Parked at Rio Concho Manor

Rio Concho Manor Power Pole, San Angelo, TX 6-13 to 27-2016

We don’t live as close to Frank’s father as we wish we did. But he did chose to live in the middle of the desert in Texas. San Angelo to be exact. Summer time temperatures do reach into the low 100’s, but as everyone will tell you, “It’s a dry heat”. Well, it makes little difference it’s still hot! In fact, during this visit we were seriously considering breaking open an egg on the asphalt next to Big Guy just to see if it would cook.

When we visit Dad, it does cause us to spend some time thinking about our future. Where do we want to end up? Do we want to be surrounded by people? Who will take care of us? How can we make sure we end up in the company of happy people and not a bunch of curmudgeons? We both love the outdoors so a moderate climate is important, as opposed to being trapped inside in air conditioning all summer long.

By most counts, Dad’s decision to live here has served him well. He has lots of friends as well as a small group of very close friends. He’s found a group of good doctors and they pretty much do whatever he wants them to.

Besides visiting, we like to make sure his paperwork and computer problems are taken care of. That way, after we leave he can at least start out not having to worry about those issues. Now if Microsoft would just quit bothering him about updating to Windows 10, we’d be in good shape. Clean and simple, just the way we like it!

Depending on who you ask, we either showed up a week late or a week early. We ended up making a brief but necessary detour back into Florida on our route from Columbia, SC to San Angelo, TX. So that slowed us down a little. Then we found out Dad was concerned about getting his driver’s license renewed before his birthday arrived less it expired opening another whole can of worms.

So we decided to put on some speed and arrive on Monday, June 13, before his birthday on June 18 to help however we could.

Less than 45 minutes from Dad’s place, Google Maps starting shouting that there was a brewery nearby in Rowena, TX. Wondering how google knew we like breweries (that’s a subject for another post) we drove through Rowena to find 313 Edward St. The prospects weren’t looking good as Rowena was pretty much a ghost town.

 

The address was a filling station, which obviously no longer dispensed gas as the pumps were gone. But wait, on the wall above the door, we could just make out the word “BEER”.

We did see a person walking around, so EJ sent me over to see what the deal was. It was the owner, and yes it was the Horny Toad Brewery, and no they weren’t open. They only open the first Saturday of the month, but what the heck. He wanted a beer too, so he opened up the tap room for us. We chatted with him for over an hour.

We finally arrived at the Rio Concho Manor and hooked up to our life saver, the Power Pole. Yes, it’s two 30 amp plugs hooked up to our combiner to make 50 amps so we can run the air conditioner full blast since it’s going to be in or near the 100’s for the next week or so. That’s the Manor in the background.

Frank’s Dad was concerned about renewing his license. However it turned out that Dad had recently upgraded his eye glass prescription and just needed to retake the driver’s license eye test with his new glasses. He passed and is now good to go for another year.

Afterwards, Frank made a big faux pas and texted his brother Terry that “Dad passed”. EJ was mortified about the wording. But Terry understood.

Terry and Joy came over from Georgetown to celebrate Dad’s birthday and we all took him out to lunch.

Between lunch, social hour, and dinners out, it was hard to get any productive work done. But we did manage to sneak in one on Dad. EJ planned, with Bill Norvel’s help, a surprise birthday party for Dad.  Terry and Joy were there too. That’s Joy cutting the cake.

Several days later, EJ and I took a road trip to Eola, Texas to visit the Eola School House Brewery.

The owner, is working by himself attempting to restore the school, brew beer, making trips to larger cities to market kegs of his beer, and running a restaurant. I think he needs some help.

On another goof-off day, EJ and I wandered the restored shopping district of San Angelo. I found these chimes and thought they would be perfect in the side yard at our townhome. The longest pipe is about 5 feet long. They don’t really chime, it’s more like a boooonnnggg! The neighbors would love it, I’m sure.

EJ took me to a soda shop and bought me a sundae concoction.

Then she dropped me off at this place while she went shopping. i guess I was whining too much.

It’s been over two weeks now, Big Guy’s waste tanks are full, and it’s time to move on. We bid adieu to Dad and point Big Guy north west hoping to find cooler weather.