It took 3 hours to drive from Port Aransas to Mercedes...country side was flat for as far as we could see. We are situated about 40 miles from the Gulf and 10 miles from the Mexico border. The park (Llano Grande) is huge ... has 4 pools, nice gym, rec hall, wood working shop, pool hall, tennis courts and golf course. The weather is now in the high 60's and mid 70's. Love it! We golfed on Sunday at the park course. It's not in great shape as they had a hurricane hit this area in the summer and the course was under 5 feet of water and is still recovering. Small world...John and Sheila Smart are in the same park.

It was a brutally cold and windy week in Corpus Christi. We moved over to the park at Port Aransas on Friday. The beach is fabulous and the weather improved as the week went by so we had some nice long walks on the beach each morning. Port "A" is a beach town (known as the "drinking town with a fishing problem") at the north end of Mustang Island. A chanel separates it from Padre Island which is a long island that runs from Corpus Christi down to Brownsville. Much of Padre Island is National Seashore so you can drive for miles and miles and see only fields. Monday we golfed Newport Dunes with a nice gentleman from Missouri. There is a ferry service from Port "A" to the mainland. They have 4 ferries running 24 hours a day. The ferry ride took a whole 3 minutes. Yesterday was a beautiful warm day....we golfed with a nice couple from Missouri, after golf we all went out to dinner.

It was a 5 hour drive to Corpus Christi, our route took us through the middle of Houston. The temp was 75 when we arrived at The Colonial del Rey park which is small with narrow sites, so our plan to stay here for 2 weeks has changed. We are only a couple of blocks from the bridge to Padre Island. On Sunday we went golfing at Newport Dunes on Mustang Island, an Arnold Palmer course that is beautiful with 2 holes along gulf. Unfortunately because of the heavy rain on Saturday night we were only able to play the back nine, so went back today to play 18 today. The north wind was sooo cold we quit after 9 and got a rain check for next week when it is supposed to warm up. After golf on Sunday Rick made a delicious dinner of crab cakes and shrimp scampi for my birthday.
We found a nice park near Port Aransus on Mustang Island next to the beach that we are moving to on Friday and will spend a week there. The temps are dropping and tomorrow is supposed to be in the mid 40's so will be a good laundry day and some sightseeing.

The trip across to Beaumont was about 5 hours, sunny and warm - 74. Yesterday morning started out a little rough. Rick was changing a light bulb over the stove at the bottom of the microwave and blew the breaker. He went a bought a new breaker, replaced it and the microwave-convection still did not work. He called the manufacturer and discovered there is fuse in the back of microwave that may have blown and would probably require 2 people to remove the microwave from the wall. Called an on sight RV service company and it ended up costing $117.00 to replace a $2.00 fuse. We spent the afternoon touring downtown Beaumont. Visited the Art Museum of Southern Texas and The Texas Energy Museum. Turns out that Beaumont had the first oil strike in Texas. Had a beer in a tavern on a very deserted Crocket Street and had dinner a delicious dinner of seafood courtbouillon (Floyd"s) on the way back to trailer. The portion was so large that Rick and I shared and brought half back for left overs. Today we took a tour of the Spindletop-Gladys City Boomtown Museum which is a replica of the early oil-rush town. Took a drive to Nederland, Grove and Port Arthur. Oil refineries EVERYWHERE!! Stopped for lunch in Nederland at the Butcher Shop( a real butcher- advertising specials for butchering deer) and split a BBQ sandwich and a huge bowl of gumbo...Delicious. The food so far in Texas in fabulous. Too good! Tomorrow we are off to Corpus Christi.

We enjoyed out New Years Eve with Panama City Beach friends celebrating New Years twice, first in eastern time when the ball dropped in New York and again back at the trailer at midnight. Golfed with 6 men from the park on New Years day but we were rained out on the 6th hole. Did it rain!! All day! We were packed up and ready to leave by 9:30 on our way to Bay St. Louis, MS. Could not pass Destine without stopping at The Shed for ribs. Drove the scenic route along the Gulf on our route west. Golfed today at The Bridges an Arnold Palmer course here at the Hollywood Casino Resort. Rick says it is the most difficult course he has ever golfed...lots of water and bunkers, but very interesting. Once again it beat us. Cooler today...54. After dinner we will be walking over to the casino to spend my $20.00. Tomorrow we are leaving for Beaumont, TX.