Don't back into the border patrol's gate!

Journal Entry by LULU

I am sitting under an orange tree ion Pharr, Texas. The wind is picking up to near tornado strength and I can hear the thunder in the distance. It is my turn to pick up the pen and tell you about all the exciting events and how we ended up back in Texas.  It was on a Friday on the 6th of July that we left Donna Texas. The moment that we have been waiting for since we began our RV journey just over a year ago. So, with as much toilet paper, paper towels, peanut butter, bug spray and so many other products that we stocked up on because we were told it would be hard to get or expensive in Mexico. Little did we know that we would also be on that list.

RV Park in Pharr, TX Orange trees in all sites.

HEATED pool in 100 degree weather.

No oranges in our tree.

We had a great stay at the Magnolia RV Park in Donna, Texas the week before. We spent the 4th of July with about 20 other summer residents and were able to entertain them for their cookout.  Like all the other parks we have visited, we met some great people and made some new friends. We made our heartbreaking good-byes and headed to the border.

Lulu finds a victim. Fred!!

Small group but fun. Last dance with LULU.

Tony was the 4th of July cook.

These guys were in the trees.

Magnolia RV Park

Sign posted on US side at Falcon Lake.

Surprise!! This is in the U.S.A., not Mexico.
The floor of Falcon Lake, Zapata, TX.
About 20 feet below level.

Al has spent countless days and nights on the internet doing research and communicating with people already in Mexico. He has compiled a list of  all the best methods, roads, tolls and towns to drive through and which places to avoid. So we headed to the Anzalduas International Bridge crossing in Reynosa, Mexico. We were privileged to be one of the first people to cross through this brand spanking new facility. The place was still shiny and clean and still smelled like fresh paint. Hardly anyone was there, because it did not even look like it was open to traffic.  Construction on the U.S. side in McAllen, Texas made it almost impossible to locate and barely accessible to enter. Therefore, it was an exciting and historical moment to see the sign “Entering Mexico”.   But have you ever noticed that the U.S. sign says “Welcome to the United States”? There are no welcome signs in Mexico.

So began our 9-hour ordeal. From 11;30am until 9:30pm, we paced and walked and followed two stone faced Mexican customs (ADUANA) agents back and forth from building to buildings and office to office. Our first escort was from our original crossing at Anzalduas to another crossing, about 20 minutes away at the Amanecer crossing near Pharr, Texas. One of the bridges that we were told to avoid because of traffic and because of the difficulty we would have had in getting on the freeway to our Mexican destination. It looked like the only Mexican ancient ruins were going to see on this day were the slums of Reynosa.

Brand new gate.

Not a scratch on it.

That is until AL got to it.

All of  this attention was not because we had the wrong paperwork or because AL forgot to leave behind one of his many firearms but because the Free Spirit got hung up on a “tope” (speed bump), just past the security gate on the Mexico side. Apparently the truck and RV began to rock and roll back and forth, just enough to bend the security gate arm back about 6 inches. We were not told this until a couple of hours later. We thought we were waiting to be inspected, since we got the “RED LIGHT”, and Al was inside another building taking care of some paperwork. While parked at the first bridge, we were told that we were waiting for the boss man from the other bridge to come and investigate. However, after no one showed up for a couple of house, we ended up following the lit up police car to the other bridge. So we got the full escort, with a cruiser in front, and an agent in the front seat. Once at the Amanacer crossing, we got in to the police car and taken to HQ. I had never been in a police car before, never mind the back seat. At least Molly was with us.

Our Mexican auto insurance adjuster arrived and we are told we are all set, but a minute later, we told nope. Mais uno minuto. (One more minute). Actually, it was many more minutos because no one knew what they were doing. Hours later, after Molly and I started eating the tuna salad I had packed up for the trip, before it went bad, and without any other food or water, it looks like we may be able to leave. Nope. So sorry. Mais uno minuto.

We were in a two story building with hundreds of people, most of them women. And when I ask to use a bathroom, they say, so sorry, no public bathrooms. More waiting. More tears and Al starts to get impatient. Now the insurance person tells us that they offered to pay for the damage, but the “Aduana” will not accept his word. Instead, they want cash or they will have to impound our vehicle until it is paid, maybe by Monday? It is now 8pm on Friday night.

Finally, someone comes up with paperwork. Now they hit us with a $23,000 peso bill, about $1,500, CASH!! So much for our emergency money that we had put away.  However, it is now getting dark, and we are no longer interested in driving in to Mexico. We pay our bill and back to Texas we go. I have written lyrics to a new song, and it goes..”I am proud to be an American, where at least I now I’m free, But, don’t go in to Mexico, if you ever have to pee….” It was a very stressful, discouraging moment and had us thinking twice about what we were doing.

But now after a few days of re-grouping and looking back, and after many encouraging and positive posts from our Mexican RV friends, I can look back and see that this was not the normal routine. It was an unfortunate accident that my driver was to blame for, whether we like it or not, and, the delay was not done on purpose, but was because they had two young agents that were not familiar with their procedures. Throughout the day, we could see the frustration in their faces, as they were given the runaround by their superiors.


At the start of my journey I wrote that I will not fret over tangled Christmas lights or lost luggage. So, for now, my heart sinks back in to place and AL is back on the internet re-routing our journey. New plans are underway and we hope to re-enter Mexico without any problems very, very soon. We still have our health and happiness and we will pray for that other world that we wait for where we all live in peace as one. Stay with us… Go West…. Or South??  Or is that East? Thank you GPS? No, but rather, ....thank you GOD!!!

We were told that diesel was cheaper in Mexico.

Lulu

The chapel at RV Park in Pharr, TX

Saying Good-bye to Texas

 Hello friends, It seems like it has been such a long time since we have updated our blog. And I apologize for that, but these last few weeks has not been much going on, except for just catching up on every day, mundane, routine matters. We really haven’t gone on any special trips, been anywhere out of the ordinary and have not been sightseeing.  I did, however, fly out to Florida earlier this month, to visit my doctors and take care of a couple of maintenance issues back at our condo in Holiday (where they are having some viscous weather these days, and we are praying for everyone to come out of it very soon). We had a leak in our bathroom that stained the first floor ceiling and then, while I was there, the upstairs toilet bit the dust, and I ended up having to replace the entire bowl.

Tahitian Gardens Pool, Holiday, FL

Water Stain on Ceiling

Best I could do for now

 I never worked so hard and so fast in such little time. I repaired a 6’ x 2’ ceiling, replaced the entire toilet bowl, saw three doctors, dropped off my prescriptions and flew roundtrip from Harlingen, Texas to Tampa, Florida, all in four days. I did not sleep much, since I was determined to get my repair job done before leaving. So, I stayed up late and got up early, every day. And then, I cleaned the entire apartment when I was done. Right up until the last minute. Afterwards, I was a hurting man for the next couple of weeks, because my body is just not used to doing that kind of hard labor. But, it’s done and I went a few hundred dollars less this month. I still have a vacant 2-bedroom apartment that is remains for rent. See my blog page on it at www.HolidayFlorida.blogspot.com . This is only for someone we know as we will not rent out to the public, unless they come highly recommended by someone we know. So, we don’t advertise. If you are reading this, then you are most likely in our circle of friends, so if you are interested in the condo, we can get you in there for a very good price.

When I said that we haven’t had much excitement, I guess I was being a
 little reserved about it, because we did have a couple of unexpected  incidents that surprised us in different ways.  Our first curve ball was having a tire blow out on us while coming back home from church on Memorial Day weekend. We were not going more than 40 or 50 miles an hour, and on a secondary road, when the tread came off the rear dually tire and damaged the driver side rear fender. This little incident caused nearly $2,500 in damage and another $800 in new tires.  To add insult to injury, we were without a truck for 4 days.

If you know me, then you know that I always look at everything as a blessing from God. Regardless of what it may be, I think that God does things for a reason. No matter what we may think, there is a reason for EVERYTHING. Unfortunately, we do not possess the intelligence to understand what it is that God is trying to do for us. Then, sometimes we do, or at least, God makes it so that we know why or what God is trying to do.  In this tire incident, we already knew that we needed 4 rear tires, but we were not ready financially, so we were holding off for the following month to do it. But, God had different plans for us. He wanted me to take care of it NOW.

Thanks to American Express, I had 30 days to pay for my new tires. Then, PEP Boys gave me a rebate of the cost of one tire. So, that brought my balance down to $600. My auto insurance company gave me almost $2,000 to fix my fender with all new parts. I found a body shop that repaired the damage for about a third of the price, without having to buy a new $1,000 fender. Now, I had enough to pay off AMEX, and had money left over to help pay for the repairs that I had done to the Florida condo. Whether or not this was God’s plan, it makes sense to me. It all worked out in the end.

The other unexpected incident was the passing of our 80 year old neighbor here at the Anglers Nest RV Park. Tom and his wife Marlys, are full-time residents here and we are only about 100 feet away from their trailer. There are three other families here, but us being the closest, received a phone call from Marlys at about 2am to ask for our help in picking up her husband who had fallen on the way to the bathroom. He was not feeling well that night, and had not been feeling himself for a few days. After seeing Tom again later that morning, he passed away while taking a nap later that afternoon. Lulu had never been exposed to someone passing away like this, so although she handled it well, it was a new and wearisome experience. Fortunately, I have seen this hundreds of times in my career, so I was easily able to help out, and knew what to expect. Ambulance, police, detectives, medical examiners and funeral homes all come in and out of the house, and some have little or no sensitivity when dealing with these situations. It seems that no one ever really takes the time to sit down and explain to the family why they do it the way they do, or what they will be doing and why.

During my police career, I always took the time to sit with the family and explain what the next few hours would entail. They needed to know why we had to have a detective there, and sometimes taking photographs, and why the ambulance could not take the body, and why the medical examiner had to be involved, and sometimes brought down, etc….. Most likely, it is usually the first time someone has gone through this, so they don’t know why all of this activity is needed, and it can make it very traumatizing for anyone that loses a loved one. I rarely see someone take the time to explain what the procedure is. I always thought that police and EMS need to take the time to explain this when they have this kind of call
Once again, God made sure that we were around at this moment and to help out Marlys and provide the assistance, comfort and consoling that can be so lacking during these times. To make things more difficult for the widow, was that Marlys had just gotten released from the hospital after major surgery. So, she was in no condition to be doing many of the things that she needed to get done. Marlys is a strong woman, and handled the entire situation very well, but she was still alone, with all her family in a different state and with no friends nearby. For some reason, we were there to fill in and we were happy to have helped out.

So that has been our excitement for the last couple of months. Now, we are preparing for our next journey, and that is still going to be Mexico. If all goes well, we may be leaving on July 1 or 2.  Since we have been in Texas, I have been able to do my homework on all this Mexican violence that everyone keeps talking about. We have met some wonderful people on the internet that have been living in Mexico, and they have given us some great advice. They also have become our first hand accounts of what is going on in Mexico. These folks are experienced RV travelers that continue to drive the highways and bi-ways of Mexico, and they have never experienced any violence against them. I’ll be posting another section on this subject in a separate post.
Most of the cartel violence is concentrated in the Northern border states of Mexico, so, we intend to getting past the territories within a few hours and should be outside the drug cartels trade zone within a day. We have no intentions on stopping anywhere along the way.  Our first stops will be along the Mexican highland interior where the temperatures are a little cooler than it is here in Texas, and milder than the Mexican beaches. We are making our way to the outskirts of Guadalajara and then to Valle de Juarez, just South of Lake Chapala, Mexico’s largest lake and the highest concentration of Americans and Canadians. We should be at Hacienda Contreras by around September 1st and remain there until December or January, when we will head to the West Coast beaches and slowly make our way North to Arizona by next fall. Of course, all this is subject to change, depending on what we like or dislike.

Our communications will be limited, since our Verizion cel phone will work in Mexico, but will run about one dollar a minute. We will be getting an internet card once get in Mexico, which I believe is about $20 a month and has 2.5 gb per month. I have no idea how much that will take care of, especially since we will be using skype as a phone. Of course we will be checking out their cel phone plans and looking at our  options there as well.

We are packing up and getting ready to leave Angler’s Nest where we have made a home for the last four months. This small, 60-unit adult only RV park, is almost like a small neighborhood that is made up of all family members. And, although the park is a little tight, the residents and owners are the best people anyone would want to have as neighbors. Even though we really have nothing to complain about, it is time to move on, and start exploring other places. We leave the Nest with great memories and new friendships.
We will probably just move to another RV park nearby, that is closer to the bridge we will be crossing on Monday.
We recently had a tarantula move in to our site yard. He has dug himself a little trench and occasionally he will stick out his little head. He only does this at night, and he is very quick to duck back inside his hole if he senses us nearby, or if we shine any light on his home. He is the coolest thing. When you have never seen something like this before, it is very exciting to see.



The only other thing going on is my recent bout with back pain. Since we came back from Florida in January, I had been getting some very severe pain down my back, in to my hips and down the back of both legs. I visited a local chiropractor in town, used back braces, did my stretching exercises, and applied heat and ice, and heat and ice. And, none of these things helped. What did help, was Lulu’s idea of placing some extra support under the sheets on my side of the bed. Eventually, we purchased a very firm 3” sponger bed topper, and since then, my pain has gone down substantially.

I'm not a specialist. If you can read this, send me an email

What is interesting is that my recent MRI shows two new disc herniation and additional disc degeneration, since my last MRI nearly 10 years ago. So, I don’t get it. The doctor didn’t think that the mattress played too much of a role in my recent pain. But, I have to admit, that since changing my sleeping surface, it is almost like nothing had ever happened.

Boca Chica Beach, Brownsville, TX, earlier this month

Oh yeah, and I almost forgot to mention that we put on the Anglers Nest very FIRST pool party. The only 10 people left in the park, and two grandchildren all met under the clubhouses canopy and shared some KFC food and several deserts. And, the highlight of the event was the child’s inflatable 4 foot wide pool. You can see by the photos that we had a blast.

Molly doing what she does best!

And, I guess that’s it for now. Lulu hasn’t had any gigs in this area, since most, if not all of the venues, are closed or have suspended their entertainment until the fall. Molly is doing OK. She has been on her meds that control her heart condition, fluids and thyroid. She now has cataracts, but we can’t find glasses to fit her, so she will just have to get by without.




God Bless you all and we will be back soon.

Learning in Texas

I learn something new all the time. Such as not knowing how hot Texas really was. I feel that this area is pretty darn close to the temperatures in Florida. I have not found much of a difference with the humidity levels, although, I don’t think I will be here long enough to tell how much of a difference there is between the two states.  As for me, when it boils down to what is better or what is worse, hot is hot, humid or not. If it is 95 degrees, you are going to know it is 95 degrees. And I wouldn’t care if it is a dry 95 or  humid 95. It is going to feel HOT!!

Nopal cactus in bloom.
They use this cactus as a vitamin. Good for diabetes,
blood pressure and digestive problems.

We will be staying in the “Rio Grande Valley”  (RGV) of Texas for about another month. The Rio Grande Valley (RGV) is at the Southern-most end of Texas, by the Rio Grande and just North of the Mexican border. The spring weather is HOT!@!@  We have had steady 80 to 90 degree weather just about every day with very little rain. The wind is usually blowing strong, which I believe is ideal weather. We have the summer heat and sun, mixed with a strong breeze that seems to cool things off.  Just stay out of the direct sun and the wind will make things cooler. Most of the time, we have our windows open or we hang out in our screen house. Mosquitos and other flying insects are a constant annoyance, but with the appropriate treatment like sprays, lights or candles, they seem to stay away.

They have not taken down the sign, but this still is up on Highway 281.

Speaking of staying away, I have also learned that the RGV is just about abandoned by its’ winter residents. Our RV Park is almost empty. Most of the people that were here have packed up and gone back North. Most of them come down here just for the winter season and have a base home somewhere North of Texas. They come from cold weather states like Minnesota, Wisconsin and as far as Canada. So, unlike us, they only come here for a few months to get away from the cold weather. Although some residents bring down their RV’s and trailers, several residents do not even own one, but instead, will rent a trailer here in the park, and have been doing so for many years, returning every winter.


We have been told that 60% of the winter residents in the RGV are “Winter Texans”.  Meaning that they live elsewhere and only come here for the winter. They are Florida’s equivalent to the “Snowbird”. But, unlike Florida, this area becomes almost like a ghost town, with many businesses and events closing for the summer. For example, the American Legion in Mercedes, Texas, where Lulu sang at during their Friday night fish fry, was full to capacity not long ago, but now, they remain closed until the Winter Texans return in the fall. The Don West Flea Market in Donna, Texas, also closed their gates in April.  Just the other day, this spot was crawling with bargain- hunter’s 3-days a week. And, we recently returned to Progresso, Mexico, which depend heavily on the money-spending American and Canadian tourists, that visit their small town every day to buy medicine, souvenirs and get their teeth, fingers and toes worked on. Now, all you see is desperate business owners trying to lure whoever walks by in to spending just a few dollars. The streets are nowhere near what it was a few months ago.

Little Mexican Texans waiting to pee.

A big Mexican Texan waiting to eat.

It has been a couple of months since we arrived in this area, and we do not regret our decision. It was a last minute move, because we had not decided if we would have continued West on I-10 and travel in to Nevada, or drive South in to the warmer weather. Of course, the warm weather prevailed and we made the call only 4 weeks prior to arriving. I had expected that we would have been too late to get a spot, but we were very fortunate to wind up at the Anglers Nest RV Park. We got our warm weather, and we met some of the nicest people in the country. Normally, this entire area is booked solid for the entire winter season.
Another thing that I learned was the number of RV parks in this area along with the number of “winter Texans” that spend time here. Of course, they all need to be entertained, and I quickly learned that there were many, many “entertainers” in this area, and that they have all gorged up all of the venues for the entire season, leaving us very little to pick from. Lulu only performed a couple of gigs, and they were right here, in this little, 60-site, no- frills park. Fortunately, they residents were very generous and made it a worthwhile gig, and, we got some exposure. We had some folks that came over from other parks, and they were pleased with what they saw. The phone has already been ringing for bookings for next year.  I was very happy to hear more than one person say that Lulu was one of the best entertainers that they had seen in this area. It is nice to know that when we retrace our steps, and be able to shower the RGV and their Winter Texans with some Lulu Entertainment. Unfortunately, that may have to wait an additional year for us to come back this way. We still have not made it half way through our bucket list of places to see.

Entertainment at Veteran's Appreciation Day on May 5

Mexican folkloric dancers at the festival

Getting ready to dance.

I learned that my well-intentioned friends and family that were warning me of all the violence and drug problems in this area really did not know what they were talking about. I was glad to see for myself that the Texas/Mexico border area is not the drug-war-torn-border-town that everyone claimed it would have been. We were told that we were crazy to come down here. They said that the drug cartel was kidnapping tourists and bringing them back in to Mexico to behead them. People also told us about the wild-west style gunfights that were happening on a daily basis across the Rio Grande and that they were shooting at anyone they could see on the American side. These stories were from people that claimed to have been told by reliable sources, like their cousin Vinnie who had to return home because the border patrol told him it was too violent to be here. In fact, I did hear from a resident at another RV Park close by that the U.S. Border Patrol did in fact do a presentation at their park and persuaded the tourists not to travel in to Mexico for fear of them being abducted. They even went as far as doing a slide show presentation with violent images of the dead bodies that had fallen victim to the drug cartel villence. I don’t know if this was an exaggeration or a poor-taste presentation by the U.S. government.


Needless to say,  that although we hear about drug related violence in Mexico, we haven’t seen any of these things. In fact, we have walked over to Mexico twice and I have not seen any gunfights, or Mexican drug cartel and police shoot-outs. From where we stay, or even from just about most of this border area, I cannot see the streets of Mexico, let alone having a stray bullet land near me. As for the Mexican drug violence, it sounds just like the gang wars that we have within our own country. The cartels are feuding amongst each other, and they usually make examples of those that cross them. Sounds like they knew what they were getting themselves in to when they got involved in their drug trade.

The dogs here are big!!

 The local TV news is loaded with incidents of massive drug seizures being made almost daily, and news of car chases, armed robberies and murders happening in many of the larger cities nearby. Geez, almost sounds like St Petersburg, Florida or Boston, MA to me. Nothing that is unusual to any American city, so it really doesn’t surprise me to see this kind of stuff, except for the amount and frequency of the drug seizures coming across the border, but I think it is only expected, knowing that the majority of our illegal drugs are coming from South America. I still say that the huge amounts that they are finding, are minuscule compared to the stuff that IS getting across. Those seizures are only the necessary losses that the drug cartel is making to keep the agents busy enough for them to get the bigger shipments across in a different manner. And, until our Americans stop buying the drugs that they supply, this will only continue. Money talks!!


There is another observance that I think would surprise the ordinary American who has never been here and has been brainwashed with the indecorous tales that we have been hearing for so long. And, that is the number of Mexican registered vehicles that come across the border and are found parked in shopping plazas all around town. That means that there are Mexican residents that legally cross over the border and make purchases to bring back in to their country. There is this misconception that there are masses of Mexicans illegally crossing over by rafts or hiking under cover of the night and breaking in to houses  forcing Americans to hide them out. In fact, the majority of Mexicans would not even think about leaving Mexico. The ones that do so illegally, are in the minority, and cannot obtain legal status to cross over. Some of those people are not even Mexicans, but rather Guatemalans or from some other Latino country.  Yet another myth that we have been able to discredit.

Folkloric dancing

I am also surprised to find that there is a lot of Spanish- speaking going on in many local public places. I am referring to retail and such. The employees seem to talk to everyone as though we all understand or speak Spanish. It feels as though we are in Mexico. Many of those people do not make an effort to speak English, and even though we are responding in English, they continue to speak in Spanish. I found out that this area was in fact part of Mexico at one time.  Maybe, these are people that are just descendants of those that have lived here since that time, and just continue their traditions? Either way, it is good practice for me as I brush up on my Spanish in preparation for our journey in to Mexico.

Is Texas that is for lovers?

Speaking of which, we have been working on obtaining our Mexican tourist visas that has become a little more complicated than I expected. We could go the 180-day tourist visa, which is very easy to get, and much less complicated, but the 180-day visa is a problem to me. We would be forced to leave Mexico after 180 days, and then we could return, only after waiting 180 days, and then we would have to get another 180-day visa. This particular tourist visa, known as the FMM, cannot be renewed while in Mexico, so we would have to make sure that we plan accordingly and be back over the border by the 180 days. If not, we could face big fines for over-staying the visa.


The tourist visa I am seeking is the 1-Year FM3, which allows us to stay up to a year and may be renewed while in Mexico, therefore we would not have to rush to get out. However, getting one entails a little extra work and a little more government bureaucracy.  Nothing is impossible. We will get around it.

Lulu making sand castles at Boca Chica beach.

Park your vehicle right on the beach.
No walking with chairs, coolers, floaties....

For now, we plan to stay here a little longer so we can do a few things we still have not got to do. We spent a day at Boca Chica Beach, at the mouth of the Rio Grande, and have gone to some festivities. We also need to get to a nature trail or two and a few other sightseeing days that we need to get done. We will be at an almost empty park, and a less-populated area. Nevertheless, it does not sound any different from Florida when the snowbirds go back home in March. We will make do.


And another thing that we learned. Mexicans do not celebrate Cinco de Mayo.  And here we were waiting for parades, and loud parties and tequila. No such thing. In fact, May 5 is not even a holiday in Mexico. The date marks the anniversary of a victory in 1862 in the fight for independence from French forces. It is also not, as is often assumed, the day of Mexico's celebrations of independence, which are actually held on September 16.  Cinco de Mayo celebrations actually is a day of Mexican heritage and pride that is traced back to California, and started by some of their Mexican immigrants. The date has actually been exploited by corporate America to get Americans to spend their hard working money.


We will, however, miss our new Texas friends. These people have been so nice to us, and have extended their generosity, friendship and hospitality without reservation. They have accepted us in to their close-knit community and treated us as though we have been coming here for the last 10 years. In the short time that we have been here, we have spent some very preciousmoments with our new friends, and have shared many fun events. The park owners have been extremely hospitable, and have even allowed us to stay past their “closing date”, when most of their residents leave. We were fortunate to have selected this park for our stay. We constantly are reminded that God is always guiding us in the right direction.  And, it is proof that He places us in the right area and with the right people. Angler’s Nest RV Park will be another place that we will never forget, and it will be at the top of our list when we retrace our return in the future. We will never forget the great times here and we will miss our “Nest” friends.


Adios mis amigos!!

Winter Texans going home

A POST FROM LULU
 

Turning AL in to a Texas cowboy.

  Where has the past four months gone? I was just resting comfortably in my magic recliner, you know the one?, the one that has the powerful seat that sucks you in and stops you from getting things done. That is my reason for not getting a pen and writing down our wonderful experiences on the road. Just four months ago, I had wished everyone a happy Thanksgiving from my last visit to my storybook. Thank goodness for my super good looking, sexy and brilliant husband (can you tell who is doing the typing here?), yes my great, handsome husband is always doing something at the computer, and it is not unusual to find him updating our Facebook pages with our Texas news journal events. In fact, we are so busy doing all kinds of things that we could have a regular monthly newsletter that could look something like this;

Waiting for our 1 lb burgers at
Gonzalez Burgers

Section A; Entertainment; Besides Lulu and AL entertaining at the Angler’s Nest clubhouse, we were invited to the Mercedes, TX AMVETS to their weekly fish fry on Friday nights.  There was a houseful of wonderful people that we met, and we enjoyed some “Scaryoke”, I mean karaoke, which some people, including myself, got to show off some talent.

Mr. Stan's apple pie

Section B: Restaurants: I do not know where to begin. If you have seen our Facebook pictures, you might think that is all that we do. Giant burgers in Donna, TX, homemade cake and cookies from our neighbor Ms. Darlene,
and she was so kind to even knock on the door and ask if AL had any diabetes issues, yeah right….  Then there is Stanley, who you might see on one of our videos on Facebook.  Stanley came by on one of our very cold days, when it dropped from 85 to 55, with a hot homemade apple pie. He is the park’s pie maker and all the women love him because he is as sweet as pie. He is soft spoken, and frail and his smile is bigger than his whole body.

Kissing the bride again.

Section C: Places to go: I could run out of ink if I would write about all the places we have been to. You all know the softy that I am when it comes to all the special places that stay engraved in my heart. Especially those romantic spots that our footprints have been left behind, like “Lulu’s Homeport” in Alabama on Valentine’s Day. Al and I renewed our wedding vows there on a surprise date out. I don’t think the ink on our original vows have had a chance to dry yet. I mean it has only been a year. But, it was a very warming ceremony to recreate over again with my best friend.

Cleaning the catch of the day.

Wherever we go, whether it is outside in the sun, sometimes in the rain, flea markets, picnics, or just sitting on the magic furniture, as long as I can feel the sunshine on my face, and keep my feet on the ground, literally, I know that this dream will never end. There really are too many places to get in to details, but there are always first times for us, wherever we go.  In fact, Al went on his first pontoon fishing expedition with some RV park buddies, and although I was invited, I took a rain check. I still have nightmares from my “Carnival Cruise gone bad” in 2004 during a sunny day; a rogue wave tipped the ship over enough for the lawn chairs to slide off the eighth floor balcony. The Captain had it all under control and got us back safely, just as Al got back safely with 56 fish amongst 5 fishermen. Good job.

The bugs are not this big,
but there are big spiders, mostly
in holes in the ground, and the
big boys are always digging
them up for play pets??

It is nearly midnight and I can see the fireflies outside the back window on this muggy and buggy night. You need to buy stock on insect repellant as we have bought just about every kind. Everyone has a remedy to keep away the mosquitoes, like rubbing vanilla on your body. So why do I still have bumps that itch like heck and I scratch until they bleed? And I smell like a sugar cookie that attracts ants.

It’s all good, since we will be heading to Mexico soon, and I can try rubbing tequila and lime on my limbs. Wait, that has nothing to do with bugs. I think it is a country song that goes “what goes on in Mexico, stays in Mexico”. Just ask Tobey Keith.

Adios mi amigos.

Baby ducks for sale at the
77 Flea Market in Brownsville, Tx

And by the way. May you all have a blessed Easter Holiday.  We will be having Easter dinner with our RV park hosts, Linda and Pat, and whomever may be left here at the park.

Rio Grande Valley, Texas

Ok, the last post was a little bit winded, but it had been a while since we had posted something, and we had a lot to say.  We need to shorten them up and just post a little more often. And, Lulu has promised to add to the blog also. She too is adding to her journal, so we should be reading something from her real soon.

If you’ve been on face book, then you have already seen some pictures from some of our experiences here in Los Indios, Tx. We are at he very bottom of Texas, only about 2 miles from the Mexico border, and about 20 minutes from Brownsville. I should have gotten a photo, but I felt like I was in Israel when I drove down 281. The U.S. has erected a huge iron fence that runs for miles along the Rio Grande River. it is evident that they are still working on it due to the construction sites scattered along the highway. The Border Patrol units are very visible driving along this route, and there are constantly reports of huge drug seizures coming over the borders. Some of them in the $100,000 values.  It makes me wonder if these seizures are just a sacrificial lamb that the cartel uses in order to get the much larger shipments across. There are just so many that there must be much bigger and many more getting across. With all that activity, we always feel safe, and everyone here feels the same way. They have never had any problems here or around our park. And I don’t anticipate that that will change while we are here.

Some Rvers have already left for the season and many should be leaving by the end of this month. They tell us that by May, most of this area will be quiet as many of their “Summer Texas” (Florida’s equivalent to “Snowbirds”), head back North and then return again in October.

 Lulu did a great performance last week at the park clubhouse in Angler’s Nest. It was a small group, but they had a great time. We were told that this group was not the dancing type, but if you’ve seen the video, that changed on that day. Lulu will be doing another performance on Monday, March 19th.

Neighborhood woodpecker.

We hit it right when we picked this park. It is small and a little tight, but comfortable. Fortunately, they put us in a very roomy site, right next to the clubhouse and laundry room. They have clean and roomy showers, so we have been able to take a regular shower in a regular bathroom. The shower and bathroom in our rig is half the size, so using the park’s shower is a treat. The residents here are so very friendly and kind. And of course once they get to know Lulu, forget it, they made a friend for life!

Molly's bike ride

Molly's new bike basket

Clubhouse and neighbor.

clubhouse kitchen.

They have had some activities that we came to enjoy. We had the pancake breakfast the other day and we have come to watch their jam sessions twice. A group of musicians get together and entertain the residents for a couple of hours. We were also invited to a fish fry at a local American Legion hall, where Lulu got a near standing ovation for singing at a karaoke session. Something she hardly does, but they twisted her arm. We also got to go to Gonzalez Burgers where they serve the huge Texas style burgers. They always have a line out the door and they always sell out all their burgers on a daily basis.

Huge 1 pound burgers. 56 Orders were taken for  just about 100 people.

Patiently waiting for their burgers.

Out the door....at Gonzalez Burger

We went by ourselves to the Borderfest 2012 where we got to see some Mexican bands, a Beetles tribute band and got to try out some Mexican food. And, most importantly, got to take a photo with the Kool Aid guy, and got to see the original Oscar Myer wiener mobile. . We have ventured out in to local Harlingen and San Benito where we have found  a couple of nice Christian Churches, as well as a good chiropractor as my back has been acting up. We will also be flying out of Harlingen Airport in April to go to my parents 50th anniversary in April. The RV will stay here until we return 10 days later.

This area has a huge Mexican population, and we find it amusing that we sometimes feel like we are back up North in New Bedford and Fall River , MA. The Mexican community remind us so much of the Portuguese community that we grew up with. They dress similar, speak loud and use their hands to communicate. And, most are very fun and friendly people. Some of their music is similar, but not the foods. We do miss our Portuguese food. Even though the languages have some similarities, there are some important differences and I am trying to brush up on my Spanish as we will be using it when we RV in Mexico this summer. By the way, unless you have been in Mexico and have personally witnessed a beheading, please keep your advice to yourself. We have spoken to many fellow Rv’ers who live in Mexico and they report that all is fine. They have their crime and violence just like we have ours here in the U.S., and they have their areas that some people do not belong in. If you don’t believe me, just follow my face book page and you can speak to them yourself. We are not afraid and we plan on leaving sometime around May.

Some time this week we plan on heading out to Progresso, Mexico, which is just up the road about 30 or 40 minutes, where you can cross over on foot and get souvenirs, manicures, see doctors, dentists and buy medicine at their pharmacies. I will be checking out some prices for inhalers as I still have to pay a $25 co-pay and I think I should be able to get a better deal down there.

We will also be taking a ride out to San Padre Island, but we are waiting for the college kids to get out, since they have invaded for spring break. There are also some nature trails that we will be checking out, and a few other local attractions.

So far, we have enjoyed the area. There is plenty to do and see, and the weather has been very pleasant. I think the cold is gone. We expect this week to be in the 80’s and sunny. The wind is another thing,. It is always windy, but it is nice to cool things off. We have yet to use out air conditioner. The open windows let in a nice breeze that cools things down. We have finally been able to comfortably and safely ride our bikes around, and even Molly has a new basket that I mounted on my bike. Speaking of who, she was diagnosed with congestive heart failure after the vet heard a heart murmur back in Alabama a few weeks ago. They also found her heart to be enlarged. This was when we brought her in to check her out because she seemed to be acting a little sluggish. She was put on medication and she seems to be much better. She is a little more herself again. She is 12 years old, so we have to be careful with her.

So, for now, we will enjoy the weather. As usual, I have to finish up some of the “nothings” that I started doing the other day. It seems that these “nothings” never get done.

Be safe and may God Bless you all!!!