Tuesday January 11, 2011

From left: Will Stafford, Cecil and Linda Arnold

From left: LaDell and Ed Stafford and Larry

Pecos River running through the RV Park.

Pecan Tree outside our door.

We woke this morning and Larry went out to connect water and our water hose is frozen. Won't be having running water until the hose thaws today! Crazy Weather everywhere this year. We have never traveled when it has been this cold and I'm pretty sure I'm not enjoying it.

The RV Park is full of Pecan Trees. We have one outside our door and it still has a fair amount of Pecans on it. I asked LaDell today if the pecans would still be good at this time of year since they are harvested in the fall. She said she was sure they would be so I picked up a few to crack and check out. As I mentioned, we are on the on the Pecos River. Today Ed and LaDell took us on a tour around Carlsbad. We drove along the Pecos River and up on the hillside above Carlsbad. It is a scenic area and I'm sure in the spring and summer it is very pretty.

After our tour, we stopped to get a sandwich for lunch and sat and talked for quite awhile. After we had lunch we went to Linda and Cecil Arnolds, which is also Larry's cousin. They live just 5 or 6 houses down the street from Ed and LaDell. They are also a part of the Senior Community and have a beautiful house as well. Linda is quite a character and was quite entertaining to talk to. Cecil has Dementia but seems to carry on a conversation fine. He takes medication which helps him with his control. He seems like a very nice person and we really did enjoy our time there. The six of us are going for dinner at the Elks Club tonight.

We visited for quite a long time at Linda and Cecil's with LaDell and Ed. We all talked like we had known each other all our lives. I really enjoy hearing about the Stafford family from years past. Some of the things we talked about I had heard from the immediate family and others were new. This part of the family has lived around the Carlsbad area and done so many interesting things over the past 40 years, I was very entertained with the conversations. Linda and Cecil have a son and a daughter that lives in Carlsbad. The daughter has a 16 year old boy and the son has 3 boys, 18, 20 and 22, I believe. I offered to remove my shoes when we got there and Linda made it known that she has dealt with 4 grandson's for years and she was not worried about our shoes in her home. She is a real character and I love listening to her. Larry says she is a lot like her mother, Caroline. I was admiring Linda paintings and she told me several of them were painted by a lady she knows from Carlsbad, who is now 94 years old. As I moved on looking at the paintings, Linda told me she went to the college here in Carlsbad and studied art for awhile. She then showed us her paintings, which Larry and I both told her were very good. Later Larry said I should ask Linda if she would sell us one of her paintings. She was very flattered and amazed that we would want one. I told her I really would like to have one, not only because I think they are great, but because it would be something to remember her. She said she would think about what she could part with. She was very humbled by my request.

Ed brought us back to the motor home around 4:00 so we had some time to relax before we met them at the Elks for dinner. They called us when they were ready to eat which was about 5:30. Linda told us that Ed and LaDell love to eat at the first hint of evening and made us laugh the way she said it. She and Cecil are 'night' people. She told me she is so exhausted from her days of dealing with Cecil that she has no time to relax until she can get him to go to bed. She said she stays up most nights until 2:00am just to have some time to herself. I feel very sorry for her having to deal with the dementia. Cecil seems to do well in a conversational setting but from what Ed told us, he is quite different when he and Linda are alone. We should all be thankful that we have not had to deal with this issue in our lives.

We met Ed, LaDell, Linda, Cecil and Will, Ed and LaDell's oldest grandson, at the Elks. We had a few drinks and then had a wonderful dinner. We had a salad and the fare for the evening was Mexican. They served enchiladas, rice and beans and it was very good. We visited for a long time at dinner and then all went to Ed and LaDell's for coffee and desert. Will is such a great kid, very well educated and great to talk with. Ed told us he has a degree in Finance and one in Accounting. Currently he is not working and studying for his CPA. Their oldest granddaughter who is 18 is living here in Carlsbad with Will(her brother), to finish high school. Her parents moved to Texas and she wanted to finish school with her class so she stayed here. I asked Will if they got along living together and he told me they were 8 years apart so they got along very well. He seems like a very mature guy and was so polite with all of us.

We came home around 10:00 and since the temperature is suppose to drop tonight, we again unhooked the hose from the motor home. This time Larry drained it good so it would not freeze. When I hit he bed, I felt exhausted. I think I talked myself to death today, which for my family rare as we love to talk. We decided to stay one more night as Larry wants to got to the Carlsbad Caverns tomorrow. Ed, LaDell and Linda told us a great deal about the caverns so we decided we should see them.