Busy, busy, busy ....

You might think that being down in Mission is all "Happy Hours" and relaxing, but you would be totally wrong. Well, we do have our happy hours most days and the weather is beautiful most days, but we do get work done.

I started unpacking our boxes about 1 1/2 weeks ago and thanks to our neighbor Linda, my nick-nack case and a lot of our pictures are hanging up. It will take a while until I take pictures of the coach house, since there is still a lot of work to be done. We decided to scan all our pictures from the albums on to a hard drive and that project is a "little" bit bigger than I thought.

Doug has been working on the truck, since we got the fenders last Monday. For a day or so it was just him and our neighbor Larry working on the first fender, but once they had things figured out I just had to get involved too.

Don't they look just beautiful!!!

This morning we brought the truck back to the shop to have the hitch installed and the truck bed shortened. So as you can see, we are actually very busy down here.

Castles in the Sand

Just because we are back in Mission does not mean that we are not doing things anymore. We needed a break from working on the truck and the coach house, so we went with Larry and Linda to South Padre Island to check out a sand castle building competition. The contest went from Thursday to Saturday and since the weather forecast was talking about rain Friday night, we decided to go on Friday, just in case all the sand castle were going to be washed away.

It was actually pretty cool to see the making of these statues.




The artwork was pretty impressive, even though it was not finished yet. I am glad we did not go on Saturday, since 250,000 people showed up to check this event out. I just don't like big crowds and having to hunt for a parking spot.

Instead we went for a nice lunch with Larry and Linda on Friday and arrived home before the thunderstorm started.

... and then came the call!!!

We had been back in Mission for a week when we got the call Thursday a week ago. Tru-Trac called at 12:35 pm to let us know that the truck was ready to be picked up. I was of course in the middle of making lunch, so we ate really quick, packed an overnight bag and got on the road. The trip was pretty uneventful other than the swarm of small butterflies by Alice and the thunderstorm north of Waco as we had 35 miles left to go. We arrived at Alvarado around 9 pm and turned in fairly soon, since we had to go another 500 miles the next day and on the way back we both had a vehicle to drive.

We picked up the truck on Friday morning and headed back down to Mission. We made good time through Austin and San Antonio and I actually got to drive the truck once we put in some fuel in Alice. It took a little bit of getting used to, but I actually drove 80 miles and even made it through a small town without any problems. It sure is a different view point sitting so high up in the truck. We got into Mission around 7 pm and now our lot is filled up with vehicles.

Here are some pictures from the inside of the truck.




Now I can start relaxing and get settled back in at our winter home. Doug has started working on the truck and next week we will have a new hitch installed so that we can put the Ford on the market. Once he is done with all his stuff, I will work on making the inside look all shiny. There is always a project to be done down here, so we surely will not get bored this winter.

Back in Mission !!

We arrived at Retama Village last Wednesday. It was a rainy and gray day and it took us a while to park in the rain, but we got it done and now we are starting to relax. We have never been that early at Retama and we were actually the first ones to arrive on our side of the street.

We unloaded the rig on Thursday and now starts the daunting task of emptying all the boxes and suitcases and find a place to put everything. Actually we emptied three suitcases today and it was not that bad. At least we found most of our winter clothes, which helps, since we are going to Germany for Christmas.


Larry and Linda arrived here on Sunday and now we are having our daily "Happy Hour" again. It is good to be home, even though it is really got and humid, which we are not used to. At least we got to cool off in the pool a little bit yesterday afternoon. Our truck should be done today and we should be leaving here tomorrow to pick it up. I will keep you guys posted next week in our blog.

Our New Addition!!

We picked up our new truck today!! It only took three more hours than expected, but we were finally on the road to the shop by 3 pm. Luckily, we got to the shop just before they closed and we handed off the truck to get a quote done on the work we want done.

But, first we pulled over in a rest area on I-35W and I got to take some pictures. Here they are!!





Isn't she a beauty!!! Pictures of the inside have to wait until we get the truck to Mission and at this point, I am not sure when that will be. We will leave here tomorrow and head down to San Antonio. Stay tuned everybody!!

The BIG Red Truck!!!

Yes, we bought a big red truck!! No, I have not taken any pictures of it yet, since last week was a little bit crazy. So the picture is of a truck like ours still on the lot at Arrow Truck Sales (stole it from their website).

I am so glad that our search is finally over!!! The truck is a 2005 VNL780, is fully automatic (which makes it easier for me to drive), has the workstation bottom and a bunk on top. As I said, pictures will follow next week.

We went to the dealer last Monday and both of us did a test drive. Next stop was the VIS test, which we went to MCH for. I will be happy to never darken their door step again!!. We were grateful that they were able to get the VIS done without having an appointment. We had to wait a couple of hours for them to find a tech that could do the test, but that was okay. The part that really ticked me off was that we waited for over one hour for them to produce a bill to pay after the test was done. Doug actually got into the truck and if it would have aired up faster would have left, but at least it got the guy going on our bill.

We went back to the dealer and discussed what needed to be done and gave him our offer on the truck. He had to check with his boss and get the repair estimate from the shop (nothing major - Doug can explain it better) and by Tuesday afternoon we got the call that our offer was accepted. We went back on Wednesday to sign the paperwork and thought we would leave for Mission on Thursday to drop off the rig and come back to pick up the truck.

As you might have noticed by now, our plans seem to chance a lot and fast. Doug found a place south of Fort Worth that does wheel balancing (since we need that) and can also do the singling of the truck. He gave the guy a call on Wednesday and really liked what he had to say and that he knew and understood what we want to do. So we decided to check him out on Thursday and leave Denton on Friday, as originally planned.

The shop looks okay and we got to speak to the guy that would be doing the work. So yesterday we moved the rig to a campground south of Fort Worth and we will pick up the truck from the dealer on Monday and bring it over to the shop down here. We are planning on leaving here Tuesday to head south, but can stay longer if it takes longer to get plans done on what to do with the truck. I will take pictures on Monday and post again as soon as we get back to Mission, which should be sometime by middle or end of next week.

Rain, Rain, Rain!!!!

We left Kansas City last Wednesday after the Dyno test went very strange on Tuesday. It took forever to get the test done and I believe that they altered the test, since the first printout did not include the blowby number and after 1/2 hour of debating suddenly a number appeared on the printout. We were disappointed, but it was time to move on, since there was also some strange noises between 4th and 5th gear. We spend a night in Thackerville to get our last gambling fix in and got to Denton, TX on Friday. It started raining around 5 pm and really did not stop until late this afternoon.

Friday we went to Arrow Trucks to check out another truck and found one that really is nice. It is a Volvo 780 without a clutch pedal, which makes it easier for me to drive. We went for a test drive today and had a VIS test done. There is some stuff in the front that needs to be fixed and we still have to talk them down on price, but other than that it drives really nice. Stay tuned, maybe we will be buying a truck this week!!

If it does not happen I hope Mike is right and the right truck will find us, or we will find it. Time will tell.