Tuesday, February 5 - Our last stop on our "Making Memories With Friends" was Rio Grande City.
Here we visited the Our Lady of Lourdes Grotto. Built to resemble the shrine of Lourdes in Southern France, the man-made cave is beautiful. In the center of the grotto, stands a 7-foot-tall statue of the Madonna. The grotto is 33 feet high and 90 feet wide with cacti growing from the walls.
Stations of the cross.
As we walked some of the back roads of Rio Grande City, we notice this strange looking tree.
A close up of the tree bark.
If anyone knows the name of this tree, we would appreciate knowing it.
We continued with a walk around historic Rio Grande City enjoying much of the old architecture.
One historic stop was at the LaBorde House. LaBorde House was originally served as a travelers’ way-station for many years. Early-day guests included those traveling to Texas political events, riverboat and wagon travelers, cattle barons who sold their herds on nearby river docks and military officers en-route to California. Construction was completed in 1899. A former hotel, bordello, and now a very good Mexican restaurant. We stopped there for lunch.
One of two eating areas.
Furniture for the hotel has been selected for its authenticity to the period.
After lunch, we searched for the historic Fort Ringgold. This was a difficult search, but we finally located it on the Rio Grande School District property. With schools being very concerned with unknown visitors, we didn't really feel too comfortable driving around looking for these former fort buildings.
Many of the building were being used by the school district as classrooms, offices, and other school related buildings. Many of the others were in various states of disrepair. We weren't sure where the historic Robert E Lee House Museum was even located.
Rio Grande City was our last stop on the "Making Memories With Friends" tour. While driving home, we reviewed our day with some laughs and poking fun at each other. Marsha being the tour guide took her share of kidding along with Barry our tour driver.
Our "Making Memoires" group.
Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day!
