Back in Central Texas

OK - I'm reminded that I'm about one week late with this post but we have been on the move since returning from Quincy and Chicago. We got back to the Rio Grande Valley on January 30 and stayed there until Sunday, February 3rd. The weather was great (I even went swimming on Saturday!) and we worked in two great side trips. If you are ever in this area, you have to go to the Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge. I'm not wild about birds, but the ones in this refuge are beautiful. We were particularly enamored with the Green Jay which I have attempted to photograph and will attach here. The area was covered with a mix of tropical greens and moss hanging from wonderful old trees. All of this is set against a backdrop of flat farm land from which you get oranges, grapefruits, cabbage, carrots and your basic salad bowl ingredients (hence, it is called "the valley"). One more note on birds. Every morning and every evening while we were in Donna, we were visited by a flock of wild parrots. They are beautiful and all fly in perfect synchronization to various parts of the park. I could never get a good picture; I'll need to upgrade to a more powerful camera for that!

The other side trip was to Progreso, Mexico. You park on the US side and walk across the bridge over the Rio Grande and literally, are in a whole other country. The people are very poor, but very focused on the senior population upon whom they depend to live. You can get dental work done for a fraction of the price you pay in the US and prescription drugs are available on every corner; of course, without a prescription. We didn't spend much there because you have to haul it back across a bridge and we wanted to keep a light load. Lunch was almost an American affair as we ate at a place billed as a "Canada restaurant". The margaritas were killers, however. They were very small but extremely potent so one was enough! After all, it was only lunch!!

So we bid farewell to our friends and family in Magnolia Park and promised to return for a longer visit next year. We drove to Mustang Island State Park which is just north of Padre Island. We learned that Molly loves the beach during this visit. She chases everything from waves to birds and just loves to get covered in sand. She's not wild about the post-swim clean up but tolerates it for the sake of the event. The next night we stayed in Lake Texana State Park which is near Edna. This park was a nice surprise and probably the quietest night of our whole trip. Deer were everywhere and I even got a picture of an armadillo. The signs warning of alligators prohibited Molly from getting even close to the water, however. We were afraid she might be too much like dinner.

Next stop was in Galveston Island where it was cold, foggy and windy the first day but Molly could care less. She was back on the beach and I even let her run off the leash for awhile. She was good about returning to me when I called her, so we may let her do that a little more often. The second day was beautiful and we went on a couple of tours in town. On Thursday, we drove to College Station where we are now parked in Fred and Deb's driveway, where he conveniently installed hookups for us when he was building the house. I'll try to get a picture of that as well. Be careful what you ask for!

Now we will be off to North Texas spending a couple of days in Tyler, then about two weeks in Arlington. We should be there from 2/13 through 2/27. We would love to catch up with all our old friends when we are there. I promise to provide more frequent updates while we are there. Take care for now!