Just a quick up date

I worked Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday this week. I have been repairing restrooms the last 2 weeks. They have a lot things that need fixed around here. Have the next 4 days off. I hope to get out fishing. The wind has been really bad the last week. It has been reather cool also, not very comfortable for fishing. It is suppose to warm up next week.

Till next time
Duane and Louise

Work,work, work...

I worked the last 2 days repairing restrooms and then riding with the security guard in the evening. From now on I will just be doing maintinance work most of the time. I rode with the guard to learn what all he checks in case they need help in that department. Pretty easy pace right now. I'll be working 3 days a week from now on. They say that when the weather gets warmer this place really gets busy. The wind has not stopped blowing since we got here. I am going to bring the bassboat down here today to get it ready to go. It has been way to cold and WINDY for me to get out there. I love to fish but I also like to be comfortable when I do it. The temperature has been in the 50s and the wind has been white capping the lake with 2 or 3 foot waves. I think I'll wait till it flattens out a bit. I am going to get a new depth finder for the boat, the old one quit working. It's over 10 years old, guess it got tired. Hope to be able to get out on the lake next week.

Till next time

Duane and Louise

This working is for the birds...........

Started the job at the campground today. Went to work at 9:00 AM fixing restrooms. There are 12 restrooms in the park, all needing some repair. I went to tell the boss what I had done today and he asked me if I would ride with the security guard to learn that job. I got done with that at 9:00 PM. Tomorrow I will ride with the guard from 5 to 10 PM, may fix a restroom before that, not sure. I only have to put in 24 hours in a week so I have 12 left to do. The work is not hard and I don't think the boss is gong to be bad to get along with. The other park workers I have met are really nice. While I was working my fingers to the bone, Louise sat on her behinder all day working on a quilt.....LOL Just NOT fair. I guess I had better get to bed so I can rest up for tomorrow.
Till next time
Duane and Louise

OH NO !!!!!! It's off to work I go

We have decided to take a workcamp job just north of Dallas. I will be working 24 hours a week in a camp ground doing maintenance work in exchange for a free camp site. They want us here all summer, not sure about that yet. If we like the job we will stay put till September before hitting the road again for a bit. Louise and I can share in the 24 hours. Say I work 12 and she works 12 or any comination. I most likely will doing the work while she quilts. They said they may ask her to work in the office if they are short handed . Any work over 24 pays money. This campground is on Lake Lewisville, so we can fish on our time off.

Till next time
Duane and Louise

Comment feature

I have sent up the comment feature to work again. I was getting some oddball comments so I stopped it for a while. Several people have ask about leaving comments so I reinstated it to see how it works out. If you click on comment, leave a meesage, you have to click on anonymous if you don't want your nickmane to appear.

Till next time
Duane and Louise

Returning to Dallas area

Lake Livingston

We will be heading back to the campground at Hidden Cove near Dallas on Sunday. I have an interview for a work camp job there on Monday. He called today and said I had the job if we can work out the details. As much as I would like to head on south, we need to stop for a little while to save some money and decide which way we will go come spring. The job there should last 3 months, at least that is what I plan to work out when we meet with the park manager. The good thing about this park is that it is right on a lake so we will be able to fish a lot if the weather ever gets a little nicer. In the first interveiw he said for 24 hrs. a week work we would get a free camp site. That is where the save money thing comes in. With no campground fees and no fuel being used in the motorhome for 3 months, we should be able to save some money. I will post on Monday with the results of the interview.

Till next time

Duane and Louise

Livingston, Tx

Jesse's quilt
Jesse's quilt
My Carving box made by Duane Jr.

We are now in Livingston, Tx at the Escapee's RV Park. Our friends Bob and Sharon are here with us till the weekend. We are planning on staying here till the end of the month. After that, we are not sure yet. We hope to do some siteseeing around here before moving on. Louise finally finished the quilt, Jesse loved it. Duane Jr. made me a carving box to carry and store my carving tools in, I love it... Tomorrow I think we will drive over to Lake Livingston to check it out.

Till next time

Duane and Louise

About to get on the way

All the doctor appointments have been taken care of and all is pretty well. A few down sides to getting older, but better than the other option...lol We are camped at Lake Lewisville till Monday. The plan is to head toward Livingston, TX to the Escapees RV Park next. The park is about 200 miles south of here. While here I have been able to get the bassboat and do a little fishing. Notice I said fishing...not catching...lol. The wind has been real bad most of the days we have been here. Not pleasent to fish in. I have used the metal detector some in this park. Found a couple of dollars in change, nothing real good. Louise has finished up the quilt she has been working on. We plan to go through Temple, TX when we head south to drop it off at Jesse's, I think. Now that the quilt is done, we can start doing some geocaching again. She has worked on that quilt all day and half the night for the last month. We are both glad it's done...lol After Livingston, not sure what we will do yet, still up in the air a bit. Got to spend some time with Duane Jr. and Brandey. Had a great time playing cards and visiting. Duane made me a tool box for my carving tools, real cool. He did a great job on it.

Till next time

Duane and Louise

Moved down the road

We have move over to the city of "The Colony". We are a in campground on Lake Lewisville, about 20 minutes from Duane Jr. and Brandey's. Our plan is stay here for a week or so. I will go pick the bassboat up from Duane's house so we can get some fishing in. Last night it got down to 23, way to cold for me. It is suppose to warm up over the weekend to the low 70s. Now that's what I call NICE. Our friends Bob and Sharon are camping here while they visit with their son and daughter-in-law. We had a real great time with them in Big Bend National Park, so we are looking forward to our time with them. We will also get to spent some time with Duane and Brandey.
Till next time
Duane and Louise

Christmas in Troy with the kids

Simon and his Uncle Duane

Simon, Jack, Carrie and Brandey
Madeleine
Madeleine
Jackson
Simon and Jackson were born 2 weeks apart

We got to spend the evening with 4 of our six children and their families last night. We enjoy the chance to get the family together. As the kids get older and more spread out across the country it gets harder to get all 6 together at once. Everyone had a good time eating too much and passing out presents. The little ones were angels as always....lol

Till next time

Duane and Louise

Good news Bad news

Went to Doctors today. The good news is my kidney exam turned out all clear, no more cancer. The eye exam, not so good. My ARMD is on the move. The right eye is getting blurry and there is nothing they can do about it. He said that new glasses nor surgery would help. I just have to live with it for now, there is no cure. The family Doctor said my colesterol is up and my blood pressure is high. This getting old is hard.....lol
Louise gets her new glasses tomorrow so at least one of us can see. Louise has to go to one more doctor before she gets her all clear.

We are leaving in the morning for Ohio.

Till next time
Duane and Louise

Just about ready to head North

I have been falling down on the job of updating the blog lately. We are still sitting at Jeremy and Jennifer's house. I have been doing some carving and Louise has been sewing. I haven't been taking a lot of pictures accept for my carvings, so I guess I'll post those....lol We have a BUNCH of doctor appointments on Monday. 8:00 Louise goes to the dentist, 10:00 is my cat scan on the kidney, 1:00 Louise goes for a breast exam and at 3:00 I go to the eye doctor. Somewhere in there we are suppose to meet with the finacial planner and I'm suppose to stop by the family doc to get my blood pressure rechecked......I hope to head north for Christmas on Tuesday. That is if everything goes according to plan. We will take a couple of days to get there. I think we will return here a day or 2 after Christmas. We are taking the car to Ohio leaving the coach here. After returning to Texas we plan on going to the Celina area for a bit before heading on south.

Till next time

Duane and Louise

Hanging out in Kilgore

We are hanging out in Kilgore, TX for a while. We are parked at our son's house while we do all the doctor appointments. We have a bunch of appointments on th 17th that should finish the doctors for a while....we hope. We spent one day visiting with a rv couple we have ran into 4 times now. Our paths keep crossing. We have met with them in Van Wert, Ohio, Benson, Arizona, Arlington, TX and now in Tyler, TX. They started fulltiming in 06 also. I have been doing a little hunting but so far nothing to talk about. Louise is working on Christmas presents and I have been carving. Jeremy and I got the 50 amp service ran out to where we park the motorhome today. We can now run the microwave and don't have to worry about blowing a breaker. Makes life easier for sure. Had to fold up today to go down the road to a rv park to dump the tanks and refill the the water tank up. We're set for about another 14 days now before we to dump again.
Till next time
Duane and Louise

Kilgore, TX

We are in Kilgore. TX at Jeremy and Jennifer's. We had go to Shreveport, LA to the docs for our checkup today. Then I went to the plant to visit some of the guys I use to work with. Tomorrow we have to go back for my checkup with the cancer doctor and then to the dentist. We plan on going to Ohio by car for Christmas. Louise got a jury duty call for the 10th of December. We will have to wait to see how that turns out so we can plan on when to leave for Ohio.

Till next time
Duane and Louise

Back in Kilgore

We moved from Celina to Kilgore this morning. Took the motorhome to get the Texas sticker first thing this morning. After all the trouble I had finding a place to get it, I thought it as going to be a big deal. When I got there they took the mileage off the coach, went inside and came out with a sticker for the window. They didn't check anything....go figure. I payed my money and was on the way. Visited Jeremy, Jennifer and Allie this evening. Allie is 2 1/2 now and will talk your leg off. Tonight we are in a rv park a few miles from their house. We will move over there tomorrow. Had to check the ground tonight to make sure it was firm enough to park on.

Till next time
Duane and Louise

The beach at Gulf Shores

We spent Monday morning at the beach in Gulf Shores. I talked to a worker on the beach and found out that run a beach sweeper up and down the beach every day so I didn't find much with the detector. I had fun looking something of value and Louise was looking for shells. We decided to head to Texas for Thanksgiving. We arrived in Celina Wensday evening after a bit of a trying day. Our inspection sticker on the motorhome had expirde when we were on the road. We stopped at the first town in Texas to renew it, they were closed!! We went to the next town, all the stations were closed for the holiday. After getting on the net, looking up numbers in nearby towns, calling them to find out they were all closed or didn't do motorhomes, we headed on to Celina hoping a cop didn't stop us. We made it!! We will get a new one Monday. Not sure yet what we will do after Monday.

Till next time

Duane and Louise

Driving around the area

Ye Ole Swimming hole...Geocaching site

Pump in the swamp Cotton baler at work
Fish River geocaching site
Geocaching
Pitcher Plant...meat eating plant

We spent the day driving around the area geocaching, found 4 out of 5 we went after. This area has a lot Civil War history. Most of the sites we went to had something to do with the war. One of the caches took us to a swamp park that has the Pitcher Plant growing in it. This plant fills with water, catches bugs, then eats them, pretty wild huh.....We have decided to stay here till Tuesday before heading on to Texas. The caving get together here at the park was fun. One of the guys here carves thread spools. He had light houses, bears and all kinds of things carved in them. Really cool!! The plan is to go to the coast again Monday to spend the day. I think we will hang out here for the weekend.

Till next time

Duane and Louise

Gulf Shores

Spent the day at Gulf Shores and Dauphin Island. We went to the 2 forts that defended Mobile Bay during the Civil War. After the forts we went geocaching, found 3 of 5. We ran out of daylight on the 5th one. I hope we have time to return to Gulf Shores to look around more. It is really pertty there. Tomorrow is the carving get together here at the park so we won't be going sightseeing. Not sure if we will leave here Friday or wait till Monday. We'll have to wait and see.

Till next time

Duane and Louise

Summerdale, AL

Tonight we are in Summerdale, AL at the Escapees RV Park. We plan to be here for 4 days at least. Plan on going to Gulf Shores tomorrow, visit Mobile one day and maybe Penescola, Fl. They have a carving group here at the rv park, I plan attend their meeting this week. My hand is healing nicely...lol
Till next time
Duane and Louise

Quitman, Ga

The Forge Area
Terry's Fish
Terry's Eagle

Damaskas Blade
File Blade

Are stay in Quitman is coming to an end. We will leave here on Monday to head toward Texas. We have had great time visiting with Kathy and Terry. Eating way to much of Kathy's GOOD cooking and playing a lot of cards. Terry and I spent most of our days forging and finishing knivies and playing in the shop. He has a great shop to work out of. I posted a couple of Terry's art projects, he does a great job. The eagle is full size. He has all of my blacksmithing tools that I kept when we moved to Texas. I stop by once a year to help him learn how to do things on the anvil and he gives my tools a home, pretty cool deal.... Louise has been busy working on things for Grankids, I have been doing some carving at night. Last might the knive slipped and I cut the S... out of my hand. I need to learn not to do that, it hurt...lol Not sure what road we will take to get back to Texas or how long it will take. We will call Monday to set up doctors appointments for some time in December. That may dictate how long we take to get there.

Till next time

Duane and Louise