We spotted some elk near the road on our way to Ellinger about 15 miles up the road to eat things called kolaches that they seem to be quite proud about in these parts. They are little rolls with stuff in them, like sausage, another kind of sausage, cabbage-wrapped sausage and/or sausage and cheese. They are actually pretty tasty but there ain’t much meat in them and there is ample bread which I am not supposed to eat because I am an old, sick fart.
From there we went to La Grange primarily because there is a ZZ Top tune of the same name. La Grange is a very nice little town with some classic old houses that have beautiful architecture and a downright gorgeous courthouse. We met a TX doctor in the street in front of the courthouse who was a wizard on local Texas history and we got a few ideas from him about nice places to visit. One thing he mentioned were painted churches that we drove to in High Hill on the way to Schulenburg on our return route on I-10. The outside of the church was ordinary but the inside was gorgeous and the stained-glass windows (all from 1899) were beautiful.
In Schulenburg we took an auto tour that runs you by about 10 or 12 historic structures which are all pretty neat although we never found the last two.
We stopped at a BBQ place called Mikeskas which runs a Sunday buffet for $11. Good food. They probably lost money on me since they have lots of bread stuff I am not supposed to eat but they also had good meat of several varieties which I filled up on before meeting the owner and having Peg take his and my picture.
We only got lost a little before the Garmin got us back home to the Invader. Lots of deer on the entrance road.

Peg and I drove into Houston with the primary tasks being going to Costco in Katy to get my blood pressure pill Rx refilled and to get Peg new glasses. She has had funky vision in one eye ever since her retina surgery but the condition seems to have stabilized so she wanted to get glasses to attempt to unfuck it.
We had time to burn so we started out at Houston’s Bayou Bend, the estate of a woman with the unfortunate name of Ima Hogg. No shit.
She was nice enough to turn the estate over to Houston and it is now an art museum inside (that we did not see) and some really nice gardens outside through which we strolled a bit. It was very nice of her to give this to Houston because it is quite nice but they charge $5 a head to look at the gardens which is not a particularly good deal when so many other gardens are free.
From Bayou Bend we went a bit further into town to the fire station museum which was small. They only have 3 pieces of fire equipment but they have done the best they could with what they have. If you use the museum equipment as your basis, you might conclude that Houston went from horse-drawn steam-powered engines directly to 1940 pumpers with nothing in between.
We then went to Costco about 25 miles west in Katy, TX. Although we called in the prescription the day before, the pharmacist bungled the operation of refilling my prescription which was filled at Costco albeit in a different city. After initial denial, the pharmacist admitted he had not done the necessary stuff to get the Rx squared away. He finally did what he was supposed to do and then stated he would get the Rx filled in 5 minutes. 20 minutes later, he handed me the pills and charged me $29. From there I started my aimless wandering/shopping through the strange Costco and I was ultimately able to find all the stuff I needed except shredded stinky cheese. Peg was busy at the eye doctor and I finished, miraculously, a bit ahead of her. She took the prescription and went into the optical center and ordered glasses to be picked up in 7 to 10 days. Success, at last.

Driving day. Left Rockport and drove to Columbus, TX which is about 70 miles W of Houston. We were already reserved in at a TT park called Colorado River despite not being the real Colorado River. This park is quite nice and, since it is a TT facility, it is free.
We saw tons of wildlife on the way here: deer, cows, a caracara, several purrhyloxia birds, cardinals, black vultures (different than turkey vultures), crows, grackles, a myriad of other birds and another armadillo right outside our trailer. We have found out that the local Czech and German folks refer to the armadillos as Panzerschwein. Lots of brown squirrels here.

Woke up pretty early and drove NE to Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, home to whooping cranes in the winter. In summer, the cranes go frolic in Canada’s Northwest Territories but return here each year. Surprisingly, the first wild critters we got to see were 3 alligators, right across the street from the park visitor center. They looked like they always get left alone. They are big lizards.
Peg and I got to see some cranes but they were tiny white specks to the naked eye and slightly clearer and larger specks with our binoculars. We also saw our first armadillo grazing calmly right next to the park road. This one was a cute little guy. They are very strange creatures which share with humans the ability to be infected with leprosy.
Other than 3 alligators, some hawks, regular cranes, some whooping cranes and an armadillo, the rest of the 16 mile loop through the refuge was devoid of wildlife but still pretty scenic for a salt marsh. Peg and I took a ¾ mile loop trail through a section of the brush and found they also have very aggressive mosquitoes that bite even when you are moving and hang on like lampreys. Fortunately, once they are on you and have buried their little bloodsucker in your flesh, they can be easily killed with baseball bats.
We took a side trip through a town called Lamar on the trip back to the Invader. Some European woman we encountered in ANWR alleged there were numerous whooping cranes visible right on the waterfront. Of course when we arrived some 4 or 5 hours later there were two white specks at the far extent of our vision. They are pretty good sized specks since the birds stand about 5′ tall but there were none close enough to measure.

From our digs at Bay View RV we drove to the Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History in downtown CC. There must not be too much science in this part of the world because most of the science exhibits were pistols, muzzle- and breech loading rifles, cannons and a truly great collection of minerals and crystals. They have some nifty historical stuff, too, like stagecoaches and wagons. I give the place a B-.
From there we wound around on some extremely circuitous Corpus Christi streets before heading back home through Ingleside where the waterfront is decorated with offshore platforms and really enormous cranes on barges and
pulled up to the docks. There are even bigger dockside cranes; the biggest I have ever seen. They are also building a huge tower structure that appears to be about 300′ or more across the base and shaped like a skinny pyramid that looks like they will float offshore and then stand up in deep water. More giant cranes in the yards here.

We drove the loop from Fulton to Rockport to Aransas Pass, over the free ferry to Port Aransas on Mustang Island, south to Padre Island National Seashore. From there we drove into (actually, sort of around) Corpus Christi and Portland and finally back to Aransas Pass to close the circle.
Peg & I both liked Fulton but Rockport is a conglomeration of really big beach houses owned by the affluent. Aransas Pass is unremarkable but the free ferry to Port Aransas is great fun and the wait was short. Port Aransas is about half Fulton and half Rockport.
The PINS is a big salt grass prairie which means it seems to be an enormous bog. There are tons of birds but the seashore looks very similar to other beaches with shitty surf.
The roads we took to skirt Corpus Christi were uncrowded. We shot right through. CC is an ordinary looking part of the world; no nifty architecture was noted. We did get some pix of a house being built in Rockport with a bit of masonry and a ton of Styrofoam wall units. No shear transfer or framing hardware could be detected. Don’t kick the walls when the place is done unless you want to make two rooms into one.
We made the return trip to the Invader through Fulton where we bought diesel for $2.449/gallon and stopped at the Boiling Pot for seafood. It was tip-top. The restaurant itself is decorated with extensive graffiti provided with by an international clientele. The tables are covered with butcher paper and they tie a bib on the customers because the food is messy. We had a Boudin sausage which was a bit lively followed by shrimp in the shell, corn and potatoes which they bring in a bowl and just dump onto the table. There are two or three sauces included along with melted butter for dipping. They also serve you bread with about ¼ pound of butter with which to lube it. We chased it all down with porter. Lucky they bibbed us up in advance because after pinching off the shrimp heads shit squirts everywhere. About $40 takes care of two adults.
On the way from the restaurant to the Invader, we decided to take a look at the Fulton Airport to see if we could find out what was making the droning noise we could sometimes hear in the RV park. The airport access road has a cattle guard; a concept we have not noted before in our travels. We did not find any aircraft-related reasons for the racket but we did discover a gas flare running in the trees between the airport and the campground. When we shut off the engine, we knew right away what was making the noise – the gas flare. There were houses near the flare. They must really appreciate the constant loud screeching of the flare which additionally provides illumination after dark from the pillar of fire atop the stack.

Driving day. We left San Benito and Fun N Sun for a little backtracking and ultimately on to Rockport, TX to the Bay View RV Park. Rockport is probably 40 minutes NE from Corpus Christi on the north end of the intracoastal waterway that extends from here back down to Brownsville. When we first arrived they assigned us a spot that was short and sloped left-to-right such that nobody would have sufficient blocks to lift both left tires about 4 or 5 inches. We drove back to the office and asked if we could just pick an empty space and they said okee-dokee. We ended up going to another loop and pulled into a beautiful site in a canopy of oaks. There were great doggles around which I promptly bribed with Pupper-Ronies. They dogs all thought I was a stand-up guy after that.
Peg got out the anti-gravity chaises while I hooked up the utilities. We spent a good part of the afternoon taking it easy in the the dappled shade of the oak canopy checking out the dogs, squirrels and birds.
Late in the afternoon Peg asked me what was the dull roar that you could hear when everything else was silent but I didn’t have the answer. It sounded like a distant plane engine but it never got closer or further away. Strange.

Horror of horrors, we did the wash. Fun N Sun’s washing machines and dryers were great and we were in and out in less than 2 hours.
We did a bit of prep for tomorrow’s departure.

We drove over to south Padre Island to give it a sniff. It is infested with tourist traps, overpriced restaurants and gigantic hotels that must cater to a tourist trade some other time of year because nobody was around any of them. Peg and I were equally unimpressed. We did find a restaurant called Rincon Something in Port Isabel which had great fish and shrimp and beans. Peg’s fries tasted packaged and frozen and the onion rings I had were nominal but everything else was tip-top. From Rincon Something we went back to the Invader.

We loafed all day. Our excuse may be bad-looking skies, drizzle or no excuse but we fucked off all day watching movies on TCM. No productive labor of any type noted.