I have so much to catch you up on!
Monday, July 29, we left Lubbock for Brownwood. We spent just over three weeks at "The IC RV Heaven Spot", as my sister and I call the RV spot she and my brother-in-law have created for us there close to their house. It was such a great, long time with the family. It's been years and years since I've been able to spend such times with my family. And Max has never been around them for such a length of time. They make him feel so at home, though, that he loves, it too.
Chapter One - Week of July 29
Our niece Buddie and niece-in-law Jessica are teachers, and they were still out of school for the summer so we were able to spend lots of time with them and their kids. Brownwood has a nice mini-waterpark swimming pool, and we enjoyed that one afternoon. Here's great-nephew Tommy showing off his prowess on the ropes course...
Uncle Max spent a little time in the shade with great niece Lynlee...
Many of you know that my nutty little sister is a Roller Derby queen. "Mud" is her action name. Her teammates tend to call her "Mama Mud" because she's one of the oldest on the team. That doesn't slow her down a bit, and she has a blast with this derby stuff. I admire her so much. Her philosophy is age is only a number, and you're only as old as you feel. She makes sure she never feels it! I was able to attend one of her practice sessions. Just watching made me hurt all over!
That's her in the red t-shirt and the blue helmet.
Look at that fancy footwork!
She's also a biking enthusiast (riding in the "Hotter 'n Hell" this weekend in Wichita Falls!). We had the chance to get out a couple of mornings for a nice ride. Nothing like her 40- or 50-milers, trust me. But it was still awesome fun. A few miles from their house there is what looks to be a paint donkey. You just have to wonder how that creature came about. With just the right pitch and tone to our donkey call, he came right up to see us.
Chapter Two - Week of August 4
The second week we were there, little brother Kerby, his wife Virginia and son Zachary came in for a visit from Ohio. We don't get to see them very often, as you might imagine, so that was a real treat. Big brother Terry and his wife Ranita own a house at Lake Brownwood as well as a nice boat so we got to spend some great times there swimming, relaxing, visitin' and having what we call "tubing wars". One of Terry's greatest joys in life seems to be seeing just how far he can sling people off those tubes. And it's obviously fun for the passengers because we keep coming back for more!
Zachary and Tommy. Tommy really loved having his other boy cousin there.
Sunny and mom Buddie. She's only 2 years old but such a little water bug.
We start 'em young on those tubes! That's Buddie and Sunny again with their hair just a'flyin'! Sunny didn't want to stop. She just loved it and had the biggest smile on her face.
And then there's Kerby. He just loves that tubing, too. Like the rest of us, it brings back lots of great childhood memories of weekends at the lake with Mom and Dad. And like Terry, he's happiest when he's trying to dump someone off the tube. :)
Our niece Stephanie, holding her own against ornery Uncle Kerby
I love this picture because it really shows some of the personality of each of these great kids. I'm not sure what they had done--made headbands and bandages, I think. Tommy and Sunny love to play soldier, and it looks like they drafted Lynlee and Stephanie to play along. Tommy is obviously quite tickled about the whole thing; Lynlee plays along with anything her cousins want to do; Stephanie has such a sweet smile on her face and is so good with these kids; and Sunny is right in there with the gang but would much prefer you didn't necessarily document it with a photograph. LOL!
Loved this pic, too. Naptime for Sunny and Stephanie's puppy dog. Isn't that the sweetest?!
Another bike ride, this time to include Kerby. You can tell who the serious bike riders are and who's just tagging along for the fun of it. Or torture. Not sure which it is. :)
The weekend of August 9-11, while Kerby and family were there, we had a family reunion. (Yes, another! LOL We have two each year on my side of the family and love them!) This one was with Mom's side of the family--the Thomases. We've been having this reunion for about 40 years, and we just love it. Every year it has been at Kirkland Docks at Lake Brownwood except for last year when Kirkland's ownership was in flux. This year we were back at good ol' Kirkland's and loving it. It's all about catching up on family news, eating LOTS of great food, and this year included a birthday party for nephew Jesse and little Lynlee as well as some pretty competitive ping pong for some...
As an added bonus, Karen had a real live derby bout! Just about everyone at the reunion attended. We made up quite a cheering section for her!
Virginia helped with the t-shirt and tchotchke sale the night before the bout.
And then the fun began...
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| For Kerby's sake I have to tell you I made the sign. Kerby was just kind enough to hold it up for the picture. |
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Mud's team came out on top! Of course.
How could they not with such a cheering section?! |
Then it was time for sad good-bye's with Kerby's family. We needed one last picture with Zachary and Tommy..
And a good-bye photo of the family. Sure enjoyed having you here! Love you guys. Come back soon!
Chapter Three - Week of August 11
The week after the reunion, Max and I worked the sheep ranch while Greg and Karen took a little vacation and went to Port Aransas for a few days. Those days were busy but uneventful, thank goodness! They had a great time getting away for a few days, and were thrilled to be able to do something for them for once, as they have done so much for us since we've moved into this new lifestyle.
One Last Story...
We've had quite a time with the Turtle the last couple of weeks in regards to electrical and battery issues. As is typical in life, everything was going fine one minute (or at least seemed), and then the next minute...BOOM. Life changes. In our case, we suddenly lost all power. No electrical system whatsoever. Not good when the days are over 100 degrees! We finally found this. It's the surge protector we plug into the pole outside wherever we hook up. You'll note the big melted hole on the right. Not good.
Plugged into the surge protector was this...
Yikes! Completely burned up. No wonder the thing didn't work! The repairman said it was probably a combination of the heavy load we were running (air conditioners running full force because of the heat) combined with a loose wire. You can bet from here on out, we'll be doing an occasional check of the new one to make sure all wires are secure. (I recently read on an RV blog that pulling your rig down the road is like having an earthquake inside your house. I get that! :))
We were so thankful we had the surge protector, and we were so thankful that it didn't go past this point. Everything in the Turtle was safe!
Anyway, we got this little problem fixed. Then a few days later...BOOM. This time it was everything associated with our 12-volt system. Our converter bit the dust. We have suspected since we bought the Turtle that the converter was going out, but then we would read things on the Internet or talk to people who said no, what it was doing was normal. So we kept limping along.
We made a mad dash to Granbury for another, and Max got it up and going. (The 12-volt system runs most of the lights, the slide-outs and the awning. And probably other stuff that I don't know about, understand, or am forgetting.) So we got that fixed.
Then two days later...the day we were getting ready to pull out of the IC Heaven for points north...BOOM. We couldn't pull the slides in. Everything else 12-volt-related worked. Sheez. Not a position you want to be in when you're getting ready to hook up and pull out. After another service call from the mobile RV technician, he found the problem, fixed it, and we were ready for the road. In more ways than one. :) Too bad we can't take that little RV technician with us on the road! Actually, the one I have in the driver's seat is pretty handy to have around. Sure glad to have him along!
In honor of all this excessive "fun" we were having, Karen fixed us up with these.
Before we left Lubbock, a friend of ours told Max, "Just remember, man--be the duck. You're retired now. Let it roll off." Yes, sir!
The Last Chapter - Wednesday, August 21
We're finally headed down the road. So far, everything is going well. All things electrical and battery-related are working fine. The lights inside the Turtle are brighter than they have ever been, and we're seeing things at night we've never been able to see before. How fun is that?!
We had all the windows open this afternoon and did not have to listen to the thundering of those AC's. Heaven! Tonight the low is 57. Can't wait. Good sleeping weather!
Tomorrow we move on to Alamosa, CO. More bear country. More cool weather. Sounds like we also might get into some rain. Can't wait!
Until next time...take care!
Paula
Jenny, our car manager, made the trip interesting with information on points of interest and other bits of trivia and information on the local area. She is a 5th grade teacher working the railroad for the summer and has a delightful personality, making the trip a pleasure.
We thought the mountains around Alamosa were beautiful, but the drive north to Salida and Howard took us through what we considered an even prettier part of the state. Max just kept saying "Wow!" I came to the Salida area back in April when I was still working for Tyler, and I knew I wanted to bring Max here. Hearing his comments, I was so glad we came.
The headwaters of the Arkansas River are here, and the sights and sounds of that cold, clear water help to clear your head, no matter what is rattling around in there. We had made reservations at Bandera's Bunkhouse in Howard, and the river runs about 50 feet outside the steps of our Turtle. What a nice place to call home for a few days.
We had made plans to meet up with our friends George and Lisa from Colorado Springs while we were here. We met them at an RV-Dreams Rally in Elephant Butte, NM back in March and have kept in touch. They recently became full-timers, as well, and stopped over for a day and a night on their way to Gunnison. It was so nice to see familiar faces and to share our start-up experiences over the last few months. We went for an exciting and beautiful drive over Monarch Pass (and experienced the really thin air up there!), told lots of stories, and laughed and laughed. Among other important things, they were able to better explain the whole "medicinal marijuana" concept to us. They said it's by prescription--but you can get that prescription there at the shack! Who knew?! What can I say...I just had to know how it works. :)
Before we knew it, we had driven almost all the way to Gunnison. Max had an uncle who used to have a ranch in the area, and he was able to find the old place and ranch house. Which of course brought back lots of memories from when he was a teenager and came up for visits. 
