Harlingen, Texas

Well, with a tear in our eyes, we said good bye to the Gulf Coast.  We have enjoyed the beach life, and want to return, but for now, we need to get our vehicles cleaned up. 

The salt air, the sand, and the humidity have left our rig looking a little weather beaten, for sure.  Fellow RV'ers have told us to watch for rust, and to clean our vehicles thoroughly.  With that advice, we made plans to go down to the Rio Grande Valley, and park for a few days, to do some chores.

We left the brand new Corpus Christi Walmart on Monday morning.  Imagine our surprise when we heard that it froze overnight.  We were snug as could be, but it sure was cold on our feet when we turned on the coffee pot.

Our Walmart spot for the night

We arrived in Harlingen around noon.  This is a Passport America park, so we are paying $18.00 per night.  They will allow washing of vehicles, so we are happy with that.

As we were parking our rig, I looked up and gasped, because our air conditioner cover WAS GONE !!  My first thought was I hoped it never hit into a vehicle behind us.  Then I looked at this morning's photo in Walmart, and realized it was torn off by then already.

We got set up, and I started making a few phone calls.  Are you kidding me ... these plastic covers are almost $200.00 !!  Ah, but one of the RV shops I called said they have a good used one in the back they will let go for $45.00.  Great, I will be right there.

Our A/C sure looks ugly without a cover

Okay, this should be an easy fix, right ?  Just remove four bolts and put the new one on.  Nope, the bolts were so rusted in after 12 years of rain and sun, that they stripped coming out.  And new bolts were no help, because the threads in the a/c were stripped as well.

Luckily, my neighbour saw my distress ( hopefully he did not hear me talking to myself ) and crawled up on the roof to take a look.  Well, turns out he was a mechanic for 30 some years, and he had some ingenious ideas that ended up working.  Yeah, we look presentable again.

That is more like it

With that job done, I started washing the rig and car in the 80 degree heat.  I think I overdid it a little because I got a little light headed when I bent over to get something.  Even with a hat on, and drinking almost a gallon of water, I was forced to come inside and cool off for a bit.

But it didn't take long for me to get chased out of there, because Teresa was on a serious mission.  She was doing laundry, vacuuming, polishing furniture, and scrubbing away a week's worth of fine sand and dirt.

To top it off, she made a great supper.  I sure cannot keep up to that human dynamo !!

We are really looking forward to meeting up with our friends on Thursday.  We are going to be parked up for a whole month, and can hardly wait !!