Day 43, 44 & 45 - Friday, Saturday & Sunday, January 10, 11 & 12 -

 Not much to report on Friday or Saturday. It has been cold for here and we haven't done much. Kathy spends a couple of hours at the clubhouse most days, either working on a puzzle or in the quilt room On Friday I went to Sam's and picked up some prescriptions and then on to Planed Fitness for a 1 hour 40 minute workout. 

On Saturday I got in a 35 minute bike ride around the campground. At 7 PM there was a "Sock Hop" at the clubhouse. A trio performed live music from the 50's & 60"s. Kathy helped at the concession stand. I listened to them for a half hour and went home. They were OK. One of the reasons for attending such an event is to watch usually there are several old couples who can still really dance. I only  saw one such couple while I was there.

Sunday Kathy played the piano for church at the campground. When she got home we headed up to the Cowboy Church. Another good message and good size crowd. I took this photo from where we were sitting, about the 3rd row from the front.

From a plaque on the wall of the church: BIBLE- Basic Instruction Before Leaving Earth

After lunch we went to Stefano's for lunch. Some ladies recommended it to Kathy. The food was good. My hearing aid is acting up again. Between that and voice of our waitress I couldn't here anything she said. She was new and has some problems taking my order. The head waiter had to come back to our  table twice to straighten out my order. Kathy had veal parmesan. I don't remember what mine was, only that it was good.

The portions were large enough that we have plenty of left overs for supper.

Today was much warmer than it had been. Today's high was a mostly sunny 73.

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

Day 42 - Thursday, January 9 - Propane Furnace Thermostat Fixed

 Jesus Sanchez, who owns Jesse's RV Service, came this morning to find out what repairs we needed. I told him that at this time we aren't sure if the washer is leaking. Kathy is leaving the cabinet under the washer empty for awhile, except for a pan, to see it any water accumulates. He can't help with dealing with our Service Contract folks, I wonder if he lacks some type of business license. So he couldn't help us deal with our leaking Sleep Number bed. He did help with the thermostat that wouldn't turn our front furnace on.

The thermostat. Note the green wiring that isn't connected. Initially this wire did not pull through the hole in the wall.

The cabinet

The wiring in the wall.

A white wire on the back of the thermostat had a connector on it that had been crimped on both ends, but no wire on one end. I would have been very hesitant to do it but he just jammed the green wire in the connector and the propane furnace started. He put a new connector on it and we closed the cabinet back up. He thought the wires had been connected but had probably come loose from the vibrations while traveling.

At 1PM we went over to the clubhouse and had our picture taken for the Lakewood Directory. 

Kathy worked on quilts in the sewing room and also spent time in the puzzle room. In addition to making some snacks for the 4PM Meet and Greet meeting.

We spent 90 minutes at the Meet and Greet, mostly visiting with a Canadian couple who live near the east end of Lake Ontario. They have an old Beaver motorhome that he has done a LOT of work on. I had noticed it while riding my bike. It looks great. They have a home in Canada but travel about 6 months of the year.

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

Days 40 & 41 - Tuesday & Wednesday, January 7 & 8 - Cold for Here

 Temperatures have been cold and windy, for here. Highs and lows in the 40's, windy and damp. It feels cold to us and I'm sure it feel frigid for folks here who are used to highs in the low 70's this time of year. 

Tuesday I pried myself out of bed and went to the 8AM Men's Bible Study's first meeting. We will be studying Ephesians. Bruce, the guy who is leading, and I were the only  ones who showed up. Actually another guy showed up at 8:50, he thought it started at 9. Bruce and I didn't get into Ephesians but we did have a good Bible centered discussion. Rabbit trails are interesting.

Later Kathy and I left the campground and went down the street to a Cheddar's for lunch, 0.7 miles from us. There current fish and shrimp special is great. I like the fish and Kathy likes the shrimp. We splurged and ordered a side of their awesome onion rings. We carried out enough food to stuff ourselves with leftovers for supper.

Then it was on to Sam's to buy a few groceries and for me getting my Jardiance prescription transferred from Walgreens (where I have been trying to get if filled since Christmas).  After that I pretty much just holed up  in the RV. Kathy went over to the puzzle room for while.

Wednesday, mid-morning, I went to Sam's, its 2.1 miles from us, and picked up my Jardiance. After that I went on to Planet Fitness and spent about 90 minutes there. I spent 15 minutes rowing and 10 minutes on a bike trying to get my heart rate up before hitting the resistance machines. I just can't get over what pitiful shape I'm in. Kathy was home cooking up stuff for the potluck.

In the evening we went to the 5PM campground potluck. 50-75 people attended. I sat next to a solo full timer guy who spent 15 years living in Huntsville, AL. We had a good visit, especially about the Davidson Center for Space Exploration located there. Kathy & I took our boys there about 45 years ago. He said it has grown a lot since then and that it is well worth scheduling a day to go through it now. He just arrived here and will be here for two weeks. He isn't sure where he is going from here, maybe along the coast to Florida. 

Across from us was a couple who are renting a park model here. They had just recently arrived from near Waterloo, IA. They will be here through April. There are LOTS of folks here from Iowa. The lady made a joke about someone dying back home and that 6 people from here had to go home to be pall bearers, because there was no one left in Iowa.

Then it was off to the 6:30 Cowboy Church Bible Study. Chris started us off with prayer, after praises and prayer requests, and then asked if anyone had any questions/comments prior to getting started. A lady, with back issues, asked about Paul's infirmities and his praying to be healed. Good group discussions on that went on for at least 30 minutes. It reminded me of the Life Group Kathy and I attended back in MO, and the Thursday morning Men's Bible Study back there. Chris then talked about the importance of our forgiving others, again with lots of good participation from the 16 of us in attendance.

We had not been to the church after dark. The Christmas lights were all up and on. It was quite pretty on a dark, damp, breezy cold night. In the photo below the 1st building is the "Round Pen" where they have a small school. The next one if the rest rooms. The one on the left is the worship center.

The worship center.

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

PS. A couple of days ago I  mentioned that I was writing a Letter to the Editor, of the News Tribune, on the Social Security Fairness Act. If anyone is interested I posted in at

https://bertspoliticalviews.blogspot.com/2025/01/010725-social-security-fairness-act.html 

Day 39 - Monday, January 6 - Cold Weather Extends to Border

 Most people reading this would love to be experiencing the temperatures Kathy and I are, but folks down here are freezing. Last nights low was 43 here and today's high was 63. Fortunately the wind was only 10-15 mph most of the day. 

Kathy went to the 9:30 informational meeting at the clubhouse this morning, no earthshaking news. I spent the morning working on a Letter to the Editor for the Jefferson City News Tribune. AARGH!! It is so difficult not going into the reason for the LTE. If I started I would go on for ages 😀.

In the afternoon I went to a local RV parts and repair place to get a vacuum breaker/check valve device that is in our black tank flush line. Ours has a slight leak. I also talked to them about trying to get our new thermostat working properly (it won't turn on the front propane furnace) and locating what we think is a small leak behind our stacked washer dryer. There is no way I can lift the dryer off the washer so that the washer can be pulled out.

The thermostat is on the other side of the wall that makes up the right side of this cabinet. When they installed it they removed everything from the cabinet, including the shelves, and removed the wall of the cabinet. When it was out I saw a fistful of wires coming through from the back of the thermostat.

When I was out I went by Walgreens, AGAIN, to pick up the prescription I originally ordered before Christmas. They still don't have the drug. They offered me a partial refill a week ago but still can't fill the full prescription. Walgreen's used to be such a great place for RV'ers to have prescriptions filled because all their stores are linked.

Kathy went back to the puzzle room and I spent 40 minutes on the clubhouse treadmill and then took a 20 minute bike ride around the campground.

It's 48 degrees right now, 8:30; there won't be a dip in the hot tub tonight.

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

Day 38 - Sunday, January 5 - Busy Day

 Yesterday Kathy was asked to play the piano for this mornings Sunday worship service at the campground. One of the Winter Texans here is a retired Pastor. He leads a 9AM church service in the clubhouse. When she got home we left for the Cowboy Church. It was a busy service. The Pastor and his wife introduced their oldest son, his wife and their 4 month old child. Chris & Tracy were pretty excited. This holiday visit was the first time they actually got to hold their first grandchild. Next, awards were handed out for the kids who participated in the Buckle Events. The event I wrote about two weeks ago was the final event of the year. 

It was a full house at the church. The first thing Chris did was ask people to move closer together to provide seats for the people standing in back. Several guys carried in some more chairs from another building to provide additional seating.

Kathy wanted a hamburger for lunch so we stopped at a McDonalds on the way home from church. She liked her double hamburger. The meat in my double quarter pounder tasted like it had "aged" for 5 years in a freezer. Next stop was Walgreens to pick up a prescription they had been working on for well over a week, it still was not ready. I don't know who had taken over at Walgreens but in the last year they have managed to run it in the ground.

It was windy today, 30 mph gusts, and even though it was mostly sunny with a high in the high 80's we didn't feel like spending time outside. I watched a guy with a travel trailer pull in and start setting up. He was having trouble getting the friction fit cap off the sewer connection. I took him over a claw hammer to pry the cap off. He is a solo RV'er from Colorado. He came down from the San Antonio area today, about a 260 mile drive. He said fighting the wind was so bad that he had to stop a couple of times to take a break.

Then we watched the Kansas City Chiefs get stomped on. I think the final score was 31-0. I'd guess the Chiefs were using a lot of 2nd string players to give them so experience, since a win or a loss didn't help or hurt them, other than their pride.

After dark we walked over to the hot tub and pool. Its the first time we have been there this trip. I actually joined Kathy in the hot tub for awhile. I just don't get why people like them. We had one the 10 years we lived on Black Rock Lane and I was not in it one time. I moved over to the heated pool. It was better. It was a nice night. The wind had died down and we were the only ones at the pool. The outside temperature had dropped to 74 degrees by the time we were at the pool.

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

Day 37 - Saturday, January 4 - Flea Market

 This morning we went over to Donna, TX, to the Don Wes flea market. Donna is 20 miles west of us. The flea market isn't much, at least at this time of year, but we like the "farmers market" fruit and vegetable stand there. Two years ago we spent a month at Victoria Palms Resort in Donna. It borders the flea market. The photo below shows only a small part of whats available. We bought a bag of big onions, a bunch of green onions and a big bag of grapefruit. The big bag of grapefruit is still only $4, the same as last year.

The roofed area shown below has tables where people can sit down and enjoy some of the food offerings at the flea market. Back in the far corner is a guy singing classic country and western songs. 

Another reason we like going over there is Moran's Pizza, where we went for lunch. The pizza we had today wasn't one of their best efforts. It had been in the oven to long.

After the pizza we went to a Walmart just down the street and bought a few groceries. There were a lot of people at the store but every checkout lane was open, in addition to the self checkout lanes. I was curious and walked down the length of the checkouts. Several of them only had the person unloading a cart in the lane. Not having to stand in a line to buy groceries seems to be an unusual event.

My supper, back at home. It sure is no chore to eat leftovers at our  house. I had roast port, sauerkraut; mashed potatoes and corn bread leftover from our New Years Day meal. The radishes came from the HEB grocery. The green onions came from the flea market.

Today's high was a mostly sunny 82 degrees. It was quite windy with gusts up to 30 mph.

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

Day 36 - Friday, January 3 - Cloudy and Cool

It was a gloomy day. Solid cloud cover and a high of 69 degrees. 

The only thing I accomplished today was washing and waxing more of the coach, over 3 hours of it. Some day I'll get it finished. Last year we paid some guys to do it. Three of them worked 2-3 hours, it cost us $400. They were efficient and worked hard. By the time I finish I will probably have spent 40 hours. 

Kathy spent several hours at the clubhouse puzzle room. I probably should explain more about the puzzle room. It's kind of a lending library of puzzles, books and DVD's. There is also a big TV in the room, although I've never seen anyone watch it. There are a couple of soft chairs, a couch, and several tables with chairs around them. The tables are where people put puzzles together. There might be a couple of puzzles being put together at any given time. A person takes one off the shelf and starts putting it together. When they get tired they leave the partially completed puzzle and as other walk through they may work on it. While Kathy is up there she sees, and often visits with, people as they are in and out of the room.

I did manage a 4.5 mile bike ride around the campground. We got some new neighbors today, down a few sites from us. I haven't talked to them yet. During my bike ride I noticed that they have Wyoming plates.

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

Day 35 - Thursday, January 2 - A Day to Enjoy

 We just lazed around this morning. Kathy had stayed up late and didn't get up until nearly 10AM. I had gotten up, eaten breakfast and then wasted a bunch of time watching Facebook reels. Some of the chainsaw work and sawmill work was quite interesting. I helped saw some logs (I was the guy who took the sawn boards off the sawmill conveyor and loaded them on a trailer) when I was volunteering at Messiah's Ranch in Texas in 2012.It was a good experience. 

https://bertdsblog.blogspot.com/2012/12/dec-6th-sawmill.html 

I also put together and email for my cousin who is in prison, outlining another week of our travels. I basically send him a Reader's Digest version of my blog. It gives him a little window into the outside world. With a little luck, or maybe some Divine intervention, he will make parole this year. His requests for parole were denied in 2019, 2021 and again in 2023. He applied again last last fall. If you feel led I'm sure he would appreciate your prayers, his name is Jeff.

I finally pried myself out of the coach and washed, waxed and lubricated the seals on two more slide ends, still have two more to go. The sun was shining on them and they were much to hot to work with. We went to Golden Corral for lunch. They have a great Senior Special lunch, $11.29 which includes your drink. We have no problem finding multiple food items that we enjoy. The problem is that we enjoy them to much and overeat.

Back at the coach we sat outside and enjoyed the beautiful day. I took the photo below while sitting in a lawn chair on our patio.

While sitting there Kathy did some crocheting and I was trying to read a book. She did OK, I fell asleep in the lawn chair. She ended up going to the clubhouse and spending several hours working on a puzzle. After I woke up I went over to the clubhouse and did 35 minutes on the treadmill and then rode my bike 3.6 miles around the campground.

Last nights low was 62 and today's high was 79. It is supposed to stay warm here through Sunday. Monday's high is forecast to be 58. Folks down here will be freezing. Our neighbor Loretta walked by while we were sitting outside. She mentioned that she was cold today. She lives here year around so she experiences the HOT temperatures down here all summer long.

Thank you Lord for a beautiful day.

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

Day 34 - Wednesday, January 1, 2025 - Happy New Year!

I was going to type out a blow by blow description of me spending over 3 hours this morning getting Kathy's working on T-Mobile, but instead I'll just say I'm glad its working and I think our transfer to T-Mobile is complete. Kathy spent several hours finishing putting a puzzle together at the clubhouse. She met and had a nice conversation with a new couple who came in late yesterday, from Ontario, Canada.

We both did odds and ends around the coach. My list of maintenance items never seems to get shorter and with cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc. neither does hers.

Today's high was a windy (average 14 mph), mostly cloudy, 77 degrees. We sat outside for awhile in the afternoon but with the breeze and no sun it was cool. I did get in a 4+ mile bike ride around the campground.

This evening we streamed a couple of movies.

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