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.