Rain is forecast for today, again.  So this means a trip to the Outlet Mall today—just my good fortune!  A trip to Mexico had been planned, but the weather is to iffy. 

Kay coveted a trip to the outlet mall, just east of Mercedes, Texas—about a 35 minute drive for us.  We arrived about 11:15 AM to find the mall a bit sparse.  We walked every section, and it seemed like  we peered into every store.  Kay found some great Merrill sandals, a rain jacket for Ridge, and a lamp for the motorhome.

Back at the RV, she capped and sliced the huge strawberries from yesterday.  Somehow, she is having spasms in her back, maybe from sitting in a folding chair in the damp weather too long.  consequently, we took advantage of the spa, which greatly relieved the pain.

We are becoming regular members of the 4:00 PM palapa social hour, and enjoyed visiting with several new folks from our “circle”.  It seems that today the US delegation outnumbered the Canadians, and there were 3 couples from the south:  Arkansas, Alabama, and Florida; we 3 couples were the only ones who did not talk funny.  We should note, though, that we really like our Canadian friends; this is the friendliest RV park in which we’ve ever stayed.

We can’t seem to win the battle of wanting more sunshine, yet it remains hard to complain after the severe drought folks in the Rio Grande Valley have suffered.  Out of 15 days, we’ve had rain about 10 of them, with more forecast for the next several days.  These fronts are setting up in Mexico and blowing through the southern Rio Grande Valley.

The fresh fruits and vegetables are awesome and the fresh strawberries make for a wonderful breakfast addition.  And, pineapple is one of my favorite fruits.  Last time we were down in the Valley, I ate so much pineapple that a rash developed!

With cloudy skies, and some light rain, we didn’t venture out except for an emergency run to Walmart; Kay is scheduled to sing at the talent show tonight and wanted a jewel case for the CD performance track, and a permanent marker to label the CD.  The strawberries looked too good to pass up—a sale for the huge dipping berries that didn’t sell for Valentine’s Day. Also, there were loads of gardening supplies as spring has sprung in the Rio Grande Valley.

The talent show proved to be a bust, and was more of a risqué comedy show with several skits and some really average to bad music by the jammers.  Gosh, we are appreciating Baxter County music more and more.  Fortunately, they “forgot”  to call Kay’s name to come and sing, but it was for the best as she was so much better than anyone else.  She has some great Anne Murray songs ready, though, for next time!

Just an ordinary day, for most men.  However, it’s real important for our sweeties.  Kay didn’t protest when I offered to serve here breakfast in bed.  And then, she surprised me with a Valentine’s Day card.  I had to confess that I had not yet found just the right card for her, but she would definitely get a card before the day was over.

As a matter of routine, we have been walking all the streets in the RV park each morning when weather allows.  It is about a mile and a half, and takes us about 30 minutes; we’re slow walkers and stop and visit with other RVers.  Despite overcast skies, this was going to be a great day, complete with warm temperatures.  Kay spent part of the morning downloading songs for the park’s talent show Wednesday night.

We drove to McAllen for lunch at Costa Messa, a Mexican restaurant billed as one serving authentic Mexican food.  Arriving at 12:30 PM, the place was packed and we easily may have been the only gringos in the establishment.  The restaurant was really nice, the food was great, and it wasn’t too expensive—all a formula for excellence—in fact it was the best Mexican food I have had in a long, long time.

Afterwards, I hightailed it to Walgreen’s for a card and some Dove dark chocolate pieces, Kay’s special request for Valentine’s Day.  Wouldn’t you know it, I was blessed to find just the right card.  On the way, we passed this truck with a bunch of Valentine’s Day stickers and notes.  We wondered if he put them there, or if a sweetie put them there unbeknownst to him.

We returned to the RV park for part of the jam session where neither the musicians nor vocalists were very good.  In fact some were pretty bad.  Guess we’re just used to the great talent in Baxter County.

At our park, a produce truck and trailer come every Tuesday afternoon, and Kay bought some zucchini, broccoli, radish, and pineapple.  We are really enjoying the fresh fruit down here, particularly strawberries and pineapple.

Kay adjourned to the hair stylist, while I headed to the pool and spa.  Oh, the advantages of not having much hair!  The sun peeked through just enough for a good sunbathing experience.

At about 4:00 PM each day, the neighbors in our circle gather at the palapa in the center of the circle for social time.  I went solo since Kay’s was still at the hairdresser; with so much hearing loss, it’s hard to partake in much conversation, but you at least get to listen a lot.  The neighbors are an eclectic group, with residents being from Manitoba, Ontario, New Brunswick, New York, and Massachusetts, and of course Arkansas.  Most are retired, though some still work, most having their own businesses with good staff to run them in their absence.

We finished the night watching both NCIS, NCIS LA, and Body of Proof.

We awoke again to temperatures in the high 40s, overcast skies, and a bunch of humidity.  This isn’t the Texas we remember!

Coffee, email, and breakfast were followed by a “walk in the park”.  It takes about 30 minutes to walk all the way to the end and back, including the various circles in between.  With rain out of the forecast for the next few days, I wiped down the car with a microfiber cloth, and it looks a bit more respectable.

After lunch, the sun poked through the clouds, and we hurriedly dressed for the pool and spa, and found them to be void of other sun bathers.  The pool is heated, and felt cold until the sun totally escaped the clouds, but the hot tub was wonderful.  I should’ve taken a photo, but maybe tomorrow.

We joined neighbors from our “circle” at the palapa, a palm leaf covered area in the center of the circle, for some social time and conversation.  All of them were from Canada, but had traveled the US far more that most “Americans”, and even more than Kay and I had traveled.  Canadians really take advantage of their “holidays”, their term for vacations or trips.  We shared information about good campgrounds, and asked them many questions including major differences between Canada and the US.  Surprisingly, they commented that margarine in the US was not very good compared to Canadian margarine, and that US bread was too sweet; consequently, they bring their own margarine, and many make their own bread.  I’m convinced that our flour processors add sugar to create an addiction to their product.  There were also other differences, including processed meats.  Kay commented that we could not find Rotel tomatoes in Canada enroute to Alaska in 2009, and asked about Nabob decaffeinated coffee, a favorite of friends, John and Sandra.

There was not much to watch on television, so Kay downloaded some music tracks for the talent show Wednesday evening, and I completed editing photos and worked on the blog.

Our respite from the rain was short lived.  It began raining last night and has not stopped—and the car was pretty clean, too.

We are really enjoying the Mission First United Methodist Church.  The crowd for the 9:00 AM praise and worship service was somewhat sparse again this morning.  After the service, we visited the coffee bar and met a Winter Texan couple from Iowa; he had been a mechanical engineer for Maytag, and was a graduate of the University of Missouri, Rolla.  They had canoed both the North Fork of the White River and the Buffalo River, so we had much to talk about.

We met friends, Jim and Sheryl, who are Winter Texans from Republic, Missouri, for lunch, and then adjourned to our place to continue the visit.  We always enjoy their company, and share so many interests, particularly bluegrass and gospel music and RVing.  Because of the rain, we didn’t get to take them to Bentsen RGV State Park to see the birds, but hopefully we can visit with them a few more times before going back to Arkansas.

Yesterday’s day trip to Salineno, Texas, resulted in a bunch of new photos to download, sort, edit, and file; I spent the rest of the evening working on those while Kay read.

We’re supposed to get a break in the weather tomorrow, with sunshine forecast for most of the next 7 days.  We’ll see…

There was no rain yesterday or last night!

Someone at the Bentsen RGV State Park told us about sightings of a rare brown jay at Salineno, Texas, earlier in the week and we wanted to see it, too.

We drove northwestward on US Highway 83 from Mission, Texas, stopping at Chef McDonald’s for breakfast.  As we left Mission, there were fewer towns and the countryside was sparse, reminding us of the way the Rio Grande Valley looked in times past, and of the significant influence of Mexican culture.  There were no palm trees as these were not native to the area, and there were lots of cacti.  Even the names of places and things took on a Mexican feel as we paralleled the Rio Grande River.  We passed several cemeteries, with lots of colorful decorations, and noted Mexican architecture in most of the private and public buildings.  We drove through Roma, Texas, founded about 250 years ago, and Rio Grande City, founded about 150 years ago.  This was the real south Texas.

There were several international birding centers along the way, but our target was Salineno.  When we got there, it was as if we had driven right into a third world country.  The buildings and streets reminded me of rural cities in Bolivia in South America.  As we approached the Rio Grande River, we saw a gated opening in a fence-in area, with a sign saying, “BIRDERS WELCOME WALK ON IN”, and lots of cars parked along side the road.  We parked near the river, took a few pictures of the Rio Grande River and Mexico, then walked into the opening.  About 50 yards up the dirt road, we came to another opening and saw two 5th wheel RVs parked at 90 degrees to one another with two rows of chairs, with lots of people sitting and standing; we didn’t know what we’d gotten in to.  As we walked in, there were feeders everywhere and more orioles than I had ever seen.  I took many photographs of Altamira orioles, Audubon orioles, and Hooded orioles, golden-fronted woodpeckers, warblers, green jays, cardinals, and black-tufted titmouses.  The volunteer kept busy putting seeds and suet in the feeders, but was quite friendly and offered information on the various species of birds.  Several folks had come to see the brown jay, but it had not shown up today.  It was obvious that many were serious about birding—some as bird watchers and others as bird listers (those who keep a life list of bird species they have seen)—with some traveling thousands of miles and much of the year in pursuit of a “new” bird to add to their list.

Having heard much about Falcon Dam and Lake on network television recently in regards to the jet ski rider who was kidnapped and killed by the Mexican drug cartel about a year ago, we drove just a couple of miles northwest of Salineno to the dam and lake.  We begged the gate attendant to let us drive through Falcon State Park and took a few photos.

On our drive back “home”, we stopped at Los Ebanos, home of the last hand-drawn ferry in the US.  Again, this little town looked like it came right out of Mexico.  I could imagine cowboys chasing rustlers across the border and using the hand-drawn ferry to cross the Rio Grande River as part of the chase.  The Border Patrol is constructing a new modern border station here, and will forever change the culture and ambiance of the crossing—another piece of Americana lost forever.

Today’s road trip was a great one, and one we would recommend for all of our friends who visit the Rio Grande Valley.

NOTE:  More photographs of the trip can be found in our Picasa Web Album.  The link (address) is in the email letting you know about this update.

Dry surroundings greeted us this morning, despite overcast skies.

After coffee, email, and breakfast, Bentsen RGV State Park beckoned us with the possibility of seeing more unusual birds.  We picked up our pass at Guest Services, walked to the gift shop to get our park wristband passes, and stopped at the first feeding station to watch the birds, and quickly saw a golden-fronted woodpecker eating suet; these are pretty birds with both red and yellow spots, each the size of nickel, on their heads.  We also saw several green jays, greater kiskadees, and Altamira orioles.  We walked to the next one, but there were few birds, so we caught the shuttle to the blind where we saw fewer birds than the last time we were there. 

After a few photos, we caught the shuttle to the Hawk Tower, walked up the switch-backed ramp, but only saw an egret and a few ducks in an otherwise empty pool of water.

We caught the shuttle back to the first feeding station, also the entrance and exit to the park, and the volunteer advised that they would be feeding the birds in just a few minutes.  While waiting, we saw most of the birds suddenly fly off, and I spotted a Cooper’s Hawk setting on a lower limb.  The smallish hawk had a beautiful mottled, ginger-colored breast, and was obviously looking for a meal because the other birds avoided the place like the plague; the Cooper’s Hawk preys mainly on songbirds.  However, a lone ladder-backed woodpecker was eating suet, but stopped when it noticed the hawk as it looked upwards, and remained motionless for several minutes.  The volunteers at the park were amazed and had never seen anything like this occur in the park.  My friend, Wayne, and I had seen two hawks team up in a failed attempt to take a squirrel on our patio in January 2011, so knew how lethal they could be.  We were fortunate to see all this played out right in front of us.

We drew a large crowd who joined us in watching the stand-off.  When the volunteer finally brought bird seed, the hawk flew to an adjoining tree and the ladder-backed woodpecker escaped.

As we walked back to the Bentsen Palm Village RV Resort, we saw several bikers pedal past.  It never ceases to amaze me as bikers in their 60s, 70s, and even 80s pedal all over the place here in the Rio Grande Valley.

Back at the RV park, we walked past the Friday afternoon horseshoe tournament.  Today’s crowd was small compared to last week’s.

I washed the car since constant rain for 6 days had added a layer of dirt and road junk.

Kay bought tickets to the 4:00 PM show, Roland Garcia.  Roland Garcia and his band comprised a 5-member Mexican band that played Tex-Mex country western music, mostly from the 1960’s through the 1980’s.  The band featured a drummer, steel guitar, fiddle, guitar, and bass.  All of the members were in their 50s except for the steel guitar player who appeared to be in his late 60s or older; they were pretty good, and quite entertaining.  We wished the clubhouse had been bigger so we could have danced.  As an aside, Roland Garcia is a 5th generation American (US citizen).

NOTE:  The Mexicans down here pronounce Mexican as “Messican”, and Grande as “Grandie”.

Did we mention it is still raining?  This is the 6th straight day with rain, and without sunshine.  Again, it is difficult for us to complain too much as the area has been in a sustained drought and locals are so happy with the liquid sunshine.

With all the rain, the motorhome gets lots of debris tracked on the floor, so while Kay laundered clothes, I vacuumed and mopped the motorhome.  The car is next, but with rain forecast for the next couple of days, there’s no need to hurry.

The rest of the day was pretty quiet, and allowed time for catching up on the blog and photographs.  Kay “carved” the fresh pineapple she bought yesterday at the Farmer’s Market across from Don Wes Flea Market in Donna, Texas.

Rain, again!  Kay drove to HEB, a Texas grocery chain, to pick up some groceries and hor’ dourves for tonight.

Jim and Ginny met us about 10:00 AM, and we drove east to Donna, Texas, for the Don Wes Flea Market.  The flea marked was quite subdued today due to inclement weather, and was one big mud hole.  Almost all the outside booths were closed.  However, we found several things to look at inside, and Jim bought some mirror covers for his Country Coach motorhome and Kay found a blouse she couldn’t live without.

After whiling away the morning and early afternoon at the flea market, we arrived at Fat Daddy’s about 2:00 PM for a late lunch and were not disappointed with their smoked meats.  Kay and I split a plate of brisket, sausage, and pork tenderloin with sides of beans and slaw.  Jim had a similar plate, but with ribs which looked great, and Ginny had a burger.  Fat Daddy’s was out of T-shirts, but we promised Jim we would pick one up for him later this month.  Fat Daddy’s has license plates from almost all the states in the US and provinces in Canada. Last time we were there, February 2009, he did not have one from Arkansas, but promised us he would get one.  Well, this time, he had two, and we expressed to him our delight, as well as our pleasure in eating the food.

Next, we were off to the produce market across from the Don Wes Flea Market.  Jim and Ginny bought some oranges, and Kay bought some pineapple.

Back at Bentsen Palm Village RV Park, we had a window of non-rain and made a quick trip to the state park for Jim and Ginny to get their first glimpse of a green jay.  We were fortunate to also see several Great kiskadees (Pitangus sulphuratus) and Green jays (Cyuanocorax yncas), but no Plain chachalaca (Ortalis vetula).

By the time we arrived back at the motorhome, margarita hour had begun in the clubhouse.  My, oh my, but was it ever packed.  We squeezed our way through with Italian meatballs in a barbecue sauce, and I got us a table where Kay joined me, and Jim and Ginny got margaritas.  After about an hour, it was over, and all of the meatballs, as well as the myriad of other hor’ dourves were gone.  My diet Dr. Pepper was quite good as well!  Maybe next year…

We returned to the motorhome for a farewell visit, after which Jim and Ginny left for their hotel and a return tomorrow to Rockport via South Padre Island.  We sure did have a great time with them, and it was indeed a pleasure getting to know them a bit better.  We’re hoping to see them in the Village or at a rally this spring.

After coffee, email, and breakfast, Kay began the day with a Zumba exercise class while I walked the length of the park and back, carrying the trash to the dumpster in the process.  Oh, by the way, it’s raining again, with another 5 days of rain in the forecast. 

Just after lunch, new friends and fellow Arkansas Travelers, Jim and Ginny, arrived from Rockport, Texas, where they are spending a few weeks.  Jim and Ginny are from Hot Springs Village, and we took an instant liking to them when we first met at a rally in 2010.  Jim is a retired engineer/executive from Caterpillar, and Ginny is a retired accountant. They are visiting the Rio Grande Valley for the first time.

After Jim and Ginny took a tour of Bentsen Palm Village RV Park, Retama Village, and other properties owned, developed, and managed by Mike Rhodes with the Bentsen Palm Village RV Park manager, we drove to the Riverside Club for a late lunch.  To our surprise, a live country western band was playing, and Kay and I had to dance a country waltz first thing.  Jim ordered a pork tenderloin sandwich and the others of us ordered grilled chicken salads.  I swear his pork tenderloin was larger than most plates, and looked scrumptious.  If only I weren’t on Weight Watchers… 

We drove to Westlaco after lunch to visit Jim and Cheryl and Menlo and Micky, but much to our disappointment, Menlo and Micky had returned home to East Texas.  Jim and Cheryl were a hoot, and both are looking quite young with their tan, exercise, and other activities.  They gave Jim and Ginny the lowdown on several things to do and places to see in the Valley.  We had a great visit, but didn’t stay long as their RV park was having entertainment tonight.  We then drove a short distance to Llana Grande Resort in Mercedes.  Llana Grande is an upper scale park complete with golf course, but has a lot of park models intermingled with RVs.  We then drove back to Bentsen Palm Village, deboarding Jim and Ginny for their drive back to the hotel.

Having awakened at 4:30 AM, I called it a night pretty early.