Day 87 - Wednesday, February 28 - Prepping to Leave

 This morning we went to Sam's to stock up on a few items before we start travelling. 

I had put all my tools in the back of the car so that I would have them with me when I was up at the Cowboy Church. Today I moved them back into the coach "basement." 

We ate supper at the weekly potluck/pitch in at the clubhouse. There is always a good variety of good things to eat. In addition its a chance to visit and learn about other Winter Texans. Our last Texas potluck of this season.

After supper we drove up to the Cowboy Church for our last Cowboy Church Bible Study of the season. There were about 25 people in attendance tonight. A couple from near Alpena, MI are heading back north tomorrow. They normally stay longer and are actually Texas residents but they sold their park model unit and have to move out.

Today's high was a sticky 83 degrees. When we walked over to the clubhouse for the potluck, 5PM, the temperature was only 65 degrees, where it stayed until around 10PM. It is slowly going down and it supposed to drop down to 60 by morning. Tomorrow's high is only supposed to get to 66, which will be quite a change.

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

Day 86 - Tuesday, February 27 - WINDY!

 The wind blew hard last night and most of the day. Constant wind speeds were 25-30 mph with 35-40 mph gusts. Kathy saw on the news that 60 mph gusts were recorded near here. Today's high temperature was 87 degrees.

Yesterday I mentioned working at the Cowboy Church, with the temperatures in the 80's. Below is a photo of Manny adding some sealant around the edges of the gable end we closed up. Note his black, long sleeve shirt. Also note the pictures on the wall. The reason for the new wall is that they have a small school at the church. Turns out the boys and girls have been passing notes, etc. back and forth over the 8' high wall. They will now have to be more creative.

The pictures on the wall.

A guy has been working on the roof of a house just outside the campground. I took the photo below through one of the coach windows this morning. It was 74 degrees and the guy was wearing a black jacket. The last time I  saw him on the roof was 10:15, so he got off before it was to hot.

Kathy went to Walmart this morning while I waited for the propane guys. The propane guy was supposed to come yesterday but I missed their phone call verifying that we were home. Our gage still read 3/8 of a tank but, since the guys come through the campground, we thought we would go ahead and get the tank topped off here. 15.3 gallons, $64.24 ($4.20/gal). Our onboard tank will hold 28-29 gallons if it is completely empty. When I called and they told me $4.20/gal I did a little thinking about the price. Blue Rhino, who sells a lot of exchange 20# tanks, admits that they only put 15# in the tanks. 15# is 3.54 gal. Seems to be the their tank exchange price is up around $18 now, or over $5/gal. 

We last filled the tank November 27, before we left, so our average daily  propane cost has been $0.70. Most of the propane we have burned has been for cooking. If the temperature is 35 or above our heat pumps keep the temperatures up fine. There were 3 nights before we left when the temperatures were below freezing and 3 January nights down here with below freezing temperatures. 

After we got the groceries unloaded we went to Golden Corral for lunch. 

This afternoon both of us went over and spent time working on a puzzle, and listening to the Jam Session musicians. It was the last Jam Session for this season, Winter Texans are starting to head home. Later, when the wind had died down a little, I got in a 5.3 mile bike ride. Riding with the wind was fun, riding against it was TOUGH. That puts me at 13.6 miles for the week. A far cry from what I rode last week. 

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

Day 85 - Monday, February 26 - Worked at the Cowboy Church

 Kathy stayed home cleaning and working on a puzzle at the clubhouse. I spent 6 hours working up at the Cowboy Church (my last work day of the season at the church).

Manny, a local guy, and I finished installing the top of a wall between the men's and women's restroom. Visiting with him was interesting. I learned a lot about different local things. When we went to lunch we drove by a grove of orange trees. Some of the trees still had oranges on them while the vast majority had been picked. Many said the unpicked ones were "male" trees and that the fruit was not the same as the female trees. He also gave me insights into sugar cane planting and harvesting.

I think it was the hottest day since we have been down here. The restrooms where we were working were not air conditioned. It sure felt like the hottest day. The "official" high was a sunny 85. 

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

Days 83 & 84 - Saturday & Sunday, February 24 & 25

 Saturday was a slow day. We didn't do much. I rode my bike 7.3 miles, more laps around the campground. My total for the week was 53 miles. I'm sure it was the most I have ever ridden a non-motorized bike in a week. It's probably the most I will ever ride one in a week. I can't see me riding one 7 miles in a day in Missouri, let alone doing it 7 days in a row.

Sunday - We attended a another great service at the Cowboy Church. Our last Cowboy Church service of the season 😞.

After church we drove over to the flea market in Donna and bought two bags of grapefruit and a bag of sweet onions, our last trip to the Donna flea market this season. We are sure going to miss being able to buy their fresh $4/bag Texas grapefruit. 

After the flea market we went to Moran's Pizzeria, in Donna, for one of their great pizzas. It's a good thing that Moran's is 20 miles from the campground, otherwise we would be over eating pizza regularly. 

Back at the coach we turned on the Nascar race. Thankfully this race wasn't as boring as last weeks Daytona 500. It is sad that Nascar has chosen to choke all innovation out of Cup racing. From 1984 to 1987 to win the pole for the 500 you had to run a lap at over 200 mph. In 1987 Bill Elliot won the pole with a lap of 210.4mph. Joey Logano won the pole this year with a lap of 181.9mph. 37 years of better tires, suspensions and engine technology and top lap speeds have dropped by nearly 30 mph. Logano's 2024 pole winning lap probably wouldn't have even qualitied him to get in the race in 1987. You have to go back to 1967 to find drivers who won the Daytona 500 pole with laps as slow as the last three years pole winners. Its as pathetic as NASA. In 1969 we landed men on the moon and brought them home. 55 years later, after spending trillions of tax dollar on space programs, and we are supposed to be excited over the landing of an unmanned probe.

The weather has been great the past couple of days. Today's high was a mostly sunny, slightly breezy 84.

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

Days 81 & 82 - Thursday & Friday, February 22 & 23 - Busy Days

 Thursday I spent 4 hours working at the Cowboy Church. I spent maybe an hour power washing algae off the side of one of the out buildings and the rest of the time cleaning cobwebs out of the roof area of the worship area.

My cobweb cleaner.

I had to tape together a couple of extendible wands to reach the roof at the peak.

In the afternoon we spent several hours working on a puzzle at the clubhouse, while listening to a young guy sing mostly classic country music. He was quite good.

Since our days here are winding down we are getting serious about "bucket list" items. Today we drove to Port Isabel to have our final meal of the season at Pirates Landing. It was disappointing. We sat in the bar so that we only had to wait 5 minutes for a table. After another 5 minutes the waitress took our order, which was fine. Then she came back and told Kathy that they didn't have crab louie today, which is the only thing Kathy has eaten there. She ordered something else. I ordered my usual sandwich, even though it wasn't that great the last time we were there. We waited 55 minutes more for our food. Kathy's was good. They have changed/ruined the Dirty Dave's Beef Philly that I like. I had hoped that the last one I had there was a cooks mistake, but what I got then and today is apparently the "new and improved" Dirty Dave's.

From there we drove over to Space X's Boca Chica launch facility. Today's round trip was 130 miles.

Note how close the launch facility is to the border in the photo below.

It was a beautiful day so we drove a few hundred yards past Space X, out to the beach.

The photo below is taken from the same spot as the one above. I just turned around to take it.

There were a few others out on the beach, but not many. Kathy suggested we drive down the beach to the border but I was chicken.

Then it was back to the Space X complex. We didn't see anything close to a Visitor's Center. You could see what you could see from the road and that was it.

There are big letters saying Space X above this entry but they are difficult to see in the photo.

This building was in a different complex. The sign on it says Stargate.

This was parked across from the facility. There is a sign that says Space X Base Camp on it.

One of the rockets/boosters(?) is inside this building.

There were dozens of these "tiny houses" in one area of the complex. 

This is what it looks like on the opposite side of the road.

This Sheriff's tower and an "Inspection Station" are nor far inland from Space X. Everyone headed west must go through the Inspection Station. We rolled our window down, the guy said, "American citizens?", we said Yes, he told us to have a nice day and waved us through. Maybe there is traffic driving north up the beach.

These flowering plants were a long way off. I didn't get a photo of the few we saw up close to the road. The blooming section was at least a foot tall.

An interesting RV Resort. Canopies to park under. I guess if you don't have trees that is one way to provide shade.

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

Day 80 - Wednesday, February 21 - The Days Are Winding Down

 This morning Kathy went to Walmart for something to do. I finally sprayed the grass around the coach hoping to kill any ants. After that I rode my bike over to Lucille's, about a quarter mile, parked it and rode Lucille's recumbent trike, the one I fixed the tire on and lubed the rusted chain. Below is a copy of the photo of the bike that I posted previously.

I rode over to our coach, got out a can of degreaser and sprayed to shift mechanisms liberally. I then rode it about 1.5 miles around the campground before coming back to our coach and relubing the chains and shift mechanisms. By then it was shifting better than my bike so I took it back to Lucille's. 

It is/was a very expensive trike, I saw a new one online for $1,500. It has 3 sprockets on the front and 7 on the rear for 21 speeds. I don't like riding it. It feels tippy to me, in addition to my belly doesn't work well with the seated position for peddling. 

It was windy again today, steady winds of around 25 mph and gusts of 35-40 mph. Riding north was great, riding south was TOUGH. In the afternoon I went rode my bike some more to get in a total of 8.3 miles for the day. I think that puts me at 29 miles for the week. I've decided that the wind is a Lord's blessing. The roads around the park are pretty flat. Riding with and against the wind down here is good preparation for riding up and down Missouri's hills.

This evening we went to the Cowboy Church Bible Study. We enjoy the teaching. Tonight was a little sad thinking that we only have one more session before we leave, and only one more Sunday morning. Perhaps, Lord willing, we will make it back to the Rio Grande Valley next season. I think I could get used to the idea of being a Winter Texan, which is what a lot of folks down here call themselves.

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

Day 78 & 79 - Monday & Tuesday, February 19 & 20 - Nothing Exciting

 Monday we left the resort for some shopping. The first stop was Tractor Supply to buy some insecticide (for killing ants, etc.), then on to Johnny's True Value hardware to get tube for Lucille's recumbent trike, lunch at the Las Vegas Cafe and finally stopping at HEB for groceries.

The ant bites on my legs are still healing. I plan on spraying the grass around the coach at least weekly.

When I was wandering through Johnny's I ended up in a guns and ammo area. MAN DO THEY HAVE A BUNCH OF RIFLES AND SHOTGUNS, AND AMMO! Kathy was waiting for me in the car so I may need to go back and check that department out more thoroughly.

In the afternoon I installed the tube in Lucille's bike, and rode the bike about 1/4 mile to see how it shifted. The rusty old chain hangs up occasionally. I think it will be okay after more riding and regular lubing. The recumbent seating position isn't comfortable for an old guy with  a big belly. 

We had the TV on for the Daytona 500 but neither of us can get very excited about NASCAR restrictor plate racing. It is BORING! After the race was over  got in a 7.4 mile bike ride, on my bike, not Lucille's, in the dark. 

I spent Tuesday morning making arrangements for the start of our trip back home. On March 1st we plan on moving 90 miles north to Riveria, TX, for two nights. On the 2nd we have tickets to tour highlights of the 825,000 acre (1,289 sq mi, the state of Rhode Island is only 1,545 sq mi) King Ranch, in Kingsville, TX. The Running W brand was registered in 1869.

On the 3rd we move to Victoria, TX for a couple of days. One of the interesting things there, I hope, is the Museum of Coastal Bend. That's all the reservations I made today. The plan is that we will go from Victoria to Surfside Beach, TX. We were at a campground there from Feb 6th-20th, 2015. We only plan on being there 3 or 4 nights this time.

https://bertdsblog.blogspot.com/2015/02/feb-6th-long-day.html

After lunch I went to the clubhouse to listen to the Jam Session music. Several of the regulars have already headed back north.

It was windy again today, kind of normal for here. I managed a 7.2 mile bike ride during the afternoon, which puts me at 20.7 miles for the week. The bike ride was after I spent over a half hour playing with derailleur adjustments. No matter how much adjusting I do I can't get it to shift properly. It shifts and eventually I can get it in any of the available 7 speeds, while riding. It is annoying not to be able to get it to shift to the gear on want on the first try.

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

Days 76 & 77 - Saturday & Sunday, February 17 & 18 - Country Music, Church & Ice Cream

 Saturday - It rained again, most of the day, and was WINDY. Winds were over 20 mph most of the day, with gusts in the mid 30's.  We had water leak in around our kitchen slide and pulled it in. Not sure where it was coming in at. One section of the basement carpet even got wet. Again, I'm not sure where the water came in. 

Official rainfall for Harlingen was 1.3". In McAllen, about 35 miles west of us, areas received as much as 5".

During one of the rain breaks I got in a short bike ride. Riding into the wind was a beast! I only got in 2.5 miles, for a total of 46.7 miles for the week.

At 5PM there was a couple, younger lady singer and older guy playing a steel guitar, performing classic county music at the clubhouse. They were pretty good. Kathy left after about 20 minutes, she is not a classic country music fan 😀. I stayed for the entire 2 hours. 

Sunday - Cold here last night, the overnight low was 38 degrees. Today's high was only 58 degrees. 

It was pretty muddy up at the Cowboy Church. LOTS of puddles in the grass parking area. As we were getting ready to file out the guy who does announcements went up front and told us that someone was stuck in the ditch and had the road blocked. Probably a person who parked along the road and got to far over. As we walked out of the building we saw Pastor Chris on a tractor heading out the driveway. It wasn't long before the road was open.

We came home for lunch. Kathy made vegetable soup yesterday. It was great for lunch. After lunch she went over to work on puzzles while I regened the water softener. After that I went over to Lucille's and took the back tires off her recumbent 3 wheel bike. Tomorrow I plan on going to the bike shop and getting new tubes. 

Then I went for a bike ride. When I was about finished with a 6 mile ride I got a text from Kathy, "Bring a dollar for me so that I can get ice cream at the ice cream social." I took 3 dollars to get her one scoop and me two scoops. 

While we were eating ice cream a couple came in and set up on the stage. When most of us were done eating ice cream they started performing southern gospel music. We stayed for a few songs. Kathy doesn't care for southern gospel. While I like most of it my spirit just didn't "feel" the Spirit as they performed.

I've been spending time online checking out other RV "Resorts" in the area, for next winter. We like Lakewood, where we are, and like the people here but.... I think there area better deals. Lakewood wants $1,938 for three months next year (it didn't cost us nearly that much this year because we took advantage of a special introductory offer). One place that I already drove through and thought it looked acceptable, not as nice as Lakewood, but acceptable, only wants $1,200 for three months. Three other places that we need to check out want $1,450, $1,475 & $1,700. All of these places are 55+ places that cater to winter Texans. 

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

Days 74 & 75 - Thursday & Friday, February 15 & 16 - Some Rain

 Slow days here.

Thursday - The weather was nice. We just hung around the campground. Kathy asked me to get a roll of paper towels out of the "basement". The paper towels are behind a door that is under the living room slide. I have to get on my hands and knees to get to it. While I was on my knees, wearing shorts, I noticed that my legs were stinging. I thought that there must be some type of nettle plant in the grass. I backed out from under the slide, stood up and saw hundreds of small ants on my legs. They bit the heck our of me. PTL for Benadryl, I sprayed some on and took a pill. I didn't have any  itching after that.

I have sprayed the grass around the coach at least twice while we have been here. I sprayed again in the afternoon. Guess I better start spraying at least once a week.

In the afternoon I rode over to Lucille's to look at here "3 wheeler", turns out it was an old recumbent bike. A very old recumbent bike. Lucille lives year around in one of the park models in the campground. She and Kathy often work together on puzzles. Kathy volunteered me to see if I could get her bike operational. The tires were flat. I borrowed a cordless compressor from a guy in the campground. The front tire held air but the back tires would not. There are 3 sprockets on the front/pedals and 6 on the rear (18 speed?). The chains were so rusted that I could barely make the rear wheel turn. I came home, got some WD40 and went back and flooded the chain, and parts that were supposed to move, with it. I had the bike turned upside down and after a half hour of turning the drive wheel a little, spraying more WD40 and then repeating, I got it freed up enough that I could use the pedals to turn the rear wheel. Saturday I'm plan on removing the back tires to see if maybe just new tubes will work. Tubes are $10 each and in stock at a local bike shop. Tires are $38 each and have to be ordered. 

I think a new bike similar to this would cost around $1,500 today.

I did manage to get in 9.1 miles of bike riding during the afternoon.

Friday - It started raining Thursday night and rained all day Friday. Mid-day we went over for free root beer floats at the clubhouse. Someone said we had received a half inch so far. Most of the time it was a very light rain. After our dessert we went to Cheddars for lunch. Kathy had a pot pie which she said was okay and I had the corn meal breaded fish again, which were excellent again. 

After lunch we drove over and looked at the Yellow Rose campground. I wanted to check it out to see if maybe we might want to stay there next year. We like Lakewood but its pretty expensive. It wasn't bad this year because our Thousand Trails membership really cut the rent. When I checked on renewing our membership for another year they wanted twice what we paid for the first year. Without Thousand Trails for the 2024-25 season the rent will be $701/mon, $1,938/3 mon or $2,320/4 mon. In addition you pay for the electricity you use. The 2023-24 rates at the Yellow Rose are $390/mon, $1,053/3 mon & $1,404/4 mon, plus electricity. Four months at the Yellow Rose cost the same as two months at Lakewood. Without question Lakewood is nicer, I just don't know if it is that much nicer. Unfortunately the office was closed so we didn't have a chance to talk to anyone. Also is it 11 miles, 13 minutes from Lakewood to the Cowboy Church. From the Yellow Rose it is 4.1 miles, 8 minutes.

In the late afternoon I rode 4.8 miles in it. I got damp, but not totally soaked. I'm up to 44.1 miles for the week. Even with the bike riding I have gained 10# in the few months since we left MO.

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

Days 72 & 73 - Tuesday & Wednesday, February 13 & 14 - Happy Valentines Day

Tuesday - Kathy went shopping in morning and worked on puzzles (and cooked) in the afternoon. I stayed at home and got in a 6 mile bike ride, laps around the campground. We went to the Mardi Gras potluck/pitchin supper in the evening. There were around 50 people at the supper. The food was good and so was the fellowship.

Wednesday/Today - It was a cloudy damp day here today. The high was 72, same as it was yesterday, but with no sun and the occasional very light sprinkle of rain, it felt a lot cooler. Kathy went over and worked on finishing a puzzle while I stayed home and read. I felt "off" all day, nothing serious but didn't feel like doing much. I did manage to get in an 8 mile bike ride in the evening, which puts me at 30.2 miles for the week. During the bike ride I noticed that Lucille, Kathy and her work on puzzles, dug out her 3 wheel bike for me to look at. Kathy volunteered me to check it over.

The days are counting down. We plan on leaving here on March 1 and SLOWLY making our way back to Centertown, arriving Easter weekend.

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

Day 71 - Monday, February 12 - Grocery Shopping

This morning we went grocery shopping at both HEB and Walmart. Then after lunch at home I went to the Cowboy Church to finish checking the backs on the remaining chairs. 

After getting back home I played with the derailleur on my bike some more, trying to get it to consistently shift correctly. As I have said previously, working on the bike is now my most time consuming hobby😖. This afternoon, after several tweaks, I managed a 10 mile ride (2 five mile rides with a 30 minute break to work on the derailleur and visit with a neighbor), I still have work to do. I think that when the previous owner had the bike the derailleur mount on the bike frame got bent. I've bent it back a little but am going to have to check out the derailleurs on some other bikes to make sure they look like I think they should look. Maybe I'm just to ignorant to get it adjusted correctly😀.

The weather was cool today. The high was a cloudy, breezy 69 degrees. 

For the past several years I have regularly corresponded with a Christian cousin, Jeff, who is in prison. He is 7 years younger than me. His family moved away from our hometown when he was still a preteen, so I never knew him well. He has been in jail/prison since Dec 2009, for a stupid act of passion. His dad, who lived in another state and who had been to ill to travel long distances, died a couple of months ago. Jeff had not seen him for years but regularly talked to him on the phone. I got a note from Jeff today telling me that he was denied parole for the 3rd time. His note sounded like he is pretty depressed, he really thought he would make parole this time. If God moves you to do so, please pray for him.

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

Day 70 - Sunday, February 11 - AWESOME CHURCH SERVICE THIS MORNING!!!

Johnny Rowlett was our guest speaker at the Cowboy Church this morning. I liked his music, Kathy not so much, we both LOVED his message.

He definitely has a "good ole boy" flavor, but we like that. You can listen to the message at:

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

And read about the ministry of Johnny Rowlett and his wife at:

https://www.johnnyrowlett.com/

There were problems with the sound system this morning and I haven't listened to see how it sounds on tape.

We try and get to church at least a half hour before the start time so that we can get a parking space in the lot near the building, and we typically set down front. We noticed that almost all the seats were full, just a single empty chair here and there. On the way out I saw a row of folding chairs had been set up to handle the crowd. We must have had 250-275 in the service this morning, plus how ever many attended the early morning service at Victoria Palms Resort.

We drive by a Cheddars on the way home from church and stopped for lunch. We had to wait to be seated but the food was worth it. We had enough leftovers to eat for supper. I had already eaten my salad and we had eaten the two warm yeast rolls before I took the photo.

I previously mention how they burn off the sugar cane fields, which causes huge plumes of smoke. On Saturday we were sitting outside and noticed pieces of sugar cane leaf ash fall. We had noticed the smoke earlier. It is at least several miles in that direction before there is any agricultural land. These pieces are at least 6" long. We never did smell the smoke.

It is dry enough here that the campground watered the grass a few days ago.

Today's high was 83. The humidity was high this morning but had dropped enough that it was comfortable this afternoon. It was nice enough that I got in a 6 mile bike ride before the game, which we are watching right now.

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

Day 69 = Saturday, February 10 - Slow Day

 We didn't do much today. the high was a cloudy, breezy, humid 79. With the breeze sitting outside was quite comfortable.

I made a trip to Johnny' True Value to buy screws to complete the Cowboy Church chair repairs. Kathy didn't feel like going anywhere and when, before leaving, I asked if she wanted anything she said, "A double hamburger from McDonalds." On my way back from the hardware store I stopped and got us lunch.

Back home I did a couple of small odd jobs and managed a 1.7 mile walk and a 5.1 mile bike ride, all around the campground. I still haven't been brave enough to venture out onto the street in front of the campground. The bike ride puts me at 38.1 miles of biking for the week. 

I wear a Fitbit watch, free from my Medicare insurance. Fitbit, based on American Heart Association guidelines, recommends a minimum exercise level of 150 of their "zone minutes" per week. After months of slacking off I finally had a good week, 437 zone minutes this week. Last week I got in 294 and the week before that 266, okay levels but not good levels. Last September and the first half of October I was averaging almost 500 zone minutes per week. From mid October until a couple of weeks ago I had REALLY slacked off.

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

Day 68 - Friday, February 9 - House Hunting

 We are not house hunting but we did look at a couple of park models, in the campground, that had open houses today. We were just curious. Both were listed as 396 sq ft, 12'x33' and both had a 12' wide full length roof over a patio/parking area. Neither seemed to have any more room than our coach. Both were nice enough but one needed some work. The one that needed work was listed for $19,500 and the other one was listed for $33,300. Lot rent was $300/month for both. The realty lady didn't seem to know how the lot rent worked. I told her I couldn't believe someone would buy one of the units without some type of multi-year lease on the property. She said I would have to talk to the campground managers. I wasn't interested enough to waste my time and theirs. 

I talked to my Mom, in Michigan, this morning. She said the farmers who cash rent her ground have been working for a week trying to harvest the corn, off maybe 80 acres. She has no idea why they weren't able to get it harvested before it snowed. The snow has melted but it must be muddy.

I regened our softener this morning, a weekly (actually I need to do it every 6 days) chore, had lunch and headed to the Cowboy Church. I spent 4 hours working on chairs. I reattached the backs on 3 of them and snugged up the screws that hold the backs to the frame, and replaced missing screws, on 175 more. By then I had run out of screws that I was using to replace the ones that were missing. I still have maybe 75 more chairs to do. I will need to get more screws this weekend.

Kathy spent several hours at the puzzle room while I was gone. 

Before supper I got in a 5.5 mile bike ride. That puts me at 27.6 miles so far for the week. I'm getting spoiled riding these Texas flat, asphalt roads. I still haven't made it out of the campground.

The high today was a breezy, mostly sunny 82.

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

Day 67 - Thursday, February 8 - Work Day

 One of the reasons I was excited about coming back to the Rio Grande Valley this year was because I believe I was "called" to serve in some maintenance/janitorial capacity at the Cowboy Church. When we first arrived I gave Pastor Chris my name and phone number and told him to call me when he had some work for me. He has been swamped with work at their ranch, multiple funerals, family health issues, etc. After Bible Study last night we discussed how I could help. Today I moved 230 chairs, swept the meeting room floor and put the chairs back in place. It took me 4 hours. It felt good to be of service. I am hoping that now that the "ice has been broken" he will feel comfortable enough to regularly call on me when I can help.

After I had finished and was getting ready to leave I saw Chris heading toward their house. I went over to tell him I was leaving. He had just finished dissecting a rabbit for the kids that attend school at the church, I saw maybe a dozen kids. When I was heading out the driveway there were several kids, one with the hide of a white rabbit, another with a pail, another with a shovel and several other tag alongs. I think they were on their way to bury the rabbits entrails. 

Below is a Google Map shot of The Ranch. The church meets at the building under the red dot. The O'Loughlins (Pastors Chris & Tracy plus their kids live in the house at the bottom center. The school meets in the building in the middle right. The arena and more parking is on the south side of Swift Lane.

Kathy stayed at the coach and cleaned, not to exciting. 

Today's high was in the low 80's. The humidity was high enough that it was a little uncomfortable. Last nights low was in the low 60's but the temperature climbed into the mid 70's by 8:30. The sun was hot and humidity was high enough that we started the coach AC around 8:30. There was enough of a breeze that I sat outside for a couple of hours this afternoon, actually I napped part of the time.

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

Days 65 & 66 - Tuesday & Wednesday, February 6 & 7 - More Wind

 Tuesday we went to a bicycle shop and I bought a replacement for the broken brake lever on my bike. I destroyed one of the grips so that I could remove the brake lever so I also had to buy new grips. The $38 for the used lever and new grips almost doubled my investment in the bike. We had a late lunch, or early supper, at the Golden Corral on our way back home.

Once back at the campground I installed the new lever and grips. By  the time I finished I had missed a good part of the Jam Session. Kathy was over working on a puzzle and I went over and helped on the puzzle while listening to the Jam Session performers. Today's group was pretty good. One lady sang a couple of songs, plus she sang duets with two different guys, was really good.

Then it was back to the coach and some bike riding. I managed 8.1 miles and then a 0.4 mile walk before dark.

After installing the new brake lever the brakes were dragging a little so I spent part of Wednesday morning getting them adjusted to the best of my ability. (The wheels don't run perfectly true, they aren't bad, but I'm not ready to start trying to start tweaking spokes to true the wheels.) I rode 2.3 miles and the brakes seem OK. It is another WINDY day and riding into the wind, as I did several laps around the campground was tough. The wind was supposed to have calmed down some at 6 PM, but it was still blowing a constant 22 mph with 33 mph gusts according to my weather app. At 10:30 PM it is now blowing 28 mph with 41 mph gusts.

Today's high was 73. It's amazing how cool 73 feels when the wind is blowing over 20 mph.

After lunch we ventured out and went over to see the Iwo Jima memorial at the Harlingen Marine Military Academy. It was a moving experience.

Kathy and I did get a kick out  of this sign. It says "Do Not Climb on or Attempt to Operate Weapons". We understood them not wanting kids climbing on them but thought the warning about attempting to operate them was a little overboard.

One of the 6 guys in the famous photo was from Weslaco, Texas, just down the road from Harlingen. Note the grove of trees.

These figures are supposed to be 32' tall. The level of detail is impressive. Three of the guys in this photo died on Iwo Jima.

Around the top of the base there is a list of US wars/conflicts. The list starts with the "Revolutionary War 1715-1783" and currently ends with "Afghanistan 2001- * Iraq 2003- ". 

Live oak trees are planted on 3 sides of the monument. Each tree has a small monument at the base. Most are dedicated to an individual soldier. The earliest ones that I saw were dated 1990. These trees are beautiful now and will be magnificent if allowed to grow for another 100 years. Last year we did a quick tour of the grounds around the Alamo in San Antonio. There is a live oak tree in an Alamo courtyard that was estimated to be 40 years old when a man transplanted it in 1912. That tree is now 39' tall, has a spread of 88' and a trunk base circumference of 12'9".

Most of us are familiar with the photo of the 6 soldiers raising the flag. What I didn't know was that this was the 2nd flag raising. For some reason the photo of it was the one that became so well know. Earlier that morning the 1st flag raising occurred. Those in charge thought the flag was to small and sent a 2nd group of soldiers up Mount Suribachi to raise a larger flag. 

During the initial 5 week battle 5,931 Marines died or were missing. Iwo Jima has an area of 11.5 square miles. There are 392 square miles inside Jefferson City city limits.

Did I mention it is windy here. I took this as I was leaving to go to the Cowboy  Church Bible Study.

Pastor Chris is started a new study tonight, on the power of the Blood of Jesus. Class officially starts at 6:30 but it was probably 7:00 by the time he started teaching, after praises and prayer time. It ended about 8:00. He covered a lot of ground, and referenced a lot of scripture. One lady asked if he taped the class because she needed to listen to him again to catch everything, so do I. He didn't tape tonights class but said he would try to start taping them next week. I sure hope he does because we will probably only be here for 3 more classes and I would like to be able to listen to the entire series.

I watched a movie last night, in the movie a man save the life of the dictator of a small nation. After the man returns home he learns that the dictator had given him several million dollars. This morning I started thinking about what I would do if I were gifted with a large amount of money. Rather than spend time making a mental list of how I would spend it I decided to catch up on my daily Bible reading, since I had sloughed off the past couple of days. I started reading II Timothy 1:5 I know that you sincerely trust the Lord, for you have the faith of your mother, Eunice, and your grandmother, Lois. 6 This is why I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you. 7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline. 8 So you must never be ashamed to tell others about our Lord.

1:9 It is God who saved us and chose us to live a holy life. He did this not because we deserved it, but because that was his plan long before the world began—to show his love and kindness to us through Christ Jesus. 10 And now he has made all of this plain to us by the coming of Christ Jesus, our Savior, who broke the power of death and showed us the way to everlasting life through the Good News. 11 And God chose me to be a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of this Good News.

II Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It straightens us out and teaches us to do what is right. 17 It is God's way of preparing us in every way, fully equipped for every good thing God wants us to do.

God gave each of us gifts and along with the gifts He gave us access to His unlimited power. Rather than waste my time fantasizing about what I would do with a worldly windfall I should spend more time thinking about how to make use of the gifts He has given me, to show others the glory of my loving God.

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

Days 63 & 64 - Sunday & Monday, February 4 & 5 - Church & Sam's Club

Sunday was a busy day for us. Cowboy Church in the morning and then home for lunch. We continue to be amazed at how many of us old snow birds attend the Cowboy church. I wouldn't be surprised if half of the 200-250 who attend are snow birds. This is in addition to all those who attend the 9 AM service at the Victoria Palms campground, which is a 15-20 minute drive SW of the church.

In the afternoon there was an ice cream social at the clubhouse and in the evening the Rio Grande Men's Gospel Choir (about 24 guys) performed at the clubhouse. Church was good, as always, so was the ice cream. The choir music was a little high brow for me but Kathy loved it. Even I found the the choir asking the audience to join in for God Bless America touching. 

They did I'll Fly Away for an encore, and asked the audience to join in, more my kind of music. It was also good because one of the hymns we sang in the morning was I'll Ride Away, the cowboy version of I'll Fly Away.

Several times I've mention that Kathy spent time at the clubhouse working on puzzles. Below are the most recent puzzles that have been put together. The butterfly one is almost complete.

Monday we went to lunch at Lonnie's Down Home Restaurant, about 15 minutes from us. My fish basket was good, Kathy's chicken fried chicken was very good, especially her side of a cup of chili.

One thing that we find really strange if the burning of sugar cane fields. Rarely do we go out that we don't see smoke from the burning fields. It's especially strange because it is dry and windy here. I took the photo below when we were on our  way to lunch.

I guess they burn the fields BEFORE they harvest, to burn off the leaves and pests.

Sunday I managed to get in a 2 mile bike ride. Monday I rode 7 miles. The street/road to the campground is kind of narrow and there are no shoulders. I'm afraid to ride far on it but may work up my courage to do a sprint down to the entrance of a subdivision next to the campground. Riding multiple laps around the campground gets boring.

God is good. I  pray that He blesses you and yours. Thank you Lord for the way you have blessed me.

Days 61 & 62 - Friday & Saturday, February 2 & 3 - Stay at Home Days

 Friday we pretty much stayed home and relaxed, actually most of our time is spent relaxing 😀.

Saturday we went to the clubhouse to have biscuits and gravy for breakfast. The breakfast is just one of the fund raisers that occur here to raise money to help local families out, mostly during holidays. Kathy went back to the clubhouse in the afternoon and spent a couple of hours working on the latest puzzle. I did a 4.3 mile bike ride in morning, a 4.5 mile ride in the early afternoon and a 4.3 mile ride in the late afternoon. I think today might have been the most I have ever ridden a bike in a day. Even as a kid I don't think I every rode 13.1 miles in a day. (Disclaimer, this is flat Texas and asphalt streets.)

Friday nights low was a humid 60, we ran the AC all day Friday & Saturday. Saturday's high was 80 but about noon the wind picked up and blew in much drier air. We both spent a fair amount of time sitting outside this afternoon. We were sitting in the shade and I actually put a flannel shirt over my tee shirt for some of the time. Even though the temp seems high, in the shade and with the breeze it felt cool.

At 8PM the temperature is 60 and the humidity is 65%, the dew point is only 48. Tonight's low is supposed to be 53.

As I walked around the campground today I took some photos of several of the rigs.

There is one empty site between us and these folks. Their 5th wheel is a toy hauler. The little car fits inside the back of the toy hauler. I need to take a photo of one of their dogs. An incredibly well behaved 150#+ Great Dane whose name is Hero.

These folks load their little car cross ways behind the cab of the semi.

Under the cover is a factory made Harly 3 wheeler that they haul in their 5th wheel  toy hauler.

I did get some more bicycle repair work. The lady whose tires I replaced on the back of her 3 wheel bicycle came by to tell me she had purchased a new seat and an new light for it. She asked if I would install them. I told her yes, in the next day  or two. She wants to pay me but I keep telling her no. Today she told me she is known for her baked goods and wondered if she could bake me something. I told her Kathy is a great cook so I want for nothing in the food department. Told her to pass it on to someone else. I also told her that God gave me the skills to attempt to help her so it is only right that I do so.

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

Days 58, 59 & 60 - Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday, January 30 & 31 & February 1 - Just Enjoying South Texas

We are probably within a day or two of the half way point of our time in the Rio Grande Valley, Lord willing.

Tuesday all I accomplished was washing the car and a few "housekeeping" RV chores. I think this was the day Kathy put and entire 500 piece puzzle together. We got new neighbors, down a couple of spots. I will try to remember to get a photo of one of their dogs. It is huge, and incredibly well mannered.

Wednesday I waxed the car, I cheated and used a spray on wipe off liquid wax, swept it  out and washed the windows inside and out. I  managed an 8 mile, 1 hour & 20 minute, bike ride in the evening. No more of those for me, even down here in flat Texas.

Thursday we went to South Padre Island again. It was interesting driving down the highway and seeing the same oil rig being repaired that we saw from the shipping canal during our boat tour of the port a few weeks ago.; as well as being able to see a few of the ships that are being cut into scrap.

Of course we had to stop at Pirates Landing in Port Isabel for lunch. 

The view from our table.

We both ordered the same thing we have ordered every time we have been there; Kathy, Crab Louie and me Dirty Dave's Beef Philly. Kathy said she thought hers was a little different but still very good. Mine came with a different type of bread and not as much beef. It was still good, just not as good. The onion fries were still great.

Then it was over to the island and north as far as the road runs. The sand appears to have been plowed to the sides with a grader and then a front end loader pushes it up the banks.

Heading to the beach. There were 5 or 6 RV's parked along the road.

Enjoying the beach. It was in the mid 70's and a little breezy, but with the sun it was pretty nice.

Right next to us was a "club" flying kites. They had as many as 5 kites in the air at one time, playing follow the leader as they did all kinds of maneuvers. The guy in the photo below was setting his  up before heading back to stand with the people on the right who were flying the others. They would land them and then have them take off without getting close to them.

Heading back to the car.

On our way back through Port Isabel we did have to stop for hot fudge sundaes, strictly for medicinal purposes 😀

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