Rio Travelers: May 2011

Well, we're still in Texas. After leaving Fort Worth we made our way down south to check out where all the "winter Texans" head. Our first stop was at the Messina Hof winery. We had become familiar with their wines while in Texas and though we would pay a visit. They even let us camp overnight in their parking lot. Their wines are excellent and we bought a few bottles. After the winery we headed down to our company's office in Livingston where we did some work getting things ready for our summer trip to Alaska. We provide our guests with road logs and some perks like jackets so we packed up their "goody bags". The motor home in the picture is not ours, it belongs to another staff member who was also there visiting.

Next stop was Corpus Christ where we stayed at the Naval Air Station RV park. The park overlooks the Gulf on some prime real estate. The park has a population of hares that are everywhere. The beaches were disappointing as there was alot of seaweed that, we were told, is quite common. So no swimming in the Gulf of Mexico even though the water was quite warm. After Corpus Christi we headed down to South Padre Island - where I am writing this update. SPI is one of the premier birding spots in the country particularly during Spring and Fall migrations. We are too late for that but we visited the Birding center and saw many shore and wading birds like terns, plovers, gulls, etc. The park we are staying at is at the southern tip if the island and you can see Mexico across the harbor. The beaches were much nicer and the Gulf waters were warm enough to swim in but the winds have been blowing at an almost constant 30 mph and the undertow has been very strong - so no swimming here either. SPI is a nice place to visit, it has high rise condos and hotels and restaurants but it is mich quieter than the Jersey shore with its amusements, etc. The temperatures are approaching the 90's already so I wouldn't want to be here in the summer. Alot of fishing and we had an excellent dinner with some of the local fish like red snapper and grouper. The gulf shrimp are also excellent.

Today we are heading to the Rio Grande Valley today - talk about hot!!!! The valley as they call it has over 500 camp grounds that are full in winter. We just wanted to check it out while we are in the area.