South Padre Island Day at the Beach

Hi Roger here...

The weather forecast for Thursday was mid-eighties and sunny. We had not been to the beach for a while, and knew that South Padre Island was only an hour and a half away on good roads. So we dug the beach umbrella, grass mats, beach chairs, and soft cooler out of the deep and difficult recesses of the storage bays and packed up for our first trip to the Texas beaches.

I did a little research on the computer before we left and discovered that most of the South Padre Beaches allow dogs on a leash. I even found a few restaurants that allow calm dogs (definitely ours) to sit with you on the outside decks while you eat. So, the boys got to go with us.

After we crossed the bridge to South Padre, we stopped at the visitor center, asked for the best place to go with the dogs, and found hassle-free beach parking (I love hassle-free parking) right next to Boomerang Billy's Beach Bar

(turquoise awning) and right on the beach. Our day pretty much became a one-stop deal - much simpler than most of our other beach trips in other locations.

(Dianne here: One of the great things about Texas is that it is MUCH less expensive than Florida for "snowbirds" like us. Imagine this: We crossed the bridge to South Padre Island WITHOUT having to pay a toll; we then parked FOR FREE at the beach. Those of you who have been to Florida, think of Sanibel Island and you'll understand how pleasantly surprised we were.)

Since it was almost noon and we were starving, we opted to have tacos on the Boomerang Billy Deck before setting up on the beach. We watched the sun burn away the fog as we enjoyed our lunch right on the wide, wide beach. (Both dogs were good boys and sat calmly at our feet.)

Setting up for the beach was simple,

since we only had to drag our stuff a short distance from the car to the sand. We set up on the edge of a small sand dune that provided protection from a persistent wind. We spent the afternoon reading, people-watching, and moving back and forth between the warmth of the sometimes-too-intense sun to the shade of the umbrella. Jasper and Chaplin did their normal thing,

quietly checking out the other beach dogs between long naps.

Check out skinny-minnie Dianne. Looks pretty good, doesn't she?

(The best part of my weight loss is that I can now wear some clothes that I thought I'd NEVER fit into again.)

We decided to make a couple of stops to break up the drive back to the motor home. Our first stop was at one of the ever-present WhataBurgers. In Texas these fast-food places with the tall orange-striped roofs are more prevalent than McDonalds. They are everywhere. We passed about ten of them between our motor home in Mission and South Padre. (Roger has been wanting to stop at a WhataBurger ever since he saw it on his favorite TV show Friday Night Lights.

As I was taking the photo of the sign, a couple of young Texas cowboys in a pickup truck chuckled and pointed at me; I'm sure they thought I must be a middle-aged tourist from Mars) We needed to have the experience of Texas fast food, so we each had a WhataBurger (on a 5" bun)

while the boys shared the meat from a WhataBurger Jr. (We know we're not supposed to give the boys people-food; it was Dianne's idea :-)

The second stop was at Bob's World about

twenty miles inland. We chuckled as we passed it on the way to the beach, and decided to stop there to get a birthday card for our daughter, Robyn, on the way back. We have seen lots of tourist traps during our travels, but keeping with the theme that everything is bigger in Texas, this is the most amazing. The gigantic outdoor statuary was so much fun. You can see the immensity of it by comparing its size to the cars in the parking lot.

I was not the only person wandering around taking pictures. Once I passed through the giant shark's mouth

to enter the actual store, I found it had pretty much everything a person would want, including birthday cards.

This was such an easy trip, other than the long drive, that we may come back again before we leave south Texas.

Five Mile Hike to Boat Ramp - Rio Grande

Hi all - Dianne here. Not much to write about other than we are FINALLY enjoying some beautiful days here in the Rio Grande Valley. Sunshine, warm, today it will reach the mid 80s. In fact, on Thursday we plan an excursion to the beach at South Padre Island, so stay tuned for an update on that.

On Tuesday we took the dogs on an exploratory hike down the levee

and found our way to the boat launch owned by the developer of our RV park. I guess we are assuming this, because the palapa was the same design as those in the RV park, the area had palm trees and beautiful landscaping. (As we mentioned before, once you leave the environs of our nice park area, the surrounding area leaves a bit to be desired. My Midwest sensibilities do not like graffiti and trash.)

We are scheduled for a kayaking excursion on February 1, weather permitting, so we'll find out for sure if we were there or that we were trespassing on someone else's land!

As we hiked along, we spotted a White-Tailed Kite, an American Kestrel, and an Altimira Oriole, but I did not get a photo of any of them. We also saw what I believe to be a Tropical Kingbird, but I can't be sure of that. (They are spotted here occasionally).

Enough bird-speak.

Our daughter, Robyn, who is definitely NOT a birder, sent me this photo of her and her friend as they drove cross country to help her move to L.A. I thought it was such a funny photo that I wanted to post it. (Apologies to friends and family who I've already e-mailed it to). Be sure to click or double click on this one to see the whole photo; otherwise, it cuts off the ostrich's head which is the funniest part. My daughter is the girl on the left. They had a wonderful time driving cross country, doing kitchy things like stopping at Route 66 museums and the ostrich farm where this photo was taken. So glad she's adventurous!

Not sure how they got the ostrich to pose this way!

On our way home we had a minor incident with Chaplin. As naive midwesterners, we stopped to look at some unusual (fiery red - should have been a clue) ants along the levee path. Poor Chaplin managed to step right onto the ant hill and I had to brush the ant (I think it was just one) that had grabbed onto his foot and was biting him hard. Poor Chap was in terrible pain, to the point that his back right leg became immobile and Roger, being the good dad that he is, ended up carrying 30 pounds of whippet back to the motor home.

I jumped on the internet to see what to do for it, and we immediately washed his paw with soapy water, massaged it, rinsed it off, then dunked it into a cup of white vinegar. Chaplin is a high-anxiety type dog (if he were human, he'd be on Prozac), and the pain in his paw was sending him into a full-fledged panic attack, panting and trembling. The vinegar helped with the immediate pain and at least he calmed down, but it was about three hours before he would use his leg normally. I guess we still have a lot to learn about hiking our dogs out west or in the deep south; at least we know to avoid fire ants at all cost from now on!

After that bit of excitement we spent the rest of the beautiful day sitting outside in the sun, reading (Roger), Sudoku (me), and before we knew it, it was wine-thirty. An advantage of retirement is that it is really easy to waste an entire beautiful day and enjoy every wasteful minute of it!

One of the reasons we are able to make it mostly on an educator's pension is that

most of the

things we enjoy doing don't cost a dime. While working at Amazon I stowed a book one day "Idiot's Guide to Geocaching," so that day after work I hopped on line and ordered one. We've been wanting to start geocaching and we finally have the time to figure out how to properly use our hand-held GPS (a retirement gift from our wonderful friends Jay and Nancy) and go out and actually try it out on its intended purpose. I've been using it all along to post our location (click on the "where we are today" link above to see it), but what we really wanted a GPS for is geocaching. Hopefully soon we'll be able to post about our new hobby.

As night fell,

Roger took some pretty shots of the setting sun outside our windshield, with our Texas Hill Country grape lights

shining on the dash. Life is good!!

Eight Mile Hike + Javelina Redux!

Hi everyone... Roger here.... A few days ago (one of the sunny days) we took an eight-mile hike around the outer circle of Bentsen-Rio Grande State Park, with a couple of diversions along the side trails. We knew this would be a long trip so we actually carried a picnic lunch to eat along the way.

The first side trip was a 1.8 mile walk through the cactus-filled scrub to the Rio Grande River. We took a couple of shots of the giant cactus along the way, including a new species (for us) that was long and spindly.

It's interesting to see how the cactus grows through the scrub trees using them for support. An abandoned two-story

building (no window panes) was the focus of the view of Mexico at the Rio Grande lookout. We wonder what the building was, or is. I expected the Rio Grande to be a little smaller and muddy, but it was pretty clear and deep, at least from our viewpoint.

The only person we saw on the side trip was an ever-present border patrol agent.

We heard a car door shut at a nearby dirt road and then watched the agent hack his way down to the river. Hmmmm? Looking for illegals or finding a place to pee?

The second diversion from the loop walk took us to the Hawk Tower.

The cool path to the top was along a winding walkway that ascended about three stories. We did not see any hawks, but we did have a great view of scores of ducks that were diving for food in the lake below.

The lake was one of several resacas in the park. The resacas were at one time curves in the Rio Grande River, that became curvy lakes when the river changed its course.

The Rio Grande River has changed its course since the international boundary was established. We took a picture of one of the boundary markers next to a dried up portion of the river. The marker was in the state park, several hundred yards from the current location of the river. Were we in the U.S. at the time or in Mexico?

A puzzlement!

When we re-entered the eight-mile circle after the hawk tower, we began looking for one of the trams that are scheduled every forty-five minutes. We intended to ride back to the park headquarters. Every time we reached a tram stop, we decided to move on to the next one rather than sit and wait. (We were heading in a direction so that we would see the tram approaching us when it came.) We finally reached a tram stop where we decided to wait. We sat for a few minutes, looked down the road, thought we saw the next stop and decided to hurry on down to that stop. (Why, I don't know.) As we approached the stop we saw the tram coming toward us. OH NO! What we thought was a stop, was just a gathering of birders (telescopic cameras in hand). We waved at the tram as it went by knowing that we would be walking the rest of the way back. Oh well.

Throughout the hike we saw several more javelinas, including a piglet with its mom. They are fun to watch as they snort and nose around for food. The thing that is not so much fun is dodging the poop that they leave EVERYWHERE.

As we walked along, I composed a second verse to the Javelina song (to the tune of the Macarena):

Sometimes they poop in the middle of the roadway.

Sometimes they poop in the middle of the pathway.

The poop gets squished in the tread of your sneakers!

Pewwww. Javelina.

Dianne here: (eye-roll + groan)....

how can I follow that?

The two bird photos this time

were a Great Kiskadee

(the yellow-breasted bird)

and a shot of a clay-colored

thrush that was causing some

excitement among

the birders at one of

the stations who were all set

up with their scopes and cameras.

I don't have a scope set-up,

so this is the best shot I could get of it.

Roger again: When we got back to the RV Resort, Dianne informed me that I would have to walk the state park pass back to guest services, because she was done! No reason to argue. When she's done, she's done.

(After suffering through Roger's javelina song again I thought that was the least he could do!)

Bentsen Palm Village RV Resort + Whippet Mania!

Hi all -- Dianne here.

I'll start out by describing the RV resort that is our home for January and February.

Bentsen Palms Village is a very popular resort. People tend to come back year after year, so that it's hard to get a space here unless you reserve very far in advance, which we did early last March. It's obvious that many of the guests here are long-time friends, having spent winters together for four or five years. They are friendly and welcoming, though. Our first week here there was a spontaneous campfire in the center of the circle where we are parked, and we were invited to join in the fun, so we quickly trotted over there with our wine glasses in hand!

The facilities are great, amenities (many of them free, such as bicycles and kayaks), are very nice. The

photo of the yellow building is the activity center, where most of the activities take place. It's in the center of the circle next to ours, so it is very close and convenient to our site.

There is a very active guest services center where friendly people who know us by name coordinate a variety of mostly free activities (borrowing bicycles, kayak trips, tours in an open vehicle of the entire area, etc.) We have signed up for the area tour. We were supposed to go on a kayaking excursion on the Rio Grande yesterday, but it was raining. Thankfully, the trip was cancelled. We signed up for another date.

The people are very friendly and fun-loving. Seems to be a slightly younger average age; many of them around our age (59-60 ish).

There is free wi-fi and cable. Unfortunately for us, they don't want guests to use their own routers, (they say it goofs up their system), so we are only using our satellite for our Direct TV so we can DVR shows. The park wi-fi is fine, but when lots of folks are using it at the same time it sometimes freezes up and we have to re-start our computer. It's frustrating, because we have a perfect exposure to the southern sky. We did notice though that we only had three blue lights (you Datastorm folks know what that means) and our internet did not come up when we set it up.

The dog

park, as we've already described, is reason enough to stay here if you have a fur-child traveling with you. We mentioned before that there is even another whippet staying here. We finally made it to the dog park when the whippet was there, and the dogs had a wonderful time! The couple who own the whippet (Tyler) are from Canada but originally from Scotland.

(I love their accent). Tyler is the same age as our dogs; right between our two. They hit it off right away. I tried to get a photo of the three of them running and playing,

but that is nearly impossible as fast as they run!

I would get one and a half dogs, two and a half dogs,

or half a dog in a shot. Tyler is the one who has brindle spots. He is just as spoiled as our two!

There are many weekly activities available, for those who like to participate. We have mainly taken advantage of the weekly margarita hour, where you bring a snack to share (deviled eggs are a sure bet; they disappear fast) and for a buck get a margarita to go with the l-o-n-g table of goodies to sample.

They also have jam sessions for musicians who are staying here, and they are getting a talent "show" together. (You WON'T see me participating in that!) There is a very complete wood shop for the guests to use and a craft room as well. I've not been over there, but they are very popular.

I have been going to the aerobics class every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Boy, they don't mess around; a guaranteed 45 minutes to an hour of SWEAT. The tapes they use are a woman I had never heard of before, but she must be popular because it's the same one they used at Buckhorn Lake in Kerrville. I actually ordered one for myself, because it could be done in a limited space like the RV, when we leave here. Leslie Sansone is the gal's name, if anyone wants to check her out. (She has an annoying too-perky laugh, but does do a good workout). I ordered mine from Amazon, of course!

She has many tapes available.

The RV sites are very nicely landscaped and many are in circles, like ours, with a nice view out the front windshield of a

central

palapa.

We are in the 500 circle, facing the palapa that has pool tables in it. There are also premium sites available along the sides with storage sheds on them and large back yards. We took the shots of our site on a sunny day (not many of those lately!) when the site next to us was empty, so it looks a little larger than it actually is.

The main draw for me here at Bentsen Palms is the location next door to the state park. We hardly ever get in the car (the roads here are confusing, to say it kindly), but I'm sure we'll venture out in future weeks. There's not a whole lot to do here, for us anyway, other than things we can do right here at the park.

The area is built up with lots of shopping available, for those who need to shop. There is a VERY nice grocery store that we've fallen in love with - an H-E-B Plus superstore. Wow! Nothing in Indiana even comes close! (Think Meijers on steroids).

There is a separate section at Bentsen Palms Village called Retama Village where people purchase sites and can rent them out. These are also very popular and VERY nice; each has a small "coach house" on the site for storage, small kitchen, or however you would want to finish it. Some of the sites have RV homes with ports, or smaller homes. You can Google Retama Village to find out more.

We would not be interested in a permanent site, at least not yet. There are too many places we want to go! We're already thinking about next winter, and our tentative plans are to head west next September to visit our oldest daughter (who just moved to L.A.), possibly be there over the holidays, perhaps visit Yosemite on the way there. Then we might find a place to stay in the California desert, and from there "Do the Q" as people refer to the Quartzite thing next January. From there we might head to our favorite spot on earth, Southern Utah.

Our plans are written in sand, though, so they are definitely subject to change! We are excited to finally be heading west, because that is really where we've wanted to be since December 2008, when we started this adventure.

I can see why some people don't like the Rio Grande Valley. The surrounding area is a little run down, lots of graffiti even on nice buildings and areas.

If we weren't staying in such a nice place, so convenient to what we want to do here, we might not like it so much. The weather has not been great since we've been here; high in the 50s and the last few days cloudy and overcast. They are predicting storms tonight, even might have small hail. People here say it's the worst weather they've experienced in the winter here in the past five years! After tomorrow's storms, though, the extended forecast is supposed to be sunny and in the mid to upper 70s for the foreseeable future. I can sure deal with that!!