Merry Christmas

Boy, have we been busy. We put our place here at Bentsen Grove Resort up for sale and have had a few lookers, but nothing serious yet. It takes a little extra time each morning to make sure it is all clean and ready to show, just in case some one stops in or calls to see it. The park has a notebook in the office with a listing of units for sale. I made up a page to add for our place. We also have a sign up on the unit so and then it is word of mouth. We will put it in the "Winter Texan Paper" after the first of the year. Hopefully we will get someone that is interested in it.

On the 14th we made a trip to Hidalgo for their Christmas light display. Hidalgo is South of McAllen. We went with Larry and MaryAnn from the park next to ours. Of course we went out to eat first then went for the light show. This is our 3rd winter here and the first time we made it down to see the lights. What a great time we had and the lights were wonderful, so much to take in and it seemed like I was sitting on the wrong side of the trolley to get the pictures I want. Now if I can remember next time to site on same side as driver, I will get pictures of other side. LOL Most of the pictures we taken from moving trolley, so not as good as I would of liked. Also, I haven't learned how to use all the features on the new camera, so that would improve them also. Be sure to click on picture to take you to rest of photo's in "My Photo Album".

From Hidalgo lights and Green Gate parade

Roger has signed us up for Christmas dinner here at the park, it will be at noon, then we will pack up and head to Valley View (were our new place is) and have pot luck with them at 5pm. Boy are we going to be stuffed. I just don't know why we need to have two big meals that day, but as the saying goes...............whatever.

Yesterday morning, I received a phone call from my sister, Linda. She drives truck and was headed this way with a load and wanted to know if we could meet up with her. We had made planes to meet with the couple we are buying our new place with, to go see a lawyer. So I told Linda we could meet her before that. We then took off to check at our old park to see if our packages had been delivered there, then on to meet Linda. She wasn't here yet, but would be around 10:45am, so we headed for Weslaco where she was to unload. We waited till she got there, which was around 11:30 and then went for lunch. Left there and met with Jack and Sharon and lawyer and waited for Linda to call after she got unloaded and knew what her next load would be. She hadn't called, so I called her and she said she was just finished unloading and didn't know about another load yet, so she was going to head to Flying J and park there and get back to me when she found out. After leaving Jack and Sharon, we started for home, on way got a call from Linda, she didn't have a new load and would find out in morning if she got one then. I dropped Roger off at home (we were almost there) and I took off for the Flying J in Edinburg to pick her up. She was going to spend the night at our place, and I would take her back to her rig in the morning or when she found out about a load. Low and behold, we weren't even back home yet and she got a call, she had a load to pick up in Huston by 11am the next morning so she couldn't spend the night and would need to go back to Flying J. Roger was at park next to ours watching a gulf cart Christmas parade so we went there to get him, so he could ride back with me. Buy this time I had not had any supper and hadn't eaten since the Subway sandwich we had for lunch. It was back to Flying J and home again. I felt like I had been driving all day. Regardless, it was good to see Linda and spend a little time with her.

Like I said before, Roger went to Green Gate park to see the gulf cart parade there. We have some friends there (the ones we went to Hidalgo with) and he had is gulf cart in parade. Roger took pictures, so be sue to check them out.

From Hidalgo lights and Green Gate parade

I seems we are ready for Christmas, both of us have finished our shopping and have our cards and packages mailed. We have received packages from three of our five kids and know of one more on it's way so everything is a go. Then we have our plans for 2 dinners and the day spent with friends, Dick and Darlene. All that is left is to wish:

Merry Christmas to all our family and friends from Mission, Texas

Our New Place

We made it back over and took some pictures of our new place. Now please remember we are still at Bentsen Grove and won't be moving into new place till March. We did take the motor home over and have it parked on the pad there and hooked up to electric. The couple we are buying from are so nice, we seem to stay and have a good chat with them each time we go over. It helps to have our good friends, Dick and Darlene across the alley, so we stop and chat with them also. Here are the pictures, be sure to click on the first one and it will take you to My Photo Albums. Then you can view all of the pictures of the place.

From Our new place

The computer club went to lunch yesterday and we had a good time. Class seemed to go pretty good. I did a hands on class with everyone making a file, saving it, then going to documents and making a folder to put it in. We then dragged and dropped it into the folder.

While we were out to eat, the subject came up of our moving (some of them read my blog) and one of the couples wanted to come over and look at our place here. We haven't put it up for sale yet, but they seamed interested. Have to wait and see, we have a lot of time.

Hope you enjoy the photo's, till later..................Happy Trails

Happy Thanksgiving

We have been in Mission for over a month now and getting back into the swing of things. Computer Club here at the park is meeting every Monday morning and they have asked me to teach the beginners class. I was a little worried about this as I am no pro at computers but said OK anyway. Thanks to some DVD's I bought from Geeks On Tour, I have used them in class and they seem to have saved the day. Now mind you, I do some of the class on my own as well, but the videos have helped a lot. The first weeks lesson was on using the mouse, and basics such as WordPad, the desktop, etc. The second week was learning about getting on the Internet and a little about how to navigate around. This past week, we went into email. We have everyone open a Gmail account from Google and that way everyone is following along on the same screen. Most of them bring their laptops and we have tables set up and it looks and feels like a real classroom. The club also has and advance class which follows the beginners and I feel if I learn just one thing each week, I have learned.

I have also started back with line dancing. They are meeting about 4 days a week, so far I have not made all 4 days in one week. Just seems I have something else going on. They also have a beginners and an advance class. I was going to the beginners (and I still do quite a bit), but I really get a little bored, as every time a new person shows up, it is like stating all over again. With my dancing background, I think I catch on pretty well, so I have decided to attend more of the advance classes. I may go to some beginners classes also.

The park will be having their big Thanksgiving dinner at the hall on Thursday. We have signed up to bring a desert so I will be making pumpkin pie. They have different colored pages to sign up on and that is the group you will sit with during dinner. We are with the orange group. Each color group has serving tables with their food so the lines aren't too long. We have been in some parks, that if you are one of the last tables to be called to get your food, everything is picked over and some of it is gone and by the time you sit down to eat, the people who were first are getting up and heading home. Real get together time there, don't you think?

The park had it's first craft sale and I had my table, but November is not a good month. First of all there are a lot of people who do not come down till after Thanksgiving. Also, people have spent money traveling here, have expenses when they get here, food to buy, etc. so they are not spending there money at craft sales. I made a whopping $13.50 and then had to pay out $3 for the table. Wasn't hardly enough to buy lunch, so went home to eat. I am hoping Dec. will be better. I am making some poinsettia pot holders for the Christmas sale. Hope they are different enough that they will sale.

We have been spending time visiting other parks where you can own your own land and looking at other units. One of the things on our wish list was to have a space to park the RV on the same lot and most of the parks you can't do that. We even went and looked into new mobile homes. Saw some really nice ones, but with the price and then having to buy a lot, and the set up fees and putting on a Texas room, it would be way over our budget. We kept going back to one unit we spotted and even made two showings of it. The owners live in Canada and were not down here yet, Roger talked to them on phone, but we decided to wait till they got here. We went to see them on Sunday and after talking to them for a long time, we decided to buy it. We have put money down on it and will work out all the details later. They want to stay down here till March so we will not be moving till then. It does have a pad for RV with sewer, water and we will put in the elec. hook up for RV. It is 2 bedroom, 2 bath, living, kitchen, laundry and yes, a Texas room. It also has a large covered deck and one small shed and one large shed that is set up as a work shop with over head storage. It is at Valley View park and our friends live right behind this place so it will be handy. We are excited about it, but it will be a long wait till March.

May you all have a very Happy Thanksgiving and enjoy your family and friends.

In Mission - Bentsen Grove

We arrived here in Monday (19th) around 4:30pm. It is good to get here and get settled in. We are still working on the settling in thing. Have to take RV to the storage area today. We parked RV across the street and unloaded it after cleaning our trailer. I can't believe we had so much stuff to unload. with my crafts and Roger's tools he brought, it took awhile. Roger got my 3 wheel bike out of shed and filled the tires with air. I am ready for a bike ride now. We were going to take one last night, Roger got the front tire on his bike put on and went to fill it with air, and blew the inner tube. Now he has to get a new tube. We took a walk instead.

There really isn't much to write about as not much happening in park right now and our friends aren't here either. I want to make it to the pool today and I want to check out the exercise room and show Roger how to use some of the equipment. We did take our pop cans to the recycle area and crushed them, then to the hall and read the bulletin boards. Seems they are having garage sales here this Sat. and a Halloween party on the 31st. We also signed up for flu shots for next Tuesday. Wow...........isn't that all exciting??? Not really, but like I said before, not much to write about.

The weather has been nice, in the 80's. Slept with the air on last night, haven't done that for awhile. We were sleeping with heater running all the way down here. The fruit trees in our yard are full of grapefruit and oranges, but they are still green so it will be awhile before we get some of that great fruit.

We did venture out yesterday and did some driving round and looking at other parks for mobile homes for sale. I can see this is going to take awhile to find the right price and everything we want. I like the park we are in, but we lease the spot and own our trailer. The activities in this park are great and I have made many friends. Roger wants to own the land as well as the mobile home and many parks are set up that way. It is the activities in those parks that sometimes are not up to par with what I want. Roger doesn't do activities, so it really doesn't mean anything to him. Also, we have a wish list of what we want this time around, so finding everything is the challenge.

"How beautiful a day can be when kindness touches it"

Too Cold.......Left Iowa

Wow, the title says it all. It was cold and they turned off the water at the campground we were staying at, we checked into another one, but they were going to turn off water too. Roger called both the Dr's and they got him in on Monday (12th) so Tuesday morning we took off for the south.

When we left our place in Stanwood, the satellite box was one of the last things we took out, and wouldn't you know, I pulled all the wires off the box, went to back of TV and gathered up wires and then missed the power cord for satellite box. Called the new owner and she found it and dropped it off at our son's house who lives a half a block away.

Monday while Roger was running around doing his DR appointments I spent the day at daughter, Sandy's house doing laundry. Took my lap top with me and the cord with my Verizon USB card and when I left, I left the cord. Didn't get lap top out of bag till last night and had to call Sandy to see if it was there. Now they have to mail it to me. They are going to overnight it and we will pick it up at a post office close by. I just can't go without my Internet. I must have a block for cords.

We are at Mark Twain Landing campground outside of Monroe City, MO right now. Will go into Monroe City and check at post office tomorrow, if the cord is there, we can move on, if not it will be another night here. I must say this is a very nice campground, but it is still cold here. Don't know how much further we will have to go South before it gets warmer. I went to office today and she gave me the code to use the Wifi here, so I am now almost a happy camper. We have cable TV here, but no ABC. I watch alot of ABC, so having some withdrawal with that.

Tuesday morning before we left, Roger had to drive back to Stanwood and stop at post office as we needed to pick up mail (they were closed on Monday, Columbus Day). He also had to go back to Dr for blood test. Besides picking up mail, I asked him to get me 100.........forever stamps. He gave me the check book when he got home, the check was for $80.80, then he gave me the stamps. He had a total of 20 stamps....................WHAT..........20 stamps for $80, WOW. I guess he and the gal at the post office did not understand each other. I called her this morning and she said she changed to check. I guess my lost cords aren't that big a deal now.

Not much more news, we are glad to be on our way, just wish it was warmer. Checked weather in Mission and still in 90's there with some 80's. Sure sounds good to me right now.

Paper's signed.....we are now homeless

We closed on our home yesterday and are now moved out and sitting in a campground in Cedar Rapids. I must say it was a lot of work those last 4 days. I am soooo tired, getting to old for this. We have some mixed emotions about it, will not miss the town of Stanwood, never really made any friends there but we will miss the mobile home. We really liked that place, just hope we can find a good place in Texas that is as great. There is no hurry to find one, we want to be certain so we don't have to do this moving again.

Roger has Dr. appointments on the 19th and 20th and we will be leaving here after that. We are going to take this time to try to see all our friends and family and get a few things done we have been putting off. Who know, we might even take in a movie. While living in Stanwood, it was always a long drive to Cedar Rapids, so didn't get to do some of those things. It is getting quite cold here, and our old bones are not use to this, we are looking forward to heading south.

Till later

House Closing on Monday the 5th

Just wanted everyone to know, we got word this afternoon that we will be closing on our house on Monday. We were hoping for a week of two to get everything moved, but lawyer said we should be moved out by Monday, so she can get keys, etc. It is a good thing, we have almost everything packed and waiting in garage to be moved. Roger went down and got a storage unit today, so will start with some of it tomorrow. Making my list of things to get done and which day to do them. It is raining here, so that may put a damper on things for tomorrow. Geeee........we are getting tooooooooooo old for all this moving stuff.

I think I told everyone about the sending the new camera in to get fixed. I did get the card back and now have those pictures in "My Web Albums" There a some of our place here and most of them are of our grand-daughter, Emily and the high school band. She is in color guard and does a great job. If you want to view all of them, just click on photo and it will take you to the web album.

From 2009-09-30

From 2009-09-30

Not sure when I will get back here to write again, I am going to be busy for a few days. We will be taking RV into Cedar Rapids and camping at Morgan Creek at least till the 15th, that is when the park closes for the season. Roger has two doctor appointments the 19th and 20th, so can't leave till after that. We are hoping Morgan Creek will remain open for a few more days, if not, I think we will be headed to Hawkeye Downs Fairgounds. If you are in the area, stop by and see us.

Till later.................Happy Trails

Sold our home

We have an offer on our place and there has been earnest money put down on it. We took the papers to the lawyer to look over and get things going. Now it is a wait game. The lady who is buying it is going thru a divorce and wants this place to move into. She is living with her mother right now. We are not sure if it will close before we leave for the Rio Grande Valley, but we are packing up everything and getting ready anyway. We will be moving it all into storage for now and after we find a different place in Texas, we will come back and get it.

Here is a picture of our place. This was taken from the street.

The time just seems to fly buy. I have everything almost packed up here and only kitchen left to do. Don’t want to pack it too soon as still stuff we are using every day. As it is, it seems like there is always something we are looking for and it is packed. Been loading RV at same time, so most of what we need is there.

I got Roger a new camera the end of July. We had taken some pictures with in at the Jefferson football game last Friday night. Our grand daughter, Emily is co-captain of the color guard and they preformed. When trying to upload them to my laptop, I couldn’t get the cord to attach to camera right, now the camera won’t work at all. What a bummer. I hope I didn’t mess up something trying to get the cord attached.

Not much more happening is dullsville (Stanwood). I must say, we will not miss this town. Have never made any friends here, we will miss our home and Roger is going to miss his garage, but those can be replaced. I am really looking forward to doing more traveling next summer. Not sure where we will be going, but even if we make a few RV rallies, it will be a start. At least we will not be tired to this place, mowing lawn and working in garden.

I will keep you posted when the sale is finale, hope it is soon. Roger has an eye appointment the 19th of Oct, and we are planning on leaving after that.

Where did this month go?

Wow, we are in the last full week of August and I just can't believe it. I don't know where it went. I am not sure if that means I am very busy or just retired and we all know time goes by faster when you are retired.


We have an appointment tomorrow to take the Vue into Cedar Rapids and have the tow bar welded on. We are going to have to take both cars as, it will take all day and too far to come back home, so we will make a day of it. Not sure what we are going to do all day, I called one of my friends to let her know we would be in town, but haven't heard back from her. Guess maybe we might see if there is a movie we can go see, that ought to kill some time.

After getting home from our camping trip with Roger's brother Larry and wife Sherri, we have been trying to finish up with things here at home. We had ordered two new bathroom sinks and they came right before we left to camp, so Roger got them installed. The other project was to get the crack in kitchen ceiling fixed. We had a guy come to do it, he works on mobile homes all the time and when he was here to winterize the place last fall, he told us he could fix it. Well, he wasn't quite sure how he was going to do it, but ended up mounting a 1x4 on ceiling all the way across. Roger is now painting it. That will pretty much end all the fix it projects. Now I need to get out to garage with Roger and start sorting all his garage treasures (that's what he likes to call them).

I have been working on my crafts for the craft sales at our park over the winter. They have one every month and the table only cost me $3 each month. I have many crocheted items, manly bookmarks, butterflies, hanger covers and photo frames. I have also made tissue box cover with plastic canvas and these have photo frames on side. The other item I make is sun catchers made out of beads. These I learned how to make sometime ago and they take quite a bit of time to do as I have to drill the holes, cut the sticks, sting the beads, etc. I have just finished making some 34 of them. They are not all alike, I have cardinals, blue jays, USA hearts, hummingbirds, red hats, Canada flag, and hearts. I am now working on some more of the tissue boxes. Don't know what will be next, I made a list of everything I had left in Texas and that helps to decided what I need to make more of. I like to keep my hands busy, so it is craft, craft, craft.

I decide to look into Face Book as everyone seems to be doing it. I joined and can keep up with what the rest of family is doing. I have been able to see photos that I never would of seen if I hadn't joined and read about what family is doing. I also go hooked playing Farkle. Oh well, you only live once, might as well enjoy it.

We are not quite sure when we will be leaving Iowa for Texas. Roger has an eye appointment the 19th of Oct. so will have to be after that. I really wanted to leave earlier, but guess not. We are still waiting for the sale of our place to happen. Have one gal that wants it, but is getting a divorce so the money has not happened yet. She did line up for someone to come and evaluate it and they are suppose to come this afternoon. I hate this waiting till the last minute as if this is going to happen, I need to start packing. I am getting too old to try and get it done all in a time frame of a couple of weeks. I guess we are going to give her till the end of Sept. and if there is no down payment, we will pull it off the market and try again next spring when we get back. I have packed some things and have them sitting in garage. It is just hard to know what to pack and still make this place look lived in. I can't strip all the walls bare (yet).

Roger likes Bluegrass music and we missed the festival that was in Strawberry Point (Backbone) so I looked on line and found out the one in Central City is this weekend, so we are going to go to that. Will pack the lawn chairs, cooler and maybe I will take a craft to work on while listening to music. Should be a fun time and good to get away for a day.

"The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra."

Coralville Lake

After being home for almost 3 months, we finally got the motor home out and are camping. Met Roger's brother at Coralville Lake to camp for 6 days. We have had rain and storms, and now heat and humidity. The TV reception is not all that great and we can not get ABC or NBC with our TV. Roger's brother (Larry) is parked next to us and he gets them. I just don't get this new digital TV thing. I told Roger he needed to get up on roof and cut some tree branches away from the antenna. Do you think that has anything to do with it. I am having TV withdrawal, good thing I have the DVR set at home to record all my favorite show. Will catch up this next week.

After attending our grandson's graduation last May, and seeing the zoom my daughter got with her camera, Roger decided we needed a camera with a better zoom. Well, we got it and have been playing around with it while we are camping. All the pictures in my new album will be from the new camera. It is Nikon Coolpix P90. It has 12.1 Megapixels, Wide 24X zoom, 3 inch Vari-angle monitor and vibration reduction. It is going to take some time to get use to it. As you can see from my pictures, we have a ways to go.

From Coralville Lake

We spotted these geese out on the lake our first day camping and got out the camera. Then we tried really zooming in on them. Remember, we have no tripod so found it was had to get a good focus. Here is a picture of geese with the zoom.

From Coralville Lake

Not too bad, but still working on the zoom. Be sure to click on either picture to take you to rest of the photo's.

Roger's daughter (Jenny) and her three girls came by campground for a visit. They live in Muscatine so we don't see a lot of them. They went to the beach for a swim and then back here for hot dogs. Roger's son(Matt) and wife (Heather) came by with his boat and gave everyone a ride. The boat use to belong to Jenny's father in law and had ran for 15 years, so Jenny was glad get to get a ride in it.

From Coralville Lake

From Coralville Lake

I then tried to get a sunset pictures. The sun was setting behind some campers in a distance, and here is what I got. Not too bad for my first try.

From Coralville Lake

Now I have the smart card in my purse and going to take it and Roger to Wal-Mart and show him how to get the prints made. He keeps telling me he wants prints to look at not just the computer. Do you think that has anything to do with the fact, he doesn't do anything on computer.

I must say, I like this new camera. We got it with the idea that Roger would like it and use it more. He needs a hobby and thought he would take more pictures this way. I think he is going to have to use it more to get use to it and learn the different settings one at a time. One of the things that is nice about it is, when I upload the pictures to Picasa, there is very little editing to do. Seems like the camera takes a great picture.

Check out the VUE

We are into August now and the summer is going by very fast. I check on the temp in Mission and there is no way we want to be there now. Sure hope it gets a little cooler before we head down there this fall. As of now, we are planning on leaving here around the middle of Oct. and maybe do a little site seeing on our way. There is so much to see and do and it seems we never really stop to do them. Roger says it is me and I say it is him. I guess it is alittle of both of us. I can plan all the stops and things and spend time looking them up, but I would like some feed back from him and some help with the planning. Seems to me, he has a free ride, as I am the one that charts the route and campgrounds, etc. Come on Roger, lets work together on this.

We did get most of our painting done. I posted a picture of our master bath last time, I took a new picture and I must say it turned out pretty good. I am not sure how many people will be happy with the color, but I like and they can always paint it after they buy the place. Here is the master bath now.

From Summer in Iowa

It was really had to match the green counter and we didn't want to redo them. We have gotten new sink to install and Roger is working on that as I am typing this. The trip to find the sinks was and adventure all its own. Roger had called a mobile home place and found out there was a place in Davenport that sold mobile home parts, after checking, it was in Moline. We took off last week on Monday for our trip to get new sinks, got there and they don't carry the kind or shape we needed. You will notice in photo they are sort of a square shape. They sent us to a couple of other places and still no luck. After returning home, I googled "mobile home parts" and opened up the first site that was listed, went to "bath and there they were our sinks, they were even in the color we wanted............and only $19.95 each. Wow, we should of down that in the first place. I placed the order and they arrived here on Friday. We are moving right along with getting this place fixed up for someone else and hopefully we can sell it.

Last summer Roger put on vinyl siding and when he did that we closed off one of the doors to the mobile home. You see there were two doors in front, one to living area and one to bedroom right next to living room (I use that as my office). We really didn't like two doors almost right together and when we moved in here, we had a back door added off the kitchen, so didn't need the door in bedroom. After closing it off, we never finished it off on inside, only put some insulation up, now we have added paneling to back side and sides and are going to put shelves in the opening. It is an easy fix, but better for us then trying to sheet rock. Only one more fix to do after Rog gets the new sinks in, and that is the crack in ceiling from when they moved this mobile home here. That one is going to be hired out, hopefully real soon, as I want to advertise and have an open house to see about selling and time is running out before time to leave.

I guess I didn't tell the story about Roger selling his Mazda pickup. He had $750 on it and had some lookers but decided he needed to take it in and see about getting the catalytic converter removed or what ever it was he has going to do, it was clogged. The guy told him there was a problem with the brakes and it would cost him about $160 to fix. Well, he didn't want to put anymore into it, he wanted to get rid of it. He had a guy that had offered him $550 but Roger said he acted like a jerk and he would not sell it too him. He gave in and called the guy and in the end the guy jewed him down another $50. Ok, $500 in our pocket. A week or so later we had gone out to eat and were walking down the sidewalk when here comes his truck and pulls in a parking space right in front of us. It wasn't the same guy that had bought it so Roger ask the guy if he just bought the truck, he says yes and Rog wants to know what he paid for it, he tells the guy he just sold it. Well, the guy paid $1,100 for it. OUCH. After a long talk with this guy, and Roger is telling him some of the history of the truck and what needs to be done, we also find out the they guy is interested in the tow bar we have to go with it. We give him our name and phone number. He does call later and buys the tow bar from us. At least Roger gets another $50 for it.

Now Roger is feeling really low about loosing his truck so he starts thinking about what will make him happy and what he wants next. We start looking for a SATURN VUE. After some local looking I get on the computer and find one that he likes in Wisc, so we made a trip and bought a 2006 Saturn Vue. Here is a picture of it, now we have to get it set up for towing.

From Summer in Iowa

Now if any of you readers are interested in buying our 2001 Saturn SL200, let me know.

Some of the other excitement in our lives is our trip to Clear Lake for the family picnic, we just got back from that. We are going to get the RV out and go camping the next week with Roger's brother and wife for a week, that should be fun and a break from the work around here. If you click on one of the photo's I posted it will take you to the rest of the album and you can check out the rest of our excitement, 40th Ann. party for one of Roger's friends, visit with grand kids, painting and others. Check it out.

Remember: Love is a little word; people make it big.

What to write about??

Here it is the middle of July and I have not posted anything on here yet. Shame on me. I just have a hard time coming up with things to say and to share. I have never been good about keeping a journal, so why should this be any different?

I sent the hand scanner I got off QVC, back to QVC. I just didn't like it and they have a 30 day return policy, so why not send it back? It wasn't doing me any good sitting in the corner. I am still scanning and editing photos in Picasa, I am up to 1995 now, not bad considering I started with the years I was married and raising my three girls, that was 1966. I put those all in one album and burned a DVD for each of my girls. Now I want to make a cover for it.

My crafts..........I finished the cro-hook afghan I was making. Wanted to make one for two of the granddaughter's for graduation next spring. Had one done and needed to make another one. Now with that done, I have started on my beaded sun catchers. Roger got me the sticks when he went to Menards and I am now marking where the holes go and then will go to garage and drill all the holes. Have six sticks and there are 116 holes each stick............WOW I'm tired just thinking of it. I am sending in an order for more beads, it should be here about the time I get all those holes drilled. Roger did buy me a small drill press and that is a big help.

We have had a few showings on your place here. It seems people have trouble getting loans for a mobile home. This last one seems like it was going to be the one, but we haven't heard back from her, she was going to bring her mother over on Saturday to look at it, but it was a no show. If we don't sell it this summer, will try again next spring when we come back home. We have been trying to get a few things done around here to make it better. Got some paint and decided to paint the master bath. It had a horrid rose wall paper on walls and really out dated. The bath room also has these green counter tops. It is really hard to match the counter tops (can't take them to store with us) so after trying a couple of times, decided to go with a light lavender. It was that or pink or yellow. I already had purple towels and rugs in there, so it was lavender. I must say it looks pretty good. Not sure how many other people are going to like it, but it is better then the roses. I am going back and doing touch up painting right now. I hate to rat on my hubby..........I've already told him this...........but he is a terrible painter. He wants to get in there and get it done in a hurry and the paint gets on too think and runs and then a mess. Even taping, he gets the tape on where it is covering part of the wall, so now it is back to touching up. Oh well, I have nothing but time. We are going to get new sinks and faucets for both bathrooms, but have to make a trip to Davenport for that. There is a place down there were we can buy mobile home items. The sinks are sort of a square shape and we don't want to replace counters so that is our best bet. I bet your asking, why not new counters if there is a green one in master bath.......let me tell you, it is a very odd shape and a lot of angle cuts and Roger is not good at that sort of thing............so just new sinks.

Ok, I did find this photo, it shows you the rose wall paper and the green counters, I will take another photo when I am all done with bath room and you can see the change.

Guess that is about all for now. Haven't taken any new pictures to send on to you, I could send you some that I am scanning, but they would be old ones. Maybe I will do that for next post. Till later, stay cool, drive safe and Happy Trails

Senior moment

Last Friday we went to the retirement party for my old boss. We made arrangements to meet another couple I worked with and ride with them as parking was slim. I had taken my camera and had it in the car with me and wouldn't you know, when getting into their van, I left the camera..............no pictures from the party and all my old friends from work. Hopefully, one of my friends will share with me, I have my fingers crossed. I was hoping to post some pictures here, I am sure everyone is ready for new photos. It is hard to come up with new ones when we are not traveling and no Keota to take pictures of. Guess I will need to do a better job of keeping camera ready to shoot.

I have been going thru all our photo albums and pulling out photos. Started scanning them and putting them on computer then, make DVD's with them. It is quite a job, but when one is retired, we have all kinds of time. Once they are scanned, I edit them with Picasa and label all of them. I can't believe all the photos that have no writing on back to tell you who they are when they were taken. I came across this a lot when doing the old photo's of Roger's family and I don't know the people so really hard to label them. I need to get him to sit down with me and go through them with me........like that is going to happen. LOL My scanner will not work with vista and that is what I have on my lap top so I am using my desk computer to do the scanning. I was going to get rid of it, but when I found out I could not get a driver for this scanner to work with Vista, decided to keep the desk PC just for scanning. I have two computers in office running all the time, one scanning and one for my other work. I saw on QVC a while back, a small photo scanner that you can sit on couch and do your scanning while watching TV. Wow, that's what I need. I ordered it and it was great till the plastic sleeve the photos were to go in to do the scanning got streaked from going thru the scanner. After awhile the scans were a poor quality, so back to my old scanner.

I really need to get out may crafts and see what I need to make to take back down to Texas for the craft sales. I made a list of what I had before I left and I know I will need to order more beads for my sun catchers. Should do that this week as it will take a while to make out the bead order and then have them mailed to me. The rest of the things I can do as I want, but the beads need to be ordered. Not sure about the craft sales in Texas, I like doing them, but it seems I don't really sell that much, wondering if it is worth it. But for those of you who know me, I love doing my crafts and I need to keep busy.

Not much more news around Stanwood, I go for my 2 mile walk in the mornings then stay in where it is cool and work on my computer and some house work and crafts. What more can I say. Happy Trails to everyone and stay cool and stay safe.

Birthday

This past week has been a busy one. Started off on Monday going to Cedar Rapids and getting my physical. I didn't get one last year, so I guess you could call it my every two year one. LOL. I have been having a swishing sound in my left ear for about 3 years now and talked to my Dr. about it, she decided to send me for some test. On Friday I made another trip to Cedar Rapids and had a full blood workup done, then went for an MRI for my ear. After that went and got my mammogram . I always hate those, but I guess better safe then sorry. The MRI was no picnic either. Had to lay still for 25 minutes in the tube with loud noises. I ended up singing to myself and made it to 17 bottles on bear on the wall. After the 25 minutes, they moved me out, gave me a shot in vain and back in the tube for another 10 minutes. I also went for a hearing test that afternoon. When I got there, I was told the appointment was for 11am. Woops, someone made a mistake, I told her I had a card in my car that said 1pm and if she wanted I would go get it for her. I had the mammogram appointment at 11am. She ended up taking me anyway. Now that all the test are over with, it is wait to hear from my doctor and see what the results are.

The rest of the week was taken up with dinner in Iowa City with my friend Janis and her hubby Jim, then on Wed. our friends from Mission stopped by to see our place. That was Dick and Darlene, Dick went to school with Roger in Clear Lake so they go wayyyyyyyyyy back. We also went out to eat with them. I bet I gained a few pounds this past week.

I started off this post with a heading of "Birthday" so I guess I better explain that one. For those of you that read this blog but don't know me all that well, Thursday the 11th was my 64th Birthday. It was spent at home, Roger got up and gave me his gifts and Matt and family came over in the afternoon with a card and a gift card. Then my daughter Sandra along with her hubby Brian and daughter Emily and I can't forget the 2 dogs came for supper and grilled out and made supper for us. She also made we a Watergate cake. I got a nice E card from my sister and a phone call later. I also got nice calls from my other two daughters, Kim in California and Janis in Colorado. I also got a nice card from my high school friend Janis. Thanks to all of you for remembering me and the cards and gifts.

Happy Trails

Catching up

Yes, it is time to catch up on this blog. It seems like there is nothing to write about, Stanwood is not a very exciting place. This past weekend found us sitting in our garage trying to sell all the things we no longer want. The town of Stanwood had their "city wide garage sales". It was suppose to be on Saturday, as we found ourselves getting ready on Thursday afternoon, we decided to open one day early as we were all ready. It sure paid off, made close to $150 that day. Then Saturday was a great day also and made a total for the 2 days of $400. The left over things were loaded into car and taken into Cedar Rapids and dropped off at Good Will.

Roger put his 1990 Mazda pickup For Sale and we had quite a few looking at it, or knew somebody that would be interested, it is still sitting next to garage with the For Sale sign on it. We use to pull it behind our motor home and is set up for towing, even has the tow bar to go with it. We also placed a FOR SALE BY OWNER sign in our front and back yard, as we are going to try to sell this place. Have had some phone calls on it, but nothing to get excited about. Only one showing at this time. With the house up for sale, I have been doing some deep cleaning and decluttering. Roger says I watch to much HGTV and that is why I am doing all that. I say, what can it hurt. If we move we have to get all this stuff out anyway. Yesterday, I cleaned out our bedroom closet. I must say, the place looks pretty good, I would be interested in it if I were looking. Roger's worried people will not be able to get a loan on a mobile home, I told him, that wasn't his worry. If it happens great, if not, we will wait till it does. No hurry.

Every morning I turn on my computer and log onto the Internet, read my mail, go to the Good Sam website and sign in for free monthly giveaways........still haven't won anything and been doing it for over a year.........and then start reading all the blogs I follow. It is really fun to see where all our friends are now and what they are up to. I follow about five of them right now and I guess that is why I decided to write in mine this morning. Some of them do not write every day and I start wondering what they are doing, so guess I should keep mine up for the few people who read mine.

We were in Cedar Rapids on May 19th and at Menard's (home improvement store) and decided to get us a counter top ice maker. It was on sale $98 so we got it and took it home. After reading the little book of instructions that came with it, we decided to get some distilled water to put thou it the first few times. After getting the water later in the week, we plugged it in and gave it a try. I say try as that is what it was. The darn thing kept coming on with a red light telling us to add more water. Well the book said to turn it off, wait 3 min. then turn it back on, the water was working its way up into the machine. So this we did.......and did.........and did.......and did.....and did. You get the idea, we did that for over an hour, then called the help phone number in the book. The tec told us to take it back, it was not working. This we knew, that's why we called. We took it back to the store and they didn't have any other ones so they credited our debit card back. They did call the store on the other side of town and they had one. On our way home we stopped at the other store. They had one left however.............it was not for the same price we paid before. I asked the clerk about it, he said it has never been at that price. After much go around with them, and a number of people to talk to, they gave us that one for the same price we had at the other store. There should of been a flash of light go off for us, why was it so cheap at other store ( didn't work). We took the new one home and tried it right away and guess what, it made about 4 ice cubes then started doing the same thing the other one did. WE TOOK IT BACK TOO. We won't buy one of that brand again........EMERSON.

Roger is so excited, he went to a foot DR. place in Cedar Rapids on Monday and they did measuring of his foot and told him they think they can get him in regular shoes. He won't have to wear the Frankenstein boots. He goes back next Monday and they we set him up. They had to get approval for new shoes from his DR as he is diabetic and Medicare pays for a new pair every year. He only has one pair of shoes to wear and if they get wet, or something happens to them, he is out of luck. Hope it all works out for him.

I will keep reading all the blogs and if any of you get close, please stop by to say hi. Till later............Happy Trails

Home

We arrived in Stanwood on Sunday afternoon. While stopping in Des Moines to fuel at Flying J, we had called Roger's brother (Larry) who was camped at Saliorville Lake and he met us at Flying J and we had a nice visit with him while we ate our lunch.

I can't believe all the things one has to move out of RV and back into the house. I keep telling myself that everything is duplicated so no need to move it........ya sure. There just seems to be things that still have to move. Like food, dirty clothes, laptop, printer........and the list goes on. I don't know how people keep an extra set of clothes in their RV, it seems like there is always something left in RV that I want to wear. We take out all the food also, as when we leave here in the fall, we can't leave anything that is going to freeze so have to make sure we have enough room in RV and if we had duplicates of everything, it would never all fit.

Getting set up at home wasn't all that pleasant this year, first while hooking the water back up, there was a leak under our mobile home............so a phone call and some time later the guys came to fix that. No cost and they are the same ones who blew out our water lines last fall....so sort of their falt. The next challenge was getting our DirectTV set up. The dishes are set up on side of garage and I called to get our local channels changed from Mission to Stanwood. Guess what, still can't get them. They lined up a service guy to come tomorrow and fix that problem. I spent 2 hours on my cell phone (no land line telephone) and that's what I ended up with. While in Texas we changed to a DVR and that takes two satellite cables going to it. We had three dishes installed here last fall, so do to the fact we cancelled one of the boxes, we decided we could just take that extra line and run it to the DVR that is located in the living room. Roger got under mobile home and found the cable running into the bedroom where we will no longer have satellite and cut it and ran it up the hole into living room. Then he had to put a new end on it. Okay.........now I hook it up and it won't work. That was part of the 2 hours I spent on phone with tech support. Matt (our son who lives a half a block away) came by last evening and showed Roger how he goofed putting on the new end........fixed it and I now have the DVR working, just no local channels.

We made a trip into Cedar Rapids this morning. I had gotten information from the school district about my health insurance and needed to make a trip to get it cleared up. Then it was off to do some shopping. We had tried to eat most of food on way home................makes the RV lighter going over the mountains............LOL. We needed to stock up. We live about 30 miles from Cedar Rapids so try to stock up and not have to make that trip to often. There are stores closer and sometimes we go to them.

I am keeping busy catching up on laundry, had all the sheets I use to cover TV's and other things while we are gone and our other clothes. It will take awhile to get caught up. Hope this finds everyone enjoying the spring weather and if you are planning any vacations or trips......................Happy Trails to you.

Calan's Graduation

Wow, it really makes me feel older when you have your grandkids graduating. In 2005 we made a trip to Colorado and then California you attend two grandson's graduations. Dustin (Janis' oldest son) was in May that year and Danny (Kim's middle son was in June). We are now back at Janis' for her youngest son, Calan who graduated on Wed. It was at 8:30 am and so we were up early to go and save seats for rest of family. I can remember attending Janis' graduation and it was very stuffy and the kids weren't allowed to have any fun, if they did, no diplomas. Here in Grand Junction, they are all for the kids having fun. They take blow up balls and animals and bounce them around up in the air and after it is all over they are allowed to throw their caps in the air. You won't see that in Cedar Rapids.

From Grand Junction - Calan's Graduation

After the graduation Janis and I worked at getting her house ready for the party. She doesn't like to decorate, so I did that........not much of it, but Calan didn't want much. They had a good turn out and everyone had a good time.

The past 2 weeks we have just been chilling out. We have made many trips here and seen all the sites, so not much else to do. Did get some shopping done and just hung out. Spent today getting the RV ready for travel tomorrow. Took it over and fueled up then to a RV park and dumped the holding tanks. We will be leaving early in the morning. Roger is dreading the drive up over the mountains. I know we will make it just slow and easy. I guess the this will be the last post till we get home. Till then.......Happy Trails

In Grand Junction

We made it to Grand Junction on Tuesday.........and are now parked in side yard at daughters house. They added another 3 stall garage on side of the 2 stall garage and we weren't sure if there would be room for us. It is working out great..........only longer walk now to get into house.

Decided to set up our DirectTV will we are here, and have been working on it since Tuesday when we got here. Finally, yesterday I decided to give up on the DVR and use the basic box and see if I could get the roof dish to work. We had the dish with tripod hooked up and could get no signal. It was really weird as I got it to correct evaluation and was turning it slowly back and forth and watching and listening for a signal to come and all of a sudden............a station came on the screen. Never did get the signal................but we now have the satellite working and I am going to play around with the one for bedroom today. Hoping to get the DVR set up there...........but I am going to move the portable dish to a different spot. I think it is in line with trees where it is.

We haven't done much here........after making a lot of trips here over they years.....we really don't think there is much to see that we haven't already. Yesterday was spent catching up on the laundry and working on the satellite dish. Everyone is working, going to school or playing gulf here. I did spend most of yesterday on line and getting my gps maps updated. It took all day to download onto the lap top then another couple hours getting it onto GPS. It is done now and we are set to visit new places. Wish I had done it before we left last October, as we could of used it a number of times. Hadn't been updated since we bought it back in 2006.

Till next time..........happy trails

Alburquerque - The Rally

The Rally is now over and we are spending a week in Cortz, CO to rest and unwind after a week at the rally.

We arrived in Albuquerque on the 13th and checked into a KOA north of town. This gave us a chance to do laundry, shower, empty holding tanks and fill water tank.

From Albuquerque - Rally

From Albuquerque - Rally

While at the rally we are dry camping except for electric, which we paid extra for. On the 15th we headed into Albuquerque to park at the Balloon Fiesta Park, we had a morning time to check in and were some of the first to get there as we were only about 10 miles away. We got a pretty good place to park and it was close to where the buses loaded to take us to the fair grounds for rally, the bath rooms and the night entertainment was very close. The first thing we did after getting set up was catch the bus to the fair grounds to register and get our information. Ended up buying two rally sweatshirts for $5 each. Now you say what a bargain.........yes it was but they were from last years rally, but we didn't care. They are quite nice and we knew there was some cold weather headed to Albuquerque so we would need them.

We attended a few seminars and did some shopping at rally. It seems as tho the more rallies one attends the seminars seem to be something we don't think we want to do again. Went to a couple of heath type ones and I went to one on Google Earth and one on Picasa, both given by the Geeks on Tour, Chris and Jim. It was good to finally get to say hello to them, I am sure they don't remember all the people they meet at these things.......but at least I stopped by the RV.net booth where they were and introduced myself.

From Albuquerque - Rally

One day the Balloon Fiesta park was offering half price off the entrance to the museum so we went to that. It was quite interesting......giving the history of ballooning, I think we must of spent most of the afternoon there.

Roger loves the entertainment that is at the rallies. This year on opening night.........which happened to be Roger's 66th Birthday, Neil Sedaka was at the Rally.

From Albuquerque - Rally

It was very good, but wish he would of sang more of his old songs. The bad thing was it was cold out and the whole thing was inside a large tent like building with a dirt floor. The chairs they had were cheep folding ones and very uncomfortable. One has to get to these things early to get a seat, so when arriving about 6pm and he didn't come on stage till after 7:30 we already were tired of sitting. You will notice in the photo's in my Albums (if you click on photo it will take you there) that while waiting for the concert to start............people walk around.....up and down isle with signs with numbers on a sign. Ok..................this looks funny to you, but they are looking for a match to their number to win a prize. We are each given a number when we register and have until Saturday to find it. There are 4 of each number, so one has a chance to find 3 other numbers like theirs. People walk around with the numbers on front of them, on back of them and even signs held in the air....all during the rally. They even post them on their RV in hopes someone passing buy will see it and be a match. Needless to say............we have been to 5 of these rallies and have never found our match yet. Oh well, maybe next time.

The good night of entertainment was when the Osmond Brothers came. That was a good one and we both totally enjoyed that one. One year they had Debbie Reynolds and boy was she good.

From Albuquerque - Rally

There was also a balloon glow one night and I got some pictures of that as well as one morning I looked out the RV window and saw balloons getting ready to go up.......wow more pictures.

From Albuquerque - Rally

We left the balloon fiesta park on Tuesday morning and headed to Cortz. I must say, the traffic was a pain getting out of Albuquerque and the Balloon Fiesta Park along with over 3000 other RV's.

Next stop will be heading to Grand Juction and staying at our daughter Janis' house. We will be parking in their side yard. Going to grandson (Calan) graduation which is May 13, then we will be heading back to Iowa, hopefully it will be warmer then.

Don't forget to veiw all my pictures in My Web Album, you should click on one of the photo's and them go thu all of them, I only posted a few. Enjoy

Till later...............drive safe and Happy Trails

Made it to Albuquerque

Friday, April 10, 2009
We left Bentsen Grove Resort this morning about 7:45am and headed West along Hwy 83. I started off driving and drove till we were past Lorado and ready to turn off I-35 and follow Hwy 83 again. That was at Exit 18 and we stopped at the Rest Area which also was an Information Center. While there we ate our lunch then proceeded on with Roger driving. We followed Hwy 83 to Carrizo Springs, then cut across on Hwy 277 till it met up with Hwy 90 in Del Rio. We are now at a Passport America Campground for the night. The campground is called Buzzard Roost , not sure where the name comes from, but the price is right. We got a pull thru and we even have cable TV. I tried getting on the Internet but found out Verizon is on Extended Network and it would of cost me extra.........so that was out of the question. We ended up going about 315 miles today.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
We pulled out of Buzzard Roost Campground about 8:30am. Took Hwy 90 West to Sanderson where we caught Hwy 285 North to Fort Stockton. I must say Hwy 90 was a very good road and had a lot of road side parks to pull off onto. There was hardly any traffic and no cell phone service at all. Roger liked the road, but I was driving so what wasn't there not to like. We got fuel in RV at Sanderson, it was $2.19 a gallon. Put in 50 gallons. We got on I-10 in Fort Stockton after stopping at the Dairy Queen. I told Roger I didn't care what he got, and he brought back 2 banana splits. Like either one of us really needed that. I was thinking more along the lines of a small cone. Guess that is what I get for not speaking up and saying what I wanted. Once we were on our way on I-10 we started getting wind and it continued to get worse. We made it to Van Horn and are now at another Passport America campground. It is called Mountain View, it is right along the interstate, may be a little noisy tonight, but hey, we live by railroad tracks.............so can't be that bad. We do have cable again tonight, but no list of what the stations are, so it will be flip.....flip.....flip all night finding something to watch. Sure miss the Direct TV where you have a on screen guide. Oh well, guess this is what us Rver's call roughing it. LOL
Roger did say he misses Keota. He can remember every time we stop, Keota would want to get out and lift his leg and pee on everything. It does seem strange not having him with us.......it will feel that way for awhile and every time we go someplace were we had him. When we get home, we will have all his toys, bowls, etc around to remind us. We sure miss the little guy.
Easter Sunday
We drove from Van Horn to Las Cruces, NM........it was a short drive and that was a good thing as we had winds again............but not as bad as Saturday. Once again we stayed at a Passport America park. The half price looks good but this campground had alot to be desired. We will not be going back there again. It was Coachlight RV Park off I-10 at exit 140. The lady at the desk was very rude and the whole time we were there we were smelling sewer. I went over to use the bathroom/shower at about 8:30PM and it was all locked up. Crossing that one off our list. We had to unhook the car, even tho we had a pull through. We had been having Taco Salad every noon meal since we left Mission so decided to cook up a Easter Dinner and wow..........we had ham and pineapple frozen pizza. It was good, but not really a great Easter dinner. Decided as long as we were unhooked we would take a car ride and find a Wal-Mart and picked up a few things. Watched a little TV and called it an evening. We did get some phone calls from our kids and it was so good to hear from them.
Monday, April 13, 2009
We drove on into Albuquerque and are now at a KOA north of there in Bernalillo. I had reserved a spot here for the 14th, so we called ahead to see if we could get an extra night for tonight. Ended up with a nice spot..........we are right by office and check in area, so we are watching all the rigs coming in. They have free cable here and it is good as well as free WiFi and it is very good and fast.............so that is what I am using now. After getting settled it we watched Dancing With The Stars............that is one show Roger likes to watch with me.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Today is get ready for Rally day. Got up and headed for the laundry room, as I knew there would be a lot of people doing the same thing today before they head to the rally. Roger washed outside windows and filled the water tank. We will be getting up in morning and dump the holding tanks and head the 8 miles back to Albuquerque, not sure if I will get much of a chance to write then, but I sure will be back with more after the rally.

March is coming to a close and it will be April in a few days. We are planning on leaving Mission on Good Friday the 10th. It is now time to get our list going and the plans made for our next adventure. As many of you know we are headed to New Mexico the "The Rally" in Albuquerque. I have made reservation at a camp ground outside Albuquerque for the 14th and we will be entering "The Rally" on the 15th. We need to spend the night before at a campground close by so we can make it in that morning (our appointed time to arrive) and also so we can fill our water tank and dump our holding tanks. We will be dry camping with only electicity while there.

We moved our motor home from Sleep Valley park over to Bentsen Grove where we have been spending the winter. It sure was good to get behind the wheel again and drive if only for a few miles. It is now parked across the street from our trailer so we will be able to wash, clean and pack it before leaving. I have list going for what to take what needs to be done before we leave. The next 2 weeks will be spent getting ready.

The Rally is from the 15th thru the 21st. It is always fun to go to these and see the new things, attend seminars and the fun and games. Our first one we went to was in California and we keep going back. Besides this rally we have been to Safari Rallies (that's the make of our motor home) and FMCA rallies. FMCA is Family Motor Coach Ass.

Today we went to the Don-Wes Flea Market in Donna. We both had a list of things we wanted to look for and seemed to find most of them. When we moved into this trailer in Nov. we had taken some things out of the motor home and we now want to add those things here and put the ones we took out, back in the motor home. The one thing I have not been able to replace as yet is all the "Lock Lock" containers I use for all staples in RV and at home. I would like to find the same sizes I have now as they stack in cupboards nice and I know just what size of flour, Bisquick, etc. I can buy to fill them. So far I have been able to find 2 of the sizes I need, but can't find the rest. I will keep looking, I may have to settle for a different size.

There really isn't much more news here. the weather is getting hot, was over 100 degrees the other day, but it is still cold up North so not really in a hurry to go home. The activities in the park are slowing down. The computer club I go to on Monday mornings is still meeting as well as the Line Dancing class I go to three days a week. I must admit, I didn't go this past Thursday as it was just too hot. I get over heated easy and decided to just stay inside and stay cool. I did get up before the sun came up and went for a long walk, the hummity was high and I was in a sweat before returning home. I am sure you don't want to hear about all that, so will close for now. Hope everyone is getting into Spring and enjoying the nice weather when they can. Till later......Happy Trails to all.

Company here in Texas

It has been awhile since I last posted......but have been very busy as Roger's brother and his wife were here for a visit. It sure was good to have them and we kept somewhat busy. Larry and Sharon arrived here on a Thursday and the next day.........Roger had a dentist appointment in Progreso, Mexico. We took off with Roger's school buddy, Dick and the five of us went to Progreso.......Dick and Roger to dentist and Larry, Sharon and I shopping and looking around. Needles to say........we didn't buy anything.........but we did a lot of walking.

I can't remember the date line of everything we did..........but we did make a trip to South Padre Island. We lucked out as the spring break kids had not arrived and it was not crowed at all. After checking out the visitors center we took off for the beach. All had a good time walking on beach, getting feet wet in gulf as well as picking up small sea shells. We then drove on up the highway a ways then back with a stop at the turtle rescue place. Roger and I had been there earlier so we sat in car and let Larry and Sharon go check it out. Now it is lunch time so Larry wanted to see how "Church's Chicken" was..............so that is what we had. I was all for something different, but his was their vacation and we aim to please. Our next stop was the gift shop. Had a good time roaming around inside and out and taking pictures.

Be sure to click on the picture to take you to the rest of My Web Album!!!!

From Larry and Sharon

From Larry and Sharon

Larry had a guy he worked with in Mason City, Iowa that is also staying here in Mission, so they spent some time with them as well. Mike and his wife are at Hidden Valley Resort. We also got to visit the Riverside Club as well as Pepe's. It was cold and rainy when we went to Pepe's and we were in the teekee (sp) hut and it was cold out there. I thought the food was better at the Riverside and better priced. We went on a Wednesday and that was tenderloin special day......so that is what we had...........very good. We will return there. After our tenderloin lunch we drove up to the only had drawn ferry left in the USA. We didn't go across on it as they were very busy but we got to watch it. Maybe someday we will make the crossing. It crosses the Rio Grande River and cost 50 cents to go from US to Mexico and 75 cents to get back.

Our other adventures included shopping and eating.........and Sharon fixed a great steak dinner for us here at our place in Bensten Grove. Thanks Sharon, I really think it was the best meal of all. She also fixed us home made Spaghetti with meat balls..........very good.

They left this morning and it is now time for Roger and I to start getting ready for our departure which will be in a few weeks. Not sure of the date yet, but it will be around Good Friday sometime. We are headed for Albuquerque, NM for "The Rally" (RV rally) Looking forward to that.......I think Roger is ready to head out. Till later..........drive safe and Happy Trails.

Line Dancing

As many of you know, when I was in Jr. High and High School, I spent every Saturday (all day) teaching dancing......It was what I loved to do. Before Roger and I got married, we were Square Dancing and Round Dancing.....now I have taken up Line Dancing. The park here, has line dancing three days a week and we dance from 2 to 3 hours at a time. I must say.....my first time there......I lasted an hour and 45 min. then I had to leave. I was red faced and dripping wet. I took this up for the exercise......but it is more then that now. I have met some great people and had so much fun.

The group goes to nursing homes and adult day care centers to preform. I have not gone with them........I just can't take the heat. They have the heat turned up at those places and I have a hard time with over heating during class......when I am dancing in air conditioning and under a fan. They did get to preform at our weekly park meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 25th and I went with them. Most of the pictures you will have a hard time finding me.........I am in back row.......but you can get the idea. It was great fun and I have learned so many different dances. The yellow shirts we have say....."I know this dance.................now how does it start" How true that is. I don't know if it is a senior thing or what......but when the music starts or a dance is named, it is hard to remember which dance that is. I wish I had a video to share with you.........but these photos will have to do for now.

Remember to click on the photo to take you to the Web Album.

From Bentsen Grove Line Dancers

From Bentsen Grove Line Dancers

We are expecting a visit from Roger's brother (Larry) and sister-in-law (Sharon) sometime this week. It is going to be great to show them around and give them a taste of what life is like here in RGV (Rio Grande Valley)
I am hoping to get more photos now that I will have new subjects. Not sure when I will be back to post.........depends on how busy we stay.

Life is great and spring is coming......everyone stay warm.....drive safe and .........Happy Trails

Our Trip to Monterrey, Mexico

As many of you know, last winter while we were at Sleepy Valley Park, I attended a style show and during the door prize drawings..........I won a free one day trip to Mexico. Last year, I did not have a passport or my birth certificate that one needed to make the trip..........so I asked if I could use it this year. I really didn't want to go alone.........what kind of fun is that? I asked Roger to go and I would pay for his ticket. That was rather hard to do and arrange with Keota here and not leaving him for that length of time. We finally decided to book the trip, we had our choice of about 5 trips but decided on the Monterrey one.

We had to be in McAllen (about 8miles) by 7:15 AM as that was when the bus was leaving. We didn't know anyone, but we were off. Due to the fact that our stop was the last one of 5 that the bus took, we got to move to the back of the bus and find a seat. Of course we got lucky and got the seats right across the isle from the potty......WOOPIE. After settling into our seats it was off to Mexico. I had never looked up to see how far it was, but after leaving at 7:15 we didn't get to Monterrey till about 11:30 AM. We did make one stop on the way, to stretch and potty.

The first thing our guide did when arriving was walk us thru a park to a public restroom. The guide "Juan" went to the boat and bought our ticket to ride the boat along the river walk. The River Walk is called "Paseo Santa Lucia" and we enjoyed it. The only bad part about the boat ride was we were cramped into the boat and if you were sitting on the left side and the guide told you to look to the left..........you couldn't turn that way. Roger missed some of it due to that fact. I was sitting on end of bench on left side of boat, in front so I got to see more...........I turned to front of boat and got a pretty good view.


Click on any photo to take you to "My Web Albums" and see all of them.

From Our Trip to Monterrey Mexico

After leaving the boat, we were led to the macro plaza and viewed the Governor's palace. It was built in 1906, the first floor is a museum and the 2nd floor is Governor's offices. Juan our guide said the governors of Mexico can only hold office for 6 years then they are done for good. They can run for President but not Governor again. There were a lot of statutes in the plaza, I can't remember all the names, but they were very impressive. The one thing we did notice was how dirty everything was. The brick path along could of used a good power washing and there was gum stuck to the path. We did get a few pictures of "Neptune's Fountain", it was quite
impressive.

From Our Trip to Monterrey Mexico

From Our Trip to Monterrey Mexico

Next it was a short walk into a shopping area of downtown and to a Hotel for lunch. Juan had called ahead of time to let them know we were coming. The lunch was buffet all you can eat and set up very nice. Cloth table clothes, napkins.............the whole thing. Juan once again paid for every ones lunch to add to our bill to him at end of day. It was $12.50 each and that included the tip. There was a lot of food including, salad bar, bread bar, dessert bar as well as the main dishes. I could of said HOT dishes but that would of been stretching the truth. I was amazed when taking my first bite.............COLD. There were burners under everything and they all had lids on them..........but everything was cold. For some reason.............cold fish and other meat and veggies do not appeal to us. I have tired to reason out why it was all cold, and it just doesn't add up. After all Juan had called ahead and it was only 12.30PM so it wasn't that late in afternoon. The dessert bar was great............so I guess it made up for some of it.

It was back on the bus and a ride to "Horse Tail Falls" The road to the falls is an experience in itself. It is narrow and winds around. Now being a school bus driver, I have some experience in bus driving, but I would of never attempted to take it up there. It was a dirt road and a number of times we met cars and trucks coming down, very close calls. Also gave us a chance to see some of the homes.............if that is what they are called. Wow..........what a life. There was litter and trash everywhere and quite a slum area. One would think a drive to a tourist attraction like that that the road and homes would be something that would show a better impression of their county.

After arriving at the falls, Juan once again paid our admission to walk to the falls. That was $3 each. Ok, our total now to pay Juan is $2 for boat ride...........$12.50 for lunch and $3 for walk to falls. That is for each of us............that is a total of $35 dollars. Now Roger is sitting there adding all this up and saying......"how do we know for sure what all those things cost......he could be making extra money on this". Well, he may have a point, but how do we know Juan isn't telling us the truth. You have to trust sometimes.........besides..........I am sure he wouldn't have a job long if he were ripping us all off. Besides all of that..............the tour brioche said to pay your guide anywhere from $3 - $5 a day per person for a tip to your guide and the same for the bus driver. OK.................now it is up to almost $50 extra. I guess we would of liked to of had that all included in the price of trip to begin with and not have to worry about all the extra.

Back to the falls. After Juan paid for our tickets to walk, he told everyone they could take the walk ticket or if they decided to ride the cart or a horse it would be extra. It was only a half mile walk, so we walked. The horses looked like they were on their last leg........could of dropped over dead before we got up the hill. The falls themselves were well worth the walk and the $3 each. As you can see from the pictures. They really do look like a horse tail. This falls is spring fed.

From Our Trip to Monterrey Mexico

Please remember to click on photo to take you the rest of the pictures.

Leaving the falls, it was back to the bus and a hair rising trip back down that awful road. The bus had a slight problem on one of the turns, but he made it. We then stopped at a road side market called "Los Cavazos". I stayed on the bus, but Roger got off and walked. He did find a leather case for his pocket knife that he has been hunting for.

Leaving Monterrey at 5:30 Pm we got back to McAllen at 11:30PM. Our stop was the last one to unload so about an hour of that time was driving around dropping off people. We both decided we have no desire to make another trip to Mexico. There is enough things to see in the US to keep us busy. But we can say we have been there and done that.

It has been a very busy week and today, I am chilling out and trying to catch up. I have to see about getting my taxes done before we leave here...............so that is my next thing on my "to do list". Hope everyone is doing well and hope to see everyone soon.

Happy Valentine's Day

Here it is Valentines Day.................I had to be at the hall for a craft sale this morning. It was a good craft sale today, broke $100.00. I know that doesn't seem like much..............but, I only have mostly $2 items and then my beaded sun catchers. I really felt good with what I sold. I had a table last Friday at our old park (Sleepy Valley) and only sold $12 all day................I was ready to put down the crochet hook and call the craft shows off. Thought it wasn't worth my time to sit there all morning and make a lousy $12. Then the next day (Sat) there was a craft show at our park and I sold $92 .....................so I was back in business. I went home and last week made a few things to replenish my supply. Wow...............then today I really did good. I guess there is hope after all. I really don't need the money..............just like doing it.

There isn't much news...................the weather down here has been great. We have even turned on the air condition the past two days. We did make it back to the flea market and did some more shopping. Or should I say, Roger did some more shopping. He has found some socks there that he really likes. They are diabetic socks..............so we are loading up on them. He even told me to get rid of his other socks..........................so they must feel pretty good on his feet. Then he decided to get lawn decorations so we came home with a covered wagon and a cowboy boot.

From Yard improvements

He has also been putting a border around the fruit trees with wood chips. Next he wants to lay back paper down and do yard in rock. The grass down here is not like the grass up north..........it doesn't look the same or feel the same. Our yard is mostly shaded............and not much but weed grass grows there. I don't say much as it gives Roger something to do.............and he likes puttering. The back part of yard is all dirt and when the wind blows............it really gets dusty all over. The rock will help that out. Don't forget to click on photo to view all of the pictures.

This coming Wed. we are taking a one day trip to Monetary, Mexico. Last winter when we were down here, there was a fashion show at Sleepy Valley...........I wasn't going to go, but the lady across the street asked me to go with her. During that show, they had door prizes and low and behold.............I WON. You heard me right. I won and it was a free one day trip to Mexico. I was going to go by myself as we didn't want to leave Keota.......it would of been too long. Now that Keota is no longer with us......Roger is going also. Just had to buy him a ticket. The bus leaves at 7 am and gets back at 9pm so it is going to be one long day. I am making note to have camera ready and batteries charged before the trip. Looking forward to taking this trip.

We were given some free tickets to the McAllen Symphonic Band concert this past week. One of the gals that I help in computer club called one night and said her hubby was sick so they couldn't go and wanted to know if we wanted the tickets. It was really good. I must say...........it is the first time we have been gone during the night time hours..........Roger doesn't like to go out at night. Thanks.....Shirley and Bob for the tickets.

We upgraded our DirectTV to include a DVR and it sure is nice to record shows with. I dropped all the movie and sports package we were getting and only added the Starz package of movies. Roger likes to watch his movies...........so I have to keep him happy.

Once again............Happy Valentines Day

Alicia