Apple vs Nuts

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: June 23, 2024

The OFM found the morning to be comfortable but sweaty walking. However we changed routes a bit to have more shade and it helped a lot more. Here is s picture of one of the regular joggers out here. He is around 35 years old and serious about his health but also not letting over eagerness cause him injuries, A nice fellow to visit now and then.

The OFM is careful about his walking things like food and water. Today we set out a nice fat red delicious apple from the refrigerator for our after walking snack. We normally have been having a ¼ cup of nuts mix after the walk but the apple sounded extra good so it waited pleasantly on the table for our return. Here is the nut mix we eat.

It was a hot finish to the walk and the OFM had forgotten about the apple. We finished the return to the trailer necessities and started to work on that apple. We got a big surprise. The OFM was well into recovering from the walk a lot sooner by eating the apple than the nuts and a glass of water. So it sounds like we need to get fruit for the after walk snack. That snack usually happens right around 10:15 in the morning.

That was the end of the excitement for the day. Just blog readings and small research on places to revisit or visit for the first time.

Everyone have a great day and we will talk with you again tomorrow.

More Sierra Repairs

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: June 22, 2024

The OFM had no ankle trouble on the walk this morning. Along the way back we got to visit with an old couple and their son who was 61 years old. The old fellow had a rolling chair he could stop and rest whenever he needed it, He was 91 I think. We had a wonderful long visit about lots of things as we slowly made the last quarter mile back to their vehicle. It was a nice time.

Twasn't much going on until later in the day when our orders from Amazon got delivered to the office. After that we unpacked the stuff and put it away in the Castle to help be ready for rolling.

Then we did some research on Sierra's latest trouble. The symptoms clearly show the transmission is failing. It sounds like another chunk of money about to disappear from the savings account. At least we are in a good place to get it repaired instead of Western no where land. Sierra only has 148000 miles on it. That seems early for a transmission to be dying. But we will see what happens next.

But no blood shed, no bones broken, money in the emergency account in the bank and a reputable shop to fix Sierra right here in town. We are doing alright overall I guess.

No pictures again so just ease back and relax. Good night.

Lucky Sprained Ankle

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: June 21, 2024

The OFM awakened in bed and rolled out headed for the other end of the Castle for the necessity room. But there was a bit of trouble. His left ankle had a bit of a sprain in it, So he hobbled his way to the necessity room and took care of things like a sprained ankle among other things.

Any way the OFM recalls a bit of a difficult step yesterday but it did not hurt at that time. And it did not hurt badly at this time. Being over three quarters of a century old he decided on a day of ankle care and skipped the daily walk. It seems to have been a good choice since nothing special happened all day except that the ankle seems to be fine now. There you have it, most the whole day covered in one small paragraph.

But the OFM has this attitude problem. He learned long ago that a set back means that you have time to make something good happen. So we went vegetable and fruit shopping at the nearby Walmart. It was unreal how good things worked out. We have been out of fresh fruit and vegetables for a few days and the supply at the store was not really very good in quality. We think they had missed last weeks resupply. Well when we hobbled into the store, the stockers were heavy at unloading the fresh vegetables onto the shelves off the recently arrived truck. One glance around and yep the truck had arrived about a half hour ago. So we got to select our choice of the freshly delivered food for our basket. This Walmart seems to keep the fresh food items in better shape than others in the town. So we had really nice looking and fresh food to spend our $40 on for resupply. It has been a great day for healing an ankle and nibbling celery, radishes, cole slaw, grapes etc. So looking back on the day, the ankle got us into the very fresh food we likely would not have gotten too until a Sunday mid day store trip.

Now we plan on an easy night of rest and a good walk tomorrow morning. Good Night Every one. 

Calm Day

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: June 20, 2024

This had to be the most uneventful day in a long time. We did meet a nice couple on the trail walk this morning. We talked about several different full timing items. They have been local camping for a couple of years down in Florida but not traveling the country. They were very nice folks and the OFM wishes them lots of luck and fun.

Other than that, it was another good day of searching and recording to find out the best time of the year to be at places we are considering. The Internet sure makes that chore a lot easier these days. Our criteria is to not get colder than 45F at night or hotter than 92 F during the day. The camera never even came out of the OFM pocket. So we are hoping for a more exciting day tomorrow. Good night.

Nice And Easy Day

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: June 19, 2024

It was a fairly nice day all day today. The wind was strong and welcome on the warm walk this morning. The camera was not used for any photos today since nothing new was happening around here. Even the mosquitoes did not want to fly around.

Some of the day was spent checking some suggestions of travel places folks mentioned but none of them excited us at all. One decent thought is still the idea of making a few loop trips with a short camp back here in grand-kid land now and then. We are still working the logistics of that idea out.

Every one please be careful as you are running around trying to have tooooo much fun.

New Mexico Wildfires Attacking Tourist Areas

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: June 18, 2024

It was a fairly nice day all day today. A first thing the OFM noticed this morning at the start of the walk as the nice breeze driven ripples on the water.

And sure enough the temp was warm enough to help the muscles loosen up quickly and the joints work smoothly. We made a very comfortable 2.5 miles and got to visit a very nice older gentleman while on the trail. We covered a lot of topics in the half hour we visited. That was fun.

After getting back to the Castle we did a lot of catch up computer work in preparation for the rest of the summer kid vacation. The kids get out of school for only two months in the summer.

Some time some where we ran across this picture of the multiple spider webs along the ground. The OFM cannot recall where but we thought it was neat how the spiders covered an area about 8x12 feet with their web traps. That must have taken a lot of time to weave.

When we hit the turn around point on the walk near a pond this was what we saw. An egret was carefully stalking breakfast along the shore line. We watched for a minute or so and the bird never moved a feather. We guess there was some potential meals in the area.

The big news we saw about in the internet is Ruidoso New Mexico had an emergency evacuation today due to a wildfire closing in on the city. That is a real threat out there in those mountain valleys. Good luck to those folks.

Everyone have a nice sleep tonight so we can run and play trying to have tooooo much fun tomorrow.

Why Herbicide?

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: June 17, 2024

It was a fairly nice day all day today. It was hot this morning but there was some nice breeze out along the creek trail. So we got in a pretty decent 2.5 miles without any miserable environment mess like too much humidity. It was enough to work up a decent sweat to make the after exercise shower feel really good. Here is the skies we had on the trail to make us feel good.

One new thing we see new on the trail is apparently the bosses in the park are apparently spraying herbicide along the trail for some reason. Here is a picture of where they are doing their spraying.

This land here is flood plain since it is only nominally 1 foot above the design level of the lake and floods a bit a few times each year. Some day we may find out what is going on. In the meantime we will be enjoying what we have as often as possible.

We have been asked for a picture of the Marie Callendar meals we are fond of. Here is tonight's supper. Chicken, broccoli and noodles in a pretty good white sauce. We add a fruit or something to go with the meal and tonight was grapes. The meals run about four dollars. There are about ten different meals that we cycle through. None of them are spectacular but all of them are decently tasty. They all come as frozen meals near 450 calories each.

And there you have it our exciting day on the banks of the Tennessee River.

Scalp Frying Heat

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: June 16, 2024

No walk this morning. The OFM stepped out of the Castle early after checking the weather to find out it was already 93F and 87% hum ditty. He stood there in the sun so hot it would fry your scalp with your hat on. The AC kicked on in the Castle and the OFM hurried up the steps back inside. And there you have most of the story of today.

The OFM did open his Dads Day card from his son and it was delightful. Thanks again for the nice card Kiddo. And that was the end of the big excitement for the day.

The evening trash walk was almost decent. We had a bit of breeze to help with the humm ditty. The shade was good and the heat had moderated a bit so the one mile very gentle stroll to the dumpster and then around the campground to the Castle seemed almost decent now that the sun was below the tree tops. And that is how it was in southern America today. Sleep well and keep cool.

Grand Kid Land Adventures

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: June 15, 2024

It was a beautiful day today. We did not get in a walk but we did get a good day of visiting the grand kids and their parents. Lunch was at the old Phil Sandoval's Mexican food restaurant. The food was the usual exceptionally well prepared. And a big chunk of the OFM meal came home with us. It will easily make two more meals for the OFM.

After a lot of merry making fun it was time to go home for the OFM.

When we got back home the mail had come and it it was the new credit card to replace the lost one of two weeks ago. So we activated it and used it for tonight's evening meal, Everything worked well so we are back in credit card use mode now.

That pretty well sums up the nice day in grand kid land.

We need to rest well tonight to recover from all the grand kid fun of today. Nite nite.

Easy Day Goofing Off

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: June 14, 2024

It was a beautiful day today. The walk was very nice and we got to meet a very nice gentleman on the trail to visit for a few minutes. The whole day was really laid back and easy going. But nothing special happened to talk about. When we took the blood pressure test after lunch at Walmart it came back as almost normal which was nice. The OFM intermittently fights some mildly high blood pressure these days. The rest of the day was just a gentle mosey through easy living.

Everyone one have fun tomorrow.

Calm Water

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: June 13, 2024

What a day of very little it turned out to be! The walk was very nice but so calm the temps were a bit higher than we liked. Check out this pic of how calm it was.

At least we got to meet a very nice pup and owner on the trail. We had a very nice fifteen minutes petting pup and visiting with the owner. The owner was 83 years old and lived locally. It was a very nice time.

The OFM managed 2.xx miles as we lost track of the mileage markers along the way but the OFM was not at the top of his walking anyway so we were taking it a bit easy for that old wimp.

We hit up WALMART to shop for birthday gifts for the July birthdays. No luck on that front but we got very lucky and found two pair of shorts that the OFM considered good enough for him, Yep they came home with us. After checking the closet and counting what was really there instead of what the OFM thought was there we determined that we had exactly the correct styles and quantities of clothing we want to carry with us. So major clothing shopping is over. We have had several pairs of pants and shorts we have been wearing for about ten years. Suddenly this last few months they have been having a lot of failure of thread in the seams. The thread has apparently deteriorated so much it is breaking frequently. And when the OFM sews the seam up the fabric also is so weak that it rips very easily. So we decided it was time to purchase some newer clothing with better thread and fabric holding them together.

Late this afternoon after finishing some household chores we had time for a little coloring activity. Yep we made a nice bit of progress on the coloring being done now. Here is a glimpse at where we are in the project.

It is turning out to be a difficult piece to develop since it has a huge amount of small parts that have to be carefully handled or it will look very bad. We think this one will take quite a bit longer to finish than most of them we have done so far. The challenge is fun though. It is nice to have something challenging to work with when physical rest is needed but the OFM mind is still raring to go. A mind without a challenge is a dangerous item.

We hope everyone is having a great summer this year and being safe. 

Simplification

 

Adventure Location

Decatur, Alabama

Date: June 12, 2024

There are a lot of folks living in vehicles and small Rvs in this country. Al at https://rollingsteeltent.blogspot.com/ is one of them who does it very well. The OFM has been following him since he started many years ago. We enjoy his style. Does not write every day but he is usually is enjoyable and several times a month.

Tonight is another no photo day but it was a nice day. Our walk suffered from a bit of not just right feeling so we cut it short to 2 miles and had a comfortable day just doing some house cleaning and laundry.

One interesting item is the OFM is trying to cut us back to carrying less than we have been carrying around in the past. In other words just getting more minimalist but not to an extreme. However when we were putting socks away after laundry today, the OFM looked twice at the huge pile of socks in storage. So in his usual manner, the OFM went to work to figure out how many socks we needed to carry to still be adequate without going to extremes. So after all the figuring and guessing etc. we came to the conclusion that we had enough socks for over 13 more years of travel. That is just too many. We go to Walmart often enough that we now need to calculate the best amount of socks to carry. In fact many things in the Castle are now under suspicion of over stocking. Even when boon-docking, storage space is not a trouble in the castle since we are seldom more than 20 miles from a decent department store if we really need something.

So it looks like the OFM has a bit of divesting coming up this summer as we get ready for some rolling to start in mid September.

Have some fun folks. We are.

Bad Cut Doing Very Well

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: June 11, 2024

To our surprise the cut finger gave no trouble today. Of course we kept it wrapped in the bandage and did not use it for much. We want the cut to get a good start at healing and it looks like it has begun to mend already. No infection showing at all is a wonderful sign.

The walk went way better than we thought it would. When we finished we peaked under the new cut bandage and the cut was nice with a bit of a scab along the edge of the cut and no special redness showing. We are hoping that the cut was not as bad as we thought it was last night while it was dripping blood on the counter top. Time will tell.

The rest of the day was a goof off day along with some day dreaming about where to roll when we leave here. To our surprise a nap did not happen.

Weather wise it is hot and day after tomorrow it is predicted we will be in the daytime nineties for the rest of the month. WOW.

OK folks let us be careful of the heat while we are trying to have tooooo much fun. 

Blood Splattered A Little Bit

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: June 10, 2024

An interesting day for sure but a very rewarding day also. We got the day going with a planned carefully trail circuit. Out the Castle door we went sort of excited for the trail attempt in front of us. The last week or so has had the OFM having hip joint pains by the end of the walk. Our attitude is that muscle pain is from building more muscle. Joint pain is bones etc in the joint getting more damage done to them. So we hit the trail with a plan to try. The goal was 2.5 miles of steady but speedy walking. For the last few weeks mileage over 2.5 has been leaving the OFM with hip pains by the end of the walk. So off we went to the back trail that connects with the main trail system. EEEERKK The trail is flooded from last nights thunder storm. OK reverse direction and head out the next available exit and away we go. On the trail we calculated our turn around point and off we went. It was a nice day on the trails as you can see in this next photo taken near the start of the trail.

We set an aerobic pace and was able to keep it going for the whole walk. At the end, the walk was pain free to our surprise. So we now hope we have a pattern to follow for the near future at least.

On to the attempt to cut the tip of the OFM's left index finger off of his hand. So here we are getting things ready to fix supper. But first an attitude of the OFM. If you have to put pressure on the blade to cut you then the “knife” is not sharp enough to be called a knife. So we were cutting some vegetable and noticed a quarter size pool of blood under the knife blade. Sure enough the idiot had let a finger get out of place for the cutting being done. So now it was time to STOP THE BLEEDING. The finger tip was still attached pretty well but flapping the breeze so to speak. The cut did not hit any bone. So we went to work stopping the bleeding. All in all it was not serious but it did bleed a lot for as small as the cut turned out to be. Finally the bleeding stopped and we could get the band-aid on it to keep it clean and start to heal. The hard part is trying to do all the pressure holding and bandaging with one hand but that is what single folks living alone learn to do. It doesn't look very exciting in this pic after supper does it.

After all that fun we got out a Marie Callendar meal of meat patty, chopped potatoes, gravy and noodles with cheese sauce on them. It is pretty good. This one is a bit over 500 calories so it leaves the OFM room for some nuts for a snack at bedtime.

We do not have plans for tomorrow except keep on breathing and moving and healing a finger tip.

Fishing Tournament In Town

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: June 9, 2024

An easy day of little excitement and one good long nap thanks to the antihistamine side effect of sleepiness.

The beginning trail for the walk was a nice dark tunnel in the warm morning air.

A little way from the tunnel we hit the creek side trail where it usually allows some breeze to cool us off. But not today. It was dead calm and high humidity sweaty the whole walk. Check out the calmness in this next picture.

At least we had nice shade on the trail the whole time but a good shower was wonderful when we finally made it back to the Castle and AC to cool us off.

The only other thing of interest was a chance to see how well a truck camper might work for the OFM teams. A big bass tournament is in town and lots of those folks travel with a truck camper in the bed of their truck and pulling their boat. Then the camper is unloaded at the campsite and they run around with the truck towing the boat trailer around during the tournament. We took a slow ride through the short term campground to look things over camper wise.

Once again the OFM Teams voted NO to us using that style of camping for our playing around. It is not a bad way at all according to Mr. Boondork but we have chosen no for the OFM Teams. It was nice to get to see about 19 units in their full glory while camping.

Not much else happened since it was a breeze less hot humid day that made research on the computer inside the AC cooled Castle a good thing to do.

We plan on wearing out some fun tomorrow.

Solar Panel Cleaning

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: June 8, 2024

The heart treatment , also called in this blog the walk, went very well today. On the trail we got to meet Addi a very polite and nice major social pup. Her caretakers (owners) said that she never pulls on her leash but keeps it a bit slack at all times. She was a very nice new addition to my long list of nice pups we meet on the trails around here.

We did not know it when we started but today was a super special day on the trail. When we started this morning we recognized what was going on by the orange paint all over lots of things in the trail. Here is a couple of pictures so you can see what we mean.

The local schools cross country race was this morning. The night before the race they mark lots of the tripping hazards along the route and the paint slowly fades away a few months until early Autumn. During that time the serious runners train on the hike and bike trail where the race was held. And the OFM waddles along the trail also.

It has been a nice day overall and the OFM has enjoyed the weather and his meandering around thinking about many things. Then suddenly in early afternoon he remembered we have some mild rain due in starting tonight. We need to get the solar panels washed so the rain can do a good job of finishing washing them off nice and clean.

Normally we find that rains do a sufficient job of keeping the panels clean for good performance. But this year under the low hanging trees has left a slime layer and the trees prevent direct impact by the rain drops until the water drips gently from the low hanging limbs. We had noticed a bit of decline in the performance of the panels in the last few months. When we checked them a couple of weeks ago we found the thin dirt and green slime layer on the panels.

It is easy to clean off with a brush and soapy water but is another of the many RV life special chores folks do not get to hear mentioned at an RV sales business.

The OFM purposely installed his panels along the edge of the Castle roof so he could use a ladder to allow him to wash them.

You can see the edge of the panel a couple inches above the roof in that last picture. There are two panels on the other side.

The OFM just climbed up on the ladder and was able to reach a whole panel for washing from one ladder setup. This minimizes his chance of falling.

He does not bounce well any more.

Then we repeated the set up twice more on the other side for those two panels. Here is a picture of the dirty panels on the other side before washing.

It was not hard scrubbing at all. Just soap and water and our back scrubbing brush rubbed gently on the glass front of the panel. And a rinse down with the hand sprayer we have for these sorts of chores.

A neighbor offered his high pressure water sprayer but we preferred a much more gentle cleaning for the caulk where the panels mount to the trailer roof.

The best news of all is the OFM did not get any injury from the whole process of cleaning.

Those panels were OFM installed in September of 2008 after we learned about our boon-docking needs. So they have lasted very well. Our after washing, the output for the panels was back up to100% of design. We plan to use their capacity again this fall during our rolling adventures in the western deserts.

It has been an adventurous day for us over all so we are going to shut down and see what supper looks like tonight. Sleep well and try for tooooo much fun tomorrow.

Heat Safety Started In Full Force Today

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: June 7, 2024

The walk today went well since the OFM prepared properly for it. Since hot weather is here he got his mindset to take it a bit easy when he got heated up and just see how he does with the heat. He made sure we had a good water supply with us and away we went looking for shade at every place on the trail we went. Here is a couple of examples of the shade this trail has available. And yes he twice sat for a couple of moments to cool down a bit. Having had four heat strokes in his life has taught him to not mess around with HOT DAYS.

We managed a good pace for the whole time and got in three miles total walking distance.

The rest of the day we piddled around with a visit or three and thinking about where we can roll to come September 15. Please be very careful with this heat and humidity. It can sneak up on you. If you see tooooo much fun coming by. Grab a hold and go with it.

Tree Limbs Running Amuck

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: June 6, 2024

Another nice cool day greeted us this morning. The morning was gray clouds that slowly cleared out to leave us full bright sunshine. The OFM was not at the top of his game today but it was an easy day again so it worked out very well.

Late in the evening the OFM went to the office area to retake the metal butterfly bush as he promised and ended taking a big pile of pictures of the flowers out front that greet new campers when they arrive. They need to be adjusted for the blog but should be in tomorrows blog post.

In the walk today we noticed lots of medium size limbs had come down in the last couple of days along the hike and bike trail. We do not know why they are coming down from the trees but it seems like a lot more than usual. Here are two pictures of the size branches we are referring to. They could do a bit of damage if they put a good hit on you.

Maybe it is just Mother Nature doing spring cleaning but the OFM is definitely watching out for limbs running wild in the tree tops.

A long trip to Walmart this afternoon was used to walk all over Walmart looking for ideas for the three birthdays next month, son, grand son and grand daughter. So far no luck at all.

The metal shrub with butterflies instead of blossoms came out decent. Here it is in as good of a focus the OFM seems to be able to get with this object.

We still think it is a worthy addition to the flower bed.

That's it for tonight. Every one sleep well and try to have tooooo much fun tomorrow.

Plotting A New Walking Route For Bad Weather

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: June 5, 2024

This campground has about 215 campsites in it arranged in four loops. There is a nice rest room with an outdoor covered area in each loop available for campers. So the OFM decided today to see what distance walk he could come up with that left him in decent range of a rest room structure in case of rain squalls or other requirements.

So on came his computer and away we went to Google Maps where we can plot the mileage of the different routes. We tried several routes and quickly started to leaning toward one that also included passing by the garbage dumpsters at an outside corner of the campground area.

We had three loops that looked to be pretty good and we went out to walk them just to feel out everything. When the checking things was finished we were amazed that a very comfortable route that goes around the campground over to the dumpsters and along the front entrance road gave within a few feet exactly one mile and took us close to all the rest rooms also. Also all the walking surfaces are of hard surface like gravel, concrete or asphalt. So in light sprinkles we can still use the path and not have to fight mud or slop on the walking surface.

As another interesting note the OFM clocked his natural pace during the final check of routings and found that he still has the 2.3 mph walking speed taught in the Army in 1969. Good Night Folks.

Just Piddling

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: June 4, 2024

We caught the feeling of the first part of the day very well in this picture of just as we started o the walk early this morning. Please enjoy MORNING BLAH.

Now that we have passed the highlight of the day what else went on. Not much for sure. We spent a lot of time trying to decide some place neat to go for a short motel type trip in Sierra without the Castle. Typical $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ tourist attractions abound within a couple of hundred miles of here. But we are definitely not that sort of folks. But the high spot of the day was an order of toys for the OFM came in on time and in good shape. Along about 1530 the antiallergy drug kicked in and the OFM did a wonderful half hour nap that was really nice.

We are still slowly and leisurely going through the cabinets and drawers de-owning many things we still have that the OFM cannot see himself ever trying to use again in his ancientness. A couple of small Walmart bags with stuff went into the trash this morning as the result of all the hard work we are doing.

Well that is all the excitement to report. Be safe and careful as you run around trying to have lots of fun.

Bullfrog Party Invitation

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: June 3, 2024

It was a nice relatively cool walk with some larnin happening. We did basically the same route today as yesterday but yesterday the OFM pushed it to a higher level of aerobic effort (faster) and by the time we finished he had both hip joints hurting and some knee pains. Both pains were still active when we took a half a bottle of ibuprofen and went to bed. In the morning the pain was very small.

This is not good exercise when joints hurt instead of muscles. So today we did the same route but at a pace we have developed in our years of walking that is aerobic but at a speed that normally does not produce joint pain. It proved to be an especially good as there was no more joint pains today. That speed is the 2.3 mph military marching pace taught to the OFM in combat infantry school. At our current ancient age we feel it will be a correct thing just to keep on using that pace for foot travel in the future.

The walk was nice thanks to the lack of joint pain and we got three nice pictures. The first of them is this trumpet vine flower.

There were lots of trumpet vine flowers all over the trees and shrubs this morning. This one looks pretty nice. But you know the OFM had to spot something funny about them. Several of the blossoms look like lips on a mouth with yellow buck teeth smiling at you. Of course a knuckle head like the OFM would see that image.

A couple of weeks ago the OFM only got one pic of a flower during a walk and it was a blossom on this same tree and tree limb. Today this is what the tree limb looked like. The rest of the tree was just as full of blossoms. This is nice.

And on the way back as we passed this bit of water and vegetation in the water a bull frog got busy calling all lady frogs to come to his party. We could not spot the frog but he was enthusiastic about the invitation to the surrounding mile. Good luck Mr. Bullfrog.

The rest of the day was nice but plain. We cleaned out our art box of things that need to get gone and got it all gone. Now we can find things better.

And best of all we had a wonderfully healing half hour nap in the afternoon. WOW it was really refreshing. Who knows what we will do tomorrow but we bet it will be fun.

Painted Metal Flowers

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: June 2, 2024

It has been a day of this and that happening all day. Let us start with the walk on this nice cool morning. Since the ground was still recovering from all the rains we chose to stay on pavement for the whole walk and from the looks of the areas we walked near that was an excellent choice. With the nice cool air we were able to make it a 2.8 mile walk with only a little extra effort. This was on the same road shown yesterday with all the dampness.

Then we went birthday present shopping for all the July birthday folks and ended up finding a total of zero appropriate gifts. That doesn't surprise the OFM.

Next we attacked getting the pork chops we bought a couple of days ago ready for OFM Cooking Excitement.

We trim all the major fat off the chop and then cube it into half inch on a side cubes. The cubes are frozen in containers with enough cubes for a one meal cooking session per container. So we ended up with two containers for the freezer and one for supper. The stoup was pork chop cubes, diced bell pepper and Knorr Mexican Rice to make a nice Mexican style meal. And yes it came out rather good again.

We now have a full freezer of meals again. YUMMITY YUM YUM.

We went to the office to check mail and ended up having about an hour of great friendly conversations with other folks and a couple of kids too. Along the way we found out we stayed here the first time 7-24-2012. So we do have a bit of history of coming here and most of that history has been very nice.

There were a few things else wise that happened today but The OFM memory can't recall what. So we will close with a picture of this garden decoration that The OFM went over to photograph. The colorful plant turned out to be a decoration made of wire. It has metal butterflies mounted all over it painted in really bright colorful colors. As it worked out it was difficult for the camera to focus on it for a good picture. Tonight you get what we got but tomorrow we plan to get a better photo if we can.

We have been checking temps out west and they are running very HOT out there already.

Time for us to get rested up for another day of trying to have too much fun tomorrow.

Year Two Starts Today

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: June 1, 2024

We never envisioned that a day commemorating a year in one place would happen in our traveling years. However today is one year in this place since we rolled in on trailer axles needing major maintenance, pulled by a truck that was about to have an elusive electronics problem and an OFM about to have some eye troubles that would take us so long to get it all resolved. Now that all that mess is finished we are right on the old schedule for our summer visit to the area again. So all we have to do is pick up things right where we left them for all the repairs a year ago.

Our plan is still rolling out by September 15 going west on I-20 until we get there. Get where folks ask. Wherever we end up is our answer.

It is good to have found out that this is a nice place year round with four seasons. Winters are definitely winter but last about two months of long sleeve weather. We like the area for when we have to come off the road forever instead of just major team repairs.

Today was several storm fronts with lots of rain moving through. So to celebrate the first one of the day we went grocery shopping at the little Walmart about seven miles away. It was wonderful inside the store with most of the folks staying away from coming in the rain.

We got nearly first choice on everything it seemed. Bananas had not been picked over so we got some very pretty ones. The thin cut pork chops were in excellent shape and several packages to choose from. Overall inside the store was very pleasant shopping. Even when the OFM checked his blood pressure it was almost down to reasonable for a change.

Back at the Castle the OFM did household chores and some goof off chores and a bit of nothing also. Then in mid afternoon we saw a break in the rains coming on the weather radar and decided to try for a decent walk when the weather break came to our area.

It worked out perfect. The walk was 2.3 miles on the road going around the golf course. We got to meet three new nice folks and a couple of happy fun doggies. Real good walk it was. The weather was gloomy and the atmosphere very very wet as you can see in this picture.

And that is how the OFM got by on a dreary wet day in north Alabama.

Have fun everyone, it is wonderful to be alive and meeting new doggies and folks to visit.