Shuffleboarding

Rod's knee is on the mend (we hope) and his back has been good, so we have been doing some shuffleboarding lately with friends Marg, Harv, June and Whitey. It has a lot of nuances we have yet to master (years of according to the instructors lol ) but we have a lot of fun. We usually play the ladies against the men. You know what that means ladies...... It is one of the things I will miss most leaving here. That and Bingo :o)
It almost time for us to leave the park and start to make our way home, taking side trips on the way.
We have made new friends and I would like to thank all of them for sharing with us. Going siteseeing, eating out, doing things together in the park, has made our stay here a memorable one. We hope they will keep in touch in the future through emails etc. With this kind of lifesyle, you never know were you might meet again. ....till next time....

BIRTHDAY PARTY WITH ELVIS

Hi again....Last night we were invited by Linda and Al to attend a birthday party for a woman who owns a very nice small restaurant in Los Fresnos. If in the area, its a definite worthwhile stop. The name of the restaurant is on a very big chair sign.....as you can see!!

We stopped by "Little Graceland" to visit with the owner and take the tour.

Simon Vega and his wife Teresa are the very proud owners. Simon served with Elvis in Germany, and had a few interesting stories to tell us. This is the link and if you have a chance, take a look. Just google little graceland......there are a few sites to see.

Danny Lee is an Elvis impersonator and played for the birthday girl.

The food was great, plentiful, and a good time was had by all. till next time........

CANADA DAY AT ALAMO PALMS

Hi there.

This is going to be a small post with some pictures of our Canada Day lunch at the park. Park residents at Alamo Palms hold a gathering from different states etc so that people from the same area at home can get together down here...compare notes, stories, a good old fashion pot luck, and just a good time. A couple from Alberta held the Canadian one this year. It was attended by approx. 140 Canadians, most of which were from Ontario, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan and Alberta. Also, a few from Quebec and one couple from the east coast.

Dinner was very good, with a nice variety of great desserts.

There was a trivia quiz of about 8 Canadian questions for each table of 8. Our table got 6 of the eight right. Does anyone know the cranberry capital of Canada??? We know we got that one wrong lol. The Quebecers won 1st and 2nd. Congrats to them!!.

After dinner we played an elimination game of curling with frizbies (no ice :o))...Every couple playing represented a different province with a few north, south, east and west varieties. Rod and I played for northern Alberta. We lost the first round, won the second, and then lost the final round to Ontario!! The winners received this trophy of the moosehead. They were led around the hall wearing the hat. Not sure I would've won if we could lol. Fun was had by all and the turnout was incredible......we didn't realize that there were that many Canadians in the park. Man, when you add up all the parks in south Texas, its a wonder there's anybody at home. Anyhow, until next time......

LOS FRESNOS 2009 PRCA RODEO

Hi there, its been awhile since we've posted anything. We have been busy doing things around the park, taking part in things like bingo, shuffleboard, pkeno, and eating!!.
Last week we took in the Los Fresnos Rodeo with friends Marg, Harvey, Linda and Al. The cost was 12.00 per person if you got the tickets in advance or 15.00 at the gate. Parking was extra. The program started at 7pm so the 6 of us went to Brownsville for dinner.
The seats were full and the event well worth the time and money if you are down here at the right time of year. There was a carnival on the grounds as well, so if you were to go earlier in the day you partake in a total day out.
This year the rodeo was held on Feb 6,7, and 8th. The program consisted of:
"Bareback Bronc Riding", where the rider hugs the horses neck with his legs to stay on, aims to make it through and 8 second ride without falling off. The judges award up to 50 points each for the horse and rider.
"Bull Riding", is the most dangerous of all. 100 points is a perfect score, and like bronc riding the rider has to stay on for 8 seconds. It is a long time when you are watching and see how the rider is tossed about!. Its a wonder there aren't more broken backs lol.
"Team Roping" is the only time 2 cowboys compete as partners. The "header" ropes the steer's horns, and the "heeler" ropes both the front and hind legs of the steer. There is a 5 second penalty if the heeler only catches one hind leg.



In "Steer Wrestling" the cowboy (and yes, they were cute ladies) catches up to the steer, it having a head start, and jumps off his horse, grabs the horns, and wrestles the steer to the ground. The time stops when the steer is on its side and all 4 feet and pointing in the same direction.
"Saddle Bronc Riding" The rider must also stay on the horse for 8 seconds.
There were some female riders as well, who rode a figure 8 around barrels. Speed was a factor in winning. Cameras were set up to time the riders.
They also had children from a local middle school there to see who could catch the tail ribbon of tiny calves. They looked like they were having a blast. I know as a spectator it was cute to watch.
And last but not least is "The Down Roping" where the rider catches a calf and ropes 3 legs.
A big part of the rodeo show were the clowns keeping the crowd entertained while changes were set up for the next event. They were so funny!! Their job is to keep the riders safe, but they were a big, big part of the show.

There were sponsors, kind of like commercials on horseback, so 3 of the female riders rode out a few times with the flags.
All in all, the night was a huge success!!. I can't wait till next year.
... Anyhow, if you ever have the chance to see one, its worth it.
As you can see, not too many pictures.......they wouldn't stay still long enough :o) So, even though they aren't very clear, I am posting a just a few...till next time..

A bit of a holdup.

Hey there, Rod here.

Sorry we haven't put anything up on the blog in a while, but I've been somewhat waylaid.
Last Tuesday my right knee started getting a little sore. By Tuesday evening I literally couldn't bend it at all. It swelled up like I was trying to smuggle a grapefruit under my kneecap. On Thursday I finally relented and went to see a doctor.

He prescribed a horrendously powerful antibiotic, and some Vicaden (sp?) for the pain and swelling. The antibiotic started to work almost immediately, but I had a violent reaction to the Vicaden. I almost ended up at the hospital over the reaction. Fortunately, because of my acid reflux, I knew what was happening, so I just rode the reaction out. I called the doctor and he said stop taking the Vicaden and switch to a huge daily dose of Ibuprofen, which doesn't seem to bother me.

It's now a week later and I'm happy to report that it appears that the antibiotics seem to have done the trick. The doctor wants me to see an Orthopedic surgeon on the 16th. We'll see what happens between now and then. The insurance company wasn't too happy with the idea of me seeing the surgeon, but my doctor pointed out to them that I'm unable to drive (when I first saw him). It's a quandry! If I see him and he wants to mess around, it could delay our departure, but if I don't see him and my knee flairs up again, the insurance company won't touch it. Hmmmm.........?

Anyhow, we're starting to plan our trip home. We're gonna take our time coming home. We're gonna do a week in Corpus Christi (right on the Gulf), and then a week in San Marcos (near San Antonio). We wanna spend some time in the San Antonio, Austin area. We have friends down her in a georgous park, so we're gonna do a week at Sunset Point RV resort on lake LBJ. Then we're going to the Dallas/Ft. Worth area for a week. That takes us to the 29th of March and we'll finally be leaving Texas. From Texas, we wanna stop at Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas. It's the only open pit diamond mine in North America and what you find there you keep. 1/3 of all the diamond retrieved there have been by visitors. It should be cool. Then over to Hot Springs, Arkansas for a few days. Onward to Branson, Missouri for a week to check it out. And then home from there with a 2 day stop in Indianapolis. We're heading for Green Acre RV park in Waterloo for the summer.

We have no idea what we're doing next winter yet. It's gonna be either Florida, Arizona, or back to Texas, but we'll have all summer to figure it out.

Anyhow, Mary just got up, so I'm outta here. I've got tea to make! Later guys!

Falcon Lake State Park

We went to Falcon Lake State Park. We wanted to see the area and we wanted to check out an example of a Texas State park. Falcon lake is a man-made lake created by the dam across the Rio Grande (Rio Bravo in Mexico) river. This was built in 1953 to provide a source of water during dry spells in the Rio Grande valley. And they do get dry spells here. We've been here since Nov. 2 and we've had 3 drizzely days and a couple of cloudy days. Otherwise it's been sunny and warm to hot. As a matter of fact, according to the local weatherman, most of our days have been 5 to 10 degrees warmer than normal this winter (lucky us).

Anyhow it was a nice park, somewhat isolated though. We wanted to check it out because we think that next time we come to Texas (next year??), we wanna wander around as opposed to staying in one place for the winter. The park cost $2 per person for day use and $16 a day for full hookups, or $96 per week. The rv sites are spacious and each come equipped with a firepit, bbq, and picnic table with a shade canopy. It's part of the birding/butterfly trail throughout the valley, and they give you a list of locations and the birds etc. that you may see at each location. You can only book for 14 days at a State park, but if you're spot is available, you can stay longer.

We saw some neat birds. Here's a few pics of a couple of great egrets we saw. We watched this egret fight with his fish for about 10 minutes. Of course, if we tried to get too close, it'd move 100 metres down the beach, land and fight with the fish again. The lake is very high right now, and several of the lakefront camp spots are flooded out, but hey, there's always the other side of the road.

As we wandered about, we'd see different birds, but most of them were to far away to get a pic of. We watched several hawks flying about, but thiswas the only pic we could get of one roosting in a tree. We also got a pic of an egret roosting. Pretty cool, eh?

In another area of the park we say a great blue heron. They sound cooler than they are, they don't photograph well (a carpenter and his tools?).And we couldn't get nearly as close to them as we could to the egret.

The biggest problem with the park is it's isolation. We drove 130k to get there and if you needed anything, food etc., you had to go to La Joya (about 30k) or Rio Grande City (about 50k) to shop. But we think we'll try to stay here for a week or so next time.

We stopped in La Joya (pronounced La Hoya) on the way home. They have an observation platform on the bluffs at the Rio Grande river. Technically it's for birding, but the whole time we were there, so was the border patrol looking up and down the river watching for illegals crossing into the U.S.This is looking up the river, and this is looking over into Mexico.

Anyhow, that's it for today. We're starting to plan our trip home. We're gonna do the summer at Green Acre RV Resort in Waterloo. We're planning wander on home taking a week in each of Corpus Christi, San Antonio, Austin, Dallas/Ft. Worth and Little Rock Arkansas. That'll give us a week to get home from Little Rock and have us home by April 15th. That's the plan anyway.

Museum of South Texas History

Museums......where do you start?

This museum is tucked in the centre of the city of Edinburg Texas. The cost is 7 dollars pp.

It is a mixture of all that was...from the ranching traditions of Spain, folklore of Mexico, up to present day. Its a relatively small museum. We took the following pictures:

The original building was a jail.

Later an addition was added for the firehouse. The outside fencing and windmill are examples that are still used on ranches today.

And what kind of a museum would it be without dinasour bones found in the area?

And because we are in Texas what would it be without old guns?? Notice the pearl handle!

Want to learn to drive??

Of course there were a lot of other things to see, and if I showed them all what would you have to look forward to?? ... All in all, a great museum. It's laid out chronologically from prehistoric times to the present. Because it was a "themed" museum it tells a story that was very interesting.