DFW to ATL on AA

Our alarm was set for 7:00 a.m., which should have allowed me plenty of sleep. However I was busy until late getting packed for the trip and getting food lined up for Ken while I'm gone. And then my brain refused to get out of high gear, so I didn't get to sleep until after 4:00 a.m.

Ken drove me to DFW for my 11:55 a.m. flight with no problems. The construction at the north end of the airport is finally complete, and we've done this often enough that we remembered how to get to Terminal C. The flight was on time and uneventful. When we touched down and I turned on my phone, first AA called to tell me that my baggage was at baggage area one. Then I called Ken to tell him I was on the ground. Then Ed called, and we agreed to meet at the baggage area. What did we ever do before cell phones???

Ed is very familiar with the Atlanta airport, but he never flies American, which has a completely separate baggage area, but we met with no problems. It was great to see him waiting for me. He drove me to Cumming, to their new home on Pointe Vecchio Circle, not far from their old neighborhood. When we got to the house, Julie and the kids were out, but they soon came home, so I got plenty of smiles and hugs. (Of course I had already gotten greetings from Bijou and Charlie!)

While Ed and Julie fixed dinner, I played Ten Days in Europe with Cate and then Cha Cha Chicken with all three kids. With Ed's help I won the Ten Days game. Of course Cate won the chicken game--she has a great memory.  After dinner Julie and I took the dogs for a walk around the neighborhood. Read more!

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.


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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.


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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. 

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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.



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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.

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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.

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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!

Diamonds Are Forever

The McAllen Community Concert this evening was a performance by the Diamonds. The group started in Toronto, Canada, way back in the 50s and has been around in one form or another ever since. The current incarnation does not include any of the original members, but Gary Owens, the baritone, has been with the group since 1974.

The entire audience was wowed by the performance. We thought it was the most entertaining show we've attended in the Community Concert series. The showmanship, great voices and musicians, and most of all the classic 50s rock and roll were a delight.

This morning we got up early and went to pick our Majestic up from Bert Ogden. We had spent the night in our Texas room, and it's apparent that we need to improve the hide-a-bed mattress  so our guests will be more comfortable, but overall the Texas room worked out well as a place to stay.

The refrigerator preventive maintenance is done for another year, and the propane pressure was adjusted. We wanted to get moved in at our new site in time to attend a 10:00 a.m. presentation by a USDA representative on the problem of citrus greening.

We have three citrus trees, and we're in the quarantine zone, so we wanted to know if there's any way to tell if a tree is infected. More importantly, we wanted some guidance on how to protect our trees. We have our work cut out for us. Read more!

Big Move

Well, we made a big move today, in one sense. We folded up our Majestic and towed it out of Green Gate Grove Lot 333 for the first time since we set up here on November 8, 2013. In another sense, it was a very small move indeed: only five miles, to Bert Ogden RV Services.

We got ready for the move by packing an overnight bag and moving into our Texas room. Our guests have stayed in it, but this will be the first night we've ever spent here. It's pretty handy, actually, rather like a motel room, minus the maid service.

We had our final C-2 class with Randy this afternoon. He taught several calls. Actually, we felt more like we were exposed to several new calls. We still have one more class with Darryl this Saturday, and we hope he'll go over those calls again. Then we'll be looking for floor time. Both Randy and Darryl have invited us to attend their C-2 workshops, so we'll start that next week. One advantage there is that the more experienced C-2 dancers will also be in our squares, which usually helps, though not always.

Tomorrow morning we'll pick up our home and move on to the next park, the next adventure.

The weather today was mild, and tomorrow Ken will be happy: the forecast is for sunny weather with a high of 84°. Read more!

Winter, Again?

Well, the high today was 69°. Sounds like a nice day, until you realize that it might have been that warm before you woke up, but the rest of the day went downhill. Most of the day it was very windy, cold, and rainy. Just the kind of day for packing up to move an RV after sitting in one place for almost four months--not! We ended up going to the mall to do our walking today.

This evening we went to Joe Saltel's C-1 dance, one of our favorites. We started with four squares, but ended the evening with five squares. Some of the dancers were having difficulties, but we enjoyed the evening, as always. Joe's mom runs the check in table. She is so sweet. He still has his iPad set up to show off his new granddaughter.

Tomorrow is moving day. We have to get up early to have the rig at Bert Ogden's by 10:00 a.m.

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Making Progress

We're making progress. Today we worked on some of our preparations to take the rig to Bert Ogden this Thursday. Ken put air in the truck tires. That involves crawling on the ground, so he will do the Majestic tires tomorrow so as not to stress his back too much. I worked on organizing the boxes in the cargo area.

We're also making progress in learning C-2, but it's the two steps forward, one step back variety. Dave Heffron isn't in the Valley this week, so Darryl called the C-2 workshop/dance tonight. We had four squares exactly, which worked out well. Hardy and Judy and John and Sandy showed up to support us, along with other C-2 dancers. We'll be joining them soon at workshops and dances. That sounds both exciting and terrifying. Read more!

Off to Costco

We cleaned up the patio this morning and had another walk-thru practice session with our friends. Our angels, John and Sandy and Hardy and Judy, patiently helped us with some of the more recent and problematic calls (like the Cross and Wheel family). Thanks to all for the help.

At noon we met Judy and Sandy at Costco. Judy used her card to get us in and included our order with hers. I'm always happy to get to Costco, especially since they carry La Brea Wholegrain bread, our favorite. We also use the Kirkland enteric coated fish oil capsules. Costco carries several other products we really like and at good prices.

After Costco, we went to Tropic Valley Acres for Darryl's dance. We had time to eat our pb&j's and bananas for lunch before the dance started. We had nine squares. Darryl spent a fair amount of time workshopping various counter rotates. The floor seemed to have the most trouble with quarter tag and three quarter tag formations.

It was warm and humid today. It actually showered a couple of times this morning, leading to puddles on the patio. Read more!

King Ranch

Our friend Jan organized a trip to visit the King Ranch and King Ranch Museum in Kingsville, TX. That's about 120 miles from Mission and just south of Corpus Christi. Over the years I've heard a lot about the legendary King Ranch, but I really didn't know much about it.

We started our Sunday as usual at breakfast with friends, but this time we were joined by some extras: John and Sandy and Jim and Pat and Hal and Dorothy. They joined Hardy and Judy, Jean, Steve and Sandy, and us on the trip to Kingsville. Our group of 15 carpooled and arrived at the King Ranch Visitor Center in plenty of time for our 12:30 p.m. tour. We were on a tour bus that held 25 passengers, so our group took up most of the bus. Our tour guide, Miguel, was an interesting character and kept up a lively stream of information and anecdotes.

We learned a lot about the history of the ranch and got to see some of the cattle, horses, birds, and other wildlife. The ranch keeps a few longhorns as exhibits, but actually raises Santa Gertrudis cattle, a breed developed on the ranch. The ranch also profits from royalties on the King Ranch Ford pickups, sales of pecans and grains they raise, the sale of thoroughbred horses, and mineral leases. Their brand is the famous running W.

After the tour we went to the museum in town. The museum is rather small but did include a few highlights, like the customized 1949 Buick hunting car with built in rifle holders and lots of saddles from around the world.

By the time we left the museum, everyone was hungry. Our first choices of restaurants were closed, so we ended up at the Sirloin Stockade, a small buffet restaurant. After the meal, Jan and Steve brought out an anniversary cake to celebrate Hal and Dorothy's 52nd anniversary, and Sandy presented a card she had designed that all of us had signed.

When we got home, Jean joined Ken and me for a walk around the park. We stopped at the park library, where Jean found several Stuart Woods books to borrow.

Chris is in Chicago on a business trip. He had his laptop and iPad stolen from his hotel room at the Hyatt. You would think the Hyatt would have better security than that. Read more!

C-2 and Work

We had another C-2 class with Darryl today. He announced that next week's class will be the last Saturday class. Then we'll be on our own. No, just kidding! After that we will be encouraged to attend Darryl's regular C-2 workshop on Monday evenings and his C-2 dance on Friday afternoons. During the workshop on Mondays he will work on the calls we haven't learned yet, saying that all the C-2 dancers will benefit from some practice with these calls/concepts.



After class we came home and went to work. Ken cleaned the rest of the dead limbs and leaves out of the pruned trees. We washed down the buildings and used the pressure washer to clean some of the concrete. I cleaned out the cargo bay and started to reorganize it. Whew! Still more to do, but we've made progress. Read more!

Day Off

No dancing on Friday, so we hung out in the sun and did some shopping. We went to two Academy Sports stores looking for clearance buys. Yesterday Jean was wearing a new Columbia shirt of the kind I really like and said she found it at Academy on a great clearance sale. Unfortunately we didn't find anything that suited us. I asked about mosquito head nets too--no joy, so I'll have to do some more online research I guess.

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Double Dancing Day

Today we had another C-2 lesson with Randy. We started with only seven couples, so Randy set up a six-couple rectangle (usually called a hexagon) instead of a four-couple square. It's not the best solution, especially for people learning a new level. Fortunately Sam and Ruth generously agreed to come and help out.

We learned three new calls and reviewed some of the more recently taught calls. Now we finally know how to do a "Zip Code." If we were learning the calls in alphabetical order, we'd be done.

Jan had another laser treatment on one of her eyes today. She had been experiencing some blurry vision in that eye and was told that she had some kind of film on that eye. Of course the appointment took forever, but the procedure itself took less than five minutes. This evening she said that she thought her vision was clearer.

We stopped at the HEB near Pharr South after the lesson and got home just in time to fix a quick supper before leaving for Darryl's evening dance at TVA. We're glad that we have only a few more weeks of this schedule. It's hectic and tiring, but we're glad to be learning C-2 so we can dance with our friends. Read more!

Lovely Day

Today was another beautiful, sunny warm day with a nice breeze--a great day for walking. This evening we picked up Steve and Jan and went to Joe Saltel's C-1 dance. We had seven squares plus two extra couples. Sue and Arnie brought a box of lemons to try to give away. Some of them were happily picked up, but many went home again with them.

We talked with Sue and Arnie about our travel plans for the summer. They also have a son in Portland and may actually be in the area during August when we're there, so we're hoping to plan a get together.

We spent some time today tossing around ideas for a trip this summer. So many choices! Read more!

Success

We finally finished our tax return today and got it in the mail. That feels like a success to us. Steve tore out the floor in their fifth wheel bath today and replaced it with the same composite wood floor he put in the main room last spring.

Tonight we went to David Heffron's C-2 class level workshop. We think the workshop format is much better for our class than the dance format. He worked variations on Cross and Wheel and rotates and offset formations and Truck. Read more!

Sad Day

Ken got a call this morning from his niece, Julie, who told him that his sister Romaine, her mother, had passed away this morning. Romaine has been in hospice since January 4, so this is not unexpected news, but it is still saddening to lose a sibling. Ken's brother, Gordon, passed away in 2012. His parents are both gone, so he is the only one left of his immediate family.

We had a walk thru C-2 practice this morning with Jan and Steve on our patio. Hardy and Judy and Sandy (and later John) were our angels. The chance to walk thru some of the more difficult calls and practice them was very helpful. We focused on the calls Darryl taught last Saturday, when Jan and Steve missed the second half of the lesson because they had company.

This afternoon we went to Darryl's workshop. The conversation turned to parties, and Jean invited everyone over for an impromptu game night.

Steve came over after the dance to check out the problem of our drawer slides. He was able to put one side rail back together, but the other has a broken plastic part, so it will have to wait for warranty work.

The party was a success. We had ten people, so we broke into two tables. Hardy, Jan, Ken, and I played Sequence. The men's team won two rounds, and the women's team won two rounds. The other table (Jean, Steve, Judy, Rosa, Hal, and Dorothy) played a card game, Golf. Afterwards we all joined around the big table to play Farkel. Steve won that game.
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Romaine A. Vanden Berg

VANDEN BERG, ROMAINE A. Allendale Romaine Vanden Berg, age 82, of Allendale, passed away on Monday, February 17, 2014. She was born in Muskegon to the late Albert and Gertrude (Kempker) Marks. Romaine was a secretary at Landman, Latimer, Clink and Robb in Muskegon for 21 years and Miller, Canfield, Paddock and Stone in Grand Rapids for five years. She was a member of Bible Study Fellowship, devoted herself to Love in the Name of Christ, a past president of the Grandville Ladies Literary Club and an avid basket weaver. She will be lovingly remembered by her daughter, Julie Vanden Berg of Holland; sons, Mark (Tamra) Vanden Berg of Novi, Thomas Vanden Berg (Loretta Ashley) of Spring Lake; grandsons, Matthew, Brent, Scott and Eric Vanden Berg; step grandsons, Brandon (Cassie), Justin (Sharon), Aaron Hall; great-granddaughters, Adelaide and Aberlein Vanden Berg; brother, Kenneth (Lee) Marks of Livingston, TX; eight nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her brother, Gordon Marks in 2012. Funeral services will be held Friday, 11 AM at First Allendale Christian Reformed Church, 5734 Country View, Allendale, with Rev. Tim Howerzyl officiating. Relatives and friends may meet the family Thursday from 3-8 PM at Matthysse-Kuiper-DeGraaf (corner of Avery and Scott) 6651 Scott St., Allendale. Those who wish may make memorial contributions to the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund. Condolences may be sent online at www.mkdfuneralhome.com.



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Sunday Restaurants

We started our day today at Mi Challitas for breakfast with ten of our friends. After breakfast most of the gang went to the salt lake north of Edinburg, La Sal del Rey. We decided to go to the state park to walk.

On the way we stopped at Retama Village to visit with Stuart and Lynn and get some photos of the mechanism suspending their New Horizons fifth wheel spare tire. We discovered our spare tire dangling low below the fifth wheel, and with part of the mechanism evidently missing, but we were unsure exactly what was missing and how it fit in. Now we know that the rod we knew was missing was attached by a cotter pin, which must have broken or fallen out.

We parked at Bentsen Palm Village and walked through to Retama. I couldn't help noticing that the organic gardens are looking quite lush.





This afternoon we picked up Steve and Jan for dinner at Las Margaritas, a local family owned Mexican restaurant that they like. We felt like we owed them more than just thanks for all the help Steve has given us, especially the massive pruning job on the citrus trees--and just for their friendship. We enjoyed the dinner and the company, and the chocolate fried ice cream (never heard of it before, but the chocolate ice cream was good).

It was great fun "hanging out" with Ed and Julie and Cate and Sam and Jesse. I love to see the kids' smiles. I'm sure they've been smiling a lot about all the time they've had off school. First they had an entire week of snow days in Atlanta. Then this last week they went to school on Monday, but school was closed Tuesday to Thursday for snow, Friday for a teacher work day, and tomorrow for Presidents' Day. Cate went to a birthday party yesterday at a roller skating rink. That reminded me of the year that we had a skating party in January combining all the kids' December and January birthdays. Read more!

More C-2

Today we had another C-2 lesson with Darryl. Steve and Jan brought their visitors, Ernie and Dorothy, to the class for the first hour and a half. Then when we broke for lunch, they all went to Mexico. We had lunch and another hour and a half lesson. We had three squares, thanks to some angels (Harlan and Jean and Roy and Phyllis).

Darryl reviewed the calls Randy taught on Thursday and taught several more calls. Although we all made mistakes and had trouble with some of the calls, I thought that things went pretty smoothly. We're making good progress. At the end, Darryl told us that the pace would pick up next week. He's planning to teach all the C-2 list before people start to head north. We all have our work cut out for us! Read more!

Valentine's Day

The sun shone on South Texas for Valentine's Day--it was a beautiful, warm sunny day. In fact this afternoon it was downright hot!

Not much happening today. We worked on our taxes some more. We got a call on our Qube we've listed for sale, but the caller didn't show up to see it. Better luck next time. We got caught in rush hour traffic. Yes, even in South Texas there's a rush hour, and we made the mistake of being out in it to go to the Trenton and 10th HEB.

Of course we watched more of the Olympics today, especially figure skating. Despite the errors, we saw lots of fabulous skating, especially Jason Brown's Riverdance free skate. Read more!

An Evening With Hal Linden

Most people probably know this actor, singer, musician from his role as Barney Miller in the TV show. Hal Linden (born Harold Lipshitz) has been performing for 65 years and definitely still has a strong, wide ranging voice and lots of energy. We renewed our season tickets for next year. One of the performances a year from now will be the New Shanghai Circus, a Chinese acrobatic troupe, in a performance described as "athletic-theatrical." We're looking forward to that one.

We had another C-2 lesson with Randy today with exactly two squares of students. We reviewed definitions before the class, but didn't quite get to all of them. I drew blanks on a couple of the calls we've supposedly learned. We need to spend more time studying. These lessons are going so quickly that it's really difficult to remember everything.

I talked with my Aunt Iris in Jacksonville tonight. She says that a cold front is moving in, but they haven't had the terrible winter weather that the rest of the south has suffered from. Read more!

YOLO!

We slept in this morning and woke to a bright sunny day with a high of 60°. No mall walking for us today, though we did still wear jackets. We even saw a shirtless guy lying out to catch some rays.

This evening we danced to Joe Saltel. He sure is a proud grandpa; he still has his iPad set up to show a slideshow of this new granddaughter. As usual we had lots of fun and enjoyed dancing and chatting with our friends. Steve spent the morning pruning the Cases' very large grapefruit tree. He's ready to retire his new chainsaw for the season. His knee was complaining about the rough treatment tonight.

We are still watching the Olympics. In addition to the figure skating, we've enjoyed watching snowboarding and slope style skiing. No matter what the event, the athletes are turning in amazing performances. We've learned some new jargon too, like the death spiral in pairs figure skating and the YOLO move in the halfpipe snowboarding event (YOLO: You Only Live Once). We also don't remember hearing the term "discipline" before. It seems to mean a branch of a sport, which I used to think of as events.

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Bone Chilling Cold--Again

We are officially tired of all this cold weather and ready for spring. Fortunately, this is forecast to be a short cold spell, and things will be better soon. Today we went to the mall to walk again and then did some grocery shopping and got fuel. After lunch we spent some time travel planning.

This evening we picked up Jan and Steve to go to Dave Heffron's dance at La Hacienda. We had four squares plus two couples. Thanks to a little help from our friends, we made it through at least some of the C-2 calls, but it's clear that we need to get serious about memorizing the definitions. We are also looking forward to having some time to walk through calls with our GGG square (Spauldings, Pottingers, Walenters, and us). Read more!

C-2 and C-1

That's not code: it's a description of our dancing today. We picked Jan and Steve up to go to La Hacienda for our Darryl C-2 lesson that was rescheduled from last Saturday. That lesson went from 10 to 12, and as usual required a lot of thought.

We got home in time to eat lunch, and before we knew it, Jan and Steve were picking us up for Darryl's C-1 dance. We had even squares (once Marty came over to dance with Jean), so everyone danced every tip after the first two. At the end of that dance, Darryl called a class level C-2 star tip. That adds up to a lot of dancing in a short time period. When we got back to Green Gate Grove, Steve and Jan were heading to the hot tub to soak. Steve was hoping that would calm his knee down.

I biked over to John and Sandy's to give them some of the oranges and tangelos we picked up this morning while we were out walking. Folks in GGG were sharing their bounty, so we scooped some up, since our orange tree and Spauldings' tangelo tree have been stripped.

John showed me some of the work he's doing on buildings for his model railroad layout at home. He has an HO narrow gauge setup that includes DCC controls. Each of his engines has an "address" and can be controlled independently while on the same track and by the same control unit. The technology has clearly moved forward since my old N gauge days. It has been a very long time since I was a model railroad enthusiast.

This evening we watched the rest of a Beatles special we recorded and watched part of yesterday: "The Beatles: The Night That Changed America — A GRAMMY Salute." It aired on the 50th anniversary of the first appearance of the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964. We're saving it to watch again. I wasn't very happy with some of the covers of Beatles songs by various current artists, but a few were really good. The best part was performances by Ringo and Paul, separately and together, that capped the evening. Read more!

Drastic Tree Pruning

You know you have a really good friend when he comes over with his tools and says he can't wait to prune your fruit trees. That's Steve for you. He did some preliminary pruning last spring after we bought the lot, but these trees needed a LOT of pruning. They were way too tall and overgrown, especially the grapefruit tree, which was again threatening the shed roof.

Steve brought over his new toy, er tool: an electric chain saw on an extension pole. He went to work taming the overgrowth and shortening the trees. As he pointed out, fruit that is too high to pick isn't doing anyone any good!

Steve got a better angle on the grapefruit tree from the shed roof.

I picked up several five gallon pails of grapefruit.

There were still tons on the ground.

Good neighbor Chuck helping too.

Ken carried heaps of branches out to the curb and raked piles of leaves and small branches.

I filled a large box with grapefruit for Steve and Jan's friends who are visiting next weekend. I filled the picnic table with fruit. We offered fruit to the neighbors behind Chuck's place. They didn't want any, but they suggested that a guy working across the street from them might want some. He spoke no English, and my Spanish is limited, but we managed to communicate. He came over and picked up all the fruit from the ground and put it in his trailer. That saved me a lot of work picking up all that fruit! The tree is still full of fruit.

We watched more of the Olympics today, mainly skating.
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Better

Ken is definitely feeling better today, but he's still congested and such. At least he's on the mend. We went for a walk this afternoon around the park. The sun actually came out and warmed things up a bit. Judy joined us for part of our hour's walk. It's great to have company.

We've been devoting ourselves to travel planning. Today we called Sandy Riverfront and changed our reservation to the month of August to match Anara's schedule better. We adjusted some of our other travels to accommodate that.

We watched some of the Olympics figure skating today. Such incredible athleticism and grace! We're trying to keep up with our recordings this year. During the last Olympics we ran out of space on the TIVO, and some of our other programs got deleted.

This evening we watched a Pete Seeger: the Power of Song. It was originally broadcast on American Masters on PBS in 2008 and encored in 2011. This broadcast ended with additional footage in memoriam, including the song "To My Old Brown Earth." Pete wrote it in 1958, and his family and friends sung it at his bedside when he died. It brought me to tears.

TO MY OLD BROWN EARTH

To my old brown earth
And to my old blue sky
I'll now give these last few molecules of "I."

And you who sing,
And you who stand nearby,
I do charge you not to cry.

Guard well our human chain,
Watch well you keep it strong,
As long as sun will shine.

And this our home,
Keep pure and sweet and green,
For now I'm yours
And you are also mine.

Words and Music by Pete Seeger (1958)
(c) 1964 (renewed) by Stormking Music Inc.

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2014 Olympics Opening Ceremonies

Tonight we watched the opening ceremonies in Sochi, rebroadcast at a time more convenient for North American viewing and then captured on our DVR. We fast forwarded through the arrival of some of the athletes, but focused on the American and Russian teams. The ceremonies were really awe inspiring in their scope and imagination and technical virtuosity. They portrayed Russian history as a series of dream sequences. We were struck by the sense of the depth of Russian history compared to the less than 300 years of U.S. history.

We woke to another cold, drizzly, overcast day. The first thing we did was put one of our 40 lb. propane tanks out to be refilled by Pony Express. It was quite late before the propane truck arrived. Our payment envelope was returned with a note indicating that the price of filling a 40 lb. tank is now $31. It was $26 when we arrived this season and had quickly gone up to $28.

We went to the mall to walk again. It's the best indoor walking opportunity for us, especially before the stores open.

Ken has been feeling pretty miserable with his cold and sinus symptoms. The medicine helps for a while, but once they start to wear off, he's worse for a while. We had already decided not to go to Progreso, Mexico, for a bon voyage party for G.W. and David, who are leaving on an extended cruise on February 14. We ended up staying home instead of going to the Ballet Folklorico tonight as we had planned with our friends. We're figuring that staying in and resting will speed Ken's recovery. Read more!

Chilly!

It's been one of those chilly, damp, overcast days. Ken has the sniffles and doesn't feel well, but we went to our C-2 class this afternoon and to Darryl's dance tonight. Good thing we got the exercise, because we didn't walk. Tomorrow morning we'll head to the mall to walk. Read more!

Oil Change

It was overcast and chilly this morning, so we decided to kill two birds with one stone and do our walking indoors while waiting for an oil change. The truck has been insisting for the last couple of days "Oil Change Required." We don't know what it will do if we don't obey its commands, so we figured we better see to it.

This afternoon Ken gave up on waiting for a nice warm sunny day to work on trimming our trees. He made a good start on the lemon tree. We carried a fairly large pile of leafy branches to the curb. Fortunately Green Gate Grove has a yard waste trailer that comes around to pick up the piles.

We finally picked up Ken's new prescription at CVS today. Third time's a charm. Twice before when we went to pick it up, we found that it had been filled with the wrong dosage. It's hard to tell where the error crept in, but it seems likely that Dr. George's assistant wrote down the wrong info. This isn't the first time we've had problems with prescription mix-ups with that office.

Tonight we went to Joe Saltel's C-1 dance. We had nine squares. Jan and Steve decided to come at the last minute, but we missed Hardy and Judy. It was as usual a good dance and lots of fun. Joe's mom was manning the check-in table. Joe had his iPad running a slide show of his new granddaughter on the stage, with a few new pictures this week. What a cutie!

Dick Hurzeler turned 79 today. We hope he had a good birthday. The weather in Tyler hasn't been great recently. The high today was just barely above freezing, with wind chill values as low as 12°F. Read more!

Dancing with Dave

This evening we attended our very first C-2 dance, called by Dave Heffron. We danced with Dave and Heidi in Southern California, when w were all members of the Trailblazers Advanced & Challenge Square Dance Club. At that point we were advanced dancers. Dave and Heidi came up to the dances from San Diego. Later Dave took a job in Austin. Now he travels weekly from Austin to the RGV for his work. He takes advantage of the opportunity to dance C-2 on Monday nights with Darryl. Now Darryl has asked him to call a class level C-2 dance for our class on Tuesday evenings.

It was exciting to hear a different caller and be at an actual dance, but it was also rather frustrating. Dave started with the calls we have learned most recently. It turns out that I haven't exactly learned all of those calls well enough to dance them. With a little help from my friends, I got through most of the "deer in the headlights" moments.

This morning I had my first appointment with a retinal specialist, Dr. Vincent Vann. It was a fascinating experience seeing scans of my retinas. It was also very reassuring to hear that most of the macular degeneration I have is in my left eye, which is the eye I don't use for central vision anyway. Dr. Vann says that I have only 1/10 as much AMD in my right eye. Now if it just stays that way for a long time.... He told me that since I have only one good eye, even though the problem is not as severe in my right eye I should see a retinal specialist every six months. Fortunately, this year in six months we will be in Portland, where the Casey Eye Institute is located. It's at the Oregon Health & Science University, where Chris is the University Librarian. How lucky is that? Read more!

Quiet Day

Not much happened today. We picked up Steve and Jan to go to Darryl's dance this afternoon. We had ten squares and three couples sitting out. After the dance he called a class level C-2 tip. We did pretty well. I was glad to have Chuck for my corner to help me out.

We did some laundry. We walked (but only for half an hour--forgot to do our afternoon walk). We remembered to pick up our mail, an oil filter I ordered from Amazon.

Tonight we watched yesterday's Downton Place episode.

Yesterday when I was making dips for the apple slices we were taking to the party, I had a strange experience. The chocolate dip came out just inedible. I wondered if there could possibly be something wrong with the cocoa powder I used, though I'd never heard of such a thing. I just tossed it out and made something else. Tonight I picked up the plastic bag of cocoa powder. Oops! It wasn't cocoa powder at all. It was garam masala! No wonder the dip was strange tasting! That's something that would be unlikely to happen to me if we weren't in an RV with limited pantry space. I often move items from their original containers into plastic bags or smaller containers to save space, which is why the cocoa powder and the garam masala were both in folded over plastic bags..... Read more!

Happy Groundhog Day! (and Oh, Yeah, Super Bowl Sunday Too)

We started our Sunday as usual at Mi Challitas, breakfasting with friends. Then on to the state park for a three-mile hike with Jean and Judy. We didn't see any groundhogs, but if we had, they wouldn't have seen their shadows. The sky was a leaden overcast all day, unusual for the RGV.

This evening was the annual Super Bowl party, graciously hosted again by G.W. and David. They have such a lovely home and plenty of room for lots of party goers.

Everyone had a great time, despite the disappointing game. How sad for Payton Manning and the Denver Broncos--all hail the Seattle Seahawks! For most of the game it seemed as if one team had just failed to show up.

One of David and G.W.'s friends from Reynosa, Julio, won the board. Who would have thought that the final score would be 36 to 8? The good news is that we won't be having the party in Reynosa next year. David and G.W. will host again. Thanks, guys!

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C-2 and Bill Cosby: Far from Finished!

We had our C-2 lesson with Darryl today. There were three squares of students. As usual, we learned a lot, experienced a fair share of confusion, and had plenty of fun. Darryl announced that Dave Heffron has agreed to hold class level C-2 dances on Tuesday evenings. Yay!

This evening Steve and Jan came over to watch a recording of a Bill Cosby special we have on our DVR. He had all of us in stitches. His comedic timing is perfect, and he can convey volumes with a twitch of an eyebrow! What a talented performer. Read more!