Thanksgiving & Black Friday

Thanksgiving day, Jane finally got up enough courage to try out her new bike. It did not take long for her to get used to the three wheeler – and we enjoyed a nice ride all around the park. The bike is a real hit – courtesy of our neighbor John Luxton and his bike supply service. John has supplied Paul with a bike for the last three years.

We got together with friends (mostly Canadian) for Thanksgiving dinner. Myrna & Dave BBQ’ed the turkey and the rest of us provided all the accompaniments – starting with Happy Hour in the warm afternoon sun. The food was fantastic and we ended the meal with pudding and jello shooters around the portable campfire.

At ten p.m., John volunteered to drive the women over to Walmart for the Black Friday shopping extravaganza. The trip turned out to be a real bust as the store was overcrowded and they couldn`t find any of the advertised specials. The shoppers returned home empty-handed – but the diehards set out early Friday morning and Myrna returned with not one but two sewing machines!!!

Around 11 a.m., we made what we hoped would be a quick trip to Kohl`s but waited in line for 45 minutes to pay for our one purchase.

Friday afternoon (Nov 25th) we went over to the Valley Racetrack with our friends Myrna and Dave, Mitch and Connie for an afternoon of greyhound dog racing. We bet based on the names of the dogs and came out $1.40 poorer. Not bad for an afternoon of fun. After supper, we went to the Texas Country Dance and visited with Blair and Sharon who had arrived from Canada late the week before.

Saturday morning we were up early to take a historic walking tour of downtown Harlingen. From Mike, the owner of the Java Café, we learned about the frontier days, mid-century boom times and modern Harlingen. We enjoyed seeing the murals painted on the outside of buildings as well as in the Capital One Bank building.

The most notable mural is a tribute to Bill Haley (and the Comets) who moved to Harlingen in 1976 and died there in February 1981. A reporter from the Valley Morning Star joined the tour and not only quoted Marg in his article but included a photo of her. After two hours of walking, we appreciated a nice lunch at the Java Café.
For more info on our walk click on :
http://www.valleymorningstar.com/articles

After supper, Dave and Myrna; John and Marg joined us for a free outdoor music festival commemorating the Centennial of the city of San Benito. The weather didn`t exactly cooperate – yes we got rained on and almost blown away by the Texas winds but the music was good and we had fun.

Tuesday night (Nov 29) we went over to the Valley Baptist Medical complex for their annual “Lights for Life” Christmas tree lighting ceremony.

Two local school choirs sang Christmas carols, Santa made an arrival in a red convertible – in all a nice ceremony but still somewhat strange as we were dressed in our shorts and sandals.