As most of this portion of the journal is about weather and there are few pictures of us sitting in the RV, I have included some of my favourite flower shots throughout the trip which were left out of previous blogs.
Weather reports are indicating cold temperatures during the day and near freezing at night so we made the decision to by-pass New Mexico and head for Balmorhea State Park in west Texas. It has a warm spring fed pool and thought there might be an opportunity to canoe. However, we got there after dark after stopping for a Mexican supper in a quaint family restaurant in the small town. The other culinary offerings were a hamburger stand and a gas station with a heat lamp and roller hot dog grill. Our meal was most enjoyable.
We were able to plug in at the Park for heat which was required as when we awoke, the sky was grey again and temperature was definitely near freezing. The pool was supposedly a comfortable 78 deg F but we couldn’t come up with the intestinal fortitude to handle the ins and outs of it. After making a batch of chocolate chip cookies for comfort and warmth we decided to head on down the road towards the rising sun.
Another long day of driving and rain on very desolate roads. We pulled into an isolated truck stop late in the afternoon, had a high cholesterol trucker’s dinner as too tired to cook and bedded down for the night next to the big rigs. It was wet through the night but even though we were above 4,000 feet we didn’t get snow. The tire chains Marty bought one snowy night in Butte Montana after crawling over the Continental Divide in November, still haven’t been put to the test. Should have left them with Alaskan bound Val.
We had been heading for San Antonio, however, due to the weather conditions, we changed our minds again, made a right turn and headed to the coast where hopefully the weather would be better, being influenced by the Gulf. Drove all day in the rain again. Pulled into Corpus Christi and after doing laundry, we were searching for a place to stay again in the dark. We toured through the high end real estate section overlooking the water in our search for South Padre Island. Finally got to the island but no RV parks in site, after seeking help we finally found the County Park across the street from where we had stopped. Temperature on the island was about 10 degrees warmer than the mainland but the wind came up and we were still rocking even though we parked between two big rigs.
We are on the beach. The wind is howling but the rain has finally stopped and the sun is poking through the clouds. We are staying a second night as we need to recuperate from all the driving.
It is good to see green grass and trees again, but there are things we will miss about the desert such as the constant presence of beautiful and varied hummingbirds around (and once in) the RV; sunrises and sunsets that turn a light cloud cover into a brilliant sky mural of Dante’s Inferno; the profusion of birds; the absence of bugs and the beautiful mountain vistas; wearing shorts and T-shirts while looking at snow-capped mountains and views that go on forever (not smoggy Phoenix though) and the multitude of different shapes and types of cacti that show the beauty and determination of nature to survive in such harsh conditions. What we will not miss are the three changes of clothes per day as you wake and dress for the mornings’ nip, peal for the warmth of the desert sun and bundle back up as the temperature drops with the sunset.
THE NATIONAL SEASHORE
Drove 10 miles to the National Seashore and camped on the intercostals side of the island. Weather is supposed to be warmer and thought we might get the canoe in the water again. However, little did we know we were camped at the wind surfing capital of Texas. Go figure it might be windy. So the canoe stayed on the roof and the bikes came off and we peddled about 4 miles to the visitor’s centre, hiked the beach on the gulf side, picked up a beautiful piece of coral and peddled back four miles. This is Valentine’s Day and we had BBQ’d steak and ice cream for dinner and the sun was a beautiful red ball sinking into the lagoon. The bugs came out at supper time and the mosquitoes were huge due to the massive amounts of standing water after all the rain. The ground is saturated in east Texas and the water has no where to go.
It was still warm at 10:00 p.m. and then WHAM!!! Winds came up at gale force from the north and the temperature dropped like a stone. We were forced to turn the van’s nose to the wind for fear the side on winds would get under the canoe, test the tie downs and give us a sway impossible to sleep through. We had wind blowing in through the stove exhaust vent and had to wrap the filter with cellophane in order to keep some of the cold out. We had shared the space in the RV for the night with the outside chairs and rug after a quick grab in the dark saved them as they headed south. Opening the outside storage lockers in the dark and in that wind wasn’t an option. It continued all night long and in the morning we found pieces of the bike rack down the beach.
The lagoon has gone from clear to brown and from blue ripples to caramel, not white, caps. This spot was not going to offer the canoeing we thought it would so packed up and headed to Port Aransas for hot showers, electric service and tennis courts.
