- Good food, good company, good advice from Grandma

I Got A New Camera!

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I have been using my old camera since 2003? I think. I got it when we lived in McAllen, Texas, and we left there in January 2005. It has been a good camera, but it was time for a new one, because it has been acting a little fickle for a year or so. It just turns itself off at will, or doesn’t take pictures whenever it doesn’t feel like it. And while I haven’t missed any truly important shots, I just wasn’t happy with it anymore.

When I found out that I was to receive a cash award from my job, I decided to use that money to get a new camera. So, when I saw that the money was in my bank account, we went to Tuscaloosa yesterday to get a new one.

Since I took this picture in a mirror, it is backwards. This is a Nikon Coolpix S630. It is 12 megapixels and 7X zoom. And when I took this picture:

the readout on the LED screen said “Did someone blink?”. That cracked us up! Now I still wonder how the camera knew that FabGrandpa blinked. I was soooo excited to find out it has a setting for taking pictures of food. Since you KNOW I love to take pictures of food almost as much as I love to eat:

pancakes

bacon

BBQ salad

It does a pretty good job with landscapes too. This was taken with the “night-time landscape” setting. It was almost dark outside when I took this photo.

And it was after dark when I took this one.

I think I am going to have lots of fun with this new camera. As soon as I figure out how everything works.

Our Sweet Home In Alabama!

Karen · 9 Comments

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After a trip that took us six days to drive 1810 miles, through 6 states and 3 time zones, we have arrived at our winter home in Greensboro, Alabama. Payne Lake Campground in the Talledega National Forest is where we will be spending the next few months. The folks we’ll be working with are very glad to see us, and we are just as glad to be here.

This place is gorgeous. We have a really nice campsite, up on a hill, overlooking the lake. There is a washer and dryer, and a freezer for us to use while we are here. A golf cart, and a riding lawn mower, and best of all, satellite internet service right at our site! We feel really loved already and we just got here.

This is the entrance road to the campground and day use area. We stopped here to wait for Joe, the forest service guy to meet us there and show us where we our campsite is.

Another view of the entrance road. The closest town is 16 miles away in Greensboro. It is very quiet here.

One more view of the entrance road.

This is our front yard at our campsite. There is a huge oak tree, a picnic table, a fire ring, and you can see the lake across the road.

The West Campground has 18 sites, 9 of them have water and electric hook-ups, the other nine have only water. At the East Campground there are 32 primitive sites for tents with no hook-ups. The East campground is closed right now, as they do not have water over there at the moment. That is coming, and there will be another camp host couple over on that side in a couple of weeks.

More of the campground. This campground is really nice, we would recommend it to anyone. The larger sites with water and electric look like they could accomodate a 30 foot RV or trailer.

This was on Saturday–it was a beautiful day, with sunshine and puffy clouds. These geese probably don’t know there are alligators in that lake!

There’s our trailer, up on that hill. Doesn’t that look nice?

And this was taken from the dam. The fall colors are just starting here but it is already beautiful. I know soon it will be winter, so we are enjoying this view while we can.

Today, Joe came over and took us on a tour of the place, showing us where to get supplies, what we are expected to do, and such as that. Tomorrow, we go to town to pick up some personal supplies, then the next day we’ll get to work getting things in shape for campers who will be coming in soon.

Louisiana, Mississippi, Still Going to Alabama…

Karen · 2 Comments

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From 186 miles we were on I-20 in Louisiana, going east towards Mississippi. The road in Louisiana was very rough, and made for a painful ride for me.

I was very happy to see the Mississippi River up ahead. I always love when we cross the Mississippi, whichever direction we are going.

When we are headed east, it always symbolizes to me that we are officially back in the south. We spent the last 18 months in Arizona, and while I love it out there, it definitely is not the south. So when we crossed the river, I was very happy to be “home”.

We made really good time across Mississippi. The Weather Channel was calling for heavy rains, but we never got any of it. The radar maps showed it all north of us. I was very thankful for that. The road improved and smoothed out after we cross the state line. I was thankful for that, too.

We stopped for the night in Pelahatchie at Yogi On The Lake RV park. It is a part of Legacy Resorts Corporation–I did not like it that when we called to make a reservation, the person we talked to was not at the campground we were making the reservation for. They told us that the office would be closed when we arrived but that they would leave us a map to our site.

When we got there, there was no late arrival info for us. I was a little bit upset by that, as I have worked at campgrounds for 9 years now, and I have always left maps for the late arrivals. I felt like it was poor service to us. The other thing is that they DO have wireless internet in the park, and we picked up a fantastic signal for it, but they required a sign-in code, which we did not have because they did not leave our information outside for us as late arrivals. Just something to be aware of if you are traveling through Mississippi anytime in the future.

They do have long pull through sites, and they are quite level, so that was a plus. Just be sure to ask for your sign-in code for the Wi-Fi when you have them on the phone if you are going to get there after the office closes.

Wichita Falls, Texas to Shreveport

Karen · 1 Comment

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We left Wichita Falls headed for Shreveport, still going south on 287, looking into this gorgeous east Texas sunrise that seemed to go on forever. It is a monotonous road, with mile after mile of nothing but Texas to see out the window.

The highlight of the day was going through Paris. Paris, Texas, that is. It is a quaint little town, with a cute town square, but not much else is there.

We finally wound up on I-20 late in the afternoon at Marshall, Texas, and then it was only about 40 more miles to Shreveport.

We planned to spend the night at a casino in Shreveport, play the slots, eat dinner, and get to bed early. Which we did, except that there was a railroad yard right outside the RV park, which we did not know was there.

So, if you are planning to stay at a campground at a casino in Shreveport, don’t pick Diamond Jack’s. You’ll be jarred away in the wee hours of the dark by trains adding boxcars on that track right over there. We ate dinner at the buffet there, though, and that was pretty good. They had fried catfish breaded with corn meal, and steamed shrimp, and some killer parslied new potatoes. We gave them some money in their slot machines, then went to bed. When we got up the next morning, it was cloudy and humid, 100% humidity but not raining. And it was about 75 degrees, so it was that cloying, smothering, southern humidness that I know so well. Welcome to the south!

And then we got on that bumpy road, and oh mah holy hell, the girls were in trouble all day!

186 Miles

Karen · 11 Comments

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That is how far it is, give or take a mile or two, across the state of Lousey-anna. I make this statement because I want to warn other “big-chested” women to make sure they have a very good, very tight, bra before driving across this state on I-20.

Every mile of the way, my ta-ta’s were tortured, my mamaries were mangled, my boobies were bruised. There was no way I would have been able to drive, as I spent the entire time with my arms crossed across my chest in an effort to protect the girls. That was an impossible task! I was never more glad to leave a state than I was when we crossed over into Mississippi. Just sayin. Get a good bra before you go through Louisiana.

Wichita Falls RV Park in Wichita Falls, Texas

Karen · 7 Comments

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At least we waited til after the sun came up to leave Tucumcari. We saw lots of windmills and wind turbines in New Mexico. The old fashioned windmills pump water for the many cows and other agricultural uses:

And the modern wind turbines produce electricity. If you click the photo below to enlarge it you may be able to see the turbines on the ridge across this field. I counted at least 60 of them over there. They are HUGE! A sign we saw says that each one produces 1.5 megawatts of electricity. I don’t know exactly how much that is but it must be a lot.

Ok, so I looked it up for us all to know. From this website: Oregon Power Solutions:

“…How many homes can one megawatt of wind energy supply?
An average U.S. household uses about 10,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity each year. A one-megawatt wind turbine can generate between 2.4 million and 4 million kWh annually, depending on the average wind speed at the site. Therefore, a single one-megawatt wind turbine generates enough electricity to power 240 to 400 households….”

So, if there were 60 of those things, they could produce enough electricity for up to 24,000 homes. Wow!

The turbines were out in the fields, so a farmer could still use the land to ranch or grow cotton or peanuts, and also receive lease payments for a power company to put those wind turbines on their property. That is a good use of resources in my opinion.

Another thing that was amazing to me is that there was so many ranches and farms, and you could see at a glance what these people do to make a living. They grow cotton, peanuts, sorghum, and corn. We saw a peanut processing plant, cotton gins, feed lots, feed and seed silos, farm implement sales lots. I guess I lived in cities for so long I either never knew or forgot about all the agricultural occupations that existed. See how beautiful that cotton field is?

We saw flocks of geese flying south for the winter. That is also amazing to me how those birds know when the cold weather is coming, and take flight before the first snow.

We DIDN’T see any rattlesnakes, but this sign had me looking for them. This was at a rest area east of Amarillo on Hwy 287.

We stopped for the night at Wichita Falls RV Park in Wichita Falls, Texas. The guy who works in the office there can not give directions. We called him twice, and he failed to give correct directions both times. If you are going south on Hwy 287, take exit 1-A, get all the way over to the right, turn right at the first light, and stay on that road until you see the sign for the RV park. That guy had us running all over Wichita Falls pulling that trailer. It is hard to turn around when you have a 34′ trailer behind you, ya know? They weren’t making any dinner for us, either, so I made some potato salad.

And this was a little interesting: a collection of fire hydrants, each one painted a different color, at the RV park. Hmmmm……

We made about 410 miles today–not bad. Tomorrow, we head for Shreveport.

Going to Alabama…

Karen · 7 Comments

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Yesterday we got as far as Holbrook, Arizona. We got the trailer and truck parked at the KOA, then walked a couple blocks to a restaruant in town. It looked ok from the outside, but the food was, well, less than expected. Way less. I ordered a Mexican combo plate that had chicken enchiladas, rice and beans. The chicken tasted like it was canned, and the rest of it was worse than that. Across the road from the restaurant, there was a hair salon called “Hairlapeno’s”. We usually take pictures of things like that but, GASP! I forgot to take my camera with me. So, that opportunity was lost.

We walked back home to the trailer and called it an early night as we were both tired. About 4 a.m, FabGrandpa was whispering in my ear, “Do you think that restaurant is open for breakfast yet?” Of course he was just joking, we were not going to give them a second chance. However, he accomplished the goal of getting me out of bed and ready to go, but not before I had my customary chocolate coffee and email time.

As I am not so much a morning person, I rarely see sunrise. But since I was already up and in the truck, I did get to see this one. Way too early, I tell ya! See:

That is A.M. people. I barely had my eyes open.

New Mexico, which IS a state in case you are not aware (hehehe), is quite beautiful. Don’t let all that sunshine fool you though, it was 17 freaking degrees out there. I was freezing my hiney as we got the rig ready to go down the road!

Even though there aren’t many actual trees, there is some fall color in the landscape. I even saw a tumbleweed rolling down the interstate! Wasn’t quick enough to get a photo, but it was awesome as I have never seen one before.

We went through Albuquerque, and I have to tell ya, I have NOT missed all that traffic. We were there during the lunch rush:

I could have really done without all that. FabGrandpa accused me of pinching a hole in the seat. I hate traffic!

Lunch was at Lisa’s Truck Center. Again, I forgot to take a picture (what the heck is the matter with me today?), but the burger (without a bun, and salad without dressing) was great! The meat was six ounces hand patted and cooked on a grill.

There was lots of construction on I-40. In several places they had taken all the pavement up off of the east bound lanes, down to the dirt, and had us routed into one lane of the west bound side, with a concrete wall between us and the one lane of west bound traffic. It looked like they were rebuilding the entire road. Maybe next year it will be a smoother ride.

We made it to Tucumcari, a total of about 410 miles for the day. We stayed at the KOA in town again, and got a nice, flat site.When I went inside to register for the night, there was a delicious aroma of pot roast with potatoes and carrots. When I asked about it, they said it was for sale for dinner, so I got two plates of it. Boy was it ever good! I hope the next place we stay is cooking when I get there!

Goodbye, Grand Canyon!

Karen · 3 Comments

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Goodbye, Grand Canyon!

Goodbye, Marble Canyon!

Goodbye, Flagstaff!

I always liked the ending to that movie, “Muriel’s Wedding”, when the girls are in the cab saying goodbye to the town of Porpoise Spit. I felt like that today, when we got in the truck and left the canyon. We have been in Arizona for 18 months, since April 2008. It feels funny to be leaving, even though I know I’ll be back here in the spring.

But, we have friends and family we want to see back east, so Alabama it is for this winter. We’ll go to visit FabGrandpa’s Mom and Dad, his brothers, our children, my Mom, and my brothers and my sister. We’ll see as many of our friends as we can squeeze in in the six months we’ll be in the south. It’ll be a grand homecoming for us, and then we’ll be gone again, to do our thing at the Grand Canyon for another season.

So long, Arizona. I’ll miss you!