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.