Feb. 29: Leap Year Day

After an hour of morning aerobics, we headed out for the Borderfest. Hildago was an interesting town - all signs in Spanish. I'm guessing we were early because nothing was happening at the fest. We came home. Ate a sandwich and downloaded some geo's and headed out again. We had 9 geo's and found 7. One took us down river, below the dam, to one called "Rushing River". The picture with the horse in it is from that area. This was a local park with lots of bird watchers. The speed limit signs had a smaller sign below them that said "watch for snakes". I was more concerned about big spiders - didn't see either.

While searching for one particular geo, we stumbled on a local icon of a bar and grill - Pepe's. It had been recommended to us by other campers weeks before, but I'd forgotten about it. We continued with our quests and came back later. I fully expected a bunch of young people with a loud juke box. Quite the opposite. It seems to be a haven for Winter Texans and it boasted a live band. Pepe's sits right on the river too. The parking lot (pasture) was full. We park a good ways out and walked in expecting to be standing in a line. Walked right in and found a table. The place was full but there were available tables. Lots of people dancing and drinking. We figured the average age to be between 60 and 70. Surprisingly the band wasn't too loud. I had a foot long chili hot dog with cheese and a beer - right at the top of my diet nutrition list. Fun place and we'll probably go back.

We did see an Ocelot today however, it was dead on the road. They are pretty even in a gruesome death. For all of you who have never seen a live Armadillo - here's a picture just for you. He was in the park where we were looking for geo's.

New camp ground

Yesterday, we moved across the valley from Arroyo City to Mission, TX. Mission is celebrating it's 100th anniversary - not as old as Wichita. The camp ground here is called Chimney Park and they have a web site if you're interested. This land has been in someone's hands since the middle 1700's. The Chimney was built in 1907 to run a pump for irrigation, pulling water out of the Rio Grande. It is 106 ft. tall and has a 6' diameter. After the droughts of 1952-53, it was abandoned. In the 1960's it was opened as a fishing camp. Now there are around 300 sites with full hook ups. Some are permanent residents. The chimney is now recognized by the Texas Historical Commission and became a Rio Grande Valley historical landmark in 1985.

The other fun thing about the particular park, there seem to be a lot of aliens that like to come across here somewhere. We are right on the Rio Grande; however, the Border Patrol is in full strength here. Down by the boat ramp last night, there were about 3 SUV's attached to empty boat trailers. Plus a helicopter flys over regularly. Our camper is backed up to a levy that runs parallel with the river. There is about a 4' or 5' chain link fence around us that has three strands of barbed wire running along the top. There is a road at the top of the levy and the border patrol goes up and down there regularly. Our new neighbor says they rounded up about 20 illegals last week. They run right down our fence and head out into the surrounding land and suburbs.

This morning I was up for an 8:30 aerobic class and at 7:00 pm I went to a Spanish lesson. We had a cold morning - got down to 47 F last night. Got back up to about 75 today and Larry decided to go swimming. Not me, I just laid out in the sun. Tomorrow is a covered dish dinner. There is a big festival here this weekend - The Borderfest. Apparently it's really a big event down here. We're going to try to get there on Friday. They're celebrating China - not sure what border we share but that's the country of choice this year. Alan Jackson is performing and the Jonas Brothers are on another night. There's a huge International Square Dance down in Mexico (across the bridge from the Borderfest) tomorrow morning but I don't think we'll make that. Arts & Crafts and, of course, a big food court. We're also planning a trip into Mexico at Progresso. We have a month so I'm guessing we'll try to spread out all the fun stuff.

Feb. 25: Bay Fishing

Well, I'm exhausted--it's been a long, busy day. We were up at 7:30 this morning (yes, I can do it if I have good reason). Ate breakfast and headed into South Padre Island. We stopped at Port Isabel and found two geos. Headed across the causeway and picked up one more at the north end of SPI. Larry saw some kites flying, so we stopped and he flew both of his. There were about a dozen others also flying. We found a nice place for a quick lunch and headed for the Osprey Fishing Dock.

We were only in the bay, fortunately, because it was very windy and the bay was choppy. The Gulf would have been very rough. This picture of SPI is from the very south end just before you go from the bay into the Gulf - looking north. There were about 20 people out on the Bay King fishing boat and as soon as we dropped the line we all had bites. We were fishing with cut squid and fishing on the bottom. Larry and I ended up with 16 Grunts (whatever those are). Some were catching trout, one flounder (too little) and one whiting. Everyone caught Grunts and we all had a good time. They even cleaned them into fillets for us. This was a 2 to 5:00 trip. Waited around to get them cleaned and headed out to pick up two more geos. The only one I pictured here was the statue at the very south tip of SPI. It's dedicated to all those who ventured from the bay and didn't return.

We leave for Mission, TX in the morning.

Feb. 23: Friends, Geo's and Food

Got up early today (8:00am), ate breakfast and headed into San Benito. The big RV park that our friends are staying in, was having a big arts & crafts sale. Bought a couple of items and then toured the park. It's an Encore park of about 1500 residents, half of which are RV's. They have the biggest dance hall in the valley.

Then we headed out to geo cache. There were none in area where we're parked, so we had to go into town to pick up some. Monday we're going back to S. Padre Island to bay fish and we may pick up a geo while we're there. the first picture is of Larry holding up the rubber snake we got in the geo with the Freddy Fender water tower in the back ground. The other one is of the geo (apple) hanging from a tree.

There was a Mexican pot luck dinner tonight at the rec center. That was good - especially the desserts.. Now we're settling in to watch Memphis and Tennessee; flipping back and forth to the KSU/Baylor game. If we do any fishing tonight, it will be very late.

Feb. 22: Bird Watching

We drove up the road we're parked on a State Park. Paid $4 and drove thru there and walked a couple of trails. Nice walk but no birds. Came back the same road to our corner where we were to head south to Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge. By now, Larry was hungry so we stopped by the Chili Willie and I had a hamburger and Larry had calamari. Both were very good. Moved on to the refuge center. Birds were everywhere. Got lots of pictures of the green jay (first bird photo) that I'd heard so much about. Lots of Cardinals too. Drove around the perimeter of the refuge and found even more unique birds. Got a picture of an Osprey, a White Ibis, a Crested Caracara and a Reddish Egret (shown in photo). A very different park - like Padre Island National Park - just not what we expect to see in a park. We're more use to trees, lakes, maybe mountains and canyons. This was flat, lowlands with lots of cactus and yucca (which grow very big here and are blooming) and one crocodile. The tide was out so the birds were feasting in knee (if a bird has one) deep water for a long way out from shore. Also, a really cool sign about an Ocelot crossing.

Feb. 21: Paperwork & Pelicans

Spent the late morning/early afternoon getting paperwork in order that we've been working on for 6 months. Between the bank and the financial adviser, we still don't have it all together.


This picture is of a Mexican Fire Flower (I think). She said she cut it back almost to the ground this last spring before they headed for the north and when they got back it had grown over the top of their home.

Larry went to feed the gulls and we got pelicans, too; however, they don't like bread. We have scraps from tonight's dinner (steak & chicken) to try to feed tomorrow. You'll need to enlarge the one of the pelican diving to get the full effect - really cool - I amazed myself on that capture. Not only did I get one diving, one in the background had already hit the water and one on the right was cruising for dinner. The gulls weren't real fond of bread either. Left a lot in the water--maybe they didn't like all the pelicans hanging around.












Went fishing tonight - no luck there at all. They said the best fishing is October and April. Oh well, maybe next year. But we'll keep trying.

Feb. 20: S. Padre Island

Two days ago, we did finally walk the cemetery that we were parked by. The oldest one we found was 1924. A lot of Hispanics and lots of babies. The odd thing I noticed (other than palm trees in a cemetery) was that when they got to the end of nicely placed rows, they would lay lots of them to rest going around the edges and follow the curving roads.


Yesterday, we headed further south. Where we were, at Corpus Christi, was called the coastal bend area. This part of Texas is call deep south Texas. Because they are having an erosion problem on the beaches, they have left the sea kelp laying on them (normally they scoop them up with a loader and will before spring break). We walked out thru it today and found tons of jelly fish. Some were big like the one in the photo, lots were small - the size of a fish bladder. This big one was laying down, but as I watched, it stood up and moved a little. Also, Texas palms do not produce coconuts, so this one washed up from some far away shore. And so you all won't hate us too much for being in this warmer climate, I included a picture of the crappy kind of day it was - foggy.

Of course, Larry had to see what the ocean felt like. At Galveston, the ocean water was 57 deg. Here it's running around 68 deg. Still too cold for me.

Don't know how long we'll stay here. We have a couple of friends to look up and we've already done SPI so all that's left is the nature center that's very close by. I may still check into bay fishing but we'll see what kind of time we have. We're starting to think maybe just a week here and longer somewhere else. Larry doesn't want to get too far away because he wants to cruise SPI during spring break. I'm sure that will be loads of fun - especially in this chick magnet of a truck that we drive. Larry is right now reading all the tourist information we picked up today - browsing the eating brochures - figuring out where to eat next time - who has the biggest seafood platter or the best buffets.

Our first night here (yesterday) the park folks all meet across the street at Chili Willie's for taco night and karaoke. This is a partying and drinking group. Should be lots of fun if we can keep up with them. Several of them did sing and were actually quite good. Several of the other customers were also very good - and, of course, there were the ones who think they're good. Some of them got up to dance to the songs being sung and I thought it was especially funny when one older gentleman got up to dance (the twist) and the lady next to me said "good thing he got his hip replaced last year. No Canadians here - kinda miss them. Can't practice my French greetings anymore.

Feb. 17: Chores

Buster catching a few rays.

A local geo brought us to an overlook for birds. Caught this egret in search of dinner.

Larry got to feed the birds once again.


Finally got around to washing the trailer. That, of course, involved several hours and getting wet. Nice day so getting wet wasn't a problem but the Daytonna party was misssed. So was swimming. We got a late start because we went and got our last two geo's in the morning.

Played Farkle and said good bye to a couple that was leaving in the morning. They've been here longer than we have and had become friends - Canadians. They're heading for Daytona for the big biker rally. He has a Harley and they haul it in their toy hauler 5th wheel.

Check out the previous blog because I added a couple of photos that were taken by another lady and she just got them e-mailed to me today. Also added a couple comments.

Feb . 16: Clean House

Cleaned up the camper this morning. It was soooo muggy. Humidity was up to 94% last night and around 80% today. Thunderstorms finally blew threw here around 9:00 pm. Tomorrow is suppose to be really pretty.

A whole bunch of us went to a spaghetti dinner at the local Methodist church tonight. Note me walking away from the dessert table with cherry pie. The picture outside was of only about half of us that were there; however, all of these people (except Larry and me) are Canadian. We then came back and played Bingo until 9:00 and then played a couple of games of Farkle.

Tomorrow we're washing the trailer (finally) and I hope it's warm enough to go swimming. We'll be talking to Henry at 2:00 on the ham radio and there's a Daytona 500 party at the rec center about the same time. Will probably do the swimming thing and catch the end of the Daytona 500. Food is involved.

Feb 15: Kite flying

Larry has been wanting to get his kite out - especially with all the wind we've had here. So we headed out for the shore line park and assembled two of the three he has (one is the grandsons). He had a great time and allowed me to fly them too. However, the wind was dying out when I took the handles and didn't do much but crash - constantly. It was extrermely humid and I felt like I was covered with salt by the time we were done. We packed up and went to Sams for some drugs we needed.

Played some more Farkle tonight - Larry won last night but did poorly tonight.

Suppose to have severe weather tomorrow - possible hail and tornadoes. So, being the weather conscience person that I am, I looked around for a storm shelter. Guess we'll just blow away.

Feb. 14: Valentine's Day

A Crested Cara Cara from South America.
If you enlarge this one, you should be able to see the little lights on these jelly fish. They were about 3 inches long.

We visited the Texas State Aquarium (they don't get any state support however). It was a nice aquarium - typical stuff - including birds of prey show. The aquarium has a lot of birds and reptiles that are rescued victims. This turtle has lost it's right front flipper completely. It was healed and was being taken to another area of the marine exhibit for a photo op. Cute little guy.

Then in the Reptile show, we got to see an alligator up close and personal. Even got to pet it.


Did I mention that it was windy. I took this picture from the Birds of Prey area hoping it would give some validity to the idea that it was extremely windy. The barn owl wasn't even sure he wanted to leave his perch to go get a piece of dead meat from the handler. He sure thought about it along time. The winds were gusting up to 45 MPH. The Turkey Vulture that had a broken wing almost got blown over and he was just walking on the ground.


Then we had a Valentine Pot Luck Dinner/Party tonight. We ate, sang songs and told jokes. It was a fun evening.

Last couple of days

Blow this one up and see if you can spot the cache.

Pelicans skim the water very close. When they find a fish they can somehow disjoint their shoulders and dive into the water - usually from higher up than this. They're usually just inches above the water when flying by.

Not done much to brag about for a couple of days. Installed some 2'x2' ceiling tiles on the three doors that open into the basement. Trying to achieve some sort of insulation factor. Washed the truck again. Went to a genealogy class last night and got some good free web sites to go to for information. I had some odd ball stains on a swim suit cover-up so I had purchased some paint to make flowers on it. Did that yesterday morning while Larry was at the local Ford dealership getting the engine and transmission oil changed.

The pink arrow above is where we found the cache - back in that tree line.

For those of you who think Larry looks odd - he forgot his hat. Old age.

Today we went to 4 geo's. Ate at Sonic on Padre Island. Will have a rotisserie chicken for supper. If no one from the Big 12 is playing basketball tonight, we'll probably go over and play games.

Feb. 10: more eating

Spent the afternoon running around buying some office supply stuff and some car wax and a buffer. Larry is really getting into this "make the truck look good" thing. Came back and went swimming. The park had an unplanned eat out at CiCi's Pizza - another buffet. Then went to the club house and played Farkel with 3 couples, all from Canada. A lot of "eh" rolling around. After the dice game, we sat around and discussed some of the Canadian history and economy. Very interesting way to end the day.

Feb. 9: Padre Island

We got up early today (8:00) and headed out for our trip around the loop. Picked up a geo across the harbor bridge (photo of Larry putting it back and a picture of the cache showing how beautifully camoflaged it was) and headed for Port Aransas. Stopped and did a little fishing on some of the flats - no luck there. Hit the road again and crossed over to Padre Island on the ferry - we took up two lanes in the Beast. Went fishing on a public pier although we just hung out on the concrete wall before you go out on the pier. I'm still thinking Kansas and wanted to fish the poles holding up the pier. Still no luck. Moved on to a birding gazebo where we picked up another geo (picture of me signing the log).

Then drove on down the highway and saw an access road and wondered what it accessed. Well, holy cow, there were miles and miles of beach road. These are considered Texas Highways so we just drove down it like we knew what we were doing. Stopped and let Larry get his feet wet. Seemed like we drove forever before we found another access road to get us back on the main road south.

Ended up in the Padre Island National Park. Really a pretty place - unique. Probably not someplace I would stay at (there was a campground there) but pretty. Sat thru a class held out on the deck of the visitor's center on things they have found washed up on the shore. On the way back we found another access road and stopped so Larry could feed the gulls again. These weren't quite so aggressive and wouldn't eat out of his hand. They weren't any fun for him. Also took some pictures of the flowers along the way to the National Park.
Didn't fish any more places but will this week. Ate at Snoopy's under the bridge that brought us back to Corpus Christie. I had Drum Sticks. Red Drum fish sliced into sticks and fried - really good. Larry had the combo plate. Probably the best fish we've had on the whole trip. I had one of Larry's shrimp and it was really good too. We're full again. Going to the club house tonight to watch "RV". Should be fun.