March 22

Just wanted to check in after another wonderful day in paradise :)  We had a leisurely morning, starting off the day by catching up on emails, and doing a little personal work on the computers. 

Then I used Skype to finally talk to a groomer for Cinder that I actually liked over the phone!  This is a relief, since I've talked to at least 5 different ones, and either they were too expensive or they treated me like 'trailer trash'...which I am most asuredly NOT!  At any rate, she has an appt on April 14th...yaaayyy! 

Then we decided that we'd better go find the place so we'll know where it is, since we were thinking about it!!!  We drove towards Castroville and found ourselves at the Dunlay Seafood Cafe, where David had a great burger and homemade fries, I had wonderful fried fish, and we split a piece of homemade buttermilk pie...oh my, heaven on a plate :)

We came home and relaxed until 'Social hour' and Monday munchies where we enjoyed ourselves - we came home and had dinner - a little late for St Patrick's Day but we had corned beef, cabbage, potatos and carrots...yum!

I took Cinder for a walk and now we are just relaxing - tomorrow we start 7 days in a row - so you probably won't see me for a while!

I'll leave you with a couple pictures :)

March 3 through March 21 D'Hanis TX

I have been rather unfaithful at this blog ever since we came to D'Hanis...or Hondo (mailing address is Hondo...but we are only 1.5 miles to D'Hanis - and 8 miles to Hondo...go figure :)

We've been busy busy busy - David is learning all about the Texas grasses, water and maintenance issues involved in the park. 

I've been learning all about quickbooks and the million and one things you need to keep track of to keep a 130 site RV Co-op park running.  Whew, it's a lot of completely different things, but I love learning new things, and this is so much fun!  The people are what make it so very fun and interesting! 

On Thursday mornings (when we have off), we go with a group of Escapee's to Bill and Rosa's Saloon - for breakfast!  What a blast - here are a few pics you can see we have a good time - the gals sit at one table and the guys sit at another...the waitress if phenomenal - she remembers which couple goes on one ticket!!!  There are usually 10 - 15 at each table...much fun!

On Tuesday evenings whomever wants to shows up at the Pizza Hut, where they offer an SKP special - buffet and salad bar PLUS drink for $6.00...can't beat that! 

Some wonderful friends of ours from Cheyenne WY stopped to visit with us for a couple days, Pam and Gary Wisecup.  They got in onTuesday afternoon and of course we went out for pizza!!!  Wednesday we went driving around - first to look for bluebonnets - but we ended up having a history lesson in Castroville.  It is a quaint small town with tons of history - it was settled by folks from the Alsatian region in France.  Very interesting, some lovely old buildings and nice signage to get around.  In our quest for bluebonnets we then drove to Devine TX, and although we did see 'some' BB's, not enough to suit me!  We had a fantastic lunch at Rocky's Grill - I highly recommend it!  Great food, nice atmosphere...definietely NOT texmex :)

Pam and Gary moved on the morning of the 18th - It was wonderful seeing you and sharing some sightseeing - next time plan to stay a bit longer and we'll do something really exciting (maybe we'll go to San Antonio and see a show!).

Then about 11 o'clock on the 18th, Ron and Kathy Bernard, our dear friends from Colorado came to visit.  Once again we put on our tour hats and off we went - we had a wonderful lunch at Bill & Rosa's (see pic of the 'lunch portion' of country fried steak), drove by D'Hanis brick foundry which still produces after all these years, as well as the church ruins and the old cemetary.  All too soon these good friends went up the road too.  Hey guys, we loved the tamales - and David loved the sauce.  When you come to the valley next year we'll order some ahead of time :) 

Today, David and I once again set off to find bluebonnets - and find them we did.  Here are just a few of the many many pictures we took - none of which do justice to the acres and acres of beautiful wildflowers we saw!

We've done much more this month - went to San Antonio with Walker and Evelyn Lane, where we shopped at Costco and had an early dinner at Golden Corral (talk about a huge buffet, wow), then we took Fran and Rich Tilgner in to have dinner at Johnny Carino's - it was as usual fabulous!  Since we will be here at least a year, we bought a BBQ grill on sale for $75.00...and that thing took us 3 hours to put together!  Why oh why don't they put clear directions on things...and mark the 'things' as well.  We've also participated in Ice Cream Socials, Card Bingo, regular Friday night Bingo, dog park playtime with Cinder every day, and lots of socializing!

Our friends Dave and Janet from Covington VA are on their way home - I think they are in New Orleans right now, but maybe they've already left there - safe travels our friends. 

I've volunteered to cook the hams for Easter dinner here, and I promise to get pictures - sounds like there will be a lot - so far we have 37 signed up - so lots of ham!

I won't promise to update more frequently - somehow the days are just flying by, and I have so much to learn, that by the time I get settled in the evening, the last thing I want to do is THINK !!! 

I would be remiss if I didn't say that the weather here has been gorgeous - we've sat out several evenings for 'happy hour' without jackets - 75 degrees and NO mosquitos.  Love it!

Feb 22 through Mar 2

Ok, lots has happened, and I'm going to plead that we've been so busy that I haven't had time to do this, and that is true.  However, we would be very remiss if we didn't recognize a couple events:

We treated Dave, Janet, Teresa, Rex, (Clara and Barbara were invited, but they just had coffee) to my sausage gravy and biscuits...and of course Janet made a wonderful fruit bowl, and Teresa made biscuits...it was all so good!

Lots of talking to Post Office, banks, etc., to get stuff straightened out - whew, I'm maybe halfway through.

A wonderful good bye dinner given to us by our friends, Janet and Dave - thanks guys, it was terrific.  We'll see you again, down the road. 

Two of the very hard things we had to do was to call Mom and Dad and tell them we would not be in PA for the summer - and to let Dawn and family (especially Ariel) know that we won't be in Okinawa over the holidays..  Both made me cry...

We're now in Hondo, and have two days under our belts - and we're still glad we came :) 

I'll try to get better about keeping this up - we'll see how it goes.

Joe getting a free H1N1 shot at Big Fisherman!

Here's a couple of mixed pictures - no particular order.

Last big group at Big Fisherman

Roseate Spoonbill in middle of pic!

Feb 19 - 21 Fredericksburg, Uvalde

On Friday, 19th, we had a good day - went to Wal Mart and got some needed supplies, talked to the people at the post office about changing our address, went to Social Hour, met with the current managers and worked out our schedule for the month of March. 

We made arrangements to drive up to Fredricksburg to meet Jim/Joan and go to the Nimitz Museum on Sat.  We had a wonderful breakfast buffet at the Azteca Mexican restaurant in Hondo (rice pudding to die for), and so our day started at 7:30 am.  By the time we got to Fredricksburg it was 10:30, and we were off to the museum.  I can't say enough about it - it was fabulous.  We took many many pictures, which don't do it justice - suffice to say we spent about 4.5 hours there. 

When we left there, we stopped at the book and gift shop, and the lady there said the best 'german' food was at Der Lindenbaum, about 3 doors down from there.  We went there for an early dinner - David had goulash that was fantastic!  I had a special which was a frankfurter, local sausage, saurkraut, german potato salad, homemade rye bread...yum yum!  We topped off this feast with a slice of lemon merengue cake that we shared...WOW!

Here are some of the flowers in pots along the streets there...Janet, these are for you :) 

When we got ready to leave (at 3:30) we discovered I had a flat tire.  We called Good Sam ERS and waited and waited and waited.  We finally got back on the road at 5:30...I was pretty unhappy, because I don't like to drive on roads I don't know after dark!  We got home about 7:30, so it wasn't too bad.

We got up to a spectacularly nice day - high was to be 76 (although it got up to 79!), and had a leisurely breakfast - I made french toast, sausage and eggs.  We took Cinder with us and set off to explore Uvalde, about 40 miles away.  It was a great trip, the town population is about 15,000 so bigger than Hondo, and they have a lovely park and the usual stores.  There is a place called The Oasis - which is kind of like a miniature Cabela's, with a fabulous restaurant with terrific BBQ! 

We came home and just vegged out in the shade by the MH...this evening I went over to the clubhouse and played card bingo - I won 1 game which put me 80 cents ahead...I'm rich!

Feb 12 through 18

Well, it has been an eventful week!!! 

Saturday was Goliad market days, and we caravaned up - Joe, Sandy, Marlene and Dewayne and Marlene in 1 vehicle, Jim/Joan and David and I in ours.  There were lots of vendors, and it was simply a gorgeous day!  We had a fantastic lunch at Blue Quail Deli, and several of the folks had the 'famous' cream of jalapeno soup...I had a bite and it was good, but it was spicy!!!  David and I shared a wonderful Rueben.  Highly recommend if you are in the area!  We then toured Goliad State Park, and the mission that is in the middle of the park - someday we will spend some time in that park I'm sure, it is lovely!  We also visited several other missions, basilicas and museum.  We started the day out at 9 am, and got home at 4:45 - and we were very very tired, but happy!

We had a wonderful steak cookout on Valentines day with most of our friends, (Teresa and Rex couldn't make it), and the food was outstanding as usual!!! 

Monday was a windy, cold day.  In true full timers fashion, we gathered with Jim/Joan Jo/Sandy and after some debate, decided we would have dinner at the China Buffet, and so we did.  We watched a lot of Olympics every evening!

Tuesday was Big Fisherman, and we had 12 of us!  Lots of good food was eaten and we enjoyed every moment of the camaraderie. 

Our wonderful friends from Longmont Colorado, about whom you've read much the past two months were leaving Thursday morning...however, we wished them adieu at breakfast on Wed morning at JJ's Burger works. 

Because...we left immediately after breakfast and drove to Hondo, TX to interview with the board of the Lone Star Corral, an Escapee co-op park.  This was our second interview.  It was a beautiful day to travel, and we arrived about 2 pm - in time to get set up and have happy hour with the folks at the park. 

Today we were invited to breakfast by Lane and Evelyn Walker (and Lane just goes by 'Walker') and we joined them along with about 10 other couples/singles at Bill and Rosa's...thanks so much for breakfast...we really enjoyed it and it was just what we needed to cement in our minds just how much we wanted the job!!!  It's all about the people :)

This afternoon, we interviewed...and WE GOT THE JOBS!!!   Woohoo!  Beginning March 1 we will be in training, and April 1 we will be the managers of the Lone Star Corral - in Hondo TX for a year!  We are so pleased, and we just know that we will have a great time here, learn lots, and wow, what a resume builder!!!  If you want to see our park, just search for it on google!

We celebrated by going out for a very good mexican dinner (best we've had since we left New Mexico), and now we're exhausted.  For those of you that email me regularly, I'll be sending out new address information in the next couple days...

Yahoo, we've got jobs - doing something we know we'll like, and living the lifestyle we love! 

I'll be very busy the next couple days, but I'll try to update more often. 

To our Colorado friends, 'Thanks for the memories - it's been a terrific two months'...and to our Virginia friends - we'll be back Monday night - we need to hit ALL the high spots before we leave!!!

Feb 9 - 11

Tuesday the 9th we once again went to the Big Fisherman - but our group has gotten very small - it was David and I and Dave!!!  Janet wasn't feeling up to snuff, Joan was tired of it, Sandy and Joe had to stay home and wait for the propane guy...I'll tell you, it was the best fish yet!!!  Yum!  When we returned home we stopped over to visit the folks at Rockport 35, and David helped Marlene and Dwaine with their computer and TV issues.  We had a nice visit. 

Wednesday was a good day - we met up with several of our friends at JJ Burger works for breakfast (it was a trial run to see if it was good)...the answer was yes.  David loved him omelet, it had chorizo and grilled jalapeno's...everyone liked their breakfast.  I had a couple of 'nots', I asked for country potatoes and got hash browns instead, and when my Rye toast came it was one slice...now what is up with that!  I didn't even complain, the waitress was so busy - and the only 'real' complaint I had was that it was far too crowded between the tables. 

The rest of the day we hung out - David managed to hose Jim/Joan's internet connection - no where did it say they could not download a big file, and he was trying to get Jim's Garmin updated for their trip home - they are locked out of the internet for 48 hours - that's Rockport 35 and Tengo internet - yuck! 

This morning we got up to buckets of rain, with no end in sight, so we called Jim/Joan and off we went.  We heard that there was a great restaurant in Bayside, TX that had wonderful burgers, and after a 25 mile drive, we found it.  Yep, the burgers were wonderful, as were the baked goods.  Then we decided that since we were that far, we might as well go see what Refugio looked like...then we came back through Beeville - Sinton and then back to Rockport. 

 

This is the Refugio Courthouse - Nice!

Now we have two places that we can recommend - JJ's Burger Works and the restaurant in Bayside :) 

This evening it is still pouring cats and dogs - supposed to be done by morning, I sure hope so, I need to do some laundry and hang it out - and we need to clean the shanty!!! 

Feb 2 through 8th

Once again we've been very, very busy!  We had an appt for the car to get it's 60,000 mile checkup - Janet and Dave were nice enough to drive down to Portland (nearest Chevy garage), pick us up at 8am, and chauffer us around for the day in Corpus Christie!  What a great time! 

We started our day at Chef's - a downtown diner that has been in business for 62 years - great breakfast with a reasonable price.  We then visited two restaurant supply houses...what fun - I bought a new spatula that I didn't need, but fell in love with :)  Then we went to a kitchen gadget shop, and amazingly enough, the owner was chatting on the phone and I overheard her say 'Lander', so when she got off the phone I asked if she was talking about Lander, WY...she said yes, her husband was from there, and she was from Riverton!  Well, David chatted with her a bit - isn't it a terribly small world when you can be in Corpus Christie TX and talk to someone who grew up where you did?  Amazing!

We went to SunHarvest, which is fast becoming my favorite grocery store, they have great fresh fruits and veggies - can't beat the price!  We visited a Big Lots store, and because Janet and Dave gave us a heads up, we found SNYDERS of Berlin potato chips - I bought 8 bags :)  Many moons ago I worked in that factory!  It is such a treat to get them!  We then drove around and found the American Bank building which boasts some terrific architecture - the pictures don't do it justice! 

We followed up by having an early dinner at a place called Ricksters - NOT recommended.  The car was finally finished and after laying out $724 we were on our way.  The upside is that I have new brakes, and all the belts and stuff were replaced, radiator and transmission both flushed and the engine is like new!  YaaaaYYYY!

Friday night we went to the Moose Club in Aransas Pass - it was steak night and OMG...they were 1.5 inch steaks, cooked perfectly to order, served with salad, huge baked potatoes, fresh bread, and warm brownie...all for $12 per person!  Yum yum yum!!

Saturday we got some groceries, and then we went to the Peace Lutheran Church for a spaghetti dinner - the picture tells the tale nicely!  They served a salad, garlic bread, spaghetti, chocolate cake and ice tea for $5...what a deal!  We then visited with Jim/Joan, Joe/Sandy for a while before coming home.

Sunday morning I made breakfast - which I have not really made for over a month - it was eggs, pancakes and sausage...and very good!  We met Dave and Janet at the China A Super Buffet at 2 pm and ate our fill...we didn't need anything else, but munched on some cauliflower and dip during the Super Bowl.  Yaaayyy Saints! 

Today we had a general pot luck - and as usual we had far too much food!  As you can see there was lasagne, tuna noodle casserole, saurkraut and sausage with mashed potatoes, tossed salad, garlic bread, chocolate cake and donuts!  There will be no dinner tonight!

Stay tuned for more, as we will be doing a bit of traveling, and attending some fun events in the next week or so! 

Dave and Janet, thanks for chauffering us around, it was a great day!  Jim/Joan and Joe/Sandy, your time is drawing to a close, and we will miss you very much when you go - but let's do everything we can until that time comes!