It's a Wrap - Christmas 2014

A few shots taken while I was on a golf cart tour of the park.  There may not be snow but we do enjoy compensating with lights.  There were many more homes decorated but my camera is slowly dying.  It doesn't focus well.  And no it wasn't because I had a glass of wine -  or two.

Just a few days later, I was feeling quite ill.  I called the insurance company and got permission to go see a doctor.  Turns out I had a sinus infection and bronchitis.  I've been sick off and on for the rest of the month.

However, before getting sick, I was reminiscing about the gingerbread houses the daycare kids have made over the years.  Judith and I decided to make one for the kids at her church.  We went shopping for supplies and decorations, printed plans, recipes etc.  Then I went down for the count.  Poor Judith had to persevere on her own.  She has never made a gingerbread house before.  She did a masterful job and the house was beautiful.  The kids were in awe and enjoyed the treat immensely.

My only contribution to the gingerbread project was the chocolate candy tree.  We bought a kit with molds and meltable candy wafers.  We can use it again next year.

McAllen High School Mariachi Band came to entertain us.  They were amazing.  Beautiful music and gorgeous uniforms.  Very talented kids.

Wayne caught a cold last week just before his birthday.  Sneezing, runny nose and just generally feeling miserable.  He felt crummy on his birthday, missing the Mariachi, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  I brought him a doggy bag of turkey home from our communal dinner.

Dinner was delicious!  Can't you tell?

We enjoyed talking with family over Christmas.  So nice to hear your voices.   We have been enjoying reading about highways, byways and sights to see in Texas.  Not sure who gets the water wings though.  Thanks guys.  Wayne bought me a new camera.  It will get a good work out when we are cruising.

Of course, I caught Wayne's cold.  I woke up at about 3 am on Boxing Day dripping like a tap.  Been laying low ever since.  We are both on the mend, taking it easy so we will be ready to party New Year's Eve.

Merry Christmas to all our friends and family.  Happy New Years as well.

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It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas - South Texas Style

Patio

Tree is in our bedroom.  Every night I fall asleep enjoying the lights.

Hanging out .....

..... at the pool!

Enjoying BBQ with Judith and Dennis

Getting into the holiday spirit, a group of Chimney RV residents assisted a local church to assemble food kits.  We packaged up over 10,000 casserole kits using a very efficient assembly line method.

The project was developed by an organization called Kids Against Hunger.  The packets are sent all over the world, wherever there is a need.  Also a good portion of the kits we made stay in the local area to assist.  It was a very satisfying day.

Today, I am going out to lunch with a group of ladies.  I think we should be called "Chimney Ladies Who Lunch Bunch".  Gotta go

Feliz Navidad!  (Spanish class)

It's Hockey Night in the Rio Grande Valley!

Killer Bees

From the back:  Eric, Sue, Ron, Sue and Kim

USA, Canada, Mexico & Texas flags

Sir Sting A Lot

Had a great time tonight.  Group of us went out for supper and then to a Killer Bees hockey game.
They beat the Corpus Christi Ice Rays by a score of 5 to 3.  The game was very entertaining - fast play with few penalties.  Lots of fun activities as well.  Trike race around the rink and human hamster ball race.  We were even on the jumbo tron.

Supper was delicious.  Fajitas for me and brisket for Wayne.  Aren't we turning into quite the southern Texans.

I would definitely do this again.  Lots of laughs.  Especially since it was so warm in the arena that Wayne wore shorts.  Very comfortable.

Also a personal record for me.  Two live sporting games with in a three month span.

Enjoy winter - we are.

November Wrap Up

First of all: Happy Thanksgiving to our American friends and neighbours.  We had a great communal dinner here at the park.  Very tasty.

 There were two more tables of food.  No one went home hungry, that's for sure.

Wayne didn't know his own strength when preparing the potatoes.

Oops - need a new masher

A few shots of our patio and lot. All set up now.

This palm was chopped down last year because it was dripping sap on our vehicle.  In fact, Kathy hacked out the stump when she was here.  And yet, here we have a beautiful plant about 4 feet tall.

My dad carved these cute little birds.  They make a homey addition to the patio.

Wayne and I are enjoying the great outdoors.  Super weather - not too hot, not too cold.  We have been biking, walking and floating around the pool.  Yeah winter!

Next week most of the park activities get started.  I had a peek at the calendar and it is crowded.  We are even going to a hockey game this weekend.

Life is good.

Our First Week

Members of our Chimney Family are arriving every day.  It is good to see familiar faces and friendly smiles.

So far, we have  attended several Happy Hours.  Solved many of the world's problems over a beer or wine. lol

We are pretty much set up and unpacked.  Wayne has been busy doing repairs and maintenance.  We have had a water leak through our patio door when the rain and wind comes from the north.  There has been a major water leak in the lot next door.  Water ran unchecked for about 48 hours.   Felt like we were living on a boat.  Water, water everywhere.  Still a large hole needing to be filled.  Earth had to dry out first.

Enjoyed a great catfish dinner at the legion on Friday night.  Wayne was not feeling well so he was not able to go.  He seems to be back to normal now.

Sunday, we went to the DonWes Flea Market to get a few items we needed to finish setting up the patio.

Monday was Spanish class.  Lots of fun.  Buenos noches.  Mi nombre es Kim. lol

Today, Remembrance Day, the legion came to the park for an honour guard.  Chimney Park also hosted a delicious supper.  Our friend Ron, cooked up a feast of kettle beef with all the fixings.

Tomorrow the weather is turning cold for a few days.  Time to catch up on my knitting and maybe some quilting.

I will try to remember to take more pictures.

ttfn

Day Five - We Have Arrived

We made it!  But not without a few twists and turns along the way.


To start, the weather forecast called for rain  with a flash flood watch.  I checked the radar and it looked as though we would shortly drive out of the problem area.  Naah, that didn't happen.  It rained off and on the whole morning - sometimes very hard. There was no flooding however.

Ok, we arrived at Chimney before 11 am.  Good time all considered.  Said our hellos, etc.  Nice to see everybody.

Then Wayne hooked up the battery. Nothing.  Let's make a trip to O'Reillys (automotive place). They put the battery on charge and told us to come back in an hour.

Just enough time to satisfy our cravings for  Firehouse Meatball Subs.  Yummy!

Back to O'Reillys.  Battery is toast.  We buy a new battery and head home.  Hook it up and still nothing.  You need the battery to get the sides of the trailer out.  And the sides need to be out to do anything else.

Wayne borrows an electric drill and an allen key bit.  He crawls under the trailer and uses the drill to manually open the three slides.  Hopefully, John's drill wasn't ruined.  Great, we are ready to start cleaning and setting up.

But wait, there's more!  I look out the patio door and see a big puddle at the edge of our patio.  Water is bubbling out of the lawn.  What's up with that?  It's a broken water line on the city side of the water system.  A man comes from the city public works and decides it can wait until tomorrow, as they will need to bring in heavy equipment for digging etc.  Yippee!  We now have a lake on our lot.  But Wendi and Lloydd said that they won't charge us the waterfront rates.

Oh yeah, it's raining again.  We run out to grab some supper and a few groceries and get soaked.

Now it's eight pm - Most of the stuff is in the trailer, just piled in Kathy's room and we have food for breakfast.  We're damp and tired but ready for the winter fun to start.

Life is good.

Day 4

It's our last night on the road.  We are staying in Victoria, Texas.  Today was a long drive - 674 kms.   Across Texas on country highways.  We avoided Houston all together.  I liked that.  Houston has way too much traffic and curved ramps for my comfort.  No more interstates.  The speed limits are much higher than similar roads in Canada.

Central Texas

Road goes right across Lake Palestine (very large lake)

For supper tonight we had our favourite Texas style burgers.  What A Burger!  Yum!  Wayne has decided that he can indulge once a month.

Well that's about it for tonight.  We plan on an early start tomorrow.  Can't wait to get to our  Winter Texan home.

Day 3

Safe and sound once more.  We travelled 649 kms.  Tonight we are laying our heads in Texarkana, Arkansas.

Separate Beds Tonight

Little bit of excitement today.  I had a fairly severe allergy attack.  Just after we hit the road this morning, I needed to go to the bathroom.  So we stopped at the first available option - which happened to be a roadside restaurant.  It was a smoking allowed establishment.  The stench of cigarettes oozed out the door.  But I was desperate.  By the time I had done my business, so to speak, I couldn't breathe through my nose and I was extremely stuffed up and rather wheezy.  I had to take another antihistamine and felt sluggish all day.  I guess it has been several years since I was exposed to such an over the top smoking environment.  Not a fun time.

What's this?

Snow??

No, it's cotton.  We passed quite a few of these white fluffy fields today.  Cotton crops are being harvested and wrapped with plastic into big round bales.  Just like we do hay in Ontario.

We walked to supper tonight.  Ate at a restaurant called Copeland's.  The original restaurant is in New Orleans and is owned by the man who owns Popeye's Chicken.  They serve Creole food.

 Veal Parmigiana

Shrimp Ettoufee

So delicious that we are going to return on our trip home next spring.  We also brought cheesecake back to the room for later.  It's a specialty.

Bon Appetite!

Day 2

Another successful travel day under our belts.  We are now relaxing in Sikeston, Missouri.

Pretty room - Not as big as yesterday

We drove through 3 states today - Indiana, Illinois and Missouri.  We also crossed the Mississippi River.  Six hundred and fifty kms in total.  This seems a good number for us.  We cover some ground but it doesn't take so long that Wayne is crippled up.

With the time changes (end of daylight savings and we are now in the Central Time Zone), we arrived at about 1pm.  Two hours ahead of our ideal stopping time.  Just as well though......

Because we had lunch at Lambert's Cafe - Home of the Throwed Rolls.  Sunday afternoon is not the optimal time to dine here.  When we signed in with the hostess, there were 60 tables ahead of us.  The wait was about 45 minutes.  We wouldn't have stayed if we lived here.  But because we are just passing through and knew how unique and fun the restaurant is, we waited.

Crowds outside Lambert's

Still waiting

Mural decorating dining room

 I order smoked pork loin with cornbread stuffing, baked beans and corn.  Can you see my flat roll to the right?  The waiters throw the rolls at you from across the room.  I was afraid of dropping mine, so I clutched it a little too tightly.  I had more of a pancake than a roll. lol

Enjoying his pork chops

Heading South Fall 2014 - Day 1

Finally, we have started our wandering way south.  Safely arrived at Gas City, Indiana.  We travelled  712 kms  today.

When we got up this morning, we just knew it was time to leave.  You may ask how we came to that conclusion.

What is that white stuff?

Aaaaah the dreaded S word.  Time to go.

Border crossing was very easy.  Except the customs official thought we should travel more miles each day and carry more cash.  He traveled 700 miles a day coming from Austin, Texas and is aiming for a 1,000 miles a day on the return trip.  Silly man - retired people relax and go with the flow.

Michigan roadside

Oops not far enough south yet!

Ah, fall colours.  That's more like it.

We checked into our hotel at about 3 pm.  Not many of the rooms were ready yet.  I think we got an upgrade.  This room is huge and it has a spa tub.

So we are just chilling out in Gas City.

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Back On The Blog Wagon

This past summer has been a time of many changes and challenges.  Hopefully less turbulent times lay ahead.

Wayne and I spent time with family this weekend.  Matthew came to visit.  We organized a country outing ending up at a Mennonite restaurant for a late lunch.  Good company and tasty food.

Enjoying dessert at Anna Mae's Restaurant

Our time grows short here in Ontario.  It is good to spend time with family before heading south.

More family time on Monday.  We got together for a birthday lunch.  My little brother, Wayne L. turned 55.

I had a surprise for Dad.

A new orange toque.

Dad has a very ratty faded orange toque.  It must be 10 years old.  Last week he asked for a new one.  I looked online for a pattern for me to knit.  This is the result.  The knitting pattern is titled "See Me Hat".  Too funny.  Such a bright hat makes it easy to keep tabs on Dad when we are out and about. Because the hat is so new, it is very puffy.  Needs to mold itself to Dad's head.

Packing continues to progress well.  We will be on the road bright and early Saturday. Can't wait.