Last year a friend and I began posting a photo every week. I chose the theme "Ordinary" and will continue that theme this year. Photos could represent a typical day that week, a subject I want to remember, or just something that caught my eye.
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Week 1: Much of the first week of the year was filled with work, sleep, and making a birthday gift for my mom. This is a temperature scarf. Each color represents the high temperature each day for the first year of her life: one row each day. These temps are from Jan 3 (her birthday) - Jan 2 (365 days later) in Birmingham, AL. I won't reveal the year! Purples and blues represent the coldest temps and oranges and reds the hottest I had trimmed about 3/4 of the yarn ends by the time I took the photo and still had many more to go. I am pleased with the results, but I will do things a little differently next time. Buda, TX |
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Week 2: Finally! It has been four years since Blue Bell produced our favorite ice cream flavor (besides Homemade Vanilla - everyone loves Homemade Vanilla best!) Update: This was not a good tub of Tin Roof. The flavor was just off. Not sure what happened, but we will try again next year. Buda, TX |
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Week 3: Life last week consisted of sniffles and headaches and fevers. We are both almost completely recovered now, but still wary of re-exposure. I look forward to feeling good enough to take some real pictures soon. Buda, TX |
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Week 4: The scooter has ridden on the back of the truck for the past six years, but we needed something a little less wild for transportation this year. We plan to travel with the Smart Car in 2019 to provide a little more protection of weather and other issues. In order to do this, we needed to lengthen the truck bed by 2 feet. Not wanting to initiate such a large expense (extending the frame, re-fabricating the bed, moving the hitch, going over 65'), we decided to remove the tool boxes and upper fairings from the truck creating an extra 24" below. This altered the physical appearance of the a bit, we we don't think it is too bad. Definitely worth it considering we will have a car with us this year. And just in case you are wondering, we have plenty of capacity for the extra weight on the truck. Manchaca, TX |
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Week 5: Science Fair is really picking up. One project at work was prepping materials for the Judge Orientations the next two weeks. Here is a sampling of some of the judge bags ready to go! Only 17 days away! Austin, TX |
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Week 6: Trey's mom had hip replacement surgery this week. It was a clean little surgery center with a nice aquarium in the waiting room. As I looked more closely, the circle of life was being played out in this ecosystem. I guess if the people won't clean out the dead fish, the other fish will do what they can to get rid of the waste. Austin, TX |
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Week 7: This was Science Fair week. My most difficult day is always Saturday because we have to get almost 2,000 projects judged, scored, and awards placed in only a few hours. This year I had the NJHS from a local school help with my process. These guys were awesome! It has never gone more smoothly! Austin, TX |
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Week 8: No photo this week, but I did find a auto-snap I accidentally took on my phone. Does that count? I think this might be my hand. Austin, TX |
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Week : We've put a lot of miles on our little Smart. I think we've doubled the miles of the first three years of it's life. Austin, TX |
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Week 10: There was no time to load the Smart before leaving Austin, but we did load for the first time before leaving Bellville, TX. We were mostly concerned about side to side clearance, but once we got her loaded, we realized we had plenty of room. Susan's mom wanted to come watch, but we forbid all lookieloos from our first load. Sorry Mom! Bellville, TX |
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Week 11: We arrived in Perry, Georgia to work a rally. It was a busy week with very few pictures. I did, however, manage to snap this sunrise over the fairgrounds as we went to work one morning. Perry, GA |
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Week 12: We went to Florida and stayed with friends for a little over a week. Janet and I visited and took photos of flowers, birds, water critters or sunsets pretty much every day. It was a great week! Oak Hill, FL |
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Week 13: Our last evening in Eastern Florida, we spotted a bald eagle fishing near us. I never tire of seeings these magnificent creatures! Oak Hill, FL |
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Week 14: We drove to Tampa to watch the Ray's opening series against the Astros. We went to 3 of the 4 games in that series and the Astros lost every game we saw. It was a bit disappointing. This rig pulled in our last day at the fairgrounds in Tampa. We did not get a chance to meet the owners (we weren't outside at the same times), but what a beautiful setup! Tampa, FL |
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Week 15: We are currently settled in North Carolina and our pattern of life is work most of the day and if weather allows, take a short hike in the morning or afternoon a few times each week. One afternoon we took a waterfall hike and came across this fellow moving very slowly across our path. A little research indicated it was a rat snake. This one was easily 5 feet long, though I didn't take the time to measure. Old Fort, NC |
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Week 16: We took a mostly sunny day and drove over the Roan Mountain Pass. The top of the mountain was obscured by clouds (the only clouds around) and once we made it to the summit, we saw the winter wonderland that surrounded us. Being from Texas, we don't really know about hoar frost, but we think we may have found it here. If we had known what this was when we saw it, we would have taken closer pictures of the crystals. Roan Mountain, NC-TN border |
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Week 17: We have had the campground entirely to ourselves the past three weeks, but last week an Airstream caravan moved in. They are almost all gone now, but it was interesting to see the variety of models over the weekend. We are in the back left corner. Marion, NC |
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Week 18: Sunset at the campground after a rainy day. I didn't pull my camera out at all this week. I remembered I needed a pic while we were on our evening walk. Marion, NC |
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Week 19a: You would think you wouldn't have to tell someone at a Preserve not to deface nature. Bald Rock, SC |
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Week 19b: You'd be wrong. Bald Rock, SC |
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Week 20: Don't know if the regulations are different in Virginia or if they just like more options, but we saw five different types of fuel at a local gas station. And that was just regular gasoline, not deisel. Life just gets more confusing every day. Sheets is a gas franchise in the Northeast that had many options for customers that go far beyond fuel. Haymarket, VA |
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Week 21: On a visit to DC we stayed around the Mall to get some pictures at night. This was taken from the back of the Lincoln Memorial and you can see the Washington Memorial and Capitol building over 2 miles away. Washington, DC (Note to Janet: This photo was taken 2.5 hours before Week 21 officially began. Just wanted to note I broke the rules) |
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Week 22: We spent several nights at MorRyde. Before we left Austin, we got new tires on the RV, and the tire shop did something wrong, damaging our susppension system. MoreRyde did an excellent job fixing the problem and making our suspension even stronger than before! Elkhart, IN |
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Week 23: If you've ever driven though South Dakota, you surely encountered one of hundreds of Wall Drug signs. We've never seen one so far away, though. Elkhart, IN |
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Week 24: My friend, Janet, and I visted Wellfield Botaic Gardens together in Elkhart. We have a wonderful walk, a few laughs, and a great time together! Elkhart, IN |
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Week 25: We rarely find good smoked brisket outside of Texas. Our friend Janet, mentioned above, told us about a local grocery chain in Elkhart, IN that had smoked brisket in their deli section. We were doubtful, but decided to try it. I wasn't awesome, but it was decent and at 1/2 the price of TX brisket, was a welcome addition to our weekly meal plan. Thanks, Janet! Goshen, IN |
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Week 26: Another very busy work week, but I did snap a photo of the stormy sky one evening. It rained a lot while we were in Indiana this year. Farmers had trouble getting corn in the ground in time because the fields were more like small mud ponds for weeks on end. Elkhart, IN |
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Week 27: We left Indiana to see our friends in Nebraska. Along the way, we encountered a swarm of butterflies. I much prefer seeing them flitting from flower to flower, but I couldn't resist recording the "accidental encounter" we had with them on the highway. |
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Week 28: A small brake (almost) failure gave me an opportunity to ask Bob at One Stop Truck Stop in Colorado Springs a few questions about our truck brake ans suspension set up. It is always cool to learn new things about our big truck. Seeing the s-cams in person was more understandable than seeing them in a diagram. I also got educated on the air brake cans and how they work - hope I won't ever need that information! |
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Week 29: The next few weeks were spent in Yellowstone National Park. THere is not way to choose just one picture for this page. You will need to read the blog post for July to see the beauty we concountered. However, each day that we drove into the park, we got to see beautiful horses in the fields outside West Yellowstone. They are always cool to watch. |
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Week 30: While driving into the park one day (@ 60 mph) Trey started dogding lumber flying through the air and landing on the road. The RV in front of us had a roof coming apart. We honked our horn to get his attention and he pulled over to inspect his RV. We think he forgot to secure his collapable roof and it caught the wind and begand to come apart. Not a day RVing! |
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Week 31: The Smart car allows us to go out in all kinds of weather. If we only had the scooter this day we would have stayed home and missed this beautiful double rainbow in the park. This was the brightest, most beautiful rainbow I've ever seen. The picture was a bit disappointing. |
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Week 32: I never tire of viewing the Grand Prismatic Spring in YNP. So beautiful! |
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Week 36: Goshen, IN |
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Week 37: Flew to Colorado Springs to teach an RV Driving Experience classes. This was my office view most of the week. Colorado Springs, CO |
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Week 39: Elizabethtown, KY |
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Week 41: When you need to see the strength of your peepers but can't see without them, you take a picture. Goshen, IN |
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Week 44: Autumn drive in West Virginia. WV |
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