Author: Tom Piper

We spent the day Friday (22nd) on South Padre Island and went on a Segway tour conducted by Segvalley Tours.  Wow!  What a blast.  Three friends, Corky (Michigan golf friend in SPI for the winter), Ed and Cindy (friends from the park), and Mary and I started off by picking out a helmet, then a short class on how to ride the segway.  Real easy (they said you can’t fall off) and soon we were on our way.  The tour of about an hour and a half saw us visiting about 8 sand castles that are scattered around the island.  Each year they hold a competition late in the fall for people to build their castles.  They spray them with a mixture of glue and water so they will last a long time.

 

This was so much fun.  I think I want one!

 

Well, we have reached the mid-point in our South Texas stay. We are here until March 31st and then we head north again. This summer we are going to be at the Woodland Trails RV Resort in Ogemaw, Minnesota. We’ll be workamping again, with some outside maintenance duties and some inside customer service duties. Mary and I are excited about this for a number of reasons: Mary has childhood friends with a cottage near Detroit Lakes, less than a half hour from Woodland Hills; it is a smaller resort. Llano Grande is really complete but it will be nice to spend the summer at a smaller, quieter park; we are both “northerners” so we will enjoy being back up there for awhile.

We celebrated Mary’s XX birthday (or as she calls it, sinking deeper into seniorhood) on the 15th at Papadeaux Cajun restaurant in Pharr. Of course, we had soft-shelled crab on dirty rice, followed by bread pudding souffle topped with ice cream and bourbon sauce. Heaven! She also decided to go over to “the dark side” by getting a 7″ Tablet as a book reader. Those who know her are probably shocked since she loves paper books and an electronic reader for her is almost sacrilegious, but she loves it.

A couple weeks ago, we were surprised and delighted by a visit from Todd and Cathy Brady.  Todd was the fellow that bought Techbusters.  We went to a couple local Mexican restaurants and of course took them to Nuevo Progresso, Mexico, which is about 5 miles away.  We did the tourist thing and they came away with a few treasures.  We are happy they stopped to see us in their trip through the south.

Tomorrow we head for South Padre Island and a Segway tour.

I realize we haven’t posted to this blog for awhile but hopefully that will change.

OK, the golf course is open, we’re settled in ,and we are pretty comfortable with the area. Tom is working as a starter 2 days a week, giving us lots of time for exploring, relaxing, and playing golf. Mary is playing golf, beading, working on a project at the lapidary shop, and generally learning to like the retired lifestyle.

Llano Grande offers lots of spare time activities so there is never a dull moment. There is a computer club (of course!), a lapidary shop, wood shop, 3 beautiful swimming pools with hot tubs, frequent dances, weekly dinners followed by karaoke, dozens of trips and excursions, a pool hall, card games, shuffleboard, tennis, pickleball, softball, birding and ,of course, the chance to meet lots of new people.

We have met RVers from Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota and Michigan. We’ve met people from Hazel Park, Grand Rapids, and even former residents of Rochester Hills. Small world!

We read that the weather back in Michigan has stayed pretty nice, actually not too different than here. We are in the 50’s at night and 75-80 daytime, and that is about as cool as we expect for the rest of the winter. The main point is: NO SNOW! We have had some really breezy days but the temps are usually pleasant.

Pool league starts tomorrow night. Haven’t played for years but really looking forward to playing.

I promise to keep the posts more up to date. Stay tuned…

You may have heard that South Texas had a little rain last week. Actually we had a lot of rain (double digits) in a very short time. Several local communities like Weslaco, La Feria, and Donna had roads and neighborhoods flooded; some of the Interstate ramps were closed and for a while several RVs were mini islands. Our golf course had a couple of holes underwater for about 2 days but finally started to drain and we were hopeful for a November 1st opening. Then today we had more rain and the opening got pushed back a few days. All this has given us a bit more time to relax, watch the world series and train for our winter “jobs”. Llano Grande (pronounced yah-no gron-day) is a really busy active place with activities almost every day. There are frequent dances, casual dinners, karaoke. Llano Grande is rated among the top 100 RV parks in the U.S and offers its’ residents lots of things to do.

Well, we finally arrived here on the 15th and the welcome has been fantastic. We have a nice site that has some trees and are well situated for easy access to the activity center, pool, laundry, and most other conveniences.  We also are close to the resaca and have a great vantage point for beautiful sunrises and sunsets.

We have ventured out to Mercedes, Weslaco, McAllen and Pharr (not too far; sorry, couldn’t resist) and in the next few days we’re heading east to Harlingen, Brownsville and South Padre Island.  On the 25th we are going out on a catamaran dinner cruise along South Padre.

The weather has been beautiful, as expected, though a bit hot, 90 in the day, getting down to about 70 at night.  Always a nice breeze so evening rides (on our golf cart) along the levee next to the resaca are a real treat.  We are expecting a cool-down to the high 70s and low 80s after November 1st.

Last evening we witnessed the nightly ritual that I have dubbed the “Pelican Parade”.  Hundreds of pelicans fly in to land on the resaca each evening about an hour before dark, just as the sun starts to set.  They swim northward in a line for awhile, then begin to form a semi-circle, gradually closing the loop.  Then they feed on the fish they have corralled.  Then they spread out in a line and it starts all over again.

As expected, there are a bazillion Mexican restaurants throughout the area, each one claiming to be authentic and “the best”.  Guess we might have to try each one to find out.  Stay tuned.

Set out this morning to be tourists and chose the USS Lexington, one of only 2 remaining WWII aircraft carriers in existence.   Started with a tour guide names Chuck who was a regular encyclopedia of information about the ‘Lex” and naval flight.  We then went up to the bridge and down to the crew quarters, flight deck, hangar deck and below decks (crew quarters, engine room, etc.).  Absolutely incredible piece of engineering!

 

Finished the day watching “The Martian” (good movie!), then dinner at a nice little Mexican restaurant here in Portland.  Tomorrow we are definitely going to be in Mercedes.  We are both ready to be ‘home’ for awhile.

Oct 14^th

Stopped last night near Corpus Christi at the Sea Breeze campground.  We can see the Gulf out our dining room window, but the ‘breeze’ is a little off.  Red Tide has killed a lot of fish and the odor is pretty strong.  Went in to Corpus for dinner but the smell made us eat and leave.  Going back today to be tourists – USS Lexington, Science Museum, etc.

Oct 6^th

We traveled to Brookshire, Texas, and settled in to the Houston West RV Park.  We are here for a week and going to take it easy for the rest of the day.

Oct 7^th – 13^th

Spent a quick week seeing everyone: Aaron brought Riley, Tommie, Tyler and Charlotte to the campground for swimming and lunch.  This was the first time Tom got to meet Aaron’s 3 daughters.  Fun time, like trying to catch 3 tornados.

Took the truck to John’s house in Waller for service.  He has a complete auto repair shop and did a great job.  Talked awhile with Dana, Hailey and Brandon.  They will be at the RV park Saturday for the cookout.

Drove in to Katy to Allison’s house and got to have pizza dinner with Alyssa while Mary and Allison were out.  John (Allison’s hubby) was working.

Saturday afternoon had hamburger/hotdog cookout with everyone but Aaron, since he had to work.  Really nice time and great to be able to sit and talk to everybody.

Sunday brunch at Allison’s and we met with Ashley (John’s daughter), her husband Adam and their new daughter Leylah.

Monday we had a going away lunch with Allison, and then Tuesday we packed up and headed south.  Enjoyable week, great to see everybody, and now we are anxious to get to our winter home!

Oct 4 & 5^th

Today we toured the George H. W. Bush Presidential Library on the campus of Texas A&M.  The library was well done and the campus is not only huge but lovely.  The stadium alone, Home of The Aggies puts the “Big House” to shame.  It is hot and sunny here with temps in the low 90’s tomorrow.

We are off to Houston tomorrow to spend a week with the kids and grandkids.

Today we also have entered the 10^th state on our trip to our winter destination.  Enjoying it all.

Oct. 2^nd

We drove the 250 miles to Oklahoma City – a bright sunny day.  We traded the many wind turbine fields of Kansas for the gas & oil fields of Oklahoma.

Our campground was not what we expected.  Reason being they were hit by a tornado May 7^th and are in the process of trying to get it all put back together.  The campground was full that day when the tornado first hit Moore Ok. once again and headed for the 28 years old Road Runner RV Park.  RV’s were tossed around like matchsticks, all destroyed.  Whereas there were no fatalities, 12 people were hospitalized with injuries.  The photos of the storms aftermath were pretty scary stuff.

Oct. 3^rd

Today we toured the Oklahoma Memorial Museum, Reflecting Pool, and Field of Chairs. This is the site of the Murrah Federal Building bombing by Timothy McVeigh April 19^th, 1995.  Needless to say this was a very sad, emotion packed tour that was well documented and extremely well done.

Downtown Oklahoma City is well appointed with many eateries, a minor league stadium for the LA Dodgers farm team, botanical gardens, art museums and much more. All in all it was an enjoyable day.

Tomorrow we are off to West, Texas, and South of Dallas / Fort Worth.  Our ultimate destination is College Station and the George Bush Presidential Library.