Where are Cheryl and Dennis?: December 2019

Tuesday, December 31, 2019

D'Hannis, Del Rio and Friends

12/18/2019 – 12/27/2019 – We spent a nice week at the Lone Star SKP Park in D'Hannis Texas. The folks there were wonderful. We spent most of the week hanging around the park. One day it was raining so we took a drive up to Fredricksburg. We attended a white elephant gift exchange on Christmas Eve. Then we had a wonderful Christmas Dinner on Christmas Day. There was turkey, ham, cheesy potatoes, green beans and rolls and butter. Everyone brought a dessert to share and oh my god was it all yummy!

We left Lone Star on Thursday Dec. 26 to rendezvous with our friends Mike and Terri. They are on a tour of Texas and we found out that our paths were going to cross so we found a RV park in Comstock Texas where we could visit for a couple of days. It was a little over a two hour drive so we were in no hurry to get there. We had just arrived at the park and were deciding where to park when Mike and Terri drove in. We spent the rest of the day catching up and shared dinner. We cooked hamburgers and Terri made some awesome potato salad. We had fun playing a couple of board games with them before bed.

On Friday we drove into Del Rio. First stop was the Amistad National Recreation Area Visitor Center. The Amistad Reservoir is a large body of water that is fed by the Devils, Pecos and Rio Grande Rivers. Then we stopped at the Del Rio Visitor Center to pick up tourist information. Terri is a avid thrift store shopper. She looks for vintage clothing and jewelry. We stopped at the one thrift store in Del Rio. It was very small but she found a couple of items that she had to have. We also drove by the Brinkley Mansion and stopped at the Val Verde Winery which is the oldest winery in Texas.

We had lunch at a place called Memo's that was recommended by someone at the winery. The service was slow, the waiter couldn't remember our order and the food was so so. Not some place we are likely to visit again. Then we headed over to the Whitehead Memorial Museum. This is a pioneer village on 2 acres featuring historical and cultural artifacts. It had many interesting and somewhat quirky exhibits and was very enjoyable. On the way back to Comstock we drove into the San Pedro Campground, part of the Amistad Recreation Area. It was very nice and would be a nice place to dry camp if we ever come back this way again. We had a great time with Mike and Terri and it was so good to see them again!

Where we are parked: Lone Star Corral SKP Co-op Park - D'Hannis TX – Site 109 – Full hook ups $20/day plus electricity for Escapee members.

Where we are parked: Desert Hills RV Park – Comstock TX – $20/night - There were about 25 sites, about 20 of them had full hook up. We stayed in the electric and water only sites as they were further from the road. It was not greatest RV park but again it served our purpose.

Lone Star Corral RV Park

Christmas Dinner at Lone Star

Whitehead Memorial Museum

We had lots of giggles reading this hair care tips from 1900.

Terri, Mike, Dennis and Cheryl

Tuesday, December 17, 2019

Busy in Corpus Christi

12/10/2019 – 12/17/2019 – On Tuesday we left League City and headed south toward Corpus Christi. Again we stayed away from the interstate and drove state roads. We arrived at Padre Balli County Park. When we looked on line the cost for one night was $25 however that was for the 30 amp sites. Because we have 50 amp we were told we could only park in the 50 amp portion of the park. These sites were $50 per night! We stayed one night just because we did not want to try and find another campground for the evening. Wednesday morning we moved 10 miles south to the Malaquite Campground in the Padre IslandNational Seashore. This park has no hook ups but is right next to the water with a bath/shower house and a dump station. We were able to grab a really nice site at the end of the row which allowed us an unobstructed view of the water and shoreline.

Thursday morning we went on a bird watching trip organized by the park. We spotted lots of neat birds including several raptors as well as many shorebirds. Then we drove to Kingsville to check out the King RanchMuseum. We watched a video about the King Ranch. We learned the King Ranch is a huge corporation and is very diversified. Along with raising cattle, they grow cotton and Milo and turf grass in Texas, oranges and turf grass in Florida. They used to own other property and holdings in many other countries. The King Ranch is home to many foundation Quarter Horse studs and were very prominent in the cutting and quarter horse racing arenas. They still raise quarter horses but mainly for use on the ranch. We were too late to go on a ranch tour. Bummer. Maybe we will stop there on our way west once we leave Corpus Christi.

The week started cool with highs only in the 60's but continued to warm as the week went along. On Friday morning we took a walk on the beach. After lunch we headed into Corpus Christi to the USS Lexington Museum. The USS Lexington is a huge aircraft carrier that was used in World War II and is now moored in the Corpus Christi harbor and is open to the public. For a small entrance fee you can tour the ship. It is very interesting as you see where the sailors lived and worked. There is a scale model gallery of hundreds of ships and planes from all eras, a display of Texas Navel history and a 3D Mega theater. The flight deck includes restored aircraft. You can also climb into one of gun turrets. High today was around 82.

Saturday and Sunday we spent at the campground just hanging around, taking walks and drives on the beach and looking for more shells. Sunday evening we attended a very nice free concert put on by the Corpus Christi Orchestra. They played a wonderful selection of Christmas tunes. It was very nice and I am glad we went.

We had been talking about checking out the Rio Grand Valley area. Being 200 miles south of here we decided to take a day drive instead of hauling the camper all the way down there. So on Monday we got going early and headed south. After stopping in Robstown for breakfast we arrived in Harlingen TX around 10:30. After stopping at a visitor center we proceeded to a couple of attractions I had identified earlier. First stop was the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge near Alamo TX. We watched a 20 minute video then took a short walk on one of the park paths. We went back into the visitor center to ask about a couple of birds we saw and got to talking to one of the volunteers. Last summer I sent in a volunteer application to this place but they said they did not need us. When we told them that, they said a couple of volunteers had backed out and now they could use a tram driver and narrator. We would have probably jumped at the chance but we already have commitments for this winter. We gave them our contact information to perhaps volunteer next year.

From there we headed over to the National Butterfly Center. We were able to get in for free with my American Horticultural Society membership. We certainly got our monies worth with that membership! The NBC is very nice with a butterfly garden, bird feeding stations and even a very friendly desert tortoise. We saw Green Jays, some sort of Orioles, Chachalacas and a rare Spot-celled Sister butterfly. We wouldn't have had a clue what butterflies were what except that there was a group of folks with cameras with large zoom lenses all agog over this one sighting. I got a real nice photo of it with my Iphone! Too funny! From there we headed home. Stopped in Falfurrias TX at the Star of Texas Restaurant for supper.

Weather the last few days had been warm, very humid and windy. The humidly this morning was 99%! Yuck! Today was still very warm, especially in south Texas. At one point it was 89 degrees with 60% humidity. A cold front came through in the evening and by the time we got back to the camper it was 57 degrees and the wind had switched coming from the north. It was so strong it was rocking the camper. Woke up Tuesday morning to 43 degrees

Headed into town today to get an oil change in the truck. Stopped at J&B Bakery to pick up some breakfast. This is a German bakery featuring many traditional German baked goods. Yummy! We discovered a tear in our fitted sheet on the bed so after the oil change we stopped at Target to pick up some new sheets. From there we headed back to Kingsville to take the Kings Ranch Tour. We got to Kingsville early so stopped at a coffee shop to use the internet. We arrived at the ranch visitor center for the 1:00 tour. Our driver and tour guide was very knowledgeable about the ranch as well as Texas history as he teaches history at the college in town. It was a very enjoyable hour and a half. Besides horses, Longhorn and Santa Gertrudis cattle we saw javalina, birds including some Crested Caracara and lots of deer.

Where we are parked: Malaquite Campground in the Padre Island National Seashore – Corpus Christi TX – Site 16 - $14 per night/$7 with senior pass – 50 first come/first served sites – No hooks up but a dump station, bathroom and shower house (cold water only). A daily entrance fee is required but is waived with the senior pass.

Malaquite Campground - Padre Island National Seashore

This is not wire. Its a type coral.

USS Lexington

National Butterfly Center

Green Jays and a fat squirrel

Spike the tortoise

Spotted-cell Sister Butterfly

Chachalaca

The King Ranch

Tuesday, December 10, 2019

Texas and Cruising

11/24/2019-12/10/2019 – Monday morning we left New Orleans on our way to Galveston. It was a two day trip as it was 350 miles to League City TX where we have reservations at Safari RVPark. We spent Monday night at Coushatta Casino Resort near Kinder LA at their Red Shoes RV Park. This was a very nice park with large sites and full hook ups. The next day we were back on the road. We stayed off the interstate and took state highways all the way to League City. It took longer but was much less stressful. From Kinder we took Highway 12 to Beaumont TX then Highway 90 to Highway 146 then 96 to Safari RV Park. We had made reservations at this park for two weeks and at $175 per week it was pretty reasonable. One of those week we will be gone on our cruise. The park was OK. There are about 12 transient sites along with some longer term campsites. The remainder of the park is full time mobile homes. It needed a little TLC but was an OK spot for what we needed it for.

The weather was a bit uncomfortable. Highs were in the low 70's but with humidity levels of 90% it just felt yucky. We drove down to Galveston a couple of times to visit the beach as well as check to see where the cruise leaves and where we need to park. Saturday we packed our suitcases and on Sunday morning drove to Galveston and boarded the cruise ship Liberty of the Seas a Royal Caribbean Ship.

We had beautiful weather and light seas for the cruise. It was a bit chilly the day we left as a cold front had moved through and got ride of the high humidity and dropped the temps into the 50's and 60's. We cruised over night and the next day and reached our first port, Cozumel, on Tuesday morning. After leaving the ship we headed to a nearby pier and boarded a small boat for a snorkel excursion. We snorkeled at a National Marine Park just off the shore of the island. The water was a little rough and it had a hard time at first. Both Dennis and I returned to the boat early. Then we moved to another spot where the water was calmer and we spent quite a long time in the water. It was pretty cool except the coral was not as colorful as we thought it would be. We did see a sting ray swimming underneath us as well some scuba divers. Once everyone was back on board they opened the bar and “made” us drink Rum Punch and Margaritas.

We cruised over night and the next day we arrived at George Town, Grand Cayman. Originally we did not have an excursion booked but on Monday we attended a presentation and won a half off a cruise excursion. So we booked a Catamaran cruise and visit to Sting Ray Reef. It entailed a bus ride ride through George Town to the pier. Once the boat we motored about 3 miles off the coast to an area of shallow water where the Sting Rays congregate. We entered the water and because our guides had food for them they were swimming all around us. One of the guides caught a ray and held it for us to touch and we even gave it a kiss! We were so glad we took this excursion!

The next day we arrived at Falmouth, Jamaica. Dennis and I took separate excursions as I wanted to do the horseback ride and swim. Off course that was not something he could do so he went on a bus tour of the island. For my excursion I boarded a bus and it took us on a 45 minute ride to the Chukka Horseback Ride. Once there we were given a few instructions, grabbed a helmet and then they got us all on horses. Since there were about 35 people it took quite a while to get everyone mounted. We took a short ride through some wooded areas then returned to the corral. After a break for lunch we went out in 3 smaller groups into the small bay with the horses. One of the guides apparently saw that I was a little more experienced than most of the guests and took me aside to do a little gallop on the trail. So awesome!

Dennis' excursion was nice as well. It sounds like they took a similar route as our excursion however they went further and even took a drive up into the higher elevations and through rain forest.

The return trip to Galveston required two days at sea. They have a lots of things going on on the ship however after awhile Dennis and I got a little board. We arrived back at port on Sunday at 6:00 A.M. All and all it was a awesome trip. We spent the rest of Sunday and Monday doing wash and preparing to the next leg of our trip.

Where we are parked: Red Shoes RV Resort – Kinder LA - $18/night for full hook up.

Where we are parked: Safari RV Park – League City TX – Approx. 60 RV full hookup sites - $175/week. Not our favorite park but served our needs.