March in Rockport

KoKo at Enchanted Oaks RV Park near Rockport, Texas

What’s happened in the last month or so? Not much here.

Spring finally arrived the first of March and we are finally enjoying our stay in Rockport. It’s warm, the sun is shining and we can get out and do things. We went to Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. We walked around a little and at the observation deck, we were able to see the pair of whooping cranes that are in residence, along with other birds.

New neighbors, John and Mary Jane from Reno, moved in next door. We met them at the St. Patrick’s Day dinner. We enjoyed chatting with them and they came over and had coffee with us outside in our mosquito tent. An enjoyable visit and we stayed up until 11:00. This is the type of experience we were hoping for when we arrived the first of February.

Most days we are awake by 7:30. We are often dressed before 9, but sometimes it’s 10:30.

After two months with full hookups, we are spoiled for day camping.

We made another trip to Padre Island. This time with John and Mary Jane. And the sun was out. It was a glorious day.

We will leave Rockport next Sunday and head towards Big Bend. We are taking the slow route, US90 from San Antonio. The daytime highs at BB the last week have been from 60 to 90. We are hoping for 70’s or 80’s.



A nearby birding area. Rockport is all about birds.


Aransas NWF


This and the next pictures were taken on Padre Island
We like these birds. Neat hairdo's


Flocks of Brown Pelicans come over every few minutes. Some flocks are over 100 birds.


Mr. Heron looking for a meal


Isolation, there is another 30 miles of this. You can camp anywhere you like. The sand is fine and hard packed.

The Border and Back

It’s Thursday, February 25. The weather is a little warmer, but we have not had three days without rain all month. Today, we drove 3 hours south to Alamo into what they call the Valley. It is dead level flat, so I don’t get the valley reference. It was 72, nice and warm, with a strong wind. There is not a front between here and the mid Pacific, so maybe the weather is turning?

Everyone at this CG is happy and friendly. Unlike where we have been the last month. We may stay here. This is the first time in several weeks we have smiled.

We came down to be with Bill and Ruby and their friends. Margaritas across the border are in the offering.

South Texas looks a lot like south Florida. That’s not such a good thing. We are as south here as we would be in Miami.

It was 74 by 9:30, so I put on shorts to cross the border at Progresso. We went with five others and had a wonderful day shopping and drinking. We had a great lunch at Arturo’s. The restaurant has been in business for over 50 years. All of the waiters look like they came from 1940‘s Hollywood casting - distinguished looking. At 3, we were in a bar drinking margaritas for $1.50. We were back home by 7. Progresso is the best of the border towns we have visited.

The next day we went to a flea market unlike any we had been to. No junk. All useful merchandise at budget prices. We bought a baking dish, belt, ball cap, chopping knife, Alabama flag, gas matches, a Texas star, phone case, and 1500 thread count sheets - all for less than $90. Then we got pineapples for $2 and a sack of oranges for $3. Tonight we are having pot luck with a dozen or so of Bill and Ruby’s friends.

Sunday, we met Jim and Pam Wells for another lunch at Arturo’s. Don had Cabrito and I had way too much good food. One thing about our purchase of a Lazy Daze that may be unique to only a few types of RV’s - we have made so many friends with LDer’s. So we can join friends we have met along the way for lunch.

The “Valley” is over 60 miles along US83 evidently built and designed for Winter Texans. There are over 100 RV parks, many with several hundred sites. There is a big box store of every name along the strip.

Monday morning we spent an hour saying goodbyes and drove north back to Rockport.

The Jeep has the engine check light on, so we will take it to Corpus to see what’s up with it.