Rockport - Corpus Christi- South Padre Island

Monday, Tuesday 4-27/28   Well when you’re traveling and choosing RV parks off the internet, you win some you lose some.  Haha  Y’all already heard about the plushy (NOT!) park we were in in Rockdale, then the awesome park we had in Houston, and now Rockport! Maybe we should steer clear of cities that have “Rock” in them.  LOL  Seriously it is not a bad park, just nothing like we expected.  Estes RV Resort – there really should be a rule or something that if you have “Resort” in your name, there are certain minimum criteria you must have.  Like good cable, good wi-fi, a pool maybe?  Ya think?  Not this one.  They told Earl they had cable when we got there but their idea of cable was to bring us some kind of little box that we were supposed to hook up to something or other – the first night we couldn’t figure it out, but Earl was persistent and the 2^nd night he got it, as long as we used the TV we brought with us and had wires all over the place.  No internet (which is no big deal as we have our own), no pool, no amenities of any kind – it was really just a place to park and the mosquitos were horrid!  And to add to that, we had been told we MUST not miss Rockport!!! That was the whole reason for this stayover. Let’s just say we did Rockport in about 30 min. It was about the size of Umatilla for my Lake County friends.  Haha BUT we laughed our way through it all, knowing we’d be moving on.  

This is the big city of Rockport, Texas!  Seriouslty!!!  But we did see some pretty scenes and a few pretty houses - here they are....scenes from Rockport, including the amazing 1000 year old Big Tree!  Magnificent!

Is this not the mangiest bird you've EVER seen?

Tuesday we went to Corpus Christi and had a delightful day.  Earl had planned the day without telling me anything about it, and surprised me as we pulled into the Botanical Gardens there – SO pretty and the day was great, a bit windy, but nice temperature, so we enjoyed that immensely. 

 Isn't this unusual?  This is just a variety of large stones stacked together and someone painted rugs on them to look like rugs thrown over a sofa - all just rock!  Fascinating work!

Isn't this the most beautiful rose?  I was admiring it and suddenly noticed the name! Sheila's Perfume!  So I think this must surely have been named after my best friend, Sheila Thomas!
See Sheila, we think of you everywhere we go, and the orchids sure made me think of Orlan!

 We had asked the guy at the Gardens to recommend a place for lunch and we’re glad we followed his recommendation to eat at Snoopy’s – yummy fish and chips, so fresh, I wonder if the fish had been caught that morning!   

 Then we explored and drove all over, finally crossing over on the ferry at Port Aransas and coming back home for a restful evening in the RV.  We're heading out tomorrow for South Padre Island!

Wed – 4-29   We were getting prepared to leave Rockport this morning, and I was getting the inside ready and Earl had just finished getting everything disconnected on the outside.  He came in to pull in the slides and when he did the back bedroom slide, there was a loud BAM and sort of a grinding noise and the slide wouldn’t come all the way in.  Fortunately it came in MOST of the way, enough that we were ok to travel, so we knew as soon as we got to South Padre Island, we’d need to get it looked at. 

You know I said you win some, you lose some.  This time we won again!  YAY!  We are right overlooking the Bay at the southernmost tip of Texas.  I guess in Texas, this would be comparable to our Florida Keys.  I must say, though, Texas beaches are no where NEAR as nice as Florida beaches.  The water is beautiful, but the beach is more dirt, not the nice sand we’re used to. But it’s still nice to be on the water. The beach here seems like the sand is nicer than the other beaches we've seen in TX. We are at the KOA on the island and we’re on what they call “Regal Row”, the 8-9 lots that are on the water.  It’s $85 a night, so a little high, but we have a pretty patio for dining and a really neat deck area with nice Adirondack chairs which we plan to get a lot of use out of.   

 These 2 screen shots show you where we are - at the very southernmost tip of Texas!

The temps are supposed to be mild all week.  We are scheduled to leave Monday, but we may just stay a few more days, depending on what we find out from the RV repair people. Looking forward to doing almost nothing but soaking up the sun and reading reading reading. We’re been pretty busy lately so my reading has been less frequent than I like.  We’ll remedy that this week!  Our plan now is not to even leave the island! After we got set up we checked out the park and the amenities here....

This afternoon, we took a long bike ride around this part of the island - just beautiful.

The RV repair company recommended by the park here, came about 5:30 or so…. yep, motor and gears torn up! Completely shot!  Bummer.  They said it would cost $840 for the motor and about $175 labor.  After they left, Earl decided to call the American Coach headquarters in Indiana and he told them about it.  They had our coach records there, of course and knew exactly what we needed – said it would cost $540!!!  Interesting, hmmm, a $300 difference!  So…Earl called the RV people, told them he had ordered the part and paid them directly and scheduled them to come next Wed or Thursday to install it, so he saved us $300 by doing that.  What a guy!

Thursday 4-30 Today was my 63^rd birthday.  You know, aging is kind of strange, in that the years pass and pass, and you don’t FEEL much different that you did in your 40’s or 50’s and it seems unreal.  I USED to think 63 was really getting up there, LOL  I’ve changed my mind on that.  Thankful that we feel great, have lots of energy and zest for living, and we know we have a LOT of great living to do in the years ahead!  So life is good.  I did not once feel badly about turning 63.  Shortly after we got up and got dressed, we were enjoying sitting out on the deck overlooking the Bay, when the day started with a call from my sister.  How I miss her!  We had such a great talk, and I feel close to her no matter how many miles separate us. Talked to our oldest Jason for a good while, had a looong conversation with my best friend, Sheila, and we laughed and carried on.   Our “neighbors” might have wondered at all the laughter.  Ha  Then a video from Lisa, Justin and Hannah saying Happy Birthday (so cute), Face-Time with Justin and Connor – a call from my sister in law, Susan, and wonderful messages on Facebook from SO many great friends.  It just warmed my heart so much. It took a good bit of the day actually trying to respond to each one, but we did get to read awhile sitting out on the deck – weather about 78, sunny and clear. 

We walked to Pier 19 for dinner, which is a 4 star rated seafood restaurant  right in the KOA Park where we are.  I’m sure all that was caught TODAY as it was so tasty and fresh.  Yummmy shrimp, scallops, and fish for me, Chicken Alfredo for Earl. (Mark Sibly, if you read this, Earl said to tell you he had some REAL Texas toast – LOL Sorry, y’all, private joke with Mark and Lorna).

We purposely timed our dinner to about 7:00 knowing the sun was supposed to set at around 8:00, and oh what beauty!!  What a way to end our first full month of RVing full time!  Incredible happy day!  Earl just spoiled me rotten all day long, not that he doesn’t do that pretty much every day, but I thoroughly enjoyed my day!   Thanks to ALL my family and friends who were a part of it! 

 

We had originally intended to leave here on Tuesday, but now that we have to wait for the slide out motor to come, we’re not leaving till NEXT Friday!  YAY!!!  What a great place to “be stuck”!   This is the end of the month, so I’m going to end this blog here, even though I usually do it by time spent in specific places.  I’m sure our next week is going to be pretty boring for you to read about, as we’ll be going to the beach, sitting out on the deck, reading, reading, reading, biking around the island, etc. etc. So no worries, I’ll pick up wherever we go next. We don’t even know yet.  What a way to live!