Thursday February 10, 2011-Mission West RV Resort

Today was the second open house that we have coordinated at Ron Hoover RV's in Donna TX. Below you will see the serving line as they got ready for the crowd to start eating.

We had a good turnout, better than last year's, with over 200 folks turning out. We saw many of our friends here today and made some new friends as well. Like last year, the food was very good but the people are what made this one so great! Hoover offered a 10% discount on parts and I saw lots of people looking around in the parts department. They apparently were making some good deals on trailers too because they sold 6 today!

The best thing about this event was that we neither had to set up the tables, nor take them down or clean up afterwards. It made all the work I did getting it set up worthwhile.

When the open house was over and almost everyone had left, we took off too. I had broken the clasp on my Superman necklace that I have worn for many years as a good luck charm, so we went and found a jewelry repair shop. Just about everything in McAllen is on 10th St. and it wasn't long before we found Shannon's Jewelry. They got me taken care of and we were soon on our way.

We have decided to upgrade our Internet service to Verizon's mi-fi, so we stopped in at the same store where we bought our aircard from a couple of years ago. We met a very nice young man there who told us that they were out of the mi-fi instruments but could order one to be delivered to us but it would take a week. We won't be here in a week, so we will get one when we get back to Rayford. We have a couple of days before the next rally starts, so we might be able to find one in Kerrville, our next stop. I'll let you know if we find one.

So long.

Wednesday February 9, 2011-Mission West RV Resort

We woke pretty early this morning because we had a full day ahead of us. We were going to the Chicken House Opry this morning for a big concert with four entertainers there and to the meet and greet at Retama Village this afternoon. We went over to pick up Donna to go with us to the concert. When we left, it was warm about 65 degrees, but cloudy. We went through the front with light rain on the way and immediately noticed a change in temperature. Neither Donna nor I had brought a coat or even a long sleeve shirt, so we hurried into the building where it was at least out of the wind.

This is the Link Family, one of the headline groups. They really put on a good show and if you ever get a chance to see them, go for it, you won't be disappointed.

The Red Head Express is another of the headliner groups. They also put on a good show, although I didn't like them quite as well as the Link Family. They are made up of the father and mother and four daughters who are all red heads.

This is the Walker Boys, made up of the three sons of the Red Head Express parents. The boys are 8, 9 and 11 and are phenomenal for their ages. They are also accompanied by their mom on stage.

This is the Harper Family, another good group. They are from Missouri as are the Link Family and put on a great very country religious show. They were not quite as polished as the first two groups but put on a good show.

This is the Alaskan String Band. They were good and the father of the group reminded me of John Denver.

The big activity of the day was the Heartland Meet and Greet that was held at the Retama Village Activity center. Here is the outdoor seating area, but the cold front had moved through with a vengeance, so we didn't spend any time out here at all. If the weather had cooperated, it would have been very nice.

There was a good turnout and at last count, there were 51 people that attended. Everyone had a good time and there was plenty of food. I don't think anyone left here hungry.

Another shot of the crowd. It was nice to have met so many Heartlanders and I am looking forward to meeting and seeing even more tomorrow at the dealer open house in Donna.

We really appreciate our friend and fellow Heartland Ambassador Kathy Adams in setting this up and getting everything ready for us. We also appreciate all the volunteers that helped set up the tables and chairs and then to clean up when it was over.

So long.

Saturday February 5 thru Tuesday February 8, 2011-Mission West RV Resort

The best thing about Saturday was that it wasn't freezing any more. It was cold in the morning, but it wasn't below 32 degrees. It warmed up nicely during the day and I spent the morning washing the ice grime off my truck.

Stella and Judy decided that they wanted to go to the Don-Wes flea market, so we loaded up in my truck and took off. Tom bought some paint brushes and looked at a lot of frames but didn't buy any. We all bought fruits and onions but Stella and I made the biggest purchase buying two heavy-duty lawn chairs, and a new mat to replace the old one that we are using now. It's about 10 years old and wearing out, especially with all the wind we have had here. A couple of the hold-down grommets are tearing out, and it won't last much longer.

When we finished up at the flea market, I had promised Judy to take her to Hooters so thats where we went for supper. After finishing our meal, we returned home. While unloading the stuff from the bed of my truck, Tom and I discovered that I have diesel leaking from the auxiliary tank filter. It was too late in the evening to do anything with it today, but I will look at it tomorrow.

Sunday we stayed home and Stella did laundry in the morning. We knew that Ted and Donna were coming up here today after they spent the night in Victoria, so I wanted to hang around in case they called with a problem. I did work on the broken fan blade in the living room and ran the vacuum. I also went out and worked on the leaking diesel fuel and found that the filter had been turned over upside down and that seemed to be where the leak was coming from. I wiped the excess fuel off the filter and put it back in the normal position and that seemed to stop the leak.

Ted and Donna arrived and after they got all set up, we went over to Bentsen Palms Village and picked them up and took them to dinner. We thought about going to Cheddar's but as usual they were too busy, so we ended up at Furr's Buffet. After our normal great meal, we came on back home. After dropping them off, we came home and watched the second half of the Super Bowl. It was a very good game and we congratulate the Green Bay Packers.

Monday we had to call the GT Blinds store to check on our wooden blinds that we had ordered. There had been some mistakes made because we had been told that they had the blinds in stock and would only have to be cut and made to our specifications, but we learned this morning that they had been ordered but no one could find who they were ordered from. We were pretty upset, but it is what it is and there is nothing we can do about it at this point.

Ted and Donna came and picked us up to go across the border into Mexico. We went over without any problems at all and made our purchases. I bought another Rolex watch for $15.00 after haggling with the woman in the booth. Of course its not a real Rolex, but it looks nice and should last pretty well. We also bought some medicines and looked at many other items. The best thing we got done was to consult with my dentist, Dr. Ernesto Flores about some dental work I need to have done. We will have to return at another time when we can stay longer, but at least now, we know what has to be done.

We came back to our park in time for hamburgers. They were very good and we had a nice visit with Ted and Donna while eating our burgers. We came back to our site and sat outside until it got chilly and they decided to go home. Our friends Ray and Lin came by and we sat outside with them for about an hour. It was a bit chilly, but not uncomfortable for us, but we had both put on jackets.

Tuesday Ted and Donna came by to pick us up to go eat at the famous Gonzales Burgers in Donna. We were the very first couples to place our orders, which was a first for us, and we again enjoyed these huge burgers. From there we went over to Hidalgo to the ropas stores. Stella and Donna had a lot of fun picking through the piles of clothes and they both made a few purchases. Ted even found a couple of shirts, a Tommy Bahama Hawaiian shirt hat would sell at retail for about $100.00 that he bought for $1.60 and another pullover shirt that he bought for a dollar. What bargains. I just didn't see anything in my size-they had a lot of 2X-4X shirts, but nothing for a little guy like me...

We came home and relaxed for awhile and I tuned in my TV channel to receive NCIS when Judy called Stella to go play cards with her and some of the other women. Actually they played Pegs and Jokers and had a good time. It was a good day today and we are looking forward to more good times the rest of the week.

So long.

Thursday and Friday February 3 & 4, 2011-Mission West RV Resort

This will show you a little of the deep freeze conditions that we experienced at Mission West. This was not the coldest temperatures that we've experienced since our full-timing adventures began, but it was the most miserable time. The power went out at the park on Thursday evening about 5:45 and was not restored until around 6:30 on Friday evening, over 24 hours without any electricity.

While out walking around on Friday morning, this is the thermometer at the laundry room at the park. My own thermometer showed 25 as did another of the resident's. It was plenty cold!


My truck had a lot of ice on it when I went out. We had a light rain that immediately froze when it hit the ground. We had almost a half inch of ice on the porch rails, the step covers all froze and the top mat on the porch was crunchy when I stepped out on it. I went in and out several times during the morning, and on one of the times down the steps, my feet slipped out from under me and I slid down the stairs on my behind. Luckily I wasn't hurt but it would have been very easy to break a leg or arm if I had fallen harder. That big 'ol fat behind cushioned my fall...

One of the neighbor's trucks with icicles all over the front. Most of the other residents are "snowbirds" and used to this kind of weather or much worse, so they were only upset that this kind of cold weather came this far south. I told one of them that we should ask for our money back, since we had expected warm and windy weather, not icy and cold.

This is the John Deere man's shed behind his house. He said he had run a small heater inside all night, which caused the runoff and icicles. He is from Iowa, and very accustomed to this kind of weather. It's still cold!

This is the field across the street from us, covered with ice.

We didn't leave home until late Friday morning when we took Ray and Lin to Gonzales Burgers in Donna. The trip over to Donna was interesting because the highway was closed down due to ice on the overpasses, but as we got closer, someone had moved the barricades, so we followed the traffic flow onto the freeway. We did fine, except that there was still ice on the crest of the overpasses. We didn't have any problems making our way to the restaurant and when we got there, there was a much smaller crowd than usual. We enjoyed our burgers and went back home without incident. By the time we got back onto the freeway, most of the ice had melted on the overpasses. It was funny to watch large chunks of ice fall from the overhead wires and trees. I'm glad that none of them hit us as it would likely have left dents on the roof or hood when it hit.

We came back home to no power. We didn't know whether it had been caused by a rolling blackout, a problem with the power company and since the outage was confined to this park, it could have been something here in the park. When the power went out on Thursday, the office was closed and no one came down to inform the residents what was going on. I stopped by the office when we left Friday morning to inquire and was told that they didn't know anything except the power company was working on the problem. I said something to the lady working in the office about the handling of this outage and that it would have been nice if someone had been there to tell us what was going on, but she didn't like my criticism. I must have hit a nerve because when we returned, we learned that others had said the same thing and they had closed the office. True, since there was no power, there was little they could do, but I suspect they were tired of hearing guest complain.

Judy had not been feeling well for the past couple of days and had not been eating well, so when they asked us to go out to eat with them, we agreed to go. We went to Tio Chuy's mexican restaurant near the park. It was very good and we had an enjoyable time with them. When we got back to the park, we found that the power had finally been restored. HALLELUJAH!

The propane delivery guy was working overtime today and was still in the park at 7 o'clock. I thought I had missed him this morning and had taken my empty bottle to their store in the afternoon. The store was very busy with about 7 trucks ahead of me. When I pulled in, traffic backed up onto the roadway. At least someone was profiting from this cold spell. I guess it could have been worse, we could have been in Michigan or Wisconsin, shoveling many feet of snow...

So long.

Wednesday February 2, 2011-Mission West RV Resort

It was supposed to have been really cold today, so we had planned to stay home all day, and that's what we did! The temperatures didn't get as cold as had been forecast, which was a good thing, but there was the constant threat of rain, sleet or snow with cloudy skies and cold temps. It only got to 37 degrees, so it really wasn't a day to go out and wash the truck or trailer anyway. We enjoyed just hanging out and reading or playing games on the computer.

One odd thing happened today, the propane bottle ran out. That's not all that unusual, but it ran out during the day. It always ran out before in the middle of the night in the rain. What was even more unusual is that it ran out and soon after, a propane truck came through the park and agreed to fill the tank for me. Most other parks don't allow this because they want to make the sale themselves, but this park doesn't sell propane. Then on top of that, they only charged .25 more than the store does. That really makes it unusual and very convenient.

We didn't hear much out of Tom and Judy all day except that Judy is not feeling well and isn't eating. I hope it's nothing serious because she has been doing so well with her cancer recovery. I plan to invite her to Hooters and I know she'll be ready to go, that's one of her favorite restaurants.

It's supposed to be bad again tonight with 20 degree temperatures again and a high percentage of freezing precipitation tomorrow, so please wish us well.

So long.

Tuesday February 1, 2011-Mission West RV Resort

Today there is supposed to be a blizzard blow in directly from the north pole, so we made plans to get an early start. We decided to eat breakfast at the park's restaurant at the golf course, but when we got over there, there was a crew blocking off all the parking spaces across the street from the cafe. I don't understand this, but then no one called me to ask my opinion. Since the nearest parking was about a block away, we decided to go offsite for breakfast. We ended up at the Cracker Barrel and had a delicious meal.

We began our morning by going to some more RV parks to let people know about our activities next week. Again, we talked to several Heartland owners and no one knew about the forum or the events so I told them about them. I met a lot of nice people and hope that some or all of them will show up.

While we were out, I stopped for fuel and ran into one of the biggest screw-ups in a gas station that I have ever run into. There was a separate diesel pump island with four pumps. They were the old style pumps without any credit card slots. There were trucks parked all over the place, and one guy went inside and came back really upset. There were two Mexican men in the truck ahead of me that couldn't get the pump to turn on, so they moved. I moved up and went inside to pay for the fuel before pumping. The store was very busy and one of the Mexican men was inside settling up his bill. It seems that he had been sent to the wrong pump and when it wouldn't turn on, he became irate and stormed out. After a long wait, the clerk told me to lay my credit card on the counter and go pump my fuel. I didn't feel comfortable with leaving my card there, so I went out and asked Stella to go inside with her card and proceeded to pump my fuel. What should have been a 10 minute stop turned into about 35 minutes. Wow, what an ordeal!

I know that you will be crushed, but I am not keeping too many records on my fuel mileage as I was. The new truck seems to be getting pretty decent mpg's so I'll get an occasional mileage reading and will be sure to let you know what it is. Please don't cry, I know what a disappointment this is.

We went to a Lazy Boy store to look at some new recliners. They had very little stock, and weren't very helpful, so we went to another store where we found some chairs that would work. We were all set to buy them, but we couldn't get them delivered before we left, so we didn't make the purchase. I miss Mattress Mack and his delivery today policy.

We went to the grocery store before we came back home. the cold front never did arrive this afternoon like we had been warned. In fact, it didn't come in until after ten o'clock when I turned in. It was 33 this morning and the temp didn't get much warmer, but then on the other hand, it didn't get as cold as had been forecast. We'll see how the rest of the blizzard turns out.

So long.

Monday January 31, 2011-Mission West RV Resort

We've been sleeping later and staying inside in the morning. It's nice to be able to lay around instead of going to work, but we still like working at Timber Ridge. We like the variety of our life and take advantage of times like these.

After we ate breakfast, we went out to some more RV parks to distribute flyers for the upcoming events for Heartland, but the several people that I met today had not heard of the owners forum, the Heartland club, and of course, had no idea of the potluck dinner or the dealer open house. I told them about the forum and the club and invited them to the events and they all said they would talk it over with their husband or wife and see if it worked into their schedule.

We returned to the park in time to go eat hamburgers at the large rally hall. They only serve burgers on Monday afternoon, but man, they really do a big business of them. I was told that last Monday they served over 600! That's 60o orders, which generally consist of two burgers, so it's a staggering amount of food and gives you an idea of how much of an economic impact the winter Texans have on this area. This is a pretty small park, so just imagine what it could do if there were more advertising.

We came back home and sat outside in the nice evening air. We're told that its going to get cold later in the week, so we want to get outside as much as we can. Everyone that walks by always wave and are very friendly. That seems to be the way of most of the RVer's down here.

So long.