The End Has Come

I started this blog when we first retired and went full time in our motor home.

We thought we would be traveling more than we do and wanted to share our journey's with family and friends.  It ends up that financially we cannot travel as much as we thought and stay for longer periods of time in one place.  We work camped at our current park last winter, went to Missouri for the summer and came back here for this past winter.  Now we are staying here for the summer.

We have made the decision that when we stop traveling totally, we will be making South Texas our permanent home.  We really like it down here.

Who knows, at some point we might travel again and if so I might start a new blog.

For now, I am on Facebook as David Richardson.  Many of the things we do or see end up on there.  So that will be the replacement for this blog.

Thanks for following and I hope through my links and pictures you have been able to enjoy in some way what we have seen and done.

God Bless!

David and Linda Richardson and Precious

2014-03-24 - Cataracts surgery

Linda went in today for her cataract surgery.  All seems to have gone well.  We go this afternoon and should get her eye patch off.

Yesterday The owner of our RV Park and four others, Leasure Properties, had a work camper appreciation meal.  We had a time few drinks and then a really nice meal of roast pork loin, rosemary potato fingerlings, salad and ended with brownie and ice cream. 

We played several games and fun was had by all.  Our park hosted it this year.

It seems as though someone else leaves almost every day.  They are heading north for the summer.  From what I can tell, summer has not hit the north yet.  I know it is snowing in Northwest Missouri today.  Heck, it is 52 here this morning.

We have had some really nice days lately, and more are on the way.

Last Tuesday I finally won at Texas Holdem again.  It has been a long time coming.  Then Friday night and Saturday I didn't place in the money.  It is still fun and a great bunch of people to play with.

Here are some pictures from around the park Saturday.

2014-03-14 - Bicycle Wreck

Well, this time it was Linda's turn.  She rode her bicycle down to the office yesterday and when she stopped, she couldn't get her foot down fast enough and fell over.  Two men came up and helped her up and into the office.

She hit on her left side.  Once small cut on her lip.  A small ouchy on her left knee.  Left hand in the thumb area hurts.  One of two bumps on her head and scratched her glasses.  She had a pain on the other side of her head so I took her to the doctor.  All appeared to be well and the doctor said due to the head hit, to just take Tylenol for the pain.

Today she is really sore and has her own bottle of Tylenol sitting out for every four hours. 

I guess we will get her a helmet.  Oh, and probably should get her elbow pads, knee pads.  what the heck, a suit of armor.   She doesn't think any of this is funny, but she sure laughed at me a couple of weeks ago when I wrecked on mine. 

We are having some nice weather for the next few days.  More people are pulling out almost every day.  Probably close to half of them will be gone by the middle of April. 

That is it for this time.

2014-03-04 - Update from last entry

I don't post as often as I use to because we are still at Canyon Lake RV Resort in Mission, Texas.

We have accepted a position here for next winter.  The park models that we have been in charge of keeping clean will be split between us and a new couple that will be coming in.  We will keep 15 of them and they will get 14 of them.  That is going to make it better for us and we will have more time to enjoy our time here.

We are planning on staying here this summer also.  We will be home towards the end of May to see Anna and Jordan graduate.  Then we will be up at Branson at our time share for two week the end of August for just some us time.

I finally got a smart phone several weeks ago.  It seems like I learn something else that it does every day.  Talk about feeling stupid.  I sure did and sometime still do.  lol

Linda and I have appointments with the eye doctor this coming Friday.  I will just be getting my eyes checked and Linda will be seeing the doctor to get here cataract surgery done.  She has it in both eyes but they will only do it on one of them at first.  One is worse than the other.  Getting old is not always fun.  Health wise, she is feeling better.

Oh!  Oh!  Oh!  We also bought ourselves a couple of bicycles.  We have ridden them a little bit and will continue to increase the amount we ride.  Right now we are letting our muscles know that we are doing it.  We don't want to overdo it at first and hurt ourselves.

We went to Mexico last week and bought a couple of blankets and a new belt for Linda and a couple of bottles of vanilla.

People have started leaving and heading north.  Heck, it is cold here and even colder up north.  I am not ready to go anywhere.

Retired life is still good. 

2014--2-11 - One day of beautiful weather

Yesterday was a beautiful day.  It was mid eighties and sunny.  About 6:00 pm the cold weather blew in and the temperatures plummeted to the 50s and today it is going to be in the low 40s but will start  upward again tomorrow.

Here are some pictures from yesterday.

Old Glory

The bridge going to the main island

One of the smaller islands

Bill working on park equipment

Old Glory from across the lake

The main island from the back side

Some of the oranges from our tree

This is water being pumped from the canal into the lake

There were a lot of people enjoying the pool

Sunday afternoon we had a wine tasting.  Lots of different wines and cheese and crackers.

Lots of wine

Some of the people

The park manager, Mary, was having a good time

I was having a good time also.

Then last night twelve of us went to Cheddars for Roy and Ruby's anniversary.

Ruby, Roy, Dave, and Christa

Joe and Lilly

Linda, Rob (acting like a teenager), Carolyn, Butch, and Blondi

2014-2-1 Precious goes to the beauty shop

Precious went to the beauty shop earlier this week and came back happy, pretty, and smelling like a french whore.

I know I haven't posted for awhile.  We haven't been doing anything but sitting in this box trying to stay warm.

I know the 40s are not cold to our friends up north, but it is cold as heck to us.  I was even forced into wearing long pants a couple of times.

We have gone out to eat a few times.  Here are a couple of pictures of Linda at her favorite restaurant.

The oranges on our tree are starting to get more color on them.  I can't hardly wait to make fresh squeezed orange juice.

We went to the club house Thursday night and saw Jackson Haney perform.  He did 50s and 60s music and was very good.

I played Texas Holdem on Tuesday night and won $15.  Played again on Friday night and lost $5 so I will go today at 1:00 and see how I do.  It cost $5 each time, but win or lose that is pretty good entertainment at a low cost.  There are a good bunch of people that play and it is a very friendly game.

I haven't smoked anything else since the briskette but will be soon.  I did grill cheeseburgers the other night.  Linda sauteed the onions first and then mixed them into the hamburger meat before I grilled them.  One work describes them - DELICIOUS.

We are waiting for the weather to get better and then we will schedule a drive down to South Padre Island.  I want some warmer weather so I can really get out into the water.  Today it is mostly sunny with a high of 84.  Then I read about people at home falling on their rears on the ice.  Life must be hard. 

That is it for now.  If you are up north, think summer.  If down here, think spring.

2014-1-14 - Harvest Time

Here are some pictures of the orange tree behind our motor home.

I cut one open the other day and tasted it.  They are not quite ready yet but will be soon.  I have been watering the tree since I got here in August and they are really looking good. 

Last Saturday I smoked three racks of baby back ribs and added two of them sliced up in the water pan.  I used hickory chips and smoked the ribs for 1 1/2 hours at 225 degrees, then  wrapped in foil, cranked the heat up to 250 and smoked another hour.  When that was done, I threw them on the grill with BBQ sauce.  We had four other couples over who brought side dishes.  What a wonderful meal.  The ribs were very tasty and fall off the bone tender.

We finished up the last of the rental units this morning.  We will have three more to clean after the end of February. 

2013-12-31 - New Years Eve lunch

We went to Logan's Roadhouse for lunch.

Linda had the Logan steak, baked potato, and salad.

I had the country fried steak, baked potato, grilled mushrooms, and two 22 oz Dos Equis draws.

And of course we had hot rolls and salted peanuts in the shell.

Everything was delicious.  Good beer, good woman, and good food.  Who could ask for more?  Linda thinks I have my priorities out of order.

We will eat our leftovers before going to Mission Bell RV resort tonight with our group for the New Year's Eve dance with breakfast to follow.

I won't be taking my camera tonight because I don't want to lose or forget it. 

2013-12-25 - Doing some smoking

I had to keep busy while my wife was in Missouri visiting family and friends, so I did some smoking.

I smoked a tube of bologna and a pork butt.  I made my own rubs for them.  On the bologna I put some slices in it and rubbed with yellow mustard, grey poupon, and some steak sauce.  Then I patted brown sugar on it and smoked it for around five hours.

It came out pretty good.  Now that it has time to sit, the flavor has really developed and it is pretty dog gone good.

The rub for the pork butt was brown sugar, kosher salt, chili powder, cayenne pepper flakes, cumin, onion salt, and black pepper.  I smoked it for about eight hours until the bone was ready to just pull out.

It has a very nice bark on it and the flavor is delicious.  I wrapped it in aluminum foil and let it set until it had cooled and then put it in the refrigerator.  I tasted it the next day and loved it. 

Linda got home and likes both.

I may be ready to try a brisket.

2013-12-22 - Iwo Jima Memorial at Harlingen, Texas

Last Monday Precious and I dropped Linda off at the Harlingen airport to fly home for eight days.  We will pick her up on Tuesday.  The two of us have done alright but will really be glad to see her again.

After her plane left Precious and I went over to see the Iwo Jima Memorial.  Dogs were not allowed so she had to stay in the car.

The detail on this was excellent.  I really enjoyed viewing it.  If you are in the Harlingen area, stop by and see it.  It is right across the street from the Marine Academy which is across the street from the airport.