Boondocking Time Coming

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: October 31, 2023

We finally have verified travel arrangements for the first leg of our next travels. Our schedule is leave Point Mallard Campground of November 9. Then we will boondock camp at I-20 rest areas for two nights. The third night is at a paid rv campground near Giddings Texas. There was no free camping close by the route. And then the fourth night will be at Goose Island State Park near Rockport Texas as will the next five nights. The park was so full we could not get a site for a couple of weeks. There fore we will roll on westward toward the Rio Grande River in search of Adventures to report.

The night here was cold but early afternoon allowed the OFM to get in a nice sunshiny walk to enjoy. Here is the sunshine on the soccer field as we exited thee trees of the campground.

How about one last scary picture from the campground decorations? Here it is.

LOTS of leaves have fallen along the creeks and trails. The very tall trees near the fishing bridge on a creek caught our attention today as we crossed the bridging. We ended up walking a good way off the path to be able to get the tall trees all into the picture.

Then as we made a nearby turn we saw this path scene that shows many trees leaning toward the creek as the banks was away. Next year may be another exciting one for falling trees in the spring winds.

With eight more days until we roll we will be shifting to getting ready to roll after being here since June 1. Yep we really did stay here over five months in one stretch but we did have a lot of fun also. But we enjoy trying to have tooooo much fun every day. Good night.

Talking Tree

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: October 30, 2023

The morning walk was nice and cool with a mist of wet now and then. We made the 2+ mile trek just fine even if it did rainish on us for a few minutes toward the end.

There was a nice red leafed tree still waiting to drop its leaves just so it could have its picture in the OFM blog. We asked it how it knew who we were. The tree told us the answer was blowing in the wind.

We stopped at the spot we took the puddle pictures yesterday. The OFM foot prints were still there in the loose dirt on the trail so he stood in the same foot prints and did hie best to recall which rocks he had aimed at and took this picture showing why it is important to take pictures at the right time to make them interesting.

We paused at a spot to look across Flint Creek and show you the gray day the big cold front is causing.

We are supposed to get a couple of degrees below freezing in this area for about two hours early each morning for three days starting in the morning. But you would think the whole state is about to freeze over solid the way many folks are acting. LPG sales are sky high all over the town. The worst forecast for the campground area is for a temp of about 29F for two hours tomorrow morning starting about 0600. That will barely make the weeds notice it got cold.

In the mean time everyone have a great time trying to have tooooo much fun. 

Rumpled Water

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: October 29, 2023

The morning walk was sluggish and a bit painful as we worked some kinks out of the OFM. We never identified where the kinks came from but by noon we had them gone. That was good enough for us.

We spent a LOT of time trying to schedule overnight campsites on our forthcoming run from Decatur Al. to Rockport Tx. It is a comfortable four day tow but a hard three day. We got our reservation at Goose Island State Park near Rockport easily but the stop just before that starting the fourth leg of the trip is proving to be a terror. We have several emails out asking locations for an overnight spot with or without services. No reply yet on those requests. We will see what we have to cause in the next couple of days.

Back to the walk. We did have an event at a spot next to the water. Something was slowly dripping from a bush limb hanging out over the water. The ripples looked nice and pretty. So we grabbed three shots. Two of them came out decently sort of. The water was clear and very still where the sunlight was reflecting on the ripples. So we had an idea of what to expect......yeah right as it turned out. We did get a couple of neat pictures of ripples but nothing like we expected. This was clear water with small drops of liquid from the shrub limb into the water where the light shined on the ripples. And it was bright sun hitting the area. We have no idea what caused these pictures to look so dark but we really appreciated the effect the situation caused.

RIPPLE ONE

RIPPLE 2

And this was definitely the bright spot of the day. Tomorrow we need to work harder at getting a route to Rockport worked out for the Teams to get rolling about November 7/8.

We are sure we can find some fun back at the Texas Gulf of Mexico beaches.

Frog Pond Evening

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: October 28, 2023

Today the walk was very benign but very nice. We had a few folks stop to visit a minute or two as we passed each other. The trails were all heavy with folks out for a walk on a Saturday morning. To our surprise we did not take a picture the whole 2 plus miles because we have taken lots of pictures of EVERYTHING on that trail over the years. Nothing has really changed in the last several weeks either. Other than the pickle ball courts are progressing.

We returned to the Castle, got all washed up and sat down to plan a departure for the winter. We know we do not want to be gone past mid May so that end of the trip is set well.

Remember this is year 17 of doing this and a lot of things have been seen and done enough but we hope for more to show up. In the time of messing around this morning we finally found a time in the scheduled travels to visit Rockport Tex and see a few old friends there. But November is snow bird arrival month and things are always a schedule mess in November down in that south Texas area. So we will keep working on it.

Then we got our the art stuff and went to work on the latest coloring effort and finished it. So here it is for your viewing giggles.

We hope you enjoy the viewing of it. We shure had fun coloring and modifying it to fit our wants and attitude.

Everyone have a nice evening and relax for a bit.

Six Month Rule At This Campground

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: October 27, 2023

The OFM decided to walk the paved road that parallels the normal hike and bike gravel path this morning just for some variety. It turned out to be a nice choice. We took the road outbound to the normal turn around point and came back on the Hike and Bike path to the Castle.

Here is what the road looked like in the early morning dim lighting.

The hike and bike is about 75 feet to our right in this photo.

Just before we got to the turn around point we found a large heron patrolling a pond area. It happily posed for a nice photograph to our delight.

Notice we even got the reflection from the water in the picture.

The rest of the 2+ miles went well and comfortably all the way back to the Castle.

This is a portion of the latest coloring effort that is in progress. It is being a major learning experience in blending and shading the coloring. The blending is being done with odorless mineral spirits and definitely has a learning curve for the OFM. Until now most of our blending and shading has been done with basically smearing the pencil marks mechanically on the paper by rubbing and is called burnishing. This is a much superior way to do it but takes a lotttttttt more finesse to get it right. We have seen the difference in real life and it will be an important next step in the OFM learning process.

This city campground we are in has a rule that every 6 months you have to take your rig out of the site you are in for a night. You can leave all your stuff there but the rig has to spend the night elsewhere. The campground manager makes certain you have a chance to just move to an empty site for a night and right back to your home site. But most of the folks that this effects is those whose rig stays here full time. A neighbor across the street pulled out this morning for a week vacation at a near by tourist attraction. My next door neighbor took this opportunity, since his overnight move date was soon arriving, to move across the street and spend the night there, In the morning he will be moving back with his stay clock reset to six months. Lots of the folks in here cooperate carefully to keep each other legal like this. So here is what my next door neighbors site looks like this evening. Their motor home is right across the street ( 50 feet) to the left in the picture. And everyone stays legal.

We spent more time today attempting to set up a satisfactory rolling plan for the OFM Teams and we think it will come together in a manner that may work out OK. But it is not there yet.

Enjoy your weekend and have tooooo much fun.

Strong Attack Tomorrow

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: October 26, 2023

The walk today was all on nice black top path or roads today around the west end of the golf course fence. It is a nice walking area overall. Our stretch today was 2.5 miles with nice weather the whole way and for the whole day actually. A bit of a cool front coming later this week to bring out the brisk weather clothing. It will be a nice change.

Our plans for rolling have hit a snag at the other end of the routings we checked out during this morning. The Holidays of Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years have the preferred campgrounds heavily booked in the Rockport Tx area and we do not want to have to change sites every two or three days while we would be there. So we will be working on our scheduling intensely in the near future to see what we can get worked out when we leave here.

Then for lunch, we went to meet our lunch buddy at a place named Carls near Sommerville Al. It was good and he bought lunch. Then we went over to his place nearby to see his style of life. It was pretty neat with all sorts of opportunities for fun things to do.

When we hit the Castle later in the afternoon we read? learned more colored pencil techniques that seem really good to know. And before we knew it the sun was going away and we had to put together supper and get this blog written and posted. The day was definitely a busy one but a good bit of fun also.

Now a good rest is planned for tonight and a full out frontal attack on scheduling trouble in front of us. Have fun.

Old South Cooking

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: October 25, 2023

We managed to make our way between all the Halloween decorations on the RVs to get out for a nice walk today. But there is a lot decorating going on out here. Here is the two latest decoration upgrades near us from this morning.

We guess at least a hundred of the rigs are participating in the decorating contest. The local stores must be loving the competition.

As far as the OFM Teams are doing it has been a goofy day of trying to figure out where to go and when during the holiday season when most of the campgrounds back down in Texas are already reserved to the max at the times we would like to be there. So tomorrow will be a day of review and realign for nearly everything about rolling out. The main problem is getting to Rockport for a few days to visit old friends before rolling on the nearly dry Rio Grande River for more fun.

At least the grocery shopping this morning went well and we did get restocked very well. Tonight the leftover stuffed baked potato from yesterday was really welcome. Tomorrow for lunch we will be going east to Somerville Al. And a diner we were invited to try out with some friends from that area. It is chicken and dressing day and they claim it is always very good. This is old south cooking so you can be sure it will be rather fattening. But we usually have some good laughs when we get together.

Now we have to rest up for trying to have tooooo much fun tomorrow.

Art Lessons Day

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: October 24, 2023

We had a bad night of sort of sleep so today was sluggish at the best. But we did get in a very nice walk of over 2 miles. Along the way we accidentally took the only picture of the whole walk. Notice how well you can see through the woods now.

Three weeks ago that was still 5-6 feet high weeds and under brush all through here. Yep winter is on the way.

For fun we did a lot of watercolor pencil effort and proved to the OFM that he needs to stick with OMS layers on colored pencil coloring. But it was a nice and fun to learn about the subject matter. We are officially back to colored pencil art efforts now.

Today was also the day to check several small colorings we thought we had finished but when we looked at them closely this afternoon it was obvious we had some serious work left to do on them. We had watched an Internet lesson on finishing colored pencil art and the OFM Art Team definitely needed to learn the new lesson better. So we are back tracking a few weeks of work to (hopefully) make significant improvements on our effort on these four small paintings.

For tonight we picked up a Lawlers stuffed pork baked potato for supper for tonight and tomorrow night. That makes each nights meal cost about $5 including the root beer.

We are hoping for a more restful night tonight and hoping we will have tooooo much fun tomorrow.

Stir Fry Challenge

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: October 23, 2023

Still trying to learn this new version of Windows 11. It loaded about 90% the same as version 10 but that last part is hard for this dummy to figure out, However once we do it is an improvement on v10 it seems to us.

We got a later start on the walk today for no reason. Then when we left the back opening in the campground to access the trail system we took a right over into an area we have not walked since last summer. The trail loops through the tennis area, golf driving range area, the whole water park area and the archery area. Then it reaches the usual hike and bike gravel path at mile marker 0. We followed that loop around to the usual spot we come onto that trail and turned back toward the campground. It turned out to be 2.7 miles and a bit longer than we remembered it in the past. But it was a very nice walk mostly on paved surfaces. It would be a great route it it was wet outside.

This first photo is looking toward the tennis complex with the golf driving range on the left and the baseball fields just off camera on the right. The golf range is also the hot air balloon landing area in the summer.

Next we crossed the area entry road to this walking path the runs along the field archery target line and leads to the target archery area.

From there you take a left and walk on the sidewalk in front of the water activities areas to the start of the hike and bike gravel trail at mile marker 0. From here we made our way back to the Castle and into the shower.

Nothing major happened during the rest of the day but lunch at Bugger King as usual and good conversation with Jerry about local items. He is a life time resident of the area and 72 years old. Nice guy to visit for sure.

This evening we took a short walk out the front of the campground and happened to see straight vapor trail from a large jet being streamed across the evening sky. We had not seen a vapor trail in a long while so it was nice to see for a change.

Then a bit later in the evening the moon put on a nice show. It was nice and bright to view. It has been a while since we last saw it like that.

Tomorrow will be interesting since the OFM has been reading cooking tales on the Internet. They told him that several meats can be stir fried and then be saved in plastic bags and frozen. Then when you want some of what you fried up, it can be warmed in the micro wave oven to, in our case, top a nice salad for a meal. That sure sounded good to us.

There you have it a plain Monday of trying to have tooooo much fun in north Alabama.

Crappie Fishing

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: October 22, 2023

Wow it was a calm bland day around the campground after the Fall Festival yesterday. The air was a bit chilly at the first of the walk but the sun was bright and soon took over the temperature control job. Then it was very nice all day.

We started to look at possible getting gone days but ran into an attitude problem. The OFM could not decide if there was any place he wanted to go. We have been so many places after the last 16 years of travel most things are repeats for us now. So we spent a good bit of the day checking state park crowds in Texas and New Mexico first. Then we looked at anything else we knew about. The crowds were sporadic with the reservations in most places. Where we are is a good Christmas time place for the start of winter also. Last year we got away after the first of January and it worked out well. So we did not get any definite plan started yet but we do have a short list of things to get facts about before we start rolling again. So the day was somewhat worthwhile for travel planning.

Out on the Creek during our walk was a crappie fisherman working on bringing home some nice fish.

We heard him talking to the fish while we were on the trail nearby. Sounded just like the OFM when he crappie fished back in Louisiana and Texas.

Well that is about it on what, where and when but we are closer to a plan than when the day started. Have fun and try to have tooooo much fun.

River Barge

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: October 21, 2023

Today was Fall Festival so we made a point to stay away form the mass packed campground most of the day. We got up a bit late and had breakfast then gathered some stuff for the dumpster to donate to the local landfill. Then headed off in Sierra for the far end of the trails parking lot to enjoy a nice walk. The cool air and bright sun made it a very nice day of walking.

The walking was all on asphalt road and no vehicle traffic. It is the maintenance road around the golf course but all we had today was walkers for the whole 2 miles. Here is a nice picture of the typical scene along this portion of the walking trails.

Some days bikers ride on the path also but none today. We turned around at the pump house that is about halfway around the loop and headed back when a nice barge tow came into view on the Tennessee River near us,

That is the first one we have seen in a few years. Mean while we are still trying to get windows 11 installed on the computer and are still frustrated. So lunch time came and we headed to Burger King in Priceville for lunch and may run into our gossip pal Jerry. And he was there with lots of interesting stories of his life in the area. We made hot air for almost three hours. He is a connoisseur of of garage sales and things like that. He got some really good buys on tools this morning and we went through most of his purchases for the fun of it.

Back home mid afternoon and Windows installation is still running. Will it never end????

That means this was an easy going day all day for a change and it was nice. Everyone be safe and have tooooo much fun if you can.

Pendant

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: October 20, 2023

Morning came and the OFM rolled out of bed to attack the day. Yesterday another walker asked if I eat breakfast before walking. The answer is definitely YES. So we got busy eating our granola and milk cereal. Then we hit the trail gently. The OFM stresses very easily over things and has to work carefully to keep it under control. So this morning he was feeling the results of the all day stress event yesterday in getting the rig repaired and road ready. But the walking went well even though he had to slow it a bit due to a foot joint aching.

Then today we have had Internet not wanting to run all day and into the night. That is why the posting is late.

During lunch the fellow I usually meet there mentioned he had found a gold chain with a pendant that he likes at one of his many yard sale stops every day.

As the OFM looked it over he commented how much he liked the pendent and would give it to his grand daughter. The next thing we knew it was in my hand to give to her. We sure thought that was nice of him.

Tomorrow is the FALL FESTIVLE here at the campground. Lots of folks are excited about all the eating that will be happening. We plan to be NOT Eating a lot. Most of the long term folks will not really notice an additional five pounds from weekend splurging.

That is all the excitement for the day and we hope everyone has a great weekend of trying to have too much fun.

Expensive But Wonderful News

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: October 19, 2023

The dreaded but anticipated day had arrived and the OFM Team was rolling right on time this morning. The traffic was moderate and we got to the shop right on time. A few minutes of review of the OFM thoughts on his troubles and the Castle was moved into the shop to check out what is happening.

On the desk of the scheduler/ do everything office duty lady is this nice desk ornament for everyone to enjoy,

The crews got to work on the Castle while the OFM stayed out of the way inside the office talking with the two ladies in there. After a reasonable time the OFM went into the shop to see what was being found to be the trouble. After a quick look and getting a few questions answered We totally agreed that the brake assemblies plus a bit of other parts were just plain old totally worn out after the 16 years of running the roads in all sorts of weather we have done.

The main parts changed out was the brake assembly on each wheel location. We were told the wheel bearings we had replaced ten years ago all around the rig were in really good shape and did not need replacing. We really do not know exactly what all was replaced but it was most of the braking stuff.

After it was all said and done and the shop owner explained a few details to the OFM, we have to give them a big thank you for their efforts.

The leaking old water pump was also changed out and now we can go boon-docking again. The trip home was wonderful. We did not realize how much the braking had deteriorated on the old brake assemblies but the new ones definitely are a lot better and safer.

We made it safely back to camp just a few minutes before it was getting dark. The OFM wallet is $14xx lighter but now we have a rig in good shape to go rolling again for another 10 years.

Speaking of rolling. The OFM eye troubles proved to be enough to notice but easy to compensate for. Even in the morning rush hour and the evening rush hour we could well handle the rig. And it was as good as ever before when backing came into play. So we give the teams the go ahead for DAYLIGHT hours towing without qualms. So now we have a lot of serious thinking to process about our future of full timing. Maybe we can go wild for a while longer. After dark driving is still a limiting factor in our life.

Shop Time Finally After Four Months Waiting

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: October 18, 2023

The morning walk was to Sierra's door to head to the shop with towing Sierra there tomorrow. We took a slightly different route than last time. This is the route to take with taller vehicles like travel trailers. It is only a mile or two longer than cutting through the neighborhoods and all the beautiful tree limbs hanging over the streets. We hit the highway and drove back to the shop this time paying attention to landmarks and other towing related items along the way. We got to the shop in good time and went in to make sure the OFM had communicated correctly before. The rig discussions were fine but slightly newer information on arrival times and a few other details has everything lined out and in good shape now.

Back at the campground the OFM got busy getting things packed down and ready for travel tomorrow at 0730. For now we have the rig all coupled to the Castle. Everything went well in spite of the almost five month sit in one spot we have had. The Castle is coupled to Sierra and waiting to roll in the morning.

We are nearly totally ready to roll. In the morning we have to unhook the water hose and disconnect the electric cord and we can get rolling. Supposedly we will be backing back into this site tomorrow afternoon all fixed up and ready to roll for adventures soon.

Our next phase of art effort is to learn to handle water color better. Watercolor is supposedly the hardest medium to learn. We will probably find out why as we dig into this new adventure.

Our first thoughts on this travel stuff is to roll out in mid November heading west to warmer country. But we have time to change our mind and do something silly. Have a great evening trying to have tooooo much fun.

Preparing And Planning

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: October 17, 2023

A very nice walk this morning got us a bit over two miles and a great picture at the turn around point. We were out a bit earlier today and to our surprise the trails were nearly deserted.

Over all we only crossed paths with about ten folks which is normally about 20-30 folks. So we enjoyed the trail and the wildlife critters. Lots of smaller ground critters were scurrying around along the water line as we walked past them.

This trail system has many forks and wrap around trails and it takes a while to learn all the this way or that a ways. When we are here the OFM gets to help lost folks about every other week as they stand at another intersection with a confused look. There is no map of the trail system available.

Here is a typical trail intersection to show you what we mean.

At this mornings turnaround point the OFM was getting his drink of water from his old root beer bottle he carries and the lighting changed a bit. Out came the camera to grab a shot of the lighting on a slough nearby. We really like what we got and we hope you do also.

On the coloring side of things we are planning on working with watercolor for a while to see what the OFM can do with that medium and get a break from colored pencils. A sharp right turn and away we go.

Tomorrow is get ready for the trip to the trailer doctors on Thursday. We are hoping that they can actually get all things finished in one day like they think they can. In the mean time we have been mapping out temperature controlled routes out in west Texas for some fun for about five months. Names like Rio Grande River, Brewster County, Roma Texas, Terlingua Texas and Jal, New Mexico keep popping up. We will see what happens. Have fun outdoors.

Columbine And Courage

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: October 16, 2023

The OFM shoulder has made a major improvement from the shot damage we feel. Almost all the mobility is back and the pains are down to small ones when the arm is pushed a little to strongly. We think it will be a couple of more days and we will be all well arm wise.

This morning the walk was 50F and cold to this south Texas fellow. To top it off the OFM forgot the camera memory card again but it politely waited in the computer for us to return from the 2.2 mile walk . The OFM feels he needed a bit more clothing and we told him he needed to walk faster to warm up.

Today we show the latest coloring the OFM has done. It was completed late last night and prepared for display this morning in the bitter cold outside.

We hope you enjoy viewing Columbine and Courage.

The mail package came today and all the order was in it. So that is now an over with order. One more with latches for the Castle is due in later this week.

After having some adequate B+ rated Mexican food for lunch we hit up Hobby Lobby to kill some time. Instead we killed a ten dollar bill. They had the right stuff on sale for a new style to us of using water color. So a bit of watercolor supply things came home with us, We gave it a try and think we will like it. Let us get a bit of experience with it and we will soon give a full report with an example or two for discussion or cussing.

The main good deed the OFM did today is blow the loose leaves off the Castle roof and the campsite. The Castle gutters were a bit full of debris so it is good we did that maintenance job. We definitely do not need any more leaks.

And last but still important, the $580 camping fee was paid for another month of easy living. By the way that rate covers all utilities and use of the campground facilities for a month and is on the low end of most of the campgrounds in this part of the country. Propane use if any is at the renters extra expense, so most of us run everything on electric. Now we have another month to decide if and when and where to go if we roll out.

That is enough blabbering so everyone have a great night and sleep well.

Face Squirt

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: October 15, 2023

Let us label this day as a rough one. The shoulder was a real pain most of the night and still a smaller pain all day today. We are pretty sure it was the needle stick and not the medicine that caused the trouble. So another day or three and the OFM will be well.

The cool weather set in and slight drizzles settled in to make it a good day to not run around outside. So we took on the laundry task and it turned out to be a high point of the day since we met a neat fellow. He and the OFM shared stories of our early years that seemed to be very similar to each other except the OFM stories were about 20 years older. But it was a nice way to be at the campground laundry and enjoy a couple of hours of chores.

Somewhere in the day the OFM managed to order what we hope are the right size door latches for the Castle. They are due in about Friday and we hope the OFM can get them installed easily.

Today we needed the windshield wiper squirters and they acted like they were nearly out of water. So we added soapy water to the under the hood container to get them to function again. Sure enough when we were out and about tonight and needed them to squirt nothing squirted. Back at the campground the OFM added more water but the container was actually already full. So we tried them a couple of times more and then went looking for a hose knocked loose or ????

It was a big puzzle for a few minutes until for no reason they started working again. All we can figure out is the tubing was all empty and it took a bit for the water pump to get the tubing refilled because they suddenly started working as the OFM was looking into the nozzle for obstructions. What a surprise he got!

We are assuming the Castle will be ready to roll after Thursday and are trying to figure out where we might want to go. With cold weather beginning to come into the south a bit you can bet we are looking at places south of Interstate20/10. Cold weather and the OFM Teams are not friends.

Now for a good nights rest we hope and enough energy tomorrow to run around trying to have tooooo much fun.

Lumpy Arm

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: October 14, 2023

Twas a busy day today including a bit of pain. First was the walk. Since today was the off road foot races the normal walking trails were closed from 8 am to noon. They had a BIG turn out it seemed to the OFM Teams. We are glad schools in this area have a great place like Point Mallard trails to have the event.

We just took the trail portion along Point Mallard Parkway to start out. A nice pace took us to the entrance of the road that is closed for the race. Then we came back to near the campground and cut down through the campground to the soccer field behind the campground and went over to our normal passage to/from the campground and to the Castle. It was a very nice walk so the racers must have had great weather also. Our total lap was 2 miles at a brisk pace.

After a rest and a shower we went to lunch and on the way back decided that today was the day to defrost the freezer again after about two years. We had let the food supply dwindle a good bit so we could put all the freezer food into the refrigerator to stay cold during the defrosting happening.

Then we went to work on the defrosting/deicing of the freezer. The freezer had about an inch thick layer of ice on the rear wall.

After a good bit of work the final sheet of ice finally came out of the freezer and was put into the kitchen sink to finish melting.

Then we let the freezer run a few minutes and then loaded the freezer items back into the freezer.

And we were finished. The whole process took about 45 minutes and is very easy to do but a bit tedious.

Then just to keep things interesting the OFM was having trouble with his left shoulder being painful to use and he thought it was just his habit of leaning on his left elbow while working on the computer that caused the pain. By late afternoon we knew it was coming from the covid shot area. After a good bit of research without positive information the OFM hopped into Sierra and went to the pharmacy where he got the shot yesterday to consult with the pharmacist. She agreed that it was from the shot area and that I should just let it heal for a couple of days since it was not inflamed at all and if it is not getting better come back for her to check it for the next step. We agreed with her as long as the OFM does not start running a fever.

Tonight we had a nice supper and plan on getting to bed on time for a wonderful night of healing so we will be ready for trying to have tooooo much fun tomorrow.

 

Old Fat Man Got Shot Today

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: October 13, 2023

Finally after a couple of weeks of waiting the local Walmart Neighborhood Pharmacy received their late shipment of Covid booster shots. We have been stopping there every day since they were due any day now. Today the OFM got stabbed finally. And now our protection from serious Covid sickness is better. From Internet reading it is not 100% protection but will give significant lessening of the symptoms it the OFM catches the disease. Not perfect but at our ancientness we will gladly take the help.

We tried to get in a walk this morning but the light sprinkling, gentle breeze and cool temperatures made the OFM choose NO to getting chilled. So we eased out the back of the campground to check on the shade shelter removal progress and a huge amount had been done. Check out this picture taken early this morning. Where did the building go????

We walked gently back through the campground where the wind did not get to us and just looked around at the campers rigs in here. Mostly they are rather large rigs. However we did get two nice flower pictures to show everyone. Here is the pretty blue flower.

And the very nice pink rose was nearby.

Back at the Castle this afternoon we made some general purpose stoup out of left over pork chops, baked beans and misc other little quantities of veges. We plan on it being supper tonight.

We found out that the new latches we need for the Castle compartments are not available at our local stores so we will be ordering them from Amazon and the OFM installing them soon after they get here. He can still do little jobs that do not require much brain work.

So that was the day and tonight hopefully will be excellent restful sleeping for the OFM Team.