Galveston Island State Park

Goose Island State Park

Off we go North on 77 out of Harlingen and as

usual I'm keeping my eye out along the road for Armadillos.  (They used to be rampant in Texas and I think all those gun people have killed them all off.)  Anyways, I digress.  I'm looking out for Armadillos and what do I see but a flock of wild Turkeys trotting on down the side of the road.  I managed to get pictures of them, but I also saw a wild boar, routing around in the ditch, and a herd of cattle with at least ten zebras among them.  I was so surprized and doubted what I was seeing, that when I beleived what I was seeing, it was to late to get my camera up and snap a picture.                                         

                                                                                        As we approached Corpus Christi and the bays along the Gulf, we started to see the big bridges and causeways.    

Then we arrived at our destination. 

Goose Island State Park.  It is obviously  a very popular Bird Sanctuary, there were bird watches everywhere.   You could hardly drive through the park without bunches of them standing around in the middle of the road all snapping pictures and oblivious of evrything else around them. 

We had a very nice secluded campsite.  And Dan built a campfire. 

There were campsites available right on the waterfront overlooking the Gulf. 










Now its time to leave Goose Island and travel on  to Galveston Island . 

It's Time to Hit The Road

Well, our month at Magic Valley is over and it's time to hit the road.  We've had a wonderful time here, other than a few cold days.  Today was picking up groceries, doing laundry and readying the trailer for travel.  First stop "Goose Island State Park", just off of Corpus Christie.  I will Blog and download pictures from there. 

City of Winnipeg, Retirees Annual Dinner

There are a lot of ex-City of Winnipeg employees that come down to the Rio Grande Valley for the winter.  They have an annual Pot Luck Dinner which we were invited to attend.  The membership consists of retirees from Parks & Rec, Administration, Fire Department, Police Department, Operations etc.   As you can see by the turn out in these pictures it was well attended. 

                                                                             

It was the usual Pot Luck Dinner with lots of food, and they even allow, the old BYOB, to go on at these functions down here, which is kinda nice.  A lot of eating and drinking and of course joking around about different departments.  A good time was had by all, but of course one of the main topics of conversation was the Manitoba type weather that we were having last evening. 

As I stated in my last Blog, with freezing temperatures and a constant drizzle we have been getting a coat of ice on everything.  So when the evening ended I could not resist taking this picture from inside the truck as poor Dan had to be out there, scraping ice from the windshield.  That's what we drove all this way to avoid. 

But as I sit here this morning I see blue skies and high white fluffy clouds off in the west and I hear big sheets of ice sliding off of the trailer, this will all be history by tomorrow.

Brrrrrrr! It's Cold Here.

Here we sit hold up in our trailer with the furnace running,

Watching  our windows fog over from the cold weather outside. 

The temperatures are hovering around freezing.  We have kept the water dribbling in the trailer overnight, so the water lines  won't freeze.  And apparently we have another 24 hours of this to get through.  Today they are predicting possible drizzling rain that may turn to sleet if the temperatures drop any further.  With all their predictions it has so far not gotten down as low as they keep predicting, but it's still very cold. 


Meanwell Dan & I are supposed to go to a Potluck Dinner at the Club House for all the retired City of Winnipeg employees that winter in the park.  I am making a large Broccoli Salad and because Dan has Ice Radials on the truck we will drive the 1 1/2 blocks over to the hall.  If it's icy out there I don't want to fall and break something.  And I don't mean my dish. 

The temperatures tomorrow are supposed to get back up into the 60s, and back to 75 norms on Saturday

Another Nice Day in Texas

 The weather is nice, but all the weather men here are giving dire predictions of disaster heading our way.  It's supposed to go down to freezing or maybe even a few degrees blow that, but to hear them talk they might as well be running around their studios yelling "we're all gonna die".  They are asking for donations of blankets, they are opening shelters in all the cities and towns and telling people that they should stay home if they can.  Meanwhile we are still enjoying a beautiful day and evening and we will see what tomorrow brings.                                                         

Dan bought a new Bar-B-Q today.  And like I said, weather was so nice  he was out in his shirt sleeves putting it together this afternoon.  So, we will snuggle down in our little trailer and survive the next few cold days, then we will get t-shirts that say I survived the Winter of 2011 in the Rio Grande Valley.        

                           

Another Hot and Muggy Day in Texas

 It was really warm and humid today.  We took another trip to McAllen, to the dog park and we also had to sign off on the cement work we had done on our lot patio and driveway.  The weather is supposed to turn really cold here there is a cold front moving in that is supposed to drop the temperatures from highs in the 80s to highs in the 30s.  Yeah, that's not a typo, by Thursday the overnight lows are going to be in the 20s and the day time highs will only reach the 30s.  It should be interesting, especially if we get any precipitation.  I don't think anyone around here will know how to drive in the snow or ice. 

I couldn't resist this picture from the dog park today.  This is a nine week old German Shepherd pup, that was more than a little overwhelmed by all the other dogs at the dog park.  He finally got over it and started to interact by the time we left.  So that was our day.  More tomorrow.