IT’S SPRINGTIME IN TEXAS

 

We decided to take a drive on Saturday to see all the Bluebonnets and other springtime flowers.  It was a beautiful day.

 

        

 

Most of you know that the drought here is Texas is very bad.  The following pictures were taken at Lake Medina.

 

            

This lake is only 3.3% of what it should be.  Most of the homes are no longer considered “lake front” property as there is no lake left!  It would take a lot of rain to get this lake back to capacity.

 

Yes, we did see some wildlife this trip……….

 

Take care and love to all…..

Linda and Jim

DAY TRIP

 

 

We decided that it was time to take a day trip so this morning we took off around 10 a.m. for a 226 mile “scenic” drive.  Jim had mapped out our route taking us up into Texas hill country on the 3 sisters highways………which are FM335, FM336 and FM337.  This took us through the small towns of Vanderpool, Utopia and Leakey.  We stopped at a small antique shop in Utopia (no purchases).  In Leakey, we stopped at Mama Chloe’s Mexican Restaurant for lunch.  A very small, friendly restaurant  with good food. Then it was back on the road.  For those of you that think Texas is flat, were are a couple of pictures we took today.

 

   

Most of you know that Jim and I have a standard joke about never seeing any wildlife on all of these remote trips we have taken over the years…..well today we hit the JACKPOT.  We saw deer, antelope, fox, bobcat, mountain lion, armadillo and coyote………just kidding although we did see deer and antelope.

We finally arrived back home at 4:30 p.m…….having enjoyed our day of bouncing around on Texas roads.

 

Take care and love to all……..

Linda and Jim

UPDATE

 

 

We have been enjoying our time here in Hondo….although we did end the month of January on a bad note.  I stepped off our patio and twisted my ankle.  I thought I could walk it off but as the day progressed it got worse and we ended up in the emergency room,  After taking a x-ray, they confirmed that I had just twisted it and put me in a boot for a week.

 

It has been almost two weeks and I am out of the boot.  My ankle is still swollen and hurts but I am able to walk on it.  It will just take a while to heal.

We have been busy working on cleaning up our lot.  Jim decided he wanted to spruce up the interior of the shed and took out the closet that was in there and replaced it with shelves, painted all the paneling and put down a new floor.  He did this all on his own while I was laid up with my ankle.  Here are a few pictures.

His hobby area           

 

We finally had a load of stone delivered this week and just finished refreshing our landscaping.

       

This is my meditation area

I have had Jim busy with a “few” projects:

   This is a table I had him make for the patio.

   This one was his own idea…..a butterfly which will eventually be a part of our landscaping

I still have one more project for him which will be a couple of small benches for the patio.

Our daughter-in-law, Lorie, has requested some pictures of the park…..these are for her:

       Clubhouse      

       

We have been enjoying the activities here……I play cards Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings.  Jim plays poker a couple nights a week.  We volunteered to help with the Valentine dinner on Saturday and today I went to the women’s luncheon…….We are staying busy.

Take care and love to all

Linda and Jim

BACK ON OUR LOT IN HONDO

 

 

We were going to leave Saturday morning and head down to the gate guard yard….but, after closing everything up and hooking up to the truck, I did my last walk around and discovered that the satellite dish had not stowed.  So, we plugged back into the electric and tried again…..no luck.  We were getting an error message and the dish would not stow.  Okay…..unhooked from the truck and set everything back up…..we were going to stay here are the RV facility until Monday morning when we would be able to get a hold of someone at Winegard (the manufacturer of the dish) and see what the problem was!  We contacted our gate guard company and told them that we would not be down as thought and that we would give them a call Monday morning.

Monday morning Jim got a hold of Winegard and they were able to talk him through all the steps required to reset the dish and get it to stow……problem solved.  Contacted the gate guard company and…..guess what….the lot was now full.  Okay……Linda is now in melt-down mode……..    Decision made…..forget the gate guarding for this season and head back to our lot in Hondo until it is time to leave for the summer.

We are now sitting on our lot in Hondo and glad to be home.  January was not a good month for us but we are planning on enjoying the rest of the winter here in Hondo.

Take care and love to all……

 

Linda and Jim

WORK CONTINUES

 

The work continues on the RV and we are slowly getting everything back together.  It was thought that everything would be completed on Monday, January 19th, so we checked out of the motel.  Unfortunately, as with everything RV related, things did not go as smoothly as they had hoped with getting everything installed back on the roof.  Let’s see if I can remember everything:

--first of all, the spray on roof looks great.  Such an improvement over the old rubber one.  That all went according to plan…..no problems.

--the problems started when they started to re-install the vents, air conditioner, skylight and satellite dish.  The fantastic fan in our living room area would not work……after a lot of troubleshooting it was discovered that the remote was not communicating with the fan and needed to be re-calibrated…..problem solved.  The max fan in the bedroom would not work….apparently it just stopped working as it was not damaged in the accident….we had to purchase a new fan to be installed.  A new skylight had to be fabricated for over the shower and modified to fit the opening…..looks good.  The biggest problem has been the satellite dish.  The model that we had was no longer available (they had upgraded it to a new and improved dish…so they say).  So, obviously it was not just a case of hooking the dish up to the existing cables……….no….it required new cables.  They worked on it all day yesterday and finally got it hooked up and the TV’s working.  But, today, we discovered that we are not getting a good signal strength on all satellites and they will have to do some re-calibrating which cannot be done until the weather breaks (we are getting a deluge of rain today and we are sitting outside).  So, here we sit…..it will probably be this weekend before we get out of here.  But, on a good note….we are not sitting in a hotel room any longer.

Here are a few pictures:

           

We do have pictures of the damage done to the roof but, unfortunately, are unable to upload them to the blog If you would like to see the damage send us an email and we will send you the pictures.

Update:  They were able to get the satellite dish working this afternoon.  We will settle our bill in the morning and, after contacting our guarding company this afternoon, will be heading to the yard sometime tomorrow.  They have actually sent a few people out and, hopefully, we will not have to wait too long.

 

Take care and love to all……..

 

Linda and Jim

KING WILLIAM HISTORIC DISTRICT

 

They started working on the RV Monday morning and we moved into the La Quinta Inns and Suites for the next few days.

We decided that we needed something to do, so Tuesday we drove into San Antonio to the King William Historical District.  In the mid-nineteenth century many Germans, who had immigrated to Texas, began to settle in this San Antonio area and it became known as “Sauerkraut Bend”.  The area developed into a beautiful neighborhood of large, impressive homes designed in the Greek Revival, Victorian and Italianate styles.  The main street was named King William in honor of King Wilhelm I, King of Prussia in the 1870s.  By the 1920s many of the original homeowners had died and their children moved away from the area.  By the 1930-40s many of these stately homes had been converted to apartment buildings.  But, by the 1950s, the area began to attract people who recognized the potential of this area and started restoring these beautiful homes.  In 1972, the King William districted was listed a National Historic District.  Here are a few pictures of the homes:

 

       

 

         

 

 

Not sure what else we are going to do to pass the time.  The weather is still cold, although it is suppose to start warming up into the 60’s in the next couple of days.  That will feel like a heat wave in comparison to the last couple of weeks!

 

Love to all……

Linda and Jim

WHEN IT RAINS……IT POURS

 

This year has not started out good for the us.  We were released from our gate on Saturday, January 3rd with no prospects for another gate and no room in the yard so we decided we might as well head back to our lot in Hondo.  Prior to doing that, we drove into Whitsett to see the Chapman’s (who were parked in the yard waiting for a gate) and while there Bobbie suggested we contact another guard service based out of San Antonio that a friend of hers works for.  So, we did and were able to set up an interview for Wednesday, January 7th.  Also, while there, Jim and Bobbie decided that they had had enough and were going to come with us to Hondo for a few days before heading on to Arizona.  Off to Hondo we went……we were actually looking forward to staying there for a while……….but, as Rver’s say……our plans are always written in jello. We received a call from the guard company we were to interview with on Wednesday and they said to just bring the rig and come down as they would have an assignment for us within a few days.

Wednesday morning we said our goodbyes to the Chapman’s…which was sad as we don’t know when we will see them again….and off we went to San Antonio.  We arrived at the facility, completed our interview and, as we getting ready to move the RV to their lot, I looked up and noticed that our A/C unit was damaged.  Well, how the hell did that happen!!!!!  We got the rigged moved and set up in their yard and Jim climbed up on the roof to access the damage.  It was not good…the a/C unit was demolished, the sat. dish damaged and the skylight over the shower damaged….and that was just what Jim could see.  Needless to say……we were devastated.  We did discover how it happened……just as you pull into the facility, there is a very, very huge low hanging branch across the road.  Jim was concentratied on getting us into this facility and did not see the branch.

Now what to do,……..contacted the insurance company, found a RV repair facility in San Antonio, Iron Horse RV, and they told us to come on in and they would take a look and get an estimate for the insurance company and advised the guard company that we would not be able to go to work until we got the repairs done to the RV.

We packed everything up Thursday morning and headed to Iron Horse RV.  After arriving and checking in they came out and took the required photos of the damage for the insurance company and inspected the roof for further damage……and found that in addition to the damaged we saw, the actual roof was also damaged and needed to be replaced!!!!  An estimated was done, over $13,700, and submitted to the insurance company Thursday afternoon.  Luckily Iron Horse has RV hookups and we are able to stay here, so we got the RV hooked up and settled in for the evening.

 

This morning around 8:30, we heard back from the insurance company and they are going to cover everything….our out of pocket will be less that $1,000 (which includes our $500 deductible).  What a relief!!!!!!  The repairs will take 2 weeks as it will take 1 week to just do the roof and we will have to stay in a hotel/motel while that is being done (which is also covered by the insurance).

I contacted the guard company that we want to work for and told them it would be a couple of weeks before we would be available and they said not to worry, just call when we were ready.  Hopefully,, there will be some work available at that time.

Update on Walker…..he was back to the vet on January 5th for another blood test……everything is normal and he does not have to go back for 3 weeks.

And that brings us up to date…….

 

Love to all……

Linda and Jim