Still recovering from our colds we are still not doing much. Weather here is not the best, but then look at the weather they have been having in Arizona! OUCH. We have a day or two of rain, gray then we get a day or two that is rather nice.
Al finds a replacement TV at the local Best Buy, a 20 inch flat screen Toshiba. It has a great picture! A day after we get that all set up, we go to play a CD, and you guessed it, the CD changer will not open and we discover that it is fatally ill. The day we did laundry, it was rather damp outside and I could not hang out the shirts to dry, so we set up the little clothes rack we have in Montana. You guessed it, in the middle of the night, crack, crack and crash, the rack broke and I had to gather up all the still semi-wet clothes. Next morning we went to Linens N More and bought a new one, this one a bit more substantial than the old one. This is turning into the “replacement tour”.
On the 14th, we finally feel we are strong enough to undertake a day of sightseeing, so we head off to Harlingen. We visit the Iwo Jima monument. This is taken from the same mold as the monument in Washington D.C. It is quite breathtaking. There is a nice park, lots of memorial live oak trees placed in memory of fallen soldiers, a museum and a interesting movie on the Battle to take Iwo Jima. We have lunch in what is supposed to be one of the 50 best Mexican restaurants in the US. It is fine, but we think we found one here locally near our campground that is at least that good, maybe better! Yep, we have eaten there a couple of times! <G> We also wander out to the Texas Air Museum, which will be closed by the end of February for ever, the collection is being sold off and all artifacts will be moved to other locations. It is an interesting collection of airplanes and World War II war memorabilia. The collection needs to be moved away from the salt air (we are near the Gulf) and parts of it needs some TLC, but we still find it an enjoyable way to spend a few hours. It was 92 degrees in the afternoon, February 14th! OK, we loved it, it is part of why we come to the Rio Grande Valley, the high temps!
Still lazy, we are now walking the dogs every morning, Al takes 1, then another, then he goes for a longer walk, when he returns I walk 1, then the last. The dogs LOVE it!
On the 17th, members of the Montana’s Owners Club (online forum) that are in the valley, meet for a late lunch/early dinner in McAllen Texas. You know who the MC for the afternoon was. We had about 30 people, spent a great afternoon of chatting and visiting and laughing. My cough is gone, except when I laugh, oh, we were laughing, oh, dear! <G>
February 18 - 26, 2005
We have 3 or 4 days of wonderfully warm weather. We go to the pool and hot tub and laz around for 3 afternoons in a row. We go out and run some errands here and there. Some MOC members, Les and Julie, ended up in our park for 1 week, and we visit with them, talking fulltiming, and of course, Montanas! We go out to eat a couple of times with them, they are great people and we hope to run into them again sometime on the road!
We spend another afternoon in Harlingen, did a little window/antique shopping in the downtown area, which is like so many of our country’s downtowns, hard on businesses. Many empty buildings and a few “going out of sale” signs. We tried to go to the Rio Grande Valley Museum, but found it closed. They don’t publish their hours on their glossy brochure, very irritating. Had dinner in a all you can eat Chinese buffet place. Al had wanted to go to the Shrimp Fest that evening, till they told us it was boiled shrimp, and a tad pricey. So, we found this Chinese place, and they had boiled shrimp, and crab this, and mussels that, and catfish and salmon and more shrimp with flavorings. He still got all he could eat! <G> And, got to say, that eating Chinese with Country music twaingin the in the background is different! Only in Texas?? What fun!
While we were killing some time that afternoon we happened upon the Harlingen Public Library and wandered in. They had a nice collection of art work, which we wandered around and looked at. I wandered into the genealogy area for a few minutes and found a book on Page County Virginia that has some photos of a house I want, connected to my families. Go figure, all the way to Texas and find something on one of my Virginia families. I found that they book is also owned by the Allen County Public Library, so I will take my scanner and look it up there.
On the afternoon of the 26th we run out to La Joya and take in the performance of the high school kids, like we did last year. They surely are a talented batch of kids. We stopped on the way home and visited another MOC member who is parked out that way, spent a few hours with John and Donna from Ontario, what a nice visit and afternoon.
Well, that about brings you up to date. We have been here almost a month, and have yet to be to Mexico. Have not done much at all, but we are in the Montana, and as far as we are concerned that is a good thing!
