Is it really the end of January already??! It’s hard to believe is that we’ve already reached the halfway point of our time in Texas. Seems like we just got here, “here” being Rockport, near Corpus Christi on the Gulf coast.

For the first winter in six years, we did not go back to Bandera, even though we really loved the town, the RV park we always stayed at, and especially the friends we made there. But I sense our traveling days are slowly winding down, and being such, this winter was a good time to do something different. There’s so much of this beautiful USA that we haven’t seen yet.

By the time we figured out that we wanted to return to Texas instead of Mississippi as we originally had planned, it was already September. When it comes to securing a site long-term, that’s considered ‘late.’ We really didn’t have a specific destination in mind. The main goal was to be warm. Rather than call one RV park after another to inquire about availability for the months of January, February and March, the hardest to get, I began by first calling the place I knew some friends had booked for the winter. It was near Rockport. I knew they’d gone from one park to the next, looking for just the right place. We figured, if it was good enough for them, it would be good enough for us.

As luck would have it, there was not only availability for all that time, but they could put us right next to our friends. I hoped that would be a pleasant surprise for them. Lee and Rose were our very first neighbors the first year we went to Bandera and, by and large, the four of us get along great. They are from Duluth, Minnesota, as are many of the people staying here. We really like the park they chose, and the longer we’re here, the more we like it, especially when we drive past other RV parks and compare. Wide, grassy spaces lie in between the sites, paved roads, and lots of oak trees characterize Drifters RV Resort. It’s not too big. There are planned activities (dance lessons, games, Bible studies, ladies’ luncheons). The location is great; it’s about the same distance to the ferry that takes goes to Port A (Port Aransas), the town of Aransas Pass, and Rockport. There’s a Dollar General within walking distance and one of the best hamburger joints in Texas right next door, according to Texas Monthly.

We spent a month in Rockport the winter of 2016, but even before that we were familiar with this area. We lived nearby, in Port Aransas, in 1994 when Dave worked at NAS Corpus Christi. We lived aboard our boat with our two kids, who were 10 and 12 at the time. There have been a lot of changes since then as anyone can imagine, but one thing hasn’t changed in all that time. The wind. And how it can blow incessently. All. Day. Long.

I will always remember the winter that year being the coldest I’d ever been. The combination of damp, salty air and long, lingering gusts chilled one right down to the bone. So, it’s a good thing we knew what we were getting into when we decided to winter here, because it can be quite a surprise otherwise. There’s an old adage that goes something like,You can’t change the direction of the wind, but you can adjust your sails. Meaning, change what you can. Like your attitude. So I bought a new kite!

We brought our bikes with us, and when it’s warm and not real windy we load them on the bike rack and drive six miles to Rockport Beach. It’s a really nice one; in fact, it’s Texas’ first Blue Wave Beach. I thought about bringing my kayak, but I remembered how windy it gets here and had visions of being helplessly blown out to sea, leaving Dave with no way to retrieve me. While it might be kind of funny in a way and would certainly be interesting to write about, assuming I survived, I doubt it would be worth the risk.

One of the reasons we keep coming back to Texas is that all tourists, and particularly long-term visitors, are genuinely wanted and appreciated by the locals. It was like that in Bandera, and here it’s the same way. Earlier this month, the Rockport-Fulton Chamber of Commerce held a party for us winter Texans in recognition of the big boost we snowbirds give the local economy. There were freebies, food, raffles, prizes, entertainment, so you can just picture how packed the convention center was. I’d not seen that many jolly old people in one place since we left Branson! It was a really nice show of appreciation.

We’re finding out there is a price to be paid for being this close to the coast: Rust! We hadn’t been here two weeks when Dave noticed a couple of our our lawn chairs being eaten up by the salt air. He found something called Rust Reformer by Rustoleum that basically stops the rust from going farther. Removing the fabric from the frames was actually more time-consuming than brushing on the Rust Reformer, and once it was applied, it took longer than expected to dry. But it eventually did, and ended up looking quite decent. I wish I’d taken before-and-after photos, but I never think to take pictures of things that are ugly, like rust.

On the plus-side though, is that Dave’s sinuses are much happier here. He’s allergic to cedar trees, of which there are many in the Hill Country. So this is a very big ‘plus., and definitely worth considering when making future plans. People are much easier to be around when their heads aren’t about to explode.😉