Checking out South Padre Island.

We have some friends, Joe and Anne, in Hamilton, Ontario who bought a Newmar product a month or two before we bought ours. In fact it was partly because we liked their Kountry Aire motorhome so much that we decided to go for a Newmar. They have been doing a lot of travelling. in the summer they went to the Maritimes and now they are in Texas. At the KOA in South Padre to be exact. They will be flying home for for Christmas so we picked a nice warm sunny day to go over to S. Padre Island to see them.

Anne hamming it up in front of their RV.

While we were there we took the opportunity to check out Isla Blanca County Park. It is very nice, if a touch bleak but we would stay there in a heartbeat. Not long term mind you, I would worry about the RV rusting with that wind off the ocean, but maybe for about a week. it is right on the beach, so great for beach combers and fishermen.

The beach from the circular drive around Isla Blanca

Kids playground at Isla Blanco.

The ocean was very rough and grey.

The KOA is on the bay side, very clean and neat, and quite expensive.

Joe and Anne's site

KOA, S. Padre Island

The sites are large gravel. Hard to walk on, but very clean and neat.

Joe took us on a drive up the island and we stopped off at Sea Turtle Inc, a turtle resue facility that was started by The Turtle Lady. Click HERE to read her story.

Large turtle skull.

My attempt at an artistic photograph of a turtle in an enclosure.

Gerry, Ila's favourite turtle.

sea wateer pumping station at the centre.

Coming up for air

Michael and Joe at the Turtle Rescue place

Many turtles had been brought to the center because of the very cold weather over the past few days. they will be released back to the ocean when it warms up.

We watched an Aussie guy at the visitor centre carving a wonderful sand castle.

Sand Castle builder, Joe, Anne and Michael

What a work of art!

We had a fantastic day at SPI, ending with a spectacular sunset and a lovely curry dinner with some lovely friends.

this photo is completely unaltered from my iPhone. Spectacuar!

Posted with Blogsy

We made it to the Rio Grande valley!!

When we set out on the journey this year, we had planned on going over to Arizona, but with the realization that we needed new tires for the RV, we decided to come down here and sit tight for the winter. While we were in Columbus, Texas at Colorado River Thousand Trails park I saw an ad for Tropic Winds in Harlingen. This is an Encore Park, but they have 40 sites reserved for Thousand Trails members.  Members can be on those sites for 2 weeks and then move to another site for a week at $170. Thereafter, back to the Thousand Trails sites for another 2 weeks, etc. I felt that was a really good deal. Then, while surfing the internet, I came across a special offer of a month at a Sun Resort for only $199. After some phone calls we are now at Kenwood RV Resort for a month. I felt that we would rather be at a park, continually, over Christmas and New Year. This way we can get to know people so that we will be a part of the community for the holidays.

This is our view down the road from the site.

Site 145

This is a smallish park right off the main highway (I 2) in La Feria, and presently the park is about 30% empty. We are pretty central here and have everything we need. Our site is right at the back of the park, and is fairly large. We have full hookup with 50 amps. We will be paying extra for electricity, but that is fine.

The park has an indoor pool and hot tub, an exercise room, pool room, library in the lounge, horseshoes, shuffleboard and there is yoga three times a week.  Other activities include water aerobics, cards, pot luck dinners, quilting, music jams, concerts, dancing etc. etc. There is no excuse for being bored here.

On the 11th of January we move over to Tropic Winds.

Our (Rainy) week in Rockport, Texas.

The weather was not great. The temps went below freezing a few nights during the week and we had a LOT of rain,but it sure beat the terrible storm that was occurring further to the north of us. So glad we left Medina Lakes. Most days we stayed close to home, planning the rest of our winter and contacting various campgrounds to plan out our next few stops.

While we were at Bay View, we took the opportunity to check out Magnolia Beach a free boondocking beach near Port Lavaca, Port Aransas beach boondocking area, Mustang Island and the town of Rockport. Here are some photos.

Rockport Bay

Rockport Bay

Magnolia Beach, Port Lavaca. (Truly free boondocking)

Small trailer boondocking on the beach

Picnic shelters and tables line the beach

This boondocker did not venture onto the beach.

Statue near Indianola

House on stilts

Another portion of the free beach

Heading down to Indianola

There is that trailer camped on the beach.

Magnolia Beach

Ferry across to Port Aransas

Ferries

Port Aransas beach

Port Aransas beach

Port Aransas beach

Port Aransas beach

Mustang Island State Park

Campsites at Mustang Island State Park

Sailboat braving the elements

Old town Rockport

Unusual geodesic house in Rockport

Ice storm a-comin'

We were supposed to stay at Lake Medina for 14 days, but there are reports of some really bad weather coming this way. A big rain, ice and snow storm. So we decided to leave and head further south. Where to? After some searching through our various memberships, we decided on an RPI park in Rockport, Texas. It is called Bay View RV Resort. So we packed up, told the gate house that we were leaving so that they could credit us for 10 days and off we went, as did several other RVs in the park.

It was a pretty easy drive down to Corpus Christi and then north to Rockport. We have a nice site on a very quiet loop.

Timmy was very happy with our location because there were three other Maltese doggies on our neighbouring sites.

Gathering of Maltese puppies.
Excuse the awful colour of the photo, but I had my settings on my iPhone all screwed up.