For the first time in 4 years we stayed in one spot for more than 5 months. This was due to the purchase of the mobile home last winter in southern Texas that will now be our winter quarters. We arrived in the heat of the summer on August 8th and didn’t see the temps drop below 100 degrees for 8 to 10 weeks. We arrived to see the container sitting in our driveway with all of our personal items that we have been keeping in storage for the previous 3 ½ years and we immediately began the work of unloading. We also made the decision that it was time for a golf cart that I then decided to cover in Patriots décor. I am after all known as “the” Pats fan around here. We also decided it was time to officially become Texas residents now that we’ll be spending 6 months of each year here. We did this by changing our legal address, getting Texas drivers licenses and registering our vehicles down here. No more Massachusetts taxes for us.
When the dust settled and we found new places for all our “stuff”, it was time to start with improvements. We replaced our broken dishwasher with a new one and replaced our counter top microwave with an over the range model. I turned our shed into quite the workshop and I added a few great additions to my tool collection. In addition to a new DVD case, we built a bar in the Texas Room. This was something we envisioned the first time we saw this room and it fit in very nicely. We christened our bar on my birthday in December and enjoyed the company of over 100 people here at our place. Our lot, our neighbor’s lot and the entire street in between was filled with golf carts, chairs and people. Everyone brought some food to share so we all enjoyed a great meal and plenty of spirits as well. It was definitely the largest party we ever held and everything went perfect.
Once we settled in our friends slowly but surely started to arrive. It was fun greeting them as they arrived since we’ve previously arrived later than most people. It didn’t take long before the winter season was in full swing. In addition to our usual hectic schedule including Zumba, tennis, water volleyball, bowling and all the other regular events, Claudia kept busy helping to run the Zumba sessions and took on the dance manager role for a musical production that was being put together. I kept busy with the band, practicing at least 3 times a week and performing at least once a month. The resort was busier than ever this winter with lots of new faces.
We continued to enjoy happy hours just about every day and if there was inclement weather, we opened up our Texas Room in order to get together anyway. In addition to our normal happy hours we also occasionally had our “super” happy hours which usually included a theme and plenty of food. We had super happy hours consisting of the Hillbilly Crawl (lots of tables set up with all kinds of delicious liquors), a Funnel Cake Happy Hour, Grapefruit Squeezing (with plenty of liquor added for “tasting”), Margarita Day Happy Hour (some of the best margarita’s ever), Baked Potato and Onion Ring Happy Hours and a Mardi Gras Happy Hour which consisted of our own version of Bourbon Street (otherwise known as the 400 row) complete with jugglers, musicians, our own Preservation Hall and of course loads to eat and drink as always. Our French Canadian members also represented their very own “French Quarter”.
Our DJ dances occurred almost every Saturday with 2 new DJ’s in the park. Karaoke also increased to every other week. I enjoyed singing on a regular basis while Claudia continued to enjoy being a part of the audience. Our Bowling League played every Friday morning and our new team ended up in 2nd place this year. Thank goodness for handicaps.
I loved watching lots of football on our enormous new TV each weekend, usually with several friends joining me. It was a great year to be “the” Patriot’s fan around here. Super Bowl Sunday was an all-day event that started out in the pavilion with a pre super bowl party. Just before kickoff I continued the party at our place with over a dozen friends to watch what turned out to be the game of a lifetime.
We participated in our usual theatrical events as well this year. We were in a 70’s and 80’s Vaudeville type show that was a big hit. Claudia and I were part of a “little people” skit (I was the head and feet while Claudia was the hands) and I was part of 2 other skits including one that I can only describe in person and had the audience literally rolling on the floor laughing. Claudia was a success in her acting performance in one of our theatrical productions and she also did a wonderful job as the dance manager for a musical production of “The Delightful Dreamettes” that was fantastic.
As I mentioned earlier, I spent a lot of time with the band this year as we tried to improve for each performance. This year we were lucky to have a former lead singer from the 1960’s and 70’s group, the New Christy Minstrels staying at our resort for about 8 weeks. During several of our practice sessions he jumped right in and enjoyed playing along with us. Not only is he a great performer (we attended and enjoyed one of his local performances) but he’s also a really down to earth great guy. He gave a lot of his free time to us to improve our guitar playing and also to be better entertainers. He got on stage with us for one of our performances and the place went crazy as we finished our final set with hoots, hollers and loads of dancing. Of course, there may have been some alcohol involved. Our last performance of the year with the band was a great success. The crowd may have been smaller due to people leaving but the enthusiasm hit a new high. We introduced some new songs, mostly rock and roll from the 60’s and they were all huge hits. We’re looking forward to next year when we’ll be welcoming a new drummer as well as the return of our lead guitar and banjo player and our keyboardist. We’re so excited about the possibilities we have ahead. This place is going to rock!
We enjoyed our annual 10 days of Olympic Games again this year as well. Every year keeps getting better. Both Claudia and I received bunches of medals but more importantly had a lot of fun no matter what game we played. My favorite moment came when Claudia received one of the final medals of the games on the final night when she won the silver medal for the cupcakes she submitted for the cookie or cupcake bakeoff. All in all we had 114 athletes from 3 countries that played in 38 different events. The total of all the athletes playing in all the events came to 994.
As the season began to wind down we enjoyed a visit from some good friends from our camp in Connecticut. He just retired and she plans to soon. We’ll definitely be seeing them back here at Sandpipers next year and possibly for many more years to come.
Now it’s time to hit the road again. We have an exciting trip planned this year and we’re hoping you enjoy following along with us. We will keep you regularly updated in our “Current Events” section and will post photos and blog entries on a regular basis. Happy summer everyone!!
When the dust settled and we found new places for all our “stuff”, it was time to start with improvements. We replaced our broken dishwasher with a new one and replaced our counter top microwave with an over the range model. I turned our shed into quite the workshop and I added a few great additions to my tool collection. In addition to a new DVD case, we built a bar in the Texas Room. This was something we envisioned the first time we saw this room and it fit in very nicely. We christened our bar on my birthday in December and enjoyed the company of over 100 people here at our place. Our lot, our neighbor’s lot and the entire street in between was filled with golf carts, chairs and people. Everyone brought some food to share so we all enjoyed a great meal and plenty of spirits as well. It was definitely the largest party we ever held and everything went perfect.
Once we settled in our friends slowly but surely started to arrive. It was fun greeting them as they arrived since we’ve previously arrived later than most people. It didn’t take long before the winter season was in full swing. In addition to our usual hectic schedule including Zumba, tennis, water volleyball, bowling and all the other regular events, Claudia kept busy helping to run the Zumba sessions and took on the dance manager role for a musical production that was being put together. I kept busy with the band, practicing at least 3 times a week and performing at least once a month. The resort was busier than ever this winter with lots of new faces.
We continued to enjoy happy hours just about every day and if there was inclement weather, we opened up our Texas Room in order to get together anyway. In addition to our normal happy hours we also occasionally had our “super” happy hours which usually included a theme and plenty of food. We had super happy hours consisting of the Hillbilly Crawl (lots of tables set up with all kinds of delicious liquors), a Funnel Cake Happy Hour, Grapefruit Squeezing (with plenty of liquor added for “tasting”), Margarita Day Happy Hour (some of the best margarita’s ever), Baked Potato and Onion Ring Happy Hours and a Mardi Gras Happy Hour which consisted of our own version of Bourbon Street (otherwise known as the 400 row) complete with jugglers, musicians, our own Preservation Hall and of course loads to eat and drink as always. Our French Canadian members also represented their very own “French Quarter”.
Our DJ dances occurred almost every Saturday with 2 new DJ’s in the park. Karaoke also increased to every other week. I enjoyed singing on a regular basis while Claudia continued to enjoy being a part of the audience. Our Bowling League played every Friday morning and our new team ended up in 2nd place this year. Thank goodness for handicaps.
I loved watching lots of football on our enormous new TV each weekend, usually with several friends joining me. It was a great year to be “the” Patriot’s fan around here. Super Bowl Sunday was an all-day event that started out in the pavilion with a pre super bowl party. Just before kickoff I continued the party at our place with over a dozen friends to watch what turned out to be the game of a lifetime.
We participated in our usual theatrical events as well this year. We were in a 70’s and 80’s Vaudeville type show that was a big hit. Claudia and I were part of a “little people” skit (I was the head and feet while Claudia was the hands) and I was part of 2 other skits including one that I can only describe in person and had the audience literally rolling on the floor laughing. Claudia was a success in her acting performance in one of our theatrical productions and she also did a wonderful job as the dance manager for a musical production of “The Delightful Dreamettes” that was fantastic.
As I mentioned earlier, I spent a lot of time with the band this year as we tried to improve for each performance. This year we were lucky to have a former lead singer from the 1960’s and 70’s group, the New Christy Minstrels staying at our resort for about 8 weeks. During several of our practice sessions he jumped right in and enjoyed playing along with us. Not only is he a great performer (we attended and enjoyed one of his local performances) but he’s also a really down to earth great guy. He gave a lot of his free time to us to improve our guitar playing and also to be better entertainers. He got on stage with us for one of our performances and the place went crazy as we finished our final set with hoots, hollers and loads of dancing. Of course, there may have been some alcohol involved. Our last performance of the year with the band was a great success. The crowd may have been smaller due to people leaving but the enthusiasm hit a new high. We introduced some new songs, mostly rock and roll from the 60’s and they were all huge hits. We’re looking forward to next year when we’ll be welcoming a new drummer as well as the return of our lead guitar and banjo player and our keyboardist. We’re so excited about the possibilities we have ahead. This place is going to rock!
We enjoyed our annual 10 days of Olympic Games again this year as well. Every year keeps getting better. Both Claudia and I received bunches of medals but more importantly had a lot of fun no matter what game we played. My favorite moment came when Claudia received one of the final medals of the games on the final night when she won the silver medal for the cupcakes she submitted for the cookie or cupcake bakeoff. All in all we had 114 athletes from 3 countries that played in 38 different events. The total of all the athletes playing in all the events came to 994.
As the season began to wind down we enjoyed a visit from some good friends from our camp in Connecticut. He just retired and she plans to soon. We’ll definitely be seeing them back here at Sandpipers next year and possibly for many more years to come.
Now it’s time to hit the road again. We have an exciting trip planned this year and we’re hoping you enjoy following along with us. We will keep you regularly updated in our “Current Events” section and will post photos and blog entries on a regular basis. Happy summer everyone!!
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