Sunday March 8, 2009

Today we went to the Borderfest celebration in Hidalgo. We ate breakfast in the trailer while Ted and Donna went to church this morning. We left for the festival about eleven and arrived without much traffic and no problems.

The Borderfest is a festival of the heritage of this area and showcased several entertainment groups and activities. The theme of this year’s fest is Jamaica, and the entire area was covered in beautiful colors.

The first one we went to was an animal act that featured snakes to tigers and was very interesting. The couple that showed the animals seem very interested in their well-being and the fact that some are reportedly endangered. The first animal that we saw in the display was a cougar but it was not showcased in this show. They began with a ball python, then to a monkey, a parrot, and a Bengal tiger.

We saw a steel drum band, a bagpipe group from Austin, many Mexican entertainers and groups, a couple of country performers and a very loud rock and roll group. We saw some fancy and expensive cars from a Harlingen car company, but no late model cars and trucks :0(

We got samples from Proctor and Gamble and a few food samples. The food at the festival was very expensive and we didn’t buy anything there to eat other than the samples. Interestingly enough, we all dreaded having to use the porta cans to relieve ourselves, but they were surprisingly clean. It really wasn’t bad at all. We did see the guys that operate the vacuum trucks to clean the cans out. I thought to myself, how would you like to tell your grandkids that your job was running a honey wagon for a porta can company. I know that someone has to do it, and I’m glad it wasn’t me…..

We came back to the park to put everything away and decided to go eat some Mexican food tonight for supper. I wanted to go to the El Palenque restaurant that Bob Wurch had recommended. Ted looked them up online and found that the taco dinner was $16.00, the same price as enchiladas and fajitas, so we decided not to go there. A little too spendy for us. We then decided to try the Taco Palenque, a sister restaurant to El Palenque. When we got there, it was too much like a very dirty fast food restaurant, so we didn’t stop there either. We ended up back near the park at Martha’s where we had Mexican food there. It was delicious (as usual), so we had a nice ending to another fun day.