Thursday, March 21, 2013

Settled in for the Winter in South Texas

(Real-Time Note on 6/8/2015: Well, as you may have noticed, I have severely neglected this blog for a REALLY long time now.  To be honest, it is now closing in on the summer of 2015…  Embarrassing, but c’est la vie!  So, as I have done before (but not always admitted), I will be reconstructing our past adventures and will back-date the posts.  Even if no one but me reads these, it’s OK: I enjoy looking back at all the fun we’ve had as retirees on the road!)
So, after arriving in Weslaco TX yesterday (Wednesday, December 5, 2012), we began our winter in “the valley”.  I kept very busy this winter assisting with the picture book that is produced every other year for Magic Valley residents.  I had a great time taking pictures of all the groups and activities and - other than assisting with the process of signing up and checking in all the residents for their formal portraits - I was primarily responsible for creating the activity pages for the books.  Fun, but kept me pretty busy…  And, of course, that meant that John didn’t feel guilty at all (does he ever?) going golfing several times a week with his buds, Tony, Fred and the two Bills.
On Tuesday, December 18, we went to see the Christmas lights in Hidalgo again.



Our oldest son, Eric, popped in for a short visit on Wednesday, December 19 and left on Thursday, December 20.  Always wonderful to see our kids!
Christmas found us celebrating with John’s sister Jane and her family, husband Tony, his parents Cornie & Maybelle, and our nephew Jeremy & his wife Dawn.
John says “Merry Christmas” to all of you!


Later that afternoon we converged on the park hall for the annual Christmas dinner with another couple hundred folks!  Fun time and wonderful food, as usualJ




 It’s a new year!  2013.  Wow…Seems like just yesterday when my workplace was worried about the computer switch to 2000.  How time flies when you’re having fun!  Our annual block party New Year’s Day brunch was wonderful, too.



We’ve sure enjoyed this group of folks as we’ve become better acquainted over the past few years.  We have block party happy hours every couple weeks all winter long and always have fun!
On Wednesday, January 2, we headed up to San Antonio for John’s hearing aid check-up at the VA.  With a five hour one-way drive, we opted to stay overnight there…  And, we did the same thing (only two nights this time) on Friday, January 25 for another routine medical appointment and to pick up his new hearing aids.
Part of our plan for spending one more winter in south Texas was to do a few more of the touristy things that we hadn’t yet done.  While we didn’t get to everything on our list, we did manage to go to the Museum of South Texas History on Thursday, February 7

 
It was pretty good, too – artifacts clear back to prehistoric days...

...and the original Native Americans...











...to the early 1500's when the first Europeans probably discovered the Texas coast.  
They even included some interactive displays which I couldn’t resist donning!









All in all, a fun day!


Tuesday, February 26: back in San Antonio for John’s eye appointment and new glasses.
On Saturday, March 9, we were in San Antonio at North Park Lincoln for a service appointment for the car.
Thursday, March 21: Finished packing up the rig and headed for the hill country at around 9:30 a.m.  Got our 2nd annual Alaska gang reunion coming up!