Monthly Archives: March 2014

Saturday, March 1—No Slowing Down

Posted on March 2, 2014 by dunngone

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Any chance of seeing butterflies had to occur Saturday morning as cold weather is coming again late Sunday night.  This allowed time for only a short bike ride; Van and I rode together for about 6 miles, and then I split off to return to the RV to pick-up the camera and binoculars for a quick visit to the National Butterfly Center before getting ready for the Mariachi concert at La Joya High School.  Here are the ride statistics:

Ride Time: 1:10:28

Stopped Time: 6:07

Distance: 11.98 miles

Average: 10.20 mph

Fastest Speed: 24.80 mph

Ascent: 190 feet

Descent: 200 feet

Calories: 847

I was “targeting” a Mexican Bluewing butterfly at the NBC, but had no such luck as few butterflies were flying; a nice Monarch sat still long enough to be photographed, though.  Waiting for the sun to warm the place so more butterflies would be around, I sat down at the bird feeding station, and was lucky enough to photograph a male Lesser Goldfinch, a “life bird” for me.  A life bird or life butterfly is one that you’ve seen for the first time.

After lunch, a group from the BPVRV Resort carpooled to La Joya High School for their spring folklorico and mariachi concert.  The photo below was borrowed from their website, and shows one set of colorful costumes.

This is one of the most successful programs in the United States for keeping Hispanic students in school, and it started in the Rio Grande Valley with the La Joya Independent School District. Some 25 years ago, the district decided to pioneer a ballet folklorico and mariachi program for students to motivate low-performing Hispanic students to stay in school by giving them something representative of their Hispanic culture to keep their interest in school. We have attended several shows and concerts at local high schools in the Rio Grande Valley, and are amazed at not only the quality of infrastructure but also the superb quality of their performing arts programs.  Texas high schools are known for their athletic programs, and more specifically, football, but from what we’ve seen they also strongly support the fine and performing arts programs.  And, they really appreciate Winter Texans and schedule several performances for us.  It would be impossible to describe the Mariachi concert, but suffice to say that it included lots of traditional Mexican music and dancing, and the students were awesome!  There were several costume changes, and the costumes were elaborate.  After the busy morning and afternoon, we chilled during the evening with Kay working on her Swedish weaving and I worked on the blog.

NOTE:  Almost 70 RVs pulled out this morning (Saturday), ending their 2013-2014 season at the resort.  Several traveled to Buckhorn Lake Resort in Kerrville, TX, to meet up with other “jammers”.  Apparently, this is the place for singers and musicians to gather on their way north.  Consequently, as a result of a diminished population, resort activities at Bentsen Palm Village RV Resort have slowed considerably. Most of the rest of us will leave on March 15, IF weather at home is decent; however, many Canadians are already planning on extending their stay because of the heavy snow cover and brutal cold back home!  Also, on a different note, hundreds of vultures were observed at Bentsen-Rio Grande State Park, on their way north for the spring and summer.  The park has a Hawk Tower, and is used in March and April for counting vultures and birds of prey as they migrate.  Hundreds upon hundreds are counted some days, and several RVers in our resort extend their stay to be a part of the process.

 

Monday through Friday, February 24-28—Wrapping Up the Season, for Some

Posted on March 1, 2014 by dunngone

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Exercise for Kay, golf for me—that’s how our Monday began.  With overcast skies, the rain began shortly after teeing off on the first hole, and never quit, though it was not a hard rain.  The other two-some with us called it quits after a couple of holes, taking a rain check for some other day.  Inclement weather prohibited any outside activities for the remainder of the day, except, of course, for happy hour at the palapa.  Al and Sharon came over in the evening and we played bridge.

Our friends and neighbors, Chuck and Sue Mercer, are selling their house in Ontario and moving to a condo near Edmonton, Alberta.  Another neighbor, Van, who had assisted them in scanning and sending and receiving paperwork for a potential sale, had flown to Ontario for a few days to assist in finalizing his father’s estate.  Consequently, we offered to assist them.  While our wireless printer works great as a printer, it has to be hard-wired to be used as a scanner, and I had not set up either the MacBook Pro or Kay’s HP with the appropriate software to scan.  Because of slow internet speeds, it took forever to download the software and install it on Kay’s HP.  But once it was done, scanning several pages of real estate sales documents went off without a hitch.  With time to spare, we met Jim and Cheryl Watts, friends from the Ozark Ridge Runners, for lunch at Wallbanger’s, having a great visit over salads and burgers.  It is always enjoyable spending time with Jim and Cheryl.  We “caught up” on family and ORR news, and were really enjoying the visit, until two busloads of junior high students arrived!  They are so talkative and loud, and overtook the restaurant; we quickly finished the visit, and said goodbyes until next time.  Tuesday evening is card night at the BPVRV Resort, and we walked over to play bridge.  The Activities Center was filled with smoke from the barbecue grill being used to prepare for tomorrow’s cookout and dance.  With one too many players, I readily agreed not to play and returned to the RV to spend a quiet evening.

A cold front bore down on us, beginning early Wednesday morning.  At 6 AM, it was 72•, overcast, and the wind was howling.  Kay was off to exercise, and Al and I were off to the golf course.  It began raining lightly as we entered the clubhouse, and the other golfers were eating breakfast, having decided not to brave the elements.  We played all 18 holes despite occasional light rain, wind, and dropping temperatures—from 72° to 54° in 18 holes!  We finished in record time, giving us plenty of opportunity to get ready for the barbecue and dance.  Original plans had been to have the barbecue outside, and dance inside the Activities Center..  However, rain and cold temperatures caused plans to change.  

We all crowded into the Center for barbecue, and after a hour and a half, the tables were removed, chairs were located around the room, and the remaining floor became a small dance floor.  “Country Roland” Garcia Jr., one of our favorite bands, played and we danced until dark.  Interestingly, there were few dancers, so there were only three or four couples dancing most of the time, and the line dancers rarely danced, leaving the floor for the rest of us.  Once though, when he played some 60s music, the floor was packed—another sign that the resort is getting younger as fewer resort residents dance the Texas 2-Step.  The barbecue and dance is a last hurrah for many of the resort residents as they will begin packing up on Thursday and departing on Friday or Saturday for home or parts unknown.  After the dance, we shopped at Sam’s Club, Costco, and Staples, killing a good portion of the evening.Back at the RV, and despite the late hour, we finally watched some recorded television programs, namely NCIS and NCIS Los Angeles, after an absence of several weeks.

We awoke Thursday morning to temperatures in the low 40s, cold for us.  We don’t want to complain too much as we know what other parts of the country are experiencing.  Not having had a haircut since before Christmas, my curly, almost white hair was too long for comfort, and Kay arranged for her stylist to cut it; she really whacked it off, so it should be good until early spring!  Too cold to “play” outside, Kay did laundry and I worked on a presentation, Creating a Blog, for the Photography Club.  In between washing, drying, and folding clothes, Kay worked on the Swedish weaving piece started last year; she’s almost finished!  Temperatures warmed to the high 50s by late afternoon, allowing us to get together in the palapa before waling over to the Activities Center for an ice cream social.  The place was packed as the ice cream and cake were free.  Card night was late starting, but we managed to play several rounds before breaking up at 9 PM.

Kay played hooky and did not attend exercise Friday morning.  Instead, she continued Swedish weaving; she’s just a few days away from finishing this beautiful piece.  At the Photography Club meeting, I gave a presentation on creating a blog.  This past summer we saw a presentation in Copper Harbor, Michigan, where the presenter used an iPad wirelessly connected to a projector via a wi-fi router and Apple TV.  It piqued my interest and the presentation today employed the same technology and worked flawlessly.  As part of the presentation, several blogs that we read and enjoy were shown.  Afterward, Kay went to the pool and spa and I lazed around the RV, finally joining Al at the palapa for rest and relaxation.   Al, Sharon, Chuck, Sue, Kay and I had dinner at the RGV’s only German restaurant, Schneider’s.  The food was okay, but overpriced.  And they charged $1.50 for water, bottled of course.  We got back to the resort just in time to attend the season’s last show, Bill Chrastil. His show features a salute to music legends: Elvis Presley, Conway Twitty, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Neil Diamond, Roy Orbison, Buddy Holly, Tom Jones and The Ventures.  He was good, and did a great job of singing songs of the legends.  He has a decent voice but with a pretty narrow range, and would have sounded great featuring it.   [NOTE:  This note is being added a few days later as it was a forgotten piece of history—in his show he does the Elvis thing and gives out scarves to a few select women in the audience.  Of course Kay got one, and wore it home; it so reeked of cheap cologne that she took it off before entering the RV!  It’s still hanging outside 4 days later; yuk.] 

The month of February has ended.  It has been an incredibly busy month, with a full resort and lots of activities.  We renewed several old friendships.  While the weather has been abnormal, with more cold and windy days that normal, it didn’t seem to slow us down.  Tomorrow, 70 RVs—almost a third of the resort’s capacity— depart for home, most making long stops in Kerrville and other places on the way home It is with more than an bit of melancholy that we bid adieu to these Winter Texan friends and the month of February.