Dec 9 -15, 2019 A slower pace but enjoying Tropic Winds.

Dec 9 - We're not doing as much "fun" stuff but we're ticking jobs off the list and mixing in lots of downtime. Afternoon naps are awesome! Even to just go lie down with the fan on and read for a half hour is a really good thing. Not how we usually roll.
Leslie is taking the truck down to the laundry this morning. We have two baskets full and she's doing all the bedding too. After I do a little blog reading and writing I'm getting at the caulking on the shady side of the rig. I'll need a cloudy day for the drivers side. It's a really windy day today. Wind is fairly constant here in Harlingen but some days it really gets going. The gusts are are over 50k or 30 mph this morning. Our neighbours Christmas tree is taking a beating. Ornaments are in a pile around it. They'll get it fixed up I'm sure. They have quite the display at night. Leslie can see it clearly on the mirror of our bedroom closet doors lol.
We worked for a while and then Brian and Mary stopped by our site to let us know the gang is meeting at the pool a little later. That's nice of them to tell us about it. We cleaned up and put on swimming gear and headed down to the pool. There were eight of them this time so we pulled up a chair and hung out for a couple hours with some frosty drinks by the pool. It's windy but plenty warm out. The gang had all arranged a steak dinner previously so we parted ways for supper but joined up again after supper for another drink. We shared some of the Maple Crown Royal we brought down. How Canadian is Maple Crown?? They shared some Tennessee Moonshine. We slept pretty good afterwards.

Beautiful sunset in Harlingen.

Dec 10 - On the local news they are warning everyone about a "cold front" that is coming this morning. We have been checking Edmonton and Bonnyville weather and it's a different cold front here to say the least. While we were having coffee it was muggy and about 22C/75F at 8 am. Not long after that a strong wind kicked up and the temperature instantly dropped along with the humidity to about 16C/60F by about 10 am. Sure enough it feels cold. I had to pull out a sweatshirt and put on jeans. Leslie is in a sweater and has the blanket over her on the couch. WTH? 

In front of the fireplace staying warm.

Needed a sweater while working on the blog!

It really did get nasty for here, it's -30C/-22F in Bonnyville.

We braved the cold for a trip to Walmart and our first ever visit to Cracker Barrel restaurant for lunch. Country fried turkey brings a whole new dimension to life my friends. Wow. Leslie had trout and a salad, not as life altering. Country fried turkey with gravy on top, yeah that's food. I need one of those previously mentioned naps.

Our first time to Cracker Barrel. It's pretty good.

We are real close to a city park that we want to check out so we stopped at Arroyo Park right after for a short walk with Margaret. There are three parks connected by a cement path that I wanted to look at for a run tomorrow. We checked it out briefly and then back to the rig for a rest. We didn't do much after that except supper and TV for the evening. It was about 10C/50F that night. We put the blanket back on the bed!
Dec 11- It was cool overnight for sure. The furnace kicked in a couple times while set at 58F. It's still quite windy today but the clouds have gone mostly and it is supposed to warm up to 16C/60F this afternoon; nice enough for a run for sure. One more night of cool weather and we're back into the heat again. We made it through the cold front!
Leslie made us an amazing breakfast; scrambled eggs with spinach, peppers, onions and bacon bits in them. Then she put guacamole and pico de gallo on the table for toppings. So good and good for you! A bit later I headed out to the park for a run and Leslie stayed at the rig and walked around here. By the time I got there the wind had died down and it was a great day. I got to do some cement path and then switched shoes and did the trails in the park. Awesome.

Really nice park with trails and interpretive signs about the birds and the trees/shrubs.

Nice trails to run and only a couple other people.

The channel through the park, pretty funky smelling unfortunately.

Leslie was busy ordering some business cards from Vistaprint when I got back. Quite a few people have cards to share contact info and we wanted to get some too. They're pretty cheap really. We took a long time choosing a picture but Les got them ordered and they will be here in about 10 days. Also while I was gone she stopped at the office and signed us up for Christmas dinner and she bought tickets for a cod fish fry on Friday. Good stuff Leslie!

Dec 12 - Today is Leslie's line dancing day so she headed to the main hall while I hung out and worked on the blog. She really likes her line dancing group and she enjoys the dancing. She got back to the rig with a big smile and got busy making a big batch of dog food. We plan to do a driving tour of Edinburgh to the west of us and then stop at Costco in Pharr, to the south. From Costco we can get out to the freeway and come back home.

We got cleaned up and plugged Edinburgh into the GPS. I wonder what route we'll take to get there? It chose a road to the north of us and then west which turned out to be a great drive. Lots of agriculture along the way with sugar cane and cotton fields. We have been told that the huge fires we're seeing are the farmers burning the cane fields to clean them up. We were told they burn them and then harvest but that's not what we saw today. They drove a harvester through the field and then a separate machine comes along and picks up the stalks in a huge basket. I'm assuming that's what they burn is the dry stalks. Makes for massive fires and if the wind is right we get chunks of black ash floating into the park and landing all over the rig and truck. It was an interesting drive, we went through another fair size community called Edcouch? Odd name I thought. 

Never seen one of these before; cane harvester.

These fires burn quite often right now. They are huge!

Sugar cane processing plant.

They use lots of heat in the process by the look of it.

There are lots of RV Parks in Edinburgh and we checked out a few but they are not what we would choose over where we are at Tropic Winds. It's fun to look though. Well we like to do that at least. Never know for sure until you see it.

Time to head for Costco and I'm already thinking about my Costco hot dog and a Pepsi for $1.50 lol. Leslie had a hot dog with no bun which didn't look as good. I had the dog plus a piece of pepperoni pizza! They make pretty good pizza too. I had no idea. That stopped me from trying all the samples in the food aisles. I was too full. We didn't have a big list of stuff and were soon on our way back to Harlingen on the freeway. A nice circle drive and we got to see some new places. Good stuff.

The community with the Costco about 30 miles from us.

Hot dog heaven lol.

I polished another section of the trailer while Leslie put away our groceries then we both sat outside for a bit with a cold drink. Not a thrill a minute type day but it was fun.

Leslie got a nice sunset shot here at Tropic Winds.

Dec 13 - Leslie has more line dancing this morning and I'm switching it up a little and going for a bike ride instead of running. I found a bike lane and followed it to a bike path that went past the park I ran earlier this week. I got back just before Leslie got home from line dance. I noticed when I got back that my bike was hard to push around. The brakes are dragging both front and back? I have a new project to check out my bike now. We took Margaret for a nice walk around the park and then Leslie got out the clippers to give her a trim. She's getting a little shaggy. Can't have that lol. I put my bike on the stand and took the wheels off to check the brakes. Doesn't seem to be an issue there but the bearings in the front wheel feel chunky. I took that apart and there is a ball bearing missing on one side? Have no idea how that could have happened. There is a bike shop not far from here so I'll just take it there and get it repacked with new bearings. Ended up taking the whole bike there actually and will get a tune up done. Everything is covered in salt and road dust from the drive down here. We'll see how that turns out. 

Leslie has Margaret on the tailgate for her haircut so it's easier on her back. She worked on her for about a half hour until Margaret didn't want to stand still anymore. Leslie did a great job again and now Margaret just wants to roll in the grass. So much for the clean dog.

Before, side view.

She's pretty scruffy looking.

There we go, such a pretty girl lol.

Next up is putting up our Christmas lights on the rig. Leslie bought a couple strings to give our trailer a little colour over the holidays. There are quite a few really nice displays here in the park. Ours is weak but better than nothing at all. We got them hung on the front but we'll need to wait a bit for dark so we can get the show going.

The light show at dusk!

We have tickets for a fish fry tonight at the main hall so we need to wash up and walk to the hall. It's a great deal at $7 for one piece and $9 for two pieces of cod; baked or fried. They include slaw, baked potato and a bun with chocolate cake for dessert. It's also just a good chance to meet some other people here. We sat at a table with Terry & Carol, the couple that helped us the first day here. It was a good dinner and nice to chat with them for a bit. We did another walk around after dinner with Margaret and that was about it. Time for a lazy boy.

Dec 14 - Today is another really hot one. Sorry to all our friends up north but it's crazy hot here. It's a little muggy and only gets down to 22C/75F at night. Forecast high today, 35C/95F !!

Yeah it's pretty warm outside.

I want to drop off the bike wheel today and Terry told us about a Mexican restaurant called Los Asados that is on the same road so we'll head over there. Lunch was first and Terry was right, Los Asados is good food and lots of it.

Good place here in Harlingen.

Leslie's plate didn't look as full because she asked for the beans and rice to go so she only has meat, peppers and onions,  lettuce, tomatoes and cheese on her plate with salsa and guacamole. Mine is a big plate that's totally full of chalupas, beans and rice for $9. The service was really good and the food was great. We'll go back again no doubt.

Wow I could look happier with all that food to eat.

I have my phone at this point.

Next stop is Bicycle World to drop off my front wheel. After chatting with the mechanics and finding out they can fit in my whole bike for a tune up we jumped back in the truck to go back to the rig. We had almost got back to the park and I looked for my phone in the truck. I quickly realized I had left it behind either at the restaurant or bike shop. I hate it when I do stupid stuff like that so I started winding up into a little snap-show and of course Leslie had to listen to my rant. She tried being calm and reasonable but I was already losing it so it was a rough half hour. We grabbed the rest of the bike and we burned back to the restaurant. Not there! The manager said he would check the video cameras and call Leslie's phone to see if I picked it up or someone else. At least we'll know if I had it when I left. I can't remember at this point. We continued to the bike shop and I wheeled the rest of the bike into the shop. As I set the bike down by the service counter I looked on the counter where the work order was and there is my phone!! So relieved to find it. We keep so much information on our phones and being down here I use it way more than at home. I told Leslie right away that it was here and apologized for losing my,,, um stuff. Good thing she can deal with my stuff. Thanks Les! 

We called the restaurant and thanked them for trying to help find the phone. I am much more aware of what I'm carrying again. With the bike at the shop we headed to HEB for a couple groceries and then back to Tropic Winds. 

We took Margaret for a walk around our area and met some new neighbours two sites over. Rusty and Gemma are winter Texans from the northeast corner of Texas. I jokingly told Rusty that I was super jealous of him already because of his rig and toys. He's driving a beautiful mini Peterbuilt, pulling a Voltage Toyhauler with, get this, not one but 2 Harleys (his and hers) and a custom golf cart. His Harley is a 2015 Road Glide with a ton of custom work done to it. It is just spectacular! We didn't get pics that day but I'll try to get some before too long. Gemma took the overgrown golf cart with ostrich leather seats to the laundry while we visited with Rusty. He loves ostrich leather; the golf cart, the bike seats and all the seats in the Peterbuilt are black ostrich leather. It looks amazing!

We chatted with Rusty for a bit and then Gemma too when she got back. They are super friendly and we'll try to get together for a happy hour soon. Rusty offered a ride in the Pete sometime which I will gladly accept. Beautiful rig.

Rusty's Peterbuilt! 4 ostrich leather captains chairs and a fold down 

bench seat in back that makes a bed. Yes I have truck envy.

We walked back to our site and I looked at my Ram with disgust lol. I thought my truck was nice but it pales beside that Pete haha. We sat outside with a cold drink after our stressful afternoon. Rusty fired up and went to park the truck at the end of the park in the storage area. Oh don't worry. He also has a half ton pickup here so they can drive around easier. I'm not sure I like them anymore lol. So jealous.

Dec 15 - We woke up to a major wind today. There is another cold front coming down this way so the wind is stronger than usual. It's still forecast for 32C today but wind gusts will hit 60 km/h or 40 mph. We're doing a couple chores today. Leslie is going to defrost the freezer and I'm working on fixing more caulking on the shady side of the rig which is out of the wind. The wind is actually shaking the rig a little bit it's so strong. We went for a walk around the park with the dog and then just hung out inside out of the wind. Forecast says the wind is continuing for the next few days and it's getting cold. Well I mean south Texas cold so it will be around 10C/50F at night and in the teens during the day. Not too hard to handle.

That almost brings us up to date!! Yay. It's not a thrill a minute while we're here but that's just what we wanted. There are still some sites we want to look at over the next couple of weeks, we'll get there. For now we'll just keep doing the little repairs and enjoy Tropic Winds and the folks we have met. We both are starting to get "itchy" to get back on the road again. Looking forward to all the friends and fun ahead of us in Arizona too. 

Cheers everybody.