Wednesday, June 23, 2010

On The Road

Monday morning after the family reunion,  we were rolling the Castle down the road by 8:30 for our travel day of about 140 miles, from Kingston, Oklahoma to Keene, Texas which is just outside of Cleburne, Texas.  If you’re still lost, Cleburne is a few miles south of Forth Worth, just off I35W.  Our travel day was about 3 hours.  We pulled in to the RV Ranch of Keene and got set up, then called and left a message for Carolyn, a woman Jim went to high school with.  Many people in his class (Caprock High in Amarillo, Texas, class of 1970) have reconnected through Facebook, getting ready for their 40th class reunion in July.  Carolyn and her husband, Earl, live near Cleburne, and Jim wanted to get in a pre-reunion visit.  Carolyn called back and then stopped by to pick us up for dinner at a local Burleson favorite, Babe’s.  We got to meet Earl and their “adopted” daughter, Roz at dinner.  Guess who both forgot to bring their cameras to dinner?  But it was a fun time anyway! We enjoyed getting to meet Roz, who is now a History teacher and basketball coach at Midland High School.

Yesterday morning, we drove out to Earl and Carolyn’s place in the country.  This land has been in Earl’s family since 1871, and what a beautiful place it is!  Carolyn took us on a short tour around the place before we went off to lunch in a nearby town at a favorite local BBQ.

Later on, Earl and Carolyn came over for dinner and we visited more.  Much too soon, Earl and Carolyn announced they needed to get back home and we said goodnight.  What a great time we had with our visit!  Carolyn and I have quite a bit in common, so we hit it off right away, I really enjoyed talking to her, and hope we can spend more time with them both at some point down the road.

This morning, it was time to wrap up our time in Keene and head back out again.  We were on the road by around 8:15 for our journey to Amarillo.  We ran either the dash air or the generator and house AC for much of the 377 mile trip, so our fuel efficiency wasn’t all that great.  I think we were getting a little over 9 mpg before we turned on the air, and about 7.5 with the air on.  We stopped at Wichita Falls along Highway 287 to fill up at a Love’s Travel Stop.  Sixty-some gallons and $187 later, we were back on 287, heading towards Amarillo.  Just at 3:00 this afternoon, we pulled in to the Oasis RV Park, our home for the next month.

While we’re here, we’ll be getting together with more cousins, and of course, high school friends before and during the Caprock High School Class of ‘70 Reunion!

There are, of course, things that need to be done with the car and motor home too, while we’re here.  Just a few days before we left Colorado Springs, we got a rock hit on the windshield of the Saturn while we were driving along I-25.  The windshield cracked, so we need to get that replaced.  We also have to do a heavy-duty cleaning job on the car and motor home, because we got into loose gravel and tar on the road today.  Life on the road – there is always something!

I’ve found a few pictures from the past few days to share:

Cousins, aunts & uncles at the Family Reunion:

Ellie 001Ellie 025_1

                                                                                                                          Ellie 039

 

Ellie 010l                                                          Ellie 036

                                     Jim 011

This is Earl and Carolyn’s house with a porch that goes on forever.  The house clearly reflects the love and joy this family shares!

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  A family of wild turkeys lives in their pasture:

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There are several dogs, cats and kittens around the house and yard - this little one really wanted to adopt Jim!

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In a small town nearby is Earl and Carolyn’s favorite BBQ, where we showed up for Tuesday’s Lunch Buffet.   That’s Carolyn in the lower left corner of the picture below:

bbq and carolynEllie 030_1

Ken, this is for you – a picture of Jim’s lunch plate:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are happy to be out and about, enjoying the warm (!) summer weather.  Maybe we’ll get a little rain in Amarillo tonight or tomorrow!  I’m still enjoying the heat, though, and I’m not tired of the high temperatures yet!

3 comments:

Mark and Dortha said...

Looks like you two are getting some miles in across Texas.

I know you had a great time with family. And, glad to see that Jim it getting excited about his high school reunion.

We are having a great time with the kids. I think this might be one of the best trips yet. We are missing Zachary, but he will be joining us on Monday.

Hugs to you both and stay cool in the Texas heat.

The Happy Wanderers said...

Hi you guys, It sounds like things are going ok for your travels. That is good! Wish we had more time to spend together back here in Colorado, though.
Jim would you share your recipe for Salsa?
We would like to make some and suspect that your recipe is a winner.
Have a great time today. We send big hugs to both of you.
E & M

Dan and Gail said...

We stayed at Oasis RV Resort last year on our way to the RV-Dreams rally at Kerrville. They had a special promotional rate at the time. Great place. Would you share your recipe for pork tenderloin and green salsa in the crockpot? That really sounded good for a travel day.