The Travels of the Agnew Family

Today the sun was finally shining and though it was still chilly (in the low 60s) we decided to go for a walk at Bentsen State Park. Linda, Glenn and Gypsy joined us for Gypsy's first trip to the state park.


Gypsy was so intent on checking everything out she ignored all of us including Zaph.


Linda teaching Gypsy how to watch birds from the bird blind.


A heard of Javelina


As it was afternoon, there weren't a lot of birds around though we did see Altamira Orioles, Cardinals, Green Jays, Woodpeckers, Red-winged black birds.

Tonight is Fun Night. A couple of ladies from the park think of weird zany things for people to do and then convince people to do them. Even I was convinced to participate .... luckily my part was very small. Rehersal was a bit scary but somehow everything came together and the show was great. In our rush to get to the hall Ed forgot his camera so these photos are courtesy of Jean --- thanks Jean.


The theme for this evenings performance was Hee-Haw. There were three guitar pickers and two lovely ladies.


The PMS singers were there in all their glory.


The real inner Raines brothers came out. They sang a collection of country tunes.


The cast. That's me in the back wearing the striped hat. Doc sang a song about his wife wanting a fur coat. After a German Shepard ran out in front of his truck he had the fur to make a coat. I mimed finding the coat, putting it on and scratching because of all the fleas.

At least a couple of times a season, a group from our park bicycles into Mexico for lunch. We've planned to go on this trip for the past couple of years and finally managed to go this year. The bikes are tossed into the back of a pickup truck and driven to Los Ebanos where people and bikes take the hand drawn ferry across the Rio Grande River. Once on the Mexican side of the river you ride the two miles into town.


The ferry can hold 3 vehicles plus a bunch of bikes and people.


Approaching Mexico .... don't think I'd want the job of digging in the water.


Our group consisted of 12 bikes and 7 taxi riders.


This restaurant is popular with the biking crowd. There were several groups of Winter Texans in the restaurant. Lunch was very good. I had garlic fish ..... yum..... and Ed had Tabasco Fish which was actually fish, shrimp, octopus, green peppers and onions cooked in a Tabasco / tomato sauce and served in a foil package. He said it was very good.


The main intersection in town.


An interesting looking building.


Another street scene.


I don't think this police officer is very effective.


Biking back to the ferry. Penny took her tri-cycle and managed to keep up with the bikes. It's amazing how fast she can make that trike go.


I decided to help speed the ferry up on the trip back to the US.

Well we didn't make it Old MacDonald's farm but we did go on a farm tour. The trip wasn't quite as advertised but it was OK especially lunch.


On the road in Mexico.


The farm in Mexico grew a variety of vegetables. By the looks of the buildings and sign it's not a prosperous farm.


There were rows of corn, cabbage, cilantro, swiss chard, beets, carrots plus a number of vegetables we didn't recognize.


Proof Ed was on the trip.


The farm also had it's own graveyard. There were fancy headstones, wooden crosses and lots of flowers.


The vegetable stand --- don't think anyone bought anything though the guide said we could bring a number of the items across the border.


A primary school near the farm.


After lunch we went to the Aloe farm in Mercedes. Ed and I had been here a couple of years ago. The owner makes sand bottles and sells them around the world.


One of the fields of aloe. The below freezing temperatures earlier this year "burnt" the tips of the aloe. We were told that it would take about 6 months for the aloe to recover. The aloe farm has an avocado grove that was devastated by the below freezing temperatures. I think they lost about 50% of the crop, but they are happy as it looks like the trees survived and will hopefully bear fruit next year. The fellow giving the outdoor tour has a citrus fruit farm and he says his crop was not affected by the frost. Apparently, the citrus fruits can survive a short amount of time below freezing where the aloe and avocado trees cannot.

A number of years ago Ed bought me a stuffed puppy with a heart shaped nose for Valentines Day. For the past several years it has been the "gift that keeps being given". This year there was a new twist to the old gift.


When we celebrated Ed's birthday earlier this year he received his goodies in a "Valentines Bag" as that was the only bag Linda had. The balloons were used as filler to help our Mad Hatters hats stand up during Mardi Gras and the flower was part of Zaph's costume. I think Ed may be up for the "Recycler of the Year" award or at least honourable mention.

Somehow my neighbour Linda and I became the entertainment committee for the Mardi Gras celebration at the RV park. This kept us out of trouble for days. We were in charge of the games, the dog show and the after dinner program. The games were easy, we just asked Darryl and Glenn to take care them. The dog show was my idea, betcha no one is surprised by that, so I attempted to organized it. I think 12 dogs participated and there were no fights or excessive barking so I think it was a success. Luckily, many talent people live in this RV park so we were able to find a number of willing participants to make a great show. Being the helpful people that we are, Linda and I helped to cut the meat and vegetables for the supper and there's a lot of cutting and chopping required when preparing Jambalaya for 100. We also helped to cook the test dinner a week before the main event. For some reason the cook thought we should try out the recipe before we served it to a 100 people. Think we filled our helping quota for the season.

As Zaph and I participated in the parade and the dog show part of the day was a blur. Good thing Ed took lots of photos.


The start of the parade. There even was a funeral procession ..... boy could those ladies wail.


Zaph and I walking in the parade. Ed caught me throwing beads to the crowd.


The park manager's daughter even got into the act. This photo was taken right after she ran into Ed.


John was the emcee for the day. Not sure how his wife talked him into the outfit.


Quick change from parade costume to dog show costume.


Like father, like son............ my boys.


Bear, Snicky and Dakota .... Snicky is in the purple coat and Dakota is wearing a green coat. I'll let you guess which one is Bear.


Gypsy even managed to wear her mask part of the time.


Zaph strutting his stuff. He won two first place trophies --- one for best costume and one for best trick. Only a couple of dogs did tricks --- Zaph shook a paw and flip a cookie off his nose into his mouth.


Clarence likes to wear his best outfit for special occasions --- thus the fur coat. Can you find the dart flying through the air.


Judy and her decorating committee did a fabulous job.


After dinner everyone wearing costumes were asked to walk across the stage. The audience chose the best costume by the loudest clapping.


The final event of Mardis Gras was a lighted parade featuring motorcycles. Elvis won first place.

The weather was still deary but that didn't stop us from getting out on the beach. One couple from our group was unable to come south for the winter and it happens that they will be celebrating 50 years of marriage (hard to imagine but then Ed and I had a late start). We decided to write a message in the sand and send it to them along with other photos in a digital photo frame. Technology is great .... we also were able to record our rendition of Happy Anniversary onto the photo frame.


Taking a photo of the photographers at work.


Waiting impatiently ..... I think Harold was expecting a blizzard (he's wearing the coveralls)


This morning the beach was covered with Portuguese Man o'War. They are very pretty but pack a painful sting.


Is this how you do it?


Coconut can't understand why Gypsy is digging


Zaph was happy to find a ball washed up on the beach. Only took a minute to put a hole in it ---- much easier to carry when it's deflated.

Some people debate whether a retired person can go on vacation or are they permanently on vacation. The other debate is if the so called retired person is south for the winter is that considered a vacation and if so can they go on vacation while they are on vacation. Very baffling indeed.

Whether this a vacation or just habitation in a different location for a few day is irrelevant. What is relevant is that we went to South Padre Island for a couple of days to enjoy the beach. As this winter has been somewhat miserable compared to previous winters in south Texas we were not all that surprised that it was cold, deary and rainy during our stay on South Padre Island.

A group of 7 couples and 4 dogs drove over to the island. In past years we all stop at the Wal-mart in Port Isabel and pick up fried chicken and salads and enjoy a picnic on the beach. This year we enjoyed lunch at the Whataburger though a couple people in our group would question the word enjoy in the begin portion of this sentence.


The weather makes no difference to Zaph. He was ready to play.


Interesting patterns in the sand


Hey, big guy let me grab my side and I'll help to carry the stick


I'm sure there's buried treasure ..... just got to dig a bit more


A big stick, lots of sand, even more water and throw in some waves .... life doesn't get much better. The dreary weather keeps people away so that means freedom for the Zaph ---- the beach is so much better when there's no leashes involved.

Zaph being attacked by a flower or maybe he's working on a disguise so I won't kick him out of the flower garden at home.

Trying on his costume for the dog show

For "Ed reasons" we have stopped using the blogger program we've used for a number of years. Our first try at a new blogger failed due to limitations of the blogger ..... entry sizes and number of photos were just not big enough for me. Unfortunately, during the process of finding another blogger the entries I had made are somewhere in that infinite space known as the Internet. For the first few entries the photos will be familiar but the text will be new.