POTR #69 It Is Spring Time In Texas

PEACE ON THE ROAD

It Is Spring In Texas

March 24, 2012

The first thing that I should do in writing this is to bring you up to date on the condition of my health because the last I wrote I was still in pretty poor condition. The last thing I wrote was that I was unable to get from a kneeling position to a standing position without help. I am thankful that I can now get up without help. I would not mind having something, maybe a bucket, to place a hand upon to assist my legs. I did not drive any vehicle from September to February, but now I have been driving seven weeks and feel confident that I am safe back on the road. People who are not close to me think that I have recovered totally. I am not claiming more than 85-90% recovery so far. I still have a ways to go but at least I feel that I can do about everything I need to do. I was able to resume being the editor of the park newspaper back in November. That was a job that I could do sitting down at the computer and my brain was recovered enough to handle the job. Around Christmas time I started to teach in the Computer Club on a limited basis. A few times I had to cut off a session or pass the session to someone else because I would lose my voice and could not talk. By this time I can be almost as mouthy as I ever could. The other day I drove an hour and half to South Padre, took a “Pirate” cruise, and drove an hour and half back home and still felt like I was fresh. That made me feel good mentally of course. I know that I have some more recovery to still do. I am certainly glad that I have recovered as well as I have. To be honest I do not believe that I will ever fully understand how fortunate I have been this year.

In a lot of respects I live a lifestyle that is not common to the average person. Just the fact that I live in a motorhome fulltime and do not have a home anywhere that has a foundation touching the ground puts me in a small percentage of the population. Couple that with wintering in an area that has people from both the countries that border the USA and I drop to an even a smaller percentage of the population. Here in Rio Grande Valley just 3 miles from the border of Mexico border there are a lot of Mexican residents and workers. In fact it is reported that 80% of the population is Hispanic. When the Winter Texans return to the valley that figure must drop somewhat because there are nearly a quarter million that come to the valley when it is the coldest in the north. It has also been stated that 80% of the population is bilingual, and I think that must drop in the middle of winter with the Winter Texans back.

There are also a lot of Canadians that come down from north of the border, with quite a few being from the Provence of Quebec where they speak French. So here we sit with people speaking Spanish and French. Everywhere we go to eat or shop a lot of people are speaking a language that I do not.

I have always been partial to little girls. I suppose that is due at least in part to the fact that my only child is female. I am sure I would have been happy with a son but I have never felt any loss in not having a one. With the large Hispanic population down here there are many small children anywhere we go and they are so pretty. I tend to like the little girls more than the boys after a certain age, but either of them have such beautiful brown eyes and black hair. Also the parents tend to dress up the girls in cuter outfits with bows and frills than the boys. I have heard from several people that the kids are disciplined at home more that the children of the whites. That may well be right because they seem to be better behaved than the average child. It also seems to me that there are family values in the Mexican families that may have been lost in many homes. While I cannot prove it and I don't like generalities, in general I think that the care of the elderly by the Hispanic people is better than average.

I have seen a lot of different attitudes toward both the Quebec, Canadians and the Mexicans down here. A lot of people have an attitude that I would have to say is incorrect. Most of my life I have heard that the people in New York City were rude and unfriendly and never helpful. When I was there I found the opposite. People were polite, friendly and very helpful. I have come to the conclusion that a lot of times a person sees in people a combination of what they expect and what they act like themselves. I have heard people say the French from Quebec are unfriendly and do not associate with Americans. I have found exactly the opposite to be true. They are very warm and eager to be friends. If I were in Quebec or Mexico City and could only speak a small amount of the local language I would guess that I would tend to spend my time with American speaking people and might well be considered stand offish. In a lot of ways it is unfortunate that my willingness to learn another language is not great. If I wanted to, I could submerge myself in Spanish or spend a lot of time with French speaking people. But I only want to learn a few words of either language, just enough to be polite I guess.

My daughter teaches in a section of a college that is set up for the people that live in the deaf culture. So of course she has learned American Sign Language. From what I have been told by others she is quite good at it. This is another culture whose language I could learn. While I would have less contact with that language than I do with French or Spanish I could learn it. I know quite a few of the deaf at least by facial recognition. If it were not for their willingness and ability to share with me in my own language I would have less friends, and I do consider some of them to be friends. With just a little effort I might consider them the same way some people I have met consider the people of New York City, or Quebec or Mexico. But I have learned that to my thinking that way is simply wrong.

I have heard many bad things about “Mexicans” in general. But I am willing to bet that any group that could be conceived has had the same things said about them by some other group. When I say group I mean someone like the Irish, the Jews, the Germans, the teenagers, the Texans, the hill people, the valley people, the Christians, the lumberjacks, and the list could go on for pages. In every group there are some that will be undesirable and live up to the bad reputation. But I for one believe that for the most part people just want to live a good life by their standards and raise their children in a healthy situation. Because a person does not agree with my beliefs does not make them wrong, it just makes them different.

Things are different down here in the Valley where there is a culture difference from what I grew up with. There are several “Colonias” in the area of Mission/McAllen. It is reported that there are well over 2,200 of them near the Texas/Mexico border with a population of nearly a half million people. The Colonias are usually laid out on land that is not suitable for for farming or ranching. The people that live in the Colonias are some of the poorest people in the country. According to many they are also some of the hardest working people if they have an opportunity. Bentsen Grove resort does what it can to help one of the local Colonias. When people replace furniture or household dishes or bedding or just about anything that is found in a home and have no need of the old items they are often given to some of the residents here who in turn take it to the Sisters at the Colonia who then give the items to the needy. I understand one or two truck loads are taken there every week. The residents build homes as they can afford material which includes things like a door or a used window or wall which is torn down one place and brought home to build another room. Often the only water available is from a garden hose connected to a neighbor or an extension cord from a neighbor who has electricity. Well over 1,500 coats are collected by BGR (Bentsen Grove Resort) and given to a group that is represented by the weather reporter of a local TV station. BGR auxiliary sponsors ten families every Christmas so that the children can have some new clothes and toys and a quilt that they have made. As people are leaving the valley for the summer they are asked to donate any food that they would normally throw away to the Colonias. It is a bit strange to think that these people would welcome a half box of cereal or half a jar of ketchup. But that is the situation they live in. I truly cannot imagine the desperate situation that these people live in. Compared to them most people I know are rich.

There are a lot of Ropa Usada (used clothes) stores down here unlike any thing that I have ever seen anywhere else. Some are clean, organized, and equal to any upscale used clothes store I might see in Kansas or Colorado or New York. But there are many that are quite different. Forklifts will bring in bundles that weigh a ton or more and are bound with steel bands. The bands are cut and the clothes are dumped on a warehouse floor where people searching for clothes sort through large mounds of new or used articles. Some BGR residents have found New Tuxedos with a price tag on them. Others have found some of the weirdest clothes you could imagine which they bought to wear for Halloween or some of the stage performances here at the park that almost require a weird attire. We went to one the other day and bought nine coats for $5.25, or thirty cents a pound for the coat drive. If we had wanted to spend more time there were a lot more available. The women that were looking for clothes were into the piles like chickens after a fat bug every time the forklift brought a new batch of clothes to the area.

PEOPLE LOOKING FOR CLOTHES AT A ROPA USADA WAREHOUSE

I have not been doing a lot of activities more than have been necessary. A year ago while we were at a park meeting Erma won a free ticket to the South Padre “Pirate” cruise. We immediately bought a ticket for me, but due to circumstances we could not go for about a year. The cruise was a lot of fun. There were several “crew members” that put on quite a show for all the passengers and it was especially a show for the kids, which there were several. There were sword fights between the crew and they passed out water pistols to everybody and there was a lot of water squirted at everybody. If a person did not get squirted by other passengers the crew squirted them. They also had a treasure hunt for the kids. Pieces of eight were scattered around the deck and the children picked up the “booty” and put them in a bucket. Whoever picked up the most “pieces of eight” would get a prize. When the pieces were counted the crew decided that everyone had done such a good job of collecting the booty that all should get a prize. The crew was great! Most of their talk was right out of a buccaneer movie, and they tried to get everybody to talk the same way. Just about everybody was painted up with a mustache and some of the ladies had a small bird or fish or something else painted on them. After all don't all pirates have a tattoo? Out of the same port they have dolphin watch cruises. We saw several pods of dolphin. We were told that two hundred or more dolphin spend the whole year in the area we were cruising. We got some pictures but maybe on some later outing I can get good pictures.

THE BLACK DRAGON PIRATE SHIP TIED TO THE DOCK AT PORT ISABEL

It is definitely getting to be late spring here in South Texas. The trees are all leafed out again, flowers are blooming everywhere and the temperatures are up in the 80's and 90's. But one of the big signs is all the Winter Texans are leaving in hordes. The park is getting to actually look vacant. Many of the activities are shutting down and the chair people are heading north. In just a few weeks there will be none left except those that live here all year. There are about a hundred full time residents.

We have not decided when we will slowly move out of Texas but I have been telling neighbors that we will be here till some time between the end of April and some time in May. We will need to go back to Forest City, Iowa to the Winnebago factory with the hope that they can fix the leak problems that were supposed to be fixed last fall. I am not anxious to return to where I got bit by the mosquito. It is hard for a lot of people to understand that we do not make a lot of plans as to where we will go. We want to travel as the wind of our minds dictate. There have been several times that we left for vacation with no destination selected. That will be our plan this summer also. I will let you know later where we are.

Till later this is Doug of

Peace On The Road   

POTR #68 Undesired Events

Peace On The Road

Undesired Events

November 1, 2011

I remember back when I was a teenager that there was a joke that was told and at the time it seemed very funny. The question would be asked, “Do you know how to keep an old person occupied and happy for a couple hours?” And the answer was, “Ask them, 'Have you ever been in the hospital?'” Then we would laugh and mention someone who had been in the hospital having some operation. At that time I did have some interest in the “adventures” of the person who had been in the hospital but not a lot of interest. I will not try to say why, but as I have aged I truly have become more interested in the medical events of peoples lives. I suspect it is a lot due to the fact that I care for people more and I am closer to being in the same situation. I have experienced one of those situations now. As a much younger man I had thought that I never wanted to become an oldster who always told about “my experience in the hospital.” I WILL try to not be one who has nothing else to discuss. For a couple of reasons I feel that it is acceptable to write about my hospital adventure here. First, I have been specifically asked to write this in a POTR by one of my friends. Second, seven years ago I made a promise to some friends that I would write about the things that I did, where I traveled and what was happening in my life. This definitely has happened in my life. So to honor both reasons I will write this for you. At least this POTR is more than just the hospital.

We had a wonderful time in Rochester visiting our daughter. I retrospect I can say that we did not leave there in the best of shape. Our Jeep has a tire pressure monitoring system. If one of the tires drops to below 31 psi there is a light that displays on the dash. Since the motor home is diesel it has air brakes and therefore a compressor on board. I put some air in the tire and it was over a day before the pressure dropped below 31 psi again. Okay, just a slow leak and not something that I was overly concerned with. We started back to the Winnebago factory to have the rest of the scheduled repairs completed with a slow leak in a tire on the Jeep. We also have a tire pressure monitoring system that will tell me the pressure on all ten tires of the motor home and Jeep while I am driving. The first day I had to put air in the tire only once. Then it got more frequent till it was about once an hour, not a big deal but a real nuisance. We stopped in a town that had a Discount Tire store. I bought the Jeep tires from them. They spent a long time diagnosing the problem and discovered that the wheel itself had developed a hole and was leaking under the chrome plating. The solution was to get a different wheel installed. They took the tire off the wheel and put it on the spare wheel so that I could drive until I could get a wheel. Then they remounted the spare on the bad wheel and put it back under the Jeep. All of this was done for no charge. It would have been expensive anywhere else. I like Discount Tire stores. They have treated me fairly and they are in many states and all honor their service contracts.

Somewhere along the trip I turned on the motor home dash air conditioner and discovered that the only air flow was through the defrost vents in the dash. This was no big deal for comfort because we could run the generator and use the house AC, which we do on very hot days when we are driving. This worked well until the house AC stopped and would not run at all. Fortunately the weather cooled off a bit and we were not uncomfortable. However I was beginning to feel like with just a bit more bad luck we would not make it to Forest City, Iowa for the repairs at all. But on Sunday afternoon we did make it without further problems and were ready to put the motor home into the shop.

We stayed in a motel for two nights while the rear slide was effectively removed and the repair work was done on its leak. This is the leak that existed when it was new and had been “repaired” numerous times, that is until it rained. The factory techs were not happy with some of the wooden parts that were sent to them so they had to reorder other parts. If you recall one of the reasons to go the the factory was to eliminate the necessity of ordering parts. The factory would have all the parts in their warehouse. Obviously that was not the case. They did have many parts in stock. Like a new air conditioning unit which we decided to have installed. The compressor had failed and it was almost as expensive to repair as the cost of a complete new AC. A new compressor installed with old everything else just did not seem prudent. At least the complete new unit has a two year warranty. There were several other items that we had worked on also. Like a house or a car a motor home needs things done on a regular basis and there is just a certain cost that will occur.

The Jeep needed an oil change so we took it to the Jeep dealer in Forest City. They did a 27 point check and found every thing okay, except they found some rubber bushings that were worn and age hardened. The Jeep would make a clunking sound under certain conditions which a couple other Jeep dealers were never able to find. To replace them it would require a full day of labor to remove the front axles, put in the bushings and replace the axles. We told them to order the parts and we would come back later and schedule the work.

Unless it is necessary don't ever buy a new wheel for a Jeep. The cost new was about $425.00. I went to the tire shop where I had purchased the Vectra tires. They checked the leaking wheel and said they had never seen that sort of problem before. They found a wheel at a salvage yard a few hundred miles away and I asked them to overnight it instead of shipment in a week. At the time I did not know that I was not leaving in about two days, but instead would be in the area for over a month. Even the salvaged rim cost me $170.00. At least I had a spare tire just in case I needed it.

Then things really fell apart. I have to be a bit vague about events for a while. I remember being tired for a while. Erma says I was not acting right for two days. Normally if I don't feel well I sleep for an entire day, get up and resume where I left off. I have snapshots of the events that followed and only a few of them. A lot of what happened I have learned from Erma. I was sitting at the table and she said that she thought she should call 911 and get me help. Of course I said I was okay. In a bit, whether seconds or minutes later I do not know, I fell out of the chair sideways. She said “I am calling 911”, and that time I agreed. The next snapshot is two men leaning over me, then the next one in being in a vehicle going down the road. I found out later that I was checked and had a fever of 105⁰ and they were traveling at over 90 mph getting me to the hospital. Erma was following behind in the Jeep. It has been years since she has driven a car that fast. After that it was about two weeks before I really remember much else. The 105⁰ fever indicated that I had an infection of some sort and they spent considerable time trying to determine what was infected. They of course ran the usual tests and found nothing wrong. It was stated that I was a puzzle to them. At one point I asked what time it was. When Erma pointed out the large clock on the wall I said there were two clocks. That got more attention from the Dr. and they ran a Cat-scan and an MRI which determined that I had not had a stroke. I remember thinking at one point that I must have had a stroke. Later when I heard someone telling Erma that I had not, it was sure a relief. A neurologist was brought in and he had a spinal tap performed. Then it was necessary to wait for the culture to grow for a day to determine that I had a viral infection. And still longer to determine that it was the West Nile Virus. During these several days the Dr. was saying, “If he survives this----”, which is not something that Erma wanted to hear, I did not know it was said. Since it was a virus there was not a thing that could be done except give me medication which would prevent any other infections. My body would have to fight off the virus on its own. I had very little knowledge of what was going on around me. I was never aware that there were four nurses getting me out of and back into bed. I was never aware that for a while I had a nurse 24 hours a day sitting by the bed just to keep the oxygen mask attached to my face. I understand that for a while I was not a good patient. I did not like the oxygen mask and I fought having it on.

Finally somewhere around two weeks I started to rally. I heard comments about my improvement being amazing or marvelous. I spent another week out of intensive care, sleeping most of the time. My daughter came to the hospital in spite of starting a new job and needing to attend to her new duties. That uplifted my spirits. Most of the time my spirits were asleep along with my body. Still it was wonderful to hear her say, “Daddy, I love you. You have to get well.” One day she went with her Mother to get something to eat. When she got back I said to her, “You weren't here when I needed you the most.” She instantly felt bad and asked, “What did you need?” When I said, “I got lonesome.”, she knew that I had not lost my sense of humor and I was just teasing her. I think perhaps that was also one of the first things I said that indicated that I was starting to recover. The other statement that came through to me was one time when I was fighting the CPAP oxygen mask and Erma was trying to get me to leave it alone. She said, “You have to leave this on to get better. You have to get better because I need you.” I will say that if a person is out of contact with reality for whatever reason it is good to talk to them and some of it will filter through the subconscious and be of value on a conscious level.

I was moved to a regular ward where I continued to improve. At one point I heard someone say that I would be moved to rehab in a couple weeks instead it was less than a week. I could sit up and get myself across the room with a minimum of help and sit on a chair without the danger of falling off. Needless to say I was very glad to get moved to rehab if for no other reason it meant that I was getting better. The only thing that was good during those three weeks was the fact that I lost weight. I do not recommend the hospital to lose weight, but I did lose 30-40 pounds and that is desirable. Erma says I ate more for her than anyone else during that time. Apparently I was simply too tired to eat. I only have one snapshot of her feeding me. It was not until my last week of being in the hospital that I remember going to a dining area and eating with other people. It quickly became evident that I was better off than several of the people that shared the dining area who had strokes or brain operations. There was a double knee replacement there also and he was doing best of all of us.

Before I was to be released we discussed our options. There of course was several options but except returning to Texas they involved staying in the cold for winter. Erma went to a fellow at Winnebago and he recommended a man who had delivered motor homes but was now retired. He drove us to Texas in three days. I spent those days laying on the couch trying to sleep as much as I could. It was a very long three days. When we arrived in Bentsen Grove there were people coming out of the streets to welcome us back and offer us help in setting up. There are several places that we have friends who would be willing to help but here they at most are a few hundred yards away instead of miles away. I have had more offers of help for anything I need than I would care to try to count. The first night that I was out of the hospital and slept in my own bed was wonderful. I could sit up and get out of the bed so much easier than at the hospital and take care of my night needs. But it was not until I was parked in BGR that I really slept well. I did not have the stress of needing to get up early and be ready for another day of travel. I was set with all the utilities that we use in daily life and would not need to move for months. I was not aware of how much stress I was under in Mason City, Iowa.

I regret most the necessity of giving up my volunteer activities here in BGR. I am getting better consistently, but still I can be very tired in minutes. Talking can exhaust me some days. Recently I was getting something out of the basement of the motor home. Without thinking I knelt down on one knee. I was instantly in trouble. I could not stand up on two feet. Erma does not let me get out of her sight for long. She came out and said, “You got yourself in a pickle.” She grabbed me by the waistband and lifted enough weight so that I could stand up. I am very thankful for a very caring helpmate.

Till later this is Doug of

Peace On The Road

POTR #67 The Erie Canal

PEACE ON THE ROAD

The Erie Canal

August 15, 2011

It does not seem to matter where I happen to travel if I take the time to think about my surroundings I am impressed with a feeling that I was born at a very good time in history. I enjoy history and learning about the events that have transpired in the past and there are many time periods that I would like to visit with the aid of a time machine. Even with that being said I was born after the depression recovery during the early part of WWII. I was too young for Korea and too old for Vietnam. During my lifetime there has been great strides in technology. The car has gone from fairly basic auto transportation for the average person to autos with AC, power steering, GPS navigation, automatic transmissions and many other things almost standard on any car. Trains have gone from steam to the bullet trains. I rather regret the loss of the stream trains. On the farm where I grew up I saw electricity, natural gas, pressurized water brought in, and the switch from mules to tractors. Even the writing that I do has progressed from a pencil (or crayon) to a computer with capabilities that I have not touched. If I had to write this POTR with a pencil or an old typewriter (which is difficult to correct or change) it would not exist. Photography has gone from a box film camera to a digital SLR and video for me. I could make a list of many other things that have improved for me in my lifetime.

If fate had decreed that I was born about 130 years earlier and near where I am camped I might have had an interesting job. It is possible that I could have had the second highest paying job on the largest (I believe) construction job in New York State up till 1817. Boys about 10 or 12 years old were hired to plant explosive charges (left over from the War of 1812) in crevices too small for a grown man, light a fuze and run for their lives before it exploded. The Erie Canal was built across New York at a cost of 7 million dollars. Today that would be the cost of a few barges. In 1817 it dug a canal 364 miles long, 4 foot deep and 40 foot wide. I remember a song from Grade School about 15 miles on the Erie canal. I found out that the average team could tow a canal boat for 15 miles before it would need to stop and rest and be fed, it was also about 8 hours of work. Some boats carried a team of animals on board to swap out so they could keep going longer than 8 hours. Mules, horses, oxen and manpower was the typical pulling power, but some boats even used teams of dogs. Manpower would assist to get the barge moving and the dogs could keep it moving. A fee of 1 or 2 cents per ton was charged for passage. This small amount repaid the loans taken out in just a few years. The canal was in direct competition with the railroad and was a lot cheaper to use. So the railroads would build their track across the canal in a manner that was designed to disrupt traffic on the canal. In Lockport, NY they built a bridge that was upside down. The normal superstructure was built beneath the tracks instead of over them, thus limiting the height that a canal boat could be stacked. In the areas that steamboats traveled the rivers similar tactics were used by the railroads in a deliberate attempt to destroy the tall smokestacks. The steamboats developed smoke stacks that hinged. I imagine that the canal boats also developed strategies to counter the railroad. We took a boat tour on the canal in Lockport that was very enjoyable. We went upstream through two locks that lifted us up 25 foot each. These two modern locks replaced five original locks that had a lift of 10 foot each. Along the Old Erie Canal there were at least 50 locks which had a maximum lift of 12 foot which allowed an elevation change of about 600 foot. The farthest structure in the picture below is one side of the widest bridge in the United States. When it was originally built it supported a turn-around for the trolly cars of the city. Today there is a Friendly's restaurant on top of the bridge. Towards the end of the tour we passed under two “lift” bridges. Different from the usual drawbridge that is pivoted from one end and the middle is raised these bridges raise both ends at the same time and the roadbed remains level, just higher. Along the side of the canal in Lockport there are several homes that are built of “freestone” that was cut from the Canadian Shield formation there. The local people were given the stone removed from the canal for “free” and all they had to do was haul it away. Stone masons shaped the material and built some very attractive homes in the area. There are many places that a tour of the Erie Canal can be taken. It is a part of the American history that we all know a little bit about and there is a lot more to be learned.

THE FIRST OF TWO LOCKS THAT WE PASSED THROUGH ON THE ERIE CANAL

I keep thinking that I would like to go back to 1960-61 during my first year of college and do something to make me understand the value of the education that was offered to me. I was required to take a class called, “Appreciation of Architecture.” I did not appreciate it near as much as I would today. It has been said that we get old too soon and smart too late. It is so true. Now I drive through town and marvel at the architecture of the buildings. There were many stone mason that worked building the Erie Canal. The Erie Canal itself provided stone for a lot of the building that the masons did. After the canal was completed in 1925 the masons looked for other material with which to build houses, schools, churches and other structures. One materials that they used was cobblestones which could be gathered from farmers fields and the shores of Lake Erie. The stones are a remnant left behind by the Ice Age. Stones were gathered and sorted by size and color. Then the masons would build structures with designs and patterns unique to the individual builder. Typically the structures were built with smaller stones that would fit into a mans hand. They formed intricate patterns on the front of the buildings with simpler designs on the side of the house. One house I walked around had the back built of the largest cobbles in simple rows with the foundation being built from even larger stones which were more like the large stones used in other states and in Europe. The masons that built the houses and other structures kept the formula of the mortar a secret and that formula was lost when they quit building or they died. There are cobblestone houses in a few other states but about 900 structures that were built within a 75 mile radius of Rochester, New York represent ninety five percent of all the cobblestone buildings in the United States. It has been stated that some of the houses took over three years to build. When one of the houses is viewed it is not hard to imagine a mason spending that length of time doing the work. It is very obvious that the building was not only for practical reasons but it was also a labor of love. It is very fortunate for us living today that the masons that built these homes built them to last for many years. The era of cobblestone building lasted about 35 years, ending about the time the Civil War started, with a small amount continuing into the 1880's. Most of the homes were built with fairly thick walls but there were some which used a thin facade that was built over a wooden structure, similar to some of the brick homes of today. Some of the homes that I saw had cobbles that were about the size of a small ducks egg. I think it was this size that was used in construction of the facade homes that I saw.

COBBLESTONE SCHOOLHOUSE WHICH WAS USED TILL 1952

It is very interesting that when I lived in Colorado I did not see deer very often. To see a fawn was very rare. It just about took a trip up into the mountains to feel that there was a good chance to see a herd of deer. Also when deer were sighted there was often a buck that would be in the herd or there would be one not too far away. Here in Rochester it is quite different. Right in the middle of a city area is the campus of the Rochester Institute of Technology. Our travels take us right by the campus a couple times nearly every day. I would say that 9 out of 10 days we would see at least one doe and usually two or three. At least half the time we see a fawn with the doe and often there are a couple fawn. The thing that is strange is that we have not seen a single buck. With an estimated herd of 200 white tailed deer on campus there has to be quite a few bucks. It is obvious that they are simply a lot more shy.

Tomorrow we leave and head back to the Winnebago factory in hopes of getting our leaks fixed.

Till later this is Doug of
Peace On The Road

POTR #66 The Winnebago Factory

PEACE ON THE ROAD

A Visit To The Winnebago Factory

July 8, 2011

According to the calendar it is now almost Independence Day. Summer is fast going past. I would like to tell you about the interesting places that I have visited lately, but that is just a bit limited this time. I left Texas and have traveled north to upper Iowa and then across the upper US. I have spent a lot of time “holed up” waiting for weather, tornadoes and rain to clear ahead of my intended route. Along the way I have seen many places that either I want to visit some time or it looked interesting as I drove past on the Interstate. I have been able to stop and see some friends in a couple places, but for the rest of the time it has been almost a duty to get to a specific destination for some reason.

For several years I have been wondering if it made sense to take the Vectra back to the factory in Forest City, Iowa to have it worked on. Until this year it would have been a rather long specific trip for a small amount of work, or what I thought would be a small amount. This year about the time we reached Oklahoma I looked and saw that we could change our route just a little and go to the factory. So that is just what we have done. We did not think we would have the problem of ordering parts from the factory and waiting a week before they could be delivered and then another week before the part could be installed. Everything we needed would be at the factory. That was excellent in theory but it did not work in practice all that well. It was likely a bit naive of me to think that even the factory would have all the parts necessary for a seven year old motor home. I have gotten a lot of education in coming here. Many parts still have to ordered from somewhere else. But the delivery time is short.

When we called in to see if was possible to get an appointment we got our first surprise. Either we could schedule an appointment for August or we could come in for an unscheduled service anytime and they could get us in within a day or two. I have not been able to figure out how those two work together. Either wait over two months or get in within a couple days. Why would a person wait months unless they lived in the area, but if they lived in the area then why would they wait that long. At any rate we were delayed during the trip up here by the weather. We really did not have the desire to drive through a lot of rain and through areas that were predicting high probability of severe winds and tornadoes. We arrived on a Monday afternoon and they thought that we could in Tuesday afternoon. We could stay in one of their parking lot sites that are reserved for the “unscheduled” people. It was finally Thursday that we were able to get in the first time. Their service day started at 7:00 and ended sharply at 3:00. The Vectra was in the shops for four days, being returned at 3:00 every day and over the weekend. We would move it to the parking area and set up camp every day.

I think that it would be logical for a factory campground to be nice. Again I suppose that I was being naive. The camping area is good gravel, the electricity is 30 amps only, which is just fine for small units that some people have. Nearly all the units that are here for service are large units that really should have 50 amp service. As long as the weather is not too hot, the microwave is not used, the water heater is on LP gas, 30 amp works just fine. But if it gets hot then there are going to be a bunch of people that will be short of power. I am now writing this a thousand miles away from the factory so I can say that we did not have hot weather. In fact it was cool and rainy. The rain was actually to our advantage. A new leak appeared in the front section of the RV last summer. When we were in Denver we took the Vectra into the dealer where it was bought to get the leaks repaired. Four times we took it in and four times we were told that it was fixed. After the last visit it didn't leak for a couple weeks, that is because we did not have any rain, by then we were many miles into our travels. Spending the winter in Texas where there was a severe drought was the best thing we could do. There was little rain and therefore no leaks, that is until we started moving north. The factory techs finally found and sealed (I think and hope) one of the leaks in the front. Another leak was around the windshield so the windshield had to removed and resealed. That led to a broken windshield and the installation of a new one. At least so far, through several rains there have been no leaks that we have detected.

We spent over a week in the parking lot of the visitors center at the Winnebago Factory. In addition to the leaks mentioned we have some issues that are caused by living in our motor home for seven years and there have been some problems from the day that we bought the Vectra. In our rear bedroom slide there has been a leak during every rain that we have been in from day one. We have taken it in to be fixed more times than I care to think about. It has been “fixed” in New York, Texas, Colorado and now here in Forest City, Iowa. We have been told every time that it is fixed. It is until the next rain. I hope that after we leave here I will not be able to say, “It leaked again.” The leaks should never have left the factory. We took a tour of the factory and they claim that all units are water tested with the equivalent of a 50 inch per hour rainstorm. I for one do not believe that was done to our unit before they shipped it, or nobody inspected the inside with any diligence after the test. We had several leaks fixed in New York on our first trip in 2004. For the most part New York did a good job. But many attempts to get the leak in the bedroom slide fixed have failed. Seven years of leaking in the bedroom slide has caused additional damage that will require a factory scheduled time to repair. Since we have the documentation that indicated we have have the leak “fixed” so many times the factory says, “We can work with you on the charges.” So towards the end of August we will return to the factory and hope to have fixed a leak that should have never left the factory in the first place.

We have read many places that tires should be replaced every six to seven years no matter how few miles it has. UV rays and oxygen cause tire rubber to deteriorate. Cracks develop in the sidewalls and the cord inside starts to weaken. My tires were seven years old in the last week of June. Again the factory should have tires. Right? Wrong! It was going to be up to ten weeks before any tires of the size I need would be produced by the tire manufacturer and then a while longer to be available. The service adviser called a local tire dealer. This is a small dealer in a small Iowa farm town that he called. He could have them in two days. That in itself was amazing to me but equally amazing was his price. He was at least $200 cheaper than any other price I had found including the factory if they ever got any. Don't get the idea the dealer was cheap. I need six tires and each one was over $500, mounted, balanced and exchanged. It is no wonder that many motor home owners will keep tires on for ten to fifteen years. We have heard numerous stories of tire failures which resulted in thousands of dollars in damages to the motor home. Also we have heard similar stories from people that bought low quality, cheap tires that perhaps were not maintained properly. Early in our travels I bought a tire pressure monitoring system that will warn me of tire pressure drop. It will allow me to check all the pressures of the six tires on the Vectra and on the four on the Jeep that I tow in about ten seconds even while driving. Actually Erma does the checking if I am driving about every hour so and any slow leak will be detected. I hope that this system tells me if any rapid pressure drops long before there is any major damage. In all the years I have never had any leaks. I have always believed that balancing a tire was good practice. Many times I have seen five or more ounces of wheel weights put on an auto tire. The tires of the Vectra are a LOT heavier than an auto tire so I expected more weights to be used. But tires are made with better balance than they were thirty or more years ago and the balancing technology has improved. The way they balanced the motor home tire was to pour ten ounces of glass beads inside the tire. I have seen balancing systems that put marble sized glass balls in a hula hoop like ring and then fastened the ring to the tire. These are very tiny glass beads, like the glass beads on reflective highway signs, which seek the light side of the tire and rebalance every time you drive. It really is quite a concept. According to the dealer it works much better than lead weights attached to the rim.

It must have been 25 years ago that I read a book about living the “Full Timing” lifestyle. The book told of several people who were “living full time” in some sort of RV and it indicated the amount that they were spending. Bear in mind that it was 25 years ago or more and the book might have been 5 years old at the time that I read it. Some of the people were living for as little as $250 a month. The ones that seemed to be living high off the hog were spending $1500 a month. I imagine that most of them were living in small RV's too. Times have changed for sure.

On the north side of Rochester is a beautiful light house that we were privileged to visit this week. For over a hundred years the town of Charlotte at the mouth of the Genessee river which flows into Lake Ontario was a very important port for many sailing ships and paddle wheelers which carried supplies for international trade and coal from Pennsylvania. In 1822 a forty foot light house was built on a small hill on the west side of the river. Subsequently piers for the lake trade were built into the harbor. The piers reduced the effectiveness of the light so it was decommissioned and the cast iron lens housing and Fresnel lens was moved to the west pier location by the river. For a hundred years the top of the tower was covered with a roof to keep rain out. It was being considered for demolition at one point. Charlotte high school students rallied to save the tower. The current tower top was built by the Edison Technical High school shop teacher and students. The light keepers house has been converted to a museum and gift shop. It is the second oldest lighthouse in all of the Great Lakes.

THE CHARLOTTE GENESSEE LIGHTHOUSE

This was written over a couple weeks so it is a bit rambling. I hope you had a wonderful holiday and the rest of your summer goes well. We will spend a few more weeks in Rochester and then go, slower than three days, back to the factory in Forest City, Iowa for additional repairs to our motor home.

Till later this is Doug of

Peace On The Road

Catching Up

I had the surprise just a couple days ago of being told by someone just how long it had been since I wrote anything to post in Uncle Ducks Tracks. While I had not a single doubt about the correctness of their statement I found it hard to believe. Of course I also had to check to prove to myself that they were correct, and I wanted to see what I had written so I know where to star today. Another friend told me last fall that a high percent of blogs are laying fallow. That in itself is unfortunate but it is almost criminal when I have to admit that my blog is fallow. Is it okay if I do like a crop farmer and just plant a couple crops a year and let my friends do the harvesting. I do not seem to have the ability to be like the farmer that raises chickens and sends product off to market every day.

At my last posting I just ready to start my duties as the new editor of the “Bentsen Grove Mirror.” That proved to be quite a job. It is desirable to submit the final draft to the office on Monday morning. Hopefully the Activity Director does not find any serious errors and she can send it on to the printer. If all goes well it will be printed and back for distribution on Friday, so that people can have it by the publication date of Saturday. Fortunately the publication is fortnightly, every two weeks. I would be in trouble if I had to do it weekly. When I thought I had the first issue that I was to edit complete I had Erma proofread it. She found some errors, which were corrected, and we both missed a couple. The next morning the activity director found a name that was incorrectly spelled. Those were bad enough. The Mirror has advertisers that pay a fee to be put into each issue. After it was distributed I found out that one of the advertisers was left out. There are supposed to be 24 outside advertisers plus 2 in park advertisers. I did not know about the in park advertisers. So I only had 23 ads. Later still I discovered that I only had 20 ads because 3 were in it twice. So with a grading system I could only give myself a “D”. Even that was after staying up till 3:00 AM trying to get it right. Many people complimented me on the “good” job I did. They did not see the mistakes that were made. Most did not notice three of the six pages of that issue had either the wrong month or wrong year or both wrong.

I have edited five more issues, which had eight pages each, and each time I have been able to improve my grade slightly. I cannot say that I have made an “A” yet but I keep getting closer. I decided that it would be desirable to make the Mirror available to people by e-mail. At first I tried to set up a system that people could join or leave without me doing anything. When that turned out to be not too feasible I decide that I would just set up a group and add anybody who asked to be added. There are many residents, former residents, residents family and others that would like to know what is going on in the park. I can send an e-mail to them and nobody has any expense for stamps or printing. Some of the residents do not get to the park until after Christmas or they leave early and therefore don't get the early issues or the late ones. Anyone, resident or nonresident, that is interested in getting the Mirror only has to write to bentsengrovemirror@gmail.com and ask and I will put them on the list.

Fortnight is a word that I have known since late grade school or so. But I had never thought about where the word came from. I just now looked it up in a dictionary of ethnology on the Internet. Apparently it originated around 1000 AD and was a contraction of fourteen and nights. When I read that I wondered “Why night instead of day?” For the most of my time reckoning I think about days, but apparently the Germans of that time counted time as the number of nights. Thus it was a time period covering fourteen “nights.” It is too bad that when I was a kid I did not feel the need to become more knowledgeable. Too soon I have become old and too long I have waited to try to become smart. It may be too late for the smart, but I am doing well in getting old.

When a lot of the winter Texans went back to their homes in the north the amount of computer help that I was doing dropped, but did not stop. I was helping a couple ladies the day before we left Bentsen Grove. I do not even know if my help was successful. I have yet to figure out how I seem to be able to fix the things I do. Part of it is that I am not afraid of computers and have tried many things. Sometimes it works and sometimes it does not. Someone told me that anything you know how to do is easy. So I like the easy things so I am successful. With the slowdown I did have time to do some reading and that I enjoyed. I also had some time to visit a couple friend that I had not talked to much during the year. That also was nice.

The day we left Bentsen Grove was strange. About a week before I had found a bunch of water in a watertight compartment. I could not find a leak. I got the water out and it stayed dry. As we were ready to leave, the motor home was in the street, and I was hooking on the Jeep, I saw water running out of the compartment again. This time when I looked in I could see a valve leaking. I found out after a while that the plastic bonnet of the valve had broken. The MH's water pump puts out more pressure than the park water connection. As long as we were on park water connection it did not leak. A couple weeks before the park water was off and we switched to the pump. When we got ready to go I went in to wash my hands after disconnecting everything outside and I used the pump again. Each time the pump was used the leak became worse. If it was not fixed we would not have any water in the MH at all. I think it took over two hours driving around with the MH pulling the Jeep to find a valve. Then I simply took the new stem out of the new valve and installed it into the old valve. It is working fine. But oh did we ever get a late start. We even considered going back to the park and spending another night there.

In traveling north we seemed to follow just behind the bad weather. We never hit any rains that lasted long or was hard. I do not want to travel in rain for a couple reasons. First is just the fact that I have a big unit and there is no reason to do it unless necessary. The second is my windshield wipers. There is something wrong with them. They will stop in the middle of a wipe and will not start again until the fuse is pulled and then put back in. Now that has caused much confusion several times. Before I found out how to “reset” the computer that controls the wipers by unplugging the fuse and replacing I had it is a shop to have it repaired. Of course the first thing they did was pull the fuse and check it and put it back in. The wipers would work great and they could find no problem. Just on this trip we hit a little rain, just a sprinkle, but rain never the less. The wipers ran about ten minutes or so and stopped. I pulled off at the first exit, pulled the fuse and put it back in. Back on the Interstate and they stopped within two minutes. Next exit I pulled off, pulled the fuse and they started and then ran for forty miles till I decided to exit for the night. They have not stopped since. I never know if they will run for 5 minutes or 5 hours. I really do not want to pull off the Interstate shoulder to pull the fuse in a driving rain or drive along without wipers in a driving rain either. I am sure it can be fixed with a well place on/off switch.

Our plans are to take the motor home back to the factory where it was built and have some work done on it. There is some maintenance that needs to be done and after seven years the tires need to be replaced even though the tread is barely worn. At the rate of tread wear I could drive them for least seventy more years. But time is harder on tires than driving when you have a trailer or motor home.

In continuing with my promise of sharing place of interest that should be seen with you I will recommend that you go out along I-70 to the middle of western Kansas. Some people say that there is nothing to see out there but I hope they make the effort to see this. The painting is huge, but not quite a large as it looks in the picture with the water tower in the background.  (Left click on the picture to get a larger view)

No. 3 – Largest Easel In The World, Van Gogh Painting

Goodland, Kansas has the third painting in The Van Gogh Project which is a series of Big Easel paintings based on Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflower Paintings. Vincent van Gogh was born in the Netherlands in 1853. His family worked primarily in religion and art. One of his relatives also named Vincent was a very successful sculptor. His Grandfather, Vincent, had a degree in theology. Three of his six uncles were art dealers, again one of them was named Vincent. That uncle assisted him in getting a job with an art dealer in London and Paris. He became isolated and fervent about religion and expressed to the customers resentment about how art was treated as a commodity. A decision was made that he should leave his job. For several years he either went to theology school or worked as a preacher in various locations. He chose squalid living conditions shared with the people to whom he preached. The church authorities believed this was undermining the dignity of the priesthood and he was dismissed. His brother convinced him to take up art seriously, so Vincent attended the Royal Academy of Art. Van Gogh’s early paintings were mostly dark painting in brown and black, which his brother attempted to sell. In the last ten years of his life he produced the colorful pictures for which he is famous, including a series of seven paintings of sunflowers. Three Sunflowers In A Vase is the painting on the easel that is in Goodland, Kansas. The easel is eighty foot tall and weighs forty five thousand pounds. The painting is twenty four foot by thirty two foot. The intent of the Van Gogh project is to reproduce all seven of Van Gogh’s Sunflower Paintings which he made during his stay in Arles, France between 1888 and 1889. The first easel with Twelve Sunflowers In A Vase, has been reproduced in Altona, Manitoba, Canada. The second easel is in Australia.

POTR #65 Texinated

PEACE ON THE ROAD

Texinated

April 15, 2011

After spending twenty years in Kansas winters and over forty years in Colorado winters I got pretty familiar with the cold and snow. There were some winters that I never put on a coat. To be sure I always had a coat in my vehicles along with all the other necessary articles for warmth. I also spent some winters wearing every insulated item I owned and wished I had warmer clothes. The last few winters have been very different. Mostly I have been wearing shorts and tee shirts all winter, thus I have gained a reputation of not wearing enough clothes. But then I think of a friend of mine that spent a winter in Alaska at forty below and claimed that when it got to ten above he and his friends played football during the daylight in tee shirts. Here in Texas there have been many times that I have seen people wearing parkas when the temperature dropped to sixty degrees. They tell me I need to put on long pants and a coat. I tease them right back and tell them that they are just too “Texinated”.

We have had some cold weather, at least weather that is considered cold down here. The temperature has gotten down as low as 26 degrees and has been below freezing for ten hours or perhaps longer. There were a lot of water lines that froze and some that broke. The problems were not just in the park as the electric companies here did not have the facilities to handle the cold weather. There were some rolling blackouts and when an area that had been shut down for a few hours was turned back on the power surge was too much for many transformers, and then it took as much as two days to get power back on. We really did not have too much trouble with the cold. This motor home has its own water supply and we have a generator if there is a problem. One drawback it has is the necessity of having 12 volt batteries that are holding charge. In spite of running off 120 volts or propane the controls for everything are 12 volt. The furnace may be propane but the thermostat is 12 volt. When this Vectra was built the cable from the converter to the house batteries was terminated with an extremely thin battery connection. The first time I saw it I was afraid to move it at all because it might break off. It lasted six years before it failed which means that it was better than I thought. But it broke off just before the cold weather so we could not keep the charge up on the batteries. I put my very small charger (6 amp) on the battery and I borrowed a charger (12 amp) from the neighbor and was able to keep the battery charged, which allowed us to function normally. After the weather warmed a bit, up into the 60's I replaced the terminal with a quality clamp and we have had no problem with it since. All in all it was an eye opener to the dependence that we put on electricity of one sort or another.

I have not written much for Peace On The Road lately and I am tempted to use the excuse that I have been busy, but I also would have to say that while it is true it is still an excuse. If I had something unusual to write about I would find the time. We have stayed busy here in the park all of the time with activities and duties. So perhaps I should tell you something about our life here in the park.

Shortly after the last POTR was sent out I was approached by the Activity Director and asked if I would consider taking over the editing of the Bentsen Grove Mirror, the fortnightly newspaper of the park. Part of the reason that they asked me to do it was because of my skills with the computer. But I suspect that the rest of the reason is my apparent inability to tell someone that truly needs help, “No.” The editor at that time was seriously ill with cancer and was not expected to live much longer. He did die before the first issue of the Mirror that I edited could be distributed. It takes about four days from the time I finish with my part till the paper is distributed. In certain ways there was some humor in my accepting the position. I was considering accepting the position but I wanted to know what was involved in doing it. To find out I thought that I could ask the wife of the editor some questions, the editor himself being in a near coma state. She invited me in and offered me a chair to sit. I said, “I have been asked to take over as editor of the Mirror.” The editors wife said, “Oh, good! I was hoping that you would take it. You will do great! Here is all the information that you will need,” and she handed me a CD which did have all the necessary information on it. I did not expect to accept the job at that time, but how could I refuse the wife of a dying man when she was so enthusiastic about giving me the information. She also gave me a lot of resource material in addition to the CD which has been wonderful. To be honest I think I was still a bit stunned when I got home and told Erma, “I guess I am the editor of the Mirror.” The first issue of the Mirror that I did was anything but well done. Erma and I were up till 3:00 Sunday night (Monday morning) getting it completed and ready to turn into to the office early Monday morning. It should have been dated on every page 2011, but I think that 4 of the 6 pages were dated 2010 along with the wrong month. And there were other mistakes too. If the readers were being honest most people did not see the mistakes. Thanks for small favors. The Sunday of the weekend that I edit has continued to be a late session but in certain respects it is becoming easier. At the time of this POTR writing I am done with the Mirror for this season.

Erma has taken on more volunteer activities. She is teaching the beginning line dancers and has agreed to take over another line dance class for an instructor that is going to have a knee replaced. In the line dancing she has organized two All Line Dance Nights. As far as we know there has never been any dances of this type in the Valley. There are many dances during the season and the line dancers go to those but they are “in competition” for floor space with all the other type of dancers.. So ours have been very successful. So successful that not only are the line dancers asking for more dances but the activity director of the park has encouraged Erma to schedule more dances for next year. Right now I think there are five scheduled. While she does most of the arrangements for the dance I assist her in making custom CD's with the dance music on them, fliers, sound booth operation, etc.

On Monday I lead a session for the computer club and on Friday I help in a personal help session for people with computer problems. Nearly every day I have a couple requests from someone to help with their computers. I am not sure exactly how I acquired the reputation of being so good with computers but I would not claim that I am real knowledgeable. I know some people who meet the criteria and I do not measure up to that. What I have determined is, “If an individual knows a couple things the second person does not know then he is a 'computer guru' to the second person.” I have made so many mistakes that I have learned to get myself or someone else back on the right path.

I know that everyone has heard the stories about the size of things in Texas. “EVERYTHING IS BIGGER IN TEXAS!” I for one can prove that is not true. This is a tomato that was raised by my neighbor. While it had to survive the freeze and the cold period and that might have something to do with the size this is not big. I can remember my Mom growing tomatoes in Kansas which had stem attachments twice the size of this whole tomato. I will say that though it might have been small it still tasted mighty good.

A BIG TEXAS TOMATO GROWN IN THE PARK

On January 11, 2011, Helen McConnaughey, Erma's Mother passed from this earth. She had been in care facilities for nearly two years just a few miles from where we spend our winters. There was an outpouring of care from the people that knew her here and from those that only knew Erma and myself. At one of the line dance sessions I was asked to bring my cameras to do some special photography. In retrospect I guess that I should have known that something was up. While the request in itself was not so unusual the dancing that I was asked to film was a bit different. Understand that at the time I did not think it was strange, it was only afterward that I realized I was being put on. What they really wanted to be sure of was that I showed up to class with Erma. At some unnoticed signal Erma and I were suddenly made the center of attention and a very special Memorial Bench in honor of Helen was presented to us. Helen had spent many hours sitting in the class room watching the dancers. She became a part of the class in spite of the fact that she never danced at all. So in through the door a sitting bench was brought and presented in her honor. It had a plaque on it which said, “The “Peace” Bench In Memory of Helen 2011 B.G. Line Dancers”. I doubt that they could have picked a more appropriate way to honor the memory of Helen if they had studied for months. Helen loved to sit and watch the dancers practice. She liked the music, she liked to observe how someone was getting better and how another person might have danced before because they picked up the steps so quickly. She would talk a lot with the dancers. She sort of became a part of the dance group. When we took pictures of the group there were many people that insisted that she be in picture too. When she was no able to walk much they wanted her to be there in her wheel chair and always treated her with the utmost respect and kindness.

HELEN'S MEMORIAL BENCH OUTSIDE THE LINE DANCE ROOM

In the last week this park has gone from a normal rat race to being very quiet. I look down the street and very few people are left. We will not leave here till mid May or close to June. We are planning to go see our daughter, but what route we take will be decided when we leave. We will need to be back here by mid October at least. As the new editor of the BG Mirror I will have duties.

Till later this is Doug of

Peace On The Road

POTR #64 Proximity

PEACE ON THE ROAD

Proximity

December 18, 2010

It almost seems at times that an idea, a thought or a question gets loose in our heads and just seems to flit around inside the brain similar to the flight of a butterfly in a large room. It is there and yet not really there. It will just catch our attention for a few moments and then be gone for a while. But eventually it will land on our nose and then we give it our full attention for a bit, at least until it flits away again. In the last six years (especially the last four) since I have traveling around the US there has been a question that seems to come up every once in a while. The question is basically, “Why does a particular geographical location feel more like home than some other location. As child the farm near Princeton, Kansas was always home. After I graduated from high school and started living in other places the farm stayed the principle home and the location where I was sleeping was a secondary home or perhaps a temporary home. As would be expected when I added a wife to my life my home became the place she was and the farm became either my folks home or my childhood home. For about forty years it stayed that way with several “house” changes. Then I retired and started the traveling and for the first time there was no permanent building to call home. Home became the inside of a motor home in whatever RV it was parked. It was not long before there were certain places that just seemed more like “home” than others. One was in New York near our daughters home. Another was Rockport, TX, and a third was in Mission, TX. While there were times that I wondered why this would be I never really tried to figure out why. Denver, CO where I spent forty years working and living just did not quite have that feeling any longer. That seemed strange too because many friends of thirty plus years are there along with some family. If any place seemed like home it should be the Denver area.

One day the answer flitted through my brain and landed on my consciousness and became very plain. It was simply proximity. This is mostly about my winter location in Bentsen Grove in Mission, TX. Here I am in close proximity to many of the things that made me feel at home in Wheat Ridge, CO. I have made numerous friends here and they are all within walking distance in under five minutes and several within fifteen seconds. In Colorado it is a minimum of a fifteen minute drive and there are some friends that would require an hour and a half drive to visit. Here I have replaced the occupation that I once had with helping people with computers (they think I know a lot more than I do), photography for the park and groups in it, operation of a sound booth (just a few weeks so far) plus other things. While the friends here in this resort are not more important than the friends of years there proximity is a whole lot closer. At least in my mind that is the reason for my comfort level here.

When we first came to Bentsen Grove we had a site that was near some people that had planted a small agave plant in their flower garden. That winter as we drove by their house we admired the plant. I thought that it would be many years before the plant would grow to any appreciable size. How wrong I was. It has only been four years since we were staying there and the agave has grown huge. It is commonly called a century plant. It is supposed to live a hundred years, bloom and then die. However I have found out that is just a myth. It does not live for a hundred year but rather the average life is around 10 years. When it blooms it does die but usually sends out shoots or suckers around the base and thus its life continues. The years required to bloom varies based upon soil condition available water and other factors. During the growth years it is storing energy to be used at the time of its blooming. When it sends up its flowering stalk it is reported to becomes the fastest growing plant on earth. The flower stalk grows a foot or more a week. While it is a beautiful plant it can also be a dangerous one. The tip of the leaf has a sharp needle that can penetrate all the way to a bone and the edge of the leaf is lined with sharp barbs that easily tear flesh if a person does not stay aware of the proximity of the leaves. There are over three hundred recognized varieties of the agave plant. It is one of the varieties that is used to make tequila. That one is harvested at about six to eight years when the plant has become loaded with sap, also known as honey water, in preparation for flowering. It is possible for the sap of some agave plants to cause skin rashes that will last for several weeks. The dried leaves have been used by the Australian aborigine to make the musical instrument the didgeridoo. It is an amazing plant that combines beauty and some danger.

AN AGAVE PLANT IN BENTSEN GROVE WHICH IS ABOUT EIGHT YEARS OLD

Many years ago Bentsen Grove was a commercial citrus orchard. It was converted to a trailer park and then expanded to include a RV resort. When that was done many of the citrus trees and palm trees that were in the orchard were left standing and today make this park a desirable place to live. Most sites have a citrus tree of some sort and some even have several different kinds, like orange, tangerines, grapefruit, lemon or lime. Of course many residents have planted trees and cactus of their own in addition to the original trees. In another site not too far from this agave is one of the largest cactus of its type that I can recall seeing. I guess that I get to thinking that except for the saguaro cactus they do not grow to large size. Of course that is simply just not right thinking. There are many cacti that grow to great size, it is just that I have not been around them. The flowering cacti produce a fruit that is called a “tuna” which carry the seed and provides a lot of nourishment to many animals. The animals in turn carry the seeds away from the original plant and spread them into new territory. I have done some research into the origin of the word tuna and have not been able to find anything that indicates how or why the seed pods are given that name. Until just recently when I heard the word tuna all I thought about was a large fish that lives in the ocean or a small can of meat which is great to make a spread for sandwiches or a stuffing for tomatoes. Since I started to travel and have come into contact with more cacti in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas I have found another use for the word.

TALL CACTUS ON ONE OF THE SITES IN BENTSEN GROVE

Right at the moment I am having a difficult time. It is sort of a proximity problem I was looking at a paper and saw an ad that said how many days were left before Christmas and it is not possible. If it was said that there were that many days left till Independence Day I would not have a problem with that. To say that I am not ready for Christmas time would be a gross under statement. And I am willing to bet that seven days later I will not be ready for 2011. I had a next door neighbor for nearly thirty years that said he did not know how he was able to get things things done before he retired because he was not able to keep up with his duties after retirement. I sure understand what he was talking about. When he told me that in the past I really did not understand except in the slightest way. I will grant that if I did not volunteer for some of the things I do I probably could catch up somewhat, and then I might get bored. It surely must be better to wonder where the weeks and months have gone than to wonder what will help the time to pass. As would be expected I take a lot of pictures wherever I go and I try to label and file them in a timely manner. In other words before I forget where I took the picture and what the reason for taking the picture. But I am about a year behind AND I am still taking more pictures. To catch up will have to be a goal for next year. Speaking of that--

I want to wish all who read this a very Merry Christmas and also send you my best wishes for a very successful and Happy New Year. While I would like to wish you a white Christmas I was just watching a You-tube of automobiles on snow covered streets and I cannot bring myself to wish that on anyone. Therefore I will have to wish you a dry and warm Christmas like I will be enjoying here in south Texas

when I have a Christmas Dinner with 300 to 400 residents of this park.

Till later this is Doug of

Peace On The Road