3-Days Trip to South Texas

It seems that we can't go more than a few days without taking a road trip. This is one that has been planned for over a year, and it was one of the reasons we needed to get back to Texas at a certain time from our big summer and fall trip around the eastern Part of the country.  Stonecroft Ministries is a Christian organization that ministers to women through Bible studies, prayer groups, and monthly luncheons or dinners with special invited speakers. Through the years I've been a speaker for many of the monthly meetings in Idaho, Oregon, Nevada and many parts of Texas. Last September (over a year ago), Curt and I were camping in Fort Davis, Texas.

(Here are a couple of shots of the area around Fort Davis:)

While we were there I received a call inviting me to speak and sing 14 months later for a tour of 4 Christian Women's Clubs in South Texas: McAllen, Harlingen, South Padre Island and Brownsville. That was when my Dad had just become very ill, and at that the time we had no clue that we would be taking our long summer adventure around the U.S. So I gave them a tentative yes, not knowing at all if it would really work out. 6 months later when we packed all our belongings in a storage unit before setting out on our trip, I made sure that all the quilts I needed for this series of talks was kept where I could reach them. My topic centers around the process of making a quilt and how that compares to living life. I show lots of my quilts in various stages of completion...which provides me a guilt-free excuse for not finishing them all off!

Here we are fourteen months  later (where does the time go?), and we're on our way back to Rockport after spending several lovely days in South Texas. 

We started out early Tuesday morning (6:30 a.m.....whooooeee! I'm not used to that!). As we headed south through the early morning traffic of Corpus Christi, we saw sights that we don't have in Rockport. 

A large bridge over the Bay,

The early morning sun catching the reflections of the huge oil industry...

And the tall buildings of downtown Corpus Christi:

We saw this great mattress-hauling truck on the highwy:

And as we went through the town of Robstown, we couldn't believe our eyes when we saw the name of the high school athletic teams. How would you like to be starting quarterback for the fighting Cotton Pickers??!!! I was laughing so hard I barely caught the photo op...

We'd never been in this part of Texas before. People had told me it was flat and scrubby. We found a few points of agricultural interest, but pretty much, what I had been told was correct.

South Texas topography:

Juxtaposition of a South Texas ranch and a cement plant:

The first place I was to speak Tuesday morning was in a small hotel in Edinburg, Texas, just outside of McAllen. The ladies were warm and welcoming. We had a wonderful buffet lunch before I spoke and sang.

All went well. Usually when I speak at these events, I bring my own microphone and small sound system. But unfortunately, my sound gear was not one of the things that we managed to keep accessible in our storage unit in Kerrville. When we were there last week we searched and searched and couldn't find it anywhere! The chairman of the first club where I spoke was able to round up what I needed. But I knew the rest of the groups would be much larger, and since I'm using a guitar and vocal 

mike, I really like to have my own equipment so I can be sure of the quality of the sound. After my first speaking engagement, we headed into McAllen, which is the largest city in south Texas and the center of shopping for the area. We located a Guitar Center and were able to pick up the sound gear I needed. It could be a year or more before we are able to really dig into our storage unit, so I know I will need the gear before then. Figured we may as well get it now.

That evening we headed for Harlingen and were treated to the warm hospitality of Ines and Adali Velez, a wonderful couple from Puerto Rico. We stayed in their lovely home, and enjoyed fellowship and great conversation long into the night.

Up early Wednesday morning to get ready for the next talk. This one was in the activity building of a very nice RV park. The venue was large and lovely and there were over a hundred women there. I was certainly glad for my new sound system here!

In the afternoon we drove to Laguna Vista, where we stayed in the amazing home of Sharon Nelson. She was so sweet to share her lovely home with us. We felt like we were in a palace!

In the evening we were treated to a terrific Mexican buffet and enjoyed great conversation with Sharon and her friend Jackie Henchman. We ate at the Isla Grand Hotel on South Padre Island, the venue where I was to speak today. That was great to get a preview trip, so we knew exactly where to go this morning.

And that's just what we did. I was scheduled to speak twice today, so we got an early start. Crossing the bridge into the well-known resort area of South Padre Island:

...and into the beautiful Isla Grande Hotel:

After a delicious breakfast of eggs Benedict, fresh fruit and all the trimmings, I spoke and sang to a roomful of about 60 women:

And this is where the real crunch came. We had to pack up all my things quickly and trot it downstairs and into the car and take off for Brownsville. My next engagement was to start in an hour, and it was a 40-minute drive! We scrambled, but we made it!

Another beautiful buffet, but this time we didn't eat. I had time for a glass of iced tea, and then I was "on" again. Each of these groups of women was so warm and welcoming. We both really enjoyed ourselves the full trip. I've done these multi-club tours by myself before, but it was SO much nicer to have Curt along. There's a lot of stuff for me to haul and set up for my presentation, and Curt is so supportive and helpful. He keeps me laughing and loosened up as well. And he NEVER minds being the only man in a room full of women. Here he is with Mary Ann, one of the great friends he made in Harlingen yesterday while  I was visiting with other ladies. The women love him!

More gorgeous South Texas scenery on the way home today. 

This is a shot of the famous King Ranch, one of the best known ranches in North America. From this vantage point,  it kind of makes you wonder why....

Back over the bridge at Corpus Christi:

And a nice view of the USS Lexington, an Aircraft Carrier that is docked at Corpus and is open to the public:

Curt and I toured the Lexington last year when I did this same type of speaking tour in Corpus Christi.

As we drove into Rockport in the evening drizzle,  I got excited to get nearer to home and began shooting a few pictures along the way:

Then we rounded the corner and saw our little beach cottage. Bur wait....what's that hanging from the telephone pole in our yard? Oh, my, we have a lighted snowman right outside our window!

Once it got dark, we could see that the City of Fulton had been busy while we were gone. From our bank of picture windows, we can now see lighted reindeer, Angels, candles, and a wreath, not to mention the snowman that's front and center right outside our window. Not only that, the Palm trees across the street that you saw in a previous blog posts.... You know the ones that I said looked funny because the trunks are spiraled with lights but you couldn't see the tops? Well now you can. Every Palm tree top has an oddly shaped clump of frantically flashing blue, green and red lights. My, what an interesting view we have for the holidays. As we stood outside and marveled at it tonight, Curt looked at me and said, "Well, after all, it is a beach house. So sure, we can do tacky." We can't wait to see what else the holidays may bring!

First Few (Frozen) Days in our Beach Cottage

We moved into our little beach cottage JUST ahead of the big storm that's been sweeping the country. We hauled everything from our camping trailer, Lucy, into the house and quickly established her at her winter resting place at one of the Rv parks in Rockport. As we got back to the cottage and began unloading my mini-van, we could feel the temperatures dropping by the minute. The wind started roaring down from the north, and the usually placid Aransas Bay that we overlook from our sun room began tossing spray and was covered with whitecaps as far as we could see. We were so thankful for the timing of our move and the storm. We couldn't have cut it much closer!

The first thing we did was buy a pound of fresh shrimp from our favorite shrimp shop and make a big pot of shrimp gumbo. Now THAT'S the way to ward off a chill!

With this being an older cottage, and with so many windows facing the ocean (eleven big picture windows in he sunroom!) I expected it to be pretty drafty and cold with this blustery weather. But it's surprisingly warm, and we've been very comfortable the past few days. 

Our first night, before the storm hit full force, we wandered out in the windy darkness to see how the place felt outside at night. The Harbor Light Cottages sign was rocking around in the wind.

Across the street you can see Fulton's Convention Center, named Paws and Taws, a square dancing expression which indicates its beginnings as a square dance venue. And in the parking lot for the public pier across the street, the trunks of the Palm trees are all wrapped with spirals of festive lights. It's a great view out of our sunroom windows...a little bit odd not being able to see the tops of the Palm trees!

We've spent the past several days fitting things in, moving things around, and generally just getting settled. I didn't post a blog, because I didn't think you wanted to see the not-very-exciting process of moving in. Once we get everything in place, we'll give you a photo tour. We've also been taking advantage of our membership at the health club and have already used it 4 times out of the last 6 days for workouts. They also have a Tuesday & Thursday ping-pong set-up at the fitness club. We LOVE ping pong! Curt and I are pretty evenly matched, so we really never know until the very end of a game who the winner will be. It can turn on a dime. So far, out of 4 games, we're 2-2. We can't wait till Tuesday to see what happens next!

After a good workout we usually come home and collapse on the sofa and watch the waves toss around for a while. I really liked the shadows in late afternoon a couple of days ago. These are the same Palm trees that light up at night. Here the wind is blowing their branches straight up!

Yesterday and today we made a flying trip to Kerrville and back to pick up more items from our storage unit, and, most importantly, Curt's motorcycle and my scooter! We want to be ready for fun when this storm blows on by. 

A quick trip to my favorite store in Kerrville, Belk, where I was delighted to run into my friend Mirabel. 

She and her husband Tereso (did I spell that right, Mirabel?) and their son Ray live next door to the cute little cottage we rented for a year and a half in Kerrville, when I was teaching music lessons there while we resided outside of Leakey at the Children's Ranch.

And then today, on to Destination Cycle Sports to pick up the fun-mobiles.

Curt has always owned and enjoyed motorcycles. Though I was happy for him to have so much fun on them, I never really caught "the bug" riding behind him. Logging hours sitting behind a big round helmet, mostly watching the stripes in the road, not wanting to lean too far for fear of throwing us off-balance, never really held great appeal for me. So one day about 3 years ago when Curt asked if I wanted to go with him to pick up some coolant for his motorcycle, I went along mostly just for the company. As he headed out to the service shop to talk with the mechanics, I wandered around this showroom, just killing time.

That's when I saw it. The cutest little cobalt blue scooter, a Yamaha Zuma 125 cc. Suddenly I knew that I COULD enjoy motorcycle riding with Curt! When he returned from the service shop, I was just finishing up the paperwork on the purchase. He couldn't believe it! I took a motorcycle safety class which just happened to be scheduled for that weekend and just happened to have one space left for a rider with their own bike (all the rental bikes were claimed). I went from never having sat on the drivers seat of a motorcycle to grinning my head off as I swerved around obstacles and leaned into the curves. I LOVED it! I took a lot of good-natured abuse from the other students in the class about riding a scooter instead of a "real" motorcycle, but I bet I have every bit as much fun with Piglet as they do with their big motorcycles. (I named her that  because she's nowhere near a "hog"...just a little Piglet.)

So today we picked up Curt's BMW and Piglet after they had their post-storage safety check-ups.

 Here they are side by side in the utility trailer as Curt ties everything down.

In searching through our storage unit yesterday, we found all our motorcycle gear except our helmets. Since we are firm believers in the importance of protective headgear, we had to shell out the shekels today for two new helmets. But wait! These helmets are even ventilated! Yahoo!

Here's Chuck, our favorite parts manager, sealing the deal.

And Curt, who can find something fun to do with even the simplest of objects....

I've been writing this blog in the car between Kerrville and Rockport. We just passed the windmill that signifies we're almost home, but as you can see, we didn't beat the rain we were hoping to avoid.

Now to continue the moving-in process!