Fighting "Webworms" at Rainbow's End

Saturday:

This morning Connie and I got up and went to the Pancake Breakfast that was served at the Care Center. While we were there we met a nice couple who have been full timing since 2005. They are now in a Montana Big Horn 5th wheel trailer which is the 3rd 5th wheel they have been in since they started. They travel with two labs who are 9 years old (brother and sister). It was raining again this morning, so another morning inside The Duchess. The sun came out in the afternoon and I was able to get a walk in while Connie took a nap. Connie has figured out if she lays down for a while each morning and each afternoon to take the pressure off of her back that happens when she is sitting or standing, she feels better throughout the day.

Sunday:

Although it didn't rain today, it was overcast and looked like it was going to pour at any moment. We discovered that webworms were attacking The Duchess. They were climbing up the rear back splash along with going up the plastic covers we have on the wheels. There must of been hundreds of them, because they were everywhere we looked. We tried spraying them with a solution of Dawn dishwashing detergent mixed with alcohol and vinegar (we got this idea from a neighbor). It didn't work, so we tried a mixture of alcohol, vinegar and bleach. It did a little better, but still didn't kill most of them. We ended up having to sweep the caterpillars off of the motor home and then stomp on them to kill them. There is no telling how much we killed, but at least it burned up a few calories. As it got closer to sundown, we decided to quit for the day.

Monday

Early this morning (around 2 AM) we awoke to the sounds of heavy rain and light hail here at the campground. The electricity went off a few minutes later, so all of the campers here were "in the dark". The hail stopped after a few minutes and no damage was done to the motor home or the Jeep. Our electricity stayed off until 8:00 AM when it flickered a couple of times and then finally stayed on. Connie and I both had a long night with little sleep. We went for a walk before breakfast and ran into the couple we had met at the Pancake Breakfast along with their labs. They told us that the weather radio they were listening to during the storm was telling everyone to take cover since there was tornadoes in the Livingston area. They left their RV and took cover in the Care Center. We have a weather radio, but did not even think about getting it out to listen to the reports. Hopefully we will remember the have it handy during the next storm we experience.

We went over to Cleveland Texas to do some shopping today. We went to Walmart to pick up a few items along with a quick visit to CVS Pharmacy. At lunch Connie asked the couple sitting next to us (His shirt said Performance Trucking on it) where we could find some metal tire valve extenders in Cleveland. He said his company handled them and called to make sure they had some in stock. They did and we ended up going by his truck center on the way home. We also did some grocery shopping at the HEB in Cleveland. We noticed on the trip over and back that there were several large trees that had been blown over around Livingston including one that was still hanging on some electric lines that crossed over the road. So we were lucky here at the campground that there was very little damage (mostly limbs blown off trees).

When we got back from Cleveland, we started killing webworms again. We tried putting some Sevin dust around The Duchess and it did seem to slow them down a bit. But it was mainly back to knocking them off and stomping them dead. I am surprised that more of the worms/caterpillars are not being eaten by the local birds. Maybe they don't taste good to the birds and that is a defense mechanism for them.

We didn't know when we arrived here that there are webworms at the end of the rainbow.