THIS AND THAT

Well, my time in the Rio Grand Valley is coming to an end.  So, I thought I would post a couple of things together because none of them deserve a whole blog by themselves. :)

Just about every single little town around here has a "market days" or "craft days" on a certain day each month.  I was staying closest to Harlingen, TX so I went to their market days.  It happens the first Saturday of each month.  It ended up being a bigger thing than I thought it would be.  It took place downtown on Jackson Street.  They had closed the street for 4 blocks and vendors were set up on both sides of the street, in the street.  The shops on these 4 blocks were also open and doing a lot of business too.  Not only were there vendors, but every block had its own band and in the 2nd and 4th block were food vendors.  Those 2 blocks smelled great!  Mr. W bought a flat bread from one of the food vendors that was filled with pineapple.  I had a bite and it was Y-U-M-M-Y. 

The street was blocked off on this end and went for 4 blocks.

There was a very good turn out and the weather was great.

One of the bands that was playing

Mr. W eating his flat bread filled with pineapple.

One of the things that stands out in this area of big stretches of empty land are the wind farms.  You know, those gigantic wind turbines that produce electricity in a "green" way. There is just something about seeing those "windmills"  standing tall in the landscape and turning with the wind.  At night, you can see the blinking red lights that sit on top of each one.  They blink in sequence and it is a mesmerizing show of lights in the dark night sky.  Duke Energy and the North American Development Bank are the developers of the wind farms and CPS Energy of San Antonio and Austin Energy are buying the electricity produced. 

Mr. W and I took a drive out to one of the farms and it is truly amazing how big these things are.

Notice the cranes and 18-wheeler and how little they look.

This past week I went to Los Ebanos, TX to see the last hand drawn ferry that crosses the Rio Grand on the US/Mexico border. There are ropes run through a cable and 5 guys pull on the rope to propel the ferry across the river.  The ferry can hold 3 cars and 12 pedestrians at one time.  Although the crossing has been in operation since the 1950s, the current ferry has been operating since 1979. It was recognized with a state historical marker in 1975. 

It does cost to cross on the ferry.  You can see the cost below.

I did not want to cross on the ferry but I did want to take pictures of the ferry.  You still have to pay even to just take pictures.  The young man taking the money told us that we needed to take identification with us because we would have to walk back through the customs building when we finished taking pictures.  The US government has built a very nice customs station at this crossing and a DPS officer and a Border Patrol officer parked in the parking lot at the time the ferry would arrive so they could observe who was coming across.  I asked the young man who owned the ferry.  He did not know the man's name but he knew the guy lives in Dallas. 

I got there right at noon and the young guy told me that the 5 guys who pull the ferry go to the lunch at noon so the ferry would not be running until 12:20.  Sure enough, I walked down to take pictures at 12:20 and as if right on cue, the ferry started loading on the Mexico side and then made its way to the US side.

Loading of the ferry

"Docking" on the US side

Here are the steps that you have to climb once you get off the ferry.

The US Customs center