Noodlings & Natterings from the Edge: Mar 3, 2011

Thursday, March 03, 2011

A Walk in the Park

RV Park, that is. In Aransas Pass, Texas, where we spent a month at Southern Oaks Resort, a newly constructed RV park where people can buy lots to build out (with cabanas, landscaping, patios, etc.) and live on with their RVs. We loved our rental spots...brand new at the end of the row, with no neighbors to the south to obstruct the view toward a lovely bit of woods that Patchouli took to like--well--like a cat to a tree. He was begging for daily walks in all that grass and sand, and he managed to explore every building and oak on the property by the time we left.

Our rigs at the end of a half-completed rental row (Ken's white truck, my red truck beyond). The owners know how to build for RVs--generously sized sites and double-wide roads for maneuverability, with plans for a pool, spa, etc. later. Our sites were so new that the electric meters still read zero. The price was exceptional--about $400/month, plus whatever electricity we used (at the not-so-cheap Texas rates).

Clubhouse construction was barely past the framing and siding stage, but they were still able to use it for weekly open houses (to sell RV lots), daily coffee klatches, and 24-hour laundry access. There's a big walled area beyond the building where a huge loop of RV lots are for sale. About 25% were already sold and built out with pads, landscaping, and outbuildings amid a very relaxing, park-like setting dotted with ponds and a creek-looking surface water control system.

Aransas Pass is 40 miles north of Corpus Christi (a typical major port city), and ten miles from the quaint and pastel-colored Gulf Coast towns of Rockport and Port Aransas. Port Aransas is at the north end of a 60-mile long string of barrier islands. Getting to it requires a ferry--a free, five-minute ride aboard one of four bitty boats that hold about 20 vehicles each. They continuously cross an intracoastal waterway that the big oil tankers use to get to Corpus Christi.

The waterway is much too narrow for a bridge, so the ferries do the job of moving residents and tourists all day long, pausing service long enough for ginormous barges and tankers to pass through. The channel is also subject to tides, which means that certain ferry runs can't take heavy vehicles like semis and RVs. The day we wanted to move to Aransas Pass was a low-tide day, and RVs were prohibited. It took us a 40-mile roundabout drive through Corpus Christi to get to a place 10 miles away by ferry.

While in the area, we toured the USS Lexington aircraft carrier in Corpus Christi, drove the posh shoreline neighborhoods in C.C. and Port Aransas, and poked around a couple of wildlife sanctuaries that proliferate here on the Gulf Coast. We also took a week-long Florida Interlude (photos in follow-up entry) during the month.

The whole region is Oil Rig Central. You can see platforms standing out in the ocean and watch the tankers coming and going with their loads. You can drive around and stumble onto an oil rig building facility and practically drive up to their front door to get a semi-close view of construction on the shore (these newer rigs are HUGE). You can also aimlessly come upon a graveyard of hulking rigs rusting on a beach across the street from a field of tanks holding fresh oil for processing at the neighboring plant.

Weather was humid so near the gulf, and extremely windy and somewhat cold on most days during our February stay. We were also caught by the south tail of those winter storms that crossed the US, waking up one morning to almost half an inch of ice coating the rigs, trucks, and ground. This little jaunt with Patchouli, below, was on one of the warmer, less windy days we had.

Patchouli's favorite woods, just beyond my rig.

Patchouli on his new retractable, lightweight, ribbon leash that we bought in Corpus Christi. It's much easier for him to drag around than his nylon lead.