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.

Texas Trails RV Resort Pharr, Texas

After 1879 miles, a starred windshield and a sopping wet air filter we arrived in Pharr, Texas. We will be staying at Texas Trails RV Resort.


The park is nice enough, but there is one BIG PROBLEM. It is not very pet friendly. We are restricted to a very small area where we can walk Travis.

The following day, I went to the office to find out if there was any place nearby that we could take Travis to for a walk. I was given directions to a municipal park in Edinburg that was about 5 miles from the RV park. What a very nice place it is, plenty of parking and several walking/jogging trails.


We are not happy that we have to leave the RV Park to walk Travis, but the municipal park make up the this short coming. The park is also part of a series of nine locations that make up the Texas Birding Trail. This area is a big migration flayway for birds and butterflys.



Most, if not all, of the RV Parks in the RGV has many activities to occupy the time of their Winter residents or as we are called "Winter Texans."

As you can tell from the dates, I have not been keeping up with this blog, but I am in the process of trying to catch up to date.

Driving in the Rain

We spent most of our traveling days driving in the rain. On the final travel day, the motorhome was saying enough of this stuff already. It was raining very hard which makes driving a chore.

Our motorhome is a Ford V-10 powered unit. One big problem is it does not like hard rain. Rain gets sucked into the air intake and causes the engine to stumbel and miss. We had the first modification installed to correct this problem, but it was not very effective.

Our next to last night on the road was spent in Victoria, Texas. When I went into the office to register for the night, a man in the office area asked where abouts in Maryland I was from. I told him I was from Carroll County and a little town called Taneytown. He said he know where Taneytown was as he was from New Windsor. New Windsor is about 10 miles from Taneytown, small world.

Anyway, getting back to the water ingestion problem. We were about 50 to 60 miles North of our destination when the motorhome started its stumbling and missing. Leah and I kept our fingers crossed that the missing would not get worse and we would make it to our destination.
To make matters worse, I missed a turn off and was off course. It was decided to continue on South and take a route that would take us a few miles more rather than turn around and find the correct turn.

We called the campground we wanted to stay at for our stay in the RGV, but was told they were full. On to plan B. We called Texas Trails RV Resort in Pharr, Texas and was told they had room for us. So, we go to Pharr.

On the Road to Texas

At 7:30 am we backed the motorhome out of the driveway in Maryland, hooked up the car behind us and began out trip to Texas. Our first night is being spent South of Bristol, Tn. after traveling 409 miles. Gas prices have been lower than Maryland's, but they are still around $2.00 per gallon. We have Wi-Fi at this campground so, We decided to up-date the blog, in case anyone else reads it.

So far we've discovered I left a battery and charger behind for my new digital camera and a gift certificate for Perkins'. If that's all, we didn't do a bad job of packing. If anything, we over pack.

We have been keeping an eye on the weather forecasts for tonight and tomorrow. It looks like we are on the line for rain or snow. We are hoping for rain. We are looking to make it to La. tomorrow if the weather cooperates.

Our plans are to go down to the Rio Grand Valley and chill out for several months. We are looking at staying in the Mission area where we can go birding, hiking and day trips to Mexico and the other parts of the RGV.

Trip to Ohio

Well. Tom made the trip to Ohio on Thursday and returned home on Saturday. While in Ohio he stayed with his brother and sister-in-law, Roger and Cindy. On Thursday evening, Tom and Roger went to their uncle Bob's viewing in North Baltimore. There were many of the same faces that they had seen just six weeks ago at their aunt Liz's viewing and funeral. Sonny and his wife came in from South Dakota and Connie flew up from Texas.

Uncle Bob's death has been hard on all of us. We were hoping that 2007 would be a good year for him and perhaps he could have spent some time on the road with Connie and Ed and Tom and Leah. I guess God had a different plan for him. He knew God and home at last with Aunt Liz.

Tom's mother was able to make the trip to the funeral. Her health has not been the best for quite sometime either. She will be 80 on the 13th of January.

Bad way to start out the new year

Today around 2:oo pm, Tom's sister, Julie, called to tell him that his Uncle Bob had died. Uncle Bob's wife had passed away just before Thanksgiving. We knew he felt a very deep loss with her passing, but did not realize just how much he did. Tom spoke with him last weekend and he seemed to be coming around pretty good. His death sure puts a black cloud over everthing.

Julie also reported Tom's brother, Roger, was admitted to the hospital on Saturday. this was the same day that his stepson got married.

The only real good news was that Tom's mother came home from the hospital on Sunday.

Well it appears we are going to make another trip to Ohio this week for another funeral. Bummer :-(.....

Getting ready for Christmas

Tom and Leah finished the last of the Christmas shopping yesterday. Today was cookie baking day. oh boy, there is nothing like the smell of something baking.

This weekend is stacking up to be a busy one with family and friends coming to our house and with us going to some as well.

We do hope eveyone has a great Christmas and a wonderful New Year.

Big Expenses

The past month has hammered the bank account pretty bad. While in Va. for our sons wedding, we had to purchase four new tires for the car. Tom was going to replace them is a week or two, but a flat tire changed the time schedule.

After coming home from Ohio, Leah went to do some laundry and said the washing machine was making a "funny" noise. Well, later that day found us shopping for a new washing machine at Lowe's. We found a very nice front loading machine and had it delivered the next day.

Things happen in threes or so they say. :-( The TV in the family room stopped working, so several days later we went to Sam's Club and purchased a Sharp LCD widescreen TV. Just to let you know, things don't always happen in threes. Leah went to use the blender two days ago and it broke. So, along with Christmas shopping yesterday, a replacement blender was purchased.

We decided that Christmas just came a bit early for us this year and we will not be buy each other much. It will still be a nice Christmas for us as we will have time with family and friends.

Time Flies

Well as you can see, this blog is not as active as it should be. After our trip to New England, we were home for a little bit and went to Ocean City, Md with the Traveling Americans.

The Traveling Americans are a group of Fellow Good Sam members and are a great bunch of people.

Our next outting took us to Stafford, Va. Our Son, Todd, and his girlfriend, Beth, got married on November 18, 2006. It was a very nice wedding and we wish them many years of happiness together.

Saturday night my sister Julie called and let me now that my aunt Liz Phillips died. Well, change of destination from home in Maryland to the funeral in Ohio. On Sunday morning we went to the newly weds house, shared the sad news about Aunt Liz, had breakfest, said our goodbyes and was on our way to Ohio.

We stayed the first night on the road in Bedford, Pa. The tempatures were dropping and we were glad to have a full propane tank for heating the motorhome.

We arrived at Van Buran, Ohio late Monday afternoon and checked in to the campground for several days. We drove to North Baltimore for a super market, car wash and to find the location of the funeral home.

On Tuesday morning we drove to Fayette, Ohio and visited with my mother, my sister and her family. We returned to North Baltimore for the afternoon viewing. The only thing good about a funeral viewing is seeing family and friends that you have not seen in awhile.

The Funeral was held at noon on Wednesday and the funeral home was full of family and friends. Aunt Liz will be cremated so there was no trip to a gravesite.

We had lunch with my brother, Roger, some of his family, my sister, Julie and some of her family. We had a nice time and a nice visit.

Our trip home went well, but boy oh boy the east bound tolls of the Pa. turnpike will eat you up.

Trip Recap

Well, its been awhile since I last posted. We have been traveling throughout the New England states, eating local foods and seeing fall colors. We have had internet access on and off during this trip, so the blog has not be updated the way it should have been.

We spent a very nice time in Moody Beach/Wells, Me. The weather was nice most of the time there and we were able to take a number of walks on the beach. There was also a walking trail along the ocean called the Marginal Way. It ran from Perkins Bay to Moody Beach. There are plenty of benches along the way to set and rest enjoying the views.

We drove to Walkerspoint and looked at the Bush home. We think we saw Barbara Bush outside the front of the house for a brief period.

We stopped for lunch and had to have a "lobsta" roll. They are ok, but the hot boiled lobster with drawn butter is much better.

Our next stop was in New Hampshire where we spent the night at the home of one of Leah's nursing school classmates.

The following morning we set out for Montpiler, Vt. The campground cost us $36.00 a night, but was not worth anything near that amount. In a word, it sucked.....

We went to a Sugaring farm and learned about the maple syrup making process. We were surprised to learn that buckets are not use to collect the tree sap for syrup making. A series of hoses and a vaccum system is used to bring the sap from the trees down to the sugarhouse to be boiled to remove the water to get the pure maple syrup. It takes 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup and thats why it is expensive.

We moved onto Essex Junction, Vt. to attend the annual Newmar International RV Rally. As rallies went, this one ranked low. Vendors were sparce, seminars poor, and the food was fair. The high points were the entertainers and the 2007 Newmar products.

We move to a campground about 20 minutes north of Burlington, Vt. called Apple Island. I would rate this campground average. We drove over to New York and came back to Vt via the ferry at Plattsburg. The leaf peeping was at its peak according to the local news. We saw a lot of yellows, but very little reds.

Our next stop was at Lake George, New York. The area was in the final days of the season and not many other people were there. The leaves were showing more red color than Vt. trees.

We next stopped at Camp Bell, NY for a visit to Watkins Glen and a trip around Senecca lake which has 32 wineries. We stopped at several, tasted and bought several bottles of wine.

Next we went to the Wellsboro, Pa area to see the Grand Canyon of Pa. Getting to the campground was a trip in its self. The campground advertised mountain top camping and they were not kidding. The last 1/2 mile must of been a 10% grade, but we made it and had a site that overlooked a pond. While we were there, we had mixed rain and snow fall along with some very, very cold temps.

Our final stop was south of Lancaster, Pa at Outdoor World. On Wednesday we paln to be back at our home in Maryland.

On the Road to Vermont

Well Monday morning we backed the motorhome out of the driveway, hooked up the car and started our journey to Vermont and the Newmar Int. Rally. We are following I-81 towards Scranton, Pa and will connect up to I-84 East. Along the way, we saw a number of the Nextel Cup Team vehicles heading for their homebases from racing in New Hampshire. The next stop will be in Dover, Delware for the racers.

We also seen the trucks of Brad Pasley, a country singer for you that don't know, as they were heading for the next gig.

We also saw a number of the top end motorhomes that belong to the NASCAR drivers.
The drivers, for the most part, flew home Sunday evening and its up to the crews to get everything either back to the homebase or to the next track.

We are staying several days in Sturbridge, Mass and will be heading for Moody Beach, Me. While there we will make the manatory stop at L.L. Bean.

The Newmar Rally is being held later in the year so we can have a shot at seeing the fall colors. Here's hoping it works out for us. We are seeing signs already of leaves changing.

Went to the Vet Today

Leah took me to the vet today and I got poked, prodded and told I was overweight. Boy, how many of you have heard that? Well, I guess we'll just have to let up on the doggie treats abit. :-) The worst part of the whole day is I have to go bad and have my teeth worked on, bummer :-(

We are packing the motorhome for a rally in Vermont and plan to see some friends who live in New Hampshire. Our fingers are crossed that we will see the fall colors as well. Tom had the motorhome serviced and gassed up so we will be ready to go.

Ernesto

This past weekend we went camping with members of our Goodsam group. Tom and Leah were one of three host couples for the Laborday Weekend. We left home Friday Morning heading South towards Williamsburg, Va. Guess what was heading North? Yep, Ernesto.

We drove in rain about two thirds of the trip. The further South we went the more rain we encountered. Traffic was backed up on I-95 several miles North of the I-64 turn off. Some guy was in the medium stip in a jeep and was not making any headway in getting out. The backup was caused by rubber neckers.

The trip was going along fairly smoothly in spite of the heavy rains until we got within three miles of our exit. Traffic was stopped because of downed trees and power lines. It took us an hour to go three miles.

When we got to the campground, we found out the electric was out. About 7 PM the power was restored. One trailer in the campground was not very lucky as you can see in the picture. Boy, were we glad we were camped in the open.

50+ website and Sunday Brunch

After church this morning, two dozen people went out for Sunday Brunch. Seated at the table with Tom and Leah was Sue Bloom. Sue told us about a new website for boomers. It is www.eons.com. If your are 50+ you might try this site.

Sue writes the blog for the photography group.

No More Boo Boo

Surprise, surprise. This morning we got a call from the repair shop letting us know the motorhome was all better. We loaded ourselves up in the car and went to the bodyshop to pickup the motorhome.

We looked over the areas that were repaired and were satisfied with the work that was done. Now the big task will be to keep Tom from bumping into something.

If you need some good body work performed, we recommend Baker's Truck and Auto Collision, 699 Kohler Mill Road, New Oxford, Pa. 17350 (717) 624-2159.

Broken Towbar

Two weeks ago on August 8th we went to a FMCA Newmar prerally in Marion, NC. We pulled into Tom Johnson's Rally Park and found where our group was meeting. The person doing the parking told us to pull up and unhook our towed car. When Tom went to pull forward he felt a snap and something did not feel right. He looked into the rearview monitor and saw the car moving towards the motorhome. We stopped and got out to look and sure enough the towbar had broken at the shank where it attaches to the receiver. Lucky for us the safety cables did their job, but the breakaway switch did not. No damage was suffered on either the car or the motorhome. Someone was really looking out for us. We "finished" unhooking the car and was directed to our campsite.

The next morning Tom and Leah walked over to the Blue Oxx Trailer and told them we had a slight problem with out towbar. They had already heard and was going to come looking for us after they got setup. They took down all of the information and the campsite number and said they would have someone make repairs shortly. Later that day Ray came and took the towbat to fix it. After several hours he brought it back with all new steel parts.

Ray said that he was going around to all of the motorhomes and looking for the same model towbar that we had to make the same repairs before theirs also failed. It was too bad ours broke before Ray got to replace the week parts. There was not charge for the rerpairs.

Take the Motorhome to Have a Boo Boo Fixed...

This morning Tom took the motorhome to get a boo boo fixed. No, he didn't do it. Back this Winter Tom took the motorhome to have the icemaker fixed. When the repair shop put the slideout out to remove the refrigerator, they did not check the distance between a storage shed and the motorhome doing some damage to the the slideout side of the motorhome. Today was the day to take the motorhome for its repairs. We were told it will be ready by the end of this week, we'll see.