Fried Chicken

 

Adventure Location: Decatur, Al

Today's Date: 10-31-2022

Such a disorganized day lead to a random pictures day also. The morning walk started well and two pics were taken and then the OFM decided he did not feel right and we went back to the Castle. From there nothing special happened but we did hit up the big Walmart to get a couple of items the small Walmart did not carry.

During the short walk we liked this view out onto the golf course through the tree leaves for unknown reasons.

And only a little way later we heard crashing coming from a tree in front of us so we stopped to see what was going on. What was going on is this limb was leaving the tree looking for a landing spot. We are glad we did not provide a softer spot for the limb to land.

During the big Walmart shopping trip we happened by as they were putting out freshly fried chicken packs and grabbed one. After we got home to our RV sized refrigerator we peeled all the not wanted for eating dough and skin off the chicken. Junk in the right hand bowl and edible in the left hand bowl. Notice that the junk bowl of stuff is nearly as large as the edibles. So basically half of what we paid for is not really decent to be eating.

We got a new neighbor this evening from northern Michigan. He is down here to work on a project near the Huntsville Airport. His duration to be is about two months. We are really glad he seems like a nice fellow.

Tomorrow we have to work a bit harder at trying to have tooooo much fun.

Salad, He Did It Again

 

Adventure Location: Decatur, Al

Today's Date: 10-30-2022

The drizzling rains are still lightly coming down tonight. It is about 2030 now and the Teams are tired of it. At least it has been intermittent so we did get out for a bit of exercise and photography. First thing today we hit up the grocery store and got out with only three bags of stuff. Then most of the inside time today was spent in wearing down colored pencils.

On one of the short walks between drizzle sessions we walked to the back gate of the campground. This is where the OFM usually exits when going on a normal walk. It is about a quarter mile from the Castle. If you look up to the left you can see a blue roof on a small pavilion that holds about 50 folks when seated. That shelter is where mile marked number one is located and labeled START. It is a really convenient spot to get yourself and your gear adjusted for your nice walk/run/bike ride on the gravel path that runs along the water.

As you can see from this pic the soccer matches go on no matter the weather except for lightning.

Then on another short walk between drizzles we headed to the opposite way from the back gate on the same road toward the garbage dumpsters. The campground folks pick up bagged trash at your campsite three times a day and take it to the dumpsters.

What we wanted to show you is the tent camping area. They have five sites and they are primitive for sure. There is one shared wter faucet. The nice restrooms are about a 100 yards into the rv parking area straight away from our camera. To our surprise these sites get a good bit of use during the year.

Supper was another big salad with even more variety of vegetables in it like small tomatoes. It was excellent again as usual.

The refrigerator and freezer are stocked very well in case something goes wrong during the surgery on Thursday. We will not starve for a good while. And as we know eating well is a great way of trying to have tooooo much fun.

New Walk Distance Report

 

Adventure Location: Decatur, Al

Today's Date: 10-29-2022

The new shorter morning walk started well and finished much better. The day was cool and breezy. In fact the OFM wore a tee shirt and was fine except in a few instances when some very windy gusts moved through. Here was the view right after exiting the campground into the main park area.

We hit the start marker for the gravel trail a few minutes later and the OFM was feeling good. The pace was brisk due to the slight chill in the air but other walkers and runners were whizzing on past us with smiles on their faces.

The autumn defoliation is well on its way now. Here is a picture taken where you could not see through the underbrush to the lake three weeks ago. Now you can see the creek at a lot more locations along the trails. It is pretty nice to have different views during the seasons of the year we think.

We hit the planned turn around marker in good time and stopped to consider for a minute. Then we went on down the trail a little way and around a bend to the paved road circling the golf course and chose this scene as the new turn around point.

When we got back to the Castle and plotted the new path it worked out to be a total of a bit over 2.5 miles. The ornery foot section was just starting to put out some minor pains when we hit the end back at the Castle. We will work with this for a bit and see what happens.

During the return part of the walk we ran into a couple of friendly walkers that we often see on the trail. The old man is really very friendly but his walking partner is so friendly she makes Santa Claus seem like a grouch.

The next three weeks will be really interesting as the cataract eye surgeries are done and the doctor gets to examine the “office chair” eye for damage and see if more is needed for that eye to have done. Then we will finally be able to make some decisions about rolling or not. With that information we might even be able to choose a when we will again run around the country trying to have tooooo much fun.

Hospital Preregistration Today

 

Adventure Location: Decatur, Al

Today's Date: 10-28-2022

The first thing we got done this morning was the pre-registration for the Thursday GREAT EVENT at the eye surgery center. It took about an hour online and to the OFM's surprise it went well for a change.

Since the sun was nicely up and the temperature had come up a good bit the walk went well. But we believe we will have to shorten the walks a bit and maybe even go to two shorter walks a day. From the informal records we keep any time we exceed three miles by very much at all the OFM's feet have joint trouble. It does not matter if we go faster or slower but the distance in one long walk seems to matter. So starting tomorrow we are cutting back to a target of 2.5 miles and quit for the day for a couple of days. Then after the eye surgery Thursday we will see about what to try next depending to the feet joints opinion.

Now to the pretty pictures from todays walking joy. First off the trees are autumning heavily and we expect to see most of the leaves gone within a week. So enjoy the trail views like this one while they last.

At one spot we could see a nice boat anchored out in the mouth of Flint Creek. It was there for a long time and we bet somebody was really enjoying the sun and gentle rocking of the rig.

Then as we neared the end of the trail this afternoon we approached a truck parked in an unusual spot. Then was we got close the door sign said it was from Mississippi University. There was a team of folks down in the nearly dry slough doing some seining and putting the catch in some insulated looking chests. It was likely a research effort at counting minnows or 34 pound bass. They were too far away to get into a nice conversation with them but they did respond nicely to a grand Texas HOWDY FOLKS.

We had a wonderful OFM style salad for supper tonight, Romaine lettuce mix from Walmart, black olives, cold chicken breast, chopped carrot sticks, chopped onion, chopped cauliflower, honey mustard dressing and cheap Walmart root beer to drink. It was GUUUUUD.

Now we have all night to dream about how we are going to have tooooo much fun tomorrow.

Resting Bear

 

Adventure Location: Decatur, Al

Today's Date: 10-27-2022

It was an interesting day that started with a visit to the local eye doctor about an inflamed left eye rim. The panic turned out to be over some clogged eye lash pores that were causing the swelling and redness. Some free sample eye cleaning medicated wipes later and we are back to healing again.

The walk was later in the day and the weather was way better than perfect. We just have to show the walking path picture a half mile into the trail.

That is typical of the whole 3+ miles today. WOW. Naturally the OFM shot a lot more pics than he can publish. The sun was perfect as was the temperature.

We were walking along a slough and realized that my friend, Mr. Theo the master catfisherman, was on the opposite shore. This next picture is enough that we almost went back to the Castle to get our rod and fish.

We continued stumbling along checking out the scenery all around us when the OFM suddenly noticed the resting bear over in the brush. We just kept on moving along making a little noise so we would not suddenly frighten the bear.

After a couple of minutes we worked our way up closer to get this next picture.

BEARY CLOSE

The later afternoon was spent visiting with a nice friend who has just finished his cataract surgery on his eyes and is doing very well. The water on the whole campground had had a failure on a main supply line so we spent a couple of hours jawing until the line was repaired. Then we headed off to our respective chores. But it sure was a nice way of finishing out a great day of trying to have tooooo much fun.

Bouquet Finished

 

Adventure Location: Decatur, Al

Today's Date: 10-26-2022

The morning started out a bit cold with dark clouds threatening action and excitement. The action and excitement did not happen and the weather warmed up a bit so we headed out for a walk. BUT the OFM body was having some troubles with the strong cold north wind. The first route we tried came to a halt fairly quickly. After some clothing changes we headed out again on a different path and a kink in the OFM back put us back at the Castle after just a little while on the trail. Then we tried the wind protected north side of the soccer field drive way and struck a good compromise.

We planned on just doing laps on this path to get in enough distance but some dark clouds started to move in with a bit of moisture so we finally gave up and went back to the Castle.

Back at the Castle we did some research about next weeks surgery. We think we have things in order now and are ready for the big event. So doing coloring ended up being our day. But it was definitely fun. We completed a coloring that we started about three weeks ago. It turned out fairly adequate for a fool with bad eyesight we think.

Now it is just waiting for next Thursday morning and the eye surgery. There is about 3 gallons of drops to be applying to our eyes for the next two weeks. Then we do it all again for the other eye. We are ready to be mobile again but it will be awhile yet. In the mean time we will continue trying to use up all the fun that we can find in Decatur Alabama.

Big Storm??

 

Adventure Location: Decatur, Al

Today's Date: 10-25-2022

Not a day for getting in a walk. The OFM slept until nearly 0900 this morning. We chose to grocery shop since a morning rain as forecast. It hit while we were in the grocery and lightly misted for about to minutes and was over. The big evening storm predicted came in with a big BOOM and soon went away with a bit of heavy drizzle as its big event.

In the meantime the grocery had had a great day of refilling the vegetable bins and canned/packaged foods and we harvested a lot of store able foods for more glorious stoup efforts in the near future.

The leaves have been falling like crazy today so we got out the blower and cleaned a layer of leaves off of the campsite before the big storm came through.

Maybe the storm got most of the leaves off the trees so we will not have to blow them around so often.

And last but far from least, the OFM discovered an old friends phone number he had been looking for and called Rodney. It turns out Rodney has also been having major eye troubles. He is about five years younger than the OFM and has been in treatments for a few months now. We had a great phone call with each of us trying to uplift the other on our future prospects in life. He is also a single fellow living by himself down on the Texas coast.

Part of our discussion was about neat things to do for trying to have tooooo much fun.

Tree Tunnel

 

Adventure Location: Decatur, Al

Today's Date: 10-24-2022

A busy from the moment wakefulness hit the OFM until late tonight. Anyway we had a loooooog walk this morning of about 5493 miles it seems like tonight to the OFM knees. The temperature was fantastic and the lighting was wonderful for photography. We wish the OFM had been as good of a photographer as the day was perfect. But he isn't. So we have four photos for public viewing tonight.

When we headed out for the walk we took the route to go around the golf course clockwise. That path takes you to a spot the Teams refer to as the Tree Tunnel because the path is covered well with trees all over it with an opening trimmed for folks to pass through. It is a neat little section of the path.

A little ways past the tunnel is two old oak trees that have small acorns in clusters. Today we stopped at the one with clusters near the path to grab some pictures for possible art efforts reference. These are on their last few days before falling to the dirt below.

We wonderfully walked and walked and walked and enjoyed the day tremendously. Then we saw it.

THE OFM STUMP

That stump reminds the OFM of the way he feels lately. Badly worn, banged up and splintered with parts scattered around him and generally just plain worn out. BUT still here and writing a blog of his adventures no matter how small they are and with hopes of bigger adventures next year.

Today we decided that the picture wall in the Castle is going to be resurrected for art efforts that might accidentally be ok to show to blog readers and visitors. So we have made some small progress on that effort. We are still working on just how we want it to look. So here is where we are at this time in trying to decide on an arrangement. This time the plan is to swap out art efforts for display instead of have a static display like we had for a couple of years. Here is where we are at this time in history.

Ten more days until right eye cataract surgery and we are getting excited about the prospect of being able to correctly see from that eye again. We are also hoping to get out rolling the Castle again after Christmas Holidays are out of the way. We really miss getting to move on now and then as a wonderful way of trying to have tooooo much fun.

More Great Weather

 

Adventure Location: Decatur, Al

Today's Date: 10-23-2022

Great weather again but nothing exciting happened so all we did is try to take nice pictures. Most of them the glare from several directions from the sun reflections ruined about 30 shots. We had another dozen that the OFM wiggled too much tripping the shutter and fuzzed them up.

But we have three that were decent to show.

The first is a scene we have shot many times and it is about fifty feet after the gravel trail starts. A little working with the computer gave us a decent picture we think.

Another picture of an attempt at grabbing a dramatic colored leaves picture turned out to be a nice general picture of the trail area.

Then on the way back on the trail we stumbled on this white bird busy on its breakfast hunt. We managed to get about four exposures and this was the best we could do today.

After the walk (3.3 miles) nothing much exciting happened in the campground. The OFM did some extra resting of his legs and feet joints (nap). Some research on the internet produced no information worth much on different papers for colored pencil art.

But it was definitely a relaxing day for trying to have tooooo much fun.

Talked Toooooooooo Much

 

Adventure Location: Decatur, Al

Today's Date: 10-22-2022

WOW this was a messed up day. We started the normal walk by carrying trash down to the dumpsters and planned to cross the entrance road and circle the golf course. But the OFM had forgotten to lock the Castle door so we started back. A nice fellow Howdyed the OFM and we ended up talking about them starting to RV more frequently and changes they were thinking of making. We broke up much later and it was too late to start a walk when we got back to the Castle.

So we looked at what to do and decided to prep the Castle for hanging the OFM's art again. Lunch came and went and we tackled Walmart for some supplies for hanging picture frames safely. Then a choice was made to get in a short brisk walk. But that ended being a short effort due to an aching left foot. That was the end of any more walking efforts for the day.

Miscellaneous this and that chores were taken care of but nothing special happened.

As we were sitting here thinking about what to write about in the blog we wondered if we had ever before told of our effort with windows and other openings in the Castle to make it more capable for winter or summer temperatures.

So here it is. We have cut ¾ inch foam to fit the openings and place the foam in the openings when we need better insulation to keep the interior comfortable. A good example is the huge pneumonia hole next to the do everything table.

Here is a picture with the window without the foam.

When we need help keeping the heat out or in we can place pre-cut pieces of foam into the window and really help keep the temperature more pleasant inside.

All the penetrations of the ceiling and/or the walls have these style of pre-cut foam fillers to place in them. We use just friction to hold them in place. Since about January of 2008 this has been working really well even when not boondocking.

Staying cool or warm as needed sure helps in the effort of trying to have tooooo much fun.

False Start Morning

 

Adventure Location: Decatur, Al

Today's Date: 10-21-2022

Cool this morning but a good ways from cold and clear blue skies again. But the OFM started out on the walk and got about a half mile along and suddenly he did not feel right so back to the Castle we went. After a bit of rest he seemed much better and away we went on a different trail. Just an old man happening we guess.

We did a nice pleasant 2.+ miles the second try but we did take a few minutes rest at the half way spot to supervise some resting turtles that would not let us thake their picture.

Here is a picture of the second trail showing how nice it was out there today.

At another location we liked this picture for its appearance to show the autumn season in progress.

Then the rest of the day we did piddling things like a half hour nap that was wonderful and some colored pencil wearing down on paper as the OldFoolMan tried to create something nice.

We even did some Internet wandering for when we get to roll again in this lifetime.

And that was about it for the trying to have tooooo much fun effort today.

Nice Rose

 

Adventure Location: Decatur, Al

Today's Date: 10-20-2022

The last of the cold front is gone now and we have a couple of weeks of good temperatures to put with while we wait for the eye surgery in two weeks. We headed out into the cool morning right at 1000 and had a good brisk walk. The clock in the Castle was showing 1103 when we returned from a bit over 2.5 miles. This fall weather is really nice up here.

At the turnaround point the OFM just had to snap this picture of the fantastic sky over our route of walking.

There is not normally a lot of cold here and very seldom any snow. The cold does get fairly low at times for a night or two and kills lots of nasty bugs. We are talking temps in the high twenties for two nights in a row then high 30 or more for a few weeks for overnight lows. By the end of January they are normally finished with any freezing temps. So the area is not a really bad location to winter for an RV and shopping is just a couple of miles away from the campground.

We walked up to the Office this afternoon to get out of the Castle for a few minutes and found some of the roses at the front flower beds blooming. See if you like this one.

Not a lot going on but the road repairs. So we should have time for some more art efforts as a way for trying to have tooooo much fun.

Sketch From Scratch

 

Adventure Location: Decatur, Al

Today's Date: 10-19-2022

As we were cooking supper last night, we noticed that we had two bottles of BBQ sauce in the refrigerator. A more careful examination led to the discovery of two nearly empty bottles of BBQ sauce. Since both bottles were nearly empty the OFM figured to mix them together in one bottle and throw the other away. Yep that means more room in the refrigerator for more chocolate. Here is the photographic proof we did it.

We stayed inside until later this morning to keep out of the cold breeze ransacking the countryside. It quit after a couple of hours and we went for a garbage run and a nice relatively short walk of about a mile. We found a tree line that got us in the sunshine and out of the breeze. That made for a nice walk. Here is the sky with no clouds anywhere we cold find. Beautiful isn't it.

Here is a little colored drawing that the OFM did last night from scratch on a blank piece of paper that would probably have preferred to stay blank.

The right eye seems to be getting better again today. We will be really glad to get this eye repair and healing finished. That would go a long way towards trying to have tooooo much fun on the road again.

Campground Road Repair

 

Adventure Location: Decatur, Al

Today's Date: 10-18-2022

A little too brisk this morning for the OFM Teams to hit the walking trail so we did inside things like keeping warm. Another thing we did is go through most of the medical bills and get better organized and figure out what still needed to be paid. We were surprised that only two more needed to be paid now. The biggest surprise was that we had new bills arrive for money that had already been paid and taken from the checking account. So those got noted to that effect and put aside into the JOKES file.

By the time we quit that chore it was baked potato time at Lawler's so off we headed. The tater was good and big enough we had the rest of it for supper tonight.

We noticed that the outside temperature had risen enough to do a bit of walking late this afternoon. So off to the trails we went. Quickly we realized that we had not walked in a later evening sun before on these trails. WOW did that change how lots of stuff looked since the sun was coming from the opposite side of the area.

We got a couple of pretty good reflection pictures due to the sun angle.

Another new event is the worst of the several bad spots of the campground roads got its start on being repaired. That will greatly help the big heavy units navigate to that set of campsites. We have no idea when it will be finished.

We have a couple more cool nights then it will be back to nice fall weather again. That should help the OFM Teams do some better with trying to have tooooo much fun.