Olive Garden and Gander Mountain

Indian Paintbrush and Texas Bluebonnets-Oh how I miss them in the Springtime!

Sunday, April 18, I wake up at 7:30 on a board. I couldn't sleep last night so I read John McEnroe's book until 1:30. Some very young boys keep driving a 'Gator' around the campground all morning. And I can hear a domestic disturbance going on down by the pond. I see a Sheriff doing a drive-through in the park later. I try to ignore it all and work on pictures this morning and check email. But I still have energy so after breakfast I stretch and then clean the bugs off the front of the RV. I like to do that pretty soon after we move before they get baked on there by the sun. Bob stows the bikes and we try putting the bike rack under the front of the RV to keep it handy.

Drive anywhere in the Texas Hill Country and this view could greet you in Spring

While I'm scrubbing with my long pole brush our streetside neighbor, and older gent, walks by and says our RV is a beauty. He starts telling us that someone is coming by today to pick up the travel trailer he has been renting. Later we see a younger guy helping him load all of his belongings into a Penske rental truck. He says after living their whole life in Hattiesburg, they are moving to California. He has a friend who got hi a job out there as a retail manager and he will make $15,00 to $20,000 more than he was making here. He says he realizes with the cost of living difference he will probably need it. They are renting an apartment out there. We wish him well. Unemployment is 11% here in Mississippi.

Both of our neighbors leave before 10:00. I run out to get "Hattie", the campground beagle out from under the Florida couple's motorhome on our streetside as they can't see her right under their passenger side wheel. He says they fed her and I guess she's trying to keep them from leaving. He thanked me because he couldn't see her down there.

Many thanks to my Austin friend Jean for these wildflower shots, including this classic fenceposts and bluebonnets shot!

I get cleaned up and we go over to the retail area on 98. There is less traffic today than when we got here Friday. We have lunch at Olive Garden along with everyone else in Hattiesburg. I have a bland pecan-crusted tilapia but enjoy my minestrone. We go across to Gander Mountain next door where Bob find a Thermarest matt for his camping trips and some lures. I find a blouse for 70% off.

The Antique Mall on I-59 is out of business. So we stop for a paper and I try the Mississippi Herald Sunday paper. When we get back to the RV Park there is a bunch of overnighters that come in around 6:00 p.m. They sure arrive late here. I have a text message from my brother Mike--his corn is poking up through the ground already! I work on final paperwork from our latest mail pouch. And I print mailing labels since I've run out of them. We have leftovers for dinner and I watch the Academy of Country Music Awards.

I'm posting some pictures my Austin friend Jean took of the wildflowers in Texas. She says they are the result of their long, wet winter. It makes me miss Central Texas for sure.