A VISIT TO PROGRESSO, MEXICO

Monday, October 27 – On Friday, October 24, marked Carrie’s first visit to Mexico.

She wanted to experience the culture of this country. We knew exactly where to take her.

One of the many, many outdoor bars, Red Panty Bar.

We visited our favorite pharmacy, Jessica’s. The bartender was so taken with Carrie, he asked her to dance. Hope his wife doesn’t read this blog…lol

Later in the afternoon, Angie and Rick arrived, and we introduced Carrie to a real Mexican Margarita. She loved it.

Notice in the photo above the orange bag behind Carrie and Marsha’s pink bag which is full to the brim. Carrie did some serious shopping. She loved the bargaining process that all the merchants engage in. She got some super buys.

Carrie even got her hair trimmed for a whole $5.00.

There was more dancing….

and maybe some tourist had a bit too much to drink.

Carrie bought a couple of little sombreros for Cinco de Mayo. Bella just couldn’t wait to try one on.

All in all, Carrie loved her experience. We all had a great day visiting our neighbor to the south.

We have one more post about Carrie’s visit. We have left Mission and are at the Elks outside Houston until after the holidays.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!

OUR DAUGHTER, CARRIE, VISITS THE RGV.

Thursday, October 23  - The next few posts will be a bit dated, but when Carrie is around, it is go, go, go. Carrie arrived early this morning. We packed in as much as we could on day one. She is only here for the weekend and wants to experience everything we have done in five years in three days. This should just about kill us for sure.

After picking her up at the airport, we visited Basilica of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle National Shrine. Our first visit here was in 2010. It is just such a gorgeous Basilica. For centuries Christians have made pilgrimages with a spiritual purpose to holy places.The history of this Marian Shrine begins in 1920, when the Reverend Alfonso Jalbert, O.M.I., built a small wooden chapel in San Juan, Texas as a mission church of St. Margaret Mary Church in Pharr, Texas. The National Conference of Catholic Bishops designated Our Lady of San Juan del Valle a national Shrine on March 24, 1998, and the following year on June 12,1999,  Pope John Paul II designated it as a minor Basilica. If you are in the area, be sure to put this on your must see list. You won’t be disappointed.

There is a gorgeous walking tour of about a mile. It commemorates 14 key events on day of Christ's death. The majority of them concern His final walk through the streets of Jerusalem carrying the Cross. The fourteen stations of the Cross are depicted by life-size statues crafted in bronze and resin. There are 30 life-size bronze figures in all. Absolutely gorgeous…according to Marsha.

Our next stop was the famous Los Ebanos Ferry Crossing. This is a must see, must do for people who have been there, done that. It's the last hand-operated ferry operating on either border. It is a 3-car barge crossing the Rio Grande River from the U.S.  to Mexico. At the crossing there is custom/border patrol. You can park and walk onto the ferry, or you can drive your car on the ferry. Most U.S. citizens that cross over into Mexico here go to buy liquor or cigarettes. They must be desperate. We wouldn’t cross here, that’s for sure!

If that wasn’t enough for one day, we had a social and game night at the clubhouse. There about 20 of us playing horse racing and Farkle. Wonderful time with dear friends.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!

LA LOMITA CHAPEL

Thursday, Oct 16, continued – After our lunch, written about in the previous post, we traveled about a mile down the river to visit a historical mission. La Lomita (the hillock) was first built in 1865. When the City of Mission, Texas, was founded in 1908, the city was named “Mission” in honor of La Lomita Chapel. Now, La Lomita Chapel is a religious shrine and a favorite site of historians that provides a glimpse into an important part of the history of Mission and South Texas in general.

La Lomita became an important site for the Calvary of Christ, the missionaries who rode up and down the Rio Grande Valley visiting widely separated Catholic churches, baptizing newborns, performing marriage ceremonies and blessing the dead.

Church records indicate that La Lomita was rebuilt in 1899 with stones carved from the hill it was built on.

Pretty surprised that the church is left open, and the many religious relics are not bothered.

 These notebooks contain prayers that visitors leave.

Gifts are left In the back corner of the Chapel.
 

Virgin Mary.
 

Earthen oven

We had a wonderful few hours with our friend, John. Thanks for sharing this Mission with us.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!

LUNCH WITH A DEAR FRIEND

Thursday, Oct 16, 2014 – We met fellow blogger and friend, John (Shoeless Joe in blogland), for lunch this afternoon at the Riverside Club located on the banks of the Rio Grande River. Friends, Angie and Rick, came along to renew their friendship with John. We introduced Angie and Rick to John at this same restaurant last year. We've been here several times and enjoy the atmosphere on the river.

L-R: Angie, Marsha, Paul, John, Rick

John was pulling for St. Louis to win the National League Pennant, and Rick was pulling for the Giants. The Giants are headed to the World Series. So sorry John.

The special here is the Pork Tenderloin sandwich. It is so huge. Paul couldn’t eat it alone, so we shared it and still had plenty to eat! Another “special” is the boat ride on the river. We've yet to take this excursion. Not sure we are interested in playing “chicken” with the border patrol gunboats flying up and down the river...LOL.

Border patrol fly by on a regular basis.

We did enjoy watching the turtles, catfish, pan fish, and even a rather large Gar, we saw in the river. The waitress even brought us out some uneaten French fries to feed them.

Can’t believe people swim in this water.
 

There were even some horses bathing in the river on the Mexico side and one lonely mule. This is near the same spot many children were crossing the border illegally this past summer. To say the border patrol is very active in this area is an understatement.

A pretty neat place to visit after a wonder lunch with friends.

Boys will be boys.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!

A REVIEW OF OUR FIFTH YEAR ON THE ROAD

October 16, 2014 – Today is the end of our 5^th year on the road. If you're a long-time reader, you know we full-timed for three years and then became snowbirds. We now own a small home in Canton, OH, where we spend several months in the summer visiting family and friends. During the colder months, we visit family and friends in Texas and other warm areas in the south.



This 5^th year was spent in preparation of our daughter, Kelly's, wedding and doing some major renovations to our summer home in Ohio. If you peruse our spreadsheet (below) of interesting facts, you'll see we cut way back on travels this past year. We spent most of the winter in Houston, TX, and the summer in Canton, OH.

We began the year, beginning October 17, 2013, back in Mission, TX , the Rio Grande Valley of south Texas. We like to travel there to visit our many close friends that live there and to make our annual trek to Progresso, Mexico for dental check-ups.

L-R Paul, Marsha, John (Shoeless Joe), Angie, Rick


November found us back in Houston to spend Thanksgiving with our daughter, Carrie. It has become somewhat of a tradition for her to have many of her “twenty-something” friends over for a huge Thanksgiving dinner. We enjoy playing “mom and dad” at this fun event!



We then flew to Canton, OH, to spend the Christmas Holidays with immediate family. Marsha usually spends most of December in Ohio with Paul showing up just before Christmas. He stays back in Texas to care for our cat, Bella....or is it to avoid the cold and snow in Ohio???? Surprisingly, it was warm enough in Ohio for Paul to mow the grass, mostly leaves that mother fall deposited while we were gone. That didn't last though. By Christmas day it was snowing, so Paul and daughter, Carrie, grabbed an early flight back to Houston. Poor Marsha got snowed-in and her flight was delayed for several days....ha, ha!!!

Mowing one day


Snowing the next day.


Merry Christmas


This past December was especially memorable because our daughter, Kelly, became engaged to a wonderful guy, Dave. What a great Christmas event!!! We were thrilled and excited to spend the first part of 2014 preparing for the “big event.”



Because we wanted to be available for wedding preparations, dress shopping, shower planning, and other decisions mom and daughter needed to make for the big day, we decided to spend the entire winter in Houston, TX. This became especially nice when Kelly and Dave visited Houston in February for a day of wedding dress shopping and a family get-together. Dave even got to spend a few hours hitting the golf ball, which is one of his biggest “loves”.....after Kelly of course! He also bought his first pair of real cowboy boots.



Dave’s golf form.


Winter wasn’t only for wedding planning. The end of February marks Houston Barbecue fun. Carrie always has a big tent to celebrate with friends, and this time we were able to crash the big party. Oh, what fun!


March welcomed the Rodeo to Houston. This was our second opportunity to attend the big rodeo and we really enjoy the festivities. Of course, Marsha and Carrie went to one of the many concerts to see Adam Levine and Maroon 5 perform. Poor Paul had to miss that event.... :-) .




April found us heading back to Ohio. Paul had a long list of projects to complete, and Marsha had orders that  they needed to be finished BEFORE the wedding.....YIKES!!! He jumped right into a total kitchen redo and was able to finish it with several weeks to spare.

Before

After


With the wedding fast approaching, Carrie flew to Ohio to help Marsha with the wedding shower for Kelly. A well-planned event (who would expect anything different form Marsha) that was a big hit with Kelly and the family. Of course there was a bachelorette party for all the girls at a resort town on the shores of Lake Erie. They aren't talking much about that.....LOL



July was the big day. Kelly and Dave were married on July 19. A day to remember, for sure! Everyone enjoyed the church ceremony and the celebration afterwards. Great planning allowed the entire event to go off without any problems.




Paul finally has a guy in the family to help with several projects he had planned for the remainder of the summer. I'm sure we'll have many more projects in the coming years!

With summer coming to a close, we headed to Augusta, GA. With several stops along the way for hiking and sightseeing, we eventually arrived in Augusta to visit with Paul's brother and the “Southern Family.” We also participated the the Walk for ALS, and yes, we did the “ice-bucket” challenge, too, in memory of our sister-in-law, Delores.



We then meandered across the Gulf States to Houston for a couple days, a quick stop to see Carrie in Houston, and then down to Mission, TX, where we begin our 6th year. This was the first time we finished a year of travels at the same location where it began!

 
Here are some interesting facts comparing this year to our previous years of travel. Enjoy!!

	YEAR 1	YEAR 2	YEAR 3	YEAR 4	YEAR 5
Different Cities Overnight	54	34	40	27	18
Longest Length of Stay	79	69	70	138	172
Location of Longest Stay	Livingston, TX	Mission, TX	Canton, OH	Canton, OH	Canton, OH
Average Length of Stay	7	11	9	14	20
No. of States Visited	20	11	16	15	10
No. of States Visited 1st Time	17	3	7	5	0
No. of Days in Home State of TX	166	195	127	153	199
Average Campground Cost	$12.80	$12.25	$15.33	$13.52	$14.21
Gallons Diesel Fuel Used	1,678	974	1,038	687	705
Highest Price for Diesel Fuel	$3.22	$4.05	$4.60	$4.16	$4.03
Lowest Price for Diesel Fuel	$2.54	$2.83	$3.57	$3.46	$3.26
Average Price/gallon	$2.84	$3.63	$3.92	$3.82	$3.65
Average Miles/gallon	7.36 MH	7.21 MH	7.31 MH	11.54 TR	11.5 TR
MH Miles Driven	12,357	7,428	8,641	NA	NA
Car Miles Driven	22,186	15,631	18,496	NA	NA
Truck Miles While Towing	NA	NA	NA	7,923	3,600
Truck Miles While Sightseeing	NA	NA	NA	10,854	10,687

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!