Week ending Feb 6, 2014 Kingsville, Arroyo City, Port Isabel, South Padre Island

Friday was a gloriously hot sunny day, with a high of  27C feeling like 33, due to a warm breeze coming in from the south.   After visiting with John's parents via Skype in the morning we went to Harrel's, an old fashioned drug store with neat gifts and an old soda fountain. Today was the perfect day to have an old fashioned milk shake for lunch. 

 

We then walked down historic main street past the railway station to the original school in town. We then came back to the trailer to enjoy the rest of the warm day by the pool.   We spent the early evening at the community barbeque by the pools.  It was great for Joan to be able to do fish, which we can't cook in the trailer due to John's allergies.  

Saturday was a another warm day. By the time we got done breakfast and pilates it was already up to 27 C. Joan cut Johns hair and then we headed to the pool.  Now the water was just warm enough for John to have a quick dip, but it is very pleasant just to  sit in the sun by the pool, listening to the water fall.  We had a great day just soaking up the sun and relaxing. 

Sunday again dawned warm, but cloudy.   After arranging for our next rv park we went for groceries. When we walked out of the grocery store we found the temp had dropped from 25C to about 10 with the wind blowing vigorously from the north.  We got back to the trailer to find our satellite had blown over.   John moved the dish and then reset it so that we could watch the Scotties.

As usual Monday morning was a cold, for here, 7C, but we got the trailer packed up (with help from a handy neighbour to push in the kitchen slide).  We discovered that we had indeed finally reached tropical Texas as driving along we passed fields of orange groves and sugar cane.  By the time we got to Hummingbird Cove RV Park on the Arroyo Colorado near Rio Hondo, the wind had died down so was a much more comfortable.   After getting set up, we walked down to the docks along the Arroyo, where there were several fairly tame pelicans and herons using the docks .   

The Scotties were very cooperative and did not have a Monday morning draw, so we didn't even miss a draw during our move. 

Tuesday morning we headed out to Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, which is an interesting area with numerous birds, many which we have never seen before.  Nearly half of all of the bird species in the continental US can be seen here.  

Chachalaca 

 

Green Jay 

 

Red-bellied Woodpecker 

We also saw deer and rabbits, but the rest of the animals they say are prevalent in the refuge, like javelina and ocelet,  eluded us.  The drive through the ocelet habitat has been closed to keep them from being disturbed, but we did a nice walk along the Laguna, past an alligator pond (no alligators, in fact not even any water) and back through a shrub forest.

 We started our day  on Wednesday at Adolph Thomae Jr. County Park, just east along Arroyo Colorado, north of the wildlife refuge.  We were lucky to see a passenger ferry stop at the boat ramp to drop off a passenger or two, and pick up another.  It was quite a procedure.  Although the ferry stopped quite close to the dock, it wasn't able to tie up at it, so they dropped a tender in the stream  to bring the passengers in to the dock. The ferry stirred up the water which attracted many fish-loving birds.  As we watched them fishing, we found out that the big guy doesn't always win.  A gull caught a fish and was immediately chased by a group of pelicans. The gull managed to keep his prize.   After having lunch at the park we went on a hunt for a fruit stand to which we had been given directions which luckily John remembered.  We eventually found the stand and purchased some local oranges, grapefruit and corn.  Our next stop was the bank. Using Bank of America ATM's is great, with their agreement with  Scotiabank not to charge transaction  fees, but we have to be organized as most small centres do not have a Bank of America.  As this drive had taken us into Harlingen we stopped at the Texas State Travel Information Center to pick up info on the next portion of our tour through Texas.   In the info centre we encountered a couple from Ontario. They were interested in our full timer life style, so we chatted with them for some time. After parting ways, we headed to the Marine Academy to visit the Iwo Jima memorial, before heading back to the trailer  in time to watch the last two ends of the afternoon draw of the Scotties.

Thursday was a cold miserable day, with a cold north wind again.  We decided it was a perfect day to visit museums. We headed to South Padre Island. Our first stop was at the seashore. 

 The water was quiet tumultuous and walking on the beach in the wind was unpleasant, so we headed to the Port Isabel Lighthouse. It is the only lighthouse on the Texas coast that is open to the public, but it was closed today.  We looked through its museum then proceeded to the Port Isabel Historic Museum, a review again of the American Mexican war.  Our final museum of the day was Treasures of the Gulf Museum which focused on wreck of three Spanish ships which occurred just 30 miles north of Port Isabel way back in 1554.   The museum contained many interesting artifacts, such as silver 'ingots', cannons and rifles which had been salvaged from the wrecks.   We again got back to the trailer in time to watch the last half of the afternoon draw of the Scotties.