Tuesday 1-30 Terrific Tuesday

We woke up to 32 degrees and a light wind. We hung around the house for an hour or so and then went for a walk on the Pepper Creek Trail. We walked for an hour. It was a very pleasant walk with the birds chirping. Pepper Creek Trail also has a brand new bicycle fix it station. At the beginning we did not see anyone but half way through the walk people started to show up. At times the creek flows over a dam near a statue of two children playing. Today was one of the days it was flowing a little. As we walked we saw cardinals, blue jays, hawks, wood peckers and other birds enjoying the cool weather.

The small waterfall

Larry checking out the bicycle fix it station

A woodpecker

A hawk

Before we left on our trip Larry installed a new fresh water pump in the Minnie. At first it was very quiet and worked perfectly but towards the end of the trip it started to sound funny. Larry thought it sounded like it was getting air into the lines. The pump is a real pain to get at, it is buried under the floor in the closet, to get to it you have to empty the closet and then remove the floor of the closet. While we were in The Valley, Larry emptied the closet and found that a water connector going to the pump was a bit loose, he tightened it up and it fixed the problem for a bit. In The Valley we are normally hooked up to city water so we don't use the pump but when the temperature is at freezing we unhook from the city water and use the pump. The pump started sounding funny again so yesterday Larry took everything apart to find the problem. He believed it was the same connector he worked on before and he didn't have a new one. We bought a couple of pieces at Home Depot and after lunch Larry rerouted the line and replaced the connector with a new one, the pump once again is quiet. The floor cover that goes over the pump has never fit correctly so while he had it off he used his new saw and trimmed a little piece off it, now it fits great. The cover is held down by screws and a couple of the holes were stripped out. While he had the cover off he drilled new holes.

While Larry did the Minnie project I worked on my jigsaw puzzle and helped him when he needed me.

It was a beautiful day. When it was time for dinner I got the charcoal grill out and barbecued hamburgers for dinner.

A beautiful day at the house

After dinner we watched an episode of the GizWiz and YouTube videos. Then we watched the 1990 movie, Quigley, starring Tom Selleck, Alan Rickman and Laura San Giacomo. It is a cute Australian- American western. I liked it even though I have seen it before. We had a terrific Tuesday. 
 

Monday 1-29 A New Tool and Back to dancing with Brad Caldwell

Keep on smiling

Before we left for The Valley our Logitech remote control that we use for all our entertainment devices started giving us problems, some buttons no longer wanted to work correctly. We have had it for a very long time and I think we wore it out, of course dropping it on the floor about a hundred times probably didn't help it either. It is a programmable remote and whenever we got something like a new TV or Roku Larry had to re-program it. It was a bit of a pain to program but we liked only needing the one remote.

Larry researched new remotes and decided on another Logitech but he ordered a different one that you can use with Alexa. The reviews were all over the place, both good and bad, lots of folks wrote that they gave up trying to get it to work and sent it back. Almost everyone said it took many hours to program. Larry is really good at this kind of thing and figured he could probably get it working. He worked on it all morning and had everything working except for one routine. He finally gave up and called Logitech tech support. He worked with a gentleman for over an hour to fix the problem. The support person was excellent. Larry asked if he could see what he did to solve the problem and the gentleman was thrilled to show him. That way Larry can solve similar problems. The new controller is smaller than the old one and doesn't have as many buttons. Once you get used to it it is very cool, instead of selecting which device you want to control you select what activity you want to do. If you want to watch the television you press the TV button, the TV and soundbar both turn on and you are ready to go, if you want to watch something on the Roku you press a button for that and the TV turns on, then the stereo turns on, then the Roku and you are ready to go. It will even turn on my Wii. After getting everything working Larry enabled it to work with Alexa and now we can ask her to turn everything on and off just like using the remote. She can also change the channels and turn the volume up and down. You can also ask her to turn on things like YouTube, Amazon or Pandora and she will turn everything on and take you there. It is amazing. As most people said it did take hours to setup and Larry will still have to tweak a few things here and there.

Amazon has also improved the Dash Wand, you can now set timers on it and with the new remote it can also control the television. We still are amazed at what you can do with the Alexa devices. 

New Harmony Remote Controller

Old Logictech Remote Controller

Amazon Dash Wand

While Larry worked on this I worked on my jigsaw puzzle. 

In the evening we went to Sun City to dance with the Sundancers and to Brad Caldwell. We hadn't been there for over a month and it was great being back dancing with all our local friends. We had a great time.

Square dancing with friends

When we got home I worked out for a half hour and I watched a couple of weekly shows on PBS, Death in Paradise and Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries. We had a great day.

Sunday 1-28 Busy Day

Busy Day

What a beautiful day, plenty of sunshine and no wind. What should we do today? 

Before doing anything we went for a walk. We walked the Nolan Creek Trail in Belton for about an hour. We started off by walking to Confederate Park, where we saw a new bicycle fix it station. The station had tools, pump and a stand to put your bike on to fix it. This was the first time have seen one and we thought it was cool. We turned around and walked to Mary Hardin-Baylor University. As we walked we saw other people enjoying the beautiful day of sunshine. 

Tools at the bicycle fix it station

Larry checking out the fix it station at Nolan Creek

On the way home from our walk we swung by Mister Car Wash and gave the car a bath.

By the time we got home it was time for lunch. After lunch we started to work on a couple of Minnie projects. On the way to the Rio Grande Valley it rained and everything got filthy so we needed to wash the car dolly. Larry took both the car and truck out of the garage so he could get the dolly out. We washed the grunge off the dolly and dried it off, then we hooked it to the truck and took it back to storage.

The second project was to reverse the doors on the refrigerator. When we installed the new refrigerator the doors opened to the right instead of to the left. I thought opening to the right would be excellent, that way I could open it all the way and the dinette seat wouldn't be in the way, I was wrong, everytime I used it it was a pain. Larry reversed the doors. It took a lot longer than he thought. When we first installed the refrigerator the door did not latch correctly and Larry spent a lot of time getting it work, now that the door was reversed he had to work on it again. Now the doors open to the left and latch correctly. Thank you, Larry.

Larry reversing the refrigerator doors

When we are camping and we stay in one place for awhile we put our tooth brushes and tooth paste on the counter in the bathroom. There isn't much space and Larry wanted to get them off the counter. He bought a small toothbrush holder from Amazon and he installed in the corner of the mirror.

New tooth brush holder

In the evening we watched YouTube videos and Avatar, one of the dvds we have. Then I watched Father Brown. We had a busy day of doing this and that. LIFE IS GOOD!!!    

Watching television

  

Saturday 1-27 Just Another Day

Smile and be happy

We woke up to drizzle and overcast skies. I put some pork in the crock pot with liquid smoke and slow cooked it for four hours to make pulled pork. It was starting to dry out so next time I'll cook it for three and a half hours. Larry finished replacing the leather soles on his dancing shoes. He had to be careful on cutting the leather considering there's barely enough to do a pair of shoes. While he worked on his project I worked on my jigsaw puzzle. 

After the pork finished cooking I shredded it and added barbecue sauce to it. When I finished we went to the Bell County Expo Center. This weekend they have the Capitol Dog Training Club of Austin event where the dogs compete on the agility courses. We like watching the dogs do the courses. One of our square dancing friends, Dawn, was going to be there. While we were there we met up with her and her dog Lucy. They were in the novice group and they weren't up until the end of the day so we missed it. Dawn lives in Virginia so it was nice to see her. Later on in the evening Larry read on Facebook that Dawn and Lucy came in first place in their group. 

We spent the evening around the house. We watched a couple of episodes of GizWiz and a movie off Amazon called The Last Word. The movie starred Amanda Seyfried and Shirley MacLaine. I thought the movie was very slow and was not that good. We had another relaxing day. 

Friday 1-26 A laid back day

A laid back day at the house

We didn't have anything on the agenda today so we hung around the house and relaxed. Normally Thursday is my housework day but I did laundry yesterday and since I had cleaned the house before going to the Rio Grande Valley it didn't need cleaning. I didn't feel like reading so I decided to start a jig saw puzzle. At Christmas I received a few more puzzles and now I have nine puzzles to assemble. One of the puzzles I received was Murder at the Museum, it is a Bits And Pieces Whodunit? 1000 Piece Jigsaw. Usually when I do 1000 piece jigsaw it doesn't take long but I think this one will take awhile considering the pieces are different shapes. You can't really tell which ones are the frames and which ones aren't. This makes it a challenge but I like puzzles that are challenging. After the puzzle is assembled you read the booklet, search for clues and solve the crime. I think this will be fun. I worked out on my Wii Fit and Just Dance for an hour.

Some of the pieces of the puzzle

Murder At The Museum Jigsaw Puzzle

While I was working on the puzzle and working out Larry worked on a couple of projects. When we got home from the Valley he had ordered a couple pairs of no tie shoe laces and replacement suede for his square dancing shoes. He received the order this morning. I have problems keeping my shoe laces tied and Larry's are pretty long, while in the Valley we saw a lady wearing these cool looking shoe laces. Larry talked to her about them and she said she loves them. Larry read reviews about the laces and they were all very positive. They work similar to our wake board bindings. Once you have the laces in the shoes you tighten them to where they are comfortable and then you can slide the shoes on and off without loosening the laces because they stretch. Or if you prefer you can easily loosen and tighten them every time.

New Shoe Laces

When square dancing Larry had problems with his shoes sticking to the floor so he started using dance socks. They slide over your shoes and allow your shoes to slide. If you wear leather soled shoes they will slide so you don't need the dance socks. Over a year ago Larry glued leather on the soles of a couple of pair of shoes and they worked great, now he doesn't have to use the dance socks. After having the leather on the soles for over a year it is wearing through so today he removed the old leather and glue from one pair, he still needs to do the other pair and then put on the new leather.

A family bought an old movie theatre in downtown Belton called The Beltonian Theatre and they show classic movies on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Sometimes they also have live events. This evening they had Johnny Memphis in Concert, Larry surprised me by taking me to the concert. The theatre was very nice. It's setup with tables in front of the seats so you can eat dinner on it. Johnny did a good job singing George Strait's songs, he also did a few Elvis songs. The concert was a bit slow with the mellow George Strait songs but the Elvis songs were peppier. I had a good time.

Johnny Memphis

 

Thursday 1-25 Doing This and That

Smile and be happy

What a gorgeous day of sunshine!!! The day started out near freezing but the temperature got in the high 50s and no wind.

Last night before going to bed I took a loaf of bread out of the freezer so it could rise. It takes eight hours to rise at room temperature. I sprayed the pan and plastic wrap with non-stick spray and put the loaf in the pan. In the morning Larry checked the loaf out and found that it hadn't risen completely. He figured it was because I had put the glass pan on the granite counter top, which was cold. So he put the pan on a couple of dish towels. By the time I got up the loaf was rising. A couple of hours later it was ready to bake. At the beginning of the baking I confused myself with timers and ended up turning the oven off. When the time was up I didn't realize that I had turned the oven off. The oven was still hot but the bread hadn't finished baking. So I turned the oven back on and within five minutes after the temperature was set the bread was finished. It came out perfect, I was surprised. We munched on bread all day.

Freshly baked bread

After the bread was finished we went grocery shopping, picked up our mail and restarted the service. 

Grocery shopping

In the afternoon I started doing laundry, it took the rest of the day. While doing laundry I worked out for an hour on my Wii Fit and Gold's Gym.

Working out

In the evening we watched YouTube videos, we're almost caught up with them. We watched a movie called Sliding Doors via Amazon. I didn't like the movie, it was weird and I didn't like the ending. We had a wonderful day of catching up doing things around the house. 

Watching television

  

Wednesday 1-24 Home Sweet Home

Home Sweet Home

After a month in the Rio Grande Valley it was time to go home. We had a super time dancing and doing activities at J-Five RV Park.

The people at J-Five are super friendly. This year when we weren't dancing I participated in lots of the night activities. I attended two of their special entertainment events, Bill Chrastil and Ralph Kuster, both of these gentlemen are very talented and have their own style of paying tribute to different artists. I played both card and regular Bingo. A couple days a week I played Pinochle, I should say I attempt to play. A group of people taught me how to play Pinochle. We attended a hamburger dinner and I went to a movie night. Every Wednesday and Saturday morning we attended the donuts and coffee get together. There are many other activities held at the park but they are during the day and we are normally dancing. We had a great time at J-Five RV Park.

During our stay we danced six days a week to four great callers: Joe Saltel, Randy Dougherty, Darryl Lipscomb and Bronc Wise. We also got to dance to Nick Hartley and Butch Danielski. I line danced to Karen Tripp a couple times a week. She is very energetic. We also got reacquainted with people from last year and met new people. We danced with good dancers and had fun doing so.

We left early this morning, before the Wednesday get together at J-Five. Our drive was 377 miles but we had to drive through San Antonio and Austin via I35, which carries a lot of traffic. Last year we hit Austin about 4:30 and it was a nightmare. Today we went through a couple hours earlier so the traffic wasn't bad. We got home a little before 4:00. When we got home we unloaded the Minnie. Larry turned on the water and had Alexa set the thermostat up to take the chill out of the house. By the time we finished unloading the Minnie it was time for dinner. I heated up leftovers.

After dinner Larry had to reprogram the Amazon Echo from the camper for the house and our network. During the evening we watched our YouTube videos. We had a very long day and fun in the Rio Grande Valley but it's good to be home. LIFE IS GOOD!!!! 

Tuesday 1-23 Saying good-bye

Good-bye until next year

Today was our last day in the Rio Grand Valley. We had a super time. We met new friends and saw old friends. We have been in the Valley for a month and it's time to go home.

This morning was our last dance for the season in the Rio Grand Valley. It was Joe Saltel's Tuesday A Dance. There were ten squares and no one sat out. Karen Tripp did a couple of line dances. Joe called seven tips and a Hot Hash tip after the dance. We danced every tip and the Hot Hash. I also danced the line dances. We had great squares and a lot of fun.

Our friends, Sharon and Gary from Marble Falls invited us to go to lunch at Chick Fillet. They had won a card from Chick Fillet for 52 free meals, they won the card by going to a grand opening of a new Chick Fillet in Marble Falls. Normally Larry and I would split a meal but Sharon insisted we each get our own meal. It was nice visiting with friends. After eating we said our good-byes until we meet again in a square.

During the afternoon we started to get the Minnie ready to leave. Larry put air in the air bags and checked the battery. I swept out the Minnie. Larry read and I did some Sudoku. I walked four laps around the park to get my steps.

In the evening I went over to the club house and played Bingo. I and another person won the same game so I ended up winning $2.10. I said my good-byes to the people there and told them we would see them next year. I had fun playing Bingo.

We had a super day.

Monday 1-22 Have a great Monday

Have a great Monday

We have been in the Rio Grand Valley for almost a month, today we started to wind down.

In the morning we went to Bronc Wise's Monday A Dance. There were nine squares plus an extra couple. Bronc called eight tips and we had good squares of dancers. At times we had some bobbles but we had fun. Bronc closed the dance with a singing call which is pretty rare at the Advanced level of dancing. He did a great job. At the end of the dance we said our good-byes to Bronc and told him we would see him next year.

After the dance we stopped by Jack-In-The-Box for lunch. We hadn't been there in a long time. We had a couple tacos and shared an order of curly fries. We really like their tacos but we don't eat much deep fried foods any more. But the tacos were still excellent.

In the afternoon we hung around the Minnie. Larry finished reading a book and started another on his Kindle. I did some Sudoku and did four laps around the park. Each lap gives me 1200 steps, by the time I do four laps I do 1.5 miles. As I walk around the park people say hi to me and ask how many laps I do. I tell them it depends on how many steps I need but usually I walk at least three laps. I enjoy walking around the park because it gets me out of the Minnie for awhile.

Tonight we had a special entertainment program at the club house. They invited Ralph Kuster, who is a Canadian musician to perform. He is an one man variety show, he pays tribute to country, rock n roll, Gospel and Broadway. He is very energetic and interacts with the audience. I got up to dance with him during the song Save the Last Dance for Me. I enjoyed the performance. His show was over two hours long. Before the show he sang parts of songs he will be performing at different RV Parks through out the season in the Rio Grand Valley. 

Ralph Kuster

Sunday 1-21 A Day of Relaxation

We had a very relaxing day. There is no dancing on Sundays so what should we do.

I made mini waffles for breakfast. Then we went for a ride around town. Our month is up on Wednesday and Larry wanted to find the easiest route through town because he needs to fill the Minnie up with gas and we will be towing the car. He found a Flying J that is set up so it's easy to get in and out of and it's right off the interstate. 

We don't have a Krispy Kreme Donuts anywhere around us in Belton so we haven't been to one in years. When you go to a Krispy Kreme and the big orange sign advertising fresh donuts is lit up it means that they're baking fresh donuts and you get a free sample. This morning the light was on so we got a free sample each, we also bought four more. You can buy their donuts in grocery stores but it is not the same as getting them fresh from Krispy Kreme. Their donuts are very good but they are more expensive than most donut places. 

Krispy Kreme Donuts

When we got home I made lunch, then we spent the rest of day relaxing around the Minnie.

While relaxing I did some Sudoku and massaged Larry's feet. I have been bad about not getting all my steps in for the last week. It's not that I'm not active but when you dance Advanced you don't jump around, don't swing and you don't move fast like you do with Mainstream and Plus. But yesterday I got my goal plus extra, total steps 12,100. Since I have not been reaching my goal my Garmin fitness band has been decreasing the goal, it has gone from 12,500 steps down to 9,600 steps. This afternoon I walked around the park three times and earned 3,600 steps. After dinner I finished getting the rest of my steps. I got 10,000 steps by doing steps in place and a fifteen minutes jazz exercise.

Working Out

On Sunday nights I usually go over and play cards with a group of people but today I decided to stay home. I was tired. We had a day of relaxation.  

Saturday 1-20 Special Square Dance

Spectacular Day

We had a spectacular day in the Rio Grand Valley.

We started the day off by meeting with the J-5 residents at the club house for coffee and donuts where we visited with people and got caught up with what's happening in the park.

Afterwards we went to town. The first stop was at the .99 cent Only store. We drink mostly water and we usually put flavoring in it, we buy it at Walmart or HEB for about $2.50 a bottle but we found some at the .99 cent only store for $.99 a bottle. The next stop was McAllen Public Library to watch some of our YouTube videos. We were there for a couple of hours.

We like to take Life Saver mints with us when we go square dancing. We love the new orange flavored mints but here in the valley we can't find them anywhere.

The last stop was a Credit Union to get more cash. While in the Rio Grand Valley we go through more cash considering we dance a lot and you have to pay in cash. 

Every Saturday night Joe Saltel has an Ice Cream Social Dance at the Tropic Star. This week was a special dance where Nick Hartley was invited to call with Joe. The dance had 18 squares and some round dancers. Ron Woolcock cued the round dancing. Larry and I wore red, white and blue outfits with red flashing hats. We were complimented on our hats and outfits. Nick and Joe called an outstanding dance with a lot of enthusiasm. Ron did a great job with the rounds. Klondike bars and fudge sickles were served during the dance. We had a super time.      

 

Larry, Nick, me and Joe

    

Friday 1-19 Awesome Friday

We had an awesome Friday. We spent the day dancing with Randy Dougherty. 

Before going dancing I woke up early to bake cinnamon rolls to take with us. It took me longer today considering there was more preparation. I had to make the dough and roll the dough out. Then I sprinkled the cinnamon on top of the dough and rolled the dough into a log. Next I cut the log into 12 pieces and then baked the rolls. After they finished baking I spread the icing over each roll. I baked two dozen cinnamon rolls.

The first dance at 10:00 was a DBD Plus Dance. At the beginning of the dance we were short one couple to make three squares. Randy called a couple that was there last week to come in to make the third square. Randy once again did a super job of calling. He walked us through a few calls that everyone was having problems with. We had a super time. The cinnamon rolls were a hit.

We had an hour to kill before the Freaky Friday Dance at 1:00 so we went to Taco Bell and had lunch.

The Freaky Friday Dance is an A DBD Dance. We had 31 couples, which made seven squares and three extra couples. the squares we danced in were great. The dance was challenging and awesome.

In the evening I went down to the club house and played cards. There were six of us. We ended up playing past 9:00 so Larry came down to see if everything was ok. I had another great time with the group.

      

Thursday 1-18 Another cold day in the Rio Grand Valley

It's cold outside

What do you do when it's cold outside? We went square dancing.

I started the day out by getting up at 6:30 to bake a Cinnamon Swirl Cake to take to the morning workshop. While the crumb cake was baking I made breakfast. After the cake cooled down I cut it in pieces and put the pieces in a pan. It didn't take as long as I thought. I had a half hour to relax before going to the dance. I took a couple of the crumb cakes with us, I baked one last night.

The first dance was Randy Dougherty's DBD A Workshop. We had five squares which was one more than last week. The crumb cakes were a smash, everyone complimented me on how good they were. During the workshop Randy walked us through moves in different positions in different levels of square dancing; Mainstream, Plus and Advanced. It was a lot of fun.

We had an hour and a half between the morning workshop and the afternoon dance. This gave us plenty of time for lunch. We had lunch at Taco Rico, we shared an order of Panchos, a fajita beef nacho. What's nice about eating at Taco Rico is that they have a display of the items they serve so you can look at the items and make a discussion. It was very good and the service was excellent. 

 

After lunch we had about an hour to kill so we drove around a bit. This was a little crazy because it was cold and drizzling all day. But it wasn't worth going back to the Minnie.

The afternoon dance was an A Dance with Bronc Wise. The first tip we had seven squares but the rest of the dance we had six squares plus three extra couples. We had a ball dancing to Bronc. 

By the end of the second dance we were tired considering they were back to back. But we had a great day of dancing and visiting with friends.

In the evening I went down to the club house and played Card Bingo. We had 23 people playing which is a great turn out considering it nasty outside . We played 12 games, I didn't win any but I had fun playing.   

 

Wednesday 1-17 Winter TIme Blues

Keeping warm

I'm ready for winter to go away. It barely got into the 40's and the normal highs should be in the 70's. On the flip side I'm glad I'm not in other parts of the country where it's in the teens or below. Just thinking about it makes me cold, brrr.

This morning we went down to the club house for coffee and donuts. As we walked by the car we noticed that the windshield was covered in ice and the Minnie's cab door had ice sickles hanging off them. The weather didn't keep people from the get together. The ladies usually play golf on Wednesday but it was cancelled due to weather. 

A couple of days ago Amazon put their new Echo device on sale and Larry couldn't pass it up. It came in yesterday but we weren't around so after the get together we went to the office and picked it up. 

New Echo

 

After donuts we went to Pharr South to dance A with Darryl Lipscomb and line dance with Karen Tripp. There were 11 squares and one extra couple. A group of friends from Marble Falls had tee shirts made for their A tape group and they wanted me in a picture with them so they gave me a tee shirt. Larry and I are thrilled to death to be accepted as part of their group. Darryl called a super dance. Karen introduced me to a couple of new dances. She did a great job and brings a lot of energy to line dancing. We were glad we were at Pharr South considering the temperature was 31 degrees and their building is heated.

The group from Marble Falls and me

We hung around the Minnie the rest of the day keeping warm. I was going to go to the club house to play games but I wasn't feeling very good so I wimped out. I did some Sudoku and Larry played with the new Echo device. He found out you can ask Alexa to act like a super hero or act like a villain. She will respond with a cute answer. Remember the comic strips when they have Pow!!! Bang!!! she says things like this as she describes some event, really neat. She also gives an evil laugh. She makes you laugh along with her. The Alexa is amazing and we still can't believe everything she can do. We had a great day.

Tuesday 1-16 It's Freezing

It's freezing

The day started out at 51 degrees with a north wind and as the day went on the temperature dropped, by noon it was 39 and by 9:00pm it was 31 degrees. On top of the temperature dropping it started to rain so when the temperature dropped ice formed on the car doors.

In the morning we went to Tropic Star to an A dance with Joe Saltel calling and Karen Tripp cuing line dances. It was cold so in the beginning everyone kept their jackets on considering the dance hall doesn't have a heater. I took off my jacket and danced the whole dance without it, I thought it was comfortable. We have been in the hall when it was colder. By the end of the dance it was starting to get cold in the hall. We had 10 squares for the dance. When Karen did her line dancing there were only a handful of people dancing. During the dance Karen invited Larry and I to attend a clogging event she's putting on at Benson Palm RV Park next Wednesday at 1 to 3. We attended her clogging event last year and enjoyed it so we will probably attend again. We had a super time dancing to Joe and Karen. 

By the time we got home it was cold so we stayed inside all afternoon. We were going to go square dancing with Darryl in the evening at Pharr South but with the rain and temperatures at freezing we decided it would be wiser to stay home. Since it was going to get below freezing Larry disconnected us from the city water and we will use the water from our tank. 

In the evening I walked over to the club house to play Bingo. There were 24 people playing which is an excellent turn out considering the weather. It cost $3.60 and you get three cards. We played 16 games and I won two. The first game I won $3.25 and the two players on each side of me won $1.00. The second one was the black out Bingo, where I won $8.00. Another lady won three games. It was very comfortable in the hall. Everyone had a fun time. LIFE IS GOOD!!!!!

     

Monday 1-15 Start The Week Off With a Smile

We had a great Monday. We started the day with an A dance with Bronc Wise. There were nine squares plus two extra couples. It's nice to see more  and more people showing up to dance. We had a super time dancing to Bronc and with friends.

On Mondays we have been going to an afternoon workshop but this week we decided to go grocery shopping. We stopped at HEB and picked up what we could, then we went across the street to Walmart to finish the shopping off. The grocery stores down here don't always carry the same products as they do back home, not sure if there simply isn't the demand for them or if it is because the stores stock a lot of items targeted towards Hispanics and simply don't have the shelf space to stock all the items they normally would.

By the time we got home it was almost 2:00. I put the grocery away and then I made lunch. When we finished lunch we went and took a shower. Afterwards we hung around the Minnie. I did some Sudoku and Larry read.

In the evening I went down to the clubhouse and played cards. Before going I baked oatmeal and raisin cookies. We had a big crowd tonight. We had four groups of four playing Pinochle. Another four people played Mexican checkers. We played for a couple of hours. I had a great time.    

Sunday 1-14 Just having fun

Just having fun

There is no square dancing on Sunday in the Rio Grand Valley so we decided to go to the Zoo. The Gladys Porter Zoo is in Brownsville which is about 70 miles from J-5 RV Park. We took I2 all the way there. It's Sunday and the traffic was lighter than normal. If you're not a member of the zoo it cost $5 dollars to park in the parking lot but there's a parking lot across the street that's free. We walked around the zoo for a couple of hours and had fun. The zoo is on 31 acres and houses 400 animal species and 250 tropical and neo-tropical species. We saw different monkeys, white and yellow tigers, giraffes, tropical birds, reptiles, tortoises, salt and fresh water alligator, hippopotamus, camels, zebras, rhinos and many more animals. They have a small petting zoo, where people can pet goats, a pot belly pig and a few other animals. They had a two week contest to name a newborn giraffe, on January 3rd 2018 after 1125 votes they decided on J.C. named in memory of Juan Carlos Gonzales. As we walked around we learned about the animals via signs. Larry knows how much I enjoy going to zoos so he tries to take me whenever possible. 

A baby Mexican spider monkey swinging by its arm

The giant tortoises

One of the zebras

The giraffe exhibit with the baby giraffe J.C.

The tigers soaking up the sun

In the evening I went down to the clubhouse, J-5 had cake and ice cream to celebrate birthdays and anniversaries of the residents in the park at 6:00. After the cake and ice cream the J-5 Olympics began. The activities committee came up with a fun Senior Olympics, it consisted of teams of four people and four different stations. The stations were 1) golf, 2) ladder throw, 3) Yardzee and 4) cotton ball. The golf station was a small green with eight plastic cups with number on each. One member of each team has three puts, the numbers get added together and that's the score for the team. The ladder throw was a ladder that was six steps tall and each step had a number on it. A member of each team throws six socks full of beans and the step that the sock wraps around is the points the team gets. If the sock wrapped around the back or side they get one point. After throwing the six socks the points are added up and that's the point the team gets. Yardzee was played like Yahtzee, there were five wooden dice in a bucket. A team member throws the dice and is scored just like Yahtzee. After three throws that score goes to the team. The last station was 50 cotton balls on a cookie sheet, a bowl and a spatula. The team member is blindfolded and has one minute to put the cotton balls in the bowl with the spatula. At the end of the minute the cotton balls are counted and that's the score the team gets. After doing all four stations the points are added up for the total for the team. The team with the highest score wins the Olympics. Each team member got a prize and each person with the highest score in each station got a prize. There were 12 teams and we had a great time. The committee did a super job.

We had a very fun day.