Saying Good-bye to Texas

 Hello friends, It seems like it has been such a long time since we have updated our blog. And I apologize for that, but these last few weeks has not been much going on, except for just catching up on every day, mundane, routine matters. We really haven’t gone on any special trips, been anywhere out of the ordinary and have not been sightseeing.  I did, however, fly out to Florida earlier this month, to visit my doctors and take care of a couple of maintenance issues back at our condo in Holiday (where they are having some viscous weather these days, and we are praying for everyone to come out of it very soon). We had a leak in our bathroom that stained the first floor ceiling and then, while I was there, the upstairs toilet bit the dust, and I ended up having to replace the entire bowl.

Tahitian Gardens Pool, Holiday, FL

Water Stain on Ceiling

Best I could do for now

 I never worked so hard and so fast in such little time. I repaired a 6’ x 2’ ceiling, replaced the entire toilet bowl, saw three doctors, dropped off my prescriptions and flew roundtrip from Harlingen, Texas to Tampa, Florida, all in four days. I did not sleep much, since I was determined to get my repair job done before leaving. So, I stayed up late and got up early, every day. And then, I cleaned the entire apartment when I was done. Right up until the last minute. Afterwards, I was a hurting man for the next couple of weeks, because my body is just not used to doing that kind of hard labor. But, it’s done and I went a few hundred dollars less this month. I still have a vacant 2-bedroom apartment that is remains for rent. See my blog page on it at www.HolidayFlorida.blogspot.com . This is only for someone we know as we will not rent out to the public, unless they come highly recommended by someone we know. So, we don’t advertise. If you are reading this, then you are most likely in our circle of friends, so if you are interested in the condo, we can get you in there for a very good price.

When I said that we haven’t had much excitement, I guess I was being a
 little reserved about it, because we did have a couple of unexpected  incidents that surprised us in different ways.  Our first curve ball was having a tire blow out on us while coming back home from church on Memorial Day weekend. We were not going more than 40 or 50 miles an hour, and on a secondary road, when the tread came off the rear dually tire and damaged the driver side rear fender. This little incident caused nearly $2,500 in damage and another $800 in new tires.  To add insult to injury, we were without a truck for 4 days.

If you know me, then you know that I always look at everything as a blessing from God. Regardless of what it may be, I think that God does things for a reason. No matter what we may think, there is a reason for EVERYTHING. Unfortunately, we do not possess the intelligence to understand what it is that God is trying to do for us. Then, sometimes we do, or at least, God makes it so that we know why or what God is trying to do.  In this tire incident, we already knew that we needed 4 rear tires, but we were not ready financially, so we were holding off for the following month to do it. But, God had different plans for us. He wanted me to take care of it NOW.

Thanks to American Express, I had 30 days to pay for my new tires. Then, PEP Boys gave me a rebate of the cost of one tire. So, that brought my balance down to $600. My auto insurance company gave me almost $2,000 to fix my fender with all new parts. I found a body shop that repaired the damage for about a third of the price, without having to buy a new $1,000 fender. Now, I had enough to pay off AMEX, and had money left over to help pay for the repairs that I had done to the Florida condo. Whether or not this was God’s plan, it makes sense to me. It all worked out in the end.

The other unexpected incident was the passing of our 80 year old neighbor here at the Anglers Nest RV Park. Tom and his wife Marlys, are full-time residents here and we are only about 100 feet away from their trailer. There are three other families here, but us being the closest, received a phone call from Marlys at about 2am to ask for our help in picking up her husband who had fallen on the way to the bathroom. He was not feeling well that night, and had not been feeling himself for a few days. After seeing Tom again later that morning, he passed away while taking a nap later that afternoon. Lulu had never been exposed to someone passing away like this, so although she handled it well, it was a new and wearisome experience. Fortunately, I have seen this hundreds of times in my career, so I was easily able to help out, and knew what to expect. Ambulance, police, detectives, medical examiners and funeral homes all come in and out of the house, and some have little or no sensitivity when dealing with these situations. It seems that no one ever really takes the time to sit down and explain to the family why they do it the way they do, or what they will be doing and why.

During my police career, I always took the time to sit with the family and explain what the next few hours would entail. They needed to know why we had to have a detective there, and sometimes taking photographs, and why the ambulance could not take the body, and why the medical examiner had to be involved, and sometimes brought down, etc….. Most likely, it is usually the first time someone has gone through this, so they don’t know why all of this activity is needed, and it can make it very traumatizing for anyone that loses a loved one. I rarely see someone take the time to explain what the procedure is. I always thought that police and EMS need to take the time to explain this when they have this kind of call
Once again, God made sure that we were around at this moment and to help out Marlys and provide the assistance, comfort and consoling that can be so lacking during these times. To make things more difficult for the widow, was that Marlys had just gotten released from the hospital after major surgery. So, she was in no condition to be doing many of the things that she needed to get done. Marlys is a strong woman, and handled the entire situation very well, but she was still alone, with all her family in a different state and with no friends nearby. For some reason, we were there to fill in and we were happy to have helped out.

So that has been our excitement for the last couple of months. Now, we are preparing for our next journey, and that is still going to be Mexico. If all goes well, we may be leaving on July 1 or 2.  Since we have been in Texas, I have been able to do my homework on all this Mexican violence that everyone keeps talking about. We have met some wonderful people on the internet that have been living in Mexico, and they have given us some great advice. They also have become our first hand accounts of what is going on in Mexico. These folks are experienced RV travelers that continue to drive the highways and bi-ways of Mexico, and they have never experienced any violence against them. I’ll be posting another section on this subject in a separate post.
Most of the cartel violence is concentrated in the Northern border states of Mexico, so, we intend to getting past the territories within a few hours and should be outside the drug cartels trade zone within a day. We have no intentions on stopping anywhere along the way.  Our first stops will be along the Mexican highland interior where the temperatures are a little cooler than it is here in Texas, and milder than the Mexican beaches. We are making our way to the outskirts of Guadalajara and then to Valle de Juarez, just South of Lake Chapala, Mexico’s largest lake and the highest concentration of Americans and Canadians. We should be at Hacienda Contreras by around September 1st and remain there until December or January, when we will head to the West Coast beaches and slowly make our way North to Arizona by next fall. Of course, all this is subject to change, depending on what we like or dislike.

Our communications will be limited, since our Verizion cel phone will work in Mexico, but will run about one dollar a minute. We will be getting an internet card once get in Mexico, which I believe is about $20 a month and has 2.5 gb per month. I have no idea how much that will take care of, especially since we will be using skype as a phone. Of course we will be checking out their cel phone plans and looking at our  options there as well.

We are packing up and getting ready to leave Angler’s Nest where we have made a home for the last four months. This small, 60-unit adult only RV park, is almost like a small neighborhood that is made up of all family members. And, although the park is a little tight, the residents and owners are the best people anyone would want to have as neighbors. Even though we really have nothing to complain about, it is time to move on, and start exploring other places. We leave the Nest with great memories and new friendships.
We will probably just move to another RV park nearby, that is closer to the bridge we will be crossing on Monday.
We recently had a tarantula move in to our site yard. He has dug himself a little trench and occasionally he will stick out his little head. He only does this at night, and he is very quick to duck back inside his hole if he senses us nearby, or if we shine any light on his home. He is the coolest thing. When you have never seen something like this before, it is very exciting to see.



The only other thing going on is my recent bout with back pain. Since we came back from Florida in January, I had been getting some very severe pain down my back, in to my hips and down the back of both legs. I visited a local chiropractor in town, used back braces, did my stretching exercises, and applied heat and ice, and heat and ice. And, none of these things helped. What did help, was Lulu’s idea of placing some extra support under the sheets on my side of the bed. Eventually, we purchased a very firm 3” sponger bed topper, and since then, my pain has gone down substantially.

I'm not a specialist. If you can read this, send me an email

What is interesting is that my recent MRI shows two new disc herniation and additional disc degeneration, since my last MRI nearly 10 years ago. So, I don’t get it. The doctor didn’t think that the mattress played too much of a role in my recent pain. But, I have to admit, that since changing my sleeping surface, it is almost like nothing had ever happened.

Boca Chica Beach, Brownsville, TX, earlier this month

Oh yeah, and I almost forgot to mention that we put on the Anglers Nest very FIRST pool party. The only 10 people left in the park, and two grandchildren all met under the clubhouses canopy and shared some KFC food and several deserts. And, the highlight of the event was the child’s inflatable 4 foot wide pool. You can see by the photos that we had a blast.

Molly doing what she does best!

And, I guess that’s it for now. Lulu hasn’t had any gigs in this area, since most, if not all of the venues, are closed or have suspended their entertainment until the fall. Molly is doing OK. She has been on her meds that control her heart condition, fluids and thyroid. She now has cataracts, but we can’t find glasses to fit her, so she will just have to get by without.




God Bless you all and we will be back soon.