It's hard to believe we've already been here 3-4 days (now 16 days). We love the new spot we are in. The down side is we are not right next to our Heartland friends that are just across the fence from the site we had last year, so we can't talk across the fence. What we do love, is we are not out in the open for the wind to whip around us as bad as it did last year. We are also in a position to enjoy shade during the afternoon rather than being in the direct sun so it will be much nicer for sitting outside on sunny afternoons.
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| Doing a little advertisement for The Sawshack Redemption! |
Our friends Dave and Nancy made it to the park next door to Val's yesterday so we stopped by to visit with them today. We haven't seen them since last April at the Heartland rally in Eufala, OK, and it was really nice to catch up with what they've been doing. Another couple will arrive later today, and at least two more couples will get here toward the latter part of the month. We look forward to seeing all of them as well. Dave and Dean are going to try and play golf in the next few days, and Dean is looking forward to it.
After leaving we headed to Walmart to buy a few grocery items. I was unsuccessful in finding a reamer to use on the oranges Pam brought us yesterday, but I'll find one!
Dean and I hope to start walking tomorrow. The temperatures are supposed to start rising and stay in the upper 70's, low 80's. It sounds great after these cold temps and wind we've had. Today was fairly calm.
Dean cleaned out the inside of the truck really good and then we took it for a nice wash. It was just filthy after having set for the past several weeks/month or so. It sure does look nice now.
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| Washing the truck! |
Tonight I made potato and ham, corn chowder. It was delicious! We'll have enough left overs for at least two meals! Yummm!
We've visited with our new neighbor Larry and his wife Carolyn a few times. They are from Canada and such a nice couple. A few days after we arrived we came outside and saw a FOR SALE sign in their front yard. Dean asked him if he was moving because of us - he said no, it was just time. We are sad because they were so nice to visit with us last year as well. We sure hate to see them go.
We drove through an RV resort down the road a few days ago to take pictures for some friends who may be interested in visiting the Valley. They would prefer to have a park model. After Larry posted the sign that their park model was for sale I sent info to them on their unit as well. We'll see!
We were outside one afternoon/evening when a couple stopped and asked us where in Kansas we were from. They are new to the park and are also from Kansas, near the Lawrence area. We had a nice visit with them.
Dean and I started walking on the 7th - walking about 1.5 miles the first 2 or 3 days and finally getting in 2 miles the end of the week. We are trying to get back into a daily routine.
Saturday the 5th Dean golfed with Dave. He had a good time. I love having him here but I do enjoy getting things done while he's out golfing. So I was a little disappointed when they planned to play golf a few days later, then had to cancel because it was supposed to rain.....and then it didn't rain after all. I had several things I was going to do. It's amazing how you can get things done when there isn't anyone else around. But I'm always glad when he gets home. He loves his golf and I'm glad he's able to enjoy it while we are here.
Sunday the 6th we met our friends Frank and Joyce at Don-Wes, a large flea market located between Donna, and Weslaco. Their friends, Karen and John joined us as well. I found a fruit reamer for the oranges at a little kitchen shop for a pretty decent price. It had a small glass container attached to it, and it won't take up much space. Perfect for what we needed it for. Pam is going to get me some fresh lemons too. I'm anxious to make some lemonade and I'm going to try and make either a lemon pie or some lemon bars with them. Yum! After we finished at Weslaco, we stopped at Cheddar's where the six of us had a nice lunch and visit. Dean and I headed back to Mission, where we ended up watching TV the rest of the evening.
Monday the 7th we went to visit our friends Corbin and Flora who are also in the park next door to us. Flora had been under the weather a bit but was feeling better today. We had a very nice visit and enjoyed some wonderful chocolate chip cookies and peanut butter balls she had made. Her mother just celebrated her 100th birthday shortly before Christmas. It was a lovely party and something they'll cherish for many years.
Tuesday the 8th a friend of ours that we met last year while walking/riding our bikes in Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park stopped by while I was at a Bible Study at the clubhouse this morning. He said we missed the excitement in the state park this morning. While riding their bikes they heard a helicopter come in and hover over an area of the park. Shortly, Border Patrol arrived and found six illegals who had crossed the river and were hiding within the park. The Rio Grande runs along the entire southern edge of the park with no wall, fencing, etc.
By the way the Bible Study I am attending is over the movie/story called "Tortured for Christ". The movie was difficult to watch due to the torture of this man and his friends that they suffered due to Russian soldiers in their homeland of Romania. The Bible study will be led by a couple here in the park during the time we are here.
On Wednesday, Jan 9, after Dean and Dave's golf game was cancelled I insisted that Dean and I go shopping for some new golf clothes for him. We stopped at Kohl's where they happened to have a sale on golf clothes! Yahoo! We bought a nice pair of lightweight shorts and 3 shirts. He just bought a new pair of golf shoes and a new watch that gives him the yardage to the golf greens where he plays thanks to Christmas gifts from a couple of the boys. He hasn't had a chance to try out the watch at a course yet since it came in after he and Dave golfed several days ago.
We also made a stop at Academy but didn't find anything there. Our next stop was for lunch at Taco Palenque. Our friends we met in the park last year from Kansas told us about this place and we really like it. Very affordable and quite good.
On Thursday the 10th, President Trump visited the Valley. He was within 13-15 miles from our park. I would have loved to have gone to see him but there was no way I'd get Dean to drive in the traffic that I'm sure was there that day. We drove through Hidalgo on our way back from shopping yesterday and that traffic was enough for him. After we returned I walked to the clubhouse and bought tickets to see Goldwing Express for Monday, Jan 14 here in our park. We got to see them at Dolly Parton's Stampede in Branson this fall with Misti, Logan and Haleigh. I thought they were great. Their dad is going to be with them for this show. The tickets were only $8 each.
On the way back I stopped to visit with Steve and Diane the couple from the Lawrence, KS area visited us a few days ago. We are going to try and get together with them for lunch or dinner somewhere soon. Come to find out Diane is orginally from the Picher/Cardin, OK area - what a small world? I mentioned we had planned to see Rascal Flatts when we were in Nashville a few years ago, but due to an illness of one of the band members they had to cancel. I mentioned Joe Don Rooney was from the Picher, OK area. Small world - Diane grew up and attended school there; and she told us her sister used to babysit for Joe Don when he was just a little guy.
Frank and Joyce stopped by a short time later. They are looking at different resorts in the Valley trying to decide if they want to choose a different location than where they are staying this year. They are currently in the Harlingen area. We rode with them through Green Gate Grove, Ratama Village and Bentson Park Village - all located on the same road where our park is. They are all very nice parks. We were hungry by the time we finished, so we took them to Ranch House Burgers. Dean and I shared a burger and fries. The burger was delicious and this year they have added sweet potato fries, which we tried. I think we'll go back to ordering their homemade fries next time. The sweet potato fries were cut very thin and they were kind of cold when we got them. Their homemade fries were much, much better.
Friday, Jan 11 after our morning walk we got ready and headed to Mercedes to the All Valley RV and Outdoor Show. From what I read in the paper they would have a number of vendors with RV items in their large event center. We always enjoy taking a look at the RV's on display. We were not impressed with the vendors as there was only one vendor that had RV items for sale. While we enjoyed looking through the RV's on display we didn't find anything that we liked better than our Big Horn.
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| Entrance to the Mercedes Livestock Arena |
After the show we stopped at a Jack-in-the-Box for lunch. I had found some coupons so we thought we'd give it a try. We had never ate at one before. It was just okay and will probably not go on our list of best places for fast food. Our next stop was at Pharr for the Wood Carving Show taking place there. Our friends Dennis and Pam are involved in the club putting it on. Wow is all I can say. There are some amazingly talented folks in the area. Here are a few pictures I took.
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| All of these flowers are made from maple twigs |
We made a stop at Sam's and Walmart's on the way back to pick up a few items we needed and then settled in for the evening.
I called UPS to have our mail sent to us today. It's been a couple of weeks since we picked it up, right before we headed south.
Saturday, Jan 12 I went up to the clubhouse for an activity meeting where they went over all of the scheduled events for the month as well as a few others being planned. I enjoyed it and visiting with some of the ladies there. I have signed up for the ladies luncheon for next Friday afternoon, and I also ordered t-shirts with Val's Kountry Corral logo on them for both Dean and I. There are several things I'm interested in Dean and I doing, or even participating myself if he doesn't want to. I talked to a lady I thought I played cards with last year and confirmed it was her. She told me when they played Hand, Knee and Foot, so I plan to join them tomorrow evening at 6:30. They play Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evenings.
The rest of the day I did laundry, some cleaning, and cooking until it was time for the Chiefs game. We were so happy to see them play such a great game and can't wait to see the playoff game against the Patriots on Sunday the 20th.
Sunday, Jan 13 we headed back to Don-Wes Flea Market. Dean wanted to buy some of the creme they used on his arm when we were there last week, however we changed our mind once they told him the price. It was very expensive. Our friend Joyce had bought some of the magnetic bracelets, necklaces and rings. She said they were really working for her and their friend John also had good reports from them, so Dean purchased a magnetic bracelet. We'll see how it works.
We stopped at McAlister's Deli for lunch, Home Depot to find a couple of items to finish some projects I've been working on and then HEB to get just a few groceries. It was a full day and we were glad to sit down and enjoy a little TV once we returned.
At 6:15 I walked up to the clubhouse and played Hand, Knee & Foot. I really enjoyed playing and plan to go back when I can. I returned home about 8:30 - we played two hands. The first one was really long and the second one went pretty fast.
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| One of our projects we've added while here in the Valley. I took some of the things from my shelving in the pantry and placed it in these shelves - now things are not so cluttered and it freed up space I could store my air-fryer in the pantry. |
Monday, Jan 14 we did our 2 miles around the park. I washed a load of clothes. A little before 2 we walked up to the clubhouse to hear Goldwing Express. They were great and it was a great 2 hour show. After dinner, we watched TV. Pretty slow day.
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| Goldwing Express had a great show! |
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| 2019 |
Tuesday, Jan 15 I went up for the Bible Study. Kim who is leading the study, commented she had to go back and look at our picture from last year.
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| 2018 |
A gentleman here in the park takes pictures of the people staying at each unit then posts it with our names. This way we can look to check on names, what unit they are in, etc. Last week Kim asked me when we had arrived in the park and I told her we got here on the 1st this year, but we were here last year too. She mentioned she didn't think she had met us, and I told her we were parked almost next to her most of the time (until a trailer moved in beside us for a few weeks). She was really perplexed. I told her I looked quite a bit different last year. What do you think? Dean hasn't changed much though!
We had an appointment to get the RV and truck washed and waxed today, but since it was raining they cancelled, but rescheduled for Saturday, the 19th. So, we hopped in the truck and drove to McAllen to the Winter Texan Expo. There were several booths offering all kinds of information, a number of musical entertainers throughout the day and prizes were given away. We spent a good two hours there and enjoyed ourselves. Dean ended up buying a hat declaring him a Winter Texan.
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| Foliage around the McAllen Convention Center. |
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| Walkway from the Convention Center to the road and parking lots. |
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| Beautiful trees were in full bloom. |
Afterwards we took the back way home to stay off the Interstate, and happened across a Dairy Queen - and the truck just turned into the parking lot! Lol! Sure was good!
Wednesday, Jan 16 I did some more laundry and things around the rig, when Joyce sent a text they were getting ready to leave the Texan Expo and wondered if we wanted to meet them for lunch. We drove to McAllen and ate at Golden Corral. John and Karen were with them and we all enjoyed our meal and another 1.5 to 2 hours visiting before we left to head back to the park.
I've had several ask if I was still writing the blog, or that they missed reading it so I thought I better get it brought up to date and posted this evening. I'll try to do better. 😊
Our time is flying by here. We've already been here just over 1/2 a month. We have a little over 5 weeks before we will be leaving. I'm sure we'll have much more to share though before we leave.
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