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1 to 15 November 2014 16 to 30 November 2014

Sunday November 16, 2014.

A little bit of info on Goliad.
Goliad is the birthplace of Texas Ranching.
The Spanish founded a Mission back in 1749.
Many great battles took place in and around Goliad over the next few centuries. Goliad has a very rich history.

This morning we are walking to the downtown area of Goliad.

One of the many old cemeteries, this one dates back to 1880.

The United Methodist church date back to 1872. The African-American community used it.

Goliad has many trees right in the middle of the street.

The downtown area.

The Goliad County courthouse.

The "Hanging Tree", between 1846 and 1870 the trials often took place outside of the courthouse. Once someone was found guilty, they were hung right away from this tree.

Another view of the square.

Another tree in the middle of the street!

I like it when a town keeps its downtown like it was many years ago.

You have to have a restaurant with that name in front of the hanging tree.

We went in for lunch and it was good.

Can you see the black cat?

I am still surprised at the trees in the street!

Behind one of the church, they have a huge B-B-Q.
The wood to make the coals.

The big barrel to burn the wood and make the coal.

The coals are then transferred in the lower part of the B-B-Q for cooking.

Just a cute house.

This one is abandoned.

An other tree in the middle of the road.

Goliad.

We are staying in Goliad for a few more days. I think we need to slow down and relax a little.

Monday November 17, 2014.

We went for a little grocery shopping with Charles this morning.

We also stopped for a quick look at the liquor store next door.

My goodness! This store had about 10 bottles altogether. People do not drink in this town!

After lunch, we went geocaching with Charles and Agnes. It is their first time geocaching.
Here I am reading some information and hints about this cache.

The first cache is located in the small cemetery called Gustavo A Dias. The arrow indicates the location of the cache.

We have to be careful before we can put our hands in the cache. This is Texas and there are some nasty bug and snakes here!

The container.

The content. You leave something and you take something. You also write your name and date you found the cache.

The hitching post between Charles and me.

We are off to the next cache. We think Charles and Agnes are hooked on this activity.

The majorities of the Goliad caches are located in cemeteries.

This is one big caterpillar, about two inches long.

This cache is located in the fence post. Can you see the container?

Sometime the containers are very small like this one.

This cemetery had three caches.

Bad luck or lack of preparedness, my GPS batteries died on us during the last three caches. Playing with the GPS I managed to make it work just enough to find the caches.

This photo is for Michele's brother. His name is Patrice.

Charles and Agnes joined us for diner tonight.

We played Mexican Train and laughed so much!

We have walked about 6 miles today.

Tuesday November 18, 2014.

We are visiting the "Mission Espiritu Santo".
The Mission was established by Spain in 1722 for converting the local tribes to the Christian religion.
The Mission was moved at this location in 1749. The Mission was also a working Ranch with more than 40,000 cattles.

Part of the gang.

The wheels used in this area at the time were different from the one up north.
They have no spoke, but a completely filled wheel.

The small bells used during mass.

This chapel is very simple yet beautiful.

The statue representing Jesus and other characters are different looking than our in Canada. The reason is the Spanish influence.
At the time, the Spanish Catholic religion was more centered on suffering and fear. Notice the statue of Marie, she has a knife/sword in her heart. This represents her suffering at seeing her son on the cross.

Our guide was very good. We were the only one with him so we got the "extra" tour. He gave us a lot more information then he is supposed to give.

Usually you cannot go behind the fence area, but with us, we went and looked a lot closer at everything.

He also showed us this leave. It feels like sandpaper.

This is what they call Ball Moss. It is not a parasite plant. It only hang on something and grows in to a ball shape plant.

The funny guy is Charles!

Now a little more serious.

Since the Mission is in a State Park, we went for a walk on one of the trails. We even looked for one more cache and this one was not a micro size one!

Here is one that is micro size.

Another small one, can you see it in the middle of the photo?

Charles is opening one of the cache found.

The treasures inside.

This was a very good day with good friends.

Wednesday November 19, 2014.

We left our friends behind, they have company coming for a visit, and we are on our way to Victoria. It is about 30 miles east of here.

This is the Victoria county courthouse. It was built in 1892 and restored in 2001. It was voted one of the top ten favorite's historic courthouse in Texas.

We tour the inside of the courthouse, but we have to be careful as a trial is going on.
We went in those doors and watched a trail going on for about 15 minutes. Of course, we could not take any photos in court.

A bird's eye view of Victoria in 1873.

Some more photos of the inside. Notice the arrow pointing at what looks like smiley faces!

A water fountain with blue water???

A monument to the Confederate.

Our reflection from an office window, I wonder what the person on the other side was thinking!

This mural represents a business street in the early twentieth century.

The "Fossati's Delicatessen" is considered the oldest deli in Texas.

We had lunch in here.

In addition, it was good!

The "Street of Ten Friends" as it was known for a long time, was named "Main Street" after.

The next photos are about some of the old and pretty houses of Victoria.

This one is because I cannot believe some people lives there!

Back to pretty houses.

Our next place to visit the "Museum of the Coastal Bend".

A quote from the brochure. "This museum show cases the region's rich multicultural heritage".
Here are some spear points, not arrow points, they did not have bow and arrows here 13,000 years ago!

So, they used spears!
To give the spear more power, they invented the Atlatl or the spear-thrower.

Our first "Longhorn", in a photo!

I think this is cool.

Some of the branding marking from the area.

We had a very good visit in Victoria.

Thursday November 20, 2014.

Charles and Agnes are leaving us this morning. Sniff, sniff!

Agnes hard at work, Charles is also working hard.

I watch them getting ready to leave!!!

We have decided to stay until Sunday. We need more relaxing time!

For the last few days I was working on the latest update to our blog and at the same time learning the ins and outs of blogger. In the end, this move will make it easier for me.

On this, I hope you will continue to follow our travels.

Friday November 21, 2014.

Today we decided to tour Goliad with the self-guided brochure from the Camber of Commerce. We are back in Goliad walking the same street as a few days ago, but this time we read about the houses and business around the square.

We also visited the small museum of Goliad.

This is an indoor toilet. It is also modern, read the information on the photo below. Very ingenious.

We do not know what this big contraption is.
Lucky for us the man looking after the museum knows. Here it is, back when they had no electricity in town, the doctor needed electricity to run his X-ray machine. By turning the glass wheels in the box, you create electricity.

We have never seen a fan like this one. You light-up the lamp on the bottom and the heat generated goes up the chimney and makes the fan rotate.
Usually you need a fan to cool off, but with this one, you need heat to cool off???

This is the Goliad flag during the Texas revolution.

This is a nice little museum. We have seen better and we have seen worst. The admission is a donation.

The weather is not very good, light drizzle all day, but with a nice 25 C. No complaint.

The weather forecast is calling for severe thunderstorms for tonight.

Saturday November 22, 2014.

WOW! Starting at noon, we are under a severe thunderstorm warning!
We got heavy rain, but all the thunderstorms went around us.

Some of the rain we got!

It is somewhat hard to see, but it was coming down hard.

Two hours later, it is all over.
Our site.

This is not a pretty sunset, but the sky is clearing up fast.

Sunday November 23, 2014.

We are on our way to the Rio Grande valley, really close to Mexico.
A zebu, in Texas, a Zebu?!?! This animal is from south Asia.

We drive through a region called Brush Country.

We are in the Rio Grande valley, now the traffic will start!

It is very hot today!

All morning we tried to call the RV Park Bit-O-Heave, but no answer.
Therefore, we just showed up un-announced.
The office is closed on the weekend.
After a little time we got a hold of one of the camp host and got a site for a month.
We have site 813.

For photos of our site, it will be in a few days I think.

With a temperature of +31 C. or 87 F. We go to the pool!

It was time to hit the water.
The pool is at 90 F.
We stayed over two hours in the pool.
Of course, we meet some of the other Winter Texan.

Monday November 24, 2014.

As usual after pulling the car, time to hit the car wash.

A little Squeegee...

Our car finally went over 100,000 kilometers or a little over 62000 miles.
I am sure many of you wonder if this includes the kilometers pulled behind the motorhome! The answer is no. No kilometers are recorded by the car odometers.
One day I will have to do the total of both numbers and see what the real kilometers of the car are.

It is time to become Winter Texan at least for a month or two or three!
We celebrate this with a good raclette.
A toast to us!

A toast to all who cannot be with us.

I finally caught up to my blog's update.
In a few days we will be going to Mexico and check out the dentist. I need to finish the work they started last winter and install the two post and crowns.

Tuesday November 25, 2014.

A relax day for us. The sun is shinning, but the high for today is only +20 C with a cool wind. I know I am complaining, but it is what it is.

I skyped with my brother for a little while this morning.

A cute bird taking a dust bath. Charles told me it is an Inca Dove.

In Texas, they have lots of fire ants and I mean lots of them. They only way to get rid of them is to poison them with powerful stuff. It is a Terro product and it comes in a powder form of granular form. You need both as you want to get the tiny ants too. You need to apply the stuff two or 3 times for it to kill them all.

Two view of our site.

Every Tuesday a produce truck with two trailers comes to the park between one and three o'clock. The prices are good.

Wednesday November 26, 2014.

The flea market next to the RV Park is open today. We are off for some shopping.
It is a big flea market. This is the open part.

The biggest part of the flea market is under a roof.

It is +77 F and we finish the afternoon in the pool. Some photos of the pool and spa.

A friend from the park told us that you could still get satellite TV from Canada. He is with the same provider as me. Therefore, I try again to get connected with the co-ordinates he gave me.

It turns out I cannot connect with the satellite. Oh well! We got the cable with 200 channels for the next two months anyway.
Tomorrow is Thanks Giving in the States, hummm!

Thursday November 27, 2014.

I went out for a bike ride this morning. I went to the little town of Donna. I ended up doing 11 kilometers.

I also texted our oldest son, Jeremy, and wished him a Happy Birthday.

The Thanks Giving meal is at 1 pm today.
The Park supplies the hams and the turkeys, but we, the campers, do the potluck for the rest of the foodstuff.

One big "carport" for the motorhome!

We are sitting a group of French-Canadian (Quebecers) and got talking so we forgot to take a photo of the hall and food. This is the only one...

After we got home, we had to do a garbage run plus a stop at the Park library.

The rest of the day was mostly reading and working on this blog.

Friday November 28, 2014.

Today is Black Friday! It is going to be crazy in the stores today, but also the best deals!

We are on our way to find Thrift Shops in the area. Michele loves Thrift Shops, I like them too, but enough to spend one hours in each of them!
Alamo, the little town west of Donna.

Pharr is the next town and our destination is McAllen. The next town.

There are lots of traffic lights on "US 83 Business".

After about four Thrift Shops, we stop for our lunch. Two jumbo dogs and a pop for $3.19 + taxes! You cannot beat that!

After all the Thrift Shops, we started to shop for my new bike. My old one was very good at one time, but it was time for it to go!
My old bike in the front and my new bike, minus the front wheel, in the background!

Now a little closer. Why is the front wheel missing?
In Texas they have what they call "sand burrs" or "grass burr"and when they are dry they will puncture you bicycle tires if you ride on them. The problem is you cannot see them all the time. The wind blows them around. Therefore, I bought an item that will help to prevent a flat to occur because of the burrs. Tomorrow I will show you what this is all about.

I transferred all the accessories to the new bike. My new bike is a Schwinn, should I give it a name?
Any suggestion?

A few days ago, we purchased some chicken breast for Fajitas. They are already marinated. The red circle is to show you the price per pound. Here it is $1.47 US and I checked back home, Trenton, Ontario and it was on sale for $3.24 CDN a pound!

The chicken breasts are all cooked, one breast is missing form the photo and the marinating gives it a nice little spicy taste.

Another good day!

Saturday November 29, 2014.

I told you I was going to put photos of what I did to the bike tires and the burrs! Well here they are. The burrs.

When they are dry, they are worst!

Even mountain bike tires cannot resist to the burrs. I got extra thick tubes and I bought the plastic band that you place inside the tire between the tube and the tire!

This morning we are at the Mercadome, the BIG flea market of the Valley. It is in the town of Alamo.

They have lots of stalls with new stuff like this store with cowboys boot.

We have learned that here is the valley, the Latinos like what is called "Ropa" stores. Ropa simply means clothing. Let me explain, in these bags you have all kinds of clothes.

In the flea market, the stall owner open tables and simply dump all the clothes on the table without sorting them out first. You just have to dig in to find what you want!
Prices vary between $0.25 and $1.00 per item.

Same for the shoes and boots, even hats and underwear!!!

This is a real Chihuahua.

We have lunch at the flea market.
We are not too sure what we ordered!

Michele's meal is a potato turn into mash potato with cheese and beef.

We went by the photo! Papa Asada Con Carne is what she has!

Mine.

Tacos de Bistect y Maiz. Basically, corn tacos with beef.

Five minutes after we got home Charles and Agnes turn up. We talked for a little bit. They are on their way to another flea market.

We also made plans to got to Mexico Monday morning and have lunch in Nuevo Progreso. We will also check out a few dentists that were recommended to us. I need to get my implant finishes.

Sunday November 30, 2014.

I am off for a bike ride with my new bike this morning. During my ride, I saw something we do not see in Canada. This store is a drive-thru to get beer, chips and energy drinks. You drive in and tell the person what you want, you pay and he put it in your car and you drive out!!!

A look inside, I will have to try that this winter!

Shoot! For the first time we have an infestation of ants in the motorhome!
The war is on!
I put a bait container and less than five minutes later the ants are hard at work getting the bait into the nest. 45 minutes later, there are only two of three ants working at it. One hour after that and no ants visible!

Ants are a common problem here is southern Texas.

By three o'clock, we are at the pool, or should I say Michele is at the pool. I am on the side of the pool. The pool water does not like my skin or vice-versa. I end up with skin rash as I did in Yuma last winter!

We talked with some very nice people from Québec. They are very nice people.

Until next time.

Life is good!