Day 156 - Wednesday, April 15 - Harlingen to Victoria

We left Lakewood at 10 AM and were set up at Victoria RV Park at 3 PM, 210 miles. We stopped at a rest area for lunch. I drove the coach and Kathy followed in the Flex.

Parked at Victoria RV Park. ($18/night for a full hook up)

One of the times we stayed here last year there was a 6' alligator in the creek on the right.

Looking back at the RV's from the other end of the grassy field. A nice sidewalk makes a one mile loop around the area.

Todays excitment was at the beginning of the day. Less than 5 miles from Lakewood Kathy called me and said something was dragging. I pulled off at the next exit and stopped to check.

A couple of weeks ago I pulled the hitch/ball from the coach and put it on the Flex, so that I could use the trailer to help a guy at the campground. I had problems locking and unlocking the pin that holds the hitch in the receiver. Apparently when I put it back on the coach I didn't push the hitch into the receiver far enough to get the locking pin in the hole. The hitch pulled out of the receiver and the trailer was being pulled down the road by the safety chains, with  the skid pad on the jack supporting the weight some of the time, thus the sparks.

I had hardly started running the jack down to raise the tongue up so that I could reinsert the hitch in the receiver when two Hispanic guys came around the corner of the coach. They were driving a pickup pulling a trailer full of round hay bales. They saw us stopped and stopped to help. They sent me to get the key for the pin while they jacked up  the tongue and got the hitch lined up. By  the time I got back with the key they were ready. One of them unlocked the pin and pulled it out. The two of them lined the hitch back up and shoved it in the receiver before sticking the pin back in and locking it in place. One of the guys was probably in his 50's and the other one was in his 30's. After thanking them they went back to their truck and headed down the road. 

This is a double PTL incident. If the safety chains had failed the trailer could have skidded into another vehicle and someone could have been injured. The second PTL is for two "angels" who showed up immediately and basically did all the work.

God is good. I pray that He blesses you and yours. He has blessed me.

I 

Day 155 - Tuesday, April 14 - Packing

 Not to much happening today. Kathy went to lunch with one of the few Winter Texan ladies still here. In the evening her and her husband stopped by to say goodbye for the season. They live near the MO/KS state line. I think they are heading north next week.

We both did some packing, getting ready to leave tomorrow. I dumped and flushed our waste tanks, and regened our water softener for the last time of the season. 

It was warm here today, almost as hot as it was back home in Centertown. It was funny looking at the weather app on my  phone about 3 PM. It said the temp here was 84, feels like 89 (normal here for this time of year). Then I checked Centertown, the temp was 91, feels like 93 (over 20 degrees hotter than normal).

Tomorrows drive to Victoria is only a little over 200 miles. Lord willing it will be good travel day.

God is good. I pray that He bless you and yours. He has blessed me.

Days 151-154 - Friday - Monday, April 10-13

 WOW! I've been slacking off on posting. Actually there hasn't been much to post. People keep slowly dribbling out of the campground and heading north. 

As of today there are only two RV's, a 5th wheel & our motorhome, up front. Both of us will be leaving in the next week. There are 30+ park model units in the front. Permanent residents live in five of them. Only two Winter Texan couples (one from Kansas and the other from Michigan's UP) remain in the others.

I don't think there are any Winter Texans remaining in RV's or park models in the back. About 13 of the units are occupied by full time residents.

I can't remember us doing anything significant Friday or Saturday. Sunday we went to the Cowboy Church service, campground Sunday services are discontinued for the summer. We were surprised to see maybe 150-175 in attendance. With all the Winter Texas leaving we expected 100-125, at most. There were still 15 cars/trucks in the overflow parking lot. After church we drove on over to Donna and bought a bag of grapefruit at the Flea Market. On the way home we stopped at Nancy's restaurant for lunch. 

Today I loaded my motorcycle, and some other stuff, on the trailer. I also cleaned up our patio area. I still have some rearranging to do before we leave Wednesday AM, but not much. Kathy bought some groceries in the morning and then we used our last Golden Corral gift certificate for lunch, thanks Kelsey.

Current plans are to spend Wednesday night in Victoria, TX at a nice little town park where we have stayed multiple times ($18/night for a full hook up). Thursday and Friday nights we have reservations for a small county park on the Calcasieu River, near Lake Charles, LA; we have stayed there a couple of times ($12/night for water, electricity and a dump station). Friday night we have a reservation at the Swinging Bridge RV Park near Jackson, MS ($60/night). Sunday I will head on to Lakeshore Custom RV for some coach repairs, in Iuka, MS. Kathy may head home from Jackson on Sunday.

We have received a little more rain here over the past several days. The grass/weeds have greened up a lot. The Falcon Reservoir is the closest Rio Grande reservoir to us, it is about 130 miles up river from us. It is less than 20% full. It is considered full when the water level is 301' above sea level. The current water level is 257' above sea level, 44' below full. The last time it was full was March 2011. It has been below the 20% level for more than 3 years.

The Amistad Reservoir is the next reservoir upstream on the Rio Grande. It is about 275 miles from the Falcon Reservoir. The Amistad is a little better off, it is 30% full. The water level is 70' below the full level. It's going to take a lot of rain, over a huge area, to fill these reservoirs back up.

God is good. I pray that He blesses you and yours. He has blessed me.

Days 149 & 150 - Wednesday & Thursday, April 8 & 9 - Not Much Action

 Not much going on here, other than watching the place slowly empty. The campground map shows about 300 sites on the property. Realistically there are maybe 175 sites that could be occupied before residents really started raising a ruckus. I doubt that we have ever seen more than 100 occupied. There are about 25 sites occupied during the entire year, mostly Winter Texans who have chosen to stay here full time rather than wherever they used to live in the north. We are down to less than 40 occupied sites. 

Yesterday we went out to Cheddar's for supper, with two other couples. One of them, along with two other couples, headed north today.

Today Kathy went grocery shopping. I rode my bike a couple of laps around the campground and walked another couple of laps. I also visited with Dennis a little. We went to a different Mexican restaurant for lunch. Mine was fine, Kathy didn't care for the way hers was seasoned.

It was cloudy and the high was in the low 80's. We are still hoping to get some more rain over the next couple of days.

God is good. I pray that He blesses you and yours. He has blessed me.

PS. This morning I read a "yellow journalism" piece put out by the Associated Press. The fodder used as a basis for the article was the high cost of electricity in West Virginia. I did a little research and added some actual data about US retail electricity prices. If you are interested it's at:

https://bertspoliticalviews.blogspot.com/2026/04/who-can-we-trust-today.html 

Days 147 & 148 - Monday & Tuesday, April 6 & 7 - Fish Fry

 Monday I did some prep work getting ready for our departure on Wednesday, April 8th. Checked the water and oil and ran the engine for 20 min. Checked the water and oil and ran the generator under load for 20 min. Regened the water softener. Pulled in the slides and stored the levelling jacks. Relevelled the coach and put the slides back out.

We have several things that need repaired on the coach, repairs that are beyond my capabilities, We were going to go home via Lakeshore Custom RV in Iuka, MS to have the repairs made. Late Monday afternoon they called and told me that they were booked solid all of next week. We rescheduled for Monday, April 20. We now plan on leaving here on the 15th and arriving at Lakeshore the evening of Sunday, April 19th.

Sunday afternoon we enjoyed participating in the potluck at the clubhouse. Jim Lehman cooked catfish, walleye and onion rings for us and people brought other items. We had a good turnout, considering how many folks have already headed north. Jim is the guy taking the picture, at the other end of the tables.

We didn't do much today. Kathy finished a puzzle at the clubhouse. I rode my bicycle a couple of laps around the campground. We both did some reading.

God is good. I pray that He blesses you and yours. He has blessed me.

Days 145 & 146 - Saturday & Sunday, April 4 & 5 - HAPPY EASTER, HE HAS RISEN!!!

Lots of empty spaces at the campground. Only 3 units in the two pull through sites out front. 

Our next door neighbors banana tree.

Saturday's highlight was driving over to Arby's for fish sandwiches. It's almost on the other side of town, 6 miles, 9 minutes, a heady experience for two old folks. As I walked a lap around the campground in the afternoon Jim and Debbie were doing a lap in their golf cart. They told me that I should consider putting our car in one of the vacant carports. Pete had told them that he just heard we were supposed to get high winds and damaging hail overnight. When I got back to the coach I did move my motorcycle into one and made sure loose items were battened down. Then I checked the weather; rain, maybe even heavy rain was in the forecast, but no high winds nor hail. I didn't bother moving the car.

It started raining about 4:30AM Sunday and rained steadily until around 2:00PM. Weatherbug says we got 1.6" in Harlingen. Another app says 2.4". At the campground it was mostly a nice steady rain. Kathy read a report that said over in Donna, about 25 miles west of us, they had some street flooding. This is the first significant we have had since early December. Chris, the Cowboy Church Pastor, has been feeding his cattle and horses hay for over a month, his pastures were dried up. The bottom line is that while this rain messed up all the outdoor Sunrise Services it was a blessing. 

We had planned on going to the Arena Sunrise Service at the Cowboy Church, at 6:45AM. Because of the rain the service was moved to the barn, some type of livestock was to be involved in the service. The rain, coupled with parking in a muddy pasture field and walking a good distance to the barn, made us decide to skip the Sunrise Service. Kathy went to the campground church service. When she got home it was still raining and we decided to stay home rather than wrestle with the muddy parking lot and rain.

While Kathy was at church I made myself and excellent Easter breakfast. Scrambled eggs with mushrooms, peppers & salsa; fried potatoes with onions; ham; English Muffins and coffee. YUM, YUM!

The campground Easter Dinner was at 1:00PM. Attendance was great, especially considering how many folks have already headed north.

First pass through the buffett line.

While I was in bed last night I was thinking about Easter and the song Up From the Grave He Arose. It got me to thinking about the thoughts going through Christ's followers mind on Easter morning. 

When they entered Jerusalem with Jesus they were still expecting a David like king, one who would drive out the Romans. When they came to arrest Jesus the disciples were ready to fight (Luke 22:49&50). Then Jesus allowed himself to be arrested, tried and crucified. What must have been going through the disciples minds during the 3 days prior to the resurrection? When they found the empty tomb they were perplexed. Their reaction was, what had happened to his body, not He Arose. Later that day, in the upper room, when Jesus appeared to them they thought he was a ghost,  not the resurrected Messiah. It seems that after he ate the piece of fish they began to believe that he was the resurrected Messiah. At that time I think they were close to being ready to sing Up From the Grave He Arose.

Singing that song Sunday evening seems more appropriate to me, but, since I have access to the entire story, and I know the ending, maybe singing it any time should be appropriate. 

Thank you Jesus for opening the door to Heaven to all who believe! 

What a day that will be

When my Jesus I shall see

And I look upon HIs face

The one who saved me by His grace

When He takes me by the hand

And leads me through the Promised Land

What a day, glorious day that will be.

God is good. I pray the He bless you  and yours. He has blessed me.

Days 143 & 144 - Thursday & Friday, April 2 & 3 - We are Boring

 Nothing much happening here, just some grocery shopping. The campground continues to lose Winter Texans. 

Weather has been warm, high 80's and windy, but no rain.

I went over and visited with  Dennis this afternoon, the guy from Michigan's UP. I asked him about campgrounds at lakes, near where he and his wife live, Gwinn, MI. They have a home on a 30 acre lake (Bertrand Lake). He invited us to spend some time with them when we are in the UP. He said he has plenty of room for us to park and we could hook up to water and electricity.

When we leave next week I think we will go home via NE Mississippi, so that I can have our coach maintenance guy fix a few things. One of our water lines in the coach developed a small leak. I think I know where the leak is but, short of removing the shower stall, I don't see how to get to it.

The leaking line is along the floor, at the left end of cabinet/wall.

Access panel removed.

I think the leaking line is one of the two shown below.

I think the coupling with the screw type hose clamp is leaking. 

It seems crazy to drive 400 miles out  of my way to have  repairs made but I have not been able to find anyone in central Missouri who I trust to work on our coach. 

God is good. I pray that He bless you and yours. He has blessed me.