Still Cold Here

These are all over down here and are called El Pato. They are authentic and the folks that frequent them are Mexican. One of the patrons referred to us as the gringos and offered to let us go ahead of him. But we declined This is the order counter and the meun boards were is Spanish and then English underneath. Loyce ordered Chicken enchalada and I ordered Beef Guisado. El Pato Menu
Comida Autentica! Authentic Food!
Dining room
We were South of McAllen on the four lane highway that goes to the river bridge into Reynosa. This restaurant is not too far out of McAllen. There is every kind of "used product business" on this road, that you can think of. Many used car lots that are no more than gravel parking lots. Used appliance stores and used clothing stores. The Mexican folks come from Reynosa into the US and buy these used goods to take back into Mexico.

From days gone by, here are some pictures of the golf course here at LLano Grande. It was more like 80 outside on the day these were taken.The practice green.
Cart Row next to the practice green
Coming up to the club house on 18.
The course was not open at all yesterday. I never saw more than 44 on the temp gage all day. During the night it rained and was 40. The wind blew some and flapped the awning. A cold night to be in a trailer.

Iwo Jima Monument

We went to Harlingen yesterday. We drove all over town looking at RV parks and various other stores. On the outer beltway we passed the airport. It is named the Valley International. It is just like all the other airports you have seen, with the exception that it has the Marine Military Academy on its grounds.

Also it has the Iwo Jima Monument. Or the original plaster cast version, that was used to cast the bronze monument in Washington DC. Well it is in the Arlington National Cemetery which is on the Virginia side of DC.




I copied this information from the Wikipedia as it explains more than I could retype and does it better as well.

Marine Military Academy, a private college preparatory academy located in Harlingen, Texas, offers a college preparatory curriculum for boys in grades 8-12 plus one-year of post-graduate study. The school was founded in 1965.

The academy is situated on the site of the former Harlingen Army Air Field, established in 1941. After closing, the field was re-opened in 1952 as the Harlingen Air Force Base which closed in the early 1960's. Since opening its doors as the Marine Military Academy most of the original buildings have been replaced with modern facilities.

The Iwo Jima Monument is the original full-sized creation of the renowned artist and sculptor, Dr. Felix de Weldon, and was used for the casting of the monument erected at Arlington Cemetery outside Washington, D.C. After completion of the monument this sculpture was placed in storage until the early 1980's when its creator donated it to the Academy.

We also visited the Sunshine RV Resort which is on the North end of town. It is just East of the Hwy 77 and Business 77 interchange. It is quite a convenient location, The park is older but is quite nice in some parts. The park models are nice in the newer parts, but include some from the 60's in the older areas. They date the place. Most of the spots in the North end that had 5th wheels on them were so short that the associated dually pickups were parked crossways in front of the trailers. Just too tight, but the place was full. Or mostly full. We just could not see ourselves moving to this park.

Next we drove to the Tropic Winds RV Resort. This was in the newer area North of the Airport. This was a big open field that has paved roads. Sites were a bunch wider than Llano Grande. There were no conestoga wagons in this park. It is new and so are the units parked there. It was all grass except for where you park your car. This is a concrete patio that can double as the pad under your table and lawn chair. Looking up this park in the RVParkreviews.com web site informs us that it is windy all the time and the grass under your unit gives way to mud when it rains. Uck! Also there is hardly any bath facilities as I found only 2 toilets and 2 showers in the main building for 535 sites. Wifi was not free and was instead a tengo product. You have to sign up for 3 months. 29.95 per month. We do not want to move here either.

Winter came here in earnest last night as the cold rain continued all night, We are down to 42 this morning which wouldn't be to bad in a brick and stick house but in the trailer it is cold. The propane heater ran for most of the night. The gas bottle has to be getting low but the second one is full and turned off. Our weather paradise is very winter like this morning.

On the bright side, Des Moines had 1 degree at midnight last night, so far be it from me to complain................

Service needed

A strange day. Spontaneous to say the least. We have had several plumbing issues with the Jayco Travel Trailer. To be honest, we, meaning me, have not sought any help fixing the problems we have. The trailer sat for months after we came back from New England in October. I, should have said, YES DEAR we have a problem, and sought to have it fixed.

I didn't! We have a very small leak in the pipes under the bathroom sink. It drips, ever so slowly. Just gets stuff wet, stored there. The more pressure we have in a park, the more it leaks. So we use a pressure regulator. It still leaks. And I still ignore the wife when she harps to me about the leak. So every now and then the floor is wet in front of the bathroom door. Really hard to see where it is coming from. Reach up under the sink and feel, every thing is dry. Frustration.

So with that in mind, I thought I would see where and who is a Jayco dealer in the Valley. And yes there was a dealer at the RV show that we attended last Saturday. So I used the internet, to find this location. It is not far away. So I went to inquire about some service.

As I arrived, there was one person in the sales area, but there were about three couples looking at the units on the lot. Service was in the building to the back, so I drove on to service. The service building had numerous high garage doors and also an area of covered bays, without any doors at all.

As I went into the first garage door there was an office on the side, labeled service manager. I went into the office. What a mess, junk everywhere. A large desk in the middle was piled just as high. The office was empty. So I struck out through the garages to try to find someone in charge.

In the second garage I came upon two hispanic individuals who were butchering some sort of animal. Without being too descriptive, it will suffice to say that the process was far enough along that I could not identify what the beast had been before this process. They were working on this job on the service bench, where RV parts including sewer parts, were present. They were using a sledge hammer and a large ax.

I am a hunter, and have butchered deer and other animals, so I wasn't revolted or upset. I was just puzzled. Why would we be using RV tools to butcher an animal? In an unclean place. But a place where they would potentially work on my home? Not any time soon. I just got in the truck and left.

I stopped by the Home Depot on the way back to the park. I inquired where the PEX fittings were. One of the plumbing folks said pex? that's trailer house sh-t and we don't carry that. Just to set the record straight, our new house in Kansas City is plumbed entirely in PEX piping. And it is bricks and sticks.

We can't get parts, and we won't have any service at the dealer. So perhaps it will just have to leak until we get somewhere else. I drove back home.

The sun had come out and it was almost 70, so I set the lawn chair out on the patio. As I sat on the chair and enjoyed the hamburger that I had brought back, I saw it. A drywall screw! Or at least the head of the screw. In the center of my 20 inch front tire. Right in the middle. A little diet coke out of my drink confirmed it was leaking.

Was it the screw from the Home Depot, or the parking lot in front of the RV shop. What difference does it make. Its 3PM, and I'm in a strange town, where to go. I jumped in the truck and headed back to town. In the middle of downtown was a tire dealer called Pueblo Tire.

They took me right in, even though it was about 4 PM, and took the tire off the vehicle and patched it. $15, a deal. For the first time, I saw the wireless tire pressure sensor fastened inside the rim. Neat.

So the tire that began to leak was fixed and the sink is still dripping on the floor!

It was really foggy here overnight with the water about dripping out of the air. The Rig was wet like it had rained. The temperature was 55 for most of the night so the heat only ran sporadically. The forecast for today is for 62, in rain. Its 11 in KC, and 10 in Des Moines right now, so I think 55 and overcast is just fine with me.

New Road House

It was another of those gray days. We were cabin bound as it rained off and on. I put out the awning to get some more dry space. Sitting out though was not an option. The high for the day was reached by 10 AM at about 60 and then it began to cool and rain.

So what to do on a rainy day, go to the fabric store! Hancock is in McAllen in the main business 83 highway. We were there for a good 45 minutes so that turned into a nap for me as Loyce studied the books and patterns inside.After the fabric store we needed some lunch or supper as we had neither. North of the McAllen airport is a mall called La Plaza. Original Hey? And one of the perimeter stores is the Logan's Road House. This is a new one on me. They do have Texas Road House and Lone Star here as well but then we didn't find one of those so let try this one.
Seemed like a nice place! Peanut shells go on the floor. Not in a bucket like the lawyers are requiring in the Lone Star now. The menu had all the normal stuff, but no one came to take our order.

Our waitress had a table for 8 that was all senior folks who appeared to be singles. Or at least that is how they ordered. Separate checks. She was so confused.
She did finally take our order, but then never brought our food. The kitchen staff finally brought our steaks and main meal, but only when we protested did they bring the salad, after the main course. We had no where to be and I ordered a vegetable side instead of a salad anyway so it didn't matter. Our food was good.

The steak case , just like Texas Roadhouse.
We finally had to ask the floor manager for a ticket so we could pay, as the gal was still trying to figure out the 8 single order folks problems. A more senior waitress came back to help fix the issues. She must have had no training at all. Hopefully she will get the hang of it but today was not her day at the old Road House.

From there, back to the Wal-Mart in Weslaco and on home.

We watched the radar on the computer as a cell was coming from the South West. First, off the ocean, and then around to the North, and then more Westerly. Big red and purple thing on the radar screen. I ran out in a poncho and put that awning back up. Didn't want to trust a storm like that for strong winds. Just like an April thunder storm up North. Sky was green and the wind did blow. Mostly after the rain went thru.

We reached 51 by midnight and that turned out to be the low temp for the night. Another day in the old cash register.

Still overcast this morning, but the rain has gone. Up to 53 now. And as the Canadian fellow behind us said, heck, it could have been the white stuff!