Fun N Sun, San Benito, Texas, September 19, 2015

Nelson’s Notes #102

 

RUNNING ACROSS AMERICA

Cyndi Graves, daughter of Fun N Sun’s Glen and Virginia Hindman, did just that- – ran across America coast to coast. The experienced athlete has run across Tennessee (Vol State multi-day race) on three different occasions, and has run 50-mile and 100-mile races as well as about 50 marathons (26.2 miles each). She also completed 5 full Ironman triathlons (Each triatholon had a 2.4 mile swim, 112 miles of biking, and a 26.2 mile run).

cyndi at finish line

Cyndi at the “Finish Line” with husband David and sister Sheryl

 

For 78 days, starting on April 1 and ending on June 17, 2015, the 51-year-old pounded the highway (mostly US 60) starting in Venice Beach, California, and finishing in Virginia Beach, Virginia, for a total of 3,108 miles. She started with another runner, John, but their different paces kept them physically separated for about half the trip.

 

Cyndi’s run was self-sustained. This means she brought/bought her own supplies and pushed them in a 3-wheeled cart. The cart weighed 39 lbs. empty and from 70 to 85 pounds when packed with her sleeping bag, clothes, food, and fluid. While crossing the desert, where stores could be as far as 80 miles apart, she loaded the cart with 3 gallons of water (each gallon weighed 8 pounds). Cyndi had solar chargers for her phone, but said, “My cart was pushed by my arms, which gained a lot of muscle over the 78 days. I pushed it up every mountain and held TIGHT to it on the downhills.”

Somehow, while doing all this, Cyndi blogged about her adventures, You can read and enjoy them (like I did) by going to cgravescrossing.blogspot.com.

 

cyndi and lauren 

Cyndi lives in Texas with her husband David and their three dogs. Here she is with her daughter at Lauren’s graduation from SMU (Southern Methodist University.) 

 

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YOUR HELP IS NEEDED

Please clip Boxtops and Labels for Education and mail them to me (see my address below) or deposit them in a special can in the Mail Room at Fun N Sun. The Boxtops and Labels are given to Sunny Glen Children’s Home (a neighbor of Fun N Sun) to buy school and play equipment. Sunny Glen is a home for children who can no longer live in their own homes or for children who have been taken away from their parents. Some have been placed at the Home temporarily and some live there all their childhood.

 

Fun N Sun resident Martha Wing is the Boxtop/Label Volunteer Coordinator. She got the “job” in 2002 when she asked if the Home needed a “Grandma.” Martha said, “Last year we wanted to buy two iPads but had enough points for only one. One label is worth anywhere from 1 to 25 points and it takes 20,000 points to buy one iPad. If I can get 25,000 additional points this school year, I’ve got enough points “banked” to buy 2 iPads.”

 

Things to remember when saving Boxtops and Labels for Education:

 

Soup labels must have the barcode submitted with them (boxtops do not need barcodes).  

 

souplable 

 

boxtop

 

Labels do not expire but Boxtops do (so watch the expiration dates).

 

 Boxtops and Labels are sponsored by different companies: Boxtops by General Mills (you will also find them on other products like Land O’ Lakes butter, Ziploc bags, Avery mailing products). Labels are sponsored by Campbell Soups but can also be found on Progresso soups.

You’ve hit the jackpot if you find a big box of Cheerios because it is worth 5 Boxtops for Education (it says so in a big strip across the front). Martha found a box of sandwich bags that was worth 4 Boxtops. She feels so strongly about the good that Boxtops and Labels do that she chooses products with Boxtops or Labels for Education over products that do have them. In August she returned to Fun N Sun with a suitcase full of Boxtops and Labels she had saved over the summer.

 

Mail your Boxtops and Labels to: Marianna Nelson, 1400 Zillock Rd. #T-414, San Benito, TX 78586. Thank you!

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FUN N SUN’S NEW ACTIVITY DIRECTOR, TIFFANY WALLON

 

I invited Tiffany to our place so I could learn more about her for Nelson’s Notes. She sat on my couch and said, “Ooh, this couch, it is sooo comfortable! Sometime you’re going to come home and find me on it -- like Goldilocks.” 

After 20 years of event planning and working in hospitality, Tiffany is used to a hectic schedule. She has organized 1,141 weddings over 8 years (“and ate that many pieces of cake!”) plus planned family reunions, corporate and team building events, and retreats for churches and other groups.

The youngest of seven, Tiffany has two children - Gabriel age 8 and Emily Grace, age 5. They all  love the beach. That’s why Tiffany moved to Laguna Vista from Arlington, Texas, last year and then to Port Isabel this summer. Her sister Christine, who is used to Tiffany’s hectic schedule, has relocated near them to lend a hand.

The amount of knowledge in the park amazes Tiffany as well as the residents’ deep sense of patriotism. She says she and her team will work together to make Fun N Sun as great as it can be and added, “After I bragged so much about this place to my parents, they are looking into getting a trailer here.”

Tiffany claims to be directionally challenged, saying, “It took me a week to find the Rec. Hall.” Put that admission aside and it’s easy to see that Tiffany is very observant and perceptive. She also is a “quick read” with names -- the speed at which she learned all our first names amazed me.

tiffany 

 

 

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 MORE FUN AT FUN N SUN

Recently Tony introduced Tallulah as “the new hire in the front office.” Here she is with my granddaughter Sarah and son Craig.

talulah 

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Tallulah’s former life was spent on a shelf in the back room of the Activity Office. Her rebirth came the day Sheila Durham was helping clean the back room. When she spotted something stuffed against the wall, she pulled on it, and out came the torso of the cloth mannequin. Laughing, Sheila grabbed a cowboy hat lying on a shelf and with Tiffany carried the mannequin to the front office. They sat her at the manager’s desk placing her hands on his keyboard (note that she was wearing only the cowboy hat). Sheila and Tiffany were not there when Tony returned and found the naked mannequin at his desk.

He loved her! All she needed was a name – “Tallulah” was Tiffany’s idea -- and she needed clothes -- Sheila outfitted her in a red dress and gave her a blond wig. Janie Paz painted her lips and Tony added sunglasses. Tony says he will have fun with Tallulah this season. He will move her from place to place and ask park residents to guess, “Where is Tallulah today?”

When Tallulah was introduced at Koffee Klatch, Maria Torres asked, “Why doesn’t she have legs?” Tiffany’s on-the-spot answer was: “One day Tallulah was riding in the back of a pickup truck strumming her guitar. When the truck went over a pothole, Tallulah was thrown out and had to decide whether to save her guitar or her legs. The guitar won -- Tallulah was found cradling it like a newborn baby.”

What Tallulah needs now is a guitar, don’t you think?

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PHOTO GALLERY

In July, our daughter Teri and son-in-law Ken are with Bruce at a restaurant on South Padre Island called Parrott Eyes -- say that fast and you get “Paradise.”

 

parroteyes

 

 

 

talking phones

 

An unplanned electronic reunion with six Nelsons happened while Teri and Ken were here. Our daughter Kristi called on one phone and son Craig on another. They chatted across the two phones placed face to face.

 

 

 

 The street that goes by the back of our house was one of the few lucky ones to get an overlay in July. What a difference the new surface makes!

 

paving

 

 

 

 

 

Bruce’s new workbench and tool rack.

 

 

bruce shop 

Yippee – he enlarged my computer desk from this . . .

old desk

 

new desk

. . . to this. Now there is room to plug in a keyboard. It is so much easier to use than the laptop keyboard (fewer mistakes).

 

 

 

Marianna Nelson, September 19, 2015