#283 Nomad Diary. 21-27 March 2026. Second Sunday in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Tuesday Driving Day to Corinth, Texas Airbnb Near Darrell's Mom, Sister and Niece.

 

Crane In River at Hot Springs, Arkansas

Saturday. 21. Hot weather this weekend! Upper 80’s. We have our morning routine. Afternoon walk. Cooking at our place.

Sunday. 22. Morning worship with the church we have come to enjoy and know better and better. Adam the preacher invited us to have lunch out together. The three of us went to Newk’s, a US chain restaurant. Darrell and I hadn’t been there in a long time! We weren’t impressed and decided we would not be going back to that restaurant any time soon. Afternoon walk along the river.

Monday. 23. I walked to a closeout clothing store and shopped in mid-morning. I found a pair of comfy jeans! This is a clothing item I find difficult to size and fit. I am already loving my new jeans that I didn’t try too hard to find this time. It was a bit cooler today and that made our afternoon walk much more enjoyable. I scheduled and called my sister, Linda for a ½ hour chat. I’m going to try to call her every week or every other week to catch up and enjoy our sister times. 

Esther, 2yrs+7mos, Our Granddaughter with Cute Curls in Her Hair.
Reminds Me or Dr. Seuss's Cindy Lou.

Cutie Grandson Owen, 4 1/2 yrs

Scene While Riding in Our Truck on the Way from Arkansas to Texas.

Tuesday. 24. Travel day from Hot Springs, Arkansas to Denton, Texas. Lunch in Broken Bow, Oklahoma at Oaks Steakhouse. This was about 2 ½ hours from Hot Springs. We got gasoline for about .30 cents lower price at Love’s in this town than we had seen anywhere on our drive or since. We thoroughly enjoyed this clean and moderately priced eatery. We would eat here again. We arrived to our weeklong airbnb in Corinth, Texas. We’ve stayed before at this suite with a private door on one side of a house. It’s a couple miles from Cyndy and Mom, clean and convenient. Next Tuesday we will be moving out to go to our Flower Mound house sit with one cat in a big house. About 4pm, we were moved into our Texas airbnb. We took a couple of teabags and went to Cyndy’s house to visit with Mom. We arrived and surprised her because we had not promised our arrival time. We enjoyed a couple hours of visiting together with our cups of tea. Cyndy came home from her elementary school teaching job and made a dinner for all of us. We enjoyed eating together and visiting about many things. Darrell and I left about 7pm and went grocery shopping. We got back to our airbnb, unloaded, unpacked and “got ready” (we both shower at night and while Darrell is often reading or scrolling entertainment on his phone, I fall asleep quickly! lol) and went to bed by 9:30pm.

Relaxing in Our Corinth, Texas Airbnb. Picture of Dallas at Night on the Wall.

Our All-in-One Suite Airbnb in Corinth, Texas Near Cyndy and Mom's Place.

Our Airbnb Bathroom, Laundry, Closet.

9 Foot Ceiling with Fabulous Rainshower Head with Plenty of Pressure and Hot Water!

Wednesday. 25. We are in our airbnb all morning. Darrell made pancakes for our regular, big protein breakfast. We added precooked chicken sausages for a side meat today. After breakfast, I cooked 2 pork tenderloins using our instant pot and an online recipe called ‘0’ minutes Pork Tenderloin. They turned out great! At dinner we made tacos at Cyndy’s and then about 6:30 we took off for Bible class in Denton. We met with about 10 people who we know at the little church there. We have visited this group ever since Darrell’s parents and Cyndy’s family moved here 15 years ago. Since becoming nomads in 2020, we have been able to stay longer when we come. This congregation has been aging. The people are fewer and older now. 

Thursday. 26. We went to visit Mom for an hour before lunch. Darrell and I then went to get our list of to-do’s done. We got haircuts, the truck oil change, and a couple of grocery items. We went back to our airbnb for lunch. After lunch we drove to my favorite area bakery: Ravelin Bakery in downtown Denton. I went all out and got an almond chocolate croissant. I ate it through the afternoon! For dinner I made a simple mushroom soup with clear broth and lots of herby spices. We carried the pot of soup to Cyndy’s house and had an early dinner with Mom. Besides our soup, we had cheese and crackers. Cyndy came from work closer to 6pm. We took a quick walk around her neighborhood and then came back to our airbnb for the rest of the evening. We watched a couple of our favorite shows: Hometown and Building Outside the Lines. We had some popcorn too. 

Friday. 27. Today my weight is up! Well, I’m not surprised with my pastry indulgence along with other ‘outside the lines’ of the higher protein diet that is more strict. I would like to weigh less so I must eat fewer snacks, especially the fatty kind! Lol. Time for me to go through the discipline of eating at mealtime only and choosing snacks that are inline with the diet plan. A 10 am phone, working call with a former client and friend who reached out. Darrell has some items to get and set up to help his Mom function easier in her space. Lunch at our airbnb. Dinner at Sidewalk Cafe with family and church friend Elaine. Elaine wanted to buy our dinner for us. We resisted her, but in the end we let her treat us this time! She’s adorable and super-friendly!

Nomad Notes.

Adam the preacher at Hot Springs church of Christ. Our time with Adam was really nice. We talked about traveling to England, New Zealand, and Australia. Adam was born in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, and his family emigrated to the US. He has family around the world and also church family around the world who are, like him, white people who left their country when the government changes took place. We met a person in Australia at a church in Gold Coast who Adam remembered as a twin girl at age 7. When we were in Gold Coast, we had visited with Beth at length. Because I knew that she was from Zimbabwe and was a twin, I knew it was the same person who Adam remembered. We also had met people who Adam knew at the Wellington, New Zealand church of Christ. And also, a family in Tunbridge Wells, England from South Africa, who Adam knew in the past are on our list of friends now. Adam has been in Hot Springs for 6 years. He loves to travel and still wants to go to New Zealand and also to England again. 

Our check-out day. On our check-out day, we are usually out by 9am and driving to our next destination. During this week, we ate down our refrigerated foods and easily packed what we had left into our small electric car fridge. On the day before our check out, I began packing my suitcase so I wouldn’t have so much to do on the morning we leave. We get up usually around 6am, exercise, fix breakfast and clean up, pack, and empty the fridge. Darrell and I focus on areas of loading and unloading, but we sometimes overlap. Today, Darrell carried all of the luggage, crates and trunks downstairs to our truck. He had the truck loaded and ready to go about the time that I finished up inside the apartment with my items and with particular check-out requests by the management. 

What day of the week is it? I had to remind myself more than once as to what day of the week it is. On Tuesday we missed our weekly Bible e-class with the church in England. This marker was gone and the next day didn’t feel like Wednesday.

Cooking Pork Tenderloin. About 1 ½ years ago, we began focusing on eating more lean protein, more fiber and less saturated fat. We switched out traditional breakfast meats of bacon and sausage for sliced pork tenderloin. Since then, whenever we are living somewhere at least for 1 week, we buy this cut and I cook it. I try to slightly undercook it and then we slice it, weigh it and finish it in a skillet to serve alongside Darrell’s multigrain pancakes. In the past 3-4 weeks we have been eating some Canadian Bacon that we purchased at an Amish store in Tennessee. Then while in Hot Springs, we purchased chicken breakfast sausages to have with our breakfast. It’s been several weeks since we had our pork tenderloin. In these weeks, other things have changed slightly, but I think this meat change has been significant. I gained up to 4 pounds over these past 4-5 weeks of travel. While in Hot Springs, my weight went up another pound and seemed resistant and stuck at this higher place. While we are here in Texas for 3 weeks, we are changing back to having pork tenderloin at breakfast. I’ll see how I do on my weight. To be continued! Lol. 

I still want to visit one of my favorite bakeries here: Ravelin Bakery, and get a fancy pastry or two. 

My sister Linda has been retired for about a year now. She’s 6 years older than me (soon to be 68). In the last year she has had to give up her driver’s licence because of health issues. Her husband, John is still working some during the week at his own lumber company. They live in Indiana. This week Linda reminded me that in a couple weeks they are traveling to Florida with one of their daughters to spend a week. While they are there, they are shopping for a house to buy for living in during winters.