Tuesday, February 20, 2018 - Phone Calls; Trip to Mexico; Lunch; Breadsmith; Harbor Freight; Joe's Ice Cream; Shipley's Donuts; Melrose; Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig; Mail Check

Tuesday, February 20, 2018 - Phone Calls; Trip to Mexico; Lunch; Breadsmith; Harbor Freight; Joe's Ice Cream; Shipley's Donuts; Melrose; Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig; Mail Check

It was still very windy this morning so again we did not walk or ride our bicycles.  I hope we are able to do one or the other tomorrow morning.  

See how the wind is blowing these palm trees!

Here's a new picture of the tree that is blooming at our site.  I haven't been able to ask anyone yet if they know what type of tree it is, but hope to find out tomorrow.

Dean and I drove up to the park office this morning at 8:30 to discuss making reservations here at Val's for next winter.  We've decided if we return it will only be for the months of January and February, with the plan to leave home as soon after our family Christmas as possible.  We'd like to be here on January 1 to take advantage of the rent we will pay for the two full months.  This year we paid for three and will only be staying for 2.5 months.  When we reached the office, we discovered it does not open until 9, so we'll have to stop in later today after our return from Mexico.

Our group walking down the sidewalk after leaving one of the stores in Mexico.

Some of the vendors on the streets in Mexico.

We went to Mexico with our Heartland friends Nancy, Dave, Stella and Jay.  We made stops at 3 or 4 different stores, made our purchases and returned to the states.  During our drive I made a few phone calls.  First of all to Ron Hoover RV in Donna, TX to see if they would have time to install a combo washer/dryer before we leave the Valley.  We plan to leave between the 15-17th.  We were able to schedule to installation for Wednesday, March 14.  While they should be able to get it installed on the 14th, we allowed for two extra days in case there is a problem so it does not run into the weekend.  The service department does not work on weekends.  We want to leave the area no later than Friday to begin our trek back home.  The service representative said since the location of the vent in our Big Horn 5th wheel is pre-marked on the outside wall, and has the water hookups and drain already in place it should be a relatively easy project - but with any type of work, there is always a chance for a hiccup.  I'm going to believe it will go well.  When they finish on the 14th, depending on the time - we'll determine if we'll stay there for the night or move on down the road.  We intend to take our time traveling back to Kansas, making stops for sightseeing, visiting friends and just enjoying a leisurely return trip.  

Another call was to UPS, asking they forward our mail to us.  It has worked out well to have it sent every two weeks.  The past few packets of mail have resulted in a fair amount of work including more address changes that are needed, and due to some automatic payments that were held up - but we believe everything is now updated so we do not expect much mail from this point on.  We do almost everything on line with individual companies and even if we deal with one that does not offer online services, we can have our bank issue a check after filling in the necessary information online.  It works wonderful!  

On our return from Mexico we stopped in at Ron Hoover to meet John, the service rep I spoke with and to get all of the details lined out for the install of the combo unit.  He was very nice and we expect the installation to go well.  I had a few questions for him about the type of dryer vent they will use - we want a metal vent not a plastic once, and if we should have a drain pan installed underneath the unit in case there is every a leak.  He is going to let me know the answer to my questions after talking to the installer.

By now it was after 12:00, and we were getting quite hungry.  I was in the process of checking Google for places near us on my phone when I remembered that our friends recommended a place to get shrimp dinners near Victoria Palms and US 83.  Since we were not far from there I looked it up online.  We were so close that we were pulling into the parking lot of "The Lighthouse Seafood Market" within 5 minutes or so.  Dean ordered the fried shrimp plate for $9.99 and received quite a few shrimp - enough he said he was getting full and had almost a half dozen pieces left to eat.  It came with a fish soup, salad and rice as well as ice tea.  I ordered two grilled shrimp tacos.  Oh my goodness, they were so good and only $5.99.  They were full of nice sized pieces of shrimp, tomatoes, and cilantro with a wonderful sauce, possibly chipolte. I tasted one of Dean's shrimp and  it was quite good.

Lunch today was at "The Lighthouse Seafood Market".  They were playing Christian music inside.  I assume that is  where the name of their restaurant "The Lighthouse" reference came from.  It reminded me of K-Love!

Dean's shrimp dinner.  Sorry I forgot to take the pictures before we started eating.

My grilled shrimp tacos were packed with lots of nice size pieces of shrimp.

Our next stop was clear across town in McAllen at Breadsmith to pick up the bread I ordered yesterday when we were there yesterday.  After leaving, we drove by Harbor Freight.  Dean had mentioned a day or so ago that he wanted to stop there, so we turned around and went back.  He purchased two different size packages of tie wraps.  I found a couple of stackable bins I thought might be handy in the pantry to make use of some wasted space on the top shelf.  I took a picture so I could remember the measurements and we'll check once we get back to the rig to see if they will work out.  Update:  Two units stacked would fit wonderful and would almost double the space there, so we may return later to pick up 4 of these.

In the same shopping area, Dean spied "Joe's Ice Cream - 52 flavors".  He thought we should check it out.  After our purchase was made at Harbor Freight, we walked over to Joe's.  We each had 1 dip in a cup.  I chose triple chocolate and Dean chose pecan praline.  Mine was delicious and Dean agreed his was too.  Maybe we can fit in one more visit here before we leave.  

As we moved further down the road, we saw Shipley's Do-nuts.  We have talked about stopping here ever since we saw this do-nut shop the first time; even more since we heard about how good their cinnamon rolls are supposed to be.....so today was the day.  We bought one cinnamon roll. one apple fritter and one do-nut..  We ate the do-nut when we returned to the truck.  It was really good - oh my goodness!   Had the do-nut been warm and my eyes closed, I could have easily envisioned myself sitting in the Oswego bakery enjoying a freshly cooked Jenks do-nut.  Yum....those were the days!

While we were running errands a day or so ago, I saw a clothing store that I've never heard of before.  I told Dean I wouldn't mind trying to find it again.  He was quite patient as we retraced where we've been the past few days, and we finally found it - at the last place we could remember going.  I would like to find two or three new capris and tops.   I found one pair of jean capris that I really liked but the price was more than I was willing to pay.  I did find something to buy though.  I think I mentioned my plan to change the hangars in our closet out with skinny ones I found at Walmart the other day.  Today I bought 25 hangars at Melrose for $9.99.

2" more space for the 14 hangars on the left versus the 14 on the right.

The ones I purchased yesterday

For every 14 hangars I am saving 2" of space.  That is a lot of extra room in a confined area.  I'll be glad when all of our clothes have been transferred to these hangars.  I may go back and buy another package at this price.  By the way the name of the clothing store was Melrose.

This being our last stop for the day, we were ready to head home.  It's hard to believe we left our park a little before 9 and we did not return to the park until almost 4:30.  We had a busy, but fun day.  

For those of you with spouses that wear hearing aids, do you have some odd conversations sometimes?  I keep thinking I'll right down some of ours to share, but I've not followed through.  Too bad, I think I could write a book!   I can't remember what Dean said, but believe me I was laughing so hard I could hardly talk.  We were at the ice cream store and I said I'd like to come back because they have rasberry sherbert which is a favorite of mine and you rarely find it at ice cream shops.  He looked at me and repeated what he thought I said - but it was no where close to rasberry sherbert!  I can no longer remember what he said, but as soon as he said it, he was lucky he didn't have an ice cream shower all over him.  It was hilarious and I was in a fit of giggles. This happens often!  We laugh a lot and often its about misunderstood words because he did not hear me correctly.  I'm thankful he's such a good sport about it and laughs with me, rather than being upset about it.   

While running our errands, Dean received a notice that $15 and some odd cents had been charged to our credit card for an Amazon purchase  Neither of us had been on Amazon today.  The only thing I could find was an item I ordered a couple of weeks ago had been delivered today - and the cost with tax would have been just over $15.  Hopefully that is it.

In addition, what I found when checking on the $15+ charge was great news; a notice my camera was delivered today.  I did not receive a notice via email saying it had been delivered like I usually do on my phone.  We immediately walked up to the park office to see if anyone was still there, in hopes I might be able to pick it up.  Unfortunately the office was already closed. I checked our mailbox.  There was only a note explaining we have a package too big for the box.  I'll have to wait until morning.  I'm excited to try it out tomorrow and very happy it came a week earlier than expected.

I visited with my sister Cindy this evening for awhile.  It was really good to talk to her.  Tomorrow is my sister Crystal's birthday - HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!  Love you so much!!  

Now that we have less than 3 1/2 weeks before we leave we are taking a closer look at what things we still want to make time to see or do.