Things are always bigger in Texas.

HEY WAIT!!  What happened to Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana????

 There you go!

A word or three about Texas, First of all its big. Ya, I know Alaska is bigger -yada-yada-yada. But when you hit the X-Way at the state line and it’s mile marker 899 or some thing like that, that’s a whole lot of miles. Another thing Texicans are just different. Its hard to put your finger on it, ask our oldest son Alan, he’s a Texan, born on Sheppard AFB in Wichita Falls, Tx. has a certificate and everything. We were talking to the person at the Texas info center and mentioned we had a Texan for a son, her smile got a little bit brighter and a little friendlier. That’s not to say that Texans aren’t friendly because they are. The snowbirds that come down here are called “winter” Texans and there are even highway billboard signs welcoming them back. I didn’t see anything like that when we were in Florida. Even the food establishments seem to cater to the winter Texans, offering specials to “older” patrons and are genuinely glad to see ya.

Then there’s the Alamo thing. Rumor has it that Ozzie Osborne relieved himself against the Alamo wall and came close to being hung on the spot. One DOES NOT disrespect the Alamo. When we were last there large men in big Stenson’s were watchfully watching all us visitors making sure there would be no repeats.

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Texas has these, too.

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I like Texas, lived here, sort of, a hundred years ago in the Air Force.

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   We were met in Rio Hondo, Tx,

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by an enthusiastic Hal & Gay Heckel. Hal is Mary’s oldest brother. Gay was especially thrilled for us to visit.

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Patty, the Twin Palms park manager was happy to see us again, too

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Hal & Gay Thought long and hard about where they could put us up and finally they said we could stay with them.

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Out back.

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We have visited Hal & Gay several times at their winter compound in Rio Hondo. Actually it’s really nice. The other people in the park are mostly winter Texans and they get along with each other quite well.

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Downtown Rio Hondo

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Hal had a plan for us which involved the finer dinning establishments in the area. But first Mary decided I was no longer fit to be seen in public and decided to give me a hair cut.

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                                         Before:

I didn’t think I looked so bad. But not my call apparently.

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                           After:

I’m told it looks OK. I don’t know. I avoid mirrors.

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Back to Hal’s plan. Below are pictures from some of the dives – er restaurants Hal & Gay took us to:

 

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This place is a secret  location that only sells hamburgers, giant things the size of dinner plates, at least half a cow. I wasn’t allowed to get to close with the camera.

More:

In all fairness to Hal the places he took us to were, yes – off the wall and yes, dives of a sort, but the food was real good and the patrons and staff real friendly. Hal made it up to us when we went to the Scoop for some malts, and soda’s and sundae’s and….

 

The more we visit Hal & Gay at Twin Palms RV Park (5 times) the more we like the place and the people there. Mary is looking into see what we need to do to come and stay for maybe a month next year. More than likely we won’t be camping out back. One of the things Mary finds attractive is the facility across the street:

She likes the idea of a place she can drop me when she wants to go shopping with the girls.

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I, on the other hand, was especially drawn to the new Jaguar mec-anic in town. As an added bonus he also does taxes.

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One of the things that we had to do was be interviewed by the Parks applicant review committee. Not really.  I made that up. This is a gathering of the local brain-trust and world’s ill solvers.

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Did I mention the Park?

Thought I would throw in these shots and you can draw your own conclusions.

Mary went shopping but I thought the dress would be a little over the top!

Gay wants her own transportation for the park and thought this would look nice parked next to the trailer.

 

Finally we have Mary and Gay discussing the placement of the new flower tower thing-a -ma-gig. I’m not sure what they are saying as I don’t read sign language.

Once again it became time to continue our journey so we said good bye to Hal & Gay (after unloading some of our unneeded winter duds on them) and Waltzing across Texas toward Arizona and more adventure.

Oops!! How can we leave Hal & Gay without talking about the BIG storm?

So there we were safe and sound in our 20 year old K-Mart tent. The weatherman said something about rain and maybe a little breezy wind coming. I had gone with Hal and got some waterproofing spray and went over the tent so we should be good to go. Besides we were in the lee of Hal’s 5-wheel and it should give us some protection. Night fell, this kind of stuff can only happen at night (I think Congress passed a law on it), and the rain started, not too bad, the weatherproofing was weatherproofing and the tent hadn’t blown over or anything. The the rain started to come down harder and harder and the wind blew stronger and stronger but we were still good, protected by the 5-wheel. Mary was asleep and I was drifting in and out. Then the SECOND storm hit from the opposite direction. Now we were the protection for the 5-wheel.  The tent shook and the sky exploded like giant flashbulbs going off right above the tent. The wind would suck the air out of the tent one moment and blow it up like a balloon the next. The tent would lean away from the wind and I would think “sure hope those tent stakes hold” but then I remembered I was on the windward side and as I haven’t as yet lost all the weight I would like, the tent would likely stay put. Mary woke up and asked “are we still in Texas, Toto?” The storm raged around us for about 3 years and finally slacked off and we had survived. Only a little damp, but not bad and drifted off to sleep. The next morning we learned that the storm had generated a few tornadoes not far to the west, but the Twin Palms RV Park was not on a tornado’s list that night. Hal & Gay said that if it would have gotten real bad we could have come inside. At least I think they said that.

Now as Horace Greeley said “head that Jag west” or something like that.