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.

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

San Antonio

We wandered our way across Texas and found our friends Deb and Rod Kendall here in the Blazing Star RV Park. We haven't done much since we got here except catching up with them. It is always good to see old friends and this park they are calling home for the time being is pretty nice. Lots of trees and not to busy. Although it is a little closer quarters than we are used to the folks with the rigs on either side of us don't appear to be in residence so it is really pretty quiet here. The dogs are learning all about being tied up and enjoying their visits to the dog park a few times a day. They have even made some buddies down there. This morning we headed over to Pet Smart early in the day and they both got the Black Friday weekend Pedicure special. Those folks over there have it all figured out they were in and out in pretty quick time and didn't even seem to be stressed. In fact I think they enjoyed their first trip into a store. For a couple of old country dogs they are dealing with all these changes pretty well.

Last night we went to Red Robin for their gourmet burgers and although they were good I actually think Brenda and I can do better here at Dogpound Anywhere, but the girls had Fish/Shrimp and Chips and that is not a specialty around DPA.

Early Morning at the Dog Park

Texas Road Trip

We left Las Cruces to begin our journey across the "vast wasteland" of West Texas, it is beautiful in its own stark way, stunning vistas, and the best part, not many folks cluttering up the landscape. As we moved farther east we started seeing lots of oil patch activity, every RV park jammed full of working folks rigs and every service companies yard with a few rigs set up there. Rumours has it they can even get pipelines built in this country without it being a ten year process doomed to failure.

We got to Ozona, Texas and tried to get into the local RV Parks but as I said they were jammed full of working stiffs so we headed just east of town to the Circle Bar Truck Stop. We found a spot there away over in a corner, out of the way and got set up. The place was empty when we arrived but by the middle of the night we were joined by about 50 purring Cats, all keeping their drivers warm while they slept away the night. Brenda had a hard time sleeping but my old camp habits kicked in and I slept like a baby. If I just had of had a few guys slamming doors it would have been perfect. Not many places have 50 odd white noise machines to help you drift off.

We got going yesterday morning and headed for our penultimate destination, the Blazing Star RV Park in San Antonio, where we are going to spend a week or so visiting with our friends Deb and Rod Kendall. They have come by Dogpound North a couple of times on their triennial visits to the Salmon streams of Alaska so it was time we returned the pleasure. We spent the afternoon chewing the fat and then headed out to one of their favourite Mexican restaurants in the area, Las Palapas Alamo Ranch, for some good Mexican food. Always good breaking bread with old friends, and even better if you can score a whole bag of bunuelos on the way out of the restaurant. But now it is time for me to wander off and find myself a feed of Huevos Rancheros or maybe just another couple of the bunuelos. Stay tuned.