Small historic church in a county park along the Rio GrandeI wanted to give my first impressions of the Rio Grande Valley. We drove down from Kingsville two days ago. The drive down is through 60 miles of no services, a pleasant but rural drive. The land is somewhat scrubby with lots of cactus and mesquite trees. When we passed Raymondsville though this all changed. The Rio Grande Valley has become a meca for the retired escapees from winter, just like us. The first day we got here we got an RV site at Americana RV Resort ($130 a week) in Mission which is on the west end of the valley. We drove from Harlingen on the east end of the valley to Mission on Highway 83 expressway. It is like an interstate but doesn't have that designation. There is lots of traffic here this time of year and the place is crowded and bustling. We took our camper off the truck to make driving around and exploring a little more convenient. The first day we were here it was sunny and warm around 70, but since then it has been rainy and cool, around 60.
Yesterday, Thursday, Feb. 18, we drove around the area and along a highway that parallels the border. There are a lot of factory looking buildings, and a lot seem to be vacant. In other areas it is more desolate and wooded. We explored a couple of county parks and saw a lot of border patrol cars. We finally ended up at Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge. We watched their video, and stood inside and watched a lot of birds, since it was raining. We saw Green Jays, Kiskadee, Altamira Orioles, Red Winged Black Birds, etc. We're anxious for the weather to clear so we can go back and hike some of their eleven miles of hiking trails and see lots more. This is a swampy tropical like area with great habitat for not only birds but deer, ocelots, snakes, etc.
While we were at Santa Ana we began visiting with a couple of the volunteers and they told us some areas to eat and talked a little bit about their work. They only work 3 days for full hookups and the refuge has a nice RV park nearby for volunteers. We asked who we should talk to about the possibility of volunteering so one of the volunteers went and asked the volunteer coordinator, Nancy Brown, to come out and meet us. She told us about the various duties and the fact that there are a couple of other refuges to volunteer at in the area, the biggest being Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge which is along the coast. It is quite a bit larger than Santa Ana. She told us where the volunteer RV area was and suggested we go by and look at it. It is a nice area. Most of the volunteers come down here for January through March, their busiest times. They also us local volunteers for the non-peak times. This might be worth looking into.
We also meet another birder there with a huge camera. He was serious he was waiting for a Yellow Throated Warbler, since it was on his life list and he hadn't seen one yet. Birders are a breed of their own :-). It turned out he grew up in Springfield not far from where Carol lived when she was growing up there. He went to Delaware, and Central. He was about 10 years older than us though. Small world.
We drove through the volunteer RV park on our way back toward the town of Pharr and then headed to a Mexican Restaurant named Poncho's, recommended by a volunteer. It was quite picturesque with lots of color and a Mariachi band. We split a meal. By this time it was almost 3:00 so that served as lunch and supper. We just tend to eat when we get hungry, not by any prescribed times.
We got back to the camper and read until a little before 7:00 and then went over to the rec hall. Carol wanted to try her hand at Pokeno while I worked on the blog and uploaded photos. She did rather well. She had to start with $1 and she came home with about $3. We had played Bingo the night before investing $2 for 3 cards each. We came home with $4.50. I won twice, so we are making out like bandits. You know you're getting old when you start playing Bingo :-).
A little more on the area. We find it rather junky, with lots of graffiti and litter. I certainly wouldn't want to live in the area, other than the wildlife refuges it is mostly agricultural and business. I would imagine the summers get extremely hot here. We'd like to see some of that warmer dryer weather move in. Supposedly it is going to get better this weekend.
Link to photosRebecca, our oldest daughter, asked if we could provide an itinerary of our trip. We can give a rough idea but we just kind of go with the flow and sometimes we're not sure of where we might be a week from now. In general, we plan to spend a couple of weeks down here and then head up the coast back to Corpus Christi and spend two or three days there. From there we will head along the coast toward Louisianna where we intend to explore the swamp lands of southern Louisiana for a few days including visiting the Tabascco plant there in southern Louisiana. We'll probably explore New Orleans some and then head up to Natchez where we intend to take a few days driving up the Natchez Trace which is a federal parkway. The trace was used by indians originally but later developed into a road that boatmen used after floating their boats down the Ohio and Mississippi to New Orleans to follow back home to another river piloting job. It has a lot of historical significance. We plan to be on the trace around the end of March. Hopefully spring will be starting to take hold in that area by then. That is a general overview of our plan.
More later.
