Another Week in Texas

Another hour down the road and we arrive at our new address - Rockport, Texas.  We check into our campground, get settled in and it's time to go exploring.  We drive along the shore and see these trees that look rather peculiar.  Well it turns out that they are oak trees and are simply responding to the prevailing
winds.  Obviously the prevailing winds are rather constant and fairly strong.

We stop to see some sculptures near the marina and then take a drive over to Corpus Christie, along to Padre Island, Mustang Island and back to Aransas Pass.  It is a great day

Pelicans waiting for lunch

and a wonderful drive.  Being along the coast, we cross many long and marvelous bridges.  Then we are to take a ferry.  Fortunately, we drove up to the ferry and drove right on.  We get out of the jeep and get ready to enjoy the ride, but oops - it's over.  It was quite a surprise to be on a ferry for such a short ride.

We went over to see the "Big Tree" which is an oak tree determined to be over 1,000 years old.  What a huge, gnarly tree.  Nearby were several other old oak trees that have branches all over.  We remarked on what wonderful climbing trees they would make as they have huge branches that often hang down almost to the ground!!

Now it is time to move again and off to Brownsville we go - a three hour drive.  Along the way we discover a problem with out brake lights so we stop along the road trying to determine the cause.  Well we had no luck so off we go and check into the River Bend Resort.  The campground portion is very small - about 10 sites and it is a lovely campground.  While here, we spend some time trying to determine our brake light problem to no avail.  We will try again!!

The weather is hot and humid.  This morning at 10:00 a.m., the temperature was 23C (74F) and the humidity was 91% - nothing will dry but when there is a little breeze, it is very lovely weather.  We went over to Port Isabel and South Padre Island.  It was a beautiful day for sightseeing.  We climbed to the

Recognize this guy??

top of a lighthouse (74 steps).  Once we reached the top, the balcony is not accessible but it was a great view at the top (although somewhat like a sauna).  We drove over to South Padre Island and toured a couple of beach areas.  This is an area where RV's could park along the beach.  While there was very little wind, there was quite a high surf.  I don't think I would enjoy listening to that surf pound endlessly.

Sand Castle on South Padre Island

While in thearea, we watched a lighted boat parade.  Unfortunately there weren't very many boats but the ones that

were there have a great display of Christmas decorations.  And what a great evening to sit out and watch a parade - just a light breeze and mild temperatures.  On our way home we decided to make a quick stop at Chick-fil-A for a quick bite to eat.  Now this is a fast food place but the service was better than many restaurants.  We must have looked a bit puzzled as to what we should order so we were asked if this was our first visit.  Since it was, perhaps we would like a sample.  The next question was where we were from - we said Saskatchewan (brought a bewildered look) so we said Canada.  Well one of the staff members was from Canada - over he comes to say hello.  He was a very nice young man who used to live in Victoria and moved back to Texas with his parents.  Then they proceeded to bring out our order, get the ketchup and napkins, check to see if we need anything, and then at the end of the meal bring a hand wipe and a mint.  As we leave they say good bye and thank us for coming - if this is typical, it certainly makes one plan on stopping back.

The ant trail!

As we went for a little walk we came across an ant colony.  They created a very visible trail to and from the ant hill - something we had not seen.   Who would have thought that they too create a game trail.

As we start a new week, we hope that everyone has a great week so until next weekend - enjoy your week!!