Man, we have been busy. You can be as busy as you want to be at this park. We went to see the Renaissance Rockers, remember, the 4 doctors. They were awesome. We are hoping to see them again before we leave. The band and music was great. They played anything from old country, new country, 50's rock and roll, to 70's rock and roll. The crowd was great. People were out dancing all night. I was one of those people. I was tired, but it was fun.
If you followed my blog last year, you will remember that we went to a place named Circle L to dance and listen to the band on Friday nights. We went Friday night before last and the band was the same. We found out that the band played at Mel's Diner on Wednesday night and Mel's has a dinner special that night too. So, we decided to visit Mel's this past Wednesday night and enjoy the band and the food. I don't know if it was the sound system or the building, but the band sounded 300 times better at Mel's. The burger wasn't bad either. We all decided we would go to Mel's to hear the band and no more Circle L.
We also went to Progresso Mexico this week. Progresso is about the only border town that is still safe to venture into. Believe me, the locals there are doing everything in their power to keep it that way. The weather was great the day we went. It was sunny and the high that day was around 77 degrees. I think every winter Texan in the Valley was down there. The streets were crowded. There are still many, many dentists that practice on the main street and there are many, many winter Texans that go there for dental work. There are also pharmacies everywhere. Many people go to Mexico to buy their medication. If you have insurance that covers your medicine AND you take generic brands, it may not benefit you to buy your medication there. However, many people take non-generic medication and/or Medicare/insurance doesn't cover what they take. It makes financial sense to buy there if that is the case. I heard a lady at the park say that her medications cost her $800 a month in the US and they cost her $100 a month when bought in Mexico. Does not make sense to me. There have been travel warnings out for Nuevo Laredo, Matamoras, and Reynosa since the capture of El Chapo (drug lord). There are always drug fights happening in those towns so I can't imagine anyone going there to start with. But, I have heard people saying things about visiting Matamoras. Not a smart thing.
OK. All of you who were not here on Friday night, missed it. I sang karaoke! Yes, I did! Some friends here kept pushing me to do it and I kept saying no. But, after most of the people got up to sing, I figured I couldn't sound any worse. :) So, towards the end of the night, I decided what the heck. Mr. W thought he had forgotten his phone at the trailer so he did not record it. Come to find out, it was in his jacket and he did not realize it until we were walking home. They are having karaoke again in a couple of weeks and my friends told me to make sure I got my picks in early next time. I may have succumbed to peer pressure this time, but I'm not so sure next time. Can you believe I did that?
Mr. W has been playing more pickleball. There was a young lady, Leslie Blasing, that came to the park. She sang all genres of music. Her music was what Mr. W calls "canned". She did not have a band and used her computer for her music. She could sing any kind of music and was very good. She sang anything from Celine Dion to ZZ Top and everything in between. We talked about how some people make it big and others, who are equally as good, don't. A lot of times it is being in the right place at the right time and just plain ol' luck.
We went back to the DonWes flea market and ordered our awning and slide toppers. They will be ready and be installed on February 2nd. The cost was quite a bit less than what we could get them for in the H-town area. If you need a new awning, a shade awning, or a slide topper and you are planning a trip to the Valley, wait and buy it here. There are several companies here and all of them know their stuff. It is just a matter of colors of material, what you want done, if you already have the hardware, etc. as to who is actually the cheaper. I will let you know how ours turns out. Our friends, Mickey and James bought 2 new chairs (recliners) here to replace the ones in their trailer. We had thought about buying new chairs too. But, we decided to give our chairs another year since we are getting new awnings. The chairs are Ashley recliners. Mr. W found them online on the Ashley website and they were $100 cheaper here than there. I sat in one and it was very comfy. I'm sure they will have them or something equally as nice next year.
Padre Island had their "Market Days" this past weekend. It is Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. We went on Friday and got there early. That was a good thing. We had about 30 minutes of walking through looking at the vendors' booths without a crowd. We were only there about an hour and a half and most of the time, it was so crowded that it was hard to see anything. A lot of the aisles were person to person and hard to walk down. Most of the vendors were there last year. There were a few new ones and it always worth the visit.
We have to move this week. We are staying in this park on our Thousand Trails membership. We can stay 3 weeks and then we have to be out for 1 week. We are moving to a Coast to Coast park in Brownsville. It is Riverbend. It is a golf resort. Mr. W has not played any golf since we have been here. He went one day to the driving range, but no golf. Hopefully, he will take a day and play. I hear this park is on the Rio Grande river. I'm not sure if the "big fence" is along the river there or not. There really is a "big fence" along a big portion of the river down here. It runs for miles and miles. Last year, it was a novelty to me and I found it quite interesting. This year, I really don't notice it anymore. Now I find that quite interesting that I don't notice it.
We have some friends who are staying in Kingsville, TX. They want to visit us when we move to Brownsville. We will see if it works out.
bar harbor
Sunday, January 24, 2016
Saturday, January 16, 2016
THINGS HAPPENING
First thing I want to say is the Valley has been a much better experience so far this year.
RV PARK - I am staying at Tropic Winds RV Resort. It is an Encore park and it is very nice. When they say resort, they mean it, at least in RV terms. They have 50 sites allotted to Thousand Trails (TT) members. Depending on what kind of contract you have, you can stay 2 or 3 weeks and then you have to leave for a week. When I first got here, there wasn't hardly anyone in the TT sites. In the past couple of days, more and more people have come in.
Tropic Winds has MANY activities going on each and every day. You can be as busy as you want to be. The people here are extremely friendly too. They have gone out of their way to greet us and make sure we were invited or included in many happenings. We ran into a couple that were in the park with us last year. Her husband fishes every single day that it is not raining. Since they only have 1 vehicle, she is at the park all day without transportation. They moved to Tropic Winds this year because there is so much more to do. It has been nice to see them and get to visit with them some. .
The RV park is in Harlingen. Harlingen is one of the bigger cities in the Valley. There is a small mall, 2 Walmarts, 3 H-E-B grocery stores, 2 movie theaters, numerous chain restaurants, and countless local restaurants. Staying in a city where there is more to do and is easier to get to helps too.
OK, check that part off as a big improvement.
WEATHER - So far, the weather has been AWESOME! This weather is why people come to the Valley. It has been mostly in the 70s during the day and in the upper 50s at night. We have had a few days where the highs were in the 60s, but no freezing temps and NOT HARDLY ANY RAIN! Yay! Last year was cold AND rainy.......a lot.........almost everyday..........enough to make you not want to go outside........you get the idea. The park we were at was muddy and didn't drain, so when you did get out, you better wear rubber boots. Tropic Winds may be muddy too if it rained that much, but I am very thankful that I haven't had to find that out so far this year. The forecast for the next 15 days is more of the same beautiful weather.
OK, check that part off as a big improvement.
ENTERTAINMENT - There have been some acts making the rounds down here and so far, so good. We saw a band named Saturday Night Live the other night and guess what songs they sang? They are a tribute band to Bee Gees and they were really good. By the time they got to the "Saturday Night Live" era, I was feeling like there should be a disco ball spinning, everyone should be wearing leisure suits, and John Travolta should have stepped on stage at some point. But, the guys sounded almost exactly like the Bee Gees.
Since we are close to a movie theater, one of the days that was misting and dreary, we went to the movies. We saw the new Star Wars movie. I saw the first 3 Star War movies as they came out "back in the day." Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi were awesome in my opinion. If I remember correctly, there seemed to be a long stretch of time before the next Star Wars movie debuted. It was episode 1 and went back to what happened before the original Star Wars and the characters were different. I really didn't get into the next few Star Wars movies. But, the one out now has the original characters from the first movies. So, I could totally relate to it and I loved it. If you are a fan of the original series of movies, go see this one.
The next set of entertainers we saw called themselves Linley Creek. It is a family that bills their show as a variety/blue grass show. They are a very talented family. It is Dad, Mom, teenage son, teenage daughter. They live on their bus and travel around performing. Each person plays several instruments and plays each instrument very well. They sang some old songs, some bluegrass songs, some gospel songs, and some newer songs. It was a very entertaining show and worth the ticket price of $7 to see. I even won the door prize which was one of their CDs. Who would have thought?
Tonight, we are going to a show here at the park called the Renaissance Rockers. I hear it is 4 doctors that do this on the side and are very good. It is a dance and I hear that a lot of people get up and dance. From the name, I'm thinking the band plays old rock and roll. Wouldn't you think? I'll let you know.
Mr. W has been wanting to learn to play pickleball and this park has 4 pickleball courts and some people that REALLY love to play. He went down the other morning and got to get into a game with 3 other guys that play all the time. Mr. W is very athletic and he can usually jump in and master whatever sport it is pretty quickly. The guys were teaching him the rules as they went and giving him some pointers and teaching him some strategies. He has tried to go back and play on another day but there is going to be a "valley wide" competition soon and the teams have been out practicing up for the tournament. They do that during the morning hours so he decided he needed to try to go in the afternoon and see if any other non-tournament guys were at the courts wanting to play.
OK, so check entertainment off as an improvement too.
So, there you go. Things are looking up. There will be more to come.
RV PARK - I am staying at Tropic Winds RV Resort. It is an Encore park and it is very nice. When they say resort, they mean it, at least in RV terms. They have 50 sites allotted to Thousand Trails (TT) members. Depending on what kind of contract you have, you can stay 2 or 3 weeks and then you have to leave for a week. When I first got here, there wasn't hardly anyone in the TT sites. In the past couple of days, more and more people have come in.
Tropic Winds has MANY activities going on each and every day. You can be as busy as you want to be. The people here are extremely friendly too. They have gone out of their way to greet us and make sure we were invited or included in many happenings. We ran into a couple that were in the park with us last year. Her husband fishes every single day that it is not raining. Since they only have 1 vehicle, she is at the park all day without transportation. They moved to Tropic Winds this year because there is so much more to do. It has been nice to see them and get to visit with them some. .
The RV park is in Harlingen. Harlingen is one of the bigger cities in the Valley. There is a small mall, 2 Walmarts, 3 H-E-B grocery stores, 2 movie theaters, numerous chain restaurants, and countless local restaurants. Staying in a city where there is more to do and is easier to get to helps too.
OK, check that part off as a big improvement.
WEATHER - So far, the weather has been AWESOME! This weather is why people come to the Valley. It has been mostly in the 70s during the day and in the upper 50s at night. We have had a few days where the highs were in the 60s, but no freezing temps and NOT HARDLY ANY RAIN! Yay! Last year was cold AND rainy.......a lot.........almost everyday..........enough to make you not want to go outside........you get the idea. The park we were at was muddy and didn't drain, so when you did get out, you better wear rubber boots. Tropic Winds may be muddy too if it rained that much, but I am very thankful that I haven't had to find that out so far this year. The forecast for the next 15 days is more of the same beautiful weather.
OK, check that part off as a big improvement.
ENTERTAINMENT - There have been some acts making the rounds down here and so far, so good. We saw a band named Saturday Night Live the other night and guess what songs they sang? They are a tribute band to Bee Gees and they were really good. By the time they got to the "Saturday Night Live" era, I was feeling like there should be a disco ball spinning, everyone should be wearing leisure suits, and John Travolta should have stepped on stage at some point. But, the guys sounded almost exactly like the Bee Gees.
Since we are close to a movie theater, one of the days that was misting and dreary, we went to the movies. We saw the new Star Wars movie. I saw the first 3 Star War movies as they came out "back in the day." Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi were awesome in my opinion. If I remember correctly, there seemed to be a long stretch of time before the next Star Wars movie debuted. It was episode 1 and went back to what happened before the original Star Wars and the characters were different. I really didn't get into the next few Star Wars movies. But, the one out now has the original characters from the first movies. So, I could totally relate to it and I loved it. If you are a fan of the original series of movies, go see this one.
The next set of entertainers we saw called themselves Linley Creek. It is a family that bills their show as a variety/blue grass show. They are a very talented family. It is Dad, Mom, teenage son, teenage daughter. They live on their bus and travel around performing. Each person plays several instruments and plays each instrument very well. They sang some old songs, some bluegrass songs, some gospel songs, and some newer songs. It was a very entertaining show and worth the ticket price of $7 to see. I even won the door prize which was one of their CDs. Who would have thought?
Tonight, we are going to a show here at the park called the Renaissance Rockers. I hear it is 4 doctors that do this on the side and are very good. It is a dance and I hear that a lot of people get up and dance. From the name, I'm thinking the band plays old rock and roll. Wouldn't you think? I'll let you know.
Mr. W has been wanting to learn to play pickleball and this park has 4 pickleball courts and some people that REALLY love to play. He went down the other morning and got to get into a game with 3 other guys that play all the time. Mr. W is very athletic and he can usually jump in and master whatever sport it is pretty quickly. The guys were teaching him the rules as they went and giving him some pointers and teaching him some strategies. He has tried to go back and play on another day but there is going to be a "valley wide" competition soon and the teams have been out practicing up for the tournament. They do that during the morning hours so he decided he needed to try to go in the afternoon and see if any other non-tournament guys were at the courts wanting to play.
OK, so check entertainment off as an improvement too.
So, there you go. Things are looking up. There will be more to come.
Sunday, January 3, 2016
SUMMING UP DECEMBER 2015
Tomorrow I will be headed to the Rio Grande Valley in south Texas. We went last year and I did not enjoy it. However, I told Mr. W that I would give it another try. If I don't like it again this year, I won't be going back. I'm not sure if I mentioned that we bought a Thousand Trails (TT) membership, but we did. There are a couple of TT parks in the valley and we decided to give those a try. We are staying most of the time at a park named Tropic Winds in Harlingen, TX. We can only stay for 2 weeks and then we have to leave for a week. So, we will stay there 2 weeks, go to a Coast to Coast (C2C) park for a week, go back for 2 weeks, go to another C2C park for a week. We have some friends that are staying in Kingsville, TX at a county park and we may leave and go stay there with them for a week. We aren't sure about the last couple of weeks. But, we plan on being back at the lake around the first part of March because Mr. W loves to fish and the white bass start biting around the first part of March.
We usually have our whole year planned at this point, but this year is different. Mr. W had a medical procedure done a couple of weeks ago. They found something and took part of it to test. Thankfully, it was precancerous, but he has to go back in June and have the remaining tissue removed. So, we don't want to go too far and have to travel back.
I would like to go to the TT park on Lake Medina and the one on Lake Whitney. I would also like to go to the Texas hill country. The hill country is one of my favorite places. I love the terrain, the towns, the vineyards, and the things to do. Lake Medina is right in the heart of the hill country. Lake Whitney is in the Waco, TX area. For those of you who watch HGTV and enjoy the show Fixer Upper, Chip and Joanna Gains live in the Waco area and this is where they do their show. Joanna has recently expanded her business and opened a HUGE marketplace in Waco.
We have some friends that want us to travel at least part of the time with them from the Florida ocean coast to Connecticut. They want to be in Connecticut by the last week in September so I'm not sure of their timeline. They will be in the valley while we are there so we plan to discuss this and figure out if it will work out for all of us. We will go that direction to spend some time with Daughter this year. I need to go to Memphis and spend some time with my sister who is ill. I also want to spend Christmas with Daughter and her family this year if they plan on being home for Christmas. So, we will see how this all works out. I will keep you posted as plans are made.
OK. So, here's my December in a paragraph or 2. I went to grandparent's day at the school which I mentioned in a previous post. What I did not tell you was that Girl-child called me one day prior to this and told me that they were having a book fair at the school and there was a book that she wanted to buy for her mom (DIL) but she didn't have enough money to buy and she also wanted it to be a surprise. She asked me if I would help her buy it. She wanted me to purchase it while I was there on grandparent's day and do it without DIL seeing or knowing anything about it. Do you know how special I felt? For her to figure out how to call me without her mom knowing, ask me for my help, and allow me to be a part of this special activity made my heart very happy. She is a very sweet, special girl. It was my honor to help her.
Then, Boy-child participated in the Spelling Bee at his school. He and I had gone out to dinner earlier that week and he told me that he planned on going to "nationals" with the Spelling Bee. I told him if he went to nationals, I would be there. Well, he won the Spelling Bee at his school and next up is the District Spelling Bee. He is one step closer to nationals and I have no doubt that he will make a good run for it.
There is a group of friends from high school that have started making the effort to keep in touch and get together as often as we can. Since we were "home", we got together with them a couple of times and had a blast. I also was able to have lunch and/or dinner with some special friends that I have not seen since the last time I was home and that is always good to see them and catch up.
We had another breakage in our 5W. Ugh! Our toilet broke. The foot pedal popped off and the spring needed to keep it on popped off too. Mr. W tried several times to put it back on and could not get the spring on. He called Thetford and was told that the spring is put on in manufacturing and is not intended to be put back on if it pops off. They would send us a new base for the toilet for $90 plus shipping. We decided to buy an entire new toilet for $150. Mr. W bought it and replaced it all in less than half a day. This way we did not have to pay for shipping or wait for it to be shipped. I'm glad we replaced the entire thing. I'm beginning to think that once you have lived in one for 3 years, most things will start to break and/or need repairing or replacing. This has been a surprise for Mr. W too. He did not think there would be the massive amount of time needed for maintenance and repair on our rig. I'm just thankful that he knows what to look for and how to prevent and/or fix things.
Daughter and her family came to town for Christmas. I have really missed her and it was beyond great to see her and her family. We saw them in June in Colorado but her girls looked like they have grown a foot since the last time I saw them. We had already discussed doing some family pictures while they were in town. So, DWW agreed to take the pictures and we found a park close to Son's house that would work.
We stayed for 28 days at the TT park in Willis, TX where some good friends also have a membership. They were there most of the time that we were and it was really fun hanging out with them. We rang in the new year at Marina Village ("the lake"). There was a big bonfire and everyone brought snacks and the park furnished everything you needed to make smores. We have some good friends there too and we enjoyed our time with them.
So there you have it. My December all summed up. Hopefully, I will have only good things to blog about on our valley travels. Hope you all have a great 2016!
We usually have our whole year planned at this point, but this year is different. Mr. W had a medical procedure done a couple of weeks ago. They found something and took part of it to test. Thankfully, it was precancerous, but he has to go back in June and have the remaining tissue removed. So, we don't want to go too far and have to travel back.
I would like to go to the TT park on Lake Medina and the one on Lake Whitney. I would also like to go to the Texas hill country. The hill country is one of my favorite places. I love the terrain, the towns, the vineyards, and the things to do. Lake Medina is right in the heart of the hill country. Lake Whitney is in the Waco, TX area. For those of you who watch HGTV and enjoy the show Fixer Upper, Chip and Joanna Gains live in the Waco area and this is where they do their show. Joanna has recently expanded her business and opened a HUGE marketplace in Waco.
We have some friends that want us to travel at least part of the time with them from the Florida ocean coast to Connecticut. They want to be in Connecticut by the last week in September so I'm not sure of their timeline. They will be in the valley while we are there so we plan to discuss this and figure out if it will work out for all of us. We will go that direction to spend some time with Daughter this year. I need to go to Memphis and spend some time with my sister who is ill. I also want to spend Christmas with Daughter and her family this year if they plan on being home for Christmas. So, we will see how this all works out. I will keep you posted as plans are made.
OK. So, here's my December in a paragraph or 2. I went to grandparent's day at the school which I mentioned in a previous post. What I did not tell you was that Girl-child called me one day prior to this and told me that they were having a book fair at the school and there was a book that she wanted to buy for her mom (DIL) but she didn't have enough money to buy and she also wanted it to be a surprise. She asked me if I would help her buy it. She wanted me to purchase it while I was there on grandparent's day and do it without DIL seeing or knowing anything about it. Do you know how special I felt? For her to figure out how to call me without her mom knowing, ask me for my help, and allow me to be a part of this special activity made my heart very happy. She is a very sweet, special girl. It was my honor to help her.
Then, Boy-child participated in the Spelling Bee at his school. He and I had gone out to dinner earlier that week and he told me that he planned on going to "nationals" with the Spelling Bee. I told him if he went to nationals, I would be there. Well, he won the Spelling Bee at his school and next up is the District Spelling Bee. He is one step closer to nationals and I have no doubt that he will make a good run for it.
There is a group of friends from high school that have started making the effort to keep in touch and get together as often as we can. Since we were "home", we got together with them a couple of times and had a blast. I also was able to have lunch and/or dinner with some special friends that I have not seen since the last time I was home and that is always good to see them and catch up.
We had another breakage in our 5W. Ugh! Our toilet broke. The foot pedal popped off and the spring needed to keep it on popped off too. Mr. W tried several times to put it back on and could not get the spring on. He called Thetford and was told that the spring is put on in manufacturing and is not intended to be put back on if it pops off. They would send us a new base for the toilet for $90 plus shipping. We decided to buy an entire new toilet for $150. Mr. W bought it and replaced it all in less than half a day. This way we did not have to pay for shipping or wait for it to be shipped. I'm glad we replaced the entire thing. I'm beginning to think that once you have lived in one for 3 years, most things will start to break and/or need repairing or replacing. This has been a surprise for Mr. W too. He did not think there would be the massive amount of time needed for maintenance and repair on our rig. I'm just thankful that he knows what to look for and how to prevent and/or fix things.
Daughter and her family came to town for Christmas. I have really missed her and it was beyond great to see her and her family. We saw them in June in Colorado but her girls looked like they have grown a foot since the last time I saw them. We had already discussed doing some family pictures while they were in town. So, DWW agreed to take the pictures and we found a park close to Son's house that would work.
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| Mimi and Pops with all the grandkids |
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| The whole kit and kaboodle |
We stayed for 28 days at the TT park in Willis, TX where some good friends also have a membership. They were there most of the time that we were and it was really fun hanging out with them. We rang in the new year at Marina Village ("the lake"). There was a big bonfire and everyone brought snacks and the park furnished everything you needed to make smores. We have some good friends there too and we enjoyed our time with them.
So there you have it. My December all summed up. Hopefully, I will have only good things to blog about on our valley travels. Hope you all have a great 2016!
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