Wednesday March 23, 2022

 I have been asked by several friends to start blogging again, so here goes. Today's entry will give a bit of "catchup" to what we have been doing.

Soon after retirement, we began spending the winter in the Rio Grande Valley. We bounced around between several RV parks until we found one that we liked. We thought we had found one, Cottonwood RV Park because of the price, only $250 per month + electricity.  Several of our friends also stayed there, but after 4 years, I got tired of having nothing to do in the park. It was a good place to stay with friends, but there were no activities in the park, so in 2020 I found a place called Los Ebanos in Mission Tx. They offered a first-timer a special of paying for two days, with two extra days free, plenty of time to decide if we liked the park. When we arrived, everyone was very friendly and we knew we had found "the place to call home for the winter". We went ahead and notified our friends and the owner of Cottonwood that we had found a new park. The two parks are only 3 or 4 miles apart, so we can visit often. 

The 2020 season flew by and we returned to Split Rail in 2021 and we persuaded our friends Norm and Tammy Boyce to join us here. Norm had an EZ Up shelter that he set up behind his trailer (next to us) that we used for a meeting place for us to use. We had a great season with them and made plans for the next year's season with even more Heartlanders staying here. 

Split Rail has an Entertainment Association setup in place to control all facets of entertainment from professional groups, to local jam sessions and the different activities in the park for the enjoyment of the guests in the park. The association has an elected board and I learned that there was a vacancy in the Vice President slot. I met the President, Bob Pirtle, about running for the office and he told me to go for it. I signed up and got elected! I intended to use the skills that I had learned from 14 years with the Heartland Owners Club, 5 years as South Texas Chapter Leader and 2 years as Regional Director of the Central region of the United States and 7 years as Regional Director of the South Central region, consisting of the states of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana.

The 2022 season was our best one yet! We had recruited several new Heartland owners to stay at Split Rail. We were joined by Gene and Molly Coker Marc and Tammy Tubbs as well as former Heartlanders and now Tiffin motorhome owners Craig and Teena Burton, so we  had an outstanding winter with our friends. Marc and Tammy had an EZ Up that they attached to Norm and Tammy's so we had a very nice meeting place which we affectionally named "The Outhouse". Norm and Marc added some side panels which blocked the relentless Rio Grande Valley winds and with the addition of two propane heaters, gave us a snug and warm shelter, which we used daily for Happy Hour and several meals. 

Upon being elected Vice President of the Association, I learned that it meant a 3 year commitment, one year as Vice President, Promotion to President the next year and then one year as a Director. Since this is my year as VP, I asked Norm if he would run for my slot after my automatic promotion to President. He agreed to run and was elected. Now the fun really begins. We have some plans and ideas to help the park and can't wait to begin putting them into place. Wish us luck!

So long.