Saturday, January 19, 2008

IS IT A HARLEY OR A REAL HOG ?


GREEN JAYS AT THE REFUGE

Good Morning! It’s Saturday , Jan 19th and it is raining – again! Between no wifi and the weather – we’ve not been blogging every day. So now we need to catch up!

This 25ft Aerolite trailer is way bigger than the truck camper and way warmer than camping in a tent, but - - after this many days in the cold ( 40’s at night and 40’s during the day on Friday) and damp - - - NOTHING is big enough !! So we’ve been shopping or exploring !

Our old skillet was from a bike trip out west , and our coffeepot/tea kettle was from Harry’s collection – both gave up the ghost – both replaced with new pretty ones! The outside thermometer was only one month old but - - it has been replaced , too! While out replacing all our warn out stuff – we took advantage of the 70% off sales at Penny’s. Now, figure this - - the original price on his new jacket was $200, marked down to $99. It rang up at $29 !!! So he bought 2! My new winter coat did not ring up as great but I did get a good deal.

Then Thursday we went out to find Rio Hondo and a county park that we thought we might like to move to next. The park turned out to be a fishing camp on the river, out in the middle of nowhere. We thought we were near the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge. We were ! As the crow flies but a long way by bad roads! Right outside the visitor’s center was this great table top feeder that was covered most of the time with these vibrant green jays, cardinals, red wing blackbirds and some pretty little gray and yellow ones!! Out on the driving trails we saw a big cat of some kind ( a bobcat ??) a flock of turkeys, osprey, hawks, egrets, and these wild hogs!!

Friday we went back to Progresso Mexico with Bud and Carol ! Bud went to find a good deal on a Mexican type cowboy hat, Harry wanted cowboy boots and Carol went for drugs ! Bud got his good deal on his hat as soon as we crossed the border! Carol got her drugs and Harry looked at a lot of boots! I ended up getting a cute brown straw cowboy hat that I didn’t intend on buying. He started out at $12, came down to $10 and then down to $8. We left the shop and were down the block when he caught up to us and said $7. Harry said to get it. The guys got their supply of booze and it was back to the USA, past the army guys with their guns and trucks!! We were told they were looking for the Marine that killed his Marine girlfriend.

Today is a craft sale in the recreation hall and this afternoon is laundry !!

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Road to Rec Center from our Trailer


Well here we are in the “valley” and it is going to be a cool rainy week, with highs in the mid 60 s and lows in the 50s.

This entire area that we are in is referred to as the Rio Grande Valley. Let me tell you a little about this so-called valley. If this part of the Rio Grande was in our area it would be called a creek, and to have a valley you need a low spot with high spots. Not here! This area is as flat as a pool table.

English is the third language here. The first is Spanish and 10 of the 13 TV stations here are in Spanish. Bud went to the Ace hardware to get some plumbing supplies for his motor home and they had to find someone to speak English to help him. Mexico doesn’t know that it lost this part of the U.S to Sam Houston. . When we were in the Cancun and Puerto Vallarta Mexico more people spoke English then the people in south Texas. In a lot of ways the “valley” is more like Mexico than some parts of Mexico that we have been in.
In this RV resort French is the second language. I think half the province of Quebec is in this park. If you speak English you are in a very small minority.

While it is cool and rainy and not very good pool time, we will go exploring and check out some things in the area other than the local Wal-mart, One place that we want to check out is a county park on the Laguna Madre (a bay this side of Padre Is.). When our month is up here Feb. 10th we might move the 15 miles to the county park for a while.


H.

Monday, January 14, 2008

Shopping in the plaza


Crossing into Matomoros Mx.


Crossed over into Mexico again today. Walked across the bridge from Brownsville to Matamoros Mx. Matamoros is a good size city of about 370,000. That is the approximate size of Toledo. Took a bus from the boarder to the shopping plaza in the city. What a bus ride that was, glad we didn’t have our car over there. Our bus driver didn’t pay much attention to the stop signs; I guess he couldn’t read Spanish. If you think the streets and roads are bad in our area, I think I finally found some that are worse. Little narrow streets lined with trucks and cars and filled with people and potholes. You cannot find a car or truck that is not dented, and I think the drivers get extra points if they can hit a pedestrian on the move or standing still.

This is the second time we have crossed the boarder into Mexico at two different cities, and each time we were never stopped by any Mexican boarder patrol people. You just walk into the country, no questions asked! It was hard to comprehend the lack of security, just any one can walk in, and they just don’t care. Getting back into the U.S. was also a lot easier then crossing back from Canada. The boarder patrol on the U.S. side seems more friendly then the ones in Detroit.

The shopping plaza was very interesting and picturesque. I think we were the only gringos there.

Rode the bus back to the boarder crossing area and Bud and I found a nice bar to settle into and have a few margaritas while the ladies did their shopping. Notice I said a few. The ladies took quite awhile shopping. Bud even declared his margaritas at the customs check point coming back into the U.S.