Rain in the Rio Grande Valley - what an out-of-the-ordinary event!

 61 degrees with rain at 11 am Monday.  Had just under .2" from rain overnight.  Really something -- Harlingen reports 3.5" year-to-date as average rainfall and they had recorded less than 1/2 inch as of weather forecast last night, so this is welcome.

With yesterday being Phyllis' birthday, we went with neighbors Ardell and Marian Finken from Indiana and Darlene Winslow from Michigan to The Smoking Oak, a Bar-B-Que place in Mercedes, TX for lunch.  Great food and when Darlene mentioned to the waitress that it was Phyllis' birthday, she brought out three flavors of Cobbler for us all to share!

Had not eaten there before, but now that indoor dining is open, we must go back there this fall when we return to the Valley.

Returned to Darlene's house where we played a couple games of Concentration before having Ice Cream and Chocolaty Chocolate cake and coffee.  

Phyllis received telephone call from son, Cameron, earlier in the day and then in the evening daughter Michelle did a video call.  She had sent flowers that came Saturday morning.  She also had long visit with sister, Beth.

Working at sorting all the things we need to take to Iowa to get in trailer or pickup.  Will probably start disassembling the trikes tomorrow and pack them in to the pickup as they must go in first before all the other stuff is loaded.

Our plan is to leave Friday, April 2nd, and overnight in New Braunfels, TX after getting a bite to eat at The San Antonio Pig Stand in San Antonio.  Saturday will drive to an RV Park in Bullard, TX, unhitch the trailer and drive to the Cherokee Trace Drive-Thru Safari and return to Bullard to over-night.  Sunday will be just under a 300 mile drive to RV Park in Stratford, TX.  On Monday we will meet Rev & Mrs. Baker in Yukon, OK (Suburb of OK City) then some sites in Tulsa and finally get to Jim & Patsy Gallaway's place in Owasso, OK for the night.  They have spent several winters here in Kenwood, but both had a rough time with Covid-19 last summer and did not come down.  Tuesday we will go to both the Will Rogers Memorial Museum in Claremore, OK and his Birthplace Ranch near Oolagah, OK before staying overnight at Pine Island RV Resort in Jay, OK.  Our sixth day out (Wednesday) we will see Big Brutus and the Museum there near West Mineral Springs, KIS and arrive at Harold & LaRhoda Neher's place late afternoon.  Plan to park trailer at there place so we can visit (and, no doubt, play some Pegs & Jokers) that evening and Thursday morning we will drive the final 100 miles to our place in Clarinda, IA.  My Roadtrippers App maps this out as 1,620 miles, so is some 400 miles more than a straight drive home.  But, this more relaxed way with visiting friends and places will do just fine.

GROANER'S CORNER:(( Panicking when her toddler swallowing a tiny magnet; my sister, Betty, rushed him to the emergency room.  "He'll be fine," the doctor promised her. "The magnet should pass through his system in a day or two."  "How will I be sure?" she pressed.  "Well," the doctor suggested, "you could stick him on the refrigerator. When he falls off, you'll know."

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An American tourist in Dublin had been complaining a great deal about the food.
"Here," he said to the waitress holding out a piece of meat for inspection, "do you call that pig?"  "Which end of the fork are you referring to, sir?" the waitress asked sweetly.

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Warm day in the Valley

 90º with hot sun and 23 mph winds out of the south.  Click on photos to enlarge.

I found that a couple videos I posted previously weren't marked public so you couldn't see.  --  Showing the park last week is HERE  and, showing the park back in January is HERE  Lots of units have left the park.  Harold & Imogene Williams sold their unit and left this morning.

Tomorrow is Phyllis' birthday and our daughter, Michelle, sent her flowers that got here this morning.

'

With a lot of falling needles from the freeze last month, this tree had quit a bit on the roof.  Cleared them for now, but imagine will be a lot more to come.

Removed rocks and dirt

from big planter box in front of house.

The New Look

 Needing to renew our passports this summer, we had photos taken in Harlingen this week.

 

Went to Walmart in Harlingen via the SAS store in Brownsville earlier this week.  Our 2012 Chevy Silverado clicked over the 100,000 mile mark.

On our return from Harlingen
and Brownsville

Got onions, carrots and grapefruit from veggie man yesterday

Cactus by northwest corner of house
in January

Finally removed all of the
cactus -- freeze damage

Northeast of house
shortly after freeze

Finally took it down to the ground

 Phyllis finished with the quilting gals last week and put finished quilts and material in tight Totes to keep the bugs out, in the storage building.

The "kids" that live full-time in their bus, had Pat Sumner
fabricate a luggage rack that they painted and put on bus.

 This is brother Roger's great granddaughters, Emma, who is a couple days older than our Jessica, with her sister  Mila that was born in February.

And, our great granddaughter Jessica
with little brother David who was
born on March 18th

Steven and Melissa Miles and daughters
Emma and Mila - they live in Germany where
Steve is in the US Army

Some more pictures of great grandson David Long

 67 degrees at 8:30 pm  I videoed the streets here a day or two ago 

3 days old and heading home from the hospital.

Family together at home.

We did go to Panda Express in Harlingen today for lunch.

Lynn

 

David Thomas Long

 69 degrees here in south Texas at 10:30 am Sunday.

Another picture of new great grandson:

Think they are heading home from the hospital in Cedar Rapids, IA to Marengo, IA today.

Not much going on here in the Valley.. 

LCM

New Great Grandson!

 67 degrees at 10:30 am here on Friday.  

Wednesday it got a little warm - 92 degrees at 4:20 pm, with the usual high winds.  Cool front came through later in the afternoon and by 8:30 the next morning it was 56 degrees and has  been relatively cool since then.

Attended the Men of A-Chord practice in Mission, TX on Tuesday, which turned out to be the last one for the season.  Though this was the 5th one this spring at that RV Park in Mission,, a man who said he was representing the park there came in and said we could not be in the building without masks.  After a little discussion about the fact that we all had both Coronus Virus vaccine shots, were isolated from anyone else in the building, and the state had loosened the proviso about masks, the man said that didn't matter, if we wanted to stay there we had to mask up.  Singing with masks is no fun and muffled to hear each other.  We finished the session with masks and said we would reconvene at our usual place in McAllen the first Tuesday in November.  There were less at this gathering and many were going to go north within the next couple weeks, anyway.

For the last 4 years we have carpooled with Bob Weise who lives in Snow To Sun RV Park in Weslaco (and is from Gladbrook, Iowa).  When we had performances in recent years we usually rode together with him and his wife Marcia.  Had not seen her this year so after we got his neighbor Denny Hill unloaded we went with the Weise's to  Ranch House Burgers on south International Boulevard there in Weslaco and had a good visit.  Marcia is recovering nicely from hip replacement surgery earlier this year.

 Should have started this blog off with the good news that we had a new great grandson, David Thomas Long, at 1:47 pm yesterday in Cedar Rapids, IA.  8 lbs, 6.2 oz. - 20 inches long.

In deep thought

Some shuteye.

Think Dad is proud?

Still hauling off frozen cactus from the back yard.

Making plans for our heading out the 2nd day of April.

LCM

Fish fry for most of the people in the park

83 degrees at 5:00 pm.  Been cloudy all day and doesn't feel that warm.  Click on photos to enlarge.

Got another grand-dog this

last weekend.  Michelle has

a companion, Mouse, for aging

Dawson.

Yesterday Jeff and Gerri Boutelle and Bill Elwanger put on a fish fry of Red Snapper fish, mushrooms and onions.  All brought side dishes and deserts.  Had a good turnout.  No one wore masks, but all that I inquired of have had both Covid-19 shots, except one woman is waiting until she gets home up north.  Hope everyone is okay.  Delicious fish and lots of great side dishes and deserts.

Cleaned up some more of the short cactus plants that froze in February in the back yard today.

  The orange tree that is behind the parked travel trailer has budded out.  Think the freeze set it in a different pattern than usual.

Since we cut back around the palm

bush and the bougainvillea plants 

discovered the rocks we had

put around the plantings some

seven years ago.  Of course,

they had disappeared over

the years.  Have collected

them so can put them somewhere.

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