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.

A Long Great Nap

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: May 9, 2024

The day started with an electronic call telling me my debit card was compromised. After some nonsense from the caller they closed down the card. The OFM called his banking facility later in the day and got wonderful service from GESA Credit Union in Washington State AGAIN. A new card is on its way to the OFM and the old card is blocked. And The OFM is smiling again.

The tornado watch and the seriously bad thunder storms and rain and high winds pounded us for a few hours and when it stopped, about ten minutes later it was an unbelievably beautiful sunny day. So we went for a nice long walk on the paved sidewalk part of the trail system. That was a really nice walk.

As we checked out the campground we saw a lot of flooding but none really serious. The two drainage ditches were out of their banks about 6 inches but no vehicles or Rvs were in danger.

Since things were OK the OFM decided to go back for a nice nap before lunch and it was wonderful to sleep without all the thunder and rain pounding the trailer.

Later in the evening after a great chicken noodle stoup for supper, we walked the garbage to the dumpsters. As we started back we realized the trail behind the campground was not flooded now, so we went back by the trail loop that passed by the soccer field. The field was in very heavy use with all ages of folks training to play soccer. The really little kids are fun to watch them try to kick a ball that comes nearly up to their belly button. We think it is great to have all those families out there having a great time.

When we got back to the Castle we put the left over stoup into freezer containers so we have two more meals of that good stuff. Tomorrow we plan to get fresh vegetables like onions and bell peppers for some stir fry chicken tomorrow. Got to get busy using up some of the items in the freezer before they get too old. Every one have a good time tomorrow.

The Local Jungle

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: May 8, 2024

Wow, having AC that works well and correctly is really wonderful. The OFM rolled out of bed hoping for an exciting day. It wasn't. But it was a nice day for the achy jointed OFM. After breakfast the OFM decided to get in a short gentle walk along the perimeter of part of the campground. We had forgotten what the surrounding forest looked like during growing season. It is a messy jungle. See the pic.

But as the OFM loosened up we kept on walking on the paved path that goes around the golf course. It was a nice morning and golfers and/or simulated golfers were out chasing golf balls all over the place.

But we were enjoying the walk so much we ended up putting in 1.75 miles by the time we returned to the Castle. Then a bit of joints rest while reading blogs was very nice.

A quick search through the cabinets and refrigerator told use we would hit up the grocery store on our way home from lunch at BK. To our surprise we got out of the store for only about $35. That is a near miracle for this huge appetite bunch.

After lunch and grocery shopping a very stubborn bed required the OFM Team to take a nice relaxing nap. It was wonderful.

The rest of the day was considering what we want to do now that all the parts of the team seems to be in rolling shape again. However we only have about three weeks left until normal activities in Grand Kid Country start up for the summer. The OFM does not want to miss any of that either. So we have to think about all this very carefully. We do know that with three sets of grandparents politely wanting some time that there is no spare time to piddle away.

So every one relax and try to have tooooo much fun this summer.

Great News

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: May 7, 2024

Great news tonight. We had the first appointment at the RV repair facility this morning. After a short wait while they finished yesterday afternoons last repair of about 20 minutes they got us inside the shop and went to work on the Castle. We quickly got the great news that the teams got really lucky that the rig did not burn to a crisp during the night. A travel trailer usually takes about 20 minutes to turn every thing into crispy rubble.

These are pictures of the damage the cute little squirrels did to the AC. Notice in particular the bare end wires with the 120 volt power still on them last night. We consider it fantastic news that we are here to show these pictures to our readers. Here are the pictures of the door side front corner of the AC unit insides when the cover was removed.

We do not know what is exactly shown in each picture because the damage was so extensive. The really odd thing is the outside cover for the unit was barely scratched. Apparently the squirrels were reaching through the air flow openings on the outside cover. The new unit has more air flow slots but they are all about ¼ the width of the old ones.

The shop folks were very helpful and efficient and happy to explain about what they found. So it was a pleasant experience service wise.

The new unit took a bit of time to install and carefully test for running. They wanted to make sure there were no hidden damaged area they had not noticed. Meanwhile the OFM went into the office to write the check for the whole repair. Those cute little tree rats cost a little over $1850. That is just about three months rent.

But be certain we are grateful to be here to write the blog tonight.

$$$$ Away

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: May 6, 2024

Definitely an eventful day in the OFM life today. W took a walking path we had not been on for a few days and noticed a couple of differences. The first one was a stump of a tree was laid over into the creek. Apparently it went over right after our last trip through here a couple of weeks ago.

As we continued along the path the OFM realized that our last walk along this path was only a couple of weeks ago and there was barely even a bit of green ground cover. Now we have a healthy vigorous JUNGLE on our hands. No short cutting through there now.

NO PATH NO MORE

Then to top off yesterday the rig air conditioning quit totally just as we went to bed. With a nice fan blowing on him the OFM managed a good sleep in the warm humid atmosphere. This morning he worked on the AC and finally determined the compressor had a locked rotor so it was time for a new AC and this one is only five years old. We are used to RV air conditioners making more like 8 to 10 years. But we shopped around a bit and the Castle is supposed to be at the shop at 0830 tomorrow morning for a new 15000 btu AC to be installed. The price will be in the range of $1500 for all the installation and old unit removal. This is the same shop that that did the running gear rebuild about six months ago. The owner and the OFM went through the whole diagnostic series before the owner would agree that replacement instead of repair was the best choice for our needs. The OFM likes the way he chases proper choices instead of just the easy way out.

So here we are with the Castle and Sierra coupled tonight for a quick get away tomorrow morning.

With a little luck the whole mess will be finished and we will be back at the campsite by noon tomorrow with a new pretty AC riding on the roof.

This is just one more example that an RV that gets used also gets repairs and maintenance needed fairly often.

Moving Back

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: May 5, 2024

This was a day of nothing went as planned and the evening finished with a major rain and lightning storm passing by us about three miles downstream on the Tennessee River.

The morning got a nice weather start on moving back to our next six months spot we left yesterday. Just as we got out to get moving with the hookups the neighbor across the street walked over and offered to help in the hitch connecting. The OFM has Sierra set up so he does not need help so we declined. He stuck around over an hour just talking. He is now single since his wife of 40 plus years passed away a few months ago. He is a very lonesome fellow. We finally told him we had to get busy getting back to the old spot.

We hooked up the rig and gently rolled back to spot 197. Backing in took two tries. The lack of practice showed itself in the first try. But the old memories of backing returned and the second try went very well. We missed our target for the wheels by almost two inches and called it good enough. It was only 83 F by then but the humidity and zero breeze had the OFM sweating profusely. About a half hour of leveling and set up got everything back in good shape for the next few months.

We put the AC to work cooling off the Castle and things went well for about an hour and the AC quit working correctly. We piddled with all we know about AC things until we finally got the AC compressor to making an ugly knocking sound and not cooling. So it looks like our five year old AC may need replacing. This unit has had a severe service time with a huge amount of time running without stopping.

Then at supper time is when the big nasty rain storm moved past us about a mile down the river. The thunder was a thrilling sound event to go with the major lightning show.

We are hoping tomorrow will be a more relaxing day in our life. Of course we might just head looking for tooooo much fun again.

One Night Required Move

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: May 4, 2024

Morning came at the usual time but it is moving day so walking will wait. We will move the Castle to another spot in the campground to fulfill our requirement to vacate our site for a night every six months. But first this morning was the chore of doing roof water proofing. We got the area all cleaned up and prepped then came the application of the rubber roofing stuff from a spray can. Other than a good bit of wobbling for the OFM things went well. Let us hope the OFM read the signs well and this effort will stop the small leaks around the front window.

The good news is the trailer move went perfectly. The brakes we had not gotten to check the setting since the axle assembly worked just right. So now that part of the rig is 100% ready to roll. We pulled through the congestion of the full campground and got set up with no trouble at all. The OFM performed just right.

What was a surprise is how natural it felt to handle the rig in tight quarters and backing. We had no trouble with either part of towing we had not done in months.

After we were set up in the new overnight spot the OFM could feel the release of lots of tension some from the tow and lots from the roof leak work. The OFM does not handle off the ground work nearly as well as he used to. The needed nap lasted over two hours.

Here is a picture looking from the Castle door south in the campground.

We are taking it easy tonight after the busy day. We will be at it early tomorrow moving back to our campsite on the other side of the campground where we were at. Then we will be set for another 179 days in the same spot again. Sleep well tonight.

Flower Pitcher

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: May 3, 2024

Morning came at the usual time but the walking weather failed to show up. We had intermittent rain/thunderstorm/ hail and high wind. In between we had dry, hot steamy times for some more leak repairs. A pretty nasty day all around.

We had more slight leaks show up to be disruptive. The good news is that yesterday's work did some good and the leakage is definitely smaller now.

All this effort lead us to some other nearby cracks in the old caulk that apparently need some attention. We are pretty sure they will require some on the roof efforts. The OFM has to be extremely careful about the on the roof work. Working from a ladder he can lean against things for balance but kneeling on the roof is treacherous for him and his balance. We will be checking the new zones for using a ladder to get to them but likely there will be some roof time involved. And YES the OFM does do really good at keeping himself safe even if it means he has to hire some one else to do the job. There are plenty of folks in the area that are proven RV repair folks that we can call if the need becomes necessary.

This next picture shows a white streak just above the window covering where we scraped/ washed some aged caulk before applying new caulk. This repair seems to have been successful and revealed that the next area needed attention also. Like we said yesterday, it is a never ending job.

During the rain etc storms we finally finished the latest coloring. The title for the coloring is Flower Pitcher. It was a slow developing effort over several weeks. Frequently the OFM had to put it aside for a day or three to let the next colors or places for the colors to make up their mind what to do. The special brush really worked well and now it is in our working tools box.

Tomorrow is move the Castle day and attack caulk cracks day for us.

Art Box Saves The Day

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: May 2, 2024

The first big announcement is that it was air conditioner time here in Decatur Alabama. Even THE OFM's bald head was crying for it. So we had AC running nearly all day inside the Castle.

We are glad the electric is hidden in the monthly bill for the campsite. We pay $580 a month for all services here. Since we are talking about the campground, it is part of the large Point Mallard Park mess. Over all it is a pretty nice place to stay. The city has one ???? rule. Every 179 days you have to move out of your site for a night. Your stuff on your site can stay the night but your rig must move. They make it pretty easy and most of us just move the rig to a supplied to us site in the short term area sites. They time the moves so when there is a vacancy in short term you get it for no extra charge for the night. The next morning you just roll on back to your previous site.

Here is our upcoming site 32 that will be home April 4.

This was a day of maintenance on the Castle.

For the many folks that think Rving is all fun and no work, we guarantee you having any type of RV will keep you doing things that need repair, maintenance or replacement pretty much all the time. Our latest event was during a rainstorm a few days ago, a small leak showed up near the front window inside. So today was a nice pretty day for leak tracking and repair.

It only took about four hours for the whole repair event. It appeared some old caulk, cracked and started falling out of a window joint. The Castle is 19 years old this year with around 125000 miles of fun and games on it. We think we found the trouble spot, but while cleaning that spot about three feet of old original caulk fell apart under the tooth brush we were using to clean the dirt and algae from the spot. So now that joint is probably good for until the OFM passes on in 10-12 years.

But it was not all work since the OFM worked on his latest art effort for a few hours also. He decided he wanted to do a special effect on the painting that required a special long skinny brush. The OFM did not remember having the correct brush so we were getting ready to hit up HOBBY LOBBY for a new brush. Suddenly the OFM recalled a plastic bag at the bottom of the ART BOX that had brushes in it. He dug his way to the bottom and there it was, a bag with a few brushes. And in the pile was an exactly correct brush for the job at hand. It made The OFM wonder if he has already tried this new technique before.

Now we are ready to try that new technique tomorrow.

But until then we are going to work really hard at trying to have toooooooooo much fun.

Art Box Ideas

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: May 1, 2024

The skies this morning set the mood for the day. This is the sky right after we headed out for a long walk early this morning.

The walk was wonderful as was a couple of visits with other walkers on the trail. The walk ran long time wise but it was only 2.5 miles of comfortable walking pace.

The entire day was paced gently with pleasant visits with folks. Even the arrival of the first bill for the hospital emergency room trip a couple of weeks ago did not spoil the mood. The OFM cost of the bill after insurance payments was very reasonable.

One thing we checked out was how the temperatures are developing out west to consider some travel plans routes in the next few weeks. Good grief it is getting very hot out there early this year. We found temps in the day time predicted to be in the low 100f range already. That is too much for the OFM to be wandering the desert in his ancientness.

That is all the excitement tonight. But we have chosen a chore for tomorrow. We want to clean out and organize our plans about what to color and which prospective order to attack the 83 known scenes in the ART BOX. Since each scene usually takes 2 to 4 months there is a lot of opportunity for enjoyment in that ART BOX. Then in another small envelope is about ten personal scenes we are wanting to attempt from scratch with a blank page start. So you can see we have plenty to keep us busy for a few days at least. So let us all get back to trying to have tooooo much fun again.