CLOSING OUT OUR 2009 WINTER IN TEXAS This was our last week in the RGV for the 2009 winter. It was not the rest and relaxation we sought, as a result of a number of external factors: Arkansas Ice Storm, death of former mother-in-law, a week of illness, work, and an internet-based college coursework. While the first three were beyond our control, we struggled to maintain even a hint of normalcy, and left many things and activities undone, maybe waiting for another year; only time will tell. Anyway, we did get to spend a few days at the hot tub and pool this week. Kay sang with the Bill Fraser combo early Monday evening during the pancake supper, and she sounded great. Also on Monday, Karyn returned to the RGV for work, and we were able to have dinner with her at a great restaurant in McAllen, TX. Tuesday evening included a dress rehearsal for the Pine to Palm Park Spring Concert, and we sang in the chorus for the concert Wednesday evening. Our take is that the Spring Concert is just another activity to most of the participants, and few get really serious about it, despite all the hard work of our friend, Vicky Wortham, to make it an enjoyable evening and success. Otherwise, it was a short and relatively quiet week in the RGV.

OUR JOURNEY HOME We departed Pine to Palm Park Thursday morning at 7:30 AM, in concert with a cold front that had moved into the RGV during the night. It was 50 degrees, dropping from a high of 85 degrees the afternoon before. Rain struck after our first few hours on the road, and stayed with us all day, as it got colder and colder. At Kay’s urging, we stopped at a German bakery in Schulenburg, Texas, where she purchased some great pastry. Schulenburg is in the hill country of Texas, and quite picturesque. We noticed spring popping our all over, with leaves beginning to show up on deciduous trees. (Interestingly, the citrus trees in the RGV had just begun to bloom and the aroma was wonderful!) As we drove further north, we began to see dogwood trees in full bloom, then redbuds. Spring had definitely arrived here. We continued to see dogwood trees in bloom all the way to near the Arkansas border, where we stopped for the night at a US Army Corps of Engineers campground at Wright-Patman Lake, just south of Texarkana. It was a 12-hour drive from Pine to Palm Park to Wright-Patman Lake. Because of the overcast skies, it was dark when we arrived, but we managed to get one of the few empty sites, and a pull-thru to boot. After a good night’s sleep, we drove the rest of the way home, noticing ice on all the trees at Velvet Ridge, Arkansas, just north of Bald Knob. That was the only place we saw ice on the whole trip. We arrived home to blooming daffodils and forsythia.

PARTICULARS Our drive home was 944 miles, and took 18 hours. We only got about 8 miles per gallon driving against a north wind the entire trip home (we normally get 9.5 miles per gallon, including towing the Saturn). Over the course of our stay at Pine to Palm Park, we used about $60 of electricity, and 21 pounds of propane (the propane was for a 13-month period and included several weeks traveling elsewhere) at a cost of $13.75. Our “pad” rent was about $15 per day. That’s pretty inexpensive living! The verdict is still out for next year as we have some other travel plans and both of us want to spend some time at home. One thing for sure, though, is that we will reduce the number of “distractions” whatever we do!

GOOD BYE FOR NOW This will end this set of journal notes. We’re not sure what’s next on our traveling horizon, maybe a side trip to Little Rock for a few days, maybe a few days at one of our beautiful lakes, etc. We will travel to Ely, Minnesota, on May 30 for our annual trip to Quetico Wilderness in Canada’s Ontario Province. Also, we have serious plans to drive to Alaska this summer, our third try. A draft of our itinerary is posted on the DunnGoneTravels website. Next year, we’re not sure about the winter, but we are on the waiting list at Bentsen Palm RV Park in Mission, Texas. We’re also planning a trip to Hawaii to celebrate our 10th anniversary. Our “bucket list” has a trip to Canada’s maritime provinces (northeast Canada) scheduled for 2010 as well. For now, we’re going to enjoy our house in the woods in the beautiful Ozarks of northern Arkansas—with flowers, birds, turkeys, deer, and our obnoxious squirrels.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, RONNIE First off, today, Sunday, is Donald’s brother’s birthday. He was born 66 years ago in Vallejo, California. He has been Donald’s life-long mentor, both personally and professionally. As a cancer survivor, he has been in our thoughts and prayers every single day for 16 months and we wish him a great birthday, and a great year. Happy birthday, Ronnie.
FINALLY, A “NORMAL” WEEK We finally experienced a “normal” week, and were able to do some much-delayed fun things after our last Sunday evening’s “A Little Bit of Heaven”.
We both attended the Tourist Club meeting, followed by Spring Chorus practice, on Monday morning. Then, it was off to South Padre Island with the Worthams

and Zelks to eat great seafood. On Tuesday, Kay was back at Bible study while Donald worked, but she skipped their luncheon to make our weekly dance lesson. (Maybe the Bible study offsets the dance lesson, sin-wise! The church in which Donald grew up forbade dancing.) The dance lesson was a hoot; we actually made it to the advanced stage in the Texas Two Step and the Texas Waltz, having gone through our complete “basic” course outline. We should finish all the “basic” lessons for the Texas Polka and Texas Swing this next week. We actually made it to the pool a couple of afternoons this week as well. However, spring has arrived in the RGV and the trees are shedding their seed cases, so the pool was full of them. The maintenance crew finally ended up closing the pool late in the week for “chemical treatment”. Kay has become the female vocalist for the band here in Pine to Palm Resort Park, and practiced Wednesday morning, while Donald worked. Needless to say, she adds a lot to the band, both visually and musically. They will be performing at the Pancake Supper Monday evening. After her practice, we drove to Mexico for lunch and to purchase meds and gifts.  Lunch at Arturo’s was great, as usual. After lunch we hit the “pharmacias” for meds. We typically buy antibiotics and Z-packs, available over the counter, for our use during travels. Because of our time constraints, neither of us had a pedicure or manicure. On the way back to the US, we photographed the border wall; our daughter, Karyn, is the project manager for this section. Donald continued working Wednesday night, completing a PowerPoint presentation for the project he’s been working on while we’re in the RGV. He worked most of the day on Thursday, then, we both practiced for song specials for church on Sunday, followed by church choir practice. We did make it to Fat Daddy’s, a hamburger and BBQ joint just down the road, Thursday evening. We both had BBQ—Kay had ribs and pork, Donald had beef and sausage—and it was a LOT of food, enough left over for another meal, in fact. It was pretty noisy, but it otherwise had a great atmosphere. On Friday, we had a great Tex-Mex breakfast with the Worthams at one of our favorite restaurants in the RGV, after which we returned to DunnGone so Donald could work. Saturday, we did our weekly “maintenance” on DunnGone, dumping the tanks, doing laundry, and cleaning our living quarters; sounds like fun, huh? Saturday afternoon saw Kay ferreting out income tax deductions. Taking a break, we did walk down towards the Park building complex to watch “Fun Day” activities Donald sang Sunday morning, backed up by Vicky Wortham and Kay. After lunch at Chili’s with the Mountain Home, AR, group, we drove to Mission to meet Carolyn Todd’s uncle and aunt at Lemon Tree Resort, then to Bentsen Palm RV Resort Park to visit our neighbors from Norfork, who arrived on Saturday. We’re sure hoping Rod and Rita have a good time there; we’re on the waiting list there for next winter. Of course, it seems like every spare moment, day and evening alike, we continue our non-Winter Texan activities of internet based college courses (Kay) and consulting work (Donald). This is happening on every outing and trip, and it’s really dragging us down; something’s got to give!
GREAT WEATHER Our weather this week has been pretty consistent with highs in the mid 80s, lows in the 60s, and wind blowing 20 to 25 miles per hour gusting to 40 miles per hour. Yeah, that’s right, gusting to 40 miles per hour. That’s pretty typical in the valley, so we never put our awning out. Some people can’t stand the wind in the RGV, and never return. It must be something like the dust bowl days, because it can get to you. We often hear it howling, and it constantly rocks DunnGone. Last year, Donald got motion sickness in DunnGone during a blow. It also makes for a bad hair day for those who have hair; though it doesn’t bother Donald! We’ve both gotten used to the wind, and don’t notice it much unless it really blows like it did Saturday. Otherwise, we open the windows most nights and mornings, with AC in the afternoons and evenings. Most of the Canadians down here don’t use their ACs at all, but practically live in their Texas rooms, usually built as add-ons to their “trailer”.
SATURDAY, FUN DAY AT PINE TO PALM RESORT PARK
COUNTING OUR BLESSINGS Over the course of our travels, we’ve seen lots of family and friends experience difficult times. We are pleased that our good friend, Ed, had successful eye surgery a few weeks ago. Lisa, the mother-in-law of our daughter, Jenny, had foot surgery on Friday, and we trust she is having a good convalescence. We continue to keep Donald’s brother, Ronnie, in our thoughts and prayers. Our friends and fellow RVers, Jerry and Ann, have temporarily given up retirement and are caretaking his older brother and wife in California; we pray that they be richly blessed for what they are doing, and that they be given endurance, strength, and patience. We are also praying for Yoland and her family; Yoland is a pediatrician who goes to our church in Mountain Home, has two children still at home, and has terminal cancer with only weeks to live. We also are praying for Lou and Dale. Lou is another member of our church, suffering with terminal liver cancer. And, we are praying for our neighbors, Phyllis and Jim. Phyllis has recently undergone some difficult and painful treatments and is in convalescence. There are others, but names escape us.
SIX MORE SLEEPS We’re down to 3 days, starting Monday, before we head north Thursday morning, March 12. We’re both ready for the big house—no, not prison, but our real house in Norfork, “stick” house as RVers refer to them—having been close, really close, together for several weeks now. Donald has been watching the river data and weather and is chomping at the bit to fish. We’re going to be a little more flexible in our return trip, and limit our driving to a reasonable distance each day, about 300 miles. As we get closer to home though, we will have to seriously negotiate the meaning of reasonable distance as Donald gets the homing instinct and wants to drive straight through. That should get us home in six more sleeps. Consequently, this is our last post before arriving home…maybe.

DOWN AND OUT—SICK BAY The week started OK, but declined rapidly. We attended church Sunday morning, and Kay performed a beautiful rendition of Praise His Name. We skipped lunch outside the park, and enjoyed a quiet afternoon in DunnGone. Monday morning, neither of us felt like going to the Tourist Club meeting, but we both went to Spring Chorus practice, and returned to DunnGone for rest. Donald finished his pancake flipping duties for the month and Kay served as greeter for the supper. She continued to feel worse, and rested uncomfortably, at best, on the lounge. Her crud worsened, and she stayed in bed all Tuesday. She awoke Wednesday morning feeling somewhat better, but Donald’s crud had worsened. Thursday saw Donald staying in bed most of the day, while Kay was much better, but having a cough that sounded like pneumonia. We were both better on Friday, returning pretty much to normal, even getting in our 3 mile walk. In addition, Kay ventured out on her bicycle.

Consequently, we were down and out this week. It did give us time to do some serious planning for our proposed Alaska trip later this year. As a planner, Donald has over planned as usual, using Microsoft Streets and Trips mapping software, and creating a comprehensive Excel spreadsheet, with Kay researching the unknown details and filling in the remaining blanks. We are thankful for all the information provided by our friends, Ann and Jerry, who made the trip a couple of years ago. Note: All photos this week featured Kay, by popular request. Here’s one of Kay at the Don Wes Flea Market.

YO YO WEATHER—IT’S GETTING HOT DOWN HERE Weather must exhibit similar patterns everywhere—changing constantly. If you don’t like it, wait around a few minutes and it will change. Last weekend, we experienced cool nights with lows in the 40s, then late this week we had mid-90 temps with 100 degrees recorded only a few miles west of us. It was so hot here on Friday that our AC could not keep us. Then last night (Saturday), temps again fell back to the low 40s—that is almost a 50 degree drop in 24 hours. And yet, it is sleeting and snowing back home!

SATURDAY, A SAD DAY We enjoyed our last half-price dinners at Luby’s this Saturday; it was a sad day indeed. Donald has been hanging around our neighbors in Norfork, his friends in Memphis, and his brother-in-law George entirely too long, and is changing his name to Dunnstein. He can ferret out a food bargain in a New York second.

SUNDAY EVENING GOSPEL SING Vicky Wortham, our friend from TLBC in Mountain Home, produced a Gospel Sing in Pine to Palm Resort Park tonight (Sunday). We both participated, singing solo parts as well as singing in the choir. The sound set-up was not too great, but it was a lot of fun, and well attended; it’s obvious our Canadian friends like Southern Gospel music.

LESS THAN TWO WEEKS AND COUNTING We’re down to 12 days and counting before our return home. We’re both ready, and would leave tomorrow if we had not committed to the Spring Chorus on March 11. Donald is ready to fish, but has some serious tying to do beforehand. As it stands, we’re contemplating leaving on Thursday, March 12, spending a night in the hill country of Texas near Austin, driving to Wright Patman Reservoir near the Texas-Arkansas border on Friday, March 13, and then the rest of the way home on Saturday, March 14.