Texas Resident!!

 

We took a trip into Livingston this morning to get new plates for the truck.  This photo above is a mural on a building.          

We put the new plates on and decided not to personalize them since we like these so well.  One thing that Texas does, which is pretty smart, is that you do not put your tabs on your plates.  The tabs go inside your truck, drivers side, lower windshield.  They're pretty hard to steal that way.  Now we have to get the trailer inspected, and then get new plates for it.  

We have decided to move up north a bit.  We are headed up to Tyler, Tx where it is a bit cooler.  And less humid.  We are leaving the 13th of January, and we might stay there a month, or maybe longer.  We'll just have to see.

This photo is for Aune.  Remember I told you about this jello and lemon meringue?  This is what it looks like.  It is in a refrigerated place in the store.  Maybe close to the yogurt, or cheeses, or maybe those biscuits in a can?  Road Hog loves them and thinks you will too since your favorite pie is lemon meringue.  Safeway would have them.  But then again, you probably haven't been to Safeway in a while...😂. And now you have to worry about the roads being all snowy and icy.  I'm laughing with you, not at you!

"CODE"

 

We have been sticking close to home, so I haven't been taking any photos.  Well, except for the cats.  Up above is Lucy, laying her head on grandma's marbles.  Why did grandma have these marbles in a little jar?  Where did these marbles come from?  I guess it doesn't matter.  I just like how the sun comes through the window and hits those marbles.  (When Lucys head isn't using the jar as a pillow.)

We are thinking about moving.  I don't mind the warm weather, but not at night!  Come on!!!  72 degrees at night?  I need my windows open, the breeze coming through, and no air conditioner noise!  Road Hog was looking at camping down near the ocean, but believe you me, I think it is humid down there too, just like up here.  I want to go up to the mountains, where the trees are, and the wild animals.  So we are searching for places a bit north from here.  Like I said, I don't mind the heat.  It is the humidity that I can do without!  

And here is Ethel.  A close up of her furry face!

Tomorrow we are running to the county to apply for our new truck and trailer plates.  Then we will go see what we can do about our drivers  license.  

We got to talking to one of our neighbors.  He is a chef at one of the local restaurants.  He came over to apologize about not helping us more with those kitties that were dropped off.  Then he started talking about having the 'code'.  Come to find out, the code is covid.  He was cooking a pizza for dinner one night and he normally can tell when the pizza is done by the smell.  He told me that when the pizza was done, and he couldn't smell it, he knew he had the virus.  He had the test and it was positive.  The only symptom he had was not being able to smell.  Otherwise he was fine.  No fever, no cough, no nothing.  (And no, he isn't vaccinated.)  He had another test today and it was negative, so he is back at work.    

Shrimp Boat Manny's

On Christmas Day we took a little drive around Lake Livingston.

Lake Livingston is the 2nd largest lake in Texas.  It's huge!  And pretty!  There is room to breathe, and there isn't houses that clog up the lakeside.  There are places to fish, and to play.  And still not a lot of people. 

 I started Christmas dinner when we got back home - game hen, stuffing, carrots, potatoes, rolls and fresh pecan pie.  We could have cooked something bigger than a game hen but it would have been too much for us.  Game hens are just the right size!

These next couple of photos are of Ethel Louise.  The photo above is when she is on window watch.  She takes her job very seriously.  For a cat.  

This photo is of Ethel doing her yoga exercises...left back leg under the chin move.  In fact, in yoga, that is the actual name.  Left back leg under chin.  Do it.  See how flexible you are.

We have been looking for another place to move to.  After riding around town this afternoon, we stopped here for dinner to go.  Shrimp Boat Manny's.  Seafood gumbo, red beans and rice, cat fish, Mac and cheese and boudin balls.  So far, this was the best cat fish and boudin balls that I have ever had.  Excellent!  Road Hog wasn't too keen on the gumbo but loved the cat fish.

And the restaurant was giving away crosses!  I didn't take one because I don't have a yard.  But how cool was that?  They look homemade too.  So, if you ever stop in Livingston, stop by Shrimp Boat Manny's and have some cat fish and gumbo, and pick yourself up a cross!

Another Day, Another Bug...and....

 

Well, another bug!  This one landed on my leg!  Thank goodness for long pants!  This bug is called an angle winged katydid.  And no, we didn't kill him.  Or her.

Someone dropped off two kitties.  They would have to pull over and drop them over the fence in the middle of the night because the gate is closed at night.  They found us.  You can tell that they were never handled by humans.  They were crying, starving and so thirsty.

We walked over to the office and told them the story.  Believe you me, if we already didn't have two cats, they would already be the trailer!  The office supplied us with a cage and even though it took all day, we caught them!  I made sure that they had food and water and something soft to lay on, and had the office lady come and get the cage.  She took the cage to the office, put her hand inside to grab the orange kitty, and it got out!  And it ran straight over to us!  Now, we are trying to catch it again. Someone took the gray one, and I had Road Hog go to Livingston to pick up a live trap.  (We had one but gave it to some relatives in Washington!). So when the kitty gets hungry, it will go into the trap.  Poor thing.  What kind of human drops off little defenseless kitties?  Obviously a human without a heart!  This kind of crap really gets to me.  If you have kitties, and can't afford them, take them to a no kill shelter.  Find a new home for them.  But don't just drop them off, next to a busy road, or anywhere!!!!! I tell you, sometimes people just piss me off.  

And here is one of my cats, with my pup.  Ethel Louise and Tully.  Both of these animals have a heart beat.  How can someone just throw away a heart beat?  With no food, no shelter, and no love?  People like that are NOT my kind of people!

Merry Christmas!!!!  We are missing family and friends but we are having a nice low key holiday.  No rushing here and there.  No crowds.  Just admiring all the lights here at the park and listening to all the kids playing outside in the 75 degree weather.  No snow here!  Woohoo!!

Bigger in Texas?

Well, look who is all nice and shiny.  Not one spec of dust on this baby!

The couple that came out to wash the trailer did an awesome job.  He got up on the roof and cleaned up there and told us that it was in great condition.  They even did the awnings!  We looked for like minded people and how they charge to wash your trailers.  They charge by the feet, and this couple charged $8 a foot.  We found some guys that were charging up to $13 a foot.  But the couple we hired came with great references, and that is why we decided to go with them.  They have been doing it for 14 years.  Allen and Sherry.  And if you want to hear a strong Texas twang, just listen to Allen talk!  It took about 1 1/2 hours and the total came to $280.  Great price since Road Hog doesn't have to get up on the roof!  We gave them a great tip since it is so close to Christmas.

We went into Coldspring afterwards to do a bit of shopping.  Such a friendly town and bigger than what we are used to.  I think the population sign said 853!  

Tully visited the dog park this evening.  She did her little business, and we continued our walk.

It is so pretty here!  Lots of room to walk and run....for Tully, not me!  Some of the trailers have the premium sites which include covered parking for their homes.  When we came home from our walk, we had a visitor at the door!  Eeewwww!

Isn't he huge?  Our stink bugs in Washington are nothing compared to this guy!  We are talking about a big hard shell bug.  Do you know what kind of noise he would make if you stomped on him?  And then all the screaming I'm sure he would do.  Eww!  Road Hog moved him over to a palm tree.

Busy Week !

Here is our new street!  Rainbow Drive!  When you pull in, here is what you will see:

This is where we pick up our mail.  Thousands and thousands of people who travel full time get their mail here.  It is a RV Club called Escapees.  They handle all of our mail.  I will get an email of my scanned mail and they give me an option to either destroy it, scan the inside, or forward it with my other mail.  With Escapees, there are so many other benefits.  It is a pretty cool club and you pay for what you want them to do.  They will also help you set up your domicile, whether it will be in Texas, South Dakota or Florida.  We, of course, selected Texas because I have an Aunt Jackie here!  

I hardly ever get to see the sunset anymore.  There is just too many hills and trees around here.  But tonights was right out our kitchen window.  It got up to about 60 degrees today, and about 37 at night.  Tomorrow we have a guy coming out to wash our fifth wheel.  He will also clean the roof and the solar panels, and the air conditioners.  I'll see how he does and if he is any good, I will put his information out there for others to use that have dirty trailers.

Just Like The Old Days!!!

We took a trip into our new town!  Livingston!  We just wanted to drive around and see what kind of stores are available and such.

It is a nice big town, and we found our address on Rainbow Drive where we will be picking up our mail.

We went by Lake Livingston and over the Trinity River.  It looks like a lot of egrets live there.  There were hundreds of them, and a big pile of them were in the river.  I think I know why they weren't flying...a huge storm came through!  It was just like the olden days when we (my sister and I) lived in Texas.  Huge thunder storms with lots of lightening.

And oh man!  The rain!  It got so dark and it was not even 11 am!

 

See the blue dot in the middle of the red area?  That's us!  We finally got home from town and ran into our 'home' and we were drenched.  I think last night was the best night we have had for sleeping though because it got down in the 40's!  Today it got up to 55 so just how we like it.  We can't celebrate for long because it will be up in the 70's soon enough.  I don't really mind the 70's but I want it cool enough to sleep at night!

Road Hog found a buddy today.  Look how big this guy is!  Hopefully he eats any bugs that are around. 

And once again, here is Ethel Louise.  She is doing the perfect stance and grumpy face for the camera.  And yes, we still have Lucy.  But she spends most of her days sleeping.  She'll make an appearance once in a while, but most of the photos that I get, they are of her sleeping.

Coldspring, TX!

Well, we made it to our winter camping space!  We left at 9 am and arrived at 11 am.  Such a nice pretty drive!

If it wasn't 75 degrees in December, I would think we were still in SW Washington!  Look at all the trees, and everything is so green!!  We did hit a couple of rain drops on the drive, but not bad at all.  It is pretty muggy, so I have had the fan going on all day.

Here is our set up.  The park isn't very big, maybe about 20 or so spaces.  Some have covers, some are by the pond, and some are like ours, cement pad and grass next to us for Tully.

We took a lot of back roads and went through some pretty awesome old little towns.  We'll have time to investigate them this winter.

It kind of looks like the pond was dyed.  A lot of times this is done to get rid of algae.  I'm not too sure if there is fish in it, but there is the bridge that we can go over. 

The photo of the tree is to show you the mass moss hanging down.  There is more moss in this tree than what's in all of Pacific County!  But this stuff is beautiful!  Especially when the breeze is moving it!

We took a walk around the camp and was pretty impressed with how clean everything is.  We don't use the facilities like the laundry or showers, but just seeing the landscape and meeting the folks that run it, it gives us a good feeling.  Even though we can stay for as many months as we want, we can also leave any time.  We are paid up until this time next month, so we will see.  If we get antsy, we can always move on.

And of course, here is Ethel relaxing.  See her little pink belly?  😁

Stormy, But Beautiful Day!

What a fun day today!  We went in to a city called College Station.  I loved it!  I felt right at home!  (Because I am so young looking, I easily passed for a college student!).  Must be the Deaver genes! 😀

 

We passed by Texas A & M University.  The stadium was awesome except Road Hog drove by too fast for me to get a photo.  So the entrance is the only photo I got.

It got up to 79 degrees today, lots of wind, but no rain.  We've had the air conditioners going all day, and just now turned them off and opened up the windows and door.

Our fifth wheel is smack dab in the middle of the tree and the building.  Look at those clouds...with the blue sky!

Here is the pool area.  It only goes to 4 feet, but that is enough to get wet.  I should really do a couple of laps....💦

Beautiful sun!  This is the brightest it has been all day.

We are driving in to Brenham tomorrow to visit the UPS store.  (Hint hint to the kids!).