Final stage: Corpus Christi, TX to Casa Grande, AZ

A-Corpus Christi, TX; B-Sonora, TX; C-Alpine,TX; D-Las Cruces, NM; E-Benson, AZ; F-Casa Grande, AZ

Corpus Christi harbor bridge and Texas State Aquarium

The first full day in Corpus Christi, TX we headed to the Texas State Aquarium. It was a very nice aquarium. However, we felt it had fewer exhibits than we expected, and their big draw – the dolphin exhibit – was closed for repairs. They had a nice traveling exhibit with rain forest species. We enjoyed talks at the otter exhibit and a ‘Birds in Flight’ display. The aquarium is on the water next to the bridge at the entrance to the bay where the cargo ships were traveling in and out. The oil tankers and barges were humongous things!!!

Flight deck of the USS Lexington 

We then walked a couple of blocks and spent three hours aboard the aircraft carrier ‘USS Lexington’. The tour is self guided and I was amazed at how big the darn thing is inside and out. The ship is now a museum and there was lots of information on the airplanes used during various wars, names of those who died in the battles, information on all areas of the ship – mess, sleeping quarters, hospital area, mail room, engine room, bridge and much more. There was a great IMAX film on a war training session in Nevada for fighter pilots.

Man of War poisonous jelly on beach

On Saturday we headed to South Padre Island where we drove south to Malaquite Visitor Center/Beach. From there southwest 70 miles is the Padre Island National Seashore. This island is the longest barrier island in the world. We arrived just in time to join a ranger walk to the Gulf of Mexico Beach where she talked to us about the National Seashore as well as the many items we found on the beach. There is really no tide here to speak of – any tides over one foot are wind caused. She said the wind blows there over 85% of the time. This day it was breezy and warm – very nice. We walked along Malaquite Beach (this is a pedestrian beach only – no vehicles or dogs) as far as the barrier. From the barrier south for 60 miles is a vehicle beach – there is no road except the beach. We were quite interested to see many Portuguese Man of War jellies on the beach (these jellies are especially painful if you contact the tentacles). The ranger said that since these jellies float on the surface with an air sac sticking above the water, when the wind blows from the south, these jellies end up on the beach. I decided I really didn’t want to walk barefoot in the water, even though it was about 69 degrees.

NOTE: There is a grocery store chain here in Texas that we had never heard of before – HEB; this stands for Here Everything’s Better. Interesting.

That evening we went for our last fresh seafood dinner (we’ll be inland from now on) to Water Street Oyster House. We did have a very good fish dinner (no oysters – gag) in a nice little restaurant near the bay.

Sunday we left early for our 325 mile drive to Sonora, TX – north and west of Corpus Christi. We were on freeway the whole way, so no problem – especially west of San Antonio where there is NOTHING except scrub juniper and grass. We had a ‘lovely’ time in Sonora.  As we were signing in G got stung by a honey bee. We wanted to go through the Caverns of Sonora and they have a little RV park right there. There were a gazillion honeybees and they all wanted into our RV. And many of them found a way. Gordie went outside long enuf to hook up the power and turn on the gas and that was it. The bees kept coming in the coach – I don’t mean 1 or 2. I believe we killed over 20 that afternoon. We could not figure out where the little devils were getting in. But we DID find that one of those mosquito zappers at least stunned them so that we could squash them. Once it cooled off and the sun went down, the little guys left us along.

Inside Caverns of Sonora, Texas

The next morning we got a private two hour tour of the cave (just because we were the only ones there). When we got back to the coach – oh my gosh – it was swimming in bees. So once again we started squashing them. I’m sure there were at least 20. The car was still hooked up, so we agreed that we had to ‘get out of Dodge’. We found a few more bees as we headed out, but finally after 30 miles or so, we were ‘beeless’. The caves, buy the way, were really lovely – lots of cave decoration, bacon, draperies, popcorn – and it’s an active cave. There was water dripping through much of it.

When we left Sonora we headed west to Fort Stockton, TX just for the night. The next morning we drove south to Alpine, TX – this was our base for exploring Big Bend National Park.

Casa Grande - Chisos mountains, Big Bend Nat'l Park

We were very lucky with weather while in Big Bend – in fact it was downright HOT the first day. We did three short hikes on the east end of the park and when we got back to the car following the third hike, we realized it was 92 degrees – I was dying!! Most of the park is desert landscape, though there are two other micro-climates present.

Pictographs near hot springs

This park is on the border with Mexico. We were concerned about safety, but we were assured that the area across from the park is remote enough and there are enough border patrol and park rangers that there haven’t been any problems. We hiked in the area called ‘The Hot Springs’. There are the remains of a ‘resort where a Mr. Livingston built a house and a motel/store/post office that were located near a hot spring pool. When we took the hike in Boquillas Canyon at the east end of the park, we encountered ‘Victor, the singing Mexican’ singing his lungs out and putting out walking sticks and various metal and beaded bugs, etc for purchase. Unfortunately he was on the USA side of the river. He would canoe across to the USA side when he saw folks coming down the trail that were NOT rangers. Apparently he is a legend in the park.

Santa Elena Canyon and Rio Grande River
Mexico on the left, US on the right

We returned the second day and hiked to Santa Elena Canyon at the west end of the park – a deep canyon cut by the Rio Grande River. Here there was even shade as well as great views of the canyon. You could toss a rock across and hit the wall on the Mexican side. The park service had apparently just resurfaced all the park roads and they were in great condition. This is supposedly a very busy time for the park (Thanksgiving weekend) but the area is so huge, we never felt like it was crowded at all. We were surprised that about 90% of the park is desert landscape with rock formations. There are two other microclimates (along the Rio Grande River that borders the park for 118 miles, and the Chisos Mountain region in the center of the park) but they are not very big areas.

Church at La Mesilla Plaza

Thanksgiving night the temperature in Alpine dipped to 18.8 degrees – a significant cold snap. In the morning we packed up and headed to Las Cruces, NM for a couple of nights. We spent time here about 7 years ago and liked the city. We especially enjoy spending time exploring the Mesilla Plaza area - its history began in the early 1800s and is a popular area for tourists. There are several very nice shops and several restaurants around the plaza. We had dinner at La Posta restaurant which is celebrating its 70^th anniversary in its present location. The décor is very typical Mexican, the staff is very pleasant, and the food is very good and reasonably priced – and it’s really busy.

The next day we headed to Benson, AZ to overnight before continuing on to our winter quarters in Casa Grande Monday, November 29. We are now on site and settling in.

This is the last installment of our Maritime and East Coast trip blog. Now it’s time to start thinking about what our next adventure will be!