I signed up for a tour of farms on both sides of the border, US & Mexico. About 30 Winter Texans, ten from Palm Shadows RV Park, boarded the Tour Bus along with the driver and a Tour Guide at 7:30 in the morning.
Our first stop was a citrus farm North of McAllen, Texas. It was owned and operated by the fourth generation of the family. They had orange, tangerine, grapefruit, and lemon groves; and we were able to visit the fruit processing plant where it is washed, waxed, sorted, and packed. It is interesting to note that lemons grown in this area of Texas are green like limes.
We also visited the retail store where they had a very old sizer which we had the opportunity to see in operation. As you can see in the picture, the bins the fruit fell into were lined with heavy nap carpeting to minimize bruising.
Form there, we went to a farm in Mexico owned and operated by a family of seven brothers and sisters. They operate the 200 acre family farm with the help of seven hired workers who were paid $1.85 per hour. They raise "table crops": onions, cabbage, broccoli, spinach, and carrots; all of which they sell at a retail outlet on the farm. These table crops are planted in September-October and harvested in February-March; then they plant corn in April which is harvested in August . . . giving them two crops a year.
All of their plots are quite small. As you can see, each patch of cabbage, onions, or spinach isn't very big. This apparently gives them better control of each patch.
The farmer (one of the brothers) is pictured here showing us around the farm. He only spoke Spanish, so we had to ask our questions of the Tour Guide (with his back to the camera) who in turn asked the farmer in Spanish. The farmer would reply in Spanish and our Tour Guide would interpret into English for us.
All crops on this farm in Mexico are irrigated using water pumped from a 6 inch well 400 feet deep. Water is pumped from the well into a large concrete holding tank, then allowed to flow by gravity into irrigation ditches to the fields.
For demonstration, one of the farm workers dug an irrigation trench with the tractor, opened a valve to let the water flow, then used a shovel to manually direct the water between the rows to be watered.
Although tractors are used for plowing, discing, and harrowing; all planting, cultivating, and harvesting is done manually.
Harvested table crops are all sold from a stand in the center of the fields. They simply wash the crops off with a hose and lay them out for sale.
While we were there, many locals arrived on foot, bicycle, motorbike, car, and truck to buy vegetables direct from the farm.
When we left the Mexican farm, we drove back to the border through the Mexican city of Reynosa. I was again amazed at the way many Mexican families live, like I would expect in a third-world country. These pictures were taken through the window of the Tour Bus so there is some light reflection, but you can get the idea of how many people live South of the Border.
Also the amount of trash in Mexico is amazing. We may think we have too much trash on our US roadways and in our cities, but the amount of trash everywhere in Mexico is unbelievable. This picture is typical of what you see in towns and along the roadside throughout the country. Trash everywhere!
As on previous trips , entry going South into Mexico is very simple, just waved on through. But returning to the US is another matter. This picture is of the line of cars and trucks waiting to get through US Customs to enter the United States. All of the passengers on our Tour Bus had to get off with all of our belongings and walk through US Customs while the empty Tour Bus was being x-rayed. It took us a little over an hour to clear US Customs to return back across the border.
While we were waiting in line on the bridge, US Border Patrol Agents were leading dogs among the lined up cars and trucks, presumably sniffing for drugs and/or explosives. I saw one car the dog reacted to pulled aside for a through search. Hooray for the good guys!
Our next stop was at a family farm North of Alamo, Texas . . . a 1,600 acre farm worked by only three people. They grow the same "table crops" as were being grown in Mexico plus tomatoes, watermelons, and strawberries . . . and in the summer they grow a second crop of corn as well. The big differences are most fields are fairly large and everything is mechanized. Plowing, cultivating, and planting are all done by tractor plus harvesting of corn. Only the harvesting of table crops is done manually, but that is contracted out to hired teams.
The US farmer, shown here in the center, is explaining the irrigation drip system through which the crops are both watered and fertilized. The water source is water pumped into irrigation canals from the Rio Grande River, but rather than flooding the fields as in Mexico, they have underground hoses feeding a drip system of irrigation, which greatly reduces evaporation.
This US farmer has a Masters Degree in Agriculture and Entomology, whereas I don't believe the Mexican farmer had any college education.
One of the crops being grown was watermelons, shown here. This field was recently planted as small plants rather than seed and was planted by machine. In addition, as seen in this picture, between each row was planted a narrow strip of wheat as a windbreak. The wheat was not to be harvested, it was only to protect the watermelon vines. This windbreak protects the vines from being blown around in the wind as the vines attach themselves to the wheat which anchors the vine.
The fields on this US farm were considerably larger than the plots on the farm in Mexico. This is a field of onions, a much larger field than any we saw in Mexico.
At a field of strawberries where we stopped, the farmer passed out plastic bags to everyone on the tour and invited us to pick as many strawberries as we wanted. The berries were a very dark red and really sweet.
We then toured the citrus processing facility on this farm where the fruit was dumped into a large hopper, picked up by a conveyor belt, run through a scrubbing and washing process, air dried by big blowers, then run through a waxing bath, and finally mechanically sorted by size . . . ready for shipment . . . all in one pass.
Most crops from this farm are shipped via semi tractor trailers to large processors, but some "table crops" are sold at retail through a farm store on the property.
After we completed our tour of the last farm, we boarded the Tour Bus and returned to the RV Park at about 5:00 PM. The "Farm Tour" was very interesting and educational, but the best part of all was when I got back to "The Bus", I cleaned the freshly picked strawberries and enjoyed them on a dish of ice cream. They were delicious!
We left the New Orleans Bayou Country and headed East on Interstate 10 under a cloudy sky. After a few miles of passing through one bayou after another, we crossed into Mississippi and diverted onto Highway 90, the scenic route. We quickly went from "Bayou to Beach" . . . Mississippi beaches are wide and wonderful as far as you can see.
Hundreds of now vacant beach front lots, as well as lots a block or two back from the beach, have 'For Sale' signs on them. Many now vacant lots are just setting there facing a beautiful sandy beach, some with pilings, a driveway, a foundation, or a concrete slab remaining. A few brick or concrete buildings were gutted by the storm surge but not destroyed. Some of those have been restored, but some, like the brick home in the photo at the right, have simply been boarded up and stand silently, a lone sentinel in a field of vacant beach front lots.
Driving through this part of Louisiana makes you very much aware of Louisiana's byline of "America's Wetland". Everywhere you look, there is swamp land. The Parish we were driving through must be the "Bridge Capitol" of the country. Most of the highway was a continuous bridge passing through miles and miles of swamp.
We then went through Houston . . . right through the center of town at mid-day on Sunday . . . so we were not in heavy traffic. From the metropolitan area of Houston, we turned East on Interstate 10 and drove through the East Texas oil & gas refinery area into Louisiana, America's Wetland. Louisiana is certainly a contrast with Texas, especially South Texas in the Rio Grande Valley where we have been parked for almost four months.
We stopped early for the night at Cypress Bend RV Park in Iowa, Louisiana, just East of St. Charles, a little over 200 miles from New Orleans. This is a fairly small RV Park right on Interstate 10, but a very complete and a very pleasant place to stop for the night.
The weather was very pleasant and we drove until about 5:00 PM when we stopped at Dad's RV Park in Victoria, Texas, between Corpus Christie and Houston.
This RV Park is located across the road from a very large City Park, a very nice setting. Kids were playing on the playground equipment and some older kids had a game of basketball on the court.
This is a quaint park with very nice office, services, and activities buildings. The whole park is very clean and well maintained.
And we have a large concrete pad on which to park and have a nice concrete patio with picnic table.
When ever I think of going to Jackson Street in Harlingen, Texas, I recall the song "Goin' to Jackson". Today we went to Jackson . . . Jackson Street in Harlingen, that is . . . the old downtown where antique shops, galleries, and gift shops are trying to survive.
Carole had to visit each of the antique shops . . . and there are a number of them. She found a piece of Roseville Pottery . . . the store clerk convinced her she could buy it in The Valley, take it North, and sell it for a lot more . . . not that she would. But she couldn't live without it, so we added it to The Bus inventory.
Several month ago, I backed into a grassy bunker and bruised the right rear corner of "The Bus". In fact, I actually split the fibreglass and bent the molding.
The "Bruise Repair" on "The Bus" turned out just fine . . . but it sure bruised the bank account!
We started with Margaritas accompanied by chips & salsa, followed by a wonderful authentic Mexican dinner. That's me on the left in yellow, Carole is across from me in pink. The other couples are Winter Texans from Vermont, Colorado, and Iowa.
The restaurant has an outside bird sanctuary which is visible through a large window. We were able to watch the doves and pigeons while we dined. This led to some interesting conversation.
So, as a last get together with our neighbors, we decided to go out for "Sunday Breakfast" at an old hotel in Weslaco, Texas, the next town in The Valley East of here. This hotel on the main street of old downtown Weslaco had been left to deteriorate and had many broken windows. But, several years ago, new owners restored it to it's original Old Texas architecture. It's a beautiful four story brick building.
But, we didn't rent the dining room. We had breakfast in the restaurant part of the hotel, which was also very tastefully renovated.
Carole is obviously enjoying her ham and cheese omelet. But, all of our breakfasts were very good.
But I had seen an article in the local newspaper about backyard organic gardeners planning a "Farmer's Market" on Saturday at a park in the town of San Juan, which is not far from here. So instead of the party in Progreso, we decided on "Just the Farmer's Market" in San Jaun.
That's Carole in the pink hat bargaining for fresh baby leaf lettuce. No, she's not bargaining in Spanish. She sticks to English . . . with an Indiana accent! Some of the gardeners had difficulty understanding her.
So . . . today was the day to get "On Top of It All"! First I had to gather everything needed to wash the roof of "The Bus" . . . ladder, bucket, long-handled scrub brush, hose, power washer, and chemicals including a little Clorox. Then it was up the ladder carrying all that stuff to get "On Top of It All".
All crops on this farm in Mexico are irrigated using water pumped from a 6 inch well 400 feet deep. Water is pumped from the well into a large concrete holding tank, then allowed to flow by gravity into irrigation ditches to the fields.
As on previous trips , entry going South into Mexico is very simple, just waved on through. But returning to the US is another matter. This picture is of the line of cars and trucks waiting to get through US Customs to enter the United States. All of the passengers on our Tour Bus had to get off with all of our belongings and walk through US Customs while the empty Tour Bus was being x-rayed. It took us a little over an hour to clear US Customs to return back across the border.
While we were waiting in line on the bridge, US Border Patrol Agents were leading dogs among the lined up cars and trucks, presumably sniffing for drugs and/or explosives. I saw one car the dog reacted to pulled aside for a through search. Hooray for the good guys!
The US farmer, shown here in the center, is explaining the irrigation drip system through which the crops are both watered and fertilized. The water source is water pumped into irrigation canals from the Rio Grande River, but rather than flooding the fields as in Mexico, they have underground hoses feeding a drip system of irrigation, which greatly reduces evaporation.
One of the crops being grown was watermelons, shown here. This field was recently planted as small plants rather than seed and was planted by machine. In addition, as seen in this picture, between each row was planted a narrow strip of wheat as a windbreak. The wheat was not to be harvested, it was only to protect the watermelon vines. This windbreak protects the vines from being blown around in the wind as the vines attach themselves to the wheat which anchors the vine.
The fields on this US farm were considerably larger than the plots on the farm in Mexico. This is a field of onions, a much larger field than any we saw in Mexico.
At a field of strawberries where we stopped, the farmer passed out plastic bags to everyone on the tour and invited us to pick as many strawberries as we wanted. The berries were a very dark red and really sweet.
