Texas state parks

Corpus Christi Camping and a Bday Celebration in Port Aransas

Spot the dolphin! 🐬

After all the hustle and bustle of city life and running around, we planned for a restful week of boondock camping on the Gulf Coast. Corpus Christi is an easy drive from SA/Austin so that was our logical choice. Mustang Island is a State Park along the chain of islands that allows primitive beach camping for $10/night so we registered for a handful to start out our beach week.

In the meantime, we had a birthday to plan a celebration for, Natalie turned 15 on Groundhog’s Day. Our bestest friend Sara and I conspired to have her show up as a surprise for the bday girl. (Fully vaccinated) Sara made her travel plans and and Airbnb rental that coincided with our beach timing. When we got to camp on Friday I made an excuse to run to the store but really drove to the airport to pick her up. We got back and saw the fam had finished setting up camp and were strolling down the beach. We ditched our shoes and started walking their way and when we got close enough the kids realized who was with me. Big hugs ensued all around and we were astonished that we pulled this off with relative ease despite being in close confines with the kids basically all the time. easily

Three nights of camping directly on the beach was sufficient for us, sand was literally everywhere and when the coastal winds pick up it leaves a salty/sandy film on every single surface (my mentor Becca calls this “special sand” and boy is she right!). It was a little daunting considering how we might go about cleaning all of this up but with Sara nearby in Port Aransas and with her Airbnb host’s approval we moved inland and moved into the house so we could give Flossie a deep clean. What a marvelous reset for all of us. We made meals together, celebrated the birthday girl with homemade BBQ and cake, walked to the port for dolphin viewing, to the beach for more sand that we could then clean off in an outdoor shower before returning home, and we scrubbed every last inch of our little trailer while it was semi-empty in the Airbnb driveway. Sara – you’ll never fully know how much this break was needed and how it restored us so that we could get back on the road with fresh everything – perspectives, energy, sheets and towels, appreciation…

Homemade Tres leches with what candles the Airbnb had on hand

How many miles did we walk barefoot on the sand? Countless (actually around 50). And writing this a week later while hunkered down during a polar vortex makes the memory seem like a mirage, or at least like it was a really really long time ago.

We moved further south down the coast for a few days near Brownsville where we had our first sketchy hipcamp experience (saved in my review and not worth repeating), but also geeked out at Space X, which was super cool. We ate some very delicious and authentic Mexican food – I’m loving these border towns the more time we spend near Mexico. Then we spent two nights in Laredo, Tx so I could see a chiropractor and we could get more supplies before moving on to Del Rio. We ate all the Latin foods for very little dollars and everyone in Laredo wondered what some gringos from Denver would be doing passing through their corner of Texas. Seriously, the chiropractor questioned it, a fellow RV park guest asked, as well as the Salvadoran man we ordered our dinner from on our final night. Despite their lack of enthusiasm for Laredo, it was far better than El Paso and everyone treated us with kind Texas hospitality we’ve come to know and love.

Beachy sounds are always good

San Antonio, Tx

We departed from Marfa on a really chilly and really early morning in order to make it to the San Antonio area before nightfall. We tend to avoid major interstates so our mode of travel is slow and meandering. This was one of our longest travel days in awhile as we tend to break up a long haul over several days but it was less feasible this time with the reservation window we had at the state park on the northwest side of SA.

It stayed chilly and we got socked in a wet weather pattern for most of our stay in San Antonio. This was our first parlay with any moisture since snow in Bryce Canyon NP way back in mid-November. It’s been nice taking the winter off but we were bound to catch some inclement weather sometime. The upside was, of course, no crowds anywhere. We had the run of the one open state park trail and campground pretty much to ourselves. We also got our first experience with some of Texas’s wildlife, armadillos rooting around everywhere, vibrant red cardinals, strange dinosaur-sounding birds that we were never able to identify but certainly heard numerous times. We obtained a Texas State Parks pass for this visit and plan to fully utilize it as long as there are places to stay.

Here’s proof that not ALL armadillo in Texas are dead on the side of the road.

Along with plenty of time in nature, we visited the Alamo and enjoyed exploring the greater San Antonio area, we met up with three former New Denver Church families and spend an evening picnicking with them and catching up.

The Alamo (which was smaller than we were expecting)

Our favorite lucky food find was a hole in the wall BBQ joint where we had the best brisket we’d ever tasted. If you’re ever there go to The Station BBQ and have a spiritual experience (if you like meat of course).

We were pleasantly surprised with our mutual enjoyment of this place so we went ahead and extended three more days before departing to Austin. Our visit with our friends also filled the longing for connection we didn’t realize we’d been missing since departing from our new friends in Tucson. This pandemic may change how we interact with one another for a long time into the future but it doesn’t mean we need one another any less. Community remains important even when we’re distant and have to get creative to see each other.