Winter Texans

Wendye and Shelley discovered Retama Village (Information about Retama ) down here in Mission, TX. while they were looking for a place to spend the winter. They wanted to go somewhere warm (first priority)  that offered a spot to park their RV and had an extra living area (casita) for Shelley’s mom, Millie.  They found it here and rented it for the season. It is a RV resort and each lot is part of a neighborhood that has a paved driveways, full hookups, a small coach house and a yard. There is a gorgeous clubhouse, workout room, pool, hot tub and lots and lots of activities. There’s also an outdoor shooting range, woodworking shop, kayaks and bikes. They invited us to go down here and check it out and play for a while. We only intended to stay for a couple of weeks and then go on down to San Carlos in Mexico. Once we got here though we decided to stay longer and forego Mexico this year.

The resort is about 50/50 big Class A motorcoaches and big 5th wheels. . It must be a Texas thing because I’ve never seen so many rigs pulled by semi tractors. There’s probably about 10 of them. We felt kinda small in there. There is also the award winning Retama RV park right next door.

It’s a very interesting blending of cultures down here…..almost more Mexico than Texas. We’re only a short distance from the border so there is a heavy Border Patrol presence. People switch from speaking English to Spanish and back. The newscasters speak perfect English and then switch to a Mexican accent for names and places… a little disconcerting.  The grocery stores carry a lot of Mexican products and meats. Lots of neighborhood drive thrus….. a big garage door on both sides of a garage or house and you drive thru to buy beer and snacks, Mexican meat markets in convenience stores where the butchers speak no English at all.

Then there is the Mission to Pharr corridor along the freeway, with every store and restaurant imaginable, including a Luby’s cafeteria. I did not even know they were still in business! And a Blockbuster Video! It must be one of the last ones in America.The freeways in this part of Texas are unique in that access to the businesses along them is via 2-3 lane frontage roads that border both sides. You have to know which exit you want so you don’t go past where you want to get off or you have to all the way down to the next exit, turn around and come back!  

About 45 mins from Mission is Nuevo Progresso in Mexico. This is the dental mecca for all Winter Texans. Friends that we met at Retama offered to take us down there for dental work. This is a true border town. You park on the Texas side for $2 for the day, walk across the bridge over the Rio Grande and you’re there. Instant Mexico! There is at least 50 dentists in the first 2 blocks over the border. And sidewalk vendors and hawkers everywhere. The hawkers only know enough English to say: root canal, fillings, crowns, clean your teeth, pedicure, botox, face lift, breast implant……. you name it! Sing song mantra……

I’m so glad they took us. They knew all the best restaurants and margarita bars. And they’ve been going to Dr. Mustre for at least 8 years. Everyone speaks English, cleanings are $25 (the best I’ve ever had) full mouth digital x rays for $50, and crowns for $200 (I needed 4 -- I have a lot of 45 year old fillings that are cracking) They did all 4 at once and 2 weeks later I went back for the permanent ones -- perfect fit.

When we got here it was still hot and humid so we played in the pool a lot. (Aerobics and swimming laps). The mosquitoes were really bad as it had been raining so much. They don’t spray because of all the butterflies and birds. (Birding is a BIG deal here) So we’ve gone through 3 cans of Off  and as we didn’t feel like using the mosquitoes for target practice we went to the indoor shooting range a lot. I learned to shoot a pistol for the 1st time and I’m pretty good (see the pictures of target practice) I rented several different guns and have decided to stay with the 9 mm S&W semi-auto Jim bought this fall.

Both our faucets in the coach started leaking over the last month before we got here so we took the opportunity to change out the faucets and we got new sinks, too. The bathroom sink went in super easy with no problems so I knew the kitchen sink would not co-operate as well. Sure enough we had to cut the old sink out with the grinder blade because all the brackets were installed before the cabinet bases. And the plumbing drains didn’t line up underneath so Jim had to re-engineer all the pipes along with much cussing and trips to Home Depot.

They grow sugar cane all around us. It needs a lot of water so there are lots of irrigation canals. In one of the canals there are about 8 baby alligators. They are not indigenous to the area (someone probably turned their pets loose) and there is a Mom and Dad but they stay in hiding. The babies are about 18 months old and are over a foot long. Rumor has it that some of the Border Patrol agents feed them tortillas while on break.! Hmmm, do you suppose this is a new form of deterrent to keep illegals from swimming the Rio Grande?  Another issue with illegals is when they harvest the cane. It has to be burned first so they have a lot of loudspeaker announcements  in English and Spanish prior to harvest to make sure no one gets caught in the fields who might be hiding out.

We’ve had a lot of fun exploring the area, checking out different restaurants, taco stands, flea markets and unique markets. Ruben’s grocery is a fascinating place with food from all around the world. The flea market is pretty big with lots of collectibles, etc but the best was the swimsuits booth --- new swimsuits for $5, $8 or $10 and lots and lots of cover ups. I got a great $5 suit before Jim’s patience ran out! All my girlfriends ---- I know you can relate .

Pictures illustrating all of the above

Best of all though was the National Butterfly Center. (http://nationalbutterflycenter.org/)

We have a few butterflies on the flowers in the village but nothing like there. The other day I saw my first monarch Pictures and video of the Monarch

It was amazing to walk around and see all the different varieties. The next best thing about the butterfly center is that it is almost within walking distance of the RV park.. Serious butterfly enthusiasts have floppy hats, binoculars, checklists, life lists and can tell the difference between males and females. After walking around I know why binoculars help --- some of the butterflies are really small and details are hard to see. I definitely need a faster shutter speed on my camera and a better zoom to capture them digitally but I got some pictures and cool videos. Pictures of butterflies  Here is a link to their photo gallery, these pictures are TRULY amazing (Butterfly Center photo gallery)

I’m writing this on Thanksgiving as we travel to Arizona to spend a couple of weeks with family and friends ……..

Happy Holidays everyone. Eat healthy…..stay lean cause Christmas is right around the corner with all the cookies and other treats.

Retirement (again) part 2

We started the next stage of our vacation; final destination Mission, TX. On October 12th, the first leg of our trip us south to Red River, NM to visit Jim’s sister Judy and her husband Gil. It was his birthday took and she cooked an amazing dinner and had several friends over. For those of you who have followed our blogs in the past, you know they remodeled an old building into an incredible house and they’ve added some beautiful finishing touches. We met some new friends and were able to get in another season of aspen colors.

This had been the year of driving roads we haven’t traveled before. This time we drove west from Red River to Eagle’s Nest and then through Cimarron  Canyon where we joined I-25 south of Raton and then took Hwy 56 out of Springer to Clayton NM and across northwest Texas into Amarillo. (Red River pictures)

Many of you have probably driven through Amarillo or you’ve seen the billboards for miles around about the Big Texan restaurant. We’ve never eaten there until this time. We stayed in an RV Park right down the road ( Overnight RV Park --$30, really nice; 806-373-1431) and they sent a limo to pick us up. Not just any limo but one with a huge set of longhorns mounted on front!

The Big Texan is the home of the 72 oz steak. If you eat the whole thing in an hour it’s free. But if you don’t its $72! AND you have to eat the baked potato, salad, roll and 3 butterfly fried shrimp. They’ve been doing this since 1960. Amazingly, a competitive  eater (Molly Schuyler, 120 pounds) ate 3 of them in 20 minutes and set a new record, earning $5000. (Big Texan website)

We didn’t try it but our steaks were awesome. Almost everything they serve is homemade and comes with a fresh jalapeno pepper.  We had fried mushrooms and Rocky Mountain Oysters for appetisers and they were the best. They have a whole menu of handcrafted beers also and serve them in all sizes including a 101 oz tower of beer, $20. It has a spigot on the bottom for easy serving. The restaurant are on I-40 east which is part of the original Route 66 so the gift shop has lots of memorabilia, Texas bling and snakes ( yes that’s a really big, live rattlesnake ) (Big Texan  pictures)

The next day we headed east to Childress and then south through the Hill Country into Anson. It is just north of Abilene out in cotton country. Very flat and a taste of the scenery to come. We stayed with friends we met working at Amazon, Randy and Evelyn.

The last leg of our trip, on Oct 16th,  took us around San Antonio and south into the Rio Grande Valley to Mission, TX, just a few miles from the Rio Grande river. Wendye and Shelley leased a lot in an RV resort here for the season, so we came down to check it out and enjoy some R&R.

Retirement time (again) Part 1

The  first 6 weeks of our “time off” from River Spruce were very busy! At least for me ….. After we got all the new towing stuff installed on the new Jeep, Jim headed south to Cotopaxi and went fishing. I went to South Dakota to visit Jeremy and Brandy and Sydney (they moved there in June) over Labor Day. It was a beautiful drive to a place I’ve never been to.  They live in Whitewood. It's a small town right in the middle between Deadwood, Spearfish and Sturgis.  

We had a fun time in Deadwood on Saturday. They had a parade of horse drawn wagons and a re-enactment of  snake oil sales complete with costumes and old fashioned speech. We went in this great store called “Beer and Bling”. Buy a beer and browse all the bling ….. Then we had lunch at Kevin Costner’s restaurant and casino, Diamond Lil’s. The entire place is decorated with memorabilia from all of his movies. I discovered I had seen them all. Deadwood website

Monday we went to Sturgis to have lunch at the Loud American Roadhouse. Very fun place, famous for their Steak Tips. These are bite sized steak pieces that are chicken fried. They are so tender and SO GOOD. Not much was happening in town since the rally was over Photos and info on the Sturgis Rally so we went to Spearfish to the park and the historic DC Booth fish hatchery. It was created in 1896 to propagate and stock trout in the Black Hills. It is a living museum and still provides trout for stocking. DC Booth website,

Then we found a park with horseshoe pits set up for competitions. Except that the ground around the stakes was so hard the shoes bounced everywhere!

It was a great visit and they really like living there. Pictures of my trip to South Dakota

Two days after I got back to Cotopaxi, Co. I left again, this time to go to a wedding. You know how your own kids keep growing and soon you have grandkids, etc but you just don’t embrace the reality of other people in your life life growing up and changing? You always remember them the way they were? We lived in Montrose, CO. for almost 18 years and my kids grew up there. I ran a home daycare for 16 years. Now I’m going to one of those kids’ wedding! Her mom is a dear friend so I’ve seen Brittany many times over the years and she has 2 little ones of her own. But there is something about a wedding that just hammers reality home.

It was a beautiful wedding in the mountains east of Montrose near Lake City, Co. We stayed in rustic cabins next to the river and transformed everything into a wonderful blend of outdoor woods and wedding bling  Pictures of Brittany's wedding

The next weekend we drove the motorhome down to our friends west of Gallup, NM. Jim and Bren have a beautiful acreage up against the cliffs in the desert. They  work on the Navajo reservation in Window Rock, Az. and are building this house. It’s called “The Camp” and we came for the Roasty. A roasty is when you get together with friends, old and new, drink beer, cook amazing food and roast chilies. They took orders (mild to extra hot), drove to Albuquerque and got many, many 40# bags of Lemitar chilis. So we cooked and imbibed and roasted and ate and watched some amazing sunsets and cooked and roasted and ate and imbibed. It was wonderful! We had a great time and a beautiful trip down there and back. Pictures of our Roasty trip

We drove down to Gallup via Highway 285 through Alamosa and Antonito in Colorado, through Tres Piedras in New Mexico, west to Chama, (where we spent the night) then on to Farmington and Shiprock and south to Gallup. Coming back we went to Albuquerque. I needed to get chilies (because I did not order any and wanted mild) and we were able to meet up with dear friends for lunch.  We went to Taco Cabana website for lunch. They have incredible food. I highly recommend searching for one near you if you are in the southwest. Taco Cabana locate by zip code. Then we drove north through Taos and Tres Piedras and back to Antonito and Alamosa. You might know Chama and Antonito as that is where the Cumbres and Toltec narrow gauge railroad runs between. Cumbres and Toltec railroad website If you are into historic train rides, this is one to put on your bucket list! You also are very close to the oldest church in Colorado (website) Great Sand Dunes National Park (website), Colorado's only alligator attraction (Colorado Gators website) and another wonderful scenic train ride is the Rio Grande La Veta Pass route that travels between Alamosa and La Veta. (Train video ) They even have outdoor concerts at the top.

Well, that was 3 trips by the 22nd of September…...Wow!

We spent the next 3 weeks or so hanging around the KOA in Cotopaxi. The Aspen colors were beautiful. It’s been several years since I’ve been in the high country to see them and we really enjoyed the drives we took to see them.  Golden Aspen pictures

I also had fun working with my friend Amy in the Art Shed at the campground. This year we made Sugar Skulls and helped the kids decorate them. One of our campers brought her white Cockatoo along for the weekend and he was quite the showoff with everyone. Check out this video….it's amazing. Cotopaxi pictures and video And here is a fantastic video taken by one of our campers via a drone…….who’d have thunk it! Drone video of Cotopaxi.

Even though we weren’t at River Spruce, Wendye and Shelley shared some videos and pictures.

Elk fight at River Spruce

The flower garden at River Spruce

And a friend sent me this link of a traffic jam, Estes Park style

Traffic Jam

The fishing was great and Jim could have stayed to fish for another month at least but I was ready for a road trip so we headed south ………...