Friday, February 17, 2012

Home stretch in the RGV

We enjoy the audiences we've found here.  They've seen their share of shows, and they appreciate a lot of the finer points of our show.  When a group is pretty much getting everything and singing along at every opportunity, it makes it great fun for us.
 We found just such a crowd at Eldorado Acres.
 
Aren't they handsome folks? And what excellent taste in entertainment!

As always, there was some interest in the old tub;
but he managed to distract them with the bass.

 
Next on the agenda was an out-of-the-way date in a town 85 miles northwest of the last burg in the archipelago we've been working in.  Off to Zapata...Shoe, Texas.  
Actually, that would be zapato; so it's really named after Emilio, we suppose.
There, at the Four Seasons RV Resort, we received a warm welcome.
(Ok, the gentlemen in the front looked a lot happier when we finished!)

And the tub, once again, got its share of attention.

There are still a few shows left for us here, as well as a special appearance with one of the better-known duos in the Valley, Gary & Patricia Crain of the very popular "Gomer & Patsy Show."

We'll be joining them for their new Cowboy Show, debuting at a private event for Tropic Star, one of the many resorts here.  Should be a lot of fun, 'cause, after all, that's our job!

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Passport to dentistry

Passport card...Interesting...You go to Walgreen's and stand in front of a screen while a young lady snaps you with a digital camera, and $10 and ten minutes later (if there's no one waiting ahead of you for anything), you're on the way to the Post Office, official photos in hand, for a 15-minute procedure they get $25 for, at which time you are sold a US Postal money order for $30 which is attached to your application and your original birth certificate and mailed, ominously by the same Postal "Service," to Washington where the State Department will perform a background check all over you.

Meanwhile, we were told, we could use the receipts we were issued to re-enter the country until our cards arrive in the mail!

So, we did.Thanks to our friends Cheryl and Don for taking this photo and showing us around!

There's nothing like a beautiful Mexican ciudad, with mission-style architecture balanced among adobe, brightly-painted stuccoes, and a fountain in the center of the square.
And Progresso is nothing like that.  Not the part we had time to walk to.
  Pretty much the best-looking part.
But, in truth, we went not as sightseers.  It was a quest for full-fillment.  We both needed dental work, which appears to be the prime service business in Progresso, pharmacies being the principal retail enterprise.  Must be a hundred dental offices & clinics, and half that many farmacias.

We had heard great things about the professionalism of these state-of-the-art competitors, the best part being the low low prices.   All true.
 
And it's not like we didn't see anything special.  We did.








Are these the ancient Aztec monuments to the Ghost Chickens of legend?  They had no appetite--must be stuffed already.

So, we finally did it: got the card, went to Mexico, got in the chair.

Eek!

Ahhhh.  Back on American soil at last.

America--world leader in literacy!











Sunday, February 5, 2012

Halfway mark in the RGV

Halfway in terms of time, but not in terms of gigs.  All but a few performances are behind us, but we'll be here 5 or 6 more weeks.

Fiesta Village in Mission, Texas was a treat in a number of ways.

Gene, Activity Director for the park, helped us get set up, acted as emcee, and turned the lights back on for us so we could get these shots of the folks it's all about, our audience for the evening. 




These folks were so far away, it made our camera squint.






It was a fun-loving group, for sure, and they sang along well, too!

'Bout 150 brave souls who seemed like a party full of friends.  We're not sure whose, but any friend of theirs just might be a friend of ours!










There were even celebrities in the audience, who got together for a photo op with two of our guest artists for the evening and the washtub newbie who stayed long enough. 
The handsome bookends in the shot are RGV favorites, "Gomer & Patsy," known to us as Gary & Patricia. (Sorry, we can't name anyone else because they're fugitives of some kind, we think.)


Our guest artists, by the way, were among the worst, and therefore, most fun we've ever had!

After the show, as usual, several audients elected to try the bass; but the camera gal was off selling CDs (Hallelujah!) and only got a shot of the last one...