Written Saturday, March 6th, 2004
Oh I used to be so good about blogging! It seems I either have plenty of time and must search for a subject or I am so busy doing things and taking pictures with no time for writing. The last two weeks have been the latter.
Last Saturday we went to Padre Island with Butch's sister Marlene and Bernard. We ate at Pirates Landing in Port Isabel. It has become my new favorite place to eat! I had shrimp, sauteed veggies and coleslaw and it was excellent! After our excellent meal we crossed the causeway to Padre Island and went to Market Days (craft show) at the convention center. Lots of neat stuff there. I noticed a booth with RADA knives. Boxed sets of three were selling for $28! The same sets at Don-Wes flea market sell for $7. Needless to say no one was buying.
We stopped at the Summit to say hello and goodbye to Jack and Jan Tallman. They were preparing to return to Iowa.
Then we went to Brownsville and Sam's Club to stock up on a few things. Returned to Harlingen to drop off the Kelley's and then home to Angel.
Monday night we finally went to a square dance. Jerry Story and Bobby Newman were calling together at the Encore Park in Harlingen. Dancing to these two enthuses me once again for square dancing. It was a very good dance. It used to be the hall would be packed for those two but I would say it was about half full. Square dancing in general is down in the valley and the quality of dancer isn't what it once was either. Sad, but true. It is still a boatload of fun.

Wednesday was a big and active day. The Magnolia Park bikers went to Los Ebanos to cross the Rio Grande on the hand-pulled ferry and ride to Diaz Cordaz in Mexico.
See Los Ebanos Website. And for pictures see Webshots.
Butch went with us for this ride and he tried to converse with one of the pullers but it was 'No Engleze'. The bikers helped pull as I am sure many touristas do.
There were some Mexican farm workers weeding cornfields with hoes. They were friendly, stopping long enough to greet us by waving their hoes in the air. The Mexican people may be poor but they do seem to be happy enough to be friendly toward us "gringos". Of course 14 senior citizens on bicycles seems to be a sight that amuses them.
Riding around the streets of Diaz Cordaz I noticed that only about half are paved. Fortunately it is dry most of the time. It is hard to get a perspective on the size but I would say it is larger than its counterpart Los Ebanos, larger than say Cumberland Iowa and perhaps about the size of Griswold Iowa. Everyone was friendly and helpful. There were dogs, lots of dogs everywhere. None of them on leashes but they paid no attention to us. We decided everyone should send their dogs to Mexico for training. It was remarkable.
We stopped at a bakery for treats. The young lady at the counter did quite well without speaking English. Butch kept laying down quarters until she said stop. We paid 75 cents for two pastries and that's not bad by our standards.
And then back across the river on the hand-pulled ferry. Butch and I had traveled over there on our own so we stopped at the Bentsen/Rio Grande State Park to check out their new bike trail. It was too windy to ride in the open so we stayed within the park to be sheltered by the trees. A sign says no bicycle riding on the hiking trails but there was no one around so we chanced getting chewed out...or fined? The trail leads down along the Rio Grande and we spotted inner tubes and beaten down grass where people have come ashore. They tell us the park holds Ocelot, Bobcats, Jaguarundi ad Javelina (wild pigs). We didn't see any but we did smell Javelina (stinks) and there was abundant scat on the trail and we assume it was Javelina scat. In Iowa it is raccoons that leave their scat on the trail. I think they are trying to tell us something.
The remainder of the week was used up with the usual, laundry, walking, biking, golfing and photography.
Today is my birthday. Another year older, wiser and on the right side of the grass. Life is good!