HDT Luncheon

Yesterday we had the HDT (Heavy Duty Truck) luncheon here at our clubhouse at Retama Village. We attended a gathering two years ago, before we had a big truck and it is always fun to get together with your friends for lunch. You did not need to look at the clock to know that the gathering had begun. These big trucks sure make a lot of noise when starting up, since the guys had to drive their trucks over to the club house to show them of. Unfortunately our truck is in the shop right now getting a new smoke stack, so you won't see our truck in these pictures.

We all brought a dish to pass, which means a salad or desert and the club provided the hot dogs, burgers, and sausages.

A good time was had by all as you can tell by the pictures.


We sure are going to miss our friends when we leave here this year, but I'll explain that some other time.

Village Yard Sale

This is the second year that I participated in the Retama Village Yard Sale. We have so much stuff in the coach house that we have not used in the last three years that I decided that I surely would not miss it now. Even though we are having the yard sale in February this year, it was sooooo cold. As usual, a whole group of us set up "shop" at Larry and Linda's lot.


We all had very interesting stuff to sell and just like last year, we had a nice crowd. It sure helps being the first stop as soon as you enter Retama.

And even though we had fun at the yard sale, trying to stay warm as the sun picked out every so often from behind the clouds, I was glad when it was over. I am just not good at haggling and apparently that is a big part of shopping at a yard sale.

Winter has arrived in Mission!!

I know that winter arrived down here every year, however, in the four years that we have been down here, it has never been this cold. The news said that is has not been this cold in the valley in the last 20 years. Look at the before and after pictures of my poor pansies.


As you can tell, the bed sheet was not long enough to cover them all. We will see if they will come back. Right now they are covered with ice.

The whole mess started on Wednesday when the weather report was calling for a hard freeze warning, which means it will be below freezing for an extended time over night. The lowest we measured was 28 degrees. We decided to to fill up the fresh water tank in the rig and unhook the water hose, just in case. Next came an email from the developer asking us to cover any exposed pipes, so that they will not burst. At that time I decided to cover up my panties as best I could.



By last night the weather report called for freezing rain and maybe some snow. They actually closed two highways around here, since the roads were icing up. This is what we woke up to this morning.


As you can see the sun is out and the ice should be melting fairly quickly. We have one more night of temperatures below freezing and then we will be able to hook up the water again, so I can do laundry, which is starting to pile up. This is our third day of sitting in the rig and I can't wait for the weather to get just a little bit warmer, so we can go outside again.

Another Big Job Done!!!!

You might remember that we replaced the gasket on the dining room side last summer while we were in Iowa. Unfortunately we realized to late that the gasket on top of the slide is a different type then the gasket for the sides. Since we had no choice at the time, we installed the same gasket all the way around the slide.

Since we are now sitting still in South Texas, we ordered the correct gasket and decided on Monday to install it. The cold is coming and we figured that we can recuperate from this big job for the next few days. Taking the wrong gasket off was fairly easy and was done in about 15 minutes. Then started the hard part. The flap on the new gasket is a lot longer and it is harder to slide the material between the slide and the top wall of the rig to clip in the gasket.



It took as a good three hours to install the 16 feet of gasket, but I am happy to say it is done. Now I can tend to my "wounds".

Since the slot to install the gasket is very narrow, my knuckles as well as my elbows gave some skin for the cause. As Larry said with a grin on his face "Your hide gets thinner when you get older and it comes of easier". I guess I am getting older!!