We're back to South Texas!

The last two blogs have been spent summarizing 2016 with maps and lists of our favorite places. It was fun reminiscing on the past, but now we're ready to kick back into the present. We stopped in at Denisa's sister's house on our way back to South Texas, where we got to spend the day with another great nephew, Phoenix. Denisa loves holding little boys, and she got a jump-start on his piano training.

At just 18 months, he is a champion soccer player. It's amazing that he hasn't been walking that long, but he is already kicking that soccer ball hard and straight. We had a great time and great weather on our last day in Oklahoma!

But the weather forecast showed cold weather coming, and it was definitely time to head south. We made the 13-hour trip in the car in one day, to arrive back in South Texas just in time. We were celebrating 82 degree weather when we got the report that most of the schools in Oklahoma were cancelled because of all the ice and snow. Instead of being bundled up against the cold, Denisa spent the afternoon at the outdoor pool.

In celebration of that nor'easter cold front that has wreaked havoc in much of the United States, today's post will include the flora we are enjoying here in South Texas. Because they rarely get killing frosts here, many of the flowers that we consider disposable grow here for many years. That also means they grow to huge sizes. A regular potted poinsettia plant can be planted in the ground, to grow into a poinsettia tree.

Another plant that has to be carefully tended in a container in most of the United States, can grow to tree-like status here in the Rio Grande Valley. This beautiful bougainvillea formed a six-foot hedge that is loaded with jewel-like blooms.

The plants around here make Denisa's eyes happy. But her nose is happiest when the citrus trees are blooming. The blooms aren't as showy, but they have one of the sweetest fragrances on this planet. We wish we could package up this smell and send it through the computer to accompany this blog.

On a still day, we can pick up that fragrance just walking by a blooming tree. Denisa will stop in her tracks to just stay in that spot for a couple sniffs before walking on down the street. In fact, she has re-routed her normal walk between the rec hall and our motor home so she gets the most citrus bloom sniffs possible. She braved all the buzzing bees that are also fascinated with the blooms to take this close-up shot. Before you think her courageous, know that her close proximity gave her more whiffs of her favorite perfume.

The average temperature at this time of year is 70 degrees, but it is also common to have days in the 80's in January. After living here for thirty winters, Denisa's Mother knows that cold weather in Oklahoma will often make its way south in a couple days. Sure enough, two days after we heard about the snow and ice closures in Oklahhoma, we were hit by the same cold front. We "enjoyed" unusual days with highs in the 40's. We thought it was interesting to see the local television stations doing news pieces about the frigid conditions that outdoor workers were enduring. We're guessing there are lots of people in outdoor jobs that would relish a day that warm! We even had freeze warnings throughout the Rio Grande Valley--something that hasn't happened in four years! People had to cover their tender poinsettia and bougainvillea plants!

Our Favorite Places of 2016

Last year we chronicled some of the favorite places that we visited during our first year of full-time traveling. We thought we might try that again for 2016, as we look back over the best and most memorable places we visited during our second year on the road. Since we love to hike, bike, and kayak, we tried to come up with a short list of things in those categories that we would definitely recommend to other travelers. Mark added a few pictures to remind us of some of our favorite places.

Best Bike Rides:

Virginia Creeper - VA (17 mile ride all downhill!)

Jekyll Island - GA

Cades Cove, Great Smoky Mountains National Park - TN
Cuyahoga Valley National Park - OH 

Bartram Trail - GA

Best Kayak Trips:

Wakulla River - FL (Nice float with a close-up encounter with a manatee!

Vermilion River to Lake Erie - OH

Presque Isle State Park - PA

St. Joseph's Peninsula - FL

Best Short Hikes:
Watkins Glen State Park - NY (One of the most picturesque canyons in the world!)

Seneca Rocks - WV
Crooked Island Beach - FL
Raven Cliff Falls - GA
Gorges States Park - NC
Sam Knob Trail - NC
Magazine Mountain State Park - AR

Best Long Hikes:
Hocking Hills State Park - OH (Actually six different hikes within the six sections of the park with grand caverns and canyons)

McAfee Knob - VA
Little Green Mountain - NC
White Rocks - Cumberland Gap National Park - VA
Seven Hollow Trail - AR
Cumberland Island - GA
Tallulah Gorge - GA
Grayson Heights State Park - VA

Besides getting some good exercise, we also enjoyed some amazing experiences that don't fit into the categories above. So we had to add the following two lists to help round out some of our favorite things from 2016. Many of these were special surprises that we stumbled onto on a daily basis. 

Best Festivals:
Mardi Gras - LA (We went to city parades and small town events for a week-long festival)

Sopchoppy Worm Gruntin' Festival - FL
Scottish Festival - SC
Plowin'  Days - NY
Zucchini Festival - OH

Best Experiences:
Elk of Cataloochee Valley - NC (When the elk came out, so did the bears!)

Shells on Holly Beach - LA
Fall Foliage and Dolly Sods - WV
Pennsylvania Dutch Country - PA
Factory Tours of York - PA
Roadside Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Stands sprinkled throughout the east

After we assembled our list, it was fascinating to see that our favorites were spread throughout our journey this past year. We had favorites in almost all of the states we visited, which reminded us that there are great things to see and do everywhere we look! We have been blessed to wander into some of God's great wonders in 2016!

Map of our 2016 Travels

As we complete our second year on the road, it is fun to map exactly where we have wandered during 2016. So Mark developed maps, where each point represents a campground where we stayed. During each of those stays, we explored the area around us in our car. After 3-7 days we would head down the road to another campground a couple hours away. Because we stayed in 72 different campgrounds during the year, there were too many points to fit onto one map. So Mark divided our year's travels into two. The first map represents our travels beginning December 2015 when we left Oklahoma for our month-long stay in the southern tip of Texas. It illustrates our path through the first five months of 2016.

When we left Mission, Texas, we made our way along the Gulf coast to stay warm during the winter months. We had to take a break from the coast to make a trip to Red Bay, Alabama, to replace a broken slide motor. After our repairs were finished, we headed back to the gulf, and spent a good part of the winter at the beach.

Some of our paths look like a confused road trip, as we did some back-tracking in the spring. That's because we had visits from several different groups during 2016. We hosted Denisa's Mother in Savannah in April, then our son Blake in north Georgia in May, then friends Connie and Steven in North Carolina later that month.

The second map shows us heading south for a rendezvous at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina in early June. We got to spend a week with both sons and daughter-in-law and family at the beach.

That put us further south during the summer than we had planned, so we headed north for cooler temperatures. We heard over and over that the summer of 2016 was hotter and dryer than usual as we made our way into Tennessee.

We left the motor home in Tennessee for a month while we drove our car back to Oklahoma in late July. We wanted to be there for Mark's Father's 90th birthday celebration, and Denisa went on the annual "girl trip" with her Mother and sisters.

When we returned, we pushed north through West Virginia and Ohio into the Great Lakes area. We stayed close to the lakes as we made our way through upstate New York in anticipation of fall foliage colors in the Adirondacks and another visit from Denisa's Mother. We enjoyed watching the leaves change as we slowly headed south. During another visit from our son Blake, we found the most spectacular trees of autumn in West Virginia.

From that point we were on a bit of a schedule, as we made our way through the length of Tennessee and Arkansas to get to Oklahoma in time for Thanksgiving. We enjoyed a couple weeks in Oklahoma in November, then headed south to warmer weather in December. That's where the motor home is sitting through the end of 2016. As we see the maps of our travels this past year, we are reminded of the great fun we've been blessed with as we wandered the eastern section of this beautiful country. Our journey allowed us to spend several weeks in each of 16 different states. It was a great year!

Happy New Year!

After spending several days in central Oklahoma, we made the four hour drive to that northwest end of the state known as the panhandle. That's where Denisa and Mark were raised and graduated from high school. It's also where the Engelmans were gathering on New Year's weekend at Cap-o-Ranch. The horses got some extra affection, as some of our great nieces and nephews enjoyed making the trip up the driveway to pet them.

We have a dozen great nieces and nephews that are between the ages of 3 and 10. That's a perfect group of children to sing the "Twelve Days of Christmas," so that's exactly what they did.

We also have four nieces and nephews in their teens, but this younger group of twelve children began a family baby boom ten years ago. This picture was taken a decade ago when three of our nephews had new baby daughters born within three months of each other. Mark's Mother is standing in the middle of all that cute-ness, beaming at her new great granddaughters.

They recreated that picture during this holiday, holding their ten-year-old daughters with Great Grandma in the middle again.

This family has lots of talented musicians, and we enjoyed hours of family singing and dancing. We don't have enough sense to go to bed as long as there is good music happening.

After staying up until 1:30 a.m. singing the night before, we weren't sure if we were going to make it until midnight on New Year's Eve. But we were thoroughly entertained by our older great-nieces and nephews, giving us pointers on proper form on Wii games.

They made it look so easy! But we found out that we weren't nearly as coordinated when we tried to land a chicken on various platforms in the middle of the ocean. Denisa needs to work on her chicken-flapping techniques before next New Year's Eve.

Even old wanderers can make it until midnight, and we are happy to spend time with so many of the people we love over this holiday. We'll be back on the road soon, but it was good to be home for the holidays. Happy New Year, and we wish a blessed 2017 to everyone!

Heading North for Christmas Vacation

We love spending time with family, and the holidays are a great time to get together. It would be easier to stay in sunny south Texas, enjoying the 80-degree weather at the pool. But instead, we made the 13-hour drive in the car to see our families during the holiday. A beautiful Oklahoma sunset greeted us back to Oklahoma at the end of our long journey. The picture isn't great, as it was taken from the passenger seat through the driver's side window. Maybe it was glorious to us at the time because we had been in the car so long. It was dark when we left at 5:30 a.m. from South Texas, and dark again when we arrived in Oklahoma at 6:30 p.m.

We spent three days in the Oklahoma City area, getting to visit family that lives in that part of the state. One stop was at Denisa's sister's house to see Connie and Joe's family. We spent some time in the kitchen cooking up delicious family favorites. We made a meal of German veranika that would have made our Grandmother proud. We introduced the youngest generation into the technique of rolling out the dough to make these dry-curd-cheese-filled pockets.

Denisa's sister also whipped up a batch of sugar cookies. We had their five grandchildren at the house, enjoying the family tradition of cutting the cookies into shapes and then decorating them with frosting.

We were blessed to be hosted for Christmas day at our daughter-in-law's parents' house. We enjoyed spending the entire day with them, as our son and daughter-in-law didn't have to make the hard decision of which set of parents to spend Christmas Day with. We forced them to choose all four of us! We realized that we forgot to take a family picture when our other son finally arrived that evening. But we took this afternoon picture showing the beautiful Christmas weather that central Oklahoma was blessed with. Denisa was too busy playing with their dog to smile for the camera.

Even though we had driven 13 hours north, we still had unusually warm weather for the Christmas holiday. In fact, Oklahoma City broke the record for the warmest Christmas Day in history with a high temperature of 75. That allowed us to spend some fun time outdoors.

We spent another day with Denisa's other sister and her family. That would include a trip to Debra's son's house to see their family of four young children. We also got a tour of their chicken coop. They got these hens as baby chicks, so they have been held and loved on all their lives. Even two-year-old Olive knows how to hold these tame chickens.

But the real chicken farmer of the family seems to be Hazel, who enjoyed showing us how to fill the feeders and gather the eggs. She is holding one of the young hens, as well as the two eggs she had just gathered from the nests.

We took home a dozen of the freshest eggs we have ever eaten!

Some of the fun of visiting these nieces and nephews is getting to play with their new Christmas toys. Denisa had a great time helping Hazel make the first batch of cookies in her new Easy Bake Oven.

Contrary to its name, it wasn't the easiest baking experience ever. She also found that it wasn't the most efficient cooking experience, as it took us over an hour to bake up those twelve nickel-sized cookies.

Denisa also enjoyed holding the newest addition to the family. At two and half months old, we got a toothless grin from Harvey before we left.

We were blessed with some great Christmas memories, but we still have more family gatherings during the New Year's week end. So we're driving on to the Oklahoma Panhandle for more family fun.

A Trip South of the Border

The north wind that plagued us at the beach brought in the cold weather that our northern neighbors had been "enjoying." Our son, Blake, had to fly home, so he missed our trip across the border. With the cooler temperatures we had to wear coats for our trip into Mexico.

Because the roads are narrow without striping, and driving laws are optional, we never take the car over the border into Mexico. Also, most American insurance companies don't cover your automobile in a foreign country.

There are parking lots on the U.S. side that charge $2 for an all day spot. We tucked the car away in the lot, and then started the trek to Mexico. We walked on the bridge over the Rio Grande River, where a border patrol vehicle was watching for any swimmers this morning.

We could see the infamous fence in the background on the U.S. side of the river.

In the middle of the bridge is the international border. When we got to the other side of the bridge, we each had to pay two quarters to enter into Mexico. There is no customs office or place to show passports as we entered into a foreign country.

The little town on the other side of the bridge is Progreso, Mexico. Mainly targeting the tourists from the USA, the streets are lined with vendors selling knock-off clothing and purses, jewelry, and hats.

These streets are also lined with dentist offices and pharmacias. There are guys on the street, handing out cards and inviting Americans in for discounted services. This was the first time for us to see this inflatable pharmacist on the street, advertising for one store. Denisa's Mother jumped when she discovered that there was a real person inside that inflatable suit.

While bartering is the norm with the vendors on the street, the merchandise in the stores is tagged and non-negotiable. Not surprising, the prices are in U.S. dollars instead of pesos. That's because this merchandise is not usually purchased by Mexican citizens.

One of the stores had a display of children's accordions, with three out of their boxes for people to try. When the three of us had an impromptu accordion concert, we were photo-bombed by an unappreciative Dave with his fingers in his ears.

The main street of Progreso is geared for tourists, and they are happy to take our U.S. currency. We did find this bakery, with fresh tortillas coming down the conveyor belt to be packaged while they're still warm. We couldn't help but notice that plastic gloves weren't used in this process.

We walked several blocks down the main street, and then back to our entry point. There was just a short line at the border on this blustery day, and we made it through the easy customs process back onto American soil showing our passports. We remember many years ago when passports weren't necessary for this crossing. On the trip home, we took highway 281 that runs parallel with the Mexico border. Across the open fields we could catch glimpses of the border fence just to our south.

Many times the fields were covered with crops. This field of cabbage was ready for harvest, with the trucks and trailers parked at the end of the field.

We couldn't get a clear picture driving down the road at 65 mph, but the field was beautiful with ripe cabbages. The plants looked like giant rosettes.

Our last stop was at a Ropa Usada. We knew that was Spanish for "used clothing" and there are several of these facilities not far from the border.

Some of the clothing is delivered in bales, and stacked to the top of the two-story ceiling.

The bundles are taken apart, and people come to sort through the mounds of clothing for treasures. Since Debra teaches at an Oklahoma City school, we were looking for khaki pants that could be recycled for the students at her low-income school. Clothing is sold for 50 cents per pound, so there are definitely some bargains here. There were other women sorting through the clothing. It must be tiring work, as we saw several napping among the piles.

There was also a section for shoes that covered the floor in a single layer. We tried to find matches, but all we found were single shoes. We were thinking that there were some great bargains for one-legged customers.

We have visited this part of south Texas and Mexico many times, but this was our first stop at a ropa usada. It wasn't exactly a tourist stop, but another interesting part of this southern culture on our day south of the border.