Texas and Back Again

Being away from your personal link to the world (this blog and email) has been a challenge, but where we were, didn't offer "free wifi" - or any "wifi" for that matter.

We have just returned from a trip to Austin, Texas for a workshop for - me! We started out a week ago today, only to get about 50 miles from home and the RV took a crap. Go figure, it's past it's two year warranty! Anyway, after having it (reluctantly) towed late on Tuesday night - into Salina for diagnosis of the trouble (that's after sitting at the Cenex station in Beloit for hours, having the help of a VERY nice fellow named Dale Eastman - troubleshooting the "Why the heck is it in 'limpmode'???"), we returned home for the night, left the next afternoon upon learning that the trouble had been a fuel "lift pump". Those diesel engines are soooo tricky. Picked up our baby and moved on. Drove late during the night to try to make up some lost 'travel' time. The older I get, the more I am soooo not about driving or riding in the middle of the night.

BTW - never try to stay in the parking lot of the Walmart in Edmond, Ok. They absolutely won't let you. That's a whole nother blog.

We stayed at "Jim Hogg Park" in Georgetown Lake, Texas. A nice double site! Surprise to us, Texas and Oklahoma have lots of wind, too! Made us feel right at home. 95 degrees on Friday! Wow, but Spring Break made the park VERY full. Really boring for hubster, as nothing to do but sit and watch the dogs go bonkers over too many other dogs walking by and kids runnin up and down the road on their bikes. I bought a new DVD player and some movies for him, and he tried to get some small maintenance issues taken care of on the RV. We have a whole "punch list" of stuff to do - now that we are home. We RV in the winter, and I think the weather takes it's toll on the "Mother Ship". Corrosion and mud happen.


Carol Marine and Karin Jurick - two of my favorites, joined forces to give a painting workshop for Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Williamson Art Center in Round Rock, Texas.


Here are some of the 21 members of the class. Peeps were very friendly and helpful. They came from all over. Met some interesting people and made some connections.


This is a still life done by Carol Marine. I particularly liked her homemade shadow box and have hubster on alert, that I WILL need one.


Karin Jurick demo'd several figurative paintings. This is one she did of a girl at a bus stop.


Both artists are listed under "Links List" in my sidebar.

Hubster and I saw some sites we will long remember. Let me share a few here.
Of course, this area of Texas was full of cacti.


This is a border or fence in the front of a flower shop along F.M. 2338. All bikes were painted a bright florescent green. It's funny, we kept driving along, wondering what the heck was the "F.M."? Thanks to Carol, I know that it means "farm to market", R.R. means "ranch road" and R.M. means "ranch to market". Doesn't pay to get lost there, I could make no sense of the road system. But my intuition never seems to fail me. Glad it's still in tact when needed!


And last, for today, a painting I did on Day 1 of the workshop.

"Peppers and a Pear" 6" x 8", oil on canvasboard


It's good to be home! We traveled on the edge of those heavy rain storms across NW Texas and central Oklahoma, but ran out of it by the Kansas border. Whew!