We saw miles and miles of Texas...

 And the road from HELL!

 First off how about a few views of the South Llano river

 Texas covers a lot of ground. I always remember a comment from then Senator Phil Gramm when discussing the 55 mph speed limit. To paraphrase his comment, "...do that trying to cross Texas and you will get discouraged and turn back...). No truer words have been spoken. And in SW Texas those are miles and miles of nothing. Just when you think it cannot get worse, the vegetation gets more sparse and smaller. The only reason the settlers stopped in Fort Stockton and Pecos was because the wagons broke and they were too poor to replace them. God forsaken country, and I love Texas.

 Luckily they found oil in the area otherwise the area would have died long ago. The oil "boom" went bust a few years back but even so a lot of activity in the area. In fact Pecos was a nightmare. What should have been a quiet drive up 285 turned into the road from HELL. To the extent we are re-planning our return to avoid the road and the area. Extensive oil related construction plus road construction mad for a night mare drive.

  We are north of Carlsbad, 3300 feet in elevation in the desert. The club we belong to, Escapees, have a stake in this park. As members we can stay here very cheaply.

 A couple of views for you

Travel Map May 2017


 We are here till Friday. Will meet up with some friends and do some tourist stuff. Came to Carlsbad 25 years ago. Time to see what we missed and probably revisit the Caverns.



another day on the road

On the road again...

Thanks Willie for the words, and maybe we are like a band of gypsies. While it has only been since January 22, to us it seems like years since being in Maggie. Happy to be road warriors again.

At any rate we made it to Junction. One of our concerns with making the RGV our base was that it would take two days travel to leave Texas. Well we drove all day and made it to central Texas. If we were on a time schedule, or limited vacation time, it would have been a bad idea. But as a friend reminded me we are not and have no where to go and all day to get there. Two days out of months of travel is pretty trivial.


 We are in Junction Texas. We have been to Junction twice before but those trips were 25 years ago. In previous visits we stayed in the State Park, this time we are in a commercial RV park. Nice people running it and will stay again on our return trip.

The trip today looks like this

May 2017 travel


 Me and the camera had a disagreement and photos I had taken were lost. Effort to retake them led to another problem, now a "hell with it" attitude as settled in. Maybe better luck tomorrow.



back to gathering rosebuds...

Perspective

 And not your first career choice. Early in my career I had to climb telephone poles so I can relate somewhat.

Having come from the land of post oak, live oak and black trees, tree trimming was not new to me. Have to admit never considered palm trees being pruned.

Consider these palm trees from Desert Springs near Palm Springs. Their "beards" neatly trimmed near the ground.

 Well the palm trees here can be quite tall and falling palm fronds pose a hazard so trimming every couple of years is required.

Tree trimmer at work

They use a sharp carpet knife with a curved  blade and take less that 15 minutes per tree


How about a different perspective? The trimmer above is in the next picture.

Did you find him? My estimate is in the 40-50ft range in height.


Two palm trees on our lot

Before

After

Sorry, I was facing east into the sun and did the best I could


Remember in February when I was giving away grapefruit? Next crop is on the way. Will try and follow these

No majestic oak trees I am sad to say. But with two palm, one grapefruit, one Meyer lemon and one lime tree, we are far from barren.




Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Done!

Pictures hung,

Angeles in place,

Sewing/craft room set up,

And surprise! We have room to spare in cabinets and closets.

Just proves we had way too much crap before. Now we are a lean livin machine.

Now to get our butts back on the road where they belong.


Carpe diem

What happened?

 Where did everyone go? It is hard to believe how busy and active it was just a few weeks ago. Approaching ghost town status now. A few folks hanging around till May or so for assorted reasons. Full timers planning their summer trips

 For us we leave May 7th heading to Cloudcroft NM for a week. Eight thousand feet elevation so thin air and far cooler temps. Will meet up with Wes and Lee and probably Jim and Renee. Wes and Lee live in Alamogordo not far away, Jim and Renee will be passing thru and staying at same campground.

 Short trip of less than three weeks. Still amazes me saying that knowing we never took a two week vacation.

 June will find Mary visiting her Mom for a week. I will stay here unsupervised! Yeah! In late July we head out for an extended roadtrip. Itinerary has changed somewhat but will not bore you with the details for now. Should be back in the RGV by December first.

That's all for now from here in the magic valley.


Taking it easy...

Progress report

 In less than a week we have made great progress. Kitchen is setup and all boxes marked "kitchen" have been emptied. My shop has been unboxed and set in place. The big piece left is Mary's sewing room. A room where I fear to tread. She will get it set the way she wants on her schedule.

  The shop being done and having exceeded my permission level inside, I decided to work on cart. If you remember I bought one back in January with promise of projects to come. Installed the lift kit the last couple of days. Had kept tires from cart left behind in Alvord to use on new cart. More things I want to do but focus turns to getting ready for short trip to Cloudcroft. You can look back for previous photo of cart, how it looks now. For the record that is a 1985 Club car.

 Today we must forage for food,  refill prescriptions, and donate stuff to charity. I know, paid to store it, paid to move it down here, now we give it away...


Never said we were smart, just said we were happy!!

Happiness is...

Today for most is a family day. We are a little different today.

Today happiness is:

A empty uhaul truck and a empty storage building. House is a disaster and full of boxes but give us a week and all will be good.

Happy Easter everyone.


Resting cause we be tired!