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

November 28, 2008 It was a full day today. We stopped at the zoo in Brownsville to see our gorilla friends. Martha and little Margaret were on a walk about, the tiger cubs finished a tumble and went their separate ways, and the flamingos napped. We then drove the round about way to Harley's in Bayview. They are building lots of oil rigs out near the Brownsville Ship Channel. Sylvia is back! Listened to good music and enjoyed a Thanksgiving meal with our extended Harley's family. Doris is taking pictures of the band to have put on tee shirts; look for them after the holidays. Later in the evening John brought his guitar out and sang The Desert while we listened carefully to catch the words..."We fall on the hot sand....no. Spralled on the hot sand." "Feel the bite of the vultures...no. See the flight of the vultures." "Like to find the line once again...no Once upon the line once again."

November 28, 2008 The newest gorilla is named Margaret; she is just about a year old. Little Megan still likes to hang out near dad, the big silverback, Moja. There are twelve gorillas in the family at Gladys Potter Zoo. We can name them all but still get the two teenage girls confused. Zinga is now taller than his brother, Herumbe and is still personable looking directly at you. Bangori, born our first visit to the zoo, is now about four. The old bird flyway is not complete, in fact it is still being taken down rather than being put up. The old stork was rather interesting today. It was the first time we saw him go down into the water and pull up grass from the bank to eat. He has long long legs and a very strong pointy beak. Who ever decided that the stork would bring babies? That is one big bird! The baby Mandrill was born in October. The Giraffe are very affectionate animals. They have a new baby too! There are six new tiger cubs to watch play! Mom flamingo is still feeding baby ev...

November 28,2008 It is not a good idea to park at the Waldorf the night of Thanksgiving because at about 4am the next morning cars start to arrive and soon the entire lot is filled and there are people driving around looking where to squeeze their car in to. We were completely surrounded! Kathy braved the crowd since she couldn't sleep any way and found lines circling the store with men standing waiting to pay for their new big screen flat TV. Kids with carts were stationed in the clothing isles and parents were off getting items and bringing them back to the carts. Check out lines were way out of control. One large man put his hands on a tall TV box and another large man came at just the same time and put his hands on the same box at the other end...lots of yelling as it was the last box. Kathy didn't stay to see what happened.

November 27, 2008 We left the beach behind and headed over to Mary and Bob's. The men sat having "men talk" and enjoyed Connie's before dinner treats. And the ladies moved to the kitchen. Evelyn, Mary's Mom, had all the fixings prepared including pecan pie. Mary carved up the turkey. We sat together enjoying the meal thankful that we have such wonderful friends. After dinner we played one game with three dice with the letters C for center, L for left, R for right and a dot meaning keep. Everyone lays three quarters on the table and then the action begins. The quarters move around the table and into the center where the pile adds up. The last person with a quarter gets the pile. We played a game with three decks of cards before we enjoyed desert. Connie had made a pumpkin roll with rum whipped filling; Evelyn made a pecan roll with creamcheese filling and the best pumpkin crumble ever. Bud said she won best desert three years in a row with that one! It was really g...

November 27, 2008 Wishing you all a peaceful day Thanksgiving is a day for caring and sharing and remembering that at the heart of everything we treasure in life is love.... and at the heart of love is family and friends. Enjoy your turkey day,

November 26, 2008 We love the beach. Will got out his kite and did some practice while Kathy did some reading and watched the kite soaring with the pelicans. And then there are the sunsets!

November 26, 2008 The beach is not very crowded this time of year and we like to get up with the sun and walk along the beach looking for shells with little holes in them made by the drill oyster.

November 25, 2008 We love South Padre Island!

November 24, 2008 We cleaned up the dance hall at Harley's then drove over to the Wildlife Refuge. The fifteen mile loop road was a wonderful place to see lots of wildlife. Then we walked out to Alligator Pond where a six foot rattle snake tried to block our way. Back at the maintence building we visited with Rudy and Larry. Rattle Snake Ducks are very skittish Big Gator! Deer crossing New overlook Nice Gator Ibis crossing Big hog Monday morning clean-up crew at work.