We started our adventure today by going to the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, located on the muddy banks of the Rio Grande between Brownsville and McAllen, TX. Again we were obliged to enter w/o paying a fee as a benefit to the $80 access card we bought from the Feds in Gold Beach, OR last July. Another $10 we didn’t have to spend.
We climbed onto a tram that they drive around the refuge. If one does not tram the place, one gets to walk on trails but not the tram road & it was muddy from recent rains. The tram ride is great but the woman narrating kept reminding us that everything was connected (which it isn’t) and the usual crybaby spiel about how little of the coastal salt marsh is left.
There are tons of birds, even now in February. Around the visitor center they feed the birds and the place is jumping with red-winged blackbirds that make a variety of great sounds and have an amazing display when resolving disputes. The normal appearance is a black bird with a red border at the front border of the wing. When flying or having a dispute the birds show epaulets of yellow and orange that is very vivid. A gorgeous group of birdbrains.
We skedaddled from the SANWR to a Costco in McAllen or Pharr, TX. It is difficult to differentiate one from another. From there we headed home.

We went to eat at Cracker Barrel, a local chain, for breakfast. Their chicken-fried steak was nominal. No match for Jake’s in Bend or Dean’s in Clackamas. The rest of the food was good although we got some grits and they seem to be made from white lumpy spit. Perhaps I will get used to the acquired taste for this stuff. I anticipate it may take a while.
Across the street was a Bass Pro Shop which we decided we needed to see. It is a Costco-sized store devoted to fishing, a little sporting goods and some high-end apparel. Interesting but not up my alley.
The next stop was a Home Depot which initially even the Garmin could not find despite the ubiquitous paving. Back to the Invader for movies since the weather is still shitty but looks like it is improving. The sun came out just as it set.

We drove south to Boca Chica which is the southernmost spot in Texas. We ended up with the Brownsville port channel and some mud on our north side, the Gulf of Mexico to the east and the Rio Grande and some mud to our south. It was the first time for both Peg and me to be standing on US soil and be seeing an ocean other than the Pacific. Oceans look remarkably similar.
The drive from the freeway to Boca Chica is mostly through uninhabited area and there is a shitload of birds, most of which we have not seen before. We saw some Crested Caracaras, which are like big hawks or small eagles. Very impressive species.
We also drove through the Port of Brownsville where they had parked offshore platforms which are the biggest pieces of portable equipment I have ever seen. We continued to Port Isabel and then returned to the Invader.
All of the driving we are doing here with the Garmin as the navigator since the sky is overcast and my usually great sense of direction seems to be haywire and, despite paving everything, the Texans have created highways which only extend to places in which one has no interest or go in circles. They even have designated turnaround lanes since, no matter what direction you are pointed, your destination lies on some other vector and it is usually 180 degrees off.

Driving day. We awoke pretty early for us (+/- 7:00 AM), got the Barbarian Invader and Charlotte Taylor Wilson coupled up and departed Lake Medina for a state park campsite in some place called Three Rivers south of San Antonio.
Unfortunately, we did not elect to stay in that state park because it was ugly and we also saw a sign in the park telling us how to act nicely around the local alligators. Alligators? I never thought about alligators in Texas, probably since I am quite ignorant about the range of very large flesh-eating reptiles.
We continued south to the Harlingen, TX area and ultimately arrived at a park in San Benito strangely called “Fun N Sun. The staff was a bit bollixed up and we may have flubbed it because we initially made our reservation through RPI and this was an Encore park so they initially presented us with a bill for $308 for 7 nights which we told them we would resolve in the morning. RPI had quoted us a price of $215.
We reviewed our contract with TT which indicated we get 90 nights per year at $20 a night in Encore parks. We called RPI and Encore, got the reservation unfucked, went to the office and resolved the whole thing for $154/week including tax.
Getting the Invader set up was challenging in that the first spot we got was too short, the next one had no power but the third one worked out without too many issues.

We went to eat breakfast at a place in San Antonio that served chicken-fried steak in my endless but pointless quest to find the places that serve really tasty versions. Unfortunately, the stuff they served was quite unremarkable but forgettable. Further elaboration is unnecessary.
From there we went to the Witte Museum complex. As usual, our timing was impeccable in that a sizable portion of the facility is undergoing renovation and the next biggest building was closed because it is Sunday. However, the entire facility is gorgeous, at least from the outside. The parts we did get to see (a natural history section about the oil business and cowboys and an art section that was entirely paintings of flowers and brush) were quite nice but a bit scanty on actual stuff. There is an enormous space with about 50 items in it but the blank parts were neat.
Peg went into the museum gift shop and copped 3 sets of earrings in record time; she must have been in and back out in less than 5 minutes. I was very proud of her.
Since we were shut out of most of the facility we were not on site for too long despite there being free parking in a very nice parking structure. We meandered about in the adjacent park area and saw a gorgeous garden railway with a very pretty alleged steam locomotive. There was no steam or smoke coming therefrom so I suspect an internal combustion engine lurks within the innards of the locomotive powering the great looking train. They even had gate-controlled auto crossings.
From here we hit Trader Joe’s and then headed back to the Barbarian Invader.

Another day of laying about the Invader.
The weatherman was correct. It is raining.

Another campground day. We fixed the weatherstripping on the Barbarian Invader, I put antifreeze in Charlotte, I fixed some water issues and Peg cleaned spots on the Invader’s sides and applied some wax. It was actually quite a nice day. It is supposed to rain today but it is now 4:00 PM as I write this and not a drop has fallen.

After a great brunch meal at Black-Eyed Peas in some part of San Antonio we drove back to the city center by the Garmin and paid $15 a head to get on the river taxi that takes you around most of the River Walk area. The River Walk is gorgeous; it is enough, by itself, to warrant a trip to San Antonio. Wonderful architecture and superb ambiance. Lots of food, shopping and other stuff to look at the whole way. They even have a lock system that you ride through to put the boat into the upper reach of the River Walk – it is really neat.
We rode around for a while and then split and went to Trader Joe’s to shop. About $150 later we were on our way home and we decided to used dead reckoning to get home. It may or may not have been a good idea since I was totally unable to figure out the local highways and have scant memory of where we went other than we ultimately made it back to our campsite. The roads here seem to go everywhere you do not want to go and do not go where you need to get.

Took a day around the campsite.
Peg and I changed out the water filter concealed beneath the stereo in the Invader. We now know why the water pressure always seemed so dismal before we did this work. Now we have gobs of water pressure and taking a shower is much more enjoyable than it has been, to date.
Drove around Lakehills, such as it is, before going into Bandera to eat at a barbecue joint because we were unable to find the Chinese restaurant we were looking for despite it being advertised in the TT Medina Lake brochure. My food was good but Peg said her chicken was dry. The beer was good – Shiner.

Peg & I drove into San Antonio using the Garmin for navigation. We seemed to be going in all directions except toward San Antonio but we ultimately made it into town and parked 2 blocks from the Alamo.
The Alamo is quite historic but the folks who designed and maintain the site seem to have very little to show about the Alamo other than the church structure that was part of the site along with some walls that were still the same as they appeared during the siege. The guys who fought here must have been brave because the facility is basically indefensible when attempting to withstand the onslaught of 4000 pissed-off Mexicans. Santa Ana, the Mexican general, must have been quite inconvenienced by these pesky defenders because after the siege he burned all the bodies of the Texans for spite.
We also took a ride on a couple of trolleys that allow you to get on and off whenever you want. It is a great system and we went to the Market Square stop to eat at Mi Tierra. Pretty good food here. The trolley ticket is $4 to ride all day which is a great bargain and allows you to see a big portion of downtown at a leisurely pace.
We stopped in at the visitor info center and obtained a shitload of brochures about the area before heading back to Medina Trench by the same circuitous route we used to get there.