Fajita Night

Full-time RV'ers are very interesting people. I know I've mentioned this before but it really cannot be said enough. Today we were chatting with our neighbor about satellite reception here in the Rainbows End Escapees Park in Livingston Texas. After chatting for about 20 minutes, we both came to the conclusion, "it's pretty bad" LOL.

Beyond the reception issues, we learned that he and his wife currently work-camp as gate keepers for oil and gas drilling companies. Apparently, there are a number of drilling companies that have begun hiring RV'ers to man the gates 24/7. In exchange, the RV'er gets free site, electricity, water and sewer plus a salary. The downside is that the site needs to be manned 24/7, so either you or your partner must always be home and available at the site while it is active. The plus side is, the salary is pretty decent, the locations tend to be remote (this could be a minus) and the job is pretty simple.

A few moments after talking with the "gate keepers" Nancy and I decided it was time to take Luke and Leia for a walk. As usual, we were met with the standard, "here come the greyhounds!" or "here come the babies!" (still not sure if that comment is aimed at us or the dogs LOL).

As we strolled past a shinny-clean older Airstream trailer parked next to a mid-ninety's Ford diesel pickup we heard a man chirp, "Good afternoon!"

This comment seemed to be clearly aimed at humans since dogs don't really distinguish between morning, afternoon, evening or any other time for that matter besides light or dark :-).

"Hello! Beautiful day isn't it?" I shouted back.

"Lovely dog!" Nancy proclaimed in an ironic turnabout. "Is he a Golden?"

"Yes he is." The man affirmed.

The dog was lying on the picnic table with a paw lazily hanging over the side. He looked so sloughed onto that picnic table that you would swear he was a stuffed toy left there by a disinterested child.

"Back home, he taught himself that he wasn't to leave the porch unless he was told too. Once we came here, he decided that this picnic table was a porch, so he will stay there all day unless I tell him to leave. With Goldens, sometimes the best way to train them is to get outta their way and let them show you what they already know." The man exclaimed proudly.

A few more minutes of chatting revealed that this gentleman has work-camped everywhere from Amazon in Kansas, up to Yellow Stone NP. We picked his brain for 15 minutes or so about all the locations he worked until Luke and Leia started to get a little restless.

We learned that working in Yellow Stone is a dichotomy. It's a great place to work but you often end up working split shifts and fairly long hours leaving little time to enjoy the beauty of the park itself.

We also learned that working for Amazon is just that, work. The folks there are very nice, and it's a great place to work, but work it is. Often, 10 hour days are the norm. It's nice to know it's available, but not my first choice.

Today Nancy made fajitas for dinner. I like fajitas. They are fairly healthy, fun to put together and of course, very tasty. This time, Nancy marinated the chicken in Claude's Fajita Marinating Sauce. It only took about an hour of marinating for the fresh chicken to really absorb that smokey, fajita flavor. Drop the chicken in a frying pan with some sliced onions and peppers and 10-12 minutes later you've got some tasty fajita filling!

As always, enjoy!!