Packing Up

Our last day here in Mercedes, Texas.  Can't believe we've been here a whole month.  Where has the time gone?

Yesterday and today were just spent tidying up, picking up a couple of things for the ride, doing some laundry, bathing the dog, and starting to put things away.  It's a hot one today though...95F (35C).  Probably the hottest day since we've been here.  There was a period of time today where I don't think the air conditioner stopped running for over an hour.  We live in a tin can.

It's short-lived.  The temperature is supposed to drop 20-30 degrees overnight, and much cooler tomorrow (it's all relative).  Doesn't matter though as we'll be on the road.

Our last sunset at Llano Grande.  It's been a lovely RV park.



We have a couple of tires to get changed in the morning, then we'll be heading north.  We still have that spare on.  So time to get a couple of new ones.

I'll report from Austin, Texas, tomorrow night.

South Padre Island - Part Deux

Today we headed off to SPI to just do a bit of looking around on our own, without the help of a dinner cruise boat.  Going over the bridge/causeway is a danger when the pelicans are flying, I guess. You wouldn't want to hit one of those!

We stopped at the tourist center first.



They have this huge sand castle in the front.  The largest in the U.S. by a guy who has won various awards all over the world.  His art is all over the island commissioned by different hotels, etc.



At the entrance to the island is a statue of the dude for which the island is named, Padre Nicolas Balli (it could have been any padre).



We were there just after noon, and since we were up early, we were a little hungry.  So we set off to find a spot to eat.  This place, Wanna Wanna, came up on the radar.  So we thought we'd try it out.  Meh...but it was a good location right on the gulf.



After lunch, we took a short walk on the beach.  The waves were rolling today, and it was rather foggy all day with the threat of rain.  This person was wandering the beach, exfoliating her feet.



Gerard said, "It must have been a wild spring break, look at all the condoms on the beach." I had to set him straight.

This is an entrance to a shop along the main road on the island.



At the very southern point of the island is Isla Blanca Park.  There is a commemoration there to all those fishermen who went through the pass and were never seen again.  Quite a few, I might add.



In the park is an RV campground, a very large beach, and some open space.

The island itself is quite long, but not very wide.  There are 3 roads that run pretty much the length of it, and tons of crossroads.  The gulf side is lined with hotels, but there are lots of access points for the public to get to the beach.  The lagoon side is lined with condos and private housing with some businesses.  Then of course the main highway up the middle is lined with all kinds of businesses to take your money.

On our way off the island, we noticed these oil rigs in the bay.  Hard to see through the chain link fence, but there are 3 of them.



And finally on our way home around Los Fresnos there's an awfully big gorilla sitting in a field.  Yikes, let's get outta here!



All in all, a nice day on South Padre Island.  

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone!!!

I haven't posted the last couple of days as there hasn't been a whole lot to talk about.  Good Friday was spent checking out more of north Mercedes.  There are really some lovely old cemeteries around - and they appear to be tended as flowers and ornaments are there at grave sites.  Actually there are some pretty fancy sites.  Here's one.



Saturday was spent doing some shopping for supplies for Easter dinner today, and catching up on some laundry.  Told you it was nothing exciting.  We did go to the dance again held here at the RV resort, featuring Diego.  A single guy with his keyboard gadgets.  He was pretty good.

Today was rather special though.  We went back to San Juan Basilica for Easter Sunday mass at 11 am (where we had visited the other day).  The altar area was decorated beautifully with flowers of all colours.



And the area where the 3 crosses were the other day had this instead, with a water fountain.



The mass was very unique (at least to us).  It was bilingual, and the Bishop of this diocese presided, which was special.

The choir was a Mexican folk choir (I'm not sure what you call it).  All the music was sung in Mexican style.  It sounded like a band you'd hear in a Mexican bar or something, including the trumpets and guitars, and vocal style.  Really cool.  (Sorry, they were on the other side of the church.)



When mass was finished, the Bishop stood up there taking photos of the congregation (and it was a large one) with his cell phone.



Very cool.  We thoroughly enjoyed it.

At 3 pm today, the RV park had an Easter dinner.  It was a potluck, but they provided the ham.  We were assigned tables so we knew what to bring ahead of time.  A little early for us.  Not sure why it was done so early, but whatever.  We can get along.

Again, met some wonderful people at our table.  The couple on Gerard's right are from London.  So many Ontarians here.

Around South Mercedes

Today was checking out the area south of Mercedes.  I have to say, it's not much different anywhere.  In the coming week we have left here, we're going to go a little further afield.  Do we love this area?  No - we have to say from the perspective of things to do in the area, or scenery, this part of Texas does not have it.  But now we know.  It's been fine and we have been out and about, but I can't say it's up there with desirable places to be.  Having said that, the resort itself is fantastic.

Here's a little water fall we didn't know about.  In one of the canals.

It seems there really isn't much water running anywhere except in the Rio Grande.  And even that river is pretty much dried up a lot of the time.

So for those of you who wanted pictures yesterday, here they are.

The back of the neck.

The bangs.

The flag has been flying at half-mast since the Belgium bombings.

So Gerry/Dad talked about his phone call with Dr. MacEachern today in an email to our kids and his brothers/sisters.  It's been exactly 4 years to this day when he was last released from Grand River Hospital.  That night we had the Hunters for dinner at our house (I have pictures).  We haven't looked back (at least not seriously).  The bottom line is that she will still have blood tests done every 3 months for another year, and if nothing shows up, they say good-bye to each other.  She's a lovely lady, but we can say good-bye to her with no problem.

Because of the significance of today, we went out for dinner to celebrate at Cortino's (we've been here before).   Yummy food.  The place is so busy that they ran out of wine glasses.  We were slugging it back in chilled beer glasses (at least for a while).  Tastes pretty much the same, amazingly.

 

Great day!

Only in Mexico

Yesterday we just wandered around the area of Weslaco for a bit.  It's the town just to our west.N  othing major.  Lots of bougainvilleas blooming in different areas.



It was crazy windy again yesterday, and pretty windy today too.

I thought I needed a hair trim today, so we decided to head back to Nuevo Progreso, Mexico, to do that.  See what kind of a deal I could get.  Well, I'm not so sure it was a deal.  Yes, it only cost $5 but here's the story:  I went in - "When can I get a hair cut?"  "Right now" - and there's the guy there with the bleached hair.  OK, he looks the part, but he can't speak a word of English.  Hmmm.  He puts the apron around me and combs my hair, parting it in a couple of different spots.  So far, so good.  Then he starts to cut at the nape of my neck.  OK.  I said, "I just want a trim", and showed him the shape (or what it's supposed to be) of my hair.  He nodded.  He proceeded to squirt water on my hair ('cause they don't wash it), and trim the nape of my neck.  He then combed my hair again, and started blow drying.  I'm thinking, "what"?  So he dried all his water-squirting with a brush and blow dryer.  Then he cut my bangs straight across (which I could have done).  Done!  I'm not sure why he parted my hair before cutting it.  Really wasn't necessary, but it looked like the right thing to do.

Well, at least I got my bangs cut...that was needed.  What a deal!?!?  Oh, and the guy who could speak English told me my stylist couldn't trim any more because it wasn't long enough to do that style I indicated.

I think Gerard got ripped off when we were there the last time.  He paid $6 to have his SHORTER hair trimmed.  Can't wait to tell Ann, my hair stylist, when I get home.  And no...no photo.

We picked up a couple of things, like honey, and some little salsa bowls I really like, for the cottage.

Gerard and I went down the street to have a beer at an outdoor bar called Ground Zero Bar.



Dos Equis with lime and salt (I thought that was only for margaritas, especially the salt?).  Well, it was only $1.50.  If we had had the Amber, it would have only been $1.

Everyone comes along while you're at the bar, tapping you on the shoulder and trying to sell you stuff, or just begging for money.  They're good about not persisting, but everyone is in on it...men,  women, and children.

Some interesting drinks.



This is where the bartender went to get his supplies.  He put a chair up on the bar and climbed on top of that to get up.  You wouldn't see that in Canada.  Workers' Compensation would be hot on your trail!

So that's our excitement for the day.

San Juan

After some maintenance and cleaning around the RV today, we took a short drive to San Juan.  It's a town just our side of McAllen, about 20 minutes away.  We visited the Basilica of our Lady of San Juan del Valle.  A modern cathedral built in 1980, but quite the impressive building.  You can read about it online.

This is the bell tower.

Inside, this is the altar, and the piece on the wall you can visit up close behind a short wall and light a candle there to the Virgin Mary.



I liked their Easter depiction.

Outside around the basilica lawn on a large walking path are the stations of the cross.  All in bronze.  This is the 2nd one.  Very nice.  They go through each of these on Good Friday.

Quite an impressive church.  The diocese is based in Brownsville.  We might come here for Easter Sunday.

We left there and went just a little south to the War Memorial here in San Juan.  Not a lot here but stones with the typical American "sayings" and a huge flag pole without a flag on it.  This gives the names of the people of San Juan who were killed in the various wars to this point.

A sombre site, for sure.

We went back to our nice clean RV to have happy hour with Tibby.  By the way, he's doing great.  Back to his old self.  We chatted with the vet here in the park yesterday, and she suggested he could go without the drugs for as long as he doesn't need them.

We biked up to the levee again tonight to see the sun setting.

There were some pelicans there again - against the moon.

Easy Sunday

Every Sunday morning, there's a flea market operating just up the road.  So we thought we would check it out today.

There are some fresh vegetables and flowers/bushes, but mostly just a lot of stuff you would see at yard sales - some new, but mostly used.  Meh.  We saw these birds.  Real or fake?

The interesting thing was a Mexican band playing at this open air dance hall right there on the grounds.



With people doing trail dances.  I'm learning the terminology, but not doing it.



After we were through with the flea market, we went into the town of Mercedes and walked around for a bit.  We hadn't done that, even though it's so close to where we are staying.  It WAS more of a town "back in the day".  A little worn out right now.

This is the main street.  No point showing the other side, because everything's boarded up.

We thought these mailboxes were interesting.  They look just like mailboxes you'd see in the country, but the body of the mailbox is embedded in this brick wall, built for the purpose.

Wherever you go in Mercedes, you see these boots.  They're mostly put there by local and state schools.  But they come in all colours and emblems, and they're scattered around Mercedes.  Sort of like the moose statues that were all over Toronto at one time.  There must be a mould for the boot because they're all exactly the same size.  I'm not sure the significance of the boot.  I guess it could have been a steer, or something, but someone chose a boot.

Dance Night Again

Brrrr.  It was chilly today.  Room temperature outside, but it was windy.  We had quite the wind for about an hour or two through the night.  We heard it because it was knocking over chairs and stuff outside.  Then woke up to a thunderstorm and pouring rain this morning.  But it quit raining by around 9 am, and stayed about the same all day.

I got a phone call today that I won a compass and insulated cup as a prize on a raffle table.  I had put tickets in for a couple of different items when we were at the livestock show the other day.  Now what do I do with it?  I'll figure something out.  Well, I knew what to do with the insulated cup.

Tonight we went to another dance and tested out my insulted cup.  (You take your own drinks.)  This time the group was called "The Agency" and they played 50s 60s and 70s music.  They were quite good.  The lead singer was amazing and could do the Righteous Brothers, or any other singer, very well.  They play up and down the Rio Grande Valley.



The place was packed.  They sold something like 400 tickets.

The Locomotion!



It was fun, and we got to meet a bunch more people - from Iowa.  Probably danced more than we've danced in 3 years combined.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

May the luck of the Irish be with you!

Today was just a nice day.  We went out shopping for a bit this morning, picking up a few supplies.  We relaxed for a while, then went out to the main street to watch the St. Patrick's Day parade.  Here are a few of the exhibits.

We then had a dinner invitation to Shirley & Peter's over near Mission, just west of us.  We know Shirley & Peter through Bob & Bev, and we knew they were down here, so I contacted Shirley a few days ago and she invited us to dinner.  We headed over there just before 3.

We did have green beer, although it doesn't look very green.

We had a wonderful dinner outside and a terrific visit.  Thanks so much Shirley & Peter!