So Why Are We Leaving?

Roger here.....  Wow!  Look at the riot of color in our back yard.  The plant life here in deep south Texas is amazing most of the year (even in January), but right now it seems to be at its peak.

The jasmine vines that we planted at the corners of our pergola are growing so fast that you can almost see them creeping up the trellis.  They are in full bloom and so fragrant.  

I just finished conducting our last community meeting of the season.  Good to have that behind me.  It almost feels like the start of Spring Break (educators understand the analogy).  It is so relaxing to sit in a comfortable chair on the back patio ---- looking at the flowers, watching the butterflies and birds, enjoying the ever-present Texas breeze, reading a good book.  SO, why are we leaving?

Well let's see....  

--  We have been working for a couple of months getting the motor home ready for a long trip:  new tires (expensive -- ouch!), new tire pressure monitoring system, annual service, oil change, battery fluid checks, repair to a couple of the bay latches, a thorough wash and wax.  It would be a shame to waste all that effort.

There's no place to sit in front of the coach house  -- our red Adirondack chairs have disappeared.   Oh, wait!  There they are.

-  The back patio looks so empty --- nothing except the camping chairs that we are taking with us.

-  Even our Texas bar has found its way inside.  Why linger here if there is no bar?

-  Necessities have been moved into the motor home and location lists have been made so that we can find them.  Dianne did most of the list making this year.  My obsessive compulsive, concrete- sequential traits are finally rubbing off on my dear wife.  It only took forty-some years...

-  Our good friend, Jim, helped me drain the water heater that lives in the attic.  We have to leave, or his help was for naught.  Have a look at those legs!

-  Anal retentive me has been planning the trip for weeks:  routes, reservations, timing to meet with family/friends, things to see, things to avoid, new adventures.  It would be a waste to not follow through after having done all that work.

-  Most of our dogs' friends have already left.  Look at those sad faces.

-  Oh, and there is a scary spider in the back yard.

This fella is about three inches long.  Everything in Texas is bigger.  I have no idea what the spirals are that seem to be caught in its web, nor do I know what kind of spider it is.  Maybe some of you readers can help.  Pretty interesting, though, isn't it?

-  There are lots of questionable reasons to leave, despite the beauty of our place right now.  However, the main reason for leaving is to begin a new set of adventures.  We are planning to travel through southern New Mexico and Arizona.  We plan to spend some time near Palm Springs to see our Los Angeles daughter and her boyfriend.  When it warms up in the northern climes, we are headed to the beaches of Oregon and the Olympic Peninsula of Washington where we will get to see both our daughters and our granddaughter --- as well as our life-long friends, Jay and Nancy.  Lady Dianne will get to spend some time in Salt Lake City doing genealogy research (seems she is descended from royalty), while I fly to Indiana for a couple of weeks.  We will then spend a month in the Colorado mountains before heading back to Texas.  I am starting to get excited!

We will be blogging more frequently as we travel, so start looking for our posts.

The pet picture of the day shows Bandido being a selfish boy while Tequila looks on.

The story behind the picture.... Dianne gave each dog a leather chew.  Bandido stole Tequila's chew, and then proceeded to chew up his own, while protecting Tequila's chew by trapping it under his paw.  In the vernacular of our friend, Bob:  Bad Bandido.  Poor Tequila.  Good Dianne (for eventually rescuing Tequila's treat).

Going, Going, Gone!!

Hi all, Dianne here.  What's wrong with this picture?

We're the only ones left from our nightly happy hour group!  Much of Retama Village is emptying out as snow birds head north.  Our friends Jim and Sue are still here, but our East Mallard Drive group has already left.  It all began just a couple of days ago when Tim and Bonnie headed out for their summer in Colorado.  I missed getting their photo as they left, but yesterday Bob and Linda were next...

Pulling Out...

Hooking Up...

Hope we remember all the steps when we leave April 11...haven't had to do it since September!

Off to start their summer adventures!

Finally, this morning Jeff and Val headed north to their home in Manitoba, Canada:

If you look closely, you can spot Val and their cute dog Maggie in the Passenger Seat

Roger and I have been working hard to get ourselves ready to hit the road April 11.  We've had the motorhome carpet cleaned, cabinets cleaned out and rearranged, but there's still more work to do before we're ready to leave.  We have a wash and wax scheduled for the motor home next Friday, and we're still moving things back and forth trying to decide what to take and what to leave behind for six months.

On March 21-26  I took a short spring break to join high school girlfriends at a condo near Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  We all went to school together in Frankfort, Indiana, but flew in from Chicago, Indiana, Michigan and me from Texas. Penny was our guide, since she lives there on Pompano Beach.  Some of my high school buds read our blog, so here are photos of the highlights of my trip for them:

 My friend Karen brought matching cover-ups for all of us so we could be "quintuplets" on our girls weekend.  Trouble is, we wore them so much and forgot we had them on -- you should have seen the looks we got from people who didn't know why five 62-year-old grandmothers (except Margy, she's just 62, not a grandma so far) would be acting so silly and dressed alike!  Let's just say those huge bubba mugs in the photo didn't contain water....

Then there was the happy hour at the Tiki Bar...

Matching eyewear courtesy of Nancy...

More strange looks, and more silliness...

Two of the guys from our Indiana high school, one a '68 classmate and another from the class of '65 joined us for a barbecue at the beach.  We can all proudly call ourselves Frankfort Hot Dogs (that really is the mascot name!)  Actually, Nancy (in the middle) wasn't from our school, but she might as well have been, and we consider her an honorary Frankfort Hot Dog.

Larry, Me, Karen, Nancy, Margy, Chuck, and Penny

On our final evening together we took a dinner cruise through the intracoastal waterway:

 As you can see in the photo, we came well-equipped (Penny and Margy discreetly hid their bottle).  We all had a wonderful time and it was great to see them and revert back to our high school silliness for a while.  It was kinda like the slumber parties we used to have, although we didn't stay up nearly as late as we did back in the day.

Back in Texas, one of the things Roger and I wanted to do before we hit the road was to make a quick day trip across the border to Progreso, Mexico for some cheap prescription drugs and shopping.  We managed to get over and back in under two hours, mainly because our favorite outdoor margarita bar wasn't open the day we were there.  I stocked up on Mexican vanilla and found some very heavy, colorful drinking glasses and a salsa decanter:

I think the glasses will go well with my Fiesta dishes.  I'll be leaving the Fiesta and glassware behind when we hit the road, for it will be paper and plastic for us for the next six months.

My wildlife cam took some exciting night-life photos behind our fence this month.  Here's just a sampling:

Big Ole' Coyote

Big Ole' Skunk

Since the local sugar cane fields have been harvested (good hiding places), there has been a lot of Border Patrol activity right here near our neighborhood lately.  If any of you have watched  Border Wars on the National Geographic Channel, much of the activity when they film in Texas takes place right here in the Mission/McAllen area.  We don't need to watch TV to catch the action.  Here are some shots of the Border Patrol agents searching the trench behind our place for illegals trying to pass through.  Most of us have the phone numbers for Border Patrol programmed into our cell phones to phone in any activity we might see. Believe it or not, we slept right through this activity which took place right behind our bedroom in the motor home.  Bandido didn't even wake up!

A little blurry, but you get the idea.  They must have been moving fast!

I'm sure the question in your mind is "Are you afraid to be there?"  My answer is no, not at all.  We feel only compassion for the poor souls who try to cross the river to find a better life.  Most have paid large sums of money to crooks who have taken terrible advantage of them.  The Border Patrol here is very responsive and constantly on the alert, and the illegals are routinely rounded up and sent back over the border.

Back here, the view through our back pergola shows empty patios where once was snacking and laughter and friends gathered around fire pits.  We know that we'll pick up next fall right where we left off, but today it sure is lonely on East Mallard Drive!

The pet photo of the day shows Bandido and Tequila as Jeff and Val drove past on their way north.  They seem to be saying "Where is everybody??!! 

Bye, Maggie!  See you next year!

Catching Up - Fun Times in South Texas!

Hi all, Dianne here.  Well, our winter here in South Texas is coming to a close.  It's already springtime down here, the weather is beautiful, but we're all starting to get "hitch-itch" -- that phenomenon where the traveling spirit in RV'ers takes hold and we're ready to hit the road.  Once that happens, we'll update our blog regularly.  For now, though, here's what we've been up to the past month or so:

My friend Sue devised a fun pirate scavenger hunt for her two small grandchildren during their recent visit.  Since we all had costumes from last year's pirate party, the hunt ended at our place with the treasure being guarded by "four-legged pirates."  None of my photos were as good as this one our friend Jim took, so I'm "pirating" it!

The treasure chest was hidden beneath our beer cooler.

Here come the little pirates!  Will they find the treasure?

Where can it be??

We found it!

Little children sure are fun.  So are seniors when they congregate in the south for the winter.  I've heard it described as "senior spring break," except that it lasts all winter long.

To illustrate how silly and fun it can be, this week our village hosted a "Not-So-Newlywed Game," complete with some hilariously clever "commercial breaks."  Roger and I had a bit part, so my good friend and neighbor, Linda, agreed to use our camera to take some shots of the fun for us.

After a wonderful spaghetti dinner, the fun began.  As an example, one of the questions asked of the husbands was:  "What secret does your wife have that she doesn't think you know about?"   Needless to say, the guys were smart enough not to touch that one with a ten-foot pole!  Lots of laughs all evening long.

The bit part Roger and I played was in the final commercial for "Depends."  First, Barb modeled the Texas Bling version for that special night out on the town...

.

Then Greg modeled the male version for special holidays...

Finally, Roger and I modeled the "Special Day" Depends.  Roger's even had pinstripes!

Thanks again to our friend Linda for agreeing to some camera duty that evening.  We were seated behind all the activity so that we could quickly change into our costumes.  

The very next evening was another special occasion, complete with homemade maple ice cream and made-from-scratch birthday cake for a certain husband of mine who has been working very hard lately in his duties as chairman of the village advisory board.

Our good friends and neighbors gathered 'round and we all kicked back and enjoyed a beautiful evening together!   It was so pleasant we lingered after dark and lit a campfire.  Life is good!

The lure of new places and travels does call to us, but I can tell you we will miss these nightly happy hours and the camaraderie of friends.  At least we know next fall we can pick up just where we leave off this spring.

The pet pictures of the day are two close-ups of Bandido and Tequila in their spiffy pirate costumes:
                       A pirate...

                          ...and his wench!