sandcastle – Page 155 – The Sandcastle

Texas Gulf Coast, Part 2

One morning we got to watch the path to the beach at San Padre Island National Seashore being tidied.

Then we checked out their visitor center which has multiple buildings housing various services connected by a huge deck with lots of picnic tables on it. The size of the deck and the parking lots give us some idea of how popular this place must be during the summer swimming season.

The visitor center offers many exhibits explaining many items of interest about the area. These two were on the deck telling how the dunes move about unless people do something to slow that movement.

It was hard to leave this place but the intermittent internet reception we were getting made it easier for us to do.

So we drove into town looking for groceries. First we saw a drive-in liquor store. I suppose that’s in case you need “one for the road.” Then we saw several gas station mini-marts but thought they would not likely have the things we want. We never did find a full-size grocery store so we settled for a CVS/pharmacy which got us most of the basics.

Given our short supplies, we decided we should probably stop for lunch before leaving town. So, when we saw this sign, we decided it was time to take it’s advice.

We’d never been to Whataburger before so we hoped it might be as good a discovery as the In N Out Burgers we’ve come to enjoy so much. Whatabuger’s basic burger comes with mustard, pickles, and onions which is what Dave gets when he special orders burgers so he was a happy man here. I tried their patty melt I’d been seeing advertised but much to the clerks dismay, I ordered it plain. She couldn’t believe it I didn’t want pepper/corn relish on it. It turned out to have plenty of flavor without the relish and my stomach is much happier for its absence.

Across from the Whataburger is the Padre Island Baptist Church with its own sign.

Our next stop was at a do-it-yourself car wash that had a bay big enough to hold our RV. After checking to see that the sprayer would reach all sides of our home, Dave plunked in a bunch of quarters and went to work. At least he worked. The soap dispenser didn’t. But the Sandcastle got a good rinse and it really needed it.

Then we went to Mustang Island State Park. A distance of about 18 miles from our previous campground. We could see the campground from the gate so we could tell we would not have an ocean view here.

We only stayed one night.

Today we headed on north up Mustang Island to the ferry crossing from Port Aransas to Aransas Pass. We haven’t been on a ferry for a long time. This one was free and they didn’t even blink at taking an RV on board. We were first in line for the next ferry from this loading spot and you can see the ferry about to depart already had a Class A (the big one on the left) and a Class B (the van on the right) on it.

Before it even left they started loading the one next to it.

There was a short pause while the ferry on the left in this picture left our dock and the one on the right arrived.

Then they quickly unloaded the newly arrived one.

And we again got a front row seat.

They had us take both lanes on our side and on the other side they put two cars beside us and two behind them to offset the weight of our RV. You can see they did the same thing for the RV coming the other way.

Here’s the dock on the other side of the channel with three other ferries waiting for days when the traffic is heavier than today.

In Aransas Pass we found an HEB grocery store and were finally able to buy more Diet Rite pop but still no Mocha Mix or Coffee Rich for my cereal so I’ll be eating other breakfast foods for awhile.

We had lunch in Rockport, Texas, at The Diner on Business Hwy 35. We picked it because there were lots of cars parked there. It was a good choice. The place is open from 6:30 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. The entire restaurant is non smoking and the food is down home good. It’s a seat yourself kind of place if you can find an empty table. We had a choice of one so we took it. I liked this place so well I could come here every day for a week and eat something different every time. And I didn’t even see the breakfast menu! As a bonus, they had a self serve ice cream machine so I had a very small dish of it primarily because I knew I would regret it if I didn’t.

At the turnoff to our next park there was a gas station selling diesel for $1.999 so we filled up. This is about half the price we paid last summer so we are happy with it even though we’ve seen it even cheaper some places lately. The gas station also had five ice bins advertising large bags of ice for 99 cents. I’m sure that’s very popular come summer.

When we stopped to register at Goose Island State Park the clerk greeted us with, “You have reservations, right?” Adding “We’re full.” Then she somehow managed to offer us our choice of two spots. We took the watefront one with water & electric hookups. Unfortunately, Aransas Bay has a strong fishy smell so we haven’t opened our windows since we arrived. I hope it doesn’t get too hot tomorrow.

We traveled further to get to this park than we did the last one. Today we drove 45 miles. I think we are getting the hang of this slow down and smell the roses, thing.

TTYL,

Linda

New Blog Features

You may have already noticed that Dave put a map on my blog so you can now see at a glance where we camped most recently. He updates this every time we move. I do nothing with it. If it is wrong, I plead not guilty.

You haven’t yet had time to notice the newest feature since it just went up this evening. Way down in the right corner of the page you will find an entry called Other Stuff and under that one called Public Park Camping. This is an experiment. I gather lots of data to help us decide where to go. Our daughter thinks I should be selling my complilations. I don’t want to turn my retirement into work. But making spreadsheets is fun. So here’s a couple pieces of my spreadsheets for you to play with to see if you think they’re fun, too. Or if they’re at least helpful.

TTYL,

Linda

Texas Gulf Coast

We spent two nights at the Trade Winds Resort in Harlingen, Texas. It was a good place. The sites were wide and there were no train whistles during the night. The day we planned to leave was windy but the winds were from the south and we were headed north so we left anyway. We figured it was time for the winds to be in our favor.

We stopped at another WalMart for Dave to pick up a prescription and buy groceries. Just in case you don’t know what a SuperCenter WalMart looks like here’s today’s.

We traveled north on Hwy 77 which was a hurricane evacuation route which, as I mentioned before, didn’t make sense to me. When we got to Raymondville the evacuation route turned west–finally. I guess their goal was to keep everyone from the Brownsville area from heading west into the mob already in Mission/McAllen. At least I hope that was their goal.

Just south of Sarita, Texas, we stopped at what we think will be our last Border Patrol checkpoint. [Begin rant.] The only value I see in these checkpoints is that they provide jobs. They certainly don’t protect our borders. They are permanent structures so illegals know where not to go. Today they asked if we were both citizens but they didn’t even say US citizens so we could have honestly answered yes if we were citizens of some other country. They asked if anyone was traveling with us and we said no. But they didn’t check our passports nor look to see if anyone was in the back of the RV. I think we looked too relaxed to alert them but good con men do look relaxed. They did have a drug dog on duty but they didn’t even walk him around our RV. Like I said, I think all they do is provide jobs. Which does have some value in this economy but I’d rather see those people actually patrolling the borders or repairing roads or picking up litter or something that provides value for the money they get. [End rant.]

Dave has been craving a Belgian waffle from iHop for several days now. Except every time we find an iHop it’s the wrong time. Today we actually saw one at lunch time so we went there. Their waffle iron is broken! So, Dave had to settle for his second favorite breakfast. He says we are about to reenter Waffle House territory, though, and their waffles are acceptable substitutes. Not as good as iHop but acceptable.

At Robstown we turned east towards Padre Island. Those south winds that have been pushing us north are now cross winds that make it hard to stay in our lane. It’s a good things we don’t have far to go this direction.

We pulled into Padre Island National Seashore late afternoon and found a recently vacated spot at their Malaquite Campground. There are no hookups but our discount get us this view from my side of the table for $4 a night.

That’s the Gulf of Mexico. Not bad, huh? It gets quite warm here during the day but we just open the windows to get nature’s air conditioning.

We had no internet signal so decided we’d only register for two nights. About three hours later Dave plugged in our antenna/booster system and voila! Internet. So today we drove over to the dump and fill area then registered for two more nights. This strikes me as a case of you can’t get too much of a good thing.

TTYL,

Linda

World Birding Center

This place is all about birds.

And other environmental concerns.

Here’s the tram you can ride from the birding center through the state park. The benches face out on both sides. In between the benches there is room for picnic baskets, backpacks, bikes, canoes, kayaks, etc. This is important because you cannot drive into the park but there are picnic grounds, backcountry campsites, and boat launches within the park.

Here’s the picnic grounds.

These are Javelina, pronounced have-a-leena. Yes they look like pigs. No they are not pigs. Their closest relative is the hippopatamus.

I’m fortunate in that my relatives are not pigs, either.

TTYL,

Linda

South Texas

As we drove into Laredo, Texas, I found myself singing The Streets of Laredo, so I was amused to discover the lyrics on their web site. I now know one verse and the first line of two other verses. We only stopped there for diesel, lunch, and a truck wash but we never figured out how to weave our way through the semis to get to the truck wash so our RV is still filthy.

The truck stop had both a Burger King and a Taco Bell so I was able to have a taco salad without Dave having to eat anything “Mexican”. That made us both happy. Dave went in to get our food and came back with a chicken taco salad instead of the beef I usually get. It was different. Not bad, just different.

We drove I-35 to it’s south end because it felt like the right thing to do. We’ve driven to the north end in Minnesota many times so it was fun to see the other end. Fortunately, when we came to the south end we were in the correct lane. If we hadn’t been able to turn left there, we’d have been on the bridge to Mexico. That’s not something we want to do right now.

In Laredo I saw a place named Wishy Washy Laundromat.

We camped at Falcon State Park and got the last site with hookups. It was available only because the person who had reserved it didn’t like it so didn’t stay. It was a pull-though on a curve that was a challenge even for our short rig. It took two levels of blocks under the front wheels with the nose right up to some bushes to get us level enough for our frig to run without damaging it. There was good internet there, though.

We actually left that park an hour before checkout time! Of course, check out in the state parks here is 2 p.m. I got a lot of computer work done here.

We stopped at BK again for lunch. I got the burgers I didn’t get yesterday and Dave had more of their onion rings–one of his favorite foods.

In Mission, Texas, we checked into the Mission West RV Park for two nights so we could have a day to do laundry. This is a huge park but their short term spots are right next to a major road that was very noisy. So we spent part of those two days looking for some place better around here.

We would have loved to move into Retama Village or Bentsen Palms RV Park but could find no empty places at either of them. Retama Village is a co-op park and each site has a 12′ x 20′ coach house. Some of the houses are not included with the lot rent but some of them are. Some have bathrooms and laundry facilities inside. We first tried to rent one that also had a Murphy bed and kitchenette thinking we could literally move in and use our RV as a car to run errands and get work done on it. None available. Then we tried one that had a bath and laundry but nothing else except shelves on the theory that Dave could set up his piano inside and I could park my Segway in there and keep it charged up. None available. The one with the sofa bed wasn’t available, either. So we gave up.

The day we checked out of Mission West we visited the nearby World Birding Center. They have lots of exhibits about birding and a tram you can ride into the Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park to hike the trails and watch the birds. It turns out you can put bikes, canoes, and kayaks on the tram as well. If we’d known that we might have taken my Segway and followed a trail out to a river overlook. You cannot drive into the park which makes it a great getaway from the hustle and bustle of Mission, Texas.

That night we checked into Sleepy Valley Resort still in Mission for one night. We stayed three. It was fairly quiet in spite of being near the same road that bothered us at Mission West. We weren’t quite as close to the road and we were along a quieter stretch of it. So we did a bunch more computer stuff including Dave putting a map showing where we are on this blog. While he was doing that I added a bunch of state and national parks to my databases of places we are headed. I also started adding restaurants from the diners, drive-ins, and dives website. It was fun to realize we’d already visited some of those restaurants.

On Monday morning we checked out of Sleepy Valley while noticing how many people still do laundry on Monday morning as evidenced by the clothes hanging on lines in the park. It’s nice to see clotheslines being used instead of dryers. So may places nowadays won’t let you put up a clothesline because they think it looks tacky. I think it looks energy efficient.

Before leaving Mission we bought propane for $2.20 a gallon, got haircuts, bought groceries, and had lunch.

Then I enjoyed a bunch more roadside signs. “Boggus Ford”–how do you suppose they pronounce that and how do they keep the rest of us from pronouncing it our way? “Hurricane Evacuation Route”–via US 281 north. If I was evacuating from here I’d do it via Hwy 83 west heading inland rather than follow one that goes north the same as the coastline. “Another Closet”–storage facility. “Location for sale”–not just land but the location between the off and on ramps of the Expressway. “Pirate Cruise”–do they take your watch and jewelry as the price of the cruise?

Now we are at Tropic Winds Resort in Harlingen, Texas. A member park that let’s rif-raf like us in at a discount as part of the Passport America program. This is another huge RV park but this one has real grass and sites wide enough that you can’t look into your neighbors windows even if you wanted to do so. We are here for two nights as part of our new program of staying at least two nights every place we camp so as to not get so burnt out on traveling. We may even go over to the the clubhouse tomorrow for their hamburger dinner. We’d probably go for the spaghetti dinner tonight if I was sure they won’t put peppers in it. But we are in Texas so that’s too big a chance for me to take. Even my heartburn medicine can’t handle peppers.

When we leave here we will head north on US 77 along the Texas Gulf Coast. If you see us going by, wave.

TTYL,

Linda