Nov 25 - 28 Extra days at Goose Island plus Riviera, Texas.

Nov 25
We have to move today like I said in the last post. Not far. Just two sites over but with a stop at the dump station on the corner of the loop. We had a nice leisurely morning and slowly packed things away for the move around the loop. Around 11:00 we backed into site 149 and got all set up again. There was a little surprise in the power pedestal that made me jump. Not that scary after all lol.

Well hello there! Yep made me jump back. Haha.

I have decided to do the passenger side rubber shear spring too but will wait until the afternoon when the sun moves off a bit. For right now we are headed across the bridge again to the smaller community of Fulton just before Rockport. We drove right down to the waterfront and easily found a parking spot for the truck. We left Margaret at home with the AC on for this afternoon. We are doing a walking tour and then will pick a spot for lunch. It's not a long walk really because Fulton is a very small place but there are some really nice places along the water. There are a few places where they do yacht repair along the waterfront too with huge cranes to lift the boats. Pretty cool stuff.

A little Fulton history.

Aptly named The Lighthouse Inn, this is the restaurant part.

There are probably 60 rooms to the left right on the water.

A pier that Harvey tore up, not rebuilt yet obviously.

Leslie "dipping her toes" in the ocean.

We were thinking Christmas pic but without Margaret?? 

Nope.

It's a beautiful day to just wander around at 24C/75F and enjoy the area. With the smell of the ocean and the birds flying all over, it's a great walk. All the walking is making us hungry and thirsty of course so now to decide which of many places to stop at. We have a winner! Irish pub is always a good idea and this one looks interesting plus they have a nice patio looking towards the water.

They just opened in September with a new building. The previous restaurant was destroyed by Hurricane Harvey,

Now that's a fan!! Either to cool ya down or chop you to bits.

They are easily 8 feet across.

We weren't going to have alcohol today but they have Guinness on tap and it's on happy hour. I'm weak. I ordered a Guinness and Leslie got a Margarita; at least we're weak together. It was a really good lunch and the lady serving us was just super nice to chat with. Good stop for sure. 

Luckily there was a good walk back to the truck after lunch. We're really full, again. We headed back over the bridge to the park and let Margaret out of the rig. I got started setting up for the spring replacement while Leslie took her for a walk. Now that we know what we're doing this side should go faster.

It's still pretty warm so working in shorts.

This one came out way easier. It's torn but not bad.

Ready for the new one to go in.

Wheels going back on just before we lost light. Perfect!

Even though it's just me in the pictures I have to say that Leslie was a huge help again. She wears gloves so she doesn't get all greasy but she's in there holding stuff and really helping me out with lining up the springs. We're a good team!

Of course the last step is to torque the wheels on. My torque wrench is probably 20 years old and, especially since we bought this trailer, I have used it lots. It finally gave out on me. It slips internally before you get much torque applied so it's time for a new one. Aw gee I have to buy new tools :) We'll do that tomorrow but for right now I need a shower and we'll have supper. I also decided to swap the wheels side to side tomorrow. There is a visible difference from the light side to the heavy side tires. Hey I'll have a new torque wrench to play with. Gotta break it in.

Nov 26 - Wow I'm a little sore today after all the wrenching. My knees and my shoulders are not used to all that work. Whatever, let's go buy tools! We drove back into Rockport and along the way I had noticed a Sears store on the main road. They might have a sale on tools. We pulled in and Leslie waited in the truck so I could have a look. Man that was a dangerous move. Everything was on sale because of course they are closing out! They have tons of tools left. I came out with only a new torque wrench but told Leslie that it was close there for a minute haha. Got a brand new Craftsman 150 lb torque wrench for $54. To me that's a great deal. We drove to Ace Hardware next and Leslie came in this time. She stopped in the Christmas decorations. Now who's in trouble? There are lots of shiny, pretty things and Les believes we need Christmas lights for the rig. Danger, danger lol. We're stronger than we thought because we walked out with only the things we needed in the first place. 

We stopped on the way home at the edge of the bridge. There is a public boat launch and some areas where people are fishing so we just stopped to check it out. It's cool and windy by the water so we didn't stay long but it was a nice little stop. The old bridge is there but closed off of course. More hurricane damage to see here as well. You still see it all over the place.

The Copano Bay Bridge that we crossed several times.

This concrete dock has 2 public boat launches and fish cleaning table.

The new bridge and the old bridge. No entry to the small bridge.

This would be why there is no entry. Hurricane leftovers.

We drove back to the rig and got busy fixing one of our windows. The back window on the drivers side has separated and is dirty inside even. Add to that the glue that holds the metal bar to close the window has let go and it just kind of flaps in the wind as we are driving. Glad it didn't break off at least. Nothing some Gorilla glue and double sided sticky tape won't fix for now. We'll see about a more permanent fix when we park for a month. At the same time as the window repair I started swapping the wheels from side to side. Still a little sore but just get it done already. The new torque wrench works great! We made supper and just relaxed for the evening. Travel day tomorrow again.

Nov 27 - We are sadly leaving Goose Island today. Man this was a good stop. We really like it here but we have said that so many times already we know we'll see another great place soon.

The road out had some more low hanging branches to dodge but we made it out just fine. One more time crossing the bridge and through Rockport to the highway to Corpus Christi. Looking forward to seeing Corpus. Hopefully traffic is okay as it's a big city too.

The turn to highway 35 to Corpus.

Highway 35 was not crazy busy and it's a four lane road with a divider so it's pretty easy driving from Rockport to the edge of Corpus. The large amount of construction adds an element of difficulty because the road goes a different way than the GPS knows about. We made it alright of course with just one U turn where we missed an exit through the pylons towards Riviera. Easy turnaround and we were on the right highway in a few minutes.

Big flare at a refinery on highway 35. Normally not a good thing.

Corpus is a shipping port with lots of tankage close to water.

Building a new overpass.

In time these pieces will join.

Driving up to the bridge across the channel.

This was on my side of the truck and she spins to the right....

A military facility with what I think are Blackhawk helicopters.

Another spin a little to the left and got this shot lol.

Luckily traffic wasn't too crazy going through the city because I was laughing at Leslie a few times. It's very interesting as you drive through Corpus with lots to see from the elevated highways. Leslie was spinning around in her seat snapping so many pictures. Made me think she was like a tourist in Banff when the animals are around; snapping pictures and twirling around hahaha. I had to watch the road so I didn't get to see much but she took enough blurry, speedy pics of everything to give me a good idea what I missed lol. 

USS Lexington. We hope to come back for a tour.

We continued south on highway 77 from Corpus to Riviera. Riviera is a super small place, I think about 800 people. That's where we turn off of 77 to get to our next spot. So here's another prime example where the Garmin can really mess with your day. We saw a road sign that said to turn on 628 to the RV Park but the Garmin said to turn in town and go south. Hmm... maybe it knows about a low bridge or something that the road sign doesn't mention. Let's follow the GPS directions just in case. We turned off in town as directed and followed the road recommended by the GPS. All good so far. It's going past some historical buildings and a really nice school with a beautiful football field. "Hmm the road ahead of us looks a little rough and narrow don't you think"? GPS says to go 4.6 miles straight ahead, hmmm?! The road turned out to be a VERY rural farm road that might have been paved in the 60's but very little of that was left now. It's more like fine dust and rocks mixed with washboard and potholes now!

Thank you Garmin RV 660!

That piece of s*#t GPS did it again and is taking us where we don't want to be. The road is too narrow to turn around and the one pickup we met pulled off into a field approach to let us by, no doubt thinking we are idiots for being out here. But he waved lol. It's Texas. Everybody is friendly down here. We came to a crossroad and I stopped to calmly ask Leslie to find us on my phone's Google maps app. Yeah right, I'm on the brink of a full snapshow out here.

This is a concerned look lol.

The Garmin shows a grey line to our destination three miles ahead but is also displaying a warning about "unknown recreational vehicle access." I really wanted to tear it off the window and throw it in the bush but we would only have to buy another one so I didn't. We found on the satellite view that we can turn left a little further ahead and get on the path the road sign told us about before. Should have followed the signs to begin with but hey these are the adventures we seek right?

This is the road that the sign said to take. Much better than the rotten GPS! lol

It only took a few more minutes and we were happily pulling into Sea Wind RV Resort, our destination for a couple days. Now that we are here we had a little chuckle about the road show. I see a dumpster that the Garmin could go in. Nah, we'll keep it.

Nice place right on the water front.

Lots of people from northern Texas that winter here.

We pulled in by the office and went to check in but the office  closed at noon for Thanksgiving. No sweat they left our site number on the door with a map etc.

Office closed at noon, our site is on the door though.

We drove to our assigned site and knew right away we aren't fitting in there. There are a couple bushy trees hanging out where our kitchen slide would be and a tree on the other side that ensures we can't back in without damage to the trees and our rig. The fella that lives beside that site came out and offered to drive us around in his truck to find a better site. That's the type of great people we have met in Texas. We thanked him for the offer and called the number that was posted on the office door. Marilyn told Leslie to just find an open site and back in. Oh and please don't take any of the sites that are already assigned on the office door. Luckily there are quite a few sites to choose from and we're only here for a couple days so it was an easy task. All the sites are $20/ night at the P.A. rate for max 5 nights and 50 amp with full services. What a deal! We picked a site, #262 with no view but also no neighbours. Quiet with full services at this price, oh hell yeah. 

All by ourselves looking through the trees.

No water view but a huge site.

We hooked Margaret up and went for a walk around the park just to have a look at stuff. It's nothing fancy but it's a very clean and nice place. Everybody is super friendly and there is one rig with Alberta plates by the laundry. That's where we are headed next. It's laundry time after being in a state park for six days. (We never did find the lady that owned that  Alberta rig? The door was open but nobody home.) The laundry room was nice and clean with plenty of machines; ten of each. We got the laundry done and then just relaxed for the evening. Lots of free TV here as well.

Nov 28 - Happy Thanksgiving to all of our U.S. friends! The park has a big Thanksgiving potluck happening today but we aren't going. You needed to be here in advance so you could sign up and bring something. It's all good. We have food lol. We decided to go for a drive around the area to check it out and then we'll go to Riviera for lunch after. We checked out a couple seafood restaurants that were out this way but unfortunately they are closed today. It's a nice area and the houses on the beach are really nice of course. When we got to Riviera we had two choices for lunch, Valero fuel station tacos or Burger King. We chose BK just because we haven't been there in forever. It wasn't a great choice. It will likely be forever before we go again actually. We drove back to the RV Park on the signed road from the highway. Very nice pavement lol.

After a little break at the rig I decided to go for a short run and Leslie is doing a walk with Margaret. It's overcast but a very nice day.

This tree is by the rec hall. No idea what it is but nice colored flowers.

Fishing pier across the road from us.

The park outside the park. Make sense?

Looking out to the islands offshore in Baffin Bay.

Part of Leslie's walk out on this spit.

I took this shot of Leslie during my run.

We both showered up after being out for some exercise and then relaxed with a frosty beverage. Leslie had marinated some of the elk meat that Tyler and Apryl had given us and she is making a stir fry for supper. Should be delicious.

I had a couple bites already, awesome stir fry! 

Thanks Tyler & Apryl for the elk steak.

Tomorrow is another short travel day and we are excited to be getting to stay at the KOA on South Padre Island. This will be our most southern point with the rig so far. It's a big deal for us but not so much for anyone else. We get a couple beach days and then we stay at Tropic Winds RV for a month in Harlingen. Honestly we are both ready to just sit still for a little bit and recharge. Having so much fun tuckers you out lol. 

Cheers everybody.