11/20/13 - This and That

Wednesday, 11/20/13

Happy Trails!

We said our goodbyes to Art and Ricky this morning. They are headed west towards San Antonio and we are headed for Cajun country in Louisiana on Thursday. Maybe when we head west this winter  our paths will cross again - I hope so.  

We have had a problem with our microwave since right before we left Chicago. It turns on for no reason at any time of the day and night. We finally called a repair service to come out and look at it. Unfortunately we need a new circuit board, switches and touch pad. Everything is on back order here and since we are leaving tomorrow we will take care of this problem once we get to Louisiana   It's not a big deal as long as we remember to unplug it in when it's not being used  

The park we are staying at (Rainbow's End) is at the Escapees club headquarters In Livingston Texas.  Escapees is a RV Club that was started in 1978, this park opened in 1984 and was the first of about 20 parks scattered through the south and southwest United States. If you join the Escapees Club you can stay at any of their parks for a reasonable rate. We've paid 19.00 a night here which keeps us under the 20.00 a night we've budgeted.


Here in Livingston they have the Care Center which was opened in 1992.  

One of the Care volunteers lives in this tiny trailer!

The Care Center's mission is "to provide a safe haven with professional assistance at affordable prices for Escapee members whose travels are permanently ended because of age or temporarily interrupted because of health problems". For the low cost of $1275.00 per month for a couple, they receive 3 meals a day, snacks, 3 loads of laundry per week, transportation to stores and doctor appointments and many activities. They are able to provide this through donations and volunteers. There are 35 campsites for residents and 7 separate campsites reserved for volunteers. Volunteers work in the kitchen and drive residents to appointments. As a volunteer you receive your site for free (you just pay for electric). You also get 3 meals a day and the opportunity to meet lots of interesting people. This is something we may do in the future. We were pretty impressed with the atmosphere and care they give their clients. The care center director, Russ, gave us our tour. He visited the center for the first time in the spring of 2012 with the intention of continuing on to Alaska but he ended up staying in texas and working for the care center.