I become (briefly) a Winter Texan - part three

Well, it’s nearly time to come home, just as I’m getting used to temperatures in Fahrenheit. The forecast says 80 or so today.

I’m also getting used to orange juice more or less off the tree. Here’s Don picking my weekly supply.

I drink – very nearly eat, as the pulp is so thick – my juice while listening to KTEX, ‘South Texas Country’. I’m becoming quite fond of the morning DJs – Jo-Jo and the Patchman. Bit different from CBC. KTEX contests include ‘Are you smarter than a Fifth Grader?’

Here’s the link and you can listen live to KTEX should CBC’s Canadian earnestness pall:

http://www.ktex.net/main.html

Speaking of country music, there’s plenty here at the park. Weekly jams are held a short walk from my holiday home.

One need not go hungry. The park has coffee and cinnamon rolls at dawn, ice cream some afternoons and evenings, and frequent community lunches and dinners. My pork tenderloin sandwich at a nearby restaurant illustrates the infamous size of American portions.

Oversized or not, I ate ever last bit … and enjoyed it.

After recovering, Jode persuaded me – kicking and screaming – to come to the stained glass class. I haven’t been in an art group since school, but, with much sympathetic assistance for an obvious duffer, somehow produced this.

The park is within a short bicycle ride of some of North America’s best butterfly and birdwatching centres. 175 butterfly and over 300 bird species have been seen in the area. So, we set off to one of the parks. Don and Jode are riding recumbent bikes that Don made.

Other than cursing Toronto’s self-satisfied and thoroughly irritating Canada Geese, I’ve not had much to do with birds. Apparently birders must craftily sneak up on their quarry …

… and have very big camera lenses.

I don’t have a huge lens, so this is the best I could do. And, no, I don’t know what sort of bird they are.

The area is also known for killer bees. This was where they first crossed into the United States in the early 1990s, a fact commemorated by 'the world’s largest killer bee'. I LOVE roadside Americana!

An hour or so from Don and Jode’s is South Padre Island, at this time of year destination for thousands of university ‘spring breakers’. The front page of The Monitor (‘Serving the Rio Grande Valley Since 1909’) featured a colour photo of five bikinied students posing on the beach. We decided to venture over for some cycling along the miles of sand.

Sadly, by the time we got there, the bikinis had mostly gone back to lectures. However, some Wisconsin students had left a beer can sandcastle as proof of their higher education.

It was a wonderful day. Here’s Jode.

At this point, I will digress. I have done a little bicycling. In 1975, I cycled from John o’ Groats to Land’s End, the far north of Scotland to the far southwest of England, 874½ miles. Here I am, young and reasonably fit at the end of my expedition.

Thirty-five years later, somewhat worse for wear, here I am again. What can one say?!

Thanks to Don and Jode, I enjoyed myself enormously in South Texas. Who knows, if I promise to wear a baseball cap, T-shirt and shorts, they might let me come again.