March 15-31, 2024- Texas

This weathers gonna be the death of me!! It has been cold and rainy for three days now and we have another three to go according to the weather forecast. We have been either trapped in the van or trapped in museums and hotel lobbies. I guess it could be worse, we could both be working. lol.

The town of Big Spring in Texas has a community park that allows visitors to camp for free. At the end of the last blog we had stayed in one of these parks for free. This was similar to that one but overlooking a golf course. I just think it is so nice and hospitable that these small towns welcome us the way they do. We checked out the town and read up a bit on the history at the museum.

Then we headed to this old hotel that had been refurbished and brought back to life. It was beautiful.

From there we headed further south to a State Park to shower and to boost our batteries up a little. We haven’t seen the sun in awhile so our batteries haven’t been getting their normal solar charge. We arrived at Lake Colorado City State Park and settled in at Site 68. Basically we had the whole place to ourselves because who really wants to go camping in crappy weather like this? 

We showered and then had yet another movie night. Woke up to a tiny bit of blue skies peaking through the clouds but still cold and yucky out. Today we are gonna push 4 hours south to San Antonio. That’s a big drive for us. It’s not much warmer down there but eventually this cold front will pass. We’ll have to come back north again to see the eclipse but in the meantime we may as well enjoy the warmth.

We are planning to be somewhere on that green line for the eclipse on April 8. If the weather on April 8th is anything like it’s been this week, then we’ll be out of luck. 

The best place to kill time is walking the maze at IKEA. We spent some time there and had Swedish Meatballs for lunch. The IKEA here is much different than the one on Long Island. Much nicer, cleaner and friendlier. 

From there we found another County Park to camp in. It was right next door to the Valero Oil Refinery. It was a nice park. A little overgrown and uncared for but it was fine for us, especially at $5 for the night.  It even had a nice waterfall.

Unfortunately, the bathrooms and showers were locked so tomorrow we will have to find a place to shower. We are heading towards Corpus Christi to maybe spend some time in the beach. It’s supposed to finally warm up.

So we settled on the Lake Corpus Christi State Park for site 73, which hands down is the best site in the park. We were here last year but of course had no recollection of it until we actually drove in and around. Our spot was right on the lake which was awesome. 

We did a hike to a birding area and an old CCC building. 

The wind wasn’t too terrible here and tomorrow is going to be the best day yet as far as temperature and wind goes. We are heading for the beach!!

We arrived to the beach and it was PACKED!!! Everyone in Texas had the same idea as us. We bought our beach pass at the local H.E.B. Supermarket. The beach pass in this area is only $12 for the year.  Worth every penny. We drove down the beach and found a spot that wasn’t too crowded with people. 

It was in the 80’s and absolutely beautiful. At Sunset we headed back closer to the entrance and found a spot by the surfers to spend the night. Mostly everyone left the beach at dark leaving us to have the whole place to ourselves. At sunrise people starting coming back in. Today the temperature is not as high as yesterday but it is Saturday so I’m sure the beach will be packed again. Woke up to a beautiful sunrise.

The beach was super windy. This whole area of Corpus Christi is super windy so we headed away from the beach and did some “fake shopping” in town. A lot of fun beach and souvenir shops to browse around in.

We went back to the beach that night to sleep. We parked exactly in the same spot we had parked the night before but for something reason when we woke up, we were sitting in 2 or 3 inches of water. The wind and the full moon made the water come up an extra 50 feet onto the beach. We got out of there and went to the picnic area to spend our morning. From there we headed to the state park to take showers and spend the day.

That night we headed to good ole Cracker Barrel to sleep.

Next day we played the role of Tourist and went to the USS Lexington. The aircraft carrier museum. It was awesome. 

We spent the day at the park over there. And then headed back to Cracker Barrel. The wind has been constant and annoying. No matter where we go, the wind follows. Seems all of Texas is this windy and we are sticking around here for the Eclipse on April 8th. I don’t know how much more of this wind we can take. Today, we will probably head a little further north away from the coast to see if that alleviates any of this wind.

We headed to a town called Harlingen and spent the day at a local park and then slept the night at the Bass Pro Shops there. We also had some pretty decent Texas Brisket next door. 

Next day was a beautiful sunny day. We decided to walk around the outlets. These were some of the biggest outlets ever. Some great stores and we actually bought a couple of things instead of our usual “fake shopping” They also had Horchata here which is one of Greg’s favorite drinks. I believe its made from ground up rice and cinnamon. Its like liquid rice pudding.

After the outlets we found another local park to hang out in before heading over to a Food Truck Park for the night. This was another Harvest Host location and was pretty amazing. They had the local high school jazz band performing and a glow in the dark Easter egg hunt as well as locals selling crafts and baked goods. The food trucks were awesome and we decided on the Shrimp bag which was amazing. The place was packed out so we had to wait for the parking lot to empty out before settling in to our spot for the night.

Next day we headed to choke Canyon State Park, paid the $10 entry fee and took a nice hot shower. They didn’t have any campsites available so we headed back to that Tips Park that we had stayed at last week next to the big Valero Oil Refinery. There were a few more campers here this time around and for those wondering about the wind….. yes, it’s still following us. But the temperature is in the 80’s so it’s not so bad. 

We stayed two nights at the Tips Park. The park is in walking distance to the town. We had a nice meal at the local Barbecue Place.

On Easter morning I was able to walk into town to go to Mass. A beautiful Stone church. My favorite.

That same day we drove about an hour and a half to our next location in Gonzalez, Texas to a county park with a golf course and RV park. They only charge 7 bucks for dry camping. The Texan people here are celebrating Easter in the park. Hundreds and hundreds of them barbecuing and relaxing with family and friends. That’s the way they do Easter here in Texas, outdoors at the parks. We noticed the same thing a few years back. It’s a great idea if you ask me, especially if you have a large family. Plus the park provides roofed shelters and picnic tables and barbecues as well as garbage.  It’s great.

We got a nice spot by the river but then noticed a homeless man in the woods next to us just staring at us. It was a little uncomfortable so we decided to move a little further down. We are the only ones here in the rv area so all the spots are open. Tomorrow we head to a State Park for a few days.

It’s the end of the month so I’ll post a photo of our monthly expenses and our calendar of locations we stayed at. 

Our total for Diesel this month was $480

Our total for lodging this month was $140