Day 15 Texas Vacation Xmas 2011

Today we are awake and up early, have a quick breakfast and we are on the road by 8am.  We have 600 miles / 1000 km to drive today.  It was a slow start though because of the fog.



Luckily the fog was lifting when we saw the cattle walking on the side of the road.



After the fog burned completely away, the skies were blue and it was a lovely day for driving.

 

We were ready for a break as we were driving through Corsicana Texas so we pulled over at the Collin Street Bakery.  Although we didn’t purchase a fruit cake, for which they claim they are world famous, we did buy fudge and brownies while we were here.   This bakery has been around since 1896.

  

As we were driving through Sulphur Springs Texas, we saw a “Western Wear” store.  Our upcoming summer plans are taking us to Calgary among other destinations and I had been considering buying a cowboy hat in Texas if I could find a store.  This was an opportunity to purchase our cowboy hats, so we pulled in off the highway and shopped in the Circle E Western Store.



The store clerk measured us and then we tried on dozens of hats, trying to figure out which style looked best.  We came out an hour later with 2 cowboy hats.  We will be in style for our visit to Calgary in July 2012.



Back on the road again, we passed through the town of Texarkana which is on the State Border between Texas and Arkansas.

  

We cross the border into Arkansas.

 

At 6pm we arrive at the Best Western Premier in Little Rock Arkansas.  We are taking advantage of the Best Western Reward Points that we have accumulated and we cashed in some of them for a free stay this evening.

The hotel was very nice, but I can’t say as much about the onsite restaurant.  We should have driven to the nearby Olive Garden, but after driving for 10 hours, I was tired and thought we could just stay put and eat in the hotel restaurant.  It was a bad decision.  There was literally nothing on the menu that Karen or I could pronounce, let alone even know what we were ordering.  The prices were astronomical, but I did see something with pasta on the menu.  We both like pasta, so even though it wasn’t on the menu, I asked our waiter if we could just have some plain spaghetti and meat sauce.  I am sure that I insulted him and his fancy restaurant by asking for such simple fare, but he agreed that he could come up with some sort of pasta and sauce dish for us.  He walked away, I am sure very insulted that we had no interest in anything on his fancy menu.  $50.00 later we went to our room.  I am sure it is very nice restaurant and you would really enjoy the meal and the ambience if you are into that fancy schmancy dining experience, but that is not our style.

  

It was early to bed this evening, we want to be up and on the road by 7am in the morning.

To see all of our photos from today, you can click on this link to our FLICKR site.

Day 14 Texas Vacation Xmas 2011

We were awake by 7am and had a quick breakfast, then we finished packing the car.  We were on the road by 8am.



We drove over the Causeway to the mainland.



But after about 10 miles on our way, I remembered that I did not leave the key to the Airstream and that it was still on my key ring, so we got turned around and drove back to the KOA.

Now that the key is handed in, we can resume our drive.  

We drove through the town of San Benito Texas.  According to the water tower this is the hometown of Freddy Fender.



Similar to the drive South, as we were heading North, we saw many birds of prey sitting on the hydro poles.

  

Near Sarita Texas, our drive slowed to a crawl because the Border Patrol Check Point was open and all drivers were being stopped and questioned.  Since we weren’t smuggling anyone or anything, we were soon on our way again.

  

We are heading North on US-77, here are some of the interesting sights we saw along the way.

  

We exited US-77 and headed East on Texas 358 towards Corpus Christi Texas.  We are going to the North end of Padre Island to visit the Padre Island National Seashore for a couple of hours.

This is the John F Kennedy Memorial Causeway that takes us from the mainland across to the Island.

  

This is the entrance sign to the Padre Island National Seashore.



We paid our entrance fee and entered the park.

  

There isn’t really much to see or do here, at least not at this time of the year.  We stopped at the visitor center and got our National Parks Passport Book stamped and bought some postcards.  They did have a hat pin for my collection and we also bought a couple of t-shirts.



We walked along the beach.

  

The only birds we saw were these seagulls.



I was expecting there to be a birding center here similar to the one on South Padre Island, but there is no such thing.  The land and sand dunes are set aside and protected by the National Park Service, because these beaches are the nesting grounds of the Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtles but the turtles are only here in May when they come ashore to lay their eggs.  So if you want to see and learn about birds you can bypass this and go straight to the Birding and Nature Center on SPI.

After our visit to the National Seashore, we drove North on US-181 past the Aircraft Carrier USS Lexington.  The Carrier is on permanent display here in Corpus Christi.   The next time we are in this area we will spend some time in Corpus Christi and visit the USS Lexington.

 

We checked into the Best Western in Gonzales Texas.  We ordered pizza for dinner and got to bed early because we have a 600 mile / 1000 km day ahead of us tomorrow.

To see all of our photos from today you can click on the link to our FLICKR site.

Day 13 Texas Vacation Xmas 2011

Today is our last full day here at the KOA on South Padre Island.  It is sad to think that we have to leave the warmth and sunshine and head back to dreary cold, snow bound Ontario.  But the reality is, we have to go home to work to earn some more money so that we can afford our upcoming Summer vacation.  We have 2 exciting destinations planned, so be sure to tune back into the blog at the end of June to see where we are off to.

After breakfast, Karen did some laundry, enough to give us clean clothes to wear for the drive home.  Then we went for another visit to the South Padre Island Birding and Nature Center.

Every time we visit the Center, we see something that we have not seen before.

Although this isn’t a bird, on all our previous visits we had not seen this turtle.  A Red Eared Slider.  It was very fortunate to get these 2 photos because the turtle slipped back into the water before I could take a 3rd photo.

 

Something else we had never seen is an American Bittern.  If there hadn’t been others pointing it out to us we would never have seen it.  It took me a long time to even see it in the tall grass, finally when it moved a bit I was able to find it to take photos. 

  

We watched for several minutes till it flew off.

  

We saw all the typical birds that winter here so I won’t bore you with more photos of the same birds, but this Great Blue Heron was interesting to watch.  It had just caught a fish, and I even got a little video of it swallowing its catch.

  

Great Blue Heron swallowing a fish.

After visiting the Birding Center, we went for one last search for the elusive Pelican Sand Sculpture.  We never found it and I am convinced that it has fallen victim to those who do not appreciate such things and find joy in destroying them instead.

  

The Sanderlings were also enjoying the beach.

 

There were numerous jelly fish stranded on the beach, the high winds and waves from the last few days must have blown them ashore.

  

Various other unidentifiable things had also washed up onshore.

 

The other day we saw the statue of El Cristo de los Pescadores, so that inspired us to go in search of the other statue on the island.  The statue of Padre J. Nicholas Balli.   The island was named for him as he started the first settlement on the island back in 1800.

  

Near the statue of Padre J. Nicholas Balli is a memorial for those who were killed or injured when a section the Queen Isabella Causeway collapsed and fell into the ocean on September 15 2001 after one of the support pilings was struck by a barge.  You can read about the incident at this link.  Queen Isabella Causeway Collapse.

 

We came back to our trailer and did some packing and preparing for our departure tomorrow.  Karen and I went to the KOA Sunset Deck to see our last sunset until we return to the island again.

  

If you want to see all of our photos from today you can click on this link to our FLICKR site.