Last Dance

Today was our last dance of the season: Darryl Lipscomb's C-2 dance. We had five squares plus three spare couples. Many people have already left the RGV, and more of us will be leaving shortly. Jan and Steve were there, so we got to see them for one last time. Steve has a severe sinus infection, but he didn't want to let it get him down. Get well soon, Steve!

We enjoyed dancing with everyone. Darryl played around with some once-removed calls, but mostly called a smooth dance for our last chance dance!

We spotted this flag while we were out walking earlier today. It reminded us of our friends, Tom and Nanci, only both of them are cat lovers--no "normal" people in their house.

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The New, Improved Ken and Lee's RV Adventures

After having maintained a very nearly daily blog for the last seven years, I've decided to try a new approach. From now on, Ken and Lee's RV Adventures will feature occasional posts, mainly when something of special interest has occurred in our traveling lives. I (Lee) will continue to write the blog posts, and Ken will continue to provide photos to enliven the accounts.

I'll post at least briefly whenever we are on the move, so that friends and family will know where in the world we are. A visit to a national park will definitely rate a post or several, but spotting an interesting bird might rate a post too.

Anyhow, we did move yesterday, after spending several days preparing, wrapping up our tasks at Green Gate Grove. We had been settled there since November 19, over four months, so our hitching up and moving skills had gotten a bit rusty, as usual. We used our checklists, but I still overlooked an item, which Ken caught. He reminded me that that's why there are two of us!

We had a problem with our rooftop satellite dish. It refused to stow itself, and we had to call Winegard tech support, but the fix was relatively easy. The tech support person walked us through some menu items on the control box to recalibrate the dish, and voila! all was well. We stopped at Bert Ogden to get our annual refrigerator maintenance done and have the RV safety inspected. Then we went to Costco and headed north--but not too far. We're in Edcouch for a week.

Last night we went to our final McAllen Community Concert. The program was titled "Simply Sinatra," and the vocalist provided some enjoyable renditions of hits recorded by Sinatra and some of his contemporaries. The backup band played big band sounds to complete the illusion of being transported back to the 50s and 60s.


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Behind

Yikes! I've gotten behind on my blog posts. We've been really busy, but I promise to catch up tomorrow. Read more!

Call the Midwife!

The new season of Call the Midwife started this evening. It was a real treat to sit down with a cup of tea to watch it.

Today is our friend Nanci's birthday, so we were thinking of her today. We hope it was a good one, Nanci!

We had a very busy day working on preparations for our move tomorrow. We did some laundry and cleaned the rig inside. Ken pounded in fertilizer stakes around all the trees. It was easy to do this spring because the ground is soft from the rain. He also greased the axle and hitch zerk fittings (a very messy job). He checked all the tire pressures and put air in two of the truck tires. We draped all the furniture in the Texas room, set out containers of water to maintain some humidity over the summer, sealed all the drains, and set off bug bombs. We moved some items from the shed to the cargo bay and reorganized the cargo for travel.

We need to make a checklist for closing up the place--and start earlier in the week next year. It's too much to do in one day.

We got in only a half hour bike ride around Green Gate Grove as it was beginning to get dark. Read more!

Friends

We biked 13.5 miles today at the state park. A lot of families were around, and a Segway tour was at the Nature Center when we passed.

This evening we went over to Jan and Steve's to play cards. Jean and John and Sandy were there too. We played "Play Nine" which Jean won. We had some veggies and cheese and crackers, but the real hit was the Moo-llennium Crunch Blue Bell Ice Cream that John and Sandy brought over, with chocolate topping. Yummy, but Ken says it's not quite as good as he remembers it. Maybe it used to have more crunch??? Read more!

Another Quiet Day

We biked around the state park again, racking up a little over twelve miles. We are both trying out some padded biking underwear we ordered from Amazon. Tomorrow I'm going to wear my biking shorts that I've had for years. The advantage of the padded underwear is that it's lightweight, so it can be washed out at night and be dry by the next morning, so we'll see.

We had warm clear weather for our ride, but this afternoon a cold front blew in, and we had some rain. The temperature dropped 15 degrees, but then started to rise again. Over the next several days, we're expecting sun and temperatures in the upper 70s and low 80s.

We did some more trip planning today. The park we've been staying at in Tyler is booked solid now. We've been afraid that would happen. It's a nice place and conveniently located right by the new toll road. The best alternative we've been able to identify that will fit our rig is almost twice as far from Carol's house, and we don't know yet what their availability is. We did get a site in Lewisville, but not one of our preferred sites. Moral of the story: start to plan sooner!

Ken's granddaughter, Cathy, is graduating from high school on June 4. She's attending an online school, and the commencement ceremony is in Long Beach. He's planning to fly out for the occasion but needs to coordinate his visit with Rebecca and Cathy's schedules. Read more!

Last Joe Dance

We went to Joe Saltel's last Wednesday night dance for this season. We had five squares and lots of fun. There were lots of goodbye hugs and wishes for safe travels, as many people are heading north in the next few days.

At the dance yesterday, Linda was offering to sell one of her two Vitamix machines. Several of the dancers chimed in with how much they loved their Vitamix, and I ended up deciding to buy. I've been intrigued by them for some time, so we shall see. Linda brought the machine to the dance tonight, so I am now the proud but uncertain owner of a Vitamix. It looks quite imposing.

We did a twelve mile bike ride today and spent some time packing and preparing for our upcoming move. Read more!

Biking and Dancing

Today was a great sunny warm day. This morning we biked around the state park for a total of 11.5 miles. We need to up our distances to get in training.

We also got some things done around the rig and lot. Ken swapped out our water filters (one for sediment followed by one for lead and other nasties). I treated our citrus trees with Bayer Advanced  Fruit, Citrus and Vegetable Insect Control Concentrate to prevent citrus greening (we hope). We cleaned up some leaves and removed grass growing where the driveway meets the street and sprayed some weed control. We realize that our time in the RGV is getting short and we need to get things done.

This evening we went to Darryl's Tuesday C-2 class dance. We had three squares plus one couple, which worked out well. Darryl walked us through some things, including a new C-2 level rotate call that he said is almost never called. We probably won't remember it if anyone ever does call it at a dance, but it's good to know about. Jan and Steve were there too. They had forgotten that they had tickets for the band concert tonight, which was just as well. We all need the floor time, especially with Darryl explaining things.

Darryl is just back from Bakersfield and had photos. They had a good crowd. The callers all wore suits and ties. (Maybe that's what inspired him to get his haircut--no ponytail!)  Vic Ceder had to buy a white shirt and go online to find out how to tie a tie! Wish we could somehow magically transport ourselves to Bakersfield to dance with all our old friends. Read more!

Happy Birthday, Jeff!

Today is Jeff's 43rd birthday. He took the day off work to celebrate. Ken said Jeff was out shopping when he called and sounded good. Jeff and Sabrina went to Southern California for his mom's memorial service last Saturday.

We borrowed Steve's tall extension ladder to climb up and reach the cacti growing on our canopy. Jean was at the Texas room picking up the rest of her stuff and dropping off keys. She's staying with G.W. and David this week. John and Steve were working on installing the replacement side panel on Steve and Jan's trailer where a tire blowout had ripped up the side of the trailer. The replacement looks very nice.

Cactus removal was easier with the longer ladder, but still not really easy! The darn cacti are very tough and have their roots twisted down into the frame, so it was difficult to hack them out. Chuck from next door came over and offered to help. I was glad to let him wrestle with the second group of plants.

We got to talking about modifying the steps we had bought. Chuck helped me move them over to see how the rail fit with the assist handle. It fits perfectly, and Chuck and Ken pointed out that we could use our top rig step along with the portable steps. Great idea! Now we have a much more stable entry, with a wide platform--and no need to modify the steps. We will have to sand and paint them, but that's a project for our return in the fall.

Chuck and Carol

We went for a bike ride this afternoon at the state park. It was warm and sunny--too warm, actually. We'll try to get out earlier tomorrow.

We got together with Walenters at the Spauldings house for an impromptu shared meal. Jan had made German potato salad. We took along some cole slaw and some fish bites dredged in corn meal and fried. They were good, but unexpectedly crunchy. The corn meal was a bit coarser ground than I've used before.

This evening Todd Fellegy was still calling for Darryl. We had nine squares at TVA. Everyone had fun. We stopped at Home Depot on the way home to pick up some more Bayer Advanced to treat the citrus trees. Read more!

Friends for Cards

We played cards tonight with John and Sandy and Steve and Jan. First we played Walenters' favorite game, Sevens from Hell, with two three person teams (men and women). The women were so far ahead after the second round that the men conceded.

We moved on to playing Five Crowns. It's a fast moving, easy game, so it's easy to chat and eat. I tried to pop some popcorn in the Texas room microwave, which was a disaster. It must not have much power. The next bag popped in the rig microwave just fine.

Steve and Jan brought over some nice fish filets for the Walenters and us. Steve had filleted them and put them in quart freezer bags in salt water. They'll need to be rinsed off tomorrow. They are all sheepshead, which I don't remember eating before, so this will be a treat. Read more!

A Hard Rain in the Valley

We are used to rain; we've had plenty of rain and clouds this winter. But hard rain is more unusual. The streets get large flooded puddles, and our patio is a mess, again. The rain did stop in time for us to walk today. We are hoping that tomorrow the weather will be pleasant for the folks going fishing at South Padre.

We did some more trip planning today and got reservations for a few campgrounds. We signed up for Romney Tannehill's June Fling outside of St. Louis. We attended this weekend in 2011 and again in 2013 and had a great time. It's always a pleasure to see Romney again and to dance to his calling.

We found a good campground to stay at when we leave Indianapolis on the way to Cleveland. It's located "WHERE THE CLEAR FORK RIVER AND THE B&O BIKE TRAIL CROSS." That means we'll have plenty of opportunity to get on the bikes and stay in shape for our bike and barge trip in France. They offer a good discount for Passport America members, and since we'll be staying for two weeks, we'll save enough that we've finally decided to join, after thinking about it for some time now.

We also finally finished our federal income taxes and got the forms ready to mail. Yay! Read more!

Busy Day

We had a treat today: Todd Fellegy is filling in for Darryl for a few days. Darryl is off calling in Bakersfield, where many of our good friends from Southern California are no doubt having a great time.

Todd called an interesting and challenging C-2 session. We had nine squares, which is good considering that dancers have already started heading north. Randy and Darlene even came to dance. Todd didn't call anything especially difficult--except that we are not used to his voice and unfamiliar with his choreography. We had a couple of exceptionally good tips and some others that were a bit less so, but all of it was enjoyable.

We stopped at the 99 Cents Only store on the way home. There is only one in the area, and it's near the dance location. I used to shop at these stores in California, where they are more numerous. This one opened here a couple of years ago. Things have changed, as I knew they must. Much of the merchandise is still priced at 99.999 cents, but they now carry some things at higher price points. Read more!

Tough Day

We have decided that we must be getting old. Today we went for our ten-mile bike ride to the state park. When we got home, we decided to borrow the neighbor's tall ladder and see about removing some cacti that are growing in a channel along the edge of our canopy.

The ladder isn't really quite tall enough, so I was reaching overhead, getting cactus spines in my hands, and cussing the cacti. I finally managed to break one off, unfortunately leaving the roots intact. Admitting defeat, we decided to wait until we had a taller ladder so we could see what's going on up there. At least three more of the darn things are flourishing up there.

Next we moved the ladder over by the rig to replace some burned out bulbs in our exterior lights (referred to as "scare lights" on an RV--what we do not know). Of course this also involved reaching overhead and wrestling with recalcitrant hardware. Between us we finally got the bulbs changed and all of the lenses washed, so now we have lights again.

At that point we barely had enough energy to return the ladder to the neighbor before going inside to collapse for a while before fixing lunch. We did manage to go through our recent package of mail to figure out which required action and which could be recycled.

Texas is in the process of integrating its vehicle registration and safety inspection sticker process. We got a notice that we will not be able to register our fifth wheel until we get a valid safety inspection report. Then we have to take that report and the notice to the tax office to renew our registration. The new registration sticker will include and supersede the former inspection sticker. In the long run this will simplify life, since we are always in Texas in the spring and will be able to have both of our vehicles inspected and then registered at the same time. (For some RVers who are not in the state in the 90 days before their vehicle registration expires, there might be a problem. The online information doesn't address that possibility.)

Finally we spent some time on planning our getaway--er, our itinerary when we leave our winter home and head north. When we pull out of Green Gate Grove, we will go to Bert Ogden RGV RV Center to have our annual refrigerator maintenance done and get our Majestic inspected. Then we can get our new registration sticker before we head north.

Ken juiced the remaining lemons from our tree. He's been making some great lemonade. I don't know what we'll do when we no longer have a seemingly endless supply of delicious citrus fruit.

We had a very unusual dish for dinner tonight--and Ken pronounced it excellent! I had some cauliflower left over after making an Indian fish curry. What to do? Ken does not care for cauliflower. I checked online and found recipes for cauliflower "fried rice." Interesting concept, and it turned out delicious. I used Gina's Skinnytaste recipe (modified a bit of course). We always like her recipes. To make it a meal, I added turkey ham cubes, slaw with peanut dressing, and fresh pineapple chunks. I think I'll buy cauliflower again! Read more!

Guests

Today we spent some time cleaning and cutting citrus fruit, doing laundry, and cleaning up the patio and the Texas room. Jean's daughter, Connie, and grandchildren, Brooks and Brandt, arrived today. Two of them will be staying in our Texas room. Jean and the other person will be staying in Jan and Steve's Texas room. It's conveniently just a block away.

Cleaning up the patio is an ongoing issue, especially since it's been raining so much. The tiles get wet and puddled, which makes the dead leaves stick. It's a good thing I have a mop with detachable microfiber pads. That's the only thing that works to dry the patio up a bit.

I talked with Terri today. She met a woman in Singapore, Nora Marks, whose husband, Ken, is an aerospace engineer. So Ken has a doppelganger. The couple hail from Connecticut, so if they are related to Ken, it's a distant relationship. His ancestors came from Germany to Michigan, with no stops in Connecticut.

This evening we went to Joe's C-1 dance. The number was 18, then 19, and by the third tip, 20. Mike Hall was nice enough to come over to fill that last square, so we ended up with five squares. People have started leaving. Next week will be Joe's last Wednesday night dance for the season. The time has just flown by. Read more!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

This morning we went to Darryl's C-2 dance. One of the dancers, whose name is (coincidentally?) Patrick, celebrates his 80th birthday, exactly two minutes after midnight. He and lots of other dancers were wearing the green.

This afternoon we went to a St. Patrick's Day party at Hardy and Judy's. Judy made some really delicious corned beef with cabbage and potatoes and carrots, and everyone else brought a contribution. We had a wonderful time, great food and great company. After dinner some of us played cards. Of course the beginner won. Congrats, Bob!

Attending the party were Steve and Jan, John and Sandy, Bob and Pat Boyink, Jim and Pat, Jean, and Ken and I. Read more!

Dull Day

Today was another day with no sunshine, but it was in the 60's, so we were able to walk around our park. We didn't bike because Ken wasn't feeling great. He seems to have a cold and maybe a tummy problem, but he's not looking very ill.

He did take a nap, which he never does. We decided to give the dance tonight a pass so he could rest and just in case he's contagious, but we're hoping to dance tomorrow and go to the Pottingers' St. Patrick's Day party.

We did a bit more trip planning and bought some train tickets. It's difficult to figure out when the tickets will be available, and we missed out being able to get the schedule we wanted on one route. Tickets were not yet available a few days ago. We are definitely making progress. Read more!

Quiet Day

We had a quiet day today. Skipped breakfast at Rosie's in favor of sleeping in a bit and fixing breakfast at home (tomato juice, citrus fruit, organic free-range eggs, turkey sausage patties, and actual whole wheat toast with soy milk and coffee, yum!).

We thought today might be very rainy from the forecast, but the rain held off, so we rode our bikes to the state park. We ran into Judy as we were leaving the park. She had been walking but decided to cut her walk a bit short because she felt a little off.

This evening we watched the first episode of Mr. Selfridge, Season 2. We missed watching it last year, so we've recorded the rebroadcasts over the last two Sundays in preparation for the beginning of Season 3. We recognize our old friends from Season 1, but the situation is complicated for all kinds of reasons, including the outbreak of WWI. Read more!

Fish Fry!

Today is Pi Day (3-14-15) and the date of the annual fish fry at our friends the Spauldings place. The weather cooperated, fortunately, since tomorrow another cold, wet front will push down to South Texas. Steve is an avid angler who regularly heads to South Padre Island to go fishing on one of the charter boats. He saves and freezes his catch, and every spring before everyone heads home, he and Jan put on a great fish fry. This year Tim brought some red snapper throats from fish he caught yesterday. You have to fight with the bones, but it's delicious and well worth the effort.

Chef Steve manages frying, deep frying, and plank grilling some delicious fish!

Our official dessert chef Pat with the apple crisp, cherry cheesecake pie, and chocolate chip cookies she brought for the party.

This morning we went for a bike ride to the state park, taking advantage of the mild weather. The park was crowded with other cyclists, bird watchers, and lots of kids. That's always good to see. Read more!

Friday the Thirteenth

It's Sam Frith's fifth birthday today. Happy birthday, Sam!

Tonight's movie at the hall is The Haunted Mansion with Eddie Murphy (probably in honor of the date).. We gave it a pass.

We went to Darryl's C-2 dance this afternoon. We always learn something: Darryl can easily find calls and positions that the floor needs to work on. Today's was Invert the Magic Column, which caused lots of head scratching.

On the way home we stopped for groceries. When we had those put away, we set out on a rather late bike ride. We decided to stay close to home, so we did most of our riding at Bentsen Grove, our neighbor park to the north. Here's an unusual name sign that caught our attention (actually made us groan).

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Tree Trimming Success

We had Steve's electric chainsaw, our neighbors' tall ladder, and a bright sunny day. We finally got to finish our tree trimming, at least as much as we are going to do this spring. Ken piled heaps of branches by the curb again. It almost looks like we've taken down a whole tree. These trees are so fast growing that it's a race to keep ahead of them.

We trimmed the grapefruit tree back from the shed roof (again) and took out as much of the tall top as I could reach.

The orange tree looks nice and symmetrical now, and it isn't too tall. We're trying to discourage the trees from growing straight up to the sky, which is their natural inclination. Fruit at the tip top of tall trees is very difficult to harvest, even with a long handled picker.

We still have to apply the Bayer Advanced Fruit, Citrus, and Vegetable Insect Control. That's what the USDA recommends to prevent citrus greening disease, which is invariably fatal to infected trees. It's spread by a tiny insect called the Asian citrus psillid.

After we recuperated a bit from our labors, we biked down to the state park before heading home for dinner. Read more!