When I see “Arnie” (our golf cart, named after the famous golfer, Arnold Palmer), all wrapped up and sitting on wooden planks to keep the tires from melting onto the concrete in the extreme summer heat, I know we’re leaving the next day.
As we always try to do, we have a new route home to Canada in the plans, and I can’t wait to share it with you.
It’s going to be a bucket list hit for me, so I’m pretty excited!
Neither hubs nor I have ever been involved in a spring break celebration, so we thought that a Sunday visit to South Padre Island during spring break might be a good way to wrap up our weekend of welcoming spring 2026.
Out of curiosity, the morning that we planned on leaving, I decided to consult professor Google as to what we might expect in terms of crowds. I’m so happy I did that.
Sunday, March 24 this year just happened to be the apex of the Texas Spring Break and this is what we should expect: possibly fifty thousand high school and college students in full and noisy party mode, heavy traffic (including complete jams) for both South Padre Island and the causeway going to and from the island, two hours or more waits for food, and zero parking at the main venues.
We decided to nix the trip and spend our last day of celebrating spring by watching nature programs on TV in the comfort our A/C’d living room, with snacks available immediately, and silence on demand as soon as we decided to mute the TV and have a nap.
The header photo for this post came up in Google Images when I looked for Claytons Spring Break Celebrations 2026. Claytons is one of our favourite stops for food and entertainment.
This photo was all that either of us needed for a “hard no!”
I guess we’ll complete life with never experiencing spring break.
I’m perfectly OK with that.
Pharr, Texas is four miles down the road from where we winter.
Hubs’ favourite street in Pharr is Cage Blvd because of the iconic cowboy welcome sign that sits high above the entry to the street. Hubs says it reminds him of the famous neon “Welcome to Vegas” cowboy.
My fave spot is up a couple of blocks on the corner of Cage Blvd and Kelly Ave.
The long vacant Texan Hotel and Chung Mei Kitchen restaurant has always intrigued me.
Through looking for some history of the hotel, I learned that the welcome to Pharr cowboy originally sat on top of the Texan Hotel sign.
In 1984, Du Ong Lee, long time owner of the hotel and restaurant was featured in a local newspaper.
Now, it’s my mission to visit the Pharr Memorial Library. Isn’t it funny how once we start researching, one curiosity often leads to another?
It was fun to learn that the two things that hubs and I love most about Pharr have a strong connection.
Every year at this time, McAllen, Texas (our neighbouring city) hosts “The Golden Age Olympics”. It runs over several weeks and includes every event from race walking to jigsaw puzzles (yes, you read that right – it’s a timed event) and winners come away with medals as well as bragging rights.
Each year, there is a different overall theme, and this year, as you’ve no doubt guessed already, the theme is Mardi Gras.
My feature photo was shot at the community hall where hubs registered for the poker event.
I had planned to enter the 5K race walk this year, and am ready for it. Unfortunately, it was downsized this year to a 1.6 K (one mile) race. That’s about the distance I walk at my warm up pace.
I could figure out a way around it, I suppose, but decided not to this year. I’d have to find a warm up spot close to the race path and then work on it. I have neither the time nor the inclination to do that this year.
This year, some of our adventures have included visting the downtown areas of cities and towns near to us.
Hidalgo is home to our county seat.
Welcome to downtown Hildago, Texas 🤠
Alongside a secondary highway, in San Juan, Texas, there’s a little park that we pass often.
There’s a mini Lady Liberty, so we’ve often wondered what the park was all about.
Last week, we finally stopped to check it out.
The park is a war memorial, dedicated to armed forces members from the area who died serving their country in various wars since WW2 . Its name is Liberty Park.
The subject of this post, and my feature photo is the juxtaposition of the words carved in the back of the bench and the abandoned items on the bench that hinted that maybe someone had spent the night there. What would be your guess about this scene?
Last Saturday, we took a little road trip to nearby towns to explore their main streets. We were also on the hunt for an infamous roadside tavern.
Many people we know here in south Texas had told us about the uniqueness of an establishment called “The Junkyard Bar”.
We’d passed the location several times over the years but had never spotted the bar.
This time, because we were paying attention, we spied the sign (feature photo)
There were no vehicles in the parking lot (except, of course, for the truck on the post) but we could see a young fellow cleaning inside so we asked if we could come in and take some photos. He told us that the bar didn’t officially open until 3pm but we were more than welcome to come in and take a look around, and he even offered us a beer.
We’d been told that this place is wall to wall people during opening hours, so our arrival time was perfect to explore and get some photos of things you’d never see if the place was packed.
I don’t know if you’d call it “atmosphere” but its decor (or lack of it) certainly lives up to its name.
Before we left Starbase, we noticed one Tesla truck that was bright orange.
It stood out from the pack of identical metal coloured ev’s like the proverbial sore thumb.
There was a fellow plugging it in to the charger and his wife/girlfriend was taking photos. There was another couple nearby who appeared to own one of the grey metallic clones.
Hubs thought that these people looked approachable, so he decided to stop and ask them some questions about the cyber trucks.
They were all extremely obliging, answered all of hubs’ questions, and even invited us to their Mars-themed beach party, which was to take place last Saturday evening.
We asked if they were Space X employees and they told us they were from Dallas and Missouri and were just major Tesla fans visiting the area over Christmas.
They told hubs that once you buy a Tesla cyber truck, you can customize it any way you wish to.
The young couple that owned the orange Tesla, had every electric kitchen appliance you could think of, plugged in to the box of the truck!
Once again, we learned that people are friendly and kind – all you have to do sometimes is ask a question.
P.S. Although we appreciated the invitation, we didn’t attend the Mars Beach Party. I would imagine that it was pretty “far out, man!”
Our Christmas Day here in SouthTexas involves an hour’s drive over to Starbase at Boca Chica Beach.
This past year, Elon Musk was able to rename Boca Chica Village and the surrounding area to Starbase.
Each year, the growth in the area is mind-boggling. Christmas day is a great day to visit because many of the employees have the day off, and there aren’t many tourists.
This year, in addition to the massive expansion happening at the rocket production facility, there was a new hotel in progress, and Tesla Trucks galore.
We met a safety technician who explained to us that when the sales of Tesla vehicles dove this past year, Mr. Musk brought all of these trucks (and more in other lots at Starbase) for his Space X employees to lease at very reasonable rates.
This was part one of our Christmas day drive.
Every year, before Christmas, we make the hour drive over to South Padre Island, TX to take in the new sand sculptures.
These amazing works of art are sculpted by sand artists from all over the world.
The only sculpture you’re allowed to touch is Santa’s chair, and I once again tried it out.
