The end of 2008

The end is in sight. Just a few hours and 2008 will bite the dust. I enjoyed a Christmas Party with the staff and hosts at Lake Texana State Park.

Then on the 26th I spent the day at granddaugter Kristi's, joined by my son Jeff and his partner Al, and my daughter Mary, Here's some of the pictures from that event.

Then, on the 30th I said my goodbyes to Lake Texana in order to have a month of vacation in the Texas Valley. Right now I'm at my friends Frank & Eloise Williams' ranch in Ricardo TX to celebrate the New Year. Do you notice that I go farther south as the temperatures go down? I'll be geocaching in the Mission Texas area. If you are a geocacher, you can look for the travel bug decal in my windows (van and trailer) and "discover" me.

My new home and employment

I went to Kristi’s on the 1st, while she and Victor went to the closing and took the three great-grandkids geocaching.

On the 3rd I gave the seminar to the TPWD Interpreters’ meeting. It was well received and I got a surprise! Ranger Cindy from Lake Texana State Park said that she has a host position open for December. So now I live there and am again productively engaged.
I am enjoying the host opportunity immensely – the setup is different than McKinney Falls. Here I rotate the jobs, so I get experience in all of them. The staff and hosts here are happy and friendly, making it fun and not really work!

Here's the view out the front of my site.Tomorrow I will be back in Houston, on my day off, sitting the three GGKids, while Kristi and Victor go out and party. Then back to the park until Christmas with Jeff, Mary, and the Ingurgios.

Thanks

I’m thankful this Thanksgiving that I am still able to keep up with the life on the road. I enjoy being “houseless” and am glad that some don’t consider me “useless”. I have no idea of my future – after next week – and that’s fine with me.

I left Livingston and went to a Lake Texana State Park. I did some geocaching while I was there and found some of the caches in the park needed attention. I asked about them and found out that, not only the caches needed attention, but TPWD (Texas Parks and Wildlife Department) needs to update their program of controlling caches in their parks.
I got involved and stayed a week longer at the park explaining what was needed to the Interpretive Ranger, Cindy. Then she invited me to come to the region Interpreters meeting and bring the region up to date. That meant that I needed to get approval from the state, so I went to a meeting with the Regional Director to request to give a seminar to the region – and maybe later to the other regions. It is still in the “approval” stage – but I may be going to the Dec 3rd meeting with the PowerPoint presentation that I have worked up. And this may lead to a tour around the state in the future.

Now (Thanksgiving) I am cooling my engine and waiting for Kristi, my granddaughter and her family to arrive in Houston to move in to their new home. I offered to take care of the GGKids while Kristi and Victor go to the closing on Dec 1st and move in on Dec 4th. There is a geocaching meeting in Houston on the 7th and Kristi asked me about taking care of the GGKids on the 12th. So…..I may not go south as quick as I thought!

And….there’s the TPWD program – and park hosting – and the Red Cross Kitchen. No moss growing on this old man!

Lots of updating – and change

After my relatively easy job at McKinney falls, I volunteered to work with my son Gary for a few days. He really worked me – and we both ended up under the weather (something we ate maybe?) for a few days. He has an independent business restoring vacant apartments to being attractive to renters. While I was at his place I met many of his AA friends – a great group of people, living very positive lives.

After Gary’s I headed to Rainbow’s End, the Escapee home in Livingston Texas. Before I arrived, I received a phone call that a previous offer to work for the Dallas Area Chapter of the Red Cross had been accepted. I immediately turned toward Dallas where I had a very enjoyable week joining their chapter and renewing my role as a custodian of the Sysco Mobile Unit Response Feeding (SMURF = Kitchen). I was welcomed into the chapter warmly and went to work restoring the kitchen’s disaster readiness.

Next on my agenda was the regular 6 month doctor’s appointments, vehicle inspections, and voting in Livingston. Since I know so many of the Escapees in the park, it is always like a homecoming when I arrive there. I did the voting and inspections and doctor appointments, but now I am awaiting the results. It seems that my cardiologist feels that I need an upgrade in my medications – I hope that that is all!

While here, I am applying for a host position at Lake Livingston State Park. The woods here were very badly damaged by the hurricanes, Gustav and Ike, and the park has quite a bit of repair effort underway. I hope that I can become part of that effort for the next month or so. Stay tuned for more news about the life of this vagabond!

A great ending to a great week!

Mc Kinney Falls has really been a busy place this week. It all started off on Monday the 29th when a film company, NEPI (I think that stands for Northern Entertainment Productions Inc.) came in and changed the name of the park to Dillon National Park, just for the night of filming. They filmed a couple of scenes for “Friday Night Lights” and then turned the park back to us as McKinney Falls.
All week the headquarters was getting ready for the annual TPWE (Texas Parks and Wildlife Expo), held just around the corner from McKinney Falls – actually on the same land grant. I invited my daughter, Mary, to come but unfortunately she was unable to make it. I went both days and enjoyed it immensely. They had lots of educational and hands on displays – all under canvas – some of it even had cooling. The area that I enjoyed the most was the Green Area that spoke to energy conservation and alternative power. I feel that my little Casita spaceship and Chevrolet command module should earn me a page in this historical time.

My support vehicles are the van that provides power and office space and my Schwinn Sidewinder, that supplements my gasoline usage and provides exercise. The van has 8 AGM batteries that are kept full by a 300 watt solar array to supply my needed electricity. This is enough power to conservatively provide for lights, fans, pump, TV, microwave, computers, air-conditioning and heat. Notice that I said “conservatively”. I consume about 70 – 120 ampere hours of electricity each day – and it comes from the sun – for free! Of course that doesn’t include the modest initial investment. My longest continuous period off of the grid and without a generator has been 93 days. It could have been longer except that sometimes my lifestyle is influenced by those with whom I travel. I can not leave the trailer for more than a couple of days without being hooked to the truck’s umbilical cord. And, sometimes, it is just nice to sinfully splurge and have unlimited power hooked up to a plug in a park or at a rally.

As part of the greening of America, I would urge all who read this to seriously consider how much energy they use, and how much they really need. Even the Vatican is going solar! You might want to visit Clinton’s Global Initiative and the site MyCommittment.com. It is satisfying to me that I consider myself a Liberal Conservative, as well as a Materialistic Minimalist.
Also at the Expo I finally got to meet Mrs. Captain Pickard, who was teaching folks that visited the geocaching tent.
Julie (Mrs. C.P.) is the premier geocacher in the area (Texas?) with 13,129 caches found and 81 placed. I only have a measly 1259 found and 8 active caches!

Mary would have enjoyed meeting Julie – and she also missed out on the great meal that I had following the Expo at the Catfish Parlor on Hwy 71 east of I35. I even celebrated the week with a Michelob float. Life is good – and enjoyable.

And the wind blew in – so I drove out.

On my second day as night host at McKinney Falls State Park (almost a month ago) I received the call to go to Louisiana and volunteer with the American Red Cross. The assignment was to work at the headquarters in Baton Rouge, in Transportation – that is dealing with all of the rental cars and trucks used by the staff. Instead of working in Transportation, when I arrived at the headquarters, they felt that I was needed more in Facilities – that is securing agreements to use facilities such as warehouses, parking lots, schools and churches for Red Cross functions. I got two agreements signed, one for acreage to be used by a kitchen and the other a church to be used as a shelter. Then I sat around waiting for something else to do. I did some inventorying in a warehouse and helped set up a new warehouse inventory. Then I was sent to Alexandria, where I worked at getting the signed releases for church shelter facilities and doing the final inspections of those facilities. Then I was called back to Baton Rouge where I sat waiting for work again. I helped move rental cars and trucks back to the rental agencies – so I guess I did do some work in Transportation. My last day was spent with several other volunteers packing up the cots and mattresses from a shelter. I am quite discouraged about the lack of real work for me during this disaster. I feel that in the future I will not go out on an assignment without more assurance that I will be used to the fullest.

On returning to Texas I went back to my job at McKinney Falls State Park. The night host job had been filled, but I was welcomed back as a maintenance host – that is going through the various areas taking care of litter and servicing bathrooms etc. I have only been back for two days, but I am enjoying it immensely. My time at the park will be up on October 10th and I will head north to Gary’s house while I get my ailing truck serviced again. Gary has also agreed to install steps on the van for me at a good price.

What will be next remains to be seen!

The Trek South

I started south by taking a short leg down to Chickasaw National Recreation Area. Since it is not a “Park”, they allow geocaches, which I did. I also put in an application with the National Park Service for hosting jobs, but none were available at Chickasaw. Next on the agenda was the DFW area, where I stayed two days at Hickory Creek COE Park, geocaching, of course. I attended the Dallas Area Geocachers Back to School Breakfast, where I met Geo D – who is one of the original geocachers in the area and has quite an interesting profile. Look him up if you have a sign-on on www.geocaching.com. After geocaching the area around the meeting, I met my “Boys” Jeff (& Al), Dave (& Jeanne), and Jim (& Gail & Emily) for lunch at Pappasito's in Dallas.

I stayed the weekend at Jims doing geocaching chores at my cache on his property and then got my bi-annual eye exam and a new set of contact lenses before heading to Leander, where Gary Lives.

The Express Van was acting up again, so I stayed at Cedar Breaks COE Park and geocached, while the Chevrolet garage spent two days analyzing and fixing the system. $441 later, with a new O2 sensor I finally got to Gary’s house. He acquired a lot of truck parts in lieu of pay from Carlos, a man who he had worked for, when the Carlos went out of business. Since Gary is not allowed to use the internet, I offered to list some items on EBay for him, and forward the results to him by phone. There has been some interest, but no bids yet. The sale will be over on Monday. Gary has had 5 years without a drink. Mary and Matt and I are going to his AA Meeting tomorrow where he and others will give there testimonies.

After Gary’s I went to Sportsmobile, in Austin, where I intended to start on getting my Van converted to a Class B motorhome. After seeing all of the prices and not being able to fit all of my needs into the floor plan, I decided to do a conversion myself to use for short trips – and keep the Casita as my home. I started on the conversion at Mary’s hose in Wimberley when they offered me a small refrigerator, which should be able to run on my solar power without severely draining the batteries.

After Mary’s I went to McKinney Falls State Park, where the Texas Parks and Wildlife office is located. I put in an application with the State and they suggested that I go directly to the parks that I am interested in with applications as well. I started with McKinney Falls and after spending 4 days hiking and geocaching there, I have landed a volunteer (that’s unpaid) job there. I will work 25 hours for my full hookup site and have the weekends off. My duties are easy. Essentially, I just sit at the gate from 6 to 10 PM and keep track of who comes and goes and give out information. I will start as soon as my criminal background check is completed.

I plan to stay here for at least a month and accumulate a little more money for fuel and get the van up to date.

Settling the Prairie

Oklahoma just celebrated their 100 years of statehood, but the prairie still is far behind the rest of civilization. Things like communication, roads, and food supplies are not really up to par. Those of you who have visited “Lynch Hill,” my daughter Michelle’s and Cathy’s place will know what I am talking about. Well, in the last month there has been significant progress here on the prairie. The first major improvement was that the ¾ mile road in to the property has been improved to the point where I can get my trailer all the way to Cathy’s house and not have to worry (too much) about if it will rain before I need to get back out. The next breakthrough was that I bought an AT&T aircard and Wilson antenna setup to get on the internet. I can only get the signal here at the property because the surrounding 3 miles is a dead zone, but we are on the top of the hill. The signal is only 2G most of the time, with occasional spurts into 3G – but it’s about 10 times faster than Michelle’s dial-up. Broadband has been installed to the neighborhood, but it hasn’t been tested and released to marketing yet – but hopefully the Lynches will be able to get into the 21st century soon.

While here I have been involved in some domestic chores. The air conditioner went out and had to be replaced. Of course, there wasn’t a direct replacement available, so it was necessary to replace all of the mounting hardware in the wall as well. The Poison Ivy had taken over in the woods and I spent one very hot day spraying it. Now, a couple of weeks later, it appears that it is dying out. Both of our vehicles have required attention and hopefully have now been fixed. We both have installed our TV converter boxes and are enjoying them very much. If you are going to need one I recommend them highly. We pick up about 9 more channels and they are very good pictures, even here in the fringe area. Last week we both worked on the K of C garage sale. It was a huge success but, of course, we bought too much for ourselves. We shipped Cathy’s quilting machine back to the people who sold it to her. It has proved to be a lemon, and they have agreed to replace it if they can’t find out what is wrong with it.

I have started on a new venture – eBay. I took the training course at the Escapade and have started selling. My first item was a Pickard Tea Set from my mother’s things that have been gathering dust for years. At 10:38 on my birthday the bidding stopped and, after 10 bids, I got $52 for the set. I consider that a success, since I am just learning the intricacies of the web based sales.
I plan to perhaps market some of our old books while I am on the road this winter. It’s amazing what some people will pay for this old stuff!
Since winter is approaching, I am heading south this week. I plan to visit all of my kids on the way and then I am going to look for a job hosting or something for one of the park systems. That will get me a nice place to stay and still be able to travel frequently enough and, of course, do more geocaching

An extended trip back to Oklahoma

After the Escapade we headed south to Douglas WY to visit a dear friend, Fronie Hendren.

She has just about finished with the remodeling of her new (old) house in town. It is very well done and we were happy to be able to help her get some of the unpacking done and organized. While we were there Tom set up a geocache, outside of the back fence, which Frone will take care of, if it gets in need of maintenance. Her dogs will also help watch over it.

Moving on, we went to Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. We had expected to stay the night in one of the campgrounds but they were all closed. Even though it was getting late we took the 35+ mile drive through the park and enjoyed many spectacular views and much wildlife. Sad to say, we didn't have time to take many pictures.

It was dark when we left the park, had pizza and parked at the bowling alley in Grand Lake.

Next on our agenda was Capulin Volcano National Monument in New Mexico.

We experienced engine problems due to low octane gas purchased in the mountains of Colorado, both on the way in and the way out of the park, so we spent the night in Capulin RV Park. On Monday morning the Chevy dealer, 60 miles down the road, read the engine codes and advised me to buy better gas from now on – no charge!

That afternoon we arrived at Palo Duro Canyon State Park near Canyon TX. This is America’s second largest canyon – over 100 miles long. I feel it is a better place to visit than the Grand Canyon because you can drive down into it and even spend the night in one of the campgrounds at the bottom.

While there we went to the musical extravaganza “Texas”. It was great – especially the special effects – fires, lightning, thunder and many horses and wagons in the outdoor canyon setting.

On the way to Cathy’s house in OK we saw a different kind of rest stop on Hwy 287 in the Texas panhandle. It is made in the form of 3 tornado shelters.

Now I will have to get my affairs caught up before I can move on - probably not for a couple of weeks.

Escapade 2008 - Escapees’ 30th Birthday– Gillette Wyoming

Hays KS, Denver, CO, and then we were on to Gillette. We made a morning coffee break in Douglas, WY, where we visited with Frone Hendren. We will go to her house to visit after the Escapade on Tuesday. When we arrived at the fairgrounds we had a full hookup site and the Vagabond had to learn again how to hook up his electricity and hoses.

Our job at the Escapade was the CARE quilts. The fairground provided a real nice room for Cathy to lay out all of the workstations, cutting table, and quilting materials.


Cathy directed the volunteer women, who did the quilting, and sometimes gopher Tom.

She was assisted by Nita Marsyla.

The women spent all day every day sewing quilts up until Thursday when they held their annual BOF (Birds Of a Feather) meeting.
Tom took on the job of running the Quilt Lovers BOF quilt raffle. The raffle netted $556, which will be used for the BOF’s supplies for making more quilts for the CARE Center (Continued Assistance for Retired Escapees) in Livingston.
Here is a picture of the raffle quilt and its winner at the closing ceremonies.

They typically make two quilts for CARE to raffle and several smaller quilts for the CARE participants. They also make charity quilts for the community in which the Escapade is held. Here is a picture of Cathy delivering the 18 quilts to the Yes House in Gillette.
On Friday the 23 quilts for the CARE Center were picked up by their representatives at the Escapade. Finally there is some room in the truck again!

Tom gave a talk on Materialistic Minimalism which was very well attended and had only positive evaluations. About 200 of the 2000 Escapade participants attended his talk.

After the Escapade we had a 30th birthday celebration with ice cream and cake. Next on the agenda was the city’s 4th of July fireworks. We had great viewing seats in our campground, which was right next to the field where the fireworks were being set off.

Saturday was a day of rest and geocaching. We stayed over the weekend so that Tom could instruct two Red Cross Logistics courses on Monday. Tuesday we head out to Frone’s for a few days and then on to the national and state parks. This blog probably won’t get updated until we are back in OK

A Summer Wedding

Jaime Lynch, Michelle’s son and Annie Nawotka got hitched on June 20th. Some say that they were “Lynched” but, any way you look at it, it was a momentous occasion for all of us. All of the usual wedding things happened, including my great grandson SKI catching the garter. After the reception they rode off on their bicycles – as far as their waiting car in the other parking lot. Monday, Cathy and I will head out to Gillette WY for the Escapade (Escapee Birthday Party) and we will be gone a month or so. I will try to get some pictures of our adventures to show you all.

Family Time

May 30 thru June 1st was spent in Arlington Texas, where the family gathered to honor Victoria for graduating from High School. It was a very nice, but long, ceremony for the 58 graduates. They got 1.8 million dollars worth of scholarship offers. Each one had 1 to 1.5 minutes of a video presentation where they expressed their thanks to their parents and friends. Outside of the auditorium each graduate had a table with their pictures and mementos on display. We all enjoyed it very much. On Sunday we gathered again for a feast and swimming party. It was great being able to get together and have a catch up visit. Here are some pictures:

The sisters! Emily is next to graduate.

The next couple of weeks was spent on “Lynch Hill” at Cathy’s house doing honey-dos and getting everything ready for the trip to the Escapade in Gillette WY. The reason this blog update has taken so long is that I haven’t had time to access the internet with sufficient speed to upload the pictures.

My Answer: Marlatt’s ASS

The other night I had a strange wake up call. It wasn’t the usual “have to go to the potty” call. It was a sense of uneasiness that woke me up. Perhaps it was just the high temperature and humidity in the trailer – so I turned the A/C on. I stayed awake and up, because I wanted to turn the A/C off when my trailer was more pleasant.

Still the feeling was there and it reminded me of an old 50s or 60s song with the lyrics “What’s it all about, Alfie?” Only this time it was “What’s it all about, Tommy?” So, today’s blog will be to share a little of Vagabond Marlatt’s philosophy on life. Maybe you will identify with some of it – or maybe it will help you understand this vagabond a little more.

Back in the 1940s the Gypsies foretold my future. There was a carnival in town and the closest un-controlled vacant lot for the workers was in the field at the end of our block, which was just outside of the city limits. The Gypsies, with all of their colorful horse drawn wagons and clothes, set up a community in the field. Little Tommy went down and visited them and experienced a people with an amazing life style. They were happy, song filling their lives. They enjoyed every moment and didn’t seem to care that they didn’t have the luxury that surrounded them in my neighborhood. They told of all the places they had been and things they had seen and filled me with the desire to become one of them. Many years later in 1995 I joined them as a retired vagabond on the road.

Since I didn’t retire with a fortune and I am now on a fixed (1995) income, I reflected on my career as an engineer and moved into my mobile “Command Module and Adventure Space Station” evolving to my present configuration, which satisfies all of my needs.

When I wonder what is the best way to go, I am reminded of a song – Simple Things:

Simple Things
by Bob Reidenbach, OGP - 31 July 1974

The Lord calls us gently to live and believe In the glory of simple things, like a child glad and free;
To treasure each moment and to hope, come what may,
Like the song of tomorrow with the words of today.

Refrain:
There’s nothing as simple as God,
And nothing more refreshing to the souls of mankind;
Wash me clean, make me new.

The Lord calls us gently to share bread and wine, To give ourselves freely, to love in our time; To reach out and touch someone, to tell them that we care.
Love is what we need to give and life is what we share. (Refrain)

The Lord calls us gently to rise with a hopeful heart,
To put away our doubts and fears, to be light where there’s dark,
To answer the needs of all, to share ourselves as friends,
For when we give ourselves in truth we find ourselves again. (Refrain)

The Lord calls us gently to live life anew,
To see him in simple things, to praise him in all we do,
To know that this life we live is a sign of his peace.
People, there’s a time for change; people, a time for peace. (Refrain)

God had an image of what he wanted us to be and I feel that this song sums up that image.

My answer to adversity is: Repent (change your ways). For example here are some of my answers to my life’s problems: Health – slowing down and doing what is reasonable. Environment – reduce problems to a manageable size. Boredom – Live in/for others not yourself.

I live a life of Materialistic Minimalism – keeping only those things which I need to maintain the ASS and live a comfortable life on the road. I continue to enjoy my family and my friends (many that I haven’t met yet) along the way. When next we meet I hope you will remember these words and understand me better.

I'm still near Cathy's house - getting a lot of "Honey dos" done, and getting ready for our western trip next month. This weekend we will be in Arlington at our son Jim's to celebrate Victoria's graduation.

Back to the Feed Store

Here is where I live in Oklahoma when I visit my wife.

I can’t get to her house when the road is washed out – which is very often. Here are some pictures of the places where the road is washed out. Trying to do the angles and miss the washouts causes the trailer to pitch from side to side and front to back causing too much stress. Everything in the cupboards is also thrown around and mixed up. Even commuting with the truck is a trial and I would prefer not to do it at all.

This and the lack of good computer communications is why I don’t visit Cathy very often.
With the price of gasoline what it is, I have decided to sit here for a while and let my credit card accounts and savings accounts get back into a relative balance. Then after my grandson Jamie’s wedding at the end of June we will start on an extended trip out west. We definitely are going to the Escapade (Rally) in Gillette Wyoming and to visit our friend Frone Hendren in Douglas, south of Gillette. Cathy says she would also like to go visit some of the National Parks.

I am still having problems with the new “protection” that I bought for my computer. AVG has taken over my life and demands that I understand it or it will not let me function. I am reading the entire “help” pages to try and understand.
(Later) Well, I tried to understand, but obviously I can’t understand all of the “help” in the Help pages. I can no longer get online with my Dell computer. This might just be the first step in a large change in my life. Until I can get Jim to see if he can straighten me out I will just go to Norman to the library or to the guest computer at church to send my blog and get my email. Sorry if you are trying to reach me! Maybe I’m not supposed to have an online computer.