Busy

Hi Everyone,

The days just seem to be getting busier and busier. We went one evening to Laguna Vista to take a line dancing class from a Texan by the name of Lynn. He is a competitive line dancer and is very particular on how we do our steps. So we had danced for 1 and a half hours in the morning and another 2 hours in the evening.

Yesterday my neighbour, Carol, woke me up to do breakfast with her at a little restaurant on the bay. I had 2 eggs, 4 strips of bacon, two slices toast and coffee for $3.25. Then we went to the Mercado, an open air market here on the island. We stopped to watch the belly dancer for a bit. From there we went to Bommerang Billy's to watch an entertainer named Leslie. This pub is right next to the sea and is open air. A nice setting. She sang mostly songs from the '60's and could really belt it out. In the evening my neighbour, Donna and I went to Pelican West to hear the band there. I was pooped by 11 pm.

Much of the entertainment is in the early afternoon, so we can usually be in bed by 9 or 10 pm.
They have a law here, an actual law on the books, that men's ties are not allowed on Padre Island. If a man refuses to take off his tie you are allowed to take a pair of scissors and cut his tie off.The convention centre has a sign on the outside of the bldg. saying "No ties out".

The temps have been in the high 80's all week, but today the wind is from the north so it is cooler. They have been spraying for mosquitoes here. I hate to think of them spraying a pesticide, but the mosquitoes have been incredibly bad. My legs are all bitten...they were just descending in a cloud whenever outside. I did use a repellent, but any little bit of skin that was missed was eaten up.

American Thanksgiving

We began the day dancing on the top deck of Dirty Al's. It is a seafood restaurant and the owner is kind enough to allow us to dance on his deck. We have a view of both sides of the island from up there. Today this big tanker was going by so I grabbed my camera and took a couple of shots.

Today a group of us went for a free Thanksgiving dinner at The Coral Reef. It is a lounge here on the island. We had a dinner with all the trimmings and live entertainment. Everyone calls the owner, Ya Ya, because anything you ask him he responds with ya ya. After dinner he accompanied the piano player with his banjo. I wish I hadn't forgotten my camera.

Free food is common here. In some bars at happy hour they put out free appetizers. They all have $2 beer, but the beer here a lot weaker than Canadian beer.

We are having a mosquito problem after last week's rain. Most of us are holed up in our MHs as they attack as soon as your door is open. It's terrible.

Winter Ready

Yesterday Dan and Carol took me to Donna and I made arrangements to winter in an RV park there. It is $180 month; apparently the cheapest park around. It was nice and has computer access and a new hall for potlucks and the like. They have an activities coordinator and we will be car pooling for various activities such as going to Progreso, Mexico, the big flea markets, etc. They have karaoke once a week and live music once a week. I think it will be a lot of fun.

I will be the first to leave this park. The friends I have made will all be leaving about the 15th of December and all going to various places in the valley...not far from where I will be parked, so we can visit each other. I'm glad about that as I have met some really fine people here. I'm also glad about computer access. We all roam about this town trying to find a signal here and there. Places advertise wifi, but when you get there you find that it doesn'twork. The library is only open until 1 pm, so can't always get there in time. Oh yes, this life is very busy.

Christmas

Good morning,

It seems rather odd to see the town putting up Christmas decorations. It is difficult to get into the spirit of things when surrounded by palm trees. The weather is hot once again.

I had company in my MH last evening; the neighbours came over and we visited until almost 3 am, so I slept in and missed my dance lesson this morning. On Friday we are going to Laguna Vista for a dance lesson from a fellow named Lynn. It is $3 a lesson.

This photo was taken in Matamoros, Mexico. As you can see there is fresh fruit for sale. Brenda and I had bought some grapefruit from a fruit stand in Port Isabel. They are the biggest grapefruit I have ever seen and yet are sweet and juicy.

Rainy

Greetings,

Yesterday was quite chilly...in the high 50's and pouring rain. Today it is warmer, but still raining. I even wore my flannel p.j.'s last night.

We went to the dance in San Benito last evening. The dance floor was huge; I've never seen a dance floor that big before. The attendance was low due to the weather and because the winter Texans don't come up until after Thanksgiving. I did a lot of line dancing and it was fun. I lost my steps many times, but there were quite a few of us learners there, so it really didn't matter. The men stayed at home and just us women went. They only sold water and sodas there, but you are allowed to byob.

There isn't much to do in your MH in this weather, so yesterday I spent the day doing crosswords. Carol brought over some books for me so today Iwill have my nose buried in a book.

Beach

Everything will be O.K. in the end. If it's not O.K., it's not the end.

This photo of me on the beach was taken by Brenda. Yesterday my neighbour, Carol, and I went for a long walk on the beach. We both burned. I guess I will now be a shade or two darker. The water was lovely and warm.

Apparently cooler weather is moving in and it will drop to the low 70's F. by tomorrow.

I have been line dancing all week and tomorrow is the big dance. I will be traveling with another neighbour, Judy, and her husband. It is about a 40min. trip each way. I will probably sit out most of the line dances as I am not ready yet for public hoofing.

Last evening I went to a bar called the Brewing Co. and yes, they brew their own beer there. I went as they advertise a wifi connection, but the connection didn't work. I met two really friendly people from the island and we had a good visit. He wanted to know what Canadians think about them owning Alaska. I've never heard a Canadian mention it, so guess it is not really a concern for us. We discussed a lot of topics and it was an enjoyable evening. There is still a lot of talk about Hurricane Dolly that came through in August of this year. It hurt a lot of businesses due to damage. One of the big hotels closed down permanently.

A bill was passed in two states that allows parents to just drop off their children at Social Services if they don't want the kids anymore. The drop-off point is a hospital. Apparently they have had an abundance of parents dropping off their pre-teens and teens. You would think children would now be afraid if they needed a hospital stay. When I heard of this bill I was truly shocked. Still am.

Gorgeous Day

Today I met a woman, Bonnie, who is staying at the KOA campground. She is from BC and is traveling with a female companion. She was a social worker from Vancouver, but found her job was stressing her out and making her ill, so decided to call it quits and go traveling. They went through Canada first and then down to Texas. They plan to travel all the way to Belize. They have friends who just arrived in Belize with their camper van and didn't have any difficulty. They will be meeting with other travellers and going together as a group. I told her about the fellow we met in a state campground who met with the Mexican border police close to Belize.The police charged them $2000, and would only allow them to turn their motorhome around and head back into Mexico. She told me I was welcome to join them. It was tempting, but I think I will stick to my original plan. I don't have extra funds to pay off Mexican police, don't know what road conditions are like there, availability of service stations, etc. However, I gave her my email address and she will let me know how she fairs, hopefully.

There are birds everywhere here and one could spend days just watching them and listening to their interesting bird calls. I don't know what kind of birds they are, but certainly, not birds we have in Alberta.

Here it is only 5:48 pm and I am ready for bed. I probably walked a couple of miles today after an hour and a half of line dancing (that is me in the centre) and it is taking its toll. It will take a couple of days to get my strength back. But, what a beautiful day it was today. Hot sun, gentle breeze...what more can a person want?

More campers are arriving each day and this end of the park only has 3 spaces left. According to Marge, the librarian, there is another single woman parked close to me. Just have to find her. What is happening to women today? They are packing it in and taking off in record numbers. I could do a good psychological study on this topic.

Line Dancing

Hi Y'all
Today I took my first line dancing lesson. There were 5 of us this morning. It was the immersion method of teaching, but the teacher, Donna, is excellent and surprisingly I picked up a few steps. The lesson was an hour and a half long and having worn blue jeans I was getting fairly hot by the end. It felt good to be moving again. It was also nice to meet two new ladies.

I believe I am on the mend; last night being the first since Wedn. that I was not sick to my stomach and throwing up.

This photo was taken at the Port Isabel Museum. There was some interesting history in there.

I wanted to share with you a few things I have noticed about American youth that is different than Alberta youth. I haven't heard the F word since leaving Alberta. If an elderly person needs assistance a young person will step up and say, "Can I help you, sir/ma'am?" and help. Also, there was no grafetti in the state park bathrooms and I have seen very little of such anywhere. Those are a few of the things I have noticed so far.

Until tomorrow.....

Cooler

Hola,
The weather is a bit cooler. Funny, now that I have been traveling during really hot weather I find I am chilly when it is 70F. The sun is bright in a cloudless sky today, but the wind is from the north and I have a hoodie on. Part of the reason for this, I'm sure, is because I am still ill. The virus I picked up takes a long time to go on its way.

Brenda left on Saturday morning. I drove her to Port Isabel and she caught the airport shuttle to Brownsville. I haven't heard from her yet, so hope she made it home without a hitch. It was hard to see her go, we had a great time together.

South Padre Island is windy most of the time, but I signed up for a month so decided to stay put. I paid the monthly rate and should I decide to leave sooner, I will be charged a weekly rate and it will cost me more, so grin and bear the wind. There is lots to do here and am getting to know some of the RV women and finding out more info daily. The staff here at the park don't really tell you much of anything, so I have to find out details from the regular RVers who have been here more than once. I was invited to go to a dance with the couple next door, on Friday in San Benito, so I will take that in. Cost: $4.

Today I took The Wave into Port Isabel and went to WalMart and bought headphones for my computer, so now I can speak to those on msn. It will be nice to hear a familiar voice again. I also discovered that I can pick up wifi by the office here, so it saves me going to the library. Another tidbit I picked up from an old time RVer. By the time I finish my 10 month stint on the road I should actually know what I am doing, how to save a buck, etc.

Stormy

Good Morning
Brenda and I went to the Turtle Rescue Centre to see the turtles there. Most have missing flippers from shark attacks or whatever. One little turtle was blind in one eye, having been attached by red ants. Some of the turtles were huge...over 2oo lbs. and will double that when fully grown.

I gave you some misinformation the other day. Hurricane Ike didn't reach here; it was Hurricane Dolly that did all the damage. Some businesses were closed for 3 months to repair the damage.

I have been down for two days, having caught what Brenda had. I didn't have it to the same degree as she did, but then after she went to the Dr. I knew what to do or not do.

We had a terrible rain yesterday, it just came down in sheets. I was in bed with my window open and woke up with wet sheets, etc. I have never experienced rain like that, that lasted for so long; at least 12 hours. Today is calm and bright.

South Padre Island II

Hola mi amigos,

I should tell you a bit about the island. The island is 34 miles long and 1/2 mile wide. Most of the businesses lie along Padre Blvd. There are beautiful homes on either side of the blvd. There are also many high-rise hotels. You can see that many of the hotels have sustained damage from Hurricane Ike and one is closed down completely. Most of the homes have outside shutters which are probably there to protect their windows in high winds.

Fishing seems to be a popular sport here. The phone book shows pictures of the various fish with a brief description and also has recipes on how to prepare the fish. Todays photo was taken just behind our MH park. There are various boat tours you can go on, but they are fairly costly for a poor girl like myself.

Yesterday Brenda and I took the free bus (The Wave) to town and back. The bus picks you up wherever you are standing on the curb and lets you off wherever you ask, as long as it is on the route. It runs every half hour from 7 am to 7 pm. It is a nice service to have. It covers the island and Port Isabel.

I met a nice woman, Judy, in our park and she invited me to go to free line dancing lessons, so tomorrow I will begin those.

South Padre Island

Brenda is feeling a lot better day. The lady at the library, Marge, said there is a flu going around the island. She had it a couple of days ago...same symptoms as Brenda had.

Today I went hunting for an RV garage as I would like an oil change. Not easy to find. I finally found a diesel garage and he said he would give me an oil change and check the air in my tires. I would also like to have my propane topped up. There is a mobile propane truck that comes around and that way you don't have to unhook. Sounds good to me.

They have a free paper here called The Bulletin. It lists all the entertainment on the island and elsewhere. There is live music here every night of the week. Also on Tuesdays there are tango lessons, so next week I will give that a try. Marge said next week there are RVer groups starting next to the library and there are a lot of activities to partake in. There are also groups starting here in the RV park tomorrow. They have a free transit bus here that goes up and down the island and also to Port Isabel, so that could be a savings for me. Beginning next week I will walk everywhere on the island. I need the exercise.

Still windy and Marge said it is always windy here except July and August, so guess I just have to live with it.

Today we are going to the turtle refuge and see what that is all about. There is also a marine research centre open to the public, so if Brenda is up to it, we will take that in as well.

Windy

Hi Everyone

This statue is on the beach here. Lots of people fishing on the beach everyday. It has been very windy the last couple of days and the librarian tells me it is always windy here, except July and August.

Brenda took ill last night. She had it coming out of both ends. We wondered if it was from eating in Mexico, but really she began having stomach cramps the day before that. We had the identical meal in Mexico and I am totally fine so far. The librarian said she was sick yesterday as well, so could be the flu. Anyway, I really feel for her and hope I don't get it.

What is the weather like there? It has been running about 82F the last couple of days and 72F at night. It is nice with the breeze.

Matamoros, Mexico

Hola,

Yesterday evening, Brenda and I went to Pelican West Bar. The band was of the same name. The female lead singer was great. They played requests from the song list they had on each table, plus their own numbers. It was fun to see so many people dancing. On Tues. they begin winter hours and will have live music beginning at 7 pm.

Today we went into Matamoros, Mexico and walked through the markets. It was fun. This fellow tried to sell us some jewelery and said they were authentic jewels. His first price was $7 per necklace, but he was down to 25 cents a necklace when Brenda began walking away. The hawkers were quite insistent with us, but we just ignored them. We got lost a couple of times, but finally found a restaurant where we could eat outdoors and had a great visit with the cook.

There were three bridges that you could cross over on. Brenda and I made a big mistake as we didn't know the name of the bridge we had crossed over on and had to walk about a mile to get to the bridge where the car was parked. All three bridges were reached by going through Brownsville. Brownsville is a pretty city of 167,493 population. We had to stop and ask for directions once, which isn't too bad. I plan to go back for a day and just see the city this time.
An interesting shop sign we saw was the Curl Up and Dye Hair Salon. Brenda is always cold and I am always hot, so it makes our days interesting. Today was just a beautiful day, for both of us.

Brenda whooped my ass at rummy last night. Just luck!!!!

Port Isabel

Hi Everyone,

Brenda and I drove across this long, long bridge to get to South Padre Island. I rented a RV space for a month. It will be nice to sit still for awhile and there is a lot to see here.

This part of Padre Island is more developed than the north part by Mustang Island. We are here off season, so everything seems so cheap. We passed a lot of stores that are selling T-shirts for 99 cents, so we will have to check that out. Also, we passed many fruit stands selling grapefruit and oranges so will pick up some for tomorrow's breakfast.

This lighthouse first opened in 1855 and we went to the top and took some photos. It is very windy today and we felt like we would blow off the top of the lighthouse. We had some rain, but it seems to be clearing.

I have the address now for an internet cafe on the island, so will try to keep my blog updated.

Hope you are all well and happy.

Rio Grande City, Texas

Today we left Roma, Texas and are now in Rio Grande City. They have an old fort here and many old historical buildings. The trick is to find them. We went to the chamber of commerce and they gave us a pamphlet listing the historic buildings, but there were no addresses. We just drove around until we found them. The population here is 13,651. We found the Robert E. Lee house and that is it in the photo. We could only see the outside.

We went to Our Lady of Immaculate Conception Church and the grotto. The grotto is a replica of Our Lady of Lourdes in France. After a bit of sight-seeing we went for lunch at a little Mexican restaurant called Tehas Cafe and had steak. It was very good.

We always like to drive around the residential areas and see how the locals live. As with anywhere, there are the wealthy and the poor. Almost all buildings in Texas are either brick or adobe. Many of the buildings are over 100 years old and deserted.

These are all border towns that we are passing through. We are presently parked at WalMart and plan to spend the night here, thus saving a bit of money.

It is a bit cooler today...about 72F, but after a week of extreme heat we have our jackets on.

Another Day here

We decided to stay at this park another day. We love the butterfly garden. It was begun 3 yrs ago by the camp hostess, who used to be an English teacher. It now has 514 types of butterflies; 5 rare species and 2 rare species of moths. The black butterflies are huge. They also have a butterfly that is about 6 inches across. It is nocturnal, but you find them in the tree branches during the day.

The folks at the restaurant are so friendly, and today they made us biscuits and gravy for breakfast. It was delicious, but the servings are big enough to feed three people.

Yesterday we came into Roma to use the computers, but the library was closed due to the election. It is not easy to find an internet connection in these south Texan towns. Most citizens in Roma are Mexican and the signs on the stores are in Spanish only. There is a border crossing here and all along the highway you see border crossing guards checking for illegals attempting to cross over.

There are no more state parks from here to Brownsville, but apparently 500 RV parks. It seems to be a popular stretch to winter in. Guess that is where I will find myself shortly. Brenda has another 10 days here...I will sure miss her when she leaves.

Falcon State Park, Tx

Brenda and I returned from WalMart to find those small biting ants all over the kitchen. They were in the sink, on the floor, in the stove and in the cupboards. We were horrified to say the least. Fortunately, I have a small vacuum and I vacuumed up most of them. Brenda wiped them up with a damp rag. I then put a juice can and some banana outside and they seem to be leaving us alone for now. I also put some tea tree oil around the door and they don't seem to like it.

We are now in Falcon State Park. They have a butterfly garden here that is beautiful, with hundreds of butterflies on the various plants. Here is Brenda coming out of a little camouflage hut where, if you are very quiet, you can watch the birds.

This is the first state park with a restaurant so today while doing laundry we treated ourselves to breakfast. Last evening Brenda heard a live guitar, so checked it out. We spent a couple of hours playing guitar with this gentleman and his wife. It was great. They gave me some good ideas on where to winter. It is still very hot. I expect it will stay this way.

Laredo Nuevo, Mexico

Buenas tardes amigos,

Today Brenda and I went to Mexico, just walked across the bridge that crosses the Rio Grande River. I was looking for a small backpack, but they wanted more for them then I would pay in Canada. I finally found a place that had a small leather one for $8, so purchased that one. We ate lunch in a nice restaurant and it was cheap. I had a chicken salad and Brenda had French fries. We both had a bottle of water and the total came to

$4. Gas is now $1.68/gal.

It was very, very hot there and crowded. Basically it was the same as this side of the border. This side is pretty much all Mexican people. We are going to attempt to find a place that plays live music tonight and just relax with a corona or two. We sure seem to do a lot of relaxing. Our days are busy though. What usually takes the longest on the first day is finding a place to use my laptop. I can use it here at the library, but have to use their computers to check my email.

I sure appreciate having Brenda here to navigate around these larger centers. The problem is I am getting fat as she does the cooking and made a cheesecake the other day which is absolutely delicious.