RELAXING AND CATCHING UP

Our first week at Lake Medina RV Resort/Leibolds-Grothues Ranch was getting lots of hugs from the "Winter Texans" that were already here at the resort. The other southern states would call us "Snowbirds", but here in Texas the locals refer to us as "Winter Texans."

Ralph already had one of his Dr. appointments, just for his yearly blood work check up. As you see here in this picture Ralph is enjoying a drink the evening before his blood work.

His doctor is over in Boerne, TX. Boerne is a nice quaint town with a lovely main street that is full of unique shops and cafes. They have lots of functions in town all year long.

During Christmas, the town becomes a Dickens Village with a parade along with carolers, street performers, Santa Clause, horse drawn carriages and actors portraying Dickens characters. You feel like you are in a Charles Dickens story.

Ralph's mom is just a few blocks up on Main St. in the nursing home. She has adapted well and has been here for about 20 months. We stopped there to see her after Ralph's Dr. appt. It has been 8 months since we saw her last. We walked down the hall and she was coming out of her room. She looked up at us and said hi. It took her a bit, but I think she recognized us somewhat.

We headed to the dining room and had a nice visit. Talking to her you would not think she had dementia, she can carry on a conversation very well. Her stories keep us amused.



I showed her all the pictures and video that I had taken on my iPhone as we traveled over the last 8 months. She really enjoyed them. The best part of having a smart phone is that I was able to take pictures and video of her and did a "Selfie" of us and sent it to her grandchildren. In a short time they responded with their "Selfie's". It was a lot of fun and she seemed to really enjoy seeing this new fangled technology.




Greg and Gina Grouthes, owners of the park along with Greg's mom Marlene Leibolds-Grothues, had a wonderful "Welcome Back Winter Texans" brunch for the resort. It was wonderful to catch up with everyone. We all shared our traveling adventures from this past year.

I spent one day ordering things that we needed. As we traveled this past year, we weren't in any one place long enough to wait for something to be delivered. We never have problems sending for our mail because that comes in a timely manner. But when you order something, sometimes it may take a while and this stuff certainly wasn't something we needed right away.

I ordered new seat covers for our truck. The old set did not fair well coming through the last wash cycle. The new ones will be waterproof but they have to be made and that will take a couple of weeks.

I ordered a large picture of Sam Elliott. It is a drawing of him in his cowboy attire holding a rifle. Our door has a glass pane and I will put it on the inside so it will look like Sam is greeting everyone when they come to visit. As many of you know, our rolling ranch house is decorated with Cowboy and Native American decor. Sam Elliott is my all time favorite "cutie patootie". I often said that I want his voice on my GPS, but then I thought I could not concentrate on my driving. At least he is on my iPhone. I took this picture off my computer.

I also ordered a Dash Cam. There are a lot of dangerous drivers out there and they seem to like cutting in front of people hauling heavy things. I really feel for the tractor trailer drivers out there. Some driver's, due to their negligence and ignorance don't have the common sense and realize that we can't stop on a dime.  So at least this will afford us some kind of protection.

My last items were ordering tapes for my video recorder and a camera card for my still camera. I took lots of video over the past 8 months. I have several camera cards that are filled with pictures over the last several years. I can't seem to delete them and then use this newly emptied camera card over again. So I keep buying camera cards. Don't let Janna know. She is the one that set me up and taught me how to do this blog website when we visited their Montana ranch a couple of months ago. She has been after me to "delete" the card once I have put the pictures in Picasa. For some reason I can't make myself do that, at least not right now.

One evening we were invited over to our friend's Tom and Mary. They are from Texas and years ago they bought property just outside the resort. They bought a small towable RV and brought it to this resort because it was close to their property. Their plans were to live here while their home was being built. Well they ended up seeing this whole other life called "Full Timing". They saw the fun us full timing folks were having and said the "heck with a house". They soon sold their lot and bought themselves a beauty of a Motor Home and hit the road loving life. Like us, they come back to the resort most every winter.

Periodically, I will put pictures up from the past. This was our front yard when we were in Lemon Cove, CA. near Sequioa National Park back in April of this year. It was a Corps Of Engineer Park. The Ranger who was assigned to that area, begged us to become "work campers" there. We thanked him but quickly said, "There are 2 words in our vocabulary that we no longer say and they are WORK and SNOW!"

Until next time, Happy Trails...................