Post #27

 Monday, March 30, 2026

Only a few days left and we will be heading north!  We hate to think of leaving this place, so we made the decision to come back next year.  The weather here has been great and the place we are staying is clean,  laid back, peaceful, and with many friendly people.  Check out the YouTube Video:  Seagrass RV Resort.  (View the one that is titled RV Resort Makes no Sense for only $599 a month).  We took a drive today to Corpus Christie to run some errands and then took a drive along the coast for our water views.  We sure are going to miss this.

Layne has been fishing a lot.  He catches fish, but most are not keepers.  I would go along, but I don't want to fish for 6-8 hours.   

We will write again when we are on the road.

NOTE:  Our new mailing address:  5004 Valerie Dr., Crystal Lake, IL 60014. 

Later

Post #26

 March 15, 2026

Hello everyone!

Again not much is new.  We are just living everyday life.  Layne has been fishing a lot from the piers and shores/banks in the bays.  He catches fish, but they are too small to keep.  We haven't gone charter fishing yet because we don't want to pay the $700 fee for 4 hours. 

The weather here has been in the 70's.  We feel bad for our family and friends living in the Midwest with all your crazy weather.  Be safe!

We have a new mailing address:  5004 Valerie Dr., Crystal Lake, IL 60014

We just wanted to keep in touch and let you know we are well.

Later

Post #25

 January 30, 2026

First of all Belated Happy Birthdays to:  Judy, Gordy, Creed, Rachel and Greg!

Yesterday, Thursday we had a fun day.  We drove to Kingsville, Texas and went to the King Ranch.  

It's the largest ranch in the world, 825,000 acres!  We took a tour of the ranch and saw many animals such as:  Quarter horses, long horned cattle, javelinas (similar to pigs) , armadillos, peacocks

 

King Ranch is more than just cattle.  Although they have 35,000 cattle and over 200 working horses, they are also the largest turfgrass grower in Texas and one of the largest cotton and milo producers. They own an additional 60,000 acres in Florida where they grow sugar cane, turfgrass and citrus, making them one of the largest sod producer in Florida and the state's largest producer of orange juice.  King Ranch also has operations in 3 other states and 7 countries besides the United States.  King Ranch, Texas generates additional revenue with over 150,000 acres of specialized hunting and over 600 gas and oil wells.  Finally, King Ranch has over 500 employee spread across 54 locations and 4 continents where it has an annual revenue north of 630 million dollars.

Yes, Ford's pickup trucks are in partnership with King Ranch.  In fact, there is a Ford Service Garage on the ranch just to service ranch vehicles, including their fleet of school buses.  Yup, the ranch has it's own school system with it's own separate school district.  In addition to all the sports programs you normally expect, they also offer competition in archery, skeet shooting and rodeo.

Monday, February 21, 2026

I know we haven't written lately, but we have been laying back and not doing much.  Layne has gone fishing, a few times during the night and also day time.  Not much luck though.  We sometimes go on drives to be by the water and have a late lunch.  We also are starting to plan our Alaska trip. 

Today was interesting.  We heard a lot of sirens around us and found out the property close to us (about 3 blocks away) was on fire.  You could see the heavy black smoke blowing in the air as a few building and 9 acres burned.  They called in 7 local fire departments and airtankers to finally gain control of the fire.  Thank goodness the wind was blowing in the direction opposite of us.  It's so dry here and we were worried about a huge grass fire.   

This is what it looked like from our RV:

Later

Post #24

 Saturday, January 24, 2026

Not much happened this week.  We drove to Rockport on Wednesday to run some errands.  The pic is a  view in Rockport.

Layne went fishing a couple of times at the pond here at the resort.  He caught some fish which was a little more exciting than last weeks fishing. We went on walks and just relaxed all week.

Late this afternoon Layne brought in our plants as the temp is supposed to be at 32 tonight, followed by a few nights in the mid-20's.  We are not expected to get any snow or ice where we are.  The next week shows cooler temps with highs in the 40s and 50s.  

We miss our friends and family up north, but do not miss the extreme cold, snow and ice many of you are suffering through.  We wish you the best!

Later

 

Post #23

Wednesday, January 14, 2026

We love it here.  The weather has been in the 60's and 70's plus there is a lot to explore.  Monday and Tuesday we stayed at the RV Resort. Layne went fishing a couple of times here at the pond where you can fish, but it's catch and release.  Today, Wednesday we drove to Aransas Pass and Port Aransas.  We  had to cross the bay on a long bridge and about a mile later we took a ferry to cross another bay to get to Mustang Island.

We drove for a few miles on Mustang Beach to Mustang State Park.  It was a new experience to drive on the sand with the Gulf of Mexico waters only a few feet away.  Technically, this area is north and separate from Padre Island to the south

 

Friday, January 15, 2026

Happy Birthday Rachel!

Today we drove to Corpus Christie and to the Padre Island National Seashore,  This is north half of Padre Island which is 113 miles long and the longest undeveloped barrier island in the world.  The Padre Island National Seashore is administered by the National Park Service and covers the northern 65 miles of Padre Island.

We again drove along the shoreline.  The Gulf was much rougher here the waves were big.  We watched a couple of men fishing from the shore.  On the way back we stopped for a late lunch of seafood.

Today is Saturday and we are watching football.

Later

Post #22

Sunday, January 4, 2026
We drove three hours today and stayed at Enoch's Stomp Vineyard and Winery in Harleton, Texas.   This winery was on a beautiful countryside estate.  It was refreshing to see new flowers planted along the walkway.  Yes, we tasted the wine samples and had a lite dinner.

Monday, January 5, 2026
Today we traveled to Waco, Texas.  Of course we had to go to the Magnolia Market (HGTV - Chip and Joanna Gaines).  We walked around the Plaza, went into the bakery shop, sat for awhile in the courtyard enjoying the 73 degree weather.  The silos were closed, but it was fun to see them decorated for Christmas! 

 

   

 

After walking around we were hungry so we went to Terry Black's BBQ and oh was it good!  We had brisket, ribs and five different sides.  The brisket had great flavor and melted in your mouth

This is where the magic happens.  Each brisket will spend its final 10 hours in the smoker wrapped in paper.  We were told that tomorrow they will prepare 144 of these briskets to meet the expected demand for the following day.  We forgot to ask how many ribs (pork and beef) and pounds of  sausage would be smoked.  We found the ribs to be the best we had ever tasted.  There are 4 sets of dual smokers like in the photo below.

 

We also got our history fix by touring the Waco Mammoth National Monument.  These Mammoth are significant because they are primarily female and young while most Mammoth sites in the Americas feature adult bulls - if you didn't know, at one time Mammoths covered a range from South America through central Canada.  Furthermore, there are multiple generations spanning at least 15,000 years - meaning at least 2 separate generations perished at this site approximately 15,000 years apart with the oldest generation dying around about 50,000 years ago.  Scientist have a working theory that two separate deep droughts, about 15,000 years apart, caused the Mammoth to die at this site.  Perhaps the most interesting discovery at this site is a camel.  It appears the Asian and African camel actually originated in the Americas and then migrated across the Bering Land Bridge.

Tuesday January 6, 2026

Today we drove 3 hours to Castroville, Texas.  We we on I35 and drove through Austin and San Antonio.  This is a pic of our campsite for two nights.  It's nice and quiet here.

Wednesday, January 7, 2026

Today we slept in and then went to San Antonio and took a Riverwalk cruise.  We learned a lot about the history, the hotels and restaurants along the riverwalk.

 

After the cruise we had lunch at the first restaurant on the Riverwalk Casa Rio in 1946.  Very good food!  It was a fun day so tonight we are getting ready for tomorrow's travel and then relaxing.

 

Thursday, January 8, 2026

Traveled about 2 1/2 hours to our final destination, Aransas Pass, Texas which is 23 minutes north of Corpus Christie.  On our drive we passed Artichoke, watermelon, winter wheat fields, and of course lots of cattle.   On Friday we did a deep clean inside the RV (lots of dust), went grocery shopping and then sat outside enjoying the nice late afternoon.  Below is a pic of the RV on our lot, our home for the next 3 months.

 

We finally can use our solar lights!

Hope everyone is well.

Later

Post #21

 Sunday, December 28, 2025

It rained all day!  We stayed at a Camping World for three nights.  On Monday and Tuesday we went to all our appointments, picked up our mail, went grocery shopping, and visited some friends.  On these days it snowed and was cold which reminded us why we want to go south.

Wednesday, December 31, 2025

Today we traveled to Benton, Illinois.  The roads were good and we be beat the snow! We rested that night because we drove 6 1/2 hrs.

Thursday, January 1, 2026

A New Year!  We traveled to Pocahontas, Arkansas.  We are always amazed seeing the cotton fields in Missouri.  Here's a fun fact:  Missouri is the leading producer of cotton in the United States.  Only a 3 hour drive today and we stayed at a nice rural campground enjoying the 60 degree weather.

Friday, January 2, 2026

Left Pocahontas and drove 3 hours to Jessieville, Arkansas. As we drove we noticed  crops in the fields  we didn't recognized. Turns out it's rice fields!    Another fun fact:  Arkansas is the leading producer of long grain rice in the United States, who knew?  We stayed at a campground near an active crystal mine that allows people to pick through their tailings for a fee and/or zip line over the mines.  We did not attempt to do either activity; instead, we visited Hot Springs.

Saturday, January 3, 2026

Today was a fun day!  We took an audio tour of the Hot Springs National Park.  We went to the Lookout Tower and the views from the top were breathtaking.

 

This is for our Deer Hunter Families and Friends: On our drive through the Park we saw six deer and they were all bucks!  They just stood there watching us.  In the picture it shows only four. 

While touring Hot Springs National Park, we found Whittington Park.  At one time, Hot Springs was epicenter of spring training for many baseball teams.  Whittington Park is where dozens of early Hall of Fame players started their seasons.  While it is now a parking lot for a lumber company, the famous home plate has been preserved and is memorialized with signs (I had a pic of Babe Ruth's sign, but accidently deleted it).  This Home Plate is where Babe Ruth stood and hit the ball 573 ft. 

After the Park we went to The Gangsters Museum of  America in Hot Springs. Back in the 20's to the 50's that town was "THE"  place for gangsters to hangout.  They owned most of the town by controlling the hotels, gambling and brothels.  The mayor, judges, police and firefighters were all controlled by The Mob.  Al Capone, Bonnie & Clyde, Owning Madden, Lucy Luciano, and many more were frequent visitors.  

Also, in the Museum was a display of Baseball Spring Training.  Below is the original famous statue of Babe Ruth that was at Yankee Stadium.  Can you imagine what that is worth? 

Finally, during the tour we were reminded that product advertising has changed but has not evolved very much.

Tomorrow we leave for our next stopover.  I am excited because we are getting closer to our winter destination.

Later