Nuevo Progreso Trip

We square danced this morning at Darryl Lipscomb's concept dance. He uses some concepts borrowed from a level of dancing higher than the advertised level. This was the most challenging dance we've gone to since we arrived in the Rio Grande Valley. Forty-one couples were at the dance. Some of them have been coming to this dance for years. They tell us that during the winter, after all of the winter Texans have arrived in the valley; the attendance grows to over a hundred couples.

Among the square dancers we've met here are Hardy and Judy Pottinger. They live in the valley all year. We accepted their invitation to join them and a group of friends on their weekly trip into Mexico for drinks and lunch after the dance. We drove to the Rio Grande and then walked across a bridge into the town of Nuevo Progreso. It happened to be Hardy's birthday today, so the lunch turned into a birthday party. One of the guys brought a birthday cake, so we all had cake for dessert.


Lee sat next to Hardy and Judy at lunch.










Our friends told us about a shop near the restaurant that gives good haircuts. Lee decided to try it. She got a haircut that she likes a lot--and a neck and back massage--for five dollars.

On the way home we stopped at one of the local attractions, the La Lomita (Little Hill) Chapel. The chapel was first built in 1865 as an adobe overnight way station for padres who regularly traveled on horseback between nearby towns. The 12 by 25 foot structure was rebuilt of sandstone in 1889. It has original brick floors; rough, heavy-beamed ceilings shaped from native trees; an outdoor "beehive" oven; and the original water well. The chapel is in a park with picnic facilities and signs describing historical elements of the site.



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Bentsen Rio Grande Valley State Park

We checked out Bentsen RGV State Park today. We bicycled to the park office to get a map and information about the park. Then we bicycled through the park, checking out the facilities set up for bird watching. Although the emphasis in this area is on birds and butterflies, there is other wildlife in the park. We found this peccary looking for food under some bird feeders.
















As we rode along we couldn't help comparing the wild, natural state of this park with the concrete San Gabriel River that we used to bike along in Long Beach.


This trip was mainly to get to know the park. We saw several things we want to go back and check out--like a hiking trail that leads down to the Rio Grande, and a boat launch where we might be able to put a kayak into the water, and a hawk observation tower.
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The Move to Bentsen Palm Village

Today we moved to the RV park that will be our home for the rest of the year. Bentsen Palm Village RV Park has a lot going for it. It's very attractive (maybe because the palm trees remind us of Southern California). Most of the plantings are native host or nectar plants for butterflies, so everywhere you look is a swirl of butterflies. A paved bike path runs right by the entrance to the park, so our bikes will get plenty of use here. There are kayaks available for use on the Rio Grande, which is just half a mile down the road.






The park is right next to the Bentsen Rio Grande Valley State Park, It is lived in or visited by more than 325 species of birds and over 250 species of butterflies on 760 acres of riparian woodland. This is said to be a key migratory stopover. The park features nature trails, a hawk tower, birding blinds and viewing stations, tram tours and plenty of opportunities for bird and wildlife photography. Motorized vehicles aren't allowed, so this will be another place to use our bikes. We expect to visit the park a lot.

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A T. Rex Named Sue

The University of Texas has a Panamerican campus near us in the city of Edinburg, Texas. We stopped by this afternoon to see their replica of the skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus Rex named Sue. Sue is impressive! When we went into the room where Sue has been put, her open mouth was pointed right at us. Reminded us of a scene from the movie Jurassic Park.










This is an almost complete skeleton from the western United States. The real skeleton is owned and displayed by the Field Museum of Chicago. Apparently several replicas have been made for display in other places, and one of the traveling replicas is here in Edinburg.
















Lee checks out a display of the skull.












Along one side of the room are some display panels with information and hands-on displays dealing with some of what is known about the T. Rex--like how its neck vertebrae move to allow it to pull its head back toward its body to maintain its balance.


The university was also showing a video about dinosaurs in its planetarium. The half-hour show covered a lot of interesting information that was new to us--like the fact that an area of the western states has an orange layer of rock that divides rock with dinosaur fossils from rock in which dinosaurs fossils are not found. Below this layer--lots of dinosaurs, above the layer--no dinosaurs. The source of this orange layer isn't known for sure. One possibility is that it's debris thrown into the atmosphere by the massive meteor often spoken of as hitting the earth 65 million years ago.

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Laundry and sun

We decided to do the laundry today. Nice that the laundry room in the park where we are staying is right next to the hot tub and pool, so while we waited for the machines, we got to soak and sun.

Later we went to HEB for milk, but otherwise just hung out. We're looking forward to doing a lot while we're in the Valley, but this week Lee has not been feeling great, so we're keeping it low key.
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Dancing Again!

Today we started our Rio Grande Valley square dancing experience. We went to an advanced dance in called by Randy Dougherty--his first Wednesday dance of the 2008-2009 season. The dance was in Pharr at a mobile home park named Pharr South. It was good to learn that we haven't forgotten everything over the summer, even though we haven't been dancing regularly.


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Bentsen Palm Village

We're going to spend several weeks at Bentsen Palm Village RV Resort. We've come to Texas's Rio Grande Valley to do some square dancing; and this park is in Mission, Texas, the town where a lot of the dances are held. Apparently most of the winter Texans fleeing the cold up north don't start arriving until January. So we had no trouble getting a place to stay for this coming weekend through December. That works out well for us, since we want to about the first of January to head of Quartzsite, Arizona, where we'll meet some friends for the RV show that takes place there every winter. Fortunately, the square dance callers start arriving the first of November, so we'll have plenty of dancing available between now and the end of the year.



Our campsite will look something like the one in this picture from the park's web site.











They've planted hundreds of trees (palm, mesquite, retama, fiddlewood, poinsiana, anacua and others) and lots of native plants and groundcover. They've made a point of including plants that attract butterflies, and there are butterflies all over the place.
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Arrival in the Rio Grande Valley

We left Lake Corpus Christi State Park this morning and headed south for the Rio Grande Valley. Ken drove all the way, with stops to do some grocery shopping and to have lunch. Today we looked at several RV parks in Mission. We have decided to stay at Bentsen Palms Village RV Resort. It's near the State Park and five miles of hike and bike trails.

After three hours of checking out parks, we stopped at a small Mexican restaurant for supper and had shrimp enchiladas. Lee is feeling better but still not over an upper respiratory infection that's been laying her low for the last few days, so we'll probably just hang out for the next couple of days.
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Lyndon Johnson Library

Today we visited the Lyndon Johnson Library and Museum on the campus of the University of Texas. This is the first presidential library we've been to that doesn't charge admission. Apparently LBJ was interested in maximizing the educational value of the library, so he specifically requested that there be no charge.

We're staying just across the river from downtown Austin, in Pecan Grove RV Park. Lee loves the trees!















As at JFK's library, Ken noticed that the LBJ library showed the president wrestling with the same issues of individual freedom and rights that are still an issue today. There seems to be a need for constant work to support some fundamental principles. Ken bought LBJ's memoirs of his white house years in the gift shop (on sale for $5). He's hoping it will help him understand how some of these issues looked to LBJ.
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Granger Lake

We're at a Corps of Engineers campground at Willis Creek on Granger Lake. We always like to have a lake view and found the place so appealing we decided to spend an extra night.

Lee gets our bikes ready for a ride around the campground and neighboring country roads.






This evening we are visiting the Toupses in Taylor, TX, which is just down the road. Lee's goddaughter, Jessica, will join us for dinner.

The last time we visited here was in July 2006. At that point we were considering retiring to Austin, so we flew here to check out local real estate. We are still inclined to think we might settle down in the Austin area at some point, but we have no firm plans.

When we were here last, the youngest Toups had just been born, so he's two now. I have trouble keeping up with the Toups clan once you get past Jessica, Anthony, and Sam, who were born in Nacogdoches. It's always good to catch up with old friends and find out what is happening in their lives. Jessica married Christopher Allen, a soldier, this spring. He's about to be deployed to Iraq again.
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Repairs and travel

This morning we left Lewisville and headed south to an Excel dealer in Cleburne,TX, to get a leak under our shower repaired, a stove burner igniter replaced, and yet another hose swapped into our EZ Reel hose mount. Cleburne is south of Fort Worth, so we set our alarm for 6 a.m. That was way too early--we dragged ourselves out of bed nearer 6:30 and drove out of the campground at 9:40. It took longer to do everything outside because it was cold and windy.


Double-B Suzuki and RV was the first motorcycle/RV outfit that we've done business with. Fortunately, their repairs seem to have been done well.





After getting the repairs done, we found our way over to I35 south and headed toward Waco. We spent the night just north of Waco at the I-35 RV Park. They have nice long pull-through's, but the sites are close together--a good overnighter.

We are expecting really chilly weather tonight, almost down to freezing. I have an upper respiratory infection, so Sweetie's walk this evening was about 10 feet outside of the rig.
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Museums

We joined Ed and Julie and the kids for a trip to the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth. We wanted to see a special exhibit of Impressionist paintings. After standing in line for over half an hour, we regrouped and decided to enjoy the much less crowded (and free) regular collection. Afterwards we walked over to the Amon Carter Museum next door. The Carter started out as a museum of the American West, and it still has extensive collections of western art, but it now covers American art more broadly.

We had a fascinating time and could have spent hours more--but the museum closed at 5, everyone was ready for dinner, and Cate and Sam had reached the end of their patience--or was it their parents' patience? We went to Joe T. Garcia's Mexican Restaurant, which was quite an experience.

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Pumpkin Patch

Today we had the fun of watching grandkids enjoy a pumpkin patch. This one, outside of Flower Mound, Texas, is big! Some generous person with a ranch outside of town sets up a pumpkin patch every year.















Julie and Edward decided that the wagons were good for more than pumpkins--so Sam and Cate got to ride.

Besides the field full of pumpkins for sale, the kids could enjoy hay rides, rides on a "train" with cars made from oil drums, a maze made of hay bales, games, face painting, and more things than I can remember. Everything other than the pumpkins is free!




Lee had a wonderful time with her grandchildren.


















It was a topsy-turvy day for Sam.













The kids almost had too much fun to pay attention to the pumpkins.






















As tired as the kids were after the pumpkin patch, they found the energy to go to a halloween party in the afternoon.


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Kelley's College Apartment

Lee's granddaughter Kelley is in her junior year at the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas. We went there today to see her apartment and the campus. She has her own bedroom and bathroom in the apartment she shares with three other girls. After we went out for a Tex-Mex dinner, she showed us the sorority house and the county courthouse in the town square. Next to the square was and a used book store with three floors of books. Naturally we had to go inside and browse. We were able to restrain ourselves to buying only one book.

Lee got a kick out of the kissing/cooking sign.

Kelley's study area is set up in a corner of her bedroom.

Kelley's apartment house.














Before our trip to Denton we spent some time updating our estimated federal income tax. We retired in February, so we have to deal with receiving paychecks part of the year and pension checks and Social Security benefits the rest of the year.
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Truck Maintenance

Our truck is clean and shiny! We had its first regular maintenance done at the dealership where Ed works, Park Place Lexus. Part of the service includes cleaning the vehicle inside and out. The truck got all kinds of service: air filter, fuel filter, oil change, tire rotation, external transmission filter, brake check, etc. It's ready to go another 15,000 miles.

Cate and her mom went to Cici's Pizza for dinner. Cate's school sponsors a once-a-month outing as a fund raiser, and Cate got to play with her friends. Meanwhile we had chicken parmesan with pasta and spinach salad at the house and a chance to play with Sam. Sam is quite taken with "Poppa" Ken.
Earlier Julie and Lee took the four dogs for a walk with Sam in his jogging stroller. Lee walked Sweetie and Bijou, while Julie held on to the two wriggling puppies, Happy and Charlie and guided the stroller.
After supper Cate played Dora Chutes and Ladders with her Grandma.
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Visitors

Ed and Julie and Cate and Sam came to have dinner at Lake Lewisville with us. Kelley drove down from Denton, where she is a junior at North Texas. We enjoyed the company--and the games of ladder golf, which Ed and Kelley excelled at. Cate and Sam enjoyed running around and playing ball and riding their riding toys.

We ate dinner outside, but came into the trailer for desert.













We had beer can chicken, potato salad, cole slaw, and mixed veggies. Ed brought cherry and pumpkin pies for dessert.





Cate enjoyed the pumpkin pie.











Sam had fun with everything.










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Shopping for Halloween

We spent the day with Lee's son Edward and his family. We took our laundry to their house with us and washed it during the day. In the afternoon we all took some time to take the kids shopping for Halloween. We started out to go to a pumpkin patch, but the traffic heading that way was so bad that we decided to shop for decorations instead. We checked out what was available at three or four stores, and found some things that the kids liked. Cate helped Edward put them up around the house.














Lee, Edward and Julie took Cate and Sam on a ride to Target.


Back at the house, Edward fixed us a delicious salmon dinner--seasoning the fish with teriyaki sauce and honey and grilling it with pineapple. Yum!! Kelley came for dinner and brought chocolate Halloween cupcakes and chocolate chip cookies for dessert. It was great to see Kelley again. When we were in this area in May, she was on her way to Italy for the summer, so we saw her for only one afternoon at Nana's house. This visit we'll get to spend a bit more time with her.
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Lake Lewisville

We moved to Lake Park Campground in Lewisville, TX. We've been in this campground before and really like it. Although we didn't get the great spot we had last time, we do have a nice view of the lake. We have a view of the southern sky, so both the tv and the internet dish are up and working.

Tonight we met Ed and Julie and Cate and Sam at Costco, where we stocked up on some essentials. Cate showed off her finery--she was wearing pierced earrings and a charm bracelet, lots of glitz. We got some smiles from Sam, and hugs all around.

We also got some mail that had been sent to Ed's house, including insurance checks, a pedometer ordered from Amazon, and a wonderful Samurai game sent by Chris for Lee's birthday.
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Pool Sharks

Ken and I played three games of eight ball today.  We were glad that no one else was watching our efforts--it's been a while since we shot pool, and it showed.  Still we had fun.  We also soaked for a while in the hot tub--relaxing, and especially nice for my right shoulder.  I spend a lot of time on my computer, and the desk height doesn't match what my shoulder would prefer.....

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Frozen River

We saw Frozen River today at the Kilgore Film Festival, along with our friend Carol. The film won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Dramatic Feature at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. It's a crime drama--two single mothers in desperate circumstances are involved in smuggling illegals across the Canadian border--but the development of the relationship between two women is at the heart of the film. The cinematography is realistic, and there's no sentimentality in the plot either, just the portrayal of courage and strength in the face of overwhelming odds.

Earlier we had gone to dinner at Luby's with Dick and Carol. We were surprised by the variety of seafood offered. Ken had pan fried fish and Lee had blackened tilapia--both were good. Today is our last day in Tyler, so we said our goodbyes. Tomorrow we'll move on.

Back at our campsite, we rode our bikes for a few miles around the state park. There's a lovely lake here that supports a lot of the recreation available in the park.





















Campsites in the Lakeview section of the campground are right on the lake.






















Boats are available for rent at the camp store.
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Quiet day

Not much going on today. This morning we did some cleaning inside and out. Lee took the laundry over to Carol's after lunch so they could visit while the clothes washed. Ken stayed home and worked on the blog, but had trouble with the internet connection.












Dick and Carol's house in Tyler, Texas










The Hurzelers took us out to lunch when we arrived in town the other day.


We are putting the electric blanket on the bed when we make it tonight, an acknowlegement that colder weather is coming, even though we are heading south.
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Back in Tyler

Long travel day today, but we made it to Tyler State Park. We chose a campsite carefully to avoid the problems we had with getting out of the site last time (we do learn from experience--it just mostly has to be pretty painful experience). This time we've got an attractive site and a site that's going to be easy to pull out of. We like this park for the large empty spaces in front of most of the sites.















We also wanted to put up the TV dish, so we needed a view of the southern sky. Ken is very pleased that the last few times he has set up the dish, he's pointed it and come inside, turned on the TV, and voila! we've got a picture.


Lee is very pleased that we finally have national PBS access through Distant Network Services. We originally got only the east and west coast feeds of the major networks and FOX.
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Clinton Presidential Center, Little Rock, AR

The Clinton Presidential Center is an impressive facility. Like all presidential libraries, it was built with private contributions, but given to the people of the United States. This is our fourth presidential library in the last few months, but the first representing a recent president.


The building housing the Clinton Library is the most unusual building we've seen at the four or five presidential libraries we've visited.

















The library has a replica of the oval office as it looked when Clinton was using it.



We got good views of downtown Little Rock from our parking space in front of the library.









Someone decided that the library would be a good place to display motorcycle art--motorcycles constructed and painted to be art as much (or more) than transportation.











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Heading South

We left the Branson area and traveled south to North Little Rock today. We found a delightful wooded city campground, Burns Park, which is part of a large city park complex.
















We're poised to leave in the morning to visit the Clinton Presidential Center. We took a short bike ride to explore, but decided that the growing twilight made it unsafe to continue. Later the rain increased and is pelting us with small acorn-like things that make an alarming rattle.
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Table Rock Lake

This morning we biked the Lakeside Trail and through the marina and campgrounds at Table Rock Lake. Along the way we stopped at the Branson Belle landing and saw the paddlewheeler ready to cruise. We also saw a duck enter the water....but not an ordinary duck. A featured experience in Branson is riding the ducks--amphibious craft. The pilot played up the entry into the water and got everyone on board to cheer as he revved the engines and sped down the boat ramp.

We like the campgrounds in the State Park. Campground 2 in particular has some really nice campsites. We had lunch in the picnic area next to the campgrounds. Then we shopped--grocery store, dollar store, Corelware store, and two stores devoted to kitchen items.
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SIX! Wow!

We went to a show tonight that knocked our socks off! It's called SIX and features six brothers (from a family of 10 boys). They perform a capella, but you'd swear there's a drummer--even a whole band backing them up--but no, it's just their voices! Powerful music, high energy performance, comedy that kept us laughing, songs that brought the audience to their feet more than once. If you ever go to Branson, don't miss this show!















Four of SIX
















He introduces himself as the cute one of the six.
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Great Shows!

This morning we went to the Doug Gabriel Show at 10, and then after a quick lunch took in the Rankin Brothers Show. Both were extremely entertaining. Doug Gabriel is a really multi-talented musician. His singing voice is spectacular, he plays guitar, and is a gifted keyboardist. He played a rousing version of the William Tell Overture on the "mufftar" his father made for him when he was young. "Mufftar" is his term for a guitar made from a muffler off a 1957 Thunderbird. It made much better music than you would expect. His show spans quite a variety and includes his wife, who sings, his two older boys who play drums, and his 10-year-old daughter who dances and sings. We cheered, clapped, laughed and cried (Lee) in turns.

The Rankin Brothers had a more traditional musical review of songs mainly from the 50s and 60s. We had heard a couple of positive comments from people who had seen the show, but we didn't know exactly what to expect. The show turned out to be a wonderful treat. The brothers, Matt and Mark, have a wealth of talent. Matt did an outstanding impression of Buddy Holly's singing, looks, and mannerisms. He also does some fast-paced wizardry on the guitar. Mark's vocals were impressive; he did amazing things with a variety of music. He also did an outstanding impression of Elvis, complete with a replica of the King's eagle suit. Individually and together, the brothers delivered excellent music.





The show also featured the "Rankinettes"--three wonderful singers who performed classic girl group songs. One is the daughter of Peggy Lennon.




We lucked out on seats for both of these shows. Because of deals set up through the Escapees RV park where we're staying, we got great seats in the middle of the second row and paid no more than $10 per ticket.

Between shows we took a drive to the west of Branson to get to know a state park (Table Rock State Park) and Corps of Engineers campgrounds on Table Rock Lake. The drive was along ridge with a magnificent view of Branson, the White River, and the lake.









After dinner we went to the RV park's clubhouse for an informal jam session. Nine or ten guys showed up to sing and play their instruments, which included guitars plus a harmonica and a bass.


Yesterday we took in a show called Baldknobbers. It was enjoyable, but we didn't see it as special enough that we would want to see it again sometime.
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Getting To Know Branson

We went into Branson to look over the town. First we walked the downtown streets of the original part of town--known as historic downtown Branson. We had lunch in a cafe on Main Street. We shared a grilled chicken sandwich and a blackberry cobbler with ice cream for dessert. We enjoyed both. Then we drove out to the west end of town, checking out the theaters we expected to see shows in over the next few days.

Later we stopped at Wal-Mart and bought a new 14' ethernet cable for setting up our internet dish and a set of walkie-talkies to use when we're parking the trailer in a new campsite. After dinner we went to the Turkey Creek RV Village clubhouse for root beer floats and for an hour of musical tribute to Loretta Lynn.
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