Last Day

Today is our last day in the Valley, so we made some progress on getting ready to move. One project was cleaning up our bikes, putting them up on the rack, and getting the bike cover on. Another was checking the air in the truck tires. Ken showed me how to do it. The front tires are just ordinary, but the rear tires are duallys, and it takes some extra gymnastics to get at the valves, especially for the inside duallys.

We also worked on our entertainment center speaker wires. The speakers have been acting up. We removed and reattached some of the wires, and now it seems to be working fine, so we screwed down the tie-down strap, ready to move. We are definitely in the market for a replacement for the Curtis receiver.

We did some trip planning and made some phone calls. It took several tries before I reached Tips Park, our destination tomorrow night. I also had to make a few calls to reach the City of Warsaw to inquire about reservations for their Riverfront Park. The lady I spoke with said that they don't accept reservations, so it's first come, plus since it's on the river, there's always the possibility of flooding. We agreed to call back the week before our planned arrival to check on this.

We made our goodbyes with our friends in the park, everyone wishing everyone safe travels for the summer. It's definitely time to head north. The weather here is getting hotter, with many days in the 90s, and that trend will only continue.

Tonight we went to our final dance of the season, called by Darryl Lipscomb. The group is down from 10 squares at its peak to just four squares last night. We had fun dancing with friends and chatting about everyone's summer plans. After the dance, some of the group went to the DQ, so we got our last chance to visit with Hardy and Judy, Steve and Jan, Bob and Marilyn, and Hal and Dorothy. We parted with hugs and promises to keep up via Facebook and our blogs. Some of the folks we'll see in June at AACE.
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Roof Cleaning

Today was overcast and relatively cool, so it made a good day to get some chores done to get ready to move Friday. We took up our patio mat and hosed it down. It cleaned up well, but we had to hold it up off the ground to avoid getting more mud on it as we worked.

Next I cleaned the roof and Ken cleaned the truck. Everything around here seems to get dirty quickly. We sure did! By the time we were done, both of us had to clean the mud off our shoes and put our wet muddy clothing in a laundry basket to take over to the laundry room later.

After lunch we sprayed silicone on our slide rams. Then we cleaned the tire covers and put them up. Finally we put air in all the trailer tires. They were all down 5-7 lbs. from the 80 lbs. we keep them at.

We also had to reattach the large valance over our picture window, which just suddenly dropped from the ceiling this morning. This is the second valance that has fallen, both in the same slideout, apparently because no anchors were used to hold the screws.

We put the load of laundry in the washer to wash while we took our afternoon walk. Then we put the clothes in the dryer and headed to the spa and showers, except that Ken had to stay out of the spa, poor guy, because he had scraped his shin open sliding as he went down the wet slippery ladder after climbing up to see the roof.
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Home Again

Did I mention how much I hate air travel? and traffic congestion? Today was a double whammy. First Terri and I got stuck in a massive traffic slowdown on the George Washington Parkway on the way to Reagan National. It was beginning to look like I was going to miss my flight. I felt bad that Terri had to go through the stress and hassle of driving in that congestion too. The traffic finally opened up a bit, and we made it in time. I had planned to arrive at 10:30 a.m. for my 11:45 flight (75 minutes before, just as the Delta site suggested). I ended up getting there after 11:00, but the security lines were short, and I made it to the gate with no problem.

However, my online itinerary said that a change had made it likely that I would miss my connection in Memphis! I had only 32 minutes to make the flight from Memphis to McAllen to start with. The flight from DCA arrived a bit late, and I sprinted from Gate B33 to Gate B5, only to find that my flight was delayed for airplane maintenance. At least I had made the connection, and it turned out that the flight was delayed only about half an hour. The bottom line was that I made it home safely, in one piece. I was very glad to see Ken at the end of my long stressful trip.
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Thrift Adventures

This morning Terri and I set out to visit the Unique Thrift Shop. It offers a 25% discount across the board on Mondays. I found several things I liked, but most didn't fit, darn it! Still, I had fun looking, and Terri found several tops she liked.

Molly got her hair cut today. She's had it long for some time, so the short locks are cute and different, but she's not entirely sure she likes the cut. We'll see.

This evening we went to Ledo Pizza for dinner. Blake and I shared a buffalo chicken pizza (definitely different, but good). Molly stuck with the actual buffalo chicken wings. They seemed unusual, since they were just fried chicken served with blue cheese, celery, and hot sauce, but Molly seemed to like them.

We talked about their plans (hopes) for being stationed in Singapore next year. There a special rules for American military living there. For example, they can't bring a car. You have to have a special permit to even buy a car in Singapore, but they'll inherit the embassy permit that is being used by the family they'll be replacing in the post. They'll probably buy that family's car too.

Molly made banana bread, using Kelley's special moist recipe, so we had a yummy snack while watching Dancing with the Stars! Blake built another fire, and I had a final toasted marshmallow before heading for bed.
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Cooking and Baking

Terri made Mt. Ranier White Chicken Chili for dinner today. It was a special request from me. She makes the *best* chicken chili ever.

Terri and Molly went with me on my afternoon walk today. Molly is young, fast, and adventurous, so it's exciting to walk with her.

Tonight we watched The Santa Clause! Guess we were celebrating Christmas in March. It reminded me of Miracle on 34th Street--but I like the original much better. Blake built a fire in the fireplace and we had s'mores and stayed cozy warm.
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Cherry Blossom Festival

Today was the opening day of the 2011 National Cherry Blossom Festival, celebrating "spring in Washington, DC, the gift of the cherry blossom trees and the enduring friendship between the people of the United States and Japan." The weather didn't exactly cooperate with the "spring" part. It was quite cold, but the sun was shining and the trees were spectacular. Peak bloom is expected next week, but the blossoms were enough to dazzle my eyes even a few days early.

 Terri with spectacular cherry blossoms in front of the Washington Monument

We had been thinking of attending the opening ceremonies, but decided to walk around the Tidal Basin and just admire the blooms instead. An unexpected experience was a tour of the FDR memorial, which is located along the cherry tree walk. It was dedicated in 1997 and memorializes FDR's four terms as president and the historic events through which he guided his country. A man who was taking photographs at the memorial commented that FDR was responsible for the rise of the middle class in America--and that many of the advances he fought for were in jeopardy now.

 Terri and Blake by the Tidal Basin

 Blake, Molly, and Terri on the steps of the Jefferson Memorial

Molly snapping away--she must have taken hundreds of photos.

As we were walking toward the Washington Monument at the end of our stroll around the Tidal Basin, Shirley called to say that my cousins were sitting on the wall by the Pink Stage near the monument. We walked over to join them. It was a happy coincidence that I happened to be in DC the same weekend that Beth and Shirley and Marissa were visiting Hazel's daughter Mary and the the twins, Sean and Claire. We took advantage of the festival to meet up and had planned to eat dinner together, but ended up having coffee and snacks at a museum cafe. It gave us all a chance to visit, and the kids got to go look at dinosaur bones. By that time I was tuckered out and it was getting colder with nightfall approaching, so we said goodbye and headed home.

Beth, Mary, and Shirley at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum Cafe

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Lemoncello

Today was a pretty quiet day. I went for a walk this morning and found myself freezing. It turned out that it was 35 degrees, and according to Weather.com, "feels like 29"--brrr! Afterward Terri and I went shopping. We stopped at Target, where Terri picked up a few things. I got a digital probe oven thermometer like one that Terri has. Hers worked really well on the chicken we baked yesterday.

Then we stopped at a couple of grocery stores. One had the La Brea Bakery bread that Ken and I like, although not the specific kind we usually get. We also stopped at the Hudson Trail Outfitters, where I finally found a pair of hiking pants I've been looking for for two years.

Tonight we went to Lemoncello for dinner. I had gotten Terri a gift certificate there for her birthday, and somehow it just hadn't worked out for her to redeem it. The food was delicious, especially the tiramisu. Molly and I shared a linguine with pesto and chicken that was also very tasty.
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Bethesda

I woke up this morning in Bethesda, on EDT--at least, that's what my Droid said. My brain is still on Central time and not quite sure what happened to that hour that disappeared, just when I had managed to adapt to Daylight Saving Time. Also, I've moved from summer to winter, or at least very early spring. Fortunately, Terri had a nice down vest she was donating to Goodwill, so I'm using that under my jacket. It helps a lot!

I didn't see Molly until this afternoon, because she of course was up and off to school before I opened my eyes this morning. It was so nice to see her again. She's so full of life, thoughtful, and talkative. She brightens the day.

Terri and Molly and I watched an episode of Alton Brown's Good Eats devoted to Eggs Benedict. They are anxious to try it out--even making the English muffins from scratch. Molly likes to bake bread type things. I was very impressed by the technique for poaching the eggs and holding them ready. I've never had much luck poaching eggs in water (as opposed to in an egg poacher).

I took my usual walks around the neighborhood today. For my first walk I was alone and glad to have my GPS to guide me. Terri and Molly walked with me this evening. I was struck by the hills, since I've been in flat country for some time now. They pointed out their favorite houses. We saw lots of flowering trees and forsythia in bloom and talked with dog owners out walking their dogs. One was a poodle mix from a dog rescue outfit in DC, really cute and friendly. Molly and Kelley would love to have a dog, but since they're renting, they're not allowed to have pets. Molly suggested they could take their goldfish for a walk.
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I Hate Flying!

Today was an ordinary getting ready to fly day--hurry, hurry...wait. I ran around getting things ready to go, ate lunch like a starving orphan, and headed to the airport, kissed Ken goodbye, and then found out that my flight was delayed. The friendly airline employees assured me that I could still make my connection in Memphis if I ran to the gate. I made my way through security (shoes off, and my first full body scanner), but after waiting at the gate for a while, I got up to check on my flight.

Now it was delayed an hour, and that's exactly how long my layover in Memphis was supposed to be. Oh oh. I headed back to the Delta ticket counter and asked what now. A friendly employee rebooked me on American, but now I was scheduled to land at Reagan at 1:10 a.m., hardly an hour that Terri would want to be out and about. But of course she agreed to pick me up. Aren't cell phones great? I called Ken and commiserated with him for a while.

It was in the 80s with the sun shining when I left Mission. DC is reverting to winter weather, but the important thing is arriving safely and seeing the people I love.
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Goodbyes

More goodbyes today. We stopped over at Circle T to have coffee with Vern and Mary and wish them safe travels for the summer. They think they'll be back next season, but their plans are pretty fluid.

After a quick stop at Subway for lunch, we headed to Pharr South for our final Randy dance. It was down to three squares exactly. He worked on the right hand rule for wheel and deal and cycle and wheel and called some combinations we hadn't heard before, like square chain thru the axle and square chain the top the axle. He talked some about the similarities and difference between the all four couple concept and the all eight concept. The bottom line is that different callers have different interpretations of some of these things, and as always, it's the dancers' job to do what the caller wants.

I wore the t-shirt that Judy had showed us how to weave and got some positive comments.

This evening was the farewell owners' appreciation dinner at our park, so free food, no cooking, and no dishes--always a winning combination. We met some couples at our table who have seen us out walking. They commented that we walked by so fast they barely had time to wave.
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Dancing with Darryl

We were very glad to be getting out of the park this afternoon to dance. The heavy equipment is hard at work--and generating lots of diesel fumes (yuk!).

We had five squares at Darryl's today. The numbers are down partly because people have begun leaving, but today there was another reason: the 35th annual Dia Del Turista (Tourist Day) in Nuevo Progreso, Mexico. Lots of people, including Hardy and Judy and Jan and Steve, went today to enjoy the festivities. We went last year, but decided to give it a pass this year.

Darryl played around with blocks and with chair reaction variations. Both of these are difficult, so it was good to get some practice. We did vertical half tags in blocks, something we've never seen before. We chatted some with Rodney and Mary and found that they attended AACE last year and plan to attend this year. Rodney warned us that the halls get very warm, but the callers are great.
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Another Quiet Sunday

Not much happening here. We stayed home today, took our usual walks, chatted with friends in the hot tub . . . . We also did a bit of trip planning.

To take a break, we watched an episode of Masterpiece Mystery featuring Sherlock Holmes. Still the dazzling interpreter of even the tiniest clues, this Sherlock lives in London in 2010 and has a cell phone. It was an intriguing, fast paced experience. We're looking forward to the other two episodes.

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Farewell Parties

The end of the season is rapidly approaching, so it's time for farewell parties. For lunch we attended a Farewell Barbecue--brats and chips and friends at our park.

In the evening Steve and Jan hosted a reprise of their great fish fry. As before, Hardy and Judy and John and Sandy were there, but we sure missed Kelly and Shonas. The fish Steve caught and cooked on the grill were delicious.

We all enjoyed chatting and solving the world's problems.

After dinner, Judy showed Jan and Sandy and me how to do t-shirt weaving. It's a craft that even non-crafters can do--quick and doesn't take too much artistic ability to follow the directions! Judy was a big help, since she had made one before.

Today was also special because it features a "supermoon," which occurs when the moon is very close to earth and full at the same time. We didn't get any good pictures, so I'll repost one I found on the web, of the perigee moon rising over Manhattan. Our view wasn't quite so spectacular, but still impressive, and it's exciting to see an event that happens so rarely. The last time that the moon's orbit brought it so close at nearly exactly full moon was 18 years ago.

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More Work

We didn't have enough fun washing our rig yesterday, so we spent some more time on it today. I climbed up on the roof and hosed it off. This is not my favorite job. The rubber roof gets really slippery when it's wet. Plus it's been windy (nothing new around here). I'll have to go back up another time to finish the job. At least we did get the outsides rinsed and wiped, and Ken cleaned the windows.

While I was up on the roof, the construction workers decided to idle a large piece of equipment about 50 feet away, leaving me awash in diesel fumes. Camping in the middle of a construction site definitely has some downsides.

But it's not all work and no play. After a late lunch and a brief nap for me, we went to the hot tub and soaked for a bit. Then we lay out (in the shade) and read for a while by the pool. The high today was 90. The only thing that helped was the wind.
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Work Day

We managed to accomplish a few things today. First, we got our laundry done for the week.

Then we tackled an experiment we've been thinking about for a while. When our gray tank filled up, we always used to find out because water backed up in the shower. Recently that hasn't been happening. Instead, the kitchen sink starts draining slowly and gurgling. Also, we've been thinking that the gray tank has been filling up much faster than it used to.

So we decided to drain the tank and then refill it, gallon at a time, to see if the capacity matched the 55 gallons in the specs. After about 52 gallons, we noticed that the water was draining very slowly. In the end, about 54 gallons fit in the tank. So we're reassured that everything is working fine, except that at the end some crud was floating up from the drains. Tonight we're going to put some enzyme drain cleaner in all the drains (it has to sit overnight to work).

Next, Ken drained the hot water tank, a task we have to do every six months to keep deposits from clogging it up. While he was doing that, I cleaned the truck and the trailer end cap. Then I hosed and brushed part of one side of the rig before I ran out of energy. Tomorrow we'll tackle more of the rig cleaning.
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Last Dance

Today turned out to be the last time we'll dance at our two Wednesday dances. I'll be out of town next Wednesday, visiting in Bethesda, and both Jerry and Joe announced that they'll have only one more Wednesday dance this season. I said goodbye to Jerry and Kristy, and they said they'd see us in Detroit at Nationals.

We will dance to Joe one last time on Thursday morning, March 31, the day before we leave the Valley. He'll be calling at Nationals too. We are really lucky to have great callers, lots of dancing opportunities, and great dancing friends here.
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Potluck

Food is always good, and for some reason, food that someone else has cooked is usually even better. (Maybe that's because someone else has done the cleanup part!) I almost always enjoy potlucks. They remind me of fourth of July family reunions. Today we went to a potluck with lots of good food and good company, planned by our Escapees group. We rode with Bruce and Mary Sue, so we had a chance to get to know them better, too.
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Happy Pi Day!

March 14 is celebrated annually as "Pi Day." That's because Pi is approximately 3.14 (3/14, get it?). And just for fun, many people celebrate at 1:59 p.m. (Pi = 3.14159....). Maybe most geeks are too busy at 1:59 a.m. to stop and eat pi(e).

We danced this afternoon to Darryl. On the way we saw a pretty serious accident on Hwy 83. It caused quite a traffic jam, but Texas folks must not be as much inclined as Californians to be "Looky Loos." Traffic moved slowly, but we got through the jam pretty quickly. In fact, we were couple #1 at the dance. As usual, we had fun visiting with friends and trying to do whatever Darryl decides to call.

Today he played around with "Cross By," using it to replace half circulates. The floor was doing pretty well with Tally Ho--replace the half circulate with a Cross By. But when he moved on to Percolate--replace the second part (a half circulate) with a Cross By, that was a different story. The tough part was getting the whole square to do a complete circulate for the first part, before starting the Cross By. I'm glad we're getting to practice some of these less standard combinations.
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Kelly's Masterpiece!

You may recall from a month ago that our friend Judy's son Kelly and his wife Shonas were visiting from Louisville, KY. Smart move, since it was *cold* in Kentucky, and a great opportunity for Hardy and Judy to get their bathroom redone. Check the February 13 entry for a photo of Hardy digging through the floor!

Kelly was the master craftsman, but he had a lot of helpers. They can all be proud of the finished product, which is transformed from the outdated (and never properly designed) room they started with. It's really beautiful, and Judy's put in some nice decorator touches. One thing I really envy is the three-part mirrored medicine cabinet doors, which swing so that you can see all around your hairdo. And the beautiful faucets...and the curved shower door.... It's all very nice.

We started the morning with our usual Sunday breakfast at Angel's with Hardy and Judy and Steve and Jan. We thought that Bob and Pat might come too, but she must not be feeling too well, since she had chemo last week.

After breakfast we went to Pottingers' to check out the bathroom and visit some more. Steve was getting into the conversation and is unable to talk without his hands. We heard a sudden crash! Fortunately, it was just spilled nuts, and the glass lamp survived.

We took some time to check out the possible rental and for sale RV sites in Green Gate Grove and some of the surrounding parks and wrote down several phone numbers to call tomorrow. A couple of the rentals turned out not to be available during the months we need. We'll see what develops.

We went on down to the state park to take our walk. It was strange to be pulling up to park in the parking lot rather than walking over from Bentsen Palm. We saw lots of people and lots of birds in the park.
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Another Quiet Saturday

We had a quiet day today. On our walk this morning, we stopped to talk with Mary Sue, and she gave us the grand tour of their New Horizons fifth wheel. It has many features that we like, including two desks, parquet flooring, and a Moen kitchen faucet. They were lucky enough to find it used with all the features they wanted. We've been very interested in New Horizons and toured their factory in Kansas. They will build a custom fifth wheel to your design, or they have some standard floor plans.

Bruce stopped by later to suggest that we ride with them Tuesday to the potluck lunch. We're looking forward to that. We enjoy getting together with fellow Escapees, and especially fulltimers, who share our lifestyle.
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Happy Birthday, David!

This afternoon found us off to Progreso to celebrate David's birthday with a trip to Santiago's bar and then to the Red Snapper for dinner. The usual good time was had by all.

From left: Hugh, Fernando (Fred), G.W., David, Bob, and Lee

Birthday cake is for later--right now everyone is concentrating on snacks and drinks. On left: Dot and (to her left, not in the photo) Harold

From left: Jean, Curt, Lee, John, Sandy, Steve, Jan, Hardy, Judy, et al.

The Birthday Boy is a good sport!

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Laundry and Planning

Not an exciting day, but we did accomplish some things. Laundry, relaxing in the hot tub, showers...all the tough stuff that retired folks do in the RGV. No dancing today.

We did make progress on our travel planning, including signing up for three more square dance events (AACE, Nationals, and TEXPACC). We also made reservations for a couple of campgrounds we're planning to stay at, and we found a campground to relax at for our anniversary.
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Two Dance Day

Wednesday is our two-dance day. This afternoon we danced to Jerry Story--smooth and fun as always. This evening we danced to Joe Saltel and had lots of fun dancing and visiting with our friends. Joe called some phantom Cast a Shadow--which left me standing scratching my head the first time.

Jan and Steve were back dancing, but Steve is still recovering from his sinus infection and heart cath, so he needs lots of rest and TLC. John and Sandy and Hardy and Judy and we went to the DQ afterward and chatted. We need to make reservations for Cliffside Park to camp during AACE, and the group would like to camp together.

I called Kathy today to wish her a happy 64th birthday. She seemed in good spirits and we're looking forward to our visit in August. We made reservations at Punderson State Park, which is an hour away from Strongsville but near Mentor, where we hope to visit Aunt Helene and Peggy and family. Our visit plans are complicated by the Mosier Family Reunion occurring in Lima, Ohio, on August 6-7, but we hope to see Bill and Michelle and family at Kathy's on that Monday. Fingers crossed our plans work out.
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Tough Workshop

This morning our park had a "yard sale" (in the clubhouse). I'm a big fan of sales, so I got there early. I didn't find much, but did get a couple of small items we've been looking for (very small bungies to hold up our clothes rack on our ladder and some snow blanket for our Christmas display).

This afternoon we went to Randy's C-1 workshop. The emphasis today was on "work." He really made us think a lot (and break down a lot), mainly with Tally-Ho variations. He also did left handed and phantom Little variations and finish Plenty from different positions. (Once we ended up in an I-formation.) At the end of the session he said he hoped we had brought our Advil!
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Ordinary Monday

Today was an ordinary Monday. It was reasonably warm, but very windy all day. Makes it tough when we have a headwind on our walks.

We danced to Darryl this afternoon. We missed our friends Steve and Jan. He's home nursing a nasty sinus infection. Get well quick, Steve! We enjoyed dancing with Hardy and Judy and our other friends. Darryl was being pretty easy on us today. He did work on some concentric Zings. First you have to figure out who you're zinging with, and then remember which formation you started in so you can re-form the columns or lines.... Lots to keep straight.
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Sunshine, Spa, Kite Lines

Today was a beautiful sunny day. Blue skies and warm sun drew us to the spa and then to read awhile by the pool. We finally decided to tackle rewinding the kite lines, which were untangled and rolled up on a tissue and a plastic sewing kit pouch I had in my fanny pack last Monday on the beach. Today we carefully unrolled the lines and wrapped them back on the kite line holder, ready to go again.

Our internet connection has been slower and less reliable since we're now using our Verizon USB modem rather than the cable modem we were using for three months. We expected this, but it's still frustrating. It means we have to listen to low bandwidth radio stations.
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Impossible Dreaming

The highlight of our day today was a trip to UTPA to see the musical Man of La Mancha with Hardy and Judy. The Albert L. Jeffers Theater is an intimate space, a theater in the round. We had general admission tickets but could hardly have had better seats.

We enjoyed the performance, especially since it's one of our favorite musicals. The lead (Cervantes/Don Quixote) teaches at the university now, but was a student and performed in the role of the padre when Man of La Mancha was last presented, in 1986. The young woman who played Aldonza/Dulcinea turned in a moving performance and had a fine voice. Sancho was great--a good counterpoint to his master--and the muleteers were a convincing bunch of ruffians. We loved the performance of the "horses"--two women who wore baskets to simulate the horses' noses. They were very funny without reaching for it at all. Some of the voices were a bit unsteady at times, but overall the experience was moving and enjoyable.

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More Trip Planning

Not much happening today, so we actually managed to spend some time on our trip planning. We called Lake Park in Lewisville and changed our reservation, so now we're going to be in site #6 for the first two weeks. It's our favorite site, and when we first called, we were told that it wasn't available for the time period we needed. A few minutes later we got a call back. Jay said he had managed to work things out and we could have site #6. We don't know what he did to "work things out," but we're grateful. It's a nice big grassy site with a clear view of the lake.

We're also trying to pencil in the later part of the summer. There are so many possibilities, and it's easy to get bogged down in details.

We've been watching progress as workers attempt to remove a large tree near us. Evidently it is a type that is likely to fall down in storms. They started out ordinarily enough, by removing large branches using chainsaws. But then they started to dig a trench around the remaining tree. They cut the roots, and today they shoved it over with a backhoe. We've certainly never seen a tree removed this way, so we're watching curiously to see what happens next.

I made another really yummy new recipe for supper tonight. It's from the Weeknight Kitchen, a feature of the Splendid Table NPR show. It's called Toasted Chicken Sandwiches with Caramelized Apples and Smoked Gouda, but of course I made some changes. I didn't have Gouda, so I used extra sharp cheddar, and I didn't have honey mustard, so I just mixed together some dijon mustard and some honey... As usual, I didn't use nearly as much olive oil and butter as the recipe calls for. If you don't care for chicken, you can make it with hard boiled eggs, which sounds rather unusual to me. The sandwich really didn't want to hold together, so I ended up grilling the sandwich tops separately. We had to work a bit to hold them together as we ate, but it was definitely worth it. (Recipe follows in the Read More section.)

I made these with some great organic whole grain bakery bread I've been getting from HEB and some Jazz apples. Double yum. We had some leftover butternut squash soup and some green bean and heritage tomato salad.

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Tough Life

Being retired is tough (not!). This morning we did our laundry. While it was in the machines, we took our walk. The weather was beautiful all day. Then we went to the spa for a while.

Tonight we went to Darryl's dance. I usually dance with Jean at this dance, but tonight she had a partner. Woody's wife, Ida, flew to Eureka, CA, to be with her mom, who isn't doing too well. After the first tip, Woody commented that after many years of dancing with Ida, it was difficult to adjust to a new partner: "Her hand isn't in the same place!" (Jean is a bit shorter than Ida...but someone pointed out that her hand is at the end of her wrist, just like Ida's.)

Darryl called some disconnected line/wave calls. We don't hear those often. He also called two split recycles in a row several times, the first from a "normal" position (columns). Since it's a box call, the second one requires reorienting and finding your new box, and we're just not used to hearing split recycle called from parallel waves, so it was a bit disconcerting the first time. After that we didn't have a problem, but lots of squares did.

Steve is having a heart catherization tomorrow, and may possibly have angioplasty and/or a stent placed if they find a need for it. We're hoping that all is well and he'll be in shape to go to Razz-Ma-Tazz with their visitors tomorrow night.
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Back to Dancing

We didn't dance Monday because we went to Padre. We didn't dance yesterday because we were moving. So today we were ready to get back to dancing. We went to Jerry Story this afternoon. Hardy and Judy came too, since Kelly and Shonas headed home yesterday. Judy said that the kids had called and said they had seen us pulling the trailer and did Hardy and Judy know we were leaving??? Judy assured them that we had just gone to a different park. We can't wait to see the new bathroom that Kelly and everyone have been working on the last two weeks.

It was nice to be at a dance with Hardy and Judy and Steve and Jan again. Dan and Terry were there, and in the middle of a tip, Terry's good knee popped out. Judy got some ice to put on it (she was an EMT in a former life...).

Tonight we danced to Joe Saltel. This time we actually got to dance with Hardy and Judy, since we happened to walk in together. Jan and Steve have decided to take a workcamping position in West Virginia. It's at a large park with a big retail store on Summersville Lake. Steve is happy that there's a nice fishing lake, and they're glad to be in the eastern part of the country for a change. Read more!

Moving Day

Today was another moving day. By now you would think we'd be old hands at this, but we've been in the same place for three months, plenty of time to grow roots it seems. We had way more things outside than usual (rope lights, roll-up table, all the chairs, grill with small propane tank, path lights, blue boy, generator, bikes, Qube, etc.). We had a cable modem to return to Solstar and ran into a glitch there. We have a through the wall coax cable connector, and evidently the Solstar installer must have cut a cable to run it through and then attached a new connector. At least that's what we think must have happened, since we had to cut the cable to disconnect it....

The most serious glitch was that when Ken went to open the jaws of the hitch, it wouldn't open. I took the hitch off its base, and when I stood it on end, I could open the jaws, so I put it back together and figured we could hitch up and be on our way. Ken wanted to understand what had kept him from being able to open it. After some experimentation, he realized that we had reinstalled the handle upside down when we put the new part in the hitch and painted it. If we had hitched up with the handle upside down, who knows what might have happened. We probably would not have been able to open the jaws to unhitch at the very least.

We were very happy when we successfully hitched up, moved, and set up again. After eating some lunch, we went to the hot tub to relax and then read by the pool for a while.

Our site is in a new section of the park, and during the day workers and machines are busy finishing nearby sites, so it's rather noisy. But they all go home at night, so we get some quiet.

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