Ignorant Texas Bugs!

La Feria, TX  73 degrees, was 47 this morning, to be 83 later today.  Absolutely no breeze today, which is quite unusual here.  Usually the wind is blowing (this last weekend blew like the devil with house shaking at times) and that keeps the mosquitoes and other bugs at bay because they can't fly in the breeze.  However, this morning with the no wind I have spent the last 2 hours standing in one spot painting fence pickets and the Noseeums attacked.

The Noseeums (those little gnats so small you can't see them, but can sure feel them bite) was bugging the heck out of me so I sprayed down with insect repellent.  Now these little fellows are so dumb they don't know this repellent is supposed to keep them away so they kept flying & biting!  So I figure they aren't too bright.  And, after getting a bunch painted am taking a break inside, posting this and catching up on e-mails, etc.

We went to exercise this morning and yesterday morning.  While most of us do the stretching exercises in accordance with the leader, Pam just simply laid down on the job:

Last few nights we have played Pegs & Jokers with friends.  Last evening Ila Mae had just gotten here and we played with her, her son John from Fort Worth, at Bob & Bobi Raab's place.

Phyllis has been doing some Christmas decorating and put up a tree in the living room Sunday.

And she has made and re/made plans for the time our daughter and son & wife and my brother & wife will be here around Christmas.  With them arriving and leaving at different times and our making trip to San Antonio overnight and the activities we are involved in here in the park on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day will be a little juggling in showing them some local things and yet not running everybody to pieces.  (maybe have time for some walking, but not running!)  We did look at a State Park set up for birding that has some trails to hike and bike.

Click on photos to enlarge.  Will appreciate any comments on the blog.
Till later, Lynn

Guess time is relative

La Feria, TX  -  76 degrees, to be 47 degrees overnight. 

25,006 days ago I breathed my first breath.  27 days ago we left our house in Clarinda, IA.  19 days ago we arrived at our "new" house here in Kenwood RV Resort.  17,793 days ago Phyllis and I were married in Shambaugh, IA.  12,299 days ago my father passed away.  9,118 days ago my mother passed away.  9,224 days ago Phyllis' dad passed away.  5,124 days ago Phyllis' mom passed away.  15,073 days ago I quit my job with Union Pacific Railroad in Kansas City, KS and we moved to Clarinda, IA.  14,66 days ago we purchased our 12 acres west of Clarinda, IA and moved to it.  251 days ago we sold that acreage.  13,570 days ago we (along with 4 other guys) purchased Coin Grain Corp.  6,281 days ago we sold Coin Grain Corp. (had previously bought out the 4 other guys).  1,315 days ago we purchased our house in Clarinda.  545 days ago we moved into our house in Clarinda (rented it to the sellers for 2 years). 9,917 days ago we started our sign business as a part time effort from our house.   1,060 days ago we retired after selling our sign business, and took off for Texas with our first travel trailer.  46 days ago I started this blog.

 Friday we left park early and headed to dentist in Progreso, Mexico.  Only a few minutes to remove sutures and set up an appointment in March to have impressions made for caps to put on the implanted posts, presuming all the swelling will be gone and gum returned to normal.  Here is a guy going to work just outside the dentist office:

Have to say that is the first time have seen this in all the years we have been to Progreso.  On the way back home we got gas for $3.139.  Gas prices varied on the way to Texas this year, from $3.43 to $3.11.  North of Houston we saw several stations with a sign out proclaim "OUR GAS DOES NOT CONTAIN ETHANOL".  The pumps here in the valley proclaim only "this gas may include up to 10% ethanol" and I decided that since Texas is an oil state maybe they were really hostile to ethanol.  However, this afternoon as we were coming back from Mercedes went by a railroad siding that had about 10 tank cars with label of ETHANOL on the side of them.  So, I don't know.
This morning we ate breakfast at the Rec Hall and then helped clean up the kitchen afterwards.  We then headed out on our trikes and rode about 10 miles, including stopping at RV Park of our friends Oliver and Mary Jo.  Coming back we came to this sign:

Since we were riding the trikes and didn't have anything electric and no plug-ins we rode in anyway, and seem to get along all right.
This afternoon I started ripping the upright boards on our deck and making them into pickets, even bought some white paint and started painting them.  This evening our good friends Bob & Bobby are coming over for a visit.  They are from Minnesota and stay only a few houses from us here in the park.

Till later, Lynn

Thanksgiving Day

Dateline La Feria, TX.  65 degrees - clear weather all day.  Here are pictures of the serving lines at the hall for a nice sized group at 12:30 pm today.

Group at our table enjoying food and conversation.

After a little snooze this afternoon we went up to the hall for Thursday night bean bag baseball.

Tomorrow morning we head to Nuevo Progresso, Mexico for some more dental work.  Will report in tomorrow -- till later, Lynn

Trike ride in La Feria

Dateline La Feria, TX.  Temp 73 degrees - was 90 in afternoon.

We took off south down Highway Farm-Market 506 on our recumbent trikes and crossed under Expressway 83 and then another 5 blocks or so crossed Business 83 and wondered around the streets mostly on the east side of 506 looking at the homes of La Feria this morning after Phyllis did water aerobics and we both went to stretching exercises and then ate breakfast.  Some nice houses:

and, some of the area with older, more used homes.  There are a lot of different trees, flowering plants, blooming flowers, etc.  Here is an unusual, but very pretty plant we saw at the end of one driveway.

After about 9 miles we headed home, did some things including I went for about 6 laps in the swimming pool and then 10 minutes in the hot tub, and then headed out for a bite to eat at Stars -- $4.33 for chicken nuggets for both of us.  Noticed some "Texas Snow" on the sidewalk at the restaurant -- this is the small pieces of burnt sugar cane from a field being burned just prior to harvesting.  We didn't see these fall, but have some times.

Then did some shopping at several places, including visiting a bit with lady at Aloe King  http://www.aloeking.com/  She will turn 89 and her husband, JR, turned 90 in September.  She has had a few health problems, but is still managing the store.  We picked up some foot lotion for me and some hair jell for Phyllis.  Got some more plant soil at Stuart Place Nursery where this "tree" out front has a base of about 6 feet across and then all these little branches growing out of the trunk from several trimmings.

Click on any of the photos to enlarge.
Tomorrow Phyllis bakes a couple pumpkin pies for the Thanksgiving meal at the rec hall Thursday.
Till later, Lynn

Thanksgiving week

Dateline La Feria, TX   Monday morning - light rain here, 75 degrees and to be 90 later on today.
We were greeted with this sign when we got to Santa Ana yesterday

They are making repairs to part of the trail so won't let bikes on.  They are still taking the trams and you can hike the trail.  Since I do my best hiking sitting down, we passed on it.  We did find out they are not open on Christmas Day and they don't allow dogs on the trail.  We had thought would maybe go out that way with our family on Christmas Day since our dinner and festivities here at the park are on the 24th.
We had spent several hours with Phyllis' Aunt Eva and had lunch with her in her facility.

After we returned to the house we took a late afternoon nap and then went down to the hall for announcements and ice cream.  Played dominoes with the Fergusons - Jake and Helen from Broken Bow, NE and his brother Don and his wife Doris from Ansley, NE - and we were back home by 9:30 pm.

Till later, Lynn

Not to far off to Phar

Dateline La Feria, TX    Sunday morning and we are heading over west to Pharr, TX to see Phyllis' Aunt Eva and we are taking the trikes and will ride in the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge (http://www.fws.gov/southwest/refuges/texas/santana.html) afterwards.  As I recall they have a 7 mile trail there that is for the narrated trolly ride or walking or biking.  We have been riding 5 to 7 miles a day around the park and north of our park as well as one trip under the freeway and around the area south of Expressway 83.

Here is the deck corner that is partially removed.

Now with the deck corner completely removed, we have room for the two recumbent trikes and still get the car under the roof.  Will get the new skirting and railing with upright boards back on this sometime, maybe, probably (in my usual hurrying along at a snail's pace).

Last night, Saturday, we had good friends Mary Jo and Oliver over for cards.  We had spent the morning with them going to a garage sale and then to Shipleys for donuts and on to Brownsville, TX where we went to SAS (San Antonio Shoes) and then got some things at Sam's Club.  On returning to Harlingen we stopped at Office Depot and then fueled up at Subway.
Was a little warm yesterday, calling for the A/C to be on and will be up to 90 again this afternoon so will use the A/C.  Since we got here two weeks ago tomorrow we have run the A/C and the furnace both as the temps go up and down.  Low of upper 40's one morning week or so ago.  I see by the internet that it is 25 degrees with a "feel like" of 19 degrees and upper temp predicted to be 38 in our hometown of Clarinda, IA.
Till later, Lynn

We have Internet at the house!

Dateline - La Feria, TX at my desktop!
Might seem trivial to some of you, but we finally got internet right at our house.  We have been catching wifi where we could since we left our home in Clarinda October 30th.  At our park here they have free wifi in the office and adjoining area, but that entails taking the laptop up and setting up and checking things and writing what we need.  No printer, and working in public.  This is much greater.

I have spent the last day or so tearing up the deck here at our "new" place.  by removing a section of it we will be able to park our recumbent trikes under the roof and still have room for the car to be parked under the roof.  Have it all torn out, now just need to finish up putting the rail and posts to be a little safer.  It will still leave plenty of space on the deck for several chairs and recliners as well as the barbeque grill.  Will post some pictures after finished. 

Was cool here this morning, 52 degrees when woke up.  Is 81 degrees now with a nice breeze.

Till later, Lynn

We'll have family for Christmas!

Dateline La Feria, TX  --  Cool night with temps in 60's this morning on awakening.  (Is 73 degrees now with prediction of 90 degrees as high with 10-15 mph winds from northwest so won't be bad).   Phyllis went to pool exercises at the swimming pool at 6:45 am and I managed to wake up in time to go to stretching exercises at the Rec Hall at 8:00 am.  We had ridden the bikes several miles last night just at dark, both through our park and another to the north and then through several streets on to the north.

Had heard earlier that our son Cameron & his wife Patty are flying in to San Antonio just before Christmas when we will meet them, do the Riverwalk and site see the Alamo and other places there and on the way to our place back in the Valley.  Later heard from my brother Don and his wife Vicki that they would be driving in to La Feria at the same time and would be staying at a Motel just across the street from us.  Last night got a call from Daughter Michelle in Columbus, OH and she is making plans on driving down for about the same time.  She will actually be bringing some friends as far as Houston and then spending almost a week with us, probably able to go with us to the San Antonio site seeing trip--and picking up Cam's.  The last couple winters we have spent here at Kenwood we have told the kids "you know where we will be if you want to spend Christmas with us" and now that we have a full home, not just the small travel trailer, they are taking us up on the offer.  Hope we can give all a little flavor of the Valley in winter during their short visits.

When in Mexico yesterday morning to get stitches checked on my molar removal-implants we walked a few blocks into the Progresso shopping area.  As usual, was approached about a shoe shine and since I was wearing my really old beat-up shoes gave him a shot.  Look at the left shoe verses the right shoe in photo above.  Now I have "new looking" shoes.

On our trike ride just about dusk.  The palm trees seen over Phyllis are in our RV Resort, our home just about above the SMV sign.
Till later, Lynn

Back from Mexico

Dateline La Feria, TX  Temperature 77 degrees at 9:30 pm  Went to Nuevo Progresso this morning and ended up leaving two teeth there.  Have implants and will go back for checkup on them in the morning and get castings made for new crowns.

 Checkpoint for cars going into Mexico.

 At center of walk bridge over the Rio Grande River. Sign shows Mexico and US

Kids holding caps through the bridge railing and begging for nickels as we go across.  We had gone to the Announcements and Ice Cream at 6:30 last night at the Rec Hall and ended up helping serve.

On Sunday afternoon we had worked on changing our deck--added steps going off north end directly to the little shed--and then ate supper on the deck.

 New opening in deck wall just beside the grill.

To be in upper 80's the rest of the week with lots of wind and chances of rain tonight.  Though Phyllis will probably go to the swimming exercises at 6:45 am we will probably skip the floor exercises at 8:00 as we need to head to Nuevo Progresso.
Till later, Lynn

Dateline - Cameron County Texas  (This is the southernmost county located in the U.S. state of Texas. In 2010, its population was 406,220. Its county seat is Brownsville. Cameron was founded in 1848. Cameron is named for Captain Ewen Cameron , a soldier during the Texas Revolution and in the ill-fated Mier Expedition.)  Now that you know all of that let me say that we named our son Cameron after this county.  (about 117 years after the county was named, that is.)

Thursday evening, after supper at our house, we went up to the rec hall and played "Bean Bag Baseball"

 The girls are scheming some tactics to use on the guys team.

I've been accused of always taking photos of Phyllis' back side, so here she is walking back between the two teams after "running the bases".

This morning we went to the 8:00 exercise group and at 11:30 am the park had a ceremony of replacing the flag, saying the Pledge of Allegiance and then going into the rec hall where all veterans were introduced, along with their military service and we were all served a meal.

It was 42 degrees this morning at 7:00 am, but is now 73 degrees and bright sunshiny day here in paradise.
Till later, Lynn

Cool in La Feria, TX

Had some rain during the night.  Hadn't found our rain gauge yet, so don't know how much.  Yesterday was hot and we turned on the AC, was glad it started okay.  I washed down the deck and that side of the house.

We have been unpacking and moving stuff around.  This morning the Dish guy came and set up our "Dish-mover" account and we have TV.  But, can't get the Omaha stations.  Something about they are no longer our local stations.  That would have kept us in touch with the Midwest a little better.

Most of the stuff is out of trailer and Phyllis has been rearranging things.

W

We rode about 6 miles last night on our recumbent trikes, just riding the streets in Kenwood.  Not much activity so we could cruise in the dark.  We have flashing lights on our trikes, but the battery run down on my light so I was invisible.  I hadn't gotten around to put the SMV signs on the back of our trikes, so we draped the new reflectorized vests over the bags on the back of our bikes but no cars shined their lights on them.  We did stop in at the Rec Hall and sign up to work this Saturday morning at the breakfast and check out the card players.

It is heavy overcast today with ocassional sprinkles.  Temp in the 60's and cool for this area.  Click on any of the photos to see larger.
Till later, Lynn

At our winter home!

Pulled in to Kenwood RV Resort in LaFeria, TX about 4 pm.  Had a real nice visit with Phyllis' cousin Ruth Sunderman Davis at her home in Houston and after a nice breakfast this morning at her place we headed out into the Houston traffic.

She lives in a renovated 1913 Queen Anne home that is really nice throughout.

She suggested we wait a bit for the traffic to subside, but we pulled out shortly after 8:10 am and were 30 miles away through I610 and I10 and onto Highway 59.  Was 7 lanes wide at times and cars switching every which way.  We stopped for gas in Victoria - paid $3.22 a gallon.  Had driven by $3.10 and $3.15 but didn't need gas then.  Stopped for a footlong at Subway for lunch.  Temperature was in the mid to upper 80's as we headed south of Victoria.  Lots of dust blowing at places were field work was being done or road work.  Looked pretty dry.  Rolled into our spot at Kenwood and unpacked the car, but will work on the trailer in the morning.

After getting everything in out of the car and most of it put away (by Phyllis) we got a bite to eat at Stars and then went grocery shopping at El Centro.

Phyllis is unloading the groceries at our mobile home while I am in the office using their wifi.  Tomorrow I will have to get lined up with a phone line for internet and get Dish to put up a "vacation" receiver for us so we can have TV.  There are several of the old friends here at the resort, but many to come in yet.  A few of the activities are started.  Guess there will be a ceremony and meal on 11-11-11 for veterans.

Till later, Lynn