Joust Kicking Around

Much progress has occurred on the house and its environs! We've been busily unpacking and piling up the mountains of stuff we don't need anymore on the porch. Will we have a yard sale? Or will we just take it to donate (or the dump)? Good question. Not sure yet.


First off, let's talk about wildlife today. Noel and I had to jump in and perform Turtle Rescue 2010, when we saw this little guy in the middle of the road:

That's him, resting (and probably panicking) in the floorboard of the truck. Noel safely relocated him to the creek by our house.

He is probably a very happy turtle now, thinking he had a near-death experience that somehow transported him to the reptile equivalent of Beverly Hills.

In other flora and fauna news, Mom came over on Friday and helped me clean out the old flower beds by the house's front porch. We left the mint & sage already growing there, but tore out everything else (mostly weeds) and planted some hostas and some plants that are perhaps weeds, but they're pretty flowering weeds! I also planted some basil, rosemary, and catnip seeds. They should start coming up soon.

Speaking of coming up, look!!!

Our cucumber seeds are growing!! I am SO. EXCITED.

The other stuff in the garden should be coming up soon, and might already be coming up (I haven't checked on the garden in 2 days). (I am perhaps a bit impatient to be a gardener.)

And as a last fauna update, the kitties were relocated to the house last week. They weren't sure what to think of the house at first:

They hid under the couch for oh, about 3 hours. But then started to explore, and I'm happy to report they seem to be enjoying the new house quite a bit. They have lots of windows to stare out of, lots of bugs to catch (must spray the house for bugs!), and their choice of furniture to sleep on:

King of the Castle, indeed.

I got them a crinkle cave and Loki particularly seems to really love it.

Right now they're sleeping next to me on the couch. I think it's good for them to have lots of space to run around - it was always one of my concerns in the RV that they didn't have enough room.

Speaking of the RV, I can hear all of you now asking "where is the RV?" On Saturday morning, bright and early, we went to pick up the RV from the campground and bring it over here. See, we have plenty of room here at the house to park it and keep an eye on it (and also get our residual junk out of it on our own time). We also have a steep and curvy driveway that makes bringing the RV to the house a special challenge. Our nice landlady and her mom (who lives next door to us) kindly allowed us to drive through her yard and the field between our homes.

We drove through it once with the truck just to make sure we could make it, and then went and got the RV. We cut quite a swath through the field!

We managed to get the RV into position and park it just fine.

The only issue occurred right as we pulled it off the asphalt road, when the bumper fell off. FELL OFF. Completely.

Kelli's Towing Service to the rescue. Heh.

So the RV is here, with only a small appendage lost, and now we have all our vehicles in one spot.

Yesterday, Noel and I decided to go to the Renaissance Faire in Rogersville, TN. It was, frankly, somewhat disappointing. Noel had never been to one before, and I had high hopes that this would be similar to other faires I've attended. It was MUCH smaller, with only a dozen booths, and NO steak on a stake, my absolute favorite thing to eat at these faires. SIGH.

We didn't bother to wear costumes (I have my blue velvet Renn dress but it was hot out and also...the dress was a bit tight. Must go on diet.) Noel had his kilt to wear, but said that if I wasn't going to dress up, he wouldn't either. I don't think he believed me that lots of people wear kilts to these things. Anyway, I would've been seriously overdressed at this affair, because other than the royal party, who were wearing gorgeous costumes:

the other costumed women were dressed up as...how can I put this politely?.....ladies of the night. Inexpensive ones. Noel asked me why they weren't dressed in normal Renaissance dresses like mine, and I was asking myself the same question. There were more women dressed as "fairies" (and I use that term loosely, which is also how they were attired) than actual historical women. Mini-skirts, bare midriffs, fake fairy wings, belly dancing costumes with bra tops, and one woman actually wearing a string bikini with a chainmail loincloth over it (!?!?!) all made me sad for the future of the Renaissance Faire. See, I always liked to go to these things in the dresses I took a lot of time in making, and enjoying the pseud0-historical chivalry of the times. Now it's a meat market, similar to Halloween, when women compete to see who can wear the skimpiest costume.

I just don't get it. What's wrong with elegance and leaving things to the imagination? I worry for girls nowadays, growing up with this kind of example.

Anyway. Enough sermonizing.

We had some food that was NOT steak on a stake (sigh) and then proceeded over to the jousting area. And this is where things turned around for our Renn Faire experience, because these guys were AWESOME. Full armor, full contact jousting. Loved it.

Before the jousting began:

(PONIES!!!)

Getting all suited up:

And this is the best picture I could get of the actual jousting action, very blurry because it was pretty fast.

I have much higher hopes for the Highland Games in July - they're supposed to be HUGE and very impressive. They won't have steak on a stake, but we can surely get some shortbread and meat pies!

La La Laaaa! Spring is Springing!

First, please bear with me for a minute.

You know what irks me? When you move into a campground and try to pay by going by the office, but no one's there, so you end up going back again later but still no one is there. And then the next day there's a snotty note on your door saying you need to come and pay NOW. So you go back to the office and yet again no one's there? And you go yet again a little while later, but still they're not there? And finally, on the FIFTH visit to the office, the manager is there and is rude, and when you say "I came by four times to try to pay but you weren't here," said manager then ARGUES with you about what exact times you came by to pay, to defend herself?

This did not bode well for my loving the last campground we were in. It had its advantages: super-close to a great HEB. Ok, so it had 1 advantage. Disadvantages? The spaces were EXTREMELY close to each other on all sides, so we had to leave the blinds shut all the time. Because the spaces were so small, we had to park the utility trailer (with all of Noel's tools and McBertha the Celtic Motorcycle) in a parking lot up front, which we don't like to do. The road to get to the campground was so riddled with potholes that it felt like you were driving over uneven speedbumps for a mile.

Also the manager was a JERK.

The good news? We found out that Noel's job (that started today) is not in Texas City (southeast of Houston) after all, but further north. We went back up to Baytown (northeast of Houston) and scored a nice BIG spot at the Casa RV Park, where we've stayed before, and it makes me soooo happy. Why?

Big spaces! We can spread out and have enough room that we can put out our lawn chairs and grill out and breathe! And also keep the blinds open!

See? A huge driveway (it's twice as long as in this pic) and our own little yard!

(It's the little things you appreciate when you live in an RV - like water pressure! It's always a crapshoot from one park to another, but good water pressure is something you don't miss until you don't have it!)

The manager is super-nice. He wasn't here yesterday when we arrived, but we had called and he reserved the best open spot he had for us, and he came by a little while ago to collect the rent and make sure we had everything we needed.

It's cheaper than the other RV park.

It's so much prettier too. We have trees here! Lovely lovely trees, giving us some shade and lots of pretty green grass. I'm SO much happier here. Even without the fancy HEB. I'll survive.

Ok, now to the title of this post. For those of you still in the frozen north....sorry. It's warm, sunny, and beautiful here. I went out yesterday evening to get some pictures of the trees around our space.

This gorgeous shade of green and all this new budding life can't help but make you feel a bit happier, really. Even with the pollen.

Speaking of, Dr. Rachel? I don't seem to be allergic to anything thus far down here. (My sister and I both have allergy problems, but to different places - I'm allergic to NC, she's allergic to GA).

The cats are loving it too - they enjoy when we can open the blinds up, because it's so much easier to find a sunny spot to lay in. I've got the windows and vents opened up too (no need for A/C yet) so they can hear and see the birds outside, and are enjoying that as well.

Speaking of nice weather, I think I'm going to go out for a stroll in it. Ta ta!

No Meowing But Also No Battery Power

Meet our little friend, Mr. Alternator!

We got the chance to become closely aquainted with Old Man Alternator this morning, when we left the campground. We got a whopping 13 miles down the road before we started having trouble. Sigh.

To sum up, 2 hours later, we had traded in Old Man Alternator for New Youngster Alternator and were back on the road again.

Thankfully, that was the only major issue we ran into (other than some heavy rain!). We're spending the night just outside of Birmingham, AL and boy are we glad for the good night's rest!

On a good note, the cats were absolute champs today - even Loki! I hardly heard a peep out of him! Amazing.

Tomorrow's Goal: Louisiana!

Riverfront Campground!

Today was very overcast (again), but I went ahead and tried to get some pictures anyway. If it clears up in the next few days, I'll try to take some sunny pictures too. But these should get you started, anyway!

This campground is built right behind an old farmhouse that was built at the turn of the 1900s. The owners of the campground live in the upper floors, but the bottom floor is a very nice camp store, book swap, etc.

Also, did I mention it's gorgeous?

This is a view of the campground from the store/house, looking toward the river. See it? Kinda hard to see from this angle, but that's the Nolichuckey River back there. (Don't worry - I got better pictures further down).



This campground is sooooo pretty. It has a little stage, a pavilion, horseshoe pit (too bad we didn't buy an horseshoes in Texas!), a nice fire pit, and a bathroom/laundry house that is IMMACULATE. Seriously, it's nicer than most hotels I've been in. And NO SPIDERS. I am thrilled.

Here's the campground from the river.



Wanna see the river now? Ok! Here you go!



Noel decided to go rock climbing, because he's nothing if not a daredevil.



While he was off scrambling around on big rocks, I was busy taking pictures of moss. Heh.



Don't worry - I was keeping an eye on him, just in case he fell in and I had to play Mighty Mouse.

Here I come to save the DAAAAAY!

Thankfully he didn't require rescuing, which is good because that water would be COLD.

Our RV site is on the higher part of the campground. We have nobody right next to us, and a huge field behind us, which is nice - gives the feeling of being out by ourselves! We *heart* privacy!



Poe and Loki are enjoying all the birds around here too. Lots to look and growl at. :)


There are other sites here - they're day-use sites (they have water & electricity, but no sewer, which is why we're not in them). These are RIGHT NEXT TO THE RIVER. How's THIS for a view!?:



We went for a scenic drive the other day and saw this gorgeous piece of property, down in a valley between several mountains. It has a creek on the property and isn't it just incredible?



Oh, and Rachel? I forgot to tell you - your yarn arrived! And it's SO PRETTY:




I really think the colors are SO me. Dontcha think? ;)

Rachel won this yarn on another person's blog (http://franknotes.wordpress.com/), and I find this amazing. This is the second knitting-related thing my sister has won from other people's blogs. My sister does not knit. I never win anything (except a Kool & the Gang record when I was about 10), even though I enter contests all the time. But! The great thing? Her luck becomes my luck, because she sends me the knitting-related stuff! Granted, this yarn is to make a pair of socks for her, but I get the joy of knitting with some gorgeous stuff. (The other thing she won once was a knitting book from one of our favorite blogs, www.crazyauntpurl.com, which is now in my knitting library).

So Rachel? Keep up the contest entering! :-D (Oh, and never learn to knit, ok?)

Speaking of crafty stuff, Noel and I have been seeing these gorgeous paintings on the sides of old barns all over this area. I got really excited about them, because they're paintings of traditional quilt patterns. So cool, to see a place embracing the traditional arts & crafts of their local culture, no? Well, today I found the website for the project. It's called The Quilt Trail. Check out these links to see some gorgeous old barns with beautiful paintings on them:

http://www.quilttrail.org/

I just LOVE that idea and will try to get some pictures of these paintings as we see them.

Ok, guess that's enough for today. Have a lovely Tuesday, everyone!

Go East, Young Man! (And also Gal & 2 Cats)

Where have we been!? How dare we leave the internet bereft of tales of our adventures!? Explanations are below.

First, I'd like to send out a big HELLO to J.R. Ewing, who commented on the last post. Unfortunately we won't be able to visit South Fork anytime in the immediate future, but will definitely call in a raincheck. Also, hope that gunshot wound is healing nicely. :)

Well, the ups and downs of the freelance life: the Corpus Christi job fell through. However, we've heard about some great opportunities in Tennessee and North Carolina (Noel's and my home states, respectively) and so we're chasing after them. Why? Three reasons:

1. We have the flexibility to go where the work is. Take THAT, economy!

2. Fewer mosquitos = more blood still inside our bodies.

3. Summer temps generally cooler than Scorching Surface of The Sun.

Ok, ok. Yes, Texas is awesome. We totally plan to go back there. We will miss Texas (see? I said it). So in all fairness, here are 3 reasons why:

1. Great Mexican food. And BBQ. And donuts.

2. Ponies!!!

3. Winter = 56 and sunny. Also the boots are great.

4. Oh, and Hobby Lobby stores all over the place.

So we're heading east. We left Texas yesterday, probably overly optimistic about the length of time it would take to complete this 1054 mile sojourn. We were also tragically low on Mountain Dew. We managed to go 360 miles before stopping for the night in eastern Louisiana. Funny thing - we were researching yesterday afternoon for a campground near our location, when one of the men on the crew Noel's been working with called us to say hi, and we found out he lived about 15 miles away! Since he's a super-nice guy and also had all the RV hookups necessary for an overnight stay, we parked in his yard. His wife made dinner, we stuffed ourselves, and life was good.

Today we've made it to Birmingham, Alabama. We'll leave early tomorrow morning to try to beat the snow to Tennessee (it's like that chase scene at the end of Dracula - will we make it before the snow engulfs us? Will we be eaten alive by blood-sucking banshees? Tune in next week to find out!)

This has been an educational trip. To wit:

(1) The RV does not seem particularly fond of hills. This will be tested tomorrow in particular, as we drive into the Appalachian mountains. We may be forced to hook Poe & Loki up to a bridle and have them help pull the thing. Which would result in exactly 0.0% increase in uphill power.

(2) Louisiana is a swamp. The entire state. Did you not know this? I was not aware. Until this morning. Photographic evidence to support this:

The People's Exhibit #1



The People's Exhibit #2



The People's Exhibit #3



IMPORTANT TRAVEL TIP: When staying in an RV in Louisiana, make sure your host has a large tractor & tow chain.

(3) The Mississippi River has some lovely bridges going over it.



Mom, this one's for you. It's the best I could get of a Mississippi Riverboat.



Look! Bridgey Thing In Sky!



(4) We use a large cat carrier (actually made for dogs) to transport the cats while on the road. This is for several reasons, namely for their safety in a traveling vehicle, and so we can see if they're doing ok, plus they have room to move around a bit and get comfy. They ride with me in the back seat of the truck, which is a smoother and quieter ride than in the RV. They are spoiled and are fed treats, and I play Enya for them in an effort to relax them. No, really.



Loki hates the cat carrier. Poe is not fond, but is very Zen about it - we stuff him in there, he accepts his fate and lays down and sleeps. Loki, however, is the Anti-Zen. He lets us know, approximately every .63 seconds, that he is, in fact, still in the carrier despite his wishes NOT to be in said carrier. He does this as loudly as possible, sometimes drawing a single meow out into about 5 syllables. It's really quite impressive. And is also worse than facing the Spanish Inquisition for 8 hours.

Today he was in rare form. There were maybe, out of the entire day, three 20-minute breaks in his opera, Tragedy Of A Tortured Cat, in which he had the starring role of The Wretched One Forced To Endure Misery In This Evil Plastic Box of Doom. When we arrive at the RV park, the first thing I do is let them out into the house, feed them some soft food, pet them, and then clean out the carrier. I was in the midst of this routine, folding the blanket I just pulled out of the carrier, when I happen to look down and see Loki.

Sitting in the carrier.

Voluntarily, just sitting there, looking around like he'd never seen the stupid thing before. I finally went to take a picture, and he walked out and ate some more.

Sigh. Just watch - tomorrow, the drama will begin once again. Act I: The Accursed Bastille Awaits.

(5) (Bet you forgot I was even doing a list, didn't you?). Yesterday, we discovered that our RV was less than 12 feet high. How did we discover this?



Very carefully.

So tomorrow's adventures will hopefully be without incident. We'll let you know when we get there!

Birthday Sniffles

Hello, from a year-older traveling gypsy woman who received a present she definitely didn't want for her birthday...

a cold.

I've been knocked down since Friday night with a bad cold and sinus issues. Hurrah. I'm still on cold medicine and have been steaming my head in an effort to stop the sinus pressure. Noel had problems on Friday too, but seems to be healthier than I am, since he's recovered nicely.

Old age stinks.

Anyway, on my birthday, we went to a local living history museum. It was interesting, although not necessarily historically accurate (there were things from all different kinds of time periods thrown together, hodge-podge).

As with most living history museums, it had old buildings set up as businesses/homes of the time. There were lots of interesting things, including this:

We thought at first it was a coffin, but it isn't. It's a wicker basket shaped like a coffin, used to bring badly injured soldiers off of the field of battle. It's where the phrase "basket case" comes from. Interesting!

We did see a coffin too, of the old toe-pincher variety.

They had old wagons (this one was pretty stylin'!):

I was thrilled with the old dresses and boots (look at how narrow their feet were!):

And an added treat - Victorian sewing patterns that were printed in the newspapers of the time:

Noel looks warily at the dunce cap in the schoolhouse:

(hee hee - just kidding!)

Some of you may not know, but I have an irrational fear of clowns. Most people don't understand where this comes from. I'll show you EXACTLY why clowns are scary:

Some kid had nightmares for the rest of his life after receiving this. Even Stephen King would be terrified of that thing.

Yesterday evening, a very interesting and bizarre bus moved into the campground. They stopped right outside of our RV, and Noel went out to make sure everything was ok. He was out there a few minutes, then came back in and told me I had to check out this RV in the morning. He wasn't kidding!

Isn't that AWESOME? And weird!? He actually got to go on it, and said that the woodwork on the inside was amazing. I didn't get to see the inside, but snapped a few pics this morning before they left. It's owned by a religious sect called the Twelve Tribes, a Christian group that resembles 1970 hippie communes.

We did find some pictures of the inside of the bus on the internet. You can see them here:

http://rides.webshots.com/album/549608275rEehcF

Gorgeous, isn't it? They built it themselves - what incredible workmanship! We just loved it!!

Happy Birthday, Elvis!

Yesterday Noel and I had a productive day. Remember those cowboy boots Noel bought a while back? Well, they've gone to his head, and he's now changed his residency to Texas. (Actually there are good logistical reasons too, but I think the boots had a lot to do with it.)

First off, we had to drive to Livingston, TX to get a new mailing address (through an RV club we belong to). Then we had to go get the vehicles inspected:




(We don't have to get the RV inspected yet, thankfully!)



Then he had to go to the vehicle registration place, and then the driver's license office. Here's the proud new Texan hugging his new truck tags:

I asked him if Texas issues a gun with every driver's license. He wasn't sure. :)

We then went back toward our little house, but along the way stopped for gas at a big gas station/travel center called Buc-ee's (as in, a Beaver).

They had an impressive store! Check out the entrance to the bathroom!!

(Sometimes people think it's weird I'm taking pictures of the bathroom. Whatever. I can't help it if I'm more easily amused than they are.)

They also had the requisite Texas stuff (which I guess Noel is now qualified to purchase), including a wooden cutting board like the ol' Lone Star flag:

The furniture in the store was really impressive though! Check out this leather chaise lounge:

The rustic furniture was nice:

And this Bull Horn chair is awesome:

And these stools, made out of old tractor seats (they were incredibly comfortable!):

One of my favorite things were the leather rugs. They still had the hair on them, so they were really lovely. This one looked like a star.

They had racks and racks of different designs, and they reminded me of quilts. So cool.

Buc-ee's also had various woodland creatures with whom to be photographed:

Buc-ee himself, with Noel

And a bear & cub (NO, they weren't taxidermied animals, they were stuffed fake ones - I love them! But they wouldn't fit in the RV.)

They also had some reminders that we are indeed in the southern part of the country:

An outdoor double deep-fryer. Oh my. Forget the grill. FRY that steak! Can't you just feel the cholesterol?

And to go with your camouflage beer? Camo popcorn. So the deer won't steal it, perhaps? Are those hidden calories? HA.

It was really cold yesterday. We had to bundle up big time.

(Please note Noel is wearing his Christmas hat this time. And he was so worried.)

When we got back home, we realized we had to make an emergency propane run. The inside thermometer:

Yup. 46. INSIDE. (No worries - the kitties were fine. Basking in the sun in the front window, as usual.)

It got extremely cold last night, and this morning I went outside to find this:

That's one big icicle!!! We weren't aware of a leak here, so...well, now I guess we know.

Tomorrow morning we head back down toward Houston for the next job. We'll be staying in the same campground we stayed in the last time we were down there. Fairfield has been a nice town, and we've definitely enjoyed our time here. Maybe we'll be back!