Cold Weather near Austin, Texas

Location: Jim Hogg Corps of Engineers Campground; Georgetown, Texas (just north of Austin)

All pictures taken with Nokia Lumia Icon 929 Cell Phone

I hitched up Sunday morning in a freezing drizzle with the temperature dropping since the cold front moved through during the night. The weather people lied to me again when said it wouldn't pass through the Dallas area until later in the morning. I had plans to empty my tanks on the way out of East Fork Campground but the cold mist and poor condition of the dump station quickly changed my mind. I had arrived with empty tanks so the tanks were only about half full. The difference in weight had I have emptied my tanks would only have been about 200 pounds so I wasn't worried about the weight. Instead of emptying them, I added about a quart of fabric softener to the grey and black tanks to help clean them with the shaking during the travel. I would have used Calgon water softener instead of fabric softener but I have a hard time finding that stuff at Walmart. When I arrived at the new campground (Jim Hogg), I used their dump station to empty tanks before going to my campsite. The dump station was a 100% improvement over East Fork's. Someone needs to write a letter to the Corps to let them know about the deplorable condition of East Fork Campground. It is an embarrassment to all Engineers everywhere. 

A dreary looking Lake Ray Hubbard off of I-30

I was able to grab the cell phone to take this picture of the tree on the right. It stood out like a sore thumb, even in the misting rain.

The cold front followed me all the way to Georgetown. It warmed up a little bit along the way but only to the upper 30's. The wind increased during the day and by the time I was setting up camp, the wind chill was in the upper teens. I'll be here for 6 nights with the first 3 of those nights getting down to the mid 20's. Liberty is OK down to 25 degrees without having to do anything special to keep the water lines from freezing. Luckily, 24 degrees is the lowest predicted, so I'm pretty sure I'll be ok. I have only used the furnace in Liberty a couple of times over the last 5 years. Mostly I'll kick it on just to see if it still works, then turn it off. I use two 1,500 watt ceramic heaters to heat Liberty. One on low and the other on medium will keep the temperature inside about 25 degrees warmer than the outside temperature. One on high and the other on medium will warm it almost 35 degrees about the outside temperature. So with a predicted low of 24 degrees, I should be able to keep it a toasty, 60 degrees inside. Of course, the 30 mile an hour wind gusts straight out of the north, changes those calculations a little bit. But the campground looks great with about 3/4 of the sites occupied, so everything is OK.

Setting up camp at Jim Hogg Campground. I outran the rain so it was at least dry, but the north wind was a cutting type of wind. It got deep into my bones. 

Looking around the backside of Liberty

A view out my peep window. It's about an 8 inch by 11 inch window located at the highest point of Liberty. 

I haven't found a nice "thinking bench" in a while, but have see a few nice trees. 

A drive around the campground.

There are a couple of things I want to see around this area that I missed last time I was here in 2015. If the weather cooperates, I may see them, if not, oh well, it's a reason to return. 

Ya'll take care of each other. I'll Cya down the road.    

Bush Library, Nasty Weather and Moving Day

East Fork Park (Corps of Engineers) Campground; Wylie (near Dallas), Texas

All pictures taken with Nokia Lumia Icon 929 Cell Phone

Today is the sixth and final day here at East Fork. When I planned this trip, the weather was forecasted to be clear and partly sunny with the temperatures in the mid to upper 50's during the day and mid to upper 30's at night. For me, that is great weather. Tuesday was the only day they got the forecast right. The rest of time it has been very chilly, wet and breezy. One day it remained foggy all day with misting rain. A cold front is due to blow thru tomorrow morning with temperatures dropping to the low 20's tomorrow night. Luckily, I'll be about 200 miles south of here by then but even at that distance the low there will be in the upper 20's. It's not going to be a true Blue Norther, but maybe a half of one. It should be about 38 degrees while I'm hitching up tomorrow. But it's all good,,,,, You can't appreciate good weather if you don't have some crappy weather every now and then.

It's been difficult finding campgrounds again like it was last summer when I went north to the Great Lakes. I'm beginning to believe it is the new normal. There are so many people now a days who are living in their RV's fulltime in an RV park. That's good for the park owners and those permanent "campers", but it makes it hard for RV travelers to find campsites when moving around. When I was traveling a lot more frequently a few years ago, I always had reservations, but they were usually only about a week in advance. Even though I never saw a campground totally full and could have traveled without reservations, I felt comfortable knowing I had a place to stay at the end of tow. That has now changed. Finally, after hours of searching and changing directions of travel, I have reservations through the 15th. I don't think I like this new paradigm (wow, strange word). 

I rode the train back into Dallas yesterday. I went to the SMU campus to visit the George W. Bush Presidential Library. I've been to Reagan's and Hoover's libraries and thought they were great. Bush's, not so much. Maybe it was because his presidency is so recent. Security was super tight to get in the place. I had to take everything out of my pockets, remove my jacket, belt and hat before walking through a metal detector. I may have, but I don't remember doing that at Reagan's or Hoover's library. I asked the guards why security was so tight and they said it was because Bush was a wartime president and still alive. Hmmmm,,,, I hadn't thought about it but I guess his library would be a good symbolic target for some bad people. The high security didn't bother be too much and after passing through the metal detector, I remembered I had to do the same security check just to get to the observation deck of the Empire State Building in New York City back in 2014.

Some beams from the World Trade Center

I need to make this post and then head into to town to gas up for traveling tomorrow. I may even visit a fancy restaurant I heard about in town for some authentic, world renown Mexican food. I sure hope I can get in without reservations because some Taco Bell would be some good eating tonight.

Even with poor weather, there is a pretty picture to be found if we look for it. This picture is what will bring my memories back to this place years from now. It seems the weather will be what defined this campground.

 Ya'll take care of each other. I'll Cya down the road.  

JFK Assasination

Location: East Fork Park (Corps of Engineers Campground); Wylie, Texas : Near Dallas

All pictures taken with Nokia Lumia Icon 929 Cell Phone

The freedom of full time RV'ing allow travelers to see many wondrous natural surroundings such as mountains, canyons, oceans and lakes. These are great and I've enjoyed many of them over the years. But for me, that freedom also includes man-made surroundings such as Washington D.C., the Golden Gate Bridge, Hoover Dam just to name a few. This second freedom is what brought me to this campground. I searched for a campground that was close enough to downtown Dallas to where I could camp in a somewhat rural setting, but get downtown kind of quickly. At first I planned to stay in a State Park just south of town, but decided against that when I read reviews and official warnings about he campground being infested with Argentine Ants. I didn't need that problem, so I found this Corps of Engineers campground which is located about 13 miles from the end of the DART Red Line which is Dallas's light rail service. 

I made it from the campground to the train station in about 20 minutes and for $2.00 I was able to take the train downtown. The distance was 20 miles one way and took about 40 minutes. It is a very good way of seeing a lot of a place in a short time period. It was cheaper than driving plus I didn't have to worry about finding parking. 

Destination: West End Station, about 3 blocks from Dealey Plaza. I wanted to see the place where President Kennedy was assassinated. I wanted to see the Grassy Knoll, the School Book Depository, the Triple Underpass. I had seen all of these things in photographs and movies (Zapruder film) over the years but I wanted to put them all together. I wanted to see them all in relation to one another. But mostly I wanted answers.

I was disappointed in that I ended up with more questions than answers. To discuss all of the events surrounding the assassination would take way more space than this measly little blog, so I won't even try. I will make a few statements, ask a few questions and post some pictures. 

First the pictures:

This is looking back towards the 6th floor window of the School Book Depository where Oswald took his shots. The city has conveniently placed X's where Kennedy was located when he was shot.  

A closer view of the previous picture

This picture was taken while standing on the Grassy Knoll. It gives a perspective to the Book Depository and the locations of the shots.

When I took this picture, I was standing on the corner of Elm where the motorcade had just made the turn onto Elm. The School Book Depository is directly behind me at about 60 feet. I'm standing in line between the 6th floor window and the line of sight Oswald would have seen. The fatal shot was about 100 yards from Oswald. This also give a good view of where James Tague was standing when he was shot.

This is standing across Elm Street looking at the Grassy Knoll. The distance from the Grassy Knoll to the location of the fatal shot is about 50 yards. The white structure and wood fence are as they were in 1963. Directly behind the Grassy Knoll is a large parking lot and train yard, just as in 1963. 

This is a panoramic picture of the area. To my back is the triple underpass where the motorcade passed under when fleeing the scene. 

My first impression of the area was the size. In my mind, it had always appeared much larger. Perhaps that was my mind putting size to the place in relation to the size of the event (pretty deep uh?)

Everything surrounding the assassination is convoluted and complicated. There are literally a hundred or more conspiracy theories about what happened in Dealey Plaza on November 22, 1963. The Warren Commission headed by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court was supposed to answer all the questions and get to the bottom of who did what and how did they do it. Sadly, after 10 months of investigating, the commission issued their report and it left so many questions unanswered. That just left the door wide open for all the wild ideas people had as to what could have happened. I believe, the Warren Commission was the beginning of the distrust in the Deep State we hear about so much now. The 60's was a wild decade. Besides the assassinations of two Kennedy's, Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, there was Vietnam, the Hippie movement and moon landings. It shouldn't be surprising that trying to understand what happened back then is dang near impossible. 

A couple of things make me go,,,"hmmm, I wonder?"

One "hmmmm" is the "magic bullet". Is it possible for a shot from the 6th floor of the School Book Depository to hit Kennedy in the back (about 5 1/2 inches below the collar of his jacket), come out his neck (between his adam's apple and the knot on his tie), then hit Governor Connally in his right ribs, come out his chest, then go through his wrist before finally coming to rest in the Governors thigh???? Then have the bullet found on a gurney that the Governor was on at the hospital. Oh and by the way, if that isn't enough of a "hmmmm", the bullet looked as if it was just removed from the cartridge (pristine condition). 

The reason for the "magic bullet" theory is there could only have been three shots fired. If there were four shots fired, then that would have meant more than one shooter which meant a conspiracy. That would have been bad news for the commission. The timeline of the number of shots and where they went goes like this (remember, 3 shots and 3 shots only or there is more than one shooter):

December of 1963: The FBI reported 3 shots. One hit Governor Connally causing all of his injuries, One hit Kennedy in the back and One hit Kennedy in the head (the fatal shot). Neat package tied with a bow.

Ut oh,,,,, in June of 1964 it is unexpectedly made public that private citizen, James Tague, was wounded while standing by the triple overpass. This was a problem since it meant a fourth bullet. They solved that problem by coming up with the path of the "magic bullet". Now they reported still only 3 shots with one hitting James Tague, one following the "magic bullet" path and one hitting Kennedy in the head. 

Another "hmmmm" that always bothered me was the fatal shot to Kennedy's head making his head go backwards when the commission says he was shot from the back. A shot from the Grassy Knoll would have been from the right/front side. And what was Jackie reaching for when she climbed backwards onto the trunk of the limousine. Some say she was reaching for parts of her husband. 

Another "hmmmm",,, the commission says after shooting the president, Oswald left the Book Depository and walked 2 1/2 miles in 45 minutes where he then shot Dallas Police Officier, J.D. Tippit. Tippit supposedly recognized Oswald from a description put out over the police radio of the Kennedy assassin. This description was issued less than an hour after the shots. After killing Tippit, he runs away from that murder scene, takes his jacket off along the way and throws it on the sidewalk. Finally ends up in a movie theater. I wonder where Oswald was originally going when he killed Tippit. To make a plan to kill the president, he sure didn't plan his escape very good.

"Hmmmm", I wonder why so many people at the scene of the assassination ran towards the Grassy Knoll after the shots. Many said they were going to where the shots came from.

"hmmm, I wonder why the commission never interviewed the four motorcycle policemen that were riding close by the limousine at the time of the assassination. 

"hmmmm", I wonder why both the government and Governor Connally's family refused to allow the coroner to remove the bullet fragments remaining in the Governor's body after his death??? I guess there may have been a problem if the weight of those fragments added to the weight of the previously found fragments was more than the weight of one bullet. That would mean a fourth bullet again,,,,ut oh.

"hmmmm", was Oswald a good enough shot to fire 3 shots in 8 seconds and hit a target that was angled downwards 13 degrees while traveling away from him and going downhill? Oh, and also do it with cheaply made Italian rifle with a 4 power scope. 

Too many questions. I don't think we will ever know what really happened back then. Maybe it was just one man that changed the direction of the country by firing three shots from a rifle.

Oh well, it was a nice day with the train ride and walking around the plaza. Well worth the trip here. 

Ya'll take care of each other. I'll Cya down the road. 

No Bad "Vibes" This Time

Location: East Fork Park (Corps of Engineers Campground); Near Dalles, Texas

All pictures taken with Nokia Lumia Icon 929 cell phone

Well there were no bad "vibes" that stopped me from pulling out this time. I woke up early on Monday and waited for them to show up. I looked around for them inside and outside of Liberty. None were to be found, so I got to work getting Liberty ready to go. Luckily, a lot of stuff had already been done last month before the bad "vibes" encouraged prompted suggested forced me to not leave as planned. Everything went well during the prepping and hitching. I went extra slow since it had been six months since I had hitched up. Even in 'grandpa speed', (wait a minute, I need to change that expression since I'm a grandpa). Even in 'great-grandpa speed' I was still able to finish everything and pull out at 9:00 am with a 220 mile tow ahead of me. The weather was great with the temperature in the 40's while hitching up and the low 60's when I got to my destination. It was a good traveling day. 

I headed west to a Corps of Engineers campground on Lavon Lake in the little town of Wylie, Texas. The nearest city that most people would recognize is Plano which is about 10 miles away. Oh, also Dallas is about 20 miles away. The campground is a little run down with potholes in the roads and places that hold water way too long. But even after dodging potholes, my campsite was level and dry. It is an electric/water only site. My surge guard told me the electricity was good and the water looked fine, but I chlorinated my fresh water tank, just to make sure. The other good part of the campground is the camp hosts. Very nice and efficient couple from Illinois who are full-time RV'ers.

I chose this campground to be as far away from Big Dallas but at the same time making it an easy trip into the big city. I plan to use Dallas's DART (Dallas Area Rapid Transit). They have a series of light rail trains that criss-cross the Dallas area and outlying towns. One of their train stations is about 12 miles away in Plano. For $2.00, I can catch a train and ride it into downtown Dallas thereby avoided the busy traffic and parking problems downtown. When I visited Washington D.C. back in 2014, I used their train system the same way and it worked out great. My first trip downtown is to see Dealy Plaza where President Kennedy was assassinated. The train will get me within a couple of blocks of the plaza and it looks like the weather should be good walking weather. 

The rest of this post is pictures. I'll proof read this post after I publish it since I'm in a hurry to catch a train. 

Typical Louisiana four lane highway. I took this route to avoid some very rough sections of Interstate highway.

This picture is of those two "dark contrails" in the sky. Later on I saw a dark one with clear blue sky and a plane following it as it was putting out a white vapor trail. Being curious I googled "dark contrails" and it is suppose to be caused when a vapor trail in roughly lined up with the sun and you see the edge of it. Called an "Edge Shadow Contrail". I can't believe I've never seen one in my life. 

The tunnel effect of the trees along the edge of I-20.

If you leave the roadway, don't go into the median here, or you may be introduced to some trees.

Wispy clouds with a blue sky. Pretty.

This was on a two lane road after leaving the interstate. I could see this picture for a couple miles since it lined up with a straight section of the road and it was big enough to where you could make out a face. Sadly, the lettering explaining what the billboard was all about was too small for me to read it as I passed by at 50 mph. I have no idea what they were selling or saying. It's an eye catcher though.

Liberty set up but slides not out yet. That is the lake in the background.

Looking behind, toward the interior of the campground.

I liked this scraggly tree.

I passed this place on my way to the campground. It smelled great so after setting up camp, I went back to try it. I got some sausage, smoked turkey, potato salad and cole slaw. I was disappointed in all of it, include their bottled sauce. Oh well, perhaps my expectations were too high.

After getting back from eating and driving around a little bit, I walked around the campground and found this tree.

Looking back at Freedom and Liberty after walking a bit.

Ya'll take care of each other. I'll Cya down the road.    

Maybe Take A Little Trip

Location: New Rockdale RV Park; Mansfield, Louisiana

Well, well, well. It's time for another update to the blog and like last time, the weather is cold and rainy while the coffee is hot and black. I think I've worn out my latest coffee brand and will be searching for a new one or resort to an old reliable one. Surprisingly, I got hooked on Great Value's (Walmart) Donut Shop coffee a few months ago but it is wearing out its welcome. Oh well, as with life, something will come along to take its place.

Brandon is doing well with visits to the doctors and bloodwork occurring once a month. The blood tests have been in the normal range since December and his medicine has remained unchanged since then. The doctors have been successful in finding that balance between anti-rejection meds and antibiotics. With his seven month "transplantversary" coming up in a week, he continues to get stronger daily. He has had so many miracles in such a short time period. 

The grandbabies and my other babies (ages, 43 and 36) are all doing fine so I figured it may be a good time to take a little trip somewhere.

I was ready to go a couple of times since the first of the year but the "vibes" didn't feel right. The last time was at the end of January. I had Freedom and Liberty ready to go and made reservations at a campground when the "bad vibs" hit me the day before I was due to leave. It may sound a little crazy, or in southern lingo, "a little touched", but I have learned over my life to always listen to my "vibs". So here we are again with the campground rent due on Monday and me deciding to go or stay. As always, I'll make that decision right before I back Freedom up to Liberty. If I hear that "click" as they hitch up, then down the road we go. If not, then I cancel the reservation at the campground again and pay up another month's rent here.

There are a couple of new things and places I want to see, so I hope the vibs are with me come Monday. Dang, now I have that old song, Come Monday, running through my mind. Maybe another cup of coffee will take care of it.

January sunrise over New Rockdale RV Park. 

As a final note: The RV'ing community said goodbye to two of their own over the last few weeks. Both had been on the road for well over a decade and both pioneered the combination of RV'ing and blogging. Go in peace, Tioga George, of "The Adventures of Tioga and George" and Malia Lane of "Malia's Miles". The freedom of the open road has been opened wider for ya'll. See ya'll down the road. 

Ya'll take care of each other. I'll Cya down the road.

Update and Random Thoughts

Location: New Rockdale RV Park; Mansfield, Louisiana

Well, it's been a couple of months since I've posted to the blog and people (Cat Lady being the latest) have been correctly prompting me for an update. So, with thunderstorms rolling in from Texas and a hot cup of coffee, here goes. To simply the post, since I'm out of practice, I'll itemize it like a shopping list. 

1) It's been almost six months since Brandon's transplant and he continues to get stronger every day. Both kidney and pancreas are performing well. He has blood tests every two weeks with doctors visits every four weeks. The main doctors are his Transplant doctor and his Nephrologist (kidney doctor). The Transplant doctor was in the surgery for the kidney/pancreas transplant and is mostly concerned about organ rejection. Brandon is on anti-rejection medication which suppresses his immune system to keep it from attacking the transplanted organs. At the same time, he is on antibiotics to specifically fight certain things that may come up because of his weakened immune system. It is a balancing act and took about three to four months to get the dosages right. Almost all of his test results are showing to be in the normal range. The kidney doctor is pleased at how well the kidney and pancreas are functioning and those tests are also normal. All is going well and he continues to get stronger.

Brandon, Olivia and Brittanie

Brandon bowling on one of the family outings. He couldn't have done that prior to the transplant. Amazing.

Olivia looking up at me after letting her bowling ball go down the slide. She is giving it a little English with the body language. Oh well, there is always another frame in life.

2) New Grandbaby Nathan is three months old and also is getting stronger every day. It took a while to find a formula that suited him but now that search is over and it's back to growing. I was a little surprised the baby formula industry hasn't tried ethic flavors such as Mexican Formula or Italian Formula. Maybe I'm just ahead of the curve. Olivia is handling the big sister role perfectly. She checks on him regularly and especially when she wakes up in the morning or when she arrives home from school. It was nice to attend her school Christmas program.

This is one of my favorites. Olivia just got out of her bath and came to check on Nathan before going to bed. "Goodnight baby brother, see ya in the morning"

The four grandkids all in one place at Christmas time. That is Cooper, Tucker, Olivia and baby Nathan. Nice.

  

3) I've visited with all of my doctors and they all said I'm good to go for another year. I was pleasantly surprised that my cardiologist didn't suggest a stress test so I guess the EKG looked good. To be cynical, some doctors would call for extra tests just to run up the bill, but my doctors aren't like that and I'm glad. My optometrist checked my eye pressure and glaucoma. The pressure is holding steady from six months ago and the optic nerve is unchanged. For those of you that haven't been to an optometrist in a while, think about going if for no other reason than to get a "baseline picture" of your eyes. If you have any kind of problem in the future, the baseline will be extremely useful. I'll see my GP sometime in the spring and we will decide which blood tests are needed. I think I'll ask for one of those colonguard tests I've seen on TV since I'm pretty sure I won't be doing a colonoscopy again.

There were no changes in any of the medicine I'm taking and none of them said anything about me losing weight (one may have said something about "diet" but since I don't speak French or Swedish, I don't have a clue what he was talking about). 

4) Liberty is a mess from sitting still for so long. I meant to wash the outside but kept putting it off and now that it's kind of chilly during the day, I've determined it is too late in the year. Dang, and I was really looking forward to doing that chore. The inside is messy also. When I'm traveling, everything is put back into it's traveling spot after using. But when sitting still for so long, things are where ever I dropped it. It will take several days to get her back into traveling mode. 

5) Freedom had her oil changed and regular servicing performed. Her back up camera is still not working, but since I don't use it too much, it's not a problem. The Ford dealer said it would be $99.00 just to hook it up to the diagnostic machine and it may or may not say what is wrong. The casino riverboats could take some lessons from Ford. 

6) I may be able to hit the road after January 8th. I'm not sure yet. I've been scouting for places to go and the likely long distance destination spot is Yosemite National Park. The last time I was close enough to drop in, it wasn't open due to snow and ice. So, I passed it up with the intention of coming back some day. It is one of the few major National Parks on my list that I haven't visited yet. The route from here to there is still being worked out and will greatly depend on the weather. So far it has been a mild winter around here with only a couple of nights in the mid 20's. The two week outlook shows the same. A couple of Texas State Parks that I planned to re-visit are still closed due to storm damage. They are Goose Island and Mustang Island down on the Texas gulf coast near Corpus Christi. Those closures will definitely affect my route and time of departure. 

7) The news just reported the release of 1,000 asylum seekers in the El Paso area with more to be released in the near future. El Paso is one of the towns that gave me the hebbie jebbies when I was there a few years ago. There has only been a couple of places that have given me that feeling of heightened sense of situational awareness where my head is always on a swivel. I guess I need to post that list some day. To head west from here during the winter months almost requires a person to pass through El Paso. When and if that time comes, it will be a quick trip through without a campground stop like last time. 

I guess it's time to take my Christmas decorations down for another year. "And my crew sock was duck taped by the space heater with care,,,,," Merry Christmas to all.

Ya'll take care of each other. I'll Cya down the road.    

Birth of Nathan Drew

Location: New Rockdale RV Park; Mansfield, Louisiana

Nathan Drew joined the family on September 14, 2018. He will be Olivia's baby brother. My daughter and her husband are great parents and it will be a wondrous thing to see the grandbabies grow up together.

Sleeping peacefully 

Mother and baby just an hour or so after birth. 

Of the hundred or so pictures of Nathan, this is one of my favorites. He is in his mother's arms as they sit on the front porch watching Olivia play in the drizzling rain. It is as if he is saying to her, "what are you doing? Are you crazy?" Looking to the future, he and Olivia will have lots of fun and be best friends as well as brother/sister. 

Nathan is about one month old in this picture and he came to visit his Uncle Brandon who was about six weeks past his transplant date. Two miracles, one picture. 

"Sleep well baby brother, your big sister is watching over you."

Ya'll take care of each other. I'll Cya down the road.