A Place to Call Our Own.

Some old cars parked (permanently) in Goldsmith.

About a week ago we moved from the little town of Goldsmith to the Airline Mobile Home Park which is located just outside of Midland.  Although we enjoyed the quite that a small town affords, but it's cheaper in gas and better for us to be closer to amenities and John's shop.

Due to the rapid growth of oil related jobs in the area, there is a shortage of housing including RV spaces.  We had been told everywhere we checked that all waiting lists were six months out and a hundred people long.  But, we received a call, after only a week of putting in our application, that a resident had vacated and we could enter at any time.  The move had to be executed quickly to accommodate John's work schedule and to arrive during business hours to sign our rental agreement.  I secured everything, or so I thought, for our first fully-loaded move and we traveled the 30 minutes into town.  Unfortunately my olive oil bailed out of the top cabinet and spewed all over the floor.  It only took about 3 minutes to master olive oil skating and another 5 minutes of alternating soap, water and towels to clean the whole mess.  We have a dresser in the toy hauler section which was secured with a strap which spanned from the wall, over the top and into the floor.  The floor screws pulled loose from the floor and the dresser fell against the door which leads from the main area to the toy hauler section.  We decided the hole in the bottom of our door will be the perfect spot for a kitty door so we don't have to leave that door open anymore.  All-in-all, at least we are now near town and got set up in short order.

She is braver with safety gear.

Airline Mobile Home Park is an older park with 500 spaces right next to the Midland International Airport, but the airport is situated so that the planes do not go directly overhead.  The streets have airline names like American, Delta, and Frontier; we're on Hawaiian.  The Managers are judicious when deciding who may live here and have strict requirements for residents to keep things tidy and properly care for their pets. The onsite postal annex is a happy convenience and we thought the laundromat would be a great also, but after having machines eat my quarters and finding that half the machines don't even work, I guess I'll still be driving elsewhere for now.  Some of the RV residents have sheds which they have set up with washers and dryers; we think we're going to do that also.  Zoey can now ride her bike easily alongside me while I get my walk in and we're excited that they have a pool where we can cool off this summer and Zoey can learn to swim.  Since John has had to be at work as early as 3:30 a.m. or may not make it home until that same time, he is glad he has to no longer drive over 35 minutes to work.  His new commute is now around 5 minutes. The location and setting are right, so we plan on calling this home for the foreseeable future.



We're on a nice sized spot (very large for an RV) between a single wide mobile home and another travel trailer. Our spot has parking for our two vehicles and a small patio space which we will set up for morning coffee or evening dinners.  As you can see there are some some well-established trees which will provide some nice shade in the summer once they put on their leaves (some are already budding for the March spring-like weather).  I plan on trimming up the trees and picking up some planters to dress the area up and make it look a little more like my home. 

I had located the Kingdom Hall nearest our home and found there are English, Spanish and Sign Language congregations.  I tried to go to the meeting on Sunday and found they hadn't changed the meeting times on their signs and so I had missed the English.  I quickly got back in my car and went across town to a large double Kingdom Hall, hoping to catch an English meeting.  I found my way into the English side and was overwhelmed with a huge crowd which had come for the Circuit Overseer visit.  The congregation of 115 had a total of 225 in attendance.  Every seat was filled, including the many extra seats they pulled from the other hall. It was a great time.

We're still working on finding our way around and exploring all that Midland and Odessa have to offer and enjoying it all.    Of course we miss our old home, but we are thankful for the world of technology to keep us in touch with those we love.