Pepe and Rossy visit

Our friends come for a visit. We met Rossy and her family in Mexico about 12 years ago. We were honored to attend their wedding at a little church in the town of Nuevo Progreso, Mexico. Over the years we have become good friends and have kept up with both Rossy and Pepe's families.


Pepe , Rossy, Pepito and Baby Susan come for their first visit of the year. After the usual late lunch with Bud and Evelyn at Golden Corral, , we all gather on Smith's patio for some catching up. Susan will be 1 year and Pepito will be 6, both in July.
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A pretty little girl with a handsome big brother and good looking parents. I try singing "Oh Susanna" to them but it took a while for me to remember the words and explain the nonsense of the song. Rossy laughed at the words ..Susan is suspicious of strangers and uses her big eyes to check us out.
Pepe and Bud and Pepe Jr go for a ride around the park on the Golf Cart. I am thinking he really wanted to drive but did not get the chance................. yet.
Rossy thought Connie looked like a famous model with her "new age haircut".
Daddy likes his Little girl and makes her smile easily by singing songs I do not understand..

Susan finally warms up to Great Grandma Evelyn just before they are getting ready to leave.
Evelyn and the kids, [ note the snake protecting the plants]

Being a typical boy, he quickly spots the fake snake and scares all he can with his new found "friend", he tries wiggling it at people riding bikes on the street and then grins real big.

I wonder how tall a tale can this tale be?
Connie decides to give a driving lesson. After just a little convincing Pepito gets into the driver seat. With one near miss, off they go around the block , leaving the rest of us standing with our mouths agape wondering what will we witness???
Here they come down the back street ,,

and there they go .. Connie said he was a real quick learner and could understand her Spanish....Izquerda
Saying goodbye, Susan is a happy girl. She likes to look into the side mirror ," addicted to mirrors, like her Mother" according to Daddy.

As they drive away I wonder how much Susan will change in the 6 months before we met again.

Rio Grande Valley Livestock Show

MARCH 16, 2008 Mercedes, Texas

The midway has Corn Dogs, Roasted Corn on the Cob, Funnel Cakes, and Suicide Tacos. All of this right next to the holding pens for the exhibitors' animals. Oh, the combination of smells...





Mary finds her photo op everywhere..




The Bull riding competition always starts out with the Cowgirls Singing , Dancing and riding the horses while presenting the Flag.

These cowgirls in "camouflage" brought a vision of Tracy, tears in my eyes and a large lump in my throat.


A young girl named Connie, age 9, on the left of this picture is next to her mother who is the lead singer. She is a very good performer.





The 43 Bull riders are introduced to the crowd. There will be only 8 qualified rides this afternoon, it is a good day for the Bulls..

Some spend their time talking themselves into the idea the that these animals aren't so tough....

Gizmo McCracken is the barrel man with a wise cracking lingo that entertains the crowd.
Some of his lines are:
I just got married again, I got tired of finishing my own sentences.
Next time I will find a woman I can't stand, I'll skip the ceremony and just buy her a house.
Bungee jumping: is for those who, a l m o s t want to die.
All the thrills of suicide with out the commitment.
If a cowboy takes too long getting ready in the chute he was heard to say "well, I could ride him in there".
When a rider is bucked off it is "THANKS FOR COMING".

"The Bullfighting "clowns" open the cute for the 8 second ride to start.

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Sometimes you make the 8 second buzzer and ....



sometimes you hit the dirt and get up running, if you can, as fast as you can.....

The Mutton Bustin..

Young competitors 4-7 [approx ages] show early bravery or their parents have convinced them "this will be fun", they march wide eyed into the arena, go into a chute to be placed on a sheep and told to hang on tight. The chute is opened and the sheep runs to join the flock of other sheep across the arena. The kids either fall off early or slowly slide to the under side of the critter and get a loud Cheer from the crowd when they drop to the dirt.

BULL POKER..
The announcer keeps badgering the crowd until he gets some "over 18 , a few slices short of a loaf young men, willing to sign a waiver" to participate in an event known as Bull Poker. Sitting at a table they try to be the last one sitting while a Bull is turned loose in the arena. The prize is $100.00. Now Bull riders do not go near the bulls without a protective vest, chaps and a helmet... WHAT WERE THEY THINKING..

The pictures tell most of the story..











Ok, now for the part it does not show in the pictures, this young man got mauled and pushed around by the bull on the ground before he got to the top of the fence. As you can see his jeans got many rips and tears and he was knocked out of his shoes. The bull pushed him around 3 different times on the ground before he could get away. It was very difficult to watch. He was checked out by the EMT's and was shook, but it was his Mother who was taken from the grandstand and put into the ambulance with heart problems.


If you peek below our seats in the bleachers this big guy was one of many in a pen right below us. We held on tight to our cameras, glasses, water bottles, blankets and hats as I imagine it would be pretty pricey to get a cowboy to go into the pen to retrieve something you had dropped below the bleachers..

Sugar Cane

Connie and I happened upon a field of Sugar Cane right after it was burnt and into an area that was being harvested. It is an interesting process to watch.

1. a field of Sugar Cane after it has been burnt. The smell is very strong .

--This field was newly planted with cane that will grow for 18 months before being ready to burn and harvest.
The field just beyond is where they are cutting and loading the cane into bins to be loaded onto semi trucks for transport to the Sugar Refining Mill in Santa Rosa.

They try to burn 200 acres a day between the hours of 10 am and 3 pm. It takes 20 minutes for 40 acres of cane to burn start to finish. The sound is like a loud roar.

We get information from some of the workers but others had to point to someone who spoke English.
It is an adventure getting to the area where the trucks and tractors are working and getting someone to stop working and speak with you. Sometimes you have to drive "Baha" conditions,
[don't tell Bob , If you go slowly the Alero manges ruts and dirt rows pretty well]

Trying out Connie's truck next time.

Any time we are bored we go" chasing the cane" , following the smoke to an area where it is burning and then looking for Sugar Cane Growers trucks and following them to the next field to be burnt. The dark cloud of smoke we see just "over there" is usually 5-10 miles down some dirt cow path..Sometimes we get lucky and find a target field before it is set afire, but usually we are too late to catch the actual burn. We have not got to a burn yet this year. We keep trying .



Richard would be proud of these straight rows...
Note: Go back to another blog, Pepe's on the River...

Pepe's on the River

Saturday, March 8 , the Movers and Shakers motivated the rest of us to get on the Encore bus they had booked and after an hour bus ride we arrived at Pepe's on the River, a "infamous watering/dancing /drinking party location for winter Texans on the bank of the Rio Grande River.




Large plates of nachos loaded with goodies were served along with pitchers of beer and Marquita's

To work off the food and drink ,the Dancing starts. Nothing can slow down the Winter Texans.





Not even shoulder surgery

Bob is looking for "swimmers " coming across the Rio Grande but ....




only spotted boats and jet Skis. It sometimes boggles the mind you are looking at the banks of Mexico where anyone could launch a boat ,tube or just swim. Talk about our unsecure border, just TAKE A GOOD LOOK..

A tired and quiet group on the way home, Is someone sleeping at the back of the bus ?..

Our waitress , Spike, yep that was on her name tag, gave Connie some inspiration...Connie is looking forward to her hair getting longer to do the color. She tried it once but she will wait for more hair before trying again.