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.

The wind howled all night, but it remained warm until early morning; at 7:00 AM, it was 70° at 7:00 AM, but steadily dropped to the high 50s by noon—cold by RGV standards!

Kay began a woodturning bowl-making class this morning.  She began the process of gluing various pieces walnut and maple together, and when the resulting block is finished drying, she will use a woodturning lathe and sharp turning gouges and chisels to shape the wood into bowl.  Her teacher is Paul Holmes, our next door neighbor and retired farmer from Ontario, Canada, near Detroit.  Another of our neighbors, Van Holmes, a retired veterinarian from Ontario, was making one of two wooden “rabbit” puzzles for his grandkids.

Kay must have worked up an appetite because she wanted to go to Cracker Barrel for lunch.  Filled with home-style cooked vegetables, we shopped at Hobby Lobby for more craft supplies—for Kay’s Swedish weaving, and for my raised relief sign.

With temperatures in the 50s and winds gusting at 35 miles per hour, we had a quiet afternoon, and the crowd at the palapa was thin.  With no television to our liking, we viewed 3 episodes of Season 2 Downton Abbey, a great PBS series.

This morning we enjoyed our first church service in the RGV since leaving in February.  It was as if we never left, and we recognized most of the people in attendance.

After church, we drove to yet another Walmart; there are too many, and they are too convenient!

Despite a very warm day—high 80s—we rode to and around the Bentsen Palm RGV State Park, headquarters of the World Birding Center.  Note that we now wear our helmets anytime we ride bicycles.

There were not very many species of birds in easy view, but we did see some Green Jays, a couple of woodpeckers—including this Golden-fronted Woodpecker, and some chachalacas, though no Great Kiskadees or orioles.  Even the Hawk Tower, shown with Kay on the ramp, did not provide views of any hawks.

We returned in time for the palapa party at 4:00 PM, followed by a late afternoon soak in the pool and hot tub.

As evening approached I began the process of printing our 2012 Christmas newsletter, only to find the old Brother printer was having software problems.  After finally reloading the printer driver, it began working and made it through 10 copies before finally quitting for good.  It had been a great printer, and we used it over 5-years, printing thousands of copies.  We shopped for a new one, and a found a great buy at Staples, ordering it online.  It had two-day shipping, meaning we should receive it about Friday (their two days is different than our two days any way you count it). 

After our morning routine of coffee, email, and news, we went out for breakfast at Chocitas Kitchen in Palmview; this is where the Blazing Saddle Sores Bicycle and Breakfast Club rode to and ate on Tuesday morning.  From there, we drove to Walmart for a few items, including monk cloth for Kay’s upcoming Swedish weaving class, but they didn’t have the correct color.

Kay dropped me off at the motorhome, and drove to Don Wes Flea Market in Donna, TX, while I applied a copious amount of insect repellent for a visit to the National Butterfly Center (NBC)—the mosquitoes are really, really bad this year.  There were a couple of different species of butterflies than I had seen on our previous trip, and a few Great Kiskadees, making the 3-mile bicycle ride worthwhile.  We played “playing card” bingo Saturday evening, and once again I lucked out, winning one of the $0.25 rounds, for a total of $17—laundry money for the week!

Age, combined with lots of activities, is taking its toll on our memory.  Neither one of us can remember what we did this day (this is being written on Tuesday, December 11).  We know we ate breakfast (because we do this almost every day), and we are pretty sure at least one of us went to the pool and hot tub (again, we do this almost every day).  We also know it was warm, with highs in the mid-80s.  We did go to the palapa at 4:00 PM to say goodbye to two couple who were leaving for the holidays (one to Nebraska, the other to Winnipeg), and there was a good crowd to say goodbye.  Beyond that, our memory escapes us.  Normally, I will go back and look at photographs which have been catalogued by date, but there were none taken today.  So, until and/or unless we remember, this will be our record for the day!

Anyway, here’s a picture of Kay riding on the bicycle trail bordering our resort.  Note that we NOW wear helmets anytime we ride bicycles.

Today started just like any other day, so we’ll skip the usual. After breakfast Kay and I road bicycles to the National Butterfly Center which is nearby. About one third of the ride was on on a paved bicycle path, and the remainder was on on local, light-traffic roads.  As we walked to the entry, we observed hundreds, if not thousands, of butterflies. We went inside and bought an annual family membership, entitling us to go anytime, and to take a couple of guests if we choose. We stepped back outside and more closely observed the different species of butterflies, taking a few photos along the way. We completed our ride back to Bentsen Palm Village RV Resort and Kay washed a couple loads of dark clothes; we got to try out the new ladder clothesline and it worked great, necessitating that we only use the dryer for one load saving us a whole $1.25.

After lunch and spraying with OFF again for the second time today (the mosquitoes this year are horrible and we have to spray several times a day), I returned to the national butterfly center while Kay went grocery shopping at the HEB superstore. My first stop was at the bird feeding station were I observed Great Kiskadees, Green Jay’s, a couple species of woodpeckers, and other birds which I did not (or could not) identify. Along the paths, there were thousands of butterflies in the native plant beds, and as you can see below, I was able to take a lot of photographs. There was one rare butterfly but I was unable to photograph it as it was flitting around to rapidly.

Now back to Kay and HEB. HEB is a Texas grocery chain, and has really good self-branded foods. There tortilla chips are the best we’ve ever eaten. Kay was still gone when I returned from the butterfly center, so I took a quick swim and soak in the hot tub.

In mid-afternoon the Executive Director of the National Butterfly Center gave a presentation at BPVRV Resort. Her talk was more in generalities, such as origin and mission, but she did have a couple of amateur lepidopterists (people who study butterfliers) in the audience (they live in next door in Retama Village), and they told about their own new, small butterfly garden where they have counted and photographed 100 species of butterflies.  They also told a story about a recent siting of a very rare butterfly, but we had heard the story first hand from our neighbors who were the first to spot it, but didn’t know what it was.  It was a quite interesting and humorous story, and we laughed when they talked about recognizing the siting, and the chain of phone calls back and forth across the nation among amateur and professional lepidopterists and photographers—news travels fast.

As has been said and almost all of our blog entries, at about 4:00 PM most of the neighbors together at the palapa in the center of our circle for social time.  Kay and I really like this and the strong sense of community it engenders.