The Merry Marsden Travels

Travelling home now. We packed up the big truck and headed out of Trophy Gardens, Alamo Texas on Su nday, April 10 at 9:30 AM. Our first night on the road was at the Isle of Capri Casino Hotel, Lake Charles, Louisiana. We arrived about 6 PM and had some supper and signed up for their players card and spent some of their bonus bucks on the slots. We stayed the next morning there until noon so that we could get a few more bonus bucks - senior's monday special. Then we took off for the Paragon Casino in Marksville, L ouisiana - only about 3 hours north. Another nice hotel room - this one had alligators and fish ponds in the hotel lobby. Another feature was their cinema with 4 theatres - so we watched "The Lincoln Lawyer" starring Matthew McConaughay and Marissa Tomai that night. Off early on Tuesday morning for an 8 hour drive up to Tunica, Mississippi - a Harrah Casino hotel for the night. We crossed the Mississippi River and headed north. The Tunica area has 10 large casin

Yesterday was our hottest day in Texas. We considered putting on our air conditioner in the trailer but we knew a cold front was coming in and by the time we went to bed the temperature had dropped to 70 and was 60 by the morning. Check out the thermometer in our trailer in this picture. Not much difference from inside to outside. I spent most of the day at the pool. Today Don and I went on a Tour of the La Sal Del Rey Wildlife Tract. This is a tour offered by the Valley Nature Centre with the US Fish and Wildlife Service. We had to be at the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge at 7:30 AM. We were loaded in a 12 passenger van and drove with a park naturalist for an hour north to one of 3 natural salt lakes. El Sal Del Rey, Spanish for "Salt for the King" was first located by the Spaniards in 1697 and quickly claimed for the king. They harveste d salt here that was hauled out by ox carts to the Gulf, into Mexico as far away as Mexico City, and to all the Missions in Texas. Sal

Getting close to the end of this winter lifestyle in Texas. We have said goodbye to many of our neighbours this week as they head back up north. We have set our takeoff date for April 10 and will slowly make it over to see Tom and Diana in Virginia Beach by the 14 and proceed to Ontario on the 17th. So what have we done lately other than golf, swim, bike, eat and play games? On Saturday, March 26th, another neighbour Barb and I went to the Texas Women's Expo at the McAllen Convention Centre. It was the first time an event like this was held in the Rio Grande Valley and it seemed to be well attended by the ladies of the valley. It was the first event I had been to that I saw more local Hispanic people than Winter Texans. We enjoyed visiting the exhibitor booths and listening to speakers on Yoga, Feng Shui decorating, heart health and even a little fashion show. There was a salon doing haircuts, manicures, eyebrow waxing etc but the line-ups for that were long. On March 30 we enjoyed