February 14, 2006

February 14, 2006

Wharton to Livingston, Texas

YEAR 2 DAY 242

 

Happy Valentine's Day. Today was sunny and warm.

Last night in bed I read the 19 page document provided to us by Ardrianna, the Park Ranger at Padre Island, explaining the J-1 Visa process. My goodness ... my first impression is that the paperwork and bureaucracy isn't worth it. I've sort of had enough of bureaucratic government paperwork when we were small business owners.

We got up quite early, and left the Wal-Mart parking lot by 9:00 A.M.. We continued heading north on Hwy. 59. We had to drive completely through Houston, from southwest to northeast, and we wanted to get to Houston after the morning rush hour. Except for a brief period of stop and go, bumper to bumper congestion right near Houston's downtown area, driving through Houston on the freeway wasn't any worse than driving through any other large city. It's never easy with the rig. After passing through Houston, we stopped for diesel and propane at Flying J at New Caney. I really like Flying J's, as an RV'er. Pull up to the island, and there are fuel pumps, fresh water, sewage dump, air for tires, and propane refill, all in one spot. We continued north on Hwy. 59 to Livingston. We drove through Livingston, eastbound on Hwy. 190, then turned south after passing through Livingston, onto Hwy. 146, to the SKP park, Rainbow's End.

We registered, and parked in our assigned site. We had lunch. I napped. We took Bo for an obedience session. As we stepped out of the trailer, we met a couple walking by with an apricot coloured miniature poodle that looked just like Rodney Elam's dog Ginger. When we worked at CARE last January, we walked Ginger 3 times a day. This poodle and Bo greeted one another like old friends. We commented to the couple walking the dog that it looked just like Rodney Elam's Ginger. Well, that was because it was Ginger. Rodney is now in a nursing home, and this couple have adopted Ginger. We chatted with the couple for awhile about Rodney, and some of the other people who were at CARE a year ago when we worked there. We learned of some very interesting political and organizational developments at CARE in the last year. Bill and Donna, who have renamed Ginger to Buster, were very impressed with Bo's obedience skills. Good dog, Bo ... I'm proud of you.

At 4:00 P.M. we went to social hour. We were introduced as new arrivals, met some old friends, and made some new ones. We chatted until 5:30, when we walked over to CARE to visit with old friends there during their supper meal time. Before we even got to the CARE building, we met Chuck, and chatted with him for awhile. While working at CARE, we were parked behind Chuck, and his old dog, Jack. Jack died since we were here a year ago. That's a huge loss for Chuck, whose wife has been in a nursing home since before our time here a year ago. We continued walking toward the CARE building, and met Mary Lu, who was a WorkCamper / Volunteer here at the same time as us. She took over responsibility for walking Ginger when we left. She has recently returned for another stint as a WorkCamper / Volunteer. We walked into the CARE Centre, and found Marsha Squires working in the kitchen. She and her husband Lee were also WorkCampers / Volunteers here at the same time as us. They have also recently returned for another stint. We sat down and chatted with some of the participants that we knew from a year ago. I was remembered mostly as the magician, with the photo shows. I was invited to do another magic show, and another photo presentation. I will do a photo presentation Wednesday evening, and a magic show Friday evening.

We returned to the trailer about 7:00 P.M.. While Joanne prepared supper, I downloaded and processed my photos from Padre Island. We had supper, then we watched Olympic coverage on TV while I did today's accounting and journal entry, and Joanne washed dishes. I practiced my newest magic. I am cautiously optimistic that I might be ready to try performing this illusion for the first time on Friday at CARE. I took the laptop down to the computer room, got online, sent and retrieved e-mail, and updated my blog.

DSK