Winter In Texas                                                       February 29, 2012

I DO love crawfish!!  There is simply nothing better than a steaming plateful of spicy mudbugs and an ice cold mug of beer.  You just gotta love southern cooking!

We are now enjoying the luxurious accommodations of the Victoria Palms Resort in Donna, Texas and will be hanging out here until we head off to California On April 1st.  Until then we’ll be splitting our time between the on-site gym and swimming pool and following the herds of our fellow olde farts to one of the many local Elks Lodges for afternoons of waltzes, Texas two steps and Minnesota polkas…

After spotting a restaurant sign advertising “Fresh Boiled Crawfish” we decided to hole up for a spell to see just what Mother Nature had in mind for the weather…

The scene was very much akin to that of one of the old black and white horror films featuring Bela Lugosi emerging from the mist with cape and fangs as Dracula and even the ferry bore the surname of the novelist responsible for his creation, Bram Stoker.   A coincidence?   Perhaps, although I have been keeping a much closer eye on my travelling companion after dark and am beginning to suspect an ulterior motive to all the time she spends caring for her teeth . . . especially the canines.

And even the gulls decided that hopping a ride on the ferry was preferable to navigating the channel on their own…

As we meandered southward along the coast toward Port Lavaca the fog lifted and we found ourselves in the midst of clouds that were darkening rather quickly and seemed to be forming into an even more threatening conical shape…

Other than catching an occasional flash of yellow as she whisked by on the dance floor while being handed off between Bob and Marv, my bride was MIA for the next hour and I now know what it feels like to be “double-teamed.”

We’ll see y’all next time.  Hugs, Chuck and Kalyn

“We need the rain.”  I can’t begin to tell you the number of times we have heard those 4 little words uttered as we have endured our 4th consecutive day of unending rainfall in a new place.  It seems as if EVERY town we have visited during the last 12 years of RVing has been suffering a drought of Biblical proportions and only our arrival, and the attendant monsoons, has prevented them from turning to dust and blowing away in a hot prairie wind. 

After enduring several weeks of torrential rain in southern Alabama, we were actually looking forward to the 80 degree temperatures being forecast for the Texas coast.  But, as we approached Galveston, the sun disappeared altogether and we found ourselves in the grip of dense fog as we ferried across to the island…

During our various travels through Minnesota and spending an inordinate number of hours in their bars and dance halls we have never seen this many accordions in action at the same time…we counted 12!

Many of the octogenarian men who attend these shindigs are single and I soon found myself a victim of “old age and treachery” as Bob engaged me in conversation while his buddy, Marv, stole my gal…