In Which We Straddle Belton and Temple. TX

This weekend, Lee returned from Da Farm. as he calls it on Facebook, and picked me up. We then headed to the scenic Georgetown Target store, which was a) on our way to our destination and b) the only store that had the item we most wanted. We also got a few other things. We parked way out, for E-Z ingress and egress.

Lee delivers our purchases.

After a fuel stop in Lee's favorite practically invisible truck stop, we drove up to the Temple/Belton area, which is north of us, to Live Oak Ridge Park, which is on Lake Belton. It’s another Corps of Engineers park. The campsites here are very wooded, though ours wasn't really near any trees (#17 if you ever go there). However, we have a great view of an inlet as well as the actual lake. We can see it from most of the windows.

View from our campsite, an inlet on Lake Belton

This shows you how close the next (loud) group was to us.

The rest of the park, with all its live oak trees, is also nice looking.

As you can see, the place fills up.

The sunset was beautiful last night, and other than having more issues with 30-amp service (I found out only the sites in the very back have 50-amp), it was a nice night.

Proof that the sunset was beautiful on Friday.

We are spending the day doing chores around Ursula. We figured out how to get hanging lights up, though Lee accidentally left my solar lights on the cattle guard at the farm, and we didn’t think to get an extension cord when we were buying the other kind of lights at Target yesterday. (They are really pretty and look like balloons.) But, we practiced using the light hanging things I ordered, so it wasn’t a waste of time.

Inspecting the new lights. 

 I also ordered one of those rugs that don’t harm grass to put outside the door and keep out dirt. It’s reversible. We will see if it is useful or not.

Kokopeli rug, and the American flag that the cows didn't break at Da Farm.

The biggest thing that has gotten done on this trip, other than relaxing and goofing off, has been that Lee installed a new television in the front compartment. That is good, because what was there was both old and square AND nonfunctional.

Art Garfunkle on the new TV.

He measured the space and determined that a 26” HD television was the biggest that would fit in the space. That is good, because those televisions, even nice ones, aren’t very expensive. We got a nice LED one at Target and we are pretty impressed that it fits in the space. Lee even got the surround thing around it. We hope to figure out something nice and attractive to do with the space under the new TV. We may put the as-yet-un-purchased Blu-Ray player there.

The first thing we watched was suggested by Declan. It’s the DVD that came with the reissue of Bridge Over Troubled Water. There are two things on it, which Declan recently watched on PBS and told me I HAD to watch, because they talk about how they do harmonies, Mom! That feature is called “The Harmony Game.” Also on there is “Songs of America,” which was only broadcast once in 1969. It’s really cool to see it as it was on TV—they had to sorta reconstruct it. It’s well worth getting the CD just to get those shows. So, that’s my plug!

While we didn’t do much, there was lots to enjoy. Believe it or not, one of my favorite times was ten or fifteen minutes I spent, supposedly reading while Lee fixed the windshield wipers. I watched an adolescent mockingbird practicing catching bugs, just a few yards away from me. The bird got a wasp, and took many tries to actually eat it. There was a great deal of jumping around, flapping, and pecking involved. That’s the kind of stuff you don’t get to say in your hurried day. This place has many, many families of mockingbirds flying around and yelling at each other in a variety of bird languages. I have not seen a blue jay here, but I sure have heard them.

The bird is in the center. It blends in.

More tomorrow....