Heading West

Well we have left Matagorda Bay and Magnolia Beach in our rear view mirror and headed west. Our route only hit San Antonio with a glancing blow but the freeway system there reminded me of my Great Grandpa's description of the old traffic circles in Edmonton, designed by Dante himself. I swear there is no rhyme nor reason to them in fact at one point we were whirling around a corner from one freeway to another and I thought, there goes a rig just like ours, then it dawned on me that I had just about passed myself going the other way.

One of the small towns we transited on our way in towards San Antonio had a lot of low hanging branches over the streets and one of those branches knocked the antenna for our cell booster for a loop so we have another on the way to a friends place in Thunderbird Farms.

Last night we stopped at a familiar spot, the Circle Bar Truck Stop, near Ozona, Texas. We stopped there on our way east and woke up with about 100 trucks parked in close quarters. While walking the dogs I had noticed a back corner that the big fellows couldn't access so last night we wiggled our way back into that corner and slept like babies while the big CATS and Cummins purred away at a distance. We noticed that the trucks start slipping in off the highway about sundown and don't leave till daylight. Not sure why so many leave the road at night, back home the truckers seem to like those less busy dark hours, but it could be the hundreds of dead deer we pass along the highway in West Texas give them a little incentive to get a good night's rest.

We were on the road early this morning and that put us into El Paso just over the noon hour. I am not sure if it was a normal day or maybe the federal holiday honouring George H.W. Bush brought more folks out onto the freeway but it was exciting. I have always said Salt Lake City is a city built along an interstate and is 100 miles long and a 1/4 mile wide. The traffic there is legendary, in fact many go a long ways out of their way just to miss SLC.

Well, El Paso is about the same, a city jammed between a mountain and a Wall and the I-10 is everything I-15 is to Salt Lake with a little Mexican spice added for effect. My strategy of picking a semi going the right speed and then just following along behind him worked pretty well and kept that oh so precious space in front of us so we don't have to hover over the brakes. The little fellows don't seem to like following those semi's and leave a good amount of space behind them.

We are in Las Cruces at the KOA tonight and plan on staying here tomorrow and getting those tanks that need emptying empty and fill those that need filling filled as well as catching up on our laundry before we head back out to an old favourite boondocking spot.

West Texas has some wonderful vista's in fact maybe to many vistas as we crossed that vast wasteland but I didn't get the camera out so I will leave you with one last sunrise shot from Matagorda Bay.

Peripatetic

Our time by Matagorda Bay is coming to an end, the weather is looking like it is cooling off for the next few days so we came to a command decision and decided we needed to get the wheels rolling again. We have a spent a great week here at Magnolia Bay, seen a lot of things swimming or floating by us here in the Bay but the desert is calling. We don't expect it to be a whole lot warmer out west but there is more room for Max and Maya to roam and we have a few favorite spots to visit and enjoy. Texas has been great but when it comes to cool weather we rather prefer a drier cool than we are likely to get here along the Gulf of Mexico.

The title, oh yah, that's a twelve dollar word that means either:

1. 1.

   a person who travels from place to place.
2. 
   
3. or
4. 2.

   an Aristotelian philosopher.

Your choice.

Beach Day

It was a beautiful day at the beach today. Started out with a maritime fog and cloud cover that kind of shut down the sunrise, but that soon cleared off and it was bright sun all day. We just chilled and watched the world go by, visited with our neighbours here, and enjoyed the day.

It was pretty dark this morning but I do believe we have found where Herman from Smith Falls spends his winters down here along the Texas coast. He landed right in front of me and just stood there waiting for the light to get a little better, figure he wanted to get his picture in the blog so that Gordon and Sandra would know he was OK.

Herman?

We did have the usual complement of chemical transporting barges and LPG tankers transiting the Bay in front of us but today we also had a steady parade of these small fishing and oyster dredging boats heading into Port. Home for the weekend I guess.

And of course I did manage to get a couple more photos of our rig, the first one I had to stand in the water to get it all in the frame, most of our neighbours here on the beach pulled out this morning so of the 6 or so of us left in the first half mile, 5 were Canadian and one Texas couple from just down the road trying a little boondocking for a staycation.

And I did capture this beauty on the beach.

Caught this foggy sunrise a couple of days ago so thought I would close with it.

LPG

The clouds that were here yesterday were gone this morning, and the sun was shining. There was a maritime fog out over the bay, but here on the beach it was sunny and clear. We heard a few tugs going by in the fog but other than the engine noise they slipped by unnoticed.

We took a run into Port Lavaca to replenish our larder and Brenda acquired a new Air Fryer, sure makes fries good and probably as healthy as fries can be. While we were in there I refilled a propane bottle that was empty. Propane here was a little more expensive than over in Arizona. A week or ten days ago in Arizona we got about 7 gallons for around $23 while here in Port Lavaca it was about $30 for 5.2 gallons. The bottle was empty but that was all the guy would put in it. Oh well, fuel is cheaper here on the coast and we won't need more propane till we head back to Arizona in any case.

We did spend some time setting on the beach enjoying the sunshine and the sound of the sea lapping at our feet.

Notice the fog offshore

There is a lot of barge traffic in and out of here heading to Point Comfort which is just across the Bay from us. Many of the barges as well as the two ships in the following pictures seem to be set up to move LPG and although I can't say about the barges, these two ships are not very heavily laden when they were leaving the Point Comfort facilities. I have a hard time believing that they are bringing LPG into this area, kind of like bringing coal to Newcastle but that is what it seems.

Hellas Apollo

Navigator Eclipse

 It is getting a little more crowded here at Magnolia Beach, but I guess that is to be expected for a Friday night at a beachside FREE camping spot. On the wildlife front we did see a few pelicans flying by, a few fish jumping and I did hear the dolphins breathing, at least I think it was them, out in the foggy bay but I didn't manage to get any pictures of any of them.

Monochromatic Day

Yep it was that kind of day, everything and everybody from Brenda down to our littlest visitors were dressed in shades of gray. It was warm this morning when I got up to watch the sunrise, but there was no sunrise, the sky was gray and stayed that way all day. We had a few rain showers but nothing of any consequences although the humidity was about 98% so the air was saturated enough without actual rain drops.

Some kind of sandpiper I guess

These little fellows visited us throughout the day and they were dressed in their best monochromatic duds. As for their name, well, I prescribe to my friend Dennis Lang's naming convention for birds and these are good examples of "little gray birds". 

We had another visit from our marine mammal friends as well, although this time we just saw this one cruising by just offshore.

And of course keeping with the days theme this pelican made a fly by dressed in his white and gray winter outfit.

This is quite an active port and we saw numerous barges transiting the Bay on their way to the Gulf.

As for us we didn't do much just hung out on the beach and watched the world go by. A great place to chill and recharge.

Matagorda Bay

Well yesterday after consulting the tide table for Matagorda Bay I set up a few markers to see if my interpretation was close. Brenda was up at 4:19AM and said the estimate was good, I myself was still sleeping the sleep of the innocent.

But not much later I got up and saw the sky full of promising clouds and thought I would maybe catch a few sunrise shots. Those who follow me on Facebook have already seen a barrage of sunrise shots that I took this morning, but I will share a couple of the best here as well.

The sunset was pretty nice here but the Bay continued to entertain us throughout the day. We ran into Port Lavaca to round up some of those good Texas Shrimp. The fellow there told us that there was not much shrimping going on in the area anymore, most of the boats were working the oyster beds, apparently there is more money in that. He did lament the fact that boats from other areas, like Galveston and over in Louisiana are coming down here and loading up on local oysters and hauling them back home. Seems like a common problem around the world, our oceans are being exploited beyond their capability to recover. All that said, the shrimp were great in the tacos Brenda made us for supper. 

When we arrived back from our shrimp run these dolphins were cruising the beach right in front of Dogpound Anywhere (DPA) and put on a little show, splashing and diving, as they moved along fishing the edges of the beach.

And after they left this Alligator Gar slipped along the beach, ugly bugger, but not very shy so it was easy to get a shot or two of him. He even gave us a smile as he headed out to deeper water.

And of course there were a few pelicans cruising the beach, but they are pretty stealthy so although they came by a few times it was hard to get a decent shot, but that will give me a goal over the next few days. I don't know much about birds but I am thinking this is a juvenile as I saw a couple that were bigger and were more gray, but then again, maybe this is just a "brown" pelican.

The day started off with a sky full of colours but the days end was a pretty monochromatic affair, beautiful in its own way though. Brenda says the water and the moon restore your soul so I am thinking it will take another few days of soaking in the ambiance here and enjoying the every changing vista before we decide to pull up stakes and move on......somewhere down the road.

Just for those who think I might have forgotten home I did find this shot on the my long lens camera today. The sunrise is great and the cows are Richard Sheehans just Down the Road from Dogpound.

Cows Down the Road from Dogpound North coincidentally I was heading off to pick up Dogpound Anywhere in Red Deer

River Walking

We have enjoyed a week with our old friends Deb and Rod Kendall, ate at some great restaurants, told a lot of stories and re-lived some good times we have had in the past. We had a great Country Fried Steak at the 54 Street Grill & Bar, probably the best we have ever eaten. Everyone else had leftovers to take home, but I must have got a small portion cause my plate looked like I had licked it clean by the time we were leaving. Almost had to order another one just so I would have a doggy bag.

Last night we headed off to San Antonio's big attraction the Riverwalk to have a look around and once again fill our bellies. It is always nice to enjoy a stroll along this tourist spot in downtown San Antonio.

San Antonio Riverwalk

All good things have to come to an end and today we bid farewell to Rod and Deb and hit the road. We had a plan to scout out a new boondocking site we had heard about over on the Gulf of Mexico. This spot called Magnolia Beach has a beach hard enough for the biggest of rigs to find a waterfront spot. Although it looks like we are pretty near in the water we are probably 20-30 feet away and about 3 feet above the sea level when we got here. For the first time in our RVing life I consulted the tide tables and it seems like tomorrow at 4:19AM will be high tide and it should only be about a foot higher than it is right now so we should be OK.

Magnolia Beach

But just in case anything happens this lady is passing by and can probably throw us a rope. Stay tuned.

The Linda Taylor