First Blog of the Season

I'm starting this blog from Todd's place outside of Okotoks,AB as Carroll and I ( mostly Carroll) are babysitting the 2 1/2 yr old twins, Quinn and Megan, while the rest of the clan, Todd,Yvonne, Emily and Rhett are at Disney World and other areas of Florida for a week. Luckily for us the Nanny will ride "shotgun" on the Twins from Mon to Thurs during the day.
We have several errors to run this week , like buying some Christmas gifts , as we leave for South Africa on the 25 th Oct. and surely will not send anything from there. We also have to visit the GPS store to get a chip for our GPS for South Africa. Getting lost in a strange country just happens to be my "strong suite "so the chip could bale us out if need be.
We actually left home on Thursday complete with our RV as we are leaving directly from Todd's place, for St. Geo , UT as I will be playing ball in there on the 10 th Oct. St. Geo is a good two days drive from here.
Our House Sitter moved in on Friday. Someone's bad luck is sometimes someone's good Luck. Our House sitter is our neighbour who lost her house in a fire about 1 1/2 months ago and she needed a place to stay and we needed a house sitter. We know our house will be well looked after, while we are away.









sitter

Finally in English

Hello to all: My good friend Keith, who help me to set up this Blog has now walked me thru the Blog to get all the info in English vice Spanish. I'm not sure if anyone can "comment " yet but I think it too has been implement so give it a try. cheers. tom

Packing Up to Leave

30 Mar: This is the worst job and the downside of leaving to head home. I don't know why but it seems that the things that fit in at home, no longer fit in the same spot. And of course we gained more Stuff. Also, some things can not be packed until the morning that we leave so we have to make room for them; as an example, the Satellite does not come down until the last min and since I always carry the 3 foot dish and the tripod I need quite abit of space. Well, we packed and repacked and repacked until we managed to find a home for everything. Since we where not going straight home we needed to keep enough clothes available to last us for the 10 days trip home. The trip from TX to Yuma would take 3 days and then we would stay in Yuma for 3 days so it became obvious that we would have to "re-jig " the Van once we were ready to leave Yuma. We always get ready for the " Border Crossing" ahead of time because we have stuff that Carroll bought for the Kids and of course we do have a few litres of Booze over the limit. By earlier afternoon we were all packed so we relaxed for an hour because we were invited out for supper by the Nahachewshys from Brandon. As usually Holly made another excellent meal and we were thankful that we did not have to eat out. 31 Mar; We were up at 6 AM as we needed to pack the rest of our belongings, which included the Satellite and then we had to leave the Park Model clean and tidy. The landlord was not available as he had left for a Cruise about a week earlier so he ask us to turn of the Water and Power Off and to leave the keys on the storage shed. He is very trusting but then so are we. By 8 AM we were finally on our way but we had to head for " The Golden Arches " for our fix of coffee and an Egg McMuffin before starting this journey. I must admit ;it is kind of a relief to head down the road. Since we have traveled this route several time we decided to get off the Freeway and to go across country. It is somewhat slower but you get to see the countryside and to go thru several small farming town, which are always interesting. Most Winter Texans never " stop to smell the roses" . They drive like Hell to get to Texas and drive like Hell to get home. What a boring life for those folks. We got to Ft. Stockton, TX around 5:30 so we called it a day, found a nice hotel for 70.00 and then went for a Chinese supper. Ft. Stockton about 35,000 and is an Oil Town, much like Medicine Hat so there is lots of Oil Service vehicles and of course many 3/4 Ton trucks.

Getting Ready to Leave

Starting around mid March RVers and Renters are slowly starting to pack up or for the Home owners , they are preparing to close-up. Closing a home in TX does take some preperation such as getting the Pest Control company to spray inside your home, along the baseboards and under the cupboards to make sure those little bugs don't use your home as a residence while you are away. The outside perperation is slightly more enduring. The Pest company has to remove several pieces of skirting so they can crawl under the house and spray for those bugs that like to live under that area home. The main culprits are Ants and Termites. However, I must admit I have never seen a Termite nor has anyone I have spoken too. But as long as the Pest company convince you that it is there " Spraying " that keeps them at bay , people will continue to pay the 65.00 to ease there mind. I can just imagine how much Chemical must be soaked into the ground under these homes after 10 or 20 years of spraying. 25 Mar; All this to say that we had the Pest Control company spray Doreen Ludwar's home as she did not come this year due to the passing of her husband in Dec. 26 Mar; OH NO; another Happy Hour to say so long to some more friends that we met while " serving time" as a winter Texan. Mel and Ron are from Ottawa ( Ron was a Mountie ) and where leaving on Tues so they invited several friends to "clean up " the residule snack food and refreshments than might not last until next Dec. I realize the Rye, Rum etc will not spoil but beer must be consumed as it would get Skunky. 27 Mar; We decided this would be Pool day as we have not taken advantage of the pool as we should have. They Pool is always a great place to Swap storys with peole you never met before and , amazingly enough, it is were you find all the necessary info about where to go and what to see and ,more important where the bargains are. You must remember, Seniors like to hear the words ; Cheap, Discount, Coupons and Free. Anyhow, we had our last " Happy Hour " with our neighbours ( Roy and Bya Jewsbury ) and from Dauphin, MB as they were leaving for home on Monday. We became good friends our the past 3 months and I'm sure we will keep in touch and hopefully meet again on our travels.

Where has the time Gone

I'm a little tardy with my Blog but there are two excuses. First, there is not much to say and second everybody is leaving so there is less and less material. OK so here goes catchup; 18 MAR; This is a Friday so we did the perverbial Fish Fry at the local Legion with the group from Shilo/ Manitoba. There were 16 people , mostly from another park called Magic Valley but we are usually included in their group. After our meal and 3 hours of dancing from a DJ singing the same old songs, we have heard a hundred time, ( he works for tips so what do you expect) we relocated to Elma and Les Turcotte's place for a night cap which is normally a Liquor unless of course, if you are driving then it is a coffee.... laced with Bailey's. 20 MAR; Now, this is time of our winter vacation where people start advise each on their " Go Home " date. Otherwise know, as "clean out the fridge time". So the Nahachewskys got the jump on the rest of us by anouncing that they were hosting a Happy Hour, with food on Sunday . Apparently Holly found a Ham that she was not taking home so all were invitied to devour this Ham along with the trimmings. Turcottes, not wanting to be "Tail end Charlie" took this opportunity to anounce that they were inviting everyone to another Happy Hour on Wed and as expected " food would be served".. They abviously had food that they do not want to take home. 21 Mar; Our friends, whom we first met down here in 1999, Gerry and Marlene from Corunna, Ont where leaving for home on Wed so we hosted them for Supper before they left. For various reason we had not seen them for over a month ( they were on a Curise ) and they had just purchased a Mobile home down here, so we had some " catching up to do". As you know, friends need to know all the details such as price, reason for buying, how good a deal they made, etc etc. After supper we bide farewell as we will probably not see them for a few years but we will email often. 23 MAR; We did attend the Turcotte's Happy Hour ( 4 to 6 ) but our "Dance Card " was a little crowded as we also had a previous supper date at 6:30. So, at 6:00 we left the Turcotte's party for our supper date with 2 couples from Manitoba and as it turns out; 3 of us had March birthdays. After supper we returned to one couples abode for an " after Dinner Drink". I'm not sure how much more Fun I can handle. 24 MAR; Our friends, Marilyn and Keith Thistles, had just returned from a 2 month trip to the Middle East ( Thailand, China, Hongkong and Vietnam and other small countries ) and they invited us to supper so we could hear about this wonderful trip. The Thistles are "World Travellers" and we are only to happy to listen all about there trip. They write an excellent Blog as they travel so we had actually followed them via there ( daily/ weekly ) Blog. So we had many question about their trip but of course we will never be able to duplicate it. We had an excellent supper as Marilyn is an excellent cook and Keith is Mr. Bar-B-Q.

St. Patty's Day with a Soup Soup

17 FEB: The Winter goodbye parties have just begun; better known as the last supper but there never seems to any " Last " one. On this day there was a schedule " Soup Supper" and dance and by coincident it was also St. Patty's Day. Any excuse for a party. In way of explanation, a "Soup Supper" provided by a group of voluteers who cook three different Soups and sell advance tickets to ensure that there is enough to go round. There is always " seconds " and I always accommodate the Cooks by going for seconds. Being St. Patty's Day , one of the soups was actually Irish Stew which I sample a couple of ladles full. Then for seconds I tried the Hamburger soup which was just a good as the Stew. I suppose you are wondering if there was thirds... of course there is; and not to make the cooks feel bad I also sampled the bean soup.

The party started at 3 PM with Happy Hour and dance , with the soup to be served at 5 PM. As usual there was an excellent tourn out with 282 attendences but what would you expect as you know that Senior would never cook a meal when you can buy it for 2.00 a person. Another great Year end party.

Willie B's and the Rio Grande

14 FEB: We decided to give Pat and Henry a day off from our travels so they did a little shopping in the morning and we ( the 4 of us ) had a Pool Day for a couple of hours in the early afternoon. I say early because we scheduled a 4 to 6 PM Happy Hours so P and H could meet a few of our friends. That way they can "measure" the type of people we "hangout "with. Hell; how exotic can a bunch of 70 year old seniors be.

After the Happy Hour we took Pat and Henry to one of the " Fine Dinning " resturants in this area called Willie B's and one that is frequented by most Winter Texans. The House Speciality is a baked potatoe covered with a handful of Bar-B-Q Brisket. The potatoe also comes with all the trimmings, such a butter, sour cream and Willie special Bar-B-Q sauce that he probably buys at Wal-Mart. The potatoe is larger than the 10 inch plate it is served on, therefore it is best shared between two people because very people seniors can devour the whole potatoe plate. I have to add that Willie B's is not renowed because of the Ambiance. The building was purposely build much like you would picture very aged Western Saloon. The interior has wood floors that squeak as you walk over them, the table are covered with oil cloth and the chairs are a mis-match. The meals are served cafateria style on Styrofoam plates and plastic cutlery. Willie B's is also known for their Carrott cake but if you arrive after 7 PM you are usually out of luck.


15 FEB: Today we scheduled a boat trip on the Rio Grande river. I believe it is advertised as a Crusie but that would be stretch as it turns out. The Rio Grande divides the USA and MX. In most case you could easily swim across ; ask any Mexican who would like to live in the USA. It is not a huge river , unless of course you where standing on the bank on 13 June when it rose 18 feet in a few hours, when they had to DUMP the dam up stream. This flood wiped our many RV parks, several business and many recreation areas on both sides , moreso in MX than the USA. It seems funny to think that this area survived several Hurricanes in the past few years and then got wiped out because some Civic Flood Control Dept did not realize that snow melt coupled with rain would cause the Dam to fill so quickly.



Getting back to the boat trip; the cost was 8.00 per person and the trip took an hour and a quarter, so you knew right away it was not serving food and refreshments. The boat held 40 people and had twin 135 HP engines which I thought was overpowered as the river only flows at 3 knots. The Captain started his narration about the boat constuction, depth of the river , the damaged caused by the flood but not one word about life jackets or flotation devices so I assume that the company figured we could either swim or walk to shore should should the boat sink or meet with ( heaven forbide ) a tsuamia. The Captained finished his speech with " if you have any question we will try to answer them". People did have questions but they were asking each other not the Captain so I thought I would go first and get the ball rolling so to speak. I ask where the mouth of the river was located and where did it empty. I knew the anwer but I could not think of anything else and that was the question on some of the peoples mind. The Captain said he would advise us in a few minutes soI did not know, if he knew the anwers or not. But I do know, he got on the cell right away which lead me to believe I may have stumped him. He gave us the answer later and the Rio Grande starts in Alomosa, CO and dumps into the Gulf of Mexico at Brownsville, TX. So now you know and if you are every on Jeopardy, you already have the answer.

However, the day was not too hot and we did learn a few things about the Rio Grande such as this river provides much of the water to irrigate this area. This are grows many of the vegtable crops for both MX and the USA. Crops that we daily on our travels are Texas Sweet Onions, Cauliflower, Cabbage, Broccalli, Carrotts, potatoes and of course Sugar Canes. All these products are grown in "Hilled Rows " and irrigated with Flood Irrigation between each row. This area also has many Orange and Grapefruit orchards and they too are irrigated by flooding.

Tomorow Pat and Henry return to the real world for them. We may have pushed them a little but we wanted them to see the area because it is highly unlikely they will be this way again.