Back in the RGV

Day 4 was a fairly short day of driving. We made it to Costco north of Houston and arrived at our destination by 3pm.

Last night were hosted by Skip’s niece, Jennifer, and her husband, Chris, and two kids, Robin and Zachary, in Houston. They moved there from Calgary a year and a half ago and are enjoying the lifestyle with only a few reservations. The kids are at a very exclusive private school and seem to have really settled in.

The six of us enjoyed their hot tub after a delicious meal of tacos prepared by Chris. Chris also made us margaritas from scratch (no margarita mix for him). Chris was also the preparer of the first mojito I ever had back in 2007 when we visited them in Calgary on one of our trips out west.

As our drive to the RGV was only going to be about 5.5 hours, we slept in a little bit. After breakfast, prepared and served by Chris, we packed up and headed into the post-rush-hour Houston traffic. Skip guided us skillfully through the multiple lanes of traffic. Finally we exited the other side of Houston, making our way in a southwesterly direction.

At one of our comfort stops, I took some pics of some roller grill items. The little flags indicate which items were hot enough (at the front) and which are ‘Still Cooking - behind the line’. One machine sported sausages and hotdogs,

the other, a selection of taquitos.

One fun thing I noted at the hotel breakfast area a couple of days ago was the waffle iron that made waffles in the shape of Texas.

Since we don’t get the condo until tomorrow afternoon, we are spending the night at yet another La Quinta hotel in Pharr TX. I booked it on my phone app at our lunch break. It was selected because a JoAnn Fabrics is fairly close by, the hotel got 4 1/2 out of 5 rating on TripAdvisor, and it is fairly close to a well-known tamale restaurant, Delia’s.  We shared 6 tamales with salsa and salad for $5.08US.

Now we’re back in our cozy lodgings looking forward to some shopping tomorrow and a visit to the National Butterfly Center in Mission TX. The butterfly centre barely escaped being bulldozed by the US president’s desire to continue constructing a border wall. It is a very sensitive area ecologically and supporters won a court injunction to block the wall. However, I believe appeals have been lodged and the NBC may only be on life-support for a while.

After that, we’ll drive the 125km down the valley and get settled into the condo. I look forward to a couple of days of total sloth which will include sleeping in, listening to audiobooks, watching YouTube videos and the SuperBowl, and doing a lot of stitching.