Moving from the Valley to Port A

Just a quick post to update everybody on our location.  On the 15th of February, we said good-bye to the Rio Grande Valley and travelled about 175 miles north along the coast to Port Aransas, a barrier island of the coast of Corpus Christie.

The drive was uneventful, including successful passage through a Border checkpoint on Highway 77, about an hour north of the valley.  We pulled into the Port A RV Resort right around noon, and quickly got set up.

We were meeting up with some friends we had met in Fort Myers several years ago, so we spent the rest of the day getting caught up with them and went out for pizza that night.

We’ve been here a week now, and have been surprised to see how different the weather is here from the valley . . . it’s definitely cooler, and being right on the coast, we get sea fog most evenings, and wake up to heavy fog in the morning.  Our highs here have mostly been in the low 60s, and overcast skies for much of the week. 

We were also shocked to find this critter crossing the road in front of our RV one day this week!  Yikes!  I would have expected to see them down in the desert climate of the Valley, not here at the beach!

He kept moving, so we left him alone, and a couple days later he re-appeared on the next road over, and they caught him and relocated him to the nature preserve next door (we think that’s where he came from in the first place!)

Yesterday was our first really warm day, but it was still overcast in the morning, so Tom decided it would be a good day to wash the motorhome and Jeep.  Not exactly my idea of fun, but it really needed it, so I agreed.

We weren’t the only ones that had that idea, either . . . I think I saw at least a dozen other people out washing their RVs.  With that job done, we relaxed in the hot tub for a couple hours after dinner . . . ahhh!

The sun was just setting as we were heading to the pool, and it was beautiful!

This morning, we woke up to bright sunshine coming through the windows – I think that was a first since we’ve been here!  It was still a little chilly, and very windy, but the sun was wonderful!

After church, we took a drive down to the beach.

There were a bunch of people fishing off the jetty, and a large group of kite surfers on the beach, and a few already in the water.

We walked for a bit on the jetty, but the waves were crashing into it and threatening to soak us, so we turned back toward the beach.

One more selfie!

From the beach, we drove past the Marina where we spotted the shrimp boat that we had heard about at the RV Park.  We stopped to check it out and found out that they had just sold out for the day.  I guess Tom has to wait until next weekend for shrimp, unless he decides to go to one of the fish markets in town.

On the way back home, we picked up some donuts and had coffee and donuts out on the patio with Rick & Karen when we got back to the RV.

We made plans to go to the American Legion in Rockport, where they have oysters on Sundays starting at 1pm . . . . well, the three of them were going . . . I was going to do some grocery shopping while they were at lunch; I have no interest in oysters!

Before that, Tom wanted to get the roof waxed, and I waxed the outside of the windows while he was on the roof.  We finished right at 1pm, and Rick & Karen were ready to go.

The motorhome is looking pretty good!

When we drove up from the valley, we came through Corpus Christie and crossed over to Mustang Island via a bridge.  Here at the north end of the island, though, there’s a ferry that takes you across the narrow shipping channel.  It’s a pretty efficient operation . . . and it’s free!

We had a little bit of a wait this afternoon . . . I think we might have had a ferry driver in training!

Tom was pretty apprehensive about taking the motorhome on the ferry when we leave here next month, but after crossing on it several times this week, we’re pretty comfortable with it.  While we waited today, we saw a 45’ Dutch Star tag axle towing a Jeep come off the ferry . . . so I guess we’ll be OK!

I dropped Tom off at the American Legion with Rick & Karen and dove to H.E.B.  I wasn’t there more than a few minutes, and he was already texting me that they had their lunch.  They were bummed because the Legion was out of baked oysters and they wouldn’t make anymore, so they had to settle for fried, which they said weren’t as good.  Oh well!

Tom and I finished up our shopping (I was almost done when they got there), and headed back to the RV in time to catch the last few minutes of the MSU – UofM basketball game . . . and the Spartans won!  Yeah!  Go Green!