Adventure Location: Grandkid Land, Al.
Adventure Date: 3-6-2021
We got to the grandkids about 1000 and it was a mad house after that. It was a busy day for sure. The big news is Grock got lost in the back yard.
The next big news is Gavin is working on another blog post. When it is finished we will publish it right here in OFM Adventures.
We
are headed back tomorrow for another day of trying to have tooooo
much fun.
Adventure Location: Point Mallard Park, Decatur, Al.
Adventure Date: 3-5-2021
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It was a busy day today. Walking went well and the OFM had a couple of shorter walks and then the Grand Walk of about four miles on the main walking trail along the lake. It was a surprise to all the Team members that he was able to do all the walking without any pains for a change.
Along the way we saw this very bright green bush with glowing yellow flower buds on it. We plan to keep an eye on it to see what the flowers turn out to be like.
All the greenery seen on this path system in the past is missing now. The severe cold a couple of weeks ago did some significant damage to the foliage. Here is a picture of what the paths look like for now. However very close examination near the ground shows lots of small green bumps getting ready to burst out.
A wonderful change since we left last October is the Lawler's BBQ place is open for dine in again. So the OFM REQUIRED the Team to go to the place for a huge stuffed potato for lunch. Which also managed to be supper. Here is a picture of the left over from lunch on a full size dinner plate. The microwave brought the potato and fixings back to life in good fashion and the OFM made it all disappear quickly.
One more good things happened. As the OFM Grocery Shopping Team (boy thats a mouthful) were passing the pharmacy at the Walmart Neighborhood Market, the OFM noticed they were advertising for Covid shots available.
After we got everything verified and explained we got on the Walmart site and got a slot to get punctured next Tuesday at 0840. They are using the J&J medicine so it will be a one shot happening. We like that idea. We like getting the inoculation even better.
Tomorrow morning we roll Sierra over for a wild day at Grand Kid Land trying to have tooooo much FUN.
Adventure Location: Point Mallard Park, Decatur, Al.
Adventure Date: 3-4-2021
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Rolling this morning came at 0745 and we made it to the campground at 1205. Traffic was easy and the rolling nice in spite of a couple of road repair hesitations.
When we checked in we were assigned space 6. This particular site has a shallow concrete ditch in the approach to the parking spot. We backed the Castle in just fine through the ditch and into its best location for the spread out utilities.
When we exited Sierra we noticed two fresh trenches in the gravel and dirt. It seems the Castles two back stabilizers and a frame piece dug themselves a way into the site. No damage to the Castle but the site may need to be regraded after we leave in a couple of weeks.
Then in the afternoon we got the OFM out for a gentle walk. Near the campsites is a daffodil garden and one flower was blooming.
On along the walking trail next to the lake we meandered along and checked out the lake level. It is a couple of feet lower than during the summer.
We found this 6" fungi that seems to have made it through the freezing times to still be alive and recovering. It was pretty red and orange tones.
On down the trail was a nice family playing in the purple clover blossoms of a practice field. They were having great fun.
Then a few meters on along where the fishing bridge crosses the creek we spotted a huge amount of flaming bright red berries on a tree barren of leaves. The picture does not catch the brightness of the glowing berries. Take our work for it they were beautiful.
Then we meandered on back to the Castle to let the OFM rest his sore leg muscles so we can do more walking tomorrow. These trails here will offer different opportunities for pictures this time because we have never been here in late winter before. It should be a great way of trying to have tooooo much fun.
Adventure Location: Interstate 20 Tx to Al.
Adventure Date: 3-3-2021
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Today was sunshine and safe driving. Last night the campsite was in the East Texas trees.
Last nights campsite, Tx.
Tonight the campsite is in the west Alabama trees.
Tonight's campsite, Al.
The travel was about 450 miles but it went really easily for some reason. A surprise is that from the time we hit I-20 until we got here to Eutaw, Alabama there were less than 10 Rvs of any type rolling on the Interstate. It seemed the day was spent just driving and buying gas.
But we are about to Grand Kid land and ready for it. Grand Kids can be a wonderful way of trying to have tooooo much fun.
Adventure Location: Highway 59 and 77, Texas
Adventure Date: 3-1-2021
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It was a cold and drizzling morning but we only needed about four hours on the road to get to Lexington Texas for tonight's stop. So we piddled around and left Goliad about 1000. Then for the next four hours we watched this view.
We got to Lexington in good time and with not a single crazy driver showing up around us during the trip.
Set up went quick. We pulled into a level enough spot, hooked up the electric and went inside the Castle. The electric heaters were put to work and all is nice. The drizzle and cold continues, Here is a picture of the campground.
There were lots of empty sites available.
The closest thing to excitement today was a stop at Academy in Victoria, Tx. A cheap sleeping bag joined the Teams in case the electric fails during cold weather again some day.
Tomorrow it is 18 miles northward and then we make the turn heading east for three days toward Grandkid Land.
Maybe we will have better weather the next few days for trying to have tooooo much fun.
Adventure Location: Falcon State Park, Texas
Adventure Date: 2-28-2021
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It was rather nice to have the white coupler on the Castle when we were getting ready to roll this morning. The OFM can see the ball on Sierra and the white coupler on the Castle to get them lined up fairly easily. It has been a great help in doing the chore single handedly.
We rolled out right on time this morning to a gray sky and a nice cool temperature. This is the view for the first 150 miles.
For the last 60 miles we had nice broken sunshine and fairly warm temperatures.
Check in went very well and a few minutes later we were in our spot for the night. The site was LEVEL of all things. WOW.
This park is conveniently near the towns gourmet dining location, Whataburger. As far as the towing went, the fuel mileage average was about 11 mpg. Road construction caused a bit of slow down a few times but really was not really bad.
The park has a good amount of walking trails for enjoyment including some very historical locations to view. The OFM has been coming here on occasion for over 50 years and still enjoys the park. It is a good location for trying to have tooooo much fun.
Adventure Location: Falcon State Park, Texas
Adventure Date: 2-27-2021
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An important part of trailering is having the electrical systems of the trailer properly connected to the tow vehicle. To the OFM Teams thinking the most important part of that umbilical cord connection is the trailer brakes contacts. So the OFM regularly cleans the contacts for all the wires where the trailer plugs into Sierra.
It can be a pain at times but we like to be sure we have trailer brakes working when we need them. Here is how we do the cleaning. This has proven to be very necessary when we are at the coast and the salt environment.
A finger nail file is notched to fit the size of the contacts in the connection.
The small end then is gently rubbed on the plug contacts and the tow vehicle contacts to help have a fresh metal to metal connection. Here is the file fitted into the female part of the plug assembly.
It does not take a lot of grinding usually but only a few in and out movements to give us good electrical contact.
About all we did today was minor get ready to move things. We filled the fresh water tank full. The gray and black water tanks are not even half full yet so they will hold another 8-10 days of use. The trip to Grandkid land is only 4 days so when we hook up to the sewer in Decatur we will have an easy opportunity to dump and flush all the tanks..
The view of the Castle in the rear view mirror should give the Teams a good dose of trying to have tooooo much fun.
Adventure Location: Falcon State Park, Texas
Adventure Date: 2-26-2021
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Two days until rolling time with an Arctic Fox in the rear view mirror. So the OFM took it easy to help the brain healing and be ready for the road on Sunday morning.
Grocery shopping was the main effort for the day. $60 after entering the Walmart got us fixed up with food for a few days. Now we have no excuse for not doing meal preparation, right?
The Castle and Sierra each got a taste of the vacuum cleaner to lighten their loads. It looks like we will have water again tomorrow so the Castle will roll with a full water tank as well as full food pantry.
This afternoon was spent on last visits and good byes with folks. We have been in the area since January 21, 2021. Many folks have already left the area for northward camping locations. There has been a major large number of Michigan license plates in this area this year. Even the free county park is clearing out since we are seeing warm to hot days again.
Tomorrow we hope to get to continue on a water color painting we have started. With a little luck we might finish it in 2-3 months. In the mean time we will be working hard at trying to have tooooo much fun.
Adventure Location: Falcon State Park, Texas
Adventure Date: 2-25-2021
No pics tonight
The OFM started the day off feeling pretty rough for no particular reason so we forced him to get out and walk a little bit. The route took us past the Butterfly Garden and on down to the large picnic area.
As he walked slowly he saw something odd in the brush about twenty feet away from the road. He gave it a long hard look and finally figured out it was a deer bedded down in the thick brush. The deer was looking straight at the OFM. The camera was being slowly eased from his pocket when the deer decided she had had enough and slowly stood up and walked away. Man o Man that would have been a great picture.
So the OFM continued his slow walk on back to the Castle. Then as he was cooling off from the 2 mile walk and trying to decide what was going on with him, the vision distortions of an oncoming migraine headache hit with a vengeance unmatched by even a volcano erupting.
OK. Now we are on ground the OFM knows how to traverse. The big dose of ibuprofen went down easily and the horizontal position was wonderful. The best we could tell he was out for about an hour. When he awoke his eyes could see again and the major headache had started. Therefore it was piddle around the Castle time for a good couple of hours.
Finally he was ready to move around a bit more so we took Sierra for a little spin around the neighborhood with the camera in the OFM's pants pocket. Bad mistake we soon found out.
As we cruised the road near the back side of one of the camping loops, a beautiful bob cat came sauntering out of the thick brush ignoring the truck slowly meandering along the road.
We got Sierra stopped while at the same time the kitty was just standing in the middle of the road about twenty feet in front of us. The OFM was trying to get the camera out of his pocket to get a fantastic picture of the orange and dark grey kitty. Blaaaa Oh Rats the OFM hit the horn by accident and the kitty obeyed and slowly walked on across the road and into the brush. It certainly was a beautiful kitty and really pretty large too.
OK that was another fiasco out of the way. However sometimes an accidental fiasco comes about from trying to have tooooo much fun.
Adventure Location: Falcon State Park, Texas
Adventure Date: 2-24-2021
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We had no target for today's walk so we just went off into the trails looking for adventure. And we found it several times today. Tonight's report is about a beach walk.
It started with a glance down the boat ramp and there it was for a change, water. It has been many days since any water was visible at the bottom of the ramp.
That happen stance made the OFM think of walking the beach for a change of pace. Since we were at the top of the “road” going down to the beach it seemed to be a good idea.
So we meandered on down the hill towards the boat launch area and the beach. It looks like a nice walk and it was.
There are lots of “sea shells” on this beach but only two main varieties. One is a spiral shell and the other is a clam shell style.
The beach meandering went well but there is not near the amount of “finds” available that we find on the Gulf of Mexico beaches. The clam shell inside is a brightly polished mirror with all sorts of pretty swirls to see. The camera could not catch the swirls nearly as well as the human eye did. But here is a look at what the camera could do.
As we followed the beach on around we finally came to the end of the beach that you are allowed to drive. The sign and bob war fence (barbed wire to you non-Texans) has been here for many years. But you are allowed to bike or walk on past the fence if you choose. The OFM chose yes many times in years past.
From this point we meandered our way back to our start point by way of the brush, stickers and deer/javelina trails up the hill. A little cross country travel is good for the soul now and then, even if you have to watch for rattlesnakes.
The rest of the day has been very eventful also. By the time things settled down the OFM was tuckered out and the heat was a bit nasty.
But naturally we had to grab some energy from some where to run over to the picnic area to photograph the evening sunset. We like how the Mexican mountains show in the sun light.
Back to the Castle we went only to find out the park water is off for the night at least. Oh well that is just one more thing to add to a day of trying to have tooooo much fun.
Adventure Location: Falcon State Park, Texas
Adventure Date: 2-23-2021
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During one of our long walks today we spotted new growth already on many of the plants. Here is a bush with fresh new leaves already bursting forth with great vigor.
Next we have three pictures taken here in the area. They have been cropped a little to fit the blog page. Enjoy.
Number one is Rio Grande River cliffs.
Number two is Ugly Critter
Number three is Toothy Critter
So now it is time to tell where the pictures came from. All three are the tops of the poles in a parking lot. Just a little cropping is all that was needed to make a car stop post interesting.
And that is another way of trying to have tooooo much fun.
Adventure Location: Falcon State Park, Texas
Adventure Date: 2-22-2021
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Texas State Parks HQ is at it again. Now they have canceled the first stop on the trip to Grandkid Land at Choke Canyon SP. So we went to hunting another overnight spot and grabbed one of the two available at Goliad SP for Sunday night. I hope they honor this one.
Apparently the several days of hard freezing here damaged the native vegetation quite a bit. On a short walk this morning we saw massive evidence that a spring out break is set back noticeably.
As we came out of a trail at the butterfly garden, we noted that all of the special trees at the front of the garden that were well leafed out and starting to bloom when we left here about 9 days ago, are now full of dead leaves. We are hoping the trees survived the cold.
On around the corner this row of shrubs had pretty green leaves and hundreds of flower buds just about to burst forth. Now they look totally dead.
When we got off into the trails it was still showing great damage. The OFM tried to get a good picture of the damage on this Yucca bloom but it was too deep in the leaves. Most of the bud was turning yellow instead of white and part of it was black where it has already started to rot. There are many like this in the area.
As we went on along this trail we came to a picnic area. It was quickly apparent how much foliage was no longer on the brush. Before the cold this was too thick in foliage to see the picnic shelter and water faucet. Now you can see through the left over stems to all the picnic shelters.
We are certain the south Texas brush country will survive but we are wondering if we will have much in the way of blooms for spring. It was already running sweat hot here today. What screwy weather we have had.
This is make the OFM have to work harder at trying to have tooooo much fun.
Adventure Location: Falcon State Park, Texas
Adventure Date: 2-21-2021
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Tired is the descriptor that fits the OFM tonight. The early trip to Walmart 40 miles away was the first of an active day. $50 plus of groceries were purchased. However the store was not in good supply of food.
We asked a stocker what happened. He said that the first supply truck in three days just arrived this morning about 0830. So the stockers were in for a busy day. We have enough to keep the OFM fed for a couple of days until Whataburger opens again.
Then a bit after we returned to the Castle we were in for another big surprise. We headed for the state park to get a day entry pass. The reservations we had had for the coming week had been cancelled when we got an email from the TPW main office that the park would not be open. So it was a major surprise when we pulled up to the window in the state park and the nice lady mentioned she had been waiting for us to return. A brief discussion sorted it out. The reservation had not been canceled yet on her equipment, so she checked us in and we headed back to Falcon County Park to grab the Castle and move into the state park. Now it will be their trouble to figure out.
Here is our new campsite for a week.
The rest room across the street is closed at the moment according to the sign on the door.
That doesn't cause the teams any trouble since we have the Castle.
Later we went for a walk looking for another great sunset picture but all we got was a picture of a ghost that follows the OFM around.
Since we have ample 120v electricity again for the microwave, we had pancakes for supper and they were very good. We use the Walmart house brand buttermilk pancakes from the frozen foods section.
Here they are all dressed up in peanut butter waiting for the thirty second session of the microwave to soften the peanut butter and then the syrup is added. Yum.
We are looking forward to some more good trail walking and stumbling onto some great pictures to prove we are trying to have tooooo much fun.
Adventure Location: Falcon County Park, Texas
Adventure Date: 2-20-2021
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It has been a nice gentle day of warming temperatures. Mid morning the refrigerator announced that the LPG bottle was empty. So the OFM went out and swapped to the full bottle. A bit later we confirmed that Tractor Supply in Rio Grande City had LPG and was filling bottles. So a nice east trip was made to them for a refill. The freshly refilled bottle was installed in the rack ready for use when needed.
The whole day has been gentle with a few visits with folks who are also boondocking in the park. Bright sunshine helped the warmer temperatures make this a beautiful day.
Yesterday evening the OFM headed out to photograph the sunset and turned around to gat this photo of our campsite. The rig is looking very comfortable in the campsite don't you think.
When the sun was setting, it had a few moments when it looked like it has set fire to the base of a tree in the field next to the park. Yep the sun was extra bright during sunset last evening. At least the fire did not spread to the rest of the area.
Sometimes gentle is a good way fo trying to have tooooo much fun.