Go-Go-Go to Goliad!

We booked a three-day stay here in Goliad, Texas, and we've already used up a couple of those days with our Covid shot and its after-effects. But in the time before and after that vaccination, we really enjoyed this little central Texas town and its state park. The town of Goliad and the Goliad State Park have a nice reciprocal arrangement. For example, we enjoyed the 2.5-mile biking trail that connects the two.

Denisa likes it that the trail is mostly flat, with an occasional set of wooden switch-backs that she can walk her bike up.

That bike trail includes long wooden sections that veer out over the San Antonio River far below.

That bike trail also allowed us to do a nice river kayak trip. We started at the large red dot on the map below. That red dot is inside the city limits of Goliad, and our kayak trip ended at the blue dot inside Goliad State Park.

We first dropped one bicycle off at the take-out spot in the state park, then drove the pickup back to this put-in spot at the end of Ferry Street in town. They have built a new kayak launch that would have been great for getting a plastic boat into the water.

But our inflatable kayak didn't roll down those plastic runners. We still appreciated a sturdy set of steps to get us down the last steep descent to the river's edge.

It was a beautiful day in the 70's when we got on the water. We were thinking that this was the first time the kayak has gotten wet for many months.

We paddled upstream against the current for a little ways, before we turned around to do a lazy float down the river.

We were the only boat on the river this beautiful day!

It's 1.6 miles and about an hour in floating time to get back to where we left the bicycle. That was just the right length for a couple of wanderers just getting over the effects of the Covid vaccine. We got the kayak out of the water so that Denisa could be drying it off while Mark rode his bike along the 2.5 mile bike trail to get the pickup. It was another successful river float made possible by using creative transportation options.

The bike path takes riders right to the historic center of the town of Goliad. Since this is the Goliad county seat, we found another beautiful Texas court house at the center of town. 

We love little Texas towns with their beautiful court houses! Many of them are surrounded by businesses that form a city square. We have to say that Goliad's historic square seems to be doing well. We noticed that most of these structures that were built in the 1800s are still housing thriving businesses.

While remodeling one of those old buildings, the new owners removed a layer of paneling that had been covering what was once an exterior wall. They uncovered an antique hidden there for many years. Back in the 1800s, the Durham Tobacco Company paid businesses in little towns all over the country for the right to paint one of their advertisement on an exterior wall. This wall had been perfectly preserved when that exterior wall became an interior wall and was paneled over. Now this artwork is a registered historic place because it is a rare original example of early advertising. And it's right here in Goliad!

Around the time that the tobacco advertisement was painted, trees were planted around town. When wider, straighter roads were paved around town, no one wanted to cut down those beautiful trees. So we found several places where the pavement goes around and between trees with yellow arrows to remind drivers to wind their way down the streets of Goliad.

In an earlier blog we also mentioned the mission that we toured inside the state park, as well as the Fanning Memorial and the Presidio Mission/Fort. For a little town, Goliad certainly houses lots of history! That would include being the birthplace of the General that won the battle of Puebla against the French on May 5, 1862. Most of us recognize that as the reason Cinco de Mayo is celebrated.

Another interesting walk-through is the El Camino Real visitor center, in a restored building that the CCC constructed in the 1930s. It included an interesting stair case up to the second floor. 

Early April is a great time to visit this part of Texas, because the wildflowers are at their peak bloom. We didn't see many bluebonnets in Goliad State Park, but the yellow flowers are thick in the fields.

Accented with some bright red phlox, they made a lovely combination. 

We hiked all the trails at Goliad State Park, including the longest one that parallels the San Antonio River.

We would normally be camping inside the state park, but every camp site was reserved this weekend. We saw that the rangers had posted signs for campers and hikers to be cautious of some of the wildlife. We have seen a lot of reptiles, but we had never heard of a voldemort snake. We were just getting ready to google it to see what we should be cautious of when a ranger with a sense of humor noticed our interest in the sign. It seems that this is a ranger's version of an April Fool's Day joke, and we fell for it!

Voldemort Snakes are found only in Harry Potter novels, not in Texas State Parks. Happy April Fools (a little late), as we continue to wander. We're glad we got to Go-Go-Go to Goliad!

We survived the Covid Vaccine--and the 48 hours after!

We've spent the last couple months in south Texas, where many winter Texans from all over the country seemed to be fighting over too few vaccine opportunities. We saw long lines of cars waiting for reservations to get vaccines, and heard stories of people standing in line for hours, only to be turned away when supplies ran out. While the process at the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley's medical school was very good, it took months to get an appointment, and the computer system crashed when it was opened only to the 65+ population. Recently, Texas had a couple weeks when the vaccination process was opened to people age 50+, and now it has opened to anyone 16 years and older. Now that newer vaccines don't have the stringent storage requirements, the vaccine seems to be getting to more rural areas easier. 

Because we travel and don't stay in one place long enough to get a second shot, we decided that we wanted the one-and-done Johnson and Johnson vaccine. Mark started watching the Texas state vaccine web site as we headed away from the more populated Rio Grande Valley. We found that sometimes their information was not accurate. Then Mark found the web site vaccinefinder.org. That's how we found Yorktown, Texas.

The mural pictured above was the most striking thing we saw in this little town. With a population of 1,916,  Yorktown is a tiny dot on the Texas map. In fact, the drug store was one of the few buildings on Main street that was still occupied.

But today they had 200 doses of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine, and we could get two of those doses at 4:30 this afternoon. From our camp site in Goliad, we drove the 30 miles to the Kraege Drug Store in Yorktown.

This was their third day of giving shots, and today was the first day that they had gone public on that web site Mark was using. The receptionist said they had been busy, with people driving all the way from Austin and Houston, and even Edinburg. Edinburg is interesting to us. That's where Denisa's Mother got her shots, and that's a 3.5-hour drive from here. We filled out an easy two-page form, and it only took a few minutes to meet the local pharmacist behind the screen in the back corner of the drug store to get our shots. We think he was good at giving shots. But as the medicine entered our arms we both thought this was the most painful shot we could remember. Ouch!

The pharmacist recommended not taking anything for discomfort, as it wasn't clear if that would lessen the effectiveness of the vaccine. We also knew to keep moving our arms around, as that helps with the soreness of the shot site. After waiting our 15 minutes, we were on our way out of Yorktown, happy to have that over with it . . . or was it? 

In the middle of the night, Mark started running a fever that left him with chills and shakes. When we took his temperature later, it registered at 102.4. He would continue that fever and feeling miserable for the next day and a half. We both had head aches and fatigue, like a lighter version of the symptoms when we had the Covid virus back in October. We had read that side-effects from the vaccine might be more severe for people that had already had the virus.

We stayed close to the motor home until our symptoms got better, and we never took anything for the discomfort. We want this shot to be as effective as possible! We still felt a little weak, but we were fever- and symptom-free within 48 hours after our shots. Now we are very glad that we opted for the one-time Johnson and Johnson vaccine, as we would really dread having to go back and take another shot. Now we have survived the virus, survived the vaccine--and we survived the 48 hours after!

Our plans for the year just made a 90 degree turn!

If you would re-read the last blog post, you would see that we were planning to leave Alice, Texas, to make a left-turn as we headed west across the United States for the next couple months. We had made some reservations at key places and had figured out a loose itinerary through May. But when we talked to our son and daughter-in-law about the chance to meet them for some vacation time, our plans suddenly made a 90-degree turn. Instead of turning west, we have decided to continue north for now. We spent the morning cancelling some reservations, and then headed for our next destination in this new direction. We are now staying at Angels in Goliad RV Park in Goliad, Texas. {Remember the name of our campground, because we'll talk about it later.} We would have preferred a camp site in Goliad State Park, but they are completely booked up for the weekend. But we love having this nice little campground just a few miles from the state park entrance gate and its iconic Mission Espiritu Santo.

This mission was built and used in the 1700s. But by the early 1900's it was simply a pile of rubble and rocks. During the 1930's a CCC camp was built down the road, and the restoration of the mission became their project. Parts of the walls were purposefully left bare to show the rock construction that lies underneath the white stucco.

With our Texas state park pass, it was a free visit to see the mission, including the indoor section of the old sanctuary.

Just down the road is another mission. But the Presidio Mission/Fort is owned by the Catholic church and is not part of the state park. As we walked the grounds, we got our Texas state history lesson--and some insight into the name of the campground where we are staying.

We've all heard of the amusement park "Six Flags over Texas." Well, this mission/fort has actually had nine different flags flown over it. All nine flags are on display out front. It was during the Texas War for Independence in 1836 that General Fanning's Texas regiment was captured by the Mexican Army. The captured Texas soldiers were held hostage here, until 341 men were shot in the Presidio's courtyard one by one.

A beautiful memorial for those soldiers was built on the hill top over-looking the Presidio. Their leader, General Fanning, had to endure what is now called the Goliad Massacre until they shot him last.

The wildflowers in this field are beautiful at this time of year. Someone picked a bouquet that was left in the barrel of the cannon at this place of sad Texas history.

We are getting to wander among God's wonders of the spring wildflowers! The bluebonnets seem to be at their peak, as we walked to another statue in this field.

That's the statue of Francisca Alavez. She begged for mercy for these prisoners, and she helped some of them escape their certain death. Some of the pavers around the statue were purchased by her descendants, who are obviously proud of her heroism. Other pavers were purchased by the descendants of the men she saved, expressing gratitude that they are here because of her. She is called the Angel of Goliad. {Now we understand how our campground got its name!}

We've said it before, and we'll say it again. Our plans are cast in jello. Our plan to head straight west made a 90-degree turn yesterday, as we are now heading north. But whichever direction we go, we find interesting places to see, historical information to learn, and more of God's wonders!

One Last Salt Water Day

 After our "fun day" at the Freightliner shop, we headed due north for a stop near Alice, Texas, at Paisano Mobile Home and RV Park. Not the most glamorous park ever, but it served our purpose for a half-price Passport America place to land before we started our journey due west this year. We're going to be traveling away from the ocean, as we don't plan to go all the way to the Pacific this year. So Denisa requested one last salt-water day to walk on the beach before we headed further inland.

It was a 45-minute foggy drive to Corpus Christi, and then another 15 minutes to get to White Cap Beach on North Padre Island. We visited South Padre Island a couple times this winter, and now we are on the north side of this 113-mile-long barrier island. One source we read said that is the longest barrier island in the world. We watched this flock of pelicans fly south overhead, wondering if they were going to make that long flight all the way to South Padre Island.

Driving is allowed on some of the beaches, but we opted for some good old-fashioned walking on the sand. The wind was causing the red flags to stand straight out from the flag pole, so we won't be swimming in the salt water today.

We saw almost no sea shells on this beach. The only thing that seems to wash ashore right now are the man-of-war jelly fish. Their iridescent blue color is lovely, but touching their tentacles would leave a nasty sting. That's another reason to stay out of the salt water today.

The other thing that can wash ashore here is trash. This Turtle Patrol worker is busy digging up and removing the plastic that would be harmful for a sea turtle mother's attempt to bury her eggs on this beach.

After walking the beach, we returned via the cement sea wall for a four-mile hike this morning.

We decided to make a loop drive today, so we headed north along Mustang Island for another beach stop in Port Aransas. It was still foggy here when we started our walk on the granite jetty.

We forgot our good camera, so we had to be very close to get good wildlife pictures with our cell phone today. The local pelicans don't mind letting the tourists get close.

That's because most of the people that have walked this far are more interested in the fish, rather than the pelicans. We probably saw 100 people fishing, scattered along this .7 mile-long jetty. It's the best way to go deep-sea fishing on a budget, as the water is very deep this far from the shore. 

We watched as some good fish were hauled in along the jetty. This sheepshead fish was fresh out of the gulf, and will make a delicious meal. Notice the teeth, that allows the sheepshead to crack the shells of its prey.

We also saw a few drum being caught, and a little puffer fish. Fishermen told us that they fished ten hours yesterday with no success, but it looked like everyone was getting their five-fish limit on this foggy morning. We made it to the very end of the jetty--a mile out from the beach. We didn't get our picture sitting on the very last rock because that place was already taken by another big group of people fishing.

This 1.4-mile hike to the end of the jetty and back is not for the faint of heart. We've hiked a lot of rocky mountain trails, but this un-level granite walkway will rival any of them. Add slippery algae growing on the rocks, and wet patches of salt water, and it would certainly be easy to slip and fall on this hike.

The channel along the jetty provides a deep path for large ships to get to the refineries and freight yards on this coast. It was hard to get the entire ship in one frame. A smaller pilot boat helps to guide them, and also gives some scale to the size of these big boys.

We also saw double barges heading out from Port Aransas. Watching the ships go by is a fun project, but it's also a good place to see dolphins playing in their waves. We saw fewer dolphins this year, and didn't have the right camera to capture their antics.

It looks like Port Aransas is ready to celebrate Easter, with this bunny sand sculpture in Roberts Point Park.

To complete our loop drive, we must ride the free ferry over to Aransas Pass. Denisa would have gotten some better pictures of dolphins frolicking in the ferry waves, but there is a new policy that people must remain in their cars during this short crossing.

Our loop drive brought us back to Corpus Christi for a couple stops we found on the "free things to do" list. One was visiting the Texas Surf Museum. It was a little tricky to find with instructions like "walk through the restaurant around the corner, take a right at the fountain, and turn left at the woody."

Not known for its great waves, the gulf coast still managed to support the Pat Magee's Surf Shop from 1969 until Pat retired in 2005. 

This unusual museum displays surf boards and Pat's favorite nostalgia from the 1970s and 1980s. The unusual part is that everything inside the museum is for sale. You can buy everything from 8-track tapes to surf boards. That tall board beside Denisa is a bargain--marked down from $6,000 to only $3,500.

From there we walked to the Corpus Christi downtown sea wall for a view of the marina. We've had a covering of clouds all day, keeping the temperatures very comfortable for us.

Our next stop was the Selena Memorial. The memorial includes a statue and display right on the sea wall, with a bilingual recording that tells about her career. This local singer is known as the Queen of Tejano music, even though her career was suddenly cut short when she was shot by her manager in 1995. 

We were surprised by the large crowd of people visiting the memorial of this unknown-to-us singer. Do they have crowds and fresh flower bouquets here every day? Then we read that today was the 26th anniversary of her death, and we think that explains the extra presence today.

We enjoyed our day filled with salt water, and the chance to walk on the beach one more time before we head west this year. We are saying good-bye to the ocean as we head inland for the rest of 2021.

The Worst Day of the Travel Year . . .

Getting to travel full-time means that we have more than our share of "best days" every year. But everyone that owns a diesel motor home also gets that one "worst day" each year. That is the day when you have to roll into one of those big diesel shops for the annual preventive maintenance. Our Tiffin motor home was built on a freightliner chassis, so we must find time in our fun travels to find a freightliner shop. 

It's always a stressful thing to find a good place to get the oil changed on our diesel engine. Preventive maintenance also includes things like changing the oil in the generator, changing the air filter, servicing the air dryer that runs the air-ride and air brakes system, etc. All this is necessary to keep our home running well. Mark spends a lot of time checking reviews and calling places. We settled on Doggett Freightliner in Pharr, Texas, this year for preventive maintenance. So our first day of traveling was only 17 miles long. It's not very far to Pharr, Texas.

We've had our annual maintenance done in six different Freightliner Shops all over the country--Tucson, Arizona; Gaffney, South Caroline; Missoula, Montana; Superior, Wisconsin; Idaho Falls, Idaho; and now Pharr, Texas. We would give some of those places stellar reviews, and others really bad reviews. We've spent a night or two at each one of those Freightliner service centers, camping in their parking lots. All of them had electric hook-ups and a safe place for motor home customers that live in their RVs. We planned to do the same here in Pharr as well. It was only after we were parked and settled in for the evening that we found out that they usually don't allow that. We didn't have any other option planned, so they let us stay--just this time.

It was a tight parking spot, and they had no option for electricity for us here at Doggett Freightliner. It might come in as our least photogenic camping spot ever, as they placed us between two wrecked truck tractors.

It's not only stressful to find a reputable place to get the diesel maintenance, it's also very expensive. These shops are used to working on truck tractor rigs, and we often think that they look at motor home owners as dumb old cash cows. After feeling like we were over-charged badly on our first year's maintenance, Mark now asks for an estimate on cost. It took several weeks and several phone calls, but he finally got the estimate. It seemed inflated with the number of hours to perform those oil changes and filter changes, and this year we were due for them to service the air dryer. We just hoped they worked faster than those inflated estimates when they actually pulled us into bay #15 at 9:15 a.m. We also take it as a good sign that we are not next door in unlucky #13.

We knew we had a boring day ahead of us, as they estimated 7.7 hours needed to perform all of our maintenance. At $110 per hour, we're hoping for a speedy mechanic. We settled into the stark customer lounge at Doggett. During the course of the day, we walked several laps around the property, keeping an eye on bay #15. Our mechanic took some time off for lunch, but he was back on the job until we saw him pull our home out of the bay at exactly 2:02 p.m. If you're keeping track, that's 4.75 hours after they came to get the motor home this morning.

Mark was then summoned to the cashier, where he didn't even get to see the itemized ticket before they expected him to pay. When he requested to see it, we noted that it's probably not a good sign when your receipt is three pages long. 

We found a few things wrong. The first problem was that the hourly fee was higher than $110--it seems it had just gone up this week!?!. The second problem was that even though the motor home was only in bay #15 for 4.75 hours (and that included time for our mechanic's lunch), we were charged for 7.7 hours!

The shop manager tried to convince us that they used some kind of "industry standard" to charge a standard hourly amount for preventive maintenance. His point was that mechanics would be cheated for being fast workers if they charged $110 only for the hours that they worked. Does that make any sense? So they would rather cheat the paying customers! Over and over we found excessive labor charges on that receipt. They charged two hours labor for changing the oil on our little generator! When reviewing our past receipts we see that in all the other years' receipts we were charged 30-45 minutes labor for the generators. But never two hours! 

Mark had already checked the air dryer's manufacturer's web site, where they estimated that it should take 0.8 hour to do the service on the air dryer. Doggett's "standard charge" for air dryer service is 3.2 hours. We just got madder as we looked at that receipt! 

As we loaded up and headed down the road, we definitely felt ripped off by Doggett Freightliner. We can't recommend them, and we hope we never have to go back to them for anything. This day of preventative motor home maintenance has lived up to its billing--it was an expensive worst day of the travel year.

We're on the road again! But first . . .

We took a day to get the motor home ready to roll again after its two-month vacation lounging around at the resort. We're ready to be on the road again, but first . . . we had to do all our laundry, top off the water in the batteries, reload the bike rack, and put away the pickle ball rackets. 

We are really looking forward to being on the road again! But first . . . we have to give an update on an interesting plant at this resort. We took this picture beside this big aloe plant when our son was visiting over a month ago.

Then we had those two nights of rare freezing weather, and many of the resort's cactus and aloe plants were frozen. We were glad to see that this big plant fared well in the cold, even though we noticed that most of the tips are now brown. We also noticed that a new ten-foot-tall shoot was sprouting from the center of those huge spines.

So we had to ride our bikes to check the progress before we left to drive Denisa's Mother home to Oklahoma. That sprout was noticeably taller. We found that this is a relative of the century plants that we found so interesting on our first year of travel. These plants can grow for thirty years without ever flowering. But then they suddenly sprout a tall stem that will eventually bloom.

It's time for us to be on the road again, but first . . . we had to check the progress of our century plant one more time. It has been ten days since the last picture, and it has grown several more feet in height. We're guessing that it is around 20 feet tall now. We'd love to see it when it's flowering! By the size of the stalk, it's going to have some huge blooms! The sad thing about a century plant, is that after it blooms, the entire plant dies. So the next time we see it, this big beautiful plant that caught our eye a couple months ago will be gone.

We are ready to be on the road again, but first . . . we had to get hair-cuts. Everything is cheaper here in South Texas--including hair cuts for just $10. Mark also had a follow-up appointment with the podiatrist, and Denisa got to dance one more time. So it was a very busy last day before we finally rolled out of the resort that afternoon.

Now we're really ready to be on the road again, but first . . . we have to make one more stop. But that will take another blog because Denisa feels a rant coming on. Stay tuned for one more thing we have to do before we're on the road again!