RIO GRANDE CITY…FINAL STOP ON OUR TOUR

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!

CITE OF ROMA, TEXAS…FOUNDED 1765

Saturday, February 2 - Our second stop of our "Making Memories With Friends" tour was in Roma, Texas.

In November 1993, the 9-square block area around Roma Plaza was designated a National Historic Landmark District, the highest designation for historic properties in the U.S. There isn't much going on in "downtown" Roma any longer. Our group decided to take the self-guided walking tour to understand the town better. There are over 30 historic building in Roma.

There isn't much left of the Plaza.

Manuel Guerra residence and store was built in 1884. The prominent two-story structure is the crown jewel of restored buildings in Roma.

Across from City Hall is a remarkable building once dubbed a "cantina"(bar). Roma residents would arrive on horseback to have a good time drinking. The word "BEER" still appears on the side of the building as an invitation to passerbys.

The two-story John Vale/Noah Cox House, built in 1853 by Swedish immigrant John Vale. Noah Cox purchased the property in 1856 and operated a mercantile establishment on the first floor, while living upstairs.

Our Lady of Refuge Church was built in 1965 after the old church was torn down. The Tower is part of the old church which was erected in 1854.

Roma is right on the U.S. and Mexico border. Across a narrow part of the river is Mexico.

Mexican park at the edge of the river with a neighborhood in the background.

One of the reason we wanted to visit Roma was to see the World Birding Center.

Unfortunate the windy conditions caused the birds to stay home and not visit the many feeders located at the center.

We did see several different butterflies.

This tree is native to south Texas. The volunteer thought it is called the Texas Ebony. If anyone knows if this is called something else, please let us know. We couldn't believe the volunteer didn't know for sure the name.

Close up look at the pods on the tree.

We did enjoy walking through the historic town of Roma.

We received an email from Shoeless Joe, John, about a firefight held in the Falcon Dam area and Rio Grande City, the topic of our next blog. These shooting happened one day after our visit. The Good Lord was looking over us again. If you would like to read about the gun fire, please click here.

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

CREATING MEMORIES WITH FRIENDS!

Thursday, February 1  - We headed West this morning with a convoy of friends. Ten of us headed to the western reaches of the Rio Grande Valley. First stop Falcon Dam and Power Plant. Falcon Dam is the major multipurpose international dam. The function is to control and regulate the flow of international waters and to provide a means of contributing to the mutual welfare of Mexico and the United States, in compliance with various existing treaties. (Not our words but the International Water Boundary Commission's.) Additional purposes of the dam are flood control, conservation, and hydroelectric power.

This is one of three dams on the Rio Grande River.

We saw several vehicles driving to Mexico and back to the U.S. We were told not to go into this part of Mexico. As the story goes, the drug cartels own it all. Don't have to tell us twice.

Were the Mexican flag flies is the center of the dam and the international boundary. We have no idea where the U.S. flag is.

Here are some statistic about the dam.

Length:

• U.S. - 10,133 feet
• Mexico - 16,161 feet
• Total - 26,294 feet
• Height - 150 feet above river bed.
• Crest elevation - 323.0 feet above mean sea level.
• Maximum width at base – 1,000 feet
• Width at top – 35 feet

Flood gates…looking towards the U.S.

One of the flood gate doors.

Storage capacity-1972 survey

• Superstorage - 801,000 acre feet
• Flood Control - 509,000 acre feet
• Conservation & Silt - 2,668,000 acre feet
• Total - 3,978,000 acre feet – WOW

One of the power plants.

The damn created a huge lake near Roma, TX, covering nearly 100,000 acres. Of course with the recent drought in Texas, the water level is down.

Spillway to River.

You can see from the photo below how low the Rio Grande River is in this area.

Here is a very interesting story about the dam.

• In June 2010, U.S. authorities revealed that the Los Zetas drug cartel had planned to destroy the Falcon Dam in order to terrorize the rival Gulf Cartel which smuggles drugs in the area. Small amounts of dynamite discovered near the dam and a copy of a warning helped alert authorities. A larger U.S. and Mexican security presence in the area may have thwarted the attack that Los Zetas had reportedly warned civilians about on the Mexican-side of the border. (Houston Chronicle)

In July, 2010, the damn release water because heavy rains attributed to Hurricane Alex.Tremendous damage was suffered down-river. If you're familiar with the National Birding Centers in South Texas, it was this event that caused significant damage to these parks. 

The wind was blowing like crazy! Gusts of nearly 60 mph and strong sustained winds. It created a cold environment and making walking on the dam very difficult. Brrrrrrrr!

If visiting the dam, you need your passport. You pass through U.S. Customs when you walk back to the U.S.side of the dam.

Part II of Making Memories to come tomorrow.

We leave you with the craziest saying we have ever seen on a trash receptacle. We like the message.

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