Sunday, November 21, 2010

Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park.

DSC_2641
Right down the street from where we live down here in the Rio-Grande Valley in Texas is the Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park. This is a WORLD BIRDING center and people come from all over the world to see the Birds they have here.

Here is a picture of the entrance to the Park during the flood a few months ago.  This is where we usually do our morning walk and is a beautiful private place to walk. The South border of the park is the Rio Grande River. When the storm hit last summer and filled the big dam West of here, it flooded this area and this Park was underwater. The damage the water caused to the roads and trails caused the park to close.

DSC_2642
These barricades greeted us this year when we started to take our morning walk in the State Park. We had to find another place to walk. A couple days ago we saw about 20-25 big semi dump trucks lined up going into the Park loaded with dirt being hauled in to help repair some of the damage. We heard that we could now walk down about a mile into the park. So yesterday, we made our first venture in.  It was early in the morning (of course:-) and no one else was around.
DSC_2644
About a mile into the Park where the “loop” begins, the roads were closed. Both of these roads lead down to the Rio Grande River.
DSC_2645
The fine print at the bottom says:
 “Most of the park was covered in 3-10ft of water. As of Nov 10th parts of the park remained underwater. Many of our facilities are currently under repair. Closed areas are not safe for the public”.
DSC_2647
From the picture above and the one below, you can see remains of the high water and the condition it left the park in…
DSC_2648
Mother Nature does leave her marks but there is probably a reason in the long run and good will come from it. It's not really devastation, it's just Mother Nature showing us who is boss. I’m sure the Park will one day be back up and running in good shape. Maybe even BETTER shape!

I was hoping another movie would come to town while we were here close to a theater. We saw the previews of a movie called TRUE GRIT that is coming out real soon. It’s a Western and a remake of the old John Wayne movie.  It will star Jeff Bridges as "Rooster Cogburn" but it doesn’t look like it will be out until right around Christmas. We’ll have to catch it some where else....looks like it will be good!

That's about it for this Sunday....real exciting isn’t it? :-)  Not much interesting happening around here, but that seems kinda nice, cause remember we’re “Kickin' Back”, trying to get some R & R. It will be busy, busy when we get to North Ranch!!

So, I’m back to "RESTIN"!!! The "kids", Rollie and Gina, are home in Louisiana for a few weeks and I bet they are “kickin' back” too! Rest up Kids cause when you get to the Ranch we’re gonna HIT IT!! Ya HEAR!!:-)  Walking, hiking, 4-wheeling......and a "little" fixin'.

It was a GREAT WEEK!!!

Thanks for stopping by.  Come on back Wednesday….

God Bless each and every one of you!!

Mike

This Blog is Published every Sunday and Wednesday..

7 comments:

Jerry and Suzy said...

Mother Nature does seem to know what she's doing, and it's a good thing she does, because the rest of us don't seem to know what she's going to do next! Tell me, though, why is it always Mother Nature, or Mother Earth? Aren't they different manifestations of Father God?

Rick said...

Wow, that's a lot of water for a park to be under. You're right though, it's just nature and the park will rebound and be just as good, or better, than before. The same kind of thing happens with forest fires.

Glad to see you're 'kicking back' and relaxing for a while. Hope you both have a great Thanksgiving week and get lot's of Turkey!!

Sue and Doug said...

Mother Nature at her finest!..the park will be back to it`s old self one day soon!..happy thanksgiving!!

Travelwithwhippets said...

Thanks so much for the park update. We bought a casita on Mallard Drive (phase II) last spring, and can't wait to finally get there to finish it inside. The bird park was one of the main reasons we wanted to buy a place there. We spent the winter at Bentsen Palm Village last year and spent LOTS of time walking and biking through the bird park. I'm disappointed that much of it will be closed this January when we get there, but glad to know they're working on it. Thanks again!

Al Bossence said...

Seems to be a lot of that natural disaster damage all around the country this past year. Fires, floods, winds, tornados & hurricanes. I suspect there will be some major winter storm events this winter as well. Nature knows best & will do what it wishes, how it wishes & when it wishes. Safe travels to North Ranch & by the way, I did bag another windmill fer ya this past week:))

All Because Two People Fell In Love said...

Rollie and I definitely will be needing to do LOTS of walking and hiking with all the canjun food we are eating. We miss you both bunches and we are extremely THANKFUL and BLESSED to have you in our lives. HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!

WE LOVE Y'ALL
Your "Kids"

Unknown said...

Mike, I was just fussing at Phil about how I couldn't believe they did a remake of True Grit! How could anyone remake a Duke movie?? No way Jeff Bridges can hold a candle to John Wayne, that man is my hero!