Very Busy Active Week in South Texas

February 17 - 23, 2014 

This past week has been mostly about the Fun In the Sun (FITS) games.  We also threw in some time for a doctor’s appointment for Patty and a bike ride on South Padre Island. The weather was also great for the entire week!

So, all of the FITS games are over now, I was in 3 winning teams and one 2nd place team.  Patty and I were in a “best effort” place for the pool raft race.  As I said last post, I was on a 4 person winning darts tournament last Saturday night. I was also on the winning teams for corn hole and for Wii bowling and then second place for water volleyball.  Out of all of the games I played in, I really wanted to win the water volleyball the most.

I was putting away the ladder golf and this spider came out of the bag.  There are a lot of these around here.  Have no idea what kind it is.

Sunday the 16th was water volleyball.  I would have really liked for our team to have won that, but it just didn’t happen.   It was double elimination competition with 4 teams of 6 players.  Our team went into the final match up undefeated.  The team we needed to beat had lost one game which had been to us.  If we won again against them we would have come in first in the event.  The other team needed to beat us 2 times to be in first place. 

Since we had already beaten this team before I thought there was no way they could beat us 2 times in a row.  Well, I was wrong and they beat us 2 times in a row for the championship.  And to make it worse, I hit the loosing ball to end the game.

Monday the 17th we played in a ladder golf tournament.  We have always called ladder golf testicle toss.  Patty and I have been playing this game for years.  We were first introduced to the game in the Dominican Republic.  The game play is to toss 2 golf balls that are tied together with a cord toward a 3 foot high ladder that has 3 rungs.  The object is to have your tossed balls wrap around one of the 3 colored ladder rungs. Each of the ladder rungs has a different point value.  Each player gets 3 set of balls to toss for your turn.  The play field has 2 ladders about 30 feet apart.  A team is made up of 2 players with one standing at each of the ladders.  The winner is the first 2 person team to get 21 points. 

There were a lot of players for ladder golf.  Actually too many for the one set of ladders the resort has.  Patty and I carry a set with us so we used ours too to help speed up the play.  Using our ladders and balls meant that we could have 2 games going on at the same time.

Even with the amount to time we have played this game we lost in the tournament.  We just couldn’t get our games together on this one.  Maybe it was because it was so hot that day.  If it sounds like I’m complaining, well, yes I am!

Monday night we were in the euchre tournament.  I’m not much of a card player so I was not looking forward so much to this event.  Neither of us have played in years either. Patty is a much better card player than me so she wasn’t worried at all like I was.  The tournament had, I believe, 24 players. When it was all over neither of us won or even came close but it was fun.  The actual game is very easy, it’s just the details of game play that I was very rusty on.  Thankfully I didn’t do something really wrong like reneging (throwing off suit when you have the suit in hand).  Just glad that is over. Whew!

Tuesday the 18th was a big day for me.  I was in both the corn hole and the Wii bowling tournaments.  I was in the winning team for both of these events.  These turned out to be very big and long events. Corn hole took 5 hours to play and Wii bowling took just over 3 hours to finish.  It was a long day of fun, but somebody (us) have to do it! 

For those not familiar with the game of corn hole, it is a game sort of like horse shoes.  The differences are that corn hole is played with small bags of corn instead of horse shoes and the poles are wooden ramps with a hole at the top.  The ramped boards are placed 27 foot apart with the holes at 33 feet apart.  The object is to toss the bags on to the ramped board and/or to put the bag into the hole. Winning a round happens when one of the 2 person teams has 21 points.

I was teamed with a French Canadian woman that was very good at this.  I should say I have only played this game sporadically over the years.  Patty and I did have the opportunity to practice one afternoon last week for about 2 hours.  It’s one of those games of muscle memory, the more you throw the better you get.  While I practiced I was getting pretty good.  My partner is a Petanque (french bocce ball) player which is very good practice for playing corn hole.  

The first game we played I was not good at all.  My partner was HOT, she was very on.  We won!  In between matches my partner and her husband coached me with some very good pointers.  These pointers worked great for me!  We won and won!  Now we are in the championship match.  It was like deja vu with the water volleyball.  We had not lost and the team we were playing had lost once.  Again, if we won it was over and we were the champions.  If we lost the other team needed to beat us again to become the champions.  Well not this time!  We lost the first match but won the second game making us the champions!  Yea us!

Now with only 40 minutes to start Wii bowling at a little before 2 pm I went to get lunch.  Patty and I both played but were on different teams.  Teams were made up of 5 bowlers on each team.  Wii bowling is just computerized bowling. Basically you pretend to bowl with a wireless controller into a flat screen TV.   It is very close to actual bowling but without the feel of the ball.  Anyway, after about 3 hours of play my team won the tournament!  This win was basically due to the very good players I was with, I had very little contribution this time.

Wednesday the 19th we didn’t have any games we that we were in.  However, in the afternoon the park had a block party.  Part of the park was blocked from vehicle traffic so we could have a party.  A dance area was lined out in the road and a DJ set the tunes.  There was a lot of food and drink.  Like a lot of events here there was a 50/50 drawing.  The big difference was that we won this time!  I believe this was the first time I had ever won a 50/50 anywhere in my life.  This one was for a prize of $81.  The other half of the money goes to fund some of the fun and games here so we donated ours back to the fund.  

Thursday the 20th we went on a bike ride on South Padre Island.  South Padre Island is about 65 miles from our resort or about 1-1/s4 hour.  It was a nice warm day in the mid-70s but very windy.  We had continuous winds of 20-25 mph with gusts to 30 mph from the south.  Our bike ride was basically 1 mile south then 5 miles north then 4 miles back south to where we started.  We had a choice of going the 10 miles or just staying in a park circle of a couple of miles.  Due to the wind Patty and several of the other women stayed with the 2 mile park ride.  I went for the rest of the ride with the wind and then into the wind.  For me it wasn’t really that bad although slow for us all.  

Our bike crew at the Texas welcome center in Harlingen TX on our way to South Padre Island.

Bike ready for our ride on the island.

A monument to commemorate the lost sailors here.

Us on the move with Patty in front of me.

After the bike ride we had lunch at the Pier 19 restaurant. When we got back from our longer ride Patty and the others had already gone into the restaurant.  Patty put her bike in the truck bed with her diabetic testing kit.  When I arrived I needed to put my bike away also.  So I took her bike out of the truck bed and folded it up and put in to the back seat of the truck.  Then I put my bike where hers had been. Somehow in that move of bikes Patty’s testing kit was lost. She didn’t realize it until the next day as she thought it was still in the truck.  Turned out to be no big deal as she had a replacement she had forgot about.

The crew that went further on to the island.

A seagull resting on a pier. Picture taken from the restaurant window.

On our way back to the resort we stopped at a local fish store in Port Isabel and bought some fresh shrimp and crab cakes.  It was great day!

Seafood shop in Port Isabella.

Just a weird sign in Port Isabella.

Friday the 21st Patty had a follow-up Dr. appointment with her Endocrinologist in Edinburg.  We used the time out to get some shopping done for food and assorted other stuff. Between the Dr. appointment and the running around for stuff we shot the whole day.  Anyway, that evening we used the bacon we just purchased to make bacon wrapped shrimp for dinner.  The shrimp were good but we weren’t real happy with the shrimp quality.  Some of the shrimp were not fresh.  We will pick another place when we go back to the shore which should be next week.

Saturday the 22nd we had the last FITS event that we participated in.  We were in the pool noodle races.  This race was by couple and consisted of carrying a platter of cocktail drinks across the pool with one hand while swimming on a noodle.  One member of the couple would float/swim across and then hand off the platter of drinks to the other member who had to go back with the drinks.  The object was to both get it done fast and without spilling the drinks. We had a blast doing this but we didn’t win.  It came down really to who lost the least of their drinks and everyone was very close.

Sunday the 23rd was the official end to the FITS events with the blind golf cart races.  We didn’t participate in this but probably should have.   A course was laid out in the parking lot next to the clubhouse with orange cones and chalk.  The driver of the cart was blindfolded and was guided only with the help of his passenger’s verbal guidance.  It was very funny to watch and listen to.  It was real funny to watch the passenger point to where they wanted the blind driver to go - as if they could see!  

That night we went to karaoke where Patty sang many, many songs.  She is perfecting her songs for the talent show in a couple of weeks.  I sit and watch and listen and sometimes we dance to the other singers songs.  Even though I don’t sing I have a great time at this.

Next week we have awards for the FITS winners and another bike trip, this time to a small fishing village on the Gulf. There is also a feathers and toga party! 

We bought some new wine glasses for ourselves from a woman who makes them here at the resort.

Rosey is back to all most normal now.  She just had 5 blooms which is her last record number.

Cool metal cactus in one of the "yards" here at the resort.

Cool outdoor shower at the same place.

Stay Tuned!