Our week has continued being really eventful.
Tuesday evening we had dinner with Lauren’s family, the reporter from the Port Lavaca Wave. Her two uncles, her mom, and her grandma all shared a wonderful grilled chicken dinner with us, complete with steamed potatoes, French bread, and a fresh green salad. The house is beautiful; we got to see her mom’s cockatoos; and we had peaceful, low-key conversation for a few hours – a totally enjoyable evening.
Fishing and birding
When we returned, we found Josh and Roger out fishing on the pier at the campground. Two other guys who work for Roger were there as well – Carlos (from Mexico) and Elmer (from Honduras). We had a really fun few hours or so listening to the banter among the guys, watching the fish being caught, learning how the casting works, trying our Spanish out on Carlos and Elmer, learning about the different kinds of fish, and just being part of the relaxed night-fishing pier scene.
At the pier we saw a black-crowned night heron (our first ever) and we saw two skimmers (our first ever) fishing the waters off the jetty. That was very exciting!
Wednesday brought more fishing – Roger came home inspired to get out on the boat again. Since we all knew what to do by now, we got out faster than Monday. We trailered the boat over to the protected boat launch ramp once again; but this time, after a bit of casting in the marshes, Roger headed over to Indianola and Magnolia Beach, across the bay.
The winds were calmer so the water was calmer, and we had a fast, fun, invigorating ride across the bay, under overcast skies. Almost to Magnolia Beach, we came across a flock of seagulls feeding, so Roger killed the engine and we floated while the guys fished the area. They caught at least a dozen trout, but each one was too small to keep.
Chelsea was entertained by trying to get an underwater photo of one of the many jellyfish that floated by us.
After trying their luck in another bird-fishing spot on the way back from Magnolia Beach, we headed back to the marshes again. In the shallow marshes, Roger put on the trolling motor – an extremely quiet motor up at the front of the boat. By easily moving a lever, he could direct the boat into the marsh areas he wanted to fish, so we had both maneuverability and quiet.
That gave Chelsea and me a chance to bird watch – we saw clapper rails, a huge great blue heron, terns and gulls, a few unidentified shorebirds, a few great egrets, and a reddish egret in the dark phase, along with the occasional roseate spoonbill flying overhead.
We reluctantly headed into shore after a gorgeous sunset. Too tired and too relaxed to cook, we ate at La Parrilla again – another incredible meal.
Living with roommates, living in a travel trailer
Though we stayed in a trailer in Knight’s Key two years ago in Florida, it was overnight, and it was a very different kind of trailer. We did shower and have a meal in a trailer in Johnson’s Bayou in Louisiana a few months ago, but this is our first time to actually spend any decent amount of time in a travel trailer.
It’s a very different experience. Having lived most of my life in homes with concrete slabs, it’s a whole new experience being in a home that rocks when anyone turns over in bed, takes a shower, or changes clothes. The winds gusting to 27 m.p.h. rock the trailer enough to make it feel like we are on an IC train rocketing down the rails from Prague to Brno.
We have a bedroom set off up in front, covered with a privacy curtain, with enough room for a small double bed (our feet hang off the end) and space for one person to stand at the entry. There are storage cupboards everywhere in our space, and enough floor space at the end of one corner of the bed to store a medium sized duffel bag.
The privacy curtain is a bit of an illusion – if we have a light on in our room, anything we do is silhouetted against the curtain, and conversely, if our light is off and the light in the main room is on, the occupants in the main room are silhouetted to us.
Josh has his own bedroom at the back – it’s got four bunks, two on each side, with just enough room to stand in the middle between them. With four windows and a skylight, his room gets really hot, but it’s got a lot of natural light.
Since we’re here, Roger has been sleeping the on the front room couch, a pullout bed that doubles as a couch during the day. He simply rolls up his blankets each morning and we each use them as a backrest if we’re lucky enough to get a spot on the couch. If Roger rolls out of bed and stands up, he’ll be right at the bathroom door.
The bathroom provides visual privacy but that’s about all. It’s got a small but efficient chemical toilet, a small shower, and a small sink. The whole room is big enough for one person to stand without moving.
The trailer’s got an efficient little kitchen, complete with a great little microwave, a gas stove top and oven, and a double sink. We’ve also got a picnic-bench style table that seats four in close proximity. The refrigerator is great for water, beer, and soda, but it tends to freeze everything else, especially fresh vegetables.
The guys set their alarm for five a.m., but they hit the snooze at least three times on average, so we are awakened early. They get up by 5:30 or so, get dressed and make their lunches, and are usually out the door before six.
Most nights it’s been eleven before we go to bed, and several nights it was midnight. We don’t know how the guys survive on so little sleep – it’s sure been hard for us! Several mornings we went back to sleep out of pure exhaustion.
We look forward to the evenings when the guys get home. There’s always something going on – we go to Wal-Mart on outings, we’ve eaten out, we’ve barbecued here several times, we’ve been fishing on the pier, we’ve taken the boat for fishing twice. We love the conversations and the banter and the ready humor and the easy laughter.
Thursday
Thursday morning I awakened with the guys and couldn’t go back to sleep, so I got organized with pen and notepad, binoculars, Power Bar, hat, and water and headed out to the bird pavilion. It was a minus tide at low tide, and the shore birds were out in force within easy viewing distance of the pavilion.
In one pond alone I saw nearly a dozen roseate spoonbills gradually land to feed, a very big great blue heron, a half dozen tri-colored herons, several snowy egrets and great egrets, along with an ibis. The clapper rails wandered in and out of the weeds as they usually do.
All was peaceful in the pond until the eleventh roseate spoonbill showed up, then two of the spoonbills got into a “shoving match”. After this went on for a few minutes, a tri-colored heron got disgusted and went to a nearby pond. He was shortly joined by a roseate spoonbill, then an egret.
Within minutes, the main pond started emptying back to its original crowd level as the birds gradually drifted out to adjoining areas. At one point, a long line of roseate spoonbills trekked from one pond to the other – it was hilarious watching them march solemnly in single file across the marsh grass.
Later Chelsea and I braved a heat index of 105 degrees to ride over to Wal-Mart to get a birthday card for Roger’s birthday, and to see if we’d be lucky enough to find an inexpensive pair of pants for me to wear riding. We’ve ditched the chamois-crotch riding shorts (too hot and too moist, needing too much sunscreen, giving us too much sun exposure).
Chelsea’s got a pair of North Face long pants that are working fine for her – they roll up to capri length, and they are loose enough and quick dry enough to feel comfortable. I have only my black Danskin capri tights. Though they are quite comfortable to wear and I can stand to be in them a long time, they are extremely hot in this weather, and they are mosquito magnets.
We didn’t have any luck at Wal-Mart, but it felt good to take action by looking around at least.
Since it was his birthday, and he’d gotten a gift of a bottle of tequila from Carlos and Elmer, Roger was in great spirits Thursday night. He’d already been planning a fishing trip to Rockport for Friday, so even though his brother from Houston couldn’t make it, he decided to go with us and Josh. We all worked quickly to get ready for the next morning – we were planning to leave by 4:45 a.m.
We went to Wal-Mart to find pants for Roger, Josh and me; pants that would be suitable for surf fishing. We didn’t have any luck; we were directed to Port Connor or Victoria, each of which was thirty miles away. We opted for dinner at WhataBurger and going home to fix the trailer lights.
We were excited to try our first ever WhataBurger meal. Sounding like “waterburger” (the way the locals pronounce it) WhataBurger is a local institution (it’s a fast food chain from Texas). It’s typical fast food, but the service was great, and the grilled chicken I had was delicious.
Friday fishing trip to Rockport
Roger had had a few shots of tequila, so he slept soundly, but Chelsea and I were awake and whispering at midnight, too excited to sleep. We knew we’d have to be up by 4:15, and having no sleep would make for a long day, but we just couldn’t sleep.
Chelsea and I were ready and in the truck by 4:40 a.m. Roger was wide-awake and perky; but at least he didn’t drum his fingers on the steering wheel. The rest of us were more asleep than awake; Josh hadn’t been able to sleep well either.
It took no time at all to get to Rockport, fifty miles away. We went on into town looking for food, stopping at a bakery in Rockport for pastries and breakfast burritos, then backtracked to our launch site, Goose Island State Park.
We were on the water before sunrise, heading across the bay and out the Intracoastal Waterway to Mesquite Beach. The weather was still beautiful that early; we saw no other boats for a while; and the sunrise was gorgeous. It was a magical feeling.
Out in the Intracoastal we stopped to watch a doe swimming across the river in front of us; we passed a huge barge; and we watched dolphins playing – two of them came up right next to Chelsea and Josh.
After we left the Intracoastal we headed through a line of channel markers for quite a ways. Nearly every marker sported a bird; the frigate birds were alarmed and usually took off flying; the pelicans simply yawned and kept cleaning themselves; the great blue herons stared in disdain; and the gulls and terns chattered away.
We eventually motored our way into very shallow water, then collected our goodies and hiked a ways over the dunes out to Mesquite Beach. While the guys got the boat settled, Chelsea and I watched the birds.
The number of great blue herons during the day was just amazing, as was their size. We saw a reddish egret in the dark phase, a number of huge great egrets, many brown pelicans, an American Oystercatcher (we were very excited about that one), black-bellied whistling ducks (known hereabouts as Mexican Squealers), and what we think was a godwit.
Roger and Josh waded out into the surf immediately – they were there to fish, after all. Chelsea and I hadn’t been on the beach more than five minutes when we spotted Roger motioning to us to come out. Since we were both wearing quick dry clothing (I had borrowed a pair of Roger’s fishing pants), we headed out to the surf.
For the next few hours we laughed and played in the surf like little kids. We hung out near Roger, surfing the waves and watching him fish. Many times we were out far enough that we were on tiptoe, and the waves caught us hard a few times. We haven’t had so much fun in a long time.
Roger did catch a few trout, but they were too small, and after a few hours he wanted to head out to another area. Josh hadn’t caught anything. We hiked out over the sand dunes again, got settled into the boat, and headed back out to the Goose Island boat launch.
The ride out was just as gorgeous as coming in was. We loved the wind in our faces, the beautiful marsh grasses, the warm sun, the abundance of shorebirds, the feeling of being out alone in nature. I wanted to freeze-frame the moment and keep it with me forever.
Roger and Josh both needed to get back to Houston, and given that it was already eleven, the boat launch would be extremely busy for the July 4th holiday, and we had an hour’s drive back to Port Lavaca, Roger decided to give us a short sightseeing tour instead of attempting to find another fishing location.
The locally famous Big Tree was our first stop, right on Goose Island, then we drove out through Rockport, checking out the waterfront slowly. We really liked Rockport; we are looking forward to spending some time there. Roger has told us we should look in Rockport for a place to stay while we finish the book.
The rest of Friday was very quiet, especially after Roger and Josh left for Houston. I checked out the classified ads for Rockport, looking for a place to stay, and we read quietly until bedtime. We did watch a movie in the evening – the first movie we’ve watched since Angleton.
Getting ready to go
We spent a quiet Saturday, just reading and talking. I wrote to our couch surfing hosts in Rockport, letting them know we’d be there Monday or Tuesday, and we started getting organized to go.
Today, Sunday, we’ve made even more progress. Chelsea rode out to Wal-Mart for a few supplies, I’m writing the blogs, and Chelsea is uploading the photos. Roger and Josh will probably be here by about six p.m. and we want to be ready and packed by then.
We aren’t looking forward to the ride tomorrow as we are set to have the hottest day yet, and we definitely will have head winds. We’re aiming to leave here about six a.m. and see how far we get. We know that Tivoli is only about twenty-one miles away, but we have no idea what to do when we get there. We’ll either look for a place to pitch a tent, or trust that someone gives us a place to stay.
In that case, we’d ride the remaining twenty-nine miles on Tuesday. We may just ask around and see if anyone is headed to Rockport, and see if we can catch a ride down on Monday.
Writing
We spent Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday getting writing and website projects done. We are in a quandary though, as we really want to finish writing our book (it got well underway in Gueydan). We know it will take at least a month of steady daily writing to finish it, and I also want to write another book on finding places to stay. We estimate the total time to be about ten weeks.
Another big item is that we really can’t ride in this heat. If we stay to write the book, we will avoid the worst of the summer heat, and we’ll be able to continue on down into Mexico without having to change our direction.
Still another major benefit of staying to write is that we will be able to create income. We’ll have two books ready to go, and my head will be clear to start publishing articles. I’ve got any number of articles just about ready publish, but my heart isn’t in writing them – I only want to write the book. I figure if it’s bubbling up inside me, I should pay attention to that and concentrate on writing it.
We’re putting it out to all our readers that we are actively looking for a place to stay in Rockport or Corpus Christi, or someplace close nearby. If you know of anyone who has a place we could stay, or if you know someone who knows someone, please let us know as soon as possible. We do have places to stay for another week, and then we need (and want!) to get settled in and write.
Perhaps you know someone who has an empty house, an unused travel trailer, or the like. Or perhaps you know someone who owns a campground with cabins, or you know someone who owns a motel or hotel and who wouldn’t mind lending a room to two writers/touring cyclists/adventurers.
We’d sure love to have you think about it, and ask around for us. We are also thinking of sending an email to our database, so don’t be surprised if you get an email within the week.
Wish us luck and happy house-hunting.
Signing off from Port Lavaca…