We are enjoying our time here in South Texas with new people arriving daily at the RV park. After Thanksgiving there will be a big influx and the official start of the winter season will begin. Our weather has been beautiful in the 55-75 range and low humidity with a slight north wind. However, the last several days the wind has been howling out of the south with the temps 75-90 and high humidity....the kind of weather I dislike. The overnight low temps have been setting high records. We have been holed up in the motorhome with the air conditioner running. However, I guess that is better than our Montana home where they have been having unseasonably cold weather and even some snow.

One good thing about staying inside is that we are using the time to sort and name our pictures we took on our Mexico trip. Both Dan and I carry cameras with big lenses to take pics of the birds we see. The challenging part becomes in the ID of the birds. In the field, our leader Dave, would tell us what they are but after seeing about 225 species in various stages of camoflage in the bushes, and about a month after the fact, it becomes a guessing game as to what some of the birds are. That plus the fact that many are southern birds that we are not used to seeing. We have had some spirited discussions on what some of them may be, ending with "Well, it is your list" [a birding expression for "I don't believe you but I am not going to argue".]

We are back in the land of citrus groves and this time of year is harvest. There are roadside stands everywhere. I really like grapefruit and have found a way to eat it which I really like. I peel it, cut it into bite sized pieces and put them on a plate in the freezer for about 4-5 hours. By that time they have ice crystals in them but are not rock hard and are really delicious. I can hardly wait until evening every day so I can have my frozen treat.

For Thanksgiving dinner the RV park is having a dinner at the clubhouse where they supply the meat and we bring the accompanying dishes. Instead of doing that [the clubhouse is noisy] we have decided that we will eat with friends Anne, Scotty, Linda and Jim. When I went to buy the ham today I had a nice surprise. If you buy a ham [which I was going to do anyway] they gave you a turkey for FREE!! Being my mother's daughter, I could not pass that up. The fact that our RV refrigerator is way too small didn't slow me down a bit.....free was free! Dan is really good at creative arranging and the turkey is now in the fridge, thawing to be cooked on the weekend. We both love cold turkey sandwiches and then stewing the bones to make soup so we will be in great shape for food for the next while. Our local grocery store chain often has really good specials like that.

Happy Thanksgiving to all.