Christmas Lights

Each year the city of Hidalgo gets all lit up for Christmas. The Activities Director here arranged for two bus loads of us to get down to Hidalgo for an evening of fun.

This was the 19th annual Hidalgo Festival of Lights, and the largest so far. With over two and a half million lights and 900 different displays the festival packs a good amount of wow factor.

We started with dinner on the porch of city hall as the singers and dancers did their show on the stage. After the meal we boarded the trolleys for a guided tour of the many displays. Most of the displays are designed and built by city employees and they begin setting up the lights in early September. The festival runs for the whole month of December. It was well worth the trip and some said they wanted to come back again to look at the detail of the lights.

We managed to leave all the decorations we have at home but we did pick up a couple of strings of lights to at least make the front of the Motorhome look a little more like the season. We are beginning to see a lot more people show up here now but we are told that a large group of people will not show up till after Christmas. There are even a few who are here that will be returning home for a few days the week of Christmas. These are just a couple of the pictures. You can view the rest of the pictures by following the link titled "Hidalgo Christmas Lights", to the right.

The Holiday Season

We must be having too much fun. I noted that the last time I posted here was in early November. We really are getting into the swing of things here and participating in many of the activities too. I have considered adding two new activities. Depending on the learning curve I may take up Boccie Ball. I watched for some time and it looks like fun. I am also considering getting into Billiards again. It has been many years since I played but I suppose with a little practice I could do well.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and will be our first without the whole family around the table. We will be attending the dinner here along with 300 or so others. I am told they put out quite a nice spread and have a great time. Hope you all have a great Thanksgiving.

This weeks edition of the newsletter is full of upcoming activities. The local Minor league Hockey Team, The Killer Bees, has a season long special for us Winter Texans. We can get a regular $15 ticket for just $6 and special savings on concessions at the game. The Minor League Basketball team, the Vipers, also have a special for winter Texans that is worth looking into even though I am not a big Basketball fan.

Progresso, just over the border in Mexico is having a Welcome Back Festival for the Winter Texans on December 5, with free food and drinks as well as local arts and crafts and Folkloric dancers and Mariachi bands. There will be a special trip to Hidalgo for a tour of the Festival of Lights. It will include the bus there and back, the light tour and dinner for just $15. Sounds like a no brainer to me and we are signed up for it.

I see tickets are already on sale for the New Years Eve bash at the MB ballroom. We need to get our reservations in for that too. It is beginning to look like a really great winter here in South Texas, and we plan to enjoy all of it.

We hope all of you have a very happy joyous, and fun holiday season.

Change is in the wind

As you may recall, when we first arrived I reported on the very heavy winds we had for several days. I was under the impression that such heavy winds were the norm for this area. I must now admit that I was wrong and totally misinformed.


In the days following our arrival we have seen a dramatic decrease in the winds here. Most days we are seeing gentle breezes of 5 to 10 mph. At times we get gusts up to 15 or 20 mph but that is still way below the 35 to 45 mile an hour winds we first encountered.


The temperatures have begun to moderate a bit in the last week and it has rarely been necessary to run the air conditioner. The daytime highs are hovering in the mid 70's to low 80's, but that light wind makes it feel less hot. Our night time lows have gotten into the lower 60's and on occasion the upper 50's. Sucking in that cool night air with the fan helps to keep it cool inside during the day also.


I even opened up the awning and have had it open for the last four days without incident, as you can see in this picture of our site. I do plan to dig out the tie down straps and put them on just in case. Several neighbors have told me they leave their awning open all the time, but do suggest tie downs just in case. I also have the wind speed alarm on the weather station set to go off in high winds.


Did you notice that golf cart in the above picture? We decided this place is way too big to get around without one. Prices are a bit higher here because of the demand. After some searching we found this cart at Mid Valley Golf Cars. It has all new batteries, new seat upholstery, all new tires and a new mirror. Considering the prices we were seeing we got a pretty good deal. The best part is the place we bought it from also stores carts over the summer. When we are ready to leave we give them a call and they come out, pick up the cart, and put it in storage. When we return next winter they completely check it over, charge the batteries, lubricate it, wash it and then deliver it to us no matter where in the valley we go. That is not a bad deal for just over 200 dollars.

Halloween Rio Grande Style

Things are beginning to happen fast around here. The full time housekeeper has been out sick for several days and with the weekend and the arrival of all the seasonals fast approaching we jumped in and got started on our workamper jobs a bit early. Our work schedule has on in the morning so every afternoon and evening is free. We also will alternate working weekends with another workamper couple. The rest of the staff here is very friendly and I am sure we will enjoy the winter.


For dinner yesterday we had a potluck in the Tradewinds Hall. Everyone brought a dish to pass and there was so much food that we ate and ate and everyone still had leftovers to take home.

After the potluck dinner, tables were set up on the main street to await the trick or treaters. We were set up and passing out candy for a little over an hour and had well over 200 kids in costumes show up.


It was the best Halloween I have seen in many years. There were a variety of costumes, and most were homemade. They ranged from quite clever to scary to traditional. These pictures give you a little idea of what I mean. The rest of the Halloween pictures can be viewed by following the Halloween link to the right.


Today is the first of November so many of the seasonal people are beginning to show up. Today is Sunday so we are expecting only 11 or so to get here but the floodgates will soon open.

Getting Around

It looks like getting around here may be easier than we thought. There are basically three main East West roads where you find the main stores. US 83 is a bit hard to navigate because the access roads on each side are one way. On these access roads are the main stores like Walmart, HEB, Target, and K-Mart. Here too are the big malls as well as the many strip malls.

North of US-83 is Business 83. This is a major E/W street and it is two way so it is easy to find things. The third main road is Griffin Parkway. Business 83 and Griffin Parkway are filled with the smaller local stores and shops.

There are many North South roads big enough to be called main roads. Once we figure out what N/S road where we want to go is near it will be much easier to get where we are going.

We visited Home Depot yesterday and I picked up some lumber to build a couple of steps. Each site here has a cement patio and it is raised just enough to keep the steps on the motorhome from opening. Home depot had a 4 step riser so I bought one and cut it in half to make two 2 step risers. That along with one 8 foot 2 by 10 was enough to make the steps. I was very pleased that the woodworking shop here has a lot of great power tools that made the job a snap.

We also made a stop at Camping World and picked up a small round plastic table for eating on the patio. A few items for the sewer were also needed. A quick stop at Wallmart and HEB were necessary to get a few grocery items.

I see Marsha has returned from doing the laundry so we will grab a quick lunch and head out to explore a bit more. We are meeting with the manager in charge of the workampers on Friday for an orientation and tour.

Inherit the Wind... Part Two

I am surprised that we made such good time today. We had to pack up the motorhome in the pouring rain this morning and it barley let up the whole day. I took a peek at the radar and it was a huge storm cell covering most of Texas. We felt very little wind on the road, yet at the moment we have some very heavy wind coming from the north.



It all brings back memories of the heavy winds we had all last winter in the Hill country of Texas. I managed to get the satellite dish to stay in an upright position but I had to drive two additional stakes into the ground and attach two bungee cords to hold it down.



We are spending the night at Canyon Trail RV Resort. Canyon Trail is a very nice place with paved roads, concrete pads to park on and concrete patios. All spaces are full hook up and include Wi-Fi and cable. The cable is just a basic ten channel package so I am using the dish.







For those of you wondering how the cats are managing, you can rest easy. The boys are getting along just fine but I am sure they are getting tired of traveling and would love to spend more than just one night each place. They protest being closed in the bedroom as we drive down the road, but if we could trust them to keep out from under the dash they would not have to be closed up. Lucky for them we will only be on the road one more day.

The above picture is our rig at Canyon Trail. Note how green the grass is. Last year with the drought it was all brown.

What a day

Today was an almost perfect day. There was no wind and no rain and the driving was so easy. We did find the roads that really need the Obama Stimulus in Arkansas. Some spots were like driving over railroad tracks for miles at a time. Once we hit Texas the roads got much better.

We were expecting to stay a a new campground advertised on the TACO web site. We came close but as we approached the road the campground was on we turned around and left. It was no more than eight feet wide and tree lined on both sides. It is not a situation I wanted to get into. We did see another campground a few miles back on I-30 and headed for it. The people that own it are from PA and bought it less than a year ago. It is a small place and right off the highway. They said it was in terrible shape when they bought it and have been working for the last few months getting it in shape.

My guess is it will take them at least another six months to turn it into a really good overnight stop. We will check back on our way home next spring and see how things have improved.

Tomorrow we will be heading for New Caney, TX. which is just north of San Antonio. Just two more days of travel and we will reach our destination. Tomorrow is a 5 to 6 hour drive and then Tuesday will be a short 4 hour day of driving. It is getting late and I am very tired so we will continue tomorrow.