A bit cooler in La Feria this Saturday evening

La Feria, TX  68 degrees with heavy overcast.  Click on any picture to enlarge.

I drove to Mercedes, TX, just 5 miles west of here just before lunch to a hardware store.  This is picture of clouds as I came out.  On way home I drove in some very hard rain 3 different times, but it has not rained here at La Feria.

We went across Expressway 83 just after 12 noon to eat lunch and this photo is the clouds just north of us when we came out.

But, it still hasn't rained here.  We had the air conditioner running since we got here last Sunday with highs near 90 each day and high humidity.  Just went out riding the trike a bit (before the Nebraska-Michigan football game to start) and it was almost chilly at 68 degrees--different than what we had gotten used to.

This Fiesta Texas - Tex-Mex Restaurant is in the building that "Stuffed Gut" restaurant used to be.  The owners and workers used to have the restaurant right on Main Street just on the south side of Expressway 83 that was turned into a Title Max office a year or so ago. We at lunch there Saturday.


Well, as usual, I have procrastinated and it is now 8:30 am Sunday - 62 degrees outside, but no real rain fell here.
Watched the Iowa Football game and the Nebraska Football game on TV last night.

 Yesterday helped Phyllis wash the trailer.  Sprayed with light Chlorox beach and then used brush with water to change the color.  Hadn't realized the light mold was so all-encompassing.

The small cutting of an Aloe plant that we got from the King Aloe Farm near Mercedes some 5 years ago is pretty good sized now and we can take leaves off it for use.

I cut one leaf off and stripped back one side so the gel aloe can be smeared on all the mosquito bites.  It is good for sunburn, anything on the skin, really.  In fact, we buy and drink each morning a bit of liquid aloe to help with digestion.

 I am adding these three photos of the inside of our mobile home to show Ann Runyan the similarity to her and Stan's mobile home.  When we were visiting them I saw that and we discovered our units are the same year, same model, built by the same company; only, theirs is 10 feet longer than ours and has a third bedroom.

Realizing I didn't include pictures earlier on our drive on the Natchez Trace Parkway - here are a few.

Several places we were able to pull off the Parkway and actually walk on the old trace itself.

There was interesting displays at this French Camp along with a small cafe.  We were middle of the morning, so did not eat there.

Along the coast as we neared Galveston we saw many houses on high stilts/posts.  This is a mobile home elevated - saw a couple of them.

This is example of the many houses built

high up to avoid flooding when high waters come in.

This is a pretty big, old, house not on stilts, though it is built on a high dirt.

We spent two nights in Phyllis' cousin Ruth's house, this photo shows Phyllis and her cousin Janice (Ruth's sister) who had flown in from San Francisco for the weekend to visit us.

Myself and Ruth.

This is photo of Ruth's Galveston house.  It is only 1.5 blocks from the gulf.  She drove us around showing us much of Galveston Island, though it rained all the time we were there.  Hope to go back sometime when the sun is shining.

Had hoped to walk the beach, but weather was nasty.

Yep, not a day to walk the beach.

We stopped in Rockport, TX and ate lunch Sunday with Bessie & Don Runyan.  Got a photo of Don in front of their 5th-wheel, but didn't get a photo of Bessie -- guess I am slipping.

All the cactus plants I have put in are growing

This tall cactus is now above the roof-line.  It was 6" tall when I rescued it from a neighbor's rain gutter 4 or 5 years ago.

The pine tree was 6" tall when I planted it about 4 years ago.  It is getting close to being shade from the west sun in late afternoons.

We had our first, of the season, game of Manipulation with neighbors Marion & Ardel Finken and Darlene & Bill Winslow on Friday evening at Winslows.

I have finally gotten the photos taken on the 2-week trip from Iowa to Texas on separate files in my Picasa website.  For some reason many of the descriptions haven't uploaded, but imagine they will finally catch up.  Here are websites of the various files of those photos; look at them if you like:

Click on the link, or copy and paste each into your browser.

https://picasaweb.google.com/104734368515318820647/201510ENewMadridMO

https://picasaweb.google.com/104734368515318820647/302610JGalvestonTX

https://picasaweb.google.com/104734368515318820647/201510IStanRunyansMississippi

https://picasaweb.google.com/104734368515318820647/201510EJacksonMSCapitolOfMS

https://picasaweb.google.com/104734368515318820647/201510GNatchezTrace

https://picasaweb.google.com/104734368515318820647/201510FNashvilleTN

https://picasaweb.google.com/104734368515318820647/2015DCapeGirardeauMO

https://picasaweb.google.com/104734368515318820647/201510CJeffersonCityMOMOCapitol

https://picasaweb.google.com/104734368515318820647/201510BToTexas

https://picasaweb.google.com/104734368515318820647/201510AIowa

https://picasaweb.google.com/104734368515318820647/201511Texas

 Later, Lynn

At our winter home in La Feria, Texas

La Feria, TX - 71 degrees.

Well, I find it harder all the time to write the blog.  Will try to list our travels on the 15 days we came from Clarinda.

                      This is as we arrived Sunday evening - parked the trailer next to our Mobile Home so can move stuff over.



We left Clarinda Sunday noon October 18th and stopped south of Kirksville, MO where we visited our youngest granddaughter Emily and her BF Vince.

We then went on to Jefferson City, MO and toured the Missouri State Capitol.

 From there we drove to just north of Cape Girardeau, MO where we stayed Tuesday night and Wednesday night at an RV Park where we met my brother Darrell & his wife Lin from Miami.  We spent time with our older brother Don & his wife Vicki in Cape Girardeau. 

 On Thursday we headed south and stopped in New Madrid, Missouri at their Historical Museum, dedicated mostly about the earth quakes along the New Madrid Line

 From New Madrid we drove over to Nashville, TN where we set up in a park close to the Grand Ole Opry.


On Friday we toured the Tennessee State Capitol there in Nashville.

We left the capitol and drove to the State Fair Grounds where some 2,000 exhibitors had booths at a flea market.

 Lots of people watching, product looking, and some buying we headed back to our trailer

 and then went to the Grand Ole Opry where we had tickets for the Friday night radio show.  We saw many acts -

 If I remembered all the names I would put them on here.

At left is Mike Snyder who I have always enjoyed.

John Conlee...................................................

Of course, this is Loretta Lynn.






We drove from Nashville down the Natchez Trace Parkway southwest.  Took many photos of trees as the leaves were very colorful.  We got off the Trace near Jackson, MS and did a tour of that State Capitol.  Stayed one night at camp just north of Jackson - went on to Hazelhurst, MS and spent couple nights in yard of Phyllis' cousin Stan Runyan and his wife Ann.  Toured the library on Co-Lin College where a 50-year history display was set up.  

Drove further southwest on the Natchez and spent one night near Lake Charles, LA before getting to Galveston where we parked in front of cousin Ruth Sunderman Davis' house--we stayed in her house while it rained the entire weekend.  Her sister Janice Sunderman Asfor flew in from San Francisco and the three girls had a fun weekend remembering growing up near Clarinda, IA.

Sunday morning we drove from Galveston to Rockport, TX and ate lunch with Don & Bessy Runyan who had just arrived the day before at their winter home.  We made it to our Kenwood RV Park just at sunset on this first day of the regular time set as Daylight Savings had ended that morning.

Have drained and re-filled the water heater (Smelled bad as it has each fall and this flushing helped greatly in that respect)  Mosquitoes are huge and plentiful, probably because of all the recent rains, got as high as 87 degrees today.

Maybe more later, Lynn