Having a Good Time at Sunshine RV CG!

   My apologizes...it's been almost 2 weeks since my last post.  Guess we ARE having a good time!!  The weather for the most part has been great temperature wise.  We have had only a few days under 70 and only 2 wash outs.  It is ALWAYS very windy.  We have only been able to put our awning out for half a day.  Today the temp is almost 100!!  We have been to the beach...South Padre Island...just once.  It was OK, but nothing like the beaches in Florida...nothing really to look for.  I guess we are just spoiled.  And you can drive your vehicle right onto the beach, so you have to be constantly looking for traffic so you don't get run over.  Some cars/trucks really fly!

The causeway was long, but...

...we're getting closer.

There were a lot of these signs along the causeway
warning drivers of the pelicans that frequent the bridge.

Getting close to town.

 

The horses sure do look neat against the dunes.

There were a fair amount of people on the beach.

And a fair amount of vehicles there, too!!

There's Jeepy being a beach bum.

Even the horses get to ride along the shoreline.
Look out for "you know what"!!

These are pics of some of the shops and businesses
that caught our eye.

This little guy reminds me of the dancing
hot dog on the screen at the old drive-in movies!

This is a kid's activity center with laser tag,
mini golf, mini bowling and black light arcade.

It was no surprise to see lots of windmills with
all the wind they have here!!

Country singer, Freddy Fender lived in
San Benito.  I actually kicked him out of my airplane
seat many years ago on our way to California.  I have
a lot of gall, don't I??

We stopped for fresh shrimp on the way back from the beach.  It was yummy.  I finally got signed up for the craft show on the 18th and I found a sewing machine to use so I can make some scarves.  We talked to one of our neighbors who have a Bounder and she just happened to have one!  Now I need to go shopping to get more pins, scarves and display "stuff" to set up my craft stand.  Oh, darn!  I've spent about 2 half days at Ross, Penneys, Marshalls, Hobby Lobby, Dollar General and Rack Room Shoe Outlet.  I didn't do too much damage.  BUT...when I got home we noticed that someone had backed into the front bumper of the Jeep and did some damage.  John usually keeps himself busy with chores while I'm gone.  Things like lubing/greasing this and that, doing laundry, washing Harvey and fixing a compartment latch.  That darn latch ended up being quite a project.  We kept buying the wrong size screws!!  Most days we stay here in the park because there is a lot to do.  If we're not at the pool we are usually on the shuffleboard courts.  Poor John has only won one game so far.  Sundays we go to the morning church service and then in the evening there is an ice cream social with live music.  They serve breakfast and lunch every weekday in the Rec Hall.  On Mondays they have a special on cheeseburgers for $4.  They grill them outside and are really good!  We have had one breakfast so far and that was good, too.  Every Friday evening there is a happy hour with music and then a fish fry dinner.  We have attended one of those and enjoyed it.  On Mondays the "veggie man" brings his truck full of goodies. There's BINGO on Tuesday and Thursday nights, but we haven't gone yet.  Some of the special events I/we have attended are the Ladies Luncheon, a Pennsylvania Luncheon, the spaghetti supper and the Valentines Dinner and Dance.  Today I participated in the craft show.

The spaghetti supper is done by the guys who use
the woodshop.  They do awesome work.  We were
lucky enough to win a piece of their handiwork!

 

Who is that nice looking couple??  I had to take John
shopping to get something other than shorts to wear.
Even had to get shoes!!

 

This is the group we sat with.  they were a lot of fun!
Don't the tables look nice, too!

 

Our entertainer was very good!!  Doesn't he
look a bit like Elvis?

 

I'm a not so lean mean dancing machine!

 

The craft show didn't go very well...
 

 

...even though there was a decent crowd.

 

John took these pictures today while I was at the
craft show.  He was up on the roof of Harvey
cleaning the vent covers.  It certainly is a pretty
park for the most part although there are some
pretty run down permanent park models.

 We had a great time at all of them!  And we went to the Harlingen Heritage Museum.  That was fun! 

PA was represented in the coach
house and Inn. 

 


Notice how the sign says, "poured" glass

 

This is an original switchboard from the early 1900's.

 

This is a maternity room in the original 1923 hospital
that was moved to the courtyard of the museum in 1978.
I wonder how many babies were born on this table
and how many were weighed on the scale in the background.

 

These different colored wool yarn bundles
checked for color blindness.  Who knew!!

 

These really touched me.  We are so lucky to not
have to worry about polio!!

 

The following pictures are from the original first
house built in Harlingen by this gentleman.  The
house was moved to the museum courtyard, too. It
was really interesting and neat to see so many
original old things!

 

 

This is a lace collar belonging to his wife.

 

This is almost gross.  It's hard to see but the wreath
is made entirely of human hair that families saved. 
Apparently it was a common practice.  Eewww!!

 

Mrs. Hill's gorgeous wedding dress.

 

How would you like to worry about this every night!?!

 

We passed this on the way home.  We were told that
this is the original casting of the Iwo Jima statue that
was used to make the one in Washington DC

We have eaten out a few times, trying local restaurants.  One was called Luby's and it ended up being a cafeteria style restaurant.  It was OK, but we will not go back.  We also tries Whatabuger, a local hamburger joint that reminded us of 5 Guys.  It was very good! 

John's burger...

...and my patty melt.

 We tried another Italian restaurant called Stephanos, but we still prefer Colletti's.  As a matter of fact we went back to Colletti's last night.  It was even better the 2nd time around!!  Most evenings after supper, we go over to the Rec Hall to play shuffleboard or cards or just stay in Harvey to play cards.  By the way, we are tied at 15 games a piece in 5 Crowns.  Then we watch TV until it's time to go to bed.  Monday's I've been watching 24 Legacy and Tuesdays, This Is Us and Chicago Fire.  John watched a harrowing account on PBS about the Oklahoma Federal Bldg Bombing.  And he watches a lot of old movies.  We are also hooked on old westerns in the morning.  My favorite is Laramie!!  And, this is interesting...we watch a show called "Jeff's Collie" which eventually became "Lassie".
A few days ago we stopped at Victoria Palms, the resort we will be staying in for the month of March.  It was only a couple of miles from the restaurant where the PA Luncheon was being held.  We wanted to check on our site location to avoid having to move like we did here.  The park was BEAUTIFUL and our site was great.  After the luncheon we talked about leaving Sunshine early decided to go back to Victoria Palms and discuss our options.  We had gotten a show special at Hershey for $537 for the month and asked if they would be able to give us the same special rate for an extra week.  But she couldn't, so we decided to leave Sunshine on Feb 24th and go to Victoria Palms until Mar 26.  The gal there told us they were running a special for $249 for the month and gave that to us instead of the $537!!  WOW!!!!  Yesterday John went down to the office here to tell them we were pulling out on the 24th instead of the 28th.  When they looked up our acct the gal at the desk asked why we were paying $357 because they are also running a special for $249.  So she credited our acct!  WOW, again!!  So we are passing along to all of you that you might want to call the CG's directly and check out THEIR specials.  They could be even better than Hershey's.  I'm not sure if this applies to Florida resorts, though, because they are much busier! 
This park is nice, but on the older side.  Most of the "campers" here are quite a bit older and have been here for 10 or 20 years.  That makes it hard to form any kind of bond with any of them because they already have an established group of friends.  We have met some nice people at some of the events, but it never goes any further.  And there a lot of French Canadians who don't speak any English and won't even acknowledge your existence.  You don't think John and I are getting sick of each other, do you?  Needless to say, we are looking forward to moving next week.
We talked to all the kids, grandkids, parents, Bonnie and Ken, and some friends from back home.  We are happy to rep[ort that everyone is doing just great!!
We just got done playing 2 games of shuffleboard.  I let John win both of them:)

Finally in South Texas...Harlingen!!

 On Wednesday we got up, had a quick breakfast (cereal has become our departure day breakfast) and left the Ft Sam Houston base at 9:00.  It was warm, but VERY foggy!  We were travelling on 37S and we couldn't see farther than about 3 car lengths in front of us.  About 30 minutes into the trip the brake lights of the tractor trailer about 6 car lengths in front of us came on.  John did a good job getting Harvey stopped without running into the rig in front of us.  Just as we were getting stopped we heard a crash.  A truck had smashed into the back of the car just behind and to the left of us.  We looked into the rear camera to make sure that the car hadn't hit the Jeep or Harvey.  From what we could see it didn't.  But we really couldn't stop and look either.  We felt very fortunate that the driver didn't lose control and veer into us!!  We figured traffic was slow due to the fog, but then we saw there was an accident on 37N so we figured the back up was due to rubber necking also.  Well, in the next mile we saw at least 5 more accidents on 37N due to a chain reaction to the first crash.  There were about 20 cars and 2 tractor trailers involved.  Some were pretty mangled.  It was a mess!!  Can't imagine how long some of the cars caught up in that mess had to wait until everything was cleared away.  The good news is that according to the news, there were no injuries.  It sure did scare us and we slowed way down.  Our 4 hour drive took us 5 hours (including a stop for gas), but that's ok...we were safe!!

It was very "soupy" out there!

 

 

Then it got ugly!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

  The fog lifted about a half hour later, thank goodness, and the rest of the trip was smooth sailing.  I talked to Bonnie and Arlena on the way.  Everyone is doing well.  We arrived at Sunshine RV about 2:00.  We had a nice level spot with a cement pad, but it was right up against a permanent unit and we felt a bit boxed in...we had no view.  Plus every time we exited Harvey we could look right into the unit.

Our first site.  You can see how we could
look right into the unit next to us when we exited Harvey.
Plus our patio area was all blocked in,

  But we set up anyway and then took a walk around the CG.  It is older with a lot of permanents, some that are pretty rundown.  But they sure do have a lot of activities!  John was going to grill for supper, but sometime during his shower he decided he wanted to take me out.  He picked out an Italian restaurant downtown called Colletti's.  He sure knows how to pick 'em!!  It was probably the best Italian meal we ever had.  I had veal parmesan and he had chicken manicotti.  The sauce was sweet...just how we like it.  We stopped at an HEB grocery store and then went home.  I finished the last blog and John went to bed.
   Thursday morning John cooked breakfast and we talked about moving to another spot.  He had already gone to the office and asked if they would allow us to move.  They said, sure, and gave him a list of all the sites that were available.  Then off we went to scout for "the spot".  We found one we liked across the CG, packed up and moved.  We were set back up about 3:00 and very hot...the temp was 90 degrees! 

Our new site...so much better!

 

There's no one next to us, so we can park the Jeep there.

So we went to the pool for the rest of the afternoon.

And there is a huge hot tub next to the pool.

  John grilled chicken for supper and while doing the dishes we noticed a lot of ants.  We sprayed, but they kept on coming in at other places.  So we sprayed a bunch of other places. We played a game of 5 Crowns - John won.  By the time that game was over we were so sick of smelling the ant spray we went outside. (we have a non-toxic insecticide left over from when we had Kylie and it smells like liniment!)  We talked with the camper behind us and asked him if had any problem with ants.  He told us to let the office know and they will come spray outside for us.  Wonderful!!  We decided to go play a game of shuffleboard.  There are 12 courts and they are decent, but the one we had to use because of the lighting slightly uneven, so it was a challenge.  I was victorious, but John did attempt a comeback.  We went back to Harvey watched some TV and went to bed.
   Friday morning I slept in until 9:30...I was up late playing slots on my tablet.  Mom called while I was still in bed.  She had a talk with the nurses concerning Dad's care and they got everything worked out.  I think a great burden has been lifted from Mom because she now realizes that what she wants for Dad and what he wants are 2 different things.  So she doesn't have to worry so much about his care anymore.  He is a big boy and can decide for himself.  After finally getting up I made pancakes for breakfast.  We called Arlena to sing, "Happy Birthday".  She told me that TW has lost a total of 77 lbs now and he has started at the gym to try to reshape his body.  She also told me that they are now able to save quite a bit on their health insurance because of all of TW's better numbers.  What a nice perk!!  We made a trip to Walmart to pick up a few things including ID tags for all our key rings.  After losing one of our sets we thought it was a good idea!  We also need new brake pads and cables  for my bike, but they didn't have any.  John took a nap when we got back and I went scouting around the recreation center.  There's a craft show here on the 18th and I needed to find the activity office to sign up.  The library has puzzles set up, so I spent about an hour in there.

Just one more piece!!!

 

They hang up all the finished puzzles!

 

We had our leftover sandwiches for  "lupper" and then went down to the rec hall to play pool and 5 Crowns.  I won both.

Someone was creative.  This is on the door to the pool room.

There are 8 tables!

  I beat John on the last hand of 5 Crowns!    Then we went to Dairy Queen for hot fudge sundaes.  John did some reading when we got back, and I watched TV.  Just after we went to bed it started to rain.  And guess what...there's another train!
   Saturday was a wash out.  It rained very hard off and on all day.  My hip was giving me a hard time, so I iced it while John tried to get a walk in between the rain showers.  We ate our leftovers from the Italian restaurant for a late lunch and then I went over to the rec hall to do more puzzles while John walked some more.

Here's where we are...

 

...way down in South Texas...Harlingen

 

This the daily activity board!

 

The Rec Hall

 

There are 2 indoor pickle ball courts.  They also
use them for ping pong tournaments.  Love how they
put up corrugated cardboard "fences".

 


  He joined me and we played 2 games of pool.  We each won a game.  John went back to Harvey and I worked on another puzzle.  Then we went to see the movie, "Split".  I talked to Heather and the boys on the way.  They are all feeling better except for Heather having a lingering cough.  The movie was interesting.  We went to bed when we got back.  Finally the rain had stopped.
   We went to the church service in the rec hall on Sunday morning at 10:00.  There were 220 people there.  They even have a choir!  When we got back to Harvey we went thru our closets and drawers to pack up all the warmer clothes we had brought along.  It's supposed to be in the 80's and 90's this week.  Then John did the laundry while I went to the rec center to do the blog. 

There I am hard at work on the blog!

Our data is getting low and the Wi Fi in the rec hall is free!  We talked to Dustin and Cathy and the girls for a while.  There's a Super Bowl party in the rec hall at 5:00 that we are going to attend.  It's a pot luck, so that should be fun and filling!!  WOW!!  That game was unbelievable.  We were rooting for Atlanta, but ya sure have to give those Patriots credit for never giving up!!  When we got back to Harvey I watched "24 Legacy" and John went to bed.