Relaxing Day at Retama

What a perfect day. It started out a bit cloudy but by mid morning the sun was out and the temperature was rising. We went for a walk around 9am and met up with Jack Mayer and one of our favorite four legged friends Poppy, the back side just wiggles like crazy with excitement on seeing us, (Poppy's not Jacks). But than I guess I never check out ---- ok, never mind, won't go there.

It was such a beautiful morning I just couldn't stand staying home so while Larry was getting ready to watch the MSU Basketball game I decided to go for a bike ride. David Cypcar was out and about so we just did a short ride around the RV Park next door. I noticed there are quite a few new Michigan plates over there. Will need to go over sometime and see if we can't catch them outside.

When I got home Larry was sitting out side working on soldering something and sputtering to himself. I guess the TV Station changed and MSU wasn't being shown. Times like that it's better to just keep on riding down the street for a little while.

I got to thinking today that our Big Truck people haven't really gotten together much the last few weeks, in fact almost all season. Last year we had a standard Happy Hour days of Tuesday and Thursdays at the clubhouse. This year it just hasn't worked out with either something else going on at the clubhouse or it was just to cold and rainy to get out. So I went around and checked with the head of each household (guess who that was) to see about getting together today and buying buckets of chicken for dinner. It was unanimous, so about 4:00 Bonnie, Dale and I went over to Church's Chicken and order enough to feed 18 of us. It was a simple meal and very little clean up, just what we like.

Tonight it was still just too nice (78 degrees) to go inside, so we went for another walk with Jack, Danielle and Poppy. The day was ended by sitting outside at their lot until the mosquitoes made their appearance. But we did enjoy seeing the moon and stars, it's been a long time since we've been able to do that.

Several new readers today on the blog, Kingwood TX, Aransas Pass TX, Spring TX and Sun City AZ. And our (almost) daily reader of the day is from Troy Michigan.

Guess that's it for today. Not a overly exciting day but it's one of the reasons we enjoy coming down here. Perfect weather, good friends and relaxing. What more can a person ask for. Till next time...................................

BBQ Patio Party

Thanks to Mike Rhodes the owner of our park we had a nice dinner and music on the clubhouse patio last night. Rudy's catered the meal which is one of the best BBQ places in the area. Lots of food, chicken, pulled pork, sausage, potato salad, cold slaw, baked beans, bread and pudding for desert. Everything was good and there was plenty for anyone wanting seconds.

Here are some pictures.

Here's Danielle, Dale, Bonnie, Gail, Mark (hidden) and Jack

Gail was right in the Western Theme, right down the the spurs

Pat and Mariylnn are checking out Jim and Gary in their new duds

Last but not lease here's my very own cowboy

Even tho it was pretty cloudy the temperature was nice. After dark it got a little cool but I'm sure the beverages and dancing helped to keep people warm.

Guess that's it for today. My welcome goes out to new friends in Kingwood Texas.

I'm also going to start saying thank you to our readers that link on almost daily. The first one goes to friends in Saint Helen Michigan who ever you are.

Till next time............................................................ Happy Trails to you

Breakfast out, bike ride, Home tour

This morning we decided to go out to breakfast at Angels with friends Gary, Marilynn and David. David is still playing bachelor while Linda is in ND for a few more days. For once Angels wasn't too busy, we must have hit it just at the right time. Larry and I got the breakfast specially, 2-eggs, bacon, hash browns and toast for $2.99. Sure can't beat the price, I think the most expensive meal was $5.95 and that would feed us for two days.

When we got back home we decided to take a ride in the State Park. They are having a family day and even tho it was still early (9am) it was starting to get busy. Plus they had the grand opening of their new building just inside the park. I forgot my camera but the building is nice with lots of pictures and descriptions of the animals spotted in the park. Some I have seen, some I would like to see and some I hope I never see.

I was going through my pictures on my system trying to clean it up a little. How many hundreds of bird pictures does one person need. I came across some of back home so thought I'd share them.
This is the Island that has the Grand River running along each side. Great place for a walk or riding your bike to the end. Families come and picnic along the banks and toss their fishing lines in. Just a really neat place to spend a quiet summer afternoon. Back around 1900 there use to be seven islands with hotels, parks and even a roller coaster going from one to another.
I found this old picture on the internet. The article said that Grand Ledge was the biggest attraction in Michigan and they even built a special train depot just to handle the visitors. Too bad a major ice dam destroyed all but one small island.
Within a short bike ride from where we stay is Fitzgerald Park, the home of the Ledges. There is over a mile of trails like the picture above that runs along the Grand River. Not only does it have these trails but if your one of those brave people you can do some rock climbing. News articles say this is the Seventh largest in the state of outcropping of rocks.
Here's another picture taken this winter of the island. Luckily I'm sitting here in temperatures of 70's and just enjoying the pretty snow picture with all my doors and windows open.
And my last picture My sister Nadene sent this too me this fall and she gets to look at this every day from her office window. I have it on my desk top, just think it is the prettiest picture.

That's it for today. Welcome friends from Queensland, Australia whoever you are.
Till next time........................................

Crafty ladies, serious conversation, And a GRRRR

Some of the ladies here in the park have been busy making dolls that will be given to different organizations. Some will go to the local police and fire depts and some to the Children's Hospital. I believe Donna said there will be around 50 dolls completed that hopefully will help little ones during a hard time. Here's a few pictures:

Below is one of the dolls before the hair

And here is one finished for a little girl. Pretty cute.

While I was walking back from the craft room I spotted Bill Bevington and David Cypcar doing what most people do best here, Talking
It was getting time to head for the airport to pick Dale Bruss up who was coming home from Atlanta. She needed to be with her parents for the last couple of weeks and Mark had a Dr's appt. I ran into Jack Mayer and he volunteered to ride along to the airport with me since he said he's never been there. Little did he know that he would be the "baggage boy". We arrived just in time for him to get Dales luggage off the belt and a quick drive back to Retama just as it started to rain. Unfortunately a few hours later Grant came over to inform us of this:
You might have to click on picture to enlarge it to see the wonderful flat tire. I'm pretty sure the nail (which I swear was a foot long) came from our park. Lots of construction going on and the workers aren't very good on checking for items left in street. I think it's time to get a hold of the owner of the park and see about getting the street sweeper out again. Larry ran over (actually took the Kenworth) to the Auto Parts and got a patch. It wasn't the best day for doing anything outside with a steady drizzle but within a hour it was really raining hard. Ok so maybe the nail wasn't quite a foot long:

That's it for today. Hello to Tecumseh OK and Magnolia TX people. A new one also from Mission today. As I said before, I can only see the town, state, country on the Stats but it's fun seeing new ones. Till next time....................................

Off to Mexico and Friends Leave

This morning we headed off to Mexico with Donna and Grant. Unfortunately with the sun being out and warm temperatures I think almost all of the Winter Texans in the RGV had the same idea. The parking lots where full and lots of people crossing the bridge. It was close to noon by the time we got there so we went to our favorite eating place called "Old Town Cafe". This is the place where you buy one Margarita and get the second one free. I have found the first one is pretty darn weak but the second one makes up for it. This is a pretty good size restaurant and it was almost full but the waiters who are all dressed in tuxes did a good job of keeping the chips coming. The food was good, I had the taco salad and Larry ordered the shrimp tacos, I don't remember what Donna and Grant had but I do remember it looked good too.

After lunch we made our way down the street and I was able to find some things for our great nieces. Still have lots of things to get but that will call for a girls day there. While walking around we did run into several folks from our park. Can't believe we actually saw them with so many people down there. Finally we had enough and made our normal liquor purchase than back over the bridge.

When we got back we found out that Kathy and Phil Dieweiler pulled out this afternoon and are heading for PA. They have had some challenges on getting out of here to head for his job but hopefully they have a safe trip. With the winter storms it was probably a good thing they were delayed. Wouldn't want to be up there in that kind of weather in a 5th wheel. I know Kathy reads this blog so just want to say we're sorry we missed you today and keep us posted.

I had forgotten I had my camera or I would of taken some pictures. But I did catch this on the way home.
I also got a picture today from Linda Cypcar. She flew home to North Dakota to help one of her daughters who was having surgery. I love my girls but I think I'd fly everyone down here rather than do this:
She will probably come back next week and just rave on how warm it is when it's only 70 degrees. Even tho I think it will probably take her a few days to thaw out.

That's it for tonight. Welcome two new readers from Dayton & Humble Texas. Till next time.....

Shopping Day

This morning Marilynn and I went over to the Mall for a day away from the our homes. Larry needed to go over to the other trailer before we left to turn the heat on, turn the water off and put the hoses in the shed. There's a Freeze Warning out for tonight. We really are getting tired of these cold nights. As I said yesterday it was perfect out but around midnight the cold front came through. The wind was something else and from talking to different people everyone sure felt it.

So Marilynn and I arrived at the Mall only to find out we had a good 20 minutes before the stores open. One of the coffee shops was open so we got a cup and just sat to do some people watching. There are some really weird people out there. As I've said before you sure couldn't tell there was a recession here. Notice several new strip mall under construction while driving to the mall and there isn't one empty store front in the mall. This is a pretty good size one with well over a 100 stores, a place that our grand-daughter Anissa would love to spend a day. Especially if she had gr-ma's credit card. Around 11:00 we got a call from Pat and she along with Helen and her SIL Ann were heading there and wanted to meet for lunch. Decided on a place called Lube's where you can get a full meal (buffet style) or just a salad which we did and it was really good.
After a little more shopping and a stop at Stein Marts we called it a day and arrived home around 3pm.

Doug Franks had rotator cuff surgery early this morning and Jutta said things went well. He's in quite a bit of pain and basically counting the minutes between each pain pill. They found out this week that they will be work camping this summer at Adventure Land Park in IA so he needs to get better fast. Another friend here, Kathleen Gomez had a knee replacement done today. Bob said tonight she would be in the hospital for a couple more days than rehab. Man the bones are starting to fall apart in the neighborhood.

We had a nice quiet happy hour with Donna & Grant tonight. They've been pretty busy the last few weeks getting ready for company and then entertaining them. As it turned out their company came from Florida and they are in the same park as our friends John and Noreta Ray who we worked with in Slidell LA after Katrina. What a small world, especially in our RV world. So even tho it was a bit chilly we put on our heavy coats and sat in the sun for a little while.

That's it for today, want to welcome readers from Franklin TN, Las Vegas NV and Carstairs, Alberta Canada, hope you enjoy my ramblings. Till next time.................................

Sugar Fix & Happy Valentine

Yesterday was the monthly breakfast up at the clubhouse which we always help with. I think the count was over 70 and we had them all served and pretty much done within a half hour. Not bad. We start shortly after 7am getting tables and chairs set up, the skillet's and electric fry pans hot and lots and lots of eggs scrambled. Jim Olsen is in charge of the pancakes and sausages , Dick Goodman has the scrambled eggs and the rest of us took care of coffee, juices and serving.

After breakfast we had to run over to the other trailer as our renters where leaving that day. That afternoon we didn't do too much but that night we had made plans with Doug and Jutta Franks to go to Ruby's for dinner. This place isn't fancy, tables are big picnic tables and 10ft long tables but the pulled pork is really really good.

Today was a perfect weather day, sunny and very warm. We went over to the other trailer again first thing, Larry needed to fix a water leak behind the toilet and I wanted to do some cleaning. The people left it in pretty good shape but I always like to go in and do my own before new renters. Which they will be here this week. It took a little longer than Larry thought and after a trip to Camping World for a part we both finished up by noon.

This afternoon we were invited over to Lon and Pat Garvey's place to celebrate Lon's birthday. Pat & Lon are almost neighbors of our in Michigan. They live in Bellevue MI that's about a hour from us. We had some good cake and ice cream and had a deep discussion on a bug that was crawling across their patio. You wouldn't think a little bug could entertain 20 adults but what can I say.

Tonight we went out for chicken with Jack & Danielle Mayer than we "had" to go check out the new DQ that just opened. I think everyone and their brother had the same idea as the place was packed. After 45 minutes of waiting we finally went up to find out what's going on only to find that they lost our order. Oh well, it came out soon after that and it's not like we are ever in a big hurry.

So we both got our sugar fix today. We feel miserable from all the sweets and food the last two days so I think we'd better get out on the bikes tomorrow.

I checked the Stats tonight and want to welcome a new reader from Bedford Nova Scotia. Also one from Gilbert AZ. Thanks for visiting and hope you come back often.

Want to wish everyone a Happy Valentine, especially to my kids and grandkids.
Till next time.......................................