One To Go and Worst Storm Is Coming

Oh man.......here we go again! We are now under a Tornado warning. The storm that is upon us could dump up to 6" of rain overnight, yes I said 6". A tornado has already touched down a couple hours from us but the storm is moving this way.
The weather man stated yesterday that in the years since Texas has been recording weather, they have never had as much rain as they have had this year. One more day and we will be heading out of here at about 8:00 AM Saturday morning.

Just Another Sunday

We drove into Mt. Pleasant to do our grocery shopping and have lunch at Whataburger which is directly in front of Walmart.
The place was full of people that must have just got out of church. We normally try not to eat in the burger joints but I just have to give in on these special occasions.

After coming home and unpacking the groceries, I figured it was time to have my knee looked at by a doctor. I have had water on my right knee for about three weeks but it really hasn't bothered me.
This morning I noticed that the swelling was worse and the knee was a bit warm so off to the new hospital to have it drained.
The whole ordeal of signing in, draining 30cc's of fluid, giving me a cortisone shot, and signing out, took exactly one hour. I was impressed for a small country hospital.

Shreveport, La.

We have seen just about everything in this part of Texas so we figured we'd take a ride to Louisiana. We tried to take the back roads so we wouldn't have to drive at 70 MPH.
This is one of those back roads in Texas. Beware of extra loose gravel!

The green clumps in this dead tree, are mistletoe. The deer love to eat it but it is deadly if consumed by us.
Texas has a lot of wild Boar and you will occasionally see one on the side of the road. These animals love to drink and as you can see, this guy had one beer too many. He's sleeping it off with his last can of beer stuck to his nose.

The rain has been so intense that all the small creeks have swollen beyond their banks.

Along the way we came upon this sign in the middle of nowhere and it was close to lunch so we took the turn.

This is Lake O The Pines and there is an old resort at this location.

As I said, the water table is a little high. Doesn't matter anyways because there's "No Parking"

Mr BBQ does the cooking here so this is where we will do lunch.

Joyce took this picture as we sat at our table waiting for our BBQ sandwich and a side of fried Ocra. The tree line reminded us of New England but without the fall colors.

We just finished lunch and it is getting warm. Time to shed the sweater.

We passed this old home and I just had to take a picture of it. I love these old southern homes and this one was in nice shape.

Here we are in Shreveport and there are Casinos everywhere as we come into the city.

Whereas gambling is only allowed on the water, all the Casinos are on riverboats.

As you approach the Casino, you will see the hotel and the main entrance that holds the restaurants, gift shops, etc. but no music from the slots. You continue down a ramp and you enter the riverboat casino.

In this shot you can see the side entrance. This ramp is capable of raising with the boat. If the river gets too low, they will move the entrance to the next higher level on the boat

Joyce was overlooking the Red river named for its color which is normally red from the iron ore present up river. The river is now brown due to the heavy rains.

This is just me hamming it up.

As we left the city, you could see more riverboats.

Déjà vu

I can't believe it, back in March I did this. The thermostat in the Jeep has died AGAIN! This is my third thermostat in less than a year, and I bought the most expensive ones I could find but those things must all be made in China.
I hope that this one last because I'm getting tired of doing this. At least it was a nice day and I get out at 2:30 so it gives me the afternoon to do stuff.

Paris, Texas

Yup, we are in Paris Texas and that's their Eiffel Tower. And to think that we drove an hour to see this. Oh well there wasn't much else to do and it was a beautiful day as you can see by the blue sky.
This marble insert is located at the base of the tower and shows where Paris is located. Can you see it in the upper right hand corner?

Does it look taller than 65 feet?

I'm sure that this defers the kids from climbing the structure.

On our way back to camp, we were traveling the highway which has a speed limit of 70 MPH. Suddenly the traffic came to a stop as a funeral precession came out of the funeral home. We couldn't believe that everyone on the road stopped right where they were until the last car in the precession passed by. Something to think about!

As we got inside the coach and turned the TV on, we were surprised to see that the Patriots were being televised. They were playing in the snow, wow. Our home is only about 27 miles from the stadium.

The Pats are playing the Tennessee Titans who used to be the Houston Oilers so that's probably why the game is on here. The score at half time is Pats 45, Titans 0.

The Gilmer Yamboree

Oh Oh, I banged my right knee a few weeks ago and this is the results.

Cool huh! Water on the knee but will wait till we get home to have it drained.
On the brighter side, we took a ride to Gilmer for the Yamboree.

We arrived just in time for lunch, mmmmm BBQ!

They also had a contest for the kids whereas they had to decorate a yam.

The kids did such a great job!

MMM a Yamburger

And there's Yamma Montana

And don't forget Yamaican Me Crazy

Some of the winners, perfect Yams!

We then moved on over to the livestock are. These are market Hogs.

Hello!

And then there was the "Cow Wash"

Meanwhile, back in town there was the full support of the State Police

I wanted a funnel cake so bad that we stood in line for forty five minutes.

We shared a funnel cake then headed home, enough excitement for one day.

Same Old

Joyce was stuck inside again because I didn't get the company truck to use.
The area was under a flash flood warning and as you can see, our sewer hose connection is under water.

This is a shot from the drivers side of the coach, you can see our stream.
Joyce did wash today so I had to go out and dump the gray tank. I knew those Walmart bags would come in handy.
There are a lot of trains in town that service Pilgrims Pride Grain mill. They have these two switchers that are old and have been replaced by larger more powerful units. So it's times for them to go to the Train graveyard. The crane used large nylon straps to lift the unit from the tracks.
We had to go to Walmart to pick up a prescription and we passed this guy his Smoker. This must be the number one pass time in the area because you see a lot of pickups running around town towing their smokers.

We're Taking Over

We have some new neighbors that were pulling in just as I was leaving for work from lunch. I was surprised to see another Tiffin Phaeton coming into this place. The 5th wheel in the picture was dropped off yesterday for service.
So, it looks like the Tiffin products dominate the campground with a total of two.

A Stay At Home Day

Another overcast day and I had a few things I wanted to do so we stayed home. Even the hummers hung around to watch TV.
Joyce is watching the Houston game and switching to the NASCAR race while checking online to see how the New England Patriots are doing. I guess that covers all the sports for the day.Joyce wanted me to add a light in one of the cabinets so she could see better. Done!