The Rolling Home
November, December 2006
through August 2007



WOW! An update.  How unusual!   I will try to cover everything from November 2006 to the present----August 2007. Pictures will come later.


\Another year gone.  Amazing.  We started this adventure in the fall of 1999, traveled extensively in 2000, 2001 and 2002.  We workamped during the summers of 2002 and 2003 and went to work selling RVs in 2004-2005.  We decided to invest in a house in August of 04, got hit by two hurricanes right after we bought the house and in the Spring of 05, decided we needed to be on the road again.  We sold the house in August of 05 and John went to work for FEMA in October of 2005.
FEMA, a good place to work for fulltimers. Since October of 2005, we have been deployed six times. Five disasters and one deployment to do Preliminary Damage Assessments.  We had not intended to work that much, but in 06, we put in 28 weeks.
On the upside, that was 28 weeks of income and 28 weeks of not paying for campgrounds.  Hopefully, in 07, we won't put as much time in working.  Being retired makes one remember that work is just a part time deal. The career is over, the corporate climbing is done and the only thing a job does at this point is bring us some play money!
We deployed to Austin last fall to work Hurricanes Rita and Katrina.  We did three weeks in a mobile disaster recovery center between Ft Worth and Abilene in January and February on the wildfires that hit Texas last winter.  We did the Cowboy Poetry gathering in Alpine, Texas in February and spent some time at our lot at The Ranch in New Mexico.  FEMA called again in April and we spent five weeks in Little Rock, AR working a tornado disaster.  We went to the Indy 500 again and then hit Georgia for our annual physicals and dental appointments. 
John was diagnosed with Type II diabetes then and started losing weight and excersizing.  Of course that should have happened years ago.  At this point, John has lost 40 lbs and walks about 2 miles each day.  His blood sugar is great and the doctor is pleased with the results.
In August, while in North Carolina after going to the JC Campbell Folk School, (Libby in jewelry and John in Banjo) we got another FEMA call and headed west to El Paso for a flood.  8 weeks later, we headed out and met the Holders in Albuquerque.  After that, we looked at some land in Colorado and visited with our youngest son in Telluride. 
Another trip to The Ranch didn't last long.  John got called to go to southeast Texas to do those preliminary damage assessments for a flood that happened there.  While out in the boonies east of Livingston, FEMA called again and told John, head to Louisiana where a flood disaster has already been declared.  He explained that a trip back to The Ranch to get Libby, the Rv and RV the cat was in order, so off he went to Houston to fly back to Carlsbad.  Bright and early Monday morning, The Rolling Home was rolling again to Alexandria, LA.  John was the lead DAE for housing at the Joint Field Office in Alexandria, but that only lasted three weeks.  He was sent to Lake Charles, LA to a Disaster Recovery Center to be the lead Individual Assistance DAE for a month. 
We enjoyed our time in Lake Charles, where we stayed at the Yogi Bear Jellistone park just east of town. 
After we released from FEMA we traveled to Livingston where we met up with the Holders and Dirk Harrington.  Don and Liane Holder were heading to Austin to close on their come off the road house and Dirk was basically just starting out on his fulltime adventure.  All of them are retired from Verizon. 

We picked up our ham radio callsign license plates and also a Bradley Smoker while in Livingston.  The license plates have my call sign, KE4D on them and oddly enough, I have the same plates on both the truck and the RV.  To my knowledge, Texas is the only state that allows the same plate on different vehicles.  I will put a third set on my electric are at the Fort when we get back this fall.  (more about the fort later)

Mark Nemeth, of Mark my Words in the SKP magazine had us over for BBQ turkey one day and we were so impressed with his smoker that we made a day trip to Houston and bought our own.  Its pretty cool and does an amazing job of smoking meat and other items. 

After leaving Livingston, we headed for the Rio Grande Valley and a rendezvous with a number of friends.  Ok, so only one couple actually showed up but we had fun anyway. 

We were going to stay at the SeaWind county campground in Riviera, Texas but they couldn't get us all in, so Lib and I spent a couple of days there and then moved on to San Benito.  We stayed at Fun N Sun for $600 for 30 days. The weather was lousy, rainy and cold most of the time we were there, but as ex Floridians, we understand that the weather isn't always what one wishes for. 

Pappy and Cecile Doughty joined us for a week or so and we had a great time with them, eating out, traveling to South Padre Island and over to Progresso, Mexico.

After we left the Valley (which is really a Delta) we moved back to Riviera and did a tour of the King Ranch.  This has been on our agenda of things to do for quite some time, so we were pleased to finally check that item off our list!

We left Kingsville and headed northwest intending to go to Alpine for a few days and then on to Big Bend NP.  When we got to Uvalde, which was our planned stop for the night, I suggested that we move on to Bracketville, since we had never visited the Alamo Village movie set.  Lib agreed and she found a campground called Ft Clark Springs in Brackettville.

When we pulled up to the gate, I wasn't sure that this would work. I asked the guard if there was really a campground on the grounds and she assured me than not only was there an RV park, but that we would certainly fit on the sites.  As we pulled through the gate, it dawned on both of us that we were really on a fort.  Ft Clark is an old Cavalry fort that was established in 1846.  It was an active base until 1946. There was a German POW camp there during WWII and many famous warriors served at the fort, including Generals Wainright and Patton.  In fact, both of the homes they lived in are still there.  The old historic part of the fort is well maintained and historically preserved. The old parade ground is now a par three golf course and there is a par 70 18 hole course further into the property. 

The fort boasts a small restaurant, the third largest swimming pool in Texas, part of the free flowing Las Moras spring which is the headwaters of Las Moras creek. The creek flows through the fort and on to the Rio Grande between Del Rio and Quamado, TX. (the fort is 32 miles from Mexico)

We went two miles into the grounds before we came to the campground. While not the newest place we have ever stayed, it was clean and the folks are very friendly. Full hookups, PA rates and a Saturday morning breakfast of pancakes and eggs for $3 made it even more enjoyable. 

As we toured around the fort, we discovered that there are several RV units with RV ports and deeded lots at Fort Clark Springs.  This was exactly the kind of area we were looking for as a home base.

We extended our two day stay to four days and decided to return to Ft Clark Springs after a couple of months of visits and travels were over.

We finally moved on to Alpine and we drove up to Ft Davis to have my custom made western hat resized. I bought the hat in the spring of 06 but had to have it shipped to me in Little Rock when we were deployed for a tornado disaster there.  It was a bit small.  We drove from El Paso last fall to have it fixed, but the one day trip didn't really help except to put 420 miles on our toad!  This time, I told them to make it bigger and it could sleep over since we were on our way to Big Bend, NP and would be back in Alpine for the Cowboy Poetry Gathering in another week or so. 

We headed on to Big Bend and met up with our friends Dave and Sally Stribling for a nice week of sightseeing in the Nations most remote park in the lower 48.  We drove to Presidio one day, toured the park almost daily and overall, had a great time with the Striblings and several other couples from the SKP CO-Op, the Ranch.

After Big Bend, we moved back to Alpine and went to our second Cowboy Poetry gathering. It was great, as usual, and I did drive back to Ft Davis to get my hat. It fits much better now after its week sleepover at the Limpia Creek Hat company.

After Cowboy Poetry, we headed back to Carlsbad and The Ranch.  Our intent was to stay until April 1 and then go back to Fort Clark.  We decided to give up our lot at The Ranch and also to go ahead and leave about mid March.  We did so and someone picked up our lease the morning we left.  Shortly after selling our lease, the State of New Mexico shut down the water system at The Ranch due to nitrates in the water.  Had we remained until 4.1, we would still have that lot.  As it was, we got out just in time.  The water system there is being repaired and I am sure by the time Roundup comes in October, the water will be better than it was and the new sewage lagoon will be under construction.

We boogied back to Bracketville and Ft Clark and bought a 40 x 80 RV lot with a 40 x 60 steel roof over that included a 10 x 16 building under it.  I had a 22 x 40 pad poured on the other sided of the lot where I will build a small home if I ever get released from my current FEMA deployment.

We also bought a Tomberlin E-merge electric car. This looks like a golf cart on steroids. It is licensed as a street vehicle so we drive it to restaurants, the post office, the grocery store and all over the fort in addition to using it as a golf cart. 

The big golf course at Ft Clark Springs is a par 70, 18 hole course that has no water hazards!  There are, however, lots of deer, turkey and an occasional javelina that one has to watch out for when playing the course. It costs us about a grand a year for unlimited play for both of us.

Everyone at The Fort is friendly as one would expect.  There are very expensive homes and very inexpensive homes. There are section or units as they are called, that are strickly homes, mobile homes and RV sites.  We are in Unti 38, which is the newest of the RV units.  Most of our neighbors have big rigs, a small home and the requesite steel roof over.  Its a nice neighborhood and we are so pleased to have a permanent home base to operate from.

Now, FEMA.  I got a call while in Big Bend NP to go to a tornado in New Orleans.  I declined, but when a tornado struck in Eagle Pass, TX just 50 miles south of us, I did deploy. I spent 8 weeks working that disaster and was away for about 10 days when the 07 Texas flood disaster was declared. I have been out on this disaster since the 4th of July and will probably be deployed well into September. Right now, I am the manager of a mobile disaster recovery unit and we are in Travis County, just west of Austin on Lake Travis.  Saturday, we move to Athens and then we will likely go to Huntsville. I have already been in Copperas Cove near Killeen and Fort Hood, Leander near Georgetown, Tyler up between Dallas and Shreveport and Jacksonville, just south of Tyler.  I also did a special project for about a week that took me from Waco to Abilene to Gainesville up on the Red River and five minutes from Oklahoma, back to Waco and then out on the mobile DRC again. 

Of course, Libby and RV are with me in the motorhome. We are currently in a nice RV park near Lake Travis. 
Some of the places we have been were not so nice, but that is the way it goes!  We were on the fairgrounds of the East Texas State Fair in Tyler and my MDRC was there too. I could walk to work which was very nice.  We expect to go back there for about 5 days later this month.

So, there it is.  A quick update on what and where for The Rolling Home. We were going to go east this summer to GA and to see the kids in FL, but since I will be deployed for another month or so, we will likely just go back to The Fort and start our small 880 square foot home.  We also plan to go to The Ranch for Roundup in October and get the RV serviced in Midland/Odessa about that same time. 

We have visted several times with Don, Liane and Tom Holder in Georgetown. Their home is beautiful and just the right size.  We had dinner with our friends Larry and Sarah Wise in Georgetown a couple of times and dinner with myu foster brother Mark in Austin.  I got my golf clubs regripped and if I ever get released from this disaster, I'll hit the links again!  We tried to get to the fall Escapade, but that just won't fit our schedule.  We had four tickets to the Indy 500 again this year, main straightaway on the start finish line, but I was deployed in Eagle Pass, Texas for a tornado, so we sent the tickets to our friends Pappy and Cecile Doughty and they attended the race without us.

I will try to be more current with updates from now on, but when I am out with FEMA, I find I have little time to do this and when we are at The Fort, I am busy playing golf and planning our small home. 

As we progress on our house in Brackettville, we will obviously make the transistion from fulltime RVers back to part timers or mostly timers, but after 8 years, its probably time to have a permanent base. 

73

John and Libby

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