Larry & Sue's Texas Adventures

2022 in the Rear View

2022 is almost completely behind us now. Here is an abbreviated recap of our year.

January was uneventful – nothing to report. February is Sue’s birth month. We took her out to dinner to Bosano Italian Restaurant (“we” was Larry, along with Nestor & Ellen Cromwell, friends from nearby Elgin, and Mel & Andrea Bray, friends & neighbors who moved here last year from Ukiah, California).

March saw us on a short trip to Sweetwater, Texas, for the Annual Rattlesnake Roundup. It was very cold, so the snakes were moving slower, and there were not too many (only a few hundred). Larry picked up a snakeskin hat band (with the rattle intact). Larry received information from his doctor that he suffers from Type 2 Diabetes. It is controlled and he is working on keeping his weight and blood pressure down. He also followed up with testing to rule out pancreatic cancer (his father and aunt died from pancreatic cancer). Sue built some raised beds for a vegetable garden, and then Larry finished the rainwater catchment system to supply water.

In April we added to our home with the installation of a workshop. 12’X24′, built off site, trucked here, and set in place with a ‘mule’ and blocks. Larry added electricity, and is working on installing a second door, insulation, and air conditioning.

Our annual extended travel started in May with a trip to Ohio. Larry attended the annual HamVention in the Dayton area, the worlds oldest armature radio convention. Also on our bucket list was the Ark Encounter in Kentucky. We stopped there on our way home after spending a few days with Sue’s Uncle Clint and Aunt Dianna.

On our way home in June we stopped in Dallas, Texas, and traded our travel trailer in on a new one: a 2022 Forest River RPod RP201. This model is marketed for boondocking travelers. It comes with solar, inverter, outdoor griddle, 12V TV, and a lot of other high tech stuff. June saw us both come down with COVID.

July saw us trying to escape the South Texas heat; travelling to Arizona, where we visited with Sue’s twin aunts and their husbands in Show Low. The weather there was great, but down in Phoenix on our way home the temps were in the teens – one-hundred-and-teens! So we travelled on to Oklahoma and spent about 12 days camping before we finally headed south for the final leg on this journey.

August (and July) was over-heated in South Texas: 53 consecutive days with no rain (this is a drought in Texas) and over 100 degrees. Our lawn died (water use restrictions), vegetable died, cattle ranchers were selling beef on the hoof as fast as they could before they starved or died of heat. We finally got some relief with 3″ of rain in 2 days; but, the creeks, rivers, ponds, and lakes are still low.

September cooled down, so we worked on customizing the new travel trailer. Larry installed a 30 amp electric management system (EMS) to protect the 110 volt circuits. Then he added cabling for cable TV, satellite TV, cell signal booster, Wi-Fi repeater, and a 20 amp circuit dedicated to the air conditioner. Then he replaced the bathroom faucet with one that is long enough that you can get your hands wet, and the kitchen faucet with one that has a retracting hose. Sue added storage systems and organized the storage and other interior items. Our friends, Robin and Jan Murphy from Folsom, California spent a few days with us looking over the area and homes available for when they can escape from California. And also in September, Sue joined a local Bunco group (the dice game, not the crime) that meets and plays once-a-month.

Our last trips of the year were all in October: First a short trip to South Padre Island with our friends, Nestor & Ellen. In addition to a day at the beach on the gulf coast, we enjoyed a dinner cruise on the inland side of the island, and a day trip to the Space X Star Base in Boca Chica, Texas. Next we spent a long weekend at Lake Somerville State Park, fishing, walking and just relaxing. We took a day trip to Washington on the Brazos, where the Texas Declaration of Independence and the Republic of Texas Constitution were both drafted and signed in 1836. Texas was fighting for independence from Mexico, and was successful. It wasn’t until 1845, nine years later, that it became a state in the United States of America. Our third, and last, trip of the year was to Dallas, Texas, and the Texas State Fair. We spent two days enjoying the animal, agriculture, and craft exhibits, along with indulging ourselves in ‘fair food’ (Sue had both a turkey leg and funnel cake, Larry stuck with corn dogs and frozen lemonade). This trip conclude with breakfast with our son, John, catching up on his life and work at Peterbilt.

November brought more rain and cooler evenings. We took advantage of the cooler weather and fired up our new wood stove, a red Vermont Castings Intrepid. There is nothing like the warmth of a fire in a wood stove. Sue had another foot surgery (her 8th), this time to remove a plate and screws from her left foot, big toe. Thanksgiving this year was a small affair, just Sue, me, and Jim Sheffield, a friend from the Bastrop County Amateur Radio Club.

December saw us finalizing our annual letter, inserting it into Christmas cards and mailing them. We hosted a 2nd annual Christmas cheer get-together at our home for our close friends and neighbors. John is moving to a new apartment, we will be helping his move this month. Then he will come to our home for Christmas Dinner.

We will ‘see’ you all next year!

First The Bad News

About Victoria
Some of you may have noticed in recent posts that there is an absence of any reference to my daughter, Victoria. Well, the reason for that is that she has banished me from her life. It began a couple years ago when she ‘unfriended’ me on FaceBook because she didn’t want her friends to see my posts. At that time and since then she has been completely indoctrinated into and consumed by the woke, social justice cult. In October she sent me a very mean, nasty message, where she called me a host of unflattering names, and said she was done with ‘me and my ilk.’ She severed communications with me at the same time. I told her that I will always love her and that I will always be her father; however she seems to have no interest in a relationship with me. So that is where we have left it.

We have been praying for her, and we ask that you keep us and her in your prayers also.

     Let me tell you a secret about a father's love,
     A secret that my daddy said was just between us.
     Daddies don't just love their children every now and then.
     It's a love without end, amen, it's a love without end, amen.

          (written by Aaron Barker; recorded by George Straight)

Rainwater Catchment System
Larry constructed a rainwater catchment system to store water primarily for gardening; but also available in case of emergency need if our community water system fails. It catches rainwater off of one side of the house (gutters), through an air-gap leaf/debris filter, fills a 330 gallon IBC tote from the bottom. We got the tote from a tank company in Houston for about 1/3 the price of a new tote locally. The tote frame is used and the bottle is new. Here is a quick video of the ‘system’.

Sue has been working on establishing a vegetable garden. The soil here is: very fine sand for about 18 inches with soft clay below for several feet. Even weed don’t grow very well – except for those nasty sand burs! She picked up some stock tanks to convert to raised beds. Now we just need to fill them up (rock on the bottom) with some good fertile topsoil.

Workshop
We have finally saved enough money to build a workshop for Larry. Well, not exactly build, but order one. We are getting a wood frame dutch barn style building, 12′ X 24″. It will go beside the house along the fence line, with a 10′ side yard setback providing vehicle access to the back yard if / when needed. Larry is very excited to finally get a workshop that is not the garage. It is being constructed by a local company, Sturdi-bilt, and is scheduled for delivery and setup in April.

Rolling Pines Fire
In January we were surprised by a wildfire that threatened our home and neighborhood. The Rolling Pines Fire started from a ‘controlled’ burn in the Bastrop State Park, quickly escaped control, burned out of the park boundaries, eventually consuming over 800 acres within about 36 hours. It burned to within a mile of our home. The neighborhood next to ours was mandatorily evacuated. Since we wanted to utilize our travel trailer in the event we were ordered to evacuate, we went ahead and loaded up our belongings and boogied. We stayed on night in a friends back yard in Elgin, TX, and came home the next day to find no problems with our place or with our neighbors. Our evacuation was unnecessary; however it was good practice.

They fight fire differently here in rural Central Texas from what I was used to for almost 40 years in California. Not badly, just differently. Available resources are different, experience / expertise levels are different, Fire Weather is radically different. Maybe some day I will write something about the differences that I see.

Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup

Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup
Last year we travelled through Sweetwater, Texas on one of our annual summer treks. When we checked in to the city RV park in Sweetwater we discovered that we had just missed the annual Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup. So this year we have arranged to be there for the roundup weekend (March 11, 12, & 13).

We don’t really know what to expect, other than a fun filled weekend, and, of course rattlesnakes. Stay tuned for our After Action Report!

Ham Radio Operators

For those amateur radio operators out there:
1) Larry has tickets to the Dayton Hamvention – first time ever! Anyone going to be there, let’s rendezvous — he has tickets to the entire event, May 20, 21, & 22.
2) ARRL Field Day 2022 — June 25 & 26. It’s fast approaching and will be here before you know it. What are your plans?
3) Ukraine war situation: Larry found a couple WebSDR sites where you can listen real-time to communications; military, amateur, and commercial:
a) University of Twente
b) R2AJI (Russia)
It helps if you speak Russian or Ukrainian; however you can also pick up English language broadcasts and communications occasionally.

Catching Up!

Apologies for not writing something here sooner. So, we’ve some catching up to do. So, here goes – wrapping up 2021!

Tornado Warnings & Camping
In May we went up to Oklahoma for a short visit. We picked a weekend with tornado warnings – no, not intentionally. The RV park has an above-ground storm shelter. From our site we could see the shelter, so when the Warning was announced, we just hunkered down in the trailer while we watched to see if/when everyone was headed towards the shelter. As it turns out, no need to shelter, although some of the ‘sideways’ rain managed to find its way into the interior of the trailer. A leak that we have been chasing down ever since. We did get a chance for a rainy day outing, to the National Cowboy Museum in Oklahoma City. What a great site!

Tire Blow-out
On the way home we had another tire blow-out (our 2nd), on I-35 near Hillsboro, TX. It occured in a construction zone with no break-down lane (in fact there were barriers about 3′ from the traffic lane. As a result we elected to drive on the as cars and trucks were passing us at 80 MPH. We drove almost 2 miles on the flat at 15 MPH, all the while assuming the wheel would be ruined. At the end of the construction zone we were able to get completely off the road and safely change the flat tire for the spare, amazingly the wheel was in perfect shape with no apparent damage; however, the spare only had 30# of air pressure, so we had to inflate it before continuing. We got a replacement in the town of Hillsboro and continued on home.

Sue Gets a New Car
We sold the Subaru Forester (for cash). We shopped around for a new car for Sue. We looked at Mercury, Ford, Subaru, and Toyota. We finally settled on Toyota, the Highlander model. The local dealer had only one in stock – the platinum top-of-the-line for which they wanted way too much $$. We did more shopping and found that the Austin dealer had some in stock. By the time we drove to Austin and connected with a salesman, there were two left in stock. We selected one of the two and started the paperwork, but before we could finish we were informed that vehicle had already been committed to another customer who was coming in from out-of-town the next day to pick it up. So, we settled on the only model left in stock. It is a great vehicle, Sue is very happy with it.

ARRL Field Day
For the ham operators out there, Larry did participate in the ARRL Field Day in June. He made a few contacts, but was having trouble with his antenna and as a result didn’t make as many contacts as he would have liked. He has since put up his CrankIR in a more or less permanent installation. Much more reliable service with it. Set for 80M he is able to tune it for 80, 40, 20, and 10M without any mechanical adjustments. Then he tackled WinLink as his next learning endeavor. He was able to send and receive email messages with WinLink reliably, so he is moving on to his next endeavor, which will probably be AllStarLink. He is not at all familiar with that, so he expects to learn a lot!

Pedernales, Enchanted Rock & South Padre
To contiue our annual RV Season, we camped out with our friends, Nestor & Ellen, at Pedernales Falls State Park near Johnson City (TX); home of President Lyndon B. Johnson. On a day trip, Sue, Larry, and Buddy (dog) climbed to the pinacle of Enchanted Rock, no small feat, but a lot of fun.

From Pedernales (pronounces ‘perdinalus’ if you’re a true Texan) we pulled the trailer to the gulf at South Padre Island for a long weekend with the Austin RV group. One evening dinner cruise on the bay, beach time watching several brave souls parachute surfing. Since we were so close to Boca Chica we took a day trip to SpaceX to take a look at the launch and landing pads.

On July 1, 2021, we started our annual long-term RV trip. The first night we stayed at Lake Sweetwater Municipal Park in Sweetwater, TX, home to the annual Rattlesnake Roundup. Electric & water RV spots tucked in amongst old growth mesquite (trees). Fishing at the lake and golfing on the course. $15.00 / night. Now we want to make arrangements to visit Sweetwater during the Rattlesnake Roundup

The next night we stayed another city owned RV park (Lake Rita Blanca) in Dalhart, Texas. Full hookups, $15 / night, 8 spaces, first come – first served. A couple of sleazy semi-permanent outfits, several loose dogs; but, most of the visitors were cowboys affiliated with the nearby rodeo grounds..

On to Puebla KOA, 4131 I-25 N, Pueblo, CO. The pool (outdoors) is small and not heated, but it still felt good on a hot day. They make and deliver Hunt Brothers Pizza to your RV site!

Then to Twin Falls, ID. Twin Falls 93 RV Park. We took a side trip on Monday to see Shoshone Falls (We found out that I’ve always pronounced it wrong: the correct pronunciation is “Show Shown” Falls, not Show Shony Falls). It is an amazing view. We took several pictures, all of which make gread wallpaper and background – I keep changing becauses I can’t decide which one I like best.

From Twin Falls we went to Nampa and stayed with Sue’s brother, Russel, and sister-in-law, Carrie. We had a great visit with them, although it was too short. We talked about RVs, as they were planning to purchase a motor home and start travelling. They own their own business, and can do it from the road so long as they have reliable internet and cell service.

From Nampa we proceeded to Walla Walla, WA, to see Larry’s brother, David, sister-in-law, Prisca, sister, Lois, and brother-in-law, Dean. What a wonderful time we had with them. David is 9 years older than Larry and was grown and gone by the time Larry was graduating from high school. We took advantage of the time with him and Lois to talk about our early lives and how we all got to where we are today. David is retired from the USFS in WA state and Lois is also retired.

In August we again took a short trip to Oklahoma and stopped in Lewisville on the way home to visit with John (who lives in Lewisville and works in Denton, both near Dallas). This time we selected an RV park on Lewisville Lake that is managed by the City of Lewisville. There is no septic (there is a dump station), but all the sites have water and electric service, all for only $10.00 / night (senior discount). It is right on the lake where we see folks fishing, swimming and boating.

One last trip of the season, to Inks Lake State Park in Burnet, TX. However, after we made reservations, John told us that his employer, Peterbilt, was having an Open House at its corporate headquarters where he works in Denton, TX, on the weekend before our Inks Lake trip. So, we went up to Lewisville Lake again, went to the Open House on Saturday, and then on Monday drove back down to Inks Lake. The Open House was a ton of fun! We got to see where John works (dealer training), as well as the assembly line for Peterbilt trucks.

On the way home from Inks Lake we had another tire blow out (our 3rd). This time we found a Discount Tire store and replaced all four trailer tires with tires that are 1 grade higher than recommended. We have also added a TPMS (tire pressure monitoring system) that displays on an iPhone, so we can monitor the tires. So far, so good, but Larry is becoming way to expert at changing trailer tires!

While on our last outing the television in the trailer went haywire. So when we got home we ordered another. A few days later the garage door crumpled (it was the cheapest model that Home Depot carries), so we ordered a new door and opener. A few days after we scheduled the garage door replacement, our clothes dryer quit. August was a very expensive month at our house!

Thanksgiving
Along with Larry’s (ham) friend, Jim, John joined us again for Thanksgiving dinner. John came down on Sunday and stayed through the week. He helped Larry hang Christmas lights, install a 2nd flag pole to be used as an antenna mast, as well as finishing the ‘entry panel’ for Larry’s ham radio antenna cables, and building a target for Larry’s throwing axes.

Christmas
To celebrate our 2nd Christmas in Texas, we hosted a small party. We invited our neighbors to share in fellowship, sliders, and cookies. Nick brought his guitar and led us all in singing Christmas songs to close out the evening (after a successful axe throwing contest). On Christmas Eve went enjoyed a very nice service at our new church home, Calvary Baptist Church of Bastrop.

On the Wednesday between Christmas and New Years Day we went to Fredericksburg (TX) and spent the day window shopping and playing tourist with our friends, Mel & Andrea (of course we had lunch at a German restaurant). We have been invited to spend New Years Eve with Mark and Kathie, our new neighbors across the creek / ditch.

Happy New Year to you all – May 2022 be the best year ever!

It’s 2021!

We’ve been very busy since our last post so we will skip right over a lot of what has been happening. To make this post brief and readable I’m just going to hit a few of the highlights.

We made a quick trip up to the Dallas area a few months ago to visit with John. We towed the trailer and stayed at Sandy Lake RV Park in Carrollton. John brought his motorcycle over and Larry got a chance to ride it around the RV Park. That brought back his desire to get a motorcycle again (he had a Honda GL1100 Gold Wing a while back). We also went to a typical Texas smokehouse / bbq for dinner. These are prolific in Central Texas, and all of them seem to be good!

We also made a short weekend trip to Port Aransas (Mustang Island at the north end of Padre Island and Corpus Christi). Jennifer’s mother and step-father had a condominium there (at that time, since sold). We spent a nice weekend visiting with them all of them – Jennifer, Ryan, Dennis, Diana, and the grandkids. It was the first time that we had the travel trailer on a ferry. Unfortunately, the island was evacuated because of an incoming storm. The RV Park was 5 feet above sea level and the storm surge was predicted to exceed that. When we heard that the land route through Corpus Christi was flooded and closed we decided to pack up and leave a day early. It took us 15 minutes to pack up / hook up and 5 minutes to drive to the ferry; then it took almost an hour to get on the ferry. Apparently everyone else on the island had the same idea that we did. We got away no worse for the wear.

On the way home we stayed a few nights in Goliad at the Angels In Goliad RV Park. The first Declaration of Independence of the Republic of Texas was signed here, and a famous battle / massacre happened here and in nearby Fannin. The well-known flag “Come and Take It” was created and first flown here when the nation of Mexico attempted to take a canon used in Goliad to defend the colony.

COVID-19
We have been very healthy and neither of us has contracted COVID-19 (as far as we know). Larry did see a cardiologist after a short episode of tachycardia (rapid heartbeat). It turned out to be AVNRT (Atrioventricular Nodal Reentrant Tachycardia), which while uncomfortable, is neither serious nor fatal (unless it is so frequent as to impact life activities). Larry went to a dermatologist to have ‘warts’ looked at. She (the dermatologist) found one skin spot that was cancerous, removed it, and he’s all better now. Sue also went to the same dermatologist as part of diagnostic procedure involving arthritis. She had one skin spot that was cancerous and had it removed. Still working on her arthritis and rheumatism.

2021 Polar Vortex
Yes, we did feel the effects of that famous polar vortex. The temperature at our home dropped to a low of 2.3 degrees Fahrenheit one morning. We had done some frost protection to exposed faucets. The water line for the refrigerator froze (it’s the only water line on an outside wall). The plumbing is PEX and it is in the concrete slab foundation. The travel trailer is under the carport that we had installed a few weeks before the storm hit. We put an auxiliary heater in the travel trailer and kept the temperature inside it at about 50 degrees. It is plumbed in PEX. None of the lines ruptured. (I’ve heard that PEX is supposed to withstand freezing without rupturing) We never lost power for more than a few seconds at a time. We did lose water pressure completely for about 2 days. We are on a gravity system. Power was lost / shut off to the pumping station supplying our area’s elevated tanks. While the water company has electric generators at the pump stations, they are not automatic, and they could not get there to start them manually because of the snow and ice road conditions. We filled several buckets with water for the toilets. We always keep a decent supply of food and drinking water on hand, and we have a Berkey water filter if we need to filter water for consumption. We still have our winter and skiing clothes, so we were comfortable in 68 degree temperatures in the house.

Just around the corner from us is a new Texas family, another escapee from California – Ukiah to be exact. We are taking them out on Saturday evening to the Roadhouse Paige for authentic Texas smokehouse bbq.

John came down from Dallas for Larry’s birthday weekend. They worked on several small projects around here including installing a ham radio in Sue’s car, re-hanging shower curtain rods, putting knobs and pulls on ALL the cabinet doors and drawers (used a very handy adjustable template for this project).

What We Did on our Summer Vacation

Well, it’s been too long since we updated the blog. A lot has happened – here’s a little bit about a lot of happenings!

We added a fence around the side and back of the house. It was something that was needed when we bought the house. Initially we toyed with the idea of fencing the entire lot (3/4 of an acre); but that proved to costly; and, would have created problems that we didn’t need to deal with. We fenced the NW side to the property line, about 3/4 of the back yard and a small part of the SW. We put in a cedar ‘good neighbor’ fence, but since we footed the entire cost, all the good side is facing us or the street. Now Buddy can go anywhere he wants in the back and side yards, although the stickers have kept him close to the deck!

Remember the ham radio antenna tower that Sue towed all the way from California to Texas on that old boat trailer? Well, we got it up and working. We engaged a contractor to dig a hole and build the base and foundation for it. Once the concrete cured we had an “antenna raising party” with about a dozen ham operators from around Bastrop and Lee Counties. We started at 10 AM on a Saturday and stopped in time for BBQ’ed burgers and dogs for lunch. A great time, and a successful event. At this time Larry has on the tower: 2M ground plane antenna for IRLP Node 7770, 220MHz Yagi antenna pointed at a repeater in south Austin, a Tram 1481 dual band colinear antenna for 2M and 440MHz, and a ‘stand-off’ with a pully system now being used for an end fed random wire HF antenna. ON THE AIR, baby!

Larry has a new call sign – W5JVJ – he liked to previous call sign (WB6JVJ) but with a ‘6-land’ call sign the first communication consisted of a question: What part of California did you come from? So, he broke down and got a vanity sign with ‘5’ – the JVJ suffix is for his kids: Jennifer, Victoria, John.

Our first outing with the trailer for the summer was a long weekend to the Houston area. As we started packing the trailer in preparation, the refrigerator quit working. It wouldn’t work on either gas or electric. Larry did some trouble shooting, but could not identify the issue. Sue called a mobile RV service from Smithville who came out the next day. After a few hours of troubleshooting they identified the problem as a faulty circuit board. The tech told us that they could order a replacement and come back out in a few days to install it, and charge is for that – or we could buy one and replace it ourselves. We chose the latter option. Ordered a new updated replacement board on Amazon.com, it arrived two days later. It took Larry about 10 minutes to R&R the PC board and button everything up. Works like new. Then off to the Houston area for a long weekend of sun and fun!

As you may recall our new house sits on 3/4 of an acre. It is mostly grass and weeds, with a small, but deep ditch/creek in the back. A few Loblolly Pines and several oaks of differing variety. Mowing the lawn and weeds has been a problem. Initially we bought a new battery operated walk-behind, self-propelled lawn mower with one battery. Got about 30 minutes of mowing, about 1/4 of the lot. It takes a few hours to recharge the battery. Picked up a second battery and could get about half the work done. Then we purchased a small battery operated chainsaw for trimming limbs – it uses the same battery as the mower. We now have three batteries. Still can’t complete the entire lot mowing. Got a fourth battery and that just about does it; however, it takes 2 or 3 hours to finish. By the time Larry finishes it seems like its time to start all over again. So, we broke down and picked up a used riding mower (Craftsman lawn tractor) with 150 hours on it. That works like magic – finish the entire lot mowing in about an hour. AND with an attachment it can be used to move the utility trailer around when necessary, pull Sue’s wagon with tools, rocks, plants, etc. This lawn tractor is made by Husqvarna and most of the parts are interchangeable.

Sue’s family – a little background: When Sue was just a toddler her father left the family. He never contacted her after that. When she was 18 she located her grandparents (her father’s parents) in Barstow, CA. She visited with them then for a short time. Subsequent to that she lost all contact with that side of her family. Recent research revealed a 1st cousin living in the Waco, TX, area. She contacted him, and he put her in contact with their Uncle Clint in Ohio. Last year Sue contacted Uncle Clint. He invited us to visit him, so this summer we journeyed to Grafton, OH. We hooked up our little trailer and commenced the trek.

The second night found us at Cook’s Lake RV Park in Memphis, TN. The next morning we drove through a true downpour for several miles and about an hour. During this day the trailer brakes began to work intermittently (or fail intermittently, depending on your perspective). Larry was able to rewire the entire brake electrical wiring (after about 4 hours of troubleshooting and online research). That appears to have fixed the problem as the brakes have given us not problem since then. Fortunately, the new pickup is heavy duty and the trailer is relatively light, so towing without brakes is (was) do-able.

While near Peebles, OH, we took the opportunity to see and walk the Serpent Mound. Took some pictures and climbed the viewing tower also. What a magnificent effigy mound.

While visiting with Uncle Clinton & Aunt Dianna we stayed at American Wilderness Campground & Event Center, about 1 mile from their house in Grafton, OH. We spent two wonderful days with them learning about the family, Sue’s father, cousins, etc. Sue’s father, Haskell Littlefield, was a decorated Korean War veteran. Uncle Clint had the flag from the interment services – he gave it to Sue. Haskell is buried at the Ohio Western Reserve National Cemetery. Uncle Clint & Aunt Dianna drove us there and we located his headstone, spent a few somber moments and took some pictures.

We are now making our way home. Temperatures at home are well into the triple digits, so we are taking our time. The goal is to NOT get home until August has expired. We’re spending a lot of time in the swimming pools as well as expressing sincere thanks for the air conditioner in our little trailer. Yesterday, Larry met one of the sons of the former Fire Chief of St. Louis, MO, who will be 95 years old on January 1, 2021. He also met some inexperienced amateur radio operators and talked to them about building a go-box (hammo-radio). Little things that we noticed include when the clerk at WalMart was checking us out with some groceries and sundries – she place the yellow squash on the scale, looked around confusedly, then asked Sue what they were! True story!

That’s it for now. Check the pictures …

Texas Tornadoes

Well, we had some excitement here on Tuesday. A typical Texas thunder storm moved through, but this one brought wind with it. Several funnel clouds touched down near Smithville, which is about 12 air miles from our house. Here is a YouTube video of some of the activity While there were a few places with damage, we sustained no damage. We are all safe and sound. Wind at our home never got above about 10 MPH; however, we did get almost 3″ of rain in 10 hours.

The Corona virus has had some impact here (our hair is getting long and unwieldy); however, we’ve had no serious adverse effects. We are both healthy and in good spirits. Texas is beginning to reopen its businesses and economy. The biggest impact so far is that we have a load of trash in the back of the pickup from cleaning the yard; but, none of the transfer stations in Bastrop County are open. Travis County wants $96.00 to dump, so it is just staying where it is until the local transfer stations reopen! Bastrop is a county of almost 90,000 residents; 120 confirmed cases, 37 recovered, 2 deaths. We are cautious, but not in panic mode.

We enjoyed visits from the grand-kids just before the COVID-19 panic set it. Ryan and Jennifer brought Parker, Felicity, and Samantha for an overnight visit. We really had a fun time with them all. Watching the grand-kids play in the yard, building a fort from sticks, was such a joy. John came down from his home in Lewisville (near Dallas) for Super Bowl weekend. We are so pleased that we decided to move here. Having them close is a true blessing. Now we need this isolation to ease up so we can travel to them with our trailer and spend more time!

In other news, we purchased a new-to-us pickup. It is a 2019 Ford F-250 Super Duty, 4WD, 6.7L Diesel, 6 speed automatic transmission. We also sold the Titan to our neighbor who acquired it for his son. We hooked up the trailer and towed it around a little to get the feel of it. This setup will be much better, safer, and easier for towing the trailer than was the Titan. The Titan served us well for 12 years, but it was pretty close to capacity towing the trailer, lots of power, good braking, but the suspension was close to the limit. We had to add running boards so we could get in. Larry installed one of his amateur radios (had a bit of consternation trying to attach an antenna to the aluminum roof) and a dash cam. He also installed a latch to fold down the 60% rear seat back that Ford decided didn’t need to fold, and added an ‘across the bed’ toolbox.

For you amateur radio folks, Larry will be selling some of his equipment over the next few months. Stay tuned if you are interested. He did get his DMR HotSpot and IRLP Node (7770) up and running, after we convinced AT&T to install high speed internet at the house.

And, NO, we didn’t block you on FaceBook!

Both Larry & Sue decided to get out of the social media business. Too much time wasted, BS, emotions, misunderstandings, poor communications, etc. All the accounts have been deleted. You will have to contact us in other ways, like the old days. We still love you all, just not on social media.

Until next time … !

The Joys of Home Ownership and Other Sorrows

Sue has found a nice little yarn shop here in Paige, of course. The Yarnorama has yarn of all kinds, as well as ‘get-togethers’ monthly for the knitters in Central Texas. Through those connections we have met some very nice Texans who are working with us to become real Texians

Larry has made good progress on his radio shack. Bedroom No. 3 is acting as a radio shack as well as an office of sorts. Still to come is the antenna tower that they dragged out here from California. No building permit requirements here, just put it up and make sure it doesn’t fall on someone! The radio shack includes a Yaesu FT-8900 quad band for local and repeater comms (Alinco DR-620 for backup), a Yaesu FT-450 HF rig, along with HRD and Digital Master 780 for digital comms, and a scanner (which is not much use here as all the emergency services on digital trunked systems); and of course, a handful of HTs.

Larry & Sue set up the personal weather station on a back corner of the property and it is now online. When their son, John, was visiting, he and Larry improved the guying system and then Larry added some yellow warning covers to the guy wires so he doesn’t run into them when mowing the weeds. You can follow minute-by-minute weather in their back yard with either WeatherUnderground or the PWS Monitor app. The station ID is KTXPAIGE33.

While having some recall work done on the Subaru, Larry & Sue visited the Texas State Capitol in Austin. Did you know that permit carrying is not only allowed, but encouraged at the Capitol, both on the grounds and in the Capitol itself. Well, Larry & Sue were encouraged by the State Trooper who was checking visitors at the metal detector … he demonstrated how the LTC (License To Carry) system worked with Sue’s license, swiped her card and her name and information popped up. He encouraged us to carry at all times … not like what we experienced on the left coast …

Furniture & Appliances

All of the furniture shopping is done. The master bedroom set is completely new, with a country motif appropriate for Central Texas and the home design. The living room furniture is all here now. Larry & Sue ordered a round ‘cocktail’ (coffee) table; however, the salesman ordered a rectangular table – special ordered product. When it was delivered Larry refused acceptance and sent it back. The salesman told Sue that her table had been delivered to another customer by mistake. Larry did some research regarding the product numbers that the salesman used and documented that the salesman ordered the wrong table, and lied to us about it. He told Sue that it would take 3 – 4 more months to get the correct table. She told him to refund her money. She found another store – Lazyboy – that ordered the correct table and had it in 3 weeks. Larry & Sue will never set foot in any of the Star Furniture stores again – and they encourage you to also boycott those stores. When the sales staff outright lies to customers …

The house came with a laundry room about the size of a closet, with a door to the inside and one to the garage, so space was very cramped. In fact it was so cramped that the owners installed stacking washer / dryer setup. Sue was not pleased with this setup, partly because the dryer door opened the wrong way, and the washer door hinges were broken. They had a plumber re-route the plumbing into the garage and Larry re-routed the electricity and dryer vent. Now Sue is using her nice Kenmore washer and the dryer in the garage. The previous laundry room will become a ‘mud room’.

Next, the dishwasher quit working. With a home appliance warranty in place they called for a repairman. The Sears Repairman showed up and analyzed the problem as the drain motor and ordered a new one. When it arrived he came back out to install it and discovered it was the wrong part. He researched it and discovered that the correct part is no longer made (the dishwasher is only 3 years old) or available. The warranty company cashed out Larry & Sue for partial payment on a new dishwasher. The repairman said he makes more repair calls on LG and Samsung products than any other — and those are the two brands we have throughout the house! He gave Sue a few recommendations for dishwashers that he does NOT make repair calls for. So, now a new dishwasher is in place!

The Adventure Continues …

Still liking it here!

A lot is happening in what seems like a short time; however, when I look at the calendar I can hardly believe that it has been almost 7 months since we escaped from CrazyFornia on August 12, 2019. Since arriving here we have been to Annapolis, MD, to visit Victoria; Waco, TX, to visit with John; and San Antonia, TX, to visit with Jenny, Ryan and the grand kids. We are starting to feel at home here, connecting with the local fire chief, home owners association officers, ham radio club members, knitting group (Sue, not Larry), and others. Several Texans have invited us to dinner and we have graciously accepted, as part of our indoctrination experience.

L2R: Ryan, Jenny, Felicity, John, Samantha, Larry, Sue, Diana, Parker, Dennis

— Texas and 2A —

Both of us took the necessary training courses, applied for, and received our License To Carry (LTC) in Texas. Texas is a “shall issue” state; as well as an open / concealed carry state. Local businesses have some flexibility with proper signage to restrict; however, generally speaking, carrying open or concealed (with an LTC) is permitted in most places, including the state capitol in Austin and all public meetings.

Settling in …

We also updated the vehicle registration addresses, then followed up with new Texas driver licenses. With these updated documents, We filed the homestead exemption (similar to California’s homeowners exemption) as well as Larry’s senior citizen exemption for property taxes. The senior citizen exemption freezes the property taxes at today’s rate for qualifying old homeowners like me (Larry).

Next on the list was to get a specialty license plate for the pickup with Larry’s new vanity call sign. In Texas these plates are free, can be issued for up to three owned vehicles, but only on vehicles registered to the amateur radio operator and only if there is an amateur radio in the vehicle. Now, just waiting for them to arrive in the mail.

Keep Texas Red!

Now we are getting ready to vote in the Texas primary elections. Texas is, and has been a very red state; however it is in danger of being over-run by blues, so we are doing what we can to keep it red! Here one has to be not only registered to vote, but one must also show ID at the voting booth. Imagine that! ‘Ballot harvesting’ is prohibited, and vote by mail is restricted to voters with valid reasons why they cannot physically get to the polls. Even with these controls, voter fraud is likely in the larger cities like Dallas, San Antonio, Houston, and even Austin, the Capitol.

Up next — The Joys of Home Ownership (subtitled: Sometimes Renting is Better)

We’re Back …

It’s been quite a while since our last post and we have a lot to catch up on. So, let’s get started.

I guess the most important new development is that we have purchased a new home here in Texas. Although the address is in Paige, it is closer to Bastrop than the town of Paige. Bastrop is near Austin, the Texas State Capitol. The house is in an area called Lost Pines because the area is in a Loblolly Pine forest that stands all alone in this Central Texas area. For our California friends, you’ll be interested to know that in 2011 Texas’ most destructive wildland fire burned through this area destroying 1,673 homes and killing 4 people, so California isn’t alone. The fire scar is still visible in many areas, although replanting is starting to take hold now. Our home was owner built in 2016, after the fire, it is 1,600 square feet. The four-bedroom home is on 3/4 of an acre. It has stained cement floors and 11′ ceilings throughout.

Our belongings were delivered from the PODS facility in San Antonio to our home the day before Thanksgiving. For the last few weeks we have been busy un-boxing our stuff. It quickly became apparent that our stuff from the home in California wasn’t going to work in this home, so we have new furniture in most of the house, and are slowly but surely eliminating most of the furniture that we brought from California. Things are starting to get organized and Larry is now doing some maintenance on the house like replacing bathtub stoppers and burned out flood lights.

Thanksgiving was 3 days after we closed escrow and got keys to the house. As our life and living conditions were in quite a turmoil at the time, Jenny’s mother, Diana, and step-father, Dennis, invited us to spend Thanksgiving with them in San Antonio. What a great time we had with them, especially three of the grandkids, Parker, Felicity, and Samantha! (Shout-out to Jenny: “Thanks!”).

John, who lives in Lewisville and works in Denton (near Dallas), was in San Antonio last week for work. Since he was there, along with Jenny, Ryan and kids, we decided that we would go to San Antonio also and have a kind of early Christmas. It was the first time that John had seen his (half) sister, Jenny in many years. He had never seen his nephew, Parker, or the two nieces, Felicity and Samantha. What a great time, capped off with dinner on Friday night at Landry’s Seafood Restaurant on the San Antonio River Walk, with Diana, Dennis, Jenny, Ryan, Parker, Felicity, Samantha, and John!
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Back to our home — the fourth bedroom has turned into a combination radio shack and office, while the third bedroom has become Sue’s ‘sitting room’ with a hide-a-bed for visitor’s use. The radio shack is temporarily ‘on the air’ with a tripod mounted antenna just outside the window and one VHF radio and a battery with maintainer; Larry’s HF rig will get set up soon with the CrankIR antenna that he won as the door prize at PacifiCon 2019. The rest of the radios and antennas will come along soon (although getting the antennas up will require some engineering and hole-digging for the 36′ two-section crank up tower that we brought with us from California).

Larry has connected with the Bastrop County Amateur Radio Club (BCARC) and meets some of the hams at the daily lunches and weekly breakfasts. BCARC owns and maintains a VHF repeater (K5OQ) near Smithville, with the antenna on a tower well over 100′ feet up. It is an active group of about 100 hams. Like TCARES, it participated in Field Day last summer; and it plans to participate in the Winter Field Day in January!

Sue has been working diligently with the new electric stove / oven baking bread and other goodies. She has just about mastered the technique for breads in the ovens (one conventional and one convection). It took a little work, considering the dual impact of elevation difference from the Sierra Nevada mountains coupled with an electric convection oven. Larry has been the happy recipient of her trials!

What’s up with the grandkids (and kids) …

Before we kick off coverage of our journey to the East Coast, we thought we’d share some local happenings with the grand-kids. After spending time with Felicity at Grandparents day, we went to the same function for Parker (5th grade). What a great idea for the school to engage grandparents in the education. Here we are with Parker at the event for his class.

Ever been to Rudy’s? You don’t know what you are missing! It’s typical Texas BBQ – order, find a seat, and they bring it to you, family style! Great time with Jenny, Ryan, and the kids! Rudy’s are all over Texas, this one in Leon Springs is between where we stay and Jenny & Ryan’s apartment.

One of the benefits of being within an hour and one-half of the grandkids is that we can easily spend time with them. Last Saturday and Sunday we did just that! We watched them while Jenny was in a beading class (Ryan is working 12 hour days on Fridays, Saturdays & Sundays). We wore them out in the swimming pool right after lunch, then veg’ed a bit.

Tuesday we hit the road for Annapolis, MD, where we will spend a weekend with Victoria. She is now a Petty Officer 1st Class in the US Navy, Recruitment Command. We are so proud of her! Can’t wait to see her next weekend and get a tour of the US Naval Academy. Stay tuned for more of our adventures as we make our way to the East Coast!

Thanks for following along on our adventures. Don’t be shy – post a comment! — Larry & Sue —