On to Lewisville

We left Oak Forest this morning, but first we stopped in to pay for our stay. The office building is really attractive, with comfortable seating areas, a small general store, a very nice library with computer and printer, and some friendly camp hosts.

Our trip today was a bit longer than usual, but generally uneventful. We saw lots of wildflowers in the Austin area, only fitting since it's the home of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. The beautiful roadsides around the country are part of her legacy.

We ran into construction and some areas of very rough road that need to be under construction. As we drove into Dallas on I35E, we had some stop and go traffic, mainly caused by construction. We were happy to arrive at our familiar campground at Lake Park in Lewisville. The camp host who checked us in, Karen, had a little buddy named Annie, a small rescue rat terrier, who is clearly her baby.

We're in site #69, which was reasonably easy to get into and a nice site, except that our DirecTV dish does not have a view of the southern sky. Ken will probably survive the week, though, with 80 over-the-air channels.

We had a late evening packing and cooking and getting everything ready for my departure tomorrow. I'll fly out of DFW at noon, bound for Atlanta and a visit to Ed and Julie and Cate and Sam and Jesse. Read more!

Lovely Day for a Hike

Loretta and I met at the Barton Creek Greenbelt for a hike today. It's a long urban trail along a creek, although right now the creek is dry because of the drought. We did only part of the trail, saving some for next time.

Bicyclists and dog owners with off leash dogs "share" the path, so we had to be alert.

After the hike we went to Kerbey Lane Cafe for a delicious lunch and time to chat. It's always good to get together with old friends. Read more!

Austin

We hit the road again this morning, headed to Austin to visit Lee's friend, Loretta. We saw fields of Texas bluebonnets and Indian paintbrushes and some yellow flowers (unidentified). Beautiful! We stopped at the San Marcos Tanger Outlets because we needed to replace our citrus peeler. Success at the Kitchen Collection! We also stopped at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory.

We've stayed at various parks around the Austin area (McKinney Falls State Park is one of our favorites). This time we elected to stay at a commercial park because of the quick in and out offered by a paved pull-thru. We're at Oak Forest RV Park. It's 12 miles northeast of the state park, 6.4 miles from I-35, and 222 miles from Lake Park in Lewisville, our next destination.

As you can see, it's also quite attractive, and the weather is definitely cooperating. We enjoyed walking around the resort, checking out the amenities. We still prefer public parks to commercial parks. The sites are generally more spacious, and you're closer to nature, but this will make a fine base camp. I'm going to meet Loretta in the morning at the Barton Creek Greenbelt. The access point we've chosen is about halfway between her house and Oak Forest.

We called Nanci Rowe to wish her a happy birthday. She and Tom were at Target buying a new bedside reading light for Tom, which he considered a necessity. Nanci says he has to read before he can sleep. I totally understand! We're looking forward to visiting them in August when we're in the northwest. Read more!

On the Road Again!

We've been in the Rio Grande Valley since last November, so it was a bit of a new experience to get ready to leave and head out on the road again. We were very happy that we have good checklists, but checklists can't do everything. We'll have to feel our way back into the traveling lifestyle.

For example, it's been a while since we towed a heavy trailer at highway speeds. To preserve the brakes, that involves carefully balancing use of the truck brakes, the trailer brakes, and the transmission. It also means that when stopping, it's a good idea to let the engine and transmission cool down a bit with the fluids circulating. These things aren't automatic anymore.

Today we drove to Pleasanton, TX, about 200 miles. That doesn't sound like much, but it's nearly five hours for us. We stop for lunch, and we stop every hour to change drivers and get the kinks out. Along the way we saw another New Horizons Majestic stopped at a rest area. Later it passed us, and later still we saw it parked along the roadside. It always makes us wonder who our fellow travelers might be. We saw some wildflowers, mainly yellow ones. Then as we moved farther north we started to see Texas bluebonnets, always a lovely sight.

We're overnighting at a Walmart parking lot. It wasn't easy to find a spot where we could get level without unhitching, and it's a rather noisy area, but it's just an overnight, and we'll be on the road towards Austin tomorrow.

For dinner tonight we enjoyed some delightful boiled shrimp that our friends Jan and Steve picked up for us in Brownsville. Yummy, and we've got a few left for lunch tomorrow. Read more!

Preparing to Leave

Today was a very pleasant day. We even got to go to the hot tub and enjoy the sunshine on a break from our trip preparations. Ken used the compressor to clean some soil lines on our MCD shades. For some reason they all seem to accumulate a bit of soil on a line across the shade about five or six inches up from the bottom. That task took way longer than anticipated.

This evening we listened to the crickets and enjoyed the warm evening air. It reminded both of us of our childhoods. Ken thought of visiting aunts and uncles at their cottages on little Michigan lakes during the summer. I thought of visiting aunts and uncles in North Carolina who lived on farms.

We'll be heading to cities for the next few weeks. It's the end of our winter season with friends in the Valley, but also the beginning of our summer adventures. Safe travels to all our friends. Read more!

Goodbye for Now

This morning we went to a yard sale in the clubhouse. As usual, we had fun hunting through the "treasures." I found some things I really like, including a new purse and a lightweight little travel pillow, just right for my trip to Atlanta next week. Ken found a handy small Olympus Stylus 470, just the right size for a pocket and advertized as "weather resistant," which should be a plus when we're traveling.

This afternoon we had planned to go to Jerry Story's C-1 dance, but our schedule got tight, so we decided to go only to Joe Saltel's C-1 this evening. Meanwhile we stopped at Costco (again) because we seemed to be missing part of the paperwork for the American Express card. While we were there we visited the fresh produce cooler and stocked up on berries.

We went to the Texas room to finish prepping it for our departure. We picked quite a few grapefruit and took some to Jan and Steve. We left some on the tree for our neighbor, Chuck. He promises to pick it clean before they leave.

We applied the Bayer Advanced citrus tree insecticide. We're hoping it will protect our trees from citrus greening disease. We sealed all the drains as much as we could and left some containers of water to humidify the place during the summer. Just before we left, we set off bug bombs in the shed and Texas room and put our mouse and rat bait, hoping to keep the critter count down.

We ate dinner at the clubhouse and then headed to Pharr for Joe's C-1 dance. It's our last dance of the season--and Joe's last dance here before he takes off for his square dance cruise. He and Jerry Story are the callers organizing a one-week cruise of the western Caribbean. It departs from Galveston, so there was some concern that the recent oil spill in the Ship Channel would cause the cruise to be cancelled.

Carol talking to Mary Ann; Steve and Jan with Tim

We said goodbye to all our Valley friends today. We stopped by to see Hardy and Judy. She is having a lot of pain with her knee injury, and it will be two weeks before she can see the orthopedic doc. They are going to Wyoming and on a trip to Amsterdam and a cruise that will take them to Moscow, which will check off an item on Judy's bucket list. Hardy has an IEEE meeting in Amsterdam, so they're piggy-backing the cruise on the business trip.

We stopped to say goodbye to John and Sandy. He has received the parts needed to repair the damage from a blowout on the way south last fall. After they're all fixed up, they'll head back home. They're planning a trip to Colorado and they'll join family at a place to be determined, presumably one of the western national parks.

Steve and Jan were at Joe's dance tonight, so we said goodby to them after the dance. They're going to the gate guard job in Cotulla, TX. When they leave there, they'll come back to the Valley. Then the plans are for a trip to Minnesota to see Jan's son and family and then a trip to Peru.... Sounds like everyone has an exciting summer planned.

We said goodbye to Bob Boyink at the dance tonight. Pat is going tomorrow for her final weekly chemo treatment. Next she'll have chemo every three weeks for several months. They're planning to make arrangements to get the treatments at various places as they travel this summer.


Read more!

Our Final C-2 Dance of the Season

We danced twice today. This morning, we went to Randy's C-2 workshop, where we had three squares and three couples out. This evening we went to Darryl's C-2 dance (which was a class level dance and still attracts mainly our students). There we had two squares and two couples out. Dancing is winding down for the season as more and more people head out for the summer. We'll dance twice tomorrow also, but both of those dances will be C-1.

We're all talking about our summer plans and saying goodbye to friends we won't see again until we return in the fall. It's a mixture of some sadness at parting and some excitement about adventures we're looking forward to this summer.

We decided to join Costco today. They carry the La Brea Whole Grain bread that we really like.... Read more!

Dermatology, Shopping, and C-2

Ken had a followup appointment with Dr. Magee today. She biopsied a couple of more spots and froze some more. We're hoping the results come in before we leave--and that they're negative. I dropped Ken off at the doctor's office and headed to HEB and Dollar Tree. When I picked Ken up, we went to Bicycle World to pick up our bikes.

This evening we went to Darryl's C-2 workshop. We did pretty well. It was good to see our friends and to meet some new people. We are the newcomers in this group, and it will take a while before we become familiar with everyone. Many of the C-2 dancers never come to lower level dances, so we haven't seen them before.

Jan and Steve brought a bag of frozen shrimp for us, part of the five pound bag they bought in Brownsville this weekend. Thanks, friends! Judy was really in pain from her injured knee. It feels better when she's sitting, but of course she doesn't want to sit; she wants to dance! Read more!

Spring? What Spring?

We woke to find the world overcast but a comfortable temperature for our morning walk. By afternoon the temperature had fallen by more than 15 degrees and the wind had risen. Our afternoon walk found us bundled up and wondering where the nice weather had gone.

Today is Jeff's 42nd birthday. When Ken talked with him, he was celebrating by having dinner with a friend, Sabrina, and her fourteen-year-old son. Happy birthday, Jeff!

Still travel planning...... Read more!

More Work

We worked some more on our to-do list again today. Ken greased the zerk fittings on the hitch and the Majestic axles. I defrosted the freezer. We did some more travel planning, focusing on our trip from Portland to Layton, UT, to visit Jeff.

One good thing about defrosting: I found some German chocolate cake slices we had stashed there. They were delicious this evening with mint tea.

Did I mention it was warm and sunny today? Way to start spring off right.


Read more!

More Chores

We crossed off some more items on our to-do list today. We flushed out the water heater tank and in the process inadvertently emptied our fresh water tank. (That's what happens when you leave the water heater to drain and neglect to turn off the water pump.) That actually worked out okay, since we also needed to drain and sanitize the fresh water tank. We also changed out the water filters for our whole house filtration system.

For dinner we grilled a whole chicken in our propane grill. At least that was the plan. The wind had other ideas and blew out the flame after a bit, so the chicken was started outside and finished in the oven. It was still good, but not as good as it would have been, darn it!

We spent some more time travel planning. We're trying to coordinate with Jeff to visit him at Hill AFB near Salt Lake City the end of September. Read more!

Busy Day

We packed up this morning and headed out to check off some of the things on our to-do lists. At the Texas room we did some laundry, and Ken pounded in the citrus fertilizer spikes to encourage our grapefruit and orange trees to thrive. (The lemon tree is on its own: it's covered with blossoms, and we had way more lemons than we needed this year.)

We put the bike rack on the truck. As usual, this process took much longer because it's been so long since we moved the bikes. We dropped the bikes off at Bicycle World for repair. Originally we had only planned to drop my bike off. The seat post refuses to tighten, so it's impossible to raise the seat or straighten it or stabilize it at all. When we went to put Ken's bike on the rack, he realized that it had suffered damage to the derailleur when the wind blew it over.

Ken had an appointment with Dr. Hook, an ophthalmologist at Thurmond Eye Associates. He's been having really blurry vision in his right eye and some eye pain. The verdict is that his cataract has progressed and is responsible for the blurriness. When we return in the fall he has an appointment for evaluation for cataract surgery. The doc didn't see anything in the eye to account for pain. If it returns, he's suggesting screening for temporal arteritis.

We had a quick supper at Subway before attending Darryl's C-1 concept dance at TVA. It's down to six squares, but was still lots of fun. People are saying goodbye and heading north. Art and Lynne leave tomorrow morning for Manitoba. Gord and Barb will head the same way in another week. The Canadians are limited in how long they can stay in the states without losing some of their benefits, so they dutifully head north even before spring is really sprung.

I had fun showing Jan and Steve how the Capital One 360 app works. We've enjoyed having an online only bank that works as well as Capital One 360 works and that provides such great customer service.  We were happy to refer friends. Now if interest rates will just recover a bit.....

This evening we finished watching the second episode of Cosmos with Neil deGrasse Tyson. We are really enjoying the program. The presentation of the evolution of eyes was really good, except that it left out the fact that eyes have evolved multiple times, which emphasizes the survival and reproductive advantages of a visual system for many different types of organisms. Read more!

Legal for Six More Years

 Our first order of business today was to set up a schedule grid and pencil in all the things on our to-do list to prepare for our move next week. It was a lovely day for a walk, and we almost felt like we had accomplished some of our accumulated tasks just by getting them all written down and scheduled.

After lunch we headed to the Hidalgo County tax office to renew our truck and trailer registrations. That can be done by mail, but then we'd have to worry about where to have the license plate stickers sent and whether we'd receive them in time. Actually since we had all our paperwork in order, this process didn't take too long. Then we walked to the property tax area to investigate whether we were getting our senior citizen refund on our 2013 property tax. After a bit of research, the clerk assured us that we do have a chunk of change coming back, probably in the next six weeks.

Next we went to the McAllen office of the Texas Department of Public Safety. On the way in, instead of taking a number in the old fashioned way, we input our cell numbers so that we could get text message updates on the status of our wait time. After waiting almost an hour, we were next in line. This process too was pretty quick and easy because we had filled in our forms online and printed them before going to the office. Texas is less stringent than California in the vision requirements for drivers. If you wear glasses, you have to have "with corrective lenses, 20/50 or better with best eye or both together; any score with other eye: restrict to corrective lenses."

This evening we went to Tropic Star for Joe Saltel's C-1 dance. As usual we got to see new photos of his little granddaughter, Shania, the star of his life. Jane was back dancing, finally, although she is still having some problems hearing and will have to continue treatment. It was good to see her smile. Read more!

Two C-2

We danced today at two C-2 workshops. The first was Randy's this morning. There were three extra couples, and we ended up with two sit-outs. Randy worked on disconnected calls again. Many of them still leave me mystified.

This evening we went to Dave Heffron's C-2 workshop/dance. It started out as a class level C-2 dance opportunity, but since the class has graduated, all C-2 dancers are invited. Some people have left town already. We had three squares and two extra couples. This time we had only one sit-out. It was rather frustrating, but I think I learned something and we had floor time, so I'm glad we went.

This afternoon we walked and cleaned out and organized the cargo bay. We have got to get organized and plan our schedule so we can get everything done that needs to happen before we leave the Valley next week. Read more!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

We joined friends at the Tilted Kilt to celebrate St. Paddy's Day with some "Irish" food and maybe some green beer. We joined Hardy and Judy, Steve and Jan, and Hal and Dorothy for a late lunch. I was especially looking forward to having some corned beef and cabbage. It's one of my favorites, but Ken doesn't care for it at all, so it's been a long time since I tasted any.

Well, I still haven't (except technically). When my plate arrived, it had a couple of slices of corned beef, some lightly steamed shredding cabbage and some steamed baby cut carrots and a few small chunks of potato. None of the veggies had any seasoning at all. Definitely not like my momma used to make.

However, the green beer and the company were good, so we had fun. Judy brought green beads which all of us shared. She had on a shirt that said "Kiss me, I'm part Irish." She's probably the one of the group with the most actual Irish ancestry.

Afterward we went to Green Gate Grove. We were tempted to snooze, but instead took our afternoon walk. I turned on the Jetpack, but was dismayed to see a "Welcome to Mexico" message. I turned it off immediately in fear of the dreaded exorbitant international roaming charges. Tomorrow I'll call Millenicom to get instructions on how to set the device to avoid international towers. What a disappointment.

Then we set to work putting in fertilizer spikes around the citrus trees. At least that was the plan. First I had to go over to Steve and Jan's and borrow a hammer. Then we realized that the ground was just too hard for the spikes to penetrate. The instructions suggested watering first, so we set up the sprinklers.

Meanwhile I wanted to spray some bug spray around the foundations. When I started, I was immediately overcome by spray blown back at me by the wind. After I stopped coughing, we decided to try again another day with long sleeve shirts and face masks.

We did manage to collect the linens we want to take with us and pack them in compression bags. This is actually kind of fun. We ran out of time and had to rush to eat some supper and change clothes for our evening C-2 workshop with Darryl at TVA. That went quite well, we thought. Of course we boggled on some of the calls, but generally managed okay and even enjoyed ourselves.

When we got home, we turned on the TV to watch the next episode of Cosmos. We were dismayed to find that our stupid DVR had tried to record the Spanish version on a channel we don't even get and hadn't recorded the English version on the channel we do get. Fortunately, it was repeating at 11:00, so we set it to record but also sat down to watch it. It's a fabulous show, but our eyes were drifting shut, so we'll have to finish watching tomorrow. Read more!

Hand and Foot

We've become aware over the last few years of a card game that is evidently very popular with RVers. It's called Hand and Foot. Until this evening, we had never played it. Our friends Steve and Jan and Hal and Dorothy play every Sunday evening, usually with Jim and Joann. This evening Jim and Joann were unable to play.

The couples take turns hosting the get together, and this Sunday the game was at Steve and Jan's. They invited us to join them and patiently taught us the rules. Some are similar to Canasta, which both Ken and I have played in the past. Some are similar to Sevens from Hell, which we played once last year with John and Sandy. So, we definitely had a learning curve.

The men played as a team of three, and the women played as a team of three. Usually the women win, and that's how it came out this time too. We all had fun.

The weather was quite variable today, with rain storms this morning and wind all day. We did our exercise indoors in the exercise room and did our laundry at the same time. (This works out well: we exercise for half an hour while the clothes are in the washers and then for another half hour while they are in the dryers.)

I talked to Aunt Iris today. She says that her hip and leg problems won't kill her, so she's just learned to live with them. That's one of the hazards of getting older. Most of us older folks have some sort of aches and pains!

We made a reservation for a rental car on Kauai through Discount Hawaii Car Rental. They are a reseller and give great deals. Our reservation is with Alamo, which has a counter in the Lihue airport, so that should make things easier. Read more!

Shiny Truck

We finally washed the truck today. It looks really good, especially with the shiny tonneau cover.

We're also still working on getting a rental car, with liability insurance, in Hawaii. It shouldn't be so complicated. That's one of the trade-offs of having a heavy trailer that requires a medium duty truck to tow.

We're having more fun looking at Kauai travel sites, finding things to do and seeing photos of spectacular scenery. Read more!

"The Hounds of Baskerville"

Tonight we watched an episode of the PBS Mystery Sherlock Season Two we had recorded. We're enjoying this modern Sherlock, even though much of the plot may be highly implausible. Tonight's episode was a modern take on the Hound of the Baskervilles, complete with dark nights on the moors, loud growling, and lots of suspense.

This afternoon we went to our final Darryl Friday C-2 dance of the season. Next week he'll be dark because he has an out-of-town weekend, and the following week we'll be on the road again. The season is coming to a close. We had a pretty good experience today, with most of our squares dancing most of the time, and we weren't the only ones making mistakes. We're actually getting better, and people are very helpful. Read more!

Avo Hale (or Private Tropical Apartment)

We made our decision about where to stay in Kauai. We were hooked by the description and reviews of the "Private Tropical Apartment" in Kapaa. It's close to the beach on the east side of the island a few miles north of the airport in Lihue. We are really looking forward to making this our home for our two weeks on Kauai. Now we just have to come up with a rental car and start reading guidebooks and online sites to plan our fun.

This afternoon we went to our last Thursday afternoon Randy C-2 workshop. We had three angel couples to help out. Some of our fellow students have already left the Valley and headed to parts north. Randy walked us through some calls people had asked about. He spent quite a bit of time on "Disconnected" calls, which he admitted were quite difficult. Many of them were very confusing for me, but I guess it's mainly a matter of floor time.

While we were at the workshop, we heard the news that one of our fellow square dancers had passed away unexpectedly. Dan and Terry Everhardt were in our C-1 class. They had not come to the RGV the last couple of years, but some folks have been in touch with them. Terry was diagnosed with ovarian cancer recently but given a pretty good prognosis. Apparently she had a bad reaction to her first chemo session and collapsed. Despite all efforts to save her, she never regained consciousness. What a sad occurrence, especially for Dan, and a reminder that we are not guaranteed the next minute.

Today we received our new Verizon Jetpack. It took a bit of work to get it set up and running. The speed has been quite variable, but definitely faster and more reliable than our old modem.

I managed to step in some fire ants today. They are aptly named. My feet felt like they were on fire! I did a lot of jumping around and slapping to try to dislodge the ants. Then I washed my feet, applied anti-itch cream, took a ChlorTab and an ibuprofen, and just suffered for a while. Then it began to ease. Ant bites are no picnic. Read more!

Airbnb

We spent a lot of time today checking out rental places in Kauai, using the Airbnb service. We've heard of it but haven't used it before. We had to comb through quite a few listings to narrow down our potential choices. Then we communicated with the hosts using the Airbnb messaging service. It was all very smooth. Now we're waiting to hear back from one couple, and we hope to make a reservation tomorrow.

This afternoon I went grocery shopping at Big Lots and HEB and left Ken at home. This doesn't happen often, since we usually do our shopping when we're out for another reason. I enjoyed the leisure to browse a bit.

This evening we went to Joe Saltel's dance. The first tip went extra well, and we enjoyed dancing C-1, which we know pretty well and not having to struggle to come up with the C-2 definitions. In later tips Joe managed to challenge and sometimes stump us, even with C-1. There's never a dull moment with a good caller at whatever level. Read more!

Hawaii in September

This morning we went to Randy's C-2 workshop. We did reasonably well, got some floor time, and learned some things. This afternoon we cleaned and packed up stuff on the patio (tablecloth, grill, lights).

We booked our flights from Portland to Hawaii in September. The less expensive seats were going fast. Now we have to work out where to stay and what to see and do and where to store the rig, etc.

This evening was another Community Concert: Back on Broadway (see blurb below). The ten young performers had great voices. They're really multi-talented, staging dance numbers and bringing puppets to life for a selection from Avenue Q.

Following the overwhelmingly successful tour of “On Broadway,” we are proud to announce “Back on Broadway”! In this fabulous new production, ten star-struck performers arrive in the Big Apple looking for their big break on Broadway. With their newfound book, How to Succeed on Broadway how could they possibly fail?

Celebrate the magic of the Great White Way through dazzling production numbers performed by the next generation of Broadway stars! The multi-talented cast of ten brings to life the most popular scenes and songs from the latest Broadway hits—including The Producers, Legally Blonde, Jersey Boys, Mary Poppins, Avenue Q, Mamma Mia! and Memphis—as well as acclaimed revivals—Anything Goes, South Pacific, Evita, Hello, Dolly! and more!

This production features fresh, original arrangements by award-winning composers and an original orchestral audio track recorded by A-team Nashville session musicians. Fully staged and costumed, the show travels with a mobile set and lighting, allowing for quick, easy set-up and minimal crew demands. 

Read more!

Another Dull Day

No, we didn't have a boring day. It was the sky that was a dull gray all day, with occasional showers. We exercised indoors again and spent some time working on our summer travel plans. We've decided to spend our entire time in Hawaii on Kauai after checking some Google reviews. Many people recommended staying on Kauai as long as possible. For us, that will be about two weeks.

This evening we went to Darryl's C-2 workshop. Jan and Steve were there, along with several other C-2 class members. We actually got to dance with Tim and Gayle. Hardy and Judy and John and Sandy were there too. We danced with John and Sandy the first tip. Sandy redirected me several times. After we got warmed up, our squares mainly did quite well, so that's a confidence booster.

Sandy brought the finished fabric cases that we asked her to make for our folding wooden chairs to protect the wood from scratching or being scratched while the chairs are stored under the bed. We put one on, and it seems to be just perfect for the job. Thanks, Sandy! Read more!

Fish Fry

Happy birthday to my sister-in-law Kathy. She lives in the Cleveland, Ohio, area and has had lots of snow this winter. She still enjoys looking out at the evergreen trees in her back yard festooned with fresh snowfall.

Today was the day for the annual fish fry hosted  by Jan and Steve. During the season, Steve does the hard work of going out to fish for whiting in the bay at South Padre Island. He stashes the filets from each fishing trip in the freezer. Then in the spring, the time comes when he has enough fish. He and Jan pick a date to have the gang over.

George, Hal, Bob, Pat, Lee

The expectation is that sunny south Texas will cooperate and produce some good weather for the party. This year that didn't happen. Today was rainy and windy with a high in the low 50s. Yuck! So we had a change of venue. Hardy and Judy opened their home for the party. Steve and Jan brought over their grill and electric frying pan and set up shop in the garage with the door open.

Joanne and Dorothy

This year they prepared some fried encrusted fish, some baked, some grilled, and some grilled on planks, a new technique this year and very tasty. Oh, and some burgers for a couple of non-fish eaters. Everyone brought something for the feast.

Bob, Pat, Hardy

We were glad to see Pat feeling better. In addition to chemo, she has recently had to suffer a respiratory infection with lots of coughing. That has kept her home resting.

Dorothy, Judy, Jean, Steve, Sandy, John, George, and Jan

Hal and Jim enjoying their burgers on the porch

Jean is all packed up and ready to leave early tomorrow morning for her home in Indianapolis, so this party is another send-off for her.

We watched the first episode of Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, hosted by one of our favorite science communicators, Neil DeGrasse Tyson. The special effects are awesome. It's a fitting successor to Carl Sagan's original Cosmos series.



Read more!

Mexico and Bon Voyage to Jean

We paid our final visit of the season to Nuevo Progreso, Mexico. Jean organized the outing to celebrate before heading north on Monday (brrr). We started the party at Santiago's Spot. Tim and Gayle Sterling were first time visitors.

We moved on to the Red Snapper for lunch. Ken and I split the fried shrimp dinner again, with extra salad instead of the plain white rice that seems to be served with every meal. Harold Lee and Dorothy brought Barb Smith along. We were glad to see her out enjoying a day with friends. We were very sad when her husband Jim passed away recently. We've really enjoyed dancing with both of them.

Bob Boyink came without Pat. She is still coughing from her recent respiratory infection, but she's hoping to come to the fish fry tomorrow.

Chris and Anara are flying home from Japan tonight. They have packed a world of experiences into their one week visit with Terri and Blake and Molly in Tokyo. Shawn will certainly be glad to have them back home. Chris has been posting lots of photos on Facebook. We're looking forward to seeing the photos and hearing more of their stories when we visit this August.

Read more!

Darryl C-2 Dance

We went to Darryl's Friday afternoon C-2 dance today. There's an advanced dance in the morning and then a half hour break before the C-2 dance. We took our lunch so we could eat at noon before the 12:30 p.m. dance.

The first couple of tips were pretty discouraging, but then things got better. We definitely needed some help from the more experienced dancers, but actually we did better than some of those "experienced" folks. Darryl again had the computer set up to distribute students among the squares, so we didn't get to dance with any of our fellow students.

We did get to dance with John and Sandy, who returned from their Big Bend trip yesterday. We're hoping to hear more about their trip on Sunday at the Fish Fry, which has had a change of venue. The weather forecast of rain and cold made an indoor party sound more appealing, and Hardy and Judy opened their home.

Tomorrow we'll go to Mexico for one last time. Jean is heading north on Monday, so this weekend is a final blast for her. Tim and Gayle will join us for the first time. Read more!

The Sun Returns

We woke up this morning to overcast, but soon saw the sun breaking through. By this afternoon, the sun was shining and we saw lots of blue sky. We spent some time again today planning for our summer travels.

This evening we went to Darryl's C-1 dance. We had hoped to see Jan and Steve there, but Jean said that they had decided to go home and rest after their trip to Brownsville today. They and Jean went to a presentation on shrimping and got some great shrimp to eat.

Several people at the dance had gone to Border Fest to dance in the streets of Reynosa this morning. They reported that it was very well organized this year and they had a lot of fun.

After the dance Darryl called a C-2 star tip. We needed one person to fill our square. Darryl asked Quiz to fill in. He was a really good sport and did a great job of dancing C-2 (with some cues and a bit of pushing around)--even though he doesn't dance the level. Thanks, Quiz! Read more!

Walking Outdoors

We finally got to go outside to walk today, as the temperature actually rose above 50° and the wind abated. Not that it was actually warm, but we did see our shadows briefly once. The sun peeked through the cloud cover for only a short time, but it sure made us feel better.

Tonight we went to Joe's dance. We had five squares plus two couples. We were in more squares that struggled than usual, but we definitely had fun. We missed all our buddies. Pottingers and Walenters are still away on their Big Bend trip.

Steve and Jan got up at 5:00 a.m. to get to the hospital for a 6:00 a.m. appointment this morning. Steve was scheduled for angioplasty and a possible stent. Fortunately no stent was needed, but one valve showed some weakness. Steve has an appointment next week to get the results of his echocardiogram and the options for treatment. We are glad to hear that Steve is mainly okay. Read more!

Mardi Gras

Happy Mardi Gras! I remembered to wear purple and my beads and my purple and green and gold sparkly mask decoration. Not exactly a trip to New Orleans, but still fun.

This morning we went to Randy's C-2 workshop. We had five squares, but at first Randy was calling and dancing, until Steve arrived. He was late because he had an appointment this morning for a stress test. The dancing went reasonably well, but we were concerned about the results of the stress test. Steve is now scheduled for angioplasty and possibly a stent tomorrow morning. His heart murmur has been changed from a class one to a class two, with possible valve problems. We'll know more tomorrow after the angioplasty. We're hoping all goes well.

This evening we went to the C-2 class level dance called by Dave Heffron. We had four squares plus two couples, so it was mainly recently "graduated" students. We've been studying the definitions, and things went well yesterday at Darryl's workshop, so we expected to do reasonably well. Tonight things did not go very smoothly. Much of the time we were at a total loss or our square was hopelessly mixed up, and other squares were having as much or more difficulty. I guess any floor time is helpful, but I sure hope things get better!

It's the end of the season, and people are starting to leave for the summer. Blair and Anne will leave in the morning. We told them it's too early to go back to Canada! Tim and Gayle have decided to return to the Valley next fall. We are very glad to add them to our group of dancers!

Our friends Terry and Linda are planning an Alaska tour and cruise for August. Sounds like great fun! They were asking about routes for driving across the country to Seattle to fly to Anchorage. Read more!

Brrrr!!!

The cold front arrived just as predicted, and we woke up to a cold, rainy, overcast and generally miserable day. Fortunately the park we are at actually has an exercise room, so we could do our exercise indoors. We took turns using the treadmill and the exercise bike. While we exercised, we reviewed C-2 calls.

We also reviewed calls on the way to Darryl's C-2 workshop tonight. This marks a milestone for us: our first C-2 dance out with experienced C-2 dancers. Most of them were patient and helpful, and we actually did pretty well. We found some familiar faces and some folks we haven't danced with before. Jean was there to encourage us. I asked who she would be partnering with, and she said that even before the dance had begun, she'd already had three partners! She started out planning to dance with Dave Heffron, but Darryl wanted him to dance with Decah. Something happened with partner number two also, and she ended up dancing with Mike Hall.

We learned some rather sad news tonight. Jim Smith passed away. We had heard that he was not doing well after his surgery for lung cancer, so it was not a surprise. Jean says that he is being cremated, and Barb is not planning any services. Our thoughts are with Barb. She is such a sweet person, and we are sorry for her rather sudden loss. We danced with them only a few weeks ago.

We picked up our prescription refills at CVS on the way to the dance. You know you're getting older when your prescription receipt is almost as long as your grocery receipt! Read more!

Sunny Oscar Sunday

Today started off as a warm and windy one, but we knew it would end much colder. When I talked to Carol today, she said that the weather in Tyler had gone from the 60s to the 30s in half an hour this morning. She was looking at ice in her backyard. We won't get any ice or snow tonight, but the National Weather Service has issued an Alert! that wind chill values will fall to dangerous levels tomorrow morning and through the day. Good thing we caught some rays today!

Chris and Anara are in Tokyo visiting Terri and family and just soaking up Japanese culture and having a great time, from the photos they've posted on Facebook.

We watched our recording of Jay Leno's final show. We'll miss him. His final words were a very touching tribute to all the people who worked with him through the 22 years of his run as host of the Tonight Show.

We used our magic DVR to watch excerpts of the Oscars. I really like Ellen DeGeneres, but some of what she did tonight seemed rather pointless (ordering pizza? but a quick Google shows that some people just loved the pizza thing). We haven't seen any of the major nominated films except Captain Phillips. We would definitely like to see Twelve Years a Slave.

Read more!

Graduation!

Today was our final C-2 class with Darryl. We celebrated with a thank you presentation to our caller/teacher, Darryl Lipscomb. Of course, we haven't actually "graduated" in the sense that we now know it all! Instead, we've been invited to attend C-2 workshops and dances, to get floor time and learn some of the calls that we have only been exposed to.

We did some shopping on the way home and walked for an hour, and the day was gone. We watched a Nature program about the Crested Black Macaque, a critically endangered species only found in Indonesia. They are definitely appealing characters with a very complex society. Read more!