Tuesday January 23, 2018-Cottonwood RV Park

Our first couple of days here were pretty low-key, mainly because of the cold weather that had followed us down. Stella and I drove over to Donna on Wednesday to see Dustin Hoover at the Ron Hoover RV dealership to go over the plans for the dealer open house next week. From there we drove over to the fruit stand across Don-Wes flea market to buy some grapefruit. We love the Ruby-Red grapefruit and couldn't wait to get some. The flea market was open today but you'd never know it by looking at the parking lot. There were only about 6 cars there and most of the outside booths were closed. The fruit stand was open and doing a fair amount of business but the building is just about empty. There used to be many booths with everything from books to RV supplies. There were two women's clothing stores which were either closed or gone. The doors were closed and we didn't venture in.

On Thursday we drove over to a Verizon store in McAllen, where we met a very helpful young man named Jose, to buy a Hum device. This thing should be a good value to us, giving navigation information, service reminders for the truck, diagnosing vehicle warnings, giving us a hands-free telephone but most of all, giving us a way to contact emergency services in case of an accident. We were told that they now just call the police and EMS if the air bags deploy, without wasting time by calling us first. It can also be useful for roadside service and there is a way to connect to a technician to help with roadside problems. The device is inexpensive, only $30 and the service is $10 per month. 

Friday the weather was dreadful, with overcast skies and cool temperatures. It started to warm up in the afternoon so t least we were able to come out of hibernation and get outside for a while. 

Saturday, Dave, Lin and Corbin had their trailers washed and waxed, so all the guys went from trailer to trailer to watch them work. These guys were funny, making jokes and clowning around, but they did an excellent job of cleaning the rigs. One of their wives brought some tamales that they shared with us. Her mother-in-law made them and they were delicious. It's good business to give away a half dozen tamales because all of us will order from her in the future. Mike and I made arrangements to have our trailers cleaned on the 31st. These guys are booked up until then. Business is good!

Saturday night we went to the Restful Valley RV Park with Corbin & Flora and Dean and Cheri to see Bill Chrastil perform his show there. He does salutes to Elvis, Conway Twitty, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison and many others and has a great show. He won awards for Male vocalist of the year in 2016 and Entertainer of the year last year. His show is worth seeing if you have a chance to see him.

Sunday we had a potluck supper of barbecued ribs and assorted vegetable dishes, and as usual, it was delicious. We watched the football championship after the meal and enjoyed the game. I haven't watched much football this season and it was good to see some games again. The cool temps sent everyone in pretty early but it was a nice day.

Monday we made our first trip to Mexico and it was really pretty routine. It was the first trip for Mike & Peg and Deb & Lin, so it was a "show and tell". Stella said Mike & Peg may have been to MX many years ago. Lin got his hair cut while over there and I made an appointment with my dentist to do my follow-up visit that I had cancelled this past summer. I got my shoes shined for our get-togethers later in the week, but all in all, a very uneventful and boring trip. 

We went to Na Na's Taqueria for some real Tex-Mex food. We came here last year and enjoyed ourselves, and they have remodeled the store, making it bigger with a large outdoor dining area, where we ate.  

Today (Tuesday) we went to the Pulga flea mkt. This is primarily a Mexican market but they have a lot of interesting stuff to look at. I bought a new case for my cell phone and a new pocket knife, but the best thing was, while shopping, I found a booth that had some puppies. The next thing I knew, I was the proud owner of a new 8 month old Chihuahua that I named Lady. Now we have Lady and the Tramp! Pictures and more details to come...

So long.