The Travels of the Agnew Family

Another beautiful south Texas day, another afternoon of geocaching. This time we ended up in downtown Mission, more or less. The most noteworthy cache was the one that took us to the back of the police station ---- not my favorite place to be prowling around. Found the perfect spot for the cache but no cache. Ed finally checked to see if other people had found it ---- lots of sad faces (not founds) and comments indicating the cache was missing in action. After this Ed made sure the cache had been found before we spent time searching.


Close to the RV park is this little oasis --- it would be very pretty if it wasn't used as a repository for old concrete,


There's a tiny parkette outside of the history museum where we found some industrious ants. A video would have done a better job to show the ants marching back to their nest carrying leaves. The leaf in the hole is being carried by an ant and if you look closely you will see a few ants in the photo.


Behind the library and across the alley we found this "sculpture" ... or it is really just garage stacked in the back yard.


A beautiful golf course backs onto the recreation center. Between them is an irrigation ditch ... well some kind of ditch. Was the sofa placed here so the birds would have a comfortable place to rest or was someone too lazy to take the couch to the dump?

Another feature of geocaching --- it takes you to interesting areas that you would never otherwise see.

If I could write poetry I would write "Ode to Hydrogen Peroxide". Peroxide doesn't hurt too much when you put it on a cut, it's fun (in a perverse way) to watch peroxide bubble and the best part is Peroxide speeds up the healing time. My finger still has a way to go before it's back to normal but it's looking better. I'm looking forward to the day when I can use my ring finger to type "s", "w" and "x" again --- for now my pinky finger is doing double duty.

In my mind at least. This afternoon our friends Bob and Jean showed the slide show of their cruise to Alaska as well as a merged show of their trips to Alaska in 2007 and 2009. It was a very good show and brought back memories of our trip to Alaska in 2005. I always get itchy feet when I see these show.

Today is Mission's Citrus Parade, part of the citrus festival. There are carnival rides, a smoking contest (meat that is), musicians in the park, food and other vendors and of course the parade. Last year you were able to buy food from some of the people smoking meat for the contest, this year we were disappointed to find out that smokers were not selling any food. We had a really good day. Ed took two hundred and eighty photos, most of which were very good but I managed to whittle it down to less than thirty. The parade was really long --- an hour and a half. It would have been closer to an hour if the non-decorated commercial vehicles were eliminated from the parade. I can understand why elected officals wanted to be in the parade but three undecorated vehicles from a lawyers office. Think there were at twenty or thirty such vehicles in the parade. Many spectators left before the end of the parade and missed what I thought were some of the best bands, marching groups and floats.


One of the fellows smoking for the contest.


Ed and John talked to one of the guys smoking and were offered fajitas which they happily accepted.


This park in Mission has an amphitheater built into the ground. The gazebo at the far end housed the band.


Carol and I found a pieced of curb and sat down to enjoy the parade. The couple beside me are from Winnipeg. They noticed the Canadian flag pin on my hat and started talking to us. Had lots of time to talk to them as it took the parade an hour to reach our location. Next time we're going to sit closer the start of the parade.


Finally the start of the parade.


Bentsen Grove RV park's float --- this is where the people from Winnipeg stay.







I think it would be fun to ride one of these bikes.












Finally the Oleander Acres float. Judy and crew did a great job decorating. JJ (the dog) was walking in the parade but got tired and had to be carried by time they reached us.


One of the many citrus princesses.












John and Ed were standing in the road half the time as they took their photos. I think a number of the parade participants thought John and Ed were from newspapers and posed for them as this girl did.


Another group of students having a good time. The guys were doing flips as they went down the road.


Zero radius turn tractors. Not sure why they were in the parade but they were having fun.


Carol and I decided that uniforms improved the marching ability of the band.


The Shriners love driving their cars --- wonder how many people to takes to get these guys out of the cars after they been sitting in them for two hours.


I love watching these horses, they almost dance.


The parade is over and clean up crew begins their work.

Today is the park Arts and Craft Show. I helped out by being a "greeter" --- hope I can use it on my resume if I ever need a job at Wal-Mart. My job was to show the exhibitors to the table where their craft or work of art will be shown. There's a reasonable number of people who exhibit though there are many more who could. It's lots of fun to look at the items that have been exhibited.

Now for the oops'es. First oops --- I was riding my bike over to a friends RV and when I was stopping my bike somehow managed to fall off of it. Ended up rolling on the ground. Luckily, the only thing I hurt was my pride. Second oops --- leaving my friends RV, I got on my bike and almost fell off again. This time I saved myself but managed to get grease from the chain on my leg. Still don't know how I did that one. Third and thankfully last oops. I sliced a small piece off the end of my ring finger while I was cleaning garlic ---- think maybe I should stop buying fresh garlic and buy the pre-chopped stuff. Lots of blood and now some pain. I can still type but it's a bit slower when I need to use the S, W and X keys. Wonder how long I can milk this injury?

Learned a new card game tonight. Nickel Rummy. A lot of fun and I only lost 30 cents.

The group we hang around with decided to go to the movies this morning. At 11:45 am you pretty much get the theater to yourselves --- think there were 11 of us and 5 others in the movie I went to see. The ladies went to see Joyful Noise with Dolly Parton and Queen Latifa. The guys went to see Red Tails. Ed said Red Tails was really good with lots of special effects, Joyful Noise was a cute, happy ending movie that had some great lines.

The remainder of the afternoon was spent outdoors at the park enjoying the beautiful day --- sunny and eighty.

Sugar cane is grown in our area and it alway draws attention when it is burned. Ed was outside talking to the neighbors when someone noticed a lot of smoke in the sky --- someone was burning cane.

Ed grabbed the camera and walked to the edge of the RV park and managed to shoot some photos of the cane burning even though the field was at least a mile away.


The smoke cloud. The black specks are red wing blackbirds that are still hanging around the now ex corn field.


A tractor drives along the edge of the field with a blow torch and starts the fire.


The flames shoot high into the sky.

Tonight is fun night. Some brave people from the park get on the stage and try to make the rest of us laugh and tonight they were very successful. Thanks for the photos Jim --- we forgot to take a camera with us.


When Ed's name was called to go up on the stage he was a little more than shocked. Five guys were called up and given the simple instruction that they were to move right one chair when the MC said right and to move one chair to the left when the MC said left. The MC then proceeded to read a Christmas story about the "Wright" family. Only a few collisions and a couple of times more than one guy tried to sit on a the same chair.


This lovely lady is turning 100 this year. She told us some wonderful stories. She doesn't drive down here but still drives at home.


Four people were given the task of building snowmen. The pair on the left came up with a pretty good looking snow woman. The pair on the right came up with a snowman from the Black Lagoon. The cushions tied around the "snowman's" waist kept falling down.


The audience had a great time.

The most excitement planned for today was laundry and giving Zaph a bath.

About lunch time, the quiet of a Sunday afternoon was interrupted by shouts and running people. The border patrol were chasing some illegals through the park. One illegal ran by John and Carol's trailer and was almost tripped by Caity's rope. He was captured by our trailer. Ed had his camera out as he was taking some bird photos.






Ed and John talked to the border patrol guy and he said the border patrol was after a group of about 20 illegals. Only a couple of the illegals had run into our park.

Late in the afternoon, John spotted a couple of guys walking along the edge of the park and a few minutes later the border patrol helicopter was flying overhead and a border patrol truck was in the park. The illegals were apprehended.

Just the other day I had comments that I knew illegals went through the park but that I had not seen any personally. Guess that's not true anymore.

Ever since the corn was cut there are a lot of birds in and around our park and it was time to take some photos.

Finally made it to South Padre Island this trip to the valley. It was a little foggy when we arrived on the island but by time we had stopped at the kite store, picked up subs for lunch and drove to the beach the sun was starting to appear. It was a perfect day, sunny but not too hot and just enough wind to fly the kites.


Finally, we get to play in the water.


Please throw the balls.


Rest break.


If you won't throw it, I'll just push it around.


photo by john


Even I got into the kite flying act ... photo by john


John was playing with perspective. The kite is a foot or so off of the sand.


Another perspective shot by John.


John did spend some time flying his kite.


he got so into flying he stood in the cold gulf water


look ma --- there's no sand in my mouth








Before we left the island we stopped at Dirty Al's for fried shrimp and chips .... yum. After dinner Carol, the dogs and I went for a walk and found this fellow out enjoying the evening air.

Yesterday the girls went shopping and out for lunch. Oh, the boys went shopping too and spent more money than the girls. The girls went to the outlet mall and came to the conclusion that they are not designer clothes women. We bought a few small things but not much. The guys went to Harbor Freight(a tool store), yet again, and bought a bunch of very necessary things ---- at least that's what they told us.

Today Ed taught his photography course, so we hung around the park. I decided to do the exciting job of cleaning the trailer. In the afternoon it was smoking time --- did ribs this time.


and grilled vegetables.


Carol decided Zaph was old enough to "baby" sit so she tied Cait's leash to Zaph's leash. Zaph did a pretty good job, except for a couple of incidents. The first time, Cait tried to follow me across the road but Zaph didn't want to so he laid down, Cait stopped and sat down ---- unfortunately she was in the middle of the road. Wouldn't have been a problem except someone decided to drive down the road. The driver stopped and had a good laugh while he waited for Cait to get off the road. The second time a golf cart with a dog running beside it drove past our road. Cait got all excited and started barking and running after it. Zaph put on the breaks and tried to stop Cait but she had momentum on her side and got Zaph to move.

Four people in the group of people we hang around with have birthdays in January so we went out as a group to celebrate --- all 22 of us.

The celebration took place at Pancho's restaurant in Pharr as it can handle a large group. Food is good and a Mariachi band usually comes in.


One couple ordered the Fajitas for two and this is what they got. Apparently it was very tasty.


Ed ordered Fajita and Camaron. Different look to it than I expected but again very good.




The Mariachi band was playing in the back room but the trumpet player was on the balcony. You could hear them throughout the restaurant.


When we were leaving we stopped to read the sign ... one item in the celebrations list caught us by surprise. But then again it probably is a reason to celebrate for many people.

It was off to Mexico today for a little shopping and lunch. In my favorite store, I was looking at some planters and was wondering if I could convince Ed to carry them back to the truck, which would entail carrying them down the street, across the bridge, through customs, across the road to the back of the parking lot, where he insists on parking (a minimum of 10 minutes of carrying at least 20 pounds of pottery). About the same time as I was voicing my thoughts to Carol, a fellow from the store walked by and asked if we had any questions. He then commented that heavy packages could be carried across the border to your vehicle as the fellows in the store had passports and thus could cross the border. So that's what we did. It was well worth the tip I paid.

Today we lunched at a restaurant that was new to Ed and I. Ed had chicken enchiladas in mole sauce and I had a stuffed pepper --- both were very good. The margarita Ed had was not so good, in fact John and Ed agreed that it was about the worst margarita they have ever had. I offered them some of my coke and they actually poured a bit of it into their margaritas --- said it improved the drink.

It was movie night at the rec hall. Last week's audience had chosen Dolphin Tail for tonight's movie. If you haven't seen it already I would recommend it. Very good movie even though it almost made me cry.

Today was a beautiful day, sunny with a high of 88. Tomorrow's forecast cloudy with a high of 62, Thursday's forecast sunny with a high of 80. Texas winter weather --- you just gotta love it.

Saturday evening Ed was in bed and asleep by 11:30pm. On Sunday morning, Zaph and I went about our usual routine, breakfast and a walk. When we got back Ed was still asleep, so I read my book and Zaph rested. Finally at 11:30am Ed woke up --- 12 hours of sleep and the only time he roused was for about a minute when Zaph got on the bed around 9:30am. Luckily all that sleep had worked and he was feeling a lot better. With half the day gone, we decided to take it easy for the rest of the day --- especially as we didn't want another relapse.

Today, cabin fever hit and I was ready to get out of the park and do things. John and Carol are also getting over colds, so we decided to go geocaching as it doesn't require a lot of energy.

Went back to one cache that we haven't managed to find and still couldn't find it --- think we're going to need a clue. We did manage to find at least a half a dozen other caches.


Carol was smarter than the rest of us and checked around this box and found a "key hide a box".


This one in it's official looking container was hanging down a fence post.

Ed wasn't so happy today, the cold he thought he was getting over came back with a vengeance, so he decided to postpone his birthday celebrations.


Our neighbors, Glenn and Linda went to Brownsville today so their dog, Gypsy, spent the day with us.


Now Ed has really gone to the dogs.

Early in the week we had purchased a brisket with plans to smoke it early in the week. Unfortunately, both John and Ed were both under the weather so the smoking was postponed to Friday night. John wanted to try a method of cooking brisket that he had been told about ---- smoke the brisket for 4 to 6 hours, wrap in foil and cook in an oven on low heat overnight. At 5:30 Friday evening the brisket was put on the smoker where it stayed to 11:30pm at which time it was wrapped in foil and put in the roasting pan.


Quick peak at the meat smoking.


Finished smoking --- time to wrap in foil.


About 8:30am John and Carol came over and we unwrapped the brisket. Um, um good, very tender and moist ---- we had to taste it.

As part of the experiment, we also cooked some pork tenderloin though it was only smoked for three hours. We were wondering if it would be overcooked and unfortunately it was. Very tasty but a little dry.

The meat was wrapped in foil and place in a cooler bag with towels to keep it warm. This worked really well as the meat was still very warm when we served it at 5 for dinner. Seven of us (plus 2 dogs) converged in the trailer and enjoyed a delicious supper.

Pretty quiet in the park this week as a lot of people have come down with a cold or the flu --- Ed and I have been doing the cold thing. Zinc Citrate helped to keep my cold less severe.

This morning, Ed and I went to a grocery store to pick up a few things. We were standing by the meat counter when I glanced over at the fellow standing next to me. He asked if we had been geocaching yesterday ---- it was Eddy511. Yet one more example of a small world.

Corn was planted in the field behind the park and finally the farmer had decided that the corn was dry enough to harvest so a combine was run through the field. The farmer types in the park were not impressed with the amount of corn left behind but Gypsy was. She grabbed herself a cob of corn and carried it around. The birds were also very happy to see the corn. Think there were flocks totally about 1000 red wing black birds chowing down. It was mesmerizing to watch continually moving through the field --- I was so mesmerized that I didn't get my camera.




Think she was telling someone to give her corn back.

Yesterday was so much fun that we went out geocaching again today.


There was a fellow geocacher at the first cache when we arrived so he joined us in the search. Happily, I found this one but I let the fellows, Ed, Eddy511 and John, have their picture taken with the cache.


The cache was plugging the entrance to the bird house --- guess the birds don't live here any more. This one was aptly named "Mi casa es su casa".


The sky was a beautiful blue with wispy clouds that with a bit of imagination looked like birds dancing.

Think the border patrol helicopter checked us out today as we walked down one of the lesser used roads. Not sure how many illegals the border patrol catches but they are out there everyday looking.

Ed and John updated the maps on John's GPS and download a number of caches so we went geocaching with two GPS's. That was a lot of fun. Four sets of eyes also made it easier to find the caches once we were at the correct location.


First geocache of the day .... it's the tiny container Ed is holding between his fingers.


This one looked like an orange hanging in the tree.


Carol with the Skull cache she found.

In a couple of hours we found eleven caches.

Zaph has a number of "girlfriends" in the park. Gypsy was the last of them to arrive. She loves to stand on her hind legs and give him kisses.




Bob is shelling pecans again this year. When Zaph sees Bob sitting out at the table he runs over to see if there are any pecans for him. Bob has a small can where he keeps rejects for Zaph.

A Pot Luck dinner was held at the rec hall. We decided to go as we have street duty this week and need to help with serving and cleanup. People brought some really good dishes so I was happy that we went.

Ed was an unhappy camper today .... when flushing our tanks he discovered a problem with the parks sewer system. Two guys came out on Monday to find the problem and fix it.



Ed wasn't impressed with the repair job .... they duct taped the broken pipe and put it back in the ground. Think it might to be time to look for a new park.