My cousin, Carrie has visited us in Texas a few times since we bought our place here.
Hubs and I have enjoyed touring her around and I’ve especially enjoyed the fact that she loves to walk and hike.
My feature photo was taken at Quinta Mazatlan, a fascinating and fun place to visit in McAllen, Tx
We found this mural while hiking the trails that surround the historic adobe mansion.
As I was making this post, I was reminded of the Beatles’ song, “All You Need is Love”.
Once every year, King Ranch – the biggest working ranch in the USA, hosts a breakfast for the public. All monies collected are donated to local charities. This is the only day all year that private vehicles are allowed on the ranch proper.
Hubs and I have attended the breakfast twice since 2019, once by ourselves, and once a couple of seasons ago, with friends from home who were ranchers at one time. This year, along with these same friends, we skipped the breakfast, but did the bus tour of the ranch.
The bus tour is open year round and is a great way to spend 1.5 hours learning about this 825,000 acre (in South Texas) massive ranching operation.
On the same weekend as the ranch hand breakfast, the city of Kingsville hosts a festival, complete with vendors, food and art demonstrations, rides for kids, entertainment, and lots of opportunities to get to know the locals. We decided to do the bus tour on the morning of the festival, so we could spend some time checking out the happenings in town, and then head out for the tour after lunch.
Unfortunately, just as the bus tour was about to begin, the rain started. We went anyways and, with the exception of not many photo ops through the bus windows, we didn’t regret it.
After my post Steamroller Blues? , I promised some of my followers that I would explain the festival in greater detail.
… Not just for the many flavours of ice cream, like the fellow in the mural, but to get everything done that I want to in a day.
This time of year is usually busy for me, as I prepare for Christmas.
Either this year is busier than usual, or another year added to my age has slowed me down a bit. Hmmm – I wonder which is true.
My goal for tonight and tomorrow morning, is to try to get caught up with the bloggers I follow.
I’m out of sync with my regular post times this week.
This is a busy week, so today will be my only post.
On Saturday, we made the two hour drive to Kingsville, TX to take in the Ranch Hand Festival.
This was our third trip to the festival and our second trip there with good friends from home who winter in a park near here.
One of the demonstrations that was new to all of us was the one by TAMUK (Texas A & M University Kingsville) arts department Javelina Printing Club.
Their printing press was a steamroller! My feature photo is a screenshot from a movie I found about them on Facebook – not my own.
The process: Designs are carved into a block of wood, and then ink is rolled over the whole slab.
Once this step is complete, the slab is laid face up on the ground and a large sheet of paper placed over it, and then thick matting is layered on top of all.
The steamroller then drives over and backs up over the lot.
And voila!
It was fun and interesting to witness this unique process!
There were many prints done over the course of the day, and this was apparently their 12th year at the Ranch Hand festival.
I don’t know how we missed it on previous visits, but am happy we found it this time!
This mural, on the side of a roadside service station in Saskatchewan, Canada – although weathered, depicts some history of the pioneers and farming in our province.
We’ve been stopping in Llano, TX every year on our way south since 2019.
I found the subject for my feature photo during a walkabout on our first visit there.
What started out as an incredible year of long distance travel from January, to and including July, ended up with shorter trips from August to December that focused on weddings of family and friends, my Dad’s 85th birthday party, and lots of quality time with our own small family.
Each part of the year held its own memories and treasures, and the best part was that hubs and I were both now fully retired, so neither of us had to miss a minute of it because of work schedules.
We kicked off our retirement with a year packed with everything imaginable. It’s almost as though we were compensating for all of the things we had to cut short or miss entirely in our working careers.
It was a good year.
For many years, Chicago has been home to giant murals.
It’s pretty easy to capture decent shots of them “on the way by” if you’re passing through during rush hour.
Carrying on with the incredible travel year that was 2016:
After hubs and I returned from the all-expenses paid vacay to the Mayan Riviera, things calmed down for a couple of months, and then I headed out on a road trip to Salt Lake City with two long time friends who had joined my MLM team.
The purpose of the trip was to attend the annual conference of the MLM company I had signed up with.
In addition to being a learning and team-building experience in SLC, the road trip itself both to and from the conference was fun and interesting.
Even though none of us belonged to the Mormon faith, Temple Square in Salt Lake City provides a great history lesson about the settlement of the state of Utah.
My dear friend, Lenna passed suddenly and unexpectedly just four years after this trip.
I’m so happy I have this trip in photos and in memories.
Now that we’ve finally settled in to our winter home, I’m able to resume some of my normal routine for blog posts.
I still have several murals to contribute to my Monday Murals theme, and a couple of other travel posts to add to my 2016 theme.
The M/W/F posting schedule seems to be working out, so my plan is to continue with those days.
I’ll also continue with Foodie Friday posts.
The mural in my feature photo is in Weslaco, Tx (a town a few miles from here that we visit often).
The mural’s message is a good reminder.
Radically Retired 