After doing a thorough job on the inside we carted the supplies to the dining hall which we will tackle on Tuesday. Again just working on the inside as the temperature is to drop steadily throughout the day. After lunch and rest we piled in Bill’s Ford and took off for Corsicana, a town 30 miles north. On the way out of the park, Bill stopped to check for mail and the jewelry the ladies had ordered while at the "Rock House" had arrived. This brightened the day for them a bit. Anyway it was a nice drive and of course we had to find an ice cream shop and a couple of ‘junk stores’ to check out.
Tuesday February 23: Awoke this morning to some light rain, but by 7:30 it had changed to light snow. It snowed on and off all day and by the accumulation on the grill stand, we have about 4 inches on the ground. Needless to say that is not why we came to Texas! We certainly can’t do much work outside, so it was on to the group dining hall. It certainly needed a cleaning. We figure that the building is nearly 70 years old, and has the original windows though they do not fit, the lift ropes are broken and many of the stiles between the panes are rotting. We spent the bulk of the day on the dining room area and cooks room. Tomorrow there is a luncheon for staff and volunteers, so we won’t work too many hours. We have the kitchen to do and then if the weather breaks, move back to outside work. They have a huge 10 burner gas stove, large restaurant sized refrigerator and big chest freezer. The kitchen is in pretty good shape except for the heating/cooling vents.
Lilly enjoyed romping in the snow. Tom Fisher’s kids (he’s the park manager) fun making large snow balls and forts – and having snowball fights. This is what our site looked like this morning as we walked to work.
Wednesday February 24: The weather was not great so this morning we worked on the kitchen and knocked off in time to get ready for the luncheon. It was a nice affair with everyone bringing a dish and as usual everything was good and we all ate a little too much. Two of the host couples will be leaving on Sunday so it was a farewell for them and welcome of us. One couple from Missouri arrived here in January and will be here until after we leave at the end of March. She had been a volunteer coordinator at a state park in Missouri and seems to be assuming that role here. It will be interesting to see what Tom does about the ‘transportation’ situation once the other two couples leave. One has the use of a John Deere Gator and the other a Kawasaki Mule. She is laying claim to the Mule and the radio that goes with it. One of us will have the Cushman again.
Seated across from us are Virginia and Ken along with Donna and Evert and at the end, Shelly a park employee.
We met Virginia and Ken the first year we volunteered in Texas. They live full time in there RV and spend eight to ten months volunteering in state parks as they cover the west. In the fall of ’08 we stayed with them at the Missouri Head Waters State Park in Montana.
Thursday February 25: Another chilly night and morning. We did not get started until nearly 10 when the sun was up and bright. We first finished the exterior of the staff cabin and then after lunch went back to the dining hall. By the end of the day we had over half of the exterior windows done, but the going was slow because of the number of broken panes. About 3 we decided that we’d finished enough for the week. We put everything inside as the facility is not rented out for this weekend.
After dinner we took Lilly for her now becoming ritual evening walk. She certainly enjoys all the different smells and sights. She particularly enjoys it when she spooks a white tail.
I spent some time going through the park’s old Gamin GPS unit trying to find out what all they had on it and what the various abbreviations. I need to meet with Dan and then Tom to make some decisions on to make some standardized codes. Tom wants to get a number of things marked with the GPS coordinates.
Saturday February 27: Friday we decided to take some time and make a trip to Waco. We needed to replace a trailer taillight and the Rushes needed a couple of RV items too. The RV dealer left a lot to be desired, but the parts area was more than adequate. It was a 40 mile ride through wide open mostly cattle ranches until we got near the south end of Waco. We picked up some interesting items at several shops and the ladies were able to visit a couple of quilt shops.
Bill found a lock-smith and finally had some extra keys made for his camper. Camper keys are somewhat unique and you just can’t get one made at Lowe's or Ace Hardware. Somehow they have a propensity to misplace their camper key. The last two camping trips with them they have had to search out and have made a camper key.
When we left Friday morning the sun was out and it was pretty. As the day progressed the sky became gray and the wind came in with a bite. According to “Intellicast” the average high temperature should be 66, but we are hanging in the low 50’s for highs.
This was sort of a lazy day here, except for getting things prepared to change site locations tomorrow. It took some time to get the long sewer lines taken apart and stored. Also had to replace that taillight and store things away. Judy finished putting together the twelve full blocks for the oopsie daisy quilt and will now begin to assemble the half blocks. We took Lilly on another long walk, played some 80’s Trivial Pursuit and then decided to go to the Sale Barn Café for dinner.
Yes the restaurant is located in the live-stock sale barn. It was pretty good and really interesting to see the local folks. Of course there were lots of steak on the menu plus the usual ‘country fired’ version and shrimp. What we did not see was any pork.
Not sure if these ladies are sellers or for sale??
That’s about it for this week. We move on Sunday to a different location within the park (into the campground proper) and there should at least have better air card coverage, but still no real Sprint cell coverage. May try to Skype, but that over the air card is a bit garbled
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