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1 to 15 January 2015 16 to 31 January 2015

Friday January 16, 2014.

I woke again to a cloudy sky! However, the forecast is for a maximum of 63 F (17 C). Charles and Agnes are coming with us for a visit at the "All valley RV and Outdoor Show".
This is the biggy of the Valley!

The show is at the "Rio Grande Valley Livestock Show" grounds in Mercedes.

This is where the indoor events take place.

This is a very small RV show...

A computer desk in the master bedroom of a park model mobile home.

Now one in a motorhome.

Cheap, cheap!!!

Now that is a nice bike rack, I think I will have to make one just like that in PVC piping...

Even at $5 per person to get in, I do not think it was worth it. This is my personal opinion only.

While driving across the town of Mercedes we saw many boots like this one on the side of the road???

I cannot believe we can see our shadow!
I would even say it is warm...
We stay outside to have cold beers and wines. So, as usual we talked a lot and said a lot of stuff, mostly corny stuff!

Not that I am rushing them along, but they have to leave now! Just kidding around.

We will have to see them again before we leave, because who knows, our trails may intersect again soon?

Saturday January 17, 2015.

Today we are joining Jannie and Jan in Nuevo Progreso.
This is the view of the people begging for money under the bridge on the Mexican side.
Like any country in the world, the have and the have-not are living side by side!

Here are Jannie and Jan at the water fountain.

Every time Jan comes to N. Progreso he wears a different pair of shoes. This way he gets all his shoes polished over the course of the winter. The man takes about 10 minutes to do a very good job and he only charges $2.00.

We had to stop at the Red Panties for a few beers. Can you see us under the big panties?

No, I did not touch the panties!!! It is refreshing to see a country that does not have to be "politically correct" at all time!
Have we become too prude or overly sensitive to other?

On the second floor of the store, we saw this big mirror. We had to take a group selfie.

Time to try some hats!

Jan is telling me he may sell his beautiful motorhome and buy this rustic cottage here in N. Progreso!?!?!? Funny guy!

We are having lunch at the "Red Snapper". We got lucky and got a table on the balcony.
This is the good photo!

Of course, we also had to have a crazy photo!

We had chicken Taco, chicken quesadillas and Fish in butter and garlic, lots of garlic. Hummmm it is so good!

The view from the balcony.

From up here you can see all kinds of people. We saw a few weird characters, Mexican and Americans!

We have had a great day with Jannie and Jan. Yesterday it was with Charles and Agnes. We are so "riche" to have people like that in our lives.

I almost forgot! I talked a lot about the "bad" weather we had for the last two weeks. Well, today was it was sunny and warm like I like them.

We are keeping track of the weather for Friday to see if we will be leaving or not. They forecast a lot of rain on Thursday all the way to Friday morning. I will not move the motorhome if the ground is soak in water, I will just sink as soon as I drive on the grass. More to follow on that

Sunday January 18, 2015.

I am in Mercedes looking for more caches this morning. Mercedes is about 14 km away from home. Why so far away? I found all the one close to home!!!
I got my 100th cache this morning. I will not talk about the ones I did not find! My average is 0.65% success in finding caches. I have to remember I am still new at this. Also, I will not stick my hands or walk where there could be snakes of BIG spiders! I do not know about those critters!

Let's get back to one of the cache I found this morning. It was located in a small cemetery. It was a pretty place and so peaceful!

Certain parts of this cemetery are abandoned.

This cache is located in that tree.

Once I got back home, I had lunch and then Michele and I went to the Don-Wes flea market in Donna.

We purchased some Egyptian linen, some fruits, veggies, and two new bathing suits for Michele.

We learn the pool is at +85 F (+29 C). We are going in! Well, Michele is, I am going to sit on the side again!
Michèle with Danielle and Marthe.

Anita, Murielle, myself and Louise.

The sunset was trying to make it self beautiful but did not succeed.

One more nice day with a nice +76 F. So far, we are still planning to leave Friday.

Monday January 19, 2015.

Michele found out that a Thrift Shop in Harlingen has a 50% off today! You guessed it! We are on our way to Harlingen.
While Michele is shopping in the Thrift Shop, I am off looking for more caches.

With all the shopping and caching done, we head back home. The temperature is warming up some more!

The historic street in Harlingen.

Before we make it home, we have to stop for lunch.

Here in the US they have a lot of people doing this type of advertisement. Michele thinks he is cute.

We made it home without any problems.
Michele is going to Bingo tonight and almost won with this card. She did win some money on a different game, a big $8.

Another very good day!

Tuesday January 20, 2015.

Charles and Agnes are here this morning because we are all going to N. Progreso for Michele's dentist appointment.

Charles and Agnes had never gone up the stair in this store so we took them. The official group selfie!

The last time we were here, we did not see this beautiful door. The photo does not show you all the details on and around the door.

Two of the many electrical distribution boxes in this building. Not to our Canadian construction code for sure!

As they say! TIM! "Things In Mexico". It is not just the electricity that is not to code, but the building construction too. From the second floor, you can see the first floor between planks! The metal posts supporting the floor and only tack welded a few places! There is a third floor on top of that! How does it stand up?

We had a beer while waiting for Michele.

Michele's dentist.

In less then 20 minutes Michele is back with us for a beer.

After a little shopping, we go to the Red Snapper for lunch.

Some how our food was not as good as the last time we were here with Jannie and Jan. It was OK, but nothing more.

Agnes.

Me and my new cowboy hat.

My pretty Michele.

The Mexicans celebrate the "Day of the Dead" at the end of October and early November. This is why they have the "dead" stuff in the store.

On our way back from N. Progreso, we stopped for a few caches. Here we are looking for it.

One more for me and Charles celebrating!

We were wondering about those pipes standing up like that. Some are lower and some are tall like this one!

If you do a little reading, you will know all about the pipes.

We are at the "Estero Llano Grande State Park" to look for some more caches and of course, Charles and Agnes will be looking for birds and any other critters. One of the ponds in the park. Notice the turtles on the stump?

The caches located in a State Park are usually big and easy to find.

The only two alligators we saw this winter.

One of the trails we used.

The four musketeers!

When we got to our place, we had a few beers. Today the temperature was up at 29 C (85 F) with 99% humidity! We are not complaining!

We will be leaving Friday or Monday so this is probably the last time we will see Charles and Agnes. They are staying a couple more months.

Goodbye Charles and Agnes. We hope our path will cross again very soon.

Wednesday January 21, 2015.

OK! I have to stop talking about the somewhat crappy weather we have been having. I am just a little depress about the actual weather here in southern Texas. I keep smiling and I keep positive. The warm weather is coming, eventually!

This morning we go to the Wednesday flea market for the last time. We see some more tables with "Ropa" on them. As I mentioned before, you have to dig through them to find the best pieces of clothing. Pieces of clothing fall to the ground, nobody gets excited, and they put it back on the table.

Must be the "better" weather that brings more vendors to the flea market.

With the rain we got the last few days, the flea market has a hard time to keep the clay dry! The results are like this photo.

We are not leaving Friday like we were supposed to. The weatherman said it would rain all day Thursday and night too. Therefore, we will be leaving Monday instead.

Thursday January 22, 2015.

A relaxed day for us. I went out and found a few more caches before we leave. It is raining on and off all day!

Suppertime meal, chicken soup for Michele.

And for me a nice rare fillet Mignon! Michele is not a fan of red meat, so it was not a mean thing to do, she was happy with her chicken soup and I was happy with my fillet Mignon.

Friday January 23, 2015.

Today? I have not photos! We have spent the days inside. The wind is blowing hard (for us). The temperature is about + 10 C all day. I keep the moral up, it is hard but I have to keep it up. (I know where I am not going nest year!)

Saturday January 24, 2015.

What a surprise this morning, I pulled the binds from the front windows and I get this! Yes, we are in Texas, right next to Mexico...
Keep the moral up Denis! It will warm up eventually... Can you see the date on the windshield?

First sight this morning.

By noon, the temperature is up to 16 C. I spend the morning phoning RV parks in the Corpus Christi area. All the RV parks are full! I do not get it, lots of empty spots in the valley where it is warmer and yet, even if it is cooler in the Corpus Christi area the parks are all full!!!
I finally found a spot at Route 1069 RV Park in Rockport. More info on that park on the next update.

I spend the afternoon slowly packing away stuff from outside.

I did a lot of packing today. There will not be much left to do tomorrow.

Sunday January 25, 2015.

This is our last day here at Bit-O-Heaven.

Michele goes to the flea market for the last time and I continue on the packing of stuff. It turns out I had very little to do, but everybody came for a chat. Being polite like I am, I stop what I was doing and chatted with them. I enjoyed it!

We also played petanque for the last time in the afternoon. It is a lot of fun to play petanque here Anglophone and francophone play together and have a great time.
Lucky me I play against Michele. Michele's team is made up of Claude, Gilles and Peter. Our team, Francine, Rene and Maurice.

Michele's turn.

We had a good team together. We won both games.

After a good diner, Michel went to the pool one last time.

The water is at 84 F (29 C).

Tomorrow we are leaving for our next destination, Rockport. IT is about three and half hour drive from here.

January 26, 2015.

Traveling day for us today.
Once everything is stored, it is time to leave. Many friends stop by to say "Goodbye" before we leave.
Goodbye to you, Gilles and Murielle, Gerald and Marthe.

Anita stops by to say goodbye too.
I had a hard time to get my pieces of wood from the ground. They were stuck in the ground.

We also had to stop by Andre and Louise's place and say goodbye to them and to Rene and Marielle.

By the time we hit the road, it is 10 am.
Nothing wrong with this hour. We had to say goodbye to all our friend.
Boys the roads are beautiful in Texas, other then the secondary roads in the Rio Grande Valley.

All along the Gulf of Mexico, you have what they call the "Texas Tropical Trail".

For quite a few miles, we see this warning of some king along a fence. It was to far from the road to read, so we speculated it was warning about illegal aliens. We finally stopped and surprise! It is just a warning about a buried fibre optic cable!!!

Coming up to a Border Patrol check/inspection point. They are looking mostly for drugs and illegal aliens, ie Mexicans. A dog is walking and sniffing all the cars and trucks.

I have not seen a car like this one in a long time. A dodge Colt I think?

Ah the things you see when you travel!
Driscoll with a population of 825 as you get into the little town...

Driscoll just as you are about to leave the little town???
What happen between those two signs? Then I remembered! This is Texas and just about everyone wears a gun here!!! LOL!

The following photos are in no particular order and are just to show you what we have seen while driving to Rockport.

Coming to our new hometown, Rockport!

Our new address, the Route 1069 RV Park. We are slowly getting ourselves settle down.

We got cable here. I make sure it is working.

We even have a Small swing behind our motorhome! We watched the sun set.

Not that nice of a sunset, but hey, it is warm outside.

The clubhouse.

A nice drive to get here and hardly any traffic.

January 27, 2015.

Our RV Park.

The street in front of the RV Park is that busy other then during "rush hour" in Rockport. This mean maybe 30 minutes in the morning and the same before suppertime!

One of the RV in the park.

Here we are.

We go into town to look for the information center. Not here!

Not here!

Here it is!

The lady at the information center was just awesome. She knows how to "sell" her town. We now have much reading to do and many things to visit and do in Rockport.

It is also time to wash the car. Pulling the car behind the motorhome makes it dirty.

A little shopping at the local Wally-Mart.

I am comparing some Wally-Mart wines.
The red Oak Leaf is a very expensive wine at $2.97.

After a refine tasting I like the Shiraz better, but the other one are still good. They were Merlot and Cabernet-Sauvignon.

Here I am preparing my dried golden raisins for the pot where I will pour gin over them and let them soak the gin. I got this recipe from an ex-nun and it prevents arthritis!

We tried anew recipe tonight. Meatloaf in green pepper!

It is good, but we will have to try it with regular meat loaf meat as this was spicy ground pork meat...

January 28, 2015.

I can ride my bike here, no problems.
I am off looking for some caches on my bike.

Bad luck for me! On my first 3 caches I do not find one single one! Darn! I do better with the next one.
I look and I look, but no smiley for me. A man bikes by, stops and asks me "You are not going to give up are you?" I answer "no!" He asks me where my GPS is pointing to. I say "the telephone pole". His answer is "Your good to go". I go back to the pole and sure enough I find the cache! See this metal piece? There it is!

The next cache takes me about 15 minutes to find. Can you see it? It is just about in the middle on the photo.

So far, for today I have 4 "found" and 5 "did not find". Tomorrow I am bringing Michele to help me find caches! She is good a finding them!

After a good ride of 11 km, I have a good lunch and with Michele we go to the Rockport beach for a walk.
You cannot come to Rockport without taking a photo with the crab!

We walked 4 km on and around the beach.

Having fun with shadows!

A little montage!

He does not look happy!

The Rockport beach.

Another beach on the inter-coastal water way.

Welcome to...

We only have been here 3 days and we have seen more blue sky and warmer weather then before!

Thursday January 29, 2015.

Get ready because the next few days are mostly about geocaching. Michele joins me in the search for caches. This morning we are going back to the Memorial Park to look for the caches I did not find yesterday.

No luck for the first cache, but with the second...

Michele is hot today with the caches. Can you see the turtles?

Geocaching can be dangerous! Texas has a lot of thorny bushes.

My pretty Michele!

We have stopped at a yard sale and I bought a mason jar full of small wooden heart and stars.

I am writing our cacher's name on each one of them. We will be leaving them in the caches that are big enough. Our cacher's name is DM1960. For "Denis, Michele 1960".

A very good day.

Friday January 30, 2015.

Michele is looking for caches with me again. We make a very good team. The name for the first cache is "It's not candy cane lane".

Here is the actual cache. They are not all hard or all easy.

Some of the swag that cachers leave behind in the caches. Of course, you leave some and you can take some and put them in another cache.

This is the best cache so far for us.

While on our way to another cache, we drove by this small airport and a small plane was landing. Michele took a photo! What are the odds to take the photo exactly when a road sign happen to be there?

On of the cache is on this palm tree. We cannot find it!!!

A very large cache in the middle of nowhere!

This cache has a lot of swags in it!

The next cache is called "Wimbledon???".
No tennis court here!

The cache is a tennis ball cut open with a logbook inside! Those cachers are very imaginative people!

The next one has a "twist" to it!

In this twisted tree, in a hallow part of it, there is this piece of bark...

The cache is glued to it!

The coastal live oak trees are very beautiful here.

Here is a big one with a cache located near it.

This live oak is believed to be over 1000 years old.

Some more info about the oak tree.

With have no luck with this cache, we could not find it.

Some Whooping Cranes in a field.
They spend the summer up in Wood Buffalo National Park in northern Alberta.

An easy one!

We are done with caches for today. Back home I start cleaning the tracks where the windows slide.

With the accumulation of sand and dust over time, combine with moisture/dampness, you end up with some mould growing in the tracks area. It is time to wash that stuff away!

Another busy day looking for caches and cleaning the windows.

Saturday January 31, 2015.

We had to go back and check the Big Tree cache on the internet and find out more information about it to help us find it.

Here it is, looking like an automatic sprinkler, but no! It is the cache!

They have been forecasting rain and cool weather for the past 4 days and yet, nothing. Well, today it is happening.

A very "hairy" cache!

I think we were very lucky to find this cache.
I just happen to look down and see this piece of wood with a "cut" on it.

What an ingenuous way to hide a cache.

Another one not that easy to find, but we got it!

Here it is!

A small dauphin pushing small fishes up the shore. He is getting his meal ready!

It does not matter where you go, there is always a cache in a cemetery.

There is a series of caches called "Ducks" and the actual cache is rubber duck with a logbook in it.

A good lunch at Whataburger.

After lunch, we keep on caching. Lots of thorns to get to the cache!

For this cache, a lady asked us if we were caching? Yes, we are, but we cannot find this cache! She gave us a clue to find it. It was hard to find because it is the first time we see one like this one!