Jun13
Posted on Jun 13 by Ruth Davis
We left muggy Memphis but, instead of turning north, we agreed to stick with our Alabama itinerary, to see a few touristy things along the way. We ate pretty good BBQ at a Bait and tackle shop in Tupelo, sang some Van Morrison, and stopped at the Natchez Trace Visitor’s Center before heading to camp at a private RV park outside of Muscle Shoals. After we settled in, we drove into the town of Florence, through the semi-abandoned downtown area, with whole blocks of boarded up storefronts. We passed the warehouse district near the Port of Florence and followed the signs through several old neighborhoods to Helen Keller’s birth house. I enjoyed our tour guide, Miss Anne, who wore a ring with the Alabama quarter on it. The quarter features Helen Keller and it’s the only quarter with braille writing on it. She made the ring herself. Miss Anne commented on the artwork on my t-shirt, two hands with the fingers making the shape of a heart, and she touched the white heart stone that...
May30
Posted on May 30 by Ruth Davis
We’ve been in Memphis, Tennessee this past week, first a few miles north of the city at a state park in the thick of the forest, and now, at an RV park in West Memphis, on the Arkansas side of the Mighty Mississippi. The forest was so dense that we had no cell signal, no TV reception, no wifi. Yes, it was beautifully green, but it was so incredibly muggy and buggy, that we mostly stayed inside, playing dominoes and reading. For people who have full and busy lives with very little quiet, offline time, this might seem like heaven, but it was very challenging for us. We drove into the nearby town twice, just to get out of the dark, oppressive woods. In the early evening we drove through the park, to the boat ramp on the Mississippi River. There was no place to walk or sit, so we drove over to the larger of the two lakes in the park and walked around, looking for birds. I had two bars on my phone, so...
May16
Posted on May 16 by Ruth Davis
All is well with the transmission pump and we are officially back on the road. After a muggy weekend at a state park near Jasper, we finally left Texas and added a new state sticker to our map. We’re spending a week in Bossier City/Shreveport, Louisiana, so that we can volunteer at the nearby Chimp Haven, a sanctuary for chimpanzees who were previously part of biomedical experiments. There are 260 chimps at the sanctuary, and they are building more compounds for the 200 chimps still in labs across the country. As volunteers, we’re helping with food prep and making enrichment snacks. We have no direct contact with the chimps. Only a handful of doctors, behaviorists and medical personnel have any interaction with them. Everyone else needs to stay at least six feet from the enclosures for safety, because chimps are aggressive and strong, and they will throw feces at you if they don’t know you. Amy, our volunteer coordinator, drove us around the facility, explaining that, when the chimps arrive, they are studied and assessed, then assigned to a...
May02
Posted on May 2 by Ruth Davis
We’re in the last week on the coast and it’s been glorious. I’ve been to the beach twice a day, every day, sometimes with Cody, sometimes alone, even a few times with Marika. Most days I pick up litter, watch the pelicans, and do modified sun salutations at the water’s edge. Weekends are getting busier and noisier, with more trucks and golf carts and families on the beach. This past Saturday we enjoyed a fireworks display right out the living room window. Marika has gone birding almost every day, and she has seen more varieties of birds, and so many new birds, than ever before. Already we are talking about returning next spring. I’ve been reading and writing, making postcards and binge-watching Netflix, really enjoying the feel of being on vacation. And one day last week we drove to Port Arthur for a day of touristing. We visited a Buddhist Temple, and the Museum of the Gulf Coast, drove around the refineries, and ate no-frills Vietnamese food. But here’s the thing about all of this freedom:...
Apr17
Posted on Apr 17 by Ruth Davis
We’ve been back on the Gulf Coast for a couple of weeks and, for the first time since we’ve been living on the road, I actually feel like I’m on vacation. When we were here in February, I had some Mac client calls, I was focused on getting us a hosting job for April, and I was working on the new Photos For Mac e-book. This time here, I have no work commitments and my time is all mine. And I’ve been loving it! Every weekday morning, Cody and I drive down to the beach for a good, leash-free romp along the waves. Weekends are too crazy-busy on the beach with campers and party folks with their trucks and hot rods and golf carts driving up and down the sand. During the week we have the beach to ourselves. Cody and I walk together, at our own pace, him searching for a stick or running in the shallow water, and me, picking up litter. There are trash cans every few hundred yards, so I clean in sections....
Mar28
Posted on Mar 28 by Ruth Davis
We’re enjoying our time here at the lakeside campground in central Texas. It’s a nice park in the Pineywoods, about 30 miles southeast of Austin. We’re meeting interesting people and enjoying the local museums, art centers and restaurants. We even went to the movies, and there was also a bowling alley, a bar and grill, and an arcade with the world’s largest Pac-Man game in the theater complex. The weather has been mostly perfect with some very muggy days thrown in, and we like the work. We clean seven bathrooms with showers, and we’re responsible for the outside areas around the ten waterfront cabins. This includes emptying the fire pits, scraping the grills, and picking up litter. A paid maintenance crew cleans inside the cabins and collects all of the trash. They also do our jobs on our days off. A lot of campers have been leaving hot fires in the fire rings, so we sometimes have to haul buckets of water to the pits to drown and stir the hot ashes, then come back the next...
