Wednesday, January 31, 2018

Happy Birthday, Blog!

I've been writing this blog now for almost 7 years. My first entry, appropriately entitled "Welcome", appeared on February 4, 2011, just a few days following my retirement from work on January 31, 2011.

Image result for images of birthday cakes

In that initial blog, I looked forward to leading a normal retirement life, but venturing out with Donna in our Rockwood 2604 travel trailer from time to time. Gosh, I really liked that trailer. And goodness, how quickly the time has gone by.

 A lot has happened since then. I won't bore you with the details, because you can read through my blog if you like, beginning with that first entry. I will tell you that, as far as I am concerned, the most exciting times revolved around the 2 times we lived in our trailer for extended periods of time. Beginning with the entry "Leaving San Angelo" on July 22, 2012, we spent 8 straight months in our Rockwood. About 3 years later, we spent 6 months in another trailer, our Coachmen Freedom Express. We began these travels with "Trip Update" on December 22, 2015.

We may have one more period of extended RV travel in us. I don't really like to say "full-time" because that sounds too ambitious and permanent for us, but it is always in the back of our minds.

In the meantime, here are some blog stats.

As of this writing, I have 757 entries. My blog surpassed 100,000 hits sometime in December 2017. Currently, I'm getting about 1,500 hits per month. Some days, I get as few as 20 or 30 hits, while other days, I may get 200 or more. My most frequented entries seem to be the travel pieces. Most of the time, my viewers tend to be from the U.S.A., but from time to time I get an abnormally large number of visitors from places like Russia. That's kind of scary. I don't want to be involved with any collusion. I'll just go on record right now and state confidently, "There is no collusion! There is no collusion! Believe me!" There, that should prove my innocence.

Below is a list of my most visited pages, those with 200 or more hits. The number in parenthesis is the number of times that page has been viewed. The list appears in descending order, from most to least viewed. By the way, I also have a web page, Living the Good Life. Now, I have not worked on that web site in some time, and it does need some updating. But if you do like my travel pieces, you might take a look at the "Travels with Donna and Keith" section there. Items are categorized on that site, so you can more easily find related topics.



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Sunday, January 28, 2018

A Movie, a Good Hike, and 2 Fires

We started the week with a trip to the Cinemark Movie Theater about 2 miles from our home. We watched The Post, starring Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks. I enjoyed the movie and the different insights it provided. First, it showed the development of Katherine Graham as owner and publisher of the Washington Post. The paper was owned by her father, who turned the paper over to Graham's husband. Upon his death, Katherine then assumed the mantle, and it was a struggle for her. The movie also shows the inner workings of the newspaper business. I enjoyed this aspect, for I was originally a journalism major when I began my college career. Finally, the movie deals with  uncovering documents related to the war in Vietnam (the "Pentagon Papers"). The central issue is that despite the belief by various administrations, beginning with the Truman administration, that the U.S. could not win the war, yet we continued to support it. When the Post publishes this information, they are faced with retaliation from the Nixon administration. Yeah, there are many parallels with events that are happening today, such as the women's movement and the role of the press in our society.

The weather was great on Tuesday, so I dragged the old woman out to the park for another hike. This one was a bit shorter than the one I reported a week or more ago. This one was only 4.62 miles, and it covered some of the same trails as last time. However, we did take different trails where we could. It's nice to have a park with so many trails (over 50 miles) so that we can vary our hikes. Below are some pictures I took on the hike.

Junction of the Red Dam Loop trail. I don't know the purpose of the Red Dam, but you can see it stretching from center of picture to the right. To the left of the end of the dam, you can see the much larger O. C. Fisher dam and the little bit of water that it has. At present, the level is at 9% capacity and shrinking rapidly. If things don't improve, we may be dry by summer's end.

Here is a closer view of the dam. The trail will wind to the top of the dam on the left end, then follow the top of the dam to the right.

View of O. C. Fisher lake and dam from the top of the Red Dam.

View of facilities at Isabell Harte day use area from the Red Dam. Once upon a time, the waters of O. C. Fisher actually covered all of this area up to those facilities. I'm doubtful we will ever see that again.

Our back trail from atop the Red Dam. Again, all of this land where the trail now is was once under water.

Sassy Donna on the trail atop Red Dam.
It's dry out here. We've not had measurable rain in quite a while. So, we are beginning to see fires. This week, we had 2 fires. The first was in Schleicher County, which is south of San Angelo. The fire was a result of a welding incident on a ranch. The fire then spread to a neighboring ranch, which is owned by Mike McConaughey, brother of the actor Matthew McConaughey. As I write this, the fire had burned more than 1,200 acres, but was about 90% contained. The second fire was northeast of town, and burned an old house and brush and grass around it. We are very, very dry, and our lakes are getting lower and lower. We did have a small shower Thursday night, but only enough to get the streets damp.




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Thursday, January 25, 2018

Day Trip to Midland

Donna and I had some business in Midland, so on Wednesday we made a day trip there. Midland was our home for several years from the late 1990's until the early 2000's. Of all the places we have lived over the years, Midland was probably our favorite. We really enjoyed our time there.

We set out early in the morning. Somewhere along US 87 north of Water Valley and south of Sterling City, we came across what must have been some type of controlled burn on the east side of the highway right-of-way. I can't say with certainty that it was a controlled burn, but all of the burn area was along the right-of-way, and had not spread across the fence lines onto the neighboring ranch lands with one exception. And the burned area was not continuous. The burned area spread over a distance of several miles, probably at least 5, and there were a few stretches that were not burned. I wonder what happened.

You can see how neatly the burned area stayed on the right-of-way, not crossing the fence line. And the burn was only on the east side of the divided 4 lane highway.

More burn area, just farther along than the picture above.
Just north of Sterling City, we turned west onto Texas 158. We had not been on this highway for years. I think the last time we were on this highway was when grandson Camden was born, so that was almost 5 years ago. At that time, the traffic was terrible on this 2-lane highway, largely due to the latest oil boom activity in the area. I did not feel safe on that road, so we began going to Midland by way of Big Spring, a route that adds about 13 miles but provided much peace of mind. Since that time, though, Texas 158 has been expanded to 4 lanes. I feel much better traveling this highway now. Most of the traffic is still oil related, which means all kinds of trucks of various sizes driving at high rates of speed and entering and exiting the highway all along the route.

Wow, talk about an ant bed! That Midland is busy, busy, busy. It has changed greatly in the 15 or so years since we lived there. Everywhere we went, traffic was heavy. The exit off I-20 at Rankin Highway (Texas 349) was backed up. The entire west loop had heavy traffic, with everyone in a hurry. At lunch, all the eating places were packed, with traffic backed up entering the parking lot of the place we decided to visit. And new businesses were everywhere. The place has certainly grown. It is an exciting town for West Texas; there is much going on there.

Donna and I travel quite a bit, and we cover all areas of Texas. One thing I've noticed for the past few years or so can be seen in the picture below, which I took as we were entering Sterling City from the north. These two speed limit signs are typical across the state. The first sign shows the speed limit to be 70 mph, which is what it had been for the past several miles. Then, just a few yards beyond it, is another sign indicating a reduction in speed. What is the purpose, then, of showing the current speed if it is about to change? How many signs like this are there around the state? As I said, we see them all over. Our state highway department has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars no doubt -- perhaps more -- erecting these signs. For what reason? Seems like a big waste of taxpayer money to me. I'll give the folks in charge the benefit of the doubt, though, and suggest they may have a good reason. I'd sure like to know it, though. Think about how much each sign costs, then how much labor is required to put up the sign. In a small town like Sterling City, you would have at least 3 of these signs (US 87 as it enters from north and south, and Texas 158 as it enters from the east. Since Texas 158 merges with US north of town, it would not have a separate set of signs.) Now, think of a town like San Angelo, that has many more highways entering. That equals lots of dollars for signage.



I'll leave you with the picture below of the Glassock County Courthouse in Garden City, Texas. The population of Glasscock County was 1,226 folks in 2010. In that same census year, the population of Garden City was 334. For years, agriculture dominated the economy here, but oil production is the big player in the area now. When I worked at Region 18 ESC in Midland, I always enjoyed working with the school folks in Garden City; that was an excellent school in those days, and probably still is.

Glasscock County Courthouse in Garden City, Texas



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Saturday, January 20, 2018

Play Time at the 'Shoe

Before starting, you might want to get a nice cup of coffee, because this is going to be a long post. Better yet, get something stronger; you'll probably need it to help relieve the boredom.

Donna and I left last Sunday for a quick trip east. Our final destination was the Horseshoe Casino in Bosser City, LA. We wanted to spend our first night, though, in Tyler so that we could visit an old colleague from our Region 7 ESC days in Kilgore. We spent a couple of hours with Jay and his better half, catching up on common friends and other things. Jay is an old inbred hillbilly from East Texas, and he always has some funny stories to tell. And he is quite the musician, too. Jay is such a hillbilly that when he travels, he always looks for hillbilly motels, such as the Hillbilly Inn in Branson, MO. Yeah, there is an inside joke here. We really enjoyed visiting him and his patient and delightful wife.

This is Highway 31 somewhere between Corsicana and Tyler. Notice the stripes on the road. We saw these our entire trip, on state highways, US highways, and Interstate 20. Anyone know what causes them? Can it be from salting the roadways in icy weather?
The next day, we were in no hurry to leave, for we were meeting some of Donna's old girlfriends for lunch. So, after a leisurely breakfast, we took a short drive around Tyler. Jay had told us how the area at the northeast corner of South Broadway and Loop 49 (the new toll road) had recently built up, so we wanted to see for ourselves. Wow! It is like an outlet mall, but with more, especially more eateries. Nice place to shop.

From there, we took some back roads over to Kilgore and had a look around. Of course, we drove by our old home and were disappointed to see that they cut down the maple tree I had planted in the front yard. That tree really had some nice color in the fall. Otherwise, the house was in good shape, and the neighborhood seems to be holding up fairly well. Downtown Kilgore is really attractive. And we had to drive by our old place of work, Region 7 ESC. It looked good as well. 

Since we had time, we drove on up to Longview to look around a bit there as well. Lots of new places have opened there since we lived in the area. We lived there briefly while looking for a place to buy in Kilgore. After a brief visit, we headed to I-20, where we met 3 of Donna's friends from work at Cracker Barrel. The girls had a great visit. I finally took a break and headed out to the front, where a row of rocking chairs beckoned me. The day was sunny and fairly warm, so I was able to sit in the sun and rock while allowing the girls a chance to get some good shop talk in without me hampering them.

From there, we headed to Shreveport, where we would spend the next 3 nights at the Horseshoe Casino. Now, on the Monday of our arrival, the weather was great, but that night, an arctic front moved through, bringing much colder temps and some snow. From then until we left early Thursday, temps never rose above the freezing mark.

For a while on Tuesday, Interstate 20 was closed. Interstate 49 and parts of Loop 220 remained closed the entire time we were there. We stayed inside on Tuesday, which was the worst day for travel. On Wednesday, we ventured out to see how the roads were and to eat at Ralph and Kacoo's. Although it was really cold -- in the teens -- the sun was out and the snow was gone from the roads for the most part.

We had not eaten at Ralph and Kacoo's for about 15 years or so. At that time, we were with Donna's sister and her husband and, to tell the truth, I really didn't enjoy my meal. I think the problem was really me, that I wasn't really hungry. But on this visit, I really enjoyed my meal. Ralph and Kacoo's bills itself as New Orleans style Cajun food. We had a difficult time deciding what to eat, as the menu is really extensive; I just had a hard time making up my mind (see menu here). I finally decided on the the Shrimp Special, which is fried shrimp and shrimp stew over rice. The fried shrimp were served over fries. The shrimp were lightly fried, which is the way I like them. I don't care for shrimp that have that heavy, hard crust. Donna had the Shrimp Trio, which consisted of gulf shrimp grilled, fried, and scampi style, served with braised potatoes and the vegetable of the day, which happened to be green beans on this day. We both enjoyed our meals. Oh, and the rolls and hush puppies are quite good.

My Shrimp Special. I think I enjoyed the shrimp stew (right) more than the fried shrimp.

Donna's Shrimp Trio. The shrimp scampi is center, over rice. I tried the braised potatoes and really liked the seasoning on them.
From our room on the 11th floor of the 'Shoe, we were able to watch I-20. Early in the day, the i_20 bridge over the Red River was closed, but they opened it pretty quickly. We saw how traffic crept along on Tuesday, but on Wednesday, it looked as if traffic was moving at its normal pace, so we felt confident we could leave on Thursday with no problems. And this proved to be the case. On our trip home, we saw quite a bit of ice along the edges of the road, but very little on the actual roadway. There were some exceptions to this. Once in Texas on Highway 31, we saw patches of ice on the east bound lanes, for those lanes were shaded on the south side (the sun side) by tall pine trees, which kept moisture on the road. But the west bound lanes were in good shape. All snow disappeared somewhere between Athens and Corsicana. (No, we don't stay on I-20 from Shreveport all the way to West Texas. There is no way this country boy is driving through the DFW metroplex if I can help it.)

To end our trip. we stopped for lunch in Brownwood at what has become one of our favorite eating places, Prima Pasta. I do not believe they have a web presence, but you can see their menu here. The restaurant is right on the highway, so it is convenient for us. It is just a down home eatery. The menu is good, prices are reasonable, service is excellent, and the facility is clean and comfortable. On this trip, we both opted for the special, spaghetti with meat sauce. The salad was good as always, and we love their bread. It was a good way to end our trip.

From Brownwood, it is less than 2 hours home, and we were glad to be back in San Angelo again.

Below are some snow pictures from Bossier City as well as some pics of the Horseshoe.

Shops along hallway from parking garage in the Horseshoe

Just inside the main entrance

Million dollar wall along hallway from hotel/restaurant area to casino

Entrance to casino at end of million dollar wall

This photo was taken from the 3rd floor of the parking garage. It looks north towards the Louisiana Boardwalk. That is the Texas Avenue bridge crossing the Red River. Shreveport is on the other side of the river.

Another photo from parking garage, this one showing the railway bridge over the Red River. Downtown Shreveport is on the west bank of the river.

The following pictures were taken from the 11th floor of the hotel; some were taken from our room while others were taken from a window at the end of the hallway. Because they were taken behind glass, you might see a bit of a glare. Yes, not the best of pictures, but I wanted to show the snow.

This looks south across Interstate 20 towards Boomtown Casino. Lots of snow for Bossier City. If you enlarge the picture, you'll see traffic is being detoured off the interstate.

This is the Interstate 20 bridge across the Red River. Notice there is no traffic. At this time, the bridge was closed.
Swimming pool at the Horseshoe. Anyone up for a dip?

Interesting picture taken later in the day. Notice the V shape of the clouds. At bottom center is the actual casino at the 'Shoe. The casino is actually located on a permanently docked riverboat, as with 4 of the other casinos along the river. Only Margaritaville is land-based.






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Saturday, January 13, 2018

A Good Week

It's been a good week for Donna and me. Actually, we've been rather busy for us. When you are retired, you kind of get used to not doing much at all, so that when you do a few things, you really think you've been busy.

We started the week by attending a political forum Monday night to listen to some candidates running for office in the next election. That kept us up past my normal bedtime, so I was exhausted.

On Tuesday, we had appointments all day. We started with Donna getting her regular eye check-up. She also got a prescription for new glasses. She hasn't had a new pair in years, so we stopped off and had her fitted for a new pair.

We stopped in at the mall for a while. I needed a new light jacket. The one I have been wearing was about 15 years old and was becoming frayed around the sleeves and showing other wear and tear. I found a pretty good one at Dillard's at our local mall. Our local Sears in the mall was in its final days of operation. I hate to see that company fold. Those old Sears catalogs were a staple for so many small town folks in the old days. We could order all kinds of goods and have them delivered. And their appliances and yard machinery were top notch. But change happens, as much as I hate that. I'm really still stuck in an earlier time, but that's another story.

I had a medical appointment later that day, so we got to sit in another waiting room for a while. But waits here are generally not bad at all, and I'm grateful for that. We use Shannon Clinic and Hospital, and overall, we are pretty pleased with our doctors and the service we receive. After my appointment, we stopped in at the Schlotzsky's near the clinic for sandwiches. Donna really likes Schlotzsky's, and I do, too, but not as much as the old woman. Donna had a veggie sandwich and I enjoyed a ham and cheese. Isn't their sour dough bread great? After our late lunch, we picked up Donna's new glasses, then returned to her eye doctor because she was having trouble with one of her new contacts. Finally, we arrived home about 5 after a very long day. We were exhausted.

On Wednesday, we stayed home in the morning, but attended a presentation by Bilbrey Tours that afternoon. Bilbrey Tours is based in nearby Abilene, so most trips originate either in Abilene, San Angelo, or other regional towns. If you go to their website, you will see they go all over the place. We will look at some of their offerings and see if they are going someplace we would like to go. Most of the time, I'd rather just go on my own, but there are some places I would like to see that I would not be comfortable traveling on my own. And isn't traveling what retirement is about?

On Thursday, we went to Rosa's for lunch. Rosa's is probably our favorite place to eat, day in and day out. Yeah, there are other places we might enjoy more, but the price tag at those places prohibits us from eating there often. But we find Rosa's to have consistently good food at a very reasonable price. On Thursday, for example, we had very satisfying meals for a total of $13.50. We then took a drive around Lake Nasworthy and were rewarded with good viewings of both deer and turkeys.

Turkeys are such funny critters. As we approached the lake, we spotted one turkey running along pell-mell with its wings flapping. It had gotten separated from its buddies and was hurrying to catch up. On a walk around our neighborhood one day, a single turkey came running out from between two houses a short distance ahead of me, just gobbling and running madly, basically in a panic. It crossed the street, ran between two houses, and I could hear its cries continue. Soon, it came out again, re-crossed the street, still gobbling and running madly. A short distance away, I came across the rest of the turkeys. I suppose he had gotten separated and was desperately trying to find them. Perhaps we should change that old saying, "Running around like a chicken with its head cut off" to "Running around like a turkey desperately trying to find its friends."

So, another good week for Donna and Keith. But I think it is probably time we did something different.


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Saturday, January 6, 2018

We Survived the Cold

I don't like the cold. The older I get, the more I dislike it. I'm alright until it gets below 40 and stays there for days.

This last cold spell was especially difficult for me. In the part of Texas where I live, we are not used to sustained periods of cold. Usually, a cold front will come through, last perhaps a day or two, then move on. That's not what happened with this last cold spell.

The cold actually moved in about Christmas. Even though nights were cold and we had some ice here and there, the days usually rose above freezing. But last Saturday (see "The After-Christmas Lull"), a very cold spell moved in. On Saturday, the high was in the mid-30's. That night, temps dropped down into the 20's. From then until about noon on Wednesday, temps remained below freezing, including several nights in the teens. We're just not used to that in this area. Sure, we usually get a snow or two every year, but they are light and the snow usually melts right away. But this time, it turned cold and stayed that way. Even on those days around Christmas when the temps rose above freezing, the skies were overcast and gloomy, so it seemed like a pretty long spell of depressing weather to me.

During the week or so of cold temps -- including those times when the temps rose just above freezing -- we basically hunkered down in our warm and comfortable home. It's so nice to be retired and not have to get out in bad weather. I did get out one day to run some errands, but Donna stayed inside for about a week. She began complaining about "cabin fever" at one point. So, on Wednesday, we finally ventured out to a movie and a meal. The sun came out, and the temperature rose to about 50 or so. It was great!

By the way, the movie we watched was Jumanji. We felt like something light and comic, and this turned out to be a good choice. And best of all, I don't recall any bad language during the movie.

On Thursday, we emerged for our first walk in a week or more. It was great to be out in the fresh air and working our limbs. I'm arthritic, and I find that when I don't walk for a while (a week or more), then I have difficulty getting back into my walking rhythm. So we only walked about 3.5 miles, and afterward my legs ached. I'll slowly work up from that to my normal 4.5 or 5 miles before long.

On Friday, we did some shopping in the morning. For lunch, we stopped in at our favorite Vietnamese restaurant, What Da Pho. After starting with 2 spring rolls and their wonderful peanut sauce, Donna enjoyed a bowl of chicken noodle soup while I had beef soup with shrimp. Yum!

View of the lake from along a ridge on the Horny Toad Trail. If you click to enlarge, you should be able to make out the straight line of the dam as well as a travel trailer on a ridge in the right-center of picture.
The day was beautiful, and I wanted to get out. So, we drove to San Angelo State Park and took a short hike of 4.83 miles. We decided to put together a loop (clockwise) starting at the parking area next to the playground near the south entrance. We headed west following all or parts of the following trails, in this order: Horny Toad Trail, Nature Trail, and Lankey Lackey Trail. We then cut north along an old 2-track trail past an old restroom from the early days of the park (Corp of Engineer days) to pick up the Winding Snake Trail. We then followed this trail back east, ending the hike on the Chaparral Trail. You can see these trails on the park's Trails Map. The Horny Toad Trail is not named on this map, though it is shown on the map.

We came across this armadillo near the end of the hike. That is my shadow in the lower-left, so we were pretty close. He didn't seem to notice us at all until we got next to him to take the following closeup.

The little fellow was nice enough to pose for us by rearing on his hind legs.
It was a good little hike, but along a very rocky route. I ended up with blisters on both my big toes that evening, but because of the scenery, fresh air, and exercise, it was certainly worth it.


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Wednesday, January 3, 2018

Walking Stats, 2017

As we approach the end of another year, I look back over what I've accomplished. When you are retired, your accomplishments change quite a bit, as you no longer have a career to consider. One of the biggest things I consider is my walking.

You undoubtedly know by now that walking is important to me. Mainly, it helps with so many health issues, such as cholesterol and cardiovascular areas. But I just enjoy walking. When I feel bad, a walk outside makes me feel better.

My father suffered from dementia his final years. Near the end of his life, he moved into an assisted living facility near me. This was against his will, and he even told the employees there that I had more or less kidnapped him. But that's another story.

Dad wasn't a happy camper, but his mind really was not working properly. He could no longer live alone. Something had to be done. So, the first few days in the facility he was mad. Donna and I would go over each day after work only to find that he had packed up everything in his room and was waiting for someone to take him home. Donna and I would patiently unpack everything, including the items that belonged to the facility and not to him (such as the microwave oven). We learned to time our arrival while he was in the dining room, so we could go to his room while he was eating and have him completely unpacked by the time he returned. When he returned, he was unaware that he was completely unpacked again.

So, this went on for several days. On the second weekend, I took Dad to our home to spend a Saturday with us. He was not happy and he was not comfortable. Finally, I took Dad for a walk to Synergy Park on the east side of Kilgore, where we lived at the time. The park at the time was rather new and consisted of a few trails through ab East Texas forest around a small lake. But that little park worked miracles on Dad. His expression changed; his attitude changed; his step became more lively. Taking a walk outside was like a magic elixir.

Now, the walk didn't cure his disease. In fact, when we took him home, we stopped at a local hamburger place. Dad loved burgers, and this particular place was well known for its burgers. Now, Dad had never been here before. When I asked him how his burger was, he said, "Oh, I've eaten here several times before; they make really good burgers." But at least he was feeling better.

A walk helps me, too. Being outside, feeling the wind in my face, seeing the clouds drift across the sky, hearing the chatter of squirrels or the whistle of a bird, all these things help me. So I walk simply because I enjoy it.

Well, I didn't mean to stray so much from my topic. I wanted to share my walking stats for the year. For 2017, I walked 487.51 miles. I purchased my current shoes on July 26, and I've put 278.11 miles on them. I had hoped to break 500 miles, but the extreme cold weather kept me inside the final few days of the year. Yeah, I enjoy walking, but not enough to freeze doing it.
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