State Park Livin'

Here's a re-cap of this past week, not sure what we've been doing...but it's been pretty awesome.

Last Friday we went to see Disturbed at the Concrete Street Amphitheater in Corpus Christi. I'd been really anxious to see this band in concert... everyone that I'd talked to that had seen them said they were incredible. Incredible indeed. The venue was pretty cool too! I've always liked outside concerts. David Draiman's entrance really set the tone for the show. He was pushed out on a dolly in a straight jacket (Hannibal Lecter style) on stage. The drum kit is also worth mentioning. It was pretty was amazing... the biggest I'd ever seen.

Some may say I'm getting too old for this type of thing, but I've always been, and very well may always be a metal-head at heart.

On Monday, we decided to leave Jeter RV Park in Refugio and head 45 minutes SE to the WONDERFUL Goose Island State Park, near Rockport, TX. (Remember this place Ward family?) I was here, I'm guessing, about 20 years ago and took a photo at this sign.
It's no wonder we came here when I was a kid... this place is GREAT! We're parked bay side about 20 ft. from the water, about 1/4 of a mile from the huge pier and we even have our own cement picnic table. We've really taken to the "retired lifestyle" here. Ethan has been working on making best friends with our fellow RV'ers. The old folks LOVE Ethan, as you can imagine. Besides making friends, he's also been making shelves for a couple of the cabinets in our home, it's really made a difference in the kitchen believe it or not. I've put my bike to good use here. I've been trying to put a few miles behind me every day. The pups are getting plenty of exercise here too! They love it!

Here's a mini-photo tour of Goose Island.

The pier at sunrise on a cloudy day.

Needless to say we didn't see any sunrise.

Fishing pier.

Bird with a killer beak!

We are parked on Trout Street, right next to Redfish Lane.

Yes, I get a kick out of that.

We were able to catch a magnificent sunset.

Tomorrow we're going to head to Padre Island, maybe go to the USS Lexington and hit a few historical marks. We'll be in this area for another week or so, then on to New Orleans.

Oh, will we be there just in time for Mardi Gras??? Who knew...

Don't Mess with Texas.

After Tunica, we headed down south to visit our nieces again. We had a short two day stop in the Kisatchie National forest in Minden, LA. It was still pretty chilly, maybe 40 degrees during the day, but the sun was shining and that was all it took to get us into the camping mood. We pulled in pretty late in the evening, because of our 2 hour miscalculation from Tunica to Shreveport... oops. We're getting pretty good at the team-work thing, so it was pretty easy getting camp all set-up. The next day we took a 10-mile hike around Caney Lake. It was great, we spent a decent amount of time outside enjoying nature, which was especially needed after the tournaments. We even saw 3 white-tailed doe on our hike, one was a little too close for comfort - man those things can jump! That night Ethan got to build a REAL fire with REAL wood in a REAL fire pit - he was extra excited. We ate our homemade beef stew (I'm getting pretty handy in the mini-kitchen) by the fire, watched the sunset on the lake and talked about how the crocodiles might eat our pups if we didn't get inside... what a lovely evening it was!

We woke up that morning and didn't want to leave the forest, but we had two little girls that were waiting for us. The drive to Ft. Worth was pretty easy. Again, we thought we'd get there earlier than we did... I guess we need to start adding an hour on to each ETA. The weekend with the girls was awesome as usual. We ate at CiCi's pizza buffet ($5/person, quality, mmmm.), went to the Ft. Worth zoo, played with the pups and other kids at the RV site and for getting good grades we treated them to dinner at the Melting Pot. Claudia enjoyed helping the waitress make the fondue and Lexi could hardly keep her eyes open. It's always so great to spend time with them. Every time we see the girls, they teach Ethan and I so much about parenting, and they don't even know it.

After a short 2 hour drive (it was really 2 hours this time) we arrived in San Antonio. We stayed at a neat RV park called Hidden Valley for a couple of days. It was a "little piece of country in downtown San Antonio". We decided that San Antonio is a pretty neat city - we even got to wear our cowboy gear! Of course, we did all the touristy stuff, took a boat ride on the Riverwalk, paid our respects at the Alamo and bought Ethan a drug rug at Market Square.

We just can't stay in one place too long...

We arrived in Refugio, TX yesterday and haven't done much, except laundry and grocery shopping. Refugio is a cute little town about 45 minutes outside of Corpus Christi. And here we are, just chillin'... not for long I'm sure.

PS - I drove the RV for the first time, through Austin and San Antonio it was pretty nerve-racking but we made it in one piece.

Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLMH5lLuoIA