Rockport...Our Future Winter Home

We were both pretty excited about getting to Rockport today, so there was no question of sleeping in late. We were up and packing the trailer with record speed.

Last evening on our bike ride we met a great couple who lived near Brazos Bend State Park...Kim and Odie. They told is about a little-known shortcut to cut off about 30 miles of our trip to Rockport. So we tried it today, and it was beautiful! It was everything Odie described, with very little traffic. And it was definitely a shortcut.

We passed lovely homes, and the sun slanted through the trees which were covered with Spanish moss, a sight we haven't seen in the past 10,000-plus miles.

We passed some beautiful cotton fields farther down the road.

As we approached the coastal area, the land really flattened out.

We decided to set up camp for a few days at Goose Island State Park, across the bay from Fulton, which is the little town that sits right next to Rockport. We found a great campsite tucked into the woods. The weather was beautiful today...mid 80's, with a slight breeze blowing.

After we set up camp, we headed to Rockport/Fulton for lunch at Charlotte Plummers, one of our favorite dining spots. 

Most of the visits we've made to Rockport have been in late November or December, or January, so we've seldom had really lovely weather. This was the first time it was nice enough for us to eat out on the deck at Carlotte Plummer's...and what a view!

Even our truck had a beautiful place to park!

And then...down to the work of the day: finding a cottage to rent for the winter. I'd done a lot of looking online and had visited with a couple of property rental people, so we had a few drive-by properties to check out first. We ruled them all out just driving by. None seemed to fit what we need. So we walked into Key Allegro Real Estate, and Sandy, the rental agent, listened to what we wanted. She handed me a list of 4 properties, and as she described them, we both pointed to the second one on the list and said, "Can we see that one?" No sooner said than done. In less than 5 minutes we were driving up to it. The location looked great, and the outside certainly seemed promising. So while Sandy was unlocking it, Curt and I agreed, before getting out of the car, that no matter how much we liked it we were going to be noncommittal and make sure we had a chance to view quite a few more options before making a decision. Agreed.

We walked through and looked at each other, and said, "We'll take it!" So it's done. We planned on 3 days to find it, and it took about 45 minutes to eliminate the drive-boys and settle on our first one. 

That's a small pool inside the chain link fence which is open all winter, though not heated. So we'll enjoy it on warm days.

Here's the sun room, which will probably be our favorite spot. Sandy piled up the shade on that one window on the far left...and wait till you see the view.

We're right across the street from Aransas Bay, and the new public pier is right there.

It's an older cottage but well-maintained. There's nothing fancy about it, but it seems just perfect for us. 

We'll be moving in after our trip to Boise to see our children and grandchildren. And we plan to stay until sometime in March. We've talked for years about spending a season or more on the coast somewhere, and it looks like the time has come. We're really looking forward to the adventure!

We celebrated by heading down to the beach for a walk...

What fun wading in the water!

Later we went down to get a better look at "our" (public) pier. Since one of our goals for the winter is to learn to fish (a subject about which both of us know absolutely nothing), when we saw a couple fishing we stopped to ask them a few questions. We ended up having the most fun and interesting conversation with them...Jesse and Debbie Shroyer from Lockhart, Texas. We found out that they're here on their homeymoon. They just got married Saturday, the day after our anniversary.

Congratulations, Jesse and Debbie! May your life together be filled with joy!