Up along the Rio Grande Valley

Our next stop was at the mouth of the Rio Grande River.  We stayed at a very fancy RV park in Mercedes, Texas, with around 1000 sites, one of those that caters to Winter Texans.  We arrived just before the first of April, which it turns out is the date that most of the winter visitors leave the park.  So it was quite crowded when we arrived, but became less and less so as the week progressed.  The park had a lot of amenities, a swimming pool, a pool hall, a rock shop, a library, and lots of other stuff.  There were events scheduled every day for the residents. 

This park also had a great location for us - it was right next to a wildlife refuge that is famous for its birding potential - Estero Llano Grande.  Quite a number of the residents are birders as well, and they go on regular birding outings to many of the sites around the Brownsville area.  We were able to attach ourselves to one of those outings, and it was spectacular.  Our leader knew just where to go and we saw many species of birds that never make it to the Seattle area.  Almost as much fun as the birds were the birders themselves, and we met some great people on the trip.

On the way back we stopped in a local town, Harlingen, Texas,  famous for murals, and we took a lot of pictures as we explored. Ivy has been collecting pictures of murals along our way, and we have quite a collection of them now.  But Harlingen was a town that had specialized in mural painting and we got some very nice photos with a lot of variety. 

Our RV park was located right near the Mexican border, and we made the trip over to the town of Progreso in Mexico.  Despite all the bad  press about violence at border towns, the local folks assured us that they were confident of the safety of this little place.  It was a short jaunt on a walking bridge and everything was in easy reach.  Everyone went over there for dental care to save money, and the streets of the town were crowded with dental clinics.  We had a very nice lunch there, chatting with other Americans who were regulars at the restaurant, and we did a tiny bit of shopping for curios.  


We took several birding outings - the area is rich in wildlife areas and the annual migration was in full swing.  There was a "hawk watch" at one of the refuges and  I helped out counting raptors.  I also went on a birding walk in the wildlife refuge next to the park with a whole lot of regular birders - it's always so much more effective to go with other birders, you see a lot more and you learn how to identify the local critters.  I also took a run to Laguna Atascosa Wildlife Refuge - another top location.  Saw a couple of bobcats here, along with this green jay.  And the refuge staff showed me this secret hideaway for an eastern screech owl.  Blends in very nicely, doesn't he?

We left Mercedes and headed inland to Laredo, Texas.  At this point we left the Gulf Coast for good, and the rest of our route will be inland until we get to the Pacific again.  We are following the Rio Grande River for a while, working our way toward Big Bend and  up to New Mexico.  At Laredo we stayed at Lake Casa  Blanca State Park close in to the town.  The town was uninspiring and the lake was a little too urban for us, so after a little exploration we left there rather quickly and headed up to the Del Rio area, where there was a large National Wildlife Refuge built around Amistad Lake, created by a dam.

There was some good birding here, along with some side trips to local wonders.  The State Park nearby had some fascinating pictographs from prehistoric times, and we took a tour down into a canyon to get a look.  The history was fascinating and the countryside quite dramatic.  This is desert country, and the temperature was running quite hot in the interior.  We often got highs in the mid-90s during the day.  So we started to time our visits for the morning and later in the evening.  The tradition of mid-day siesta became our norm, and we holed up in the RV with the A/C running during the hottest part of the day.

Another enjoyable side trip was to the nearby town of Langtry, Texas, where Judge Roy Bean held court for many years.  The original courthouse/saloon where he dealt out all the justice west of the Pecos was still there, and they had developed a very nice visitors center and a cactus garden with some wonderful landscaping on the site.  We enjoyed the story of Bean's many colorful judicial decisions and his long distance fascination and correspondence with Lilly Langtry, and her eventual visit to the town itself, shortly after Bean's death.

And finally, we took a side trip to the big city, San Antonio, Texas.  We decided to go in the car and take a motel there overnight to allow us to sample a bit more of what the city had to offer.  We were very pleasantly surprised and impressed by this town.   The biggest surprise of all was the botanical gardens, which Ivy and I agreed were absolutely world-class.  They have taken full advantage of the mild climate to allow a lot of outdoor planting, but more than that they have staged and presented their plantings in a very imaginative and dramatic way and created an environment that in my opinion surpasses anything I have seen elsewhere.  Ivy thought that some of the English gardens were competitive, but agreed that this is among the finest botanical gardens we've ever experienced.

The weekend was also the San Antonio Fiesta, an annual event that comprises parades, musical events, exhibits, and a certain amount of partying and rowdy behavior.  We looked in on some of that, but for the most part did the standard tourist routes and avoided the traffic.  We visited the Alamo, which of course demands attention.  And we toured several of the missions that are strung up and down the river south of the town.  It's an area rich in history and would have repaid several days of wandering, but we headed back to our campground in Del Rio.   

From here we are headed to the Big Bend National Park, where temperatures are, to hear tell, even hotter.

Down the Gulf Coast on the Birding Trail

Our last stop in Louisiana was the town of Sulphur, across from Lake Charles.   We stayed at a campground that was located right on the Creole Nature Trail, a linked set of wildlife refuges and natural areas maintained by Louisiana and the US.  This area of the coast is very low-lying and filled with marshes and wetlands that stretch literally for miles.  Many areas have been set aside for wildlife habitat.  Migratory birds pass through them in great numbers, and although we were a bit early for the migration, we got to see a lot. 

Besides the wildlife, the little towns around the area were fascinating and had a lot to offer.  The town of St Martinville nearby, for example, contains the Evangeline Oak, the tree that is featured in Longfellow's poem of the same name.  The town was part of the original exile of the Acadians from Canada, which is recounted in the poem, and the town has built a small monument to that tree right by the river.  The Acadian/Catholic traditions and culture are still strong here - most of the street signs are in French, with English subtitles.

The food in this area is still very strongly influenced by the French traditions - from the local diner called the Paris Street Cafe to Dupuy's Oyster House in Abbeville, where I had the best combination oyster plate I have ever eaten.  Some wonderful history and some wonderful food.  And along with it, lots of coastal nature and birdwatching. 

The tradition of the Mardi Gras is strong here, as well.  The nearby town of Lake Charles had a charming little costume museum with archived costumes from parades of past years.  It was located in a repurposed school building, and had talking mannequins which kept you informed about the history of the local extravaganzas.  

But this area, along with a lot of the Louisiana coast, is also heavily dominated by oil and gas, which contrasts strongly with the natural wonders.  There are very few areas here that don't sport a large refinery or chemical plant, and the industrial base of the economy in Sulphur and Lake Charles  is an overwhelming presence.  At night these things are dramatic, lit up like an amusement park. 

From here we headed south along the Gulf Coast to the town of Palacios, Texas where we stayed in a lovely little RV park right on the water.  It was home to many Winter Texans, as they are called by the locals, folks from states like Minnesota and Wisconsin who have discovered the joys of wintering down south.  Palacios is the home of the largest shrimp fleet in Texas, and there were lots of shrimp boats in the harbor right next to us.  The harbor also provided some very nice birding, and a very good local Mexican restaurant.  We liked touring the little town, which has some lovely old buildings, some of which have fallen into disuse but are still charming.  

The Aransas National Wildlife Refuge was nearby also, which shelters the largest whooping crane flock left on the planet.  We went there to see them and also saw a lot of other birds, including this magnificent wild turkey that was standing along the road when we took our wildlife drive. 

The stay in Palacios was short, so that we could book some available dates in the Matagorda State Park.  This lovely spot is located out on a barrier island directly across from the town of Matagorda, and provides wonderful access to marshes, rivers, and channels where the shorebirds were gathering.  The shorebird migration was well under way, and we saw lots of new species including American avocets and black skimmers.  The first couple of days were spring break for the local young families, so the park was packed out with kids, but by Monday everyone was gone and the place was as quiet as could be. 

We took walks around the area, Ivy did some painting, and we enjoyed the birding along the canal. 

We moved on to Aransas Pass, where birding was once again a big priority.  A key trip was to the visitor center at South Padre Island, where we joined a half day birding trip headed by a couple who have been there for some years and volunteer to lead birding outings five days a week.  They were enormously helpful, and we learned a lot.  They knew all of the species by heart, and had excellent local knowledge of how to find the more challenging ones.  We got a lot of firsts that day, including this pair of nesting white-tailed hawks, birds which are rare outside the southern borders of the US.

There were several nice discoveries in this area.  We explored the little town of Rockport, with some excellent local art, a colorful waterfront, and some nice shops.  There were two good birding spots, the Fred Jones Natural Reserve out in surrounding country, beautiful with wildflowers galore, many natural paths, and some good birding; and a pier outside Corpus Christi, where the shore birds were plentiful and in full migration.  So it was a very busy time and a lot of fun.  Nowhere near enough time for all the things we wanted to do - like almost everywhere else.

From here, we are headed to the mouth of the Rio Grande.  Here we pay our last visit to the coast, and then head inland for several months of cross-country trekking, ending back in fabulous Seattle.