Day 39 - Rockport: Corpus Christi, Padre Island, Mustang Island, Port Aransas

Before heading to Corpus Christi, we went to see the whooping cranes. There were still there. They are so fascinating I could watch them for hours. They wear a mask, and their plumes are extra fluffy.

Turkey Vulture looking back at the Brown Pelican

We drove to Corpus Christi and had lunch there. Corpus Christi has high rise buildings, modest residential areas with a lot of chain link fences. There are large construction areas. They are building a new bridge.
We move on and reached Padre Island National Seashore. This is part of a series of islands that make a long strand of land in front of the mainland. The waters in between the barrier and the land are very calm like a lake.
Padre Island National Seashore is a national park, one of ten in the US that protect the shores.
It is 75 miles of undeveloped beach, the longest in the nation, and it is beautiful.
Bill read on the website that you can drive on the beach. So we drove for miles. We couldn't believe that we were allowed to do that. Driving on the beach is quiet and relaxing. We later found out that on this beach between April and August, the Kemp’s ridley sea turtle lays her eggs. There is a conservation association that patrols the beach in this period, they collect the eggs which are hatched on the protected sandy area and then the baby turtles are released. Hopefully they do a good job and everyone is careful driving on the beach during those months...

Great Blue Heron

70 miles of undeveloped beach in Padre Island

Leaf Cutter Ants

Deer

We could have driven for 60 miles, but we turned around at the 15th.

We passed through Mustang Island, which is very much developed. In fact there are several beach house developments and a couple of brown giant hotels. There are shops that cater to vacationers and beach goers. There are carnival rides and fish restaurants.

When we reached Port Aransas, we lined up with other cars to get on the ferry to continue on 361 to the mainland, and Aransas Pass.

Day 38 - Rockport: Aransas National Wildlife Refuge

What we thought that was the most functional and advanced, after only 4 years ago we wonder if the same device does work at all.  This is the case of my digital camera. Today I had to use it, almost half way through our trip, because it has a decent telescopic lens and this was the only way to take pictures of birds in the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. 

In the morning we headed to the 'Big Tree', a large oak in Goose Island State Park, to get a glance of the rare whooping cranes. They are tall birds like the sandhill cranes but white with beautiful fluffy feathers, with black on their wing tips and a red mask. They migrate from Canada to the Texas shore to spend the winter for a trip of 2500 miles. 

There are only about 800 birds left and, thank God, they get to live an average of 22 years.

The road kept going toward the gulf and there we met a couple of ornithologists from Austin. They had a large telescope on a tripod and he was wearing a large plastic disc on his chest with a large microphone in the center. He was recording whooping cranes combating half a mile away.

He let us listen to the sounds. We looked at the whooping cranes. What a marvelous and resilient bird.

They told us another location where we could see them. They were on the lawn of a house that had a deer feeder. There were three whooping cranes and two sandhill cranes.

Whooping Cranes 

Sandhill Cranes

Snowy Egret

Egrets

Artistic Picture 'After Harvey'

We were on our way to the park, but we missed the turn off. So we had to do a u-ie down the road and right there we saw a couple of these beauties: Crested Caracaras or Mexican Eagles

Crested Caracara

The Aransas National Wildlife Refuge is a large protected area, north of Rockport.
There are few trails off of the auto tour loop. We hiked the Heron Flats trail and not only did we see heron and spoonbills, but also several alligators soaking in the sun.

Roseate Spoonbill

Tricolored Heron

Double-crested Cormorant

Reddish Egret next to Roseate Spoonbill

We drove a few miles and took the Jones Lake and the Big Tree trails, where we saw some deer by the shore. Finally we went up to the observation towers from where we had a better view of the previous areas. Still there was no sight of the whooping cranes. Instead we saw egrets, heron, ducks and the largest group of turkey vultures I have ever seen. They come in late in the afternoon and when the tourists are gone, they roost for the night on the observation towers. In fact all the ramps were covered by their poops 😂

Great Egret

Sandpiper

Great Blue Heron

Turkey Vultures

This alligator was guarding her babies nearby

Day 37 - Austin to Rockport

The Goose Island State Park is a beautiful place to park your RV. The moment I stepped out of the car I saw a red cardinal bird. So cute! Each RV area is well spaced and hidden in between trees. At night all is quiet and during the day, bird songs are filling the air.
We take a drive to Rockport. It's not the most happening place. It's Sunday and it's foggy. In the warm weather, it must be more alive than this. We drive through the residential area of  Key Allegro. I finally see the damage caused by hurricane Harvey in August of 2017. Many of the jetties have been wiped out, many houses off stilts have new windows, others are boarded up. It's a lovely area with canals in between house rows like in Venice. Each house has its docking area. We look at home values on Zillow...not too bad.

Day 36 - Austin: Terry Black's BBQ, Broken Spoke, Rainey street, Geraldine's

It was a cold snap and now I know the meaning of it. It's freezing outside and it happened all of a sudden. We didn't go out all day. Except Albert texted us again, wondering what we were going to do.
The plan was to go to the movies in a really warm place and then maybe check out a honky-tonk bar, since it was our last night in Austin.
So we all went to see 'Vice' in a movie theater that served food. I loved the movie but I was ticked off when a waiter walked up during the movie to ask us if we wanted anything...really? What the heck! Get out of here. I am sorry, but I am old fashioned about movie theaters...no food.

Next, Bill and I were going to throw out of the window all our good intentions about cattle and...pigs. We went to a Texas BBQ, Terry Black's. It was the real thing with all the bells and whistles.
The line was long and we were waiting outdoors in the cold, but it went really fast and soon we were taking our trays covered in double paper, grabbing all kinds of side dishes like potatoes salad, baked beans, coleslaw, pecan pie, peach cobbler. Finally we get to the meat bench. We picked a spicy sausage, ribs, and briskets, and they slapped the piece right on the paper. Awesome!
We devoured everything in minutes and washed it down with Shiner Bock beer.

Then we got a tour of the pit. The briskets are first cooked 8 hours and then smoked for another 8 wrapped in paper. The fire is on 24/7. They have three shifts to cook meat all day long.

At this point, we had to find a place where to burn off all that goodness. So we went to the Broken Spoke, where we had the chance to meet the owner and try out our two-step skills on the dance floor.

Albert decided that the Broken Spoke was not alone representative of the Austin night scene. We didn't go to Sixth street. We went to the better alternative venue and the most frequented by Austinians, Rainey Street. Leave Sixth street to the tourists.
Rainey street is lined by small houses that have resisted the city redevelopment of the last ten years. The homes house various night clubs, pubs, food trucks and a lot of music. They are wedged in between high rise buildings. It's quite a sight and a lot of fun.

Day 35 - Austin: District 2 Mall, Home Slice Pizza

Today it was bitter cold. It rained all night and in the morning.
We wanted to go walking to get our steps in. An indoor shopping mall was going to be the perfect place. I googled the District 2 shopping mall on 2nd street. When we got there, we soon realized that there was no indoor shopping mall and all the shops were outdoor. We were walking in between skyscrapers in a wind tunnel with our eyes watering from the cold. It was miserable and I was not dressed for it.
We recup'd in a small cafe, Jo's coffee, with cappuccinos and a cookie on 2nd street.
In the evening we went out for pizza with Albert, who we had met while in Big Bend. Pizza was at Home Slice Pizza on South Congress. Worth it!