Fun Happenings in RGV

Garret having fun with new friendsEvery weekend there seems to be fun happenings in the RGV. Being fun-loving people we want to experience all we can here. Friday night was Viva Streets Harlingen. People were getting around downtown on foot, skateboards and bikes. It was a lot of fun as you can see here.

Saturday we went to Harlingen’s 10th Annual Classic Car Show. There were hundreds of cars to see. Apparently the Harlingen Policia have been entering their Corvette in Car Show’s for a while. They even won Best In Show at one event.

Vivian making friends

In the afternoon Garret and I went to a really cool meet-and-greet Political event in Los Fresnos. It was a little awkward for us both for several reasons. 1. we were way underdressed, and 2. we still don’t speak much Spanish (gotta work on that more!). We got to meet and get to know a little about our government leaders (and future leaders!). And the wonderful part was community getting together, the music and good food.

Gar and Viv with Mariachi band

There was a Mariachi Band that played some beautiful authentic Mariachi music. It was important for us to get a photo with them, but it was unfortunate that I stepped in dog poo while getting into place for the photo! of all things! I guess I was trying to hide my foot in the photo.

Pretty Amazing

It’s really amazing how we have gotten this place that we are, not just physically but figuratively. The process really started when we decided to go to Harlingen for the month of November (2016) and see what we thought of the area. And the plan even got better when our great Friends Steve and Katie threw cation to the wind and decided to take their own trip and meet us down there as well. Pretty darn cool.

By the time Steve and Katie made it down there, pretty much mid-month I believe, we were knee deep in negations for our property.

Harlingen House

That’s the house there – actually on the right, 100% covered by trees and plants. The part on the left is the extension.

Although we hadn’t planned on it, we went back home, put our house up for sale, got an offer four days later and closed five business days later, for the asking price. Then we moved to Texas lock-stock and barrel.

On one had it seems so long ago, on the other, it hasn’t even been 2 months! Just nuts. So much work being done and so much more to do.

We have met some awesome people down here and I think in a lot of ways it’s really allowed us to make some personal changes as well. I do have to say, we really miss our friends and we hope we are able to stay connected, that’s all part of changing your life, isn’t it?

I was reading a Facebook post from one of our dear friends this morning, about her needing to make some changes. My message to all of you (and to ourselves) is DO IT!! It’s your life, you get just one. Create the life that you want for yourself! Make it amazing and EVERYTHING you want it to be. Only YOU have the power to do that for yourself.

And by the way, there hasn’t been a single minute where I have wished we had not done this. It’s been hard, a lot of work, we miss friends, comfort, real plumbing etc, :-), but man is this living life!!

And to all of our friends – come visit!

Kids Can Help Cure Cancer

Mia Barraza news interview
Mia Barraza news interview

On Saturday, April 1, Garret and I had an awesome opportunity to host a worthy fund raising event on our land while also giving many baby palm trees the chance to have a home. Our contractors (Barraza Brothers – Under Construction) 11 year old daughter Mia finds fun and interesting ways to raise money for St. Jude’s Children’s Cancer Hospital. One day her mom Yvonne and I were talking about the palms and the idea came up to see if Mia wanted to use the baby palms for raising funds (more about the palms later). As it turned out the idea grew into a nice size event. You know, everything is big here in South Texas!

children-can-help-cure-cancerMany young people came to help Mia dig and pot the baby palms, and many of the Barraza’s adult friends came to support the event. It was really cool that TV Station 34 (Mexican News) came to interview Mia and film the event.
Being well connected politically, some of the Barraza’s good friends came to partake in the event: D.A. Luis Saenz, Rene Gomez, Mario Saenz, and Firefighter (and possible future Congressman) Rigo Bocanegra. We’ve gotten to know Mario and Rigo a bit, they have been very helpful with some of the work going on here on the property.

Alexis with her baby palm tree
Alexis with her baby palm tree!

As it turns out Mexican Palm trees do produce flowers and seeds. Our property has hundreds of baby palm trees growing. The property caretaker has been mowing the palms with the grass, and now some areas have palm grass growing LOL. Even though many baby palms have been designated for Mia’s fund raising event, there are still hundreds, if not thousands, still there!

me with Yvonne Barraza and DA Luis Saenz
Yvonne Barraza, myself & D.A. Luis Saenz!

We are very blessed to have had this opportunity to help Mia with such a worthy cause, and look forward to having more events here on our property!

 

See more event great event photo’s here.

Edit: Just thought I’d add my two cents (this is Garret). It was a GREAT event, so happy to be part of it! Here are a couple more photos, one of our “parking lot” and one down by the lake.

Saint Jude event parking

Down by the lake

Night Out On The Town

We went out and had a great night on the town last night. It’s always nice to spend some time with Cindy Martinez, she has really become a great friend. It’s always nice finding people who you mesh with. Here we are standing in front of one of the great Harlingen Murals.

Harlingen Murals

One of us did manage to get a bit of dancing in as we listened to Dan The Man Harryman perform!

Vivian Dancing