In Florida, they’re called Snow Birds. In Texas, Winter Texans. These are the Americans and Canadians who head south for the winter to escape the cold. It looks like we’re Winter Texans this year because after San Antonio, we decided to head back down to Sandpipers Resort in Edinburg rather than heading north and west to New Mexico as originally planned. It’s just too early to head north with the weather being as cold as it has been north of us. The weather was great after returning to Edinburg and we had a blast. I played plenty of tennis and we both played lots of water volleyball. I even participated in a water volleyball tournament and our team won a silver medal. Claudia also tried Pickleball (a variation of tennis) and she continued with her bi-weekly sessions of Zumba. We also enjoyed our 4:00 happy hours on most days. One evening we decided to go to the pavilion and encourage some of our fellow campers doing karaoke. Little did I know that one of my new "friends" would put my name in to perform. Yes, I did do karaoke and I sang "The Great Pretender". I walked off the stage to a standing ovation but I'm sure the standing ovation was due a lot more to the fact that I got on stage than with my singing talent. On one day, Claudia and I joined our friends Randy & Sue for a trip into Mexico. We spent the day doing lots of shopping, eating and drinking. We parked in the US and then walked across the bridge to Mexico. We also enjoyed a day in Brownsville with about 80 others from our campground to participate in a "Shrimp Boil". We took a tour of a shrimp boat, learned all about how shrimp fishing happens and were able to sample some shrimp that just came off the boat. Yum!! There’s nothing like wild caught shrimp. After a final morning of tennis, we spent our last day in Edinburg enjoying a special happy hour where we were able to say goodbye to all our new friends at Sandpipers. Once we left Edinburg, we made a brief 2 night stop at Lake Case Blanca State Park in Laredo, Texas where we were able to enjoy a couple of great hikes over some typical Texas landscape. When we left Laredo, we headed out early for what we thought was going to be a long, boring, seven hour drive to Fort Stockton. That tells you how little we knew about the area we were about to cross. We decided to take the Pecos Trail running along the Mexican border rather than the interstate. What a great decision that was. We finally saw the Texas that we had only seen in pictures and western movies. With the flat lands behind us, we drove past beautiful canyons, rolling hills and mesas that were just gorgeous. This trip only added to our excitement for what we still have ahead of us. Once we arrived in Fort Stockton we took a day to explore some of the history there. Fort Stockton started out as just a fort, primarily consisting of Buffalo Soldiers used to protect the settlers and travelers through the area from Apache and Comanche attacks. The nearest town was over 300 miles away. When it did develop into a town itself, it became a typical wild west town full of gunfights. This was the first major visit to Texas for both Claudia and I and we were thrilled with what we saw. We hadn’t realized how beautiful Texas is. We’ll be going back!! Ed
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