"cold" in south Texas

34 degrees this morning here in La Feria, TX - 38 degrees now with a feel like of 30 degrees.

 Last week we rode with Bob & Bobbi Rabb over to Rudy's Barbeque where we met the Winters.  At left is Bobbi, Doris & Phyllis

 At left is Lynn, Lyle & Bob.

T-Shirt of one of the gals working there.

 Winters' trailer at Country Palms RV & MH Park

Playing Pegs & Jokers in the fresh air and sunshine.

Watering the bushes in our back yard.  They aren't growing like we had hoped, but with the bug damage from the summer and the cold weather maybe they are doing okay.  

Yesterday, while riding the trike, took this picture of the storm clouds moving in.  Was about 77 degrees at the time.  Wind hit about 7:15 pm and temperature started dropping, along with the rain. 



Spent the day inside today with a head cold building.  Better times ahead.
Lynn

Warm in the RGV

Been back from our 3-week bus tour a week now.  Have had nice weather.
Rode 11 miles on trike yesterday and 12 miles this morning.
Went with Bob & Bobbi Rabb to Rudy's BBQ in Pharr today where we met Doris & Lyle Winters, who now live in an RV Park in Pharr.  After eating we went to their place and played several games of Pegs & Jokers and visited.  At 4:00 pm went to the Activity Director's meeting to hear of plans for next week's activities.  Phyllis signed us and Pat S up for trip to Ice Hockey game next week (if they get 50 to sign up so will fill bus full).  Patty will be here on February 4th and stay the month of February with us.  Sunday we went with Bill & Darlene Winslow over to South Padre Island.  Looked around a bit and then ate at Joey's Oyster Bar.  Got most of the west side of our Texas Room solid portion painted today.  Bit to finish and then also to paint the north end after doing some more trim work.

Got call today that the repair on our travel trailer is done so will pick it up tomorrow. 

More later, Lynn

Back in our RGV Texas home

Drove 535 miles yesterday and 220 miles the day before.  Left our tour bus in Oklahoma City, OK and spent the night in Fort Worth, TX.  Long drive yesterday, I don't like driving that far, but slept in our own bed for first time since December 25th.  Last several hours yesterday were in a misty rain and it finally rained pretty hard after we were in the house.  Had stopped at Rudy's Barbeque in Pharr, TX (the west end of the Valley) for some good brisket.

Will take some time to get all the rest of the photos up and sorted, cropped, etc.    I have some up here After San Diego and some up here After Pasadena     Click either of those if you want to look at them.  I will be adding to the After Pasadena and then modifying them as get time.

Have spent much of the morning downloading various statements, 1099's, quarterly reports, that accumulated in the nearly 3 weeks we were on the road.

Will fill in more later, Lynn

Phoenix tonight, Albuquerque tomorrow night

 Tonight we are at Drury Inn in Phoenix, AZ for the second night.  Temperature has been in the 60's with bright sunshine.  Nice day.
I am going back now and picking up some of the photos from several days ago.  On our way from Pasadena to San Diego we stopped at a Camel Dairy run by a couple that had not only camels but several other animals.  They milk the camels once a day, getting about 8 quarts each time.  They must get the calf camel to nuzzle the mother who then starts to drop the milk.  They immediately pull the calf away and two people milk at the same time from both

 sides quickly as the milk only drops for 90 seconds.  They later let the calf back to the mother and she gives another 8 quarts for the calf.  She gives this twice a day to the calf.  If they completely wean the calf the mother camel will dry up so for the entire milking period - nearly a year - they share with the calf.  They are not set up here to sell the milk, and they use all the milk they get to turn in to body lotions and soap.

 They sold quite a bit of the lotions and soaps to the 50-some people on our bus.

The couple had sheep, sheep dog, horses, parrot, peacock, pig, etc.

Sail ships along the dock.

Couple from Iowa/Texas - Phyllis & Lynn Miles  Pacific Ocean is in the background.

Today we toured the state capital here in Phoenix

 and then ate at Organ Stop Pizza in Mesa, AZ.

We literally were inside a huge organ that was played while we ate.  Besides pipes it had all sorts of musical instruments that were played.

In the afternoon we went to a horse stable Los Cedros -- Click Here  Very interesting.  Will have the story and pictures soon.


We will be on the bus at 8:00 am in the morning heading for Albuquerque tomorrow night at another Drury Inn.  They have not only breakfasts, but have suppers between 5:30 and 7:00 pm as well as cards for 3 alcoholic drinks, if you want them.  Have seen several postings on Facebook on how miserable the weather has been at Kenwood RV Resort in La Feria, Texas (our winter home) since we left the day after Christmas -- raining many days and cloudy and only in the 40's most days-- but they said reached 61 today and to be nice by time we get back next week.  Guess we missed the bad weather -- haven't had any cold or bad/rainy weather on this entire trip.

More tomorrow night from Albuquerque.  Lynn

San Diego this morning -- Phoenix tonight

Bus to pull out at 8:30 am from our Humphry's Half-Moon Bay Inn & Suites and will head for Phoenix. 

Spent yesterday at the San Diego Zoo.  Have updated some photos at Click Here for Picasa photos
will work at sizing, deleting, etc. more tonight.

Five nights here in San Diego, two nights in Phoenix, then one night in Albuquerque and our last night in Amarila, though group will stay Saturday night in Wichita.  We escape the tour in Oklahoma City where our truck is and head to Dallas for the night, then only another 530 miles to our home in the RGV.

Later, Lynn

San Diego, CA

Came to San Diego on January 2nd.  On way down stopped at a Camel Dairy.  Yes, they milk camels, turn the milk into various lotions and soaps which they sell there on the farm.
Karen Miles picked us up at the motel as soon as we got in and we spent the evening with Kent & Karen Miles ( he is my first-cousin).  His sister and her family had been visiting in the area for a week and were staying in a nearby motel.  They stopped briefly after a long day of rides at DisneyLand; were totally pooped and spent only a few minutes.  They were to fly out back to Denver and drive to North Platte, NE the next day.

Kent is doing weller than could be expected in his on-going treatment for stage-4 esophageal cancer.  Tumor has shrunk to size that he is now not using feeding tube, but eating regular food.  He is very up-beat and doctors keep expressing surprise at how well he has taken the treatments and how well he is doing.  We sure hope this continues.

After two days of touring on the bus with a step-on guide we saw much of the area and again yesterday spent the afternoon and early evening with Kent and Karen.  Their grand-son Cameron, who they are raising, was off to various places and we saw about 2 minutes of him as he was home from one place and informing K&K that he was heading to another place.  A little bit of California thing--he used his skateboard to go between 1 and 2 miles to a friends house for the gathering.  Was to be brought home by car after dark.

We are heading to the San Diego Zoo after bit here.  Are on limited wifi here so will put some pictures up when have better set-up -- probably when we are in Phoenix, AZ on Tuesday night.

Lynn 

New Years Day - 2014

Ontario, CA -- Got up at 3:15 am this morning at our motel to be ready to eat breakfast at 4:00 AM, be on the bus at 4:30 AM so we could get to Pasadena and to our seats on viewing stand.  Turned out the traffic wasn't as bad as had feared and we were first bus in the parking area.  However, it was a different parking area than our tour guide had thought and was about 3/4 mile from our grandstand seats through a college campus.  This was quite a trek for many of our 70 to 86 year old people and took quite a while.

Photo at right is first float in parade.  Between Phyllis & myself we took something over 600 photos.  I have uploaded them to 2014 Rose Parade    Click on that link to view the pictures.  It will take a long time for me to edit these photos -- the are now entered right off the camera.  I will delete as needed, rotate, crop, and describe each photo as time permits.  Being on a bus tour and leaving for San Diego in the morning may not leave a lot of time to do this.

Temperature this morning as we left the motel was 48 degrees.  As we were coming back it was 77 degrees.  There was not much wind, so even this morning it was not too bad, but the sun was very welcome when it came up and finally shone on us.

Part of the pre-parade parade and he again showed up in the post-parade parade

 These two photos taken about 5:30 am on Colorado

 A few of the seemingly 100's of buses.

       Some of our gang from Iowa/Missouri/Nebraska

The Goodyear blimp was a ways off, no doubt over the same area that was being televised near the start of the parade.





Will work on rest of photos.  Some of are of all the wacko's who paraded up and down the street before the parade began.  Many spouting bible verses and warning the sinners; others having their own cause - some warning the California Governor about some issues and many other things.  An even bigger group followed the parade, probably 30 tow trucks, and a lot of people espousing some of their thoughts on something, usually not main-stream.  One thing you didn't see on TV was the one unit, after about a 15 minute delay, being towed by a tow truck through the parade.

We are off to San Diego tomorrow and will be picked up on our arrival by Kent and Karen Miles and will have supper with them and Kent's sister Karen and husband Bob from North Platte, NE tomorrow evening.

More later, Lynn