The Snake-Bit Tour of Texas

Yep, that’s the title of this portion of the trip.  The mirror was last seen hanging by its wires in San Antonio.  The dentist and his wife shared their insurance info with us and told us they arranged to have a serviceman order the part on Monday and come to us to fix it wherever we were whenever it came it.  So, on Monday we called the serviceman only to learn that the dentist, after hearing it could be a $700-1500 repair, had decided to file a claim with his insurance company and the service guy could do nothing until the insurance company, which shall remain nameless but is represented by an evil Gecko, took action.  Thus started 4 days of insurance hell as the Gecko delayed, obfuscated and obstructed.  Many calls to RV repair places and truck places found no help for the mirror or even a temporary fix.

Meanwhile, our friend Sandy was meeting us in Austin Monday afternoon and we had reservations at Blanco State Park so we had to move.  So Sunday, after checking several truck stops to no avail, we drove 45 miles to Camping World to try to find a temporary mirror of some sort.   $13 got us a small, convex mirror on a plastic arm.  After a roll of duct tape and some careful engineering by the Navigator we had it secured to the window frame.  Good enough for a short trip.

$13 and a roll of duct tape and the poor stub from the big mirror

We carefully cut the wires holding the big mirror, stashed it in the wine cellar bay and we rolled out on Monday, heading 50 miles up the road to Blanco State Park.

The always-interesting bridge to our campsite

 We love this park and we got the same site as last year.  A quick setup and then we were off to pick up Sandy.  After a grocery stop for some fresh fish we came back to Chuck, opened the door and discovered, to our horror, a pile of broken glass.  Somehow a safety glass panel in the inner screen door had shattered and pieces were lying on the rig steps and hanging on by shreds in the door.  We spent several hours picking glass up and out before finally making dinner and calling it a day.  We’re still not sure what caused the break, but surmise that over-exuberant cat play bounced the inner panel against a knob and caused the damage.  The real bummer is that we can’t use the screen door now to let air into the rig because the cats would escape.  We have plans for more duct tape fixes soon.

Tuesday brought more phone calls to the evil lizard’s company, more delays, more cell phone minutes wasted talking to snotty, unhelpful employees of the Lizard.  I have to give the Navigator credit for showing great patience when dealing with these folks.  They don’t make it easy.  Taking matters into our own hands, we went off to the nearest Tiffin dealer/repair shop for advice.  They agreed to order the part for us but couldn’t get us in for a repair until May.  We arranged for the part to be ordered and spent the rest of the day touring the hill country with Sandy.  The highlight for me was a return to the best kitchen store in North America in Fredericksburg, The Kuchen Laden.  I showed admirable restraint and spent less than $50 but thoroughly enjoyed the shopping.  You got to love a store that plays old b&w Julie Child shows continuously on a TV in the store.

Wednesday was more touring, shopping (including the 2^nd best kitchen store in North America) wine tasting, eating and phoning.

The 2nd best kitchen store in Wimberly, TX

Not much progress was made on the repair front but we tried.  But, while wine tasting, I saw across the road, hanging on the wall at an art gallery, a very cool vulture art piece.  I think vultures are nature’s perfect creatures and this just spoke to me.

Art gallery - note Ace Vultura upper left

We went across the road and guess what?  There was a different piece that spoke to the Navigator (no, not a vulture) that she bought, and then she bought me the vulture.  Ace Vultura is being shipped home and I can’t wait to show it to all of you. 

Then finally, today, is seems our luck is changing.  We found a mobile repair tech who will come to us on Tuesday afternoon.  We ate in a fun, funky spot in Austin and took Sandy to the airport.  The new mirror came in and we drove the 100 miles to pick it up.  An insurance adjuster finally called and she’s coming out first thing tomorrow morning to look at the damage.  We’re moving only 50 miles tomorrow and then we’ll be in one place for FIVE nights.  Yippee.  With any luck our luck has changesd and we’ll be heading north towards home on Wednesday.  If you’re the praying type, please say a prayer for poor Chuck.  If not a prayer, at least cross your fingers.  We’ll keep you posted.

Hip and Trendy

 After leaving Port O'Connor, we had 3 nights in Port Aransas in a lovely RV park right on the beach.  It had lots available to buy, sort of like a condo, where you own the spot and pay utilities and HOA fees and you come and park whenever you want.  Or, if you're not using your lot, you can rent it out.  We looked at and considered a number of the available lots.

Panorama shot of the RV park and beach from the boardwalk

We knew there were nice people in the park when we saw this...

And the scenery was lovely...

Yes, they drive on the beach here

Pelicans riding the wind at the beach

There were some concerns...

And ultimately we decided we weren't ready to be tied down.  However, Port Aransas did have some great birding and waterways.

Great Blue Heron at the Port Aransas marina

On Friday we moved to San Antonio.  We were excited to learn that the Culinary Institute of America now has a campus here at the old Pearl Brewery site and that the famous River Walk has been extended (via lock and dam) to the campus and that the whole area is being developed as a food destination and that Saturday was Farmers' Market Day.  Whee, it was better than a trifecta.

Welcome to the market.  Vendors are restricted to products produced within 150 miles of San Antonio

Former brewery building being turned into a hotel

Culinary Institute of American-great lunch at their student-run restaurant

Suckling pig for tacos

How do you know when you're really hip and trendy, at least in the food world?

When the Cooking Channel is filming the same booth you're shopping.

The Cooking Channel talent - Roger Mooking

After lunch at the CIA we headed down to the water taxi stop for a 2 hour boat ride through San Antonio.  It was a beautiful day for the ride and a great way to see the touristy parts of the city.

(old) Coot waiting with us by the water taxi stop

Urban art under the roadway, over the waterway

River lock bringing boats up/down 10 feet

River taxi

It was a fun day and we were back in Chuck, relaxing, when...

THUNK, JOLT!

Crap....

A camper pulling in to a spot across the road swung too wide and hit our mirror shearing the metal into two.

Ouch!

So it's Saturday night, no repair place is open, the offenders are very nice and willing to pay but finding a way to fix this so we can leave on schedule Monday morning is going to be a challenge.

Stay tuned.  Every day is an adventure.  Whee!

Whoopee!

There was a recent discussion on one of the Facebook RV sites about early risers with diesel motorhomes that disturb everyone when they fire up their rig at 7am to head out.  I joked in response that they didn’t have to worry about us, we had to set an alarm just to get on the road by 11am.  It’s not totally a joke.  We’ve become very relaxed, some might say lazy, in the morning.  By the time we have several cups of coffee, check email and FB, have some breakfast, plan the day, it is frequently noon.  So when we planned the boat trip to the Aransas Wildlife Refuge to see whooping cranes and learned that we’d have to show up at 7:15am at a dock over an hour from where we were parked, I was apprehensive about whether or not we could get there and would it be worth it.

No fears about making it.  Knowing we had to get up by 4:15am I was awake at 2am.  It was cool cloudy, rainy and foggy, even as we left the rig at 6am.  Dawn was just breaking as we left the harbor.  Was it worth it?  Absolutely!  

Leaving Fulton Harbor

The first whoopers we saw were just white specks on a distant island.  We motored on until the captain found a pair closer to shore.  We drifted in quietly and stopped.  The cranes, showing no fear and apparently curious, moved closer and closer until they were only about 15 yards from the boat, strolling unconcernedly among the vegetation.  It was an unforgettable encounter with a rare animal.  There are only about 500 of these birds left in the world, up from just 40 or so at one time.  Intense conservation efforts restored the flocks to the current levels, but the situation is still precarious.  Interestingly, much of what we know about cranes world-wide is thanks to the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo, WI.  Well worth a visit if you're in Wisconsin.  Crane Foundation Website

Along with the cranes we saw many more birds including a peregrine falcon, osprey, red-headed heron, oyster catchers, terns, curlews, egrets and so many more I can’t remember.  It was a serious birding trip and well worth the early morning efforts.

Whooping Crane

Leaving Fulton, we headed for Big Tree Park.  Yes, everything in Texas is bigger and at Big Tree we saw, well you can guess, a big tree, a really big tree.  It’s a 1000 year old live oak and is very impressive.  Equally impressive were the 3 whooping cranes wandering around the houses in the neighborhood.  It was a good day and the nap later in the afternoon was sweet.

Big Tree trunk

Entire Big Tree

Yesterday we drove to Victoria, TX, a small city about 40 miles away, to do laundry and some shopping.  The Travel Maven searched TripAdvisor for a good place to eat while we were there and found Big D’s Barbeque and Thai Food.  Yes, that’s where we had lunch and, believe it or not, the Thai food was really good.  We passed on the barbecue figuring we’d have more of that later.  We didn't eat at Mi’s Tex-Mex and Chinese Restaurant, though that looked intriguing also.

Today we move to Port Aransas on Mustang Island for 3 nights.  No more really long stays planned for this trip.  Too bad but it’s time to be thinking about heading home.  See you soon.

Artsy fartsy tree trunk

Zombie RVs

It's been a quiet couple of days here in Port O'Connor, TX.  Situated on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, Port O'Connor has a population of 1200 people and the nearest real grocery and other shopping is in Port Lavaca, 25 miles away.  However, there are at least 4 or 5 marine supply shops selling fishing gear, both for sport fishermen and professionals.  Driving around the area, we were struck by how many homes seemed closed up and vacant, not just in town, but in nearby communities like Magnolia Beach and Seadrift.  It seems that many of the homes are vacation homes.  In our RV park, over half of the RVs are shuttered also, leading me to call them zombie RVs.  They too are waiting for their residents to show up for the weekend or vacation.

Port O'Connor Nature Park with the Gulf of Mexico in the background.

It's not unusual to see an elderly RV up on blocks in a residential lot all plugged in and hooked up to a sewer line.  They're even more prevalent in nearby beach communities where it appears that 30 years ago the hippies headed south to the end of the road, parked and haven't moved since.  Zoning seems non-existent, and new, large homes are going up cheek by jowl with these dilapidated rigs.  It's all very alien to us used to the sturdy residences of the frozen north.

We've been very relaxed here which is easy to justify since there's not much to do.  Last night the RV park had a fish fry pot luck, they supplied the fish and we all brought a dish to pass.  It was a friendly group, sharing wine and food.  After dinner the men all congregated at one end of the room and women at the other, each group playing their own card game.  A third group huddled around a radio listening to a Rush Limbaugh-style radio show.  We sat in the middle with a couple from Michigan, the only other real mid-westerners in the crowd.  It's a cliche, but travelling like this, and spending time with people from other parts of the country is enlightening.  "Normal" is variable.  Right and wrong changes and as I look out the windshield across the RV park I see a neighboring boy, probably about 9 years old, taking a leak right behind his RV in full view of his father, me and anyone else looking out.  Guess that saves on dumping.

Tomorrow we get up early for a 7:30 am boat trip to see whooping cranes and other bird life on nearby Mustang Island and surrounding waterways.  Hopefully we'll have some good photos from there.  When there's nothing else to take pictures of, there are always the cats.  Stay tuned!

Brotherly love.

The Journey Continues

We left the casino in Alabama and traveled to Sulfur, Louisiana for an overnight stop at the A1 Motel and RV Park.  With that name, you can imagine what I was picturing; a seedy, rundown, 12 room roadside no-tell motel and a scruffy, dusty, grimy RV park with 20 or so higgledy-piggeldy sites.  But, the location was good, about 250 miles from Bay St. Louis en route to Matagorda, Texas, so with some trepidation, we booked it.  Well, I couldn't have been more wrong about A1.  An energetic entrepreneur has built a lovely RV park with wide roads, concrete pads, fishing pond, swimming pool, hot tub, clubhouse and all the other amenities.  In addition there's a new, clean, tidy motel.  We had an long pull-thru site and it made for an easy overnight.  Lesson learned.

The next day we left Louisiana for Texas and arrived at Matagorda Nature Park Campground.  It's another nice park and is run by the Lower Colorado River Authority.  It sits at the confluence of the Colorado River and the Gulf of Mexico.  More info here Matagorda Bay Nature Park 

Chuck (dark RV on the left) parked at Matagorda Bay

Chuck again at left with company at Matagorda Bay

Boondockers (camping without hookups) on the beach at Matagorda Bay

Yesterday was rainy and cold so we went 20 miles to Bay City for a laundromat and groceries.  We've found that in this part of the country, big bridges link land masses and going off Matagorda Island is no different.  This mile-long span is just one of many we've crossed in the last few days.  I still get a little white-knuckled as we head over big water.

The town of Matagorda is interesting.  The only place for groceries is a convenience store/gas station.  The  2 or 3 local bars and liquor stores have signs welcoming Spring Breakers, but there is no evidence of them yet.  Run-down trailers, parked more or less permanently, sit next to lovely old Victorian homes and new McMansion construction.  It seems to be a fishing village trying to become a beach-side tourist destination.  Once again, the Navigator/Travel Maven found the best eating around at Spoonbills Restaruant.  We had an excellent meal prepared by a woman chef using local fish (black drum) in delicious ways.  From their website:

Chef Edie Pruitt is an honors graduate of the Culinary Arts program at The Art Institute of Houston.

Spoonbills Restaurant in Matagorda is her first step in pursuing her life-long dream of owning a restaurant.

Why Matagorda?     As a life-long weekend resident of Matagorda (her family has owned a beach house since 1959) she has watched as the town and island have grown from a sleepy backwater to one of the hottest properties on the Texas coast.  A restaurant that features fresh seasonal foods will be a first for Matagorda County.

Chef Edie is an avid fisherman and has spent many hours on Matagorda bays.  In fact, she holds the Texas state record for a Triple Tail that was caught in West Matagorda Bay.

We lucked out, the restaurant had been closed for the season and opened just the day before.  It was so good that we're going back tonight, camera and appetite in hand.

We'll have had 3 nights here when we leave tomorrow.  The weather looks a little better today so perhaps we'll ride our bikes to the beach and explore a bit more.  Tomorrow it's off to Port O'Connor, Texas for a WHOLE WEEK!  Yippee.  In the meantime, more photos from Matagorda...

Fishing pier and boondockers

Pelicans and cattle across the river on an island

Beanie and Nortie waiting to edit the blog

Casino Camping

We left Alabama yesterday and drove about 180 miles to Bay St. Louis, Mississippi where we're camped at the RV park at the Hollywood Casino.  It's a pretty good deal, the campsite is about $35/night depending upon how much you gamble.  We may get it discounted or even free if we're really big losers.  The sites are nice; big, level concrete pads with wide roads so set-up was a record 30 minutes.  This is our first chance to casino camp, and apparently many casino camping sites are just a bare parking lot with hookups.  Here we have grass and trees.

Once the cats were settled in we jumped on the free shuttle and headed to the casino.

The boys enjoying the view

It's a very pleasant casino.  Not huge but big enough, relatively smoke-free and best of all, it has 5 cent video poker.  After playing for about 45 minutes I was down $3.65 and the Navigator, who had been playing quarter video poker, was down a bit more.  I'm not sure that will get our camping comped, but it was fun. Next stop was the buffet and since it was Wednesday we could eat for the senior (50 years plus) price of just $6.99 each.  Are we a couple of sports or what?

The buffet was good, and it was a nice way to get a decent, convenient dinner on a travel day.  We're probably done gambling for this stop.  Today we'll explore the towns of Pass Christian and Bay St. Louis and tomorrow off to Louisiana.

Beanie really enjoying the non-travel day on my lap.

Stay tuned!

Sweet Home Alabama-Farewell

Today is our last day in Alabama and the weather is cold (40 deg), windy and rainy.  More rain is predicted for overnight and tomorrow so we packed up all the outdoor stuff today before it got wet.  So, we didn't get a chance to take the canoes out again.

Titanic and Hindenberg with the Navigator aboard

Deflating and packing them up today, we discovered that getting them back in their bags was sorta like getting into last year's jeans.  A lot of huffing and puffing and squeezing and a moment of triumph when it closed.  Hopefully it will get easier as we get more practiced and the weather is warmer.  (yes, we did deflate them first)

We had a nice evening with my college roommate and her husband.  It's been a lot of fun to have a local to guide us and we always did have a lot of laughs which hasn't changed.

Tomorrow we start the next leg of the trip.  Since we'll be hitting Texas during Spring Break we actually made reservations for the next month or so.  If you want to find us we'll be in Mississippi for 2 nights, Louisiana for one night, Matagorda, TX, Port O'Connor TX, Port Aransas, TX, San Antonio, Blanco and Kerrville, TX.  Then we start to head for home.  Please have all the snow melted by then.

Alabama Fun

Chuckie the Alligator

The weather has been good and we're enjoying it. We visited the Gulf Coast Zoo, which bills itself as The Little Zoo That Could.  Growing up in Milwaukee, I spent a lot of time at the Milwaukee County Zoo, so I have pretty high standards for zoos, and Gulf Coast has some challenges.  They're landlocked and many of their enclosures are chain link fence.  But they are trying and the animals appeared healthy.  Our favorite exhibit was the lemur island where 3 lemurs were playing energetically.  We also saw Chuckie, the 14' alligator who gained fame when he escaped his habitat during Hurricane Ivan.  After his 15 minutes in the spotlight, he was recaptured and returned to the zoo.

Lemur

Next up, dinner and a Mardi Gras parade in nearby Fairhope, AL.  We had eaten lunch at a really nice bistro the day before and they offered dinner and a seat along the parade route on Friday evening.  The parade was scheduled for 6:45 and our dinner reservations were for 6pm, so we headed to Fairhope about 4:45.  I don't know what we were thinking...probably that this was a pretty small town and how big a deal could it be?   We were wrong!  Traffic slowed to a crawl blocks from the restaurant and the police had the streets barricaded.  People were pulling coolers and carrying chairs heading for where we wanted to be.  We watched the map on the GPS and finally I dropped Robin a couple of blocks from our destination and followed the signs to the Methodist church where $10 donation to their mission got me one of the last 3 parking spots a half a mile from the restaurant.  By the time I hiked back, we were questioning if this was really a good idea.  But, the staff at this small (40 seats) restaurant welcomed us warmly and dinner specials of duck etouffee and grouper with crayfish orzo were wonderful.  Then we moved outside for out first ever Mardi Gras parade.  What a riot!  Wild floats filled with the Maids of Jubilee Crew costumed in flashy gowns and glowing rings and feathery masks.  Parade watchers screaming as strings of beads were whipped through the air towards the crowd.  Children and adults scrambling for booty that hits the ground.  All this at a small town, family-friendly parade.  We can't imagine what New Orleans is like.

Waiting for the parade

Parade float

Maids of Jubilee Krewe

Jockey float

My booty - and I wasn't even trying!

The parade route was fairly convoluted and many watchers ran from street to street to catch it in 4 different places.  It was an amazing spectacle which coupled with a great dinner and more wine (we had to wait for traffic to clear) made for a fun evening.

I bet you're wondering about our boats.  Yes, two of them.  One, ordered from Amazaon, arrived on Friday.  In the meantime, we went shopping again for a paddle at the good boat store in Fairhope and then for a seat cushion at the Coleman outlet store.  While at Coleman, we saw the same boat we had ordered from Amazon, though last year's model, for a really good price and decided to buy it thinking we would open the Amazon boat and if we liked it we'd then open the Coleman boat.  If we didn't like it, we'd return the Coleman boat.  Makes sense, right?  Well, it our heads it did.  Yesterday was the big day.

Boat 1 inflated and ready to go

KT paddling our bay

We each took a turn and agreed we liked it enough to keep boat 2.  We need another paddle and seat cushion before we go out together, but it looks like we're boaters.  No names for the crafts yet, but Titanic and Hindenberg come to mind.  We'll keep you posted.

On another note, some readers wonder how the cats like the traveling.  The seem to love it and adjust to changing places and circumstances really well.  Like most cats, they can make anything a toy.

Beanie and Nortie happy that wine box is finally empty

 One last zoo picture because I really like it.

Stay warm while we try to stay dry!