Rockport, TX II

We apologize profusely for our long absence from the Blogosphere. Our travel paradigm this past winter was a little bit different from previous winters, when we were moving every few days, and we always had new areas, new experiences, and new pictures to share. This past winter, we stayed put for weeks at a time. This new approach made Kathy very happy (she would really like to settle down somewhere for the winter). Keith’s feet unfortunately start to itch pretty badly after a week or two, but he stayed put for Kathy’s sake. We’re not sure about the long term resolution of this conundrum.

Rockport Texas Waterfront

A Rockport Beachfront Love Affair

We originally thought that staying put would give us the opportunity to explore an area in more depth. What we found was that staying put offers endless opportunities for relaxing, for dining out, for goofing off, for dining out, for long afternoon naps, etc., etc. While this turns out to be a sort of enjoyable lifestyle, with perhaps a touch of boredom for Keith, it doesn’t generate much of interest to blog about.

We spent the full month of January in Rockport Texas. Our first two weeks are described in a previous post. Herewith, we describe some interesting things we did during our second two weeks in Rockport.

A Clean Motorhome!

One of Keith’s activities was to clean a year’s grime from the outside of the motorhome. Particularly nasty were a lot of small tar spots picked up in various construction zones over the summer. Ditto a bazillion bug spots. Keith bought tar remover and spent several mornings cleaning panel by panel, followed by a coat of spray-on wax. By the time he finished, it actually looked pretty good. It gives Keith a certain feeling of satisfaction that he can bring it back, after 7 years and 90,000 miles.

Another activity was a circumnavigation of Corpus Christi. Driving southwest on Rt. 35 from Rockport, the road crosses the bay on a high level bridge, where views of the city, the Aircraft Carrier Lexington, and the ubiquitous Texas refinery landscape.

Corpus Christi Skyline

Aircraft Carrier Lexington

Texas Refinery Landscape

Driving southeast through Corpus Christi, the freeway crosses another set of bridges, and arrives at the north end of Padre Island. Keith & Kathy spent new year’s eve in a waterfront hotel here several years ago. We have fond memories of that trip. Driving northeast on Rt. 361 takes one across an inlet and onto the southwestern tip of Mustang Island. Mustang is a mostly undeveloped, sandy barrier island, except for the northeastern tip, which incorporates the town of Port Aransas.

Port Aransas Beach and Surf

Aransas Ferry

A free ferry crosses the channel back to the mainland and the town of Aransas Pass, where the residents of Port Aransas go to shop. Here the road reconnects with Rt. 35, which takes the weary traveler back to Rockport, and lunch.

While on the subject of lunch, we have found several excellent places to dine in Rockport, ranging from the somewhat upscale Charlotte Plummers, described in our last post, to The Diner, a very reasonably priced, downhome type of place which serves tasty comfort food. We also fond an excellent authentic Mexican (as opposed to Tex-Mex) restaurant, as well as a very reasonably priced Chinese buffet, again with very good food.

Another activity which Keith enjoys is browsing boatyards. Keith cruised the Southern New England coast for 15 years in a 28 foot sedan bridge, and he misses it. We found an excellent complex of yards just south of Rockport. These are real, working boatyards, featuring real boats, as opposed to modern marinas, which feature mostly modern, glitzy, and somewhat dull sportcraft. Shown below is one of the classic boats observed in one of these boatyards. We also saw a 32 foot Uniflite, similar to the boat Keith used to own, riddled with the pox. Worst case of pox Keith has ever seen. Made him sick. We took a few photos, but will keep them private.

Thirty-One Foot Bertram – a Real Classic

A major attraction in the Rockport area is the local wildlife, particularly the winter bird population. We have already described, in the previous post, a road tour of the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, where we saw a few of these birds. To obtain a better view, we took a water tour on an excursion boat. The tour went out of Rockport Harbor, through the bay, and up the inter-coastal waterway through the above mentioned Wildlife Refuge. We saw numerous bird species, few of which we remember. This would be a great place to come back to in our own boat (when we buy it) with a guidebook and camera, and spend half a day watching the birds and other wildlife (alligators, anyone?).

Navigation Marker Squatters

A Sister Bird Watcher Excursion Boat

Texas Intercostal Waterway

Feeding Egret

Blue Heron on Final

Contemplative Blue Heron on Rip-Rap

Another highlight of our Rockport sojourn was a visit with friends Bill and Pearl Speer, whom we met on a 2005 Winnebago Motorhome Caravan to Alaska. We drove to Port Aransas and met them for lunch, after which the Spears took us on a tour of the area in their spiffy new Jeep. We visited the inlet, where there is a lot of interesting commercial traffic associated with offshore oil drilling, we saw the delightful Port Aransas beach, then we visited with Bill & Pearl in their beautiful new diesel motorhome, made, of course, by Winnebago Industries. The Spears have been coming to Port Aransas several years, and have a very pleasant beachfront campsite at a local commercial campground.

Bill and Pearl in Front of Their Beautiful New Motorhome

Having found in Rockport virtually everything we need in life; i.e., warm winter weather, good friends who spend the winter in this warmth, a good supermarket, a WalMart, a lumber yard, an excellent hardware store, good local restaurants, good boatyards, good boating territory, and access to a small city with good airline service, we decided that maybe we might want to start to think about settling down in this area. This thinking led to several local real estate websites, followed by a couple of driving tours, and finally a visit to a local realtor.

Being entranced with the idea of a waterfront residence with boat slip, we visited a couple of condominium complexes with those features. We really aren’t quite financially ready for two permanent residences, and Keith isn’t ready to settle down, but with the current real estate depression, we felt we couldn’t afford not to look.

One condo complex was out in the Aransas bay on a key, while the other was on the nearby mainland. Both provided good bay and gulf access, and both came with boat slips. We found some units we liked, and became very tempted to make an offer, but we finally came to our senses and recognized that we really needed to look more before making a commitment. Also, with our entire families being in the northeast, we wondered if south Texas is too far away, especially with the deteriorating health of Kathy’s parents in Massachusetts.

Allegro Key

Canal Front Condominium on Allegro Key

Bay House Condominium Complex

Keith has decided that he doesn’t have the intestinal fortitude to endure multiple hurricane seasons on a low island in the middle of the bay, so we are glad we didn’t make an offer on Allegro Key. We are still communicating with the realtor about Bay House Condominiums, which are on the mainland. We have since found that real estate values are in much worse shape in south Florida, so we are continuing our exploration there. Stay tuned!