It is September 2, 2000, and the leaves are already beginning to turn up here. The gasoline has leveled off at about $1.65 per gallon, which is par with all of the prices in the area. We have wanted to smoke a brisket, but the price of brisket here is around $4 per pound, and I refuse to pay $40 to $60 for a brisket. It has been amusing to see the meat prices here. When we got meat for our barbecue contests, we would go to a meat wholesaler. Occasionally, someone would have us pick up a whole strip. This is a slab of meat that would be the thicker side of T-bone steaks. It is about 20 inches long, and could be sliced into Strip Steaks. We would buy these for around $2.75 per pound and pay about $30 for each. We saw a few at the market the other day and none were less than $100. What a hoot. The lobster tails are off of our list too, at $29 per pound. Enough grousing about prices here, the trade-off in the temperatures is worth the extra expense.

Friends in Corpus Christi are all staying out of the heat. The drought in Texas is causing problems, even in the Wild Horse Desert around Corpus. Cattle are being sold off, dropping the price of briskets there to $.49 per pound. So little fresh water is flowing into Corpus Christi Bay that the increased salinity of the water has driven the shrimp to the gulf. Kansas City is also staying hot. Temperatures are near 100 degrees with high humidity. It has been a little cooler than normal up here. The last two days the temperature never made it out of the 50s with overnight lows in the mid 40s. The last few weeks the temperature has been near 70 for a high with overnight lows in the 50s.

We bought a bird feeder. We stuck it in the ground about 8 feet from our windows, so we could watch it. With the reflective windows, the birds are oblivious to our presence. We have been attracting American Goldfinches, Purple Finches and Pine Siskins. We also put up a hummingbird feeder, which has a constant supply of Ruby Throated Hummingbirds. The numbers of birds are beginning to thin, as they migrate south. We noticed the other day that the Gulls have left the area.

There have been a couple of problems develop with the bird feeder. The first problem is that it is also a cat feeder. The cat lurks under the bus and pounces when a bird decides to eat off of the ground under the feeder. Susie watches for the main offender and squirts it with cold water. He is about to lose his taste for our visitors. The local feed store sells bear food. I've been tempted to try to turn it into a bird/cat/bear feeder.

The second problem with the feeder involves our reflective windows. Birds don't understand reflections. The ones that want to fight are no problem. They belly bump and flap their wings and soon realize that the opponent must be a tough critter, so they flee. The real problem is with the express birds that barnstorm their way into the windows. They pull up at the last second, but it is usually too late. It is recommended that we put up streamers on the windows. We have about 16 feet of window on each side of the bus. The streamers will probably make the bus look like one of those Taxis that you see in the Philippines.

Miscellaneous Observations

This is an interesting part of the country. The area was an armpit until a few years ago when the city decided to cater to tourism. The waterfront was built in 1995 and has the downtown area humming. You can go to the city center almost anytime and the area is hopping. There are poor areas in the city, and we are staying south of Superior, WI, which is one of them. We used to grocery shop in Superior. We now go to the other side of Duluth to shop for groceries. We just go once a week and it is much cheaper there. Also, and I have kept records, 95% of the people using the local grocery look like they are trying out for the Cantina scene in 'Star Wars.'

The cost of living is out of whack up here. Salaries are not that great and expenses are out of site. The garage that we are using to do lampwork and fusing is part of a house for sale. It is a small house in a nice part of town. In Kansas City it would fetch around $60,000. In Corpus Christi it would sell near $50,000. I think it is on the market for around $95,000. We are very grateful to Janet and Eric Skadsburg who have let us use the garage for our work.