Life Jacket – Rockport, TX

One day while Boots was driving back to Aransas Pass from Rockport, she was third in a ‘clump’ of 4 vehicles. The vehicles were clumped because the front driver was a ‘looky-loo’ (or maybe just a lost tourist) who speeded up and slowed down at the most annoying times. As one of the drivers hoping for chance to pass, Boots noticed the car in front of her suddenly swerved to miss a life jacket on the highway. Boots figured she’d have no trouble clearing the thing so, rather than swerve, she straddled it and drove on. Later, back at the RV Park, she was putting the groceries away when Carole (RV Park owner) noticed something under the truck – the life jacket! Apparently because of the truck behind her, Boots didn’t see that the truck indeed had not cleared it and had completely forgotten about it.

So now, everyone is looking for the body and being a little more respectful around Boots in the RV park.

Bugs and Critters – Aransas Pass, TX

We know we talk about these a lot but what else is there to see when walking the dog 3 or 4 times a day? Here in this park, there are holes all over the gravel and silty bare ground The diameter varies from the size of a #2 pencil to a broom handle. The holes are not grouped in any fashion. They appear to have been dug ‘cause there is loose dirt around the opening. Karma doesn’t seem at all interested in what might have made them. She did once pee on one of the holes but it didn’t seem purposeful more accidentally aimed there.

Ruthi finally asked the park owner if she knew what made the holes. Ruthi was hoping it wasn’t snakes as Boots is terrified of them (snakes for Boots and spiders for Ruthi). Anyway, the holes are made by sand crabs. They are small steel gray fiddler crabs – Ruthi saw one the other day. The park owner said that during heavy rains the crabs will all congregate on the concrete porch in front of the office.
She also said that Wolf Spiders (poor Ruthi) will build web inside the opening to catch their prey. Supposedly Wolf spiders don’t hurt humans – but that doesn’t help Ruthi. Here’s a link to some pictures of them (https://www.google.com/search?q=wolf+spiders&hl=en&rls=com.microsoft:en-US:IE-SearchBox&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=Y3QlT6mNMpKDsgKw8aGMAg&ved=0CEMQsAQ&biw=1093&bih=438).

Wild Something – Ingleside, TX

We were touring the countryside around Aransas Pass and Ingleside looking at the other RV parks, houses, parks, canals, and bay shoreline. We came to the end of a roadway. Lucky for us in our long bed truck (22 feet but who’s counting), there was a big circle for us to slowly turn around and head back out. As we were maneuvering the truck, a “pig” or something like a black hairy animal came out of the brush and then seeing us turned back into the grasses. Karma’s response was “grr”, “aha”, “grr”. She ended up just looking at this new animal-to her. So, the three of us are wondering what this pig-like animal might be. Looked like a young wild boar without the razor sharp tusks to Ruthi. Boots went to the internet to confirm what it wasn’t – Tapir, Javelin, Vietnamese Pot Billy Pig. But we haven’t come to agreement on what it might have been. The RV Park owner said it was probably a feral pig which are very common here in South Texas.

Weather – Anywhere USA

We seem to talk about the weather a lot but remember we are retired!!!! Anyway, the weather (as those of you following these egotistical rants will remember) has been very variable – hot for a couple of days then cold for a few days and repeat. Well, here on the Gulf coast near Corpus Christie, weather and associated changes occur in minutes. We got ready to drive around and see what’s really here. When we left the RV, the temperatures were high 70’s (77 to be exact). We start driving inland and within minutes the temperature starts dropping. By the time we got back to the RV (less than 2 hours) the temperatures were in the LOW 60’s (like really 61 degrees).

NYT Crossword Puzzle – Aransas Pass, TX

Corpus Christi Paper Caller-Times has the NYT Crossword puzzles – Boots is especially thrilled to have the Sunday version. She is very good and usually finishes them in an afternoon. While Ruthi is working the Mondays well but only occasionally can do the Tuesdays! So, do you wonder who wins the word arguments????

Bridge from Point Comfort to Port Lavaca, TX

We crossed from Point Comfort to Port Lavaca on a long bridge. Temperatures outside truck dropped 8 degrees from 75 to 68 just crossing the water from 1 town to the other. Once we were back on land the temperatures returned to 75. This happened again between Lamar and Fulton over Copano Bay. Hmm, maybe we aren’t going far enough South!!!!

Birds on drive to Aransas Pass, TX

As we drove from Dickinson to Aransas Pass this morning on Texas Route 35, we saw 2 hawks fighting it out over some road kill on the side of the road! Lots of flapping of wings and thrusting towards each other and backing up!

Street Signs – Houston suburbs of Texas

Within the towns in this area, street signs have the city name on the right quarter or upper corner. I.e., Cursive “W” for Webster, “T” with flag badge for Texas City, etc. Since the RV Park is on the very North East corner of Dickinson, TX, it is very helpful as we exit the park to know we are in Texas City moving toward Kemah. If you think about the suburbs around other large cities, this little “accent” truly helps the visitors navigate around the look-a-like towns that flair out from the city centers.

Birds - Dickinson, TX

There are 2 ponds within the RV Park. We see a lot of ducks and one particular white bird (with some pink feathers similar to Flamingos coloring). Checking the internet, we discovered the white bird is a Roseate Spoonbill. This morning as we were driving out of the park past one of the ponds, the ducks were settled in a semicircle on the banks of the pond. The spoonbill was at the edge of the pond facing the seated ducks as if she was conducting a morning status meeting before they went about their day gathering food.