April Fool's Day, April 1, 2013

No one pulled a joke on us on April lst.   We got up early Monday morning and packed up things, secured the car on the trailer and drove 45 minutes north of Hamilton to Stevensville.   Ron went to an area-wide meeting of ministers, wanting to make contact with some of them that he has not met.   He dropped me off at Wal-Mart.  I had about 30 minutes to shop for a few things before shopping for groceries.  I never have the luxury of 1-1/2 hours when Ron is with me.  Like most men, he wants to get the shopping done as quickly as possible.  He is not a patient person to wait for anything.   At 11:30, Ron picked me up and I quickly put the groceries away.  A few wives came with the men to the meeting and they wanted us to stop at a BBQ place to eat lunch with them.  We were able to find enough space to park the RV so we stopped for lunch.

The BBQ place was very busy.   It looked like a very good restaurant.  I got a chopped BBQ sandwich.  Ron just got the chopped meat and cold slaw.  You don’t have a choice of Pork or Beef in Texas.  It’s always beef.  Ron and I are used to eating pork so the beef seemed dry and tough to us.  It was not cheap either.  I think it cost $13 and we did not get drinks to go with it.  We never drink enough water so we always take water with our meals.  It was very hard for me to give up sodas (especially Diet Dr. Pepper) but I have because I know they are not healthy.

After we left the restaurant, we drove from Stevensville to Ennis (about a two-hour drive) due east.   It was a sunny day and there was not too much traffic.  We arrived at High View Corp of Engineers Park near Ennis about 3 p.m.  The park where we stayed before on Bardwell Lake is closed for renovations.   We are on another part of the same lake here. This is our first time at High View.  It’s a small park and most of the camp sites are empty.  I guess it is a little early in the season for a lot of people to come to the parks.   We saw kids in swimming at the swimming area yesterday but I am certain the water was very cold.  We have very cool nights and the days have not gotten warm enough to heat up a large body of water.  I remember us going to New Orleans and Baton Rouge one year in the early spring or fall and Ronald swam in the hotel pool but the water was cold.  I could not swim in cold water.

Ron enjoyed the view and waited patiently while I took pictures.

 It is bluebonnet season in Texas. It is the State of Texas flower. I have seen them from a distance but never in mass before. The park has fields of them and we were just in awe as we walked around the park yesterday. They grow along the sides of the streets and there are large patches of them everywhere, just like these pictures. It is very beautiful!

 

Rain moved in this afternoon and for about two hours we had very heavy rain.  It cleared off and we had sunny skies when we went for our walk after dinner tonight.   We may have rain again tomorrow with much cooler temperatures for a couple of days. 
We had not gone far on our walk tonight until we saw an armadillo.   I’ve never seen one that close before.  Most of the time, I have seen them lying dead on the highway.  Actually, this was in Georgia.  I recently told Ron that I have not even seen a dead one in Texas and I thought they were plentiful in Texas.  Well, seeing a live one today was a treat but wouldn’t you know it – I didn’t take my camera.  Such is my luck!

We will be here for 8 more days.  The park has WiFi but sometimes it only has a weak signal.  We found only one park before that had WiFi and they charged to use it.  We have been able to connect to the church WiFi in the places we have parked the last two months.  This saved us a lot of money.  We have to be careful not to go over our base amount because it then gets very expensive.

I still enjoy the luxury of emails with my kids every few days.  Leigh Ann and I were talking today about the word processors we used 20 years ago.   They were such antiques compared to what we have now.  Twenty years ago we would not be able to do this work in China and handle most of it from our desk in the U.S.  Communication is so different.  Although we get frustrated with computers or printers that don’t work well, we still have much to be thankful for today.

In spite of worries, difficulties and the stress of life, I am always very thankful to God for our blessings.   I work on my weaknesses every day, trying to turn things over to God and trust in Him.   I know He cares and if we are faithful, He watches over us and walks beside us.  We must always remember this when health fails, disappointments come and problems arise.

God bless you, my friends.