2023 Winter in the RGV

2023 started out with a great family vacation in South Padre Island. We had so much fun walking the beach, playing games, eating out, birding, boating, just relaxing together and enjoying the warm weather. We went to San Antonio afterwards to drop off the RV to get some standard maintenance on the roof. We decided to get service close to the valley; as it usually takes a couple of weeks, and figured it was much cheaper to stay in our coach house, then a hotel. It was interesting to see how not living in an RV felt, and if we had enough space. The good news is that it worked out great, especially since Mike had added a lot of shelves and organization tools in the house and shed to make things more comfortable. Our 35th wedding anniversary was pretty quiet, just a nice dinner out and feeling grateful for our life together.

Our winter took an unexpected turn on January 21st when I was in a bicycling accident. On an unexpected drizzly morning my front wheel hit a slick railroad track at the end of a long group ride, and I immediately went down. (Lesson learned: wet railroad tracks are like ice; dismount and walk over tracks. I did not know this, as I had ridden over hundreds of tracks previously, and knew how to cross correctly on a bike, I just did not know the danger of wet tracks.) The good news is that I had no serious injuries just a mild concussion, hematomas, abrasions and a broken left hand. I did have to have surgery on my hand, help healing the hematomas on my thigh and physical therapy. Fortunately, I was back running, biking, swimming and lifting weights within a week or so after getting my cast off. I did decide not to ride with my biking group for now, as most routes go over multiple railroad tracks. They bought me a new helmet and gloves, as I definitely new ones after the crash! I feel very grateful for all of the support from Mike, my surgeon, physical therapists and friends for a speedy recovery. Almost 3 months, later, I am still doing physical therapy on my own, and hoping my hand will fully recover.

There definitely was a silver lining to my accident, I met a lot more friends in our community at the gym and walking around the neighborhood. I started walking dogs (Chica & Diego) with my friend Sue at the end of January, and four wheeling with them as well. It is so true that when a door is closed, even temporarily, a window opens to new opportunities.

Mike kept very busy all winter birding at the nearby state park, butterfly center and his weekly trips with his friends to different destinations. He really enjoyed driving the new truck to birding centers, checking out new restaurants with his friends, and using his new camera. Somehow, he even talked a couple of birding friends into buying the lot next to us. They will start building in October.

My sister Mary visited again this winter. We of course went to South Padre, which is always a blast. She really enjoyed the lighthouse and artsy shops in Port Isabel, outlet malls in Mercedes, the butterfly center, Bensten Palm state park, Quinta Mazatlan, and a quick lunch across the border at “Panchos”, in Progresso, Mexico. Our daughter also came to visit again with a girlfriend while they were on a road trip. It was so nice to see her again and show them some of the fun things to do in South Texas. Her favorite was visiting 5 world birding centers in a long weekend.

We will always continue to travel in our RV during the winter, primarily to nearby locations. Falcon Lake State Park was a new destination for us this year. It is a really nice park with nice trails, a butterfly garden, and of course a beautiful lake. The best part of this trip was visiting the historic city of Roma, and yet another world birding center, Roma Bluffs. The view across the Rio Grande River into Mexico was amazing. The Salineño Wildlife Preserve was also a very interesting bird location with a lovely couple that spends the winter there as hosts, and have an wonderful yard full of birds. Mike also went on a group expedition to the Santa Margarita Ranch and saw a rare “Brown Jay”.

It was a great winter and early spring, but is now time head out and visit family. Our next stop is the beach in Port Aransas, Texas.