Friday, April 16, 2010

Yesterday was not a nice day weather wise, it was very overcast when we got up and sprinkled off and on all morning, not a day for checking out the wild flowers!

In the afternoon we decided to head up to Marble Falls and get some groceries so we made stops at Wal Mart and HEB (Here Everything’s Better). We had just got into the truck when the sky opened and it POURED all the way home. Sure glad it waited till we were back in the truck or we would have been soaked! Fortunately it had pretty well stopped when we got back so John got us hooked up and ready to go in the morning.

Going up to Marble Falls Highway 281 is a four lane highway and about half way up there was some old fella driving about 30 mph in the left lane, a couple of people barely missed him as you sure aren’t expecting someone to be dawdling along in that lane. On the way home didn’t we see the same old fella heading south and again dawdling along in the left lane in the pouring rain when the visibility was greatly reduced, we wonder if he made it home safely and without causing an accident. Certainly some older people SHOULD NOT be driving!

Today dawned overcast and cool and looked like it could pour rain at any time. Fortunately John managed to get finished and get us on the road before the rain started. It never rained very hard today, but lots of little showers and drizzle.

We drove through a lot of small towns today with some narrow one way streets but John navigated them very well, there was no nail biting on my part. We had a good drive to Northshore RV Resort on Lake Livingston and the closer we got the better the weather got, by the time we arrived here it was 80F (25C) and the sun was shining brightly – oh yes, we do love this kind of weather!!

The first site we got here was really uneven, imagine concrete pads that are at least 2” off from side to side! We walked back over to the office and the gal there said to pick any site we wanted so we did and are now level side to side with no problem but front to back is another story. I can hardly reach the door handle from the patio as John had to jack it up so high in the front to get level back to front - LOL! Guess that is what happens when they develop a park on the side of a lake.

The next problem was the internet, I’m not sure if it is fixed, guess I will find out when I try to post this. I went to the office and the gal reset the modem a couple of times and before dinner it was working, will see now if it still is.

We do have TV tonight so John is happy, he is watching Gladiator, I will probably read as I have seen it a couple of times already.

And so ends two more great gifts of days and we look forward to another great day tomorrow.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Here I am a couple of days behind again, but there hasn’t been anything exciting to post about.

Yesterday morning it was very overcast and looked like it could rain, plus the forecast was for showers, so we decided to drive to New Braunfels and then back to San Marcos as Nan wanted some stuff from Bath and Body Works if we were back that way. As it turned out the sun came out shortly after we got on the road and it turned into a nice day with a high of about 74F (22C).

I had hoped to walk around the old square in New Braunfels but it was all roped off and construction going on, so much for that idea. We ended up heading north to San Marcos with a stop at Olive Garden for lunch and Camping World. There sure wasn’t anything at Camping World we wanted to pay their price for; we find it a very expensive place to shop!

At the Prime Outlet Mall we went back to the Columbia Sportswear place and each got a couple of things there, then I did a quick run into Bath and Body Works to pick up some stuff for Nan and a couple more things for me and then it was time to head home.

We had a light dinner after a late lunch and a quiet evening of reading seeing how our TV doesn’t work.

This morning John was out of here shortly before 8 a.m. to go to Marble Falls to get the car seat repaired. I didn’t expect him home much before 12:30 so figured I had lots of time to do some cleaning and read my morning news on the computer etc. Just as I was about to start the cleaning around 10 a.m. he returned home, turns out he drove all the way up there to have the guy figure out he didn’t have the right material to fix it – grrrrr!!! When we were there on Monday he said he had the material so needless to say John wasn’t a happy camper as it is about 25 miles each way.

Today was pretty overcast and dull so we decided when he got back to have a lazy stay at home day. I got my new phone this afternoon so after getting it activated I spent time getting it all set up again, fortunately my contacts were backed up on the Verizon site so I didn’t have to sit and put them all in again. Tomorrow we will have to find a FedEx drop to send the old one back.

Tonight the park had a meatloaf dinner, it was $3 each and was a good meal with meatloaf, garlic mashed potatoes, beans and rolls. Desert was chocolate cake and chocolate brownies – I got my chocolate fix for a while! Dinner hour here was more to our liking being at 6:30, sure beats the 5:00 dinner time at most parks in Arizona but like any other park dinner it was a case of eat and run, nobody sticks around to socialize.

This is one of the few parks that doesn’t have cable TV but there are about 5 channels you can get off the antenna but we haven’t been able to pick up anything. After checking everything out we figure our TV is analogue and not digital and can’t pick up the new DTV signals that the US instituted in 2009. We are surprised as we bought the TV in 2005 so figured it would be okay but we can’t pick up any signals, and the antenna and cable seem okay, so we figure that is the problem. There is a modem or something we could get but for the few times we might need it we haven’t decided if it is worth the money. It doesn’t bother me in the least not to have the TV as I am quite happy to read instead.

And so ends two more great gifts of days and we look forward to another great day tomorrow.

Monday, April 12, 2010

Today was an absolutely gorgeous day, lots of sun with a high of about 22C (74F), my kind of weather!

Our Trailer & Looking Down the Road



Paul, the owner of the park, had had his truck seat repaired in Marble Falls last week so John asked him where he had it done so we headed up there this morning to check out Ed’s Classic Upholstery. We got a quote and John made an appointment to get his seat repaired on Wednesday morning. We stopped in Marble Falls for lunch then headed out in search of wildflowers.

We drove almost back to Johnson City, then picked up a rural road that went to the village of Willow and boy, were we in luck, as the flowers along that road were totally awesome. I will post some pictures and you will notice a butterfly having a lovely feast in a couple of them. The wildflowers came right to the edge of the road in spots and they looked like a thick purple carpet going along the side of the road, I am sure the pictures don’t really do them justice.







We chatted for a few minutes to another couple from the Dallas/Fort Worth area who were also checking out the wildflowers and taking pictures and he said he has never seen them right out to the edge of the road like they are this year, guess all the winter rain had one good benefit – the wildflowers.







There seem to be a lot of goat farms around here and at one point we came across a goat feed lot, and oh yes, there were also cows – hundreds and hundreds of goats and cows and the smell was absolutely vile, I don’t know how anybody could live in proximity of that smell but on the other hand maybe it is the smell of money to them!

At one point this cow meandered across the road in front of us, no fencing in that area!



We came back along the road that borders the LBJ Ranch, which was known as the Texas Whitehouse when Lyndon Johnson was president, then on home. All in all it was a nice day and we certainly enjoyed the beautiful wildflowers.

And so ends another great gift of a day and we look forward to another great day tomorrow.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Yesterday we woke up to overcast skies and expected it to rain but fortunately it cleared off in the late morning and was a beautiful day, but quite windy – hey, we’re in Texas!

I did laundry in the afternoon and John went out and got fuel, that was the extent of our busy day – hah, hah. I sat outside for quite a while and read – nice and relaxing.

For the last three days I have charged my phone and by the next morning it is dead so I thought it best to visit a Verizon store and have it looked at, I figured I probably needed a new battery but thought it was a bit soon to have it go as I just got the phone in November. We decided to go to San Marcos and do the Verizon thing as well as go to the outlet malls so after a nice drive through the country we arrived in San Marcos. Fortunately we went to Verizon first as the tech there told me he needed to keep the phone for 2-1/2 hours to get it charged then check it out. Well, okay, how do we get to the outlet mall from here.

There are actually two outlet malls side by side, one is the Tanger Outlet Mall and the other is the Prime Outlet. We did the Prime one first and my first stop was Bath and Body Works, wow did they have a good sale going so I stocked up on some stuff there. Then it was a stop at the Columbia Clothing outlet where I got a pair of shorts and a top and then to a Cosmetic place where I got a real deal on my Estee Lauder makeup and perfume – I am one happy person tonight!! We went over to the Tanger Outlet Mall but there was nothing too much there, I wandered through the Kitchen Store but that was about it.

On the way back to Verizon we stopped at Best Buy to check out the new iPads, heck it is just a huge iPod Touch and the Touch is much easier to carry around, I sure won’t be changing any time soon. I did get a gift card for the App Store and John got one for iTunes so we are now good to go with those.

Back at Verizon the fellow told me that my charging port was not working so they would be sending me new a new phone – they didn’t have one in stock so it should arrive here by FedEx on Tuesday (fortunately it is still under warranty so there is no charge). Of course I didn’t have the address of the park with me, but they had charged my phone and as I had called the park a couple of days ago to make the reservation I still had the number in contacts so I was able to call them to see what their address was so I could tell the fellow at Verizon – he must have thought I was a real nut bar!!

Today we woke up to overcast skies and a bit of a drizzle, not real wet, just kind of yucky but by the time we got to San Marcos it was dry, but still overcast. We hit the drizzle on the way home again so we aren’t complaining about the weather and the wind had died down by this morning so it was a not too bad day weather wise.

We don’t have phone service here (no signal) so I did talk to our oldest daughter and son on the way home from San Marcos and my sister for a couple of minutes, but will have to wait until we are somewhere where we have phone service before we talk to our other daughter and I still could chat with my sister for a while longer. Oh technology!! I am not a real phone talker but do like to talk to the kids and my sister on the weekend so it is frustrating when I can’t do that.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a nice day so we can get out and get some pictures of the wildflowers.

And so ends two more great gifts of days and we look forward to another great day tomorrow.