catlinyemaker

J and I are in Abbeville, LA, for a short stay on our way to the Mardi Gras celebration with friends in Baton Rouge.  We came by way of a couple of the shore towns in Texas: Port Aransas and Galveston.

( Pondering semi-permanence and Port Aransas )

The spicy-pine scent of juniper is strong this morning as I step out onto the concrete patio, taking the tabby for his morning walk. New snow from yesterday’s storm blankets the nearby mountains and there’s frost on the tussocks of grass dotting the gravel field where our rig sits. It’s a beautiful morning in New Mexico.

We came up from central Texas, leaving the lush spring behind for the high desert. The bright greens went dull as we drove, blue and orange and purple wildflowers gave way to white ones, and the soil changed to red and tan adobe. Here the fields are full of juniper and cactus.

Cochiti Lake Campground is a Corps of Engineers park sited on rolling hills by a flood control lake in the Pueblo de Cochiti area. We can see mountains all around this plateau. We’re at just about 5500 feet elevation here - climbed up from Texas flatlands in one day. That explains the wheezing (both the truck and I are panting when we exercise.)

( Scenery and shopping... )

Welp, J’s work has struck again. This morning I was debating starting my day with the quilting I wanted to do or knocking out a load of dishes before settling in to quilt. Good thing I opted for the dishes, since not five minutes after they were finished, J said: “They want me in Houston.”

“When?”

“Tonight.”

Ok, we can do that. It’s roughly 260 miles from East Fork Park in Wylie, TX, down to New Caney, TX, just north of Houston. Not too far to go in a single day, and it was early enough we’d get in before dark. I called the campground we’d stayed in the last time his work dragged us down here, and they were able to find a space available for a week. Coming in at the last minute the way we are, we’re shoehorned into a tiny site barely wider than the rig with the slides out. But that’s ok, we’re in, we’re set up and we’re on time for his work.

( Ramblings about our recent travels... )

We stayed at East Fork Park for a total of just under two weeks, extending a few days at a time as the customer meetings shifted around.  A huge storm blew in one night, bringing some much needed rain and a lightning strike which felled a tree in the center of the campground (fortunately in the grassy sward well away from the campsites.)  We heard an enormous CRAACK in the middle of the night and saw the damage the next day.  That sort of thing gets us out of bed and checking the NOAA weather radar right smart! 
 
Other than the storm it was a nice low key couple of weeks.  Our head colds gradually cleared up, and we took some Sunday drives, ate some good down home cooking, and generally relaxed until it was time to leave for Jackson, MS and yet another customer.  I went looking for a campground and found Le Fleur’s Bluff State Park right in the middle of Jackson, just three miles from J’s customer.  We exited the freeway and drove the four lane surface road for just a mile, turned off into the campground and the city just fell away.  A winding gravel road led back into the woods to a campground on the shore of a small lake; our campsite overlooked the lake and the fall colors reflected in the quiet water.  It was beautiful.
 
The ranger stopped by to chat and pointed out a large alligator in the lake; J thought he was kidding and talking about a log until he saw the beast move.  (I didn't know they had alligators this far north.)  It was a good eight footer, and the ranger said it had washed into the lake with the last flood.  It turns out that this park is part of the flood control system for the City of Jackson.  When the Pearl River threatens to overflow its banks, the excess water is diverted into this area.  It’s not quite correct to say “into the lake”; the campground is on low ground and pretty much floods right away.  Once we found that out, we spotted a few other things.  The bathhouse is a two story building, facilities up a flight of stairs.  Along the entrance road there are large concrete columns, taller than the rig, with grates at the tops.  They’re *storm drains* to curtail the flooding and send the rising water along to the next flood control stage.  Storm drains. Fifteen feet up.  O_o
 
I got a (marginal) photo of the gator on the far bank of the lake.  My poor camera is nine years old at this point and doing the best it can; it glitched a bit but I think you can make him out.  Click (2x) to embiggen, as always.



 

It’s the Houston International Quilt Show!
 
( The Show and how I got there. )

So the photo today is about half of the total number of blocks for the current Sea and Shore quilt. Only 80-mumble more to go. The sashing that goes along with these blocks gives a sort of nine patch effect at the corners, so that’s getting worked on too as leader-enders to the blocks. Hopefully if this week goes well, next week I will be able to post pictures of the fun part: actually laying the blocks out and arranging them in pleasing combinations. This past week there wasn’t too much sewing happening, but it was for a good reason, as our travels took us to Houston and the IQA quilt festival.
( Fun times at the International Quilt Festival )

J’s work is pretty much wrapped up; enough that he won’t have to go to the customer site this week.  Since we’ve already extended our stay (no refunds, the signs say sternly) we’ll be taking the time to recuperate from all that driving and do some spring RV cleaning.