Diet Update

Not much to report on my diet.

After losing more than 25 pounds, I've more or less leveled off for the time being. We've had company off and on for the past 2 weeks or so, and that has gotten me out of my routine. For me to diet effectively, I need a routine. Instead, we've eaten out at places we normally would not eat, and we've cooked meals we normally would not cook while dieting.

But I'm pretty satisfied, because I haven't gained any weight -- I'm just holding steady. Part of this is because I've continued to exercise. I try to walk 3 miles at least 3 times a week. And I've started interspersing some short jogs into my walks. I started off with one good 100 yard jog at the end of my walk, and now I'm jogging at least 6 times during the walk. I don't want to push this too much; after all, I'm no spring chicken. I hope to soon work up to jogging about quarter mile and then half mile intervals and extending my distance from 3 miles to 4 or 5 miles. As we begin to travel soon, this may get difficult. Since we will be in different places every few days or so, it may be difficult for me to find a good place to exercise. I know the route here at home, and I'm comfortable with it. I know exactly how far it is. But when we are in a state park or commercial RV park, judging distances will be a bit more difficult.

I used to jog almost daily until I began working at Region 18 ESC in Midland in the late 90s, and I enjoyed the energy boost it would give me for the rest of the day. I'm beginning to get that pep back. Since we will soon be doing some good hiking, I need that extra energy. Overall, I'm just feeling so much better, and I've not experienced any real back pain since the weight loss began in early May.

We have about 2 weeks until we close on our house. We have a list of places we want to eat just one last time before we leave San Angelo behind, so I may not lose any more weight until we get on the road. But when we move into our trailer full time, you can bet we'll be bringing those scales with us. I still have a few more pounds I want to lose.

Good Eats: Zenter's Daughter, San Angelo, Texas

Zentner's Daughter is a well-known steakhouse in West Texas, famous for its garlic-flavored sirloins. In fact, the Zentner family has operated numerous restaurants in the area.

John Zentner opened the Lowake Inn in 1946 in the small community of Lowake, about half an hour east of San Angelo. Prior to that, he had cooked in his father's meat market and for the cavalry. You may recall an earlier entry on this blog about the Lowake Steak House. Betty, John Zentner's daughter, opened Zentner's Daughter restaurant in San Angelo in 1974, and she and her husband continue to operate it today.

On a recent Sunday, Donna and I were craving a good steak, so we visited Zenter's Daughter. It just so happens that they run a special on Sunday that we simply couldn't resist. The Sunday Fest is a wonderful deal for $12.95. You get your choice of shrimp, sirloin, or chicken, or your choice of any two of these. In addition, you get soup or salad, vegetable, potato, dessert, and your choice of either tea or coffee.

Both of us opted for the sirloin, and we were surprised at the size and thickness of the steak. Each of us were served 2 large portions of perfectly cooked sirloin, each piece probably weighing close to half a pound. The salads were good and were served with Zentner's own croutons, which are a wonderful snack by themselves. The potato was perfect, dessert was tasty, and service was excellent.

We close on our house on Monday, July 23. The day before, we plan to enjoy our last San Angelo meal at Zentner's Daughter. I think you know what we will order.

Love of the West

I've always had a love affair with maps.

One of my favorite parts of a trip is planning the trip. I can read a map like other people read a novel. I'm aware of every mark on a map and what it represents. As I plan a trip, I can visualize what is down each road, and I get excited.

As a child, one of my favorite books was the Texas Almanac, which was published every other year. I loved the section that provided information on Texas county by county, including a small map of each county. I devoured that information: population of the communities in a county, major businesses, agricultural production, and various other related information.

I would spread  a Texas road map on the floor and pore over it from east to west, from north to south. My favorite area was the west, especially the area starting with the Hill Country and moving to the Davis Mountains and Big Bend Country. This was fueled, no doubt, by my love affair with westerns. Towns in that area had a romantic sound to them: Sonora, Eldorado, Del Rio, Pecos. I heard those same names on the Saturday morning westerns I'd watch on our black and white TV set.

So, once I completed my college work, it was no surprise to my parents when Donna and I moved west. I knew that as an educator, I'd never make much money, but I knew that I could travel the state as a teacher, moving from teaching job to teaching job. And I've pretty much done that, from Olton in the northwest corner of the state to Ozona in the southwest corner.

I do love West Texas.

I love those wide open spaces and that big sky. In the morning and evening, sitting out is so much more pleasant than in the humid east, and even during the hottest part of the day you can sit out if you can find some shade and a breeze -- and there is almost always a breeze in West Texas.

People who simply pass through West Texas often don't care for it. They say it is only desert and that there is nothing to look at.

I disagree.

If you know where to look and what to look for, there is plenty to see here. And I'm not just talking about what you can physically see -- I'm also talking about what you can visualize if you know anything about the history of this area. It's a rich and exciting country, and one worth spending a little time in.

That Restless Spirit

Donna and I are cursed with a restless spirit. We just can't seem to stay in one place very long.

Fortunately, our daughter, Courtney, does not seem to have inherited that restlessness from us. She and her husband Michael (and our grandson Alexander) live in Michael's hometown surrounded by Michael's family. They seem quite content there, and I'm happy for them. I think they will be there for years to come.

Donna and I, on the other hand, seem condemned to wander from place to place every few years. But we've seen a lot of the world that way.

My father was an educator, and as he climbed the ranks from classroom teacher to principal to superintendent, we moved around. So, I spent much of my childhood roaming among small towns of central and eastern Texas (Fairfield, Mexia, Rosebud, Elgin, and back to Fairfield). I guess I can blame Dad for my restless spirit.

After graduating high school, I attended Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas. I loved it there so much that I stayed on for an additional 2 years as an assistant instructor while working on my Master's. If SHSU had offered a doctorate in my field, I probably would have found some way to stay on a bit longer. It was in Huntsville that Donna and I met and married. Once I had my MA degree in hand, Donna and I headed to far West Texas, out past Lubbock, to the small town of Olton where I began my teaching career in earnest. We often blame that move for the start of our restlessness. While in Huntsville (Sam Houston), we were near both our families and we were content, but once we moved, we seemed to just keep on moving.

Over the years, we've gone from Olton to Saudi Arabia, to Wellman, Texas (near Lubbock), back to Saudi Arabia, to Jacksonville, Texas (near Tyler), to Ozona, Texas, (near San Angelo) to Midland, Texas, to Longview and Kilgore Texas, and back to West Texas once again to San Angelo. We seem to keep criss-crossing the state. Now we're pulling up stakes again, and we have that old excitement we had when we were just two young kids venturing out to the unknown.

I'm not sure what we're looking for. We take something from each place we live. Doing so really makes it harder to find a place to settle. When we go to East Texas, we find ourselves missing the big sky, wide open spaces, and low humidity of West Texas. When we're in West Texas, we find ourselves missing the colors of fall and spring that East Texas enjoys, as well as those drenching rains. Wherever we are, we find ourselves longing for something we've enjoyed some other place. The grass always seems greener on the other side of that fence, you know.

I don't know if we will ever be happy in one place. We may wander this planet until we drop dead from old age or exhaustion. The trip so far surely has been great, though.

Planning the Trip

How do you plan a trip like the one we are about to take?

Well, it ain't easy.

Until you actually sit down and make preparations for such a trip, you don't realize all the details that are involved.

Mail is a top priority. There are mail forwarding services out there, including one offered by Good Sam, the RV travel club Donna and I belong to. However, we've opted to let our daughter handle our mail for us. We recently rented a postal box in her town, and we will have all our mail forwarded there. We bought a printer/copier/scanner for her to use. When she receives anything that requires our attention, she will scan it and send it to us electronically. On rare occasions, she may need to forward mail to us. But we hope to do everything electronically. Since most commercial RV parks today have WiFi, we should be connected during most of our travels.

We've set up auto payment on all regular bills (insurance, storage, mobile phones, etc.). And we manage as much of our personal affairs as possible electronically. So the important items should be taken care of.

Still, there are those unexpected mailings you receive. Perhaps it is an invoice from a lab where blood work was done, or maybe the IRS decides to audit you, or you get a jury summons. These are the things it is difficult to plan for, but our daughter will get these items and pass them along to us as needed.

We've secured storage for our household goods. In fact, we've already started moving items there. When we made the move to San Angelo, we down-sized considerably. We sold all of our bulky items, such as a 7-foot tall, 3-piece entertainment center that weighed much more than I want to remember. All of the items we have now are much smaller and much more manageable. And we are continuing to down-size. I've donated a number of boxes of books that I've been lugging all over the state from my college days. If you've read much of my blog, you know I love books. Until recently, I just couldn't bring myself to give those books up, but now I'm happy to do so. And if I want to read a book I've recently given away, I'll just find a library and read away.

We've notified all utilities of our cut-off date, and we've cancelled all subscriptions.

One of the things you might not think about until you actually need it is medical care. Where do we go for medical care while on the road? Well, in a true emergency, I'll head for the nearest ER. But I'd like to keep medical care within my network to hold costs down. So, as we decide on an area we want to visit, I go to our insurance web site to find all the in-network medical facilities in that area. I list all contact information, do a print screen of the map location, and print this info. We'll keep this in the truck handy for any emergencies. We can then just enter the info in our GPS and get to help as quickly as possible.

Our Tundra is due for inspection and registration in January. What do I do if I'm out of state at that time? I guess I need to look into that. There are all sorts of details like that must be considered.

I know items will pop up from time to time, and we'll deal with them as they arise. Nothing is insurmountable. It is certainly easier to do this kind of traveling than it was 20, 10, or even 5 years ago.

Flight of the Gypsies

Every time I look at a map, I see another place I want to go, so it's difficult to make plans and stick to them. At this time, though, here is what we're considering for our upcoming trip.

After closing on the house, we'll make a run to East Texas for a final visit with family. My brother and his fiance live in Ft. Worth, so that will be our first stop. After a few days there, we'll go to Shreveport/Bossier City for a final visit to "the boats". From there, we head to Conroe, just west of Cut and Shoot and Donna's hometown.

When we went to Conroe in late May, we left our trailer there. We knew we'd be returning, and found it cheaper to store the trailer for 2 months than to lug it back to San Angelo and then back to Conroe. Also, we had a bit of damage on the trailer bracket. I've ordered parts and will make the repair when we return to Conroe. We'll also spend some time visiting Donna's family and taking care of some business there.

Donna also has a half-sister in the Livingston area, so we plan a stay at Lake Livingston State Park. Donna can visit her sister and fish, and we can do some hiking.

From there, we work our way back across the state. We have some final medical appointments in mid-August in San Angelo, and we will want to spend several days in the Big Spring area making a final visit to our daughter, our grandson, and our son-in-law.

After that, we become gypsy's, going where we want and staying as long as we want.

It will be the latter days of August then, and we'll still be in Texas, so it will be hot. And since we will be in West Texas, we won't have much shade. It's hard to cool a travel trailer in full sun. We hope to see Caprock Canyons and Palo Duro Canyon State Parks at this time and do a bit of hiking. Following those stops, we'll head towards Santa Fe and northern New Mexico and try to escape the heat until autumn starts moving in. From there, we'd like to journey into southern Utah and see some of the National Parks there, such as Canyonlands, Arches, and Zion.

By this time, October will be upon us, and cooler weather should be approaching. We don't want to be in a cold climate in a travel trailer, so we'll probably work our way south, perhaps to Las Vegas or Laughlin, Nevada.

One plan we discussed at length prior to retirement was to move around over the country once we retired. We would move someplace like Flagstaff, Arizona, for a year or two and rent an apartment. We'd then see everything of interest within half a day's drive, then move on down the road to a new location. By doing this, we'd really get to see the country. That is still in the back of our minds, and as we travel we may consider it at some point in the future.

But for now, we simply plan to head down the highway, perhaps taking the road less traveled, and see as many interesting places as we can. I hope you'll come along with us; I think it will be an interesting trip.

The Gypsy Life

Now we've gone and done it . . .

We've sold our home, and we have no place to go. We're homeless.

But let me back up and start at the beginning.

We put our house on the market in early May, signed a contract in early June, and will officially close on July 23. We really didn't expect it to happen so quickly. And we have no intention at this time to look for another house.

When we first put our house on the market, we considered moving to Conroe, which is Donna's home town. I like Conroe, and have strong feelings for it since I've been in and out of that town for the 35 years I've been married to Donna. But after a visit there in late May, I'm just not ready to make that move yet. Conroe is a busy, busy place, and it is going by leaps and bounds. It really feels like North Houston to me. After living in West Texas and various rural areas most of my adult life, I'm just not ready for that type of ant bed activity.

About the time we retired a year and a half ago, we toyed with the idea of selling our house and just packing everything up and traveling in our travel trailer for a while. I just couldn't bring myself to do it at that time.

We've made the plunge now, though.

After a house-clearing garage sale in late July, we'll put what remains in storage and then hit the road in our travel trailer. I don't plan to spend the rest of our lives living this way, but I do plan to spend the next several months doing this. We still have good health, so now is the best chance we'll ever have to see some of this great country.

And you can be sure that I'll be sharing our travels in this blog, so please make plans to ride along with us.

In the weeks to come, I'll outline our plans and share our pre-trip preparations. But remember, we're really living the gypsy life now, so our plans can change at any time. If we come to a road that looks interesting, chances are we'll take it and see where it goes. Life is an adventure, and you only get one shot at it, so make it count.

Happy trails to you all.