OM MY GOSH!  And I thought no one would notice!!  Well, I'm glad to report, people ARE reading my ramblings and tehre are some that actually WANT to hear what we've been doing and see where we've been going!!  OK, well, I've got a lot of ground to cover, so, go get a drink and then buckle your seatbelts and get ready for a ride!  WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

Last you heard, I think we were lounging around the pool, becoming professional pool prunes, up in Rockport-Fulton, TX.  We were just spending the summer feeding turtles & looking for a shade tree to cool off under in between shots in the butt.  Occasionally, we'd geocache or ride our bikes down to the beach or the fruit stand.  ONE day, I don't know *what* came over Jose, but he decided we could ride on down to the "aquarium."  He didn't tell me where we were headed when we set out; we just went.  Never mind the "aquarium" was almost SIX miles away, and a LOT of it was UPHILL, and oh yeah, it was HOT.  Like a hundred degrees hot.  THAT one about killed me, and what's the really sad thing?  The aquarium was CLOSED for another 3 hours when we got there.  Nope, we didn't hang around.  BUT, on another day, when we finally DID get there and the aquarium was open, we went on in, and it took us all of 30 minutes to see & do everything there was.  I guess you get what you pay for, and admission was (needless to say) FREE.  Other than that, we really didn't do a whole lot more in Fulton - just danced a bit, best I could, went to Corpus a few times, mostly to get shot in the butt and then it was time to leave and come south to our winter gig in the Valley. 

The trip down was relatively uneventful, which is to say, really good.  You don't want "events" when you're pulling a forty foot trailer and going thru downtown Houston!!  On a Sunday morning!  We planned on arriving in Harlingen around 1 pm, giving us plenty of time to set up and look around town a bit.  There was a Quilt Shop we wanted to check out, as they were a Viking & Babylock dealer (unheard of, we knew, the internet MUST be right).  Well, let me just tell you, you can NOT put a 40' 5th wheel in the same slot as a 40' motorhome, especially when there are sentinel trees on both sides of the site!!  Now, I've known that for several years, but try telling that to a lady that knows it all (not me!!).  Finally, we decided to call the lady back & remind her that we are in a fifth wheel and we were going to find another site.  OOOOH, she says, I thought you said you had a motorhome.  Now, I ask you, WHY would she think such a thing???????  WHY would I *say* such a thing?  At that point, hot & tired, we didn't CARE.  We just needed another site, preferably, one that we could get into.  An hour & many no-see-'em (remember THOSE nasties!!??) bites later, we were finally set up & wandered over to the pool.  The DRY pool.  Yup - you guessed it, campground was chosen for two reasons:  price & pool.  Luck would have it - price was higher than planned (old book'll do that to ya every time) and pool was closed for repairs.  Plan B....into town earlier instead of later.  Found the quilt store without issue, and, oh, no, they are no longer a Viking dealer.  Closest Viking dealer is in Portland, JUST OUTSIDE OF, you guessed it, CORPUS CHRISTIE!  HAHA, the joke's on us.  All summer long we were just miles from a dealer & didn't know it & never went there!!!  And they were so scatterbrained I wasn't even confident they knew what they were talking about when answering questions about the Babylock machines they had on the floor.  What a waste of time! 

The next day, we came on into our "home" park - the one in which we were planning on spending our winter.  We were warmly greeted (EVERYthing in Texas was warm at that time!!) and shown our temporary quarters.  Tight, but doable.  Barely.  Darn, we are a long rig!  Temporary, because, in order to save money, electricity had been turned off at the big poles on several rows of RV sites.  And it was still off.  Snafu, but never mind, it would be back on within a week.  Or so.  Oh, and we'll start training in the office tomorrow at 8:30 am.  Eight thirty!!  That was EARLY - remember, we'd been pool prunes for the last 3 months, no reason to get up before lunch, if we didn't want! (Sorry, don't mean to be rubbing it in - just telling it like it is!!)

OK, so we're in training every morning for about a week, then the weekend comes, and we're off!!  On our own, to do as we wish!  This went on for THREE WEEKS!  Oh, somewhere around the end of week 2, we did move over to our real site and got situated without issue.  Got my storage been rebuilt & all my sewing stuff & fabric tote bins moved outside, and we could finally dig out the lawn chairs & bbq grill again.  Ahhhhhhh, now it's beginning to feel like home again.

We met a lovely couple, Jan & John, from Maine.  They are parked on the site directly behind ours and we find we have a lot in common with them.  They're active like us and adventurous, like us.  They took us over to Mexico & down to the closest state park, then on down to South Padre Island.  In fact, they even drove us down to the Sandcastle Days on the Island....and YES, Dick FINALLY got to see a sandcastle building contest.  The whole experience was marred by the awful red tide effects (breathing problems & eye/throat irritation for everyone) and the stink, but the castles themselves were wonderful works of art.  One of these days, I'll get around to posting the pics into our Photoshop.com album and put a link out on our website, so, don't give up hope; we WILL share the photos.  We also attended a butterfly festival and the pics & video from that excursion are phenominal.  We introduced John & Jan to geocaching, and boy, were they easy to get hooked.  They grasped the concept quickly and were very eager participants, so it was fun to take them along and let them find the caches on their own.  It was a sad day when they pulled out of the park, but they'd already committed to spend the winter down on the Island, so we knew they had to leave.  BUT, their departure vacated a site that was soon to be filled by some dear friends of ours that followed us down to bask in the sunshine of the south.

The month of October flew by, with us doing various projects around the park - painting signs, re-landscaping the front entrance, general clean-up/spruce-up and of course, office training.  November, too, flew by, with new arrivals' registration, more painting, and believe it or not, I got to sew.  For the park, AND for myself!  Mostly for the park, though, as they'd bought a park model/trailer that really needed re-habbing.  I got the bright idea that we could get some sheets on sale & make real cute curtains, and it would be a whole lot cheaper than buying curtains for all the rooms & windows.  And, since the trailer was rented for Dec 1 arrival, I had to get my arse in gear!!  Well, I am proud to say, not only did my job get completed well within the deadline, but they turned out VERY well.  Even better than the managers expected, I believe.  Pat, pat, pat.  Dick & I worked with some plants that were around back, bringing them to the front & fixing up the flower bed and gave the place some curb appeal, then we took the manager out & picked out carpeting & flooring.  Thank Goodness we didn't have to put it in or pay for it - we just picked it out & brought it home. 

We have been mighty busy in our off time, too - we found a decent (and honest) dentist just over the border; he's done good work with good materials, and $425 later, Dick has all his teeth fixed up and purty.  I've also been fortunate to find a good pain management doc, but he is generous with the needles.  He makes me cry just about every time we go - I think he prides himself on that!!  But, he has brought enough relief that I can sit for about 15 minutes at a time now.  THAT is some improvement!!  Unfortunately, he does not think I am a good candidate for that spinal stimulator or radio frequency thingy that has brought relief to so many others; that, apparently is for nerve damage, and that's not my issue.  At least, not my major issue.  MY major issue, so it seems, is inflammation and arthritis, brought upon by who knows what.  He's working with steroids to bring down the inflammation and quit the spasms, and whatever he's doing seems to be helping somewhat. 

So, here we are, 3 months into our 6 month commitment, hopefully the cold weather is about gone for the winter, and we see that everyone else is under 2-3 feet of snow.  We're sorry for you.  We love you, but, no, we won't come back to help you shovel.  Thanks anyway!  We are beginning to investigate our options for next summer; we got used to not working (took us about 2 days, but we managed), and we did like lounging in the pool and hot tub.  There's a National Wildlife Refuge just north of Rockport-Fulton and they had some terrific facilities for Workampers, but, they did seem to have the same mosquito & no-see-'em problem that we experienced at the museum in Tallahassee.  That would certainly make us reconsider, no matter what the facilities were!  We might go a bit farther inland, maybe up into the Hill Country, and see what's cookin' up there.  Or, heck, maybe Oklahoma.  Why?  Why not?

So, as 2009 comes to a close, we'd like to thank you all for traveling along with us.  We hope you're enjoying our journeys and adventures, and we hope that we have inspired you to dream big.  We are definitely living proof that dreams come true and there's something to be said for living the simple life.  (If simple means staying warm with WiFi and a pool, that is!) 

We wish each and every one of you a Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy, safe and prosperous New Year!!  May all your dreams come true!!!  And, please join us in praying that all our troops come home safe and SOUND of mind & body, and SOON.  Never forget that our freedom comes at their sacrifice.  God Bless!!