Peddlers Shopping Show

We went to the McAllen Convention Center today to the Peddlers Shopping Show. About 30 different vendors were there for the weekend. We walked through and made several purchases. The most unique purchase was a Chili Grill in the shape of an Armadillo.



This grill is use to grill stuffed Jalapenos peppers. We could not wait to get home and try it out. Here in the RGV good size peppers are available in all of the food stores. In fact, the peppers are almost too big. Our concern is that the peppers we get in Maryland will be too small.

Mexico at Last!

Today is the day that we went to Mexico. We drove our car to Progreso, Texas, parked our car for $1.50 and walked across the bridge into Nuevo Progreso, Mexico. We parked in the USA because we do not have Mexican insurance on our car.

It costs $.25 per person to go into Mexico, but it cost $.30 to return to the USA. A lot of people got caught on the Mexico side of the border without a nickle when the proce was increased.

On the way to Progreso, our windshield was struck and we received a starred windshield. Twenty dollar repair job.

Our friends were in the lead as we made our way through the maze of vendors and shops lining the street. The first shops are dentist and pharmacies. These seem to be used by many Winter Texans. We made our way to a place where for $4.50 a person they have a two hour happy hour with drinks, dancing and a floor show. It was worth the money.






After happy hour, we ate dinner before returning to the USA. Our big purchase of the day was two bottles of Kahlua for $8.75 each. When we crossed the border, we had to pay $1.25 Texas Tax on each bottle. Back in Maryland we can not purchase a single bottle for what we paid for two.



Despite the damaged windshield, we had a nice day.

Another Repair for Water Ingestion

After returning from a morning walk at the park, I removed my air filter to check the water damage. The air filter was sopping wet. I sat it out in the sun to dry out. Deciding the first solution to fix the water ingestion was not working, a second option needed to be sought.

I went to a local Ford dealer and ordered the second solution to prevent sucking water into the engine. The cost of the parts was $82.00, ouch. As normal, the dealer did not have the parts in stock and had to sent to Houston for them. I ordered the parts and paid for them.

Two days later I got a call the parts were in. I went to the dealer to pickup the parts. The counter guy went to the stock room to get the parts for me. 15 minutes later he returned and said he was unable to locate one of the two parts that were shipped and received. He would have to order the missing part from Houston again. Two more days passed and at long last I had all of the parts needed to make the air intake modification.

We are not going to go back to Maryland until the end of March, so it will be a while before I can test the new change. Here's hoping it works.

Ropa Usada

I forgot to mention that some friends of ours from Maryland are also in Texas Trails. They are the ones who told us that there was plenty of room in the park. They were talking about a place called "Ropa Usada." Leah and I both thought they were talking about a place in Mexico, so we were champing at the bit to go. Well, imagine our surprise when we learned that Ropa Usada translates into used cloths.

Ropa Usadas are big warehouses that have large bundles of used cloths. A fork lift brings a bundle of "Ropas" to an area an dumps it in a pile. People than go sorting these bundles looking for items of clothing. When you have finished searching and are ready to check out, you take your treasures to the register where it is weighted and you pay by the pound.







This is an activity that you would only do once.