Days 35 & 36 - Sunday & Monday, January 7 & 8 - Cowboy Church & Grocery Shopping

 Sunday - We attended the Cowboy Church of the Valley. We got there about 25 minutes before the service started so that we wouldn't have to park a half mile away 😀. The Pastor's 15 year old son was working as a parking lot attendant so he managed to pack a few more cars in the main lot. Last week he was off, with his dad & sister, competing in ranch cowboy events. He took 2nd in the state in one event. I think Chris, the Pastor, said he finished 6th in the same event. We just stayed in and enjoyed the rest of the day. We knew one of the couples from when we attended the Cowboy Church services at Victoria Palms, when we were staying there last year. They have a park model at Victoria Palms and normally attend services there. They are a great Christian couple, we enjoyed attending the Cowboy Church Bible Study with them last year. One of their grandsons was on the youth hockey team that won the World Junior Ice Hockey championships by beating Sweden 6-2 last week. I wonder why news like that doesn't make any of the news feeds I follow. Perhaps I just watch the wrong feeds.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2024/jan/05/usa-sweden-world-hockey-juniors-championship

Monday - The wind blew HARD starting about 10 PM last night. It is still blowing quite hard. Currently Weatherbug is reporting 23 mph average wind speed with 40 mph gusts. When I checked earlier in the day it reported gusts of 45 mph. We had planned on going to the beach today, at South Padre Island, but it wouldn't be much fund when it is this windy. 

At 9:30 AM we attended the Activity Meeting at the Clubhouse. The Activity Director goes through upcoming events. They serve donuts, so the meeting is worth attending. Unfortunately Kathy and I were up enough during the night, because of the winds, the we slept in. By them time we made it to the meeting the donuts were gone 😞. 

More people are finally arriving from the frozen north. There were 3 "first time" couples (the first time they have been here to attend a meeting this year). All 3 couples have permanent park model units. During the afternoon a big bumper pull travel trailer and a 5th wheel unit pulled in to spaces just down the street from us. I'm glad I wasn't out driving a motorhome or pulling a camper in the winds today.

A highlight of the meeting was a sales guy offering "deals" from Breakaway Cruises. We signed up for boat tour of the "Historic Port of Brownsville", which includes a Cajun Shrimp Boil. In addition to the Gulf shrimp the food includes sausage, potatoes, corn on the cob, fresh cut fruit and Hawaiian bread. It is an "open ended" ticket. We just call and make a reservation when we want to go.

Later it was off to HEB for groceries and lunch at Longhorn Steakhouse. Kathy's said her chicken sandwich was good. The salads were good. My half pound cheeseburger was OK, but not close to as good as the burgers we got at In-N-Out Burger last January in California. The loaf of warm bread was great.

I mentioned the wind but not the temperatures. We should have turned the AC on before we went to bed last night. Instead we left the windows slightly open and had a nice breeze blowing through the coach. The problem was the overnight low was a humid 70 degrees. We closed the windows and turned it on once we got up. Below is a photo of our dash when we were driving home from lunch. The "official" high was 84. Normal temps for this time of year are 70/53. It was cloudy when we got up but the clouds soon blew away and the rest of the day was sunny.

Tonight's low is supposed to be a much more pleasant 50 degrees. Also, by 6 AM the humidity is supposed to be down to 25%. At 7:20PM it is still 73 degrees with 84% humidity. Today's wind wasn't pleasant, and we don't care for temperatures this high, but PTL, it is so much better than the weather we would be experiencing if we were in Centertown.

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