April 7, 2013

Left Texas with memories of lovely wild flowers and trees in bud along the freeways and in the fields.  One memory I will always have is driving by a ranch and seeing 7 dead coyotes hung on a fence.  I think I remember my dad saying that ranchers did that to discourage coyotes from coming on the property - if the rancher already shot 7, doesn't that mean the message isn't getting back to the pack??  If we weren't traveling along so quickly I would have taken a picture.


Thursday we arrived safely in Dayton, Ohio.  Came here to see our friends, Ruth and Rodger Schuld.  Roger and Ruth lived in Sonora for several years until he decided to re-up with the Air Force.  He has become a Colonel in the last few years - it's really funny to see him salute and hear others call him Colonel and "Sir".  We tease him about that.  Being on an Air Force base is interesting.  We had to go get temporary ID's that we must carry with us at all times.  Every time we leave the base we must make sure they're on us or we can't get back onto the base and we might have issues  with the guy with a gun at the gate - scary looking guns.

The Schuld's housing is lovely - red brick houses - with a back yard which our dogs loved.  Maizie was crazy, running and running when we let her off leash.  Chloe actually ran several laps with her.  We are at an RV park right here on the base and it's pretty nice - quiet, all the amenities.  Nearby we thought we spied a dog park, but it turned out to be a training area for military dogs.  Fun to watch...from afar.  We don't want to get yelled at.  There is also a small lake in the RV area so that's picturesque.

It has been amazing how much water there is in the north eastern part of Texas, then Tennesee and Kentucky.  We are constantly crossing some river or creek and see ponds or lakes frequently.  One river we crossed was called the "Loosahatchie"  - I just like saying Lossahatchie!

Throughout our traveling we have been lucky to run into mostly really nice people.  As we pulled into a gas station a man started walking toward us waving his arms about.  When I rolled down the river he told us there was another station just a couple hundred yards up the way that would be much easier to get in and out of as it was set up for trucks and RV's.  He was right.  I got out of the truck while Paul was gassing up and saw the same man pull up behind our rig.  He just wanted to see that we found it and then wanted to talk about RVs - he has an older version of our model.  Then he asked where we were from and where we were headed and wished us well.  As Paul walked back to the truck from paying our gas bill a young man waved at him so Paul walked over to his truck - the young man just wanted to tell Paul he had a great truck!  Funny gas stop!!

As we continued on through Tennesee we passed a town called Millington - found out Paul had lived there as a toddler - probably 3 or 4 years old.  He remembered a head injury he got but that's all.  :)

One thing I love and can't get enough of is seeing red birds - have seen a cardinal and a bird whose name I do not know - but so cool to see flashes of red.

Today we are going to a dog wash - the dogs reek and it's still too cold to wash them outside - we have been disappointed that we haven't had warmer weather.  Everyone keeps saying it was so different last year at this time - warmer and everything in bud.  The trees all are still winter bare at this time.
More later - no time - gotta go wash dogs and vacuum dog hair out of truck.  No internet at RV park so may be couple days - hope next RV park has internet - Grandma's RV Park  in Louisville KY - if not, it'll just have to be another McDonald's!!

Happy Trails