Sunday 8-25 Long Day of Driving

Long day of driving

We left Tool at 7:45 in the morning and didn't call it a day until 4:30. We stopped a couple of times to fill up the Minnie and another time to have lunch. We drove interstates, highways and a toll road in Oklahoma. The roads were mainly smooth but a few times they were real rough. I slept part of the way. We started in Tool, Texas and ended up in Quapaw, Oklahoma. We drove about 440 miles. 

Larry knows that I like to gamble so he found a nice casino called Downstream Casino Resort in Quapaw, Oklahoma. It's barely in Oklahoma, a mile down the road is Missouri. It has two areas to park an RV, one is walking distance to the casino and the other one is on about a 3/4 of a mile away. The one further away is hugh. The sites are all pull through with power and water. If you sign up for the casino club the site is free otherwise it cost $23 dollars. I signed up for the club. When I signed up the casino gave me $7 dollars to play with and if I earned 10 points I got a $10 dollars food voucher to use at their food outlets. I spent four hours gambling with their $7 and ended up with $20 in my pocket at the end and I earned the $10 food voucher, we might use it tomorrow morning for breakfast. I had a great evening of gambling.

While I gambled Larry stayed in the Minnie reading and deciding where we're going to stay tomorrow. I hate making decisions so I let Larry plan where we go. He always asks for my input but I'm happy to let him decide. 

     

Saturday 8-24 Day of Dancing

Let's dance

We had a full day of dancing. We started out with an A2 workshop from 9:30 to 11:00. We had seven squares plus a couple of couples sitting out. The last half hour was C1 Star Tips. We had three squares. I felt my dancing for C1 went a lot better than last night but I still need more floor time. We had a two hour break for lunch. We went back to the Minnie and had a salad. Afterwards we napped for a little bit. The afternoon session also had seven squares, Ed continued reviewing what we did in the morning. The afternoon session was a bit rough, lots of squares were broken down. We decided to sit out the last tip and we were not planning on dancing the C1 Star Tips but Matthew needed someone to dancing with so I danced with him. We had exactly three squares. After the C1 tips Ed did a C2 tip, it had one square. Overall we had a good day of dancing.

In the evening we danced another two and a half hours. The A2 dance was two hours with seven squares and three extra couples. The C1 Star Tips had three squares. After the C1 Star Tips Ed called a C2 Tip. The C2 tip had exactly one square. The dancing in the evening was a lot more fun, more dancing and much fewer breakdowns. While the weekend of dancing was okay I am not sure we would travel to dance to ED again. We really enjoyed being back in Tool and seeing all our friends. LIFE IS GOOD!!!!!

Having fun with friends

  

Friday 8-23 Our Adventure Begins

Our Fall Trip began this morning. Our first stop was 130 miles away in Tool, Texas. The way we drive it took us about three hours. We drove mainly on four lanes highways and interstates. We have been to Tool many times. We usually stop in Corsicana for lunch but today we didn't. We arrived about noon.

Our Fall Trip begins

Deane and Glenda Peters invited Ed Foote, who is from Pittsburgh, Pa to call a two day event at Promenade Hall in Tool. The dancing is A2 and C1 Star Tips. Tonight's schedule was 7:30 to 9:30 A2 dancing, 9:30 to 10:00 C1 dancing. We were one person shy of having eight squares for the A2 dance. We had thirteen couples for C1 Star Tips. This was the first time we ever danced to Ed and he was great. He joked around all night. Some of the jokes were corny but he had everyone laughing and smiling. We had a very nice time dancing with friends from Dallas/Fort Worth, Austin, Tool and many other places. This was the first time that Deane and Glenda ever had a dance and they did a super job. After two and a half hours of dancing I'm tired. It's time for me to go to bed because we start at 9:30 in the morning.

Ed Foote calling the dance

   

Char and Glenn having a great time dancing with friends

Susan and Kenneth having fun dancing to Ed

Belinda and Kathy

Lloyd,  Glenn, Marta and Joe

Trica and Dennis

John, Lois, Char and Glenn

Larry hanging out with friends

Thursday 8-22 Ready to go

Day of sunshine

We started the day out by taking the truck to town to give it a bath. For years we took our cars to The Barn car wash in Temple, they sold out to Mister Car Wash who immediately  did away with the early morning discount and has now raised the price of their least expensive wash to $7.00, so, it used to cost us $3 and now it is $7. Recently Today's Car Wash opened in Belton, they only charge $5 for a basic wash and they even provide towels to dry off your car. The truck doesn't get driven much, we use it mainly to launch the boat but by having it in the garage it gets pretty dusty and it needed to be vacuumed out. Then we swung by Walmart to pick up a few last minute things.

When we got home We loaded the motorcycle on the back of the Minnie.

Taking the truck to a car wash

In the afternoon I finished up the laundry and finished loading the Minnie. Now it's ready to go, in the morning we just have to put a few things in it. Afterwards I did my weekly housework. I did a little more than usual because we're going to be gone for a couple of months. We like to come home to a clean house. I also cooked up some bacon and fixed a black bean bake to take with us. It took me all afternoon to do my chores. I was tired.

Doing chores

Late in the afternoon we went to Sun City to dance with the Sundancers A2 tape group. We met up with the group an hour early to dance C1. We had four couples and an extra person. We had a great session. For the A2 dancing we had two squares plus three extra people. We had a great evening of dancing with friends.

Square dancing with friends

When we got home we watched an episode of Boston Legal. I watched a couple episodes of Frankie Drake Mysteries. I finished up the second season, now I have to wait another year to watch the third season if they have one.      

Wednesday 8-21 Birthday Gift

Awesome Day

For quite some time Larry has been thinking about getting an action camera. Many of the YouTube folks use GoPro action cameras for parts of their videos. Larry figures he won't use one very much and has not wanted to spend the money on one. Well Louise bought him one for his birthday. Actually she gave him some gift cards for Amazon and he used those to purchase a 4K Action Camera by DB Power. It arrived yesterday. Last night Larry set it up and figured out how to use it. Today we used the camera to record video as we drove around town. It worked well. It has a lot of wonderful features such as WiFi, 170 degree wide angle lens, 2 inch screen, rechargeable battery and is waterproof down to 100 ft. There are a few features that would be nice, someway to charge the battery outside of the camera, a zoom lens and a way to use an external microphone. The camera came with a stand and a bunch of attachments that allow you to mount it on many different things such as the dash of your car. We put it on the dash as we drove around town.

 

4K Action Camera by DB Power

The camera on it's stand

We spent the morning doing this and that. The first stop was the Belton Post Office to stop the mail. The second stop was Great Cuts so Larry could get a hair cut. While he was doing this I walked over to Walmart to pick up a few things. When Larry was finished we went next door and picked up our mail at the UPS Store. Then we went across the street to HEB and did our grocery shopping for our trip.

Grocery Shopping

After lunch we went to Temple and stopped at Aldi for a couple of things. Then we took the car to Mister Car Wash to give it a bath.

When we got home I finished loading the Minnie with the food. Afterwards I did laundry.  Tomorrow I'll load up our clothes.

Doing laundry

In the evening we watched a few episodes of Boston Legal. Then I watched a few episodes of Frankie Drake Mysteries. We had a relaxing evening.  

   

Tuesday 8-20 More Trip Preperation

Getting the motorcycle ready

We are so glad we don't have a homeowner association. A lot of communities only allow you to have an RV in your driveway for a few hours or not at all. About a week before we leave on a trip we get the Minnie out of storage. Sometimes we park it beside the house and other times in the driveway. We do a bit of maintenance on it and load it up with items we need for the trip. When we built the house we installed power, water and a sewer connection for an RV on the side of the house.

Today we went back to the storage center to get the motorcycle carriage. Larry wanted to clean it up and replace some of the grip tape on it. After getting it ready and checking the lights we put it on the Minnie. He also took the motorcycle for a short ride. We will load it up on the carrier on Thursday.

While Larry was working on this I did a special World Tour Mini Solitaire Challenge. Then I started reading The Shepherd of the Hills, so far it's good.

In the evening we watched Stuart Little, which was a 1999 movie. It had been a long time since we had watched it. It was another cute movie starring Hugh Laurie and Geena Davis. Then we watched an episode of Miss Marple. I watched a few episodes of Frankie Drake Mysteries.    

Monday 8-19 A Beautiful Day

Another beautiful day

We started the day out by taking the Minnie for a ride. Last year Larry installed a tire pressure monitor system on the Minnie. Each of the rear tires has a small transmitter screwed onto the valve stem of the tire and there is a digital display that sits on the dash and shows the tire pressure on each tire. To preserve the batteries in the transmitters they turn off when the vehicle has not been moving and start backup again when you are driving. As we were driving the monitor registered on three of the four tires. When we got home Larry checked the battery voltage on the transmitters and found they were low on three tires and the fourth one was dead. He had extra batteries so he replaced them.

He also removed the second battery from the Minnie, checked the fluid level and cleaned the posts. Then he washed the cab down because it was dirty from being in storage for five months. 

While Larry was doing maintenance on the Minnie I started loading food in the Minnie.

In the afternoon we read. I finished up reading Helena Investigates, it was a very good book. 

In the evening we went to Sun City to attend the Sundancers weekly Monday dance. During the first hour Brad Caldwell reviewed plus moves for the new dancers. We had three squares. For the actual dance we started out with four squares. We had a whole night of plus dancing because all the dancers there were plus dancers. We had four couples for an A tip. We had a super night of dancing with friends and to Brad.

When we got home I finished watching the first season of Frankie Drake Mysteries and started watching the second season. We had a great day.