Down In The Valley

We left Saturday morning once the temperature went above freezing. It took us about 3.5 hours to arrive in Victoria. We stayed at a different park this time - Gateway to the Gulf RV. It is more convenient than Lazy Longhorn which is more in town. Also, Gateway is much easier to navigate around in but is not as pretty of a park. Since we only spend the night, that doesn't concern us.

We set up, unhooked and drove into town. We got fuel, picked up batteries at Wal-Mart then went to church at Our Lady of Victory Cathedral. It was very pretty and had a wonderful choir. Afterwards we went to Carino's for dinner.

We slept in and left about 10 on Sunday. The sun was shining and the temp got into the 70s as we made our way south. We took 77 to 83 and started heading west when our fuel light came on. We decided to make a stop at Flying J rather than risk running out. The new truck is a gas hog and we're still learning how far we can go on a tank of diesel. We arrived at Bentsen Palms and checked in and got set up. We called Jay and Stella and decided to go out to eat dinner. We went to Furr's, one of their favorite places. We had not eaten all day and it was the quickest and pleases everyone. We made plans to go to Mexico on Monday and then eat hamburgers at their park afterwards.

We checked with those in the park and they said Progreso is still safe, they have had no problems so we drove to the bridge Monday and walked across to our Almost Free Pharmacy. We bought Ted's Nexium generic over there for the rest of the year at a cost of under $20. He has used this medicine to make sure it works and it does. I bought Retin-A skin cream for me. Jay and Stella had lists from others and took some time to conduct their transaction. Afterwards we had to find a Rolex watch for Jay and he found a nice $10,000 watch for $15. Imagine that! I bought a vase to replace one that got broken while decorating for Christmas and we came back. We told Customs we bought antacids, face cream and a vase and they ran our passports and waved us through. Stella showed him her bag of medicines and he did the same to them. The temperature hit 81.

We came back to their park where they start serving burgers at 3:00 until the jam session starts at 6 pm. I think they serve over 600 burgers each Monday. We ate early and went to their trailer and sat outside. Judy came down and visited for awhile too. As the sun went down it got cool and we left to come home. Another friend stopped by after we left so they sat out for some time.

Today we went to Gonzales for lunch before going to the ropa usadas and the ropa nuevos. This has become a regular thing to do while down here. We have found some we like better than others and have a ball rooting through the clothes. Some are new, some are on hangers, some are unclaimed from dry cleaners, some are overruns and some are just in piles. My big find last year was a pair of wool Ralph Lauren lined slacks that fit so perfectly I didn't even need to have them hemmed. Price - 60 cents!

We came home and found a jam session going on at our park. The fruit peddler and butcher had also arrived. Ted bought a pineapple and some grapefruit while I got us each a drink. We enjoyed the music that spanned all genres. They ended with a rousing finish of Mustang Sally with the crowd joining in "ride, Sally, ride." We are home now watching the news on TV.

We received sad news in that my sister-in-law's brother has died. He has been fighting leukemia for some time. We were so very sorry to hear this news.

Tomorrow Ted has lunch with the McAllen Monitor folks. Jay, Stella and I are going to a 5 hour show at the Chicken Opry. We've seen some of these performers before and they are some of the best who perform in the valley. Ted will probably go shooting with our neighbor across the way after his lunch. It will all work out I'm sure.

We're supposed to get some cool temperatures mid week and the wind has certainly picked up. Such is life in the valley.