Advances in energy

Corpus Christi certainly does its part for energy. Aside from the active ports, oil wells, and refineries, this is a side of this area that is very impressive. I was admiring these windmills from a distance, so I finally took a couple of side roads to get close. VERY impressive! They are much more quiet than I expected, just a muted woosh, woosh as the massive blades spin. There are wind turbines as far as I can see, all placed in the middle of farm fields and pastures. In some cases, the turbines are sharing field space with oil wells. Old meets new.

We are constantly running across new species of birds that we aren't used to and the sunsets are always gorgeous!

80 Degree Cold Front!

OK, maybe 80 degrees doesn't qualify as a cold front, but it does here. As per our last post, we were involuntarily displaced from the last campground, however... We came to a place we have had our eyes on for a while, Sea Breeze RV Park in Portland Texas. If you have to be displaced, not too shabby! Corpus Christi is directly across the bay, and the weather is fantastic! The fishing is good and the atmosphere is very comfortable. Good place to land...

Paradise and disappointment.

We stumbled onto this RV park, and after reading the reviews, decided to only sign on for two nights. BIG MISTAKE! We could spend months here, however when we tried to sign on for five more days, we were told that there were no open spots. The beaches here are georgeous and dog friendly. As a matter of fact, compared to up north, the beaches are people friendly. You can drive on the beach, run your dog, or spend the night by a campfire while fishing. Here, the beaches seem to belong to the people and you are free to enjoy what nature has to offer. Not at all like the local beaches along the Jersey coast where you need to purchase a "beach tag" just for the priviledge of walking on the "no frisbee, no football, no fishing, no dogs" beach. They have it right down here.We are talking about Matagorda Bay Nature RV Park in Texas. We will definitely come back here. The dogs are absolutely loving life here! I also really enjoy taking the "you might sink in" route back and forth from the beach in the Jeep. That is really why I wanted to bring the Jeep in the first place.

I got my resident fishing license this morning, however, I don't own any salt water gear... I set up as best as I could with the light action equipment and 4lb test line that is all that we brought with us. I was thrilled! I caught 8 fish this afternoon, most of which I couldn't identify. (They were all turned loose) We are so disappointed that we have to leave here. Tonight, we are trying to find another campground that can compare... Good Luck to us on that one, even the prices here are good, $30.00 a night for a 50 amp site.

Fishing

This post is specifically for Jim and Sandie. You had asked about the fishing at Marina Bay RV Resort, and I had said that people were fishing, but not a lot of catching... Well, yesterday, a fisherman who has been very patient and has told me the fishing there is good, caught a flounder about 8 inches long. This was the first fish I've seen caught on a line since I've been there. This morning, he walked by with a two or three pound red. As we were hooking up the Jeep to leave the park, I glanced toward the water and saw him pulling at what appeared to be a snag. Check out the photos of the snag. 14lb test line on light gear, guessing 40-60 pound red. Wait for our next update, the Colorado River meets the Gulf of Mexico at this RV park. Fishing looks fantastic.

Johnson Space Center

We went to the Johnson Space Center here in Houston today. WOW! We went through the exhibits, touched a rock that came from the moon, saw multiple space capsules that have actually been in orbit and one that delivered the lunar module. I unfortunately left the camera in the RV... All the better, everyone needs to see this for themselves. Vicki and I are only three years apart in age, but with certain things, it makes a real difference in perception. Vicki grew up knowing that we had already been to the moon, whereas I remember the lunar landing. We don't think that many of the younger people realize the risk, discomfort, and bravery that led to the current space program. Vicki came away from this with a new respect for the space program.
The training module for Skylab is here, as are multiple space suits that have been used. We walked around a complete Saturn 5 Rocket on display in Rocket Park. I am a machine FANATIC and I have never seen anything even close to this! It's truly amazing what human ingenuity can do. There is a full size Space Shuttle mock up you can go through, multiple simulators, rocket engines on display, a Lunar Module, a Lunar Rover, and the extremely secure moon soil and rock analysis lab where the huge two foot thick vault doors warn you that they will close very fast in any kind of security breach.

Potential landing spots...

Once again, we stumbled into an area that we could imagine staying for a while. Kemah Texas is a great place to be. It's on Galveston Bay, so it doesn't have the crystal clear water of the Gulf of Mexico, but if you are into fishing, boating or just sitting by the water and enjoying a margarita... this is the place. If you are ever in this area, make sure you check out the Kemah Boardwalk. The turkey leg smoker steam train on the boardwalk was totally cool! It has a wood fire in the rear, and the smoke comes out of the smokestack. Very cute. As a matter of fact, the whole boardwalk was very nice and very well set up. Something for everyone and beautiful views. There were a couple of duck food dispensers along the boardwalk and we got a big kick out of one very smart grackle that figured out how to get a free meal. She actually opened the flap and stuck her head into the machines to get any left over pellets. We are in a fantastic RV park right on the water and enjoy watching fish leap out of the water and seabirds hunt very successfully. The pelicans are particularly fun to watch, as they are awful large and make quite a splash on impact when diving after fish. We also had a pink flamingo wading behind the RV, and no, it wasn't plastic.

We now have a jackolantern on the dashboard that has been threatening the antenna mounted Mickey Mouse on the Jeep...They will work it out, I'm sure. It turns out that the RV is very easy to decorate. Well, I'm just going to throw a lot of random photo's up so everyone can see what we see and again, keep in touch. Porter and Vicki

Respect

We ran into something today that shocked us. In the suburbs of Philadelphia, we have seen people in traffic blow their horns or cut into or through funeral processions. Today, on the way home from getting the RV inspected, we ended up being the first vehicle behind a funeral procession. The sherriff's department escorted the funeral procession front and rear and also directed traffic at every intersection, at least five sherriff's vehicles were involved. What surprised us was that EVERY SINGLE VEHICLE, 18 wheelers included, in opposing traffic (a four lane 70mph speed limit road) pulled over and stopped while the funeral passed. We checked into the traffic laws here and found out that there is no legal requirement to do this, but EVERYONE in the rural areas of Texas does this out of respect for the deceased. We were shocked and very impressed. It is very different here, and not in a bad way. Everyone we have had contact with so far has been extremely friendly.
Many of the homes here would not be legal for occupation in the Philly suburbs, sections of roof missing and porches falling off. As with most areas we have been in, there are a lot of good people here with no means to make more than a basic living. We saw a car in the grocery store parking lot today that obviously had a tree fall on it. The right side windows and rear window were gone and the roof and right side c-pillar were crushed and rusty, yet still on the road. In the same parking lot was an open style horse trailer with two saddled horses waiting for their owners. We see something new every day! Life is good. Again, everyone stay in touch!