Back in Brownsville

Saturday November 15…9:30pm

Today was not a good day. We’ve learned that sometimes things just don’t go the way you want them to, and so you just accept that, and you carry on. But today was just one thing after another.

When we went to bed last night on the beach, it was nice and peaceful. The sky was clear, and there was almost a full moon. But we were woken up at about 2:30am by a huge gust of wind that shook Sherman. We both looked at each other, and then looked outside. There was a big dark cloud heading our way, and the waves coming in were much bigger. There was also a lot of sand blowing around. We tried to go back to sleep, but it was no use. The wind was getting worse, and it started raining a little. We were concerned because high tide would have been around 5am, and with the wind howling it would push the water even higher. By 4am, Steve came back to us and said they were moving onto the paved road where there it was a little more sheltered, and farther from the water.

I started up Sherman, and went outside to pick up the levelling blocks that were under the rear wheels. The wind was blowing the sand so badly that it felt like your skin was being sandblasted. We moved to a spot by the dunes where there was less wind, but it was still pretty bad. This is where we stayed until we got up at about 6:30am because we still couldn’t sleep.

In the morning...overcast and VERY windy

We had a little meeting together at about 8am, and we decided to head back into Brownsville. The sky had cleared up, but the wind was still very strong and we wouldn’t have been able to enjoy the beach the way it was.

The wind had washed the water over the road

Sherman driving through the water on the road as we drive back to Brownsville

We drove back to Brownsville and filled up the gas tanks at $1.689 US per gallon (0.54 CAN cents per litre), the one good thing that happened today!

We went to the H.E.B., a large local grocery store, and stocked up again on things we might not find in Mexico. Also, one of our first stops in Mexico will be at a beach campground that we hope to stay at for a week or so, and so will need supplies to last that long as well.

We tried to treat ourselves to a buffet lunch at a Chinese food place. We drove over there because we had passed the sign on the way to the H.E.B. store. Got there, and it was closed. The sign on the door said “Locked out due to non payment of rent”. Okay, so maybe the food wasn’t very good anyhow.

We are still looking for propane. You would think that would be easy to find, but apparently it’s not. We drove to one that we thought would have been open on a Saturday. In fact there are several alternative fuel stations, but it turns out that they are all closed on Saturday and Sunday. We phoned another place from the yellow pages, and the guy said they are a propane delivery company…I asked if we could come there and he said to meet him there at 4:30pm. I took the address from the phone book.

We went to a laundromat, and did all of our laundry. At least that’s done.

We drove about 5 miles out of town to meet the propane guy, and sure enough the address they had in the phone book was not accurate. We ended up at a nearby Walmart where we used the phone to try calling the guy, and he said we had to continue yet another 5 miles outside of town, and he wasn’t sure the truck would still be there when we got there. Cancel that! We were not out of propane, just getting low, so we will now wait until Mexico and refill there. But what a waste of time.

While we were driving, I had noticed that the Sherman’s voltmeter was reading abnormally low. I hadn’t paid much attention to it, because the voltmeter does fluctuate quite a bit while driving at different speeds. But the normal range is between 12v to 14v, and it was now reading about 11v. When we got parked up here, I did some tests and to make a long story short, I think that our alternator has given up. I’ll have a closer look at things in the morning, but I am totally NOT impressed.

Did some reading after supper, and are heading to bed early. Pretty tired (and grumpy) after getting very little sleep last night.

Total nights sleeping in a motorhome…389

November Fuel $ 434.74 CAN

November Grocery $342.22 CAN

November Overnight costs $ 32.80 CAN