Goodbye, 2009!

Happy New Year to all our family and friends!

It's been an exciting year. We towed Venture nearly 12,000 miles through the US and Canada.

States we’ve visited

Provinces we’ve visited

It's been a wild ride.

Today was a lovely day for the 2009 finale--sunny and 79, with a beautiful clear blue sky. During breakfast a juvenile hawk (Coopers or Gray?) sat outside our window on the fence and posed for several minutes. I didn't want to disturb it--so no photos. Just a lovely experience.

Later we biked over to the World Birding Center, and this time lots of birds came out for Ken to photograph. I even got a shot of some javelinas at one of the water features with my Droid. The three javelinas walked up to the water and drank noisily. Then one decided to try some running water, so it reared up by the fountain.

This tiny Ferruginous Pygmy Owl was attracting big attention! Two big cameras with
long telephoto lenses were pointing up at this tree, so it was easy for us to spot this cute bird.

Ladderback woodpecker just arriving for a snack

A congress of Green Jays

Altamira Orioles showing off their brilliant plumage

This javelina evidently prefers running water 8-)

When we got back home, UPS had delivered a package, which turned out to be RV business cards with a picture of Venture on the back. Thanks, Terri!

We spent some time researching emergency road service providers. We have had Good Sam ERS, but weren't too happy with the response when we had our flat tire outside of Nashville. We noticed on the Boomer BB that some folks were recommending Coach Net. It's easy to find people happy with either of those services, and also easy to find people unhappy with them, but on balance it looks like Coach Net may be a better choice. One factor to be considered is that the Affinity Group that owns Good Sam appears to be having financial difficulties.
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Ebook Research

Another quiet day. We sent out our thank you notes for Christmas gifts. In the mail we got a Christmas card from Ed and Marlyn, California friends, and a photo of Romaine's son Mark's family, with his wife Tamra and their six handsome sons. We also got a book we had ordered from Amazon, Nemesis by Chalmers Johnson.

We did some more research on ebook readers and formats for the Droid. It's amazing how much is available for free. I now have Aldiko software installed and a copy of Darwin's On the Origin of Species. Ken also has ereader and FBreader software. I tried reading Origin on the Droid and found that after a while my eyes were showing signs of fatigue. I have astigmatism, and it makes long term screen reading uncomfortable.

The profusion of formats and readers is confusing. It's unclear whether we would be able to read DRM protected files on the Droid if we bought them. I'd love to be able to try a variety of readers in the store. We did get a quick look at a Sony ereader once. Apparently the Kindle is available only from Amazon--so no easy way to try it out. Buying a dedicated ereader might help the eye comfort issue, since they use e-ink technology, which is supposed to be more like reading on paper. I'm thinking what makes sense is to wait a bit and see what develops.

I installed Pandora radio on my Droid today, so now I have a private radio channel labeled Mozart, how neat is that?
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Visiting

We danced to Joe Saltel this morning. Judy and Hardy made a special exception and joined us in the hot hash tip, along with Jim and Jane and Bob and Pat. We stayed after the dance and ate our lunch, along with Jim and Jane and Jean Ballinger.

Then we headed to Victoria Palms to see Tom and Donna Clapham and tour their new rig. It's another Excel, of course, but a bit more compact, a 33RSO Limited with beautiful hickory woodwork. We loved the custom touches that Tom has installed and the decor that makes it personal to them. A pillow on the couch caught our attention, with the saying "May our home always be too small to hold all our friends."

One of the topics of conversation was the Socrates Cafe, an activity Donna is looking forward to at Victoria Palms. She was a facilitator of a group somewhere else. We had never heard of Socrates Cafe, but it sounds like an interesting and stimulating program to encourage deeper conversations.

We had an altogether enjoyable visit and agreed to get together again soon.

While we were at Tom and Donna's I got a call from Julie. She had just come from her 34 week checkup and had some worrisome news. She has been experiencing some itching, starting in the soles of her feet. Her obstetrician diagnosed cholestasis of pregnancy, which results when the normal flow of bile is disrupted by pregnancy hormones. This can be dangerous to the baby, so she'll be checked weekly. The OB still plans to induce delivery at 39 weeks, but if there are signs of fetal distress, they may need to hurry the birth. We're hoping that this conservative approach means that the doctor thinks Julie has a less severe case.

We watched a NOVA special tonight called "What Darwin Never Knew." It's been 150 years since the publication of The Origin of Species. It's amazing what people are able to investigate now by working with individual genes and segments of DNA. One researcher has discovered an area of DNA called a switch that controls the development of hind limbs and may account for the first fish developing legs to pull themselves out of the sea--and for whales and dolphins losing their legs and moving back into the sea.
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Dancing

We danced at the Peppermint Palace to Jerry Story for the last time in 2009--he's heading to Gulfport, MS, to call for New Year's Eve. Of course he invited everyone to join him there. I was introduced to Jean Ballinger, who had just arrived back in town from her holiday travels. She's a single dancer and looking for partners. We talked about our dancing together while Ken is recovering from surgery. She's an excellent dancer and was dancing with Don today (he usually dances with Louise).

The end of 2009 is quickly approaching. I've made several year end donations over the last couple of weeks. We like to support NPR, PBS, and Escapees CARE. I make contributions to the American Kidney Fund in memory of my mom and to Alcoholics Anonymous, Cleveland District, in memory of my brother. And we support other causes throughout the year.

Some of these donations were made through the Capital One No Hassle Giving Site. It operates through Network for Good and has the (for me) great advantage that you get to choose how much of your personal information to share with the recipient. You can donate anonymously, thereby avoiding the "thank you" and solicitation mail. That saves the recipients mailing costs, and it saves us from having to pay to forward all that stuff. Also, Capital One covers all the administrative costs of your donation, and you get cash rewards, so your charities get more. We got the Capital One card in the first place to use in Canada, since Capital One is the only credit card company that not only does not charge a special fee for international transactions--it also covers the fee charged by Mastercard or Visa.

We had fish tacos for dinner, made with frozen tilapia fillets marinated in lime juice. They were actually fish tostadas, since I had the tostada shells and not the taco shells in the cupboard. I also made banana pudding with homemade vanilla pudding. This is the first time I made the homemade pudding, and it came out pretty good, especially with bananas, graham crackers, and whipped cream on top.
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Quiet Sunday

The big activity of the day was doing the laundry--so you know we had a quiet day. We thought about cleaning the truck, which, alas, got filthy again yesterday going through the road construction, but we didn't actually get around to doing it.

We had some brief excitement when we discovered that the wet spot in front of the sink in the bedroom was not just a little spill. We had noticed it last night but expected it to dry up. When it was still there this morning, we investigated further and found that the new container of detergent stored under the sink had a slow leak, and the carpet under the sink was saturated with detergent. It had seeped out and was causing the spot we had noticed. Well, at least it wasn't a plumbing leak . . . . I scrubbed and rinsed, but I'm sure there's still more detergent in the carpet. The carpet cleaner, Jack, had just reminded us that soap is a dirt magnet and that we should never use detergent to clean the carpet, so I'm guessing the area will need further rinsing and cleaning.

I soaked some pinto beans last night, and today I cooked them with some onion and garlic and spices. We had some with ham and cornbread and zucchini and corn for dinner. We finished off the lime tofu pudding for dessert.

We went over some photos from May 2009--a good reminder of our exploration of the California and Oregon coast.

We played a couple of rounds of Rummikub tonight. The tiles fell my way.
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Avatar!

We picked up our friends Hardy and Judy and went to the Tinseltown Cinemark to see Avatar in 3D. From the moment that "Don your 3D glasses" came on the screen, we entered an eye-popping world that seamlessly blended humans and CGI and put both on an alien planet full of mystery and danger and adventure enough for five or six movies. In fact, it almost seemed that we were watching or participating in fragments of several movies from the past, only on steroids. It was quite an experience, a milestone in cinematography or animation or graphics or something almost beyond any of those. If you saw an IMAX version, you might feel your heart stop when the ravening beasts or equally vicious mercenaries attacked.

The rest of the day seemed positively tame by comparison. We did some shopping and sorted through some photos and just hung around.

Terri called this evening. She was thinking about her grandmother, who of course has not been far from my thoughts, along with my brothers and others loved ones that I miss a lot, especially this time of year.
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Merry Christmas, Bialosky!

One of my family traditions has been the reading of Bialosky's Christmas to my grandchildren when they were little. When I talked with Terri earlier today, Kelley and Molly sang out the climactic line of the book, "Merry Christmas, Bialosky!" and brought back some wonderful memories. Ed and Julie called on their way home from visiting friends and reported that they had a white Christmas in Flower Mound when they woke up this morning. Julie admitted that in the crush of Christmas preparations, the wrapped gifts from Santa under the tree had no name tags, so Cate and Sam had fun opening each others' gifts this morning.

We went out to dinner this afternoon at the Echo Hotel and Conference Center in Edinburg with our friends Hardy and Judy and Bob and Pat. The place was packed when we arrived--it's evidently a favorite spot for the Christmas buffet, and we saw some fellow square dancers leaving as we arrived. We were seated quickly and had a lovely meal, and no one had to cook or clean up. On the way home we stopped at the Cinemark Tinseltown in Mission to buy tickets to see Avatar in 3D tomorrow afternoon with Hardy and Judy.

Ken talked with Gordon and Romaine, who have plenty of ice on the roads in Michigan, but no snow. Rebecca and Cathy called to wish him a Merry Christmas. They celebrated by going to several movies, including the new Sherlock Holmes movie and Avatar, and plan to return to the theater tomorrow. Cathy is working on her third degree black belt now.

Aunt Iris called and reported that her family is doing well. She had a group for Christmas dinner, and in preparation, she got up at 3 a.m. since she couldn't sleep and scrubbed the kitchen floor--just like Iris, who also sang in the choir at the Christmas Eve mass.

We opened our presents wrapped under our little tree. It's been a delightful Christmas.

Ken with his warm wool socks from Terri and can of colossal cashews from Romaine--
he's happy and has warm toes.

The "buy-ology" bag from Terri folds down to a compact, easy to carry size,
but expands to fit whatever you buy.

We watched the first episode of Ken's gift to me tonight--the complete Series I of All Creatures Great and Small.
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Happy Birthday, Chris!

Chris turned 44 today. Wait a minute! That means it was 44 years ago today that I counted his little fingers and toes, mesmerized by this beautiful creature who had come into our lives.

Today we were awakened by a knock at the door. We had forgotten that we had scheduled today at 8 a.m. for Nick's RV Wash and Wax to work its magic on Venture. They did the same last January, and in between we had given it only a lick and a promise, so it was definitely time. Two experienced guys went to work, and four hours later, Venture was bright and shiny again. So now we're clean inside and out and ready for the new year.

Park residents have been decorating for the holidays. Lots of cheerful colored lights, snowmen, and Santa caps adorn the rigs and sites. On our way in last night, we saw a rather unusual display on the front of a neighboring motorhome. Ken said it was "the traditional Christmas American flag."




Today was extremely windy, as forecast, but sunny and mild otherwise. Ken likes to look at palm trees at Christmas time...
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Sunny and 80 Degrees

We have a brief reprieve from the wet, overcast, chilly weather, so I put on my shorts today to celebrate. We even got in the [heated] pool for a dip.

This morning we got up early to prepare for the arrival of the RV Steamer, Jack Cook. He cleaned our carpets last December, and they definitely needed cleaning again. We moved everything off the floors and took the bedskirt off and removed the shoe pockets from the bedside. In the grand tradition of cleaning house before the cleaning people arrive, I vacuumed the carpets and cleaned in all the corners--amazing what you can see when the stuff that usually sits around and hides it is moved.

Jack did a bang up job of removing a large stain on the living room carpet that we had been unable to budge. It appeared when Venture was in the shop being repaired and evidently came partly from a large pail. Jack said that he'd had to use the Citrus Gel solvent to get it up, so it must have been oily. He also cleaned Ken's recliner, which looks 100% better now.

I joined a group that was singing Christmas carols this afternoon. The lead couple sang a few carols in Polish to get the singalong started. The group included a couple of German speakers. They sang a carol in German, and the group sang O Tannenbaum. One carol was sung in French in honor of the French Canadians. We sang a capella, but it went surprisingly well, mainly because the lead couple had 30 years of choir experience and were strong singers.

While the carpet was being cleaned, we went to the clubhouse and reviewed some photos from last June, which brought back memories of our visit in Portland.
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Holiday Cheer

This morning we danced to Joe Saltel in Pharr. We've been seeing signs of the holiday season for some time now, but today the Christmas shirts and jewelry and Santa hats really brightened the hall, along with the large Christmas tree.



This afternoon, spurred on by the imminent arrival of Christmas, I finally got all the Christmas messages out by email. We do have a few friends and relatives who don't have email, but we'll include them in our Christmas phone calls, so this year we didn't send out any paper Christmas cards. We do appreciate receiving greetings--by either email or snail mail. The photo and photo montage cards are especially interesting.

It's been very windy today, and we're expecting even more wind over the next few days. The advisory suggests anchoring Christmas decorations and such.
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Philosophy

"Let those who will, buy lands and hoard money. We will have our memories, glad memories of golden experiences together." In 1915 Margaret Gehrke wrote these words about her trips around the country visiting national parks with her husband, Edward. They traveled first by train and then by Buick. Edward even built a "house-car" for their travels, but he died before they were able to take it to a national park. We are privileged to travel in our own "house-car," Venture, that takes us to such magnificent places! This lifestyle gives us such freedom.

I checked out the PBS website for the National Parks series and found out that you can create your own online scrapbook of text and images and videos--a neat feature. If you clicked the link on Margaret's name above, you were taken to my scrapbook.

Edward and Margaret Gehrke toured the national parks in their Buicks

This morning we stopped at the Mission Bell RV Resort Craft Fair on our way to Jerry Story's dance. I wanted to get some more of the removable sequined appliques I had found there last year. This time I got some red, white, and blue stars to add to my collection. It's much better than adding extra shirts. We also found a Corning Ware teapot to replace the little stainless steel one we've been using to brew tea in. The old one dripped every time we tried to pour from it.


Jerry was in the holiday spirit today--but come to think of it, he's always got that childlike joy. Ken got him to pose by the Christmas tree on state at the Peppermint Palace. Kristy was nice enough to hurry back to the hall to dance with Kathleen in the last tip so we'd have a square. She is always nervous about dancing--partly because she's usually too busy at the check in table to dance much--but she did very well.


I worked on our Christmas message today and hope to get it out tomorrow to everyone.

We played another game of Samurai tonight, this one a tie, so we're planning another round tomorrow. And of course we reviewed more photos.
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Further Droid Adventures

Another quiet day. I copied my recipe files to my Droid, so now I don't have to move my laptop to the table to use my recipes--I can see them on my Droid on the counter. That's real progress, and it may even help me avoid skipping ingredients. However, I still managed to add 2 T of oil to the Grain and Nut Whole Wheat Pancakes, instead of 2 t. No system is foolproof (say, that makes me the fool, right?).

I've been trying to find a way to enlarge the fonts in the Gmail on my Droid, to no avail. A search of the forums shows that many other people are having the same issue. I tried one suggested solution, but it didn't work, so I uninstalled that app. Then Ken found a great browser called Dolphin that has several improvements on the built-in Google browser, including multitouch and "pinch and zoom." That means you can "stretch" the page with two fingers to make it bigger, or pinch together with two fingers to make it smaller. Voila! I now have Gmail that's easy to read. Now why didn't Google build that in to the Droid interface?

We spent some more time going over photos in July 2009. That was a busy time with our friends, and we have tons of photos, not all of them noteworthy, of course.

It was nice to hear from Chris. We talked about plans for camping in Yellowstone. We decided not to pursue the Grizzly RV Park option. Shortly afterwards we got an email from Grizzly apologizing that they had had an emergency, but we responded that we had made other plans.

We watched the first part of Cranford on Masterpiece Classic. We really like Dame Judy Dench.
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Laundry Day

Another lazy Saturday. We slept late and had brunch (oranges and corned beef hash with eggs). Then we did four loads of laundry. Later we gave the truck a quick wash to get the worst of the mud and grime off. It still needs a thorough cleaning and wax job.

For supper I made broccoli salad and bean soup with Carol's brown bread. I won't have to cook for a while since the fridge is full of leftovers. We played a game of Samurai and then had leftover bread pudding with yogurt and lemon sauce for dessert.

Most of the day was taken up with doing research and messing around on the web. We called to reconfirm our Yellowstone reservation, despite the fact that they'll be replacing the electrical system, so we won't have any electric. I discovered a really neat Droid app--Barcode Reader--and decided to try it out on a book, the biography of John Adams that Ken is reading. The barcode scanner immediately identified it as a book and offered a choice of product search, book search, and search book contents. I was amazed to find that the content search on the name "Hartley" immediately displayed the three occurrences in the book, in context. Wow!
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Glad to See the Sun

This morning we danced to Darryl Lipscomb. Some of the dancers put on a "This Is Your Childhood" show for Darryl, a bit of fun to present him with his holiday card and gift. Jane emceed and rode the "motorcyle" around the hall (her new bike, with engine noises playing on the speakers). Jerry Story and Joe Saltel attended to see their friend put on the spot, er... honored. Jerry and Kristy danced in the last square with Dick and Mary Ann, Don and Louise, and us.

We were glad to see the sun and milder temps today, so we got out on the bikes for a 10-mile ride along a trail we biked last year. I said something to Ken about not having the trail map, and he said, "Just follow the yellow line..." which worked, of course, since we were already familiar with the route. The sky was a spectacular blue.



When we got back to the park we stopped by Guest Services to pick up our mail. We were expecting an envelope forwarded from Livingston by the Escapees Mail Service, and were surprised to find a Christmas package from Terri waiting for us too. The presents inside were wrapped, so now we have cheery packages under our tree. We got several Christmas cards too, including a couple of photo greetings. One was from our friends Tom and Nanci in Olympia. It shows the two of them in Tom's new woodworking shop, where Tom is happily, according to Nanci, making sawdust 8-) The other was from my cousin Jan and her husband George, who live in Scottsdale, AZ. They are cutting up, with big smiles as usual. It's good to see George out of the hospital and looking so cheerful.



We chatted with our neighbor, Jerry, as we were getting ready to head out on our bike ride. He said that he and his wife had fulltimed for five years, but now have a home in Arkansas, near Hot Springs in a gated community with nine golf courses.

Tonight we watched a bit of Elf we happened to catch. Farrell's exuberance and innocence are heart warming, but the section we watched was enough of a taste for us, since we don't have any five-year-olds to entertain.

We also watched Bill Moyer's Journal. He seems to us to offer a viewpoint on current events infused with decency and insight and hope. He recommended Chalmers Johnson's book, Nemesis, and we ordered it from Amazon Marketplace for $7.97, delivered.
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Another Small Triumph

Thursday, so we went to Jerry Story's afternoon dance and as usual enjoyed the dancing and the company. Jim and Jane, Dick and Mary Ann, and Bob and Pat joined us for the open tip at the end.

This morning I spent some time on the web again looking for solutions to our need for a new amplifier/DVD/CD/Tuner unit to replace the Curtis that was no longer playing DVDs or CDs. Then it occurred to me that it might be possible to fix the Curtis, so I Googled "DVD player quit working" and found lots of tales of woe-and a couple of good suggestions. One was to unplug the unit to try to "reset" the electronic brain. I tried that, and it seemed to help, since the DVD loaded and the title sequence played, but still no sound and the program would not play.

Another suggestion was to use a CD lens cleaner. That didn't seem very likely to fix the problem, but it couldn't hurt and would be lots cheaper and easier than buying a new unit, so we decided to try it. On the way home from the dance we stopped and picked up a cleaner kit up for $7.97. It worked like magic! Another small triumph.

The DVD of Paint Your Wagon played perfectly, with great sound. Then I tried playing the exercise video, and we were right back to the same problem. I ran the cleaner DVD again, and again Paint Your Wagon played fine. Finally I decided to try the exercise video on my laptop--and for some reason it plays fine there. One of life's little mysteries...

We are still interested in replacing the Curtis. It's not a great unit, and we get very poor FM reception. We've tried antenna boosters, but the unit only has a 75 ohm connection, and so far nothing has helped, so we mainly listen to radio on the laptop.
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Broken DVD Player

This morning was cold and rainy, so I decided to skip the exercise class and instead try the Leslie Sansone video I bought some time ago. I popped it in the player, watched the FBI Warning and the title/menu screen, but when I hit play, the screen went black and nothing happened. Not a good sign. I tried another DVD, with the same result. The next DVD didn't even play the opening stuff. Apparently the DVD player is broken. Ken tried the CD player too--but no music.

What we have is not just a DVD player--it's the amplifier, FM receiver, DVD/CD player for our home theater system and drives the surround sound speakers. It's also comparatively light and compact, so it fits the entertainment center cabinet. Apparently it's not easy to find something to replace it.

On a more positive note, we got a wonderful Christmas gift today. Kathy sent us a 3-month Gold Membership in Audible.com. It comes with one credit per month that can be exchanged for most of the titles they handle. Now the fun begins...what shall we choose??? I downloaded the Audible software and then Dickens Christmas Carol, a freebie, just to check out the system. It worked fine, although it took half an hour to download. We will really enjoy having things to listen to, especially when we are traveling. Thanks, Kathy!

We don't dance on Wednesdays, so we try to catch up on chores, but with the rain we were lazy today. We did play some games and go through photos.
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Repair Success

This morning we danced to Joe Saltel and as usual had a great time. We visited with Hardy and Judy and actually got to dance with them in one square. We agreed to look for a restaurant for Christmas dinner. Our first choice, Mimi's, is closed on Christmas. We had a great hot hash square with Dick and Mary Ann, Ron and Judy Barr, and Mike and Bonnie Hall.

My granddaughter, Annie, now has her own Facebook page, and she and I are "friends." Her parents had been holding out until she was older, but when her friend Isabel's hamster had its own page, how could Annie not have one?

I worked for some time trying to put the push button switch on our ceiling light back together, but after lots of frustration, finally gave up. Whenever I got the parts back together, the push button wouldn't work. We had looked for a new one yesterday at several stores with no luck, so I checked on the web. I found what we needed, but with shipping costs and delay, that didn't seem the optimal solution, so I started calling around to electrical and lighting places and finally (finally!) located a small electrical supply place that said they had one. We drove in to Mission and were very pleasantly surprised to find just what we needed for $1 and with a smile. We brought it home, installed it, and put the fixture back together, so we have light over our table once more. Another minor victory in the struggle to keep our RV ("repair vehicle") in tiptop shape.



It's been raining for hours now, and no leaks, so evidently our leak repairs are holding, thankfully.

We spent another couple of hours on photos tonight, all of it in just subdividing the 1,074 July photos into manageable groups
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We Scored H1N1 Vaccine

When we went to the craft fair at the convention center, we happened to pick up a local paper and noticed an announcement that free H1N1 vaccine was available at the local health clinics. We called and found out that they were passing out numbers at 7:20 a.m. for the morning and at 12:30 p.m. for the afternoon session, with 60 passes available for each session. So today we packed a lunch, and after the dance we headed to the Mission Medical Clinic. We got our numbers and sat down to wait. We were pleasantly surprised that we were actually out of there by 2 p.m. So now we're protected--we hope.

Our friends thought we'd been out off-roading--the truck is covered with mud again. We've decided that it must be from the road construction we drive through on our way, so we're changing our route to get out the back way. Maybe we won't have to wash the truck every day.

The switch on the light over our table quit working last night. When we took it apart this afternoon, it fell in pieces, so we headed out to buy a new one, thinking that we could find one easily at Radio Shack. Think again! We went to Radio Shack, Home Depot, Advance Auto, O'Reilly's Auto, Mission Feed and Hardware, and Mission Hardware before giving up and coming home. I sat down with the parts and the clicker seems to work, so we'll reinstall it and see what happens.

Tonight we went through photos again. We're back through August, 2009, so we have quite a project ahead of us. We watched a Nature program on the Namibian lions, who manage to survive in the desert.
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Happy Birthday, Sam!

Sam is three years old today. He tells me he rode a train and saw the conductor. The train, a real steam powered one, is called the North Pole Express and travels only 1 1/2 miles out before reversing to return to the starting point. Cate was unhappy that they had not actually arrived at the North Pole, but Ed told her that the North Pole had come to them: Santa visited all the children on the train.

This morning we looked up at 10 a.m. and realized we were hungry. We had spent the last two hours in bed--playing with our Droids. We used to spend Sunday mornings in bed with the LA Times. I installed Andoku Sudoku on my Droid, a free sudoku program. I may never do another pencil and paper sudoku again--no erasing required!

We had French toast with maple syrup for brunch. The maple syrup came from Vermont, from the Ben and Jerry's Factory, and we are really enjoying it. Afterward I went for a walk, with my Droid to listen to Prairie Home Companion on the radio and my Garmin to keep track of my speed and distance--a real wired walker.

Ken took our squeaky faucets apart and applied vaseline as the service manager at Mays RV had suggested, so now we can turn on the water without waking everyone in the house.

We have our TIVO set to record anything with Helen Mirren in it. Much of what it records is either not interesting to us or video of the TIVO saying it's searching for a satellite, since we don't subscribe to the channel or the Qube isn't set up. Today we watched a recording of Door to Door, a 2002 TNT movie, based on the true story of Bill Porter, who succeeded as a door to door salesman for Watkins despite having cerebral palsy. Helen Mirren played his mother, who encouraged him to believe he could make it. The movie was very engaging and touching. You can check out the story at www.billporter.com.

Later we played four rounds of Master Boggle. Ken won all four, two by just one point but the other two by quite a bit. We'll have to have a rematch soon so I can repair my tattered reputation as wordmeister!
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Quiet Day

We slept in this morning and had sausage and egg breakfast burritos for brunch. Then we went to the store and picked up more presents for the kids in the Christmas adopted family. We got some little books and some View-Master reels to go with the View-Master we bought earlier and dropped them by the office.

Our truck was filthy again, so we hosed and brushed it. Then we did our laundry and went through more photos.

Ken is watching the Bourne Supremacy. This series reminds me a bit of James Bond, but with the twist of amnesia. Lots of noise, people killed, superhuman skills and nasty bad guys.
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Dancing Friends, Card Playing Friends

This morning we danced at Darryl Lipscomb's A-2 Concept Dance, always one of our favorite dances. There were fifteen squares, but we know that after the first of the year, many more dancers will crowd the floor. We danced the final tip with Dick and Mary Ann Drake, Bob and Pat Boyink, and a couple we had not met before, Norm and Arlyn Lindskog. We had a great tip, and afterward we talked with Norm and Arlyn, friends of the Drakes and also from Indiana. We talked some about Southern California, since they think they might be interested in relocating there. They are round dancers, and Norm plays bridge, so they were uncertain about whether they would dance Tuesday mornings with Joe Saltel, despite the fact that they live at Tropic Star, where Joe calls. We're hoping to see more of them.

Tonight we went over to Jim and Jane Booth's to play cards. Bob and Doris were also there, and we played a version of Golf that was new to us. Ken as usual led in the early rounds, but Jim won the game. Next we played Three Thirteen, a card game that I've played before under a different name. This time Jane won. We teased the hosts that they had won both games. Jane had prepared a large platter of fresh fruit, including strawberries, pineapple, large grapes, and papaya.

We spent some more time going through our photos. After even a few months, it's sometimes difficult for us to figure out where photos were taken without consulting our blog.
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Festival of Lights

We returned to Hidalgo for the annual Festival of Lights tonight, with Gary and Mary Ann. This time we had tickets for the dinner, and we were hoping for some Mexican delicacy, but the dinner turned out to be roast beef in gravy with mashed potatoes, corn, and green beans, and what we assumed was once a roll (but which had been flattened), and a cookie, with choice of coffee and sweet tea. We appreciated the hot coffee, since it turned out that the dinner was held outside, and the weather was damp and chilly.

Lee, Mary Ann, and Gary wait for dinner

Lots of lights

After dinner a smooth voiced singer entertained us with songs from the Sinatra canon. He was followed by the Estudiantina Guadalupana Potosi, a Mexican male choral group with members ranging from small boys to the leader, the gray haired accordian player and leader of the group. Then we headed to the trolley for a tour of the lights, an impressive display that grows each year.

Group leader plays a mean accordian

One of the boys singing his heart out. They all dressed in the fancy costumes

This morning we did some shopping for the kids in one of the families adopted by the park for Christmas. We wanted to avoid toys with lots of small parts and ones that require batteries, and of course we had a budget. That made it really tough to find gifts. We ended up with a couple of soccer balls, a Nerf football, and a View-Master, along with some toothbrushes and toothpaste. We'll donate some cash too. We figure the park manager and the families will have a better idea what they can use.

We enjoyed dancing to Jerry Story again this afternoon. Jim and Jane brought their photos and postcards from the Central America cruise. One photo was of Jane swooping along a zipline having a blast. They told us they had booked the cruise for a song on Vacationstogo.com, which advertizes last minute deals. Of course they had to drive to New Orleans to catch the ship.
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Another Quick Bike Ride

We took a spin on our bikes this afternoon, heading over to the other Bentsen Palm developments: Retama Village and Tanglewood. Neither one has changed much since we left last February, so we infer that the economic downturn has led to a downturn in sales.

I fixed a pineapple cake for the Margarita Hour. At least it started as a cake recipe and used a cake mix, but it ended up rather more like a pineapple crisp, so that's what I labeled it. Everyone seemed to enjoy it. We sat with Gary and Mary Ann and with the Idaho couple, Paul and Karen. They had been birding at the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge.

We played three rounds of Rummikub. I won two, but all were extremely close.
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Fore!

We danced to Joe Saltel this morning and saw more of our friends from last year. Hardy and Judy and Jim and Jane regaled us with tales of their cruise to Central America. We danced the hot hash with Dick and MaryAnn, Bob and Doris, and another couple--very exhilarating!

We played cards with Gary and Mary Ann tonight, a game called "Golf" or "Play Nine." Ken was way ahead for the first eight "holes," but a strong finish gave the game to me. We ate some of the Marks Family Christmas cookies, and I realized that when we baked them, I ate only part of one broken one. They were really good.

We made our first foray into the park on our bikes, just a quick ride around the loop and back. We realized that I had forgotten the binoculars and we were uncertain of the names of some of the birds. Next time we'll be back in the swing of things. We did notice that more of the ebony trees in the famous grove had died, presumably from lack of water since the dam upriver has eliminated the seasonal flooding that used to water them.
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Exercise!

I started out this morning with aerobic exercises for 45 minutes at the clubhouse. They're using a video series called Walk Away the Pounds with Leslie Sansone, and the room was full. There were even three or four men among all the women. My muscles all said, "Exercise? What's this???" I'm sure it will get easier . . .


The weather has definitely warmed up, but the yellow flowering bushes that we were so glad to see in the flower bed by our site are half-dead because of the frost a couple of nights ago. Some of the lower branches still have green leaves and flowers, and we're hoping some of the upper part will revive, but so far they look pretty dead.

After lunch we went out to the post office to mail a Christmas package and the grocery store for milk. We stopped at Foy's Supermarket, a local store that caters to the Hispanic population and often has good deals on produce. I got ten pounds of oranges for $3.99.

We biked over to the Bentsen Rio Grande Valley State Park, which is also the World Birding Center Headquarters, where we saw some of the familiar birds from our last visit here, like the Great Kiskadee. Entry to the park is included with our site rental, but we have to stop by Guest Services and pick up a pass and then go to the Visitor Center to get wristbands. That's a new program this year, so the park will have a better count on visitors.

Tomorrow we'll dance in the morning to Joe Saltel. We're looking forward to seeing our friends Hardy and Judy, who have been on a cruise to Central America, as well as some of our other dancing friends.
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Tired Tonight

We are tired this evening, but have the satisfaction of accomplishing some chores today. We did our laundry, and Ken dumped the tanks. The big job was cleaning the truck. We had made the mistake of driving on an unpaved section of Military Highway, which was very wet from the recent rain, so the truck was covered with muddy sand. Yuck! We still want to wax it, but at least we are not ashamed to have the truck parked by Venture!

We decorated for Christmas, but I can't say that was a big project. We got out our little Chrismas tree and arranged the branches. Ken plugged in our string of red lights and replaced one burned out bulb. I "planted" our newest decoration, a silk pointsettia branch that we got when we went to Garden Ridge with Ed and Julie, in our collapsible WonderVase, using lentils as a planting medium for weight. We have to be creative to keep Venture in traveling trim.





We've been listening to NPR on A Online Radio and wishing it were more reliable. It has a tendency to just quit after a while, but it's wonderful to have a choice of stations and not have to fire up the laptop....
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Dias Festivos

Mary Ann stopped by this morning to invite us to join them in visiting a crafts/gifts fair at the McAllen Convention Center. The fair, called Dias Festivos, is sponsored by the Junior League of McAllen to benefit the children of the community. The hall was a-bustle with shoppers in the holiday spirit, with Christmas music playing and Santa waiting for children to come talk with him.

The various booths featured an eclectic mix of jewelry, clothing, gift items, art pieces, and food, with a Tupperware booth and a Cutco knife booth thrown in for good measure. Lots of bling! We saw some very nice hand-carved and hand-painted santas. A small one ran $185, so we passed them up. Having a small living space makes it easier for us to window shop without buying anything.

Mary Ann checks out some clever purses with interchangeable covers.

One unique item was a painting called "Grand Ol Gang," featuring a group of jovial men sitting around a poker table. Only after looking at it for a moment did you start to notice the familiar faces. All the men were presidents, from Abraham Lincoln to George Bush II. As the booth owner pointed out, all were Republican presidents.



However, a quick search reveals that the artist, Andy Thomas, also painted a Democratic version called "True Blues."


Mary Ann tried to buy a pair of kitchen towels for their daughters, but the booth had only one available. The towel's message read, "There are two choices for dinner....take it or leave it!"

We took yet another coffeemaker back to the store, this time because the finish was already wearing off in a splotchy way after a couple of days. We found a programmable Mr. Coffee that looked reasonable at Target, so we bought it. Now we'll see how well it works.

Tonight we spent some time again sorting through our pictures. We're in September,and we are already finding that we're not sure which waterfall we're looking at...
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Doctor Visit

This morning we got up early to be on the road by around 7:30 for the trip to Harlingen for Ken's visit with Dr. Eric Six, a neurosurgeon who specializes in spinal surgery. It was a cold, windy, rainy day for a trip, but we arrived in plenty of time to fill out paperwork before seeing the doctor.

We were both impressed with Dr. Six. He was friendly and direct and communicated well. He laid out Ken's situation and the "menu" of possible things to do, ranging from sticking with pain pills and activity restriction to fusion surgery. His recommendation was spinal decompression for sure, and additionally dynamic stabilization using the Dynesys system.

His explanations made sense, and we liked the fact that he's been doing back surgeries for 30 years and has performed 200 of the Dynesys procedures. Ken decided to schedule surgery, and a date was set for January 6. We'll go back January 4 for another consultation.

On the way home we stopped at Dodge Arena in Hidalgo to purchase tickets for the Hidalgo Festival of Lights dinner, concert, and trolley ride for us and the Ericksons. It's a real steal for $8 per person. We went to the festival and concert last year and realy enjoyed it.

When we got back to the park we stopped by to see Gary and Mary Ann and swap stories about back issues and surgeries. Gary has had some laminectomies, which offered some relief, but still has problems.

Today is Ken's sister Romaine's birthday. He called to talk with her and get an update on her progress since her hip replacement surgery last month. She seems to be doing well in her recovery. Rebecca called to thank Ken for the cookies and they talked about the possibility of getting together at Yellowstone next summer.

We are trying not to spend too much time sitting at the computer. Dr. Six said the worst thing for Ken's condition is to sit or stand for too long, so we are trying to get up and move around regularly. We played a game of Rummikub, which Ken won, so I'll be looking for a rematch tomorrow.
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Dancing with Jerry Story

I started out our time in the Valley by going for a walk this morning, twice around the park, which is almost two miles. It was a bit brisk, but I enjoyed seeing all the rigs and just touching base with the place again. I also took my earphones and listened to Morning Edition on OPB (Portland's NPR station) while I walked, using the A Online Radio app on my Droid. It may be a few days before I have a chance to walk again. Tomorrow we'll leave early to drive to Harlingen for Ken's appointment with Dr. Six about his back, and the weather forecast looks rather dismal the next few days.

After breakfast, Ken looked out our back window and spotted a lovely little bird sitting on the fence. It had a bright red head and rosy chest with brown back and wings. As usual, I couldn't find it in my bird book, but even unidentified, it was exciting to see.

This afternoon we went to the Peppermint Palace (nickname of the dance hall at the El Valle del Sol RV Resort--so called because it is painted with red and white stripes. That's where Jerry Story calls during the winter season. On Thursday afternoons at 2 p.m., he has an A-2 all hash dance that we enjoy. We had some mild trepidation, since we haven't danced in nearly nine months, but except for the usual expected glitches, we did fine. Jerry is such an exuberant caller that everyone smiles, even when we're messing up. His choreography is always fresh and surprising.

The nicest part is that we are returning dancers this year, unlike last year when we were newbies. We got to reconnect with several of our old friends. Bob and Doris Reece greeted us like long-lost friends--which is how we feel about them too. Bob and Pat Boyink have just recently returned to the Valley too, and they told us about some of their adventures in Utah this summer, when they tried out fulltiming for three months. They were glad to get back to their house here.

Ken hooked up the local cable this evening, so now we have both local programming and our DirecTV. He also put our our rope lights. We're looking forward to spending some time in one location for a while, so we're trying to set everything up to suit us. The next day without rain I'll put our PVC clothes drying rack out on our rear ladder.
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Back in Mission

Today we made the final leg of our trip to the Rio Grande Valley, where we are staying at Bentsen Palm Village RV Resort in Mission, TX. We stayed here last year from November through the first part of February. This year we are also spending three months, December through the end of February, so we'll celebrate our second anniversary on the road here.

As we traveled south of Hwy 281, we started seeing familiar sights. When we arrived at the park, it felt like coming home. We were hoping to have a site in the 500 circle with our friends, Gary and Mary Ann, but were told there's nothing available there, so we're back in 244. It's an okay site, but not as good as being in a circle site, which are larger, and not as much fun as being near our friends. Site 244 is difficult to back into, and it took us a couple of tries before we got positioned the way we wanted.

Speaking of friends, Gary and Mary Ann showed up to welcome us as soon as we had Venture in position. We got some hugs and an invitation to go to the Wednesday night margarita hour with them. Mary Ann said she'd bring enough goodies for us all--she brought a large tray of chips yummy and homemade bean and corn dip. We sat together with their new neighbors, Paul and Karen from Idaho, and their old neighbors, Jim and Pat. We saw a lot of familiar faces in the packed clubhouse.

Afterward we came back home to relax after the travel and excitement. Tomorrow we'll go to our first square dance since last March--woohoo!

Terri called to thank us for the cookies and to say they enjoyed the surprising anise flavor. An hour later she called to thank us for the enclosed note and gifts--which they had almost burned up in their fireplace along with the tissue paper packed around the cookies. Later Chris and Annie called wondering why we had sent them cookies.... They also had not found the envelope. They both enjoyed the anise flavoring too (they don't like mint, so their toothpaste is anise flavored).

Ken called both Jeff and Rebecca and left messages alerting them to look for the envelope in the cookie box. We'd hate to see our Christmas gifts tossed out!
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Three Rivers

This morning as we were getting ready to break camp, we had some visitors. They seemed to be wandering around freely, but look rather domesticated. We're not sure what kind of birds they are, except rather funny looking. [edit: apparently they are guineafowl, strange looking poultry imported from Africa.]


We drove through rain and overcast most of the way to Three Rivers, southwest of San Antonio. When we arrived at Tips Park, the host told us that the park was undergoing some repairs and many of the sites were extremely muddy. She gave us the driest site they had. We had read about the campground on the web, so we weren't surprised to find that it is practically next door to a large petroleum refinery. In fact, it made me feel rather at home, except that the Valero Three Rivers Refinery is very much large than Paramount Petroleum where I used to work.





We spotted a some Excels today. One was on an RV dealer lot, and one was in the Tips Park Campground. The most exciting one passed us on the highway: an Excel towed by a Freightliner with a Smart Car behind the cab.

We got some very sad news today. Mike Jacobs, a favorite square dance caller, died very suddenly as he was flying to call at a dance weekend in Oxnard last Friday. He will be sadly missed by many friends and dancers who loved him.
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Happy Birthday, Julie!

Today was Julie's birthday--we've been celebrating her "almost birthday" the last few days. When I called to wish her a happy birthday, she said she planned to enjoy her special day by getting lots of rest. With a five-year-old and an almost three-year-old, that's a real challenge--but the kids did go to school today.

We started our journey south this morning. Our first destination after we pulled out of our site and dumped was the Lewisville main post office, where we mailed our cookie packages. Then we got on Hwy 35 south and drove for 180 miles before we turned off the highway. We did stop at a picnic area just north of Waco for a quick lunch of turkey salad sandwiches. We ate in Venture because it was too chilly to be comfortable outside.

We pulled into our campground, Berry Springs RV in Georgetown (just north of Austin)around 3 p.m. The host was friendly and cheerful as he directed us to our long level pull-through and gave us the code for the free wi-fi.


You can see that our bicycle cover held up well today with the new center strap. It was great to have a chance to do some sewing using Julie's machine. Ken got a shot of my new canvas shoe pockets. The bed is raised to show them off, but when it's closed, the bedskirt hides this nifty organizer.



This evening we spent some time again going through some of our photos, choosing which to keep and which to discard. That gives us an opportunity to remember some of our adventures.
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Last Day

We went over to Ed and Julie's home for one last visit today. We packed up the cookies to take to the post office on our way out of town in the morning. Julie was doing a massage, and when she returned, we all went to Costco and then to a Garden Ridge store. Ed described the store as having a very large selection of Christmas decor. It was quite an impressive display, and they were having a sale on artificial Christmas trees. Ed and Julie picked out a large one.


We checked out and rolled the shopping cart with the tree out to the Town and Country. It soon became clear that there was no way that tree was going in the minivan with the six of us. I ended up getting an opportunity to shop for 45 minutes while babysitting the tree. Ed and Ken came back with the truck, which worked out much better, especially since the rain held off.

Ed and Cate and Sam and I played the Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed game, which the kids enjoyed, especially when the bed popped up, knocking the monkeys to the floor. However, the game seems poorly designed for young children, since it's difficult to place the monkeys on the bed without knocking down the other monkeys.

The kids were exciting about decorating. Ed put up a small tree in Cate's room. When we left, he was putting the new tree together, with a little help from Cate and Sam.



Julie made some yummy shepherds pie with some of the Thanksgiving leftovers.
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Christmas in November

We decided to share our Christmas gifts a bit early with Cate and Sam and Ed and Julie, so that we could have the fun of watching them open their presents.

Ed and Julie with their newest nutcracker

Today was also the day to bake the second batch Marks Family Anise Christmas Cut-Out Cookies. This time the process went more smoothly, and Ken even began to enjoy himself a bit. Once the cookies were baked, the next step was to decorate them with colored confectioners sugar icing. We were very glad when Kelley came over to visit--her creativity was a welcome addition to the project. Ed went shopping for cookie sprinkles and decor to embellish the designs. Cate enjoyed helping to place the sprinkles and snowflakes. Ed and I even got into the act. It was easy to tell which cookies Kelley decorated, they were so cute and artistic.



Kelley had a small sewing project. She wanted to take in her bikini bottoms, since they were too large in the waist. The result was quite professional looking.

Kelley's friend, Tim Jackson, had put his Facebook page back up, so she showed Ed and me some pics. He's cute and clearly has a goofy frat boy side, but she says he has a more serious side too. He likes to cook.
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Black Friday

One of the best things about the Friday after Thanksgiving is that no one has to cook. There are always plenty of leftovers, and no pots and pans. One of the less appealing things is shopping amidst the crowds of bargain hunters on Black Friday, but because we needed an extension cord for the electric blanket, we stopped at Walmart. Christmas decorations and Christmas shoppers surrounded us as we walked past the toy department, and before we knew it, we were looking for Christmas presents for Cate and Sam.

Ken took the chilled dough for the Marks Family Cookies from the fridge and got ready to bake the first batch. Soon the kitchen was filled with powdered sugar and the smell of anise. Ken found dealing with the dough and cookie cutters rather frustrating--there was a definite learning curve. He mixed up a second batch of dough, and this batch went into the freezer, since it was clear that the dough was easier to manage if it was very well chilled.

We spent most of the day just hanging out at Ed and Julie's, enjoying the chance to visit and see the kids.
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Happy Thanksgiving

Today we had a laid back Thanksgiving. On our way over to Ed's we stopped at Sprouts to pick up the free range turkey we had ordered. We made some stuffing and put the turkey in the roaster around 11.

Kelley came over, bringing Cate who had a sleepover with her last night and some cookies they had made. Of course the TV was on for the Macy's parade and the football games. Ed and I took the kids to the playground to run off some energy. Kelley had to go to Arlington to her Nana's for dinner. Tonight she is working all night at American Eagle, which is opening at midnight for Black Friday.

Swinging high!

Super Cate!

Ed added some mandarin oranges to some cranberry relish he bought, making an interesting concoction. We made sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, orange glazed carrots, pea salad, and gravy to go with the rolls and butter and pumpkin pie and caramel apple pie and ice cream with whipped cream. We sat down to eat a bit after 3 and shortly polished our plates, and then cleaned up. There was actually enough room in the fridge for the leftovers.

Ed is the official turkey carver

My niece Stephanie called to wish us a happy Thanksgiving. Since this would be a first, I suspected some additional motivation for the call. Sure enough, Stephanie and Todd are officially expecting, probably in late July. Everyone is delighted.

Watching a Charley Brown Thanksgiving.

Tired and happy dogs

Everything seems like a traditional Thanksgiving, except of course that I miss my mom. Yesterday would have been her 83rd birthday.
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Pottery Anniversary

Today was Ed and Julie's ninth anniversary, which Geni announces is the "pottery anniversary."

Ed's fancy new shirt

Cate and Sam watch while Ed tries to guess

Ed wickedly put this present in the living room days ago to tantalize Julie

It's a rooster!

Kelley came over to visit and to pick up Cate for a promised sleepover. It's been quite a while since we last saw Kelley, so it was great to get to give her a hug. She's taking time out from her busy school, work, and social schedule to visit family for Thanksgiving.

After Kelley and Cate left, Sam stayed with Ken and me while his parents headed out for an anniversary dinner at Loft 610. They promised him a surprise when they got back. Actually they brought all of us special desserts from the restaurant, including bacon peanut brittle (odd, but better than it sounds), layered chocolate mousse cake, gingerbread with candied orange peel, and pumpkin cake--all delicious.

Chinese Checkers--Sam calls them "tiny checkers." He's dropping marbles down his marble maze.

Cate with her big cousin Kelley

We bought ingredients at the store for the cookies, and Ken mixed up the first batch of dough. It has to chill before being rolled out, so he put it in the fridge with the plan to make the cookies tomorrow evening.

Before we left for the night, I mentioned to Ed that we would pick up the turkey early on our way over in the morning and that we would need to get to work right away to prepare dinner. He pointed out that we don't actually have a schedule--it's just us, so the plan now is that we'll show up when we show up--and eat when the turkey is ready. Sounds like a much more laid back Thanksgiving than many.
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