Feb 14, 2012 - adios

We are restless souls. We love finding out what is over the next hill and seeing things we have heard about for ourselves. Many of the people we are camped along side at Tropic Star stay for months and return year after year. It’s not unusual to meet someone who can tell us what was going on here back in the 1990’s. Ancient history! But after our third lengthy stay here and fourth in the Valley, we’re beginning to feel like natives ourselves. It would be very easy to stay on for a few more months and simply go home from here. Rates are low...

Feb 10, 2012 - confused

Every time my 90+ year old mother is hospitalized, she is confronted with this question: “Can you tell me what day it is?” Last time she struggled to answer, I thought to myself, “I’m not sure what day it is either.” When you are retired, every day is pretty much the same. At home we try to plan our activities during the week time that most folks are at the office and stay close to home on the weekends and stay out of the way of working people. But otherwise one day is a lot like another. These days I am kept on track by my smart phone...

Feb 9, 2012 - water

The downpour started as we drove back to the motor home from the kite festival. This was the first rain we had seen since we arrived in the Valley over a month ago. Cars and trucks driving around us slipped and slid as if they were driving on ice. The roads are much cleaner now since it has been raining on and off since then and the annual rainfall total now exceeds the average. Although the drought in Texas has been in the news for months, we didn’t really feel it here. This agricultural area is laced with canals that carefully disperse...

Feb 7, 2012 - O Canada

A significant number of Winter Texans are from Canada. We have seen licenses plates from every province except the territories where no one lives - Northwest Territories (population 43,000), Yukon (population 34,000 and Nunavut (population 33,000). This migration is not a recent development. The Canadians came here in droves even when their dollar was only worth $.70. Now that we are at par, that makes a winter away from the darkness, ice and cold just as appealing to them as it is to us. We can tell from the signs everyone has outside...

Feb 4, 2012 - go fly a kite

South Padre Island is the perfect place for a kite festival. The winds are ever present and the wide expanses of beach have no trees to snag a wayward kite. The sand is packed hard and provides an infinite space for attendees to park their cars and set up their lawn chairs. The festival is sponsored by the local kite shop as well as many local businesses, but is totally uncommercial. No entrance or parking fees are charged. There are few things to buy and little food for sale. Everyone who attends is there for the love of flying kites. Some...

Feb 1, 2012 - let's do lunch

A refrigerator freezer in an RV is not nearly as large as a residential model and ours was crammed full when we left home. The small size means that we need to go to the grocery store far more frequently than when we’re home to replenish fresh supplies like milk and produce. But we’ve been gone from home over a month and there are still plenty of dinner supplies in the freezer. Why? Because we go out to lunch so often and the lunches are so bountiful that crackers, cheese and fruit are supper enough at the end of the day. All the...

Jan 29, 2012 - 75 years honoring citrus

The citrus industry in the Rio Grande Valley was in its infancy when Mission had the first Citrus Fiesta in 1932. They saw the celebration as a way to spread the word about the bountiful winter harvest of grapefruits and oranges from this lush, subtropical area The theme of that first fiesta, held outdoors against the background of the citrus trees, was “Coronation and Pageant of Citrus.” The celebration ended with the coronation of King Citrus and Queen Citrianna. This became a tradition of royalty, with a citrus industry leader chosen as...

Jan 28, 2012 - perfect

We’ve lived in the Chicago area all our lives and as we began to travel farther afield, we grew rather disenchanted with our home base. Although the Chicago lake front was spectacular in the summer, we hated the long, gray winters; traffic jams; flat, boring scenery; expensive real estate prices and grew bored with the familiar. We wondered why so many new people kept moving there. It definitely was a case of the grass is always greener. So in the last ten years we worked, we began to research various attractive areas of the country with...

Jan 27, 2012 - time for a trim

People who care about their appearance develop a relationship with a special someone who cuts and styles their hair; color could also be part of the equation. Perhaps it used to be more of a female thing. Plays and films have been written portraying the close ties between women and their hair dressers. But in these metrosexual days of gender equality, guys who give a hoot have a special someone who wields a set of shears on their behalf. When we were still working and spent most of the time in the same place, this was also true for us. But...

Jan 26, 2012 - over the border

When we told our neighbors we would be staying in the Rio Grande Valley on the border with Mexico, they were afraid for us. It’s true that the news from south of the border has been frightening, terrifying, horrifying. Bodies thrown in the street, heads found far from the torso they came from, kidnap victims never seen again. We have enjoyed many visits to Mexico over the years - short ones on cruises and lengthy journeys driving through the country by RV. We have loved Mexico - the friendly family oriented people, great food, wonderful...

Jan 25, 2012 - whether or not

We’ve been enjoying ourselves here in the warmth, but we haven’t done anything new that inspired me to write. When I asked Ken for a blog topic, he suggested the weather. From my perspective people discuss the weather when they have nothing else to talk about - kind of a desperate, last ditch effort. But for Ken the weather has always been a sacred topic. Early in our relationship I got him a membership to the Harry Volkman (noted Chicago weatherman) fan club. He loved it! These days whenever we watch WGN to find out what we’re missing at...

Jan 20, 2012 - Retama Village

There is a significant group of RV travelers that are full timers; they have given up their stick built homes and live in their rigs all the time. Although everyone needs a home base on paper for things like taxes, drivers' licenses and doctors, after some time on the move, most full timers look for a home base that provides a bit more homeyness. We visited an Open House at Retama Village, a development that provides that home base for RV'ers in various stages of their lives. In some ways Retama is like other campgrounds around here. It...