Tuesday evening

We did not go on the cruise yesterday. When Dennie called to make the reservations the gal told him they were not going out until Thursday even though there were 8 of us wanting to go..... so we ran a few errands and came home for the afternoon. Later in the afternoon Larry and Sherry stopped by for "happy hour". Sherry downloaded a birding program on our computer. It was fun last night to check it out!

We watched the KU game on TV last night and joggled between our Monday night comedy shows....

This am we got around and drove over to Harlingen to visit our "Great Bend" friends, Larry and Earlene. We visited with them a little bit...Earlene wanted to show me the quilts she is in the process of finishing and the one she made. Then we took a ride over to Padre Island and ate lunch at Daddy's..... boy the shrimp is STILL GOOD!!!! Then we drove to Brownsville to the ship docks and stopped at a Shrimp Outlet and bought or we split a bag of HUGE shrimp. I'll post the pictures below to make you drool! We then drove into Brownsville past the building of the oil rigs being built to go into the Gulf.... very neat! We stopped at another fish market which was a "real fish market"...... they had all kinds of fresh off the dock fish and shrimp..... The shrimp there were just as big and we cheaper.... We will definitely go back and get some before we head to Ks! These shrimp are big enough to grill. At the shrimp outlet the gal told us how to grill the shrimp.... fry bacon until almost done, wrap a jalepeno pepper with cream cheese in it around the bacon and shrimp and then put it on the grill for a few minutes....sounds great!

So that is what we have done the past couple of days! Enjoy the pictures of the shrimp! I placed a "scrubbie" next to the shrimp to get a comparison as to how large the shrimp are...these were called Colossal...they are that for sure!

Until next time!
BJ

Some pictures

These are pictures of the gull at Padre Island. The gulls were not flying at that time because of the fog so they were "resting" outside Dirty Al's at the docks. Very soon more came and then they all had to fly for a time! It was amazing to see so many grouped together!

The smoke was a sugar cane field burning. That is the RV behind us and the field was about a 1/4 mile away. After cutting the sugar cane they burn the field...so we see smoke at different times and places.

Sunday evening

It has been another fast busy week here in the Rio Grande Valley.... where the weather is finally becoming very pleasant and beautiful! The temps all week have been around 80-85. The wind has blown some but nothing very strong until today when it blew pretty good.

Since last Saturday was Bill's birthday we decided to drive over to Mission to our friends over there. The park was having a craft sale so I thought I wanted to see what they had I couldn't live without. Well, after being there about 5 min. I found nothing and we went to our friends Motorhome. Our other friends came over and we decided to go eat out for Bill's birthday. We went to BJ Brewery. We really like this place and they have really good food. There were 10 of us for lunch.

Monday morning early I went on a quilt shop hop bus trip to San Antonio with a couple of friends. We left at 5:30 and came home at 10PM!!!! It was a long day! We had fun and the bus trip was great. There were 49 ladies that shopped to their heart's content. I also got to see the AlamoDome, and the Riverwalk.

Tuesday morning, Larry/Sherry and Bill and I drove over to Laguna Atacosa Wildlife Refuge and drove around and did some birdwatching. We saw lots of birds and I got to mark several off my book. I will post some pictures below! We had a fun day and got home around 5 that evening. We of course had to stop and eat shrimp before we came home! Ohh....that shrimp is sooo delicious!

Wednesday, we cleaned and did laundry.... the fun stuff you know!

Thursday, 6 of us decided at the last minute to go eat at Willy's for lunch. Willy's is a great BBQ place in Alamo. The building is old and the pop/drinks are in an old old Cocola cooler...you know the old red kind! Their BBQ is absolutely fantastic! The sandwiches are huge and we all left full and stuffed, raving about how good it was! Thursday evening, Karen and I went to bingo..... I always "contribute" it seems..my luck is terrible! But Karen won one game winning $10!!!!

Saturday, Dennie and Karen,Bill and I drove to Padre Island to check out the stores and also eat more shrimp! It was very foggy so we didn't drive on the beach this time.... we ate shrimp at Dirty Al's...the best shrimp! and then drove to a National Historic Battlefield in Palo Alto where the war between the States and Mexico began. Stay tuned when we go back to Brownsville this week.!

Today after church it was "chicken Sunday" again so we went to Larry/Sherry to eat chicken. The lines are sooo long around 11 and we are glad to get there by 10:20 or so. We drove over to Dodge Arena to see if our tickets for the hockey game were ready and they weren't so we came home. Bill has watched both football games today so he is happy! I have ironed and did some things around here...catching up I guess.

So that is about our week...I will try to write more daily as my daughter Megan, tells me she checks daily to see what we have done! Ok Megan I will try for you! ;)

We are going on a small 4 hr. cruise around to Brownsville on Monday....stay tuned!
Until next time!
BJ

Pictures

The following pictures are at the Mexican border......
The "George Bush" fence at the border

People under the bridge that you cross at the border beginning for money. They stick hats between the posts of the bridge for money.

Bill and I at the border !

Dreary Friday morning in South Texas

It is a dreary damp Friday morning here in South Texas. We are to have off and on rain all day and then begin to clear our tomorrow...so there is your weather forecast!

It has been a busy 2 weeks since I've last written and we have made about 3 trips to Mexico one being this last Saturday. We spent most of the day wandering in and out of the little shops there not really buying much. Our friends, Dennie and Karen, that we rode with had dental apppointments so we wandered while he was busy at the dentist. It was a very cool day there and everyone was bundled up with jackets, coats, and the locals had hats and some gloves on. I'm sure their homes and some businesses were not heated.

Last Friday night at the park they had "horse races"....now this is not the usual horse race that we have gone to Neb. to watch....these were little wooden rocking horses that are placed on a board with "space markings" and someone throws the dice and the horse moves according to the roll of the dice. It was fun and everyone got to place their quarter bets on the horse they wanted to win! So much yelling and hooting and hollering for the wooden horses! We pretty much broke even with our quarter bets each time....as I would pick 2,4,6 and Bill picked 1,3,5..... All money is returned out so it is a legal betting!

Tuesday at noon we went to another RV park and met our fellow Newmar members at the monthly luncheon meeting. There were 146 at the meeting/lunch. Our Ks. group had about 10 couples represented.

Last Sunday we went to the ELKS club in Weslaco for "Chicken Sunday"....every other Sunday they sponsor a Fried Chicken dinner for a fundraiser. We went to church and then met our friends, Larry/Sherry/Larry/Earlene/ Mel/Joyce at the park and traveled to the ELKS. You get a half chicken,mashed potatoes, green beans, roll/salad and dessert with drink for $8....it was great.... really good fried chicken. So that will be what we are doing every other Sunday while here in the valley. We got there around 10:10 and people were beginning to get lined up already. The room was about half full at that time but by the time we left at 11:15 the line was out the door and down the side of the building and towards the back of the building...... So many people! So you know it is a good meal!

Late Sunday afternoon we rode over to Padre Island with Larry/Sherry/Mel/Joyce to do some bird watching at the Laguna Madre birding center. The sun was shining although alittle cool. I got to mark about 15 new birds off in my bird book! To Bill and I Mel is an expert at bird watching and we love listening to him tell us about all the different birds and how they fly, their habitats etc. Then we went to Pelican Station on the mainland for a surprise birthday dinner for one of our Newmar friends, Barb. She was surprised! We had a great meal of fried shrimp and fish. The Padre Island shrimp is some of the best shrimp we have ever eaten! We will go back a few times because we want to eat at "Dirty Al's" known for huge shrimp!

So now that I've jumped around the past 2 weeks you know we have had some busy days and some that we want the sun to shine! It has been cool and cloudy most of the time......Bill has put the jeans up and gotten his shorts out for good he says!

Busy Monday for us

We spent a quiet New Years here in the the park. We had planned to go to the New Years Eve Party but by the time the evening rolled around we were all tired and decided to play it low key. So we went over to Dennie and Karen's for a drink and snack and was home by 9:30! We heard the fireworks go off at Midnight but rolled over and went back to sleep! Guess we are getting old!
New Year's Day found us on the road going over to Mission to see our friends, Ron/Nancy and John/Patsy. We went out to eat and visited most of the day with them. Ron/Nancy moved to another RV site with a huge "Texas room"....it was beautiful and they will enjoy it I'm sure. It has a large living room and full kitchen with a big bathroom and then attached is a garage with a garage door and a small door for their golf cart.
Saturday morning we drove back to the park in Mission with Dennie and Karen, Howard and Karen to look at an RV space to rent. We will move over there in February and March. These sites are double RV spaces and full concrete for the same amount we are paying here at Paradise South.
We ate lunch at Granny's which is well known for its Mega burger and they bring a machete out so you can cut the hamburger with it. Bill got to do the honors this time and of course none of us brought a camera! We rode around that part of the valley for a while and came home.
Sunday, we went to the flea market and fresh vegetable market. After being at the flea markets in Florida and Arizona this one seems very small... we will probably go back though!
Our friends, Larry and Sherry arrived on Sunday and it was great to see them!
They will be here for 2 months.
Today was a day we had errands to run and also cleaning! I got all the laundry done and the bathroom cleaned and floors mopped. Bill washed the outside of the rig so I went outside to wash windows. It looks much better! Now to tackle the cabinets inside! Hopefully I can get that done tomorrow.
Larry and Sherry asked us to go out to dinner so we went down to their Motorhome for a Happy Hour before going. Larry suggested we go to Mexico for dinner. So off we went! We went to a restaurant called "The Red Snapper". It was great seafood....Larry, Sherry and I had huge fried shrimp, twice baked potato and salad. Bill had Ranchero shrimp which he said was spicy but delicious. We stopped by the liquor store on the way out and Larry bought some liquor.Larry and Sherry drive over so we were able to get a parking spot right in front of the restaurant which was upstairs. We will make several trips over I'm sure. We are only about 10 minutes from the border so it was a nice drive. Most of the winter Texans had gone back "north" for the day by the time we left and it was dark downtown Progresso. They had armed guards standing on a corner. They weren't there last time we were there 3 years ago. We left about 5 and got home around 7:15 this evening.

Well that about does it for this time!
Until next time!
BJ