Homeward Bound

After five months in Texas, we are looking forward to hitting the road again and heading back to Canandaigua, NY, our summer home and spending time with family and friends. While we thought that Texas would be our permanent winter home, after several seasons here we have found that we are ready to try Florida next year and take in different sites. (Not too mention it is 1,000 miles closer to New York). After all, that is why we have wheels.
ds and we were told if you climb the small hill in back you will have a view of the quarry.  Of course, there is still work to be done to it, driveway to be poured, grass to be planted etc. but it will be nice to have a brand new concrete pad, electric, cable, sewer, etc. Once it is done and we get there we can add to the landscaping if we choose by planting flowers or other shrubs or whatever we choose.  We love the Spanish moss they have there and figure it can’t be any messier than the Retama tree we had on our site in Texas.


We have met some great people here at Bentsen Palm Village.  Most will be moving on as well but I am sure that our paths will cross again.

Colorful Culture

Today we went to the Hidalgo Border Fest Parade with our friends, Vic and Marianne.  The theme of the parade was “Mexico” which is quite obvious from these pictures.  All the bright colors and costumes are a huge part of the Mexican Culture.
There were many colorful floats…..

Marching bands, dancers…..

Crazy cars….

Dancing horses…..

Bagpipers….. (not sure how they fit into the Mexican theme) but we loved them

Busy Month for the Birthday Boy!

It has been over a month since I have blogged and can not believe that we have been in Texas for over 3 months now and that we are already into the month of February.  January was a busy work month for us.  We hosted a New Year’s Eve party, four music shows, a pancake breakfast, two ice cream socials, weekly Margarita nights and coffee and donuts. Needless to say we are never bored.  We had a few weeks of cool weather so we have not done as much walking, biking and swimming as we would like. We have, however, been bowling with our team every week and really enjoy that. Maybe it is because we have the rowdiest team.  Our team is tied for last place, but we have a great time and Ray and I have been improving more each week.

We were hoping that being in the warm weather, we would be able to avoid the flu, but we were not so lucky.  We both had the stomach flu, Ray much worse than me, thus postponing his birthday for a day. 
We are so lucky to have such great friends and neighbors here.  They all got together and threw a birthday party for him with great food and drink.

Here’s hoping that February will bring some calm, relaxing days for us, filled with swimming, sun and happy hours with friends.

Festival of Lights

One of the highlights of our visit with Lori and Greg was taking them to the Hidalgo Festival of Lights in the city of Hidalgo, a short drive from our park.  We had heard from so many people how great the show is every year, but it was even more spectacular than we had imagined.  The show runs for the whole month of December and is free to the public.  This years theme was “A Victorian Christmas”, but to us each section had a different theme.  The light show took in over ten city streets and consisted of over 500 light displays and three million lights, all constructed and put up by the City of Hidalgo employees.
We boarded a trolley at City Hall for the narrated tour.




This was the first place winner for decorated residential homes.

These are just a sample of the beautiful light displays.  We will definitely return to this festival next year.

Three Hour Tour

This week while Lori & Greg were visiting we went on a three hour pontoon boat ride down the Rio Grande River.  I think Greg really took the three hour tour thing to heart, from the looks of his Gilligan hat.

It was a rather cool, windy day but we were still able to see some birds along the way, including an osprey -

an egret -

and a blue heron.

As we rode along the river we were impressed by how nice some of the buildings on the Mexican side of the river were.

This beautiful home was owned by the drug cartel, but is now property of the Mexican government.  It is pretty much vacant but the government continues to maintain it.   The above arch that ends abruptly has a pump on the end of it which pumps water into the large basin at the foot of it to form a fountain.



These are a few of the many nice parks in Mexico.  This time of year is quiet along the river, as it is their winter, even though it is 80 degrees.

The above is a water skiing school and complex, also on the Mexican side of the river.
On the return trip, we noticed how run down the US banks of the river were.  Three years ago a hurricane hit the Rio Grande River valley causing severe damage.  You can tell from the photo below how high the water rose.


Before the hurricane, this was Pepe’s, a popular hangout for Winter Texans. It was destroyed once by a flood, rebuilt and then destroyed by the hurricane, never to be rebuilt again.  We did get a chance to enjoy a beer there along the river before it was destroyed.
Along our journey we also encountered some Mexicans fishing -

Border patrol on the lookout for illegals to cross -

A grill that looked like a gun -

A house on stilts that was built this past year on the US side.

and this telephone pole on the Mexican side which still works.  Guess they feel if it works, leave it alone!

Christmas Visit

We were so blessed again this year to have Lori & Greg spend Christmas week with us.  They arrived on the 22nd and spent eight days with us.  Sunday we took our annual trip to Nuevo Progresso, Mexico to stock up on medications and liquor.
Christmas Eve we attended a dessert social here at the park, followed by 10:30 mass at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church.  It was a beautiful service with the youth from the parish acting out the Nativity with a live donkey and the cutest little Mexican children dressed as angels. Christmas Day we had an afternoon dinner in the clubhouse, followed by a swim in the pool for the kids, and Ray and I working at the evening dinner. 
Wednesday is our usual bowling day, so Lori and Greg went to breakfast at Taco Ole next to the bowling alley and then bowled a few games while we bowled with the league.  Ray and I had to work Margarita night at the clubhouse so Lori & Greg joined in the fun, sitting with other people from the park and visiting with other young folks who were there visiting their parents for the holiday.  The evening was complete with Lori winning the 50/50 raffle for a net of $86.00.
Friday was a busy day for us.  We took a 3 hour pontoon boat ride on the Rio Grande River (more details in next blog), followed by the Hidalgo Festival of Lights in the evening.
Their final day with us, we took them to the flea market, shopping and had a wonderful huge lunch at Costa Mesa Mexican restaurant (our favorite and theirs now too). Lori & I played card bingo (not so lucky) while the guys stayed behind to watch T.V.
Sunday it was off to the airport with a few tears shed. We only wish that Raymond could have been here with us too!

Weslaco Parade

Tonight we went with our friends, Vic & Marianne to the Christmas Parade in Weslaco. It was a chilly night and we bundled up, but the cool weather and the parade really gave us that Christmas Spirit. The city of Weslaco is in Hidalgo County, about 20-25 minutes from our park.  It is the hometown of Harlon Block, one of the marines photographed raising the flag at Iwo Jima.  During WWII sandbag production reached a peak in Weslaco, and the town declared itself the “sandbagging capital of the world”.  Another interesting fact – streets north of the railroad tracks have Spanish names, south of the tracks have English names as a consequence of a 1921 municipal ordinance declaring that land north of the tracks be reserved for Spanish residences and business and those south for Anglo residences. 
This is the second year we have attended this parade and just love the hometown feel of it.  The theme of the parade this year was music and jazz.  There were several bands, dancers and beautiful floats, and the children’s favorite, Santa in an old fire truck.

What impressed us the most was that almost every float expressed the importance of keeping Christ in Christmas.
We have no activities planned in the park for tomorrow, but will be anxiously awaiting the arrival of Lori and Greg on Saturday.  Just hoping the snowstorm predicted for New York does not delay their arrival.