Intercepting Snowbirds in Kerrville

At Buckhorn Lake RV Resort, Kerrville, Texas...

We're finding that we just don't spend  that much time at the homeport anymore. Our two-month summer trip in Phannie and the freedom she gives us to visit the kids often has had the surprising effect of making us realize that we are a good deal happier in our rolling home than in our stationary one. We've found that we don't need much of a reason at all to leave town and launch on a new adventure.

Such was the case when we learned that snowbird friends Ed and Marilyn were heading straight through Texas en route to their winter home in the Rio Grande Valley instead of their original itinerary through Louisiana. We contacted Eddie and Janet, members of the same group of retired RV characters who somehow found each other and continued to maintain a loose orbit, bumping into each other at various times and places, some more often than others. There appear to be common traits among these friends--a quick wit, I suppose, as there is always much laughter when they're together, but then there is the more compassionate side, as well. None of them would dream of exploiting another's foibles, infirmities or affectations. 

Not much, they wouldn't. 

Not having been humiliated for a while, I offered to hook up with Eddie and Jan for an intercept of Ed and Marilyn somewhere along Ed's route. The stop decided upon was Kerrville, a very pleasant burg in the Texas hill country. No problem for us, and well within the 250-mile daily traipse that we generally set for ourselves. The park of choice was Buckhorn Lake RV Resort, a nice one that is, of course, in our 'best of the best' listing page.

Buckhorn Entrance at Night

With the flight plan in place, I began to perform in earnest a few chores I had vowed to accomplish prior to the next departure. One of these was to change the anode rod in Phannie's water heater, something I try to do annually. Beforehand, I secured a new one at Camping World's inflated price, then I began the changeout, which was quite simple:

  
Sure enough, the old rod was almost eaten through in one place, so my timing was pretty good, I thought.

Another more annoying chore was trimming the hedges again:

I'm not sure why this chore bothers me so much, but it has become a metaphor for the dark side of stick-and-brick home ownership and why I seem to be moving ever more toward "slipping the surly bond," as John Magee put it in High Flight. While it is a great house, it owns us more than we own it, I'm afraid.

On departure day for Kerrville, we awoke at 8:00 a.m.--daybreak for us--and actually pulled away from the house at 11:30. Now you should know that we get no end of grief from Ed and Marilyn and others in their orbit for our indifference to the old bromide, "the early bird gets the worm," which is obviously a mantra that they learned in some cult brainwashing they don't talk about. Ed often writes in his blog about the insanely early times he and Marilyn arise--times that are in very small numbers that I didn't even know were real, having only heard rumors of their appearance on clocks. These are nice people, but they obviously need an intervention.

Our leisurely lifestyle carries over into the en route portion of our travel in Phannie. We often stop for lunch--usually a sandwich that we put together in the bus--at a roadside park or picnic area. If it's a nice place and the weather is pleasant, we may go outside, taking our time and enjoying our surroundings while we eat. Such was the case when we stopped at a very picturesque little roadside park between Glen Rose and Hico. We took in the hilltop view and, as we often do in our conversations, wondered aloud as to what day it was and, upon deciding that it was a workday, reveled in the notion that that meant nothing to us. 

As we lollygagged around there over lunch, I noted that we would run past the ETA that Sandy had given Marilyn earlier, and I figured there would be a verbal flogging awaiting us at the RV park in Kerrville. I was not disappointed. Much merriment was made over the fact that we arrived after the park office had closed and, if that weren't enough, we disrupted everyone's dinner plans. I tried to defend myself by noting that the sun hadn't gone down yet, and we hadn't noticed any chickens going to bed, something that would have made Ed conk out, for sure. It was all good-natured, of course, and we didn't mind being fodder for their jokes.

We had a nice dinner at Mamacita's, a large and popular Mexican restaurant, where everyone enjoyed their selections, especially the excellent fajitas Sandy and I ordered.

Who knows what we will get into tomorrow? We don't really care because, as Ed always signs off on his blog, "Life is good."

Thank you, Lord, for this wonderful life; please forgive me if I do not appreciate it enough each day.