No bike ride for me today. Why? Just because!
The people of the Rio Grande Valley are so happy to see us, the Winter
Texan, coming back every winter. Stranger will stop and say
"Welcome Back". The businesses all have banners saying "Welcome
Back Winter Texan". They understand the impact we do have on the
local economy. We are approximately 133,000 Winter Texan and we
spend about 755 million dollars per winter here.
After lunch, we decided to visit the little museum of Donna.
The last newspaper printed here was in the 1960's.
This was the population in the 70's.
Today's population is double what it was in the 70's.
The
population is 90% Hispanic and the main language spoken here is Spanish.
The sun is behind the statue of Donna so the photo is not that
clear. Donna (1879 - 1969) is the name of the daughter of T.J.
Hook who founded the town.
Donna was pretty and very independent. She was an entrepreneur,
very charitable person and was loved by everyone in the town.
Once again, the wind is blowing strong. TV, reading and computer
for the both of us for the rest of the day.
Wednesday, December 17, 2014.
More geocaching for me this morning. I take the car and the bike
and head to the town of Pharr, which is about 12 km away.
With the car parked at the local grocery store, I start looking for
caches.
My second cache is located at the Police Station! More precisely
at the memorial for the past serving member of the Pharr Police Force.
The cache is located at the memorial, but I cannot find it. Its
difficulty level is four out of five Starr! Maybe next time?
My third cache is on that tree.
Here she is! Some caches are easy to find some are very hard to
find.
The next cache is located right downtown Pharr. Right under this
bench!
It was not that easy to see!
My last cache of the day, it is also a wink for my brother Rolland who
asked me to look for people with the same name as us, "Matte".
There are many different way to write our name because it has changed
over time.
This cache is located under the big light post...
Jeremy has his son Gabriel for the next two weeks, so we skyped with
both of them.
A good day!
Thursday, December 18, 2014.
We have a busy day ahead of us.
We will join Charles and Agnes this morning. First stop is at the
grocery store for some "stuff" for the picnic.
Before lunch, we head to Bentsen State Park for some bird watching and
geocaching. Charles and Agnes bought a GPS and want to try it out.
The gang! Minus Michele who is taking the photo.
The first cache of the day.
Next one is between the sign and the post.
As soon as we enter the Park, we come to a feeding area with manyChachalacas.
We are going up to the Hawk Tower and there is a cache here too!
The cache was located at the beginning of the ramp. Here it is!
The tower is about two stories high and usually you can see many hawks,
but not today!
One more cache.
Today was a good day for geocaching. We found seven caches.
Two caches we could not find and we walked over 7 kilometers.
A good day at geocaching.
We have bought tickets for the Hidalgo Festival of Light. For
$12, we have a roast beef diner and a trolley tour of the Festival of
Light.
Unfortunately, the rain starts to fall before we get to Hidalgo!!!
Here are some photos before the rain slowed down some.
Our meal.
I think we will have to come back when it is not raining.
Friday, December 19, 2014.
We wake up to a cool and cloudy sky. Another "boring" day coming
up!
We decide to go and have a look at the Feldmans Market store.
Michele takes me by surprise and we stopped at the Texas Thrift
Store. While Michele does her shopping, I am out on some caches
searches.
We finally made it to the Feldmans Market. WOW and double
WOW! This is like the LCBO in Ontario, but with a lot more
choices. They even have a small deli where you can buy pate or
other fine cuisine stuff. In addition, they have a salad and
sandwich bar within the liqueur store.
Our next stop was at the H-E-B (grocery store) and we purchased these
salmon patties. They are made with Jalapeño, hummmmm!
It does have a bit to it, but it is good.
Saturday, December 20, 2014.
We woke up to a cloudy sky and a maximum of 59 F, but I am not
complaining! There is nothing white to shovel!
This morning I am out with the car looking for more caches. The
Rio Grande Valley is not pedestrian or bike friendly.
The first cache is behind the Radio Shack.
Can you see it in the middle of the photo?
On of the cache is a nano. It is the small silver dot behind the
box.
The last one for this morning. This one was hard to find.
It is located on the left of the big leaf.
I must have looked around for 15 minutes before I finally found it.
In the south, they have a lot of ants. Every now and then, I do a
check around the motorhome and the empty sites around us. I found
one behind us. I go on the attack before it gets too big and
starts to create more nests.
This piece of plastic contains bait/poison and should kill them all
within a day or two.
After lunch, Michele and I go out to Weslaco. Michele goes
shopping and I do some caches. Look at this temperature, a heat
wave?
No photo for these afternoon caches. All the small "shops"
selling fireworks for the Christmas and New Year celebration.
On the way home, we decided to travel a little further and see what the
neighborhood is like behind the RV Park. It is a very, very poor
neighborhood. A horse tied to the wall and "cutting" grass.
One of the little houses.
This family started to build a house, but have rune out of
fund... Look at the 5th wheel on the right! Yet, they have
a nice car!!!
What a weird house!
The clubhouse has a charity auction between four and seven today.
We have to check out the stuff, but find nothing of interest for us.
Sunday, December 21, 2014.
Christmas is coming up fast!!!
Another cloudy day with some rain coming up later.
Once again, since it is not a good place for bike riding for me, I am
out doing some caches. Here is one of them.
This is one of the nano caches. They can be hard to find
sometimes.
We spend part of the afternoon walking around the flea market next to
the RV Park.
Monday, December 22, 2014.
What? No photos for today!!!
It happens some time.
So far, I have found 72 caches. Some of them are in Ontario and
most of them are in the Rio Grande Valley.
Michel goes to the pool in the afternoon and I sit outside the
pool! The pool water really does not like me!!!
Usually the evening we play petanque on Sunday, but it was too cool to
play. The games are being played tonight.
Tuesday, December 23, 2014.
On this morning, December 23, I am still doing some more caches
searching. You must be getting tires of this, are you not?
Oh well!
This spider guarded one of the caches, can you see her meal in her
mouth, the red thing? I thing she winked at me before
disappearing!
Look at the palm tree it is windy again.
One of the many little parks within the RV Park.
Here we are close to Charles and Agnes Park. The Martin family
owned about five RV Parks here.
Agnes handing me back the curtain for the pantry. She did a few
minor adjustments. Thanks Agnes.
We know there is a very good meal coming up. Meat pie, turkey and
stuffing and of course, mash potatoes. Boy, this is going to be
good!
We still have time to chat before diner. We did chat a lot!!!
The nice meal reminds me of my Mom's Christmas diner. So good!
With the meal over, we head to the spa and the pool. The weather
really turned, it is now in the low 40's F. After the pool, we
played Mexican Train. Michele and Charles won again.
A good thing we are staying for the night... Too much to drink.
Thursday, December 24, 2014.
Our bedroom in the casita.
I am cooking breakfast this morning. I am making "Matte Muffins".
Here I am getting ready before Charles and Ages shows up.
Hummm! Hummm! Breakfast and mimosa (bubbly wine and orange
juice), what a good breakfast.
We have another party to attend and so do Charles and Ages. We
leave them behind before lunch. Thanks to the both of you for a
great time.
We have been invited for Christmas Eve to one of the long-term resident
of this park, Andre and Louise. Andre is the one standing up,
next to him is Rene and Marthe.
Louise is the one sitting on the left, in the center is Marielle and on
the right is Murielle.
We snag songs, we sang crazy songs and other things and boy did we have
a good time!!!
On the left is Laurianne.
My Good, do I look serious or what! On my right is Gerald.
Paul and his wife Anita.
This is the platter we took to the party, I love the Texas shape of it.
A very big thank you to Louise and Andre for inviting us, two complete
strangers, to their Christmas Eve party. We had a great
time and everyone made us feel welcome.
On our way back home, about a three minute walk, we were invited for a
last drink at Paul and Anita's place. We got home at about 1:30
am!!!
Thursday, December 25, 2014.
To all of you!
A bad collage of two photos, but hey!
Our Christmas diner at the clubhouse. We are sitting with the
same people that we were with last evening. What fun we had.
The RV Park supplies the turkey, ham and mash potatoes. All we
have to bring is all the other stuff, easy. Let me tell you, you
want food, here is food!
My Michele.
And me!!!
The "gang"!
In lieu of the traditional prayer, we had a singing prayer with this
woman doing sign language over the song. It was very nice.
And I held back on the food!!!
After this very good meal, we had music, some French and some English.
Most of the people that stayed back are francophone. By that, I
mean the English people tend to be much older and leave for their
afternoon nap! It is the way it is.
By four we left and headed home with a full belly and many memories in
our heads.
Friday, December 26, 2014.
I have the last of my appointments to install my two teeth and the
posts.
Everything went well. It feels funny to have the "hole" filled
after 20 years.
The North Shore RV Park owners where we stay in Ontario recommended we
eat at Rene's.
A little snack before we get our lunch!
We even got some live entertainment.
The Mexican plate for Michele.
Grilled trout for me, Mexican do not know how to make good French
fries. The fries are frozen fries and not cooked long enough!!!
Our youngest son, Benoit, likes crosses, no he is not a "Born Again",
he simply likes them. Here a few we are looking at for him.
On our way back from Nuevo Progreso, Mexico, we go through
Progreso, Texas and stop to find one more cache.
The last few days were some busy. Diner with good friends,
Christmas Eve party with some people for this park. Christmas day
lunch with the same people as last evening and they are very good
people. Got my teeth all done now.
Saturday
December 27, 2014.
Of course, I am doing some more caches this morning. My GPS is
telling me it is in that steel post!
A plastic pipe actually passes through the post and the cache is inside
the pipe.
Once I am back home, we spend the rest of the day doing little
stuff. The temperature is dropping as the day progress. By
10 pm, the rain is coming down. We even have a few lighting and
thunder.
Michele lost one of her crown. We will have to go to Mexico and
get it replaced on Monday.
Sunday
December 28, 2014.
It rained all night and it is still raining at noon.
After lunch, Michele wants to go shopping at K-Mart. Good, I have
a few caches to check down that way. While searching for a cache
I spotted this tower in the parking lot!
This is not the first time I see one of these. They belong to the
police and are placed here and there, police officer inside or not, we
do not know! Sometimes even the flashing lights are going!
A deterrent for crime?
Therefore, as I am looking for a cache, I keep thinking about this
tower and I am wondering when the police cars will be coming around the
corner to get me. I must be looking suspicious while I am looking
for the cache.
A nice sunset, we had a maximum of 10 C (50 F) today and for tonight, a
little cooler at 6 C (42 F).
The weather forecast for the next few days is 12 to 15 C (60 to 66
F). We will see if the soothsayers will be right about the
forecast.
Monday
December 29, 2014.
We are back in Nuevo Progreso, Mexico for a new crown for Michele.
To get to the bridge to Mexico we go through the little village of
Progreso. It looks like a big place!
When I write that we are much appreciated here in the Rio Grande
Valley, I mean appreciated. A "Winter Texan" is a snowbird going
to Texas.
My dentist cannot fit Michele in the schedule today. Off we go to the
next dentist down the road. Dentist Maria Tuttle is the mother of
my dentist?!?!?
Michele gets in right away and gets a temporary crown. She has to
come back at 4 pm for the final installation of the temporary crown.
I got a call from my sister this morning, she told me our mother passed
away during night. It was not a surprise, but still not fun to
hear. So, between the two dental appointments, we shop on line
for a flight from San Antonio to Montreal. San Antonio is 4 hours
of driving from Donna, but the saving on the price of airline tickets
is worth it.
With our airline tickets in our virtual pocket, we head back to Mexico
for the second part of Michele's tooth repair. Michele sit on the
dentist chair at 4 pm and me, I sit at the bar's chair at 4 pm!
She finally comes out of the dentist chair by 6:15 pm. We drive
right back home to get ready for our flight to Montreal tomorrow
morning. At home, I put the chairs away and make sure nothing
will fly away from the wind during our absences. Michele gets the
diner ready and starts packing the luggage. I also go and ask
Andre and Louise to keep an eye on our place while we are away.
Later on the evening, we skyped with Rolland and Christianne for the
final details regarding my mother. Estelle cannot Skype with us
because she forgot her password!
Schedule for the next two days. Tomorrow morning we leave Donna
at 5 AM, on the plane from San Antonio to Houston at noon and we should
be in Montreal by 7ish pm. Estelle will pick us up at the
airport, I hope!
Tuesday
December 30, 2014.
We are on the road a few minutes before this time.
Within a mile from home, I stop to get a nice, hot coffee for the road.
With about four hours of driving ahead of us, we need some fuel...
We finally made it to San Antonio. We still have to get through
the city to get to the airport but it is not an issue.
The road was good, I drove mostly at around 80 mp/h (130 km/h).
A photo of our parking spot so we can find the car again when we come
back!!!
This is the weather in San Antonio before we left.
A "book booth", yes, you can download a book from the San Antonio
library. What a great idea!
Our first airplane is a CRJ700 from Bombardier, it is set up for about
70 passengers. We are on our way to Houston and in about one
hour, we should be on our connecting flight to Montreal.
Once in Houston, we have to go from terminal A to terminal C in less
than 30 minutes. It is a good thing they have some kind of
train/shuttle between terminals...
Our next plane is the Embraer-175 with a capacity of 76 passengers.
One flight attendant had a face like she was made in plastic!
Weird...
We leave Houston behind.
Somewhere over the United States.
A little wine never hurts...
This is the food we took with us for our snack, hummmm!
We have a nice sunset.
Here we are coming for a landing in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
My sister Estelle and her husband Robert are picking us up at the
airport. A big surprise is waiting for us, our youngest son it
also waiting for us at the airport.
From L to R, Denis, Benoit, Michele and Estelle.
Our youngest son, Benoit.
Benoit has to go back to his place, but is still good to see him even
for just 15 - 20 minutes. We will be staying at Estelle and
Robert's place for the next few days. We talked with Estelle and
Robert pretty late in the evening before we finally made it to bed.
Wednesday December 31, 2014.
Estelle was with mom when she passed away and she related the last few
hours before mom passed. She also told me that the staff at the
home where she was living were very very good and so respectful.
I am showing some stuff on the laptop to Estelle.
My brother-in-law, Robert!
We move on the living room to continue our conversation.
Estelle and Robert's kids are coming for New Years Eve diner. A
nice holiday table.
From L to R, Robert, me, Marilyne with her baby still growing inside
her, Guillaume.
On Guillaume's left, Coraly, his daughter sitting on Estelle's lap.
Our hosts, Estelle and Robert.
This photo is out of focus because Robert is so busy!!!
Busy all the time.
L to R, Marilyne, Charles, Robert, Guillaume and Marylou.
Estelle join in the photo.
Robert, Guillaume, Marylou, Andrea and Simon.
Coraly does not have a problem sleeping with all the noise around her.
Coraly is such a quiet baby. She is a sweet heart.
Simon and Andrea.
Charles and Marilyne.
Shoot, no photo of Marylou, Guillaume and Coraly before they left...
