Relaxing Down In South Texas

Let’s see what have we been doing this past week? We have not anything other than relaxing, visiting with friends, and enjoying some beautiful weather. I should have been updating our blog. However, we haven’t really done anything to write about and I kept telling myself maybe tomorrow I'll have something to write about. Well, I still don't think I have anything interesting to write about. However, I need to keep our family and friends updated.

So with that I’ll just tell you about what a normal day consists of or more specifically what we do each day with very little variance. We wake up and put coffee on. Once it's finished brewing we enjoy a cup together. Sometimes we stay inside and sometimes we sit outside enjoying eachother while drinking our coffee. The weather here has been absolutely beautiful. From there we might ride our bikes for a little while and then we'll just sit outside talking and relaxing until four o’clock. At which time we walk over to Mike & Pat’s home and sit outside socializing with our friends here at Retama Village. We only visit for an hour which is why everyone here calls it "Happy hour". Then at five o’clock we walk back home to eat dinner. After dinner we both get our laptops and get online to see what our other RV’ing friends are doing. Then we go to bed. I know that doesn’t seem very interesting. However, Gina and I are so relaxed and we're really enjoying these slow do nothing days.

Now that I have told you what our days here in south Texas generally consist of I’ll tell you about a few other things we have done. One day we enjoyed a pot luck dinner at the clubhouse. One day we went to McAllen to ship a package to our daughter in Grenada and while we were out we stopped at Sam’s warehouse, Wal-mart, Academy Sports, and a few other stores. One day I rode with Rocky in his Volvo truck up to the Volvo dealer to buy a new air filter. One day Gina went for a bike ride with Sherri. One day Gina bathed Zoey. One day we got our truck and home washed. It was looking pretty dirty. One day we had a pot luck dinner at our place.

Probably the big event for me was that I finally broke down and bought a smoker. For me the biggest thing that I miss since we began traveling is being able to smoke meat. I'm not sure what I was missing more eating the smoked meat or smelling that pecan wood smoking all day. My main issue has always been finding a smoker that will smoke meat the way I like it and will not take up a lot of space. After searching and looking for months and I was even going to make one. However, I was really missing the smell of pecan wood burning that I just took a chance and bought one. I bought a 36” vertical gas smoker. For my first test I smoked two pork roasts and a chicken. I was quite impressed with it. The chicken tasted great and the pork was a little over cooked but that was my fault. I’ll need to use it a few more times and I should have it figured out. We both think it will be a nice addition to our lifestyle.

To let you know just how hard this lifestyle is. It’s Friday and I’m sitting here in my recliner writing this entry while my bride is fixing me a bacon sandwich. This is such a hard life but as they say someone has to do it. LOL We are having the time of our life. We are both so glad that we didn't put off getting on the road any longer. We are so thankful of the blessings that Jesus Christ and his Father has so richly blessed us with.

I would like to congratulate Thomas, our son on his selection as Class Commander for his Marine Corps MOS school. I also want to say congratulations to Shane, our son-in-law, for scheduling his final classes for his last semester at LSU. It's been a long time coming. He graduates in May 2010. Gina and I are so proud of them both.

Gina & I hope everyone has a pleasant and wonderful day, enjoying what our Father has so graciously blessed us with.