Texas Seasonal
March 28, 2007
Every place that we have gone has something that is new to us. In February 2005, during a three-day stop here in Mission, one morning, we passed a tree that seemed to have more green birds in it than there were leaves. Of course at that time not only did I not have my camera, but we were running late to church. To be totally honest I was wondering if my eyes had deceived me. We never saw another green bird until nearly a year later when we were in Florida. This year it has been proved to me that my eyes were functioning very well. Erma was talking to a lady here and found out that every evening there is a gathering of small green parrots near a particular corner in Mission. We drove to the area designated and saw nothing that would make us think that there was anything worth seeing. I saw a fellow walking his dog and asked him if he knew about the parrots. He informed us that we would see them AT THE INTERSECTION when it was just a little closer to sunset.
GREEN PARROTS IN A TREE
Try to imagine several power lines with several hundred green parrots sitting on the lines and flying through the air. While you are visualizing that also visualize several thousand grackles sitting on other power lines in the same area. The parrots are slightly larger than an American Robin. The grackles look a lot like a larger version of a starling. Between the two of them there is a cacophony of squawks and chirps that is almost too much for the ear to take. It is interesting that the parrots and the grackles do not share the same power line or tree, except for a very limited amount. Numerous times we saw three or four lines with up to fifty birds each be vacated at the same instant. The flock of parrots would fly a pattern around for a minute or two and then all of them would return to the same perch. The first evening we watched the parrots flew from the power lines to several trees across the street and then from there they flew to some other location that was out of sight because of the stores at the intersection. We were never able to determine the location that they spent the night. We have seen several places that the grackles gather in this manner, but this is the only location for the parrots that we have heard about. It is a sight that is worthwhile for everybody to see.
GRACKLES ON THE POWER LINES
Most of the avocados that are in the grocery stores are of the Hass variety. As with so many fresh items in the store the variety available is one that will ship well. Unfortunately the variety that ships well is not necessarily the best tasting or the biggest. We went to a Winter Texan Convention and bought some huge avocados from a seller there. They were among the biggest that I have ever seen, and I bet they do not ship well. We have gone to the main location several times for more fruit. I have heard that the avocado does not ripen until it is off the tree, this may well be correct because the ones we bought were too hard to eat for several days, and then they were perfect. Another thing that I have learned is that if the stem is not black there is no black inside. That also seems to be proving correct. The store workers told me that the avocado trees are between forty and sixty feet tall. I have always imagined avocados growing on something more like a bush. I have been told that sometime one of the workers could take me to see the trees. While that will not happen this time here it will give me another reason to come back.
Have you ever thought about what an orange or grapefruit looked like before it was ripe enough to pick and sell in a store? If the thought has never crossed your mind you are like me. Even when I was in Florida I do not recall seeing citrus fruit that was not ripe, nor did I ever think about looking for any. I am sure that I must have been near citrus trees with green fruit, but I would guess that the fruit was so close in color to the leaves that I simply overlooked them. One of the residents here cut some limbs off a citrus tree. I picked some of the green fruit and cut it open. I was unable to determine the type of citrus it was. The inside did not look like any ripe fruit that I have ever seen. People that live here seem to be able to tell the type of fruit as easily as I can tell the difference between an apple and a peach. Also there are a lot of crops that have been planted on the nearby farms, and I cannot identify most of them. The harvesting of cabbages that were planted in December is in full swing. Not far from here are several fields of cabbage that we have driven by several times. In just a couple more days there will be no cabbage remaining in the field. One of the people here in the resort brought several grocery bags full of heads that were rejected by the harvesters. If the cabbage had a slight cut from the machete it would be thrown away. The person that brought the cabbages said they were told to take all they wanted. The two heads I got were a bit dirty and had a cut through several leaves, but peel a few leaves away and the rest is good. The heads are really fresher than most that can be found in the store.
THE CABBAGE HARVEST IS IN FULL SWING
The celery harvest is also in full swing. I have seen a few stalks growing in some gardens in Colorado or Kansas. Here I have seen acres of celery with a harvest crew of close to a hundred men cutting as fast as they could and loading numerous trucks to full capacity. It really is quite a sight. We saw men stuffing celery into a box that reminded me of an apple box. When the box was full he took a machete and trimmed off everything that stuck out of the top of the box. There were hundreds of these boxes loaded on trucks for shipment to market. To me it is one thing to go to a grocery store and see lots of food just waiting to be taken home and an entirely different thing to see the tremendous amount of food that is harvested in a small area. This is especially true when I think that I am only seeing one field out of thousands.
The opinions of some of the people down here surprise me. Some Winter Texans can get rather opinionated. That would go right along with the things that I have heard about all Texans for most of my life. A lot of people have stated that being this far south in Texas qualifies as being in Mexico. It might be that they are about correct, it seems that the vast majority of the non-winter Texans either speak Spanish or are bilingual, often with a first language of Spanish. Another guy expressed the common view that Texas is a lot friendlier to the seasonal people than other areas. As he put it, “In Florida and California we are snowbirds. Here we are Winter Texans. Why don’t we get called Winter Floridians or Winter Californians?” When we were in Florida I never met anyone that seemed to be insulted by being called a snowbird. As a matter of fact I think that the majority of people used that name as kind of a badge of honor. Whether there really is a difference or not I do not feel I am qualified to judge. First of all I have not been doing this for long and also I have found friendly people everywhere I have gone. I will make the statement that I have found the Mexicans that work north of the border to be at least as friendly and gracious as any persons anywhere. I would have a hard time remembering any person that was unfriendly during our travels.
We have not gone into Mexico anytime except when we went across the Rio Grande on the ferry at Los Ebanos. We never got off the ferry, so in actuality we were only in Mexican waters. A lot of the people that we have met seem to go into Mexico frequently. There are people that go into Mexico just to get a haircut, or at least that is all they claim to have done. Several people have told me that they go to Mexico to get their dental work done. In Mexico the dental costs are about ten to twenty percent of the cost in the US. One person said he had two root canals done for $125.00 by a dentist that lives in the US and practices his trade in Mexico. I was told that a lot of people get their medicines in Mexico because they can get a years supply for the cost of a month at home. There are some groups of bicycle riders that have gone into Mexico, and I hear that the police will block off traffic ahead of them so that they have the use of the whole highway. The shop owners are said to welcome the bikers like they were royalty. Someday I fully intend to go into Mexico and see what there is to see, but that will have to wait a while.
We have decided that we are going to return to Bentsen Grove Resort next winter. We really have about four choices of wintering locations. We can go to Florida, Southern Texas, Arizona or California. We like Florida, we are sure that we would also like Arizona and California. When we were in Florida we moved around quite a bit. This year we decided that we would try staying in one location for three months and it has worked out quite well. But I guess that is apparent in the fact that we are returning. There is so much going on in this park. One morning I went just to see what the ping-pong players were doing, I stepped through door and within a minute I was playing the game. They do not allow watchers. I was even told that I was expected back the next day and expected back earlier in the season next year. I guess they enjoy playing someone they can beat so easily. Luckily I don’t mind getting beat. We have been going to a Spanish class. There are some computer club meetings (classes) that I have attended and learned some things about the computer. There is a quilting group that meets often, perhaps daily. There is a group that does paper quilling, others that do scrap booking, and some others that make greeting cards out of scrap paper. There are at least two theater groups and perhaps more. There are several singing groups, both within the resort and others that are multiple park groups. These groups perform not only within the parks but they also go the nursing homes. There is a bicycle club that rides locally and also rides into Mexico. I think someone said that they had gone into Mexico seven times this season. Just to mention a few more there is oil painting, woodcarving, darts, ceramics, numerous kind of cards with classes, clogging, several levels of square dancing, beginners two step, chess, horseshoes, stained glass and bowling. They have a golf group, a softball team, pool tournaments, and more stuff than I can remember. There are enough activities here to keep a person busy all the time, or all the time you want to be busy. In addition there are things going on in other parks, like music jams that can be attended. I think a person could go to at least two music jams a day somewhere in the valley, and that would be after he chose which of half dozen at any one time to attend. Of course once in a while you have to stay home and relax.
When we got here to Bentsen Grove Resort, Erma started dancing in a line dance class. One day I went to meet her a while before the class would be out so I could take a few pictures of her dancing. About the time that class was over, she called me over and -- to be short -- I volunteered to make a copy of a CD for the instructor of the class. That led to a question, could I take songs off of several CDs and make a copy of those songs on one CD. I said I could. I had never done that but I knew that it was theoretically possible with my equipment. I just could not make a simple copy of the CD. I decided I had to make a special case insert and a special print on the CD itself. Then I was asked to make several copies of it. When the dancers heard about the CD, and they heard about it from the instructor, they asked if I could make one for them to practice with during the summer. Next was a request by one of the dancers to make a custom CD of just the songs that he liked. Again I could do that, with a special insert and CD picture of course. I have made something like thirty-five CDs. I made a third custom CD for the instructor for his summer teaching. In the process I have ripped at least a hundred songs (more likely 250) to my computer in addition to the ones I used to make the CDs. Designing the inserts was something that I have never done before and it proved to be quite an education. I made a Bentsen Grove Resort Dance Class calendar for the period April 2007 to March 2008. When that was so much fun to make I also made a calendar for a dancing group called 5-6-7-8. The instructor dances with that group. In the process of doing the CDs and calendars I decided that Erma was having too much fun without me. I decided that I had to learn to line dance with her. She is getting pretty good. The picture of the line dancers was taken when the class put on a demonstration at the park meeting. This is about half the class, some had already left for their homes further north. The guy in the cowboy hat is the instructor.
ERMA AND SOME OF THE BENTSEN GROVE RESORT LINE DANCERS
For the first time since we have been on the road we have been in one place for a full season. We arrived on the first day of winter in Mission and now it is a week into spring and we have only just moved the Vectra to here yesterday. That is a first for us in itself; three months without even starting the engine. We are in Rockport, TX. We will be here for the next three weeks. Following that will be another move north of two hundred to three hundred miles. The exact location is still to be determined. Our plans include attending my class reunion in Princeton, KS. I don’t know for sure when it will be held. I think it is towards the end of June, so before then I have to find out for sure. Sometime later we believe that it will be time to return to Colorado and see our relatives and friends there.
Till Later This Is Doug Of
PEACE ON THE ROAD
Hi Everybody, this is a bonus,
It is hard to believe that within a few days it will be Easter. All over the USA the trees are starting to bloom, the tulips and the daffodils and jonquils are starting to bloom. In some parts of the country, like here in the south, there are fields covered with new blooms. The roadsides are awash with blue, red, orange, yellow and most any other color you care to think about. But whether you have flowers outside your window or you are still getting that white stuff that is named with a four-letter word and is not to be mentioned there is one thing that most people are starting to think about. That is Easter and things that are brightly colored. There are going to be colored eggs, little yellow fluffy chicks, and dyed chicks, little duckies in yellow white and gray, little bunnies in the various colors that bunnies might be. However here in Rockport, TX we have something that is not common to other locations. We have at least one EASTER SEAGULL. I have not a clue as to how this happened. Perhaps one of the seagulls found a way to mate with a flamingo. It seems to be perfectly at home with the other seagulls. Maybe it is only special to us or maybe it just something that appears for the Easter Holiday.
THE EASTER GULL AND A NORMAL GULL
We certainly want to wish you a very Happy Easter. Make sure that all your eggs are colored. Make sure that all your bunnies are chocolate. And make sure that you have a great time finding the goodies that you hid the night before.
We will be searching for more unusual birds here in Rockport. We will spend some time watching the shrimp boats and oyster boats plying their trade just out in the bay a short distance from shore. There are some wildlife refugees here that we enjoy visiting. Maybe we will see the hogs that we were planning to raise on our Texas farm a couple years ago.
Happy Easter, From The Peace On The Road Gang
Helen, Erma and Doug
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