Critters Everywhere

Fredericksburg, Texas

A cool breeze, a fresh pot of stew cooking and a drive about done today. WOW life is good. Today was only up to the low seventies for temperature, but the breeze remained cool all day. That made wonderfully slow, windows down, enjoying nature style of driving on the drive about.

The first destination was Mason Texas to nose around. WHOA that town is a lot larger than was thought and will take some serious time to enjoy. The good news is that there is a very nice campground at the fairgrounds just south of town. A quick tour through part of town confirmed the need for more than a quick trip to properly experience all that Mason has to offer.

There were lots of old houses that needed more care, but were still being lived in. Here is one that caught my attention.


The change in plans was to wander through some more of the back roads of the area. It is just as dry and dusty out that way as every where else. One creek did happen to have a small trickle of water but none of the others even hinted at moisture. When lunch time came to me a spot beside the road became my lunch room with view.

For some reason unknown to me, it brings me lots of joy to stop beside the road in special spots to have lunch. Today was wheat bagels and peanut butter while watching grasshoppers, flutter byes, birds and dust blowing. It was wonderful.

All over the place new critters are being born. Calves, lambs and kids are everywhere. Since most of these side roads are open range roads, getting close to the critters is part of the thrill. Not hitting a critter is an even bigger thrill.


A pride thing for a lot of ranchers is to have a special gate for their place. One of the neatest entrances to be seen in some time was seen when the team was almost back to “civilization”.

When the Castle was once again surrounding me, it was time to prepare some food for my fat body. A random gathering from the cabinets yielded the ingredients for a fantastic beef flavored stew. A good hour of simmering blended it to perfection.

That is a great way to top off a day of trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM.

Willow City Loop

Fredericksburg, Texas

It was time to get out of town for a little bit. So a ride was planned and off the The Truck took me. Naturally the trip went nowhere near the original planned place. First it was out toward the east to check on the flowers and moisture. Even LBJ State Park was dry. Then a route was plotted through the Ranch Roads, but a side road suckered me into traveling it. Seems like this team can never follow a planned route. Great HUH!

Everything out here is very dry. In the following pictures, the haze is not the normally UV reflecting off the water vapor. It is the fine dust that just hangs in the air and gets into everything included unopened cans. Maybe on the cans. The first side road wandered down through the ranches and never to be seen green grass. Here is a view of the area and the lack of water.

Walking makes little puffs of talcum powder fine dust erupt into the air. Then it gets into your clothes like crazy. On down at the bottom of this small valley is a stream? This stream seems to have been missing water for a very long time.
The meandering route of the trip got back to a Ranch Road for a few miles. Then another side route was taken to head to the Willow City Loop. When there is water and the wild flowers are out this is a very dramatically pretty area. Today it was not that nice.

The road is on private property. The pavement is public access but the dirt under the pavement is still private property. The folks have had to get hardnosed due to tourist misbehavior in the past years.
When you finally start down into the valley from the south, this is the first overlook into the valley below.
Notice the rock cliffs in the back of the valley. Eventually the road leads to right under them near a house. Sometimes on these legal side roads you get to drive almost on folks front porch. In one instance you actually drive between their house and the garage. Feels funny to drive through someone’s’ front yard. This one was not quite that bad.
A good part of the trip was finding diesel for $1.999 a gallon in Johnson City. That made me feel good about being out trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM

Stomped Like A Rotten Grape

Fredericksburg, Tx

Once again Jack managed to stomp me on the golf course. Of course we had so much fun it was hard to tell the score sometimes, but it is certain he whopped me good. It was a beautiful day and an easy day on the course for enjoying the time we had there.

A decision and plans were made on my near future. The team will be pulling out of Fredericksburg on the eighteenth for the coast of Texas again. The hope is that the water will be warm enough to get out and play in the yak A BUNCH. Just to send my readers on a geography search, it will be in Estes Texas.

This time the water should be in and of sufficient depth to get out and do some serious fishing. That month in Port Aransas with the water blown out of the bays was not the best ever. But Spring is on the coast and the fish catching should be getting pretty good soon.

At any rate it will be a good place to try to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM

My Head On A Putter

Fredericksburg, Texas

Jack handed me my head on a putter today. Here is Jack.
He and his wife Shirley are very nice folks. Jack was a fellow who was playing in the creek when my walk took me by him yesterday. We had a great conversation yesterday and even better golf fun today. Neither one of us was hitting the ball great or putting decently. We were not counting on anything except having a great time. That we did corectly. The course knew I was coming so they had front end loaders out on the course repairing the damage.

Best of all Jack is going to give me another chance tomorrow to get my head handed to me on another golf club again. That is great, because we both agree that the best thing to do on the golf course is try to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM.

Long Walks

Fredericksburg, Texas

A day of strong winds and calm happenings. A check to pay a bill was mailed and some diesel fuel purchased. Wow what an exciting morning!

This afternoon was made really exciting by the arrival of a used five wood golf club that had been ordered. My shaft stiffness has had to drop a flex due to me being wimpier than in the past. However the wind was too strong to try it out.

A couple of long walks were taken. One speedy one for exercise and one slower one to notice the world around me. On the second, a nice fellow was met who was playing with an RC boat in the creek. We hit it off well and tomorrow we will play golf.

After that it was back to the Castle and fix supper. A big salad with salmon and a pre-prepared salad mix from Wal-Mart. Throw in some choice spices and great eating.

An addition to the details blog has been made tonight.

A that is about it for a day of trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM.

Solar Powered Sun Catcher

Fredericksburg, Texas

What an exciting day!!!!! Laundry and grocery shopping is just about the most exciting thing a person can do for fun don’t you think????? At least there was Patty to visit at the laundry and George at the Wal-Mart. That certainly helped brighten the morning.

A neat item that has not been mentioned before is the solar powered sun catcher that my sister gave me a few years ago. There is a small solar panel on it that powers an electric motor. The motor turns the crystal around in circle broadcasting moving rainbows all over the area. When the sun is out, the effect is really first class. Getting a picture has not worked on the effect. So at least here is a picture of the device.

Back in ancient history times when a regular structure was my house, there were always lots of wind chimes, sun catchers and thingamadoodles hanging around. It was something that gave me great pleasure. Now there is not room for much like that in Comfort Castle. Sometimes they are missed.

Later today examination of the electric production of the solar panel was being studied. So far on a very bright day like today, the production peak is at 1.9 amps. Of course it hurts that the panel is tilted slightly to the wrong direction. Considerable thought was given to the value of tilting the panel. No logical conclusion could be made with the actual data on hand.

Due to the connection to the Castle wiring for the panel being very short, a significant tilt could not be tried. On hand was a length of aluminum angle left from a previous project. A few selected stainless steel fasteners were purchased at the hardware store. After some fabrication by this genius mechanical designer, about five inches of tilt was achieved. Due to the original negative slope of the panel, this gave about three inches of lift to one side of the panel above horizontal. A cleaning of the dust from the face of the panel was also done


That is not much slope and not much help was really expected from the change. WOW. The charge rate went from 1.9 amps to 3.1 amps. This panel from AM Solar is supposedly capable when coupled with the controller in the Castle of generating more than 5 amps. Now it is believable. This value was taken about five pm in the evening. Tilting to the sun really makes a LOT of difference. Now there is hard evidence to examine and costs to consider, but things are looking a lot more promising that they were at first.

On top of that good news, a fresh golf ball of my preferred type and brand was found during the evening walk near the golf course. WOW what a day of trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM.

Big Puppy Hug

Fredericksburg, Texas

Take a break from chores. OK. So off to Enchanted Rock for some serious walking and testing of my knee. Last time out there it gave me fits. This time it was not a problem. Hmmm. Interesting!!

As my gear was being prepared for the assault on the area, two pleasant fellows from a near vehicle headed out on the usual trail that had been my planned route.

As my shoes started me to the same path, my eyes caught sight of the road that goes off into the unknown with a sign that said Dead End Not A Trail. Good. Some place different to explore. And as it turned out quite an exploration.
When my path got to the park boundary, a right turn was made away from the main visitor area of the park. Good Choice. From here for the next couple of hours, the trails were all critter trails. Busting brush tears up to much natural stuff. Follow critter trails and they will take you everywhere interesting anyway. Right after leaving the roadway above was a place where the deer and javelina cross under the fence. This apparently has been used for a very long time with the amount of wear showing in the soil.
Over the next hour, my meandering along predominately deer trails led to many rather interesting spots in the park. By no means was this the first time for someone to be here. After all the path paralleled the perimeter fence, but it is not often folks come into this area. For the whole time there were no human foot prints in the soil. Lots of other critters for certain. There were so many interesting rock formations that it seemed like my camera card was going to get tested for actual capacity.

Many appeared like several different molten rock flows had happened. There were many flow lines of solid rock that wrapped up, over and around other rocks. Here are two of the “statues” that caught my attention.

The trail in the second picture goes from the lower right corner across between the camera and the large rock then cuts between the bigger rock and the split sliver on the left. After that it was crawl on hands and knees up the face of the big rock in the back ground. You could see where the critter hooves had been cutting into the rock surface.

Being out by yourself with nobody on the earth knowing where you are is dangerous folks. A broken leg or other trouble could make you dead, so prepare properly before you do this kind of stupid stuff. Please do not go off like this without twice the safety equipment you think you need.
Lecture over.

By crawling on my fat belly, this picture of the lichens and cactus flower was captured. There were lots of cactus flowers for the taking, but this one seemed special for sharing with my readers. The orange lichens seemed especially nice today.

After a lot of time among the rocks, it was time to make my way out of the area and find out where my path had taken me. My supply of water was the deciding factor on leaving. It turned out that the main Loop Trail was only a half mile away. My luck was holding because a group of loud kids happened to head past on the main trail just at the right time to give me a heading.

After getting to the main trail, a look at the burned area near the primitive camping spot was taken. What a mess and no rain in many months. This area will take a long time to regenerate if the wind does not blow all the soil away. The area is closed to visitor entry so only this picture of a prickly pear cactus carcass was taken. This shows what the inner skeleton of a prickly pear cactus looks like. It was a new experience for me too.

After that picture, it was about a mile and a half back to The Truck. The walk back was done on the main trail shown in the first picture. There was a special moment about halfway back. A nice young lady had her black lab puppy out for a walk. It seems like no puppy can hug any better than a young black lab. What a puppy fix that was!!!

Seems like this afternoon made a good try at having tooooo much fun. TheOFM

New Butt Pad

Fredericksburg, Texas

The wild screaming banshee winds are at it again. Chilly all day with significant wind chill also. The wind is picking up the dirt off the ground and blasting everything in sight. The truck has a layer of blasting sand collecting on the ledges of the body.

If that is not enough, there is more. The wind and sand have blasted the middle stripe of the park road right off the road. Peeled that sucker right up and sent it down to San Antone. See for your self.

Meanwhile discretion was to stay in out of the wind for the most part. Most of the folks that live here in the campground are gone somewhere today. Who knows where, but the place is a ghost town.

My dinette bench seats have over four inches of soft foam in the seats. It feels good at first, but after a half hour or so they bottom out on the plywood below. A few days ago it was decided to do something productive instead of gripe. Today the seat was taken apart.

That was a feat in and of itself. Whoever usually puts them together can likely crush ball bearing bare handed. My wimp fingers took a beating just getting it apart.

Next the foam was measured. Then it was filleted like a fish. Next it was fitted with the new piece purchased at Wal-Mart.


Then the fun of cramming the four hundred pounds of foam back into the three pound sack called the seat. By the time it was beat into submission, my fingers were getting raw. Butt sitting on it to write this blog entry is making the pain worth while. I think.

Since it is supposed to be cool tomorrow, maybe there will be some walking around and trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM.

Pretty Weather Vane

Fredericksburg, Texas

It was a forgotten fact that Comfort Castle and The Truck are both white. Finally they are feeling better after a wash down. This is the first campground in a while that thinks it is good to wash your rig with the water before letting it get to the grass and trees. The manager at Horn Rapids in Richland Washington had it right “If you don’t wash your rig, I will come by ask you to. I want this campground to look clean and neat.” And he kept it a very nice place all the time.

Some folks on some forums complain about Wal-Mart running small businesses out of business. Here is an example why. For the same exact make and model hose connection for my water hose the prices were:
Local Ace hardware=$4.97
Home Depot=$3.95
Wal-Mart=$2.39
Now figure this for yourself. You are living on early SSA, your savings have been decimated in your moderate investments, your health insurance went up to high to afford. Are you going to pay more than the lowest price for things you purchase? Wal-Mart has been helping me live within my means for many years and will continue to be my first choice as long as they have the best prices for my purchases. The new hose connection is what precipitated the washing of the rig.

This afternoon it seems that Mother Nature has decided to skip Spring this year. A couple of days ago, we awoke to near freezing temperatures. Today it hit 93. Here is the proof from the truck mirror.

Some meandering around town after dropping a book at the library, yielded two older buildings that seemed neat to me. The first is a rather small old home that is a lot larger than Comfort Castle. It looked like it could be about the right size for me if a stix and brix was in my future.
The historical sign told the story of its use as a family home a few years ago.
Around the corner and across the street from the Market Platz is this business. The owners are keeping the old building looking good. What caught my attention in the first place is the weather vane of polished brass or copper.
Now we have the store to visit if you want to see some neat things.
And of course the historical sign on the store.
A walk around the outside of the building was done and the folks are keeping the building in as good a repair all the way around as the front is kept.

The hot weather is supposed to get cooler tomorrow night. That will make it easier to get out and try to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM

An Addition To OFM Adventures

Fredericksburg, Texas


Since it was a day whereby my body was feeling somewhat listless and blah, alternative endeavors had to be attempted. The start of an addition to the OFM series has become a reality. In this new section will be the detail about any subject that happens to show up. It can be accessed from the Links I Like box from this blog or directly as http://www.ofmdetails.blogspot.com/. At the moment it is an empty template. There will be legend showing topics on the left sidebar. Some topics planned are The Truck, Comfort Castle, Solar System and topics like that. It is a fundamental fact that the new site will evolve as new techniques for communication are learned by TheOFM.

Most of the morning was spent proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that an idea about redoing the dinette cushions was worse than worthless as well as too expensive. It seems a lot of ideas like that happen in my life. Maybe there is solace in that there are still ideas happening in my itty bitty brain.

This mornings shoulder exercises well a little painful. That means it is not time to push the joints any harder. Muscles can be pushed a little. Joints are never to be pushed is my motto. My Dad had the same trouble with his joints getting worn out before he wanted to slow down. BLEECK. At least there was a beautiful blue sky, warm temps and cool breezes today. Now that cannot be too bad for trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM

New Driver

Fredericksburg, Texas

Tooooo much fun was a viable goal today. My new used driver golf club with a regular flex shaft was tried at the driving range this morning. WOW is it right for me. Looks like being old is catching up with my swing speed. That is ok, the grass is still below me instead of on top of me.
After lunch Bill and I played golf. My effort was fifteen holes of golf and three holes from hell of landscape modifications. But over all we had a fantastic time. On top of that the new used driver has put back about fifteen yard on my drives. Only two fairways were missed. Now that can give me a fat head.

This beautiful day of fun just had to be topped off with some good Texmex food from ElMaguey in town. The cook nailed the meal dead center perfect. And now the evening is cooling off nice and dry for a great night of sleeping.

The book from the library was finished. It confirmed many of the diet, nutrition and medical things that have become obvious in the last few years. It is titled “Eat, Drink and Be Merry”. Realistic expectations from your diets and exercise were presented with documentation. As is common in my world, others seldom agree with me because they believe what the sales jerks and drug pushers tell them.

The best thing of all is there is absolutely no plan for what to do tomorrow to try to have tooooo much fun. HE HE HE TheOFM.

The Geyser

Fredericksburg, Texas

It was not a fancy day today. One long walk all around the park and my shoulder exercises were the mornings excitement. However the sun was out and the temperature got up to 85 this afternoon. The wind was removing decals from the Rvs again.

In the afternoon golf was supposed to be played, but one person did not show on time. Bill and I piddled at the practice green for over an hour. My memory recalled an item that had been forgotten, so off to the Castle to get it. A geyser awaited me at the Castle. A water hose connecter had failed. Back to the practice green to tell Bill that a trip to Walmart was required. Walmart had the new hose waiting for me to purchase.

Now the new hose is in place and water is going to the correct place again. It is supper time so most likely the rest of the evening will be spent reading the library book. It is proving to be very interesting and a book report will be made when it is finished and digested.

Not all days are really exciting when you are trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM.

Zigzag The Hill

Fredericksburg, Texas

First outside thing this morning was laundry. The attendant at the laundry is Patty. She is a lot of fun to visit. We had some nice conversations, but she was very busy so it had to be kept short. She is very conscientious about the customers and taking care of the place. There is not an overabundance of employees in this world like her.

Two compliments on my painting of yesterday. WOW. Don’t worry, there will be no fat head from the compliments on this body. Fat head from eating too much is likely. Thank you ladies for the compliments.

The rest of the day was golf practice to try to get the golf muscles to be a bit less sore. Then off to the library for something to read and hopefully learn a new thing or two.

While wandering the room of self education, a spiral staircase that is not in my memory suddenly appeared. It is tucked back behind a corner with plants stopping a normal person from getting near it. Since no human alive accuses me of being normal, here is a shot looking down the staircase.


After accidentally noticing a book that seemed interesting and checking it out, some wandering around the main square of town was in order. Bright sunshine, a little cool and very few folks out and about made for some peaceful enjoyment. Across the street is a public gazebo in a little park near the police station. The gazebo has some pretty nice fancy wood work on the ceiling area.

Around the base is some plantings. Among the mostly dormant plantings were some daffodils. They were a nice surprise and very beautiful.


Meandering back over to the library area led to a flash of purple that caught my eye. This is starting to sound like GrannyJ’s blog. In another bed of plantings were some crepe myrtles of great character and some bearded irises. There are several crepe myrtles on the grounds that are over two stories high with lots of history showing on their trunks.

Across the main street is the public park covered in previous blogs. The water wheel that was there last October is now gone. With some luck it is going to be refurbished and put back into the park. It was neat. Several commemorative signs that had been covered with shrubbery were now visible. Some even have colorful pansies planted near them. One thing that was new to me but obviously not new to the park was this “history tree”. The different things shown on the tree seem to represent things about the history of the area. In the far background is one of the historic churches in the town.

It was getting on to evening so it was back to the Castle for me. The weather was so pleasant that a walk around the park had to happen. My path on the hill down near the river was a zigzag up and down it to give my legs some good exercise. A comfortable amount of soreness is showing up in my thighs tonight. That is good. It will make me tougher for going out and trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM.

No Great Art Here

Fredericksburg, Texas

Way too cold this morning for my tastes in weather. When the truck was started about 9 am to go grocery shopping, the temperature was 37. At least the frozen foods did not have an trouble staying frozen on the looooong four mile trip home.

A few weeks ago all my art supplies were given away in frustration with my abilities. The mediums that a lot of folks use were not “right” for me. Watercolor and acrylic has to be worked too fast. Oil pastels never dry and in a small trailer can get smeared easily. Oil paints require too much drying time, thus more smearing. Soft pastels were great, but they can get messed up easily. Again not for a small trailer. Colored pencils were “slow” enough for me but seemed to rigid in putting them on paper.

A few days ago in a store, wherever my meandering had taken me, was some new colored pencils. Koh-I noor had developed these new “soft” colored pencils. They were impossible to resist. Drawing is fun for me. There is no pretense that there is an artist hidden in my body. The object is having tooooo much fun and drawing is fun for me.

Last night the new toys were given a workout. They are perfect for me. Soft enough to make gradient coloring but firm enough it takes a serious effort to really smear them. In a book on watercolor by Tony Couch, he mentions that you should paint whatever you like till you get tired of it. Only paint what you want. Right now my like is prickly pear cactus and sand dunes.

And just for the heck of it here is my “artists case”. It is small and easy to carry in the trailer. Just opening it makes me have good feelings.
A wonderful long walk was taken this morning before lunch. It was over two miles and even in the brown of winter this is a pretty place. At one point while down in the trees along the river, this scene of a pastoral style was in view.
A bit farther along was this pretty scene of the low water bridge over the river. Maybe on some days it is through the river. Any way it was a very pleasant walk that noticeably tired out my legs.
This afternoon was spent practicing putting and hitting golf balls. My putting is just as bad as always. However the ball striking was better than my highest hopes. There is a chance that my play will not be a total embarrassment when a group of us gets to play next week. It will still be a laughing matter, but maybe not too embarrassing.
And there you have it, a day of trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM.

Other Campgrounds Search

Fredericksburg, Texas

A cold day to start off and stayed cool all day. The trip to check out some other campgrounds in the Hill Country was a success. This is the nicest of the bunch, but all of them were acceptable. On April 1 when this location goes to $600 a month it will be time to relocate.
On return from the trip, the solar was doing it’s recharging from the use last night. At first look it seems that everything is going well.

After lunch, a large pot of soup/stew was prepared. Supper was stored in the refrigerator and the rest split into portions and frozen for later enjoyment. For some reason there was a lot of dirty dishes to wash this time. But as usual everything is cleaned up and stored properly right after the meal.

It is cool outside and windy. Tonight is going down to somewhere between 27 and 32 depending on which weather service you check. Maybe the team came north too soon. Even my golf practice was stopped an hour before dusk because the temperature was getting too cool to be fun anymore.

Grocery shopping is on the agenda for tomorrow. Then something will have to be done to try to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM.

Sunshine Power

Fredericksburg, Texas

An extremely important event has happened today. The Old Fat Man would be dancing with delight and excitement if he could dance. An old friend with lots of adventures and stories to tell has finally started his blog. He has been pounded for a year to get a blog going because he has tooooo many great adventures and stories to share with us all. Please check this out http://mobilestudiotravels.blogspot.com/ and enjoy it. Bob is a neat fellow from over in the Carolinas. Be sure and ask him about his inflatable kayaks. He is also good at muck dancing like was mentioned in one of my blogs a few weeks ago.

Another thing that surprised me today was the information that the Fort here in town had closed down. That was my only contact with Mac. Maybe luck will smile on me and he will bump into me somewhere in town. That would be really nice.

Speaking of nice. On a walk tonight it was wonderful to hear the sounds of folks out playing. There were two basket ball games, one softball game, a tennis match or two and some other party event at a pavilion. Lots of laughter and fun noise. That is great to see and hear.

As of about three pm today, Comfort Castle is on solar power for all it’s twelve volt needs. There are two batteries that came with the Castle and now one hundred watts of solar to recharge them. About three is when the charger from the 120 volt service was unplugged. It is going to be a nice study to see how things work out.

The work today was easy but slow. Frying a controller was not in my plans. Every step was read twice, then simulated and re read to verify my actions were right. Here are the results. First a broader view of how it looked inside the Castle.

And now you can see that the system is charging even though the sun is very close to the tree line across the creek.

All told it took about eight hours to install the system and clean up. Probably over half that time was read and verify to prevent expensive errors. A replacement controller would have cost about $250. That would have been a major ouch. Supposedly the future costs are only a couple of batteries every five to seven years. My current batteries are working on their third year.

Now the bad part. With all the contortions, up and down the ladder, standing at weird angles and all that kind of thing, man I AM SORE. Being a lazy bum has it’s detriments.

About five this evening, some golf practice was the order of fun. My technique was terrible but my fun level was overflowing. That was a great way to try to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM.

Aerial Acrobatics

Fredericksburg, Texas
Lady Bird Municipal Park campground

9:30 am

The first thing to do this morning was turn on the electric heaters. My side windows had been left open last night because the shades had been pulled down to block sun earlier. The heaters had been left off due to stupidity. When nature called me from the bed this morning it was 53 degrees inside Castle. It was 37 outside so the Castle actually retained yesterday’s heat pretty well with an 8” by 66” opening sitting there letting heat escape. Electric heat is used since the $250 a month rate here includes water, electric, sewer, and 72 channel cable TV.

Another thing tried this morning was the walk around the perimeter of the park that was a normal event before. Only about half way was accomplished. My legs have gotten very lazy down on the flat coast. Looks like there may be a few days of being sore while my body readjusts to some physical activity. The cholesterol reading from my last blood donation came in a couple of days ago and definitely more physical activity is needed. Standing around casting a fishing lure does not get the job done.

In a few minutes, a trip over to The Fort to visit with Mac will be enjoyed. It will likely involve many stories and tales again. Later today it is supposed to be sunny, so maybe the solar panel will get installed on the roof.

Final edition

Mac never showed up at the Fort. Hopefully nothing serious has happened to him. My trip continued on down to Kerrville to gather current information about the area for decisions on what to do in April.

What information that was gathered today when coupled with other information over the last year gave me the opportunity to make the big decision. Most Rvers pick an area and settle in for the winter somewhere. They try to get all the medical stuff, income tax stuff and other burdensome things done during that time. Moving around last year and this year turned out to be less than the most desirable thing to do. Today, Kevin the campground manager, was asked when it was needed to ask for a site for the next winter. He checked his lists and found he had openings for only five more for next winter. It seemed like a good thing to sign up for, so now site 23 is reserved for me for next Dec-Mar. They have a wonderful policy here that no money is required up front and you choose to not come, you are not obligated to come. Kevin would appreciate it if you did at least let him know what is going on. It is hard to beat $250 a month total cost with all the recreation available around here.

During some more walking in the park, it was noticed that many new trees have been planted. If they are cared for well, it will make a great addition to the park. Notice the nasty winter weather. he he he.

The bright sun and low wind caused a spurt of frantic activity for me. The picnic table was slid over to the trailer. The solar panel installation tools were placed on the roof. Next the panel was placed on the roof. The TheOFM ran to the back of the trailer and scampered up the ladder to the roof. Nope no running on the roof. Crawling around on the roof was the way to travel.

The panel was placed in the proper position. A screw was placed in opposite corner mounting feet. Now the chore could be done more calmly since a gust of wind would not blow a $500 panel to the ground and shatter it. WHEWWWWW!!!!

The installation went well, but there are no pictures of the installation. It was enough for me to keep control of the drill, screwdriver, caulking gun, screws and my fat body all at the same time. The mounting feet were removed from the panel one at a time. Smear with plenty of caulk. Mount it back to the panel. Drill the screw holes in the roof. Put caulk in the screw holes. Screw the screw in snug. Then coat the top of the foot and screws with the caulk. Four times the process was done and very little caulk got on any thing but what it was supposed to.
Here is the solar panel in place. This picture was taken with me standing up on the roof in the breeze.

Next a close up of the mounting feet slathered like a chicken fried steak in cream gravy.

And finally a picture from the front of the trailer. But the picture was taken from a rise across the street from the campsite. The panel is almost out of sight from the same level as the campsite. Notice the picnic table snug to the trailer.
After all that nervous stress of roof top acrobatics, my body was tired. So off to the golf course next door to try putting for the first time with the new glasses. They are much better than my old golf glasses.

Some of my muscles are already sore. Those months in the flatlands are really telling on my legs. A lot of good rest is needed to be ready to try to have tooooo much fun tomorrow. TheOFM.

Wonderful Screwdriver

Fredericksburg, Texas
Lady Bird Municipal Park campground

The morning started with a wet fog to keep coupling up interesting and nasty. A route not in my travels in a lot of years was chosen for the route to Fredericksburg. Not far northeast from Del Rio the terrain became somewhat wooded with juniper bushes, usually called cedar. The trip to Fbrg took a solid four hours, but was a very pleasant journey with no special excitement thank goodness.

Comfort Castle is all snuggled in for a six week stay that should help my financial situation noticeably. On April 1 the campground goes up to a flat rate of $20 a day. Now that turns out to be $600 a month which is almost as bad as the health insurance was going to be.

Trying to have tooooo much fun playing golf and riding bicycles is the plan. Already some folks that stayed here all winter are planning some golf rounds starting next week. They will stomp me into the ground.

The solar system can be installed in a comfortable manner now. There is even some help available if it is needed. This area is definitely better for my senses than Port Aransas or Falcon. Tomorrow will start a lot of catch up. As mentioned in a previous blog, they like folks to wash vehicles so the pecan trees get watered. The rig is filthy since the previous campgrounds like you to have dirty rigs. They water the grass but do not let you put the water over the rig first.

About a year ago a friend from Washington, Kevin L, made me a special screw driver. That tool has been extremely valuable since then. There are four bits in it. Two square point bits, a straight bit and a Phillips. It is nice to have the wood grip that is large to give more than average leverage on screws. The wood grip is beginning to get a beautiful patina on it from the hand oils rubbed into it.


Since it was a travel to a destination day, there was not much adventuring going on. The labor of cleaning the rig and finishing the solar needs to be finished so more attention can be paid to trying to have tooooo much fun, TheOFM.

Stalled Installation

Del Rio, Texas

A very cool morning started the day. A very warm afternoon tapered into a cool evening. A lot of sawdust vacuuming was done this morning. Going to get parts as they showed a need to have took the rest of the morning.

The thirty amp circuit breaker that goes between the battery and the solar controller is a very important part. It is what will protect the controller in case the batteries go berserk

Next was time to read the instructions for adding the support feet to the panel. The are very ingenious and strong. The assembly required me to find where the box end wrenches were hidden. In the third tool box of course. The feet went on easily and as proclaimed.
Some cleaning up and putting tools away was in progress when the going blind eyesight showed up. Oh boy a migraine again. Well that puts an end to climbing up and down on the roof ladder. No chance at all at working close to the edge of the roof when on top with my balance shot to pieces. Fundamentally all progress stopped right there until another time.

The good side is that it has been chosen to spend the spring in the Texas Hill Country. My mind has been bothered by a “should” mess around in Big Bend since this is the time of the year for that area to be visited.

SHOULD is a nasty word for a RV dweller. Want is the correct thought. A call to Lady Bird Johnson RV Park in Fredericksburg netted me a spot vacated yesterday. That is my spot now. Tomorrow is the expected return to that park. Comfort Castle has been there a few times according to the blog.

A good thing about the park is they like for you to wash your vehicles so the trees get water. My visits there in the past have not even started to scratch the Hill Country fun. Spring flowers in that area are usually spectacular. The old pecan trees will shade the roof enough that installing the solar panel will be a lot more comfortable there than here in the boiling sun. A boiling sun does feel good in the cold winter though.

That area is fun for me. Returning there in the best time of the year will make it great for trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM.

Bad Instructions

Del Rio, Texas

It is cold here today. The wind is strong. So the morning was spent putting the dinette table back to its original position. A few months ago it had been rotated ninety degrees so an office chair could be used with it. It was an ok idea, but more limiting than was originally thought. Thus it is now back to factory stock location.

A surprise call from Pat at the campground office relayed the information that my solar panel was here. The rest of the day has been spent prepping items and reading about proper installation. The panel is about two feet by five feet and two inches thick.


After opening the package and carefully checking out everything that could be checked, it was ruled ok. Now all that is needed is a warm calm day to work on the roof safely. The panel junction box is a two wire connection to my surprise. My eyes had never seen how the panels are wired before. Thank goodness it is very simple.


The template that came with the controller was carefully marked on the planned location for the controller.

Did you know that a saber saw can totally fill a small trailer with sawdust in less than five seconds?? Well it can. There is a mess in here that may take a while to get cleaned out. The hole was completed and the controller was attempted to be inserted into the whole as instructed. The hole was too small!! After doing my own measuring of the controller, the whole was recut to fit. Now the controller fits into the hole very nicely.

Tomorrow will start the process of getting the wiring that was installed in the trailer deciphered as to which wire goes where. Labeling the wiring would have been way to much to ask, right?????? This will be a bit of a nuisance to do while working by myself.

Providing it warms enough tomorrow, the panel should be installed. Maybe the wiring will also be finished. Then all that will be left to do is decide which way to roll in my quest to try to have too much fun. TheOFM.

Beautiful Blooms

Del Rio, Texas

A light coat was needed for the walk to the rec hall for the Sunday breakfast this morning. As usual the food was wonderful and great for increasing you level of bad cholesterol. The Canadians a couple of slots down from me were there and we visited for forever. Tuesday they are headed for the Rio Grande Valley to go to a music festival of some sort. They are fun folks to visit and compare stories of places and events.

The grocery shopping was interesting in that the prices of nearly everything purchased was noticeably less than at Port Aransas and way less than Fredericksburg. The BILL still was over forty dollars. Part of the reason was some extra stocking up for when the team rolls out on Wednesday for parts unknown.

Late this afternoon a yak paddling was accomplished. Over at Spur 277 south the launch was very easy and clean. It is an old road bed so there is no mud. The shoreline on this lake is not easy to distinguish from one part to another. That is a typical trait of desert lakes. You must pay attention to your travels or you can be heading to a location you do not want.

Man that water is cold. After stepping into the water to get on board the yak, it took my feet a long time to warm up. With a cool air temperature and cold water, falling in was not a smart idea.
After leaving the dock area there is a cliff along the left side of the lake. It is nice to have some good scenery immediately. This cliff portion is only a hundred feet from the launch ramp.

Meandering on along looking at the cliff ins and outs brought me to this tree. When the lake was down last May, that tree was growing out of the rock way above my head.
Being a well experienced yaker, the first leg of the journey was paddled into the wind. Coming home with the wind is a lot nicer. While sticking close to shore, like ten to fifteen feet, seemed like a good idea, it was still over twenty feet deep.

The first little canyon, little above water anyway, ran back into the cliffs for a ways. Then as you get toward the back of the canyon the recently flooded brush starts to close in. Out here it is wise to watch for rattlesnakes in the brush. They crawl into the brush near the water surface and grab fish when they swim by. Whenever the brush starts to close in, my yellow yak wisely backs out of the spot. You can see the brush closing in at the back of the canyon.

After this canyon, the route came out from the land area and the wind became a serious factor. Stopping to take pictures was not a good idea. A sizeable crossing was made to the lee wall of another large canyon. AHH finally a chance to rest my sore shoulders.

This lee wall was nice to hide behind for a mile or so. Along the way the Hanging Gardens of Prickly Pear were found. They are beautiful don’t you think?

Before the back of the canyon was even close, the flooded timber got thicker than was wise to play in. On the way out this picture was taken before the wind was encountered again.
The land at the far back ground is where the route turns left to head back to the ramp. Once the turn was made, the wind helped. To my surprise the wind driven waves never got over about a foot high. During the trip back, the waves were never powerful enough to catch one and surf in to the ramp. RATZZZ surfing the yak is fun.

One last little turn and to my astonishment there was a large bush with purple flowers that was missed on the way out. It is possibly some type of laurel. The fragrance was heavenly. The flowers wonderfully beautiful. And best of all the water was calm enough to get two pictures from very close. The bow of the yak was resting on a rock next to the trunk of the bush. Check out this beauty and if a reader knows the exact name please comment so we all will know.

It was getting dim out and time to get the yak out of the water. My luck ran great and a shallow spot to step out into the water was only about two inches deep. That helped my feet to be less cold for the twenty minute trip back to Comfort Castle.

It really was surprising how much fun this trip was. It was about two hours, but seemed only to be thirty minutes.
Now this was a great day to trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM

Chilly Morning

Del Rio, Texas

A light jacket certainly made for a nice addition to my wardrobe this morning. The dark clouds combined with a gentle breeze and it was chilly. The lake water is still pretty cold for playing in the water. Combine that with a significant wind chill and a spill in the lake from a yak could be life threatening. So the yaking was put aside for the day.

In the late evening some fishing was tried. In the first three casts the disaster toll was three hooks, three weights and three plastic worms. Enough. Everything was put away and back to Comfort Castle the truck went. Sometimes you just have to know when to quit and have patience.

Meanwhile earlier in the day a near disaster was averted by ¼”. One of the outside storage bins was getting somewhat cluttered. You know how clutter explodes exponentially. A clean out was in order. First the top layers were pulled out and laid in the “yard”. The next layer had a surprise layer of “red oil” on it. WHAT NOW????? Further digging and unpacking yielded a grease gun that had been forgotten from about a year ago.

Apparently it had been put away with the grease still under pressure. Combine the pressure with the Texas heat of last summer and you have leakage. The puddle was large and came about ¼” from getting under the vinyl that covers the flooring. Now that would have been a really big mess. This one was big enough. After much cleaning and MANY paper towels, the bin was ready for habitation again. A neighbor from Canada was glad to get the grease gun from me.

One thing that did not go back in the bin was a trailer hitch draw bar left over from my thirty foot trailer. That thing had to weigh over thirty pounds. My shoulder workout dumb bells are fifteen pounds each and this was noticeably more to lift than the dumb bells are. After wrapping it in a plastic grocery bag, it was carried down to the dumpster to help hold it down in the winds around here. Maybe the truck fuel mileage will go up now.

Three more nights here were paid for today. That will let me receive the solar panel, controller and my mail on Tuesday and roll out of here on Wednesday. Then it will be time for a new place to try to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM.

Loud Screaming Calves

Del Rio, Texas

Since the wind was shoving things around this morning, a choice was made to go to the Pecos River high bridge area and really look around it for a change. Lunch was loaded into the truck with other things. The plan was to stay there until all of it had been covered for the first time for me. The plan even worked out to my surprise. WOW.

When the team arrived it turned out the wind had died down to almost nothing. The sun was, however, making itself well noticed. On went the sunscreen and broad brimmed hat. My body was sweating some before too long. At seven tonight it was still eighty degrees outside. Summer might be here. NAW Summer starts at ninety five out here.

The first bit of walking was along the nature trail which had been finished since my last trip here. It is a nice short easy trail with a ton of plant identification tags. It runs far enough from the edge of the cliff to be safe, but close enough to give great views of the canyon below.

A bit to the side of the road to the boat ramp is a wonderful shade shelter on a view point. As you get below it on the long narrow road to the boat ramp, it is possible to see that the ridge out front of the view point has a few loose sections just sitting waiting for the correct target to pounce upon.

A few meters on down the road you get this view of the cliffs across the Pecos. They are three hundred feet high, but most of them is under the Pecos now. It took a few days for the Pecos to wear that rock down three hundred feet it would seem to me.


As you get on down to the vicinity of the ramp turnaround, there is a stair that heads down the cliff on this side of the river. Every time a visit was made in the past the stairs were chained off to prevent entry. Today they were open. Now where do they go is the question?

As you carefully make your way down the very steep stairs, they turn a couple of times then this view comes into the scene.

If you look carefully in the lower right through the handrail you can see a stair step under water where the stairs continue. The handrail could be seen disappearing into the depths. So now we still do not know what the stair goes to. RATZZZZ.

After slowly and carefully climbing back up the stairs, a moment to catch my breath was needed. Then my meandering path continued down the narrow steep ramp road to the ramp and pier. Nothing exciting was showing here. A look up the narrow STEEP ramp road did not produce any urge to trot right up the road. Please take my word for it, that road is steep. The shade from the cliff was a welcome companion all the way back up to the ramp parking lot.

At the ramp parking lot was this very determined tree. It has grown there in spite of the hostile circumstances of it’s environment. How it has managed is beyond my imagination, but it gets my admiration for sticking to it.

After achieving the ramp parking lot, getting on up the road to the visitors parking lot was still a lot of work. By the time the visitor lot came into my leg calves were screaming bloody murder and my feet were cheering them on. Don’t you hate it when your body gangs up on you? The really bad part is that as you get older it takes less of a gang.

After a very pleasant lunch at one of the beautiful view points, it was time to head back to Comfort Castle and some ibuprofen to shut my legs up. When the comfort of Comfort Castle was gained and the legal dope consumed, it was time to give those lower appendages some rest. After laying down and unwittingly passing out, an extremely relaxing nap happened. When life came back to the body, it was too late for yaking today.

It was a great day and a lot of fun was enjoyed. Maybe tomorrow will be just as good for trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM

Launch Point Found

Del Rio, Texas

The first part of each morning several folks and some dogs take a nice walk from the campground down to the boat ramp and back. The nice thing about this area is the lack of traffic almost all the time. When my walk was taken this morning, ahead of me was two ladies and a couple of pups. It was a beautiful morning and about 63 degrees with a light breeze. It is downhill to the ramp and a good climb back up to the campground.

Near the ramp is two loops to picnic areas. My path always threads its way through the loops. Today was a lucky day. Down by the water someone had left me a package of plastic lures to try.

A bit of effort today was spent running around the lake looking for a location that would permit some yaking in spite of the wind. Finally at hwy 277 launch point the conditions needed were met. Here is the beautiful view from the ramp. On top of the hill and back at the campground it was blowing 25-30. Here it was gentle and manageable.
While on the pier, a tree that had shaded me last May was noticed. Now scuba gear would be needed to be shaded by the tree. The water certainly is nice and clear. The white triangle in the lower left is part of the pier. Notice how far into the water the tree is visible.

On the hill above this location is two picnic tables and shade shelters. It makes a very nice location for taking a break and relaxing. The view from the shelters is this.

After that good find, a trip over to San Pedro campground was made to pick out my next location for camping for $2 a night. When the solar panel is installed, my plan is to stay at San Pedro until after the three day holiday, then hit the road. That will be the start of the lower cost capability of Comfort Castle and boon docking.

Oh Boy another option when out trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM

Another Lazy Bum Day

Del Rio, Texas

A day of easing along with not a particular thing to do. One item was check out the prices on the golf course. It turns out they are suffering from a case of feeling like the 9 hole short course is worth as much as a very nice full size challenging course. Looks like golf here is not on the agenda.

Home Depot was visited to get terminals for the 10 gage wire for the hookup of the panel and controller. My education on that is that there are more than one size and type of terminal for 10 gage wire. Now it is wait for the equipment to come in and then get the terminals that are proper.

A cooked in the park breakfast was available and utilized this morning. All you can eat of many good items for $4. Two eggs cooked to my spec, bacon, biscuit, gravy, potatoes and coffee easily satisfied me until lunch. Every Wednesday and Sunday is the timing of the breakfast.

After the ferocious morning wind died down it was a beautiful day. Fishing this evening was a bust, but the slick water was beautiful. Most likely yaking should have been the evening fun instead of fishing. After finishing with the fishing, several boats coming in at the ramp were checked out with no catches to report. The water is still very cold.

All that easing along did not produce any extremely exciting events in the effort of trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM.

New Solar Panel Ordered

Del Rio, Texas

Do solar panels pay for themselves on Comfort Castle? For all too long accepting the “consensus” of some RV forums instead of doing my own analysis has been costing me precious money. About a week ago the proper effort was started to make a dollar based decision about putting solar on Comfort Castle. My analysis showed the payout was about a year and versatility of places to stay increases several fold. The panel and controller were ordered today. This will be interesting to say the least.

Other than the solar stuff, most of today was spent riding around looking at places to try to have fun. With the lake up over eighteen feet, the shoreline is not anything like last May. Islands where the yak was parked for pictures last May are not in sight now. It is a whole new world out here yak wise.

On top of that the winds are continuing to blow too much for any boat to enjoy the lake. Earlier it looked like a range fire over in Mexico with a huge cloud of smoke. Nope it was a major dust storm headed at Comfort Castle. Now we have been severely rocking for a few hours.

This picture was taken at Diablo East boat launching ramp. This ramp has the parking way up the hill to the far left and behind me. Folks use this ramp less than Blackbrush Point ramp so they do not have the long arduous walk to get up the hill to their vehicles and trailers.

On a point sticking out into the lake is a nature trail that is new to me. It is a pleasant short trail with neat placards now and then explaining about the natural items in the area.

While riding around on an unpaved sort of road through the desert, a nice fishing pier was found. The area does not get much use. Likely because the road to it is so rough. It does not seem like cars could make it to the pier. Anyway a few casts were made, but the wind was too strong to fish properly.

There are several “new” places that a yak will launch easily during my attempts at having tooooo much fun. TheOFM.

1/4 " Short King

Del Rio, Texas

Got the chores and want to’s under control enough to go for a little fishing this evening. Surprise Surprise. There was even a catching. After about twenty minutes of casting and reeling, a really dumb large mouth bass bit on my bait. It was nice to find out that the new rod handles fish very well. The trouble is the nice FAT bass was ¼ inch to short to be legal. My title needs to be King Of The ¼ “ Too Short. That happened to me at Port Aransas also. At least it was a catching adventure for a change.

Groceries were purchased at the Wal-Mart. Once again it is amazing how nice and pleasant the folks are in this town. Some places the folks in the stores are not happy looking. Some places like Del Rio and Rockport the folks seem happier than at Walt Disney World. It was a new thing to me when the lady at the checkout in front of me paid in Mexican currency. The Wal-Mart here does the checking out and change in US dollars, but accepts pesos in payments. The cashier only has to hit a key or two and the payment is converted into US dollars for her ease of tally. The cashier told me Wal-Mart even gives the customer a slightly better exchange rate than the customer gets in Mexico. Boy that Wal-Mart really knows how to make folks want to shop there. That is why they are so successful. Provide what the customer wants to spend on. Works every time.

The golf course was checked out also. It looks like it will be a nice course and is not public play. Last time it was still a private country club. Contrary to the Sinton course that seemed to do things to make folks not want to play there, this one has special days where seniors over 55 get a nice percentage off. They also have several good deals for folks who want to save money by playing at the less popular times. It was closed today, but the operator of the course happened to see me looking around and pulled in from the street to give me the information. Once again SERVICE. It brings in customers. The fairways were ordinary, but the greens were first class. It will get some of my money at least once.

The lake is something like nineteen feet fuller than when the team was here last May. It is a whole different looking lake now. Maybe the yak will get to go play on it soon. Here are a couple of pictures snapped just to let my readers see how nice it is. Bright blue skies, 75 degrees, scattered clouds and then the rest of the week it is supposed to get nice.

The New China Buffet was the lunch spot while running around doing chores. When it was last tried in May it was pretty good. This time my lunch was smoked salmon, skewered chicken, stuffed shrimp, vegetable egg roll, long green beans, onion rings, fried rice, iced tea and scoop it yourself from the container chocolate chip ice cream. It was all good to very good. Total cost including tip was a bit under $10. As my waddling body exited the door, it was held open for the owner to fix the lock. He was a very nice fellow to visit with. WOW what a day today.

But we are not nearly finished with all the adventures. Several folks were ready to have nice conversations. Some folks from before and some new folks. This is a really good area for trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM

Wind Blown Trip

Del Rio, Texas

The blog entries of the last couple of days have been cleaned up and entered for all to read. Yesterday’s is pretty special thanks to the folks you can see in the blog.

Today was head out day. Folks still ask me where my plans are taking me. Today there was a decision made at the first highway intersection to head north to Zapata. That was easily accomplished. In Zapata at the main intersection a decision was made to head to Laredo because it had been many years since my eyes had seen Laredo. More on Laredo later. Just a bit north of Laredo at the State Of Texas visitor center, there were three roads to choose from. A phone call to a RV park one direction yielded the information they were full for the next two months. OK choose one of the other roads. More north travel was chosen since it was 86 degrees in the parking lot. North ought to be cooler.

The first town with a campground to the north was not appealing, so the truck kept on moving north. When it all settled down, we are in Del Rio at the American Campground again with a week paid for. Now how did the team get here?????

The trip today was very strenuous. The wind is extremely strong and was pounding the truck and trailer from the side. Since the rig is coupled with an Equalizer brand hitch, even the strong winds cannot cause sway like other brands allow. However every now and then the entire rig, trailer and truck in unison, would move around in the lane. From ten this morning until five this evening it was fight the wind every minute. That is very tiring.

Here is a picture of the campsite in Del Rio. It is an ordinary every body lined up campground, but with considerable more room between rigs than most places.

This is a high value campground. Water, sewer, electric, cable and fast WIFI is $145 for the week. Monthly is $200 plus electric. A quarter mile across the highway is excellent fishing. The place is not fancy at all, but things like the laundry are clean.

The wind has Comfort Castle thrashing about with too much vigor. Sleeping may be interesting tonight. But tomorrow will be great for trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM