Colorado Springs, Day Two

At Cheyenne Mountain State Park, Colorado Springs, CO…

Ed and Marilyn are such nice people. Even though they have served as tour guides for countless friends who have visited during their seven summers at Mountaindale, they seemed no less enthusiastic to show the local sights to Sandy and me.  They met us here at Cheyenne Mountain, and on the way to Old Colorado City, we stopped at a local farmers' market and picked up some fresh tamales, jam, corn and cookies. We love nothing more than finding these little pockets of local citizen commerce. We've already tried the cookies and jalapeño jelly, and they are so good!

Ed and Marilyn are buying some fresh corn in the photo below; these ears appeared to have been picked earlier in the morning. So fresh looking!

  
After driving past the famed Broadmoor Hotel, we made a stop at the Michael Garman studio in Old Colorado City. This remarkable sculptor has constructed a massive display of miniature old towns, complete with sculpted inhabitants and detailed so completely and accurately that it defies the imagination.  We enjoyed this a great deal and, although they had seen it many times, Ed and Marilyn were gracious to give us all the time we desired to gawk at Garman's handiwork.

Here are a couple of samples; the human figures in these photos are only about 2 inches high; every item visible--including all the wall decor and items as small as a cigarette, are handmade:

Touring this huge exhibit made us hungry, so we moved a little farther down Colorado Boulevard to Jake and Telly's Greek Restaurant, where we had a wonderful meal al fresco in perfect sunny weather.   We lingered quite a while talking, wondering if any day could be more perfect for what we were doing.  I don't think so.

Next was a driving tour of the magnificent Garden of the Gods, a formation of red sandstone monoliths pushed up and turned to the vertical when the Rockies were being formed eons ago.  Magnificent views were everywhere, of course; here's a sample:

We then drove to Manitou Springs to check out some possible shopping venues for Sandy for later in our visit (unless I can distract her enough so that she won't remember it. Yeah, it's a long shot, I know).


Ed then magically found the Lower Gold Camp Road and drove us up a mountain to what seemed like a mile-high overlook of Colorado Springs. The road we were traveling was a former railroad right of way, complete with two tunnels and a waterfall.  We enjoyed this immensely. Here are some of the photos we took:

After thanking our guides profusely for their insider's overview of Colorado Springs, we determined there was still way too much to see in only one short visit. We drove up the mountain to Phannie's parking spot to rest up a bit, and we began to hear thunder as a line of storms bore down on our camp, soon to inundate the whole area with small hailstones, followed by very heavy rain. We were dry and safe in Phannie, but the hail on the roof was really noisy. Here are some photos of the aftermath:

All this excitement made us hungry again, so we decided to try out an Italian restaurant we had seen earlier during our tour with Ed and Marilyn. The place, named Paravicini's, is in Old Colorado City:

We decided to share a bowl of wedding soup and a shrimp pasta dish with sun dried tomatoes, capers and olives. Soon after we arrived the server brought a small loaf of salt-encrusted bread, piping hot from the oven. Dipped in the olive oil and basalmic vinegar available at each table, this was a perfect starter to the meal.

The dishes were both tasty, but the soup was slightly too salty, and the capers and olives in the pasta dish contributed to a saltiness of that dish that distracted from the freshness of the ingredients. The salt crust on the bread didn't help, either. The service and ambiance were fine, and the place is quite popular. I only wish we would be in town long enough to try some other selections that might have less reliance on salt. 

Tomorrow we are going to try once again to eat lunch at Na Ri,  the Thai restaurant recommended by Ed and which, of course, was closed when he sent us there.  Redemption may be nigh, Ed.

Colorado Springs

At Cheyenne Mountain State Park, Colorado Springs, CO…

This will be a short post since the last one was a bit longish.  Our leg from Raton was a short one, and we arrived at Cheyenne Mountain State Park around mid-afternoon.  This has to be one of the nicest state parks we've seen, and the views of Colorado Springs are incredible from our lofty mountainside perch. I'll have some photos in a subsequent post.

After setting up, we drove out to Mountaindale RV Park, which is about 15 miles south of our campsite. We checked in with friends Ed and Marilyn, who have graciously agreed to show us around the area in the next couple of days. We also wanted to see the park for ourselves, and we can easily understand why these two have made it their summer home for seven years now.  It is truly a bucolic setting, and we'll have photos of that, too, a bit later.

We asked Ed for a restaurant recommendation for dinner, ever vigilant because of his long checkered history of picking restaurants that are closed. He knew we liked Thai food, so he recommended Na Ri, one they liked that was not too far from our RV park. A bit sensitive himself, he asked Marilyn to verify that it was open on this Sunday evening, and she checked and said that it was. So, after making plans to meet the next day, we followed Ed's instructions directly to the restaurant, only to find it…yep, closed.

We had a good laugh, anticipating the ribbing our friend will have to endure tomorrow, and drove about eight miles up I-25 to a Japanese restaurant named Jun Sushi and Noodles.  It was a busy place, and unfortunately, we were seated too close to a loudmouthed drunk who kept demanding some banana tempura (which the restaurant didn't offer).  Must be quite a drink, that sake.

Sandy and I had a teriyaki-tempura combination that was delicious and quite reasonably priced. 

Their mainstay is sushi, however, and that was the choice of most of the patrons.  We have never exactly warmed up to sushi, clinging to the rather outdated notion that raw fish is just better when it's cooked. I'm pretty sure that's not likely to change.

We're looking forward to our adventures with our friends, and we'll keep you posted.

Amarillo to Raton, NM

At Cheyenne Mountain State Park, Colorado Springs, Co…

Rewind: As promised, a review of Coyote Bluff Cafe in Amarillo:

This is a true dive in every sense of the word, and that’s why I like it! It’s a tiny burger joint in a rundown former house on South Grand Street. But it is incredibly popular; patrons must go inside, put their name on a list and then go back outside in the parking lot to wait for a table--rain or shine, cold or hot; it doesn't matter. There's no room to wait inside. 

The place is literally a dump; the owners apparently see no need to perform repairs that are sorely needed, like the front porch, for example. The floor boards there are nearly rotted out and will probably cause an injury at some point. (I hope their liability insurance is paid up.) Yet oddly, the more dilapidated the place becomes, the more charm it seems to have. Go figure.

The burgers are huge and come in about a half dozen varieties.  The green chile cheeseburger is a thing of beauty and my favorite, even though I’ve had only one other version, the Old Fashioned. That green chile cheeseburger will always be my favorite because it was my first love when I had it here before. I ordered it with bacon too, in spite of my fear it might hasten my trip to the Great Beyond. Then I remembered my Lipitor prescription, and I felt better about it. The Hellburger also caught my eye, based on its promise of being wickedly spicy, but I don’t know if a Baptist is supposed eat a Hellburger, so I didn’t order it.

So what silly thing did I do this time at Coyote Bluff?  I ordered a steak, for reasons that are not entirely clear. I shouldn’t have; it was too thin, too done and had a peculiar whang (Texan for odd taste) that I didn’t like.  I won’t make that mistake again; the place is a BURGER joint, Mike! 

The next day, our leg from Amarillo to Raton, New Mexico was uneventful, and we loved seeing again the great vistas and clear skies on the high plains, punctuated eventually by the appearance of distant mountains as we approached New Mexico.

I try to limit our en route legs to 250 miles or less each day to allow us to just mosey along, taking time to stop if we wish and see stuff that interests us.  With all the conveniences of home right there in the coach with us, it’s sort of like taking a road trip in our living room. Because of Phannie’s roominess, together with our ability to move around, access food and drink, and relax in the plush cockpit recliners, we really don’t get tired on a long drive like we do in a pickup or automobile. Since I obviously can't get up and move around when I'm driving, Sandy does most of the steppin' and fetchin'.  That's women's work, after all, isn't it?  (Please, God, let this be a post she doesn't read.)

Sandy quickly slips into slumber soon after she reclines her cockpit chair and raises the power footrest. She will tell you that life is good in Phannie once I have been dealt with!

A surprise for us was our ability to have access to cell phone signals on this trip, even in some very remote parts of the Texas panhandle. We never lost a signal anywhere in Texas until we reached Raton (it figures). We know we have become way too addicted to the technology, but we must face the fact that we have become data junkies. Much of the time en route is spent calling, texting or on the web. It is a wonderful convenience and source of information, as well as helping pass the time (especially with social media); I'm not sure how we got along without it. 

Now some readers will be shaking their heads at this, because for them, a vacation is not a vacation until they jettison all of the bondage of technology, preferring to rejuvenate themselves in peace and quiet without peering into a silly small screen much of the time. For others (like Sandy and yes, yours truly), you may as well cut out their tongues or cut off their fingers. A vacation unconnected would be pretty much unbearable for these folks. 

Now, let's talk about Raton.  This little burg is nestled at the bottom of Raton Pass in the northeast corner of New Mexico. We stayed at the Raton KOA, which is a pretty tired-looking place with gravel sites, and it was too expensive for my liking. But they were friendly toward us, and that counts for something, I guess.

Note the deep blue of the sky in the photos above and below. We don't get to see that in the hazy metropolitan area where we live, and that's among the things I love about traveling in the West.

I would like to say something positive about Raton, but the town is pretty sleepy and may have seen better days.  There doesn't seem to be much here to support the place other than the gas stations and convenience stores that populate the intersection of I-25 and U. S. 84. There are many closed businesses, unfortunately. Even KFC couldn't make it here, and there is no Wal-Mart. The size of the downtown area is such that one would think these businesses would thrive.  Maybe they need to change the town's Spanish name to something other what it means in English.

Downtown Raton 

We at dinner at El Matador, a painfully nondescript little Mexican eatery on Second Street.

A curiosity is the large "restaurant" sign on the front of the building in some kind of Hellenic font that would be appropriate for a German restaurant. I don't know why I notice these things, but that helped convince me I needed to eat here.

We had tacos and enchiladas lathered in some of the best red and green New Mexico chile sauce I have ever eaten. (I am a sucker for New Mexican chiles.) We had breakfast burritos stuffed with egg, pan sausage and green chile strips, swimming in the aforementioned sauce. It was ridiculously good.

By the way, someone asked why I'm doing so many restaurant reviews lately. Well, when we are overnighting in different towns when en route somewhere, we generally eat out--not having time to do much else--and that usually presents an opportunity to offer some commentary that could possibly be useful to readers…or not.  It doesn't really matter; I blog about what's interesting to me. Hopefully, it is occasionally interesting to others. 


Colorado Springs is next; stay tuned!

Sweetwater to Amarillo

At Oasis RV Resort, Amarillo, Texas…

Okay, let's get right to the point on Miss Allen's; you've waited long enough. This is what the locals call Allen's Fried Chicken and Family Style Meals in Sweetwater, Texas, which is about 50 miles west of Abilene on I-20. This ramshackle place has been on the main drag in Sweetwater since the earth cooled, and everyone in this part of Texas knows about it.

The meals are served family style, which means that you sit at large tables with other diners whom you probably don't know (unless you're a local).

The food, which is southern home cooking, is brought out and set on the tables in large serving bowls and platters, and the patrons pass these around the table, uh, family style.  (We hadn't met before the guy in the photo below, but he was very friendly, telling us that he scheduled his business trips in order to pass through Sweetwater at lunchtime to eat at Miss Allen's.)

Although the photo above doesn't show it, there were no fewer than 21 different items when all the serving dishes had been brought to the table.  These included fried chicken, barbecue brisket, ribs and sausage, cole slaw, pea salad, potato salad, boiled buttered potatoes, candied sweet potatoes, green beans, pinto beans, stewed okra and tomatoes, stewed corn, stewed squash, stewed turnip greens, rolls and peach cobbler.  Available drinks were iced tea or water.

This is my first plate; it would hold only seven of the 21 dishes on the table: 

Sandy and I had not dined here before today, but it had all the hallmarks that would constitute nirvana for a foodie like me. It was because of the cachet of this place and a recommendation by old friend Bubba that we nudged Phannie a bit out of our way through Abilene and Sweetwater while en route to Colorado. I had to try it; no real foodie could look himself in the mirror if he hadn't.

Now, for the review. Let me precede this by reminding you that I am incredibly picky about food. I was raised among great cooks, and my expectations are bordering on unrealistic. If I owned a restaurant, I would probably go broke trying to achieve perfection. In fact, I'm sure of it.

First, the surroundings: I love old landmark dives like this, so I have nothing but raves about the history and tradition of this family style restaurant.  The servers were rushed but friendly, so we really have no problems here.

Now, the food:  The fried chicken was among the best I have eaten.  It was perfectly seasoned, floured and fried.  The barbecue, however, was a bit under par. The smoke flavor was strong, as if some kind of smoke flavoring had been added. The ribs were way overdone, and the sausage was bland and greasy. The buttered potatoes and pinto beans were fine, but most of the other vegetable dishes surprisingly and inexplicably had too much sugar added to them. Perhaps this is a local thing, but I didn't get it. I had never eaten sweet turnip greens before and found them quite off-putting. The green beans, corn and sweet potatoes were canned, therefore disappointing, but with this many dishes, I suppose they had to take some short cuts to keep the cost at ten bucks for all this food, of which patrons can eat all they wish, as long as they eat it on the premises.

Was it worth the ten bucks?  Of course; it was an amazing experience to be drawn briefly into this little vignette of the Sweetwater community and worth a stop just for the chicken.

In an effort to fend off criticism about my being a one-trick pony, preoccupied only with food as I describe the places we pass through, let me add a couple of interesting facts about Sweetwater that you probably didn't know:  The WASPS--the only women pilots of WWII, were trained at Sweetwater's Avenger Field. It is also the center of one of the largest wind generation areas in the U. S. with more than 1300 windmills. I was not able to determine how the town got its name; I was too busy eating lunch at Miss Allen's.

Full of chicken and some of Miss Allen's other dishes (there were so many, I took only a forkful of some), we trekked northward to Amarillo. The strong wind was at our stern this time, and Phannie handled much better.

We pulled in to Oasis RV Resort about 6:30 p.m.  Now this was more like it: A big beautiful park with large concrete pads. 

No, we didn't arrive after dark, as the photo above would suggest; I took the photo after we returned from dinner. Those readers who know us well are not surprised by what would be a very late arrival time for most of them. I get quite enough ribbing from our RV friends about the hours we keep, so I'm trying to head them off with this explanation. (I doubt if it will work.) Frankly, we've tried being early people, but we just don't do it very well. It's too much like having to get up early to go to work. 

We have tried to forget the dustbowl park back in Abilene, but the white dust all over Phannie's lower sides and posterior means that a wash job is imminent so as to avoid further embarrassment.

We went to Coyote Bluff near downtown Amarillo for dinner, but I'll tell you about that in the next post. 

Abilene

At Big Country RV Park, Abilene, Texas…

Before lurching away from our little manse near Fort Worth, it suddenly dawned on me that I had not checked Phannie's battery water levels in a while. So, I grabbed some distilled water and my Pro-Fil bulb and connector tubing and gave the house batteries a drink. 

Here's a photo of me servicing the batteries the easy way; I just put the tube in the water jug and squeeze the bulb until it resists any more squeezing. The water goes throughout the manifold to all the battery cells without overfilling them.  Easy peasy!  (If they gave college degrees for doing things the easy way, I would have a PhD for sure.)

Those batteries were thirsty!  Look how much water they took, and it really hadn't been that long since the last check and fill.  Must be the hot weather:

I am just waiting for these coach batteries to play out so I can replace them with AGM batteries that will not require irrigating. I will have to really feed my piggy bank, unfortunately, because the AGMs are not cheap!

Until then, however, I would not want to be without my Pro-Fil battery irrigation system. Phannie's battery tray does not pull out (bad design), so watering them without Pro-Fil is a total pain.  (Takes two of these Pro-Fil manifolds for the four batteries.)

Okay, I digress; back to today's journey:

If you are familiar with Texas geography, you may wonder why we're going from Fort Worth to Colorado Springs via Abilene. You would be justified in your curiosity, because Abilene is somewhat offset from a straight line between the two cities. Two words: Miss Allen's.  I'll have more on this in a later post; sorry for the tease.

It was a hot trek this August afternoon on I-20.  The outside air temperature readout varied from 99 to 102 for the entire trip. To make matters worse, it was quite windy, and big motorhomes require quite a bit more attention by the driver when wind gusts are broadsiding the rig.  Phannie is no different, and I was ready to shut down in the RV park just on the outskirts of Abilene.  Fortunately, we didn't have to run the generator and roof airs en route. Tiffin did a good job with the dash air in our Phaeton; it has a very high volume blower and six outlets for the front seats. This setup provides sufficient cooling in all but the most extreme hot weather.

The topography in this area, as in most of west Texas, is not what you would call particularly scenic. It is even less so these days because of the awful drought. The scrubby vegetation and grass are incredibly dry and brown, and when you exit the pavement onto dirt and gravel--which, regrettably, constitutes the driving areas in Abilene RV parks--the dust is powdery and plentiful. Here is a photo of poor Mae after a short drive to our parking space at Big Country RV Park:

I may have to rethink Abilene as a stop on our trips.  We really try to avoid dusty and muddy unpaved parks, but sometimes we have no choice. (Gosh, that sounds a little snobbish, doesn't it?) Sorry, but we don't apologize for much these days. 
We had dinner at the Seafood Tavern in Abilene.  Pretty good, but we erred in ordering some fried selections. The seafood was good, but we didn't care for the beer batter; it was too heavy and greasy. Fortunately, Sandy and I had split an entree, so it was manageable because of the small portions we ate.  It was probably not the best idea to go to a seafood restaurant so far from ANY water, but it had been recommended to us and had very good Yelp reviews.  On a positive note, the service was excellent.  We might go back, but we certainly wouldn't order anything fried.

Tomorrow we stop at Miss Allen's. We will elucidate in the next post, so be patient. 

Yearly Maintenance Finished; Time to Head North!

At home near Fort Worth, Texas...

I suppose it's just as well we were thwarted earlier in the summer in our attempt to get the heck out of Dodge, er, Fort Worth, that is. Bubba's accident and Sandy's neck problems caused us to miss our intended caravan to Colorado. Well, that was then, and this is now. It's been cooler than normal this summer, but it's too danged hot now to stick around here any longer. Sandy is doing better, so we're going to try to find Colorado without Bubba (his coach won't be repaired for a while yet). More on that later.  

I've used the time at home to take care of the annual service on Phannie, including the genset.  It was also time for a 50,000 mile service on Mae, which included service to the transmission. The dealer also took care of some GM recalls against the car. Luckily, the technicians working on all this equipment caught several discrepancies that could easily have given us problems on the road. 

It was time to change the thermostats on Phannie's engine, and the tech at Holt Caterpillar discovered that one of them had failed, having fallen apart as he removed it. During some chassis work, the tech at Motorhomes of Texas found a loose electrical connection that was causing a loss of AC power from the inverter. During the genset service, the Cummins/Onan tech replaced a panel that was missing--one that could possibly have caused the generator to overheat. When servicing the transmission on the HHR, the Chevrolet tech discovered that the fluid reservoir pan was bent and beginning to leak.

So, it's been a fairly expensive few weeks, but I'm very happy that the rolling stock is now in good shape for another year. Perhaps because of my career flying airplanes, I have always been diligent to ensure that whatever I'm flying--or driving, as I am nowadays--is properly maintained on schedule. Perhaps that's why I'm still here, who knows?

A few days ago, I noticed that Phannie's headlight lenses were becoming a little foggy--as plexiglas tends to do after a while when exposed to the sun. So I thought to myself, here's some maintenance that even I might be qualified to do! So, I looked for the plexiglas cleaner and found, unfortunately, that the bottle had dried up. Then I remembered I had read somewhere that toothpaste could be used to clean and polish the lens. Purloining a tube of Colgate from the bathroom, I decided to give it a try. Here's the highly technical procedure, with photos. It took a good bit of scrubbing and the help of a handheld electric buffer, but I think the results speak for themselves:

Pretty neat, huh? 

Because I expended so much energy and brainpower on this project, I decided I was exhausted and that a nap was in order. As I nestled into my recliner, I asked Sandy what day of the week it was. 

"It's Tuesday," she said.

I soon nodded off, thinking about several of my friends, including Bubba, who are still grinding away at their jobs on this Tuesday afternoon while I enjoy a nap. I'm not sure why, but that somehow made me sleep better. 

Well, with all of the maintenance items complete and the sun baking my beloved state, the time has definitely come to find a cooler clime. Tomorrow, we will be heading out, stopping in a few days to see some friends near Colorado Springs and then onward to Rocky Mountain National Park. After that--who knows?  We'll keep you posted.

Year One of Retirement is Done; Thoughts on Being Part Timers

At home near Fort Worth, Texas...

Mindy and the grands left us after a week of fun, frolic and good food. We already miss them, as the house is now disturbingly quiet and yes, a bit lonely. As I write this, a clock on my desk is making a muffled click at the passing of each second. This sound has been completely inaudible for the past week, mercifully drowned out by the wonderful cacophony of laughter punctuated by squeals and shrieks of the boys at play. To say that we miss that is an understatement.

However, the quietness facilitates reflecting on my first year of retirement; it hardly seems it has been a year since that blessed event! In a post to this blog on July 7th, 2013, I mentioned that Sandy and I were likely going to be part timers rather than full timers and, sure enough, that's how it turned out. It doesn't look like that's going to change, barring some unforeseen calamity. Here is a little insight to our considerations, concerns and evolution as we look back on retirement year one:

We were financially prepared, after all.  I guess most people who retire wonder about this before they finally pull the plug. I suppose most RVers' decisions to go full time are largely driven by their budget. For many, shedding the expense of maintaining a stick and brick house is the only way to free up the required funds to wander freely about the country. Looking back at our first year's financials gives me some confidence that we will not have to do that, although the costs involved in maintaining our stick and brick home and traveling in a motorhome are somewhat daunting. (Because of my upbringing, I am not comfortable in sharing actual money figures, but suffice it to say that the expense is formidable, at least for us. Culture alert: In the south, discussing one's personal finances is generally considered unseemly, unless one has had a few mint juleps.)  

As part timers, we sacrifice some freedom and peace of mind. If I were asked to name the best rationale for jettisoning one's house, this would be it. When we are away in Phannie, there is rarely a day when I don't think about the house and perhaps take a look at the perimeter camera feeds on my cell phone to see if all is as it should be. The burglary we experienced a couple of years ago didn't help in my worrying about the place. I'm not even comforted by the new state-of-the-art security system, knowing that even if instantly notified by e-mail of a tripped alarm, there is nothing I can do from halfway across the country except watch the thieves look into the cameras as they steal our stuff and leave before the police can respond.

On a positive note, I don't have to worry much about the yard or the household systems. The yard is xeriscaped, so there is no upkeep there and, since the house is relatively new, the need for maintenance is almost nonexistent. I'm not sure what more we can do to secure the place.

The bottom line: We don't like our constant fretting over what's going on at home, but I suppose we'll just have to deal with it. (Fulltimers are entitled to smile smugly when reading this.) 
  
We still have excess 'stuff.'  When we downsized from the big house to our now smaller one, we got rid of a lot of stuff--so much so that we still have some empty cabinets in the new house! That being said, we still cannot imagine how we would pare down enough of what's left to live solely in Phannie's 350 square feet. I know it is done all the time, but I'm afraid we would need a degree of inspiration that we don't currently possess.

We don't think we would do 'loss of community' very well. There are some folks (Sandy more so, me less so) who cannot imagine being "homeless." For them, an RV could never be thought of as a home. They'll tell you that homes do not move about the country; they must remain in place so Santa can find them! For people who love a routine in their lives, it is especially difficult to abandon the familiar and embrace the unfamiliar. For them, the prospect of wandering around the country and making exciting new discoveries does not outweigh the loss of belonging they would have in the social structure of home, family, friends, church and all that constitutes their roots. I get that, and I must confess that I enjoy it too. (Sandy, however, thrives on it; I think that's why more people like her better.) 

We are all about compromise. As our lifestyle is now, I get the extended trips I love without a detailed itinerary or restriction on length of stay and Sandy--who also enjoys our travels--gets to come home and plug in again. In the past year, we were actually at home more than we were away. So, I would call that a nice compromise. (Usually, my compromising means  just doing it her way, but I'm not complaining; it has worked wonderfully for 38 years.)

Grands in Town--the Kitchen is Open!

At home near Fort Worth, Texas...

Daughter Mindy and grandsons Mason and Pryce are visiting us this week, and are we having a grand time! We're sorry that SIL Tyler couldn't join us, but he is going flat out these days as his employer is completing a big construction project in Houston. 

Today's menu included family favorites like chicken and dumplings, stewed squash and carrots, fresh creamed corn, sweet potatoes, fresh tomatoes and chocolate cake. That, I'm ashamed to tell you, followed a breakfast that showcased Sandy's famous pancakes she makes from an old family recipe that has to be the best one in the known universe. All this was cooked in the time-honored southern way, as handed down through generations and with no sparing of the rich ingredients and seasonings that make it all taste wonderful. I didn't include any photos because, well, all I could think about was eating at the time. Besides, it would have to be classified as food porn, and I don't think such a thing would be advisable here in the Bible belt. Why, my pulse begins to quicken just thinking about a stick of butter; I have to be careful.

I'm glad we don't own any pigs, because they would clearly have been embarrassed by what went on at our mealtimes today. And if my doctor ever reads this blog, I will be in big trouble. 

I offer a weak defense that includes an assurance that such an obscene food orgy as this is definitely a rarity at our house. Sandy and I have even lost a modest amount of weight in the last few weeks, and we will probably not indulge in this manner again until, well, Thanksgiving, hopefully. Surely a little splurging now and then will not be too damaging to this effort. The other excuse I'm using is that the old recipes and techniques must be dusted off and used from time to time so that they are not lost to the next generation. Are you buying that? I really can't see you out there...

Perhaps I should close with a photo of newest grandson Pryce, having fun at bath time.  Warning: Graphic nude image follows:

Good News, Not So Good News and a Little Philosophizing

At home near Fort Worth, Texas...

When we last visited, Sandy and I had interrupted our planned caravanning departure for Colorado due to Bubba's unfortunate battle between one of his coach's slideouts and a steel building; the slideout lost, regrettably. Woody (as his coach is named) is now in the hands of Coach Specialists in nearby Mansfield, Texas, one of the few shops in the country devoted entirely to body repair on RVs. Luckily for Bubba, the company also enjoys an excellent reputation, so he feels that Woody is in good hands. Unfortunately, his beloved coach will be out of commission for two or three months, as Earl, the owner of Coach Specialists, gently informed Bubba that these types of repairs move slowly, being highly dependent upon the acquisition of obscure parts and the exacting nature of this kind of work. Fiberglass repair, I am told, is very tricky and requires a good bit of skill, which these folks seem to have, judging by the finished products we observed. So, that's a bit of good news for Bubba, who desperately wants Woody to be restored to its former glory. 

Now, let's get to some good news for Sandy, who took the opportunity caused by the delay in our trip to move up her appointment with a surgeon who specializes in spinal stenosis. The good news is that she will not need to have surgery at this time; the not-so-good news is that her arthritic condition is going to continue to be a source of pain. The surgeon's recommendation was to take a referral to a widely respected doctor specializing in pain management. Sandy has made that appointment, and we will see if that helps her find some relief.

We are attempting to take in stride the hiccups in our travel plans caused by events beyond our control. We will never know if the change allowed us to avoid some traveling calamity ourselves from which the good Lord was protecting us. In any case, we know He has the big picture for sure. We are hoping that Sandy will respond well to her pain therapy and that we may be able to go to the mountains after all before the end of summer. We will have to see how the treatment goes in the next few weeks.

Working our way through these health issues was not exactly on our radar because, well, we've never gotten old before, and we didn't know exactly what to expect. We're determined, however, to get this behind us with minimal complaining and carrying on, for that sort of thing is so unproductive for us and so annoying to others.

I'm also working on becoming less anxious about making full use of the time "window" remaining for realizing our retirement travel goals while we still have some mobility. The best idea, I think, is to seek satisfaction with every single day and be grateful for having lived it, irrespective of our circumstances. An author named Lesage said it best in 1735: "I am happy and content because I think I am." A lofty and worthy goal, for sure, but Lesage didn't offer any advice on how to do it. I'm going to give it a shot, though, perhaps using the parts of my brain that were grossly underutilized in my youth--especially back when I studied algebra.      

I Guess John Lennon--or Allen Saunders--Was Right

At home near Fort Worth, Texas...

"Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans." While this quotation is widely attributed to John Lennon, it was not he who originated it. Lennon did work it into one of his songs, "Beautiful Boy," but according to the Yale Book of Quotations editor Fred R. Shapiro, the origin is attributed to writer and cartoonist Allen Saunders. A variation of the quote, "Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans," was published in Reader's Digest in January 1957, when Lennon was 17.

I confess to having been among the misinformed regarding the true author, except that I have always been a bit skeptical that Lennon could have been the source of such a profound statement of truth. It was apparently that skepticism that prompted me to check it out before casting it in front of sharp-eyed readers, one of whom may have pounced upon the gaffe and assailed me for laziness in fact-checking.

You may ask, "What does this have to do with your RV travel adventures, Mike?" Well, just about everything, it seems. Most RVers-including me--have often said that our travel plans are made in Jell-O®. That's a somewhat trite way to say much the same thing as Lennon's--or rather Saunders'--more eloquent quotation.

In the previous post, I mentioned our preparations for a trip to Colorado that was scheduled for this week. Unfortunately, it's not going to happen, and it's Bubba's fault. (You may recall that we were planning to caravan with Bubba and LouAnn during the first part of our Colorado trip.) Bubba suffered a calamity with his beautiful and much-loved motorhome a few days ago that rendered it unusable for our trip.  

Now you should know that I have agonized as to whether I should even mention my old friend's mishap in this post, but there is such a good lesson in it that I felt I had to refer to it as gently as possible. I think he will be okay with it, because he is normally a very safe and cautious person who will good-naturedly endure a bit of discomfort if he knows his story could benefit others.

In referring to the mishap, let's just say that it is a good idea to make sure that anything protruding from your motorhome--like a slideout, for instance--has been fully retracted before driving it into an RV storage unit whose door frame is, uh, a snug fit.  I don't think I need to elaborate any further, except to say that the consequences of doing so can be breathtakingly expensive. I couldn't even bring myself to include a photograph of the result; it would just have been too painful. Here is a "before" photo of Bubba and LouAnn with an unblemished "Woody":

If Bubba were writing this, he would share with you his resolution to employ in the future a cockpit warning flag to alert him of any configuration of the coach that could result in catastrophe (and lots of uncharacteristic expletives) upon moving the coach when he shouldn't. After my having attempted to comfort him in his anguish (no, I did not shoot him, as he begged me to do), I have decided to take his lesson to heart and affix to Phannie's steering wheel a fail-safe warning flag of my own.

Bubba's Very Bad Day was not the only deciding factor for postponing this trip, however.  Because of the good times we have always shared when RVing together, we really wanted to get away to the mountains and had planned this trip with Sandy's deferring until later some much-needed attention to an arthritic condition of hers called spinal stenosis. This is a narrowing of the area of her neck containing the spinal cord, and the condition can be quite painful (to which she can readily attest). Now, in view of the ignominious incapacitation of Bubba's coach, we have decided to postpone the trip and get Sandy ready for a surgical procedure sooner rather than later.  She will enjoy traveling much more if she can be more comfortable.

If you've been following this blog for the least few years, you know that Sandy and I have had our share of medical issues as I neared retirement. Since we have both been in very good health all our lives, we had hoped we would sail into retirement and not be too limited by the infirmities that often accompany the aging process. Thankfully, those annoying ailments that have come our way have been mostly restricted to bones and joints and, mercifully, they have been fixable through prayer, modern medicine and good insurance.

I must confess that, during my last few working years, I was quite conflicted about when to retire, always wondering if staying the extra time--just to make sure we were financially ready--was the best idea. I desperately didn't want our retirement story to be one cut short because I stayed in the working grind too long.  We think we chose our time wisely, and we are very thankful that we have not suffered truly debilitating health problems, but life really is what happens while we're making other plans, isn't it?  So, our advice would be not to delay your retirement dream a minute longer than absolutely necessary and trust the good Lord to take care of the Jell-O®.

A Bit of Nostalgia and Beginning Preparations for Another Adventure

At home near Fort Worth...

I am never on the cutting edge of anything. I'm not sure why, but I am always late to the party on just about everything, with the possible exception of technology. Being a gadget freak of sorts, I would rate myself slightly above average in keeping my electronic stuff reasonably up to date. It has been only in the last few days, however, that I finally noticed "Throwback Thursdays" on Facebook.  How long has that been going on?  (If you, too, are challenged like I am and don't know what I'm talking about, it's on Thursdays that a goodly number of Facebook users post old photos and nostalgic stuff on their timelines.)

Well, my buddy John Sharp sent me an article from my hometown newspaper about an old local pilot friend, and it got me to thinking about my own career as a pilot. Since it was Thursday, I decided to post a couple of old photos from the beginning and end of my flying years.  The first was taken in 1969, showing an old Beech 18 freighter, one of the airplanes I flew in my first real flying job. I was only 23 at the time:

The next is of a Boeing 727, on which I was a captain when I retired from flying in 1996 to begin a second career with the FAA:

It was a great career, and I wouldn't have wanted to do anything else. I've found that the only downside to being nostalgic like this is wondering where in the world did the time go?

Okay, I'm snapping out of it now...back to the future!  We have been home a couple of weeks and are beginning preparations for a launch late next week for Colorado. For the next several days, we will be identifying stuff that needs to move from the house to Phannie. (There's always something, even though we have done a pretty good job of duplicating the household living necessities in Phannie.)  For example, Sandy prefers, upon our returns home, to do the trip laundry in the washer and dryer in the house instead of in the Splendide washer/dryer in Phannie. The smaller RV unit is fine for traveling, but when she has access to the house, she always uses the larger machines.  It's not a big inconvenience, as the laundry room door opens directly onto the RV port.  It is there that the other items identified for loading also accumulate, to be periodically taken the few steps out to the motor home.

I have already checked the engine and transmission fluid levels and loaded more diesel additive bottles aboard for the longer upcoming trip.  (Yes, I use an additive, I've always used it, and I will continue to use it. The flawless performance of all of my diesel engines over the years is justification enough for me, even though I may have been merely lucky. Besides, it enables me to thumb my nose at the EPA for making us switch to ultra low sulfur diesel fuel. The additive puts back the needed lubricity that was lost, among other positive effects.)

Juan (my handyman) will come by and give Phannie a wash job tomorrow (she needs it). While she is backed out for her bath, I will open all the cargo compartments and see if any supplies need to be restocked or reorganized. Then I will give the interior a good vacuuming and check the stocks of supplies in the inside storage compartments.

Next week, I will check the air pressure in all the tires. Around midweek, I will turn on the refrigerator and begin loading some basic items from the house refrigerators plus those things that would go bad if left behind for a long time. We decided it didn't make sense to purchase a lot of trip food before departures; we don't generally go to locations where groceries are not readily available.  

Our goal is to have all the prep done and all but a few last-minute items loaded by the end of the day before departure. It makes launch day much less hectic, as we will likely have thought of everything.  (In another nod to our advancing years, we also cheat and use a checklist.)

During this Colorado trip, we will be caravanning with the Barkers again (they are always a hoot) on our way to Priest Gulch Campground, near Telluride. We'll be leaving there after several days for Durango and Creede, where we will stay a few more days and then say goodbye to our friends as they return to Texas. We will continue to explore Colorado, dropping in on friends in Colorado Springs and other friends Ed and Marilyn at Mountaindale on our way home. I'll try to keep this rag updated as we go along; we are really looking forward to our escape from the Texas heat.

Old Friends Come to Visit and We Do a Day Trip to Galveston

At home near Fort Worth, Texas...

Some of the best was saved for last during our stay in Houston; longtime friends Jim and Terri made the trek from Arlington and visited with us for our final weekend.  We have been proselytizing them heavily for some time to join the world of RVers, as we think they have all the attributes to have a lot of fun with it.  Besides, we have a somewhat selfish motive in that we would enjoy their company on the road sometimes if they should invite us along! They enjoy travel, camping and even long drives, and they also have us--now old hands at RVing--to help them get started! 

In a quest to pique their interest further, I dreamed up a day trip to Galveston--in Phannie, no less--with Jim in the cockpit as my copilot. He and Terri were thusly able to observe the whole process as Phannie metamorphosed from its life as a house into that of a magnificent road cruiser and then resettling back into her nest at the end of the trip.  Jim seemed mesmerized by all the systems that were brought to life as Phannie's big diesel engine fired up and the slides retracted into the superstructure of the bus.  He loves all the switches, buttons and gauges and the motor's low rumble that is more felt than heard in the rear of the bus. I often thought he would have enjoyed a flying career like mine. (I, too, prided myself then in necessarily knowing the exact purpose of every one of the hundreds of items in the cockpit of a large jet aircraft. I'm not sure how well I could retain it all now but, then again, I don't have to, do I?  Come to think of it, Phannie is not unlike a large transport aircraft: It is a big, complicated machine with lots of controls and gauges, hauling people in cruising comfort and requiring great care when maneuvering in tight places. Maybe that's another reason I like her.)

We suggested an arrival in Galveston in time to have lunch at Gaido's, a premier seafood restaurant that's been there since 1911 and, happily, it is also a favorite of Jim's and Terri's.  

We enjoyed the 90-minute drive down I-45 as the girls in back (Sandy's sister, Brenda, and Mindy and the grandkids had joined us) served chip and dip, doughnuts and other goodies.  At one point, they asked me to slow down, as the snacks were affecting their appetites, and they wanted to be hungry when they got to Gaido's!

Brenda looks comfortable as we cruise toward Galveston.

Gaido's, of course, was wonderful and wonderfully expensive, but why not splurge once in a while, right?  

Brenda, Terri, Pryce, Mindy, Mason, Sandy and Jim at Gaido's

My plate - blackened amberjack with avocado-crab topping. I make no apologies.

After this fine meal, I drove my passengers to the seawall and unloaded them for some play time at the beach. This was the first beach experience for Mason and Pryce and, although a bit tentative at first, Mason waded right out into the surf before long. Unfortunately, a heavy seaweed invasion had made landfall and fouled a goodly bit of the beach, but everyone had fun anyway. Instead of joining in the beach romp, I chose instead to take a nap in Phannie, enjoying the air conditioning immensely as I examined the backs of my eyelids. The beach experience isn't exactly a favorite of mine, but I'm especially unenthusiastic about the perennially dirty sand and water at Galveston. Compared to the lovely beaches at South Padre, Galveston is almost embarrassingly unappealing. 

Mason's first time at the beach!

Terri, Jim and Mindy with Pryce at the beach for the first time. He looks a little puzzled.

After all of the beachgoers, soaked and sand-ladened, had reboarded Phannie, I pointed her northwest on I-45 to return to Rayford Crossing. My passengers were much less talkative on this leg as they enjoyed some much-needed naps after all the excitement. (I, of course, was completely alert for a change, as I had been refreshed by my bit of shuteye while they were swimming.)

I think the general consensus was that Phannie represented a top flight means of transporting a group of friends on a day trip.  A fine time was had by all for sure.  

The next morning, we met Jim and Terri for breakfast at the Forest Cafe and Bakery in The Woodlands.  This was a very good mom and pop joint that serves huge breakfast burritos among other goodies; we each ordered a burrito, not realizing how enormous it would be. We definitely should have ordered one for a couple to share; we will tuck that information away for next time.

During the meal, I continued pointing out to our guests the fun and benefits of RVing as a pastime, but I'm not sure I have been fully successful yet in whipping them into the desired frenzy.  I will keep plugging away, however; I'll be sending them some links to RV models for which I think they may enjoy shopping.  

As we bade adieu to these fine folks, we feel richly blessed for having intersected the lives of these friends and relatives who take the time to visit occasionally and leave us smiling at the memories we've made.   

Sandy, Jim and Terri at Forest Cafe

Speaking of treasured memories, how about this one of Sandy (Mimi) and grandson Pryce at a restaurant in The Woodlands?  I'm not sure which is more adorable!