March, 2007

Just had to tell everyone about the falcon cam in Dayton. This year they have a ruler in the nest box so you can see how big they are. Check it out at www.boonshoftmuseum.org/falconcam.html. They have already laid one egg.

March 13, 2007

Sunday night in Oklahoma was wet with lightening flashing around the area. It was reassuring
to look out my RV window and see that the campground had provided for all eventualities. The storm that night was not windy and did not warrent any alerts, thank goodness.


We arrived home Tuesday, March 13 at 4:30 p.m. We arrived home with an extra passenger. While surfing the internet last Saturday night I ran across a website for dogs that need homes (this was purely by accident - right). I found one that only a mother could love. He looked a bit scruffy. He was listed as an Aussie-doodle which I found meant his mother was a standard poodle and his sire was an Australian Shepherd. He was in Oklahoma and would have to be picked up as he was too big to ship, and he was free. So on Sunday off to Oklahoma we went.

This is home in Ohio.

This is Gruff, the Aussie-doodle or Aussie-poo. He has some white whiskers on his chin which contributes to his charm.

He was not a happy traveler in the RV. He had never before been on a leash but he adjusted to that pretty well after wrapping me up with his leash a few times. Car sickness didn't help so we made a fast run for home. After 2 days of carsickness he refused to eat the same food that he had eaten those days so a quick trip to the grocery store was needed. New food was the solution to getting him to eat. He is 9 or 10 months old - hope he's about done growing - look at those feet. Sometimes he looks like he is slouching to look smaller.

He is much happier at home where he can relax for a while and get used to his new family.

We are all glad to be home and see the kids and grandkids. They took good care of things for us while we were gone.

I don't know how often I will post now that we are home. Maybe I'll let folks know about major happenings in our lives. Thanks for reading.

March 9, 2007

Santa is alive and well in Bonham, Texas, with a Harley shirt and sandles. He came around to warn everyone that there was some rain coming. It sprinkled for about 20 minutes. This part of Texas is very dry so any rain is a big occasion.

I'm going for the Jed Clampett look here. I think I achieved it with my new hat.

I took a walk around the place today. I found the animals and came back without any. Not that I wasn't tempted. There were all kinds of fowl, even peacocks. I passed bassett, chocolate lab, chihuahua, and husky puppies, miniature goats, llamas, burros, and rabbits.

March 8, 2007

Surprise - I have WIFI setting here at the Bonham, TX Trader Days. I don't know where it is coming from but that's okay. I'm not getting any TV at all. I am set up here for the weekend. They have little sticks stuck in the ground with styrofoam cups upside down on each stick. The cups have the site number written on them. You take a site, remove the cup and take it to the office to pay. Kind of a first come, first served system. The boundaries of the sites are more permanently marked with colored markers.
Every flea market has a different system and they all assume everyone understands their system. At most places the electrical box has circuit breakers that are turned off until you plug in and turn your circuit breaker on. I got yelled at here when I opened the box to turn on my circuit breaker - they were all turned on. Not a very safe practice in my opinion.
I went shopping and found an Australian hat for myself. I am supposed to wear a wide brim hat on sunny days and I keep buying hats that end up not being comfortable. I think maybe this one will work. It is light weight leather and feels really good on my head. I'll try to get a picture of it tomorrow.

P.S. for March 7, 2007

I will be moving on tomorrow and won't be near an internet connection for some period of time. If you really want to read about folks travels I suggest http://www.hitchitch.com . The listing for my sister and brother-in-law is www.because-we-can.net .
I'm going to try checking out the Flying J truck stops on the way home. I have heard they have WIFI and dump stations etc for RV'rs.

March 7, 2007

This is the sign my kids got for me on my birthday. People call the dogs by name wherever we go. It's not hard to figure out which is which. See the bamboo attached to my ladder? See the ladder attached to my ladder? I love bungee cords.

This is a picture of the RV park where I am now, no picnic tables, no grass, no fireplace (a nice dog walking area tho) and it has WIFI. Many of the people here get up and go to work in the morning

This is a picture of our campsite in a campground with trees, a fireplace, picnic table, a nearby lake, paths in the woods, but no WIFI. No one here goes to work, they go fishing instead.

I guess you just can't have everything.

March 6, 2007

Several people have asked me what sort of gas mileage I get with my RV. I decided I needed a chuckle when I fill the tank so I put the gas cap key on this key chain. The few tanksful I have checked the mileage on have been between 9 and 10 MPG. When I go broke paying for gas I will stay home.

This is what my friends do when I leave town. They are having fun at a show called Flea-N-Tique at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds in Dayton, OH.

I have put another video on www.youtube.com . Just search for katbulue and it will come up. Those ducks are all black with yellow beaks. Don't know what kind they are.

I forgot to mention why I didn't get WIFI at Canton Trader Days. They wanted $9.00/day for it. The good deal was only $30.00 for Wed. thru Sunday. I told them NO THANKS.

It's going to be 70 degrees today. Good day to air things out and clean house.

March 5, 2007

I was wandering around Athens, Texas looking for a grocery store when I found a Save-A-Lot. Then I wanted a nice place to park while I made lunch so I typed "park" into the GPS and it led me to Purtis Creek State Park which is about 16 miles west of Athens. It turned out they had a campground there so I spent the night. I cooked out using a grocery store log and a small bag of briquets for my fire. I wrapped a sweet potato and some carrots and a hot dog in aluminum foil for dinner. Someone said orange food is good for you, the hot dog is in honor of junk food. I like a balanced diet.

As you can see the foil package didn't look too pretty after 45 minutes on the open fire.

But the food was wonderful and the weather was warm enough to eat at the picnic table and look at all the trees around the campsite. It made me think of the New England wooded campsites except this place had water and electricity at each site.

I don't know what kind of tree this is but it is a very crooked tree, there were several like this in the area.

My dogs saw to it that I was up in time to get these pictures of the sun rising over the lake near our campsite. I really enjoyed the time in the wilds before taking on a 4 day sale.

At the Canton, TX Trader Days (Texas' version of a flea market) I saw these yard ornament type structures made of windows. Some had broken pottery on them and chandeliers hanging inside. This one has 2 upside down 1/2 cups glued to the front corners.

This is one tough chicken. (made out of metal)

I met some really nice people at the Trader Days, there were 6000 spaces (12 x 20) but many vendors took up several spaces, and that's just one area. There were several areas run by different organizations. Needless to say I didn't see much of it except for what was right around me. The trick is to get a good location. Some vendors said they set up for a year before getting their good location so you can imagine why mine was not good. I didn't sell much.

I had fun people watching. It was in the 30's at night and barely got up to the low 60's during the day with a stiff wind of 20 to 30 MPH. That is cold. But I noticed several families where everyone but the teen ager was dressed warmly. The teen was in a short sleeve shirt and jeans trying to act like they were just fine. I think those parents were wise to let them do their thing and freeze as a result.

I had fun giving some items away to the young kids. I gave away some cloth dolls and some Mardi Gras beads. If you can't sell it - give it away.

Many buyers, and vendors as well, rent electric scooters to get around and I expected to see collisions before the week-end was over. Many people had trouble controlling their scooters. There were people pulling their dogs in wagons, or with dogs in strollers, and dogs in baby carriers hanging around their owners neck. There were even some dogs walking on their own 4 legs. I heard there was a whole section of animals including pot bellied pigs. It's probably a good thing I never got to that area.

I met a woman on Friday who said she would bring her trimmers on Sat. and give Silly a good haircut. As you can see she did a good job.

I'm now near Tyler, TX at a campground that has a beautiful fenced area to let dogs run around. But best of all this place has WIFI. The dog walk area has a bench for people and bags for the dogs "deposits". I will be here until Thursday a.m. doing laundry and recovering from Trader Days.

I plan to hit one more flea market/trader days this coming week-end and then start toward home. I hope to arrive around St. Patrick's Day. I hope my drive-way snow has melted by then.