When's Dinner?

So far so good here in Mission. We tried our hand at a bit of geocaching yesterday and discovered we're rusty. We got a late start and had some other things we wanted to do while we were out, so our hearts weren't really in it. This looks like a cache-rich part of the world, so we're eager to get back to it.

One of the other things we did yesterday afternoon was attempt to visit some of our fulltiming friends staying here in Mission. "Attempted" would be the operative word. While scouting out Bentsen Rio Grande Valley State Park for a future visit, we drove through a lovely park where virtual friends Mark and Dortha are staying. With no signs of life at what we thought was their place we decided to go down the road and check in on friends Mac and Netters. Nobody was home at their house either. We then cruised by still virtual friend Leno's house hoping to see someone outside. Nobody was, and Leno's husband has been under the weather so we decided not to stop. It just wasn't our day to pick up many caches or meet any friends. So, we went to Walmart. (That always works!) On our way home we discovered where Mark and Dortha and Mac and Netters had been. They had stopped by our house! And, like us, they discovered nobody at home. Too funny! We're looking forward to actually hooking up with everybody soon.

One pair that did catch up with us yesterday were two members of our park's "welcoming committee". They were duly welcoming and quite cheery as they ran through some of the ins and outs and many activities of the park. Lots of games are offered here. And, food, too. They explained that the "appreciation dinner" is coming up. It's a big gig, so there are two seatings. The first group dines at 4:00 PM and the second at 5:00.

Dinner at 4:00 or 5:00? For us, that's a late lunch!

To add to our confusion, we received an invitation from neighbors Patsy and Joe to visit them "after supper". We eagerly accepted and looked forward to the chance to swap stories with these fellow new fulltimers. As late afternoon became evening we wrestled with a timely question.

When's dinner?

One of the things we've noticed since we started fulltiming is that everyone eats dinner earlier than we do. Most people eat a lot earlier. When we were growing up, our moms served up dinner at 6:00 or 6:30. Since we've been together, we've served dinner between 7:00 and 9:00. As workaholics, it would easily be 6:00 or 7:00 before we were both home for the evening. So, dinner at 8:00 was commonplace. Although we've given up the jobs and the great big kitchen, our love for dinner late in the day remains.

So, "after supper" for us is 9:00 or 10:00. We're pretty sure our neighbors weren't expecting us then. Here in the land of 4:00 dinner seatings, we considered our options. We decided that a 7:00 arrival would be suitable. Armed with refreshments and a snack we wandered across the street as the clock struck 7:00. We knocked on the door and heard, "Well, there they are!" Immediately we had the sense that 6:30 might have been better. The door opened and our hosts extended a warm welcome to their late arrivals. After a couple of hours of engaging conversation and Olympics watching, we bid our new friends a good night. Then, what did we do?

Yep. We fixed dinner.