March 7th to 13th in Donna Texas

We spent a week at Rollin Homes West in Donna, Texas. We spent the first night at Trophy Gardens. While it was a beautiful facility, it was more expensive than we wanted to pay and we had to go into the computer room of the community centre to use the Internet. The following morning we went "war-driving" looking for campgrounds with good Internet coverage. We stumbled upon Rollin Homes West, which had only basic services, but was clean and the Internet could be accessed from inside our rig. And...the rate was much cheaper. When we set up the satellite dish, we got coverage perfectly without having to tweak the dish after setup. This is a first, as usually we have to tweak things to get the strongest signal. We finally were able to get the HD channels that we were missing in Mexico, like CTV Toronto.

It gave us a chance to shop in the Don-Wes flea market again. We stopped in at the Top Hat Awnings and Shade booth to see about a new awning roller plus left end spring installed for our awning which had been damaged during our "adventure" in San Luis Potosi. Link to Dec 4th boo boo . The roller and spring cost was about the same price I could find on the net. There was no shipping cost as they would deliver to our campsite. Bonus. And...they professionally installed them in less than an hour for $100. Double Bonus!


On Tuesday night after we went to bed, the wind picked up and got us worried about how Texas winds can do damage to awnings. We got up and proceeded to take down the awning. It didn't work out to well for Bev as a bracket on the awning arm caught her on the side of the head as she was lowering one end. Ouch. We went inside to go to bed and Bev said "Am I bleeding?". "Yup. You sure are!" She had a gash about an inch and half long, so we get dressed to go out to a hospital. Vic got on the Internet and googled up a nearby hospital and plugged the address into Streets & Trips. Technology at work! By the time we get to the hospital, it was 12:20 AM Wednesday morning. By the time we were out of there, it was 3:15 AM. It was two hours before Bev was seen by a doctor. All in all, that is typical of emergency service for non-critical cases.

 Ouch!

Funny thing...while Bev as having the wound cleaned by a nurse, the doctor wanted to talk to Vic about medical coverage in Canada. Even though he was married to a girl from BC, he didn't have much understanding of the healthcare system in Canada. He even asked if he could phone to talk about it more but settled for an email address as we were traveling.


We ordered a repair kit (Eternabond) for the rubber roof (also damaged during the same adventure) and were in Donna long enough for UPS to deliver it. That will replace our Red/Green duct tape repair job. You can think of Eternabond as super-duper duct tape made especially for rubber roof repair. This kit is a roll 50 feet long, by 4 inches wide, plus a roller gizmo to ensure a good bond. We will get around to this more permanent repair when time and weather allows.


It is a wonderful time of year to be in the lower Rio Grande Valley.  Many citrus trees are in bloom and the fragrance in the air is amazing!

We went to the Don-Wes flea market one last time on Saturday and stocked up on red grapefruit (4 huge ones for $1) and a bag of oranges to make into juice.


We made new friends in Rollin Homes West and learned to play a board game "Social Insurance" with a nice couple from Wisconsin, Jean and Jerry. Which brings to mind that we really didn't fit into the crowd in Rollin Homes West. The first couple to greet us and invite us to go for ice cream after dinner was Becky and Bill. The people that help manage the park part-time are Linda and Larry. I think we have the wrong names to fit.