When I was a child, I was an avid camper. I loved going to summer camp, and that love never faded. I became a camp counselor and was actually a little sad when I had to retire because I had gotten married.

Well, while I was a counselor, I read all kinds of things about ways to cook outdoors……cooking with hot stones, baking using a reflector contraption, baking using dutch ovens, cooking s’mores ten different ways, and cooking biscuits on a stick. I wanted to try all of them. So far, I have tried baking with dutch ovens. (And that has been a huge success…..or so my victims/friends say!)

But now, I will soon be trying biscuits-on-a-stick! At the Rally in Glen Rose, I saw a demonstration by two gentlemen of how to cook biscuits on a stick. These two guys have made about 100 sticks, and they use them for their church socials and for their family gatherings. (This is Texas, so it is not surprising that a church social would involve gathering around a fire.) The basic idea of biscuit-on-a-stick is to take a tube of biscuits and put them on sticks and roast them over the coals of a fire. These two guys have refined the idea somewhat, but it is still biscuits sitting on a stick and getting toasted over the fire.

What I liked about their idea was that it would be an integral part of a meal. When these biscuits come off the stick, they are then filled with a meat mixture of your choosing. Yes, these biscuits come off as a tube waiting to be filled! And when you’ve eaten your fill of biscuits & chili or biscuits & gravy/sausage or biscuits & chicken fajita, you can fix a dessert…….like biscuits filled with apples/butter/cinnamon!

So, I’m ready to get some sticks assembled and ready to find some victims……I mean friends. We’re going to be trying this!

So long for now,
Suzanne

I attended a “Driving Safely” Seminar this morning. The patrolman who conducted it was outstanding. He stated that he had the “gift of gab.” And it was true. In addition to being able to talk, he was also enthusiastic and knew how to keep an audience tuned in. But most important……he knew how to teach. His safety points came across and stuck. Just so you know, the main safety point is THINK! The entire presentation kept reinforcing that……especially compelling was the knowledge of how fast, fast, fast an accident can happen. Think Ahead!

I noticed during the presentation that our patrolman’s eyesight for reading was extremely poor. He had to be three inches from his computer screen in order to read it. At the end, he told us why.

Our patrolman had been shot ten times at point-blank range seven years ago. It was a traffic stop. One of the shots was in the eye. It damaged that eye, but the peripheral damage to the other eye caused it to be blinded. He described where each of the other shots hit.

He did have a vest. And he was still shot ten times.

After falling on the roadway, he survived thanks to a Good Samaritan. This Samaritan ran over to our officer and shielded him from oncoming traffic. And, the Samaritan called for help on the officer’s hand-held radio and gave an accurate description of the suspect vehicle.

By the way, you have probably seen a video of his being shot. He says that it plays on TV about once a month. The trooper’s name is Earl Gillum.

I’m so glad he survived.

Ya’ll take care,
Suzanne

By the way, my cold is gone!


Suzanne

I am now in Glen Rose, TX. I arrived here along with one hundred ninety-nine other Airstream trailers.

You might wonder how it looks to have 200 Airstream trailers going down the highway. Well, I can tell you that it looks pretty neat! It seems that a lot of people don’t realize that Airstreams are still around. They must think that the ones they see in the movies and on TV are just specialty trailers for celebrities. So many times I have heard the comment, “I didn’t know that they still made those things.”

So how do you get 200 trailers into one RV Park without disrupting traffic? Well, there are two ways. One way is just the random nature of people arriving during a 12-hour check-in time. The other way is with a caravan that has been assigned an arrival time. For this Rally, there were three caravans coming in.

And today I learned that there is a competition of sorts amongst the caravan leaders. The objective of each leader is to arrive as close to assigned arrival time as possible. And, it seems that my caravan leader is the champion to be beaten! Well, no one came close to beating him at this Rally. One caravan arrived 7 minutes off from his assigned time. The other caravan arrived 3 minutes off. My caravan arrived 20 seconds off! What fun! And, he’s already thinking about how to get the next one closer!

Talk to you later,
Suzanne

I don’t get sick often. Does that explain why I’m suffering so much with this little cold? Maybe. Who knows? But today, I decide that enough is enough! I’m tired of the coughing, the sore throat, the tiredness, the coughing, the sleep-deprivation, and the coughing. (Can you guess which one of these symptoms must end immediately?)

I have been using a prescribed penicillin-type of drug for ten days along with recommended throat lozenges. I am still losing sleep and coughing, coughing, coughing. It is time to go buy some cures!

I go to the pharmacy and find the nicest guy. He listens to my symptoms and then brings me over to the humidifiers.

(P.S. I just re-read that last paragraph. Please don’t get the wrong idea in your head. I was not out looking for guys. My ‘nice guy’ was the pharmacist.)

He directs me right to the humidifier that he would buy. “This is the one that you should get. Don’t pay $10 extra for that other one. Now, come over to this other aisle, and I’ll tell you what I take when a cold comes on. My colds only last three days. You know, I don’t tell everyone what my secret is.”

(Now, don’t get the wrong idea in your head. He was just trying to help a sick customer.)

He shows me which over-the-counter cures he likes, and then he hands me his favorite brands.

I head on home after thanking him. I set up the humidifier and take all my medicines. When I wake up this morning, I am still coughing……………..but not nearly as much! I am a much happier traveler.

I’ll talk to you later,
Suzanne