Home Is Calling

I will do one last blog post this morning from Alamo, Texas. That’s right, tomorrow morning we plan to hook up this rig and head north. I know we will miss the warm weather down here, but after four months away, it is definitely time to go home!

We will spend a couple days in San Antonio with our Indiana friends before we go our separate ways. After that we will continue north as long as there are no blizzards, ice storms, torrential rains, flooding or tornados to worry about!

It seems we have been busy and yet I can’t really remember what we have done since my last post! We celebrated Betty’s birthday in Mexico with lunch and margaritas. As you may have heard, the violence along the border had escalated again, so that was our last trip across to Progresso.

We went to karaoke night at the hall. We went to a Minnesota pheasant feed and Carolyn brought her karaoke machine over so we had fun with that.

Curt has continued to golf quite often and I have been trying to learn every line dance I can before I have to leave!

We had Appreciation Day at the hall last Thursday. This is put on by Sun Communities which owns this park. It begins with rolls and coffee in the morning.

Next is the parade of states (everyone from each state walks around the hall with a flag bearer carrying their state flag.) It is fun to see how many people are here from each state. Consensus this year was that Iowa was the biggest delegation. Minnesota is very well represented as is Wisconsin. Colorado, Michigan and Missouri comprise a smaller portion of residents. North and South Dakota, and Nebraska have only a few We have one couple from Pennsylvania, one from New Hampshire, one from New York, one from Wyoming, one from Tennessee. Of course there are a few full time Texas residents, but most originally hailed from somewhere else. A catered chicken dinner was followed by entertainment: a senior clogging group danced (Winter Texans from another park), our Casa del Valle line dance group performed for about 30 minutes and a dance band. played at the end. Unfortunately I have no pictures of our line dance performance because while handing my camera to a friend, the settings got jiggled and all the pictures turned out blurry so I will include a picture I snapped one day at practice.

Today we celebrate another birthday and are going out to eat with friends. It will be a day for final packing up and saying goodbye. It will be sad and yet happy because we are going HOME!

Spring in Texas

It is time for a quick update to the blog. All of sudden we have only about three weeks to go until it is time to head for home and this week promises to be very busy, so I best try to do it today.

Spring is definitely here in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. Temps are very warm here and there is just that “feeling of spring’. I just hope I can get that same feeling when we come home – we hope that a lot of the snow is gone by then!

The violence just south of the border in Mexico has continued to increase again lately, with many gun battles between rival drug cartels. They are really worried that this could spill across the bridges into the U.S. I feel sorry for the people who live and work in those towns – for them there is no escape.

My favorite activity is still line dancing – regular time is three times a week for about 2 hours, but sometimes we get together on someone’s driveway or even the street to learn another new dance or just practice (next week we will be dancing for Appreciation Day). I wish we could get something started at home so I could have other people to practice with when I get back. It is fun exercise.

Curt has been golfing quite often – he got some new clubs that he thinks are helping his game. I can’t verify that, but our friend Joe told me it was true. And yet Curt had to buy more golf balls at the flea market – hmmm…An interesting tidbit about that: he purchased a bag of used golf balls from a flea market vendor and in it was a golf ball with the insignia of Great Plains Communications stamped on it! Could it actually be one of the balls he lost? Of course there are a couple other escapees from Nebraska and former GPC employees who have been in this area as well – but it was an odd coincidence.

We went to a Nebraska breakfast at the Shriner’s club in Edinburgh. They have these breakfasts on the first and third Mondays of every month, but we had never been there. About 150 Nebraskans were there and since the speaker did not show up, they spent that time finding out what towns everyone was from. Most seemed to be from the eastern third of Nebraska, and we met one couple from Clarkson, one from Shelby and we sat with some people from Lincoln. There were two tables full of people from Fremont, but we didn’t actually get a chance to talk to them.

We also made a trip to Brownsville and visited a couple cemeteries to take photos of some headstones as requested by Curt's sister Vicky. That was kind of an interesting trip too, but I am too tired to go into it tonight and I don't want to bore all of you who are not into genealogy...as if I haven't bored you already!

Friday night we went to the entertainment at the hall. It seemed like most of the women liked Laughing Bird (a married couple who do a lot of original folk music and comedy) while the majority of the men didn’t seem to care for it although they did seem to enjoy the red dress routine! .The couple played a variety of instruments including a dulcimer, banjola, and harmonica plus she played spoons with a LOT of flair!

Joe and Betty live across the street from us in a mobile home and we played a little joke on Joe when he and Betty were gone one day. His front lawn was in definite need of mowing, so together with Darold and Sondra, we made a sign and planted it in front of their house. Darold and Sondra live in a mobile a few spaces down from Joe and Betty. They recently poured cement where their patch of grass was in order to have extra parking for their golf cart. In retaliation for the previous sign, Joe and Betty parked their golf cart on the space too and added a sign. (see photos). By the time they arrived home, there were a couple more golf carts and a bike added to the parking area.

Pictures include :Texas lawnmower (goat tied outside the fence), an interesting tire and rim store, guy at the flea market, injured hummingbird that Curt found and tried to nurse back to health (he was unsuccessful), one of the roses by our house, Nebraska breakfast, and the signs on the neighbors’ yards.

Entertainment in the Valley

We have had a couple days of cool rainy weather again. I think this area is already ahead of their normal rainfall totals for the entire year! It is supposed to turn very warm again tomorrow, so I will add to the blog today. Tomorrow I plan to be outside!

Our friends from Creighton, Lenny and Carol (and Carol’s brother John), came to stay in our park for a couple weeks. It was good to see them and spend a little time visiting. I just realized that we have known them for 36 years (that was when we moved to Creighton)! There were some wild times back then! Even though we thought they were nuts, they decided to return to the frozen north during a lull in the weather between here and there. Last night they called to say they had made it safely home.

Last Saturday the entire park had a not so pleasant adventure. An electric company had been trying to fix a nonworking streetlight all week. Determining that they needed to push a new wire under the driveway of the park managers, they managed to puncture the water line that was also there! This put the entire park out of water starting at 9 a.m. Those of us in RV’s who always put water in our holding tanks in case of such a situation were okay, but those in park models and mobile homes do not have such an option. Can you imagine how many sidewalk superintendents were at the site off and on throughout the day? Over 700 spaces full of retired people? After many hours of digging and scooping out water by the electric company, a plumbing company with a jackhammer arrived to put a hole in the middle of the driveway and find and repair the break by about 8 p.m. Everyone who did not have water in their holding tank before filled the next day!

We could go to the hall in our park for some activity nearly every evening of the week if we chose to do so. Potluck supper, soup supper, bingo, and some form of cards or games are played every night of the week. We usually choose to play joker at our friends house instead of the hall and usually only once or twice a week. Friday nights there is entertainment at the hall for a reasonable price (usually $5) and every Saturday night a band plays for the dance. One can go to entertainment at other parks too. Craft shows, quilt shows and park sales and flea markets abound everywhere each week.

I snapped a picture of of the workers trying to find the water main break and one of Lenny, Carol, John and Duncan (the dog) near their motor home. I will also post some pictures and links to some of the entertainers we have seen recently.

Bill Brooks:: Elvis impersonator, also does other country music and gospel.

http://www.billjbrooks.com/

The Link Family: very talented family of 5 plus two spouses of two of the children who do bluegrass and gospel.

http://linkfamilymusic.com/

Bernie and Red: a married duo of comedy and music. Very funny and the singing is good too!

http://www.bernieandred.com/index.html

Sherwin and Pam Linton Show: Mostly sing old country songs (a little old rock and roll and folk songs thrown in). Sherwin does a great Johnny Cash. He told Curt he had played the Knox County Fair, so it is possible some of you have seen his show, although I don't know how long ago that was.

http://www.sherwinlinton.com/

Everyday Living

Once more it has been a while since I posted anything here. I think it is more difficult to find anything new to write about or pictures to post for my small band of readers. Last year we did a lot more sight seeing and road trips than so far this year. I guess the weather has not cooperated as well this year and our road trip friends, Marv and Marietta are not here!

People often ask us what we find to do all day every day. They think we are just “on vacation”. But since we live here for four months, it is not all vacation like. Much of it is just every day living as we do at home, except some of it is more time consuming than the same chores at home.

Laundry is the biggest pain. First, you have to load everything up: dirty clothes, detergent, fabric softener, spot removers, quarters, hangers, something to drink and read while you wait. Be sure to take your cell phone and key to the house in case communication is necessary or your husband leaves and locks up before you come back. Don’t forget to wear your name tag so you can be identified in case you fall in one of the dryers! Even though the laundry room is only a block and a half away, I have to drive the pickup down because I don’t have a large wheeled cart on which to load my baskets and push them down. You you learn quickly not to go on Monday morning. So you wash and then the dryers burn up your clothes and you can fold and hang and schlep them back home to put away. The whole process usually takes at least two hours from start to finish. (more if you get into a lengthy conversation with someone and can’t get away when you are finished with your laundry.) I do carry my sheets down in a bag and wash, then bring them back to hang outside on my little clothesline when the weather permits.

Of course there is the never ending dishwashing. At home I can hide my dishes in the dishwasher and wash when it is full. Here they sit on the counter or in the sink, which means you have no space to do other things there unless you wash them!
Cleaning is not a huge chore I guess, except sometimes we have to wash the outside of our house as well! The Texas dust does sift in pretty quickly when it is not raining – it is not quite as dusty this year! One advantage of the wetter than normal weather is that the sandburs which were such a pain last year seem to be at bay. In such a small space, clutter and such seems to accumulate more quickly than usual.

Grocery shopping is sort of a regular chore: because we have a refrigerator and freezer that is pretty small, it is not possible to stock up on large amounts of food. Thus more frequent trips which take a lot longer than running down to 2nd Street Market at home!

There is tank maintenance – Curt does the tank dumping and rinsing. Trash is taken to the end of the street to the dumpster, and we seem to have more trash than normal, probably because we do use some paper plates – which we do not use at home.
And repairs – it seems Curt is always fixing something. Our black tank valve had been working extremely hard and finally the other day it just quit working. That is a huge problem! Under the belly of the 5th wheel we went to take the plastic loose and look under the insulation at the valve and cable. Curt finally discerned that the cable was broken, probably due the difficulty of closing and opening the valve. First we had to remove the old cable and pull, then go to the RV Service Center to get a new one. Back at home, Curt laid under the 5th wheel and tried to move the valve back and forth manually to get it working better, but it continued to stick. Then he had me pour a bunch of Dawn down the toilet – he put water in the tank and worked the valve back and forth. The Dawn seemed to clean and lubricate and make it work better. He hooked up the new cable and things seemed to be working – keeping our fingers crossed that it holds! That job took one whole afternoon!

So here it is: a post that encompasses most of the ordinary things we do every week! Since I am sure you are not interested in pictures of us performing these mundane tasks, I will try to find something more interesting for that part of the post. Pictures are: social hour gathering on my birthday, from Mexico- selecting tequila, basket man, Kate Spade knockoff purses, and from an RV show we went to - Elvis!

Next time I promise something at least a little bit more exciting! FEEDBACK ON BLOG POSTS IS ALWAYS APPRECIATED.

Great Weather

I know it has been a while since I posted, but the weather finally cleared a week or so ago and now we have had sunny days and warm temps in the mid to upper 80’s. Sometimes we have fog in the morning, and we have had some pretty stiff breezes, but a huge improvement over earlier weather. We have been busy just enjoying being outdoors.

A small town story in the big Rio Grande Valley: We went with two other couples to the Mcallen Convention Center a couple weekends ago for the Travel Show. We then had lunch at a buffet type restaurant over there. On our return home, I discovered my magnetic name tag was missing from my jacket. We did not want to drive all the way back over there just to see if it was at the restaurant, so I figured I would just have to order and pay for a new one. Our neighbor Jeanie said not to worry, it will find its way back here, but I had my doubts. The very next morning I started out for my walk and a friend from line dancing came walking toward me carrying my name tag! Someone from our park had been at that restaurant for breakfast and they saw the name of the park on her tag and asked her to return it to me. She did not know me, but asked a couple people and found someone who did!

We attended the All Valley RV Show at Mercedes last weekend. While we are not especially in the buying mode, it is always fun to look at new options. Plus they always have a lot of informational and tacky and/or useful merchandise. booths.

Last weekend we also attended a 50’s night at the hall. Fonzie’s diner served burgers, fries and root beer floats. Linda was supposed to do the music (she also does karaoke nights and has a great sound system), but due to a death in the family, she returned home and was not here for the evening. Thus the sound system left a lot to be desired and the music played from CD’s was not especially good. Some of the ladies dressed in poodle skirts and I snapped a picture of them together. It was Betty and Joes anniversary and they had a solo dance and I was the official photographer for that as well.

Last Sunday we had some surprise visitors – Gerry and Murielle, the French Canadians that were near us here in the park last year. Along with Monique and Yvon, they are in a park over at Mission this year. Gerry likes to jam with other musicians, and the Mission area is the top place for that. We have jams here on Tuesday afternoons, so he thought he might show up over here some Tuesday. After they left, our Bloomfield friends called and said they wanted to come over for happy hour. A while after they showed up, Joe and Betty and Darold and Sondra did as well.

Curt spied a hummingbird in our grapefruit tree, so he put up a feeder on our back window. The hummingbird comes and goes too quickly for a picture, but another little bird that looks something like a finch lands there constantly, so Curt snapped a picture of him.

Park spaces have been changing hands like crazy since the end of December. A lot of people left as they were here for October, November and December. Some people came in before their January spot was open, so were parked temporarily in another spot and then had to move again. Then someone buys a park model or mobile home and moves, opening another spot which someone wants to move into. Then someone else comes to fill in that spot and so on. It is a little like musical chairs, only with lots! The other day a new mobile home went in on the next street over – it was a major event: people in lawn chairs,, bicyclists, walkers and those in golf carts congregated to watch it being maneuvered into place. Doesn’t take much to entertain a winter Texan!

Pictures are: Poodle skirted ladies at 50's night, Joe and Betty's anniversary dance (they are friends and neighbors from Minnesota who live across the street from us), a happy hour on our site, Curt's bird friend on the feeder, the house moving in ceremony. My camera has been acting up, so some photos I took did not turn out.

Keep Your Cold Up North!

The cold weather has arrived here. It is supposed to only be in the 30’s or maybe around 40 today. I will make a pot of chili in the crockpot again and some biscuits in the oven. I do have line dancing this afternoon, so that will get me out of the 5th wheel for a couple hours! We won’t see warmer temps until Sunday, although sunshine will return tomorrow.

I continue to do lot of reading and genealogy work on days when the weather is cool and rainy. I just finished “The Glass Castle” by Jeannette Walls, which I enjoyed very much and have started “The Power of One” by Bryce Courtenay. Two more Dan Brown books also await me! In genealogy, I have been given an assignment by Curt’s sister Vicky – a branch of their family came to Brownsville, Texas around 1920 and I am looking up obituaries and we will trek to the cemetery there for photos when the weather is nice.

Having played Joker quite a few times, we are learning it pretty well – although we still need advice sometimes on how to play that Joker! It can get complicated, especially when we have more players at the table.

I can't decide whether I am happy or unhappy that Texas lost last night. It would have made us look even better if they had won (and when we beat them next year!) Too bad Colt McCoy got injured though - if they were going to get beat it would have been better for them to be at 100%! Did anyone notice how many times they mentioned Nebraska during the broadcast?

I had some more pictures of the flea market that I wanted to post so will do that today. We go there often because we always need something from the farmers’ market and then we usually walk across the street to the flea market. There is entertainment on the stage and lots of old junk and new merchandise to peruse – not to mention a variety of food that is bad for you including: kettle corn, mini donuts,(my personal weakness), awesome blossoms, ice cream and much more!

A New Year

My first blog post of the new year - January is always tough because you have to remember a new month and a new year at the same time, no small feat, particularly when you are not working - the days and months just seem to flow into one another.

The weather continues to be a major player everywhere in the country I think. We have received a lot of snow pictures from up north and reports of the bitter cold. I do not miss being in the middle of that, and I do have much sympathy for those who are. There just has to be a break coming sometime soon, doesn’t there? The cold weather further north continues to impact our weather here as well – those who have been coming here for 20 years say they cannot remember a winter as cool and wet as this one. Sunny south Texas has not been seeing the sun very much. The end of this week could bring record lows for us!

In the meantime, we get glorious days from time to time. The park comes alive on those days, with everyone out enjoying various activities. Curt went golfing (a foursome) on one of those days last week, and they are planning another today. I washed sheets and hung them on my little clothesline that day. Because our clothesline is in back, facing north, it doesn’t get much breeze or sun and the sheets had to be sort of bunched up, so it took all day for the sheets to dry, but it was so nice to have fresh from the outdoors sheets that night! Gee, simple things make me happy, huh?

Curt has been watching as many of the bowl games as possible. We watched the Husker game with our Iowa friends – not quite the same as watching with other Husker fans, but the Big Red made us proud! Iowa State better watch out next year!

New Year’s eve there was a dance at the hall, but we opted to stay home that evening. The card players in the hall had an unpleasant surprise that night – a bullet came through the roof and brought insulation and all raining down close to where people were sitting. Along with the fireworks which kept us awake for quite some time, people shoot guns in the air (even though all day the police had been warning people not to do so) and evidently one of those came through the roof. Kind of scary because it definitely could have injured someone. It was a rifle bullet by reports from those present. The police came, but I am not sure what they can do.

We have made several trips to the farmers’ and flea market at Donna. We got pecans, fruit and vegetables and a few other items. I took a photo of my fruit and veggie haul when I unpacked it - can anybody tell me an approximate cost for this pile at home? Just curious if we made a buy. We spent $9.50 on a seedless watermelon, cleaned and cored pineapple, green pepper, 5 baking potatoes, basket of grape tomatoes, a cucumber,a bag of radishes, four oranges, bag of four sweet onions. I have a lot of pictures, so perhaps will split into two posts. I did find the picture of the step building so I will include it in this post.