Me bad, me bad

Sorry I haven't posted in such a long time. We have been here in Texas at Mom and Dad's park since around the 8th of December. We have been doing a lot of visiting with them and playing cards and Bingo, as well as finishing up our Christmas shopping.

On Wednesday, December 20, we picked Brandon up at the McAllen airport and he surprised his grandparents who were not expecting him. We put a bright red bow on his shirt and they were really excited to see him.

We spent Christmas Eve at their place unwrapping Christmas presents and then Christmas morning Brandon, Terry, and I exchanged gifts along with Bailey and Neal. Neal doesn't want anything except treats for Christmas, while Bailey likes toys. We bought Mom and Dad a solar rock with their name on it. I have included a couple pictures. The first is taken with a flash, so it doesn't look lit up, but you can see what it looks like. The second one shows the way the rock illuminates after dark.

Yesterday we took Brandon out to South Padre Island and walked out on the beach. We took in some souvenier shops as well. Spent a lot of time looking and it was a beautiful day. There were several parasailers and kite-boarders. We had planned on staying there for a few days on our way down to the Valley earlier in the month, but the weather did not cooperate. We would have taken the motorhome over there this week as well, but once again, the weather hasn't been that great. It hasn't been really bad, except Saturday it rained the entire day. . . and really hard at times. Then we had some cold weather and now we have wind. So we get a wide variety of weather. Today we haven't had the datastorm up. We are having 30-40 mph winds and not sure how much the datastorm can take, so I am using my air card.

Tomorrow we are going to Pepe's on the River for supper. We haven't been there since last year and it is one place Brandon remembers from the first time we came here. It actually burned down, but has been rebuilt, so it should be fun.

I have added a hyperlink to the Datastormusers map. In it is on this page in the left margin at the end of the short narrative. It will show you where we currently are located.

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and I want to wish you all a Happy New Year.

Till next time. . .

Dale

Not your Mother's Bingo!

You may have thought you knew how to play bingo, but playing serious bingo is different. There are an endless number of games. . . four corners, kite, checkmark, ring the free, etc. All require a different set of squares to be covered on your card. Last year was my first experience with this as Mom and I played every Tuesday night. She is not really a Bingo person, preferring to play cards, but she played Bingo with me. It was a lot of fun and even though we didn't win anything, we had fun trying. That is until last Tuesday night. We played for the first time since I arrived and I won very early in the evening. I won $5 because I shared the win with someone else. The next game I won all by myself and won $10. Then to top it off, since I was the FIRST solo winner, I was crowned "Queen for a Day." That means that every time the number I won on was called I got a dollar. I won $4 more dollars, so I went home with $19. Yay! To top it all off, Mom won once for $5, so we were very happy.

Terry and I have been doing some Christmas shopping and we have basically finished. We have been to every store in the Valley looking for a few things which we never found, so we are giving up. We have been bike riding every day, which is really good as we haven't had good enough weather anywhere we've been to get out. It is nice down here, in the mid to high 70's during the day and no heat required at night. Tonight Dad and I went out for a ride in the golfcart, aka Hoopie, to look at the lights. There aren't as many decorating this year, but there are enough to warrant driving around.

Yesterday I took Bailey out on the golf cart. He is real good about sitting on the seat and watching. He is curious about riding in the cart, but doesn't bark. We went over to Hidden Valley. It is amazing how much has been built over there just since last year when we were here.

Tomorrow, it being Saturday, will be a slow day for me. I am done shopping and won't venture out on a weekend down here. It is just too crowded. I have my Christmas cards to do, so perhaps I will work on those.

Till next time. . .

Dale

Okay, okay.

Terry has been after me to update my blog. We have had really lousy weather since leaving Louisiana and I haven't felt much like posting. It's been cold and windy and the last day has been rainy. Yuck. I am ready for warmer weather.

We spent the last four days in San Benito, next to Harlingen. It wasn't a bad place, and we did get in a lot of shopping in Harlingen, but it started raining yesterday and it turned into a mud bog where we were parked. We began to think from the discussion at coffee this morning, that we shouldn't try to get out until the rain stopped and it dried out. Yuck. But luckily we had not had more rain overnight and with the wind we were having, it dried out the ground and we were able to make it out. We left ruts and a trail of mud, but we did indeed get out.

We drove on over to Mission and got parked right behind Mom and Dad. This is by far the best campsite ever. :-)

Life is good.

Till next time. . .

Dale

Roll Camera. . . Film at 11

Hah! Terry and I made the news this evening.

We arrived in Corpus Christi around noon and checked into the campground and got set up. We had eaten lunch and were comtemplating what to do next. I was on my way to the front of the coach when there was a knock on the door. I looked out and saw a TV cameraman. I turned to Terry and said, "Terry, come on out. It's Channel 6 news!" Hah. What a hoot. He was indeed from Channel 6 and he was looking for Winter Texans to interview about the cold snap that hit yesterday. I didn't have the heart to tell him we really weren't Winter Texans. He asked us several questions, and then when he was done filming, we asked him advice on the best restaurants and other RV parks. Turns out he used to camp a lot and we are in the "best" camp in Corpus Christi (that's not saying much), but he was a nice guy and recommended a few restaurants, etc.

We took a drive later and got home in time to see ourselves on the news. We taped it and I have it on my computer now.

Till next time. . .

Dale