Sunday 29th January – Sand-surfing!

The office here opened at 830am.  I set an alarm and managed to prise myself out of bed around 9 to get dressed, get my bike out and cycle the mile and a half to pay our dues!  Luckily, apart from still being chilly after a sub-zero night, it was a glorious sunny day.  I paid the extra we owed and then debated whether to rent two sand disks (at $13) or buy one (at $11.75) for us to share in our down-hill exploits!  The disks are roughly 50cm in diameter and made of what you’d hope is quite tough plastic.  I rented two and made my way back to the RV.  Hills are a lot tougher one-handed it transpires! 

By the time we went out to walk the dunes it was T-shirt weather without a cloud in the sky.  It was difficult to see how far the dunes went on so we just aimed for the nearest, steepest ones to start practicing our skills.  The disks are probably for use by kids a lot smaller than us!  Simon’s cracked across within minutes but luckily was still semi-usable.  Mine also cracked by the end of our surfing – should’ve just bought us two and it wouldn’t have mattered at all if they broke then! It was a totally unique way to get our daily exercise – climbing the steep slopes was really tough work; two steps up, one step back as the sand melted away beneath our feet (my Fitbit says I’ve done 52 floors!).  But it was worth it for the slide down.  That is something I never expected to be doing in America, let alone Texas! 

 

Other than that, it was a relaxing day. We are very much in competition with who can learn Spanish the quickest on our Duo Lingo apps so make progress every chance we get.  We’re learning the useful stuff first of course; ‘Un oso es un animal’ for example which means ‘a bear is an animal’! 

I’ve changed my tactics with the blog too.  I swear that I am working hard on it every chance I get (apart from when I’m learning Spanish!) but don’t seem to be making much progress. I’m STILL two months behind!  But now I am writing the current day first, when it’s fresh in my mind, choosing and editing the photos I want to use for that day.  It should be faster as I won’t need to look things up.  Then I play catch-up with the days I am working on from the end of 2016.  Eventually, hopefully by the time you read this, I should be almost there.  That’s the plan anyway but I refuse to take short-cuts or miss anything important out for you readers....