Elizabeth Cavazos

Elizabeth Cavazos

Lizzie has been part of the Magnolia family for over 20 years and she told me she would have 

 big news about the middle of April so I have been looking for it. A few days ago the news was forthcoming and here it is.

 https://rfkhumanrights.org/awards/human-rights-award

Elizabeth and her group of tireless workers have been the protectors of human rights and they are rightfully being rewarded and recognized for their efforts. Congratulations Lizzie!!

Miscellaneous stuff.

In Trophy Gardens there is a fox that has taken up residence. We are mostly surrounded by farm ground so we can get quite a variety of things to see and photograph. We are back in Iowa but I snipped this photo of our resident chicken from Facebook. I think it is a beautiful specimen.

When I spot photos that friends of mine have taken that are a step above the rest I snip them with Microsoft's handy snipping tool that is part of everyone's computer. Many people are unaware of its presence but I use mine all the time.  

This photo was taken in Florida by a friend I met in person for 15 minutes in Michigan. Jeannie Sparks is her name and she is a talented photographer.

  The photo below was taken by Zach Hiller on their acreage near  Jefferson. I think Zach has an artistic eye.

The view from my window.

Home Sweet Home

I am so very tired of talking about my health so I will try to keep the "health" portion short and sweet. I have had a few bad nights so today I worked on being seen again for an assessment of my UTI problems. Bottom line I was not given an adequate antibiotic for me. I am not pointing fingers at anyone because that is a waste of time and energy. Little short on energy these days. After much effort, I finally ended going to the ER in Jefferson at the hospital. They were efficient and quick and took blood samples with results forthcoming quickly. I think I was there a bit over an hour. Have a new med, was told not to continue with the one I had been taking. Their tests told me I was not in trouble- just pain. So I am once again feeling better and hopeful.

We got home Thursday afternoon about 1:00PM. We are taking things slowly making the move-in transition without killing ourselves or each other. Keri provided supper for us and we had a nice reacquainted time with Leo and Keri.

They came and activated my Internet this morning and oh my gawd is it speedy.

We had a great but short time with our Missouri kids. We went to Leo's art show and I took some pictures.  Most of these photos are self explanatory and they are untouched by me.

Little Leo's kindergarten teacher

 
Papa Butch returns to kindergarten- much different from when he was there!

Gary, Brad and Butch

 Brad had a branch fall on his head -14 staples!

 I was most impressed with Amelia's artistic eye.

Thackerville to Big Cabin

We had a good trip today. Highway 32 to highway 70 is a bit narrow for me but Butch thought it was fine. There was only 25 miles of the narrow stuff from Marietta OK to Kingston OK so we may do that again. On hwy 69 the roughest part is from Muskogee OK to Pryor OK. 41 miles. But all of 69 is 4 lane except through towns. Not nearly as bad as we remembered. It was a good travel day. Around Eufala there were 5 miles of construction barriers on both sides making for a very tight space. It took much concentration on Butch's part and as for me I just didn't look. We are in the Big Cabin diesel RV park and we have an 8:00 am appointment for servicing the MoHo before we head up to Peculiar MO.
Vanita OK is a small town not too far away and there is a restaurant that is famous and really, really good and has been for many years. https://clantonscafe.com/ It is interesting to watch how it works. They have 6 or so waitresses out front and I counted 7 cooks in the back, all male. Whatever system they have has worked since 1927. We have never had a bad meal there. We will have to wait quite a while for the MoHo so we plan to go back for breakfast.

What a start!

Saturday I knew I had a UTI and I had been treating it and hoping for the best because after all, we were leaving bright and early Sunday morning. At 3:30 in the morning I knew very seriously I was not going to be able to travel without medical help so I had Butch take me to ER. You cannot imagine how much I did NOT want to wake him up with this bad news but I was in a great deal of pain that I could not make magically go away They asked where I was on the pain scale and I said a 6 or 7. They took a urine sample., tested it and told me I had a bad infection. I told them I was allergic to Amoxicillin or at least I think I am due to my last visit to this same ER. Didn't want to go through that again. So they gave me a big old shot of something to replace it. Butch said it was HUGE. The nurse told me it would hurt to have the shot, but it would get me off on the right road to recovery. It did not hurt getting the shot but it did later. I was quite glad he had warned me and I must say I have had much worse pain than that. So they also said I must take another medication twice a day for 10 days and be checked out as soon as possible when we get back to Iowa. Now by this time, it is 5:00 am and I need to get a prescription filled. So we finally found a Walgreens in McAllen and got it filled getting back home by 6:00. Butch said we may as well get ready and go.  I was a mess as I had not had any sleep since 1:00 am, still in pain.  And Butch was going to be short on sleep as well. Butch assured me he could handle it. This is a guy who used to have to go out in the middle of the night to restore electricity and then go work a regular shift so I knew he was able and he has always been good about saying so if he didn't think it was a good idea. So off we go, headed north at 7:30 am.

I was absolutely no use to him. And then it gets worse! Everything was okay getting to our first destination except for a couple of traffic delays. We had reservations at Hof Brau RV Park near Marble Falls. We were so anxious to get there and finally be able to rest. There was no one in attendance and a sign said NO Vacancy and we drove around and it was full. And it was full of full-timers (people living in their RV). We had a RESERVATION! I plan to write a review and fully unload. It will not be pretty. So I found another one nearby and we checked it out but it was just a smaller and dirtier version of the first one. So we settled for the Walmart parking lot. We had stayed there before and we were both so tired it really didn't matter where we were. I went to bed at 6:00pm and stayed there until 6:00am. Worth every minute and I am feeling so much better. Butch slept well and long too.

Marble Falls Texas to Thackerville OK.
Today was a very pleasant travel day. Listening to a wonderful book by John Irving-A Widow for One Year. I like all his books. Good writing rises above the rest.
We have had supper, played a little at the casino and will soon be tucked in.

Getting ready to roll

We are doing all the prep things one does before getting on the road after 6 months in one spot. We are always careful to calculate when we buy anything on where we will put it for the trip back to Iowa. Over the years that one thought has kept me from buying many things and as I write this I cannot remember even one of those precious things I turned my back on. We both love living a pared-down life.

My thoughts have also been dwelling on our friends Pecan Bill and Kay. He is in the hospital and has been several times this season. We have been friends for a very long time and after many conversations, we have found numerous parallels in our lives so when one of us is struggling all of us are to some degree. I include Donn and Peggy in that computation as well. They are probably getting home in Nevada today and I am sure their thoughts are on the Stilson's as well.

We just made the decision to alter our route a bit and by-pass going through Oklahoma City and Tulsa. Our overnight stays will be the same. We may live to regret it but we decided to be up for the adventure. We used to be good at that! Our change will be going from Marietta OK to Big Cabin OK via highways 32, 70, 75 and 69.

Internet will be spotty until we get to Missouri so keep that in mind...

Last nights photos

The Moon

A neighbors lights

A tropical evening

Errands

Butch and I ran errands yesterday in preparation for departure next weekend. Our first stop was Best Buy and for those who know me well they will be saying, "You have got to be kidding!!!".  Best Buy happened to be the only and cheapest place I could buy a sim card I was looking for Butch's Asus tablet. It is a Google Fi data only sim card. I could buy it there for $10 and if I purchased it online it would be $15. Now it is a long story why I want it and I may get into that later. Bottom line is they did have a Google Fi sim card but not a DATA ONLY one and that is important. To shorten a long story, with a Google Fi data only sim card Butch can access the internet on his Asus tablet at no cost. I will be purchasing it online and pay the extra because Best Buy did not have it despite the fact that everything I searched on the Internet said they would.
And then we stopped at the bank to pick up some cash for our trip. And then we did a Costco run for known and loved Costco items including a gas fill up. One last stop at H-E-B and then home for a bit. Then Butch made his last visit to the Massage College to lessen a few aches and pains.

I did pick up a bad headache and in hindsight, I think it was due to a couple of times while on our errands we ran into extremely strong gasoline odors. The headache was in the same familiar area experienced before surgery. So I called the sinus people to talk to them. They assured me it was most likely I was not completely healed yet and that is probably true. A couple of sinus rinsing sessions took care of it.
Today Butch and I plan to work our way through the MoHo to make sure everything is secure for the jostling things will endure on the ride home. I put foam pads between my dishes and cloth between my pans so they do not rub off the surface in places. I get complacent about these things when we are in one place too long but experience helps in zipping through these chores. So till next time...

Computer info

I found this article interesting and thought my computer savvy friends might as well. I used Edge as a browser when my computer was new for about 10 minutes just to see what it was like and that was sufficient to know that it was insufficient. Apparently, Microsoft came to that conclusion as well probably when new computer buyers did not choose it as their default browser.
So Microsoft has made a change and now their browser will be more like Chrome. That is what the article is about. I might download the Del version because it can be beneficial to have more than one browser, however, since I also have Firefox I may not.

http://www.thundercloud.net/infoave/new/install-the-new-chromium-based-edge-browser-for-windows10/utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+thundercloud%2FIapJ+%28Cloudeight+InfoAve+Computer+Tips+%29

By the way, the site above is very trustworthy and one I have used for nearly all of my computing years.
Barb

Can you tell...

the difference in the way I feel? I thought you might.

After the Masters was finished Butch and I took a ride around the park.

And we stopped at the pool hall. Liz is a good pool shooter.

And so is Dave.

 And this is Gwen. Donna and Sally are standing in the background.

And then we stopped by Liz's investment to see the progress on her house.

Yesterday's News

Very little to nothing happens at our house on The Master's weekend. Golf for those of you who do not partake of the game.  Our decision on our departure date (April 21st) was dictated by the Masters' tournament.
Yesterday the tournament started at 12:30 so in the morning we went to the fruit market, Magnolia Village, and H-E-B in Weslaco. Touched base with our Magnolia friends who are still in the park. At the fruit market, I bought a watermelon, pineapple, jicama, and fat carrots. I picked out a watermelon($5) that I could tell was ripe but the guy told me it was too ripe and so he picked another one. I am sure he was right and the one I did get is delicious. The pineapples($3) are perfectly ripe and he peels and cores them on the spot. I bought 3 small bags of fat carrots at $1 per bag. I didn't get a bunch this year because I do not have room. I may still load up on 1015 onions. They are the sweet onions and named 1015 because they are planted on 10/15. We have regularly been buying jicama because we both like it and prefer it as our snacking veggie. We will miss it when we head north. I have seen it in the grocery stores up there but the quality is never as good. We were home by 12:30!

I saw some ritual grooming by these two doves so I snapped their picture. They look like a handsome couple.

Liz loves the rooster

 Didn't know the size but thought of Miss Elise when I saw these two dresses in El Disco.

Where Am I? It's an App

Where Am I? A useful app for constant travelers

If you travel all the time you may have no idea what county you’re in, in case of a weather alert, or what the area code is for local phone numbers. Now you’ll know! All you need to do is tap the icon for an App called “Where Am I?” and all that useful information will be displayed. 

A Bun-derful Sandwich Idea

A Bun-derful Sandwich Idea

Janet Groene’s
Corned Beef and Cabbage Sandwiches
 
   This is a cold and crunchy sandwich to pull out of your pantry any time. Canned corned beef is an emergency provision that keeps for months on a back shelf, then pops to life as the key ingredient in a casserole, sloppy joe, corned beef, and cabbage stew,  chili and many more hot and cold dishes. Well chilled, it can be sliced to lay on a sandwich or cut in squares to toss with a salad.
    This filling makes tasty bunwiches or sliders to serve any time in the campground or at a tailgate party. 

1 ½ to 2 cups  creamy coleslaw from the deli
1/4 cup pickle relish
1/4 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons spicy mustard
12-ounce can corned beef
Mayonnaise to taste

    In a bowl mix coleslaw, relish, ketchup, and mustard. Scrape any visible fat off corned beef. Add corned beef to the bowl, shredding and breaking it up. Add mayonnaise if desired to moisten.  Spread on buttered bread or buns to make 8 to 10 sandwiches.

Food for Thought (Border Wall)

https://www.rvtravel.com/western-views-make-the-border-wall-an-asset-not-a-liability/

Time has slowed down

Butch and Dave went to a Flea Market that Butch had not been to yet. Bruce had warned Butch he would need his Spanish and he was right. However, Butch managed quite well and purchased a compressor and a RIGHT-handed Skill Saw for a whopping $70.

An insect taking a leaf ride on my water bucket

Butch had Liz trim his hair this morning and she gave him a new "do".

Doctor visit plus

My final visit to the sinus doctor was yesterday and all is well. They wanted me to come back in 14 days but I said no because we will be gone. So then they made one for October. It is still a question mark in my mind whether I will keep it. We will wait and see.

Keri asked me to get her a certain dressing that is only available in H-E-B in Texas. There are H-E-B stores all over the Rio Grande Valley as well as the State of Texas so I started searching for a store that carried it and found out it was only available at one and that was close to where I was at the doctor's so we stopped by the store at 10th and Trenton in McAllen. And sure enough, they had it! I have never in my life been at a grocery store as large as that one! It was not a superstore. It was just a very large and very well stocked grocery store. It is like a tourist attraction and would be worth going to look around. The variety is mindboggling!

I asked Keri how she plans to use the dressing and she tells me it is a wonderful marinade for steak. I can hardly wait!


I looked out the window the other day and spotted a bird that was unfamiliar to me. After some investigation, I found out it was a Killdeer. I had heard them but had not spotted it. When we lived at Lake Panorama I became very familiar with the Killdeers sound as they nested near the mailbox and tried to scare me off every time I fetched the mail. This is a south Texas Killdeer.

Tuesday Trivia

We still had 4 teams for trivia with the same level of enthusiasm. I did not at all expect that many people to show up on this 95 + degree day. I had worked on the questions to make them a bit more palatable after the tough ones of last week. Team Newbies won first place and Team BooBees kept their spot at 2nd place. Team Newbies were HOT and I heard them discussing afterward that all of the members had contributed. They were pleased about that.
A volunteer has stepped forward to learn how to put the questions together so they can continue through the summer. I will be working with Dayle so they can continue. Maybe we can trade off next season and I can be a player once in a while! I would like that a lot.

Mexico Experience

It is a boondoggle and very staged performance. What a crock and for not one good reason. But I digress.
We headed down about 9:00 AM and smoothly crossed the border after paying our $1 per person in the turnstile. We walked in but then we always do. We parted company with Dave and Liz because they were headed for teeth cleaning at the dentist followed by a pedicure. Butch and I slowly made our way down to visit with our favorite pharmacist, Hector. I had emailed him with the main things we wanted. If I had only known I could and will in the future email him my entire list and he will have it ready for me. After getting the meds we slowly made our way back up the busy street to El Disco where we planned to meet back up with Dave and Liz and we did, then we backed up and ate lunch at the Red Snapper. It was quite tasty and will do that again...maybe. After that, we went to Jessica's for a drink and some dancing.

 

When we came over the bridge at 9:00 AM we had noticed there were cars lined up completely through town as far as the eye could see. We were told some people have had to wait sometimes as long as 12 hours to get back to the US. This is completely ridiculous!
Now when we walked over the bridge, foot traffic was light and almost non-existent compared to car traffic but when we returned they were stopping ALL return traffic because of a "Drill". They told us there would be loud noises and smoke but all of it was completely harmless to us and it was part of training. I did not know how long it held us up but it was obvious it was all a staged production. And holding up people in 95-degree heat for this was beyond stupid.
Much more of this will slow tourist traffic to a trickle. In fact, it already has. There were not many Winter Texans among the people in Nuevo Progresso on this beautiful Spring day.
Butch and I have always walked a block west to go down to Hectors because it gets us away from heavy foot traffic on the main street. We have always been greeted warmly by the locals. That is done. When we would say hello to people we met it was not returned. They looked grim and would not look at us. We were snubbed and the way 'we' (our unruly ruler) has been treating our neighbors to the south I cannot blame them. Respect is earned, not given and we as a nation and a people have lost respect. It may never be regained.
I hope things are much improved when we return and we can once again have a happy experience with our neighbors to the south.

Off to Mexico!

Feeling fine! And we are off to Mexico this morning with Dave and Liz. Not many people left in the park come mid-April. We will be stocking up on meds and vanilla and Liz plans to get her teeth cleaned and her nails manicured. We will follow that with Margaritas and Nachos at Jessica's.

It feels very different to feel excited and pleased to take part in an out-of-park activity.

And then this evening is another Trivia night. I am ready for that too. I talked to long-time friend Mickey yesterday and she told me that two different people had asked her if I was going to do trivia at the Elks in Jefferson this summer. I plan to if there are enough people wanting to participate.

The weather and my outlook are both sunny and warm!