Time to review the past 6 years

I have reservations for December in various parks in central Texas.  I'll be spending some of that time at doctor appointments, some of it with family, and most of it rereading my posts that began in mid-February 2018, almost 6 years ago.  I'm looking forward to remembering the incredible places I've been, interesting things I've seen, and amazing people I've met.  And I'm hoping it will give me a clearer idea of where I want to go next.  

In the meantime, I wish everyone a great holiday season and look forward to a fascinating 2024 (a presidential election year).

Phase 4 of the post 48 states

Travel to:

Little Rock North KOA, North Little Rock, AR

Friday, 20 October 2023

Buffalo KOA, Hurricane Mills, TN

Saturday, 21 October 2023

There:

Murphy KOA, Murphy, NC

Sunday, 22 October through Sunday, 12 November 2023

Travel from:

Newberry KOA, Kinards, SC

Monday, 13 November 2023

Montgomery KOA, Montgomery, AL

Tuesday, 14 November 2023

Meridian KOA, Toomsuba, MS

Wednesday, 15 November 2023

Shreveport KOA, Shreveport, LA

Thursday, 16 November 2023

Travel to:

Friday, October 20th

After leaving Mt. Pleasant at 7:15 (I figured it'd be a long day), I drove through some very flat land, crossed the border into Arkansas, then crossed the Red River.  Signs told me I was passing the turns for several places I'd been during my month here, such as Bill Clinton's Birthplace, Crater of Diamonds State Park.

I'd planned to take a break at a rest area so Dext wouldn't be uncomfortable if I ran errands in Little Rock before taking him out.  The rest area came where I thought it would, and we all stretched our legs.

Back on the road, we passed Arkadelphia, "A Great Place to Call Home," and the turn for Hot Springs National Park.  A highway sign warned us to "Stop Speeding Before It Stops You."

In Little Rock, my first stop was their recycling drop-off center, where I got rid of a lot of my collection, but I never could find the bin for glass recycling, though online they'd said they take it at that location.  Still, it was nice to get rid of what I could. 

Then I somehow took a wrong turn, though I never did figure out what I'd done wrong.  Anyway, I was definitely not where Google had said I'd be, and I finally had to stop and look it up on the computer to get myself back on the right road.  Which led us to a really nice dog park.  Very large, and we were alone for quite a while, though finally another dog came in - and didn't want to meet Dexter.  Too bad.  This park was unusual in not having any regular seats for people, instead providing quite a few rocks of varying heights.  That made the park look attractive, but since I found only 1 rock that was regular seating height, I didn't think much of its convenience.  The park also had a couple of places for dogs to get wet, though it wasn't warm enough while we were there - not that Dext likes getting wet.  While we were parked there, we went ahead and had some lunch - Lily complains if I'm late with the food.

From there I did quite a bit of driving around town to go to a CVS, a Kroger and a PetsMart.  At the CVS I was hoping to get my vaccinations, but they said they had a personnel shortage due to a pregnancy.  I wanted to stock up at these stores because we had two more days of long drives ahead (no time to stop for errands) and I knew Murphy doesn't have much selection

We crossed the Arkansas River and came to the Little Rock KOA.  By the time I'd dumped the waste tanks and taken Dext to the dog park, it was 3:45 and I was pooped.  But I couldn't stop there because I needed to store all the supplies I'd just bought and get us ready to hit the road in the morning.

Saturday, October 21st

As we were leaving the Little Rock area about 8:00, we passed several car dealerships with enormous US flags.  That day they were at half-staff, and the flags were almost touching the ground.

Most of the traffic for much of the day was semis, and one that wasn't towing a trailer apparently got carried away with his freedom and cut across me so closely he almost hit me.  It was scary.

I had again planned a stop half-way along the drive at a rest area, and this time I had to cross the road and circle back to get to the West Memphis Welcome Area, still in Arkansas.  We ate lunch there and stretched our legs and got back on the road to cross the Mississippi River and enter Tennessee.

The Tennessee Highway Department needs to work on their directional signs.  I went past multiple signs that said "3 right lanes closed," except there were only 3 lanes in the road.  After several miles of these weird warning signs, my 3-lane road suddenly got compressed into 1 lane and, at the same time, we got 1 lane of feed from the left and 2 lanes of feed from the right.  Then the far left lane ended and then the 3 right lanes closed.  It was all probably fine if you lived in Memphis and were used to the traffic pattern, but for those of us passing through it was hard to navigate.

Farther along the road I came to numerous signs warning of road work that turned out to be nonexistent - not even just paused for the weekend - just nonexistent.  But there were way too few signs warning of steep downhill slopes and sharp curves.  TN drivers really should talk to their highway folks.

I passed huge fields that were covered in white, as if cotton were still growing.  And maybe it was, though I'd have thought the season was over.

The highway along here was designated Tennessee Music Highway and runs between Memphis and Nashville.

I passed the turn for the Casey Jones Home and Railroad Museum, and I remember this place from my month in Tennessee.  And I crossed the Tennessee River/Kentucky Lake (per the sign).  Something else I remember from my time in this area was the Land Between the Lakes National Recreational Area, which straddles Tennessee and Kentucky and includes land between Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley.  It's a beautiful area but I didn't have time to stop this trip.

The Buffalo KOA is a fairly small campground built into the side of a fairly steep hill.  It was only 2:30 after we'd gotten in and I'd taken Dext to the dog park, so we had time to squeeze in an extra walk later on before supper.  After flat east Texas, we weren't used to walking on those steep hills, but the exercise was good for us.

Sunday, October 22nd

Even Google said today's drive would take 5½ hours, which I figured meant it would take me 8 or 9 hours.  Plus I'd be losing an hour by crossing into the Eastern Time zone.  With all that, we left the campground before 7:15.

Tennessee has a town called Bucksnort (that's Bucky's real name).

Because today's Sunday, there was very little traffic until we got part way around Nashville, which made for a pleasant drive.  We stopped at a highway rest area for a break and for lunch, and then took off again, finding a stretch of 4 miles with a 6% grade.  My ears popped twice on the way down.

Near Pittsburgh (TN) we passed the Lodge Museum of Cast Iron.  Sounds interesting for some trip when I have more time.

Near Chattanooga, the highway dips down into Georgia for a short distance and then pops back up into Tennessee.  And a little ways farther along the road we came to Cleveland (TN) and stopped at a dog park I'd found online.  It turned out to be very nice and we stayed for a half hour.

On the way out of town I stopped for gas, paying $2.79/gallon, which is the cheapest I've found in a long time.  Then I came to a bridge with a clearance of 10' 10", which I was pretty sure I couldn't do.  Fortunately, the city was prepared for trucks that couldn't go under the bridge and had clearly marked a truck route.  Actually, they marked it for several turns and then abandoned us to our own devices, but I got it figured out.  If Google has a setting that lets me request bridge clearance information, I haven't found it yet.

From this area, the highway became very scenic and, in fact, part of it's designated the Ocoee River Scenic Byway.  The road follows the Ocoee River and is a heavily treed area, with many of them showing some fall colors - about the first I've seen.  This was a sunny Sunday afternoon and folks were out in full force.  This is clearly a very popular recreational area, and I saw lots of people with kayaks and other recreational gear.  A series of TVA dams that I passed creates some of this recreational opportunity, and I saw a long section of whitewater.  The leaves were falling and swirling across the road in the wind, and it was all very picturesque.  We were passing through the Cherokee National Forest.

At the North Carolina state line I saw a sign that said, "Manteo 563 miles."

And we got into the familiar Murphy KOA campground at 3:40, with the staff giving us a warm welcome back, which was nice.

There

Again I spent my first week here being sick - not being able to keep food down, so low on energy I could barely make the distance for Dext's walks, resting between any tasks I did before doing another one.  Very strange.  I felt great once it had finally passed, though.

I had to leave the campground several times during our stay, because of wanting to churn the contents of the waste tanks before I emptied them.  I really believe that practice has kept me from having the problems I hear other people have with their systems.  So one day I drove into Andrews, the first town on the way to Asheville.  I saw one cornfield all cut down while others still had corn standing.  Andrews has a nice rest area on the highway that Dext and I both enjoy, so we stopped there, and I stopped at the grocery store for milk.  Back in the campground I dumped the waste tanks, filled the water tank, and filled my propane tank.  That pretty well took care of my energy for the day, but it was very pleasant.

On another day we stopped at the recycle center, where they take everything but mixed paper (oddly) and then went into Murphy.  Dext and I walked a short distance along the town's Riverwalk, and we stopped again at a grocery.  The low temps forecast for the week were in the 20s, so I fixed a pot of Brunswick Stew and made a batch of cornbread in the microwave.  It was enough food to last me for at least a week.

There were 2 pots of begonias that (I think) my next door neighbors set outside by the playground to get sunshine.  Whoever put them out, they forgot about them, and the first night of below freezing weather did them in.  The neighbors had already left the campground, so I looked to see if they could be salvaged.  I had to go into town to the Tractor Supply, which advertised gardening supplies, except they didn't have much to choose from and I practically had to shanghai one of the staff members to get any help at all.  But I ended up with the smallest pot they had, a saucer, and some potting soil that said it was good for cuttings.  Back at the campground, I found that there was almost no hint of life in most of the contents of those 2 pots, but I did find a few possibles and stuck them into some potting soil.  It's been so long since I last did that I could barely remember what to do, so I'll just hope for the best.  Here's what I ended up with.

We'll see how it turns out.

Somewhere I heard about a book called Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers Who Helped Win WWII.  It sounds really interesting and will go on my reading list when I finally get a home.

On another trip to Murphy, I stopped at the post office to pick up David's latest batch of mail.  And after waiting an hour (they were really understaffed, it was lunch hour, and half the town showed up) I learned there was a glitch built into the General Delivery system: if I need David to get a tracking number (the only time we didn't have one was when my mail got completely lost in North Dakota), then the post office takes my General Delivery envelope out of the General Delivery area and instead puts it with the packages set aside for the PO boxes.  I have no idea why, and all they could tell me was "this is the system."  So instead of being in a small batch of mail (General Delivery) it gets stuck into a very large batch of mail (all the packages for all the PO boxes at the post office).  I don't know why this made sense to someone.

And on one trip we covered all the bases: went to Andrews to get the kitties' claws clipped ($15/cat), went to the Andrews rest area, and went into Murphy for gasoline ($2.99/gallon) and groceries and the Riverwalk.  The vet, by the way, told me Jimmy weighed 9.0 pounds and Bucky weighed 9.3 pounds.  Jimmy eats a lot more than Bucky and was actually bigger than Bucky a little while back, but I guess nature's taking its course.

The western North Carolina NPR station is Blue Ridge Public Radio; the daytime host (a woman) apparently thinks all their listeners have an IQ of about 35 - she manages to squeeze out a syllable every 5 seconds or so.  (You try looking at your second hand and talk like that and you'll see.)  It drives me so crazy I'd change the station if there were another NPR station available.

One day we were having some desultory rain, and when I opened the door to check the weather before walking Dext, Bucky got out - and went straight under the RV because of the rain.  I left the outer door open so we could see him - and then Jimmy found the handle to open the screen door, which meant I had to do some extra supervising to be sure he stayed inside.  All this was before I'd even made my coffee, which I proceeded to do, figuring I'd start the daily routine which Bucky would know meant breakfast soon.  I saw him looking in the screen door but ran when I went to open it for him.  So I left the screen door all the way open and carried Jimmy around while I finished making my coffee and sure enough, in he came.  Of course there wasn't the usual rejoicing when the Prodigal Son returned because he immediately picked a fight with Jimmy, and then with Lily - and all this was before 4:30 AM.

And then because of the rain, Dexter refused to go out until I finally insisted at 8:30, and even then he made it clear he didn't want to do this.  Poor little guy was sick for days, aside from the weather.  He apparently ate something way wrong because he completely emptied his system out of both ends and then didn't have a bowel movement for 3 whole days.  I fed him chicken and rice for several days and he finally got back to normal.

It took absolutely forever but I finally found the old photo editing program - it was labeled "Legacy" - which I needed because I couldn't use the stupid "updated" version of photo editing.  I spent ages searching for an alternative online and found several online downloads, all allegedly free, but they all required sign-ins and personal info, none of which I wanted to provide.  I'd been trying to edit that video I took of the kitties playing with that new toy because my original video was supposedly too long to upload to the blog.  The "updated" editing program wouldn't let me do it, but eventually I found the old version and got the video edited, thank goodness.  I'd've hated for you to miss that.

I also finished several blog posts, and I worked out the routes I'd take back to Texas.

And while we were here, Daylight Savings Time ended, which meant we gained back the hour we'd lost when we changed to Eastern Time.  None of the critters had ever adjusted to Eastern Time, so that worked out fine because now we were back where we would have been.

I really like it here.  This campground is very comfortable, there's lots of pleasant places for Dext and me to walk, and there are basic services in the towns.  Sadly, though, I really can't consider settling here permanently because I need a town larger than 5,000.  And the nearest CVS and PetsMart and well-stocked grocery stores are in Asheville, which even Google says is 2 hours away.  But I love staying here, was almost on the verge of tears when we had to leave, and look forward to figuring out when I can come back again.

Travel from:

Monday, November 13th

We left Murphy campground just before 8:00 because I wanted to stop at a tire shop before leaving town.  The tires felt wrong and didn't sound right when I took it into town the other day, so I figured I should at least ask somebody to check the air before I got on the road.

And sure enough, all 6 tires needed air - not a lot of it, but they still function better when they're properly inflated, so I was glad we'd stopped.

Much of the first part of today's drive was through sparsely inhabited country, and I saw several deer alongside the road here and there.

I stopped at a gas station on the Georgia state line and paid $2.85/gallon, which was cheaper than in Murphy.

Google had a little practical joke in store for me: it told me a T intersection was coming where it didn't, and didn't tell me a T intersection was coming where it did.  That latter sent me on a 3.6-mile round trip wrong turn, and it would have been more but I just had a feeling I wasn't going in the right direction.  Google had also failed to mention the road signs I'd see and specifically not only failed to mention that the road I most needed was US-76 but instead telling me lots of other highway names that there weren't signs for.  I don't know how they come up with their directions, but I do wish one of those programmers would come out and road-test them occasionally.

For much of the day the road was a narrow 2 lanes with no shoulder, and at one point I was going uphill when suddenly 2 cop cars were behind me with major lights-and-sirens going, and I had absolutely nowhere to pull off.  Finally near the top of the hill I found a side turning, pulled over to let them pass me, and very quickly after that they both turned into a driveway.  I saw them continue up this winding wooded driveway with their lights still going and wondered what could be happening at someone's house.  A crime?  A medical emergency?  It was bad, whatever it was, and I felt sorry for the folks there.

We weren't in Georgia long, driving through the Chattahoochee National Forest, and then were in South Carolina and passing through the Sumter National Forest.

After driving 2 hours, we all wanted a break and I hadn't seen anywhere to stop but finally pulled into the almost empty parking lot of the Holly Springs Baptist Church, established 1828 (which was actually quite a while ago).  Several signs there said they were a collection point for Samaritan's Purse Operation Christmas Child.  I looked this up and learned they collect shoeboxes people have filled with small gifts to send to children around the world.  These are dropped off with a $10 required "donation" (do people really not understand the meaning of that word?), and donors are encouraged to "'pray without ceasing' (1 Thess. 5:17) for the child who will receive your box."

As we drove today, I noted a lot of churches - most of them Baptist until we got farther into SC.  We passed through Townville, and I concluded the people who named that place had a meager imagination.

I'm sorry to say I saw a dead fox by the road.  But there were lots of pines at the rest area we finally came to, and the air smelled really good.

SC has a town named Hickory Tavern.  In Laurens, I saw several houses and other buildings in what I guess is Victorian, or maybe Gothic Revival, style - you know, with the towers and turrets and gingerbread.

When we got to the Newberry KOA I found they'd given me a completely different site than the one they promised on the phone.  They told me someone else had reserved it, but I whined a bit, and they checked their records and discovered that I had, in fact, made my reservation before the other people, so they gave the site to me.  Less than half an hour after I'd gotten in, the other people showed up, which meant I'd gotten the site I wanted by 2 strokes of luck - first in being the first to call, and second in arriving earlier than the other folks.  If I'd come in later, it wouldn't have mattered that I'd made the reservation first because they'd have already been in it.

I came here for 2 reasons - one was we'd spent several very pleasant days here during our month in South Carolina and I wanted to come again (it was pleasant again, though wintery this time), and secondly because when I was here before I'd taken one of their DVDs.  The owner had told me last summer I could take what I wanted (they have a huge selection) for free, and I took Remember the Titans.  But I only wanted to watch it a few times, not keep it permanently, and I didn't want to spend the postage mailing it back, so we came instead and I dropped it back off.

Tuesday, November 14th

Knowing today would be a long drive, I decided to leave last night's campground just after 7:00 (sunrise at 6:59).  Since deer are often out early in the morning, we saw several - including one that had just been born this year, grazing right by the road on a blind curve - I barely avoided him/her.

After stopping for gas ($2.99/gallon) we spent most of the morning on more narrow 2-lane roads with no shoulders.  This lack of room was a problem when an oncoming driver, probably on his phone, started heading directly for me and swerved back into his lane just in the nick of time - and I had nowhere to hide.

A Great Blue Heron rose up and flew across the road pretty close to us.  Didn't I hear somewhere that that's good luck?

The radio told me that today in 1960, 4 federal marshals escorted 6-year-old Ruby Bridges as she integrated a school in New Orleans.  This is one of my favorite Norman Rockwell paintings:

"The Problem We All Live With"

And another sad event: I ran over a squirrel, and though it wasn't my fault, I felt terrible.  Another squirrel had run across the road and I managed to avoid it, but then this 2nd one ran out, and then hesitated right in front of me, and it was so close to me that there wasn't enough time left for me to swerve.  I just felt awful.

We crossed the border into Georgia again.

I'd planned to drive as far as a dog park in Madison, GA, before stopping, but after 2½ hours on the road, we were all more than ready for a break.  In the town of Washington, I pulled into the empty parking lot of the First Methodist Church, and Dext and I walked around the block.  That turned out to be lucky, because a house we passed had a sign saying it was the Liberty Inn, built in 1793, and Washington's oldest original building.

Liberty Inn

Based on what I could see in the front yard, a family with young children lives here, and I imagine the house is glad to have new life in it.  For being 230 years old, it looked in pretty good shape, though I'd guess upkeep would be an ongoing problem.

The streets in Washington were very narrow (reminded me of Philadelphia), and I thought this must be a very old town - which I've learned that it is: founded in 1774.  I passed the Wilkes County Courthouse and a historical marker titled "Jefferson Davis."  I was curious enough to look it up and learned that, per the marker, he'd "hoped to negotiate a just peace" and passed through this town just a few days before his capture by Union soldiers.  His capture before opening negotiations "ended his hopes for a new nation, in which each state would exercise without interference its cherished 'Constitutional rights,' forever dead."  The quotes are from the marker, which was erected in 1957 - a period when Southern history was being frantically rewritten to justify the treason of insurrection.  Davis's treasured Confederacy failed in the war at least partly because those states did exactly what he claimed to want: exercised their right to refuse to support the Confederate government.

I found the dog park in Madison without much trouble and concluded it was an afterthought.  It was located in a corner of a city park with very nice baseball diamonds and other play equipment, but the dog park was fenced off with chicken wire and had gates that were your basic metal farm gates.  But it was a big area with lots of trees, and Dext and I had a nice walk around it (I had to follow him in case he made a deposit, which he did).  

We had lunch there and connected with interstates - I-20 & I-85 - for the rest of today's drive.  It was along this area that we crossed back into Central Time, gaining back the hour we'd lost with Daylight Savings Time.

Georgia has a town named Social Circle.  And one named La Grange.

Twice on the highway we ran into traffic slowdowns, both times resulting in it taking 5 minutes for me to drive a mile.  I could walk that fast.  Once it was for a police car stopped with a pickup and trailer; the other was for a car parked on the shoulder with people moving around it.  I have no idea why those things would cause these slowdowns.  But I was lucky - we passed several much longer backups heading the opposite direction.

I saw a Georgia license plate that said "BLESS U."  And I'd say we all needed that because GA drivers seem to be as bad - or worse - than TX drivers, such as making lane changes at high speeds.

We crossed the Chattahoochee River and were in Alabama.  After driving all day, those last 20 miles once we crossed the river seemed to go on forever.  And though we got to the campground at a reasonable hour (2:30 on Central Time), it somehow didn't feel very relaxing.  It was drizzling, so Dext and I didn't stay long at the dog park.  He wanted to meet the 2 big dogs at a nearby campsite, but the owner said it wasn't a good idea so he had to be disappointed.  The campsites and all the roads were made of large-sized gravel, which Dext finds hard to walk on, so we weren't tempted to brave the drizzle for that.

Wednesday, November 15th

Today we were only crossing less than the full width of Alabama, so I didn't bother leaving last night's campground until 8:00 and planned a little sightseeing.  Unfortunately, the weather wasn't so great, but it cleared up pretty well as the day went on.

But we started with a road not actually existing that Google promised existed.  Later I looked the directions up again and realized Google hadn't bothered to mention I'd have to make an extra turn, so I ended up heading along a road I knew nothing about, wondering where the right road was.  But I knew I-85 was just over there, and kept going until I hit an obviously main street that I thought would access the highway, and sure enough it did.

I've been seeing signs and bumper stickers again, like I saw for the 2020 election, that say things like "Jesus 2024 - Our Only Hope."  And all over again I think it extremely unlikely Jesus would get much support if he actually did show up and started campaigning with his message from the Sermon on the Mount.  I've been hearing stories recently from distressed evangelical preachers whose congregations have been yelling at them for preaching "woke" themes, when all they were doing was preaching what Jesus said.  Very disheartening for many of us.

Even though we'd been driving for less than a half hour, I stopped at a dog park in Montgomery - very nice, very large park.  I spoke for a bit with a young woman from France who came with some kind of pointer (she told me but I forgot) that had very long rear legs.  I asked her about quarantine and she said she hadn't had to quarantine her dog because France doesn't have rabies.  She said she'd had to produce reams of paperwork beforehand, but then she'd had no trouble.  I wish I'd had more time to ask her what kind of trip she was making - I mean, bringing your dog along on a transatlantic trip is quite a commitment.  Apparently Canada Geese were new to her because I saw her stalking a nearby flock to take photos.

I saw a sign in Montgomery for the "Gobble Wobble 5K Walk/Run" the day after Thanksgiving.  And I passed a building labeled "Bricklayers Hall" that had a historical marker in front.   https://www.hmdb.org/Black-Bricklayers-Hall  Unlike Georgia, Alabama apparently isn't shy about including a lot of information on their historical markers, and this one explains a great deal about the role this building played in civil rights battles of the 1960s.

I heard on the radio about a program called "Chicago CRED" that is a community approach to reducing gun-related violence.  Sounds like a worthwhile effort.  And I heard about an article by Anna Devere Smith, who I've seen as an actress but who is also apparently a playwright.  The article is called "This Ghost of Slavery" and is in a recent edition of The Atlantic, which says I have to subscribe if I want to read the article, so I guess I'll hold off for now.

We drove by the state capitol building - very attractive, classical - but I decided against some of the other landmark places that I visited when I was doing my month in Alabama and instead drove on to Selma.  A road sign said I was on the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail, commemorating the 1965 march over the 54 miles between the 2 cities as part of a voting rights protest.  This was the march that had several false starts - one of which resulted in the incredibly violent Bloody Sunday, that Americans saw on their TVs and helped turn the tide of public opinion.  That was the time police used fire hoses, dogs and mounted police to run down the people who were peacefully - and legally - walking across the Edmund Pettis Bridge in Selma.

I drove across that bridge today, hoping maybe that could demystify it somehow, but I guess it'd take a lot more than a drive to stop believing that day was anything but horrifically dehumanizing.

The radio also told me that US News had voted on this year's Best Places to Live and ranked Green Bay, WI, as #1 and Huntsville, AL, as #2.

We stopped to take a lunch break at Demopolis, "City of the People," founded 1817.  Gasoline was $2.89/gallon.  I am absolutely delighted to see that the price of gas is coming down so nicely.

All day Dext was having soft stools, and he threw up both his breakfast and his lunch.  I guess he ate something wrong again and I just can't figure out how to show him the cause-and-effect connection.

We crossed the Mississippi state line - "Birthplace of America's Music" - and within a few miles were in our campsite.

This campground was heavily wooded and built on a hill.  The dog park wasn't so great - Dext didn't want to linger there for long - but we were able to walk around the campground a bit.

Thursday, November 16th

Because even Google said today's drive would take 5½ hours (meaning about 9 hours for me), we left the Meridian campground just before 7:00.  We stopped for gas at a Love's - $2.69/gallon - and it wasn't long before I realized that cheap gas = lousy roads.  Alabama's had been bad enough, but Mississippi's roads were pretty terrible.  Rough road surfaces aren't just uncomfortable, they can be dangerous, making it hard for tires to get a good purchase.

Speaking of dangerous: just as I was starting to pass a semi-with-trailer, an idiot cut in front of me into the non-space between me and the semi.  If I hadn't moved over onto the left shoulder, we would have crashed - at highway speed.

I heard on the radio that during the Thanksgiving period Mississippi is the #1 deadliest state in the country.  We're still a week away, but after the driving display I've already seen today, I was glad I wasn't planning to stick around.

Vicksburg was about halfway along today's route and online I'd found a dog park there, so that's where we stopped.  It was on unused airport land and was pretty good sized, though there were few trees of course (airports not liking tall trees).  We met a guy with his brown & white Husky, and the guy explained his dog had gotten Lyme disease twice, because it was so hard for him to find ticks in the seriously thick coat Huskies have.  He said they were from upstate New York and were moving to Boulder, via a visit to Austin.  He told me Google alerted him to dog parks along the route it charted for him, which is how he ended up at the Vicksburg dog park.  Nice guy, nice dog.  But it was chilly and windy and after the initial meeting, Dext pretty much ignored the Husky and said he wanted to get out of the cold, so we left.

I started seeing signs for the Great River Road - along the mighty Mississippi - and it took me back several years ago when I was following those signs in quite a few states.

And then we crossed the Mississippi River and crossed the Louisiana state line.

Louisiana's roads were just as terrible as Mississippi's - why do the folks around here put up with it?

We stopped at a Kroger and were in our campsite by 3:00 (so the drive took us 8 hours, not 9).  By the time I'd done all my chores, I was really tired.  But the day wasn't over: Bucky figured out how to work the latch for the screen door and got out.

We had a really nice campsite with a level paved pad and lots of grass and patio furniture.  But we were also right by the entrance drive and the way Bucky was moving around the campsite - from under the RV out to the grass and back - I was afraid he'd get excited and run out onto the road.  It was really scary for me and because of that, this time I couldn't just sit in the cabin and wait for him to come back in.  But he kept running away when I tried to approach him, so all I could do was just stand outside and say nice things to him in a reassuring voice, and he finally came up to me and let me pick him up.  Thank goodness.  But this was his 4th time getting out - and it was clear I could never again leave the screen door as the only barrier to the outside.

Friday, November 17th

Shreveport to Mount Pleasant is a drive of only about an hour and a half, but remembering the lack of services in Mt. Pleasant, I decided on a detour to Tyler first.

We stopped by the highway for gas - $2.57/gallon - and while I was filling up I saw 2 large dogs (white Lab and black Great Dane types) leaving the gas station and running across a very busy 4-lane road that was access to I-20.  Cars and big trucks all had to stop for the dogs, who milled around at the businesses across the road and then I didn't see where they went.  And I never saw anyone looking for them.  Worrying.

We crossed the Texas state line, where a sign said it was "Unlawful to Enter Texas with Citrus Plants."  I didn't remember that, not that I was carting around a grapefruit tree.

Driving into Tyler I saw a billboard for some kind of Jeep-type vehicle that said, "Tougher Than A Two Dollar Steak."  Which is pretty descriptive.

We got to a Petco and, inside the store, Dext vomited twice.  He'd already produced liquid stools again.  I decided to stop at a grocery store to pick up the chicken-and-rice ingredients.  At the store I ran across a woman about my age who was looking for egg noodles.  She said she'd never used them before but had found a delicious-sounding recipe that called for them, but she didn't know what they looked like.  Having made way too many tuna noodle casseroles in my life not to know what those noodles look like, I found them for her and realized later I should have asked for the recipe.

We went to the Tyler dog park we've visited before.  Today there were 5 dogs in the big dog park, one of them a Great Dane and another something else really large.  All nice dogs with nice people.

After stopping at Tyler's recycling center, we headed north.  In Pittsburg, a pickup pulled out right in front of me and went really slowly, so I went around him and ended up behind a Jeep that stopped at a green light and kept sitting there while the light turned yellow, then red, and finally moved on the next green.  That driver must have been on his phone because who else would do that.

Back at our familiar Mt. Pleasant KOA, I dumped the tanks, walked Dexter, cooked the chicken and the rice for him, filled the water tank, stored all the groceries I'd bought - I was pretty pooped by the time it was all done.  We'll be here for a couple of weeks.

Phase 3 of the post 48 states tour

Mount Pleasant KOA, Mt. Pleasant

Friday, 15 September through Friday, 20 October, 2023

I left Cedar Hill State Park two weeks earlier than I'd planned, mostly because the ants drove me out, but also because of my lousy internet reception, plus lack of access to reasonable shower and laundry facilities.  Actually, I went to a laundromat in Cedar Hill once, but the only public showers were in the campground, and those were so basic (i.e. dating back decades) I didn't want to use them.  This combination of stresses had all gone on so unremittingly for so long that I was verging on half hysterical by the time I finally decided to head east again.  "Hysterical" meaning my brain synapses weren't connecting to each other, so rational thought was becoming difficult.

When I got to Mt. Pleasant, I again intended to stay only a couple of weeks, but getting myself pulled together was a bigger project than I'd expected, and I ended up staying 3 weeks beyond that.  Here's what I did during that time.

In the town

Not long after we got into the area, I took Dext to that pleasant ½-mile walk around a little trout lake in a park where we've often gone before.  This time, though, it was easy to see the results of the lack of rain they'd had here: the lake level was noticeably lower, with lots of exposed pipes and extended shoreline.  Quite a few turtles live here, and when we were here before, I saw them sunning themselves on rocks.  But this visit, those rocks were a long way from the water, and instead the turtles had climbed up the struts of the bridge that crosses the lake.  It was funny to see them perched on diagonal 2x4s - I wouldn't have thought they could even climb something like that, but there they were, close to a dozen of them.

A couple of weeks later we got 4" of rain overnight - lasted for hours (along with lots of thunder which scared Dext, and I had to pull his bed over by mine so he wouldn't just sit there quivering).  The next time we went to the park, the level had risen substantially and pipes that had been exposed were almost submerged.  Besides the bridge, there are a couple of platforms built out for people to fish from, and after that rain I noticed that one of them had sunk so much the lake was starting to cover it.

The next time we went, we saw people from a company called Foam Masters - "We Raise Concrete" - who were starting work to lift that platform.  Their trucks say they can raise the slab foundations for homes (that's the "raise concrete" part, I guess), but I'm not sure how that translates to a wooden platform that's sinking into mud.  I wanted to ask them if they were going to insert foam into the mud to support the struts, but their equipment was so loud I didn't want to scream my questions, so we kept going.

A busy street corner that I pass every time I drive to or from the main part of Mt. Pleasant has this sign displayed:

I spent a lot of time sitting at the traffic light there trying to make sense of what appeared to be a Japanese character on that sign.  I can't even guess how many times I stared at it before I finally saw that it was a profile of a Pilgrim - as in, Pilgrim Bank.  I'm telling you, my brain's getting a little fuzzy sometimes, and I'm going to blame it on the decision-making overload of trying to figure out where, in the entire US, I want to spend the rest of my life.

On one trip to town, I stopped at the T-Mobile place here to ask about my hot spot.  After much consultation and head scratching, they figured out the problem: I didn't have the plan I thought I did, and I was way over the allowed usage for a couple of months, making my signal spotty at best.  When I first switched to T-Mobile, I'm sure they told me I could have the same plan I'd had with my previous company, which was that any unused data (or whatever it's called) would be rolled over to the next month.  Since sometimes I go quite a while without using my hotspot at all, I've never run over my quota before.  

But the people at the store here broke the bad news that that's not what my plan is with T-Mobile, which is why I'd been running over my allotment.  I agreed to pay an extra $5/month to get some extra computer time, and I'll also pay more attention to my usage when I'm not on a campground wifi system.  It's nice to know what the problem was, though I wish somebody had told me earlier so I could have solved it earlier.

In the campground

One day I was working on my computer when it suddenly got this weird frozen screen and looked like it had been hacked again.  I remembered my brother's advice to take the battery out to reset it and tried to do that.  But that involves unscrewing 9 tiny screws on the back, and some of them were in so tight I was afraid I was stripping them.  The nice woman at the campground office suggested I take it into the Staples store in town to their computer guys, which is what I did.  One of the nice guys there spent a really long time trying to figure out what was going on with it and finally came to the conclusion that it was a fake hack and nothing was really wrong.  Just to be sure, he ran a virus scan that took quite a while because it covered a very long list of possible viruses, but my computer came up clean, which was really nice to know.  And after all that, he didn't charge me anything.  Incredibly nice.

I had my birthday during this time, and I celebrated with some Pacific salmon, champagne, and a really rich chocolate torte.  It was all so great I was ready to have another birthday again really soon.

The sparker on my stove stopped working.  When I light a burner, I turn on the gas and turn another knob labeled "spark" that apparently strikes a flint or whatever the modern substance is.  Well, it still makes the noise of striking, but the gas doesn't get sparked.  I had to go back to doing it the old fashioned way with Blue Diamond Kitchen Matches ("Strike On The Box").  It's been a long time since I lit a gas burner that way, and I'm a little afraid of gas so it spooked me.  I was lucky to have the matches - I bought them from the campground in Duluth, MN, when I couldn't get the charcoal lighted on my grill (I'd bought a steak for my birthday).

Instead of trying to catch up my blog posts, I spent a lot of time reading the judge's final judgement in the case of Irving v. Penguin Books Ltd. and Deborah Lipstadt.  That's the case the movie Denial is based on, that I've mentioned several times.  Since I'm not Jewish, it might seem odd I find that case so compelling.  Just recently FL Gov. DeSantis said it "doesn't make any sense" for former Ambassador Nikki Haley to say George Floyd's death should be "personal and painful" for everybody; after all, he said, neither she nor he had anything to do with it.  

In the same way George Floyd's death should indeed be personal and painful for all of us, so should the rewriting of history that Holocaust deniers are attempting.  David Irving has spent his life revising historical facts to show Adolf Hitler in a positive light; that of course would include denying the idea that 5 to 6 million Jews, along with many millions of other ethnic minorities, were killed due to his policies.  I guess I'm drawn to this movie/story because I admire Lipstadt's courage in taking on this battle, and of course I like a happy ending, which this story had.

The judgement addressed all the arguments and evidence that had been brought during the weeks-long trial, not just the snippets in the movie or even the extended versions in the book.  I was astounded at the complexity of the case, impressed with the judge's ability to sort through it all, and intrigued with the striking differences in procedure between British and American courts.  Anyway, I read the 350-page judgement over several days.

I also wasted a lot of time (though it was very entertaining) reading articles about Trump's various legal problems and the Republicans' upheaval in the US House over selecting a new Speaker, having dumped their previous one for the first time in history.  Their current candidates seem to be: Steve Scalise (who described himself as David Duke without the baggage); Jim Jordan (still dodging the sex abuse scandal of young athletes when he coached at Ohio State), and Donald Trump (who says he doesn't want the job and anyway can't hold the office because House rules prohibit a Speaker from being under indictment for a felony).  I'm afraid with all this, we're likely looking at a government shutdown in 45 days when the current continuing resolution (that got ex-Speaker McCarthy ousted) expires.  Not something I'm looking forward to - I still remember upheaval from previous shutdowns.

But I did get some things accomplished.  I made reservations for much of the next several months, and worked out driving directions for my trip back to Murphy, NC.

I heard a British meteorologist deliver a weather forecast by saying "There will be a bit of sleety stuff in this [system]" and also "venomous thunderstorms," which is actually how Dexter looks at them.  

For the best part of a week during this period, I felt pretty poorly.  One day I couldn't even keep food down, followed by a couple more days of limited intake.  I was running a low-grade fever off and on, and taking a lot of naps (which I never do).  I also had almost zero energy, needing to stop and rest several times during walks with Dexter.  A shame to have that taking up my time, but it was lucky that I'd started re-reading the Harry Potter books, so I had something that kept my brain engaged just enough for me to handle it.

Despite the very warm temperatures we were still getting, one morning when I woke up feeling shaky and nauseous again I turned on the heater and put on a flannel shirt and covered my legs with a blanket.  After a while I started feeling better.

During this time I went to the post office with my brain feeling really scattered: as I was walking out, I was checking that I'd gathered all my belongings and asked another woman if she could see my glasses - which she pointed out were sitting on my nose.

We had a lot of birds hanging around.  Every day I heard a lot from a very chatty Mockingbird that seemed to sing all day.  I really do love them.  In the wooded area of the campground I saw a Bluebird, a lot of Cardinals and Blue Jays, and a Hairy Woodpecker.  They really liven up the landscape.

One day, some stupid update that Microsoft sent to my computer completely changed the photo editing process.  Changed it to something I found almost impossible to use without a whole lot of extra time and work that I hadn't had to do before the update.  I did an online search to find out what I could do, but none of the advice did what I needed.  Very frustrating.

One day I was extremely productive.  I filled the RV's water tank, cleaned the AC filter, cooked a chicken in the crock pot, cleaned out/reorganized the basement storage area, dusted off the ceiling where the AC has been throwing dust around, fixed some wires in the top of the kittens' crate - they were sticking out and I was afraid they'd hurt the little guys, and mended the broken latch on the heaviest drawer in the cabin (big nuisance, big project, but I did it).

Trip to Tyler

Mt. Pleasant is a very nice place, but it's missing some services I find important.  As we did the last time we stayed here, we took a drive down to Tyler one day.  We left the KOA before 7:00 and were back in our campsite by 3:00.  In between we went to a grocery store, a PetsMart, the nice dog park we visited before and, most importantly, the recycle center.

At a church, I saw a sign saying they'd be hosting photos with Santa Claus on September 30th - and a full month before even Halloween seemed excessive to me.

Tyler has almost 14 miles of brick streets, put in at the turn of the last century to pave roads to assist storeowners (dirt streets kick dust onto the merchandise and get muddy when it rains).  Now they form part of Tyler's Historic District (on the National Registry) and are a very attractive area.  Apparently, local residents adore their brick streets; maybe I would too if I were driving a normal vehicle but in an RV, they're pretty uncomfortable.  Still, they look nice (and they don't get muddy).

I've discovered that in east Texas, coarse ground pepper is an exotic spice.  Everywhere else I can find it in McCormick's bottles with all the other spices and pepper versions.  Over here, though, nobody sells it.  I tried 2 stores in Mt. Pleasant (no luck) and 2 in Tyler, finally finding it with other exotic spices in glass bottles by Morton & Bassett.  And with an exotic price to match.  Between the pepper problem and the nonstop religious radio stations over here, I can tell east Texas isn't an area I'd likely be happy living in.

On one of those religious stations I heard a man talking about God's plan for how to manage your money.  I didn't realize until I looked it up that that's actually the approximate title for several books on the subject.  It sounds a little strange to me, but I'm sure some of those authors are sincere.

I saw a billboard with a drawing of a pregnant woman and the legend "For the Very Young at Heart."  It was sponsored by the Women's Health Center, which says they offer family medical care, including "pregnancy testing and counseling."

Tyler apparently has distinct Asian and Hispanic populations, based on the signs and business I saw driving around town.

Tyler has a business called Gleaux Car Wash.  Their website doesn't say who the owners are, other than that they're "local"  but with that name, I wondered if they'd come here as refugees (so to speak) from one of the hurricanes that have devastated Louisiana in the not too distant past.

I stopped for gas at a Murphy Express station, where they charged me $2.99/gallon.  Across the street - literally on the opposite corner - Shell was charging $3.39/gallon.

I saw a sign touting the local UT Tyler Health Science Center, saying (I think) that in 2022 it was a nationally ranked teaching hospital.  When I looked that up to check, I learned that whatever it was in 2022, for 2024 it's been ranked as a Best-In-State teaching hospital.  Considering the number of major teaching hospitals in Texas, that seems an amazing designation.

Despite the persistent drought in east Texas, today's drive was really pretty, with lots of green trees and green grass all day.

My critters

I found a note about an incident from many months ago, though I can't quite remember when it happened.  But I don't think I've mentioned it before so I'm sticking it in here now.  I think the kittens were still fairly young.  Early one morning, I heard a terrible racket coming from the bathroom.  When I got there, I saw Bucky had gotten his head stuck inside an empty Clorox Wipes container that I'd put into the recycling bag.  I'm sure it scared him, and I got it off him as quickly as I could, but it was really pretty funny and I was sorry I couldn't stop to get a photo of it.

One day I was cleaning out a box I keep miscellaneous stuff in and found the collars I'd bought for the kittens many months ago.  They'd worked the collars off in less than 24 hours, and I decided not to try again for a while.  Well, it seemed like now was "a while" so I put them on again, and this time they left them on.  In the meantime, the bell on Jimmy's collar stopped dinging for some reason - now it just makes a sort of muted clatter - but that actually helps me know which cat is which without looking at them.

On our first walk one morning, both Dext and I could tell a skunk was in the campground - the smell was too strong to ignore.  Dext decided it was good for him to bark and try to chase it - and immediately I took him back inside for a half hour.  Partly because the campground didn't want to hear a dog barking at 4:00 AM, and partly because the very last thing I needed was to have Dext actually find the skunk, and partly to give the skunk a chance to get away.  And it worked.

One day I hung towels on clothes hangers across the door to block out the blazing sun.  (Pre-kitten, I would have strung up some twine to hang the towels from, but Bucky kept eating the twine.)  If I hadn't seen this myself I wouldn't have believed it, but I saw Jimmy sit on the top bunk and reach over, grab the closest towel to pull the hanger closer to him, and take the clothespin off so he could play with it.  I absolutely believe Jimmy has almost no brain, so seeing this kind of maneuver stunned me.

Speaking of Jimmy, he's developed a new trick.  When the critters are all on alert because I'm fixing them food, he uses his front paws on the front bench seat to raise his head up, and then he rubs his head on Dext's chin.  Sometimes Dext ignores him, but a couple of times I've seen him decide Jimmy's a toy and he pounces and paws him a little, which always unnerves Jimmy (he can dish it out . . .). 

I remembered I had a photo from the early days with the kittens, showing them in their crate, and for comparison I took this photo of what they look like now.

You can see by his eye that this is Jimmy, 
but both kitties are packed in that carrying case.

And here's from the day I got them a year ago:

Remember this photo?  One kitten has his head draped over the neck of the other kitten, and both fit inside the crate so easily you can hardly see the sides.

Here's another view that shows proportions:

I think that's Bucky.

You can see he's not likely to take up much room in that carrying case/crate.

They just keep growing.  Sometimes when I'm dumping them in the crate at night I think that it's not really fair to keep them there overnight because of the obvious lack of space now that they're nearly full-grown.  But then I think 2 things: that they've slept together in this crate every single night of their lives, and that they'd drive the other 3 of us crazy if they could run loose all night ("run" being the operative word).  Plus, they don't complain about it.

Speaking of "nearly full-grown," here's another comparison shot:

Bucky is draped over the water bowl, as he always does,
and Lily should shove him out of the way but never does,
while Jimmy waits his turn.

You can see that, as far as size goes, the kittens have almost grown up.  But not as far as their personalities go, and maturity is still a Utopia I wait for.

And here's one more set of comparison photos.

I think that's Bucky, though it's not easy to tell in that light.

And I think that's Bucky again on the dashboard, with Jimmy on the seat.

Life is really different now that I have much larger moving bodies to avoid when I'm trying to walk across the floor, and much safer for these little guys.

Things I ran across

I heard on the radio that Hopewell Earthworks in Ohio has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  As far as I can tell without reviewing every post, when I spent my month in Ohio I didn't visit this site, managed by the National Park Service as a National Historical Park.  Apparently, around 2,000 years ago, scattered communities of indigenous people came to this area to build sacred structures - geometrically precise squares and octagons that align with movements of the sun and moon.

UNESCO said these structures are "among the largest earthworks in the world that are not fortifications or defensive structures."  They say the Grand Pyramid would have fit inside one of these Hopewell structures, which is a pretty clear example of their size.  Under Pres. Trump, the US had withdrawn from UNESCO, but Pres. Biden has put us back in - and we've now been rewarded, I guess.  This news is enough to make me want to go back to Ohio to see what I missed.

When I was in the post office, I saw a poster for a postage stamp honoring Edmonia Lewis.  I'd never heard of her, looked her up, and learned she was apparently an unusually talented sculptor in the mid- to late-1800s.  And at least as remarkable as her talent was her heritage as both a Black American and a Native American, neither of which would have made her path easy in those times.  You might want to take a look at the blurb the USPS wrote about why they chose her for a stamp.   https://store.usps.com/edmonia-lewis

Reading the history of Edmonia Lewis reminded me of Elizabet Ney, another female sculptor, from the same time period.  In fact, Ney was born only 11 years before Lewis, and the 2 women died within 3 months of each other.  I would have thought they might have met, but Lewis did most of her work in Rome, while Ney worked in Germany and in the US.  These 2 women, both sculptors and both so talented that the 19th century world was forced to deal with them on their own terms, is remarkable.

I saw an Arkansas license plate that said: HUGACOW.

I don't have access to NPR in Mt. Pleasant, I'm sorry to say, but while I was still in the Dallas area I listened to the live broadcast of part of a hearing in the Texas State Senate.  This past May, the Texas State House voted 126 - 23 to impeach Attorney General Ken Paxton.  Those totals included 60 Republicans voting to impeach, with only 23 voting against it, and considering how thoroughly Republican this state is, those totals indicate just how likely Paxton was to be guilty of the 16 charges of misuse of public office.  

Today I listened to a very clear exposition on the Senate floor of exactly how Paxton had done what he's accused of - and it was pretty flagrant corruption.  Despite the views of House Republicans and the evidence they presented, the Senate acquitted Paxton of all 16 charges.  Many of the votes were quite close: 14 (convict) to 16 (acquit), but they still agreed to let him skate each time.  I found myself completely disgusted by the morally impoverished state senators who voted to acquit.  The evidence was there, the crimes were flagrant, and they didn't want to vote against their good friend who raised money for them.  Paxton runs for reelection next year.

Phase 2 of the post 48 states tour

East Fork Park at Lake Lavon, Wylie

Cedar Hill State Park, Cedar Hill

David & Anna's house

Sanger/Denton North KOA, Sanger
Wednesday, 23 August through Thursday, 14 September 2023

Plans gone astray

I'd originally intended to stay in the Dallas area, mostly in Cedar Hill, for about 6 weeks and made reservations for that period.  Texas state parks allow continuous stays for only 14 consecutive days, so I reserved time at Cedar Hill, southwest of Dallas, in several chunks.  I interspersed these with reservations at the Army Corps of Engineers campground at Lake Lavon, northeast of Dallas.  And that's the way my plan stood when I first went west from Mount Pleasant on the 23rd.  But that's not the way it played out.

First, my generous relatives offered to let me stay at their place over the Labor Day weekend, and I decided to avail myself of their facilities (shower, washing machine) which neither of the other places had adequate versions of.

Then I started running into a real problem with my hotspot reception, and though I tried hard, I couldn't seem to get a reliable signal for any length of time, making it hard (aka impossible) to work on the backlog of my blog posts.  I've had trouble with the SIM card before, so twice I went to T-Mobile outlets (that's who I have the signal through) and they gave me new SIM cards, which seemed to fix the problem.  But the fix never lasted long and I was back to very intermittent reception.  It made all that time in public campgrounds very frustrating.  I ended up writing mostly draft versions of the blog posts, because the word processing program doesn't need internet - but I don't feel a sense of accomplishment that way.

But the real problem at Cedar Hill turned out to be ants.  Argentine ants, an extremely invasive species, have about taken over some sections of the campground.  The only way you can avoid being overrun by them is to surround your RV with a thick, unbroken line of insecticide.  People who did that reported good results, but everybody else had trouble.  I was in the latter category.  I've stayed at this campground quite a few times and, though they always warn about these ants, I've never had a problem with them so I didn't take the warning seriously and got seriously invaded.  

I finally bought the brand of insecticide the park personnel recommended - Sevin - but that turned out to be a problem too.  For one thing, I couldn't spread it in a thick line because of too much wind blowing it around when I shook the container.  For another, the container clearly says to keep pets away from it - but I've got this dog, see?, who needs frequent walks every day.  I knew it was impossible for him to get in and out of the RV and not touch this thick line of killer stuff.  So I decided to leave a gap in the line by the door for him, and sure enough, that's where the ants started getting in again.  I should note that though the ants were a real problem for me, the kittens treated them like toys and spent time pawing them on the floor.

Then one night we had severe thunder, lightning and rain - and by the morning all trace of the Sevin had been washed away.

Once, years ago - maybe in Tennessee - I was badly invaded by ants that came into the RV via the power cord - they were escaping from a flood at my campsite.  Someone told me baking soda was a useful deterrent, so now when I pull into a new site and see ants in the area, I coat the power cord with baking soda.  And it's seemed to work.  So this time, desperate to get rid of these invaders, I sprinkled baking soda all over the tiny counter I have in the kitchen.

The coating of baking soda was originally a lot more extensive than this - what you see here is what's left after several days of trying to live (wash dishes, cook) in these conditions.  But it seemed to work - the first few days I found quite a few ant bodies in the baking soda piles.

And they weren't just on the visible surfaces, because I started seeing them in the cabinets.  Fortunately, ever since that years-ago infestation, I've put any opened packages of anything into Ziploc (actually, I use Hefty) bags.  Because I still do that, I wasn't as panicked to see ants in the cabinets as I was the first time around.  This time, I just felt invaded, not threatened.

Because the baking soda seemed to help inside, and the Sevin (which worried me because of not being environmentally friendly (or pet friendly)) didn't seem to work all that well outside, maybe next time I should just try a thick line of baking soda around the RV instead of fancy, dangerous products.

But eventually, between the ants and the lack of a reliable internet signal - and the extreme heat (see below) - I finally just gave up and ran.  I decided it was stupid/masochistic/a waste of money to keep sitting in Cedar Hill where I was continuously fighting ants in a nightmare scenario.  The closest campground I could find that I could afford that had a wifi system was about an hour north of Dallas - and that's where we went.  

But that KOA turned out not to be the refuge I'd hoped for.  The campground was laid out to accommodate only campers who had a separate vehicle.  It's true that most campers do because their RVs are trailers or 5th Wheels.  But I've seen plenty like me too, and here the bathrooms/showers were at least ⅛ mile from any campsite.  Though I was in one of the closest, I just did not want to haul my laundry over there in 90°+ heat.  And I didn't want to sit over there to wait for the machines (leaving the critters alone for a couple of hours), and I really didn't want to make multiple trips back and forth.  Gripe, gripe.  But it was just all so unpalatable.  I finally decided to head back to Mt. Pleasant, where they didn't have ants, did have wifi, and did have showers and laundry facilities close to the campsites.

But before I reached that extremity, there was all the following drama.

Heat

The heat here in central Texas was enough to fell a rhinoceros.  For several weeks, temps got up well over 100° (one day it was 113°) - and that doesn't include the heat index.  After Dext and I would come back from a walk, I'd have to spend time just sitting still in front of the fans and AC waiting to cool down.  In fact, in the mid-afternoons after we'd spent the day running around, the fans just seemed to be blowing hot air around, though once the cabin finally cooled down they were much more effective.  On the days we just sat in the campground, I had to cover up the windows as the sun moved across the sky.  I tried to leave some visual space - for me as well as the critters (I don't like living in caves) - but when the sun really started pouring in - well, solar heating is a real thing and I had to block it out.

I have 2 small non-oscillating table fans in addition to the AC in the ceiling, and I put the fans on the floor so the critters could have whatever relief the fans gave.  One morning I plugged in the older of the 2 fans and saw sparks - so immediately unplugged the fan and took a look.  Where the electric line connected to the fan, the plastic coating had been worn off and the wires inside were bare against the fan housing.  One of the very last things I need is to have a fire here, so I tossed that fan without even trying to fix it.  Which meant I needed to find a Target (not in every small town) because that's where I'd bought all my previous fans.  The heat level being what it was, this errand was high on my priority list and I did figure out where to find one.  I was a little afraid that since it was by this time September, Target might have pulled summer-related merchandise, but apparently the continuing reality of the heat wave kept their shelves well-stocked.

Jimmy, beating the heat

For some reason, when we get on the road after using the AC, we get a veritable rainstorm in the RV's cabin.  I don't know why the AC is storing all this water - but it's a whole lot of water.  It gets all over the cabin floor, on Dexter's beds, on the table, on the kitchen counter.  When we stop, I've had to use 3 or 4 paper towels to get it all mopped up.  So weird, and I don't remember it ever happening before.  Yeah the atmosphere is humid around here, but that's nothing new in central Texas, where I've spent a fair amount of time in the past in equally humid conditions.  Just strange.

One morning I found the frig set at 1 (the warmest setting).  I certainly didn't do it and don't know how that happened.  I quickly knocked it up to 9 (the coldest) but it's really slow to adjust even during reasonable weather, and with the frig on the side where the sun was shining and me not able to put the awning out - well, the thermometer I put inside the frig still registered 50° by 7 PM.

When a cold front finally came through and knocked the temps back down into the 80s, I didn't mind a bit that it also brought wind and rain.

My critters (not including ants)

During the night one night I heard Dext walking around, but I didn't see him and he didn't respond when I called, so I went back to sleep.  Woke up again at 3:30 and this time he came to meet me - very antsy so I quickly put on yesterday's clothes and went to let the kittens out of their crate - and then I stepped in vomit.  I had to stop and cover it with paper towels, let the kittens out and took Dext out.  Which didn't take long because his stools were very loose.  On a walk yesterday I heard him crunching something so knew he'd eaten a bone, and it had its usual effect on his system.  Amazing how delicate his tummy is.

Anyway, then I had to clean up the mess on the floor, on my shoe, then put the cabin back together after its overnight configuration, then took Dext back outside again (more loose stool).  By 8:00 AM he was looking anxious again so I took him back out (3rd time) and more loose stool.  I scrubbed the bottom of my shoe in the faucet outside, then went back in to take a break and cool down because it was already getting warm.  On top of the ants, it was all hard to deal with.

The kittens have been enjoying sitting at the rear window watching the birds flit among the trees and bushes behind the RV.

One evening I was ready to dump the bunch of them.  At about 6:00 Dext insisted he had to go out, but he was lying.  He barely even peed - and while we were out he ate some junk (after I'd just been cleaning up the messes from the last time).  He was okay when I took him out at bedtime but it was so hot my patience was low.  Then when I was putting Bucky in the crate for bed he bit me, which pissed me off so I just dumped him in and told him to stay there - but when I came back with Jimmy I found Bucky had jumped out, and then Jimmy tried to bite me so I dumped him in the crate and zipped it shut.  Bucky had run under the driver's seat, but when I contorted myself to get to him he ran out to the back of the RV.  We did this routine for 2 round trips until I finally caught him next to the wall under the table on Dext's bed - and he hissed and bared his teeth but I managed to get him in the crate without any more damage and yelled at them - and then I yelled at Dext - it was not a pleasant bedtime event.  I am once again really glad I never had children (imagine the emotional damage).

The heat really bothered Dext.  When we'd go out for a mid-afternoon walk, it felt like we were stepping into a hot oven, and it was clear he didn't like it.  He didn't want to walk or sniff or do anything except turn around and go back.  Sometimes we weren't even out long enough to work up a sweat.  Even when the temp finally cooled off somewhat, he kept telling me he didn't like it.  Every time we went out for a walk he'd drag behind me.  Even when I was walking at a normal pace, even on flat ground, he'd just drag along.  It drove me crazy.  But on the days when it wasn't as hot, I insisted we walk around the campground.  I measured it, and even all the way around it's only a half mile - so it's not nothing but it's not a marathon either.  I figured he and I both really needed the exercise when it was possible for us to get it without risking heat prostration.

The kitties actually held still long enough for me to get this shot.

Jimmy's on the left, Bucky's on the right.

Compare that with this shot I took a month after I got them.

Bucky's on the left, Jimmy's on the right.
Remember how much smaller he was than Bucky?
No longer.

Campground life

Several times I talked with a woman staying in a 5th Wheel down the road from our site.  She said their truck had broken down on the way to the campground and now they were stuck until the truck got fixed.  Their 5th Wheel is a 50-amp RV and their campsite was wired only for 30 amp.  They used an adapter so they could plug in at all, but as I learned a couple of years ago, 30-amp plugs just don't put out enough power to run all the amenities that 5th Wheels have.  For instance, they often have 2 ACs (I only have 1) and in this weather they'd be running both of them at the same time, which a 30-amp plug can't deal with.  So the woman said they keep blowing their power - and she acted surprised.

She said the man she's staying with (apparently not her husband) is a smoker, and it's his 5th Wheel so he smokes indoors, and she said it's making her feel sick.  She wants to go back home (she's from Lubbock, he's from nearby Midlothian), but she was stuck here.  She said her daughter called today crying because her nephew-in-law was just discovered dead in his apartment in Fort Worth, and they don't know why he died.  

The woman told me her son died a few years ago from uncontrolled diabetes - thought he could eat anything he wanted if he just took enough insulin.  The woman said he'd already had 1 leg amputated at the knee, and he'd stopped going to dialysis (apparently he also had kidney problems) - and it all sounded to me as if he'd chosen to die, though I didn't say that to the woman.

I found it amazing that all these lives are usually hidden from view.  I think she talked to me because she was lonely and needed a sounding board.  I know from my own marriage that the loneliness you can feel when you're with someone can be far more devastating than the loneliness you can feel alone.  I chose to be lonely alone, and in fact have almost never felt lonely since then.  But it's not for everyone, and I was glad if I could help this woman feel better.

For some reason we didn't see many dogs the whole time we stayed here.

But I did speak occasionally with a man whose site wasn't far from ours.  He seemed to be cleaning out his storage areas.  He stayed at Cedar Hill for quite a while (off and on), and we saw him once when we were back from going to another campground and he brought me a box of poop bags that he had unearthed, telling me that his dog had died last year and asking if I wanted them - of course.  

One day I saw a giant moth that was colored exactly like lichen on a tree trunk, and I saw it only because it was sitting on a concrete sidewalk.  If it had been on a tree, I'd never have seen it.  How is it possible that someone doesn't believe evolution is real - and magic.

On September 11th, I watched the movie United 93 in memory of all those who died that day.  I still remember clearly my visit to the memorial near Shanksville, PA - almost 6 years ago, it was.

Cedar Hill State Park attractions

Our section of the campground was right next to something called the Penn Farm Agricultural History Center.  It's a pretty large area because it includes a lot of the original buildings from the family farm established here in the mid-1800s.  I'm sure State Parks has checked that the buildings are safe for visitors, but remarkably, they're still substantially intact, making it fairly easy to imagine what life was like then.  Here's some information I thought was interesting.

This house was built in 1859.
The sign is enlarged in parts below.

See below for the pieces of this sign.

This next sign shows what brought folks to this area in the first place.

See enlargements below.

Speaking of water:

This is a cistern the Penns built - see sign below.

Really provides perspective on a resource
we usually take for granted these days.

This history center had quite a few pieces of old farming equipment spread around, many with explanatory signs.  Maybe because I've seen the modern version of similar equipment (e.g. when I visited the John Deere factory in Illinois), but I found this thresher particularly interesting.

And finally, having nothing to do with the Penn Farm, but just as much an attraction for me at the campground were these flowers.

I don't remember seeing them before - including when I was growing up -
so have no idea what they are.  But they're really pretty in the sun.

Forays around the area

Because I was moving from one campground to another now and then, and because even when I was staying in one place I still needed to pick up supplies and run errands, I ran into some oddities.

The best was that I found an off-leash dog park that I hadn't ever noticed before, and it turned out to be really great.  It's called the Bush Central Barkway because it sits underneath the elevated roadways at the junction of the George Bush Turnpike and Central Expressway in Richardson.  It has 4 different areas - 1 for small dogs, 2 for large dogs, and 1 for special events (that's what the sign said).  The areas are very large and kept fairly clean and are mostly grass.  Every time we were up in that direction, I made it a point to stop there.  Twice we were the only ones there but a couple of times Dext had a whole lot of other dogs to meet and greet.  He really seemed to enjoy it.

Once we went to the U-Haul dealer in Cedar Hill for propane - that's where I've always gotten it in that area - only to discover that though their tank was full (the supplier was just filling it up when I drove in), they no longer have an employee who's certified to pump it.  They were actually a little rude about it, which seemed really strange to me.  I had to get online (thank goodness I could get online) and find the nearest dealer, who was in Midlothian, 10 miles down the road.  Well, I didn't have much choice - I needed the propane - so off we went to the Tractor Supply in Midlothian.

One day I went to 4 different stores in the Cedar Hill area trying to find boric acid, which I'd heard was effective on ants, and maybe better for the environment.  Not one of them had it, though several said they would soon (whenever "soon" is).  That's why I ended up with the Sevin - out of desperation.

I made several stops at the recycling drop-off center in Richardson.  It was only a few miles from that great dog park, and they'll take everything but plastic bags so I can really clean out my bathroom - always a plus.

Across Main Street from the recycling center is a nice park, and once we stopped off there to break for lunch and for a walk for Dext.  The park seemed to be home for several Canada Geese and a lot of Mallards, and the kittens were fascinated with them.

I watched some really funny (as in ha-ha, not peculiar - though it did seem peculiar, too) behavior by the ducks when I took Dext out.  The ducks seemed to be divided into several groups, like a day care, with one or two geese in charge of each group.  When Dext and I got out of the RV, the goose in charge of the nearest group started quacking and immediately all the ducks stood up and the whole group started following the goose which was moving away from us.  And it happened again with a second group as we got close to them - same quacking from the goose-in-charge, same quick response by the duckies.  I've never seen that before and I couldn't help laughing.

I saw a Texas plate that said: YADIGIT.  It actually took me a couple of minutes to figure it out - I kept trying to turn it into something it wasn't - sounding the "g" as in George.

I stopped at a grocery store in Plano, and nearby I saw Henry's Homemade Ice Cream - "Where Ice Cream Makes You Pretty."  A winner of a slogan.

I found a dog park in Denton that had a large sign near the entrance saying: Bee City USA - Making the World Safe for Pollinators One City at a Time.  This group seems to be promoting policies that benefit all kinds of pollinators (think butterflies), though their focus is on the 3,600 native species of bees we have in the US (which is a stunning fact - where are they all?).  Here's their website.   https://beecityusa.org/about

I was stopped at a traffic light in Denton when I saw this beautiful building.

Opera House, built 1901

I learned online that the Opera House was built of repurposed bricks - taken from a condemned courthouse that had been built in the 1870s.  The Opera House was in full swing until silent movies started coming out in 1913.  The building now houses Recycled Books plus "luxury" apartments.

Also in Denton, I passed the campus of Texas Woman's University, also established in 1901.  It's been a co-ed school since the mid-1990s, but it's still considered the US's largest state-supported university primarily for women.

Once I got stuck in 8 miles worth of stop-and-go traffic on I-35 - road construction I eventually learned - and the semi ahead of me was doing what I thought of as "crazy Ivans."  In the movie The Hunt For Red October, the sonar person on an American submarine said occasionally Russian subs would perform a maneuver the US called "crazy Ivans": the Russian sub would suddenly made a circle underwater to be sure they weren't being followed, subs not having rearview mirrors.  The American sub would then try to imitate a hole in the water (utter silence) to keep from being detected.  So anyway, this semi ahead of me wasn't turning circles, but he occasionally pulled mostly onto the shoulder, then when I was about ready to pull up into his vacated space would swerve back into the lane in front of me.  I finally decided he was trying to see around the semi in front of him (and now he knows how I feel stuck behind him).

Once I left my credit card at a Mexican restaurant - Casa Mama's - I'd gone to with David and Anna and the next day I went by to pick it up.  While I was there I succumbed to their salsa, which I think is really great - and bought a large container of it (I think they said it was 8 ounces).  As a surprise, they included a couple of bags of freshly made tortilla chips, so that was my lunch for the day - and a couple of other days later, too.

That day I ended up changing the order of my errands, so Google's directions were off.  I thought I could wing it - felt I'd been running around the area often enough to know which roads and exits to take without stopping to recalibrate.  But I was really wrong.  I eventually ended up in downtown Dallas and stopped at the first place I could find a parking place (closed up hotel).  But my hotspot said it couldn't get a signal, so I pulled out my trusty AAA map.  It looked like if I went on I-35 for a few more exits I'd come to I-30, which would take me to Loop 12 where I wanted to go.  But I misunderstood the signs, exited too soon, and ended up on Zang Blvd (which I vaguely remembered from growing up here) but recognizing nothing and then discovering I was heading east when I wanted west.  But I found zero signs to tell me where I was and the road just kept going with no way off - and I was yelling at the highway department for not providing signs.  I finally made a sudden stop at a 7/11 - just kids behind the counter but a customer gave me very good directions to I-30.  And that did indeed get me to Loop 12 which I was familiar with, and I finally got back to Cedar Hill.  It was all very disorienting.

But back at the campground, I stopped to dump my tanks and half the handle on my blackwater tank broke off.  Fortunately, I could still open it for draining, but it's no longer as easy as it was (not that it was ever easy).

I was having breathing problems and only then discovered that my inhaler was almost out.  When I called the local CVS I learned they couldn't refill it for a couple more days, so I'd have to conserve it.

I walked Dext again - and by the time we got back in I was absolutely dripping with sweat because it was so hot.  Even though it was nearly an hour past the critters' normal feeding time, I made them wait while I sat in the AC + 2 fans trying to cool off, drinking a half glass of wine (or whine, obviously).  Strange day.

Other events during this period

I heard on the radio that the Texas Education Agency took over the Houston school district, appointed a new superintendent, and imposed new rules on the schools.  One such rule is that teachers not only must use state-approved lesson plans, but they also must read those lessons from a script - and time themselves with a stopwatch while they do it.  As one teacher said, "There's no point being a teacher if you're reading a script."

The new superintendent is also instituting a new teacher evaluation system where 2 out of every 5 teachers will be rated as "less than proficient," regardless of whether that's an accurate description.  And 3% of all teachers will be rated as "unsatisfactory" and fired, regardless of their actual ability.  Apparently, those ratings are a required part of the new system.  It's not clear to me how such a system will improve the level of teaching there.  Sticks never work better than carrots, and the saying "you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar" has been around a long time for a reason.  

I heard on the radio about a book called Lies About Black People: How to Combat Racist Stereotypes and Why It Matters.  Sounds like something I'll want to read when I find a place to call home.

You may remember that a while back I posted a link to an article about Averie Bishop, Miss Texas 2022, because I was very impressed with her for many reasons.  I've just learned that she's planning to run against the state representative in the district next door to the one I vote in.  That should actually be an interesting race because both Averie Bishop and the incumbent Angie Chen Button are Asian-Americans.  

I couldn't find a straight answer online for when Button's family emigrated to the US: according to her campaign, her family moved from China to Taiwan "when the CCP took over China" and "persecuted" them for being Christians, and Button was born in 1954 in Taiwan.  I can't find anywhere when they immigrated to the US and can't understand why not - it seems a pretty straightforward question.  She's a Republican. 

Bishop was born in 1996 in Texas, the daughter of an American and a Filipina immigrant, and graduated from SMU law school.  She's a Democrat.

The district that Button currently represents is becoming more purple in recent years, no doubt due to increasing numbers of whichever Gen (Z?) includes today's young adults moving there for tech jobs.  In 2020, it was just barely majority white (55%).  So I'm looking forward to their respective campaigns and even hopeful of a debate, which would be fascinating.

In August we had a Blue Moon (the 2nd full moon this month).  The moon was putting out so much light it woke me up, and I thought it was a bright light on the camper across the road.  Full moons make early walks with Dexter easier, and I often don't even need a flashlight.

Bizarre situation with a vet's office

While we were at Cedar Hill, I wanted to get the kittens' claws clipped and made an appointment at the first vet's office I saw on the area list online - Cedar Hill Veterinary Clinic.  Boy, was that ever a mistake.

I was surprised when I called that they gave me a really wide choice of appointment times - so many vet offices are overworked and can barely fit me in in the next week or so.  I decided maybe summer was a slow time for them.  So when I got there, I was only a little surprised that it was the vet himself who did the nail trims - I figured he was just bored from lack of business at the time.  He trimmed the nails on both kittens, weighed them at my request and talked nonstop throughout.  At one point he told me not to talk, but he kept talking and then asked me a question - I waited, then said "you told me not to talk."

When I went out to pay for the 2 nail trims, the staff told me it would cost $125.  Of course I figured it was a mistake and pointed out I'd only asked for (and gotten) nail trims (for which they charged $20 each).  The staff said they always add on a charge for a "vet visit."  I pointed out that I hadn't gotten a "vet visit," that he'd performed absolutely no services that one would expect as part of a "vet visit."  They said that's the way they always did it.  I said when I'd first called for an appointment I'd told them I was just passing through the area (a red flag that I wouldn't know "how they always did it") and they shrugged.  And it went on from there.  It was just awful for me, mainly because I knew I was being cheated and that they didn't care.  I thought about paying only for the nail trims, but I didn't have cash with me, so I'd have to give them a credit card and, once I gave it to them, I couldn't control the amount.  I asked for a receipt and, though they seemed surprised, they gave me one. 

It took me several weeks to fight back, mainly because I was too overwhelmed with emotions to be coherent - even with myself.  But I ended up doing 3 things.  The first was to post a criticism on Yelp.  This may seem like not much to most people, but for me it was momentous, because it was the first time I've ever done that.  As you know, I don't much like anything that smacks of social media (especially Twitter and Facebook), so putting my name on a very public platform attached to a criticism was very hard for me.  And honestly, I think I was pretty mild, because all I said was if people decide to go to that clinic, they should be absolutely sure they know in advance what they'll be charged, and they should expect the staff to be very rude.  Actually, I learned while I was working up to doing this that quite a few others had posted about the staff's rudeness.  Wish I'd bothered to read those comments before I went there.

The second thing I did was file a complaint with the state regulatory agency, called the Texas Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners.  Here, my lack of computer savvy took a beating, because although I could fill out their required form online, I couldn't figure out how to send it, and especially not how to attach the receipt the vet's office.  I had to call and ask for them to send me a hard copy form, then wait for David to send me my mail, then fill it out, find a copy place in town, and then find the local post office.  It took a lot of time.  And it took a lot of self-discipline to make my complaint as factual and non-emotional as possible - when what I really was was outraged at being cheated.

Meanwhile, I called my credit card company because, when I'd looked at the receipt the vet's office gave me, I found they'd given me one for some entirely unknown person who lived in Waxahachie and apparently had a pet with thyroid problems: they gave me the wrong receipt.  At that point I thought my head would explode.  But I needed to know for sure how much they'd charged - I'd been remembering it as $105 - and the vet's charge hadn't posted to my most recent credit card bill.  So the VISA person on the phone was stuck with enlightening me that the charge was actually $125.  

So there I was on the phone with a nice VISA person, venting like crazy over this situation, when it suddenly struck me that I paid my bill with a credit card, and credit card charges are something I'm allowed to dispute.  Of course, the VISA person was way ahead of me and trying to piece together a coherent story, so I (light bulb over head) calmed down enough to tell her what had happened.  She asked me to send her a copy of whatever I sent to the Vet Board.  And later I figured out that submission would help show I actually thought my complaint was serious, and I wasn't just someone trying to gyp a hard-working vet out of money for services provided.  So that was a separate version of my complaint geared toward VISA plus more copies at the copy place and a separate mailing at the post office.

Later, I got a call from an investigator at the Vet Board, asking for clarification of my complaint - especially what that weird receipt was since it didn't refer to me or my pets or what they charged me.  I loved telling her that's what I'd been given by the vet staff.  Much later, she sent me an email telling me they dismissed my complaint as "non-jurisdictional," but that they were "very sorry for [my] difficult experience."  I was sorry for this conclusion but can't say I expected much different.  Still, I'm guessing the board did some checking with the vet clinic in their investigation, which may have given the clinic some concern.

And after that I got a letter from VISA saying they agreed(!) with me and were refunding me the amount I asked for - I told them I agreed to pay $40 for the 2 nail trims but not the additional $85 for the alleged "vet visit," and it was the $85 that they refunded.  You can't imagine how good that made me feel, knowing those rude and duplicitous folks didn't get to keep my money.  So in the end, I feel like my protests, though very time- and emotion-consuming, were worth it to me.  Strange experience.

And finally, a sad note

During this period, I heard that my friend Paula died.  I've mentioned her before - she's my friend who lives in the Albuquerque area.  She's been my very closest friend for a full 50 years, and I find myself bereft without her in my life.

Losing her has very nearly debilitated me, and I find it almost impossible to focus on doing just about anything.  I don't want to seem like I'm minimizing the loss to her husband Bruce - they were married for 42 years - or her son Morgan, but this kind of loss doesn't work with a measuring stick.  There's no such thing as your loss is greater than mine here.  Our relationships with Paula were all different, unique in their own ways, and her many other friends also suffered an irreplaceable loss.  I know that time makes losses bearable, but right now I've just been having a really hard time navigating mine.