Farewell to Brownsville

And the winds they did blow…

This sums up our week in the Valley. The temperatures were warm, and we had very little rain. But the winds kept the birds hunkered down deep in the brush. We decided to spend our week taking care of life and preparing for the trip ahead.

 

Mondays have become routine while we have been in Brownsville. I have my ZOOM with some retired clergy friends. However, this week, it was far from the ordinary. I had scheduled a second ZOOM with a tax accountant. Fortunately, his office sent an invoice for the consultation before the meeting. I considered this meeting an interview to decide whether I would hire him. But he considered it a consult and was billing me a non-refundable $240. After looking a bit deeper at the costs of Accountants, I canceled the meeting. Instead, I wandered into the weeds of Clergy taxes and downloaded HR Block software once again. I spent a large part of the rest of the day wading through 1099s, Schedule Cs, and 1040-SRs. But I got them done and saved myself $750-$1,000. I should have left well enough alone and walked away with a victory. But I suppose I was feeling a bit cocky! So, I decided to tackle my prescriptions for our time on the road. 

 

Like most seniors, I take a handful of pills every day. These are ordered through a mail-order pharmacy and depend on the USPS for delivery. This gets very complicated when the delivery must be done on the road. USPS seems unable to deliver anything on time. And suppose they miss a delivery on the road. In that case, it is nearly impossible to have the delivery forwarded or sent back and re-sent.

 

Further, the online pharmacy is unwilling to give accurate information about delivery timing. I generally deal with this by getting 6 -7 months of meds on hand before we set out on our travels. Timing is everything. But this year, the pharmacy could not do anything without unnecessary delays. Long story short, I got three of the four delivered and on hand. But the fourth, due to confusion at the pharmacy, could only be delivered after we left Brownsville. So, I spent most of the day sorting through options for this last script. No, it is still unresolved, but I have no choice. A day of victories ended with frustration. I should have left well enough alone, but as young Scarlett said, “After all, tomorrow is another day!”

 

The Resaca is dry due to water rationing!

The next day, the winds died down, and we needed to take the recycling to Resaca de la Palm State Park. So, we decided to check out the elusive Roadside Hawk and Gray-collared Becard. We spent several hours and got skunked for the fourth time. We then learned that the Becard had only been seen between 7:30 and 8:00 AM. The construction at the park has been chasing the hawk deeper into the brush. So, we chose to live with our failure. “Ob-la-di, ob-la-da Life goes on, bra.” Here are a few of the shots from the day.

The Javelina welcomed us back.

Orange-crowned Warbler also said hi!

Mrs. Cardinal

Mr. Cardinal

Anacua Berries

Ladder-backed Woodpecker

Great-tailed Grackle

Altamira Oriole Nest from 2023

A beautiful day comes to a close.

 

On Wednesday, the wind returned with a vengeance. The sustained winds of 20 mph with higher gusts led us to stick around the Koko. We ran to HEB for groceries and started planning what we would need on the road. Wednesday. When we returned to Koko, I started playing around with some slideshow software to make slideshows of our trips. In the process, I discovered that I had not planned our gas stops for our upcoming trip. You cannot go in reverse when driving a 32-foot motorhome and dragging a jeep. This makes refueling a bit complicated, so we map out our gas stops using Google Maps and our trip-planning software. It takes time, and I spent most of the evening on Wednesday and much of the morning on Thursday finding 40+ gas stations along our route through the Midwest that would accommodate Koko and Nakai. I got er' dun, and we are good to go! Thursday was the windiest day yet, so we stayed close, enjoying an otherwise relaxing day at the RV Resort.

 

On Friday, the winds dropped a little, and I made an early drive to Weslaco to enjoy the last weekend of the tram through Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge. Afterward, we walked several trails and climbed the Hawk Watch Tower. The winds were still blowing, and we did not see many birds. But it was a lovely day for a walk. We had lunch with the mosquitos. Afterward, we went to the Valley Nature Center in Harlingen. We continued to enjoy a warm, sunny day among the birds. Before heading back to Brownsville, we went to the Weslaco Museum. Here are a few pics from the day.

Turkey Vulture

Damaged Paper Wasp Nest

Great Horned Owl Nest

Mexican Prickly Poppy

A 2024 Altamira Oriole Nest

Greater Roadrunner

Pintail Ducks

Great Horned Owl on nest (Look closely)

A pair of Gadwalls

Gadwall Portrait

A molting Shoveler Duck

We have all had days like this!

A Great Egret's Kingdom

A Diving Duck surfacing!

Rose-bellied Lizard

The Santa Ana NWR Chachalaca Trail

Golden-fronted Woodpecker

Nashville Warbler

And it is fitting that the Chachalacas would see us off!

This will be my last Blog from Brownsville for this trip. Next week, we will move to Lake Corpus Christi State Park in Mathis. Our two months in Brownsville is our first planned extended stay while full timing. Our last extended stay was planned only a week or two at a time, and we had the grandkids to keep us entertained. But these last two months were something different. We went to 22 Nature and History Sites in the Valley and returned to a few of them more than once. Marlene added 12 new species of birds to her life list. Some of these were from Mexico and Central and South America. I have taken 3,800 photos and added 993 shots to my library on Flickr.com. We have enjoyed meals at 20+ restaurants (not including national chains) and savored many of the unique tastes of the Valley. The Cucumber Lemonade I had at Gazpachos will linger in my memory for a long time. (No, it really was good!) I confess that a couple of months of just taking care of life is okay. Two months in the same place has made me a bit lazy. I am eager to get back to the spontaneity of travel, but I will miss the routines (dare I say habits) we have developed since January 1^st. I yearn for more than habitual living if we can live it on the road.

 

These words by Robert Frost echo in the hollow space between my ears as we finish our time wintering in Brownsville.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

 

Will this be our last year on the road? Will we be able to walk across the Mississippi? Will the road through the Midwest offer as much joy in 2024 as the road through California, the Pacific Northwest, and the West did in 2023? I can’t answer any of these or hundreds of other questions that bounce around in my thoughts. All I know is that I have miles to go before I sleep. And I am ready to start ticking them off on our 2024 odometer. 

 

As always, I look forward to sharing the coming 7 months with you. We should be back in Texas on November 1^st. See you out there on the road!

 

Bob