Category: Uncategorized

When I knew I would be heading to a casino in Shawnee, Oklahoma, I figured I would be meeting up with RV friends from that area who are currently “home” for the summer.

Then I read on the Escapees forum that Steve and Carol will be off for the weekend to a photography convention. Oh, well. I’m getting used to such near misses lately.

I missed meeting Lee when we were headed mostly towards one another but couldn’t get the timing quite right to actually meet. She was on a deadline and we just couldn’t make it work.

Then I missed Rae. I was in Austin when she was in San Antonio. I was in Livingston when she was in Dallas. I was headed towards Oklahoma on Friday and she wasn’t headed there until Tuesday.

But the weather said I should stay in Shawnee until Wednesday.

Then Steve called and said they are back. Can we meet for lunch Tuesday?

Then Carol called and said she’d just snagged a medical appointment so it would have to be supper instead. Probably about 5 or 6. So we agreed they would let me know how the timing was working out.

In the meantime I sent Rae an email about discovering there are two casinos in Shawnee.

So Tuesday comes. Because I stayed up watching the storm so late, I didn’t get to bed until 2 am. My blackout curtains help keep it night inside my RV so my body took it’s normal 9 hour night and I slept until 11 am. Then got up and showered. Only to hear a signal that someone is trying to reach me electronically.

It’s Dave. Wanting to be sure I know Rae sent me an email. The email says she is here, at this wrong casino, but assumes I’m sleeping so she’ll stay a bit but not all day. So I send her a quick email and say come on over.

I’m dressed but that’s about it. I haven’t even combed my hair or brushed my teeth. My bed is half made. So I quickly comb my hair so I look a little less like a witch and Rae comes to visit.

Once again I meet a blogger face to face and we are instant friends. We visit for an hour or two–I don’t really know–and it isn’t until after she leaves that I realize I haven’t yet eaten anything today. Once again I have fed on friendship.

Rae moves over to the right casino since the ground she would have to park on at this one is now soggy from the rain and we make plans to have supper with Steve and Carol since Steve reads Rae’s blog, too, and wants to meet her.

Five o’clock comes and goes with no word. Six o’clock comes and still no word. So I call Carol. The appointment, of course, took longer than they expected but they are on their way. Carol says they should be here by 7:30. Steve says 8:00.

So I talk to Rae and we decide not to wait at home. She will come get me and we will go to the grill at the right casino where Steve and Carol will join us when they get there. Then Steve and Carol will bring me home and see my newest RV which is now at least somewhat cleaner–I washed the dishes and finished making the bed into a couch.

So we do that. And it works out just fine. And more of my RVing friends have now met others of my RVing friends. And our world just keeps getting smaller and smaller. Or bigger and bigger depending on your point of view.

TTYL,

Linda

 

You all know I went to the wrong casino, right? And that this is the wrong time of year to be driving up Tornado Alley, right? I got off lucky.

Monday evening, about 11:30 pm I was thinking it might be time to wind up what I was doing and head for bed. Then my iPad said incoming chat message. So I checked and it was Dave. Who is not usually up at this time of night. So I responded. Seems he was checking the weather and there’s a storm pointed right at me including 60 mph winds and quarter-size hail.

Do I want to get dressed, pack up, unhook my electric cable, and drive some where?

Where? I might be able to get on the downwind side of a building. But if a tornado develops will it just blow the building on me?  I’m pointed pretty much right into the direction of the wind which helps. And there’s a band of trees behind me which will help break the wind. And nothing in front of me likely to attack me except a rubber trash can. And they are not predicting tornadoes with this particular storm.

So we decide to sit and watch the radar awhile. We see the storm go southeast into Oklahoma City then turn east and follow along I-40. Right over the casino where I am supposed to be. But, north of this wrong one. I can hear thunder in the distance. And I get a little rain. But that’s all. Not even enough wind to rock the rig. Which means this wrong casino just became the right one.

TTYL,

Linda

Remember last fall when I was at Rainbow’s End in Livingston, Texas, and I needed to unhook to go to the grocery store. Instead of going back to the park I headed west–all the way to Arizona?

Friday I was at Rainbow’s End, in Livingston, Texas, and I needed to unhook to go to the grocery store. Perfect weather was headed to Livingston so I should have gone back to the park.

But the urge to head home was too strong.

The grocery store I went to was a Walmart in Ennis, Texas. Nearly 4 hours northwest of Livingston.

So I began my northward Spring migration.

The next day I drove on north. As I crossed the border from Texas to Oklahoma, right there at the welcome sign, I was hit by a blast of that famous Oklahoma wind. “Seriously?” I thought, “The wind literally starts right at the border?”

Next I saw a farm tractor. It said to me that I had left ranching country and was now entering farming country. That reminded me of the bumper sticker I love that said, “Farming is everybody’s bread and butter.” Right on. But ranching is where meat comes from and I’m a carnivore. So I’m glad this country is big enough to provide plenty of food of all kinds for all of us to eat.

Then on to Norman, Oklahoma, where I met Tammy, owner of the blog Peanut on the Table, http://peanutonthetable.com. We instantly felt like old friends even though we’d never met face to face before. That’s the result of reading and commenting on each others blogs–we really do know a lot about one another–how could we possibly be strangers?

We had supper together at Cracker Barrel. I was supposed to pay since I invited her. She thought she should pay since she lived there and I was visiting. The server sided with her and I never even saw the check arrive. Thanks Tammy for being a good guest/hostess.

I had called the Cracker Barrel to see if it was OK for me to stay there overnight. It is Cracker Barrel’s company policy to allow this but I was a little concerned about this one. Their RV length spots were near the door instead of around back. And they weren’t marked, “Bus/RV” like most Cracker Barrels do. There were cars in most of them. I usually wait until I’m done eating supper to ask about staying but I needed to know before Tammy and I started talking if I was going to have to move on for the night. So I called them from their parking lot. They said, “Yes, but you HAVE to come in for breakfast.” OK, then. So, I stayed. But I felt like I’d already paid by going in for supper. (Ignore the fact that Tammy paid, she wouldn’t have been there without my invitation.) And their attitude made me feel just a bit rebellious. So I went to Waffle House for breakfast. 🙂

Now the winds are picking up and another front is about to pass through Oklahoma and Kansas bringing storms with it. So I need a place to hole up a couple of days.

Not a problem. I’m only about an hour away from FireLake Casino. I’ve stayed at this casino before and liked it. So I put its address into my GPS and headed out. Down a route that was not familiar to me. But, I wasn’t driving when we went there before. And the GPS doesn’t always take the route I would take. And I was approaching from a different direction.

Guess what? There were two FireLake Casinos. FireLake Grand Casino and FireLake Casino. Before we went to the Grand one. My GPS brought me to the other one. Seems the Grand one has dropped FireLake from its name because it caused too much confusion so my Google search found the other one. And they are only a few miles apart. So I’m at the wrong one. But it has a campground that’s bigger than the other one. And it has sewer hookups instead of a dump that’s uphill. And I’m still backed up to a creek with a picnic table. So it looks like I’ll sit right here until Wednesday when the storm front will have passed and driving is safe once again.

So, I’m headed home. Once I get done waiting for the weather again, that is. It better stop snowing up there now. Although, I guess it’s supposed to do it again tomorrow. But then it better melt by the time I get home. Dave says the drifts are blocking the parking lot right now so I couldn’t even park at home. It just better melt fast because I’m coming anyway. Good thing I only drive four hours a day so it will take me a few more days to get there.

TTYL,

Linda

 

 

That’s what one RVing couple has as their slogan, “Chasing the 70s”

Which makes the current temperature of 75 perfect right?

Except it is now 12:03 am.

Which is not the time of day you want it to be 75°.

Not good sleeping weather.

Here’s the temperature map for Wednesday’s high temps here in Texas:

I’m about halfway between Houston and Lufkin. Yes in that red zone. With highs in the mid-80s.

Which means I will have to run my air conditioner again later today since the sun beating on my RV will bring it up into the 90s in here.

So I’d like to move somewhere cooler.

Yeah, there. To Minneapolis. Except a high in the low-40s isn’t exactly inviting either. That probably wouldn’t be warm enough to thaw my tanks after they froze overnight. And frozen plumbing is NOT a good thing.

What I’m looking for is the yellow band. That’s where the high is in the 7os.

 

See it? Not a very big target is it?

But you know what they say about Spring weather–if you don’t like it just wait; it will change.

So Thursday in Texas looks like this:

 

And Friday looks like this:

 

So, if I can talk myself into coming right back here after grocery shopping, perfect weather will come to me.

Maybe.

You know how accurate these forecasts are in real life.

TTYL,

Linda

It’s Spring!

When the weather changes daily.

Sometimes multiple times a day.

I am now in Austin, Texas, and ready to head north some more.  Up Tornado Alley. But there’s a major storm system headed this way followed by dropping temperatures. And that storm system runs pretty much from Canada on down into Texas and includes, of course, potential tornadoes.

So, I’m gonna stay here in Austin a few days and see if I can catch up with myself. I have a lot of blog reading to do. And some internet shopping so things will be waiting for me when I finally get back to Minnesota.

I had hoped to meet a couple blog friends around here somewhere but one went on west to family and the other went on north for a meet up. That’s what happens when everyone has plans without a schedule because who knows what the weather is going to let us do. Meets get missed. A lot of close but no score. The one west of me isn’t real far away but the approaching storm  says we shouldn’t even try to go that far. Oh, well. Maybe next year. That’s the other thing about RVing; we get second and third chances to meet.

I dropped into Sportsmobile today. I didn’t have an appointment because I didn’t know today was the day I was going to reach Austin. So, I just pulled up out front of their facility and called them on my phone. Said I was in town with a short wish list and wanted to know what their schedule looked like so I’d know how many days to sign up to camp. When they realized I was out front they said we’ll be out shortly.

So they came and made a work order for my stuff and it had four things on it. Easy things. Like adding a snap to my shower curtain and Velcro to some window coverings. They said, “Oh, if that’s all we’ll do them now.” And they did. And they didn’t charge me any labor. I love these guys.

So that’s done.

And I got to eat lunch at Boston Market. Love their chicken. And they have a new veggie–garlicky lemon spinach. Good stuff.

Now I am back at the park where I stayed last October when I picked up my RV. And I get to just sit here and read, and maybe watch some TV on my computer and watch the storms roll through. Hoping I don’t have to make a run for the stone building that houses the laundry but glad to know it is there if I need it.

Life is good.

TTYL,

Linda