First Responder Meeting

Our park is starting up a First Responder team which Ray has been asked to be a part of.  There are only a few seasonal folks at the park as of now, but hopefully as the season gets underway there will be more people to add to the team.  Today we attended a meeting which was held at Waterford Garden.  We had no idea until we arrived there that we would be going to an Assisted Living Facility.  In the 7 years that Ray worked doing disaster plans for nursing homes and assisted living facilities, he has never seen one as nice as this one, which is why I had to blog about it.
The facility did a wonderful job of hosting the meeting, with a great Mexican cuisine lunch, door prizes, etc.  But what impressed us the most was the beauty of the grounds.  The pictures don’t do it justice.  There is a lovely courtyard with a fountain leading to a large garden area with more fountains, ponds, and butterflies everywhere.





We learned from the woman in charge that there is an elderly Winter Texan couple that lives in Wisconsin who still likes to come to the valley because their friends come down. They stay at Waterford Garden for the winter months. They are too old to travel down so the facility flies someone to Wisconsin to bring them down to the valley.  They do this for other people as well. Also, if someone is taking care of elderly parents and wish to take a vacation they can have the parents stay at Waterford Garden while they are gone and pick them up when they come back.
Ray and I thought it would be a lovely place for our children to put us when we get old…..of course, I’m sure it comes with a lovely price tag and chances of them visiting us very often from New York would be slim.  So, my answer to that is…..we will never grow old!

Home for the Winter

After only 3 1/2 days of driving we arrived at our winter home in the Rio Grande Valley.  It was so nice to be “home” and to get such a warm welcome from Guy & Juanita, our park managers and friends.  There are only about 6 other rigs here right now, but I’m sure within 2-3 weeks all the winter texans will start moving in. 
They had no rain here since we left in April, and you sure can tell by how dry everything is.  Fortunately there are underground sprinklers to water the landscaping around the patios, but we still lost one Esperanza bush.  The landscaping crew came on Thursday and removed the dead bush and trimmed everything back so our site looks great now.  It won’t be long until everything grows tall again to offer more privacy. 

The butterflies are so plentiful here this time of year. There are at least 10-20 on our front bush at any given time.  And of course, the woodpeckers and Vermillion Flycatcher have already come to visit.


Today Ray helped some good friends of ours, Gayle and Harvey Pagel paint their coach house while I did laundry and cleaning.  The temps have been in the 90’s so we don’t overexert ourselves.  We did manage to give the 5th wheel a washing to get all the road dirt off and it looks much better.  When the weather cools down we will do a more thorough job. All this was followed by a cool down in the pool.

On the Road Again

After spending the last six weeks with our kids, we got word that our 5th wheel repairs were finally done. It is always bittersweet for us to leave New York and our family and friends but once we are on the road we are anxious to return to our winter home and our Texas friends. 

We decided this season to only do one night stops on the road on our way down south.  We left home on a Sunday morning and were in the Rio Grande Valley on Wednesday.  I don’t think we will be doing that again, as 9 hours towing the trailer is way too grueling. 

Our first night was spent at Grandma’s campground in Shepardsville, KY.  It is a great overnight park as it is right off the highway.  Whenever we stop here we always seem to run into someone we know.  This trip we pulled in and heard someone holler “Hey, old man”.  Ray turned around and there was a couple that we met at the campground in NY.  She is from Wolcott, NY where we were staying and he is from Shepardsville.  Such a small world. 

Our second night was spent in Hot Springs, AK at Catherine’s Landing RV Resort.  Our GPS took us down all the winding and hilly back roads which made us a little nervous not knowing what may be ahead of us but it was well worth it.  We just loved Catherine’s Landing, from the large pull-thru sites to the nice lodge and pool, to the beautiful lake.  Hopefully on our way back to NY we will be able to spend more time there and explore Hot Springs and all they have to offer.

The lodge is very modern and the pool is a heated saline pool with no chemicals. 

The park also has several of these yurts to rent along with cottages.

 

 

 

 

 

The beautiful autumn colors reflected off the lake and was followed by a beautiful sunset. 

Our final night before reaching our destination was spent in San Marcos, Tx at Pecan Park campground.  While nothing special, it was fine for a one night stay.

A Trip to Fonda Farm

Saturday Ray and I took a day trip with our daughter and son-in-law to see their new puppy they will be bringing home in six weeks. 

This is our new granddog, Cooper.  He is a Welsh Pembroke Corgi.

 

He is the only male in the litter, but I would have a hard time choosing from all these little furry pups.

The breeder has a farm in Potter, NY a short distance from Keuka Lake.  We also brought their other Corgi, Annie with us so she could get acquainted with Cooper.  Annie had other plans instead, like chasing the rabbits and roosters and playing with the other Corgis on the farm.

 

Miss Linda, the breeder showed us all around the farm and introduced us to all her animals from pot bellied pigs, goats, chicks, and horses, not to mention the five corgis that are hers.  It was obvious how much she loved all her animals.

This foal is the newest addition to her farm and is only one week old. She also has three other horses.  One is a retired thoroughbred race horse and the other two are Tennessee Walkers.

 

After leaving the farm, we took a nice drive through the countryside and couldn’t pass up stopping at our favorite winery of the Finger Lakes, Keuka Springs Winery. They are situated at the top of the hill with stunning views of the lake, and the wine is fantastic, though a bit pricey.

For those of us who didn’t want wine, this was our final stop of the day in Canandaigua, NY.

The brewery has only been open 18 months, and they were very busy with a steady stream of eager samplers.  They even let us bring Annie in.

While the others sampled the beer, I took some time to read the growlers that lined the shelves to see what breweries they were from.

It was a great day as it always is when we are with the kids, especially when we are spending it in our favorite area of New York, the Finger Lakes.

Mobile Home

Today was a beautiful day here in Wolcott, NY with the temperatures in the mid 70’s and a lovely breeze.  Finally a break from that ongoing heat. We spent a good portion of the day just relaxing outside at the campsite.  I was sitting talking to Ray when we saw the funniest thing, a tent walking down the street.  There was a family of eight camped in a pull-thru site with a huge tent and so much stuff scattered all over the place.  Well, apparently they decided that they would not be leaving the park before the next campers who were to be in that site tomorrow so they decided to move to another site.  Well, they each picked up a corner of the tent over their heads and walked through the park to a site at the entrance to the park.  Ray’s comment was “Now that’s what I call a mobile home”.  Of course, I did not have time to get inside and grab the camera before they were past our site and on the next road.  Once the tent was moved they continued to walk by carrying suitcases, tables etc. and they strapped the air mattresses to the roof of the car and drove them to the new site. Oh, and the father rolled the cooler while drinking a beer.  It was only 11:00 a.m., must have worked up a real sweat from the move.

I’m not sure why the manager put them on the original site to begin with, knowing that it was taken for the next day.  There were at least 40 other empty sites in the park. We never know what we will see at this campground, but nothing would surprise us!  I guess I have to make sure to always have the camera within arms reach.  Goodnight everyone!

Just Rambling About Anything

Well, it has been some time since I have posted anything to our blog, but for those of you who know me, know that I always have something to say. First things first, we are going to have another granddog. Our daughter and son-in-law have decided that Annie the corgi needs a playmate and will be bringing Cooper, another corgi (male) home in 2 months. He is 8 days old right now. We will be going to see him at the breeders next weekend and I will post some photos then. Last weekend my sister came out to the campground to visit and I really enjoyed her company and catching up with each other. Today we went to a graduation party for my dear friend’s son. It was a great party with fantastic food and even though it was 90 degrees there was no rain.

We have been spending most afternoons in the pool here at the campground with the weather being so warm, but despite the heat we still manage to have our own campfire or hang out at the neighbors campfire. We have now finished visiting the other campgrounds in the area to see where we would like to stay next summer. While we like the park we are in now, and the friends we have met here, we find that it is just too far from everything. We are on a waiting list at one, and waiting to here about workamping at two other ones. Now we will just wait to see if we get in to any of those, and if not we will be back here. Wherever we end up is where we are meant to be.

Finally, there is a Russian festival here at the campground this weekend. There are about 20 tents set up, a canopy where there is entertainment and several Russian people from outside the park visiting. I do not smell any sauerkraut cooking though. Now Ray, he knows how to say “Hi, how are you?” in Russian and decided to take a walk over to the festival and speak Russian to one of the gentleman. He told me the guy answered him back, and when I asked what he said Ray said he had no idea. Hope he wasn’t swearing at him.

Another Tourist Town

Tonight we spent an enjoyable evening with some old friends at Sodus Point, NY.  It is a small tourist town on Sodus Bay about 20 minutes from our campground.  It is home to several restaurants and bars which look out over the water and have rooftop tiki bars.  It is a hangout for bikers as well, as many as 50 can line the streets on a weekend night.  Tonight however was relatively quiet.

I seem to notice there is a nautical theme to the weather vanes in this area.  The last one I photographed was a sailboat and this one is a fish. Below is the small visitor center you pass as you enter the town.  The gardens are just beautiful.

 Here we are enjoying good food and cold beer with great friends.

This is Captain Jack for whom the restaurant/bar was named for.  A bit tacky if you ask me.

Outside the visitor center is this nice little patio, a nice spot to sit a spell and enjoy the sights.  Upon leaving the restaurant tonight we saw a young girl with this Albino snake wrapped around her neck.  She was nice enough to hold him so that I could get a picture.  Something I have never seen before.

Well, I went in to use the restroom and noticed this etched on the wall.  Now, you might ask why I took a picture of it.  Well, not sure who G-Dog is but Ray was called Ray Ray when he was young so I couldn't resist.  Maybe he knows something he's not telling me!