Our Christmas Vacation

Our trip back home was great.  It was a long, but uneventful trip that lasted 16 1/2 hours.  We got to see all of our families and most of our friends.  It was extremely cold when we arrived plus there was still snow on the ground from an earlier snowfall. 

He's so cute in his new tartan coat.

The snow melted within a few days and I was able to rake up and bag all the leaves.  I filled 13 bags and 3 trashcans.  The recycle guys probably weren't real happy with us, but they've passed our house up for 3 months without having to stop.

One of the highlights while at home was the Ugly Christmas Sweater party at Dennis and Ann's. 

You wouldn't be smiling either if you were dressed like this!

The 5" of snow that fell on Christmas Eve was not what we wanted to see, but I must admit on Christmas morning, it was beautiful.  It didn't slow down any of the shoppers on Friday afternoon when we ventured out. (Yes, we braved the Galleria, just to watch since all of our shopping was done.)

After our family Christmas's on Friday night and again on Saturday, we took the tree and the few decorations down and packed the truck for our early morning start to get back to warmth and sunshine, and a chance to quit eating non-stop.  I think all we did was eat and drink while home, without one iota of exercise.

At 3:15am Sunday morning, we started our very long trip back to Victoria, TX.  We took a shorter route (by 100 miles) from the route we took home.  When we first started, our new GPS had us arriving at  6:15pm - plenty of time to make Sunday night ice cream.  Little did we know that half the people in Texas would be traveling on I35 south of Dallas.  We came to a screeching halt and crawled for almost 100 miles at no more than 30mph.  Soon our GPS had us arriving at 7:45pm.  It took just shy of 18 hours to go the shorter distance on much worse roads.  Not one of our best decisions, but at least we didn't have to pay the $18 tolls in Oklahoma. 

We actually arrived at 8:00pm, safe and sound with no problems along the way.  After walking a very excited Butch, we dumped all of our stuff into the trailer and headed off to bed.

Monday morning we discovered that our electric hot water heater was no longer working.  Once you open up the hot water heater compartment outside, every guy within 10 spots shows up to see what's wrong and to offer advice. After a few false starts Mark found a drawing for the heater and determined what was probably the defective part. The local RV dealer agreed and sold us a replacement part. We are now back to making hot water with electricity instead of propane. This is good since we get electricity free.

J.C., our neighbor from just south of Springfield MO, was an engineer for the MO Highway Department so he had lots of useful advice. Mike is standing around with his hands in his pockets, and Dave - not sure what had his eye.

Tonight we played Canasta and once again the men beat the women. Tomorrow we start a stretch of four days in a row running the RV park. It seems as if everyone waited until Christmas to head out this year and they are passing through Victoria in record numbers. We should be very busy. We also have to set up for the New Years Eve party since it falls on one of our work days. This should provide good stories for the next Blog entry.

Almost Homeward Bound

The day after the big parade was a day of rest.  The weather had gone from 85 and sunny on Saturday to 60 and cloudy on Sunday.  Except for a trip out to get a newspaper, we stayed inside until ice cream time at 6pm.  We were watching Tiger golf all afternoon.  Even though he didn't win, it was still nice to see him out there. 

Last week I posted that Mark had knelt down in a fire ant hill while we were inflating our kayaks.  We thought that he had escaped with no bites; we were wrong!  He's been waking in the middle of the night trying to find something to stop the itch, as well as the pain.  He counted over 20 bites.  

Monday we headed to the movies to see the latest Harry Potter movie - The Deathly Hollows, Part One.  It was a great movie and now we just wait until next summer to the final movie.  We were in the theater for the 1:00pm showing ($5) with four other people!

Today we found this trailer on the parking lot of Academy, the sporting goods store in town.

Two sheep in a pen, with coats on.  Things you don't see at home.

Tuesday we had to work because we will be gone for the next two weeks.  It was a mostly boring day, but I knew that I would be getting off work at 5:30p instead of 7:00p.  There were lots of rigs still coming in, but the park had obtained tickets for The Victoria Christmas Pageant presented by the Northside Baptist Church.  This was a HUGE production with over 300 people involved in the show.  This was the 26th year that this church has performed a Christmas pageant.  They do two shows an evening for seven nights in a row.  This was a free show with a request of a canned good for a local food bank.  Besides the 300 people, there was a camel, a donkey, and several baby sheep.

Today we started preparing for our trip back home next week.  The awning came down, the hitch came out of the truck, and we headed out to get munchies for the road and diesel for the truck.  Diesel at most gas stations is now $3.09/gallon.  The Murphy Oil at the other end of town is still selling it for $2.85 so everyone goes there.  As luck would have it, it's right near the Buffet City.  One last chinese buffet for a while. 

Butch is starting to get worried.  I dug out our collapsible suitcases to put some of the stuff we must take home with us in.  His little brain is telling him that we're leaving without him - little does he know, he's along for the long haul - all 14+ hours to get home on Monday.

Since we're working all weekend, this will be the final blog until after Christmas.  MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

Parading Around Victoria

Parade Day at last!  After more hours than we want to count, the float was deemed complete around 2:30 Saturday afternoon.  That was good since we had plans to all load onto the float and drive it over to the staging area at 3:30pm. 

Erik and Mark making sure the sound system works before we leave the park.  He blasted Christmas music throughout the parade route.

Since the parade didn't officially start until 6:00pm, everyone spends the 2 1/2 hours beforehand putting the finishing touches on their floats, and then walking around looking at all the other ones. 

These two cars have every imaginable piece of crap glued onto them.  Everything - buttons, shells, silverware, musical instruments, pearls, beads, animals, lights, skulls, etc.  They usually sit inside a building downtown; it was nice to see them up close.

The Lazy Longhorn RV Park float - "Camping and Christmas Brings Families Together"

Our float had a tent, four chairs around a campfire, a Christmas tree, and lots of lights.  Tania, Pam, Linda, and I sat in the chairs around the fire.  The fire was very hot, especially since it was still 75 degrees at parade time.  Erika sat inside the tent; Gene drove the truck while Mike rode inside with him, yelling Merry Christmas over the loud speaker.  Bringing up the rear was the very popular mini-Winnebago golf cart, driven by Erik and Mark.

Note, there are no windows in this thing.  They could only see right in front of them.  This did not stop those two from driving all around the float if they had the space to do so.  The parade was televised live on TV last night.  When Erik and Mark got in front of the camera, they did about five 360s in the street, gaining laughs and cheers from everyone in the crowd.

Yes, that's a sewer hose coming out the back of the mini-Winnie.  Fortunately the guys didn't have to use it.  What you can't see is the beer up front.  Not sure what the penguin was all about, but Mark said that it saved them when the parade was over.  They rode the cart down the roads back into the park.  The penguin and Christmas lights were the only lights they had since the cart has no headlights.

Since this was our first Victoria Christmas Parade, we weren't sure what to expect.  We were pleasantly surprised.  This event is huge in this town.  This morning's paper estimated the crowd to be between 20,000 and 30,000 viewers.  It was a lot more fun than we expected.  We were worried about the waiting time before the parade started, but Tania had packed food and we also had coolers full of adult beverages.  The only bad part about being in a parade - you don't get to see the parade!  There were over 150 entries (floats, marching bands, etc.) in the parade.  Unfortunately, our float didn't win any awards.  Judging from the claps, cheers, and laughs from the crowd, the golf cart was the hit.  Erik and Mark are already deciding how to make it better for next year.

Parade Preparations

It's been a crazy week.  We worked Monday and had a very busy day with lots of people passing thru. 

Tuesday was ladies day out - lunch and shopping.  We started out at Halepaska's bakery for soup and sandwiches.  Next we stopped at Hall Electric and Design Center.  This is a very high-end furniture store, with very expensive chandeliers, mirrors, furniture, etc.  They also have 24' decorated Christmas trees throughout the store.  All were for sale, as well as the ornaments.  Most ornaments sold for around $20.00 apiece. I sat on a couch that was on sale for $15,000, and it wasn't even comfortable!

Our next stop was the local Shop the World.  They, too, had Christmas decorations and trees for sale, but much cheaper.

I could only get about 2/3 of the tree in the picture.  The snowmen were about 18" tall.

Most of the week has been spent preparing for the Christmas parade.  Erik decided that the float was going to be a "camping" scene, with a golf cart following the float during the parade.  He had a design in mind, but didn't want to share with those of us who were actually building and decorating it until Wednesday this week. 

There is no theme for this year's parade, but one of the requirements is to have LOTS of lights on all floats.  Since we were so busy working on Monday, we didn't get to (or have to) work on the float until Tuesday and Wednesday.  Thursday we worked, but it was a very boring work day.  The phone only rang 3 times all day and the weather was too nice to sit inside.  I read by book on one of the rocking chairs while Mark and Erik decorated the golf cart all day.

This is just the first part of the decorations.  Today Erik worked on it for a few more hours.  I'll have to post more pictures tomorrow right before we get on the float. I'm very excited, I've never been in a parade before.

Today it was 82 degrees, sunny, and no wind so we decided to head to Saxet Lake with our new kayaks.  As luck would have it, when Mark got his kayak out of the bag, he set it down on a fire ant hill.  Fortunately he didn't get stung. 

It took about ten minutes to get them blown up and into the water. 

We had a great time and can't wait to take them out again, only next time we'll head over to the Gulf coast.

ow that a few more winter Texans are in the park, Norm and Sheryl hosted the first of many happy hours. 

 

Tonight was the first night of bingo for the season.  I won one game and got $3.50 for it. 



Backing Into Problems

Mark agreed to move Charlotte's new trailer on Sunday.  Charlotte got a new trailer a last week, but the guy who delivered it to her didn't allow her space to park her Bronco, so she asked Mark if he could move it for her.  While Mark was driving his truck over to Charlotte's spot, Butch and I were walking.  Butch was not happy - he just wanted a ride.  Once Mark got around the park I threw Butch in the truck.  He sat in the truck, not making a peep, for at least a half hour.  He didn't care, he was in the big truck.

Butch along for the ride.

While Mark was doing this, I was up in the office helping the other girls decorate the office Christmas trees.  One of the trees is decorated as a Texas tree.

Check out the ornaments - "sheriff" stars, cowboy boots and hats, horses and guitars, one yellow cutout of the State of Texas.  Yeehah! 

There's another tree in the hallway.  This one comes with a control box.  The balls all change colors, but the tree also plays Christmas songs and the lights change colors according to the sounds on the song.  Very cool.  Fortunately, we keep the volume turned off as it is more obnoxious than those dancing Santas that everyone just had to have several years ago.

I forgot to take a picture of the big tree, but it's mostly normal, except for a train that's mounted in the middle.  Unfortunately the train quit working so it's just a track with a train sitting on it.  Again, it would probably be obnoxious while running, but still a fun tree.

We had to work today, and knew that it would be extremely busy - 10 units were arriving with reservations, but 5 others showed up unannounced.  Luckily we had room for everyone. One of the folks that came in had been here last year and needed one of the workampers to back their trailer onto the site. They hadn't practiced since then and Mark had to back their rig onto the site this year. (Maybe they are smarter than we know!)

One young man showed up this afternoon, having never seen or been around a trailer in his life.  He got a new job in this area so he bought an RV.  He brought in a friend with him to help.  Unfortunately, Mark said this guy was no help, and Mark ended up agreeing to back the trailer into his spot for him. When he started backing up there was a loud noise and the front wheels would no longer turn. It seems that the guy just had $1200 worth of work done on the front end and they forgot to tighten up the steering arm causing it to fall off.  Mark put it back together temporarily so he could finish backing in the trailer and the truck could be moved out of the street. Tonight as we were walking Butch after playing canasta (the women finally won, by 40 points!!), we see this same kid outside his trailer with several of his new neighbors, all with flashlights, trying to figure out why the water won't come out of the faucets but will come out in one of the storage areas. We wished them good luck and immediately walked on. We will have to wait 'til tomorrow to find out what was wrong.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Day was wonderful.  As always, we ate way too much.  We only had 20 people for the 1:00pm meal.  Erik and Tania provided the turkey and ham and everyone else brought a dish.  We had dressing, green bean casserole, corn casserole, mashed potatoes, two sweet potato casserole, rolls, jello salad, cranberry sauce, and finally, pecan and pumpkin pies.

What you can't see from these pictures is that 95% of us were wearing shorts because it was so hot yesterday. Unfortunately, the warm spell (85) came to an end last night.

We all agreed to meet back at the clubhouse at 6:00p for leftovers.  There is no way that any of us could have been hungry, but 11 of us showed up again.  After two rounds of 3-13, we all waddled back to our trailers for the evening.  It's amazing that at 8:30 last night, the temperature was down to 44.  We had to come back and put the electric blanket on the bed.  Note - we did not turn it on, but got it ready just in case.  Unfortunately, tonight we're gonna need it.  Supposed to be around 28 tonight.

This morning we decided to be two of those crazies, and headed uptown to shop.  There was only one item we were after.  Mark was sure that they would be sold out since the sale started at 4am, but we lucked out.  We ran in, found the item, paid for it, and were back out of the store in less than 10 minutes.  Now if all the rest of our Christmas shopping could be that easy.

Today I put up the Christmas tree.  It's very small, but I love it.  I remembered to bring a small plastic tub with ornaments from home; all I had to buy was a bow for the top, and a strand of lights.

 
Gotta end this post - Happy Feet is on!

Getting Ready For Christmas

When we got off work Saturday at 7:00pm, we headed to the HEB for a few groceries.  We were out of milk and bread, and anything to make sandwiches out of on Sunday when we had to work again.  There's a problem with going to the store when you're hungry (even though we ate dinner before going).

We came back with cherry pie (plus whipped cream), strawberry cheese stolen, and cranberry walnut muffins - oh so good!

Sunday was another long slow day at work.  Not many people coming into the park or moving farther south this weekend.  Sunday was our first Ice Cream Social that we had to work.  I guess we did ok - no complaints.  I think we filled the scoops a lot larger than other workampers, but no one said anything about it. 

There was this very strange couple that checked in on Saturday when we worked.  The lady means well, but she just won't leave whoever is working in the office alone.  I think she'd be perfectly happy just hanging out with anyone all day long.  The problem is, none of us want, or can do that.  How do you tell a paying customer to just get away?  We sometimes dread going to popcorn for fear of what she wants next.  Only time will tell if she and her husband will show up for Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday.

After ice cream we learned a new game called Farkle.  It's a dice game with individual scoring. There's no skill to this, and between the two of us we decided there's not much fun either.  By the time we got back to the trailer, it was 8:30pm.  Butch doesn't like staying alone so long but we have enough down time that he got lots of visits from us, as well as a ride on the golf cart and a visit to the fire pit for an hour.

Yesterday I got my new kayak out of the box, inflated it, and tested it in the pool.  All is well and we can't wait to use them out on the lake.  Maybe next week if the weather holds.  It's still in the 80s.

Since Erik is anxiously awaiting for us all to take them out on the lake, we headed to Walmart to get life jackets so we'll have something to grab onto if we happen to fall in.  Since we don't really plan on wearing them, we bought the cheap ones for $19.99.  The $49.99 ones were very lightweight and comfy, but why waste money on something we don't play on using.

The hubbub with our card-playing friends - Bristol Palin on Dancing With The Stars.  I'm sick to death of hearing about her (and her mother as well!)  Luckily tonight's the finale. 

Since we cleaned out the basement of the trailer today to make room for the bags of kayaks, we decided to get out the Christmas lights and palm trees.

Mark hanging the balls in the tree on our site.  (His back is definitely better - last week he wouldn't have been able to be in this position.)

Several weeks ago I blogged that the problem with Texas trees, we never get to see the leaves change colors.  I was wrong, we have this one right next to where Mark is standing on the ladder.

It's not much, but those green leaves are changing to red.

The lights really look much better than this picture shows.  We're the first in the park to have up "lit" Christmas decorations.  Someone in the back of the park put a wreath up last week.  We need more. 

Next up - start Christmas shopping.  This year I'm buying on-line, and shipping to the kids back home to hold until we'll be hope in a few weeks.

Wii Are Holding Firm

We've discovered a place to take Butch to run crazy without a leash.  There's a new athletic complex about 2 miles from the RV park.  They have numerous baseball fields, tennis courts, basketball courts, skate park, and a large conference center.  A couple of weeks ago we tried to get him onto one of the baseball fields, but the city keeps them all locked up since they play baseball all winter long, and these are very nice fields.  We did discover a pair of older tennis courts that don't get used any longer and there's a fence surrounding them with a gate to close.  He loves to run as fast as he can for about five minutes to work out all that energy.  After working all this weekend, we'll be heading there on Monday morning.

Mark has still been visiting the chiropractor a couple of times a week.  We're praying for pain relief.  We've had some interesting nights trying to sleep with those darn spasms. 

The park is still empty of winter Texans so not much activity except for Wii exercising and cards at night.  The women still have not won a game.

Two of the couples we play cards with are military retirees so they visit the PX in San Antonio or Corpus Christi occasionally.  They all went to San Antonio on Thursday to stock up.  Gene and Charlene ended up buying a Wii since Gene says Charlene's butt is "firmer than it's ever been" since doing the Wii exercises.  Gene and Charlene will be celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary in a couple of weeks! 

Our other kayak showed up on Thursday.  We're gonna inflate and try it out in the pool next week.  Not sure when we'll head to the lake since we have no life jackets. 

Mark and Butch enjoying the nice outdoors while we were working yesterday.  After we got all of our duties completed, we headed outside.  It was an extremely slow day in the office.  I'm hoping today is the same since it's gonna be pushing 80 degrees again.

Staff Meeting 2 of 6

The sun finally came out today.  After 3 days of some rain but mostly just clouds and cool (50s), we had to search for the sunglasses once again.  Since we haven't worked, Mark's been resting his back.  Saturday and Sunday were the "do absolutely nothing" days for him. Thursday will probably be his final visit to the chiropractor. 

Yesterday we headed out to do errands.  My sister wanted me to investigate whether we could buy Creme de Taquila in Victoria.  She had some in Mexico a few weeks ago and was told it could only be purchased in Mexico or Texas.  Maybe so, but not in this town.

We were also looking for Ugly Christmas Sweater attire for an upcoming party when we get home.  So far, I've been an unsuccessful but will not be giving up.  We did find a pair of leather hot pants with four zippers (too small for Mark) at the local Goodwill store. We are always amazed at what people donate or sell although the two artificial legs we saw at a Florida flea market still top the list. There are lots more thrift shops to visit, only I'll be shopping by myself.  That's not Mark's thing.

My legs have been killing me since we've been doing the Wii workout three days a week.  Last night I had leg cramps so bad, I kicked Butch off the bed with both feet.  Scared the crap out of him; he's probably still wondering why I did it.  Mark was kind enough to get out of bed and pick him up.

Today started with the monthly staff meeting. We look forward to these meetings because breakfast is provided by the owners. As our good friend Al used to say "If it's free it's for me!" The main topic was the upcoming Christmas Parade. We are supposed to build and then ride on a float in the parade and it has to be completed by December 5. We haven't started yet.

Today was Ladies Lunch out day; we headed to Jason's Deli and then Hancock Fabrics.  While we did this, the men headed to Mumphords BBQ.  We're been here over a month and I still haven't had that great smoked meat. 

The women still have not won in playing Canasta.  We're taking a break from it.  Last night we learned a new game called 3-13.  It's an individual scoring game; I won 2 games and Linda won 2 games.  It's a start!

Hurry, I Think I Hear Banjos

Thursday was our long day to work.  When we work, the first duties are to count the money and then start cleaning.  I clean two inside restrooms and showers plus six washers and six dryers.  Mark cleans the two outside restrooms and one shower.  The office opens at 10:00am during the winter hours.  I didn't get around to cleaning the laundry area until almost noon.  Everyone wants to get their wash done before the weekend when all the workers do their laundry.

The park has many workers this year.  It seems that two or three rigs come in each day.  It makes us wonder where all the winter Texans will be. 

By the time we got done with popcorn yesterday, we had to set up for the first potluck of the season.  Sadly, there were only 17 people there, and 4 of those were the owners and their 2 kids, and 6 of us were workampers.  We're anxiously awaiting more people.  The workers never participate in activities, except for   Rebecca.  Her husband is an oil field worker who works very long hours while she stays in the park all day in a 19' Hi-Lo trailer with her adorable 9 month old daughter, Audrey and 3 dogs.  She's also pregnant again.  We haven't asked her yet, but we're sure Rebecca is not yet 20 years old.  Regardless, she makes a mean slab of ribs on the grill.  They were some of the best ribs I've ever eaten.  The slab broke apart using a plastic fork. Sadly, there weren't enough to go around - Mark and I got the last two pieces. 

Yesterday the Fedex man brought Mark's new toy.

No, it's not another musical instrument!

After his chiropractor appointment today, he came back to the park to open up the new toy.

Wray investigating Mark's new inflatable Kayak.

Next stop - the swimming pool to see how Mark handles the darn thing.

So far so good.  (That's our truck in the background - our trailer is just to the right of the truck.  It's good to be close to the pool.)

He tried to tip it over, and it just wouldn't tip.  He jumped out to see if he could get back in, and was successful. 

The pool is just wide enough to turn around in.

We liked this kayak so much that we ordered another one for me this afternoon.  It should be here next week.  Then we'll head to a nearby small lake to try them out.  Next stop - the bay down on the coast.  We have to get good at this before meeting up with Pam and Dennis in Gulf Shores next September.

Those Devil Eyes

Monday we had to work.  There was one really strange couple that came in from Ontario.  All the lady was concerned about was getting her satellite up and running so she could watch Canadian TV.  All this for just one night.  When we work, the office closes at 5:00pm, but the couple working is on call until 7:00pm when the owners take over.  At 5:00 we headed over to our trailer to eat since we knew we would be playing canasta at 6:30 that night and really had to be on call until 8:00 because the owners were out of the park at their son's basketball game.  Unfortunately, the lady from Ontario came over just as we were getting ready to sit down at eat.  Apparently she had been imbibing rather heavily for several hours, and she just wanted someone to talk to (Mark).  When we were playing cards, she stopped in for another visit to the clubhouse; by this time she could barely speak.  We meet all kinds in this business.

Butch hard at work with Mark

Since Mark's back has been killing him, he's trying a new approach to pain relief - a local chiropractor who says he can have him up and playing golf soon.  We're hoping for the best.  He went for an hour visit on Tuesday, again today, and has another appointment on Friday.  He warned Mark that it would be painful for a while, and to quit using a heating pad - he needs to be applying ice, not heat.

Yesterday after the chiropractor, we had to visit Walmart, Sam's, HEB, and lunch at the Buffet City.  Now we're getting tired of it; hopefully we'll stay away for several weeks. 

The heat is now on in the pool so we got to lounge around for an hour or so yesterday before popcorn and soda at 3p.  No cards Tuesday night since two of the couples are addicted to Dancing With The Stars and had to see it.  It's ok, since the women still haven't won.

This morning was the first day of Wii exercise.  Linda hooks her Wii Fitness up in the clubhouse and four of us women gave it a try.  I was leery since I figured it wouldn't be much of a workout.  I'm happy to say I was wrong.  It was a great workout and we had lots of laughs.  We started with the strength training and moved onto hula hoops and ski jumping.  After an hour, we were all beat.

We had time to give Butch a much-needed bath before the first men's water volleyball at 1:00p. 

The men's volleyball turned into co-ed since there aren't enough winter Texan men here in the park to play.  Linda, Charlene, and I joined in.  I'm happy to say, the team I was on won 4 times.  Then I traded places with Charlene, and my new team then lost. Hopefully the weather will stay nice so we can continue without the bubble.  The eight of us then crammed into the hot tub to relax before popcorn.

Wray and Emily from last year showed up today for a four-day visit.  We didn't have a lot of time to catch up today, but we'll make up for it on Friday and Saturday.

Early to bed tonight - gotta work tomorrow.

Butch hiding underneath his bed.  I wonder who he thinks he's hiding from?

What Are Those Brown Things?

We've been busy and not real diligent about updating, so here goes.  Hopefully I can remember what we've done since Thursday.  We haven't worked!  We are now in the routine of popcorn and soda in the clubhouse at 3:00pm. and then a quick dinner before cards at 6:30pm.   Thursday night we (the women) suffered our worse loss ever playing canasta.  They beat us by almost 20,000 points. 

Friday night we went to dinner with Gene and Linda and Gene and Charlene to a fairly new pizza joint in town.  The pizza was good, but service was not.  The other couples got their pizzas; ours was wrong, and then the replacement was raw.  They finally credited us back what we paid, and we left somewhat hungry (they let us eat the first wrong one while we waited for the right (but raw) one.  We'll probably return, but only for the buffet that's served at lunchtime.  We made it back to the park in time for yet another defeat in canasta.

Mark went to the first men's breakfast of the season while I cleaned the trailer.  The pool is now below 80 degrees so we're not getting in until the heater comes on. 

Last night we headed up town to check out the local sporting goods store, Academy.  Then we tried out the new Cherry Berry Yogurt Bar.  It's a self-serve place where you get a cup, load up on any of the 20 flavors and 20 toppings, and pay .38 per ounce.  I tried the strawberry and the cheesecake in a twist with no toppings.  Mark had the peach with no toppings either.  Ours came to almost $8.50.  Slightly higher than Mr. Wizards at home, but very good.  I checked out their website - there are none in Missouri, but ones coming soon to Joplin and to Springfield, MO.

Saturday afternoon a couple from Lubbock arrived to stay a couple of nights.  They were in town for a wedding last night, but Noble wanted to golf today before heading home Monday.  We agreed to golf this morning.  He got the father of the bride (David) to join us as well.  It was a perfect day for golf with lots of laughs, and a lot of time spent looking for lost balls.  David lives in town, but never has time to golf, and Noble just took up the game a year ago.

There's a small lake on the course where all the geese and ducks hang out, along with the occasional alligator.  Today there were about 6 small brown animals underneath the bush.  While I was taking the picture with my phone, all the geese were chasing me and making very loud squawks at me.

I think they look like baby beavers, but the locals say no.

Mark's back gave out and I had to help him off the ground and into the cart with orders to just sit.  It's been spasming up all night.  We're gonna have to do something - just not sure what that is.  The golf clubs will be going into hibernation for a few weeks. 

It's back to work tomorrow and then again on Thursday. 

A Dog Among Dogs

Monday it was extremely nice not to go into work, especially since we were up in the middle of the night when storms came rolling through.  Our big chicken dog doesn't like thunder and lightning.  When it quit raining we packed up Butch and headed to Long John Silver for a drive-thru lunch that we took to the park to eat.  Butch loved the picnic - especially all the fries we gave him.  Not sure if he's ever had then, but since they were mushy and we didn't like them, he got about half an order(and you probably know what they turned into).

We went to one of the many local Mexican restaurants for dinner later that evening with Gene and Linda and Gene and Charlene before a round of canasta.  I wish I could say the women won, but that would be a lie.  The food was so-so at the Hacienda Cafe so we're taking that one off the list.

Tuesday we hung around waiting for the RV Service & Repair guy to show up.  Our hot water heater has been making a loud noise since we got here so we decided it was time to do something about it. Turns out the backflow valve was bad. Mark also bought some kind of roof treatment from the guy.  Now we're set until something else happens.  It was too windy to golf so we headed to Walmart to stock up before I started laundry and before "happy hour" which is soda and popcorn.  We tried our luck with Joker last night, and again, the men beat us 2 out of 3 games. 

The weather has turned bad today.  The high was supposed to be in the low 60s, with wind all day at 15-20mph.  Luckily I was inside working all day and didn't have to be out in it.  Mark wasn't so lucky.  We only had two rigs come in today, but one of them had never backed up a 5th wheel in his life.  Mark was with the guy for about an hour helping him get set up.  

Butch hiding on the "dog" blanket with Mark.

Our First Really Busy day

It is finally Sunday night.  After 5 straight days of working, we are beat!  How did we ever hold down full time jobs? The southward snowbird migration has gotten underway and tonight the park is 99% full. Mark's job was to lead all those rigs to their sites, get them parked and make sure they had no problems. My job was to collect the money, figure out if any discounts apply and check The Board for open sites. We are told that today and December 27 are the two busiest days of the season. We are just glad we aren't working the 27th! As of now we're on the 2-day-a -week schedule which will be just perfect, especially since the weather has been fabulous.  Maybe we can get in more golf (if his back gets better.)

We had to turn our furnace on early both Friday and Saturday morning, but only for about a half hour to take off the chill.  I tried turning on the fake fireplace, but Butch wouldn't quit barking at it.  He's such a chicken.  We hear the leaves back home are beautiful.  No such thing here - some trees just drop their green leaves; others just turn brown. 

Speaking of Butch, on Thursday night he managed to poop one green earplug; one more to go. 

It Halloween - I forgot to wear my Halloween socks.  We have no candy since there is only one baby and three teenagers who live in the park, so I opted not to buy any candy.  Mark specifically asked me yesterday if we should buy a bag but I just didn't want to be eating the entire bag if no one showed.  Mark would have wanted Milky Ways and I would have insisted on another bag of Snickers, so we have none.  Here's the problem with that - as I was walking Butch at 7:00 when we got off work tonight, we came to one of the local residence who yelled over to me - "look Diane, I got trick or treaters tonight."  (They were her grandkids who live in the area.)  I yelled over, "hopefully they won't stop by our trailer - they will be very disappointed - we have nothing." 

About a half hour later we were having a cocktail outside when, yes, the trick or treaters stopped by with their parents and grandma.  We (the adults) all had a good laugh, and they insisted that the kids only wanted to pet Butch.  However - the kids kept saying "trick or treat" and holding out their bags.  They left empty handed, and even scared Butch in the process.  In hindsight, I could have given them a few quarters, but those are precious laundry money and I really didn't want to part with them. 

We've vowed not to go to bed so early tonight.  The past two nights it's been 9:00pm and then 9:30pm.  Of course when you go to bed that early, you're up at 6:00.  I can't do that tomorrow.  Mark says he'll have a Tylenol PM induced night.

Ramblings From a Busy Week

We've been busy working this week - filling in for Gene and Linda.  Three more days to go before an off day. Mark is enjoying the workamper position. He gets in his golf cart several times a day and cruises through the park. He says he's just keeping order! We even have our symbol of authority.... 

Butch doesn't like it when we work.  He's left on his own for too long in the day, even though we stop by every couple of hours to let him out or visit.  After we worked on Wednesday, he was anxious to run and play so we did a few laps around the park.  Once I started cooking dinner I noticed he wasn't around - he was busy in the bedroom.  For some strange reason, he loves to chew on my earplugs.  It's the only thing, besides an occasional kleenex, that's he's taken a liking to.  Usually I find the things and just throw them away.  This time we think he ate them!  We keep looking in his poop for green plugs, but just haven't found them (we're not really looking that hard either.)  He keeps going, so we're not concerned.  Now I found a better hiding place for them.

We're really missing my sis and her husband this winter season.  In their honor, we're posting our favorite picture of them, knowing that this is how they would look if they were enjoying the winter with us.

What you can't read from this picture is the signs on their chests.  Pam's says "Pam - navigator" and Dennis' says "Dennis - driver".  We love you guys and wish you were here!

We had to go to the other end of town yesterday and just happened to stop by our new favorite restaurant.

Next stop - Sam's Club for a book, and some meat.  Mark has read the Stieg Larsson books, "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" and "The Girl Who Played With Fire."  Now he needed the final book - "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest."  Unfortunately this book is only out in hardback at this time, but he really wanted it and didn't want to wait until the paperback came out.   

Look what Sam's has: 

This is the first of many pies to grace our table.

We had to work late last night since the owners went to their son's football game.  By the time we got back at 8:00, we were hungry even after chowing down on all that Chinese buffet.  A salad and dessert was dinner.

Shave and A Haircut

Monday was going to be the day to get Butch a haircut.  Unfortunately, the groomers at the place we were going to take him had Mondays off.  Since it was 90 degrees and very windy, we decided to hit the links.  We teed off around 11:00am with 25 mph gusts, but cloudy so it was bearable - especially since we rode.  I think that this is the perfect time to go.  When we tee off around 9:30, we always have to wait for several slow fivesomes.

Butch got into the groomer around 9:00 this morning.  He didn't give the groomer a bit of trouble.  He's a very handsome guy now!

Pooped after being at the groomer's for 2 hours.

See anything different in this picture?

I had to get the laundry done today since we'll be working 4 1/2 of the next 5 days.  We only have 3 work shirts each so we must stay fairly clean so we can wear them more than once, or wash every couple days.  One of mine is long sleeved so I only wear two of them.  No one does laundry on Tuesdays so it was a breeze; in and out in  an hour, $6.50 the poorer.

The pool now feels fabulous.  Now Mark only says "brrrr, you're nuts" a few times before feeling comfortable.

It was 90 degrees today; water was 82.  Not perfect, but refreshing!