LAST WEEK - FORT PARKER

Monday March 22: Sunday we painted out the rest of the five gallons of paint they had bought for us. We were painting over cement board that had been painted gray and the not so expensive paint took two coats to cover it. So what we did was just put the second coats on and did not attempt to go any further. The weather did warm a bit ad dry out. As a reward for ourselves we decided to try the “Drilling Rig” restaurant in Mexia. Judy and Lois were hungry for chicken fried steak. They did not give it a five star rating. I tried their ‘gangpusher’ omelet and it was really good, loaded with all sorts of vegetables and ham and bacon. When we got back to the campground we took Lilly for a long walk. The wind was pretty strong but once we were in the woods it was fairly calm. There were whitecaps on the lake kicked up by the strong winds. Because all that rain on Saturday the water was really rushing over the dam.


Dan delivered another five gallons of paint shortly before nine so it was back to painting. The change from dingy gray to white certainly brightens up the rooms. By the end of the day we had three rooms completely done, but still have the main staff room, one bedroom and the bathrooms to do. When we stopped for the day, we had gone through another five gallons, so Dan will be of to town in the morning for still more paint. After hamburgers cooked on the grill and really good potato salad (Judy made) we ran into town to get milk and thread. She started here oopsie daisy quilt and needed more green thread. By the time we got back the sun was beginning to set. It certainly has moved to the north since we first arrived at this spot. Used to look straight out the door at it setting, now have to look around a big tree.

This is a ‘red bud’ tree just next to our camper.

They are very delicate little flowers.

Tuesday March 23: Another exciting day of a painting in the group barracks staff building. At the start of the day all we had to go was the last bedroom and the bathrooms. Bill went to work with the Kilz in the small half bath. While he was doing that, I scrapped the ceiling and upper walls of the shower in the other bathroom. He painted the baseboards and moldings and noticed the supply line to the toilet leaking so he called for Dan. I had just finished giving the shower the first coat of Kilz when Dan arrived. He tried to shut off the water and the supply line broke. Consequently we had a flooded bathroom. Took them a while to find the shut off, well not find it really. It was well marked but the gofers had been in the hole and had it filled with dirt and sand. Dan had to dig down nearly 18 inches with his hands to find it. At one time there were seven of us working in that small building!

Needless to say, we won’t be doing that bathroom. They finally fixed the supply line and re-set the toilet. We are down to the final hours on the building. That water problem caused us some delay so we spent a bit more time there than we had planned. Wednesday we just have to put a little paint around the light in one room, reinstall the curtains and give the remaining rooms a quick once over. Two of the three bedrooms we had finished, we cleaned and closed off.

Looking at a beautiful sunset across the lake. This is what our site looks like from the camp site next to the lake.

Wednesday March 24: Well, spring has arrived in central Texas. On her morning walk today with Lilly, Judy found some blue bonnets. There weren’t many, but soon the fields will be full of them – or so they tell us.

It did not take long to wrap up the staff building this morning. In fact by 10:30 we were back at the camper. All of the painting equipment paint and tools are now back at maintenance and they will have to deal with the bathroom at a later date. Even before we were finished the cook for the arriving group pulled in and began to unload. This is a group of Sonic Drive-In managers in for a two day meeting and session. Wonder what they will be eating?

In the afternoon, it was nap and read time for the females and GPS computer time for me. I needed to transpose the data from the GPS unit to one of the office computers. These are the locations for the various water mains and cut offs for the park as well as the electrical cut offs. While at it I logged in all of the wood duck boxes around the lake.

Bill and Lois depart in the morning to tend to their water damage problem. After they had their farewells with Tom and Dan we went to Billy D’s at the sale barn for dinner. Another thunder storm is to move in later tonight. It is a long line stretching from north of Dallas south to Del Rio. The main line should pass over us about mid-night. Will be anxious to see how much the lake level comes up.

Thursday March 25: The storm rolled through but didn’t last too long. The wind was pretty strong and carried into the morning. An interesting sight to observe is the lake level following a storm. You could see where it had raised some when we got up, but later in the morning it was even higher – all those creeks and streams flowing into the Navasota.

In the morning I found the instructions and permit blank required to place a geocache in a state park. Tom wants two and Bill made and painted two four inch PVC pipe sections for us to use. We have rough locations selected but will have to get the final approval before placing.

After a long morning walk we decided to go to the new property area to flag off another lot for Tom. He wanted to know for sure if some major ‘junk’ was located on a parcel they bought. Turns out it is not so the park can’t touch the stuff to clean it up.

We then checked out a location for a geocache Tom suggested.

In the afternoon I checked the Cougar tires and added a little air to two of them. The satellite service ended at midnight so the dish was broken down and packed away. We also sorted out all our painting gear and packed it for the trip home.

On our evening walk we came upon some bluebonnets in full bloom. The plant looks a bit like sweet woodruff but the flowers look like blue bonnets. This is a close up of one such blue bonnet.

This is a patch along the road. They say that when they are in full bloom, the fields and pastures are nearly blue with them.

It’s another quiet night in the campground. The sun was bright orange as it fell below horizon across the lake. We have two other campers in the park so we don’t expect any noise tonight.

Saturday March 27: Friday was a fairly lazy day. At 12:30 we had a big meeting about the Adventure Race on Saturday (more on that later) and we set off to place the geocaches. Tom’s kids had gotten us some more little items to put in them so we have a number of little goodies (beads, matchbox car, compass etc.). On Thursday we had scouted out the areas so it was not too hard to get them placed. Late in the day I went to the office and l finished updating the computer file with all the water valve and electrical cutoffs so that task is now completed. I also used their computer to log on to geocache dot com and list the two caches we had placed. I had a hard time finding the forms required by the TPWD but did locate them and completed two for the caches.

The park slowly filled with campers and folks for the race. The park is loaded with mountain bikes. With this race (check out tocoolracing dot com) there were two courses and single, co-ed, man-man and woman-woman teams/competitors. The short course takes 3 to 6 hours and the long 8 to 12. They cycle; paddle a canoe or kayak, and trek (walk/jog) a course. Along each way the have stations where they check in, receive a clue to the next station and at some have a task to complete.

We were up at 6:30 when there was a knock at our door. Two guys wanted to know if our trailer was where they were to sign in. So that started our race day.

This is the group at the 8AM start. There were 30 teams/groups so that meant 60 competitors. For the start they were linked to their partner at the ankle with a large cable tie. They had to run to a tree and grab their first clue and race back to the start line.

My job was to help with vehicle traffic (stop cars) on the old bridge when the cyclist moved from one part of the park to another.

If you look far across the lake you will see three of the canoes.

The three hours of bridge duty had some pretty dull times. I was able to do some reading between cycle groups and was able to take this picture of a couple of wild flowers.

After our time with the race, we went to the office to say our farewells and give Tom and Dan a short course on the GPS unit and what was loaded on an office computer. We received a wooden cut out of Texas with a plaque as well as a mini-mag flashlight. It was in a way sad to say our goodbyes, but we are ready to head out.

As Sunday we start our journey home, this is the last blog from Fort Parker. Most likely when we do arrive home and settle in, I’ll add a few comments about the trip home.