Steve and Judy's Travels!

  We bank online.  The balance changed too much one morning, so I checked the pending transactions.  There were two we didn’t recognize.  Judy called the bank.  Turns out we bought a couple plane tickets the day before.  Flights from Chicago to San Antonio.  Didn’t know anything about that, so the bank voided the transactions for us and cancelled our bank card.  By the time we got off the phone with the bank, United Airlines had called and left a message to say they had detected a fraudulent transaction and had cancelled it already.   We know the source of the problem.  I bought some batteries online a year ago, and used my bank card.  The company we bought from just recently sent out a letter of warning and apology.  Their server got hacked.  That was our exposure.   The bank and the vendor were both right on top of it.  There were only two bad charges and those were immediately reversed.  The card can’t be used again.  A replacement card is on its way.  So far, Citizens – 1;  Credit Card Thieves – 0.     A new Hibiscus Flower today    

  At the same time, progress on the side patio.  Pavers partly in.  The ground built up around the retaining wall.  Some Hibiscus underneath the palms.    

  Plants!  Great expanses of landscaping almost done.  Small spots completely done.  Rosemary behind the wall.  The centerpiece tree, Enrique (He’s a Foxtail Palm).  Fanflowers at his feet.    

  We added a cool Gadget to our travel blog (Thanks to help from Jim Beck).  If you look at the top left, now there is a link to click to get a Google Map of exactly where we are.  It might be a boring link right now; we haven’t moved lately.  It should get more interesting once we move on for the summer though.  Check it out:   http://steveandjudystravelblog.blogspot.com/2009/06/gulf-waters_15.html   For the sadistic few of you who would have us send a photo of a red-eared slider hanging from a finger, we’re not going to repeat that exercise on purpose.  The seven year old kid next door who demonstrated the technique for us certainly doesn’t want to do it again.  No serious damage.  A band-aid took care of the finger.  The turtle didn’t need any treatment at all.   More of the same on the yard.  They came.  They dug.  They did stuff.  They filled it back in.  The infrastructure is about done.  Tomorrow:  Plants!    

  Met Paul and Linda tonight.  They have been staying at The Lagoons up by Rockport.  A friend told them about Gulf Waters, so they came down here for a week.  They got Dan and Pam’s site on the big pond.  They are so happy with that spot, clearly the best one in the entire park.  It was great fun to listen to them tell us how great our park is.  They’ve never seen anything like it.   It’s pretty much like that every day.  We thought it was going to be empty here in the summer, but it’s not.  The motorhome pull-in sites don’t fill up, but the back-in sites almost fill up every weekend.  Travel trailers and young families mostly.  Some fifth wheels.  A few motorhomes.  Lots of weeklong visitors.  Some visitors are here for months.  Busy all the time, even during the week.  I think all three of Bear and Shorty’s sites are occupied right now.   Lots of people to talk to.  We keep ending up with all the kids and turtles in our yard.  Our yard, by the way, got a lot of attention from the landscaper today.  An infrastructure day.  They took out all the old pipes and sprinklers, strung all new irrigation, wiring for the landscape lighting, plus water and electricity for the new fountain.  We’ve got irrigation out on the end where there wasn’t any before.  A crew of three.  Twenty-four man hours.  By the end of the day they managed to cover everything back up and make it look like they hadn’t done anything at all.