FINALLY A FLIPPER After a couple of missed opportunities, Donald finally got to flip pancakes at the weekly Pine to Palm Resort Park’s Pancake Supper. This is a well organized event that occurs every Monday evening, and is attended by some 400+ people. Work actually begins at 10:00 AM when sausage links are cooked, and continues through the morning as ham is sliced. The kitchen and dining room work crew reports at 3:30 PM, readies the kitchen, prepares coffee, makes other beverages, and puts out all the add-ons such as butter, syrup, strawberries, pineapple, etc. Shortly before 4 PM, pancake batter is made in a 5 gallon container, and three 36-inch grills are loaded with pancakes, which are cooked for the “crew”. Then, after eating our own cooking, the real show begins. A team makes the batter according to a tried and true recipe, another person loads the batter into three batter droppers, and the “flippers” drop the batter onto the grill, and flip the pancakes. The flippers begin in sequence, with the first filling his grill, then the second, then the third. As folks come through the line, fresh pancakes hot off the grill, are served in their plates (over 1,000 pancakes are cooked and served), and the diners then pick up all the fixings. This lasts from 4:30 PM to 6:00 PM and goes by lightening fast.

JUST A TYPICAL WEEK, FINALLY This week was a typical week in the RGV, finally. Combined with our usual activities that included the spring chorus practice, pancake supper, Bible study, dance lessons, church choir practice, and church, we were able to do some other things on our list. We visited the Don Wes Flea Market and adjacent fruit market Wednesday morning. Late Wednesday, Donald finished the first phase of the project he’d been working on, and was much relieved—making for a much more pleasant atmosphere in DunnGone. On Thursday morning, we hiked around the Estero Llano Grande Birding Center, a Texas state park. It was a good outing, and we saw lots of water birds, though the international birding center near Mission seems to be bigger and has more species. Pine to Palm Park sponsored a dance on Thursday evening, finally bringing in a decent band, Jealous Heart. They had a large following and the doors had to be closed at 7:00 PM because of an overflow crowd; many people didn’t get in. This caused for a packed dance floor, and when combined with people who do not know how to dance the Texas Two Step (couples dancing the two-step, and moving in a large circle like skaters in a skating rink), it made for a bumper car experience. Donald’s a very big guy, so when he would get bumped, it was like a Volkswagon bumping into a Lincoln. We had cloudy days on Thursday and Friday, and it rained all day Saturday. A cold front came in with the rain, and dropped temps to the mid 40s Saturday night, making sleep come easy. We had not experienced a full day’s rain in the RGV before, and it gave us an opportunity to do some much needed shopping. Kay sang at church on Sunday, we relaxed in the hot tub for a couple of hours, and we enjoyed the rest of the day planning our Alaska 2009 trip.

DONALD’S PREJUDICES ARE SHOWING Because of their February special—half price dinners—we have been eating at Luby’s on weekend evenings. On Friday evening, we arrived later than usual, and experienced longer lines than usual. It seemed that every senior citizen over 80 would have to have the servers repeat all the special dishes, then these seniors would take forever to make their choice. This also happened with the Mexican families. And as he often does, Donald remarked that the only things he didn’t like about the RGV were the old people (really old, and that target moves up every year) and the Mexicans. He’s not really that prejudiced, but he is that impatient, and a wee bit intolerant. Even though you love him, you’ve got to forgive him for these errors in his personna! However, knowing most of you, you’re probably just like him!

BACK TO UNNORMAL After a quick trip to central Arkansas, Donald returned to the Rio Grande Valley Monday evening. While he was away, Kay got a great lesson in being a minority as she shopped at the outlet mall. Weekends at stores in the RGV are somewhat like it was in rural areas of the South 50 years ago—everyone goes to town—including at least 4 generations. Many South Texans, virtually all Hispanic, come, and many Mexican families cross the border, all to shop at the Outlet Mall, Walmart, and other major stores in the RGV. Kay was unaware of this cultural aspect of the RGV, and many Winter Texans laughed when they found that she ventured out on the weekend. It’s safe enough, just really crowded. Kay asked one of the security guards at the mall if this was an unusual crowd, and he said “no”. She remarked to Donald, that it was like a crowd at Christmas back home. After the weekend, Kay had a busy Monday doing Excel homework, practicing for the choir, lunch, more Excel homework, pancake supper, and picking Donald up at the Harlingen airport. We received a great email from our neighbor, Charlie Duvall, in which he reminded us that life is much better when you realize there is no such thing as normal. That’s one of the best philosophical statements we’ve heard in many years, and it definitely applies to us. So, after a hectic week and a half, we’re back to unnormal, which to us is normal! Hehehe!

THE WEEK THAT WAS This week was supposed to be a tough one for Donald as he wraps up a major report; he purposefully didn’t schedule any activities this week as a result. Then, the information he needed only partially dribbled in, pretty much ruining his week, and forcing him to leave next week unscheduled as well—just part of being a part-time consultant. We definitely have to make other arrangements for future travel. After we realized Donald would not be working all week, we met some new acquaintances from Northwest Arkansas at Logan’s for dinner Tuesday evening. They, too, are wintering in the RGV. We met them at an RV.net gathering a couple of weeks ago. Wednesday was an off day, but we made up for it on Thursday with a brief shopping trip to the Outlet Mall, an “ice cream and cake” going-away party for some neighbors followed by choir practice, followed by a patio party at the Worthams. Larry is getting to be quite the ‘smoker’. Late Thursday afternoon Donald received some of the data he needed, so he worked most all night, and then Friday as well, finishing in time to spend a couple of hours at the hot tub and pool. Luby’s Restaurant features a 50% discount on their “LuAnn” meal on Friday and Saturday evenings the month of February, so we ate dinner there on Friday evening for $8.66; we are really learning to adapt to this senior lifestyle.

After returning to Pine to Palm Park for our evening walk, we discovered a music jam at the end of the street, so we grabbed our lawn chairs and listened to some pretty bad music for an hour or so.  Kay, however, brightened up the place with a rendition of “Tom Dooley”, even though the accompaniment left lots to be desired. Saturday, we celebrated Valentine’s Day by touring the RGV and having a late lunch at Macaroni Grill. The park had a “Peel ‘Em and Eat ‘Em” Shrimp Dinner Saturday afternoon, but we got “To Go” plates and spent a couple of hours at the pool. Sunday was cool for us, with temps near 70 degrees. It had been in the high 80s the last few days of the week. It was a pretty typical Sunday with church, lunch, and a quiet afternoon.

COCOON As you have read, we are spending considerable time at the pool and hot tub. Since this is a 55+ park, we’re all overweight, most of the men are gray and balding, and the women sag in the wrong places; that is to say, we all look alike. So, no one is too embarrassed to be seen at the pool, and it is packed day in, day out. One afternoon after watching so many “old” people sunning and swimming, we both began laughing and related as to how we were experiencing the “cocoon” phenomenon. And there might be something to it, if folks who winter down here live 5 to 10 years longer. Now, just about every time we go to the pool, we think about the movie, Cocoon. See my long blond hair!

THANK GOODNESS FOR GREAT NEIGHBORS As you read from last week’s journal, we departed the RGV, January 30, driving 16 hours straight through to tend to ice storm impacts at our house near Mountain Home. Our wonderful neighbor and friend, Wayne, kept the home fires burning, or better yet, kept the generators running, so that we didn’t lose any food. Wayne loaned us a generator which we used to keep the food cool/frozen, and light and warm the upstairs to a very comfortable temperature. We supplemented his generator with a smaller one we bought in Marshall, TX, enroute home. After a couple of days, we were able to streamline our situation with no electricity, and even listened to the radio for news and music. Our air card worked great and the broadband router worked off of generator power, giving us internet capability. Finally, our electricity was restored Tuesday at 8:30 AM. We immediately turned on the well, heater, and hot water. While these were becoming operational, we began emptying water containers, rolling up extension cords, returning borrowed generators, getting our generator ready for storage, and Donald managed to get a much needed haircut. We were both able to take hot showers, and wash and dry several loads of clothes. Kay cleaned the house and made preparations for our return to the warm RGV. We continue to thank our good friend, Wayne, for all he did for us. As an aside, he kept his home “fires” burning, and assisted 4 other neighbors. Sometimes it doesn’t pay to be a jack of all trades!

RETURNING TO THE RGV We departed for the RGV Wednesday AM after Kay finished an internet-based course test which had been postponed because of the ice storm. She has to take the test on the day it is scheduled, within a 24-hour window. This particular test was on Microsoft PowerPoint, and the questions were a bit cheesy—like differentiating between “poly” and “multi”. We’re not sure what that has to do with PowerPoint, but…oh well. We had terrible traffic between Mountain View and Clinton, AR, getting behind a log truck the entire way. Then, we were stopped dead still south of Benton in I-30 for a full 45 minutes due to an accident between 2 semis. After the delays, we opted to stop for the night at Schulenburg, TX, and arrived there at 8:00 PM, leaving us a 4-hour drive Thursday AM. We arrived at Weslaco around noon, had a quick lunch, and hurried to the hot tub for some soothing water on our weary muscles. Donald hurt his back cranking a generator, and could hardly move Tuesday and Wednesday. The hot water worked miracles. After the hot tub, swimming pool, and some sun, we practiced with the “choir” for the park’s gospel jam in a few weeks. Friday morning saw us returning to normal, with Larry Wortham and Donald competing in a fun shuffleboard match. Though they lost, Donald made much better strategic decisions. After the match, Donald worked on a consulting project with a very tight deadline.

HAVING TO SAY GOODBYE, AGAIN After we thought our lives had returned to normal, Donald’s daughter called to report that her grandmother, Bernice Witt, had passed away in Arkansas (NLR). Donald flew out on Sunday morning and will return to the RGV Monday evening. This was the second consecutive Sunday we were supposed to sing at church, and the second consecutive Monday Donald was to have flipped pancakes at the weekly pancake supper. So when does life return to normal?

ALMOST ANOTHER GREAT WEEK Monday was a great day, beginning with a “Tourist Council” meeting which I managed to miss (too much like work), followed by the Spring Choral practice. We attended an RV.net gathering for winter Texans; RV.net is a web forum for RVers, and the gathering was an opportunity to put faces with names and “handles”. We departed early to pick up a new CPAP machine in McAllen, followed by an early dinner at Red Lobster; we don’t get to eat at Red Lobster often, so this was a treat for us. Tuesday was a great day, and we got in our 2-hour dance lesson. With highs in the mid-80s, it was also great pool weather. We had a patio party at Larry and Vickie Wortham’s Tuesday evening featuring smoked pork shoulder, cooked by Larry. It was great, and the other folks who attended brought wonderful side dishes. (We’ll come back to Tuesday in the paragraph below). Wednesday was a quiet day, our church choir practiced on Thursday afternoon, and I lost really bad in a shuffleboard match Friday morning. Now, returning to Tuesday evening.

BAD NEW FROM HOME Tuesday was a wonderful RGV day. However, we got bad news from home Tuesday evening—an ice storm centered over Baxter County, Arkansas, Monday evening and Tuesday, dropping as much as 3 inches of ice. We lost power at our house on Tuesday evening at 5:30 PM, but our wonderful neighbor and friend, Wayne Bodenhamer, moved one of his generators to our house and kept the 2 refrigerator/freezers and chest freezer “charged”, saving us lots of money and time. Additionally, he was taking care of 3 other neighbors. What an unsung hero! Also, Barry Block from our quartet came down from Mountain Home despite bad road conditions, and checked on our place. Typically, our neighborhood maintains power in disasters, and we had plenty of them last year, with only a brief loss of power. However, each day we talked to Wayne, things continued to worsen. Finally, we could no longer allow him to carry our burden while we were having fun and left for home on Friday afternoon, leaving DunnGone in the RGV, driving 16 hours straight through, stopping only for gasoline and some emergency supplies at Marshall, TX. We were able to purchase a small generator there as well as propane cylinders and Coleman fuel. We arrived home at 6 AM, and immediately crawled into a cold bed. After three hours of sleep, we awoke Saturday morning, drove into Mountain Home, and purchased gasoline to run the generators. Since that time, we’ve been maintaining generators; Kay consolidated food into one refrigerator/freezer and chest freezer, and trying to heat the house for more expected cold weather this coming week. We did manage to attend dinner with some friends, hosted by Ray Minardi, and celebrated Carolyn Todd’s 70th birthday; way to go, girl! We were both able to shower today (Sunday), thanks to a solar shower we use for wilderness camping. We plan to depart again for the RGV as soon as the power comes back up. Kay has done yeoman’s work in getting us ready to depart the RGV and taking care of household chores at home. We have great internet service, relying on an air card and a wireless router hooked up to the generator. We have to be careful, though to maintain battery power in our computers since charging them is more of a chore than one would guess. Anyway, that’s how our week went. How about yours?