Former next door neighbors, Wayne and Loretta, arrived in the Valley a week ago, and are living just up the road.  It was nice reconnecting with them, and we plan to spend some time touring the Valley while they are here.

Otherwise, life goes on.  Most of the  season, we play bridge at least a couple times a week.  And, when the weather is conducive for outdoor play, I stay quite busy with golf, with a few other things filling the blank spaces.  Here are a couple of photos flying an RC helicopter, a gift from next door neighbor Jim Miles.  It is an absolute hoot, but lasts only 6 minutes before the battery runs down.

Kay, on the other hand, is always doing something, be it shopping, turning bowls on a lathe at the woodworking shop, or doing Swedish weaving. Here are a series of photographs of her newest bowl creation, turned from a piece of solid red oak, followed by a photo of the just completed 72 X 72-inch Swedish woven blanket.  Isn’t she a talented artist!   And Sunday evening, she was in a variety show here at BPVRV Resort.

The photo is from Tierra Santa, a golf course Al and I played last Tuesday, our only “good” weather day last week.

This winter season has been full of distractions for us, what with building, furnishing, and decorating a house from near 800 miles away; unseasonably cool and wet weather that has limited all outdoor activities, including birding, butterflying, bicycle riding, and golf; family obligations; RV resort quality and amenity issues (60 counted vacancies on Friday, January 9, compared to a significant waiting list a few years ago); and health issues.  These have significantly lowered the fun meter for us. So, here we are on Tuesday, January 13, another cold and damp day, washing clothes, cleaning house, and waiting for sunshine, and the water lines to be repaired, again (maybe the internet is working today, too).

We were up early Saturday morning, departing for central Arkansas by 5:15 AM.  The 13-hour trip was uneventful, and we enjoyed the lowest gasoline prices of our travels since beginning to RV in 2007.

We spent Saturday evening, Sunday, and Sunday evening at Ron’s, and he had baked one of his famous blueberry pies for our enjoyment.   We snuck in a visit to the new house under construction on Sunday morning.  A neighbor stopped by to compliment us on the lot and house plan, and advised that it was a great, sociable neighborhood.  After lunch with Ron, Cheryl, and Kaden, we met with a decorator at Bassett Furniture, and identified “collections” and pieces for use in the great room, dining room, sun room, breakfast room, and master bed room.  The decorator is to develop a design for each of the rooms for our review on Friday.  This story is covered in the new HSV House blog.  We found central Arkansas to be cold, at least by our standards—guess our blood has become thin with the mostly 70s and 80s in the Rio Grande Valley.  

We returned to Hot Springs Village Monday to insure that our storage of household goods was paid up to date; pay for storage for the RV; take care of Property Owners’ Association business, including buying new stickers for the cars, kayaks, and canoe, and paying for tee time registration and the golf handicap system; and pick up some balk mark repair tools at the Coronado Golf Club.  And, of course, we snuck another look at the house construction (info on the house construction can be found in its own blog).  As we arrived another neighbor couple was inside looking at the house.  They asked questions about the floorpan and affirmed that the neighborhood was a good one.  We drove from there to spend the next few evenings at Karyn’s.

Hot Springs Village was our destination again Tuesday morning, as we met with Brandon, Sam, and Cris of Renaissance Homes, Inc. (our builder) to discuss progress, verify electrical, television, and HDMI outlets, and view layouts of the various cabinets with the cabinet maker.  The plumbing subcontractor was there also, working on plumbing installation, but we did not meet with them.  Several changes were made on the advice of the Renaissance Homes, Inc. team, including changing the shower door location and restoring the television connections to the right shelving unit; we had moved it to the left on the advice of our decorator.  We also talked in generalities about the landscape plan and the grade of the driveway.  Regretfully, the motorhome is not going to fit the parking pad as originally conceived, but we’ll make adjustments and alter our plan of attack!  Late afternoon and early evening was spent celebrating the holiday meal and gift-giving with Kay’s side of the family.  Matt and Karyn served a delicious meal of pulled pork, beans, slaw, potato salad, chips, and cookies and pies.  Of course, Ridge was star of the show, opening and playing with his many gifts.

Christmas Eve, Wednesday, was a rest day for me and not necessarily by choice; I spent most of the day in bed, sick with a head cold.  Regular doses of ZyCam and Tylenol were the order of the day.  Kay, on the other hand, was busy all day helping Karyn get ready for the evening’s activities. Matt and his family allowed us to join their family celebration of the holiday as we all ate pizza, salad, and cookies and pies.

We were up early Thursday, Christmas, for a trip to Memphis to celebrate the holiday with Jenny and her family.  Harper was in rare form, and enjoyed opening the many gifts from grandparents and Santa.  She had an assembly line going with DD (that’s me) taking the toys out of the packages—this involves cutting, untying, unscrewing, and sometimes tearing away packaging materials—while her dad put the toys together.  He spent several hours putting her kitchen together because the parts did not fit, and the instructions were pitiful; he did a great job, and she enjoyed it immensely.  Jenny and I prepared portions of the meal—I mainly assisted as she is a great cook.  Kay visited with the Simanks, taking Sandy a few pieces of hammered aluminum Kay picked up from a Canadian collector in the Rio Grande Valley.  After stuffing ourselves and cleaning up the kitchen, we drove back to central Arkansas.

Friday, we met with Kecia, our decorator at Bassett.  She was gracious enough to come in during her day off.  Before her presentation, we advised her of the construction changes we made Tuesday, and furniture preferences for the sunroom.  She quickly added and modified the design as necessary, and made an awesome presentation; we liked everything.  Now, it’s add a lamp here, a pillow there, a additional rug or two, a few televisions, and we should have a furnished house, or at least part of one.  While we were at Bassett, Ridge and his mom were at the zoo; he loves the zoo.  Afterwards, he and I played super heroes and race cars.  Now, his definition of playing is different than our—his definition is for me to sit with him on the floor while he plays!  Friday evening, Kay, Karyn, Ridge and I had dinner at The Pantry, a German restaurant in Little Rock.  The service was poor to fair, and while most of the food was very good, a few items, like onion rings on top of the dish I had, were so over battered and cooked that they were too hard to eat without breaking a tooth, seriously!  And, some of the food prices were quite high.

Ridge joined us in bed Saturday morning for an hour or so, before we all got us for playtime and breakfast.  We reluctantly said our goodbyes and departed, in the rain, for Corpus Christie, where we met Al and Sharon Crawford after their flight from Toronto, Canada, via Houston.  They arrived about 10 PM, and we drove the two and a half hours to BPVRV resort, arriving at 12:20 AM.  It rained almost the entire 800-mile drive. 

We were sluggish all day, Sunday, having had little sleep after the later/early arrival from central Arkansas yesterday.

A return to our routine Monday was the order of the day with Kay exercising early in the morning and Al and I playing golf, despite the cool, misty day.  Kay began turning a new bowl in the woodworking shop, this time from a solid piece of wood brought to her by Paul Graham, our next door neighbor and her “turning” instructor.  The maintenance folks in the RV resort turned the water off, did some never-ending repair work, and then turned the water back on.  Our potable water tank overflowed, and we think their turning the water back on created a surge that created havoc with the fill tank valve.  A call to Lichtsinn RV got us a new one in the mail; I do dread having to replace the valve again as it’s only been a few weeks since the last one was replaced.  The electrical and water supply infrastructure in this RV resort is unreliable, to say the least, in my opinion, as there are constant problems with blown circuits and leaks, respectively.  We did manage to watch the Arkansas Razorbacks football team demolish the University of Texas Longhorns in the Texas bowl in the evening.  Whoo, Pig, Sooie!  And, cold, wet weather returned to the Rio Grande Valley, not fit for outdoor activities.  And, it’s supposed to hang around for a week or more!  Oh well, beats freezing temperatures and ice!

I woke up with a horrendous back ache in the left shoulder area during the wee morning hours Tuesday.  It was so bad that I spent most of the day in bed, trying to get some comfort with a heating pad and ice rub, but not to much avail.   Kay continued “turning” the new bowl.  Cold and light rain continued.

I was in so much pain Wednesday, that I remained in the motorhome all day and evening; Kay did go to dinner with the Circle 3 group,  We both skipped the New Year’s Eve party, though.  Cold and light rain continued.  Happenings these last few days were a tough way to end a year that saw so much occur in our lives.

We took time out of an otherwise hectic schedule to visit the National Butterfly Center Sunday afternoon.  It was the first time Kay had been there this season, and the first time we had ridden our bikes any distance since arriving a couple of months ago.  Walking the trail to the garden revealed several Orange-crowned Warblers, Yellow-rumped Warblers, Green Jays, Kiskadees, and Altimira Orioles.  While it was windy, we saw a few butterflies, including Zebra Heliconians, Queens, and Monarchs, as well as the usual Skippers.  And, an owl was gawking out of the newly-erected Screech Owl box.

I explored the Edinburg Scenic Wetlands and World Birding Center on Thursday morning with a group of birders from the BPVRV Resort.  There were fewer birds observed than on any previous visit.

Kay has been feverishly shopping for Christmas gifts for family; I feel bad that I haven’t helped, but …  As it’s now Friday, “we’ve” finished almost all preparations; we lack washing clothes and packing the car.  And, we identified a few things we don’t want/need here in the Rio Grande Valley for the rest of the winter, so those things will be making the journey to Arkansas for storage.

The HSV house is progressing nicely.  Updates can be found on the blog we specifically created for that purpose:  Our HSV House

Kay and I wish for each of you a stress-free, blessed Christmas.  Until then…

This was a pretty typical week in the Valley, with too much going on and not enough time to do all we want to do. Exercise and golf, for Kay and me respectively, were significant events of the day on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and Kay decorated the motorhome for Christmas this week.  We began waxing the motorhome, and made significant progress on the almost too big job.  I have been foregoing happy hour at the palapa and margarita hour, to have some “me” time, and enjoy the peace and quiet in the motorhome.

The week began on Sunday with a TubaChristmas at the University of Texas, Pan America.  TubaChristmas is a music concert held in cities worldwide that celebrates those who play, teach, and compose music for instruments in the tuba family, including the tuba, sousaphone, baritone, and euphonium.  Some 400 musicians played to a standing room only crowd (2,500+ people) in the concert we attended.  The music was great and the event was a hoot!

Kay managed to get a dental appointment Monday to check out the tooth ache, and scheduled a root canal for next week, ugh!  This has becoming an annual event.  She is taking heavy antibiotics in preparation for the oral surgery.

On Tuesday, we did cutouts of furniture for the new house, and placed the pieces on the floor plan in different configurations to see how the furniture would fit.  And then, our attempts to shop for furniture were defeated as none of the stores here in the Valley carry the brands in which we are interested.

On Thursday evening, we attended an outdoors “big band” Christmas concert at Quinta Mazatlan.  The concert was just so so.  (NOTE:  Quinta Mazatlan is an old estate centered around a historic mansion in McAllen.  For much of its existence since construction in 1935, the Spanish Revival Style mansion was a private and rather luxurious residence, complete with a Roman tub. It possessed the distinction then and now of being one of, if not, the largest adobe structures in Texas, about 10,000 square feet.)

Both Friday and Saturday were relatively quiet for us, with no outside activities, except golf at Tierra Santa in Weslaco, though I did finish waxing the motorhome Saturday.

We’ve begun another blog chronicling the move to Hot Springs Village (HSV), Arkansas, and construction of the HSV house.  It can be found at hsvhouse.wordpress.com  Consequently, details and photos for this big activity have been omitted here.  This week did see installation of the floor joists/beams and subfloor, and erection of some of the walls.  And, we approved the first big draw on the construction loan.  Photo below courtesy of Jim Passe.

What can I say—we’ve allowed ourselves to get too busy.  Sunday was church, lunch out, and dancing, not really an anomaly, and then we played bridge in the evening.  Monday was golf, exercise, and Court Whist.  Tuesday was an “off day” so we saw Interstellar, just an okay movie, and we played bridge Tuesday evening.  Golf and exercise were on the schedule again on Wednesday followed by the hot tub and pool.  While we were both away, we had the motorhome washed, and Nick’s did a good job, especially for $60.  With too much going on, I passed on Margarita hour in the evening.  We did dance lessons Thursday, including our first “night club” dancing, followed by pool and spa time, with bridge again in the evening.  Friday was golf and exercise, a 50th anniversary party for next door neighbors Paul and Lorna Graham, dinner at Costa Mesa (our favorite Mexican food restaurant in the RGV) and the “First Friday Art Walk” in downtown McAllen with Al and Sharon Crawford, Dave and Sandy Muscat, and Ernie and Karen Martelle.  We were treated to a performance by the McAllen High School Mariachi Band at one of the venues for the Art Walk, and they were amazing as usual. Finally, Saturday, with Kay suffering from a serious tooth ache, we called a halt to our “goings and comings” though we did show at Costco’s, I waxed part of the motorhome, and Kay did some Christmas shopping for the grands.

Hot Springs Village house construction this week included preparing the garage footprint for placement of the slab, involving leveling the base material and placing a vapor barrier on top of the base, and delivering the “house kit”, i.e. lumber and wood components for framing the house.

Many, many thanks to Jim Passe for keeping us up to date and proving photos for our enjoyment.  In addition, we made a decision on the style of brick for the veneer, Vernon by Claymex; hopefully, it will be within budget.

After coffee at the Activities Center, Kay and I drove to breakfast on Saturday morning on our way to Estero Llano Grande State Park.  We ate at Diaz Diner in Mission; it is an old, established diner, and very reliable for good food.  Following breakfast, we drove to Wells of Weslaco, Kay’s favorite women’s clothing store, so she could exchange a blouse from last season; it faded during cleaing, despite following label instructions.  And then we were off to chase butterflies.  As we entered the state park, folks were parking on the grass in front of the large parking lot, and we though that it was just after Thanksgiving traffic.  As we were approaching the path to check in, someone yelled my name, and it was Jerry Smith.  We saw him, and noted at least a hundred birders all grouped together.  Jerry said they were all hoping to get a glimpse of the quite rare Red-legged Honey Creeper bird. After handshakes and hugs, we checked in for wrist bands, and immediately found the somewhat rare Two-barred Flasher Butterfly, another lifer for me.  And while waiting to see the Honey Creeper, we spotted a Zebra Heliconian Butterfly, a first for Kay.  After meandering around for a while, someone spotted the Honey Creeper fly into a tree.  And then, after several minutes, it flew into the area where it had fed yesterday, and I saw it among other birds, through could not identify it, and certainly didn’t get a photograph.  We saw a couple more Two-barred Flashers, and ran into Phil Kelly again.  He provided several pointers with respect to the Two-barred Flasher as well identifying features of some of the Skippers—nice guy.

Once again, we celebrated Thanksgiving without family, though we did enjoy spending the day with Winter Texan friends, including Thanksgiving dinner.  This year, the Activities Committee planned a potluck around roasted turkey provided by the resort.  It was a good meal.  After the consequential nap, we enjoyed happy hour at the palapa (coffee for me), and played bridge in the evening with Al and Sharon. 
Kay was up early this Black Friday morning to purchase poinsettias for decorating the palapa.  She left the RV at 5:00 AM!  And, for the second week in a row, Al and I played golf at a “new to us” course, Tierra del Sol.  Tierra del Sol, in Pharr, is the Winter Texan No. 1 rated course in the Rio Grande Valley.  It was a long course with good tee boxes, fairways, and greens, and lots of water.  As we were approaching the green on the last hole, neighbor Lorna Graham called to advise that she had seen Mexican Bluewing Butterflies at Estero Llano Grande State Park.  Regettably I was too tired to go there.  I’ve been chasing a Bluewing for several years now, and was successful in seeing a few last year—but didn’t get any photographs.  Oh well, maybe tomorrow.  Television was the entertainment of the evening.

It was another typical early first of the week—Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday—in the RGV, beginning with church and involving exercise and golf, playing bridge, finally replacing the tank fill/city water valve, and discovering a broken screen door latch.  Kay shopped for the younger grandkids’ Christmas presents, and I finally made it to the National Butterfly Center.  As I was approaching the gardens, Phil Kelly hailed me over to view a rare Four-spotted Sailer.  Many consider Phil to be one of the top lepidopterists in the world.  He, his wife, and their entourage spend Thanksgiving week in the RGV every year chasing butterflies.  Not only is he very helpful, but is also a very nice guy.  I was able to get several photographs of this butterfly.  Because of the wind, there weren’t many butterflies, but a few provided good photo opportunities.

There seem to be fewer Winter Texans in the Rio Grande Valley this year than in the past; many believe it to be the direct result of all the political, Facebook, and media rants regarding the influx of illegals this summer, most of which were grossly untrue.  Anyway, it has adversely impacted many businesses, and their employees.  And, the resort where we are staying still has many vacancies, and the “energy” level is way down.  Weird!

Hot Springs Village house construction so far this week included completion of the concrete blocks and piers foundation.  Photos are courtesy of Jim Passe.

Sunday began with church and a sermon on Matthew 25:14-30, The Parable of the Talents.  And then, we had a delightful time playing golf with Dale and Donna Short.  Dale and Donna are from Louisville, KY, and have been Winter Texans at BPVRV Resort for 10 years.  Our golf scores are similar, and it was fun playing with another couple.  We joined them at Shary Municipal Golf Course in playing couples’ best ball, and it really helped Kay maintain energy levels.  Hopefully, we can do it again real soon.  Either the water fill valve or a check valve in the new potable water pump has gone bad as the potable water tank is overflowing; consequently, we cannot be hooked up to “city” water and have to use the pump and potable water tank.  After golf, I took the water fill valve out—no easy task—but had to reinstall it for the pump to work.  It appears that either a new valve will have to be installed or the old one rebuilt.  Almost constant maintenance work and repairs is one of the downsides of RVing, but probably no different than the constant work needed to maintain a house!

Another cold front on Monday and Tuesday prevented, or at least minimized, outdoor activities, and we were caught up on bill paying, check balancing, and other financial chores.  Also, I’ve not taken a lot of photographs because of weather and health concerns, so no work to do in that regard either.  Kay lead exercise Monday morning while I hung out in the RV.  We visited Paul and Lorna Graham, next door neighbors, Tuesday evening to view scrapbooks of their trip to the Galapagos Islands this past July.  They really enjoyed the trip, but it’s a pretty desolate place.  Jim Passe sent a photo of footings being placed, via a concrete pump truck, for the Hot Springs Village house; it’s hard to not get excited!  We are so grateful to he and Ginny for the photos. 

A return to “normal” weather for the RGV sent Al, Fred, Vance and me to Meadow Creek to play golf Wednesday morning.  Meadow Creek is nearby, and is only in fair condition.  Nevertheless, we all had fun, and even though it was Vance’s first time out in about 10 years, he had the most fun of all.  An abbreviated margarita hour, from 4:30 PM to 5:30 PM, was okay, but lacked the energy from previous years.

We just hung out on Thursday, but were very busy making, or at least assessing needed repairs to the generator, and unsuccessfully trying to find a replacement city water/fill valve.  After talking to former neighbor Wayne, I isolated the generator problem to a broken cable connection to the positive terminal.  It is a huge wire, perhaps a #2.  note the sheared cable eye near the “B+” terminal in the photo.  I’m hoping Wayne will assist in the repairs when he and Loretta visit the RGV in January.  We, along with fourteen others from BPVRV Resort, did enjoy a great evening of music by the McAllen Symphony, McAllen Chorale, and that UT Pan-American mariachi band, all excellent!  These groups all draw from the greater metropolitan area, perhaps 1 million people, and UT Pan-American.

Al and I played golf Friday at Los Lagos Golf Course in Edinburg, TX, some 20 minutes north.  It is a links-type golf course, and in combination with light rain the first few holes, proved difficult.  However, it was the best course I’ve played in the RGV, with greens fees and cart priced at only $32.  In the afternoon and early evening, Kay and I helped serve Thanksgiving dinner (Dinner with Friends) to some 200 people at the First United Methodist Church in Mission, many of whom were homeless.  It was a rewarding experience and provided an opportunity for us to get to know a few folks in the church just a little bit better.

We had good intentions to run a lot of errands Saturday, but after shopping for an hour or so, we decided to return to the resort for happy hour and bridge with Al and Sharon.

Hot Springs Village house construction this week included excavation of and pumping concrete for the footings, and laying concrete blocks towards completing the foundation.  Photos are courtesy of Jim Passe and Al Vekovius.