Wandering is over for awhile.

Got home yesterday afternoon. We had a good trip and all went well with only a very few exceptions. Motor-home worked flawlessly and all systems did their job. The awning started to disintegrate, but that was expected with it sitting in the hot Texas sun for all those years. It is still usable, but the top rubber coating is starting to peal off in the area that is exposed when it is rolled up. I also got a little too close to my cousins garage roof overhang and did some damage to both the RV and the roof gutters; nothing that interfered with the rest of the trip.


I got lots of stuff to unload that is necessary in our lives, and have to run to Wally-World to replenish supplies. Need to get all the pictures copied to this computer from the lap-top and camera. I will then give you a history of our trip in chronological order with pictures.

Thank you for being patient with me for not posting my progress, but was kept pretty busy when traveling everyday with three dogs. It is good to be home but it also is a let-down. I took the long way home and it sort of made a loop when added to our trip up. On the way up we went through Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. On the way back from Pennsylvania, we went through West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and back to Texas. That was a total of 13 states that we drove though. The trip back had much nicer scenery than the trip up.

I will try to get my ducks in a row and get back on schedule. That may be easier said than done, but will try. Till then, you all have a great day now, you hear?

Wandering through Kentucky, Tennessee, & Alabama.

We left Horse Cave, Kentucky yesterday morning and my wife snapped this picture of an old barn, typical of the barns we were seeing:

I am just going to skip a lot for now and, by golly, we are already in Nashville, Tennessee:

And of course we had to take a picture of the local wildlife:

Well, it seems we went into warp drive or something; maybe even through a worm hole and got pushed from the age of dinosaurs to the age of rockets:

That rocket was at the border of Alabama on I-65.  We are now on I-20 at a camp ground and will be heading for Vicksburg, I think.  Never sure where we will end up until we get started.

Thank you for riding through three states with us today.  You all have a good day now, you hear?

Wandering back home, at last.

Just a quick post to let you know that we are doing fine and are on our way back home.  We are now in Horse Cave, Kentucky.  I am trying to wander home a different route and trying to see new things.  We have taken lots of pictures, and will do future blogs on the trip, so you will not miss anything.

Got to run, get this buggy ready to roll.

You all have a good day now, you hear?

Wondering about work.

My favorite customer really needs my help.  This is upsetting to me at this time because helping him really interferes with my plans.  We have had a very long working relationship, and I am going to try to do as much of his work as possible.  He has helped me in the past, so I also feel that I owe him.  This may prevent me from seeing some old friends that I have not seen in almost 30 years and may never have the opportunity to see again.

Also, I do not have the right engineering programs on this lap-top and this lap-top has trouble running them anyway.  Don’t have my reference material or files.  This will take me 2 or 3 times as long as it should.

I am telling this to you because I want you to know that I will not take the time to write a blog for the next few days.  Tomorrow is a travel day and Saturday is c family reunion.  I know that in the near future when I get some time, I will have some new stuff for the blog.  Your patience is appreciated.

You all have a good day now, you hear?  And I will hurry back.

Wandering around seeing old friends and relatives.

First, a good friend of ours sent a link to some pictures of the damage here at the RV Park that we are staying at.  The worst part of the storm was very localized and a few hundred yards on either side of the campground didn’t show any signs of damage.  Here is a link to a video.  Like most, there is an advertisement at the beginning:

http://www.wpxi.com/video/28591341/index.html?taf=burg

Yesterday we went to Wal-Mart for supplies and after supper we went and visited with an old classmate of mine who was also the best man at our wedding.  He has had a very interesting life and has come home from his worldwide wanderings to settle back in his parents’ home.  He has made a lot of additions and improvements and also has a huge vegetable garden.  I was really glad to meet with him after not seeing hem for going on 50 years.  It so happened that two years ago we were both at the same high school reunion and in the same class picture but we did not recognize each other.  Time changed both of us.

This morning I am off to visit with an old school teacher of mine.  He also sold real estate and he was the one that finally sold my house after I moved out of Pennsylvania.  He is also a ham radio operator and we have kept in touch via email.  We will probably not recognize each other.  This will be another fun meeting for me.

Also, one of my customers needs me to do some work for him.  That will seriously put a dent in my vacation fun.  Dang, maybe I can put him off until I get home; probably not.

You all have a good day today, I will.

Wondering, how bad was it?

We left early afternoon to go and visit my wife’s brother and sister-in-law.  We were only planning on being gone a few hours so left the dogs in the RV.  They talked us into staying for supper, so we stayed a little longer than planned.  Their place is about three miles from the RV Park, just on the other side of town.  It rained there around 17:00, but not too bad.  We waited until after the rain and loaded up our stuff and headed back to the campground.  When we got within a half mile of the RV Park, traffic came to a stop.  At first I thought that there had been a wreck.  Then I noticed that the traffic lights were out and figured lightning must have taken out a transformer.

Wrong!!  After a very long wait and stop and go we finally got close enough to see that everyone was being directed out another road because of trees across the main road.  Since we were worried about our dogs, especially the oldest who is deathly afraid of thunder, I told my wife I was not going to take a detour.  I could see the first tree down across the road was just a few feet past the entrance to the RV Park.  They stopped the car in front of us and were giving them directions or something.  That gave me the opportunity to quickly drive around the blockade and turn into the RV Park.

The dogs were really glad to see us.  I leaned that six trailers had been cut in half by falling trees and that a tenter site was wiped out.  The people in the tent were away like we were.  This RV Park is a mess, especially the section where the permanent residents are set up.  The channel 11 news people were here and I see that they came back again this morning.  On this trip we decided not to watch any TV, maybe we should have.  But nobody knew that this was going to happen.  They said it was in excess of 80 mph (a lot in excess if you ask me).  I will look on line today and see if I can find out any more information.  I don’t want to walk around and take pictures of other peoples, tragedies. Nothing seems to be wrong with my RV.  A large wooden fence around a sub-division blue down and pieces came with a couple of feet of my place.  I should have had my awning down, I need a new one (grin).  Of course the wind could have used it as a sail and rolled my RV.

You all have a good day now, you hear?  We are going to.

Wandering to a water fall

I told you before that I would show you some pictures of the water falls at the RV park we stayed at near Greenville, PA, so here they are.  The area has not had its normal rainfall this summer and the small creek that carved out the ravine and spilled over the rocks to make a water fall is almost dried up.  Therefore, you have to use your imagination to picture what it would be like if the creek was full.  It now only had a dribble going over the falls and the camera didn’t catch it.  Here, see for yourself in the next few pictures.  Don’t forget you can click on the pictures to enlarge them.

This first picture is of me on top of the falls looking straight down.  See my foot in the bottom of the picture at the edge of the rock?

I moved over to the right and took another picture looking straight down.  See the sky and trees reflected in the water.

This next picture was taken from below the falls looking back up stream toward it.

I then turned around and took a picture looking down stream.

And here is a picture a little further away from the falls looking back up stream.

While my wife and I were walking around exploring the woods, we came across this old camp where someone must have stayed.

I hoped you enjoyed the pictures of the area.  We sure did enjoy being there.  If you are ever in the northwest part of Pennsylvania, in the NW corner of I-80 and I-79, stop and stay awhile at the Farma Family Campground. 

You all have a good day now, you hear?

Wandering and wondering about what I have found.

I have seen a few things in the woods at the RV park where I was staying near Greenville, PA that I didn’t know what they were.  Some I could probably find if I searched enough but this first “What is it?” is something that has stumped me and the local people that I have asked.  We found these strange pods on a path in the woods.  There were quite a few of them from small and yellow to larger green ones.  My wife is holding the two extremes in the next picture.  If anyone knows what they are, please let us know.   We are quite curious.

I was walking a stream bed and found this unique design on a rock.  It must be some kind of lichen or other growth, although it looks more like minerals.  I don’t know what it is, do you?  If so, let us know.

This picture shows a very small, but fancy, mushroom of some kind.  The leaves in the picture will give you an idea of how small it is.  I have never seen one of these, either.  So, what is it?

Now while we are on the subject of fungi, here is a picture of a beautiful one.  I am sure this is a very common species and I know I have seen them before.  Have you?

OK, this last one is very sad, for sure.  I didn’t know anything like this could ever happen.  Did you ever here the song that was about angels flying too close to the ground?  I thought that angels knew better than that and that they were immortal.  All my beliefs were dashed when I saw where this poor angel had crashed to the ground.  She must have been moving at a terrible fast speed.

If you can get over the crashed angel, you all have a nice day now, you hear?

PS, I am now in an RV park near Butler, PA.

Wandering around in the trees.

I have taken lots of pictures and will put them on later when I get in a location where I have better reception.  In the mean time I am going to take you with us for a short walk in the trees.  This forest is rich in a large variety of trees from hard woods to pine.  I even showed my wife some iron wood.  It is the hardest wood that I know of.  We used it as railings around our camp up here (many years ago) and had to drill holes in it in order to nail it to the vertical posts.

There is not a lot of pine here, but some spruce.  Now hemlock is another story, there is lots of it and some are quite old.  Here is a big one:

And Ruth and Chang Le standing at the base of a couple of big ones.  Sorry about the blurred picture but the dogs jerked their leashes just as I snapped it.

This picture is of the roots of a beach nut tree:

This picture is looking up a bigger beach tree.  Notice the smooth bark?

I am standing next to the beach tree with the two fuzzy girls to give you an idea of its size.

We got to visit with my Aunt three days in a row and she seems to be doing quite well.  With the broken hip she can not walk on her own, but she is high spirits and wants to attend the reunion picnic a week from this Saturday.  She is also looking forward to her 93’d birthday in a couple of weeks.

One of her sons (my cousin) came over to the RV park this morning and we had a great visit.  He is a lot younger than I am, he is only 64.

Yesterday evening we got to visit with the great lady that we met at the flea market back home and got to meet some of her family.  I will write more about them later, also.  They have a really neat place.

So far, we have had a great trip, except for the first night when it was unbearably hot.  This beautiful mild weather and cool breezes are going to spoil me and I may not want to return home (grin).

We are pulling out of here tomorrow and heading for an RV  park close to my home town.  You all have a nice day and a great upcoming weekend, you hear?

Wandering around in Pennsylvania.

We had a very nice visit with my Aunt and even took one of the dogs, Muffy, in to see her.  My Aunt told the gal that was helping her that these were the people from Texas that send all the home made cards and poems.  The gal asked who did what and was the card made for the poem or the poem made for the card.  We answered all questions to her satisfaction and she said everyone enjoys the cards.  Made us feel good, because it does take a lot of effort and time.

I figured out why it took so long to do yesterday’s post.  It wasn’t the internet connection speed, it was me.  I am not used to this laptop and had a hard time getting it to do what I wanted and then trying to find where everything was located on it.  I sure do prefer my big old desk-top.

Took a walk yesterday morning down a road and trail next to where we are parked.  I really enjoy getting into the woods, especially when the air temperature is on the cool side.  Here is a pic of my wife and Chang Lee:

And here is one that my wife took of me and Muffy and Gizzy:

This picture does not do the area justice.  It is a steep gorge carved out years ago by a small stream.  There are a couple of water falls that I will try to get a picture of this morning.  But this will have to do for now:

Snapped this picture of Ruth checking out an old camp site someone had used in the past:

We had a cold night.  Don’t know how low the temperature got, but at least in the low 50’s.  Sure felt good, what a difference from Texas.

You all have a good day and we are planning on a good one, too

Wandering to Pennsylvania

We made it to Greenville, PA yesterday.  Today we plan to visit with my Aunt.  Here is rock right behind our RV:

In case of big wind I can chain the RV to it.  It looks old and majestic, growing all that moss and watching the trees grow up around it.  I bet it is as steady as a rock. . .

We went through lots of rough roads that about shook us apart and then got into some construction:

Finally got off interstates and on to some great country roads:

Then we found the RV park:

And a weary traveler at the end of the trip:

The internet is so slow, took me more than two hours to put this on.  May just keep the next ones real short.

Have a great day now, you hear?

Don't forget you can click on any picture to enlarge it.



Wandering along – Third day.

We finally got into some cooler weather.  I mean, the open the windows and shut off the AC kind of weather.  Haven’t been in weather like that for a long time and it sure feels good.  But tomorrow it is to get to 90 here and the upper 80’s where I am heading.  Here is about 28 miles north of Columbus, Ohio in an RV park.  It is beautiful and not at all crowded.  I would recommend it to anyone.  The “where” is northwest Pennsylvania, Greenville, to be exact?  That is where my last surviving Aunt lives.

Ben asked for pictures, so I took a few, very few.  This first one is of yellow wild flowers at a rest stop somewhere in Indiana.

This next one is a picture of us parked for the night.  Notice the door and windows are open.

 And this was taken in the opposite direction showing our closest neighbors.  They did a wonderful job at restoring that Airstream motor-home.  Or, they took real good care of it.  Don’t you wish that you had one like this:

And I clipped the picture down so you could get a better look:

Last night the park we stayed in had a lot of campers but few people.  Kinda like the "Twilight Zone".  Tonight there are very few of either.

You all have a good day now, you hear?

Wandering around a bit-1

Sorry I have not updated my blog, but have been on the road and with three dogs to walk and not enough hours in the day, I have not had the computer unpacked until this evening.  Ok, what have I been doing?

First night we stayed at the KOA in Texarkana.  It was HOT, way TOO HOT.  It must have been way over a hundred.  The dogs suffered, my wife suffered, and I suffered.  AC couldn’t keep up.  Miserable, but survived.

The next night we stayed at a KOA on I-55 in Missouri close to Hayti and Portageville.  Somewhat cooler and actually enjoyed the stay and we all started to feel better.

I am now sitting in a KOA at Casey, Illinois on I-70.  It is a lot cooler here and the KOA people got on our good side by giving us a couple of really delicious cookies.  We are in a nice shady spot and all is well.  Everything, so far, has performed just fine.

We are not in a hurry to get anywhere at any specific time, except for one.  My wife asked me to drive slow this trip, and I am.  I have set the cruise control at 57 mph, and what surprise.  Did you know that the lanes on the interstate are dotted instead of blurred solid line?  Well, if you drive slowly enough, they are.  And another thing, the time it takes to get somewhere does not seem to be much different than when you drive 70 or so.  I didn’t think that I could stand to drive that slowly on the interstates, but I actually enjoy it.  Kind of relaxing, and can look around a lot more.

Well, it is about time to eat.  Don’t want to miss that.  You all have a great day now, you hear?

No Blog Today

No blog today.  Will try to get one posted soon.  Don't worry, everything is just fine.

You all have a nice day now, you hear?

Wandering back to old time clothes washing days.

I read Hermit Jim’s blog Coffee with the Hermit (http://hermitjim.blogspot.com) and I suggest you make him a part of your day, everyday, if you don’t already. His latest post brought back some memories of when I was a young kid about saving scraps of soap. I especially remember wash day. My mother had a wringer type washing machine in the basement next to two large rinse tubs; the first one with hot water and the second one with cold water. A long clothes line was taken out and stretched from pre-mounted hooks that were placed in multiple positions on the garage and the house. The clothes line was attached to these hooks and stretched back and forth between them all, making about six long runs of line to hang clothes on. Then the clothes line poles were brought out from the garage to be use to support the long stretches of line after the heavy wet clothes were hung upon them. Ah the fresh scent of clothes dried like that and the wonderful aroma when you climbed into bed that night between two fresh outside dried sheets.


My parents lived through the great depression and it taught them not to waste anything. This mind set was instilled in me, and I am grateful for their example. The one thing that my Mom did, which was what Hermit’s blog reminded me of, was to collect the small scraps of soap. She had a little wire mesh basket with a long handle. This basket would open up and the soap scraps and pieces were placed inside and then it was closed up and latched. This basked could then be submerged in water and whisked back and forth, adding soap suds to the water. This allowed us to use every last bit of a bar of soap.

Do any of you remember a gadget like that?

You all have a good day now, you hear?

Wondering what is next.

This is the 344th blog that I have posted. When I started blogging, I had no idea where it would lead. I have posted some good blog posts, some really boring and dumb ones, and a lot in between. But yesterday it reached a mile post. Aintforcitygals became my 50th follower. I never thought that I would get more than a few followers, and I want to thank everyone that has become a follower. You all really ought to check out this gal’s blog. One of the things she does is restore old RVs. If you haven’t already, go check her out at http://aintforcitygals.blogspot.com/ and say howdy.


My blogs have taken me to old times and old memories, RV wanderings, food (like prickly pear cactus ice cream served at the general store at Tortilla Flats, AZ) outer space, telescopes, flea markets, paintings, repairs, and wonderings about all sorts of things. It seems to me that my blogs have been losing their freshness. I enjoy going back and reading some of my old blogs. Lately, I have been running out of ideas of what to blog about. In a way, that is a good thing because there has been nothing traumatic happening in my life. The bad part of that is that there has been nothing exciting happening either.

In reality, there is always something new and exiting happening every day. The trick is to be able to recognize it. Remember back last week when I took the RV down to a park along interstate 10 to meet up with my cousin from Ft. Myers, Florida? Well he gave me 10 mangoes that he had picked off his tree before he left. I hate to admit it, but I had never eaten a mango in my life. Well, the other day, I figured they were getting ripe enough and tried one. WOW!!! I like them, so now I have been eating one tasty mango a day. I wonder if store bought mangoes are as good?

Did you ever notice that when you don’t have anything to say, you write a longer blog than you would if you knew what you were going to say? Better end this and get it posted. I have a lot to do today. But, before you leave, go check out my first blog at http://dizzydick.blogspot.com/2010/07/st-blog.html.
You all have a good day now, you hear?

Wondering about fear.

Fear is something we all have. Some have more than others, but if you are really honest, we all fear something. We may not be terrified of anything, but we all have a little fear about something, whether it is as simple as stage fright or as serious as being afraid to leave your house. Of course we would think, since we are the ones with the big brains, that we would be rational about our fears. I do not think that is true at all. Fear is a survival reflex and has kept the human race alive thus far, but fear has also been the cause of the unnecessary elimination of a lot of people.


As an example, on the news yesterday was a story about a couple of large sharks that were caught at two different locations along the gulf shore around the Galveston area by men surf fishing. Now I am sure that put a real dent into the amount of people who went into the water. People are now afraid of being attacked by a shark, and it brought back flashes of the movie “Jaws”. If they were logical, they would fear the drive to the beach a lot more than the going into the water. The chance of getting killed by a shark is 1 in 3,943,110 where as the risk of dying in a motor vehicle accident is 1 in 88, the risk of dying of a stroke is 1 in 28, the risk of dying of cancer is 1 in 7 and the risk of dying of heart disease is 1 in 6. The total risk of dying of any cause, of course, is 1 in 1 (grin). Why is it the things we fear most are the least likely to happen? Is there any logic there?

Some of the above information came from an article that I read in “Discover” titled “What You Don’t Know Can Kill You”. It was a very interesting read and I recommend it to you all.

I will leave you with a thought and a question. We should fear that big juicy hamburger that you had at the 4th of July picnic more than almost anything else your can conjure up in your mind. And my question for you today is: What is your worst fear? Of course it would only be fair if I told you my worst fear first. As I have gotten a lot older, I fear less and less. Of course I fear loosing loved ones, terrible storms, oppressive governments, sickness and plagues, and becoming senile. If I had to pin it down to one thing, I guess it would be that I fear the unknown the most. The more knowledge and understanding that we have of things, the less we fear them. Of course, in some cases, ignorance is bliss. OK, now tell me your worst fear.

Now that I had you remember all your fears, I hope you still have a great day.

Wondering, new toy or new member of family?

My lovely wife found something at the flea market this past weekend that she just had to purchase, bring home, and make it part of the family. Of course she had to keep it out of reach of the dogs; they just think it is another toy for them. They got hundreds of toys and expect new ones every time we go out. One of these days they may actually wind up being spoiled. . .


Oh yea, got off the subject a little. My wife used to have a fabulous doll collection. She had hundreds of them, but got rid of all but a couple. Then she spotted this one at the flea market and it seems she fell in love with it. Not only was it in perfect condition and very pretty, it had a doll of its own. Here are a couple of pictures of the new family member:

The humidity has been really high lately, so it just has to rain. All we need is something to stir up the atmosphere a bit and give it a little squeeze and the water should just pour out. Sounds like a simple plan to me, but we will see. It has still been really hot, over 100, and with the return of the humidity, it is becoming very uncomfortable. I am going to quite talking about the weather and the drought and the heat. I know you are tired of hearing about it.


You all have a great 4th of July and celebrate safely.

Wondering about a tough flower

Because of the drought, the wild flowers are pretty scarce this year, except for the trumpet vines’ pretty orange flowers. Therefore, when I went out yesterday in the 106 degree heat (news said it got up to 108 in our area) and walked around the dogs’ yard, I was really surprised to see some wild flowers blooming. By the way, yesterday was the hottest day that I ever experienced and I hope I don’t ever break that record again.


Back 10 days ago we got our first rain for months and months and months. I wonder if that caused the hurried rebirth of these flowers and their attempt to propagate. That brings up another question, how are the honey bees surviving when they don’t have any flowers to gather nectar from? I suppose people who have hives of bees must be feeding them sugar water or something in order to save their hives.

Here is a picture of the flowers that I spotted:

They were so small, I almost didn’t see them.  How small you ask?  Well, I put a penny down beside them for comparison and took another picture:

Aren’t they cute?


You all have a great day today, you hear?

Wondering why this day didn’t start out too well

Everything seemed to be starting out like normal.  Our male dog, seen here with his toy monkey, got up at the usual time (just before 06:00).

Then I decided to go back to bed for just a few minutes. Dang, finally my eyes popped open at a little past 07:00 with a little help from on of my other dogs. OK, so I slept in, probably needed that but lost an hour and my days don’t seem to have enough hours in them anymore. Then I walked past the security monitor and saw one of my garbage cans pushed over, lid off, and stuff scattered all over the place. So guess what I did for the next half hour. If it was wildlife that did it, I can understand. There is just not much food available for them any more. This extreme drought has surely affected them and I bet there a lot of hungry (and thirsty) wildlife out there. But if it was the neighbors’ dogs, that is a different story. Just for your information, I tied the lid on the garbage cans like I used to when I had pig problems.

If you are a follower of my blogs you will remember the problems that I had changing the oil in my motor-home and couldn’t seem to get a filter that would seal. Well, yesterday I changed the oil since it had been awhile even though there was hardly any miles on it. This time I checked to make sure a gasket didn’t come off the old filter and stick to the seating area for the new one. Also purchased a special pan for catching the oil and it has a spout for emptying. Job was a lot easier and went smoothly with no problems.

OK, you all have a great day and be safe out there over this long holiday weekend. I am going to head for the flea market, as usual. We old folks have trouble changing our schedule (grin).

Wondering back to 1959 and a new product I bought

Wow, with a title that long I don’t need to write a blog. . . . OK, guess I better anyway. I read Hermit Jim’s blog about the Sony Walkman. Interesting, you may want to check it out at: http://hermitjim.blogspot.com/2011/07/ever-have-one-of-these.html. He always seems to come up with some interesting stuff. Anyway, it made me think about a new product I purchased back in 1959. First, let me give you a little background.


My Uncle and Aunt invited me to take a vacation with them in their Airstream travel trailer. One stop on the agenda was at Colorado Springs for a week to attend the Wally Byam Caravan Club rally held there that year. The people of Colorado Springs wanted to know how much of an impact the rally had on its economy, but were not sure how to do that. They came up with the unique idea of trading out our money for two dollar bills and we were only supposed to spend two dollar bills in their town. My parents (I was only 16 at the time) gave me $50.00 to take with me. Since I hadn’t spent anything since we left home in Pennsylvania, I traded all my money in and got 25 two dollar bills.

By the time I got home, I had most of them left. My parents told me I could buy something for my self with the money. So I bought this new gadget called the transistor radio. Back in those days, transistors were very expensive and only a small percentage of them worked when tested, which also helped in raising the cost of manufacturing them. I found a really good one for that time period, a nine transistor unit. It was not as small as the ones that followed in the 1960’s and 1970’s, but I thought that I was something special when I walked down a street listening to songs like the “Flying Purple People Eater”. So, it cost me almost $50.00 bucks, a whole whopping amount back in those days, but it made me so proud and being a teenager I loved to listen to the latest music.

Thanks Hermit, for bringing back some really great memories. You all have a good day now, you hear. And, if any of you haven’t already done so, go read Hermit Jim’s blog. He always has a great read.