January 18, 2006

January 18, 2006

Falcon State Park, Texas

YEAR 2 DAY 215

 

Today was sunny and warm, with a warm desert wind.

This morning I made some phone calls. First I phoned an RV resort down in "The Valley" to check on site availability and make a reservation for tomorrow. This is a huge RV resort with over 1000 sites. I want to see what it's like to stay at one of these massive RV parks, which are like a small town unto themselves, with a couple of thousand residents. The discounted Passport America rate is valid only for the first 3 days, so I made a reservation for 3 days only. The Passport America directory says this resort's discounted Passport America rate is available for the first week, while the woman on the telephone said it is valid for only the first 3 days. I considered complaining to Passport America about this resort refusing to honour what they advertise, but decided I've got better things to do. Next I phoned Sharon, to tell her where to forward our next batch of mail. Then I phoned my cousin's husband, Bruce, in Thunder Bay to advise him of the same thing. Bruce manages our investment related mail for us, while Sharon handles everything else. I usually make these advisements by e-mail, but I don't currently have e-mail access, and I needed to get the message to both of them immediately, to ensure that our mail arrives before we leave the area. Good luck on your upcoming cancer surgery, Bruce. Our best wishes are with you. We spent the rest of the morning exploring this large state park, by road. We also left the park, and drove over to the nearby dam, but stopped and turned around just before we drove onto the bridge over the dam. The other side of the bridge is Mexico, and we didn't want to drive over the dam, take a look, turn around and come back, then have to deal with re-entry into the United States, especially since we weren't carrying our passports with us.

For lunch we decided to walk over to the snack bar. Last night and this morning we discussed, and decided to apply for a WorkCamper position in the snack bar for next winter. Joanne thought it was good form to eat there at least once, prior to applying. Good idea. We had lunch there, then sat around for the entire afternoon chatting with Jack and Sharon, and another WorkCamping couple who were working today. Jack and Sharon had the day off. The other couple, who were working today, are Escapees. We chatted withthem about our stays at various Escapee parks, and our WorkCamping job at Escapees C.A.R.E. a year ago. We were hoping that the woman we need to apply to would return from her shopping trip into Roma, but she hadn't returned by late afternoon. We'll stop at the snack bar tomorrow as we're leaving, and see her then.

I saw a scorpion for the first time today. Quite oddly, it was in the urinal of the men's washroom in the recreation hall where the snack bar is. I wasn't absolutely certain that it was a scorpion. Tom, the Escapee who was working the snack bar today, came into the men's room and verified for me that it was indeed a scorpion. Joanne came into the men's room to see it as well. HA HA HA ! Joanne's first viewing of a scorpion ... in a urinal in a men's room. Another odd thing today ... there was a bat hanging on the outside of one of the snack bar's windows ... during daylight. Tom removed it and returned it to an area out behind the snack bar where there seems to be a bat colony. He thinks it was out in daylight because it was old and dying.

This is an area very popular with birders. We're not all that interested in birds, but we couldn't help but notice a bald eagle flying overhead today, as well as the many green jays in the tree beside our campsite.

We walked back to the trailer late in the afternoon, and took Bo for an obedience training session. Then I worked on a repair job that I've been procrastinating dealing with. I removed some stripped screws from the moulding on the lower front edge of the living room / dinette slide, and replaced them with slightly larger screws, to which I applied some Thread Locker. The screws had stripped and come loose due to travel vibration. I've never used Thread Locker before. I hope it keeps the screws tight, and stops them from vibrating loose.

I spent the evening updating my investment files with the data I downloaded almost a week ago. Better late than never. The data that I had was as of January 13. The first 2 weeks of 2006 were very strong in the markets. A very pleasant start to the new year for those of us who live off our investments. I also did today's accounting and journal.

DSK