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!

Park Sierra and no Joshua

Park Sierra is an Escapees Park in the Sierra foothills very near the south entrance to Yosemite National Park. So after a potluck with all the SKP’s and a day enjoying a very nice RV site we headed off to see Yosemite. Kat hadn’t been there and we were going to go to the park in the car and then later take the big rig across the Sierra’s at Tioga Pass. Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate. We got stopped at the south entrance to Yosemite because of a snowstorm. I had checked the weather before we came this way knowing the pass closes in the winter. It looked good for a week or more, but somebody forgot to tell somebody ‘cause it was snowing and it was ‘no chains’, ‘no go’.

So we went south!

I have been through Joshua Tree National Park but never got to stop and enjoy it and it looked kind of like something I should do. Yosemite got cancelled so here’s my chance. Wrong answer! Somebody doesn’t want me to see Joshua Tree. At the park entrance and Visitor Center no less, we start having trouble with both the frig and the transmission lube pump on the car. The pump (which allows us to tow with four car wheels down) is blowing fuses and the frig won’t work on LP gas. It starts and runs for a few seconds and then starts burping and farting and we get an error message of “NO FL”, either ‘no flow’ or ‘no flame’. So we tried all day to get things fixed to no avail. We finally made appointments in Phoenix to have things repaired. We did stay at a nice RV park and Daniel at Yucca Valley RV Park in Yucca Valley even gave us a third night free. So if your in Yucca Valley give them a try. Anyway with electricity and no towing were OK and actually we did see Joshua Tree by car before heading out. It is neat and someday I’m going to go boon dock at “Big Rocks’, but not this trip I guess. Too much spoilage in the frig.

So before leaving for Phoenix we try the lube pump after buying and replacing the fuse and talking to Jim at Remco ( Jim was very helpful). He says it sounds like the death rattle for the pump, but if you do get a ‘green’ light its OK to tow. We catch a break and we’re off. The lube pump is hanging in there. We could disconnect the car and drive separately but its 300 miles to Phoenix and that would be the pits! So it’s working and we decide to drive without turning it off until the gas runs out, well almost runs out. We had to fuel up in Quartzsite but the pump was ‘hanging in’ and continued to all the way to Phoenix. And of course the frig was done farting and burping and it was working by now on gas too.

Breakfast at Libby's

It has become almost a tradition for us to stop in Fresno when we’re anywhere near the area to see Libby, our very good, keeping in touch, enjoying the lifestyle, and some day gonna’ join us for a trip, Oregon Dept of Fish and Wildlife volunteer, RV’ing friend. But I think the term tradition would diminish the fact that she is a real good friend, and, oh by the way, she fixes a really mean (meaning really good) breakfast whenever we stop for a couple of days in her driveway. This time by was no exception. Well, her driveway was a little shorter. Oh that’s right, we have a bigger, better, longer motorhome. BG!

Reorganization, Again

So in Winters, at Toni’s, while Kat and Toni went shopping I did some reorganization, ‘again!’ It’s not easy moving all your stuff from one RV to another even if is a little bigger. It’s still different and shape and configuration matter. I can hear what your thinking, “but you’re so good at this”. Yeah well “#&$#@”. Remember there are two of us with all of our worldly possessions and what I may think is important to be accessible may not be exactly the way it is. If you take my meaning? And remember the girls went shopping, so storage priorities can change, ‘in a hurry.’

I guess if your from anywhere near Sacramento or the Bay area you would know about Apple Hill. But we didn’t know about Apple Hill and it was the right time of year to go to Apple Hill, so Tony took us. If you go east from the ‘Govenators’ house it’s probably an hour into the Sierra foothills. And it is what it sounds like. Lots of orchards and produce and the associated farms and stands to sell it. But in some cases ‘stands’ does not cover it. Some of the farms have set up autumn or harvest festival areas. I guess an October fest setting would be an apt description. Vendors, eateries, crafts and the seasonal Halloween family stuff. All very nice. We had lunch, bought some stuff and had an adult beverage or two and didn’t come back with more than we can load into my reorganized RV. No small task with Toni!

Toni is an RV’er too, but in a little more permanent mode right now with some storage and way too much ‘stuff’ and a mentality that just demands more ‘stuff’. As I implied above, she is a ‘shopper’. Now I mean all this in the nicest way ‘cause Toni may have been just Kat’s friend when I met her, but now she is my friend too and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I can hear you thinking, here comes the ‘but’ and you are right. But! We have a really hard time controlling Toni’s urge to make sure we have more ‘stuff’ that we just gotta have. We did OK this time though. We controlled both her desire to share the wealth with what she already has and her desire to buy us something new. I didn’t have to empty any basement storage compartments or anything to fit it in. And it was nice to see her again. She really is a good friend!