Honorary Canadian

So now I am one. I’ll ‘splain.

We finished the regular season in pretty good fashion. We were either one or two games above 500. ‘bout where we should have been. So we were either second or third in the standings and made the playoffs. Did I say that there are four teams and we all make the playoffs. A slip of my mind! Anyway we then played the second or third place team (whichever one we were not). We won that game to make the finals. Long story short, we lost. But second place ain’t too bad. And we had fun and got through the season without major injury. Two of the major goals of the league. We had some great fans for both games but try as they might they could not cheer us on to victory. And they did try! I am, of course pictured demonstrating my hitting and pitching prowess. And that is Evelyn (co-manager) and me on the right. Evelyn played played over 150 games last year between here in the winter and Canada in the summer.

Maybe the biggest event in softball here is the annual US-Canadian game. The last event of the softball season. As it turned out I didn’t sign up to play the game. Probably a mistake on my part because it really was fun, but it turned out very well. There were four or five Canadians on our regular season team and when they found out they had no pitcher for the Canadian team, and that I wasn’t playing for the US, they ask me to pitch for the them. So I did. There was a game in each of the three divisions. I didn’t get pictures and haven’t found any yet but just imagine a good crowd at a little league game with the Stars and Stripes and Maple Leaf flags flying all over and then age the players 60 or 70 years. Kind of like that. You should have seen all the tee shirts, flags, banners, tattoos, and National spirit. All in good fun. Nancy, one of my carving friends was there to pass out flags and I didn’t even recognize her. I don’t know what you call the Canadian equivalent of Uncle Sam, but that’s what she looked like. And add the tattoos. So, at least in Senior Texan League softball, I am an honorary Canadian. Oh! And we lost! But it must not have been because of my pitching because I am invited back already.

On the Rio Grande

No trip to the deep south of Texas would be complete without a cruise on the Rio Grande. So we did that. It was an Escapees trip planned by our friends Greg and Jean (and Kat, far right) from Nebraska or Wisconsin or maybe South Dakota. It’s kind of hard to tell where some of us SKP’s really are from. We get our mail in one state, register our vehicles in another, claim another as home, and of course pay taxes in all of them. We just try to keep it to a minimum by doing all of the above. Anyway we went on the cruise. It was OK, but my opening sentence might be a bit of an exaggeration.

The cruise began and ended at the Riverside Club (left) just a couple of miles from here. It’s a nice place to eat, drink, listen to a little music, or maybe do some dancing. The margaritas are good as is the pork cutlet sandwich. It pretty much covers a good size plate. Kat and I keep intending to get back for a couple more margaritas but we haven’t had any luck yet. I keep getting away from the cruise which in no was is a reflection of the cruise itself. Well, on second thought….. You can see the boat or some of it. Just a boat set up to look at the Rio Grande, not your party boat kind of a thing. If the river looks a little wider than you expected it because of the dams that weren’t there or other locations or other rivers were used to depict the Rio Grande or Rio Bravo as the cowboys, indians, and horse soldiers were chasing each other across the river in the movies. This is now the real thing. Border Patrol helicopters and boats looking for illegals, turtles sunning on logs, the occasional car abandoned half in, half out of the water, a few birds (this is the birding capitol of the world, but that is a story for next year) and a couple of fishermen. I almost forgot the Mexican KOA RV park seen in the picture on the left. There you have it. Not something I ever need to do again, but it was kind of fun. And we met some nice SKP’s, course, nice and SKP’s go together.

Easy Bleeders

Because of our exceptionally poor weather I haven’t sat outside and done as much woodcarving as I would like. But I’m still into carving and learning from some of the folks in our club. The Easy Bleeders if you forgot. We had a show and demonstration in the hall just recently and it went very well. I think pretty near all of our members either had a table of their own or shared a table with someone. I shared a table with Russ(lower right). We displayed a few of our things and worked on something of our choice. I brought my little bag of tools and sharpening stuff to show how little you really need to take up woodcarving, even as a full time RV’er. Lots of folks came to see what was happening and we strutted our stuff so to speak. You can see some of our guys and gals. Tom(behind me at right) is the designated leader and the carver I have learned the most from. Bill Brown (Brownie) and Jean(left side) are long time Easy Bleeders and Nina(upper right, seated) is one of our most accomplished. She has won some prestigious competitions. All in all a really neat group and certainly one of the reasons we keep coming back.

We went to the Rally on the Rio in Pharr, just down the road a piece. It’s an annual carving show and competition. I got a couple of ideas and new tools and stocked up on wood for the coming summer in Georgia. Now all I have to do is find a place to store it. I guess I’ll just have to through something else out. Got to keep my priorities straight.

What to do? What to do?

Well we’re not shoveling snow yet! Close but not yet! Although the weather has been a little disappointing. Which means the indoor pool gets a little more use than the outdoor pool.

Kat is still swimming and knitting/crocheting. That is when she’s not on Facebook managing her farm on Farmville. There is no doubt that she has succumbed to the trap that is Farmville. If you don’t know what it is I would advise that you be very careful in checking it out! But if you have lots of free time just go to facebook .com and I’ll see you in a few monthsJ We go to the indoor pool and hot tub more together now. I need to soak out the pain from softball. We’re in league play now and doing OK. I got appointed co-manager with Evelyn (front row right) and then we found out together that neither of us really wanted the job. But we have worked it out and now I tell everybody that she’s the brains of the outfit and I’m just the mouthpiece. We mostly have fun and aren’t too bad. Actually we are 4 and 4 and that’s about where we should be. We lost one we should have one and won one we should have lost.

I haven’t played as much Pickleball as I would have liked because of softball but it Pickleball is really picking up here in the Valley. Our friends Bill and Karen Hopkins have really done a great job in finding us a better place to play and get more people involved. We play at Mission Parks and Recreation now in addition to here in the resort. There we have three courts to the one here. And players are coming in from different parks. Just today we were looking at some new tennis courts near here that we would like to get striped for Pickleball. Folks are starting to tell resorts and campgrounds they want Pickleball or they are going somewhere else. Cool!

Jade is still on her string and sliding back and forth outside, weather permitting. I watched her run as far as she could toward a rabbit a couple of days ago and decided a new name may be appropriate. Something like Waddles. I think the good life is catching up with her (too). She is certainly becoming more of a pet. Losing some of her ferrelnous (?). She likes to get in my lap now and have her ears scratched and her cheeks rubbed. But now I have to teach her to allow me to trim her claws. Wish me luck with that! She’s not that unferrel (?). There’s two new words for you.

We woke up one day last week to find we had lake front property. I had to wade to the car. Been a bad winter here too. The folks who have been coming here for some time say this is the worst winter in many years. Global Warming no doubt! I heard somebody recently say they had been here 26 years and this was the worst. But like I said, we’re not shoveling it!

South of the Border

We always get to Mexico a few times while we’re down here in the ‘Valley’. This year is no exception. It took a couple trips to get my teeth cleaned and a tooth fixed with a new crown. That’s Manuela on the left and Patty on the right, next to me. Manuela did the cleaning and Patty did the crown. They were both quite pleasant and did a very good job. I will go back again next year for another check-up. I guess for less hardy souls or if it doesn’t go right, you can stop at the ‘Happy Teeth Bar’ for a little fortification on the way in, or pain killer on the way out. And you can’t hear it on the Blog, but there’s no charge for the music at ‘Happy Teeth’; all the way down the street.

Kat got a new pair of glasses, we got a couple of prescription medications and we loaded up on vanilla for friends who didn’t want to make the trip. We had a really good lunch and a Margarita or two and did a little looking around and shopping. Kat talked me into a haircut. I didn’t really need one, but, the barber was availableJ.

There are folks who don’t want to cross the border now because of the trouble. There was a recent shooting spree and some trouble within the drug establishment. Mostly we feel safe and know that the folks in Progresso Mexico want and appreciate our business. We haven’t had a problem or felt in any danger. I probably feel as safe in Progresso as I would in downtown Houston, maybe safer? Now Reynosa, a border town also near here is another story. We are advised not to go there and don’t. But like I said, I’m pretty sure there are places in ???? (you pick a big US city) that I won’t be venturing to anytime soon. Of course they probably don’t have machine gun toting soldiers and armored personnel carriers on the corner. But Obama has three more years. Maybe I speak too soon.

Back on Third Street

So……. Here we are and nothing much has changed. Some construction out on Business 83, but there’s always construction on Bus 83. It’s just a little further down the road or a little closer. Lots of folks are still missing but we’re right back into the swing of things. Pickle Ball, woodcarving, crafts for Kat and the ladies, grocery shopping at the HEB (Harold E Butts) and a spot on Third St.

Thanksgiving has come and gone and we had the big potluck. The park is gradually filling up but it won’t be till after Christmas that its really full. A few people show up every day and I see familiar faces at lunch or ice cream and some of my Pickle Ball buds are showing up.

My knees feel good enough this year to try softball and I have. So far so good! But this is Senior softball with a capital S. That makes it at least on par with wheelchair basketball. I think? I’m not trying to ‘knock it’ because it has been a load of fun. I learned right away that in this league ‘effort’ or sometimes even a lack of it, count. Too much effort can lead to discomfort or even injury. Not the desired result here. You won’t see too many of us ‘running it out’, making a Kamikaze headfirst slide or climbing the fence to make that ‘Grandstand’ catch. Here its more “good try”, take another swing at it, hold up here, or take your time and don’t hurt anything”. Pinch runners are common, everybody plays and bats, there are rules to prevent sliding and contact with each other and the ground, and underhand throws from the outfield are acceptable. Which all goes to make it ‘my kind of ball’.
We play in McAllen about 10 miles away at a very nice facility. It’s an open league but I’d have to say it’s 90 percent Winter Texans and I’m probably in the middle to younger age group. There are three divisions in Texas Senior League, competitive, recreational and leisure. Until January we’re just scrimmaging and kind of sorting things out. I think I started in ‘recreational’ but last week I got moved (traded) to another team. My new team needed some pitching, which I do. There is a small premium on being able to get the ball 45’ from the pitchers mound across the plate. Anyway I asked my old teammates if they got cash and draft picks for my trade? They said “yeah! Sure! We got a dollar, two ninety eight and a guy on crutches”. This leads me to wonder if I got traded because of my pitching ability or speed from home to first base? It was the case that the first base coach put away his stop watch when I was running and got out his calendar. But I’m having fun and will let you know how it turns out in January if the knees hold out.

Same route, all new places

Other than an RV service not to forget we had a good stay in Phoenix. We took the Southwind to Beaudry RV for some needed work. Just a few things that you always have with a new coach and that we couldn’t get done earlier. I hate to rag on the service folks there but it was awful. To be fair, much of the problem was short staffing, but then that wasn’t my problem, it’s just some cover for the employees at Beaudry. I’m just going to leave it at saying ‘I won’t be going back any time soon’.

Paul and Pam are well and we had a good visit with them. Jade especially liked roaming their house while the RV was being abused.

I suppose if you’re from California you’re not impressed with the ‘Total Wine’ store. But we went in to get some adult beverages and I was, impressed that is. I would have to guess that “Total Wine’ is about twice the size of the old ‘Red, White and Blue’ grocery store where I use to get sent to get a pound of hamburger for 29 cents (or so?). I know that was a long time ago, but still…………. This was a large grocery store size facility with nothing but booze and mixer. I guess its just not something I’m use to coming from Oregon where we still have State controlled liquor stores.

Then it was off through the remainder of Arizona and then into New Mexico and Texas where we stayed at a couple of older favorites and some exotic new places like Roper Lake , Dream Catcher , Hueco Tanks and Pecos. Really they were all pretty nice. It ain’t like we haven’t been through the area but we had never stayed at these places. Roper Lake State park is just a nice place to park for a while. Flocks of Yellow Headed Blackbirds a nice setting on the lake and bicycle trails. Dream Catcher and Pecos are Escapees RV parks and they’re just good places to stay because they’re Escapees. Friendly folks, always a place, very reasonable rates and, of course, we’re SKP’s. Hueco (pronounced Waco) Tanks is a state park near Guadalupe Mountains National Park just east of El Paso. We were actually headed to the National Park but the weather turned a little cold and we (mostly Kat) chickened out! The Guadalupe mountains are the highest point in Texas and it was a little cold so I let Kat talk me out of it. Even though I do understand that ‘highest point’ and ‘cold’ are relative terms, especially when your from the northwest or a mountain state. Anyway, we’ll put it on the ‘next time’ list. Hueco Tanks was interesting. Because of the geology, water collected in pockets in the rock, and it was kind of an oasis in the middle of the desert. So it has some history. Part of that being a stop on the Butterfield Overland Stagecoach. Now it’s a place for hikers, rock climbers and campers. But if it’s not too far out of the way I’d recommend going there.

Our last stop before becoming Winter Texans again was Laredo. We walked across the border into Old Mexico and got some meds and did a little looking and shopping. It was OK. Probably not as many tourists as other crossings on the border but it was pretty clean and nice. No trouble going or coming, that is, there were no shootings between the Mexican army and the drug cartels this day, and it was a nice walk. Laredo is a busy place to drive through though. Trucks! Trucks! And more Trucks! I guess it’s NAFTA? But when you hit I 35 from US 83 going south, its crazy. Or so it seems to me. But its just a few miles along I-35 and the loop around Laredo. Maybe its just that traffic on US 83 is non existent by comparison. Still there are lots of trucks driving through Laredo. But I didn’t see any Cowboys dressed in White Linen!