Wed/Thur Apr 6/7 2016 - Pensacola, Florida

Wed/Thur Apr 6/7, 2016- Pensacola, Florida
Wed - Drive to Pensacola
Relaxing morning getting ready to drive to Pensacola. Left about 10 am and despite the fact that we drove through the rest of Louisiana, then Mississippi, then Alabama and then into Florida, we arrived after 3 due to some roadworks along the way. It was supposed to be 31/4 hours but we were over 5 hours on the road. Regardless we got a good spot and set up ready to explore Pensacola tomorrow, which we didn't really do on our first trip. 
Thurs - Joe Patti's and Perdido
 We realized that there wasn't much in the city of Pensacola for us to explore that we hadn't seen and we didn't feel like going to the Naval Air Museum, even though we have heard that it was very good. So we went straight ti Joe Patti's Seafood store and stocked up on shrimp (They steam them and spice them for you after you buy them fresh), redfish, Steamed Lobster claws, Cajun crab dip, some sauces and bread etc etc ... YUUUUmmmmmYYYYY!!
The beignet place outside, which were looking forward to was closed for lunch (sheesh!!!) and after a bit of research we found that there was one in Alabama.. so off we went along to Perdido Key. We crossed the bridge and Janice had another urge for fresh oysters, and as we crossed the bridge onto the key, what to our wondering eyes to we see but a sign for "OYSTER BAR"... 12 fresh shucked oysters and a taste of seafood chowder, we continued our drive into Alabama for the Cafe Beignets... we arrived looking forward to a sweet treat to find that they were closed at 'noonish' according to their informative and upsetting sign!!!! Arrgghh!! Undaunted, but giving up hope of a beignet to tease cousin Gillie with, we took the long route home to explore the countryside. Passing a place called 'The Roadkill Cafe' we made the executive decision not to stop, not wanting to expand our culinary expedition with roasted (flattened) Armadillo!! Good call methinks!!  But we needed to top up... after all oysters are not that filling. So we got back to the rig and had some redfish with a few of the shrimp, saving the rest if the shrimp and the lobster claws for tomorrow.  Great stay in Pensacola and glad we got to see Perdido Key... ON TO GEORGIA tomorrow!!
 

Mon/Tue Apr 4-5 2016 - Baton Rouge

Mon/Tue Apr 4-5 2016 - Baton Rouge
Mon - Long drive - We set off at about 8:15 and knew we had a long drive. It was slow going through San Antonio (rush hour), but generally speaking the drive was not too bad. We had anticipated traffic in Houston, but other than a couple of slow downs we were fine. Arrived tired and ready for a break at around 5pm. Glad we had decided to stop for 2 nights. There was a bit of a mix up about our site (they had given it away), but after a few minutes of head scratching and doleful looks we landed a great site in the row behind, on the end of the row.. lots of room, its own fireplace and patio furniture and lamppost. We had our meal planned and after we ate, we set up our little red campfire and relaxed.. beautiful evening. Plan on exploring Baton Rouge tomorrow.




Tues -  Apr 5 - Breakfast and Baton Rouge

Derek decided to treat Janice to a tea in bed and then proceeded to make a fabulous bacon and egg 'full english' breakfast outside, complete with orange juice and more tea... yum! Great start to a great day. Headed in to Baton Rouge for a fun-filled day of exploring. We went first to the USS KIDD .. a WW2 battleship... very interesting to see the technology and the living areas and also to read about the war service of this surprisingly small ship. 
After a walk along the Mississippi riverside promenade and taking pictures of the old governors mansion, we headed into town on the recommendation of the guy at the USS KIDD museum to go for fresh oysters to a small place downtown called "Jolie Pearl". 

If you like fresh Oysters (and Oysters Rockefeller) and you are in Baton Rouge ... GO THERE!!! We had a frank political discussion with the young server. She was telling us about the poverty in the the State of Louisiana and how bad the transportation system is, and how she is scared of Trump actually becoming President of the USA. She seemed very bright, but not to interested in her job, kind of sad really. Such a depressed area of the country. We then decide to go to the State Capital Building and after a trip up the elevator to view the surroundings from the observation tower, we were lucky to find that both the state senate and the house of representatives were in session, and we were allowed to sit in and watch.

 

I was totally in shock at how the majority of attendees (I mean senators and state representatives) were not listening at all to the business at hand.. separate conversations being held everywhere (and loudly). It seemed so disrespectful and irresponsible. No wonder there are problems when politicians can't seem to focus in meetings. It would not be tolerated in a business boardroom!! How do they get away with it?? (Oh lord am I sounding like Trump??) After shaking our heads and leaving, we went straight to Don's Seafood (we seem to be eating ... a lot!!) Derek ordered the mega sized seafood mixed grill and proceeded to gobble down about a 1/4 of it. Janice opted for the more sensible fresh seafood salad and ate the lot!! But we have some great left-overs for tomorrow.  Back to camp to watch CNN and catch up on the day's political - US election news. It is quite fascinating, in a train-wreck sort of a way!!

 

Fri-Sun Apr 1-3 2016 - Hanging out, Castroville Mkt, Golf

April 1- Shopping and steak

We were supposed to leave today, but we have delayed until Monday, so we spent today lounging around, laundry, shopping. Were going to go to the Castroville Café again for our last dinner there, but decided we could eat just as well, cheaper, and happily with a good steak on the BBQ and some Kale sautéed with Bacon.. so that’s just what we did .. a shopping trip to Hondo for supplies and we were all set…. Had a great evening, chatting and feasting.  We do spend much of our chatting time talking about our travels and the road we have taken since retirement and we are very very happy with our choices. If we owned a house, we could never have done what we did. So it got us out of our house of 35 years... which was one good thing and it enabled us to have the adventure of a lifetime for at least 2 full years. While we cannot stop the ravages of time on our bodies, we have at least been able to fulfill life-long dreams of spontaneous travel and complete freedom, and managed to act like we feel!! “Bring it on” was how we approached our post retirement adventure!!

Anyway… steak was great, fried onions and kale with bacon… all yummy.

Sat April 2 – Castroville Market

We knew the market was on in town, so we headed out early to go to our favourite coffee shop “Octane” for a Latte... then wandered round the vendors ... much smaller than we expected, but fun. We also managed to get into the gourmet store in town ‘Taste Elevations’, that we have been meaning to try. They had several items out for tasting, so we indulged ourselves a little and bought a couple of interesting items, some fresh bread and (believe it or not in the middle of Texas) some Shropshire blue cheese for later. We went back to the rig and enjoyed some Armadillo Eggs (look it up - Texas treat) with potatoes and kale again with our fresh bread and a nice wine… lovely. Great day

Sun April 3 - Golf and final pack

Okay, so Thursday was supposed to be our last golf day, but what are we supposed to do? Lovely sunny day, packing mostly done and cheap rounds available of ‘Golfnow’ website… so off we went… great round and feeling very lucky to be out enjoying our last day at this great RV/Golf resort.. we would definitely come back to this one!!! After golf we finished getting ready for our departure tomorrow.. snacks/lunch made, stabilizers stowed and alarm set for 6:15am.. LONG drive to Baton Rouge Louisiana tomorrow.

Mon-Thur Mar 28/31 2016 - Castroville, Gulf of Mexico, relax and golf

Mon-Tues Mar 28/29 2016 - Castroville and Gulf of Mexico

Mar 28 -  Castroville - We were quite interested to discover this weekend that Texas does not have a Stat holiday on Good Friday or Easter Monday. Stores are open normal business hours all over the weekend which was quite strange to us. We decided to go into Castroville and use the self guided tour of the town, starting with a delicious Latte at our favorite coffee shop.. “Octanes”. Then a walk through town reading up on the history of several of the old houses and also visiting the Steinbach house and Museum. It is old house built in the 17^th century in Wahlbach in France and moved here to Castroville and re-built back in the late 90’s. It was a labour of love for the townspeople and was also helped along by people from the Alsace region of France who came over to help with putting it all together here in Texas.

On our walk through town we were most impressed by the amazing array of wild flowers here in Texas and lining the streets. So beautiful. A nice lazy day followed by a nice dinner at home in the rig.

March 29 – South Coast

We have always wondered about whether we should have camped on the South Coast of Texas on the Gulf of Mexico. We have met several people who spend their winters there in either Corpus Christi, Port Aransas and thereabouts. So we decided to do a day trip down there to explore. It is a good 3 hour plus drive so we started out early-ish and headed straight through Corpus Christi to Port Aransas (out in the bay). We drove around and went for Oysters and other seafood delights for lunch at the Virginia Oysterhouse on the bay… great lunch and a beautiful spot. Got the free short car ferry over to Rockport to check out the area that Mike and Lisa are thinking of moving to. Found a good RV park nearby (Coastal) in Rockport and marveled at the low price of great houses there. On advice from Lisa and Mike we went to Charlotte Plummer’s restaurant right on the dock and had some fresh shrimp while watching oyster’s being unloaded by the sackful off fishing boats just outside the window.… such fresh seafood!! We couldn’t eat all the shrimp, so we got a doggie bag to take some home to enjoy tomorrow. It was a great day trip but a bit too short to really appreciate and get to know the area. I think we both are glad that we spent our Texas time in the Hill Country. While the beach and seafood are great, it seems that there is more variety of landscape and great cities in Austin and San Antonio. But Rockport is a great place and I think Lisa and Mike would love it there. 

March 30th - After a day out we didn’t do too much today.. but we did enjoy our shrimp appetizer with bubbly in the late afternoon… decadent!!

Mar 31 -Another day of golf.. may be our last before we leave but never say never… especially with golf… especially around Derek.. especially when it’s cheap!!

  

Sat - Sun Mar 26/27 2016 - Easter in Houston

Sat - Sun Mar 26/27 2016 - Easter in Houston
Saturday: We packed up the truck and headed out around 9:30 and made it to the Marriott Springhill Suites in Rosenberg just after 1pm. Lisa got a great rate for us. After checking in we headed to Jehan and Jason's house about 20 minutes away in a very small town called Needville. What a beautiful home they have. They were all busy preparing food etc for the evening gathering of friends and family. We felt so welcomed and part of the family. Jason had an uncle and cousin staying at the house for a week and later in the day several friends arrived. We had a BBQ and sat outside enjoying the company... a bunch of people played the flip-cup beer game, which was hilarious to watch.. Derek got in there and did pretty well after some practice (and a couple of beers). After the BBQ a bunch played a bean-bag toss game which became quite competitive. We left about 9:30 feeling very happy. We miss our family at Easter, but Jehan and Jason and Lisa and Mike made us feel like part of their family and we feel very lucky to have such great friends in Texas. 
Sunday: After a great breakfast atthe hotel with Lisa and Mike we headed back over to Jehan and Jason's place for an Easter egg hunt. It was hilarious that Lisa and Jehan spent so much time 'hiding' Plastic eggs (with chocolate kisses inside) all around the garden and Brody just wanted to stop with each one and eat the chocolates!! Lisa had to pick most of them back up after he lost interest... at 2 years old, he just didn't get the idea straight... next year I am sure he will be out there gathering them up with abandon! He enjoyed opening his Easter gifts. Jason cooked a delicious Pork loin on the BBQ and we also had Mikes famous devilled eggs (which we all chipped in to peel.. they were tough to do). Also enjoyed Jason's jalapenos stuffed with cheese, wrapped in bacon and BBQ'd... (yum) along with a multitude of other goodies... There was enough food to feed an army, but we did our very best! Wow was it good! After lunch and a sad farewell, Derek and I, and Mike and Lisa left to go home. It took us just over 3 hrs to get back to Castroville. Neither of us could eat anything else that day. What a beautiful Easter to remember. 
PHOTOS TO FOLLOW when we get home and have good internet!!

Wed-Fri Mar 23-25 2016 Golf and cycling again

Wed-Fri Mar 23-25 2016 Golf and cycling again
Wed - Basically a hangout day... beautiful sunset
Thurs - can't resist going golfing again today.. when you are paying around $50us for two of us for 18 holes on a great course including a cart on a beautiful Texas day... not much wrong with that! Had great fun and enjoyed a beautiful sunset and BBQ at the rig ... ready for another ride tomorrow
Fri - packed another picnic lunch and headed back to the Mission Trail with our bikes. Parked again at Mission San Jose and this time we turned north. We missed the Mission Conception on the way... and made it up into the Downtown San Antonio area of the River walk... didn't take in the Alamo Mission again as we have done that before. We couldn't find a nice picnic stop in that area so we headed back along the trail on a 'mission' to find the Mission Conception. It was a short ride off the trail and we were glad we found it. It is the best preserved of all the missions and we enjoyed the visit and our picnic lunch in the grounds. We headed back to the truck. It was a beautiful carefree ride of about 21 km. Mostly easy rolling ups and downs and beautiful landscape of riverside wild flowers and small dams. Lovely day. Stopped by Castroville on the way home to gas up and pick up supplies for our trip to Houston for Easter with Lisa, Mike, Jehan, Jason and Brody. Gotta take some Almond Joy Macaroons from Haby's bakery!!!

Mon/Tues March 21-22 2016 - Golf and mission trail cycling

March 21 2016 - Golf again
We woke  up to a cold morning,  2 degrees, but a beautiful sunny day. After pottering around in the morning we headed out at 2pm for a game of golf. It was a little windy but it had warmed up considerably and we had a great game. getting to know the course much better. unfortunately there were a bunch of students there practicing for a high school tournament this week, which made the game a little slower. We realize thought that it is March, and we are golfing, and it is beautiful and sunny... not much to complain about really!! 
We had dinner and made plans to cycle part of the San Antonio Mission River Walk/ bicycle trail. Derek loaded up the bikes onto the truck  and we made a picnic lunch ready for tomorrow.

March 22 2016 - San Antonio Missions by Bicycle 
San Antonio river walk is famous for its downtown section, complete with restaurants, bars, boat rides etc etc, but there is more to the river walk. There is a walking/bicycle trail that follows the river (often on both sides), that winds its way between 5 missions (Alamo being the most famous). We started at the San Jose Mission which is geographically approximately half way between the most northerly point of the trail  (the Alamo) and the most southerly point (Mission Espada). Suitably sun-screened and lunch-packed, we headed South to the Mission Espada,stopping along the way to admire the old San Juan Aqueduct. We had lunch at the Mission Espada, siting on a bench in the mission grounds. Lovely! We then headed North on the other side of the river. The trail coming south was paved, but on the other side of the river was hard packed earth.. harder going on a full stomach in the hot sun, but we enjoyed the ride tremendously and stopped at the Mission San Juan on the way. All the missions have a similar story of being a means for Spain to 'occupy' the new world and spread Christianity to the 'indians'. The missions provided shelter and safety (from other tribes etc)  and food. They taught them new farming methods and taught them the Spanish language and other subjects in mission schools. On the surface it sounds good, and I won't go into the cultural harm and devastation the mission system caused to the indigenous populations in this huge area of the continent. Suffice it to say that no amount of sugar coating will make the mission system anything but what it was. Occupation by foreign lands, enforcing foreign cultural and religious practices upon its indigenous inhabitants for their own purposes. 
Anyway, it still makes for fascinating history and beautiful architectural relics for us to enjoy on our ride. We ended our ride back at the Mission San Jose (approx 20km) We were glad we only did half the trail so we can come back later this week for another ride to do the second (northern) half.