We had a tough group of birders today, fighting winds gusting to at least 40 miles per hour, ushering in a major cold front.  Our trip today was a short one, to the city of Edinburg’s Scenic Wetlands and World Birding Center.  We, as a group, saw 47 species, mostly water birds, though a few other birds, like the Western King Bird shown in the photo below, survived the blowing wind to make themselves available.

Upon returning to the the RV resort, Kay and I drove to a Mexican restaurant for lunch.  It was family owned and operated with three generations present.  We were waited on by granddaughter, her mother, and her mother’s father.  The cheese enchiladas I ordered were great, though Kay’s chicken dish was not quite as good.  The friendly, family atmosphere was terrific and we’ll definitely return.

We then drove to Lowe’s to pick up some stainless steel stove bolts as one broke in our relatively new Strongback chair.  We have sung praises regarding these chairs and are very much disappointed at their durability.

Back at the resort, we began preparations for our trip home tomorrow to spend the holidays with family.

Bentsen Palm Village RV Resort is winding down, as many of the Winter Texans have left or are leaving soon to return to their domicile to spend time with family.  An observation we’ve made is that Canadians live a long, healthy life, and several of our neighbors have returned to celebrate birthdays with aged parents; one turns 100 over the holidays, and another turns 94.  These do not seem to be the exception, either.  And, without getting political, most really like their Canadian health care system.

Kay took a couple of the ladies in our circle shopping today; another observation we’ve made is that several women don’t like driving on the crowded RGV highways, and others don’t like driving the 3/4 and full ton pickup trucks or the dually they use to tow their 5th wheel trailers.

My intention was to ride to a county birding park today, but with winds forecast at 25 miles per hour gusting to 35 miles per hour, Chuck, a neighbor, and I rode to, around, and through the Bentsen-RGV State Park, for a distance of about 10 miles.  The roads were out of the wind, but there were few birds available to observe today.

We enjoyed palapa time, but only stayed an hour, and then adjourned to the activity building for margarita night.  Here’s a photo of our palapa, taken from inside our motorhome.  There are about 25 RVs in our circle, all pointed toward the palapa.  We usually have 10 to 25 people gather around most afternoons.  The activity building where the margaritas and hors d’ oeuvres were being served was crowded, too much for me, but we endured and got to know some more people just a bit better.  It will be really packed after the crowds arrive after the holidays.

Another week has rolled around again, and today was the scheduled breakfast ride of the Blazing Saddle Sores.  Chuck and Sue, neighbors in the RV resort, opted to go this morning after the long ride Chuck and I made yesterday. The first photo shows Sue riding to the restaurant, followed by a bunch of other riders.  All told, there were 22 riders, and we rode up Bentsen Palm Drive to the Taco Express.  Their breakfast tacos were good, though the service was a bit overwhelmed by the 22 of us coming in all at one time.  The ride back was a bit more difficult as the typical morning winds had begun, and faced us the entire route back to the resort.  Vehicular traffic is very considerate of bicyclists in this part of the RGV, and we see many riders along the routes we travel.

The North American Butterfly Association’s (NABA) National Butterfly Center (NBC) entices one to visit often, and it is interesting to visit every couple of days with butterflies continuing their migration this time of year. It’s amazing just how many imperfections exist among these beautiful, fluttering creatures, including broken wings, and even missing antennae as seen in the last photo. Today, there was some activity among the butterflies despite the wind, though the birds seemed to all be hunkered down.

After all the exercise and mosquito spray, the shower, pool, and hot tub felt good.

We stayed in the rest of the day, except, of course, for “palapa time”

Kay continues her bowl making class, twice a week.  She is beginning to actually “turn” the bowl on the lathe, and is making good progress.

While she was working in the wood shop, Chuck, a neighbor, and I went on a long bicycle ride including the “Roadrunner” trail, so named because Chuck and Sue have seen roadrunners on and along this trail several times while riding.  It is a fairly long trail, about 8 to 10 miles round trip, and true to its name, I saw a roadrunner immediately adjacent to the trail on our return ride.  It was the closest I had ever been to a roadrunner, and I was amazed at how colorful and pretty the bird was. After the “Roadrunner” trail, we rode to a local park and looped it’s two-mile trail.  My butt was a little sore after the approximate 15-mile ride on the small seat!

A quick soak in the pool and hot tub was just the ticket, and Kay washed and dried clothes while we were in the pool.

I spent the afternoon and evening editing photos and catching up on this blog.

We attend First United Methodist Church in Mission during our stay in the RGV, and really like the pastor; he plays drums in the praise band and also sings in the Christmas choir.  There are 3 services, and we attend the Praise and Worship service at 9:00 AM along with about 50 other faithfuls, mostly Winter Texans. This morning the choir presented a Christmas cantata, One Small Child, and did a great job.  Though small in numbers, their voices were on key, blended well, and were loud enough to be heard.

After a quick trip to Walmart, we returned to the resort, had a quick bite to eat, and rode bicycles to the Bentsen Palm RGV State Park.  There were not too many birds flying, but we enjoyed the bicycle ride nevertheless.

Back at the resort, the pool and hot tub beckoned us, and the warm temperature made the soak even more delightful.

In the evening, we carried our lawn chairs to the Activity Center to watch Darling Companion.  This movie, is about a older couple in an overactive lifestyle, their adult children and a rescued dog; it has lots of star power, is somewhat of a “chick” flick, but very enjoyable.

Life is beginning to settle down, but there are still too many things to do, causing one to have to choose—sort of like a kid in a candy store, except we’re now adults!

Card bingo tonight attracted one of the largest crowds ever.  Several residents of Retama Village, an adjacent and sister resort to Bentsen Palm Village RV Resort, attended.  Kay squeaked out a win in the nickle round; that means one or the other of us has won at least one time each night. The photo on the left, taken by one of the resort’s winter Texans, is of our first night of bingo, December 1, and Kay is pictured on the right side of the photo with her back to the camera.

The weather in the RGV has warmed nicely, with highs in the low 80s, perfect for pool time. We don’t where time goes, but it seems to fly by.  We depart for a short visit home just a week from today.

With highs in the mid-80s, we spent a couple of hours at the pool and hot tub, and it sure eases the muscle aches and joint pains from lots of activities combined with age.

This afternoon, the resort hosted a wine tasting party; the premise is for participants to bring a bottle of wine from their state or province, and an hors d’oeuvre.  The wine tasting was better attended than we expected, and there were quite a few sweet white wines compared to dry whites and reds which I prefer; this surprised us, but folks seem to be drinking what they like instead of what is traditional—good for them!  We took a sweet, sparkling white wine from Post Familie Vineyards in Altus, Arkansas, which we visited in October, and it went quickly, as did Kay’s hors d’oeuvre of cream cheese covered with pepper sauce.

We finished the day by watching a few more episodes of Downton Abbey.

A group of 20 hardy bird watchers departed the resort at 7:30 AM this morning, driving to Estero Llano Grande State Park in Weslaco, Texas, about 35 miles east of where we’re spending the winter.  This is one of the RGV’s best birding areas, and the staff and volunteers do a great job of feeding birds and making the bird watching experience a great one.  Jerry and Karen Smith were our leaders.  Jerry, shown in the plaid long-sleeved shirt in the top photo, is a retired biologist having worked for the St. Paul District, US Army Corps of Engineers; in addition, he is a world-class birder. I was not as overwhelmed on this trip as the one last year, and though I did not know the names of most of the birds, I at least was able to view them and note their calls and unique appearance—for the most part!  This park has a significant amount of wetlands, and consequently has lots of ducks and shore birds.  Among my favorites were the whistling ducks, all three species of teal, the anhinga which is also known as a water turkey or snake bird (look carefully at it’s photo below and see the ‘gator to the lower left), the vermillion flycatcher, common pauraque (see if you can find the two of them in the last photo) and the yellow-crowned night heron.  All told, 78 species were identified.


By afternoon, temperatures had warmed sufficiently for a soak in the pool and hot tub to ease all the aches and pains of the morning’s long walk.
Though it was “games and cards” night, we enjoyed a quiet evening watching season 2 episodes of Downton Abbey.
A link to the web photo album of this winter’s Texas trip can be found at the following link:  https://picasaweb.google.com/DunnGoneTravels/WinterTexans20122013?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCID41uiC4OrOGw&feat=directlink

It was still cool from the strong cold front that moved in a couple of days ago.  Everyone sort of hunkered down this morning, and the resort grounds were pretty quiet.

The day began warming just before noon, so I sprayed liberally with Repel insect repellent—it  seems to have the least odor of those we’ve tried—and picked up a pass to the Bentsen RGV State Park (World Birding Center); butterflies were everywhere, though birds were scarce.  For some reason this park staff chooses only to feed early in the morning, and consequently the birds leave the feeding areas after that.  The park administrators complain that they don’t have enough money to feed more often.  At the Green Jay feeding station, there were Green Jays, Red-winged black birds, and Great Kiskadees.

After riding back to the resort and turning in the park pass, I rode to the National Butterfly Center; there were few visitors. The bird feeding area was rather inactive, yielding only a Golden-fronted woodpecker, a couple of Green Jays, and a couple of Great Kiskadees. The butterflies were inactive as well, though some allowed themselves to be seen and photographed.

A link to our web photo album of our stay in Texas this winter can be found at the following link: https://picasaweb.google.com/DunnGoneTravels/WinterTexans20122013?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCID41uiC4OrOGw&feat=directlink

It’s Tuesday, and that means time for the Blazing Saddle Sores Bicycle and Breakfast Club ride—number 2 for me.  However, the high 40s temperature, combined with strong winds discouraged all except the most brave, or “fetched” riders of which I was one; there were 7 of us—6 men and one brave woman. (It isn’t particularly easy to take a picture over the shoulder with only one hand on the handlebar; thank goodness for photo editing!)  We rode approximately 4 miles north on Bentsen Palm Drive to Nelda’s Kitchen where the food was quite good. Fortunately, the return trip was with the wind at our backs, making for a less cold ride.

We took advantage of the cold, windy weather to hang around the motorhome, catching up on odds and ends including cataloguing and editing photos and updating the blog.  The weather was not accommodating to “palapa” time, engendering us to hunker down and enjoy the quiet evening.  Tuesday night is “cards and games” night, and we learned a new game involving pegs and cards involving lots of strategy and some luck.  I was on the winning team the first time, but had trouble comprehending the concept, but Kay understood right away and was among the best players at the table.