Nov 15 Sunday Onward to the “Valley”

We get up and have pancakes for breakfast…a leisurely start, since we don’t have a long trip today.
Heading south on 281, the terrain is again pretty flat and we go through areas of heavy farming. You can see for miles. Then the farming disappears and is replaced by scrub land and mesquite trees. Then grazing cattle…but still flat. We see some “nodding horse” oil well pumps working away, and also some that are not working. We call them “napping horses”.
It is a partly cloudy day and by 11 AM the temp is up to 28.5C.
At this point on 281, the road is four lane divided highway, with a very wide grass median. They have planted palm trees along the median, so it looks quite inviting. I haven’t mentioned anything about the highways in Texas. In Ontario, a two lane highway will have a max speed of 80K or 50 MPH. In Texas, the same road will be 70 miles and hour, with paved shoulders, so traffic moves quickly. Doesn’t help me much as we only travel 60-63 mph.
We arrive in the Mission Texas about noon and start our search for a spot for two weeks. Leaving the RV in a Walmart, we will work our way east in the car looking for campgrounds. The first spot looks very nice, and has Internet service, and the rate is $300 for two weeks. There didn’t seem to be many transient sites. We move on to the next, expecting it to be noisy, as it looks by the map to be too close to the highway. It seems fine and the sites look good. The rate here is $200 for the two weeks. We move northward to a place called Casa Del Valle, in Alamo. Since it is Sunday, there is nobody in the office so we look around. We stop to chat with some people from Ontario and they spoke of the great rate they got. We go back to the office and make a call to the number posted on the door. They answered and said they will be there in 10 minutes. When they arrive, we discuss the rate. They have special pricing on for November and December and the rate is $89 per week or $200 for a month. Electricity is extra at 13 cents per kilowatt, but that shouldn’t add up to much. Since there is little difference, we opt for the month. When Bev paid the bill the next morning, the actual rate charged was only $189. Wow!
Internet service is provided by a separate provider but we get a 4 hour trial coupon. It sucks big time. The service is so slow, it is nearly unusable. If I had signed up to the two week rate of $23, I would have been really PO’d. We will look for free service outside a hotel in the area. Since leaving home, with great and reliable Internet access, I am really hurting without it. Maybe next year, we will get satellite Internet service and be more independent.
As this is Sunday, Battle of the Blades will be on at 8:00 PM Eastern so I attempt to get the satellite dish set up. Using the satellite finder, I can lock onto a good signal but the receiver won’t pick up the satellite. We miss the Battle.