Straightening Up The Credit Card Loss Mess

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: May 31, 2024

The caulking did not progress today since we thought that it might rain on the new caulk before it dried and get washed away. So of course it did not rain today. But we accomplished some good considering and lightening our load. Then we did some catching up on what the lost credit card was causing trouble for us in our accounting system. When we look back at today it was a lot of progress.

A main item was to get the stuff printed and put in Sierra so we will have all the necessary papers up to date and with us if a policeman stops us for some reason. Then several other little nuisance things got cleaned up. Now when our new card gets here in about three weeks we will be in great shape paperwork wise on all our business for rolling. Some where during all that frustrating morning mess the OFM decided he needed a break so he got in a 2.5 mile break walking around the area here near the campground.

Now all of our bookkeeping and legal keeping junk are straight and it feels great. During lunch and off and on we were thinking of where we will want to go on September 15. After perusing many more possibilities we decided on a loop through upper eastern New Mexico where the OFM was born and finish the year at Falcon County's free camping near Roma, Texas. It is also the location of a nice fishing lake named Falcon Lake that is famous for its fishing and warm in January.

We looked through the blog and found this picture that shows what the free camping area is like .

And now we are going to kick back and rest for a day of trying to have tooooo much fun tomorrow. We are trying to get the OFM back into RVING mood again.

Caulk Maintenance

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: May 30, 2024

Twas a very busy day today and around 1500 the OFM just plain ran out of energy and had to put his ancient worn out old body down for a nice half hour nap. And then we put him to work again.

The walk this morning suffered from nice cool temperatures so his 2 mile plan got some added distance to check on a couple of things back in the main park. The main item was to see how the soccer field grass was doing. The great news is that it is coming back incredibly well and at high speed.

This afternoon they were mowing it already. WOW. We like to see the hundreds of folks a week out there enjoying the place with happiness just flowing all over the park.

As we said before keeping an RV of any style of size is a major maintenance chore. We are well into a total caulk maintenance project that we are spreading out enough that The OFM can do most of it himself. He needs the exercise for sure.

This is the left side of the Castle otherwise know as the drivers side or utilities side. All of the names are valid. You can the nice 20 year old ladder we carry for roof access from the ladder.

The OFM has been up on the ladder first scraping old caulk off if it has failed. And then scrubbing the grime left off the old area so the new caulk will adhere much better. Getting the old caulk off is pretty important on a nineteen year old rig like the Castle since the weathering of the old type of caulks cracked after ten to fifteen years and the Castle is a 2005 model AND been lived ever since it was built. It has way more wear than most RVs for its age. Additionally there has been major improvements in RV caulks in the last ten years. If we have to do this much work let us at least make it as much better as we can.

This next picture is from on top looking toward the front of the RV and you can see two of our solar panel that really serve us well when boon-docking. We have one other panel on the entrance door side for a total of 350 watts of panels. Part of all this maintenance is washing the top solar surfaces to move the power production back up to maximum since we are hoping to get to do a lot more boon-docking starting this September when we get to finally roll Westward.

And finally for tonight supper was stir fried onions and bell peppers with two eggs added at the last for a tasty stir fry. It sure was good.

That's it for tonight so we need to rest up for more adventure tomorrow. Have fun everyone.

Little Turtle

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: May 29, 2024

Here we are late again. The walk got off to a nice start this morning with a walk in shade to the dumpsters to get rid of yesterday's trash. Then we cut south through the campground again in the shade of the trees. Out the back exit of the campground and the soccer field came into view. We noticed the vendor tents had left brownish yellow patches in the grass. The trails in the grass from all the shopping feet trampling the grass was very conspicuous. The park grass maintenance folks were already well into the recovery effort needed so we think in a week or so the field will be ready for the soccer players to have at it.

About the same time the OFM paid attention that he was about to walk into the main street without looking both ways he noticed the new Pickle Ball structure roof was suddenly, this morning, going up very quickly.

They are making good progress on that structure now and we wish them good speed on it.

The OFM was heading to the start of the hike and bike trail at marker 0 when he noticed how hot and still it was out in the sun.

Check out that water mirror off Flint Creek. It was the beginning of a real summer hot day. Before the walk was finished we had an empty bottle in our pants pocket. That means it is time to up our carrying capacity and we will starting tomorrow.

The walk was nice but sweaty and the folks on the trail we nice and polite. Overall a rather nice walk. Very near the end of the walk we were near a slough and the OFM somehow noticed a small turtle sunning way over there. So we tried getting a picture of the small critter. The result is in the next photo. A blue line leads to the little turtle,

The next picture is the turtle at maximum zoom with a shaky OFM taking the picture.

The turtle looked to the OFM to be about three inches overall. Definitely a new-by to the real world, Good luck little turtle. And from there it was nice meander back to the Castle and this late night blog entry.

Back at the Castle we visited a few neighbors until something at the office over yonder happened and brought police, a fire truck and an ambulance into the park. With some luck we will get the story tomorrow for our readers.

In the mean time remember it is hot summer time outside tomorrow and be careful to wear hats and drink extra water until we acclimate to the new temperatures.

Nice Cool Morning

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: May 28, 2024

Sort of a mixed salad of things today with little organization to it all but a profitable day to enjoy anyway.

The morning walk was just right cool and our route passed through the Festival trashed up area. Many people are incredible slobs. But we got on down to the hike and bike trail along Flint Creek and go all lined out for a nice walk that turned out to be only 2.4 miles of pleasure with the cool air to enjoy. Along the way was this pancakes stump at the shoreline. We stopped to look at it more carefully. It was simply covered with fungi with very little room for another pancake.

Then to keep it interesting we swung by the new Pickle Ball Court to check on the left over roses and they were dong very well with the blooming business. Check out this beauty.

The crazy folks managed to damage the permanent fencing in a couple of places that some of the maintenance folks were working on getting back in the ground. Unreal.

On the home front the OFM was very lucky and got the lost credit card canceled in time to prevent any theft. The new one is supposed to ship to our Federally Recognized Legal Address at the Escapees club in Livingston Texas where it will be re-mailed to wherever in the world we are when they get it. Been with them since 1998 and they have never had an error on our mail forwarding. When the new card gets here we will once again be clear to roll again when the time is right. Maybe tomorrow we can once again start trying to have too much fun.

Festival Report

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: May 27 summation post, 2024

Howdy from the OFM. The first post today was to let you know things were not going well computer wise.

Now we go to the late day telling of the festival events sort of. The weather played heck with the events for the whole time of the event. The Point Mallard complex is the sight of the festival. It is a no cost admission with a huge attendance measured in the thousands. The campground is totally full at this time of the year but folks still want to come into the campground to spend the day but there is only room for the campers and guests of the campers. Even then it gets very crowded. Campers and invited guests have to have window tags to be in the campground. Even with that restriction the campground runs out of room for guests to park. Here was the first morning line up basically at daylight when our security came on duty.

Within a few minutes the police security got there and things started getting organized. If you did not have a pass the security sent you out of the campground to the regular entrance to the fun. At peak the OFM went to lunch and coming back from lunch he measured over two miles of single lane traffic in line to get into the festival grounds where they had lots of parking space. It is a big mess for sure.

While going to the morning check things out we noticed this old car in the short term camping section. Yep they have an old car show part of the festival. We think it is an old Chevelle station wagon from way back in the OFM youth.

We promised a lot of the readers a hot air balloon report. So here it goes. The OFM got up early Sunday to be at the field early. It was about a half mile walk from the Castle and we briskly made our way through the madhouse mob to the field.

First a bit of an explanation. The launch wind speed expected for the balloons is less than 8 mph wind speed. The way the trees were dancing it was way over that as the OFM walked out the back of the campground, past the soccer field, past the tennis courts, base ball fields, an administration building etc, and got to the golf driving range that serves as the launch area. Sure enough nothing was being unpacked to go for a ride.

Over in a parking lot was a couple of hot air balloons laid out on the ground as a display. Several folks were wandering around looking it all over. In other words nothing happening.

At least the big band performance the first night was pretty good and a nice variety of decent music for about three hours after dark. The next night was a pretty good fireworks display after a shorter band performance was complete. Both of these events we enjoyed from the convenience of the Castle. And tonight we plan a very laid back night of rest in hopes of quieter camping days for a while until the Fourth of July event. Sleep well everyone.

Storms and Computer Trouble

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: May 27, 2024

Computer continued trouble.

Computer Trouble Wasted The Day

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: May 24, 2024

Here it is well after 2100 and the OFM just got his fat finger error fixed that shut his Inet down for several hours today. So no regular blog tonight but the computer system is running right again. We did get a neat picture this evening on the way to the dumpsters. It will be in tomorrows blog. The hot air balloon part of the Point Mallard Festival is tomorrow and we hope to get some pictures then.

So every one relax and get a great evening and night to be ready for whatever nonsense we come up with tomorrow.

Castle Bathing

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: May 24, 2024

We woke up to rain coming so the OFM got outside and rubbed Dawn dish soap on the front of the Castle in hopes the rain would clean off the ten year old dark layer of dirt without the OFM having to do much.

Much of the day was spent in little friendly visits all over the campground. Our route stayed in the campground so we could get back to the Castle when the rain showed up. Well the rain finally showed up but it was light and steady. All the trees that cover the campsite caught the rain drops and turned them into gentle droplets that hit with little force. So it worked out that the cleaning was in the 85% range which is good enough for a boon-docking rig like ours.

After the rain moved out of the area we tried to get in a real walk down by the creek but it did not work out just right due to intermittent little squalls coming through. We stopped and just enjoyed the view at the first opportunity and relaxed.

On the way back to the Castle we stopped and spent a good long time visiting one of the vendors. The vendor area was set up on the soccer field. It is very easy to access from the campground back door.

Who knows, we might just meander around there a bit tomorrow just to see what there is to see and report. The hot air balloons are due to show up tomorrow so that would be something else to enjoy. Who knows we might even find something interesting laying around in the place to report on.

A Goofy Day

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: May 23, 2024

The goofy day started pretty normally. The usual stuff and then out the door for a good walk. About a quarter mile down the trail the OFM suddenly was feeling like he had no business out walking so we turned back. The OFM was feeling worse when we got to the Castle. He headed for the bed and rested for over an hour and when he got up whatever it was was still making trouble. So we canceled physical activity for until at least lunch.

We did very little physically active things until late afternoon when we noticed we were feeling fine again. So we went outside to check what we would need to do to be ready to wash the Castle tomorrow. So we got out some more hose and the washing brush. Everything seemed in good shape so at our next chance we will give the Castle a bath.

Now it is 2030 and we seem to be just fine. Wierd.

Anyway everyone have a nice night and enjoy the big holiday events of the next few days.

Preparations

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: May 22, 2024

After checking the weather forecast we decided it was time to switch to the hot weather paths in the park. So we sat down to the task and got one 2 mile path for sure that will be good in the hot weather. It is about 80% in tree shade and about 60% next to Flint Creek. Here is a typical picture of the trail style.

The right side of the picture is the bank of Flint Creek and most of the time has a nice breeze coming in from the south off the water of the creek to help fight the high heat in the area. In the winter it helps cool us off also but we do not need it then, so we walk the more inland trails to stay warmer.

Today the mass migration of folks to the campground started. Many families have relatives/friends staying here and most of them are planning huge parties for the whole long weekend. It is surprising how few spats occur between all the different styles of folks. Most disturbances seem to be settled with another beer and a taste of the BBQ etc from the location of the discussion. This campground is City Property and the police do come through enough times to keep it a good idea to be happy drunks. Overall it is usually a good but noisy place to be on Memorial Weekend.

The OFM spent some more time working on a coloring that is turning out to be a difficult piece of work. Mostly getting the right combination of colors, shadings and general appearance and blending of concepts to seem right. This is a desert scene and the gentle blend of desert colors can be a real difficult effort. The OFM is having a great challenge getting the whole scene to blend to be something he likes.

So overall you can see the OFM is having a great retirement. Have fun this weekend of party time.

Just Wiggling On Along

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: May 21, 2024

Well the left foot did not give any trouble today but both hips were aching while walking. But we got in a bit over two miles to make it a successful morning.

Late this after noon the order from Amazon that was the screwed up delivery through UPS that we expected to have to get a refund for suddenly showed up to be delivered this afternoon. And it showed up in good shape about 1600. So that worked out decently after all.

Another silly ooops was forgetting to put the memory card in the camera before taking the walk.

How about some good news. The laundry here in the campground has five washers and five dryers and normally stay real busy from early morning to late at night. The OFM carried the basket of dirty clothes to the laundry room early afternoon since there was nearly no traffic in the campground. We were the only ones there. The washer ran fine and still no folks there. So the dryer was filled and ran just fine. About ten minutes before our dryer was finished a fellow came in and started his washing. We chatted for a few minutes a went on our separate ways. Our dryer finished and we grabbed our stuff and walked back to the Castle and put things in their proper places. Catching machines that easily ready to use is not normal considering we have about 200 campsites in the campground just before a big weekend. Maybe we should have bought a Lotto ticket too. And the hip pains went away in early afternoon. That is nice for sure. And to top it off tomorrow is the last day of school for the summer. So the two month summer school vacation starts the next day and we bet the action around here will get more more intense in a hurry. We hope to stay out of the way for the most part.

Our plan for tomorrow is to sit back out of the way and watch the world slide on past.

Left Foot Still Injured

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: May 19, 2024

Rough morning this morning. The left foot was taking revenge for the tripping on the piece of branch yesterday. So we stuck close to the Castle for awhile and piddled. Then off to shop for pants at Academy. Naturally they did not have them in stock in spite of what they claimed in the internet ad. From there we went to the Walmart close by and got a few grocery items and on back to the Castle.

After lunch the bed was calling loudly for our occupancy because the sprained foot was hurting. We slid into the prone position and took advantage of the opportunity to rest the foot some more.

To our surprise since the nap the foot is feeling a lot better. In fact so good we got busy processing the fresh vegetables for storage and stumbled to a packet of Knorr food for stoup. So we added stoup to our afternoon efforts and got all the vegetables put in proper storage as well as a very good pot of stoup made with two meals extra for later enjoyment.

Then after supper we did get a good walk in with permission from the left foot. This evening it seems that the left foot should be well on its way to totally healed in the morning. We sure hope so anyway.

New wind shield hanger tags for Sierra for the big weekend coming up were distributed and they are mounted and ready for our going and coming for the next few days.

That is about it for a day of lame ankle adventures. Rest easy every one and play gently this Holiday Week.

Time To Carry A Water Bottle

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: May 19, 2024

We chose to head out through the woods and along Flint Creek this morning. It turned out to be an excellent choice except for stepping crooked on a bit of a tree limb broken off and laying in the trail. The result was a bit of a twisted left ankle that slowed the Team down a bit. We can tell it is getting better as the day moved along. Probably one more day of gentle healing and we will be back in full activity mode.

However the good side is that oops slowed us just enough that the OFM spotted this very large pair of mushrooms hiding near a huge log. We have the OFM's left hand covering the mushroom. It was a very flat pancake in shape and size.

The trail was in pretty good walking shape. The air temp was great for fast walking and we went fast enough to need a good shower before lunch. We started taking water with us today and the timing was just right. We needed one good slug of water at the turning point to make it comfortably back to the Castle, This squeeze sauce bottle is the water bottle is what we use this early in the season for these couple of mile short walks.

On the way back there was a stiff posed heron at a pond near the trail. We stopped to get a picture of it from about60 feet. The heron never budged as we got things ready to take the shot. Then an instant before the OFM took the shot the heron shot his neck out and jerked back with a frog. And the two seconds later is what you see in the picture tonight.

A few seconds either way would have been a different picture entirely.

The rest of the day was spent trying to figure out what we want to do on September 15 about rolling. Later in the evening we got out a chair and spent a good hour sitting outside in the wonderful weather looking at the campsites around us and the beautiful sky above us. It is really hard to beat this campground most of the time for a nice location.

So tonight we plan to take it really easy since Memorial Day influx of folks starts tomorrow and things might be a good bit more active for the next week or more. The last day of school in this area is next Wednesday. The campground is totally sold out until into late July. School restarts August 1 this year. Then we get some peace and quiet again. At least it is mostly happy noise this time of the year.

Bad Rain Storm Today

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: May 18, 2024

Big rain was forecast for today and it was definitely big bad rain for a few hours around lunch time. But it got finished without any campers getting flooded but the campground drainage was over flowing for a few hours as it did its job.

The OFM had gotten out early for a nice walk of two miles with only a little hip pain left from more caulking work from the ladder. The good news is the severe weather tested the work and we had NO leaks, And that was wonderful. We attribute most of the leaks we have to 18 years of regular travel and being lived in full time. Our current estimate is over 100,000 miles on the Castle.

We filled the day with some art efforts that were nice for a change from working on leaks.

Then later supper was a major mix of all sorts of vegetables with sweet BBQ sauce for the topping. WOW that was really good.

That's all the excitement we had for the day. We hope you had a great day and tomorrow will be even better.

Being VERY Careful

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: May 17, 2024

Not a really special day in any manner except we are still here and stirring up trouble. Over all it was a good day to stumble into conversations with several different folks as the day went slowly by. Even got to meet a couple new nice pups.

With a hip hurting lightly, probably from working from a ladder, we took it physically easy.

The walk was a round trip mile over to the garbage dumpsters and looping around in the campground and back to the Castle. Not anything real special. Scratched a few tummies and petted a few heads along the way.

Since the OFM balance took the day off, touching up the caulking job in progress from the ladder took a lot of extra time being VERY careful. It went well.

Over all it was a nice pleasant day of gentle progress to our goal of rolling Sept. 15.

Have fun every one.

Trombone Playing Award

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: May 16, 2024

Most importantly the grandson did very well in the school band performance this late afternoon. He won a couple of honors for his work and playing his trombone.

We did a nice speedy walk this morning with good results. The length was right at 2.25 miles and the OFM had no serious aches or pains from it. We definitely will have to start walking sooner in the morning cool very soon. It is getting hot by 0900 in the morning.

During the whole walk this morning we spotted only one flower blossom and here it is.

With all the green stuff around here we thought sure we would spot a few more flowers. Nope. Nothing but green vegetation everywhere.

So tonight is sleep well night for the Teams.

More Walking Testing

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: May 15, 2024

The walk report first. A couple of things showed up in today's effort. We took the gravel dirt hike and bike path to test that surface against the paced surface. It made no difference on the 2.1 mile walk today. Now we know about that. The OFM did a, as it turned out, VERY short test jogging gently. With in just a few feet one knee and hip screamed out with great vigor STOP THAT RIGHT NOW. So we did. Next we gave a test of walking very fast. That went just fine without pains. This seemed to be very conclusive testing that walking with one foot on the ground at all times is the solution for us. We tried more fast aerobic walking and had no pain from it. So it is decided that fast aerobic walking is fine for us to do. This has been a good test that showed very plainly what mode we need to use for aerobic exercise in our later years. We appreciate the quick solution since we expected it to take a few weeks of trying stuff out to get to the best solution for our particular inabilities.

Along the trail is an old stump that for last couple of years we refer to as Pancake Stump because it always seems to have pancakes growing on it.

They look very good for the first couple of days. However we have not harvested any for breakfast.

Along the trail this morning but way up a slough where we cannot get to was a bright almost neon white egret hunting. It looked like it would make a nice photo but the OFM had to zoom to the max and then stand without anything to lean on to take the picture.

Shooting this shot at around 75 yards was difficult and this was the best he could. The OFM is definitely not like the Boondork is. You can enjoy his blog over at http://www.theboondork.com/mainphp .

And our other adventure was once again tackling a new leak in the front wall of the Castle. We found a crack in some caulk at the roof line that we hope is the culprit. The next rain storms will let us know if that was the guilty spot. We were lucky that we could barely reach the spot from our ladder while leaning on the Castle. Time will tell if we did good or not.

Walking And Flowers

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: May 14, 2024

We got out for a nice two mile planned walk as part of our new experimenting on the walking exercise. Near the entrance of the campground is a planter with some very pretty flowers in it. So we stopped to grab a picture of a nice one or four.

This one was standing tall just waiting for us to grab a picture of it showing off. The OFM is thinking he might just try his luck as an artist and attempt a full art attempt from scratch. The worst that can happen is it might contaminate a garbage can with the effort.

Now back to the walk. We chose to walk the paved trail that goes around the golf course because of the easy walking surface. Then we got on goggle and measured a two mile route of one mile out and one mile back. This would give us a fairly accurate distance and surface to start our research on.

As we went along at a slightly speedier pace than on the gravel and dirt trails we paid careful attention to our joints feelings. When we got to the one mile turnaround we stopped to take this picture of the west end of the gravel hike and bike trail.

This is the one mile turnaround point. From here we traced our path back to the Castle. What we noticed is no pain or trouble with the joints until we were only about a hundred yards from the Castle. Then by the time the OFM cooled off and rested few minutes he had no more joint pains the rest of the day. So maybe we have a chance of working out this exercise stuff for staying healthy. We will see.

We were not finished with good things yet as it turned out. When the OFM mail arrived we finally, after over a month, got our required Texas sticker and one more thing to cause rolling trouble is now out of the way.

Now tonight we are getting a big thunderstorm rattling the clouds around and cooling us down a good bit.

Here on the home front this afternoon the OFM started work on the refrigerator full of food sorting and prepping it all for quick and easy eating in the future. The first serious attempted to poach the chicken breasts came out very well. Now tomorrow we plan to finish the cooking with a lite stir fry of the chicken cube in a solution of spices etc to put some desired flavoring into the meat before we start to use it in salads for meals. We also started a list of vegetables we want to add to our shopping list. We think that a lightly stir fried in the spiced sauce, diced yellow squash ought to do well.

That ought to be enough running his fingers for the OFM for tonight. Every one think great thoughts tonight about fun things to do and eat. That ought to wake us up happy and excited for tomorrow. 

Finally Options Defined We Hope

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: May 13, 2024

We get to have a supper report first. Supper was chicken stoup with Sweet Red BBQ sauce from Lawler's added while heating it for great nutrition and flavor. Cheap Root Beer for our charming refreshment.

We did a nice amount of strolling gently today visiting folks who were out and about doing varied things. It was a nice long stroll of about a mile around in the campground. The OFM knees really appreciated the gentle stroll today.

Most folks are getting prepared for loads of family visitors for the Memorial Day weekend. The OFM family will be on vacation down in Florida for the Memorial weekend.

We started to organize the groceries we bought yesterday. And clean out excess from the fridge to make room for our fancy cooking spree to make good use of the food we have already,

Here is a large breast and a couple smaller parts of a chicken thawing to become cubed chicken to be served as part of a couple of varieties of chicken salads we plan to enjoy soon.

And an exciting date was chosen today. After a bunch of considering etc it seems that our current target date to roll is September 15 and our rolling target area is west of the Mississippi River. Our likely first camp will be the free I-20 Rest Area just east of Jackson Ms. Then next is Martin Creek State Park about 40 miles inside Texas. From that nice park we have 180 degrees of west to choose from for a great target of travel.

It has been a long time since we rolled the last time and it feels sort of odd to actually make fairly firm plans.

Now it is time to kick back and relax with the computer as we sort through options for this Fall traveling westward. It is nice to feel some excitement for a change.

Exercise Change Experiment Coming

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: May 12, 2024

First tonight is the great news that we purchased regular gas this morning for $2.959 a gallon at the little Walmart as it is called around here. AND there were no lines when we got there. From the pumps to the store parking was only a few yards and we went in to hit the fresh vegetables first thing.

We have been needing something crunchy to crunch on and they were just unloading freshly arrived celery. Into the basket with a stalk? Went. In fact the whole fresh produce was getting their fresh supply in this morning.

The green bell peppers were on the medium size but really smelled great and really firm. Yep one of them. The green stem onions (forgot their name) hopped aboard. Then a fresh bag of salad mix joined the crowd. Then we had to stop on the vegetables since that was already more than a weeks worth. With the things already at home we were drooling all over ourself already.

Even though we had the camera with us all day nothing worth a photo came up so no new pics tonight.

How about some walking talking then? We learned years ago in our early sixties that there usually comes a time when most runners, like the OFM used to be, have to quit motivating along with both feet off the ground like runners do. The leg and hip joints normally will not handle it after the late sixties or early seventies with out lots of recuperation between runs. So we begin to speed walk like the OFM does now.

Now the OFM has been battling with hip and knee light pain for the last year. So as of today we have given up on speed walking. The OLD fat man does not recover fast enough from speed walking. So we are going to be experimenting with speeds and distance to see where we are in our aging so we can keep on exercising to keep healthy enough to be writing this blog at least 15 more years. How does that sound for an OLD man?

We will need awhile to sort our new needed changes out. At the same time school will be out for the summer in a couple of weeks and the family crowds will be hitting the campgrounds and roads so we likely will be here until early September (15) before we get to roam. Perhaps all the changes that have been happening and holding us back will be under better control. The westerly temps will definitely be better then. Any way we are still planning on being on the road again this year. One good thing this is a very nice area to be stuck in while trying to get your life better organized.

A Wonderful Day And Puppy

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: May 11, 2024

We started the day with absolutely no plans in place. A nice gentle walk was sort of the goal when we left the Castle. The walking was nice and very pleasant in the cool morning air with no precipitation any where near us. However there were still significant puddles here and there to make us pick our path carefully. On the way back we crossed paths with William, an extremely pleasant late 20s young man and his new in training golden field retriever SOLO. We think that is the breed he told me. What we found out was that Solo was a very wonderful four month old puppy that is an absolute joy to have around. William and the OFM ended up discussing one of the OFM Teams favorite locations to visit. The Texas Big Bend area and the Texas Mexico border fishing lakes. Way too soon William had to get moving and we said our goodbyes.

The OFM headed off to finish the walk and to his surprise learn about poaching meat for eating. The cooking method known as poaching shows great promise for the Teams future meals. It worked extremely well for the chicken breasts we cooked but we need to experiment a bit with the system yet.

We ended up cooking a chicken stoup with these ingredients added.

The first taste of the stoup was a big WOW. The excellent chicken flavor really saturated the stoup with first class flavors. 

After we finished eating and clean up we found that we had four more meals of this stoup to freeze for more enticing meals.

That pretty well covers our nice day. In the next few days we will be trying to figure out what we will be doing for rolling when the time to roll finally gets chosen to roll out. This last year spent here in Decatur Alabama (grandkid land) has been really great for the most part but the Teams are sure wanting some rolling wheels under us for a change. Sleep well and have some great dreams.

Pretty Green Vine

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: May 10, 2024

We headed out on a nice walk on the back trail out from the campground. The lighting was pretty dim but at one spot the leaves let a nice shaft of light beam down to the trail. Right next to the trail was this vine in the beam of light just waiting to grab the OFM when he went past.

It made such a pretty scene that we just had to get a picture and bring it to all our readers to enjoy. We thought it was neat anyway.

Onward on the trail we turned onto the paved road around the golf course to try it out as a loop back to the Castle. That total loop would be just over 2.75 miles of paved walking. We made it just fine but did decide it was time to start carrying some drinking water with us. Along the way we got a nice view of a bench area on the creek side trail with a good bit of the flood water still in residence.

From there it was nice walking all the way back to the Castle and a very welcome drink of water.

And for fun in the afternoon we started a new coloring.

The coloring is looking like it might be a bit difficult with all the fading of hues into other hues. It will definitely be fun to learn all about that technique to use in other colorings also. We will be excited to hear what others think of the coloring when it is finished some day.

We hope everyone dreams nice dreams tonight and wakes up ready for trying to have tooooo much fun in the morning.