Reflection

That cold north wind they have been predicting has finally got here. It's supposed to be 20 degrees tonight......an we don't got us no union suit to keep us warm....
The wind is blowing very strong, 20-30mph, and of course it is full of dust. I can only hope we are not too busy today.
Oh, by the way....a union suit is a set of red, one piece, long underwear with the trap door in back....yes, they still sell them here in Texas.

  On another note, I am sitting here kind of bored as usual and thought that I would comment on the quote from Mark Twain in our header above. I found that one day on another blog and thought that it kind of reflected on our lives the past 12 years plus. Actually longer than that, as we have both wanted to see things and do things and enjoy life. Not sitting at home and withering away as some people do who are afraid to get out and explore, see new things.
  For years we knew we were wanted to see the country and live in an rv. We read everything we could find on the subject and subscribed to the magazines that talked about rv's and the lifestyle. We tore out all of the articles on travel and places to see and put them in a binder, seperated by state. And afterwards, when we went on the road, we would check our file and remove the article after we had visited that area. It sounded great to us, and it has proved to be so.
  Oh, we have had some setbacks. A number of repairs, things failing, blown tires...days in repair shops while something got fixed. It's not fun sitting in a motel room waiting for your house to get fixed, and hoping they fix it right.
  We had to go back to work for three years, and we are sitting here in south Texas gate guarding because we need the money...but overall we have had a great time.
  Obviously this life style is not for everyone....you have to really like, love and respect your partner as you are spending a lot of time together in a very small amount of space. But we have made it work, as have thousand of others that share the life style.
  We have met some great people over the years and become friends with a number of them. Some of them we only see occasionally but they are still friends and when we meet up on the road, as we often do, it is always hugs and smiles and talking of times past, and where are you going next.....maybe we could spend a little time together going down the road.
  O.K. enough of that stuff....I am getting misty eyes. Besides it about time for the day crew to start coming in and I need to put some more clothes on.
Take care our dear friends and family
we love you all
Jim and Linda

Dust, Dust and more Dust

Not much to report.  We are starting our 7th week here and, more than likely, will be here until we leave for home the end of April.  We have been told that we are here at the request of the ranchers and that as long as they are doing any kind of work on these sites, a Gate Guard is required.

The excitement for the week was going into town to do laundry yesterday, having lunch with Bobbie, getting my nails done and picking up a few things at Wal-Mart.  Now how is that for an exciting day?????

Those of you who know me well, know that I am somewhat of a "neat freak".....so you all can imagine what I think of the these images:

Tell me again why we are doing this...........oh yeah.......MONEY!!!!!

Y'all take care......

Linda and Jim

Sameo sameo

We are in our 5th week here and traffic into the sites is still strong. We have gone thru drilling, fracking, coil tubing, flowback and who knows what else. They are hooking the wells together and hooking them to the pipeline.
We are averaging about 50 vehicles in each day, mostly during the day from about 5:50am to 6:00pm. Since I work from 4am to 4pm I get most of the work. Linda gets very few customers durning the night and it makes for very long nights. TV programing is even worse after about 10pm so she does a lot of reading on her Kindle.
During the day I play a lot of spider solitare, regular solitare, and freecell....can't tell you how many thousands of games I have played.
It appears there is no end in sight for us on this site....they keep doing things. One of the supervisors told me they were going to start a new project the first of the month.....we are hoping that they relieve us soon so we can go back to the yard for a few days of "normal" living.
Yesterday Linda went into Pleasanton and took Walker to a groomer. He was turning brown from all of the dust....now he is bright white again. It is a 80 mile round trip into Pleasanton and either one of us usually makes it once a week or so. A while back I made  two trips the same day....got into town and stopped at the lumber store and went to pay and did not have my billfold....damn...had to come back out here and get it than go back into town.
Hope all is going well for you
Let us know whats up with you these days
Love to all of ya
Jim and Linda
p.s. we are able to Skype with our kids, not the greatest video, but it works

Happy Thanksgiving

Hope that you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving day.
We should have a quiet day today. Most activity is shut down on the seven well sites that we guard. So it will be more boring than usual.
The other day I drove 20 miles into Pearsall, TX to the H.E.B. store (think Jewel/Osco only about 25 percent smaller selection). Bought two slices of deli turkey breast about 1/2 think, a ham slice for Linda, a package of instant potatoes, can of chicken gravy, can of cranberrys, and a can of sweet potatoes. Now how is that for a great dinner.....lol
My goal was to loose some weight this winter. Cut way back on the beer, from a case a week to one can about every two days. But the boredome has gotten to both of us and we are snacking way too much.
This can be a very frustrating job. You sit around bored to tears and than decide to watch something on tv or to read, or maybe try and eat supper. Than the traffic starts up....and you are up and down loging trucks in and out....than it slows back down.
Again, have a wonderful Thanksgiving day, don't eat too much......and no naps!!
Give us a call. We have phone service and intermittent internet service. We bought another signal booster that works pretty well especially for phone and texting. Internet is spotty and somethimes good, but slow.
Love to all of ya
Jim and Linda

OMG.....where has the time gone.  We have been very lax keeping our blog up to date.....so we're going to try and bring you up to speed.

Our summer at home was very busy and enjoyable.  Let me recap for you:

-we arrived back home the 24th of May and spent the Memorial Day weekend with our old camping club friends.
-on May 29th, my Mom, Maggie, and I took my youngest grandson, Jordan, to Washington DC for a week to visit my brother and his wife and to see the DC sights.  Two years ago Jim and I took our oldest, Jamie, so it was now Jordan's turn.  We had a wonderful time and Jordan can't wait to go back!!!!!
-the month of June was spemt bouncing between Indiana and Illinois spending time with family and friends.
-my favorite time of being home is our family vacation with Jeff, Lorie, Jamie and Jordan and this year was no exception. We left the 23rd of June for a 2 week vacation.  Our whole family loves amusement parks and we spent a few days at our favorite, Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio.  From there we headed to Niagara Falls for a few days and finally ended up at Greenfield Village in Detroit, Michigan.  What a wonderful time!!!!!
-the months of July and Augut were again spent between Indiana and Illinois and some "camping" weekends.
-the end of August found us on our way back to my brother's in Washington DC for a family reunion which included celebrating my Mom's 85th birthday and Christmas. Allthough my family is not large, it is difficult to get us all together at one time.  This was the year and my brother and his wife put together a fabulous weekend.  We all stayed at their house and played games, had wonderful meals and just spent some real quality "family" time.  Most eveyone left for home on Monday but my Mom, my brother Kelly and his family, Jim and I stayed the week and spent time seeing the DC sights.  We can't thank my brother Danny and his wife, DeeDee enough for all the thought and time that went imto planning that weekend.  We all left with a lot of wonderful memories.
-again it was back and forth between Indiana and Illinois until we left on October 12th starting our way south for the winter.  We stopped in Rockville, Indiana for the Covered Bridge Festival but were very disappointed.  We had attended this festival a number of years ago and thoroughly enjoyed all the local arts and crafts vendors.  This time is was more like a "flea" market.  From there we continued to Talequah, Oklahoma and spent a couple of days with our dear friends BJ and Bob who we had not seen in a couple of years.  After that it was on to Lake Texhoma where we met up with Jim and Bobbie Chapman for a week before continuing on to Whitsett, Texas to start our winter jobs as Gate  Guards.
And as usual our luck in Texas results in repair work. Our water heater sprung a leak and it will be replaced tomorrow.

So, that brings us up to date.....we are now sitting out in the middle of nowhere....about 40 miles from the nearest town......making plans for next summer!!!!!

Love to all of you

Linda and Jim