Whelan's Wheels (go round and round, round and round): it was a beach day

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

it was a beach day

We arrived in San Benito (or is it Los Fresnos ~ I truly don't know!) last Thursday to the weather that Rick has been searching for! Mid 70's to mid 80's - in other words, motorcycle weather. Motorcycle weather that is, if you don't have a dead battery (my bike does ;-( A mission for today ... buy new battery.

Anyway, Thursday afternoon we went out on our "see what's in the area" ride. We ended up about 20 miles away in Port Isabel. Port Isabel is the most eastern town in the valley before you take the bridge and causeway over to South Padre Island. Above is a picture taken from Pirates Landing (a very fun place in Port Isabel). In the picture above the bridge to SPI is at the far right and in the distance is the Island.

We also went to Pelican Station before we headed home to Sir Arlo! Below is a photo of one of the doors in the restaurant - isn't it great. Having done some stained glass work in a previous life I can't imagine undertaking a project like this door!

Pelican Station is located on the site of the Rio Grande Rail Road in the late 1800's. Some interesting information on it here. Makes me think of my Dad of course, he was such a railroad fan.

Pretty flowers abound in these parts.

We went back over to South Padre on Saturday and took Sir with us this time so he could go swimming and play at the beach. We came across this great place ~ Boomerang Billy's right on the beach - dogs allowed! There is also a motel on the property. It reminded us very much of one of our favorite places in the Keys ~ the Ocean View Inn. The "OV" is owned by Gary Dunn, a former player for the Pittsburgh Steelers ~ sure would LOVE to be there Sunday night watching the game!

Now we are in a deep freeze like most of the rest of the country! It never got above 37 degrees today and with the wind it was like 24 degrees, which I believe was colder than our New England families! Friday can't come soon enough for us, when it is suppose to be back in the 70's. We had planned on going into Mexico today or tomorrow, but only went outside to walk Sir Arlo and/or take rubbish to the dumpster and the same will likely happen tomorrow! Perhaps Mexico will happen Friday ~ hopefully. Then I'd like to go back to South Padre on Saturday or Sunday. We shall see so ~

stay tuned

3 comments:

way too much snow up here said...: you believe wrong.; February 2, 2011 at 7:25 PM
chester said...: Going into Mexico! .. what are you nuts??? downtown Detroit is safer.; February 3, 2011 at 7:23 AM
Kimberly said...: I thought you guys HATED Mexico.; February 4, 2011 at 5:06 PM

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This is our story ~ and we're sticking to it.

Our attempt at a blog - quite scary isn't it?

We left MA in early October, 2007 after I (Tracey) retired September 5 as an executive assistant for a software developer and Rick retired from his job on October 1. We passed papers on our house September 28th and off we went. We traveled down the east coast to the Florida Keys ~ where we planned to spend three nights but 17 nights later had to leave our site because someone had reserved it a year prior! We then stayed in northern FL for another month and headed off to meet our Marine returning to the San Diego area after his second tour "over there". We spent several wonderful weeks realizing why grandparents get tired easily! After the San Diego area we headed to the "low desert" (certainly a new phrase for us) of CA and into western AZ .. and decided it was finally time to start the blog we'd talked about since August or so!!

So many wonderful things we saw along the way. And the people, oh the people. I have said so many times to Rick the best part of this journey has been the people. So, so many people with so many interesting stories. Think about it - think about the stories YOU have and multiply that by the many many people we must have met along the way ~ particularly a social person like Rick .. we met a rattlesnake milker in Sweetwater, TX, we met the camp hosts in the Keys who summer back in NH ~ talk about the best of both worlds! We met the female police Sgt. at the Sweetwater Elks whose son was also in Iraq at the same base as my son. We met people in Slidell, LA who survived Katrina and had a great attitude and a smile on their faces and were proud to share their local cuisine with us. We saw the Blue Angels, purely by chance, in El Centro, CA. Or the "campground" where within an hour of arriving our house had been hit three times by golf balls! Or the Elks lodge in Indio ~ the sweetest, bike riding, bartender ~ I just wanted to pack her up and bring her along on our adventure. Not to mention the aerial tram while we were there, the warplane museum for Rick who does NOT do aerial trams! The Salton Sea ~ WOW just WOW. We stayed in the lovely little town of Wilcox, AZ - there was just something about that town. How about Pensacola, FL where the Elks Lodge on the beach is now built high, very high, off the ground! Or what about Huntington Beach State Park in Murrels Inlet, SC - talk about beautiful. What a great place that was to spend our first Thanksgiving on the road with good friends - that was something to be thankful for, for sure. Our first Christmas and New Years in the Keys!! WOW. The love and support of a dear friend in FL while Rick had to fly back to Boston and we dealt with all that entailed with unexpected follow ups back in FL .. how fortunate were we through all of that. Not to mention having the new trailer outfitted in Myrtle Beach and staying at what a week or two a year is the Broken Spoke? Or the kind and soft spoken LA Police Detective who is on the gang unit? So many people, so many stories. And there is so much ahead. The people .. did I mention how wonderful the people have been - all different walks of life .. so many personalities, so many stories! I have said many times ~ I need to pinch myself every morning to be certain it REALLY is happening to US! We are so grateful.

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