Wildlife Ranch--African Safari, Texas Style

Seriously, this is the slogan for Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch, a 400 acre plot of land just outside of San Antonio, TX that is home to 45 "exotic, native, and threatened species" from all over the world. And it is one of the weirder field trips that Wes & I have been on since we got to southern Texas.

We woke up late one morning and, having no other real plans--and no motivation to get up and out of a seated position for the day--we decided that a "Texas Style" safari sounded like the thing for us. One simply drives around the looping six-mile roads of the Wildlife Ranch with a bag of animal feed, and creatures that thrive in the hot, arid environment mosey up to one's Ford Focus hatchback and grab a snack. It was pretty fun, but exceptionally weird to have Damaraland zebras and barasingha walk up to eat out of your hand, just "as they would in their natural habitat," according to the brochure we purchased at the front gate. 

While the animals really do have the ability to roam in their designated "ranges," cattle guards keep them corralled throughout the area, and employees line the paved roadways with feed grasses so the animals stick close to where the patrons are comfortably seated in their air conditioned cars. All in all, we had fun and the animals seemed pretty fat and happy. We even saw a shiny new baby barasingha nursing in the middle of one of the paths.

Wes chatting with a barasingha.

Battle Wildebeest. 

Now you tell us.

Underbites.

Longhorns from Texas and beyond.

We named this guy Lloyd.

Hungry little one.

Even this guy is smiling.

Where Have We Been?!

I know, I know...I have been a very, very bad blogger! For the long absence, I apologize, but ask you to refer to the initial posting's addendum in which I pretty much declare myself a deadbeat documentarian. In my defense, it is quite difficult to stop doing things on my days off in order to sit down and write about the doing of the aforementioned things...so hard! But it's overcast and cloudy this morning, I had one too many sentimental mint juleps on Derby day, and so I have nothing on the agenda but a pot of coffee and free time to play catch up. So without further ado, here is another sub par posting to get things rolling again!

So where have we been, anyway?!
In April we decided we'd had enough of the first park we stopped in, and with the beach being so darn close by, why not spend the month living there? ON THE BEACH. Quite literally.

Port Aransas, on northern Mustang Island. 

We moved to IB Magee Beach Park (http://www.nuecesbeachparks.com/ibmageebeachpark.html)

and spent the month swimming, walking on the beach, fishing off of the local pier, meeting interesting full time travelers, and generally having an ocean-side, lazy good time. 

What the offices and laundry facilities of IB Magee look like from the beach.

A busy weekend day at the beach, viewed from the laundry room.

Sometimes chores have to be done, even when the sun is shining.

Our friends Noel and Beth even travelled from Louisville to see our new digs. 

Noel & Beth fishing near the jetties.

That's our park in the background.

 Noel made sure we got a little fishing in every day...and most nights, too. 

On his first night in town, he caught two sand sharks off the pier.

And yep, we swim out in the very same waters as that fearsome creature...

 Wes & his prize bonnethead.

 Sunrise on our way out to deeper waters.

Noel charmed his way into the Captain's Quarters.

Here they are discussing our next fishing spot.

We spent that long weekend going on fishing trips, playing on the beach, staying up too late, and enjoying catching up with our much-missed hometown buddies. It was hard to let them leave so soon, but here's hoping we'll venture off to another location where folks will want to stop by and see us again (the couch totally pulls out into a semi-comfortable queen-size, you guys)! 

In between Noel & Beth's visit and now, Wes and I pretty much did more of the same ol' stuff...Beach and fishing, with some day trip fun stuff thrown in. There isn't a lot of city life to be had around these parts, so we end up playing outside when the weather permits, and that hasn't been too shabby!

 Wes & Cohen demonstrating a typical day in Port A.

Aside from lots of sand and even more wind, the gulf coast beach was a blast to live on for the month of April. We recently moved the rig back inland a bit to hose off the sand and salt, live a little closer to work for the end of this contract, and to be within better driving distance of some surrounding sites we still want to check out before we leave the area in June. 

So there you have it: our past several weeks of RV living in South Texas, summed up in one tidy little blog posting! Looking forward to showing you a couple of the little day trip adventures we've had since March, too...& to letting you all in on our next destination coming up at the end of the month! 

And Happy Mother's Day, everyone...We are off to call our two favorite Mommas now!

Lots of love,

Laura

Fishing Trip

Hello again.

 First of all I have to say your author today is Wes, not Laura. 

So please excuse to lack of humor and ability. I'm just not the writer she is.

Last week we took a boat out of Port Aransas, TX into the Gulf of Mexico. We are currently living about an hour away from there. When we found out we needed to be there at 5:45 am to board the boat, the wake up call time was scary. We got there on time and ready for the three hour boat ride out.

Laura awake and ready to catch some fish.

This would be the first time for me to be on a boat without land in sight. As daylight broke, it was very apparent that all we could see was water.

Laura with her sea legs.

After about three hours of walking around a boat like I was drunk (I do not have very good sea legs) we arrived at our fishing spot. At first it was slow, so the captain moved around to a few more spots. The last stop was where they were. The captain had found us a school of Dog Snappers and Red Snappers. Before this, I couldn't of told you the difference. 

The captain ask all of us if it was ok to stay out longer while we were in this school of fish. My reply was, "I love it here".

Me with a s@#t eating grin. Too bad it is a Red Snapper and is out of season. It had to go back

We had a blast. Laura caught a mess of Vermilion Snappers that ended up as fish tacos that very night.

YUMMY!

After a few Reds I caught a very nice sized Dog Snapper that wasn't bad eatin' either.

The next evening's dinner

The ship's catch. There was about 20 people fishing that day. The third from the left is my Dog Snapper. We watched a teenager bring in one of those Amberjacks. It was 40 lbs. He looked very tired and pleased to get it on board.

All and all, we were very happy with the trip. The boat we took was with a company called Dolphin Docks Inc www.dolphindocks.com. They are in Port Aransas, TX, which is just out side of Corpus Christi. They offer 4,8,9,10,&12 hour trips at a very reasonable price. They also have a few overnight trips. They supply all the bait, tackle, and rods. All you have to do is get there on time, remember to take your Dramamine, and enjoy all the fresh fish you are going to eat later that night. They also have a service to clean your fish for .40/lb.. They do it right there on the dock, and they are fast. You just can't beat that.

Our good friends Noel and Beth will be visiting us in a few weeks. We have already booked a trip with Dolphin Docks. I can't wait to see what fish we catch then. On a side note, we are hoping my brother Ashley can find the time to come visit while we are here too. There is all kinds of saltwater fly fishing to be had here for him.

Well, there you have it. My first, and Laura's first time with me, deep sea fishing trip. Well, I guess my first blog entry too.  

Oysterfest 2016: Fulton, TX

Hello again! What a whirlwind weekend it has been!

While getting used to living in a climate that allows us to spend most of our downtime outside, we haven't been indoors long enough to give you all a tour of our new home on wheels...even as I type this, I am sitting outside at our little picnic table:

But that tour will happen soon, we promise! Yesterday we went to Port Aransas and scouted out our new campsite for the month of April--can't wait to show you all where we'll be come April Fools Day!--and while we were there we spotted what very well may be our next rig:

A bit small for our purposes, but awesome nonetheless!

But today took the Awesome Cake in my estimation: Today we went to Fulton, TX Oysterfest 2016:

Meet Pearl, the unofficial mascot of Oysterfest.

Fulton, Texas is a town on the Gulf shore about 30 miles north of where we are currently camping. And for the last 37 years the Fulton Volunteer Fire Department--Bi-valves bless 'em--have been putting on an oyster-themed shindig that in my estimation can't be beat on a sunny Saturday in Texas. We ate oysters, drank a couple of Texas-sized beers (aka too big for my midwestern makeup, but I did my best), and watched the Men's Raw Oyster Eating Contest (again, a bit much for my constitution: Oysters by the 50 out of ziploc bags...). 

What else could a guy or gal ever need?!

The winner of today's oyster-eating contest ate 261 oysters in 5 minutes; I had fifteen.

The guys were shucking the locally-harvested oysters by the bucket-full at record speeds for all of us hungry patrons:

So. Good.

But the town of Fulton--which I had never heard of until today--is absolutely gorgeous: Live Oak trees abound in every backyard, and the coast is lined with fishing boats.

 There were too many gorgeous boats to take pictures of, so this one will give you an idea of the docks lining the pier.

 Me grinning like a silly kid on the swing ride by the water's edge.

View of the fairgrounds from the swing ride.

We came, we saw, we cheered like fools at an eating contest. And--perhaps best of all--we shopped at the craft fair. We have noticed already that so many of the fine full-time folks we've met along our adventure (no matter what stage of infancy it may be in thusfar) have little wooden signs posted outside of their RVs declaring their name, their home state, and their adventure goals. The first booth we spotted when we walked into the fairgrounds tent was selling some of these, made to order on the spot. I just had to:

Cartoon Kentucky.

Nerdy? Yes. Necessary? Absolutely. Here's to our first small-town expedition and found underground gem! Thanks to Andy and Sarah at Seabreeze RV Campsite for the insider scoop on where to go on this gorgeous Saturday afternoon...we had a blast and now have the signage to prove it!

Forrest City, AR

So, on Leap Day we stopped in beautiful Forrest City, AR after a long day of driving, and all in all things weren't too shabby! Wes did an amazing job pulling the trailer, and I successfully performed my blocker car duties by opening up lanes for him in busier areas of the interstate (particularly around Nashville; sorry, silver Honda Civic that was in such a hurry!). While I wish we could ride together for a number of reasons--budget, environmental, and simply & selfishly more fun--the addition of walkie-talkies makes things less dull. Can't say enough about how fun it is to talk with these bad boys in ridiculous code that neither of us understand.

Our campsite was fine for what it is: a place to rest, take a shower, and leave. We actually had to stay until around noon due to a fairly bad rain and wind storm, and the kind overseer didn't make us leave by checkout time knowing our reservations about towing in rough weather. One thing I've already noticed about RV life is that generally, we are surrounded by kind-hearted folks who are more than happy to extend a smile and a wave, or even wave a camp fee when necessary. So thanks, Gary at Delta Ridge...we made it to our stop in Texas safe and sound!

Wes driving due west out of town.

But before we left, I had to get some postcards to send to family from our first official stop on this wacky adventure. And let me tell you, they might be my favorite postcards of all time.

Our First Destination

"I've always gotten along with Texans. You've got to." --Burt Reynolds

Wise words, Bandit. Here's hoping we do, too; our first stop on this wild and crazy adventure is Corpus Christi, Texas, a city on the Gulf coast about a 2 hour's drive south from Houston. While Wes has traipsed around from Amarillo to Austin, I have never spent much time in the Lone Star State.

We are excited about this being our first stop for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that the drive from Point A to B is pretty much entirely F-L-A-T. Being new to the whole travel-trailer-towing lifestyle, this was one of our major deciding factors when it came time to choose an initial destination. Of course, this video was also incredibly persuasive:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BodXwAYeTfM

But when we really sit down and think about it, the destination doesn't really matter. Sure, I would like a challenging and interesting work assignment where I can help out and maybe even learn a thing or two...but ultimately what we are in this for is the journey. For finding corners of this amazing swathe of land we call one nation and saying, "Lookie! Who knew this was here?!" It is incredible how I call myself an American, but I have yet to see even a fraction of the purple mountain majesties or fruited plain. This country has nearly every type of climate--from semiarid to tropical savanna to temperate continental--and elevation changes ranging from 232 feet below to over 20,000 feet above sea level. And I haven't explored the bulk of it. Shameful, really, when it is all here, with interstates connecting dot to exciting dot so easily (Thanks, Dwight!).

Hey There!

Hey there! We are Wes & Laura, a couple of old marrieds originally from Louisville, Kentucky who sold our houses, our motorcycles, and pretty much everything else in order to embark on a most excellent adventure: to travel across the country together in an RV. Not when we "retired", not when we were "ready to slow down" or finally "earned a break", but right the f$@k now. So join us, if you will--and only when & if the mood strikes you--while we document our weird new life on the road. 

*I make no promises regarding frequency or quality of postings on this blog; much like my know-how when it comes to our new RV life, I have absolutely NO idea what I'm doing when it comes to blogging. But let's try it anyway, shall we?