I arrived here after a 238 mile tow with one gas stop. It felt good to be on the road again. I didn't turn the radio on and just listened to Freedom and Liberty sing their song. One of the songs their tires sang was America The Beautiful. The main reason for me coming to this COE campground was to buy my Annual Senior Pass. It gets me in free to all National Parks and Monuments as well gives me half off on camping fees at Corp of Engineers campgrounds. There are other benefits, but these are the main one for me. The government recently increase the price for these passes, but they are still very much worth the cost. You can buy a lifetime pass (no expiration) for $80.00. I chose to buy the Annual Pass for $20.00. I'll continue buying annual passes as long as I've traveling. After you buy four Annual Passes, it converts to a lifetime pass. So, the annual pass is like buying a lifetime pass, but on time. As an example of its benefit and worth, before buying the pass, my two days of camping here cost $44.00 ($22.00 per day). After paying $20.00 for the pass, I immediately saved $22.00. So far, I'm $2.00 ahead and just started using it. I've waited a long time to get this pass and now I have one. As my father would say, "Good deal, Lucille"
I seem to be in Internet Limbo today. My data speed and phone connection keeps cycling between 1X, 3G and LTE4G. It was fine yesterday but started acting up last night as I began this post and it has continued on thru today. I've seen this before and I think it is either a cell tower having problems which means I have to connect with a tower farther away or I'm situated close to the middle between two towers and I keep breaking connection with one and connecting with the other. I don't like it and hope it corrects itself tomorrow when I move farther north.
When I pulled out my right blinker on Liberty wasn't working and I immediately thought a bulb had went out. After about an hour I thought it may have been a bad electrical connection between Freedom and Liberty. Since I was on I-49 north of Shreveport and traffic was light, I pulled over on one of the acceleration lanes and disconnected and reconnected a couple of time. Bingo, that solved it. Who knows, maybe it was a spider or something up in there that prevented a solid connection or maybe a little corrosion. Either way, I can now tell people I want to turn right, which is always a good thing.
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| Greg Wall and I worked together for decades. He passed away from cancer shortly after I retired and hit the road. He retired while on extended sick leave and passed shortly afterwards. His retirement plans were to breed cows and grow his small herd. He didn't get a chance to do that. I also buried another friend a couple of months ago, also as a result of cancer. He retired after 33 years with the Department, but passed away shortly after his retirement. His passion was guitars. He loved to buy them and "jam". He didn't do it nearly enough. There have been many, many of my friends and co-workers who have passed away before being able to do what they had planned. Don't wait too late. |
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| Typical roadway in north Louisiana and southern Arkansas. The pine trees line the right-of-way giving the "tunnel effect". |
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| Passing through small town USA. At least the clouds kept the sun from shinning too brightly. |
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| A short overlay project. The advance signing, traffic control and quality of work looked good. I didn't stop to ask about the QC/QA tests so I just did a visual inspection. :) |
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| Wait a minute. Why are these clouds getting darker. It wasn't suppose to rain on my way. I grabbed my phone and checked Accuweather. Random thunderstorms in the area and along my route. I passed through a couple but overall, it wasn't a major problem. |
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| Looking over mostly vacant campsites. The lake in the background is a large and pretty lake. I figure this place is packed on the weekends but I'm not sure where the people come from since Hugo is a small town. |
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| Liberty parked on her level concrete pad. She catches the afternoon sun broadside. I thought I chose the site better when looking online, but didn't. Oh, well, with 50 amp service, both A/C's can keep up with the low 90's temperatures. |
I'm going to try to post this without proof reading it so maybe it will post while I temporarily have a good connection.
Ya'll take care of each other. I'll Cya down the road.
The first day after a long lay off always feels great. Congratulations.
ReplyDeleteyes it did
DeleteThank you for the info on the Senior Pass. Ken has one and since we're always together I didn't get one this year. We will be taking two cars (grandkids) later this summer so I'll purchase the annual. That's great! Looks like a beautiful site but oh those temps, glad you can use your a/c. Loved what you said about the song America the Beautiful..it is isn't it!
ReplyDeleteI usually spend the early part of my first day back on the road listening for weird noises from the Arctic Fox and the truck. And since I don't remember what the normal noises were, I spend a lot of my first day back on the road worrying about breaking down.
ReplyDeleteBuying my national Park geezer pass was a no-brainer. At the Yellowstone National Park gate they told me it was $25 to visit or I could buy a lifetime pass to all the parks for $10. It was one of the few times in my life I was thankful to be a geezer.
Tom
Our Senior Pass has saved many $$ on our travels. There are so many places that honor them besides the National Parks. It is a true bargain. So true on your sentiment "Don't wait until it is too late." We have friends and family that just seem to be in holding patterns waiting to enjoy life later. Unfortunately later is sometimes too late.
ReplyDeleteI agree Barb
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