Some Down Time For Now....

We've been back in Texas nearly 2 weeks and I think I'm caught up with the laundry, the mail, and the posts about our 6 weeks away.  Bill has already had his routine doctor appointment, we got the rig's annual inspection done and we took a day to drive into Ft Worth.  A wire on one of my hearing aids broke a few weeks back and it needed repaired.  Just everyday things that needed attention.

Bill checks the listings for house-sitters... both in the USA and abroad; we've thought about looking into another gate-guarding job; we could volunteer in any number of places...  but so far we just haven't decided what we want to do for the winter.  We're here at a daughter's for now, but plan on heading out this weekend for south Texas.  The Rio Grande Valley has to be warmer than it is here, and I'm overdue for a dental appointment.  

Today we got to thinking about a little place in Alamo, Texas that sells tamales...  and they sure sound good for Christmas dinner!

My camera has all but collected dust since we got back and a couple of times I've even forgotten to take it along when I drive to town.  It's kind of dreary here this time of year, but there is an exciting event happening in various spots along the road between Glen Rose and Granbury...  a pipe line is being laid through fields...

We'd watched the surveyors along the road before we left in October and speculated about what was going to happen.  When we returned the work was well under way...

Long lines of pipe are laid out on the ground...  we cross over the route about 4 times on our way to town, which goes to show that it isn't a straight line between the 2 towns.  (Wouldn't it be fun to take a plane or helicopter ride over the whole project?)  There are crews of men working every day...  long hours.

Yesterday, as we were driving on our county road, we were flagged through an area that was about to be closed.  Of course we had to stop to see what was happening...

This big piece of equipment was going to cross the road.  It's on tracks, so the crew laid down plywood on the road, then put down a row of rubber tires.  This prevented any damage to the asphalt from the tracks of that heavy load.  I don't know much about road equipment, but Bill told me that this machine will go along after the pipeline has been laid and cover it up with dirt.  I asked Bill if he'd ever ran this kind of equipment...  no, he hasn't, but he'd sure like to.

Today we had to take the rig for it's annual safety inspection (Texas law)...  and when we were coming home the road was closed again... 

Apparently a fair amount of equipment has been crossing back and forth, and this water truck was washing off the mud that they had left in the road

If it looks rainy to you, you'd be right.  Temperatures in the 40's (and now mid-50's) along with drizzly rain has been the order of the day.  Yesterday we had an honest-to-goodness thunder storm with heavy rain.  It didn't last long, but sure sounded good to someone like me who loves a good storm.

Mostly just wanted to catch up and get back to posting again.  Can't promise that our adventures will be exciting, but we always seem to find each day holds something special.

That's All For Today!