April 29, 2005 - Carlinville, IL

Since we left Big Sandy and the Sky Ranch project, we spent a few weeks at Nacogdoches, TX, getting work done on the coach at the Foretravel factory.  Some that we paid for and some that they paid for.  They paid for the fresh water gauge repair and the re-tiling of the bathroom and the replacement of a tile in the kitchen.  It's a pleasure to work with a company that is so serious about customer service and making things "right".  We also got the AquaHot serviced, and some work done on the holding tank valves.  And then the biggie.  We had the couch and both dining room chairs re-upholstered.  And while that was going on, I spotted a new/used passenger seat from an '04 sitting on the floor of the shop.  After a phone call, we bought it and had it installed.  Barb loves it!

And now it's May 10.  My how time flies when we're having fun!

Thought I'd put up a couple of pictures of our first RV.  A '63 or so VW Microbus.  I'd built in a bed, storage shelves, sink, counter, and water system, and we'd bought a port-a-potty.  Barb spent hours re-upholstering the seats in front and making curtains for it.  Loved the sunroof!  I could stand up to pull up my pants.  We were living in Alaska, and these pictures were probably taken in 1978 or 1979.  Oh, yeah.  I'd also "reworked" the engine.  Major hot-rod, but reliable.  Loved that old bus.

No, it's not Lexi's birthday, it's her dad's.  But you couldn't tell from these pictures, could you.  Taken at Rick's office, it was his 40th.  The first of the "big ohh's".  Do we have cute grandbabies or what?

And now that Lynn has a new digital camera, we've been promised even more pictures of those Sacramento kids and their little one.

But back to the serious stuff.  The Foretravel factory has a great repair/rebuild facility, and we've spent enough time there getting stuff modified that we've come to know several of the guys on a first name basis.  Matter of fact, this last visit we were there for 22 days.  Worth it, though.

We did several things to fill our days while the coach was being worked on.  (We could still stay "home" each night.)  The Nacogdoches, TX, factory for Foretravel is always a fun stop for us because we like the area.  It's the oldest town in Texas, there's a nice small university there, and a brand new Lowe's as well as a Wal-Mart Supercenter.  And some great Mexican restaurants to boot.  They were having their annual Azalea festival.  Part of it was in the University gardens, where these shots were taken, and part of it was a self-directed driving tour of some pretty nice neighborhoods where the azaleas were prominent.  Our only problem was with our timing.  The day we selected to take the tour and wander in the garden was the day after a particularly heavy rain/thunder/lightning storm, and many of the blossoms were on the ground and not on the plants.  But it was still pretty.

No, I didn't either include all the pictures "we" took of the flowers.  I did, however, get tired of pitching great flower shots!

I thought a "stump farm" was some poor farmer's land that was full of stumps.  While that may be true, there really are "stump gardens" where the soil is too poor to grow much of anything, so the stumps are pulled out and turned over, and good soil put in the cavities made by the roots, and then planted with flowers.  And these two are just a couple of the stumps in this stump garden.

We drove to Livingston one day to pick up our mail and poke around Lake Livingston.  One of the things we love about Texas is that people are not ashamed of their faith whatever it is; sculptures of this nature are familiar fare.  Barb's by the grave site of....well, just a moment and I'll show you.  It's just outside the gates of an "own your own RV lot" park we visited that's by the town of Point Blank.  And that town is just across the bridge and the other side of Lake Livingston from Onalaska.  And, of course, we're familiar with Onalaska, Alaska, so had to see Onalaska, Texas.

Gotta love a place with a sign like that right at the entrance, right next to a grave site!  The implications weren't lost on us, either.  We drove slow.

This little (?) doll house must have been a sample of the builders ability to make nice log homes because it sure was well done.  Good thing it wouldn't fit in the Jeep, or we'd have had a wonderful little house for the granddaughters.  You can see Barb peeking through the front door in one of those shots.  We'd seen it on the way to Lake Livingston and then on the way back; we just had to have some pictures of it.  The back was all open, and I could (and did) go inside and stand up straight.

Because some of you have asked about our "underskirt," I've included a few shots of it here.  It attaches to the coach and the car with clips, and is easy to take off.  We leave it on the coach when we're not using it, taking that bar that goes across the tow bar and rolling the skirt up from the car.  Then a couple of bungee cords keeps it all nice and neat right there by the mud flap.  The sides of the skirt have heavy duty bungee cords in them, and it takes the corners very nicely.  You can see that there's just no way a rock from the coach wheels will ever get to the paint on the car.  Unfortunately, it won't work with all hitches as friends Bill and Carol found out recently when they tried to get one prior to their Alaskan Adventure later this month.  It's made for the Blue Ox hitch, and will work for others, but apparently not all others.

This shot is what the coach looks like without its couch.  The upholstery shop had it.  That wooden box with the junk on and in it, is the drawer that Barb loves so much.  Holds the deep dish fry pan, the rice cooker, and the dominoes among other things.  That big black box is the woofer for the Bose stereo system, and the little silver one is one of the radiators that the AquaHot system supplies hot water to for our heat.  Behind (actually a part of the box almost) are the two little fans that blow the hot air out for us.  And it's all sitting on carpet that was originally installed in here before we had it taken out in favor of the ceramic tile.

And those happy folks with Barb are Darlene and her folks Bill and Jane.  We took a detour on our way from Nacogdoches to St. Louis to stop at Bates City, MO, to visit Darlene.  She and Barb carpooled for years together to their jobs at HUD in Seattle.  Darlene, her husband Ed, and son Will moved there shortly before Ed died a few years ago.  Darlene is now working for HUD in Kansas City.  She and Will are living at the family farm.  Thanks again Darlene and Bill & Jane for your fine hospitality and a wonderful visit. 

One morning, Bill  took us out riding around so we could meet some of his cows.  That friendly looking guy with the noticeable hump on his shoulders is his bull and the daddy of all the calves in here.  Great piece of land, and we thoroughly enjoyed our introduction.  Been a very long time since I'd ridden in a pickup bouncing through the fields to check out the cows--about 50 years matter of fact.  And they smelled just as good as they did back then.  Isn't it interesting how our memory of smells seems to work.

Those guys are looking for their corn.  Bill's fattening some up in anticipation of sharing some good home-grown beef with the rest of the family.  He sells the excess to friends and neighbors.  And there we are, all tucked in nicely next to the 100+ yr old home where Darlene and her son live now.

That old tree could sure tell some stories about the goings on in that home over all the years I'll bet.  And how's that for the neighborhood street.  Except for a little dust, it sure was great to stay here for a few days.  We'd intended to be here longer, but as we were leaving Nacogdoches, the air dryer on the coach decided to die.  And what a fortunate place for it to make that decision.  Right in the parking lot of the factory.  They don't die all that often, and so we had to wait a couple of days for parts.  Ah, what a wonderful lifestyle, eh?