Austin for iPadpalooza June 2015

Well, I have been excited about this trip for a long time. I won a discounted registration to the iPadpalooz conference almost a year ago in a Twitter contest. Att that time, I was totally enamored with using iPads for education from a technologist's perspective. Now, I want to learn things to apply to my new position. It should be great. On top of that, I am staying at McKinney Falls State Park for five nights- how cool is that!

I originally planned to come up today (Monday, June 22), but Josh asked me to come up on Sunday so that we could go play trivia with his awesome girlfriend Cat. I had to make a second reservation, but that just caused me to go checkin for the remainder of my stay this morning.

Yesterday, June 21st, 2915

The trip to Austin was totally uneventful. There was more traffic on I-35 than I like, but that is just how it is these days. Rachel was shocked at how fast I got here when I texted her to say I made it safely. I drove a steady 65 MPH, which is faster than usual for me when pulling the trailer. You can't do 55 on I-35 and survive it.

They assigned me to site 29. It is a beautiful pull through site. It started to sprinkle just as I pulled into it. I hurridly got the trailer off the hitch, plugged into electricity, and stablized. I had just enough time to get my stuff (clothes, food, supplies, etc.) in the Colby T before it started to pour for real. I just spent the storm setting up the inside. It takes about 30 minutes to get everything stowed properly and set up the cabinets and countertop for use.

Once I was convinced that the rain was over, I hit the trails. I took the long Onion Creek Trail, then walked to both the upper and lower falls. Then I got back on the stretch of the Onion Creek Trail that goes in between my campground and the park headquarters. I noticed that it was getting a little darker. Then the wind started blowing and a light rain was begining to fall. I still had about a mile to get back to camp. Then  I saw a white truck through the trees. It was my Silverado. I could see it and the Colby T, but didn't want to bushwhack to get over to them. Last summer (the same week in June), I suffered the worst chigger bite episode of my life. Ths time I am bathing in DEET, but still paranoid of high grass. Anyway, I kept walking on the trail, albeit a lot faster. Suddenly I saw the Colby T through the trees from a different angle. There was a footpath headed right to the site near it. I took it and got inside right before another downpour.

I spent the rest of the afternoon reading and playing games on my iPad. Then at 6:00 I went to HEB on Riverside to get some meal replacement bars for my lunches at the conference. I forgot to get them in SA. I also left my ten oranges that Rachel made a special trip to get for me. I am missing those. They are my main snack these days. Now I am snackless! I should have picked some up at the store while I was there. But, NEWSFLASH- I'm an idiot!

I got to Josh's apartment at about 6:45. I was supposed to be there at 7:00. It worked out though. We just drove over to pick Cat up. She was going to walk over to his place by 7:00.

We headed out to the Blackstar Coop Brewpub. I love that place. They brew some really nice beer and the food is really good. Josh and I ate, but Cat wasn't hungry. Because it is a coop, you don't tip. You also bus your own tables and wipe them down before you leave. Weird. I know. It's Austin. I love it.

We played great for 7 rounds. We were actually in 4th place out of 21 teams. Then the 16 point 8th round killed us. We ended up in 10th place at the end.

I dropped the kids at their apartments and headed over to the park. I was dreading it. You have to get out of your car on a dark deserted road and open a combination lock, open the gate, drive through, close the gate, and lock it back up. As much as I love camping, that little process gives me the heeby jeebies. By some really amazing stroke of luck, the gate was open late last nght, and I just drove on through.

I got home at about 11:00. I pretty much went straight to bed and read for awhile.

Today, June 22, 2015

I set an alarm for 6:30 so I could get up early enough to get a long hike in before going to pick Josh up. I needed to help him with his truck. There were some electrical problems, but he couldn't really do anything about them until he got his battery charged or replaced. 

I took my time with breakfast. Today I had oatmeal with sausage flavored TVP and Mexican seasoning. It is one of my favorite meals these days. I prefer savory to sweet for breakfast, and this hits the spot. After eating, I cleaned up the camper and made the bed. Then I dressed and headed on the trail at about 7:30. It was a nice walk. There was nobody else on the trails until the end of it. I got to take some really nice shots of the falls without people standing all around, The ony bad thing was the humidity. I felt like I was pulling the Colby T behind me most of the way. I just can't get enough air in my lungs when it is humid. I was dripping wet and couldn't wipe enough sweat away to make a difference.

I am going to stop here. I am suddenly really tired. It is probably the glass of Merlot.

Okay, it is now 8:46 on Wednesday night. I was out too late last night to get any writing done.

Back to Monday morning... when I got up to the area past the falls, there were some red mini vans from the Austin Fire Department. About 30 or so fire fighter recruits got out and started stretching and doing some excercises. Later, when I was finishing my hike, I got a glimpse of them running in formation through the trees, They went some odd way that took them past the campsites instead of on the trails. At the very end of my hike, they were somewhere in the distance running and singing in cadance like soldiers. It was pretty neat.

Back at the camper, I got cleaned up and then headed to get Josh. I drove him out to O'Reiley's to get his battery tested. He has had somme electrical problems. It was going to take 90 minutes to charge it and test it, so we headed over to Pint House Pizza and had a pizza and some beers. 

When we got back to see the results of the battery test, it was dead. It wouldn't even charge. I suspected as much. It may have been the original battery from 1999! I bought him a new one. We put it in his truck and it took care of all the problems.

It was late afternoon by then, so I came on back to camp and took a nice long hike. My friend Susan texted me and told me she had shingles and wasn't coming for the conference. When I got back from the hike, I set up a shared folder in Evernote so she could see my notes. Then I wored on this for awhile.

right before going to bed, I saw some tiny ants on the counter top. I sprayed some ant poison and haven't seen any sign of them since. I inspected the outside looking for trails, but there weren't any. They probably came on board at the storage lot or maybe even at Kerrville Schreiner.

I set my alarm for 5:30 and went to bed. I wanted plenty of time to eat breakfast, shave, dress, and get to the conference. I wasn't sure what traffic would be like, or if the gate would be open. I pulled out of here at 6:45 and made it to the conference by 7:15. I sat in the truck for a while until I saw soone go in the school. When I got in, they were already setup for registration, even though it was supposed to start at 8:00. I got my badge, a purple knapsack, a water bottle, and some sunglasses. I took it all into the auditorium and sat there until 8:30 when the keynote was going to start. I got to watch all the sound and lighting checks.

I started to worry that I was in the wrong place. then suddenly at about 8:20 people flooded in. I guess they weren't letting people into the auditorium. They didn't seem to mind my being in there.

It was a full day of sessions. I didn't even break for lunch. I brought some meal replacement bars like I do for TCEA. By the end of the day my behind was really sore from sitting all day. Most of my sessions were clustered pretty close, so I barely walked the length of a football field all day. 

Westlake High School is beautiful. They have a lot of really nice features that only a really rich area would ever have. Their auditorium had two huge sections that rotate and form two smaller (but still huge) auditoriums. It is amazing.

I came back to camp for awhile to freshen up, etc. Then I headed out to pick up Josh for trivia. I was pretty late because of the traffic, even though I left super early because it was raining at camp. We drove over and picked up his girlfriend before heading over to a parking garage. then we walked to the Drag Bar and played triviia. (It is a bar on the drag- not a bar for people dressed in drag). We really stunk this time. We ended up 13th out of 14 teams. It was brutal.

We still needed dinner so we went to some bar with anchor in its name for burgers. They were cheap and really good. Josh wanted to stay later and play darts, but I begged off and dropped them both off before heading back to the  Colby T. 

I messed around for a little while then set my alarm for 5:30 again and went to bed. I wanted to have plenty of relaxing time in the morning.

This morning (Wednesday) I got to the school at about 7:30. I went to the cafeteria and found John and Doug sitting at a table. I joined them. After awhile we headed on over to the auditorium for what they called a "keynotathon". There were about 8 or 10 presenters who each got to talk for 3 minutes each. It was great.

The rest of the day was spent in sessions. They were all pretty good. The last one was a kenote address by Guy Kawasai who worked with Steve Jobs during the early days of the Macintosh. He was pretty good. As soon as he finished I took off. I wanted a headstart on the traffic. I had been invited to go eat BBQ with the NISD group, but I didn't want to 1) eat the calories, 2) spend the money, and 3) most importantly miss out on an opportunity to hike the trails.

I got a 4.20 mile hike in. It was pretty uneventful, but very nice. I got back and had good scrubbing. I noticed that the black tank is pretty full. Now I am debating whether or not to stop using the toilet the rest of the trip and dump it on the way out Friday, or jpulling the Colby T over to the dump station tomorrow after the conference, dumping it, and pulling it back to the site. I will probably just stop using it. I don't use it when I camp in the winter, and that hasn't been a problem. The bath houses at this park are really nice. This time of year the park is mostly full of RVers. They use their own bathrooms.

Anyway, I am done writing for today. I can already tell I got pretty lazy with what I have done today. I am really tired and ready for bed, but I am afraid I will forget everything.

Thursday, 8:16 PM

I am going to try and have this finished before 9:00. Rachel told me that Rookie Blue is premiering tonight on ABC. I hooked up the TV and see that I get 48 channels here. One of them is ABC.

I got up at 5:30 this morning and took my time getting ready. At 6:50, I drove over to the closest bath house to do my business, since the black tank is nearly full. It was locked. They only open that one on the weekend. I just got back into the truck and went to the conference. I got there at about 7:10, but the doors were opened. I hiked way back to the back of the school before I saw a bathroom that wasn't locked.

I went back to the cafeteria and got a cup of coffee. Before long, John Moran joined me. We compared sessions and sat and talked for awhile. Then we went our seperate ways. 

My sessions were all good today. Even the one that really didn't show us much new stuff for augmented reality had some great nuggets that were exciting. I got a free teacher's account to a great AR site that actually does all the work for you. It was free for attendees to the session only.

John and I both decided to skip the closing keynote. I had no real interest in hearing someone's opinions about whatever. I also wasn't interested in any of the drawings. I never had time to enter any of them. John headed home to San Antonio. I headed back to the Colby T, stopping to fill up the truck on the way. I also bought a huge cup of diet Dr, Pepper. It was mostly ice and will last me through tomorrow.

I changed clothes and headed off for a 5 mile hike. I took water with me this time. It was damn hot! The thermometer in the Colby T said it was 103 outside and 81 inside. I'm not sure about that. Yes, it was hot as hell outside, but Weather Bug said it was only 89 here. Inside, I was comfortable, but 81 seems a litttle outside of my comfort range. Regardless, the hike was hot. It felt good to get back. I cleaned up and just sat here for awhile. 

I ate a quick dinner of beef tips over mashed potatoes. It was one of those Hormel Complete meals that I am so fond of these days. I'm going to have some microwave pork rinds later. That will bring my calorie count for today to 1440. I try not to pass 1500, so I am pleased.

As I said earlier, I hooked up the TV. Then I ended up watching the Mexican version of Ameirica Has Talent, Mucho Talento  (or something like tha). Now I am finishing this up and waiting for Rooky Blue.

This trip has really worn me out. the week after next, I am supposed to go to Stephen F. Austin SP for three nights. I am thinking about cancelling. I'm afraid I will be too tired for the drive to St. Louis. I haven't driven on a long trip in six years. I am a little worried about doing it again.

Like the last several posts, I won't add more when I get home unless there is something out of the ordinary to tell you about.

Happy Trails!

Friday, June 26, 2015

Well, Here I am updating, so you already know something must have happened.This is what I posted to the Open Roads RV Forum:

 I was heading home from a great five week stay at McKinney Falls in Austin, Texas this morning. Suddenly, I felt a strange vibration. I pulled over on I-35, but the traffic was so heavy there was no way I could get out of the truck. I could see the trailer tires in my mirrors. They didn't seem flat. The Truck computer indicated the truck tires were fine. I slowly drove on the shoulder to the next exit and managed to pull in behind a gas station. The tread had come off of one of the trailer tires. It did a little damage, but nothing compared to what could have happened. I have heard horror stories about blowouts.

I immediately used the GS app on my iPhone. I got a call from a rep almost the second I put my phone back in my pocket. She was very nice and told me that I would get a text telling me who was coming and what the ETA was. The text came about 20 minutes later with an ETA of 90 minutes. While I was reading the text, the Jack Rabbit Network people called me to tell me the tire service was on the way and would arrive within 45 minutes instead of the 90 mentioned in the text. 

About 50 minutes later, the tire guy arrived. He jacked up the Colby T, changed the tire, aired up the spare, let the Colby T back down, handed me his receipt book to sign, gave me my receipt, and drove away with a $10.00 tip.

I got back on the road within two hours. I was very satisfied with Good Sam's response, the wait time, and most important to me- the quality of service I received from the tire service.

Kerrville Schreiner Park: June 2015

June 16, 2015, 8:32 PM

It was only a few weeks ago that I was here for Memorial Day. That was the weekend that most of Central Texas flooded. I was in the same site. Today was another rainy day. A tropical storm is hitting the Texas coast. I hope this isn't going to be a flood-filled time. There was already too much damage from the last one.

I woke up yesterday morning with one goal in mind. Get to Kerrville and work on cleaning out the fresh water system of the Colby T. On  and off for the last few years, the water in the fresh tank has had a really foul sulphur odor. This summer, however, the smell has been non-stop! I have only myself to blame. You are supposed to sterilize the tank every year at a minimum. Since I don't drink the water, I never bothered. It sounded like a lot of trouble just to make water safe to drink, especially since I had no intensions of drinking it. I am  strictly bottled water when camping.

I skipped breakfast and rushed to get ready. As usual, everything had been packed, except a few lastt minute essentials, beginning the day I returned from the last trip. I through it all in the truck, kissed Rachel goodbye and went to Packrats.

I arrived at the park around 9:30 AM. I got to pick site 129, which is now my favorite. It is level, heavily shaded by giant pecan trees. has decent phone service, and when wanted, gets all of the Kerrville over the air channels. (There aren't very many.)

I did most of my usual set up stuff, but completly postponed my inside work. I had to take everything out of the bathtub and put it on the bed during the process, so there wasn't room for much indoor activity. I mixed a half cup of bleach with a gallon of water and used the hand pump I normally use to add potable anti freeze in the fall to get it in the fresh tank. I had hooked up the sewer pipe and run the tank dry using the fresh water pump. I filled the tank the rest of the way with the hose, ran all the faucets and the toilet for about two minutes each, then turned them all off and let the bleach water sit in the system for four hours.

Whille I waited for the four hours to end, I brought my stuff in and fot as much of my inside stuff done as possible with a bed full of extra stuff. I took the three handme down throw pillows Rachel gave me a few weeks ago when she changed the den from maroon and forest green to teal over to the picnic table and got rid of all the dog hairs that were on them. 

Then, I decided that I wanted a cold drink, so I hiked the two-mile round trip to the convenience store across from the park and got a Powerade Zero. On the way back, a strange deer and her fawns walked across the street. I didn't have my stinking camera with me. I knew they were some kind of exotics that had escaped from one of the area exotic game ranches. I was bummed to not have the camera with me, but hoped to see them again. When I got back to camp, I sat under a tree and read for an hour or so. 

There was still some waiting time left, so I got the bright idea to go to HEB and buy some tripas. For those of you who don't know, they are beef intestines. They are one of my favorite foods, but I am not allowed to cook them at the house. Every once in awhile, I cook them while camping, since I know I can hike and burn the calories. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) HEB didn't have any. I spent about an hour walking around the store putting things in my basket and taking them back out. I just couldn't bring myself to any agreement on what to buy. I decided to just go back to camp with nothing and eat dinner at Brewdawgz later.

By the time I got back to the Colby T, it was time to flush the system. I ran each of the faucets for a few minutes, then let the kitchen faucet run until the pump started to stress at empty. I filled the fresh tank with clean water, ran all the faucets again until the bleach smell was gone, then turned them off, shut the sewer draiin valves, and did a little victory dance around the trailer. No more nasty smell!

I celebrated by taking a nice five-mile hike on the trails. Before I got to the trailhead, I saw two of those exotic looking deer across the field from me. I used the camera to zoom in close. They had spral horns! I managed to get a picture of one of them that is pretty clear. Later, I looked them up and saw that they were actually blackbuck antelope!

The rest of the hike was pretty nice. It was a gorgeous sunny day. There were lots of rabbits and deer along the trail. I didn't see any humans whatsoever. Yesterday, there were only three trailers in Deer Field Loop. Nobody else arrived during the day. I had the trails to myself.

I just had a minor panic attack. I am using my bluetooth keyboard to write this on the Google Blogger app so I can upload it to my blog tomorrow when I get home. I just hit save and got a message that I was offline and could not save. I knew I was offline, but I thought you could save on the device. I cut and pasted what I had to far into the Notes app. Then I totally closed out of Blogger and opened it up to see that it was all still here. 

Anyway, I got back to the Colby T from my hike and took one of my at the sink baths. Then I sat in the AC and read for awhile until I was cooled off enough to dress for dinner. As I opened the door to leave, I saw that there were two deer in my yard, so I took some quick photos before going. Then I went on over to Brewdawgz, which is just outside the park gate.

I hhad planned on havinng a few beers and eating fish tacos. They were out of Mahi Mahi, but said they could substitute salmon. I just wasn't feeling that, so I ordered an oyster poor boy instead. It was really good. It wasn't until I paid that I realized it was the special. That made me a little nervous. I don't usually eat oysters in the summer time. I got a bad one in New Orleans a few years ago and squirted bright green liquid for nearly a week. I know- TMI. If they had oyster poor boys on special I figured they were tryig to use up their oysters. Fortunately, I dodged the bullet on that one.

Just as I left Brewdawgz a down pour started. I was glad I had driven over instead of walking like usual. It rained on and off the rest of the night, so I didn't get to take a late evening hike. I went on the internet and estimated my caloric intake. I figured out that all told, I had about 1800 calories for the day. I have been sticking to 1500 for the last six weeks, losing 23 pounds in the process. It was a good thing that I had skipped breakfast and eaten a very light lunch. I had only just undone the damage from all those kolaches on the last trip!

I spent a quiet evening reading and playing a game on the iPad. I wasn't in the mood to watch bad TV, which is pretty much all I can get here. I never even brought the TV out of the closet and hooked it up this trip.

I woke up this morning a little after 8:30. It was raining a bit outside. I spent a lazy morning reading, playing the game, and texting Tara Mastin, the TSS at my two schools. She was working her last day and was having a hard time finishing her inventory. Several items that we knew where disposed of during the 2012 deployment were suddenly back on it. She couldn't fiind my records. I told her that they were in the bottom drawer of the file cabinet in the lab. She said the file cabinet was gone. Sometime during the school year, it was taken somewhere else. Neither of us noticed. We think they did it to make room for the extra furniture they brought in for the teachers to use when they brought their classes for math. She finally found it somewhere on campus, but my folders were all missing from it. The only things in it were from before 2010. We must have texted back about 50 times trying to figure something out.

I also spent some time on a survey for the Lower Colorado River Authority about my trip to Oak Thicket  Park. I only had one bad thing to say. That was about the poor condition of that three-mile trail I hiked on. It was so overgrown I could barely see where I was stepping. That's no fun during the summer when the rattlesnakes are active.

At around 11:00, I decided to get my ass in gear and take a hike on the park roads. It was threatening ran, so I didn't want to be deep on the trails if it came. Just as I was bout to go, it started raining. That lasted for about two hours on and off. I ate lunch and read some more until I finally didn't hear anyone dancing on the camper roof. I went out and the sky seemed pretty clear, so I grabbed my hiking stuff and a gallon-size baggie for my camera (just in case) and headed off. I walked through all the camping loops along the way. Just as I was leaving one, it started to sprinkle, so  stood uner a tree to wait it out. After about five minutes, it stopped, so, I started hking again. I got about two hundred yards before it started pouring really hard. I ran to the bath house and stood under the overhang for about thirty minutes. Then I stuck the camera in the bag and went back to hiking in a light sprinkle.

I saw a lot of deer on the way. The rain didn't seem to phase them. I got shots of three different kiinds. I hope they turn out. The white tailed deer are not as skittish as the others. They are escapees from nearby exotic ranches, and have experienced being hunted. The white tails are like boardwalk pigeons- nearly domesticated. They only run off if you approach too agressively. Notmally, they stop, assess the danger, and go back to grazing.

I went throught the other RV loop and was amazed to see the red Winnebago again. He has been here the last two times I came, also. He was walking to the dumpster so I asked him if he comes every two weeks like I have been. He told me that he had been camping here for ten weeks and was finally leaving tomorrow. He hadn't planned on staying so long, and ended up at one point getting a new reservation, which forced him to change sites. I wanted to ask him why he was here for ten weeks, but didn't. All I know is that I am jealous of him. That is one sweet rig, and living at this park for ten weeks must have been freaking awesome!

It was raining pretty bad by the time I got back to the camper. I used some of the bleach in a spray bottle and gave my awning a good scrubbing. The part that shows when it is rolled up was filthy from exposure, and some of the underside when open had some moldy spots. I guess I didn't dry it as well as I thought during the floody Memorial Day Weekend trip. I didn't use it at Oak Thicket. I was too busy taking day trips around the area.

The rest of the day was spent reading, facebooking, and playing that game on the iPad until about 7:00 PM. I had just finished eating dinner when I noticed that the sun was out a bit. I quickly donned my hiking duds, grabbed my camera, and started walking on the roads again. I got about a mile in with no rain in sight. Then I sat outside watching the deer grazinng for an hour or so utnil the gnats started bothering me too much. Ever since then, I've been sitting here writing this.

I'm going to read for awhile now before crashing early. I want to get a head start on departure procedures in the morning. With that tropical storm, Weatherbug is predicting a lot of rain tomorrow. I need about 30 - 45 minutes of outdoor time to drain the tanks, get my gear in the truck, and hitch up for the trip home. I figure that by starting early enough, I can get it done in increments whenever the rain stops for a few minutes. If it doesn't rain, well lucky me. I'll just get home earlier than expected.

I am going to post this to my Hot Air Depot blog site tomorrow. I won't add anything more unless there is something out of the ordinary tomorrow morning or on the way home

Happy Trails!