Ya Gotta Love "The Valley"

For the non-Texans out there, we are talking about the Rio Grande Valley in the very south tip of Texas. We arrived here in Harlingen January 6 and sure have been enjoying the sunshine, fresh picked oranges and grapefruit along with the warm days. We have also enjoyed some of the activities here at Tropic Winds RV Resort. Kurt even won $23 at Bingo last evening. We can almost live on that for 2 days!!! That's a laugh.

We had a feeling the daylight hours are longer here in South Texas, but we wondered if there was really that much difference or if it was our imagination. We decided to find out. Today, January 15, we checked the length of the daylight in three places. Detroit, Dallas, and Harlingen. Today Detroit had 9 hours, 26 minutes of daylight (sunrise to sunset), Dallas had 10 hours, 13 minutes, and Harlingen had a whopping 10 hours and 41 minutes. We knew that days were longer as we move further south but we were surprised that the difference was that great. A total of 1 hour and 15 minutes more daylight. Even an additional 28 minutes in Harlingen compared to Dallas was more than we had expected considering the distance. Gee whiz, the difference in daylight hours is almost as much as the difference in temperature!

Look What We Did On Our Summer Vacation

We enjoyed revitalizing Avalon Park and Hackberry Ridge Pavilion area, the day use park assigned to us for the summer. We created a huge burn pile trimming trees that were crying for a "haircut". Local residents bordering the park were joyful as new views of the lake appeared when the limbs came down. We were told it had been more than ten years since the last "haircut".
The Rangers threw a party for all the Summer help at Hackberry Ridge Pavilion at the end of the season. We feasted on grilled dove, barbecued wild pig freshly harvested from Lavon's 40,000 acres, fresh caught fish from the lake and Galveston shrimp. We all brought a dessert to share. It was great to see everyone a last time since many of us would soon be departing for new adventure.

We're Freeeeee!

It took six months of waiting, but a buyer found us and we closed on our home of twenty years. With fond memories we said goodbye to our home and turned over the keys to the new owners.

Granddaughters and family Visit our New Home

What a joy to entertain two very active Preschoolers. Hannah and Julia had great fun running in our large "backyard" here at East Fork. They both would have been happier if they didn't have to share it with bugs and spiders. Their two night stay included a trip on the Dart Rail to the Dallas Zoo. Shawn & Kelly's web page is http://web.mac.com/sksunds/iWeb/sksunds/Welcome.html

Brian & Laura Come for a Visit

Our first "overnight" guests while living in our "fiver." It is so different to have overnight guests. Guests are required to bring their own place to sleep. We enjoyed our visit with the Newlyweds cooking steak and baked potatoes over the wood fire and enjoyed eating the infamous "Somemores". This was Laura's first experience sleeping in a tent. We are hoping they will come again soon.

On July 7 we officially vacated our house and moved into the RV. We have accepted work/camp volunteer jobs with the US Army Corps of Engineers at Lake Lavon. This is working out well since we are setup at East Fork Park which is only 13 miles from our house. We are able to easily check in a couple times a week, at the house, to mow grass and check on things. We are each working about 12 hours a week helping with the management of the Avalon Park Unit which is a mile down the road from East Fork. Currently we unlock this (day use only) park each morning and lock the gate again at sunset. We are also working on a government required defensive driving class after which we will be allowed access to the motor pool in order to help with grass mowing, tree trimming and painting. Virginia also has the option to do some light office work at the dam headquarters if/when she tires of helping me with the outdoor work that I prefer. We plan to live/work here for 3-4 months and then plan to move to south Texas for the cold months.

We gained a new Daughter (in-law), on May 24, when Brian married Laura at our home church Faith Lutheran, Plano. Coincidentally on that same date and location in 2003 our daughter Kelly was married. So they were able to celebrate their 5th anniversary walking down the same aisle once more. Our Granddaughters, Hannah and Julia, were also in the wedding party carrying the flowers.