We began our trip to Texas in the cold, and it really has not warmed up much! On Saturday morning it was very blustery and cold when we pulled out of the drive at 2020 Tricaso and it was still very cold when we arrived at Wright Patterson AFB. We ran into several bad snow bands between Akron and Columbus, but then no snow into Dayton – just cold. The water was frozen in the campground so it was a hike to the bath house for business. And to top it all, we could not keep the furnace running for some reason.
Sunday morning the truck thermometer read 7 – that’s right 7 when we pulled out and met up with the Rush’s for the remainder of the trip. It was somewhat uneventful, although Bill did miss the 71 cut off and we drove all the way to Lexington. We spent Sunday night at a campground near Buffalo, TN. No water here either as the campground plumbing was froze. Played with the battery and furnace and did get it working. Beginning to wonder if the battery might not have a bad cell as it will run the furnace for a while and then it drains down. The bath house did have water and heat so we are clean. We walked a half mile in the cold to a restaurant for a nice hot dinner.
When we arrived in Texarkana it was 35 degrees and the sun was shinning! We have a full hookup site and took full advantage of the cable TV, wireless INTERNET and water. All was good until we checked the local weather. It was to drop to 20 so we thought we could leave the water on, and dripping. Ah well, the best laid plans…..it froze!
Wed Jan 6: We finally arrived at Garner after a long (in time but not in distance) trip from our stay in Schertz just north of San Antonio. The couple we are traveling with experienced some problems; seems that the right rear tire on his truck “popped” a cord or two. It took AAA several hours to finally get the correct unit out to change the tire and air up the spare. We arrived at 3:30 (had planned on being here before noon) and were directed to our sites. We are located in one of the camping areas on a site assigned to one of the contractor/vendors during the summer camping season. It’s a nice open site and will have plenty of sun – when it comes out. Our temps are not all that great here. Our low tonight (Wednesday) is supposed to be 39, and that is to be the high for tomorrow when the low will be 15 and then on Friday the low will be 13!!!
We are pretty much set up and have our satellite TV all hooked up and working. (It only took 45 minutes to get Direct TV to send the local San Antonio local channels to the receiver) We will finish settling in tomorrow and get our first tasks. This weekend is a ‘kid’s hunt’ in the park and they are expecting a pretty full campground. Not sure what we will be doing but will add it to the blog.
Our cell phone is dead here – no bars and no roaming. But, this AT&T air card we bought is giving us a connection for the INTERNET anyway. Will look into a way to make calls through the computer to cell or land line phones.
Thursday Jan 7: Very windy and chilly day, but the sun is out and you can see just how cruddy looking the Cougar and Ram are. It will be a few more days before we can wash them off – and then be able to see out the windows. We met with the volunteer coordinator and are registered on our sites. Later in the day we met with Greg the maintenance ranger to find out what we would be doing. This first week we will be helping with “the hunt” in the park. Saturday and Sunday is a youth hunt and next week the adults. We will be helping to set up portable deer blinds and then transporting hunters to and from the blinds. The ladies may be helping in the ‘kitchen’ as they prepare 3 meals a day for folks involved in the hunt. Or they may help in the transporting as there must be two park people in each vehicle for safety reasons. We take the hunters out at 6, check on them at 10, 12 and 3 and final pickup is at 6. If they get a deer at 12:30, they have to leave it until 3 when we come back to check on them.
We are having trouble keeping the satellite dish aimed in all this wind, so no BCS game.
This is our 'home' for the next 6 weeks.
Friday Jan 8: Friday Jan 8: We finally started to work today. The morning was spent just dong odds and ends at the RV (the satellite dish is now working) and then at noon we walked to the shop. From there we set out to place and erect the deer hunting blinds for the hunt which begins tomorrow. It will be only 'youth' on Saturday and Sunday and then the adult hunt will be next week. Bill Rush and Jon will be driving a run taking adults out. The hunters will be dropped off at their blinds at 6 in the morning and then will be checked or picked up at 10, 12 and 3. Final pickup will be at 6 in the evening. We will have some long days for sure.
Found some interesting plants in the woods. It is a plant that oozes sap at freezing the sap then freezes around the stem of the plant. It looks like little bundles of Styrofoam around the woods. Guess it protects the plant roots from the sub freezing temps we are having at night.
They will be setting up a 'mess hall' in one of the shelters where they will be cooking and providing (for a cost) three meals a day plus and afternoon snack for the next week. It will be for all the hunters and those of us working the hunt. They also have stations setup cleaning and dressing out the deer. It will be interesting to see the kids.
Saturday Jan 9: Woke up this morning to frozen pipes in the trailer. We had left the water running slowly in the kitchen, but it was the shower/vanity that froze. This is where the pipes run through the ‘basement’ area. Set up one of our small heaters and let it run for over an hour and it thawed….and no leaks!! Only one more night of below freezing and then our lows will be in the 30’s and highs in the 50’s to low 60’s!!!
Here is a picture of that strange plant.
At noon we went to the ‘big shelter’ for lunch and the youth hunter briefing. For the next 6 days we will be eating our meals there – at about $2 a meal. It was interesting to see the kids (8 boys and one girl) receive their instructions and then at 3 they were loaded into trucks and taken to their assigned blinds. Each has and adult (all males except for one mom) with them. They are allowed to shoot one Axis buck and as many females as they want. They will be out until after sunset today and then again tomorrow from 6AM until noon.
Here are the kids loading up to go out
And this is Judy and Lois sitting around the fire.
Sunday morning the truck thermometer read 7 – that’s right 7 when we pulled out and met up with the Rush’s for the remainder of the trip. It was somewhat uneventful, although Bill did miss the 71 cut off and we drove all the way to Lexington. We spent Sunday night at a campground near Buffalo, TN. No water here either as the campground plumbing was froze. Played with the battery and furnace and did get it working. Beginning to wonder if the battery might not have a bad cell as it will run the furnace for a while and then it drains down. The bath house did have water and heat so we are clean. We walked a half mile in the cold to a restaurant for a nice hot dinner.
When we arrived in Texarkana it was 35 degrees and the sun was shinning! We have a full hookup site and took full advantage of the cable TV, wireless INTERNET and water. All was good until we checked the local weather. It was to drop to 20 so we thought we could leave the water on, and dripping. Ah well, the best laid plans…..it froze!
Wed Jan 6: We finally arrived at Garner after a long (in time but not in distance) trip from our stay in Schertz just north of San Antonio. The couple we are traveling with experienced some problems; seems that the right rear tire on his truck “popped” a cord or two. It took AAA several hours to finally get the correct unit out to change the tire and air up the spare. We arrived at 3:30 (had planned on being here before noon) and were directed to our sites. We are located in one of the camping areas on a site assigned to one of the contractor/vendors during the summer camping season. It’s a nice open site and will have plenty of sun – when it comes out. Our temps are not all that great here. Our low tonight (Wednesday) is supposed to be 39, and that is to be the high for tomorrow when the low will be 15 and then on Friday the low will be 13!!!
We are pretty much set up and have our satellite TV all hooked up and working. (It only took 45 minutes to get Direct TV to send the local San Antonio local channels to the receiver) We will finish settling in tomorrow and get our first tasks. This weekend is a ‘kid’s hunt’ in the park and they are expecting a pretty full campground. Not sure what we will be doing but will add it to the blog.
Our cell phone is dead here – no bars and no roaming. But, this AT&T air card we bought is giving us a connection for the INTERNET anyway. Will look into a way to make calls through the computer to cell or land line phones.
Thursday Jan 7: Very windy and chilly day, but the sun is out and you can see just how cruddy looking the Cougar and Ram are. It will be a few more days before we can wash them off – and then be able to see out the windows. We met with the volunteer coordinator and are registered on our sites. Later in the day we met with Greg the maintenance ranger to find out what we would be doing. This first week we will be helping with “the hunt” in the park. Saturday and Sunday is a youth hunt and next week the adults. We will be helping to set up portable deer blinds and then transporting hunters to and from the blinds. The ladies may be helping in the ‘kitchen’ as they prepare 3 meals a day for folks involved in the hunt. Or they may help in the transporting as there must be two park people in each vehicle for safety reasons. We take the hunters out at 6, check on them at 10, 12 and 3 and final pickup is at 6. If they get a deer at 12:30, they have to leave it until 3 when we come back to check on them.
We are having trouble keeping the satellite dish aimed in all this wind, so no BCS game.
This is our 'home' for the next 6 weeks.
Friday Jan 8: Friday Jan 8: We finally started to work today. The morning was spent just dong odds and ends at the RV (the satellite dish is now working) and then at noon we walked to the shop. From there we set out to place and erect the deer hunting blinds for the hunt which begins tomorrow. It will be only 'youth' on Saturday and Sunday and then the adult hunt will be next week. Bill Rush and Jon will be driving a run taking adults out. The hunters will be dropped off at their blinds at 6 in the morning and then will be checked or picked up at 10, 12 and 3. Final pickup will be at 6 in the evening. We will have some long days for sure.
Found some interesting plants in the woods. It is a plant that oozes sap at freezing the sap then freezes around the stem of the plant. It looks like little bundles of Styrofoam around the woods. Guess it protects the plant roots from the sub freezing temps we are having at night.
They will be setting up a 'mess hall' in one of the shelters where they will be cooking and providing (for a cost) three meals a day plus and afternoon snack for the next week. It will be for all the hunters and those of us working the hunt. They also have stations setup cleaning and dressing out the deer. It will be interesting to see the kids.
Saturday Jan 9: Woke up this morning to frozen pipes in the trailer. We had left the water running slowly in the kitchen, but it was the shower/vanity that froze. This is where the pipes run through the ‘basement’ area. Set up one of our small heaters and let it run for over an hour and it thawed….and no leaks!! Only one more night of below freezing and then our lows will be in the 30’s and highs in the 50’s to low 60’s!!!
Here is a picture of that strange plant.
At noon we went to the ‘big shelter’ for lunch and the youth hunter briefing. For the next 6 days we will be eating our meals there – at about $2 a meal. It was interesting to see the kids (8 boys and one girl) receive their instructions and then at 3 they were loaded into trucks and taken to their assigned blinds. Each has and adult (all males except for one mom) with them. They are allowed to shoot one Axis buck and as many females as they want. They will be out until after sunset today and then again tomorrow from 6AM until noon.
Here are the kids loading up to go out
And this is Judy and Lois sitting around the fire.
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