Tuesday
was Inauguration day
We stayed around home a good part of the day and watched the events on T.V.
Wednesday
Carol went to a community outreach program, and then we went for a drive and checked out the area North and West of us. Mostly all towns, we didn't get into the rural area much. The towns range from very old to brand new. From Spanish to shopping malls
Wednesdays night there was entertainment at the rec center that we went to, a bluegrass family band from Missouri



Thursday
Started with Spanish class. We're a weekly class here at the park to learn a little Spanish. Us and about 15 other residents. We can start to read a little, and we tried watching the Mexican T.V. news last night. that's interesting. we may need to record it and play it back at a much slower speed. But the class only takes and hour or two a week, and its a good thing.
After that Ann and Phil, friends from Cedar Rapids that are down here, and us decided to go to Mexico. WE drove to Progesso, a place about 25 miles downstream on the Rio Grande from the crossing here in Pharr. The locals here call it the safe crossing. It sounded wise to take their advice. As we get there we see the much talked about wall. and ugly concrete curtain that tops a levee north of the river. It's still under construction. We parked at a lot on the U.S. side of the bridge, and pay a twenty-five cent per-person toll to cross on foot to Nuevo Progesso.
The Mexican side is bristling with arms. Sandbagged checkpoints with armed guards and armoured personnel carriers with manned machine guns. That was thrilling. Of course that's just on the edge of the bridge.. the rest of the town had no guards at all.











Most of the first four or five blocks that we walked looked like old buildings that have had several lives in the past 60 years, signs on top of signs in loud colors.




Plenty of tourist shops, bars, restaurants, prescription free drugstores dentists street vendors and unlikely combinations of these (like a drug store/bar/dentist)
some bargains to be had, but mostly colorful.
we had a donut at a bakery and wandered the main street.




















In the early evening we ate supper at a nicer place with uniformed waiters. Mexican food of course.
By then it was late in the day and the tourists were leaving and the vendors shutting down. we paid our thirty cent toll from the Mexican side and walked through customs and back to the car and home
Friday we got another bike finally. Thus one is for Frank. Picked out a new, cheap one. That was in the afternoon, and spent a few more hours getting the bile rack on the car and then getting the tires.
Saturday a few more hours truing the new bike up and a few mile ride around home with Phil, and we're ready to ho some exploring. In the afternoon, Phil, Ann and us went to the Santa Anna National Wildlife Refuge down at the Rio Grande. It's several hundred acres in a loop of the river that's marsh land and woods. Lots of ox-bow lakes and more than a few trails.. a seven miles section is for bikes and a tram ride that the park runs. We rode the bikes, while Phil and Ann rode the tram.
The ride was a good one, with lots to see and almost no one else on the trail. The weather had turned cool just before we left on the bikes. It had dropped from upper 70s to middle 60s with a strong north wind. The wind was less trouble than we would have thought tanks to the dense woods we were in. We did meet and armadillo, and plenty of signs of larger animals, there are bobcat and jagerundi around the area, but we didn't see them. The final mile or so of the ride was along a raised irrigation canal that was open to the wind, and not comfortable at all. We were to get back to the car and the visitor center. The tram with Ann and Phil got back just a few minutes after we did. The tram followed the same path as us, and stooped several times to explore some of the smaller paths. Phil said that they had a good guide

Sunday, after the paper and doughnuts, we went back to the Santa Anna reserve again and this time walked some of the paths that went deep into the woods. Again, it was a nice cool day for a walk. More birds on this walk since we had more time to see them.



A nice long part of the trails was along the bank of the Rio Grande, and along ox-bows with ducks.

We finished the day at the swimming pool.