it was a beach day

We arrived in San Benito (or is it Los Fresnos ~ I truly don't know!) last Thursday to the weather that Rick has been searching for!  Mid 70's to mid 80's - in other words, motorcycle weather.  Motorcycle weather that is, if you don't have a dead battery (my bike does ;-(    A mission for today ... buy new battery.

Anyway, Thursday afternoon we went out on our "see what's in the area" ride.  We ended up about 20 miles away in Port Isabel.  Port Isabel is the most eastern town in the valley before you take the bridge and causeway over to South Padre Island.  Above is a picture taken from Pirates Landing (a very fun place in Port Isabel).  In the picture above the bridge to SPI is at the far right and in the distance is the Island.

We also went to Pelican Station before we headed home to Sir Arlo!  Below is a photo of one of the doors in the restaurant - isn't it great.  Having done some stained glass work in a previous life I can't imagine undertaking a project like this door!

Pelican Station is located on the site of the Rio Grande Rail Road in the late 1800's.  Some interesting information on it here.  Makes me think of my Dad of course, he was such a railroad fan.

Pretty flowers abound in these parts. 

We went back over to South Padre on Saturday and took Sir with us this time so he could go swimming and play at the beach.  We came across this great place ~ Boomerang Billy's right on the beach - dogs allowed!  There is also a motel on the property.  It reminded us very much of one of our favorite places in the Keys ~ the Ocean View Inn.  The "OV" is owned by Gary Dunn, a former player for the Pittsburgh Steelers ~ sure would LOVE to be there Sunday night watching the game!

Now we are in a deep freeze like most of the rest of the country!  It never got above 37 degrees today and with the wind it was like 24 degrees, which I believe was colder than our New England families!  Friday can't come soon enough for us, when it is suppose to be back in the 70's.  We had planned on going into Mexico today or tomorrow, but only went outside to walk Sir Arlo and/or take rubbish to the dumpster and the same will likely happen tomorrow!  Perhaps Mexico will happen Friday ~ hopefully.  Then I'd like to go back to South Padre on Saturday or Sunday.  We shall see so ~

stay tuned

On a mission

While we were in Goliad, at the state park, we "toured" the Mission Nuestra Senora Del Espiritu Santo De Zuniga.  Well, most of the original Mission is long since gone, after all it was built in the 1700's.  However, from 1935-1941 crews of the Civilian Conservation Corps worked to restore what remained.  In the 1970's the Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept. rehabbed the chapel and built exhibits in the restored granary.

The first photo above is of the chapel looking up from the parking area (the campground we were in is behind the parking area, with two other campgrounds on the same property, but a mile beyond the mission).  Directly above are some of the grounds to the left of the chapel.

The restoration and painting within the chapel was pretty spectacular.  I still have "issues" with the concept of what the Franciscan priests were trying to accomplish by "civilizing and Christianizing" three native American tribes.  A mission that quite clearly failed miserably.

Below is the granary and weaving exhibit within.  I found the exhibit quite interesting, but it was "fenced off", unfortunately!  I understand why but darn, it would have been nice to get a bit closer!

Down the road 1/4 mile is the Presidio La Bahia (photos below)

Isn't the chapel below gorgeous!

Below is the description of the Presidio as quoted from the Texas Parks website.  Rick toured this property while Sir Arlo and I waited outside and took a nice walk on a beautiful sunny day.

"Across the river, visit the Presidio La Bahía. Located 1/4 mile south of Goliad State Park on US Highway 183 and 77A and operated by the Catholic Diocese of Victoria. View exhibits, enjoy an interpretive program and exciting re-enactments and imagine life at the fort. Originally built in 1749 to protect the Mission and the frontier, it later played a major role in the Texas Revolution. Here, Colonel Fannin and his ill-fated men were held prior to being executed at Santa Anna's order, an act of infamy later recalled at the Battle of San Jacinto with the cry, "Remember Goliad! Remember the Alamo!" For a very special experience, make reservations to stay overnight in the comfortable Priests Quarters."

We left Goliad on Sunday and headed to the NAS in Corpus Christi where we had a  reservation for 11 nights.  What a nightmare that turned out to be!  The military campground website I used clearly indicated that this particular facility IS open to civilians (most military campgrounds are for active or retired military only) and there was no issue with that when we made our reservation on the phone.  

The problem came when we stopped at the entrance to the base - UGH .... the woman who took the reservation didn't tell us the hoops and passes and security checks we would need in order to be granted access - a process that in the end would have taken weeks!  So there we are, for an hour trying to get through this, while tying up one lane of traffic and keeping one guard busy trying to wade through the red tape ~ to no avail!

We ended up at a less than desirable KOA in the tiny town of Mathis, 40 miles from where we thought we'd be!  The closest grocery store is 12 miles away, the closest Walmart is 25 miles away!  

We will be leaving here tomorrow and headed to the Rio Grand Valley for 12 nights, before we head back to San Antonio.  I tried about 10 campgrounds in "the valley" before I found one that had sites long enough for us to leave the trailer connected to the coach.  That is one of the down sides to "resort" areas.  I'm not even sure it is "resort" like, but it is  where "northerners" go in Texas to try and stay warm during the winter ....

stay tuned .....

Go go Goliad

We left Stafford ("south Houston") on Tuesday, another cold, gray rainy day in that area and arrived here in Goliad to a nice sunny, 65 degree day.

We are staying at Goliad State Park.  A beautiful state park, although we are "nickle and dimed" constantly.  In addition to the camping fee we've been charged $3.00 per person, per day to be here as well as $2.00 per day for the car!  Good thing we haven't had the bikes out because they'd be $2.00 per bike, per day as well!  A bit much but it is a lovely place.

Quiet and peaceful, and watched over by many many birds ~ the only species of which I know is the fella above.  We were sitting out the other day just "chillaxing" when the cardinal spotted Sir Arlo's water bowl and helped himself (of course the camera was inside at that moment!!).  After a lengthy drink, he decided he needed a bath ~ you guessed it, Arlo's bowl now served as a birdbath!  Surprisingly Sir didn't care at all ~ not sure if he was in total awe and therefore "speechless" or if he really didn't care!

Some views of our "back yard" here!

I unintentionally wrote a non-truth in my last blog post.  I forgot that we had indeed done some "sight seeing" while we were in Stafford.  We headed out one day to Kemah (on the Gulf of Mexico) about 35 miles away.  The plan was to let Arlo have some ocean play time, well that was the plan, but we couldn't find any public beach access!  Another of those charming (not) towns that any access to the water are all marked "private" ... UGH.  

There was a neat lighthouse there however, and we did find a very pleasant Elks Lodge in town. The Lodge was very nice, on a lovely piece of land.  They had suffered major damage and flooding (four feet of water in their building) as a result of Hurricane Ike in 2008, but were able to get themselves repaired and back up and running in six weeks!

We've had a couple things happening in the last couple days.  First, niece Elisha and a friend are coming to visit during February vacation (Elisha is a teacher) so we will be heading back to San Antonio for their visit.  Prior to that we will be in Corpus Christi tomorrow for ten nights, then somewhere in the Mission area (hopefully) prior to heading back to San Antonio.

Secondly, we've accepted a work camping position with the State of Vermont for this coming camping season.  We will be in Quechee State Park and looking forward to being equal distance to my "baby" sister and brother in law as well as Patrick, Beth, Paige and new baby (due in July).  We're both nervous and excited about the opportunity.  It is a five month commitment on our part - something we are totally unfamiliar with!

Stay tuned ....

blah blah blah

Another cold, grey day in South Houston.  We've done nothing, N-O-T-H-I-N-G, notta since we've been here ~ no sight seeing, no beer can house, no Igloo cooler plant with the guard house that looks like a cooler (just in case you hadn't realized we'd done no sight seeing by lack of posts about such events, I thought I'd mention it!).

Tomorrow we are leaving here and heading to Goliad for five nights then to Corpus Christi for ten nights - in search of elusive warm sunny skies!  We may head down to the Mission area after Corpus for a while, but we shall see.  Rick said the other day that he thinks we waited too late to go south, perhaps he is correct.  Who knew!

That's it for today's very brief, boring post.

Stay tuned.

because

I can and I want to 

and besides that, it is outstandingly simple and beautiful

and sometimes (like now) that's just what is necessary

at a standstill

We are still in Stafford, TX, just south, by 15 miles or so, of Houston.  We haven't done any sight seeing hence no blog posts about the area!  

The weather is going to be quite chilly the next few days - not expected to get above 57 until Saturday, with overnight lows of 31-34 degrees!  No complaints tho, seems New England is getting hit once again with a major one, with predictions of as much as 17 inches of snow!

So going back to our delightful stay in Ottine a month or so back .....

As I mentioned in a previous post, the town of Luling with it's decorated oil pumps was a neighboring town (to the north) while Gonzales was the neighboring town to the south.

There is a great deal of history in this area, as Gonzales was where the battle for Texas Independence from Mexico started.  We did do an afternoon trip to see some of the sites (there are a few small markers, but surprisingly not much else).  There also is the story of the cannon, on loan from the Mexicans, who wanted it back - resulting in yet another battle which lead to the phrase and future festival by the same name "Come and Take It"!  And they tried!

The photo above is a local watering hole in downtown Gonzales that we frequented on a few occasions. Very very old building, being a bank as well as a feed store in prior lives.  This area has very odd liquor laws ~ most places serve beer only, but you can bring in your own wine or hard liquor ... so strange to go walking into a "joint" carrying my bottle of wine!

As I'd mentioned before, we feel in love with this area.  The only negative I could find was lack of a good grocery store, heck there wasn't even a "decent" Walmart!

So many absolutely gorgeous older homes (most in the above photos were dated 1906 and 1907) and most of them were beautifully restored.  The two in the photos below were perhaps my favorites, across the street from one another and the smaller of the two is a bed and bath ~ Sister Candy, I think you'd love it!  The yard of the larger one was just absolutely beautiful, gorgeous and outstandingly wonderful!

And in closing, here is my new friend ..... posing oh so proud and handsome is he!

Stay tuned

A long long time ago

well, a month ago, in a very little town (called Ottine) so far away, we stayed!  Oh what a stop that was. We were there to see the decorated  oil well pumps that were purported to be in the next town (Luling).  Well we did see a couple of the decorated pumps and with the exception of the one below, they were pretty worn out (the painting on them) and had seen much better days!

I know it's not a decorated pump below, but it is an attention getter!

Another thing Luling is "famous" for is its "Watermelon Thump" held at the end of June.  I'm not sure I want to be in the middle of Texas at the end of any June as I'm fairly certain you'd be able to fry an egg on the street it'd be so darn hot, but anyway Luling has this festival celebrating their watermelons and it does sound like a heck of a fun time.  They even have a watermelon water tower!

Below are a couple pictures of the center of Ottine.  Oh how we both loved this area (I fell in love with the hill country immediately) and this tiny town just really got me.  I think the population is somewhere around 100.  They have a lovely state park there.  Unfortunately there were no houses for sale, in fact the only property for sale in the town is the Warm Springs Rehab center, which started as a polio treatment center many many years ago, then became an adult rehabilitation facility, but only houses a dozen or so patients now, as they built a new facility in Luling a few years ago.  The center is on the market for $1.7 million ~ just a tad out of our price range, but what a great piece of property it has the potential to be restored to.

The top photo below was once the Post Office.  The boarded up home's history I don't know, but I'm sure if it could talk it would have many a tale to tell ~ and I'd love to hear a few of them!

That's it for now ~ I'm gonna hit the publish button then head out to Walfart to pick up a couple things - maybe the King will be up and about when I return.

Stay tuned ...