Tombstone, The Town Too Tough To Die

Wow, what a day it was. This is a really fun place to visit.

To actually walk where Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday walked a hundred years ago is neat. To actually be on the same piece of dirt they fought that famous “OK Corral” gun battle on is weird. To stand on the very street and block where men stood face to face for a gunfight blew me away. We’ve all seen it on TV a hundred times but people actually fought those gun fights and died right there. Died, on the very spots where we now walk in peace, from air conditioned store to air conditioned store.

We visited the Bird Cage Theatre, the most famous Honky Tonk in America in 1881 and the site of 16 gun battles. This saloon is preserved in its original state. This is the actual bar where the men drank and played cards downstairs while the ladies of the night worked upstairs. It’s where Wyatt Earp met the love of his life, married her, and stayed with her until he died. They drank, smoked, played cards, fought and died in there. The floor is still original as is the bar. The bar was made of wood brought in from Africa, which would still be a big deal today. This wood shipped from Africa around the tip of S. America and up to San Francisco. Then it had to be shipped from San Francisco down to Arizona. It’s a priceless piece of America’s history.

As we were driving up there we chatted about how tough the people had to be back then. This country is brutal; I can’t imagine what it was like to be here without air conditioning, paved roads, or even a regular water supply. All they had was their horse and/or a wagon, a gun or two, and an amazing will to survive. I can understand why Wyatt Earp retired to Oregon and chose to be buried there. Who wants to be buried under a big old cactus?

This is a special place with tons of history, nice shops, things to see and do, lots of people in period costumes, and a couple of eating establishments. It was interesting to note that there was no McDonalds, no Wendy’s, and no fast food of any kind. We found a couple of nice art galleries and a Native American Jewellery store that was fabulous. They stocked only Native American Creations and the sales person was a young Native American guy that did a great job. His product knowledge was outstanding. It was far and away the best shop we found.

On the way back down to Benson, where we’re parked we toured a few RV parks in case we ever get back this way. At this point it appears we just might do that. So far Arizona is pretty nice.

Down in the Rio Grande Valley whenever Arizona comes up it’s always followed with some comment about how cold the nights are. It’s true. The daytime temperatures have been in the 70’s but the evenings have been down to the mid 50’s. So – that’s Arizona, I can handle it.

Yes - this is where it happened

This sign made my day.

So tomorrow we’re off to Tucson to see what we can find.

Hope you enjoy the pictures, thanks for stopping by and please so leave a comment when you.

Neal and Bernie

San Antonio to Tucson

People told us this was going to seem like a long, long trip and they certainly weren’t exaggerating. It is a long trip but it sure is an interesting one.

Bernie and I always think of Texas as flat, REALLY big and flat. It was quite a surprise when we got into West Texas. There are some extremely interesting spots out there. I think San Antonio to Tucson is around 550 miles. 550 miles of desolation. Last night we stayed in Van Horn Texas. The RV park manager was telling me about his cable TV. I explained that we were tired and I would just use our antenna and whatever was on the air. He laughed as he told me “there was no over the air out there” and in fact they could only get one radio station, intermittently. Ahh – the lights went on, we understood, until then we had been thinking our truck radio was fried.

That’s Texas. Despite being the second most populous state in the union (behind California) it’s so big there are places that radio and TV signals still don’t reach. It sounds unbelievable, we were just off of I-10, this is the US, we’re traveling an interstate highway, there has to be TV and radio. But he was right - nothing, 0, nada. It really served to point out the size of Texas.

It's no wonder nothing grows out here, there's no soil, it's all rock

We used to think the |Canadian Prairies were long and straight

We had an interesting drive through El Paso. It’s quite a sight to see. From I-10 you see it spread out in a shallow valley to the South. I’d love to see it at night. We didn’t even stop for coffee so we really didn’t see much, except Juarez Mexico. As we drove through Bernie commented “that must be a poor part of town.” Then we saw the border fence and we knew we were looking at Juarez. Yes Juarez, where drug lord’s and smugglers rule and everyone else has moved out. I had read that Juarez was practically deserted and in our brief encounter it sure did look like a ghost town. I wouldn’t cross the border there for anything.

I can’t believe we covered 500 miles since our last posting and I only having a couple of paragraphs to post. As you may know I can be much more verbose than this but there just wasn’t anything out there to write about.

This really is a long and desolate stretch of road but it's one we're really glad we had an opportunity to travel.  Would we do it again?  You bet.

So here we are in Arizona, just East of Tucson in Benson. It seems like a nice little place to hang out for the weekend. Tomorrow we’ll unload the Smart car and head for Tombstone.

More from Tombstone's "OK Corral" later.

Thanks for stopping by and please do leave a comment when you can.

Neal and Bernie

Pharr to Boerne

It was a late start today.  We wanted to say goodbye to all of our friends so we were an extra hour getting away from Tropic Star.  Our planned 9:30 to 10:00 start ended up being 11:00.  Oh well, stuff happens.

So tonight we're at the "Top of the Hill RV Resort" just West of San Antonio in Boerne Texas.
http://www.topofthehillrvresort.com/

The park is very nice, the people are very nice and I would recommend it.  They have some great pull through lots that can handle our 68' and more.  I paced a "back in lot" and it was 65'.  Nice park just off of I10, easy access.  The views are unbelievable.  This is Texas "Hill Country."  Bernie and I love it here.

A couple of pictures I took this evening.

Tomorrow ???????????  Somewhere between here and Tucson.  If everything goes according to plan we'll be dancing in Arizona on the weekend.

As usual. thanks for stopping by and please leave a comment when you can.

Neal and Bernie

A great weekend with Amber

Bernie and I are blessed to have three girls. Amber, our youngest, came for a visit last weekend.  It was great.  Thank you Amber.

Yours truly, Bernie, Amber

FIRST STOP - THE OUTLET MALL OF COURSE

Amber and Bernie on their return, looks like they did some damage and had some fun.

They were kind to "the old guy" and left me at home, I was SOOOO disappointed, NOT.

After the trip to the mall was out of the way we got down to some serious family time and enjoyed every minute of it. Amber got a tour of our resort, some good shopping, a couple of good sleeps, and times to meet many of our friends.

On Sunday friends Ken and Doreen hosted “a meet the daughters” evening. What does that mean?  Well, Amber was in town - along with friends Ron and Karen’s daughter Lori. So Ken and Doreen hosted a “meet the daughters” BBQ where we all had a great time.  Everyone there was from Alberta, except Bernie and I, but they let us stay anyway.

Bernie, Amber, Lori

Hosts Ken and Doreen at the top

Since Bernie and I and others are leaving in the next few days we had a “farewell” block party last week.  These pictures will show you that winter Texans definitely have too much fun.  We bowled with oranges, golfed with marshmallows, played a wienie game, (no details will be released, this is a family friendly blog) and capped it with a “Mexican Pile On” dinner. Needless to say a good time was had by all and everyone ate way too much.

Bernie about to drive a giant marshmallow.

She did way better than me.

So now it’s time to say goodbye to our friends, Tropic Star and S. Texas as we head for Arizona tomorrow morning.

Adios, see you next fall.

More from the road later in the week.  We’ll be spending a couple of weeks in Arizona before moving on through California, Oregon, and Washington to B.C.  We really miss our friends here, all of them, even the four legged ones.

This fellow comes by to visit and chatter at us all the time.  We thought he was going to crawl in our car yesterday.  He came to our block party, sitting on a Palm tree for awhile but then he came right down to visit with us all.

As always, thanks for stopping by and please do leave a comment when you can.

Neal and Bernie

A Family Time

We’ve been coming to the valley for five winters and never had a visitor from back home.  That all changed last week when we had an influx of Fishers to the Rio Grande Valley. My brother Ed arrived from Newfoundland with his girlfriend Julie and within 24 hours sister Jan arrived from Calgary.

Yours truly, Sister Jan, Brother Ed

Neal. Bernie, Jan, Julie, Ed

Coincidence ONE. Both Ed and Jan decided, with no consultation with each other, on the dates they would come down. After flights were booked they happily found out they would be here at the same time.

Coincidence TWO. They both decided to stay, without talking to each other, at a neighbouring resort called Victoria Palms.

Coincidence THREE. Brother Ed and Julie stayed with her Uncle and Aunt, while Sister Jan stayed with friends, who live just around the corner from each other.

So figure out the odds on this. In Canada they live 3500, maybe 4000 miles from each other, and end up in the same resort, at the same time, within a few doors of each other. I think the odds of winning the lotto are higher than that.


Dinner one night with Julie's Uncle, Aunt, and friends.

In Front Julie, Ed

Standing, Sterling and Joan (Newfoundland,) Bernie and I, Sherry Skippy, (real Texans - born and raised here)

Julie and Ed cooked us a Newfie (Newfoundland) dinner and we ate WAY too much. A Newfie dinner can mean different things depending on what part of Newfoundland you come from. I had fears of some kind of a fish boiled in a big pot with ?  :-)  As a very pleasant surprise it was a roast beef meal, great food, not unlike what a prairie (heartland) boy like me was raised on. The problem was, as usual, I ate way too much. We might have to get a bigger truck to roll me out of the valley this year.

At the time I’m writing this Jan has headed back to the “cold” North and Ed is still here for a few days. The cold North??????????? Figure this out - it’s warmer in Calgary than it is here today???????

BUT - life is good in Texas.

Plans are well underway for the trip back North. We were planning to leave here on the 15th of Feb., but are setting it back a week for another visitor (more on that later) and will now leave on Feb 21 or 22. The plan is to push pretty hard to Tucson. We’ll spend a week or so in Arizona, and then head over to Las Vegas and Death Valley for a few days. From Vegas, a good steady trip North through California, Oregon, and Washington.  We plan to be in B.C. about March 15th. We plan to spend a month with our kids/grand kids/friends in the lower mainland before heading to Calgary for a few days and back to Winnipeg for May 1st.

Everything is pretty well set. We still want to get an oil change on the truck before we put all those hard miles on her, and Bernie MUST get over to the Outlet Mall once before we go. Other than those two “must do’s” we’re good to go. I’m kind of excited to get back on the road. We’ll miss our friends here but something in my old body likes to keep moving. I blame it on all of those years I spent tied to a desk. More likely it’s a flaw in my character but we’ll blame it on the desk.

So that’s it for today, we’re off to a dance lesson, then a dance and then to dinner with friends. Tuesdays are fun days.

Thanks for stopping by and please do leave a comment when you can.

Neal and Bernie

13000 Tabs For Raphael

Two years ago I decided to help our friends Denis and Therese collect can tabs for the benefit of their niece’s son, Raphael. Denis and Therese live in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, and have become friends here in the Rio Grande Valley.

Raphael has Cystic Fibrosis which makes doing many things we take for granted almost impossible for him. BUT, Raphael and his mom are not going to allow his condition to slow him down much. His mom, Annie, has become very active in the Cystic Fibrosis Assoc. taking an active role in fund raising as she helps Raphael in his ongoing battle.

For anyone dealing with Cystic Fibrosis breathing is a huge problem but technology is helping and the medical people have developed a breathing vest for patients. Wearing this vest allows them to breathe much easier and to finally do some of things we all do every minute of every day without a thought. The problem is they are extremely expensive and of course as these young people grow they need larger vests every two or three years. Through the Cystic Fibrosis Assoc. the vests a traded in, reconditioned and passed on, but even with that trade program the cost is prohibitive for the average family.

So who is Raphael? Permit me to introduce you to him.

This is Raphael, the beneficiary of our efforts.

When Raphaels’ mom found out about our collection efforts, last week, she sent the picture along with this message (translated.)

This is the picture of Raphael. He now plays in a hockey league and he is a very good player. He is so motivated and determined that is almost unbelievable. When I think that last March he could barely skate....

He is now one of the best players on his team. We are very proud of him. On this picture he received the trophy given to the first star of the game.
Thank you all for collecting the can tabs that we are still gathering. In school Raphael with his friends also collect them.
Annie (mother of Raphael)

The first summer (2010) we were able to collect a couple of pounds of tabs thanks to help from our kids, our Grandsons and a couple of our friends. We were working on the effort when I ran into some trouble and we had to leave Texas early.

Last spring we decided to take this to another level and set a goal to try and collect five pounds of tabs.  Since I had no idea what 5 lbs of tabs meant it seemed like a worthwhile goal and we got started.  About mid summer I realized that 5 lbs was going to be a whole big bunch of can tabs and started to think that maybe it was unattainable.  Thanks to a great family and super friends we achieved our goal.  In fact, thanks to our family and friends we shot past that goal by three pounds.  Last Monday we took Denis and Therese just over 8 lbs of tabs.

So what does 8 pounds of can tabs look like? Here is a picture.

Those are giant zip locks, bigger than they look.

It’s quite a few. Since I wasn’t about to try counting them I decided to weigh some and figure it out. There is no way to know for sure but within a couple of hundred, either way, there were 13,000 tabs in those bags.

Many many people got on board to help us and I want to try to thank them here. There is no doubt I will miss someone and if I’ve missed you please forgive me.

Special thanks first of all, to Grandsons Brendan and Cole. These two young fellows did a great job.  They got some help from their parents, their other Grandparents, their friends, and a hockey team and brought us a lot of can tabs. Our kids really helped out, thank you, Leslie, John, Colleen, Tim, Rob, Brenda, and Brady. My brother Rick sent us a big bag, thanks Rick. Sister Peg, nephew, Errant, thank you. And our friends, thank you so very much, Darcy (your family and staff), Elwood, Ken and Doreen (over 3000), George and Judy, Gary and Gloria, and many more.  Thank you all.

Therese, Bernie, Neal, Denis

(13000 tabs)

So now what? Since this isn’t something that allows us to say – job done, we have to get back to work. Raphael and others in his position need our help. One of our son in laws asked me one day why we don’t just give them some money and be done with it? It’s a really good question but collecting these tabs is different. It’s a way for a whole bunch of people to come together, for each of us to do something a bit different, and help out those less fortunate.  Take another look at that picture of Raphael.  Without your (our) help and the help of many others he would not have that "first star" medal, he is so proud of.

In that spirit I would ask you to please help us out this year. This year's goal is 10 pounds, about 20,000 tabs so we obviously need a lot of help. If you would like to help us, please leave me a comment here so I can get in touch with you.

To those of you that helped out in 2011 Thanks again, to those of you on board for 2012 thank you in advance. Your effort is appreciated.

As usual, thanks for stopping by and please do leave a comment when you can.

Neal and Bernie

Greetings from Nuevo Progresso, Mexico

Bernie and I decided to spend a couple of days in Nuevo Progresso Mexico last week and had a great time.  We Love It There.

Approaching the Border

As you approach the border they make it really clear they don’t want guns coming into the country. It seemed funny to be seeing this huge sign at the border when we hear so much about the violence down there right now. When I thought about it, it’s the same as we are in Canada, no guns allowed. The problem is the “bad guys” don’t worry about the signs. Hmmm?? Maybe the Texans have it right.

We parked the car and walked over, the same as we have many times except this time I remembered the camera. Bernie just rolls her eyes and groans when I do that.

This is a shot from up on the bridge, you can see the Rio Grande River and if you look to the back of the picture (right/American side) you’ll see a bit of that famous Border fence. In this area the fence is built on top of a high earthen, dike like, support structure so it appears much higher than it is. I haven’t measured it but it looks like about 15’ of steel on top about of 15’ of earth. It’s pretty intimidating. I found a spot I could drive on top of the dike, because the fence isn't up yet, and did so for 4 or 5 miles. It was a hoot, the Border patrol 4X4s are everywhere and we’re bouncing along in the Smart Car. They left us alone, they know we couldn’t be smuggling anybody our Smarty, OR MAYBE, they wanted nothing to do with anybody dumb enough to drive a Smart car up there.

A couple of years ago we were exploring down under the international bridge leading to Reynosa with our van. I was just having some fun but admit I was scaring my poor wife. It was interesting because the bridge goes on for two or three miles, and under it there are farms, before you get to the river/border. It’s all very low land and I suspect it’s a hot spot for illegal’s. All of a sudden, from nowhere, I had a Border patrol 4x4 on our tail. He just drove there about 4’ off our back bumper on a dirt road. I didn’t know what to do, although I had a pretty good idea what he was doing on his radio. So I kept my speed, made a quick left and kept going, dust flying everywhere, 2 or 3 miles to the Border Patrol parking lot. He followed us right onto the lot but when we parked, to go to the duty free store, he kept going. (I think he had to get a wash) Our hearts were beating pretty well by then. Note to self, stay away from under the Reynosa Bridge. 

Sorry I got off topic, back to Progresso.

This shot is from the bridge, the Boundary is in the middle of the river.

Welcome to Mexico.

They like Winter Texans here.

Looking North on the Main Street in Progresso.

Looking South.

The pictures don’t do it justice but try to count the dentist and pharmacy signs in these pictures. There has to be at least a hundred, probably more, dental offices in this small section of town. Add a similar number of pharmacies and you know how this town exists. The number of Canadians and Americans that come here for dental work and prescriptions is mind blowing. You sit in the dentist’s office and talk to people from all over the continent. I was chatting with a lady from Illinois who wants “to be a Canadian in her next life.” It was fun.

The food court of the dentists mall.  In the back you see the bar and in the front (empty tables) the only food normally being sold is candied pecans.  The bar is cheap and the pecans are delicious.

You can’t blame people for coming down here for dental work. The Mexican dental prices run at about 1/3 (sometimes less) of the up North numbers. The people are certified, many are trained in the U.S., and they are very skilled. We have talked to folks who fly down, stay in a hotel, rent a car, and walk over to their dentist.  They still save tons of money. Prescription pharmaceuticals run at ½ or less and they’re the same brands you buy at home.

Also from those pictures note the absence of police and military. In the five years we’ve been coming here the Mexican army has always had a huge machine gun placed right in the middle of the street, at the bridge end, along with a number of machine gun equipped soldiers standing guard. They’re all gone. We were told they have posted them S. of town to make snow birds feel safer. I kind of liked having them there but we feel safe either way.

So we did our shopping, had lunch at our favourite restaurant, The Red Snapper, and headed home. We’ll be back tomorrow, and again and again.

It's so nice to cross this border.  The Mexicans ignore you on the way in.  On the way out the Americans just ask a couple of basic questions while they scan your passport and it's done.  Its seems so strange becuase of what we go through both ways at the Canadian border.


As a side note I read yesterday that the country wide murder rate in Mexico is lower than Washington, D.C., Chicago, and many other places in Canada and the U.S. It’s all about drugs. If the gangs weren’t fighting each other for control of drugs Mexico would be among the safest places on earth. 1.6 Million Canadians will visit there this winter, for the warmth of both the sun and the people.  These two Canadians sure enjoy it.

So our two days in Progresso ended and we were happy.  We'll be back once or twice before we go, keep those Margaritas chilled.

We have our heat back. Some days are getting back into the 80’s and the air conditioners are running quite a bit. We’ve put away the heaters :-)  :-)  :-)  OHHHH Ya. Time to go to the pool and start thinking North, it’s getting tooooo hot.......  Appologies to anyone reading this from up North.  I just had to throw that in.

It's time to go for today.  Thanks for stopping by and please leave a comment when you can.

Neal and Bernie

Happy New Year

Best wishes everyone, we hope 2012 is a great year for you with lots of good health and great times.

The last picture of 2011, Happy New Year

We spent New Years Eve at our home resort, Tropic Star.  They had a great New Years Eve party.  There were about 400 people up at the the ballroom and fun was the order of the night.  We shared a table with friends Jan and Leo, Sally and Jim, and had a great night.  We danced until my feet gave up on me but that was just before 12 so it was perfect.  At midnight the resort provided a bottle of champagne to each table and a great midnight snack of sandwiches, chips, ice cream, and brownies.  Our activities director and the volunteers that made it happen deserve a lot of credit.  It was great and I suspect today will be a quiet one with a nice long afternoon nap.  I went outside to get the newspaper about 7:30, it as like I was standing in a graveyard, not a whisper anywhere.

The Tropic Star Ballroom

Music was provided by a group called Heartland Express.  http://www.myspace.com/heartlandexpressband1 

They are well known here in the valley although we hadn't danced to their music before.  They were really good, with lots of two step, swing, and polka music.  It was fun to watch the band at work last night.  They tried a few waltzes and the floor stayed pretty much empty.  So they went back to swing and two step and filled the floor right away.  They did a good job of keeping people on their feet all night.  The crowd was there to party and a good time was had by all.

Bernie and Phylis hard at work .

We had such a good time last night I'd like it to go on, BUT, 2011 is all wrapped up and we're off on a whole new year.

SO

HAPPY NEW YEAR, BEST OF EVERYTHING IN 2012.

Bernie and I are exited to be headed into another year of full time travel with our RV.  We're anxious to spend as much time as we can with our kids and the grandchildren.  It's funny how it took me 60+ years to figure out why my parents were after me to come over all the time.  As they say "tooooo soon old, toooooo late smart."

We'll leave the Rio Grande Valley in about 7 weeks for a long and slow trip to Vancouver, then over to Calgary, and Winnipeg for the summer and the required six months in our home province (state.)

We haven't planned anything beyond next summer, although discussions of the North Eastern U.S. are on the table.  I have to admit I really do want to try taking our rig to New York state.  I think we Might be a bit long for the city but the state is a "must."  My bucket list includes driving through Manhattan and Central Park, (Smart car only).  I was there once a long time ago and have always wanted to drive through it,  I understand there are some RV parks across the river in New Jersey that we could get into.  Bernie and I have this saying we use all the time, "if not now, when?"  So doing this trip is simply a when?  There is no "if."

I think that's all I have in me for today, thanks for stopping by and please do leave a comment  when you can.

Neal and Bernie

PS, I see, from the information this blog gives me, that people visit here from all over the world.  I see people stopping by from India, Russia, China, and many many more.  I'd love to hear from you.  Where you are from, and/or what you do in you country.  Please say hello by leaving a comment and telling us about yourself.  Thanks