Sunday, November 18, 2018

Waco, TX

We arrived here on Tuesday, we have a temporary site in Midway Park. One end of the park has 50 amp service, but it is already full of volunteers relocated from the other parks because of the flooding, so we are in the 30 amp area. Can't operate both heat pumps at the same time, but when it is really cold, we can use the furnaces. Just takes more propane that way. The office is temporally located here too, so I can walk to work. They have us work 8 to noon Mon- Fri here. Different from the other places we have been, but I think it will work ok. The campground that we are in is temporally closed to the public so we only have one other rv in our end of the park. Quiet and peaceful. So far I have been working with some other volunteers cleaning up the wood left behind from the flood and trimming trees here in this campground.
After Mass today, we drove around the lake and looked at some of the other areas, but most of them were closed. We bought some material on Thursday and started to work on recovering the dining room chairs so that should keep us busy for awhile.

Monday, November 12, 2018

Caldwell Zoo in Tyler, TX

The rv park here in Tyler has been really wet from all of the rain that they have been getting lately, but other than the water, it is a really nice park. Plenty of space between units and quiet. We made use of the laundry here with 4 washers and dryers to get our laundry caught up.
Saturday, we headed to the Caldwell Zoo here in town. The weather was a little chilly, but it was a nice way to spend the day.
I guess that a Texas zoo would have to have a Texas longhorn.





They had sticks with bird seed glued to them to feed the parakeets.



This female parakeet was trying to dig a hole for a nest. We watched her for awhile, the male kept pestering her and trying to give her a piece of grass for the nest. She would pick it up and carry it away and he would bring it back.


A male Taveta Golden Weaver




Two monkeys with babies on their backs.


Several Macaws.






No zoo would be complete without pink flamingos.


And this guy who reminded me of someone that I had seen before.


Don't you agree???


Tuesday, November 6, 2018

Tyler, Texas

Monday morning, I called down to Waco Lake to see if we could start there earlier than we expected to. We found out that the lake there had flooded due to heavy rains in the area and the campsites were underwater. He said to call him again Friday because the water should be down by then. We decided to drive on over to Tyler, TX today and stay here for a week, so we are at the RVChampions RV park for at least until next Tuesday. The weather was rainy all day yesterday, but was sunny today after the early morning fog cleared. Yesterday morning, a flock of migrating ducks landed on the lake next to the campground.






I had never seen so many in one group before, there were thousands coming down the lake and crossing it near the dam. We watched a continuous stream of them go by for several minutes. What a sight to see!

Sunday, November 4, 2018

Sunday in Ashdown

We started out the day by going to Mass at a church on the edge of Ashdown which is about 13 miles from here. After mass, we were invited to a parish pot luck dinner which they have the first Sunday of every month. The food was great and we got to visit with several people there. We drove around on a few back roads on the way home. This is the view from the front of the motorhome toward the dam.


From the bottom of the dam looking back at the campsite.


Pictures of the road down to our campsite.



A mushroom growing up the hill from us.


The shore by our campsite.


Tonight's sunset.


There are supposed to be thunderstorms along our route from here to Waco tomorrow, so we are going to stay here until Tuesday.

Friday, November 2, 2018

Ashdown, AR

We traveled the backroads through the Ouachita National Forest today and stopped at Beards Bluff campground on Millwood Lake near Ashdown, AR we have a nice site right on the shore of the lake and since it is a COE park, our senior pass gets us half off on the camping rate. At $7.50 per night we are going to stay awhile. Good to have some down time together after a busy summer. We are watching the sun set over the lake.


Thursday, November 1, 2018

Alma, AR

Yesterday we left Nevada and drove to Alma, AR. We were on the Interstate most of the day driving in the rain. We took a scenic drive through the hills near here as the rain stopped. Most of the trip was through some very scenic hills with a lot of fall color. Would have been some great pictures without the rain.








We are the Fort Smith-Alma RV park. We decided to stay here for 2 nights to give us time to make it to All Saints Day Mass and browse through some big discount stores here near the campground. Tomorrow we are heading down through the Ouachita National Forest and hope to stay at a Corps of Engineers lake near Ashdown, AR.