A new adventure

Welcoming Sign

We have arrived.  Where do you ask?  Why Toad Suck, Arkansas of course!  But more about that destination in a moment, for there is some unfinished business to report.

The Melissa Cardinals, 11U (the pure 11 year old teams) made their appearance in the World Series.  The first night was a team and individual competitions night to showcase throwing accuracy, hitting strength and team speed.  The Melissa participants had a great showing and came in second in two of the three competitions out of a dozen or more teams in their age bracket.

 

The next day was pool play to determine seeding in the single-elimination bracket the following day.  After two hard fought games, Melissa was seeded to play at 11 AM which all fans thought was advantageous due to the hot weather and time of day.  This game was a see-saw affair with Melissa garnering an early lead and playing a dogged defense to keep the other team from scoring for a couple of innings.  Alas, a big fourth inning for the other team caused Melissa to lose the lead and play catch up.

During the sixth inning Melissa, the visiting team, gained the lead once again.  But as with the poem, Casey at the Bat, a win this day was not to be.  For the home team with last at bat, again managed gain the lead and to score the winning run.  Thus, Melissa lost, 5 to 4.

There was great dismay and disappointment, just like in Mudville, as the Cardinals grand season ended with that one run.  But as it is in life, there are many more opportunities for this young group of men.  They have a lot of baseball ahead of them and not every day will end as this one did.  We are very proud of their accomplishments and especially proud of our grandson.  Even in defeat, life lessons are learned and will make him stronger and stronger.

Proud mama and daddy (Coach)

Not to be outdone, proud Grandfather

But now back to Toad Suck.  We have begun a new on-the-road adventure and the first stop is in Toad Suck, a Corps of Engineer park right outside of Conway, AR on the Arkansas River.  This is a unique place to say the least.  There is a lock to transfer river traffic from one side of the dam to the other on this river due to the difference in elevations.  For anyone that has never seen this operation, it is a peculiarly interesting spectacle.

However, you should not attempt this on an empty stomach.  For you see, the entire process is a lot like watching paint dry.  Very slow and almost imperceptible movement is the order of the day.  But all of a sudden the feat is accomplished and off goes the raised or lowered, (whichever is the case) river craft to its next destination as it responds to the horns blaring and moves out of the lock.  Many times we have enjoyed these small pleasures during our adventures and this case is no exception.

Most of the commercial traffic on the river is contained in huge barges.  Almost as interesting as the lock process, is the ability of the tugs that gently guide and push these barges up and around the river bends, including entering and exiting the locks along the way.  The typical setup is an array of barges, three across and four lengthwise with the tug pushing from behind.  As one of our group commented, ‘that is obviously a job that requires a lot of skill and training.’ 

Tug and barges approach the lock

Tug in lock to begin process of raising to next level

Slowly rising, rising (I think) rising

Yes, higher now, almost ready to go

...and we are off

Those are men (you cannot see) standing between red and green barges

Exiting the lock to proceed down the river

Bibi really enjoyed the river.  Her comment to me one day was, ‘I could be Huck Finn and raft the river everyday.’  I believe her and also believe she could.  She has always shown this affinity for water related activity and I think would be very at home floating along looking at all the sites.  Wait a minute, I think that is what we do in our Adventurer.  The only difference I can perceive is we are rolling along on a highway instead of floating on water.  Hmmmm?

Bibi dreaming about floating down the river

We met a very nice couple and their teenage children at the campground, Tim and Dawn.  They are from Bentonville and were in the area so their boy and girl could each compete in a triathlon event in Conway.  They shared some stories with us and provided us with some directions for local eateries along with some sage advice about fishing.  It was very encouraging to us to hear Tim say they were getting up to go to church on Sunday.  All is not lost in this country as long as there are young families that put God first.  We think Tim and Dawn are heroes and are making God proud by directing their children.

We are off tomorrow to our next destination.  We are headed to Bull Shoals State Park on the White River.  There are three couples in our caravan now.  Us, David and Sophie, Sam and Brenda are headed to the next adventure so stay in touch and we will post again soon.

What kind of pet is this?

A pet raccoon, of course!

Dixie State Tournament Baseball

Here we are at the Dixie State Tournament watching our next to the oldest grandson and his teammates on the Melissa Cardinals team vie for a spot in the World Series.

But before we got here, we had to finish a few projects on the Adventurer.  A traveling companion, David, agreed to help me with some of these before we took off again.  One was to install a tire monitoring system on the motorhome tires which we did and works fabulously.  Now I can check tire pressure and tire temperature right in the living space of the motorhome.  Talk about being spoiled, this is the cat’s meow in convenience.

Another project is to switch out all the existing light bulbs for LED bulbs.  In order to do this, a polarity check of each fixture is required to make sure the 12V system is wired with the correct polarity for the LED bulbs to work correctly.  (I learned this today and did not already know it.)  We used a LED bulb David had as an extra to do the testing and sure enough found about 1 of every 3 fixtures tested needed the polarity reversed.  Now it is a pretty easy procedure, although somewhat time consuming to make this change.  But I need to back up a bit to give a little background so you can appreciate what I am about to relate to you.

You see, the wives have gone this day to a Sunday School luncheon for women only.  I thought this is a great day for us (David and me) to tackle some of these piddly little items with just us guys around to give us something to do to pass the day.  Bibi left us baked potatoes cooking for lunch with some chopped beef BBQ from Bodacious for one of our favorite meals.  After we had worked most of the morning, the stomachs started calling for food so we took a break right after the testing of the fixtures for polarity to have lunch.  This is where the story gets a bit interesting.

We have prepared our baked potatoes and are enjoying them while discussing the plans for the afternoon.  Part of the afternoon would be spent switching the polarity on the fixtures.  Now to do this you merely reverse the current wired connections by swapping the wires on each fixture that needed to have the proper polarity.  We discussed this along with a few other things.  During a pause in the conversation as we are eating David asked me if I knew about butt splices.

I am going to let that soak into your thinking for just a moment as it had to in mine.  You see, this question was not asked with any context whatsoever connected with it so I had to search my memory like a computer would have to do a quick search of a hard drive to see if there was anything recorded about butt splices.  Nope, nothing.  Hence, my response was ‘not really’ thinking I would get some sort of explanation at this point.  Nope, nothing.  Except David did say, I will run over to the house for some butt splices after we finish eating and dropped the conversation at this point.

Well, I can tell you my brain is going 1,000 MPH at this point trying to figure out what is he talking about and what is this thing butt splices.  Evidently I was able to hide my astonishment and internal questioning because he never said another word about butt splices until he returned.  I will not list or regale you with all the possibilities my clueless brain came up with that day.  Suffice it to say, I was very relieved to find out there is nothing physical (think colonoscopy) involved with a butt splice.
 

You may have already jumped ahead of me here but this is what a butt splice is and when it is useful.  You see, he was talking about cutting the wires on the fixtures and using a ‘butt splice’ to reattach the wires with the correct polarity.  The butt splice allows two wires to be connected butt end to butt end for a continuous flow of current in the repaired connection.  Again, I have learned something new from David.  Now all fixtures have the correct polarity, inventory taken of the type of lights required and they are on order to replace existing bulbs when they arrive.

Yes Virginia, there really are butt splices!

So we are at the tournament enjoying the baseball activities.  The weather is cooperating with us and we had some marvelous temperatures to watch baseball considering it is the middle of July in Southeast Texas.  With the exception of a few hot afternoons with some higher humidity, we and the teams are comfortable enough, especially compared to what it could have been.

Kaden is an amazing ball player.  During the tournament he played catcher, pitcher, third base, shortstop, second base and first base.  He throws right handed and bats left handed.  He had some excellent defensive plays and great at bats.  He has just turned 12 (the week before) so he is the ‘oldest’ on this team of pure 11 year olds playing their hearts out every game.  One of his plays as catcher stands out for me.  In one of the closer games, he is catching in the sixth inning (last inning of play if no tie) with bases loaded and only one out.  There is only a one run lead for the Melissa Cardinals and the other team is home team so this is their final at bat unless they tie (score one run) or win the game (score two runs).

Here is our #1 (that's his uniform number too) catcher

If you are a baseball fan, you realize the predicament here for Melissa.  Just about any fly ball to the outfield will score the runner on third after he tags up which will tie the score since there is only one out so far in the inning.   A hard hit ground ball into the outfield could potentially score the winning run.  One of the stronger hitters is at the plate so the tension and nervousness abounds amongst both sets of spectators as this mini drama plays out.  After several pitches, you hear the distinctive sound of a great contact of bat and ball.  You watch as the fly ball floats toward right field and begins its downward trajectory.  The right fielder begins to position his body under the ball in order to attempt a catch.  His glove comes up and plop, he catches it for the second out.

At the same time, you glimpse in your peripheral vision the runner standing on third base as he takes off towards home plate to attempt to score the tying run of the ball game and send it into extra innings.  You also notice Kaden is standing at home plate looking towards right field with a quick glance towards third base.  What is he looking at in right field?  It is the ball headed towards him.  The right fielder has the presence of mind to actually pull the ball out of the glove and fire the ball towards home.  He has delivered a great throw that reaches the catcher in the air and Kaden whirls with both hands covering the ball in order to keep it in the glove; tagging the runner before he reaches the plate for the second out of the double play and the third out of the inning.  Thus ending the game with a Melissa win and continuing their march toward the World Series.

A grandfather could not be prouder at this moment of his grandson and pleased with the calm, almost as if this is a daily occurrence, demeanor exhibited by Kaden.  Yes, he is quite the ball player, just sayin’.  What particularly struck me about this team this weekend is the lack of superstars on the team.  Yes, I just described an outstanding play by two young players.  But there were many, many more and it seemed to be spread around the players.  There was not one single person doing it all by themselves but it was a team effort.  When one person had a bad outing, another would pick up the slack.  Each player contributed at some time or another during the weekend.

Now playing first base...

Now third base...

Pitching---- He's everywhere, he's everywhere

a little grandfatherly advice - - hit it hard and run fast!

The team won four of five games putting them in position to play in the championship game.  It was at this point there were three teams tied with only one loss all vying for the championship in the tournament.  Only the top two teams would be sent to the World Series.  There was a tie breaker procedure in place to determine which two teams would play first and then the winner of that would play the third team.  Since Melissa and another team had played more games than the third team, the third team had to play the loser of a coin toss between Melissa and the other team.  Melissa won the coin toss which guaranteed at least second place in the tournament and a trip to the World Series.

Talk about an emotional moment for the team when they all finally realized what the coin toss represented.  Needless to say there was great celebration that evening for Melissa players and fans.  The next day they would meet the winner of the game about to be played but for now, that seemed too distant to concern themselves with when they are going to the World Series.  Similar to the Casey at Bat poem, the next day the team reflected what spent emotion does to an athlete.

Try as they might, they could not get the bats going, the gloves did not work quite as well and yes you guessed it, they came in second place.  They fought hard but the long, hard fought games, heat and spent emotion took all the umph out of them for this one final game and they had to settle for the trip to the World Series without winning the Championship for the State Tournament.  We still could not be prouder of our grandson and his teammates for a wonderful showing and accomplishment.

Squared around to bunt

Hitting away - run Kaden, run

After one of the wins, coaches seem to be as excited or more so than players

Each game begins with prayer for the teams and officials at the pitcher's mound - a really good practice

This next tournament is held on the same weekend as a family reunion that has been scheduled for a year.  My sister’s family has agreed to move the reunion, in support of Kaden, to Longview where the tournament will be played this year.  What a great thing for us, we get to see everyone and continue watching the once in a lifetime season our grandson is having.  Just to have the opportunity to see and be a part of the fan base is important to us.  More important, I hope he realizes how proud we are of him and his accomplishments and that we were there to share these times together with him.

To make it even more special for us, we got to share some time with the 5 year old grandsons.  They made the trip with mom and the three of them stayed with us during the tournament.  It was a little crowded but everyone managed fine and we had a grand old time.  Swimming in the park’s swimming pool was especially entertaining and inviting.  Kenzie even joined us for a swim session.

We are going on a big trip after the World Series Tournament, so stay tuned for more baseball updates and as we take the Adventurer out on the highway for some more adventures.

A happy, tired and victorious Melissa Cardinals team and coaches

Our personal MVP - could not be prouder of him!

The Clean Up

After our recent grandchildren trip, we returned to home base and had the opportunity to catch up with our other grandchildren (the twin boys) this summer.  Mama attended a funeral service for a friend’s grandfather about an hour away and enlisted our help since the five year old boys are not known for their ability to quietly sit for this length of time, especially after being confined for an hour in a car.

Since it is summer and the days are very warm, we decided a water activity was called for and set about developing a plan to keep everyone cool and entertained.  After the last trip, the motorhome was in dire need of washing since we were parked next to major highway construction with hot, dusty, windy conditions present during our stay. 

The logical thing to do was to enlist the two guys help in giving the motorhome a bath.  However, most logically thinking people would say this was a crazy idea because they are barely tall enough to reach the bottom rail on the coach.  The other part of the argument would be the attention span could not possibly last to finish the assignment.  Typically I would agree with both these statements and even speculated as to how long this activity would capture their attention.

In a discussion with Bibi, I told her I thought one of them would last between 5 and 10 swipes of a rag against the side of the coach.  The other one would last longer (not sure how much longer) until he was distracted by the first one’s newer activity that beckoned him away from the “fun” of cleaning the motorhome with Gran.  Realistically I did not expect more than 30 minutes total, if that, of participation.

We were pleasantly surprised as to the interest shown and the endurance to stay on task by both boys.  Of course, the actual washing did not commence immediately.  When presented with two water hoses to begin the rinsing and wetting process on the motorhome, each hose manned by one of the boys, it did not take long for this to degrade into a full-fledged soaking and water fight.  It was like giving each of them a “water blaster cannon” with an unending supply of ammunition.  In fact, the supply was unending as will be evidenced by the water bill later this month.

Did not take long for the water fight to start!

One of them was getting the better of the other, so I had to step in and ‘even up’ the playing field by using my chosen combatant as a shield as I helped direct the spray directly at our antagonist’s face.  The technique worked rather well until they decided to team up against me.  I had not thought of that possibility before coming to the aid of the wetter of the two.  Note to self, leave future water fights to the law of the jungle, the survival of the fittest, and you will be much drier.

Take that Shawn boy!!!

After getting past the obligatory water fight with hoses, we commenced to washing said motorhome.  A bucket of suds was prepared for their use and a separate bucket for my use.  I did learn from earlier experience, their bucket of soapy solution would be a lot dirtier than mine.  This is due to the incessant dropping of the cleaning rags onto the ground picking up all matter of dirt, grass and rocks.  So the first rule is to use your bucket and not mine.

Fill em up, boys.

We set about scrubbing the front first as this is where all kinds of interesting things (i.e. bugs) end up against the body of the motor home and stuck in the grill.  What better way than this to keep a five year old boy's attention than to present him with dead bugs to identify and retrieve.  Of course, they did not see my obvious ruse to get the maximum scrubbing power from them with the ongoing chant of ‘get off of there you dead bug’ and the accompanying reward chant of ‘take that you dirty old bug.’  The enthusiasm exhibited during this process was astounding.  If I could bottle that and sell it, there would be no material want not met in our lifetime.

Look at them go.

......and go

and go some more!

Being the conscientious supervisor, I recognized the importance of taking a break to ensure a happy and eager workforce that could go the distance.  As the boys stretched out in the sun to let their wet clothing dry, they began to down a Sunkist orange drink.  Carbonation and young boys inevitably lead to a belch.  With Shawn it is most loud and intentional with the main purpose to entertain the ladies present.  Try as we could, Konnor and Gran could not outdo Shawn and I declared him the winner in the belching contest.  His response, "yeah, I know.  I win at everything."  So we further declared him., 'King of the World.'  This is a moniker he gladly accepted and thought it mighty fine to be the King of the World.

Break time.

Champion belcher in action, a/k/a King of the World and still undefeated champion!

All good things must come to an end, but I was the one left speechless by the length of time devoted to this cleaning adventure by the boys.  All told, they spent about 3 hours working with me on cleaning the coach.  Now this did include some distractions such as Shawn would find a dead bug and proceed to use the water hose to ‘wash’ it down some drains I have installed in the driveway.

When the bug would drop into the drain (either by force of water or if that was not quick enough he would manually pick it up and drop it in) he would exclaim his parting words, “Goodbye dead bug.”  Konnor was our stay on task guy, even if it meant washing the same tire 20 times.  There was even a small interlude to get Bibi involved in an Easter egg hide and seek game ( a year round activity around here using plastic eggs).  But eventually they returned to complete the task with me.

When we finished the motorhome, they had not had enough cleaning so I suggested they clean up the John Deere 4x4 (a miniature version they are fond of riding) since it was dirty.  They were determined to clean every square inch of the JD.  Interestingly enough, they were much more focused and planned their cleaning more strategically than when cleaning the motorhome.  I suppose size is the plus factor, since they are on a scale with the JD and actually tower over the height of the car.  As you can see from the pictures, they did a bang up, super cleaning job.

Cleaning is so much fun!

Especially when you are having fun with each other.

We had some good one-on-one times with them telling me all about their July 4 trip to watch fireworks with the additional fun activity of visiting the Build-a-Bear workshop.  Their vocabulary is expanding rapidly but not as fast as needed to fully express their feelings and sentiment.  An example of this was their response to what did the fireworks look like and how did they sound.  After a few minutes of excited and animated gestures by both of them, it was obvious they had run out of words and sounds to fully describe the events.  That is when Shawn abruptly stopped and said, “You need to go with us to see what we see” followed by Konnor’s full agreement statement when he said, “Yeah.”

What a great day.  I only hope they remember and treasure the day as much as I will.  Bibi was manning the camera so she has her own special memories created as she snapped pictures.  It is the little things in life that add special spice.

Not all Adventures in our Adventurer happen on the road.  Sometimes they happen right in the driveway.  We are off soon to see the next step in our middle grandson’s baseball season as they participate in the Dixie State Tournament attempting to win it and secure a spot in the World Series Tournament that takes place later in the month.  We will give a report on this activity later. Until then, adventure on!

The Wrap Up

Well the big day has finally arrived for both the future actress and the major leaguer.  It is Friday and the afternoon kicks off with a much anticipated second theatrical presentation.  As previously stated this play has a lot more action and singing with fewer lines.  Think in terms of ‘The Three Stooges’ and you will have a point of reference.

Granddaughter is playing the part of Alice Minion in ‘Minions’ Revenge’, an original presentation based upon the ‘Despicable Me’ movies.  The script, choreography and practice all happened in the space of four days with the presentation on the fifth day.  This camp was partially responsible for testing, putting into action, improvising and creating the characters during the week.

Again I had a hard time understanding the words (most of the actors are very young and have a high frequency voice which is hard on an old man) and the songs.  I did pick up on the fact that the Minions have a very limited vocabulary and the word “banana” is used a lot.  In fact, a real banana will set off frenzied activity to take the banana from each other.  I guess that explains why the minions are the color of a banana.  Here are a couple of pictures of the troupe in action.  Alice is the one with the big bow in her hair.

Alice Minion aka Kenzie

Opening Scene with 3 Minions

Exit Stage Left

Finale Dance Number

Again we were entertained by an energetic group of thespians.  The play and the costuming was the most outstanding accomplishment for the actors and there were a lot of proud parents and grandparents in attendance.

After leaving the theater performance, we headed to the ballpark in Sherman.  This is the regional tournament for the next to oldest grandson and our first chance to see him and his team in action on this trip.  This team is a 11 and under team which is made up of only 11 year olds. 

We have watched this group of young men play together as a team for several years now and develop into quite a baseball machine.  They have about 5 or 6 very capable pitchers, which is extremely unusual for this age group and out of a team of 10 players.  Defensively they are solid and not easily rattled when playing under pressure.  Example: An overthrow by the catcher to first base on a pickoff move to try and catch the runner being lazy looked like a disaster.  However, the right fielder was moving into position behind first base, picked up the overthrow and fired it to second base where the shortstop was covering and tagged out the runner as he tried to steal on the overthrow.  Not many major league teams accomplish this type of play, turning lemons into lemonade.

Anyway, we make it to the field and are pleasantly surprised to find the weather is once again cooperating.  We have partly cloudy skies with a gentle (for Northeast Texas) breeze that keeps it just right temperature wise to have a wonderful evening of baseball.  The grandson’s number is “1” and that is what he is tonight.  Playing catcher, he guns down a couple of steal attempts at second base, bats 100% with some very good hits into right center, has a couple of RBI’s along with scoring 3 or 4 runs himself.  We could not be prouder of him for an excellent game tonight.  The team performed just as well, winning the game under the 10 run rule after four innings.  Another win on Saturday night guarantees a trip to the State Tournament.

Okay, it is Saturday and the teams are on the field.  Interestingly, the game begins very strangely.  The opposing team’s pitcher is walking batters and before the next at bat is completed, the walked batter steals second, then third and finally home.  One of the players doing this is the grandson because he is the second batter.  The score is about 3 or 4 to zero before the first hit of the game occurs and there is no one on base when the batter gets a hit.

Regardless, this team is no match for the mighty Cardinals this night and never even scores a run.  Grandson is great once again.  This time at bat, he never strikes out and laid a textbook bunt down the third baseline that is not even fielded for a throw to first.  He starts out as catcher and tags a runner out for a double play at home.  He pitches for an inning retiring all the batters he faces and the team once again 10 runs the opposing team.  They are going to the State Tournament and the dogpile on the field speaks for itself.

Number 1 aka Kaden playing catcher

Number 1 playing pitcher and it is a Strike!!!

Number 1 scoring from third base

Number 1 receiving his trophy

Number 1 happy (and dirty, but very happy)

Melissa Cardinals 11's ready for next challenge at State Tournament

We had a great week with the grands and enjoyed a swim and pizzafest with them this Sunday afternoon.  It is our last day with them and we will miss them.  The activities we enjoyed were so entertaining.  We will see them again at a baseball tournament in a couple of weeks but it is not the same as visiting them at their home and becoming part of their lives for a time.  We treasure the time shared and hope it will always give them great memories of Gran and Bibi.  Maybe they can go with us sometime and share an Adventure in our Adventurer.  That would be awesome!  Well take care, we will post our next adventure soon.

Just plain Frozen.

The burgers and swim party had to be postponed due to thunderstorms and rain in the area.  We will try again tomorrow.  Instead, we gathered at the land-based house and watched the movie Frozen for the evening’s entertainment.  A cute and fun story that showed me the play the other day had all the essential elements included from the movie.  Made me appreciate the effort put forth by our granddaughter even more as we realized Princess Anna is one of the main characters in the movie.

We also found out that the next play will be based upon the Despicable Me movies.  The part our granddaughter is rehearsing for now is one of the minions, in fact, the head minion in the movie.  There are less speaking lines but more action and a couple of songs that she has the lead singing part.  This will be interesting to say the least.  I cannot wait but more on that later after the big day arrives.

Wednesday has more rain and thunderstorms so the burgers and swimming have been postponed for yet another day, much to the dismay of the budding actress.  Gran and Bibi were summoned this morning by mama to help with taxi duty.  All three grandchildren had dentist appointments this morning and two had to be fed and carried to camp afterward in locations thirty miles apart.  Due to the timing, mama would not be able to get both to camp on time without some grandparent help.

We volunteered to meet her at the dentist office and retrieve one of the campers, feed him and get him to camp on time.  Mission accomplished but not without some interesting moments for Bibi.  While he was eating in the back seat of the car as we traveled, he calmly announces there is a lizard in the car.  Bibi is immediately struck with the thought; ‘this thing might make a move for my leg if I am not watchful.’  The rest of the trip to camp was interspersed with Bibi's questions about where is he now, has he moved, etc. etc.

I think our young camper was quite ready to head to camp by the time we arrived at our destination, since he was out the door and running inside before the car fully stopped rolling.  But he did not get away quick enough as he had to give one last update on the whereabouts of this lizard.  I took Bibi (and the lizard) back to the RV park so we could plan our strategy on how best to extract the unwelcome guest in the car.  I asked her if she wanted me to get him out and the response was I do not want him in the car any longer.

So a plan was devised using a stick, broom and towel as tools/weapons in the extraction process.  The back doors were opened, me on one side and Bibi on the other.  The lizard was located and prodded with the stick to make sure he was alive and well.  He did not appreciate the invasion of his space and immediately took off which left the extractors frantically following and chasing his movements with the broom and towel in an attempt to keep him from hiding under the seats.  Fearlessly, Bibi actually made the extraction as the lizard paused momentarily on the floor in front of her.  With a flick of the wrist, the towel made contact and the lizard found himself flying through the air only to land on his feet on the ground outside the car.  Mission accomplished!!!  …and Bibi is breathing normally once again.

As an aside, while we were traveling between dentist office, burger place and Melissa to deliver our camper, we noticed a school bus parked in a parking lot next to Chick-Fil-A.  Name of the school district prominently painted on the side of the bus: Paradise ISD.  Somehow, I think a survey of the students in that school district would dispute the name and show they are open to changing it.

We finally got to have a burger and swim party tonight.  The elements and the schedules finally aligned to create a perfect afternoon/evening to get together.  The only hitch was a faulty LP gas regulator for the portable grill.  It was locked into an open position and would not shut off the flow of gas.  Since the little bottles (unlike their bigger cousins) do not have a shutoff valve, then this situation makes grilling impossible as there is gas escaping from the moment a bottle is attached with no way of lighting or turning off the flow after it is lit nor adjusting the flow.  So a hunt began at Lowes, then Home Depot and finally threw in the towel at Academy to find a replacement for the portable grill.  These big box stores only carry the portable grills as a unit with no parts but have plenty of parts for the bigger cousins.  Guess we will research online to find a replacement part. 

To cook the burgers, two of us loaded up and went to the land-based home and used the bigger cousin to cook the meat.  After they were cooked, we loaded back up and returned to the motorhome to enjoy the (finally cooked) burgers.  We also enjoyed celebrating with the son-in-law his 40^th birthday.  He really does not look a day over 40.  We enjoyed a good time sitting outside, visiting and watching the Rangers lose another game.  This is the first time in a long-time they did not have any activities to prevent them from enjoying each other and the visit.  But it is short lived as tomorrow; we will attend another matinee presentation and then make our way to the baseball diamond that evening for the start of the younger grandson’s regional tournament.  More on this later, until then be safe and adventurous.

Frozen Baseball?

This excursion is all about the grandkids.  Our first stop is the theatrical debut of our granddaughter.  She is attending drama camp this summer and seems to be flourishing in the environment.  She came home from the first day and announced to mama she is one of the lead characters in a play based upon the recent Disney film, Frozen. 

Proud mama texted us to let us know what was happening along with the statement, “Oh my, there are a lot of lines to learn by Friday.”  The camp is for one week and the kids are assigned their parts, they practice and then present their performance all in the space of one week

.

We and the other proud family members attended the 3 PM matinee performance, the only time this particular cast and venue will be presenting Frozen.  And there she was, our granddaughter in the part of Anna, the frozen princess, all dressed in white and quite beautiful.  Now my ears are not what they used to be so I could not hear all the dialogue but could tell she had practiced her lines faithfully and knew when to speak and when not to speak.

Princess Anna on the left, next to the strange carrot nosed character

For you see, part of her lines included silence while she was lying on the floor frozen.  Very important to remain still and silent during this time to provide the illusion you are frozen.  She nailed it!  She must have used me as her real life example to emulate for this particular part of the production.  Anyway, I did catch her line as she was unfrozen, it was ‘What happened?’  A very proud moment for Gran and Bibi.

Oh no!  Princess Anna is Frozen!

All thawed out and everyone is glad to see the Princess again.

I was greatly impressed with the performance and as a finale to the show, all the actors did an improvisational routine to the famous song in the movie.  I need to see this movie so I can find out what is going on because there are wolves and winds and all kinds of characters.  Of course, with my hearing issues I could not pick up on the story line other than the fact my princess Anna granddaughter was frozen then thawed out during the course of the story.

She did very well especially considering the amount of family that showed up to watch her performing for the very first time.  I think she might have been a tiny bit nervous but it did not show.  We found out she is attending a second iteration of drama camp this week.  We are all anticipating another rousing play this coming Friday.  As of this writing, we do not have character assignments.

A star is born - Or is that a HAM????

The second part of the trip involves the oldest grandson and baseball.  His All-Star team is competing in the Regional finals which are held in his hometown this year.  We are very thankful for that and also for the great weather.  It has not been too hot and humid, which is very unusual for the baseball games during this part of the year.  I was pleasantly surprised to see the fields in very good shape even though there have been a couple of mornings of rain.  By noontime the rain stops and then a gentle breeze dries out the ground so that by game time, there are no mud puddles to negotiate, either by the teams or by the fans.  Impressive!

He played Friday night and the team won.  He pitched the first three innings of scoreless ball (yep he did) and then moved to catcher.  By winning, the team received a Bye for the next round.  His three innings allows him to pitch every day.  If he pitches more than three innings, then he cannot pitch the next day.

Look the runner back to second base.

...and the delivery.  Another Strike - YAAAAAYYYY!!!!

In the second game, he started as pitcher again.  This time one run scored and his team led as he moved from pitcher to catcher once again after three innings.  This time, however, the pitchers behind him and the batters did not do as well as the first game because the team lost the lead and ended up losing the game 13 to 10.

In the next game, he started once again and was not quite as sharp as the previous two nights with two hits.  He still pitched well enough to keep the team in it, although as he left the mound after three innings their team was behind this time.  The team never got it together during this game and ended up losing thus being eliminated from the tournament finals.

I am very proud of him and his performance.  He had many good hits and a couple of innings where he was personally responsible for all three outs.  Example: two strikeouts and catching a pop up for the other out.  At the end of the tournament, he received an award for the Most Outstanding Pitcher during the tournament.

Holding his plaque for Most Outstanding Pitcher of the Tournament

Not to be outdone or forgotten, our other grandson will be participating in his regional tournament with his All-Star team this next weekend.  We will give a report later about him and his team’s efforts.  So there will be more to tell later.

Lucky for us, there is a RV park situated right in their hometown which is convenient to all these activities. We have stayed here often enough that the long-term residents and hosts recognize us now and accord us all the hospitality we could ask for.  Tonight at the RV park, we will be having home cooked hamburgers and relaxing while the kids swim in the pool after a very busy weekend full of activities.

Until the next posting, be safe and be well.

Celebration of Full Timing

Well here we are at the lake.  We have joined some of our friends in celebration of one couple’s declaration of freedom.  They have made the move to a full-time lifestyle in a RV.  This is their first official week of living ‘on the road’ and we are here to support and provide enforced R&R.

For you see, this decision was made some time ago but not acted upon until a deadline was looming.  As it turns out once they began the process it was speeded up somewhat by an estate sale specialist opening.  They either had to get things ready and out of the house in less than 2 weeks or wait several more months for an opening.  They opted for the 2 week time frame and it nearly did them in.

As an example, we were treated to a Yogi Berra type statement from Sophie.  After working so hard to vacate the premises, get things into storage by looking at everything in their land based home and then load up the new rolling home, you can kind of see why she would be a little off during the first day or two.  She was explaining very carefully the operation of the sleep number type bed and how to find the correct setting for a restful night of sleep.  Well obviously she had not had enough restful sleep as she exclaimed,” when you get it, you got it” talking about the correct air level setting on the bed.

Thank goodness, the sense of humor did not suffer from the same exhaustion factor.  Everyone had a good laugh and release of endorphins which helps everybody feel much better.  Here is a picture of the crew, minus the camera lady (Beverly) as she captures a small moment during the trip.

The Motley Crew at Work

This particular escapade into the wilderness is to allow David and Sophie some decompression time as they begin a new, exciting chapter in their lives.  I for one am jealous and will anxiously await an opportunity in the future to do the same thing.  The other couple with us, Sam and Brenda, have already been down this road and are now back in a land based home while maintaining close contact with current and former RVing friends.

During the trip we have been bird watching and taking pictures of birds with cameras.  Which there have been many unusual sightings.  Brenda had her bird books which have just about every species of fowl known to exist today.  Anytime a new bird that could not be readily identified showed up in the camera lens or spotted through the binoculars, a frantic search in the reference guides ensued.  A Pileated Woodpecker was spotted as well as the often overlooked, very rarely seen in East Texas, Hairy-Breasted, Knuckle Dragging, Spoon Beater Orange Tanger from South America.

During one of the camera episodes, a flash went off while taking a picture of a dead tree with several holes in it.  Later it was discovered a pair of eyes in one of the holes reflecting the flash from the camera.  Upon further investigation, it was determined to be a raccoon.  Not only a raccoon, but apparently a colony or family of coons are living in this tree.  Thus ensued a nightly coon watch regimen with assigned times to each of the campers taking their respective turns to watch for the emergence of the nocturnal masked marauders.  But to no avail, they are obviously smarter than we are or they waited until we retired before venturing from their cozy tree home.

A rousing dulcimer and guitar picking session provided a chance for us to learn a new song, ‘Eight Miles to Louisville’ which is actually an old song.  I am thoroughly enjoying the fact that my bride is learning to play the dulcimer.  Not only is she learning to play the instrument but playing my favorite songs which are traditional acoustic or bluegrass tunes in the process.  What a wonderful time sharing one of my favorite activities.  This led to a discussion about taking a trip to Mountain View, Arkansas where this very activity takes place on Friday and Saturday nights at the town square.  YES!!!!!  Can’t Wait!

Now it is true we eat well when we are on the road and this trip is no exception.  Typically we cook our own meals but there are those times we sample the local cuisine.  This trip is no different.  We found a great place to have lunch and the price is right.  Take a look at the offerings posted on their sign (see the picture below) and you will see why we just could not resist.  As Grandpa Jones used to say on Hee Haw, “Yum, Yum!”

Welcome to life on the road.

We had a visit from a couple of friends while at the lake.  Bart and Joy showed up to view the ‘new’ home.  While visiting, Bart announced he is taking Joy to Wyoming this summer.  We visited Bart last summer while traveling.  Bart takes an annual trip each year back to his boyhood home.  He also is going to take Joy to Colorado to visit her daughter.  Then with a wink of the eye, Bart said he is full of surprises and to stay tuned for more surprises to come.

Another visitor was David’s brother, Dennis.  Dennis is recovering from major surgery and brought his new ride out to show to David and Sophie.  He spent one night and enjoyed a hamburger meal with the crew.  For some reason, he decided to bug out before lunch the next day when we told him about our new find and plans to eat lunch there again.  Not sure I understood everything he was muttering under his breath as he drove away but I did catch something that sounded like, "you gotta be nuts.”

It is Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial start of summer and there is a large influx of campers showing up at the lake.  We are truly enjoying the sights and sounds of all the folks and looking over each rig as it shows up.  It appears RVing is alive and well.

And a visit on a holiday weekend leads to a time honored tradition among RVers.  That is the watching of the dump station rituals and long waiting lines for your turn to perform the required duties.  As the exodus of RVs proceeded today, we were treated to a plethora of sizes, shapes and of course techniques at the dump station.  One lady, awaiting her husband's command performance, decided to take a stroll in our direction where she found us lined up (one even with binoculars) intently staring at the participants.  Her comment, "you look like you are watching a parade."  Indeed, we had the best seats in the house.  We even decided to use a stop watch to gather comparison data as to the average time required to dump motorhome tanks versus fifth wheel and trailer tanks.  What a glorious time was had by all.

Now on a much more serious note, we also paused to reflect today to remember those who gave their all for our freedoms.  We are aware that freedom is not free.  We also remember all those who have served or are serving in our military.  We appreciate everyone and their service.  Until next time, be safe.