Amistad Reservoir, Texas

70 degrees.  Drove from Zapata, TX without using AC until after lunch when it finally got above 72 degrees.
Will fill in since we left Kenwood, with photos (on WIFI here at Holiday Trav-L-Park by Amistad Reservoir.so will have time to upload pics, etc.)

Sunday, after attending Methodist Church in La Feria, we ate lunch in Santa Rosa and then Jack & Karen Norden rode with us as we went to Jim & Char Bernathie's new house in Stuart Place.  Nice house and lot more room than they had here at Kenwood.

Sunday evening we played dominoes with Dave & Jan Engle, Karen & Jack Norden, and Jim & Char Bernathie at the Rec Hall.

Monday evening we had Carl & Marti came over for cards and a goodbye for the season.  On Tuesday morning Phyllis went for her final (for now) chiropractic treatment and then we stopped at Las Vegas Cafe for breakfast.  

Back home we did most of the final things.  Discovered later (when Karen N called) that I forgot to close and lock the door on the storage shed -- which made me remember that I was going to do that when I shut off the water outside and turned off the electricity.  She and Jack took care of things.

After almost 5.5 months (we unhitched October 30, 2012, and hooked back up April 9, 2013)  hooked up and all packed, extra mirrors mounted on the Ford, step-ladder tied on the rear and ready to go.

Phyllis locking the door and ready to leave.

Can't blame her for not seeing the open door of the shed behind her, because when we got to the front gate of Kenwood realized I had forgotten my straw hat and I walked back to the house and got it.

Getting out of the Valley and heading northwest you see a lot of mesquite and some of the huisache trees along the road, but not much else. That last tree is pronounced we-satch.  

Little penguin just kept wiggling on the dash and watched the scenery go by.

On Wednesday morning we left the trailer and went up to Highway 83 to eat in a local restaurant.  The waitress steered us to Frontier Ranch Store-Museum.  The old fella really visited with us for some time. 
This guy owned the museum/store, David Martin, had been in a wheel chair with Muscular Dystrophy since he was a kid--said he is 65 now.  He collects everything, does a lot of drawing and art work and will sell about anything in the place except his rattlesnakes.  He spent almost an hour telling us of the history of the

  area and the building of Falcon Dam and how it affected the various towns that had to be moved because the lake covered them up.

 Won't try to explain many of the pictures because they are either self-evident or I don't know just what the heck we were looking at.

        Live rattlesnake.

This rattlesnake had shed his skin and then crawled back inside a quart Mason jar.  The owner said they stretch their skin by coiling tight in the jar and then after it is shed they are scratching themselves.

           Attack Donkey

An Eco-friendly trolling motor, made years ago with part of a bicycle

There are several peacocks in the cage behind the cactus plants.

    Caught this guy with his pants down!

Lots of John Wayne photos and tons of his memorabilia were on display and for sale. 

   We drove the 20 miles or so back down 83 to see the International Falcon Dam and Reservoir.  Was allowed to drive out to the center of the dam, which is the international boundary between US and Mexico.  We had to show passports to get back across the US end of the dam.

      This pair of spires (monument?) straddles the boundary between the two countries.

        Looking from the spires to the north.

Tourist dude Lynn looking at the US power plant.

Spillway of the small amount of water not going through the US and Mexican power plants.

                        The border fence up to the dam had a lot of zig-zag conduit on it.  I assume this was some sort of sensor.

Our truck parked on the US side.

Water is down 20 to 30 feet in the reservoir.

After getting back to Zapata we stopped in at the Zapata County Musuem   (Click that link to see their site)  where we visited with Olga Flores who gave us a personal guided tour of the museum with a lot of history.  We also visited with her husband Hildegardo E. Flores, EdD.  He grew up in the area and the both retired from the school system in Corpus Christi.  They both helped design the building and the layout and wording of displays.  His navy uniform is on display as well as several pictures

ofhis ancestors.  He had been in School Administration and was her boss as a Spanish teacher for many years.  They have travelled the world and visited many museums both in the US and abroad which helped them in designing this museum for the county.

Really enjoyed our time with them.  You may wonder why there are no pictures in this museum.  Well, they wouldn't allow it.  But, there are some very good pictures on their web site.   We asked about a good local eating place and they sent us to

Diana's where we had a terrific fresh fried chicken dinner.  One dinner for less than $10 that had four huge pieces of chicken and salad and re-fried beans that the two of us could hardly finish, it was so big and crispy.

We drove around a lot of the town, saw lots of houses.

We drove down by the lake several places.  Spotted this interesting sign -- one across the way from it was identical but in español.

Today we were on the road quite a bit, covering about 250 miles.  We stopped at several places and sites of old towns to look around and soak up the history of the area.

   Both these pictures were taken at a Welcome center north of Laredo, TX where we took a "making water" stop and picked up some literature and info on the Big Bend area.

Between working on this with the uploading of all the pictures and also writing some e-mails and other things I have been on this page about 4 hours.  Glad I am able to use the RV Park's WiFi.  Finding that cell phone internet connection is going to have to be monitored real close.
Will be touring this area and maybe a museum in Del Rio and then head over to Langtry, TX and home of Judge Roy Bean - law west of the Pecos - before heading to Stillwell RV & Store near Alpine, TX and the Big Bend National Park.

Til later, Lynn