Sunday, December 31, 2023

Day 28 - Sunday, December 31 - Cowboy Church of the Valley

 The overnight low was 46. This morning it was so foggy that it was difficult to see across the campground. Todays high was a WINDY 78 degrees, with only a few clouds. For most of the daylight hours winds were around 20 mph with 35-40 mph gusts. 

Church attendance was up today, maybe more snowbirds have arrived. We had to park at least 100 yards from the parking lot entrance. Below is a photo of the full parking lot. (The sky was actually that pretty.)

Walking to the church I saw at least 6 vehicles with Minnesota plates, 3 from Iowa, one each from South Dakota, Illinois & Oklahoma.

There were a few empty seats but I think 90% were full.

Pastor Chris and their children were absent. They were competing at a Ranch Sorting national event near Dallas;. Tracy, his wife gave the message. She did a good job.

“Pastor Pudge and Alma”, Bob and Alma Courtney led the singing and plugged an upcoming area show they are putting together. They work at Branson during the summer and then down here during the winter. https://rpgwebs.com/showcase/vspage.php?ent_code=202061

Songs were “Some Day I’m Gonna Go Fishing With Jesus” (I think the song is on several John Anderson albums), “Power in the Blood” & “Tis So Sweet To Trust in Jesus”; my kind of music, I loved it.

If you are curious about Ranch Sorting check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranch_sorting  Last year a competition was held at the church but we didn't go. I'm hoping we get a chance to go to one while we are down here this year.

There is a New Years Eve dinner/event at the clubhouse tonight, we aren't attending. I think the tickets are $20. For one thing I'm to cheap to pay that and second neither of us is that fond of large crowds of people who we mostly don't know.

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


Saturday, December 30, 2023

Day 27 - Saturday, December 30 - Don Wes Flea Market

 It got a little cool during the night, 42, but warmed up nicely to a mostly sunny 72. Another beautiful day in the neighborhood.

Kathy actually wanted to go to Walmart this morning. The HEB grocery store we went to the other day is big and has a lot of stuff, especially crowds of people. We were surprised at the lack of a crowd at Walmart, on a Saturday morning. I think she may actually want to start shopping there. She didn't even have to stand in line to get a live person check her out.

Then it was on to the Don Wes Flea Market. Its almost next door to the campground we stayed at when we first arrived in the area last year, about 20 miles from our current campground. Initially it looked like there were a lot of cars and we expected it to be crowed, instead it was much emptier that it was last year. We wonder if it won't fill up more starting around mid-January.

We managed to get a great parking space close to the entrance.

From the entrance. Lots of empty space for booths.

This place in the photo below sells Wisconsin cheese and meat. I went in to buy some cheese curds but they only had white curds, which I don't care for.
More empty space.

The people who run this shop aren't woke. The sign says Trump 2023 Take America Back
This is more like the entire place was last year.
Finally we made it to the other side and the fruit and vegetable stand. The people who run it brought a pickup and tandem axle trailer to the nearby campground weekly when we were there last year. They were only at the campground for 2 hours but they did a LOT of business.
And live music! You could hear this guy singing from almost everywhere on the site, and he could sing. If he had CD's out for sale I would have bought them. I was familiar with every song he sang. I think everything he sang was a country & western hit in the 1970-2000 time frame. None of it was the tripe they now call country.
Our big flea market purchase, a $4 bag of "small", red grapefruit. I hope they are as good as they were last year.

After all the exercise at Walmart and the flea market we decided that we deserved pizza for lunch. We went to Moran's Pizzeria and Restaurant for lunch. Its not far from the flea market, which is good because it puts it 20 miles from our current campground, otherwise we would be tempted to go back to often. We has pizza there several times last year. We had garlic rolls for an appetizer and a 14" mushroom & pepperoni pizza. Kathy had a diet Coke and I drank water. The bill was less than $20, and it was a GREAT pizza.

Back home it was nap time. Around 5:30 I went for a 1.6 mile walk around the campground. To walk that far you have to walk almost every street twice. I visited a little with a couple who were taking their dogs to the "dog park". They arrived yesterday, from NE Missouri. They will be here until the end of March. 

After supper Kathy was going to go sit in the hot tub for awhile so I went along. I'm definitely not a hot tub person, we had one at our house in Missouri and the only time I was ever in it was to work on the filter once. Actually, it didn't feel to bad.

We met a Violet and her 40 year old daughter while there. They, including Violet's husband, just arrived from North Dakota. This is the 3rd year they have been coming to this park. Last year they got tired of pulling their 5th wheel back and forth so they bought a park model before they left. Their daughter helped with the driving and will be flying back to ND in a few days. She is a teacher and off for Christmas break.

As I've walked/biked around I've seen license plates from Texas (quite a few from Texas), Illinois, Indiana, Iowa (at least 3 couples are here from Iowa), Oklahoma, Wisconsin, North Dakota, Missouri and Ontario, Canada.

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

Friday, December 29, 2023

Day 26 - Friday, December 29 - Unexciting Day

 Weather was good again today, but cool. Last nights low was 43 and todays high was a mostly sunny 68.

Today was a pretty routine day, we never left the campground. Kathy spent some time in the morning and again in the afternoon working on puzzles at the clubhouse, in addition to doing some reading while at home. I did some reading, washed the Flex and rode my bike around the campground for 3.3 miles. In exercise terms 3.3 miles down here in flat Texas is probably the equivalent of 0.5 miles in hilly Missouri.

It was just a nice relaxing day.

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

Thursday, December 28, 2023

Day 25 - Thursday, December 28 - Another Gorgeous Day

Today was another gorgeous weather day. Some rain had been forecast but the sky remained virtually cloudless all day. Today was cooler with an overnight low of 45 and a high of 69. Shorts and a tee shirt felt fine when out in the sun but, especially in the late afternoon, with the breeze and in the shade it was to cool to be comfortable.

We went to Walgreens and picked up the prescriptions we ordered a couple of days ago. Then we went to Sam's to pick up few things. It is nice to have things conveniently close (Walgreens 2.5 miles/7 minutes; Sam's 2.4 miles/6 minutes) but the trade off is LOTS of people and LOTS of traffic. 

Sam's checkout lines

The line for lunch.
Every lunch table had people sitting at it.

We sure enjoy the weather but not the crowds and traffic.

We went home for lunch and then had some "housekeeping" chores to do. I got out our little grill, got the charcoal burning and grilled pork chops for supper.

One surprise is that we have good WiFi here, its good enough to stream TV shows. We are watching Avatar: The Way of the Water right now. The WiFi is much better than last year. I expected to have to pay for decent WiFi. They give you an ad for pay WiFi as part of your intro packet. I called the place, ready to order, before realizing that the "free" campground WiFi is fine. The guy I talked to seemed to give me the run around so I didn't place an order. I'm glad I didn't. 

The campground still has many empty spaces. We wonder if more people will start showing up soon, people who stayed north to spend Christmas with family and friends. 

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

Day 24, Wednesday, December 27 - Bible Study

 Today was a gorgeous day! Last nights low was 53 and todays high was a mostly sunny 71. We sat out in the sun for awhile but had to get in the shade because we got to warm. The sun is so low in the sky that it blasts through under our awning.

My chores for the day were mixing up brine to regen our water softener tomorrow, cleaning the front coach wheels & trying to get the toilet seal so that the water doesn't drain out of the toilet between uses. I also managed to get in some exercise, not a lot but I'm doing better. Fitbit gave me credit for 5,180 steps & 2.48 miles walking, plus a 2.43 mile bike ride.

Below is a photo of a couple of pages that list place with RV sites around here. Lots of choices.


This evening we went to Bible Study at the Cowboy Church. We watched a video and discussed it. The speaker used the Israelite spies incursion into the Promised Land as the basis for his discussion, scripture from Numbers chapters 9 & 10. I don't think he really said anything I had not heard before but my brain needs to be refreshed regularly. He said that God has a job for every Christian and that each Christian's job will be difficult enough that we can't complete it without relying on Him. He drew parallels between the fears of the Israelite spies, except for Joshua & Caleb, and what we will face. He said we may fail multiple times before we complete that task. 

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

Tuesday, December 26, 2023

Day 23, Tuesday, December 26 - Shopping Day

The weather is a little cooler this week. The overnight low was 56 and todays high was a cloudy, somewhat breezy 65.

We did get out of the campground today. We went to Golden Corral for lunch. Their Senior Early Bird lunch is by far the best deal around. I think it costs $21 for both of us, including drinks.

Then we went to HEB for groceries, picked up some prescriptions from Walgreens and bought a replacement duplex outlet at Johnny's True Value Hardware. Everything was within 3.5 miles of the campground. Johnny's is a real, honest to goodness, hardware store. I'm definitely going back to spend several hours checking it out.

Back at the campground Kathy walked up to the clubhouse and worked on a puzzle. My Fitbit says that I walked 1.7 miles during our outing. In the afternoon I rode my bicycle 3 laps around the campground, only a total of 1.75 miles. It continues to amaze me how much stamina I lost when I quit exercising during my treatments. 

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

Monday, December 25, 2023

Day 22, Monday, December 25 - Jesus is the Reason for the Season

 Breezy today. Sunny this morning but cloudy this afternoon. Today's high was 68.

The highlight of the day was Christmas Dinner at the clubhouse. Around 120 people attended. At out table of 12 there were 4 couples from Iowa. This was the first year year here for a couple from NW Iowa. Two of the other couples are from Marshalltown, IA, about 30 miles from where we used to live in Iowa. They have been coming here for several years. The campground provided ham for everyone and each table brought food for a potluck/pitch in for their table. Our food table is on the left. Everything I ate was great. There was plenty for people to take "to go" containers home with them.

Cute name tags for everyone, in addition to the badges everyone has that show their name and home base location.
Kathy is already napping. All the cooking and eating wore her out. It probably won't be long before I join her.

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


Sunday, December 24, 2023

Day 21, Sunday, December 24 - Cowboy Church of the Valley

 It was good to be back at the Cowboy Church of the Valley this morning. The church is about a 15 minute drive from the campground.

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

https://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064621966623&_rdr

Heading in from the packed parking lot.

The church is the tan building, furthest in the back. The nearest building is where the younger kids have church.
Heading out after the service. 
The arena complex across the street from the church.

We are both looking forward to getting back involved in the Wednesday Bible Study.

Then it was on to Rosita's for lunch. I can't imagine when Google took this photo, with the parking lot empty. It was almost full when we arrived for lunch. Rosita's is only a little over a mile from the campground.

Lunch was good. Once we check out some other places down here I'm sure we will try it again. Kathy had to try every one of the sauces/salsas. They were all HOT! She gave me a pepper that came with her meat. I cut off a small piece and ate it with some rice. I felt it burn all the way down to the middle of my chest. (The 2nd & 3rd small bites didn't seem quite as hot.)


The moon was beautiful as we walked up to the Community Center for the Christmas Eve service tonight. Photos don't even come close to capturing the beauty.

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


Saturday, December 23, 2023

Day 20 - Saturday, December 23 - Boring Day at the Campground

 Today's high was a damp, cloudy 73. It misted rain on and off. We did set out under the awning for awhile, but it was cool doing that.

Kathy went up and worked on a puzzle for awhile. They have lots of DVD's, paperbacks, some hard cover books and a whole rack of puzzles.

I finally got motivated enough to do some walking. I walked around the campground enough to get in 1.66 miles.

I did some research on Class C's for my cousin who will hopefully get paroled next spring. We can "email" one another. His current goal is to get a Class C to live in and a boat to pull behind it so that he can go fishing. A parolee in Texas has no in-state travel restrictions. Texas is only a little smaller than Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska & Iowa combined. From Orange (near the LA border) to El Paso is 850 miles. From Centertown to Pittsburgh is only 740 miles.

Some campground photos.
This is the street we are parked on.
The pool and hot tub area
The big room in the Community Center
At the far end of the building there is a room with a couple of pool tables and a ping pong table. In the other corner is a fitness center.

We are looking forward to attending the Cowboy Church of the Valley in the morning.

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

Friday, December 22, 2023

Day 19 - Friday, December 22nd - No Electrical Issues Today

 64 degrees overnight, a mostly  cloudy high of 76. It's 67 now, at 9:30, with 97% humidity. I've had been sitting in front of an open window, watching a movie. It was a little cool, for some reason it doesn't feel as humid as it did last night.

No electrical issues today. PTL! I forgot to mention something that ended up giving us a laugh two nights ago, in the midst of our electrical problems. I had put something in the microwave and just as I pushed the start button something started buzzing. The microwave came on, but it wasn't causing the buzzing. The invertor in our travel trailer used to make a quieter, but similar noise when we had a lot of 12v things running, but we had never heard the invertor in the coach make any noise. I could hear the noise but with my deaf ear and lack of stereo hearing I had no idea where it was coming from. Kathy zeroed in on the wall between the kitchen and shower. The wall has a roll out shelving unit where we store canned goods, but there is nothing in the wall to buzz. Then Kathy asked what I had done with the electric toothbrush that I had been using. The switch had gone bad and I threw it away. I had thrown it into the wastebasket that sits against this wall,  we had thrown some trash on top of it. For some reason it had started and was the source of the buzzing. I dug it out and took the batteries out to get it to stop. It was a good stress reliever.

We spent well over an hour driving around Harlingen today, just getting a better feel of the place. We had lunch at a Whataburger (big chain here). The hamburgers were OK the fries were nice and hot. 

After lunch we stopped at Home Depot so that I could get some screws to re-attach the loose front fender well liners. We apparently banged over one to many curbs with the front bumper and it popped the OEM plastic fasteners that originally attached the liners to the body panel. Hopefully the screws will do the job. I need to get a piece of metal and do a little more patching, maybe a piece of aluminum from a can, to patch a broken section of the liner. It may have been like this for months, I just noticed it yesterday.

While at Home Depot I looked for a couple of the RV style duplex outlets but they didn't have them. I will probably have to go to an RV parts store to find what I want.

Kathy spent over an hour up at the clubhouse working on a puzzle while I was working on the car. She didn't go to the jacuzzi tonight, she said it wasn't quite hot enough last night.

In the late afternoon we sat outside until around 5PM when, with the breeze, it was to cool to be sitting outside in shorts and a tee shirt. It was another good day.

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


Thursday, December 21, 2023

Day 18 - Thursday, December 21 - Shortest Day of the Year

 Weather was great today. The high was a mostly sunny 77. We did get a very brief shower about 10AM. 

At 9:30PM its 67 with 91% humidity. A half hour ago it was a humid 76 inside the coach so we closed the windows and turned on the AC.

Around 11AM the boss of the2 electricians who were here yesterday, came to check our electrical problem. He checked over what they did and then pulled the meter for our site. (If you stay here at the monthly rate your electricity is metered and you pay for it on top of the site rent.) As soon as he looked at the meter base he knew what was wrong. Only about half of one of the conductors from the meter base to the breaker panel was still in place. He said that when the coach tried to pull power from that leg the wire would heat up and screwy things would happen to the output. Our coach's energy management system (EMS) would see the weird readings on that leg and shut some things down until the readings were normal.

He pulled the meter for the pedestal next to ours and didn't like what he saw in it. He went to the next site down the row, opened the panel and pulled the meter. That one looked better to him. He still replaced the 50 amp breaker and installed a new 50 amp outlet. He got a 50 amp extension cord out of his truck and loaned it to us until he could repair the pedestal at our site. He wants to totally replace it but has to talk the campground into letting him do that. He was an interesting guy. We had a great time visiting.

After he left I worked on replacing the electrical outlet that I use for my CPAP. Every time we move I have to unplug and move the CPAP so that we can pull in one of the bedroom slides. With all the use the "flange" that holds the outlet from pushing back into the wall broke. They are weird "boxless" units.

The wires push into slots that grip them, no screw for the wires. I found it nearly  impossible to get the wires into the slots. I worked on it for at least an hour, down in the narrow slot between the side of the bed and the closet. I finally got the wires into the slots but then couldn't get the back cover to seat properly. I have it working, but I'm not happy with my work. One of the outlets in the kitchen, where we plug and unplug the coffee maker, is also broken. (Andy R., I sure miss you 😀)

I need to buy 2 more of them and hopefully get both of them replaced in a manner where I am satisfied with my work. 

Kathy spent some time up at the clubhouse and I spent time visiting. Our Montana plates seem to generate visitors, usually people who live, or who have lived, in Montana. A former MT resident saw me outside regenerating our  water softener and stopped to visit. He was a former motorcycle rider so we had a point for discussion. 

On my way back from walking the garbage up to the dumpsters our neighbors down a couple of sites were sitting out on their patio. They are from southwest Wisconsin and are renting a park model unit for a couple of months. Yesterday I had asked them if they had any electrical issues and they said they  had not. As I walked by this afternoon they asked about the status of our electrical problems. I mentioned touring the aircraft carrier Lexington while in Corpus Christi and Roger said that he spent four years on a carrier taking care of the boilers, before spending 30 years taking care of the boilers at a college in Wisconsin.

About the only positive thing I accomplished today was regenerating our water softener. Hopefully I will manage to knock a couple more things of my "to do" list tomorrow.

God is good. I pray that He blesses you and your as He has me.


Wednesday, December 20, 2023

Day 17 - Wednesday, December 20 - A Great 1st Day in Harlingen

 Last nights low was 55, we had the bedroom windows open all night and didn't bother with any heat this morning. Today's high was a mostly sunny 78. At 9AM jeans and a long sleeve flannel shirt felt good when I walked over to the campground office. By 10:30AM I was sitting outside in shorts and a tee shirt.

Not all was sunshine and roses 😀, the Lord provided me with more perseverance/patience training last night. When I logged off after finishing my blog post, around 11PM, I realized that the our shore power had shut down again. I went out and tried turning the 50 amp breaker on and off, unplugging and plugging into the pedestal for the campsite next to us, etc. Nothing worked. I don't know when we actually lost power but the house batteries had already dropped to 75%. At this point the biggest problem was that I was to have to sleep without my CPAP. I probably could have just switched on the invertor and powered the CPAP with the house batteries. Also, I could have started the generator to charge the batteries for awhile before going to bed, but even though we don't have a neighbor in an adjacent campsite I figured others might also have windows open and not appreciate me running the generator at midnight. I checked that the refrigerator was running on propane and took a shower (there was plenty of hot water without have to switch the water heater to propane). As I was in the shower I had an epiphany (maybe God slapped my brain 😀). I could just use a 30 amp to 50 amp plug convertor and at least have 30 amps until the issue could be resolved. I dug around in the basement and dug out the plug convertor. I tried it on the pedestal for our campsite and still had no 120v inside the coach. I switched to the neighboring pedestal and hallelujah, we had 120v in the coach. It was 2AM when I finally crawled into bed, with my CPAP operational. 

A few minutes after 9 I told the lady at the campground office about the problem, the same one who brought her shovel down to help me did out the sewer connection. She said she would get approval and get an electrician out. Two guys showed up before 11AM. They took the box apart and knocked 2 double handfuls of sand out of it (they said some type of small ant drag the sand up into the boxes). They stripped out the 50 amp plug and breaker and the 30 amp plug and breaker and had everything working in about 30 minutes. I asked if they had been authorized to fix the pedestal for the campsite next to us and they said not. Apparently preventative maintenance, or even fixing things you know are broke but that aren't causing you an immediate problem, is not a concept the campground owners value.

While writing this Kathy is watching the Masked Singer. The TV & washer shut down. Other things seemed to work fine. A few minutes later they blipped on for 15 seconds and then off again. I went out, shut off the 50 amp breaker, wiggled the plus some, turned the breaker back on and all seems to be working OK. I watched the electricians install the new breaker and outlet. The guy seemed to careful to double check to make sure all connections were tight. He used new wires between the breaker and the outlet. 

I think I may bite the bullet tomorrow and buy a 50 amp power conditioner. I just had a thought. Its possible that I caused the problem this evening, but I don't think likely. When we were on the 30 amp plug last night I "turned down" the electrical management system to not draw more than 20 amps. I don't know whether limiting the draw is the "per leg" limit, or the total draw limit. If it is the "per leg" limit I suppose we could have exceeded that.

Just as the electricians were leaving a guy walked up and handed me a business card and asked it I wanted the coach washed and waxed. I said how much, he asked the length of the coach, I said 40', he said $280, I said when do you want to do it and he said now. His truck, and 2 other guys were parked across the road. I'm happy with the job they did. The "wax" was a quick wax, spray on and wipe off, but for the price I didn't expect a buffed paste wax job. It looks good.

The guy with  his back to us was the boss. I wonder if the young man in the USA shirt, with the hose, was his son. The 2 older guys were definitely a team. They worked fast and non-stop. The boss often gave instructions to the younger guy.

The finished product.

The team leaving after the job was done. Check out our clean windshield. Not a lot of overhead for these guys. A 10' step ladder, 75' of hose, some buckets, a bunch of microfiber cloths, soap and several bottles of spray wax.

On our way out for lunch I dropped some papers off at the office and noted this Class C out front. The awning looks similar to what we had on our travel trailer. I  wonder if there are corner posts to help support the weight of the walls. This sure gives him/her/them a lot more space. There was a small trailer still hooked to the unit and a larger motorcycle that had been unloaded.


We went to a Golden Corral for their early bird seniors lunch and then, hold your breath, we went to Walmart. Kathy actually went inside and bought a few groceries. She actually went through a Self-Checkout lane. WOW!!

So, where are the Dirschells? We are under the red icon.
We are 42 miles, 52 minutes, from the beach on South Padre Island and we are 22 miles and 28 minutes from the Mexico border crossing at Progresso, which is the one a lot of people at the campground use. I walked across the bridge at Progresso, and at least a half mile into the town, when we were here last year. There is a crossing at Los Indios, which is 17 miles and 22 minutes from the campground. I don't have a lot of interest in crossing into Mexico again, it was a zoo with all the old snowbirds last year, but I may ask about the Los Indios crossing.

Encore Lakewood in Harlingen. We are on Adler Street, just to the left and slightly above the icon.

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






Tuesday, December 19, 2023

Day 16 - Tuesday, December 19 - Corpus Christi to Harlingen

Last nights low was 59 degrees. Today’s high, as we travelled the 155 miles from Padre Balli in Corpus Christi to Encore Lakewood in Harlingen, TX, was a mostly sunny 73.

I finally remembered to take photos of a couple of interesting structures on our way out of Corpus Christi.

This is Island Joes Coffee and Gallery, built out of containers. http://www.islandjoescc.com/

I don't know what this building is, The front really looks like a large sand castle.

We thought that these might be rice storage barns when we drove by them but it turns out that they are barns for cottonseed processing. 




Google maps plan of the barns.

The article at the following link is interesting. I would love to tour the place but when I read about them using hexane to extract the oil I knew that would never be allowed. When I worked for Staley’s in Decatur, IL they used hexane to extract oil from soy beans and corn. Employees had to sign in just to get in the plant. Then, to get into the hexane extraction areas, which were fenced off with chain link, inside the plant, you had to check in with the area manager and be escorted. No ferrous metals, not even heels nailed on your shoes. NOTHING that might produce a spark. While I worked there one of the facilities has a “small” hexane explosion. It blew the top off a piece of equipment and blew most of the windows out of a 3 story building. A 25 hp that was on top of the machine where the explosion occurred was missing. Above where it had been there was a hole in the 5” thick concrete roof. On our way up the stairway access to the roof we notice light coming through the roof of the stairway enclosure. The motor had blown up through the roof and then come back down on the concrete roof of the stairway enclosure. It broke a hole in the concrete but the rebar caught it like a net.

https://myrgv.com/local-news/2022/08/27/valley-cottonseed-oil-mill-is-first-step-to-a-thousand-products/

Many more miles of road rebuilding for I69E. There were still two lanes open both directions so it didn’t slow traffic to much. We topped off our fuel tank in Kingsville, TX. 35 gallons @ $3.22/gallon. We saw several stations where fuel was less than $3/gallon but we didn't think we could get in and out of them.

We liked staying here at Lakewood last year but it gives off the vibe of being the ill-treated step sister of the Encore campgrounds in the area. We were assigned site 281, a back-in, grass site with a small, badly cracked, concrete patio; no fire ring, no picnic table. The standard rate is $53/night & $322/week. Our Thousand Trails membership allows us to stay up to 14 consecutive days for “free”, then you have to “be out of the system” for 7 days (pay for a week here or somewhere else). It appears that they don’t regularly use campsites in this area of our site. Our site and a couple either side were recently mowed. When I checked out the utility hook ups prior to having Kathy back in I couldn’t find a sewer connection. I saw a depressed area in the grass and after poking I found what looked like a cap on a 4” PVC pipe. The top of the cap was a couple of inches below the surrounding grade. Grass had grown completely over the cap. I plugged in our 50 amp electrical connection, turned on the breaker and found we had no power. I flipped the breaker off, pulled the plug out, re-inserted it, turned the breaker back on and still no power. I told Kathy I was going to walk up and talk to the check-in lady to tell her that we didn’t have power and that I needed a shovel to access the sewer. The lady, a nice lady who lives here and who I remembered from last year, told me that they didn’t have a maintenance person on site today. She said she would go home, get a shovel and come down to see what she could do. On my walk back Kathy sent me a text telling me that the power had come on. The lady came with her shovel, I dug up the top of the pipe and pried off the cap.

After all that I came in to set up my CPAP machine and had no power at the outlet. I had previously broken the outlet and had purchased a new one, I just had not installed it yet, it worked OK. I decided I would go ahead and change it. While getting ready to change it I realized that the outlet was not hot, so I started checking 120v circuit breakers. They all seemed fine. By this time I found that none of the 3 duplex outlets in the bedroom were hot, nor were the 2 in the bathroom area, which were GFCI protected. I unsuccessfully searched the outside bays for more 120v breakers. By this time Kathy had supper ready. While we were eating she asked me to set up our Winegard Razer antenna to see how many local channels we could get. Once it was done scanning I tried to turn on the TV so that so that it could link up to the channels the Razer had found. The TV would not come on. In the dark I went back to the campground electrical boxes with my meter and checked the 50 amp plug for the campsite next to ours. It had approx. 120v on each of the legs. I unplugged our cable and plugged it into the other box and all seems fine. AARGH!!!!

And that was the excitement for the afternoon.

God is good. I pray that He blesses you and yours as He has me (Today He blessed me with a lesson about perseverance/patience, and becoming more mature. James 1:3-4)

Monday, December 18, 2023

Day 15 - Monday, December 18 - Nicest Day Yet

Mostly sunny with moderate winds today. Last nights low was 52 and today's high was 77. Sitting here writing this I'm looking out the front, the sun set at 5:40, it was 6:10 when we took these photos. They don't come close to showing how gorgeous the sky was.

Kathy  took this one through the dirty  windshield before I got shoes on to go outside.

I was outside when I took this one. 

Our adventures for the day were limited a trip to Sam's, and lunch at an Italian restaurant. Sam's was an absolute zoo! I soon got out of there and sat in the car and read. Kathy wasn't far behind me. My salad and sandwich (have no idea what it was called) was OK, but surprisingly bland. Kathy's clam/noodle dish was good.

Kathy had sat out at the beach some during the morning, while I did my previous blog post. In the afternoon she sat outside and read for awhile. I sat inside and read, in a much more comfortable chair 😀. 

The last week I got in a decent week of exercise was Oct 15-21. Absorbing information about the need for a hormone shot and 28 radiation treatments to treat my prostate cancer, coupled with some heart issues, allowed me to use that as an excuse to quit exercising. (All is well now.) Yesterdays and todays 1.5 mile walks were an attempt to get back in the swing.

As you walk around campgrounds you get to see some interesting outfits.


I went online and found some information about the vehicle and the Swiss couple who are travelling in it. I haven't met, or seen, them.

https://dubu-and-more.ch/en/about-us/

https://dubu-and-more.ch/en/our-bucher-duro/

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


Day 14 - Sunday, December 17 - End of Second Week

Sunday weather was the nicest it has been while we have been in Corpus Christi. An overnight low of 50 and a sunny, not to windy, high of 68. 

We listened/watched online church services in the morning, as well as lounging around. I watched Josh's 12/10 message from The Living Word in California, MO, my home church, as well as Chris's 12/10 message from the Cowboy Church of the Valley in Santa Rosa, TX, where we will attend while in south TX. I didn't want to miss Josh's non-Luke advent messages and I want to be primed for Chris's series once we start attending the Church of the Valley.

In the afternoon we drove further south down Padre Island and then out to the beach. It is amazing how firm the sand is. We drove at least a mile up the beach and then turned around. (It was difficult but I managed to keep  Kathy from doing any high speed Daytona runs while on the beach.😀) 

In this area I think it is as much as 5 miles between access points where you can drive out to the beach. This area is posted "Sea Turtle Nesting Area." It looks like vehicle traffic can be blocked out at times. The sign says to report any sighting of nesting sea turtles. I have no idea what time of year nesting occurs.

There are places next to the dunes where you could probably get stuck in loose sand, if you purposely went out of you way.

One of us went wading. It was still a little windy. You probably can't see Kathy's ear muffs, but she is wearing them.

I took a 1.5 mile walk along the beach but stayed out of the water.

Late Saturday night, or maybe early Sunday morning, I finally got our TV settings corrected to where it could "see" the campground WiFi and my phone hotspot. At some time prior to our buying the coach the TV had been upgraded, the in dash radio had been upgraded and the "entertainment center" had been removed. Months ago I bought a cheap DVD play at a thrift store but was not able to get the TV to "see" it. When the maintenance was being done on our coach at Lakeshore (Iuka, MS) I asked them to see if they could fix it. (You can't get to the back of the TV without taking it loose from its mount. It's big enough that I didn't want to try getting it down by myself.) A "splitter" box under the coach had failed. They replaced it and we were able to watch DVD's. When we arrived here we tried to access the WiFi and found that some setting had changed. We don't have any manual for the TV. I went online and couldn't find anything to fix the problem but I didn't find out  how to do a "hard reset" to factory settings. After going through the set up procedures everything seems to be working. Sooo last night after Kathy had watched a couple of old NCIS shows I watched a couple of episodes of Justified on Hulu, instead of doing my nightly blog post on time 😀.

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




Saturday, December 16, 2023

Day 13 - Saturday, December 16 - South Texas Botanical Garden

 A sunny day today! Hooray. Still quite windy until evening. Today's high was 70. 

After an exciting lunch at the DQ, NOT, but the hot fudge for dessert was good. We headed on to the South Texas Botanical Garden, a 30 minute drive from the campground.

The first exhibit was the Reptile House. We didn't spend a lot of time looking at the snakes. I took no photos. But the flowers on the grounds were pleasant to look at. This flowering gnarled "tree" was interesting.

This was interesting because it was ugly.


There appeared to be quite a few of these that had been sold.
Going into the Butterfly Garden, with the hundreds of butterflies was cool.


Had to watch where you stepped.
There were lots of activities for kids.
Kathy pointed out these seats and told me to check them out. The "cushions" looked quite comfortable, they were not. It was tile over concrete/stone.


Fortunately we got back to the coach in time for me to work in another nice afternoon nap.

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