Sun Fun, Old Friends. and Heading North for the Holidays

November 21 - 25, 2013 
  
Thursday and Friday the 21st and 22nd we basically soaked up as much sun as we could.  The temps were in the high 80s both days with on and off clouds.  There were enough clouds to make the heat and humidity tolerable.  Just as you get really hot, a cloud would come over for a little relief.

Then on Friday late afternoon around 3pm the temps fell through the floor.  At 2:30pm the temperature was 88 degrees.  By 3:30pm it had dropped to 68 and by 6pm it was 57!  Friday evening and night we had wind gusts to 35 mph with a sustained wind of 20 mph all with torrential rain. Our area of Harlingen got 5.5 inches of rain by midnight. Patty and I were all snug as bugs in our RV though with just a little rocking from the wind.

Outside our rear window.  Note palm trees bending.  What a difference a couple of hours make.

Saturday the 23rd we met up with old friends of Patty's (Sheila and Savvas) from the Elmira NY area.  They moved down here 18 years ago and Patty had not seen them since.  We met at a Bass Pro shop about 1/2 mile from our site.  This Bass Pro had a restaurant as well as a 20 lane bowling alley.  We were surprised at how big this place was. Sheila and Savvas also brought along their 3 youngest kids; oldest is in college.  We had a great time talking and bowling as well as Patty doing a little catching up.  Neither Patty nor I had bowled in over 10 years so it took a few frames to even hit the pins!

Patty, Gwendolyn, Dimetrias, Savvas, Sheila, Constantine (boy in hiding!!!)

Sunday the 24th it is still cold outside at 45.  We got all of the laundry done and we packed for our trip north starting Monday.  We also went through our winter clothes looking for stuff to get rid of.  We both again piled up a lot of surplus clothes for the charity bin.  I think the amount of winter clothes is about as low as we can go now.  This time we cut right to the bone and got rid of clothes that we really like.  I just had too many things that I really liked and could not wear them all.  It really does feel good to cleanse yourself of "things". You know what you have and so when you get something new you get rid of something you already have. For me, knowing what you have just makes it easier to make that mental connection when I am getting something new now.

Packed! We have warm weather clothes (top of the left suitcase) to stay in our truck for when we return at the end of December.

We have our winter clothes under the bed as well as extra towels and Patty's guitar.  We now after a year and a half have lots of room under the bed.  We really are getting down to being minimalists!!  Love it!!

Monday the 25th we got out of bed at our usual time of 7:00 am.  However, this morning we just spent 45 minutes on-line and then we started the RV closing up routine.  Actually we don’t have a routine for closing up the RV as we have only done this once before, last year.  The big difference with closing up the RV over just closing to move is basically with the refrigerator.  The fridge is going to be turned off so we need to remove all of the leftover food and clean it out.  
Since the temps here are usually hot and humid we need to make sure things are clean and dry to prevent mold and bugs from entering while we are gone.  The other things we do are turning off the propane and disconnecting the house battery.  I also made sure the kitchen vent is closed so insects can’t get in there either.  We did however leave the kitchen ceiling vent open so there is some ventilation in the RV.  We were going to spray insect repellent around the base of the RV but it was so muddy I didn't feel like doing that.  Really hope that wasn't a mistake!

Really do not have much to get rid of in the freezer.  Our neighbor took some stuff.

Rosey is really liking the weather here.  Now she has a babysitter for the next 33 days.

We pulled the RV into the storage space at 11 am then went up to the office and checked out.  We paid our electric bill of $54, returned the gate remote and got back the $40 deposit. That was it, we are on our way!

A very muddy area for the RV.  Hopefully it gets drier before we come back.

We went to a close IHOP for some late breakfast and then headed the 22 miles to the Residence Inn near the airport.  

We are now checked in and have a shuttle reservation to the airport at 3:30am.  Yes that is 3:30AM!  

The Residence Inn has a social hour tonight with free wine and beer and includes food.  So we are in the room with no real reason to leave the grounds until tomorrow morning.

Tomorrow our flight leaves Brownsville at 5:15 am to Indianapolis, Indiana with a connection in Houston Texas.  We arrive in Indiana at 10:48 am.  We pick up a rental car and then head to Buffalo NY for Thanksgiving.  We will spend the night around half way and arrive in Buffalo on Wednesday sometime in the afternoon.

We are not looking forward to the bad weather in the Buffalo area that is being forecast.  There is a weather advisory in effect for Tuesday evening until Wednesday evening for most of northwestern NY with 6-7 inches of snow.  This is the time we will be driving in from the southwest!  The good thing is that we are in no real hurry so we can wait it out if need be; just arrive in time for turkey on Thursday!

I will probably not post a new blog until after Thanksgiving.  

So, everyone have a Happy Thanksgiving and a Happy Hannukah and, stay safe!

Stay tuned!