Settling into living in Retama Village, Nov 25, 2012

We arrived back from our trip to Europe about three weeks ago.  We were met at the airport by our next door neighbors, Roger and Dianne and they even had a great dinner for us to share for our homecoming! 

It took us about a week for us to acclimate to the six hour time change, jet lag sure does do its thing on us. 

Dianne had raised some beautiful tomato plants from seed and had saved two for me.

So we had to go shopping for some potting soil and pots for my new babies.  I also added some water retaining crystals to help maintain the water in the pots. 

Jump ahead two weeks, they are doing wonderful, even have a few tomatoes set.

Bob made a fruit bird feeder out of a 8” 1”x 2” cedar board and some screen for the bottom.

Another jump ahead…see who is eating, do believe it is a Golden Fronted Woodpecker.

Thanksgiving at Retama Village was awesome.  There were ten folks at our table.  All the dishes were delicious.

With Thanksgiving behind us, we decorated the coach for Christmas.

See our new bikes!  They came from Amazon with a few parts to assemble and adjust.  Now we can explore the area and the state park next door.

Meet our new betta named Guy.  He is a beauty.

Travel to and arrival at Retama Village, Mission, TX, Aug 1-11, 2012

While staying at the Escapees’ Rainbow’s End RV Park making sure our washer/dryer unit worked and the Norcold refrigerator remained cold, Bob tacked another much appreciated, by me, job.  He recharged the A/C Unit in the Explorer.  After adding two cans of R34a we both were happy and cool.

On our way down to the RGV (Rio Grande Valley), we made two stops.  The first was in at the Dixieland RV Park in Carmine, TX, the next two night stop was at Goliad State Park in Goliad. 

Then on Wednesday the 8th we drove the last 230 miles to our RV lot at Retama Village.

Today, (Sat) we were doing a little gardening and trimming  when some new to us neighbors stopped by, Bob and Kathleen (plus their dog named Cookie.)  They spend their summers here and when they heard we were flying out on Tuesday, they offered to take us to the McAllen airport which is about 15 minutes away.  Thanks Bob and Kathleen for the gracious offer.

“Our bags are packed”, or mostly packed for a couple of days now.  Every day I keep adding a few items, so far so good, the zipper still zips. 

I have a list of tasks yet to do:  1) Suspend our Verizon phone service,  2) Suspend our Directv service,  3) Call the bank to increase the withdrawal limit on one remaining ATM card (the others have already been increased), 4) Backup the Quicken program on my computer. 

I have already taken care of our insurance renewals for the coach and car which come due during the time we are gone.   Have also suspended our internet satellite service, formerly Motosat, now through Real Time.  We have also called and notified the bank and our credit card company of our upcoming European travel so they don’t shut the card down for unusual usage outside the country.

I will not be updating this blog during our European trip, leaving out of here on Aug 14th and returning Nov 6th.  But we will be updating our travels on Bob’s Blog,  and will also be posting brief updates on Facebook.

Our Departure from Retama Village, April 6, 2011

I took a few photos of the window and door protection before we left this morning.  Even the screens are stored inside.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Even the access for RV electric is locked.

After our good byes with Roger, Dianne, Chaplin and Bandito, here we are pulling out of our driveway.  We only spend four nights on our lot, but it sure did feel like home!

Check out this checkpoint sign telling everyone about the year to date seizures for drugs and undocumented aliens.  Check out Bob’s blog with a photo of when we drove by here in late February heading to the Dallas area, the numbers have changed quite a bit!

We were waved on with only two questions, how many people in the RV and are you US citizens.  I am sure the canine did a quick sniff too.

We arrived at Goliad State Park about 2:30, nice treed sites, even our internet satellite works.

Last day at Retama Village for 2011, April 5, 2011

Just as we were getting ready to leave to go shopping today, this visitor showed up right behind our lot. This Border Control helicopter appeared to be focused on someone below, but we will never know, as we left for some shopping. (The darker sky spots are on my camera lens - inside), I am looking for a new camera-unless anyone knows how to remove them.

We decided, or Bob will tell you, I decided to cover the windows with a foil covered insulation. Here he is measuring for the door. The Command strips worked well for the door, lets just hope the adhesive holds with the summer heat.

Chaplin, one of the famous dogs from Travel with Whippets, came over to see Bob today. He was just loose for a moment, when he headed directly over to see his newest best friend, Bob. Then he decided a sun bath was in order. Bob loved every minute of it!

Our last night was enjoyed with Roger and Dianne with their new propane camp fire ring. It is hard to believe with the record highs of yesterday, that a fire and jackets felt as good as they did.

Final issues, April 4, 2011

Bob did take some time today to check out the coach’s fluid levels.  That sure is a long oil dip stick.

Here the coach house sub-contract builder and the superintendent of Esperanza Homes are having a discussion about how our door was hung and how to correct it.  Soon it was completed to all of our satisfactions.  This photo was taken from our coach window, no way did I want to be part of that conversation.

Weather wise today it was nasty, broke a record high with 103 degrees along with high winds.  The haze you see in this photo is a combination of dust and smoke.  A small grass fire burned for about 30 minutes about 1.5 miles from us.

Home on Mallard Dr., April 3, 2011

Above are some photos of our new home, for a few days before we head north on Wednesday.

I did find some shade for a little while.

Roger and Dianne, our next door neighbors, shared with us our first Happy Hour on our new lot.  Bob made some of his wonderful strawberry margaritas and we also had some jello shots (gin and tonic flavor) and sharp cheddar cheese.

Roger even served Bob his wine, nicely done!!

Move in day at Retama, April 2, 2011

Here Bob is driving to our site, our shortest distance yet, all of two blocks.

Dianne, next door, took a photo of the backing in process. (I borrowed this photo from her last post, thanks!)

We are home!

My first task as a land owner, was to tend to the greenery. A couple of the new plants out front needed some water desperately.

Our first night’s dinner.

Taking care of business, April 1, 2011

Land ownership means utility bills. Today we headed down to the Water Dept. in Mission to turn in our application for water, sewer, and garbage.  

Later in the day we did come to a decision about which company will provide our electric – Kinetic Energy.  Here you can choose from over 15 companies with about 10 plans each.  We chose a “Go Green” plan which supports the development of eco-friendly technology like wind power, solar plants and bio-generation.

For all you papaya lovers, drool !!  It was very ripe and just perfect!

Yea, they mulched my Satsuma orange tree!

Looks like we will be moving down to our lot tomorrow morning.

Mike’s 3 hour tour and time to pay up, March 31, 2011

Mike Rhodes the owner of this entire project gives weekly tours, and today was our day to go.

Here Mike is giving us an orientation of where we are in the big scheme of it all.

There were times during the three hour tour we bush wacked. Don’t worry about the hairy creature on the right side of the photo, it is not big foot it is big Bob, he is letting his hair grow!

Part of Mike’s property touches the Rio Grande, yes, the other side of the river is Mexico. His tour was very informative, the three hours just flew by.

We were to meet at 2 pm with Jennifer and Arnold to do a final Walk Through. Even had to ask the fellow who was pressure washing to wait until we finished.

Almost all of our list had been completed, so the decision was made to go ahead and close with the remaining items to be completed in three days.

Remaining items:

1. house numbers

2. spray insulating foam around door jam

3. counter sink, fill and paint screw hole in door jam

4. touch up paint where door was closed before paint dried – white and sand colors

5. leave some touch up paint for door and trim

6. mulch around trees in back

See those smiles, we are now land owners in Texas and Jennifer just completed the sale of another lot!