This week was a week of hit or miss with the weather. Grey skies and cold temperatures kept us from doing much except hunkering down and trying to stay warm. It did make for a good time to get some much needed deep cleaning 🧹 done. Who knew that such a tiny space could need so much attention? As least we were able to get the spring cleaning completed and now we are ready to take off and see the sites. It wasn’t a total washout though. I worked on photography lessons, cooked some steaming Pho, and we toured the LBJ Ranch.
Lessons in Photography and Editing
I signed up for an online photography course and a photo editing course a couple weeks ago. I’m hoping to improve my photo skills and learn to edit them to their full potential. It’s also a great way for me to make sure to take lots of pictures of our adventures. Learning photography has always been on my bucket list and I am also the person who right after all the fun and festivities remembers I should have taken photos!🤦🏻‍♀️ When I wasn’t cleaning I was working on learning about photo techniques. I figured I could do the lessons and then be ready to complete the assignments when we get back out adventuring.
Soup’s On
The cold and dreary weather also made me want to cook up some yummy soup🍲. Zack usually requests tomato soup with a grilled cheese sandwich, but I was in the mood for something different. I found a recipe for quick beef pho and had all the ingredients on hand so that was the winner! It turned out really delicious and was perfect for the nasty weather. Wouldn’t you know I forgot to take a photo of the finished dish! Guess that means I’ll just have to cook some more up soon …oh darn.
Lyndon B Johnson National Park
Wednesday did clear up and was actually pretty warm so we took off to explore Johnson City and the Lyndon B. Johnson National Park. Unfortunately the wildflowers weren’t in bloom yet and everything is still quite brown and dry, but the sunny skies and pleasant temperatures made for an enjoyable day. While touring the grounds, I ran across this young lady from the University of Texas, San Antonio doing an archeological study. They have 4 sites they are digging doing research for paleontology remains. That was a bonus to our LBJ excursion.
Truck Woes
Before leaving Aransas Pass we took the truck in to have the oil changed. The tires were due a rotation as well so thought we’d get that taken care of at the same time. Turns out we had lug nut locks on the tires that we didn’t have a key for. Thank goodness we never had a flat while on the road! Needless to say, the tires didn’t get rotated as we started a somewhat frantic search for a key that would fit the locks.
After trips to 2 Chevrolet dealerships, 2 Discount Tire stores, and several auto parts stores we still couldn’t find a key that would fit the locks. What a bummer! Finally it was recommended we go to Petersen Tire here in Blanco to see if they could help. Wouldn’t you know the answer was just a few miles down the road after we had driven all over the country – not really, just Aransas Pass and San Marco, but still! After trying all the keys they had nothing would work. Alex, the mechanic who was helping us, said there wasn’t anything he could do. Oh no! What do we do now? I guess making a face of desperation to match the tone of voice is enough to break any mechanic down. Alex said he had one more thing to try. He ended up hammering on a ratchet socket and was able to get the locks off. My hero!🦸🏻‍♂️ He sent us home to order some replacement lug nuts and we ended up taking the truck back on Friday to get him to put the new lug nuts on. Whew! So glad that’s done and we won’t be stranded on the side of the road now!