2022-07-13 Headed to Rockport Texas

Time for another Texas Ramblin' Roses Rally. My sister-in-law Elaine drove down to meet up with me in Schertz TX. This is her first time out in her travel trailer and her first rally. The trailer has been in storage for about three years due to covid so she was very smart and replaced the tires before leaving Abilene. She came to our house for dinner and then spent the night in a nearby RV park to get a feel for RVing on her own. We met up at a nearby Walmart parking lot and headed out together. We didn't have to go through San Antonio at all because we took back roads which is actually the shortest distance. Unfortunately, we ran into about 3 different road construction sites. Other than Texans hard at work repairing/replacing roads, the trip was uneventful.

This time the Roses are meeting in Rockport Texas at Wilderness Oaks RV Resort. I'm hosting and this is my fourth or fifth rally here. It's a great park and they treat us really well. We arrived to see this sign on the front of the office. We checked in and, while I was unhooking my toad, a camphost escorted Elaine to her site and spotted her while she backed in. He came back to escort me and Elaine was already unhooking her trailer. We both hooked up electric right away for A/C to cool things down and left the water and cable for later in the evening.

We took a little drive to see a few sites nearby once we were settled in.

Wednesday morning, four of us arrivals headed out along the coast. We took the ferry between Aransas Pass and Port Aransas. A lot of people don't realize that this is actually part of the highway system. I have taken my last RV, a 31' fifth wheel across several times and it isn't unusual to see semi-trucks on the ferries. We had a little wait to get on but it wasn't too bad. We headed over to the channel first.

A ship was on the way into the bay and on to Corpus Christi.

Elaine and Mary couldn;t wait to get their feet into the ocean.

That ship was coming in faster than you would expect.

Next we headed on down the island past the Mustang Island State Park and on to Padre Island National Seashore. Both Elaine and Barb got their one year America the Beautiful Senior pass. If you buy an annual senior pass for 3 years, the fourth year you will get the lifetime senior pass. It is a great deal which allows you to spread the cost of the lifetime pass over a four year period.

I think it was a first visit to the national seashore for everyone but me but I always enjoy it. I thought there used to be a place to get something to eat here but there isn't now. 

We had to take a couple tourist shots.

The beach looked so inviting but it was really, really hot and we were short on time so we had to settle for taking some pictures.

We checked out some exhibits inside the center. Almost looks like live doesn't it?

This is a ridley turtle nest. They were having a turtle release the next morning at 6:30AM which would have been wonderful to see but we were staying too far away to make it there on time.

We had a great day but we had to hustle back so a late lunch ended up being a Whataburger because we had 3 dogs waiting for us at home. Harley is a seasoned RVer and used to staying on his own for a reasonable amount of time. The other two dogs are new to staying alone and their "moms" are new to leaving them for very long. They were all just fine when we got back.
 

2021-09-27 Rockport Texas

 On Monday, everyone but Jimmie, Pat, and I were headed out. Jimmie had some fishing plans and Pat and I decided to spend some time checking out things in Rockport.

We parked and walked around the downtown area. This shop had all these cute decorations out front.

There were several interesting murals.

We went into several shops with lots of interesting decor. This horse is all made from driftwood.

A chair to relax in if you need a rest......

The Rockport harbor has lots of boats at the docks. Sure could easily live aboard this one.

The Texas Maritime Museum is an interesting place to visit.

The Art Gallery building didn't survive the last hurricane but the beautiful statues outside endured. The Gallery is now in another building downtown but the statues are still in a park area right by the harbor.

The harbor is home to working boats and pleasure boats.

The Big Blue Crab did not survive the last hurricane. It used to be part of a restaurant before it was adopted by the city and located near the Blue Water Swimming Beach. It took some time but this new crab has taken up where the old Blue one used to be.

Now I really am off to Blanco State Park tomorrow morning. It is a small but very busy park and this is the first time I have been able to get reservations even in the middle of the week. Making reservations 5 months in advance just doesn't work for me unless it is for a rally.

A Little Art, A Little Maritime History, and Life is a Beach

And then there were three. We skipped several places that were listed on our GTG agenda because we did something else or the ladies didn't seem interested but we decided to check them out today. First on the list was the Rockport Art Center.

We quickly found out that it wasn't some hoity toity art gallery but rather a place where local artist works were displayed along with some other unique artist collections. The Art Center is housed in an old house.

They also have free workshops at various times and many Winter Texans participate. The staff is very friendly.

We started with some of the beautiful sculptures outside.

Sorry, I couldn't resist. Three birds were posed on the lip of this tower.

The pictures on display were varied and interesting but I didn't take any pictures. There were many different styles and techniques displayed. We also saw some unique jewelry, specially designed cards, and other pieces of art.

We were planning on visiting the free Aquarium but it is only open on Saturday and Sunday. Check it out if you are in town on a weekend. It is free as was the Art Center.

Next we headed over to the Texas Maritime Museum. There was a charge for this but it was very interesting.

They started with information about early explorers.

There were pieces of early equipment on display.

John Harrison invented the chronometer above.

Early block and tackle.

All kinds of equipment used by early explorers.

Beautiful model ships.

Upstairs we found fishing equipment. Reels....

Lures......

Fancy fish hooks......

Of course, sailors had to know how to do many different kinds of knots,

Various types of boat motors.

Here you could easily imagine yourself steering a big ship.

This board presents all kinds of knotwork. Some of it is beautiful.....an art.

The next area covered lighthouses in Texas. Someone had done beautiful paintings of them.

The third story was actually a room with a balcony all around the outside of it where you could go out and see the view. It was windy but too neat to miss.

Back down on the ground, we went to see the outdoor displays.

This is a life saving bell.

Looking down inside, you could see that a lot of people could sit around the seat inside. Of course, that didn't leave much privacy for use of the toilet but you wouldn't be out in this for fun.

This one is shaped more like a boat but you would be closed in pretty tight here too.

This describes the flat looking sloop you saw earlier.

We weren't done quite yet as we decided to go out on Rockport Beach. It costs $5 per car or $20 for a year's pass.  It is a special beach....a certified blue wave beach.

A little stage for shows.

In addition to the nice beach areas with lots of facilities, this is also a sanctuary for migratory birds.

This tree looks down but not out.

Most of the migratory bird area is on the bay side which is more sheltered.

Looking across to the fancy homes on the other side.

There were lots of birds nesting in the wildflower areas.

Out last stop of the day was for dinner. We decided to try the 5 star rated Steerburgers but after driving all the way out there, it turned out to be a house and there were only two trucks there so we passed on that. Next, we decided to try J.J.'s Little Bay Café but it closed.....only open for breakfast and lunch. We were on our way to K-Bob's when we decided to have Chinese for a big change. It was in a strip mall and didn't look too fancy outside but they had a great buffet that even had crab legs. Plus they did Mongolian while you watched. Turned out to be a great dinner.