Travel Chapter 2 (or is it 3?)

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• Chapter 2

  I have not posted anything since we arrived home in October, 2015 from our first long trip. Over a year later I am now starting to blog another long trip that will take us back to some of our favorite places from before and also some new places. The broad brush plan is to travel down the east coast during December (already did that part and will post some pics). Then head west to spend several months in Texas, a month in Arizona and then visit numerous National Parks in Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and Montanna. We plan to stop in Duluth, MN in July to visit our daughter, Kathy and her adorable dog, Siena. After that we’ll wander home by August.

• Myrtle Beach

  Our first stop was in Myrtle Beach for the month of December. We have been to Myrtle Beach many times now and always enjoy it.

  Brookgreen Gardens

  One of our favorite attractions near Myrtle Beach is Brookgreen Gardens in Murrells Inlet.  It is an sculpture garden and zoo on beautiful property in the South Carolina lowlands that once was several rice plantations.  The sculpture gardens are over 500 acres. It is open to the public all year but during the Christmas season they string lights on all the trees for a beautiful display.

  

   

  

   

  

   

  The Beach

  We stayed at Myrtle Beach Travel Park (a campground we have enjoyed on previous trips). It’s right on the beach.   Several months ago Hurricane Matthew washed over and damaged many of the dunes on the South Carolina coast.

  

   

  

   

  

   

  

   

  

   

  

   

  Ripley’s Aquarium

  On a day when the weather kept us away from the beach we went to the Ripley’s Aquarium.  It’s small but interesting. This year they displayed Christmas trees all around the building, one for each state.

  
  

   

   

  

  

   

  

• Disney World

  When we first started planning this trip we spent some time deciding where to spend Christmas. Our first thought was Disney World but even though it was almost a year ago we could not get reservations at Disney’s campground, Fort Wilderness. The alternate plan was to celebrate Christmas in Myrtle Beach. A week before Christmas, Bill had the idea to try once more to get reservations at Disney. By some miracle they had an open site and we changed our plans. We celebrated Christmas with Mickey and the gang.

  

   

  

• Mustang Island

  Our home for the next 2 months is Mustang Island in Port Aransas, TX. Mustang Island is a barrier island on the gulf coast of Texas close to the more well known Padre Island. This is a really beautiful area. We are staying in a campground that just over the dunes from the beach.  A short walk on a boardwalk gets us to the water.

  

   

  Padre National Seashore

  Padre National Seashore is nearby. We took the jeep there today. The park has 62 miles of beach only accessible via 4-wheel drive vehicles. We went 30 miles!

  

   

  

   

  

   

  

   

  

   

  

   

• Padre Island National Seashore

   

  We left Mustang Island in Port Aransas on the Gulf Coast of Texas a few days ago. We were in Port Aransas for two months and took many trips in the Jeep down to Padre Island National Seashore. The National Seashore has 62 miles of 4-wheel drive beach.

  On one of our first trips in the National Seashore we were flagged down by the owner of a motorhome. He had gotten himself stuck in the sand and Bill pulled him out with the Jeep. There are actually very many RVs on the beach. It’s amazing we there are not more of them stuck in the sand.

  

   

  We often saw many people surf casting on the beach. One day we saw a couple of fisherman pull in a shark!!

  

   

  The currents in the Gulf of Mexico cause lots of interesting items to wash up onto the Padre Island beach.

  

   

  

   

  We found a deserted cabin at around mile 40.

  

   

  And many pelicans !!

  

   

  

• Port Aransas Ferry and Rockport

  There is a boat channel at the northern end of the Mustang Island – an entry into Corpus Christi bay.  There is a free ferry run by Texas DOT to cross the channel. One day we  took the ferry and then drove up the coast a bit to Rockport, TX. Rockport is a cute little coastal town with an ‘artsy’ flavor.

   

  

   

  

   

  

   

  

• Kayaking in Corpus Christi Bay

  As usual, we have our kayaks with us. One day while still on Mustang Island we took the kayaks over to Wilson’s Pass on the bay side of the Island.  The route we selected seemed typical for us. We saw some wildlife and had lunch on a small island.  But on the way back the wind picked up and for the first time ever I was not sure I could paddle back to our starting point against the wind. We noticed a dirt road by the edge of the water that we thought would lead back to the place where we parked the jeep. So I pulled my kayak out onto the shore while Bill paddled the last mile or so by himself so he could drive the jeep out to where I was waiting. Turns out that some of the “road” was nearly under water and very mucky. Luckily we have a 4-wheel drive and an excellent driver, otherwise: who knows!!! He did make it out to me with a very muddy jeep and we found another way back to the main road.

   

  

   

  

   

  

   

  

   

  

• Shipwreck on Mustang Island

  We saw this one day on the Mustang Island beach. Apparently the skipper fell and hit his head then was airlifted for medical attention. We heard conflicting stories about where the accident occurred – one version said he ran aground right off Mustang Island, another said the accident occurred near Port Isabel and the boat drifted up to Mustang.  Nevertheless the guy is OK and the boat was removed from the beach two days later.

  

   

  

   

  

  

• South Padre Island

  

  We were on South Padre Island, Texas for the two weeks. We left this past Wednesday. South Padre Island is a barrier island on the gulf coast of Texas and is very far south, close to Mexico.  We did not like it as much as Mustang Island. South Padre is more populated (lots of hotels and skyscrapers) and the beaches in many places are full of trash (very sad).

  We were there during Spring Break Week and we had been told by numerous people that the Island would be overrun with college students and we would not be able to drive anyplace due to gridlocked traffic. When we arrived at our campground some of the neighbors said they were leaving early to avoid the Spring Break “chaos”. We did see a number of college students and a slight increase in traffic but probably would not even have noticed if we did not hear the dire warnings from friends.

  We were hoping to do some 4-wheeling on the beach as we did on Mustang Island and Padre Island National Seashore, but the tides and weather were against us. On the beaches where 4-wheeling is normally done the water was so high it almost touched the dunes – even at low tide. The sand that was uncovered was soft and deep – easy to get stuck. So we did not drive on the beach but we found other things to do.

  Nature Center

  We visited the South Padre Island Birding and Nature Center.

  

   

  

   

  

   

  

   

  

   

  Dolphins & Doggy

  We went on a dolphin tour. The tour was on a small pontoon boat with a great skipper and a small dog who communicates with the dolphins. It was a beautiful day for a boat ride and we saw lots of dolphins.

  

   

  

   

  ISLA BLANCA STATE PARK

  We stayed in the Isla Blanca State Park Campground. We had a site close to the beach.

  

   

  

   

  

   

  

   

  

   

  Happy Birthday

  And we celebrated Bill’s birthday.

  
  

• Blooming Desert Parks in Southwest

  During the past month we visited a number of national parks in the desert southwest: Big Bend National Park in Texas, Saguaro National Park in Arizona, and Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Arizona.  We lucked out with timing of these visits. There was an unusually high amount of rain over the winter which has made the desert turn green with an abundance of wildflowers.

  

   

  

   

  

   

  

   

  

   

  

   

  

   

  

   

  

   

  

   

  

   

  

   

  

   

  

  
  
  

  
  
  

   

  

   

   

  And the landscape that is so different from the northeast is spectacular.

  

   

  

   

  

   

  

   

  

   

  

   

  

   

  

   

  

   

  

   

  

   

  

  
  
  

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