16 Feb 2019
When Karen and Jim lived in the Independence IA area they contracted with local Amish carpenters to craft beautiful oak furniture. The furniture was moved down here when they moved, but they do not physically have room for it in their park model home, so their friends from Utah are going to take it back with them. They brought a trailer down and we all met at Karen's this morning and then proceeded to their storage unit to load the furniture from the trip to Utah.
We spent most of the morning carefully packing the furniture for the trip and then I returned to the RV for a quick lunch before heading out to see a few local sites. Many of the things we wanted to see on South Padre Island and in Harlingen TX were not open on weekends so we decided to go to South Padre on Monday and visit local sites here this weekend.
The resort is surrounded by orange groves. Before we leave I would like to pick a fresh orange. They have trees in the park but they pick them clean so as to eliminate the mess.
As we proceeded south and west, the border wall came into view. There was no good way to get close to it, nor was it advisable to do so, so we took a couple pictures from a distance:
We had a nice drive through the countryside, which is primarily agricultural. The fields are configured for flooded irrigation where they pump water from the rivers to the fields. There is a lot of piping and huge pumps visible that accomplishes this. Some fields look like they have been freshly planted, and other fields are being harvested now. We tried to figure out what some of the crops were. Some looked like onions. We saw cabbage fields and what looked like beets. They grow many different vegetables here, about anything you can think of. They also grow sugar cane. On our drive down from Corpus Christi we saw a huge what appeared to be grass fire generating a large amount of white colored smoke. Jim said that was actually smoke from them burning off the cane fields before they harvest it.
On the way back to the Resort, we stopped at the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge. This refuge was established in 1943 to protect migratory birds. It consists of over 2000 acres and is just north of the Rio Grande River in southern Texas.
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| An elevated observation deck equipped with cameras and sometimes personnel. |
We entered the Visitor Center and our National Park Pass got us in free. There were some displays there and a small gift shop.
We then took off on one of the many trails hoping to see some native wildlife.
It was very hot in the afternoon so I think most critters were hiding. We did meet one little guy along the path!
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| Irrigation ditch carries water for the farmland. |
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| Roadway the Border Patrol uses. |
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| Spanish moss. |
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| Butterflys |
We returned to the Resort, talked with our Canadian neighbors a bit, cruised around on the golf cart looking at the various RV's and park models. That's about it for today. Tomorrow Karen and Jim are going to take us to one of the local barbecue restaurants.
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