Thursday, January 25, 2007

Rainy Days and Mondays…and Tuesdays…and Wednesdays…

This weather is getting a little old, but there are a few highlights. I wandered into the pool room here, and the lone guy in there asked if I wanted to play…beat him three straight! (Full disclosure: He should have beat me the third game, but he scratched on the eight ball.) That night I played cards for more than 3 hours with other campers – lots of fun! The next night I played Bingo; I find that game really boring, and it's not just because I never won.

Yesterday in the constant downpour, I toured with a widow (Colette) I met at the card game who offered to take me around the area. We went to the LaBorde house in Rio Grande City, a restored 1880s mansion, which is now an inn, completely renovated with period furnishings. Next stop was the Los Ebanos Ferry, the last remaining hand-drawn ferry in the country. It crosses the Rio Grande River to Mexico, but is now grounded because of damage. The next very unique experience was visiting a “Ropa” (Spanish for clothing) and it defies description but I’ll give it a shot. It’s in a one-room building about the size of a football field with mounds of clothing as far as the eye can see. These mounds are 6 feet high and higher, and people climb on them searching for what they consider treasures. They’re tossing clothes over their shoulders as they frantically try to find those treasures. Against the walls of the building are huge bales of clothes that haven’t been opened yet. This is where most of the clothes you donate to the Veteran’s Administration, the Lupus Society, etc. end up. I have no interest in ever going back to one, but several people from this RV park go weekly.

The couple parked next to me (Mike and Shirley), who are from Blaine, have been great about inviting me along for shopping trips, and we’ve gone out to lunch a couple days together. We’ve decided to camp together the next couple weeks, in Brownsville for a few days, then back here in Mission for another week. If the weather hasn’t cleared up by then, I might have to start heading west towards Arizona. It’s cool there, but looks dry. It has been raining here nonstop since Tuesday night. Living in a closed-up Class B with 3 wet dogs makes my townhouse seem like a mansion!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Marty... it's john-omjones eh!
Maybe you could rent some dvds when in town. Or get together with other folks and trade dvds or cds, or books. Some moisture may have got to your GFCI outlet. There should be a button on it to reset it. But you probably tried that already. I know it only takes a little moisture to turn them off. How do you access the internet there? It sounds pretty remote. Here's a neat site you might like, it's a guy living in a 'C' and writing a journal about it...www.andybaird.com/travels
Lots to read and he's mostly in N.M. Pretty good. Here in Stoney Point it has become cold. In the 18'f to 30'f range. I can't wait for May 8-) then get warmer after that. Oh well, that's how the 'B' buzzes. See ya in May Ok..
john

danamrak said...

Marty, Just a note to let you know how much I have enjoyed reading your blog/journal. Sure hope your weather improves. Althou you seem to be having a pretty good time dispite the weather.
Keep the info coming.
Anne/Ennajean