Texas Absentee Voting

In case you couldn't tell, Election Day is just around the corner.

Don't worry. This post isn't about trying to persuade you to vote one way or another. (We can hear the cyber sigh of relief!)

Rather, this missive is a quick lesson in absentee voting as a Texan. (So, if you're not a fellow resident of Rainbow Drive, you're officially excused from class. If you're in search of more interesting reading material, may we suggest you click on over to Bullwinkle's Travels? We've been busy bringing that neglected travel blog up to date...almost.)

A couple of years ago, as the United States prepared for the 2010 census, Escapees sent mailings assuring us that we would be counted. We never were. With the approach of this year's general election, we looked for absentee voting instructions to arrive in the mail from Escapees. They never did. So, we took matters into our own hands. It's one thing to miss being counted every 10 years. But, when it comes to exercising our constitutional right, we aren't going to let anything get in our way. And, we want to do what we can to help our neighbors with this process.

We submitted our requests for absentee ballots today. The process took longer than it should. With hopes that we can save our friends a few minutes, here are some step-by-step instructions.

1. Get/Check Your Voter Registration.
If you're not already registered, do it now! The deadline for registering to vote in this year's general election is October 9th.

To register, Complete a Voter Registration Application online. You must print and mail this form the voter registration official in your county. This form must be received prior to October 9th.

In Livingston, the Polk County official is:
Tax Assessor-Collector
Marion A. "Bid" Smith
416 N. Washington
Livingston, TX 77351

If you are registered, find your Voter Registration Card. It has an expiration date, but if that date has passed, don't worry. Your registration is probably current. To check the status of your registration, go to the Voter Information Search page. Enter the essential info and the site will tell you your status.

Don't put your registration card away just yet. You'll need it in a minute.

2. Print and Mail an Application for Ballot by Mail
Click here to open a PDF of the application.

Complete Page 2. Your completed application must be received by the early voting clerk no later than October 30th.

Provide all of the information requested. Here are a few helpful hints.

Before you fill in your address in Box 2, check your voter registration card. Print your address exactly as it appears under your name on the card.

In Box 3, fill in the mailing address where you want your ballot to be mailed.   So, think about where and when you want to receive your ballot.

In Box 6, check "Expected absence from the county" as your reason for voting by mail.

In Box 7, check Address outside the county. (The address you provided in Box 3 needs to be outside Polk County.)

In Box 8, enter a date when you can receive mail at the address in Box 3. Remember, your completed ballot must be received by the early voting clerk (not postmarked) no earlier than October 27th and no later than 7PM on Election Day, November 6th.

Mail your completed application to the Early Voting Clerk in your county.

In Livingston, the Polk County Early Voting Clerk is:

County Clerk
Schelana Walker
P.O. Drawer 2119
Livingston, TX 77351

Your completed application must be received by the early voting clerk no later than October 30th

3. Watch Your Mail and Vote!

Remember, your completed ballot must be received by the early voting clerk (not postmarked) no earlier than October 27th and no later than 7PM on Election Day, November 6th.

That's it! Hope this helps.

Pooped!

We've come a long way from Loveland. It's been far too long since we've checked in. At long last, we're dusting off our long-neglected blog. We've been busy!

We traveled across Kansas in the heat and humidity. We're so pleased to report that our heat pump is working just fine. (Thanks again, Don and Mary Ann!) We enjoyed time with family in Salina and spent 10 days in Kansas City celebrating a big birthday and taking care of some health care business. With that activity behind us, we headed down Highway 50 to Sedalia to attend our first Escapade.

An Escapade is a rally for members of the Escapees RV Club. These days the club hosts an Escapade once a year. We've been meaning to attend since we hatched the idea of becoming fulltime RVers. It only took us four years to make it to one! But, when our calendar synced up perfectly with this year's festivities in Sedalia, we made it a date.

When we arrived last Saturday we were instantly met with familiar faces. Fellow fulltiming friends John and Bridget Hatch were just inside the gate working on the parking team. John led us to our parking spot, which was right next door to fellow fulltimers Mark and Dortha (whom we hadn't seen in forever!), two doors away from Donna and Keith and their pretty new motorhome, and just across the road from traveling buddies Molly and Bob, who are in their second of three years serving as Escapade directors.

Molly and Bob are a very special couple who have dedicated their tremendous talent and energy to Escapees. We saw them several times during this incredibly busy week, and they were always smiling. They recruited an amazing staff and volunteers to make this event a success. And, it showed. Successfully navigating five or six hundred RVs in and out of a fairground, and facilitating the education and entertainment of 1,100 attendees for a week is a monumental task. Molly, Bob and folks did it all with a smile.

That said, we can attest that Molly and Bob can do some arm twisting -- of the friendliest kind, of course! While we visited with them in Utah last Summer, they asked if we would present an informational seminar at this year's rally based on our special report we posted here on the blog last year. And, of course, we said we would. Somewhere along the way, Molly charmed me into signing up as an event photographer, too.

My photography duties were tons of fun! Seriously, I think that's one of the best jobs at an event like this. I was assigned a golf cart, radio and a badge. With all that and my camera in hand, I could literally go anywhere! And, I did. Within a few hours of landing at the fairground, I was shooting all over the place. From the start of the opening ceremony on Sunday afternoon until yesterday's closing festivities, I snapped my way in and out of almost every seminar, the vendor's marketplace, the chapter and special interest room, craft area, an RV show, many socials, a chili cookoff, pet parade, two nights of Branson-style entertainment and the Ham-O-Rama talent show. Yep. I captured hundreds of smiles this week.

Wednesday morning, I parked my camera for an hour when Paul and I presented our seminar, The Myths of Fulltime RVing. Our session was the third of seven presentations that were part of the Escapade's first-ever "Fulltiming 101", a series designed for people who are planning, considering or starting life as fulltime RVers. We had a wonderful audience. They looked so good, of course, I took their pictures! Everyone was engaged, participants asked great questions, and we received wonderful feedback. Though we were a bit nervous about it all, (It's been years since we've stood in front of a room!) it was great fun. We were honored to participate in this new program. If we helped give a few folks something to think about, then it was all worth it.

Between shooting and processing photos and preparing and delivering our seminar, we didn't have much time left for socializing. But, we were delighted to meet some fellow blogging friends for the first time. Kenny and Angela were parked just a few rigs away. We've been meaning to meet up with them every time we're in Kansas City. It was great to finally meet them. Whizzing along in our cart, we spotted Glenn and Sylvia's rig and stopped to say hello. It was so nice to actually meet these Facebook friends face to face! We dropped in on a fun happy hour at Sam and Donna's place, where we able to sit and visit a bit with these good folks and Kenny and Angela. They introduced us to fulltimers Len and Phyllis, who definitely did their part to stimulate the Sedalia economy. (Thanks, y'all!). We also met fellow fulltimers Jesse and Ginger briefly along the way. We're thrilled to move their blogs to the "Bloggers We've Met" section of our blogroll.

We've also enjoyed catching up with our dear friends Steve and Cathy, whom we last saw during our quick stop in Lincoln early this Summer. It's always good to see them, and it was a special treat to have them in the audience for our seminar and share one of their fulltiming mantras: "Your expenses may vary!" (So true!) We look forward to meeting up with this fun couple in our Fall travels.

After this morning's "Get Away Breakfast", a steady stream of RVs left the campground. With hugs, handshakes (but mostly hugs) and "See Ya's", many of our fellow Escapees hit the road out of Sedalia. Others are sticking around here through the weekend. We were originally planning on heading out today. But, a pretty stiff wind was blowing from the direction we would be going, so we opted to sign up for another night. We'll head south with the wind mostly at our back tomorrow.

We didn't really need an excuse to stay. But, we'll take it. Besides, after this fun and busy week, we must confess. We're pooped!

Day Care

Reluctantly, we made our way from Gunnison yesterday to Loveland. We arrived in the late afternoon at DM RV Repair. Owners Don (The "D") and Mary Ann (The "M") welcomed us and graciously offered a space for us to hook up the moose and get a good night's sleep before things really got going this morning.

Today's forecast in Loveland wasn't pleasant. The forecast highs were into the upper 90s.  On a day when our moose was expected to go hours without AC we were faced with an important challenge: What to do with our cats?

Anyway you looked at it, the outlook for any being to survive, much less thrive, in our rolling home today was poor, at best. With temps in the upper 90s and the Front Range sun a blazing, the mercury inside an AC-less Bullwinkle was projected to approach or top the century mark.

And, life inside our mighty Jeep didn't look much more promising today.

So, today, we looked for alternatives.

After a quick online evaluation of feline day care facilities, today's winner became obvious. It was five minutes away, the folks were oh-so-pleasant when we called in to inquire, and they had space available today for our feline friends to hang out in cool comfort today.

Done deal.

So, after checking in with the good people who had the power to restore cooling power to our moose, we crated up the cats for their first-ever kitty day care experience.

We drove up, met the lovely people, handed over our critters and asked ourselves this question.

What parents in their right mind would hand over their nine-year-old children to complete strangers?

Scary!

The good news is it all felt right. With clear kitty parent consciences we headed out to kill way too much time in Loveland.

We went to Target, and Bed Bath and Beyond, and Smashburger (Yum!) and Super Cuts and TCBY and JAX (a place we'd never heard of) and Kohl's and we even checked out our egress out of town tomorrow.

Yes, we were definitely killing time. And, when it comes to that we don't do it very well.

We went back to the shop and checked in on our progress. Things were moving slowly. But, they were moving.

With our pick-up deadline looming, we checked in with our tech. Everything was coming together. By 6 o'clock, everything would be wrapped up. We made a quick dash to the vet center to pick up our babies before the magic hour of six. They seemed happy, well, and a bit wiped out. We so wish they would answer our many questions about how their first-ever day of day care went. Alas, they can't. But, based on their desire to rapidly devour dinner and hang out with their parents, we're assuming it all went well.

At just about six, our heat pump was in place. With an inside temp of 98 degrees, our magical technician Don gave us the go ahead to fire things up. Within 30 minutes, the temp was down to the low 90s. Within an hour, we were into the low 80s. The cats were happy and so were we.

Both compressors are firing. The temperature is dropping. The cats and peeps in our house are definitely happy.

It's been 14 months since our heat pump worked properly. It's been a long, ugly journey. Maybe someday we'll tell the whole ugly story. But, tonight we're just appreciating what we have.

Our heat pump works. Finally.

Kudos to Mary Ann and Don of DM Mobile RV Repair in Loveland for wrestling the "Heat Pump From Hell". At least one Winnebago dealer and folks at the factory couldn't conquer this beast, but DM did. We're so grateful for their skilled craftsmanship and warm hospitality. For all and any of our RVing friends passing along the Front Range, is you need service, these are definitely the folks to call. We're so glad we did!

Three cheers for Coleman, the manufacturers of our heat pump. You folks get a bad rap that isn't always deserved. Thank you so much for stepping up and honoring your factory warranty long after many others would have passed. We really appreciate how you've gone the extra mile.

We have nothing, and I mean nothing, good to say about Winnebago Factory Service through this ordeal. Y'all screwed up. Plain and simple. Enough said.

Finally, after nearly 14 months we have a heat pump that actually works. And, we're so happy.

And, our cats have had their first taste of day care.

Tomorrow, after three completely unexpected months in Colorado, we're heading to Kansas.

Wahoo!

Feliway!

While the peeps in our household have been basking in the splendid isolation of Gunnison (and, it is awesome), it seems that one of our furry friends has suffered some stress.

Our boy kitty has been in a state for the last three days. And, this state has involved a periodic piddle where he shouldn't. When it comes to boy kitties and piddlin', we've learned over the years that it's important to get these things checked out ASAP. So, today we did. 

This morning, we made an afternoon appointment at Tomichi Pet Center here in Gunnison. We loaded up the offending cat and headed off to the unknown (to us, anyway) vet. We received a warm greeting, and after a short wait were escorted to an exam room. The friendly tech and wonderful vet were both Kansas natives. So, we knew we were in good hands. 

With just about all of the possible physical maladies ruled out, the vet suggested that the problem might be behavioral. Actually, she surmised, it sounded like the issue might be territorial. It seems our alpha kitty might just be marking his territory at the threat of passing deer, dogs, cats and whatever other wildlife might pass our way.

And what does one do with such a territorial kitty? The lovely vet suggested Feliway. I had read about it over the years, and was a bit skeptical. But, as the doc explained the science of it all, it suddenly made sense. 

Feliway mimics feline pheromones, which are the things all kitties spread around a place by scratching,  rubbing their faces (and occasionally piddlin') here and there. These pheromones make a kitty's place "theirs". Once everything is appropriately marked, a kitty can kick back and relax, knowing that they have fended off an intrusion by any passing animals. A few sprays of Feliway are supposed to get the job done for any resident kitties, which makes, scratching, rubbing (and occasional piddlin') unnecessary. With their territory artificially marked, resident kitties can get straight to the business of kickin' back and relaxing. 

We gave it a shot. 

Thirty bucks and five strategically placed sprays later, we were absolutely dumbstruck. Our kitties were calm, cool and collected. They were definitely kickin' back and relaxing. 

Actually, our newfound vet has a great word for it. They were "chillaxin'". 

Truth be told, we all were. 

We know it's early. But, so far so good.

Three cheers for Feliway!

Splendid Isolation

For not being anywhere near where we'd planned to be, we really couldn't ask to be in a better place. Gunnison is simply great. Have we mentioned lately how much we love it?

We really do.

We went Jeepin' yesterday with our friends Karen and Arvin and their grandsons. Our route was Alpine Road, which took us on an amazing and incredibly scenic ride high into the mountains above Curecanti National Recreation Area. It was awesome!

One of the treats of our arrival back here in Gunnison was a chance meeting with a couple of folks over there on our blog roll. When we pulled into the park Saturday, the manager looked at our rig and said, "Hey! There's another one of those here." As we drove to our spot we couldn't help but notice a 2009 Tour with the exact same paint scheme as our moose. With a different floor plan, it was Bullwinkle's fraternal, rather than identical, twin. Our first thought was it would be fun to meet our Winnie kin. Our second thought was how much we lusted after their healthy heat pump. (But, I digress!)

Sunday night we were sitting outside enjoying the evening. A menagerie-walking couple came our way. There were two dogs, two cats and a familiar face. "We've come to meet the other Tour folks," they announced. As we shook hands, I was flipping through the visual rolodex in my mind. I tried my best to identify this familiar face. After the handshakes, we moved on to introductions.

"I'm Carrie," said the familiar face I couldn't place. With a name, I instantly made the match.

"I know you!" I exclaimed.

Carrie Barton is a blogger we've followed for years. Back in 2010, we tried to hook up in Texas Hill Country, but we weren't able to connect. We exchanged a few emails, but lost track as we got back to the business of living. What a pleasant surprise to have this chance meet up here in Gunnison! We exchanged pleasantries and made plans to catch up later. We look forward to getting to know Carrie and her husband Bill better and comparing Winnie stories. (Perhaps somebody should warn them...)

Tonight, we met up with Carrie, Bill, Doug, Nona and our neighbors for a park happy hour. The special guests of tonight's gathering were Dave and Susan, local experts in hiking, biking and 4x4 trails in and around Gunnison. (There are many!) Dave and Susan have lived in Gunnison for some 15 years and are obviously in love with their hometown. They told us about the all of the "can't miss" trails around town. (Suddenly, we have a long list of places to visit while we're here!)

As they gushed about all that is good about Gunnison, one of the things they pointed out was how, unlike all of those "popular" destinations along I-70 across the Rockies, Gunnison is quiet. This favorite town of ours has all of the scenery (and then some) of places like Breckenridge and Aspen, but with a fraction of the the folks.

Dave had a name for it. "We call it splendid isolation."

That's it! Those two simple words so perfectly capture what we love about Gunnison! It's beautiful. Yes, in fact, it's splendid. And, it's far from the beaten path. To get here, you need to be willing to traverse a healthy mountain pass or two. As the crow flies, I-70 isn't all that far. But, if you weren't born with wings, that busy interstate is seemingly a zillion miles away. In that way, it's isolated.

But, in this lush green valley between these mountain passes lives a community of friendly people who simply love living in the mountains. They're friendly. They're welcoming. They're wonderful. And, for a few weeks this Summer and last, we have the wonderful privilege of calling them our neighbors.

Yep. We love it here.

Turns out this lovely local couple who provided us the perfect description for our favorite place has made some exciting history of their own. Dave is an elite mountain biker who has competed (and won) against the likes of Floyd Landis and Lance Armstrong. (Who knew?) And, tonight, as Dave bragged on is wife, we learned that Susan competed in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. She won a bronze medal in Women's Mountain Biking. (How cool is that?) She brought her medal along to share with us all. She was so gracious!

After all of the congratulations, we shared a few minutes talking with this Olympian from Northern California who has happily made her home here in Gunnison. Over the years, she explained she's learned to live with and come to love the brutal winters here in the mountains.

Maybe we could, too!

Our Colorado Summer

One of the items on our fulltiming "bucket list" is to spend one entire Summer in Colorado.

Little did we know this would be the year.

Our bucket list plan was (and still is) to purchase a Colorado State Parks Pass and traverse the state, visiting as many of its wonderful state parks as possible. But, this Summer, we've found ourselves in Colorado dodging wildfires, driving from one RV technician to another, and making not one but two trips to our favorite high-altitude town to cool off.

That's right. We're back in Gunnison! And, that's right. Our heat pump still isn't fixed!

The good news is it soon will be. There is light at the end of our heat pump "tunnel". When this year-long saga is over, we may tell the whole bloody tale. Or, we might not. The bottom line is a replacement heat pump is making its way from Wichita to Loveland.

Meanwhile, it's hot on the Front Range, so we decided to head back to Gunnison to chill (literally and figuratively) for awhile. We'll swing back through Loveland and have the new unit installed in a month. On or about September 1st, we'll make our way across the plains of Kansas in one cool moose. We can't wait.

The even better news is we have gifted ourselves another month of Summer in a place we absolutely love. It's not the Colorado Summer we planned. But, it'll definitely do!

Distractions

Our Summer plans are disintegrating before our eyes.

We made the drive from Gunnison to Monument, on one of our worst travel days ever, to learn the news from a highly recommended technician that our AC system has a refrigerant leak. The leak, so we've been told, is the result of a shoddy repair in Forest City. But, we're reserving judgement on that, for the moment anyway.

One of the things we've learned about AC units and technicians is there are a few who do refrigerant work and most who don't. And, as luck would have it, our Monument tech was amongst the most. With a refrigerant leak, we needed to find somebody who does that type of work. With the help of our AC unit manufacturer, we found a qualified tech in Loveland, just a few miles from where our Summer Colorado adventure began in Fort Collins. Last week, we called for an appointment.

The earliest we could get in was next Monday, the 23rd. Our travel itinerary had us in northwest Montana meeting friends about that time. But, it's Summer and it's blistering hot, especially in most of Colorado, Wyoming and Montana. For the health and well being of ourselves and our cats, we have to get this thing fixed. So, we took it.

The repair is expected to take two days, and that's if everything goes smoothly. With our luck, of course, it'll take longer. So, with plans to meet another couple of friends a week later in Montana, we bagged that reservation, too.

Wahhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After a couple of nights in a really overpriced and quite crummy campground north of Monument, we decided to head somewhere fun while we waited. We went south to Colorado Springs and landed at Garden of the Gods Campground. We had stopped for a few days here last August after we left Gunnison. We had AC troubles then, too. So, we were thrilled to nab one of the shady spots in the iffy park. Since our last visit, the place has been purchased by a resort company with a dandy reputation. And, reports were they'd already made some notable improvements in their newly acquired park.

We nabbed one of the "Executive Premium" spots for the first few days. We enjoyed a level site with shade, plenty of space, a poolside view, wifi and cable. It was quite nice. The one drawback was this park seems to be in one of AT&T Wireless' black holes. Our iphones and air card were rendered worthless.

As soon as we realized we had considerable time to kill before our service appointment, we made a request to extend our stay. Our fancy site was not available after Sunday night. But, we were welcome to move to a "regular" back-in site for the duration of our extended stay. We made the short move Monday morning. We were pleased to find that the site had plenty of shade, which would aid our crippled AC. The real bummer was the site had no cable. The shady tree blocked our rooftop satellite. And, the park wifi decided to take a nose dive. With no TV or wifi, we were disconnected from the world.

We put up our over-the-air TV antenna and did our best. We tried to get by. Really, we did. But, the truth is, we need to be connected! So, yesterday, we decided to take matters into our own hands.

Our first stop was Camping World. We had thought about making this purchase for awhile, but we decided now was the time for us to acquire a portable satellite dish and tripod. We brought the thing home and Paul started on the "some assembly required."

It's important to note that all that has been required of us to get satellite reception to date is to park the moose with a clear shot at the southern sky and push a button. Magically, our rooftop antenna searches the sky for the right satellite and locks on. We turn on the TV and it works. Simple as that.

This portable dish exposed us to an unknown world! Suddenly, terms like Elevation and Azimuth were important. And, we didn't have a clue.

But, first, we had to connect the dish to our receiver. That was the beginning of one long wild goose chase! There's a convenient "portable satellite antenna" jack in our electrical bay. The question was where were we supposed to connect our satellite receiver? Two calls to Winnebago and an extensive search of the guts of our motorhome eventually revealed that the other end of the portable satellite antenna cable was plugged into a mislabeled jack. (Arggh!)

In the middle of this adventure, we decided we needed to rectify our wifi-less situation. So, today, we made a trip to the Verizon store and purchased a 4G mifi device to replace our aged 3G router and AT&T air card. With smoking hot wifi returned to our rolling home, we conducted extensive online research on how to point a satellite antenna. Lots of people do it, every day, so we knew we'd get it, eventually. But, we had the added challenge of a stone wall and a few trees. It wasn't the best environment for a couple of portable satellite newbies to take a shot, but we stuck with it. With the help of a nifty app, several you tube videos and a helluva lot of patience, we eventually got it. Our signal finder screen filled up with numbers over the 80s, and we had TV!

Hallelujah!

With wifi and TV, all is right with our world. But, what we're most grateful for is how these two special projects have been most welcome distractions from our ailing AC.

All will be well in our rolling home soon. Meanwhile, we're soaking up all of the wifi and satellite we can!

And, we haven't a clue how the rest of our Summer will actually shape up.