We’ve been at Eastgate about a month now.  It already seems like we never left.  We arrived on Sunday and quickly settled into our jobs on Monday.  So much to be done.  The weather has been beautiful, in the 80’s and beautiful blue sky.  Every day more and more people pull in.   Motor Homes, Fifth Wheels, pull Trailers, and the ones that own mobiles.  Every time someone comes in, you look to see if you know them.  And everyone is always asking and waiting for their friends from last year to show.  You hope they all were healthy and can come back.  And then comes all the New Ones.  They’re all so anxious to finally be here after days and days on the road.

We did have a storm front come through one night.  The winds suddenly picked up around 9:30 pm.  Rich was watching out the window and our stakes to the sunscreen came out and then a support pole broke.  We ran out into the blinding rain and wind and unzipped the sunscreen from the canopy.  It was over in about 20 minutes.  The winds were gusts of 54 mph.  Fortunately it was warm rain, but the wind took your breath away and the rain just beat through your clothes instantly.  Immediate feeling of a drowned rat….lol….All was good in the morning.  Rich fixed the bent poles and all was fine.  Now Cathy another workamper didn’t fare so well.  She lost her whole awning.  Now that’s expensive.

Time now to start enjoying the luxury of southern living.  One of our 2 hot tubs….This one is maybe 100 feet from our campsite.  Rich started working in the rentals.  Many of these trailers seem to develop soft spots in the floors after time.  That is his first project, pulling up a carpet in the living room and fixing the floor that is disintegrating.  Then he will also be replacing a bathroom sink and the kitchen sink.  I busily started to plan our season of activity.  The board usually does the everyday schedule and I arrange the outside trips and special events within the park.  Our first event was Veterans Day Breakfast.  All Vets ate free.

2 little girls and their parents were invited to come.  Launa 4, and Pearl 2.  Their parents have been teaching them what a veteran is.  So they wanted to come and meet them and give them a bag of candy.  They were so sweet.  After presenting all our Veterans, we gave them a copy of a poem we read and the girls gave them candy.  Then the girls took the mic and sang our National Anthem.  Then Launa put her hand over her heart and said the Pledge to the Allegiance.  They were just so amazing.  Their was a few misty eyes let me tell ya.  It was so touching….These are wonderful parents to teach their children at such a young age about our heritage of our country.  Their an Amazing example of Great parenting. 

We just finished Thanksgiving.  We had cooks this year, we didn’t cook….Hurray…We have a wonderful NEW RESIDENT that has only been here 2 weeks.  She had agreed to cook last Sept.  She didn’t even know us yet….lol…Paulette and her Husband moved from Houston.  Paulette and Roberta, another good friend here, cooked 7 turkeys, dressing and gravy from scratch.  We served 112 people this year, up from last year.  Our park is full this year.  No more prime sights available.  Many people go out or go the South Padre Island for the Holiday.  They did an awesome job.  Thank You so much girls.  Your so Appreciated.

Everyone brought their own table decorations.  Some elegant, some fun.  Then we have the fun ones, the ones we love to laugh with, cause we know every time their around, they will do something crazy…..

This table was so pretty.  They used regular brown paper for the cloth and handed out crayons to color and write what they were thankful for…..Great Idea….Actually, if you didn’t see our faces, you’d think many of us were children.  lol.  We have reverted to childhood.

We also had a more somber moment.  We lost several more residents this summer and the families and friends wanted to plant 2 different trees in their memory.  So our new area that the Garden Club was going to develop, took a new and much more meaningful path. A MEMORY GARDEN.  A Miniature Bottle Brush Tree and a Pine Tree were planted and 2 plaques were installed in their memory.  It will be a beautiful area with room for more if needed.

I attended the Convention in Mission with Sandy.  It was for the Park Managers and Activity Directors.  You could obtain info on services and fun stuff that you can offer your residents.  We received lots of free stuff as well as making many contacts.  I was surprised at how many places I already knew of and new many of the people because of last years contacts.

Seg Valley was also their.  They offer tours all over the Valley including South Padre Island.  I worked for Racheal and Brian last year on Sundays at DonWes Flea Mkt.  Brian has now attached LED lighting to the Segways…..Amazing….Can’t wait to see it at nite.  It was so good to touch base with them.  They will be coming to the park in a few weeks for our Friday morning Coffee and Donuts.  They will do a talk and demonstrate the Segway.  Then outside people can try it out.  I can’t wait to a ride again.  They’are so much fun.  I will be scheduling a ride on the Island soon.  This time the beach.

Now we had a new trailer come in couple of weeks ago.  This is what we all do…..Gather around and sit at a trailer and watch…lol…Entertainment….So now Thanksgiving is over.  Time to take down decorations and Decorate for Christmas.  This is always a fun time.  Well all be doing that next Thursday.  Our park is very full this year due to the reduced rates our Park Owner has offered.  He also gave the Canadians the cost at Par.  That means they pay the price at their money rate.  They save lots of money that way as their dollar is worth much less than ours, so we have many new Canadians, even French Canadians.

Now I don’t want to make you feel bad, but this is South Padre Island…SPI….It is only about a half hour away……Beautiful beach’s…..lol……Beautiful Blue Ocean

I’ll finish with a new family picture that Tina, Ed and the kids had taken.  This is just 1 of many.  They were so so good……And of course Dexter is so cute….