We are on the Great Texas Costal Birding Trail. We have moved north by thirty miles today and we are now camped on the Arroyo Colorado in a Cameron County Park called Adolph Thomae, Jr. The park itself is rather nice and caters to the hard-core fishing enthusiasts here in south Texas. We are on the mainland side of the Laguna Madre just inside the barrier islands along the Gulf Coast of Texas. We are just across the fence from the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge. That is a huge salt marsh area and it has got to be a birders paradise. By the time we got the coach set up I had already spotted several green jays and a road runner. Several other unfamiliar birds lurked in the mesquite and Yucca plants and since we are pretty new at this birding thing it will take several days to sort out who is who.

We have been getting lots of walking and bicycle riding now that the rains have let up a bit. Glenn and Deb McGill, our friends from Ontario, showed us the last little corner of Texas called Boca Chica. This is right at the mouth of the Rio Grande. The GPS indicated that we were south of the 26th parallel. There is just a little tip of Florida that will allow you to get further south and still stay in the continental United States. Of course you can get further south in the USA. Just go to Hawaii you can get to the 19th parallel, and that is south of the Tropic of Cancer, 23 degrees and change.

Once in a while you get one of those really weird feelings when you walk out of a Wal-Mart store in a strange town and the fellow behind you walks up and says, “I know that bicycle, I have seen pictures of it on the internet.” It turns out that this is a friend of Deb and Glenn and apparently Glenn was trying to explain our strange bicycle to him. They too are bicyclists and snow birds from Alberta Canada. Now just like that we have some new friends. Tomorrow we are to get together for some bicycling. I have no idea how I ever had time for work. Yes we are having fun.

It is good that the rains have left for a while, we are running out of space to store all of Judy’s new quilts. Audrey will be so pleased when we get back to Oregon.

Adios y’all with love from Gary and Judy