We were talking with some friends here about Horse Soccer. They have horses and had just gotten back from kicking the ball around. I might have expressed some skepticism. “Oh no” she assured me, “The horses love it. They run right up to the ball and kick it.” I might have expressed additional skepticism.
She uploaded a video to my YouTube account so I could see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JzZUvObczY
Son of a gun. The horses really do look like they’re enjoying it.
Nice big place. Long pull-throughs. A little generous with the gravel though.
Couldn’t really get a good picture of how deep the gravel was. The motorhome made a bow wake when we pulled in.
The rig had to roar on the way out, but we got through. Just to be safe, we waited until we were out on solid ground again before we hooked up the Jeep to tow.
Nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. We all know that, but how about the speed of a ping pong ball?
What if someone hits a ping pong ball right at you? It will be traveling at a speed of about 50mph. But wait! What if the person hitting the ping pong ball is in a train speeding toward you at 100mph? Now the ping pong ball is traveling toward you at a speed of 150mph.
The speed of an object isn’t an absolute. Speed only means something when it is compared to some other object. Turn our train around and make it travel away from you at 100mph. Have our ping pong player hit the ball the other direction too, and now the ball is traveling away from you at 150mph.
But what if the train can travel at say, just over half the speed of light? Okay, maybe it’s not really a train, maybe we could just call it a particle. So fire a particle away from you at just over half the speed of light. At the same moment that happens, jump on your train going just over half the speed of light the other direction. What happened? How fast did the particle just go compared to you?
Or did it even happen?
That’s what the sign in New York says. We’ve seen the same sign in Florida with slightly different wording. Something like “Turn headlights and wipers on when it’s raining.” At first I thought it was odd, telling us to turn our windshield wipers on when it’s raining, but then I recognized the dilemma. They don’t really care about wipers and lights going on together at the same time. They just want to tell us to turn our headlights on when it’s raining; but if they only tell us to turn our headlights on, some of us won’t know to use our wipers as well. If the sign reads “turn headlights on when it’s raining,” We’ll think they mean we can use our headlights *instead* of our wipers and then we won’t be able to see anything and won’t know why!
As the day warms in the morning, they rise to find the thermals and continue their journey south. A river in the sky of migrating raptors. Broad-winged Hawks.
(With a Turkey Vulture in their midst.)
Shortly after the hawks, the Anhingas come up to continue their fall travels.
The Ruby-throated Hummingbirds swarm closer to the ground at our feeders.
Tony is taking Latin, Elementary Functions, and Biology. They took him out of his Elementary Functions class. …and put him in Calculus instead.
He reports that college is challenging, interesting, and fun.
Conner made a science video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3z9FR03V2T8
Maybe he’s going on to a career as a Mad Scientist?
Matt’s youngest. Remember my post of Austin’s first Karate class last January?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtERVej_YQA
Now, eight months later, he has had his first Karate competition.
First Place in Sparring!
Met with Steve. Gave him our list. Did a walkthrough. With all the rain we’ve been in this summer, we discovered a leak in the living-room. One wall is wet inside. We’ll need them to open it up to dry it out, then hopefully find the source of the leak and seal it up.
Left the motorhome with Texas Custom Coach, packed everything we needed in the Jeep, and drove to our house at Sandpipers Resort. We’ll wait here while they work on our coach in Pipe Creek. Our summer trip isn’t over, we’re just taking a break from it!
It is lush and green here. They have been getting rain every day, including today!
Nice people. They agreed that the rear tires were not wearing appropriately. Tire shops don’t always balance the rear tires on big motorhomes but in our case, it should have been done the last time we bought tires (at a different store). We’re only about 30,000 miles into these tires. We should get another 30,000 out of them, but they’ve got some odd wear. The Wingfoot Tire shop in San Antonio pulled all the rear wheels and ran them on the machine. The inside rears needed balancing, the outside rears were fine. They got us all put back together and we were out of there before noon.
Our next stop is at Texas Custom Coach in Pipe Creek tomorrow for some interior work. That’s a long way from the Alamo KOA in San Antonio and it was still so early in the day we decided to drive to Bandera and spend the night there, closer to tomorrow’s target.
Pioneer Riverside RV Resort.
Bandera City Park. Always good for a walk. Heard Great Horned Owls.
We have a dipstick problem. I went to check the oil and I could barely get the dipstick out. Once I got it out, I couldn’t get it back in again to check the oil.
There is a long sleeve about 4 feet long the dipstick goes through to get to the crankcase. The sleeve is made out of a hard plastic. Turns out it wandered just a little too close to the turbocharger and a section of it melted.
It’s a wonder I even got the dipstick out in the first place.
Holt Cat handled it. A new dipstick sleeve, routed a little farther from the turbo, and problem solved.
Tomorrow, Wingfoot Tire to check out some odd tire wear on the rear.
Know how much of a pain it can be when lanes have to merge together on the highway? There isn’t really any guidance how to do it; there’ll just be a sign saying right lane or left lane closed ahead. Most people see the sign, anticipate the merge, and move over when they get the chance. Some people will take the opposite approach and drive all the way to the front to the last merge opportunity and merge from there. These two merge methods are in direct conflict with each other, every person choosing to drive to the front of the line makes those in line wait even longer, so tension often results.
Seems like there should be a better way… ….and on this trip, we actually have seen two. Up around Bar Harbor, the sign didn’t say left lane closed or right lane closed, it said “Lanes merge. Please alternate.” That worked great. Everyone drove to the merge point then alternated.
Later in the trip, driving across New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York, we ran across a sign that said “Left lane closed ahead. Please merge early.” It worked great. Everyone anticipated and moved over early. No-one drove all the way up past the line to gain an advantage.
It is so easy when everyone has the same expectations.
Stopped at Alamo KOA in San Antonio. We’ll be here for a few days getting some work done.
That’s probably because I’ve never seen a chigger. They’re pretty small and you can’t feel when they bite. They’re not like mosquitos; no satisfaction from a blood spattering smack when you discover one biting you.
I suspect that chiggers have never seen a me they didn’t like; and they’ve seen me plenty of me. I just read on the internet that chiggers like to hang out in dry grass. I walked a wonderful trail at the Tom Sawyer RV Park consisting entirely of mowed grass. I guess I should stop waking on grassy trails. That’s it. No more grassy trails; only dirt and gravel trails for me from now on!
We’re headed for San Antonio, but Brazos Bend is almost right on the way there, so we stopped for the night.
We had to come out. It’s Sunday and the Broncos are playing. Manning versus Manning. Couldn’t miss that.
Lufkin RV Park, Lufkin, TX.
An RV park in town, nothing special, but it’s got a clear view of the sky for our Satellite dish. Go Broncos!
…but before we leave the subject of Caddo Lake State Park entirely, let me say one more time, “What a Place!”
A panorama:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33zpYhE-094
…and birds too…
A local legend.
Thank you Skip and Connie for the tip.
Coleslaw, Hush Puppies (that look like churros)(mine were jalapeno), tomato relish.
…and catfish.
Complete with a steamboat drive-by.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlYdMdwUOzE
We ventured close enough to Texas that the gravitational pull grabbed us and sucked us right back in. Now we’re at Caddo Lake State Park, Karnack, TX.
We were here maybe 15 years ago and really liked it. We’ve been meaning to come back….
Life is simple.
Morning on the Mississippi.
As we were leaving Ontario, we decided to take our time on the way back south; maybe just float with the weather. Maybe drive 250 miles in a day, then stay two nights at every stop. Take time to explore each location.
Well, we’re holding to the 250 miles (or less) per day, but each morning we consider if we want to stay another day or move on, and so far we just keep moving. Now we’re at Catherine’s Landing RV Resort. Hot Springs, Arkansas.
Nice place.
