Saturday, December 31
We wish all our family and friends and HEATHLY and HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Friday, December 30 – We traveled to Mission, Texas, today. It is located in the Rio Grande Valley in southern Texas on the border with Mexico. We pulled out of the Houston Elks Club bright and early for our trip. We drove through fog the first three hours of the trip.
Our first stop was at Prasek's Smokehouse in Hillje, TX, about 60 miles south of Houston on Highway 59.
Paul read about this stop on Rudy & Linda's blog, Home Sweet RV. You can see their blog here: http://www.mytripjournal.com/HomeSweetRV2012 . Not only do they sell fresh meats but also numerous flavors of jerky, BBQ, and smoked meats. 
There is a wonderful bakery selling pastries and kaloches, cookies, and strudels.
They have a HUGE aquarium, beautiful gift store and the walls had unique decorations.
So after grabbing a cup of coffee and some breakfast sandwiches, we continued toward south Texas. Paul did take a moment to check the oil in the front bearing hub. A leak was discovered during routine maintenance, and we decided to wait till arriving in Mission to get it repaired. We stopped every 90 minutes or so to check the oil level and add any oil if needed.
Now this isn't something you see everyday while driving down the highway.
This guy was going 60 MPH with FIVE dogs in the back and NO tailgate. We think he is crazy, but the dogs seemed to be having a wonderful time.
Even though Paul had to add a little oil on each stop, it wasn't excessive, and we arrived at our location in Hidden Valley Ranch, Mission, Texas, by mid-afternoon. We are parked on a covered RV site. The site is huge.
We have no one behind us.
Street views
This is the first time we've parked under a roof. It's nice to get the MH out of the weather, but it has created a challenge. We could not use our roof mounted satellite dish because the roof blocks the signal. So after several frustrating calls with Direct TV, our satellite provider, we are scheduled to have a new dish mounted on the side of the RV cover on Tuesday and at no cost! Unfortunately, that means no TV till then. Darn....we're going to miss the bowl games broadcast over New Year's weekend!
UPDATE ON SATELLITE: One of our friends, Rick Radosevic, came to the rescue. He came down Saturday afternoon and helped Paul get a signal on a temporary satellite dish that we borrowed from Norm Leech, another friend, so we can watch football this weekend. RV friends to the rescue!! Thanks guys!
Other than that one stumbling block, we have a great site and are anxious to relax in the nice weather and enjoy the next two months here in the Rio Grande Valley.
Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see ya'll back real soon. Have a great day!
