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DOWN SOUTH IS OVER, UP NORTH IS ON

Yesterday we went out to the old aircraft hangars where our boat is stored for the winter.  It's an indoor heated facility where we can come out for the weekend work on and sleep on, the boat.  The building has washrooms, showers, a galley and a lounge for the boaters use. 

This is a view from our rear deck.  The boats are all packed in and waiting to be prepped for launch.  It is certainly nice to have a place (out of the weather) where you can work on your boat every spring weekend. 

As I step into my Galley, I get that welcome home feeling and am anxious to get started on this years boating season.  But, Dan reminds me that this trip is only to drop off stuff we brought home from the US and not a working weekend.  Besides I have to hunt down and buy a used commercial sewing machine so that I can do some canvas work this year. 

IT'S NICE TO TRAVEL, BUT IT'S NICE TO BE HOME

We are off!!  7:30 am and it's time to hit the road.  With any luck we may be able to make it home today.  Council Bluffs, Iowa to Winnipeg Manitoba, is doable. 

The roads are clear the weather is perfect as we slowly settle into the rolling hills of South Dakota.  As we travelled through there, it got very windy.  We bucked a 40 - 55 mph wind most of the way through that state.  We have always encountered winds in South Dakota.  They talk about winds in Texas, they are not nearly as bad as the winds in South Dakota. 



As the roads flattened out and we entered the "Real Prairies", that us Manitobans are very familiar with, the winds died off and it was clear sailing. 

But of course, as we approached the Canadian border the weather started to turn into rain.  As we finally picked up good old CJOB we were listening to reports of snow and sleet in Winnipeg.  We just shrugged and said, "Oh, well", isn't this typical for us, we always seem to hit lousy weather on the way home. 

We are all glad to be home.  Sea-Enna, has now gotten over the travel sickness she used to suffer from and now travels very well.  She doesn't really enjoy it,  she just endures it.  So she is glad to be home, so she can relax.  And she sure knows how to do that. 

Dan, who has had to do all the driving for the whole 2000 miles, is finally getting a chance to relax as well. 

As for me I still have a lot of unpacking to do.  I can't let these crates stay piled up here in my living room.  A lot of stuff we brought home is for the boat as well, so we will be heading out to the hangar on Friday to drop a lot of that stuff off at the boat. 

So that was our southern travels for this year. 

For our new Winter Texan friends and our usual followers, I will be keeping my blog going all year round.  So that you can see what us transplanted Manitobans do in the Summer when we are not relaxing down in Texas.  If your interested I will still be posting at least once a week. 

750 MILES. A GOOD DAY FOR US

I am sure Sea-Enna is thinking do we have to do this driving thing again today. 

While Dan is saying "Let's Roll". 

As we headed out of Denton, the sun was not up yet and the low areas were covered with fog.  Very pretty.  Then the sun crested the horizon, as we headed out of Texas and into Oklahoma. 

The first town we pass in Oklahoma, is Thackerville.  One of these days we really should stop in there and see what the town is all about.  I could also do some ancestry research.  Maybe we have some rich relatives there.  We didn't stop though, as we are trying to make headway. 

I love the rolling hills of Oklahoma and the rock cuts through them for the roads.  Very impressive. 
Even more impressive when the same thing is done through solid granite in northwestern Ontario. 

We made great progress today.  We managed to cover 750 miles from Denton Texas to Council Bluffs, Iowa.  We accomplished that by not even stopping for breakfast.  (We ate cold left over Pizza in the car as we traveled.  I like left over Pizza for breakfast once in a while, but only if I can heat it up.) 

  The only stops that we made were to fuel up the truck and relieve ourselves, as necessary, as Sea-Enna can attest.






And my last thought for tonight.  I really must find out what these trees are.  As we travelled north all day we were seeing these trees.  (what I assume are a type of fruit tree, but obviously a wild one) They were all in full  magnificent bloom everywhere we looked. 


Well that's it for tonight we are off, out for dinner.  No more Pizza for me this trip.  More tomorrow. 





2 NEW LIFE LESSONS LEARNED TODAY

We started the morning very well.  Had breakfast, defrosted the fridge, disconnected everything from the trailer and were all ready to roll.  Just hit the button, and pull in the slide.  Oh! Oh!, the slide wont work.  It took about an hour for Dan to crawl around under the trailer and find out that there was an electrical cord wrapped around the slide mechanism.  Lesson 1.  When you run power to the new shed, you should not rap the  cord around the slide mechanism  on the trailer. 

That was easily solved, so we said our goodbyes and off we went. I was a beautiful drive all the way to San Antonio. The wild flowers are in bloom and these are not just weeds, they are everywhere and in so many varied colours and shapes.  They are gorgeous.  So we saw the beauty of south Texas and the ugliness of the refineries of South Texas.   

Then we hit San Antonio.  It was unbelievable.  Bumper to Bumper traffic, with delays sitting in traffic for 10 and 20 minutes at a time, with slow downs where we were creeping along at 5 mph.  Know what it was?  Besides the extreme traffic, there were at least 4 different accidents in San Antonio, Austin, Waco , and in each incident it was a young adult, in the ditch, or crunched into another car or spun out against a guard rail.  It finally dawned on us that this was the last day of Spring Break, and all these kids were heading home or back to university.  Lesson 2. Never leave the Rio Grande Valley on the last Sunday of spring Break. 

So here we are settled into Motel 6 in Denton, with a stiff drink and a Pizza and hoping for a better travel day tomorrow. 

OUR LAST NIGHT OF DANCING IN TEXAS

Last night a group of couples from Paradise Park, went over to Winter Ranch in Alamo for a dance.  It was our last chance to go Dancing before we leave Texas for this year. 

When we were young we used to go dancing all the time.  I had forgotten how much I love it, until we started going to dances down here.

Dan & I had a wonderful time we are definitely going to do more of this next year. 

People here search out their favorite band and follow them from venue to venue.  If your really into dancing you could go dancing every other night here.  It's BYOB, and they provide buckets of ice and popcorn, all for $4.00 a head.  You can't beat that for cheap entertainment.  There is a lot of country music down here, which isn't exactly up my alley, but as long as it's up beat and danceable, it is tolerable.  So next year we are going to be searching out bands that I like and I will be following them from venue to venue and we will dance our little hoofies off.   It's good exercise too. 

So this morning we started to pack up thinking it was going to be such a big chore and that we wouldn't get it finished until Sunday night and we would leave Monday morning.  Well, It's just after 12 noon and I have done all the laundry and packed up all my patio.  (Low and behold it all fit in the shed with plenty of room to spare. )  We are certainly more than half finished, so we are thinking maybe we will finish up tonight and start for home tomorrow.  It will be nice to get a start north on a Sunday with less traffic, especially through Dallas.  I will be blogging daily as we travel homeward and I think I will keep my Blog going during the summer to keep in touch with some of our new Winter Texas friends.   

WEIRD THINGS IN THE RIO GRAND VALLEY



I have always thought it weird the way the Texans like to put vehicles up on poles as a form of advertizing or attention grabbing. 

Its not just cars either.  I've seen trucks and even full size Semis.  Truck Cab and Trailer.  And it's not just in the Valley, I've seen them all over Texas. 

WE HAD A HAPPY ST.PATRICK'S DAY

We are all lined up and waiting for the Parade to start.

The Parade was full of fun as usual.  I think our little park with their decorated golf carts, puts on a better parade than all of Winnipeg Beach does for Family Fun Days.

We had a good turn out for our party, Dave and Donna Reimer of "Curmudgen"even came all the way from Winnipeg.  Casey and Sharon of "Loafhaven", were also in attendance.  Everyone seemed to have a good time.  I know I did.

Dan lends a hand with the serving, while I pushed my guests to try an "Irish Car Bomb". 

(An Irish Car Bomb, consists of 1/2 a glass of Guinness's Beer, plus a jigger 1/2 filled with Bailey's Irish Creme and topped up with Jamison's Irish whiskey.  Now you take that wiskey laced jigger of Bailey's and drop it into the Guinness and Chug-a-lug the whole works.They are delicious. )

We all got our Irish on and a good time was had by all, we will definately do this again next year. 



DAN'S LATEST CHORE IS COMPLETED

As we did not travel with the trailer this year, the park insisted that we had to "skirt in"our trailer.  This is something we were originally told we would not have to do, because we were still going to be travelling with it.  But, they insisted, so Dan had to come up with a way to close it in, in a way that could be easily removed when we want to pull out again. 

Well, it's done.  It's setup to be quickly removable when we are ready to travel.  We plan on bringing the trailer home next spring, as we want to "Do"the east coast next year, while we still have the smaller trailer. Some day we want to sell this trailer and buy a bigger one that will then be permanently set up on our lot.  But that's way down the road for us.

ST. PATRICK'S DAY IS COMING

It's getting close to that time again.  My celebration day is almost upon us. 


                    Time to fly the Flags.

  Send out the invitations. 

                 Stock the Bar with Jamesons,
               Guiness and Bailey's Irish Creme. 


                                  
                                       Dig out the Irish Music. 


               



Dust off the party supplies.  It's time for me to get ready for my annual St. Patrick's Day Party.  


This year I am going to try to make Irish Potato Cakes like my mother used to make.  But, I'm leery of the flour down here.

( I finally quit making bread after I ran out of Canadian flour, and started having failure after failure.  Next year, I'll bring enough flour to make bread for the whole 3 months.) 

But I digress.  This is my one hostessing opportunity, down here.  I am looking forward to this last big bash before we start preparing for the journey home.  The day starts with the Paradise Park, St. Patrick's Day Parade, then the Club has Beer and Brats, then my celebration.  I hope the weather holds, as I don't have room in our little trailer for everyone if it pours.  Even with two patio umbrellas, I think my party would be ruined. 

THE FLEA MARKET

We went to the flea market today. 


There were so many things that if I had unlimited funds I would buy, but oh, well. 

There is always next year.

I found a concrete Armadillo, that I am definitely going to buy for my patio next year. 



Forget about cowboy hats, horses, lone stars etc., an Armadillo, now that really says "Texas".

VALLEY FINALE?

The entertainment possibilities are thining out in the Rio Grand Valley, since we've gotten into March,  there are no more dances at our park this year. We have been to a couple of shows.  Wednesday we saw "Men of Accord", a group of senior men from the valley, who sing wonderful harmonies of old favorites.  That was very nice. 

Then last night we went to the other "Paradise Park"in the neighbouring town of Pharr, for their annual "Valley Finale." 

The show consisted of a few very talented local musicians, that gave us a few songs and a little comedy releif mixed in.  All in all a good night out.    And "It really wasn't too far". ha ha ha ...                  (A local joke always used when you go to "Pharr.)   

So from now on, if we want to go dancing we will have to look outside our local park and visit other areas.  But we only have 3 more weeks until we start packing up and heading home to prepare for summer. 

 Right now, we have another construction project going on, Dan is busy "skirting in" our trailer.  The park association has decided that we must do this even though we were originally told it was not nessecary as long as we were still using our trailer, for travelling, but now the rule seems to have changed.  So, we are trying to make this skirting, so that it can be easily removed when we want to pull the trailer out to go travelling, again next year.