Lasts Days in Harlingen & Choke Canyon State Park

                                                 

                                  Saturday 3/30/2013

One of the last things we did while still in Harlingen, TX was to take a 40 mile drive to McAllen, TX. I needed some things in McAllen that I couldn't find in Harlingen. We went to two health food stores. The 2nd one was called Sprouts, which is a grocery store, as well as a health food store.  McAllen has a population of 129,877, but the McAllen–Edinburg–Mission metropolitan area is at 774,769. The Reynosa–McAllen Metropolitan Area counts with a population of nearly 1.7 million. It is a big city with lots of traffic. It seemed much newer and updated than Brownsville. The population is 77.28% Hispanic or Latino.

As we drove home via Hwy. 107,  we noticed the highway lined with Easter pinatas and cartons of painted Easter eggs for sale by the locals.

Later we were told that it is a tradition down here that eggs are drained through a small hole painted and stuffed with confetti. These eggs are called  Cascarones, and are broken over people heads for good luck.

When we first arrived in Harlingen we went to the Saturday Farmers Market which is held year round in downtown Harlingen.

It was a fairly small Farmers Market, but adequate.

The Farmers Market was next to this neat mural wall.

                                        Monday 4/1/2013

After a month and a week in Harlingen, it was time to head north. Half of the snowbirds at Lakewood Resort had left a week earlier. We had originally planned to stay only a month, but when we started to make reservations for our next stop, they were full for the Easter weekend. We decided to stay another week until the holiday was over. Holidays always seem to give us trouble, when we only schedule 2 months in advance. We took Hwy 281 north toward San Antonio. When we reached about the same latitude as Corpus Christi, the landscape went from flat to hills, and we got to an elevation of 344 feet. In Harlingen, we were at 39 feet.

As we approached Three Rivers we started to see oil refineries. This part of Texas has had an oil boom for the last couple of years.

In Three Rivers we turned west on Hwy 72 for about 12 miles. Then we turned north to Calliham to Choke Canyon State Park. We left Harlingen at 11:00 and arrived at Choke canyon around 4PM.

Choke Canyon State Park registration office.

Map of the the state park and campground on Choke Canyon Reservoir.

We picked out a nice water front site # 125.

Each site had a covered picnic area. It gets really hot here in the summer.

View out our picture window at our table. The lake is a big fishing lake.

We stayed here for 2 nights, so Joe could have a day break from driving and to just relax. On the second day we walked down to the lake.

Across the lake with binoculars and zoom lens we could see about 22 Roseate Spoonbills.

Along the shore as we walked we saw a Great Egret and Little Egret and maybe a Snowy Egret. Not for sure as they were far off and my picture is pretty blurry. As we walked their way, they took off.

The lake is down about 15 feet, with the 10 year drought southern Texas has had.

The reservoir covers 25,670 acres in Live Oak and McMullen counties, and has a capacity of more than 695,000 acre feet of water.

The state park has a Bird Sanctuary in the campground area.

Unfortunately no birds were in the sanctuary. The park needs to put some oranges and grapefruits in it!

Some of the sites had cement sidewalks to the gazebo and two gravel paths, one for the RV and one for the car. We think these might be handicapped sites.

Dogs are welcome in the park, but on a leash. Our neighbors had a different way at looking at the leash rule. They had three dogs, and all three dogs ran around all the time pulling their leash behind them.

The owners would be inside their RV and not see their dogs pooping everywhere. before we left, I went to the office and reported them. Yes I am a tattle tail! I don't like people who don't take responsibility for their dogs. They are the people who ruin it for the rest of us. These are the people who make it so our dogs can not go on certain beaches. I wanted them to know that the park rangers might not see them, but they never know when a neighbor is going to report them. Joe said he was glad I didn't report them until we were gone. He didn't want to come home to slashed tires!