The Travels of the Agnew Family

Second fun night of the season. It still amazes me that we have so many people in park that are willing to get up on the stage and do silly things. All of us sitting in the audience really appreciate it.


The Oleander Acres Hula dancers made an appearance --- think they need a little more practice.


The doctors preformed an intricate operation with precision tools.


Tiny Tim sang his number one hit for us.


The High Society Lady and the bum skit is always a fun. Marie and Renata did a fantastic job.

Today was the big barbecue cook off at the Mercedes fairgrounds. John, Carol, Ed and I piled into the truck in search of smoked meat and boy did we find it. An entrance fee of $5 gets you in and allows you to taste a lot of good meat. Last year when John and Carol went they were judges for the smoked ribs, so we headed down to the "judging" building and managed to get in as judges for the ribs --- next year we'll try for brisket. There are four levels of judging. The preliminary (which is what we did) consists of 7 tables of 5 judges. Each table tasted 18 different ribs and rated them on a scale of 1 to 10, using aroma, color, texture, taste and overall appearance as the criteria. A number of ribs will be dropped from the race with the remaining ones proceeding to the next level of judging ---- 5 tables with 5 judges each. The 3rd level has 3 tables of judges and final judging being 1 table. $10,000 of prize money is available to be won.


The "smokers" arrived on Friday and started smoking in the wee hours of Saturday morning. They brought in trailers and smokers of all descriptions. We talked to several of the "smokers" asking lots of questions as Ed and I have decided to buy a smoker and are trying to figure out what kind to get.


Seeing this photo made me realize that I didn't see any female smokers. There were lots of women there on the teams but the men seemed to be in control of the smoking. Very interesting......


The "judging room". Looking at the 2nd, 3rd and 4th level of judging. Each Styrofoam box contains one teams ribs.


One of the ribs we judged. John is concentrating grading the ribs he just tasted.

Hit a high of 96F today and the evening was warm so we had our first outdoor movie of the season. Showed The King's Speech. Very good movie. Unfortunately the mosquitoes were out enjoying the evening as well.

When I got up this morning the fog was thick. Zaph and I took a walk down the beach and couldn't see the hotels from the waters edge. Luckily the sun burned through the fog and morning turned into a beautiful day.


Caity being checked out by two other dogs staying at the motel we stayed at. So much for the less than 20 pound rule.


Carol has the dogs undivided attention.


Happy dogs with tennis balls.






The best feature of the motel was this outside deck. It was a nice place sit and have morning coffee or an afternoon drink. Not so nice when others were partying on it at 11:00 pm ---- yes we're getting old.

When we were at the kite festival, Ed talked about buying a four string kite. Unfortunately for my wallet, the kite Ed wanted was in stock at the local kite shop so he's now the proud owner of a four string kite.

Carol and I took the dogs and a couple of tennis balls for a walk down the beach. Since we believe there is a leash law on the beach we had long lines on both dogs. The balls were thrown, the dogs took chase, my foot went up in the air and my butt landed hard on the sand. Important lesson --- make sure your feet are clear of the leashes. Not sure what hurt the most --- my ankle, my head or my pride.


The kite flyer


the kite ---- the matching hat was not a co-incidence, it came with the kite. I tried to fly the kite but it wasn't as easy as Ed made it look. I got it off the ground but crashed shortly afterward. Ed said being able to fly a plane helped with flying the kite.


Cait was sitting on the beach minding her own business, when a bully (Zaph) started digging a hole to sit in and sprayed sand on her.

Zaph loves to spend time on the beach, so we went to South Padre Island and spent two nights in a motel. This year we went with John, Carol and Caity and stayed at a very interesting motel --- think it was one of the least expensive places on the island and it was right on the beach. Probably won't stay there again but it was acceptable. The first matter of business was a walk on the beach or in Cait and Zaph's opinions a dip in the water and a romp on the beach. Got a little carried away with the dog photos as I think Ed managed to get some really good ones.


On the way to South Padre Island we stopped at the shell store. Lots of interesting things at the store including King Kong. Each year the outside display increases in size but not sure why the store owners are doing it.


"Zaph, I just love the beach" --- not sure if Caity is trying to get something out of Zaph's mouth or giving him kisses.


"Can I have the stick....... no it's my stick"


The life ..... soaking wet and a stick in my mouth.


As fast as a speeding bullet .........


Charge!!!!!!!!


Finally I got it.


"mom, make her give it back"


It's mine .... no it's mine


Looking down the beach .... the pipe is being used to move sand from somewhere out in the water to the beach in an effort to rebuild the beach.


Looking up the beach. It was a little foggy but still a beautiful day.


Zaph found what looked like a red tennis ball buried in the sand.


Look it's a football. First Caity pushed it around the beach with her nose.


Then she managed to put a whole in it so she could pick it up.


One proud puppy running down the beach with her football.

I saw the local Winter Texan paper this morning and noticed that there was a quilt show at the local convention center. I really wanted to go to the show so Carol opted to go with me and the boys, John and Ed, decided to go electronics shopping.


Interesting license plate we saw in the parking lot by the quilt show.


This quilt was amazing.


Other quilts like this chicken one were whimsical.


There were very colorful quilts and more traditional quilts.


Zaph and Caity both found a stick .... unfortunately it was the same stick. Eventually it became two sticks.

Our trailer is a Titanium and each year there is a luncheon in the valley for Titanium RV owners. We haven't been for a few years so we decided to attend this year. Last year Glendale, the company that manufactured Titanium RVs, went bankrupt. Heartland RVs has acquired the unique Titanium RV design and has begun manufacturing. One of new "Titaniums" was on display at the luncheon.

The lunch was good, met some nice Titanium owners and had a chance to see the new Titanium.

Another cold front came through the valley this week. Not as bad as last weeks but it still went below freezing a couple of nights. A lot of trees and bushes have lost their leaves and flowers so it's looking a like fall not spring. Luckily the trees and bushes recover quickly with the warmer weather so I'm sure there will be leaves on the trees before long. Current long range forecast is full of 80F weather --- finally what we were waiting for.

Once again it is time for the annual Mexican Fiesta complete with dancers down at the rec hall. One of the programs offered by the Recreation Department of the town of Mission is Mexican Dance. Each year children and adults participating in this program come to our park and dance for us. As usual I think the little ones are the favorites of the park.


I don't think the littlest one cracked a smile the entire time.

Tonight we showed the 2005 movie An Unfinished Life starring Robert Redford, Morgan Freeman and Jennifer Lopez. Now this was a movie worth watching. If you haven't seen it I recommend that you rent a copy and watch it.


Ed and I were out of the trailer for a bit and when we came back in this is what we found.

Ed wanted to see the James Cameron movie Sanctum in 3D so we went to the theater this afternoon. Monday is senior's day at the theater which makes it much more affordable. The movie was OK but it wasn't the extra money for 3D.

John, Carol, Caitlin, Ed, Zaph and I climbed into John's truck and drove to South Padre Island this morning to attend the annual kite festival.


The back seat was full. Poor Caity, she had to sit on her mom's lap.


First order of business is "play time on the beach". Caitlin loves to soar through the air.




Time to check out the water. We managed to keep them fairly dry and prevented rolling on dead fish.


This group was flying six four string kites.


One of the prettiest maneuvers was the star burst. The kites were flown in a tight circle than pulled quickly away from each other.


My favorite of the big kites was this star.


When the wind co-operated the sky was filled with color. There was about a half hour where the wind was below 5 mph making it almost impossible to fly the kites.


This cart is powered by a kite similar to those used by kite borders. Looked like a lot of fun but I think you need strong arms.


The finally had twelve people with their kites flying together. Considering this was the first time they flew together they did a great job. The people are all bunched at the lower right side of the photo.




Caitlin took over one of the chairs so she had a better view of the show.

Lois (the woman in charge of crafts) wants to do a craft making a night light out of a wine bottle. The first step is to drill a hole into the wine bottle. Lois purchased an appropriate drill bit but wasn't sure how to proceed from there so she asked Ed for help. Ed asked around and found a small drill press he could borrow. Next he gathered wood to make a frame to hold the wine bottle and a tray to put the wine bottle,frame and water into. Once he got going he drilled holes in 37 bottles in less than 2 hours.


Ed hard at work.

This evening we attended a dinner and show at the rec hall --- pork roast and Elvis. Ed and Jan are living in a tent in our park this winter (can't imagine 3 months in a tent) as he books gigs for next winter. Ed is a rock and roll singer as well as an Elvis impersonator and he preformed for us tonight. The first half of the show was rock and roll and the second half was Elvis.


"Elvis" had fun wooing the ladies in the audience.




Ray put on his finest duds and was sound manager for Elvis.

This morning we woke up to an ice covered world. Getting out of the trailer was a little tricky as the steps had a good coating of ice on them. South Texas doesn't know how to deal with winter ---- they don't normally have to. The main highway was closed, warming centers were opened and people were being told how to dress using layers to protect themselves from the cold and it was only a couple of degrees below freezing. I guess it's all a matter of perspective. Happily the sun came out, the temperatures rose and the ice melted.


The palm trees had ice on the leaves.


As the wind blew the ice began to fall of the palm tree leaves and land on the ground.


The sun came out making the ice shine and started the melting process.


Cheryl covered her plants and managed to save them all.


Glenn peeled this chunk of ice off of the tree behind his trailer.

South Texas is in the middle of a cold snap. The high today is 34F with sleet and freezing rain predicted. This is pretty tough on the farmers. The fields around the RV park are planted with onions, so hopefully they will survive. Not sure what this cold weather will do to the citrus crops. Yesterday the power went off in the park for an hour during a rotating brown out. So far we haven't had one today.

On top of the cold weather my computer decided to have a problem. On Tuesday morning I installed a windows updated like my computer requested. The next time I turned my computer on windows would not load. Grrrr....... I followed the instructions but nothing worked so Ed got to use the recovery. My computer is back up and running but I lost my email for the past three months. Guess that's one way to clean up your mail. It's time for me to start following my own advise and start backing up my computer weekly if not more often.