Monday 1-5-26 Coyote Crossing & Hiking Trails

 

Fog Morning from the internet

 

We had a beautiful day. We woke up to an overcast foggy morning with the temperature of 53 degrees with a breeze. The wind was strong enough that we heard it howling. By 3:00 the sun came out and the wind went down. The high today was 69 degrees. It was very pleasant because it was overcast.

I crawled out of bed at 7:45 and got dressed. Then we had bagels for breakfast. After breakfast we got ready for a hike. I put a couple of bottles of water in my pouch and put a hat on. Finally I set my band for the hike.

We started the hike from the Minnie, we walked to the restroom and picked up the trailhead. We hiked 3.25 miles using two trails, which were Plum Valley View and Duck Pond. The trail started out in the open and then through the juniper trees and oak trees. We crossed over creeks throughout the hike via eight bridges. They were all wooden bridges of different sizes. We hiked to the primitive camping area restroom. Then we took the duck pond trail, which was a small loop trail around a pond for .8 mile. We went up 500 feet in elevation. The trail was easy/moderate trail. There was a bench at the primitive camping area restroom. There were a few signs on what trail you're hiking and what directions to go. Sometimes they were confusing because the arrow was a little off. The duck pond was a very small pond in the trees. After doing duck pond loop we were back on plum valley trail. Plum Valley trail was .8 mile one way. Before going back to the camping area we hiked to Plum Valley Overlook, which wasn't too far. The view was very nice of the Tallgrass Blackland Prairie. As we hiked the trail there were stones with different paws prints of them of animals in the area. The stones were cottontail rabbit, bobcat, fox, raccoon and opossum. They were cute and were very accurate. We had a super hike for an hour and 45 minutes.

 

   

Plum Valley Overview

 

Opossum

 

Raccoon

 

Fox

 

Bobcat

 

Cottontail Rabbit

 

Duck pond

One of the eight bridges we hiked

We were back by 10:15 am. For lunch we had sandwiches. 

 

In the afternoon Larry read. He finished a book, started another one and finished it. He said that the first book he finished was a great book. After I finish reading Rules of '48 by Jack Cady I'll probably read this book.

 

 

 

Relaxing with a good book

 

 

I got caught up with my Solitaire games. I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The two day event was Event: Solitaire World Tour of 30 games finished today. It took me a total of 6 hours, 42 minutes and 39 seconds, which put me in 9th place in my group. I played Angry Birds Friends, which I didn't play yesterday. I also played Angry Birds 2.

 

After playing my games I started to read Rules of '48 again. I started it during our last week long camping trip and hadn't read it since. I thought I might have to start the book from the beginning. But once I started reading it I remembered the characters. I continued reading in the evening.

 

In the evening we went on a walk around Coyote Crossing Camping Area. I walked for an hour and 20 minutes for 4 miles. Larry walked with me for 1.5 miles of the walk, which was a half hour. Then I walked the loop three more times. By the end of the day I had done 18,000 steps.   

   

 

Sunday 1-4-26 Camping at Cedar Hill State Park

 

Camping at Cedar Hill State Park

 

The morning temperature was a cool 35 degrees in Belton, TX and the high was 68 degrees. By the end of the day we were in Cedar Hill, TX with the high of 63 degrees.

Larry started the day out by doing his morning routine of reading his e-mail and reading the groups he follows on the internet. I got up about 7:45, which surprised Larry because I usually don't get up until 8:00 or a little after. I made us mini waffles for breakfast. Then we finished loaded the Minnie for our camping trip. 

Before leaving I turned off the ice maker and Larry turned off the water going to the house. He made sure our VR headsets were turned off and anything else that needs to be turned off. I Put the step up on the Minnie and Larry unplugged it. We were on the road by 9:45. We were only going 135 miles to Cedar Hill State Park in Cedar Hill. 

The drive was through Eddy onto I35. It took us through Waco and we exited where it Y'd off for Dallas and Fort Worth. We drove the highway to Cedar Hill and to the park. We were there at 12:30 and wanted to check-in but they won't let us, the lady at the gate said we would have to wait until 2:00. This was the first time we had a state park make us wait until 2:00. We have a State Park Pass so we got a day pass and drove around the park.

Cedar Hill State Park is a big park with 355 developed campsite. All sites have water and electricity and 150 of them have sewer. It's located on Joe Pool Lake, which is a 7,500 acre lake. There are two boat ramps with a lot of parking. There is a swimming beach with grills and picnic tables near by. You can fish in the lake or on the shores. There is a historic site called Penn Farm Agricultural Center. It was where the Penn family lived and worked for over a century. You can do a self-tour of the place. There is hiking/bike trail on 1,200 acres, that is called DORBA Trail, volunteers from the Dallas Off-Road Bike Association take care of the trail. The bikers ride clockwise and hikers hike counter clockwise. The biking area has three different trails, which are Green DORBA short (3.0 miles), Blue DORBA medium (8.0 miles) with cutoffs and Red DORBA long (12 miles). There are other trails within the campground, which are Shoreline (1.0 mile), Penn Farm (.6 mile), Duck Pond (.8 mile) Talala (2.3 miles) and Plum Valley (.8 miles). 

After driving around we went back to the parking lot and had lunch. Then we walked over to the office and checked in. The lady who checked us in was very friendly and helpful. Then we went to our site. The site has a covered picnic table with a slab, fire ring and lantern hook. We set the Minnie up for three nights. By the time we did this it was 2:30.

We walked around our loop, which is Coyote Crossing. We walked for a half hour, which was 1.25 miles. We wanted to get familiar with the campground and to see how far it is to the trailhead from our site, which was .3 mile. It was a very nice walk.

When we got back I made leftovers from last night (sausage patties) for dinner. Afterwards I walked the loop four times, which was 2.25 miles for 47 minutes. Then I stepped in place for fifteen minutes so I could get my 12,000 steps for the day.

 

Sunset on Joe Pool Lake

 
 

I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong before I went to bed last night. In the evening I worked on the event, which is a two day event. The event is Event: Solitaire World Tour of 30 games. I worked on the games for 5 hours, 24 minutes and 54 seconds before I realized it was a two day event. I have three more games to complete. Then I played Angry Birds 2. 

We had a super day.          

    

SATURDAY 1-3-26 Getting Ready for Camping Trip & Having Fun

 

I'm very excited

 

We had a gorgeous day with a lot of sunshine. The morning temperature was 53 degrees and the high of 70 degrees. 

I'm so excited!!! Why am I excited? It's because we're going on a camping trip tomorrow for a week. It's not too far away. It's at a state park located in the Dallas area. The park is Cedar Hill State Park. It will be the first time we have been to this park and it's exciting. 

In the afternoon we put the motorcycle carrier on the back of the Minnie. Then we loaded the motorcycle. We're taking the motorcycle with us because some of the hiking trails are located 1.5 miles from the campground. Once the motorcycle was loaded Larry covered it. Now it's ready to go. Tomorrow we'll finish loading the rest of the stuff we're taking with us.

 

Minnie ready to go

Larry ordered me some socks off of Amazon and they were suppose to be here a couple of days ago but were delayed. They arrived today. Now I have new socks to take on our trip.

 

Dickies Socks 

 

Over the years Amazon has been really reliable on shipping times but lately they seem to be having some difficulties. Back when we first started with Amazon they offered two day deliveries and seldom missed getting your items to you in two days. While they still advertise two day delivery most of their items have been arriving the next day and a few take two days. The last few months we have had lots of items indicate they would arrive in one to two days but have taken longer and we have no idea when they will arrive. It's not just us. There are lots of folks all around the country talking about it. Nobody knows why this is happening. While it is not an earth shattering issue we hope they are able to fix it.

We went to town and got our mail. Afterwards we drove around Temple to see what's going on. We hadn't done this in a long time. It is nice to get out of the house now and then.

I played the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event was Event: Two Game Tango Mini of 10 games (5 Pyramid and 5 Tri Peaks). It took me 1 hour, 34 minutes and 45 seconds, which put me in 18th place in my group. I played Angry Birds Friends and Angry Birds 2.

I played eight pinball games. I played four on the mini cabinet, which were Attack From Mars, Batman Forever, No Good Goffers! and World Joker Poker. While playing Batman Forever I came in high score #2 and No Good Goffers! I came in high score #1. I played four games on the big cabinet, which were Metallica, Playboy, Star Trek the Next Generation and Tron. While playing Tron I came in as high score #3. Tron is the weekly challenge and we have 125 participates and I'm in 47th place. While playing Playboy I played the Mansion Mania and entered my initials as the mansion champion. 

 

Mini Cabinet 

 

Attack From Mars

 

Batman Forever

 

No Good Goffers!

 

World Joker Poker

 

Big Cabinet

 

Metallica

 

Playboy

 

Star Trek the Next Generation

 

Tron
 
 

In the evening we watched The Hermit of Treig on Kanopy. It was a documentary about Ken Smith, who lives as a hermit in Scotland. It was a good movie. After Larry went to bed I watched Hellboy II: The Golden Army. I end up doing 3,500 steps. 

 

 

 

 

Friday 1-2-26 Projects, Jigsaw Puzzle & More

 

It's Friday let's celebrate with a dance

 

It was another beautiful day. We had plenty of sunshine and blue skies. This morning the temperature was 54 degrees and the high was 87 degrees. 

Larry found a pinball game to install on the mini cabinet. He has been looking for a few days, today was his lucky day, he found No Good Gophers. It was taken from the movie Caddy Shack starring Bill Murray, Chevy Chase and Rodney Dangerfield. After he found the game he downloaded and installed it in 2D to set it up and debug it. Then he played the game and it worked great. He was happy with it so he installed the VR version. He played it in VR and had a great time.

Second he worked on getting Google to work with voice for Home Assistant. He had a great time playing with it.

I played the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event was Event: Klondike Adventure of 20 games. It took me 1 hour, 8 minutes and 36 seconds, which put me in 17th place in my group. I played Angry Birds Friends and Angry Birds 2.

I worked out with Synth Riders for 35 minutes to three songs. The songs were Calling Out, Revenger and Showdown. I earned one outstanding score in Calling Out. I had fun.

Before going to bed I did my Jazz routine for 15 minutes. 

 

Calling Out

 

Revenger

 

Showdown

I played one game of Monster Manor on Bounce Arcade. During the game I earned a silver trophy. I awoken the manor two times and stunned the manor once. The hit all the webs twice but wasn't successful in getting the spider multiball because I didn't hit the spider. I did the banister buster twice and earned the skeleton key. I had the best game of monster manor in a long time.

 

Monster Manor

I spent of the day finishing assembling the Christmas Barn Snowman jigsaw puzzle.

 

Christmas Barn Snowman

 

We're planning to go on a week long camping trip Sunday so I spent a half hour putting food and clothes in the Minnie.

I played six games of pinball. I played three on the mini cabinet, which were Batman Forever, Jaws and No Good Goffers. I played Jaws twice and came in high score #4 and high score #2. I played No Good Goffers twice and came in high score # 1 and high score #2. No Good Goffers is a new game and has a great VR room and is a lot of fun. I played three on the big cabinet, which were Dracula, Fun House and Tron. I didn't get on the board but had fun. Tron is my weekly challenge. We have had this game for the last two weeks because of the holidays. I'm in 41st place out of 116 participants. I got my high score within the first two days of the challenge. 

 

Mini Cabinet  

 

Batman Forever

 

Jaws

 

No Good Goffers!

 

Big Cabinet

 

Dracula

 

Fun House

 

Tron

In the evening we watched Learning to Drive on Kanopy. It's 2014 movie about a Manhattan writer, who learns how to drive after her marriage dissolved and teacher was a Sikh man, who has marriage problems of his own. It was a very good movie starring Ben Kingsley as Darwin the instructor and Patricia Clarkson as Wendy the student. After Larry went to bed I watched Hellboy from our movies collection. I ended up doing 5,000 steps.

 
  

 

  

 

Thursday 1-1-26 Happy New Year & Having Fun

 

Happy New Year!

 

We had a great New Years. We didn't do much but had fun.

The weather was beautiful. The morning temperature was 37 degrees and the high was 75 degrees. We didn't leave the house. We just relaxed.

It is the beginning of a new month so Larry did his monthly stuff. He put bleach in the septic tanks yesterday. Today he backed up the computers. He continued playing with computer stuff. 

I vacuumed the house with my new vacuum cleaner. It worked great. I think the new vacuum cleaner works a lot better than the old one because it has more power. I did the whole house before I had to empty the canister. I also did laundry.

 

Doing laundry

 

Larry read a book.

 

Reading is fun

 

I played the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event was Event: Easy Street Mini of 15 games. It took me 28 minutes and 18 seconds, which put me in 12th place. I played Angry Birds Friends and Angry Birds 2.

In the afternoon I worked on our monthly expenses. I started a new jigsaw puzzle I got for Christmas from Louise (Larry's sister). It a small puzzle of 500 pieces and called Christmas Barn Snowman by Larry Jones. 

 

Christmas Barn Snowman

In the evening we watched Tom of Finland on Kanopy. It was about Touko Valio Laaksonen, who was an artist from Finland. It was known for his stylist erotic art featuring hypermasculinity. It was mainly in Finland-Swedish but had subtitles in English. It was a good movie. Afterwards I watched the last Episode VI of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. I ended up doing 2,000 steps.  

   

Wednesday 12-31-25 New Years Eve, Dancing, Projects & More

 

Happy New Year

 

It's New Year Eve do you have any plans? We don't go out on New Years Eve, we stay at home. Today's weather was beautiful with sunshine and blue skies. The morning temperature was 33 degrees and the high was 70 degrees. 

 

Beautiful Day

We kept busy doing this and that around the house.

Larry kept busy playing with Thread/Matter on the Echo Hub. He worked on to seeing how far the matter plug can be from the hub to continue working. He put the plug in different rooms and the garage to experiment with it. The hub is on the dining room table and he found out, that when the plug is in the garage it doesn't work. It's too far away, however if he uses a second Thread/Matter plug about halfway in between then that plug will talk to the one further away and it now works. This is the theory behind Thread/Matter, you can use one hub placed where you want it and the individual devices talk to each other thereby building a large mesh network. He is having a great time working with the Thread/Matter plugs getting them to work with the Echo Hub.

Next project was filling propane cylinders for the grill in the Minnie. For quite a few years Larry has been refilling the disposable propane cylinders but he decided to purchase some cylinders designed to be refilled. They arrived yesterday but when he went to fill them the valve on his refill adapter was leaking. He ordered a new one with a different design and it arrived today, after lunch he filled three of the four cylinders. I helped him by holding the big propane tank while he filled the small cylinders. The new cylinders were much easier to fill.

 

Refilling Adapter

 

Larry filling propane cylinders for camping

 

Larry wants to add a new pinball game onto the mini cabinet. He spent a good part of the afternoon trying to decide on one. He downloaded three and didn't like them so he deleted them.

 

Mini cabinet

While Larry worked on his projects I played games. I played the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event was Event: Klondike Mini of 10 games. It took me 25 minutes and 28 seconds, which put me in 13th place in my group. I played Angry Birds Friends and Angry Birds 2.

I worked out with three songs on Synth Riders for 30 minutes. The songs were Carry On, I'll Fight Back and Voidwalkers. I didn't get any outstanding scores or new high scores but I had fun.

 

Carry On

 

I'll Fight Back

 

Voidwalkers

 

I played one game of Gunpowder Gulch on Bounce Arcade for 20 minutes. While playing I earned a silver trophy and an extra ball. I played four different multiballs five different times, which were Saloon, Safe Crack, Wooden Sign Rally and Jailbreak twice. I played the events five times and was successful two times. The events were Quick Drawl two times, Barrel Barrage once, Gunfight once and Cracked Safe once. I was successful in Gunfight and Cracked Safe. I had a great game.

 

Gunpowder Gulch

I played four pinball games, which were Big Bang Bar, Jaws, The Addams Family and Tron. I didn't get on the board because I didn't play well. It was still fun.

 

Big Bang Bar

 

Jaws

 

The Addams Family

 

Tron

Before going to bed I finished the Dog In Hammock diamond painting. It is really cute. I had a terrific time doing it. It only took me about a week. 

 

Dog In Hammock

 

I cleaned the inside of the Minnie and made the bed. We plan to go on a camping trip Sunday for a week or so here in Texas. We couldn't get in this week because the kids were out of school for the holidays and the parks were full. 

 

The Minnie

 

In the evening I attended Dave Eno's Weekly C1/A2 dance at 6:00 pm. He was the only one having a dance today. Karin Rabe and Greg Moore helped Dave call the dance. The format was three tips of C1 to 7 participants, three tips of A2 to 9 participants and two trivia questions in between the A2 tips. This was the last dance of the year (2025) for most of us and the first dance of the year (2026) for Ross. Ross is from Australia and it was already 1/1/26. I had a super time dancing to Karin, Greg and Dave and with friends from Canada, Mexico, United States and Australia. 

 

Participants in the A2 session

 

Participants in C1 session

After the dance we watched The Dressmaker on Prime video. We have watched it before but I didn't remember it, Larry remembered some of the scenes. It about Myrtle (Tilly) Dunnage, who returns to a small Australian town after being gone for 25 years to take care of mother. It starred Kate Winslet as Tilly, Liam Hemsworth as Teddy (Tilly's boyfriend) and Judy Davis as Molly Winslet (Tilly's mother). It was a good movie. Then I watched the fifth Star Wars movie, which was The Empire Strike Back. It actually was the second movie made. I ended up doing 4,000 steps.