Rio Grande Valley - 08 - 3 Visits to the Hardware Store

I didn't mention in yesterday's post that we rode our bikes about 10 to 15 miles. So, we slept very good last night and didn't get up until 8:30 today. The morning temperature was an ideal 71 so we decided to take a walk along the beach.

Upon our return I thought I would look into the dampness that we had noticed in the bathroom. No it wasn't caused by me missing the pot. It didn't take long to discover that I would have to remove it to determine the cause. To make a long store short it took almost 4 hours to tear it apart, find the leak, make 3 trips to the hardware store, reassemble the toilet and test it. It appears to be working, we'll know more tomorrow.

Rio Grande Valley - 08 - South Padre Arrival

We headed out at 9:30 this morning. South Padre is about 50 miles west of where we were staying in Mercedes. Our new location is Isla Blanca County Park campground at the southernmost end of the island. There are over 500 sites and we are right on the Gulf of Mexico. We managed to get the second row and have a beautiful view of the dunes and the water out of our front and side windows.

This afternoon we dropped the top on the jeep and headed north up the island towards the dunes. The road is only about 10 miles long, but the island and dunes go on for 50 miles or more. We took an access road to the beach that led us to the gulf side. We thought for a moment about heading further north along the water but decided to turn south instead.

About a mile down the beach we began seeing the spring breakers and locals with their cars parked facing the water. There were entire families with tents setup, grills cooking all kinds of foods and music playing for the next 4-5 miles. There was just enough room between them and the water for us to drive by. We drove for close to 30 minutes before we got to the next access road to the highway

Several of our neighbors at the previous campground gave us recommendations for restaurants on South Padre. Tonight we selected Louie's Backyard and we were not disappointed. It's located right on the bay and from the upstairs dining room we watched the sun drop behind horizon. Kathy had a Parmesan encrusted salmon dinner and I had their famous rack of ribs.

Rio Grande Valley - 08 - Prepare for S. Padre

Tomorrow we head for S. Padre Island for 8 days of camping on the beach at the county park. We visited the park a couple of weeks ago during a day trip to the area. We're looking forward to walking the beach and taking in the sights.

I had a number of things to do before we depart and first on my list was to replace the door hinge that arrived via UPS yesterday. You will recall on the trip down here that the wind swept the door handle out of my hand and bent the hinge. In the process it popped the screw heads on 6 of the 10 screws hols it to the door. Removing the hinge was pretty straight forward, the hard part was drilling and tapping new holes. It's all fixed now and the door works great.

Rio Grande Valley - 08 - 100 Degree Rodeo

The temperature hit 100 today in the valley and it's a new record. The average temperature for this time of year is the high 70's to low 80's. Fortunately the relative humidity was a very low 7%.

Following tennis in the morning and the pool in the afternoon we headed back to the fair to take in the evening rodeo. Prior to the start we stopped by to see the FFA cattle judging. Some of these cows were pushing these kids around the arena.

This was the first Rodeo we have ever attended and really didn't know what to expect. The Rodeo started with a dozen gals on horses riding around the arena with changing formations and weaving in an out of each other at high speeds.

The first event was a bronc bustin competition. Some of the cowboys were locals but most were professions who follow the circuit. We never did figure out the scoring except you had to stay on the horse and keep your free hand in the air until the buzzer sounded. Next was the calf roping where they timed how long it took you rope a calf, upend it and tie 3 legs. There where a couple of other events that were somewhat similar. In between events they drug the arena dirt with a tractor and the gals on horses preformed riding tricks.
There were also clowns in the arena telling corny jokes over the P.A. and music between each of the rides. They also had events for the kids. One was a Mutton riding contest for kids age 4-9. They would dress these kids up in chest protectors and helmets, then lay the kid on the back of the lamb, holding onto to the wool and let the lamb run. The kid that held on the longest won!

Rio Grande Valley - 08 - Average Day

Not much to report on today. I played tennis with the group this morning. I'm really going to miss not playing every morning when we head out on Sunday for S. Padre Island. Maybe I'll find a pickup game at the courts on Padre.

We ate at an excellent Mexican restaurant last night. We both chose the enchilada platter and we were not disappointed. There were large chunks of chicken and the red sauce was the best I have ever tasted. I had gotten a tip on this restaurant from a couple that plays tennis with us each morning. We told them how disappointed we were with the Mexican restaurants we had experienced and that we had better Mexican meals in Des Moines.

Rio Grande Valley - 08 - Mercedes Livestock Show and Rodeo

The weather was gorgeous this morning as well headed out to play tennis. Unfortunately both of us should have stayed home. I played terrible, I was always a half a step behind. And Kathy's ankle, the one she broke last year, started bothering her so she quit after 1/2 hour. Oh well, at least we got some exercise.

This afternoon we headed to the Mercedes Rodeo. It was a lot like our state fair but much smaller. Of course there was a lot of animals in the competitions.







There was also a number of entertainers. The gals in the photo below are originally from SW Iowa, but currently traveling the country performing a show call "Wacky Women of the West"



The food at the fair or Rodeo as they call it in Texas is pretty much the same as the Iowa State Fair. We loaded up on junk food, soda and root beer floats and headed over to watch the kids compete in the Barrel Racing event. Believe or not there was a little 4 year old girl racing in the 0-7 class.

Rio Grande Valley - 08 - An Ordinary Day

Sort of a standard day today. I played tennis with the group in the morning and Kathy worked out at the health club. This afternoon I spent some time at the wood shop sanding my table. I think I've got it all ready to stain when I return home next month. I plan on trying to match the cherry cabinetry in our motorhome.

This evening we headed to Harlingen to catch a movie. We decided on "The Other Boleyn Girl". It was the only movie with a decent rating we haven't seem. It was the story of Ann Boleyn, King Henry's mistress and later his wife for whom he broke away from the Catholic Church and formed the Church of England. It was a very good movie.

The temps were in the mid 70's today, tomorrow the forecast is for the 80's and Friday's the 90's.

Rio Grande Valley - 08 - Table Assembly

(Note:I finally got the photos to publish for the last 3 days. Scroll down to view them. You can enlarge any photo by clicking on it.)

Another morning of tennis for the two of us. It's been nice getting the exercise in the morning to get us going. Maybe I'll lose a couple of pounds. The group I play with only had 2 extras this morning so I played pretty much 2 hours straight.

I headed back to the wood shop this afternoon to assemble the table I'm building. You may recall it's a sort of drop leaf coffee table. As you can see, both sides of the table collapse down towards the center so the table can be easy stowed while in transit. Here are a couple of shots to show how it works.

Rio Grande Valley - 08 - Outlet Mall

The change over to daylight saving time last night didn't take away an hour of sleep from us. We slept in till 9am. So the morning went real fast.

Kathy finally broke down and decided to check out the big outlet mall down the street from us. I'm surprised it took her 3 weeks to get there. I ended up going with her and bought a couple of pair of much needed Dockers and several shirts. Kathy found two of her favorite stores and traded dollars for garments.

This evening we decided to take in the resort's entertainment. The show was titled "Tucker's Little Bit of Branson" and was really pretty good. Tucker has a deep and powerful voice and sang mostly country songs from the 50's and early 60's. In between songs he had the audience laughing at his boyhood stories and anecdotes.

Rio Grande Valley - 08 - Classic Car Show

We sure got our exercise this morning. First we played singles tennis for a little over an hour. Kathy's got her form back and is hitting the ball very solid. She's not going after the difficult ones because she doesn't want to put any unnecessary strain on her back. For the remainder of the morning we road our bikes around the entire complex covering each of the more than 30 streets.

This afternoon we headed over to Mission Texas(about 20 miles)to attend the valleys biggest classic car show. We weren't disappointed; there were over 100 classics cars on display. Here are a couple of our favorites.

Kathy's favorite was the white '56 Corvette. I overheard the owner saying he had won every car show he had ever entered. I'm not sure what it's value was, but I bet it's in the $40-50,0000 range.

In addition to car accessory booths, displays and food there was some great 60's music being played by a one man band with a synthesizer. He had a Frankie Valle type of voice.


Late Saturday afternoon we decided to attend mass at Our Lady of Guadalupe, a beautiful church built in 1925. They have 7 masses on Saturday and Sunday to accommodate the high number of winter Texans.
Following dinner we put on our dancing shoes and headed down to the recreation complex for the evening dance. They had a great band "Jealous Heart" that play a good variety of music. We had a good time dancing the Texas Two Step and got a chance to practice the line dancing from the lessons we've been taking every Tuesday. These dances are very popular and tonight was no exception. We estimate there were 250-300 people at tonight's dance and as you can see from the photo they all come to dance.

Rio Grande Valley - 08 - A Cold Day in the Valley

The cold front came through here last night. By morning the temperature had dropped into the low 50's and the winds picked up to 20-30. The cold weather scarred away the tennis group that was scheduled to play this morning. I was the only one that showed up.

Kathy continued her work on shortening the front drapes while I headed to the wood working shop to sand the table I'm building. I hope to assemble the table next Monday and shoot some photos for the blog.

Rio Grande Valley - 08 - Maintenance Day

Not much going on today. This morning, Kathy played tennis with the B group and I played with the A group.



Following lunch, Kathy shortened the drapes that cover the front windshield when we're camped. For some reason they were 7 inches too long and drug on the dashboard. I on the other hand spent the day washing and waxing the motorhome. I'm about 80% done.

We had a beautiful day today, temps in the mid 80's. About 50 miles north and throughout the rest of the state it rained off and on. Tonight it's suppose to turn colder and drop temps into the 50's. Tomorrow the high will only be in the 60's By Saturday it's suppose to go back into the high 70's.

Wow! These cold fronts are tough!

Rio Grande Valley - 08 - Just Another Day

Not a lot going on today. I played tennis with the A group this morning. Kathy thought I was too good to be playing with the B group that I played with yesterday. This group was much better, they all hit the ball very solid. I held my own, but I'm still pretty rusty.



Following tennis we headed for the line dancing lessons that we began last week. We went over the same 4 dances that we learned last week. We are both doing better than we did last week. I guess it's true that repetition is the key to learning.




After lunch Kathy worked on the plants and seed trays she began last week. The large plant is a "Bird of Paradise". Her goal is to have the sprouting seedlings ready to transplant into her flower garden when we return. We finished the day with a trip to the pool and dinner at Big Daddy's, a local barbecue restaurant.

Rio Grande Valley - 08 - Repair Day

Following our morning Spanish lesson, Kathy talked me into playing tennis with a group that gets together every morning. There are usually about 12-14 people that show up to play doubles. After each game you rotate on to the next position until you reach the serve court. Following each game a new person from the side of the court rotates in and the server rotates out. It works out great because you usually get several minutes of rest following the 4 games you played. Also, with two courts playing at a different pace, it changes the court you play on and you get to play with a variety of partners. The group played for about 2 hours before breaking up for lunch.

After lunch it was time to tackle the repair of the awning that had come out on our trip down here two weeks ago. The inner spring that keeps the awning rolled up while you travel broke and allowed the fabric to unroll and eventually rip. Kathy was able to repair the rip and I found a new spring at a local flea market. The big challenge was figuring out how to put it back together and place the proper torque on the awning without hurting myself.

As with any project, there is always a number of people around help and to give advice. Today was no exception. The fellow on the furthermost ladder in the photo was Pat. Three days ago Pat and Ken (closest ladder) had repaired the awning on Pat's motorhome. Pat's had ripped and he had to remove it to have it sewn. Fortunately we learned a couple of tricks that helped us today.

Rio Grande Valley - 08 - Wood & Sun

Not a lot going on today so I headed to wood shop to work on my folding table project. The picture you see below is the table turned upside down. The center leg frame will be mounted to the center portion of the table. The other two frames will be connected to the side of the center frame with a continuous hinge. When not in use the side frames will swing to the middle frame and the table top which is cut in half, will drop down on either side of the frames for storage.

Today I routed a 1/4 radius around the three frames. Then I cut the table top you see in the photo in half. Next I rounded the edges of both ends of the table and then I routed a 1/4 radius around the entire perimeter of the table top. I'll shoot some photos of the projects current status tomorrow when I head back to the shop.

Around mid-afternoon, Kathy and I headed to the pool to soak up some rays. The temperature that had risen to the mid 80"s earlier began to fall into the 70's while we were at the pool. A cold front was sweeping down into Texas and even snow was being predicted for northern Texas. Fortunately for us the temperature only dipped to the low 70's hear in the valley. Later this evening its suppose to fall as low as 50, with a high tomorrow of only 70. We'll probably have to put on a sweater tomorrow morning.

Rio Grande Valley - 08 - Sunday: A Day of Rest

Yesterday's parade, exploring Padre Island, dinner out and dancing for the evening took its toll on us. We're certainly not as young as we use to be.

Today was our day of rest. Following breakfast we attended a beautiful church service at The Basilica of Our Lady of San Juan.

This beautiful church and national shrine was built in 1980 to replace the original structure that was destroyed when a plane flew into it in 1970. The basilica holds over 1800 people. Rather than the typical organ and choral group the 10:30 mass had a 12 piece singing Mariachi band that was incredible.



Our rest for the remainder of the day was sunning ourselves by the pool soaking up the 81 degree sunshine, reading a novel and listening to jazz.

Rio Grande Valley - 08 - Charro Parade

Wow! Today was a busy day!

For the last week we have taken it pretty easy. Today thought, we decided to head for the Charro Parade in Brownsville. We heard you have to get there early to reserve a seat. We arrived about 9:30 for the 12pm parade. The parade route is lined with two rows of folding chairs that are sold by various charitable organizations for $3. We bought 2 chairs and they placed our names on them so we could return after wondering through the stores along the route.

The parade started promptly at noon and boy were we glad we had a reserved seat. The crowd quickly grew to 4 deep behind us. As you can see from the photo above many in the crowd dressed for the occasion.

Many of the horseman had their horses well trained to prance,walk side ways and even jump. Of course the music was great with several Mariachi bands playing from their floats.

No parade would be complete without a beer float and a couple of pretty dancing girls for all the young guys to cheer at. Miller, Tecate and Dos Quis all parcipated in this years parade.


Following the parade we decided to visit Padre Island. We plan on heading there with the RV around the middle of the month to enjoy the beach and surroundings.
While exploring we stopped at "Dirty Al's to celebrate our friend Al Reiff's birthday. We called him to ask if he wanted to join us. Unfortunately he couldn't join us on such late notice. Too bad, he would have enjoyed this place. I'm sure we'll stop back on our return visit to the island. Our friends Sheila and Bev had told us what a great place it was to have drinks and food.

As if the day wasn't full enough we decided to head to the dance at our RV resort. We arrived a little late, and the overflow crowd was already dancing to the tunes of "Jealous Heart". They are a local band that play a diverse mixtures of music from country to rock.

Rio Grande Valley - 08 - Tennis?

Last week Kathy bought some seeds and trays to get a head start on growing some flowers for our garden at home. This morning as she began planting the seeds, our new neighbor came over to talk with her. Peggy is a master gardener and new she would have a friend in Kathy. While they were talking her husband John stopped by to introduce himself. John and Peggy, like us retired 2 years ago. They have a Monaco motorhome that they bought new in 1998, so we had a lot to talk about. John worked for the Secret Service and the FBI and Peggy for a pharmaceutical company. We had so much to talk about that before we new it the morning was over. It's always fun meeting new people.

After lunch we decided to break out the tennis racquet's and see if we could still hit the ball around. I had a chance to play twice last year in Key West with Betty Gordon. Prior to that neither Kathy nor I had played in close to 20 years. It took a while but the game slowly came back to both of us. After about 90 minutes we were pretty tired so we decided to head for the recreation hall to listen to the jam session that was getting ready to start.

Each week interested musicians get together to play for 2 hours. The public is always invited and the turnout today was quite large, at least 50-60. The picture above only shows a handful of the musicians who participated but there were at least 20 people who joined in at one time or another. The music was as varied as it can get. Of course there was country as can be seen above, but there was also rock'n'roll, jazz and big band. Some of it was quite good and some needed help. There were even people from the audience who came up to sing.


Tomorrow we head into Brownsville to the Charro Festival. It's the biggest festival of the season.

Rio Grande Valley -08 - A Day In Progreso Mexico

Following a morning of working in the wood shop and Kathy at the Fitness Center we decided to head to the border town of Progreso Mexico.

Our campground is about 5 miles north of the Mexican border. It's not a very busy border crossing so it didn't take long. We parked our jeep next to the international bridge in a secure lot for $2. After paying a pedestrian bridge fee of $.25 we walked the 300 foot bridge across the Rio Grande that separates the U.S. from Mexico.
Kathy on the International Bridge overlooking the Rio Grande

There were no Mexican immigration officials checking our credentials. I guess they let anyone into the country, at least through this entry point. The first officials we saw were the military guards with AK-47's in their hands standing on top of a military vehicle overlooking the area.

There were a multitude of shops along the main street as well as street vendors walking with jewelry, toys, etc. The vendors weren't too pushy until you started to take an interest in an item. We bought a couple of items in the stores and from the street vendors. You hate to bargain too much, thought it's expected, because of the poverty here. We stopped for a couple of cervezas (beers) and a snack when we got tired of walking. The temperature was great, about 75, but the wind was pretty strong.

Crossing back in the U.S. took a bit longer. We paid the 300 pesos bridge fee, walked back across the bridge, and were met by 4 immigration officials who checked our passports and asked what we had to declare. When I was asked I said "My wife".

Rio Grande Valley - 08 - Line Dancing

I told many of you that this was not going to be a trip like the others we have taken. On those trips we visited lots of places and pretty much stayed on the go visiting a new location every day or two. This trip is essentially a one location vacation in a warm climate. For the most part we are hanging around the resort and participating in the daily activities.

Today we enrolled in the "Line Dancing" class. Line dancing is very big here in South Texas. This is a photo of the beginners group, there are twice as many in the intermediate group, close to 100. Here again, as in the Spanish class, we are jumping in at about the mid-point of the lessons. The instructor was great. He saw that we were new to the group and paid a little of extra attention to us. We learned 3 new line dances. Two of them we picked up pretty fast, but one was very difficult. Kathy did better than me, I struggled a bit. There is a big line dancing party on March 19th we plan on attending.

Later in the afternoon, we moved our motorhome to a new site, in the same resort. The first site was only open for 5 days. The new site, which was not available when we arrived, is open for the remainder of the season. It didn't take long to make new friends of our neighbors. Bill, behind us was repairing his slide out awning and I offered to give him a hand. Of course it didn't take long for the other neighbor to come out and offer us a drink.

I like this place!!!