Another Season in the Valley is Complete

While posting signs on the new fence at the Cuevitas tract, we came across this large Red Eared Slider. He was hurrying (well as fast as a turtle can hurry) across the road trying hard to get out of our way.

On our last day of work this Spring we stopped by the Abrams West tract of land to repair the fence. This 900+ year old Cypress tree is quite impressive. The last time we saw this tree, the area was flooded and we couldn't even get down to it. This time we noticed that it had been hit by lightning and some of the branches were damaged. I guess this old tree has been through a lot.

Our time here this year, in the Lower Rio Grande Valley Refuge, is coming to a close. We have already experienced two 100+ degree days. The birds are moving north and so are we.

Our Trip to Puerto Rico

During the first week of February we traveled to Puerto Rico for a vacation.
We stayed at Palmas Del Mar Club Cala, a time-share condo on the east coast of the island, in the town of Humacao.

This was a really big unit.FIRST FLOOR laundry, SECOND FLOOR kitchen, dining and living area and porch, THIRD FLOOR two bedrooms and two baths, FOURTH FLOOR loft bedroom, and one more level to a roof top porch. There were a lot of steps to keep us in shape.

On the first day, we took our little red Ford Focus to El Yunque (JUNE-kay), Caribbean National Forest. This is the only Tropical Rain Forest in the National Forest system.

The Forest's main visitor center, El Portal, is just inside the entrance. An elevated walkway takes you into this beautiful open air structure. The forest which takes it's name from the 3,533 foot mountain peak with the same name covers 28,000 acres. El Yunque was designated in 1903 by Teddy Roosevelt.

We took a moderately difficult hike on Big Tree Trail through the rain forest. Annual rainfall is extremely heavy and exceeds 200 inches per year. Hundreds of streams pour down the mountainsides creating falls and pools. The rain forest receives more than 100 billion gallons of rain per year. We took our rain gear along, but the sky was clear and blue that day.

Reaching La Mina Falls, we took a short rest and then returned to the trail head. Birds such as tanagers, woodpeckers, cuckoos and the very rare Puerto Rican Parrot inhabit the forest. The vegetation is so thick you can hear them, but they are hard to spot. Coquies, tiny inch long tree frogs fill the forest with their high pitch two-note chant, which resemble the singing of their own name.

Sometimes called the "Gibraltar of the Caribbean", El Morro was one of the stops on our walking tour of Old San Juan. This massive fort started in 1533 was the largest ever built by the Spanish in the New World.

Six levels of impressive batteries rising 140 feet out of the sea provide a beautiful harbor view.  A network of ramps and stairways connect the levels.

El Morro repelled attacks against the Bristish, Dutch and French for over 300 years. This fort, active through World War II, protects this deep water port of San Juan. Most of the massive fortifications were built between 1589 and 1660. This fort was captured during the Spanish American War in 1898 when the island became a U.S. Territory. Now we can all enjoy it as part of San Juan National Historic Site.

Here we are afforded a view of San Juan, standing on top of Castillo San Cristobal, another Spanish Fort in Old San Juan. The first shot of the Spanish American War in Puerto Rico was fired from this fort.

After completing one of the best city walking tours we have ever taken, we decided to eat at a true Puerto Rican restaurant. Punto de Vista, across from the cruise port, was highly recommended. We reached the restaurant in time for happy hour and enjoyed a couple of Mojitos while sitting outside. Punto de Vista, meaning viewpoint, claims to have invented the Mojito. For dinner Kurt had Mofungo (baked plantain shell) stuffed with shrimp and Virginia enjoyed a Churasco (marinated skirt steak).


On Tuesday we took an all day drive around the perimeter of the island. We visited Cabo Rojo National Wildlife Refuge located on the southwest corner. This 773 acre refuge was added to the system in 1999.

The limestone cliffs of Cabo Rojo rise straight out of the sea. Salt has been mined in the surrounding flats since the time of the Taino Indians.

After stopping at the visitor center we took a hike to view the salt flats and then drove out to the lighthouse, Faro de Los Morillos, built in 1881.

Driving to Ponce (PONE-say) the next day we stopped at the this quiet barren beach along the south shore.

This Old Ponce Municipal Fire Station was built in 1882. With its bright red and black stripes, it is now the most photographed building in Puerto Rico.

About ten miles north of Ponce we visited Hacienda Buena Vista. This 19th century coffee plantation estate has been fully restored and offers guided tours.

A stop for drinks and dinner at Pito's Seafood completed the day. We watched as the sun dipped below the horizon at our ocean front table.

On Thursday we visited the Arecibo Observatory, the world's largest and most sensitive radio telescope, which consists of a 1,000 ton suspended platform, that hovers above a 20 acre dish, set in a sinkhole 565 feet deep.

This telescope is used to study deep space objects, natural radio emissions, and the planets. Hollywood has used the giant dish during the filming of James Bond's Goldeneye and the movie Contact.

Before returning to Old San Juan for dinner, we caught the last ferry and tour of the day at the Bacardi Distillery.

Two free rum drink tickets were provided in their outdoor hospitality area.

Iguana in Condo Parking Lot

Beach Access from Condo

Outside of Fajardo on the island's east coast, we arranged for a 2.5 hour guided tour of Las Cebezas de San Juan Nature Preserve. Our first stop was a boardwalk hike through a mangrove swamp seeing red, black and white mangroves. Next we stopped at a rocky beach and examined coral.

The final stop was at a castle-like lighthouse, built in 1882,  one of the oldest on the island. One of the most interesting things about this area was the bio luminescent lagoon. Night hikes of this area are offered. We opted to see the bio luminescent  organisms in a dark room at the lighthouse during the day.

We had wonderful weather and a great week in Puerto Rico.

The Grandkids Found Us Again.

Our grandkids came to visit for a couple of days and brought their parents along. They had a whirl wind two day tour of South Texas. Our first stop was the Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownsville. We felt like we had the zoo to ourselves, since it was a Thursday morning.

After the zoo, we drove to South Padre Island for fun on the beach. It was a beautiful warm day, but the water and wind were a bit nippy. The kids didn't mind, they loved jumping in the surf and digging in the sand.

While Shawn and Kelly and the two girls went across the border to Mexico, we hiked with the boys around the Santa Ana Refuge. They loved the Hawk Tower and Canopy Bridge.

We had just enough time to take a tram ride around the Refuge. This made for a full day. When the family returned from Mexico safely, Jacob and Logan were ready for another hike back to show their sisters the Hawk Tower.

TIRES! TIRES! Everywhere!

Before

Patrolling for illegal use of refuge land, including dumping, is one of our duties at Lower Rio Grande Valley NWR.



After

  Last week we had an opportunity to clean out on old tire dump found on one of our western tracts, San Francisco Banco. We spent a couple of days transporting the 375 tires to a suitable road for pickup on the northern boundary.

We were very thankful that the weather was cool since we blundered into Africanized Bees nesting in a tire. The bees were very slow moving because of the cool temperature. Kurt was the only casualty with only one sting. The next day we worked on another project while the NWR Fire Crew exterminated the nest. Finally we met the tire recycler who loaded the tires onto his semi trailer to be fed to their huge grinding machine.

The many lizards we met living around the tires were much friendlier than the bees. Virginia couldn't resist picking up this large collared lizard.

Happy New Year From the Valley!

Immediately after Thanksgiving in Austin we returned to Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge in the Rio Grande Valley. This is our 4th year volunteering for Lower Rio Grande Valley NWR. We were warmly welcomed back by our supervisor, Scot. Our jobs are similar as in previous years.


CAN YOU GUESS WHAT THIS IS?

Kurt was trimming and cleaning out under a Mexican Olive tree near our RV pad when he came across this odd object. At first glance he thought it plastic, maybe a fishing lure. Then it wiggled. Could it be a scorpion? No. After research, this ugly four inch long dude turned out to be a Sphinx Moth Cocoon. We learned that the hard curved casing extending from the head (left) is actually it's tongue. We placed it in the care of the Refuge Visitor Center, who photographed it. We are awaiting it's emergence into a large moth.

Two Weeks in Florida

Leaving our rig at the Escapee Park in Livingston, we flew to Miami. Our first week we stayed on Key Largo at Anchorage Resort and Yacht Club.

On the southeast side of Miami, along Biscayne Bay, we visited the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden and toured Charles Deering's winter estate.

A day was spent at the Everglades National Park. From the Flamingo Visitor Center, we took a boat ride into the mangrove swamp and saw many birds.

We came across this large American Crocodile. The Florida Everglades are the only place in the continental United States where you can find crocodiles in the wild.

From our Key Largo condo we drove the 100 miles south to the end at Key West. This is a slow, beautiful and interesting drive crossing many bridges and narrow keys. There are lovely views of the water and beaches on both sides.

Ernest Hemingway called Key West home for ten years. He lived in this house from 1931 to 1939. He found peace and also, great physical challenge in the turquoise waters that surround this tiny island.

This is the Little White House, inside the Truman Annex. It was the vacation retreat that presidents, Truman, Eisenhower and Kennedy used during their administrations.

Our second week was spent at Fisherman's Village Resort Club in Punta Gorda. Virginia's sister Cathy along with Cathy's husband, Jim, joined us for the week. Together we visited the Edison & Ford Winter Estates and Sanibel Island.

One of the high points of the week was time with Aunt Florence in Sarasota.

Continuing Our Trek South

After leaving Branson, we spent four nights at Maumelle Army Corp. of Engineers Park outside of Little Rock, Arkansas. This park was very nice and also was designed to accommodate big rigs. We saw the sights of Little Rock, including the State Capital Building, the Presidential Library and the Zoo. From Little Rock it was a days drive to East Fork A.C.E. Park in Wylie, Texas. We stayed about a week and visited with family and friends.

Continuing south to Jim Hogg A.C.E. in Georgetown, Texas, we visited our daughter and her family.

On Thursday we took our two Granddaughters to a Pumpkin Patch in Elgin. Later, Hannah and Julia enjoyed being able to carve their own pumpkins at our campsite. It was a very fun day.

Saturday was our day with the boys. We took them to Evergreen Farms in Elgin.

We all had a delightful day taking a hayride and a train ride, eating a picnic lunch and playing Pumpkin Slingshot and Pumpkin Hunt. Jacob and Logan really enjoyed being big boys and riding with Grandma and Grandpa on the "Tractor" Train.

Departing Georgetown on Monday, October 22, we made the 4 hour drive to our home park in Livingston. This is our first time to actually stay at our home address at Rainbow's End ESCAPEE Park.

While here we were able to pick up our mail from the Mail Center rather than having it forwarded. We even got to vote in our home precinct instead of voting absentee ballot. We discovered that there is no usable TV signal here, but there is an ESCAPEE library on site with DVD's to borrow.