El Rio RV Park

 

While cruising the business district of Falcon Heights I noticed this sign on the corner.

Seemed worth investigating. 

After the two and a half miles I came to the turn-in for the park.

A couple dogs were down the lane waiting.

I turned around.  Dogs like to bark at and chase the motorbike.

Down the road further I turned in onto another road.

I don’t know what someone was once intending on building here but they gave up with it unfinished.

Finally I came to the water’s edge of the mighty Rio Grande River now flowing along at a good clip

having been freed from the confines of the Falcon Dam Reservoir.  Three locals fishing.  Guess they must catch something now and then or why would they come here?

That’s Mexico over there.

Curious as to what I missed because of the dogs I pulled up a satellite image.

I was at that open space at the bottom right looking across the river.

I see now all I had to do was go off to the left to tour the park avoiding the dogs.

I’ll go back.

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The closest opportunity for employment would be Roma, 15 miles to the south.

School children are bussed there.  The schools looked nice too.

Falcon Heights, Texas

 

Population 18, down from the 2010 census of 53.

Let’s tour the business district on Highway 83.

First up is what used to be a gas station and convenience store.

Here’s a business opportunity for someone.

Next up a church.

The path, the truth, the life.

Then a couple of residences.

And that was it for the main drag.

Lets go up the other side of the highway.

Must be the town refuse site.

There are no shortage of churches in Falcon Heights.

Notice the two services, one in English and one in Spanish.

The Catholic Church was the nicest looking complete with stained glass windows.

Yep, Falcon Heights has a post office.

I am waiting for two packages.

I was just able to make out the wording on this building.

This was the post office before the new one was built.

To the left I don’t know.

Next down the line was The Falcon Inn.

Next was a building with Nellie’s Beauty Salon and...

Gee, I could walk to this store if it were still in business.

I wonder if they had milk and bags of salad.

It didn’t look like the motel was in operation any longer.

But this one next to it possibly was.

Beyond it stood the last building.  I couldn’t decide what this was.  

The red letters lying on the roof were M, T, E and L.

The O was still standing.

So there you go; that’s Falcon Heights.

Not a single bar either.  Amazing.

What a Place!

 

Falcon County Park

I took this photo from home to show off the clothes line set-up here.

Notice the building on the left.  It says OFFICE next to the door. Yet I keep seeing people going in and out all the time.  Why?  That is the restrooms/shower building to the right.

On another day someone hung-up more laundry.  I would go get a better photo for the blog.

I may as well check out this “office” while here.

Whoa!  I wasn’t expecting this.

Well I’ll be darned!

Oh geez, with my history of using laundromats do I want to take the chance?

Lets look in the refrigerator.

Oh my goodness!!

The freezer.

So what’s the deal?  Is this food people do not want or...

...food storage for people with no way to keep their food cold, like the tent people?

Would you help yourself to any of this?

A toaster oven, blender, cook pot, another microwave.

Darn. I didn’t think to look in the cabinets.

Probably an eight-piece setting of fine china in there.

And just for that crazy person that wants to do some garden work.

I have never seen a place like Falcon County Park before.

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Thank you Debby for sleuthing out the story behind the yellow milk containers.

And thanks to Jackie and Damselfly for the education about chickens and eggs.

Much appreciated.

“Do you speak Spanish?”  Long ago I was better than I am now.  You don’t use it, you lose it.

Border Town Shopping

 

A new day and a fresh approach.  

I decided to make the drive into Roma.  Roma is a large town of 11,561, a population increasing every year unlike all the other towns we visit, and 98.5% of that population is hispanic.  

We were underway before 9 am for the 14 mile drive to Roma.

First thing I see crossing into town is a purified water station.  Now I had asked Chuck if there were any places to get drinking water.  He thought there might be one and gave me vague directions.  So when I saw this I jumped on it.  By the time we were done with Roma hours later I had seen dozens of these purified water stations. 

I had planned to make this quest for milk worthwhile and one of the things I wanted to do in town was find a car wash.  Just a half a block down from getting water was a car wash, not the one I had mapped out.  This will do.  I pulled in and parked sideways blocking three stalls.  We couldn’t fit under the roof.

That was okay,  Really what I wanted to do was blast all the dirt and grit from the roller runners on this slide-out storage bin.  I could barely budge it.

Cheap car wash for only $1.25 and I got it done plus some bug removal up front.

Next was a stop at a auto parts store for an upcoming project, then a walk over to the nearby Family Dollar.  They had milk.  Family Dollar always seems to be better than Dollar General.

Auto parts in the distance.

Clean windshield now.

I noticed in the same large parking area was a Valero station.  We had a half a tank.  We have a long way to go when we leave Falcon Heights.  We’d have to fill up eventually upon arrival wherever we wind up.  So I decided to do it here and be done with it.  

Diesel was $3.68 which seemed about average for south Texas.

While it filled I looked up.  Riverview Market.  That is one of the stores I had pegged.  

Good deal, it is right here.

Inside I heard no english being spoken.  Mexican music wafted through the air.  The bread selection was pitiful minimal. It looked to be all enriched white bread.  No bags of salad.  I picked up some small steaks.  No cottage cheese except Daisy brand which I do not care for.  They had milk.  With just three items in my basket I felt it wasn’t worth it.  I’d try someplace else.  I put those three items back.

 

Now Roma has over twenty grocery markets.  We drove on through town for seven miles.  All those stores were small tiendas.  There is no shortage of tortillas, frijoles, carne, pollo, tamales and such in Roma.  At the edge of town was a road sign: Rio Grande City - 8 miles.  Damn, eight miles more and we would be at a Walmart!  I turned around and went back to...

The store was nice.  I just had to realign my thinking.  Just as I did back In Ajo.

After all, this is a border town.

This time I saw the bags of salad.  See arrow.  Maybe four to six bags.  Not the big selection to choose from like I am used to seeing.  I didn’t pickup those steaks though.

I did get another milk.  Ever see milk in a yellow container?  How could I pass that up.

And I did get a small Daisy cottage cheese.  

Buck-up trooper.

On the way home we stopped at Dollar General to give the ginger cat a can of food.

He wasn’t around.

Back home I scooted underneath and took a small wire brush to the track then sprayed it all with a lubricant.  Works slick now. 

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Yes, I have questions.  They euthanize millions of chickens, create an egg shortage and then all of a sudden eggs are plentiful again?  How long does it take for a baby chick to mature to egg-laying size?  And just where did those baby chicks come from if all the millions of chickens were eliminated?

And why was chicken meat still available all during this time?  Maybe I don’t want to know the answer.