It’s more of a concept than an itinerary

Good evening, campers! It’s Silver Cliche’ reporting again tonight and from... well... we’ll get to that in a minute.

When I wrapped up last night I said that we were going to ponder our options. There is very hot weather coming in, although today was comfortable and beautiful. Our plan for the next week included driving south to Padre Island today for two nights then heading west with one-night stops in the middle of nowhere then near Del Rio, Texas then into Big Bend National Park then to Marfa, Texas and finally Hueco Tanks State Park before leaving Texas via El Paso. That would have been 9 straight nights without being plugged in. That means no AC unless we fire up the generators. 

Talking about it over breakfast today we decided that the trailer and truck are ready for that, but the dogs and us are not. So, we checked here at Matagorda Bay Nature Park, they had openings and we moved the trailer to a waterfront site with the Lower Colorado River (of Texas, not the one you may be familiar with that formed the Grand Canyon) out our door. We are set to wait out the heat, or at least position ourselves to take a different route with different stops. At this point we still plan to swing through Big Bend for three nights then Marfa then Hueco Tanks.

Far from being disappointed, this is a part of the process of moving around the country, dealing with the unexpected and keeping the big picture in mind while not sweating the small stuff. Instead of a three hour drive to be on a beach in Texas, we stayed here to be on a beach in Texas. That gave us time to kick back a bit. Part of the day was testing out new gear. Most significantly, we set up the screen tent for the first time. In buggy regions, this is a potential welt-saver for enjoying the outdoors. Coleman says this enclosure can go from storage bag to ready-to-use in 60 seconds. Mrs. C’ decided to time me and photograph the process. I cautioned that the first set-up might take a bit more time. That was especially important since I had not bothered to read the instructions. At the one minute mark Mrs. C’ snapped the following.

With practice, I think I can live up to the advertisement. Here’s the finished product next to the truck and trailer at our new site on the banks of the Lower Colorado River (of Texas).

After whittling away the morning we decided to explore Matagorda and headed to town. It’s about a 10 minute drive. The village is a crossroads with a store/gas station, two beach shops, two fishing outfitters and a few restaurants. Up the road is a marina with a restaurant and a couple of up-scale boutiques. We ate at the marina and visited several of the shops. A much better day than driving three hours to another beach. Matagorda has a smattering of beach cottages and a significant lock for commercial shipping. Mrs. C’ caught a couple of pics as we drove home.

This evening I drove a short distance in the park with the dogs to one of the three jettys that form the mouth of the Lower Colorado River where it meets the Gulf of Mexico.

And tomorrow? We’ll see... and we’ll watch the weather.

Later...