Friday, March 5, 2010


Matamoras, MX border crossing.



Alfonso, the Mexican escort that took us to the market on the bus.

An update, finally............

We left Brownsville last Monday, the 1st of March, and headed to Rockport. We did some really fun things in Brownsville, like going into Matamoros, MX and riding one of their buses to the market, eating a terrific lunch there, visiting the zoo and taking in the Charro Days parade. Great city.

The day we left wasn't such a great day for some reason just kept going wrong. The park we were leaving was actually a mobile home park and the let RVs come in and fill in the empty spaces. Well......the streets were tight and the corners were sharp turns. We had a little trouble getting out but Chuck's a good driver and after backing up a few times, he made it out ok.

We arrived at this park, Bayview RV park in Rockport and the people in the office must have been new or something. They acted like they didn't know we were coming and we had made reservations a month ahead. They hemmed and hawed until they finally gave us a spot. We disconnected the car, which I drive and follow in, and took off down the really bumpy rutted road. They really need to grade these roads.

We found the site that was assigned to us but it had a sign on it that said occupied! Not good driving a 40 foot montster and you can't turn around all that easily, the roads were bad and the office way at the other end of the park. This is a beautiful park otherwise; so many great trees and the sites have lots of room. Anyway, I jumped in the car and drove back to the office. In the meantime, Chuck called the office and they told him to just go take a spot and let them know which one we took. Well, in the meantime, they gave the site he chose to the people coming down the road! I didn't like it anyway as it was muddy there. The drainage problem they have here is huge.

So while he was choosing another site, the office gave me site 507 so I drove back, found Chuck, and we drove around again to find 505 from site 200! There was an impossible turn into that part of the park coming from the direction we were coming from so AGAIN he had to go down and around and back up and come back. THAT spot was impossible for us to get into and a man over there even suggested we not try it. It was up a slight rise and looked too short. SO! We chose 505 across from 507 and I went back up to the office and told them which site we took. They seemed to be ok with that.

This site, I'll have to get some pictures, is a really great site! I can see the clubhouse and it's only about a block away, if that far. Getting out of here might be interesting, though with that tight turn. We'll make it.

On Tuesday we went to check out the town of Rockport. What a cute little seaside town with little shops I want to get back to see, some art galleries and a park or two, a museum and a mansion we could visit. OH! an aquarium that's free!

Wednesday Chuck woke up with a cold and has been miserable and I'm taking vitamin C and Quercitin to combat it. If I get it, maybe it won't be as bad as his. Anyway, we rode our bikes into Fulton where there's an oyster festival going on. It's about 4 miles from here so we did an 8 mile bike ride that day. The festival started yesterday, Thursday, and we're wanting to ride our bikes back later today if the weather looks good; which it doesn't.

Yesterday, we drove into Corpus Cristi mainly to find the Best Buy to drop my laptop off to get fixed again, and then drove out on Padre Island and Mustang Island. There's a camping area on the beach we heard about. It's a first come first serve basis but there were spots available yesterday if we were interested. The only thing is, the weather has to be pretty good or it's pretty cold and windy there.

On our way home, we stopped at Joes Crab Shack and had a wonderful lunch. He had a shrimp po boy and I had 3 crab cake sliders! The food was amazing and so good. I had string onions and he had the french fries.......nothing was greasy.

It was hard to say good bye again to my laptop but I didn't have much choice. One day the D didn't work and the next day the 3 didn't work. Of course, everything worked when the Geek tried it. This is the third time it's in for the same problem. One more time, and they said it's considered a lemon and will be replaced. They will call when they get it back and will send it to whatever Best Buy we are near. Maybe someplace in Mpls. Then I have only about 20 or less till the warranty is up to get that one more time in. Not that I would do anything dishonest..........

Well, I'm going to download some photos and see what happens. Google has changed things a bit and won't let you put too many pictures on one page. Let's see what happens.

Ok, it only let me download two on this post so the check the next few posts for more photos.
This is the market we had Alfonso take us to in Matamoras, MX.


Here's the bus we rode.  That's Chuck.



This doesn't show the condition of the bus very well.  There's graffiti all over the inside, the seats are all torn and they only run along the sides not in rows like we're used to in the US. The roads are so bumpy and you really bump along.