We arrived in the Lower Rio Grande Valley on October 26. This is our 14th winter to volunteer for LRGV NWR as Refuge Operation Specialists. Fancy title, which means we visit the properties and repair, replace, clean-up, and anything else that needs doing. There are approximately 130 refuge tracts, totaling nearly 150,000 acres. This season we were able to visit all of them.
BEYOND VAN GOGH; The Immersive Experience
On Thanksgiving Day we purchased tickets for the Beyond Van Gogh traveling exhibit on display at the McAllen Convention Center. The exhibit shows over 300 of the artist's works, including music, quotes, letters and sketches in a multimedia presentation utilizing over 100 projectors.
We sometimes sat and watched as the projected images changed with the music.
WORKING AROUND THE VALLEY (LRGV)
Some cows got lost and strayed onto the Teniente Tract.
Every year we encounter stray cows on at least one of the Refuge properties. This usually involves fence repairs. Refuge Law Enforcement notifies the rancher to round them up or forfeit them.
One of our favorite lunch spots, Boca Chica Beach.
Adjacent to Boca Chica Beach is Stargate, the build and launch site for SpaceX.
Four rockets in various stages of completion.
We always enjoy seeing this antique Texaco Gas Station at the side of the road near the Chapeno tract, west of the city of Roma.
As the weather warms, we often see turtles, rattlesnakes and blue indigo snakes crossing the road. We do stop and help the turtles cross but avoid handling the snakes.
Spring is a wonderful time to witness desert flowers in bloom.
Within the Garzos Cavazos tract is an old cemetery that is still very occasionally visited. On our last day of volunteering for the season we were instructed to find and clear the path to the cemetery.
We found 40-50 gravesites. Some even dated back to the 1800's.
We used loppers, weed eater and pole saw to clear the area around the graves.
1 comment:
We are lucky to have the kind of job that we enjoy. We aren't going to volunteer this summer. Too much to see. Hope to be in San Antonio area in October. Maybe we can meet up.
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