1/12 thru 1/18/14 - Mustang Island State Park

Saying goodbye to Galveston Island State Park

Quiet week here at Mustang Island State Park, near Corpus Christi, TX.  The weather was beautiful  - highs were in the 60's and low 70's and it was sunny every day! 

Sunday, 1/12/14
We left Galveston on Sunday around 11:00 (later than we planned)  and drove south along the coast about 250 miles to Mustang Island State Park. We got there at 4:30 so the office was still open and we checked in.  We were assigned site #9 but they told us we could take anything that was open.   There is no real differences in any of the sites - we are all lined up on a wide concrete lane.  There are 24 sites on each side and #9 is right next to the dumpster which is fine with us since there's no rig right next to us on that side.

and hello to Mustang Island State Park

This campground is very "bare-bones".   No campfires allowed so no roasted marshmallows :(.   The beach is about a two block walk and when you get there you can walk (or drive) for miles, it's totally unrestricted.   The bathrooms and showers are clean but small and we are taking "navy" showers in the rig so that we don't have to use them.   For those who don't know, a navy shower is when you turn on the water to soak yourself, turn it off, soap up and then turn the water back on to rinse off.  We are doing this so that our grey water tanks won't fill up before we leave next Sunday.

Monday, 1/13/14
Marty has taken a lot of photos with his stereo camera and we needed to go the post office and get the film in the mail so that we can get it back before we leave.  We've got our fingers crossed that it gets here - if not we'll stay an extra day or two and wait for it.

We took a ride to the town closest to us,  Port Aransas, it's about 9 miles down the road going north.  It has lots of RV parks and souvenir shops and definitely caters to the "Winter Texans" (people from the north who come to Texas for the winter).

Tuesday, 1/14/14
Our slide-outs are squeaking so we need to buy some RV lubricant to make them stop.  We found some on Amazon and placed the order and then found out expected delivery wasn't for two weeks!  We promptly cancelled that order and drove to our neighborhood Walmart where we found some RV lubricant spray which should work just fine.

After leaving Walmart we went exploring and drove along the bay where Marty spotted some pelicans perched on pilings so we stopped for a photo op - unfortunately the pelicans didn't get the memo and flew off.   However, when we looked to our right, there was an ice cream shop - how serendiptitious!

Wednesday, 1/15/14
We had a quiet day, checked out the Goodwill store in Corpus Christi and then just hung out at the rig and went for a long walk on the beach.

Maddie enjoying the beach

Maddie and Marty enjoying the surf

Beautiful day for a walk

A little "sand" script

Sandpipers

Thursday, 1/16/14
Today was our tourist day.  We drove into Corpus Christi and visited the USS Lexington.

The History of the USS Lexington

The USS Lexington

On the Bridge - Full Steam Ahead!!

This was on the side of a a helicopter - that's always been my motto!

Imagine sleeping in these tiny beds - that's 3 people, hope they don't snore!

On the flight deck, how skilled the pilots need to be to land in this small area

From the Bridge to the Brig :(

There was a full moon on Thursday so we walked down to the beach for some pictures.

Moonlight Magic

Friday, 1/17/14

On our way home from the USS Lexington on Thursday we stopped at CVS and noticed the RedBox outside the store.  We've never used it before but decided to give it a try.   We have now watched 1 movie (Fruitvale Station) and 1 whole season (13 episodes) of House of Cards - that's a whole lot of TV viewing.  Our TV watching on the road has been sporadic, when we get to a new campground we are never sure what stations we'll get.   We've been lucky the past two weeks, we've had PBS, ABC, CBS, and NBC so I haven't missed any Downton Abbey.

Saturday, 1/18/14

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This morning we drove to Rockport, about 35 miles north of us for their monthly "Market Days".   The shortest way to get there is on the ferry from Port Aransas.  It's a free ferry and a very short ride, only about 10 minutes.  You spend more time in line waiting to get on than you do on the ferry. 

Market Days is a craft show along with a few food vendors.   There were girl scouts selling cookies so we now have some Thin Mints in our freezer :).    There was also a woman selling homemade tamales, a dozen for 9.00 - such a deal!   We bought a dozen but I'm wishing we had bought more, they're really good.   

On the Ferry going back to Mustang Island S.P.

On our ride back to the ferry we saw a small outdoor flea market so, of course, we stopped.   Marty bought a pair of work gloves for $2.00 to replace the ones that blew out from the back of the truck and I bought a pair of jeans for only $3.00.  We also bought 5 avocados for $2.00 (to go with the tamales) and a small bucket of apples for $3.00 - a very productive stop.

When we got back to the ferry the line to get on was four blocks long!  Luckily, there are 4 boats and the turn-around was fairly quick.   The wait seemed like nothing to me because I was talking to my sister, Sue,  the whole time.

We were supposed to leave here on Sunday but we still hadn't figured out where our next stop will be.  We plan to stay at state parks while in Texas, there are a lot of choices and it's hard to tell on the internet which ones we'd like.   We want to go somewhere that's between Austin and San Antonio.  When we got back to the rig I got on my computer and went to the Texas State Park Website to check availability at a few while Marty was on his computer looking at our possibilities via Google Earth.  We finally decided that our next stop will be at Lockhart State Park which is a little bit south of Austin.   They had no sites available until Monday so we are here, at Mustang State Park, for an extra night.