A Peaceful Week So Far

 

All’s been quiet with our musical neighbors this week. Thanks for all the comments. At least we know we aren’t the only ones who think they’re out of line for playing outside. After much thought, Jim has decided if they have another jam session he is just going to talk to the guy alone before going to management. Hope it won’t come to that. For all we know, someone else complained first.

Sunday we rode our bikes around Bentsen State Park again. It was an active day for the birds. They especially seem to like these feeders with peanut butter in the holes.

 

These big, noisy chachalacas are so funny to watch.

But we especially got a kick out of this bicycle riding dog. Her name is Maggie, and she will only wear the glasses while they’re riding. Needless to say, she’s had her picture taken many times.

Jim went to Cinderella Pet Rescue on Monday to help me with the cats. He only found three he wanted to take home. They really liked his shoelaces.

Yesterday we met fellow bloggers Paul and Marsha of Where’s Weaver for lunch at BJ’s Brewhouse. They’re spending a couple months at a nearby RV park, and have been fulltiming for over 2 years with their cat, Bella. I knew we’d hit it off since they were cat people!  We had a great time talking with them, and hope we can get together again before we leave the area.

Jim is really getting into these PVC projects. We stopped at Home Depot yesterday after lunch so he could buy more to build a bike stand. Maybe now the wind won’t blow them over. It might be challenging finding a spot to store all these things he’s made when we get ready to leave, but they’re nice to have. And he only cut his finger once today while working on it.

We took another bike ride this afternoon. We’ve found a couple nice golf course communities we can ride to and get in a good ten to twenty mile or more ride without having to go on busy roads. That’s one reason we really like it here.

And tonight was Margarita hour at the clubhouse, always a good time. We ended up sitting around outside and talking with fellow Lazy Daze owners Bill and Tina from Maine, who came in over the weekend for a 3 week stay. We had met them once before in Albuquerque in 2009. That makes four Lazy Daze here in the park now. And we found out this week our friends Don and Dorothy from Montgomery will be here next month. We just may come back here next year, too.

What Would YOU Do?

 

Our next door neighbors moved in after Christmas, nice couple from Missouri. He’s a musician, and plays guitar on Tuesdays in the clubhouse jam session. Thursday after lunch we hear “mike check”, guitars tuning up, then country music (not our favorite). It is at this point we realize it’s coming from the site next to ours. Jim’s immediate reaction is to go to the office and see if we can change sites. I, being more level headed, suggest we wait and see if this is just a one time thing or a regular occurrence before we make waves. We go off on a bike ride and they’re finished when we get back.

Fast forward to yesterday afternoon. We rode bikes for a few hours and it was such a pleasant day we were looking forward to coming back and sitting outside to read. As we approached our site there is another jam session taking place. And this is amplified music, not just acoustic, so the sound can be heard all around the park. Several people bring chairs to sit and listen. We just get more irritated, go inside and shut the door. Jim decided he would talk to the guy later, but as he sat and fumed he decided to go to the office and talk to the manager. She was already gone for the day, so now he’s trying to decide how to approach the issue. Are we wrong to think this is inappropriate?

What would YOU do???

Since I didn’t take photos of the band, I’ll post a couple more cat pictures from Cinderella Pet Rescue. I haven’t learned all their names yet.

Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge

 

Yesterday we put the bikes on the car rack and drove 20 miles east to Santa Ana NWR. There is a paved 7 mile road to ride (no cars allowed) and lot of trails to walk. Too bad the website didn’t mention that biking wasn’t being allowed at this time due to construction. The volunteers said it could be another month or more, and they weren’t too happy about it, either.

This is a semi-tropical forest along the Rio Grande, with beautiful Spanish moss hanging from the trees. There are several small lakes and one of the trails went along the river for a short distance. This is another popular birding area, and we saw kiskadees, hawks, ducks and grebes, and several other birds we couldn’t identify.

We had fun climbing up to the 25 ft high swinging rope bridge, and the adjacent 40 ft observation tower. 

 

Didn’t get a picture of the tower but this is what we saw from it.

 

Also saw this tree with big berries or nuts. Not sure what it is.

 

Jim didn’t take many photos since there were lots of mosquitoes and we had to walk fast to keep them away. Even I got bit several times whenever we stopped. If they open the park for biking before we leave the area we would like to go back. We’ll be sure to bring the bug spray next time.

On another note, Jim got creative and built a ramp for our sewer hose, using a piece of plastic gutter and PVC for the supports. Much cheaper than the accordion-like plastic support you can buy and doesn’t look too bad.

I went to Cinderella Pet Rescue Monday and spent a few hours with the cats. This guy Sylvester is my favorite so far. He wouldn’t leave me alone and was sitting on my lap when I took his picture.

I can’t remember this cat’s name, but Jim liked the picture so I will share it.

We’ve been riding bikes almost every day and Jim is very happy to be on a recumbent again. And we love our new binoculars. Today at the state park we ran into one of our neighbors. They are serious birders and have $2000 binoculars! Carol wanted to see ours and she let us look through hers. I was almost afraid to touch them, since I tend to drop things a lot, but we both tried them and couldn’t really tell a huge difference although there must be. After looking through ours she said they were very nice for entry level binoculars. There were lots of birds today and we finally got to see the black-vented oriole that’s been hanging around. Didn’t get a picture though, since it only stayed a few seconds. Besides Jim needs a much longer zoom camera for good bird photos. Maybe one if these days.

On The Rio

 

We spent New Years Eve afternoon on a pontoon boat tour of the Rio Grande. It was partly cloudy and in the upper 70s, a perfect day out on the water. The park has a very nice pontoon boat, and Doug, one of the work campers, is the captain of the boat and takes people out for tours several days a week at $10 a person. There isn’t much along the river since this is mostly agricultural land.

Sugar cane, which will soon be harvested.

We saw lots of birds. Herons, kiskadees, ospreys, hawks and others.

There was a big flood a few years ago, which damaged most of the structures on the river.

A restaurant on the Mexican side.

Pepe’s on the US side. Apparently it was a very popular place.

The Riverside Club, which rebuilt after the flood.

Mexico has a lot of nice parks on the water.

And this place which was supposedly built by a drug cartel, but was taken over by the government and renovated after the flood.

Back to the US side, local history says President Zachary Taylor spent some time here during the Mexican-American War.

Chimney Park RV Resort. Some sites are on the river but it didn’t look that great.

After 3 hours on the river we arrived back at the park. There is a palapa on the water, and some of the people staying in the RV park had a big cookout, which everyone was invited to. We stopped by to watch them play some silly game.

 

Last night we watched a movie, then around 10 poured a glass of our Mexican B&B, and took a walk around the park. There was a dance at the clubhouse (we didn’t go), and it sounded like they were having a great time. Since it was sold out, a group of people had dinner, music and dancing at one of the several palapas. We stopped and talked to some people there, and strolled around looking at Christmas lights. It was so pleasant we brought Quincy out and sat outside for awhile. Somehow we even managed to stay up until midnight, something we haven’t done in years.

2011 wasn’t our best year on the road, with Jim’s gallbladder surgery in January, cataract surgery in March, and Oreo’s illness and death in August. We did have some good times, though, visiting with friends and family back east this fall. We’re hoping for a better 2012 and we wish everyone a happy, healthy New Year!

Cinderella Pet Rescue, Mission, TX

 

Pick me, no, pick me!  Aren’t they cute?

A number of people who winter at Bentsen Palm Village are volunteers at Cinderella Pet Rescue, a no-kill shelter just a few miles up the road from the park. Since we decided to stay until March, I thought I would like to volunteer to help with the cats. I went there today for the first time with a couple other volunteers who work with the dogs. I met Cory, the Friday cat volunteer, and she showed me what they do. Not too difficult, just check to see the cats have plenty of dry food and water, give them some canned food and clean the platter after they eat, scoop litter boxes, check the bedding for “accidents” and replace it with clean ones. The most important part of the job is to just spend time playing with and giving attention to the cats. Something I love to do!

I’d like to get Jim to come with me but he has such a soft heart when it comes to cats he’s afraid he’d want to adopt one.

 

Cat food always tastes better on a silver platter.

There are lots of dogs looking for good homes, too. Here are the volunteers taking the dogs out for a walk and some socialization.

Wouldn’t you like me to come live with you?

There are also horses and chickens. And like all animal shelters they are in need of volunteers, supplies and money.

I’ll be going back on Monday, which will be my regular day, since they had no Monday volunteers. I’m really looking forward to it.

Are You An eBookaholic?

 

I had to share this email exchange Jim had with our friend Debbie who got a Nook a few months ago. They make me laugh! Maybe some of your can relate. I still have bags of paperbacks to get through before I embrace this technology.

Hello, I am Jim and I am an ebookaholic and I can't stop. Please stop me before I download again.
Prior to getting the Kindle I thought I had researched the whole ebook thing but I had no idea there was all this free stuff out there. That book link I sent you to Hurt Machine, just finished it and it was an excellent book, in my opinion.
But I already have so many I am having a hard time keeping track.
I think I like managing my library with Calibre rather than Kindle PC software but not completely sure about that yet.
With the internet, pizza delivery and now this just call me Jabba. Thank God for Gayle or I would only see the  outdoors through the windows and when I have to dump the tanks.

Her reply:

Hi Jim!  I'm Debbie, and I'm an ebookaholic too!  I now have so many books downloaded that I need to live to be 100, or simply devote entire days (several per week) to doing nothing but reading...AND I CONTINUE TO DOWNOAD!!

Having the Nook I don't know anything about the Kindle software, but I do prefer Calibre to the B&N Nook software.

You have Gayle to make you stand up and move, and I have Elliot (that’s her dog) (although he's a bit less bossy - which is said with total love for Gayle).

Gotta go - I need to download Hurt Machine right this very minute!

Jim’s final reply:

Gonna start a 12 step program. Will get back to you, got to download some books on the subject.

So guess where we went the other day? To the wonderful new library in McAllen, where I checked out a couple Spanish books and Jim picked up two DVDs, and also signed up for a library card so he can download more ebooks!

He did get his bike fixed and is so happy to be back on a recumbent. Between reading and riding his bike, it’s gonna be really hard to get him to work on the things around the rig that need taking care of.

Back To Mexico

 

Jim had his final dental appointment in Nuevo Progreso today, so we put our quarters in the turnstile and hiked across the International Bridge.

It was a beautiful, sunny day in the 70’s, so after his appointment, which went well, we walked the streets and did some shopping. Jim got some Rx sunglasses a couple years ago in Palomas, MX, but after his cataract surgery in March he wasn’t able to use them anymore. He took them to a couple US optical shops but was told they were special order because they were curved lenses, and one shop gave him a price of $300 just for new lenses. Since he only paid $75 for the frames and lenses in Mexico, that was out of the question. The first place we came to today quoted him $45, and they even checked his prescription, which was pretty comical. I ended up trying to explain to the guy in Spanish how to do the exam, as he just would ask Jim if he could see when he put up different lenses. Anyway, he is able to see with them, and they had the lenses made in a half hour. Hard to understand why they couldn’t do it in the US.

We also bought some B&B liqueur for $21 a liter, an amazing price, even after adding another $3.75 that we had to pay to the state of Texas after crossing the border.

While Jim was having his crown put on, I walked the streets and took some pictures. Nuevo Progreso is such a colorful town, and the streets were bustling with tourists, mostly Americans like us.

Lots of pinatas.

New Orleans Pharmacy, just one of many. Not sure what is on the upper floors.

A bar and tattoo parlor right next to a dentist.

Colorful plaza with numerous dental offices just after crossing the border.

The nice thing about Progreso is the town appears to have outlawed begging on the streets, so you don’t get followed or accosted by kids asking for money, which happened in the other border towns we’ve visited. The only place you see them is under the bridge where they call out for change, which is much easier to ignore. Again, we felt perfectly safe, and the Mexicans seem happy to have us there and leave some of our dollars in their country.

Adios for now.