Another week gone, less than a year to go!!

Its getting harder and harder to go to work, doing a job that I don't want to be doing. I look forward to the weekends so much now, especially when I'm camping with my friends.

Thursday and Friday at work weren't too bad, just got caught up on some reports. 2:00 can't come soon enough.....I learned Friday morning that I have Monday (Labor Day) off. It would have been nice if someone had told me. It makes me look real stupid when this happens. Oh well, Thursday marked one year to go until retirement.

Friday afternoon we left for the park as soon as I got home. I absent-mindedly took a microphone to the video camera home with me and had to drop it off but we went up via Manvel which wasn't too bad of a drive. Only a little bit out of the way. When we arrived at the park, Bob Wurch was there in his motorhome. After waiting on Darlene to arrive, we ended up going out to eat pizza at Double Dave's Pizza for a change. It was good but I still like Donnelly's Pizza buffet. We came back and some of us got in the hot tub to relax. A great way to finish the night.

Saturday morning we got up and went to the breakfast at the rally hall put on by the park. Ted and Donna had called and asked if we could get them a site in the park, which I was able to do, even though it was the Labor Day weekend and the park was booked up. They weren't planning to arrive until Sunday afternoon. All during the day we all monitored the Internet and television for updates on hurricane Gustav. It still looks like he's going into Louisiana. I hate to wish bad luck on anyone, but I'm glad we didn't get it. Our friends Bill and Ornell left Port Acres and went to Granbury for the weekend in advance of the mandatory evacuation of the Beaumont area. They said they had some slow going but made it okay. Saturday afternoon, we had planned to go to the mixer and to watch the Hawaiian hula dancers perform at the pavilion. It was okay, but since I was on call and couldn't drink anything alcoholic, it wasn't as much fun for me. Right after that, the park cooked another pig for the Luau weekend, and we all gathered at the Rayford room where the guests brought vegetable dishes and desserts. It was another great meal and the Unique Soul band began playing as soon as supper was through. They are a good band, playing a lot of 60's and 70's music. We stayed down there until the band quit playing at 9. We went back to the hot tub again but this time it was just Dee and I in the tub. Stella's foot wouldn't let her in again and Ricky never comes into the hot tub. Bob had said he would come but he didn't show up.

Sunday morning we got up and fixed a big breakfast of biscuits and gravy, bacon, sausage, and eggs. It was a great way to begin the day. Donna called to tell us that they were held up on the road coming in from Beaumont. Ted was down in his back and couldn't do too much to set his rig up, so Ricky and I volunteered to help. When they arrived, the said that the Highway Patrol had blocked off Hwy. 105 at Hwy 146 and wouldn't let anyone go west on 105. I wondered why because we hadn't heard anything about any road closures because of the storm. I later saw on the news that there had been a bad traffic accident on 105 which apparently caused the road to be closed. They had to go almost all the way to Livingston before being able to turn off and get on Hwy. 59 to come back to Houston. When they got there, we quickly set them up and then Ricky and I cleaned up their truck and trailer which was covered with love bugs. It seems unusual that the bugs are back now, they are usually a springtime nuisance. Sunday night, Ricky cooked us steaks on his grill. The girls had gone to the store and bought all the fixins' for everything, so we had another great meal in the park. We sat outside until about 10:30 when I conked out and we all called it a night. It rained pretty hard just after we all went in, but it was just a shower and didn't last very long.

Monday morning we got up and decided to eat some breakfast tacos this morning. Its amazing how well these thrown-together meals come out. We sat around all morning, relieved that Gustav had gone into Louisiana. Dee's parents live in Lake Charles but left for Mississippi. I heard from Bill that Ornell had to go back to work, so she rode back with one of their sons. He stayed in Granbury and will come to Houston on Wednesday for the rally this weekend.

We had a little excitement in the park today. A couple that had just bought a truck camper came in last night, and while trying to offload the camper onto the jacks, the man somehow lost control of everything with the front end crashing to the ground. I suspect that he didn't have his front jacks extended far enough and it caused the front jacks to fail. It sure broke up his new camper. They had to call a wrecker to pick it up and take it to their shop to try to get it fixed. They apparently live in Mexico and planned to take it back, having just bought it on Friday. Ted and Donna got packed up and left and I left soon after they did. Stella stayed in the park and will come home on Wednesday.