New Year - New Place

In a few days we will say ‘til we meet again’ to new friends and head out to our new volunteer gig at Goliad State Park  It has been a fun filled, 8 weeks here at Wilderness Lakes RV Resort. For us, it has been the perfect balance of ruggedness with timbered trails and wildlife and the perks of a resort style park with it’s clubhouse, pool and organized social events.  I recall our volunteer village neighbor, Bob Flannagan,  saying ‘For every Hello, there is a Goodbye”. What I add to that is there is also the hope of a return 'Hello' down the road.

My mind works in visual analogies.  I relate the people we meet along the way in this life to a Shrub Rose I had at our old acreage. Every passing year it grew a little larger and produced more flowers. Out time is like the bush and our new friends are the flowers. It was beautiful to see it grow just as it is beautiful to see the network of friends grow each season that we put behind us.

 

 

Over the past weeks, we had the opportunity to visit the Harrington’s who are two hours south of us working at Laguna Atascosa NWR till spring. We left with plans for them to visit us at Goliad when they head back north. We played tourist in Corpus Christie and spent a great evening taking in the Christmas spirit along the San Antonio River Walk. The rest of our time has been filled with new friends at the RV Park, Bocce Ball, card games and potlucks.  I met Connie, who introduced me to a new form of exercise called Eccentircs that I am learning and will continue to work on through videos and online self-teaching programs. Champ has been having a good time playing horseshoes and we both have really enjoyed the walking trails around the park.

[caption id="attachment_460" align="alignleft" width="300"] Fran[/caption]

Fran is the local bird and butterfly guru who volunteered many years at various wildlife refuges and traveled in her RV. She resides here at Wilderness Lakes now. I had the privilege of going birding with her one morning where we logged 35 species, several that were firsts for me, still in my birding formative years. She also taught me a great deal about identifying butterflies.

 

[caption id="attachment_459" align="alignright" width="300"] Champ and I with the Berrys and the Waltons[/caption]

We made new friends here, many whom we will stay in contact with and hope will come visit us at our new destination. Some live in areas of the country we want to visit and will give us a familiar face when we make it there one day. Some spend their summers just three or so hours from Saylorville so seeing them in the summer is very likely. It is going to be hard to leave, but it is also exciting to think of the future and opportunities to reconnect with them.

Through the people we met here we have learned about Texas Independence Day in March and the big town festival that happens in Goliad. We also learned about Cuero and the Chisolm Trail museum where we will make it a point to visit on one of our days off.

I saw a note in my publishing calendar that reminded me to revisit a topic from this time last year called “5 things We’ll Miss”. After a year we still miss the whirlpool tub very much. We have adapted to using single ply toilet paper, not having a garbage disposal and the cats have adapted nicely to being tethered when outside. Buster has even learned to walk on a leash so is able to roam a bit with us in tow to keep him out of trouble. I have learned to seek out Wi-Fi Hotspots for things that don’t require secure connections and have adapted. What we miss the most is reliable water pressure, an item that didn’t make the list last year. It changes from place to place and is by far the toughest condition to put up with if we are somewhere with mediocre pressure. We can reduce high pressure, but there is no fancy adapter to increase crappy pressure. That would be a nice invention for RV’ers.

We’ll revel in the New Years Eve festivities here at the RV Park with our new friends and pull the jacks up to leave the middle of next week. We are feeling the familiar mix of excitement for a new place and sadness of parting with new friends.

Find out more about Goliad State Park at:  https://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/goliad



Until next time…