Back In The Texas Hill Country

Finally, I am back on Blog duty. Took quit a break after Palo Duro Club. From there I went on to McKinney, TX to visit good friend, Jill Ellen. We spent the weekend at her lake cabin in Bonham, TX. Very restful and lovely to just relax and catch up on old and new times. She has 3 Italian greyhounds, they and Foxy got along just great. He had such fun running around Jill's property. Reminded me so much of Palo Duro Club, even the coyotes were singing. When I get pics ready I will load a few.



From McKinney I went to Dallas and stayed with Nancy and Carl Klinke for a couple of days. Nance and I went to Kimbel Museum in Ft. Worth and the Museum of Modern Art. Both were wonderful but I was quite taken with the Modern Art Museuem, beautiful stainless steel sculpture outside by the Japanese pool titled "Conjoined" . The piece looked like two stainless trees reaching out to one another. Fab!! The next day we went to the Museum of Modern Art in Dallas. What a wonderful two days. Then Nancy took me to the airport to fly to Ft. Myers, FL to see Mom. I left my Casita on the lake at jill's place and my car at Nancy's.



Fox and I spent 5 weeks in FL with Mom. Had a very restful time but the weather was cold so I only made the beach twice. We did play golf and I took Fox to the Doggy Park everyday to play with his friends. Mom and I went to a dance for the Golf Scramble folks. Guess it is the big event for the year. I actually danced with real live men. Also played in the Scramble a couple of times. Did manage to visit the Edison/Ford summer estates. WOW, what a couple of magnificant minds. I can only imagine their dinner conversation! I should mention that Fox managed to eat a stick of butter off the dinning table when our backs were turned! Ugh! He was up all night with the Fox Trots! I put beach towels down all over the carpet in my bedroom. Not a pleasant event but the towels saved the day. Haley came to visit us in FL for 4 days. During that time her Dad and his wife Mary also visited. We all went out to lunch. It had been almost 15 years since Mom had seen Clay. It seemed like a life time to me.

I made my way back to Dallas on Feb 12. Went to the Lake to spend a couple of days and pick up the Casita. Jill is a Nurse Prac. with her own clinic so I got some free meds, shingle shot and VB12 shot! Whoopie, I feel great now. Except for a humungus bruise from the shingle shot. I had a reaction so had to take allergy meds. Jill had day off on Monday so she went with me to drop off Casita at the factory for minor repairs and dinette conversion. I got rid of the captains chairs and put in a booth dinette so I could have a twin bed for company. It looks great. I picked it up Wed and headed to Waco.

Spent last night in Reynolds Creek Park run by the Corps of Engineers. Only cost me $10 for the hookups and the place was georgous! The lots were on Lake Waco and each one at least 1/2 acre! I was so tired when I arrived that I didn't have the energy to blog. We got on the road about 10am and I decided to go through Crawford. Nice little town but the Bush's weren't home so I didn't stop. Then went on to Gatesville and ended up in Johnson City. I noticed on Casitaclub.com that there was a Casita rally here at the Miller RV park so I decided to stop on the chance they had some extra spots. Sure enough I got one. Fox and I walked around and met quite a few nice folks. Most of them do rallies every 2 months or so. Boy did they have their Casita's in great shape with all kinds of bells and such. I will leave in the am for somewhere. Haven't decided yet.

Have to say that I felt right at home here in the Hill Country. I had forgotten how much I liked Texans and the countryside is lovely. Rolling hills of cedar trees and mesquite. Saw a ranch with ostrich and Greater Kudu grazing (they kindof look like gazelles but have 3' horns that are swirled). I haven't seen those animals since I left Africa 35 years ago. Game meat must be big business here.

This was a short blog for 6wks worth, but now I feel caught up. I am sure I will be filling in as I go along.

Images of Palo Duro Club

On The Road Again

Well, here we go again! Fox and I are camped at Palo Duro RV park just east of Canyon on the road to Palo Duro Canyon. We pulled in at 4pm yesterday and met Deb and Larry. Boy, the Casita sure looks tiny next to their rig. What a nostalgic trip this first day was. Guess the family has traveled this road 100s of times in the past 44 years. I haven't been here since just before Dad died 14 yrs ago. As I left Raton it felt like I was drifting into the past traveling HWY 87 through New Mexico to Clayton. What beautiful vistas! There was Capulin Mt. as it was millions of years ago when it spewed lava over the valley floor. Everywhere are hills of lava rock. Makes me wonder when the last time was it erupted. I'll have to look that up. The town of Capulin may have added one more art gallery but one gas station was boarded up, probably because of the high prices. The other villages like De Moins were almost ghost towns. As I pulled into Clayton it was like a picture out of the old west. . . wind blowing dust and tumbleweeds down the main street. No Hi HO Cafe, in fact, I looked for the building but couldn't find it, probably painted a different color or something.

I turned off 87 and took Boy's Ranch road. WOW, did that take me back in time. Would you believe the Canadain River was actually full of water. I think that is a first. Coming into Amarillo everything had changed so much that I took 3 wrong turns. Finally made it to the RV park where I met Deb and Larry. We all went out to Palo Duro Club. What a trip. I took several pictures that I will upload tonight when I get into Dallas. The place is beautiful, the creek is up, no wind and it was about an hour before sunset. The memories started coming. . .remember when the couple was parked on the bluff in their VW Bug? They got out of the car and put down a blanket to lie on while they watched the stars and the VW started moving and went over the cliff! Scott water skiing on stryafoam boards on the back of Sam's boat. Deb and I kept trying to remember who lived in what house. We walked over the first crossing around the creek to Mom and Dad's house. Boy, was it beautiful, the water calm and the late day sun shinning through the trees. The evergreen tree is now taller than the house! What memories we have to tell! Haley, Scott and Greg, you would have loved to been on the walk with us. Wouldn't it be great if we could someday have a reunion there. Something tothink about.

I need to get dressed and have coffee with Deb and Larry before I take off for Dallas. More tonight and I will post pictures. Let's all remember that there is and always will be a special quality about the family we were and are.

Traveling through Kansas

Well, yesterday was interesting to say the least. I had my first lesson in being prepared! I drove all the way from Grand Island to Littleton, too much for my stress level. I dropped down to Kansas route 36 to avoid trucks on 80. The road was super and I would recommend it, hardly any traffic. Of course, with no traffic, no gas stations. I had half a tank when I hit the Colorado border and 113 miles to Byer. I drove through some town that started with and I and the only gas station was closed. No problem I thought there are six to go before I run out of gas. The first five did not even have a gas station and Anton (my dead end spot) had one that was closed. I pulled in and noticed a pick up parked in front so I banged on the door. I could see someone way in the back with a light on appearing to ignore me. So I banged louder, went to another door and banged even louder. Finally 2 guys came to the door and I told them I was desperate for gas. One was the owner and he opened the pump for me so I could buy $20 worth. They were very nice and saved me from a night in Anton. The next station I came to was 55 mi down the road!
Decided to skip the toll road and take I70 to 225. Well, of course, I missed my exit because you can't exactly change lanes on 3 sec notice. So I took the long way through downtown Denver. Ugh, that goodness it was Sunday, still packed with cars. Spent the night in the Casita in front of Greg's house and will head up to Bailey this afternoon.. Now I am tired and wish only to be home. Of course it is always great to see the kids. I am going to see if Grace will take a walk with Foxy and me.
Cold this am so I expect it will be freezing in Bailey tonight. The boys are wrestling so I will go to their matches. In the meantime I am going to the container store and buy some goodies for the Casita. Might even drop by Anthropologie for another kind of goodie (:-)

Grand Island, NE

We are parked in the Mormon State Park outside of Grand Island. It is windy as it usually is in NE, but warmer, sunny and rather nice. I woke up at 5:15 am, took Fox out and climbed back in bed until 8 am. Quite a late morning for me and the fog and cold made it all the better. Clarinda was only 2mi away so we crossed the Nodaway River and drove into town. Love the name of that river. They refer to the valley as the Nodaway Valley. Makes me dream of a sunny summer day lazin around the river, and, you know, nodding away. Love that dream. Clarinda is the county seat for Page county and the courthouse is in the middle of the town square. I know Dad must have walked around that square and I am sure it wasn't paved. I can just picture a little boy running across the dusty road on his way home from school. At least, that is how I like to think about it. I took several pictures, looked for good coffee which I didn't find, then hopped in the car and headed out. Highway 2 takes you south missing Omaha and into Lincoln. There I stopped at WalMart and fixed some lunch, grabbed a MAC Donald's senior coffee and got back on the road. While stopped at Wal Mart I tried to find my high school friend's, Bee, phone number. No luck so I will have to email her. It would have been nice to see her on my way through.
Highway 2 is a beautiful drive and I highly recommend that Route. Oh, forgot to mention my stop at the Iowa welcome center. Met a nice lady who was reading Guns, Steel & Germs. I commented on how much I enjoyed the book. She said she might be too stupid to understand it but it sure made her think twice about this "evolution" idea. Then she went on to tell me about her daughter flunking her first psych course in college because the prof was an athesist and she couldn't agree with him. Now I am wondering how Obama managed to take the state of Iowa???? Got to love it.
One thing I have learned about my wanderings is that I don't like driving over 200mi and I love meeting people along the way. The sun is on its way down and I need to plot tomorrows trip. Ta, Ta.

Still in Iowa

Iowa is a beautiful state with rolling hills, corn fields, small towns with little church steeples all dressed in sparkling fall colors. The sky looked like winter coming and drizzle fell on and off all day. We ended up in Nodaway Valley Park 2 miles north of Clarinda, where my father was born. The park is heavily wooded and overlooks the West Nodaway River and the Nonaway River. I can't help but wonder if my Dad roamed these woods, but, of course, I know he probably didn't. He was pretty young 8 or so. I haven't been to Clarinda yet and I can't help but wonder how I will feel. My plan is to park on the town square and walk with Foxy around town. Perhaps I will run into some Morgans or Hindles. Wouldn't that be amazing? This would have been such a pretty place to grow up and makes one think of perfect little families in perfect little towns in a perfect and simple time. Such is the dream but certainly not the reality. My grandfather, Harry, had a reputation for drinking. He left my grandmother, Pearl, my Dad and his little brother, Don, for Arizona and without benefit of divorce, married again. How hard it must have been for my grandmother to provide for her young sons. If time permitted I would do a little research at the courthouse in hopes of digging up more info about the Morgans. Sounds like another trip is in the offing.
It is only 6pm and I am longing for bedtime. Foxy got me up at 5:40am and I surely was not ready for that. Fall is here and I am in my cuddle up, read and sleep mode. More tomorrow.

Back on the Road

We are finally camped near Waterloo, IA and I am so so tired. It would be great if Foxy would curl up and sleep so I could do the same.



This morning started out rocky as Haley noticed a leak under the car. Had to unhook the trailer and take the car back to repair shop. The had changed my oil and put in a heavy duty transmission cooler last week and as it turns out the transmission fluid was leaking. Got that fixed and when I pulled up in front of the house I heard a funny sound coming from under the hood like a tool had been left there. Haley and I checked and the noise stopped. No idea what it was but it went away so I hooked up the Casita again.



At last, I pulled out of the drivcway to notice that one of the Casita tires looked low. Of course I stopped and got out my handy tire pressure gage and checked the tire. All well there so I got in the car and promptly drove over a curb with the Casita. Later, when I stopped for a break I checked inside the Casita only to find the microwave on the floor. Ahhhhhhhh. Would you believe it actually worked after I put it all together again.



I missed several turns that took me out of the way and also managed to go on a wild goose chase for an RV park. Finally, back on the hwy, I stopped at the first RV park we came to. A race track with RV park attached. Happily, no races today, in fact, hardly a soul was in the Park. The cool, clear air and spectular sunset almost go by me I am so tired. Cooked my steak and popped my already boxed and wrapped mashed potatoes in the microwave. Yummy dinner. Now I am watching TV and awaiting Grey's Anatomy to come one. The bed will feel good. Oh, I forget, I also left my coffee pot in Ripon. Fortunately, I have an extra French Press in the Casita. Can't do without the coffee!!