I woke up this morning to my phone alarm going off - that hasn't happened for awhile. One thing about it being in the living area - I'm out of bed quick to get it turned off. After turning on the coffee pot, I did my exercises then settled in to my morning routine.
Dean was up about 30 minutes later. We ate breakfast, showered and then I finished packing the remaining things while Dean started getting things ready outside. I walked the trash down to the bins, then came back and input information in my log book - the mileage on the truck before we leave, the weather and the time as we leave. We drove over 1700 miles in 57 days while we were in Mission. Here's a copy of my log book showing what I note each time we move/arrive at a site.
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| My Log Book for every travel day - PA stands for Passport America (gives 50% off the daily price for a campsite). |
Dean input the address of the park we are going to in the truck GPS. As is the case for today, he often has to set waypoints in order to take the route he wants versus the way "Bobbie" (our GPS) sometime wants to take us.
Larry, our neighbor, came out for a final goodbye, and Kim (she led Bible Study) also walked over to tell us goodbye. Very special people!! We were pulling out of the park ten minutes before 10:00 and headed toward Corpus Christi.
We passed through the Falfurrias Check Point (Inspection Point). Lots of Officers were onsite; one officer was with a dog walking near each vehicle. Much, much busier than it was last year when we passed through it. We had to wait awhile before we made it through. Traffic was backed up in all three lanes. They are building a new check point location nearby. It will be much better as it is quite crowded at this site.
Just a few miles down the road we stopped at a rest stop. It felt good to get out and stretch our legs a bit before we moved on down the road.
The sky was really beautiful and I couldn't help but snap a picture of it.
The skyline of Corpus Christi, and just a short distance further the bridge appears in front of us.
We passed through Portland on our way to our campground. We found out later we were not far from Cheryel at all as we passed through. She said we could have almost waved at her.
There was some road construction going on. Neither of us had seen equipment like this before. It immediately made me think of Colby Gott and how much he enjoys heavy equipment like this. Our GPS "Bobbie" led us astray a couple of times as we entered Corpus Christi. As we passed an exit, she would then tell us about it, so we had to twice take turn arounds to go back and catch the exit we needed. We assume this is due to a change in the highway, and means we most likely need to do an update to our GPS system.
At Corpus Christi, there was this RV Park on the water. Checking later it was $50/day. It was a lovely place to see a view of the water, and that is what you were paying for. Typically we will not spend that much unless there isn't anything else available. We spend most of our time out sightseeing and that is a lot to pay for parking your rig there while you are gone most of the time, even if it is on the water.
I do love the water though, and could not resist including these two pictures.
It wasn't much further until we reached our park. It isn't anything to write home about but it is a nice wide space, and we have and end spot - always a plus. For $16 a night we are happy with it. The managers are parked directly behind us. When we pulled in at the office, Barbara told us to go pick a site, then let her know which one we chose. Her husband Jim happened to walk around the corner about that time, so Dean and Jim walked over to look at the available sites. Barbara was in the middle of doing something and when I told her we were meeting up with my girlfriend, she said you go on and just come in and pay tomorrow. Very nice folks. We arrived at our site and were set up by 2:00pm. It didn't warm up much today, it was 61 when we left and only 64 when we arrived.
I called Cheryel to let her know we arrived at our park. She is driving from Portland, 9 miles, to visit with us here.
I don't know how some folks can drive all day to reach there next destination. There is something about driving that just seems to wear us out. Of course, everyone is different - which is what makes us all unique and interesting, right? Our favorite travel days are limited to 2-3 hours and then we park. We might stay a day, a few days, a week or longer. We will only be here two nights, as we need to reach Vidalia, LA by March 1, and we have one more stop in between.
For a short stay like this we will not put much out, once the rig is open and the slides are out, we have access to everything, but I won't hang pictures, or put things on the desk while we are here. There's little chance we'll use any of it, so why bother. If I do need something we can easily find it.
I made sandwiches for us, along with a few grapes. We finished just a short time before Cheryel arrived. It was good to see her again. In visiting, we are not sure exactly what grade we were in at school, when we first met. She moved to Chetopa for a year or two when I lived there - but we think it was around 3rd grade. Later they moved back to Oswego. We did see each other a few times in between at Girl Scout events when both of our troops participated. It wasn't until I moved to Oswego at the end of my 8th grade year that we reconnected and we've remained best friends ever since.
Cheryel stayed until about 5. We have made plans to meet up tomorrow morning at her house in Portland, and we'll spend the day seeing the sights. I'll let her know when we head that way. She told us about a good place to eat here in Aransas Pass. After she left, we headed to Walmart to get DEF for the truck, then on to Mickey's Bar & Grill @ Hampton Landing. Evidently it is good, as it was packed. We had to sit at a table for 8. Fortunately, no one needed the table, as others became available at just the right time, until right before we left. Two women asked about sitting at the other end of the table, which worked out perfect for both of us, and we left just a short time later. Dean ordered fried shrimp. It came with homemade thin cut french fries (he really liked them since they were thin), and small cups of beans and slaw. He said the shrimp was as good as Dirty Al's - that means it was VERY good! I chose the blackened chicken breast, sauted green beans and a side salad with vinegar and oil. It was also good, just a little salty.
Unfortunately, I did not grab a heavier jacket or shirt and it was cold in the restaurant. It had garage doors all along the walls and while they were mostly closed, even though it was a nice day once the sun went down it got cool quick. At the far end of the room, they had one of the doors open, with a propane heater on to warm the people at the table there, I guess. Unfortunately, the people at that table were smoking and even though we were almost at the other end of the room, I could smell it at our end. Ugh! Tomorrow I will put a sweatshirt or my heavier jacket in the truck and leave it, in case I need it again.
I took these pictures as we were leaving Mickey's. We headed back to Bentley. Dean watched some TV while I worked on this blog post until 9:30. I was having a hard time keeping my eyes open and Dean was too.
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| My favorite picture of the day! |
Stay tuned for what we find to do in the area.
Fantastic day with my BIF.
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