Winter Texans

Currently In:  Harlingen, TX
Next Up: San Antonio and Austin

I am a bit behind in these posts because our WiFi was somewhat intermittent in Rockport, TX.  Hoping we have better luck now that we have moved south.

We found out the other day from a permanent resident of Texas that we are not Snowbirds like Florida.  Winter Texans are folks who spend part or all of the winter in Texas.  So, I guess we are Winter Texans right now.

When we pulled into Rockport (outside Corpus Christi), we knew something was wrong.  We saw a building with the roof off.  Then we saw a couple of boarded up houses.  Turns out, Rockport took a direct hit from Hurricane Harvey.  This is a boat storage area that was completely destroyed.

We saw several boats and RVs, like the one below, sitting on the side of the road waiting to be picked up.  Scary.

There are lots of trees in the area.  I can just imagine how beautiful it is when they are all in good condition.  But now most look like this - although I'm not sure I captured how bad it was.

As the debris is collected, and believe me there is a lot still sitting at the side of the road, they stage it in the huge median of the highway that runs through town.  Then the debris is incinerated and more is moved in.

The people we met are still fairly traumatized, as you can imagine.  But they are "Rockport Resilient"  and everything will slowly come back.

Johnny and I still found plenty to do in this cute resort town.  We took a walk on the Tule Creek Trail and did some bird watching.  We found the Shellcrete Historic site.  Shellcrete is kind of like coquina (like St. Augustine) in that it is a material made of shells and sand used for construction. It was used heavily when this area was created.

We also went to the Fulton Mansion,  built in 1877 overlooking Aransas Bay in Fulton.  It was a very progressive home for the time including indoor gas lighting and flush toilets.  It is closed for repairs for the Hurricane, so we just appreciated the outside architecture. 

Right behind the Mansion is a tree with a metal windmill stuck in it from the hurricane that hit in 1919.  The tree grew around the windmill and still there from Harvey!  Very touristy.

Finally, because this is a resort area, there were tons of RV parks.  I mean a lot.  Some were up and running, and some were not.  We stayed in a really fun RV park.  The people were great and they had lots of activities, some that we joined in.  The band below played old time country music.  Yea!

We also decided to join in this fun time.  Didn't win a thing, tho.

Johnny had never played before - can you believe it?? The people were serious, but lots of fun.

We did see a couple of other things in the Corpus Christi area - more on those later!