Sunday, March 15 – Saturday, March 21
Sunday, March 15
It was just a small town Sunday around our place. To begin with, we were preparing food for a supper with the “family” for tonight at Jerry and Nancy’s house, so we had quite a bit to do before we went to church.
We did attend the morning service at First Baptist Church where Pastor Rick Sullivan continued with his very informative series from Exodus.
Following church, we returned to Big V and got the ovens and bread maker cranking for the afternoon and then joined Jean, Jerry, Nancy, and Becky at the Artesia High School auditorium for a wonderful concert by the U.S. Navy Band Sea Chanters. If you haven’t heard this marvelous vocal ensemble, make it a point to attend a performance the next time they are in your area or you happen to be in the Washington, DC area. Words just can’t describe the two-hour vocal journey through multiple styles of music through which the choir, soloists, and small ensembles took us. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house after they sang their arrangement of Eternal Father, Strong to Save, the official navy hymn, and a rousing vocal medley of the official songs of the army, air force, marines, coast guard, and navy.
After the concert we returned to Big V to finish the meal preparations and then carried everything over to Jerry and Nancy’s house where we enjoyed chicken spaghetti, homemade Italian bread, fried asparagus, and Jean’s signature dessert recipe, raw apple cake…yum-yum!
When we were finished with the meal and the table was cleared, we all sat down to a rugged game of Chickenfoot before calling it a day and returning to our respective homes.
Monday, March 16
With our trip to East Texas coming up on Wednesday, today was time to get in high gear. While Barbara worked inside, I got the trailers all squared away and ready to load…had to get the large trailer moved outside, the medium trailer back in the boat barn, and the cargo trailer for the motorcycle loaded on the big trailer…just too much to think about!
Since we plan to be on the road for over two months, we had to go through all the closets and storage bins to determine what we really needed and where the needed stuff could be stored. It wasn’t the greatest fun in the world, but it was necessary, so we just “got ‘er done.”
Tuesday, March 17
Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!!!
If it was going to get done before we leave town tomorrow morning, today was the last chance to take care of it, so we continued straightening and packing Big V and storing the few things that we would leave behind in the boat barn. Luckily, we had great weather, so it wasn’t a problem to get outside and take care of all the little jobs that needed to be done, like separating all the sections of PVC pipe that we use to drain our gray water to the field and hauling them to the boat barn for storage, trimming all the weeds that have grown up around the concrete pad, etc.
Jean called during the afternoon and asked if we wanted to meet the family at Kwan Den for supper at 6:30. Since we didn’t want to disappoint anyone (and we LOVE to eat Chinese at Kwan Den), we said that of course we would. After all, this would be the last opportunity to visit for at least a couple of months, and we had lots to visit about. It was really a fun evening with a very special family.
Wednesday, March 18
This was it…the first day of a new adventure on the road in Big V. After having a little breakfast and checking our email, we finished getting everything squared away inside Big V so we could close her up.
Once everything was detached and put away, we pulled Big V off the pad and backed her up to the trailer for the hookup. When we were finally firmly attached, we pulled over to Jean’s house to dump the holding tanks and load the Vibe on the trailer, a trickier than usual maneuver since the cargo trailer was tied down at the front of the trailer. But, with a little perseverance, we soon had the job done. We sat down on Jean’s porch for our daily devotional and prayer, and then loaded up and pulled away from Eastwind Road for the 600-mile trip to Wood County, Texas.
We got out of town without incident, but about 45 miles into the trip; on the cutoff road to Hobbs, New Mexico we met an oilfield truck that gave us a wakeup call. Just as the truck came up to us, it threw up a rock that struck the driver side windshield of Big V. Suddenly, I was staring at a broken spot the size and shape of a baseball right in front of me!
Luckily for us, the window didn’t shatter into a million little pieces, and the rock didn’t come all the way through the window, so we were able to continue our journey.
Barbara dug out our insurance information and called the company to report what had happened, and within a couple of hours we had clarification on what we needed to do and what the insurance company would do. The bad news was that the list price on the driver side windshield is $1,175. The good news was that since we haven’t had a claim of any kind since we bought Big V, our $500 deductible would be cut in half and we would have to pay only $250. It wasn’t anything that we had in the budget, but it was a lot easier to take than if we had to replace the whole thing at out cost. We also found out that the glass company would order the replacement windshield and then deliver it to us on site in East Texas to install it…what a deal!
With no other excitement, we made our way through Hobbs and on to Seminole, Lamesa, and Big Spring, Texas, where we picked up I-20 and headed east. We stopped just outside Abilene to refuel and to call our friends Dandy and Glenn to see if a short visit might be possible this evening. Unfortunately, Glenn had a medical appointment tomorrow morning and they wouldn’t be able to get out tonight, so Barbara visited with Dandy on the phone and we pulled away from the Flying J and drove to a rest area about 20 miles east of Abilene where we shut down for the night.
Thursday, March 19
We were up pretty early this morning…not unusual after sleeping in a rest area with all the trucks rumbling around us, and by 7:00 or so we were back on the highway and continuing our journey to the Mineola area.
Since we weren’t in any great hurry, we made a couple of rest stops along the way and also stopped for lunch and some shop-looking at the Tangier Outlet Mall in Terrell. The shopping part was pretty much a bust, but it did give us a chance to walk around and stretch our legs before we ate and headed out again.
By just a little after noon we were at the Mineola Wal-Mart where we had to stop to give Big V a healthy drink of go-juice. I called Ernie to let him know we were in the area, but that we had already eaten and were anxious to get Big V up to Holiday Village to get settled in. He brought out our mail (important, because it contained the key cards we would need to get into the park), and then we drove up through Quitman and on to our new “home” at Holiday Village.
Once we got through the gates, we found a temporary slot in the RV Park section (we won’t be able to park in our new lot until we do some work on it), unloaded the trailer, opened up Big V, and did all the utility hookups.
Of course, we had to drive up to our new lot for a quick look, but then we drove back to Mineola to go to the post office and then check on Mother. While we were at Mother’s house we picked up several garden tools that Ernie had set out for us to use in clearing the lot, and then came back to Holiday Village to change clothes and go to work.
To say that the lot was overgrown would be an understatement, but we knew that with time and effort, we could make some progress. So, with rakes in hand, we started piling up leaves, twigs, and other assorted debris that had collected over the years.
Ernie had loaned us a pruning tool that proved to be quite effective in cutting down some of the low-hanging tree limbs at the front of the property…not the easiest way to get at them, but it was effective, and I soon had piles of small tree limbs stacked up around the front of the lot.
After a couple of hours we stopped working and drove back to Mineola to buy some pruning shears and a few more items at Wal-Mart and to visit with Mother, Ernie, and Billee for a while. When we left, we took Ernie’s gas-powered weed-eater with us, hoping that it would help make the work a little easier.
During the evening we drove around the area just to get a good feel of where we were, and then returned to Big V to rest up for a big day tomorrow.
Friday, March 20
We hit the deck running this morning, carting all of the lawn tools over to the lot so we could get a good start on the land. It turned out that the raking was the easiest part of the job. The toughest part, by far, was battling the briars that, almost unseen, had taken over the place. Neither of us had ever had experience with briars, but we quickly found that they are everywhere, having the ability (and strong inclination) to cover not only the ground, but any tree or bush above the ground; and, they have thorns that rival those of any rose bush or the needles of any cactus that we have ever encountered. I also learned that a weed-eater is pretty much useless against the briar vines…they are so tough that the cutting line, no matter what the gauge, just wraps itself around the vine and then lugs down the motor. The only way to get the vines was what we found in the first place…cut them off at the base and then start pulling them down from the trees and bushes (at, I might add, great risk to any exposed skin).
After struggling with cutting vines off at the base and then pulling them out of the trees like long ropes, we finally took a break, went back to Big V to get cleaned up, and then drove to Mineola for a big family lunch. One of Uncle Harry’s granddaughters and her children and step-father were in the area for a short visit, and of course, that called for brisket, beans, and all the trimmings over at T.J.’s house.
After a great meal and a fun visit, we said our goodbyes to the bunch and headed back to work, anxious and excited about making some visible progress on our work.
Along the way we stopped in Quitman to see J.D. Williams and get some more information about the cover we eventually want to erect over the concrete pad (that we will eventually pour after we eventually get some dirt to fill in the low spots in the lot).
J.D., who reminds us very much of Uncle Harry, gave us the name of a man who does a lot of concrete work for him and also suggested that we go “down the road a piece” to see his son-in-law about getting a quote for dirt hauling. So, we made another stop, got some more information, and left a message for J.D.’s son to give us a call about coming out to look at the lot and give us an estimate.
With all that done, we returned to Holiday Village and our work at the new home site, spending the afternoon and evening trimming, cutting, and raking until it was too dark to see what we were doing.
Saturday, March 21
Today dawned bright and beautiful, the perfect morning for getting over to the lot and doing some more work.
After having visited with Josh (our friendly real estate broker and advice giver), we found that it was perfectly legal to burn the trash on our lot as long as there was no county-wide ban burn and no wind. Since there was no ban and no wind, we started raking piles of leaves, dead grass, and briars into piles on the gravel at the front of the lot and torched them, spending most of the rest of the day tending the burn pile and heaping on all the tree limbs and branches that were dry enough to burn, a job that kept us both very busy. I do have to admit that watching the briar vines curl up and burn down to tiny bits of ashes did give me great pleasure…we still have the scratches on our faces, necks, and arms, but revenge was sweet!
Now, at this point, we need to reply to a comment made by one of our friends who wrote to Barbara last week.
Sally Odom, who, along with Barbara, was a language arts teacher at West Middle School when we were still teaching in Liberal, wrote to say how much she enjoyed keeping up with us through the journal and blog. But, she wondered, how we managed to stay agreeable with each other through the enforced closeness of life in Big V. She was curious about whether we had arguments, since we never write about them, and if we did, how we resolved the differences.
Well, Sally (and other faithful readers), in the interest of keeping the journal and blog “reality-based,” we have to admit that we have had our share of disagreements and squabbles since we hit the road. Luckily, we have managed to work through them and come out stronger and/or more tolerant through the process.
Most of the time, we can just go on about other chores or activities while we “cool down.” In Artesia, I would go out and work around the place when the walls started closing in, and Barbara could do the activities she liked.
Now that we are working together on the new lot, we are finding a whole new situation that isn’t about being closed up together; rather, it is about learning to work together. Would you believe it, we consider ourselves to be pretty good teachers, but we’ve found that we aren’t very good learners when our individual ideas about what should be done and how it should be done conflict with the other’s ideas. While we are, to a great extent, dependent on each other for much, we also are very independent in many ways, and, believe it or not, each of us thinks that our way is the best.
First, Barbara raked all the leaves into the piles shown in the second photo…This led to the following…
Sunday, March 15
It was just a small town Sunday around our place. To begin with, we were preparing food for a supper with the “family” for tonight at Jerry and Nancy’s house, so we had quite a bit to do before we went to church.
We did attend the morning service at First Baptist Church where Pastor Rick Sullivan continued with his very informative series from Exodus.
Following church, we returned to Big V and got the ovens and bread maker cranking for the afternoon and then joined Jean, Jerry, Nancy, and Becky at the Artesia High School auditorium for a wonderful concert by the U.S. Navy Band Sea Chanters. If you haven’t heard this marvelous vocal ensemble, make it a point to attend a performance the next time they are in your area or you happen to be in the Washington, DC area. Words just can’t describe the two-hour vocal journey through multiple styles of music through which the choir, soloists, and small ensembles took us. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house after they sang their arrangement of Eternal Father, Strong to Save, the official navy hymn, and a rousing vocal medley of the official songs of the army, air force, marines, coast guard, and navy.
After the concert we returned to Big V to finish the meal preparations and then carried everything over to Jerry and Nancy’s house where we enjoyed chicken spaghetti, homemade Italian bread, fried asparagus, and Jean’s signature dessert recipe, raw apple cake…yum-yum!
When we were finished with the meal and the table was cleared, we all sat down to a rugged game of Chickenfoot before calling it a day and returning to our respective homes.
Monday, March 16
With our trip to East Texas coming up on Wednesday, today was time to get in high gear. While Barbara worked inside, I got the trailers all squared away and ready to load…had to get the large trailer moved outside, the medium trailer back in the boat barn, and the cargo trailer for the motorcycle loaded on the big trailer…just too much to think about!
Since we plan to be on the road for over two months, we had to go through all the closets and storage bins to determine what we really needed and where the needed stuff could be stored. It wasn’t the greatest fun in the world, but it was necessary, so we just “got ‘er done.”
Tuesday, March 17
Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!!!
If it was going to get done before we leave town tomorrow morning, today was the last chance to take care of it, so we continued straightening and packing Big V and storing the few things that we would leave behind in the boat barn. Luckily, we had great weather, so it wasn’t a problem to get outside and take care of all the little jobs that needed to be done, like separating all the sections of PVC pipe that we use to drain our gray water to the field and hauling them to the boat barn for storage, trimming all the weeds that have grown up around the concrete pad, etc.
Jean called during the afternoon and asked if we wanted to meet the family at Kwan Den for supper at 6:30. Since we didn’t want to disappoint anyone (and we LOVE to eat Chinese at Kwan Den), we said that of course we would. After all, this would be the last opportunity to visit for at least a couple of months, and we had lots to visit about. It was really a fun evening with a very special family.
Wednesday, March 18
This was it…the first day of a new adventure on the road in Big V. After having a little breakfast and checking our email, we finished getting everything squared away inside Big V so we could close her up.
Once everything was detached and put away, we pulled Big V off the pad and backed her up to the trailer for the hookup. When we were finally firmly attached, we pulled over to Jean’s house to dump the holding tanks and load the Vibe on the trailer, a trickier than usual maneuver since the cargo trailer was tied down at the front of the trailer. But, with a little perseverance, we soon had the job done. We sat down on Jean’s porch for our daily devotional and prayer, and then loaded up and pulled away from Eastwind Road for the 600-mile trip to Wood County, Texas.
We got out of town without incident, but about 45 miles into the trip; on the cutoff road to Hobbs, New Mexico we met an oilfield truck that gave us a wakeup call. Just as the truck came up to us, it threw up a rock that struck the driver side windshield of Big V. Suddenly, I was staring at a broken spot the size and shape of a baseball right in front of me!
Luckily for us, the window didn’t shatter into a million little pieces, and the rock didn’t come all the way through the window, so we were able to continue our journey.
Barbara dug out our insurance information and called the company to report what had happened, and within a couple of hours we had clarification on what we needed to do and what the insurance company would do. The bad news was that the list price on the driver side windshield is $1,175. The good news was that since we haven’t had a claim of any kind since we bought Big V, our $500 deductible would be cut in half and we would have to pay only $250. It wasn’t anything that we had in the budget, but it was a lot easier to take than if we had to replace the whole thing at out cost. We also found out that the glass company would order the replacement windshield and then deliver it to us on site in East Texas to install it…what a deal!
With no other excitement, we made our way through Hobbs and on to Seminole, Lamesa, and Big Spring, Texas, where we picked up I-20 and headed east. We stopped just outside Abilene to refuel and to call our friends Dandy and Glenn to see if a short visit might be possible this evening. Unfortunately, Glenn had a medical appointment tomorrow morning and they wouldn’t be able to get out tonight, so Barbara visited with Dandy on the phone and we pulled away from the Flying J and drove to a rest area about 20 miles east of Abilene where we shut down for the night.
Thursday, March 19
We were up pretty early this morning…not unusual after sleeping in a rest area with all the trucks rumbling around us, and by 7:00 or so we were back on the highway and continuing our journey to the Mineola area.
Since we weren’t in any great hurry, we made a couple of rest stops along the way and also stopped for lunch and some shop-looking at the Tangier Outlet Mall in Terrell. The shopping part was pretty much a bust, but it did give us a chance to walk around and stretch our legs before we ate and headed out again.
By just a little after noon we were at the Mineola Wal-Mart where we had to stop to give Big V a healthy drink of go-juice. I called Ernie to let him know we were in the area, but that we had already eaten and were anxious to get Big V up to Holiday Village to get settled in. He brought out our mail (important, because it contained the key cards we would need to get into the park), and then we drove up through Quitman and on to our new “home” at Holiday Village.
Once we got through the gates, we found a temporary slot in the RV Park section (we won’t be able to park in our new lot until we do some work on it), unloaded the trailer, opened up Big V, and did all the utility hookups.
Of course, we had to drive up to our new lot for a quick look, but then we drove back to Mineola to go to the post office and then check on Mother. While we were at Mother’s house we picked up several garden tools that Ernie had set out for us to use in clearing the lot, and then came back to Holiday Village to change clothes and go to work.
To say that the lot was overgrown would be an understatement, but we knew that with time and effort, we could make some progress. So, with rakes in hand, we started piling up leaves, twigs, and other assorted debris that had collected over the years.
Ernie had loaned us a pruning tool that proved to be quite effective in cutting down some of the low-hanging tree limbs at the front of the property…not the easiest way to get at them, but it was effective, and I soon had piles of small tree limbs stacked up around the front of the lot.
After a couple of hours we stopped working and drove back to Mineola to buy some pruning shears and a few more items at Wal-Mart and to visit with Mother, Ernie, and Billee for a while. When we left, we took Ernie’s gas-powered weed-eater with us, hoping that it would help make the work a little easier.
During the evening we drove around the area just to get a good feel of where we were, and then returned to Big V to rest up for a big day tomorrow.
Friday, March 20
We hit the deck running this morning, carting all of the lawn tools over to the lot so we could get a good start on the land. It turned out that the raking was the easiest part of the job. The toughest part, by far, was battling the briars that, almost unseen, had taken over the place. Neither of us had ever had experience with briars, but we quickly found that they are everywhere, having the ability (and strong inclination) to cover not only the ground, but any tree or bush above the ground; and, they have thorns that rival those of any rose bush or the needles of any cactus that we have ever encountered. I also learned that a weed-eater is pretty much useless against the briar vines…they are so tough that the cutting line, no matter what the gauge, just wraps itself around the vine and then lugs down the motor. The only way to get the vines was what we found in the first place…cut them off at the base and then start pulling them down from the trees and bushes (at, I might add, great risk to any exposed skin).
After struggling with cutting vines off at the base and then pulling them out of the trees like long ropes, we finally took a break, went back to Big V to get cleaned up, and then drove to Mineola for a big family lunch. One of Uncle Harry’s granddaughters and her children and step-father were in the area for a short visit, and of course, that called for brisket, beans, and all the trimmings over at T.J.’s house.
After a great meal and a fun visit, we said our goodbyes to the bunch and headed back to work, anxious and excited about making some visible progress on our work.
Along the way we stopped in Quitman to see J.D. Williams and get some more information about the cover we eventually want to erect over the concrete pad (that we will eventually pour after we eventually get some dirt to fill in the low spots in the lot).
J.D., who reminds us very much of Uncle Harry, gave us the name of a man who does a lot of concrete work for him and also suggested that we go “down the road a piece” to see his son-in-law about getting a quote for dirt hauling. So, we made another stop, got some more information, and left a message for J.D.’s son to give us a call about coming out to look at the lot and give us an estimate.
With all that done, we returned to Holiday Village and our work at the new home site, spending the afternoon and evening trimming, cutting, and raking until it was too dark to see what we were doing.
Saturday, March 21
Today dawned bright and beautiful, the perfect morning for getting over to the lot and doing some more work.
After having visited with Josh (our friendly real estate broker and advice giver), we found that it was perfectly legal to burn the trash on our lot as long as there was no county-wide ban burn and no wind. Since there was no ban and no wind, we started raking piles of leaves, dead grass, and briars into piles on the gravel at the front of the lot and torched them, spending most of the rest of the day tending the burn pile and heaping on all the tree limbs and branches that were dry enough to burn, a job that kept us both very busy. I do have to admit that watching the briar vines curl up and burn down to tiny bits of ashes did give me great pleasure…we still have the scratches on our faces, necks, and arms, but revenge was sweet!
Now, at this point, we need to reply to a comment made by one of our friends who wrote to Barbara last week.
Sally Odom, who, along with Barbara, was a language arts teacher at West Middle School when we were still teaching in Liberal, wrote to say how much she enjoyed keeping up with us through the journal and blog. But, she wondered, how we managed to stay agreeable with each other through the enforced closeness of life in Big V. She was curious about whether we had arguments, since we never write about them, and if we did, how we resolved the differences.
Well, Sally (and other faithful readers), in the interest of keeping the journal and blog “reality-based,” we have to admit that we have had our share of disagreements and squabbles since we hit the road. Luckily, we have managed to work through them and come out stronger and/or more tolerant through the process.
Most of the time, we can just go on about other chores or activities while we “cool down.” In Artesia, I would go out and work around the place when the walls started closing in, and Barbara could do the activities she liked.
Now that we are working together on the new lot, we are finding a whole new situation that isn’t about being closed up together; rather, it is about learning to work together. Would you believe it, we consider ourselves to be pretty good teachers, but we’ve found that we aren’t very good learners when our individual ideas about what should be done and how it should be done conflict with the other’s ideas. While we are, to a great extent, dependent on each other for much, we also are very independent in many ways, and, believe it or not, each of us thinks that our way is the best.
First, Barbara raked all the leaves into the piles shown in the second photo…This led to the following…
Today the conflict came to a head over how we were going to burn the piles of leaves. That sounds silly, but each of us had an idea about how and where it should be done, leading to a minor argument. Since one of us had to stay close to the fire until it was completely burned out, I stayed behind while Barbara went off for a short ride, something she doesn’t usually do, but after a half hour or so she returned refreshed and ready to go back to work. For my part, I left the burning to her and went off to another part of the lot to do some more clearing…problem solved and tempers cooled down.
While the vast majority of our time has been relatively free of stress and conflict, we do have those moments. However, if they happen early in the week, we have forgotten them by the time we finish up the journal and blog, and they never get in print.
So there you have it…true confessions that retirement life isn’t perfect…it’s just life.
“Any idiot can face a crisis; it is this day-to-day living that wears you out.” – Anton Chekov
From our temporary home at Holiday Village on Lake Fork,
Jim & Barbara
