What the heck just happened?

OK, so last you heard, it was Christmas eve, and we were bookin' down the road, right?  We had gotten all the way to Top of the Hill RV Resort, in Boerne, TX, and everything was fine, right?  And then we fell off the face of the earth!  Truthfully, I'm pretty sure we died a little bit, too, but then it's now, and we're back.  Let's recap, shall we?

This was our site at Top of the Hill RV Resort.  We took up the entire site, but we didn't have to disconnect.  This is one of the campgrounds we had considered workamping at - on paper, it looked like a desirable and attractive campground, the work didn't seem difficult, compensation offered was only the full hook-up site we were looking for, and there appeared to be a beautiful pool and hot tub onsite.  We applied and within just a couple of days, we were offered a position.  Too bad, though, because we had already accepted a summer position within Balcones National Wildlife Refuge.  As it turns out, though, this campground WAS as nice in real life as it was on paper, but, it WAS at the top of the hill, and it WAS right next to I10.  So, it was pretty darned noisy!  24 hrs a day.  Definitely would not be a peaceful spot for us to camp, and after spending the one night, we were glad we had not accepted a full-summer position here.

 We had worked out our itinerary so that we would be passing through San Antonio of Christmas Day.  Yes, we know all the horror stories about traveling on Christmas Day.  BUT, we thought, if we HAD to go through town, it would be better to do it first thing in the morning, while everyone else was checking out the haul from Santa, and not during a weekday/workday.  Traffic was minimal, thank goodness, but even so, there were lots of options and lots of bridges (noooo, I was too busy navigating to take pictures!).  The speed limit through town was about 65 mph, and I distinctly remember mentioning that I absolutely could not navigate and read signs at that rate of speed.  We would simply HAVE to slow down.  We did, but, geeze, we were still moving right along at a pretty good clip.  I think NEXT time (if there HAS to be a next time), we will definitely take the loop around, thereby reducing our lane/road changes and options.  Hopefully, it will reduce my level of stress, as well.  

Once we got past downtown San Antonio, the landscape began to open up and become less citified.  We saw lots of towers with flames - tell me again about the gas shortage?  And why are gas prices climbing?  If they have so much that they need to burn off the excess, well, then why the talk of shortages and how do they justify inflating the prices so??

And all the oil pumps were pumping...but, again, there were fields and fields of wind turbines and solar panels.  So why are we still reliant on gasoline?  And why are the prices so high?

Anyway.......back down in Alamo, safe and sound.  We got settled in to our site...again, we take up the entire site, and it was quite the feat to navigate our way between the tree limbs and curbs and get ourselves into the site and on the pad properly.  We only had one neighbor come running over, to make sure I was aware of the overhanging tree limb.  Oh yeah, I had seen it.  And the one on the other side.  AND the neighbor's tree across the street that was threatening to put a new crease in the front end.  AND the water spigot on the post in the back that may or may not be under the extended slideout.  AND the electric pole at the back of the site.  Yes, my dear reader, yes.  I was aware of all the obstacles, thank you very much, and bless his heart, our driver was paying VERY close attention to his spotter and did only what I said, and when I said it.  And, thankfully, when I motioned for him to stop and let me check his path of travel, he stopped and waited for further instructions before proceeding.  So we got into the site and on the pad properly, and we are here for the next 3 to 4 weeks.  

Have you ever been to a Mexican flea market??  Oh, let me just tell ya....you can find pretty much anything here for sale.  As Charles would say...quite the cultural experience.

Utility gloves, washers, wire brushes, and lingerie & lace.

Produce, CD's, tools, puppies, parrots, wigs and kitchen sinks.

 And, just in time for New Year's celebrations, pinatas galore!

Speaking of New Year's celebrations, Jack & Diana were throwing a party and invited us.  Soooo, I decided we would honor our TX and FL roots, and bring a couple of alligators to the party.  I took  two large zucchinis and carved them into "legs" and made eyeballs out of cheese slices and grape halves.  I carved mouths into the English cucumbers and inserted sliced grapes to represent tongues. 

Pineapple chunks with cherries and cheese blocks with grape tomatoes were all skewered with toothpicks and then stuck into the cucumber bodies.  They were a big hit, and almost everyone knew right off that they were alligators.  One lady thought they were sharks. ??? I dunno.  Maybe alcohol was involved?

We didn't stay all night, and though we didn't get to watch the NY Times Square ball drop, we did watch Rio de Janiero's fireworks display.  It was all very pretty, yes, but, geeze, there were millions of dollars spent, gone up in smoke, literally, when that money could have been more productively spent to eradicate poverty, hunger, sickness, financial inequity, et al.  But then, they didn't ask me, did they.  

The day after New Year's we had our dental appointments.  They had originally been scheduled (way back in October!) for Jan 7th, but then, someone broke a crown right after we arrived and settled in.  I called the office at which we were scheduled, but not one of 'em spoke English!  So, I had to call back to our agent and reschedule with an office that could take us AND could speak English.  So, Jan 2nd found us crossing the river.  Border Patrol was evident....

As were the looooong lines coming back into the States....

The Rio Grande is not super impressive as a border river at this point, is it.  It looks soooo easy to simply walk across the crick and enjoy the land of fruit and honey.  Can you see the wall, way back there, stretching across the middle of the photo below?  

Whoa, this is new....a movable gate that can stretch across the sidewalk as necessary.

In the middle of the pedestrian bridge....

And, for the paltry sum of $1 each, we gain entry into a whole 'nother world.

FIVE HOURS LATER (4 of which were spent in the chair!!), we walked out of the dentist's office.  Teeth were cleaned, but, so was our wallet.  Turns out, THIS dentist charges higher prices than the one we had originally booked.  I guess English-speaking comes at a cost!  The crown Dick broke is the same one that came off while we were in Colorado and had to have emergency-cemented back on.  With super good cement, apparently.  Poor dude, they had to chisel and pry it off.  He was definitely put through the wringer.  He said, at one point, they were pulling so hard, he thought they were gonna just pull the tooth right out.  (one week later, update - his gum is still sore!!)

We took the more scenic route back to the campground and were treated to fields and fields of kale, lettuce, collards, onions and cabbage.  Last time we were here, it rained so hard, they couldn't get in the fields to harvest the cabbage, so it all rotted.  Oh, my, the stench was unreal.  Thankfully, that doesn't appear to be an issue for this year's harvest.

And then, because the dentist cost more than we had expected, we went in search of a pot of gold.  We found it in the least expected place!

And thus began the week from hell!  After we got our money, we went home, I took a shower, and went straight to bed, not feeling very well.  And there I stayed for the next solid week.  Shivering and well, ummm....let's just politely say, not feeling very well at all....

Finally, FINALLY, after a solid week of no solid food, today was a new day, and a good day for dancing.  

If you can't see the video below, click HERE to go straight to YouTube and enjoy the sweet, dulcet tones of Joe Saltel.  Ten squares on the floor!  That's really quite a feat in today's dancing environment.

For those of you with really long memories, can you hear Tim Mariner in Joe's voice? 

 We miss Tim, and we'll always be grateful to him for sharing his love of dance with us and our girls.  (click on his name up there, and you'll see a short video of him in action; turn up your speakers and enjoy his voice and passion)  And, just for your listening and watching pleasure, here's Jerry Story & Tim, in Washington, DC (WASCA), in 2016, just before Tim's untimely and sudden passing.  We will be attending another Joe Saltel dance tomorrow evening, then we'll start packing up to head back up to Corpus Christie area.  We have an appointment to get our continuing coolant leak looked at (yes, again), then we can settle in at Lagoons RV Resort, in Rockport, TX, for the rest of the winter.

Roger & Rosemary, we eagerly anticipate you joining us for dinner at Charlotte Plummer's before long!!  But, in the meantime, Bailey is insisting that it's time to walk again!  The wind has died down just a bit, and if it continues to ease, we may even be able to put our slides back out again.  We've got them all tucked in because we don't want to damage our slide topper awnings.  

Please continue to pray for the people and animals of Australia; if you have the means, please consider making a donation to WIRES, a wildlife rehabilitation organization, or the World Wildlife Organization, Australia.

Blessings to you all...

Rio Grande River Like We've Never Seen It, Isleta Pueblo, Old Town Albuquerque and Dinner with Jen and Steve

So I saw on the map, "Isleta Pueblo," and it was just a bit down the road.  I've never been to a still-active Pueblo, and I thought maybe there would be something exciting to see.  Well, we rode and road and road some more!  Our good friend Google told us to turn left after all those miles, so we did.  Right onto a dirt road that was more ruts than road.  We didn't go far, just to the third little house, which was more shanty than house.  We dead-ended into his front yard, so we turned back and returned to the main road and went a bit farther south and turned onto the next road.  It was paved, but, but not for long!  The road turned to dirt, just after a locked gate.  Hmmmmm....Google is not often wrong, but this time, she was as wrong as possible!  

Well, we went back up the road, this time, turning left (which would have been right) at the intersection.  Well, whatdoya know??  We came upon the Rio Grande River.  We knew Albuquerque was in the RG Valley, but we didn't actually ever SEE the river for ourselves.  You'll recall we spent two winters in the "Rio Grande Valley" down in Texas, but the water there was only ever a trickle.  At the very most, it was only water about 20 feet wide (the channel was wider, but there was very little water in it) and it was probably only just over ankle deep.  In other words, just about dried up.  So when we saw the river here, and saw how much water was flowing, it was really quite the shock!

Ahhh, but then we crossed the bridge and looked at the other side - it was dammed up!!  Well, no wonder there was so much water upstream!

OK, OK, so a river's a river, right?  Let's move on, besides, it's pretty warm out, and doggie is in the car.  And it's running.  And it's parked illegally.  We really need to move on.  And so we did.  Eventually, off in the distance, we could see the towers of what appeared to be a mission or church.  We used our geosense (that's the "go left, go right, zig zag till you get where you want to be" method of driving) to wind our way through the little town and finally arrived in the side parking area.  Nooo, the front would have been too easy and made too much sense.  As we approached the front, we saw a small sign that warned "NO recording, NO cell phones, NO videos.  Any recording devices would be immediately and permanently confiscated."  Uh-oh....better put the cameras away!!  What a shame, right?  Oh, but wait...there is the parish office, let's just check.  They lovely young lady working there said, oh, yes, it's perfectly fine to take photos of the outside.  The sign was intended for visitors to Sunday mass and various other Native celebrations and dances.  So, lucky us, and lucky you, we have photos to share!

Yup, Bailey's furry butt!

As we wound our way back out through the town, I was able to get some photos of what was left of the adobe buildings.

Almost every house had a brick oven or two.  Some houses had three!

After driving back north for about a half hour, we found our way to Old Town Albuquerque.  We didn't know it was built around another mission.  Funny, in the South, and so far, everywhere we've been, the courthouse was the center of the town square.  Not here.  Here we have San Filipe de Neri Church, dating back to 1706.  And, even after all these years, still looking for donations.

The square reminded us a lot of Pueblo crossed with Mexican.

When you don't find ice cream, look for hot sauce!

When we got back to the campground, we took Bailey for a walk.  Lo and behold, what do we see, but another Ventana.  And this one is dark, with a white scooter, a maroon SUV, and some herbs on the table.  That could be none other than Steve, Jennifer and Bella.  We met them up in Colorado Springs, at Peregrine Pines, the family camp on the Air Force Academy grounds.  That HAD to be them!  We rang their bell and when Steve answered the door, we told him that Bailey wanted to know if Bella could come out and play.  She did, they did!  We chatted a bit about where we each had been and what our upcoming plans were, then we decided that the only day we both had together and free, was right then!  So we finished walking the dog, cleaned up a bit and went back downtown to Lindo's for dinner.  Oh my, it was tasty!  And the margarita we split, while it wasn't quite as good as Tomasita's up in Santa Fe, it was still pretty refreshing after a long hot day! 

So much for doing laundry before we head out in the morning!  That's OK, it'll be there tomorrow.  And it was really fun sharing chips and salsa with Jen and Steve.  They are off to San Diego in the morning, for the weekend, to watch a nephew play football for Harvard.  When they come back, they'll spend a few days in town, then head up to the Balloon Fiesta.  We will be long gone by the time that comes to town.  Funny thing, we are heading to Winslow, to Meteor Crater RV Park.  And that's the same park they stayed in a couple months back.  I hope we meet up with them again, somewhere down the road!  Tomorrow is a travel day, and as I mentioned, we're heading to Winslow, AZ.  Why??  Well, so we can stand on the corner, of course!!!  Till next time, y'all stay well and safe!