Paul got a ham sandwich. His sandwich was huge. My chili was very spicy and I could only eat little more than half of the bowl.

At 5 p.m. we went to the community center in the campground for social hour. We made prosciutto and melon for our contribution to the appetizers. We met an interesting couple from Iowa. They invited us to join them at the Officer’s lounge at the airport for drinks later. At 6 p.m. there was a golf cart parade. It consisted of six carts decorated with lights and other items that slowly wound their way back and forth among the RVs.

After the parade, we took Bonnie for a quick walk then drove to the Airport lounge. A man who has been blind since birth was playing the grand piano in the lounge. He was very good. We stayed for about two hours.

20 Dec 2018 (Thu) – After Bonnie’s long walk this morning, we drove into town. First stop was at WalMart to pick up a few items. Unfortunately, we forgot to get something to give Bonnie her pills with so we’ll have to go back tomorrow. After WalMart, we walked up and down the Main Street looking for gifts. We will be attending a Christmas party here at the campground and everyone is supposed to bring a grab bag gift. We also stopped by UPS to mail off the last of our Christmas packages.

For lunch, we went to The Auslander. It was an old historical building built of stone. Inside were several cuckoo clocks on the wall. None of them chimed on the hour so I guess they were turned off. There were animals heads mounted around the restaurant – a moose, an elk, a deer, and a long horn cow. I cannot understand the need to cut the head off something and stick it up on a wall.

As we’ve been driving around town, we are discovering there are many lodges, inns, hotels, motels, and B&Bs. I guess this really is a destination place. Last year, someone told us that they have a big population of college students here during spring break.

19 Dec 2018 (Wed) – We’ve fallen into the habit of taking Bonnie for a long walk each morning. She eats. We have our breakfast. Then around 9:30/10:00 a.m. we go for a 20-30 minute walk. She looks forward to them very much. She’ll start barking at us when she’s decided it’s time to go. It’s funny.

We spent the day in the campground. At 4:30 p.m. we brought Bonnie to the vet. He found she has a UTI and put her on antibiotics. We dropped Bonnie off back at the campground, then drove into town for dinner and the show. There are not that many restaurants on Main Street, as we discovered when we went looking for one. We finally wound up at The Rathskeller, a basement eatery in what used to be a hospital back in the 1800s. There wasn’t much of a menu choice but we managed. When done, we went to the Rockbox Theater where we spent two watching a musician who looked like John Denver play those great songs from the 70s.

18 Dec 2018 (Tue) – We drove to Fredericksburg today and are staying at the Fredericksburg RV Park. It is a higher-end campground. The nightly fee is normally $49. We got a weekly rate that equals $45 a night, and then a daily rate of $49 for three nights. We wanted to stay through until the beginning of January but they only had a site available until December 29. Guess we’ll spend New Year’s somewhere else. This campground is pretty nice. They have excellent wifi (we haven’t see THAT in a long time), and a good selection of cable TV channels. We have full hook-ups. There is a dog run in the campground. The place is neat, clean, and orderly.

While thumbing through some of the literature we picked up in the office, Paul spotted an ad for a John Denver Musical Tribute tomorrow night. We drove into town, bought propane, then went to the theater to buy tickets. They weren’t open. We got the website address then went back to the camper and ordered two tickets online. It sounds like a great show.

17 Dec 2018 (Mon) – Bonnie has a urinary infection. She paced, didn’t seem able to sit still for long, and whined to go out every hour or two last night. She kept us going all night long. We pulled up stakes today and drove to Luling. It was a one night stay on the way back to Fredericksburg for the holiday. Bonnie was better this morning. Now I think she might have had a kidney stone that she passed.

16 Dec 2018 (Sun) – I called the next campground and made a reservation for tomorrow night. We still need to decide where we are going to stay after that. We drove into town to make a deposit at Navy FCU. I got two checks for dues to the Nomads in yesterday’s mail delivery. Unfortunately, the bank would not accept the deposit through the ATM because I did not have the ATM card with me. Aaarrrgggghhhh! We then drove to Pet Smart and picked up about ten days worth of food. Fredericksburg (where we are ultimately headed) does not have a Pet Smart or PetCo close by. We then got fuel and stopped for lunch at the Long Horn Steakhouse. The food was just as good as it was the other day. We both took leftovers home to enjoy again. We returned to the camper and began to make preparations to move on tomorrow. Yay!!! It will be fun to be on the move again.

15 Dec 2018 (Sat) – We hung around the camper all day. I worked on the books for the Utah caravan. Paul did some work on the computer and around the RV. We got our forwarded mail from Escapees. There was a delightful ornament from our dear friend, Jan, back home in New York. It made us both happy to be remembered and sad to be apart. We also got some towels and placemats from Paul’s sister, Joan. They are so “us” with an Americana theme.

14 Dec 2018 (Fri) – We went shopping today for jeans and shoes. Their “shopping mall” was nothing like it is back home. It seems to be stores that were separately built and slowly connected over time by additions, overhead bridges, and tunnels. We turned into Dillard’s parking lot thinking it was the anchor store for the mall. We walked through the store only to come out into the parking garage. No other stores. WTH? Across the street was a 25 story building titled Galleria tower (as in administration). We crossed the street and walked behind the tower and found the mall in buildings that interconnected in back. The mall itself was four stories high. There was an ice rink on the lowest level. We wandered around trying to find shoe stores. The mall is billed as an upscale mixed-use urban development retail complex. Most of the stores were higher end (Dillard’s, Nordstrom, Neiman-Marcus). We stopped in several shops before we got what we wanted.

On the way back to the RV, we stopped at Saltgrass Steak House for lunch. Everything was delicious. When we got back, we fed the animals then went into the Elks Lodge to get our mail and pay for another three nights here. We had planned to leave on December 13th but we have been held up waiting for all our packages to arrive. All that’s left is our forwarded mail, due to arrive tomorrow. We’ll move on Monday.

13 Dec 2018 (Thu) – It rained on and off all night. At 2:00 AM, the skies opened and came down in buckets. At 4:30 AM, the water sensor alarm in the basement went off. Paul put on his swim suit and rain jacket and ran out to reset it. He no sooner stepped back in the RV when the alarm when off again. He went back out into the deluge and pulled the alarm out. He was soaked. The entryway was soaked. The towels to dry everything off were soaked. What a mess! It finally stopped raining around 6:00 AM.

Paul replaced the water pump this morning. It went on a kind of strike. When we were hooked up to a water source, the pump worked. When we were not hooked up, it would not work. It seemed to forget that its whole purpose in life is to pump water from our onboard tanks when we don’t have a water source. Paul also tried to find out where water was leaking into the basement. The basement door has shifted downward a bit. Apparently just enough to let a heavy rain drive through it.

I got a text from Best Buy that the laptop was ready for pickup. That was unexpected (but welcome). We drove over and picked it up. Also stopped at the post office to mail off the additional Christmas cards I wrote out, and at the UPS customer center to mail off a package to our other grandson. I also picked up some lottery tickets to mail as a gift.

Now, the weather forecast is for winds coming down from Montana. Wind speed projected to be between 10 and 25 mph with occasional gusts up to 40 mph.

12 Dec 2018 (Wed) – It was a busy day today! I finished most of the Christmas cards and we went to the post office to mail them off along with a package to our grandsons. We then stopped at Pet Smart, Kroger, and Total Wine where Paul finally found 43 (he loves that stuff). I needed to pick up more Christmas cards so we made a stop at Dollar Store. There was a pleasant stop at Long Horn Steakhouse where the food was exquisite. We also dropped the laptop off at Best Buy and asked them to clean it up – remove viruses and malware. The tech said they were busy and wouldn’t have it done until Saturday.

The weather forecast is for rain tonight going right into tomorrow morning. The ground around here is already so soaked. Guess they’ll have more flash flooding. Hope things don’t get too bad.

11 Dec 2018 (Tue) – We spent the day at the camper today. I spent it working on Christmas cards. Paul worked around the RV. We got our new laptop computer this afternoon and now Paul is working on getting that set up.

10 Dec 2018 (Mon) – We went out to get propane today. There was also a stop at the post office to mail a card, then a stop at Office Depot to pick up ink and labels. Then I spent the day working on Christmas cards.

9 Dec 2018 (Sun) – We drove 45 minutes to Tomball to go to the German Fest. It was a street fair with a Christmas theme. There were elves, a Santa, and a snow queen. Musicians dressed in colorful costumes roamed the walk playing Christmas music on accordions. There were also five tent areas with musicians and dancers entertaining the crowd. The festival was set up on Cherry Street and ran for about 4 or 5 blocks. The booths were interspersed with vendors and food. There was a good mix of items. The people who coordinated the festival made sure there were very few duplicates. That made it very interesting. There was lots of food – I think a food vendor was in every fourth or fifth booth. We stopped in Brautigams Barn Grill for lunch. It was an old building decked out in western style. We tried mulled wine at one booth and sampled delicious tarts at another booth.

8 Dec 2018 (Sat) – It really poured most of the night. The rain was thrumming on the roof and there was thunder cracking every so often. The ground was good and soaked this morning with lots of puddles around. Some areas around Houston experienced flooding. The news showed pictures of cars and streets underwater.

It didn’t rain today but it was heavily overcast and chilly. The temperature was in the high 40s with a crisp cold wind blowing in from the west. We went to Sweet Tomatoes for lunch. That is such a great place. I hope they expand to Long Island soon. I think everybody back home would like them very much.

After lunch we went to the movies to see “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.” The plot was hard to follow and the English(?) accents made it hard to understand some of what was being said. The graphics were very good but overall, we didn’t really enjoy the show.

We stopped at WalMart to pick up a few groceries. After we put them away, we stopped in the lodge for a nightcap. They had a steak dinner last night and about 25 people showed up for it. We didn’t want to leave the camper in that rain so kudos to those guys!

7 Dec 2018 (Fri) – Paul picked up a few items at Home Depot in order to clear clogs in the bathroom and kitchen sinks. At noon, we went to Best Burger for lunch. It was like a Chinese restaurant that wasn’t making it so they added burgers and tacos to the menu. We both got burgers but we could just as easily have ordered goo gai pan or chicken chow mein or any one of a dozen other Chinese or Mexican dishes.

We drove to the UPS distribution center to pick up packages. They were Christmas gifts we ordered and had to put a hold on. There were three packages to pick up. We will get two more packages but they’re going to be delivered to the lodge. Had we known the lodge accepted mail, we would have sent everything there. This will teach us to ask first before placing orders.

We drove to the BAPS Shri Swaminariyana Mandir Hindu Temple. They open the niches where the religious statues are kept at specific times during the day. We were not there at those times. The temple was absolutely striking. The inner or bottom portion of the temple is made of Italian marble. The outer portion of the temple is made of Indian sandstone. The carvings were exquisite. The docent told us the marble was sent to India for carving by craftsmen. It took two or three years for the work then the temple was shipped in pieces to Texas where it was put together. We had to remove our shoes before entering the building. There was a separate room for men and for women. You took your shoes off and then had to walk back outside and up the temple steps before entering the building. It was raining when we came out and we had to walk on the wet cement in our stocking feet. We were not allowed to take pictures inside. There was a separate building that housed a gift shop that was full of food items, incense, and other items from India.

Thunderstorms rolled in at night and it was pouring when we went to bed. There were many warnings coming over the TV and phone warning about flash flooding.

6 Dec 2018 (Thu) – The day started out drizzly and overcast but cleared up in the afternoon. We took Bonnie for a walk and wandered through the Chung Mei Buddhist Temple across the street. It looks like it started out really nice but they just didn’t have the money to keep up with things. It is neat and attractive with a large tiled roof and a tea house inside. Across the street from that is a columbaria. It is an ornate building with a tiled roof and lots of terra cotta animals. There is a nice garden walk with statues in concentric circles. There were several concrete pads with no statues on them. Guess they’re waiting for people to buy the space. It looked like the statues opened up and you could put an urn in.

At 6:30 PM, we drove to the Houston Zoo for the Zoo Lights display. It got warmer and the walk was pleasant. The place was pretty full but not packed like it would be on the weekend. The zoo collects used lights and refurbishes them (I guess) to put around the walkways for the holidays. We bought a spiked chocolate for me and a Christmas for Paul and we sipped while we walked along the pathways. It was all very pretty. We even took a ride on the carousel.

5 Dec 2018 (Wed) – I had an appointment with Dr. Ahmed at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center this afternoon. The results of the bone marrow biopsy will not be back until next week so we made a date for a telephone appointment. The doctor didn’t want me to have to pay a co-pay just to hear those results. That was very thoughtful of her. The bloodwork was mostly within normal limits. No problem there. The CT scan showed one particular lymph node in the abdomen has been growing. It is now 7cm x 5cm. It is starting to press on my bladder and left ovary. The one that was supposed to be 8cm turned out to be maybe 1.8cm. Looks like a typo. The doctor wants me to have another scan in three months. She gave me a list of symptoms to watch for.

Paul and I finally figured out the shuttle bus system. We park in an open lot at the Texas Medical Center. They run shuttles on a blue and a white route. One stops in the back of the hospital; the other stops at the main entrance. We take the blue bus to get in the entrance easily, then take the white bus because it has a shorter route and we get back to the parking lot faster. There is a pay-for-parking machine where you put in a poker chip called a SMART chip, pay with cash or credit card, then take the chip to the gate. The machine did not cooperate with me and wouldn’t accept my credit cards (I tried 3 different ones and a debit card). Paul was able to get the machine to work. Technology can be very frustrating.

On the way home, we stopped at Corelli’s Italian Café for dinner. I have not eaten pasta is a very long time. I gave in and had lasagna. We had to ask for Italian bread. It was not the nice crusty type but more like a white bread. It was still good.

4 Dec 2018 (Tue) – We went to M.D. Anderson Cancer Center this morning. I had a bone marrow biopsy/aspiration at 8:30 a.m. After that, I had a CT scan. The doctor wants to verify the size of the nodes. My last PET scan states that one node is 8 cm. She thought that was very large and should be prominent, but it’s not.

After all that stuff, we stopped at Pappas Bar-B-Q. It is a very old looking restaurant with lots of cars in the parking lot. There was a female guard standing outside the restaurant. I was curious as to why they had a guard. Was the area dangerous? When we came out, I asked her: “Do you stand security here all day?” She pointed at some tables on the patio behind her and said that she sits down when she gets tired. Paul thought her answer was so funny that he had to walk away without laughing in her face. I spoke further with her and explained that I was curious about why there was a guard in the parking lot. She said she was responsible for watching over the parking to make sure people didn’t back into each other as the lane between the rows is narrow. I didn’t ask her why she needed a gun to do that. There is a large number of homeless people around. They hang out around the intersections with their cardboard signs and down trodden eyes. You can see where they sleep up under the bridges. Paul has taken to giving them a bottle of water. Soon, he’ll be known as the Water Man.

The Elks Lodge had dinner tonight. They were serving red beans and rice. It was pretty good. They had cornbread with it instead of the one slice of white bread all the other barbecue places give you. That seems kind of dumb because you can’t even make a sandwich with the one slice of bread.

3 Dec 2018 (Mon) – We went to the National Museum of Funeral History. We didn’t know what to expect but it turned out to be quite interesting. It was a large museum with many exhibits. There were hearses, stories about burials, coffins, mourning clothes, urns, and storyboards. A crematory was set up to look at and placards explained how cremation works. It takes the human body two to three hours to be reduced to ashes. The bones are then put in a pulverizer and everything is reduced to a fine, sand like texture. In Japan, after the body is reduced to ashes they are given to the family with the bones. The family uses chopsticks to pick out the bones to transfer to an urn. They make sure the feet go in the urn first and the head goes into the urn last. This is so the dead doesn’t go into the urn upside down.

There were some of the most beautiful urns on display as well as the many ways people display the ashes of loved ones. There was jewelry, and hair ornaments, and monochrome photos made from ash. There was a section named Thanks for the Memories. Inside were videos, photos, and storyboards dedicated to famous people who have passed on – Marilyn Monroe, Adam West, Bob Hope, etc. Another section discussed the burials of popes and another addressed the treatment of presidents. A bunting that has hung at the White House in the past had been borrowed for display at President George H.W. Bush’s coffin tomorrow. The whole museum addressed the culture of death and burial/cremation with respect and professionalism. It was very informative.

2 Dec 2018 (Sun) – We stayed around the camper today. Paul tried to place an order for a laptop with Dell. What an aggravating experience! He tried to place the order online but there was a technical error. So we called Dell. Of course, the rep we spoke with had very poor English skills (that always drives Paul crazy). They needed to verify our information on file so they wanted to send a code to our email on file. We no longer have that email address. They wanted to send a text message to the phone number of file. We have a different number now. The agent then suggested sending the code – by mail – to the address on record. Of course, we no longer live in New York. It was maddening. I told him to cancel the order and hung up.

A few minutes later the phone rang. It was the salesman we had initially placed the order with over the phone. He was appalled to hear of the problems we were having and suggested we open a preferred account in my name. That would give us a year to pay for the computer with no interest charge and gave us additional discounts off the price. It was a creative solution. There’s nothing like a hungry salesman!

We placed other orders online. And I spent some time corresponding with our new tailgunners. We went for a walk this afternoon. While walking, we found a bunch of mail on the ground. It looked like someone had stolen it then dumped it, or a postal worker had decided not to deliver it and just threw it out the window. There were some advertisements but also statements from various companies. It was all addressed to different people who live on the same street. We collected it and will try to notify the post office about what we found. There were some red ants crawling on the mail and I got bit several times. Ouch!

1 Dec 2018 (Sat) – We did laundry today. That was quite an experience! We were driving along, looking for a laundromat and saw “Washateria.” We stopped and went it. It was a large facility and entirely Spanish. The signs were Spanish; all the people in there were Spanish; the only language being spoken was Spanish. We found two washers open and put our clothes in. The laundromat was in a small strip mall on a corner. We walked down to a café next door and got lunch. The menu consisted of a large batch of pictures on the wall with descriptions in Spanish. Paul got a quesadilla and I got something with corn tortillas, beef, beans, rice, lettuce and tomato.

We made several other stops - RV store, groceries, vitamins, fuel, and pet food. It was a pretty busy day.

30 Nov 2018 (Fri) – We spent the day again restricted to the RV. Finally, Ford called at 3:30 p.m. to say the truck was done. The shuttle service stopped running at 3 p.m. and there was none over the weekend. We pressed Ford on the topic and the agent relented and sent a mechanic to pick Paul up. There was a hose and clamp that needed replacing and a bad sensor. Total repair cost = $780.

The Elks Lodge had a dinner tonight. It turned out to be a hamburger and fries. Wasn’t that good but it was a meal.

I got an email from Jon & Nancy, volunteering to be the tail gunners on our caravan. They have led three caravans – two to the Maritimes and one to Calgary – and offer great experience. We gladly accepted. We will have to figure out when we can get together. They agreed to take on the responsibilities for the campgrounds. Carl & Gwen have all that information so they’ll have to figure out how to get that info from them.

29 Nov 2018 (Thu) – Paul dropped the truck off at the Ford dealer this morning at 7:30 a.m. A shuttle brought him back. We spent the day in the RV, having no transportation to go anywhere. Also, it started raining in the afternoon. The weather app is warning about thunderstorms, hail, and tornadoes tonight and tomorrow. Oh, boy.

The tail gunner on our Utah caravan called tonight to say they had to step down. Gwen’s mother has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and has been given 6-9 months to live. That would be about the time our caravan is scheduled to go. We wished them our best. I’m starting to think this caravan is cursed.

28 Nov 2018 (Wed) – We drove into Houston proper today to the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. We pulled into the parking garage that was posted at 7’0” clearance. Three floors up, it changed to 6’10”. We couldn’t fit under that so we had to turn around and go back down. We stopped at the office and got a map taking us to an open parking lot a couple of blocks away. After we parked, we caught a shuttle on the Texas University Medical Center bus that dropped us off near the main building entrance to the cancer center.

We found our way up to the sixth floor and the Lymphoma/Myeloma Center. I checked in at 9:25 a.m. (appointment was for 9:30 a.m.). I didn’t get called into the registration office until 10:00 a.m. I grabbed the wrong purse and did not have my driver’s license or insurance cards with me. I felt so stupid!! Instead of turning me out on my ear, the nurse checked me in and let me use my Army ID. After registration, I went back to my seat. Then I was called in for weighing, height measurement, temp, oxygen measurement, and blood pressure. Then it was back to my seat again. Finally, even though my doctor’s appointment was for 10 a.m., I was called into the exam room at 11:30 a.m.

A soft spoken Vietnamese young man with an accent and a face mask checked my records. He was hard to understand but we got through it. That was followed by a young female P.A. who reviewed my medical history then did a perfunctory physical exam. A doctor from the research department came in and asked if I would consent to donating my bodily fluids and left over blood for research. I said yes; she recorded my answers; then left. Finally! The doctor arrived. It was a middle aged woman who was impressed with our lifestyle. After talking about how she and her husband would like to explore the country, we got down to brass tacks. She wants to do a CT scan to verify the results of the last scan I had. She is also ordering a bone marrow biopsy in order to see what kind of cancer I have. Apparently, there are some markers that indicate whether a cancer can be cured or if it will come back after treatment. I made the appointments for next week.

After navigating our way out of the building, we boarded a shuttle and got a ride back to the parking lot. When we pulled in, we got a SMART chip (which looks just like a cheap plastic poker chip). When we left, we put the chip in a machine, paid with our credit card, and received the SMART chip back. We used that to exit the parking lot. It was all quite an experience.

We stopped at La Gallitas for lunch. It was a Mexican restaurant with excellent margaritas. The food was good, too. Then we drove to a local U-Haul and got our propane tank refilled. After that, we stopped at a Ford dealership to make an appointment to get the truck repaired. The CHECK ENGINE light has been on for about a month. Also, we are still getting a coolant leak from the radiator. The Ford rep told us we did not need to make an appointment. Just bring the truck in and drop it off in the morning.

27 Nov 2018 (Tue) – We packed up and pulled out of our campsite at 9:30 a.m. After a stop at the dump station to empty the tanks, we left Fort Hood Belton Lake Outdoor Recreation Area and headed out to Houston. It was a long drive – five and a half hours! We stopped once to use the restroom and once to pick up lunch at Checkers. The weather was clear and the traffic was good until we hit the outskirts of Houston. As with all big cities (and this is the third most populated in the U.S.), the traffic was slogging along. We arrived at the Elks Lodge in Stafford (a suburb of Houston) at 3:00 p.m.

After set up, we went into the lodge to pay for our site. They have a daily rate of $25, a half-month rate of $250 (number of days are dubious), and a monthly rate of $500. We paid for half a month. We’re guessing that’s 16 days.

Next, we drove to MD Anderson Cancer Center to see where it is. Oh. My. God. The number of medical buildings in the one area is humongous! I had to find Parking Garage 10. We saw signs indicating there were over 23 entrances. We found the garage but the height is too low for the truck. It looks like we’ll have to use the valet tomorrow.

The lodge hosted a chicken and dumplings dinner tonight. It was pretty good. Everybody was very friendly.

26 Nov 2018 (Mon) – We drove into Temple today to see the museums but they were all closed. That just didn’t seem fair. They were already closed for the Thanksgiving holiday – Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Why should they be closed on Monday, too?

We finally gave up and went to H-E-B. They have a counter where they serve a lunch meal. We had something to eat before shopping, and then picked up some groceries. Afterward, we got fuel and headed back to the campground. Paul got a campfire going and we enjoyed the heat as the temperatures have dropped in the last two days. After it was dark, we took a last drive through the Christmas light display around the lake. It was all very pretty. With Christmas music playing on the radio, I think we are getting into the seasonal mood.

25 Nov 2018 (Sun) – Many of the RVs left today. After they were gone, Paul walked around the campsites and collected firewood people left behind. He brought it back to our site and we enjoyed a campfire all afternoon. We spent the day in the campground. We walked Bonnie down by the lake to see how much the water has receded. Part of the roadway are still underwater. Some of the picnic tables and barbecues are starting to come out of the water. The water level is dropping about four or five feet a day. They have quite a while before everything resurfaces.

24 Nov 2018 (Sat) – We went out at lunch time to the Dead Fish Grill for lunch. After sunset, we walked out around the campground to look at the Christmas lights. A lot of cars were driving through the route. We watched “A Christmas Story” tonight. That was a pretty funny movie. We enjoyed another campfire.

23 Nov 2018 (Fri) – We went out for lunch at Benny’s Ristorante. We tried going to two museums in the area but they are closed for the holiday weekend. Bummer. We drove around Belton Lake and checked out the two campgrounds around the Belton Dam before returning to the campground. The campfire was so nice last night that Paul bought more firewood and we had another fire tonight.

22 Nov 2018 (Thu-Thanksgiving Day) – We stayed in the campground today. I cooked a turkey breast, mashed potatoes, green beans, and gravy. I tried some desserts ketogenic style but they didn’t turn out very good – blueberry pie and chocolate coconut milk ice cream. Yuk.

We went for a walk at sunset. The light show was just coming on. We were surprised at the number of cars driving through. We thought nobody would come on a holiday. We were wrong! When we walked down by the lake, we saw signs of recent flooding. The road is actually underwater by the lakefront so we can see why the lights down by there have not been turned on. It looks like they either started putting up the light show when the flood started or it was set up when the flooding happened. Either way, the roadway leading down that way is cordoned off. It was pretty to look at the lights that are on. They have miles and miles of Christmas lights lining the road and then loads of lighted figures. It is all very nice. We could hear the kids excitedly exclaiming about the things they were seeing as they drove by.

We had a campfire tonight. It was so pleasant. When we camped during our work years, it was such a pleasure to disconnect from the TV and radio and just enjoy nature. Now, since we are living on the road full-time, campfires are rare. And we use the Internet every day to check on the weather, to explore campgrounds, to find out news, to see what’s happening back home, etc. Things are very different between full-time and just camping.

We watched “It’s a Wonderful Life” tonight. That’s my favorite Thanksgiving movie.

21 Nov 2018 (Wed) – Last night, we took a ride through the Christmas lights display. It was pretty awesome. LEDs have sure made for brighter and better light shows as well as making the cost so much cheaper. There were some, but not many, cars driving the course. We suspect it will be really busy over the weekend. There is a part down by the beach with trucks set up to sell food that was closed. It is probably only open on the weekend. We’ll see.

We drove over to Fort Hood today. That base is huge! It has to be the largest military base we have ever been. We drove in and out of gates on different segments of the base. We finally found the campground we wanted to stay at but couldn’t because they were full. The clerk in the office gave us a base map and showed us where Club Hood was as well as the PX, commissary, and museums. We drove over to the Museum of the 1st Cavalry Division. The museum was small but comprehensive. Outside were dozens of tanks, APCs, trucks, cars, and helicopters. We strolled around the concourse reading the descriptions of the displays.

When done, we found our way to Club Hood. That was also very large! After wandering around the halls and peeking into ballrooms set up for banquets, we got to the office and asked about Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow. They have 80 tables set up and will have two servings – one at 11 a.m. and the other at 2 p.m. Unfortunately, they were full and no reservations were available. They told us we could go to any of the mess halls to eat as they do a nice meal set-up, too.

We left the base and found a barbecue place to have lunch. It was small and was one of those places where you order by the pound at a counter. Paul got pulled pork and I got ribs. The food was OK. The clerk taking orders was an Asian woman who barely spoke English. She was very hard to understand. There were also religious pictures hanging in the bathrooms. It was all just weird.

Next stop was at H-E-B. for groceries. The place was so packed. It seemed like everyone was doing their Thanksgiving shopping. We returned to the campground. They had closed part of the roadway for the light show and it bypassed the entrance to the area of the campground where our rig is parked. We had to drive around a bunch of cones then drive the wrong way on a one-way road to get home. Ugh.

20 Nov 2018 (Tue) – We left Fredericksburg at 9:30 a.m. The temperatures were in the low 40s. The sky was clear. Traffic was easy. Three hours later we arrived at Fort Hood Belton Lake Outdoor Recreation Annex. The campground is not on the actual military base. The road into the camp area is decorated with Christmas lights. Apparently, they use the road into and within the campground to do a drive through the lights like many other places do. It is open to military and civilian alike.

Our campsite is a back-in on a concrete pad. Trees are heavy around the area and we had to adjust entry to avoid overhanging branches. We only have 30-amp electric and water hookup – no sewer. According to Trip Adviser, there really isn’t anything to see in Killeen. And we’re here for a week! Oh, boy. Priority for now is to find out where the dining facility is so we can enjoy a Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday.

19 Nov 2018 (Mon) – We drove to the Texas Ranger Heritage Center expecting to tour a museum about Texas Rangers. It is something in the process of being developed but there was no museum to tour. There was a large open area where a band was playing music too loudly. We left there and drove to the Pioneer Museum. This is a 4 acre complex that has several original buildings to the town. Two are sited on their original places. We read a plaque that said over 6,000 Germans came to America to start a new life. They didn’t get picked up and taken to their new land as was agreed, and many died of starvation and illness at the port. Finally, some pioneers decided to go to their new land on their own rather than waiting to be picked up. They made their way to Fredericksburg and created a new settlement.

We then decided to explore some of the wineries in the area. There are about 30 to 40 vineyards on Route 290 coming into the town of Fredericksburg. We went to three of them and bought several bottles of wine. We also enjoyed a cheese and meat board for lunch. It was a pleasant day.

We stopped to get our propane tank filled and then at the gas station to top off for tomorrow’s move. We also went to Tractor Supply to try and find some food for Bonnie. There is no PetCo or Pet Smart in town and her being on this special diet makes it difficult to find food for her. We picked up two cans of fish and potato, hoping that there will be a better supply in Killeen.

18 Nov 2018 (Sun) – We went back to the National Museum of the Pacific War to finish touring the exhibits. Again, there were people hanging around all over the sidewalk waiting for the tour buses to go to the wineries.

After wandering around the museum for two hours, we walked uptown to the main street. We looked in the many storefronts and restaurant windows finally stopping at the Auslander Restaurant for lunch. The food was authentic German fare and was very good.

We drove out to Enchanted Rock. This is a large monolith dome that second only to Stone Mountain in Georgia. The tail up to the dome was very steep so we did not climb it. We came. We saw. We left.

17 Nov 2018 (Sat) – We went to breakfast at the Airport Diner. Right across the street from our camp area (you can’t really call it a campground), is a small regional airfield with two old hangers converted to lodging and entertainment venues. The diner was at the end of the hanger facing the airfield. We watched some planes come and go. A P38 Mustang was giving a ride to a customer. When we were done eating, we walked over to the Airport Hotel to look at it. The Officer’s Club was a delightful room with small intimate areas for playing cards, having a cigar, or sharing a drink. There was a balcony on the second floor where we went out and watched the planes.

We drove to the Museum of the Pacific War where they were doing a reenactment of a battle. There were between 50 and 60 actors dressed in period uniforms. The session began with an explanation of the gear soldiers wore followed by a demonstration of each of the rifles and pistols marines and soldiers used during World War II. They also paid tribute to the women who participated in the war. Once all the descriptions of equipment, uniforms, and personnel were done, the actors engaged in a very realistic battle. There were tanks, a trench, a bunker, a “cave,” and lots of weapons fire. The entire demonstration took about an hour and a half and was great! We enjoyed it so much.

After the battle, we walked back and began to tour the museum. It is huge with tons of story boards, equipment, artifacts, videos, and recordings. We walked for about two hours and were only half way through the museum when we called it quits for the day. We walked down to the main street and had lunch at the Fredericksburg Brewing Company. The beer cheese soup was so good that I took a quart of it home for supper tonight. We left the restaurant and strolled down the street, popping in and out of stores to see interesting displays. In the MarktPlatz, the town already has their Christmas tree and giant German figure candle erected. We looked through the Vereins Kirche – the oldest social structure in Fredericksburg.

16 Nov 2018 (Fri) – We packed up and left Austin at 9:30 a.m. After a short stop at the dump station to empty the tanks, we drove for two hours to Fredericksburg. We are camped at the Gillespie County Fairgrounds. There are 20 sites lined in a row along the road with a large open field in back facing a race track with bleachers. There are no trees but we do have full hook up with 50-amp service. I hate when we have 30-amp because I forget and wind up blowing the breaker. The temperature has been getting warmer each day and today it was 41 when we got up and reached 70.

After set up, we drove into town to do some laundry. We drove around to look at some of the older buildings. This town, like so many others we’ve been to, was settled by German immigrants. They seem to like stone very much as most of the buildings and homes are built with it. We had lunch at the Backwoods BBQ. It was a large barn like structure where you ordered the meat by the pound at a counter with some sides. The food was excellent. All the sides were outstanding, too. They had creamed corn, cheesy green beans, and loaded potato salad. There were pinto beans on the side board.

We stopped at the visitor center to see what is happening in town. The agent gave us a whole schedule of events for the week as well as a map of everything in the area. We watched a video about the town. Their depiction of the Christmas holidays was compelling and we are going to come back here for the holidays.

15 Nov 2018 (Thu) – We went out for lunch to Kerby Lane Café. Afterward, we stopped at WalMart to pick up a few grocery items. When we got back, we took Bonnie with us and hiked a trail around the McKinney Falls. It was not easy to get near the river since a lot of the area was either fenced off or fallen in. There was a very interesting rock ledge overhanging the trail. It was big enough that someone could live under it.

14 Nov 2018 (Wed) – We toured the Capitol today. Standing outside and counting the floors, the building is ten floors high. We discovered that they outgrew the building (which, by the way, was the tallest in the U.S. at one time), they decided to go down rather than up or out and change the shape of the original building. They dug down 62’ and built another huge area underground. The original building was erected in 1853. It burned down like so many buildings of that time period. A temporary capitol was built across the street from Capitol Square. The new capitol building was completed in 1888. In 1993, the underground Capitol Extension was completed which added two lower levels.

After the Capitol, we went to the Scholz Biergarten for lunch. The hall is supposed to be the oldest biergarten in Texas(?). We’re not exactly sure where. We shared a sausage platter. There were three kinds of sausage, three kinds of mustard, sauerkraut, red cabbage, and potato pancakes. It was all very good.

We then drove to the Texas Military Forces Museum. There was no charge for admission. The museum was housed in an old hangar and was located on Camp Mabry, home of the Texas National Guard Headquarters. It was an excellent museum. There were storyboards, equipment, and artifacts that told the story of Texans involvement in all the armed conflicts around the world. There was excellent coverage of the war between Mexico, Texas and the United States. Texas has flown six different flags – Spain, France, Mexico, the Republic of Texas, the Confederate States of America, and the United States of America. Inside the museum was also the French Gratitude train car (Merci Boxcar). It was sitting at an American Legion post for years before it was restored and moved to the museum.

When we were finished touring the museum (I think we walked around for about 4 hours), we drove to the Texas State Cemetery. There were three buses parked outside and groups of school children touring the cemetery. It seemed like a strange field trip. We parked and walked around the cemetery. There are many famous Texans buried there, including Stephen Austin who’s considered the Father of Texas. It was he who convinced the Mexican government to allow American citizens to settle in the territory. Austin died at the battle of the Alamo.

13 Nov 2018 (Tue) – Gremlins are certainly in the works. The furnace stopped working overnight. When Paul got up, he turned it on, it ran for two minutes, then shut off. He turned it on again and it ran most of the afternoon. It again shut off on us a few more times. It was 35 degrees outside and 55 in here when he got up. Brrrrrrr. We’ll have to make sure we put out the ceramic heater tonight. We have to be careful with the electric since we only have 30 amp.

We ran to the post office this morning to check on our forwarded mail. The mail clerk told me there was nothing. I pushed back, saying the two packages had been mailed a week ago from Livingston. He went back and looked again and found the packages. They had been put in the wrong place.

We packed up and left Canyon Lake a little after noon. Aside from the cold, the weather was good and the drive was about an hour and a half to Austin. We pulled into McKinney Falls State Park around 1:30 p.m. When we checked in, the clerk asked us if we wanted a pull through or back in. We said a pull through would be convenient so she assigned campsite #59. We also bought a Texas State annual pass for $70. That gave us a discount on the fee and paid the daily entrance fee of $6 per person.

We got to site #59 only to find out that it was sharply curved and we couldn’t fit in it. The campsite next to that one, #60, was a back in but would fit our rig. So we pulled in there and tried to call the office to see if we could change. After trying to get through for half an hour, we dropped the trailer and drove back to the office. There were now two clerks at the counter. It was apparent the second girl is full time because she knew right away that #59 wouldn’t fit our size rig. The other clerk is a volunteer and doesn’t know the campground that well. At any rate, we got reassigned to #60. We returned to the campsite, Paul sawed off an overhanging branch, and we set up. It was really cold so we stayed in the rest of the day. We had to turn off the water again tonight because of a freeze warning. The temperature is supposed to drop down to 29 degrees.

12 Nov 2018 (Mon) – The day was cool – overcast and misty. There was a freeze warning in effect but it never got below 40 degrees. Paul turned off the water overnight just in case.

We’ve been having problems with the water pump. Paul thinks it is a loose wire in the pump. It’s buried deep inside the bowels of the RV so it will be a major job to repair or replace it. That’s a job left for when I fly back to New York.

At 11:30 a.m. we drove into New Braunfels and I got a haircut. The girl did it just right! I get so many bad haircuts that it is delightful when I get a good one. We then drove over to Gruene. We walked through some of the stores then went to the Gristmill to await Jim & Theda. They arrived and we had a wonderful meal together. They were the tailgunners on the Canadian Maritimes caravan this year and they will be the tailgunners on the Alaska caravan next year. Lots of exciting trips for them. They are full timers, like us, and are wintering in San Antonio near their kids and grandkids.

11 Nov 2018 (Sun) – We spent the day hanging around the campground. At 4:30 p.m. we drove into town and had dinner at Gennaro’s Trattoria. The waiter was great. Zach started out by describing the specials in such a way that your mouth was watering by the time he was finished. He was attentive, efficient, and funny. Paul had a lamb chop and I had a grilled fish. Everything was excellent. The evening was delightful.

I got a call from Jim & Theda. We met them on our Alaska caravan in 2015. They winter in San Antonio and invited us to meet them for lunch tomorrow.

10 Nov 2018 (Sat) – It was in the low 40s this morning. We brought out the electric heater last night. It will soon be time to put the flannel sheets on the bed. We went to Willie’s Grill & Icehouse for lunch. The restaurant was in a large, newly built mall. It looked like the typical restaurant-in-an-old-warehouse with the customers ordering their food at the counter. But at least they had regular items to order; not the meat by the pound option.

After lunch, we decided to go to the movies but had to wander around for over an hour until the film started. We went to Hobby Lobby where Paul decided they are rally a craft store; not a hobby store. We watched the new Disney movie Nutcracker & the Four Realms. Unfortunately, we couldn’t fully enjoy it because the seats in the theater were in such bad condition. They were ripped and taped and worn and the back of the seat was broken so that if you tried to lean back, it was like falling over. We stopped at the UPS Store to fax off some medical records to MD Anderson Cancer Center. I am trying to get bloodwork done and they want me to see a doctor and review my case. It’s all about the money!

We returned to the campground and stopped at the camp store to get our propane tank refilled (we ran out of propane overnight). It was 3:45 p.m. The clerk told Paul they stopped filling tanks at 3 p.m. He just didn’t want to get up and walk outside. The lazy bum!

9 Nov 2018 (Fri) – It rained pretty hard last night. We had thunder, lightning, and hail. A cold front has moved in and the temperatures are now down to the 50s in the daytime and low 40s at night. We spent most of the day just hanging around the campground.

At 4:30 p.m. we drove to San Antonio for dinner. We ate at Saltgrass Steak House right on the San Antonio Riverwalk. We were on the patio with the heaters going. The boats riding by on the canal had all different kinds of colored lights. The walkway was very busy with all kinds of people walking by. All the restaurants were very busy. Our meal was delicious. Afterward we walked along the Riverwalk with all the other tourists. It was a very pleasant evening.

8 Nov 2018 (Thu) – It was a cold, gray day today. We spent most of the day hanging around the camper with the fireplace on. We brought our laundry over to the Fort Houston Army campground. There are two washers and two dryers in our campground but the washers are out of order. The laundry room in the other campground has five washers and five dryers. We put the wash in and sat in the rec room watching TV or playing around with the stationary bikes. When the wash was done, we put the clothes in the dryer then drove to the Post Office to pick up our mail that was forwarded here. I got the birth and baptism certificates for my grandmother. That was exciting to get. I now know my great grandmother’s name! She and great granddad both emigrated from Ireland (not together). Now I need to work backwards in Ireland. I hope I can find the information. We got our laundry and returned to the campground where I spent the evening exploring Ancestry.com.

7 Nov 2018 (Wed) – We went to Granny D’s for breakfast this morning. The food was so good. Paul got biscuit and sausage gravy. It had loads of meat! I had a bacon omelet. It was full of chopped bacon. It was cute to hear the waitress addressing us a y’all. Paul saw corn chowder on the menu so we ordered a quart to take home. It turned out to be a roux that we would have to add milk to.

We ran back to the camper to drop off the chowder then drove to the Texas Heritage Museum of the Texas Hill Country. The website said it was open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. When we arrived, a sign strung across the fence said it was open from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Bummer!

We then drove into New Braunfels to the Sophienburg Museum. It told the story of how a prince brought 202 royal families from Germany to America. Prince Carl of Solms and his group of colonists came to escape war, taxes, and religious persecution. They were deeded half acre town lots and 10 acre farm lots by the Mexicans in 1845. Mexico was trying to bring settlers to the area to prevent the new America from attacking if its own citizens lived there. That didn’t work. lol. At any rate, over 7,300 Germans emigrated to Texas over a 3-year period. The museum displayed lots of artifacts from the royal families. Storyboards told how they formed new societies here. It was very interesting.

After the museum, we decided to drive the Devil’s Backbone Scenic Drive. While it looked nice driving over the hills, it was nothing like the views we’ve seen elsewhere. If hard pressed, I could buy a house on one of the hills overlooking Canyon Lake.

At 2 p.m. we stopped at the Heritage Museum of the Texas Hill Country. It was a tiny little house telling mostly the story of how they found fossil footprints on the property in the early 1980s. When the owners realized what they had, they stopped clearing the land and contacted the local college. Archeologists have been coming to the museum on a regular basis with their classes to teach their students about the animal prints found there. In 2008 a pavilion was built over a portion of the track bed to protect it from the effects of the elements. A walkway built all around the area allows visitors to get different views of the track bed.

We got back to the campground around 3:30 p.m. and let the babies out to play. I feel like we are living in the middle of a deer sanctuary. Wherever you look, there are white tail deer. It’s ridiculous! I hope we won’t have any tick problems.

6 Nov 2018 (Tue-Paul’s Birthday) – There was a nice, thick fog this morning. We left at 8:45 a.m. for a 10:00 a.m. appointment in San Antonio. It was over an hour to get there – the traffic was heavy. I had a lymphatic drainage massage at Oak Haven Massage. I endure these massages because it (hopefully) cleans out the lymph nodes and robs the cancer of a place to live. I got completely undressed and lay on a heated table covered with a sheet and blanket. The massage therapist methodically worked on each limb and my head, each time moving the covers over so she could work on my skin. When it came time to work on the underarms (the groin, neck, and underarms are concentration points for lymph nodes), she left the sheet in place and massaged the skin through the sheet. She did the same thing with my stomach. All other therapists I have been to work the entire body with direct contact. This experience was weird.

After the massage, I got a chiropractic adjustment. Oak Haven Massage not only has 60 therapists on staff, but they also have a chiropractor. And the first appointment is free! The doctor was from Iowa, moved to Minnesota, and now lives in Texas. We talked about the Midwest and Minnesota in particular. Since we just toured that state this summer, it was fresh and delightful to talk about.

When I was all done with the workup, we were going to go to San Antonio to the Riverwalk but Paul decided he wanted to go to a town we passed yesterday. It looked like it had a historic area with several old buildings. When I put the name of the town in Trip Advisor – Gruene – nothing came up. It turned out that the City of Gruene is no more. It became part of New Brunfels and now it is just a tourist area called the Gruene Historical District. There are a couple of blocks with old style buildings; some built new to look old and some original from the late 1800s. We ate in a restaurant that looked like a renovated and converted barn but turned out to be newly built. It was like some kind of sham! We walked along the main street, stopping at a winery for a tasting. It was an enjoyable day.

5 Nov 2018 (Mon) – We went to the office to extend for three nights. Looking at the calendar, we realized that this coming weekend is Veterans Day. A three-day weekend down here will surely make it hard to find a campsite so we want to stay here through Tuesday. The woman in the office told us we had to go to the other campsite where the manager works. He is the only one who can change campsites. Someone is scheduled to come into our site this weekend. But the person in Site #9 left early so they could put that person in #9 and leave us in site #7. So we drove over to the camp store and spoke with the manager. He said that he will not change people’s campsites unless under extremely dire circumstances. It was done in the past and people got very upset. However, he told us we could move into site #9 if we wanted to and we could do it today, why wait? So we went back, packed up, and moved over two spaces.

After lunch, we drove to New Braunfels to the Wurstfest. We got there at 3 p.m. only to find it didn’t open until 5 p.m. There was a nearby park with a natural spring, a swimming pool, a volleyball court, and a small scale train that circled the park. It was quite large and we spent an hour strolling around it. At 4 p.m. we returned to the gate, took a seat on the bench, and waited until they opened. The line started to grow until it was all the way down the block. The gate opened at 5 p.m. and we entered. First thing was to buy drink tickets. Then we found our way to biergarten to get a beer and glass of wine. Then we sat in the great hall and listened to the German band and watch people moving about the large dance floor. When our drinks were done, we went out to the concessions stands and bought a dinner to potato pancakes and sausage. We went back into the great hall to eat and listen to the band.

The Wurstfest is the biggest Octoberfest we’ve ever seen. There were dozens of concessionaires – many of them run by nonprofits (Boy Scouts, Elks, Masons, Children’s Hospital, etc.). We found a place selling Christmas ornaments and was able to buy one for Wurstfest 2018. We wandered around and listened to the different bands playing around the facility – there were six of them. It was a delightful evening. We left at 6:30 p.m.

4 Nov 2018 (Sun) – We let the animals play outside this morning. Every once in a while, a deer would run by and both the dog and cat would freeze and watch them. It was funny to see. At noon, we tucked them safely in the trailer and went out for lunch. First stop was at Granny D’s but it was so crowded and we could see people waiting outside (we forgot about Sunday brunches) so we passed on it. We then continued on to Alpine Haus Restaurant. It was an old house converted to restaurant. The walls, inside and out, were all brick. The place was small but exquisite. The menu was very German and our meal was delicious. We made sure to take left-overs home for dinner.

After lunch, we drove around New Braunfels. They are having a Wurstfest this week. From what we could read online, it is an annual festival that is like an Octoberfest but bigger. There is free parking Monday through Wednesday so we decided to go tomorrow or Tuesday.

We drove to the overlook on Canyon Lake. They built two dams. We looked at one and then walked across the point to look at the other one. There is a huge earthen dam on one side and a spill way going down into a gorge on the other side. We drove past the gorge and weren’t impressed at all. We’ve seen much better in many places.

While we were out, we stopped at a Buc-EE’s. Several people have told us that they love the place. It was like a gas station on steroids. Outside were about 120 gas points. There were two long rows with two gas pumps at each column and about 30 columns in each row. Inside the store, it looked like a WalMart. There were loads of snacks, many cashiers, about a dozen coffee dispensers, refrigerators with drinks and food, clothing, shoes, souvenirs, and tons of “stuff.” It was a department store at the gas station. And the place was buzzing with people everywhere!

When we got back to the campground, we took Bonnie for a long walk along the lakefront and through the other campgrounds. It looks like they used to have trailers but pulled them out and built cabins. There are a bunch of trailers stacked in the woods at one corner. It was a nice and easy day.

3 Nov 2018 (Sat) – We packed up and left Kingsville at 10:00 a.m. It was five and a half hours to our next campground – Joint Base San Antonio Sunnyside Park in Canyon Lake. It was a long drive on back roads through small towns and past many farms and ranches. Randolph AFB and Fort Sam Houston Army Base were joined. They both had campgrounds out on Canyon Lake. Now they are JBSA-Sunnyside Park (8 spaces belonging to the old Air Force Base) and JBSA-Hancock Cove Park (60+ campsites belonging to the Army). It appears that the Army Corps of Engineers built two dams creating Canyon Lake. They then gave the land down the center to the military and the land on either side to the civilians.

When we arrived at the gate, a lady checked us in. The Sunnyside Park only has 9 campsites. We got the last one as they are fully booked for the weekend. It is an old campground and the sites are narrow and close together. There are loads of bushy trees in the area and deer are everywhere. Four were grazing next to us as we set up. They have absolutely no fear of people. That’s bad for the deer.

After set up, we walked around the campground. We are right next to the lake. There is a marina with about two dozen boats docked at a pier but you can’t get to them. The walkway out to the dock fell into the water. You would have to swim to get out to your boat.

2 Nov 2018 (Fri) – We drove to the Big House BBQ for lunch. It was not their usual order-by-the-pound place. We actually got to sit down at a table and order from a menu. The tortilla soup was so good that I ordered a quart to take home for dinner. Paul had roast chicken and I had ribs. There was so much food that we took leftovers home to go with the soup. Everything was delicious.

After lunch, we drove to the King Museum Henrietta Memorial Center. It used to be an ice house and was donated by the King family. It was a huge building! We spent about an hour and a half wandering around the place, looking at the displays, watching videos, and reading storyboards.

When we got back to the campground, I tried calling Fort Sam Houston and Lackland AFB to get a campsite but they were both booked. There were three Joint Base campgrounds on a lake but they closed at 4 p.m. I’ll have to call on the way there tomorrow.

1 Nov 2018 (Thu) – We drove to IHOP for breakfast. The place was terrible. We were seated quickly and got our menus right away. Then it took a while to give our orders and it was about 20 or 30 minutes before we got our food. One waiter walked around with one hand in his pocket all the time. I thought he was holding his phone to see is he got a message or call. Paul thought he was holding up his pants. lol. Whichever it was, it was weird to see a waiter with his hand always in his pocket. While waiting, I looked around and realized that the place was filthy. An overhead beam and fans had dust and dirt dripping over the edges, a light was out, windows were filthy, the baseboard near our table had all kinds of stains on it including ketchup (at least I HOPE it was ketchup). When Paul unrolled his silverware from his neatly wrapped napkin, he found the spoon and fork to be filthy. I ordered corned beef hash, eggs, and hash browns. My meal arrived with a big serving of hash browns covered with corned beef hash and the eggs on top. This came with a side order of hash browns. Why? Were they trying to empty the potato pantry? The food was OK but I felt skeevy eating it. What kind of dirt was in my food? We waited for the bill and after a while, the manager ran over with the bill and included a military discount. Paul thinks his frown was what brought the manager running. Apparently, the entire restaurant staff is under threat. They were nervous and asked if we enjoyed our meal. I thought our waitress was going to cry.

After breakfast, we drove to the King Ranch. The ranch is comprised of more than 825,000 acres. That’s bigger than the state of Rhode Island! The King family started the ranch in 1853. They grew to have businesses in many states and foreign countries at the peak of their ownership. Today, their income is derived from four primary sources: raising, training, and selling quarter horses; growing corn and sorghum crops; providing hunting areas for sportsmen; and oil operations. They bred thoroughbred race horses until 1989, and had one Triple Crown winner (Assault) and one horse that won two of the three key races. They gave that up and now just breed horses for ranch operations. We took a one and a half hour bus tour of the ranch. We saw the Santa Gertrudis cows, which are a breed that was developed by the King family. They also have wildlife areas on their property. One such property is a major stop along the migration flyway. The business is now run by seventh generation descendants of the Kings.

We left the ranch and drove into town to look at the King Saddle Shop. It was a small shop that sells many leather items, cowboy outfits, and other items with the running W brand embossed on them. I thought everything was expensive. After wandering around the store, we drove around town for a little bit than stopped at the King Museum. It was 3:00 pm and the museum closed at 4:00 pm. So we decided to return tomorrow.

We got back to the campground and did the laundry.

31 Oct 2018 (Wed) – We packed up and hit the road at 10 a.m. The drive was only two hours. The weather was good and the traffic wasn’t bad at all. On the way, I called a couple of campgrounds only to be told they were all full. As we were casting about for a place to go, we happened to pass a campground with a sign outside that read NOW OPEN. Paul turned at the next road and we went around the block to get back to it. There is a Valero gas station in front, a Mexican restaurant, a hotel, and a campground in back. We parked and wandered around the place trying to find the check in point. We finally wound up in the restaurant where the on-site manager had to call the owner to see what the rate was. We went back out to set up while they made contact. There are 58 sites; three were taken right up front. We backed into a site in the center of the campground but found out the electric was not on yet. The place is so new that they haven’t even finished all the hookups. We pulled out and parked in front near the other RVs.

After set up, we went back into the restaurant and ordered lunch. I had tacos and Paul had enchiladas. The manager came over and said the rate was $30 a night. We paid and left. First stop was at the Naval Air Station to see if they really were full. There was only one open space and it was too small for us so they were right. Then we drove into town where I mailed off some cards at the post office. Next, we wandered around the historic district and main roads. The I-77 (like in so many other places) bypassed the main street and there were many closed stores. I guess they’ll try to bring the district back in a few years.

30 Oct 2018 (Tue) – Hank & Brenda picked us up at noon and we went to Smoke Texas BBQ for lunch. It was a large warehouse converted to a restaurant. You ordered at the counter: meat by the pound and small, medium, or large sides. That style restaurant seems to be popular down here. There was a counter serving the food along the back wall. In the center of the room was a square bar with beer and liquor. We had a great time visiting with each other.

After they dropped us off at the lodge, we drove to H.E.B. and picked up a few items. Then we dropped off letters at the post office and got fuel for tomorrow’s drive. We had planned to head southwest to Laredo but that migrant caravan is headed toward the border. President Trump is sending 5,000 troops to join the DHS and Border Patrol forces. We don’t want to get caught in that mix up so we’re heading back north to Kingsville.

29 Oct 2018 (Mon) – We drove to the Palo Alto Battlefield National Historic Park in Brownsville. It was the site of the decisive battle of the Mexican-American War in 1846. We walked along the battle trail, envisioning the bloody battle that took place there almost 200 years ago. The result of that battle was that the U.S. doubled in size and Mexico lost half its territory. We got 7 states out of that conflict.

After the battlefield, we went to lunch. We were following a suggestion by Siri when we passed McCarthy’s Irish Pub. Being lovers of Irish food, we did a quick turn around and pulled into the restaurant. When we walked in the door, the first thing I noticed was that everyone in there was Mexican. Few people were speaking English. The menu didn’t have a single traditional Irish meal on it. There was a soup billed as Irish Soup but it was “delicious onion soup with garlic, served with bread croutons (is there any other kind?) and gouda smoked cheese.” There was a large display case on one wall that had “Luck of the Irish” posted above it. Nothing in the case had anything to do with Ireland or the Irish. There was a Norman Rockwell picture (maybe he was Irish?), a doll dressed in Mardi Gras costume, a lamp with flowers in the base, an Antiques sign, etc. It was so funny.

We went back to the Marine Military Academy and toured their small museum. It was tiny but jam packed with all things Marine. Many historical pictures covered the walls and artifacts were stuffed into display cases.

At 6 p.m. Hank & Brenda picked us up and we went to La Playa for dinner. It was a Mexican restaurant with a large menu. Everything was very good. We got margaritas and there were olives in the drinks. When we returned to the RV, we all went into the Elks Lodge for drinks. It was a pleasant end to a pleasant evening.

28 Oct 2018 (Sun) – We went to the Koffee Klatch for breakfast. It was a little house with the porch walled in. Cute. And the food was OK. We then drove over to the Marine Military Academy. It is a private high school with a military focus. On the parade field across the street is a large statue of marines raising the flag at Iwo Jima. This model was used as the basis for the monument in Washington, D.C. We arrived at 12:30 p.m. but a sign on the door said they were open from 1 to 4 on Sunday. So we drove around the school grounds. Also, the airport is adjacent to the property so we took a quick swing through there (it is a very small facility). We walked around the monument and read some of the memorial plaques around the area. At 1:05 p.m. the museum still was not open. I went on the website to double check the opening time and it said they were closed on Sunday. Somebody needs to fix the sign on the door!

We stopped at H.E.B. for groceries and Pet Smart to pick up pet food. At 4 p.m. we drove to Hank & Brenda’s home for steak on the barbecue. They have a lovely home in a 55+ community. It was a delightful evening.

27 Oct 2018 (Sat) – Hank & Brenda picked us up at 11:00 a.m. and we drove to South Padre Island. First stop was at the Padre Island Brewing Company for lunch. I ordered fried flounder and got a plate piled high with two large filets, a crab cake, and three large shrimp – all accompanied by a Caesar salad and grilled vegetables. It was enough for three people! I took most of it home.

After lunch, we drove down the Beach Blvd to a parking area with access to the beach. Three of us took our shoes off (Hank had compression socks and couldn’t take them off) and we walked up the beach wading in the warm Gulf of Mexico waters. We watched dogs and people cavorting in the water, saw pelicans diving into the water for fish, and searched for shells. We topped the day off with ice cream at one of the local parlors. A gift shop was attached to the ice cream parlor and I was able to pick up a Christmas ornament while Brenda found that perfect pair of flip flops. It was a very enjoyable day.

26 Oct 2018 (Fri) – We packed up and left Corpus Christi at 10 a.m. Wouldn’t you know it? The sun was out and shining brightly! The drive was three and a half hours past many acres of ranches, farms and refineries. It was mostly two lane highway that passed through occasional towns but there’s not a lot of population down this way.

sunrise this morning

We pulled into the Elks Lodge in Harlingen about 1:30 p.m. We are about 20 miles north of the Mexican border. There is a caravan of 7,000 to 10,000 South Americans headed toward the border right now. President Trump has called out the military to join the Border Patrol and National Guard. All this on the eve of Election Day. I just hope no one gets killed in the fray. It is tense!

We went into the lodge to pay for five nights lodging. It was $60 ($12 a night). The “campsites” are composed of a row of hookups aligned along the edge of the parking lot in the back of the lodge. We have 30 amp and water hookups. There’s no worry about a sewer dump. There are dozens of campgrounds down here along the border. This is where the Winter Texans come from December through April (they don’t call them Snowbirds, like we do on the east coast).

There’s only us and one other RV. The rest are in storage.

At 6:30 p.m. we went into the lodge for their fish fry. The Bush Riders (a local band) was playing cowboy music. Our friends, Hank & Brenda, joined us. They live in Harlingen and offered the names of places to see and eat at. They will go to South Padre Island with us tomorrow. We met Hank & Brenda on the Maritimes Caravan and reunited during the National Muster in Mineola this year.

As I sat there and watched the couples dancing, I was struck by how people’s bodies change but their spirits remain the same. Almost all the folks on the dance floor were in their 60s and 70s (maybe even 80s). Everyone held their dance partner and moved around the floor – some quite lively and some just scuffing along due to stiff joints and other elderly ailments. There was one really rocking mama who looked like the typical grandma – short, gray curly hair; glasses; pointy chin and wrinkled face. Yet she wore white jeans and boots and was gleefully dancing away with her more reserved partner. She was 16 years old inside! When a group of folks got up and did some line dancing, a rather grumpy looking old man with a paunch joined them. He was very adept at the steps and was singing along with the band. I would have imagined him just sitting in a corner grouching about the world at large if I hadn’t seen that. It was another reminder not to judge people by the way they look. Especially older folks!

25 Oct 2018 (Thu) – The day was warmer – in the high 60s. It was also drier but still overcast. The forecast predicted sunshine this afternoon but it never happened. At 2:30 p.m. we drove over to Mustang Island and had lunch at Fin’s Grill & Icehouse. We sat out on the deck and watched barges moving up and down the canal. Afterward we drove around the area. The ferries at Port Aransas were incredibly busy. Cars were coming in non-stop from both sides. They had six ferries working at the same time.

On the way back to the campground, we stopped at WalMart to pick up a few items then fueled up in preparation for tomorrow’s move to Harlingen.

24 Oct 2018 (Wed) – We toured the U.S.S. Lexington today. It was an aircraft carrier built during WWII and decommissioned in 1976. They had several TVs around the ship at strategic places with someone telling a story about that part of the ship. There was also a 25-minute 3D movie that showed a joint naval training venture of the U.S. with other countries in the Pacific. I was blown away by all the technology and mission operations depicted on the screen. We spent four hours exploring the ship.

Before we went to the U.S.S. Lexington, we had breakfast at Cracker Barrel. It was like coming home. I love eating at that place! The day was foggy and overcast and it started to rain softly in the late afternoon. There is a hurricane that hit Mexico on the Pacific Coast and will be crossing South America and coming up into Texas. The forecast is for rain the next two days.

23 Oct 2018 (Tue) – The day was overcast, windy, damp, and cold. We hunkered down inside our nice and cozy trailer until 2 p.m. We drove over to the post office on base and mailed off Halloween packages to the boys and a birthday package to Caiden. We then went next door to the Navy Exchange (NEX) and bought another external storage device. Now when we save our pictures, we will save to two external storage devices. The laptop will also be backed up by Carbonite, an online storage system in the cloud. If all that back up doesn’t work, we’re in big trouble.

When we were finished at the NEX, we drove into town to Rudy’s Country Store and Bar-B-Q. It was a gas station with a restaurant. The restaurant was like a big barn with long picnic tables covered with white and red checked tablecloths. Everything was ala carte. You ordered the meat and whatever sides you wanted and a drink to go with it. The food was pretty good. You then took your food from the counter and sat down at a table in the dining room. Signs all over the place said “Your Momma Does Not Work Here – Clean Up Your Own Mess.”

We had been hoping the weather would get better. When we first got here, the forecast was for the weather to clear up on Tuesday and Wednesday. We left our visit to the USS Lexington for the nice weather. Unfortunately, things have not cleared up. In addition, there is now a hurricane hitting the coast of Mexico that will move up and right into our area in the next day or two. The weather is only going to get worse. Guess we’ll have to tour the USS Lexington despite the bad weather.

22 Oct 2018 (Mon) – We went to the Texas State Aquarium this morning. There was a dolphin show and we got splashed several times. We spent the rest of the time drying out. It was chilly!

After the aquarium, we drove over Padre Island to Mustang Island. The water and sky were gray and the waves were very rough. There is evidence that they got hit with a big storm – I think it was Hurricane Harvey in September of last year. There were a couple of resorts that were closed and undergoing some repairs. Some houses had blue tarps on the roof. Some buildings were destroyed and simply closed. We stopped at a restaurant right on the beach – Mikel Mays – and had an early dinner. A long pier ran about a half mile out into the water but there was a charge to walk on it. That ticked me off. I refuse to pay to just walk out on a pier so we didn’t go. Everywhere we look it is obvious that Texas has gotten more rain than it needs. Besides getting occasional warnings about flooding on my cell phone, many places have water overflowing their area.

We stopped at H.E.B. Plus on the way home to pick up some groceries. That place is huge! It is a combination giant supermarket with a giant department store. We found every single thing we wanted.

21 Oct 2018 (Sun) – We didn’t do much today. At 11:30 a.m. we ran to the commissary and picked up some groceries. We also shopped at the Navy Exchange (NEX). I got a fitbit and Paul picked up a grill. The day was overcast and drizzly all day. The weather is a real disappointment. We are in some of the most beautiful coastal areas in the U.S. and the crappy weather is degrading the experience.

20 Oct 2018 (Sat) – We went to the Art Museum of Texas at 12:30 p.m. after doing laundry this morning. I can never figure out why art museums have so much wasted space. The art is displayed on walls in big halls. Most of it was head scratching kind of stuff. A few pictures were nice but most of the artwork made no sense to us. Guess we’re just not artsy types.

We had lunch in the café of the art museum. They were hosting a wedding there today so a couple of the floors were closed to the general public. When I complained about having half the museum cut off, the clerk let us in at no cost.

After the museum, we drove across the channel to Padre Island. It was ten miles over undeveloped land to the visitor’s center. We got there at 4:45 p.m. and they were closing at 5 p.m. We did a quick walk around the gift shop, picked up an ornament and patch, then walked out on the deck and admired the water. We then drove through two campgrounds on the island. They were pretty rustic.

19 Oct 2018 (Fri) – We packed up and left Galveston at 9:05 a.m. It was 220 miles to our next destination. The route was mostly two lane highway past miles of open grassland, grazing cattle, crops, farrow land, and occasional small towns. There was high water everywhere and some roads were threatened by flooding. There were many oil refineries. They are such a maze of pipes and columns that they look very sci-fi. I bet when they film movies like Mad Max, they use old oil refineries as their setting. The weather went through sunshine, clouds, and bouts of rain during the six hour drive to Corpus Christi Naval Air Station.

We checked in at the RV Office and the gal told us we could choose from five open sites. When we got to the campground, we saw that one was undergoing some kind of construction project, two were under water, and one had a very narrow driveway. The one that was left had a low hanging tree. We pulled in at an angle to avoid the tree and are on the grass and not the hard pack. Since the ground is soggy from lots of rain, Paul put boards under the levelers. There is more rain in the forecast and I hope that won’t cause us any problems. Our campsite looks out at a bay. It looks like there used to be a runway that was used by water planes that landed and drove up concrete ramps onto the former runway. There is a laundry room with free washers and dryers. The wifi is excellent! We will be here for a week.

18 Oct 2018 (Thu) – We drove to the Bryan Museum this morning. It was a former orphanage-turned-museum. The building was gorgeous. It had originally been built as a non-denominational orphanage (there were two Catholic homes in Galveston). The museum showcased the history of Galveston and the American West. It was a beautiful house.

After the museum, we drove to The Moody Mansion. The Moody family was among the wealthy citizens of Galveston. They owned many businesses around town – banks, hotels, etc. The 32-room mansion was built in the late 1800s. The last of the family left the home in 1984 when the home was donated to the historical society. The house was gorgeous. There was silk wallpaper and exotic woods everywhere.

The next stop was at the Bishop’s Palace. The 19,000 sf house was made of stone and was able to withstand the hurricane of 1900 that wiped out most of Galveston. It was sold to the Roman Catholic Diocese in 1923 before it opened to the public in 1963. It cost $250,000 to build the house and today’s value is over $5.5 million. You pay the admission fee and get a hand held player with numbers on the screen that match numbers posted in the various rooms. You press the appropriate number and a narrator tells you someone about the history of the family and diocese. It was OK but we really wanted to hear about the house and its architecture, not the comings and goings of the original owners. The Moody Mansion used the same system to tour that house as well.

It was now mid-afternoon so we stopped at Willie G’s at Pier 21 for drinks and appetizers. We sat out on the patio. Although the sky has been overcast and threatening for the two days we’ve been in Galveston, the wind was balmy and our seat on the patio was pleasant. Paul ordered Story Point Cab-Sauv. The waiter brought Story Point Chardonnay instead. It turned out they were out of the Cab-Sauv and the bartender just chose the other wine. The waiter replaced the wine but in the meantime, I sampled the wine and found I liked it. I now have another favorite wine.

Before we returned to the truck, we walked The Strand. That is their historical main street with many warehouses converted to restaurants and shops. In the late 1800s, The Strand was known as the Wall Street of the Southwest and Galveston was the second most active port for immigrant arrivals after Ellis Island. In 1871 alone, over 41,760 passengers arrived by sea. We wandered into a shop and wound up buying two jackets with world maps printed on them. I also found a Christmas ornament for Galveston.

17 Oct 2018 (Wed) – We packed up and left Livingston at 10 a.m. The sky was overcast and there was some fog initially. There was also some rain on the way. We arrived at Galveston Island State Park at 1:00 p.m. The park has two campgrounds – one on the ocean side and one on the bay side. We were told when I made the reservation that there were no sites available on the ocean side. Furthermore, there was space on the bay side but only Wednesday and Thursday night. The campground will be completely booked for the weekend.

After we crossed the causeway, we saw no signs for a campground office so we headed toward the bay side. There were two circles, each with 20 campsites in them. Neither had a single camper in it. There was no office either. So we drove back to the other side of the island to the park headquarters office. We were able to complete our registration there. The clerk – a very lovely and friendly young woman – chose the perfect spot to view the bay. With our site assignment in hand, we drove back to the bay side campground and found our place. The site faces the bay on an angle. Unfortunately, the campsite was on an angle. The side facing the water only has one small window. We chose another spot and parked there.

Once everything was set up, we drove back to the office to let the clerk know that we changed our assigned campsite. She was not happy. She lectured me for five minutes on how I should have called first before changing sites, that someone else might have been assigned to that site, that there are more people coming in today and we shouldn’t have been fooled by the emptiness of the campground, etc., etc., etc. When she was done giving me her tongue lashing, I was given new paperwork for the site we now occupy.

We then drove into town to have lunch at Landry’s Seafood Restaurant. It sat right on the coastal highway and had a great view of the Gulf. Although the place was expensive, the food was good and we enjoyed the meal. Afterward, we drove to PetSmart to pick up food for Bonnie. They had her can and dry food but no venison treats. We’ll have to look somewhere else.

We then drove around the area. There is some flooding and I keep getting notices from the weather bureau warning of such. Most of the houses in the area are on stilts. Galveston Island is very much a beachy town like so many others we have seen. Lots of hotels, souvenir shops, palm trees, long beach front, and houses on stilts.

16 Oct 2018 (Tue) – It was in the 50s and drizzly this morning. The sky was overcast and the air has a chill in it. There is a smell of sewer around the campground. It’s probably caused by all the rain and the waste lines being overtaxed. My phone keeps getting notices from the weather station about flooding in the county.

We took a tour of Escapees Headquarters this morning. After five years of having our mail handled by this organization, we finally got to see the operation and how they do it. It was so fascinating! They have a machine they dubbed “Howee” that sorts 300 pieces of mail in just 3 minutes. They have three large rooms filled with buckets of mail. There are about 900 people who have their mail scanned and at least 14,000 who have their mail forwarded. They get huge containers of mail every day from the local post office. They have so much mail that they qualified for their own zip code.

I am glad we stopped in Livingston to visit the Escapees Headquarters. This is an incredible operation. There is nothing like it anywhere else in the U.S. We will probably come back to volunteer just to help them out.

After the tour, we drove into town to pick up a few groceries. Then we went to Patron Grill for lunch. They had regular and grande size margaritas. Paul went big; I went regular. The food was good. I had so much, I took leftovers home for breakfast tomorrow.

15 Oct 2018 (Mon) – It was a pretty light day. There is a cold front moving in. The temperature dropped from 71 in the morning when we got up to 57 tonight when we went to bed. There was rain on and off this evening and even a brief thunderstorm that sent Sheba bolting for the closet.

We took a tour of the Escapees Care Center this morning. The Club provides a place for RVers to stay when they can no longer RV or just need a place to sit while they recover from illness or accident. Volunteers who work at the center can get a free space with full hook up and three meals a day. They provide a bus (driven by volunteers) that takes people to doctor appointments or shopping. They even provide an adult day care so caregivers can get a day off. It was quite impressive.

14 Oct 2018 (Sun–Birthday) – Paul took me down to the Courthouse Whistle Stop Café for breakfast. It was a really old building with lots of historical pictures on the walls. Connected to it was a gift shop with loads of knicks knacks.

We went back to the campground to get Bonnie then headed for the Lake Livingston Dam Observatory. When we got there, the road to the observatory was closed by an electric company doing some construction. Paul thought they were building a power plant. We drove along the lakefront looking for a way around the construction but couldn’t find anything. We discovered a campground and drove through that. It ended at some cabins on the water. We parked and walked along a pathway. Lake Livingston is the largest reservoir in Texas. It was a lovely day.

13 Oct 2018 (Sat) – We packed up and left Bullard at 9:35 a.m. The drive was easy as the weather was good and the route was direct. We arrived at Livingston at 12:30 p.m. We pulled into the Escapees HQ campground called Rainbow’s End. It is a large campground with both transient and long term RVers. Our campsite is a back-in on worn gravel. The interior roads are asphalt. There are trees around the area. It looks like it’s been around for a while. We have full hook-ups and access to Wifi (but very slow). They also have a laundry room and a pool. We ‘ll be here for four nights.

12 Oct 2018 (Fri) – The cat threw up on the bedspread during the night. We pulled the bedspread, blanket, and sheets off the bed and threw them in the wash. We got the bedspread with our very first fifth wheel camper in 2006. It was time to replace it.

We drove to several stores looking for a new bedspread. I wanted something to cover the bed but not be too warm at night; more of a decorative cover. We looked in Kirkland’s, Burlington, Bed Bath & Beyond, and WalMart. A stop in World Market found us delighting over a deeply discounted favorite wine on sale. We didn’t get a bedspread there but we did walk out with eight bottles of wine. WalMart finally yielded something close to what I wanted.

We grabbed lunch at Whataburger. There was a sign outside saying it was the Hot Rod Café. There were 1950s themed model cars and decorations all around the eatery. It was cute.

Last stop was at Brookshire’s. We picked up groceries then got fuel at their gas station. We had accumulated over 500 points which resulted in our getting 50 cents off a gallon. That saved us about $15! Now we get ready to move on.

11 Oct 2018 (Thu) – I had an 11 a.m. appointment at the dentist today to have my teeth cleaned. After that, we stopped at Cork Food & Drink for lunch. It had a very eclectic menu but the food was good. The service, unfortunately, was sooooo slow. There was a smoker outside emitting all kinds of mouthwatering smells but there were no smoked meats on the lunch menu. That was disappointing.

We stopped at another modular homes center to look at some homes. The saleswoman kept telling us about models then saying she didn’t have any on the lot to show us. We looked at two or three models, then Paul told her the workmanship was shoddy and he wouldn’t buy the product. We walked back to the office in silence and said a terse good bye. He was annoyed by her pointing out all the things we wanted on paper and telling us to go online but then showing us homes that were bigger than we wanted.

10 Oct 2018 (Wed) – We worked around the camper today. Paul focused on stuff around the rig. I worked on writing the documentation required to get the Women Veterans chapter of SMART established. We both got so involved in our projects that I missed my dental cleaning this morning. My appointment was at 12:15 p.m. The office called at 12:25 p.m. to see where I was. I apologized profusely then we jumped in the truck to get there in time for Paul’s appointment at 1 p.m. He got his teeth cleaned and a fluoride polish applied. The tech told him not to eat anything crunchy or hard for four hours. That killed lunch! My appointment was rescheduled for tomorrow at 11 a.m.

After the dentist, we stopped at a couple of modular home centers – Solitaire, Pratt Homes, and Clayton Homes. We looked at several models and are slowly forming an opinion of what we would like in a house when we decide to come off the road. It looks like we’re interested in a house between 1,300 and 1,600 square feet.

When we were done exploring model homes, we stopped at Clear Springs restaurant for dinner. It had a statue of a swordfish out front. Tyler is just about as far away as you can get from the coast in Texas. I had salmon and Paul had a combo of fried chicken and shrimp. The food was good and plentiful. We both took left-overs home.

9 Oct 2018 (Tue) – We dropped Bonnie off at the vet this morning at 7:30 a.m. (*yawn*). We then went to WalMart to get an oil change on the truck. While we waited, we had a bite to eat at Subway then strolled around the store, picking up a few things here and there. When the truck was done, we drove to the bank and got the paperwork notarized that we’ve been trying to complete. It only took six trips to the place to get it done! Next stop was at PetCo where we tried to find exotic food for Bonnie. We wound up buying a sweet potato and venison menu for her. We got both can and dry food as well as treats (the vet said everything had to be the same). We also picked up a glucosamine for her stiff joints and some omega-6 vitamins for Sheba’s dry skin.

About then, the vet called to say that Bonnie’s teeth cleaning was done and we could pick her up. It turned out that she has a skin infection around her rear end and that was probably causing all her scooting. We got an antibiotic for the infection, a steroid to reduce the swelling, and a cream to put on her yoo-hoo. Animals can be such fun.

At 3 p.m. Paul and I had appointments at a local dentist for exam, x-rays, and to schedule teeth cleaning. The receptionist had us sit in front of computers and fill out medical histories (I guess it was faster than having her do it). She then walked us around the place introducing us to all the staff. All the women were Miss So & So and the men were Dr. So & So. I am now curious about this “Miss” thing. Is this a cultural thing? Am I supposed to call them Miss So & So? She introduced us as Paul and Melody. Not Mr. or Mrs. I’ll have to ask somebody about this. They had the most modern technological tools. The tech took x-rays with a portable machine and never left the room. Then she took digital pictures of the inside our mouths. She capped it off with a picture of us to put in the file so the staff would know what we look like. The dentist came in, poked around, and said everything was fine. We made appointments to come back for the teeth cleaning.

After the dentist, we went to the Texas Roadhouse right next door for dinner. They sure make good steaks there. Clouds had moved in and it was raining pretty hard when we came out. Later, sunset was gorgeous with the horizon turning orange then red as it shone out from under the dark storm clouds.

8 Oct 2018 (Mon) – We took the animals to the vet this morning. Sheba’s exam went fine and we picked up some heartworm medicine for her. Bonnie’s exam found lots of plaque on her teeth so we scheduled her to have a teeth cleaning tomorrow. Also, she has put on ten pounds in the last five months. That’s quite a bit and we are eager to see what the bloodwork shows. The vet suggested we feed her exotic meats like bison or venison. We’ll try that.

We returned to the campground and packed up. We were supposed to move to another site tomorrow but we decided to do it today. Once we were set up again, I worked on completing the current roster for the Nomads and sent it to the membership by email.

7 Oct 2018 (Sun) – Paul and I worked on sorting out all the paperwork for next year’s caravan. We created two binders with various materials. Then I spent a couple of hours creating a suspense roster for all the things we have to follow up on. At 3 p.m. we ran out to Brookshire’s and picked up groceries. It was a pretty quiet day.

6 Oct 2018 (Sat) – We drove to the bank today to try making the deposit to the Nomads account (again). I could not remember the PIN number so I couldn’t make the deposit (again). We then drove to Camp Ford. It was the largest Confederate POW camp of the Civil War west of the Mississippi. It was only open from August 1863 until May 1865. A storyboard described a large cabin but there were only logs laying on the ground. Either they intended to build it or someone took it apart and lined up all the logs. The camp grew to 11 acres before being closed as the prisoner population swelled to 5,000. It is now a public park and has been allowed to fall into neglect. The asphalt walkway was broken and full of debris. There were three small cabins on display but they were falling apart. It is a shame. Thousands of men suffered terrible deprivations and hundreds died. The only reason the death toll was higher was because the first prisoners built catch basins and their drinking water never got contaminated.

After the park, we stopped to look at some modular homes. They were interesting. Next stop was at a shopping mall where we had lunch at the Mandarin Express. Then I picked up some items at Dillards. We drove through the town of Bullard just to look around. The town is small but cute.

Before returning to the campground, we stopped at the M6 Winery. The owner’s name was Moody and there were six brothers in the family. We tasted several wines. I bought three bottles; Paul bought one. We came back and took a nap.

5 Oct 2018 (Fri) – I spent the morning trying to find various services in the area. I made an appointment to bring the dog and cat to the vet on Monday, and to bring Paul and me to the dentist on Tuesday. I also spent an hour working on documenting the monies brought in during the Nomads musters and trying to find a Navy FCU to make a deposit. There is no credit union in this area. I contacted an agent online and was told I could deposit the money at a Texas Community Bank. When we got to the bank, I was told to put the money in the ATM. They don’t touch it. (But don’t they take the money out of the box at the end of the day?) I was very confused. At any rate, I went around to the ATM only to find I needed an ATM card to make the deposit. I did not have it on me. I’ll have to come back tomorrow. Ugh.

We went to F.D.’s Grillhouse for lunch. It is rated #3 of 302 restaurants in Tyler by Trip Advisor. We both got firecracker shrimp for an appetizer then a modified Philly Cheesesteak – cubes of steak with onions, green peppers, and mushrooms covered with mozzarella cheese on Texas toast. The side was roasted corn trimmed from the corn cob today. Everything was excellent.

We then stopped at Best Buy so Paul could buy an adapter for the video projector. We were going to loan our projector at the National muster but it turned out we didn’t have the right cables to connect the laptop to the projector. We stopped at Brookshire’s to pick up a couple of items then drove to Keipersol Winery. They have wine tastings and right next door is a distillery with rum and bourbon tastings. We went to both places and bought some wine.

The campground is starting to fill up for the weekend. All our friends left today and it feels a little lonely. I went over to the office today to extend our stay. They would only let us go to next Saturday. There is a rally coming in on Tuesday so we will have to move to another spot for three days.

4 Oct 2018 (Thu) – Eight of us took a ride on the Texas State Railroad from Rusk to Palestine. It was an old diesel engine and historical cars. Paul’s comment was that we’ve seen better scenery on the commuter train from Long Island into New York City. There was really nothing to see from the train during the hour and a half ride. When we got to Palestine, there was a grill serving food at exorbitant prices - $8.50 for a hotdog and $11.00 for a hamburger. We were a captive audience as there was nowhere else to eat.

We had happy hour at 4 p.m. then drove to Jalapeno Tree for dinner. It was the last night of the Nomads post muster before everyone heads to the four winds. It was a good time.

3 Oct 2018 (Wed) – Carl & Gwen came over early and we worked on the plans for the caravan next year. At 10 a.m., we took a break and carpooled with the group over to Love’s Lookout. You were supposed to be able to see 35 miles but, frankly, the view wasn’t that grand. I guess we’re spoiled. We’ve seen some breathtaking views.

We left the overlook and drove to the Catfish King. It was a restaurant that specialized in (you guessed it) catfish. Paul and I have studiously avoided catfish for the past 40 years. We gave in and each had the lunch special that included 3 pieces of fried catfish, pinto beans, cole slaw, and hush puppies that looked like fried mozzarella sticks. The food was actually quite good. We were glad we tried it.

After lunch, we drove down the road to the Texas Basket Company. It was a real country store with all sizes of baskets for sale along with lots of other bric-a-brac and other items. We then left and rode (with Carl & Gwen driving) to Brookshire’s where we picked up some groceries. Once our groceries were put away, we resumed working on the plans for the Utah caravan. Carl & Gwen will follow up and contact all the campgrounds to verify information and let them know of the change in Wagon Masters and Assistant Wagon Masters (Tail Gunners). We will handle the restaurant and entertainment venues.

At 4 p.m. we went to happy hour. After an hour, we all dragged out the leftovers from our dinner yesterday, reheated them, and had a second potluck dinner. Everything seemed to taste better. Guess the food had a chance to sit and strengthen the flavors. Later, Paul and I went for a walk with Bonnie around the campground. There is a small lake advertised on their website as a fishing spot for anglers. There was a sign on the fence saying an alligator had been spotted in the water and no one was to kayak or row boat out into the water. We didn’t know gaters came this far north.

Mike hunted us down and said there were several people going on a train trip tomorrow. He invited us to join him. We said we’d go.

2 Oct 2018 (Tue) – We did laundry this morning. Then I cooked some cornbread for the potluck dinner later. Paul went into town with some of the other guys to a liquor store to buy some “supplies.” Since this is a dry county, they had to drive to the next county to make their purchases. At 1 p.m. Carl & Gwen came over and we worked on the plans for the Utah caravan next year. We got through the first four legs then took a break. Happy hour was at 4 p.m. then dinner at 5:30 p.m. After dinner, we had a quick Nomads meeting. Our errant RVer who had the starter problem returned to the campground today. They spent the night in a hotel. The RV repair center found that the problem in his motor coach was a bad relay. It was a simple fix and they’re back on the road again.

1 Oct 2018 (Mon) – We ran down to the post office to see if our external storage device had arrived yet. The clerk told me the package was returned to the sender (she didn’t know why). I called UPS to see if we could intercept it and they said the package was refused by the post office. Aaaaargh!!!

We made a quick stop at Brookshire’s to pick up some items for the pot luck dinner tomorrow and returned to the campground. Most of the RVs had already left. We hooked up and were on the road at 11 a.m. The drive was a little over an hour from Mineola to Bullard. We are staying at Bushman’s Camp & RV Park. One of the other members of our group who is camping here (this is the Nomads post-muster) was stuck in the driveway. Apparently he burned out his starter and had to call for a tow truck.

We checked in and drove to our pull through site. This is a very nice campground. The interior roadways and campsites are poured concrete. We have full hookup and there is low band Wifi available. They have a laundry room and a meeting room for our group. There is an indoor pool and hot tub as well. There are dog pens with a sign saying dogs can be left there for up to one hour.

At 4 p.m. we went to happy hour. There are twelve rigs, 21 folks here. At 5:15 p.m. 16 of us drove to Jalapeno Tree (a Mexican restaurant franchise) for dinner. Bullard is also a dry county but that restaurant serves margaritas. They were very good.

30 Sep 2018 (Sun) – SMART breakfast this morning was a sausage casserole. There wasn’t much sausage in it. After breakfast, there was a general membership meeting where the leadership talked about what the Board of Directors has been up to. Awards were given for recruiting and as outstanding chapters. Following the membership meeting, a member of SMART got up and recounted stories of his trip around the U.S. He has a motor home that is painted in Americana style with eagles, freedom quotes, and the five military service symbols. Everywhere he goes, people come over to look at his coach and share stories of their military service. He’s met some pretty interesting folks in his travels.

After a break for lunch, we went to a seminar for wagon masters. It was interesting. We knew most everything that was covered. We learned by either being on a caravan or discussing issues or planning our own caravan for next year.

At 4 p.m., I called for a meeting of women veterans. We want to start a new chapter and I agreed to prepare all the paperwork and file for the charter. While looking over the paperwork, I found we needed a minimum of five members and we only had the four who said they would be officers (President, VP, Secretary-Treasurer, and Muster Master – I volunteered for Muster Master). I asked for a committee to develop bylaws and standing rules. I volunteered to head the committee. We have to find a name for our group (the Women Veterans Chapter just sounds too plain) and agreed to think on it. At next year’s national muster in Urbana, VA, we will have a formal installation of officers.

Social hour was 4 to 5 p.m. followed by a SMART dinner of pork loin, rice, green beans, dinner roll, and chocolate cake. There were more door prizes and 50/50 drawings. The civic center where we are holding our national muster also awarded door prizes. Finally, it was over and everyone bid each other fair winds and safe travels.

29 Sep 2018 (Sat) – There was a SMART breakfast this morning. Eggs (powered), sausage patty, and pancakes. After breakfast, Paul and I attended some more seminars. At 4:00 p.m. we met with other people from the Nomads and ran through the talent show skit we are doing tonight.

After the “rehearsal” we went back to the RV and reheated leftovers for dinner. We returned to the

Auditorium at 7 p.m. for last minute checks on our props and participants then settled down to watch the show. There were some interesting things. One man played the ukulele and harmonica as his wife strolled across the stage. Three women draped in very glittery capes performed a lip sync of a Supremes song. There were also lots of door prizes and as always, the 50/50 drawing. Our skit was the last one to perform. We did a spoof of Jeff Foxworthy’s “Ten Indications You Might Be A . . . .” We were “SMART Long Time RVers.” It was pretty funny thanks to one particular member of our group who was very hammy. Everyone had a good time watching as well as performing the skit. We ended by commenting on how we see more things in one year than most people see in a lifetime. That was followed by everyone singing America the Beautiful.

28 Sep 2018 (Fri) – We attended some seminars today. I met with Michelle and Ed about the talent show we are putting together for tomorrow. No one else showed up despite my email asking them to do so. Woooh, boy. I sure hope this thing comes off ok. There were the men’s and women’s luncheons. The guys had hot dogs and hamburgers at the pavilion; the women had chicken Caesar salad with a cookie for dessert. We were supposed to have a guest speaker but he cancelled out at the last minute.

The SMART dinner tonight was Tex-Mex. It was a chicken and cheese enchilada with soupy beans, chips and salsa. There was apple pie for dessert. There were about a dozen door prizes awarded and three winners from the 50/50 drawing.

After dinner, we all went outside and spelled out the word “SMART.” Paul and another guy sent their drones up in the air and took a picture from the air. It came out looking really cool! After the picture taking, SMART folks conducted a flag retirement ceremony. This is where they take flags that are no longer usable and ceremoniously burn them in a formal ceremony. It was very moving.

27 Sep 2018 (Thu) – There was a panel discussion today about RV Tips at 8:30 a.m. I was on the panel with three other people. About 20 people attended the seminar. We shared our experiences with the audience and they shared their experiences with one another. Even I picked up a few tips!

When I came out of the center, Paul was walking up. It turned out that the projector is not compatible with our laptop. As we thought about it, we bought the laptop about six years ago and have not used the projector with it. The cables don’t work between the two. Paul will not be able to do a slide show on the screen. How frustrating to spend hours preparing the show and not be able to project it! We’ll bring the laptop and just let people look at that on the computer screen. It won’t be as big as a projector screen but it’s all we’ve got.

We drove to Canton to a flea market billed as the biggest one in the U.S. (does Shipshewana know that?) We stopped for lunch before going into the market at a place called Dairy Palace. It was an old, kind of run down place but the parking lot was full. That usually means a place has good food so we stopped in. It was a farm-to-table place serving beef that has been free ranged and not given any drugs or antibiotics. I got a patty melt; Paul got a spam burger. We have never eaten chicken fried spam. It was different.

The flea market was huge! It was laid out helter skelter. As we wandered in and out of large buildings and hundreds of booths, we gradually moved deeper and deeper into the bowels of the place. Paul finally got his hands on a map but it was difficult to read. We were lost among the booths and with some trial and error, found our way out after two and a half hours wandering around the market. My tootsies were singing by then! We picked up a few things for the grandkids.

There was a SMART dinner tonight. They had hamburger steak, mashed potatoes, green beans, gravy, and a dinner roll. The food was good. After dinner, they did a 50/50 drawing and awarded many door prizes. Following that, a DJ and entertainer played 50’s and 60’s music for the group. It was heart warming to see so many older people dancing. You could almost imagine them as they were when they courted each other back in the 40’s and 50’s. Young teenagers in love starting out on their life paths. Now here they were 40, 50, 60 years later still holding hands and dancing in each other’s arms.

26 Sep 2018 (Wed) – There was a SMART breakfast this morning. There were scrambled eggs, sausage, potatoes, gravy, and a biscuit. After breakfast, Paul and I attended a meeting of the Travel Committee. The Assistant Travel Coordinator wanted to meet with the wagon masters and assistant wagon masters for the upcoming caravans. He had suggestions on planning and directing a caravan. There were questions and answers for an hour.

Following the meeting, we returned to the camper. Paul worked on putting together a slide show for the caravan seminar on Friday. I worked on completing some paperwork for the bank and our mail forwarding service. Mail has been arriving at our mail box addressed to the SMART Nomads. Some kind of postal regulation is violated in some way and I have to get a form notarized swearing that the mail is not for a business.

There was a chapter fair at 4 p.m. This was an opportunity for each chapter to describe their activities to potential members. We did not have anyone approach us. I have already signed up 24 new members over the past few days. That’s quite a lot! The Nomads had a meeting at 5 p.m. tonight. Mike chaired the meeting; I took minutes. We didn’t have any food tonight so there were less than half of the folks we had three days ago and the meeting was done in half an hour.

When the meeting was over, several of us planned to go out for margaritas. Since this is a dry county, none of the restaurants in this area serve alcohol. We finally found a restaurant in Lindale, about 15 miles away. We drove to Posados, a Mexican restaurant. The food was good, the margaritas were excellent, and the waiter was a hoot! Nine of us had a great time.

25 Sep 2018 (Tue) – We went on a tour of Tyler today. The bus left the campground at 8:30 a.m. The drive was about 40 minutes. First stop was at the Tyler Rose Museum & Gardens. One-third of all the roses sold in the U.S. come from Tyler. Quite a celebration takes place every October where they elect a Queen of Roses and have a big parade. There is also a football game takes place during the celebrations. It’s quite an event and reminded us of the Mardi Gras celebrations. We walked around the gardens but there were few roses in bloom. The season is well over.

We then drove to the Brook Hall School. There was an American Freedom Museum. The tour was delightful. They had two rooms. One recounted all the conflicts America has taken part in, from the War for Independence through to today’s Afghanistan/Iraq conflict. They had many original artifacts that were very interesting to look at. The second room was the Hall of Presidents. Starting with our first president, George Washington, there was a biography of each one along with parts of speeches they made and statements they made about their faith.

The last stop on our tour was at the Goodman-LeGrand Home. It was built in 1853. Three generations of a family lived in it until 1963 when the last descendent passed away. She left the home and all the furnishings to the city with the stipulation that the house be maintained in its current state and kept open to the general public. That makes it pretty unique as far as old homes go because all the original furnishings have remained with the house from the very first day the state took possession. The house was originally built as a one-story, four-room home with a center breezeway. The family that purchased it completely changed it – added two stores, sweeping staircases, wrap around porch, etc.

We returned to the campground at 4:30 p.m. then quickly changed and fed the animals, and went to the Opening Ceremonies of the National Muster. The meeting opened with a posting of the colors, prayer, the Pledge of Allegiance, and singing of God Bless America. I can’t tell you how moving such events are. With all the controversy going on around the Pledge and other American traditions, everyone spoke louder and sang stronger than I have ever heard before. Over 300 voices raised in unison in patriotic song gave me goose bumps.

The mayor of Mineola spoke as did the director the civic center where we are having our rally. The guest speaker was Sheriff J. B. Smith. He was a sheriff of the county for 36 years. What a phenomenal speaker! He had us laughing, crying, nodding, and sighing with jokes, reminisces, and stories of his days in the military and law enforcement. He has written two books and was selling one at the dinner. Then it was time to eat. There was brisket, sausage, turkey, potato salad, baked beans (the standard Texas fare), and fruit cobbler. The food was excellent. After dinner, there was a 50/50 drawing and then about a dozen door prizes.

24 Sep 2018 (Mon) – We ran out to the laundromat this morning. After putting the clothes in the washer, we went for lunch at Taco Bell. After returning to put the clothes in the dryers, we drove to WalMart and picked up some groceries and other items. We then returned to the laundromat, retrieved our clean clothes and returned to the campground.

There was a hot dog barbecue hosted by the past presidents at the pavilion at 4 p.m. We brought our chairs over because there weren’t enough picnic tables for everyone. It rained while the barbecue was going on and we had to pull our chairs under cover.

23 Sep 2018 (Sun) – It rained last night (again) and was cloudy all day with sprinkles on and off. We drove into town and had lunch at Whataburger. It was OK. We returned to the campground and worked on getting ready for tonight’s Nomads meeting. We sat in a quick meeting of the Travel Committee. They discussed some changes to the policies regarding carvans and will pass the suggestions on to the Board of Directors (BOD).

We had social hour at 4 p.m. Following at 5 p.m., we had a dinner for the Nomads. Shirley picked up the brisket from the BBQ place. Mike, Cheryl, Paul, and I worked at setting up and serving the food. After dinner, we held a meeting. Mike presided, VP Rider joined us, and I took minutes. The meeting was over at 7 p.m. Whew! It was a long day.

22 Sep 2018 (Sat) – It rained all night long, moving from a light sprinkle to heavy downpour alternately. We drove into Dallas this morning. It was almost two hours to get there. There was flooding everywhere. Several of the lower, smaller roads were under water. All the creeks and rivers were swollen and breaching their banks. I kept getting notices on my phone that there was a flash flood warning in the various counties we were passing through.

We dropped the external storage unit off at Ace Recovery Services. We were going to stop at Cracker Barrel on the way back but the place was crowded with people spilling out of the restaurant and waiting outside. We continued on and finally stopped at a Mexican restaurant. The salsa was very good. Neither of us was fully satisfied with our meal but we ate it.

At 4:00 p.m. we went to happy hour for the Nomads. We have picked up 16 new members during this muster. I coordinated with the president, Mike, on picking up the food tomorrow. Paul sold 50/50 tickets and I continued to accept advance payment for tomorrow’s dinner.

21 Sep 2018 (Fri) – Paul has spent the last couple of days working on creating a video of our Maritimes caravan from 2016. Luckily, he had transferred the pictures he wanted to use onto the hard drive before our external drive broke. It is an 8 terra byte storage device and it won’t power on. I called Western Digital (makers of the drive) and got some tech in India. I asked for someone else to speak with since I couldn’t understand her and she transferred me to her Level 2 tech who was even harder to understand. I pushed for someone who speaks English well and he gave me a phone number for corporate headquarters in San Jose, California. When I called, I got the usual voice offering an array of buttons to push. When I pushed #4 for tech support, a tech in India picked up the phone! Aaaaargh!!! I complained and was transferred to a Level 2 tech in India. *sigh* I gave up and tried to work through the problem. Western Digital warranties the hard drive but we will have to pay to have the data stored on it recovered by a company recommended by them. I stated that I bought the item to store AND retrieve data and the cost of recovery should be covered by them in addition to replacing the drive. The tech essentially told me “too bad” and after telling him I wanted to make a formal protest, we went on to exchange the necessary information for a replacement. They will send the drive with instructions to return our defective drive. He took my credit card information for a security hold until they get the drive back. It must be returned within 30 days.

I then called Ace Data Group/Recovery and was told they will do a free evaluation to assess the problem. If they have to recover the data, the charge will be $149 per hour with a minimum of 3 hours up to 18 hours. I said that was ridiculous! I only paid $200 for the drive and I’ll have to spend at least $450 to get the data off it??? We HAVE to find a better solution.

In the meantime, Paul had been making a video of our Maritimes caravan from 2016. When we tried to play it, the format wouldn’t work. Paul then told me to open it with Windows Media Player. I did that and the video played. He was not able to save it on a CD (he kept getting an error message). He saved it on a stick. But by having changed the format, he was unable to go back into the file and make any changes. And some of the pictures he had wanted to include in the video weren’t there but we can’t get them off the storage drive. I have a headache.

We drove into town with Mike & Cheryl (President of the Nomads and his wife) for lunch and ate at the Golden Chick. He wanted to see how the food tasted in case he wanted to change our order from beef brisket to chicken for the Nomads dinner on Sunday. The food wasn’t that good so we’ll stay with the brisket.

After they dropped us back off at the campground, Paul and I drove to the post office and picked up the mail we had forwarded. Then we stopped in at Brookshire’s Supermarket to see what the cost would be to buy some items to go with the brisket. We knew Brookshire’s would be more expensive than WalMart but it was just to get a cost estimate.

We had the Nomads happy hour at 4:00 pm. A few more people showed up over yesterday and several brought snacks. I collected money for the dinner and dues. Paul got wrangled into selling 50/50 tickets. Mike gave me two of the three Nomads shirts I ordered. One is the wrong design – it is a woman’s shirt. I do not wear women’s polo styles because they are too tight across the shoulders and back (caused by my weight lifting days). It was a frustrating day today.

20 Sep 2018 (Thu) – We ran some errands this morning. First stop was at the post office for stamps. We did try to visit the local RR Museum but it either wasn’t there or was too small to bother with. Paul picked up some steel wool at Ace Hardware. We also picked up a few groceries at WalMart. For lunch, we ate at Mack’s Split Rail Pit BBQ. The brisket just fell apart but Paul felt it was too dry. My ribs were delicious!

There was a lot of running around talking to people about Nomads issues. The President and VP arrived today and I spoke briefly with them. We met with Shirley who is the muster master for our pre-muster (meeting of the Nomads before the National muster begins). She was trying to coordinate for a fried chicken dinner but couldn’t find a decent place to buy the food. After the president asked her to try to coordinate with a BBQ place, she arranged for beef brisket sandwiches.

At 4 p.m. the Nomads gathered in the Dogwood Room (that was changed from the Pecan Room) for happy hour. At 5 p.m. Paul and I left and drove to the local VFW Post. They invited SMART to dinner for $10 pp. The place was crowded with SMART members and a few lodge members. They served fried chicken and brisket, potato salad, baked beans, cole slaw, and iced cake (seems to be standard Texas fare). We returned to the campground at 8 p.m.

19 Sep 2018 (Wed) – We left Shepherd AFB FamCamp at 9:30 a.m. The ride was basically uneventful and took about three and a half hours. We stopped at a gas station to get fuel and I got a sandwich at Subway. Paul does not like Subway (they have too many choices) so he didn’t get anything.

We pulled into Mineola Civic Center at 1 p.m. We were directed to our “parking area.” The main camping area is basically a wagon wheel with campers parked back-to-back on the grass. We are in the inner circle. The sites are very close to each other. We got a site with a telephone pole next to us so there are no campsites right there. There is someone parked in the campsite on the other side of the pole but that leaves us room on that side to put out our awning and camp chairs. This is a dry county and we were warned to be discreet with any drinks. Keep beer cans in cozies and wine in paper cups.

After set up, I walked over to examine the pavilion where the Nomads will be meeting. Then Paul and I walked over to the main administration building. The two gals from HQ were in a small room getting set up. We got the name tags we ordered and a refund check from our Minnesota caravan. Whenever there is money left over, they send it back to the participants. They refunded $172 per person. That was a pleasant surprise.

We returned to our rig and found that Carl & Gwen had arrived. They weren’t expected until tomorrow. Sandy & Tom had to step down as Wagon Masters of our Utah caravan next year. We are now the Wagon Masters and we asked Carl & Gwen to be our Tail Gunners. They agreed. We will have to find time during this National Muster to fill them in on what we have put together so far.

18 Sep 2018 (Tue) – We left the Elks Lodge in Guthrie, OK at 9 a.m. It was a four hour ride to Shepherd AFB Recreation Area in Whitesboro, TX. We stopped at a travel plaza run by the Chickasaw Nation. They had some kind of fried burritos that were overcooked. Boy, these long runs sure result in our not eating very well.

We arrived at the turn off for the FamCamp. It turned out to be nine miles off the main highway along narrow country roads with overgrown trees and sporadic potholes. The campground is beautiful. It sits right on Lake Texoma. The area was built by the ACOE and then given to the military in the 1950s. It has a rustic feel to it but the pull through site had full hookups. There is no wifi in the campground. We are so far away from everything, we didn’t even leave the campground.

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