Having Fun and Planning Ahead

Since we moved to the Amarillo Ranch RV Park on the East side of Amarillo, it seems like life has been a continuous party (even more so than it usually is!).  Karon and I got back into our habit of walking the Schnauzer Brigade each morning, getting in our 30 minutes.  We even got some time in the swimming pool one afternoon, that was wonderful!

Our evening hours have been mainly filled with gatherings of Jim’s high school friends, those gatherings typically involve a happy hour and meal, so staying on Weight Watchers has been a challenge.  Karon and I did attend a meeting here though, which certainly helped us both! In between all the activities, we have found time to cook a few healthy meals at home, so all is not lost (or in this case, gained).

I took this picture of our sites at Amarillo Ranch one evening.  The picture is looking to the East at sunset, the sunlight was reflecting off clouds in the East:

Dan and Karon’s schedule took them back on the road Monday morning, their time with us was way too short!  We certainly hope it won’t be too long before we get together again.  Meanwhile we wish them safe and happy travels, wherever their road leads.

Jim’s reunion activities “officially” begin tomorrow night with a “meet and greet” at the local Range Rider Club House.  The main event is a dinner-dance Saturday night at a ranch just outside town. Somehow (one of the happy hour gatherings, I’m sure) my name got added to a list of volunteers, so I will be taking a turn at the registration table at these events.  Naturally, something as momentous as a 40th year reunion requires new clothes, so we spent most of the day yesterday making sure we both have new and appropriate (not too casual, not too dressy) outfits to wear for both events.

These are some of the people we’ve been enjoying time with --

Vickie and her husband Don (Jim went to school with Vickie):

Sam, his wife Kalene; and Linda (Jim went to school with Sam and Linda):

 

                                                                         Another high school friend, Eddie:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cousin Mike’s birthday was last week, and we took them out for dinner to celebrate.  Afterwards we went back to their house and sat outside for a little while, it was nice and cool!

Shirley and Mike:

Today we’ve been finalizing our next travel plans.  We’re both having a great time here, but looking forward once again to rolling the Castle on down the road.  This time we will continue our eastward trek.  We have several items on the “fix-it” list so a stop in Red Bay at the Tiffin Factory Service facility is on our agenda.  But on the way, we plan to stop and enjoy some time in Arkansas.  One stop will be at a Corps of Engineers (COE) park along the Arkansas River for a few days.  Then we’ll continue on and stop at West Memphis, at the Tom Sawyer Mississippi River RV Park.  We had reservations there about 3 years ago, but had to change those plans.  Ever since, I’ve thought about staying there, I’m always drawn to the water, somehow.  We’ll stay there for a few days to enjoy watching the river, and I’m sure we’ll make a few trips across the bridge into Memphis to check out the BBQ places!

Once our work is completed in Red Bay, our plan is to begin wandering through Tennessee and Kentucky on the way to Indiana where we’ll be attending the Gypsy Journal Rally and the Escapee’s Escapade (stay tuned for more details about those).  Gosh, then it will be time for the Fall Camp Taz in Mississippi and then “Camp with Lisa” back in Tennessee.  We’re in to mid-October by then, and no definite plans are in the works.  Ideas include Georgia, Florida, New Orleans, a visit to our “home” in Livingston, Texas, and then working our way back out West for the winter.  But you know us, our plans are always set in Jell-o!  It’s a lot of fun making those plans, then more fun to see how they all play out.  What a life!  As Jim always says, “someone has to do this!”

Laying Low

That’s us, in the windy Texas Panhandle City of Amarillo – taking it one day at a time, laying low.  Well, mostly, anyway.  We’re here to see family and take care of some business.  Jim’s 40th high school reunion is here this month too, so he’s been reconnecting with friends he hasn’t seen since graduation and introducing me to them.

Unfortunately, about a week ago, I really took today’s title literally by pulling a back muscle and putting myself flat for a few days to recover.  I missed a couple of gatherings due to that.  I had to get myself back on my feet though, because our dear friends Karon and Dan were able to get a couple of weeks in their schedule to join us at the Oasis RV Park. 

The “Schnauzer Brigade” together again (can you tell how windy it is?):

As is our tradition, we fixed dinner for them on the evening they arrived.  Since it was close to Independence Day, I made a patriotic themed pie for dessert (yes, Weight Watcher’s friendly):

Today, we had another new-to-us experience.  Over the holiday weekend, there were people camping near us who saw nothing wrong with setting off fireworks in the RV park, some of them fired off right above our motor home.  When we attempted to discuss the problem with the park’s owner, he basically abdicated any responsibility or interest in solving the issue.  So, we asked for a refund of our unused fee and we moved today.  At least they were decent enough to agree to a refund, but we definitely will not be staying at The Oasis RV Park in future visits to Amarillo.  We’ve never been so unhappy in a park that we felt compelled to move, but there’s a first time for everything!

We’re now in an older park  on the East side of town (Amarillo Ranch RV Park) and feeling far more comfortable with our surroundings here.  Karon and Dan moved too, they are in the site next to us.  The way the sites are arranged, our doors are facing each other so we are sharing a nice patio and yard area., complete with a big shade tree.

At this park, they are charging us a lower rate for a month, but adding electric.  This will give us a chance to use solar power part of the time to save a few dollars.  When we got here around 11 and got set up, we left the electric unplugged.  It was after 5:00 before it got too hot to have just the windows open and fans going, so we switched over to AC power and turned on the air conditioners.  Our solar panels kept up just fine with 3 fans, our computers and various other small things running.  We love our solar!

We sat outside in the shade for awhile this afternoon with Karon and Dan, enjoying our tree!  We finally decided to go to Cracker Barrel for dinner, and Karon wanted to take us for our anniversary, which is Wednesday.  Theirs was yesterday, so Happy Anniversary to them, and thanks for the great dinner tonight!

I had a request for the crock pot pork tenderloin I mentioned in my last posting.  It’s really easy – simply put a pork tenderloin in the crock pot and pour a jar of green chili salsa over it.  Cover and cook on low for 8 or more hours.  I added black pepper, but that’s all, no salt.  Great flavor!  The pie above is just 2 (4-serving size) boxes of fat-free, sugar-free vanilla pudding and pie mix, made according to the recipe on the box for pie.  I arranged cut strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and  whipped topping on the top.  The crust is a reduced fat graham cracker pre-made crust.

We’re enjoying life, especially since we’re sharing time with great friends!

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:

                                                                                                                         

 

l                                                         

                                    

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!

  A family of wild turkeys lives in their pasture:

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

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:

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!

The Jones Family Reunion

I’m not sure why they keep calling it the “Jones Family Reunion” – no one with the current last name of Jones comes to them anymore, there aren’t many left alive now, and the few that are alive live far away and can’t make the trip.  But, whatever, it is still the Jones Family Reunion and it is an annual event in Jim’s family. This year we met in Oklahoma where Jim’s Aunt Ruth and Uncle Wayne live.  People started arriving on Friday evening when we (read Jim) grilled hamburgers.  Ruth baked a couple of cakes and we got together for dinner at Ruth and Wayne’s place about 15 miles outside Kingston, Oklahoma.  There were about 35 people here for the main event which took place yesterday at the Enos Community Center.  We ate, talked, played games and talked some more.  Then we migrated back to Ruth’s house where we talked more, ate more, and talked more.  It was a wonderful time!    This morning we all met at a local restaurant in Kingston for breakfast where we ate more and talked more before most families had to get on the road to return to their homes in Dumas or Lubbock Texas, or Durant, Oklahoma.  The families from Gainesville , Texas and Moore, Oklahoma left yesterday afternoon and weren’t able to join us for breakfast today.

After breakfast, we came back home to the Castle to relax and start our preparations for travel day tomorrow.  We’ll be driving about 140 miles to Keene, Texas where we’ll meet with some high school friends of Jim’s.   I had a question from Karen on my last post about cooking in the crock pot while we travel. Yes, we have the inverter on while we travel.  I use my computer on AC power, so I need to have the inverter since the computer battery would only last about 2 hours.  That allows me to use the crock pot too, very handy! I set it in the sink to avoid possible disaster if we have to make any sudden turns or stops.  The only drawback is once the food starts cooking, we get the wonderful aroma of whatever’s cooking, so we get pretty hungry by mid-afternoon.

Late this afternoon, Ruth and Wayne and Jim’s cousin Rusty came over and we had take-out Mexican food.  All the guys visited while Ruth and I worked on some genealogy updates.  I always seem to get motivated to pick up my research again when we attend these family events! I have a subscription to Ancestry.com, so I keep my files online there.  This weekend  I’ve added close to a dozen new  records, mostly from Jim’s family.  It’s interesting that for some family lines I find plenty of information, and other lines just seem to appear seemingly from thin air.  Ruth was able to provide some interesting tidbits about the Jones family, so I have some new hints to follow.  Jones was Jim’s mother’s maiden name, and following that line back, it seems that at least some people in this line were Native American (Cherokee), and possibly took part in the “Trail of Tears” journey that began for the Cherokee in North Carolina in 1938.  It’s thought that at least 46,000 Native Americans were removed from the South to Oklahoma in the 1930’s, opening millions of acres of land for settlement by whites.  Like many African American slaves, many Native American Indians took “American” names such as “Jones”.

We’ve enjoyed our short time here, yes, even the 98 degree heat!  But,we’ve especially appreciated the time we’ve had to reconnect with family we don’t get to see very often.  I haven’t gone through all of our pictures yet, but I will have some to post in the next few days, including some of the food we prepared.  Although, to be honest, the food disappeared almost faster than I could snap pictures.  Just a little sample – this is what was left of a 10 pound Brisket early yesterday afternoon (Yes, Jim was in charge of preparing the Brisket):

We’ll be ready to roll sometime tomorrow morning!