Corpus Christi & Rock Port, TX

As I mentioned on Face Book, I think I have found the place I would like to spend the rest of my life.  At least the Winter & Summer, not so much hurricane season.  We are at a nice little park, nestled in the oak trees, in Rockport about 20 miles north of Corpus Christi.  It is absolutely to die for.  The RV park is about 2 blocks from Cantano Bay. 

The weather has been mostly fantastic.  Morning coastal fog but in the 70's & 80's during the day and mid 50's to low 60's at night.  Every where you go are bays, bridges and ocean views.  We were only supposed to be here for 4 nights but extended our stay for 2 more.  I just don't want to leave.  Seriously thinking about spending the entire Winter here next year.

We've done the tourist thing, gone to visit Padre Island and Mustang Island, visited the Maritime Museum and Aquarium.  Here's a few pic's.

 Standing in the Gulf of Mexico, Padre Island

 Mustang Island

 The ferry ride from Mustang Island to Port Aransas.  A really short ride, maybe 500 yards at the most, but it saves you a 30 mile drive around to Corpus Christi.  This is the main shipping channel and they can't build a bridge over it so they have half a dozen small ferries taking vehicles back and forth.

San Antonio - Tourist Day Trip

Did the tourist thing while here. Went to the Alamo and the River walk. The Alamo was interesting but there is only a small portion of it still there. The original church and one small barracks. The rest has been built over by sprawling mega story office buildings.

 

 

The River Walk was unique. It did remind us of Disneyland's New Orleans/Pirates of the Carribian area. A portion of the river, a canal really, winds right through the heart of downtown and you have sidewalks of both sides of it. Restaurants and stores crowd the sidewalks. It was really pretty but is mostly just a tourist trap. We did have lunch at a little bistro, sitting outside along the water's edge, watching the boats go by. It was a beautiful day, with temperatures in the 70's.

Here's where we had lunch

Trying to find a parking space was an experience in itself. Driving that big assed dualy truck through a downtown metropolitan area, when most of the streets are under construction is really nerve wracking. Parking is limited and all the parking lots were full or in multi-level building that had too low of a clearance for our truck. We drove around town in circles for probably 45 minutes and were so lost. We finally found a spot and just figured we'd have to catch a bus to get to the Alamo. We were really surprised when we walked out of the parking area and around a stone wall and found out we parked on the back side of the Alamo! We just knew we had driven at least 5 miles from the park.

San Antonio - Lake Hills, TX

The drive to the San Antonio was really different from the other parts of Texas we have seen. This part is considered the “Hill Country” and that is an understatement. Miles and miles of rolling hills covered with trees and shrubs. You could probably drive 100 miles and not get 500 feet of straight level road to drive on. It was up and down and around and around curves the whole trip. So different from the flat desert with towering volcanic mountains every so often.

 Arrived at the Thousand Trails park in Lake Hills, TX. It's called Medina Lake and half the campground is right on the shore of the lake. Unfortunately they forgot to mention that the lake dried up years ago. The park is nice and only about 20 miles to San Antonio. Lots and lots of trees and deer wandering through the park. We got settled into a really nice spot amid the trees and then discovered these “mountain cedar” trees were in their pollen season. Our allergies were so bad the whole time we were there we cut our stay short. Supposed to be there 3 weeks but only made it a little more than a week.

Here's a morning visitor outside our back window.

Leaving Big Bend

Fort Stockton

Left Big Bend headed for the San Antonio area. We spent 2 nights in Fort Stockton only because the weather was too windy and cold to drive. Nothing much to say about this area except the RV park was cheap (good thing because it was a dump) and we were able to hunker down to try and stay warm.

Junction

Stopped for just one night along the North Llano River in a small town called Junction. Was sorry it was only for the one nite because it was a beautiful area and the RV park was really nice. It was incredibly cold and hooking and un-hooking the RV in 19 degrees is no fun at all.
 

We did finally have our first taste of Texas bar-b-que. A little hole in the wall place called Lum's in this little tiny town but it apparently has been written up in magazines and even on TV. It was delicious to say the least. We ate till we were sick and then bought more to go so we could have it again the next day.

More Big Bend National Park

We spent several days in in the Big Bend National Park area. While the drive to Presidio was probably the prettiest drive we took, all the other drives were beautiful in their own way. The park is huge (larger than the state of Rhode Island) so we would spend one day driving to each corner of the park. It would take weeks to see everything. Chisos Canyon was another favorite spot of ours in the park.

We were far enough south that the weather cooperated for the time we were here.

Drive to Presidio

Took a 70 mile drive today on "Farm Road 170" into Presidio, TX.  It is considered one of the top 10 scenic drives in the US.  And it really was!  It follows the Rio Grande River for most of the trip, cutting through the mountains and valleys.  It's really nice that there is almost no one else on the road.  We were able to stop right in the middle of the hwy. to take pictures and never see another car.  Of course they do have lots of pull outs for viewing.  The river is the dividing line between Mexico and Texas.

The weather couldn't have been better.  It reached 85 degrees with wispy clouds in the sky.

Here are a few of the pictures we took today.  The old buildings are part of a movie set.  The Streets of Laredo and 9 other movies used this set. 

Big Bend National Park

Left Alpine today and drove a whopping 80 miles to a tiny little place called Study Butte, TX.  There isn't much in town except the combination motel, restaurant, gas station and RV park we are staying at.  The only positive thing you can say about the park is it is only 15 miles to the entrance to Big Bend National Park.  We plan on staying 4 nights so we have some time to tour the national park.

Here are some pictures of the 80 mile drive we made today.  I know scenery pictures all start to look the same after a while but the views never get old to us.  Seems like every curve in the road brings a new and different experience.

Alpine, TX

Spent 2 nights in Van Horn and then left Hwy. 10 for Hwy. 90. This will take us more south towards Big Bend National Park. We arrived in Alpine, TX yesterday and plan on only spending 2 night here but that all depends on what we find to do in the area. We drove through 100 miles of vast nothingness to get here. Not sure what this is, but think it's a weather balloon tethered to the ground. Today we drove over to Fort. Davis and mid 1800's fort. There wasn't much left of the original fort, only the footings of the original buildings were left and a lot of it had been re-built. From there we drove up the mountains to the McDonald Observatory. Beautiful views of the Texas hill country from up there. Texas seems to put a lot of little roadside pic-nick tables along the highways. This one was really unique. It seemed to be carved into the side of the rocks in the mountain. Almost looked unreal, like something out of Disneyland.