Stayed Home

I woke up at 6:15 a.m. my nose started running like crazy not feeling that well. Went to the bathroom once you start blowing your nose, it just won't stop running I did try to lay down for a little while longer. I woke up about 45 minutes later Jim was just getting up. He was going to go fishing but it was thundering, but never did anything. About 8:30 when it stopped I heard him leave with his fishing rod. And I got up felt like crap. The TT maintenance guys were over first thing looking at our neighbors electric.  Had some coffee, was hungry because we had such a light early dinner last night. Jimmy ate three times I only did twice. I made a us each a smoothie, put his in the fridge, drank mine while I made pumpkin paleo pancakes and egg. Was watching my Today Show. Jim came back right before noon, we sat outside for a while then came inside and went back outside. It was very beautiful out. I washed the sheets we made the bed later. Jim put the grill on and grilled one pork chop for later. I will add it with the leftover one tonight. He also grilled green beans and zucchini. I mixed up a batch of turkey burgers with applesauce. Jim grilled them. I made some cauliflower tots, Jim did not really care for. Then while the oven was on I made 4 little mini pumpkin custards with the leftover pumpkin from breakfast. I put everything away. We ate lunch outside.   Jim went for a walk later, I didn't feel up to going, just was feeling tired and just a little off.  Jim saw our neighbor when he came back, and he asked him about his electric. He said they couldn't get it on so they have to move their permanent site, shortly after that they were gone, guess he's going to do it another weekend they need to bring the truck back.  What a pain that will be, he seemed to have a pretty good attitude about it. Jim put some stuff away outside it is suppose to rain a little tomorrow morning.  I took a shower, made dinner a little later, watched a little TV and chilled.

Pills, fishing, Whataburger, campfire

Woke up did our morning routine, had an English muffin in a dippy egg for breakfast. Watched a little of The Today Show. My eyes are still itchy, and I have quite the runny nose, and sneeze like crazy every day. We had to go to Walmart to get my pills. We left before lunch. We found a few more things I wanted at Walmart, Jim was trying to get a fishing license there. But their Verizon was down which shuts down everything. Some lady was telling us in Walmart about this other store I wanted to go to. Their meat was supposedly so much better than Walmart. I really wanted to get some steaks from Texas. Walmart said they were from South Dakota I think. I stopped and got my pills and I actually got a three months supply of each which will be nice. Jim was getting hungry so we made a quick stop for the first time in a Whataburger. He had a patty melt minus the hot sauce,  he said he really liked it he also liked the grilled onions and the grilled Texas toast. I did not get anything, had a couple of his french fries, not that good was easy to stop. Then we headed over to the other store that I was never in, that the lady recommended in WM called Brookshire's. Jim said he could wait in the truck, which I said was fine. I went in mainly just to buy meat. She said they always have a good sale on a couple different meats every week. I bought him a couple of steaks that were from right here in the town we were camping in, which is Quinlan Texas. I got some chicken tenders, mainly because they were small packs I could squeeze in the freezer. I also found some pork chops, and some beef cubes. Course I bought a few other things that I couldn't find at Walmart, then when I went to check out they said you can only use cash or checks, because apparently the same problem Walmart had, was Verizon's down everything shut down. I said well if you'll take a Pennsylvania check. That was pretty much a no-go so I texted Jim when he brought in cash, it was like $47 worth of meat. Quite the expensive month for food shopping. Then we headed   back to the FW put everything away. When we got home, our neighbor was here that has a permanent site, and that we never met before.  They wanted to see if we had electric,  because they did not.  Their fridge was on electric so they had to throw everything out , Jim chatted with him for a while. TT told them they couldn't do anything till tomorrow morning , if not they would just go back to Dallas he said. Jim was never able to get a fishing license, so he did it online with his phone.  I put the pizza I saved for today in the oven made a salad for dinner, although an early one. 

Jim went fishing for about two hours. He came back and started a campfire. We both sat out for awhile very nice evening. When we both came in we watched a little TV and went to bed at the same time didn't  do that for a while.

Spent some 'Time" in Dallas

Today we wanted to take a day trip into Dallas and get a early start. Jim was up for a beautiful sun rise. 

I was up shortly after Jim. My eye was so swollen up, and itching. I didn't even turn the TV on, it would have slowed me down. I almost did not even want to go, but I didn't say anything, did not want to be a party pooper. So I started to make chicken wraps to take for lunch. I took a dose of Benadryl, hoping it would take the swelling and itch out of my eye. We were ready and left by 9:15 a.m. then we had to decide where we were going to park and either have an Uber or take a bus into the city. We found a lovely shopping area not sure what it was called. Didn't seem like much of it was open yet very beautiful setting, with some lovely fountains, we walked around a little bit.

But the sign says 2-hour minimum parking. So we decided to drive a little closer and find somewhere else to park. Maybe at a bus station and take a bus in. I was so sleepy driving  after taking the Benadryl. We found the DART bus. He parked the truck way in the back, so not to be in anyone's way. Went inside to see what information we could find. We had no clue we've never done this before. There was a lovely lady inside, she was security but said she tries to help people out. She gave us a lot of information on what to do and not to do. First she suggested we move the truck closer so she could watch it. You have people come in with rollbacks and quick hitches and just pull cars out of there, never to be found again. So Jim moves truck closer. We talked with her a little bit more, found out some more information.  Like try not to go to the west side. Jim didn't have exact change it was only $3 a person to ride into the city. So she suggested you download the app when you can pay with his phone. So she helped him do that, we only had 35  minutes to wait till the bus came, at noon the rate was cheaper also. Which it took us that long to get everything situated. So the first driver came in. She told him we were new and didn't know where we were going. There's only a few of us that boarded the bus went into the city. The ride is about 20 minutes long, a lot of horn blowing going on. Crazy driving he would come up so close to the car in front of him, and pass frequently and gets so close to the car next to him oh, but he does it every day so all is well. Our next decision was where to get off the bus. I had a list of a few places we thought would be fun to stop. Wanted a nice park where we could eat our lunch. There is a statue of a cattle drive that we passed. A few people got off, a few people got on. Still didn't decide, bus driver never said a word. Before we knew it we could tell we were heading out of the city, and back to the bus station already. Then we had to decide what to do again as we drove along realizing we've missed our opportunity, I said to Jim what do you think. As usual he said whatever you want to do we can go back. So we sat in silence for a few minutes, I'm thinking I don't know if I want to do that drive two more times. So I asked him again, and then he finally honestly answered I'm cool if we don't go back again. We both laughed we thought it was so funny. I said maybe we're not really big city people. I thought Nashville was so much cooler does not seem as nearly as big. So we got off the bus laughing at ourselves. Such small country bumpkins we are today. Security guard lady saw us, she kind of laughed and didn't seem that shocked. We want to tell her that we were back so she knew that we are the ones that took the truck. She really said she would be watching it and we had to be back by 6 when she left. So we got back in the truck. How to figure out how to get out of the parking lot, had to back up again. Decided to go back to the lovely shopping area we originally parked in. After lunch in the truck. We went into a frozen yogurt shop. Which is one thing I can eat since it's no Dairy. So for 2 fro yo and $12 later. We sat on a bench overlooking the water to eat our treat. Then we got back in the truck headed back towards Quinlan. AGAIN I wad so tired. I wanted to stop and get my pills at Walmart, but the pharmacist told me they wouldn't be into after 4. By this time it was right before 3 or so. So  we can just run in and get it tomorrow. We headed back to the FW. We both had long pants on I was very warm out. So we both changed and I was so sleepy I lay down took about a good two-hour nap. It was wonderful,  so quiet, I didn't hear a peep out of Jim, I usually do. He said he sat outside for a while. The camper was very warm when we got in. I put the fans on that cools it off quickly. But it was nice to sleep in the warmth. Well my eye just driving me crazy, but the nap helped a lot. I was dreaming all kinds of crazy stuff, Benadryl is no joke. When I woke up,  we  watched a little news. I put some pork chops in the oven for dinner. After dinner Jim was watching hockey, yeah they won. He paused the game and we went for a little walk so we could see the sunset.

He came back to finish the game and I took another lap around the one backrow were not on yet. Watched a big motor home that come in later. When I came back we watched Survivor together that I had recorded earlier. I washed up the dishes Jim went to bed a little earlier. And with my Marathon nap I stayed up quite late, and watched The Voice. I was chatting with my brother a little bit Facebook. Was a very interesting day. Too funny that we took $6 bus ride through the city and right back out again, really cracks us up. I guess my first thought in the morning when I kind of didn't want to go really panned out.

RV/ Truck Washing Day

Jim was up right before me today, I got up kind of early at 7:15.  we relaxed with our coffee for a while, and watch the news. The hardest part was deciding what to make for breakfast. Jim said he dreamt about real pancakes, so I made a batch of the last of the mix I had, with blueberries. Of course I had to make a couple dippy eggs and a couple pieces of uncured bacon to. It was really good and kept us satisfied for a long time. Jim got bored with TV and went outside for a little while doing whatever.  I cleaned up the kitchen and then went and got ready  to go look around.  We drove around a little, not much to see, in Quenlan Texas, Jim kept counting the beer and liquor stores. After we went for a little drive we went into Walmart.  I wanted to go food shopping. Jim wanted to get beer and a fishing rod, I also wanted to get my pills at the pharmacy. Before we left I made sure I had enough of Jim's, but kind of forgot about mine. They didn't have my pills ready today, so they would have them tomorrow after 4.  So we will stop on the way home from tomorrow's adventure to pick them up . Then we stopped and filled up our water jugs. And I had a bag of clothes that I purged, we found a donation box and got rid of those too. Then we got home ate the last of our soup that I had left over. I bought two small pizzas at Walmart, thin crust for me, regular meat lovers for him, we ate 1/3 saved a third for tomorrow and froze a third for travel day. As soon as I made his soup he started his project for the day, he wanted to wash the RV & truck. Both very dirty. He did a wonderful job as usual.

I took him the rest of his lunch to eat outside. Pizza some grapes and I bought strawberries and had a leftover corn muffin from last night, made a short cake with that. While he was doing that I busied myself inside made white chicken chili, had a lot of food to put away.My eye lid started itching again, put the cream on that the Doctor gave me when it happened  before.  Does not seam to be helping, SOoo itchy, drives me nuts. She said it was eczema, but this feels like something else. I hope it's better tomorrow.  Jim grilled some chicken and I had a salad with some on it. He grilled a steak and had it with his salad. He took shower and we relaxed and watch the sunset together.

Happy Moving Day Monday

I was out of bed first this morning. Another night where we had no heat on at all. Which is fine when you're still in bed, but once you get up it was a little chilly.  I put the furnace on and warmed it up a little, Jim got up shortly after that.  I made the coffee, and  a smoothie and some eggs and sausage for Jim. Today we actually planned on leaving later. Checkout is at 11 am here, and we only had a 2-hour drive so we relax a little with our coffee before we got moving. I took a shower and washed my hair, and Jim did the outside chores, I worked on the inside. Said goodbye to our neighbor Regina, exchanged cards, she actually gave me a hug and thanked  Jim for opening her wine the other day. I wrote on the back of our card, when you're planning to come to Pennsylvania if you need another bottle opened. We left two minutes of 11:00 and headed towards Lake Tawakoni. Turned out to be a very pleasant drive, took about two and a half hours to get there. It was so close I didn't even pre make a lunch, we just had one stop with a quick pull off in front of a gas station and post office. We arrived at TT at 1:30.

Drove around a little to find a site. There was a lot more trees than we're used to, very woodsy. I really wanted to back up to the lake, which we could have, but there was no sewer. What a trade-off, beautiful view or no sewer. So we chose a site more Inland, but we can still see the water off in the distance.

We got set up, each had a bowl of soup that was left over. Jim got the satellite dish set up pretty quickly. Found out we can wash the RV tomorrow. We went for a walk around talk to a few people some guy from Ohio. The lake is huge we found out if its 37,800 + Acres. The lake provides water for Dallas, in the surrounding areas. We walked out on the pier looked at the water,

  went to the adult center, no children allowed but of course there's two in there. There's two pools one adult one family, didn't see a hot tub anywhere. Then we went back to the lake, we're the fish were really jumping,  was some guy in the boat fishing. Beautiful sunset off the water.

Then we went back to the FW watched a little TV enjoy very quiet evening. As we always say best part about this park TT Lake Tawakoni, is it's FREE

Pre Travel Rest day

Today was my turn to get up first. I made the coffee. I got to watch one of my shows or two, Jim was up probably close to 9 a.m. I had a bowl of cereal earlier, but when he got up we got ready and went over to the family center they serve breakfast on the weekends. Nobody was around, he had biscuits and gravy and eggs I just had half a biscuit  and cookie, they had leftover probably from last night. She told us to take the whole tray, no way. I did put four in the freezer though, for a travel day  treat for later. Jim watched the hockey game  when we got back. I was busying myself doing little sewing jobs I've been putting off. I never want to do when I'm  still working. Did a couple loads of laundry. We had lunch of salad and leftover ribs. While I was inside, I heard Jim talking, I looked out he was talking to our neighbor  woman who is alone .  She is from Texas, she wanted to open a bottle of wine and could not get it open,  Jim said she tried everything .  So Jim to the rescue , he loves to save damsels in distress. Then he went outside to enjoy the Sun. And I watched another movie I've been wanting to watch. I read the book first, Heaven Is For Real. Can't get through that without crying. Then just spilled water all over the place so we cleaned that up he took the rug out to dry. Then I came out and sat outside a little bit, worked on the blog.  talked about tomorrow's  travel day , we're only going to leave around 11 a.m. . Because check-in is later, we only have about a good two-hour drive though. Heading to another TT in Texas. While he was outside he called and talked to his mother for a little while. They said it was going to rain today but it never did. It is just beautiful out Jim said it was about 78 degrees. But you could feel the humidity today I guess because of the rain we had yesterday.

Oklahoma where the wind goes......

Jim woke up very early, at 6 a.m. , he couldn't sleep any longer. I woke up a few hours after that. Around 9 a.m.  we had a brief thunderstorm and heavy rain ,  didnt  last very long . Then I made us breakfast, a smoothie for us, and eggs for Jim, he always has to have his eggs. We did our normal morning  routine. We decided to take a little day trip. We ate a grilled Burger to hold us over till later. It turned out to be fairly nice the rest of the day. We had a few drops come down later but not bad. We're very close to the Oklahoma border. We had to mail something back home to a Lebanon  address,  from this rinky-dink post office from Lebanon address in Oklahoma.

We drove to Tishomingo, about 35 miles or so from the Thousand Trails we are at. Went into a visitor center, got a lot of information.

Then we walked around the cute little shops and stores. Love to look at all the little trinkets that I have no room to purchase anything.

We went  into one little store that Blake Shelton's mother runs, we got to meet her. Store is called Junk Stars,

He also has another restaurant there Ole Red, we were getting hungry so we went in for a quick bite. We shared a catfish, Hush Puppy and French fries plate. We shared a piece of red velvet cake. It really hit the spot we were very well satisfied. The whole time we ate there was a guy playing the guitar.

One cute little shop we went into the girl said she works in the restaurant too. There's a former bed and breakfast there  that she was telling us about that Blake and Gwen stay in when they're in town. His ranch in the area is up for sale. We had a nice little walk around. Then we stopped to get diesel so we have a full tank for travel day tomorrow. And they also were selling firewood so Jim bought two bundles of firewood. We drove back to TT, arrived  before dark.  We took a little drive around, not too many people here the place is fairly empty. We had a lovely salad and some boneless pork ribs that we first smoked, and then I put them in the instant pot, so tender. I also steamed some green beans for our dinner. Then they had a live band right across the road at the family center, which we could enjoy right from the comfort of our FW. We watched American Idol in the comfort of our own home while we enjoy the music.

Smoker, new neighbors,

I woke up first this morning, I guess I did sleep well. Jim rolled over and said no not yet, I said no worries babe. I went downstairs and made the coffee, can't remember how much to put in, I didn't make it for a while. It was good but his is always better. Since we have the satellite hooked up and we changed our location I'm able to record The Today Show. So I started it over since it was on for an hour and a half already. Then I had a bowl of cereal and I made Jim eggs  and a muffin from yesterday's lunch. Then he went outside and got a bucket of soapy water and backed the truck up to the front nose of the FW and got his bug spray and washed the front nose of the RV, it was full of bugs. we each had a bowl of vegetable soup for the start of our lunch . Then he got the smoker going, we put on a chicken then took that off and grilled couple Burgers on it I had thawed out. We had a burger today and we will have a leftover one for tomorrow too. Then he had to get it hot again, then we added some boneless ribs, to get a little smoky flavor on them.

Tomorrow I will finish them off in the IP and we will have them for dinner tomorrow, as it is supposed to rain a little. It sounds like a lot of cooking, was about four hours .  Once you get the smoker going  we like to  get a lot of things done at once .  Saves a lot of time , and prepped later , so worth it . He received a call from a tax guy, made arrangements to get everything mailed in, happy we're getting a nice refund, that was great news. Since today is Friday we watched a few RVs Rolling On In, we got a new neighbor behind us. And some of the sites that are set up for the season, they also arrived. Then we went and played a round of miniature golf here. We have our own clubs and balls.

It was fun for some reason I felt like doing it. Jim says he won by one point. That's fine. Then we came back and he got his shoes on while I put the clothes away and went for a little walk around. Then we came back and were sitting outside. And our neighbor Regina came over she's in a motorhome towing a car all by yourself she is from Texas. She wanted to ask Jim about traveling to Pennsylvania worried about going over mountains. We said that's nothing compared to what they have out this way. We didn't come in till after 7:30 I made 4 salads we had one for dinner with some chicken on it. I will have one for tomorrow. Then I made a chocolate chip zucchini cake, I use Jim as my KitchenAid mixer, he is very good at that. Then we watched a little TV had a piece of cake oh, I took a shower and called it a wonderful day in the neighborhood.

First full day of spring

For some reason I could not sleep last night. I was in bed from 11:30 to 1. Finally got up and read some of my RV blogs, went back to bed. Jim was up first this morning, I reluctantly got up anyway. I made us both oatmeal with cherry topping. Sounds weird, but I had a little left over from previous desserts, very good, no added sweeteners except a pack of stevia. We watched  some of the Today Show. Then somehow we got motivated to do some household chores. Jim went outside and cleaned out his hole, as we call it. I wish I had a before and after. He cleaned it also not just straightened it out. Used the torque wrench and did all the RV tires , and check the air and filled all 10 ,  truck, RV. He got a bucket of soapy water and wash the back window so we could see out. Then he took the electric heaters out , we have a little one in the bathroom a small one in the middle of the RV,  and he also pulled the  electric fireplace out, which is in the back, carefully brought it outside  and while the air compressor was out he blew all the dust and dirt out of all three. They don't sell firewood here, when we checked in the lady told Jim pick up whatever is dead laying around. So he took the truck and went for a firewood run, that was later.  Brought back a lot of Twigs that were great for kindling. Meanwhile back inside, I got out the vacuum  and vacuumed  the RV. Jim helped me  vacuum, dust the high spots  of the Cabinetry,  both pantry and fridge where I can't reach . Washed a load of cleaning towels that have been accumulating for a while. I picked up all the rugs, Jim shook them outside for me, and I wiped all the hard floors down. Then we got ready and went to town to look around. It was a little drive to get there, Jim said there was towns closer. We are very close to Oklahoma apparently. Would love to pop in and say hi to Blake Shelton. Funny story, as I'm sitting outside with Jim, doing a blog post from a day and a half ago, which doesn't seem like that long. He decided to read from a few days earlier, right before you post it. And apparently he said I have it all messed up. We went to different KOA in a row and apparently I mix them up, OMG. Now he's trying to fix it. So back to our adventure, we found at Sam's Club but decided not to waste a beautiful day walking around, which we really didn't need much in there. Every restaurant you can imagine is around, we found a Cracker Barrel, have not been in one for a long time. The only time we would really go to one was when we were on holiday. We sat right in front of the fireplace, was beautiful, asked the waitress if he could throw more wood on the fire, as it burned down a little. She said oh it needs wood, and immediately went and got four pieces and threw it in, I wish Jim could have done it.

I had catfish & hush puppies, coleslaw, sweet potato casserole. Jim had country fried steak, pinto beans, corn , hash brown casserole , we also had the biscuits and cornbread, I took one biscuit home for Jim's breakfast tomorrow morning. I'm not even going to mention how many carbohydrates that was. For dessert we shared a piece of buttermilk pie, which I make, but did not for a long time. It was a very large piece, very similar to mine, mine is more lemony. Very good though garnished with topping and strawberries. It was a wonderful meal we left very full and satisfied. Really enjoy the fire burning. I love the gift shop I could have walked around for an hour, Jim not so much. I love the clothes in there, would have loved to get a summary flowing top. But they're kind of pricey. Found out they do have a sale rack for seasonal items. Wish I could have found that and looked longer. Jim's just not into it. Then we went into Walmart, per usual, wanted to shop somewhere else, but we ended up there. When we got back to the FW it was so beautiful out. I put all the food away. Jim actually took the truck now and went and got all the wood, I talked about earlier. Then we went for a little walk,  almost an hour and picked up 4 big chunks of wood for later. I made vegetable soup in the IP, with turkey sausage and added unfried chicken later at the end. I also made 10 hard-boiled eggs, in the IP first. Jim made a fire with all the wood he collected throughout the day.

We sat outside and had a bowl of the soup I made, that was plenty for dinner since we had such a large wonderful lunch. Just wanted to watch a hockey game so he did on his outside TV,

which is wonderful for me. I was able to watch some of my shows that he hates and get my DVR closer to 50% full, which is always the goal. Yeah the Flyers won, when the game was over and all the wood was burned, Jim came in I turned off the show I was watching. We watched one that I recorded earlier we both like, we watch that together and then he went to bed. I went to bed shortly after that, hoping I sleep better tonight. I'm sure I will in this beautiful large wonderful sight, feel so much like home, well it is. Wherever we roam, we're always at home!

Whole day spent relaxing at home

Wonderful to wake up and not have to go anywhere. Jim is up shortly before me and made coffee. I woke up about quarter of 8 because I wanted to watch The Today Show. We have satellite but need to change or service address to get local channels from Texas area. We can get them with our TV antenna on the roof though. We just can't record, and watch it later or watch multiple shows. Our last address was from Palm Springs and that no longer works here. Easier said than done. I made a smoothie we shared another wonderful orange we will really miss only two left, they were from the pickup truck in Benson Arizona. If you go by I highly recommend you buying some. They were 12 oranges for only $3. Then I made paleo blueberry pancakes we each had two pieces of uncured bacon and eggs. Made the bed watched a little TV, wanted to shower but decided to go for a walk first. We walked down towards the lake, it belongs to Army Corps of Engineers, then we walked around a couple loops that had 30 and 50 amp sites in it. Hardly anybody around. The lake was quite large, had a little Island we saw two fishing boats on it.

I know not too many people read the blog, which is fine, and I know no one who does would never do this. But the trash laying around in nature is driving me crazy. I tempted to pick up some but you really need to go down there with a bag gloves, and a golf cart to bring it all back, very upsetting to see. Anyway, another thing we took a selfie which when the trip is over I will never be doing again. Jim says last selfie ever.

Till next year when we go back to our beautiful Florida locations. So we walked almost 2 hours came back had lunch, leftovers which we love, the spaghetti from last night and a salad, and a little diet pudding dessert I made. Which we worked up quite an appetite. Then I threw some clothes in the washer, I tried to call DirecTV to change our service address, what a fiasco that is. First you go through with someone all your info. And they said they have to transfer you to somebody else to do the service address change. Then you have to go through all your info again with them. She kept repeating our service address in Palm Springs, then the new guy ask me for our old address I don't remember the number part of it. But he said you needed it for verification I said ask her she knows it. So I told him I could give him our billing address, which is in Pennsylvania. But I said don't change that. Then he started saying how much money we pay a month and we can get a discount. Jim said that's not what we pay. He tried to give you a higher number and then say they're taking $60 off of it, blah blah  blah Jim is getting so, PO ed. I said just forget it. Maybe I'll try him again later, you always get somebody different. He sent them an email and said WHY??  Couple times ago I called timed it took 12 minutes, boom done. The last time I had to call four different times for a total of over 2 hours till we got it accomplished. Then we sat outside, beautiful sunny day in Texas. Chilling! Then I went back inside and tried Direct TV again, this time I had luck with the first lady I talked too, she  helped me right away, even when she tried to upsell me, all finished in 13 minutes. We took showers, had dinner, I finished the laundry we relaxed and watch TV the rest of the evening.

Moving day to TT Lake Texoma,Texas

If you can meet with Triumph and disaster and treat those two Impostors just the same, if you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken Twisted by names to make a Trap for fools, or watch the things you gave your life to broken and stoop and build them up with worn out tools, yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, and which is more, you'll be a man my son.       IF  by.   Rodger Kipling.

Starting the day with a poem that I heard on the fourth hour of The Today Show with Hoda and Kathy Lee.

We woke up on this another travel day, hating to leave this very nice KOA in Abelen TX. We left about 9:30 , there is alot to do. We did our normal travel day moving routine. We have a master list before we leave that we go over together. So we do not forget anything.  We headed out towards lake  Texoma  for a 6-day stay at a Thousand Trails. The travel day started out very nice,  Not a lot of traffic, most of it seemed to be because of all the oil fields around. If you are selling white trucks, you would be very wealthy, that's all you see out here, very dirty ones, mind you. We always see rest areas early in the day when we do not need them. But later we couldn't find one, finally we pulled into a Pilot, just so we could go potty, grab lunch, and fuel up, in that order. We only stopped one time today. We arrived TT Lake Texoma  a little after 1:30. No one man's the guard shack there so we went inside. She told us where some 50 amp sites were. Here you have to pay for electric for your 50 AMP, also found out later reading their paperwork if you have a pull through site,  you have to pay for that too, doesn't matter if you have 30 or 50 amp. Also you can only stay on pull throughs for 10 days or less. Also it says use water as you need, no washing Rigs or vehicles unless you are a member staying over 14 days, according to their paperwork, never heard all that before. Which is fine, they all have there Thing. The place is quite large Close to 400 acres, with about a 180 sites. Most we've seen were all very large and quite nice. We had to decide between a back in with an old picnic table and no fire ring,  a huge site with a picket fence out front. Or a pull through site where you face out to the front,  someone can park directly behind you so you're back to back in other words. That's the one we chose, seems like there's a lot of empty sites so no one, chances are would even go in there. We will be here for six nights so Jim put a lot of things out we have not done for a long time. Like the flag, table cloth for picnic table  and larger rug. They said they didn't sell firewood, but he can pick up whatever was dead laying around, which was a lot. After he got set up outside and I finished doing inside things, also put out alot of things I didn't do for a while. Which makes it feel so much more like home, we were both looking forward to not moving for a while. We ate the last of the vegetable soup. Then I used the last of the turkey meatballs in the freezer, I made a little spaghetti in the pot. Had salad,for dinner. Jim made a fire, I watched TV alone, went in and out a few times. I walked over to the family center to look around. It is right across the road from us. Lovely night sky and fire. Very quite, NO one around.

Happy Monday and Moving Day

Haven't moved on a Monday for a while. It was hard to get up this morning after our big walk. Jimmy's up first per usual. I got up after 8. There's so much to do in the morning. I made a smoothie first some eggs for Jim. And didn't even sit in my chair this morning, immediately started getting ready. It was after 10 a.m. till we finally left, I know Jim wanted to leave earlier, but that's on me. We only had three quick stops, we were on back roads, and travel service roads for the trucks and a ton of oil fields everywhere.

A lot in NM and Texas. We pulled over alongside the road for a quick potty break. Then we each had a date nut ball and kept driving. Later there was another rest area but it looks strange so we just pulled along the road for another potty break and grab lunch took it in the truck and ate. Then later we found a place to get diesel. And then we kept On Truckin, we drove total about 280 miles today, about four and a half hours driving. And arrived at Abilene Texas, KOA. We got set up and Jim went to fill the truck up with diesel and came back,  we had them deliver a bundle of wood in a fire ring to use for the night. We shared a salad and  I heated up the rest of the chicken casserole we sat by the fire for a little. Then I came in to watch The Voice.

Saint Patty's Day in Carlsbad Cavern

Jim woke up at 7:30 I got out of bed just after 8 a.m. . I wanted to watch Willie Geist on his Morning Show he has on Sunday. Don't know when it's on, apparently missed it. We had our wonderful coffee and shared a  really good oranges.  I made a smoothie for each of us. The Sun was shining so bright and warming it up, I started opening Windows and the door. I threw the sheets in the washer and got that going. Then I started to make fresh date nut balls with California dates, so much better than the dried-up ones they sell in Pennsylvania. But remembered I needed to buy unsweetened coconut to roll them in, so I put it on hold till we get home tonight. We bought a rotisserie chicken yesterday at Sam's and I took the rest of the meat off the bones and made a chicken casserole that is made in the microwave. I have had this recipe for a million years ,  since my mother and I took a microwave cooking class at Boscov's upstairs,  when microwaves first came out,  I've been making this. You just mix up the chicken with mayonnaise, cream of chicken or  celery soup whenever you have, a can of rinsed sliced water chestnuts, chop celery and onion mix a little  melted butter  with half box cornbread stuffing to coat it, you mix some in and then you put the rest on the top. Microwave for 20 minutes. We had that for an early lunch with steamed green beans. I mixed up a batch of the paleo chocolate chip cookies. We each had two cookies for dessert and will have one for travel day lunch tomorrow . Jim took a shower. We made the bed together , then I took a shower and we got ready and left for our adventure for the day. We drove to the Carlsbad Caverns.

We we're going to walk down and take the elevator up. But it's busy the other way so we ended up taking the elevator down I think it was 70 stories, and then we walked back out.  IT was 750 feet in elevation.

It was fascinating , we talked to a  Ranger coming out ,we were talking about how many people have a hard time and have to be carried out or get a wheelchair for them. He said some weeks they do it a few times and then we'll go weeks and weeks and not have anyone need the service. You have to whisper in the caverns because of the way the sound travels, was so loud if you didn't. So babies and small children wasn't good. There was a family that came out at the very end when we did. She was carrying a four month old baby earlier we seen her nursing I told her she should get an award for walking all the way out plus carrying  the baby,  she was huffing even worse than I was. That walk out was no joke. We saw two women that were walking out the same time we were, we kept passing each other. Once we were out in the open she was over at a plant and thought she was taking a picture of it, and she must have some kind of knife and she sliced off a piece of the plant and I heard her say doesn't look like aloe Vera. Couldn't believe she did that. It took us an hour to walk out. We probably walked over 4 miles. Walking uphill to get out 70 stories up was a nice challenge. When we could finally see the light of day  it's where the Batcave was and bats would come out at night,  and also  cave swallows .

Once we saw the light we still had to walk really far to get over to the truck . After we left we couldn't  wait to get to the water  in the truck, really thirsty .  The cave is about 95% humidity,  which felt really weird after being in dry desert all this time. We then stopped in Albertsons grocery store because  I still have been looking for sunflower seeds and I needed the coconut to roll my date nut balls in. Jim filled up the water jugs while I went in the store. Then we stop to get diesel fuel. Jim went into Lowe's to find wood, but they didn't have any either. I told him Albertsons did but the line was so full I didn't even try to buy any, now I wish I would have. Well we drove back to the FW we could see a beautiful sunset. When we got back  I  grilled some chicken on my stove top Grill and I made some in the oven  too, called oven fried chicken and I made 4 salads we had one for dinner. I finished the date nut balls now that I had coconut. Jim couldn't  believe I was doing so much work after our long walk in the caverns.