Spring in Texas

We departed Rockport Monday in a search for sunshine and warmer temperatures and to get away from the busyness of the spring break crowd congregating in the beach resort towns all along the gulf coast. Knowing that the snowbirds begin to leave the Rio Grand Valley by the begining of March, we felt assured of finding an RV park here. While shopping at Wal-Mart we met friends from Steinbach and joined them and three more couples at a RV resort in Harlingen whom we had become aquainted with through our volunteering with Mennonite Disaster Service. We renewed our friendships with a potluck supper and an evening of games.

The region south of Corpus Christi is a low grassland plain used mainly for ranching. Here you will find King Ranch with 60,000 head of cattle. As we near the Rio Grande Valley you notice the effect of water on this otherwise arid land. Irrigation canals make this area lush, making it possible to grow citrus, aloe vera, sugar cane and vegetable crops.

A volunteer park staff showed us that a tarantula is not dangerous unless it is annoyed.

As birding is one of our hobbies we enjoy as we travel, we are drawn to places like the Texas gulf coast and Rio Grande Valley which are known for the amazing variety of local and migrating birds. We visited two of the World Birding Center sites, Estero Llano Grande and Resaca de la Palma State Parks. Here we saw many birds, some new ones that we were able to add to our life list.

Spring has arrived here in the Rio Grande. The fragrance and unique blossoms of the Huishache (wee-sache) tree were an attaction to us.

The Yucca have interested us in the past and now especially with seeing them growing in the wild in such numbers.

On Wednesday we were invited along by Gerry and Georgia to a u-pick grapefruit farm. While others in our group had done their own picking, we chose ours from a trailer due to the fact that the season was nearly over and that the only ones left were on the tree tops. What a deal at only $2 per five gallon bucket. Before the last fruit is picked the new blossoms are already present and giving off a delightful fragrance.

We visited Boca Chica beach in it's natural state, located between South Padre Island and the mouth of the Rio Grande River. This is largely government land and under the scrutiny of the border patrol.