Deming, N.M. 2013

I snapped this picture at sunset {Sun is over my right shoulder} last night.  It is the best representation I have ever gotten of the awesome mountains out here in the south west.  We are overnighting at a Passport America in Deming New Mexico, this is a pretty nice view for $11 per night!  We hope to be in Benson, AZ at Saguaro CO-op for the next 2 weeks or so.

 

 

 

 

 

Flashback to San Angelo :  They have a wonderful series of Murals painted around town.  At each one, you can call a prerecorded description of the item.  Elmer Kelton was a famous, local newspaper man and author.  This mural is about 20’ square!

 

 

Our biggest serving of Serendipity was served up on Sunday afternoon while we were cruising the Old Town in San Angelo.  We came upon an event at the local museum that will remain with us for a long while.  The West Texas Jazz Orchestra was giving a Jazz concert.  They had a  15 piece Orchestra that kept our feet tapping  for 3 hours, they even served light refreshment at the break, FOR $5!  Please note this is my first attempt at this.  Dance like nobody’s watching Fred, who is 94 years young!

 

San Angelo Serendipity 2013

 

We left Georgetown on Saturday morning at 10:00.  Our 200 mile tow took us on 2 lane roads {70mph speed limit!} through hill country, huge ranches and small Texas Towns.  We stopped at a very nice rest area to take a break and eat lunch.

We arrived at San Angelo State Park where we were pleased to have a huge site with water and 50a hookups.  There is also a covered picnic table and as yet unseen bison.  The state park fees are at $20/nite but are linked to very excellent facilities and staff.  Our mail had been forwarded by The Escapee’s mail service.  It arrived at the park on Saturday and the ranger delivered it to us on Sunday!

Sunday we got our next big dose of Serendipity.  When we arrived at Calvary Lutheran Church for the 10:00am service there was one car in the parking lot.  It was Pastor Kurt who was pleased to inform us that the service had been rescheduled to 11:00 and a local park pavilion where is would be followed by their annual picnic, could we spare the time to  share with them?

Church Service mixed with a Picnic? Well yeah, that sounds like a dose of serendipity.  We followed him {something biblical there!} to a great small park that has a suitable building and sits lakeside.  We were allowed to join the set-up crew which made short work of the task at hands. 

A topic of conversation is, “Where do you live?”  People smile when we tell them, “right here”.  The confusion comes when we tell them we are moving in XX days.  Most folks tan ask, “But where is your home”  Kind of reminds me of: Whose on first?

This is very pleasant small church that has recently reinvented itself as a ‘Missionary Church’ .  They are most interested in spreading the word of the gospel and reaching out to their community than anything else.  From the turnout of younger families it seem to be working for them.

Yes, there was plenty of food! This is the desert table.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the afternoon, we went to the town center where I found a restored windmill and this interesting piece of art shown in 2 views.

I have more to report on a Jazz Concert, stay tuned to this station!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last Thoughts from Georgetown 2013

The trip to visit my back surgeon supplied me with proof of just how much I have been screwed.  He told me he had to see me in 3 months, I asked him if he had a snowmobile!  OK, I’ll stop back in November and he agreed.  In the meantime ‘No Twisting’, I told him that went out with Chubby Checker, that sent him to Google!

Verizon swapped out Anne-Maries new cell phone as we were having to boot it twice a day.

I had a major consumer issue with Wal-Mart.  I’ve been buying  expensive eyeglasses from the East Windsor, CT store for about 15 years.  Last October  I bought a new pair at about $400 and paid a $20 fee for a 2 year warrantee.  Last month I noticed they were badly scratched.  The Vision Center franchise at our local Wal-Mart would not service me.  I called vision center in east Windsor, they ordered me new lenses and UPS next day to my location.  All’s well that ends well but I had to do too much aggravating phone calling to make it a good experience.

Later in the evening we went to Tony & Luigies restaurant where we had awesome Italian food {Chicken Piacata for me and Veal Rotellini for Anne-Marie}.  The evening was complete with a great Sinatra tribute singer and cold Ziegenbock draft on tap.

It has been so cold here {record low of 39° this morning} that I am almost reluctant to move 200 miles north into San Angelo State Park where we have reservations for 4 days.  We than will move 700 miles west to Benson, AZ where we will spend time at the Escapees we stayed in in January.

Eagle Eyes may note that this is a 700 mile itinerary change for us.    We have an opportunity to visit with close friends who are warming up in Tucson, AZ.  After that we will move North, hoping for the weather to allow us to visit a few National Parks.  The ability to do this is the great thing about our life style, we are not tethered to a home base.

The rest of today will be vary busy, we have to purge unneeded items, Store and park Anne-Maries Car.

Getting Ready to move North 2013

 

1st Item on the agenda is Happy Birthday to Kayla Rettburg.  It is very important for us to remember her as she will be picking our our room at the ‘Old Folk’s Home!

We are very busy getting ready to leave this area and move to San Angelo State Park about 200 miles NW on Saturday.  We will stay there about 3 days and than continue North. 

One of these tasks was to go up on the roof and give it a 6 month cleaning and reapply a protective coating.  This was made a little more difficult do to the new solar panels as I had to work around them, not a good time for a misstep!

The nightmare job was to o’haul our commode.   As you can see it is in an area about the size of a phone booth.  All of the connections were on the inside, causing me to spend 3 1/2 hours on the 30 minute job.  Imagine a fellow my size curled up in a phone booth that long, not pretty.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had a ‘Brush Guard’ installed on the front of the truck in preparation for our Alaska trip.  These are more common down here than gun racks.  I found this one on Craig’s List and had help installing it by to much younger fellows.  This particular guard is made by the company that supplies the Texas Rangers cars.  takes 2 fellows to lift it and I would not be one of them.  I’m calling it our Moose Guard!  Quoted Cost was $1200, my Yankee cost = $300, a good days pay!

 

While in Mexico, I had the rear bumper of our camper moved back 18” which left us with wonderful location to mount our generator and Black Box, which holds our 50a power cord.  I finally got around to painting it, Rustoleum has a new line of paints that have a distressed finish.  This is a great application as the bumper is to say the least distressed on its own.

Sadly we often make friends on the road whom we have to say goodbye to.  Today we wish ‘Happy trails to our neighbor Jerry and his faithful Golden, Cameo.  They have been great company the last 6 weeks.  As I type this, Cameo is curled up at my feet while Jerry hooks up his rig. 

Cameo has come to expect our Tin Bentley to have a treat her nose at least 3 times a day.  Failing that, she will remind Anne-Marie of her duty as hostess to supply the same.  I created a monster!

 

 

 

 

 

 

A long April 2013

 

This has been a long month for us, cabin fever has set in big time.  My back surgery and a mysterious flu-like sickness that slammed us for about 10 days (each) have reduced us to living but not thriving.  I have one visit to my back surgeon, we are hoping that we are released to the road at that time.

I’m not having too much luck picking up chicks, guess I‘ll keep the one I have!

Anne-Marie has a new Nokia Windows 8 based phone.  It is simple and does everything she needs {phone & Mail mostly}.  Some would say it’s a step down from her Droid.  he likes it which is which matters.  It was also very cost effective. 

 

We made a road trip to Waco and the neighboring town of West, TX.  We never got to West as the area is still closed off due to the fertilizer explosion.  My desire in getting to West was to review the damage to their Masonic Lodge.  Sad to say I was in contact with a Brother who told me that the small building was badly damaged and several Brothers were amongst the 1st responders. 

Waco is the home to the Texas ranger’s Museum.  It was a good 2 hour walk thru which gave insight to the activities of the Texas rangers for about 200 years.

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I’m not a gun fellow, although one of my 1st jobs out of High school was assembling single action Colt 45’s in Hartford.  They display hundreds of them here.  Most are commemorative editions which have engraving the is very impressive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Waco is also the location of the Grand Lodge of Texas.  We were warmly welcomed there and given a personalized tour by a knowledgeable Brother who was a librarian.  The building is about 80 years old and contains a Lodge Room that seats 5,000, all with unobstructed views!  Brothers from Connecticut may see a few differences here.  BTW, Our guide showed interest in my ring and told me that I would not find a Texas mason wear such a sign!

 

This Apron is to commemorate Buzz Aldren’s claim in establishing Tranquility Lodge on the moon for the Grand Lodge of Texas.

 

 

 

 

My Dad always referred to a Bar as ‘A Gin Mill’.  Seeing this one at 5:00 pm on our way home, I choose it for dinner.  It was a rehabilitated actual Gin Mill and was predictably wonderful. Thanks Dad!

We hope to be on the road next week traveling to more misadventures, join us please and feel free to leave comments or email me at pmarno@gmail.com

 

 

  

 

Working after retirement 2013

My friend Bob Marvin sent this along to me this morning.  Bob lives in New Hampshire, selling any type of engineered material he can make an obscene profit on {that would be about 6% in today’s market}.   He was a sales rep for the small foundry that I worked at for several years and was a wonderful source of New Hampshire deep discount ‘Maker’s Mark’ which I needed to fuel me in that job.

The Importance of Having an Occupation After retirement

As we get older, we sometimes begin to doubt our ability to "make a difference" in the world. It is at these times that our hopes are boosted by the remarkable achievements of other "seniors" who have found the courage to take on challenges that would make many of us wither.
Harold Schlumberg is such a person:

THIS IS QUOTED FROM HAROLD:
"I've often been asked, 'What do you do now that you're retired?'
Well...I'm fortunate to have a chemical engineering background and one of the things I enjoy most is converting beer, wine and whisky into urine. It's rewarding, uplifting, satisfying and fulfilling. I do it every day and I really enjoy it."

Harold is an inspiration to us all.

RETIRED HEALTH MESSAGE

As I was lying in bed pondering the problems of the world,I rapidly realized that I don't really give a rat's hiney. It's the tortoise life for me!

1. If walking is good for your health, the postman would be immortal.

2. A whale swims all day, only eats fish, drinks water, and is fat.

3. A rabbit runs and hops and only lives 15 years.

4. A tortoise doesn't run and does nothing, yet it lives for 450 years.

And you tell me to exercise?? I don't think so.

I'm retired. Go around me.

God grant me the senility to forget the people I never liked, the good fortune to run into the ones I do, and the eyesight to tell the difference.

Thanks for the chuckle Bob!  As long as good folks like you keep working, I can continue to collect my meager retirement. We do enjoy hearing from Blog subscriber's, the feedback encourages us to keep going.

Let me tell you about our crazy weather:  It was low 80’s the last few afternoons.  Weather front coming thru as I write this, T-Storms woke us up at 6:00 and now it’s just pouring.  High today will be 62°.  Next Monday we should see 90°!

I have managed to get all 4 tires replaced thanks to a young fellow in the campground that we hired.  We are ready for Alaska, having made the last payment on that expense too.

Last Sunday after church, we took a 200 mile round trip to Johnson City and had lunch at one of our favorite stops, Hill Country Cupboard.  We discovered this stop a few years ago while visiting the nearby President Johnson’s birthplace, a very small town.  30 miles down the road is The Johnson Texas Whitehouse, this is a wonderful working ranch with a 4 hour tour. 

On reflection, My generation is too quick to remember President Johnson for the war he inherited rather that the phenomenal political risks he took as a southern democrat pushing thru significant civil rights legislation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Recovering in Austin 2013

Traveling in the southlands, we often come upon crematories that have huge acreage covers with plastic floral tributes. My family was brought up to respect our loved ones in thought and prayer, we did not present floral tributes. YMMV and that’s ok.

The monkey wrench gets tossed into the works last Sunday {Easter} when the youth group in the Church we attend in Georgetown decorated the alter with this beautiful tribute they make every year out of plastic flowers that had been discarded.

What a great morning, we had a 50 member adult choir and about 15 youngsters in a bell choir. Throw in the 3rd Baptism in so many weeks and you can see this is a very active church. Special for me as they also collect Tabs for Tots for our Shrine charities.

My recovery from the back surgery is now progressing with baby steps. I go to PT several times a week where they work on keeping me limber with various low impact stretching exercises. My trip to the doctor last week gave me the mixed message that I was doing very well but had to return in 30 days. Damn, I wanted to be on the road then, it appears that I am not this fellow!

 

My major task this month is to retire the 5th wheel. While the tire look great, they are 6 years old and it’s time for them to be replaced. RV manufacturers us ‘SC’ rated tires which are cost effective but have very little reserve capacity. The small print also limits them to 65mph. This is not prudent as almost all RV’s are going down the road at their max weight and follow the traffic flow.

The previous owner of our rig found this out the hard way when he had a blow-out which also caused bodywork damage which is often the case with the fragile plastic bodywork. At that time he had 5 Firestone Transforce ‘LT’ tires fitted. These are 10 ply commercial tires that have a 90mph speed rating and about 25% capacity increase at 100% load. The bad news is they have a 50% cost disadvantage and seem to never go on sale at Firestone dealers.

We bought 4 tires at a local dealer, I hired a young fellow at the campground to take off one tire per evening. I than cleaned and painted the rim and brought the tire to the dealer who mounted he new tire. I’m pretty happy with the results and feel better about the upcoming Alaska adventure. At no time did I lift more that 10 pounds, SWMBO policed me relentlessly.

 

Giggles for the week!

Pete & Anne-Marie