Lunch at Riverside on the Rio Grande River

We went to lunch today with some friends from Pennsylvania - Jon and Marianna. We had met them this summer at Gettysburg Farm Campground in PA and discovered they were coming to the Valley for the first time for this winter. It turns out they are staying in a campground about a mile from us - Small world!

 

 Here we are with Jon and Marianna at Riverside on the Rio Grande River. That is Mexico on the left side of the river. It was a gray kind of day and even started to sprits rain while we were waiting for our food.

 We saw the usual border patrol boats but we didn't see the horses and goats that are usually on the Mexico side of the river.

Swimming in November

It was almost 90 yesterday so we headed to the pool. As you can see there were many others who had the same idea! ;-)

Grapefruit galore at our Texas place

 We arrived at our RV lot in Mission, Texas on Monday afternoon. We spent the late afternoon getting the motorhome set up on the campsite, enjoying the squawking of the flock of green parrots as they arrived for their evening roosting in the pecan and palm trees, and then went out to dinner with our Oklahoma friends, Garry and Barb. Temperature was in the 80's. Tuesday evening, a cold front started to arrive from the northwest which means high winds. Our palm trees were bending in the wind. When we went to bed we realized our neighbor's grapefruit tree was rubbing on our bedroom slide so we brought the slide in for the night. This morning, Doug was out there trimming Vern and Barb's tree so we could put the slide back out. That tall pole-like thing in these photos is a palm tree - You just can't see the top.

 It is always a 64 dollar question as to what kind of crop of citrus we will have. The first year, we had lots of grapefruit, last year we had a small crop, and this year we have a massive amount of grapefruit! Our friends, Ruth and Gavino from San Antonio will be glad to know that when they visit us again this winter, they will be able to take home a trunk-full of Ruby Red grapefruit!

Funny thing is... In San Antonio, I was buying some super large Christmas ornaments to add to our outdoor Christmas directions that we hang on the grapefruit tree. I could just paint some of the grapefruit red and gold and I wouldn't have to buy ornaments! Ha, Ha!

Well we always spend the first couple of days getting things in order from on storage casita. This year we have a little more to do since we added some additional concrete at the end of last year and we planned on planting some new flower beds. Now if Doug and I can just agree on what we are going to plant and where, we can move forward! ;-) As I post this, Doug is out searching for our irrigation sprinklers - over the summer the St. Augustine grass spreads like wildfire and totally covers them so they cannot lift above the grass level. We also have lots of the dreaded sandburrs which seem to have spread even further than what we killed last year so we need to decide what to do about them. They have such a pretty little yellow flower but that beauty turns into a sputnick-like burr that can cause a paw infection in our Homer's paw. ;-( I'll get you a photo of the sand burrs shortly.

Take care until next time.

Sunday, November 10, 2013

It has been a busy week in San Antonio with something going on every day. Today, Sunday, is a quiet day of morning and evening church with Ruth and Gavino and spending the afternoon getting the RV ready to travel south to our RV lot in the Rio Grande Valley tomorrow. we are anxious to see how it looks. When we left last spring, we had just had additional concrete poured and had planted new grass. We are looking forward to seeing what it looks like after a summer of irrigation and to get busy planting some flowers and shrubs. We also wonder how our grapefruit tree and all those little grapefruit made out over the summer with the drought and irrigation. We'll know tomorrow!

Short visit with nephew Sam and grand nephews, Zach and Nicolas

 saturday morning, we headed to the northern suburbs of San Antonio to see one of our nephews from Austin play in a soccer game and have some lunch with our nephew, Sam III, and two of his three sons. Zach is #10 in white in the photos.

It was good to see Sam III and two of his boys, Zach and Nicolas and to eat lunch with them at Rudy's BBQ. Drew, the third son was at a debate tournament so we didn't get to see him this time.

Witte Museum

 On Friday, we headed to the Witte Museum with Ruth and Gavino. Our main purpose was to see a special exhibit that was to start that day. It was to commemorate JFK's visit to San Antonio the day before his visit to Dallas where he was assassinated.

 The lovely courtyard here at the museum was the setting for Rita and Peter's (Ruth and Gavino's daughter) wedding reception several years ago.

 Unfortunately, the JFK exhibit was still being set up so we spent some time in the CSI Exhibit and had the fun of solving three crime scenes and then went through the Settlement of Texas exhibit.

 The new Settlement of Texas exhibit was very well done. That is Ruth and Gavino above and a life-sized Texas Longhorn below.

 Finally, just minutes before the museum closed for the day, we got to see the JFK exhibit. Doug, Gavino, and Ruth are below.

 The staff putting the finishing touches on the exhibit.

 The chair on the left is the one that JFK sat in.

Day in Gruene with Denise

 We always have to go to our favorite restaurant, the Grist Mill, in Gruene, TX (pronounced like the color green) with Denise, our friend who winters in New Braumfels. We picked her up and off we went. We each enjoyed our favorite foods there. denise loves their ribs and all of us love their Texas-sized onion rings! One of these days, I'll remember to take some photos of the food!

It was a cool day for south Texas (a cold front had just come through) - we all had a lightweight jacket or sweater - but the big glass walls of the restaurant were partially open but they had roaring fires going in all the fireplaces so it was lovely. Just 4 days before the Gaudaloupe River had flooded due to heaving rains and wiped out several of the tubing businesses and restaurants down along the river and also a whole campground which sits right on the river's edge. I knew there was a reason I never wanted to stay at that campground! ;-) Here are a few photos of the Grist Mill and our walk through the quaint town of Gruene. 

Quilting with Ruth

Our friend Ruth was going to make two quilts for a family member having twins. She thought she had another week until the shower but discovered it is this coming weekend! So I helped her by being the sewer while she cut and designed the squares of the quilt. The white squares are a silky bumpy fleece material that feels so soft and silky to the touch. You can see the quilt starting to come together in the photo below. It also gave us a time to talk and fellowship while we were working. I so value our friendship with Ruth and Gavino. On Thursday, I am going to take my Mystery Quilt to her quilting class to show the gals.

Houston, TX

We used to skirt Houston because of the traffic and congestion, but now that they have widen I-10 we just go straight through downtown on I-10 - we just don't do it at rush hour time! We usually try to stay in Beaumont, Tx about 1:15 east of Houston at a favorite campground (Gulf Coast RV) which has long pull-throughs so we don't have to unhook the car and they also provide a lovely continental breakfast complete with Texas waffles. Yum, yum!

 Above is the Jacinto Monument - It sits right by the Houston Ship Channel and marks the spot of the battle for Texas' independence from Mexico. We went up the monument two years ago. It is actually taller than the Washington Monument in DC.

 Heading into and past downtown Houston.

 Below.... Heading out of the western side of Houston on I-10 toward Katy, TX. Notice, I-10 is 5 lanes wide in the normal part, plus to HOV lanes to the left, plus three lanes of the frontage road on the right all going 70 MPH. Well, some are going faster than 70!!!! After a quick stop at the Katy Camping World to buy a new LP gas detector for the motorhome, we were on our way to San Antonio. Yahoo!

Passed by Carleen on I-10

While traveling on I-10 through LA, we crossed the Mississippi River at Baton Rouge.

 A little while later, we were passed by Carleen in her Allegro Bus. She is a widow who is traveling alone in her Allegro Bus living the dream she and her husband had before he died suddenly from a brain tumor.

 Here starts the 20 miles of elevated roadway going over the bayou and swamp.

 We love her slogan on the back of her bus... "Elegantly Homeless." If you click on the photo to enlarge it, you can read just above her car.

 Henderson Swamp

Carleen left us at Layfette, LA and we headed onto Beaumont, TX for the night. Tomorrow we will be in San Antonio, our favorite city in the US. Bye for now.....

Finished in Red Bay! Yahoo! On our way south where it is warm!

We left Red Bay yesterday. Here are some photos of work done in Red Bay (although not all of it - I don't always remember to take photos while the work is in progress).

First photo is a new matching drawer front below the dash computer that Chris Berry made for us to match the one he made a year ago. We removed the CPU last year and added a drawer in its place. Now our monitor shows the rear and side cameras all the time while we are under way.

Chris also made a new cabinet for on the end of kitchen counter. I just love working with Chris because he finds out what you want and makes it to your specs. In my case, I wanted a drawer to hold all kinds of odds and ends and a breadbox to replace the one I had sitting on the counter. So in the photo above, the top door is a door that opens to a breadbox and bottom is a drawer that pulls out for all our medicines, snacks and other junk!

The other thing that Chris did for us was the most simple thing, but probably made both of us the happiest. He made a hanger for our digital photo frame so we don't have to worry about it falling or us forgetting to put it away before we start driving. We love it!

Above is Brandon, one of our techs at the Tiffin Service Center. I was too slow to get a photo of them removing the driver side window but this is a photo with the window removed. Below is a photo with the new window in place. We had to have two windows replace due to the thermal pane failure. This is an industry-wide problem as the company which made the thermal pane windows for most of the RV manufacturers apparently had a production problem which has caused failures at a much higher rate.

Our last night in Red Bay, a group of us who have corresponded on the Tiffin RV net, went out to eat together. From the left forefront the names are: Greg (in blue shirt), Mandy, Bev, Jag, Doug (my husband is standing in the striped shirt), Al, Pat, Nada (I am standing), Lori, and Chuck. We were a diverse group and it was fun getting together in person.

These two photos show a little of the fall colors in northern Alabama as we were leaving Red Bay. We experienced fall in PA and then headed south and enjoyed it going down through VA. We then went back into summer in Atlanta and now we are in fall in Alabama! Love this traveling!