The Weather Has Been Good

It's been another week of good weather here in San Angelo, Texas.

Donna and I have been trying to get back into a walking routine lately, and the good weather has certainly helped. I've walked 4 or 5 times this week, often wearing shorts thanks to the warm temps and bright sunshine. What a treat for early February.

After one of our afternoon walks, we went out on the back patio and repotted some plants. I also took advantage of the good weather to clean out our grill, the one we bought just before Christmas. With the good weather, we've started using the grill a couple of times each week, so I wanted to clean it up some. This week, for example, we've had steaks twice and burgers once. It's great to get outside.

On Thursday night, we attended the Valentine Dinner at RCW. We enjoyed a nice meal while listening to the mellow sounds of Farrel Smith and his faithful saxophone. He played a number of old and slow songs because, as he says, he is old and slow. And, as always, it was great to visit with friends and fellow inmates from RCW.

On Friday, we grilled burgers for lunch. There just isn't anything that compares to a good home made hamburger. Donna and I are always on the lookout for that old fashioned burger in our travels, and we've found quite a few good places. But homemade burgers are really the best. It seems as if it gets increasingly more difficult to find a place that makes a true burger. So many places today want to add all sorts of things to burgers, from bacon to French fries to cole slaw and other things that seem strange to me. I'm old fashioned and just want an old fashioned burger. Besides, one of those new fangled burgers is more than I can eat, and most are so large it is almost impossible to get your mouth around it.

The weeds had just about gotten out of hand in the front bed, so I crawled around out there in the sun and wind Friday afternoon to pull them. Donna and I walked earlier than usual Friday because high winds were predicted. Guess we didn't get out early enough as the wind blew us all around. I always use a GPS when walking. In addition to distance, it also tracks my time. I was amazed how much the wind slowed us when we were walking directly into it.

After another morning walk Saturday, we slapped some steaks on the grill along with some veggies and enjoyed a nice lunch. After lunch, Donna went back to the trailer to finish the cleaning she had started last week.

When I awoke this morning, it was 56 degrees, but the high today is only expected to be about 10 degrees warmer. A cold front is blowing through. Tomorrow, the high will be in the 40s. Rain should start blowing through late tomorrow, and Tuesday should be wet and cold, but we can always use the wet. It should warm again later in the week.

It's Been a Good Week

It's been a good week here at Rio Concho West (RCW).

The week came in with good weather. It was nice to see lots of sunshine and temps reaching into the 70s and even the lower 80s for the first few days of the week. We were able to get out and begin walking again in earnest on a regular basis, and we even managed a 5+ mile hike at the park on Monday. That was great. (See the "Hike Report" from earlier this week.)

We visited the tax appraisal office one day this week to do all the filings appropriate for us in an attempt to keep our taxes down for 2017 and beyond. Donna got her hair done at the little salon in our club house one morning this week. Our community newsletter arrived this week, so we sat down to plan our activities for the month. I guess this is something of a slow month, for there aren't that many things we signed up for.

We also planned our next trip, which will be to the Winstar later this month. Based on our play there late last year, we have started receiving offers from them for free rooms, so we will take advantage of that.

We spent one afternoon this week working on the trailer. There was some cleaning we needed to do, so we took advantage of a warm day to spend a few hours working there. The old girl was due a good cleaning.

And we got out and about and did some shopping and eating out. We're still watching our weight, so we ate pretty light when we did go out.

Retirement Anniversary

It was exactly 6 years ago (February 1, 2011) that Donna and I enjoyed our first full day of retirement. It was so wonderful to sleep in that morning knowing that we could spend the rest of our lives doing exactly as we wanted.

We've enjoyed these past 6 years, and we've done quite a bit of living.

Throughout these years, we've done a lot of traveling. We've traveled all over Texas, from the Panhandle to the Gulf Coast; from the East Texas piney woods to the mountains of West Texas. Most of our travels have been in our beloved Hill Country.

We've also traveled quite a bit outside of the state. In 2012, we took our trailer out for an extended 8 month trip, enjoying several western states. We repeated this earlier this year with a 6 month tour of the Southwest, hitting some places we had not been before.

We've done a lot of walking. I have recently started tracking my walking. Since moving in to Rio Concho West in late June, I've plodded over 350 miles on foot. We've enjoyed some nice hikes over these past 6 years. And we're still hiking when we get the chance. Our legs are getting a bit worn, but we still enjoy seeing what is around that next bend.

And we're not about to stop yet. We have some trips planned over the next few years, long trips that will take us through several states. We don't have anything definite yet, but we are beginning to narrow things down.

Most of all, though, I've really come to enjoy living in my home in Rio Concho West and to enjoy the simple pleasures that San Angelo provides. We enjoy our eateries, our community theater, an occasional movie, and spending time with friends and neighbors at RCW.

Retirement has been good and continues to get better.

Hike Report: Multi Trails at San Angelo State Park

The high today was expected to climb into the 70s with sunny skies. Donna and I felt it would be a good time to take a short hike at the park.

We're fortunate to have San Angelo State Park so near us. From our garage to the gate is literally only 3.5 miles. It's a great place to hike because there are about 50 miles of trails throughout the park.

We left our house at 10:00 with the temperature about 50 degrees but climbing quickly. We decided to put together a loop hike of several trails, including the following:

• Chaparral Trail
• Lankey Lackey Trail
• Winding Snake Trail
• Talley Valley Trail
• Nature Trail
• Red Dam Loop Trail

You can view all the trails on the San Angelo SP Trails Map, but keep in mind that not all the trails shown on the map are named. Also, we did not hike all the above trails in their entirety.

Almost our entire route today took us through an area of the park that was recently part of a controlled burn. As a result, everything looked much more open. Just over a year ago, I posted some pictures regarding a prescribed burn that had just been performed. You can view those pictures at "Prescribed Burn at San Angelo State Park" from December 12, 2015.

I started out wearing a hooded jacket, but I took it off after the first mile and was then wearing only a short sleeve shirt. It was simply a beautiful day for a hike. By the time we finished, the temp was 72 degrees. Basically, we hiked a loop trail from the parking area next to the Red Arroyo Camping Area near the park entrance to Burkett Trailhead and back. Below are the stats for our hike:

• Distance: 5.4 miles
• Duration: 2:13:51
• Speed: 24:38 per mile
• Elevation Range: 1808 feet to 1934 feet

I noticed that the Talley Valley trail near the start of the hike had quite a bit of erosion. I'm not sure of the reason. That area is heavily used by bike riders. Their use combined with heavy rains from the past year or so may be part of the problem. Overall, though, this is a good hike with several good ups and downs for exercise.

Also, the area downstream from the fishing pond between Isabell Harte and Burkett Trailhead was dry. The normally wet area along Winding Snake was completely dried up; we could have walked across it. In the past, there has always been water running along here. The fishing pond was considerably lower as well. I can't speculate on the cause, especially considering the good rain we've had the last year or so.

Below are a few pictures I took, but they really don't show the effects of the burn very well.

This area is usually very thick with mesquites. In warm weather, you can not see far at all. Notice the pale color of the prickly pear cacti.

The lake is still holding water well. Normally, it would be difficult to see the lake from this location due to plant growth.

Even though the burn occurred just about 2 weeks ago and it is still only January, we saw much evidence of new life, such as the greenery emerging from the burned clump above.

Old Man Winter Came Back to Life

It's been a pretty good week here at Rio Concho West on the outskirts of San Angelo.

We started the week with some pretty good weather, even reaching the low 80s one day. It began cooling a bit on Thursday, but then Friday really turned cool. Just before retiring Friday night, Donna and I looked out the window and saw a pretty good snow flurry. Fortunately, the ground was a bit too warm for much of the snow to stick, otherwise we would have had some pretty good accumulations. On Saturday, the sun returned and we began warming again. Things should be pretty mild this week, I think. As I write this on Sunday, the sun is shining, and there's nary a cloud in the sky.

After being gone for a week, we did quite a bit of grocery shopping this week. We always stock up when we see good sales. We often see good meat buys at H.E.B., and our local Lowe's grocery store usually has great vegetable and canned good sales. Lowe's -- not to be confused with either the big box home goods chain or the Carolina based grocery chain -- is a chain of grocery stores serving small to medium sized towns primarily in West Texas and New Mexico. There are a few stores scattered across Arizona and Colorado as well. I like Lowe's for several reasons. First, the stores are much smaller than Walmart, H.E.B., and other large chains. It almost feels like a grocery store from the old days. Second, they really have great sales, as noted above. Finally, my first full-time teaching job back in the late 1970s was in Olton, Texas, where the first Lowe's grocery store was located. I like that connection.

During our week trip to the boats and my brother's house, we put on a few pounds, so the Fuhrer put us on diets. Since returning home, we've been eating lots of salads and other low calorie dishes. Donna manages to stay pretty trim, but I could stand to lose several pounds.

During my month-long illness, I was not able to walk much. I tried once or twice, but I just didn't have the energy to walk far. But this past week, we did begin walking a bit and will continue. We hope to get out to the state park this week as well and hike some of the trails. The weather is predicted to reach the 70s and 80s throughout the week, so it looks promising.

Towards the end of each month, our community newsletter -- the Rio Concho West Acorn -- is distributed. We use it to plan all the activities we want to participate in for the coming month. We are eagerly awaiting it so that we can plan some travel. Since our stay at Winstar in our travel trailer a couple of months ago, we have been receiving free room and other offers from that place, and we'd like to venture up there again. We are not that familiar with the country between here and Winstar, so we would use the trip as a way to explore the area, perhaps detouring here and there on our way either to or from the Winstar to visit some new destinations.

And that is about all the news from my neck of the woods.

A Matter of Perspective

While watching the news the other night, a San Angelo resident who was being interviewed referred to San Angelo as "a small town." Now, before continuing, consider that San Angelo is roughly 100,000 folks.

I've heard folks from towns this size over the years refer to their cities as "small towns," and I've always found this amusing. Now, granted, towns the size of San Angelo are a great deal smaller than Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, and other much larger cities, but to call a city of 100,000 folks a small town seems a bit of a stretch to me.

Although we moved around some when I was a lad, I consider Fairfield, Texas, my hometown. It is where we lived when I was born, and it is where I spent most of my school years. At my graduation, the town consisted of roughly 1,500 folks, and there were 49 students in my class. If you look Fairfield up, you will find it is about triple in size today compared to the time when I prowled its streets. To me, towns like Waco, San Angelo, and even nearby Corsicana (roughly 20,000 souls at that time) seemed large to me. I attended university in Huntsville, Texas (Sam Houston State University), and at 20,000 folks in the town and 10,000 at the university, I thought I was in a metropolis.

While growing up, I literally knew the name of everyone in my high school, and most folks in my hometown. You can't say that about a town the size of San Angelo. Most folks can shop at one of our 3 Walmarts, eat at a local restaurant, and go to a movie without ever bumping into anyone they know.

To be honest, I always considered myself a "city kid" when I was growing up. My maternal grandmother lived in the small community of Kirvin about 10 miles west of Fairfield. That small town had fewer than 100 folks when I was growing up. And my paternal grandparents lived in the country along the Freestone/Limestone county lines. Both sets of grandparents relied on outhouses during my formative years. When I visited them, I felt pretty sophisticated since my home had indoor plumbing and other modern conveniences.

So, I wonder what folks who consider San Angelo a small town think about places like Fairfield and Kirvin.

Visiting the Boats

Sunday a week ago, we enjoyed an all day rain, which is quite unusual for our part of the world. The morning was misty and drizzly, but during the afternoon, we had some nice down pours. All told, we received almost an inch of rain, our first real rain of 2017.

Donna and I rose early Monday. We had reservations at the Eldorado in Shreveport, where we planned to stay through Thursday night. We arrived about middle of the afternoon. The Eldorado has been our favorite casino in the Shreveport/Bossier City (SBC) area for the past several years. However, their video poker inventory has been on the decline in recent years. In addition, service in the casino has also declined. We figure our playing days there are numbered.

So on this trip, we began scouting the games at the other casinos in the SBC area. We finally decided that the best offerings in the area for our level of play are the Horseshoe and Boomtown. We have played at both of these casinos extensively over the years, and like them both. In the early days of playing in the SBC area, the Horseshoe was my favorite. We decided to concentrate our play there. So, on our recent trip, we divided our time between the Eldorado and the Horseshoe, hoping that we would play enough at the latter to get some room offers from the Shoe for future trips. We'll wait and see what comes in the mail.

While in the area, we enjoyed some good food at Athena Greek and Lebanese Grill. We've eaten at the Line Avenue location for years, but on our last trip to the area we discovered a new location on Barksdale. Since that location is closer to the casinos, we visited it this time and were excited to see that they had a noon buffet. We really enjoyed ourselves and will go back next time we are in the area.

After several days of gambling and eating, we left Shreveport before rush hour Friday morning and headed west to visit my brother and his wife for a couple of days. So, we then spent 2 more days of eating. I did put on a couple of pounds during this trip.

We arrived home this past Sunday. We had a good trip, but as always, it was good to be back home in San Angelo, Texas.