2/3/23- Travel Log: Aransas Crossing to San Antonio

-the ferry lines off of Port Aransas are so smooth and well managed I barely notice that we’re on the boat
-a ship comes through the harbor in front of us and at its bow, leaping gray dolphins!
-after driving off the ferry on the mainland we pull over at a little park to watch a dolphin meandering up the channel, Levi fumbling for his camera
-at another park further up, the sun comes out and five minutes after we arrive a family of three dolphins glides by, flipping in the gentle water 30 feet off the shore
-“I should have gotten naked and jumped in” Levi says regretfully after they leave
-we stay in the sun, drying out and reorienting ourselves. We are so damp and sandy from days of rain and wind at Boca Chica
-after sunbathing and working out we head further inland following the hurricane evacuation route
-a small corner store advertises 7 avocados for $3 so we stop
-i use the restroom but we can’t find avocados so I buy a small butter pecan ice cream cone and ask where the avocados are
-the lady at the register directs us to a cart in the parking lot behind the building and we buy avocados, tomatoes, and limes from a gentleman who raves about his friends restaurant in Corpus Christi and points out that he knows I’m from out of town because I’m eating ice cream outside in February
-we reach San Antonio a few hours later, navigating a dizzying network of stacked overpasses to a Walmart close to the climbing area we want to check out and settle in for the night

2/2/23- Travel Log: Corpus Christi

-visiting the free art center of Corpus Christi, right along the marina
-a friendly man who seems to run the clay studio shows us the inner workings and some baskets of rejected pottery that we can take for a donation. We’re admiring the pieces to choose one and he walks back through and puts $5 in the jar “get something for yourself for Valentine’s Day!” We settle on a beautiful glazed plate that reminds us of the ocean at Boca Chica and a small blue saucer to use as a spoon rest.
-visiting the original Whataburger across the road for lunch- Levi gets a free burger from the app and I order a chicken tender sandwich, slathered in bbq sauce
-sipping vats of coke zero while we cruise back towards Padre Island and spend the rest of the day driving the length of the islands to end at Port Aransas near the ferry
-parking in a small sand lot next to the harbor and finding boogie boards in the dumpster when we went to toss a Sam baggie
-grouchy and tired, deciding to drive in to Moby Dick’s for crab stuffed jalapeno poppers, clam chowder, and crab and shrimp gumbo
-we play the quarter machine and run up the rd for a box of wine while we’re waiting for our table
-it’s a night for indulgence and we buy a volcano bowl to share, a flaming vat of rum, pineapple juice, and plastic alligators…

2/1/23- Travel Log: Boca Chica to Corpus Christi, TX

-waking up to mist and rain again.
-while we’re having coffee Levi starts talking about finding something to do further inland, or heading to a different spot- we’re feeling done with rainy Boca Chica and the constant sand and mist
-cleaning up the chairs and mats from outside takes me the better part of an hour, but finally we are stowed and ready to go. When I put the van into gear, the tires creak against the sand they’ve been pressing into for three days and on with my light acceleration they give a hesitant spin. I jump out, since I’m already wearing sandy shoes, and Levi takes the wheel. After a few attempts to dig out a ramp directly in front of the back wheels I go fetch some grippy odds and ends from the trash can to put in front of the tire and a fellow in a jeep pulls up just as I finish. He helps dig and cajole and push from with me from the back and pretty soon we’re back in business
-waving goodbye to Starbase and SpaceX for the last time and one last drive down the bumpy road
-our moods are about as drizzly as the rain, which doesn’t let up.
-turning up the heat and putting on the Climbing Gold episodes about Dope Lake while we drive to Corpus Christi.
-there’s free camping on the beach at Padre Island National Seashore but as we’re pulling off the access road and greeted by the familiar sight of grey waves rolling under mist onto a stretch of wet sand Levi says “no, forget this, I’m done with sand”
-so we head back across the sloping bridge and the causeway to the Walmart in Corpus Christi
-scavenging the Walmart clearance shelves for some food supplies and then hunkering down at a dark corner of the parking lot to make and devour a delicious pot of Spanish Rice with freeze dried salsa and onions in corn tortillas that Levi managed to toast over the jetboil

1/31/23- Travel Log: Boca Chica

-we sleep till 10 after our late night and wake up to nothing but rain and blowing sand.
-i creep out of bed and into the misty air to pee and put Sam out
-i’m working on coffee when I see our German friends walk past with their dog and a stroller, waving to me
-i poke my head out to say hello, trying not to expose myself in my bathrobe. they’ve decided to head to South Padre Island and we’ve decided to hunker down for the day. we wave goodbye and they head back towards their van. I still don’t know their names.
-we watch YouTubes and snuggle in bed with our coffee, then read, sketch, make popcorn and cocoa, and listen to the endless crash of the surf
-we have just enough power in the drill to finish and mount the Xbox shelf!
-we’re slowly losing power without proper sunlight and by supper time we turn off the inverter and settle in after supper to watch Chamber of Secrets on the laptop before going to bed

1/30/23- Travel Log: Boca Chica

-the sunny day! finally we woke up to sun that seemed to have some intention of sticking around. coffee in the camp chairs with sun hats on and my toes in the sand
-finishing coffee when a couple walks past, mimosas in hand, beautiful dalmatian puppy bounding alongside. “It’s his 53rd birthday today, so we’re starting off with mimosas”
-“last night,” he tells us, “I rode my electric unicycle up to the Mars Bar at Starbase. I walked in and there was Elon sitting 50 ft away from me! But it’s a private bar, so no sooner did I walk in then I had to turn around and walk out!”
-he seems like the kind of person who would do this, and also who would own an electric unicycle; his wife has a thick southern accent
-they ask us if people are allowed to burn on the beach and a few times through the afternoon we see him racing by on his e-unicycle, hauling armfuls of driftwood
-“we’re gonna have a fire tonight, come down anytime after dark!”
-sun, sand, sunburn on my upper arms and chest, reading, writing, basking
-after supper we take Sam and the chairs and head up to where we can see a fire glowing through the mist
-after chatting for awhile he makes us each a margarita and puts a guitar in my hands, replaced soon after by a banjo. He’s dancing around, yodeling and making up songs about Boca Chica and Elon Musk.
-The fire is warm, the margarita is good, and the company is friendly, if a little intoxicated.
-after awhile the German couple next door who were putting their baby to bed join us, baby monitor in hand. They’re funny and smart and soon we’re chatting about whether we would want to go to Mars, capitalism, travel, food documentaries… They’re spending a year traveling with their daughter (7 mos old), who was a surprise. They have 3 years of parental leave and then they’ll decide if they want to quit their jobs and keep traveling.
-they share beers with us and we keep chatting, talking about why we quit our jobs and what we did before, how we’ve all funnelled to the farthest south point of TX to escape the winter storm set to ravage the country in the next few days
-birthday man (Dave?) asks us each to tell our most exciting story. I jump in and tell the story of the tree falling on us in Yellowstone (“you were saved by snuggling!” Our German friend tells Levi); they tell a story of their overnight in Belman, Brazil, one of the most dangerous cities in the world and he talks about when he visited a foreign exchange friend and his very “correct” parents in CA and the parents accidentally served hash brownies for dessert; Levi talks about his childhood in Haiti and the coup (after some prodding from me)
-its 12:15 by the time we head back to the Maggie B, the latest I’ve stayed up in a while! It was a good night.

1/29/23- Travel Log: Boca Chica

-scattered sunshine today!
-walked several miles down the beach to the mouth of the Rio grande where we could see Mexico on the other side!
-their beach looked nice- lots of trucks parked on a big expanse of sand, fisherman standing knee deep in the water, and the smell of someone making food.
-the river bank turned from sand into thick clay and sometimes perfectly round clay balls rolled by the waves
-Levi climbing the dunes to look for discarded surfboards
-i picked up a seashell shard with tiger stripes, one with brilliant blue lines, and a perfectly formed gray and black shell with tiny holes eroded in it, when we were halfway back Levi found several long skinny shells with a rainbow glint like mermaid scales. Most of the shells broke in Levi’s pocket and the color seemed faded when we got back to the van- they’re more beautiful in their own environment.

1/27-28/23: Falcon County Park to Boca Chica, TX

1/27- Falcon County Park to Boca Chica and SpaceX
-hot shower in the morning- I don’t care how sketchy Levi found the park, that shower was nice
-it was a bit of gray, drizzly, snippy day
-we stopped to fill a water jug at dollar general which was, for some reason, twice as expensive as the other filling stations we’ve seen
-levi went inside to buy some cheap wine while I fill the water and Sam managed to break the sliding drawer in the dash while we were out of the van
-more and more palm trees and greenery until we are suddenly along the water and bumping down a pocked road towards Space X with the looming shape of starships in the mist
-a gray, moody beach with crashing white caps and a line of kelp and scattered flotsam at the tide mark
-Levi made tacos while I recovered my state of mind, sinking into the sound of surf
-we decided to move to the access rd, feeling uncertain about high tide. Looking out the door into the mist I saw the lights of a boat off the coast, bobbing across the rolling waves
-fell into a scrolling sinkhole, serenaded by the sound of construction and clamor at the launch site next door which left me giddy with excitement. Rocket scientists!

1/28- Boca Chica Beach
-another misty, grey day with patches of sunshine every once in awhile. There seems to be a Saturday clean up day taking place further up towards Mexico
-Levi drove us out onto the beach at 7 and made coffee
-drifting in and out of sleep with the smell of fresh coffee and the music of the surf, I slept another two hours
-when the rain set in again in early afternoon we decided to drive into town to do our errands
-at the exit of the beach a large truck that came to drop off a dumpster is stuck in the sand with traffic jams in both directions, finally freed by another large truck by means of very sketchy chain maneuvers and we’re on our way
-i wash our laundry while Levi washes dishes and then we walk a few stores down to a thrift store for a some odds and ends
-i dry the laundry while Levi does his push-up workout
-Levi makes a quick run through Walmart for a few groceries and a tea kettle while I refill the water with Sam
-the light has mostly gone by the time we get back to the beach and we aren’t sure if we want to stay after all- the tide seems really high
-we drive down to our spot to check it out; as we pass through the narrowest spot the surf rushes up to our tires as we race through and my adrenaline is surging- we will stay on the access rd again

1/26/23- Travel Log: Falcon County Park

-burrs!!!! There are horrible burrs in the short grass of the park. I first find them on my shoes after a walk to the bathroom and pretty soon they are turning up everywhere- in the bed, on Sam, in my pants!
-we switch spots to a pull up next to a green stake that looks somewhat official and spend the day doing online chores, including tracking down and saving the first half of our AT blog, which has been lost in the blogosphere for the past 6 years or so
-the weather is cloudy and a bit chilly and I don’t really want to leave the van, so I mostly don’t. I make a trek to the bathroom a few times but only run into anyone the first time- an older lady with a cigarette sweeping out the bathhouse.
-there seems to be a large community of semi-permanent snowbirds who set up at this campground and it has a bit of strange vibe, but the price is right and everything is tidy and laid-back
-coyotes yipping at night and the field of red lights blinking from the wind farm next door
-something in the tortilla soup I made for supper has given Levi toots. He flips acrobatically to the open fan above the bed to spare us. It has been a long time since we rolled around with helpless laughter- that’s a good feeling.
-tomorrow we move on to boca chica and the beach!

1/25/23- Travel Log: Amistad Natl Recreation Area to Falcon County Park

-another sunny morning, another breezy walk to the outhouse for a morning visit
-we hear faint strains of saxophone carried on the breeze as we set off and we pass a fellow playing jazz scales behind his RV, gazing into the prickly bushes with a pensive look on his face
-we pull everything out of the back and I start sorting build materials while Levi arranges our climbing and camping gear into the white totes newly emptied of food
-by the time we finish, the van is feeling remarkably less cluttered and we set off for falcon state park in a good mood around 1:30
-we pass through our first manned border checkpoint on the way to Laredo, “aw man, I think this is what I want to do when I retire!” The agent tells us while another guard with a German shepherd circles the van and peers through the window.
-Laredo, a strange sprawling city with an international feel. Levi is on edge, per usual when we travel through cities. Traffic not great and the sun is setting in pink and gold by the time we break out the far side, still an hour from Falcon.
-we arrive at the free county park around 8 pm after establishing that what we’ve seen of Falcon Heights cannot reasonably be called a town aside from the sketchy looking bodega and the dollar general where Levi buys frozen vegetables, a protein shake bottle, and a Reese’s football for me.
-we drive around the county park just long enough to confirm that it seems like a quiet, camping free for all and find a spot under a tree to set up for the night

1/24/23- Travel Log: Amistad Natl Recreation Area

-we wake up to sun- hurrah! The batteries will charge well today. Levi makes coffee then walks up to the outhouse while I luxuriate in bed
-we are feeling motivated and tackle the radio install

-collating information between the new radio wiring and several differing diagrams from relevant Dodge systems is a brain teaser, but between the two of us we get it done.
-moving the hangboard, hanging up bits and bobs or our decor- the Maggie B is getting cozier by the minute!
-i mess around with the trim pieces I cut for the cupboards before deciding that the nails I have with me are too short
-levi lays in the sun while I putter around the van, arranging and rearranging storage areas and cupboards
-we pull out all of the food storage and start sorting, until Levi is temporarily laid low by a gusty breeze that blows the lid of tote like a karate chop into his neck before dropping on his ankle
-i press on and even get the dc outlet we picked up at auto zone wired for the fridge
-levi wrestles with the tea box to add an upgraded magnetic latch and then I wrestle with mounting it to the wall above the countertop. The compartments are too small to get good clearance for the screws and I resort to pinching the drill bit with a pair of pliers and turning it one quarter at a time. madness.
-Levi made lentil tacos for supper with cabbage and onions to top. They are insanely good!