January 1 - 15, 2010

January 1- 15, 2010

I climbed out of bed around 8:20 am. Watched a little HLN on the small screen and ate some donut holes with a glass of chocolate milk on this early January morning. Rhonda was up getting ready for work this first Monday of the New Year. We did a little RV repair, fixing the bedroom light before she took off. I watched a little more TV and made a pot of coffee. Earlier this morning I went out to fill our LP tank since the weather is getting colder here and the furnace was gulping it down just as I had the donut holes.

Joe and Debbie Gilbert pulled in around 1:15 pm to our little part of Paradise. They are friends we made while working at Adventureland in Iowa this past summer. They came in from the Dallas area to visit us. They setup six spots down from us. I invited them for coffee after they were settled in and then got busy making my second pot of coffee after I had made the invitation. In short time they came down to visit and then went back to their unit while we all waited for Rhonda to get home from work.

Rhonda and I decided to take them out to eat at the Texas Star Café in Colmesneil a little town about eight miles up the road. We all loaded up into our little car and started our drive toward Colmesneil. I didn’t get a mile down the road when a set of blue and red lights (the bubble kind) on the top of a car made a U-turn making headway toward us. I had just looked at my speedometer and I was only doing 65 mph. The speed limit was 70 mph during the daytime and at night it dropped down to 65 mph, I felt secure that I was within the speed limit. I just thought the bubble lights had received a radio call in town and was responding to the dispatch. So I pulled over as any good citizen is required to do and let the lights roll on down the road.

The trooper's car pulled in behind us with spotlight glaring on the rear of our car. We all sat there just waiting for what seemed like forever. Joe was in the backseat desperately trying to put on his seatbelt. He was wrestling with it like he was a Sumo-wrestler, he was not to subtle in his attempt as the officer informed him later. Everyone else was buckled up properly. I thought maybe we were being pulled over because of a headlight being out. Since that seems to be a common cause for a pullover in Woodville. (Rhonda had this happen several years back and she just received a warning). The officer approached the driver’s side window which I already had down with the anticipation of a tantalizing conversation.

“Good evening officer. What seems to be the problem?” I asked in a earnest voice.

“I pulled you over for speeding.”

I couldn’t believe it; I’d just checked my speed and I know I was only doing 65 mph. I could feel my face start to have a rosy glow to it.

I replied, “I thought the speed limit was 65 officer?”

She said, “I clocked you at 70 mph. License and proof of insurance.”

I didn’t even get a please with that request for the information.

“I thought for sure I was only going 65 officer,” I said with an almost apologetic tone.

In a very matter-of-fact response, “License and proof of insurance.”

As I’m pulling out my driver’s license and Rhonda hands me our insurance card, the officer looks in the backseat where Joe and Debbie are sitting.

“Roll down this window,” she said sharply, as she taps on the back-window with her flashlight where Debbie was sitting. “Let me see some identification.”

Debbie not knowing the layout of the car was fumbling around trying to find the button to roll down the window. We could tell the officer was getting impatient with us. Thank goodness for front-window controls for the entire car. I quickly lowered her window, while she explained to Joe there is a law that passengers must have their seatbelts on in accordance to the manufacture’s specifications and that requires the shoulder strap be on too. Even though Joe did try to explain he had his lap belt on. She noted that, yes he did have his lap belt on, but she saw him trying to put it on after she was pulling us over.

She said very arrogantly “I didn’t say I was giving you a ticket for not wearing your seatbelt or a speeding ticket. I am giving you both a warning.” As if to say, if you say anymore I’ll just go ahead and give you both a ticket.
She took my license and insurance paperwork back to her vehicle and ran our plates and other information we gave her. Coming back to our car she handed me my information back and gave me one more item I didn’t have before – a warning ticket for speeding. Reaching through the back window she gave Joe his warning ticket for not wearing his seatbelt.

“Watch your speed Mr. Weaver, you folks have a good evening.”

Really now, did she mean that? Really!

“You too, officer – you too.” And I wasn’t sure whether or not I meant that.

So we were a little late getting to supper but our appetites were still in the 70 mph range or thereabouts. We had a nice dinner and fun evening considering the evening's events. On the way home I debated over whether I should let Rhonda drive home. They all convinced me to go ahead and drive home. But all their eyes watched the speedometer and they let me know if I was getting close to going over the speed limit. We dropped them off at their unit and went in to visit for a few minutes. Then we went back home just six sites away.

The next couple of days we decided to take it easy and just be lazy. We were going to Livingston on Wednesday with Joe and Debbie. They picked us up in their new truck and we took off for Texas Pepper restaurant to have lunch. This time with Joe driving we didn’t have a bit of trouble with the cops. We finished off a good lunch then went to the headquarters for the Escapee’s RV Club out on highway 146. We showed them around since it was their first time stopping there even though they are members. We showed them the clubhouse, where we pickup our mail and the Care Unit. We also just drove around a little to see some of the sites. Departing the Escapee Park we drove to highway 190 going east stopping at the Indian reservation so they could see the campgrounds that were offered. It has a nice setting, but was not kept up in appearance or maintenance. We came home after stopping at the Woodville Wal-Mart for some dessert for later in the evening. At 7 pm we were invited to Bobby and Annette’s for coffee and dessert. We wanted Annette and Debbie to meet each other since they both were in supervisory positions in their respective school systems. We had a nice visit the six of us and said our goodnights after an hour or so. It was a good day.

I had another stare down with the electronic eye, telling me it was 6:45 am. I stayed in bed another 15 minutes because I knew it was going to be cold. The temperature went down to 21 degrees last night. It’s still early in January; in fact it’s still the first week of January. I let our faucet dribble a little water all night in the front sink and bathroom so it wouldn’t freeze. It worked and we had water today. I plan on doing it again because the forecast for tonight is a low 16 degrees. Joe and Debbie were supposed to leave Friday morning around 9 or so, but they had a flat tire on their unit. So they had to call the Good Sam’s Club (an RV club with roadside service) to have them come out and change their tire and put on the spare. The service truck came all the way from Cleveland, Texas; yes we have a Cleveland in Texas too. They came down to our unit to stay warm since their unit was cold because of disconnecting the electricity and putting in their slides. Good Sam’s didn’t make it to Paradise until 1 or 2 pm, so they made the decision to stay another night. They finally were able to leave on Saturday, we all ready miss them.

Sunday morning I woke-up at 6:30 am stayed in bed until 6:50 am. Temperature went down to 15 degrees last night. The furnace in the back of the RV worked overtime, by 8:30 or 9 am the small tank of LP gas had run out. I just filled it up earlier in the week.

Monday morning woke-up at a few minutes before 7 am and laid there in bed watching the clock; tick-tick-tick until it glared at me yelling it was 7:18 am. Okay-okay, I’m getting up. It was really cold in the front room the temperature reading was at 47 degrees inside and 22 degrees outside. I sat in the loveseat with a snuggie and afghan on just like a little old man should, watching HLN until Sadie our little dog had to go outside. Boy it was cold getting out from under the covers. As soon as she was back inside we both snuggled back under them. Rhonda was up around 8:30 am and she started getting ready for her work.

Tuesday Rhonda was called into work. I just stayed around the motor home watching TV and being lazy. I’m really getting good at that job. Guy the owner of the RV Park stopped by to give us our voter registration cards to fill out. After Rhonda finished work we were invited to Bobby & Annette’s for dinner. We had chicken, cornbread and dumplings and then watched American Idol’s first night. We had a nice evening and then came home calling it a night.

This pretty much completed the first part of the month of January 2010. Not real exciting, but not boring either. It’s a living, face it somebody has to do it, what not us?