Ok, nothing new at the ranch. No new work done(period). It's been way too hot! Besides, we went to Utah for a couple of weeks. Ann gave Travis one of her kidneys. My wife is an Angel sent to earth and she loves me (of all people), I don't know what I did to deserve it, but I'll take it. All of the events from the hospital were posted on Facebook. Everything went fine. So...at any rate, nothing got done out here while we were gone.
So...we get back...Ann convalesces for a few days and bang...back in the saddle. Let's have the whole bunch together for the 4th. Of course, Ann takes on the whole task of putting it all together. She does put on a good spread, but in Ann's present state that means I'm loading up everything by myself. Oh well, activity keeps you young, right?
So, we load everything up and get on the road. This time, with the Travel trailer in tow. We just bought a new camera so this is a good chance to document the experience. Several of our friends have requested pictures of the drive out to Circle H so I'll attach a bunch of 'em.
Over all, it was lots of fun. Although, I think, I'm still experiencing some of the "fun" in the form of various aches and pains in my shoulders, back, etc. I swear, I'm going to put wheels on my 3500watt generator. That sucker is just too plain heavy to be lifting and carrying by myself.
By the way, on a little more than half a tank of gas, the generator ran the RV and the AC for almost 5 hours. The temp outside 105F. I think it did just fine.
Where was I? Oh yeah. We (I) loaded up everything in the truck and RV, hitched it up and we pulled out around 9:30am on the 4th. We stopped and got gas at the intersection of 183 and continued on our way. Ann took pictures while I drove.
When we got out there, the gazebo had been blown over by the wind from the latest storm. There was a little debris in the driveway but not too bad. I pulled up, assessed the situation and backed her in with Ann giving signals and direction from the rear. I did have to get out and check a few times but I managed to get it passed the turn and keep going. I guess we only backed it in about 200 feet from the road.
I unloaded everything and set up the picnic table under the gazebo and while I unhitched the trailer, Ann started the Grill. What's for dinner? Grilled corn on the cob, fresh sausage, pistachio salad, potato salad, macaroni salad, fresh veggie platter, hot dogs, chips, and cold soda, with home made banana pudding for dessert. Sound good? It was. Good ol' fashion southern home cooking. Yum.
After lunch, we took a walk around the perimeter to check things out, then tossed a nerf football around and tried to relax a bit. Did I mention that it was 105 degrees outside...it felt closer to around 200 degrees. Man it was hot. The energy was being zapped right out of me. After a while we realized that all the women and kids were in the RV in the AC watching "Horton hears a who".
Well, we're not too proud to stay out in the heat. We joined them inside for frozen fruit pops and cold sodas. The AC was better than the heat but we were already over heated so it was hard to tell that it was any different than outside even though it was MUCH better inside. Well, on the other hand, when 12 people crowd around inside a small 20' RV, it is interesting. It's a good thing that we are a close family. We really are. We all had a good time in spite of the heat.
I love my family, I really do. We had lots of fun. Happy 4th of July. Oh, one more thing...no fireworks on this trip...things are way too dry out here and I don't have running water yet so no way would I risk it.
