"Today is a Good Day to Drive!" .....Van-Go

We met some new friends at Harley's this week...Troy and Sandra who brought their friends along. John and Sylvia enjoyed a dance as they band played without him. Sylvia posed with daughter, Calida and Margie. And we clapped along, sang and danced to John Harley and the Bayview Bushriders.

Marlene has helped us learn the names of all of the gorillas over the years. She comes to Brownsville each winter and has raised them from young. We first saw her with Bangori as an infant. Now, Martha is with her newest young just 4 weeks old. Kathy gave Marlene one of the boxes she has been making and Marlene wants to make them to sell at the zoo. The money goes to the enrichment fund for the animals.

We met up with Connie and Mary for a night of chatting and trivia. Great seeing you two!

After leaving the beach we spent the day organizing a bit at Challenger Center. We are putting together an archive of NASA photographs and educational products, designing an index so they can be looked up easily and filing them away. People have asked, "How do you get your mail?" It is delivered via general delivery to a small postoffice we determine ahead of time. Jayne puts all the mail into a priority envelope at the postoffice and sends it to us in care of general delivery. All you need is the zipcode of a small town; large cities have too many post offices and sometimes even have one that specializes in general delivery so we could spend lots of time driving around looking for our mail. This way it is there when we to in. Kathy got a new hair do!

Oysters were grilled to perfection-yum. Will decided not to try them since he got a rash last week from them; at least he figures it was from them. Then came some entertainment. John played guitar while little Brittany sang "Twinkle Little Star" and Little Teapot". Great ribs came off the grill and were being munched before they made it into the bar where other foods were being served. The next morning we headed out to the beach after setting up the dance hall for the weekend. Along the way we found a rookery of birds. Look for the pink ones, they are Rosey Spoonbills. It was a cold and rainy day at the beach so we didn't spend much time outside. But, a bad day at the beach is still a good day.

It was another busy day on South Padre Island. The fog rolled in and so did the vehicles driving the beach. We collected lots more shells with drill holes in them. Will did a little kite flying and Kathy did a little shell stringing...She strings sea shell down by the sea shore...

Kathy strung some of the shells we look for along the beach; they have holes in them made by a drill snail. Will enjoyed flying his kite.

On our 15-mile drive we saw a family of wild hogs, three javelina crossing the road-look for the roadrunner in the picture, and curlew with their long curled beak. The new overlook is coming along nicely. We spotted a Hermit Thrush on a bush, Mocking birds in flight, Egret stutting, an Osprey hunting and a Harris' Hawk gliding. We almost missed the Loggerhead Shrike thinking it was a mockingbird. The Great Blue Heron was really elegant, the Reddish Egret has a little dance it does and the Marbled Godwit took some looking up in our bird book to have its name. We spotted some Ruddy Turnstone, they look like colorful ducks. The Caracara were in flight chasing around. We saw both the Little Blue Heron and the Tri-colored Heron. Some small shore birds like plovers, and sandpipers looked for food. On our way out the main road a deer crossed in front of us and a cyote slowly sleeked across the road.

Harley's was once again a great time on Sunday night. We listened to John Harley and the Bayview Bushriders, danced and ate some great food. In the morning after cleaning up the dance hall we relaxed. Will took care of some repairs and Kathy did some crochet.

Katanga, grandma, looking over at the family...Penny has her little Samantha with Megan thinking I want to play. Kathy and Marlene, zoo docent, talked about the gorilla family.

The weather here in the south Texas the weather has turned a bit cool. Yes, we know it is winter, but we like the days with sunshine and 70+ degrees here in the Valley. We spent a few days volunteering our time at Challenger Learning Center of the Rio Grande Valley. In return for helping to sort and organize the upper room we got a full tank of water in the Roadtrek, lunch, and the camaraderie of Ray, Art, Baldy, Berto. At lunch time on Friday everyone got guitars out and music filled the group room. Will performed for the group playing "Walkin' With My Baby". We went to the movies, first time in many months. We watched: National something or other with Nicholas Cage, Waterhorse, a part of Narna Chronicles, and Alvin, Simon and Theodore-singing chimpmunks

Kathy is enjoying the attention from the zoo's newest camel who is still in the nursery.

The gorillas at the Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownsville, Texas are so active and personable. We know them all by name and love watching them. Will was giving Nzinga some encouragement for wall climbing while Mary looks on at her older son. Little Samantha, just about a year old, has learned about toothpicks. Bangori goes over to Marth to check out the new baby just a few months old.

Playing at Challenger Center we put together a notice to put on some large empty plastic water jugs so they can be used to collect donations. We are also organizing the upstairs storage room. Baldy was entertain during lunch break; he is in a band that plays at some of the clubs in the Valley.

January 15, 2008 We have had some cool rainy days down in southern Texas, but we are staying busy with visits to Harleys, Laguna Atascosa Wildlife Refuge and Challenger Center.

Kathy and Sylvia were given shirts making them members of the Grannies Gone Wild. Along with Kathy sporting her new cowgirl hat (Thanks John and Sylvia! It fits like I am not even wearing a hat.) was Chet with his new hat. Sunday nights fills the dance hall. John Harley and the Bayview Bushriders were joined by a fiddle player and a bass guitar player. If you are in the Valley you should treat yourself to a Sunday evening at Harleys in Bayview. The BBQ is free and the music is foot stompin' and hand clapin' country.

January 13, 2008 Kathy showed Kaleb how to play tic-tac-toe and he was getting to be pretty good at it too! Will cleaned up the dance hall and showed John how to run the backhoe. He then got to drive it around a bit himself; he is becoming a good operator-Forrest would be pround of him.

January 12, 2008 We love spending time on the Island. The sunrises are just a sight to see! Coffee on the beach listening to the waves rolling in and gulls waking the world is just precious. The pelicans come gliding in looking for their first meal of the day and the plovers start at the shoreline looking for little morsels. The days pass with reading, puzzleing, kite flying and shell searching.

A short drive from Harlingen, TX is the international bridge into Mexico. We park on the US side and walk across into a very busy city with streets filled with vendors selling everything from foods to fabrics, and shops, pharmacies and dentist offices are everywhere. Young children sell gum or play and sing hoping Americans will give them change. We like to support the young entertainers. The ladies with their babies and young children begging for money we just pass by; the government tries to get them to either sell something or get help somewhere other than begging and ask that you do not support them. Sometimes we bring them a bag of clothes or give the children gum or candy. It is difficult to just walk by them, but we understand the reason they should not be promoted. No one likes to see children hungry. We have a favorite restaurant, Al Jilisco, where we enjoy hot salsa and chips, a good Mexican meal and live music and dancing.

January 10, 2008 Ray, a new employee at the Challenger Learning Center of the the Rio Grande Valley showed Will some astronomy software they are using. There is an evening astronomy event groups can sign up for. After showing the groups where to locate things in the night sky they get to look through telescopes at some really neat stuff like comets and planets. Berto posed with his guitar; seems everyone there plays guitar!