Social Distancing for Full-Time RVers

Please don't let any of this sound like we are calling for sympathy for us; far from it. We are healthy and secure.

It's really pretty easy for us to adapt to live with life with COVID-19. We don't have jobs, nor school-age children that are suddenly at home and in need of education. We rarely go out to eat. Shopping for the sake of shopping is something that we both avoid whenever possible. Our primary contacts with outsiders have been at fuel stops and grocery stores.

The biggest adjustment for us has been not being able to do a lot of sightseeing. Things are closed everywhere: museums and parks and beaches - all the things we like to see. Like everyone, we've been making adjustments. Insofar as sightseeing goes, we've been doing a lot of driving rather than walking.

In what follows below you'll get an inkling of what we've been facing for the last couple of weeks.

Mercedes: On Monday 3/16 the RV park we were staying in shut things down. They cancelled all activities and amenities for the season. We originally were focused on the activities: Cathy's water aerobics class, Tuesday night bingo, Thursday night fish fry, etc. We quickly discovered that the amenities being closed was also a big impact. The park's got a golf course, four pools, two fitness centers, a bar and grill and numerous smaller places. They were all shut down. We found this out in a rather embarrassing way.

One afternoon Cathy, Leah and Dennis decided to go to the small pool just down the street from us to do a water aerobics session on their own. I usually go to the fitness center when they do this, but it was a hot day and I thought I'd just go swim some laps in the pool. While we were in the pool, everyone going by seemed to stop and stare at us. We soon found out why: the pool was supposed to be closed! After about 20 minutes a maintenance guy came by and politely threw us out. He also locked the gate behind us - something that obviously should have been done beforehand.

So, the place was basically closed down for our last week there. On top of everything else, it was hot and muggy the whole week. Quite frankly, we were glad to leave.

Shiner: Our plan on leaving Mercedes was to head north to Shiner, Texas and then on to Waco. What's in Shiner, you ask? Shiner is home to the Spoetzl Brewery, the oldest independent brewer in Texas and purveyors of the heavenly Shiner Bock beer. It was roughly on our way and also roughly halfway between Mercedes and Waco.

Not being complete idiots, I had checked the brewery website ahead of time; there was no mention of hours or brewery tours being changed. When we pulled into the RV park we happened to run into a brewery employee and immediately found out otherwise: no tours and no gift shop. We were disappointed but not completely surprised. We still wandered around this quiet, lovely little town and snapped a couple of photos of the brewery.

The RV park we stayed in was next to this bucolic scene.

Waco: Waco is currently known as the hometown of Chip and Joanna Gaines, creators of the hit HGTV show Fixer Upper. They have parlayed this show's success into a commercial empire under the umbrella name of Magnolia. Watchers of the show know that Magnolia runs a coffee house, cupcake shop, gardens and gift shop arrayed around two 120-ft-tall silos just south of downtown Waco. We knew in advance that all this stuff was shut down, but decided it was still probably worth a stop and a looksee.

It was. There were precisely zero people outside their complex; one guy was inside doing some gardening. We walked around the blocks, taking in the sights. While we missed seeing inside, not having to fight the crowds and tour buses almost made up for it.

The Fixer Upper website gives locations and addresses for the homes that they renovated on the three seasons of the show. We picked out 8-10 of them in a route fairly close to downtown and did a driveby. It was kind of fun.

If you ever find yourself in the area, be aware that Waco has an In-N-Out burgers. It is easy walking distance, maybe 4-5 blocks, from the Magnolia complex. This was an unexpected bonus for us.

Dallas (Pilot Point): Our goal upon leaving Mercedes was to get up here to visit our good friend Martha. The three of us went to high school together. Cathy and Martha were best friends; I dated Martha briefly. Martha is in the process of beating ovarian cancer; she's roughly halfway through  chemotherapy. It was great to spend a couple of hours with her... from a social distance, of course! She and one of her daughters moved to Texas early this year, ten days before she was diagnosed with cancer. Like I said above: she's beating cancer. She looks great and has a very positive attitude about all this.

What's Next: Our original plan when leaving Mercedes was to get to Dallas, then head back south and east to New Orleans and then on to Gulf Shores, AL for a couple of weeks. A few days ago we heard that New Orleans is not a good place to be right now - so that's off the books. Yesterday or the day before we heard that the beaches in Gulf Shores were closed. Today we got a call from the RV park we were planning on staying at. They are still open, but all of their amenities - pool, restrooms(!), dog park, etc. - are all shut down. They also told us that the beaches in Pensacola, FL are also now closed. So... we're not heading to Alabama.

So, what is next? Right now, we really don't know. We are heading a few miles north of here to Ardmore, OK. We're going to settle in there for a week - at least - and make some plans. There's no sense in going anywhere if anywhere is closed. The park we're going to be staying at is one of the top-rated parks in the state; we might hunker down there for the duration. We are also considering heading back to Tucson; we like the area, and its quite a bit closer to family without being in the chaos of California right now. Keep posted for updates!

Lastly, I hope that all of you are weathering these uncertain times as well as we are. Although we are frustrated and a little bit bored, we are safe and healthy. I hope you are, too.

Boca Chica

We took a drive to Boca Chica State Park a few days ago; this state park is at the mouth of the Rio Grande, where it dumps into the Gulf of Mexico. We went with Dennis and Leah, who stayed in Llano Grande last winter and visited the place.

The road out deadends at the beach. In casual Texas fashion, there is absolutely nothing, except common sense, from stopping one from simply driving out on the beach. Since common sense is in short supply in the Shook household, and we had a four-wheel-drive pickup truck, and Dennis said he'd done it last year with no problems, we drove onto the sand and headed south a couple of miles to the actual mouth of the river.

 

Me and Cathy and The Beast, on the beach. 

The Rio Grande is largely consumed by agricultural demands on both sides of the river in the Rio Grande valley. What enters the Gulf of Mexico is, I am sure, only a shadow of its true self. Nevertheless, it was a really cool thing to see.

That white SUV is on the Mexican side of the border.

Caught a nice shot of a brown pelican fleeing from the old folks.

By far, though, the coolest things we saw were the SpaceX facilities that are just a mile or so from the coast, right on the main road in. There's a tracking facility on one side and the Starship Launch Pad facility on the other side. Both sites are humming with activity. We were followed up the road in by a semi-truck hauling something or other in. I counted three cement trucks heading out from the site; obviously, there was a good-sized pour going on the day we were there.

SpaceX is a big deal in Brownsville; there's pretty regularly something on the local news about activities and expansions going on here. Dennis and Leah said that almost everything that we saw here wasn't there a year ago when they visited.

Like the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, there is absolutely nothing to the east of the launch site that would be endangered by a launch gone wrong. SpaceX is apparently intent on turning this site into its own base of operations, presumably breaking away from NASA's control over the Florida facility.

South Padre Island

Last week we took a drive over to South Padre Island, which is about an hour away. South Padre Island is the name for both the geographical feature - the island - and the small city that sits on its south end. The island is a long, narrow low-lying barrier island situated a mile or so off the coast, just north of Brownsville.

South Padre Island is well-known to Texans and others as party central during spring breaks. Fortunately for us, since we didn't want to dodge drunken college students careening down the street on golf carts, we were there the week before the spring break season started. The place was dead. We had lunch in one of the numerous restaurants and bars in town; we wandered in at 12:30 and were the only customers in the place!

One of the fun things for non-college-students to do is to visit Sea Turtle, Inc. This is a small turtle rescue organization located on the north side of town. They of course do a lot of educational and service stuff, too. They are deeply involved in establishing a breeding beach on South Padre for the Kemp's ridley turtle, a gravely endangered species.

We spent a few bucks to get in the place and had a very pleasant hour or two wandering around the place. They have a number of rescued turtles that will be released back to the wild. They also have several turtles that have been injured or are otherwise unable to be safely released.

Some of their resident turtles remain resident because they've lost a limb. Turtles apparently aren't smart enough to do anything but swim in circles if they've lost a forelimb. The people at Sea Turtle, Inc. have rigged up a carbon fiber fin that attaches to a turtles shell that counteracts the lopsided thrust from only one forelimb and allows the turtle to swim in a relatively straight line. Very cool!

I took a number of pictures of turtles. Don't ask me the species; I knew them at the time but have long since forgotten!

This little guy is destined for release in a couple of months. 

This guy is missing his left forelimb. I missed the explanation, but Cathy says he only wears his harness occasionally. 

That spidery-looking thing on his back is the harness for the fin, which sticks off the back. 

After our visit to Sea Turtles and lunch we drove to the north end of the island. The northern 2/3 or so of the island is a wildlife preserve and is closed to auto traffic. We drove to the end of the road and walked out to the beach for a brief photo op. The wind was blowing 30 miles an hour or so, so conditions were less than pleasant.

Cathy and Leah on the beach. 

All in all, South Padre Island was well worth the day trip.