Houston!

/ Ed Armstrong
motorhome view

Beautiful view from our motorhome!

Today we moved from Mission, Texas to Houston. We had a great trip until we got to the outskirts of Houston. The GPS sent us to a toll road that required an automatic tracker, which we did not have. Unfortunately, signs were posted that they did not accept cash either. Bummer for us. We had to weave through some local neighborhoods with low hanging trees to get around the toll road. Eventually, we made it to our destination and have a beautiful view of a small lake out of the front window. It is beautiful!

 

catfish

Catfish are certainly ugly!

I walked around the RV park and found a guy that just caught a 23 inch catfish! It is catch and release, so shortly after he caught the fish, he removed the hook and tossed it back into the lake. I was amazed how large the fish was. Catfish are sure ugly!

Alamo Draft House

After that, we headed to Alamo Draft House to watch “13 Hours:; The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi.” We enjoyed the movie and had fun eating dinner while watching a movie. It is certainly an intense movie!

Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park

/ Ed Armstrong

Rio Grande Valley State Park-2

We had a wonderful visit today to the nearby Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park in Mission, Texas. It was a beautiful sunny day and around 78 degrees. We first road the tram through the whole park, and then we walked through some of the sections with the most birds to watch.

 

It was fun to see all the different types of birds. I especially enjoyed watching the cardinals and the green jays. A special bonus was watching a raccoon watching hungrily for the birds to drop food!

Rio Grande Valley State Park-3

Family Softball!

/ Ed Armstrong
Katelyn Kendra-1

It was absolutely wonderful to see Kristin (Nikki) again. She and Charlene were grinning from ear to ear to be able to spend time together!

We had a wonderful time today visiting Charlene’s niece (Kristin) and her husband Doug and watch two of their daughters play softball. It was a beautiful day, about 70 degrees, and a great time to sit back, enjoy each other’s company, and watch two daughters play softball. Katelin and Kyndra both played very well!

 

2nd Trip to South Padre Island!

/ Ed Armstrong
South Padre Island-8

I am holding a puffer-fish!!

Today was exceptionally wonderful. Charlene planned a full day of activities at South Padre Island. We started the day at a turtle rescue facility. It was amazing to see all the turtles! Some were missing flippers from previous trauma.

 

South Padre Island-3

A previous Arizona Wildcat fan was given the honor of painting one of the turtle decorations at the Turtle Rescue.

South Padre Island-1

We enjoyed meeting this friendly turtle who was missing a flipper.

South Padre Island-2

When then went on a dolphin cruise in the bay and say beautiful sites around South Padre Island. It was fun to see the seagulls flying around our boat. The crew placed a net behind the boat to collect different creatures. This highlights were a sea anemone, a puffer fish, and a sting-ray.

 

South Padre Island-6

The crew showed us the big tooth in the front of the puffer-fish!

South Padre Island-5

Charlene was able to touch the sea anemone!

 

South Padre Island-7

Look at the HUGE stinger on the sting-ray!

After seeing the creatures from the net, we went near the entrance to the bay and watched several groups of dolphins!

South Padre Island-10

We loved the opportunity to watch dolphins in the bay from our boat!

 

South Padre Island-4

There were many seagulls flying around our boat!

South Padre Island-9

The wind was fairly strong and stirred up some big waves along the beach!

South Padre Island, Texas

/ Ed Armstrong
South Padre Beach 2

Beautiful South Padre Island!

Silly me, but I keep forgetting that Texas has beaches. With all the places I have visited in Texas for year and years, I have never seen a beach. However, there is beautiful South Padre Island in the Rio Grande Valley. We love it now, but it is probably a good place to avoid when nearby universities are on Spring Break.

South Padre Beach

It has been years since Charlene and I were able to walk along a beach together. It may be winter and cold in many places, but it is beautiful beach weather in South Padre Island! The water was too cold for swimming, but it was fantastic to walk along the water!

horses on the beach

At one point, we saw some people riding horses along the beach. Horses are common in Texas, but this is the first time I have ever seen horses on a beach!

Charlene South Padre Island beach

Charlene discovered crabs in the sand. She touched one 3 inch crab burrowing in the sand and he came up with one claw raised to challenge her! We saw several small crabs running quickly along the sand.

crab

Rio Grande Valley, Texas

/ Ed Armstrong

After apartment living in Amarillo for the holidays, we decided to hit the road again to find some warmer winter temperatures. We had the motorhome de-winterized and then we headed straight south toward the Rio Grande Valley. We keep discovering how huge Texas is! We drove and drove the first day and stopped in Junction, Texas, just south of Interstate 10. The following morning, we drove through San Antonio and then south into the Rio Grande Valley. Without exaggeration, I think it took us around 13 hours driving to get all the way from the Texas panhandle in the north of the state, to Mission, Texas at the far southern tip of Texas. The drive was worth it as the winter weather is beautiful here!

 

We called ahead and reserved a site in a beautiful RV park right next to a state park and the Rio Grande River. The temperatures have been beautiful with highs in the 70s and 80s. We have really enjoyed wearing shorts and flip-flops again!

 

Many people make the Rio Grande Valley their winter home base. Next door to our RV park is a related development that has casitas and homes with attached RV ports. It was nice to go through some of the open houses and see the setups many people have used with their RVs. Sorry, no photos just yet.

Wildcats Win the New Mexico Bowl

/ Ed Armstrong
Charlene & Ed

We LOVE going to bowl games! It was very fun to attend the New Mexico Bowl and have our picture taken with the game trophy.

The game was between the University of Arizona versus the University of New Mexico
The Pride of Arizona (The UA marching band) made a block A during the pregame show.
30,000 fans

More than 30,000 people attended the game.

It is so much fun to attend bowel games! We really enjoyed our first New Mexico Bowl. The University of Arizona beat the University of New Mexico. However, the game was quite close (45 to 37) and it was within the final minute until we were confident of a win.

Wilbur

Charlene and Wilbur celebrated the win!

Wildcats win

The Arizona Wildcats won 45 to 37

Battle of the Bands

/ Ed Armstrong
Charlene & Ed pep rally

We really had fun being with the tuba players! They were really enjoying themselves.

We really had fun at the pep rally that was called the Battle of the Bands. After we found the location of the pep rally, we went to the side for the University of Arizona. It was fun to intermingle with the band members, twirlers, pomp-pomp girls, and cheerleaders. A master of ceremonies from the New Mexico Bowl set up a series of challenges for both schools. Mostly it was fun series of songs between both bands.

band 3

football sign

Charlene and I decided the tuba players had the most fun in the band, so we stood just behind the tuba players. I have never been so close to the Pride of Arizona. It is so much fun being in the midst of all the students on the band. Both groups of students were excited to celebrate their schools and have fun together.

Charlene & Ed

Afterwards we ate dinner at an independent Mexican restaurant and then went back to the hotel and people watched to see all the fans, coaches, and players. It is a very fun evening!

Go Wildcats!

/ Ed Armstrong
Ed & Charlene

We arrived in Albuquerque for the New Mexico Bowl!

We are excited to make it Albuquerque for the New Mexico Bowl! We just arrived at the hotel and we are staying at the same hotel as the football team. Bowl games are always fun and it is nice to get back to Albuquerque again. It is fun to see the University of Arizona banners and balloons celebrating the bowl game tomorrow throughout the hotel! We have seen a few of the players walking around the hotel.

balloons

It’s Snowing!

/ Ed Armstrong
Snowing

The big beautiful snowflakes were gorgeous!

This morning we woke up to a couple of inches of snow on the ground in Amarillo! On our way to church, it started snowing nice big flakes. After church, it really started coming down! It was very beautiful and refreshing!