WE ARE SICK AND SICK AND TIRED

When we arrived and Dan first got sick, everyone was telling us, "Oh, yeah, you've got the Texas Crud. Everyone here has been suffering from it."   Well it is spreading.  I'm coming down with it now, and Dan is still suffering with it.  Runny nose, sore throat, and cough, cough, cough.  

 

And to boot, the weather has turned lousy.  The condensation on the windows is making me feel like we are living in an igloo.  And the cool weather and rain, is making me feel like we are in a prison.  Yuck.  I'm sure all of this would be alleviated if the sun would just come out and warm everything up.  And the forecasters are saying, "No warm weather until Monday or Tuesday. 

 

We have been buying cold & flu medications and remedies and dosing our selves with everything we can find, that might work.  We are hoping for a turn around in all of this by next week. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Dan has recovered somewhat from the cold that hit him the day we arrived.  It started with the runny nose, went on to a sore throat, then of course moved down into his chest.  I finally had to make up a good old fashioned mustard plaster for him on Sunday night.  That really worked to break up his congestion, so he's feeling a lot better now.  I'm just praying that I don't come down with it.  So far, so good. 

Things have been cool and cloudy here, with temperatures only going to get up to the mid teens this week.  Not exactly pool weather.  I'm sure our normal heat and sunshine will be back before we know it. 

Well, we went to our Park New Years Eve dance last night.  It was fun, we met two new couples from the park.  I forgot to take my camera with me last night so no pictures for this blog.  So that's it from Texas for now. 

CHORES, CHORES, CHORES

We have been busy with all the chores that needed to be done to make our little home away from home livable, for the next three months that we will be down here.  Dan got busy and replaced both of our damaged roof vents. 

This time we replaced them with metal ones, because the plastic ones just don't last in the intense summer heat and sun down here.  The plastic gets very brittle and shatters easily. 

We also got out all our patio furniture, which of course all needed washing down, being very dirty from being stored for nine months.  It has starting to be a little more homey, but we are still having problems with telephone service and television service.  We don't have either one.  I am waiting for a new SIM card for my cell phone, which apparently won't be here until next week.  The television service would be easily solved if I had a phone.  There in lies the rub. 

I still have to get some plants for my planters and the Grapefruit Tree definitely needs pruning.  But we will slowly get to it all. 

Sea-Enna has recovered from her trauma of the long drive down here.  She is loving it.  She is outside most of the time, just like at the lake.  So, that makes her happy. 

GOOD NEWS AND BAD NEWS IN TEXAS

The good news is we arrived safe and sound here among the green grass and palm trees.  No traffic problems, to vehicle problems, no traffic cops, just smooth sailing all the way.  We arrived to some bad news. The two roof vents in our trailer were smashed by a hail storm.  We knew about the broken window, as our friends and neighbours had contacted us about that, so we have some repairs to do. 

The good news is it was 85 degrees when we arrived on Christmas day, so we enjoyed a warm afternoon, got our basic groceries in and relaxed. The Bad news is it cooled off drastically on Boxing day. Down to 56 degrees, which was terrible, as Sharon and Casey were having their big Boxing Day Party, with 40 some people. But the good news is, it was a great turnout and everyone had a wonderful time.

The good news is everyone came dressed warm, the company was good, with wonderful food and plenty to drink so no one was complaining or worrying about the cold.  The bad news is it took me forever to warm up once I got home.  I just kept shivering until I finally got into bed.  Then when I woke up this morning I was shivering again, but it wasn't from yesterday it was because we had run out of propane overnight and the temperature in our trailer was down to 54 degrees. 





Today it is getting up to 70 degrees, but it's not supposed to get back up to the normal 80s until  Friday.  This cool weather is not what I drove all this way for.  So we will keep busy with chores and won't go to the pool until it warms up a bit more. 

FROM WINNIPEG MANITOBA TO MCALLEN TEXAS

Dec. 23, 2012

After being up late entertaining, we were still able to get up at 6:00 am.  We finished loading the truck with the last minute stuff, and were on the road by 7:00.  It was really dark and really cold , but we were on our way.   The sun was up, but it was still overcast, by the time we reached to boarder.  We breezed through, with just a few questions and on to Grand Forks and Fargo, and North Dakota, was in our rear view mirror.  The rest of the day was pretty uneventful, the only thing worth photographing, was the beautiful hoar frost on everything all through South Dakota.  We had a motel reservation for Sioux Falls SD, but we were making such good time, we cancelled it and continued on to Counsel Bluffs, Iowa.  We pulled in there around 4:30.  Had dinner in the Perkins next door and were in bed by 10:00. 

                                                                                     Dec. 24, 2012

We were up,  had breakfast and were on the road by 8:00 am.  After having made such good time yesterday, we were looking forward to another day of great progress.  From Counsel Bluffs, we clipped the corner of Nebraska and were on into Kansas in no time.  The trip across Kansas is a breeze on the Kansas Turnpike.  It's a toll road, well maintained and on Christmas Eve it was practically deserted.  Through Kansas we finally saw the last of the snow.  From Kansas it's on into Oklahoma and straight down through that state to Texas.    We made just across the Oklahoma/Texas boarder to Denton Texas.  We like to stop just before entering Dallas.  The traffic through Dallas is always hectic and we like to tackle it fresh in the morning.  But in this particular case, we kinda wish we had pushed on last night. 

Dec. 25, 2012.  MERRY CHRISTMAS

We arose to a severe thunderstorm.  Lightning, thunder and a torrential downpour.  We left Dallas around 7:30 in this extreme weather and drove cautiously on through it.  It finally started to let up as we approached Austin, and was totally gone as we approached San Antonio.  The rest of the day and the rest of the drive was clear sailing as we approached McAllen and everything became more and more familiar.  We arrived at Paradise Park at 2:30.  Basically Winnipeg to McAllen in just over 2 and 1/2 days driving.  That's a record for us.  I hate motels so just 2 nights in them is great with me.  So here we are Christmas Day and sitting sipping cocktails in 84 degrees.  It was worth the extra push. 

A NICE FAMILY GET TOGETHER DEC. 22, 2012

 We had our little family get together on Saturday night, and most of the family dropped in during the evening. 

My son Jim & his wife Rachelle.

 My Daughter Tracy Elizabeth

My Foster grand daughter Rochelle. 

 My Daughter Wendy and her husband Murray.

I got out the Santa Hat, and some wore it with Pinnache. 

 

While others had no sense of style at all. 

All in all we all had a good time and it was nice to get a chance to see everyone before we headed south. 

 

Details of our travels will follow tomorrow.  I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas. 

 

 

 

 

DOWN TO THE FINAL DETAILS

I am down to all the last minute chores.  I have my turkey in the oven right now, so that we can have our Christmas dinner tonight, then I can make my turkey sandwiches for our travel lunches.  That's our favorite lunch when we are travelling.  And we will be travelling on Christmas day so the sandwiches will have to do as our Christmas dinner on the road. 

I'm off to the bank today to withdraw money out of our American funds account.  I try to purchase American $ when our Canadian $ is above par.  This year it's been pretty good. 

My family is coming over for a get together on Saturday, so the gifts are wrapped, I have the bar stocked and Hors d'oeuvres on hand. 

All my packing is done except there are always things that you can not pack until the last minute, like our medications, toiletries, etc.  All the things that need to go into our motel bag.  That's the bag we lug in and out of the motels each night with the essentials for overnighting, including our portable bar that we always need after a long long day of driving. 

Tomorrow, Dan will go and get some dry ice, that will keep my cooler nice and frozen for over 5 days of travel.  And I will put my frozen sausages and sausage rolls in it.  I take enough frozen sausages to last us for 3 months as I haven't been able to find any sausages that I like. down in Texas.  I also take dozens of sausage rolls with me to serve at my St. Patrick's Day Party. 

So I guess we are as ready, as we can be, we are hoping to get away early Sunday morning and with any luck maybe we will make it to McAllen in time to go to Sharon & Casey's Boxing Day Party.

The next time you hear from us we should be on the road, heading for Texas.