Car issues, soft ground, outing this weekend

Last night Mama and I took Victoria’s car to the mechanic in Bowie. It has continued to die on her at odd times; not totally die but cut back to just above coasting rpms because of an engine failsafe alarm. We have always been able to get the car back to normal operation but we are never sure what causes the failsafe to kick in. Hopefully Roger can tell us what is going on and get it corrected.

While we were there we took the van to Allen’s Texaco to get the inspection done and they had Mama pull into the center bay of the garage. By the time anyone asked what she needed one of the employees had drained the oil assuming that she wanted an oil change. We ended up splitting the cost of the oil change with the garage and getting the paper for the inspection so I can get the registration done today. I should be good on oil for a while since I just got the oil changed a few weeks ago.

Lee Allen and his father own the property that abuts to the farm in Bowie. While we were waiting for the oil to be added we got to talking about how wet everything is and I mentioned that Danny Benson told me he had gotten his tractor stuck in the pasture and that he had asked Lee to borrow his tractor to pull the stuck one out. Lee quickly said “no” because he could see the sequence of events of getting both tractors stuck.

Right now, as Lee put it, “there is no bottom out there.” What that means is that there is no firm ground under the very soggy surface. Even in the back yard in Chico I can barely walk in certain places because the ground is so soft. I can take a rod and push it down three feet into the ground without putting too much force on it. That’s soft. It will take weeks for the ground to firm up enough to be back to normal.

Mama and Victoria are both excited about the outing we have this weekend. We are meeting Danny Benson – the man that bought our farm in Bowie – and some friends of his to go trail riding at Cap Rock Canyon State Park. He is supplying all the horses and tack, the place to stay and the meal Friday evening. All Mama and I have to do is prepare breakfast Saturday morning. His daughter is also coming on the excursion so Victoria will have someone about her age to pal up with…maybe. Right now, planning for that trip is the focus of Mama’s attention. I suppose it should be since we are leaving Friday morning.

We are a bit worried about the constant rain interfering with the trail ride but Danny assures us we will stay out of the rain as much as possible. We are staying in a fully furnished cabin in the park so we will not be roughing it at all. We are told that if we stay to the high ground we should be able to get in some good rides and see some scenic vistas. That should be fun.

If it rains too much we will stay in the cabin and visit. Danny tells us that all the participants are solid Christian folks whose company we will thoroughly enjoy. I am hoping that when we end up in a theological discussion over the course of the weekend we can use our recently acquired knowledge from FBI to add to the discourse.

That would thrill Mama and Victoria.