Days 82 & 83 - Saturday & Sunday, January 31 & February 1 - Not Much Happening

 Saturday I rode some laps around the campground, 3.5 miles. Kathy spent time working on a puzzle in the Puzzle Room. Other than than we did some reading.

Sunday Kathy went to church here at the campground and then we both went up to the Cowboy Church for the service there. Attendance was down a little this morning, maybe around 175. Pastor Chris had a good message titled Ride for the Brand. You can watch the service at:

https://www.westernoutreach.org/sermonslive.html

I ask myself, "Do I ride for the brand, or just doing the minimum hoping for a paycheck?"

After church we drove on over to the DonWes flea market in Donna, TX to pick up a bag of grapefruit. We then went over to Moran's, in Donna, for one of their really good pizzas.

Back home I took a nap while Kathy did laundry.

The past couple of days have been cool, highs in the low/mid 60's and lows in the high 30's and low 40's. 

God is good. I pray that He blesses you  and yours. He has blessed me.

Days 80 & 81 - Thursday & Friday, January 29 & 30 - Half Way

 This is close to the half way point for our time away from Missouri for the winter. I left Missouri on November 20. We plan on being back in mid April. Time passes quick.

Thursday we did a few housekeeping odds and ends and went to Meet & Greet at 4 PM. We had some good snacks and fellowship. I got to know George better. He and his wife are from Maryland. He has worked in the hospitality area most of his working life. For the past several years he has worked as a manager at a hotel that caters to Maryland tourists. He actually likes doing it. The hotel business is a little slow there this time of year so he is taking a leave of absence so that he and his wife can try RV'ing. They have a travel trailer but the first couple of weeks here they decided they liked being here and bought a park model unit that came up for sale. Lynette, his wife, has some type of Air B n B business. It won't surprise me if she ends up flying back several weeks before he is ready to go back (some time in March). 

My back seems to be back to normal but I'm a little gun shy about doing something that might screw it up again. The weather was nice Thursday, mostly sunny with a high of 78. I got in a 6.5 mile bicycle ride doing laps around the campground. It didn't seem to bother my back.

Today, Friday, we went to Golden Corral for lunch.

My first course. The Timberline Chili was good, but a little different, and not quite as good as Kathy's. The Tamale was good. The roasted jalapeno was not as hot as I expected. Actually everything was good.

Kathy's first course. She said the chicken was great. The beets only so so.

The food is good at this Golden Corral, and the prices are also good. Our bill, early bird senior citizen, was $25.

We also stopped at T Mobile where I activated an old phone I have. After Kathy left to come down here the thermostat for our "new" heating system had to be replaced. My phone was linked to the old one so that I could monitor the house temperature and humidity and change the settings from down here. I can't remotely connect to the new thermostat. I'm going to mail my old phone to Kelsey, our granddaughter. She will go over to the house, link the phone to the thermostat and mail it back to me.

I have a secondary reason for activating the old phone. With the added $25/month line we get an additional 30GB of high speed hot spot data, 90 GB total for our 3 lines. We can stream a lot of TV with 90GB. Campground WiFi would be more expensive. 

Later in the afternoon I went to Planet Fitness for the first time in weeks. 45 minutes on the treadmill and an hour on the resistance machines. Even though I took it easy on my back it was a good workout for me.

Today was a lot cooler. The high was a cloudy, windy 64 degrees, Tonight it is supposed to dip down into the low 40's. 

God is good. I pray that He blesses you and yours. He has blessed me.

Day 79 - Wednesday, January 28 - A Busy Day

 This morning at 9 we attended a Coed Bible Study, at the clubhouse. The guy who leads the discussion is a retired Pastor. He is good and so is his wife. There were 7 of us so we were all able to participate in the discussions.

Then it was back to the coach for until noon. At noon I went back to the clubhouse to checkout the Tai Chi class. It was the first one I've every attended. Lots of gentle, but very complex moves (to do it correctly). I think they meet twice a week. I'm not sure if I will try it again.

Then it was back to the coach for a while. I spent about an hour doing "homework" for Spanish Class. I'm plugging along but my old brain, and hard of hearing ears, are telling me it will take a LONG time, if ever, before I get even a rudimentary level of proficiency.

  About 2:30 I decided to ride my bicycle a couple of laps around the campground before the 3 PM class. As I went out the door I noticed the couple in the 5th wheel next to us were working on one of the bedroom slides. He had a 2x4 "post" and hydraulic jack and was jacking up the slide. I stopped to see if I could help and was there for a little over an hour. The good news is that during that time he dismantled the broken slide drive on one side of the slide, replaced the broken parts and reinstalled it. His wife ran it in and back out before I left and it seemed to back working okay. I went over to the clubhouse and sat in for the last few minutes of Spanish Class. 

Kathy spent part of the afternoon over in the kitchen getting ready for tonights potluck dinner. The dinner started at 5:00. About 40 people attended. By a little 6:30 we were back home.

I searched through Amazon Prime, Peacock, Paramont + and Netflix trying to find something to watch. I didn't find anything that looked good. I finally settled for "The Rip", because Matt Damon and Ben Affleck were in it. IMDb rated it 6.8 out of 10, I have  no idea why. If you ignore the incredible level of profanity it might be worth a 4. I don't recommend it. 

The weather was nice. The high was a mostly sunny 71.

God is good. I pray that He blesses you and yours. He has blessed me.

Day 78 - Tuesday, January 27 - Lunch at Roosters

 The overnight low was 32 degrees. The good news is that for the next 10 nights the lows range from 37 to 55, and the highs range from 60 to 74. Six of those 10 days are supposed to be Partly Sunny or Mostly Sunny. Back to normal for the Rio Grande Valley.

At 10:00 Kathy led the Ladies Bible Study, at the clubhouse. I felt a little off all day and didn't do much.

We did get out for a quick trip to Sam's and then to Roosters for lunch.

Kathy said her chicken something was good and that she would order it again. My bistek tacos were OK but I will choose something else the next time we go there. The $5 plate of mushrooms and $1.50 bottle of Coors Light were a great deal. I managed to eat all my tacos and most of the mushrooms, which was not a good thing. I was stuffed.

When we got back home Kathy went over to listen to the Jam Session. I took a long nap.

I've previously mentioned that there is no shortage of activities here. Below is a billboard showing some of the recurring ones.

Not all recurring activities are on the billboard. The conversational Spanish class, which now meets Monday & Wednesday afternoon, is not on it. The Tuesday morning Ladies Bible Study and the Wednesday morning Coed Bible Study is not on it. Monday and Wednesday's Tai Chi is also not on it. Those are only a few of the things not on the billboard.

Days 76 & 77 - Sunday & Monday, January 25 & 26 - Shivering

Kathy got out this morning and went over to campground church. I stayed huddled under my warm blankets 😊 Neither of us felt like going to Cowboy Church today. Sundays' high temperature was a cloudy, damp, windy 44 degrees. In the afternoon Kathy was in the clubhouse kitchen getting Chili and Potato Soup ready for the late afternoon Christmas for the Children fundraiser meal. I finished a little prep work getting ready for the overnight freezing temperatures before going over for supper.

Sunday nights overnight low was 27 degrees, it didn't make it down to the 25 degrees that had been forecast. 

Monday morning Kathy went to the 9:30 Activity Meeting. I stayed in the warm coach. I did manage to get out for the 3:00 Conversational Spanish class at the clubhouse. Around 6:30, while Kathy watched Wheel of Fortune, I went back over to the clubhouse and watched some folks play Euchre. They had 4 tables of 4 playing. After every game partners were switched between tables. Many years ago I played Euchre. I think I will go over next Monday night and see if they have an open seat.

Weatherbug says today's high was 48. It sure never felt that warm. It is only supposed to get down to 30 tonight and then no more below freezing nights in the 10 day forecast.

God is good. I pray that He bless you and yours. He has blessed me. 

Days 74 & 75 - Friday & Saturday, January 23 & 24 -Getting Ready for the Cold

We haven't done a lot the past couple of days. I made trips to Sam's and Walgreens to pick up prescriptions and Kathy went to Walmart to buy a few groceries. Other than that we have stayed home.

Friday I did try polishing the headlight lenses on our coach, using baking soda. I was pleasantly surprised at with the result. They appear to be a lot clearer to me. Very little effort was necessary to get this level of improvement. I don't know how long they will stay this way if I don't put some type of clear finish on them.

Before

After

Friday was warm, but windy. The high was 84. Because of the wind I put in 50 minutes on the campground treadmill rather than riding my bicycle in the wind.

Saturday I went to the morning conversational Spanish class. I still don't think my brain will get me to the point I can speak even passable Spanish, but the class is interesting. One interesting thing is that the lady who teaches it, who is an Anglo. She has lived in the Rio Grande Valley for years. She has two adult sons who grew up down here. They speak fluent Spanish. When she told them she was going to teach a conversational Spanish class they laughed at her, telling her she can't speak Spanish. 

Today wasn't quite as windy. The high was a cloudy 79. I managed a 45 minute bicycle ride around the campground. By the time I finished the bike ride it was quite cool for my shorts and tee shirt. The wind had picked up and the temperature was in the mid 50's. At 11 PM the temperature is down to 42 degrees, on its way to an overnight low of 36, and the wind is blowing at 20 mph, with gusts of 30 mph.

After the bike ride I set up incandescent light bulbs in the wet bay and in the basement where Kathy has some quart jars of tomato juice. The bulbs will come on if the temperature in the basement drops to freezing. I also dumped the wastewater tanks and left the grey water tank valve open. I had previously filled the freshwater tank. Our 35 gallon propane tank is at 50% and we have around 100 gallons of diesel to run the generator. Most of this was just in case Texas has another major power disruption during the winter storm, like they did back in 2021 when 4.5 million homes were without power. I don't expect this storm to cause and major power disruption but taking a few precautions was easy enough to do. The lowest temperatures being forecast for our area are 29 degrees Sunday night and 31 degrees Monday night, Up in Abilene, where there are hundreds of wind turbines, it is supposed to get down to 10 tonight and 8 tomorrow night. This time of year the average temperatures in Abilene area 58/37.

I know some of you folks up north are laughing at me calling these temperatures cold but folks down here in the Rio Grande Valley just aren't used to freezing temperatures. 

God is good. I pray that He blesses you and yours. He has blessed me.

 

Days 72 & 73 - Wednesday & Thursday, January 21 & 22 - WE HAVE HOT WATER!!!!

 Wednesday - Steve, from Steve's RV, was here at 9:00 and by 11:30 he and a helper had our new water heater installed, $375. I watched. There was nothing to sophisticated about  the installation, but there is no way I could have crawled in and out of the "basement" as many times as he did, and contorted myself as required to make the water connections. They seemed to work very efficiently. He had all the plumbing parts he needed to make the connections. 

PTL! It was so nice to be taking showers in our shower again. Nothing wrong with the campground showers, just nice not to have to walk 100 yards to go take a shower. 

We then went grocery shopping at Walmart. It was about the least crowded we have seen. After we got back home I regened or water softener. Kathy did multiple loads of laundry.

Kathy spent a lot of time in the campground kitchen getting some type of chicken ready to serve chicken sandwiches before the Kenny Rogers wannabe came for entertainment. He has performed here once a year every year we have been here. He seems to do a good job, although I was never a huge Kenny Rogers fan. I think I heard that 85 people paid $10 to see him. Kathy and the ladies sold 65-70 chicken sandwich meals, so it was a good fund raiser for Christmas for the Children.

Thursday - In the morning I went to Walgreens and Sam's to pick up prescriptions. Kathy did another load of laundry and then spent some time doing odds and ends cleaning up in the campground kitchen. When I got back I worked on a puzzle. After she finished we both spent time working on the puzzle.

I went over before the 4 PM get together for "Meet and Greet" and reserved our spot for 5 months next year, Nov 15- Apr 15. At Meet and Greet we all got the "scoop" about Merrill & Maxine's truck issues. They bought a new Ford Powerstroke, and a 5th wheel RV, in 2017 and started full timing in 2018. They come here for the winter months but spend the rest of the year travelling. When they left last spring they headed for Utah for a family funeral and then planned on heading further north. They didn't make it further north. They had major motor work done three times before they got back here in December. The truck is now back in the shop to get another new motor installed. Maxine told us that the last garage put the wrong Loctite on some fasteners and the current garage said that mistake increased the cost of the current motor replacement by $2,000.

After Meet and Greet we both spent some more time working on the puzzle. We got the "easy" half done but I lose interest when the remainder is all the hard stuff. I went down to the Sweat Shop (the campground fitness room) and spent 50 minutes on the treadmill.

More people are rolling in than are rolling out. The campground isn't nearly at full occupancy but its as full as we have seen it. Thankfully we have one empty site on our left, and good neighbors beyond that, and multiple empty sites on our right. We also have an empty site in front of us so Kathy can keep a better eye on things 😄.

God is good. I pray that He blesses you and yours. He has blessed me.