After a perfect summer in northern Idaho, we departed on September 17, arriving in South Texas (Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge) on October 27. We spent the winter at our usual campsite #10 at the Marinoff Volunteer Village. This is a great place for a long term winter stay while working three days a week for the South Texas Refuges. There are 14 large campsites with long cement RV pads, 50 amp, FHU. The laundry room has 5 washers and dryers available for the volunteer's use. All shopping and conveniences are available a short drive away in McAllen and the surrounding communities. We are now completing our ninth winter season in this setting.
Arrival October 27, 2017
Our old friends the Altamira Orioles, aka Orange Pants,
were quick to return to their habit of
pecking on our back window most mornings.
Every December the city of Hidalgo puts on a Christmas Light Festival. Most of the downtown area is involved in the elaborate light displays. One of the volunteers organized a group outing to Hidalgo. The best way to see the light display is by taking the trolley tour. We were fortunate to have a beautiful December evening for our trolley tour through the city.
SOUTH PADRE ISLAND
We have been to South Padre Island many times, but thought it would be nice to spend New Years week at a time-share condo there. Our condo week started on New Year's Eve day. We think it was the coldest week of the entire decade. We didn't get to spend much time walking on the beach, but Kurt did eat a lot of seafood and we got caught up on our Cable TV shows. Near the end of the week we had a couple beautiful warm clear days for a walk on the beach and a ride around the twelve mile Laguna Atascosa tram loop.
Peninsula Island Resort, South Padre Island
36 inch Black Drum caught on the ship channel
at the south end of South Padre Island
SERVICING THE LRGV PROPERTIES
While working we often have adventures, some fun and some not so fun. In December we challenged ourselves to take a shortcut across a "dry" lake bed in order to remove trash collected by other volunteers on the Teniente Tract. After assessing La Sal Vieja on foot, we felt it might be ok to drive to the trash pile. As the shown in the picture, after breaking through the crust, we buried the truck up to the axles in slippery black mud. We were determined to get the truck out of the lake bed...
After an hour and a half of work we managed
to get ourselves out using our
shovels and logs we cut with our chain saw.
The next day, we returned with the proper equipment
and got the job done with no problems.
Haste Makes Waste.
Another job completed was on the Goodfields Tract:
Replaced and adjusted worn ranch gate
Spring time arrived mid-February in the desert.
One of our favorite lunch time stops while servicing the Boca Chica Properties. We usually work two or three days out here each winter. The tailgate of the truck is our picnic bench.
Part of our job is sign installation and maintenance.
An Aerostat is on the Los Velas tract. These interesting observation balloons are used for patrolling the US Mexican border. There are currently about four or five of these in the Rio Grande Valley. These helium balloons have cameras for spotting ground activity as well as radar for spotting low flying planes. The Aerostat is flown from a tether when conditions allow. They are not flown when the wind speed exceeds 30 mph or in fog.
We took a short day trip to Mexico for some dental work. Progresso has many fine dentists that work for a fraction of the cost of their US counter parts. This time of year they are very busy with all the winter Texans.
CORPUS CHRISTI
The first week of March we booked a time-share condo on north Padre Island, just east of Corpus Christi. Padre Island is 113 miles long. Separated by the Mansfield Ship Channel, South Padre Island is accessed at Port Isabel and runs south to Boca Chica.
La Casa Del Sol, Corpus Christi
We took a tour of the U.S.S. Lexington air craft carrier. Commissioned in 1943, it is now permanently docked and available for tours in Corpus Christi Bay.
Padre Island National Seashore
We identified about 35 shore and song birds.
Texas State Aquarium
