Saturday, January 29 – Another busy day in paradise.....ha ha! Paul headed to Camping World after his morning bike ride. There's a couple items on sale, which ends Monday, that Paul wanted to check out. One item is tire covers for our new tires we'll be getting on Monday. The other item is a folding bike for Marsha. We picked up her current bike at a garage sale for $10, and it has a lot to be desired. Our neighbors here in Mission, welcomed us to try out their bikes, and we really liked them. The same bike is on sale, so Paul got Marsha an early anniversary present....or is it birthday, or valentine's day or Christmas....or is it, buy your wonderful wife a gift day. Yeah, that's it! :=) We're going to put her old bike in the park-wide garage sale coming up in a couple weeks.
We then headed to downtown Mission for the Texas Citrus Fiesta. Marsha wanted to see some of the Parade of Oranges. It was very windy today!
We then went over to the mid-way to check out the carnival type food and the local renditions of carny food available.
They serve tons of corn-on-the-cob but with lots of hot sauce and salt. Very strange looking.
Paul settled on his normal funnel cake, and Marsha had a sausage sandwich. Do you think a man who loves funnel cake would learn not to wear black…but NOOOOOO! Actually this picture really doesn’t do it justice. Marsha wiped over half of it off before she thought of taking a picture.
We arrived plenty early to get a good spot for our chairs. After walking around the mid-way for awhile, we returned to our parade viewing spot.
The place was getting crowded! After a pretty long wait, the parade began with the traditional police motorcycles and then the USA Flag. The parade had many local bands, floats from surrounding campgrounds and other business establishments....all decorated with oranges and this year's theme – “The Early Years of the Railroad”.
Lots of bands
Of course…clowns
There were also dozens of young beautiful Latino Queens representing the many different citrus crops grown in the area. It was neat the way the girls were dressed. For example, Miss Ruby Red Grapefruit was dressed in a bright red gown riding in a corvette. Miss Navel Orange has on....what else, but a bright orange gown. Miss Honeydew wore a bright green gown. Get it???? Cute!
Marsha loved the article on the Royal Coronation in the local Winter Texan. It listed all the queens, king and ladies-in-waiting. Here is just a few…After King Citrus was crowned then came Queen Citrianna. Then The Princess of Grapefruit Blossom, Princess of Orange Blossom which followed by the Tangerine Court, and Princess of Lemon Blossom, Princess of Lime Blossom, Princess of Tangerine and Princess of Red Grapefruit Bloom. Remember this is only a “taste” of what the line up looks like. What a hoot!
After about an hour and a half of parade watching…more than Paul can usually endure…we returned to the Park to attend a party at the neighbors, Angie & Rick. It was attended by about a dozen neighbors and new friends. Fun!
Sunday, January 30 – After church, it was a nice relaxing day. Marsha took her new bike out for a spin.
Old bike
New bike
That evening we went to see Norma and Donna’s new house. What a beautiful place!!! CONGRATULATIONS you two. The house sets on the 27 hole of the golf course. They have a fabulous view of the sunset. The sky is so awesome.
Monday, January 31 - Paul took the MH in for new tires this morning. This is the first he moved the MH since December 28, when he arrived in Mission. Paul timed this tire installation at this time so he could exercise the MH drive train and generator after sitting for a month.
He took the MH to GCR here in Mission.
We got a very good price on Bridgestone R280 295/75 22.5; 16 ply tires that should serve us well for many, many years. These tires are a little larger and 16 ply rather than the previous 14 ply tires we had in the past. The installer – Rudy – worked very hard by himself for 3 hours installing the tires.
He was very experienced and Paul was very happy with the quality of his work......yep, I tipped him! They took the old tires for retreading and I should receive about $50 each by next week as a credit....Wonderful!!!
Now that the MH has new shoes, Paul purchased tire covers to protect them, while sitting, from the ultraviolet rays of the sun. This supposedly prevents sidewall cracking and premature decomposing of the rubber. We'll only install the covers when we park for extended periods of time (a week or more).
Tuesday, February 1 – Our new dining room/kitchen table came today and Paul assembled it and put on several coats of polyurethane varnish to protect it. It is just the right size. It was difficult to find a small table, so we ordered one online. We only need to find two chairs and that will conclude our redecorating. So far, we are very pleased with the results.
Wednesday, February 2 – CRAZY, CRAZY, CRAZY weather blowing across the country and the Rio Grande Valley (RVG) isn't being spared. Temperatures dropped into the 30's last night and may reach the upper 20's tonight. Brrrrrrrrrrr!!!
Okay, Mother Nature, enough already.....check it out....it is colder in the Tropics of Mission, TX than in Canton, Ohio.....31 degrees here and 39 degrees in Canton.
The good news is that it will be back in the 70's by the weekend. I guess I can live with two days of winter....ha ha!!!
Wasn't a great night for sleeping last night either. One of the annoying situations in an RV is that when wind blows is causes the awnings to flap like crazy. The constant flapping noise is not comforting. I suppose if they were covered with ice or snow they wouldn't flap ........oooooo Bite My Tongue!!!
Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see ya’ll back real soon. Have a great day!
