Johnson’s Rock Shop

Several friends told us that we need to go to Johnson’s Rock Shop before we leave Livingston. It’s located about 30 minutes from the park, way off the beaten path with just a few home-made signs showing the way off of route 190. A cute little old lady, in her 80’s (I’m assuming she’s Mrs. Johnson) runs the “complex”. I call it that because there are a bunch of little buildings, all clustered together in a little village-like atmosphere that each house different types of rocks.
Mrs. Johnson said that they’ve had the shop for only 38 years but have been rock hounds for 67 years. They go to Tuscon, to an annual rock show to buy the rocks they sell in the shop. Her daughter, who has recently retired, has moved back home to help her mom. She makes a lot of the chokers and jewelry. Her mom seemed to be very happy to have her daughter helping her these days since her husband has been sick off and on and unable to help her. There’s so much to see as you walk through the village.
One building was the silversmith shop, another the music shop and another was called Tammy’s Hotel. Prices seemed pretty reasonable compared to prices for similar gems we’ve seen elsewhere but when you live in an RV, rocks are the last thing to come home with. Neat place to check out on your next visit to Livingston.
Speaking of heavy….tomorrow morning we’re scheduled to get our rig weighed here in the park by the Smart Weigh folks. We went into town and filled up with gas today (dang it if gas hasn’t gone up 13 cents in the last couple days). Water tank is filled and tanks are dumped. We’re ready ! Will let you know what the verdict is.
Got word on our next assignment. Our new scheduler called and we’re going to an island below Corpus Christi….Port Aransas. There are two parks there that need to be done so we’ll be there for three weeks once we finish up next week in Arlington. We’re excited ! The parks are right along the water and the temps have been pretty nice there (especially the night temps). As good a place as any to spend January !

Monday

First thing this morning we drove down to the local RV repair place to see if they can order the part for our coach steps. Over the weekend, I had Linda open the door from the inside (while I stood outside) so I could put the awning out. I wanted to let it air out since we’ve had so much rain over the last few days. When Linda opened the door the steps acted really weird and didn’t open up correctly. I got under the rig and discovered a big bolt laying under the steps….sheared off. We need to talk to the local repair place and see if they can get them fixed before we leave Sunday to go back to Dallas. If not, gonna look kind of weird to have them bungied to the underside of the rig so they’re not swinging to and fro in the breeze. It’s always something….
Spent the day with our friends Cindy and Wendy, down in Houston. We drove from Livingston, down to Houston, to hang out with them for the day. Taught them how to play Mexican Train and being the quick learners that they are, Cindy whupped us. It’s been so long since we’ve played that we’d forgotten the rules and called the ladies who taught us to get a refresher on the rules.
On the way home, from Wendy and Cindy’s place, we stopped at Church’s chicken to get some chicken strips for supper. At the drive through, I asked over the little speaker if they had plain chicken strips, without a combo deal. We had a distinct communication problem when I couldn’t understand anything she was asking me. We mudded our way through the ordering process….enlisting Linda’s help periodically to translate what I thought this woman on the other end of the intercom (which I think was located in Mexico somewhere) was asking me. We get up to the window, she opens her window and says the total and I hand her our Discover card, since it’s 5% cash back this month on restaurant purchases. She takes it and turns around to process it, turns back around and hands it to me, saying “pizza and mustard”. Now I know that I have two strikes against me since my bad ear is on the left, closest to this woman but I’m thinking that “pizza and mustard” might be the dipping sauces to choose from. I’m thinking perhaps I had heard her incorrectly until I turn to look at Linda and Linda says “pizza and mustard” ? We’re thinking that the mustard part makes sense but pizza as a new flavor of dipping sauce seems a little bizarre. We both lean towards the window and look at the woman who says it again…pizza and mustard. We must have looked like deer in headlights because when we looked at her again she annunciated very slowly…Visa and MasterCard. We both started laughing and Linda says, “We’re so sorry but you have a bit of an accent”. DUH ! Ya think ! I hand her my other credit card…the mustard one, I believe and she runs it while Linda is busting a gut. Oh my, it was funny. When she truly did ask what dipping sauce I wanted, I asked her for honey mustard and got it. Apparently she understands English better than I understand Spanish. Hmmmm…..

Hiking Over the Holidays

Yesterday we went to Lake Livingston State park, with Boomer, to go hiking. We figured we better get out and enjoy the outdoors before the rain got here. We took the one mile interpretive trail that is wheel chair and stroller accessible. It’s like a boardwalk through the woods. A little tough to sneak up on animals .since our boots on the wood planks, clunk as you walk. The temps have been really cool (in the 40’s)so we bundled up for the walk. Seems there have been some serious wind storms lately as there were lots of trees down. Not the small Loblolly pines but large trees were uprooted.
There’s a riding stable in the park with a path through the woods for the trail rides. There are several places where there are descriptive boards that tell about the area wildlife that one might see as they hike along. It was very tranquil to hike through the solitude and listen to the birds.
The next three days we’re supposed to have rain…Grrrr…day started out around 45 degrees…it’s now 43. Not my idea of vacation weather for our time off. We will certainly make some changes in our schedule so we’ll spend December in Florida next year. There is a chance for snow up in Dallas, where we need to return to finish up this assignment. Need to start thinking about where we might want to go if not given another assignment once we finish up in Arlington. Someplace warm !
A while back Linda bought some wax for our spa machine. Today we fired it up and both treated ourselves to wax treatments on our hands and feet. Those full hand potholders sure work nice for keeping your hands warm after dipping in the wax and putting bags on your hands. After Linda’s dip in the wax, I then painted her toes and nails with pretty polish. Trying to make the best of a blah day. Wishing all of our friends and family a happy and healthy holiday season. Hope your day is bright and cheery wherever you are.

Leroy

We picked Leroy up and went to Jerry’s for dinner. We worked with Leroy and his wife, Bonnie when we came to the Care Center in fall of 2007 to volunteer. They worked with us for a good bit of that time. He’s had some serious health issues in the last year and his son thought that the Care Center was the best place for him so that the staff could keep an eye on him. He’s also close to relatives in the area and he’s always on the go doing things and helping out as best he can. Had a great time catching up with him. Leroy’s the “south mouth” and has lots of great stories to tell. Catfish, jumbo shrimp, home-made rolls, onion rings, coconut cream pie and a good friend…it doesn’t get any better than that.

Whole Lot of French Frying Going On…

Short night of sleep last night. Storms started right after I went to bed and it really POURED ! In the “treehouse” bedroom, it sounds like when frosty french fries hit hot oil in the fryer. It was crackling so loud, we couldn’t hear the sound on the TV so gave up and shut it off. Boomer was petrified and wound up in bed with us all night long. The storms would die down a little and then swoop in again. I remember asking Linda at one point what time it was and it was 3:05 and raining really bad out. Today it was cloudy all day and in the 50’s.
We went out and about for a while and then returned to Livingston to eat at Bodacious BBQ. It was really good. Tonight we went down to the Care Center, where a friend of ours who we met when we all were volunteers here in fall of 2007, is now a resident. Everyone was sitting down to supper and I walked up and put my hands on his shoulders, where he sat at the table. He turned around and saw Linda, was so surprised and jumped up and gave us both a big hug. We’re going to take him out to Jerry’s Restaurant tomorrow night so we can catch up with him.
Not much else going on. One of the other ICR’s, from our company, is staying here in the park. Her mom has a house here. We went down Tuesday night and had happy hour with Trudy, her mom and a friend of her mom’s. Had a great time and sampled a wonderful cheese that they had recently discovered. It’s called Santiagio Balsamic and it melts in your mouth. Wow…good stuff !
So happy that I finally figured out how to print, from the laptop, without having to get up and walk to the printer…hook it up, etc. When we had the broadband card, for our internet, we had purchased a modem and was hoping that would do the trick. Nope, doesn’t work with broadband card. But now that we have the tablet that serves as a MiFi, it can work. I just had to download some additional drivers, from Epson’s website. Most all of the new printers are able to print wirelessly…just need the correct drivers on your laptop. Voila…it’s done and now I can shoot stuff to the printer and not worry about running out of power (from unhooking from the power supply) while I truck out to the printer. I also set the printer up here in the living room so the “commute” would be shorter. Gadgets ! Cant live with ‘em…can’t exist without ‘em.

Holiday Christmas Party and Grapevine

Saturday night was our boss’ Christmas party at his house. We were able to meet several of the other  couples that sell for AGS or Texas Advertising. It’s great to put faces with the voices/names of people we’ve talked to but hadn’t met yet. Brian and Debra have a great house and it’s decorated beautifully for Christmas. We got to meet Rick, who will be the person taking care of scheduling and other duties for Brian. He’s from Maine and is excited to start his new duties after some training with one of the trainers that we started out with. There were a lot of people there…probably around 35 or so. There was a Chinese gift exchange, where people can steal a present that someone else has already gotten and then that person gets another present. It was fun…Linda got a new back massager that I’m currently sitting on. It’s great !
Today we drove to Grapevine, Texas which is only about 30 minutes away. One of the other RV parks that our  company does is Vineyards RV Resort and we have heard that it’s a gorgeous park and that the town of Grapevine is really cute so off we went to check it all out. The resort is situated around a lake and the layout of the park is awesome. They took advantage of every view for RV site placement and it’s gorgeous. There is a view of the marina and I can only imagine how spectacular the view is on a sunny, warm day when the lake has more water in it (remember there’s a bad drought going on here. Look at where the water level should be in the pictures.) There was a storm coming in so it was really overcast and windy but still a perfect setting to put an RV. Many of the sites had little decks, large fire rings with a grilling grate and nice picnic table. Some even had little pergolas over the deck area.


A short distance from the RV park is the historic downtown area, which is really cute. Lots of great shops and decorations for Christmas too. We had heard that Grapevine is the Christmas capital of Texas with all of the events and decorating and I can see why. We walked up and down the streets, checking out all of the shops and restaurants. We really enjoyed the town and would definitely go back again.
Tomorrow we leave for the Escapees park in Livingston, until after the first of the year. Anxious to get on the road and see some different sights out our picture window. Will post again once we get there and get settled in.

Singing, Cowboys and Rangers

Arlington is like the sports capital in the country. The Texas raceway is nearby, as well as the Texas Rangers park and Cowboy Stadium. We drove to the Cowboys Stadium so we could say that we saw it. It’s’ not in the kind of location I would expect to see a huge sports complex. It sits directly across the street from a Wal-Mart and on the fringe of a business district, where the residential area begins. It’s a very pretty structure; the side panels are reflective glass. The parking lot markers have the pictures of Cowboy legends screen printed on the marker. I saw Landry and Roger Staubach’s pics on the ones I saw. There was a high school football game going on at the stadium. Can you imagine how those kids must feel playing on the same turf that their idols play on ? The Cowboys stadium will be home to this year’s Super Bowl and Cotton Bowl. The parking attendant that Linda chatted with while I was taking pictures said that there are all kinds of events booked at the stadium all the time. From the sky, the stadium looks like a giant football. Glad we got to see it.
Within site of the Cowboys Stadium, is the park where the Texas Rangers play. Another huge structure but in a very pretty setting. As you probably recall the Texas Rangers won the 2011 World Series.





Last night we went out to dinner with our boss and his wife and some other folks from AGS. Had dinner at Romano’s Macaroni Grill(?) which was very good. First time I’ve been to a Romano’s. After dinner we went to the Will Roger’s Center to see Ernie Haase and Signature Sound Christmas tour. They are a gospel group that our boss really likes and I must say, they were really good. They played some real toe-tapping, hand clapping songs. I think a lot of the songs were original songs that they have written because I didn’t recognize any of them. Beautiful voices and a great show that lasted over two hours ! A super nice evening…tonight is our bosses Christmas party. Today we’re headed to the Fort Worth stockyards to check that out.

Our trip to the Grassy Knoll….

Today we went to the sixth floor museum…the place where Lee Harvey Oswald fired the fatal shot that killed President John F. Kennedy. Upon arriving in Arlington, Texas, to do this job, I had seen mention of this museum as something to see and do in the area and thought what an odd name for an attraction. If it wasn’t for Cindy and Wendy telling us that it’s the book depository where the assassination took place, I never would have made the connection. So glad they told us about it. I would have hated to miss something like this; something that had such a prominent place in American history.
The museum is an audio tour, narrated by Pierce Allman, the first reporter to report from the Texas School Book Depository on November 22, 1963 and that fateful day. Through photographs, news reports and eye witness accounts, it takes you through that day. The picture on the right shows the depository (brick building behind that teal van). Lee Harvey Oswald was in the far right window on sixth floor (building is seven stories tall). This picture shows where the motorcade took the sharp turn onto Dealey Plaza and started down the road. In the middle lane, to the right of that teal van, there’s an “X” that marks where the first shot hit President Kennedy. A second later the second shot rang out and this was the shot (where the “X” is in the empty street) that killed President Kennedy. In that split second, our country’s history was changed forever.
The museum shows footage of the funeral, swearing in of Lyndon Johnson and the outpouring of emotion felt worldwide. There’s an interesting video by Walter Cronkite, making us ponder if what happened almost 50 years ago, was the beginning of the unraveling of civility among US citizens. After Kennedy’s assassination came his brother’s assassination, Martin Luther King’s, tormoil and unrest. The hope and optimism that Americans had been feeling during those thousand days of Kennedy’s term in office, went up in smoke when he was killed. The museum also has pictures showing Lee Harvey Oswald’s killing, by Jack Ruby, as Oswald was being transported to county jail.
There were some school groups there today. A number of the children were African American in heritage which made me wonder if they grasped the enormity of what they saw today in what Kennedy did in bringing equality to the table for them. I was only three when he was shot so I don’t remember any of this but from watching footage of the man and reading quotes from his speeches, he was a charismatic and insightful man with a wonderful way of speaking that touched everyone…young and old, rich or poor. I’m so glad that Linda and I got to see Dealey Plaza and the book depository while we were here.

Arlington

Things are moving along, here in Texas. Our friends, Cindy and Wendy arrived last Friday and will be leaving in the morning. They have been in the site next to us. It’s been so fun to walk out our door and walk to the next site to visit, have dinner or watch a football game. They are on the diet that we were on (Dukan diet) and are within a couple of pounds of their goal (way to go girls !). They look and feel great and say the same thing we said, “We can’t believe how easy it was to lose the weight”. We gave them some of the recipes that we used during the early stages and they gave us the meatloaf recipe they made last night, which was awesome. We are in the stabilization phase where we can eat anything six days a week and one day a week is our protein day, which takes care of any transgressions during the week. We don’t go crazy cause we don’t want to go back to the weight we used to be. We follow the core principles of the diet and it’s so easy to stay on track.
Anyway, they leave tomorrow and we will probably be here until January 1st to finish up the guide. The manager has been nice enough to let us stay longer than normal. We’ll need to move to another site this weekend, just a couple sites down from where we are now. Not a problem…It’s great here, close to the laundry and dog park. Boomer loves it too !

This is Frank. Frank is a pet pig of an RV’er who was a couple of sites the other side of us up until a few days ago. In this picture, Frank is out for some exercise (apparently his owner didn’t tell him that you lose more weight if you don’t EAT while you’re walking). They walked around the pool and back to the coach again. He needs to lose weight because his belly is dragging on the ground (maybe he needs a skateboard to alleviate that problem) or maybe dad needs to quit giving him treats. I’ve seen dogs and cats in RV’s as pets but this was a first. Good thing it was a large coach. There’s not much getting by this big boy when he’s coming down the aisle in the rig.


We saw this “vehicle” the other day. Is it broken ? It sure looks saggy in the middle. Maybe it’s one of those hip hop cars that raises up when you start it but where the heck is the back end of it. Youth…


Last night the girls and us went to see “Prairie Lights” in nearby Grand Prairie. It was similar to the light show that we saw over Thanksgiving with Linda’s daughter and her family. It was a nice display of lights. In one section they had a wire frame with lights over it that strobed so it appeared as if it was a tunnel. We drove through it real slow to experience the different affects. Good thing none of us are prone to seizures…it was pretty intense !
Warm today…around 70 but rainy all day. I think it’s supposed to clear up tomorrow and be nice but temps will be cooling off again to the high 50’s, low 60’s. Thinking about the weekend and what we might go out and explore. Lots of things to see and do. Hoping for good weather to do it in.

Dallas

We’re finishing up our first week, working the Dallas/Arlington KOA project. It’s been colder than I imagined it would be for Texas but I’m told that this is typical weather. Been in the 40’s during the day and 20’s at night. Tomorrow it’s expected to get up to low 50’s and the same for the weekend. I’ll take it !! Tired of freezing to death. I feel like I’m back home in Pennsylvania…Ughhhh !
Since this is a new job for our company, it comes with all of the legwork and research that goes into a new job. We’ve covered about 70 businesses so far…got another full week of selling ahead but looking forward to tomorrow cause our friends Wendy and Cindy are arriving to hang out with us for a week. Yippee !! We’re excited to see them. Didn’t expect our paths to cross since we originally were supposed to go to Florida to work. They are leaving the Escapees park in Livingston tomorrow and driving here and staying till the 15th. Will be great to explore the area with the girls and warmer temps to boot to do it in. Yeah !
Boomer is having a ball here at the park. We are parked directly in front of the dog park and so far he’s met Molly and Amy. Whenever he sees these two ladies come to the park, he goes crazy and Linda takes him over for their play date. He comes back a happy boy. He goes out with us during the day and squeezes in play time at lunch and supper time. Boomer’s got it rough !
Hoping to do some sight seeing this weekend and check out the area. Who knows what mischief we’ll get into. Just hope this head cold/sinus thing that Linda passed on to me goes away cause I don’t have time to feel crappy. It’s no fun trying to keep your nose from running, your face from hurting and your head from feeling like it’s going to explode. It seems that I get this 24-48 hour dose of ?? whenever we gets several days in a row of rain. Kick up the leaf mold ? Throw pollen around ? Don’t know what it is but it can just hit the road and get out of my head. Gotta run….need a tissue.

RV, The Movie

A pre-requisite movie for all newbie RV’ers is to watch Robin Williams’ movie – RV. This poor guy certainly gets in some predicaments with his rig, which I think his kids nicknamed "The Big Rolling Turd”. He has an encounter, of the worst kind, while dumping his tanks and I think all Rv’ers would agree, it’s an experience none of us want to go through.

A few days ago, when I was making preparations to leave Mocksville, I was preparing to dump our tanks. Our site was super convenient in that the sewer hook-up was only about 3 feet from the side of the rig. When we first pulled onto the site we weren’t able to find the hook-up and eventually did, under a bunch of dirt. (Hold that thought !) I squatted down next to the compartment, where the black and grey valves are, and pulled on the black valve. As usually happens the force of the “black water” comes roaring (yep, that’s the word that fits) out of the tank and the sewer hose (no matter how short a length it is, turns into a wild beast and starts stretching and expanding all over the place). We have a clear connector where the hose meets the pipe going into the ground so you can see the “progress” of the dump. It should flow fast, but smoothly and then taper down to a trickle. This time, it’s flowing fast but doesn’t seem to slow down…then it starts backing up the sewer hose AND then I discover that we have two holes (about the size of a pencil eraser) in the hose. Then the squirting starts except with TWO holes, it’s shooting in two different directions. While I was trying to dodge the shooting fountains (not nearly as impressive as those synchronized fountains you see at Disneyland but if someone had been watching me, probably as entertaining), I realized I had a major back-up. I made the stupid mistake of grabbing the connector to see if there was a clog or something I could “fix”…DUH !  That created a volcanic flow of brown stuff so I slammed the connector back down but not before it made a mess all over the ground. I quickly decided the proper course of action involved closing the valve. Ok…breathe….It appeared this was going to be a long process….do it in small “batches”. One hand on the valve, one eye on the connector, dodging and weaving the two fountains. It sort of resembled some funky hip hop routine you’d see on “So You Think You Can Dance”. For two seconds, I thought I had the one thousand and second use for duct tape in fixing the two holes but quickly dismissed that idea. Pull the valve…peek at connector…dodge the fountains…close the valve. Repeat….After doing this routine for what seemed like a hundred times, the tank was empty. SIGH ! Not sure what would cause the pipe to be clogged (did someone knock a bunch of dirt into it that plugged it) or did someone stuff something down it intentionally or is it just a super slow running drain. Who knows? Even when I hooked up the garden hose to flush the tank, it wouldn’t take the flow of water without backing up (and we only have 30# of pressure at our site). Pretty nerve wracking and really messy ! Can you imagine what my “dance” would have looked like if our sewer connection had been the typical 10 or 15’ away from the rig ? Oh my !!
I think I’ve been officially “baptized” as an RV’er.

Making Our Way West….

  We left Mocksville Wednesday morning and tonight we are as far as Vicksburg, MS…stopped at Ameristar Casino & RV Park for the night. Last night we stayed in Heflin, Alabama at a new, little park just off the highway. Decent park..the owners are dog lovers and will be catering to dog owners as they add several amenities such as a large off leash area, agility activities, etc. It was 24 degrees when we got up this morning. Frost was thick on everything, including this tree stump that was near our RV site. These little sprouts were white with frost.
We arrived at the casino park this afternoon about 2:30. Got set up and filled the fresh water tank as it’s supposed to get cold again tonight. Hoping to get on the road by 7 tomorrow as we have a conference call tomorrow afternoon and will have to come off the road by 3:45 to get set up in time for the call. We’re going to push to make it all the way to Arlington tomorrow…have 400 miles to go. Route 20 hasn’t been too bad so far. Some construction going on and one stretch had lots of dips in the road that made the rig hop as went over them. Made me think of those custom cars you see on TV that hop up and down as they go down the road….our rig had the same feel today. Linda was trying to write up some paperwork while I was driving through hip-hop land….I’m sure that will look interesting.



Took the shuttle over to the casino and had the buffet for supper. Had lots of yummy things. Was a good girl and only looked at the chocolate fountain. The coconut macaroons were just like the ones I used to make at my bakery…very good. Outside the restaurant, there was this gingerbread house that the pastry chefs had created. It was cute ! After supper, we went into the casino and spent $12 on the slots…that’s my contribution to the Vicksburg economy.