Back On the Road!

It has been almost 10 months since I last blogged, so I feel a little rusty. Looking back makes me incredibly sad about Ross being gone. Everything else is going pretty well, though. Mom is happy at the Timbers and has such an active social life it is hard to catch her at home in the apartment. Ruth his recovering slowly but well after her back surgery and can't wait to get back to her job at Little Friends. It was great to be with all my friends & family in Illinois and life goes on. The call of life on the road beckons!

So now I am in Marathon, Texas at the Marathon Motel which has RV camping, too. Moving into the Chisos Basin at Big Bend National Park Tuesday to be camphost there, followed by jobs as camphost at Castalon and backcountry in the East District again. Lots of park employees and some volunteers have moved on but that means new friends and experiences!

On the way to Big Bend I stayed at Camelot RV in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, Still Meadow RV Park in Mt. Vernon, Texas, and La Hacienda RV park in Austin, Texas. I had wanted to see Jep and Renae in Arkadelphia, Arkansas but a scare with the air conditioner not working forced me to move on to anywhere with RV services. (More about that later.)

In Austin my friend from our teen years, Laurie, met me so we could catch up on old (and new!) times. She recently retired and is dipping her toes into traveling by her first month-long gig as a cat sitter in Austin. It doesn't pay anything, but she has a free place to stay for a month while she explores the area. Very cool! Her next trip is to Panama for 3 months the first of the new year. Her husband has started and absolutely loves his career/business in massage therapy so he is waiting to travel with her until he retires. Maybe someday an RV for her too. . .

We had a lovely, long dinner Friday night at the Black Walnut Cafe and went there again on Saturday morning for a delicious breakfast. Overnight the heat and humidity magically dissipated and we enjoyed perfect weather Saturday morning. I was staying at the most ridiculously expensive RV resort park ever in an interesting area around Taylor Lake. Interesting because really run-down homes were next to some magnificent mansions built high to have water views. Besides talking and enjoying people-watching at the cafe the next best part of the day was hanging out by the lake.

Laurie & me at the Black Walnut Cafe

Laurie on our bench at Taylor Lake.

Cone flowers in front of our bench.

Everyone going out partying on their party boats. :-)

One of the mansions overlooking the lake.

These boys saw me carrying my camera and asked to have their picture taken! We laughed and they were so charming! In case they actually check this blog - here you are, young men! Hope you had a great time water skiing!

After Laurie and I parted, the kitties and I drove from noon until getting fully settled in here in Marathon at 9:30 Saturday night. The hill country of Texas was beautiful and I have never seen so many wineries one right after the other! I think they even had shuttles driving the tourists from one tasting room to the next. Probably prevents a lot of DUI's!

This morning I was still pretty tired from all the driving so I decided to see the sights in Marathon and later went to nearby (31 miles away) Alpine to do a little shopping. I am so glad I decided to sight-see because it was a beautiful day and there are some great things to visit here. My camera batteries died early in the day so I'm only going to show some "teaser" photos. The rest everyone will have to discover on their own!  This first set are all from the Marathon Motel grounds & the RV is mine.

The next photos are from the Gage Hotel. The hotel was built in 1927 and has always been an exclusive place for ranchers and business people to entertain their guests.

This stuffed bobcat is on the wall of the hotel. I forgot to mention that driving down from Ft. Stockton last evening a bobcat zoomed across the road in front of me. I also saw a bunny, coyote, owl, quail and several mule deer.

After visiting 2-3 gift shops and galleries I drove about 5 blocks over to the Gage Gardens. Wow! What an oasis and even more spectacular than the pretty gardens at the Marathon Motel!

I love this painting to denote the ladies' room and the one below for the men's room.

This is where my camera batteries died. So I went back to the RV to get them recharged and drove over to Alpine. When I returned from Alpine I got pretty bummed out by the RV situation. The door opened but I could NOT get it closed! I guess I was kind of ignoring the fact that I was having to slam it a little recently to get it to close, but today with condensate from the air conditioner dripping on it I think something went out of whack and it staged a revolution.

I did some internet research and it sounds like the door will have to be removed and have part of the wood frame replaced, then it should be as good as new. Fortunately there is an RV repair person here in Marathon and he is going to come by tomorrow morning. I am so glad I made friends with he and his gal a couple of years ago. I've passed out many of his business cards in my time at Big Bend and now perhaps he can help me.

By the way, if anyone remembers me lamenting the air conditioner not working on the way down here, I figured out what is wrong. Or at least I know how to make it work! The on/off switch on the thermostat needs to be pushed in slightly to make all systems GO! I am sure that means a new thermostat down the road. I'll get one on order as soon as I have a shipping address in Big Bend! I have now spent as much money on repairs as I originally paid for it. :-(