Texas Cities

11/24/19 – 1/3/20

Dallas

Our first city stop in Texas was Dallas. We stayed northwest of the city at Lewisville Lake Park at a nice campground with a fantastic disc golf course. We played 18 holes of which half the course was along the lakeshore and half was in the woodlands. It is our favorite course so far.

Went into Dallas for a day to see the Museum of Art which had a fascinating video exhibit of musicians simultaneously playing in different rooms of a large house. Then we went next door to the Nasher Sculpture Center which we should have skipped because we ended up with a parking ticket for choosing the wrong place to park. Oh well.

We were able to add the Texas state sticker to our map. Our rule is that we need to spend a night in the state to put the sticker on the RV. There’s no longer a large void space in the bottom.

Austin

For Thanksgiving we meet Alyssa, Marta and Isabel in Austin. We had a delicious turkey and all the fixings for a fabulous feast at Isabel’s place. It was nice to cook in a big kitchen for a change and be with great friends again!

We were also celebrating Alyssa’s 25^th birthday so we went bowling, hiking, had taco’s, margarita’s, cake and ice cream, went to a sculpture park, a craft shop, and a saloon where she rode a mechanical bull (on her bucket list)!

It was a fun week together and hard to say goodbye to everyone. That’s the pros and cons of this traveling lifestyle.

Austin is a fun city with lots of new buildings and restaurants, young energy, and modern architecture. Very clean, safe, and trendy. Downside … traffic and construction on the highways are terrible. We got around fine, with a few u-turns here and there, but the downtown traffic at rush hour was very bad.

San Antonio

Next on the list was camping at Braunig Lake RV Resort in San Antonio. We drove into the city and enjoyed the river walk admiring the enormous arching bald cypress trees decorated with holiday lights. It felt magical and our timing was perfect to listen to a Mariachi Concert at the Rivercenter. Of course we saw “The Alamo” then went to the Japanese Tea Garden. We enjoyed free admission night at San Antonio Museum of Art with a bonus holiday bell-ringing concert.

The highlight of our visit was going to the San Antonio Botanical Garden and seeing “Big Bugs” which was an art exhibit that went to Garden in the Woods when I worked there about 10 years ago. As we walked up to the first sculpture we saw two people getting ready to take down the giant insect since the exhibit finished the day before. I asked if he was the artist, David Rogers and he said “yes.” I mentioned that I worked at the Garden years ago and he actually said he remembered me! I was amazed, then he said, “your name is Lisa … Lisa Mattel.” Wow! I almost fell on the ground. OK so, he got one letter wrong but he truly remembered me from my photography. I gave him a CD of photos that I took of his Big Bug sculptures at the garden, which he continues to use for promoting his work. It was amazing to reunite, meet his partner Terri, get a ride in his golf cart, then have a group shot together under the ant sculpture. SMALL WORLD and so much fun seeing them!!!

Even though San Antonio is a large city with many things to see and do, we could always find street parking (no tickets), and even during rush hour we only hit a 5-minute backup on the highway. Much easier to navigate through the city and was more diverse and affordable than Austin.

Harlingen

We arrived on December 10 to spend a couple of weeks with Guy and Eileen. The weather warmed up, with temps in the 70’s and 80’s with only a couple of rainy days. Guy is an excellent cook and baked bread, made pasta, pizza, baguettes, focaccia…all delicious! Together we explored an aloe farm, thrift shops, South Padre Island, and visited Mexico to get our teeth cleaned for $25. We found another disc golf course nearby and even though there weren’t many trees to get caught in, Bob managed to lose a disc when it was overthrown and rolled into the lake. Guess what he wanted for Christmas? Bob and Guy went biking a few times each week with a rewarding breakfast destination.

We had a great holiday with Guy and Eileen and their friends and enjoyed a delicious feast together. We are very grateful for our quality time with family this holiday. Thanks for everything Guy and Eileen!

Rockport

After Christmas we drove north to meet the Swinton family and Marta in Rockport which is just north of Corpus Christi. The campground we all stayed at was Ancient Oaks which is one of many “oak” themed parks in the area. We immediately were greeted by a group of campers who were sitting in a circle near our site. Very friendly people!

The town of Rockport was within walking distance from the campground and was quaint and artsy along a beautiful beach area. Nearby we visited the South Texas Botanical Garden which had huge greenhouses filled with hundreds of assorted orchids and other tropical plants. Further south, we drove to Padre Island National Seashore for a nice walk on the beach.

On New Year’s Eve, we went into Corpus Christi and went onboard the USS Lexington to explore the massive WWII aircraft carrier. It was very interesting to learn about the history of the ship and go on the different deck levels. Afterwards, we had dinner at the Water Street Oyster Bar. Bob and Marta enjoyed the fresh oysters (not for me) with a main course of shrimp enchiladas. I had a seared swordfish with mango salsa which was very yummy. We all split a decedent chocolate cheesecake for dessert.

Back at the campground, a NY Eve party had started with karaoke, snacks, dancing, raffles, and $1 margaritas. These campers know how to party and passed around different flavored shots all night. Most lasted till midnight and we exchanged hugs with all our new friends!