It’s now the end of January and I’m back at Ft Sam Houston, right next to the spot I occupied last month. As I look around the RV park I see a lot of the same RVs as when I left. I knew they had a rule that you could stay indefinitely if you were being seen at the army hospital. I’m just not sure how so many retirees are eligible for treatment there.

Anyway, I just left Cottonwood Creek RV park, just west of Dripping Springs TX (west of Austin). The park itself was very nice, not crowded, level sites. Rates were good for sites and electric. Unfortunately, there were also 2 large aggressive german shepherd dogs there. The dog owners didn’t seem real concerned with breaking them of that behavior. As a result, during one of my walks on the trails at the back of the park, the dogs lunged at me as I was walking by. Even though they were leashed, they still managed to get a claw into the back of my leg. After notifying the campground owners of the incident, the couple was NOT asked to leave. They’ve been wintering there for 4 years and were very friendly with the owners. So, if you go to this park in the winter beware of these dogs. The dog owners are from Ohio and drive a pickup truck with Ohio tag number W8FQ. Those appear to be ham radio call letters if you want to google them for the owners name.

The job I thought I was going to get was a disaster. It was advertised as a 3 month contract job by a national staffing agency. When I got to the interview, one of the interviewers mentioned right at the start that the client was very concerned about attendance during the first 4 months. Naturally, I stopped the interview and pointed out the error in the ad. When I got home I emailed the recruiter to be reimbursed for my travel expenses. She apologized but said that was impossible. Her boss also said that there were not procedures for that. After an email by me to the CEO, I got a call from the marketing president for this section of Texas. (I think that’s the same as the old regional manager, just fancier title.) Anyway, we talked, he admitted they were 100% wrong and wrote me a check for $50. Way to go Kforce.

One more job possibility down here but if that doesn’t pan out next week, I’ll quit looking and just start heading west at the end of February.

Wow, I didn’t realize it had been so long since my last post. Part of that was expected since I went from North Carolina to a nudist campground in south Georgia. That experience was much less than I’d hoped for. The campground itself was nice although it had no amenities other than the pool. The hot tub was broken the entire time I was there. At the time I left, the owner was considering just setting it on the curb cuz she was tired of repairing it. The campground was never full in the time I was there and sometimes went days without any visitors at all. Oh well, at least I got to work on my tan.

From there I went to northern Minnesota (after a brief visit with family in Indiana) to work the sugar beet harvest. This was a new experience for me but since the foreman was a friend of mine, I got several promotions while I was still driving there. It turns out I have a certain aptitude for operating a beet piler. The weather was so nice during the first week of October that they had to stop the harvest due to high temps. During that small hiatus I got my first ever kidney stone attack, thought I was going to die in the middle of nowhere. Fortunately, everyone in that part of the country is extremely nice and I made it through the ordeal in one piece.  Made some good money and will probably return for at least one more season.

The day I left I only made it about 20 miles down the road before the truck started overheating. I spent a cold Sunday night in a gravel parking lot on the outskirts of Oslo MN, pop 350 but the local Chevy dealer had me back on the road by early Monday afternoon.

Made it to San Antonio with only 2 rest stops and checked in at Lackland AFB famcamp. This famcamp doesn’t seem as friendly as the one at Patrick AFB and it’s certainly not as big. My 30 days is almost up and I have reservations at Ft Sam Houston, on the NE side of San Antonio. Still not sure where I’m going after that but I have a little time to check civilian RV parks in the area for availability.

Quick update to that last paragraph. I’m heading to an RV campground just west of Austin. I also have an interview lined up for a 3 month contract IT job in Austin. Hoping I do well and get the job to pay for my winter camping here in TX and probably expenses up to Washington.

This hike was just inside the southern boundary of Great Smoky Mountain National Park. Can’t remember the mileage but it was a fairly short hike.  A workamping friend from Waynesville NC joined me for the hike. Beautiful scenery, but no wildlife spotted. With all the elevation changes, I’ll try to get here more often just to burn extra calories. At least until I leave here in mid June.

I’ve arrived at my summer job, Deep Creek Tube Center and Campground. The drive was uneventful but interesting. Lots of hills and curves kept the torque converter and exhaust brake earning their keep. Then in town none of the street signs were where I was looking so I ended up going down some very narrow streets with tight turns. Fortunately I didn’t hit anyone or anything on the way to the campground. Got set up on my site, plenty of room (except for parking  the truck naturally). I even get cable, including ESPN and CNBC – good deal. The campground is fairly small and the other workampers say I won’t get worked to death. There’s even a small Chinese buffet in town. Another good point, no leash requirement for cats, so Dakota is roaming outside as I type this. The owners keep some goats on the property for kids to pet and I saw either a woodchuck or beaver scooting across the road last night. Should be an interesting summer.

Click on the Deep Creek link below, then the attachment link to see the creek in action. It’s in QuickTime Movie format.

Deep Creek

We just had a strong line of thunderstorms move through. They were forecast for high wind speeds of 55mph. I’m not sure what the actual speeds were but 2 tractor trailers were knocked over on nearby I-95. Don’t know if they were loaded or not. As the front was moving through, my RV was shaking and rocking like the Swedish bikini volleyball team was inside. A large tree limb was blown down and missed my truck by inches. The covered ‘socializing’ area is no longer covered.

I left Sunshine RV Resort on 1/5/11 and made it to Patrick without any problems. Campground was full when I arrived so I had to go into overflow dry camping for a few days. Not a big problem. My site was very close to the bathhouse and laundromat. And a big bonus was the chow hall is now open for retirees. It’s tough spending under $5 for an excellent breakfast 🙂 I’m now on a full hookup site that backs right up to the Banana River. The kayak will definitely see some use later this week, and probably every few days that I’m here. I’ve already seen small groups of dolphins swimming and feeding just offshore.

Yesterday afternoon a very expensive Class A motorhome here in the park burned down. Fortunately, the couple was away at a doctor’s appointment and they left the front door open so we could let the cat escape. The fire started in the refrigerator compartment and escalated quickly. Within 15 minutes, it was a total loss for insurance purposes. It took about 30 minutes to get to the point in the pictures below. You can click each picture for a larger version, then use your browser back button.

Got the winter job lined up in Lake Placid FL.  Started getting the truck and 5th wheel ready in August. Had 3 problems on the 5er – dump valve cable on one of the gray tanks broke, leaking tire, and can’t remember the third. Replaced the cable without much trouble. Took the tire off and went to the tire shop. They said it was just a leaky valve stem that they tightened at no charge.