Well, another hot and humid day. The last week or so has been lacking in sunshine and forecast doesn’t hold out much hope for the next few days.
Today was shopping day, and that was about all we accomplished, life is so tough!
In the afternoon we went into the local town of Los Fresnos to buy tickets for the annual rodeo this week-end. Should prove interesting.
Finally a dry, but foggy morning and about 18C when we woke up.
Today we planned to visit the Brownsville Zoo; looking at the web it didn’t seem too big of a zoo, and our expectations weren’t that great. As we went out to the truck the rain returned, luckily it was a very small shower and we were good for the rest of the day. We headed back south towards the old part of town and parked at the zoo, coincidentally (!?!) today was half price day for out of State visitors.
Once we got inside and saw the layout of the zoo it was apparent that a lot of thought had gone into the design and a lot of exhibits existed in a fairly small space, but the place didn’t seem crowded .
Almost immeadiately we came across the gorilla area which had attracted a lot of interested visitors. The reason soon became apparent, there was a new arrival in the form of a 10 day old baby. Watching the mother and baby was amazing, it was almost like watching a human mother and her baby, the mother was continually patting the baby or rubbing it’s head or kissing it.
Mother and Baby Gorilla, Brownsville Tx
The zoo had a wide range of animals from around the world, although to Lyn’s dismay there were no elephants.
There was a building dedicated to Australian animals which was kept fairly dark as many of them were nocturnal and this was a way to keep them active during zoo hours. The following exchange took place between a zoo guide and a couple from south of Canada and North of Mexico, to my warped sense of humour it rates right up there with last years “Is Christmas day on December 25th in Canada as well??”
Guide: Did you know that all mammals native to Australia are marsupials?
Couple: Oh, is that why you keep it dark in here?
OK, back to our regularly scheduled programming.
We found this colourful tortoise in the Asia section. Evidently these have been well document as to having a life span of around 150 years, with some evidence pointing to some having survived to > 180 years!
Radiated Tortoise, Brownsville Tx
The name “Radiated” refers to the lines radiating downwards from the centre of each plate on the shell. These lines, and the legs, are a more vivid yellow than the picture shows.
All in all, a good place for a trip, and well worth visiting if your in the area.
Yet again the weather people got it wrong (there must be some ex-environment Canada guys down here). It was warm and overcast when we woke up, and about an hour later the rains came again.
Because it has been so dry in recent months the ground has become very dry and well packed and the rain does not soak in too well, rather it sits on top and slowly soaks in so every where you walk is muddy.
Two discoveries today. I had always meant to work out whether it was cheaper to run the fridge and hot water heater off propane or hydro (electric for those South and East of the Canadian border). Since I last filled up the propane tank I have been keeping track of the hydro usage, and have finally determined that it costs twice as much to run off propane. The switches have now been thrown and hydro now powers the devices.
The second discovery was more of a whoops! moment rather than anything useful. Not only did we tour all around Brownsville and its historic district yesterday, we took our garbage with us. In the morning we put the garbage into the back of the truck with the intent of putting it in the dumpster on the way out. For some reason it was still in the back of the truck this morning!
Hopefully the weather will dry up and we can get out somewhere tomorrow.
Woke up to a dark overcast morning. Somehow the weather forecast had changed overnight from 0% chance of rain to 70%. About 30 minutes later the rain arrived and stayed for about an hour.
We were going to go to another wildlife refuge today, but the rain had made the ground very muddy, so we’ll try that another day.
This afternoon we headed into the old part of Brownsville which still has a main Street. On many of the stores you can still see the Spanish / Mexican influence in their design, which is not really surprising as the Main Street runs straight onto one of 3 bridges crossing from Brownsville over to Mexico. We drove around the residential area of the old district, and like most areas down here it was a mixture of good homes through to run down homes with a few blocks of square buildings looking like military housing, which was actually the city provided low cost housing.
Obviously (!) some shopping happened to occur on the trip, but this time we found a store I could enjoy, Harbor Freight Tools. This place was quite amazing and had a huge selection of tools and bits and pieces, wish I had one nearby at home.
Although it was cooler this morning at around 12C, that is not the reason for the title.
Much like home there are days when nothing out of the ordinary occurs, this weekend has been much like that. When we just sit around reading, go for a walk around the campground or whatever it is difficult to find something to write about and even more difficult to come up with a title!
This afternoon we went on a longer walk than usual and escaped the confines of the campground. We needed milk, and the gas station just down the road has a convenience store. As we entered the store the first thing we found was a display cabinet full of Krispy Kreme doughnuts, maybe there are more doughnut stores in Texas after all. (Un)fortunately we only had enough money with us for the milk so the calories were left behind.
Walking back form the store my hands started to get quite cool from carrying the milk, I guess a thin plastic container holding a gallon of milk straight from the fridge doesn’t warm up too quickly, hence the title.
We’re planning on heading out somewhere tomorrow, so hopefully there will be something more interesting to read
Today was a non day. Just sat around doing nothing, as a well trained retiree should. The day started warm and got to about 24C, but after lunch the deep freeze set in and temperatures plummeted to 20C.
The highlight of the day involved a bowl of strawberries, but I am not allowed to talk about it. Further information available from Lyn if you e-mail her!
Cooler and calm again today, although we did struggle up to 24C by mid afternoon.
Lyn wanted to do some shopping in Brownsville so we combined it with a day out to the beach. Although we had been to the Northern end of Brownsville we hadn’t ventured closer into the city. From what we saw of it the city was clean and modern with all the amenities and stores you’d expect (except a doughnut store).
Shopping (successfully) completed we headed out on the Boca Chica Highway, which we believed would lead us to a beach. About 15 miles later we could see the Gulf and signs proclaiming that the paved surface would end. Well end it did, right on the beach. Again this was another beach that could be driven on, so we did.
Our Truck on Boca Chica Beach, Tx.
The beach went about 1.5 miles south where it stopped at the Rio Grande / Mexican Border and a few miles north where it stopped at the Brownsville Shipway, an entrance for boats and oil rigs to go inland towards Brownsville. Directly across the shipway is the Southern end of South Padre Island, unfortunately there was no way of crossing the shipway by car.
We went for a walk along the beach, but apart from a few seagulls, sandpipers and a stranded jellyfish there was little in the way of wildlife.
Once we got back to the trailer it was time for a little more upgrading. Last week I put a vent cover over the bedroom vent. Today it was the bathroom vent that got a cover. As this vent has a fan in it the installation was a little different, but it went OK. Now both vents can be left open without fear of wind damage or rain getting in.
Woke up to a cooler, 13C, clear and calm day.
Lyn headed out to get a hair cut then we did the weekly shopping. After lunch it was crafts time for Lyn, and I played around with an astronomy programme on the phone and tablet. After dinner when it was dark enough we took the phone outside to identify some of the stars and constellations. It’s quiet an amazing piece of software, you just hold the phone up in your field of view and it shows a labelled map of the sky that you are looking it. As you turn the display changes to show what you are viewing. It’s amazing what can be packed into a 5 x 2.5 x .5 inch box. It also makes phone calls!!
Lyn liked the laundry so much yesterday, she made a return visit today! My contribution this morning was to clean the stove.
After lunch we headed back to South Padre Island to visit the Sea Turtle Rescue Centre. The centre consisted of a number of above ground pools with rescued turtles in them. Some ot the turtles were just visitors waiting for injuries to heal before being returned to the water. Most injuries appeared to be the loss of all or part of a flipper(s). The most common causes of the injuries were shark attacks, boat propellers or fishing nets.
Others were there for the long haul as their injuries were too great to allow them to survive back in the ocean. There was one turtle there that had lost 3 of its flippers, which normally would be a death sentence, but this one was doing so well it was spared and is now being used to evaluate prosthetic flippers.
Turtle South Padre Island, Tx.
After we left the centre we moved on to a birding centre, although we didn’t see too much in the way of birds, a few pelicans and blue herons we did see an alligator sunning him/herself as we left.
Alligator South Padre Island, Tx.
Today was a stay at home day. It was 21C, grey, overcast and very windy (as opposed to windy). This morning Lyn went to visit her friend the laundry while I continued to do research for the trip. Turns out that the points I accumulated from the hotel stays in Vienna about a decade ago are still valid. That and a new MasterCard for $75 / year will get me 4 nights at a 4 star hotel in Seoul and one night in a 5 star in Sydney.
We normally make lunch and eat outside at the picnic bench, today we got outside and turned right back around as the wind was so strong it was blowing the plates of rolls off the table. At least it’s a warm wind. Lyn spent the afternoon at a crafts class and I managed to do nothing!
Below is a photo we took yesterday, but I forgot to add it in. These cactii are all over the place in rural areas down here.
Cactus in Hugh Ramsey Nature Park, Harlingen Tx.
