Six Weeks Have Gone Quickly

It's hard to believe that we have been here for six weeks. Time has flown by. We enjoyed a quiet Christmas here. The refuge had a Christmas potluck on Tuesday, lots of good food there. Most of the volunteers left for Christmas, there were two couples left here with us on Christmas day. We went to Mass at the Basilica here in San Juan on Christmas Eve. Their decorations were beautiful.

This tree was decorated with snow men.

After Mass, we helped an older couple in the parking lot who thought that their car was stolen. It ended up being parked in another lot and they were confused about where they parked. It was an interesting encounter because they didn't speak English and we don't speak Spanish.

On Christmas Day, we got up late, opened presents and had our big meal in the evening. A big ham slice, roasted potatoes, sauteed green beans and a salad. It was a quiet and enjoyable day visiting on the phone with all of the kids.
It was 88 degrees here on Christmas Day, so this seems appropriate.

Some people have asked us if we have seen any wild pigs, called Javalina here.  We did finally see one, so I stopped to get a picture. Maybe we will see a live one soon.

The wind has been blowing really hard here for a few days now, it is supposed to stop this evening I guess. There will probable be some branches to clear off of the trails tomorrow. I am still doing tree trimming and weed eating at the refuge and being patient about the delay in operating the tractor with the mower.

Closing is Done!

Our realtor called this afternoon and let us know that the closing on our old house was completed this morning. It was supposed to be on the 30th of November and was delayed while a contractor checked out some termite damage in the basement. The damage occurred a long time ago and the termites were destroyed and the property monitored since then with a Sentricon system so we weren't too worried about what he would find, but delays always make me nervous. At last, after a long summer of sorting and packing and cleaning, we are done with it. No more worries about what is happening there while we are gone and the expense of maintaining it is over. We are doing the happy dance. A lot of memories from that house, but we still have them even if we don't have the house.

We put up some Christmas lights outside today, but with 80 degree weather it is hard to get into the Christmas spirit. It always took a little snow to put me in the Christmas mood at home too.

So far I have been enjoying the work here at the refuge.  We finished painting the interior of a house over at the Laguna Atacosa NWR over on the gulf and have been working on trimming trees around the Santa Anna NWR visitor's center. There seem to be a lot of delays getting the details worked out for the mowing part of my job, but as long as they have something for me to do it's ok with me. On my days off, we have been exploring the area and checking out some flea markets. We have been trying a different local restaurant every Sunday after Mass and then driving around for awhile in the afternoon.

Settling In

We have been here now for a little over a week, and so far we are enjoying the area. We both had some on-line training earlier this week and I spent two days helping some other volunteers clear some roads in one of the units. I am the first tractor mowing volunteer that they have had here, so it is taking a little time to figure things out to get me on the tractor. Little by little we are learning how things work here. The other volunteers and workers seem very friendly here so I am sure that things will work out well. Tuesday we are going to have a staff and volunteer Thanksgiving dinner potluck at noon. Should be fun.
We are slowly getting to know the area here, we have found a few stores and restaurants that aren't too far away. We went to a large flea market here last Saturday and spent over two hours there and didn't even cover half of it.
I mentioned getting some rope lights to keep the pack rats away from the Jeep and motorhome in my last post. Good time to buy them as Wal-Mart had some inexpensive ones in the Christmas aisles. We plugged them into the timer that I use for Christmas light so they turn on at night and off in the morning. Everyone else here is using them too. So far they are working.

Just behind our site is a border patrol station with 4 wheelers, suvs, and boats on trailers coming and going day and night.

Behind the campground is a road and an irrigation canal.

If you turn 90 degrees right from the canal road you will see this road, the Rio Grande river is about 500 yards down this road.

In front of the campground are a couple of cabbage fields, that's a lot of cabbages!

A closer look at the cabbages.

There is a bug here that eats its way all the way around the branches of the trees in the campground and then the branches fall off.  It took us awhile to figure out who kept pruning the trees and leaving the branches lay around!

There is a crop duster that works up and down the valley, Friday he was right overhead, that is our TV antenna in the picture.

We have attended a bilingual Mass the last two Sundays at The Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle a few miles from here. You can see more about the Basilica here. They have had a standing room only crowd both Sundays despite having seven Masses on Sunday. 

We Have Arrived

We have arrived at the refuge!  We missed the turn to the campground and ended up at the visitor's center when we got here, so we stopped there and met a few of the people that we will be working for. They gave us directions to the campground and said the we could come over tomorrow for paperwork. They have a very large visitor's center here. We met some of the other volunteers when we arrived at the campground and found out that you have to put rope lights on the ground under your RV here to keep the pack rats out. I guess that they like to build nests and eat the wires in your RV and vehicles if you don't. We will be making a trip to town tomorrow for lights. We are picking up quite a few local tv stations here, many seem to be in Spanish, so maybe I will learn a little Spanish while we are here. I will try to get some pictures soon to put on here.

San Antonio

As I mentioned yesterday, the motorhome was sinking into the grass campsite that we were on last night and I was a little worried about getting it out this morning. We got an earlier start today than usual and when we got ready to go, I left the Jeep unhitched just in case. As I feared the motorhome would not go forward roll it out of the dips. We had driven it in from the back of the site and there were tracks leading to the back of the wheels, so I thought it might go backwards a little easier. I moved the Jeep out of the way and we went right out backwards. Off we went with a prayer of thanks. A short drive today with a little bit of rain and tonight we are in San Antonio at a KOA. We are planning to do a little sightseeing tomorrow and stay here again tomorrow night. We are going to take a bus downtown and see the Alamo and the Riverwalk area. We are parked under a pecan tree and a nut falls on the roof once in awhile and makes us jump.

Temple, TX

Today as we were driving into Texas, we called an old friend, Bill Amundson who was best man in our wedding.  After a few back and forth calls, we decided to stop in Temple, TX and he and his wife made a 2 hour drive to come over and have supper with us.  A great meal at Sirloin Stockade and some great conversation getting to know his new wife. We really enjoyed it and are glad that they made the trip.
There weren't many campgrounds here to choose from and we may have made a bad choice.  We are parked on grass and seem to be sinking in some.  It looked solid enough when we pulled in but not so good now. We will see what happens in the morning when we leave. We might be checking out the towing ability of the Jeep. Our plan is to stop in San Antonio tomorrow night and possibly stay there for 2 nights to do a little sight seeing.
As we were leaving Oklahoma today, we spotted a sign for a Texas information center and rest area, so we pulled off on the next exit and followed signs to the rest area and information center. It took us across the interstate and back up a frontage road on the other side to the rest area. All we could see was Oklahoma information. We finally asked the lady there where the Texas info was and found out that we pulled off one exit too soon. The Texas one was another mile down the road. So we loaded up and went there. After picking up plenty of Texas info, we made lunch in the motorhome and headed down the road.
Speaking of lunch, we stopped at a small casino for lunch yesterday and when we went to leave, we couldn't make a turn in the parking lot because of a pickup parked there. Of course, we can't back up with the Jeep attached so we unhitched it and Janice parked it out of the way. By the time she got back the the motorhome, the pickup had moved, so we drove to a clear area and reconnected.

Sunday in Durant

We had a quiet day here today, went to Mass this morning. They asked all the visitors to stand afterwards and they presented each of us with a little welcome packet. The note on it said,"Thanks for poppin' in". Thus the bag of popcorn. A nice gesture that makes you visible to everyone as a visitor and results in a few friendly conversations on the way out.

After lunch at IHOP, we filled the Jeep with $1.88 gas and picked up a Sunday paper to read. Diesel fuel was $2.15 at the last fill up. I like those prices. A little driving around sight seeing and then a quiet afternoon here at the campground.

Durant, OK

We had discussed trying to make it to Sanger, TX today and staying at the RV Park that we stayed in when we bought this motorhome there and possibly connecting up with the previous owner again, but we decided not to drive that late.  Both of us really do not like driving the motorhome after dark if it isn't necessary.  We found an RV park at the Choctaw Casino in Durant, OK and stopped here.  We will be here for two nights to make it convenient to make it to Mass tomorrow and take some time to drive around the area. The Casino hotel here has an amazing light display on the outside of it that we can watch from the motorhome. See more about it here.

Bartlesville, OK

Overnighting at the Riverside RV Resort and Campground in Bartlesville, OK tonight.  We stopped up the road a little at Dewey, OK on a whim to check out a tourist information sign that turned out to me a Tom Mix museum. "Who is Tom Mix?", you will ask if you are younger than me. See Tom_Mix to find out. What an interesting place. We spent well over an hour there and could have spent more. We got out of there so late that we only went a few miles to this RV park that they recommended. Small and crowded but will be fine for an overnight.

Lyndon, Kansas

We were driving this afternoon after fighting the headwind all day and both of us were tired of it and ready to stop when a campground appeared right on the highway. 2 sites left and we are in one of them at Crossroads RV Park. A rain shower had just passed through the area and we missed it, but the ground was still wet when we got here. Nice RV park. Sounds like north winds tomorrow, much better than south.

A Busy Month and On the Road Again

After returning from North Dakota, we spent a month in Sioux City parked at the new house.  It turned out to be a busy month.  Work on the house ( a couple of new windows, a loft built in the garage, a patch of grass seeded from the well project, and small fix it jobs), work on the van (new front brake pads), work on the Jeep (added air bags to the rear springs to stiffen up the rear end), and work on the motorhome (new coach batteries, repair of the stove cover and washing it).  In between all of this we were able to spend some time with Rebecca and her family. Here are some pictures as requested by her.

The first is a shot from a prairie hill above the house.

The next is from the woods in the state park adjoining the house.

 And the top of another prairie hill.

We left Sioux City late this afternoon and are spending the night at the Victorian Acres RV park in Nebraska City, NE. The month at home flew by and we didn't get to spend as much time with family as we had hoped, but it was a productive summer. We are leaving with the old house packed into storage and we have a buyer for it due to close the end of  this month. We are looking forward to our volunteer job in the southern tip of Texas, but as always we will be missing the kids and grandkids. We plan to leave Texas in the middle of February and head to Georgia where we will spend the month of March.  We hope to be volunteering at Saylorville lake again starting mid April, so we can spend some time with the kids and grandkids there and the two new grandkids arriving next spring and summer in Desmoines. As usual, our plans are carved in stone, but subject to change.

Almost Home

We decided to stop overnight at Lewis and Clark Lake at Yankton, SD. Spent part of our honeymoon in a pup tent here 39 years ago. Life was much simpler then.

Beautiful sunset on the lake.

Later on the full moon came up over the lake but my picture taking skills were not adequate to capture it, so we just sat on the bench in the picture above and recorded it in our memories.

Quiet Blog Lately

   Wow, a month has passed quickly. We left Bismarck, ND today, a month after arriving there and have stopped at the Wylie Campground in Aberdeen, SD  There is a nice lake here.

 It was a great month of relaxation after the previous couple of months packing up the house.  We really enjoyed the time with our son and our daughter and her family. We stayed at a KOA there because the other RV parks were full or had limits on how long you could stay. It was a nice quiet park close to the kids. We overnighted on the way up at Fargo, ND to break up the long drive.  One of our other daughters and her family came up from Desmoines and spent a week while we were there also. We enjoyed four wheeling at an off road park, a downtown festival, target shooting, lots of good food and cooking together and just visiting. One day, our son drove us up to Minot to see my sister and her husband there.  She fed us a great barbecue meal and we enjoyed the visit. Back to Bismarck and once again we had to say our good-byes and head on down the road.
   We will probably spend the month of October in Sioux City with doctor appointments, and etc. and head south around the first of November.  I received a confirmation letter from the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge System in south Texas while we were in North Dakota for a winter volunteer position there starting mid November. I will be mowing the roads in several of their units along the Rio Grande River and working in their greenhouse. I am looking forward to the job and seeing the area.

 

It's Done!

We have finally finished cleaning out the house! Today has been a long time coming. We meet with the realtor Monday morning to put it on the market.  Now to get the motorhome sorted out and ready to head to North Dakota on Wednesday. For those of you who didn't believe that we could get it cleaned out, here are the pictures. One of the major items to move was the playhouse/gardening shed that I built when the girls were young. This was a bit of a challenge, I had built it a little under 8 feet wide so that it could be moved, but the height of it plus the trailer to haul it was going to be a little iffy with the thirteen foot six inch limit on the highways. First we had to jack and block it up to get the trailer under it.

Raising it one block at a time, alternating ends we finally got it high enough to back the trailer under it.

Checking the height, we were right on 13 foot six inches tall.

We maneuvered it out of the yard with the Jeep and then hooked it to Darwin's truck for the trip to the new house.

Backing it into position at the new location.

And reverse the jacking procedure to lower it down to the ground again.

Hopefully we can get a coat of paint on it before winter. We decided to not move the play fort the the new house, so I offered it for free on Craigslist.  They brought a trailer and I helped them load it.

Ready to go.

 

Now on to the house pictures.

Now we let the realtors do their job.