It’s been awhile since we have made a post and so much has happened since the last one! I am figuring that we will post probably just once a month while we are wintering at our site in south Texas. Mostly, while here, we enjoy staying warm and doing summer type stuff like playing golf and social events in the resort. So, most of the time it’s the same fun stuff over and over, it’s a tough life!
However, the last few weeks have been full of some new stuff for us. We left Goliad TX and headed to our new site 19 in Nature's Resort near Edinburg TX, about 200 miles straight south of Corpus Christi. The trip took just under 3 hours and was uneventful but pretty hot. The temperature was hovering around 95 with full sun, nice, nice!
 |
| Nice rest stop near Edinburg TX on 281 south |
This is our 4th time making this trip and I think we have done it different each time. I didn’t recognize anything until we were just 4-5 miles from the exit on to Monte Cristo Road (FM 1925). After the exit it was just like coming home again! I never thought I would say that this was our home area but it is becoming that. In the past 3 years we have spent more time here than anywhere else.
Now I just want to say that our intention for now anyway is that South Texas will not be our only home area. Our plan for the future is to eventually become snow birds between New Jersey and here in South Texas. At some point, after a couple more years traveling the US, we plan to leave the RV here in South Texas and either buy or rent a place in NJ, prefer to seasonally rent in NJ over owning. At that point we plan to travel/tour more outside the US as well as some destination trips. OK, now that we have settled that, on to what has happened the past few weeks!
It’s nice to pull up to the resort gate and our password still works! It’s the small stuff that gets you. We knew when we purchased the lot improvements that we now own a set of wooden RV stairs from the previous owners. We also knew that these stairs are now laying across the concrete part of the site so that we will need to move them before we can pull in. Knowing about these stairs, we pull into one of the pull through transient sites temporarily until I can get the stairs out of the way so we can pull in.
 |
| Our new to us site 19 with the heavy stairs across the entrance. |
The stairs are tied down to anchors in the ground and are very heavy. They are way too heavy to move or lift by myself. At this time of year it is very hard to find anyone who can help with lifting these stairs. It will take at least 3 maybe 4 guys to lift this thing! I walked the park looking for anyone I can volunteer to help and finally found a guy who volunteered the use of a bucket truck. That will work! With a little effort we got the stairs up and out of the way so we could move in to our new site. Thanks to Brad for the help! By dinner time we were set up and ready for the winter here.
 |
| Bucket truck to the rescue! |
The site, as we took it over, has concrete on about half of it. It also has an 8x12 metal shed as well as the heavy wooden steps. Our plans are to concrete the entire site ASAP. We really do not want to perform yard and shrub maintenance, been there and done that! We really don’t mind doing yard work, just not at this time in our lives. First though I need to get the stairs to fit our RV.
The first few days we are back I worked on the stairs. The original owners had an RV that didn’t have slides on the front so the stairs are on both sides, one of which goes into our slide. At first I thought that I might get away with just some slight modifications and leave the second set of stairs on and let them sit under the slide. Nope, that didn’t work. Need to completely remove the stairs and half of the metal roof. I also had to raise the roof of the stair unit. Seems that the original owners RV sat lower so our higher RV entrance door hits the roof! Anyway, after some help from neighbor Ken, the stairs are now functional! OK, first project done!
 |
| Our site in it's original form with us on it. |
 |
| These are beautiful butterfly plants with hundreds of butterflies on them. This was for us very difficult to have these removed and replaced with concrete. However, a few in the park took alot of them and replanted. |
 |
| We also have hummingbirds here! |
Now, on to concrete the entire site. The only thing is, what the entire site is and how much are we allowed to put concrete on. The only thing we made sure of when we purchased was that we could completely fit on the site with the 5th wheel and the truck and we do fit. The way you find out here is to ask the park owners where you can put the concrete and where the site boundaries are. That happened real quick, within 2 days we knew where we could put the concrete and where we could put temporary stuff or landscaping (rocks for us). Basically, the site can have concrete 33 feet wide by 45 feet long. This leaves approximately a 3 foot piece on each side and in the rear for an easement. That is completely good with us!
The next day, the 13th, Joe the concrete guy came and gave us a very reasonable estimate to do the concrete work. Before the concrete work can be done we need to have the shed moved off of the site. This is something that is done here all of the time. An employee of the park and an owner moved the shed for us within a couple of days. A week later, on the 20th, Joe came and did all of the concrete work. By 2 in the afternoon it was all done! We have been here exactly 2 weeks now and we have steps and new concrete!
 |
| On our way over to Mexico for lunch and to get our site number 19 in ceramic tiles to put in the concrete. |
Good thing the concrete was done this week as the weather is calling for rain and a lot of it! After the concrete had set for a few days we moved the shed back on to the new concrete. The shed is wired for electric so I reconnected the electric and put the small refrigerator back in. Now we are ready for the rain.
 |
| Removing the grass before the concrete is poured. |
 |
| Adding the rebar. |
 |
| Waiting for the concrete truck. It is now about 92 out! |
 |
| Concrete truck has arrived! |
 |
| We added another foot to the west side too. |
 |
| These guys work real hard! |
 |
| Adding the final touch, our site number 19 ceramic tiles. We got these over the weekend in Mexico. |
 |
| All done! |
 |
| Patty would have liked the numbers to be closer together, but this is the way it is! |
 |
| Now for a nice dinner of steak and asparagus. The asparagus is being cooked on the grille with olive oil, parmesan and mozzarella cheeses. |
Just need to say that the area down here is absolutely green right now! They have had a lot of rain this summer so everything is very lush and green. The golf courses are really great too. I have not got back to where I was yet at just under 100 but I have broke a hundred on an easy course and just this week got a 100 on our usual course Los Lagos. My goal this season is to score around 90. We shall see!
 |
| Not sure of the name of this bird but it is very common here. It was trying to attack it's reflection in our rear window |
 |
| That's him smashing into our window! |
We are now caught up to the present time with this post. We are sitting inside and watching the heavy rain coming from 2 fronts. We have the original coming from the west and now we have the remaining rain from hurricane Patricia. We are forecasted now to get from 4 to 11 inches of rain! We are in the end of the park that floods but we think we are up high enough that it won’t affect us too much.
 |
| View out the back window during the storm on the 24th. We were almost an island! |
 |
| View from the front window. The water was just past the rear tire on the truck. The park posted a "No Wake Zone" for our end of the park. |
Some update about Patty’s health. We came back to south Texas a month early so we could get here in to see some doctors. She has seen some doctors but we have not had much in the way of progress yet.
We have seen her primary care Doctor, her endocrinologist, and the neurosurgeon. She saw her primary doctor 2 times because the first time she passed out due to low blood pressure while seeing him and had to be sent to the ER! I am used to this and knew that after giving her some IV fluids she would be fine and released. And she was in fact released after 5 hours.
Patty is scheduled for a new test for determining if she has diabetic gastroparesis. Yet another diagnosis but little in the way of help! The neurosurgeon now thinks she doesn’t have a nerve issue (arm scratching) related to her spine compression. Now he has no idea! He is, however, doing a few blood tests to determine who knows what! As for diabetes, her endo suggested that she will just need to learn to determine when these low blood pressures are about to happen and act accordingly!
With all of this happening to her, her depression has worsened and she has been manic at times. She has not been able to get in to see a psychiatrist until the end of January.
That’s it for us now.
Stay tuned!
