Day 89 - Saturday, February 7 - Cowboy Church Breakfast

 This morning some folks served biscuits and gravy for another Christmas for the Children fund raiser. Kathy was going to be busy baking pies all day and didn't go help with it. I went over and picked up a 2 Go serving for her before I left.

I went up to the Cowboy Church for Men's Breakfast at the Arena. It was great. It was a little cool, 48 degrees when I first got up, with heavy dew. It was almost perfect weather for an outside breakfast. I think it was probably near the mid 50's when we started eating, a little after 8AM. Around 25 guys attended.

These guys are scrambling eggs and making gravy for the biscuits and gravy. I think someone made the biscuits at home the night before.

This  guy was frying bacon and keeping the tamales warm.

My breakfast. Everything was awesome. 

The arena bleachers made great tables.

A good time was had by all.

Back home we went to Logan's Roadhouse for a late lunch. It wasn't a good experience. 

Around 4PM I helped Kathy transport her 12 pies up to the clubhouse, for another Christmas for the Children fundraiser. I think they charged $3 for a slice of pie and a dip of ice cream. The assorted pieces that came home with us added up to about one pie left.

Today's high was a sunny 82. A modest breeze made it quiet comfortable to sit outside. With all the cooking and sun by mid afternoon it got a little warm in the coach, but not bad enough that we turned on the AC. As I'm writing this, at 10PM, the outside temperature is 62.

A side note. I previously mentioned Merril and Maxine, full time RV'ers who have spent the last18 (I think) winters here at Lakewood, and their truck issues. The rest of the story is, they had major engine work done 3 times between the time they left last spring and their return just after Christmas. The truck went in for the 4th major engine work as soon as they got back. At Meet and Greet I asked Merril if they had their truck back yet. He said it was back and gone in less than a day. They picked it up one day last week and headed to Brownsville. Before they got out of town Merril noticed the smell of diesel. He turned around and went to the Ford dealer. The top of the engine was wet with fuel from a leaking line. They got rid of the truck and now have a Hyundai Palisade. They aren't sure what they are going to do. Right now they plan on leaving their 5th wheel her year round, and this will be their home base. They may buy a small travel trailer and use it to go north during the hottest summer months.

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

Days 87 & 88 - Thursday & Friday, February 5 & 6 - Weather Has Improved

Yesterday's high/low was 71/44. The wind was back down to a nice breeze and the day was partly cloudy. Today's high was a mostly sunny 81. The nice breeze made it a great weather day. I rode my bicycle 5 miles doing laps around the campground. There were lots of folks sitting out on their patios, walking dogs, etc.

Yesterday Kathy did some grocery shopping. Today she is baking pies for the next Christmas for the Children fund raiser. I spent 80 minutes at Planet Fitness and then rode my bicycle 3.7 miles in the evening.

Yesterday afternoon was Meet and Greet in the clubhouse. Folks started talking about how long they have been coming to Texas for the winter. Several of the couples have been coming to this campground for 15-20 years. This is our 4th winter here.

I did wash the car this afternoon. 

We are considering, but not to seriously, buying a permanent, "park model" unit. We could come down any time we wanted, and stay as long as we wanted. We could even become Texas residents (in no income tax, no personal property tax, Texas). Driving down here in a car would be easier than in the motorhome. We burn about $900 of diesel for the round trip vs $275 worth of gasoline in the car. The cost of one night in a motel would be partially offset by the cost of at least 2 nights in campgrounds.

We went over to look at a park model unit that is probably going up for sale. The couple who own it are from Nebraska and have been spending the winters down here for almost 20 years. Their health has deteriorated to the point they don't think they will be able to come back next year. It is a functional but OLD, SMALL unit, significantly smaller than our motorhome. We passed on it because it would take way to much work to turn it into something we would find comfortable.

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

Days 84,85 & 86 - Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday, February 2, 3 & 4 - More Slow Days

 Weather has been cool, for here, and windy. Cool down here means highs in the high 60's and lows in the high 50's. We are looking forward to Saturday(7th)-Friday(13th) when highs are supposed to be in the low 80's. The days are supposed to be sunny or mostly sunny.

Monday I went to the post office over in La Feria and mailed a package, then we went grocery shopping. 

Tuesday, Kathy went to the clubhouse during the Jam Session, and she spent time in the puzzle room. 

Tuesday afternoon was another Christmas for the Children fund raising snack meal, Nachos. Kathy prepared most (all?) of the food.

On Monday and Wednesday I went to the Conversational Spanish class. I'm probably averaging a half hour a day doing "homework" for the class. I doubt that I will ever be able to speak even remotely passable Spanish, and with my poor hearing I don't think I will understand much of what a person who is fluent says. I'm hoping that I will be able to read some of it and write some, by  the time we head back to MO in early April. My old brain just doesn't seem interested in retaining new things.

Kathy said they had some good discussions at her ladies Bible Study yesterday. This morning was our Coed Bible Study. We had some good discussions about the concept of the Trinity. Next weeks discussion topic is going to be Angels & Demons, that should be interesting.

It has been so windy that I haven't ridden my bicycle this week. I spent 50 minutes Monday and 40 minutes today on the campground treadmill. Tuesday I went to Planet Fitness for a 50 minute workout.

BORING!!! But I'm quite content.

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

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.