Fate Bell Cave

Today we (Jim, Linda, Scotty & I) went on a guided hike down Seminole Canyon to the Fate Bell Cave to view the rock art that a native people left there around 4000 years ago. It is some of the oldest rock art in North America. The weather was great. Scotty also went on a 6 mile hike this afternoon down to where the Rio Grande meets the Pecos River.







Today we (Jim, Linda, Scotty & I) went on a guided hike down Seminole Canyon to the Fate Bell Cave to view the rock art that a native people left there around 4000 years ago. It is some of the oldest rock art in North America. The weather was great. Scotty also went on a 6 mile hike this afternoon down to where the Rio Grande meets the Pecos River.

Seminole Canyon State Park, Comstock, TX

We had a nice drive up to Seminole Canyon today.

Linda & I took lots of pictures of flowers.










This is the 3rd blog I've done tonight. I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but the others didn't post. So here is another try.....

Cryatal City, TX

Today we drove around a bit with Jim & Linda. We found the post office, a small Walmart and a tiny HEB. We didn't need a lot of stuff, so the size of the stores here didn't hinder us any.
We also went to Crystal City, the Spinach capital of the world. And to prove it they actually have this large statue of Popeye!
I had my mail forwarded here from Livingston. It was sent Fed Ex 3 day service. However, it hasn't arrived so we will stay until it does. If it comes early today we will start out for our next destination, but if it comes late we will stay another night here.

Carrizo Springs, TX

We loaded up everything and got an early start for the first day of our new adventure. We drove west about 200 miles and met our friends Jim & Linda at Brush Country RV Park in Carrizo Springs, TX. We will spend 2 nights here. http://brushcountryrvpark.com/


The wildflowers are in full bloom and the colors were amazing all the way up.




Tonight we had Easter dinner together and then we all sat outside. Scotty & Jim practiced their dulicmer playing.

Our last day in Mission, TX

Today is our last day here at Bentsen Palm Village. We have been busy getting the RV cleaned and serviced and ready to hit the road again.

I haven't blogged since last Oct. when we arrived. We did have a great winter here with our friends. We will miss them and look forward to seeing everyone again next fall.

We plan to travel with our friends Jim & Linda this summer. I will try my best to keep my blog up to date and interesting.

Saturday

The Palmview crime stoppers held the 1st annual skeet shoot at the palapa on the River today. They had a good turn out for the first one.
Despite how it looks, they did not shoot Mexicans. They did shoot towards Mexico, but I'm pretty sure there was no one swimming there!
This is Mike's new boat and boathouse. It is where the hidden cove was. It looks very different all cleared out. It will still be hard to find the entrance from the river, especially if you are coming from the east. We will have to see..............................






Stairs to the boathouse.

Friday

Linda and I did some shopping today. Nothing special, but it was fun to poke around Michael's craft store. We looked at more Halloween stuff than anything.




We went for a bike ride in the State Park before dinner. There weren't many birds out but we saw thousands of butterflies. These are a few of the pictures I took.








I was surprised to see a few Monarch's







This historical marker is at the State Park.












This picture is out of focus, but it was a beautiful little butterfly. The colors and patterns reminded us of Stained Glass. I'll try for a better picture tomorrow.

Oct. 20, 2009

Things here in the Valley are great. Sorry that I am having trouble blogging everyday.

Today Linda and I took pictures of some of the butterflies that are here in the park. It was a windy day, but there are so many that it didn't matter.

Tonight we got together with Pat & Vern for margarita's.

It's Monday again?

Today was another cloudy day until later in the afternoon.

Scotty washed the roof and we cleaned the vents and fans. Something that was long overdue.
It took all morning and into the early afternoon.

We had a short break and then rode our bikes over to Pat & Vern's for dinner. We had hot dogs and beans and I took Taboule because it didn't need to be cooked. It was fun and we had a good visit with them.

Sunday

Today was over caste and cooler. The kind of day that makes you not want to do anything. Need I write more?
The tour in the GATV got postponed because it rained over night and it was too muddy.

Saturday and the formation of the First in Club

Today was cooler. It ended up a great day. Tonight we saw fireflies.

Don & Ginny returned to BPV yesterday. Today we all got together for margaritas and the first meeting of the First In Club. It will be open to anyone that come during the first week of Oct. and is booked for 6 months. This year is the first year. So the charter members are;
Don & Ginny Wilson
Mark & Teri Brown
Pat & Vern Shearer
John & Anne Scott

There will be perks for members all year. The goal is to make people want to come in Oct. next year.
We will have have Margareta nights in Oct for members. Probably a cook out. T-shirts or buttons to ware.
Tomorrow Don is taking us all out in the large ATV to see the new boat ramp. Mike got a new pontoon boat this summer. It's going to be for our use for a fee.

Friday

Today started out sunny but the front came through around noon and it cooled down and we got a little rain.

We went to Mexico with Pat & Vern for a couple of hours. There was a bike rally there. We saw a lot of really cool bikes.
It didn't seen very different from last year. The only obvious thing was that the military guards all had face masks. Not sure that's a good thing.....

Thursday

Guess what? Today was another hot and humid day! Surprise! BUT it's all supposed to change tomorrow.
Pat & I went to HEB this morning and I got some food to put in the little fridge. It's nice to have cold milk again.
Scotty & I both got our hair cut today. That was long overdue. It was also the highlight of the day.
We visited with Pat & Vern tonight for a while.

Wednesday

Today Scotty and Mark took the fridge out and ordered a new cooling unit. I was left with this lovely space. I tried to figure out where else we could put the fridge because I think a washer & dryer would fit in there perfectly. But, there is no other place for the fridge to go and of the 2, I would rather have the frige. The new part should be here the first part of next week.


This is what the back of the fridge looks like. Scotty is taking the cooling unit off in this picture. We will have to send it back when we get the replacement and they will rebuild it to see to someone else.



Pat & Vern Shearer arrived today. They came to my rescue and lent us their dorm sized fridge. It's not big, but it's great to have any fridge to use. We still have Teri & Marks cooler too.

Pat & Vern have a broken cable on the bedroom slide and Scotty & Vern are going to try to fix that next.

It was hot and humid again today. We can't use the pool for a few days because instead of turning the heater on for the hot tub, the pool heater was turned on by mistake and it is now 102 degrees! It may cool down enough to use in a couple of months!
Pat & Vern went to dinner with us at Pizza Hut. It's great to see them and hear about the places they traveled this past summer.

Oct. 6th

It was another hot day in the Rio Grande Valley. The humidity is high for this time of year too.

I had an exciting day of doing the laundry.

Scotty spent the day trying to figure out what is wrong with our refrigerator. The freezer ran, but the refridgerator wouldn't keep cool.

Teri & Mark (they are here doing work-camping) lent us a cooler and I was able to put the frozen food in the refrigerator in the office.

Mark has a business doing RV repairs. So he brought his manuals down and tried to help. Tomorrow Scotty will have to take the refrigerator out and see if he figure out the problem. Wish us luck!

Just a day at the beach

We packed the cooler and headed for S. Padre Island this morning. We had a great time. We stopped at the convention center and checked out the birds and 1 alligator from the boardwalk. They have finished the walkway and it's really nice. We saw a wood stork, stilts, 4 different types of herons, Rosette spoonbills and the usual pelicans, ducks, gulls, etc.

We parked the car on the beach and set our chairs in the shade it gave. We enjoyed the warm water. The last time we were at the beach we were in Maine and the gulf is certainly much warmer than the north Atlantic.





Scotty always loves to drive on the beach. So we did some of that too. We also checked out the park on the southern end so we would know where to go when we return in 2 weeks for the Sandcastle weekend.

There are so many butterflies that I just had to post a picture of 1.

Sizzling Sunday

Hot hot hot! But it's so much better than being cold cold cold!

Scotty worked on the awning again and put the bows in it to make it more stable. Then we put out the rope lights.
I made a potato salad and Scotty grilled burgers on his new Cobb grill for dinner.
We rode our bikes up to the pool this afternoon, to cool off a bit. The heater hasn't been on for about 5 months, but the water is still warm. But we enjoyed it.
I saw some beautiful butterflies today, but they wouldn't sit still long enough to get a picture.
I also made a butterfly feeder, and hung 2 small hummingbird feeders. I hope they like them.

Our Anniversary

Today is our 28th anniversary. We had a nice day together. We went for a bike ride in Bentsen Palm Rio Grande State Park first thing this morning, before it got hot. We saw the usual birds and 1 javalina.

After we showered and changed we went into McAllen to shop at Harbor Freight. They were having a sale. We poked around for a while and bought a few things. Then we went to Lowe's to get the pvc to use for posts on the awing enclosure. I got a few packets of seeds for the garden too.

After that we went to Hayashi which is a Hibachi Restaurant. It was great! We ate way too much and still had some to bring home.

Tonight the swallows did another fly-by. It could have been a new flock, since it wasn't as large as last night. It just amazes me to see things like that.

The full moon rose in a clear sky. Winds still from the south which has kept the front to the north giving us another beautiful day.

Oct. 2, 2009

These are just 2 of the many amazing flowers here this time of year.

Scotty put the awning shade up today and did some other things that make it feel more like home. I went to the HEB and spent way too long there getting groceries and relearning where everything is. It's a nice store.

Scotty cooked pork chops in our new Cobb grill. It came out good. I made toss salad, garlic mashed potatoes and fresh apple sauce to go with it. M MM M M!

We went for a swim in the pool before dinner. The water was warm but still refreshing.

Tonight there was thunder and some lightening, but no rain.

Terri told us that the black cats that are here are corporate cats. So we have been calling the little one that has befriended us (much to our dismay) Little Black Corporate Cat. What else?

All in all it was a good day.

Oct. 1st. Bentsen Palm Village, Mission, TX

Today we drove the 275 (or so) miles from Helotes to Mission. The drive was a good one despite the traffic jam that met us as we got to the on ramp to the 1604 loop. There had been an accident, but it was cleared in short order and the traffic moved on.
We were set up on our site (826) and had turned on the AC by 4PM. This little humming bird was very busy and found my feeder right off despite all the flowers. There are flowers everywhere!


The following pictures are of the new corporate headquarters of Rhodes Enterprises & SolStar Network.

The building is located in the back parking lot, next to the wood shop. It seems to be the biggest change I've seen so far.

Tonight as the sun set, the swallows came in. There were thousands and thousands of them! It was amazing.

Our last day in Helotes

Today is our last day here in Helotes, TX. Tomorrow we will drive to Mission for the winter.
We did all the things that have to be done in order to leave in the morning.
This afternoon Scotty, Susan & I went to the movies. We say "The Time Travelers Wife" which was a good movie. We all enjoyed it. We ate too much popcorn so didn't want to go out to eat dinner.
Tonight we had wine and cheese and spent time just chatting. It has been so good to spend time with Susan again. And her 3 rescued dogs Truman, Ozzie & Jade.

Tuesday

Today was mostly uneventful. Aside from a trip to the local HEB (a great TX based grocery store) and a stop at Lowe's there isn't much to write.
The weather was nice. It was cooler but still sunny. We were able to leave the windows open and didn't need to run the AC at all.
I cleaned up in the RV and Scotty finished up some small projects for Susan.

Monday in San Antonio, TX

We had decided to go into San Antonio today to see the new part of the River Walk that opened last spring. Then we sat around talking and drinking coffee with Susan until it was after 10. So now we had to hurry to make it to the bus stop so we could ride into the city on the bus instead of driving in. But we made it! We are such hicks when it comes to things like riding the bus. But we followed Susan's lead and were able to manage paying the fare and purchasing a transfer ticket. Eventually we arrived at our stop and got off the bus. Yes, all 3 of us made it at the same time.

We had to walk about 3 blocks to get to the area near the AT&T building that had the best entrance to the new part of the River Walk. On the way we stopped at the Vietnam War Memorial. It was very moving. You can't tell in the picture, but it's very large.

On the new part of the River Walk there are no restaurants or shops. There are benches and ponds, & lots of art. The barges will take you (for $10 fee) from end to end as many times in 24 hours as you'd like. We took one to the far end through the lock to where the Pearl Brewery is. The buildings are now being renovated into shops and restaurant. We had lunch at the Texas Farm to Table. The food was very good.

The new part of the River Walk and the barge

Some of the artwork along the way. These fish hang from an overpass.
Each one is around 4 ft long

The lock has about a 12 ft. lift