Rain: Too much of a good thing

Remember that rain I told you about yesterday. Well, it turned into a monsoon overnight.

What we woke up to this morning. Lake Traveler's World

During our travels we’ve encountered numerous weather challenges, like our trip last winter to Florida, our Kentucky snow and tornado warning, the gale winds in Ludington, but the gully washer we had last night was pretty incredible here in San Antonio.

Several lines of thunderstorms moved through the area during the middle of the night dumping several inches of rain and leaving the trailer half high and dry, but the road in and out of our space underwater.

Both of us were awakened by the cracks of thunder, the flashes of lightning and the sound of the rain pounding on the trailer. With the potential for a tornado Joan asked me what we should do or where we would go before we went to bed

Well, without a basement or other viable option I suggested we pray.

My plans to go work out this morning in the recreation center were swept away in the flood and I just hunkered down in the trailer waiting for the water to dry up or absorb into the ground. Gone with the wind today was the Internet so we spent the morning without it.

The view out our dinette window.

We tuned into the Weather Channel this morning and watched for any possible repeats.

The evening news was filled with stories of damage and a tornado touchdown, but folks here are pretty happy to get the significant rain as they were facing some severe water restrictions if they didn’t get rain soon.

Most of the rain had dried up this afternoon in the park, except for a couple low spots where fifth wheels and trailers were still surrounded by about 4-inches of water.

Tonight the aquifer report showed that more than a half of foot had been added to the local aquifer from the recent rains with more water still filtering down with expectations that it would increase by tomorrow.

We pretty much hung around the house today, but we did take a quick break so Joan could get her nails done and I could get the car fueled. When we arrived home we did our daily trip around the park noting license plates from many states and provinces in Canada. More on that later.

Joan cooked a dinner of hot dogs and salad and we are settled in to watch some Detroit Red Wings versus Montreal Canadiens hockey on Versus tonight.

Much need rain doesn't dampen our day in San Antonio

Into every life a little rain must fall and today was our day. Yes, folks, it rained in Texas which to the folks down here is a very welcome thing. More rain is on the way tonight along with hail and other scary stuff.

Texas soaker today

If you read yesterday’s posting you could have predicted the rain because I took a couple hours to wash, vacuum and detail my car which is like cloud sprinkling. I’m glad they got the rain they need, but it would be nice if the Texas folk would refund the $5 worth of quarters I used to wash my car. Just sayin’.

Before the rain fell this morning, I took a couple laps around the park and then moved inside to use the treadmill and stationary bicycle in the game room here at the RV park. Always like to get a little exercise in each day.

Joan attended the ladies’ work out class at 10 a.m. and had a great time.

This afternoon we drove to a nearby Cineplex and took in the movie “Red Tails.” The movie is the story of the Tuskegee Airman in World War II and was pretty good. I know my father would love the airplanes, both the real ones and the computer generated ones. The special effects in this movie were outstanding.

We, well, I, was also excited to see in the previews that someone has finally had the good sense to make a new “Three Stooges Movie” which I will look forward to in a couple months. Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk. Joan is not as geeked as I am about the new Stooges movie.

As we watched the local news tonight we were struck that during the weather reports each day the meteorologist reports the current depth of the local aquifer and whether it has gained or lost any depth over the past 24 hours. I told you they need rain. Today the aquifer was up .2 inches.

Joan fixed us the perfect cool, wet evening meal: Grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup (made with milk, only).

The President is to speak tonight, but fortunately we have Versus, so instead of listening to that we’ll be watching hockey. Talk to y’all tomorrow.

Cleaning, cleaning, more cleaning, potluck and hockey. All in a day's work

Another quiet day in San Antonio, although we both got a lot of work done. With the trailer now in its third year, the condition of the awning has been bugging me a little. So today was the day for pulling out the awning and employing a little elbow grease to get it clean.

Moisture gets into the fabric and it has a tendency to start mold growing. So with a little mixture of bleach and water I set to work to clean it up. At one point Joan saw me working hard and suggested I try her “Magic Eraser” sponge, which worked really well.

With only water, the sponge did a better job than the bleach mixture and with a lot less effort. “So how long have you been hiding this little miracle of household cleaning from me?,” I asked.  Anyway, if you have a tough scrub job, I highly recommend the “Magic Eraser.”

It took about two hours to complete the job, but both sides of the awning look almost like new.

With that project done, I looked sideways at my car and decided this was a good day to get it washed. A u-wash place is just a block away and I drove the Tahoe there, vacuumed the inside and washed the outside. I really like this wash because you can operate it with just two quarters at a time, which meant it cost considerably less to wash my car here than at home.

While I was doing my cleaning, Joan was hard at work washing the towels and linens which we have been using for a week. She also was preparing a large meal of beef stew for the potluck dinner in the park tonight. I wore a cool airplane Hawaiian shirt my father recently sent to me.

I was hoping for leftover beef stew for dinner on Tuesday, but apparently the folks here liked the stew and devoured the whole thing.

So at 6 p.m. we headed to the recreation hall where we joined a few dozen other park visitors for the weekly pot luck. We had to introduce ourselves because this was our first visit. Folks were very friendly (we sat with a lady who originally came from Ferndale, Michigan) a couple from Illinois and another couple who come all the way from San Antonio, Texas.

Back at the trailer, I found that Versus was carrying the Detroit Red Wings vs. St. Louis Blues game so life is good. Especially since the Red Wings won in a feisty contest by a 3-1 score. Go Wings. Also we bought tickets to the San Antonio Rampage hockey game, which is Faith and Family Night which we heard about at church on Sunday.

Something ironic about going to a fight filled hockey game on Faith and Family Night.

Tomorrow Joan is going to the ladies’ morning exercise class and I plan to do, well, nothing.

The picture accompanying this post was sent to me by my father in sympathy for the noisy bird than continues to assail us.

Church, shopping, football and the patter of really little feet

We enjoyed another quiet, but football rich, day here in Alamo town.

Joan outside the church in San Antonio

The patter of little feet, the four-legged variety, has been entertaining us all day. A squirrel or very big bird has been doing a tap dance most of the day on the roof of the trailer. Between that noise, a man working on remodeling a small trailer in the space next to us has created a symphony of pounding noises.

This afternoon while we watched the Ravens vs. Patriots game a female Cardinal drove us crazy flying into our rear picture window on the trailer. Joan thought by opening the shades the bird would have less of a chance of seeing its reflection, but alas, no. After bouncing off the window a dozen or more times, he gave up.

At the suggestion of our home pastor we attended Holy Trinity Anglican Church here in San Antonio. It was a spirit and music filled experience one we hope to enjoy two or three more times while we are here. The church is also having a family trip to the local San Antonio Rampage hockey team game next Saturday and we are planning to attend. One can never get enough hockey.

The church is located in the penthouse of a beautiful office building and like our church at home uses simply outside signs to alert people to the location. The praise music was very familiar to us and the nice folks there made us feel welcome and at home.

Lobby church sign

After briefly meeting with  Father Chuck Collins and giving him greetings from Rev. Dave Kulchar we headed to a local farmer’s market to check out the offerings. It was a pretty small market, but Joan found a couple Butternut Squash she couldn’t live without.

Enroute we drove by the world headquarters for Whataburger, which we didn’t even know existed and also cruised next to a place called “Piranha Killer Sushi,” which sounds like a really bad name for a sushi place.

Then it was off to a Walmart Superstore for some grocery shopping and we arrived home just as Steven Tyler was choking out the National Anthem for the start of the first championship game.

Dinner was a picnic type meal, hot dogs (or as my father would call them “tube steaks”), some baked beans and vegetables. Except that only Joan ate the vegetables.

After dinner we settled in to watch the 49ers vs. New York Giants game. Another quiet, light work day around the trailer, is on tap for tomorrow. Sorry to say my old favorite team the Niners lost in a heart breaker in overtime.

A quiet beautiful day in the San Antonio neighborhood

Today was all about organization and clean-up. With all the traveling there has been little time to clean, organize and spruce up the trailer, so today was the day.

With light winds and temperatures in the low 70s, it was a good day to clean out the storage area under the trailer and reorganize and clean out three years of dust and clutter.

Joan worked on the inside of the trailer and did our laundry after a week of travel.  

With all the chores done we pulled out the trailer awning and enjoyed the warm sunshine outdoors. I picked up “The Ionian Mission,” which is book 8 of the 21-volume “Master and Commander” series by Patrick O’Brian. This is a volume I started last spring in Florida, continued in Arizona and will likely finish tomorrow.

Annoying bird

I save the books for our trips and don’t read them at home so I have many more years of reading ahead.

While we were sitting outside a local bird resident, we believe a Great Tail Grackle, that has not been happy with us since we landed yesterday began making its weird noises and letting us know again that he is not happy we are here.

We were also visited by a small woodpecker to be identified and named later. Joan didn’t get her bird book out in time to identify it.

New bonnet

Oh, and Joan decided today was the day to debut her new bonnet.

About 3 p.m. as we do nearly every day we are in a park we took a walking tour and waved to our many neighbors. Jim met a man – Tony – who is from Minnesota who said he and his wife came here on a short visit 12 years ago, loved the place and have come back for 12 consecutive winters.

For dinner we enjoyed leftovers from “The Hungry Farmer” last night and enjoyed a day with no driving.

After pulling out the awning I noticed it needs some attention and will likely clean it on Monday. Tomorrow promises to be another quiet day with church in the morning, grocery shopping after and then home to watch football.

When it came time to put the awning up (we don't leave it down because it is vulnerable to winds and that is something they have in abundance here) I decided to leave the tie down rods in the ground. The tie down roads are used to anchor the awning so if a sudden wind came up the awning won't rip off the trailer.

Within 30 seconds of unhooking the tie downs and putting up the awning I tripped over one of the rods and fell flat on my face (sorry, no photos) and nearly broke my glasses and nose. I hurt my pride more than my face although I skinned up my nose and forehead just slightly.

After that I pulled the rods out of the ground and put them away.

The back roads of Texas, "Now this is what I thought Texas would look like"

The Eagle has landed! After a year of planning, months of preparation and logistics that would make the Army proud we have reached our first winter destination of 2012.

Our San Antonio park

Our leisurely trek south through the center of Texas was pretty uneventful and stress free. The last 12 miles, through the heart of San Antonio and its crazy Friday afternoon traffic, made up for all the stress free driving early in the day.

Good grief there was crazy traffic and the drivers were blocking lanes and trying late merges onto crowded off ramps that made me break out in beads of sweat because I was trying to maneuver a large trailer through it all.

But let’s start at the beginning. We got up early, took our showers and made a quick exit from Buck Creek RV Park and began the trek to San Antonio. As is my custom I always claim that Joan has made us an hour late in leaving. The joke is I always tell her the night before we’re not in a hurry, but then kind of push the envelope for an early departure in the morning. Joke is probably the wrong word as Joan doesn’t think it is very funny.

Space 112 - our little piece of San Antonio

This was a rare driving day for us and most of our travel was along small two-lane and four lane state highways with only interstate driving for the first 13 miles and the last 40 miles of the trip. With light traffic we didn’t impede traffic much and more than once I heard Joan say: “This is what I imagined Texas would look like.”

We say beautiful ranches and not-so-beautiful ranches and plenty of cattle. If you closed your eyes, which would have been a really bad idea for me because I was driving, you might imagine cowboys driving cattle across the wide open plains 150 years ago. Today everything is pretty much fenced.

My only concern today was whether I would find a gas station large enough to receive our large rig on those back country roads. Fortunately in Brady Texas, about 100 miles into the trip, we found a two-pump shell station that was next to the highway with pumps in just the perfect position for an easy entry and easy departure after fueling.

The Hungry Farmer Steakhouse

With a full tank of gas I knew we had plenty for the remainder of the trip. Fueling was a lesson I learned the hard way on our first ever trip with the trailer when I pulled into a small gas station and blocked a street with the trailer while I got gas. I’ve been much more diligent in planning my stops since.

We did pass through a Texas town with a name I never expected to see here: Santa Anna, Texas. From my history I thought that Santa Anna pretty much wore out his welcome here when he slaughtered the defenders of the Alamo.

We arrived in San Antonio in the middle of the afternoon and we had a few anxious moments as I had to back the trailer into a tight spot in the back of the Traveler’s World RV Resort. But with a little help from Joan we didn’t knock down any power poles or run into any fences and were set up in about an hour.

The weather was warm and humid and I quickly changed out of my jeans into shorts, so my winter retreat has officially begun. We’ve already been welcomed to the park by a number of “winter Texans” and are looking forward to a good month here in San Antonio.

After the long drive we decided to eat out tonight and when most of the familiar restaurants we like (Logan’s Roadhouse, Olive Garden, etc.) were too far away we played a little OnStar roulette and let the advisor send us to the nearest steakhouse they could find.

The Hungry Farmer turned out to be an excellent choice and we both enjoyed a T-bone steak at a very reasonable price. (I could only imagine one of those cattle we saw grazing along the way today as my current meal).

Hungry Farmer sign

We at early, so we were back at the trailer about 6:30 p.m. in time to catch the national news and then take an exploration walk around the RV park. It turned out we missed the Friday night “Happy Hour” and several people invited us to come back next Friday.

Tomorrow morning is a breakfast and sometime next week is the Chili Cook off so it appears there will be plenty to do here. Adjacent to the park is an 8-mile hike and bike trail that runs along the San Antonio River that I plan to explore tomorrow.

Life is good.

We love church signs and we spotted these two gems today:

“Do you keep your Bible as close as you do your cell phone?”  and

“Where will you spend eternity? Smoking or Non-smoking?”

Mileage out: 4914

Time out:  8:30 a.m.

Mileage in: 5166

Time in: 2:20 p.m.

Today was a blast from the past

Today was all about the past, Abilene’s past and America’s past.

Entrance to Buffalo Gap Village

Getting the best value out of our $15 Abilene ‘passports’ we visited two more local attractions today and took full advantage of not just the bargain tickets, but of the gorgeous weather. Today’s high was 75 and we have not seen one cloud in the sky. With what is happening back home, I’ll not mention the weather again in this post.

As usual I was up bright and early (6:30 a.m.) and got cleaned up and then patiently waited for Joan to arise. Joan loves to hug her pillow as long as she can and whenever I can I try not to schedule things too early.

But we were on the road by 10 a.m. with our first stop at Buffalo Gap Historic Village. Buffalo Gap, Texas got its name from a cut in the mountains through which buffalo hunters, both Native American and cowboys used to hunt the gigantic herds here in the 1800s.

When we were doing research on Abilene we found the Buffalo Gap Historic Village and it looked like something we would be interested in. So grabbing our picnic lunch we headed to the village. When we arrived there I realized that I left my camera at home. So all the photos you see on this post were borrowed from the Internet. The lady at the reception desk told me to use them, so I did get permission.

The old Texaco station at Buffalo Gap

The Historic Village is similar to Crossroads Village back in Flint, but with a decidedly Texas flavor. But all the buildings from the Sheriff Tom Hill’s turn-of-the-century single family home, to the courthouse and two-room schoolhouse (they always do things one better in Texas) were wonderfully furnished and appointed with appropriate period furniture and knick knacks.

Using the self-guided radios we spent more than three hours touring the 18 buildings on the site. I especially enjoyed the old fashioned Texaco gas station and the print/newspaper office.  The only other visitors to the village were a couple outdoor cats who annoyed us endlessly when we tried to eat our small lunch.

And for all the Joan bonnet fans, she found yet another Amish bonnet, this one made in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, that she had to have. So look for the new bonnet in coming photos.

After exhausting all the village had to offer we headed back to Abilene to visit the U.S. Army’s 12^th Armored Division Museum in downtown Abilene.

Courthouse at Buffalo Gap

Expecting to spend an hour or so we were enthralled with all the exhibits, photos and displays at this very good World War II museum. We stayed so long that I ran downstairs to make sure I hadn’t gotten a ticket at the two-hour parking spot that I left the car in. The nice young woman at the reception desk said she would keep an eye out of the meter man and make sure I didn’t get a ticket.

I got to play with a World War II M-1 rifle and just as I do every month at the National Cemetery had nothing but trouble closing the slide without busting my knuckles. Actually I couldn’t get this one to close and I told the young woman to tell some old soldier to fix it and blame it on a Navy man who didn’t know what he was doing.

We learned that the 12^th Armored Division was one of the many Army groups that liberated German concentration camps and the display section of the museum for that history was profoundly disturbing.

In addition to the U.S. exhibits, the museum includes a very extensive section of German army memorabilia. A volunteer at the museum told us that none of the items were purchased, but that all the German souvenirs were confiscated from dead or captured German soldiers as the 12^th Armored Division pursued the German Army across Germany.

Some of the German officer uniforms and hats looked in incredibly good condition and we were told that movie makers had visited the museum to study their collection in order to replicate German uniforms for films.

They had the uniform of a German colonel who had served as a concentration camp commander and who tried to disguise himself as a civilian when the American troops arrived. Camp prisoners pointed him out as the former camp commander and when he denied that he was the leader the soldiers decided to take it a step further. The soldiers of the 12^th forced the man to try on a uniform they found in the commandant’s office and when it fit perfectly they arrested him.

12th Armored Division Museum

Later the man was hanged for war crimes related to his operation of the concentration camp.

At one point, we learned, the 12^th Armored Division was ‘borrowed’ by General George Patton and actually supported the Third Army which meant that for a time they were part of the same assault force that Joan’s father, who was in the 75^th Division, was involved in.

The 12^th Armored Division received the nickname “The Mystery Division” as they were ordered to remove any patches that identified them with their former division so the Germans wouldn’t realize that they had left their former position and joined Patton’s soldiers.

One of the many 12th Armored displays

Outside the museum is a small, but growing exhibit, of World War II era vehicles, including a tank and a well restored Jeep.

We highly recommend this museum to folks with any interest in World War II if you are in the Abilene area.

On the way back to the trailer we topped off the gas tank and while Joan prepared dinner I got the truck and trailer ready to hook up first thing in the morning for our trip to San Antonio.

Favorite line of the day: "Come back and enjoy the best barbeque you'll ever dip a lip in."

Again the photos with this post are not my own.