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

February 26, 2009 After leaving Jack and Liz's we headed to Harlingen to check on the MR2 progress. Salazar is transforming the two cars into one good one and one he can still sell. The back is now of the 87 on the body of the 86, the fender is changed as is the front door. It is comming along at manana time. Then we headed over to the zoo. Little Samantha climbed up at the window to say hello. Today we did our first official docent duty. We observed the Spectacled Bears and the Sun Bears for two hours jotting down our observations on a sheet for Docent Cindy. We had never really spent much time with the bears; they are mostly sleeping when we pass them. During our two hours they not only slept, they played in the water, fought with each other, growled, and walked about. It was a learning experience for us and we enjoyed learning more about them. Class tonight, our last docent-in-training class, was about reptiles. Colette gave the class and she not only shared taxonomy, but she t

February 25, 2009 Jack and Liz had us over to their home for dinner. It was so fun sitting, visiting and sharing.

February 23, 2009 When we left Harley's this morning you should have been along to see all the red-winged blackbirds taking off from the fields!! We drove over to the wildlife refuge to find the auto tour road was closed for the day; they were putting a new vault toilet out by Redhead Ridge. We went to find Rudy and found Larry instead and he took us out around the loop with him so we got to watch the action.

February 22, 2009 After spending the morning shadowing Cindy in Small World to learn about enrichment for animals at the zoo and taking the train ride to see how a docent gives an overview of the zoo we headed over to Harley's for some good music and dancing.

February 19-20, 2008 We sure enjoy the Gladys Porter Zoo so we decided to take classes to become Docents. We spend our days watching animals and our Tuesday and Thursday evenings taking classes. Two Saturdays we spent walking around behind the scenes. Will walked inside the bat exhibit!

February 18, 2009 We crossed over the International Bridge and looked over to the new wall between our country and Mexico. The wall is about done. Now we Americans can not even reach the Rio Grande! Then down the crowded street of Progresso to our favorite restaurant, Ay Jilisco.

2006 2007 February 18, 2009 Happy Birthday Bangori! Bangori was born in 2004 and we have watched him grow up. Mary was not interested in raising her son; she has had three children and raised none of them. Bangori was raised by the zoo staff for almost two years. We first saw him as Docent Marlene was carrying him around Small World in 2005. It took him another two years to be fully accepted into the family of Gorillas at Gladys Porter Zoo. He spent most of 2006 hiding from everyone. By 2007 Nzinga would go over and give him a pat and there were other babies so he was no longer the youngest. He is now independent, but plays with the younger ones and even stands up to Dad. He seems to recognize us and will come over to the window for some attention. Here he sits for almost ten minutes with Will as he sang him "Happy Birthday".

February 17, 2009 Sitting at Dean Porter Park in Brownsville, Texas we were entertained by a high school band practice. It reminded Kathy of sneaking over to Fox Chapel High School to watch Justin in practice. Our Docent Training tonight was given once again by Dr. Pat, the Director of the Gladys Porter Zoo.

February 16, 2009 We stay at Harley's Sunday nights and wake to the sun coming up over the resaca, birds announcing the start of another Texas day. Shadow walks up to get her morning bones, then goes off and barks at the goats across the water. We clean up the dancehall then relax a bit before heading out into the world.

February15,2009 Will irons on transfers for tee shirts after designing special shirts for Harley's. It didn't take long to sell them all! Now we have new members for the group of Grannies Gone Wild. If you want to join the group just email us at visitvango@gmail.com and check us out at GranniesGoneWild.blogspot.com

Shchi Grill on South Padre Island

February 14, 2009 We spent Valentine's Day at the Gladys Porter Zoo. The Docents had a behind the scenes tour with Sergio and Barbara. During our behind the scenes tour we got to see the new little pigmy hippo, the fruit bats, and feed the galopagus turles. Then we did some shadowing with our friends, Mary and Bob. Docents man the information center passing out maps and information, the fish cone stand selling cones filled with fish food and small world where they man the goat yard.

February 13, 2009 The back of the 87 is now on the body of the 86, the crunched passenger fender of the 86 is being replaced...the transformation is happening.