Wednesday, January 07, 2004
I thought it was cold yesterday but it is 39 today!
They promise it will be in the 70’s by the weekend. We certainly hope so.

We have now been to Ropa Usada. Not sure, but I think that means used clothes. I hope to get pictures posted soon. Many of my bargain hunting friends came to mind as I was rummaging around in this mountain of clothes that cost me a grand total of $1.95. It will cost me more to wash them than it did to buy them. We climbed up on this 8-10 foot tall mountain of clothes, settled in and started looking over the items we happened upon. There are all kinds of treasures to be found. Kitti had the find of the day with a patchwork quilt in perfect condition. Her bill was $3.47. Some of the parks have Ropa Usada fashion shows which I think is an excellent idea. We went to one of these places and there are dozens of them south of McAllen not Mission. I understand that these clothes will get shipped overseas from here. We could tell by labels and things that much of the pile we were working over came from Long Island NY. We have been coming to the Rio Grande Valley for years and didn’t know about this. I do know that my sister Myrla would go nuts over it and probably invest in an entire new wardrobe!

Tuesday, January 06, 2004
This should make all of you feel really good. We are having a cold spell and it is only 47 degrees! Had to dig out the heavy coats this morning.
We have heard of a place south of Mission that we plan to visit. It is called Europa or Aropa, not sure which. In this place they have bales of clothes. Yes, bales! They open them and you can salvage all you want for a penny a pound. I guess some of the quality stuff is as much as 3 or 4 cents a pound. Now this sounds so weird to me.
I plan to take pictures.
Kitti Toomire told me she gathered up a bunch of tee shirts for rags but after looking them over decided they were too good for rags and gave them to her kids. Her bill was 40 cents. This place I have to see!
Yesterday we went to Brownsville. Had to get to Sam’s Club and load up on meat. Saw 4 border patrol cars on the trip and a guy standing in a cabbage field talking on a cell phone. If you look around you can see the darndest things.

Sunday, January 04, 2004
We went to South Padre with John and Pat. We took a different route, one along the shipping lane but the view was about the same.
They are building so much and so fast on the island it is hard to recognize the place from year to year. We had a great time. I always enjoy being on Padre. You can see the pictures from the day at my picture place. I have moved my album from the last spot to the first. Might make it a bit easier to find. Click here