It’s Fiesta Season! THE RGV! EXPLORING
Featuring a new column exclusive to Welcome Home Winter Texan! See column on page 3.
UPCOMING VALLEY EVENTS!
BON APPETIT!
See calendar starting on page 10.
Try this recipe on page 19.
Check out this week’s listings of what’s happening in the RGV!
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Executive Chef Bettina Tolin shares a hearty recipe to kick off the season!
VOLUME 4 • ISSUE 1 • October 17, 2018 • • • your official connection to the rio grande valley • • •
hello FROM KRISTI
It has been a long, hot summer, and I know I speak for everyone when I say we’re ready for the change in temperature. And that ever-so-slight change in temperature means the return of our Winter Texans! This is the most hectic time of year for us at Welcome Home RGV, as we put the finishing touches on all our events, activities, and outreach programs because once November hits, it’s GO-TIME! At Welcome Home RGV, serving the Winter- and Converted-Texan markets is our priority. Last year you were with us as we celebrated 10 years of service. We look forward to taking you with us on our next chapter as we blaze the trail for new and exciting ways to serve you. Over the next 22 weeks, we’ll share stories and have more fun than we could have ever imagined. This newspaper is for you. It’s our labor of love to show you just how much you mean to us. • We’re just connecting the dots,
Kristi
THANK YOU TO OUR
2018-2019
SEASON SPONSORS
Bob Wilson, Curt Benson, Dallas Hoffman, Tom Benson, Cliff Benson, and Charlie Bauder. Photo courtesy of Darlene Julian.
Russ Belya at Boca Chica Beach. Photo courtesy of Shelley Willard.
by Alden Moore, Winter Texan from Sundridge, Ontario, Canada who winters at Palm Resaca Park
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alm Resaca Park has a small but enthusiastic crew of fishermen. Brothers Cliff and Curt Benson are from Sterling, Colorado, and have been fishing in the Brownsville area for nearly 40 years. They began fishing for brook trout back home, where they would go up into the mountain streams after their harvest of dry land wheat was finished. Sometimes Cliff would go with his good friend, Charlie Bauder. Charlie can remember one time when their wives made them chicken and a cherry pie to take with them. They ate the chicken before they even got to their fishing spot. A week later, when they were returning home, they smelled something funny in the truck. The cherry pie had been shoved under the passenger seat for safekeeping and was
still there. Charlie didn’t know what else to do, so he pitched the pie out the window. What he didn’t realize was that their wives, Sylvia and Naioma, were returning from a shopping spree and were driving shortly behind them. The ladies saw the pie on the side of the road. When they got home, they asked the boys if they liked the pie. Needless to say, the boys felt a little sheepish. Cliff had a small boat with an electric motor on it that he used on the Resaca at Palm Resaca Park. He caught blue gill, bass, and grass carp. The carp keep the vegetation down in the Resaca, so he would release them after catching them. He also caught tilapia, which he says he hooks by the top fin (not the mouth) and then has to “play”
them for a long time or they’ll throw the hook off. He was once surprised to see a six-foot gar hanging in a tree to dry out because it was too long to lie on the ground. Cliff once caught a 30-pound catfish in the Resaca using a six-pound test line. That one took a long time to haul in. Cliff loves to pull good-natured pranks on unsuspecting fellow fishermen. He was once able to tie a dead possum to the end of the line of someone who was fishing in our Resaca. The unsuspecting fisherman actually thought he had caught the possum and was quite excited to tell everyone he met about his fascinating catch. Another time, he surreptitiously hooked a full string of Christmas lights on the end of the line of this same person. When this person commented that he was going to plug the lights in, the boys had to persuade him otherwise. FISH TALES CONTINUED ON PAGE 6 >>