Tea Party Bristol

Well, we are still in Hondo.  Not done yet, but soon.  Should be out’a here in a 2-3 days.  Fingers are crossed! 

Nothing against the park or people but we’re/I’m kind of bored.  Just not much to do here as compared to Bensten Grove.  No pools, no Pickleball, no Y-Wait cafe, no lots of stuff we have become accustomed to.  And most of all, none of our friends.  Kind of sedate here!  There is a carving group but as I recently wrote in an email, “So with not much to do at this park I’ve been doing quite a bit of carving. There is a carving group that meets on Thursday and I went right away. Turned out to be a group of about one, two now. There was a third named Fred Meyer, really, for one day. Now it’s just Bob and I. We have expanded the number of days we carve. We use his porch or the picnic table outside the clubhouse. Bob turns out to be a master carver and knife maker so I’m learning a lot of new stuff and of course I bought a knife. Really like it too!”  But the long and short of it is, we’re ready to ‘blow this popcorn palace!’

I have watched a considerable amount of college football.  Thanks you Direct TV on satellite. We have both East and West coast network feeds so there isn’t much in the way of football that I don’t get.  So the Oregon Ducks are really looking good and the Ohio State Buckeyes are doing OK.  The other OSU, Oregon State is the best 5 and 5 team in the country.  They have played a really tough schedule.  So there are my prejudices.  Unless you count those on the negative side.  Like the love affair of sports writers and coaches for the SEC, especially Auburn.  There the investigation of Cam Newton should have been completed weeks ago.  And I’m proud to say that the Pac 10 sends its bad boys (Jeremiah Masoli) away.  To Mississippi in the SEC.  Let’s hope college football doesn’t go the way of the NBA and now the NFL.  Don’t watch the NBA at all anymore and I’m rapidly losing interest in the NFL.  Nothing but thugery, exhibitionism, and hip-hop.

So!  How about Dancing with the Stars and Bristol Palin.  Of course she is not a very good dancer but ain’t it great that she keeps hanging on.  You’re entitled to disagree but don’t shoot your TV.  ‘The people’ spoke.  And Maks got it right when he said, "People vote and their voices count," he said. "I don't regret a second ... of being on this season. It's been an amazing journey."  And he was, of course, referring to some place in the old Soviet Union or eastern Europe where people didn’t use to get a vote.  Anyway I enjoyed the consternation and whining of the Hollywood left for the loss of Brandy.  As I said to Kat a couple of weeks ago, “if this is an indication of the strength of the Tea Party then Sarah Palin out to run for President as soon as possible”.  Let the people speak!

And then there is the issue of Janet Incompetano and 300 million people being subject to groping rather than narrow the field to guys named Mohammed or Muhammad and being subject to profiling.  But I guess I better not get too political.  I don’t want to lose my reader.  Of course it is my Blog and I could write what I want.  I’ll have to give that some thought.  Right after I watch some more Fox News. 

Texas and Audie Murphy

Just a moderate drive west across the Mississippi and through southern Arkansas brought us to Texarkana and then Atlanta State Park in Atlanta, Texas.  We volunteered just up the road a few winters ago so it’s almost like being home.  We stayed long enough to have a nice visit with Bob and Dee who met here and have stayed in touch with. Our visit included what has become the traditional catfish fry whenever were here.  Nice to see them, they are doing well and still catching a mess of fish.
Then it was down the road to Lake O’ the Pines and Brushy Creek campground another COE park.  It is near Jefferson TX, Jefferson is a quaint little town with lots of antique shops and history.  It somehow use to be a port city even though it’s way inland from the Gulf.  Something about the Red River being damned up (Ok I’m going to have to look).  Memory served!  Until 1872 the Red River was damned up by something called the Great Red River Raft, a log jam that raised the level of Caddo Lake, the only natural lake in Texas, to make riverboat traffic possible between St. Louis, Jefferson, and New Orleans via Caddo lake and the Red river.  Then in 1872 with the invention of nitroglycerin the Army Corps (corpse if you’re Barrack Hussein, couldn’t resist) of Engineers blew it up.  Don’t know why?  But they did!  It was true that the railroad had pretty much killed the need for any riverboat traffic by this time along the whole of the Mississippi and Ohio River system.  At any rate at its peak Jefferson was the 6th largest town in Texas with a population of 30,000.  Now it’s about 2000.  Legend has it that Jay Gould, a railroad magnate had the Great Red River Raft destroyed but there seems to be no basis for that happening.  However his private railroad car is on display in town.  Very fancy!  And Jefferson has a kind of New Orleansish flavor and flair to it.  We enjoyed it! Although we only had pie at the ‘Hamburger Store’.  Damn!

Then it was on to Livingston and the Escapees park to pick up our mail.  Didn’t stay much longer than that.   
After a couple of months of just not feeling right and two stops at VA hospitals in Ohio and Indiana we decided we needed to stop in San Antonio at Audie Murphy, South Texas VA hospital and get me checked out again.  So we did and I am.  I won’t go into it, but suffice to say they are working me over.  They have it all at Audie Murphy including a real competent and pleasant staff.  Nurses Vicky and Cheerie (sp?) deserve particular mention.  Both very competent and nice people. 
After a couple of weeks in San Antonio we moved out to Hondo and an Escapees park. Got here just in time for a really neat Veterans Day celebration.  The high school band from D’Hanis, airplane fly-by, lunch and the whole works.  Very nice!

Now all we need is to get my medical done and be on our way to the Valley for the winter.  Won’t be long I hope!