ROCKPORT
Mike and Jeanne (our nephew and niece) met us in Casa Grande, Arizona on Sunday the 18th and returned our family traveling companion (Barbara) to Phoenix in preparation for her return to Brazil. For those of you who may not know, Barbara is a missionary to Brazil, currently living at Joa Pessoa. She was in the States for the holidays and joined us on our “out and about” explorations in Southern Arizona.
On our own, Monday was spent catching up on our chores and preparing for the next leg of our adventures, which included a pleasant liaison with the Haselmans in Las Cruces. We arrived Las Cruces on Wednesday and the visiting began with Ken and Bruce exchanging their latest “RV” stories about engine performance, “odd” happenings on the road and their latest experiences in their RV world. Gwelda and I caught up on family, home and mutual interests since our last rendezvous. Dinner at La Posta in Las Cruces was a most satisfying “taste” of New Mexican cuisine. Thursday Bruce attended meetings at White Sands while the rest of us “kicked back”, went shopping and relaxed. Gwelda and I “whiled” away a few hours at a tasting room for New Mexico wines and I replenished our wine rack for those long nights when a glass of wine with a candle light dinner is a must.
Friday, we drove to White Sands Monument and played in the white sand that seemed more like granulated snow. The brilliance of the white sand suggests that a long day in that sand might invite “snow blindness” or perhaps, more accurately, “ sand blindness”? We attended a filmed presentation of the White Sands area, learned about the foliage (or lack of) and the living creatures of the area. White Sands encompasses 3,200 square miles of land. Bruce worked at White Sands in the late 50's and early 60's. He regaled us with stories of his first hand experiences during “test” missile shots during those early days. The park and roads through the area are closed during periods of testing at the White Sands Missile Test Center. Bruce revealed that although the tests are supposed to clear White Sands, they occasionally fail and fall into the white sand desert often never to be found.. It was all very interesting and we enjoyed having our very own well versed guide. Bruce has many special and good memories of his work at White Sands. Like our first trip, Bruce once again made our trip to the White Sands area especially meaningful with his first hand reports of events that he attended..
After our “trollop” in the sand, we drove to Alamogordo and into the mountains onto the Apache reservation for dinner at the Apache Casino in the mountains near Ruidoso. A few quarters were dropped in the slots, but gambling with the Indians tends, in my limited experience, to be more of a gift to the Indians. Needless to say, that assessment was not altered on this visit. Ruidoso is supposed to be a beautiful area and we would have liked to go on but it was getting late and our chauffeur was feeling the need to get home. Thus, we made our way down the mountain and back to Las Cruces. It was a fine day out and about with good company. We capped our day off with a DVD movie. Can’t remember the title and about the only significant thing that I remember was a question, “Are you “Mexi can or Mexi can’t”?
Saturday, Bruce and Ken enjoyed a day of r and r, visiting and enjoying the comfort of their “dwellings”. Gwelda and I went out shopping and when we returned, both men had retired to their individual coach for a nap. It was supposed to rain and the clouds looked threatening early on but it cleared up with a brisk wind blowing strong and whipping he awnings on the coaches. The rain missed us but the wind was a strong reminder that a storm had passed us by.
Sunday, with forecasts of high winds, we were up early and, as they may have said in covered wagon days, “folded our tent in preparation for what we all expected to be a windy travel day. After breakfast our two diesels were fired up, goodbyes exchanged and the Haselmans departed for Albuquerque (and for Bruce, a business flight to Boston in sub zero temperature on Monday) while we headed for Texas. We incurred major wind all the way to Ft Stockton where we spent the night. Gwelda checked in with us upon arriving home and they too had encountered heavy wind. We were all grateful for the relative stability of our modern coaches.
The next morning we were out and about early and one might say “off into the wind”. By the time we reached San Antonio, we had gained a great appreciation for the winds of the Texas prairies.. We were happy to arrive at our San Antonio park safely and even more pleased to wake up the next morning without the wind of the previous two days.
This was our second visit to San Antonio. We enjoyed the River Walk just as much the second time as we did the first. The River Walk on this week day was uncrowded, fellow tourists friendly and an atmosphere of quiet solitude prevailed. We stopped at an Italian restaurant for lunch and enjoyed “visiting” with the young man who waited on us. In response to an exchange about travel, I was surprised when the young man said, “I figured you for RV’ers when you walked in”. I immediately inquired what it was about us that made us “stand out as Rv’ers?” He was unspecific but after we left I told Ken that RV’ers obviously have a common look. We looked at each other, laughed and concluded that it was the jeans, tennis shoes, Ken’s hat and our age! Frankly, it is rather unflattering to be so easily identified as an Rv’er, which surely must be considered by many as America’s modern day gypsy.
We capped our day off with a IMAX presentation of THE ALAMO which was both interesting and well produced. I snuck a quick nap during the presentation but I don’t think Ken noticed. We skipped a second visit to the Alamo, having included that in our first visit . We intended to visit some of the Missions but alas, we ended up just enjoying the River Walk area where we had lunch, window shopped in the many stores on the mall and the movie.
Our RV resort was located near the downtown area which proved to be comfortable as well as convenient. On Tuesday morning, we drove the approximately 180 miles to Rockport where we are now “in residence”. After settling in to our resort, we climbed into our “towed” in search of adventure and a proper dining place. The area is abundant with restaurants and it is definitely a tourist area. Apparently, it is more seasonal as a summer resort area but we have quickly learned that there area a lot of “Texas winter” people and the many RV resorts in the area seem to cater to these residents otherwise known as “snow birds” in Arizona and California. Ken checked out the deep sea fishing availabilities and will probably do a fishing trip early next week, there are bird watching tours (herons), several museums including the USS LEXINGTON and we are only 40 miles (or a little less) from Corpus Christi. There is a gambling boat cruise that goes out twice each day and the price of admission includes either a buffet lunch or buffet dinner, depending on the time of day one chooses. I suspect that this will be one of my boat rides for this stopover as well as Ken is interested in doing a Heron trek. He has indicated several times an interest in bird watching and who knows, perhaps this will be something else for us to add to our many adventures, explorations and sight seeing antics. The man is a bona fide tourist!!
Our cell service here has been limited at best which has presented Ken with additional negotiating leverage for adding a cell phone antenna to the RV. The antenna is supposed to increase our cell phone
reception by 20%. I have now acknowledged that he has won the battle so today, he went off to order the antenna which he will install when it arrives. Another “must have” may now be removed from the ongoing long list of “gotta haves”.
Yesterday and today (Thursday and Friday) have been overcast with intermittent “dew drops” otherwise known as rain and thus, a good time to catch up on the “housecleaning” duties that accompanies RV travel. Whatever happened to “maid service”?
A few pictures from our adventures so far.
Ken and Marian Herbert New Year’s eve
New Years group
Ken’s sister roasting “smores”
tour of copper queen mine ’
White Sands New Mexico
A walk along San Antonio’s River Walk
A scene of the river
The Burns
