A catch up day

I had hoped to get some pictures today, but it just wasn't to be. I really needed to catch up on chores around the motorhome, and do grocery shopping.

I headed for Beaumont, Texas, around 10:00. It's about 50 miles from here. It's really a toss up whether to go to Beaumont or Bayside (in the other direction). I like Beaumont, and was surprised that after two years, I remembered where my favorite stores are.

HEB (here everything's better) is a grocery chain in Texas that always seems to have an excellent selection of items. Finding a corned beef brisket in Texas isn't easy since this is the home of BBQ'ed brisket, but I felt confident I could find what I was looking for. I was correct. Although I only had a selection of two briskets to choose from, at least I found one. Whenever I'm at a refuge that has a volunteer building with a kitchen, I buy a corned beef to prepare. Boiling a corned beef in the motorhome is out of the question. That's too much moisture in the air inside for three hours! St. Patrick's day is the last time I was able to cook one. I'm looking forward to a favorite meal in the near future.

Once I got back to the RV, Emma needed some outside time, and I needed to fill the new two gallon water jug that I found at Walmart this morning. A larger reverse osmosis tank is supposed to be installed soon. That will certainly be an improvement. As it stands now, it takes at least ten minutes to fill a two gallon jug. That's with no one having filled a container since yesterday. I'm not sure how long it takes to produce another two gallons of good water, but a larger system will surely help. Three of the rigs here have occupants that are on the fire crew and they are in training at Aransas NWR this week. When they return, there will be seven rigs trying to get drinking water each day. That could take some time.

After we went back inside, it was time to try to tackle all the dried mud and pebbles that we had tracked in the last two days. My vacuum had to work overtime, but I got most of it up. I had planned to replace a set of rugs that I purchased back in 2005. There are five of them. Two on the entrance steps, one at the top of the stairs, one long one down the hallway, and one in the bathroom so my tootsies don't get cold in the middle of the night. :) They are rubber backed, and after four years of hard use, need to be replaced. They all match, and I purchased them from Camping World. Since there is a Camping World on the west side of Houston, I was going to put in a new set while I was here at Anahuac. Well, I think I'll still buy the new set, but after seeing the results of the mud, I surely won't put them down until I leave here. I'm glad I waited. These worn rugs can last another two months, and then I won't have to try to clean them anymore. That mud turns cement-like when it dries!

Ha Ha! Here's a news flash from the six o'clock news in Houston: The school district is going to keep the heat on overnight so students will be comfortable in the morning! For you folks up north, can you imagine a school not having the heat on overnight at this time of the year? What a hoot! With the threat of a couple of inches of snow, people here are getting all in a dither.

Fun times for the next couple of days....

Thanks for stopping by....talk to you later, Judy

The Sunday Blast from the Past

At the end of August, 2007, I left Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge in North Carolina and headed northwest for a return to Indiana. It was a busy six weeks before I headed south to Texas for the winter. While at my daughter's house in Dyer, IN, we all flew out to Las Vegas for the marriage of my youngest son, Andy, over the Labor Day weekend. I then flew back and drove the RV to the 2007 Escapade. From there, I returned to Rice Lake State Park in Minnesota to camp host for a month while I did my Mayo Clinic checkups, and have repair work done on the rig.

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Finally, it was time to head south. My first stop was at the Pleasant Creek State Recreation Area in Iowa. I met my sister, Pam, and her husband, Stan, there for the weekend.

Pam and I toured the Amana Colonies, and we took pictures of each other in Iowa's largest rocker. It is the same rocker used by Lily Tomlin when she was on Laugh In. It was interesting getting up into that rocker!

After spending the weekend with them, I continued on my journey with a five night stop at Watkins Woolen Mill State Park, a little northeast of Kansas City.

What a historic place this woolen mill is. All the original equipment is still intact.

I went on an interesting tour of the mill.

The countryside in this park was gorgeous.

As I made my way to the Rio Grande Valley, I stopped along the Gulf Coast to visit Aransas National Wildlife Refuge.

Aransas NWR is the wintering home of the endangered Whooping Crane. I was hoping to see this magnificent bird, but I struck out. I will definitely return to Aransas some time down the road. The best way to see the cranes is to take a boat tour of the bay. I was unable to do that on this trip, but I'll be back.

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I visited many other sites on my three week excursion getting to Laguna Atascosa NWR, but these have been a few of the highlights of the trip.

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Thanks for stopping by....talk to you later, Judy