Ugh! We're Stuck Here in the Texas Heat (But Not For Long)

At Northlake Village RV Park, Roanoke, Texas...

One of the things we had been looking forward to after jettisoning the house was escaping to cooler climes for several summer months before the unrepentant Texas sun begins its fiendish rendering of my ample adipose tissue. Well, that escape hasn't happened...yet. We're sitting here in north Texas for a while, working on a special project that, hopefully, will delight grandsons Mason and Pryce. I'll tell you about the project a little later; certain things have to fall into place for it to happen as hoped. We were planning to have made our trek to Colorado before now, even having made reservations at Mountaindale RV Park near Colorado Springs. We were to join several of our friends there in the cool mountain air. 

Sure enough, after a spring that was about three days long, the summer sun has begun its usual microwaving of the north Texas plains, and here we are, reluctantly, in the middle of it. It's easy to tell when the temperature outside approaches 100 degrees: All three of Phannie's air conditioners are humming during the daytime.

But not for long. The things required of me--routine medical tests, mostly--will be finished in a couple of weeks and we will then launch for Durango, Colorado just after the July fourth holiday. Mindy and Tyler and the grandsons will fly into there later in the month; we will see them along with Bubba and LouAnn, who will arrive in their motorhome. We have tickets to ride the old steam train from Durango to Silverton. Grandson Mason--and his brother, Pryce, to a lesser extent--are batty over trains, and they will have a grand time doing this.

We are set up pretty nicely here at Northlake Village, north of Fort Worth, for a month. This is a nice park, and we were lucky enough to get perhaps the best spot in the whole place:

Here's a photo of the park office:

Another real plus is the park wi-fi, which is remarkably fast, unlike the dreadful drip of bandwidth of most other RV parks. This proves that good internet can be had, if the park owners are willing to spring for it. Good for you, Northlake.

During this interlude, Sandy and I went to our dentist, Dr. Novo Cain, for a cleaning and checkup, only to find that I had a small cavity beneath an old crown. Sandy, who has had almost no cavities in her lifetime, also had none this time, of course. I went back the next day to get the cavity fixed and a new crown installed which, of course, made another payment on Dr. Cain's Mercedes. I grumble about our constant visits to health professionals but, by golly, I haven't been around this long without doing something right, I guess. I'm glad they found the cavity on the routine x-ray before I even knew there was a problem. By the time it would have begun to bother me, it would likely have been much worse. 


How about an update on our new residential refrigerator, now that we've had it for a couple of months? Well, I can report that this upgrade may be the best one we've done so far. It would be difficult to describe what a profound difference it has made, especially since we are fulltiming. It was one thing to put up with the old Nevercold while we were part-timing but, somehow, the new fridge makes Phannie much more homelike than we ever imagined it would. If this upgrade is something you may be contemplating, I think your reaction would be no different from ours.

I'll close with a shout out to my friend Ed Dray, another fulltimer whose new book, "My Journey to the Clouds," is now available on Amazon as a Kindle e-book and soon will be available at Barnes and Noble for those with Nooks. Ed asked me to edit the book, which I gladly did. Although I've done a good deal of writing, this was the first book I had edited. I am grateful to Ed for his acknowledgement of my effort, one that turned out to be an enjoyable and illuminating experience for me. Ed also asked me to provide an introduction in the book, which I was happy to do. If you enjoy reading, I think you would find Ed's book to be an interesting perspective of the life of a corporate pilot and the value of perserverance in pursuing your dreams. There is much more, however, in terms of personal stories and the value of faith, family and a positive attitude when terrible things happen. You can find out more here.

Since we're largely in a holding pattern here in north Texas, posts will be a little more sparse until we start moving again. But never fear, I'll be back soon.

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