South Padre Island.

We are spending the winter about sixty miles west of South Padre and last week, Susie and I, along with 3 of her sisters who were visiting, drove the hour or so to the Island to spend a couple of days. 

The weather when we left Alamo was sunny and warm but it was anything but when we arrived at the beach, it was cold, rainy and generally unpleasant. 

The last time we were around the Gulf of Mexico, we were in South Florida and it was sunny and the water was tame, almost like a bathtub with little tiny waves.

The gulf off of South Padre is a real ocean, wild and rough, throwing large clumps of seaweed on to the beach. It seems very natural and is sort of refreshing to be around something we don’t have any control over. However I don’t think condo owners in SW Florida would ever stand for that. I remember the algae invasion in Florida when the residents were demanding that the authorities do something about it. I don’t know where I’m going with this because I like the beaches around Fort Myers. 

One thing I did see here that was intriguing was the surf fishing.   

It looks like something I’d really like to do but I don’t really know where to start. I think this is something you need to do from the get go. I don’t think you can learn after the age of sixty.

I suppose, though, the first thing to do would be to put on the waders. I wonder if a big wave could fill them up with water and drag me out to sea. Maybe I better just forget it.

Texas brisket

I just can’t help myself when it comes to barbequed brisket. We stumbled across this place a few days after arriving in Alamo, Texas. The name of it is Willie’s barbeque.

It’s the real thing. There is nothing pretentious about the place. Just good food. 

They have the normal barbeque sandwiches with all the trimmings and they also have a baked potato that is as big as my head. It has to be some kind of mutant growth.

They load that potato  up with cheese, onions, sour cream and top it all with shredded, melt in your mouth, smoked brisket.  To wash the potato down, they also serve iced down orange pop in a bottle out of a 70 year old pop case. 

That combination could make my blood sugar monitor zing like a geiger counter in an atomic energy generating station if I ate a whole one but I don’t.  Susie and I split one of those baked potatoes and still have food left over. The only problem is that she will not let them put the brisket on top. We have to order a sandwich on the side.

“I’m not eating brisket served on a baked potato. that must be a zillion calories.”  

I suppose she’s right.

In case you’ve forgotten what we look like.

For those of you who know us and wonder if we have changed, here we are at the Fee Booth at Santa Ana.

While we’re on our narcissism kick….., In case you had no idea who we were, here is a different look as try an adventure pose while standing at the edge of a very angry Gulf of Mexico on South Padre Island.  

Next, we have a photo of us……. Just kidding.  

Both photos are courtesy of Cele Wilson.

Salineno.

Salineno is a little town (very little),  a short distance downstream from the Falcon Dam down river from Zapata, Texas. I am guessing this area is close to where Larry McMurtry had placed the fictional town of Lonesome Dove in the book by the same name. 

The town (Salineno, not Lonesome Dove) is famous in the birding world for a birding location on the Rio Grande River. For many year, the .85 acre spot was owned by a Couple by the name of DeWind. They were winter Texans from Michigan who spent the cold weather in this spot feeding birds. They spoiled the birds rotten, feeding them marshmallows, peanut butter and oranges.

Over the years, the birds began to expect this and showed up each year about the same time as the DeWinds.  

A couple of years ago, the couple, now in their 80’s,  turned the property over to the Fish and Wildlife service and  a volunteer couple was appointed to take care of feeding the birds.  

I like volunteering but I would not want this job. It’s very isolated and the nearest grocery must be ten miles away, at least. In addition, a lot of illegal border activity takes place just a hundred yards or so away.  This does not bother the volunteers who are very dedicated birders.

Susie and I don’t consider ourselves real birders. We have no lists or anything. It’s just a thrill to try and get a picture of a pretty bird.  The pictures in this post were either taken by one of us or by Carole’s sister, Cele Wilson.

Some of the birds are the same as ones we see in Indiana; red winged blackbirds, the Cardinal and a type of sparrow. A man who was also visiting the refuge at the same time said they still called them ‘Spatsies’ in Arkansas. ‘Spatsy’ was a term from my own childhood and the man using it brought back memories of those days. Also, some birds I never see in Indiana are here.  

I didn’t try to identify any of these birds in this post because I don’t know an Altimira Oriole from the Baltimore kind. 

The following picture is a bird that I do know about.

There are a multitude of these birds around the refuge where we are working. At first I used my superior deductive powers and birding knowledge to determine that these strange looking things with wings were some sort of chickens, perhaps Rhode Island Reds. I later found out that the birds were not barnyard fowls at all, but instead were chachalacas. Of course, it’s still possible that they taste like chicken.

breakfast in the Avian world.

While getting ready to go to Salineno, a good birding spot, Susie snapped this picture of a hawk’s version of  a Sushi appetizer.

After consultation with some birding friends, we decided the lunch was a pigeon and the predator was a Cooper’s Hawk. Another look from another angle….

This vantage point had the Birders second guessing their original decision. Not about the lunch but about the Hawk. There was some discussion that it might be a Sharp Shinned Hawk. I didn’t participate in the discussion because all I could offer in the way of expertise was that the bird was definitely not a sparrow. 

Running Bear loves Little White Dove.

Susie and I took a Canoe trip down the Rio Grande this last week. It was quite exciting and I was going to tell you about it here but you can just read my report in the newspaper.

None of the pictures I took did it any justice but we’re going to try it again next week. Maybe I’ll have better luck.

don’t close your eyes.

There is a practice on the highways in Texas that I haven’t run into anywhere else. On 2 lane highways, if a car is traveling slower than the traffic behind him, he/she is expected to move over and drive on the shoulder. 

In the same vein, oncoming traffic seeing this take place are also expected to  move over on the shoulder and allow the passing vehicle plenty of room.  In effect, you end up with a three lane highway.

It takes a lot of trust to accept that everyone is aware of these unwritten rules.  I’m pretty good with the moving over part but I’m still leery about passing someone when traffic is coming towards me.  

Don’t people drink Tom Collins’s anymore?

It’s not like it used to be.

A few days ago, we went shopping for some bargains and crossed the border at Nuevo Progreso, Tamulipas.  

We first went to Mexico shopping maybe six years ago and found really inexpensive goods some of which was not worth the time it took to carry back across the border. None the less, it was not expensive so it was worth taking a chance on.  Here, at least. it is not that way anymore. A lot of the stuff for sale at the look alike booths up and down the main street is still junk but it’s not cheap anymore. I don’t really see any reason to go back.

Of course, if I should need some dental work, I might reconsider. Many of the folks we have met here and in other border towns go to Mexico for their dental work and pharmaceuticals. These are still bargains even if machine carved Texas Ebony figures are not.

I suppose if push came to shove, I might consider it. The dentists are educated in the United States so it must be okay. None of the people we have talked to have any complaints.

I doubt that I would buy pharmaceuticals though. I can’t get past those Spanish instructions. Again, however, I have not heard of any problems. 

A new camp site.

When we got to our campground at the Santa Ana Wildlife refuge, we settled into a site near the back of the campground. The Refuge provided us with a phone connection but ours didn’t work. After much frustration trying to get the phone company to fix the line so I could use my dial up service, I gave up. We moved to a site recently vacated by other volunteers and now the phone works just fine.

The new site.

This site is near the front of the campground and I was a tad worried about intruders from across the border finding us since we’d be the first camper encountered. It’s a totally unfounded fear because we’ve. never even seen anyone. On top of that, I woke up the first morning and looked outside to check the weather.

A nice Border Patrol truck sits outside our campground every night. If I was ever worried, I’m not  anymore.