Happy Easter!!

We really enjoyed the Emmaus Walks we made. They were like the Cursillos we did in the 60s, but very improved and Emmaus had some extra surprises. Being sponsored by the Methodist Church, they were more truly ecumenical, not being tied to the Catholic rituals. It was a lot of fun for me to be an “insider” at Cathy’s weekend. I have gotten into a group reunion of 5 or six men to help with my spiritual growth – Cathy still has not found her “group”. Maybe she will form one at St Francis Xavier.

We have both lost weight and inches on the Dtour Diet and are now at the point of picking and choosing those meals that we prefer from the plan and introducing some of our own preferences. We have also been walking at the CNRA and Cathy has gotten out an aerobics DVD for rainy days.

Speaking of rain – we just had gutters put on the house and last night they got tested out and worked just fine. Now that we are getting into the rainy season I will be putting more of my efforts into yard work. David is coming up on Thursday to help us get some flower beds established and I want to do some weeding and seeding on the lawn to take advantage of the spring rain.

Our addition to the back yard that I mentioned in the last blog has turned out to be just that! The trailer will never be moved due to three reasons. The primary reason is that Cathy feels that, at her age, she doesn’t want to be left alone in the house all night. I have let the park know that I will not be hosting in the campgrounds. They are going to put me on at the nature center as a volunteer interpretive ranger instead. Reason #2 is that it is illegal to take it to the park or anywhere else without a license and, although I have a bill of sale, I cannot get a clear title. The serial numbers no longer exist on the trailer and the tag agency rules require either the old title or the serial numbers. Reason #3 is that the frame is not stable enough to move very far. Bottom line – it will be made into a guest house for visitors. The repairs are coming along pretty good – I almost have the plumbing fixed to the point of having a cold water supply. It looks like there will never be hot water, except by heating it on the stove. The main bed is ready for use and the dinette bed is ready for use. The upper bunk needs a new mattress and I have yet to find a source. The remaining repairs are the toilet supply line, the A/C fan (it’s stuck), the entry door framework, and a little cosmetic treatment for the water damaged walls. It’s still a fun project as far as I am concerned.

Cathy has been busy making quilts. Quilts for the quilt guild’s charities, quilts for Japan, quilts for baby showers and gift quilts have all kept her busy.

I was very involved at the parish for the Easter Week and am glad that I had this Easter off to write this blog. Our priest has to come from Ada to do mass, so our Saturday Vigil mass was our last mass of the week.

Gary has been moved to Hightower TDCJ facility for his final session of incarceration and we are now making plans to go visit him there. Since it is a long trip we will probably combine that trip with visits to our other friends and relatives in the Houston area. This is still in the planning stage! I’ll let you know what happens on the next blog!

Vagabond's Renewal

Here it is the middle of Lent. This year Cathy and I are not giving up anything - but we are adding more positive things to our lives.

Our doctoring has shown us some new needs. Cathy's bone scan has revealed that she has osteopenia - not quite as bad as osteoporosis. The doc sas that she needs to double up on the vitamin D and the calcium - and get more exercise. She is doing the double D, calcium and is taking OsteoBiFlex regularly now. We have also made time in our busy schedule for some trail walks in Chickasaw NRA. My colonoscopy had polyps removed - they were benign. The doc said I have diverticulitis - I'll have to see what is recommended for that!

Another thing that we have added to our life this Lent is a resolve to eat more meals every day by following the D'Tour diet. We are now two weeks into the diet and have lost some weight by eating the recommended foods (good for both heart and to avoid diabetes meds). It hasn't been hard to give up the sweets and fats, because the diet gives us lots of filling meals and snacks, and we stay full and satisfied. The meals have been great!

Another thing added to my life is hearing aids. I noticed that I was frequently saying "What did you say?" to everyone, so I guess it is time for that change!

Yesterday we added another thing to our lives. We bought an 18' Prowler travel trailer. I will be able to use it for hosting at the Park and Cathy will be able to invite "company" now that we will have an extra bedroom in the back yard - or at the Park. The trailer will also provide me with lots of challenging tasks to keep me busy. It is a true "fix'er up'er" having cost only $600. I guess I will always be an RVer - even if I don't ever take it out on the roads.

Next week I will be going on a Methodist retreat called "Cross Point Walk to Emmaus". The "walks" were born out of the Cursillo movement which we were very involved in back in Arlington and Kenosha. Cathy will make the women's walk the following week and we are both looking forward to another involvement in Christian community.

So, that's what's been added to our lives this Lent - what's happening in yours?

Picture perfect

I told you in the last blog that I hadn't gotten the Thanksgiving pictures - well they were sent to me. And since it was so cold outside, and I spent most of my time indoors on the computer, I decided that I would share them with you. Unfortunately, I am not too adept at doing pics on blogger - so I will just give you the path to my facebook album. Here it is:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=46001&id=100000709656885&l=ea3eb749c4
I hope I got all of that right - I'll test it when I get done with my update.

Our grandson in Indiana, Guy, Gary's son, got engaged! He is still in high school - we think he is too young - but who knows. I remember a friend of mine that was engaged in our senior year and married right after the graduation - and it was a good solid marriage. We're praying that Guy hasn't bit off more than he can chew!

I finished my taxes in the cold. I guess that this winter cold spell wasn't all wasted. I also tested out the solar powered emergency supply and it runs the furnace and the refrigerator just fine. Being conservative with it's use, it should get us through any power outage that I anticipate we will have here in Sulphur.

Cathy and I were both very involved in Cursillo, back in Wisconsin and then in Fort Worth. We miss the Cursillo community and have tried to find it here in Oklahoma. It seems though that the ultra conservative hierarchy of the Catholic church have effectively put the Cursillo and Charismatic movements down here. We have only been able to contact one other Cursillo couple and they made theirs in Montana. We have decided to do the Emmaus Walk, sponsored by the Methodist church, and join their gatherings - since they are an outgrowth of Cursillo. The group is active here at the Sulphur United Methodist church. We will make our walks at the end of March and are looking forward to being active in their group.

The repairs to the Veterans Lake area of the park have been completed and the trails are open, so we will be able to go there and walk the trails, now that it is warming up. Spring is in the air and life is good! Enjoy yours as much as we are enjoying ours. I'll post again when something else important comes up.............

HOME IN THE COLD

It was fall the last time I blogged, now we are in the depths of winter here at 1416 Holly Ln.
That is a picture looking out towards the shed (now our emergency power source). Since it is so cold out, I decided that it would be a good time to catch up on my blog - Wow it's been two and a half months since I was here! Lots of activities and adventures to report.

Thanksgiving was a blast! 23 of our family members gathered and played catch-up on each other's life events. Jeff took lots of pictures, but unfortunately I didn't. So I will just have to tell you about it and let you imagine the good time we had. Of course there was lots of food and games and the grand-kids (and great GKs) got to meet and play with each other. I especially enjoyed meeting Remi, my granddaughter Claire's son. What a cute character he is - and really sharp for his age. Another neat thing was that, on Friday, Dave, Jeanne, Al, and Jeff all came back to have breakfast with us before making the trip back to their homes in Texas.

During the holiday Jim did a project and finished up the roof work on the deck and enclosed it's north end. Unfortunately on Sunday, while finishing up the trim at the peak of the roof, I fell with the ladder and later on the injuries became infected, causing me so lay-up time while I took my antibiotics.

We sold the Casita and traded the van for a Chevy Aveo. We kept the solar power equipment to put on our shed to provide power for the shed and mowing the yard and also be an emergency power source for tornado season. I have an RV plug on the side of the shed for visitors as well.

Cathy and I have been spending a lot of our time juggling doctors appointments and hospital time. We are getting checked out and fixed up now. She has had back problems and has fixed part of it with physical therapy. Then she found out she had a urinary tract infection and, after the medicine fixed that, more of the back pain went away. Now she is waiting for a bone density test and the doctor's evaluation of what to do next. During all of this she also had her colonoscopy - I have yet to get mine done. Her's came out perfect with no problems in that area. Since I have changed cardiologists, I have had all of the usual heart stuff done - EKG, scan, nuclear stress test, and angioplasty. My arteries only were 60% blocked, so the doctor didn't put in a stent, but changed my BP meds and added a statin to the pile of pills that I take. We both still have a few more tests to do - just to keep the doctor happy.

During all of this doctoring we also had our property landscaped (leveled) and made ready for a carport. The landscape crew also made a large gravel parking area out of the front and side of the house. Now we have less lawn to mow and a lot of space for our friends and relatives to park. I think we have a good RV park started, if some of you want to come visit us in our new home!

Over the Christmas holidays we made an extensive trip around Texas. First we visited Jim and his family in Arlington. We spent Christmas at the Ingurgios' with Victor, Kristi, and the GGKids. Next, after an overnight visit to my Lake Texoma friends, we went to visit my adopted family in Kingsville (BFFs). Heading north, we visited Mary and Matt in Wimberley - then Jeanne and David and their family in Terrell. Lastly we stopped overnight at Jeff and Al's in Plano, and finally got back to OK in time for New Years.

Our latest projects have been finishing up the solar on the shed (see first picture), getting a carport installed, and Sunday I built an extension on the deck and step into the carport.

Well, it's still only 10 degrees outside, so I guess I'll go find a good book to read.

It's been quite a while since I have blogged, so I was impelled to give an update! A lot of water has gone under the bridge and we have really been busy here at 1416 Holly. The house is pretty much ready for company - and just in time! We will be having about 24 relatives for thanksgiving celebration. About the only thing in the way right now is all of those vehicles in the back yard. The Casita and truck are still waiting to be sold. I think that they are going to sell separate and I will put the solar on top of our shed to provide power for my "workshop" and the lawnmower. It will also be able to run the refrigerator in case of a power outage - which is sure to happen in rural OK. The tent like structure that you see in the picture is a temporary carport that we will use until the landscaping is done and the "real" carport is installed. We celebrated our 55th anniversary by going to Outback in Norman and then on to the "old homestead" to play games with the grandkids.

Two of our dearest friends, Dave and Arda Tole, came to visit Monday and Tuesday, on their way north to Chicago and Grand Rapids. We had a great time sharing BBQ at Smokin' Joes and playing games. We hope to have many more visitors from our Arlington, Noble, and Escapee friends. Call us and tell us you are coming - we'll leave the light on for you - and as you can see there is lots of parking in our front yard.

Well, I guess that is all for now. I'm going to head out to start geocaching Sulphur.

Times are a changing!

Times are a changing. The house is ours. Repainting turned out to be the least of our challenges. We found major roach infestation and water leakage problems, not to mention the badly wired electrical in the house. My kids joined in to help me fix all of the problems and we now have a like new house! The kitchen had to be torn out to the studs, re-wired, re-walled, and all new cabinets, counter, sink, hood, etc. There is still some minor work remaining but we have been living in the house now for a few weeks - and it is home.

The biggest change for me was moving out of the Casita into a huge (1040SF) house. The biggest change for Cathy was moving out of the double-wide house (1400SF) and squeezing into a tiny new home - and having to share her space with another person (the once vagabond husband). We are learning to live with each other again and it"s working out well. Saturday we had a very successful yard sale in which Tom got rid of the construction leftovers and Cathy got rid of a lot of excess fabric and books.

We reallly enjoy the country style town of Sulphur and have even made time to take a walk on one of the trails at the park - a lot more walks on a lot more trails to come. I have decided that I will not go back to working for money, but I may park host aagain - this time in a tent.

Another of the challenges that the move has made is vehicles. I want to give the Casita and the van both new owners - someone who will benefit from owning them. They would just age and sit idle if I kept them. What I have decided to do is to try to sell them as a unit to someone who would appreciate their unique solar capabilities and take them back on the road. If I can't find that buyer, I will sell the trailer first, strip the solar off of the van and put it on the house as emergency power, then sell the van with ladder racks to a local construction person. I have rented space at the local flea market, starting October 17th, to display the pair, and a dear friend of mine has spread the word to some of the Escapees. I really hope that an Escapee will buy it because I know that it will go to a good home and be appreciated. And I hope that my Escapee friends will not forget me, but come and visit (20amp hookup) in our side/back yards where we have room for several rigs (see blog on June 18th). Chickasaw National Recreation Area is about a mile away and has regular RV camping facilities as well and should not be missed by any of our friends.

If you are interested in the vehicles, here is a brief description:

THE VAN (and solar) is a 2008 Chevy 2500 Express Van (VIN 1GCGG25CX81192400), with about 60,000 miles on it. It is white (matches the Casita) and has the towing package. It is the regular (not extended) length and has been insulated inside, so that the van can also be used to provide a second bedroom for the Casita - or used as a side trip "stealth" RV. The bed consists of three storage boxes with a folding plywood top (folding to allow access to the storage boxes). The solar is mounted on the roof on ladder racks and provides 300 watts of solar power to charge the 7 batteries. The batteries are all advanced glass mat type except the primary van battery. GM engineering advised me that the alternator can be used as a charging source by using a switch method to connect to the battery bank. I have installed the switch as they advised.. I have only had to use the alternator a couple of times when encountering too much rain. An extra advantage of the switch is that you can connect the van to the battery bank and "jump start" the van if it's battery is low and if connected when stored it will keep all of the batteries at a well maintained 13.5V level. The entire solar system is regulated and has a monitor to tell the charge and usage condition at a glance. The inverter AC power is 1800 pure sine wave watts that will take a surge to 3600 watts. It goes to sleep when not in demand so as to not drain the batteries when they are not needed. If used conservatively it will power everything in the Casita except the strip heater. The air conditioner can even be run for short cool downs (like at meal time) several times a day and I have run it all night on hot summer nights after the sun went down.

THE CASITA is a 2007 Spirit Deluxe model (VIN 1C9TB171X71213600) with large and small dinettes that both convert to beds. I have added propane connections for an Olympian catalytic heater and, with the exception of a furnace, I bought all of the optional equipment offered. In addition I have installed a wall mounted 19" LCD DTV. For the description of the trailer you can go to www.casitatraveltrailers.com - they have hardly changed anything in the design since 2007.

If you are interested in both (or either) of these vehicles contact me by email at vagabondmarlatt@gmail.com and I will get back with you.

Never say never!

I said I would be a Texan for the rest of my life - never be an Okie. Today I got an Oklahoma drivers licence and became a certified, licenced, Oklahoma resident.

We are getting very close to closing on the house - it may be as soon as Friday. Or it may have to wait until we get back from Indiana/Illinois at the end of the month.

This month has been very hectic, but enjoyable, getting the preliminary things done for the moving process. I rented a storage compartment and have taken all of the excess RV stuff out of the trailer and truck, including my bike. That makes the trailer big enough for the two of us to take the northern trip next week. I have also taken two van loads of the early move in things to the storage shed. That way Michelle will have some minimum items to use when she comes down for a few days to help us with the re-painting of the bedrooms and kitchen. We won't move in until the house is ready for us - probably the end of August.

I am going to look for employment (part time or seasonal) to help support the new life style.

All in all - this is a great adventure in the life of the Vagabond (do I have to give up that nickname? - I don't think so!).

Getting off of the road - Reunion

After 15 years of full-time RVing I have finally found a place where I would like to settle down. It is in Sulphur OK, home of Chickasaw National Recreation Area. The town of 5000 is the size that I like. The people are friendly and down to earth. It is a country town, but it is still close enough to the big citys of Dallas and OKC. Cathy and I are in the process of buying this house at 1416 Holly Lane and expect to close at the end of July. We won't move in until the few modifications that we require are done. I will probably take a 1039 (hrs/yr) position at the park in order to be able to afford keeping up the payments for both this home and the double wide at Michelles. Of course we will have a well worn path between the two since they are only about 65 miles apart. Cathy will get a hide-a-bed for grandkids and company and Tom will wire up the back yard for visiting RV friends. All in all, this promises to be a happy reunion and a great future here in Sulphur.

Back to Oklahoma for a while

Wow, time flies - it's been three week since my last post. A lot has happened.

The Last couple of days of the TxGCC contest were slowed down when my rear window on the van exploded from the heat. I had foolishly put my travel bug number on the outside of the window using black 4" letters and the concentrated heat was too much for the glass to handle. Bumper stickers are probably meant to go on bumpers! I did complete the contest in the prescribed time, so I should be one of the 25 prize-winners, both in the Houston and the Dallas Areas.

Cathy said maybe I shouldn't rush home because of the weather forecast, so I stopped for a couple of days at Chickasaw National Recreation Area in Sulphur Oklahoma. I missed the tornados that went through her neighborhood. Michelle's property wasn't involved but the store where Mimi was going to work for the summer was destroyed.

I spent a week or so at Cathy's, but she wasn't ready to do the garage sale. All I really accomplished was to get some things out of my trailer and truck that were excess ready to go into the sale, if and when it happens. I also traded her the antenna that I had been using before the lightning hit and that improved her TV reception on the one channel that was weak.

While at Cathy's a Chicasaw Ranger called and said that they wanted me to take a park host position as soon as possible. Before moving to Chickasaw NRA we went to granddaughter Emily's graduation in Arlington Texas. She graduated with honors and several scholarships. She accepted one and will be going to DePaul University in Chicago. She is the tall girl in this picture.

The host job at Chickasaw is different from working in the Texas State Parks. While the hours are longer the duties are less. At least 75% of my time is spent being a host, that is greeting and helping the campers know how to enjoy their experience. I find it more rewarding and I think that it probably brings more people back to the park because of the friendly feeling that they get from the personal involvement. I will be at the park for the next couple of months, if you want to come visit. The park completely surrounds the Lake of the Arbuckles, so water sports are the biggest draw now. There are also some sulphur springs in the older section of the park near town. Here is a video of one of the fun places - a swimming hole on Travertine Creek.

I'm on Vacation Now!

I finished up my tour of hosting at Stephan F Austin State Park and decided to retire (?) for a while and enjoy life. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department started a geocaching event called the TxGCC – Texas GeoCache Challenge and I decided it would be fun to try to get the prize (a commemorative coin) in both the Houston and Dallas areas of the TPWD. This involves going to 23 of the state parks and finding the cache answering a question and punching a passport. I have at this moment completed 21 of the parks caches and tomorrow I will be doing the final 2. I will then head toward Cathy’s house in Oklahoma and try to get to the property between the storms.

I did do a few other things, other than geocaching, that I can tell you. My great grandson Tony Ingurgio made his first communion on May first. That evening we all went to a park to celebrate my granddaughter, Sara Marlatt’s 30^th birthday. Wow, are my grandkids getting old – how can this be? Last week I went to my granddaughter Emily’s school for a dance performance. She was the leader of her dance team and did a solo performance as well as taking part in several of the group dances. They did real well and the school recognized her and two others who are graduating for their outstanding participation this year.

Yesterday I visited my son Gary in prison at the Choice Moore Transfer facility. He is doing fine but would sure like to know when they plan to release him. He had his parole hearing, but has heard nothing about the results yet. Cathy and Michelle plan to visit him on the 29^th or 30^th of this month, when we go down to Arlington for granddaughter Emily’s graduation.

Today I visited with Joe and Betty Culling in Bonham. They were some of the first people I met when I came to Texas and we had a great time reliving some of the old experiences and sharing our current family news.

The geocaching trip has gone well except for two blown tires on the Casita which slowed me down a little. Here are the State Parks that I visited in the order of their visit: San Jacinto Battleground, Battleship Texas, Village Creek, Martin Dies, Livingston, Huntsville, Sheldon Lake, Galveston Island, Brazos Bend, Lake Texana, Stephan F Austin, Dinosaur Valley, Lake Mineral Wells, Cedar Hill, Lake Towakoni, Purtis Creek, Tyler, Daingerfield, Coopers Lake (2units). Bonham, and tomorrow the 2 units at Ray Roberts Lake. I did take a few pictures -

April 2010

Due to popular request, I am restarting this blog. My intent is to have a place to send you when you ask me "What's up". This will let you see a condensed version of my life - and not be a daily posting. I am starting with the big event that happened at the end of March. Lightning hit the tree 6' from my bed in the trailer. It caused me much grief, having taken out most of the major systems in my life - not to mention scaring me awake. But more about that grief later.


You may wonder where I am and what am I doing here. Well the place is Stephen F Austin State Park (SFA) and I am a park host here. I take care of the entire tenting area, including, but not limited to mowing, cleaning fire rings and bathrooms, and giving visitors information. The park is really pretty now that Spring is here. We have bluebonnets at the office area and wildflowers, birds, and wild animals (including humans) all over the park.

I have my own site with a great side yard and they have even loaned me a second vehicle to make my rounds easier. Since I get two days off and I can have family visit free, it is really not too demanding.

Here's a picture of Kristi, Victor, and the GGKids heading down to the Brazos River to fish. They didn't catch anything but the exercise was good. I lagged behind Kristi and Gianni here on the trail.

Here's a picture of the kids in my side yard after lunch. The girl (30) in the green dress is Sara, another one of my granddaughters, who is living with the Ingurgios until she gets her own apartment in June. Victor is getting the fishing gear ready to go. I really enjoyed the day after having spent a couple of weeks getting over the lightning problem.

Here is a picture of the tree that was struck at about 3:30 AM, Thursday the 25th of March. Notice that it is very close to my trailer. When it hit I was raised out of bed by a sound and light show going off in my head. My ears are still ringing now over a month later. I have tinitis and it was increased considerably. After I realized that I was still alive, I looked around and checked all of the trailers systems. The electricity was knocked off and resetting the breakers only brought about half of it back. I found that the power strip to the TV had done its job and protected the TV, but although the TV worked it didn't receive any stations. Later I found that the amplifier for the antenna had been blown - probably saving the TV from a direct hit. The ground fault circuit had been blown and would not reset, so I went to town later in the day and got a replacement. Incidentally, the flourescent light bulbs at my site and at the bathroom, 100 feet away, all had to be replaced. After about 3 hours the overload circuit in the converter restored my DC power. Fortunately I have DC power available in my tow vehicle, so I had been able to keep the refrigerator and lights going. The AC side of the water heater was also taken out, and that part still hasn't come in to Camping World. I have hot water using the propane side, so that isn't a problem. Oh yes, my computer also would not go online - the amplifier for the cell signal was blown out. On Friday I bought a new amplifier and a new TV antenna with amplifier. That restored my electronics. Later I found that the computer amplifier was not blown, only it's power supply. After replacing the power supply, I now have an amp in both the truck and the trailer. The repairs didn't cost a lot - but the trip to Best Buy did because I bought a new Dell computer with Windows 7. The month of April has been very hectic learning the new system and - oh yes.....

The 28th of March was my day to be eligible for a new phone and I had decided the one for me was the iPhone. So on Monday, in the midst of my repair efforts, I got my new iPhone. More learning than I probably needed at this time, but the iPhone is great. It has truly changed my life by making communications so much more complete and rapid. The geocaching applications (more learning) seem to have completely replaced my old equipment and procedures with more efficient searching.

So, that's what I've been up to for the last month. I'm leaving the host job and heading to Houston for some family events - and then who knows? If you are on facebook, I will make a post there to say that I have updated my blog.

Due to lack of interest (mine included)

Due to lack of interest in my blog, I am today ceasing to update the blog. If you want to communicate with me you can still enter comments, and they will forward to my email. Since I have received almost no comments, I can only conclude that writing the blog is fruitless. As a last entry I will say that I am now again a traveling vagabond, heading to Livingston, Houston, Arlington, and then Kingsville. Who knows what will be next?

What's Next?

Oops, I went 3 weeks between blogs! But does anyone care? I’m thinking of getting out of this computer business – at least cutting back – I can't seem to cope with some things. For instance, I can't get these darn pictures to go into the text at the right place. What’s Next?

Well things have been different at the park. The water is up. Here are some pictures to compare to my earlier ones that showed the extent of the drought.

The drought effect is still with us though. Here is a green tree that just fell over one night. Notice how the limbs just snapped off because they were so brittle. It seems that the sap all goes to the leaves and the rest of the tree suffers.

Since I am an extra host, I have been doing a lot of extra effort on the new nature center and filling in as needed during the holidays. I had fish for Thanksgiving, but we will have a turkey day for the staff next Wednesday, since the park will be shut down for a deer hunt which will reduce the over populated herd.

The South East Texas geocachers were here on Thanksgiving – but only 2, besides me, showed up.

Last week we had SNOW. I thought that I had escaped that! It only lasted for about a day. The snowman took about 4 days to disappear.

I’m thinking of discontinuing my computer service and getting an I-phone in February. If any of you have had experience along those lines I would also like to hear from you.

Tomorrow, I am going to D’Hanis TX to check on a co-op lot to buy, so that I will have a permanent place down here in the south. More about it in my next blog – if anyone wants to know.

Social networking is not for me!

Social networking is not for me!

I keep getting invitations to be “friends” with people on Facebook, Myspace or other such sites (at least 4 others). I feel it is time for me to tell family and friends that I intend to be UN-sociable – I will not even go to these sites to reply. If you are a friend or relative or even someone remotely interested in me from this blog – you can contact me by email at vagabondmarlatt@gmail.com. I will respond to personal emails and if you have a blog, I will come to it to see what you are about. My computer is slow and my network is sometimes unreliable because of the remote places that I visit and that causes me much grief when I have excess communications. During a brief exposure on Facebook a couple of years ago my email was filled to the point that it took me several hours to get to the mail that I really needed ad wanted. It was a devastating experience. Enough of the soapbox – here’s what’s new!

The road up to Cathy's property is now packed down and has proved to be very good. When I left OK it was an easy exit. We spent an afternoon playing board games with the grandkids the day before I went to Texas. Cathy and Michelle, Mary and Jeff, and two of Gary’s AA friends all met at the courthouse for Gary’s hearing. We didn’t hear much, but we were there to support him. The DA offered a plea bargain, which Gary accepted, for 5 years of penitentiary time to be served. Since his jail time will count double as time served, he is already doing time. We don’t know when he will be transferred to the pen, but he is in good spirits and very hopeful for a reduced time and that his parole will be better than probation has been. It seems that the Texas probation system is just a trap set for getting the felons back into incarceration – making any kind of normal life impossible.

After I left Waxahachie I went to Livingston and delivered 13 quilts and some old recordings to the CARE Center for Cathy. Then I went to the Houston Chapter of the Red Cross and did the groundwork for a Disaster Kitchen Training course that is scheduled in January. Now I am settled in at my favorite state park – Lake Texana – as a Campground Host. I will be here until the first of January and then will take a months break and come back for February thru April. I’m in site 79 – come and visit – family can stay free on my site!

At Cathy's in Oklahoma

While waiting for my Doctor’s appointment in Livingston I spent 2 days at Lake Livingston State Park. It rained all of the first day, which really messed up the geocaching on the next day. It took me about an hour to clean the mud off of my bicycle – but I did find eight caches in and around the park.

The doctor appointment was for an echo cardiogram and I guess that I’m still alright because the nurse called me to tell me to come back in 6 months, since nothing changed. After the appointment I went to Waxahachie to visit Gary in jail. His spirits are good and I left him a little fund to get more to eat, since they don’t seem to feed him enough. His revocation of probation hearing will be on Nov. 18th, so I will head south then

Arriving in Oklahoma, I started by working on Cathy’s projects – surfacing the driveway up the hill and patching the roof. Since it hasn’t rained yet we don’t know if the patch job was any good. Michelle got rid of the old cars (3) to Pick a Part. Then we put down 2 loads of clay to fill in the big holes in the road and got a load of gravel spread on the top. Hopefully the road fix will hold for a while! It sure is nice going up and down that smooth road now.

Thursday, on our anniversary we went out to Chili's for baby back ribs and battered onions. It was a good time.

In my spare time I have gotten a lot of little jobs done for myself as well - things like installing a new propane changeover regulator system and, of course, geocaching.

Rally Rally Really

Oktoberfest was a big success. I won a couple of raffles (nothing I needed) and first prize in the egg throwing contest. We all ate more than was needed. I helped serve and clean up at the BBQ dinner. Here are some pictures from Oktoberfest.

22 of us cooked up our favorite soups and sold them for 1 meal. We donated the proceeds, almost $500 to CARE. My selection was Vagabond Stew/Soup. It's what I eat about 1/3 of the time and was one of the most popular of all the soups. It disappeared really fast - and I was afraid of having too many left-overs to put in my freezer!

Immediately following the hitch up breakfast, I went to the Chapter 30 rally in Gun Barrel City. I ate some more and geocached a little – it was a good time. More pictures of my rallying there.

Between rallies I went to Dallas Chapter of the ARC and serviced the mobile kitchen. All was quiet and uneventful there.

Chapter 10 Rally in Belleville was with a lot of old friends and boy are we ever getting old. None of the old active games were played just board and card games and, of course, more food. It was a good time though, with lots of free time to share.

At the rallies there were meetings and auctions - the proceeds going to a good cause - more food and things for the future.

I took a side trip to Steven F Austin State Park and checked it out. It is a nice park, but I wouldn’t want to host there. They expect their hosts to be “on duty” 24 hours a day and I know that the other parks don’t think that way. I plan to check out some other parks in the next few weeks. On the way to S.F.A. S.P. I found 7 geocaches.

After the Ch 10 rally I checked out Huntsville State Park and it sounds a lot better. I think that I will try to take a tour there in April or May, if it fits into my schedule..

Really Ready to Rally

It’s been a busy week at Rainbow’s End Escapee Park. Frank Williams (my temporary landlord) and I painted parking stripes in the CARE Center vehicle lot on a very warm and humid day. That is the first time this year that the heat has really gotten to me. I guess I’m showing my age. Of course Frank is still just a young man at 92, so it didn’t bother him.

The stage is set for the Oktoberfest that starts tomorrow. I am going to make and serve Vagabond Stew for Tuesday’s Soups for CARE. Different soups will be served and the proceeds all are donated to CARE. There will be a big BBQ dinner and lots of food all through the week. It seems that that is the main theme of most Escapee events – we don’t go hungry.

After a week of fun in Livingston I will go to Gun Barrel City for the Chapter 30 Rally and then a few days later head to the Chapter 10 Rally in Bellville.

With all of the rally traveling and also because my van is now 6 years old, I figured that I ought to get my wheels checked out and up to date. Joel West in Livingston has been doing mechanic work for the Escapees for years, so I took it to him. Service work sure has gone up since I had my service station in 1957! But on the bright side, I now have a good feeling going down the road that my home on wheels isn’t likely to give me any problems.

Another new thing in my life is a rear view camera! I made it up so that I can install it on either the van or the trailer and see what I am backing into – or what is following me too close. I feel it will make life a lot easier when I arrive in a crowded campground – or parking lot.

Last Sunday I went geocaching after church and got stuck in a ditch when I pulled “just a little bit” too far to the right on a 1 lane road. A few minutes later a nice young couple in a jeep came along and rescued me, so another bad moment turned good! There are a lot of new caches in the Livingston area, but I am saving them for the time between the rallies and my cardiologist appointment on the 30th. After that I may even head to OK for a while.

I’ll try to remember to get some pictures to show you all of the fun things as I “Rally around Texas!”

Almost time to leave Lake Texana again

There have been lots of improvements at Lake Texana. Best of all – we got about 3 feet of our water level back. Here is a picture of the cove that I had previously shown as completely dried up.

With the water our wildlife has come out to play (and eat the green foliage). Here is one of our larger bucks.

We have a new Nature Center and we saved some of the murals from the old center to put around a storage area and hide the wheels on the new center – I did the work. Here are some pictures of the murals at the new nature center.

The old nature center was torn down except for the porch which the Director hopes to keep as a porch for a rental cabin (our first). Here are the pictures of the old nature center’s demise, starting with a view showing the murals removed and ending up with the final demolition.

I did some of the work of decorating the new nature center – hanging the taxidermy next to the mural that is being done by the same artist that did the old center. He will return and fill out the mural to work in the taxidermy better. Here is the work in progress.

We also put in a bird viewing area and trail in the woods behind the center. I helped with blazing the trail and irrigating the pond and birdbath in the bird area.

Before I leave, next week, I hope to get the new information kiosks installed at the 4 host sites. Then I will be off on my October adventures – mostly RV rallies in Texas.

The other day I had one of those small world experiences. I was geocaching in Victoria and when I looked up from my computer, logging in a find in an RV park, there out the window was my good friend, Frank Williams. We spent over an hour sharing what we had been up to and agreed to meet again next week at Rainbow’s End in Livingston. I will even be staying on his lot there and we will go to at least one of the rallies together.

Well, I guess that’s all for this blog – I’ll share again in a couple of weeks.

Back home in Ganado TX

I am back at Lake Texana State Park and back in the ABVM parish in Ganado. I was welcomed home by three of the guys with whom I went on the ACTS retreat. I will spend a month here working at the park helping to set up the new Nature Center. The Labor Day weekend was very busy but the rest of the time has been pretty quiet. My first days off I went to a geocaching meeting in Houston and also visited the Ingurgios. Victor seems to be recovering from his hip surgery just fine. After supper I went to Sara and Matt Spinks to visit. Sara is my granddaughter – David’s daughter. I had never met their family. They have three great dogs – 2 terriers and a black lab. Of course, I was using my new geocaching program to cache along the way! After spending the night at Hotel WalMart, I geocached my way back to Lake Texana via Galveston Island State Park, Mud Island, Freeport, Brazoria, West Columbia, and Bay City. The program is great and I have learned to use my Nuvi to geocache. The project for this weekend is removing two outside walls on the old nature center that are painted with murals and taking the walls to the new nature center where they will be used to fence in a storage area and decorate the back of the building. The man who painted the murals is making new murals on the inside of the building and we are helping him by fitting in some of the taxidermy from the old center. There will be visiting dignitaries from TPWD on the 22nd, so we are all going to have to work hard to finish our part of the move! Monday and Tuesday will be days off again and I will head west geocaching.

Moving on - Heading West

It’s a sad and a happy time for me now. I’m leaving all of my friends at CARE and heading back to Lake Texana State Park, where I will be camp host for at least a month.

The work at CARE has been harder for me this year. I am sure that it is not that the work has been harder – just that I am losing some of my younger year’s energy. Dan Duryea, the volunteer coordinator has done an excellent job of organizing the volunteer job and I appreciate that the job has therefore become easier. The work is the same however and volunteers are scarce these days. We only had 3 teams this month – 5 teams is the desired number. Since the new September teams are now arriving, our team is bidding adieu to the routine and going back to our regular (?) lives.

I have been working feverishly in my spare time to get a program to more easily load my geocaches in both my hand-held and my auto GPS units. A couple of days ago I succeeded and I now have over 470 caches loaded – ready for the Victoria area! I did manage to have enough time to get to a few of the new geocaches in Livingston – but I have to leave a few for next time. I will be returning to Livingston for a cardiologist appointment in late October.