Adventure with us as we travel the country in search of history, great scenery, mass quantities of wild life, disc golf courses, microbreweries, fun people and some awesome campgrounds to park our home on wheels. We also hope to do a lot of dispersed camping in the Southwest as well. There will be sunny days and there will be cloudy days but a day without laughter is a day wasted!! ROLL ON!!

Monday, March 29, 2021

Change of plans

 Virgin Islands Campground

Virgin Islands Campground | Facebook

Check it out and like the page to see what we are up to for the next 2 years!!  

Doesn't this place sound so tropical!!!  This is a glamping campground on a small island (Water Island) just off of St. Thomas and we happened to stumble across this and thought.......what the hell, lets apply!!!  Guess who they called and interviewed???? US!!!  Guess we are going to manage a GLAMPGROUND!!  We are totally not beach people, but we know we will enjoy the constant warm tropical temps between 75 and 80 with the cool breeze, sunshine and awesome sunset views from the house that is provided for us up on a hill overlooking St. Thomas!!

Who's gonna come visit us there??  Flights are pretty cheap & we know the new managers are awesome.

I am almost certain that there will be many a death story with hurricanes, lizards, snakes, flying roaches, & I am sure the sea turtles will be the size of dinosaurs and bite my feet off when I go swimming (OK maybe not, because I heard they were VEG eaters) but anyhow I gotta say that if a f$#@ing toad stuck to my chair in Texas scared the crap out of me, I can only imagine what a big ugly iguana will do to my heart!!

We will be heading to Wisconsin in a couple of days to settle a bunch of stuff and to store our truck & our home on wheels!!  Moving on to tropical adventures!!!

You never know which door will lead to your dreams,  until you have the courage to walk through it!!

Tuesday, March 23, 2021

Moooving on!!

Our time here in Texas is winding down.  Although we have had a great time....It is time to move on.  The Care Center has been an amazing place to volunteer.  We have been so lucky to have gained so much  knowledge from the residents who have had years of travel and experience.  We will miss all the residents and if passing by Livingston in the future, we will stop in!!

These last days have been busy with spring cleaning, gardening, and moving lot of stuff from one place to another.   I think you should also know that I almost died from some poisonous thing that was in the seed heads I was splitting or the dirt that I was digging.  I had to be put on some serious steroid to get rid of the itch/rash.  All better now but it was touch and go there for a second!!!

Alaska was calling this year and wanted us up there but we chose to wait until next year.  Canada is being stupid and we are not vacinated and have no intent to do so and they may or may not let us in even with employment/volunteer paperwork.  OH WELL!!  Next year is fine with us.  

There are so many people in this life style that plan, plan, plan, and get dissapointed if things don't work out.  We plan a little, but rarely make reservations and just go with the flow.  We figure that when one door closes, another one opens!!


California here we come.  Redwood trees and the Pacific Ocean are calling.  Kamp Klamath in Klamath, CA is where we will be for the summer volunteering at what looks like an awesome place.  

Kamp Klamath

If anyone is in the area.....come visit us.




In route to California we will get to visit two of our 3 daughters!  Always exciting to see family.  Charley/Steve & Roni/Dan will be in Albuquerque, NM where we plan to spend 4 days galavanting around the area eating all kind of good food and hopefully finding some good beer.  We don't have to be to the Camp in California until May 1st, so we will have some other adventures along the way and hopefully have some pictures.  We haven't been taking to many little adventure here since we have been busy, busy, busy & I know you all miss my nature pictures!  I probably should take more pictures of my near death experiences too so you will all beleive how terribly dangerous it is out hear in retirement land!!

                 Hope you all have a great Easter and somebody makes you these cute pancakes!!



 When life feels too big to handle, go outside.  
Everything looks smaller when you're standing under the sky!!


Tuesday, February 16, 2021

The Great Storm of 21'

It has been quite chilly here in Texas!!  People are totally freaking out as they should.  There are slick roads and busted waterlines everywhere.  Lets not forget about the millions without power.  Coming from a nothern state it is amazing to watch how things are handled in a region that has no clue what cold is all about.  This place will be a plumbers dream for the next month or so fixing all the stuff.   

Some of the residents at the CARE Center forgot what cold was as well and there are water leaks and frozen stuff everywhere.  I guess the honey do list for us the next couple of days is set.

Today Dick and I went home in the afternoon and from total tiredness we took naps only to wake up and missed the meal delivery duty.  Every resident has had most of their meals delivered and all the take volunteers take turns driving the cart around with the prepared lunchs and dinners.  OOPS!  Some one covered for Dick and all is still good so there are no residents out there almost dieing of starvation.

Then there is the mail sorting.  Man you could hurt your back with this sack.  Just another duty.  I did this one time the 1st week and it was an aweful job since I didn't know any body yet.  It would be much simpiler now but the guys seem to take over this job and leave the phones to the gals!!

Not a bad fix in a pinch for ice is this recipe below!!


This is also another product you can by at tractor supply or farm and barn stores to use instead of salt/sand!


Well thats about it for today.  We are feeling old taking care of the old but we love it and will write more if an when we have free time.  That may be in April!!  We shall see!!

**Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much**
Luke16:10



Monday, February 8, 2021

Week 1 C.A.R.E CENTER

 Well I have done it!!  So over worked that I took a nap!!!  What is happening!!  Seriously though this Care Center is going to be an awesome experience.  We are assigned a different job every day and there are 4 other couples working with us.  This is not always the case.  Sometimes there will only be 3 couples and in which case you probably WILL die.  NOT almost die!  The hours are long but not difficult.  This was an educational week for us and I beleive we have all the jobs and duties pretty well set in our brains.

If you get the opportunity you should look up this place.  It is quite unique and totally geared to take care of the full time people who have been on the road for years and are unable to continue travel for one reason or another.  It is an independant living facility with a nurse to assist with mecical needs and a staff to keep the folks moving. 3 meals a day 7 days a week, activities and shopping trips, & doctor visits keep the staff and volunteers runnning all day. These pictures following are some of the residents sites.  There are some pretty fancy gardens and decks on some.  Most have ramps and the yards are enough to have flowers or a garden if so desired.  My pictures suck but they really are nice.  Escapees CARE Center


We drive residents to appointments, the store when ever needed, serve lunches & clean up after, we are on call for 24 hours sometimes and work through the night if residents need anything, deliver meal to residents who are to ill or just want delivery, and then there is the honey do list.  Any time a resident need work done around their trailer or inside.....we are there to help.  Dick go two clogged toilets.  He said he almost died.

With 5 working couples, it is a pretty good rotation of the daily jobs.  We do however fear there will only be 3 couples next month so the hours will be longer but hopefully rewarding and fun. These people/resident are funny & full of stories of their travels as well as their war stories and the hard life days when they had to walk 2 miles up hill to and from schools in the dust bowl, snow storm, swamp or where ever they grew up.  So full of fun and attitude!!


Yes, during the day we do get a break but we have mostly stuck around to aquaint ourselves with the staff and the other volunteers.  We are sitting outside in the great Texas weather every day putting up our feet when we do come home for a bit.  Most of our break are spent still on our feet walking around the campground and by days end, I never have never wanted a foot massager more!!!!  

We are slowly learning all the residents name and their habits, attitudes, likes, & dislikes.  This will make thing easier once we learn this.  Creatures of habit we all are and this holds extra true for these guys.  Same seats, same beverages, same people we deliver to, same people at exersise class, same people making puzzles, playing on computers..............Makes for a pretty easy day for us once we learn it all.  We have 2 months here and I am sure we will know everything a volunteer needs to by then. 

From the moment we arrived there were resident walking by, driving by and scooting by to welcome us.  Even though we had to quarentine they knew where we were and wanted to meet the new people.  This definately keeps them on there toes because there is a new group of volunteers every month.  They only want you to volunteer one month because of the burn out factor.  They are long days!!



We will most likely not spend a dollar on food for 2 months because they feed us 3 meals a day.  Our refrigerator is bare and it is awesome not to have to cook.  The meals are definately not hospital tasting since this is an independant living center so they have flavor.   You could get super fat eating all the meals but you can pick and choose what your want from the daily menu. I definatly do not pile all on the tray.  I don't know how these folks pack it in and  then come back for the next meal. 


 

* Seems the road less traveled, show's happiness unravled *



Monday, February 1, 2021

Many Deaths

Well we have been in Livingston, Texas for the last week quarentining before we begin our volunteer positions. Tomorrow is our last day then it's 32-35 hours a week. I might die!  I can't remember the last time I worked that many hours!!
Quarentining to us is still going out hunting for wild life, disc golfing, & hiking.  We don't breath in the oxygen that the trees and plants produce, so fear not for our health!!
We drive 45 minutes to the nearest disc golf course. Dick said it was one of his tops. Great hike around. It was the Shawshank course. Cool names for the holes referencing the movie and jail cell signage at the holes. I almost died when we came upon a disc eating gator.  It didn't eat any of Dicks discs thank goodness and we did find 4 unmaked new discs on our adventure. 
When driving back we saw a wild boar!!  DEAD of course but we still had to do a U turn to take a picture of it. BIG mistake!! I almost died from the stench of its rotting body. Good picture though. Almost looks alive!!
Thus far this part of Texas is pretty and there are lots of flowers blooming. 
We have also noticed the largest ant hills ever. Since we are such inquisitive explorers we had to go poke a hole in the top of one. We both almost died when the thing erupted like a volcano 🌋 of ant lava!  Billions of billions came crawling out. The next day Dick went back to estimate the damage we did to their home and much to his surprise it was as if we never invaded. What a bunch of resourceful busy bodies these tiny red biting hellacous insects are!!
There is lots of gun toting, hillbilly truck driving, non mask wearing people in town. No signage on doors to wear masks so I really might die!  Nah! I already had the covid! Something else out there is sure to kill me one day!
**Promises may get thee friends, but non-preformance will turn them into enemies.**

Monday, January 18, 2021

Final Days

We are entering the final days here in San Antonio!!  It has been so much fun visiting with Dicks sister!   We dragged her out to the disc golf course a few time, drank to much beer with her, made her be a tourist in her own town, watched her play soccer a couple time,  ate to much food with her and rearranged her house.  Probably turned her world upside down for the past three months but we wanna believe she loved every minute of it.  I know we did.

We got Covid, lost our taste and smell and almost died!!  Just kidding, we didn't almost die.  Covid was pretty much a non event for us but know that is not the case with many.  Hopefully we won't get it again.  We have no intentions of getting the vaccine when finally becomes available to regular people but you never know.  I wear my non compliant mask and we feel we are a safe as we wanna be.  This is me not giving Davy Crocket the covid!!

As usual we have been out hiking, and doing a little bit of last minute touristy things.  Some sort of relation to Dick came to visit for a couple days and we have been having a blast with the sisters Jess and Jackie.  So glad they choose San Antonio for their little get away.  Fun people and lots of laughs and catching up.  They came from Wisconsin just in time to watch the PACKER playoff game and we walked around the River Walk and drank with them.  They forced us to drink.  Couldn't taste a dam thing but we sure tried!! 





Who knows when we will return to this neck of the wood but it sure has been fun and we got to see lots of family who came this way to visit as well.  I hope we get lucky with family visits where ever we go.  On the 25th we are moving on to our next destination.  Escapees Care Center in Livingston, TX for 2 months.  We are volunteering for all of February and March here and are totally looking forward to this experience.  It is a really unique place for aging RVers to go for rehab/adult day care etc.  Check it out if you want.

www.escapeescare.org





When we leave the CARE Center we will be heading to northern California!!! We need to see giant trees and the Pacific Ocean!!  I know there will be many an adventure once we get there.  Check out the campground if you like.  www.kampklamath.com    


Thursday, January 7, 2021

Called out!!!

I was recently called out for being a lazy ass blogger.  Now this unidentified person (lives in Valley Brook subdivision and her initials are M N ) did not actually say that but she may as well have. 

We have kept busy doing the usual....hiking, disc golfing & long walks on the beach.   F&%$ that, the beach is overrated.  Who in there right mind likes to walk on sand. About all I want to do on a beach is build a sand castle and sit my fat ass in the surf and flail around like a beached whale. 

It is so much more peaceful to walk in the woods and watch for wild life and smell the trees, leaves and flowers.  Occasionally there is dog shit left behind by some total schmuck, and I cuss out dogs very loudly!! Every walk/hike has something different.  I broke in my new hiking boots this week as well.  NO this isn't dog shit. If it was I would have thrown out the boots!!!  San Antonio has a large park system  and trails that all  seem to connect!!  A biker, hiker, runner, walkers dream to be sure.  We have been to so many and there are so many more yet to explore!  




This week we are in search of wild boar.  We have seen dead ones, but never live ones.  We head north later this week to check out another area.  We know there are thousands of deer in this area and hopefully there will be some boar to.  I have my trusty hiking stick ready to beat them off if we do find any.  On the way home from one of our hikes we scanned the roadside but didn't see any boar either.  There were sightings but they turned out to be a dead dog, a dead coyote, a bag of leaves, a tire tread and the most promising sighting was a bundled up dead blanket. Not exactly the boar we were hoping for but I guess we would rather see a live one instead of a dead one.



The landscape of the Texas is different from what most of you may know.  There are trees and under brush but you CAN NOT drop your pants and pee in the woods without being seen for miles.  The trees are so skinny that you can not hide behind them either.  You all may remember the old cartoon where the giant pink elephant was trying to hide behind the skinny tree......well that was me and this old cartoon was probably modeled after Texas trees.  Lesson learned.......go to the bathroom before hiking!!

I met this crazy guy in a bar and he bought me a Michilada.  Probably spelled that wrong but who cares about spelling!  It is a beer mixed with tomato juice & rimmed with spicy salty goodness.   Yes we still go out during covid times.  During the day when the crowds are almost non existent and we are trying to stay safe and keeping to the outdoors!  Fear not.  Life is good!  We are heading to visit family in Wisconsin next week so I am sure there will be an adventure to report after that trip.


 
**Work as if you were to live 100 years.  Pray as if you were to die tomorrow.**