Sunday, April 29, 2012

April 29, 2012 Some things are easier in a house

Some things are easier to do while at the house.

For example, we monitor Larry’s sodium intake very closely so I try to bake most of the bread we eat using a Panasonic bread machine.  I modified the recipe using 1/2 tsp. of salt instead of one teaspoon.  Some salt is necessary to control the yeast, but cutting it 50% works.

When we are in the camper, the bread machine “lives” in the towed car while the flour, sugar, dry milk, and salt are stored in the cabinet under the table floor.  I gather everything together, assemble the bread contents, start the machine and return the ingredients under the table floor—and find I need just a smidgeon more flour if the dough is too loose—and have to get the flour canister back out.

There just isn’t room inside the camper to store everything on the counter.  At home, I have a section of the kitchen dedicated to bread making:

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The one-cup measuring cup marked for 7/8 of a cup and combination teaspoon/tablespoon are kept in the drawer to the right—at my finger tips.  I keep the yeast and un-salted butter on the same shelf in the refrigerator door for convenience.

I buy 2 pounds of yeast at Sam’s Club for around $4. Sam’s Club sells the yeast in two separate one-pound packages so I only have to open one pound at a time, whereas Costco sells it in a two-pound package.  The yeast is sealed in a plastic container and lasts for a long time if refrigerated.

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Four hours after I push the button, we open the bread maker:

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Ah, the smell is heavenly.  And the taste….heavenly too.

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Yum Yum.  In an hour, I will slice the bread in the slicer sitting behind the bread.  I often have to fight Larry away—he would love to eat the whole loaf warm with lots of butter—unsalted butter, of course, smile.

We freeze the loaf and only remove slices at when we are ready to eat bread.

When we are in the camper, I usually arrange for the bread to start cooking about 4 a.m. so it is done at 8 a.m. before we start our day.  In the house where we have more room, I arrange to bake two loaves in one day.

Baking fresh bread is just one area where we actually enjoy cutting back on the sodium.  Some dietary restrictions can result in good times.

Monday, April 23, 2012

April 23, 2012 - Again, why did we come to Texas???

We worked so hard to get back here to Livingston, Texas.  I need a reminder—why did we come back here?  The first two weeks were a blur. Work, work, and more work!

The first job is always get the camper ready to leave if Larry’s lab tests show a decline in his health.  Second is to get the house and yard whipped back into shape after a 5-month absence.  And then tackle the “repair or replacement chores.”

Easter was the bright spot in all the back-breaking, never-ending work.  To make it even better, a dear friend brought me a welcome home “smile.”  A rose is a rose is a smile:

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Easter just isn’t Easter without some colored eggs and Easter baskets.

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Once the camper was clean and put back together, we had the local truck accessory store add air bags—finishing what we started 60 days ago at the Bakersfield, CA, Camping World. 

Then it was time to start this year’s house repairs.  Luckily I ran into Johnny Burks of J & J Construction in Wal-Mart.  He built this house back in the 1990s and did some modifications when we purchased the house in 2003.  They do GREAT work.  I mentioned we wanted a new RV port to cover the camper as well as some other chores done. 

Johnny was here at 8 am. on Monday morning and back with his team starting work the following week.

From this:IMG_2245

to this:

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And three days later, we have a new carport for the camper.IMG_2258

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J & J will be back this week to install the air conditioner in the garage wall and remove the old camper-cover white frame, seen up on the left of the above photo.  The canvas garage worked about four years, but two hurricanes stripped it back to a frame. 

The best part is that I have been able to get into my shop and throw some bowls.  It feels wonderful to play in the clay!

Larry did what he loves—planting his tomato garden.  His plants are growing faster than our weeds???  What is his secret?  Miracle Grow—in the potting soil and with a sprayer.  You don’t want to know what it cost to set up two tomato plants, smile. 

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It is chilly in the mornings—down in the 50s.  Larry and I comment on how it feels like we are going into winter, not summer.  He was wondering why the lawn was growing so quickly—thinking it should be settling down for winter—and then he remembered—summer is coming.  I guess the beautiful weather in AZ and CA was our summer and now it should be fall instead of summer.  We have suffered from time-disorientation from traveling through different time zones in a short time period, but this seasonal disorientation is new to us.

We hope you are enjoying your spring (or fall) season!

Thursday, April 5, 2012

April 5, 2012 -- Why did we come back to Livingston?

We woke to the sound of thunder and raindrops on the roof Monday morning in Columbus. Darn, I had hoped the weather man was wrong in his prediction of rain in Houston for Monday. At least this time he was right!


Luckily it only sprinkled as we drove through the Houston morning traffic. The brand new Katy freeway is already bogged down in the morning—could it be the three lanes the DOT reserved for toll lanes and a two-person carpool lane? As they were mostly empty and our four lanes were crawling along at 20 mph, I would guess so! We would have paid the toll—but no trailers allowed in either lanes. At least unlike in San Antonio, we moved. Three hours later, we were at the house:


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And then the work started. The house was in fine shape, but the camper and car weren’t! There was several tons of stuff needing to move from the camper and car into the clean house. And of course, within minutes, it started raining—again. Everything was wet from a severe morning storm.

Tuesday night was the BIG storm! What a wild welcome home. We knew it was coming our way. It hit Dallas area in the afternoon, but we were under a severe thunderstorm watch all afternoon and most of the night. Our weather radio alarm was going off all night. Luckily, we didn’t have any tornadoes, just heavy rain and some hail during the night. The sound and feel of Texas thunder is something that can’t really be described—more like the sound and concussion of bombs being dropped all around you. It is awesome. Our hearts go out to everyone up in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. I know their storm was terrifying. I was ready to head out west again.


However, we are here to get some work done. The first thing we had to do was replace the set of batteries in the other (gray) truck. Last summer was expensive. Apparently the summer heat killed the two batteries in the camper-truck and the two in the camper. We thought the gray truck was fine as it was working when Larry disconnected the truck batteries in November. His trick didn’t work! Yesterday, with Lee Dudley’s help (just like with the white truck last summer), we replaced the two batteries in the gray truck.


One of the chores is to get an air conditioner installed in the garage to combat the increased summer heat. I will call Charlie today.


Another wrinkle in my plans was discovering the 25 lb. box I mailed from Bethel Island—came in weighting 9 pounds—Nine pounds of someone else’s stuff! When the mail room handed me a BIG box, I said, “No, that isn’t my box. I had a much smaller white box.”


“Had” was the word. The post office tapped our box top to the top of a bigger brown box filled with some junk.


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And instead of a LOT of good stuff I mailed, it had:


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See the size of box??? See the weird stuff? That is more packing paper under the stuff too. No new Reebok tennis shoes nor new bottles of toilet chemical and sewer valve lubricant?? No DVDs, books and magazines. For my good stuff---they gave me four pieces of kids clothing, some cherished (well-used) toys.


Luckily I insured my box for the amount of stuff I was shipping. My sister replaced two items for me yesterday. And I will be replacing most of it once I get my nice check from the post office. Of all the boxes I shipped back, this one had the least valuable items, so I feel lucky. Lucky! It could have been so much worse!


P.S. Note: Three of my magazines from the box found their back to us via US mail yesterday. I wish they had been the Cook’s Country magazines I sent, darn, but the address of those was on a front flap I had removed. Oh well, just another challenge of living life on the road.


Sunday, April 1, 2012

April 1, 2012 – And the joke was on us today!

Yesterday morning, we left Balmorhea, TX, headed to Segovia, TX, about 350 miles east.  About noon, I changed our plans.  I called for a reservation at Junction North Llano River RV Park in Junction, TX, which is about 20 miles before Segovia, so I could do a load of laundry. 

This photo sums up what West Texas looks like—on a good day.

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This is the Junction North Lllano RV park—quite a contrast:

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It was a good thing we had electricity.  It was hot.  How hot, you ask?  Well, at 5 pm., on the shady side of the camper, the thermometer read,  are you ready, on March 31, it read:  103.5!!!  The shady side, not the sunny side!

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This is one of the up-graded sites. And, of course, the river.

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A river means you’ll find fishermen—fishing and wishing.

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And for a bit of proof that we are back in Texas—in the springtime, just look out the truck window.  Texas Blue Bonnets covering the landscape.

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What a welcome back home!

This morning we expected a quick trip around San Antonio, TX, on the Anderson Loop 1604.  I checked the Garmin traffic advisory—none listed.  Boy, did it play the April Fool’s joke on us.  About 9 miles east of I-10, the traffic came to a stop!  I mean—a STOP!

We could see miles of stopped traffic ahead of us—and too late for the last off-ramp to escape.  We were caught in the TX DOT April fool’s joke—they had closed Loop 1604 for the weekend!!  And they did not put up any warning signs of notices on the Amber-Alert boards.  Us—and thousands of other vehicles drove into their trap!

It took over an hour to inch our way off the highway on to the frontage road and drive two or three miles on the frontage road—which was packed—and then get back on the Loop.  By then, the Garmin traffic advisory was saying a delay—of ONE minute!  Glad I don’t pay for that service!!

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If there had been just one sign, we would have gone south to the I-410.  The only cute thing we encountered was this motorcycle:

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Check out their trailer.  What a cutie.

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We had planned on stopping before Houston in order to travel through Houston in the morning—when we are fresher.  Good thing!  By the time we got down to Columbus, TX, we were tired.  We are at the Columbus RV Park.  (Escapees’ discount park--about $24.)

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The meeting room and facilities.  The pool is just off to the right.

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Doesn’t this invite to to sit a spell?  The owners are very creative.  The bathroom signs are cute:

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And the ladies bathroom is decorated with a touch of home too:

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The sites are close together, but they have room for big rigs too.  We were happy to be here tonight.  We hope to be in Livingston by tomorrow afternoon—and glad it will be April 2, 2012!  Enough April Fool’s jokes.