Stuck in the mud; moving day, meat - Day 957 (Year 3, Day 224)

Austin, TX

I can't believe I haven't written for 10 days!  Guess other than a little "adventure" Mitch had this past Thursday, it's been a pretty busy work week.  Friday, Mitch was off of work so he decided to bring the truck back to the mechanic to have the catalytic converter installed.  The pickup was getting very bad and we didn't feel we could wait until after we towed this weekend.  Seems all better now, at least until the next thing goes wrong.

First, the adventure.  Mitch called me in the morning to tell me that he was stuck in the mud and had to call the fire department.  Huh?  Recall that the truck has been stuck in mud at least 3 times in the past, so my natural question was "why didn't you call roadside assistance?"  To which he replied, "the truck isn't stuck.  I am!"  Almost up to his thigh.  Seems he was walking around a construction site to get to the meters.  The ground looked dry, but apparently it wasn't and he fell straight down.  After about 1/2 hour of trying to get out, he decided to call 911.  When the FD arrived, they had to use a ladder which they put horizontally on the ground to give them something to stand on, put a metal rod under his legs, and 3 guys pulled him out (with great difficulty)!  Thankfully nothing more than his pride was hurt, although he had to bring his very expensive work boots back to the chain where he bought them to have them cleaned (Red Wings) and his cell phone also needs to be returned & replaced.  He covered, quite literally, from head to toe in mud.  I handed him a change of clothes, shoes, a towel/washcloth/soap and sent him to the bathhouse.  No way he was coming inside, and he wouldn't have been able to wash himself with the outside shower.

On Saturday, after prayers, a nap and lunch, we visited with Brenda and James.  Very nice folks.

Which brings us to Sunday - today.  We packed up, hitched, and left the campground at 11:00, and arrived at the new place at 11:45, which was 30 miles away.  With some help from the manager, we were parked and set up in about an hour.  We had a number of errands to run (including Red Wing for the boots, Dollar Tree and grocery shopping.  The stores were around 15 miles away.  I was very excited about this supermarket (H.E.B., which is one of the largest chain here) which had a very large kosher food section.  They carried almost everything we used to enjoy but haven't seen since we left NJ almost 3 years ago (sadly, since I started this new food plan I can't eat any of it 😢)  However, the good news is they had a kosher deli and butcher so a wide range of meats were available - much better than Trader Joe's.  I stocked up on ground beef, chicken and a piece of steak, as well as some beef "bacon".  I'm a happy camper now, at least for the next few months (Mitch actually has a dinner meeting tomorrow with his team, so I'm going to grill the steak).

As for the campground here, not so much happy.  It's just a notch above a dump.  It's a place designed for long termers, not over-nighters or weekend campers, and many of the folks here have been here for 5-15 years (as their trailers look it).  I'm willing to suck it up, though, since it does cut about 50 miles and an hour and a half each way off Mitch's commute.