Laying Low

That’s us, in the windy Texas Panhandle City of Amarillo – taking it one day at a time, laying low.  Well, mostly, anyway.  We’re here to see family and take care of some business.  Jim’s 40th high school reunion is here this month too, so he’s been reconnecting with friends he hasn’t seen since graduation and introducing me to them.

Unfortunately, about a week ago, I really took today’s title literally by pulling a back muscle and putting myself flat for a few days to recover.  I missed a couple of gatherings due to that.  I had to get myself back on my feet though, because our dear friends Karon and Dan were able to get a couple of weeks in their schedule to join us at the Oasis RV Park. 

The “Schnauzer Brigade” together again (can you tell how windy it is?):

As is our tradition, we fixed dinner for them on the evening they arrived.  Since it was close to Independence Day, I made a patriotic themed pie for dessert (yes, Weight Watcher’s friendly):

Today, we had another new-to-us experience.  Over the holiday weekend, there were people camping near us who saw nothing wrong with setting off fireworks in the RV park, some of them fired off right above our motor home.  When we attempted to discuss the problem with the park’s owner, he basically abdicated any responsibility or interest in solving the issue.  So, we asked for a refund of our unused fee and we moved today.  At least they were decent enough to agree to a refund, but we definitely will not be staying at The Oasis RV Park in future visits to Amarillo.  We’ve never been so unhappy in a park that we felt compelled to move, but there’s a first time for everything!

We’re now in an older park  on the East side of town (Amarillo Ranch RV Park) and feeling far more comfortable with our surroundings here.  Karon and Dan moved too, they are in the site next to us.  The way the sites are arranged, our doors are facing each other so we are sharing a nice patio and yard area., complete with a big shade tree.

At this park, they are charging us a lower rate for a month, but adding electric.  This will give us a chance to use solar power part of the time to save a few dollars.  When we got here around 11 and got set up, we left the electric unplugged.  It was after 5:00 before it got too hot to have just the windows open and fans going, so we switched over to AC power and turned on the air conditioners.  Our solar panels kept up just fine with 3 fans, our computers and various other small things running.  We love our solar!

We sat outside in the shade for awhile this afternoon with Karon and Dan, enjoying our tree!  We finally decided to go to Cracker Barrel for dinner, and Karon wanted to take us for our anniversary, which is Wednesday.  Theirs was yesterday, so Happy Anniversary to them, and thanks for the great dinner tonight!

I had a request for the crock pot pork tenderloin I mentioned in my last posting.  It’s really easy – simply put a pork tenderloin in the crock pot and pour a jar of green chili salsa over it.  Cover and cook on low for 8 or more hours.  I added black pepper, but that’s all, no salt.  Great flavor!  The pie above is just 2 (4-serving size) boxes of fat-free, sugar-free vanilla pudding and pie mix, made according to the recipe on the box for pie.  I arranged cut strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and  whipped topping on the top.  The crust is a reduced fat graham cracker pre-made crust.

We’re enjoying life, especially since we’re sharing time with great friends!