And Life Goes On

I read a number of blogs each day, and after coming across most of them with no updates, I got to thinking I need to update my blog. I am not sure what I am going to write about. We are still in Mission and taking one day at a time. Still having hot and humid weather, but we stay inside during the day, so not to bad. We do make it to the pool on some days. Try to go in the late afternoons as there is a canape over one end of the pool and it provides some good shade. I don't like being in the sun, so found this the best time to go.
The park has pot lucks twice a month and they go out to pizza one time a month. The pizza is not a great place, but good to get out and visit with others. Pizza place is called "Peter Piper" and it is cheep pizza and one of those places with games for the kids.
As many of you know, my grand daughter, Emily wanted a zebra afghan for her graduation next May. I did get it finished and I am really pleased the way it turned out. Just hope Emily will like it. Here is a finished picture of it.

From Life in the RGV

I did get a few days off from working on afghan, I was asked to make four cross stitch bookmarks. They were name ones and I had to do them before our neighbors left to go back to Iowa. Got all four done in 3 1/2 days. Soon as afghan is done, I am going to have to find a new project to work on. Been thinking about starting to make baby afghans and hats for the babies in hospital. I just need something to keep me busy while watching TV.

Before we left Mission last spring, I was walking every morning for an hour and was hoping to get back to it again. Due to a heal spear, I haven't been able to do that. I finally went to the Foot DR and was told to stay off it, wear a special boot at night that would stretch the cord in foot, take Aleve twice a day, get new inserts for shoes from sports store, and finally get new shoes. I have done all that and I am still having problems. Dr. told me I could start walking short 10 minutes walk, but every time I try it, I am back to heal pain. He had told me if it hurts stay off it, so I have been spending a lot of time doing just that. That only means one thing...........more craft projects.

I did go to a garage sale here in park and bought three x stitch kits and I am now working on one of those. I thought I would buy it so I would have something to take in the RV during the summer. Anyway.......having fun working on it right now.

Roger seems to keep busy finding small projects to work on around our place here. I keep thinking there isn't anything else he could find to do.......but he seems to find something. We did have a car port put up to park our car under and it sure is nice to have it out of the HOT sun. Should help keep it looking nice too. Being as Roger's dad was a farmer, I think he has some farmer blood in him, he always wants to have a garden. Once again he has fixed a small area in yard to have one here. It is not very big, but he wants a few tomato plants and pepper plants. I guess the yard is his..............so go for it Roger.

Our friends from PA wanted to buy a place down here, they looked around when they were here last winter and we told them about a place here in the park that was for sale. They asked us to go over and take pictures and I did that then emailed them to them. Next, we were asked to go look at it and take more pictures. Did that too, and emailed them. They ended up buying the place. I am excited that they are going to be close to us and looking forward to them arriving any day now. It is about 3 blocks from us. This park is one that you own the land as well as your home and like us, they will have a place to park there RV.

The park activities will be start in full winter mode starting in November. That means lots of jam sessions, craft sales, dances and entertainment. All the parks list their activities in a paper called the "Winter Texan" and it goes out to all the parks for everyone to pick up a copy free. Then you can go to what ever activity you want, you are not limited to just your parks activities.

We are planning a trip to California over Thanksgiving. Daughter Kimberly has bought a new house and wants us to come see it. We haven't been out there since 2005 when grandson Danny graduated. We are not taking the RV, just our Saturn Vue and staying in motels. Will be a little different for us.

Till later, life is good here in the Texas.

Improvements

As many of you know, I have started making afghans for the grand kids when they graduate, so while in Iowa I asked Emily what color she wanted. I had intended on making her one with same pattern I had made the rest. That was doing it with co-hooking..........a new technique I had learned a few years ago while here in Texas. Emily decided she wanted a Zebra afghan, not having a pattern for this, I went on the Internet and found a site what had pictures of one, I copied that picture then printed it on graph paper. To make it large enough for afghan size, I had to print 4 sheets and reverse two of them to match up the stripes. After doing this, I decided I couldn't see the graph squares where the black part was, so now I outlined all of the design on one sheet and then very carefully square by square drew it out on another piece of graph paper. Now I have the pattern on something I can read. I highlighted the part that was to be black and proceeded to count all the squares so I would know how many stitches of each color. Graphs are hard to read when working on them, so my next step was to write out the directions, one row at a time. The Internet site said I could carry my yarn across my work, I tried this for a couple rows and didn't like the looks of it. I was seeing white thread, behind the black stitches and black yarn behind the white. I ripped that all out and started over, this time I rolled the yarn in balls and I am now changing colors every time the pattern calls for it. Needless to say, at this point (I am about 1/4 of the way done) I am carrying 29 balls of yarn for each row. It is a challenge and as many of you know, I am up to a challenge. Besides, what do I have besides time. I have worked out a system, with two baskets to put the balls in. I put the ones I will be crocheting with in basket between my legs while sitting in recliner, I crochet across and as I finish with a color, that ball goes into a basket off to my right. When I finish the row, I switch the baskets around, putting the full one on chair in front of me and empty one to my right. Now I have to flip my work (afghan) over with out tangling the yarn. Here are a few pictures.

From 08 August

From 08 August

Roger has been busy too. We had talked about getting a carport for some time. He ordered one and it came the other night and was put up in about 45 minutes. It is 12 x 21 and sites on our driveway off alley. Now the car will sit under it and be much cooler when we need to use it. Things get pretty hot down here. He also paid extra to get the height he wanted. Standard was 5 foot on sides and he got 7 foot. That makes the peek 9 foot.

From 08 August

From 08 August

From 08 August

The next night we had two more workers here, Roger decided we needed some sun screens installed on windows in Texas room (sun porch) so ordered them and the 2 guys came to install them. He got a special deal to do the whole mobile home, so we now have new sun screens on mobile home. Check out the before and after pictures.

From 08 August

From 08 August

So what do you think ? We can see out, but you can't see in from the outside. Now we will see if it improves our electric bill. It is suppose to.

Our good friends that we met from RV.net that come down here in winter, just called me tonight and told me they bought a place in our park. I am so excited, we sure will enjoy having them so close and hanging out with them. Way to go Mary Ann and Larry, congratulations on your new place.

Roger and I will be celebrating our anniversary on Monday and since the park is going to Peter Piper Pizza, guess that is what we are going to do. I don't really consider that a anniversary dinner, but at least we will be with others. Till later, stay cool.

To view the rest of this album and my others click on the blue leak under pictures.

Back in Mission now.

Boy it has been awhile since I posted on here. What can I say, I have been mega busy. After looking over my last blog to see where I left off, I guess the best place to start is our camp out with family at West Overlook. We had reserved spots and a good thing we did as the lower area were we usually park was flooded. Met Roger's brother Larry and wife Sharon along with son Matt and wife Heather there. On Tuesday the night we arrived, grandson Marcus came over and told us his mom (Heather) had been bitten by their dog. To make a long story short, she had been trying to separate her two dogs and one of them bit her on knee cap when going after the other dog. I took her to hospital, and after xrays, they decided she needed surgery to clean out as he had bit her on knee cap and it had caused air to get under it, thus infection. Heather ended up staying in hospital till Sunday afternoon. She was going to help us drive to Texas and Doctors said she couldn't. She is still undergoing treatment and having some problems, but hope she mend soon and can return to the things she loves to do.

From 07 July

While camping at West Overlook, we had a RV service guy come out and look at our TV antenna and our toilet. After the full week of waiting we got a new TV antenna and a new toilet. We also got a nice hefty bill, think the guy got over paid for his service. But you learn, he was recommended to us by a guy that was camped across from us, we won't be calling him again.

We left West Overlook on the 13th of July and headed back to Morgan Creek campground in Cedar Rapids. The rest of the week went very fast, as before going to Morgan Creek, we went to Battery Plus to get new batteries in RV. Roger wanted to replace our 4 batteries for 3 and so they took out the old batteries, then after awhile told us they couldn't do it, so were going to put 4 batteries in like the 4 we had. Low and behold, they didn't have any, so they had to put the old ones back in. Roger new we were in trouble when the guy said, he should of made a diagram of how they were hooked up. He hooked them up and then it was my turn to drive to campground. Well, the step would not go in, so Roger called them back outside and they checked the connections and said it was right. Okay, I drove to campground with step out. After getting to campground we hooked up to the 50amp and turned on the air. All of a sudden the overload light came on so unplugged the electric and unhooked the batteries. Now what to do, we ran and extension cord from back of RV ref. to electric on pole, packed some things and went to daughter Sandra's house to spend the night. Next morning, Roger went over to RV and found the ref not working at all, so he pulled out what he could and brought it back to Sandy's to stash in her ref and freezer. The guy from Batteries Plus called a little later and we took RV over to get it fixed. He said he looked it up on line and found out he could hook up the 3 batteries so that is what they did. Everything working fine now, but all could of been avoided if they had done it right to begin with.

On Saturday the 17th we picked up the truck and went to Stanwood to load all our things we had in storage. Granddaughter Emily went with us and with her and Matt and Marcus' help we got it loaded in about an hour and a half. I must say, glad we ended up getting a 16 foot truck as we needed the extra space. We didn't load it to the top, but all the floor space was used up. We left on Sunday morning for Texas with Sandra going with us to help with the driving. We were planning on her being a relief driver, but she ended up driving the truck all the way by herself and Roger and I driving the RV. It took us 3 days on the road with 2 overnight stays. It sure was good to have all the help we had, both in loading and the driving.

We are now in Mission and still organizing things. It would of been so easy if we were just moving our things into an empty place, but we bought this place furnished so it is what to keep and what to get rid of. We now have a pile on our deck of stuff for a deck sale and still sorting things. I do have the the house pretty well done, a few boxes left in my craft (extra bedroom) room, but it is looking good. Now what to do with all the stuff on the deck, hoping to make room in small shed for it till sale.

While Sandra was here for a week, we got to take her to some of the things she wanted to see. Made a day trip to South Padre Island. It was up in air if we were going to make it to Mexico. They have some flooding here and the road going there was closed. She was to leave on Tuesday the 27th so on Monday after checking on the Internet for road closings, we took off for Mexico. The DOT didn't have it that road listed as being closed, but it was. We then decided to go the the outlet mall. While at the mall we talked to a clerk who gave us information on another route to take to get to Mexico. Off we went after stopping for lunch and spent the afternoon shopping in Mexico. She had a good time and we got back to the car just as a big rain storm was about to hit. We sure enjoyed having Sandy here, it means so much to me to have her come and see where we are living and share with her some of our life here. I am not sure if she enjoyed going to the park potluck and eating with all the seniors. LOL We miss her already, but life must go on.

Roger got me a gift card for my birthday in June for a new dishwasher and while Sandy was here we went and picked it out. It came in and Roger and Dick went to get it, so thanks to Sandy's suggestion, we decided to move the lower cabinets to other side of kitchen and put the dishwasher by sink. Roger and Dick worked on it one day and tore my kitchen apart, but it was all for a good cause, and I love the new dishwasher. Here are some pictures to help explain it all. Be sure to go to my web album to view all the pictures. Click on picture.

From 07 July

We have built ins in the bedroom and the one on the end has no door so it was hard to put anything in it and I wanted it shortened so I could put our hall tree in corner. Once again, Dick to the rescue and he cut it and I now have a place for hall tree. Thank you Dick for all your help.

Guess that pretty well brings us up to date. We will be working around here to get things settled. We only work in early mornings and evenings due to heat. We are planning a trip to California to visit with daughter Kim, but no date as of yet. Everyone keep cool and have a good summer.

Surprise

Not sure how to title this entry, will have to think about it as I am posting this.

The 1st was Sandy (daughter) and Brian's 10th anniversary so we went out to eat with them. They wanted to go to Granite City, so off we went. I can't say we were over impressed with the food and it was high priced. Don't think we will plan on returning there very often. Sandy saved leftovers in a take out container to take home for Brian's lunch the next day.........and wouldn't you know, we walked out and forgot it. Poor Brain had to buy his lunch the next day. Anyway, Happy 10th Anniversary Sandy and Brian.

We hadn't had a visit with two of our grandkids yet, Aj and Mariah (Matt's two children), so on the 3rd we invited them to our campground to have a cookout. Joining us were Sandy, Brian with daughter Emily as well as Roger's daughter Jenny and her 2 daughters, Maggie and Heidi. We sure had a good time, had some yard games going and Emily brought a new card game along so some of them played that. We were very lucky as the rain stayed away that day and didn't make an appearance till the 4th............wouldn't you know it.

From Morgan Creek Camping

The 4th found Roger and I spending the day alone in the RV. Nothing exciting mind you, a little tv and then watched the fireworks in NYC on the blube tube.

Monday I took off and went to do some laundry, we were headed to West Overlook so wanted to get it done before we left. By afternoon, we were once again just passing time...............retired folks do a lot of that. About 3:30 I received a phone call and low and behold it was Dale and Terry Pace. They winter in Mission and we met them with some other people at an eat out with the RV.net group. That was 3 years ago and we have been friends since. I had just been reading Dale's blog earlier in the day and she stated they were headed to SD from Indiana, so I told her I would wave to her as they passed thru Iowa. It happened that they were spending the night at West Overlook, outside Iowa City. We were going to be headed down there the next day to do some camping with family. We decided to drive down and have a quick visit with them. After picking them up at campground we drove into Iowa City and took them to Jimmy Jack's Rib Shack. They seemed to enjoy the meal and we sure had a great time visiting with them. Upon returning them to there RV, we found son Matt and wife Heather setting up their pop up, so stopped and chatted with them.

While heading to West Overlook last night to pick up Dale and Terry, I was stopped in North Liberty by the town cop. At first I thought maybe he thought I was speeding, I might of been just a tab over, but no, he said my windows were tinted to dark. He got out his little meter and checked, it showed 70% and he said state of Iowa only lets you have 30%. He said I would have to have my front windows scraped, gave me a warning. I asked how much a ticket was if he were to give me one, $90. Not sure I want a ticket, but sure don't want to scrape the tinting off my windows either. We need that extra protection in the south. Have to give it some thought. I was thinking maybe I could just roll down the front windows every time I see a cop, or at least when I go thru North Liberty. He did say as long as we have Iowa plates it would be that way, if we had TX plates it wouldn't be a problem, he wouldn't stop us then. Oh well, you can't win them all.

We will be camping with family for this week and then back to Cedar Rapids and Morgan Creek campground. On the 17th we are picking up a 16 foot truck and taking it to Stanwood and loading our things in storage. We will leave the truck there and back to campground for one last night. Leaving on the 18th for Mission. My daughter Sandy and our daughter-in-law Heather are going to help us drive the truck and RV to Texas. Sandy said no way will she drive the RV but Heather has no problem with it as she drives school bus. Roger and I could of done it by ourselves, but neither one of us really like driving long distances and besides it will be more fun with the girls along. We have been teasing Roger about traveling with 3 women, he said he would just get in truck, lock the doors and be by himself.

Till next time, happy trails.

June ......... Birthdays and Weddings

June is the month for weddings, we all know this, but for me it has always been a month of birthdays also. At least, my birthday. This one was one of those milestone ones. This is the year I start on Medicare. Boy...........that makes me feel old. Some say you get that feeling when you become a grandparent or hit the magic over the hill age. Not me, Medicare did it for me. Maybe it is all the ace and pains that I am getting along with it. LOL. Hopefully, I won't have to use the Medicare very much.

I knew my DH (Dear Husband) was up to something along with my DD (Dear Daughter) as she kept calling him on his cell phone and he would take off around corner to talk in private. What it was, I was not sure, but I knew they were planning something and who am I to spoil their surprise. Yes, they were planning a surprise party and it was fun to have everyone gather to help me celebrate my birthday. To start things off, I had a surprise visit at campground from my friend Dawn on the 10th. I didn't know it then, but she was invited to the party but was leaving on a vacation the next day, so couldn't make it. We had a nice visit and she brought me a plant and some balloons. Thanks Dawn.

From Alicia's Birthday

My birthdays use to always start with a phone call from my mother, very early in the morning. I was born at 8am sharp, and mom always reminded me of it with a phone call on that day. Now I get calls from my three daughters. All three live in different time zones, so first it was Sandy(central zone), then Janis (mountain zone) and then Kim (pacific zone). It was so good to get their calls, means alot to me. Next Roger took me out to lunch, he had called Sandy to join us, but she called and said she was too busy and had too much to do. Another reason to believe something was up. She had called he a few days before asking me to supper at her place, so she was busy cooking (sure). Anyway, Roger felt guilty for her doing all the work, so he took me back to campground and said he was going to stop to see if he can help Sandy with potato salad. Ended up she was done, so he went to get hair cut. That was ok, as I had a nice quite afternoon alone at RV. At 5:30 we went over to Sandy and Brian's, and surprise Jerry and Theresa were there waiting outside. I guess the real surprise to me was who they invited and getting to see everyone. Thanks Sandy and Brian and dear hubby Roger, it was a great birthday.

From Alicia's Birthday

Yesterday was the grand-daughters wedding. This is the first grandchild to get married. It started off as a very stormy day. Park ranger came by to tell us of bad storm coming. It came and was letting up when it was time to leave. We drove to Muscatine for the wedding and it was at the rose garden at Weed Park. (Sure hope that park was named after a person, and not because of weeds) LOL We were first to arrive as Sandy and grand-daughter Emily rode with us and Sandy was doing pictures for the wedding. Since it had just stormed, the roses were covered with rain drops and they were really pretty. We had 2 hours of picture taking then the wedding, so nice the storms stopped and the sun came out for the outdoor wedding. The only problem was the humidity and the sun. After have heat exhaustion a long time ago, I don't seem to do very good in heat or sun. Anyway, it was a very nice wedding and everyone looked so nice. After wedding everyone took off for the reception, which was a little drive out of town, but we found it. Fun was had buy all and the food was great.

From Elizabeth's Wedding

Here we are with the bride, Roger's grand-daughter Elizabeth. Be sure to click on the pictures to take you to the rest of them in my web albums.

We are camping at Squaw Creek Park, which is outskirts of Marion, IA and camping with Roger's brother Larry and wife Sharon and Roger's son and family will be joining us today. They already have their camper set up, just never made it back here after wedding. LOL It is Father's Day weekend, so will have a cookout and enjoy the family.

Till later, happy trails and enjoy your summer.

"May" a busy month

Where to start. We are in Iowa and are now at our 3rd campground. We are only allowed to stay in one campground for two weeks, so it is move every two weeks. We started off at West Overlook on Coraville Dam (North of Iowa City). While there we drove back and forth to Stanwood where we have our things stored in a unit there. The thought was we would sort though everything and have a sale in Stanwood on the day they were to have their City wide sales. This we did, we spent four days hauling things to Matt and Heather's building up town and setting up for a sale. I must say it was quite a job. The sale was on the 8th and after a week at working for it, we made a whopping $118. We both decided it was not worth all the work we put into it. If we had to do it over again, we would of forgotten the sale.

One of my past co-workers stopped in at sale and asked me if I was going to the retirement party the following Tuesday. I hadn't heard anything about it, but said sure. There were 11 bus drivers and attendants retiring and most of them were there when I drove. I had a good time visiting with some old friends and getting a first hand view of why I am glad I am no longer driving school bus. My good friend Julie is retiring after 32 years of driving, I sure wish her well and hope she enjoys her retirement.

From May activities

While at West Overlook, we spent one afternoon visiting my good high school friend, Janis and her mother. She lives not far from West Overlook. Seems the only time we really get to see each other is once a year when we stop. Had a very nice visit with both of them. Found out Janis was going in for knee replacement the following Monday. I haven't talked to her since but hope to make it down to see her once more before we leave.

Our next move was on to Squaw Creek Park. This is a county park and on the outskirts of Marion. The county parks have a coupon book you can buy that brings the cost of camping down buy at least $5 a night. If you get the larger book, you can save $6 a night. We had a nice spot on a hill and a clear view to set up our satellite dish. I must say that was a challenge. After working at it for a time, we called good friend Dick and he came over and after about a half our standing out there moving it ever so little, he got a good signal. I came to the conclusion, I just don't work at it long enough. It is good to have satellite back again. We had been without it since we left Mission. While at West Overlook we weren't even able to get ABC or NBC in on our antenna, so this was a real treat. Thanks Dick for your help.

Our grand daughter, Elizabeth is getting married on June 18th, and what is a wedding without a shower. On the 22nd, my daughter Sandra and I drove to Davenport to attend a wedding shower for Elizabeth. She got some nice things.

From May activities

Next on our calendar was Sabrina's graduation. She hasn't had her party yet, it will be the 5th of June, but we went to the ceremony and afterwards to the house for a cookout. Had a good time. I had gotten an idea from our grandson's graduation to roll money up and give it that way. I went to bank and got 200 one dollar bills and made two rolls of 100 each. One for Sabrina and one for Elizabeth. I taped them end to end, put a few sticky notes along the roll to encourage them to keep on rolling and put the roll in a small purse I had bought. Sabrina and family could not stop laughing and everyone had a ball watching her unroll all the bills and then take the tape off them. I also made each girl an afghan, Sabrina's was orange and lime green and Elizabeth's was purple with purple variegated. Here is Sabrina with her roll of one's.

From May activities

On the 30th we drove to Muscatine to attend Elizabeth's graduation party. I must say, she was not as excited over the roll of ones, but everyone else had a good time watching her unroll them. Sandra took a video of her.

From May activities

Be sure to click on one of the pictures or the link below picture to view all the photo's I took. I think you will enjoy them.

We are now at Morgan Creek Park on the NW side of Cedar Rapids and will be here till the 14th when we will return to Squaw Creek. We went to Riverside casino, South of Iowa City today. Met up with Iowa people from our park in Mission (Valley View Estates) and had lunch and a little gambling. We are not gamblers but did put 4 dollars in and lost it all. LOL We still have birthday parties, a middle school graduation and doctor appointments to take care of, then we will be planning our trip back to Mission.

Till next time, happy trails.

Update

We were in Canton at the "First Monday Trade Days" for 2 days. I went the first day and we walked and walked and walked, bought some things and after 5 hours, I had had enough so we went back to RV. Roger went again on Friday with Dick and Darlene and about noon, Darlene's cousin was parking his RV next to ours, so I tried calling them to let them know. Wouldn't you know, all I could get was voice mail. I tried Dick's phone, Darlene's phone and Roger's phone. I couldn't get anyone. About 1:30PM, Darlene called me wanting to know if I had heard from Roger or if I could get him on phone. Told her I had been trying and no luck. She said, they couldn't find him and if I got him to tell him to go to car. I kept trying all afternoon, couldn't get any of them. Finally at 4:30, Darlene called me to let me know they found Roger and were on their way home. What a day!!!!! Roger came home with some more stuff he found there. Seems he was sitting on bench at gate and Dick and Darlene were at next gate down (1 block away) waiting for him. Dick finally rented a scooter for an hour and found Roger.

Friday night we all got together and Gary (Darlene's cousin) was telling us about his trip to Iowa a few weeks earlier when his mother died. They had gone by way of I-35 and told us about all the construction. I woke Saturday morning thinking about the construction and checked the map for a different route. I had already spent time going over I-35 route, so now I had to start all over. We decided to try something different to bypass the construction. It was a good route and I think we will do it again. Bypassed all the BIG towns and it saved us close to 100 miles. Just goes to prove you don't always have to go with the interstate.

Got into Des Moines on Sunday afternoon and wouldn't you know, rain storm with some hail. We headed out to Sailorville Lake and got a spot across the road from Roger's brother and spent the rest of day visiting and evening visiting with them. Hadn't seen them since our side trip to Corpus Cristy in March. Good to visit and catch up on everything.

Left Monday morning for Iowa City and our next camp ground at West Overlook, at Coraville Lake. We are parked along the lake shore, but haven't gotten to spend much time in RV. After getting here, we spent close to 3 hours trying to get satellite hooked up and running. Have it hooked up, but still not working. Guess I will have to call again to find out what I am doing wrong. I told Roger, I can't keep calling every time we move the RV. Maybe I should take a crash coarse on satellite hook up. We have been running every day, going to Stanwood and our storage unit. Have now gone through everything and moved the stuff we want to get rid of, down to son Matt's place to sell this Saturday. The town of Stanwood is having city wide garage sales. That is one of the reasons we came back early. Will be going there tomorrow to set up and make everything. What a job, we are getting just toooooooo old for all this moving. We still have to move the things we will be moving to Mission, over to Matt's garage to wait till we leave here. Then move it again into a truck, drive to Mission then out of truck. That's a whole lot of moving. I am tired just typing about it. LOL.

That pretty well sums up this past week. We did get some bad news today. Seems Roger's good friend Ron Keeney passed away on April 30th and the service was Monday. Roger's a little upset that he didn't make it to service. He and Ron worked together for many years. We did get to attend Ron and Nancy's open house last summer and had a very nice chat with them.

That is my update. The weather here is getting colder so we have the electric heater going at night. Going to get down in the 30's, and we thought we were coming back late enough that we wouldn't have to worry about that. I only brought one sweatshirt, so hope this cold snap doesn't last too long.

Happy Trails

Woops

I never seem to have anything newsy to write about. We left Mission yesterday morning and drove to Georgetown, TX following our friends Dick and Darlene. We were headed for Canton for the first Monday flea market. We spent the night at a corp of eng. campground at Georgetown and due to the fact they did not have pull through, Dick and Darlene went to Walmart to camp. Ours was a nice quite night of camping for $9 and theirs was free but bright lights and noisy.

From Leaving Mission

We met up at Walmart in the morning and proceeded up I-35 with us flowing them again. Before we made it to our turn off at Waco, Roger found himself trying to change lanes as the lane he was in was ending. He checked his side mirror but didn't see the van next to him. Yes...........he hit it. Not a whole lot of damage, some scratches on the van and a few on our motor home, but Rog wiped them off the motor home. The front fender was a little loose, but nothing major and he fixed it till we get back to Iowa. Here is the damage to the van.

From Leaving Mission

We will be doing flea market for the next 2 days, they are talking of rain..........sure hope it doesn't. Leaving Canton on Saturday morning and will try to make it to Witchita that night. Then on Sunday hope to make it to Des Moines and spend the night camping with Roger's brother at Sailorville Lake.

Happy Birthday, Roger

Where has the winter gone. Here it is middle of April and we are getting things ready for our trip north. So much has happened and time just seemed to fly by. True, we didn't have the best weather here this winter, but it was better then being in the cold up North. There is so much to do around here, if one wants to be busy. I can't say we are over active as we are not gulf players or shuffle board players, but we have kept busy. Buying a new place and moving again has seemed to have occupied most of our winter, but we had some fun also. With the great friends we have made here in the valley, we are blessed with fun and friendship.

Tomorrow is Roger's birthday....................guess I am making a trip to Home Depot to buy him an 8 foot step ladder. He keeps telling me that is what he wants, so guess that is what it will be. He kept telling me, he was going to wait and use his birthday money. Guess what.............no birthday money. We will be going to the parks club house for potluck supper tomorrow night. I am making a tater tot casserole and a watergate cake for him. It should be a nice birthday.

Well, the medical bills are rolling in from my stay in the hospital. So far they aren't as bad as I thought they would be. I am sure there will be more bills to come.

I have my list going of things I need to get done before we can leave, as well as a list of what needs to go back into the RV. We are trying to keep the load small this trip, in case we need the room when we bring our things from storage unit back here. I have gone through RV and taken out a bunch of stuff and I am not taking much for crafts with me. Will be packing it next week. We will be leaving here on Tuesday the 27th along with Dick and Darlene and will be headed for the First Monday Flea Market in Canton, TX. Not sure why it is called first Monday. It runs Thursday - Sunday before the first Monday of each month. We are only planning on staying till Sat. morning and then start towards Iowa. Have a city wide garage sale in Stanwood and we want to get rid of more of our things we have in storage, so will be partaking in it.

For now, hope to see many of you in a few weeks and for all our friends from RGV, counting the time till we will be back here. Happy Trails

Rio Grande Hospital

On the 20th, I was overcome in the afternoon with chest pain and it went all the way around into my back. About an hour after the pain started, I started vomiting and continued all afternoon. It was not a pretty site. About 5PM I called some friends here in the valley to find out where there was a 24hr. clinic I could go to. Those good friends, dropped everything they were doing and came over and drove Roger and I to the Rio Grande Hospital. It is so comforting to know that when it comes to it your friends are there for you. Thank-you Larry and MaryAnn.

I was taken into the emergency room right away and given an EKG, then before I knew it was having needles poked into both my arms. Now I am not an easy one to find the veins, and the guy on the left hand was trying to get an IV inserted (just in case it was needed) and the guy on the right was trying to draw blood. I told him, they usually go in at the back of my hand instead of arm, but he kept trying and I must say, digging around to find something. By this time, I was squealing at both of them. I am not saying screaming as I wasn't really screaming the way I define screaming. After the guy on the right decided he couldn't get anything, he sent in another gal to try. She told me he told her I was a screamer. I explained I had one on each side of me digging for a find and it was very painful.

After a number of EKG's and blood test, they decided my heart was okay and were trying to get me a room to spend the night. I had one ice chip while in Emergency room and did another vomit. I was very dehydrated by this time, as I had been hanging over bathroom bowl all afternoon. They did give me some morphine to easy the pain, after they decided it was not my heart. When the Dr came it to tell us the test on heart came in negative, Roger asked if it could be my gal bladder. He said "What makes you say that" After taking me to a room and getting me settled it, I once again was using the little bag they gave me in case I got sick again. When is this going to stop?

That night I was not hooked up to an IV for fluids and I couldn't keep anything down. I was given medication for pain, thru the IV needle, but that was all. In the middle of the night, I woke up and called the nurse because of pain, and she thought maybe I should try some soda crackers and 7up. I nibbled at the cracker and took about 5 sips of the 7 up and up it came. I called the nurse back to my room and she said then that it could be my gal bladder.

The next morning, I was taken to get alta sound on gal bladder and the teck told me he found stones and inflammation. This was on Sunday and guess what, I guess the surgeons do not work on weekends. I had to wait till Monday and then the gal bladder was removed. Dr. said the gal bladder was dead. Now for the recovery. I was released from hospital on Wednesday night and have been home taking it easy but still trying to keep moving now and then. The first night full day home, I walked to end of block and back and I am now walking around the block once a day. I still have pain in my rib area on right side, but at least I am able to now sleep on both sides at night and that is a big help.

My kids were great, all three of my daughters got together and sent me a lovely bouquet of flowers and they called me everyday and sometimes twice a day. My step daughter sent a card and called and step son called as well. Then there were my friends from the valley, Dick and Darlene came to see me a couple of time, Larry and MaryAnn, and Shirley and Bob who brought a lovely bouquet of yellow tulips. The computer club from Bentsen Grove sent me a nice card. There was even a phone call from one grandson and a close friend from Iowa. Wow, was that ever a pick up to know how much everyone cared. Thank-you all for helping me thru all this.

I must add something here about my experience in this hospital, I was treated well and most of the people were very nice. As a matter of fact, my nurse the first night was from Iowa and she said she was really happy to have me and be able to talk about Iowa. Then there were the two male nurses I had the night after my surgery, they were great, helped me out of bed, into bathroom and off the toilet. I told them they looked more like body guards then nurses and I have never had two big guy like that help me to potty before. LOL The food was nothing to brag about, but I was only on liquid diet for one day after surgery and solid food the day I went home, but I was not impressed. The thing that bothered me the most was the noise. If I didn't keep my room door closed I could hear all kind of loud talking outside the door. I mark this up to the fact that all the nurses have these computers they wheel around on tall carts and they would plug them into outlets in hall outside my door and stand there and chat between themselves. I was amazed they had these computers in hall working on things and not at a nurses station. The other odd thing we are not use to is all visitors are greeted in lobby and must have a pass to go to someones room for a visit and only 2 people at a time.

That brings you up to date on my gal bladder, I will be slowly getting stronger and be able to do more, but I don't want to over do it. I will also be seeing my family DR. in Cedar Rapids when I get back and bringing her up to date on my experience. Till later, everyone stay healthy and thanks again for all your support.

Brownsville - Zoo

On Tuesday, March 3rd, we met up with our good friends, Larry and MaryAnn and took off for a day trip to Brownsville and the Gladys Porter Zoo. This is really the first zoo that both Roger and I have visited. We had been to the small Bever Park Zoo in Cedar Rapids, but this was a first for both of us. This zoo is not a large one, but much larger then Bever Park. We made a day of it, following the zoo map and trying to see it all. We took many pictures and got to see everything we wanted except for the gorillas and the butterflies. I guess that will give us an excuse to make another trip in future years. It is not something I would want to visit every year.

From Trip to the Zoo

The zoo was packed with school kids and I must say..............after a while.........they were getting to me. I guess I just have a hard time dealing with noisy, rude kids. I thinks we counted some 12 school buses parked in lots at the zoo. That's a lot of kids.

After the zoo we set the GPS and headed for a place to eat. We were looking for a Chinese, but the GPS never did find it, took us to a Golden Corral, so that is where we ate. What a fun day to spend with good friends.

On our way down here last fall, we had some problems with a tire, never did get if fixed, so it was time to get new tires before heading north in a couple of months. We took the RV to Pharr and after spending the entire morning at tire shop...............we now have six new tires. Oh ya, that was also after some $1,581 and them telling us we need new rotor (sp) on each side. Now we have to find the parts and get that done before we leave. Boy, if it isn't one thing it is another. We will do it as SAFETY is the most important thing and when one has an older rig, you have to expect to spend money on upkeep.

Next Saturday I will be having my craft table again. I am hoping to do good, but one evers knows. It seems that people just are holding on to there money and don't want to spend it. Not sure if I will be doing a craft table next year. Time will tell.

I have been getting things ready for a yard sale here. After moving in to this new place, there are things that were left here, that we are going to sale. We were going to wait till we came back in the fall, but because we will be bring more things down (that is in storage), we need the room for it when it gets here. Plan on having the yard sale the 19th and 20th. We did sell one of the single beds we had, one more to go. We really want to get rid of the upright freezer that is sitting in the shed. Wish us luck.

Busy......Busy.......Busy

After returning from Corpus Cristy, the guy we bought our new place from, informed us they would be leaving and returning to Canada on the next Saturday. At least a week before we were expecting. We were so excited. On Saturday the (20th) we got up early and saw them off and then proceeded to go into house and look things over. We hadn't told our friends, Larry and MaryAnn that we were getting in early, and had invited them over for the afternoon. I think they were a little surprised to see us standing on the deck when they got here.

From RV.net party and New place

After moving some furniture around and checking on many different things, we got busy moving stuff over from the motor home and then the things we had packed and were in the shed. It was hard to decided where to put some things, but I think we are getting settled in now. Moving the furniture helped it to feel more like our place. We still don't have our pictures and other things set out as they are still in storage in Iowa, but we will get there. Please check out all the pictures on the web album to get a full tour of our new place.

Tuesday we went with Larry and MaryAnn to the RV.net party that is held here in the Rio Grande Valley. It was somewhat smaller this year as the organizer had an emergency and were out of town and the party had to be postponed till Feb. It was suppose to been in Jan. We had a great time, it is so good to see friends we have made in past years and meet new ones that are on the RV.net forums. We all had grilled hot dogs, chips, soda and Klondike bar. They then passed the microphone around and each couple got a chance to tell a little something about themselves along with there RV.net user name. Door prizes were given away and a group picture taken, it was then time for some more chit-chat and making more new friends.

From RV.net party and New place

On Thursday of last week, I called DirectTV to arrange for our move into house and have them come out and put up new dish. Roger decided he wanted to go the extra and get high definition. When calling I made all the arrangements and set up an appointment for Saturday afternoon. The installer came out, but..............he informed us he could not put the high definition dish on our metal roof. OH, we could pay an extra $100 to get a pole, dig a hole, pore cement and make sure it was completely plum then they would put it there. We told them "No Thank-you" I called DirectTV back that afternoon and arranged to have them come back and install a standard dish for our use. At least that is what I tried to do. After talking to the first lady, she insisted on having a tech guy call us back and see what the problem was. I think Roger must of talked to him for at least a half hour, at the end of that time, he connected me back up to costumer service to make an appointment for installation of the standard dish.

Now this gal got all my information, and then informed me they would call me back within 72 hours to make an appointment. Now wait a minute, I asked her why she didn't make the appointment as that is what they have done ever other time I have called. She said they would call me. This was Saturday, now what? Roger took the cables we had ran for satellite in the RV and ran them into house, we are using that now. Monday, I called costumer service back again, had to go through the whole thing again and set an appointment for Wednesday morning. A different guy showed up this morning and guess what, he like the first guy, had a work order for the High Def and didn't have a standard dish with him. He called someone with his phone, and talked to them, put me on the phone to talk to him and he set up another appointment for tomorrow afternoon. We are keeping our fingers crossed. When the guy calls before he comes, I am going to ask him about the order and if he doesn't have a standard dish, I am going to tell him to save the trip and boy is the #$%& going to hit the fan.

Till later, all our northern friends and family, stay warm and we will see you in the spring.

Corpus Cristy

Wow, where do I start........we were getting ready for a pot luck at our park on Thursday and received a phone call from Roger's brother, Larry. They were headed for Corpus Cristy and wanted to know if we wanted to meet them there the next day. I was suppose to have a table at craft sale in Bentsen Grove, but decided to call and cancel my table and we would head out to meet up with Larry and Sharon.

We took off Friday morning and them at a Denny's, ate lunch and decided which motel we would stay at. We spent sometime chatting and catching up, then went for a walk on beach. Got checked in later on (they didn't have our rooms clean, first time we stopped at motel). Went to a small shop by motel for supper and decided what we wanted to do the next day.

Friday night, Roger and I watched the opening ceremonies of the Olympics, or should I say, we tried to watch. We were both having a hard time trying to stay awake. Good thing I set the DVR to tape them while we were gone.

After breakfast this morning, we took off for the USS Lexington for a self guided tour. There are 5 different tour routes to take and we made two of them in a little over 3 hours. Wow....so much to see. One really gets a workout climbing up and down all the steps on board that air craft carrier. Roger took many pictures.............till while we were up on the flight deck, his battered died and guess what, he left the extra (charged) battery at the motel. After the tour we returned to motel for battery and continued on with our days journey. Be sure to check out all the photo's in "My Web Albums"...........Roger had camera and was having fun taking pictures.

From Corpus Cristy

From Corpus Cristy

Larry drove to Port Aransas and take the ferry ride. We spent the day exploring the area and eating out again. It was fun to spend the day with them and get a chance to do something different. We have been living in RV waiting to get into our new place and the change of scenery is nice.

We will be leaving tomorrow to return to Mission and get back in the swing of things there.

Moved into RV

Selling our place at Bentsen Grove was a hard thing for me. I got to know so many nice people there and between the Computer Club and Line Dancing, I am going to miss everyone. We must move on and that is what we have been doing the past few weeks.

Our new place in Valley View Estates, is still occupied by the couple we bought it from. We were nice and let them stay there (even tho we now own it). So we have now moved into the RV which is sitting on an RV pad next to house (mobile home). This move was confusing as there were things to move back into RV and some things to go to house. Since we can not get in house yet, they needed to be packed and put in shed till such time we get house. That was hard part as it ended up much was just packed, moved to RV then if I didn't have room, it was repacked and put in shed. I think we are finally to the point that the RV is live able for now.

I have not been able to get the satellite dish set up here, I don't understand why I have so much trouble with it. Seems like every time we move the RV I have this problem. I called DirectTV and they are sending someone out on Monday to help me get it set up. I am sure I have all the settings right. Roger is also expecting the guy to come fix our steps on RV. They would not come out and it was very hard to move in with no steps. Roger met the guy here last week and it seems the motor is shot, so had to order a new motor for steps. If it's not one thing it's another.

While trying to get the satellite stuff out from under belly of RV, the neighbor came over and informed Roger, he didn't want him walking on his grass, he is trying to grow grass there. Take my word for it, the grass is a mess on both sides of his place and there is no way he is going to get grass to grow there. He wanted us to move RV over so Roger would walk on driveway. We moved it and Roger can walk on driveway, but he will still have to step off when he gets into bays or has to dump holding tanks. I don't know what it is, but somehow we always manage to get a neighbor that has some kind of complaint for us. When we lived in Cedar Rapids (17 years) the lady next door was upset because we were parked in alley buy her trash cans and they were sitting way far back off alley and the garbage men would not walk the extra feet to get it. I was all our fault. Then we moved to Stanwood, there the town held a meeting to get us to install special skirting on mobile home so it would look like foundation, then one guy complained about our mail box. Then we get to Bentsen Grove and the neighbor there complained about our dog. Now it is the grass. Guess we just can't win. We will be nice about it and maybe kill them with kindness. LOL

Went to a program at hall last night. It was a family from Alaska that have a show in Branson. They have 7 kids and travel with all of them in a motor home. They call themselves "Redhead Express" The girls are the main entertainment. Ages 20 - 18 - 16- 14. The 20 year old writes many of their songs and plays lead guitar, the 18 year old is the banjo player and has a smile that you can not forget. The 16 year old is a fiddle player and Madelin player and boy can she yodel. The youngest girl (14) is a base player and she is good. Mom and Dad both sing and then there are three younger brothers (11 - 9 - 7) and they play banjo, Madelin and base also. Really cute to see the 7 year old try to play that big base.

Till next time. Stay warm and remember............spring will come, just don't know when.

Sold our place at Bentsen Grove

While visiting friends on Saturday, Roger received a phone call from a couple who were at our place in Bentsen Grove and wanted to look at it. We were across town, he really didn't want to go as so far all of the showings have not amounted to anything. He gave in, told the guy he could be there in 15 minutes. That was a good move as they bought it, put money down and now we are working on paper work. They wanted to move by Feb. 1st and since we have the motor home to move into, we agreed. We will be moving into MH until we can move into new place before March 1st. The motor home is located at the new place and has full hookups, so it is going to work out okay. Now I am trying to decided what to move into motor home and what to pack to go into house when we get moved into it. There are two storage sheds at new place, so we can store stuff there.

Till later...........will keep you posted.

Winter here in Mission, Rio Grande Valley, is not as nice and warm as the past two years we have been here. We have been having some cold and rain and everyone around is hoping it will warm up soon. I am sure it will as winter can't last too long around here. I just keep telling myself that it is not as cold as it is in the North and we can live with this. We did have some very cold nights, below freezing and a warning was put out for the fruit corp. Since we have two ruby red grapefruit trees and 4 orange trees, we had to do something. We were told at the park meeting that if it gets below 28 degree for more then 6 hours it would ruin the fruit and it would be best to pick the fruit. We did just that and then got out our juicer and made orange juice and froze it. We were lucky that the place we are buying has a very large freezer in the shed and that is where the juice ended up.

From 2010 - January

All the parks are filling up and all park and valley activities are in full swing. I am still doing computer club on Monday mornings. Over the Christmas break, we offered informal computer help instead of the class like setting we do. That format went over very well. The skill level of seniors are so different and it is hard in class to make sure everyone is understanding what is going on and what to do. Then too, we have new people arriving new each week and if they are new to computers, it is a catch up to what we have covered already in class. Thanks to one of the instructors, he has offered to open up the meeting room and have that informal one on one help for 3 days a week and some of us go up to help with that. My other big activity is line dancing and if I get a chance, it meets four times a week. Due to my having a cold or sinus problems the past week or two, I have not been attending line dancing but hope to get back to it this week.

On Friday the 8th we had an appointment with our lawyer and cosed on our new place. We are now the proud owners of our next home. I still do not have photos to share with you of the inside, as the couple we bought it from are still there. We will be getting it on March 1st. We have spent a lot of time with them and feel like old friends. They are from Canada and we have agreed on March 1st as they want to spend more “warm time” here. We have started to move some things over to the new place. We had some things at our place in Bentsen Grove that we wanted to take with us and since we are selling it furnished, we needed to change out a recliner. We took Roger's new lazy boy over to new place and brought one of their recliners over here. We also had an area rug we had bought last spring and we wanted to take it with us. When we show the place at Bentsen Grove we felt we should have the things in it we are going to be leaving, not have to tell them “ and we are going to take this, replace it with this, we are going to take that, etc. Also, it doesn't hurt to declutter. Now Roger is wondering what he is going to do with all the things he kept when we sold our place in Stanwood. We have a storage garage rented and I must say, it is full. When we get back to Iowa this spring/summer we will have to go through things and do some more sorting and thinning out. When you buy a furnished place, you just don't need all the things you thought you needed.

After waking up Christmas morning and opening our gifts to each other, Roger decided to take the trash to the dumpster and drop our plates off at the hall so we could get our place for dinner. After going outside to get his bike, he came back inside and informed me someone stole his 21 speed bike. We ended up calling the Sheriff after dinner and making a report, but it seems there have been many, many bikes stolen from this park and others in the area. Who ever it is, crawls under the fence, finds the bikes and throws them over the fence where they are loaded into a truck and then they are back under fence and gone. We did do some looking at pawn shops to see if it showed up, but that didn't do any good. Spent a day checking out new bikes, but decided to wait. Our friends (Larry and MaryAnn) from the park next to our, called us and said they had friends in their park who wanted to sell a 7 speed bike. That is what Roger had decided he wanted. He never did use all the gears on the 21 speed. He ended up buying it and is now back to riding his bike.

From 2010 - January

We are keeping busy despite the cool weather and the time seems to be flying by. Still have our place at Bentsen Grove up for sale and seem to show it a couple times a week. With all the people arriving in the valley, we are just waiting for that right person to come look at it.