Dec 24, 2019
We woke up to Christmas Eve and we did not want to spend Christmas in a Walmart parking lot no matter how much easier it would make returns. There were no good options in either South Padre Island or Port Isabel so went to the nearest larger town, Brownsville about 30 minutes away. As we were pulling out of the Walmart parking lot I noticed that our front windshield had a crack in it. Sigh. I called Geico our car insurance company and found that that while they would cover windshield repair without a deductible if the crack was smaller than a dollar, our crack was twice as long so we would be on the hook for the $500 deductible. Good thing we were going to Brownsville anyway.
The first place we went to turned out to be a glass repair place only. The second place we went to gave us a quote of $130 to replace the windshield which was really cheap but they had to order it and wouldn’t be able to replace until after Christmas. Also it looked like a rather dirty mom and pop type place so we didn’t have a lot of confidence in their work. Finally I called Geico and they recommended the nationwide chain Safelite. We drove to the Safelite office and they gave me a quote of $340. Ouch. I called Geico to see if there was a better rate if we went through our insurance. Geico called the Safelite location we were at and gave us a quote of $405 which we would have to pay all of since it was below our $500 deductible. Stupid insurance companies.
I went back in and just paid the cash price and several hours later we had our new windshield. It was quite interesting watching them work as they attached a suction device with a bunch of wires to our windshield in order to get it off. Once they got the old windshield off it was a quick matter to slap the new windshield on and we were on our way by 3 P.M.
I had found an RV resort with good reviews on iOverlander and best of all it was only $32 a night for full hookups with good Sam discount. I booked us over the phone for 2 nights, Christmas Eve and Christmas night over the phone while we waited for the windshield replacement. As soon as we got into the Breeze Lake RV park office I knew we were in the right place. The park itself was nice along a lake and the staff were all super friendly and immediately invited us to the free Christmas potluck dinner the next night where the park was going to supply the ham and turkey. They had a nice club room with a small library and a nice heated pool too.
It was already late by the time we settled in so after walking around the park a bit we had dinner and then watched “The Santa Clause” before sending Olivia off to bed. The movie was really nice because it explained how Santa could get into places without a chimney.
