Mammoth in Search of Our Progeny. Again.

Turkey Roost Campground, Cedar Ridge Park on Lake Belton
Saturday, October 3 - Wednesday, October 7

The route should have been simple--repeat the same route we'd taken every time before. But...Ed had previously complained about a little "cut through" he wanted to avoid, so, when he hit the loop around Waco, he overrode my directions. Instead of taking a left turn--south on the loop, he went north. That of course put us in the center Waco right in the middle of the stupid road construction that our South loop was designed to avoid.

But, oddly enough, it wasn't as bad as it had been in the past. Not the construction--it was as narrow and congested as always. But the Motorhome Driver was more experienced now--he was getting uncannily good at knowing where his tires were. And the boat trailer tires, too. I will propose taking the I-35 route all the way next time and we'll see.

So what with the "short cut", we left home at about 11:25 and arrived at about 3:05, with only one short bathroom break. (Google considers this a 2:45 trip; we took 3:10) Although the drive was somewhat routine, getting ready was a bear. On Friday I had been doing contract work until about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, before starting my cooking. I was making a Chicken and Sausage Paella, a cheesecake, some roasted vegetables with "Basil Pistau", and my normal travel day lunch, Crab Rollups. The Basil Pistau lost out really fast and the roasted vegetables nearly did, too. The only reason they got made was because I needed something to do while the Cheesecake baked. Or should I say burned? It was most definitely burned around the edges.

I gave up cooking at seven o'clock and decided to do the crab in the morning. Which made the morning stink pretty bad--I barely had time for a short jog and in fact, cut it even shorter because I couldn't take the route I preferred--too many people on the road.  So all in all, Ed ended up having to wait on me, which never happens, and we didn't get away from the house until around eleven-thirty.

The Corp of Engineers had closed down the eastern loop of the campground and crammed all the people into one side. This appears to be a seasonal thing, due to lack of demand, but this year there was a lot of demand.  We were lucky to get a spot at all, especially on a Saturday. (I couldn't get anything at all on Friday) But the spot turned out to be pretty nice and had plenty of space on three sides around it. There were people really close on our backside, but who cared? They were nice people.

Molly and I took a walk to see if there was a boat ramp on that side of the campground (there was) and we saw some deer on the way back. Leastways, I saw some deer. They were skulking in the woods--Molly smelled them, but I don't think she actually saw any. She saw and smelled this:

No birds at all, except vultures and crows. Not even a canyon wren! They're probably all down at the other end of the campground where the people are not.

But we didn't come here to see birds, although I did harbor a secret desire to get a good picture of a canyon wren. We came to see Edward, and he arrived at about five. It was good to be together for a day. He'd have to go back to work on Monday, but hopefully no more all nights "in the field" would be scheduled.

Funny thing happened, just as Ed was finishing grilling supper. The lady from the campsite by the water came over--she'd locked herself out of her RV. Actually, the RV locked her out: she closed the door and it locked behind her. So she came over to use our phone. She got hold of a locksmith and they said they'd call her back.

But, of course, that would be on Ed's phone. He and Edward went over to try to pick the lock and wait with her while the locksmith service finished another job. It took them a long time, so after waiting for a while I went ahead and did the dogs' evening walk. I walked for about an hour, total, but part of that was spent trying to find lock-picking tools for the guys to try.

As they waited, they discussed various things and discovered that the lady actually had Triple-A and could have called it instead of a local locksmith. But her membership card, along with her purse and phone, was locked in the RV. We shouldn't ever have that problem because not only is our Good Sam card in Ed's wallet, he has their app downloaded on his phone. Our lock won't lock automatically like hers did, but it's very likely I could pull the trick of losing the keys at any time. (Like I did in Arkansas!)