There Goes The Neighbourhood

It took a couple of days to unpack, get groceries in and generally figure out where things are here in Mission.  By things, I mean Walmart.  I also found a great grocery store called H-E-B.  Those initials stand for the owner’s name – Horace E. Butts.  Poor guy must have gone through hell as a child. Imagine being called Horsey Butt all your life!  Still the laugh is on them since he started the largest grocery chain in Texas.  Good old Horace also had the foresight to install a really nice bakery….. you have to try these little (by Texas standards) puff pastry and sugar things.  I don’t know what they’re called, but yum!

Anyhow, the high school Spanish is coming in pretty handy down here.  Hardly anyone speaks English.  It often comes down to a combo of English, Spanish and Charades.

But I digress….. two weeks after I arrived, I was sitting by the pool and lo and behold, there was my sister and her friend Paul walking in.  They arrived a couple of days early and were able to park the brand new rig (still nameless) in the lot next to mine.  I had been concerned that she wouldn’t get it in there because a) it’s huge and b) there’s a tree right in the middle of the parking spot.  But Jackie is a pro and she got it in there no problem.  The Georgetown is GORGEOUS!   I have developed a severe case of “RV envy”.

We hit the ground running once they got here and did all the tourist hot spots in the area, including South Padre Island (beautiful!).  Of course, we also had to sample the local cuisine - you can't come to Texas without eating steak.  And then there's grapefruit pie!  Since the Rio Grande Valley is the centre of the universe for growing ruby red grapefruit, it's only natural that someone should have thought to make a pie out of it.  It sounds awful but it's very, very good!

So now we’re all set up and ready to start our lives as “Winter Texans”.