Movin' On

Moving tomorrow (Tuesday) to Texoma Lake TT Preserve for two weeks. Thinking about keeping the house for another year or two, I guess I'll let it play out by itself. I'll blog tomorrow night after we get set up up north, looks like good travel weather.

Slow

I've slowed down the last few days. Reading, walks in the campground, naps. Went to the Post Office to pick up my General Delivery from the mail forwarding service, but a fellow coming out of the building told me, "Dia presidentes, no abierto." Stopped by the market for a few simple things.

I'm reading a few books, one of which is William James' Varieties of Religious Experiences. It starts out a bit dry, and hard to get a good handle on. I needed to use skills I got in my Philosophy classes to bull through to page 75 or so. After that, it gets to be very rich and wonderful. I see now why the early AAs liked it.

Seems Thoreau was a bit of an intellectual snob, and I don't believe him when he says he can hike 30 miles in a day.

Baseball Friday. Thank God.

Hot here, I just put on the air conditioner. We went for a big walk, Emo swam in the lake, we got barked at but I let Emo pee on the other dog's tree, ha! Took the long way back, past a couple interesting RVs and holiday weekenders breaking camp. Great thing about full-timing, watching others pack up to go back to what I can no longer handle. I'll be so glad when I get the house ready for sale and get things set up like I want.

Enough rambling. Give some good thoughts and prayers to my brother in law Bill, he will be going through some serious medical procedures, we won't know details until they start in on him. Thanks...Chuck

Chores, Zoo, Hike

Been a busy 3 days - almost. Lots of lazy time, too. Tuesday got laundry, dishes, and general clean-up done and hit the meeting. Wednesday I went to the San Antonio Zoo and took a bunch of pictures. Emo and I went back to the Hill Country State Natural Area today and we hiked trail number 8, sans camera. The trail has no great features, just a very good multi-purpose (horse and hike) trail through mostly ranch land. There is one overlook, over a nice creek. There are some rocky and steep sections, I'm glad I'm not a horse. So far, all these Texas trails have been excellent. I am going to go over the HCSNA map and chart another loop to hike next week. We will hike the little trail here in the Preserve this weekend. And, I'll be at the meeting tonight.

I cooked some Anasazi beans in the pressure cooker. Vegetarian style. They are like pinto beans but a bit smaller and marbled with color. I used a full bag of beans, two onions diced, two bay leaves, and some pepper. Soaked overnight, drain so they won't make me gassy, cover with fresh water and bring up to pressure, for 8-10 minutes, let stand to cool. Good beans.

Here are some Zoo pictures, click on any picture to see a larger version.

Hiking the Hill Country SNA

Depression set in this morning, I slept from 10 last night 'til 9 this morning. Didn't feel like doing anything but taking a nap. Body felt stiff and sore. I forced myself to get breakfast. Then, I decided we would hike whether I wanted to or not. Got stuff together, took some ibuprofen and an anxiety pill, and off we went! I'm so glad I was able to win out and get out.

It was a great day, temps in the lower 70's and blue skies with a few white clouds. We hiked one of the "most difficult" rated trails, 5B, that goes to a loop with several overlooks. It was rough, rocky going for a while, I had to stop to rest several times. Emo had no problems, but he was panting pretty good. It was worth the effort to get to the top. That's where the overlook pictures are from.

We hiked down another trail a ways, and then took an easy trail about a mile back to the horse camp where the trailhead is. The boots I bought are work boot soles with cowboy boot style uppers, I was worried about how they would do on the trail, they did great. My tennis shoes would have had a rough go over all those rocks.

Many more trails in this park, we'll be back. Enjoy these pictures for now.

Good weekend

We did find the trails at Hill Country SNA to be hikable. I went to San Antonio Saturday, went to the art museum. I enjoyed it. A lot of what I call artifacts, ancient vases, pottery, etc. a lot of Hispanic stuff, not much European or American, but the modern art and the little bit of American 19th century I saw I liked. I went to the huge Outdoor World store, it is so big people were going there for a family outing. I bought some cowboy boots.

This morning the depression set in hard, I slept most of the morning. I know sometimes the best thing I can do is what I call driving therapy. We took the scenic route to Hondo and checked out the Escapees park there, and went through some ranch land and back through the Hill Country SNA to get back home.

The big freeze is over, no harm done to us or our equipment. I hope to do some hiking Monday or Tuesday.

Critters seen so far: ten million tame deer in this park, including two bucks clanking horns, two roadrunners who ran in front of the truck outside Hill Country SNA, I heard what I think was a squirrel running around on top of the RV, and these:

Cow crossing the road outside Hill Country SNA

Two burros across the fence at an overlook off the scenic drive.

Big freeze

Well, the big freeze here has created 15 or so busted, leaking water pipes in the park, none of them mine. I left my grey water dump valve open and some water trickling in the sink, so I'm good. They are going to shut off the water today to fix leaks, it is supposed to get up to 53F.

The little heater I bought works great, only using 1 Lb. propane disposables for now. On the Low setting (4000 BTU) it will toast the place when outside temperature is about freezing. With a small electric in the bedroom, the Buddy portable on low setting keeps the furnace from needing to kick on when the temperature outside is in the 20's. The Buddy heater runs about 5 hours on a bottle of propane. The big propane tank on the RV is still at 2/3 full, I think the little heater will pay for itself in short order, save a lot of hassle, and increase our comfort. Emo is still leery of it, but I think he is starting to warm up to the idea of a small heater.

I'm off to the Hill Country State Natural Area today to reconnoiter trails, they are multi-use so I want to see how hikable they are. I hope they are like other Texas trails I've seen, it may be a great place, 40 miles of trails with many loop possibilities.

Meetings less than a mile away 3 times a week, small, but very comfortable setting and long timers. Meetings 7 days a week in Bandera, I've not been there yet, but we will pass through on the way to the park.

Sis in the hospital with an infection in her feet, she is diabetic. Get well soon, kid! We'll keep you in our thoughts and the number in our Blackberry.

Shopping spree

Just returned from a big shopping trip. This Preserve is not really close to much, as far as shopping, so I wanted to get what I needed to stock up. It has turned cold down here, again. Under about 38F, my heat exchanger on the A/C unit will not heat the RV, so the propane furnace takes over. I don't want to run out of propane, and it is expensive. The furnace is not very efficient. And, it uses a bit of electric to run the big fan. So, I've been wanting a propane ceramic heater. Also, I needed to refill some meds, and stock up groceries.

Happy to say, after a short bit of internet research, I accomplished all 3 goals quite well this morning. I bought the little Buddy heater, the 4000-9000 BTU model. It is going on low now, with a 1 Lb. bottle. I also bought 4 propane bottles. Of course, Emo is afraid of it. For now.

There are a lot of trees in this campground, I couldn't find a way to get my rig positioned so I could use the slideouts in the first site I tried. I finally got squeezed into a site within walking distance of the lake. Deer are very tame here, the lady next door has been feeding them on my site, so they are all around the RV.

We are hunkered down for now. When the weather breaks, I'll light out and look around some with the camera. Keep warm...Chuck

Arrived

We are now set-up at Medina. More later.

Moving tomorrow

Travel day tomorrow, to Medina Lake Thousand Trails Preserve. Cleaned up a little today in preparation. It's a short drive, about 130 miles I think. I'll post something tomorrow night. But the kitchen is clean, so I had to take a picture.

Frozen

It has been freezing here for two days, and this morning I awoke to this:

My water hook-up is frozen, no water. I left my grey dump valve open and the kitchen faucet dripping, but not enough. I'm also getting low on propane. Forecast says a high of 36 today, if I can get water going again, I can clean some stuff up and leave the faucet with a greater stream for tonight.

I have a small electric heater I'm using, but it only does so much. I'm reconsidering a ceramic heater, a lot of RVers use them. Thing is, I can use the a/c in reverse mode for heat if the outside temperature is over about 34F, but I see now there are definitely times the ceramic heater would be useful. They use a lot less propane, also need no electric. I will need to tap off the stove plumbing, I think I could make it so the only down side would be needing to store the heater, and the initial cost and work.

Oh well, worse case I have to thaw connections to undo the sewer and water, secure everything, pull in the slides, and drive to the propane fill. It could be worse.

Yesterday we did get a drive in, we went to the Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge. Saw some bison. Drove the auto tour. It is different seeing prairie instead of ranch land. The Attwater Prairie Chicken is a little loud defenseless thing that has lost its habitat, and now is an endangered species. We didn't see any of them, but saw some big birds I can't identify. Mostly, we just went for a drive to get away from the frozen campground.

By the time we thaw, it will be time to start getting ready to move to Medina Lake. I did some map reading, I see lots of stuff around there that looks interesting.