kissalostsoul

My plans for today included driving into Little Rock, AR, to visit the President Clinton Library and Museum, and the State Capitol Building.  When I got up in the morning, I just wasn’t in the mood for that.  It’s kind of like shopping for me.  I have to be in the mood for it.  The thought of driving around a state capitol and finding a parking place just wasn’t my cup of tea this morning.  I’m glad I didn’t go because it would have been a feeling of dread rather than excitement. Instead, I just enjoyed Maumelle COE Park for most of the day.  I did head out for a while to visit Pickle Gap and Toad Suck, AR, but even those two places left me flat.  It just wasn’t one of those days when I could get into touring. Since I have a more secluded site in the woods, Emma and I did take a walk down to the banks of the Arkansas River.  It was a beautiful day with temps in the low 80’s, and a nice gentle breeze blowing. I guess it was a good day to catch some rays!  I’m supposed to inc

The Monastery Bebenhausen was a Cistercian monastery in Bebenhausen whoch is  today a  part of Tübingen . After the Reformation whioch took place  in Württemberg in 1534 the monastery served as a convent school , hunting palace of the Kings of Württemberg and the seat of the parliament of the state of Württemberg -Hohenzollern . The monastery was founded at the end of the 12th Century by Count Palatine Rudolf of Tübingen. A barter with the Diocese of Speyer was a prerequisite  by Count Palatinate Rudolf I of Tübingen (1182-1219) " for the purpose of his salvation " probably in 1183 donated to the village monastery Bebenhausen . Rudolf gave the bishopric of Speyer St. Martin's Church in Meimsheim and received the necessary foundation for the monastery lands . The donation was certified in 1188 by the Bishop of Speyer and 29 June 1193 by Emperor Heinrich VI . confirmed. The construction of the monastery in

275 miles might not seem much of a drive to some folks, but it wore me out.  I left Ajax, LA, a little before 9:00 this morning and headed for Arkansas.  It was good on I-49 to Shreveport, and then things got a little interesting as I got off of the interstate to take US 71 North.  After weaving around in Shreveport, 71 becomes a two lane highway that could use some repaving for a good portion of it.  I must say, it was a good test to see if the MCD shades were going to stay put or fall down.  Thankfully, they stayed put. Once I got into Arkansas, the roads became smooth four lanes with only one detour that had ‘Jack-in-the-Box’ rather frustrated.  He almost set a record for ‘recalculating’!  Once I reached I-30 East, both he and I heaved a sigh of relief.  I would have hit my ‘Easy Button’ had it been within reach. We sailed along for several more hours, and as I passed the exit for Hot Springs National Park, I couldn’t help but reminisce about the time I stopped there for a full

I truly decided to relax this morning.  After making my bed, I stayed in my PJ’s until 11:00 in the morning.  It’s been decades since I’ve done that.  By noon, though, I’d had enough of that so I showered and headed out to do a little exploring. This is where I ended up.  I decided to visit the Oakland Plantation outside of Natchitoches.  Lots of plantations were located along the Cane River back in the day. It turned out that this was National Junior Ranger Day at this National Park.  There were quite a few youngsters moving around from exhibit to exhibit, but the crowds weren’t stifling.  I was there for the 1:00 tour of the Main House.  It was built in 1821.  It still retains most of its original heavy cypress timber construction and bousillage-filled walls.  Bousillage was a new word for me today.  It’s kind of like adobe, but uses Spanish moss in the mixture instead of straw.  It was used to insulate the walls. We had a good park range

I was up at the crack of dawn ready to head on my way from Premiere RV.  There were supposed to be just a few minor details to be taken care of before I left.  My plan was to head out a little before 9:00.  Well, you know what they say about the best laid plans. It turns out that there were real issues with finding new windshield wipers for the rig.  Who would have guessed that?  Then there was the vacuuming out of the air from the reluctant to work dash air conditioner.  It had been worked on yesterday, but there was another process to do that took a while, and then there was a test drive to make sure everything was working.  I’m not complaining about the attention to detail at Billy Thibodeaux’s, but I was just anxious to be out of there.  It was noon before I could finally pull out.  I generally leave a place soon after rush hour because I tend to get drowsy driving in the afternoon.  Thank goodness, for some reason, I’d chosen a campground only about 170 miles away for the day’

Just as I awoke this morning, the skies opened up, and it rained cats and dogs for what seemed forever.  Because of the weather, no work on my rig was done today.  Lots of other rigs were taken in and out of the shop, but I was happy to not be one of them.  When the rig goes in, Emma and I are stuck with finding something else to do for hours.  You can’t do much enjoying of the outdoors when it’s pouring buckets outside! Instead, I decided it was time I finally got the letter and pictures ready to send to my grandson Joey’s first grade teacher.  I’ve got a deadline to meet on that, and it’s soon approaching.  I hope you’ll remember that flat Joey was sent to me at the beginning of the month to take on some adventures.  Tonight, I’m including the letter that I sent to his first grade class.  Not having a printer, I was finally able to figure out how to put it on a CD, and that’s what I’ll be sending out from the Scott, LA, post office tomorrow.  I hope Joey and his class will enjoy it

Today was a day that was almost all about my rig.  After all, that’s why I’m in Scott, Louisiana.  Shortly after 8:00, the tap on the door let me know that it was time to pack up and move the rig to Southern Tire Mart to get six new tires for the motorhome.  Billy, the owner of Thibodeaux’s Premiere RV, had said he would drive the rig there as I followed in the car.  He wanted to take a test drive to check out the fixing he had done yesterday to the MCD shades.  I was all for that as driving the rig isn’t my favorite thing to do; especially in city traffic. We dropped the rig off, and I drove Billy back to the repair shop.  What to do then?  Emma and I were homeless for a while, so I found a place to get the oil changed on the car.  I drove right in, and exited less than ten minutes later.  Easy peasy!  Since I knew it would take several hours before the rig would be ready to pick up, Emma and I headed for Lake Martin, south of Breaux Bridge.  We had been there about two years ag

I’ve been at Premiere RV in Scott, LA, for six days, and have to admit that I was getting a little down in the dumps about how long I would be here to get everything on my list taken care of on the rig.  When I checked with the office this morning, they predicted that the new MCD shades that were ordered wouldn’t be in until sometime next week.  Ugh!  I’m not in a colossal rush to get to northwest Minnesota considering they are still buried under snow, but I was hoping to leisurely make my way up north.  Sitting in this parking lot for over another week just didn’t brighten me up much.                                       (Most of tonight’s pictures are from my time at Okefenokee.) Over the weekend, I tried to do some laundry using my Splendide washer/dryer in the rig.  Since I didn’t have hot water because of the broken check valve, I decided to just use cold water.  Nice idea, but it didn’t work.  I put in the clothes, detergent and softener, and hit the start button.  The machi