Full Time RV Living–Evans Escapades–Life in the Slow Lane

Other than the thunder rumbling overhead,

and the rain pounding on the roof,

it’s been very, very quiet around here,

It’s raining so hard, water is pouring

down the side of the window,

and standing in the streets.

I certainly hope it will all drain right

into Lake Conroe. . .which is still

down about four feet.

 

We’ve taken advantage of some down time

to get some projects done

We got rid of Dave’s sad and pathetic desk,

and our file cabinet, which had seen a

few too many rough roads,

and replaced it with this setup

which we designed for our space.

I completely decluttered my desk,

and the entertainment center,

painted the entire background black,

which allows all of the components to blend in.

Once I get my curtains hung, it will be complete.

Speaking of decluttering,

I’ve been cleaning out cabinets,

drawers, and pantries.

Here’s my collection of stuff

that needs to be dropped

off at Goodwill on our

next trip to town.

I have almost all of our music CD’s

copied to the computer. . .

Only a few boxes of vacation videos

and pictures to go. . .

Dave only has two classes left to teach

before we head to Colorado for the summer. . .

so we’ll just enjoy the redbuds blooming.

 

Next weekend is our annual family reunion. . .

Should be a great time seeing all the cousins,

aunts, and uncles. . .

 

I know a lot of you are heading back north,

Travel safely,

Janice

Evans Escapades–A Week in the Life

It’s been so great to be done with the repair shop, and to be back in our little RV home.
Since having the repairs done meant removing all the stereo components, etc. . .
we’ve spent the last couple of weeks getting everything back in order,
and doing “home improvements.”

I have one last chore for this round of improvements. . .
I am going to paint the background wall behind the entertainment center,
so that all the components blend in and disappear.
I’ll take a before and after pic, so you can see the difference. . .
and then we have one last major project. . .
to replace Dave’s desk before we call it done.

We have an “idea” of what we want done. . .so next week,
as we are moving the rig over to Conroe, we will stop in Brenham
to pick up the needed supplies. . .and then, of course
 once we are in Conroe, Home Depot, Lowes, Staples, etc. . .
are just around the corner. . .dangerous! Ha Ha. . .

As I’ve said before, we really, really enjoy the peacefulness here at Columbus. . .

we’re often asked by those who don’t RV. . .what do you do with yourself all day?. . .

but we always seem to have plenty going on. . .we have our morning devotion,

and then I catch up with everyone on emails, and facebook,

or work on writing projects that I have going on. . .

I love to cook. . .and now that I don’t need to rush to get a meal on the table,

I’m learning to enjoy the process as much as the end result

.  Growing up, I learned to cook everything from scratch. . .

so I am going back to my roots.  Here are some lovely home made

buttermilk biscuits that we enjoyed this morning with sausage gravy. . .yum!

In the afternoons, I sit outside with my Kindle, my binoculars,

and the camera, watch the birds. . .isn't this Cedar Waxwing just beautiful?

or the deer. . .and visit with the neighbors.

We did finally take a day last week to tour the pretty little historical town of

Columbus TX, which is the County Seat of Colorado County. . .

and has a beautiful Court House Square

including this gorgeous stained glass cupola inside the District Court Chambers. . .

I wrote a lot more about all the things we saw in Columbus on our RV’ing blog,

ReadyToGoFullTimeRVing.com, so if you would like to know more about
this lovely historic little town,

or see more pics, just click on the link. . .

Until our next adventure. . .safe travels,

Janice and Dave

Evans Escapades–Low Water Crossings

As we drove across the bridge into the Colorado River Preserve RV Park, 

a part of the Thousand Trails Membership System, in Columbus TX 

a couple of weeks ago, I commented to David, “well, I’ll bet this is  a low water crossing.” 

 Having had one of these on a mail route I delivered, 

I recognized that low dip in the road, with the little creek trickling under it. . .

Lo and behold, the following Wednesday, 

as we thought we were leaving the park, this was the scene.. .

After five inches of rain in two hours. . .and a huge tree from upstream blocking the culverts. . .

no one was leaving the park anytime soon. . .

it looks good here, it was almost to the top of the railing when we first arrived.  

At that point, we wouldn’t even consider taking our big truck across, 

much less a regular sized vehicle.

I told one guy, (on FaceBook,) who said we could go swimming. . .

no way, that looks like class five rapids!

Once the rain stopped, the guys at the park got out the trusty John Deere, 

to move the tree, and debris, and had us out of there in short order!  Good job guys. . .

Our resident Red Tailed Hawk that we’ve been watching, 

caught itself a squirrel when it made the mistake 

of running on the ground from one tree to the other.  

I had the camera out, trying to get a shot of it in flight, 

when all of this took place.  I was thrilled to get such an awesome pic!

Now that we’ve decided to keep the fifth wheel rather than purchasing a motor home, 

we’ve gotten started with the repairs it is going to need. . .

Our big living room slide has always needed an assist. 

It’s almost like they didn’t put in a quite big enough motor for all that weight.  

It used to be that Dave could just go out, and give it a push as I was pushing the button inside. . .

but a couple of trips ago, it started making a horrible sound, 

like gears grinding, or some such nonsense. . .so here is Dave with the crank bar.  

It’s like starting a Model A. . .he cranks away, I push the button and pray. . .

however, this is not even the worst of it.  

The kitchen slide opposite this one, has been hanging up in one corner. . .

but with a little assist from the trusty crank, would always just come right in.  

We’ve known it was somehow out of balance. . .

but after trips to three shops where they told us they just couldn’t see any problem. . .

that it was on all it’s rails. . .nothing was out of place. . .

we just accepted using the crank as part of our normal breakdown routine.

 

Well, ladies and gentlemen. . .after putting it in the shop this week, 

we find out that, yes, it is on it’s rails. . .

however, one of the rails has come loose from the frame, 

and in order to do the repair, they will need to 

completely remove the slide from the coach. . .oh Lord!

Not only will they remove the slide, they will remove both refrigerators from the slide, 

so, we emptied out both the fridges. . .

I’m much, much too cheap to let all that stuff go to waste. . .

Thankfully, I had been holding off on grocery shopping until we got to San Antonio. . .

so this stuff managed to fit into the hotel fridge. . .

I know, I know. . .we could have came and stayed with you. . .

there were any number of friends and family 

who would have been more than happy to have put us up. . .

but. . .we are soooo independent. . .

we keep weird hours. . .yada, yada, yada.  

A hotel room was so reasonable, and we were able to be right around the corner from the shop.  

That way, Mr. Dave pops in every day to check on progress!

AND. . .prayers going up, fingers crossed. . .

our service advisor says, upon closer inspection,

 they think they can make the repair WITHOUT removing the slide. . .

that sounds like really, really good news to me.

Keep us in your prayers that everything will go smoothly, 

and we will be back on track in short order.  

Regardless of the cost, having the repairs done 

is still way, way cheaper than a motor home payment. . .

well, at least that’s what I’m telling myself. . .

Safe travels,

Janice

Evans Escapades–Sticking Close to Home

Dave is scheduled to teach classes through April,

so although we would love to make it to the Rio Grand Valley, and especially to South Padre’. . .

it’s so much more convenient to stay centrally located in the Houston vicinity.

I guess we had forgotten how lovely the Colorado River Preserve in Columbus is. . .

This is the view out our back window most mornings and afternoons. . .

We assume this guy is in charge of the herd. . .

Dave’s using a long range lens, and then I cropped the pic,

so although it’s not as clear as I would like, you still get the idea!

There’s not much going on. . .I’ve been working on a few RV projects,

while Dave was gone teaching a class Laredo.

 

We have some sightseeing scheduled. . .

maybe this week we’ll go check out Old Town Columbus. . .

which is the county seat, and has a gorgeous Court House.

There is supposedly an audio driving tour,

which allows you to tune in to a certain frequency

on the AM radio, and hear about all the historical buildings.

We always love those, so we’ll keep you posted about that. . .

In the meantime, we sit out on the patio in the afternoons

and enjoy the ambience of the place.

This guy sat in a tree across the road for ages. . .before finally hustling off for his next meal.

and I wasn’t exactly sure what this little guy was. . .

after looking him up in my Peterson Field Guide. . .

I think I have it right. . .

if not, please feel free to correct me. . .

Until next time,

Safe Travels,

Janice

Evans Escapades–Life is Back to Normal or at Least Close to Normal

Wow. . .I thought it would be no big deal to write a blog post every week to keep you guys updated as to our goings on. . .but my goodness. . .there’s just so much happening.

 I’m not sure how some of you folks write a post everyday.

The month of December found us at our favorite place when we are “home,” Bay Colony RV Park in Dickinson.  We are so at home when we are there, that I never remember to take pictures.  It’s the perfect central location for the kids, the grands, friends, family. . .church is convenient.  It’s where we lived, in our RV, for two years while we were finishing up our careers.

While we were home, our grandson had his 17th birthday, so we celebrated that. . .

His Daddy celebrated his 35th birthday, so we celebrated that. . .he’s gonna kill me for this pic!

We had Christmas with the kids and the grands. . .I’m pretty sure that’s the most people we’ve ever had in the RV at one time. . .

then we celebrated Christmas with Dave’s brothers and sister, nieces and nephews. . .

Two of the grands spent their Christmas Break with us. . .here they are enjoying their Kindle and Nintendo Games. . .ahh well it seems the youngest one is checking her facebook in this pic. . .

then it was off to celebrate with my brother’s, nieces and nephews. . .the kid’s had fireworks on New Years Eve. . .

and the grown ups had fireworks New Years Day. . .

I took my two grands, and my niece to the Shangri La Nature Center in Orange. . .I’ll write more about the park on my RV’ing Blog. . .

and babysat my great nephew, so his mom and dad could go out to dinner. . .

and that’s about it . . .we were worn out. . .we’re not used to all this going on. . .but everything’s getting back to normal. . .we’re at Lake Conroe. . .getting ready to move to Columbus tomorrow. 

Dave has a class to teach next week, so he’ll meet his team at Schulenburg, and they’ll head to Laredo for that. . . I’ll keep the home fires burning. . .and enjoy the solitude.

Until next time,

Christmas is Grand

Spending our holidays with the Grands and their Dads. . .will catch you up on all our goings on next week. . .

Until then wishing you all a Merry Christmas. . .and the Happiest of Happy New Years!

Dave and Janice

ReadyToGoFullTimeRVing.com

Gearing up for all the Christmas Excitement. . .

What a difference a week makes.

After a quiet, and uneventful time last week, this week has been hopping. . .

Dave’s sister was performing at the Houston Heritage Society’s Candlelight Festival at Sam Houston Park in Downtown Houston, and got us free tickets for Saturday night. . . thanks Sis!

It was really great, and we highly recommend that you make plans to attend if you are in the area at Christmas time. . .Sam Houston Park is located on Buffalo Bayou with the downtown skyscrapers creating a backdrop.

There was a huge crowd, and a long line waiting to hear the Houston Boy’s Choir perform in this old German Church. . .

The boy’s choir has been performing at this event for over forty years. . .

Carolers entertaining the crowd

This gentleman was set up on the porch of an old log cabin, letting the kids sign their names with a quill and ink. . .they really seemed to be enjoying the experience. . .

There are several different eras of Houston History represented in the restored homes in the park. . .this is the Staiti Home, circa 1913. . .and was where our sis was performing. . .they told me I couldn’t take pics inside. . .but here is a You Tube Clip of the performance. . .Mary is the gorgeous one on the far right. . .it’s only a couple of minutes long!

Now on to the rest of our week. . .

It’s time for the Kid’s Christmas Drama at church. . .so of course, we want to help wherever we can. . .which just happens to be the props department. . .

One of the Dads did the cutouts. . .so this is what we started with. . .

and here was the finished product. . .it doesn't look like it in this pic, but it really is painted a beautiful gingerbread caramel color

some of the Moms were going to finish glittering it up and such. . .

While I worked on the Gingerbread House,

Dave took on the Castle and did a really great job. . .

I wish I could show you, but my pic of the finished product didn’t come out. . .

I’ll take more Sunday Morning, so you can see how wonderful it turned out. . .

In addition to painting props, this week,

our son celebrated his 35th birthday, (good grief)

so on Wednesday night we had all of them over for soup and cornbread that I had made, and a delicious homemade cheesecake that his better half Lori had made. . .

before the cherries were added. . .

it was wonderful, and worth every delectable calorie. . .

I can assure you that these poor old bodies are not used to all that exercise,

and we are feeling it today. . .

so we are taking it easy until our grandson’s basketball game this evening. . .

check in next week to see how he did!