Southbound Canucks: March 2015

Sunday, March 29, 2015

Our first week in Donna Texas

Sunday, March 22nd we booked into Bit-O-Heaven RV Park in Donna TX. We plan to be here about 2 weeks.

This is the first time in 5 years that we have stayed in this area on our travels to and from Mexico. This area would be our fallback winter location if we can't travel to Mexico for any reason.

The weather is a bit cooler and less humid than in Mexico this month. Daytime highs here are currently 82F (28C) with overnight low of 59F (15C) with beautiful afternoon breezes. At this time of year, the air is fragrant with the scent of orange blossoms. So pleasant! But maybe too ticklish to Bev's nose.

The first two days here we spent on motorhome maintenance. We hired someone to wash and wax the motorhome (it was filthy after traveling through rain for 2 1/2 days!).

After a shopping trip to Home Depot and 2 RV parts places, Vic replaced
1) the thermostat for our AC/furnace,
2) the support pistons for our under-bed storage cabinet and
3) the lock for our outdoor entertainment centre.

It was also time to stock up on food and supplies at the local HEB Supermarket (cheaper than Walmart) and COSTCO. Laundry costs $1.50 per wash load and $1.00 per dryer load.

The Don-Wes Flea Market is open on Wednesdays and Saturdays. We have several booths that we like to shop at in this market which is geared to "winter Texans".

We visited the market on Wednesday morning to shop in the Happy Kamper RV Shop (there's no Camping World in this area). Then we stopped at one of the fruit vendors within the market. We picked up large Rio Grande Red grapefruit. It didn't matter if you bought them by the bag or individually, there were 50 cents a piece! They are just as sweet as the ones we enjoy during our winter in Mexico.

a bag of 8 large grapefruit for $4

There is a great spice booth where Bev purchased 6 large jars of Ralph's Spices (example 10 ounces of Mesquite rub) for $3.00 each. Caraway seeds and tarragon are not easy to find but we were able to stock up on them at this place.

A new booth we discovered was the Mennonite cheese and sausage vendor. We purchased frozen Hawaiian Style Bratwurst produced in Wisconsin. They were very tasty with very little fat and low in sodium.

We also checked out Top Hat Awnings and Shades. We had our awning roller replaced by them for our original RV we had back in 2009/2010 plus we had purchased a custom side curtain at that time. This time we got a quote for a large side curtain to cover the entire driver side of our motorhome. This would stop the sun beating onto the side of the motorhome while we are in Mexico. While the sun hits the side, it heats up to over 140F and over 160F. It is tough to keep the interior cool when it is so hot on the other side of a thin wall.

Later the same day we walked over to the Val Verde Flea Market located one block east of our RV park. Like the Don-Wes Flea Market, this one is open only Wednesdays and Saturdays. One of the vendors there had dressed up his rabbit and chihuahua in costumes.

Friday morning we drove west to the Anzalduas Park in McAllen for Vic to fly some of his remote control model airplanes. It is a beautiful park which is free to use on week days but costs $4 per car on weekends. Beside the flying field there is a boat launch plus lots of picnic tables with barbeques and a picnic pavilion. The flying field is on flood land and the winds were light so a good opportunity for flying small model airplanes. There was another couple from Wisconsin at the flying field with us.

Vic flying one of 3 planes he brought to the field

the lone picnic table for the flying field

This area of Texas is known for little sandburs (or grassburs) that are so sharp they can cut bicycle tires! They are a nuisance to remove from clothing or carpeting. This year there are very few around as there has been too much rain over the winter.

showing the size of the burr compared to Bev's shoe

Along the road to the park, we were able to photograph some yucca in bloom. 5 years ago when we were in the area, vendors sold the white blooms at the market. We haven't seen any blooms for sale as yet this year.

We also scouted out the route to the new Anzalduas International Bridge which would allow us a quicker way into and out of Mexico as it goes straight to/from McAllen without having to go through Reynosa. We would like to try it on our way south in the fall.

Bit-O-Heaven has 2 heated swimming pools - one indoors and one outdoors. Friday afternoon we relaxed at the outdoor pool. A bit hot for us: in the sun the water registered 92F on the pool thermometer and in the shade it was 87F. We enjoyed socializing with other RVers from Quebec City, Ottawa, and Indianapolis. Apparently the park home models sell quickly in this park. The other day a park model across from the outdoor pool sold for $43,000 within 24 hours of being listed. The lot rental is $210 per month.

Saturday we drove east about an hour to Rio Hondo to a Fun Fly event at the SMASH Model Airpark.


Our wheels were washed driving through this deep puddle to get to the flying field!

Arroyo Colorado, the river running beside the field

It was a windy day so only large model aircraft were participating in the event.

close up view of the insignia on the plane above

While watching the model airplanes flying, we noticed a flock of large white birds with black bars on their wings soaring in the thermals above us. We found out later they were Whooping Cranes!

While visiting this flying event, we learned of a RV campground in San Benito TX that has a remote control flying field within the park and about 20 RC enthusiasts. It might be a place to consider stopping at in the fall!

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Our journey north to Pharr Texas

For the last 4 years we have traveled up the west coast of Mexico from Lo de Marcos with a stop the first night at Mazatlan, next night Los Mochis and finally a night in San Carlos before crossing the US border at Nogales. Once in the US, we would travel north to Tucson and then east across Arizona and New Deming to reach Texas. The Mexican roads are rough on that route and you are not allowed to take any fruit, vegetables or eggs as you cross the borders of each of the 2 state-lines you cross traveling up to the international border.

This year we decided to take a shorter route to enjoy some time in the Lower Rio Grande area of Texas:

On Friday March 20^th we traveled from Lo de Marcos to Guadalajara and then north to Aguascalientes. We stayed overnight at a PEMEX gas station in Aguascalientes parked amid buses and trucks.

Saturday we continued on to Zacatacas, Saltillo and Monterrey. We stopped for the night at a PEMEX on toll road Hwy 40D. The station was located about 1 hour west of Reynosa. Surprisingly that stretch of the toll road was very quiet at night and we were the only vehicles that stayed overnight at the site as the entire complex of gas station, variety store, restaurant and insurance office shut down at 9 pm. During this entire trip we crossed 6 borders and none of them had agricultural checks. It made it easier for us as we could bring fruit to munch on as we traveled and make our own meals if we wanted.

Sunday we drove to Reynosa to cross the international bridge to Pharr, Texas and were settled in to Bit-O-Heaven RV Park by noon. This route was shorter and the roads in much better condition than the west coast route. We were particularly impressed with the free Hwy 54 (libre). It was the best free highway we have driven on in Mexico – rarely any potholes or rough pavement. It was in better condition than the toll roads up the west coast.

We enjoyed the drive. There were low lying clouds plus rain off and on as we were traveling much of the way at about 6000 ft elevation. .

low lying clouds

forests of yucca trees

driving into rain

more scenery along hwy 54 Libre

lots of flowers due to the unusual amount of rain this year. This garden was located at a PEMEX station where we stopped to have lunch

more scenery along Hwy 54 Libre on our way to Monterrey

our travel buddies George and Carmen traveling ahead of us

The process to return our vehicle permits and visas at Reynosa was similar to Nogales. But the customs check on the American side here was much simpler and more relaxed than in Nogales.

As usual we are happy to be back to smooth roadways with no topes (speed bumps) in the USA.

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

A morning walk

Since we haven't gone on any special trips this year, I thought I'd post more photos of every day views here. This is our sixth winter in Lo de Marcos so we forget how unusual some of the scenery is to our friends.

I walked over to Venados Beach today. It is about a 20 minute walk (if you don't stop to take photos). The route is via a low traffic dirt road through the coastal jungle. The unfortunate part about dirt roads in this area is the deep ruts from the rain. The roads are not graded often so it is easier to walk than to drive over to this particular beach.


a sign where the pavement ends and the dirt road begins

The last of the paved road before the dirt road begins

The sounds of the tropical birds singing was music to my ears. Very much like when we had 14 exotic finches in our home that used to sing such pretty songs. I also saw a flock of small parrots, similar in size to the Quaker Parrot we used to have as a pet. The birds were all too high in the trees for me to capture a photo.

Along the way there are lots of mango and banana trees. This year we have had more rain than usual so mangoes are already forming on the trees. Other years we have not seen mangoes developed to this stage before we left in March.