Texas, Part 1

This is actually very late, but it wouldn't quite be fair to skip all of Texas just because we aren't there any more...
Anyway, we left Gladwater not long after I posted my last post, and drove straight to Kaufman to see the Moores (understand, we had contacted them about a week in advance and arranged this). We spent the next four and a half hours at their house talking to John, and whoever else was there. Now, a little background info on John Moore...he's a filmmaker, and won the $101,000 grand prize at the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival on 2009 with his film The Widow's Might. He was 19, and The Widow's Might was his first feature film. He's been interested in film since he was about 14, and since The Widow's Might has been working on his latest project, Ace Wonder: Message from a Dead Man. In short, he's very impressive.
He was even more impressive when we actually got talking. He really is an awesome guy, and I had a blast. This was probably the highlight of my day, and we had spent so much time there that it was dark when we left. We drove for a few more hours, and spent the night at some RV park by Austin.
The next day we headed towards San Antonio, stopping along the way to tour Inner Space Caverns.
That was very cool. I've been in a cave or two in Mexico, but this one was fairly impressive.
I even got a few pictures, despite the terrible lighting conditions.

Then we met up with our friends the Shaffers at a place called Natural Bridge Caverns, and just made the last tour of the day. I also got pictures from there.
The natural bridge (hence the name):

And this is what happens when you take a picture upside down...cool, huh?

And then, a photo from outside. Texas has a kind of arid, windswept beauty to it...

After the caves we had dinner at Mrs. Shaffer's sister's house, and headed back to the RV park for the night (we got a spot right next to the Shaffer's fifth wheel).
And considering how long this post is becoming I think I'll contine this saga over a series of posts...hope it doesn't take too many.

On the Road

Well, it's the morning of day 3 of our grand adventure. We are at an RV park in Gladewater, Texas.
We left on Sunday, and made it part way into Alabama before stopping for the night. On Monday we made it across Mississippi and Louisiana to here in Texas. Now it's Tuesday, and the real fun begins today! First, we're planning to stop in Kaufman to visit some folks (more on that later), and then we're going to head down toward San Antonio to visit a few caves and meet up with some friends down near there.
Our internet is spotty when we're driving, and the laptop is needed a lot for navigation, so this is actually the first time I've had a long period to use the computer with nothing else going on. I'll try to post regularly, but I can't tell when I'll be able to.
Now for some pictures...

 

Those are all from before we left, but I continued to take pictures once we were on the road.
This is our first night in the RV; somewhere in Alabama.

Then we really pushed it to get on and be done with the deep south.
This is Mississippi. The highways there were actually very nice. This line of trees on the left is actually just a divider between the two sides of the interstate.

I love the huge mirrors on this vehicle...

This is the mighty Mississippi itself. We were over it and left it behind in about thirty seconds. How little we esteem the beauty of nature, sometimes...

Then we were into Louisiana. The change in the topography was abrupt and startling. It was very, very flat.

And here's a church sign from somewhere in Louisiana

And finally, our current location. Altough I suspect that we'll be on the road within the hour.
This is other people...

And this is us:

Packing and Other Work

Wowwww! The past few days have been busy!
We're about two days from leaving; tomorrow we load the ABF semi trailer that's going to move most of our stuff across the country, we spend the night here, and Sunday morning we're off on the grand adventure!
We have been up literally from seven or eight in the morning (which is pretty early for us) to ten thirty or eleven at night (moderately late) for the past three or four days. And we spend all day every day either on the job packing or driving places to pick up stuff. For instance: We spent from 8:30 this morning to around noon up in Atlanta picking up our RV and driving to and from; got home and in half an hour ABF had delivered the trailer. Soon after we went into town to get a broadband internet wireless modem for the laptop. We got home and have been packing ever since; about five hours. And that's pretty typical; only usually there's less time away from the house.
I've also been trying to get some pictures, and have succeeded to some extent. Thus I display:

The living room

My room

The RV

The RV's living area with the slide pulled in. It has about two more feet of width with the slide out...

And the cats!

I'm sorry I don't take more artistic pictures, but with the camera that I have they probably wouldn't turn out too good anyway. I desperately need a wide-angle lens for a still camera, though.
Anyway, as you can tell the cats are getting in their rest. Even more than usual, it seems, one finds them sleeping in, on, over, under and around almost anything. Especially Riley. Maybe they know that there's a big adventure ahead of us all...

A Change is Coming

Yes, a change is coming.
But not to the blog.
To the location of yours truly.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, cats and dogs, mice and gerbils, crickets and beetles, etc, etc, we are moving! About 3000 miles.
We're moving back to Oregon.

Georgia has been awesome for the last three and a half years, but now we're going back where we came from...the beautiful west coast. That's were my filmmaking buddy, Paul, lives...even though he's not there right now. He's in Michigan right now, helping his brother Ross with the house...but that's another story.
By the time we get to Oregon, Paul will be coming home soon, anyway.
This is certainly a big opening for my filmmaking attempts, though. No more making films over 3000 miles of internet. We can do it face to face now.
Besides, there are other benefits. Like living really close to all the people we've known for years. And seeing them multiple times a week, etc.

Anyway, the plan is to rent an RV and drive across the southern states on our way over to Oregon. We might meet some friends in Texas, and we're definitely going to the Grand Canyon and to places like Carlsbad Caverns, and such. Anyway, it seems like a really fun idea, and we're all pretty enthusiastic.

But it's getting late. I should probably ...*yawn*... go to bed.
~Pe†er