I guess I’ve been remiss in my duties as chief correspondent for this expedition. I could apologize and say it will never happen again……………….but then……………, well, you can figure it out. Anyway, I hope this brings everyone up to date. Sorry if it’s a little long.
We left the Corps of Engineers and Piney Point park on the 1st of February. We’d like to think we left it in better shape than when we arrived. Pretty sure we did! It will always feel kinda’ like a little bit of ours. It was all cleaned up and ready for people to start coming in.
We worked our way down the Gulf Coast. Rockport, Port Aransas, Corpus Christi, Brownsville, and into the Rio Grande Valley and Mission. We spent a little more the a week at Goose Island, just north of Rockport. We had to wait for a part for our water heater which cost a few extra days. But then in our situation, what’s a few days. The gas element still worked but we had lost the electrical side. We still had hot water, but it was made by gas.
But now we were all fixed and good to go. The weather had improved after some cold spells and that was nice. I know we really have nothing to complain about but it wasn’t as good as it could be for a while. Still, it was good to get back to shorts and sandals. Tough break huh?
We had a good stay in Brownsville. We walked across the border to Matamoras and did a little shopping and sightseeing. Came back with a bag full of drugs. Just in case “big brother” is monitoring my email, I’m talking about what would be prescription medications in the U.S. In Mexico it’s over-the-counter stuff. We took a look at our co-pay cost and got some of what was cheaper. And I got a supply of 800mg ibuprofen. We spent a whopping $20 on two sixty day supply prescriptions and a large bottle of ibuprofen. I thought about getting my teeth cleaned for $20 but didn‘t. We took a Mexican taxi back to the border from the Plaza in Matamoras. I think Kat left some claw marks in the back seat. The driver took us on a little detour through the “rich” part of town. I think both of us were a little too occupied with watching the driving to notice what part of twon we were in. But we did make it back to the bridge and Customs. A word to the wise here about going through Customs. When the Customs Inspector asks what you have in the bag, it may not be a good idea to tell him “it’s just a bag full of drugs.” I think that is usually going to illicit the response I got. I quickly corrected myself but I still had to show him what was in the bag. But he was nice and we both had a laugh. Mine was just a little more nervous. We also went to the Gladys Porter zoo in Brownsville. A very nice small zoo that specializes in endangered species. I was happy just to see the gorillas. They have a good size (12-15?) family unit in a very visible setting. We watched for some time and I think I may have seen some friends and relatives. We also enjoyed the many unusual birds. Lots of them were not even the captive residents of the zoo. Several were just native species you just can’t see anywhere else in the US. Like Green Jays, Kiskidees’, and parrots. Free to come and go as they chose.
From Brownsville we headed west down the Rio Grande Valley to Mission, TX. We stayed a week at Bentsen Grove RV resort. This may be the spot for many of our winter days. Bentsen Grove is a good size RV resort and I guess it’s pretty typical for what you would call a “snowbird” destination. There is a large hall that serves as a rec room, pool hall, cafeteria, office, card room etc. It probably holds 200+ folks for meetings and shows. There are partitions for changing arrangements depending on need. Another building houses an indoor pool and exercise room. There is a facility called the “Hanger” with an indoor tennis court, ping pong tables and other rooms for things such as wood carving, a rock shop and some others activities that escape me. There is a another building that has three or four rooms for meetings, dance lessons, Spanish classes, etc. There’s an outdoor pool (which we took advantage of), horse shoe pit, shuffleboard, a decent size lending library, laundry facilities, and a wood and metal shop. They don’t have a golf course but there is a “par three” next door and a there are men’s, women’s and mixed groups that travel to nearby courses. Within reasonable driving distance there is every kind of shopping you could want. As always in the RV community there are just lots of nice folks. So as I said this may be a place we spend lots of time in the winter. Either this resort or one very much like it. There are lots to choose from. Some with more amenities and activities and some with less. Some a little fancier and some not quite so. We kind of like the idea of being “Winter Texans”. Y’all know I’ve always been kind of partial to Texas. This is one of the reasons.
At a wide spot in the highway west of Mission we went down to the Rio Grande river and took a ride on the only hand pulled ferry in the U.S. Just four or five Mexicans pulling on a rope dragging that ferry across. The ferry holds three cars and “walk-on’s“. We just walked on, rode across, and came right back. There really isn’t a town associated with this border crossing so that‘s all we could do. Well, Kat had to feel the muscles of the old guy taking the money. He helped some with the pulling. Anyway he was all flexing and everything and he said Ohhh! Senorita! Just pulling Kat’s chain. Well, she did feel his muscles, and he loved it! Does everybody know that the Rio Grande is called the Rio Bravo in Mexico. And all this time I thought it was just a John Wayne movie. Just a John Wayne movie! Pardon my terminology!
OK. This is just getting too long. I suppose I could ‘shut up’. Maybe just do a little less bloviating. (Bloviate: to speak or write verbosely and windily). Well, that’s not going to happen. I am compelled to do this! That doesn’t mean you have to read it. But someday, somewhere, someone will look upon this and be glad I did it. Maybe? But for now, I gotta' go.
Next: Two Goose
We left the Corps of Engineers and Piney Point park on the 1st of February. We’d like to think we left it in better shape than when we arrived. Pretty sure we did! It will always feel kinda’ like a little bit of ours. It was all cleaned up and ready for people to start coming in.
We worked our way down the Gulf Coast. Rockport, Port Aransas, Corpus Christi, Brownsville, and into the Rio Grande Valley and Mission. We spent a little more the a week at Goose Island, just north of Rockport. We had to wait for a part for our water heater which cost a few extra days. But then in our situation, what’s a few days. The gas element still worked but we had lost the electrical side. We still had hot water, but it was made by gas.
But now we were all fixed and good to go. The weather had improved after some cold spells and that was nice. I know we really have nothing to complain about but it wasn’t as good as it could be for a while. Still, it was good to get back to shorts and sandals. Tough break huh?
We had a good stay in Brownsville. We walked across the border to Matamoras and did a little shopping and sightseeing. Came back with a bag full of drugs. Just in case “big brother” is monitoring my email, I’m talking about what would be prescription medications in the U.S. In Mexico it’s over-the-counter stuff. We took a look at our co-pay cost and got some of what was cheaper. And I got a supply of 800mg ibuprofen. We spent a whopping $20 on two sixty day supply prescriptions and a large bottle of ibuprofen. I thought about getting my teeth cleaned for $20 but didn‘t. We took a Mexican taxi back to the border from the Plaza in Matamoras. I think Kat left some claw marks in the back seat. The driver took us on a little detour through the “rich” part of town. I think both of us were a little too occupied with watching the driving to notice what part of twon we were in. But we did make it back to the bridge and Customs. A word to the wise here about going through Customs. When the Customs Inspector asks what you have in the bag, it may not be a good idea to tell him “it’s just a bag full of drugs.” I think that is usually going to illicit the response I got. I quickly corrected myself but I still had to show him what was in the bag. But he was nice and we both had a laugh. Mine was just a little more nervous. We also went to the Gladys Porter zoo in Brownsville. A very nice small zoo that specializes in endangered species. I was happy just to see the gorillas. They have a good size (12-15?) family unit in a very visible setting. We watched for some time and I think I may have seen some friends and relatives. We also enjoyed the many unusual birds. Lots of them were not even the captive residents of the zoo. Several were just native species you just can’t see anywhere else in the US. Like Green Jays, Kiskidees’, and parrots. Free to come and go as they chose.
From Brownsville we headed west down the Rio Grande Valley to Mission, TX. We stayed a week at Bentsen Grove RV resort. This may be the spot for many of our winter days. Bentsen Grove is a good size RV resort and I guess it’s pretty typical for what you would call a “snowbird” destination. There is a large hall that serves as a rec room, pool hall, cafeteria, office, card room etc. It probably holds 200+ folks for meetings and shows. There are partitions for changing arrangements depending on need. Another building houses an indoor pool and exercise room. There is a facility called the “Hanger” with an indoor tennis court, ping pong tables and other rooms for things such as wood carving, a rock shop and some others activities that escape me. There is a another building that has three or four rooms for meetings, dance lessons, Spanish classes, etc. There’s an outdoor pool (which we took advantage of), horse shoe pit, shuffleboard, a decent size lending library, laundry facilities, and a wood and metal shop. They don’t have a golf course but there is a “par three” next door and a there are men’s, women’s and mixed groups that travel to nearby courses. Within reasonable driving distance there is every kind of shopping you could want. As always in the RV community there are just lots of nice folks. So as I said this may be a place we spend lots of time in the winter. Either this resort or one very much like it. There are lots to choose from. Some with more amenities and activities and some with less. Some a little fancier and some not quite so. We kind of like the idea of being “Winter Texans”. Y’all know I’ve always been kind of partial to Texas. This is one of the reasons.
At a wide spot in the highway west of Mission we went down to the Rio Grande river and took a ride on the only hand pulled ferry in the U.S. Just four or five Mexicans pulling on a rope dragging that ferry across. The ferry holds three cars and “walk-on’s“. We just walked on, rode across, and came right back. There really isn’t a town associated with this border crossing so that‘s all we could do. Well, Kat had to feel the muscles of the old guy taking the money. He helped some with the pulling. Anyway he was all flexing and everything and he said Ohhh! Senorita! Just pulling Kat’s chain. Well, she did feel his muscles, and he loved it! Does everybody know that the Rio Grande is called the Rio Bravo in Mexico. And all this time I thought it was just a John Wayne movie. Just a John Wayne movie! Pardon my terminology!
OK. This is just getting too long. I suppose I could ‘shut up’. Maybe just do a little less bloviating. (Bloviate: to speak or write verbosely and windily). Well, that’s not going to happen. I am compelled to do this! That doesn’t mean you have to read it. But someday, somewhere, someone will look upon this and be glad I did it. Maybe? But for now, I gotta' go.
Next: Two Goose
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