YUCKY BREATHING ALL DAY

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: April 26, 2024

Morning greeted us with gagging and hacking congestion slop from the allergies in the air we think. The oral thermometer showed 99F is all. But it went on all day. The walk attempt this morning was a near total flop. The rest of the day stayed the same. Nothing got any better or worse and tonight it is still the same. Reading the Internet makes us think it is definitely allergy related and not a disease. So we are in clogged up mode for now and will get back to you good folks tomorrow with better news we hope. Sleep well.

Hopeful Dreams

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: April 25, 2024

Since we woke this morning the OFM has not been at his best again today but the day was so beautiful it was making him try to feel better. So we headed out on a cool but clear and fantastic morning to try to find the wonderful things and we did .

The first thing we noticed was the beginning trail was the starting trail was dark with streams of bright light highlighting great natural features. This was the natural tree tunnel that greeted us with special growths getting special streams of wow sunlight. This was what greeted us about fifty feet into the walk.

We got pummeled for a couple of miles like this and loved every minute of it.

On this morning we took a chunk of trail that we normally do not take but the sun light angle was just right to make it a great experience this morning.

Here is a picture of a spider web that was around three feet long and shining like a polished mirror right into the OFM eyes.

That was a new happening for the OFM and appreciated.

And we have passed through this next location hundreds of times but this morning it was a whole new joy with the special lighting. We meandered like the meandering champion we are this morning and the walk was time wise about an hour and a half of wonderful natural pleasures.

We did do some serious resting a couple of times today that seemed to help the OFM a good bit.

We did a couple of other chores in getting ready to roll that turned out well to our surprise. We hookedup the Castle traveling lighting like stop, turn and running to check it all out. To our surprise all the systems worked just fine. We were really relieved when no repairs were needed after almost a year of being left alone.

Then just to push our luck some more we shifted the Castle to full boon-docking mode to check out the solar systems and the rest of the 12 volt systems and got a surprise. The panels have not been cleaned in a year and were still putting out 14.4 volts in the light shade of the trees around us! That was a real surprise. We plan to wash the panels right before we roll anyway. That is wonderful isn't it.

We are hoping that the OFM and the Rig with get out soon for a little rolling. We got here last June first with the start of our travel troubles with the Castle, Sierra and the OFM body. We are certainly hoping to get some miles on the tires soon. But we intend to always be back in Alabama when the grands are out of school for summer break.

We are thinking that tomorrow could be the start of some travel plans that could really happen.

Kick back and think good thoughts.

24 hour YUCK

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: April 24, 2024

A rough night and day brings you this blog report. We have had a rough 24 hours but it seems to be getting better finally. Last night was no sleep until about 0400 this morning but we still were awake by 0700 to have a walk since sleeping was hit or miss and not very good anyway. We never figured out what was wrong today either, But we did get a decent nap for about an hour starting around 1500 this this afternoon. Naturally we were very slowed down during the rest of the day and night.

On the walk we spotted this tree stump from probably three years ago. It was dormant since the tree broke off in a serious wind storm. Apparently it was being dormant getting ready for the big growing surge of this spring. It is covered in branch growth like it is planning on taking over the local forest. We like to see that sort of determination in progress.

After lunch at BK we headed over to Walmart to return an item and right there in the middle aisle just waiting for us was a big pile of floor rugs for $2 each on clearance of the perfect pattern for the light brown fall colors inside the Castle. Our current rugs are very worn and many years old (17) is our guess. So we grabbed three of them. Here is the new rug on the bottom and the old rug on top. We will be getting rid of the old rugs very soon.

After the shopping we managed to get about 45 minutes of nap to help with our recovery of whatever garbage attacked us last night.

Then for some reason the OFM remembered he needed to check our supply of chock blocks for the Castle's wheels when we are parked out camping.

So we got the blocks out and went through them all and found that we are in good supply with what we have. So there is an expense we can put off for another year or two.

By now supper time was upon us and Marie Callendars chicken fried steak, mashed taters with gravy and whole kernel corn was calling strongly. Yep the OFM appetite was heading home finally and the food was very good. Our hopes are for a full recovery from whatever attacked in the night.

In the meantime sleep well, have fun and be safe.

Turtle Convention In Town

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: April 23, 2024

Another beautiful day passed through our area today and rewarded us with wonderful outside times to play. The OFM grabbed his garbage and started his miles from the Castle headed to the garbage dumpsters with the intention of choosing the next portion of the walk when business was finished at the dumpsters. It turned out to be a wonderful idea because the sound of bulldozers attracted us to back south to the soccer field area.

As we learned later it was the beginning of more tennis courts replacing an old two story building in that area that was torn down last year. Tennis courts will give the area a lot more use than the previous building did.

From there we went south to the start of the gravel hike and bike trail along Flint Creek. Some where along the creek bank during the next mile we crossed path with this huge mound of yellow flowers. The picture only grabs about a third of all the flowers in the huge display.

The OFM waded about eight feet into the mound to get the picture above. The good news is we did not find any snakes playing in there. It was an unreal pretty mountain of flowers to enjoy viewing.

Very nearby is a large field that is sort of a general use field That folks get to use for just general goofing off and messing around having great FUN. We enjoy seeing families and groups having unstructured areas for general rambling around with each other.

Just back of where the OFM took that picture is the shore of Flint Creek where bank fishing can be pretty good at times also.

Then we meandered along the gravel trail a little bit and found this turtle convention in session at a small inlet.

Lots more turtles were congregated in the water paying attention to all that was going on up on the trees. It made the OFM wish he spoke Turtle so he could learn something.

By the time we got back to the Castle we had covered nearly three miles of trails with our fun walk. That is a good healthy exercise experience to help the OFM make it to the end of fun living.

Good Food And Great Weather

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: April 22, 2024

It was another great day of beautiful weather. Let us start the day with a food report. Supper time had arrived and the OFM was still getting his acts of the day together but the OFM stomach was not ready to put up with excuses. It is food time PERIOD. So we went to thinking. In the food lockers was cans of food. So we grabbed a package of Knorr mix.

Glancing quickly through the next cabinet we found a can of name brand no beans chili that was purchased recently to try out. So now we had makings for some belly filler. In a few minutes we had it all on the fire heating in stoup style for supper. About 15 minutes later it was ready to force down. But the big surprise was that it was actually very good and not any greasy taste to it. Then another surprise during clean up, The regular size can of chili and the bag of Knorr mix yielded four meals of food for the OFM. We had one bowl full tonight and are really looking forward to the three nights of meals we put into the freezer for our future meals. That is a nice surprise we think.

We had a day of visits with folks between walk sessions on the trails. There were lots of good pics on the walks so we will have nice pics for a few days in the blog. Here is one of them of a trail side spider web that caught the OFM's attention before we walked into it. It was about a foot long, seven inches wide and five inches top to bottom. Several small pieces of debris was gathered into the belly of the web. Although it was not exactly artistically pretty it was definitely neat to examine closely at all the work the spider has put into the building of the web.

Then on the way back from one of the meanders we stopped at the site of a couple we have met here and enjoy visiting. The gentleman had bought a very colorful potted plant for his wife a couple of days ago and the OFM finally had his camera in hand today to photograph one of the flowers and here it is for you to enjoy also.

The lighting was great today and we took good advantage of that to shoot lots of critter pics and vegetation pics. We hope to get them all processed tomorrow to put on a big show tomorrow night. But if the weather is great again we will likely just keep on shooting nice pictures for every ones enjoyment.

So everyone kick back and relax.

Blue Skies and Roses

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: April 21, 2024

Here we are already after 2100 and just now getting to writing a blog entry. It has been a very busy day of visiting lots of folks and great weather for being outside. The soccer folks were keeping the soccer field full of players all day long.

The blue skies really stirred folks into outside activities and visiting everywhere we went including the Burger King. We had two long conversations/visits during eating lunch. It was nice meeting new folks.

On one of the several short walks we got to accomplish, there was a planter with several blooming roses that we photographed. This is the one we liked best.

It was well after dark tonight before the talking was finally shut down and the OFM got inside to start on the blog so it is short tonight. Everyone have some fun tomorrow and laugh and giggle some extra. We Will.

Great Morning Walk Today

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: April 20, 2024

The flower bed folks were at it today working on getting the beds planted and ready to call in Springtime to get busy. They were pretty diligent and active for the few minutes we needed to get a couple of pictures.

Later in the day we noticed that they were still in a very productive mode so soon it will be blooms time we hope.

In a short time later we got our act together for a nice walk around a section of the very long walking trails near the campground. Our relatively early start was with cool weather giving us a bit of fog in the picture of the trails current status. Things are shaping up for a nice spring season this year. The trail surfaces weathered the winter storms well and are very walk-able as is. In this picture you can see a light fog in the air and some of the very nice flowers already blooming like crazy. We like it like this.

And here is a very close up of the blossom clusters active today. Lots of other blossom buds are still down in the shrubbery waiting to explode on us.

Animal activities are off to a good start already in the natural environment alongside the trails. We have heard of two grass snake sightings two days ago. The birds are definitely busy birding all over the place except for there being very few birdies on the golf course yet. Giggle giggle.

Then there was this Heron trying to hide from the prying lens of the OFM camera but we caught it anyway.

We finished this afternoons walk by taking bunches of pics to be edited for more OFM blogs and generally having a great beautiful photo taking roam of the new activities areas we will report on soon.

The time of the year is here to get busy out side trying to have tooooo much fun again.

Toilet Paper Testing

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: April 19, 2024

If you want to see some spectacular desert countryside git yourself on over to https://rollingsteeltent.blogspot.com/2024/04/excellent-second-hand-recommendation.html#comment-form .

While piddling around and wishing he was out in the Texas desert somewhere, the OFM stumbled across Al's latest blog entry and found it invigorating as usual. Be careful or you might find it intoxicating reading.

It has been a few years since the OFM has done a toilet tissue break down test his way. The last time we did any testing we found that any “septic safe” toilet paper did the job equally well as long as you moved your rig with the load in the tank down the road giving everything a good sloshing around inside the black tank to break it up. Today we finished our latest test and sure enough the “septic safe” toilet paper still works well if you give it a bit of road action such as going to a dump station. If the black tank sits still like we are now in a full service campground we definitely need a tank flush system to get the toilet paper cleared from the tank. In other words nothing is any better than a few years ago in our opinion.

We have noticed that a lot of newer younger RV travelers feel that they are experts since they watch the you tube Rving stuff and are fond of saying things like “you will understand better after you have been rving longer”. I tell them I started rving in 1972 and have been traveling full time since 2007 so I hope I will get some real experience soon, and giggle at them.

I apologize to our readers over this 11 month long period of truck, trailer and OFM body breakdowns that has held us back from rolling more often. We have again today cleared ourselves to get busy for a short foray westward but we do have some grandkid adventures in this area scheduled for mid- June until late August or early September. Then we hope to meander again.

Everyone have a great day of wonderful enjoyment and be happy.

New Flowers At Campground Entrance

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: April 18, 2024

We did not realize the deep three day freeze last winter had done so much damage to the campground as it did. As spring tried to spring a couple of weeks ago it became apparent that some of the beautiful plants in the campground had been badly damaged or killed outright. A few days ago they had been running around with the backhoe cleaning out flower and shrub beds and taking the residue away to the organics dump in the far corner of Pt. Mallard park.

Recently the work on the flower beds and shrubbery areas at the entrance began. We plan to survey the whole place tomorrow to see what else there is to notice. This is a large campground with over 200 sites so it takes a bit.

As you approach the campground entrance there is a stop and right turn to enter. In the middle of the road is a nice planter box to show you that you are here finally. In the box is a cute sign and welcoming flowering plants to make you smile.

The check in parking is to your right as you turn into the campground. It normally is a huge bunch of pretty flowers and bushes but now it is a new display in progress. We are betting it will be beautiful very soon.

Once parked to go check in you are directly across the street from the office that greets you with a bunch of nice flowers to make you feel welcome. Park and come on up the steps to the porch and office entrance. Yep it is nicely air conditioned and yes it is warm enough already to make it feel good inside. For travelers like the OFM the rest rooms are right by the entry doors. Men at the front door and Ladies at the back door. Then you can get checked in by the friendly folks at the counter.

That area should very soon be a wonderfully beautiful plantings of flowering shrubs and blooming plants.

We like it here very much and most any thing you might need is no more than 10 miles away like Walmart, the hospital, restaurants etc. Be careful on the trails and have tooooo much fun.

Rain And Walking

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: April 17, 2024

At least we got to do something today. It did do a good bit of raining this morning but the OFM grabbed an umbrella and went walking anyway. And yes he got a bit wet but it was worth the exercise. We meandered down the back campground trail to check the drainage rate from the campground into the river. There was a big surprise in that the draining water was heading into the campground. When we checked later the campground still had a few inches of freeboard so it could handle more water.

Notice the rain drops on the water surface.

Another good thing happened is the OFM decided we would not go for a long walk in the rain so we made this short excursion a high speed walk and his legs liked it. Tonight even they are still feeling fine. It makes the OFM wonder if he needs faster short stretches of hiking more often. We will be experimenting with it.

Then this evening we got in another got short walk of about a mile on pavement and it seemed to be a good thing also. Hopefully this means we have some good recovery in progress.

Along this walk we grabbed two more pictures. As you can see the afternoon walk was dry walking and very nice.

We had a beautiful evening sky to enjoy during the walk.

We also got to see that a new building is being started in the Point Mallard Park General Public part of the area.

We have no idea what is being built.

Then in the afternoon we had a very nice visit with some new campers to the campground who are in the area looking at possibly purchasing a new home in Decatur or the general area. They seem like good folks and the Teams hope they get a home like they want.

That's about it for now. We hope everyone has a great night of rest tonight.

MR. Knucklehead Strikes Again And Good News

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: April 16, 2024

The day was not bland for sure. The morning was spent getting ready for an afternoon event on the 16^th. Sure enough when we got there nobody else showed up and we wandered around trying to figure out where they were. Finally we left thinking we had missed the cancellation notice or ????

Sure enough later we found the trouble. It was the OFM on the wrong month. The event is MAY 16 not April 16. So old knucklehead had another bruise on his forehead from banging the door frame.

Now let us add more news. In the last couple of months we have had significant fresh news from our old favorite fishing grounds of Rockport Texas. It seems that the OFM dreams of coming off the road eventually and settling in a campground in Rockport Tx. is most likely not going to happen. The last few years that Texas coastal area is really developing into expensive residential and commercial property supporting the Corpus Christi Tx industrial, oil and chemical manufacturing businesses. We watched and lived that same thing happening in the Houston Tx south east quadrant. So we are now writing those areas out of our possible “retirement area “ when we settle down. However the good part is that that change will support a few million folks who need good paying jobs in the future. We just need to suck it up and find another wonderful place and we have seen several in our travels.

This means the OFM Teams now have a new goal to define, chase and consider. That alone could be a fun run at new places to consider, don't you think? We consider this a grand new excitement for our life. YAHOOOOO.

Confused and Grasping At Straws

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: April 15, 2024

The day was bland to say the least. We spent a lot of time trying to figure out what we want to do for the next few months and considered lots of stuff.

Even the walk was sort of a bust. We got in a couple of miles ok but the territory was new to us and not really good due to the “marshiness” of it. It will not be attempted again.

We did figure out we only have about four weeks to do a loop before we need to be back here for the Summer Events. Like Birthdays. Now we are thinking we might just mess around here until August when we can roll out with at least five months of roaming time in front of us. We never thought RV traveling would get this complicated but if you have family and friends you want to visit it sure can. So we will leave you tonight with no great blog again and hopes yall will enjoy tomorrow to the max.

Not Well But Not Real Bad

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: April 14, 2024

It was a good day for walking this morning and we covered lots of territory WITH OUT THE CAMERA. Knuckle head OFM forgot it. But we ended up making several short trails in different parts of the facility with out taking any pictures. It was not as bad as it sounds, it was all heavily forested and looked a lot alike all through the area.

We spent a lot of time thinking about what to do next in our adventures before school lets out. We want to be back here off the roads when school lets out for the summer. The school restarts in this area August 1.

We are thinking we might just take a three week small loop sort of a check out things trip maybe. We will see what happens. Mean while the OFM had a full afternoon of something not right with his innards that seems to easing back for now. So with that said we wish you a good nights rest.

Dumb Move By OFM

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: April 13, 2024

More wonderful weather and lots of folks were out playing. Several very friendly conversations with other campers happened. It seems there is a bit of a shortage of decent campgrounds during the up coming holiday times before schools is let out this summer. This likely happens every year now days. I wished them all good luck.

Out on Flint Creek were several kayakers out there paddling around having a blast in the nice weather.

This was taken at max zoom hand held while standing on the walking trail on our side of the water. We are surprised it came out in any decent focus.

The OFM was not doing really well with a hip pain so when we got to this mile marker we settled for a mile and a half walk today. That sure was an inviting trail today.

As we returned to the Castle we noticed that the door was open. Apparently the OFM forgot to secure the Castle before we headed out. What dumb move that was.

The rest of the day was restful and relaxed. The OFM had a couple of nice long phone calls with friends. Now we need to make some rolling plans and try to do some serious decision making about our near future.

In the meantime everyone get busy practicing having tooooo much fun.

New Travel Style Evaluating In Progress

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: April 12, 2024

It has been an interesting day for the OFM Teams. We started the day with great walking and picture taking weather. We only took two pictures during the 2.5 miles of great walking. This one struck us as nice to show the morning weather we had to put up with.

All along the trails the weather seemed to be glad to be finished with the rain after 4 days. We definitely were.

Awe moseyed along we came to a tree laying out over the water with five turtles on it. As we approached it to do a little photography, four of the turtles slid into the water. Number five was the largest turtle and it stayed put and hunkered down a bit. So we got a photo of a hiding turtle in the brush. It wiggled around a little but stayed in place.

The rest of the walk got the OFM to thinking about swapping our vehicles and changing our travel style. Please note we did not say quit traveling around. Many years ago during our employed life we camped in just about every style available on FOUR wheels. No two wheel style was ever tried. The one that we found really good was no build van camping.

Today we stumbled onto a very good web site on no build van camping and caught our attention. For those who do not know what no build van camping is here is the explanation.

You use a van, large or small, and rearrange the inside to give you comfortable camping as you travel. The big difference from most camping vans is that no building cabinets or beds or ???? and attaching to the van done. Things like a bed is a folding cot with a mattress on it. A toilet is a Thetford Portti Potty like the OFM used for several years in his no build vans Showers happen at bath houses in campgrounds or wet wash cloth scrubbing in the van with a rag and pot of water. Folding chairs worked outside or inside. Van original furniture was stored in safe storage until it was needed to be reinstalled for selling the rig later. It was a great way of traveling fast to make big loop travels while still having to go back to work in a couple of days or week or two.

We are not considering and will not again be considering the van-ish Class B motor homes running around now days. We have looked at them carefully for a couple of years and they do not fit our wants. Nothing wrong with them just not our choice.

And that is the big news from north Alabama.

Do It Tomorrow Right?

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: April 11, 2024

We had light to heavy rain just about all day and it is still raining tonight. But it was a day of getting a few things moving along or finished. The middle of the day was laundry day and we got the whole laundry room to ourselves since it was raining out there.

We got it all done, back home and put away in only an hour and a half. It was great. And it was hot tea time and it was good also.

While sitting and thinking about what to do travel wise the OFM realized he had to get busy on some Stoup. We had cubed and cooked chicken breast in the freezer and Knorr rice noodle packages in the cabinet, shredded carrots and a cup of cubed potatoes standing by in the refer so we went to work and soon the Castle smelled delicious for supper. Wow that is good stuff.

Now there is two meals worth of chicken/rice stoup waiting politely in the fridge for the OFM to be ready to eat stoup again. It shouldn't be long.

WARNING AHEAD Yesterday while at Walmart Neighborhood market we picked up a single serving size of ready made sandwich for lunch. Today it exited in dramatic undesirable fashion. So we now know to be more careful about Out Of Date markings on those RTE sandwiches. It tasted fine going in yesterday but today was a new show for sure.

Several other ideas about the next few months are bouncing around inside the OFM skull making a lot of racket. We need to get something lined out soon and get business gitting going. One of the big troubles is this is such a nice area that it is very easy to kick back and gently slide along on the I'll do it tomorrow routine. This sounds like a good idea to do tomorrow. Have a great night .

Got To Try (Revised)

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: April 10, 2024

A beautiful day arrived shortly after we got going this morning, but let us begin at the rolling out of bed. The great news is the OFM rolled out of bed and landed on his feet instead of setting a new world record for splatting on the floor. After breakfast we needed to get in some walking after three days of rain confinement. So we bagged up the garbage to carry it to the dumpsters on the other side of the campground. Checked our selves for the gear we wanted to have along and ZZZZZZOOM we were on our way. A couple minutes later we took a right turn onto the walking path going over to the dumpsters. Passing by the first pathway to a different location we could tell that not all the rain water had drained away yet and we better choose the higher ground trails.

It was a bit cool in the shadows of the clouds with the light damp breeze so we were glad to have on our windbreaker as we turned toward the dumpsters way over yonder. It was only about ten yards farther when the sun attacked us with vigor. This picture was just as the sun broke though the clouds. In just a couple of minutes we shed the jacket for the rest of the walk.

And for the rest of the 2 miles it just kept on getting hotter. Nothing really exciting happened the rest of the day, BUT we have began working up a bit of an itinerary for rolling in the future. We got notice that Kiddo's family was able to finalize two great trips for themselves at the end of spring and start of summer. That bunch knows how to try to have tooooo much fun.

Very Rainy Day Today

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: April 9, 2024

We had a miserable day today. Light continuous rain all day here in Decatur Al. Drove out on the slip and slide roads to get my nooner burger and went right back on home to the Castle. There we stayed the rest of the day researching camping areas in hopes of rolling west soon. Seems to be LOTS of folks out on the roads already. Some of our favorite locations in west Texas are already having days in the mid to hi 90s. That makes sleeping in boondocking situations not really nice.

And the OFM is still pretty creaky and achy from the wild Sunday at the grands house.

So we guess we will take another easy day and get more better to have tooooo much fun.

Recovery Day

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: April 8, 2024

We had a miserable night and morning. The OFM was having muscle cramps here and there all over his body often. He would have to massage them out just to not scream from the pain of the cramps. Finally near noon the misery started to abate somewhat. So far this afternoon the OFM is getting by with only light cramps now and then.

Most of the campground folks were doing all sorts of things in preparation of the eclipse. We were the non participants in the event Of course it was mostly just an excuse to have a big party everywhere. We did take a photo of the special event to keep for ever and ever for those who want to see what the eclipse was like around here.

Along about 1600 the OFM finally got to feeling human again. We are fairly certain we will be a lot more careful next time about over using the OFM body trying to keep up with an 11 yo and a 6 yo. That could be dangerous for 77 YO FAT MAN.

One thing that surprises the OFM is he did not fall down even once. He stumbled frequently but did not go down!

We are proud to announce that our grand son has substantially improved his chess playing and came very close to beating Grandpa.

We are hoping that tomorrow will be a much more normal day in the OFM life. But we are very excited we did not miss all the fun of yesterday.

YYYAAAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!

Too Much Fun

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: April 7, 2024

We arrived at the grandkids home at 1000, and the fun started. We played soccer, chess, frisbee chasing, looking at pictures of places to visit and places the OFM had been and on and on. Hit up Phil Sandovals for great chicken salad, We finally left in late afternoon whopped to a frazzle. It was just about the funnest day in my life ever. Now for some serious resting. Too busy having fun to take pics. Good Night.

Left Over Fun

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: April 6, 2024

Another great day of spring springing all around us here on the Tennessee River. We hit the campground back trail entry and right away the OFM got a surprise. A little sprig of a tree that was treeless last Sunday had grown lots of leaves since then. Here is the end of a limb with the OFM holding a wad of the new leaves in his hand.

This place is literally exploding with new vegetation everywhere you look. WOW.

After the two mile walk was finished the OFM was not feeling well and decided to kick back for a good bit. It quickly proved to be the right idea to take it physically easy for a bit. So he went to studying some of the new techniques for coloring he is trying to learn well. They are some great techniques to use IF you can remember how to do them correctly when you need them. Here was the art table for a good while today,

We spent a couple of hours practicing the newly acquired information and once again the OFM proved he is an expert at learning at a very slow rate.

This effort was at getting enough coloring on the paper for correct blending. It was not easy.

Tomorrow is supposed to be Mexican food day with Kiddo and his family at Phil Sandavals place in Huntsville Al. They have very good food every time the OFM has eaten there for the last 20 years.

It is a great family friendly restaurant and the grand kids love it there.

Well folks, it is like this. During the walk this morning the OFM noticed a lot of fun left laying around outside from yesterday. We need to get busy using up all that extra fun OK.

Beautiful Days To Enjoy

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: April 5, 2024

Another very nice day in the country today. The walk went very nicely also. An email from Mary S. wanting to know what the golden flowers fragrance was like led to a repeat of yesterdays trail. It was still a wonderful route again today. As it turned out we reported back that the blossoms smelled like trail dust even after we removed all the dust we could. Maybe right after a rain they might be better.

Nearby was this nice scene from the trail of a beautiful cloud filled bright blue north Alabama sky. We stood around for a few minutes just enjoying the great view. We think it was time well spent.

It is amazing how quickly the greenery rushes into the forest areas. It was only last weekend when this area did not have any greenery and now it is mostly waist deep already.

The greenery seems to be squirting out of the ground like a high pressure water hose with a hole in it. WOW.

There is not a lot of fast and furious excitement happening around lately but it has been some great meandering outside weather. This spring is showing off rather nicely it seems to the OFM.

Have fun and stay Happy.

Exciting Choices To Make

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: April 4, 2024

It was a very pleasant day all around town today. The OFM had a very wonderful long conversation with OFM's son Kiddo's mom today. That pretty well got us both updated on things happening in the two families.

The walk was a nice bit of exercise and we ran into some old friends on the trail. They are about to leave to go up into the mountains of NE United States for a vacation. It sounded wonderful.

And we tried a new objective for the photo taking on the walk. The objective switched to finding pretty scenes instead of narrative or unusual things. We are trying to add variety to our coverage of the areas we go.

At the start of the walk we went out the back trail from the campground and found this bank of Fairy Dust floating gently through the vegetation greeting us at the start of the adventure. It was neat how it swirled around us as we passed through the magic cloud on the trail.

Fairy Dust

The flowers of Spring are working their way into our sight as they chase the sunlight. These golden flowers have bloomed since yesterday morning.

GOLDEN FLOWERS

We hope they become wildly special and we get to take more pictures of them this next few days. Then we might get to attempt a nice painting of them. That should be fun.

And on a back slough we noticed this nice view and spent several minutes taking some shots of it. Here is the one we chose to show tonight. We think it is pretty nice.

ARCH OF CALM

Sierra needs to get a Texas inspection so we are considering what we want to do about that. A quick six day trip back maybe by moteling or a few weeks with the Castle and be back here in early June when the Grands return from their big vacation at the end of school. Lots of very difficult decisions to make in this Rving life.

In the meantime everyone kick back, relax and try to have some very relaxing easy times.