sandcastle – Page 154 – The Sandcastle

A Week in Richmond

Richmond, Texas, that is. Our first night at Shady Oak RV park, we saw two other Views pull into the park. It wasn’t long before there was a knock on our door and a fellow was asking if he knew us. It was one of the View owners coming to see if we’d been to any rallies they’d been to and to invite us over for happy hour. So we met John & Peggy and Larry & Virgina, all from Wisconsin, and talked, among other things, about how glad we are to not be Up North at this time of year.

We spent the weekend doing household chores–like laundry and house cleaning and all that fun stuff.

Monday we went into Houston for a day of errands.

We went to REI and stocked up on freeze dried food.

We had a recall on our Sprinter done. We waited about an hour for it to be our turn to get a 2o minute fix. Helfman Dodge had a nice waiting room where we got a bunch of computer work done. I like it when they have tables near electrical outlets.

We went to Smitty’s RV and Welding to find out what to do about our hitch. We’ve been told it’s going to fall off. They said, “Yes, it is.” They will put in a bracket to hold it better. They will also put a wheel on the upright part of the Segway lift so it will roll instead of drag when we go through dips at driveways. On Friday they will do these things.

Tuesday we spent cleaning out all our cupboards and shelves to see how many things we aren’t using that we can throw away or ship back to our storeroom to lessen the weight of our stuff. We are trying to get rid of all the “someday we might want to use this stuff” so we have more capacity for the “we use this every day stuff.”

Wednesday we ran local errands. First we went to the Post Office to mail back all the DVD movies we have that belong to NetFlix. We are suspending our account since we never seem to have time to watch movies any more. We have seven days to send back these movies before they charge us $20 apiece for them. If we get the urge to watch other movies, we can rent them for $1 at RedBox which is at most McDonalds and some Wal-Marts now.

Then we took enough stuff over to the UPS store to ship five boxes to the store room. It’s not as much as it sounds like since the piano keyboard gets its own box as does the piano stand and the tire chains which are either too awkward or too heavy to go in with anything else.

Then there’s a box of piano sheet music. And this one:

A lot of that last one would probably have gone into the estate sale if we’d been thinking more clearly. Some day we’ll need to resort stuff in the store room and decide, once again, which to keep and which to dispose of.

In the meantime we keep doing chores here. Such as going to Hobby Lobby and buying a piece of strip wood to put in the silverware drawer so the holder slides instead of falls. The sharp knives are in a holder under the silverware holder and it can’t be good for the tray to keep falling on them.

We also went to KFC/Taco Bell for lunch. The last time we drove by it was still under construction but today it is open for business. It turned out to be the first day they are open so the employees are practicing their new jobs. And the food is free! From 12-2 and from 5-7 Wednesday and Thursday each person who comes in gets one free meal. Friday is the Grand Opening and you get to pay for your food. We repaid them for our free food by helping them learn what else they need to do–for us they need to get knives and butter which they said they will do. We like KFC’s original flavored chicken strips but we eat them with a knife and fork. No knives meant we couldn’t cut them up. We also like butter on our biscuits. Today they gave us some clarified butter they use for cooking and promised to order packets of butter. Good people; I hope their place is a success.

Then we went to J.C. Penney for Dave to buy new underwear. I made him throw his out. I asked him if he didn’t put his fingers through the holes trying to put them on and he said, “Yes.”!

Then we went to Kroger to buy groceries. They have Mocha Mix! I can have cereal for breakfast again! Which I think I’ll go do now. We have another two busy days planned here.

TTYL,

Linda

Railroad

Driving north on Hwy 59 from Victoria to Rosenberg, Texas, we saw a lot of railroad updating activity. First we saw all new ballast having been recently laid. Then we saw ribbon rail, some concrete ties, and new concrete bridges. Yet the grade crossings had only crossbucks with no gates or signals. How to make sense of this?

Then we came to a section where materials lay for a long siding with new wood ties. Further north was a section where trees and brush were being cut back. And roadbed being groomed but no track or materials yet. And a place where huge trestle timbers had been thrown aside, replaced by a row of culverts.

We couldn’t keep from guessing what was happening here. Our best guesses were commuter rail into Houston or a freight line from Laredo to compete with the new tollway from Mexico.

Then we came to another place where the prep work had already been done and there were a bunch of wheel sets that made me think of logging disconnects holding ribbon rail in place on the roadbed. As we traveled further north the new rail along the old right-of-way became more and more finished. So, they are working from both ends and at some point there will be a golden spike type event?

When we stopped for the night, one of the first things Dave did was get onto the computer to find out what’s really happening here. This is the Kansas City Southern railroad’s new Victoria to Rosenberg Route. When all the sections are done this railroad will run from Mexico to Canada. They didn’t say to compete with that new tollway but, still, it’s nice to be right.

TTYL,

Linda

Goose Island to Lake Texana

We seem to be moving from one state or national park to another lately. Apparently, that’s our prefered camping atmosphere.

Signs along the way: “Ada Boy Landscaping”. “No Wake Boat Barns” on a mini-storage type facility. Gas stations advertising clean restrooms–flashback to the 50s, anyone?

Stops aong the way: iHop–Dave got his waffle and I got smothered potatoes so we are both happy. WalMart again–starting to remind me of a Pacific Northwest trip journal where our most frequent stop was Safeway.

We saw a Sonic Drive in that had parking not under their low awnings. We’d like to try their food but we just came from iHop I wonder if we’ll ever see another one we could actually drive in to?

Edna, Texas: Grass! Lawns! Need mowing!

We spent a couple of days at Lake Texana State Park with another water view but lousy internet. We left on Friday when fifteen sites full of boy scouts were due with all the other weekenders. State Parks are a different places on weekends than they are during the week. A friend of ours camped here recently (Hi, Lee) and the deer visited him every weekday but disappeared on the weekend. We decided to follow their example.

We did stop at the post office in Edna on our way out of town to pick up our mail. Three boxes of mail. Of course, two of those were mail order items but we haven’t picked up mail in a while so the batch was bigger than usual. Lots of magazines to read which I’ll use as my excuse for it taking me so long to post this.

TTYL,

Linda

Big Tree

When arriving at Goose Island State park, we saw this sign:

That bottom line caught Dave’s attention. So as we were leaving the park we followed that sign to this one:

Which marked the location of this:

Now doesn’t that make you wish you were a ten year old about to build a tree house? Of course you have to be careful about how far out you build it since some of the limbs already need help staying up.

And that particular tree is protected.

But there are lots of trees like this growing around here.

You might not want to pick one this close to the road, though.

I like trees.

TTYL,

Linda

Exercise Aha!

I just had one of those Aha! moments. I was reading a blog about exercise. About how hard it is to start and continue an exercise program and ways to trick yourself into doing so. Suddenly, I connected with what I’ve been learning about diets.

They don’t work. If you start a diet you will also end a diet. What you need to do is change your eating habits. Changing them bit by bit is easier than trying to do it all at once.

So, wouldn’t this be true of an exercise program? If you start one you will also end one. What you need to do is change your habits.

For me, the first change, I think, needs to be how I think about exercise. What is it? Is it not true that every time I move a muscle I am exercising it? So, isn’t exercise really just moving?

Does it matter why I am moving? Isn’t geocaching as good as a treadmill? Isn’t hand washing the RV a good arm movement? If I bend over at the waist to pick up things from the floor, isn’t that as good as doing toe touches?

Apparently, what I need to do is think about my movements and what muscles I use to do them then increase the frequency and effectiveness of that movement.

So what muscles do I use sitting here at my computer?

TTYL,

Linda