A Delightful Time in Texas…

And so it happened… my last day in Rockport showed up on the calendar. As morning dawned it was time to hit the road… but alas, this time would be different. Why? Well, with Sharon still in North Carolina, this would be first time I'd move without my trusty side-kick and navigator…

My stress level was a bit higher than normal as I embarked upon my checklist. I readied the inside of the RV for travel then it was outside to pull in the sewer and water hookups. With everything nearly ready I fired up the RV and let her run a bit as I pulled in the slides and brought up the jacks.

One final trip outside to pull in the power cord and the wheels were ready to roll. I pulled out of the site a bit so I had room to maneuver our Honda CRV in behind to get it ready to tow. After texting Sharon to verify what needed to be done to prepare the CRV I completed the sequence. Attaching the tow bar was managed by myself without issue so all that was left was checking the lights and turn signals.

It took a while as I had to do a little jiggling to get all the lights to work properly. I guess the salt air took a toll on the electronics so I made a mental note to clean them thoroughly at my next site. With the checklist complete I hopped into the driver's seat, put it in drive and off I went. I did pause to double and triple check the route to ensure there would be no surprises. About two hours later I pulled into the county park in Shiner, Texas!

Disconnecting the CRV and backing in by myself in the empty park with double wide slots was easier than I expected so it wasn’t long before I was all hooked up. After settling in I figured I needed a reward so off I went to the Spoetzel Brewery, home to Texas Shiner Beer. While we have visited the brewery many times before, things sure had changed.

No longer were free samples allowed but for only $5.00 I received two tokens which could be exchanged for two pints of any Shiner beer. My choice was the Black Lager which I carried outside where I found a fellow strumming his guitar and bellowing out some great lyrics. How nice it was to hear live music again!! It was a great way to unwind after a travel day.

The next day I had gone in the CRV for one more quick visit to see my son and his family in San Antonio. Our grandson Cameron wanted to show me his new skateboard. Afterwards, we enjoyed a nice time down in the Pearl District of San Antonio where we took in some people watching and enjoyed a nice craft beer while doing so.My son made a great dinner to finish the day off.

The next morning I left and on the way home I went over to the nearby town of Gonzales to check out the town and play a little disc golf. Gonzales is a town Sharon and I will have to visit again some day to check out its history. Before I got all the way home I stopped in Luling Texas and picked up some of the best BBQ brisket you will ever eat from City Market. Yum!

Once back in Shiner I had to check out a place I heard about called Howard’s. I couldn’t really believe what I had heard about this little dive so I had to see it for myself. I pulled into the front of what appeared to be a run down convenience store. As I walked in and looked around sure enough there were a lot of VHS videos for rent, Blue Bell ice cream for sale and yes beer on tap for sale!

I bought a large draft Shiner Bock for a pittance of $2.75 and sat in a booth by the front door. As I sat I saw one cowboy after another walk into the store, plunk down $2.75 for a draft of their choice then leave the store, get back into their pick-up truck and drive off. Yes, it was true! This little dive sells draft beer to people who plan to buy one for the road!!! It’s as if the clock had turned back in time which made for another entertaining day on this Road of Retirement…

NOTE:  While Sharon is in North Carolina I am now currently at in College Station, Texas until  June 15th…

Carolina Beach Last Day and Shrimp Fest in Little River SC…

Our last day at Carolina Beach we walked over to a nearby Brewery to play their 9 hole disc golf course. It was a nice short course which we played twice and of course it had the added benefit of  the ability to stop at the brewery for an after golf treat. To end our stay we drove over to Carolina Beach to have a beer an an eclectic dive bar called The Fat Pelican.

It is a quirky dive bar with an 18 wheeler refrigerated truck attached to it.  Patrons go past the bar upon entering to walk up and into the truck to pick from over 400 bottled beers.  Once the beer is selected, it is opened and paid for at the bar.  This bar is chocked full of funny signs and beachy knick knacks. We found an outdoor area with cornhole boards and ended our day chatting with a very nice fellow in town on business from Richmond, Va. 

The next morning we headed south through Myrtle Beach and Charleston SC to our next stop at Wishing Well Campground in Sunset Beach, NC. It was a small mom and pop Passport America park where we stayed 3 nights. The location is just south of Myrtle Beach so we were able to explore the area a bit before moving further south.

Before going to our overnight accommodations we stopped at Black's Tire and Service center. As I mentioned before we had a Goodyear G670 RV tire shipped there from the website Simpletire.com. I elected after calling for some quotes to use then because they sell tires cheap!!! I bought the tire online for hundreds of dollars less that what I had been quoted ($970 installed). Black's came highly recommended and when I called to verify that morning, sure enough my tire was there.

We pulled around to an outside bay as instructed and didn’t even have to unhitch the CRV. They replaced our tire with the newly balanced one in less than an hour. Our total bill for removal of old tire, balancing and installation of new tire was under $60. My total savings by doing everything myself was more than $300. Yep, I will surely do this again for our next set of tires!!!

After setting up in Wishing Well campground the day was pretty shot so we spent a quiet day at home. The next day we drove into Myrtle Beach to check out the beaches from South Myrtle Beach to North Myrtle Beach. It is always nice to spend some time on the beach listening to the waves crash in…

Our last bit of excitement was attending the Shrimp Fest in Little River SC. The main reason I wanted to attend it was there was a Zydeco band named Nathan and the Zydeco Cha Chas playing. The fest itself was mostly just a bunch of vendors but the music we heard for a measly $5 admission was fantastic.

First we heard a solo one man band dude who explained to the crowd that he had spent a lot of time in volunteering with his wife in Africa.He wrote and sang songs raising money for the people of Africa. Brian Ernst was pretty amazing and has an interesting story! The next band we head was a brass band called The Empire Strikes Brass. They were a very eclectic band that mostly resembled the band Chicago but had elements of Country and Western and even Hip Hop making for a very entertaining afternoon.

However, the cream of the crop was indeed Nathan and the Zydeco Cha Chas. The place was up and dancing by the third song as Zydeco so often makes even the person who doesn’t like to dance (like me)… well, dance!!!! The mixture of sounds from the lead, the squeezebox, spoons and keyboards had everyone in the audience moving and gyrating. What a fantastic ending to our stay before moving on…

NOTE: We are now south of Charleston but leave on Thursday to head to Brunswick Georgia for three nights.

Having Fun in Blanco Texas

Although we mostly planned to take it easy hiding out in Fredericksburg for the duration of spring break, we actually had a lot of fun. We found a great place to survive Spring Break after all!

Next up for us was a short day of less than 25 miles a bit further east to Blanco State Park in Blanco Texas. We have stayed before and love this scenic little park. We also move very slowly once we are in the Texas hill country especially in the spring as it is the best time of year in our opinion so we want to enjoy it fully.

We checked in with the ranger at Blanco State Park and were given a great site with a view of the river. We got set up, relaxed a bit then strolled into town. It is easy to walk into town from the state park and from there we thought we should continue on with the walk over to the Real Ale Brewery since it was near happy hour. Real Ale Brewery is my favorite brewery in all of Texas so we bellied up to the bar and enjoyed some of their fine craft brews.

Another day we took a road trip on the back roads in the hill country over to Boerne, Texas and then on to San Antonio to shop at their Costco and Harbor Freight Tools. I needed a small torx set to repair our coffee maker that went on the fritz. I was sure glad our daughter Katie gifted us our Aeropress manual coffee maker because with the coffee maker broken it has provided some heavenly morning coffee. It is also so easy to use and to clean . We just love it!

The drive to San Antonio through the hill country between Blanco and Boerne was really scenic. The wildflowers along the roadside made it pleasant to drive through this part of the state this time of year. We even saw quite a few deer and a special treat was we were able to stop to watch a couple of Tom Turkeys courting some hens. They were in full courting display with their feathers fluffed out and the their tail feathers fully fanned out so the ladies could check them out. Of course I forgot my camera but some things are best enjoyed live and remembered with brain cells rather than via pictures…

On the way back from San Antonio we stopped in Boerne to walk along the banks of the Guadeloupe River at River Road Park. When we finished we walked across the street to the Dodging Duck Brewpub. We asked to taste a two beers each since we had never been there in order to choose the one we liked.  However we were told there was a two taste limit per table! Not good since we both like different styles of beer but we followed their rules and ended up drinking sub-par beer. We surely wont be back here ever again…

Ending the day with a bad beer taste wasn’t very appealing so as we neared Blanco we saw a sign to Sisterdale, looked at each other and said let’s go have a beer at the Sisterdale Saloon. The saloon is a dive bar we both read about which appealed to us so we wanted to check it out. We each ordered a beer from a very friendly bar keeper and sat down to enjoy what turned out to be a great ending to our day… The Sisterdale Saloon is yet another Road Treat we have discovered during our travels On the Road of Retirement…

NOTE: We are now in Lake Pointe RV Resort in Canyon Lake, Texas.

Fun Things We Have Done While at Betty’s RV Park….

There has been quite a few things we've done here in Abbeville Lousiana we haven’t blogged about so I will use this blog to cover several of them. One thing we always do here is take a nice long walk around the town of Abbeville itself. The downtown square has a central park which is a great place to sit amongst the beautiful large and sprawling live oak trees. This has been the site of many good times in the spring when the town offers their free spring concert series. It is the place where we first saw Geno Delafose perform thus inspiring our love of Zydeco Music.

Also in town is the Steen Syrup plant which is the place to get some pure sugar cane syrup. This part of Louisiana is known for its sugar cane as well as other cash crops such as rice and crawfish. Click the link to the right to buy your own tasty Steen Syrup. There is also a beautiful picturesque Catholic Church in the town square with one of two old cemeteries found in town.

A fun event we attended was Cracklin’ Cook-off and Jam Session at the Pop-A-Top Lounge in Broussard Louisiana. Boy was this fun! The food was more diverse than I expected. There were only about 6 or 7 teams cooking but the food they cooked was amazing and all of it was oh, so good. We ate catfish, jalapeno poppers, boudin, hush puppies, pistollettes, sausage, turkey necks, fig cake and of course cracklin’s. Man that was a good time for sure…

Another fun event we attended was Second Annual Cookoff to benefit animal aid in Vermillion County. This event at the LA 14 Lounge in Erath La. had cooks making up all kind of goodies with the theme being anything over rice. One fellow who won the peoples choice award made a very delicious meatball in a nice brown sauce that had (a surprise) boiled quail egg in the center of each meatball. Man was it good… but the highlight here was getting to listen to Grammy Award winning Zydeco artist Chubby Carrier. What a great talent their band was…

Another day we also went for a hike the nearby Whitelake Wildlife Conservation Area. This area is a marshland with several levees and nature trails along them as well as a nice observation tower.We saw plenty of alligators, turtles, birds and frogs on our hike. This was a great spot to get some quiet time and take in a nice long walk amongst nature.

Another pretty hike we took was at the Acadiana Park Nature Station in Lafayette Louisiana. This park is located in a nice woodland area that is typical of the Southeastern Forest which extends from east Texas to the Carolinas. We also found a nice disc golf course located here we played one day and thoroughly enjoyed. It had been a while since we played any disc golf so we were a bit rusty but we not only enjoyed the layout of the course but also thoroughly enjoyed playing.

We are  sadly nearing the end of our month-long stay here at Betty’s RV Park but still have a few other things we want to do before leaving.  When in Louisiana and specifically here in Abbeville we live by the saying, "laissez le bon temps rouler" and for this reason we know we will return to this charming and welcoming place time and time again!

Indian Pass Raw Bar and the Blast on the Bay…

Once we retrieved my misplaced glasses we stopped to fill up with gas and bought some groceries before returning to our campsite at Mexico Beach. Since it was still early enough to attend the shindig our neighbor told us about, we decided to head on over to the happening at a local restaurant/tavern about 20 miles away. It was a pleasant drive along the coastline as we passed through the town of Port St. Joe and by an Air Force Base. As the GPS notified us that we were getting closer we suddenly saw a long line of cars parked on both sides of the road with still a quarter of a mile to go…

We drove on down to the Indian Pass Raw Bar where the music was taking place. The music was part of a larger event called the Blast on the Bay. The Blast on the Bay is annual songwriters festival held on the forgotten coast of Florida. The festival features a group of songwriters/musicians mostly from  Nashville.These artists have written hit songs for artists such as Faith Hill, George Strait and Garth Brooks.  Best of all this festival was absolutely free!!!

As it turned out we were attending the final event held at the well known Indian Pass Raw Bar, an institution in this part of the world. What started as a sundry store for a turpentine company in 1903, it became general store in 1929 when the McNeill family bought the place. After the store was swamped by Hurricane Kate in 1985, the family decided to make it the raw bar it is today.

What makes this place so well known is the food and the low key charm of the forgotten coast. it has a simple menu of oysters raw, baked or steamed, shrimp a few different ways, seafood gumbo and hot dogs. Nothing fancy and nothing is fried… Also unique about it is its 'honor system method of paying your ticket. You serve yourself  beer or wine from the stocked coolers lining the back wall or pour your own draft beer by the glass or pitcher. You keep your own drink tab  and at checkout you are asked what you had and you pay your tab!

As we made our way to the bar we could see this place was packed with people and we could hear some singer/songwriters on the front porch playing their tunes… People had encircled the porch sitting in their folding chairs with the rest of the crowd standing behind spilling out onto the front roadway. We strolled past the people into the establishment and straight to the back wall. I got us a couple of draft beers, self served, and today they were running a special on all drafts at $2.00 each. So I took our two Land Shark drafts outside where we listened to some really talented singers and songwriters. We had an absolutely great time at the Indian Pass Raw Bar…

When it was time for us to leave we drove slowly the 20 miles back to the RV park as it was right about sunset time and we wanted to stop several times just to ooohh and ahhhh at the sun setting over the waters in the bay. Stunning… and a great ending to a great day…