Where are Cheryl and Dennis?: 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.