Despite warm weather, Monday provided a great opportunity for a long bike ride—after our morning walk and breakfast.  Last year, Chuck Mercer and I rode the “Roadrunner Trail” almost every day; he so named the trail because of the presence of roadrunners almost every time he rode it. This year, the City of Mission has added a new segment of trail, bisecting the old trail, adding an additional mile or two distance if one chooses to ride the whole thing.  Sure enough, I saw three roadrunners crossing the trail at different times, and they were not too terribly skittish.  The 11-mile bike ride was completed in just over an hour.  Kay opted to do laundry while I rode, but I was gentleman enough to at least carry the clothes to the laundry and upon return from the bike ride, carry them back!  A faulty water hose connecting the faucet to the water filter developed a significant leak, and no amount of tightening in combination with gobs of teflon tape would help.  It was off to Walmart for a 10-foot section of hose as they did not have the right parts to repair the old hose—another job for another time.  The palapa party provided a venue for celebrating Debbie Creaghan’s birthday and a big chocolate cake was enjoyed by all.  Afterwards, we accompanied her to PF Chang’s for dinner, and it was very, very good.

Tuesday, we enjoyed a morning walk around BPVRV Resort, had breakfast, and rode bicycles to the NBC for viewing birds and butterflies.  The bird feeding station attracts birds up close and personal, providing great opportunities for photography.  I had not put the new Sigma DG 150-500mm 1:5-6.3 APO HSM lens through the paces.  It’s a heavy piece of equipment, but the picnic table at the bird feeding station provided an elbow rest.  We saw Clay-colored Thrushes (Turdus grayi), Plain Chachalacas (Ortalis vetula), Golden-fronted Woodpeckers (Melanerpes aurifrons), Green Jay (Cyanocorax yncas), Great Kiskadee (Pitangus sulphuratus), and a couple other common species.  Though the weather was not optimum, we saw lots of butterflies, several new to us including a Great Purple Hairstreak (Atlides halesus) and a rare Red-bordered Pixie (Melanis pixe), Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta), Common Mestra (Mestra amymone), Brown Longtail (Urbanus procne), Queen Butterfly (Danaus gilippus), Dusky-blue Groundstreak (Calycopis isobeon), and others I could not identify.  Shown are the Clay-colored Thrush, Red Admiral, and Great Purple Hairstreak.

Kay opted to shop Wednesday morning at Don Wes Flea Market, a standby in the RGV, and some of her other favorite shops.  I went for a long bicycle ride to Anzulduas Park, then back to the Mission Nature Park, and then back to the BPVRV Resort, a distance of over 18 miles.  Anzulduas Park is on the US/Mexico border, complete with a levee to protect from Rio Grande River flooding, and the border fence.  It was a good ride despite the heat and light wind.  We both returned about 12 noon, and visited the hot tub and pool where we met Ty and Ida, originally from Green Bay where he was the Executive Director of the Green Bay Nature Center.  As we talked, we discovered they were serious birders, friends of Jerry and Karen Smith, and full time RVers—we meet quite interesting people in our many travels, and have discovered that the RV world is relatively small.  After pool and spa time, we drove to Costco where I received new hearing “behind the ear” hearing aids.  My first impression is that they are good, but not an improvement over those I’ve had for 3+ years.  However, they were MUCH less expensive, and the “old” hearing aids were becoming somewhat unreliable.  Back at BPVRV Resort, we walked over to the Margarita Party though neither of us were drinking margaritas—it was too noisy, and there were far too many announcements, reminding me of a typical meeting when I used to work!  Afterwards, we watched a couple of recorded television shows; we’re finding there is not much time for television.