Wintering in Texas: part 1
Dec. 2021-Jan. 2022
South Padre Island
We tried to escape the cold temps of winter by staying in Texas for almost 3 months, traveling from Guadalupe Natl. Park in west Texas, to Fredericksburg in the Hill Country, and from there to Dallas for Christmas, then down to the southern tip of the state at Brownsville for the month of January.
In early December, we began our trek across the big state by staying in Fredericksburg, a cute town founded in the mid-1800’s by German immigrants. There were a lot of buildings on the main street and adjacent side streets that were well over 100 years old. Christmas is a big deal here—the town held a parade and decorated the historic buildings and plaza on Main Street.
Then we stayed at Mother Neff State Park, which is about a half-hour from Waco. This state park is small, with just a few hiking trails, but the campground was excellent! The sites were huge, with a lot of space between neighboring sites, and the whole campground was very clean.
We took a day trip to Waco for a bit of shopping and a return visit to Magnolia Market at the Silos. We’d been there about 5 years ago, and wanted to see what had been added since then. We went to the bakery to sample some sweet goodies, too.
This cupcake was called Cup of Jo. It was chocolate and coffee deliciousness!
We parked the RV for 3 weeks in the Dallas/Fort Worth metro, but we flew to Cincinnati the week before Christmas to spend several days with Craig’s parents.
While we stayed in Dallas, we took our granddaughter to the Fort Worth Zoo, which we had never been to before. It was nice, but it couldn’t compare to the St. Louis Zoo, in my opinion. To be fair, we didn’t see it all. Craig and I also went to the Fort Worth Stockyards to see the cattle drive, and have some Texas BBQ at one of the restaurants lining the historic street. The cattle drive is held twice daily. It was MUCH smaller than the real cattle drive we saw in Idaho last summer!
We also visited Main Street in Grapevine, because the town calls itself the Christmas Capital of Texas. The street was all lit up and crowds of people were walking up and down the street. Some kids were dressed in pajamas, ready to ride the train.
We ate dinner at Chez Fabien. I had an amazing lobster grilled cheese sandwich made with bacon and thick-sliced toast, and lobster bisque, and delicious creme brulee for dessert. Craig had a huge amount of profiteroles for dessert, which were puff pastries filled with vanilla ice cream and topped with chocolate sauce.
We celebrated Christmas with our oldest daughter, her boyfriend, our oldest granddaughter, our son and daughter-in-law, and my sister. It was so nice to spend the holidays with family this year. We did miss our other daughter and her family, though. Our oldest daughter and her boyfriend gave us the gift of an experience, since we don’t have room for more stuff in an RV. We got a session of indoor skydiving at iFly Dallas. It was fun!
Blurry because the guide was moving Craig around fairly fast!
Our other daughter and son-in-law gave us a gift card to Partenope Ristorante on Main St. in downtown Dallas. We enjoyed yummy Neapolitan pizza and cannoli.
Craig’s pizza was huge! The crust of Neapolitan pizza is light and airy, though.
After Christmas, we traveled to the southern tip of Texas, stopping at Mustang Island State Park on New Year’s Eve. We paid a quick visit to Padre Island National Seashore, since it is just down the road.
We stayed in Brownsville for all of January. We were hoping it would be warm, since our rig is not well-insulated. Most of the time, the weather was nice, but at least once a week, the wind blew so hard that it shook the RV for hours, and it was often rainy as well. The last week we were stuck inside our tiny home so much that we were glad when it was time to hit the road again.
However, we did manage to sightsee a bit. We went to South Padre Island, Boca Chica Beach, Palo Alto Battlefield, and Resaca de la Palma State Park.
On the way to South Padre, we stopped at the Port Isabel Lighthouse.
View from the lighthouse looking toward South Padre Island.
After enjoying a good seafood lunch at the Painted Marlin Grille, we sat on Isla Blanca Beach and watched the wind surfers. They weren’t having much luck that day, as the wind was fairly light and not steady. We had to pay a daily use fee of $12 to go on the beach.
On another day, we drove to Boca Chica Beach. This free beach is accessed from Brownsville, and is south of South Padre Island. The road to the beach runs right by a Space X facility. We could see some rockets in the process of being assembled. We could drive our car right onto the beach. We drove quite a distance down to the end of the beach, where the mouth of the Rio Grande empties into the Gulf of Mexico. The river was not wide, so Mexico was just a stone’s throw away.
The Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownsville was bigger and better than we thought it would be. We spent an enjoyable afternoon there. The flamingos were fun to watch. Most of them stood close together, walking and changing direction in sync.
We enjoyed watching the gibbons and other primates.
Palo Alto Battlefield National Historical Park was just a few miles from the RV resort where we were staying in Brownsville. The visitor center has exhibits that tell about this spot where the war between the U.S. and Mexico started in 1846. We walked a boardwalk trail, also.
On yet another beautiful day, we did some birdwatching at Resaca de la Palma State Park. There is a bird blind right behind the visitor center. We were happy to spot several species whose range in the U.S. is only in the southern tip of Texas. The Rio Grande Valley is a popular location for birdwatching, because it has tropical species as well as many migratory birds. We saw a chachalaca, which is a fairly large bird, walking on the ground, but I didn’t have my camera ready yet, so I didn’t get a picture of it.
Great kiskadee
Green jay—a brightly colored tropical bird.
At the beginning of February, we headed to west Texas. That will be the subject of the next post!