Update Archive | |||
| Archive 5/23 - 6/1/2005: | |||
| 5/23/2005 - I spent the day up to my elbows in bleach and every other deodorizing disinfectant I could find at the local store. I’m surprised I didn’t blow the trailer up with the mix of fumes I had going on. When my C02 alarm started going off, that’s when I began to really worry. At any rate, it still seems a bit stinky in here and I’m afraid I’m starting to lose my objective sense of smell…. I went over and had dinner at Pat and Marks’ house. Pat cooked up some fabulous food… Hmmmmm good! We had BBQ ribs and chicken, a green been and artichoke heart casserole and a cornbread soufflé dish that was outstanding. Good food, good times. 5/24/2005 - (L:73F – H:86F) I took the coach in for a break and tire check. Wow, am I glad I did that before hitting the mountains in Colorado. Of the 6 tires on the coach (that’s including the spare) only 5 had 14-inch rims. The almost completely bald tire was on a 15-inch rim…. Why? Who knows. Apparently one of my axels was also bent and needed to be straightened out. Here’s hoping Camping World wasn’t jerking me around. It was a fairly expensive repair job, but if it keeps me from having a flat tire on some remote mountainside, it’s worth it. 5/25/2005 - (L:73F – H:86F) Laundry day. I also used the high-pressure washer to clean the trucks radiator grill. John had mentioned that it needed to be cleaned when he helped me with a dead battery in Oklahoma. Yesterday the oil change guy at Wal-Mart also mentioned it, as well as saying something about how I’d killed every bug from CA to TX. All right-y then. I picked Max up today. It’s so good to have him back. All is right in my world. 5/26/2005 - (L:76F – H:80F) Tonight was my first night as camp host. I need to get a clipboard :o) There are maybe a dozen folks in camp so it isn’t a big deal. Whew. I’m still pretty nervous about this weekend. I do get to drive around in a golf cart… that’s a plus. 5/27/2005 - (L:73F – H:82F) Max and I drove to Waco, TX to meet Rick for lunch. We had a great meal at ‘On The Border’… followed by hideous holiday traffic on the drive back to camp. It took me 2-1/4 hours to get to Waco and 4 hours to get back. I hate traffic! When I arrived back at camp the occupancy had way more than tripled. There are tons of people here! And more will be arriving tomorrow. There are supposed to be over 400 people here this weekend. It’s cool though, most of the people have been here before and they have big groups at their campsites, sitting around drinking beer and eating BBQ. The smells wafting through camp are delectable. I can’t keep Max here over the weekend so I took him over to Johns house. He’s letting me keep Max there while I’m filling in as camp host. I have help patrolling the place tonight and Brian did rounds most of the evening. All in all it was pretty calm. 5/28/2005 - (L:69F – H:85F) Wow, what a day. The morning started with thunder, lightning and a torrential downpour. The weather cleared by 9AM and people started hitting the river. I went over to take some pictures around 3PM. What a hoot! Typical river rafting behavior. I am reminded of river trips friends and I have taken down the American River in Sacramento. I snapped a few pictures of a guy being hauled away in handcuffs. It was kind of funny; he was there with his family and none of them were particularly upset that he was being arrested. Go figure. When I went back to my campsite to download the pictures that I’d taken so far, one of my neighbors was not doing well at all. We called 911 and EMS came out, loaded her up and took her away. She’s going to be okay… just too much sun and liquor and not enough water. A bit later I headed back to the river to watch the show. I had my camera, and boy do people ham it up for you when you have a camera. Around 6:30PM a life-flight helicopter landed in the field next door to take someone to the hospital… I don’t know what the story was on that one, but apparently it’s a fairly common occurrence on the river during the Memorial Day weekend. The turnout has been lower than expected - you can actually see the river between all the tubes (or toobs as it is often spelled) and rafts. I did my first set of rounds at 8:30PM. Folks seemed to be taking it easy. I went back out at 10PM and same thing… no rowdies, just lots of really nice people, most of them with kids, hanging out, kicking back, offering me beer as I pass by. This is pretty damn cool. A bit later the National Weather Service issued a Sever Thunderstorm Warning for our area – you could already see the lightning in the distance. The radar on the Weather Channel showed a rather large line of red weather headed our way (This is the first time I’ve ever heard the Weather Channel warning beep that plays during their broadcast). I went back through camp to warn the folks that we were in for some rain, thunder and lightning and possibly hail. There’s nothing like a little weather to subdue the masses. Needless to say, there isn’t a lot going on at camp tonight. Everyone packed it in. The weather didn’t really hit until around 12AM… and then did it ever hit. God, I love the sound of thunder and the flash of lightning. It’s spectacular. 75F outside and raining like crazy (my rain gauge is broken, darn it). The thunder is so loud it’s shaking my trailer… It’s a tangible thing, you can feel it roll and crash through the air. I totally dig this. It’s awesome! (I am so glad I’m not in a tent… those poor people.) It’s almost 2AM and it’s still going strong. It’s not raining quite as much, but the lightning turns night into day and the thunder rattles your teeth. This rocks! 5/29/2005 - (L:68F – H:82F) It was cloudy this morning – no rain or T&L. This afternoon there was a Tornado Watch issued for this area. No worries… the watch box is huge. Stretching from west of San Antonio, east of Houston and all along the Gulf. One of the guys that works here at Rio is in a band that was playing out in front of a local pizza joint. I went over to take pictures that, hopefully, they’ll be able to use on their flyers. Great music! I would have liked to stay longer but had to head back to camp to start the night watch. It was another stormy night. The lightning started around 8PM and continued until about 12AM then took a break, had a brief reappearance and then was gone. It was awesome. Lots of really close lightning and really, really, really loud thunder. A bunch of rain and a little bit of hail. I had help patrolling the camp. Ronnie was there to help and Mark made drive-by’s throughout the evening. Once again the weather kept most of the camp calm. It was a good night. 5/30/2005 - (L:67F – H:81F) I slept in and when I finally looked outside around 11AM the camp was all but deserted. It was like one of those movies where everyone disappears overnight. Kinda spooky – maybe 8 of the sites are occupied, everybody is headed home. A bit later I took my truck in to have its brakes checked. As I was leaving the Sheriff was loading the police car with yet another cuffed person. Pretty crazy. Over at ‘Break Check’ the news was not good. You know it’s going to be bad when the mechanic asks you if the brakes have ever been checked before. I sure can tell a difference though. It’s all good, I’m ready to hit the road. 5/31/2005 - (L:68F – H:85F) Folks are saying that the weather is cooler than normal for this time of year, and that the humidity is normally higher. Even so, I think this is a place I could live. It’s staying on my list of possible places to settle down in… but that’s a ways off, I still have so much to see. I drove out to the Hamilton Pool Preserve. What a beautiful place! Out in the middle of no-where there is this beautiful oasis with a line of waterfalls and an aquamarine pool. It was spectacular. It took the ½ mile round-trip trail to the falls and took almost 200 pictures… it was gorgeous. When I arrived back at camp Pat called and we went over to the Comal River to tube. The river isn’t very long and only took an hour to tube, but it was great. The water wasn’t too cold and the river wasn’t too crowded. It was fantastic. After we finished we headed over to Johnny Corinas for dinner and then stopped by the Gruene Dance Hall to watch the band ‘Two Tons of Steel’ play for a bit. It’s so cool to see people of all ages out on the dance floor, doing the two-step. Very, very cool. Pat’s studying for finals so we didn’t stay more than a few minutes. Later Mark and Ronnie stopped by and we sat outside, telling stories and laughing like crazies. Good times. I love the way the days are clear and calm and then you get a massive thunderstorm at night. Since around 10:30PM there had been lightning off in the distance. Around 3:15AM the storm hit us. The Weather Channel had issued a Sever Thunderstorm Warning, a Flash Flood Warning, and earlier there had been a Tornado Warning. I love it! I took some video using my Sony digital camera. The video turned out pretty good, but it can’t do the real thing justice. Not all of the flashes of lightning are captured. The area was lit more than it was dark and the thunder was crashing so frequently, there was no pause… the rumble was constant. The storm was hellacious. It totally rocked! Storm Video – 2.4MB – 1 min 6 sec 6/1/2005 - (L:68F – H:84F) Getting ready to leave. I’ll start my trek to Colorado tomorrow, so I’m packing things up, doing leftover laundry, you know… all the fun stuff. :o) I'm really going to miss the folks here. They've taken me under their wing and treated me like family. I will definitely be back here to visit. New Pictures: TX | |||