A new adventure is about to begin!

It is hard to believe that we left New Jersey in September of 2007 and have been traveling ever since. At the time we had enough money saved up to travel for two to three years and then settle down on the west coast, so that eventually we would be closer if Doug’s mom needed us. Unfortunately Doug’s mom passed away before we could leave New Jersey, but it did not stop us from starting our adventure.

We have seen so much traveling through this beautiful country and I can honestly say that we had a lot more good times than bad. After about two years we talked about maybe trying to give full-timing a chance and decided to take a summer job at Adventureland to see if we could make enough money to support us for the summer months. So last fall we came back to our lot in Retama and started running the numbers. To make a long story short, we can’t make enough money in a summer job to support us so we have to go back to work (besides it would be nice to have real health insurance again).

You might have noticed a few weeks ago that I added an advertisement on the left side of the blog that our lot in Retama is for rent/sale. I had hoped that we would be lucky enough to sell the lot fast, but there are so many lots for sale here that it will not be that easy. However, we were fortunate enough to find a renter for part of next season.

We will leave here in about another week or so and start heading west. I always wanted to see Bryce Canyon and Zion, so on our way west we will visit these first and then move on to the Vancouver, WA area to start looking for work. We surely will miss all our friends that we met along the way, but as I keep saying, this is not good bye, since you guys can always come visit us on the west coast.

St. Patrick's Day Parade

As usual, I am a little bit late posting, but better late than never! Last Thursday we had our traditional St. Patrick's Day parade at Retama Village. This time I was asked to be the official photographer and I had fun doing that. I took 85 pictures all together, but I will spare you and just show you a few of them.




The parade was a lot of fun and the dinner afterwards was delightful. Donna and Grant sure know how to put on a great St. Patrick's Day feast.

You might remember that we had a really hard winter this year with temperatures way below freezing. The sun eventually came back, but my roses sure did not look so good. So about two weeks ago it really started getting warm, well actually almost hot, again and it seems my roses have defrosted finally.

Unfortunately, my pansies are not doing so well any more with the sun beating on them all day, but since we are leaving here pretty soon, I am not upset over it. I will have to pull them before we leave anyway, since they will die in the summer heat and then they will look just ugly. So much for now and I will post at least one more time before we leave here beginning of next month.

Work, Work, Work

Well, we are coming to the end of our season down here in Texas and that means, we start making sure that the rig and truck is all road worthy. Last week Doug went underneath the rig to check out the suspension and replace some bolts with wet bolts. Well, that was the plan until he got under there to see that nothing has rusted yet and the Mor-Ryde system is different than what he had thought and we don't have the tools to replace the bolts. In my opinion we will just leave things that are not broke or not in need of repair alone and keep monitoring them.

The truck did get a new exhaust stack. I should have taken a picture of the one they took of, but of course I forgot the camera. The stack is held on by three metal straps and there were rusted holes on every one of these three straps. I am amazed the stack held on as long as it did.

So Friday I went up on the roof, since we had decided to install a Maxxvent cover over the toilet room fan. We did not like the way it sat on there, tried it on the bathroom fan to realize that you can't open the fan all the way anymore if you have this cover on. The function of the cover is to prevent rain from coming in and you can leave the fan open while driving down the road and get some air circulating throughout the rig. We did not like the way it was going to work and decided again install the cover.

But, while I was up there I took a look a the tape that covers the seams along both sides of the rig. Now I have to say that ever since our friends Donna and Grant had to replace part of their slide walls and the roof of the slide because of water damage that they had not know of, I have become a little bit worried and have looked very closely at areas that could have water coming in. The seals are still in pretty good shape, but I saw the tape lift up a couple of millimeters in a couple of spots. So Doug went out and got me sealant in a tube and I laid a nice bead of sealant along the edge of the tape.

Yesterday we washed the truck so that it is pretty much ready to go. Next will be the rig and then we just need to pack up our stuff again. I have to admit that with climbing up and down the roof a few times and washing the truck yesterday, which has to be done partially by ladder, my poor body is somewhat achy and sore, so it will be a day for relaxing for me.

What's New??

I can't believe that it has been almost three weeks since I last posted, but as you all know, not to many things happen when we are down here. We went to South Padre Island Friday a week ago and had a great time. It was a beautiful day and I wanted to go kite flying. We went to a big flee market in the convention center first and checked out the progress of the nature walk. There is always interesting wild life to watch.


The crocodile seemed to still to be alive, but I was assured that it is real.

Next we drove further down the island to the sand beach, so I could go fly my kite. I knew that there was not that much wind and I sure was taught a different way to fly a kite than Doug was, however, I don't give up that easy. After about 5 minuted Doug went back to the car as I kept running up and down the dunes trying to get my kite to fly. To my poor husband's disbelieve I was out there for about 45 minutes before I gave up and I have to say I had a great time feeling the sand between my toes and just enjoyed being at the beach. We ended the afternoon with a great lunch at "Dirty Al's" and went back home.

Saturday was the Chili Cookout at the clubhouse and there sure was some really good chili. We enjoyed spending time with our friends.

Last Thursday we got invited by Sue and Dave to dinner and check out there beautiful new grill. We had a blast. The Cornish hen (which I never had before) was delicious, so was the spinach salad and potatoes. As much as I like our group getting together six times a week, it sure is nice to visit with just one couple and spend an evening with good food and great conversation. Time sure is going by very fast this season and we should be leaving here in about 5 weeks.