another wet weekend...

Saturday:   Eric made the most wonderful pancakes for breakfast. It was the mix we had purchased at Lake of the Ozarks College.  The grains (Wheat flour, corn meal, rye flour and wheat germ!) were grown and milled there on site. along with our homemade syrup they were delicious! 

We went for a quick walk in the am. just as we got beyond our compound we got stopped by the border patrol! our first stop! we just talked about where we were staying and where we come from and of course the Badgers and the Packers! I guess we passed the test so we said goodbye and went on our muddy walk.

we signed up for a bicycle ride on Feb 18 in Harlingen.  its called the Jalapeno 100.  Eric signed up for 62.5 miles (100 K) and I am taking the 50 mile ride..  we shall see if we can get in shape by then!

Rainy day again..  we headed East for the day toward Harlingen and San Benito.  Our first stop was to pick up mail at the visitor center, received a lot of nice Christmas Cards and letters. We headed to San Benito to the

there are three museums in one building, cost $3 per person!  the first rooms were the San Benito History Museum.  Interesting information and well put together. 

the next set of rooms was the Texas Conjunto Music Hall of Fame and Museum.  The music is a blend of Mexican with German influence.  the accordion and a 12 string guitar are necessary.  it is also know as musica nortena.   http://www.lib.utexas.edu/benson/border/arhoolie2/songs/corina.au

this is sung by     Baldeman Huerta: aka "Eddie" and "Freddie Fender'

they put a record on for us to listen to as we walked around.  Ron (the docent and owner) gave us a lot us history about the music and people.

the next rooms were dedicated to Freddy Fender, San Benito's best known son.  There was a video of Freddy singing White Christmas in Spanish at South Padre Island beach!  it was a fun video recorded in 1994.  Since we were the only ones in the museum we got a personal tour and history of Freddy from Joe..

as we were watching the video, Joe would interject a comment or a story.  There was a shot of the house Freddy was born in, Joe said that he was born in that house too!  how weird is that?  well not so weird as Joe is Freddy's younger brother!!  Eric thought he looked a lot like Freddy and thought they might be related..   He talked to us for about 30 minutes, telling us stories of Freddy's adventures and home life.  it was very interesting and we would have stayed a bit longer but our tummies were calling.. 


we went to a local Mexican place, the food was good and cheap $10 for the two lunch plates!  then off to the cemetery to see the memorial to Freddy.  he is actually buried here.  (our dead singer tour continues)..

After lunch we went to the water tower dedicated to Freddy:

 it took us awhile to find the water tower but we tracked it down!
Pro Bass shop before heading into Downtown Harlingen.  not too much going on there..

before getting home we stopped at Church's Chicken.  never had it before and it was on our list of foods to eat..  pretty good chicken and really good biscuits!

Saturday night is Blue Grass and Honky Tonk on WOJB from Reserve WI...

Sunday:  heavy mist and rain again today.  we went to a Mexican Artisian Gala at a local mall.  nice stuff but we don't need more stuff.  lots of candy and sweets but again we do not need more so we walked away empty handed. Lubys for lunch then grocery shopping then home for nap... 

tomorrow we work again.