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Archive for January, 2010

The Road to a Heart Attack

Sunday, January 24th, 2010

My cardiologist said to me, “Do you remember what you did to build up the plaque in your system?” Following my affirmative response, he added, “Well, stop it.”

So, the week following my procedure and with out of town guests here wanting to dine out, we visited many of the wonderful contributors to my heart issues.

In Mission, Texas, we stopped at Pepe’s on the River to watch our friend Ruthi perform.

Pepe’s has some outstanding nachos. It takes at least two people to tackle a piling order of this dish. We enjoyed an afternoon of dancing.

My favorite restaurant south of the border is Angel’s in Progreso. They have the best salsa I’ve ever had. The place was teaming with senior citizens. Imagine that.

Then it was off to South Padre Island and lunch at our favorite restaurant on the island, Daddy’s. The dish called the Cowboy Joe’s is absolutely wonderful. It is a ribeye with a shrimp, spinach and 3-cheese sauce.

We also visited two fine Mexican restaurants, Costa Messa Restaurant in McAllen. I’m not crazy about chipolte anything, but their chipolte salsa is great. The second restaurant is Casa Del Tacos in Weslaco. It isn’t just a house of tacos. You’ll find a wide menu that includes homemade soups and good steaks.

Finally, we went to Donna, TX to visit Gonzales Burgers. This place doesn’t even have a sign except the one that says “OPEN”. You need to get there early. People start lining up at about 10:30 AM. Even if you are first in line, you may wait about 30 minutes for your order. The burgers are enormous.

You can see the huge patties. The burgers fill the over sized buns.

If that won’t clog your arteries, nothing will.

Ok, my Nutrisystems food just arrived. Now I can work toward better health.

Posted in Mexico, Mexico - Nuevo Progreso, Texas, Texas Coast, TX Rio Grande Valley | 4 Comments »

Time Out —-

Thursday, January 14th, 2010

We had to take a short time-out. Rick went to the hospital yesterday and was the recipient of a coronary artery stent. It turns out that he had a 99.5% blockage in an artery.

All went well and we’ve made it back home with only one night in the hospital.

We want to thank Dr. Hugo Blake and his staff as well as the good people at the Harlingen Medical Center.

Posted in Texas, TX Rio Grande Valley | 2 Comments »

Wrap-up For 2009

Wednesday, January 6th, 2010

Here’s a little wrap-up data for our travels and blog for 2009.

The year found us on the road again. Our goal was to work our way through the Midwest and over to New England. Because of the rainy and relatively cool summer, we passed on the Dakotas and Minnesota. Our 2009 Travel Map turned out to look like this.

We kicked ourselves for not getting to Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont since we were so close. Chances are that we won’t have our rig that close again. Anyway, our combined US and Mexico for our three years of “full-timing” look a little better with the new additions.

We want to thank those who stop by to read our blog and are happy that we are having so many visitors. We were amazed to find over 200,000 visitors found us in 2009. The three year growth has been astounding.

2007 – 41,157 2008 – 133,433 2009 – 200,126

For 2010, we’re looking forward to another fantastic year. It may sound a little wimpy, since the temperature at this writing is in the 70’s, but, as chilly as it is here in South Texas, we may find ourselves back in Mexico next winter.

Posted in Texas, TX Rio Grande Valley | 1 Comment »

Towers Fall and Creole Rocks

Tuesday, January 5th, 2010

We made a whirlwind trip over to South Padre Island to check out some properties.

In 2006, construction on a beautiful, 31 story condominium tower began at the northern end of the developed area of South Padre Island.

Unfortunately, the structure took on a nickname of “The Leaning Tower of Padre” as one side began to sink into the sand. In December, 2009, the building was imploded. This is all that is left…….

While on the island, we stopped for lunch at Daddy’s Seafood and Creole Kitchen, 3409 Padre Blvd., and were not disappointed.

I know that you’re supposed to eat seafood at the beach, but Rick had a ribeye with a Cajun seafood cheese sauce on top. It was outstanding. Tinka stayed with the seafood fare and enjoyed a sampling of various shrimp dishes.

There are a number of good restaurants on the island. This is one of the best.

Posted in Texas, Texas Coast | No Comments »

Quick Christmas Wrap-up

Monday, January 4th, 2010

We had a wonderful time in the Dallas area. Of course we had a couple of chores to tend to. In Weatherford, we made appointments to see our primary physician and to prevent damage to our furniture, went to our storage place to change out the “Damp-Rid”. Weatherford is really growing. No real estate slowdown here.

It was great to spend some time with the family. Once again, we stayed at Marc’s (our oldest) house.

And, once again, Nola and Barry opened their house for Christmas festivities. We had been looking forward to this visit for some time. Some of our favorite treats were present, the fabulous Merkts cheese spreads and the greasy, salty Mrs. Fisher’s potato chips. The Merkts has been really hard to find in recent years, but thankfully a few flavors are available at some Walmarts. The Fisher’s Potato Chips (still made with all those transfats) are only available in Rockford, Illinois and online.

All four girls; Ayden, Gracie, Maddi and Katie started out by checking their stocking contents.

Things were just beginning. It seemed like the stream of loot just kept coming. Just to give you an idea, here is Maddi STANDING in front of her pile.