The rule here is two weeks camping at Bird Island basin, then you must camp elsewhere for two days before returning for another two weeks. For the windsurfers, "My two days out" means they're temporarily gone for two days before returning. They'll spend months here doing the two days out thing. It was not my intention when I came in, but I'm thinking seriously about the two weeks thing and maybe taking my two days out. And coming back. I like...
One of my all-time favorite places to park. I'm in the North Padre National Seashore unit at a dry-camp only spot on the Waterway side of the island. It's a famous sail boarding place, though there are only 5 boarders here now. Very, very few travelers around. Weather is warm (85/70), very humid, breezy, and sunny. Some disturbances will be here for the weekend, but nothing worth worrying about. The beaches are dry and have fluffy spots, not...
This has become one of my favorite stopping places, halfway between San Antonio and Corpus Christi. An excellent birding and wildlife place, and in the off-season a wonderful, quiet place. It's always a surprise to me see it was developed by the Bureau of Reclamation, not the Army Corps of Engineers. The facilities are equal to COE standards. The drawback is that it is now completely surrounded by oil facilities, which wasn't the case eight...
Every year the warnings go out alerting parents to be on the watch for marijuana-laden treats that look like candies or cookies. And every year (for decades) no such case has been found. It (and the razor blade in the apple meme) were debunked a long time ago. But rather than ignore this silliness completely, make a note of where the warning you heard came from, it's (human) source. Otherwise, parents, throw out anything from your kid's bag that...
It was a relief when I went into Hill Country this morning. Much easier on the eyes. It's still hot and humid, but a disturbance going through tomorrow should fix that for a while. I'm at the Escapee park here for about a week. Partly to take a break from driving, and then to fetch my mail. And BBQ can't be far away around here. I've no plans to go into San Antonio, I'll have plenty of cities ahead of me.
There's plenty of spaces in the RV parks around here, not too many tourists show up. The advantages are the limitless views of the largest mesquite forest I've seen. Interesting roadkill seen are armadillo (lots), anteater, javelina, racoon, wild hog, snakes and deer and furry cute animals. I've been going through the Panhandle but I'm picking up on the feel that I'm approaching Hill Country. Panhandle seems to be aspiring to be West Texas. I...
My fridge showed a fault code this morning: the flame detector had failed. I figured out what part I needed and looked at my plans. I was going to dry-camp as long as possible, but now I needed electricity to run the fridge. RV parks are not plentiful around here; quite scarce, actually. So I remapped my route and hope to find the parts in Abilene. When I got to a state park with electrical, the fridge was working fine. Hmmm. I'll be in reach of...
When I drive into Texas, I wonder how long it will be before I leave the state. Months, usually. I left Kansas, crossed the Oklahoma panhandle, and am now in Shamrock. I'm following US83 which is certainly not a touristy route, though it does go through Abilene. The region is oilfields, cattle, minerals, cow food, and wind farms. The highway is sparsely used, mostly trucks and white pickups. With the exception of the wind machine blades, I...
I'm here to pick up US83 which runs south all the way to Brownsville, Texas, which is where I was headed. Now I'm thinking of going to Corpus first. Whichever, I'll be on 83 for quite a while. I'm in an RV park, next to a wind-turbine factory. They make those huge components that you see on the interstate now and then, and I am very close to the Texas panhandle which is littered with the things. It's quite a sight, a very big operation. Tomorrow...
About a year or so ago, Kansas and Nebraska sued Colorado for legalizing cannabis, claiming that Colorado weed was coming into their state, breaking their laws. They even argued that people were driving through their states, breaking their laws. The Supreme Court listened to them and dismissed the case. States don't sue each other over such trivial things. Yesterday the Kansas Attorney General complained that Colorado pot had "permeated" the...
Normally when I write about cannabis and Colorado it's about a major freak-out over something just discovered about how to regulate the industry. As of now, there isn't a big freakout, but still a few things of interest to the regulated states. Last week a law took effect that required marking edibles with a standard symbol, and restricting labeling of edible products. This in the name of "protecting the children" but in reality is likely more...
After doing my sightseeing (mountains, city, etc) I was about to leave when my water pump failed. I have a spare, but I knew from experience that the job would take a day. A rain day was forecast (for today) so I stayed on until I got it fixed. Tomorrow I'll head to Pueblo. The water pump is easy enough to replace, 2 pipes and 2 wires. Trouble is, the builder of my house installed the pump, then built the cabinetry, the furnace, and the fridge...