There was another tremendous storm in the early hours of the morning. The lightning flashed very brightly followed by the roar of thunder. The storm was right on top of us for a while, but it gradually blew away.  

I got up to see if the awning was damaged as I had forgotten to bring it in. It was still intact but was bowing under the weight of the water on top of it. I tried to run it in, but the motor would not budge with all that weight. There was nothing I could do but wait for the morning and hope that there would not be any major damage. 

Luckily, although it was one tremendous storm as far as lightning and thunder and then rain, there was no wind otherwise the awning would have collapsed. 

I went back to bed but could not sleep and got up around 7:00 am, unheard of unless there is an emergency. I glanced out of the window and saw Gary walking towards the RV with a hose pipe in hand. As I watched, he flung it up onto the awning, sucked on it to get the water flowing and stood there as it ran full pipe and slowly took the water off. 

By this time, I had opened the door to greet him and watched as the weight was lifted off the awning with the disappearing water. When I tried it this time, it slowly retracted pouring the last remnants of water on the ground. I let it back out so that it would dry in the morning sun. I thanked Gary for being such a help as he coiled up his hosepipe and walked over to the breakroom. I am so lucky that there is Gary and a couple of others like him like the girls and Delores, not counting Malinda and Daniel, that are only too happy to help. 

I shaved and put regular clothes on which for me are shorts and tee shirt, and we went out walking stopping at the breakroom to chat more with Gary who was sitting outside drinking coffee. We finally went out for that walk but only made one circuit of the park. My hip muscle was sore…again, and it was painful to walk. This time, I had aggravated it by changing the sheets on the bed. Go figure…Must be a lesson here, like, never make the bed again. 

Back at the RV, I noticed that I had also forgotten to bring in the bird feeders last evening and of course, every one of them had been emptied. Not only that, but the deer had also been at the rose bushes nibling on the top and eating the flower buds, Damn deer. I have yet to see a rose from 4 different bushes as the deer keep eating them. 

I have some new deer spray but every time it rains, it cleans off the plants and as it rained hard last night, that is the only invitation that the deer needed. It seems that the roses are their favorite meal as they do not eat any of the other plants in the garden. 

We went out walking so the guys could stretch their legs and do their business and then, when we returned, I refilled all the feeders…again. Good job I have just bought another 25lb of bird seed. We went back inside for breakfast, and I caught up on the blog. 

I had to replace the jacks that are under the main slide out as I had inadvertently pushed the retract button on that unit while working on the awning. This meant hunching over to get under the slide out at one end and using the small footstool to sit on at the other end. I’m just not flexible anymore. Oh, for my younger days…I finally got the jacks reinstalled and tightened them up so that they were just under pressure. 

With that done, I decided to drive into Austin to the Walmart’s there, a trip of around 30 miles one way. Walmart’s is the only local store for camping supplies, and I was out of toilet additives to keep the tanks from smelling up the place. The drive in was uneventful and as it was Saturday, the traffic was not too bad. 

I wandered around the store knowing what I wanted and where it was found, which included the toilet bowl drop-ins. I loaded up on fruit and of course, wine and headed to the exit. The drive home was quick and uneventful, and I went the back way for a change ignoring Starbucks on the way. 

Back in the RV, I had all kinds of help with the groceries and little noses going a mile a minute. Between us, we quickly put things away and went out walking the park stopping to chat to a few people and their dogs that we met as we walked around. 

Back at The Caboose, we sat outside, this time with a beer instead of wine, and listened to an Audiobook for an hour or more before going out one more time to walk the lane leading to Hwy 290. We saw a couple exotic deer in the distance but not close enough for any pictures. 

We managed to walk 2.6 miles for the day. Those big stores will do it every time. 

Written 06/10/2023. Read my other blog at https://pondblog2011.com