We were so happy this morning to accompany Missouri friends, Jim and Cheryl Watts, to the National Butterfly Center (NBC) and Bentsen Rio Grande State Park.

We discovered the NBC last year, but only visited a couple of times. Vast improvements and additions have been made since then, including the addition of a well-maintained bird feeding station. Consequently, a number of different species are attracted to the area, and provides for great birdwatching and photography.

Since the the feeders are typically filled at approximately 8:30 AM, we arrived about 9:00 AM and were quite disappointed and concerned as no birds could be seen or heard. After a few minutes, however, the birds began trickling in and remained steady through the morning. It was cool and only a couple of other birders were present, making for an outstanding morning. We saw Green Jays, Greater Kiskadees, Olive Sparrows, Yellow-rumped Warblers, Altamira Orioles, Clay-colored Thrush, Golden-fronted woodpeckers, Ladder-backed woodpeckers, Long-billed Thrashers, Common House Sparrows, Inca Doves, White-winged Doves, and a RAT!

We were not fortunate enough to see many butterflies because of the cool temperatures and heavy winds, but did manage to see a few of God’s colorful, fluttering creatures.

We then drove to Bentsen Rio Grande State Park, acquired our wrist bands, and walked to the first couple of feeding stations near the gatehouse where we observed chachalacas. Feeding station #3 did not yield any birds, and only a few wading birds were observed in the resaca. Resacas are old bendways of the Rio Grande River, and are analogous to oxbow lakes in the Midsouth. We scored a major victory at the Green Jay blind, where we were able to get up close and personal to Green Jays, Greater Kiskadees, Olive Sparrows, Yellow-rumped Warblers, Altamira Orioles, Red-winged Blackbird’s, and Golden-fronted woodpeckers. It was an absolutely awesome morning.

We topped the great morning off with lunch at El tio Chuys, our favorite family-owned Mexican restaurant near Bentsen Palm Village.

Friday night is typically entertainment night at Bentsen Palm Village and tonight Cross Strung performed. Cross Strung is Utah’s new and upcoming Bluegrass, Celtic and Contemporary folk band. They travel all over the states performing for all types of audiences.  Their vocal talents left a bit to be desired, but they more than made up for it with their fantastic instrumentals.

As if this wasn’t a busy enough day, Kay wrapped up the evening sitting around the campfire listening to pickin’ and grinnin’.

All of our Winter Texan photos can be viewed at:  https://picasaweb.google.com/DunnGoneTravels/WinterTexans20122013?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCID41uiC4OrOGw&feat=directlink

Today was quite busy. Kay and I drove to the Estero Llano Grande State Park where she dropped me off to join other birders from Bentsen Palm Village for the morning, while she shopped in Weslaco. Estero Llano Grande State Park is one of the best birding areas in the RGV. There were 20 of us this morning; we finished with 69 species including many ducks and wading birds. the lady on the left is Lorna, our neighbor, and a very good birder; the next lady is Karen Smith, one of our co-leaders; and the gentleman in the blue shirt is the retired manager of Algonquin Provincial Park in Ontario.  I don’t know if I’ll ever get the hang of differentiating among these various ducks, shore birds, and wading bird species as they are all very similar. After birding and shopping, we met the group at Willie B’s for barbecue and baked potato. Willie B’s is famous for their huge, loaded baked potatoes. We are glad that we ate at this well known eatery, but frankly, the food was average at best.

Thursday evening we joined a few of our neighbors for the Quidam perfomance of Cirque Du Soleil. Kay, Karyn, Jenny, and I saw Cirque Du Soleil in Las Vegas over 10 years ago and it was one of most phenomenal shows we’ve ever seen. The traveling performance of Quidam was not quite as breathtaking, but nevertheless awesome and jaw dropping. The combination of comedy, strength, timing, aerial acrobatics, and stage acrobatics was almost unbelievable. We highly recommend this.

All of our Winter Texan photos can be viewed at:  https://picasaweb.google.com/DunnGoneTravels/WinterTexans20122013?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCID41uiC4OrOGw&feat=directlink

Tuesday was pretty much a lost day.  After our morning routine, Kay washed a couple of loads of clothes. She went to the jam session in the afternoon, we joined neighbors for happy hour at the palapa, and played bridge in the clubhouse in the evening.  It was a good bridge night, but neither of us won total points for the evening.

After our Wednesday breakfast and our morning walk, I installed an odometer/speedometer on the bicycle mainly to monitor distance traveled. Chuck Mercer and I went on a bicycle ride on the “Road Runner” trail; there were a number of riders today, and even some Chachalacas, but no roadrunners (Chachalacas are large, noisy, mainly brown birds from the genus Ortalis found in wooded habitats in the Rio Grande Valley, Mexico, and Central and South America). Chuck and I rode a total of 10 miles, averaging just over 9 miles per hour—not too bad when one considers that we had a very strong headwind against us about half the way, and almost no wind assist the other half.

Al and Sharon invited us to play bridge in the evening, and I had the worst hands of the season. Obviously, I finished last but Kay had outrageously good hands and finished with five points.

Maintaining a daily blog is proving difficult; not so much because of the effort involved, but because we do so many things that it’s difficult to find time to actually write the blog and incorporate photos.

After waking, coffee, email, and newspapers, Kay left for exercise class in the Clubhouse and I walked a couple of miles in the resort. While not feeling bad, I have not been 100% for a few days—perhaps too much sun, perhaps just going full blast for too long. Consequently, I have not ventured out on the bicycle nor have I been going to the pool and spa; I haven’t even been to the National Butterfly Center or the Bentsen Rio Grande State Park.

We played Court Whist tonight in the clubhouse—Kay’s first time to play this game. Regrettably, she got really bad hands and was unable to score many points. I however got good hands and had good partners and finished with five points for the night, getting the ante of quarters deposited by the players—a grand total of about $7.00.

We finished playing cards early enough to watch a couple of recorded television shows before calling it a night.

February is the month of love, and Valentines Day is right around the corner.  Kay and I have given much thought to the scripture found in 1 Corinthians 13:13, “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”  While the meaning of this may be discussed and debated, there is no question that Jesus places a high value on love—and especially loving one another.  The Carpenter’s said it all with their hit song, What the World Needs Now Is Love, Sweet Love.  Oh, if only our local, state, and country’s leadership could acknowledge this!

The message this Sunday morning was on the 5 aspects of love. Pastor Bill Duke, FUMC, Mission, Texas, preached a great sermon again, and gave pause to the subject of love.  (Dr. Sam and Annette Bailey preached on a similar series when we attended Twin Lakes Baptist Church.) I sure wish these ministers would quit preaching directly to me!

• Eros—Romantic side of love
• Storge—Trust, stability, secure love
• Epithumia—Love making, sexual relations kept sacred and holy
• Phileo—Friendship, soulmate love
• Agape—Unconditional, umerited love

Agape love is best described in the words of the Apostle Paul, “Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged. It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.” (I Corinthians 13:4-8)

After church, we stopped by Sam’s Club to pick up some “play” coffee for Kay, and then drove to Costco for a few items.  It is so nice to have Costco close by.

I cleaned the RV while Kay did laundry, and then met Al, Sharon, Wayne, and Betsy at Crazy Joe’s for some Texas 2-step dancing to the sound of Roland Garcia, Jr.  Back at Bentsen Palm Village, Kay watched part of the Super Bowl, and I watched other stuff on TV, not having an interest in football since Peyton Manning was not playing. We caught the latest episode of Downton Abby, the hot BBC Masterpiece series on PBS, and then tuned back to the Super Bowl to watch the final minute.

It was a pretty great Sunday here in the RGV.

An early start this morning with Al, Sharon, Wayne, and Bessie took us to South Padre Island for their Kite Festival; it is to be their last. The hour and a half ride was quite pleasant, with lots of conversation among the six of us in Al’s van. We arrived early enough to get great seats along the rope just before the kite flying began; from left to right, sitting, are Al Crawford, and Bessie and Wayne Nickerson. Kites of all shapes, sizes, and colors were visible; some were so large that they had to be anchored by automobiles.

Apparently, kite flying is very competitive, and we were privileged to see some of the best flyers in the US. Also, much of the competition is between teams, and we saw two world champion teams flying as many as six kites simultaneously, doing unbelievable aerial maneuvers and acrobatics with a kites. The kites danced at the end of the lines, and the flyers could softly touch each other’s kites in the sophisticated formations. Each of the demonstrations was set to music and the maneuvers and acrobatics were synchronized with the various tunes. Watching the experts fly their kites gave this sport new meaning, and made it look simple.

With over 5,000 people in attendance at the Kite Festival, all the restaurants on the Island were overwhelmed; we opted to try our luck across the bay in Port Isabel. Traffic on the bridge between Port Isabel and South Padre Island was congested with the roadwork forcing three lanes of traffic into one. After the slow trip on the bridge, we stopped at Dirty Al’s on the bay for a late lunch and were met with a one-hour wait. Nevertheless, the food was very good and not too expensive.

We made our way back to Bentsen Palm Village, all having had too much sun. In fact, Kay and I skipped card bingo.

More kite photos, and our entire Winter Texas album, can be seen at: https://picasaweb.google.com/DunnGoneTravels/WinterTexans20122013?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCID41uiC4OrOGw&feat=directlink

Can you believe it? February is already here. This winter has flown by.

Our weather here in the Rio Grande Valley has been spectacular the last couple of weeks with the same forecast for the next 10 days. Mornings are cool and calm, and as the day begins to warm winds from the Mexican desert began to blow, continuing to blow until sunset. A few mosquitoes remain, but are not as bad as in December.

Usually, the highlight of Friday’s is the weekly entertainment at the clubhouse, and tonight was no different.  Tonight, a local young man, Rolando Reyes, performed vocally and played trumpet. He is a choral director for middle school in Harlingen, Texas.  He definitely has the best voice we’ve heard in the RGV, but lacks stage presence.  He fiddled with his sound system the entire night, which proved to be quite distracting; in most cases the audience does not hear the little nuances he hears.  AS the night wore on, he got better and better.  His rendition of  “Ave Maria” was the best I’ve ever heard, complete with the full vibrato and resonance of his voice.  And his self-accompaniment on the trumpet was very good.  He ended the night with a couple of Gaither gospel songs, and was awesome; his Baptist upbringing and strong belief in Jesus as the Son of God showed through in both his words and music.  Rolando Reyes’ CD, I Surrender All, can be purchased by emailing him at rolando.reyesmusic@hotmail.com.

Still tired from going strong for the last couple of months, I opted out of the bird trip today to South Padre Island. However, there was a need for exercise and so after our morning walk, I asked neighbor, Chuck, if he would like to go on a ride and he replied in the affirmative.  Chuck is a retired educator from Ontario, having spent most of his teaching career instructing Special Needs students, many who were juvenile delinquents.

The city of Mission, Texas, has outstanding bicycle trails, and a nice trail is adjacent to the resort; Chuck has named it the “Roadrunner Trail” because he usually sees a Greater Roadrunner along the trail when he rides.  The Greater Roadrunner, taxonomically classified as Geococcyx californianus, meaning “Californian Earth-cuckoo,” is a long-legged bird in the cuckoo family, Cuculidae. It was a great day for a bicycle ride—not too hot and not too cold.  Shortly after we left the roadside trail, we saw a large bobcat standing on the trail ahead of us.  We approached and the bobcat did not appear disturbed; as we got closer it trotted into the woods, and stood there, partially concealed by shrubs to an extent that a photo was impossible.  Further along the trail, we saw a Roadrunner, bearing out the trail’s nickname. It is in the center left of the photo, just off the trail.  After the ride, we had lunch, and road another 5-mile loop at the Bentsen Rio Grande State Park next door, making for a total of 15 miles+ today.

We finally reached Carolyn Todd to wish her a happy birthday, having left a “Happy Birthday” song message earlier in the morning.

We skipped Margarita night in the Club House, and enjoyed another quiet evening in the motorhome watching TV.

Okay, okay. I know it has been almost a week since an entry has been posted to the blog. There’s just too much going on around here, and were trying to smell all the roses in the area.

One thing I failed to mention in the last entry was playing Court Whist on Monday night, January 28.  The following was taken from the blog:  http://healthilyeverafter-pam.blogspot.com

Originally, this game was played by royalty in the 18th and 19th century. It is similar to bridge because it involves four players broken into teams of two, however, it is much easier to play. 

Tables are set up for four players.  You can have more or less people playing, just so there are multiples of four.  Each table is assigned a number. To begin the game, every player randomly picks a number and that is the table where they would start the game with a partner.  

If you don’t like your partner, not to worry—you keep rotating tables and partners.  It is a great mixer.  If you keep losing, you could end up sitting at the same table all night but at least you change your partners.  Because this game allows for lots of conversation, it is important to keep things moving or you could be playing all night.  

THE DEAL

• The dealer deals in a clockwise fashion, and the player to the dealer’s left leads the first round, or “trick.” Any card may be led (following the theme of the round) and the other players must, working clockwise around the playing table, play a card according to the lead card. If the player has a card of the same suit (spade to spade, hearts to hearts etc.) he must play that card, if he does not, he can play any card.

THE WIN

• A player wins a trick by placing the highest trump (face card) in it. If there is no clear trump, the winner is determined by the highest card of the suit originally led. Aces are high.  Once determined, the winner will lead the next round of play.

THE SCORE

• Scoring court whist is determined after all 13 tricks have been played.   Don’t forget to mark your score on the section that was just played.   When four games have been played the scores are added for that first round. 

  “Winners Walk – Losers Stay”

• The winners of the game “WALK” to the next table and then play the losers of that table.  You cannot have the same partner in the next round (next four games).  The “LOSERS” always stay at the same table and then play the next round (four games) with a new partner. 

• The game continues until all six rounds (four games in each round) are played—see the Tally sheet for details.

Back to the present.  Kay arrived home last evening, just in time for happy hour and bridge.  And we spent a quiet day today, with both of us recovering from jet lag (and I don’t know why I was suffering from this malady). Thus, there is not much to report.

It has been really quiet around both the motorhome and the resort the last few days. The wind has been blowing steadily at over 20 mi./h with gusts sometimes reaching over 40 mi./h. It sure puts a damper on outdoor activities such as bike riding, flying RC airplanes, birdwatching, and observing butterflies.  Even church on Sunday was very low-key, and many were absent. It is pledge time and this Sunday marked the day when pledges for the upcoming year are submitted, and with many winter Texans attending services at this time of year, most opted not to come. Other than the wind, the weather has been spectacular with highs in the mid to high 80s, even reaching 90° on Tuesday. With Kay gone I haven’t done much except catch up on movies via Amazon Prime.

Kay arrived back in the Valley Tuesday afternoon, just in time for happy hour at the palapa. Of course, everyone was glad to see her, especially me. She appeared as happy to be back in the Valley as we were to have her back. All the ladies nearby had been diligent to keep tabs on and monitor my comings and goings, much like small towns in the 1950s—quite humorous. Things here in the Valley should be normal until we return home.

Sorry there are no photos.