Day 38 - Wednesday, January 10 - Moving, Potluck & Bible Study

 Busy day today. We changed sites, to help the campground deal with  an overbooking (and electrical problems) of Thousand Trails sites. The sites in front are more "premium" sites, but not that much different (Internet seems faster, but we could stream moves before). Below is a Google map of Lakewood. We moved from the middle of Adler Dr to the 2nd site from the left on Poplar Ln.

Parked on Poplar.

Looking down Poplar

Looking over at Sycamore

Looking back up  Maple

There are only 3 RV's in the front. All 3 are people from Missouri. One couple is from Peculiar, near KC & the other couple is from NE MO, not sure where. 

Almost the entire perimeter of the campground is filled with park model units. There is a section of perimeter at the top right, where there is a "lake" on the other side of the fence, that is allocated to "premium lakefront" sites.  I think it rent for park model sites is $3-4,000 annually. That would include water, sewer & trash but electric is metered and you pay for it. I think that in Texas you pay property tax on the value of the park model, but not the property you are "renting". Two of the park model units are currently for sale in the $25-30,000 range.

Supper was a campground potluck at the clubhouse. Around 50 people showed up. Good food and I had a good time visiting with a guy from Wisconsin who owns a welding shop. Then it was on to Cowboy Church Bible Study at 6:30. Discussion ran a little long and we didn't leave there until after 8:00.

Still windy here, but not as bad as it was. The overnight low was 48 and Wednesday's high was in the mid 70's. 

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

Day 37 - Tuesday, January 9 - Jam Session Day

 This morning I went up to talk to the campground staff about our reservation(s). Our Thousand Trails (TT) membership does not expire until Feb 23. It lets us stay here and numerous other campgrounds for "free", but you can only stay 14 days and then you have to be "out of the system" for 7 days. Our Thousand Trails "free" days were/are Dec 19-Jan 2 & Jan 9- Jan 23. We paid for the week Jan 2-Jan 9.

When Karen, who seems to run things even though she is not the manager, was in the reception area with the manager. She saw me and said to him, "This is the man you want to talk to." Because of the electric problems we had initially, caused by the bad panels at our site and at least one more, we are connected to the panel for site 283, even though we are parked at 281. Apparently TT controls the use of the sites that have the bad panels, but not the upkeep. They told me that TT has rented site 283 and the people are supposed to arrive on the 12th. We are plugged in to the panel at 283, using a 50 amp extension cord. They asked if we would move to one of the non-TT sites up front. I had asked if they could let us stay in one of them when we first checked in, because they are a little closer to the clubhouse and pool. I was told no. I agreed to move to one of the sites tomorrow, its really not that big a deal. 

The reason I went to the office was to discuss making a paid reservation for Jan 23-Jan 30. They gave me a discounted price of $240 for the week. I also made a TT (free) reservation for Jan 30-Feb 13. Our TT membership will expire then. I asked how much it would cost to stay an additional month Feb 13-Mar 12, they quoted $650+elec for the month. This place is nice enough but it isn't palatial. Tomorrow we will start looking at other campgrounds in the area. 

I love staying at the Rainbow Plantation Escapees campground in Summerdale, AL, and would consider going there for 4-6 weeks ($415/mon+elec), but probably don't want to go that far out of the way on our way home. Another option is going to Rainbows End (the Escapee home campground) in Livingston, TX for that time. $375/mon+elec. Rainbow Planation has at least as much going on as they do here. We have only stayed a couple of nights ar Rainbows End so I don't know about them. One negative is that neither of them have heated pools, nor hot tubs, but Kathy has only been in the heated pool once and the hot tub twice during the 3 weeks we have been here. Decisions, decisions...😀, its a great life when this is one of the big decisions I have to make.

From 1-3 PM there was a Jam Session at the clubhouse. Thirteen different singers performed, some of them twice, plus there were some musicians who did not sing. Of the 20 songs I listened to I would rate one of the singers as good and two of them as bad, the others were okay. Note the lady in red who plays a wash tub. Also note the guy in the red shorts, left of center. He is one of the better singers and a plays both the guitar and harmonica. Almost every one of the singers stops and lets him play a segment during their song. He is wearing a belt that has at least 6 harmonicas on it.

This cute couple were sitting near the back of the audience and they got up and danced 3 or 4 times.

About 40 minutes into the show Kathy went to the puzzle room and worked on puzzles. I listened for maybe another half hour and then joined her. You could hear the music fine when in the puzzle room (much to my enjoyment and her chagrin), The puzzle she, and others, are working on is HARD. I sat with her for maybe 45 minutes yesterday and I think I  finally put 2 pieces together. This morning two other people were working on it with her. Someone else started an easier one. I worked on the easier one. After supper, and after Wheel of Fortune, she headed back up to the clubhouse to work on it again.

She made reservations for our Shrimp Boil, Brownsville Harbor tour for Thursday.

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

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.

Day 34 - Saturday, January 6 - Flea Market & Smore's

 I'm not trying to make those of you in the north country upset, but the weather down here was great again today. The overnight low was 43 and today's high was a sunny, breezy 74 degrees. I was wearing shorts with a flannel shirt over a tee. Walking along the street at the flea market, where there was very little breeze, it was warm enough that I thought about taking my flannel shirt off. Later, when I was standing in the shade listening to one of the bands, in a location where the breeze hit me, I was glad for the flannel shirt.

This morning we went to the Harlingen Saturday Market, 4 miles from us. About 6 blocks of a main street in Harlingen are blocked off and filled with flea market and food vendors. There were a lot of people, but not so many that you couldn't move around.

I didn't see this stand sell many Funnel Cakes but they always had a line waiting to buy the spiral potatoes.

Looking east from where we entered.

Looking west from where we entered.

Ladies line dancing to the music from one of the bands. There were 3 live bands along the route. They were far enough apart so that they their music didn't overlap one another.

One of the bands. This is the band I stood and listened to, I enjoyed their oldies music.

I wished I had taken a better photo of the old "hippie" gal singing and the old "hippie" guy  playing bass.

My Fitbit said that I walked 1.16 miles while there. It seemed further. It was a "ladies Flea Market". There were only two booths along the entire route that caused me to pause long enough to look at their wares. At one of them someone had turned old pistons into desk lights. At the other someone built different "things" out of metal items (old sprockets, bicycle chains, wrenches, etc). 

There were very few places to sit. If we go back I'm going to take a couple of lawn chairs so that I can sit (and eat) and people watch. My tamale and Kathy's shrimp tacos were good.

In the afternoon/evening people from the campground got together for chili and smores. The "chili" was a potluck/pitchin affair. Kathy made my Grandma Ruthie's Potato Soup. Several people came over and complemented here. One guy told her that anytime she made it he would come help her get rid of it. Someone, maybe the campground, furnished the graham crackers, marshmallows and chocolate for the smores. 50-60 people attended. It started at 5PM. Sunset was at 5:54 PM today. By 5:30 the sun was low enough that shorts, a tee & a flannel shirt were barely enough. At 7 PM the temperature is down to 60.

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

Days 32 & 33 - Thursday & Friday, January 4 & 5 - Just enjoying life

Thursday - the only "exciting" thing that happened is that we went to the Las Vegas Cafe for lunch. It's 3 miles and 10 minutes from the campground. We have driven by it several times and the parking lot always has lots of cars in it. We arrived a little after 1PM and there were at least 10 people ahead of us, in line waiting for a table. It only took about 15 minutes to get seated but probably another 40 minutes before we got our food. Mexican food is their specialty. Our meals were good, but not spectacular. When we left it was nearly 3PM, there were 6 people in line waiting to be seated.

Friday - It rained some during the night, officially 0.13". Weather was great during the day. High temperature was a mostly sunny 72 degrees, with mild winds. Kathy went to the clubhouse and worked on a puzzle in the morning. I went to the clubhouse fitness center for about 45 minutes. The campground fitness center doesn't have a lot of equipment but its okay for an old guy who goal is to slow down age related physical deterioration. I have an Anytime Fitness membership, I go to the one in Jefferson City when we are home, but I would have to drive 25 miles to get to the nearest one here.

This morning I did some online research on dentists, locally and across the border in Nuevo Progreso. After we returned to MO last spring I had problems with a molar. By the time I got in to see a dentist the pain was much less than the previous week. X-ray's showed that there was still infection around the root, but it was going away. The dentist wanted to pull the tooth. He told me that the problem was going to come back. I decided to wait until I had problems again. It is starting to bother me again and this time I  will probably have it pulled. I'm not a good candidate for a bridge so I've toyed with the thought of getting an implant in Mexico, because dental work there is so much cheaper. Every time I read about the implant process it seems to get more and more complex and take multiple visits over 4-6 months. 

In the afternoon we spent time enjoying the great day.

I traded texts with our Drew, our younger son who lives in Oakland, CA. Last August he retired, after 25 years as a computer guy with the federal government. During that time he has taken a lot of construction trades classes. He wants to try his hand in one of the trades. He passed the entrance tests and has been waiting to get into the Sheet Metal Workers union, as an apprentice. This morning he took, and passed, the test to get into International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. With all we hear about the shortage of tradesmen I'm surprised that it apparently isn't all that easy to get into one of the union trades. 

Thank you Lord for a good day.

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

Days 30 & 31 - Tuesday & Wednesday, January 2 & 3- Nothing to Exciting

 Not much happened on Tuesday. The high temperature was 76. We did go out to lunch but other than that things were quite calm. Kathy spends time almost everyday working on a puzzle up at the clubhouse, in addition to taking care of me (cooking, cleaning, etc). We both enjoy spending a lot of time reading. We don't watch a lot of TV because there isn't much on that we want to watch. We get a couple of the major networks over the air and have subscriptions for Hulu, Disney+ & Prime Video but, when we look, the best we can usually do if find something we can tolerate, not enjoy. I did finally make my first trip to the clubhouse fitness center and got in a 40 minute workout. 

Wednesday - It was a lot cooler today. The high was a mostly cloudy, breezy 68 degrees. By 10PM the temperature had dropped to 49. 

I finally made it over to Johnny's hardware store. It was a great place to wander around. It definitely has the feel of an old time local hardware store. Below are photos from the mezzanine. The main floor if over twice what is shown in the photos.

Below are photos of stuff on the mezzanine. The aisle is completely blocked of with piled up merchandise and boxes.

Kayaks and two wheel dollies for sale next to one another. I have no idea what the screened frames might be. The backs are open.

If you have wandered around long enough to find this area you can actually can get your fishing reel repaired here.

One reason I went was to see if I  could find a replacement cord for an ancient roaster Kathy has. There are plenty of sales people at the store and the ones I talked to seem to know what they have. They had 3 replacement cords but none with an end that would match her roaster. (I think once back in MO, where I have a soldering iron, I can fix the old plug.)

In the evening we attended the 6:30 Bible Study at the Cowboy Church. Bible Study was good. 

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

Day 29 - Monday, January 1, 2024 - Happy New Year!

 It was a slow day today, we just enjoyed the day. Today's high was a mostly sunny 78. It was nice to sit outside on New Years Day.

Kathy fixed our traditional New Years Day meal of a pork roast and sauerkraut. After we ate she went to the clubhouse and spent several hours with puzzles, I took a nap 😀.

After my nap I had enough energy to ride my bike around the campground for 40 minutes, 3.3 miles. Still no big influx of snowbirds. While I was riding the wind picked up and the temperature dropped, it seemed like it dropped a lot. It felt like it was going to start raining and moment, but it didn't. At 8:20 the temp has dropped to 64. A slight breeze and 64 degrees feels cool. We closed all the windows and vents already.

I pray that the Lord bless you and yours, as He has me.