Dec. 28TH 2010

 Not much new has been happening. Weather has been great with an occasional hit of cooler weather. High 60's is still not hard to take. Thought I would throw in some pics of Dot. It's obvious that she is having a great time here.

Even mice are fun to point.

I wonder how Dot keeps getting catus quills in her?

We ran into this Irish guy. Gloria seems to think he looks a lot like me. I don't see it at all.

Larry Healy and I made an exploratory run into Progreso today. We did a recheck on booze prices as they change frequently. The more people crossing the border the higher the prices go. We also checked on a place that was always a real happening joint. Music, food, dancing, it was a fun place. The problem is that you have to go a long way into town and then go a block off of the main drag. Last year you couldn't get a seat in the place at around 11:00. We got there and there were only 9 people there. We had a quick beer and made a hasty retreat. We went to a new place for us that was right near the border crossing and had lunch. The food was OK but there is another place that is better. Larry was my mule for today and carried 2 bottles of Kahlua out for me as I was bringing the brandy out. Next trip I am his mule. We have 1 more restaurant to try that we have never been to. We did find 2 new places to go to not too far from the RV park. The first one was a restaurant owned by the same people that have the place in Progreso that we like. The food was very good. The other was the only bar in Weslaco that I have ever been in. There aren't a lot of those places here that we would go to.  It's called the Mustang Lounge and it's a pretty classey place with a full service bar and entertainment.  We saw a lot of people there from our park.  This place even has draft beer which Tom likes much better than bottled or canned beer.

12/25/2010 Christmas Day

Got up early and took Dot for her morning run. She is a happy dog when I let her loose in the field. So far she has not gotten any ticks but I am pulling cactus spines out of her coat. After we got back I did a morning swim.  First time I ever did that on Christmas Day.

We did have some snow here. When the wind dies down we get black snow. They burn the sugar cane field prior to harvesting and the burnt ash still flies around. This is a burnt piece of sugar cane leaf. It gets every where. We don't get it every day.  You can sure see it in the pool when they burn. They are very good about cleaning the pool  and the hot tub at this RV park.

If you stay here for a month or longer they want you to pay $7.00 each into the activity fund. That covers a year. The activity committee supplied 37 turkeys for the Christmas dinner. They cooked the turkeys on their huge gas grill. You are assigned a table and the table boss tells you what to bring as a side dish. There were 30 people in the group we were with. The turkey and all the sides were fabulous. Dinner was at 12:00 p.m. and then we went back at 5:00 p.m. for desserts. Had a great meal and a great time.

I took this shot through my back window. We are nice and close to the club house.

This gives you an idea of the size of the grill.

                  Here is Tom sitting next to Larry.  Everyone was allowed to bring their own beverages (alcoholic or non-alcoholic).

 

Christmas Eve 2010

We were invited to our friends in Mission (Rob and Sharon Renner) for an intimate Christmas Eve dinner with 36 other people.  The dinner was held OUTDOORS with the temps in the high 70's.  Sharon provided the turkey and ham and everyone brought a dish to pass.

Rob had a beautiful picture of a crackling fire going on his TV.

We played "Dirty Santa."  This is a game where everyone takes a turn picking a gift.  The person opens the gift so everyone can see it.  If someone does not like their gift, they can exchange with someone else.  The bad part is if you really liked your gift, you stand a chance on losing it.

Rob's gift was a box of canned foods.  Lucky for Rob, no one else wanted to exchange with him.  He was stuck with canned sardines among other things.  The gifts were divided for men and women. The most popular man's gift was a gift certificate to Lowe's and that exchanged hands about 4 times.

Rob just took motorcycle driving lessons from Harley Davidson so his daughter sent him Santa on a motorcycle.

12-21-2010

I would have made a post yesterday but had trouble with the Internet. Around 10:00 a.m. we went to Progreso Mexico with our friends Larry and Carol. Since we are in the Christmas spirit, we wanted to keep the spirit flowing so we needed more spirits. We worked up a hunger walking around and had lunch at the Canada store. After lunch, we went to the world famous ROSE GARDEN for a beer. Talked to another couple and found out about the Happy Tooth Bar. We were never there and the fact that  it's the last stop before the bridge, we stopped there too. Met the same couple. Since we bought all the Christmas spirits we were allowed to bring across the border, we headed back to Snow to Sun. At 3:00 p.m.we went to happy hour and later we went to the Festival of Lights in Hidalgo,. They have a large park and a section of town around the park that they decorate with a light display. It was very nice. We took a trolley ride to see the show. Next time we will take the horse drawn cart as we think that would be nicer.


                                                        Crossing the boarder into Mexico

You might run into a beggar or 2 in Mexico. In fact you can't even get

across the bridge without meeting them.

Larry and Carol

Beautiful down town Progresso

The world Famous Rose Garden

One of the greatest alley's in the world to drink beer in.

The Mexican Army on the border.

                                    

 Nice to see flowers in December

 Back up at the border going through customs.

 Hildago light festival

12/18/2010

Haven't done a lot. The weather held till last night. Was in the 40's when I got up at 7:00. Temp got up to about 70 and it is 66 right now. Next couple of days should be in the 80's  I am exhausted from all the work I did the last 2 days. I kept a close eye on the Mexicans as they detailed my truck, then had to watch them again yesterday when they washed and waxed my trailer. It's tough work but someone has to do it. Gloria and I went to the biscuits and gray breakfast here at the club. It was very good - 2 biscuits and the sausage gravy for $2.50.

Had a ladder ball tournament today. I didn't do too well. Tonight's dinner is the second meal we cooked since we got here. There always seems to be leftovers to eat. There is a dance at the club house but we are meeting our friends in one of the card rooms for our nightly game. I have added a few pics.

We had 4 couples drive to Padre Island for lunch Wednesday. I like their shrimp. The 9 shrimp meal is more than enough and I'm full. I could get by with the 6 shrimp order. Padre Island is about 50 miles away. That should give you an idea of how much we like the food.

Here are the boys working on my trailer.

The ladder ball tournament.

Some shots of our camp site

There is always something to fix. Tim in the red shirt was having some hot water problems. His hot water was never hot enough. He said it was great shower temp as long as you did not add any cold to it. The legs sticking out belong to Larry. He is our Number 1 man in a pinch. He figured out that Tim's outside shower was turned on with both hot and cold water and that the shower head was turned off. With both the hot and cold turned on the cold water was going back to his heater. Simple fix to just shut the water off but you have to find the problem first.

                                                    

Wed. 12/15/2010

Weather was great today. Very windy but nice and warm. Took a ride to Padre Island for lunch at Dirty Al's. Stopped in Port Isabel for a picture of the Light House then on to lunch. Had a great meal of shrimp. I had mine blackened and Gloria had it deep fried. Got back to the park just in time for Happy Hour. Still full from lunch so no dinner tonight. We will head to the club house for our usual card games.
    
                                           This picture was taken at about 10:00 AM

This is the Port Isabel light house

12/14/2010

Didn't get to post yesterday but the weather was nice. We went to Progreso and went around pricing the booze we want to buy. The best prices were right near the border so we can make a quick dash in and out. There hasn't really been any problems in Progreso. Progreso is too small and too poor to be of much importance. I also heard that one of the reasons Progreso is safer is because there is only one road in and out of that town. We also heard that the town has been paying off the Zeta gang. A problem that could come up is that the Zetas are loosing in the cartel wars. We went to Happy Hour in the park and had a great time.  Monday night's entertainment is popular and the hall was crowded because people come from other parks.

Did some shopping today and found out that the bank of Wal-Mart is closed. We usually use a credit card at Wal-Mart and get cash back. They only give cash back now with a Debit Card. We only brought our credit cards. Have to find a way to get cash while we are here. We went to Happy Hour again today and met up with 9 other couples from different parks. We all went out to dinner at China Buffet. The food was OK. The strange part is that in the Downers Grove area all the employees in an Oriental Restaurant are all Oriental. Here they were all Mexican. Weather forecast for tomorrow is in the mid 80's. We are going to Padre Island for lunch.