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.