Day 15 Texas Vacation Xmas 2008

Today is Saturday January 3 2009

We are on the road early and heading for the Detroit border crossing. We bought fuel in Brookville Ohio and then continued on up Interstate 75. Detroit has to be the worst border crossing. Everything is under construction and it is not easy to follow the signs telling you how to get to the bridge. We somehow missed a sign, or misread a sign but before we knew it, we were no longer on I-75 and I don’t have a clue where we are going. Karen was busy trying to get Microsoft Streets and Trips fired up on the laptop, but then I found a sign that said “Bridge to Canada” so we were able to eventually get to the bridge. Not the most direct route, and I am really hating that Detroit border crossing. We had the same troubles last year coming back from Florida. Anyways, we got through Customs ok, not that we ever have anything that would concern them, but it is always a little unsettling.

We stopped at Tim Horton’s in Windsor and bought fuel in Ridgetown.

We are ahead of the storm and I am glad to be back on roads that I am familiar with. We stopped for a couple of hours to visit with Karen’s daughter and grandchildren, and then we continued on to home.

The trip was great and we both really enjoyed South Padre Island. We are already talking about going back for Christmas 2009.

For those of you who like to know such things, here is the raw data.

15 Days

Total KM = 6975 (4334 miles)

Total Fuel Cost in Canadian Dollars = $264.23

Average Hotel Cost in Canadian Dollars = $60.04

Average Daily Food Cost in Canadian Dollars = $34.66

We have a big summer 2009 trip planned and we will be leaving Ontario on July 6, so if you are interested in following us on our Summer Road Trip 2009, please join us on this blog. I will try my best to blog each day from the road.

Day 14 Texas Vacation Xmas 2008

Today is Friday January 2 2009

Again we are awake early and have a quick breakfast at the hotel and took a look at the weather forecast back home. That ice storm is still not due to arrive until Sunday, so I want to keep heading North as quickly as possible and try and be home by Saturday evening.

First stop was to get some fuel in Arkadelphia Arkansas, then we continued on through Little Rock AR and West Memphis AR until just before the Missouri border where we bought more fuel in Blytheville AR. It wasn’t long before we were out of Missouri and entering Illinois. We stopped for more fuel in Montrose IL. and then pushed on towards Terre Haute Indiana. That is where we called it a day and found a hotel for the night. I achieved my goal of getting us as far as Indiana, and as luck would have it, right across the road from the hotel is a Baskin Robins, a great reward for a long day of driving.

This was a 1000 KM day which is about 600 miles.

Tomorrow if the weather holds off we will be home.

Day 13 Texas Vacation Xmas 2008

Today is Thursday January 01, 2009

HAPPY NEW YEAR.

We are awake at the crack of dawn and I have the weather channel on trying to get some sense of what the weather is going to be doing back home in a few days. It looks like a big storm is brewing in the American West and it has the potential to be in Southern Ontario by Sunday. Ontario Long Range forecasts are calling for freezing rain in Southern Ontario for Sunday. I think we better get moving out of here and start heading as far north as we can, as quickly as we can. Our destination for tonight will be Hope Arkansas. That is about 1100 KM or for you who don’t understand metric, it is about 700 miles. That is a lot of driving, but I am getting to be a pro at these long hauls.

We checked out of our hotel and drove over the causeway to the mainland. We will miss the days we spent here, but we will be back next year. We would like to spend several months here if that is possible.

First stop was for a quick breakfast at McDonalds in Kingsville Texas. It was too early when we left the hotel and they had not set out the breakfast yet. I was craving an Egg McMuffin anyways and Karen wanted a Tea and Muffin. Back on the road and our next stop was for fuel in Ganado Texas. We had made some sandwiches for the road and put them in our cooler along with some pop and water, so we ate as we were driving to save time. We had to stop in Lufkin Texas for more fuel. I never let the tank get to be less than half full. I think it is just good common sense to not be running on fumes and wondering where the gas station is.

It was dark by the time we got to The Day’s Inn in Hope Arkansas. That was a long day of driving just to get out of Texas and into Arkansas. We found a Wendy’s near the hotel and also found a Baskin Robins were Karen was able to enjoy her favourite of the 31 flavours… Chocolate Fudge.

We will be awake again at the crack of dawn because tomorrow I want to get us at least into Indiana before calling it a day. If we can get home by Saturday evening then we will be ahead of the freezing rain storms predicted for Sunday at home. The race is on.

Day 12 Texas Vacation Xmas 2008

Today is Wednesday December 31, 2008

This is our last full day on South Padre Island. We awoke to a foggy morning on the Island and decided that we would go to Denny’s for breakfast. I was craving some bacon and eggs rather than cereal and waffles that are offered by the hotel.

We spent the morning packing up and loading the car. I went to the gas station and filled the car with gas. After lunch we headed back out to the Birding and Wildlife Center for one last visit. Every time we have visited the center, we have discovered new birds that we had not seen before. Today was no exception. The first bird we saw was an Osprey.

Next we saw these gulls lined up on the railing of the boardwalk, then we saw a flock of Roseate Spoonbills. It is pretty obvious why they call these birds Spoonbills.

Then we watched the Brown Pelicans diving for fish.

We went to the IGA for a few groceries, pop, sandwich meat, bread etc for the drive home tomorrow. We went down to the beach for one last walk and we found someone had built some interesting sand castles.

Although it is New Years Eve, we are asleep early because we have to get up early. Once again as I look at the weather back home, I can see that a winter storm will be moving in and should hit Ontario by Sunday, so I would like to get an early start in the morning and try to get as far north as we can so that we can try to arrive home on Saturday afternoon or evening. We did wake up at midnight when we heard the loud fireworks display over the bay and we went out to the back balcony of the hotel to watch the display. Happy New Year.

To see all of our photos from today, you can see them on our FLICKR site.

Day 11 Texas Vacation Xmas 2008

Today is Tuesday December 30, 2008

Today we were up early and had breakfast downstairs, then around 9:30 am we drove out to the beach at the end of the road. Karen is going to look for more sea shells and I am going to practice flying my kite.

After about an hour, we headed back to the hotel and did a final load of laundry so that we would have enough clean clothes to get us back home. We are due to leave here in a couple of days to head back North to the cold winter of Ontario.

Later in the afternoon we went out to the Birding and Wildlife Center to see if we can find any birds that we have not seen yet. While we were there, I saw some kites that were much fancier than mine. When I get better with mine and learn some tricks, I will have to upgrade to one of these kites.

We did find some birds that we had not seen yet. A Blue-winged Teal, a Killdeer and a Long Billed Curlew.

A Tri Colored Heron, a Red Head Duck keeping an eye on the Tri Colored Heron and a White Ibis.

A Laughing Gull and a Marbled Godwit.

After we got back from the Wildlife Center we wandered down to the end of our street to the Laguna Madre to watch the sun set. Too many clouds, but still pretty.

To see all of our photos from today you can see them on my FLICKR site.

Day 10 Texas Vacation Xmas 2008

Today is Monday December 29, 2008

We thought today we should head over the causeway to the mainland and check out a few things in Port Isabel. After lunch we headed out. We had noticed this neat souvenir shop with a big shark as part of the buildings design so we stopped here to take some photos and we found some good deals inside. Appropriately the stores name is Jaws

We drove over the causeway to the mainland and our first stop is the Point Isabel Lighthouse. We had a tour of the lighthouse and climbed to the top.

Then we went to the Harris Sea Castle Gift Shop. We found some good deals here and the outside facade of the building is very unique.

Even the Radio Shack store has a neat statue of dolphins.

After arriving back at the hotel, we went for a walk along the beach and took some photos of birds that we encountered.

A Redish Egret and some Seagulls

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

Day 9 Texas Vacation Xmas 2008

Today is Sunday December 28 2008

We got up early enough this morning to beat the weekend hotel guests down to the lobby and had our breakfast. It was a quiet day for us though, nothing of significance to write about and I only took 4 photos today. We wandered down to the beach to have a walk and look for sea shells. Here are the 4 photos.

A picture of the Christmas Tree in the lobby of the hotel

A couple of pictures of a neat mural painted on a business near our hotel.

And a bird on our balcony railing.

Day 8 Texas Vacation Xmas 2008

Today is Saturday December 27, 2008

The day started out by heading to Denny’s for breakfast. We went downstairs to the lobby but being a Saturday, the hotel is full and so is the breakfast/lobby room. After breakfast we came back to the hotel and relaxed. I enjoy sitting out on the balcony reading emails and uploading photos to my Flickr Site. I am also researching on the internet how to control and fly my new kite. I can also keep an eye on what is happening in and around the hotel complex. Karen is doing some laundry and then we are going to go out to the Birding and Wildlife Center again and see what other types of birds and wildlife we can find.

Here I am hard at work.

At the Wildlife Center we found a Great Blue Heron, a Long Billed Curlew and a Sandpiper

A Snowy Egret, a bunch of Ducks and White Pelicans, and some Great Egrets.

We then headed over to the Sea Turtle Rescue Center to see some sea turtles. It was very informative with lots of sea turtles to look at. I didn’t know there were so many types, I thought a sea turtle was just that. We took lots of photos, but they didn’t turn out all that great. Shooting through glass and water at a moving target does not produce good results. Take a look at the website if you want to know more about this sea turtle rescue center.

At the end of the afternoon we took a drive out to the end of the road to Beach Access #7 so that Karen could look for more shells and so that I could practice flying my kite and putting to practice some of what I had read online about doing some basic stunts.

It is quite windy, perhaps too windy, but I am going to give this a try anyways. Here I am checking the kite to make sure I have it put together properly, then you can see me flying the kite and the last photo, the kite is so high I am concerned that it may melt from the heat of the sun.

I actually feel like I know what I am doing now after an hour of flying my kite. I can now bring it down and land it when I want it to come down as opposed to smashing it uncontrolled into the sand. The trick is much like sailing, you head the kite into the wind where it loses power and then you can bring it down in a controlled manner. I also learnt to fly the kite in figure eights and in large circles.

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