South Texas Ain’t Bad

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Been neglectful, haven’t I? I’m not sure if it is because we’ve been stopped for so long or because we’re really not doing a whole lot.

I love the travelling and travelling is fun, but it becomes very expensive. Not only that – it can be too much in too short a period of time. Different places and experiences start running all together and it’s tough to remember where you saw or did what – time to stay put for a while.

Texas is not the most exciting southern state we have ever been in BUT down here on the coast, the weather has been VERY good. Not to say that it is always like this, but this year, for us, it’s been great. AND the attitude is most inviting. Instead of the distain you often experience as Snowbirds in Arizona, here, the Winter Texans are generally welcomed (they tend to appreciate the boost to their economy that those winter escapees bring).

We have met folks who discovered the area many years ago and have wintered here for nearly a dozen years but Rockport reminds me of a wanna be tourist destination. There are several new (in the past 3 years) RV parks; signs advertising lots for sale and so-and-so Estates sites ready to be build on in front of fancy fences and gates but no buildings. On the other hand there are a few rather excessive places that cater to those who enjoy the luxuries of life.

Once you get away from the water and beaches, the terrain tends to be flat, sandy and scrubby.

The Live Oak are to be the most prevalent form of vegetation. The Live Oak is interesting in that it takes so many different forms. Growing in sandy soil in a humid climate, it flourishes here. Scrubby Live Oak (or Texas live oak) bushes are scattered over vast sandy fields. And then there are the forest-like areas that boast huge 1000 year old trees.

The high humidity is something that gets to me BUT my hair is a lot curlier, my skin isn’t so dry and I seem to be getting used to it (heaven forbid).

When we were in Livingstone TX, Fred found a ‘highly recommended’ new park here in Rockport. We called and were told that we may have to dry camp in the overflow section for a couple of days but there was a spot for us for at least a month. So when we finally found ‘Coastal Oaks’, we thought we knew what to expect.

NOT!

Yes, we survived without services (except for power) for almost a week and moved into a site where the folks were away for a while . . . BUT . . . it turned out that the construction of the park was proceeding at ‘South Texas standard time’; the sites would not be ready for a while AND the owner had managed to double book most of the sites, anyway. Even though the place has a lot of potential, we decided we wanted something a little more stable so we started looking for another park.

Big D RV Resort

After looking around a bit, we have ended up in an RV park called Big D RV Resort around the middle of December. Big D is owned by a local Vietnamese fellow and named for his son, who is a famed American Football Player or something!

I would say that it was built by people who have absolutely no idea how to design or build an RV Park. It is only three years old and I wonder how it will stand up for even another three years but it had what we want – NOT big (some parks have between 1500 to 2000 sites – there are about 100 here); it’s clean, and has good and reliable WiFi (most of the time). We are on the Salt Lake which is actually a small inlet off the Copano Bay of the Gulf of Mexico. The few trees they have planted don’t give much protection against winds coming off the water so it can be rather windy. There is a swimming pool that nobody uses (saying it is too cold) and a pier going off into the Lake. I’ve looked off the pier and really wonder how any fish would survive in that water.

As with most RV parks, as more and more people moved in, more and more cliques develop. It’s interesting to watch and listen to the goings-on; the party people; the power struggles; the gossip; and the stories.

All kinds of different RVs line either side of the two roads that run from the water to the office, the club house, rec room and laundry buildings at the entrance to the park. There are small pull trailers, big pull trailers, 5^th wheel of all sizes, shapes and designs and humongous motorhomes that are bigger than our condo.

The folks who call the RVs home are as diverse as the RVs. themselves. People are from all over; some bring their whole lives and many bring their fantasies. Each and every rig has its own story.

An amazing number of RVers sport pets of some type – mostly dogs – and each morning there is a parade of people walking dogs or exercisers doing the mile circuit up one road and down the other. If the weather is half decent (which it is most of the time), the circuit takes a long time as the walkers stop to visit the non-walkers sitting out with a cup of coffee. Every vehicle that goes by gets the traditional hand wave – even if you don’t know them. Sometimes the vehicles will stop in the middle of the road to visit.

I’m fascinated by the accents – sometimes I have absolutely no idea what people are saying – especially folks from Missouri and Arkansas. I had to laugh at one gal here who calls herself an Ozark American.

The people who are used to going to resort-type places get all gung-ho about what activities there are in the park. Big D let their Activities Director go just before we got here and now any activities are planned and carried out by anyone except staff and I’m not sure what the staff does except man the office, do necessary maintenance work and clean-up the common areas. But, then again, they are all work-campers and only work a limited number of hours a week in exchange for their sites and power. This is an interesting arrangement and makes for a lot of power-plays, poor organization and nothing getting done.

They managed to change some of the rules in mid-January and that gave the residents wonderful fodder for gossip and complaining with threats about not returning and soliciting people to move to another park or even area.

Besides the activities planned by other folks, fishing is a major draw to this whole area. It seems to me that watching football may be the next major activity and certainly going shopping or going out to eat vie for the third major consumer of time. Everybody keeps track of the good deals (like the $1.75 lunch special at the Big Fisherman Tuesdays at noon) and the good food places.

Fred is spending a lot of his time helping people with their computer problems. I’ve stopped worrying about where he is because he’s probably in somebody’s RV getting them onto the WiFi or converting their systems to Vista or just causing hate and discontent. He did one computer session in the Recreation Hall for anyone in the park who was interested.

Oh, I’ll do more pictures once I get them off the camera.

Next Stop Texas

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Well, we're not sitting still! One day we went off to Mississippi (it's really not that far from here-Biloxi is only about an hour). The road is suspended over one swampy area after another. People are parked and fishing along both sides of the road and there is still evidence of damaged and destroyed buildings - restaurants, houses, businesses. Replacement buildings sit 15 feet above the ground presumably to protect them in the case of another hurricane and flood. Mind you, Katrina brought in a 35 foot wall of water, so one wonders.

Well, we're not sitting still! One day we went off to Mississippi (it's really not that far from here-Biloxi is only about an hour). The road is suspended over one swampy area after another. People are parked and fishing along both sides of the road and there is still evidence of damaged and destroyed buildings - restaurants, houses, businesses. Replacement buildings sit 15 feet above the ground presumably to protect them in the case of another hurricane and flood. Mind you, Katrina brought in a 35 foot wall of water, so one wonders.

As we headed west, the damage and destruction caused by Katrina is far more evident. We had a great opportunity to talk to the gal at the "Biloxi Welcome Center" for over an hour telling us about the storm, the destruction, the evacuation and the on-going restorations.

They have just opened the new bridge leading to Biloxi. It replaces a draw bridge that replaced the previous bridge taken out by the previous big storm.

Prior to Katrina Casinos were only allowed off-shore - now they are prominent throughout the city, giving Biloxi a total different look.

We did the casino (Fred came out $80.00 ahead I lost $2.00); we ate (it was a 2 for one buffet) AND we didn't once take a wrong turn all the way there and back!! Were we ever proud of ourselves.

We knew it was time to move on when we were no longer taking wrong roads and not getting lost trying to find places – so off towards Texas.

To get to Texas we had to go through Mobile, AL, through Mississippi and through Louisiana. Both Mississippi and Louisiana are very narrow so we made it almost to Texas the first night. But going through Mobile offered us the same challenges most cities do. Our stress levels increase at a rapid rate as we try to be on the right road, read signs and get into the right lane to take the exit we’re supposed to take (Actually, Mobile wasn’t nearly as bad as Houston). Our entire exposure to Mobile was from the highway so I really can’t comment on the attractiveness of the place. It has big buildings and a neat tunnel!

Unlike Mississippi and Louisiana no matter what part of Texas you are in (north, south, east or west) it is vast – something like Ontario. Livingston, TX was the place we decided to stop and figure out what we were going to do for the next four or so months. It is the headquarters of Escapees RV Club and I needed to pick up the payment they owed me for the article in their Magazine. We also wanted to tour the Care Center.

Now that's an interesting place. They've set up a whole RV park area devoted to RV'ers who for reasons of health or infirmity cannot travel. They live in their own rigs, get three meals a day; someone comes in and cleans their place and there are volunteers that drive them to appointments and stuff. Mostly volunteers run the place. It costs them $800.00 a month ($1200 for a couple) I think it is a great concept!

Rio Grand Valley or being near the water (the Gulf) – that was the question. We have opted for the Gulf.

So we arrived here at Rockport, TX a few days ago and are still trying to get our bearings. Supposedly, Rockport is a great place for birding and it is where the Whooping Cranes winter. We have visited the beach and the wild-life refuge and still have so much more to do.

How long are we here for?? Haven’t got a clue – maybe until we don’t take wrong roads anymore?

Stars Fell on Alabama

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We've started exploring our surroundings!! We are South-east of Mobile, Alabama towards the Gulf of Mexico.

On our first outing we headed down towards the water on the local back roads. The houses that line the shore roads all sit on pillars about 10 feet off the ground and many of them are spectacular and have cut off any access to the water.

The nearest place of any size is Foley. Foley's major claims to fame seems to be 'The Tanger Outlet Center - a 120 store factory outlet mall; there are an incredible number of medical services; and Lambert's - the 'Throwed Bun' restaurant - that will feed you till you get sick (After 2 days, I'm still suffering from overeating or a reaction to too much MSG). We brought home enough for at least one more meal. This could put me off food for a while!

The area is VERY flat and has vast fields of growing things we aren't all that sure about. We did find out that they are just now harvesting the soy bean crop, got some pictures of peanuts being harvested and saw fields and fields of cotton growing.

Peanuts grow like potatoes, underground. They plough them out and leave them for a time so the peanuts can air dry. Then they are gathered up – we’ve seen the windrows sitting in the fields but are yet to see what they do next.

Foley is the next town up from the Gulf. Gulf Shores is right at the water. Apparently Katrina took its toll on the area and most of the older buildings were either destroyed or badly damaged. They are now replaced with new high apartment buildings and condo complexes. There is very little public access to the beaches but the public beach we did find was absolutely empty - too cold – they call this winter down here (it went up to 75 F that day).

As far as we are concerned, the weather is great. Mind you, the TV is warning people to make sure to bring their animals inside because it might go down to freezing - dah! The daytime temps might go down the mid 60's but will return to mid 70's by the end of the week. Tough, eh?

The Naval Aviation Museum

Everybody we talked to here at the Park said the Aviation Museum was incredible and that we just had to go see it. I kind of took this with a grain of salt knowing how military Americans are BUT I have to agree with those folks – it is pretty spectacular.

It looks to me like it covers about four football fields and they say it houses about 150 aircraft and covers every war where aircraft were involved. There is even an IMAX theatre in there. We spent the most part of a day there and still only scratched the surface. I still want to go to the IMAX to see a film on Hurricanes and Katrina so we’ll go back again.

Food and other Interesting Places

Of course a fair amount of time is spent finding places to eat and eating foods we’ve only heard about before. Some we’ll try again and others – well I just don’t think I’ll bother. The other night we went to an Asian
Buffet-type place where we managed to fill up on Crab legs and Crawfish. They’re O.K. but geez they’re a lot of work before you get to the good stuff!!

The other day, we went out to a small village (Fairhope, AL) that used to be primarily a fishing village but got hit pretty hard by the hurricane. It completely took out their pier and wharf. They have since replaced it with a pier that extends out over the water for about 1/3 of a mile.

We did manage to talk to a few of the local fishers and watch them catch a 27 pound ‘Red Fish’ – whatever that is. I was funny; I was trying to eavesdrop on what they were talking about. I could hear them O.K., but their accents were so heavy I couldn’t understand a word they were saying.

Like so many other places along the Gulf, with the destruction came all the land developers. Apparently Real Estate prices have increased triple-fold and there is house construction everywhere.

Going from Tennessee through Georgia to Alabama

We left Tennessee early Friday Morning - about 8:30, I think, heading down some back way so we would miss the traffic and Knoxville completely.

It was the kind of road that I love and Fred hates to drive - lined with big old trees - winding - occasional clearings where you can see the hills that surround the valley - but travel speed is slow - the road is narrow and has no shoulders - but it's pretty! We wound in and out amongst the hills and trees until we finally hit a semi-big highway that had traffic lights, I swear, at every other intersection and then onto the BIG (Interstate) highway heading for Chattanooga, TN.

Then came the fun!

The gal who suggested what road to take neglected to tell us to change from highway 27 to highway 24 before we got onto the major south-bound road - so we managed to go right through the centre of old Chattanooga and we finally ended up in a War-type Museum in a place called Ft. Ooglethorpe, Ga.

No room to park there so we pulled into a Church parking lot down the road to figure out exactly where we were and how we were going to get out of there and get going on the right road again.

Aha! Highway 2 meets up with the BIG Hwy I-75 so we could easily get back to Chattanooga, TN and get onto the right road to get through Georgia and into Alabama.

So, back we went - everything went well until we encountered BOTH Road Work and an accident.

I bet it took us twice as long to get through there as it would have going back through the town - but by this time we really had no choice - we kept going and finally got into and out of Chattanooga, TN (again) and into and out of Georgia (again), this time on the right road - quite a trip!!

Georgia has never been a positive experience for us. It was that great road through the centre of Georgia where we encountered those funny little "grease monkeys" when the van broke down on the way back from Florida - some 30 odd years ago.

So, we've finally made it through Georgia (all of 18 miles two times) and into Alabama.

The next day, Saturday, was the day of learning how to set up the GPS so it would work for us and we might be able to avoid all the wrong roads and colourful language.

We set in the supposed route and were so proud of ourselves!! Now, we THOUGHT it was set for this innocuous female voice to come on and tell us where we were, when to make a turn and when to take a different route. Yeh, right!!

The computer is secured on the shelf above the driver so we can have it running when we're driving. The radio is set on an off frequency that matches the frequency on the GPS thing. All set!!

Well, the system worked really good but no voice!! So there I was with the usual collection of maps, books, directions (all having different sized scales) having to totally disregard the GPS cuz the voice thing wasn't working.

Needless to say, we made it to the park but with the usual blame thing about the GPS system not working and taking the wrong turns.

Rainbow Plantation Escapees Park

This park - it's called the Rainbow Plantation Escapees Park - is much larger than the last one in Tennessee and that creates a whole different atmosphere.

It's big, flat and there is a enough space between the sites for at least three RV's. On one hand, it is less crowded but on the other hand, more isolated and less likely to meet your neighbours.

This park has house and leased lots - that tends to change the character of the place but there are some standard things that happen at all Escapees Rainbow Parks - like the 'social hour' at 4 every afternoon, 'ice cream social' on Sundays and things like that - what differs is how well these activities are attended. It seems the bigger and more diverse a park, the lower the attendance at the 'social' activities.

It's a beautiful setting with 'living oak' trees lining the roads and dispersed between sites.

We're about 10 miles from the beaches at Gulf Shores, AL to the south and about the same distance east from the west side of Florida - Pensacola.

We expect to be here for almost a month and have so much exploring to do.

We are on-line the whole time we're here - that makes me happy.

Cumberland Gap

Another place our fellow RVers recommended was the Cumberland Gap - a National Park that straddles Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia.

It is considered the first great gateway to the west. The buffalo, the Native American, the longhunter, the pioneer... all traveled this route through the mountains into the wilderness of Kentucky. Daniel Boone’s trek exemplifies the hardships and experience of the new settlers.

I couldn’t help but wonder how those pioneers felt when they looked out over the miles and miles of hills and forests wondering how they would ever find a place to settle and survive.

Rugby, Tennessee

One of the nice things about Escapees RV Parks is that they tend to have a Social Hour where fellow RV’ers discuss local attractions, the good and the not so good, other places and how to get there. There is usually a map or two out on the table and someone who has been there and is willing to give you directions, as well as their opinion on what it is like and the advantages and disadvantages.

This is how we found out about the historic village of Rugby, Tennessee and decided to go out and see what it was all about. To our good fortune, there was a big gravel truck behind us and we ended up going past Rugby to a ‘Y’ in the road just to get away from him.

R. M. Brooks Gen. Mdse. sat there in the crook of ‘Y’ and (to my mind) was more interesting and gave us a better insight into the local history than we got in ‘the historic village of Rugby.’

Even though the fellow who ran the place (and for the life of me, I can’t remember his name – it wasn’t Brooks cuz the store was started by his wife’s grand daddy - twice removed) looked the part of the old store keeper he obviously had something to do with the goings on of the village (we overheard his cell phone conversation). He told us about the history of the place starting when his wife’s great grand daddy opened the store for the miners and then they expanded it for the road construction gang.

He talked about how they built onto the old store and collected all the stuff he had there. There seemed to be a story for each piece.

The pot-belly stove was lit and sat in the middle of the store. He told us how he could get it all red and ‘just-a-jumping’ in the winter when he burned coal in it to keep the store warm.

The store carried locally cured hams, local

preserves (with the R. M. Brooks label) and more odds and ends than you can imagine.

The village, itself, was founded as a colony for the ‘second sons’ of the British peerage families. It has a number of historic structures that are either restored or replicated. The old Episcopalian Church was constructed in the 1800’s and has been used continuously for public worship since 1887.

We're off to the Cumberland Gap before we're off to Alabama!

Museum of the Appalachia

The Museum is a 65 acre exhibition of the way folks of the Appalachian Mountains worked, played and survived over the years. Settlement of this region stretches back into the late 1700’s.

For over four decades, one man, John Rice Irwin, has collected buildings relics and
remnants of their unique and colourful ways of life – many stretching back into his own family history.

There are between 30 and 40 buildings – cabins, barns, an old school house, workshops, smokehouses, church and the like.

They are set out along a village-like path that surrounds a big farm-yard where most of the animals hang out.

A couple of the buildings house treasures belonging to local ‘heroes’, some unusual hand-made musical instruments, folk art and an extensive Native artifact collection –everything in the collection is authentic and the notes on all the exhibits are hand written.

The
Mark Twain family cabin

The Big Tater Valley Schoolhouse was moved from nearby Big Tater Valley
on Bull Run Creek between Union and Grainger Counties, and is completely furnished in the manner of an early mountain school.

Musical Instruments

Folk Art

Animals