Fun with Gary and Beulah

Last Saturday evening was marked by a spontaneous cook out by the pool, a food fight in the Clubhouse and capped off with a 1950s Karaoke evening with delectable desserts. 
Kudos and many thanks to Gary and Beulah for bringing this all together. Applause also for the myriad arsonists involved in the incineration rituals performed at the barbecue - thankfully there was enough mayo and mustard to conceal their worst excesses! Click here for more pictures of the entertainment.

At our table, everyone ate themselves close to unconsciousness whereupon the ladies lapsed into their litanies of grandchildren this, fabric store that and other worldly topics like the price of bacon. Left to their sorry selves, the menfolk quickly descended into bragging rights over slide extensions, macerators, black tank capacities and so on - you know, stuff just short of writing on the bathroom wall. Following this stream of consciousness I was struck once again, how fortunate we all are to live in this country - a country where a 40 gallon black tank is everyones right! It reminded me of a 'blog post from some years back railing about living with a 4 gallon black tank and many other privations of camping outside of the good ol' USA. Click here for an eyeopener on Caveman Camping.

Stranger in the Camp!

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If you have passed Lot #361 in the past day or so, you might have noticed a cool looking coach with "beetle brow" mirrors and mysterious dark windows. Well let me say right off that the FG Thought Police have checked this buggy out and declared it harmless. It is a Neoplan vehicle, basically a regular bus or coach that has been converted - similar to the Prevosts conversions by Marathon, Parliament and so on.

Neoplan is a 75 year old German company and they did open an operation in Colorado in 1981 followed by two other regional plants around the USA a little later. Click here for more than you will ever want  to know about these exotic vehicles. Neoplan USA was sold off as a separate entity and eventually went toes up in 2006. 
Neoplan in Germany has since been absorbed into MAN SE, a 250 year old German company in the top thirty German firms and THE truck manufacturer to beat. Neoplan is renowned for avant-garde coach design - some are certainly eye-catching. I have never seen a Neoplan with slides.
In our experience, the Germans are masters of creative vehicle design and use. Furthermore, if there was a World Series for Cheapskates, either the Germans or the Dutch would come in first every time. Here is an example from a camping trip in Slovenia a few years ago when we came across this Bottom-Dollar camping vacation. Check it out, maybe have a chuckle, but count your blessings!

Another two weeks of progress...

It has been a couple of weeks since the last chronicle of park progress. Since then, there has been a steady drumbeat of activity both in the beautification of the Clubhouse and the taming of the Phase II jungle. 
Add to this  a couple of Clubhouse events and it is high time for an update. For more details, click here.

Progress Report

Another week has passed with trucks and tractors chugging around the park and, slowly but surely, various things are beginning to shape up. To date the work has been either cosmetic in nature or preparatory effort for bigger things. The weeding of the front section lots is about complete and the park looks a lot more lived in just for that. Click here to see other activities.

Xyloglyphy & Mahjong

Two eclectic weekly activities that have faithful followings are Wood Carving and the Mahjong Meet. The xyloglyphists (a $2 word for wood carvers) congregate in the chameleon-like Hobby Room and within minutes are practicing their craft. Wood carving is dryly defined as "working wood by means of a cutting tool held in the hand, resulting in a wooden figure or figurine". It appears to be more fun than that might suggest! 

The Card Room is the venue for Mahjong, a four player game thought to have originated in China. It is a game of skill, strategy and calculation as well as chance and is played with a set of 152 tiles based on Chinese characters and symbols.

For more pictures of these groups, check here.

Painting Class

Every Friday morning the painting class meets in the Hobby room. The class welcomes all aspiring artists wanting to hone their skills in the decoration of pottery and glassware. Using acrylic paints and a variety of brushes, almost any imaginable image can be produced on almost any item.
For a review of current projects and a tour-de-force around the world of acrylic painting, click here.

How many kinds of sweet flowers grow...

Riding around the reservation it is difficult not to notice the variety of decorative yard designs adding life and levity to the otherwise bleak, standard issue shrubbery. Click here for a tour of some of these distinctive efforts that daily brighten our lives.

Webster Churches

Cycling around Webster, one is struck by the number of churches in operation, from mainstream denominations to some quite obscure persuasions. There are so many houses of worship in fact that if every Webster resident attended just one church regularly (which is probably optimistic) the average congregation would be less than 80 souls. 

For a quick alphabetic tour of religion in Webster and to learn just how many churches there are, click here. 

Mont Saint Michel, France

By the way, if you're into churches and can stand to see some more, here are some European church exteriors to help numb your mind. After that, if you are still conscious and can stand yet more abuse, there are a few European church interiors waiting for you here.

Knitting a Cake?

No, that's not right. Knitting and Cakes - that's better. Knitting is in the Hobby room on Tuesday mornings, Cake Decorating is in the kitchen on Wednesday morning for the duration of the course. 
Cake Decorating is taught by an outside instructor, Kim Holt of Custom Cakes by Kim. For a quick commercial break, you can see Kim's website here. Every aspect of decoration is covered, from basic frosting through the construction of flowers and other motifs to the installation of these sugary gems on to the cakes. The finished products look awesome.

Knitting is another of those cover activities that justify a group of ladies congregating to talk. Occasionally, the conversation dries up and some knitting does get done as the pictures show. Click Cakes and Cardigans to see more.
If you have never knitted or crocheted but think you would like to try, stop by on any Tuesday morning and check out the action. Skilled practitioners are sitting by to help you!