Returning to Texas
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| Hiking The Window, Big Bend National Park |
For our 2023 winter travels, we returned to the South, this time determined to find places we want to stay longer, focused on 55+ communities. We knew we'd hit Texas first to meet family in Port Aransas, visit our friends in Port Isabel, finally make it to Big Bend, and then swing over to Arizona to explore Tucson and the Phoenix area.
Our plan was to leave around January 5, giving us time to put away our holiday decor and pack for our journey. And just like previous years, as the winter weather wears on us, we bump that up a few days with a plan to spend any extra days around Waco, in a COE RV park at only $17 a night. We backed our fifth wheel into our driveway to prep, and then it snowed. And snowed. And snowed. For three straight days. It snowed over a foot. By then we had to wait for the roads to clear, and even had to shovel some of the snow off the roof to avoid an avalanche for drivers behind us! Our first day we left about noon, checking road conditions along the way as even on plowed roads the snow was blowing across the highway. We ended up making it to Des Moines, and checking into a hotel for the night.
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| Leaving our neighborhood early Jan |
After one more night in a hotel near Wichita, KS, we were on our way to Waco. After navigating some of the lovely construction in the Fort Worth area, a quick stop at Tim's first Buc-ee's, we backed into a HUGE site in the Speegleville COE, just west of Waco. There we were able to unpack, get settled for our third winter of snow-birding.
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| Site 004, Speegleville COE |
While in Waco we visited Bare Arms Brewing and Brotherwell Brewing, and spent a lot of time picking up trash along Lake Waco. I mean a lot. After a few relaxing days we packed up and headed about five hours southeast to Port Aransas, enduring two way traffic in the endless constructions zones, sometimes with a semi coming towards you and about six inches of shoulder to work with. We finally pulled into the Pioneer Beach Resort, where we had reservations for a week.
Port Aransas
We really like Port Aransas, and thought maybe this 55+ park would be a great place to stay longer term in the future. Although the people were nice, we never really got involved in any of the activities other than walking the beach and the hot tub. And we were kept busy because Tim's sister and her husband kind of surprised us! We did have plans to meet them there but they had to cancel, then they were able to go at the last minute but they didn't tell us until we saw them while on a walk! We enjoyed some of the local sights, including a band saw racing competition at one of the best dive bars ever, the Gaff.
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| Site 502 at Pioneer Beach |
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| Belt Sander Races at the Gaff |
Port Isabel
We met up with our friends that helped us out during the winter of 2021 in Port Isabel. Port Isabel Marina & RV Park, the park we moved to in 2021 after the KOA lost power, has made so many improvements, and many more to come. It was great to back into a site that overlooks a marina, where we saw dolphins jumping and playing virtually every day. We didn't have the greatest weather but we made the most of it. Tim went fishing for half a day and caught the most expensive fish we've ever eaten (if you count the cost of the fishing and the fee the restaurant charged to prep to fish).
Tim was able to create a video with his drone showing the marina and surrounding area. There's not much hiking in south Texas, but we did take a day trip to bike at Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, where we saw tons of birds, an armadillo, and Nilgai antelope.
And we finally visited the South Padre Turtle Hospital! They do such great work and in 2021 they saved over 3500 turtles from the frigid ocean water.
After two weeks in Port Isabel, it was time to head west and finally make our way to Big Bend National Park. We had to skip our visit to the park in 2021 due to the weather, but this year we made it! See our post here.
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