Talent Show, Marti Gras Party, and a Bike Ride

March 2 - 8, 2014 

Sunday the 2nd the resort had a talent show that Patty participated in.  Patty sang 2 songs and, of course, one was White Rabbit by Grace Slick and Jefferson Airplane (her signature song).  The other was the acappella version of Mercedes Benz by Janis Joplin.  Patty received many compliments on her singing and especially for singing that song without music.  She did a great job on both!

Monday the 3rd I took the truck into the Ford dealer near here in Edinburg and had the steering gearbox replaced under warranty.  I dropped it off at 7:30 am and they took me back to the resort.  Then at about 3:30 pm it was done and they came back and got me.  I was really hoping that the steering would be dramatically better, but it wasn’t.  It is better and probably like it should be, it’s just not super tight.  It’s probably just the way big trucks drive.

During the day, Patty and ,I with some help from others at the resort, decorated the clubhouse for the Mardi Gras party we were hosting on Tuesday night.  Most of the decorations we used were already at the resort in the storage room.  We added a large Mexican Piñata we purchased back in November in Mexico.  We originally thought we would take it to Indiana and give it to the grandkids.  It was just too big to transport in the RV so we donated it to the resort.  We added a couple of themed items to each side so it looked more like it should for a Mardi Gras party. 

The Clubhouse after we decorated for Mardi Gras. The pinata is hanging from the chandelier.

Tuesday the 4th, Fat Tuesday, we hosted a Mardi Gras party from 7 – 10 pm in the clubhouse.  We both did a lot of running around giving out door prize tickets and playing cards; more on the playing cards later.  Patty did all of the announcing with the DJ.  Patty is good at that sort of thing.  Patty also recruited a few guys to stand in the balcony and toss beads to the women.  That worked out well too!

A selfie of us dressed for the party. Patty was the emcee.

We used the playing cards to pick a King and Queen for the party.  We tore two decks of cards in half, removed the jokers and all of the Kings and Queens except for one from each pile.  The decks were blue and red.  We left a black King in the blue deck and a red Queen in the red deck.  Then we handed out blue cards to males and red cards to females.  We had to make sure that the queen and king were given out as we didn’t know how many people would attend.  We had around 110 show up for the party so we just made sure that the king and queen were closer to the top than the bottom.  It worked and the couple did a great job of leading everyone around the clubhouse in a conga line dance. 

Wednesday the 5th we had happy hour and decided to bring cheese fondue.  The weather was a little cool again at around 68 so we had the happy hour in the clubhouse instead of outside since it was cooling quickly.  This was perfect for making and having fondue as appetizer.  We made a 3 cheese fondue with Swiss, cheddar, and smoked Gruyere. It was good but not fantastic.  We love fondue but a little goes a long ways. We made way too much fondue though.  

Seems everybody had the same idea as us and brought lots of food.  There was pizza, chicken nuggets, key lime pie, egg rolls, and much, much, more stuff. 

Thursday the 6th we went on another bike ride with a group from the resort.  This time we went to the Palo Alto Battlefield in Brownsville TX.  The battlefield is where the first battle of the US-Mexican war took place in 1846. There isn't much there but it has been preserved as it was during the battle.  The area is in a low lying flat area covered in thorny mesquite bushes and cactus.  It must have been very hard to maneuver in such terrain with someone shooting at you.

A scenic view on our bike ride

Note the pink flowers blooming from the cactus. They are trumpet shaped.

Patty cruising on the trail

We really only spent a little time in the park and then rode out and into Brownsville on an old railroad path that has been converted to a foot and bicycle path.  We rode for 8 miles and then stopped for lunch at a cafeteria near the trail.  After lunch we rode back to the battlefield for a total of 16 miles on our bikes.  It was good ride but not very exciting scenery along the way.

A huge sugar cane plant in the area

A sugar cane field. When those stacks are in full cycle they produce "Texas snow", black flakes floating even in our resort!

San Benito, home of Freddy Fender as written on the water tower with his likeness

Friday the 7th I washed the truck.  The valley is very windy and dusty making it very hard to keep a vehicle clean.  If we can keep from driving when it is wet out then the truck stays sort of clean.  We have had rain every week we have been here in South Texas so the truck gets real dirty.  When I wash a vehicle I really wash it.  This is probably the only thing I am obsessive about, a clean vehicle and cleaning it. Well, it took me 3 hours to wash and dry it!

Saturday the 8th I played water volleyball in the afternoon and we both played darts in the evening.  This was the first time I played volleyball in a few days.  I wanted to make sure that I played as the next few days are going to be cold and wet again.  

Sunday the 9th is cold at only 51 as a high.  It is also raining on and off.  We seem to have had way too many of these type days this year here.  Keyport NJ 1500 miles away is 45 and sunny!  Patty and I just decided to stay inside and veg all day!  We are doing a fine job of this too!

The site we reserved for next year, 5,000 sq ft

Tomorrow is to be just like today.  I have a golf outing at 8:30 in the morning and the temperature is to be 50 and raining. I really don’t believe we will be going.

Stay Tuned!

Truck repair, German Dinner, and 2014-15 Winter Destination Thoughts

February 24 - 28, 2014 

We sort of slowed down the past few days.  The weather got cold again for a couple of days and again spoiled the bike trip to the fishing port on the Gulf.  The temperatures got in the low 40s to highs in the upper 50s.  It’s just not very good for doing much outside.  So we mainly stayed inside  for a couple of days.

Monday the 24th we had the FITS awards.  I was on the winning team for 3 for the events; Wii bowling, corn hole, and darts.  It was pretty cool as my team awards were given out in the beginning of the ceremony so it looked like I was on everything for a bit of time. Patty and I also won the "Best Effort" Award!

My winning team certificates suitable for framing - maybe not!  The #4 is our site number.

Tuesday the 25th we took the truck in to Hacienda Ford in Edinburg to check out the left front tire wear issue.  In the past 2-3 weeks I noticed that the left front tire was wearing on the outside edge.  At first I thought it was just my imagination.  Last week I determined it wasn't my imagination. The front tires are just now 2 years old and I don’t want to replace them this year; probably next year though.

Hacienda Ford was the closest Ford service place to us so we took it in see what was going on.  We got it in and we headed off to breakfast at IHOP a 15 minute walk from Hacienda.  After we got back and a couple of hours later we were told that the left front was out of alignment and that we needed a new steering gear box.  The alignment was the actual cause of the tire wear and we got that done.  The steering gearbox is what causes play in the steering wheel. We have had the loose steering for a while and were living with it.  Anyway, we decided to have that replaced under warranty.  It will be a few days until they get the gearbox so we will need to go back another day.

Wednesday the 26th it got cold again.  We got up at 7 am and it was 71 outside.  That was the highest temperature for the day.  By evening it was 45! We stayed inside most of the day.  I managed to get our taxes done which were real easy this year.  This was the simplest taxes I have ever done. They were pretty easy before owning a house when I was 20 years old but I had to do state taxes then.  Now I just do the federal simple form and no state.  Really, really easy and simple.

We now make our own fajita seasoning.  We have either chicken, beef, or shrimp fajitas at least 2 time a week.  We need to keep a lot of fresh peppers and onions around at all times!

Another very tasty creation, bacon wrapped cheddar meat loaf.  Very good!

I also spent some of the day burning pictures on to CDs.  I keep pictures on an SD card in my phone and on the hard drive of my computer.  This way the pictures are backed up by being in 2 places.  Now my phone is not working well when I try to copy or move pictures from it due to the large size of memory I am using on the SD card.  I have just under 3,000 pictures on the phone!  These pictures are from just the past 7 months.  The only way I could get the pictures off the phone was to take the SD card out and put it in an adapter and then into my computer.  I was doing this with just a cable between the two.

Wednesday evenings the resort has a happy hour usually at an outdoor site called Sandy’s Bar here in the resort.  Well not today, we had happy hour inside the clubhouse.   It was way too cold and very windy.

Patty had a ganglion cyst drained.  It's that raised skin above the band-aid.  I could see it hurt like hell when the Doc drained it.  It also hasn't gone away!

Thursday the 27th we were going to have the bike ride into Port Mansfield that was canceled a couple of weeks ago due to the cold weather.  Well, here we go again, it was cancelled again due to the cold weather.  We are inland about 50 miles from the Gulf so we are warmer here.  Still, the temperature was only 55 at 9 am when we were going to leave for the Gulf.  The high was only going to be 55 in Port Mansfield, too cold for biking especially with the wind.

Our poor new flag!  The wind here is so strong it has already frayed the bottom corner.  Patty sewed it back up so we shall see how long that lasts.

Friday the 28th was a back to normal good weather with a blue sky and 88 degrees.  Friday was a walking day for us. Our routine is we walk together for the first 1-2 miles at Patty’s pace and then I walk another mile at a faster pace.  I challenge myself to walk the mile faster each time. I use a GPS app on my phone to record my pace and distance.  So far my fastest mile walk is 14 minutes and 51 seconds.

Water volleyball is at 2pm so I went over to the pool and played 2 games.  Then Patty had another appointment with her ENT Dr. about removing her uvula.  She had a sleep study done a week ago and now the Dr. was to go over the results.  Well now she needs to do yet another sleep study using a CPAP face sucking machine.  The Dr. said that the insurance company requires this.  The Doc said that no matter how minor the surgery, the insurance company wants to keep you from getting surgery by any means possible.  Patty will have this scheduled in the next few days.  What I am afraid of is she maybe told she has to use the CPAP machine instead of ever getting the surgery.

After the Dr. appointment we went out to dinner at a German restaurant, Schneider’s in McAllen.   According to our GPS, this is the only German restaurant within 250 miles of here. We rate the place a C+.  Fridays they have schnitzels as a special.  I ordered the onion schnitzel with spatzle and red cabbage and Patty had the mushroom schnitzel with german potato salad and red cabbage.   My schnitzel was great and Patty’s was very tough and no taste.  The german potato salad was the worst we had ever had.  The red cabbage was OK.  The spatzle was just OK but was tasteless.  They had live music which was good and the outdoor surroundings were very comfortable.  We would probably not go back though.

Schneider's Beer Garden with a Texas twist, note the cowboy boots just behind the entrance.

View of the beer garden.  It was a very nice evening to sit out side and have a beer and dinner with my honey Patty.

Saturday the 1st of March was a nice warm day of 80 but with no sun.  Patty went to the clubhouse to rehearse her songs for the talent show on Sunday.  I went for my 3 mile walk while she rehearsed.  I did the 3 miles in 45 minutes and 50 seconds which was a real good workout for me. 

After my workout and Patty’s rehearsal we went to a Pad party just after noon.  Two couples that are new friends here have new concrete pads poured and now are having a short party to celebrate.  Then once again, Saturday night is darts night from 7 – 10 pm.

We have learned that South Texas does in fact have snow, black snow.  It is actually burning sugar cane ashes.  The cane ranchers around here burn the left over cane material and black particles float down everywhere.

After our walk the sun was blotted out of the sky by the clouds of burnt cane ash.

A bit of scheduling news for us.  We are starting to believe that we will return here to Natures Resort next year.  We were going to go to Sandpipers just up the road instead.  We visited there again this past week to check out a site but we remained undecided.  We feel that since we made so many friends here and we have been to Sandpipers already, we should come here in the winter until we feel like doing something else.  It will depend on if we can get a good site for next year here.  We don't really like the site we are on.  It was very difficult to get into and the ground is filled with sink holes.  Also this site floods if there is a lot of rain.  We will see what can be done in the office on Monday the 3rd. 

That does it for this installment post in our blog.  Next week I hope to have truck steering fixed. Also, we are hosting a Mardi Gras party here in the resort Tuesday night.  Patty is singing 2 song at the talent show here on Sunday night.

Patty got her nails polished in a Mardi Gras theme by a girl here at the resort for $15!

Stay Tuned!

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!

Fun In The Sun Time!

February 09 - 15, 2014 

OK, we are on a warm weather roll now!!  The weather warmed up starting Wednesday the 12th.  The forecast called for low-80s daytime and mid-60s at night for the next week and as far as they can forecast now!! Rosey, our pet plant even bloomed last night.  Yeah and the AC is running in the late afternoon now.

Rosey with her first bloom this year!

We found a new warranty issue with the RV shower this past week.  The shower stall has a 3 inch crack in the plastic floor.  This to me looks like a lot of work to fix.  Looks like the entire shower stall will need to be removed to replace the floor piece.  Our RV is under warranty for 2 years which comes up this coming August.  We have a small list of things we need to have addressed under warranty including the shower.  We are not sure when we will have the work done but it will be after we leave the resort we are now in.  We need to plan on at least 2 weeks to get the work done; couple of days to diagnose and do the actual work and 10-12 days to get the parts.  Anyway, I temporarily fixed the crack with duct tape.

The crack is on the radius at the top of the drain.

My temporary duct tape fix.

We had a couple of cold days early in the week, Monday and Tuesday that we used to do some shopping.  Patty also got to see a Doctor about removing her uvula.   For those who don’t know, that's the piece of shin that hangs down in the back of your throat.   If the uvula gets too big or the skin behind it gets too relaxed then it interrupts your sleep.  It also causes you to snore, ask me how I know!  

Anyway, the doc said her uvula was OK but she had relaxed skin that needed to be trimmed after the uvula was removed.  The procedure could be done in about 5 minutes by the doc.  However, the insurance company will need a sleep study to confirm the need.   So Patty got scheduled for and had the study done Thursday night.  

I took her in at 7:45 pm to the sleep study place in Edinburg about 25 minutes from here.  Then I picked her up at 6 am the next morning.  Patty had loads of wires attached to her head and several more over her body and was videotaped while she slept.  What is amazing is that the insurance pays for all of this!  If it is determined that Patty needs the surgery then the insurance will pay for a sleep study and the removal procedure.  If it is determined that she doesn't need the procedure then the insurance will pay for the sleep study that is probably as costly as the procedure.

Before the sleep study on Thursday it warmed up to 80 degrees for the first time in a little over a week!  Thursdays are biking events here at the resort.  A lot of the Thursday bike events have been canceled due to the weather just being too cold.  Well, not this week!  Patty and I went on this bike ride to Benson State Park near Mission TX.  The bike ride was a 15 mile ride through a very nice birding area.  We left the resort at 9 am for the 40 minute ride to the entrance and trail head for Benson State Park.  Then we biked 5 miles into the park and stopped to get our wrist bands compliments of our bike master host from the resort.  Then we rode 5 miles in the park stopping at several bird blinds. We had our bag lunch in the park and then we biked 5 miles back to our vehicles.  It was another great trip and we got Patty a little tired for the sleep study!

All of us going on the bike ride in a line waiting to leave the resort at 9 am.

Map of Benson State park.  It's in the middle of big time birding country.

Riding the trail.  Patty in yellow juts ahead.

Group stopping to get our arm bands to go into the park.

The gardens around the park entrance use captured rain water for irrigation.

This is a retama tree that is native to Texas and Mexico.  It has green bark that it uses for photosynthesis.

This is a typical bird watching location in the park.

These are Green Jays, which are really a bright green.

Forgot what this bird is called but it makes a lot of noise.  They look somewhat like a pheasant and have a home behind our RV.

This is a high end RV resort we passed while biking to the state park.  Some of these places have houses with stone and brick buildings for their RV attached to the house.  Very nice!  Not in our budget though.

Friday was another gorgeous weather day again!  Low 80s and not a cloud in the deep blue sky!  After picking Patty up we were going to go out for breakfast and do some shopping in the bigger town of Edinburg.  However, after picking Patty up we both decided that we were just too tired to do any of that.  We went back to the RV and took a 2 hour nap!  The nap may have been longer but we needed go back to Edinburg for an appointment with Patty’s new diabetes doctor.  Patty’s doctor in Indiana told her she should have a doctor here after she had the DKA and fainting spell last week.  This doctor is affiliated with Joslin Diabetes Center and Patty is pleased to have a "Winter Texan" specialist she can also see when we return to the area next year. Since retiring we both go to each other’s doctors’ appointments so we each know what is going on with each other’s health.  

Friday night we had a resort sponsored Valentine’s Day dance at the club house starting at 7 pm.  The dance was very well attended but was a little too much older music for us.  The music was mostly the top 50 from 1955 – 1960. Also, it was a good portion of older country music that we are not hot on either.  Anyway, we stayed for the entire event as we struck up good conversations with a couple of other couples.  Overall, it was a good and fun night, just not our musical taste.

Saturday the 15th the resort had their monthly board meeting.  All of the members are invited to attend.  The resort has 6 board members serving 3 years.  The board is made up of elected members of the resort.  Since this was the meeting where a new couple of board members were elected we decided to attend.  I won’t go into details but it was entertaining to say the least.  It is amazing to watch a democracy in action, it can be messy! 

Saturday the resort started the “Fun In The Sun” or FITS games.  These are basically championship versions of the games we have been playing all along here.  Patty and I also got involved in the raft race in the pool.  We had 4 couples who got involved to play this.  Each race is held with 2 couples making 2 laps in the pool.   The first lap is with a small inner tube.  You and then your partner, in my case Patty, each in turn have to get in the tube, take a lap sitting in the tube.  After each of us have made the lap, we both get on a netted raft and make another lap.  We were the losers in this race.  The race really took a lot out of us, very strenuous. 

Saturday night we had the FITS darts tournament which my team won!  We had seven teams of 5 players each in a double elimination tournament.  My dart was the winning dart!!  We started the tournament at 7 pm and we were done around 11 pm.  It was a lot of fun!  

Tomorrow we have the FITS water volleyball at 1 pm.  I understand that there are 24 players signed up for that.  In the days ahead we have the following FITS we are competing in: Euchre, Corn hole; Ladder Golf, Wii Bowling, and a Pool Noodle race at the end of the games next week.

A new friend here at the resort has this vehicle to tow their 5th wheel.  Patty and I believe we may go this route in the future.  We would put a smart car behind he cab to use while we are parked at a campground.

This is what I use to do resistance workouts when not walking/biking/water volleyball.

Stay tuned!

Texas Weather is Schizophrenic!

February 3 - 8, 2014

First, update on Patty. Patty has fully recuperated from last weeks low BP issue at the pool.  All of the medical information was sent to her regular Dr in Indiana and she suggested that Patty see someone here in Texas.  Patty has found a Diabetes doctor here and has an appointment next week.  It now looks like Texas will be our winter hangout place so having a specialist here just makes sense. 

Now back to our regular scheduled program!

Just as we were told by the weather people, this past week was very cold for here.  In fact, this was the coldest January here in the past 10 years.  This past week has been just like being in a typical NJ winter sans snow.  I say typical because for the past few years it has been basically in the 30s and 40s for most of the winter and that is just what we had the past week.  

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday the daytime high was just under 40 each day with a cold drizzle. Now, Saturday the 8th, the sun just came out the first time in 6 days at 4 pm and the temperature is 60.  Tomorrow and Monday we go back to the weather with sun and near 80.  The rest of the week it is supposed to rain! 

One of the things to do when it is cold and raining, wash clothes.

We made our way outside on Wednesday evening to Happy Hour which was held in the clubhouse.  It was too cold to have it outside where it usually is.  Some new friends, Steve and Julie, invited us to their Motor Home after Happy Hour for some dancing and just hanging out time.  They ended up with us and 2 other couples to make a fun party! 

Then on Thursday the 6th we went to Wally World to get same odds and ends and mostly, just to get outside!  I wanted to pick up some sweat pants but, to my surprise, they didn’t have any.  Patty got a few cold weather clothes and we picked up some pork chops, wine, and soda to mix with the wine since we now drink spritzers as a rule.  That was out outing for the week!  For us it’s still exciting just going to the grocery store.  That’s one of the reasons for us full time RVing.  The normal stuff of life just becomes more exciting when you move around to different places.   

Friday the 7th the temperature was a little warmer with a high of 50 but with a heavy drizzle most of the day.  We had decided to go out for a fish fry.  We searched the internet looking for a place within 30 minutes from our resort.  We found a couple of places, one was a local restaurant and one was a chain.  I thought the chain would be good as a backup in case the local place wasn’t what we were looking for.  We didn’t find either one of the places.  We followed the directions on my cell phone GPS after finding the restaurants on the phone.  Usually this works and we find what we are looking for, but not this time.  We gave up and just came back to the resort and made dinner.  We already had fresh pork chops out from WalMart so we baked them. It turned out to be a very good dinner and the pork chops were the best we have had in a very long time.  That’s the main reason we eat in so much is that we like to cook and we make very good food; much better than what we get out at a restaurant.  We mainly only eat at restaurants that serve what we won’t make at home, like fried fish!

Today, Saturday the 8th the temperatures were going up all day and started good at 42 this morning.  We didn’t get sun until just a few minutes ago (3:10pm) but who cares, it is now sunny! It is so weird here to be so cold 2 days ago and now 66 with 80 tomorrow.  We have been warned that hot weather comes very quickly here.  I can believe it!

We took an exercise walk this morning.   Actually the walk started when another new manufactured home came in for new friends Sue and Dave.  Everybody turns out to watch new houses being delivered and I was part of the audience this time.   After the excitement of watching the house get placed on their site we walked 1.5 miles together. Then Patty took off from walking to go play cards with friends in the clubhouse and I continued to walk another 1.5 miles by myself.  When we walk we use an app on the phone called Map My Ride.  The app uses GPS to record on a map the route you took and give distances and times for your walk.  It can be used for biking too.  When I walk by myself I challenge myself to beat my last mile time. This time I recorded a mile time at 16 minutes and 1 sec.  This was the fastest time I have put in walking. I was really sweating when I got done!

Roses are blooming now!

This is site 51.  They have made this, tongue-in-cheek, like area 51 in Roswell NM.  

Tonight we will play darts over by the pool.  Darts night has become one of our favorite nights so far here.  You don’t need to play well, you just need to have fun and we do that very well!  We have become well known for our marinated snacks. The fresh pineapple is marinated in coconut rum and the frozen sweet cherries are marinated in double chocolate vodka!  The marinated pineapple has been a hit both here and in Florida.  One of the reasons is that the pineapple is so FRESH and SWEET here and in Florida. But here a fresh pineapple is $1.50 at the grocery store!

Tonight we have some jalapeno brats to cook for dinner. This will be another food item we will use burrito shells in place of a hot dog roll.  The burrito shell is now a staple in our house as it is so versatile.  The burrito shells stay fresher longer and have fewer calories.  We even made a dessert snack last night using the shells with brown sugar and cinnamon.   It also doesn't hurt that they are also cheaper than hot dog rolls!

Patty has a friend of 48 years that has very recently been diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer and in honor of her Patty wears pink every day.

Patty's funky pink Converse sneakers! They matched her walking outfit.

I think I am done writing now.  

Stay tuned!