Gators, Birds, and Snakes, Oh My!

This is the second of two posts that I added today to bring me up to date.  I guess we’ve been having too much fun for me to keep up with my blog. ;-)

Tuesday, we went to The South Padre Island Birding and Nature Center, which is one of nine World Birding sites located within the Lower Rio Grande Valley.  The center includes over 4800 linear feet of bayfront boardwalk with 7 bird blinds.  Before we went outside, we watched a documentary film about the wildlife of South Padre Island and then went to the top of the five story tower to see the spectacular views of Laguna Madre, the Gulf, and the island.  The highlight of the day was the two or three hours we spent outside on the boardwalk, where we were able to closely observe many of the island birds. (Click on images to enlarge)

The one and only resident alligator

Willet with winter plumage

Great Egret

Great Blue Heron

Gadwall ducks

Little Blue Heron

Ring-billed Gull

Black-necked Stilt

Laughing Gulls

Greater Yellowleg

Female and Male Northern Pintail

Lesser Yellowlegs

Tri-colored Heron

American White Pelican

Roseate Spoonbill and Ibis

Brown Pelican

Reddish Egret

Ibis

American Coot

Wednesday was a beautiful day for a bike ride, so we packed a lunch and rode down to the beach.  We walked out to the end of the jetty, hoping to eat our lunch there while we watched the dolphins at play.  When the waves began crashing over the spot where we were going to sit, having lunch on the jetty lost its appeal!  We were much happier staying dry and eating our lunch at the park pavilion on the beach.  We saw this Great Blue Heron drying his wings on the sand dune.

Great Blue Heron

I had bought much of Abi’s birthday gift when we were in Mexico, but there were still a few things that I wanted to add to the package before I mailed it.  There aren’t any department stores on South Padre Island, so we went to Brownsville after lunch on Thursday. When I made my purchase, the girl didn’t put it in a bag.  She just laid it on the counter with the receipt.  When I asked if I could have a bag, she told me that bags aren’t provided at any store in Brownsville.  We didn’t think about it when we went in Walmart to pick up a few things later.  There were plastic Walmart bags on the wheel at the end of the counter and Ron started to bag the few items we bought.  The cashier quickly told him that it would cost him a dollar to use the plastic bags rather than using our own.  We carried our things out in our arms instead.  What a great way to get us to remember to use our shopping bags! After a few shopping trips in Brownsville, I might actually develop the habit of taking my bags into the store with me!
 

Our friends in Harlingen called for us to meet them for dinner at El Papas Friday evening.  We ordered the shrimp special again, but managed to keep our appetites under control this time.

Connie and Charlie invited us to go with them to the Rotary Club Winter Texan Fish Fry at Schlitterbahn (water park) on Saturday.  Bob and Barbara went with us, too.  The cost was only $7.50 apiece for the meal and 4 hours of live music.  Barbara won a door prize and went home with several bottles of wine!  Later that evening we went to our park’s Rec Center to hear The Lindley Creek Family, from Lebanon, MO, perform.  Our park has entertainment every Saturday night and the admission fee is only $5.

Eating breakfast at Manuel’s was a regular event for us the last time we wintered at SPI.  We went there with friends every Sunday morning before going to church.  We overslept last Sunday morning, so we went there for a late breakfast instead.  It’s a popular place to eat, so we had to wait in line until a table was available.  We ordered our favorite breakfast taco with eggs, ham, cheese, refried  beans, potatoes, avocado slices, and pico de gallo on a homemade tortilla.  We knew it was the first visit for the people at the next table when they each ordered a taco of their own.  It was fun to watch their faces when their breakfast was served.  Manuel’s tacos are served on large dinner plates and are so large that they hang over the edge of the plate!  Ron and I always share a taco, and it’s still more than I can eat!

Ron's HALF of the breakfast taco covered a large dinner plate!

After breakfast we went to Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge.  It is a premier bird watching destination because it is the northernmost range of several tropical species and because  two major migratory flyways converge there. The refuge is also home to the majority of the remaining ocelots in the U.S. and serves as the national center for ocelot conservation and recovery.  We didn’t see as much wildlife as we expected, but I suspect it was because all of the ponds and small lakes along the two tour roads were dry from the lack of rain.  Below are pictures of some of the birds and animals that we saw while we were there.

Female Cardinal

Male Cardinal

Green Jay

Green Jays at the Nature Center feeder

7 ft. Indigo Snake

Green Jay bathing in the stream

Coyote

Greater Roadrunner

Crested Caracara and Black Vultures

Deer

Long-billed Curlew

White-tailed Hawk

A week of fun and good food!

The vast majority of citrus fruit that is grown in Texas is produced in the Rio Grande Valley.  Monday’s outing was to a nearby orange grove, where we bought our fruit directly from the grower.  In addition to oranges, we also bought a few grapefruits, and a jar of raw honey.   The oranges are especially sweet and delicious to eat, and are good for making fresh-squeezed orange juice as well.

We spent the next few days getting things done at home.  Larry, a ‘gadget guy’, had bought several remote control kits on sale and Ron bought two of the kits from him when we were at his house. Ron converted our homemade solar lamp post to electric so we can turn the light on with a remote control from the truck when we drive up.  No more coming home in the dark!  When we are dry camping we will replace the electric light with our other solar coach light.  He bought two of the kits so we could have two remotes…one to leave in the truck and one to control the light from inside our fifth wheel.  We can also use it to turn on a lamp before we come in the trailer at night.  Handy, huh?

 

On Thursday we went into Mexico with Charlie and Connie.  They use a dentist in Progreso and have been very happy with his work…and even happier with his prices!  They paid only $20 for their check-up and cleaning and Charlie will be paying only $900 for  6 crowns!  He got a haircut while we were in Mexico for a mere $3.50.  Ron and I shopped while they were seeing the dentist, and then we all met for a nice lunch at Arturo’s.  We shopped a little more with Charlie and Connie and ran into several of our neighbors who were also spending the day in Progreso.  

After telling Bob and Barbara and Charlie and Connie about the ‘All you can eat shrimp’ at El Papas on Friday nights, we took them there to see for themselves.  Before we had finished what was on our plates, our waitress brought us another basket full of shrimp…and another basket followed that one!  We really need to limit how often we eat at El Papas!

Roy and Pat had our whole section over for a fish fry/potluck on Saturday afternoon..  (I think there were 18 couples in all).  The fish was very good and there was a variety of good food to go with it.  After we finished eating, Ron and I rode our bikes for awhile, in an attempt to burn off some of the calories we had consumed.

Larry and Sandy, Jerry and Rosey, and Marlin and Jeanie drove in from Harlingen on Sunday to go to SPI Market Days and Ron and I joined them at the Convention Center. Later, we all went to ‘Louie’s Backyard’ for Sunday’s baby back ribs special.

The park was buzzing with excitement Monday, when a huge oil platform was hung up on a sand bar near the jetty.  It was being towed in from the Gulf to the Brownsville ship channel, which is across the Laguna Madre from where we are parked.  Ron and I rode our bikes down to the beach to watch the activity.  Two additional tug boats were brought in to get the platform off of the sandbar.  Three tug boats were towing it, while two boats guided from behind with cables that were attached to the platform.  Seeing the massive structure floating in the water was an incredible sight!

People lined the jetty as the tug boats attempted to free the oil platform from the sand

Three tug boats towing the oil platform toward the ship channel

Two tug boats guided the platform with cables from behind

Texas!

We left Missouri somewhere around noon on the day after Christmas and arrived at Willis and Dixie’s house near Paris, TX the next day.  Soon after our last visit, they added an apartment on one end of their house.  They moved into the apartment and one of their daughters now lives in the house.  They love their new space and we really liked it, too!

We had a good time while we were there and we got to see all of the family, except for Marchelle’s husband, Marty.  Mexican food is always on the agenda when we visit, so we ate at a Mexican restaurant one night and went out another night for hamburgers.  Mmmm good!  Both the Mexican food and the hamburgers were among the best that we’ve had.  I’m sure we’ll want to eat there again when we return in the spring.

Friday morning we were on our way to Livingston to pick up our mail at the Escapees RV Club headquarters (Rainbow’s End RV Park).  Since we weren’t expected at our friends’ house until the next day, we decided to spend the night at the RV park.

This was our third visit with Larry and Sandy, and it was the second time that they invited us to come when they already had a house full of family!     Sandy’s brother and his wife, their three kids and their families, and Sandy’s mother and step-father were all staying at their house!   In addition, Larry and Sandy’s daughter, Tammy, and her family, and their son, Scott, and his family live nearby and were there much of the time. Larry’s brother, Tammy’s mother-in-law and father-in-law, and Scott’s in-laws also joined us for dinner that evening.  We had met everyone except Scott’s in-laws when we were there two years ago.  We all had a good time talking, laughing, and playing card games while we waited to welcome in the New Year.

After all of the house guests left on Monday, we stayed to help Larry and Sandy get their house in order and get ready for our trip to the (Rio Grande) Valley.  We traveled together most of the way, but Larry and Sandy went to an RV park in Harlingen and we drove on to South Padre Island.

We had a nice welcome when we pulled into our campsite!  The friends we made when we were here two years ago were already here when we arrived. They have been coming here every winter for 10 years.  When they saw us pull in, they all rushed over to welcome us back. Two couples are from Missouri, one is from Mississippi, another from Michigan, and one couple is from Quebec!   It’s a fun group of people and it’s nice to see them all again!  Everyone goes in different directions during the day, but we all get together every afternoon at 5:00 for happy hour.

View from our desk window

View of the Laguna Madre  and Port Isabel from our rear window

Our campsite

 Our first full day at SPI was a beautiful day.  We rode our bikes down along the beach...SO happy to be in the sunshine and warm weather.  The sound of the breaking waves and the cry of the seagulls brought back sweet memories of camping trips to Galveston with our kids when they were young.  I was enjoying the moment, but was wishing that all of our family could be here with us now, too.

That night we went with Bob and Barbara and Charlie and Connie to see Tucker, an entertainer from Branson.  We had seen him perform in Branson several years ago.  He sings and also does a little comedy, making it a very enjoyable show!  The park has entertainment every Saturday night for only $5 a person.  Other park activities are scattered throughout the week, and there are many other shows and events each day in other parks and towns in the Valley, so there will be no lack of things to do while we’re here.

Sunday was another gorgeous day.  We rode our bikes down the island after church and stopped to look in some of the shops along the way.  It was a pleasant ride until we turned and faced the headwind on the way back home.  Mental note:  Check the wind before we set out on a long ride!  After we recovered from our tiring ride back home, we took a leisurely walk along the beach and got back in time to join our friends at Joel and Carol’s campsite for happy hour and to view the sunset…a perfect end to our day.

On Wednesday, we hopped on our bikes again and rode around the park and down to the beach to enjoy some of the beautiful sunshine! 

This is the interior of the Isla Blanca County Park Campground

We're happy that our campsite is in the park annex instead of being in the midst of the crowded sites above.  When we were were here two years ago, we liked it so much that we reserved the same site again for this year.

And just across the road from the campground shown above is a view of the Laguna Madre where it goes into the Gulf

This statue of Cristo de Los Pescadores looks out over the bay

The beach on the Gulf of Mexico

When we returned, Bob waved us down and asked us to come in to visit awhile with him and Barbara.  Soon it was time for all of us to go outside to meet the others for happy hour.

Thirty mile per hour winds kept us inside for most of Thursday.  We ventured out only to run a few errands.  Friday was a better day and we went to the RV Show in Mercedes with Charlie and Connie.  I wasn’t impressed with most of them, but I saw 2 fifth wheels that I especially liked.  One would have been perfect for our family when our kids were growing up.  I can only dream about how wonderful it would have been to have had that space for our big family!  However, riding in a cramped pickup truck with 4 kids wouldn’t have been as wonderful.  The other fifth wheel was one that would be nice to have now, but it didn’t have a place for my washer and dryer.  My allergies were getting worse as the day progressed. 

We ate dinner at Sun Palace in Harlingen and then went to join Larry and Sandy and Jerry and Rosey at their resort to see ‘Goldwing Express’ perform.  It was a very entertaining show.  Larry and Sandy and Jerry and Rosey invited us to go with them to the Don Wes Flea market in Donna on Sunday, but we didn’t commit, because I wasn’t sure how I’d be feeling on Sunday.  I was beginning to get laryngitis and a sore throat and was miserable by the time we got home and went to bed.  I spent all day Saturday inside, avoiding whatever was causing my allergy symptoms.  Ron later read that the allergy index for trees was extremely high.  I sure wish I had known that before I spent the day outside at the RV show.

I was feeling better on Sunday, so we joined Larry and Sandy, Jerry and Rosey, and their friends, Marlin and Jeanie for lunch and then headed out for the Don West Flea Market.  Don Wes is a popular destination for locals and Winter Texas from all over the Rio Grande Valley and has been in operation at the same location for more than 25 years. It consists of two markets directly across from each other. On the south side of the road is the Original Farmers Market, a 5 ½ acre produce-based bazaar.  If you don’t find what you are looking for in one or the other of the two buildings, you’re sure to find it in one of the many outside booths.  It was an easy day on Ron’s wallet. My only purchase was a lipstick case for $1 and Ron went home with a free light socket to use on our light post!  Since we had a late start, we only had time to look around in one of the buildings before it was closing time, so I’m sure we’ll go back another day.  Next time we’ll go on a day that Gonzalez Burgers is open, too.  Eating there is an experience in itself! I'll tell you all about it on our return trip.