Sunday 28 January 2007

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Awake: 7:04am Temp 48 sleep 6+50 sunny overnight @ Falcon, Texas.


Kathy makes her famous sourdough pancakes with eggs over easy, bacon & real maple syrup. I love this meal.
After breakfast, we retract our slides…..so glad I found that weak fuse; then leave the Falcon State Campground @ 10:35am.

It’s a beautiful day for travel. We continue following US 83 to Mission, TX & arrive @ the Mission West RV Park @ 12:25pm. This place is BIG…..some 340 larger than normal campsites. Unfortunately most of their campsites are on “grass” & with only 3 campsites available, we have little choice.

Today’s travel: 1+51 time 76 miles 8.9 gal used 8.52 mpg 42 avg speed.

Our host directed us & helped with my backing into site # 9. Just parking onto the grass left a 4to 5 inch deep track trail. We must be very diligent in watching the weather during our visit. A couple who have been staying in this park for over a month told us that just recently, a rather large motorhome had to be towed out of it’s parking site because it got stuck on the grass. Anyway, here we are.

We have great cell phone & computer coverage in this campground. Shortly after lunch, Melissa calls; while Kathy talks, I use Lady Garmin to locate Catholic churches & the distance they are from this campground. Then walk over to the Phone Room, look up phone #’s in the 3 cities of Mission, McAllen, & Pharr, & then call to find out what time Mass is tonight & is it in English or Spanish. Also in the Phone Room, a lady was using her computer & told me about the wonderful Mass she attended about a month ago @ the Basilica of our Lady of San Juan in the town of San Juan, TX. I asked Kathy to call & confirm that the Basilica Mass would be in English. She reported that it was going to be Bilingual.

When I checked the distance of this Basilica, it was the farthest away of all of our selections. A funnel & 3 gallons of water should be plenty to handle a radiator leak going about 16 miles. Lady Garmin showed us the way…. but the computer lady told me “you can’t miss it, it’s so huge!” She was so right; we saw it easily from the freeway. The parking lot reminded me of maybe 2 or 3 Wal-Mart parking lots. We learned that the main building seats over 1800 people; it was just about full to capacity for this Mass.

The church was begun in 1949 by the Oblate missionaries, who realizing the devotion of the Mexican people to Mary, granted their request for a statue of Our Lady of San Juan to be placed in the church. Their great devotion dated back to 1623 when thru Mary’s intercession, a young girl was brought back to life. As the number of pilgrims coming to this small church increased, it was decided to build a shrine to the Virgen de San Juan. The shrine was destroyed when a pilot intentionally flew his plane into it and the entire building burned, but the statue of the Virgin was rescued from the flames completely intact. For the next 10 years pilgrims kept coming to venerate the statue; in April, 1980 their dream of a new shrine, spacious and modern, was realized. It was designated a National Shrine in 1998 and honored as a Basilica in 1999, giving it it’s present name of, “Basilica of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle National Shrine.”

The Bilingual part of the Mass was recognized when the Mariachi group sang (one) song in English; otherwise, the Mass and all singing was in Spanish. The Mariachi group consisting of a piano, 3 trumpets, 4 violins, 5 guitars, 1 Mexican harp and one special guitar plus singers. The music was upbeat and melodious. Kathy was enthralled; I liked it a lot but found it somewhat distracting during a Mass. It also gave Kathy a chance to practice her Spanish.

After Mass, I topped off the Suzuki’s radiator which surprisingly didn’t use as much water as I expected…..probably an angel held its finger on the leaking area during Mass. Then we did some much needed grocery shopping @ the nearby HEB PLUS store before returning to our motorhome.

Dinner: Healthy snacks (cheese, mixed nuts & cereal) while watching the movie: “He walked by Night” with Richard Basehart, Scott Brady, Jack Webb, etc. Basehart is superb in this documentary-style drama as a killer stalked by methodical policemen. This gem inspired Jack Webb to create Dragnet, which was one weekly show we were allowed to watch on the farm. 1948; it’s a classic. Don’t miss it!

High temp=60 elevation 134 ft Lights out: 12:25am

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This page contains a single entry by George Monte Kirsch published on February 4, 2007 6:11 AM.

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