A place beyond Pharr

We are at the Paradise South RV Park in Mercedes, Texas (map).

The decision was finally made Saturday afternoon to move the operation to downtown Mercedes, and we shut down HQ and began packing at around 5. We were ready to roll at 8, and drove until 11:30, when we stopped for the night at a rest area just south of Falfurrias. We'd never been down 281, so I am sorry we had to drive it in the dark.

We arrived at the new HQ in Mercedes at 9am Sunday and began setting up. Unfortunately, the crew in the box truck with the server took a wrong turn out of San Antonio and then had some issues in the morning, and did not arrive until after 11. Nevertheless, we had HQ more or less up and running around 3 or so. We did not leave until 9:30.

That made another couple of killer days for us -- 16 hours on Saturday and 14 on Sunday. Yesterday was a more reasonable 11 hours, and today I am almost human again.

It's been in the mid-100s here, and by mid-day on Sunday, with no prospects of a good parking spot or power outlet at HQ, we reluctantly came here, to the closest RV park. The nightly rate is north of $34, but they have weekly and monthly rates of $160 and $300, respectively, plus electricity. They have graciously offered to include electricity in those rates for the Red Cross, and so we just paid the monthly, since we'd be up to that in a mere eight days at the daily rate.

We're home for a quick lunch today, for the first day since we arrived, and so I am taking just a few minutes to blog. More later.