Pictures

Seems like we don't have lots to tell. We aren't doing much sight seeing this year since we've pretty much done all of that in past years. When we leave here, we are going to visit the Texas Hill Country and there will be more to show and tell. We are planning on leaving here on March 7th and were making plans to get together with Sticks and Nilia & Kenny somewhere between their homes. Nilia is having more heart surgery on the 7th so won't be able to travel. Prayers for her please.

I'm going to add some pictures with some of what we've been doing.
Well I haven't figured out how to put the pictures where I want them, but bear with me. This is my $5 produce purchase. There's 1 more sweet potato that is not showing and there was 2 more tomatillas. I traded Brenda for some peppers that she bought so we could make a sauce the young Hispanic man at the produce market told us all about. He even offered to go home with Brenda to make it for her. LOL The avocados weren't really that black. They were very ripe but perfect for the "not dumb salad" that Marcy found on Pinterest. The prices on produce still amaze me. We should lose lots of weight here, but doesn't happen. We eat all the healthy stuff (well Dennis not so much) but we also eat all the junk. Ice cream jumps out at us often and the fact that the banana splits are $2 on Saturday instead of $1 hasn't seemed to slow us down much.

You will have to click on this picture to see the dentist prices listed (at least I have to) I don't think the locals go to the dentist, but all the Winter Texans go to Progresso to have their dental work done. I keep thinking I will, but haven't yet.

This is the baked potato from Willie's BBQ. It really is bigger than it looks and it is delicious. Don't think I've ever made it completely through it but give it a good try.

This is another 1 that you might need to click on to see. It is an aloe vera field. We didn't know they bloomed and had NO idea that they grew them in fields.

This is what I've done in my spare time since I've been here. Can't believe I got the whole thing done in 6 weeks. It has been donated to "Betty's babies". Betty was the woman in charge of the craft room in the park for 28 years. Her and her husband are moving this weekend to Arizona to be with their daughter. She started donating to the babies at Mission Hospital all those years ago. Our park has made so many baby hats for the newborns that they finally told us they wouldn't need any for a few years. We only do hats now if there is a blanket or sweater to go with it. I've started a new to me hobby Crohook. It's kinda of like crocheting but not really. Still not for sure I like it and won't be able to do it around people since the hook is 2 foot long and I tend to stab people.

This is what Dennis does in his spare time when he can find a place to sing. This is at our park jam. He is sounding pretty good. We went to a karaoke place last Thurs. and stayed out til 11pm (and there were still streets when we came home, they had NOT rolled them up lol). He sang 3 times that night. About 50% of the songs were Spanish. Even when you can't understand the words, you can tell if people can or can't sing. He's going across the street this afternoon to sing at a karaoke session.Didn't take long for him to get back to liking the stage.  He also has been playing pool and once in awhile playing Texas Holdem.

Spell check

I forgot to spell check the last entry before I published and now I notice several misspelled words. Bear with me, I will figure out how to do this. Haven't figured out a way to go back and edit, but if you can tell me how to do that, I will.

Rainy Saturday

    The day started off as a very warm muggy day. We went to Donna to the Don Wes flea market and the veggie market across the street. Bought lots of veggies, but thankfully not nary a flea! This flea market is all Americans and is huge. The local ones around our park are mostly Mexican but since I've gotten braver, I like them better than Don Wes. I love seeing the little kids and at the American one it is mostly us old people! The booths that were inside, we couldn't even enjoy looking because it was so hot. Butch & Brenda were buying a sign with their name on it. As soon as it was finished we got our vegetables and headed back to the motor home.
    There is a little hamburger joint in Donna that tends to call out to us at least once a year when we're in town. Today was the day to go to Gonzales. I'm sure I told you all about the size of the hamburgers last year and I forgot to take a picture today since  I have a new fangled phone that would of done that. Let's just say that Dennis has agreed to share 1 next time. This is a family owned business, a Mother and her 3 grown children. It used to be an old grocery store and just did hamburgers as a lunch for the locals. Now it is all hamburgers/fries/onion rings. There is no sign showing that it's anything. They do NO advertising and they are only open from 10:45-2, 6 days a week and apparently are supporting 4 families on that. It is real beef and they cook it after you order it. There is at least a 30 min. wait and we heard them tell someone today that it would be an hour and half. It usually doesn't take that long but always a wait and people don't fuss about it. We've never been there when there wasn't a line, but today it was fairly short. We visited with some people from St Louis  and another couple and their 2 grown children from Minnesota while we waited. They told us about some more good places to eat. Everyone always knows the good places to eat around here and there are lots of them.
      The thermometer in the car said 85 on the way back to the motor home at 1:30 and at 3:30 it was 65 and now it is 59. I think this is our winter. We've had rain off and on all day and sometimes the roads/driveway even got wet. The weather forecast shows rain 5 out of the next 7 days. I really wish it would rain an inch or 2 and then get on with it, but guess I don't get to make that decision.

      I'd had a ride around the park on the trike and about 3:00 decided that I would take a little nap. We are 1/2 block off of a business highway with 3 major hospitals within a 3 miles radius so we hear sirens ALL the time and have gotten to where we don't pay much attention to them. Just as I started to lay down, I realized that the siren quit right outside my window and when I looked out there was a huge fire truck in our yard! We had 25/30 people out watching a 5th wheel back in this week so you can imagine what a fire truck in the park brought out. Found out that our next door neighbor had numbness in her arm and she or someone had called 911. Not for sure why they sent a fire truck first but the EMT quickly called for an ambulance and they took her to the hospital. That is one real disadvantage to living in a 55+ park. This lady is in her late 80s and goes all the time. I said she probably just slowed down enough today to realize that she didn't feel right. My little 92 year old  friend who I always said looked and acted just like Grandma Albertson would of at that age if she lived had a stroke before Christmas and had gone to stay at her daughters. She thought she was ready to come back so the daughter brought her and was planning to stay for 2 weeks  and then leave Etta here. The 1st week she was here, she fell and couldn't get up so decided that she wasn't ready to be on her own. Another friend's husband who is on the go all the time is having balloon surgery on Tues. If you would say a prayer for all 3 of them I'd appreciate it and I'm sure they would too.

       I added this picture just because it makes me smile. Dylan was helping Papa with something on Darren's camper.

      Apparently senior citizens  like fun toys. These are 2 pictures of golf carts we've seen the last 2 days while we were out riding around.

   I love the red one that looks like a 57 Chevy but guess I'll just keep on using the trike for now. Wonder if that kit would fit on the trike?    Think that all for today.

Tomatoes in Feb.

   I played L R C or however those letters are supposed to go last night and won finally! Now I know what all the noise was about New Years Eve when the kids were playing it. It is a fun game.
   Today we did something I've never done in Feb. We picked fresh tomatoes! I first said Dad would of laughed at those little things but then decided that if he could of picked them in Feb he would of liked them as much as I did. They were small but very tasty. We went right to the store and bought bacon and cottage cheese. What a yummy lunch. The bacon brings me to a hmmm moment!
   I have not bought bacon since last summer and when I bought it last it was sold in 16 oz packages. Today everything in the store was 12 oz, but still the same price as the 16 oz packages! Do they think that we won't notice that they've taken 1/4 of the bacon away? The pound of smoked sausage that we had for dinner is now 14 oz. The 32 oz jar of Miracle Whip is now 30 oz. I could go on and on. I understand raising prices but I don't understand completely changing the packaging to save money. Seems like that would cost more than it was worth.

Some of the 2500 tomato plants in this patch.

Picking a few tomatoes. Some of them were bigger than these, but even the little ones were very good!

  We had a real rain today. It got the street and driveway wet. Probably not a 20th of an inch, but better than nothing.
   I really won't write every day (unless we do something really exciting) but still trying to figure this out and how to do the pictures.
   Not for sure why the pictures ended up being in the middle of the text, but I will get this figured out.

Hello from South Texas

   I'm going to see if I'm computer savy enough to do this instead of the emails. I really started the messages the 1st year as a journal to keep track of our time here. Some of our friends/family enjoyed them, others not so much. If you don't enjoy or even want to read them, that is fine. Just a way for me to keep track of what we are doing and once in awhile things that make me go hmmm.
   We met with my cousin Dennis Bedell & his wife Beth last Wednesday for lunch. We had a very nice visit. He is the youngest of Uncle Walter's children. They are full timing and really like it. They spend the winter about 6 miles from where we are. It was fun to get acquainted with them. They have 3 sons. One on each coast and one in Austin, TX. They also have one beautiful granddaughter who is getting ready to turn 1.
   The weather has been beautiful here. I understand it has been at home too. I think you guys have been praying for the cold and snow to hold off until I get home. Winter is coming here next week. Only supposed to be in high 60's or low 70's for highs. We had 2 rain storms on Mon. The 1st one put 15 sprinkles on the windshield and I SWEAR none on the driveway! The 2nd was about 3 hours later and we only got about 10 drops. They desperately need rain here and the locals were excited about the 15 drops! There is rain in the forecast and we've had the clouds but the rain doesn't make it here.
    Today was Dennis' birthday. Won't mention any age, but he does carry that little red/white/blue card now. Got phone calls or texts from all the kids and grand kids and his sister. For 45 years I made a chocolate cake with fluffy icing for his birthday. Last year I could not find the ingredients for the icing where I was, so this year I made sure I had ALL the stuff I needed for the icing and brought the cake mix from home so I knew I was prepared for his birthday cake. Came back from playing 31 last night to bake the cake. I tore this motor home apart and NO cake mix! I had 2 brownie mixes so I probably left Derek with a cake mix and no brownie mix. So he got brownies for his birthday cake. I didn't think to check if the motor home was level before I baked the brownies so one side of them are about 1/2" thick and like a rock and the other side was about 3" thick. They were very good, but glad I hadn't invited people over.
   I'm going to see if I can get this posted before I write anymore and then hopefully I can post some pictures.