HELLO TO A FELLOW BLOGGER

Wednesday, January 30 – Monday was Casino Night at Leisure Valley Ranch. Of course, Marsha was corralled to work with her friend, Angie. They are selling tickets for prize drawings spread-out during the evening.

There were about 100+ who showed up for the event. This is the first year for Casino night. There was Blackjack, Roulette, horseracing, dices games, putting game, etc. Something for everyone.

 

But working didn't stop Marsha from joining Paul in a little Blackjack. We were using play money ($10 for $1500 in play money) so betting $20, $40 or even $100 was fun and not a budget buster.

Paul counting up his cards.

At the end of the evening, we finished with about $4000 which we used to win a bid on a life-time cup of coffee and a $10 gift card at Texas grocery store HEB. It was a fun evening and a good time with friends.

On Wednesday, we met up with fellow blogger, John a.k.a. Shoeless Joe, at the Egg & I for lunch. We've traded blog comments with John for some time now, and it was good to be able to put a face with a name. We really enjoy John's comments on our blog because of his wit and good sense of humor.

Meeting John was a great. We enjoyed lunch and a long talk. John enjoys the “Good Life” here in South Texas and shared with us some of the many experiences he's had in his life. It was a fun time and one we will remember.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day!

A CLOSE CALL

Wednesday, January 30 – We planned on meeting full-timer RV friends, Jan and Dave, on Monday for lunch. We haven't met up with these two for a couple of years.

Our intended meeting spot was the Egg & I restaurant in Mission. Well, we never made it! As we were driving along Expressway 83, something blew-out our driver-side door window.

We heard a very loud explosion, and the next thing we knew there was a hole in the safety glass side window. We had pretty many “safety glass pebbles” scattered over us and on the inside of the truck.

After determining we were both okay, Paul pulled off the highway into a nearby parking lot. Not knowing what hit us (was it a stone or a shot from a gun???),  we decided it best to call the police and file a report.The police arrived within ten minutes and took the report.

Paul removed as much glass as he could at the side of the road, and we drove to a car wash to use the vacuum to cleanup the mess.

We called our insurance company, and they arranged to have the glass replaced immediately. We had an appointment at Safelite Auto Glass and had the window replaced within three hours of the incident. Pretty good service. The best news was that we have zero deductible on glass. The window is like new. It didn't cost us anything but a few gray hairs and a couple hours of our time. The worst part is we missed lunch with our friends.

When we got home, we actually found glass back in the truck bed. That was one big explosion.

Who knows what hit us.....it was most likely a stone thrown up by a truck....but, if Paul made someone angry out there, forgive him and holster the gun....PLEASE! LOL

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day!

ANOTHER GOOD TIME WITH FRIENDS

Tuesday, January 29 – Last Friday, we decided to try the local Pulga, flea market.

Now, this flea market was much better than the famous Don Wes Market in Donna. Readers will recall we were a bit disappointed by the Don Wes Market. The local Pulga in Mission has grown in recent years. We believe it is now bigger and better than Don Wes. The produce is outstanding and reasonably priced. We purchased a huge bag of grapefruit and a equally large bag of oranges – both for $5. Gonna make some juice!

Paul was impressed with some of the tools and looked closely at several. He's probably going to regret not buying some of these bargains.

Mostly, we enjoyed “window shopping” or at least looking at the many booths and people watching. They even had a disc jockey and several couples were dancing.

The Pulga was packed and vendors seemed to be doing a brisk business. We enjoyed it enough to want to venture back again in the future.

Marsha is a bit leery of buying one of these at a flea market.

Paul is a bit leery of buying one of these.

On Saturday, we met friends at Riverside Club. The bar/restaurant is located on the banks of the Rio Grande River. A mere 100 yards across the river is Mexico!

Each day has a different theme. Today is German day. We enjoy a German dinner of Pork Schnitzel with German potatoes, pretzel bread, sauerkraut and salad in place of the sold out cabbage rolls…very good!

Joe enjoyed one of their German beers.

The group playing today was a Polka band. We're not Polka dancers, but it was fun singing along, watching the dancers, and of course drinking the beer!

The girls did some line dancing.

Marsha was even invited to the front for a “board of education” drink. An unusual attempt, to get the ladies tipsy, Paul thinks.......LOL

We had a good time and would return again. They have different bands playing about every afternoon. Next time, we will try one of the country groups. They do have Rio Grande River cruises – 1 hour cruises for $10 per person. That might be interesting.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day!

 

 

HITCH 'ER UP

Sunday, January 27 – One of the things we worry about when hitching up the truck and 5^th wheel is the awful damage that would be caused by dropping an improperly hooked trailer onto the pickup. It is said there are two types of 5^th wheel owners – ones that have dropped the 5^th wheel on their pickups and ones who eventually will.

Well, to help avoid this, Paul ordered the Bed Saver from Butch's Service. It is designed to catch the 5^th wheel pin before any damage can be done. Paul has read several testimonials on the Internet and decided to give it a try.

It arrived in the mail the other day. Installation was fairly simple and straight forward. The hardest part is interpreting the instructions and getting the layout correct for drilling the holes for attachment.

Once laid out, you drill four holes and use the bolts included to attach the Bed Saver to the 5^th wheel hitch.

To hitch up, you unlock and pull the Bed Saver bar away from the mouth of the hitch. Once hitched, you return the bar to the locked position and complete the normal “hitch test.” If not hitched securely, the bar will catch the 5^th wheel pin before any damage is done by the trailer falling down on the truck bed.

Paul then did some cosmetic touch up painting of the hitch and the installation was complete.

Hopefully, we will never have to give the Bed Saver a test. We'll let you know the results if the test is ever completed.

There is a rule in the park that dogs must be on a leash but not so for cats. There is a cat that has been coming around driving Bella crazy. It acts like it belongs here with us.

Once Bella has enough of this cat, she lets her thoughts be known.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day!

 

WAX ON, WAX OFF

Saturday, January 25 – Last Saturday, Paul started waxing the 5^th wheel. He started on the nose this morning before the sun heated things up. This would be a much easier job if he didn't have to work from a wobbly folding RV step ladder.

It was the old “wax on, wax off” routine for quite awhile. By the looks of things this waxing hadn't been done for a long time.....if at all. Paul waxed and re-waxed four times until he was satisfied with the appearance.

Finally shiny and looking like new! This should make bug removal after a day on the road easier too!

Using an orbital buffer makes removal of the wax film fairly easy and results in a pretty nice shine. The only draw back is the cloths need to be changed frequently because wax residue builds up and ends up back on the clean surface. Well, that put Paul out of business eventually because he only had three covers for the buffer. Marsha took them and his rags over to the laundry so he would be able to resume work tomorrow......slave driver!

With one day down, Paul completed the nose and part on one side. He went up to Walmart to purchase several more buffer cloths so Marsha can keep him working longer tomorrow. So after church it's back on the ladder – wax on, wax off!

Marsha completed a basket for her good friend, Angie. She's been secretly working on it since we arrived here in Mission, TX. Sunday, after church, Marsha asked Angie to stop in the RV for a second and surprised her with the gift. She was so surprised and simply delighted with her basket. Marsha was pretty happy too!

Paul has been going with some of the guys to play Pickleball at an indoor facility in Mission. This is nice because it is not effected by cool morning temperatures or windy conditions.

Pickleball is an “old guys” version of tennis. It is a cross between tennis and ping pong. It is played on a small tennis style court, but you use a paddle (like ping pong) and a whiffle ball (a plastic ball full of holes). You still get a nice workout, but it is not as intense as tennis.

This was taken last year at the outdoor court. Just wanted to give you
an idea of the size of the court.

At the Mission Park building, you pay 50¢ to play and rotate in and out of the games played on three courts. This gives you a little break between games. We play from 9 a.m. to about noon.

Paul and Rick went last week and were joined by Barry and John this week. You never know how many guys and gals will be there. All are welcome. We play for the fun of it not getting too serious about winning (yeah right!).

Wouldn't it be nice to just curl up and sleep like this.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day!

THIS BLOG FOR THE BIRDS

Tuesday, January 22 – Well, we finally saw them! We have searched in vain the past three years for the Mexican Green Parrots. Sunday night was our lucky night.

They come to different areas around Mission, TX, at about 4:30 p.m. to roost for the night.

The other night friends, Donna and Norm, called to inform us the Parrots were in the trees by K-Mart. Unfortunately, we couldn't drop what we were doing and go, so Sunday evening we headed to K-Mart about 4:15 hoping to see them.

Sure enough, about 4:30, we heard a racket and here they came. WOW! What a sight.

They landed in some trees near the Jack In The Box fast food restaurant.

The tree they landed in was a nut tree. They were cracking the nuts open and dropping the shells on on the cars below. What a nosey bunch they were.

We ran around taking pictures and noticed there were more in the trees across the parking lot at K-Mart. And just like Donna and Norm reported, there were 100's landing and squawking in the trees near the store.

They were beautiful! Dark and light green in color with a yellow beak. They are pretty large too! Boy can they make a racket!

A little love in the air?

We enjoyed watching them for quite awhile. Now, I wonder why they travel to this area to spend the night? Think it could be the “blue light specials” at K-Mart?

Marsha was so excited, she immediately called Angie and Jane. She made plans to take them all to K-Mart on Monday night. Everyone met at our place at 4:05…strict orders from Marsha. We arrived at K-Mart at 4:15 and began the watch.

"There they are!" someone yelled.

But, why aren't they landing? We watched for about ten minutes as hundreds circled the area. Paul walked over to the K-Mart tree and noticed two huge hawks sitting there. Oh dear, now we know why they wouldn't land.

Stupid hawks

We saw where they did land and dashed in that direction. How lovely they looked against the background of the palm trees.

If you are in the area, visit the K-Mart off of I-83 and Bryan around 4:15. They arrive anytime between 4:20 and 4:30.

Keeping in the animal line of thought, we had a great time the other night playing RATZ! The card game. Marsha organized (She loves throwing parties – usually big ones too!) a game night at the Clubhouse inviting 20 people. Well, as things usually do, it quickly swelled to 30 people.

We divided into tables of six and explained the game to the newbies. After the first round of five hands, we switched people around and played a second round.

Everyone brought an hors d'oeuvre to share, and their choice of beverage. Marsha even had prizes for the ten winners. Nothing big…bubbles, silly putty, paddle ball, etc. What a great time!

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day!