Best Laid Plans

 

Plan for the day:  do laundry at the rv park, eat lunch, go to dr., go to (son) Jeremy’s house and stay with kids so that Jeremy and Jennifer can take an overnight trip to the Shreveport/Bosier casinos for some kidless r and r.  Call generator repair to set up appointment for assessment.  Go to laundry and find bugs in washers.  Ick!  Decide to do laundry in town.  Think about it some more. Decide to be smart, take laundry to kid’s house and do it. That way it won’t cost us and we won’t have to pack for our overnight trip.

New plan for the day:  take a walk, eat lunch, go to dr.  Whoops!  Generator repair guy, who doesn’t make house calls, shows up to assess why generator doesn’t work.  Repair is three miles away so guy stopped on the way back after another job.  Nice!

New plan:  wait around for repair guy to find problem.  Duane talks to the guy, I read.  Decide to wait lunch until we see if we have time.  Guy takes part back to shop, will return later in afternoon.

New plan:  eat lunch, go to dr., go to stay with grandkids.  Repair guy returns with cleaned part, puts it back in, fiddles with checking and rechecking, and declares us fixed.  Hey, we still have time to make to the dr.  I think this plan’s gonna work!

We made it to the dr in good time and actually got in and out in less than an hour!  We managed to drive the thirty miles from Tyler to Kilgore in a pounding rain without incident.  We collected Allie (12) and Luke (8) from their friends’ house and took them home.  We ate pizza for supper and homemade chocolate chip cookies (and the requisite cookie dough) for dessert while we played Uno and laughed a lot.  A little tv, then time for bed.  Piece of cake. 

Here is the good news/bad news referred to in Winding Down post.  Duane went to the orthopedist and discussed his increasing knee pain.  Guy say that he needs new knees and urges Duane to do both at once since it will be a quicker recovery time and he only has to go through surgery once.  Duane says we will travel this summer and have it done when we return to winter in Texas.  He is taking this seriously and starting on an increased exercise program to lose some weight and to get a head start on his recovery exercises.   My Dr. appointment today was with a dermatologist.   I had some squamous cell carcinoma removed last year and needed a head to toe dermatologist checkup.  Result:  two small spots “frozen”, good to go til next year.  The only bad news is that Duane is, of course, not looking forward to his surgery/recovery.  For me, the bad news is that I will have to do all of the driving for at least a month!  Oh No!!!

I’ll get over it.

Louise and Duane

 

Winding Down

After several weeks of family visits (aka being on someone else’s time schedule),  we drove to Tyler, TX and parked ourselves in a tiny, quiet (except for road noise) rv park.  Our first full day to ourselves we had decided to take an all day bike ride, but glowering overcast and light fog caused us to rethink our plans.  We came up with a short ride to Mineola for lunch.  Our rv park is on FM 14 (FM designates an original farm to market route.)  From there we picked up CR 323 to TX 69.  As bike rides go it’s not the greatest.  The road is pretty consistent all the way. The good news is that it is mostly country.  It passes only through the burg of Swan and the town of Lindale before it reaches Mineola at TX 80.

When we travel between our sons in Van Alstyne and Kilgore we always drive through Mineola; we also always say that we are going to eat at this place one day.  Today was the day we gave the East Texas Burger Co. a try.

The inside is an open seating area of booths and tables and chairs. You walk to the right end  the counter, peruse the menu, and place your order. You walk to the left end of the counter, grab a glass and get your drink, then find a place to sit.  A waitress will bring your order to you.  Their main item is burgers of course, but they do have other sandwiches on the menu.

While you wait (and eat), you can peruse the personal messages painted on the walls or written on napkins pinned underneath.

After lunch we perused the antique/flea market shops on either side of the restaurant, then let the Eagle soar back the way we came.

North of Tyler we stopped by the Tyler Oaks RV Resort to see if we may want to stay there sometime in the future.  The park is very nice, and can truly claim the title of ‘resort’.  It boasts two ponds, dog park, putting green, horseshoes, playground, swimming pool, laundry, exercise room, activity center, showers, and propane sales in addition to 117 sites.  About 1/3 of these are pull-thru and 20 w/e only. 

The sites are on concrete and gravel, with plenty of space for extra vehicles.  There were  problems for us were two-fold: location—too far away from doctors and pickleball courts, and it was $40 more a month.

Back we went to our little “hovel”.  The Northgate RV and Mobile Home Park.  The whole place is home to two streets of mobile homes (about 70) and

ten rv sites.  The concrete parking spaces are long enough for big rigs and a small vehicle, and are close where they share electric posts.  The door sides are wide enough to accommodate slides and extra vehicle parking.  Our site is on the far end and can accommodate our duelly.

There are two buildings open to rvers—the office/showers

and the 24-hr laundry.  The laundry takes up the right end of this building.  The equipment is old and a bit rusty on the outsides, but the tubs are clean.

This place has two things that appeal to us:  proximity to doctors and security.  I feel safe walking for exercise any time day or night.  Since we are staying only a week for follow-up doctors’ appointments, this place suits us.

Next—good news and not so good.

Louise and Duane

Different Folks

We have three sons living in Texas.  They live in three different geographical sections of Texas, each about 3 hours apart, and live very different lives and raise their children in very different ways. 

Duane Jr and Brandey are raising twins Ava and Emma, and Alyssa and Coy in the Prairies and Lakes area, surrounded by acres of grasslands and planted fields.

They live in a medium size house on an acre of land,

one quarter of which is corral where they practice their riding skills

for when they enter riding contests.

Their time is divided between home, church where Jr is assistant pastor, and the cross fit gym where both parents teach classes. Jr. runs his own business building cabinets for new houses and remodels and Brandey is a full-time mom.

Jeremy and Jennifer’ kids, Allie and Luke have the run of this sprawling house including attic, basement and two floors.  Jeremy, an engineer, built it, and Jennifer (also a full-time mom) designed it.

Allie and Luke spend most of their time running around their 110 acres of oak and pine forest, sometimes walking, sometimes riding the “Mule”, hunting squirrels, deer and wild hogs in the winter and fishing, boating, and wading in the Sabine in the summer.

swinging on long rope swings, doing tricks on the trampoline,

swimming in their pool (which Jeremy also built),

Jesse and Katelyn, both imaging techs,  are raising Bella on the Gulf Coast.  Their one story house is built on stilts on a small patch of grass on a canal which leads directly to the ocean.  For fun they go deep-sea fishing, watch the big barges come into the intra-coastal waterway,

 

or play in the ocean or on the beach.  Bella’s playground is a short walk down the road within their little community which is surrounded by canals, marshes and low growing bushes, and, inland, cattle pastures.

The Texan’s cousins in Ohio live in a 100 year-old two story house on five acres of grassy yard surrounded by farmland and 3 miles from a large town.  Their parents are nurses, so the kids spend their time between the childcare and home.  Their lives are immersed in sports— attending local pro baseball games, watching football  games on tv, and playing sports through school.

Matt and Beth are raising Jack, Katie, and Mel(anie) in the Bay Area of California in a medium-sized house on a small patch of ground in a neighborhood-watch community.  Their tiny yard is privacy fenced with paving, landscaping, and a small in-ground pool.  They are accustomed to walking or scootering down the street and around the corner a mile to the local city park.  Both of their parents are nurses also, but stagger their time so that one of them is home most of the time. 

Our daughter Stacy and her legal life partner Ruth Ann, also Ohio residents,  are both professional women who run their own businesses via computer.  Both travel extensively for their work and don’t have any children. 

We enjoy visiting all of our grandkids:  the rural Ohio sports players, the California yuppies, the Texans—cowboy/horse riders, woods/river roamers, and ocean lovers.

We have interesting visits wherever we go.

Duane and Louise

Geography Lesson

The sprawling size of Texas can be divided into a diversity of landforms.  Elevations range from sea level to craggy mountain peaks over 8000 feet high.  More than 55 inches of annual rainfall drench jungle-like regions of East Texas , while the sun-baked Chihuahuan Desert of West Texas  averages less than eight inches of moisture per year.  While Panhandle localities average 24 inches of snowfall a year, while the subtropical tip of Texas rarely records a single snowflake.

The Panhandle Plains combine the vegetational areas of the Rolling Plains, consisting of mid-grass prairies and juniper woodlands, and the short-grass High Plains, which are southernmost extension of the Great Plains of the United States.

The Prairies and Lakes region has belts of oak forest crossing strips of prairie grassland .  This region, east of the Panhandle Plains, also includes the Blackland Prairies, so named for its deep, fertile black soils. 

East of this region is the Piney Woods, which included the Post Oak Savannah.  The Piney Woods is characterized by mixed pine and hardwood forests, and swamps.

 

The Post Oak Savannah, dominated by hickories, post oak and blackjack oak, comprises a transition zone between the eastern forests and the prairies to the west. 

South of the Piney Woods, the Gulf Coast, a 50-100 mile wide arc of land bordering the Gulf of Mexico, consists of cordgrass marshes in addition to miles of sandy beaches.

Adjacent to the Coast on the west is the South Texas Plains, known as the Rio Grande Plain.  Formerly an area of open grasslands, agriculture, industry and urban development have changed it into a land of thorny woodlands and shrub lands.

In Central Texas the Edwards Plateau, more popularly known as the Hill Country, is primarily an area of oak-hickory or oak-juniper woodlands, mesquite-mixed brush savannah, and grasslands.

 

Its most scenic area is comprised of limestone cliffs, caves, granite outcrops and hidden springs. 

 

The southwestern “horn” of Texas is Big Bend Country, and includes the Trans-Pecos zone.  It is a land of desert shrublands,  wooded mountains, and moist canyons

We have visited all of these area of Texas.  This trip, we have explored five of them.

The story continues.

Louise and Duane

Last Chance

Tomorrow is moving day so we spent one more afternoon with the grandkids at the gym before heading to their house.

Emma and Ava needed horse grooming supplies so we gave them their (June) birthday presents a bit early.

After dinner the kids showed us their cheer.

Coy enjoyed Sissy’s slippers before he had to hit the sack.

The girls did some last minute homework before playing a few short games with Grandma and Grandpa.

Goodbye family, until we cycle around here again.

Back to Tyler tomorrow.

Louise and Duane

Sunday Shenanigans

Playing with Wikki Stix before dinner arrives

at Rib Crib.

Just press them together to make a variety of fun stuff.  Everyone tried on the glasses.

The twins discovered that Grandpa’s tongue did funny stuff if you pulled his ears or his beard.

After lunch we assembled a little kids' play set next to the big one we assembled last week (see Cooperation blog).

Working out?  Not today.  Just showing how it’s done.

Try to push the ball to the bottom of the pink stripe.

Better use of the rope.

Coy struttin’ his stuff in Mama’s shoes.

From the gym we went to the house to wind down.  The girls and I played board games until their bed time.  Spring Break is officially over and tomorrow it’s back to school again.

One day left here in Sherman.

Louise and Duane

 

 

Rare Day

With nothing that needed to be done at work or the gym, the family enjoyed a whole Saturday at home.  The weather turned cooperated by turning warm and sunny after a week of chilly overcast.  The family  enjoyed a game of Yahtzee

and lunch on the porch before the guys went off to do chores:

working on a sore hoof

and adjusting gates.  One had to be lowered so that the dog couldn’t shimmy under and escape the yard.  The other had to be raised so that it swung easily and didn’t drag across the drive.

The children rode around the corral while Aunt Stacy and Grandma took copious pictures.

We fit in a few games of Bingo before supper.

Here’s something I’ve never seen before—a two-year-old that likes salad!

We topped off dinner with Blue Bell ice cream (the best in Texas), then watched the children tumble around with each other on the floor.  We had to say goodbye to Stacy and Ruth Ann.  They will be leaving early tomorrow.

Many thanks to Brandey for whipping up two delicious meals for us today.

Only a couple of days left.

Louise and Duane