2005

We took the train to Denver again this year for Christmas at Pam & Tracy's. Christmas Eve, Cookie & Roy joined us for buffet and opening gifts.

Christmas Day, Chris, Josh, Millie, Megan & Colby joined us along with Cookie, Roy, Joel, Marc & Norma for dinner and a great time of visiting. Unfortunately, Carol was unable to join us as she had to work.

We had a nice relaxing trip home on the train and saw several bald eagles along the way along with deer, and elk.

We spent the next couple of days taking down Christmas decorations, going through mail, errands, laundry and packing the coach. We had to have some work done on the coach while we were gone - we found on our last trip that the air brake was not working, so had to have it replaced - YUK $$$

Thursday, Dec 29, we finally got away about 2:30 in the afternoon. So, only went as far as Green River UT. The next day we went to St George UT where we found the RV park we had planned to stay at was no longer there. Fortunately, after a few phone calls where we found parks full, we did find one that had a few spots left and we booked it! The next day we made it to Barstow CA and from there, Sunday afternoon, we came on in to Desert Hot Springs CA. We had some clouds threatening along the way, but the rain held off until we were settled.

A few nights ago, we got a wonderful view of the moon coming up over the bookcliffs.....

I have 3 of my Christmas quilting projects finished!! Yeah!! I believe I will actually get ornaments made this year also! Pictures will be online after Christmas............

Almost Thanksgiving - already!!! I (Bev) am busy on a quilt for Aimee for Christmas. She called me some time ago and said she wanted a "doggie" quilt. It has been fun to make and is well underway. I am also working on a few other Christmas presents....it is fun to spend time in my sewing room. Especially since my sister, Cookie, has been coming over to sew with me....we set her machine up on the other end of my sewing table and we can sew and visit. Sure makes it go nicer!!

But -- we do spend a lot of time on the computer as well. We have a few new projects and I have several new web pages to design and get online.

One of the things we enjoy about our new home is the social activities. We have coffee time every Wednesday morning - when we can get away - and a social time two Thursday afternoons a month. Plus usually one other activity a month. In October we had a soup dinner on Halloween which was yummy! And last night we had a Thanksgiving Dinner with all the trimmings - delicious!! Also, Bev has started playing bridge once a month or so (after not playing for 25+ years, it has been interesting how it has come back!!).

We will be home for Thanksgiving and will take the train to Denver for Christmas. We did that a couple of years ago and it was such a nice trip, we decided to do it again!! Then, when we get home from that, we will load up the motor home and head for Desert Hot Springs CA for a couple of months. Don has to be home the end of March to teach a class at CCU, but we will have time to see some new sights. We decided on CA instead of TX this year because it is half as far.....but will sure miss the beach!!!

I can't believe I haven't updated since April!!! Where does the time go????

Oh well, not much happened in May, June or July!! Just working on the computer and trying to get Megan's quilt done before the wedding, July 30th. I made it just in time!! Got it finished on the 28th!!

Wedding Quilt

Don, Bev, Megan, Colby, Carol, Chris & Josh

Wedding cake by Cindy

Mr & Mrs Colby Bowser

The wedding was beautiful! They make a great couple! They will be returning to Olivette Nazarene College in IL and their studies this fall.

A week after we returned from Denver, and the wedding, our good friends from O'Fallon MO, Jim & Betty Worman arrived. We left the next morning with the coach for Durango, CO, where we took the narrow-gauge raiload to Silverton. We had a beautiful day for our trip and had a great time! We had some rain while we were gone, but mostly when we were traveling or at night so it didn't interrupt our sightseeing too much. From Durango, we headed to Telluride for a short visit and then on to Ridgway State Park where we parked for 3 nights and did some sightseeing and birdwatching in that area. Sunday, after church in Ridgway, we went to the park for their craft show and saw lots of fun things.....



The day after we returned home, we took a day up on Grand Mesa and had great weather for our sightseeing and picnic up there! Jim & Betty left on the 17th and we hated to see them go.... We really had a fun visit!!

We are pretty well settled in our new home now - just have to get some pictures hung and Don is still working on his shop. Once he gets that done, he will build bookshelves on either side of the fireplace/TV area. It is considerably smaller than we have had for many years and we are having a time finding room for everything!! But --- we are getting there!! Our office is a bit larger than we had which is really nice. We aren't nearly as cramped in there.

View from the patio	Living room	Dining Room	Kitchen
Master Bedroom	Sewing Room (with a great view of the mountains until they get the rest of the homes built!	Office (with the same view as the sewing room)

Everyone here is really friendly! They have a coffee every Wednesday morning in the clubhouse, which is giving us a chance to get acquainted. They also have men's and ladies' lunches once a month and usually one other monthly activity. In March, they had a St Patrick's Day dinner, and this month was breakfast. I believe next month is a garage sale. They also have a nice library!!

Well, our travel time for this trip is about over....we are in Gallup NM for a couple of nights and will be back in the Grand Junction area on Thursday morning. We have walk-through on our new home on Thursday afternoon.

Our last stop was San Antonio NM and the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Area where we saw literally thousands of Sand Hill Cranes who stop over there on their way north each year. We saw clouds of them in the sky and listening to them all around us was quite an experience. They almost sound like they are purring!! They are such big, beautiful birds! We saw lots of other neat critters there also, including 3 Bald Eagles, Pheasants, Shovlers, Coots, Red Head Ducks, several Roadrunners, Phoebes, and many others. We decided it is definitely a place worth visiting!

Clouds of Sand Hill Cranes

Sand Hill Cranes

Ruddy Duck (note his blue bill!)

Bald Eagle

While there, we had dinner Saturday night at the historic Owl Bar & Cafe for their famous green chili hamburgers...YUM!! They were aptly named.....HOT - but very good! Don is ready for more!!

We bought a cute birdfeeder at Wal-Mart and finally found a stand for it. The Red-winged Blackbirds sure love us now!! (Or at least they did until we moved on!!) We had hoped to attract some other birds, but only saw the blackbirds and a couple of finches at it. We did see a flock of yellow finches across the road the other day - so pretty!

Cookie & Roy headed home on Wednesday, the 23rd. They had decided to only stay a week here at Bentsen Palm Village RV Park and then head north. It was really fun having them with us for about the last month!

After a couple of rainy days, we finally had a nice day and went over to Progresso, Mexico, on the 27th after church. We spent the afternoon shopping, after having a delicious lunch at our favorite restaurant there, Arturios Restaura. We parked the car on the TX side of the bridge and walked across to Progresso. We had no problems - a fun afternoon of shopping - in spite of the rumors of problems in Mexico - and no problems coming back over the bridge. The lines weren't even too long!!

Monday, February 28, was time to get on the road again! We have some long days ahead as there are few places to stop in southwestern TX! Our first night out was Del Rio - over 300 miles - YUK! We were really pooped when we got in. Had hoped to get to visit with our great-nephew Matthew, who is stationed there, but were too tired to do much, (that is what happens when you get old!!) so I just gave him a call and was able to chat awhile with him.

The next night was another 300 miles away - Van Horn TX. We did stop a time or two along the way to get some pictures of the cactus and flowers. There sure is lots of cactus in this part of TX!! We noticed when passing through Sanderson that it is the Cactus Capital of Texas! The park here is having a $15 special (cash) so we decided to stay 2 nights!! That gave us today to relax, do laundry and relax some more.....at least for Bev. Don is trying to learn PHP for a web page and was at it most of the day. We have about decided to stay another night here - it is a nice park, the weather is nice and it sure is nice to just stay put!! We saw a beautiful sunset tonight on the way back from supper! I tried to get a picture, but they both turned out fuzzy......

The pig roast at the RV park on Bev's birthday was delicious! It was pot-luck for the rest of the meal and they are always fun.

We finally got some nice weather and are enjoying the warmth and sunshine. On Feb 14th we took a drive over to the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge and saw lots of wildlife. Lots of birds and even a bobcat who crossed the road in front of us! We enjoyed watching a Tri-Colored Heron (also known as the Louisiana Heron) go fishing. He put on quite a show for us! It was also great to see so many flowers in bloom - hard to believe it is still winter up north!! We saw our first roadrunner there - they are quite a creature!! Couldn't get a picture of one until on our way out of the park, tho'.

After returning back to the RV park, we fixed dinner and took it over to Cookie & Roy's (she wasn't up to coming over to our coach) and then went down to the activity center for an evening of card bingo.

Feb 15th, we went over to South Padre Island and had a beautiful day for our trip! On the way down, we stopped at an orchard to get some grapefruit - they were $4 for 1/2 gal bucket if you pick them yourself!!! However, no one was home, so we decided to try there on our way home later in the day (they were home then, and we got some delicious grapefruit!!). But----down on the dock were these black-bellied whistling ducks posing for a picture! I guess they can be quite a nuisance for the homeowners there.....

We had a great day - spent time birdwatching and beachwalking The beach down there is really prettier than Port Aransas and quite a few more shells - also quite a few more people!! We may have to spend a week or so down there next trip.......

Feb 16 - we moved on to Bentsen Palms Village RV Park at the entrance to Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park for a week. We used to be able to camp inside the park, but they have discontinued that. We were supposed to be parked right next to Cookie & Roy but when we got there, they had changed our spots and they were in the next area. We could see them from our coach and it wasn't very far away. It is a new park and they are still in the process of developing it. Once there, we decided to skip San Antonio this trip and stay a few days longer here since we had some database work to get done while in the valley.

A few days later, we took the trolley into the Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park to see the wildlife - they don't even allow cars in there any more... We found many birds at the feeding stations, saw several javelinas and even a coyote.

Northern Cardinal	Inca Dove	Chachalaca	Altamira Oriole
Pied-Billed Grebe	Vermillion Flycatcher	Green Jay	Javelina

Sunday, we went to church at a nearby RV Park where our friend, Seth Duffey, preaches each Sunday. It was good to hear him again and see both him and his wife, Pat. We were also able to go over and visit with them a few days later at their home and catch up with the past 3 years since we last saw them. After we got back from church, we went with Cookie & Roy to check out a local Flea Market. It wasn't quite what we expected, and we didn't find any good buys, so left and went to a Mexican Restaurant for a delicious dinner. We tried to find some fruit, but found all the fruit stands close on Sunday, so will have to do that another day!

Monday afternoon, when Cookie was feeling better, we took them in on a tour of the Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park. It was fun to share all the neat sightings with them! The birds in this area are so gorgeous!!

On the 21st, we went out to met with Duane and Marilyn Gibson and do some database work for them. They needed some changes in the databases we created. They are using three of our databases and have been a big help in getting them user-friendly.

Well..........that month in Port Aransas sure went by fast!! Unfortunately, the last few days were mostly cloudy, foggy and/or drizzly. We hated to leave the coast but will go to South Padre for one last look before we leave the area. We left Port A Wednesday, February 9, and moved down to near Rio Hondo TX. The park is on the Arroyo Colorado and very close to the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge so we are looking forward to some good birdwatching. It was drizzly and cloudy yesterday and cloudy today but is supposed to get better and up in the 80's by Monday!! Yesterday, we found a Wal-Mart in San Benito - not too far away - and saw several birds along the way. This afternoon we are going over to the closest area of the Laguna Atascosa NWR and check it out.

Cookie and Roy are parked here also just one row behind us and a couple of spots north. There is a restuarant across the street from the park and we went over there last night. Nothing fancy, but good food!! The park has lots of activities going on - an evening of country music tonight with local talent, a pig roast tomorrow night (just in time for my birthday!!), weekly pot lucks, etc. So, I'm sure our week here will go by too quickly!!

Gosh - it is February already!! Where did January go???

Don got a new camera with a much better zoom than the one we have been using so he can get better bird pictures. Now we need some sunshine so we can get some good pictures!

A couple of days ago, we came across 25-30 Rosette Spoonbills!! They are such strange - but beautiful - birds! There were also some white ibis and snowy egrets in with them and all were very busy feeding.

We have had several days of cold, drizzle and clouds......but they say the sun should come out tomorrow!!! We are ready! We have to leave here in a week. It is hard to believe we have been here over 3 weeks already!! We will be moving south to a park near a wildlife area and not too far from South Padre Island (we wanted to stay on the island, but the park was full!).

The past 12 days have gone by very quickly!! We have been out to the birding center a few times, down to Mustang Island State Park birdwatching, done some beach walking, shelling (but there are very few seashells on the beach this year!!) and visiting with Cookie & Roy who were here for 4 days before moving up to Rockport. One evening coming back from driving down the beach with them, we spotted these roseate spoonbills in a pond along the road.

We have enjoyed being close enough to the beach to take a walk whenever we feel like going out. Most of the days have been warm and sunny. We did get another website to revise so have been busy doing that as well. But we usually manage to get down to the beach at least just before sunset when the water is pale blue and the sky gets pink - so pretty. It is hard to believe that we have been here over two weeks already!

Yesterday, John & Martha Stene, friends of ours from our Boulder CO days arrived in town to do some sightseeing. They are wintering down in the valley and had never been to this part of the coast. So, today we went over to Corpus Christi to see the USS Lexington and then, Cookie & Roy joined us after lunch for a visit to the Texas State Aquarium. The dolphin show was great. We do see the dolphin occasionally in the canal either from the ferry or sitting along the side. But they are a ways away there! We did have a really full day of walking!!!

We ended the day with dinner at the Crazy Cajun where dinner is a delicious dining experience!

Tomorrow we plan to visit the birding center with them and try to get in a beach walk before Stene's head back south after lunch. It has been great fun visiting with them!

We left Longview on January 6 and headed south. We spent that night in Sugarland TX - a suburb of Houston. Then it was on to Port Lavaca where we spent 3 nights in a city park with a neat boardwalk and bird watching area. One day while we were there, we went to the Aransas Wildlife Area and were able to see a whooping crane family - we had to see them through a viewer as they were quite a ways off, so no pictures of them!! We did see lots of other birds there including thousands of robins! We had never seen them in flocks like they were there. It took us awhile to decide what they were as they were not acting like the robins do up north!

On the 10th we left in fog to head further south to Port Aransas. Fortunately, it wasn't too thick and before long it was gone. The park here is just over the dunes from the beach and we can see the water from the front window of the coach!!

We went to the wildlife area here to see who was around but it was a very windy day and there weren't too many birds out. However, this pink spoonbill got up on the railing and posed for me!! They are the strangest critters!!!

The first day we were here it was wonderfully warm. Then the cold front came through and it cooled off to the 60's - but with a cold wind!! We can still enjoy the beach, though; shell hunting, bird watching and just watching the waves. The skimmers are fun to watch as they fly just out of the water with their lower bill in the water - skimming for fish!! We were also watching the cormorants having supper - they dive for their fish and a couple of them had fish nearly as big as they are - It was really interesting watching them get the fish in their mouth head-first so they can swallow them!!

We have eaten out a couple of times and enjoyed the wonderful seafood!! We have had some sunny days and some cloudy - but they all are better than the cold up north!!!

Last night, on our way home for supper after spending time shelling and bird watching on the beach, we saw the most gorgeous sunset!!! Not often we seen one this colorful!

Cookie & Roy are coming down to join us. They are due in tomorrow.....they had delays in getting away from GJ because of the snow! They will stay here in the RV Park for a few days and then, I think, are moving up to Rockport where they will stay in one of their association parks. There was only space here for a few days - it is a busy place!!!