Pet Parade & Wine Tasting

Hi all, Dianne here.  The annual Bentsen Palm Village pet parade was today, and it did not disappoint!  Most of this blog will just be photos taken at the parade, with captions.  Roger and I participated in the pet parade two years ago with our whippets, when we were staying at the rv park.  This year Bentsen Palm Village opened the parade up to Retama dogs as well, and from the looks of the turnout, it seems to have been a huge success!  Don't know the total yet, but last year they raised $2,000 for Cinderella.  Here's a link to our blog entry from two years ago, if you just can't get enough of cute dog photos:


2010 Bentsen Palm Village Pet Parade 
Some of the same dogs were in this year's parade. 


A lot of Bandido and Tequila's dog park buddies participated in the parade, including....

Callie, Jagger, and Roxie

Kelso

Dharma & Greg

Fosterdog

And let's not forget Bandido the pirate:

Bandido

And Tequila dressed as Bandido's wench:

Tequila

The volunteers served hot dogs and beer (for a donation).  There were also baked treats for sale for both people and doggies.  

Folks paid a dollar to register each dog, and everyone was encouraged to "stuff" the ballot box with a dollar per vote to determine the parade winner.  All proceeds went to Cinderella Pet Rescue, where we adopted both Bandido and Tequila.

Here are some more clever costumes:

After a few cool, rainy days, the sun came out and it was absolutely beautiful at the time of the parade.  We participants took two loops around the circle, and then they counted the votes.  


Sasha won first prize.  Two years ago, she was in a very cute cheerleader costume, complete with pom poms (see blog link above).  Here's the winning gal this year:

Just a couple more....

Enough of the pet parade.  Since a pet photo of the day would be a bit redundant, we'll show some human photos of the day, with commentary by Roger, of the fun wine and cheese party this evening at Retama.






Roger here... Tonight was the annual Retama wine and cheese get-together.  All the participants brought a bottle of wine to share, as well as some delicious cheese.  Pretty simple concept.  Lots of fun.

Lookie, lookie at all the bottles of wine!   Looks like a few new ones, including an amazing syrah that was made by one of the Retama residents!  We poured a small glass of a Texas claret from the Becker Vineyards and went inside to look at the resident art display.  Unfortunately, we forgot to take pictures of the paintings, quilts, photos, stained glass, intriguing carved walking sticks, agates, wood carving, etc., etc., etc.  Sipping wine, talking with friends, looking at the art work....  too much activity to remember to take pictures.  However, the talent of our friends and neighbors proved to be impressive.  

Back outside....  Plenty of wine left, as well as tables full of cheese, crackers, breads, and fruit.

Dianne brought  wedges of Ilchester cheddar with port wine and a Harlech English cheddar with horseradish and parsley.  Luckily, we were able to bring a small bit of it home.

As the evening progressed, the cool night temperatures seemed to be less of an issue for some reason.  The empty wine bottles made an impressive display.  Lots of glass for the recycling bin!  Doing our part :-)


The people picture of the day (already too many pet pictures) is a shot of the many people responsible for all those empty bottles.

Pontoon Boat Ride on the Rio Grande River

Roger here....

Time is short for us here in the Rio Grande Valley, so we are cramming in our last few adventures.

Dianne here: One of the perks of staying at Bentsen Palm Village RV Park (or buying a lot at Retama) is that if you get a group of eight together, for a small fee you can charter the pontoon boat owned and operated by Bentsen Palm Village. Back to Roger....

Yesterday, our next-door neighbors and new friends from Ontario

(here at Bentsen Palm Village) invited us to go with them on a pontoon boat trip up and down the Rio Grande. Kathy is a retired elementary school teacher and Chuck works in real estate. Others joining us on the trip were Paul and Suzanne from Quebec

and Bob and Merry. By the way, that is Dianne in the orange (Texas orange?) hooded sweatshirt.

Steve, who led us on our kayaking trip, steered the pontoon on the two-and-half-hour excursion.

It was a bit chilly that morning, but the sun was bright.

We got to see the downstream portion of the river this time, which was a little more developed than the sights we saw from the kayak. No wildlife pictures this time; several attempts, but all blurry.

We were able to see several parks on the Mexican side of the river and a few restaurant/bars

(Riverside, with the excursion boat,

that has running water; Pepe's, with the thatched roof,

and no running water

- but renowned margaritas) on the American side. We have not visited either establishment yet, but there is always next year.

We traveled all the way to the

dam that controls water flow but does not create a reservoir. We stopped at a public park on the U.S. side of the river for a restroom break.

(Dianne here:

I took this photo of a popular Mexican park across the river from the Texas park where we stopped for our potty break. It was very disorienting, because the river is so twisty-curvy that at this point Mexico was actually NORTH of Texas!! I just had to photograph the Mexican park from my vantage point south looking north.

Finally, we made our way back to "Smugglers' Cove."

"Smugglers' Cove" is a hidden offshoot of the river, where the pontoon is tethered. By the way, Smugglers' Cove was actually used for smuggling at one time. When Mike Rhodes bought the land, it was completely covered with plant growth and not navigable. He cut it all back and dredged the cove to build the boat docks.

Dianne again: Don't get the wrong idea; it wasn't drugs or even liquor or immigrants being smuggled.

The farmer who owned the land before Mike bought it was smuggling more than his share of water for irrigation from the river. The U.S. and Mexico share water rights to the Rio Grande River.

Another adventure in our new home in south Texas!

Bentsen Palm Village RV Resort Pet Parade

Hi "Y'all" -- Dianne here. (I'm starting to feel like a Texan.) You know that I would NOT pass up a pet parade!

I'll warn my very few friends who are not dog lovers, that this blog will not have much for you!

This blog is mainly photos of the annual pet parade, which was held today at Bentsen Palm Village RV resort, where we are spending the winter. The purpose of the pet parade (other than fun) is to benefit Cinderella's Pet Rescue, the local no-kill pet shelter. Many of the Bentsen Palm Village winter residents volunteer their time at the shelter every year while vacationing down here. I haven't learned how to make a clickable link on blogger yet, but if you want more information on Cinderella Pet Rescue, their web site is http://www.cinderella-pet-rescue.org/main.html?src=%2F if you want to copy and paste it.

There were lots of people and dogs participating in the parade.

Those few who didn't participate brought lawn chairs and gathered around the circle to watch us parade slowly past. We circled twice around so that they could decide who they wanted to "vote" for (for a price.) Folks were encouraged to stuff the ballot box, since it's all for a good cause.

Roger and I didn't spend much time on costumes like some of the veterans did, but we knew it would be fun to see Jasper & Chaplin's dog park friends dressed in clever costumes.

My

favorite costume of the day was a Pittsburgh Steeler cheerleader, complete with pompoms on her front paws! She won second place. My boys couldn't resist flirting with the cheerleader!

(First place was won by the pair

of Yorkies, who had a large donation credited to their voting block).

There were dogs of all shapes, breeds, and sizes in the parade.

The largest was Jasper's good friend "Bud," an Anatolian Shepherd.

Bud is a gentle giant, who looks more like a big bear than a dog.

The smallest was a Pomeranian puppy dressed in Texas Longhorn gear (to match his mom).

Other dog park buddies who participated in the parade were our

neighbor's Italian Spinones, "Dharma" and "Greg."

They are as spoiled as our two whippets. As you can see from my favorite photo of the day, Dharma finally decided she'd had enough of the nonsense! I think this photo is worth a click to get a larger view!

This beautiful white powder puff

of a dog is a Japanese Spitz, another dog park regular, named "Chula." Chula was adopted in Mexico by one of the RV park residents. She's a beautiful pup and loves to run from her dad when she knows he's ready to leave the dog park (he's still working on that!)

"Taz" came dressed appropriately (his full name is Tasmanian Devil).

Taz is a Schipperke, and really is a live-wire at the dog park.

As you can see, all that canine meeting and greeting made

Jasper and Chaplin ready for their afternoon nap.

All the dogs got along well, with no skirmishes; just lots of sniffing to "check credentials."

I'll leave you with more photos of what some might term "clever," and others "canine abuse!"