Dec 22nd Houses, Oil Changes and Bread

About us


Let's start with houses. John is hoping his sale will go through this time. Carol dragged John in to a new housing development just up the road from our very nice RV park to look at houses. We were both shocked by what we saw. We could get a brand new 5 bed 3 bath 2 garage house complete with airconditioning, heating,carpeted or tiled thoughout and a splendid fitted kitchen for £97,000. This is not a repo. in some slum area but in a brand new, landscaped development next to a state park with bike paths, security and good ambiance.

Oil change. We had to get a basic service on the RV so we went to Walmart, well where else. They changed the oil and filter, greased the chassis, checked levels, tyres and wipers. The bill for the lot was £17. This was for a gallon and a half of full synthetic oil plus the filter. In Britain just the oil would cost double that!

Bread. We keep looking but low salt, no sugar, multigrain bread is really hard to find. Even speciality bread shops do not have any. Most supermarket bread is so salty to be inedible for Carol.

We are both nursing the after effects of colds but it is hard to be that miserable in T shirt and shorts when the rest of the USA seems to be under a blanket of snow. Charro is getting a little more wobbly so we are working on a stroller to allow us to keep going for long walks with him as he hates to be left to behind.

Last night was a little worrying when we heard what could have been gun shots after some shouting. We are close to the Rio Grande, the border with Mexico, and the Border Patrol is very busy looking for illegal immigrants. But it could just as easily have been someone out getting a little venison for the pot.

We have our dance card full for Christmas eve with drinks and canapes at 5pm Carol singing round the park at 6.30 and Margaritas at 7.30 where we will find out if our display of lights will win. [ FAT CHANCE HAH } The others are really good and our snowman has no style. Now if I could only have found Santa on his chopper. We will finish off the evening with a drive around looking at local house light displays.

Merry Christmas all.

Early morning bird walk with the rangers

We joined a small group of keen birders this morning on a ranger led walk through Bentsen State Park. Within a few moments they were calling out the names of birds based on hearing a second or two of song or catching a fleeting glimpse of a L.B.J.
I learned that this means little brown job, a term used by inexperienced birders, like me, and applied to the wide range of small nondescript dun coloured birds they see. However we did meet one interesting inhabitant of the park on the walk. Carol was able to coax it to come towards her. Even the ranger was not sure what the attraction was.

Dec 15th On the beach

We went looking for somewhere to stay on South Padre Island. The beach where we found ourselves looked out on the gulf and was perfect for a windy walk. The RV park is a State Park and looked OK except for the grass. We had seen lots of thorns before in dry areas and when the grass was green we thought it was safe. However Charro was yelping after only a few paces.

15th Dec. 2007 Carol's bit

I’ve ordered some glasses from Wal-Mart { Asda } Extra thin, extra light, rimless, scratch resistant, anti-glare, transition lenses, magnet clip- on Polaroid sunglasses. All for £173. These would cost me £400 - £500 in Britain, these are a good make too. I can go to any Wal - mart in America to get them adjusted or repaired .
If they can do it at that price here, why not the U.K ?

Went to look around another prospective R.V park this week, we will be moving on down to South Padre island after Christmas and need somewhere to stay. The one we are on is nice, everyone is friendly and apart from the odd one or two are quite normal.
This one that we were taken around in Brownsville is behind a wall. Lots of people going in , sevices mostly, not many coming out. We were met by our “tour guide”
A gentleman well in his 80’s and a bit unsteady on his feet. Off we went for a slooooow drive around the park on Kangaroo petrol (I now have a whiplash) John sat up the front and stated very clearly that we were looking for a plot with hook up for the R.V for a couple of weeks.
There were a lot of plots for sale with red flouroescent markers, I reckon we saw everyone of them. Everytime John told our driver what we were looking for , we were shown another for sale plot. Managed to get to the clubhouse where several inmates were playing cards, apparently the morning exercise class was popular, as our driver himself went. The site had a couple of paddling pools, labelled swimming pool.
The notice board had skeet shooting advertised, which we both looked at, but given the general health of the site population, could have been a risky business.
This is the quietest that I have known John, usually someone gets our full itinerary and his life history, but all I could see was steam coming from his ears and a short” we’ve seen enough thank you,” so I guessed thankfully that we weren’t staying there.
Most of the R.V ers are retired, so they are our age group, but it is very noticeable that
at a certain age they gather in these places to stay as the last stop. It would be very easy to do, as all the facilities are on the bigger sites and the going of time would be un-noticable. We’re not ready for that, and won’t ever be I hope. So I want to keep on moving, even Charro I not prepared to grow old, he wants to go everywhere with us and will protest if he is left, which is very rare.
So, looks like we’re off to the beach to stay for a little while before we start to move across towards the west side of the U.S and up towards wolf country, one of the reasons I wanted to be here.

Dec. 10th Birding in Bentsen State Park

It is windy so I can't go flying and too hot to go anywhere outdoors with Charro during the day, so we left him in the RV with the airconditioning on while we walked over to the birding Park. Most National and State Parks in the US are worth a visit and this was no exception. After two hours we had covered a tiny part and seen some spectacular sights.


First one was the group of Collared Peccaries or Javelinas [ no not pigs! ] rooting around under a bird feeded.

This was followed by a variety of birds which were attracted to the feeding stations set up by rangers. Here is a Cardinal who posed very nicely for Carol.

We will go back and join some of the ranger led walks to learn more about the local wildlife.

Before then we are going to drive down to the coast to look for a different kind of area to stay in for a couple of weeks, possibly on South Padre Island. In the mean time I have succumbed to the xmas decorating frenzy and we have a motorcycling snowman.

Dec 5th Evening we visit the lights of Hidalgo

Hidalgo is a small town on the Texas side of the Mexican border. It has a hard working and inventive PR person. It let's everyone know it was the first town in the US to have a swarm of "Killer Bees" and has the largest killer bee in the world.

It also has a large electricity budget for Christmas tree lights and the cooperation of most official bodies including the police and many private houses also get lit up by the owners.

Charro enjoyed getting out and walking around with us as we wandered through a version of Christmas that fits with a consumer led society.

Dec. 5th. Test flight of my new Toy A Yak 3D Profile

This post is for the RC Modellers. I just finished my new model a Ohio Model Products ARTF Yak 65 in. span 3D profile. Engine OS 120 AX Prop APC 17x6 Servos Futaba 4 x 3152 digitals + 1 mini on throttle.

This came by UPS and was but together in the craft workshop at Bentsen Palms RV Park as it does not fit in our motorhome, at least not on the table.

I finished it this morning, ran a tank through the engine then flew the thing. Some models impress from the first seconds of flight and this one certainly did that. It is very easy to hold in the hover, continuous knife edge loops on less than half throttle were a doddle and precision manoeuvres such as the Cuban 16 looked good [ to me at least ] The rudder is exceptionally effective, in fact I think I will need some exponential to desensitise it.

It is clearly overpowered with the OS 120 AX but you can never be too rich, too thin or have too much power. I like the way it looks in the air but it does not always attract positive comments on the ground. The large black and white checks on the underside contrast well with the topside which is pretty important if you lose it low down. I love the way it flies. It is the best hooligan tool I have had on the end of my sticks to date.

If I write this off tomorrow I will have to buy another one.

Coyote Sunset

Most nights we hear the last post being sounded in the distance at sunset.

We do not know if it is some nearby military post or just someone practicing for a school event. But one night was different, first one then two and lots of coyotes joined in with a chorus of howls and yip reminding us that although we are in a gated, manicured and protected environment, the wilderness is never far away in Texas.