I woke up with a headache and lots of congestion, both the result of breathing in dust at the wood shop. Oh well.

It’s Thursday, and that means it’s birding day. The trip today was to Falcon Lake and Salaneno, northwest of mission, Texas, in the upper Rio Grande Valley. Despite cold temperatures near 40°, 12 hardy birders made the trip.  Fifty-six species were observed, not too bad.

Falcon Lake is famous for its monster bass and for the maniacal obsession of the fishermen who come from all over Texas—and the world—to fish for them.  This somewhat remote reservoir that straddles the international boundary is also Mexican pirates.  In May 2010 three armed burglaries took place on Falcon Lake in Mexican waters.  US citizen David Hartley and his wife, Tiffany, had used personal watercraft on Falcon Lake just a month before a tragic day in September 2010 when investigators believe they wandered into the middle of a drug trade. Hartley was shot and killed by suspected Mexican drug pirates and his wife escaped, according to her account. In response to the border problems, President Obama ordered 1200 troops to patrol the area, but tourists still mostly avoid the place because of the bad publicity. Nevertheless, it is known as a top birding area, but the 2012 drought has seriously impacted the number of birds visiting the area, and in combination with safety and liability concerns, there are many fewer birds and birders than what we observed last year.

At the entrance to Falcon Lake State Park, we stopped to view waterfowl at a private lake, and saw several species, all of which had been seen previously this season. Within the state park we stopped at a feeding station maintained by a volunteer, and I was able to add several species to my life list, including Pyrrhuloxia (a large cardinal-like finch), Cactus Wren, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Bewick’s Wren, Long-billed Thrasher, and many other species.

After lunch, Jerry led us to Salaneno, one of our favorite places last year.  However, because of liability issues, the private area was closed, and the bird numbers were significantly down.  Near the river, an osprey was dining on a recently caught fish.  Along the very short, abbreviated National Wildlife Refuge trail, a few feeding stations had been setup and maintained, and both the Altimira and Hooded Orioles, and a few other species, were observed.

Back at the are the resort, I hurried to the wood shop to apply a finish to the bowl, and was able to rub out any remaining rough spots. Again, time evaporated and the wood shop closed. Maybe tomorrow. Rubbing the bowl

Despite taking Tylenol, the allergy headache continued, though never reaching migraine level—just a nuisance, more than anything. I do not like not feeling well. As a consequence, we did not participate in card and game night, missing another opportunity to play bridge.

Immediately upon getting out of bed, I checked to see if LR4 had downloaded, and of course it had not. Further attempts do download this software were suspended until later in the day.

Still cold, but with sunshine, I returned to the woodshop to begin, and finish, turning the segmented bowl.  I’m a little afraid of the lathe (from watching, as a young child, my dad get his fingertips cutoff on a jointer), but managed to shape both the outside and inside of the bowl. I still don’t know which turning tools to use for the various parts of the bowl, but suspect that would come from experience. The woodshop is quite busy, and one has to be prepared for a few bumps along the way, something quite unsafe. After the bowl was turned, the sanding process began, beginning with a very coarse grit sandpaper and transitioning to a finer grit sandpaper each time.  Sanding was easy while the bowl was still on the lathe, but I could not help but breathe in the dust created by all the woodworkers.  The dormant allergies kicked in and the allergic reaction began, with a stuffy nose and the beginning of a headache. When the bowl was smooth, I applied a coat of 50% Deft/50% lacquer thinner. The bowl was dry in about 20 minutes, the rough spots were removed with a scouring pad, but time did not allow for applying a second coat before the shop closed. The photo shows the bowls side by side—Kay’s is on the right.

Back at the motorhome, a final attempt at downloading LR4 was made, this time as a free 30-day trial, and it worked! The trial version was easy to convert into an upgrade, simply by entering in the identification tag number. The process of copying and migrating the backups, catalogs, presets, and preferences was begun knowing that it would be interrupted by Margarita hour at the Activities Center. Kay had made “Uncle” Jack’s cherry cheesecake, and planned to take it for the potluck, but a neighbor, Van, rapped on the door, bringing his computer to show pictures of the several bowls he had made last winter. He is a retired veterinarian, a perfectionist, and has the patience of Job; the bowls were awesome, and the surface finish was near-perfect. We had a great conversation concerning kayaking, where we each lived, and some of our work history and retirement. We find that we have many things in common with our neighbors.

All of the relevant files for LR4 ban the slave codes on hands were copied and migrated to the new computer, and everything worked just fine.

Tonight following Margarita hour, the Activities team scheduled a Karaoke night. It was a mixture of some pretty decent vocalists, and a number of people who were well lubricated, but could not carry a tune, even in a washtub. Kay was far and away the best vocalist, and I surprised her by joining her in singing You Light Up My Life. We succeeded in bringing a few tears to the audience, either for emotional reasons or because we were bad! It was a good way to end a good day.

Cold and wet weather continued today, with temperatures hanging in the 40s.  Paul, the “bowl program” instructor, is out today, giving me an opportunity to wrap-up loading software on the new computer.

I loaded Lightroom (LR) 3, an ADOBE photo filing and editing program, into the new computer, knowing that there was a high probability that it was not compatible with Windows 8. However, it loaded just fine. And then, I began the lengthy process of copying backup files, catalog files, preferences, and presets. These are more than likely form terms to most of you readers, however, they are very important in streamlining the migration process from one computer to the other. Additionally, I synchronized several thousand photographs from 2000 to the present. So far, so good. After turning the computer off, and restarting, LR3 would not load, having a number of corrupted files; I had somewhat expected this, and was not terribly disappointed.

The only alternative left, if I wanted to continue using LR, was to download LR4, the newest version compatible with Windows 8. Using the Adobe webpage, it appeared to be an easy process—order the product, pay for it, and begin the downloading process. Well, it didn’t go quite that smoothly. The download showed that it had begun, but in reality it had not. I tried this several times to no avail. Finally, giving up, I entered into an online chat with Adobe representatives somewhere halfway across the world. They could not understand southern talk, and I could not understand Middle Eastern talk. After an hour, and no assistance, the Internet connection was lost!  This was frustrating. I unplugged, plugged back in and attempted to download the software once again, and left the computer running for hours and hours and hours; still, no success. I finally tried a bit of a different technique, and left it running for the evening, thinking that the file was so large it would take several hours to download. Tomorrow will tell.

Kay and I joined Al and Sharon, neighbors, and others at the Activities Center for cards and games tonight, and we ended up with three tables of party bridge. Neither of us had played in about 12 years, and it had been some 30 years since either of us has played regularly. We expected the worst. However, we found ourselves to be in the upper middle of the skill level, and had to exercise patience with some of the new bridge players. But, it was all in fun and was actually nice introducing someone to the spectacular card game. Time was called at 9:00 PM and we returned home for the evening, after a much bedraggled day.

Another cold front blew in yesterday, with several days of temps in the 40s and 50s forecast; unseasonably cool for the RGV.  Perhaps it will give me time to get the new computer up and running—getting back to normal!

Not much is going on around the resort, most people stay in their RVs during these brief cold weather periods.  Like the others, we, too, stayed close to “home”.  I spent considerable time continuing to load software and data on the new computer, moving several thousand songs and photos, as well as documents.  Fortunately, Google, Windows Mail, and Yahoo take care of email and bookmarks just by signing in.

I returned to the woodshop this afternoon to make the second base for my bowl, after tearing chunks out of the first one on Saturday.  All went well, and after stacking the rings and base, they were glued together, and after drying, will be ready for turning.

Here’s a photo of Kay’s bowl.  Pretty awesome, huh?

We opted to eat breakfast with a group of neighbors this morning rather than attend early church. They meet at Furr’s in McAllen for the breakfast buffet every Sunday morning. The food choices were many, and fortunately they had a big salad bar for those of us who are on a perpetual diet.  Thus, it was salad and scrambled eggs, with a small cup of yogurt and granola.  Still, it was good to have choices.

After breakfast, we went to Costco to look at computers and fill up with “cheap” gas, still less than $3 per gallon, but rising.  Over the course of the last several years, computers seem to last me about 2 years, give or take a couple of months.  The current Dell computer lost it’s left mouse key over the holidays, the battery does not hold a charge, and worst of all, it will not perform a back-up.  With over 40,000 photos and several thousand songs, this could prove catastrophic.  However, I’ll attempt to repair it when we return to northern Arkansas in March.  Anyway, I digress.  The store opened at 10:00 AM, and we looked at computers, and purchased a high-end model, only to find they didn’t have it in stock.  After looking for about 30 minutes, they offered us a deal on the floor model, 5% off—not even enough to replace the battery; we obviously declined.  I was really disappointed in Costco as they have always been a delight with whom to do business.

We drove to church to attend the traditional service at 11:00 AM, and really like it.  There was a much larger congregation than that which attends the early service, and the choir sounded great considering their small number; the pastor plays drums in the praise and worship service and sings in the choir for the traditional service, and he preaches a good sermon, too, continuing his theme on being financially responsible.

After church, we drove to Staples to look at their computers, and picked up a low end model HP Pavilion g7-2240-us, with Windows 8, on sale.  At the RV, the computer was unpacked and turned on, and then as Windows 8 came up, I stared at the foreign operating system with a blank look.  Migrating email, contacts, and calendar was not too difficult.  Finally, I began the process of reloading software, and Windows Office 2010 Professional loaded without a hitch.  The same process was followed for Quicken and Microsoft Streets and Trips, again, without much trouble, but consuming quite a bit of time.

Meanwhile, the cold front came in with a blast, and temps remained in the high 50s, cool for this time of year in the RGV.

I was so impressed with what Kay had accomplished in the woodshop, I began making a sectional bowl as well.  Today was the first day, and began with a review of plans and instructions, cutting pieces to make the sections, and initiating the gluing process, all accomplished within a couple of hours. And then, as I was turning the base, the knife twisted and the base flew apart!  The instructor was none too happy, though very patient.  That was enough for the day.  Kay got her finished bowl today, and a photo of this beautiful work of art will show up on a later blog.

With a severe cold front forecast to arrive in a day or so, we spent a good portion of the afternoon at the pool and hot tub, and visited with new friend and fellow blogger John http://zeetraveler.blogspot.com/.  John and Sharon are full-timers, enjoying the open road while they are still relative young.  After reading early entries in their blog as to how they began their RV lifestyle, we realized that we shared many of the same thought, and thus had a common bond, though we’re only part-timers.   They leave Bentsen Palm RV Village Resort on Tuesday, moving next door to Retama for a few days—it’s been a hoot getting to know them and hearing about their lifestyle.

Our weekly show was tonight Country Roland Garcia Band.  Roland Garcia, Jr. plays Tejano music, a 20th century blend of south Texas Tex-Mex country music, a genre derived from south Texas Chicano music in the 1970s.  Roland Garcia, Sr. was a popular innovator of this type of music, and well known throughout the RGV.  His son, Roland, Jr., has taken over the reins from his now deceased father.  He started playing guitar at age of four, played with small garage bands until age eleven, then started playing with his father.  His bio says he always listened to country music, and that his influences were Merle Haggard, Buck Owens, Charley Pride, Marty Robbins, Willie Nelson, and Waylon Jennings. He has a passion for classic country, and plays that style, except for doing some country music in Spanish.

We’re looking forward to January 22 when he will play for a dance at our resort—gotta get the Wranglers, Tony Lama’s, and cowboy hat ready for some Texas Two-Steppin’!

Friends Bruce and Jeannie invited us to meet them for lunch in Nuevo Progresso in Mexico today for lunch, and since we had planned to go anyway in the near future, this worked great for us.  We arrived at the parking lot just before the bridge, paid our $2 for parking, and began the walk across the Progreso International Bridge.  The pedestrian toll was $0.50, basically the cost to leave the US.  About midway of the bridge, we officially crossed into Mexico.  As the bridge crossed onto land, the beggars cried out from below, and then further onto land, began reaching through the rails.  After exiting the bridge, we were on the streets of Neuvo Progreso, and were immediately struck by a more neat and tidy appearance, i.e. less grit and grime than we had seen in the past, though it was by no means what we would refer to as clean.

Our first stop was at the pharmacia (pharmacy) to check med prices.  And then, it was a slow walk along the narrow, crowded sidewalks to view the goods of all the street vendors. Restrooms are hard to find in Nueuvo Progresso, but our favorite restaurant, Arturo’s has a really clean one, for restaurant patrons only, so we stopped by for a break and a diet coke.  They brought peanuts and fresh fried tortillas, dusted with chili powder. We continued shopping for another 30 minutes, finding Mexican vanilla and vanilla beans to buy on our way out.  We met Bruce and Jeannie and Menlo and Micky at the Red Snapper, an American style restaurant; it proved to be loud and the food was perhaps below average overall, though my fish tacos were very good.  After eating and visiting, we said our goodbyes, and left the restaurant.

We returned to the store across the street to pick up the vanilla and vanilla beans, then walked back to the pharmacia to pick up meds for the next traveling year.  We paid $0.25 to leave Mexico, crossed back across the bridge, and went through customs, following a couple of ladies who had drunk way too many margaritas.

Back at the resort, we soaked a bit in the pool and hot tub, joined our neighbors for happy hour, and played card bingo where I won once again—either Kay or I have won at least once each night we’ve played except one!  The pot was almost enough, but not quite, to break even for the night. 

It’s Thursday, birding day.  We departed the resort at 7:00 AM, driving to South Padre Island Birding and Nature Center; thirty people participated in this birding trip. The Center was full of shore birds, wading birds, and ducks.  I learned at least two things from this trip: birds can be inconspicuous, and birding is not a social activity.  Many of the birds we saw were in the reeds and barely visible, like the American Bittern in the photo on the left.  The Cornell Lab of Ornithology says, “A stocky and well-camouflaged heron of dense reed beds, the American Bittern is difficult to see.”  Other birds were far off, and could only be identified via a spotting scope.  There were many species of ducks mixed in with the Redhead ducks, which grossly outnumbered all the other ducks combined.  Several of the birders easily recognized the various species, but it is not easy as they all “look alike” on the surface.  And it gets more complicated when one attempts to identify gulls, terns, sandpipers, and skimmers far off in the glimmering mud flats.  We saw and identified over 70 species today, and learning their nuances is a difficult and slow task for me, but each time out, I discern another species or two. We even saw a couple of alligators and a few turtles.

We had lunch at Schlitterbahn Restaurant on South Padre Island—all you can eat shrimp.  It was fried and just okay, but the salad bar was good.

Kay napped after arriving home, and I downloaded and edited photos.  Rather than happy hour, we all met at Wayne and Bessie’s for a game of ring toss.  Game components are comprised of two boxes, about 20 inches square with about a 6 inch PVC pipe piece in the center, on end.  The boxes are approximately 20 feet apart, and the object is to throw 2 1/2 steel washers into the box, or more ideally, into the pipe in the box; also, closest to the box wins points much like horseshoes.  It was a lot of fun, and the cheering section was very vocal.

There was a campfire tonight, and Kay joined a few others who were playing guitars and singing.

It sure is nice to have good weather again.

A link to all our photos taken in Texas this winter (lots of birds and butterflies) is:  https://picasaweb.google.com/DunnGoneTravels/WinterTexans20122013?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCID41uiC4OrOGw&feat=directlink

Last night we had heavy rain, hard winds, and a couple of power outages, but no damage as we secured all the loose objects that had accumulated outside the RV.  It continued to rain most of the morning, off and on, and we took advantage of the weather to shop, driving all the way to Donna for weaving needles, then back to Costco for groceries, and supplementing that with a trip to Walmart.

There was a note on the door when we returned requesting our presence for a bridge game, but it had already begun.  I filled in for Bessie, one of the neighbors, who opted out to help Kay get started with her Swedish weaving project.  I had forgotten most of what I knew about bridge bidding, but manage to win a hand or two, but losing the rubber.  We quit in time for happy hour, and enjoyed lively conversation, opting out of “Margarita Night” at the Activities Center; too crowded and too boisterous.  Kay and I left happy hour early to eat dinner, grilling fresh salmon from Costco.  After cleaning up dishes, we soaked a few minutes in the hot tub, and watched television.  The day disappeared without our doing much of anything.

A strong wind blew last night with some rain, and we awoke to a patio covered with leaves from nearby trees.  The wind abated and the light rain quit about mid-morning, with a forecast of severe wind, rain, lightning, and thunderstorms for late in the evening.
After a walk around and through the resort, it was too wet for Kay to finish her recently “turned” bowl, so we rode through the Bentsen-Rio Grande State Park next door, seeing Altamira orioles, Black-crested Titmice, Northern Cardinals, Golden-fronted Woodpeckers, Red-winged Blackbirds, Green Jays, Great Kiskadees, Orange-crowned Warblers, and a lone coyote.

Back at the resort, we joined other residents of “circle” for happy hour, foregoing “Cards and Games Night” because of a forecast for really bad weather.

A quiet evening in the RV followed, interrupted by a couple of power outages and heavy rain.