Cats The Stage Show

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: July 26, 2024

Cats the musical was the stage show the OFM grand kids acted in for a summer activity. They had about two weeks to get ready for it. We found it very interesting to watch. We got to see three performances. Grand daughter, 7 years old, was in the first production for younger performers and we all loved it.

Then we got to see two more productions for more advanced performers. The OFM's grandson,12 years old a couple of days ago, was chosen to be the lead male for both of the advanced productions. There were a few proud parents in the audience to say the least . Especially the OFM.

But of course the OFM could not be left out of the excitement. The carpeted concrete steps leaving the dimly lit auditorium and the crowd of nice helpful folks made for an exciting time for the OFM to do a face plant fall while heading up the steps. He was not seriously injured but he did leave three small smears of blood on the carpet of the steps. It was wonderful how so many folks jumped right in without hesitation to help if needed. Made me feel good to know folks will still help when needed.

Back home right at supper time led to a Burger King trip for the OFM. Then we started on the blog. We are planning on a nice restful night of relaxed sleep tonight. Then tomorrow morning we will count all the sore spots on his body.

Maintenance

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: July 25, 2024

What a misery today was! We started with rain squalls and finished this evening with strong rain storms. We were afraid more trees would be coming down.

The OFM stayed on leak patrol all day and we are happy to report that there were no new leak points. To clarify a bit, most all of the leak points are in wall penetration/joints not on the roof. On a rig that has spent a lot of time off pavement slowly and carefully riding around boon-docking areas, wall penetration/joint leaks are common. Especially one that has done it for 18 years. The twisting back and forth a rig gets off road is fairly significant. We deliberately chose Arctic Fox when we purchased it in Oregon in 2007 since it was built to handle that treatment better than most rigs and for 16 years and lots of miles off road it did with little trouble. But that same wear and tear does wear out things and need maintenance eventually. That reminded OFM of two hailstorms we rode out in Del Rio a few years ago where the hail stones coming down in the frenzy were slightly larger than the golf balls we had in a bucket next to the Castle. To our surprise, the Castle made it through both hail storms with no damage. The one RV repair facility in town was totally booked for nearly three months fixing a lot of pretty Rvs after each of those storms. We had no damage to the Castle from either storm.

In case you missed it last year we had the trailer suspension gone through for wear examination, new brake assemblies and of replacement of the wheel bearings. When you take your rig out into the rough stuff often but carefully, it will wear more significantly and quickly. Maintenance becomes much more critical. By the way saltwater beach or other near saltwater use will need more maintenance than normal use situations.

The Castle has been through all of that fun during its years since July 2007 when we moved into it, so we are a bit proud to see it still ready to play after all the fun we have had. But maintenance of ALL systems is critical. Now we need to get rolling September 15 to see if we can wear out the OFM.

Rain Day

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: July 24, 2024

It was drizzling all morning gently but still too much for decent walking so we stayed at the Castle and piddled. This left the OFM to fiddling with our aftermarket added insulation that was/is getting a bit ragged. Then we spent a lot of time thinking about our future locations. Last winter here in Decatur we only had three days that we even needed a coat. That was three days in January when it just got to freezing in the early morning and was good sweater time for the rest of the day. We really noticed how nice it was to have South Texas winter weather in January again. We feel like we are through with having freezing weather in the winter when you don't have to. So now we have a goal of looking up winter temps near the Gulf of Mexico to choose where we will winter this year. It is really feeling like the OFM's 77^th winter will be his last up here with any freezing weather. We start year 78 for the OFM in a couple of weeks and it is time for adjustments in our winter locations we believe. So now we have to get busy plotting camping travels that will be warm enough to keep the OFM happy all winter. The OLD in OFM is beginning to have stronger preferences for staying warmer in the winter time. It is already known that we will be south of I-20 for the winter and a good chance we will be south of I-10 also.

Perhaps tomorrow we will have something more to talk about than the weather like maybe the Rio Grande Valley of Texas.

Tree Wrecked Rig Gone

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: July 22, 2024

We got in a walk this morning disguised as a trash run to the dumpsters. The OFM was doing fairly well for a change and not hurting badly during the whole walk. The soccer field just south of the campground had a temporary walking path route change about a year that took us down an old path that got muddy at times. Well we noticed that as we approached the soccer field the fencing had been changed to allow walking/biking access again. But golf carts and motor vehicles did not have access. This is good. At specific points in all the fencing there are access points of just straight posts to allow access again like this.

So as of today our old paved path is once again available and the youth soccer now has a paved area to store their goals on when other events happen on the soccer field. Over all this is a wonderful improvement in usability for the whole facility. It also allowed the rest room facility to be reopened for walkers/bikers to use while on the trail system. Overall we think it is a wonderful improvement for Point Mallard Park.

This afternoon the tree wrecked travel trailer was taken from the campground. The hauling crew definitely had their job cut out for them. They were fortunate in that the rig could be pulled away on its own axles and frame. However they did have to use a large flat bed truck to push the two damaged slide outs into the main structure. That was interesting to watch the trailer body scrunch up to allow the slide to crunch up into the main body. This picture was taken on the way out of the park out front of the Castle. Notice there is a little bit of oops to the rig now.

There is still plenty of tree parts and trailer body parts laying around the original lot. We guess it will take about two days to ready the site for a new occupant.

Well that is about it for tonight. Everyone relax and get some good rest tonight,

New Coloring Started

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: July 22, 2024

First thing after getting the OFM body moving well was to attack the new leaks that showed up during the storms yesterday. So we got the caulk and tools over to the front section of the trailer and started to looking for more cracked old caulk. We found some and got it all cleaned out and replaced but we could not be for certain it provided last nights leak point. We will find out with the next storm. These twenty year old trailers are a pain to keep from having leaks. We have been looking at new trailers for over a year now and have not found a floor plan we like yet. Or good enough construction either. This took about 1.5 hours and a clean up of the OFM.

Next was a nice walk but it was too warm and humid again. Then a mile and a half into the walk a rain cloud moved in on us so we short cut back to the Castle to be safe. The rain was only a little bit as it turned out.

As we were coming back we passed by the tree fell on it rig that is waiting to be removed from the campground.

We have not heard a thing about the clean up getting started so it just sits there.

Later in the afternoon we got motivated and started a new coloring and WOW is it slow going for now.

Some new techniques are planned for this effort so it will definitely be interesting to color. So far it is very slow coloring due to the planning we are doing for the finished look.

Good night folks. Have fun tomorrow.

Golf Fun

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: July 21, 2024

When we first opened the door to the Castle this morning we closed it right back and brought up the humidity and forecast on the computer. It was over 80% and very warm at a bit past 0830. The OFM bravely set out on a good walk and garbage drop off along the way. By the time we were down by Flint Creek, the OFM was lagging along and sat on a bench for a few minutes to recuperate. It was just tooooooo hot and still so we took the short cut back to the Castle and got inside the A/C to recover. We figured that we were finished with serious outdoor adventures and we were right.

We recuperated for an hour or so then inventoried our supply situation to hit up the air conditioned stores more to just have something to do active rather than sit around and color. About $40 later we were all inventoried up.

The used goods store near Walmart was one of our stopping spots. For a couple of years now the OFM has wanted a golf club to use for fun at golf course pitching greens. His bum shoulders work good enough for the practice greens but not good enough for full scale playing golf. But we thought it would be nice to piddle a bit with a golf club and ball. We found a proper pitching wedge for $7 and bought it. We had one golf ball in Sierra so we stopped at an open field near the campground to try hitting the ball a bit. Before it was over we had found seven more golf balls hidden the tall grass. So we are stocked up to go piddle at the pitching green at the golf course next door when the rains stop. The pitching green use is free so this is wonderful for having fun and saving money.

And tonight we are having waves of rain clouds come through drenching us again. All this rain gets tiresome for the Teams.

That it for today. Everyone have some fun.

Help Your Fridge Cool Better

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: July 20, 2024

Another nice day to start things off. Rain squalls in the forecast and they did show up when we got about a mile from the Castle. So we opened our little umbrella and headed for the Castle. We got lucky in that it was just a hard sprinkle all the way back so it was not too much mud to fight. It soon quit raining and that was all the rain for the day. We are not fans of walking in the rain no matter what that old song says.

The coloring we have lately been working on was declared finished this morning but when we took the photo to put in tonight's blog it was obvious the OFM needed to try again on some of those finishing touches. So we plan to be finished tomorrow.

What that little delay also precipitated was an inventory of colorings left to be done since we thought we were running out of new ones to color. After checking the stock waiting for our attention we came up with thirty pages waiting for our attention. Since each coloring takes us 2 to 3 months to do, it means we have five years minimum of pages waiting to be colored right now. Perhaps The OFM has plenty in reserve right now. Additionally there is about ten full paintings we also want to try our ability with. So The OFM needs to settle down on the art efforts and get busy. Maybe. At least now we know our real status on that situation.

So how about a tip on getting better performance from your RV refrigerators in the future. Years ago in the mid 70s a full timer desert rat in New Mexico advised the OFM that the RV fridges are less than the best in the world. When you open the door on upright refrigerators most of the cold air falls out of them and hot air replaces them. Then your fridge has to work hard for a couple of hours while the inside gets warm enough to let food get too warm for safe storage for a couple of hours. Here is what he recommended and we have been using since 1973.

Use empty closed containers to fill the refrigerator full of air that cannot fall out and have to be re-cooled to have the fridge at a safe temperature. We use our empty plastic storage containers to hold the cold air as much as we can. On our newest refrigerator the 2 liter soda bottles fit very well in the door shelves for the same purpose when appropriate. We hope you find this a good idea for your rig also. When you are not plugged in like when boon-docking it definitely makes a difference in our rig's LPG use.

Good night folks and sleep well. 

Plans Working Out It Seems

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: July 19, 2024

Another nice day to start things off. Rain squalls in the forecast and they did show up after the nice walk was accomplished. Today was about 80% less hip pain than in the last week or so. Maybe The OFM is finally healing a bit. Or maybe it was the one extra ibuprofen tablet this morning but it has been less pain all day. The rain came meaning business for sure but finished up soon and cleared out of the way for a nice afternoon and evening.

We spent a good bit of nice coloring time on the latest art effort. Good progress was made and here is our usual close crop of the in progress coloring.

We will likely get it finished during the weekend just ahead.

Talked with an old friend in Michigan. He and his wife are doing well and we hope to meet in Rockport Texas this winter and with luck do a bit of fishing in the warm winter weather down there. With that location firmed up somewhat we can now get more exact on the rest of our hopes for stays here and there in Texas and New Mexico when we pull out of here.

There is so many more folks on the roads now that reservations are getting to be needed at the more popular places like Rockport for the winter time. So we need to flex with the reality and plan more carefully it seems.

Every one have a good night of comfortable sleep, we plan to.

Nice Weather Today

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: July 18, 2024

The day was a big surprise. It was only 82F instead of 93F like the recent days. And there was a nice gentle breeze to make it feel even better. At the start of the paved walk path the scenery was nice with the vegetation looking good in-spite of all the bad weather a couple of days ago.

We were really enjoying the nice weather and greenery all around us as we ambled on down the pathway that goes around the golf course. The gold course does bring back some good memories from when the OFM could still play golf. Falling has put an end to swinging golf clubs in this old body.

As we followed the path on to head back behind the golf course the trees close in close to the pathway and in a few places fallen trees have been cut away from the pathway and some artist in the area paints faces on them for us walkers enjoyment. This one is about four years old and was getting ragged. Apparently after our walk yesterday the painter was out here redoing the art work. It ia pretty cute in person.

Since we are having hip joint troubles we headed back at the one mile mark. Then later in the day we do another walk on one of the other locations in the park. This one was down by Flint Creek because the clouds and sky was putting on a big show. By the time we made it down to the waterfront most of the clouds show was over but here is what we did get in one of our attempts.

It was a lot nicer about 20 minutes ago before we got to the creek.

The summer here is nearly over for the Alabama school kids. The Alabama public schools start back in thirteen days. We are still hoping to roll out around September 15 if it is cool enough to be comfortable. Head south to Birmingham, turn west on I-20 and stop when we get somewhere.

YAHOOOOOOOOO

Total Loss and Mexican Stoup

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: July 17, 2024

Not a lot of anything exciting today. Got in decent 2 mile walk with nothing exciting on it. Spent most of the day just piddling and visiting folks. Then tonight we cooked some chicken chunks and blended them with a Knorr packet of Mexican rice and spices for a large pot of stoup for about four meals in the freezer.

We happened to get to visit with the contractor that is supposed to haul out the RV that got to close to the tree. He is thinking it will have to be cut into smaller chunks to put it on a flatbed trailer to get it down the highway legally. He said it took the insurance claims guy about three minutes looking at the photos to declare it a total loss. Now all that there is to do is get it out of here so they can quit paying rent on the site.

That is it for tonight. It has been a very calm day today and that was a good thing.

Storm Damage Report

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: July 16, 2024

We heard that the golf course got a lot of tree damage from yesterdays storm that came through. So the OFM decided to make the morning walk on the loop road that goes around the golf course and take a look.

Yep they had plenty of trees knocked down. Here is one that was at the fence next to the perimeter fence. That is a fairly stout looking tree to be getting blown down like that.

The next long stretch of the road is thick with trees all the way to the fence by the road.

This stretch of road gets really warm with direct sun and no breeze through the vegetation alongside the road. Once again today the OFM got to feeling rough in this stretch but today he turned around and got on out of the hot hole area and did well when he moved to a more open section of the road. This is what probably got to him a couple of days ago when he had to take it real east for the rest of the day. Today he recovered before he got back to the trailer. Yep folks who are heat sensitive have to be careful.

Nothing real special other than working on stopping the latest leak at the front window of the Castle. We did not find a leak spot so a general clean up of the entire window seams with some precautionary caulk applications resulted in no leaks when the afternoon short storm raged outside. So maybe we took care of it. We sure hope so.

That is about all. Folks are staying inside due to the heat and humidity instead of wandering around visiting each other. Typically this area has about 6-7 weeks like this each summer and then it cools quickly in early September and stays pretty nice until December.

Good night from hot and humid north Alabama.

Customized Trailer

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: July 15, 2024

We had a nasty storm here in the area today. A nasty storm came through with strong linear winds and really hard rain. Naturally we had another leak in the front of the Castle that we will need to chase down if possible tomorrow.

Several campsites had some stuff blown around but one site out back of us had a tree broken off and shoved through a slide out and into the trailer. The lady inside got a big scrape on her ankle from the stuff moved around. She will be fine with a few weeks of healing. To the OFM it appeared the fifth wheel will be declared a total loss. The slide out got ripped around and the opening area got twisted a good bit. It will be an interesting insurance decision.

Let us hope we are not in for another show of strength tomorrow by NATURE.

New Coloring

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: July 14, 2024

Not a lot happened again around here. The OFM was feeling pretty third class most of the day and just piddled around at the trailer until late afternoon when he got out the colored pencils to play.

A few times today he took short walks just to keep his blood flowing. Each time he found someone to visit for a bit of nice conversation. On one of the walks he spotted this blooming flower for the big excitement of the day.

The morning glory was one of three ragged flowers on a nearby trail but good enough for an OFM.

Later in the afternoon he got out his colored pencils to piddle and soon pulled out a coloring he started several days ago. To our amazement he actually finished it and it came out OK.

This evening he is feeling much better than this morning so maybe tomorrow will be a lot more fun.

Everyone please try to be safe.

Surprise Progress

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: July 13, 2024

After a night of several up and downs we finally got up about 0800 for breakfast and did not feel just “right” so the walk was put off. Sure enough about an hour later the right knee was swollen and painful. There is not a mark on the knee nor any other indication of why the knee is swollen. However the body's nerve system is convinced the knee has an injury so we have to behave today. Even gentle walking is not pain free.

But we HAD to get up and move around so after lunch we went to Walmart to do some very gentle walking with the sore knee. It seemed to be the right thing to do as the knee slowly loosened up and the pain eased a large amount but tonight is back to noticeable but the swelling is gone! And the OFM cannot recall a single thing to have caused it.

Inside Walmart they were busy setting up the getting rid of summer stuff and bringing in the fall stuff. The OFM found several items he was thinking of buying when it dawned on him that an inventory of what do we have, should be done before we do any more purchasing of things. Then we had the intelligent thought that maybe we ought to inventory our medical supplies while we are at it to bring those supplies up to full strength. So tomorrow morning we plan to give the knee a gentle workout climbing around inside the Castle checking on all our supplies that we will need to have with us when we finally get to roll out of here.

Some how we managed to turn a lost day from an injury into a productive day of making a travel get ready plan happen. That is amazing isn't it.

We hope everyone else has had a good day also. Good night.

Trail Underbrush Maintenance

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: July 12, 2024

It was another nice day today as the start of the walk will show you. We did not even bother to check our mileage today, just enjoyed the beautiful weather before it got hot about noon.

This picture of a crepe myrtle is typical of the blooming along the trails at places. The great blue sky went well with the bright flowers of the plants we feel.

As we went on along the trail we came to where the maintenance fellow was closing this portion of the trail for more underbrush cleaning out. He and the OFM discussed some ideas to make the trail even better than he was already doing and he is doing a great job. He even figured out a way to dangle angle his mower over the edge of the creek bank to knock down some of the profuse growth out over the water and he gets to remain safe up on the bank. The OFM thanked him a bunch for his efforts to help us enjoy the park.

The rest of the day was piddle here and twiddle there and plan how we will have the Castle set up when we roll again after over a year of sitting still in one location. It has actually over 13 months in this spot with all the repairs to trailer, truck and human body that have been done.

We got to see several videos of damage down in Rockport Tx this afternoon done by Beryl. In viewing them we got to see LOTS of nice changes the folks of the Corpus Christi area have been doing to the place. We put a swing by that area back into the itinerary to consider when we get rolled. Things like this are one of the reasons we do not like making reservations way ahead of time.

It is time to shut down and rest for the night so tomorrow we can try to have tooooo much fun again.

Lazing Along Land

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: July 11, 2024

Nothing special happened today. The most important thing is Sierra is running like it is supposed to. Probably better than it has in a couple of months. Some little tuning items must have been needing a touch up as well. That is a nice unexpected event.

The OFM health walking is making a difference lately. The OFM started walking some additional shorter routes during the day around the park. Such as taking smaller bags of trash to the dumpsters instead of one big bulky one. Today that gave the OFM two shorter walks of about a half mile each. The best part is we got to visit a few more folks on those walks. And that is nice to do in this campground.

And a really nice happening is we once again took a timer controlled short thirty minute nap right after lunch and wow did that little rest break feel good the rest of the day.

The weather here is pretty warm but not miserably hot. So if you are a bit careful about it you can piddle around outside in your “yard” or down by the Creeks or along the Tennessee River and still have a nice time in the morning or evening. That's about it out here in lazing along land.  The OFM.

More New Engine Wiring

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: July 10, 2024

We got Sierra into the dealer shop first thing this morning and they returned a well finished job about 1400 hours. So it made my day seem like nice flowers were surrounding us.

The tree rats had screwed up lots of wiring that had to be replaced so the job took a good while. The final cost was $1100 parts and labor. Tree rats are not my friends. They are also what ruined our trailer AC a couple of months ago to the tune of $1400.

Most of the day was spent piddling on the computer or gossiping with strolling neighbors around the campground. Actually it was a fairly relaxing day.

But we have the Castle and Sierra back into ready to get ready to roll shape. We will soon have some little things finished on the OFM body so we are looking good for Sep 15 rolling west. Now we need to plan something of a general itinerary to consider traveling. That is proving to be the most difficult thing to make choices about now.

So everyone relax and have tooooo much fun if you can.

Sierra Engine Repair

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: July 9, 2024

Good Evening Folks. We have had a very interesting day with Sierra. When we started the truck to go to the dealer it was missing completely on one cylinder. So we drove it to Burger King for the OFM usual lunch and the truck drove terribly.

After lunch we got to the dealer with the newly badly running truck. They quickly found some plug wiring harness chewed into two pieces on one plug. So they took it in and fixed that. The new transmission had not arrived yet. So we brought the truck home and need to take it back in the morning for a finish to some maintenance work the OFM agreed to have done. So homeward we went and the truck ran perfectly. The transmission shifted perfectly and now we get to negotiate what to do with the transmission that is on the way supposedly. What a mess! Once the spark plug assembly was wired properly the old transmission does not need to be replaced $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$. Don't you love all these electronic devices. So tomorrow will be a day of interesting decisions about who pays for what.

We are very excited for the coming events.

Sierra Repair Report

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: July 8, 2024

Good Evening Folks. We have nasty weather creeping up on us as a result of the hurricane pushing a front towards us. It should not be a big thing except for the rain. The brunt of the hurricane left over should go on past us and into nearby Tennessee to the north. At least We hope it is not a lot of rain.

This mornings walk was another very nice walk. The purpose was to see what was a “natural feeling distance” for our joints to go without beginning to ache very much. It was highly successful. Our best distance worked out to be right around 2.5 miles. So now the walking research seems over and we can aim at walks of 2,5 miles in the future. Joint pain is not for pushing to make it better.

Two times more during the day we made brisk one mile walks to the dumpsters and those walks went just fine so we hope we are getting this walking worked out again for a good while.

After lunch we went to the car dealer to see what was happening with our new truck transmission. The service writer said it had not arrived yet but he has my phone number in his phone to call me the moment something develops. He is hoping for a Thursday-Friday job this week. The OFM will be ready to not have to nurse Sierra around town any more. We shall see???

In the mean time we are piddling with making traveling plans for after mid September departure if things hold together. One big bugger in the planning is not knowing what New Mexico is going to do to their state parks fee structure. That change can have a major impact on travel and fun in that state when they make whatever change they decide upon.

So in the mean time we will just have a good time here in Alabama, which we are finding is a pretty good place for fun also.

Area Pictures Day

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: July 7, 2024

How about just a few nice pics today?

Right after the walk got going this morning this egret got serious about its food catching. This was taken right before the first fish went down the hatch to the tummy. Started its day with a good breakfast.

We meandered on along the trail enjoying the coolish morning and the brilliant sunshine. When we got to this slouhg the OFM thought it needed its picture taken for all the world to enjoy and here it is.

This is where the light was coming from to make that picture so bright and pretty.

This nice gravel trail has locations along it where the water action has worn the bank away so far as to be unsafe. Here is one of those spots that was tooooo close to the edge of the high bank.

And this is where they rerouted the trail back from the high bank to the left to make the trail a lot safer.

OLD TRAIL ENTRANCE

The rest of the day was pretty ordinary except several folks changed sites this afternoon in order to get closer to friends that also stay here. That makes for some nice groups put on great parties now and then.

And it is an oddity but the OFM took a slow pleasure walk along the front entrance road and got this nice picture of the evening sky starting to form up. 

We were glad we got in that short extra walk. It was definitely a laid back day. We hope you had as nice a day as we did.

Inbound Storms

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: July 6, 2024

It was nice to feel good from the start this morning instead of yesterdays YUK feeling. So we got breakfast eaten and ready for the walk. And it was nice weather. Here is what we had to put up with all day today. WOW.

That is nice isn't it.

On along the trail it loops around a nice slough you have seen many times in this blog. Only today a diligent kayaker was fishing on the calm water and looking like he was having fun so we watched him for a bit,

The rest of the 2+ miles were very pleasant walking and even a couple of nice folks to talk with for a few minutes each.

After getting showered and settled with a beverage after the walk we got to checking the hurricane progress out in the Gulf of Mexico. As it turns out the storm has turned toward Rockport Tx on the coast where we go frequently. And I was surprised to see the storm Beryl getting aligned to come right through the Tennessee valley looking for us next week. It seems that the OFM has been a hurricane magnet all his life. Even in my tour of Viet Nam they pulled us out of the jungle one time for a week to let a typhoon (hurricane) come through.

So we spent a good bit of this day plotting our defense against the incoming storm. The least undesirable part is that the storm should be just strong rain storms by the time it gets to us up here in way north Alabama. So tomorrow is re-stock groceries day before all the rain storms hit.

Have some fun and be nice to each other. GOOD NIGHT.

Sick All Day

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: July 5, 2024

We have no idea what caused it but The OFM was sickly from about 0400 this morning until about 1900 tonight. Since then he has been doing better. No real symptoms just feeling BLEAH with no energy. But now he is doing fairly well and hopes to sleep well tonight.

See you tomorrow evening with some adventures we hope. Good Night

Point Mallard Park Party Time

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: July 4, 2024

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM is what we are hearing until 10 pm tonight. The big party next door in the water park kicked off at noon with a band on one of the stages playing a song at a high volume BOOM BOOM BOOM is all the OFM could make of it here on the other side of the chain link fence. Most of the bands hired by the city are pretty talented and do a good job of entertaining the huge crowds that come for the events. But for some reason the OFM has not been able to hear the songs or music except for the bass booming this time. It seems like the folks this year are a bit less rowdy than the last few years.

On the walk this morning we took this picture of whatever it was.

Then about noon they had it all set up and it turned out to be a bunch of those inflated bounce houses type of fun events. There must have been two dozen of them out on the soccer field for folks to play in. We have no idea what different kinds of them there are but lots of laughter could be heard from that area if you walked to the back of the campground near the soccer field.

So far this year it has been a lot calmer in the campground than in years past. All in all we like it that folks in Decatur have these big events for folks and kids to enjoy. Entry to the event is free but some of the things to do charge a small fee. I was told by a neighbor he budgets $10 each for his grand kids at the event for all day. That is pretty fair pricing we think.

We basically hid in the Castle playing with colored pencils having our kind of fun.

And we have a new coloring nearly finished with some small details to consider how to finish them out.

Maybe soon the new transmission will arrive and Sierra will be 100% again. We are sure looking forward to Sept 15 and rolling again even though we have no particular goals in mind.

BE SAFE AND HAVE FUN.

July 4 Big Party

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: July 3, 2024

We are late tonight and all day also. So here is rhe report on part of the action today.

It was my grand daughter's birthday so the OFM Team had to go over to their place to deliver a nice birthday present and visit for a bit. It was a wonderful visit for sure. Then they had chickens to catch and The OFM had other chores to do. And a scattering we did go.

Decatur Alabama has a huge July 4 whiz bang of an all day and into the night party out at the big park where the campground is located. So park preparations have been going on all day. This is the soccer field when we went for a short walk this morning.

We have no idea what they are setting up but the OFM will likely find out tomorrow. But it is supposed to be hot as all get out tomorrow and of course humid with all the swamp areas here. In fact it was pretty hot today. Check out this slough that us actually inside the park nearby.

On the home front we have the latest coloring to show. Fuchsia was completed in early afternoon today so the colored pencil work is still wet.

We hope every one enjoys it.

We expect tomorrow through the weekend to be a very busy time in the park and next Monday will be very welcome for resting. Have Fun.

Using A Heat Index Chart

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: July 2, 2024

This morning we got out the Heat Index chart to check the conditions before we headed out for a walk. We went out the gravel trail planning on it being barely acceptable according to the Heat Index chart and it was right on the button correct. So we took it a bit easy speed wise and made about two miles and that was enough.

Most of the rest of the day was coloring the nearly finished art work. When we finished it we made photos of it to show in tonight's blog. However when we were reviewing the photos of the coloring we had taken, the choice was made to make a significant change to the coloring. The bird just did not come out right so it is do over time for that portion of the coloring. Tomorrow we will be erasing and improving the coloring. The OFM may not be a great colorist but he certainly can be conscientious about his efforts.

Our guess is that we are back to a week or so to improve the coloring to minimum standards we require for our colorings.

Then this evening we got to visit some folks we have not visited for a couple of weeks. The conversation lasted a good while until the biting bugs came out for supper off the OFM.

At least now the OFM has three ideas for full fledged paintings to attempt after the current coloring is published. That means DRAWING and coloring for a change.

Every one be careful about the the serious heat and humidity and stay safe.

Miserable Migraine Attack Today

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: July 1, 2024

The OFM woke this morning feeling rancid at best. All plans were put on hold as we attempted to figure out what was wrong. Finally around 1030 this morning we realized it was a severe migraine making nothing seem right. So we kicked back and was very lazy while the OFM recovered from the misery. About 1500 the OFM started to function a bit better so we were finally on recovery mode. We do not even recall what went on during the morning or early afternoon. It was a rough migraine for sure. But along about 1600 we quickly recovered about 85 percent and were able to start doing things again. And now at 1900 we are doing

decently.

Our delayed new coloring book arrived today and it turns out to look like it will be a big challenge. The last few colorings took us about 2 to 3 months each to color. This new one looks like it will provide lots of challenges and a huge amount of fun.

With some good rest tonight we should be back in decent getting around shape by tomorrow morning. Maybe even get in a nice walk in the morning, Good night.

Another Leak Again

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: June 30, 2024

We stepped outside to find it HOT MUGGY and NO BREEZE and stepped back inside into the A/C to do some other things today. So a decent walk did not happen. However we had some important things that needed to be done to take care of. July is a month with three family birthdays in it. The OFM went to work getting things organized and ready for the special days. By the time we were finished it was after lunchtime.

A surprise strong thirty minute rain storm hit with a vengeance this afternoon and found a new spot to send water into the Castle. The OFM accidentally had a bowl at the right spot to catch the slow drip.

The storm finished its nastiness. The OFM noticed that it was immediately bright hot breezy drying type of day so we went to work on stopping the leak. We think it was a recaulk from over a month ago that had what looked like bubbles had formed and popped in the caulk from last time. With the hot bright sun beaming down it was dry in about a half hour. So we cleaned it all well and let it dry some more. The area the blue arrow is pointing at is where the bubbles and a small crack had formed in the caulk since the previous effort had finished. It has even had a few rains since that last caulking and we had had no leaks show until today.

Well we did a first class effort again and the sun certainly did its job of drying things very well so we have high hopes we have the leak fixed again. The OFM keeps on reminding himself that the Castle is a 2005 model that has been his housing since July of 2007 and some where over 100,000 miles of not always smooth roads to bounce around on and loosen the wooden frame.

Once again it is time to rest so tomorrow we can attempt to have tooooo much fun. Good night and sleep well.