Getting Into a Jam

Making gooseberry jam is not about the cost but a labour of love. From the time I left to pick up 3 L of berries, to stemming and blossom ending them, to cooking the berries with lemon juice and sugar to topping the final glass, 9½ hours. In the meantime I also made 2½ quarts of Gazpacho, and 2 L of lemonade. And watched Brokeback Mountain one more time. The lid on at least one of my jars has already noisily snapped--that's a good thing. Given its history Wyoming is one hell of place to be gay, Texas not much better. Ironic that in the movie Jake Gyllenhaal's character dies while in real life it was Heath Ledger who didn't survive Hollywood. Oh, 12 jars of Gooseberry Jam and the lids all snapped.

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Chesapeake Bay Bridge

So being that it's in America it has to be the ----iest.  Typical of America is the shopping centre in the middle of the Bay. The Jets taking off from NAS Norfolk Roads directly over my head at KOA Virginia Beach....

Have you seen the Confederation Bridge? Driven the High Mountain Road, HWY 1, through the Rockies from BC to Alberta in spring with its avalanche sheds and no stopping avalanche warning signs. Red Mountain Pass, 1300 ft with 90 switchbacks, 15 mph caution signs and 5000 ft drop offs at the edge of the pavement--no shoulders and definitely no guard rails. The million dollar highway into Durango has one looking for a pullout to cool ones' brakes and driving in low gear at that. On a clear day Chesapeake Bay is a walk in the park.

When I drove into Ashcroft from the Blueridge Parkway losing 3000 ft in one mile I passed 5 suicide lanes. On the drive from Prince Albert to Flin Flon I passed through 3 hours of frozen fog. Have you driven at night on a prairie highway and waited for an hour until you finally met that car coming toward you? Driven in Northern Ontario where the nearest settlement is another 200 miles. Met a moose in the road at Plaster Rock Game Reserve  again, 250 miles of rocks, trees, lakes, and moose. And then there's reputedly America's most dangerous highway from Helper to Provo Utah, I drove it in February, the pass a balmy 9 above.

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Armageddon

We have a sick joke in Canada about the Tim Horton's Cups on the moon.

If we could find them the tracks Franklin's men and sledges left in the high Arctic still exist. Chernobyl's radiation infects the reindeer lichen. In the Antarctic the bones of Amundsen's Dogs (which he ate and Perry's  gas fueled sledges (which he couldn't eat) litter the ice. The Amazon Jungle shrinks ignoring the fact that the Sahara was once a Rainforest. The bodies and oxygen bottles of adventurers litter the Himalayas. The wilderness has been beaten back until little remains of the Boreal Forest but the 200-ft tracks adjoining major highways. Four Billion and counting clutter the Indian subcontinent and China. The remotest ocean reaches are littered with millions of tonnes of our plastic waste. Cities such as Montreal and Vancouver use our waterways and oceans as a convenient sewer. And we wonder why our whales are dying. Forget global winter or melting icecaps, if the phytoplankton should collapse, we lose the engine that provides the majority of the world's oxygen. Pristine Wilderness no longer exists anywhere on earth.

The space surrounding our planet is littered with thousands of bits of space junk; from lost screw drivers and wrenches to defunk rockets, satellites, and boosters. Various landers and explorers litter the moon along with Mars and several other planets. Satellites have crashed into asteroids and comets. Two voyagers have even left the environs of our solar system. We may quarantine materials brought from space but we do space no similar favours.

Politicians such as Trump argue that the world's economies cannot support the fight to save our planet, meanwhile they spend trillions on Weapons of Mass Destruction and complain that others do not contribute their share. Be fruitful and inhabit the earth. It could be argued that mankind is a blight upon the earth that is rapidly working its own destruction.

The biome has and will rebalance itself after an asteroid impact; global sea rise; earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions; nuclear winter; tornadoes and hurricanes; global plagues; droughts, heat waves, global winter. The question is will our species survive the readjustment.

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Further Rants for June

There shall be wars and rumours of war.

Listening to the news reveals a litany of man's inhumanity to man. The triumph of celebrity over justice in the Bill Cosby Trial or the election of a president. The treatment of a sexual assault victim in a court of law is nothing short of shameful and a definite deterrent to coming forward. The latest mass shooting becomes so common as to be ho-hum.

There are enough natural disasters and suffering to go around without man-made aggressions. Fires set by lightening, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, floods and landslides. Saturday the Toronto Area was under a tornado watch and today a severe thunderstorm watch. June 18.

Talk of raising the minimum wage raises cries from business that they can't afford to pay. But wouldn't putting more spending power in the hands of low wage earners increase business? Landlords including government in the case of public housing resist spending funds on measures to improve the safety of high rises unless forced to by legislation enforced by inspections. A recent fire in England has dramatically brought the issue to the fore with an increasing death toll. The yearly opening of private pools is already being marked by deaths in those facilities. A coming long weekend will be marked by carnage on the highways.

Baby Boomers are dropping like flies, every week we seem to hear of yet another group of celebrities who have passed on, dying no longer seems to be a politically correct term. More troubling personally is the fact that more and more the people succumbing to one illness or another are younger than I.

"Democracy is the worst form of government there is, except for all the rest." Winston Churchill. When did the common man ever have a proper grasp of what was in his best interest. First Britons voted to leave the European Union—Brexit; then they voted to emasculate the government that has to negotiate the process. Britain is either in or out, there is no cherry picking of aspects of union AND there is a price to be paid for leaving, there are huge costs involved. Oops!

Human migration and the aspirations of those migrants inundate small countries and neighbourhoods leading to resistance to change among the traditional residents of those localities. The threat of such change has even led European Nations to resist immigration and I'm all too familiar with the fear of the "Hispanic Menace" or the annoyance in South Florida at the Cuban invasion. I know my own frustration at the thought that the possibility of offending a visible minority means our schools and public spaces no longer celebrate Christmas. When one is stressed by illness or a sick child the desire to be comfortable speaking to a health care worker whose cultural and language background is one's own can be very strong. After all one is not in a foreign country where one needs an interpreter to get medical care. Expressing such desires may not be politically correct but that doesn't make them go away. The fact that a mother made such a request in nearby Mississauga has caused a social media and political frenzy.

Having had to use Oakville's Taxi system I learned that perspective drivers are allowed an interpreter when they take their taxi license test, but the customer is offered no such service. Would it be too much to ask that my driver speak one of Canada's official languages and know the town and its surrounding neighbourhood? Does this make me a racist? That my driver was a doctor or lawyer in his country of origin is quite another matter.

I realize that racist arguments can sound very reasonable, after all there are sections of the Bible that justify slavery. Opposing racism and xenophobia in theory is easy, it's quite another matter when your new neighbour starts cooking curry in the next apartment daily, starts hanging their laundry from tree branches or starts beating his wife.

Feeding babies on demand, that is, when they cry, teaches us to associate food with comfort and contributes to obesity in adults. After all we refer to comfort foods.

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June Rant 2017

Hate mongers such as Ernest Zundel, alas a Canadian, have long promoted the anti-Semitic agenda that states that the systematic liquidation of 6 million Jews under the Hitler Regime during WW#2 and at least 3 million gays, Roma, mentally challenged never happened. I suppose it shouldn't surprise us that gun lobbyists are now claiming that atrocities such as the Sandy Hook Massacre was created by actors as a ruse to encourage anti-gun legislation. Ironic then that a group of Republican NRA supporters were recently targeted by gun violence.

That the gun-man was in part protesting the Trump Presidency, a movement I could get behind, serves only to show that such violence begets only more violence and serves solely to damage the cause.

At the same time a group of protesters enacted a Handmaids Tale like silent sit-in at a hearing that would lead to legislation making planned parenthood, access to birth control, and abortion more difficult for women. Restricting reproductive care for women hardly seems motivated by Christian Love.

Misogyny in all its forms is alive and well in our society. I find it ironic that mothers, too many of them members of single-parent families are responsible for raising male chauvinist pigs.

In a world that is rapidly running out of resources to support its burgeoning population women who remain single, couples who choose to be childless, and birth control measures are receiving social and legislative support. In this context I fail to understand what fears motivate homophobia. What threats do gays pose? Sexual predation is an equal opportunity crime.

I may find points of disagreement with my Muslim Brothers but so long as they do not attempt to impose them on me or any other unwilling individuals they are welcome to practice their faith in my neighbourhood. Remember, it was Muslims who opposed the introduction of Sharia Law to Canada.

The cheap clothing you buy at Wal-Mart may well have been produced in a Sweat Shop in Bangladesh which employs women and children at starvation wages in appallingly unsafe conditions over long hours. Similar strategies motivate resistance to increased minimum wages, legislation governing safe working conditions, hours of work, work-breaks, over-time pay and unions that support such causes.... Even supposedly good Christians refuse to engage in the discussion as too politically controversial. Human rights have always been political.

Remind the Donald Trumps of this world that the greatness of any nation is defined by its treatment of the most vulnerable members of its society. Residents of an apartment that was home to those on social welfare for years complained about the dangerous conditions in their high-rise apartment home. Last night the building turned into a towering 22-storey inferno in London. Even in Toronto careless smokers tossing lit cigarette butts off balconies are responsible for a massive number of apartment fires. Smokers have a dreadful habit of treating the environment as their private ashtray. How often have you seen matches and butts fly from open windows of cars on the highway and how many of those and broken glass are responsible for grass and forest fires?

The theme in all of this is individual responsibility for collective welfare. No man is an island but part of the main. Love for the divine however it is you conceive of her/him, and love for fellow man is a central tenet of all great religions. It's time one nation under God remembered that.

Much has been made of the need for increased defense spending of late. How about redirecting those funds to universal health care, drug plans, guaranteed annual income, safe housing, clean water, education.... Reduce the war on drugs and crime and spend the funds on making people's lives safe, healthy, and meaningful. If you want to stimulate the economy put more funds in the hands of the poor, reducing taxes on the rich who already own more than they can find room for will only serve to increase the divide between wealth and poverty.

Do we need increased police budgets and even more invasive security measures, or should we work to improve the lives of those who are attracted to terrorist causes and lives of crime so that such measures are unnecessary. Got to love the rich kid who complains that his parent's taxes are going to go up to support the building of a community swimming pool when he already has one in his back yard.

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Insta Freebie

So I agreed to accept e-mails as a condition of downloading a free book. This does not give license to spam me multiple times a day. Once a week would be more than enough. Time better spent writing and editing. I don't need pictures of children or their pets: rabbits, dogs and kittens. Save then for Facebook. Nor do I need to know your medical problems to enjoy your books.

And unless your name is Leo Tolstoy or Victor Hugo a 700-page book is too long. 1700-pages...? I'm not a fan of profanity and if I want to learn about the mechanics of human coitus I'll re-read Desmond Morris.

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Drug Wars

I am aware that people use all manner of licit and illicit drugs as mood-altering agents. I know that many plants, fungi, and mushrooms have hallucinatory properties. That sniffing solvents such as those in glues, aerosols, gasoline and even Freon can cause artificial highs. I'm aware of alcohol and drug addiction and that many have become addicted to narcotics and opioids prescribed to relieve the pain of injury. Some of these chemicals such as crack and heroin are instantly addictive. Anyone who has tried to quit smoking knows the power of nicotine. The latest drug to get notice for it's potential for abuse is the active ingredient in the diarrhea medication Imodium. Taken at many times the recommended therapeutic dosage this narcotic produces a high but also depresses respiration and can even stop the heart. The use of marijuana has become so general that governments are moving to legalize it so they can tax it and monitor its use and distribution rather than criminalize routine users.

I have had to use anti-histamines for allergic sinusitis that cause mental and physical depression. For the same reason systemic decongestants that cause mild euphoria. But I have never understood the desire to ingest or inhale a mood altering substance simply to get high. I value being in control too much to become involved in recreational drug use. I don't find alcohol relaxing, rather it tends to make me tenser. Listening to music and the worship experience can produce spiritual ecstasy. Others find similar experiences in running or other exercise, (the pump or runner's high), or in meditation or tantric sex.

Our courts and prison systems are over-loaded with prosecuting those who profit from the demand for illicit drugs. Our capitalistic free-enterprise system shows that where there is a profit to be made from meeting a demand some entrepreneur will come forward to fill it. And drugs reap soaring profits. Just look at the poppy fields of Asia, the use of molasses to make rum, grains to make beer and whisky rather than flour.

No matter what border controls and drug enforcement measures are taken so long as the demand exists and the profits sky high means will be found to exploit the market. Having built fences to keep drugs out cartels use catapults to throw drugs over them.

The war on drugs and crime with increased police budgets may make it look like politicians are seeking to gain control but a check on medicine and liquor cabinets will show that the use of tranquilizers and alcohol to relieve stress is pretty general. If we are to win the war on drugs we have to address the difficult and challenging task of establishing what is driving the demand in the first place. Crowding more and more people into smaller spaces in our cities. Ever increasing background noise. Stressful work environments. Over stimulation by the information explosion of our modern media. Loneliness bred of isolation and anonymity.

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Cultural Appropriation

There has been a great deal of fuss in Canada lately about unfortunate comments made with regard to cultural appropriation. At issue here is a great deal of speculative fiction. Would this make Farley Mowat guilty in writing about arctic explorers and Inuit culture? Taken to its extreme would this mean that women should not write romance novels about men, cowboys for example? That would eliminate 75% of the genre. Do you need to be a member of the military to write about it? An ethnic minority to report on it? Would science fiction and fantasy even be possible?

Our museums are filed with pilfered cultural artifacts and even corpses. Indigenous peoples have suffered cultural and physical genocide. I understand that they are taking an opportunity for some push back but feel that the present emotional tirade is going too far. Certainly writers should be called to account for inaccuracies and miss-representation but to go further is to disavow most reportage and deny the possibility of human empathy.

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On the Road North in 2017

May the road rise before you
May the wind be ever at your back
May God hold you in the palm of his hand and
May you be half an hour in Heaven
Before the Devil knows you're Dead.

Those who know me realize that my cup is perennially half-empty but today a following wind was determined to blow me North. Great for gas mileage.

I got off as planned at 3:30 AM and save for the truckers one shares the road with at that hour the drive was uneventful. I passed through Fort Worth around 6:00 AM and exited the Great State of Texas in a brief shower around 8:00.

My luck with central Oklahoma holds. Having had a bad breakfast last time I stopped at Joe's Egg in Ardmore I decided to give Denny's a try. Filthy washroom that looked like someone had staged a brawl there. My banquet seat felt like an elephant had crushed it. Service was glacial relieved only by an opportunity to use Wi-Fi. My seat beside a service area treated me to a misogynist head waiter ragging his staff and the waitresses bitching behind his back. My food was tasteless.

When I stopped for gas the pump was the second slowest I've ever encountered, the previous low also in West Oklahoma took 20 minutes to pump 30 gallons of fuel. At least at $1.93 I saved 16¢/gallon on the going rate. Some smart aleck pulled in front of me as I was about to leave the stall. Oklahoma looked parched.

As I approached Kansas the heavens opened in a cloudburst that drummed on my windshield. One still hits the toll booth, now automated before reaching the Welcome Centre. Alas another poorly maintained washroom. The info I requested was largely out of stock. I detest toll roads, this one cost me $2.25 today.

The sun came out. I arrived in Lindsborg around 1:30, set up, and went to meet my hostess. The season here is about a month behind Austin. It was warm but cooled off considerably as the sun went down.

Treking Fall 2016: Week Three and Beyond

With Week Three the three thousand-mile-trek begins in earnest. Although the sun came out the wind was strong and gusting. Normally I'd try to get off early but since I was passing through the outskirts of Halifax and was driving only 80 miles today I got a late start and ended up driving in cross winds. A short hop I stopped at Masstown for Grapenut Ice Cream and Garrison Hopyard Ale in part to ensure I wouldn't arrive too early at my campsite. Elm River was open and camping was $25/night.

Before I left this morning, Monday, October 24th I spent a tense hour finding campgrounds along my route that are reputed to be open when I get there. Programmed them into Microsoft Trips and the itinerary app of my GPS, after charging said unit.

As I've said before the excitement and lore of travel is often more in the planning and remembrance, the telling, than in the actual experience. And a corollary the most spectacular views will always occur in a location where it is impossible to stop and take pictures. Such was the case as I drove past fields of heath turned brilliant red by autumn everything tinged by a sense of nostalgia as I was leaving the province of my birth.

I stopped at Masstown Market just beyond Truro and picked up a container of Grapenuts Ice Cream after determining that it would just fit in my RV Freezer and a 6-pack of Garrison Hopyard IPA one of two in the NSLC outlet in the store. I didn't want to arrive too early at Elm River Campground. The place was open but the water turned off and the washrooms and laundry closed. The “library” revealed the usual collection the only volumes I'd have considered I'd already read. After a walk around the park settled in to catch up online.

Day Two--Opted to skip the Coboquid Pass Toll Road and found route 4 through Wentworth Valley recently repaved and the views of mountain and heather breathtaking. Stopped for fuel in NB that didn't seem any cheaper. Then followed the long drive through NB on HWY 2. The four transmission towers for the former Radio Canada International no longer stand overlooking Tantramar Marsh. Wind and rain had brought down most of the autumn leaves I'd seen barely a week earlier. I reached Fredericton and remembered it was another hour to Woodstock and the Houlton, Maine Border Crossing Opposite. That checkpoint was a few minutes drive South-West. The bored, humourless, over-weight border guard gave me the most perfunctory of examinations—he didn't even ask about alcohol or tobacco—and sent me on my way. I wasn't complaining. A few miles later found the Maine Welcome Centre proudly proclaiming that they are open year round. A brave undertaking given the lack of traffic. The place was warm and welcoming. I-95 was smooth and straight and I had it all to myself; I didn't even see a moose—again I'm not complaining.

When I found Katahdin Shadows Campground the lights were on but nobody was home. Two tiny file cards were available for one to self-register. I found a sandy almost level site opposite the main building nestled among the evergreens. The washroom was open and warm. I found a Wi-Fi connection that worked and the possibility of awakening to an inch of white stuff! Quiet night.

Next morning grabbed a few pictures thankful there was no snow and started out. Again no other traffic until I reached Bangor. After that highway construction and toll roads ruled the day. The Massachusetts Welcome Centre wasn't, welcoming that is. When I finally reached the KOA I'd found online was still open I got a rude and condescending non-welcome. Noted a place I'll never return to. The open air washroom was open and the water on but the temperature hit 23 that night for the second day in a row. The campsite was not level and exposed to the wind. We weathered it and put away a balky power cord next morning and shook the crushed rock of the site off our heels.

The day did not improve. Opting to avoid toll roads I drove an internecine route through Holyoke and ended up climbing a mountain behind a transport truck labouring up a steep grade joined by a mile-long queue. Loads of morning traffic as I drove through suburb after suburb, rain a constant companion. As I climbed later into the Poconos it began snowing flurries followed by a blizzard that covered trees and fields. Out of the mountains the rain continued unremittingly. Stopped at the Pennsylvania Welcome Centre and was greeted by a disinterested agent. Shortly after turning South I entered a Fog Warning area and dense fog ensued for the next hour. As if matters couldn't get worse I hit an hour-long construction delay just short of my turn-off in Harrisburg.

The GPS found Harrisburg East Campground for me for the second time, the first eight years ago. A young lady unlocked the office to sign me in for forty-some dollars a night. As I'd driven south the temperature that had hovered around 33 all day rose to 48.

Next morning, a Friday, I was greeted by sunlight. I'm writing this as I wait for rush hour civil servants to get around to the state's business. The Wi-Fi service having decided I've used too much band width I'm throttled so that I can download E-mail but not read it. Just as I'm about to leave it starts working.

The day's drive began with an aggressive driver trying to zip by me as I entered the expressway. Heavy traffic continued all day however it was sunny and I had no crosswinds. The drive was 3½ hours. Stopped at the Virginia Welcome Centre after crossing 12 miles of Maryland and 20 miles of West Virginia. I did not repeat the mistake I made eight years ago by visiting the West Virginia Info Centre.

After passing through territory devoid of leaves and missing leaf peeping in fog, rain, and snow I've crossed the Mason-Dixon Line and entered the balmy South where leaves are barely tinged. There are two Shenandoah Valley Campgrounds in Virginia, the one in Verona managed to squeeze me in—just. They take Hallowe'en seriously here. The owners are proving just how rapidly rabbits can reproduce. Bunnies everywhere.

Two nights camping adds up to one day in camp. I was perched on a sand back overlooking what I am told is the Middle River. I took a morning walk and an early evening one discovering a lively little 30-ft waterfall cascading down to join the main stream. Pleasant chat with a fellow camper. I did not participate in the Hallowe’en festivities and settled in to read and was not bothered by scores of trick or treaters who wended their way at 2:00 PM. I did admire the few sites decorated for Hallowe’en.

Sunday the 30th was sunny, indeed it got quite warm as I continued driving South-West on I-81. Before I left Verona I stopped at Food Lion for Groceries tendering the loyalty card I picked up in 2008 and managed to locate in my van the night before. Stopped for gas but got out the binos and discovered it 20¢/gal  cheaper at $1.95 just down the street. Constant Sunday driver traffic all day and it got warm and somewhat windy to boot. While I sat in construction delayed traffic I railed to myself at the yahoos who impeded traffic by insisting on driving in a lane plainly marked as closed 3 miles ahead. Alas, stupidity is not illegal.

Forty miles earlier stopped at the Tennessee Welcome Centre for a break, had lunch earlier at a rest area. Baileyton RV Park is quiet and well run. The list of rules betokens past experience with unruly campers but the staff I met were pleasant. East Tennessee is a hotbed of Trump supporters. Even the Devil has fans it seems.

An entire valley on fire just East of my campground, seems lit by a campfire.

Spent the evening reading Combat Crew by John Comer. In the morning began with a fill-up for $1.93 at a local Greenville gas station. Ten miles later it was $2.35 and later as low as $1.83--quite a spread. Save for the large volume of truck traffic the day was unremarkable.

Two Rivers Campground was little changed. Visited the kiosk at KOA and met  with a Viking who failed to find tickets to the Opry at the Ryman, sold out as it is opening night for the 84-year-old Tammy Wynette. Pictured she looks like a dried prune. Browsed Camping World but didn’t find anything to spend my money on. A windshield cover for my Van is supposedly a special order item, even a custom job.

Stayed over a day to rest and indulged in a bag of “Organic” Corn Chips and a 6-pack of Blackstone APA. Watched two movies downloaded to my Laptop.

Got caught in morning rush hour traffic. Stopped an hour later for gas at Flying J where Good Sam got me a 3¢ discount on the $1.96 price. More truck traffic making finding open road a challenge. Do you pass or go with the flow? Trucks grind to a snail’s pace on hills. Construction around Memphis and traffic made getting in the right lane difficult. One exit was blocked or no longer in use.

A stop at the local Shoneys buffet in West Memphis was filling but not a gormet experience. Tom Sawyers Campground is little changed, the access road further broken in town. I got a site down by the river, paid my respects to Ole Man River, talked to a fellow traveller and settled in for a nap after quaffing a beer.

Thursday, November 3 was a day of spotty showers and calm air. Heavy truck traffic on I-40  to Little Rock. Passed the potential First Man’s Presidential Library. For whatever reasons Arkansas Roads are uneven and bumpy due to eroded concrete block chinks. Today’s was a long drive. Heavy construction and realigned highways in Texarkana confuse my GPS and me, the driver. Old Highway 71 beaten to a pulp.

Was greeted at Shreveport KOA by Cookie, the doggie mascot. Good to feel at home. Free morning coffee another plus. What I needed most was a good night’s rest.

Friday Morning got off around 8:30 after a slow start. Entered the Great State of Texas around 9:00, stopping to visit the Welcome Centre and pick up bumph. Ignored my GPS that wanted me to drive over to I-35 and brave the construction, speed zones and traffic. Rather I turned left on Texas 259 and continued along 79 South West. Save for the small towns along the way the speed limit is 70 all the way. Driving at that speed on a two-lane takes some getting used to but for the first miles the drive was remarkably smooth and devoid of other traffic. Further South the road lacked passing lanes and getting stuck behind slow moving traffic can be frustrating. The road also got rather rough in spots. Stopped briefly in Thorndale driving a few backroads to have a look at the farm country.

Arrived in Austin around 3:00 and slowly got settled greeting Gilbert who was waiting to pick up his wife Janey as usual.