If Only I Golfed...

I'm spending today and tonight at the fabulous River Bend Resort and

Country Club in Brownsville, TX! Every home and RV spot abuts the

golf course, spread out among the holes. I'm parked right by the 6th tee and with the beautiful weather, the golf carts are going by as though there's a parade. There's a very inviting pool in front of me

that I plan to jump into soon. With temps in the mid-80's, I really may jump in instead of doing my usual inch-by-inch 10-minute pool entry. Too bad the dogs can't swim, but they're enjoying the air conditioning in the RV.

The Resort is right on the Rio Grande river, and a person with a good throwing arm could easily throw their golf ball into Mexico. I'm betting a fair number of balls end up there if the golfers have bad hooks or slices!

Texas Revisited

I realized that in my last post I skimmed over my time in Texas, so decided to fill in some details.

I spent three nights at an RV Resort in San Antonio, mostly relaxing, but busing into town one day to revisit some of my favorite things in one of my favorite cities. I enjoyed pizza and a beer while sitting on the Rivercentre plaza, watching the tourist boats go by and listening to the pilots' spiels. I fed pizza crust to the birds and was soon surrounded by pigeons, sparrows, and grackles. Some baby ducklings came by to see what the fuss was about, but I found out that they don't like bread. That was a big surprise!

After my lunch with the birds, I once again strolled along the River Walk. I did discover one place I hadn't visited before, a small art colony abutting the river. I believe it was named "La Villita," meaning Small Village, but I might not be remembering that right. (Kind of disturbing, how often that happens these days.) Anyway, it's very quaint and historic-looking, hidden away in the middle of the big city. There are many artists and artisans creating and displaying their wares in small shops. If you're on the Riverwalk, look for the broad rows of steps, like an amphitheater, and walk up to the top. La Villita will be right in front of you.

While in San Antonio, I visited a sister community to the one in Tucson and while it was beautifully laid out and had even more amenities than the one where I'll be living, it was so spread out that I didn't feel it would be as easy to meet people there. Also, San Antonio is a three-day longer road trip to visit the family in Tacoma, so that was a huge reason to stay with Tucson.

After leaving San Antonio, I went on to an RV rally in Kerrville where I met up with my friends Sally and Ron and met many others. Tip of the day: If you're in or passing through Kerrville, I highly recommend Mamacita's Restaurant. Excellent Mexican food and ambiance!

I moved on to Port Aransas after the rally and stayed a couple of days with my friends, Sam & Alice. While there, I walked the dogs on the beach and as I expected, it really made me miss Pacer. She loved the beach so much! I discovered, though, that memories of ones we have lost hurt for awhile after the loss because they remind us of what we've lost, but later on, they remind us of what we've had. I think I'm entering that stage now with my memories of Pacer.

I'm down in the Rio Grande Valley now, watching the weather forecasts and waiting anxiously to head home to MN. It was 85 degrees here today, and very humid. About 75 degrees warmer than at home!

Gonna Be Going a New Direction Soon...

...north for the summer, instead of south for the winter. Yes, I'm relocating to Arizona from Minnesota, contingent on selling my townhouse in Lakeville. I've paid earnest money for a house in an "Active Adult" community in Sahuarita, AZ, a small city just south of Tucson. It won't be finished until November-December '08, so that gives me quite awhile to sell the house.

The background of my decision started with my son-in-law accepting a position in Tacoma, WA, so Shar and Jeff are moving there this summer and they're taking my grandkids along with them! I considered relocating with them, but for a number of reasons decided against it after some serious soul searching. However, there was no longer a reason to stay in Lakeville and I was worried about living in a two-level townhouse as my back deteriorated, especially without the family there to help me when it became necessary. So the townhouse would be going up for sale regardless of any other decision I made. What I should do next was the unknown and the source of a lot of stress and sleepless nights. Some of the options I considered were renting in WA for 6 months or a year to see how I liked it, buying down south in AZ or TX and spending the summers driving around, or ???

I decided to still make my trek south this winter, starting in AZ before going east to TX. One of my stops was to visit friends in Sahuarita. I immediately fell in love with the over-55 community my friends lived in. The houses are very small but well designed and attractive, and the small back yards are totally enclosed within a five-foot tall solid stone fence. It keeps the dogs in and the critters out! There is a community center with meeting rooms, exercise rooms with a 70-channel TV on each machine, a library/media room, etc., etc. Outside are a large outside pool and whirlpool, putting green, bocce ball courts, etc., etc. Lots of planned activities and trips. All the people I met were very friendly and enthusiastic about their community. The whole area is a new, planned community with over 100 miles of trails and new shopping areas. One of the big selling points was the presense of two dog parks in the community...one for large dogs and the other for small!

So now I'm in TX waiting for the weather and roads up north to clear up enough to let me safely drive back to MN and start the cleaning/packing/ tossing process.

Arizona & Texas, 2008 Version

Welcome back! I’ve been on the road for two weeks already, but wasn’t able to get into my blog until now. I reversed my route this year, going first to Arizona for about two weeks before heading to Texas. The temperature in MN when I left was hovering around zero, but at least it wasn’t snowing. The weather driving south was great…no snow, ice, or rain all the way. It did rain a couple times while I was in Ajo, but the heavy rain was in the middle of the night and the rest was just showers. The next five days were completely cloudless and warm. I’m in Texas now and the clouds have moved in as well as a forecast of rain the next couple days.

Ok, the weather woman is done. Now on to the travelogue. I spent a week with my friends Julie and Sandy in Ajo, AZ with beautiful warm days and chilling nights. We took a day trip to Rocky Point, Mexico on the shores of the Sea of Cortez (or the Gulf of California, if you prefer) where we window shopped (ok, there weren’t any windows), ate authentic Mexican food (except for Sandy, who had pancakes), and walked on the beach. The water was a beautiful aqua color and the shelling was wonderful...made me long for the week-long Mexican vacations I’ve taken in the past. If you find yourself in Ajo, ask someone about the scenic circle drive. It makes a large circle to the immediate south of the town, passing through some beautiful views of the mountains and millions of cacti. I became completely enthralled with cacti on this trip and am determined to learn as much as I can about them. I must have been a desert rat in a previous life!

Next, it was on to Tucson and a stay at my friends Jack & Judy’s house in Sahuarita. They live in a beautiful over-55 community with a club house offering lots to do. The homes are all single level with stone-fenced back yards. The dogs loved being able to go outside without leashes, both in Ajo and Sahuarita. Jack & Judy’s dog, a very cute Border Terrier named Effie, quickly established herself as alpha dog and it took a couple of days for them all to work it out, but by the time I left they were getting along fine.

During my stay in Sahuarita, we went to a craft fair at the local casino. There were some very interesting items, but by far my favorite was the booth of a former middle-school science teacher named Delight, and her husband. Delight created jewelry based on her love of science, such as a necklace representing the solar system with various sized beads for each planet and the asteroid belt. The head of the wearer is the sun. It would be great for a person who thinks the world revolves around them! She also created a double-helix necklace, a coral snake necklace, and more necklaces of all the constellations comprising the astrological signs. All of them were as technically accurate as the limitations of her media could make them. She and her art would make a very interesting magazine feature!

After leaving Tucson, I started the trip east to Texas. It’s not too bad in AZ and NM along that road, but once you pass El Paso, it’s many miles of nothing. I found out exactly how far when I failed to check my fuel gauge and saw with dismay that the warning light was on and I had gone 511 miles with a 26 gallon tank of fuel. Since my mileage hasn’t been as good as normal with the high winds and higher speeds (high is 80 mph in west TX!), I was pretty concerned. Service stations are few and far between there and I decided to stop at a rest stop and see if anyone knew of a station off the highway, or if I should just keep going with no towns in sight.

At the rest stop, I went up to the first truck driver I saw and told him of my predicament and asked if he knew where the closest fuel was. He told me it was in Ozona, about 30 miles on. I said I didn’t know if I could make it that far, and he told me to go on ahead holding my speed to between 55 and 60. He said if he saw me on the side, he’d stop and take me to Ozona. Well, he caught up to me, slowed down to my speed, and followed right behind me. It must have driven him crazy to go that slow…time is money to those guys! When we started down the interstate, I saw a sign that said it was actually 56 miles to Ozona …no way I was going to make it!

After what seemed like hours, my trucker friend pulled in front of me and indicated I should pull off at the picnic area ahead. When we met there, he said he had an idea. He cut off a piece of a hose he had with him, poured the water out of a couple gallon jugs he had, and siphoned fuel from his tank into the jugs. Then he cut the bottom off of a water bottle and using it as a funnel, poured the fuel into my tank. I gave him $20 and he said a kiss on the cheek would have been enough. I told him he was my guardian angel and I would be eternally grateful to him. He said he had been an eagle scout and a scout leader, and that helping people was drilled into him. He also said he was a Missouri hillbilly and was a descendent of the Hatfields of the Hatfield/McCoy feud. He was a short, grizzled man around my age with a halo over his head His name was Chester Hatfield and I gave him that kiss on the cheek before we parted.

I’m in San Antonio now, sitting out some rainy, windy weather before heading to an RV Rally in Kerrville, TX. I’ll try not to wait so long before posting next time!