Texas Wine Country to Florida Oysters

Feb 2-20, 2021

TL;DR: Well, we have a new addition, and his name is Eric and he’s a 2003 Chevy Tracker and he’s changed our lives. We’re so mobile now and can’t believe we ever did it any other way. We also are looking after sweet Duna for the next month or so, which is pretty great (FYI: she’ll feature heavily in the next few posts). So happy to be back on the road!

The sights

Inks Lake State Park

Really nice little park with lots of RV spots overlooking the water. Took the Pecan Flats overlook hike, which actually felt very desert-like with lots of juniper and cacti, good views of the lake and canyons/valleys. Also lots of burned and stripped trees. Saw quite a few cardinals, and, at the very end, a big herd of deer. Apparently hunting season just closed…

Also hiked to Devil’s Waterhole and Devil’s Backbone, which were very different from Pecan Flats. The trail followed along the Colorado River, and featured a lot of casual billion-year-old pink gneiss (“nice”) granite. Ended at a bluff, and were able to take a slightly different route coming back, which is always nice.

Drove to the nearby towns of Burnett, Marble Falls, and Kingsland, but there wasn’t much to see.

Torr de Noch Winery

A quick drive from Inks Lake and we were at this quite delightful winery, whose name means “Hill over the lake” in Gaelic. Expansive patio with panoramic view of Buchanan Lake (off Colorado River) and deer grazing along the side. Wine was served in little plastic cups, which was sort of genius. Bought two bottles. They also had two winery dogs: Buddy was a young black lab with a bandana that said “Please don’t feed me” because he was on a diet. Tori was older, blonde and much more chill. Also saw a quite dapper gentleman at a table nearby who was wearing the most glorious jacket and cowboy boots.

Fredericksburg

Got a nice taste of Fredericksburg wines, starting with Lewis Winery, which was a bit farther away than Jess realized, but very worth it. It’s a compact spot, but the tasting area outside is huge and under these beautiful oaks. Got a really nice tasting from one of the winemakers, Duncan, who explained all his processes and inspiration for the wine.

Also went to Grape Creek, where we are now members. It just seemed like too good of a deal to pass up. And they were one of the original Fredericksburg wineries, and have a sister winery in California, so they do a lot of comparisons which was cool. Also had lots of awards, and quite extensive grounds.

Port Aransas

Drove down to Padre Island National Seashore which took a while, but once we got there, it was a really fun, scenic drive. We even drove Eric right onto the beach (thanks to our new 4WD pump), and saw a few trailers and Class As that were really settled in to some good overnight spots.

We also drove up Ocean Drive in Corpus and saw a whole bunch of ridiculous houses. Seemed like a mix of Charleston + West Palm Beach + Miami.

Took the ferry across Aransas Pass to check out Rockport and Fulton. Had really interesting oak trees that didn’t grow as tall or thick as we’re used to seeing, and were quite wind-whipped into shape, sort of like bonsai trees.

Saw a pretty sweet pod of dolphins playing in front of a barge on the ferry ride back.

Also saw a couple of massive offshore oil platforms and a field of wind turbine blades on the way to the ferry. Just crazy how big they all were.

Apalachicola

Decided this would be a good spot weather-wise to hang out for a few days before we did the Smoky Mountains, and were so glad we did! Finally got some sunshine and it really does wonders for the mood. Hit a few more local fish spots and went back to Oyster City Brewing for some tasty brews.

Drove to Cape San Blas on Saint Joe’s Bay, about 20 miles northwest of Apalachicola, which looked like a pretty classic beach rental community. Took Duna out for a walk on the beach and had some heavenly light coming through the clouds.

St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge

This place was established in 1931, making it one of the oldest wildlife refuges in America. The ranger who greeted us at the front was super cute/into Duna because she had her own doodle, “Smudge.” Pretty busy park with lots of birders, and the map even had stars where the eagle’s nests were! We saw four of the nests, and three eagles: One was on the water, and the others were closer to their nests. So fierce with their massive beaks and talons.

The landscape was really interesting and varied, with:

Really intense tree groves (we think short leaf pines)
Cool underlayer of shorter palm trees
Lots of small bodies of water/wetlands interspersed

Sometimes it looked like Jurassic Park, sometimes like Africa. We saw herons, egrets, and cranes, but no otters or bobcats, which also live here. Also saw the St. Marks Lighthouse which was built in 1842 and has weather 100+ storms!

Details, details, details

We got to Austin in time to spend Christmas with Brian’s family, and stayed with his parents through January. So grateful for the opportunity to spend quality time with the family.

Drove Eric to a trailhead for the first time instead of walking to it, and, well, it was great. We’re so mobile!

Drove through Victoria, Texas on our way to Surfside, and saw our friend Hilary’s house that she grew up on, which is across from the world’s most beautiful Oak tree!

For the longest time, Jess thought it was “Porter Ansas”. Maybe actually visiting will inspire her to say it right.

Drive-through coffee places are excellent. We visited two in Port Aransas: One was quite speedy, and we got the “Undertoe” which was two shots of espresso, Mexican vanilla syrup, and half-and-half. The other was VERY slow and we got coffee and frozen yogurt. Overall a win.

When we were driving through Rockport, a HUGE eagle-like bird swooped down RIGHT in front of Eric, and it seemed like his wingspan was just as wide as we were.

Watched a really gorgeous sunset over Ochlockonee our last night there. The sun had the weirdest bands of color from a yellow center to red rings on the outside. Never seen that before.

We have DUNA for the next few weeks and could not be more thrilled.

She likes to look out the back window.

And “help” us when we’re working.

And sleep.

And sometimes she has itchy paws.

And then this happened…

While we were in Austin, Brian’s mom, Sara, taught us how to play mahjong. It took us a while to catch on, but it’s a lot of fun. Of course, Brian won one game with the most difficult hand possible. (Insert Jess eyeroll here.)

We didn’t get all of the parts for setting up Eric to tow until the day before we left. Thankfully everything fit together and it worked!

On our first excursion out in Eric, we brought the tire pressure monitor and thought Eric had a leak in one of the tires. Successfully changed it. But it appears that the tire is in fact, not flat.

We went to Cooper’s BBQ thinking that Jess could write about it, and thus ordering $80 of BBQ (in our defense, we asked for one pound of brisket at $20/pound and they gave us two pounds). Then we found out it has six locations, which is one too many for Jess to write about. We certainly got our BBQ fix.

In Fredericksburg, we got a knock from our neighbors, who had just made banana bread and brought us a few slices (!). She said we’d probably think she was poisoning us (correct), but it was really very good.

While Bri was in line to get propane at Tractor Supply Co., he heard a guy tell the line a joke: “Hey, ya’all know why polar bears don’t get married? Cuz they always have cold feet.”

The second morning in Barstrop, we went to get in Eric and he had a very thin, very stubborn sheet of ice on the windshield.

On our way from Corpus Christi to Surfside, we stopped in a shopping center so Jess could take a call. When we went to leave the RV to shop, we realized we were locked IN. Cool. Bri eventually MacGyvered some kind of fix but… sigh.

We were en route to Craig and Hil’s in Florida and planned to be there a day later than we arrived, but Bri checked the weather and we basically had to drive against the clock 500 miles to get out of the snow zone JUST before Texas froze over. [Bri’s family is definitely experiencing outages, but all OK!]

Over the summer, we lost the RV keys and had to break in the back window, and the replacement has never really been the same. At the end of our 500-mile sprint to Mississippi, we went to close the shade over the window and it was completely ajar/about to fall out.

Now we know

Looks like there were quite a few options in Port Aransas to stay: right on the beach in Padre Island National Seashore, Mustang Island, and at Bird Basin. Apparently you can also stay right on the beach if you just get a $12 permit.

We (Bri) need a big bird lens. The eagles at St. Marks Wildlife Refuge just sealed the deal.

While we were route planning for the Smokies, Bri happened upon this sweet spot with a “porch” overlooking the mountains that was $125/night. We definitely would have splurged but it was booked. Next time!

Road food

Jane and Michael (owners of Roadfood!) already wrote about Lynn’s Quality Oysters, so we decided to give it a try. Got half a dozen of some of the best Gulf oysters we’ve ever had, and some quite excellent stone crab. No one was wearing a mask but we were in and out.

Also went to Mineral Springs Seafood by the Bay, which was this tiny little store that we never would have known to go to. It was hopping, though, and had so much fresh beautiful seafood. We got a pound of smoked salmon and two smoked fish dips (“hot mess” and “candied crab”) that were both amazing. Meant to get crab cakes but he had rung us up already. No one wearing masks. Sigh.

Where we stayed

Nights one through four: Spot 54, Inks Lake State Park, TX

Very lovely and enthusiastic gatekeepers here. They did have to turn the water off and seemed to be working on one of the sites the whole time, but otherwise great spot. Even had a sno-cone truck that drove around the loop.

Nights five through seven: Spot 74, The Vineyards at Fredericksburg, TX

Had a little trouble leveling here at first, but eventually got it… even though we had three tires off the ground by the end of it.

Night eight and nine: Site 67, Barstrop State Park, TX

We didn’t get out much here because it was freezing and raining most of the time, but the spot was super pretty and had huge pines.

Night 10: Love’s just outside Corpus Christi

Free WiFi!

Nights 11 and 12: Site B19, Surfside RV Park, TX

Night 13: Welcome Center, Mississippi

Almost gave up staying here because it said “no overnight parking” everywhere but on our way out, we saw that there were ACTUAL pull-throughs for the RVs. Amazing.

Nights 14-16: Craig and Hil’s Airbnb, Pensacola, Florida

Nights 17-19: Spot 38, Holiday Campground on Ochlockonee Bay

If you’re not on the row that’s actually ON the water, it’s pretty no-frills, but totally works and is in a great location for exploring. Also has a really nice ocean-front area for walking Dunes/watching sunsets.