Happy New Year 2016

Today is the last chance this year for us to wish you a Happy New Year 2016 so that's what we're doing in this short article.

Happy New Year!

During he seven years we spent right there on Site 80, next to Gordon and Janet, we met many people and made some great friends. Truly, we miss them every day!

We have been saddened by the passing of several; Bob, Chet, Norman, and Karen come to mind.

Some have decided to stay closer to home, a decision many more of us will make as the years roll by. Marv and Bev are two of several in that category.

Since we left the park four years ago, the park has flourished—hopefully not because of our leaving! We're pleased that new guests are now enjoying many of the same people we came to love while eating and playing with them for seven years!

May all the parks guests, both former and current, enjoy a new year filled with good heath and enough happiness to make them thankful every day for their good fortune!

Happy New Year 2016!

wildernessoaks.us Domain Set To Expire

Domain Names

A "domain name" is the name of a website and the "address" to which one goes when looking for a site. In the case of this website, the domain name is "wildernessoaks.us".

The right to use a domain name must be purchased. The price varies, depending on whether it is a  .com, .us, .info, .edu, etc., domain. These days, the prices usually start at about $13/year and go up from there.

Domain Renewal

wildernessoaks.us will expire in a few weeks. It's price to renew is about $20/year.

The basic question is this: Shall I renew it?

There are other related quesions:

• Does anyone wish to purchase it? (I have owned it from the beginning and will relinquish it if someone is interested in owning it.)


• Does anyone really care if this site continues? (For the last month, it has had about 5 visitors each day, which is about half the number of visitors during the same period a year ago.)


• Is anyone interested in contributing information to make it more current than it has been the last two or three years?


• Other.

Reason for Its Existence

This website was created in 2007 or earlier. My goal was to have it be an on-line "daily newspaper" for the guests at Rockport 35 RV Park. You can see some of the early articles here:

http://rockport-rv35.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2007-01-01T00:00:00-06:00&updated-max=2008-01-01T00:00:00-06:00&max-results=15

At that time, Pat and I were guests on Site 80. I did most of the writing and served as the webmaster. I also hosted the site on server space I rented.

Later, Dianne Carlson took an active part and provided lots of articles and pictures. That helped improve interest and lessened the load for me. I appreciated her efforts, believe me!

Now, we spend the Winters in Mission, TX, —200 miles from the park of interest. That's a bit too far to be up-to-date on the local happenings. The breadth and timeliness of the content of the site has suffered because of this distance.

Action Requested

What do YOU think? Please either Comment on the site, or send me an email at kaw@syntheticsaves.com, or phone me at 319 395-7405 (trailer) of 319 389-4011 (cellphone).

I must make a decision in less than 30 days, so if you have a comment or opinion please get it to me soon!

Wilderness Oaks Intelligence According to Facebook

I must hurry and write this, before my internet service becomes internet non-service. Again! Service here, provided by a local company as part of their cable TV offering, has been absolutely terrible. It was down essentially all weekend.

Today, people expect internet service to be as reliable as other utilities, such as electricity and water.

I'm about to take an active role in trying to make it better. Sound familiar?

Now to the according-to-facebook part!

I was able to gather a bit of intelligence last week, mainly by going to our clubhouse here in Mission and using my tablet.

What I learned was that several of our old friends were making their way from "wherever" to Wilderness Oaks! And several have completed their migration, to the joy of the travelers and those already enjoying the park community.

I specifically noticed that Don and Dorothy plus Dennis and Brenda were making the trip last week.

I also noted that not all made the trip trouble-free. The good news is that they did make it safely, although with a bit of inconvenience.

Pat and I, too, had a bit of "inconvenience," which could have been much, much, worse! While cruising (?) down I-35W in Ft. Worth, we came upon several miles of serious road construction. At one point, the right lane of two lanes of traffic was signed to close.

We were where should have been (left lane) and with close but acceptable space ahead of us. At the last moment, a car darted into that holy space.

Worse yet, at that exact moment, all the vehicles ahead of use braked to a near-stop! I slammed on the brakes and we did not hit her. Missed her car by about two feet, I estimate. We could smell the distinctive odor of hot brake linings for several minutes!

The lesson here: I had just had the trailer brakes adjusted before we left Cedar Rapids. I strongly suspect that is what saved us from an accident.

Other factors: anti-skid brake system on the F-350, expert driving skills, and divine providence —not necessarily in that order.

Make sure your brakes are up to snuff; you can never tell when you will need every bit of stopping power they can provide.