History, Music and Fun

As usual I am behind on my blog.  After surviving the whole flu thing, I am really appreciating every day in a whole new way and have been busy being out and about and just enjoying life. I will try to recap the past couple of weeks.

 My good buddy George and I went to Edinburgh and went through the Museum of South Texas History. I had seen it some time back with Anna but was only too happy to go through it again as it is hard to take it all in with just one visit. Since George loves museums, it worked out perfect.
As luck would have it, they were letting people in for free that morning. Bonus!

This time I read nearly everythng there was to read.There was also a new skeleton on display.  This prehistoric fellow appears to resemble an alligator. He was over 20 feet long and didn't look like something you would want to take a swim with.


We took a break for lunch and had a fabulous seafood buffet at the Mexican Restaurant next door and then spent the rest of the afternoon working our way through the museum. It was a great day.

One day we drove over to Weslaco and spent the better part of the morning at the Visitors Centre there. The Centre has excellent staff that really know the area and there is a huge supply of pamphlets about all the things to see and do here. There are several enchanting statues of children at play along the inside entrance.

There are  free pastries and coffee there for  the Winter Texans and they also show films. We watched a film about the Sugar Cane industry which showed how the Sugar Cane is grown, harvested and stored. This area is one of the top producers of sugar in the United States, producing about 1.5 million tons a year. The sugar cane fields are burned before they are harvested to get rid of all the green leaves and make the harvesting faster and more economical. Several days before the burn, signs are posted  announcing the date and location of the burn. There is much calculation to be done before this date is set as the temperature, wind direction, and wind velocity is a big factor to consider and conditions must be just right to avoid catastrophy. Several hours before  they do the burn they drive around in trucks announcing that they are going to set the field on fire.Often illegal immigrants hide in the fields and this  gives them  time to get out. One year there were two people who did not leave the field and they were  burned to death. One hour before the fire is lit, the trucks drive around the fields again, giving one last warning. Once the fire is set, the field (generally about 40 acres),  burns in less than 20 minutes.

At least once a week many from the Park  we go out to Trails End to do some serious dancing. I have been taking line dance classes for awhile now and I can do several different line dances without tripping over my feet. It is a lot of fun. I will try to get some pictures of our line dancing group and put on my blog soon. Of course we do lots of ordinary dancing too.


We also get together regulary in the Park for singing, dancing and visiting.













A few of us got together the other night at Steve and Patty's place and I even got my guitar out and played and sang a few tunes. Everyone pitched in for background music. We had Steve on the accordion, Rene and Patty on shakers, and  Anna on spoons.  George played a squeaky toy that actually belonged to Patty's dog. It was a bit out of tune but it was all in good fun. What a band!




Last Friday, four of us took in the Rio Grande Music Festival. It cost $8.00 each for the day. There was a large building divided in two that had a stage in each part  and also an area for crafts. There  were also 3 tents outside so there were 5 stages altogether with entertainment going non-stop. All the entertainers donated there performances and the money went to raise money for Music programs for children in the Valley. We spent the day going back and forth from one stage to the other. The highlight of the day  was a band called the Roger Kenaston Band. They were an amazingly talented  family band.  They are going to be playing in the Valley for the next couple of weeks or so and I plan to go to see them again.

Saturday was Appreciation Day here at the Park. The owners of the Park provided us all with a b-b-q chicken and sausage meal with all the trimmings. It was held along the side of the Rec Hall where there is a nice space for both eating and dancing.

We had Mexican hot chocolate (delicious), with  cake and cookies for dessert. They brought a two piece band in to entertain us, so after the meal most of us did some dancing.

Last Sunday, WhataBurger held a  pancake breakfast to help raise money for  children's camps. Of course anything for kids I love to support so I went and  ate my share of pancakes. 

It seems there is always something happening  here in the Valley.

Keep warm.