THIS WEATHER IS MORE LIKE MARCH

It is so HOT here.  I know we came down here for the warm weather but I did not expect it to be this hot and humid.  November has turned out to be quite hot. 

Everyday since we arrived, it has been 87 and above and very humid.  When we wake in the morning it's quite comfortable and if you sit in the shade and don't do much, it's OK during the day.  But at night it has been very uncomfortable for sleeping.  

This is the kind of temperatures that we experience in late March that drive us back to the cool of Manitoba.  It rained last night so that is supposed to cool things down for a couple of days, but then it's going back up to the mid 80s, hopefully not so humid. 





  . 

PLANTINGS

I got some basic Petunias for my planters today and got them planted.  It's a start.  

 

 

But now I'm on the hunt for some Palms like I had last year. 

 

 

 

One thing I was very pleased to see, is that one of the plants I dumped out at the edge of our driveway, survived just fine. 

 

 

 

I should be able to start a couple more plants from this one. 

 

 

I LOVE LIVE PLANTS AROUND MY PATIO

 

 

 

WE ARE GETTING SETTLED IN

The first few days in Texas are always busy, busy busy.  There is the Hook Ups.  Connect the Power, Water, and Sewer, then the phone and the TV.  Get that fridges and freezers going.  Unpack the truck, that's a 3 day job.  Then un-store all the stuff you stored before you left in the spring. 

 

 

 

Then there is the cleaning.  Just like the boat, everything in the trailer is dusty and dirty and needs a thorough cleaning.  

 

Then the lists have to be made for shopping.  Look through the cupboards and figure out what you need. Costco: Chicken, Beef and Pork.  HEB: Bread, milk, butter, eggs and all the fresh veggies etc.  Then Wally-mart for all the other stuff???   It really takes about a week to fully stock the trailer again. 

 

 

Then finally I start to hit the garden centres to get some plants for my planters.  My patio looks to much like a concrete jungle until I get my planters all filled with plants.  Coming early this year is going to be a problem, as even in Texas it's not exactly planting season, Spring doesn't start till late January.  Well, I'll see what I can find.  I may have to start some slips from some of the perenials around here. 

 

 

 

Our grapefruit trees have plenty of huge grapefruits on them.  They are still very green, so we will leave them on the trees and let them ripen for a while.  Our trees have great grapefruits.  They are not pretty on the outside, but are sweet, juicey and pink.  It's so nice to pick them fresh each morning I can hardly wait.  

 

 

 

SO, I THINK WE ARE STARTING TO FEEL AT HOME AGAIN

 

 

 

 

 

WE HAVE ARRIVED

We left Denton, at 6:30 in the morning.  It turned out to be a long and annoying day. 

 

 

The weather was great, the truck ran perfectly just the damn GPS sent us on a big waist of time.  "Gladys" (our name for her) had us all mapped out on the freeways straight through on our usual route, including a toll road, when we realized we were getting low on gas with no service stations ahead on this newly constructed toll road, we had to pull off to get fuel.  Well, that was the start of out problems.  

 

 

Once we finally located a service station (no easy task) and we fuelled up Gladys decided to route us across country on backroad - two lane highways instead of back to the freeway.  I finally had to get out the atlas and figured out that she was taking us on a bee line straight from where we were directly to McAllen, but refusing to re-direct us 20 miles west, to get us back onto the freeways that we were previously travelling on.  So we turned her off, navigated over to the freeway then turned her back on. 

 

 

But we made it safe and sound, with no problems, so I guess we shouldn't complain.

 

 

 

 

 

JUST GLAD TO POUR A DRINK AND ENJOY THE TEMPERATURES

 

 

 

 

ON THE ROAD - DAY 2

Well, it was Council Bluffs.  And we left really early this morning.  

I can't say bright and early because it was still dark when we took off.  I think Sea-Enna has achieved, if not comfort at least resignation. 

Dan drove us out of Iowa and on into Kansas, where I took over and drove across Kansas, then Dan took over in Oklahoma and drove us the rest of the way into Texas to Denton.  


We drove the first half of the day through pretty constant rain, but by the time we got to Oklahoma though, it was sunny and clear and we had left the lousy weather behind. 

The drive through southern Oklahoma is a very pretty one, so I'm glad the weather improved so we could enjoy it, but now I'm glad to be relaxing with a drink in our Motel in Denton. 

 

We are already in Texas, but like they say, Texas is a big state so it will take us most of tomorrow to get to our trailer in Paradise Park. 

 

 

ONE MORE LONG DAY. 

 

WE'RE OFF

We left Winnipeg this morning around 8:30, once we picked up our dry ice and stopped at the bank.  It was bright and sunny but cool.  We had a quick wave through at the border and headed south.  As soon as we crossed the border, we drove into cloud cover that never left us all day. 

 

 

 

I managed to snap a few pictures of fall colours that we usually don't see as we are usually travel south through Snow and Ice and are in search of the first sight of brown grass. 

 

 

 

 

 

But by the time we were through most of North Dakota we ran into a misty rain and fog.  In fact at some points we could not see very far up the road in front of us.  We think we made it to Council Bluffs Iowa, but with this fog, we wont be sure until the sun comes out tomorrow. 

 

 

WE HEAD INTO KANSAS TOMORROW

 

 

 

TEXAS HERE WE COME

Everything is packed and the truck is loaded.  Except for the cooler and our picnic hamper, which will go in there tomorrow morning with us.  This is our last night in the condo until spring. 

Today, I gave all of the fresh food left in my fridge to my son Ken and washed out my fridge.  The Coffee Pot and Tea Pot are all set up for the morning.  Tomorrow morning, we just have to fill our travel mugs, stop and pick up our dry ice, then hit McDonald's,  and we will be on the road, bright and early. 

 

 

IT'S A LONG DRIVE, BUT WORTH IT.