Tuesday & Wednesday, January 24th & 25th - San Antonio and Donna

 Tuesday - We didn't do much all day. We did go out for hamburgers at Tom's. It was close enough to the campground that we could have walked, although we would have had to wade through a lot of puddles from the overnight rains.

The burgers were big, and good, but not great. I liked the onion rings but Kathy didn't care for them (more for me to eat 😀).

During the late fall of 2012 I spent around 6 weeks volunteering at Messiah's Ranch, about 15 miles from Bryan, TX. It got below freezing several nights while I was there. The guy who ran the campground hung plastic grocery bags full of leaves on the hose bibs. I guess plastic bags stuffed with plastic bags also works. It must be a Texas thing. This hydrant was at the restaurant.

Wednesday - Last night the wind BLEW. We pulled in our biggest slide because we were concerned that the slide topper might be damaged. I don't think either of us slept all that well. By 9:45 we were packed up and headed south. It was 250 miles from Braunig Lake RV Resort, just south of San Antonio, to Victoria Palms RV Resort in Donna, TX. We are about 7 miles from the border. Traffic was light. We stopped at a rest area south of Falfurrias for lunch. According to our Garmin GPS it was 1,508 miles from Cathedral City to Donna. Google maps says we are 1,063 miles from Centertown, if we drove straight home at the end of our month here, which we won't.

 Below is a photo of us parked at Victoria Palms. After getting set up Kathy did some reading and I took a nap. Tomorrow we will check the place out. it is big. Lots of permanent housing, on very small lots. 

We got a deal, less than $400 for a month, hoping to entice us into coming back next season. 

They have 4 levels of sites, based on size and pull thru or back in; Value, Standard, Pull Thru & Premium. Ours is a Standard site. It normally rents for $66/night, $406/week & $874/982/1,090/1,031 per month for Dec/Jan/Feb/Mar. Seasonal rates are $2,877 for 3 months, $3,408 for 4 months, $3,925 for 5 months & $4,362 for 6 months. It looks nice, but not that nice.

I got us mostly hooked up before putting the awnings out. The sun was warm. As I was finishing hooking up the utilities Kathy said, "The refrigerator isn't working." My first thoughts were, "That will be a pain.", followed by the thought, "This may work out OK, especially if we get a new refrigerator paid for by the Service Contract.". I checked the circuit breaker for the fridge and it was fine. Neither the LED's on the door nor the light inside the refrigerator worked. I took the access cover off that allows you to get at the back of the unit. I wiggled some connections but it didn't help. I was about ready to call a local RV repair place but felt the pressure to relieve myself of some of the coffee I drank on the way here. The toilet has an electronic flush, it didn't work, neither did the lights nor the exhaust fan in the toilet room. Back to the fuse block to learn that the fuses looked good. Now I'm really puzzled. Kathy then saved the day. She was just coming in the door and said, "Maybe we bumped the 12 volt switch by the door." She flipped it and all was well. Below is a photo of the panel of switches by the door. When I put out the door awning and the main awning I hit the "12 V DISC" switch. The switch cuts off ALL 12 volt current in the coach. The switch makes sure that nothing is drawing power from the coach batteries when you store the coach. 

I still have a lot to learn about RV'ing😀.

Tonights low is forecast to be 46. Tomorrows high is forecast to be a sunny 65. By afternoon it will definitely be shorts and tee shirt weather. Donna's latitude is almost the same as Naples, FL, so we are definitely down south.

A couple of days ago part of my old Testament reading was Isaiah 29:13-14. The New Living Translation reads, [13] And so the Lord says, “These people say they are mine. They honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far away. And their worship of me amounts to nothing more than human laws learned by rote. [14] Because of this, I will do wonders among these hypocrites. I will show that human wisdom is foolish and even the most brilliant people lack understanding.” The Message paraphrase reads, [13] The Master said: “These people make a big show of saying the right thing, but their hearts aren't in it. Because they act like they're worshiping me but don't mean it, [14] I'm going to step in and shock them awake, astonish them, stand them on their ears. The wise ones who had it all figured out will be exposed as fools. The smart people who thought they knew everything will turn out to know nothing.”

The verses spoke to me when I read them but I often have to let things roll around in my head before they start to gel. I wonder how much I'm like the the people in these verses. All to often I consider my prayer time and Scripture reading a "got to", not a "get to" time. Thinking about this brought to mind Psalm 42:1 & 2, [1] As the deer pants for streams of water, so I long for you, O God. [2] I thirst for God, the living God. When can I come and stand before him? (Don't be thinking, that Bert sure knows a lot of Scripture. While I remember the words to Psalm 42:1, because of the hymn, I had to Google them to find the actual Scripture reference.)

I woke up from my nap thinking that my level of worship is so incredibly pitiful compared to what God truly desires of me. At the same time I was thinking, and yet He loves me anyway. I do long to know Him better, but my flesh is so weak. Thankfully He loves me as I am. I can't earn more love from Him.

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