Monday, February 4, 2013
I left Shiner, Texas
today and decided to head over to Potter Creek Corp of Engineer’s Campground in
Canyon Lake. I enjoyed my stay at Shiner
but made the mistake of assuming they had brewery tours on weekends. They didn’t so I just kind of drove around
the area. No free beer for me! They have a beautiful Catholic church in town
that is historic and dates way back but I didn’t go in. I am not sure why but I was a little afraid
to go in. I want to go into a Catholic
church because Pati was raised Catholic but I am having a hard time doing
it. Maybe next time. I did buy a great half chicken dinner from
the Elks Club that was selling them and all you had to do was drive through and
pay…so I did. Pretty good deal for eight
bucks. Shiner is a really neat small
Texas town and I enjoyed my visit. I stayed in the community park and it was very nice. No one around me and plenty of room to walk
with Dexter. Very nice stay and Sunday I
just stayed close and watched the Super Bowl and ate my chicken and it was
fantastic. I didn’t care who won….it was
just a very good time.
I arrived at my campground at Potter Creek about one o’clock
and was able to get a spot that Pati and I had stayed at before…about
2005. It is just wonderful to be here at
this beautiful location feeling the closeness of Pati and the beauty of the
area. The weather is wonderful, about 70
degrees and no humidity. I sat outside looking
at the beautiful lake and talked to my brother Mac for a long time and then I talked to my other brother Waldo for a pretty long time too and realized
how fortunate I am to have family I can call and talk with when times get just
a little lonely. I also talked briefly
with Josh but the connection was not good and he will call later this week. I
know he and Jason must still be having a hard time with the loss of their
Mother and I hope they are dealing with it OK.
I sure do really miss Pati today, maybe more because we shared this camping
space I am camping at and we had such a good time being here and I know that will
never happen again.
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This is the Catholic Church in Shiner |
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My RV Site at the Community Park....nice. |
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My view of Canyon Lake from my site |
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Really nice sites here |
I just walked outside and it is almost dark but you can see
the lights of homes reflecting around the lake, hear the sound of dogs barking
in the distance and even hear voices of people talking. The sky is beautiful and clear with stars and
a flicker of the sunset and the air is perfect….no humidity and no mosquitoes. Perfect with the only exception that Pati is
not here to share it with me. So…..I
came back in and I am writing this to express my feelings at this time. Lonely …..yes ….sad ….yes ….happy to be
here….yes….and looking forward to a better tomorrow….you bet.
I am moving in a few days to the RV Park at Ft. Sam Houston,
an Army Base, and I will be there for the next thirty days. I am going to buy a new Cannon EOS camera to
show better pictures of my trips, a good fly fishing rod and reel, and other
supplies I think I may need when I leave here and head north to Montana for my summer
adventure. I plan to visit some very
nice folks we met while here in San Antonio also and I am going to enjoy as
much of this wonderful city that I can while here. It will be very difficult when I go see our
old neighbors in Glenwood, the community we lived in and built our dream home
in, but I am going to work hard to get past that issue and move forward with a
better tomorrow just around the corner.
Next Monday I am
going to the San Antonio Rodeo and Livestock Show and seeing Reba in
Concert. I really hope that is a good
day. I will be doing many things while
here in San Antonio and I will share them going forward. I really feel good about being back here…..it
is like coming home. I really love this
area and the Hill Country north of here and I am going to seriously look for a
place, somewhere in the Texas Hill Country, that I can turn into a Winter Home
Base……wish me luck. Talk soon.
Tuesday, February 6, 2012
Yesterday turned into a frustrating day. I had a water leak from the cold side of the
bathroom faucet. So I took it apart and
it needed a new rubber washer. All was
fine until I put it back together and then decided to check the hot side also
but I forgot to turn the water back off and I got a little wet, as did the
bathroom. I drove all the way to the
nearest Home Depot, about 40 miles and bought the last of their washers which
was a packet of two. Anyway, I get back
and fixed the darn thing and all is working well. I then looked in my little stash of stuff I keep
for emergencies and I had a bag of about ten of those same washers! I don’t even recall buying them but must have
somewhere way back when. Expensive gas
boo-boo.
Today Dexter and I went for a ride around the area and I
found a really nice brand new home for sale not far from where I am staying. I am trying not to look at homes but this one
caught my eye and I called on it. The
seller (builder and real estate agent) told me it is listed at $177,000 and has
a half acre lot with no restrictions on parking an RV on the lot. He told me where to find the key and said I
could go in and check it out so I did.
It is very nice and very similar to our home we sold when I moving Pati
back to Oregon. It is half the size,
about 1300 sq ft and 3br and 3bath. All
upscale with stone exterior and granite and tile and bronze fixtures. Very nice and very private but in a location
with other homes close by. The other
good thing is this home is only five miles from the Corp of Engineers boat ramp
into Canyon Lake, which is a free ramp.
I am sure I could buy this home for around $150,000 if I wanted to make
an offer.
I could easily live in this home and keep things simple but
I told the agent about my RV Home I want and that I wanted a lot with no CCR’s
that I could build my RV home on so he is going to look around for me. It is a start but I have my doubts I will
find what I want here due to homeowner association restrictions. I may have to look further north in the small
Hill Country towns that don’t have such restrictions. I have my mind set on finding a lot or
acreage South facing, elevated somewhat with no restrictions so I can have my
RV shelter/home/deck/workshop/laundry and TV room built on it and be able to
stay here November thru May and go back to Oregon June thru October.
As we continued our drive we ended up in a town called
Blanco. It is a small town with a very nice
state park and the Blanco River running through it. Pati and I both liked this area when we lived
down here. They have the Lavender Festival
every year here but we never got the chance to go. I ate lunch at the Redbud Café on the town
square while Dexter gave me a very bad look as I left him in the car. This café has been around a long time and has
a good reputation for food so I ordered the Rueben sandwich with cold
slaw. Wow! I couldn’t eat but half and will have the
rest for dinner too. Very good lunch but
lacking one thing and you know I am going to say Pati. I am sure having a hard time enjoying eating
out by myself.
That’s it for now and tomorrow I move into San Antonio for a
month. It is going to take some
adjustment to tolerate all the traffic and people but I hope to get some things
accomplished while there. I am just not
a big city kind of guy! The weather down
here is perfect….a little rain last night, in the seventies today and no
humidity and going for the eighties tomorrow.
This is Texas so I won’t get used to anything as it can change on a
dime.
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Redbud Cafe in Blanco, Texas |
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Courthouse on the square in Blanco, Texas |
Thursday, February 14, 2013 – Valentine’s Day
I have been at the RV Park at Ft. Sam Houston for one week
today and have decided to stay one more week and then move back up to the
Canyon Lake area for awhile. It is just
too busy and noisy here for me. The darn
trains go by every thirty minutes day and night and I had forgotten how many
people there were in this city. Of
course when we lived here we lived outside of the city and came into the city
for reasons but our lifestyle was nice and quiet up in the Hill Country.
I did go to the Rodeo and Reba concert as planned last
Monday. I must give my little buddy,
Dexter, a lot of credit for putting up with me being gone so long. I left at 3pm and got home at midnight. He was sure glad to see me, and me him, and
he did not make any mess in the trailer.
What a great little dog and friend.
I cannot imagine being without a dog that is always glad to see me when
I come back….even if it is for a short
time. Their unconditional love is
amazing.
My seat was a lot further up than I thought but I eventually
got to it and quickly realized it, and all the others around me, were made for
little bitty people. It was much worse
size-wise and foot room size-wise than any airplane seat I have every sat
in. I don’t know how people do it! Especially larger people. I had too good size men on either side of me
and we were all “sucking it in”! Check
out the photo below and you will get the idea of where I was and what I saw.
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Best I could see with full extension of lens |
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This is a shot of the large tv lens they had over the stage |
I must say I liked the rodeo and Reba is amazing so no
complaints. I should have sprung for
better seats but the next lower level, just below mine, was about $175 vs. $40
for mine. I just could not bring myself
to spend the money.
With that day behind me, I went to the Cardiologist the next
day for a checkup. All is well and he
only changed one med to help control my cholesterol. I will be taking some blood tests in about
three weeks to see if it is working.
Overall a good report and I feel better knowing there are no major
health issues to worry about when I head to the remote mountains of Montana for
the summer. I have all my stuff and
photos ready to turn in tomorrow so I can have a passport when I am at Glacier
this summer. I may want to go over into
Canada so I need to be prepared. Pati
and I never left the country after they changed the rules for Canada and Mexico
so I never got us passports.
Today I tackled the bathroom sink leak I have been
struggling with for a few weeks. I must
say I was just about to give up getting off the little plastic connectors or
washers that are way back up under the sink and hold the faucet to the
sink. They were on very tight and I had
a heck of a time but patience and fortitude prevailed (at least two hours) and
I got them loose. I took it all apart,
cleaned it, checked it for cracks etc and could not find a problem so I put it
all back together and put it back in place and hooked up the hoses and turned
on the water….and can you believe it did not leak! I think it was on too tight and caused a
stress point to leak. Anyway….it is
working and I am happy.
After all of that effort, I decided to just hang out today
and do my weekly laundry and linens. Now
I have to make my bed but I don’t mind.
I love nice clean linens so it is worth it. As I work on this posting, which I am doing
in Word so I can work offline, I see Dexter outside wondering if I am still
here. I need to give him a bath and some
pampering so I will do that later or tomorrow.
I think I will go downtown to the Riverwalk this weekend when more
people are around and eat lunch and people watch. That was Pati and my favorite thing to
do….people watch. Many a day we went to
the mall and sat with an Orange Julius and just watched the folks going
by. Pretty cheap entertainment and I am
sure we were the focus of others that did the same thing.
For now….I am going to make my bed and then, for dinner
tonight or actually this evening since I eat before six o’clock, I am going to enjoy a half pound lobster tail
I bought at Costco yesterday when I picked up my new prescription. It was a knee-jerk buy but I cannot remember
the last time I had lobster. I am going
on line to make sure I know how long to boil it so I don’t ruin it since it
cost me about ten bucks. Until
later……bon apatite!
