Harlingen, Texas Day 14 (GA355)

Mary is no longer available for RV traveling, but we remain good friends.
Because we have 5,000+ postings, I’ve invited her to continue posting entries on this blog.

I’m currently in my 23rd year of full-time RVing and my lifestyle is changing, For more info click Here

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The motorhome is parked at Thousand Trails RV Resort in Chehalis, Washington. I expect to depart here June 4th.

 

Since my RVing life is changing (see above), I’m starting to re-visit previously visited places. So rather than constantly re-blogging past entries, I’ve decided to do something different.

 

In 2011-2013, Mary and I did a 682 day, 12,679 miles in the motorhome and 8,000 miles in the Bronco, circumnavigation of the United States, which I called The Great Adventure. I called it so because other than my oldest granddaughter’s high school graduation in June in Connecticut, I didn’t know where we would be going or when we would be there!

 

So, unless I do something really different and unusual warranting a new blog entry, I’ll be posting entries from that trip.

 

 

 

 

This entry was posted January 2, 2013…

 

 

 

 

Mary has been at home in California enjoying the holidays with her family. She will arrive here in Harlingen tomorrow.

 

The motorhome is parked at Tropic Winds RV Resort and is scheduled to be here until January 10th. While awaiting Mary’s return, I’ve been seeing some local attractions, performing repairs and preventative maintenance on both the motorhome and Bronco, plus thoroughly cleaning both vehicles.

 

At my current location, I’m in an area of South Texas known as the Rio Grande Valley. It is also known as The Magic Valley…where anything will grow. The primary is citrus fruits of which the Texas Ruby Red accounts for about 70% of the products. If you have ever tasted a genuine Texas Ruby Red Grapefruit…you will never forget it…absolutely delicious!!!

 

Like Jackie Gleason used to say … “How sweet it is!!!”

 

 

 

 

 

As always you may left click upon an image to see an enlarged view and then click once again to see an even larger view…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can read all about the Rio Grande Valley by clicking this Wikipedia link…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rio_Grande_Valley

 

 

Here’s an interesting article about the Texas Ruby Red Grapefruit…
http://www.texascooking.com/features/jan2000rubies.htm

 

 

Enjoying a wide variety of fresh local produce is another joy of the full-time RVing lifestyle!

 

 

The red dot on the below map shows my approximate location in the State of Texas. You may double left-click the map to make it larger…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoying 65-75 degree temperatures most of the year is a primary joy in the RVing lifestyle!

 

 

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”…Albert Einstein

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you have not checked out my Ramblin Man’s Photos Blog, you can do so by clicking this link…
http://ramblinmanphotos.wordpress.com/

 

 

TWO FOR THE PRICE OF ONE! MARY WROTE A MANY GREAT BLOGS…SO WHENEVER SHE PUBLISHED A BLOG POSTING THE SAME DAY THAT I DID…YOU WILL BE ABLE TO READ HER BLOG BY CLICKING THE BELOW LINK! DO IT NOW!

Mary did not post this date.

 

 

I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THE PHOTOS.

Forecast for today is cloudy and 66 degrees.

Enjoying nice weather is another joy in the life of a full-time RVer!

The red dot on the below map shows my approximate location in the State of Washington. You may double left-click the map to make it larger…

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoying 65-75 degree temperatures with low humidity most of the year is a primary joy in the RVing lifestyle!

 

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”…Albert Einstein

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My current travel rig is a 2006 Fleetwood 26′ Class A Motorhome and a towed 1986 Ford Bronco II, Eddie Bauer Model. This photo was taken in the desert at Slab City near Niland, California…

 

 

On October 27, 2012, I created a two-minute video titled America The Beautiful. The music America The Beautiful is by Christopher W. French. The photos, which I randomly selected, are from the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Tennessee, Washington and West Virginia (not shown in that order)…are mine. Yup, That’s me standing in front of the Post Office in Luckenbach, Texas…Y’all!

 

 

Click this link to start the video. Make sure you have your speakers turned on and go to full screen asap.
http://youtu.be/FfZUzEB4rM8

 

 

If you would like to see my YouTube videos, click this link… http://www.youtube.com/user/JimJ1579/videos

 

 

There are more than 700 photo albums in my Picasa Web Albums File. To gain access, you simply have to click this link… https://get.google.com/albumarchive/110455945462646142273?source=pwa

 

 

If you have not checked out my Ramblin Man’s Photos Blog, you can do so by clicking this link…http://ramblinmanphotos.wordpress.com/

 

 

For more information about my books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust

 

 

All original works copyrighted – Jim Jaillet -2018

WETLANDS AND SUPERBOWL SUNDAY.

Just below the prison, an area known as East Wetlands stretches up to the base of a mountain range along the Colorado River.

Wetlands suggest birds to me, but we didn’t see any. I expect we would during the great migration from Mexico and South America.

Much of the water here is provided by the Colorado River and flows through man-made canals.

The terrain changed from low brush to high brush and later to the growing fields under lease or private ownership on what was signed as BLM land.

Now that’s green and we saw miles of it.

A group harvesting lettuce are probably not interested in Super Bowl Sunday. The boss of this crew whistled at me and indicated that I should not to take pictures of them.

I got to see all that green I was longing to see.

Various colors of green as in broccoli.

Kale.

Purple lettuce, too.

On our previous stay in Yuma, we had grapefruit just like this hanging over the motor home where we were parked. Oranges, too.

This bougainvillea doesn’t compare in size to the one we walked past every morning, but there are many beautiful bushes in bloom to enjoy around town.

After our drive, we returned to town and stopped at the VFW to have a beer and a peek at the Superbowl.

We wore our grubbies, knowing we’d have to wash what we wore and take showers to get rid of the smoke. People are nice. Jim befriended Cathy Shrader in the weeks before I arrived and wanted me to meet her. Nice gal, fun to talk to. A widow like me, hesitant about on-line dating as I was.

The VFW was set up for a party, but the game hadn’t started.

I jokingly asked a woman who she was rooting for. Her answer was this. We visited for an hour and left. We never did see anything but pre-game talk on the big screen television. Before going to bed, I called my kids to see who won.

 

 

 

Harlingen, Texas – Day 18

The motorhome is parked at Tropic Winds RV Resort and is scheduled to be here until January 10th.

Yesterday Mary and I took the Bronco for a tour of the Rio Grande Valley since she has never been here before. By time we got back to the motorhome we had covered 160 miles.

As always you may left click upon an image to see an enlarged view and then click once again to see an even larger view…

Along the way we saw lots of fertile soil with green stuff growing…

and grapefruit trees…

First stop was at the old Hildago Pump Station that was used for many years to pump water from the Rio Grande River to irrigate the growing fields. It operated from 1909 to 1983. The station was closed on a Saturday so we didn’t get to take the tour. You can read about it by clicking this link…
http://www.texasescapes.com/SouthTexasTowns/HidalgoTexas/Hidalgo-Texas-Old-Hidalgo-Pumping-Station.htm

Also at the site was a World Birding Center which you can read about by clicking this link…
http://www.theworldbirdingcenter.com/Hidalgo.html

It was so cold we didn’t try to catch a photo of the many birds we could hear but we got these nice flower photos…

Being right on the Rio Grande River, the Border Patrol was to be seen everywhere…

A few more miles down the road we stopped at the La Lomita Chapel which was also closed on a Saturday. You can read about it by clicking this link…
http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/tx/tx15.htm

About one mile down the road is the remnants of an old mission on the grounds of a now Catholic Academy. Of course the gates were locked…

By then it was time for lunch. We stopped at the small El Rodeo Restaurant. I had the Chalupa plate…

Mary had the enchilada plate…

A couple of strolling musicians stopped by to sing a few songs for tips…

Then onto the only hand-pulled ferry left remaining on the Rio Grande River. I was here in 1997 when all there was the ferry at the end of a narrow road with a small Border Patrol Station. Here’s a photo I took in 1997…

Because of 9/11, there is now a huge Border Patrol Station. Everything was shut down because of high fast-flowing water on the river so the ferry was not operating. We walked alongside the chain link fence to get down to the river. It has an interesting history and you can read about the ferry by clicking this link…
http://www.wintertexansonline.com/ebanosferry.htm

Final stop of the day was at the only Costco in the Rio Grande Valley for some groceries.

Enjoying the many attractions of an area is another joy of the full-time RVing lifestyle!

The red dot on the below map shows my approximate location in the State of Texas. You may double left-click the map to make it larger…

Enjoying 65-75 degree temperatures most of the year is a primary joy in the RVing lifestyle!

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”…Albert Einstein

If you have not checked out my Ramblin Man’s Photos Blog, you can do so by clicking this link…
http://ramblinmanphotos.wordpress.com/

All original material Copyright – Jim Jaillet 2013
For more information about my three books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust

Harlingen, Texas – Day 14

Mary has been at home in California enjoying the holidays with her family. She will arrive here in Harlingen tomorrow.

The motorhome is parked at Tropic Winds RV Resort and is scheduled to be here until January 10th. While awaiting Mary’s return, I’ve been seeing some local attractions, performing repairs and preventative maintenance on both the motorhome and Bronco, plus thoroughly cleaning both vehicles.

At my current location, I’m in an area of South Texas known as the Rio Grande Valley. It is also known as The Magic Valley…where anything will grow. The primary is citrus fruits of which the Texas Ruby Red accounts for about 70% of the products. If you have ever tasted a genuine Texas Ruby Red Grapefruit…you will never forget it…absolutely delicious!!!

Like Jackie Gleason used to say … “How sweet it is!!!”

As always you may left click upon an image to see an enlarged view and then click once again to see an even larger view…

You can read all about the Rio Grande Valley by clicking this Wikipedia link…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rio_Grande_Valley

Here’s an interesting article about the Texas Ruby Red Grapefruit…
http://www.texascooking.com/features/jan2000rubies.htm

A short, but interesting video…
http://www.texasweet.com/texas-grapefruits-and-oranges/

Enjoying a wide variety of fresh local produce is another joy of the full-time RVing lifestyle!

The red dot on the below map shows my approximate location in the State of Texas. You may double left-click the map to make it larger…

Enjoying 65-75 degree temperatures most of the year is a primary joy in the RVing lifestyle!

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”…Albert Einstein

If you have not checked out my Ramblin Man’s Photos Blog, you can do so by clicking this link…
http://ramblinmanphotos.wordpress.com/

All original material Copyright – Jim Jaillet 2013
For more information about my three books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust