_24 January ‘09 Saturday

Bob and Debbie were just pulling out of the campground and heading west as we were pulling out and heading east.  Our route will take us east on Hwy 35, through Port Lavaca, Palacios, up to Angleton and then dropping down to Freeport.  We really wanted to by-pass Houston, so that’s why we headed south towards the coast.  Once there, we again headed east to Galveston.  I’m sure you will remember that just last year Hurricane Ike hurled its way through here, but thank God the refineries faired well. 

_It may not have been the hurricane that had the high number, but it was very destructive.  We covered miles on miles of total destruction and every half mile along the road,

_we came across piles of wood, metal, paper, and all kinds of different property just waiting for the next truck to come by and haul it away to the “dumping place”…what a mess, what a tragedy, what a waste, that’s nature at its worse.

There wasn’t any reason to stop to “see the sites” as the sites were not as inspiring when you see something like this, so we just kept on…at the end of Galveston Island we caught another “free ferry”.

_This one would take us across to Port Bolivar and up to Port Arthur were we will spend another Wal-Mart night. 

_23 January ‘09

Friday

Today was a day that we set aside to “house cleaning and…”.  While Louise was handling the interior, I was working hard on cleaning the car and the coach.  Since most campgrounds don’t let you “wash” your rigs with having a hose hooked up, you are relegated to bucket washing.   First, I’ve got to get the bucket filled with water to the roof of the motor home, then as I climb to the top the second time, I handle my washing brush (a brush on a 4’ handle) in one hand while the second takes me to the top.  I also wanted to put a coat of wax on the front and the driver’s side (I did the rear and the other side last time).  Yesterday morning I went over the club house to take in a seminar on this new “digit TV” change-over.  Seeing as how we have 2 TV’s that are not digital, we’ve got to add the $49 box to each TV in order to receive programming through our antenna.  We thought about the reasoning behind adding the boxes and whether or not we would ever use them and then went out and bought 2.  With the boxes in hand, I decided to take the time now and install them.  Unfortunately I had to add a couple of cables.  Both of them had to run from the front cabinet on the right to the front cabinet on the left.  The center area was filled with the TV, so I had to remove it to get the cables through.  There is a wooden frame that circles the TV so that was first to come off…in order to remove it, I had to remove 6 screws.  With the frame off, I had to remove 2 additional screws from the bottom of the box surrounding the TV.  At the point of the 2nd screw coming out the TV immediately fell out onto my back and head…”What the hell???”  As I slid out from under the weight of the TV I was able to settle it into the driver’s seat and contemplate just what the hell happen.  Fortunately nothing broke (especially me…) and I was able to wrestle it back into place after threading the two new cables across.  Finally getting everything all wired together properly and making sure it was all working as advertized we sat down to enjoy a well deserved glass of wine.  We decided not to hook up the satellite TV dish and go with the new digital antenna.  Boy were we ever surprised, the quality of the picture is even better than what we get with the satellite hook-up.  Bob and Debbie (our next door neighbors) took pity on us after hearing our story, and asked us to come over and have a slice of apple pie topped with ice cream. 

_21 January ‘09 Wednesday

The sun is still shining, the winds are very mild, and the temperature is still hovering around 75 degrees.  With just 2 more full days here in Rockport, and we haven’t been in the water yet, we made a point of making today the day.  But first….  We drove into Rockport to the Visitor Center, stopped by one of the local “bakeries”, and visited the one and only farmers market in town.  Overall we found some real good veggies for a good price.  Back to the coach to drop it all off and then head across the highway for a quick lunch.  We had tried to eat at Stevie Lew’s BBQ the other night, but it was closed so this afternoon we made sure that we could enjoy one of their BBQ sandwiches.  The pulled pork with their “special sauce” was soooo good…  OK, back to the coach again and get ready for a little paddling.  Clark and Reba were still home, so we asked them if they would want to join us for the afternoon.  Our destination was to head down T-361, and down San Jose Island.  We had Redfish Bay on one side and the Gulf of Mexico on the other.  After traveling about halfway down the island, we turned off into an area where we saw 6 to 8 kayaks and other boats.  They were heading into the waterways that were bordered on each side by Black Mangrove and Oyster reefs. 

_This looked like a spot that we could really enjoy.  This is a place that must be one of the hot spots for fishing as they were fishing from their boats, kayaks, and lining the banks on both sides.  We found a spot to pull in next to one of those fishermen and pulled the kayak out for launch.  Louise and I took the first paddle and headed out into the passageways with the mangroves close by.  About an hour later Clark and Reba took the paddles and headed out for their turn.

_A little later we repacked the car and continued our drive towards Port Aransas.  At the end of San Jose Island, they have a ferry that will take you across to Mustang Island and the little community of Port Aransas.

_They use these little ferries that will carry about 20 cars with the crossing taking about 5 minutes.  We were surprised to find that they don’t charge for this service.  On the return, we actually had to get into a moderately long line as apparently we had gotten into Corpus Christi’s commuter time…       

_20 January ‘09 Tuesday

From the early morning to late tonight we have been enjoying the triumph and inauguration of our new President, President Barack Obama…  We are very proud of our country and the decision that was made by the people to elect Barack Obama to this position. 

Enough politics for the night… 

A couple of days ago I came down with a cold…this is the first cold that I’ve had for well over a year and I WANT IT OUT OF HERE !!! 

We’ve got some great neighbors again, can you imagine that?  It is so easy to get together with “strangers”, especially those that are on the road and known as “full-timer’s”…  Bob and Debbie Keller, have a beautiful 5th wheel next door to us and have given us a number of places to consider stopping at on our way east.  And as luck would have it, they have a kayak…can you believe it?  I pulled out one of my “expensive” bottles of wine last night ($2.97 at Wal-Mart) and asked them to join us for a glass on our sunny patio.  We're both pulling out this Friday and heading in opposite directions but will most likely run into each other again down the road. 

We haven’t done any hiking here yet, but I have had the bike out and put a few miles on it.  I just wish Louise felt more comfortable biking…oh well, it will come. 

Clark and Reba Lovrien, neighbors on the other side of us, invited us to join them for dinner at The Big Fisherman Restaurant.    This place is something else…  Mr. William Louis Stevens, III came to Aranas Pass (just around the corner from here) once a week for fresh seafood for his restaurants.  The Big Fisherman opened its Rockport location in 1887 and has been family owned (now the second family) and operated ever since.  The building is huge and holds a lot of people and ALWAYS has a crowd.  This being our first time there shouldn’t be a surprise, but not having heard about it…that’s a shame.  The big draw is a “special” for $2.50.  The choice tonight was chicken fried steak, gizzards, or fish.  With your choice of meat, you were served mashed potatoes and gravy, coleslaw, and a bowl of soup….all for $2.50…that’s a bargain, and the food was very good and fresh.  Hell, they even come around and ask if you would like more. 

_
16 January ‘09

Friday

Up to night before last we thought Thursday was our last day in Brownsville, but then Louise got to looking at our calendar and saw that we still had one more day to go.  Thursday was a day of “do nothing day” except to gather everything from the outside and get it stored into the basement.  Now that took about 15 minutes or less so I suggested a cup of coffee at Starbucks…now that was our day.  This morning we found ourselves underway early and aimed for a fuel station with diesel advertized for $2.02.  We’ve found diesel running from $2.02 to $2.45 and thought that we might as well top off before it finds a new high.  The station that was found on the internet was selling at $2.02 turned out to be one that we couldn’t get into, but with a little negotiating through town and then out, we found another $2.02 that could handle the “big” rigs easily.  So with tanks topped off we continued onto Corpus Christi and then Rockport.  The drive was taken on one of the longest, flattest, and straightest roads we’ve been on for a long time.  I hope I’ve mentioned this before, but Texas has THE BEST ROADS ever…If we had any “rumble”, it couldn’t have been more than a stretch of ½ mile at most.  We’re back into a Western Horizon campground (Bay View RV Resort) which is right at the end of point past Fulton, TX.  We’ve got 2 club house, 2 pools, 2 hot tubs, and the sites surround 2 lakes…  On top of all that, we’re about ½ mile from the Gulf of Mexico and another bay on the other side that’s about the same distance away.  After getting all set up, I walked over to the office to get the log-in information for their Wifi.  The office also sits on the bank of one of the small lakes so in walking over to it, I noticed one of the warning signs posted on the bank…Watch for Alligators and Water moccasin.  Well I guess we’ve traveled into new territory.   

_13 January ‘09 Tuesday

Yesterday was a busy day.  We were crossing over the Queen Isabella Causeway

_just after 10:30 on our way to the South Padre Island.  The white sands of South Padre Island, is a destination beach area with a few high rise luxury hotels, condominiums, loads of restaurants, rv parks, and…Schlitterbahn.  Schlitterbahn is a 15 acre water park that sits on the south end.  It features a 240 foot tube shoot, a half mile river to float, and among other things, a 5 story Sandcastle slide. 

_I can only imagine just how crowded this place is during “the season”.  We also had read some good things about the zoo in Brownsville, so seeing as how it’s been a long time since we’ve visited a zoo…we went.  No sooner do you walk through the gates and you are standing in front of the gorilla enclosure.  The “gray-back” definitely made his self noticed as he watched over his family. 

_This zoo is also known as one that has some great skills in animal reproduction.  In the gorilla enclosure there was at least 3 that were less than 6 months old and another female that was pregnant.  And then there was the giraffe enclosure…there were 2 little ones there as well.  Over all I wouldn’t say that this was one of the best zoo’s we’ve been too but we did have a good time.  This morning we decided that we should visit Matamoros, Mexico.  Brownsville has a great deal for those of us that want to visit Matamoros by walking across the bridge.  They offer curb-side parking in downtown Brownsville for $.25 an hour.  For $1 we got 4 hours parking so that we could go across the border to visit the market and have lunch.  We found this little lunch counter

_that served us a great meal and made us both wish we were spending more time in Mexico, if not just for the food (and drink..). 

_
10 January ‘09

Saturday

We’re finally there, that is, we’re finally in Brownsville, Texas.  After leaving Falcon State Park a couple of days ago, we arrived to an 85 degree, 92% humidity day.  We were only 40 miles away yesterday but we decided to stay one night at Wal-Mart and do a little last minute shopping before arriving here.  Hell, we finished our shopping in about 15 minutes so we should have continued on.  In staying at Wal-Mart, the “rules of the road for RV’rs”, no slides out, no chairs, bbq’s, no nothing out side of the RV while parked for the night.  Yesterday we stopped before 3, it was hot and sticky, and it would have been natural to have put the chairs outside for a little breeze and a “cool one” but NO…we’ve got to play by the rules…  Louise and I had a little chat about this and decided that this “dry camping at Wal-Mart” is only going to happen when it’s the last resort.  I guess I’m most to blame for doing the Wal-Mart scene as I’m looking at saving the almighty dollar, or as Louise told me...your just being “cheap”.  Well for the next 5 nights we’ll be staying in a very nice RV park and we’re paying a total of $128.  I guess $26 dollars a night isn’t too bad considering that I can put my chair outside and use my bbq whenever I want.   After arriving and pulling into our site, I started setting up for our stay.  As I mentioned earlier the temperature is just above the comfortable area and the humidity is STICKY,        resulting in having to change my clothes because of heavy SWEATING…I had almost forgotten what that was like…  (I guess I shouldn’t be complaining about warm to hot temperatures and sweating when we’ve got family and friends that are freezing their bippy off up in the northwest…SORRY…).  Seeing as we still had a few hours of day light left we decided to drive out to Boca Chica peninsula.  This is where the Rio Grande flows out into the Gulf of Mexico, and we’ve been following the Rio for awhile now.  We decided to take a walk along the beach and put a toe or two into the surf.  The water was cool, but tolerable, the sand…really fine and really sticky…  By the time we were ready to leave, a big weather front came marching in.  The sky turned black, the wind started to blow hard, and it started to rain.  By the time we got back to the coach the temperature had dropped by 20+ degrees … now we’re talking “normal” for the area. 

_
8 January ‘09

Thursday

We’ve been at the Falcon State Park for the last two spectacular days.  As an example, we awoke to the sun coming through the front windows this morning and thoroughly enjoyed the day as the temperature rose to 82 degrees.  We are sitting in an amazing area…  the campground is on the banks of a HUGE reservoir  and at the other side of the dam flows the continuing waters of the Rio Grande.  With the weather, the water, and the natural fauna this area is a bird haven.  This morning we drove up to Roma to visit the National Bird Society branch and viewing area.  The viewing platform sits high above the Rio Grande and gives a great over-view of the birding grounds below.  We were hoping to get some information from them as to the “perfect” location for us to view the birds and get a good paddle in.  They did have a suggestion for us and we took it…  Back up river we found the location they were talking about.  Unfortunately I can’t remember the name, but it was such a small community that you wouldn’t find it on the map anyway.  We were told to drive down this paved road for about a mile, watch out for 3 or 4 “topes” (huge bumps in the road…), and continue down a narrow dirt road that begins at “the Cumquat tree”.  At the end of this roadway you will find a little park (boy they weren’t kidding about being little..).  This is actually a state park but you wouldn’t know it by the advertizing…  Anyway, way back in the heavy and dense foliage sits a 5th wheel trailer and the host to this park.  They have semi cleared out an area, set up a dozen or so feeding areas, and give a large variety of birds a place to be viewed by people like us and fed at the same time.  We saw so many birds of varying colors and sizes and it gave us the “need” to get out on the water to see more. 

_Well we inflated the kayak and set out up stream.  The water looked absolutely flat, but once we got out there we quickly noticed that we had a heck of a current going against us.  There is a 30 acre island about 200 yards upstream from where we put in, and our goal was to paddle around it and take in all the bird sightings and sounds.  By the time we had reached half way around this island we had to turn around and let the current take us…  It wasn’t dangerous, but it was surprising in its strength.  After we returned to our starting place (the park), we pulled out our “lawn chairs” and sat on the bank for awhile to just enjoy the area and the warmth of the day.

_About 20 minutes later an older Ford pickup came down the dirt road, parked back from us a little and just sat there.  After about 5 minutes we heard a small boat coming up the river from behind some trees on our left.  It just so happened that there were 5 young men in this boat and they immediately pulled up to “our” bank and unloaded 4 (we didn't take pictures of this...).  These 4 men quickly made their way to the pickup and left the area “IMMEDIATELY”… what a surprise….  We decided we had better move on as well, so pulling up stakes (and kayak) we headed back to our campground and got ready to paddle the reservoir.  We had a good 2 hours of daylight left and enjoyed every minute of it, including watching the sunset while paddling back to the car. 

_6 January ‘09 Tuesday

Yesterday it was Wal-Mart and today…Costco.  Now that we’re caught up with “shopping” we’re ready to explore San Antonio.  On one side, shopping at Wal-Mart was easy as we’re parked in their parking lot, but Costco…it’s 20 miles away and on the other side of town.  Once we found Costco we were surprised to find another Wal-Mart just a block away.  Seeing as how we came in on 90 instead of 10 and we were heading south on 35 when we leave, the Wal-Mart we’re in was the right choice after all.  After spending more than an hour at Costco we still had plenty of time to see the sights.  First we had to find the Alamo. 

_Now San Antonio has really made it easy for those tourists that are coming into town for the first time.  Signs are everywhere directing you to every site you could want to see, besides, the Alamo is located right in the center of town and there was plenty of good parking at a fair price.  The city has done a great job of keeping the Alamo in pristine condition and to have “information” boards large enough so that you can read them while looking over someone’s shoulder and of course, displays of artifacts that were plentiful and well displayed.

_We ventured across the street, down some stairs, and strolled the Paseo Del Rio (River Walk).

_Unfortunately our timing wasn’t the best to see River Walk.  They just started their annual “Mud Walk” Celebration…that is where they drain the river and clean all the mud and debris that has been left throughout the year. 

_That’s OK, we still had a good walk and even found a place to treat ourselves…Haagen Dazs, and we even ate it on a beautiful deck overlooking the Mud Walk Celebration (those working down in the river banks and lower, doing what needed to be done).  San Antonio also has 4 absolutely beautiful 18th century missions that have some wonderful history behind them being Spain’s outposts along its northern frontier.  Unfortunately we only had time to visit one and that one was Mission San Jose y San Miguel de Aguayo…”San Jose Mission, the Queen of Missions…”.

_The missions are all a part of The National Park systems and they have done a great job of maintaining them and staffing them with knowledgeable personnel.  Our 1 hour tour was excellent and well worth the time for all to see. 

_4 January ‘09

Sunday

Yesterday when we arrived in Sanderson, it was 74 degrees, but this morning when we were ready to leave it was about 38…what a change.  The blue sky was now covered with high clouds that blocked out the sun from yesterday and a wind was blowing cold.  Fortunately the wind was going to be a tail wind for us most of the day.  It ended up pushing us all the way to Langtry and Seminole Canyon State Park and Historic Site.  Langtry was the home of Judge Roy Bean and the community that he developed, named, and ruled over with an iron hand (or gun).  His court was held either on the front porch or at the bar of his “Court” (Salon).

_If the weather was wet it went inside and if it was nice outside it went to the porch.  In either case, you really didn’t want to be the defendant in front of Judge Roy Bean…guilty or not…  Justice was swift in Judge Bean’s court.  When an accused was brought in, Judge Bean removed his toweling apron, hauled out his law book and notary seal, and called a jury from among his customers.  Although Judge Bean had the reputation of being the “Hanging Judge”, there are no records of anyone ever being hung from one of his decisions.  Seminole Canyon sits at the confluence of the Rio Grande and Pecos Rivers.

_It also sits high on a hill over-looking a prehistoric rock art collection that was left behind 7 to 10,000 years ago.  After checking in, finding our site, and having lunch, we headed out to see were the rivers converged.  We had just driven across the bridge that spans the Pecos River but when passing over it I didn’t get too much of a chance to “sightsee”. 

_The bridge is going through a resurfacing and more, and we had to share a single lane to cross.  That single lane was “very single” and it took all I had to keep it off the rail, and at over 300 feet above that water I just didn’t want to check out the view until later.  Well that “later” arrived and we found a couple of lookouts to enjoy the views.  Without a doubt, the Rio Grande and the Pecos had a lot more water here than the Rio Grande had around Big Bend.  After checking out the “convergence”, we drove back to the visitor’s center at the park.  We had signed up for a guided hike into the canyon.

_Because of the fragile nature of the pictographs and the canyon, the only way to see it is with a park guide.  The round trip hike was only about a mile and once we were down in the canyon we found the cliffs above us about 50 feet. 

_The pictographs were painted on the ceilings and walls of the cliff dwellings but unfortunately they have started to fade badly so those that will come to see them in the future may be out of luck.  But on the other hand, it’s only been 7,000 years…