We're on the Road Again!

After leaving the Rio Grand Valley last winter, we headed west to spend the rest of the season in the desert.  It was interesting to watch the desert bloom and to experience a new part of God's wonders.  But this winter we have decided to head east along the Gulf coast to watch the ocean from different angles.

So our first stop was on Baffin Bay, about an hour and a half north of Mission, Texas.  We are camped within view of the salt water bay that stretches all the way to the ocean.

After living in an urban area for the last month, it's a nice change of pace to be at a county-owned park in the middle of no where.  We drove ten miles on narrow county roads to get here, and the nearest grocery store is over twenty miles away.  We're in a tranquil park called Seawind RV Resort, with a palm tree and a view of the pond right in front of us.

We've enjoyed bike rides in the area, especially with a view of the bay right beside us.

We loved watching the shore birds that are part of this salt water habitat.  The brown pelicans live here year-round, but the white pelicans are the bird version of winter Texans.  They are just visiting and enjoying the weather.  This picture looks like a calm flock of pelicans enjoying the sunny weather.

But they are actually waiting very impatiently for the day's fishermen to finish cleaning their catch.  When one of these men fling some of the scraps toward this flock, these fowl would commit all kinds of fouls to get to those tidbits.  The fishermen are cleaning the resident salt-water fish--mostly black drum and sea trout today.

We have also enjoyed walks in this area that is decorated in prickly pear cactus and mesquite.

The low trees have grown together to form an arch on this section of the trail.  It doesn't show up well in the picture, but each limb of these trees had a curiously lacy covering.

A close-up shows that the covering is actually beautiful--another of God's wonders to us.  It reminded us of the lichen we have found on rocks in the mountains, so we were amazed to find it is foliose lichen.  This frilly green covering doesn't hurt the tree and can grow for 60 years.

On these walks we were hoping to spot a nilgai--pronounced nil-GUY. The size and stature of a horse, these animals are native to the country of India.  In the 1920's several were purchased by the King Ranch, and 10,000 now roam their vast acreage.  But another 30,000 nilgai escaped the ranch and run wild in this part of south Texas.  With no tigers to keep their numbers in check, they are doing better here than in India.  Even though we found lots of nilgai scat, the only picture we had came from a stuffed one at the museum at the Texas A&M-Kingsville campus.

This museum also displayed the brands of area ranches, with appropriate head gear and a steed to ride to get into the ranching spirit.

Besides just biking and hiking, we also had a project to accomplish in the Kingsville area.  Since we are now residents of Texas, our vehicles must pass an annual inspection before they can be registered each year.  It's easy to find a place to get our little car inspected, but most of those small mechanics or tire shops don't have room to park a motorhome.

Mark found a car dealer with an inspector, and got that annual duty done as we left the area.

We enjoyed our four-night stay at Seawinds RV Resort.  Owned by the county, it offers half-price nightly rates for Passport America members, and great rates for monthly renters.  A very friendly park with winter activities, Denisa went to exercise classes, a ladies' luncheon, and we both enjoyed ice cream sundaes and a concert. Most of the campers spend every winter here, but they are welcoming to short-termers like us that are just passing through. We also enjoyed the sunsets here, with clear views of the western skies over the pond right behind our motorhome.

It feels good to be on the road again!