Fall 2011 RV trip: Days off

we are sitting outside on our concrete deck, temp about 80, slight wind and partly cloudy. Yesterday was a chore day, laundry, shopping etc... We had lunch at a local place, Taco Fiesta. the food was pretty good and inexpensive. between the locals and "Winter Texans" they need to keep the prices down. the restuarant was filled with "white headed gringos". so we felt pretty safe eating the food.

today Eric made Cranberry walnut french toast for breakfast! very very good. I went for a short run then we headed out to Hildago. Our first stop was

The first African Killer Bee colony crossed here at Hildago in 1990!

Next we went on a tour of the old Hidalgo Texas Pump Station. The Hidalgo Pump house was the original pump house for the Louisiana-Rio Grande Canal Company. It was used to pump water out of the Rio Grande into an irrigation system moving the water north to Edinburg. From the main canal, the water would flow east, toward the coast and irrigate approximately 70,000 acres. At least 16 pump houses like this one once lined the Rio Grande. They all have since been converted to electric pumps.

The pump house delivered water to the fields where they grow..

We did see a few butterflys but my pictures did not come out too good..

the pumphouse was filled with Christmas decorations. they have over 1000 village pieces, including Graceland!

we went to Burger King for lunch BOGO Whoppers!

after getting a new key for the truck (I lost mine!) we headed to McAllen to visit:

The legend of Quinta Mazatlan begins with an understanding of the name. The word “Quinta” in Spanish translates to a country house, villa or estate. When the owners began building the home in the 1930s, the area was surrounded by grapefruit orchards. The word “Mazatlan” has an ancient Indian translation in Mexico meaning “Land of the Deer”.

Composer, writer, and adventurer, Jason Chilton Matthews (1887-1964) traveled the globe collecting artifacts and stories while serving in 11 countries during World War I and even fought alongside Lawrence of Arabia. When he finally settled in 1935 with his affluent Pennsylvania wife, Marcia Jamieson (1891-1963), they built Quinta Mazatlan at what Matthews called the “Crossroads of the Western Hemisphere.”

Matthews personally built much of Quinta Mazatlan on the highest knoll in McAllen. He first experimented with adobe by building an adobe block bathing pool. When it was first built in the 1930s, the entire depth of the pool was 12 feet. It had no filtration system and was known as a draw and fill pool because it was drained and refilled whenever the water became dirty. It was filled from a freshwater well located at the backside of the cottage. Mr. Matthews would attach a six inch pipe to an airplane engine and jet water fifteen feet through the air, into the swimming pool, filling it in less than thirty minutes.

The McAllen Parks and Recreation Department, now the steward of Quinta Mazatlan, expanded the property to 20- acres, built nature trails, renovated the grounds, and hired a staff that encourages visitors to restore native habitat “one backyard at a time”. Quinta Mazatlan, which opened to the public in 2006, looks beyond its city limits as a member of the World Birding Center, promoting conservation and restoration of native habitat throughout the Rio Grande Valley.