Mission Accomplished

Third Street all decked out for Christmas-The Craft Girls and there new sweatshirts-The Bentsen Grove parade float.

Mission has been our goal since March of ‘06’ when we first came through here. We liked it so much we planned on spending a couple of months here the next year in the winter of ’07-08’. Unfortunately we couldn’t make it because of my medical situation. But Bentsen Grove saved our deposit for us until this winter of ’08-09’ and here we are.

It has lived up to expectations. The park has all the activities we could want and then some, and of course in this lifestyle we always meet nice people and make new friends. I have joined the woodcarving group; the Easy Bleeders, and most recently taken up ‘Pickle Ball’. Carving has been a kick. We have a really good group and I am learning some new stuff. Quite a bit actually. Our nominal leader, Tom, has been carving for 30 odd years and is very knowledgeable. He has given a couple of classes, but it’s all very relaxed and fun. It’s one of those groups where a thick skin helps because of the good natured ribbing. “The first liar doesn’t have a chance” kind of a place! Pickle Ball is great. It’s maybe best described as a combination of table tennis and real tennis, played on a smaller court than tennis with a paddle and whiffle ball. There is less ground to cover and we play doubles (men’s, ladies and mixed too, of course) which makes it better for us seniors. Being seniors there is much less testosterone in evidence than there would have been in years gone by, but there are a few of us who get a little competitive when playing each other. But we’re nice most of the time. It’s a little slower than tennis, but challenging and good exercise. My knees have not been cooperating very well though. I’m trying to work through it. I’ll either make it, or it will kill me. Kat has taken up Swimnastics and crocheting and knitting in a big way. She goes to the pool two hours a day four or five days a week. I join her sometimes after her class and then she even does more. And we go other times to the pool and hot tub just because we can. Kat took up knitting a couple of months ago just to fill time and relax while riding. She has really taken it to another level down here. Now its knitting and crocheting and new projects. I think she is the ‘online expert’ for her craft group which meets three or four nights a week to knit and gab. I think mostly to gab. But she keeps up on the news that way. We don’t do that in carving (LOL). Her latest project was a cover for my Pickle Ball paddle. It’s blue and white with a red pocket in the middle for looks. Real cool! And the envy of all.

Border to Border

After a night at Wal-Mart we pulled into the Escapees Rainbow park in Livingston. As I alluded to in the previous post, we’re about as close to home as we’re going to get when we’re in this part of the world. And Livingston is our only real address. So we picked up the mail, did a little business, and relaxed for a few days. So what’s new huh?

There was one momentous event. There is a lumber yard here where you can have your rig weighed to see how you’re doing in that regard. Weight is a big factor in the safety and handling of a motorhome going down the road at 60 MPH, and it had been a while since we found a scale we could use. Remember, this is our home. We don’t hit the road for 6 months, go back to the ‘stick and brick’ and reload with clothes for a different season. If we own it, it’s with us, and it’s on wheels. Anyway, we got the on the scale, got the print out, and checked the weight against our allowable load and, “Viola!!!”. We have over 700 lbs to spare. Hot Damn!! We even made allowance for not having quite a full fuel load. So we went shopping and to the Chinese buffet. LOL!

We stopped in Brazos Bend, Gonzales, San Antonio, and Choke Canyon on the way south. We strolled down the Riverwalk in San Antonio and saw lots of wildlife in Brazos Bend and Choke Canyon. Just another nice drive through Texas that took the better part of a month. Well, it’s big ‘dog gone’ state and it takes a while for us to get across. Most of it spent in very nice Texas state parks. Which is why we buy the yearly pass for sixty bucks. We figure over the course of a year it saves us quite a few $$ and there are a mess of state parks to enjoy.

Now we are in Mission in the Rio Grand Valley on the southern border. We’ll be here for the next couple of months or so enjoying the weather and meeting new friends and looking forward to the New Year and lots more travel and fun. We won’t forget our new weight allowance! Hopefully we won’t use it up in personal weight gain from too many tortillas and frijoles.

Hot Springs to Clear Springs

Our new Digs!

Gas prices are coming down! Whooo ahh! By the time we left Illinois it was $3.16 and now it’s going lower. It’s so exciting I check going in and out of town now. I guess that comes from going in debt up to you know where paying $200-$250 for a fill-up. Twice now very recently I noticed that the gas price had come down between the time we went into and came out of Wal-Mart. I think the lowest price we saw was $1.43. That may have been around Houston which we are not, technically speaking, at yet. I’m a little behind in writing. So ‘shoot me’!

We stayed for a few days near Hot Springs, Arkansas, and then headed for Texas. Our first stop was Clear Springs campground. It’s a Corps of Engineers Park, not too far from Texarkana on Wright Patman Lake, just up the road from Atlanta, Texas, and next to Piney Point campground where we spent a few months. Actually we had stayed in Clear Springs for a while too. Being at Wright Patman is kind of like being home. We’re never far from home with this lifestyle but still there are a few places because of comfort and familiarity that are closer than most. This being one of them.

After a few days we moved down the lake to Atlanta State Park and waited for our good friends Bob and Dee to arrive. They’re volunteering as park hosts for the winter. It was here that I took the ‘toad’ (our 13 year old Ford Escort tow car) into the Ford dealer to check on the ‘check engine’ light I was getting on the panel. As it turns out we needed a new catalytic converter and O-2 sensor. The dealer quote for that was $1100.00. But the service guy took me aside and told me to go to some muffler shop and I could get it done a lot cheaper. In the meantime I was OK to drive it, but at some point it would begin to lose power and quit. I took that advice and decided to get it done down the road in South Texas. A new(er) car would be nice but this one does the job and is paid for. We intend to keep it until it just won’t go anymore. So I guess I’ll have more to report on this later.

Bob and Dee made it and it was good to see them. We first met them at Piney Point back in ‘06’ when we both volunteered there. They go to Washington state in the summer and we get together there too. So we sat by the fire a couple of nights and caught up. Buff (Bob) cooked some catfish one night and one night we went to Chinese. One night we went to a distant and boggy part of the lake and got some cypress knees. Cypress knees are good for carving and Buff was looking through my carving catalogue and saw some for sale. He asked if I would like some and then said he knew where there were some. So we drove out to the end of the road and walked into the bog and cut some. It was quite a battle with the mosquitoes though. They were fierce! But now I have several cypress knees and I would say the bites were worth it. I think Kat would even agree and she hates bug bites. You should have seen her. She had a hooded jacket and it was pulled tight so that all you could see was her eyes. I think she even tucked her pants in her socks. And I know she used a can of insect repellant. She still got bit! Wicked bad mosquitoes! And then she even helped me peel off all the bark. Carving material is getting to be a problem. A couple of days later Bob and I cut off some good carving size pieces from a cedar tree. The lower branches needed some pruning and we (I) was happy to oblige. Kat saved me by putting the cedar pieces in her clothing drawers. Smells good and does a job I guess but I truly can’t store much more wood.

Corn Country and the Jackson Purchase

So it was off through Illinois. We didn’t get too far before stopping at Illini state park. We’d been there before and it’s a nice stop on the Illinois River. A place to watch the big barges go up and down the river carrying who knows what to who knows where? It was interesting to watch them go through the locks just south of the park.

After Illini we headed into corn country. Lots and lots of corn. I wondered how much was being paid in ethanol subsidies as we drove on. I figured at least enough to keep all the farmers in big new pick-ups and SUV’s. Or so it seemed. But who would blame them? After staying a few days each in two Corps of Engineer parks we crossed the Ohio into Cairo, Kentucky, at the Junction of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. Driving through Cairo I couldn’t help but wonder what it must have been. The highway and Main Street was a wide boulevard between many large and old sandstone buildings whose ‘time in the sun’ was long ago. The barges no longer stop in Cairo. Given what we saw, we would not either. Sadly, I doubt the environs knew there was ever a ‘heyday’ in Cairo. They may not have known what a ‘heyday’ was. Very sad!

A few miles south we stayed at Columbus-Belmont, a Kentucky state park overlooking the Mighty Mississippi (pictured, along with the mutt Kat just had to feed). This western tip of Kentucky is part of the ‘Purchase’ and has an interesting history. And here is just a taste!

The Jackson Purchase is a region in the state of Kentucky bounded by the Mississippi River to the west, the Ohio River to the north, and Tennessee River to the east. Although technically part of Kentucky at its statehood in 1792, the land did not come under definitive U.S. control until President Andrew Jackson purchased it in 1818 from the Chickasaw Indians. Kentuckians generally call this region ‘the Purchase’.

The area of the State Park also had a role in the War Between the States. It is the site of fortifications built by the Confederates and later occupied by Union forces. The 1861 Battle of Belmont, a raid fought to test the strength of this Confederate stronghold, marked the opening of the Union's Western Campaign and was the opening engagement along the Mississippi River. It was also Union General Ulysses S. Grant's first active engagement in the Civil War. Some of the artillery, which shelled the Union troops, and the six-ton anchor that held the great chain stretching across the river, meant to impede Union river traffic, are on display in the park.

For those more recently educated in the public school system, Union forces continued military action down the Mississippi and eventually took Vicksburg and New Orleans, gained control of the of the Mississippi, and eventually won the war. 2nd Great Uncle Isaac Sines fighting with the 45th Illinois was killed in a charge of a redoubt in Vicksburg when it exploded. He is buried in the National Cemetery at Vicksburg.

We kind of followed the river south into Memphis and had another good visit with Cousin Eddie. Once again we stayed at the Ag Center and made good use of the Farmers Market. And no visit to Memphis is complete without going to Corky’s for some Southern style barbecued ribs. I prefer the dry rub while Kat usually gets the combo. Some dry and some wet. Hmmm! Hmmm! Just so you know Corky’s can be ordered online.

The "Cuz"

As I mentioned in the previous post, cousin Nancy (in the back with the hat???) had come to Columbus for the reunion. In fact she had flown in on a one way ticket. I’ll explain.

In our wanderings and communications with friends and family a visit (when in the area) and continued communication with Nancy has become a regular thing. In our last visit to the Chicago area we even promised her a camping trip sometime. I have a vague remembrance of being kind of roped into it. I think it was a Kat and Nancy thing? So…. This was that promise. We thought a return trip home from Columbus with us in the RV might be kind of neat and it turned out just so! We stopped ‘again’ at the Air Force museum in Dayton, drove through Amish country in northern Indiana, visited the RV/MH Hall of Fame in Elkhart, and camped at a couple of state parks. The ‘again’ at the Air Force museum was because Kat and I had just been there a week or so earlier and wanted to see some more. Especially Kat, which kind of surprised me. Her dad had been a tail gunner on a WW II B-29 and that may have been her favorite. She even liked the Air Museum better than the RV Hall of Fame. Though it was nice too. They had some real historical and vintage RV’s including one used by Mae West. Worth a stop for any RV’ers. At our first state park Nancy was trying to ‘hit’ (I use the term lightly, and with a smile) on some bachelor school teacher that she met on a morning walk. We even dropped her off at his school in the morning while we had breakfast. All very secretive though! We didn’t hear much more but I do know that she met his class and had a short visit. At a state park in Michigan Kat and Nancy took a drive to Lake Michigan but couldn’t find it. I told them it must have dried up or been moved? They never did find that lake. One can only wonder?

I do need to bloviate a little here. I make light of the girls not being able to find Lake Michigan, but then if it’s like most of the country any water front property is private, developed and most always off limits to the riff-raff. And being from Oregon like I am, it just ‘chaps my hide’. You see, in Oregon we don’t have private beach front property! Not on the coast anyway. The Pacific coast belongs to the people of Oregon and there is access to it all. The same is true for large sections (greenways) of the Willamette River through Portland and up the valley from Eugene. Politically speaking Oregon may seem like the ‘Peoples Republic’ in many ways but you can ‘By God’ get to the beach!!!! Oh! And if you don’t happen to be from Oregon, you’re still invited! All thanks to the late Governor Tom McCall.

We all had a good time and some laughs, built one fire to make it seem like ‘camping’, and dropped Nancy off in Downers Grove just a little too soon for her. But we did get her right to her door step which is better than the airlines would have done and better than she thought we could do. We had no desire to hang around and take a chance on any cold northern weather so for us it was time to ‘beat feet’ and head on south!!!!

The Heart of it All

That is what is on the Ohio state auto license plate anyway. Because I am a native Buckeye I suppose I can go along with it. At least as long as the good people of Ohio don’t get carried away with it. But when you travel and see as much as we do, it’s not hard to get the idea that there are some mighty fine places in all parts of the good ol’ U.S. of A. and I’m also certain the good people of Ohio know and understand that as well.

Our first stop in the Buckeye State was to see J.T and Linda McAdams in Thompson somewhat near the Cleveland area. J.T. use to be Terry and live and work with me at the post office in Oregon. Most of you know the story and I’m not going to go into if you don’t. Suffice to say we were very good friends as were our wives at the time. We both lost wives and then lost touch with each other for a while but that has been corrected. The wives too! It was great to see J.T. and meet Linda. We plan on staying in touch this time and doing some RV’ing together. We spent a few days in their driveway and saw some of NE Ohio. Mostly J.T. and I got caught up and then got to enjoy Ike. Hurricane Ike that is! The remnants came through Ohio while we were there and disrupted things for a time. Thompson had 98 mph winds and knocked out power for three or four days although we left on the second day of that. We only sat in the dark for a short time because J.T. has a generator. And of course being in the RV, we are self contained and don’t have to worry about that stuff.

Then it was off to Columbus and a visit with my family. We did stop at the Ohio state park at Alum Creek long enough to be ripped off by paying for a site with electricity and not having any. It was a small thing and I know that the crews were working hard to clean up the mess from Ike, but I still think the State of Ohio owes us a free night at a state park. Anyway; on to Columbus! As is always the case now, we park in front of sister Sandy’s house in the cul-de-sac and make ourselves to home. Brother-in-law Dom had even wired us up with 30 amp electrical service. Maybe he was trying to make up for the state park system? And as is also always the case, we had a wonderful visit. I’m sure lots of folks think their family is about the best and I’m no exception, except of course …………………... I am right!! Ha! The highlight of this visit was going to a Ohio State football game. Nephew Dom (Donnie) got tickets for Sandy, myself, nephew Mike and his son Garrett. I hadn’t been to a Buckeye game at the ‘shoe’ (Ohio States famous ‘Horseshoe’ stadium) since 1960 when I was dating Janie Biggs. She was the daughter of the then team trainer, Ernie Biggs. That was a while ago and it has changed a lot, which you may, or may not, know? I did not! And I watch a lot of football. On TV of course. Anyway; it use to be that you dressed in something nice, went to the game, watched the game, cheered and applauded as appropriate, maybe had a Coke, watched Woody do a minor (or major) rant, and maybe, if you were fortunate, you had an Ohio State hat. No longer!! Now you dress in everything Ohio State Buckeye scarlet and gray, I think in some cases right down to your underwear. Face or body paint would be acceptable, as would a string of Buckeyes around your neck. You would want to get there about three hours before game time to go to the ‘Skull session’ and see the band and team members and hear something from coach Tressel. You might get your picture taken with Brutus the Buckeye (we did), buy anything Ohio State, or any kind of party or tailgate food at any of the assorted booths surrounding the stadium. It is pretty much insane. Not in a bad way, just wild and crazy and colorful and loud. And then you go into the stadium. A sea of scarlet, with the band, cheering student sections, and waves, and the Jumbotron to show you what you can’t see. It’s just nuts. But it was really cool and I thank young Dominic for the experience. And they won! Beating Minnesota something, something, to something. But I’m still not the biggest Tressel fan.

After the game we went to young Dominic’s for a family reunion. Technically it would be mostly Sandy’s family which is of course is also my family, minus my kids who would be in Oregon. Aunt Mary, our family matriarch was there as were cousins Patti and Nancy from Iowa and Illinois respectively. Mike and Phyllis made it from North Carolina, and I think pretty much all the Columbus folks were there. Mostly all who could be, were there. Sheri was our most gracious host and of course it was a joy to be there. I know that, because of course,…….Sheri told me I knew that! Just kidding Sheri!

So once again we spent some time in Columbus and saw some old friends and places; went to the GUM men’s breakfast, and traded barbs with Phil and Sam (a regular thing now, the breakfast too); spent hours getting up to date with Sandy and Don’ and enjoying their company and hospitality; played a little with Buffy, who is still just sooo cute!; blocked Rose’s view down the street for a couple of weeks; and risked life and limb while Kevin roared in and out of the driveway next to us. It was all good and in time we’ll go back and do it again!

Over the mountains to Niagara

We had a very pleasant journey through the White or maybe the Green mountains to Niagara Falls. I get the White and the Green mixed up but we did them both at some point in our New England travels so I’m not going to look it up just now. We stayed in state parks along US Hwy 2 and the St Lawrence seaway through NH, VT, and NY. They had names like Coles Creek, Sackets Harbor, and Four Creek. It may have been a little early for the renowned ‘fall’ color but it was still a beautiful and relaxing trip. I was in part influenced by the fact that we were headed west. I’ve done this a lot in the past ten years and it always happens that I feel just a little better heading west. Maybe it’s some of what Horace Greeley was talking about that comes out in me. More likely it’s familiarity and comfort level and the calling of home and heart. Anyway! The weather was great, the highways were in good shape, the traffic was light, and mostly it was just us. How bad can that be? Far from it!

I do have one small complaint though. Well, maybe not so small! There ain’t no moose! There’s s’posed to me moose!!! I wouldn’t complain, but this is moose country and every few miles there is a yellow sign that says “Watch for Moose”. Well, I’ve been watching and all I can say is. “Liar, Liar”!
I saw one moose (pictured) but he was a poor specimen indeed.

It was at Four Creek that we stopped for a few days and went in to Niagara Falls. We drove the few miles south into Niagara Falls and parked at some cultural (?) center or something, which overlooked the Niagara river. We didn’t realize but a few minutes later a trolley came by and we ran over to see what was the deal. As it turned out it was a trolley to the Falls. Not only that, but it was free. So we got on for the ride. The trolley dropped us at the Visitor Center and scenic overlooks, and the place where you ride the Maid of the Mist. All this was very unexpected and we thought quite fortuitous. We took the Maid of the Mist boat ride which was quite a ‘kick’. The boat takes you up passed American Falls and into the spray and mist of Horseshoe Falls. Everybody gets a blue plastic raincoat for the trip and as it turns out, it really is necessary. We couldn’t believe how much spray we got. We got on with some folks who were on a tour and they told us that they were told to go to the front of the boat for the best experience. We got right up front and I think they were told right. We had a great view and we got all the spray and mist. I was worried the camera might be ruined but it came through OK. Kat was a little more ‘the worse for wear’. She had trouble pulling her hood tight and really got soaked all the way to her underwear. We did some other things but it really was the highlight of Niagara Falls.

Maybe I should not relate this story but it’s kind of hard to resist. When we bought our tickets, got our raincoats, and walked down to get in line for the Maid of the Mist ride we got behind two young couples who were probably French Canadian. They may have been French or Belgian or something but they were foreign and spoke what sounded mostly French. The guys were wearing their funny little European shoes and what I would call Capri’s, or I have heard them called mud pants. I don’t think these guys would say mud pants though. That would be too masculine I think? I’m trying to set the mood here. They were very European and I think Capri’s is the best term. Anyway, one of them was trying to help the other put on his blue raincoat. These are very lightweight see-through raincoats and I just couldn’t shake the image I was getting. And as too often happens I voice what I’m thinking. Out of the clear blue I said to them, “kind of like trying to put on a giant blue condom huh”? Kat just about pee’d in her pants and said later , she would have “crawled under a rock if she could have found one”; fortunately these guys and girls thought it was kind of cute too. Well maybe, because I think after they had some time to think about it for a couple of minutes they weren’t so sure it was so cute. They kind of shied away from us and we didn’t see them the rest of the trip……… Oh well!