HOUSTON RODEO/LIVESTOCK SHOW

HAPPY ST. PATRICK’S DAY!

Tuesday, March 15 – We're heading to the Outlet Mall today.

Our daughter, Kelly, is a teacher and is on Spring Break this week. So it's off to shopping! We went to the Houston Outlet Mall in Cypress. We had a pretty successful trip. Kelly made quite a few purchases, Paul came in second with new sneakers, flip flops, shorts, and sun glasses, and Marsha found a top and a bracelet. Now what do we throw out??? (Background: Full-timers say if they buy something new they need to get rid of something to have room for the new item!).

Wednesday, March 16 - Off to the Houston Rodeo!!! It's held at Reliant Stadium – home of the NFL Houston Texans.

Wednesday is Value Day. Five dollars entry fee (normally $12) and if you are 60+ it's free entry! Grand total for parking and entry for the two of us….$10...what a deal!

The event is actually held in several different buildings. The Reliant Center has the AGventure, Livestock show, exhibits, food, school art, and shopping. Reliant Arena holds the Stockman’s Club, horse show, llamas and turkeys. Reliant Stadium is where the Rodeo and all the “big name” entertainment is held.

We have never attended a “fair” that had directional signs.

We attended the Livestock Show Arena, the animal education section, the Horse Show Arena, and the Cowboy/Western sales area. The sales area was packed with all types of western wear sales booth, and the people seemed to be buying.

A  very interesting exhibit was a stone carving area. These stones were carved in Texas Motif. They must weigh a ton and were very impressive. Wished we could have seen some of the carving being done!

This gentlemen made flag poles that were beautiful.

There are many fountains outside the stadium.

One of the many stages. Marsha is at the Cowboy Stage.

The school art display was amazing. These kids are so talented. We only took a few pictures because all the work was behind glasses partitions.

This was done by a 6th grader.

 
Very clever. A display for Beaver hats.

Paul is contemplating buying a hat.

Any one need furrier chaps?

We weren’t in the market for a gun safe. They make them BIG here in Texas.

We were again a bit temped to by one of these for the front of the MH.

And what would a fair be without the tractors? This one is for Marsha’s dad.

The Livestock area was HUGE. Boy was it clean! We wore our old sneakers, thinking one of us might accidently step in some animal pooo .....but things were very clean.....don't want someone to get those expensive cowboy boots dirty.....ha! Ha!

Even the rabbit pens were tidy.This little guy actually poised for us.

The Educational Area was very impressive. Someone was very creative in developing this area to teach the zillion kids here on spring break all about livestock. The new born area was especially interesting and PACKED with kids wanting to see the baby animals. Marsha had about as much fun as the kids.

Little piglets just days old.

Marsha saw this little guy come right out of the egg.

To get to the Horse Show Arena, we walked through the amusement ride area. WOW! Every ride one could imagine or has ever seen was there. The kids were having a blast. All we could think about, was how sick we would get on some of these rides. It did bring back old memories of when are kids were young, and the hours spent on some of these rides.

We have never seen this ride.

These people were crazy to do this!

We must be very old. We didn’t know you could lie down and ENJOY a ride. NUTS!

Now here is the most unusual ride we witnessed. Yes…CAMEL RIDES!

There was very type of food vendor imaginable. Even ones you would NEVER think would be at a fair.

The Horse Show was very colorful.We aren’t “horse people” but  The horses were beautiful, and the riders were dressed in very colorful and glittery western wear. Unfortunately, they were competing in a basic skills competition and it was a little ... s-l-o-w .... if not boring. Before they made the winner announcement, we picked our favorite and actually pick the winner. We enjoyed the show for a while!

And the winner is…

All the vendors in this building were selling riding related items.

After a full day of visiting all the areas, we boarded the tram and were quickly returned to our car. We easily made our way out of the parking area and were home in less than thirty minutes. They have the traffic problems pretty well handled, I'd say!

We are returning with our daughters on Friday evening to see the Rodeo Show and Alan Jackson in concert. There is no way you could see everything in one day! The Rodeo is held in the new and huge Reliant Stadium, with its movable roof. Mucho Bucks spent here!!!! Very nice though.

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

BOOKS, BOOKS AND MORE BOOKS

Friday, March 11 - We went over to the Elks Lodge this morning to do some volunteer work in the library. The other day we looked in the library thinking we would pick up a few books to replenish our MH library shelf......what a mess! They have tons of books but where do you start? They aren’t in any kind of order, except the order of chaos.

So we decided to come over and alphabetize by author. We spent a couple hours and left the place in much better shape......for how long is anybody's guess....LOL. Paul found about a dozen books to add to his personal library.....summer reading!!!

They really need to add another bookcase!

Later on in the afternoon, we again went to watch Kelly's High School softball team take on Katy High School. Unfortunately, they lost, but they played a very tough team and did quite well!

Saturday, March 12 - We went over to Kelly's apartment to watch some college basketball and Marsha prepared an Italian dinner.....yum! We enjoyed visiting with Kelly and catching up with her busy life. We watched Kelly's favorite team, University of North Carolina, beat Clemson. They'll now play on Sunday in the ACC Championship game. Then on to the NCCA Tournament....March Madness! OH by the way, our Buckeyes won too!

Sunday, March 13 – Went to church this morning at the Methodist church we attended several times back in December.

This afternoon more basketball. UNC lost to Duke, but our Buckeyes beat Purdue. We supported our Elks tonight. Spent couple of hours visiting the lounge and donating to the cause.

Monday, March 14 – WOW…we had a huge storm go through here this morning. We can’t even remember the last time we were in a storm like this…thunder and lighting.  The storm canal in back of us filled rapidly.

We even saw a little Egret.

Once it stopped the water began receding very quickly. Did you notice how green the grass is around here?

The Snapdragons are in full bloom.

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

GOOD BYE MISSION…HELLO HOUSTON

Wednesday, March 9 - BACK TO HOUSTON! We arrived safely back at the Houston Elks in Stafford, TX. We are in the same site, number 8, that we stayed in back in December.

It was an interesting drive in the WIND......JEESH!!! I was about to pull off a couple times but pushed on to our destination......CRAZY WIND!! I was hoping to see how my new tires rode, but the wind was so bad I couldn't evaluate them.

I last filled the MH with diesel fuel on December 30, 2010 at $2.99/gallon. Today the price was $3.79/ gallon.....nearly a dollar more......EEEEK! Where will it end???

Thursday, March 10 – We headed up to Waller, TX. Kelly’s JV team is playing in a tournament. Kelly is the head JV coach and Assistant Varsity coach. This is the first time we have seen Kelly since December.

While we were there, they lost the first game. The next game wasn’t for three hours so we decided to leave. Kelly called later and said that they had won. They play their next tourney game on Sat. morning. We don’t think we will go up. We are headed up to Kelly’s school, Mayde Creek, tomorrow night to see the JV and Varsity play a district game.

It is amazing the construction that is still going on all over Texas. Yet again another highway is being built around Houston.

SUMMARY OF THE RIO GRANDE VALLEY

After our two and a half month stay at Leisure Valley Ranch in Mission, Texas; Paul thought he would write a review of his impression of wintering in the Rio Grande Valley. Over-all, I would rate our stay as VERY ENJOYABLE!

We met so many wonderful and very friendly people.....we will truly miss them and consider them our “new” friends. Marsha especially finds it difficult to say “good-bye.” We look forward to meeting these friends down the road in the future.

Leisure Valley is a very nice community. Not only friendly people, but paved streets with large concrete sites, a huge club house, an abundance of activities, a nice swimming pool, shuffle board, pickleball, golf, dances, and on and on.

The Rio Grande Valley (RGV) is easily accessible – only about six hours south of Houston – with warm temperatures and sunny skies. There are dozens of neighborhoods of Winter Texans that share activities with other campgrounds. There is certainly never a lack for something to do! Plenty of shopping for just about anything you may want or need. Groceries, fuel, and campgrounds are all relatively inexpensive. We NEVER had any fear of violence from Mexico. We traveled to Progresso three times and enjoyed it immensely. I repeat.....WE NEVER HAD ANY PROBLEMS OR FEAR!!!

The only negative of the area is the WIND! We had one week where it gusted continuously for about five straight day. Day and night without stopping.....ugh! Most weeks, you get a day or two of windy activity and then five or six days of blue skies, sunny weather with warm temperatures. It only rained once the entire time we were here.....BEAUTIFUL WEATHER!

In summary, the RGV is a good place to spend the winter.....the locals sure welcome everyone here! The only negative is the wind. If you are not bothered by 8-10 mph winds, I would think about staying here. We've certainly enjoyed are time here!

Thanks to all our “new” friends for making this an unforgettable winter.

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