The Merry Marsden Travels

Sunday, February 12/12 Well it has been a cool rainy week in South Texas - not what we had signed on for but we can't complain about the rain because of the drought that Texas has experienced in the past year. We have kept ourselves busy by shopping, going to see the movie "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" with Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock and a young boy actor who had a difficult role that he did very well. It was $5 Movie Monday. Don only got to play ball on Monday and Tuesday mornings - Wednesday and Thursday were rained out but he did go to Umpire School from 9 to 4 on Saturday. We checked out a few Thrift stores and I could not resist the urge to pick up some glassware to make a few pole toppers - that will perch on top of sawed off golf clubs - since there are no cross country ski poles here to be had. On Friday night, Bonnie and John, Brenda and Rick, Maureeen and I went to a local theatre group's production of "The River is Gold" - a bit painful but...

Time to get back on track with this blog. So the sad update on golf is that Canada lost the tournament to the USA and then this past Wednesday it was Winter Ranch (the RV Park beside us) and Trophy Garden Challenge (our park) and we lost again. Maureen and I attended a 90 minute seminar from golf guru "Steve" ( http://www.cornettasgolf.com/ ) that preachers to the recreational golfer at a nearby hotel ballroom. It was entertaining and we are hoping it helps our games. (It isn't showing so far?) So what else have we done - besides golf and potluck dinners? Don and I went on a little bus trip to a Rio Grande River Cruise last Monday. We had an hour ride on the Rio Grande River - saw the damage on the riverfront properties from t he flooding of the river last fall. The river stayed elevated for 33 days. We had a delicious lunch at the Riverside Grill where our cruise started and ended. The Border Patrol presence is certainly seen. We saw their lookout tower right beside this...

Been back in Texas for almost a week and can't say I have accomplished much? Been out on the golf course here a few times to get back in the swing of things (pun intended), taught my exercise class on Tuesday and Friday morning - suffered from that with those 2 weeks off routine in Arizona. Did get out of the park with Maureen (cousin Don's wife) and Gail (another Manitoba friend) to visit the nearby town of Pharr. There was a 45 minute Trolley ride to see its historic buildings, followed by a chicken dinner and then a "Senior Cinderella Play". This was put on by the Pharr Literacy Program - a grass roots organization that started several years ago to bring ESL classes to the hispanic population (97% of their population) and now they run a nursery, their classes in English, Spanish, sewing, computer, business are all free with the students having to do volunteer service for their classes. This county is one of the poorest in the USA so they are giving these people a c...

Last day in Arizona for this trip - to fly back tomorrow to Texas to rejoin Don in the Trophy Garden fun. Yesterday Lynn and I spent the morning on a Historical Tour of Florence - travelling around in a trolley and stopping to tour homes or public buildings in that town. For lunch we had enciladas and tacos at an old Inn and listened to a man talk about a gunfight that took place in Florence between the sheriff and his deputy for unknown reasons. After lunch we went to the Casa Grande Ruins for a Native American Music Festival - featuring flute music. The weather has been sunny and 80 degrees so it was a pleasure to be outside for these events. Tom, Lynn and I went to the movies to see the new "True Grit" movie with Jeff Bridges and then we had to rent the old "True Grit" with John Wayne. The new one is more sophisticated but the old one has its charms too. That is it for Arizona.

Another week has gone by in sunny Texas and now I have to try and remember what we did special this past week. There has been lots of golfing since the weather has been nice. Here is a picture to show this to be true. Don goes out to men's golf on Monday mornings and I tried Ladies Golf on Thursday morning and didn't embarass myself too badly. At the weekly park meeting it was announced that there are 875 residents in the park now and some more expected in the next 2 weeks. I went to the evening entertainment on Tuesday evening - "Gold Wing Express" - a father and 3 sons from Branson Missouri - very good musicians/singers and funny too. Spanish class is an hour on Wednesday and we have homework too but it may need alot more time than that to get it to sink into our brains. Wednesday afternoon, Don and I went into old McAllen for a massage - a deal out of the newspaper - we each had a 45 minute full body relaxation massage for a total of $45.00 - it was a good deal. On...

Got to catch up again. Did go on the long bike ride to McAllen last Monday morning - great until we had to bike back from Country Omelette with full bellies and into the wind? Wednesday's Mystery Tour went to the "Museum of South Texas History" in Edinburg - a town northwest of us. It was very well done for the history of the Rio Grande Valley from prehistoric times to 2000. Lots of unrest in this area due to border disputes with Mexico. This is also a rich agricultural area - with the help of irrigation for the crops of cotton, sugarcane, citrus and vegetables. One building was the original jail complete with gallows. Lunch that day was at a barbecue place and then we came back to the RV Park. We did have another adventure to a soup and sandwich fundraiser at another mobile home park not too far away but that wasn't too exciting. We will try to be more exciting this coming week. I am off on another bus ride tomorrow to an aloe vera farm?