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!”