More Sunshine

Today was a red-letter day: Ken danced with me at Darryl's A-2 concept dance this morning. It was the first A-2 dance for him since before his surgery, and he did very well.

Afterward we went shopping, first to Home Depot and then to the mall. At Home Depot we picked up the pvc pipe and connectors to make a bike rack. We have seen several with different designs. When the project is finished, we'll post photos. At the mall we were looking for a sweater with a zipper front for Ken, but no luck. I did find a queen sheet set for 75% off at Sears to replace the ones we have that are developing holes.

The amazing thing is that Ken was able to dance and walk extensively around the mall without the kind of crippling pain he used to experience. He still has more pain than he would like, but clearly much less than he had before. Now he is pretty much able to do what he wants to do without the back pain interfering. That's a real milestone.

We did a bit more trip planning and called Dennis and Cheryl. Dennis is going to start making reservations with the plan to visit the north rim of the Grand Canyon, Bryce, and Zion during the first two weeks of June.
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Ropa!

Several of the ladies from the park made a trip to a couple of the large ropa usada (used clothing) places on 23rd Street in McAllen. I rode with Jane in her blue Prius. She's a bluegrass fan, so I got to listen to her favorite group, the Gibson Brothers. She admitted to being one of their groupies.

We stopped first at Hancock Fabrics so Jane could check on the features of a sewing machine she is considering. Then we went on to Tres Dimensiones and Tres Hermanos and another smaller ropa usada store. I managed to find a denim shirt after climbing a mountain of used clothing and sorting through lots of it. When I went to pay for it on the way out, the guy at the door waved me out (most people buy lots of ropa). At another place I found a plastic tumbler to use by the sink in the bath area for 27 cents. You can tell I'm the last of the big spenders!

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Shopping Day

Our visit to the Rio Grande Valley wouldn't be complete without a trip to the 30-acre Don-Wes Flea Market and the 5 1/2-acre Farmer's Market across the street. The markets are both open on Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays. We figured Wednesday might be less crowded, so we set out this morning with our packed lunch and our shopping list.

We actually found some of the things on our list, including a name sign to hang on the front of our rig when we're staying somewhere for a while--we figure it's the friendly thing to do (and we appreciate not having to rely on our memories to recall the names of our neighbors). Many people like the carved wooden signs made by a woodworker at the flea market, but we were looking for something small and lightweight.


I was looking for a fanny pack like the one Ken bought here last year. I didn't find exactly the right thing, but a funny thing happened as we walked around and looked at all the packs at various vendors. Ken remarked that he might be willing to give up his fanny pack, since it seemed to cause some back pain. We found an over the shoulder pack style for him that we hope will distribute the weight better and still keep a camera handy. I inherited Ken's pack. The main advantage is that it has a very handy drink holder that actually holds a decent sized water bottle. When the drink holder is not in use, it tucks away in its own little compartment. (Ken's new pack has the same nifty feature.)



We stocked up on lots of fresh fruit and veggies at the market, including some cute little butternut squash. Then we went on to the grocery store and stocked up some more. When we got home, I had to perform my magic trick of fitting lots more stuff into a refrigerator that is already full.


When we got home our neighbor offered us some fresh picked beets from his garden, along with advice on how his wife prepares them with their greens. They turned out sweet and delicious.

Today was a sunny, very warm day--the first to really feel like summer (whatever happened to spring?). We headed over to the pool and spa to relax a bit.
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Dancing and Laundry

This morning we headed to Tropic Star for Joe Saltel's dance--my last with Jean as my partner. She's leaving early tomorrow to head north, where she will lead a ski trip. Safe travels and happy skiing, Jean! Pottingers and Spauldings weren't at the dance--they went to a movie last night and didn't feel on top of the world this morning--but they planned to be at Randy's C-1 workshop in the afternoon.

Bob and Pat went with us to Subway for lunch, which worked out well--good lunch, good company, and we easily got back in time for the workshop. Randy was not as easy on us as Darryl had been, but we mostly ended up in the same square anyhow.

This evening we did our laundry. While the clothes were in the washers, we took our walk. A couple we passed commented, "You two are power walkers!" After we moved the clothes to the dryers, we took some time out to soak in the hot tub and socialize, then took our showers before folding the clothes.
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Darryl's C-1 Workshop

This afternoon we attended Darryl's C-1 workshop for the first time. We were pleasantly surprised that the class all did pretty well.

Tonight we went to the regular Monday evening Soup Night. A couple that owns a restaurant up north makes two kinds of soup every Monday evening. We were lucky to join the group tonight, since the chefs will only be here for one more week. For $4.50 each, we got salad, a choice of soup (we both had seafood chowder), bread, and fruit for dessert. It was all delicious, and we enjoyed the company.
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Sunday

Today was our last trip to La Hacienda for Joe Saltel's square dance lessons. The final lesson will be next week at Tropic Star. Today we had 18 couples, and that number will surely diminish by next week, as people begin to trickle out. Tomorrow we'll attend Darryl's workshop for the first time.

Today fit our old Sunday pattern in some ways. We slept in a bit later and had brunch--a breakfast buffet at the clubhouse. We used to get the Sunday LA Times delivered and read it in bed--that's a thing of the past. Now we play with our Droids.

Breakfast included fruit, sticky buns, milk, juice, coffee, sausage, ham, scrambled eggs, pancakes, biscuits, and sausage gravy. Plenty to hold us until a later dinner. We talked with a couple at our table who are bike riders, and they repeated the invitation to join the Thursday bike riding group. We'll probably do that, but this week I'm going with a group of ladies for a trip to "ropa." That's short for "ropa usada" (used clothing)--and the trip will be to the largest store, which has mountains of clothing sold by the pound. It's a treasure hunt. Ken is glad that I'm going with a group (that means he doesn't have to go).

I talked to Chris last night. He and Annie had a great time in El Junque National Park, hiking in the rainforest and seeing lots of birds, but the next three days of meetings with Annie stuck in the hotel were boring. Annie is downloading books from Stanza on her iPhone now, so at least she didn't run out of reading material.
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Graduation!

It's the Fun in the Sun weekend at our park--only the sun didn't get the word. The diehard petanque and horseshoe players were out on the courts despite the wind and drizzle this morning, but this afternoon it warmed up a bit and was dry.

Tonight was our C-1 graduation dance at La Hacienda. Everyone was invited to bring munchies, so I made pumpkin spice cookies (my specialty, because they are the easiest cookies ever). As usual, there was lots of grazing. Jan brought chips and sausage cheese dip in a cute small crock pot.

The dancing was fun, and we were mostly surprisingly successful. As usual, Ken drove to the dance while I read call definitions aloud. Before the last tip, there was a brief ceremony. People who had put their names on the list got fancy certificates (Darryl said he'd had to practice his calligraphy for hours). We didn't ask for a certificate--no room, and I guess the real proof that you've graduated is being able to dance the calls!

Smiling Darryl

Munchies!

Fancy outfit

Even though we've "graduated," Joe is having two more Sunday afternoon classes, this week and next. And of course we'll be attending Darryl's and Randy's workshops.
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Campfire

I danced this morning with Jean for the last time at Darryl's dance. It's March, and dancers have started to head north, but there were still 25 squares. We missed our friends Hardy and Judy and others who are away on a trip to Mexico.

This evening there was a campfire with free hotdogs and lots of good camaraderie. We had hoped for better weather--it's been cloudy and threatening to rain all day, and the rest of the weekend doesn't look much better.
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New Tires

Our Silverado hit 40,000 miles last week, so of course the original equipment tires were getting down to the wear bars. Where did all those miles go? How could our new truck need tires? After I got over my shock, Ken started looking for the best deal on the best tires. We ended up at Discount Tire buying six Michelin tires with 70,000 mile warranty for $191 each. With installation, tire disposal, and metal valve stems, plus tax, the total was nearly $1,400. For that we hope to get three years of safe, comfortable travel.

Notice the smiling Michelin Man (and the nice deep treads)

Since we were out we went to HEB in Edinburg. If we didn't already know we're near the Mexican border, a perusal of the shelves would have clued us in. There were no less than five different displays of various types of tortillas, plus the fresh warm ones in the coolers by the door. Read more!

Great Water Pressure

We've been dealing with low water pressure on and off since we've been on the road. It seems that the inexpensive brass water pressure regulators don't actually deliver the pressure promised on the package. We've tried three different kinds of water filters to keep the sediment out of our plumbing, but they seems to fill up quickly and reduce flow a lot. We've also had trouble with hoses kinking, and that definitely can cut down your water flow.

So we did some online research and ended up ordering a Watts 263A regulator from the Water Filter Store online. It's adjustable and provides 4-4.5 gpm flow (gallons per minute). We also got some better quality hoses, a water filter canister, and a reusable 5 micron sediment filter (3-4 gpm) to go in it. We installed the new equipment inside a compartment, so we won't have to deal with them every time we break down and set up. We have the regulator set on 50 psi, which provides a very decent shower. Success at last!

Regulator is attached to the left of the filter. Although this looks a bit of a tangle, it's beautiful to us.

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First C-1 Workshop

We started out this morning by going to Joe Saltel's dance at Tropic Star, where I danced with Jean, as usual. She is always attractively dressed and has a bright, friendly smile for everyone. I've really been enjoying dancing with her and finally remembered to ask Ken to take a photo of us together.

Jean Ballinger with Lee (photo taken with Ken's Droid)

Our friends Hardy and Judy have been going on from that dance to lunch at Taco Fiesta next door and then on to Randy Dougherty's C-1 Workshop across the street at Pharr South. Today for the first time we joined them, along with our fellow class members Steve and Jan and Bob and Pat.

We had a little trepidation at jumping into the swim of C-1 with more experienced dancers, but Randy went easy on us, and most squares felt good about actually dancing this stuff (at least most of the time). Randy did introduce a couple of unusual variations of Chain Reaction.

The C-1 dancers were patient and helpful. We actually know and have danced with most of them. Marion and Velma from Missouri were there. We're familiar with them from Romney Tannehill's dances and weekends in Southern California, and it was nice to see them again. They've bought a park model at Twin Lakes.

This evening we attended a Luau dinner at the clubhouse. The hosts provided pulled pork (with barbecue sauce or plain) and chicken. Everyone else brought side dishes and desserts. The decorations were colorful, and so were the attendees, many in Hawaiian shirts and dresses. After dinner there was a dance with entertainer, singer, musician and songwriter Ronnie Furr and his vivacious wife, Terri. I did some line dancing, but Ken thought he'd had enough for the day. We both enjoyed watching all the couples dancing the two-step, cha-cha, and fifteen step.

Ronnie Furr entertains the crowd.

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March Comes In Like a Lion

As we sit in our cozy home tonight, it is buffeted by winds that creak and howl around it, with gusts up to 48 mph. Even though today was sunny and warm, tonight it felt chilly and blustery outside when we took our walk. We hope that the rest of the saying will prevail and that March will get to being more lamb-like shortly!

This morning we did our laundry. The dryers here are much more efficient than those at Bentsen Palm, so we may not choose to go to an outside laundromat. This afternoon was our last class with Randy. He taught the Siamese concept and Switch the Line. That concludes the C-1 list, except for Chain Reaction variations and some modifying terms, which Randy will be workshopping in his Tuesday afternoon workshop. We'll be dancing with more experienced C-1 dancers, but he says that they need some practice at the Chain Reaction variations too. Next week we'll start attending Darryl's Monday afternoon workshop too.
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Moving Day

We took a last walk around Bentsen Palm Village this morning. We were surprised to see several hawks circling overhead. Then they were joined by more, and as we looked around, we counted 17 hawks circling overhead, quite a sight.

We've been sitting still for three months, so packing up to leave and hitching up were very unfamiliar feeling tasks. We went up to the office to check out and pay our final month's electric bill. The nice lady at the desk turned out to be Mark Brown's wife, and we thanked her very much for being so patient when Mark was out so late working on our plumbing leak.

We drove over to Tropic Star for our C-1 lesson. When we arrived it was noon, so we fixed a lunch and went into the hall to eat and wait for the class to start. I finally had a chance to call Julie back. Yesterday she had left a voicemail that wasn't too clear, but mentioned an accident and damage to Ed's car but said he was okay. It turns out that he was the third car in a three-car pileup on a rain wet road. No one was hurt, and Ed's airbag didn't even deploy, but the front end of the car was damaged, and he was pretty shook up.

Doris came to class with her friend again, and without Bob, who felt even worse today than yesterday. We're hoping he recovers soon. Doris danced a couple of tips with Don and one with Ken. We learned Linear Action and Zing, neither of which is too difficult, and reviewed Percolate and Relay the Shadow and several others. We're really doing pretty well, but we don't like getting muddled, and that's bound to happen in lessons. Everyone is good natured about the mistakes and helps each other out, fortunately.

After the lesson we headed to Edcouch and checked in. I'll get to hitch up and park the rig for a while, because both require twisting around to look out the back of the truck. It felt good to get our house back together, especially since it was quite windy outside. After supper we went over to the exercise room, hoping to find treadmills and TV, but instead found an exercise bike and an elliptical trainer and no TV, so I played my Motzart Pandora channel on my Droid. The elliptical trainer is much more strenuous than a treadmill, and 15 minutes was about all I could handle. Ken rode the bike, which he also felt was challenging.

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Mariachis!

We started the day by going to our C-1 class at La Hacienda with Darryl Lipscomb for the last time. We're "graduating" to attending his C-1 workshop  instead. Today we learned to Relay the Shadow and Checkover, among other things. Now we have only a few calls left to learn, but we have been dancing all the C-1 calls mostly from a single starting formation, so it will take a while for us to feel comfortable with doing them from all the possible starting points.

We talked with Doris at the class. She has seen the orthopedic surgeon, who took some x-rays and now wants to do a dye injection to see more clearly what's going on. She sounded impressed by the doctor's experience with scoliosis patients and his understanding of her situation.  She also has an appointment with Dr. Six towards the end of March, but she still has to get her CAT scans from up north to him. She was dancing with Lila today because Bob was at home with a sore throat. Her friend Karen had flown in from Salem, OR, to visit for a week and was observing the class. She seemed much quieter than Doris, but evidently they have been best friends since they lived in Denver together many years ago.

We headed home for a quick lunch and then set out for Palmview High School to attend a mariachi performance. As we were headed north on Bentsen Palm, we got a call from Steve. They and Pottingers were traveling together and had gone to the new school, where they had directed us, and found out that the show was actually in La Joya. We met and followed them out to the school, arriving in time to find some good seats in the balcony.

The performing arts center at the high school was state of the art and would have put many community arts centers to shame. The show was equally impressive. The musicians and dancers were skilled and energetic, and they presented a varied selection of dance and music from various areas of Mexico and South America. The costumes were colorful and flashy, and the lighting was varied and dynamic. All in all it was quite an experience.  The show included three performing groups: Mariachi "Los Lobos," Grupo Folklorico "Ozomatli," and Conjunto "La Tradicion." All the performers were in 9th through 12th grades and must maintain academic excellence to participate.

We forgot to take the camera, so the photos we have were taken with Ken's Droid from the balcony, so it's a wonder that any of them came out as well as these two did:

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Leak Repair Success!

One of the pluses of being in site 244 is that we back up onto the dog run and a field where cattle graze, so we get to see some interesting animal behavior. This morning we watched a man with a dog and a ball. We've seen lots of dogs chasing balls, but this one was different. First Ken noticed that the ball was a large red one. Then we saw that the dog was moving it about using only its nose. It looked like a soccer player as it pushed the ball back to its owner. When the ball was lodged against the fence, the dog managed to toss it up and balance it on its nose, like a trained seal. This provided us with entertainment during breakfast.

After breakfast we drove over to Mission Bell where we dance to Darryl Lipscomb. This morning I danced with Jean. She'll be leaving the Valley on March 10. I'll miss her--she's been a great partner and I've been lucky to have her to dance with. She's an accomplished dancer and very sociable and nice. Our C-1 class level tip included Marty and Kit, Clint and Helen, and Bill and Marlene. We did well with lots of help from the experienced dancers.

After the dance we drove over to McAllen to see if we could get our vacuum power brush fixed. The guy who looked at it concluded that there was nothing wrong with it. He explained that it is vacuum driven, so if it wasn't spinning fast enough and working effectively, it must be a problem with the vacuum cleaner. We thanked him and went home to wash the filter and change the bag on the Dirt Devil. Although the bag had not seemed overly full, the difference was dramatic, and the whole rig got swept.

This afternoon was the test for Mark's latest efforts to stop our leak. It was with hope but trepidation that I got ready to hose the side of the slide. First I taped off the window and the slide seal area, although we did not think these areas could be involved. I turned the hose on the crucial area and let it run at fair pressure for a minute or so, and then I waited five minutes before checking to see if any water had appeared in the slide corner inside. So far, so good. I decided to wait a few more minutes and look again, then went out to spray more heavily and for longer. Successive checks inside were negative, so I removed the tape from the window area and hosed it all again. When no leak appeared, I removed the rest of the tape and really hosed the area heavily. Success! I called Mark and thanked him for his persistence and insight.

We paid two RV dealers hundreds of dollars to fix the leak with no success. Mays RV told us they had removed the screws and put sealant in the holes. Watching Mark remove the screws, it didn't appear that the screw holes had been sealed. We were surprised to see how large the gap was between the sidewall of the slide and the metal strip along the outside. Mark pumped a lot of sealant into the gap, and that may have been the key.

Ken started preparing the bike rack and other areas for painting. He spent a couple of hours sanding the rust off, but the wind was too high to spray paint. It's springtime and the sunshine is encouraging us to catch up on our maintenance tasks.

Tonight we watched our recording of the Olympic Women's Figure Skating Finals. All of the skaters were impressive, but the gold medal winner, 19-year-old Korean skater, Yu-Na Kim, was entrancing.  We are casual skating viewers, but we learned a lot about some of the finer points by watching the skating during this Olympics.  We really liked the Americans Rachael Flatt and Mirai Nagasu. Although they didn't medal, they're definitely talented and at sixteen should have more Olympic games in their futures. Both have appealing personalities too. Read more!

Bike Ride

We took a bike ride this morning to the park,this time remembering to take the binoculars so we could get a little better look at the birds. The sun was shining and the sky was a deep, clear blue, but it was cool and very windy. The windy part means that I had to shift to 1-3, a very low gear, and still made only 7 mph heading into the wind (although that may be a reflection of my being out of shape rather than the actual force of the wind).

In the last couple of weeks the redwing blackbirds have invaded, and we saw many of them in the park, jostling with the green jays and the kiskadees and the cardinals and the Altamira Orioles for access to the feeders. They are a noisy bunch! We did see plenty of birds at the feeders, but almost none in the resacas--only a few grebes. I didn't notice a single butterfly--between the freeze killing them off and the wind blowing them away, they didn't stand a chance.

How about those Green Jays???	Peeking out

Free souvenir! Woohoo!

Turtles sunning

Squirrels and javelinas appreciate the overflow from the feeders

Hmm, can I leap onto that feeder and get away with an orange?

This afternoon Mark came by to work on our leak, again. He painstakingly removed all the sealant and screws near the leaking corner and loosened the trim, then injected sealant under the trim and the screws and replaced them and put a sealant bead along the edges. He suggested letting it cure overnight before spraying water on it to see if the leak still leaks--or we've actually finally licked it. Here's hoping.

Nick's RV Wash team showed up to gussy up the Brute (our truck). Three guys made short work of it, and now you have to wear sunshades to look at the truck. They did a great job.
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That Darn Leak

We dried the area by the bed where we've had our leak thoroughly so we could test it. I started with a gentle sprinkle and was encouraged--so far, so good. Then a harder spray--still dry. Did we dare hope? I tried a hard shower, and this time the telltale wetness appeared in the corner. Damn! I called Mark, who agreed to stop by tomorrow afternoon to take a look.

Ken checked all the tires and topped off the ones that were low. I cleaned the end cap and started to wash the truck, but then decided to call Nick's RV Wash. We had seen them washing a truck in the park and asked how much they would charge to wash and wax it. They'll come tomorrow afternoon, and we'll have a shiny truck for just $20.
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Medicare Signup

This morning we went to Joe Saltel's dance at Tropic Star. I danced with Jean again, but I found out that she will be going back to Indiana in a couple of weeks. Most of her other partners have already left. In the hot hash tip at the end, I finally got to dance with Marty and Kit for the first time this season. The dances are so big that the odds of dancing with any given couple are pretty low. Hardy and Judy and Linda and Terry were in the square too--we had a great time.

On the way home we stopped to do some grocery shopping, then headed home to eat lunch quickly before Ken's scheduled call from Social Security about his Medicare signup. Interestingly, you can't sign up for Medicare online; you have to call, and when you do, they make an appointment for a telephone call. It was quick and pretty straightforward. Ken signed up for Medicare Parts A and B, which will start of May 1, although his birthday isn't until May 14. We're still waiting for the information from Northrop Grumman about the Medicare supplemental type policy they will subsidize.
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Wet Carpet

This morning we got up and did our laundry. The laundromat has raised their prices on the washers and decreased the number of minutes per quarter on the dryers, but we have clean clothes again.

After lunch Ken went to pick up Steve and Jan. Steve had offered to help us with our leak problem in the bedroom slide. At his suggestion I had tried to cut and lift the carpet under the bed where it has been getting wet so that we could inspect the damage. Also, once the area dries, we will be able to tell more easily if it is continuing to get wet when it rains. My efforts weren't getting anywhere, so Steve came to the rescue. He brought his newer, sharper box knife, strength, and determination--and succeeded in laying bare the damaged particle board, which is definitely damp, mildewed, and soft in the corner. He looked outside and could find no area that didn't look well sealed. So now we'll wait and see. It's supposed to rain tomorrow, but we don't know how much.

Afterwards we all went to Pharr South for Randy Dougherty's C-1 lesson. Randy is a good teacher and managed to encourage everyone and teach a couple of new calls. He also took a poll of how many class members would be staying in the Valley during March (most are). The program is going to change in March, with Randy and Darryl discontinuing their C-1 classes and instead inviting the class members to attend their regular C-1 workshops on Monday (Darryl) and Tuesday (Randy). Joe will continue his class through the middle of March.

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Trip Planning

Today we went to Joe Saltel's C-1 class. Everyone was having difficulties, and Joe's explanations did not seem as clear as Darryl's had been. We learned a couple of new calls, including Cross Chain Thru.

We finally got around to doing some trip planning this evening. Dennis and Cheryl had suggested that June would be a better time to explore the Utah parks with them, so we looked at reversing our route to go first to Utah and Yellowstone before the Badlands and the Black Hills. It should work fine, since our Yellowstone reservations are right in the middle of our travel time, the five months from May through September. We are committed to volunteering at CARE in October. We still have plenty of flexibility on both sides of the Yellowstone visit. Read more!