Santa Ana Wild Life Refuge

One of the places we wanted to visit was the Santa Ana Wild Life Refuge located in Alamo Texas, not far from McAllen. And people have told us how wonderful it is, many birds, beautiful hiking and biking trails, etc. With the temperature in the 80's yesterday we got to the Refuge about 1pm. Unfortunately they don't allow bike riding right now - they were also flooded out from Hurricane Alex and the two dams being released this past summer have caused damage to trails. I told Dave that I felt that I was walking underwater - you can see where the water marks are on everything - some places the water was about 4 feet deep where others about 15 feet deep. Because of the flooding the vegetation hasn't come back yet. The waters just receeded in the area we walked about one month ago. No vegetation, no insects, therefore no birds and small animals. There is a fire watch tower that allows people to be above the treeline. And two towers with a rope bridge between them - we didn't cross that - just took some pictures of it. As we were standing on the top of the watch I am sure we were looking across to Mexico but with all the trees - oh well. While we were walking we saw a tree that sure looked like marks of an animal crawling up and then staying there. We can only imagine what became of all the animals. This picture shows the water marks on all the vegetation. And if you look closely you can see the trail where it is so dried out now that it's cracked open. We have not had rain since the middle of January and they say that this is normal. None in the forecast for the next 10 days either but highs in the upper 80s, lows at night in the low 60s - dream weather! We will have to come back to this park in a couple of years to see if the park has rebounded. The naturalist that we talked to said he hasn't seen many birds or animals, however yesterday during his nature walk he did see an armadillo. Wouldn't that been cool to see? Dave takes pictures all the time and while we were at the bird watching blind he captured these two red-wing black birds - the one in flight is awesome! He has started to use the tripod with all his pictures and I see a huge improvement on what he can do. As we check off the different sights we want to see, we still have the 'big kahuna' to go to - the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge not far from South Padre Island. This is the biggest of all the bird watching/wildlife areas and we will probably go to that one early next week.

Dolphin Boat Ride - South Padre Island

Yesterday we drove to Port Isabell on South Padre Island and took a 3 hour boat ride down the Intercoastal Waterway into the Port of Brownsville. About a 25 mile ride one way. Was absolutely gorgeous weather, was smart this time and had lots of sunblock on and avoided the big burn. Talk about desolate - the barrier islands between the intercoastal waterway and the Gulf of Mexico is uninhabited and was barren, very sandy, did not see any wildlife on it. Did see dolphins riding along our bow, ospreys nesting in the range markers, lots of comorants and sea birds. The most educational and very worth our trip was the Port of Brownsville. There are 4 major scrap companies located here, many ships are brought in when they are being scuddled (scrapped out) and we saw ocean freighters, naval ships, barges, and an assortment of ships in various stages of being taken apart. These ships are 100% recycled - nothing goes to waste. This picture shows the captain on the bow of our boat pointing and telling all he knew. In the background behind him is a WWII destroyer in the process of being cut up. The captian of our boat is a 23 year old Tejano (Texan of Mexican descent) and he explained everything that we were looking at - from what types of barges were there to how the scrap is taken and recycled. He grew up in this area, a third generation shrimper, his father took him out on the shrimp boat when he was just a small child and since he could run the boats that early, he was able to qualify and get his captains license at a very young age. He also has a special permit to bring charter boats into the Port, since 9/11 the government only allows those with special permits to enter the Port. Part of the tour he took us back to where the shrimp boats were tied up to dock. Many of them shrimpers are out of business now and there are 3 major shrimping companies that run. He said that the foreign shrimpers - from Taiwan, Japan, etc. have really hurt the American shrimp industry. He wanted us to make sure we buy only US shrimp and help our fellow Americans. After the boat ride, the price of the trip included a taco dinner at the restaurant located right at the pier. Pretty tasty - I had grouper tacos and Dave had shrimp. Dave and I want to come back to South Padre Island before we head home because there is a turtle rescue place and it is closed on Monday's - so will make this trip again - and I will make it a point to get us to walk along the beach of the Gulf of Mexico.

Bentsen State Park and Birds

We took our folding bikes and went to Bentsen State Park which is located right on the border and in the town of Mission yesterday, and had a nice biking hike and watched alot of birds. By the end of our ride the wind had really kicked up and it was getting difficult to get off the bikes and park them while we sat and bird watched - the wind would topple the bikes over. Many Winter Texans out bird watching also. Dave is always interested in what others have in terms of cameras and takes every opportunity to ask what kind of lens, what setting, etc. just so he can hone his skills in picture taking. I think he has done a marvelous job - after all, it's a hobby, not a profession and the pictures serve as memory keepers for us. Here are some pictures you will enjoy - birds that you will not find anywhere else in the US. The Green Jay and the Altamira Oriole are two of the most colorful birds here and only here in Texas. While we were visiting the park we made sure we took a picture of the International Boundary marker between Mexico and US. And made sure one of our bikes visited Mexico. Did see the Border Patrol driving inside the park where you only see a tram for moving people. This park was closed in July 2010 due to Hurrican Alex. Two lakes further up the Rio Grande River were overflowing from all the rains and Mexico decided to release both dams within one hour of each other and within 6 hours the park was under 10 feet of water. Some areas are still not open to the public and that is a shame. Here's a picture of our bikes at the border marker. They told us to look out for the bobcats, they were seen that morning wandering around but they are very skittish of people. And javelinas (wild pigs) are roaming also. Didn't see or hear either one.

Visit to Mexico

Yesterday we went into the city proper of McAllen to look at the shops and sightsee. From this picture you see that maybe we are in Mexico? Sure felt like it. Every store front was busy with people, sales persons outside hawking their wares - and when we walked by them - they quickly switched to perfect English - am I that obvious that I am not a Tejano? Perfume shops, gold jewelry shops, junk shops, small stands selling tacos and such, electronic stores, and a really cute store that sold children's formal wear. This store catered to the family looking for that perfect first communion dress/tux or babtismal outfit or wedding outfit. Was just adorable! And, I noticed a number of stores where there were Asians running the stores behind the counter. Hmmmm. In town is a JCPenney store with an historical marker in front. We read it and it said that the building was built specifically for JCPenney and has been used continually by that company since being built. Of course, I had to go in and see what was so special. I felt like I had stepped back way in time, when I was a kid and my sister and I taking the rapid transit to downtown Cleveland and walking through the Woolworth store on Euclid Avenue. Multiple floors, stuffed just crammed in, people every where. And anything you could want was there. Wow. Another wow for the day - some stores had "Aceptamos Pesos" signs meaning that they accepted the Mexican Peso for cash. At the Penney store the woman in front of me in the checkout handed all her money to the cashier to pay for it - obviously not knowing how to count or make change in American currency. When we left and began our drive home (about 5 miles down the road) it didn't dawn on us until we passed the bus station, but the international bus depot was just one block over. Most of these people came in off the bus, shopped, then head back to the bus for the trip home that afternoon. And no, we won't go to Mexico - the reports in the paper and on TV reflects terrible violence with killings, drug trafficking, just 10 miles from here. But we would definitely come back here to McAllen for another winter, feel absolutely safe.

Stranger in my own country

I got a coupon from JCPenney in email and talked Dave into buying some new jeans for himself. We trekked over to one of 6 indoor malls in McAllen this morning and got our business done. Since I am still not feeling 100% from the flu, I stopped in the middle of the mall in their food court to get a lemonade and just sat and watched people, rested. Everyone, and I do mean everyone, spoke Spanish - I was wondering if they would understand me when I ordered the drink. Not sure who were Tejanos and who had come over the border for the weekend from Mexico to shop. Me being red head and very light skinned - I stood out amongst all. After sitting there about 1/2 hour people watching, Dave found me and I made him sit and just watch and look. I told him that sitting in this mall was deja vu - this felt just like when I have sat in the mall in Jerusalem, Israel - watching people, not being able to converse or understand what is spoken around me, unable to determine the flavor of peoples' conversations that you always pick inadvertantely. You just smile, watch, and conjur up in your mind what people are saying to each other. Dave told me that in order to get a job here you HAVE to be fluent in Spanish. Si, senor. He also said - he noticed everyone he observed buying something paid in cash. Not credit card, but cash. Walking to the truck we noticed taxi vans and shuttles and many cars from Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, and one car from Coahuila which is far piece away parked all around us. These are border states of Mexico. Business here in the Rio Grande Valley is booming. As David - the tinting guy from a week ago said - this area never really felt the recession. And people were buying - bags and bags of purchases! Many families with young children, extended families with older folks along to buy something, teenage kids, older couples just strolling, just a busy busy mall!

Yes, it is cold in South Texas!

We did get nasty weather as you all got up north this week - only very mild by our standard and devasting by their standards - crops ruined and everything came to a standstill Friday morning. I didn't know too much about it - I came down with the flu late Tuesday night and was pretty much out of it until about 5pm today. Hope no one else gets this awful crud. Moaned alot, slept alot, was just pure lousy company for Dave. We learned a huge lesson with this sickness - I had not prepared the RV for anything like this - no medicine, no thermometer (what that would do - who knows - you know when you have a fever, dah!) When we head out next time - we will make sure we have brought all the first-aid, home remedy stuff from the house. As it turned out weather wise - our high Wednesday and Thursday was 37, the low at night got down to about 27. We were fortunate that our water lines didn't freeze - we watched our neighbor fight with getting ice out of the hose until about 10am which is when the sun rose far enough to hit the hose and melt the ice. Woke up Friday morning to about 1/4 inch of ice on everything. Very pretty - but very hazardous. Was beautiful watching the sun beating down yesterday morning on the palm trees and seeing ice chunks flow down. Lucky no one was hurt.

We have decided to extend our stay here from 1 month to 6 weeks. There is still so much more to see and do - and with me getting sick and loosing this week, well - we just have to add more time to the end. We have started to see some folks pack up and go, I think by March 1st we will see a mass exodus - temps here are typically near 90 and people don't like that. By March 1st we should be headed to San Antonio then begin our journey back north.

South Padre Island

We went to the South Padre Island Birding Center yesterday and what a lovely day it was. Temp about 77, sunny, just gorgeous. We stopped at Palo Alto Battleground National Park first which is just north of Brownsville. Palo Alto is where the first battle between Mexico and the US over the Texas territory was and started the Mexican/US war in 1845. Interesting, alot of history. Traveled to South Padre from there, about 15 miles north of Palo Alto and on the Gulf of Mexico and spent almost 4 hours walking the boardwalk looking and taking pictures of all the birds and fauna. We are astonished that we have seen birds that most people haven't is an understatement. Birds like Skimmers that fly with their mouth open skimming the water for bugs and small aquatic life, ghost crabs, fiddler crabs, American Bittern, Purple Gallinule, Long-Billed Curlew, Reddish Egret, Tri-colored Herons, and of course, the American Alligator. So many other kinds of birds just too many to mention - Dave has lots of pictures and will send on - just truly amazing. This picture above is from the observation deck of the birding center, and it gives a flavor of the boardwalk that winds in and out of the marshes and waters. If you have never been to South Padre Island, I think of it as Fort Lauderdale on a smaller scale. Tall condominiums and hotels, lots of touristy things to see and buy, alot of restaurants, and deep sea and dolphin watch tour boats. We are going on a bout tour here on SPI on the 14th with some folks here at the campground and then lunch at one of the restaurants overlooking the water. This is a beautiful place where you don't have to leave the US to get to a tropical destination. Beaches are sandy white, access to the beaches are everywhere. This picture is of a Brown Pelican jumping after many of the mullets (fish that look like catfish) and they were about 8 inches long, but you can see the high rises in the background. For the next couple of days we are going to sit tight - the storm you all are getting, we are getting but very high winds, temperatures dropping dramaticaly, sunny but cold - freeze warnings out for all crops for the next couple of nights (28 is predicted). We definitely know we don't want to experience a Northern Ohio winter ever again. Warmth it is!