Bob's Austin Mararthon Run - Sunday, February 14, 2016

Today was not a typical Valentine's Day. We were up at 4:30 a.m. I drove us to Austin so Bob could run the Austin Marathon. At 5:00 a.m. we left San Antonio for the 1-1/2 hour drive north. Thankfully, there was little traffic.

Humidity in the form of fog settled over the freeway from time to time, but didn't limit highway visibility. However, the fog floated around the lights creating an eerie feel in the early morning hours.

Bob was at the start line at 6:30 a.m., and was on the course at 7:01 a.m. He expected to take the full allotted seven hours to finish the 26.2 miles. I was worried about him the week before the race because his atrial fibrillation (a. fib.) was acting up and he wasn't feeling well.

The morning of the race, I asked him how he was feeling. He said he felt nervous, but couldn't tell if it was from the excitement about the race or if it was his a. fib.

We were both a bit worried that the weather would be hot and humid (80 degrees), but that was not the case. Starting temperature was 57 degrees and humid, but a little later the wind picked up and dried him out. The day stayed cloudy until almost 2:00 p.m. As he was coming down the road for the last mile or so, the sun came out. I don't think the temperature got much over 70.

After I dropped Bob off early in the morning, I headed to IHOP for breakfast since I hadn't eaten yet and was pretty hungry. Bob had eaten a bowl of oatmeal in the car while I drove.

With the whole day ahead of me, I decided to head to Mount Bonnell. I had a general idea of where it was, but I didn't know the exact freeway exit. As I was heading north on I-35 to Hwy 183, a gorgeous sunrise was happening. It was so pretty I didn't want to miss it. I pulled off onto the shoulder of Hwy. 183 and snapped a couple of photos. I was a little too late to catch the sun when it was bright red as it first rose over the horizon.

Sunrise over east Austin

From Hwy. 183, I headed south on MoPac and soon realized many of the exits in the area of Mt. Bonnell were closed due to the marathon. When I finally found an exit (I think it was Cesar Chavez) that was open, I took it. Well, wouldn't you know it, it was the marathon route and only one lane was open. Thankfully, I was early enough and the runners were just starting to round the bend onto the road. I kept driving on the road. Then I started seeing signs "Road Closed Ahead." Uh-oh. I was fortunate to make it through before the runners.

Side roads were barricaded and I wasn't sure what to do. I stopped to ask locals sitting alongside the road in lawn chairs how to get to Mt. Bonnell. They gave me good directions and I found my way to Covert Park at the top of Mt. Bonnell.

This is my stair-stepper exercise this morning!

View of Lake Austin from Covert Park

Mt. Bonnell stone

The flower in the photo below is the Bracted Twistflower. (Sorry for the poor quality, the photo was under glass and had a lot of glare.) According to the informational sign, "The bracted twistflower is a rare annual plant that is native to the Edwards Plateau (the Texas Hill Country). When in full bloom, bracted twistflower is impressively beautiful with vibrantly colored lavender-purple flowers. The plants are normally 1-3 feet tall but can reach a height of five feet under optimal conditions ... Bracted twistflower grows in a variety of habitats in juniper-oak woodlands on rocky limestone slopes and on terraces between such slopes, often above permanent flowing water."

Bracted Twistflower

View from a neighborhood atop Mt. Bonnell

When I finished driving through the beautiful homes atop Mt. Bonnell, I headed down (away from the marathon route).

The road down to Lake Austin from Mount Bonnell.

Along Lake Austin are some amazing homes. I didn't stop to take photos of them.

I worked my way over to MoPac and took it south not realizing it didn't hook up to I-35. When MoPac stopped at a traffic light on Slaughter, I took Slaughter east to I-35. I ended up at the exit just south of Austin's Lone Star Carefree RV Resort, one of Travelers World's sister parks in Texas. Having never seen the park, I stopped in for a tour.

At  the front desk I met John and Debra who, coincidentally, were headed to Travelers World for three nights as soon as they got off work. It's a small world. Anyway, John was nice enough to drive me around the park in the golf cart and I was able to see another Carefree property.

From there, I drove north one exit and stopped in at H-E-B (local Texas grocery store chain) to buy some snacks. I wanted to spend my day at McKinney Falls State Park reading and hanging out in nature.

When I got to the park, the Visitor Center where I was hoping to spend some time, was closed. In fact most of the main part of the park was closed due to damage from floods earlier in the year. The Upper Falls and most of the trails were closed as well. Lower Falls was open and the campground was open. I didn't go to Lower Falls as I figured it would be crowded.

Instead I headed to a quiet parking lot near the dining hall. I read my "Entertainment Weekly" magazine and ate some Valentine sugar cookies. As I was reading, I heard a tap, tap, tap and looked up to see a male cardinal attacking the rear-view mirror on my car. Apparently the bird in the mirror was invading his territory! My nature moments today included Mr. Cardinal looking in my windows and putting on a defensive display trying to chase himself away in my rear-view mirror! It was quite comical.

Must get that bird!

A moment of relative quiet

More attacks

Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear.
How about objects ON the mirror?

He's looking in my front windshield.
Looks like the mirror got the better of him.

As I was reading and watching the cardinal come back to fight the mirror, I also kept an eye on where Bob was in the marathon. You see marathon runners tie a chip on their shoelace and as they run, their chip is tracked as they cross different checkpoints. I looked up his bib number online and was able to track where he was on the course. Bob was doing very well!

In the morning he hadn't been sure if he would do the half or full marathon, but when I checked around 10:30 a.m., he was at 13.1 miles heading toward 18 miles and his pace had been pretty steady at 15.11-minute miles. There was an estimated finish time online. Pretty cool. That made it easy for me to know approximately when he'd cross the finish line.

I napped for a little while in the car, watched the cardinal and read some more. When it was 1-1/2 hours before Bob was due to finish, I stopped at H-E-B again to buy a turkey sandwich for lunch, and headed north on I-35 into downtown Austin. Once I found a place to park, I headed to the finish line, then started walking along the course until I found Bob. He was just coming out of the University of Texas.

Eve and Bob in front of the University of TX
Darrell K. Royal Texas Memorial Stadium

Bob introduced me to Eve. He had spent the last 13 miles walking with her.

Eve and Bob

Bob and Eve crossing the finish line together

He looks pretty happy to be finished!

Congratulations, Bob, you did a great job on the marathon today!

We headed home, but made one stop at Camping World. For Valentine's Day Bob gave me a gift card to Camping World. I had fun shopping.

At home, we had leftovers (from our Valentine's Dinner at Olive Garden last night) while we watched "60 Minutes."

Travel Bug out.

New Year's Day 2015 until Jan. 10 - Thurs., Jan. 1-10

No work. Thank goodness! We slept in until noon. So very nice to cocoon on a cold day.

From Friday, Jan. 2 to Sunday, Jan. 4,  I worked three ten-hour days at the RV park. On Monday, Jan. 5, I slept in again. Monday was "chores day" with laundry, cooking, and shopping on my plate.

Tuesday the 6th, Susan, Darren, Peri and I did the 10 km (6.2mile) Missions Volksmarch. We met at Mission San Jose to sign in for our walk, and then drove to Mission Concepcion where the walk started.

Every time we walk along the San Antonio River, I am amazed by the birds and turtles we see. This time, we also saw the ever present tower crane. You see, there is a lot of building going on in San Antonio.

A few major building projects in San Antonio are: a huge addition to the Convention Center, new apartments near the Blue Star Arts Complex, a new children's museum on Broadway, new Emma Hotel at The Pearl (formerly the Pearl Brewery), new hotel on the Museum Reach of the San Antonio River, Victory Medical Center, Forest Park Medical Center, Children's Hospital renovation, new buildings at University of Texas San Antonio (UTSA), and Embassy Suites is breaking ground in April 2015 on a six-story hotel in south San Antonio. Already completed was the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts in downtown San Antonio. Wow!

Sorry, I got sidetracked. Back to the Volksmarch...the walk was mostly along the San Antonio River from Mission Concepcion to the Blue Star Arts Complex in King William District.

Sunflowers in the dead of winter.

Great egret

Turtles sunning

Snowy egret

Gadwall pair

Egyptian geese

Beautiful winter day

Darren, Susan, Peri

Tower crane at Blue Star Complex apartment
building site

One of the art shops at Blue Star

Stella Public House, our lunch stop

Peri studying beer menu

My salmon salad lunch

Where we had lunch - Stella Public House

Art outside one of the galleries

Great egret fluffing feathers

Butterfly posing

Mission Concepcion

When our walk was over, I went back to the fifth wheel and met Bob for our date to Texas RV Supply, The Big Bib BBQ, and Camping World. First stop, Texas RV Supply. We needed to replace our C02 sensor, our fire alarm, and our propane alarm. We also needed a yellow light cover for an outside light. The service at Texas RV Supply was great. Within a few minutes we were shown where everything was and dropped $200!

Camping World in New Braunfels was having their own "RV show" and we had a date to look around at their new and used inventory. It was fun to traipse in and out of 5th wheels and motorhomes. One thing is certain, we can't afford even a used motorhome. We fell in love with the floor plan of a brand new Forest River Cardinal 5th wheel. Now we know when we're ready to trade in our 2003 5th wheel in a few years, we will look for a used Cardinal. Of course, we'll look at other 5th wheels as well because we like to make a choice that works well for us. We still love our used Holiday Rambler Presidential after living in it for three years.

Bob amongst the grand canyon of motorhomes

The interior of a gorgeous Tuscany motorhome

Quite the control panel in the Tuscany!

The Tuscany has a master bath suite

Quite a fun day today. On the way home from Camping World we stopped at The Big Bib BBQ to use our gift certificate. Both of us had turkey plates with sweet potato casserole and salad. Yummy stuff.

Wednesday, Jan. 10, we had our weekly staff meeting at the RV Park. I worked my regular hours of Wednesday through Saturday.

You just never know what we'll be up to next. Stay tuned.

Repairs and Shopping at Camping World - July 15-16

Let's back up to Monday night. With the looming trip to Camping World in New Braunfels, Texas (45 minutes away), Bob and I started getting the 5th wheel ready to move. We re-stowed books, loose items, outside folding chairs, and door mat.

Tuesday morning while Bob was at work, I finished putting wall hangings like photos and barometer where they wouldn't get damaged in transit...on our bed. The laptops and air card, loose magazines, pens, and notepads all get put in one of the Costco cardboard boxes. The box is secured where it can't move. The dining room chairs were strapped down, loose items in the shower were stowed either in cupboards or on the floor of the shower...you get the picture. We have two Velcro straps which I use to close up cupboards so items won't break free during transit. [Note to self: Buy more Velcro straps for the other cupboards!]

Before closing the slides this morning, I took a broom and cleared all the spiders/spiderwebs off the outside of the rig. Thankfully, the spiders were all benign; mostly daddy long legs and a little white garden-variety-type spider.

Our appointment at Camping World was at 2:30 p.m. When Bob came home at noon, he did the outside chores--emptied the black tank, put the bicycle on the bike rack on our ladder, closed the awning, partially filled the fresh water tank, hooked up the 5er to the truck, latched and locked the exterior compartments, and removed the chocks. We put up the stairs, folded in the handle and locked the door.

Because the rig had been sitting so long, our first stop was two miles away at Treds (yes, it's spelled like that) where we had the ladies fill our tires to the recommended level. (Side note: It's all women who work at Treds. They replace tires, do wheels, make "house" calls to RV parks to assist RVers with their dilemmas, i.e., come with a large jack to lift someone's car off the end of the tow dolly, etc. See another article and video here.)

Then we were off on a (short) road trip to Camping World to have our refrigerator and badly leaking kitchen faucet looked at.

When your 5th wheel is your home everything travels with you. So when it came time for Camping World to take over possession of our 5th wheel, we had to take the cats with us. I popped them into their carriers with Sunnie sliding right in - no muss, no fuss, and Bowie with his paws extended, claws out and "I'm-not-going-in-there" fuss. Cat, resistance is futile. You're going in. And he did, but unhappily.

We took the two cat carriers and a small, disposable kitty litter box out to my Escape pod. Remember this is around 2:30 p.m. The day was dark and foreboding; it had rained on us during our drive north. While we moved the kitties, no rain. I put both carriers in the back seat and the kitty litter box in the back cargo section of the Escape.

Bob headed back to work. I sat in the car with the kitties. However it was lunch time so we drove off to find food. As soon as I started the car, the skies opened up and the downpour began. I followed Bob out of the Camping World lot. We could barely see the road it was raining so hard. The freeway access road was like a river...luckily there was good drainage. The freeway was crawling along at about 30-35 mph, the same speed as the access road. I'm guessing a couple of inches of rain fell in about 15 minutes' time. 

I drove toward New Braunfels looking for a fast food restaurant where I could drive through with the kitties in tow. The downpour was crazy. When I got to an intersection where I could go under the freeway, I went for it. That's where the most water was, but it wasn't very deep so I followed the guy in front of me through. (No problem.) Finally found a Whataburger and bought my lunch. I let the cats out of their carriers to explore the car. They went everywhere, including all over me to get to every inch of the inside. They were much happier after exploring and checking out everything through the windows.

In the past, kitties didn't get to go free in the car, but since they were out of the carriers, I let them be while I drove back to Camping World. As soon as the car starting moving faster, both of them disappeared. When we parked, I saw them both come out of one cat carrier. It's only a medium-sized carrier so they must have been pretty cozy in there. (Sunnie is 16 lb. and Bowie is 10 lb.)

No sooner was I parked than Bob drove back to the Camping World parking lot. What? He had headed off to work. He came over to wait in the car with the cats and me. Said the freeway was crazy, the rain was insane, and it wasn't worth driving back to San Antonio in the downpour. So he is going to work this evening.

Here we are in the car, waiting...

Sunnie loving Bob's attention.

Bowie looking skeptical.

Sunnie: all settled down.

Sunnie says, "Bowie, can't you just relax? Ommm."

With Bob in the car to keep an eye on the kitties, I was able to shop in Camping World. The Camping World flyer that came in the mail showed a vacuum on sale that had what I was looking for. The Dirt Devil® Scorpion™ is what I would call a cross-over vacuum. It's hand-held and small in size with attachments: an upholstery brush, a "Turbo" tool, and a crevice tool. When you have two cats in a 5th wheel, those attachments are much needed to get cat hair off the furniture, valances, window shades, and kitty litter out of edges. I used it last night and LOVE it!

Pros:

• It plugs directly into the wall, no charging stand, so running out of battery power is not an issue
• "Turbo" tool
• Upholstery brush
• Hose with crevice tool
• Shoulder strap to use when you want to reach up high or just an easy way to carry it around while you vacuum

 Cons:

• The on/off switch is hard to use
• The attachments are difficult to attach
• It gets hot pretty quickly

The pros outweigh the cons and I am happy with the purchase. Original price was $47.99. Sale price was about $33, but with the Good Sam discount at Camping World, the price was close to $30.

My other purchase was a nice pillow, normally $24.99 which I got for $17.99. Bob liked the pillow so much he asked me to buy one for him Wednesday.

The repairs could not be finished on Tuesday, so we needed to spend the night at Camping World. They put us next to the repair building where there was a plug-in with 50 amp power. Electricity is important for light, A/C, charging our computers and phones, and for me to try out the new vacuum! You can see how wet everything is.

There's Rigamarole on the left before we hooked up shore power.

Today's post is long, so I will end here. Wednesday is another story altogether. Stay tuned for "the rest of the story."

The end.

Travel Bug out.