Paul Alton MBA

Lifelong Learning, Living and Loving

Home

Dukan Diet

Ad Copy

Articles

Thinking Ahead

Decisions

LongestDay

A Day

Jail Mindset

Dan Alton's Memoirs

DR Mission Trip

David Allen

Automation

Two Businesses

Winter Vacation

Tales of Buddy

Pirogue 2014

Killer Grid Heater Bolt

Video Doorbell

Travel

Copper Canyon 2010

Ireland 2011

August 1_2011 Photos

August 2_2011 Photos

August 3_2011 Photos

August 4_2011 Photos

August 5_2011 Photos

August 6_2011 Photos

August 7_2011 Photos

August 8_2011 Photos

August 9_2011 Photos

August 10 _2011 Photos

Ometepe Monastery

Somoto Canyon 2014

Reports

Heat Duct

Books

Updates

April 2025

March 2025

February 2025

January 2025

December 2024

November 2024

October 2024

September 2024

August 2024

July 2024

June 2024

May 2024

April 2024

March 2024

February 2024

January 2024

December 2023

November 2023

October 2023

September 2023

August 2023

July 2023

June 2023

May 2023

April 2023

March 2023

February 2023

January 2023

December 2022

November 2022

October 2022

September 2022

August 2022

July 2022

May June 2022

April 2022

March 2022

February 2022

January 2022

2021Review

December 2021

November 2021

October 2021

September 2021

August 2021

July 2021

June 2021

May 2021

April 2021

March 2021

February 2021

January 2021

December 2020

November 2020

October 2020

September 2020

August 2020

July 2020

June 2020

May 2020

April 2020

Covid Spring

March 2020

February 2020

January 2020

December 2019

November 2019

October 2019

September 2019

August 2019

July 2019

June 2019

May 2019

April 2019

March 2019

February 2019

January 2019

December 2018

November 2018

October 2018

Peru Part 2

September 2018

SpringSummer2018

February 2018

January 2018

December 2017

November 2017

Fall 2017

August 2017

July 2017

June 2017

May 2017

April 2017

March 2017

February 2017

January 2017

December 2016

November 2016

October 2016

September 2016

August 2016

July 2016

June 2016

May 2016

March April 2016

February 2016

January 2016

D and E House 2015

December 2015

Fall 2015

Bill China

CarolynChina

September 2015

Summer 2015

April 2015

March 2015

February 2015

January 2015

December 2014

November 2014

Going South 2014

summer 2014

Spring 2014

March 2014

February 2014

January 2014

December 2013

November 2013

SeptemberOctober 2013

August 2013

July 2013

June 2013

May 2013

April 2013

March 2013

February 2013

January 2013

December 2012

November 2012

October 2012

September 2012

August 2012

July 2012

June 2012

May 2012

April 2012

March 2012

February 2012

January 2012

December 2011

November 2011

September - October 2011

July - August 2011

April - June 2011

March 2011

February 2011

January 2011

December 2010

November 2010

October 2010

September 2010

Shop/Studio 2010

August 2010

July 2010

June 2010

April - May 2010

March 2010

February 2010

January 2010

December 2009

November 2009

October 2009

Going South 2009

September 2009

Shop/Studio 2009

July - August 2009

June 2009

May 2009

April 2009

March 2009

February 2009

Nicaragua Trip

January 2009

Big Feed 2008

December 2008

November 2008

October 2008

Balloon Ride

August - September 2008

Studio / Shop 2008

June - July 2008

April - May 2008

March 2008

February 2008

Jan-Feb 08 Transition

January 2008

Big Feed 2007

December 2007

November 2007

Sept/Oct 2007

Summer 2007

Spring 2007

February 2007

January 2007

2006 Updates

CanMexCan V

CanMexCan_IV

CanMexCan_III

CanMexCan_II

CanMexCan_I

 
January to February Transition

After several months at Way of the Cross Ministries in Harlingen, Texas, we finally got back on the road and headed north to our next SOWER project, Texas Baptist Encampment at Palacios, Texas. On the way we took some time for a couple of days of sight seeing.


Image: 
King Ranch Museum

Tuesday, January 29th we took down the internet satellite dish and hooked up the fifth wheel to Clifford, the big red truck and headed north on our first baby step back to Canada. Our destination was our next SOWER project at Texas Baptist Encampment, but on the way we wanted to do some sight seeing.

The King Ranch is a couple of hours drive north of Harlingen at Kingsville, Texas. It has been around for over a hundred and fifty years and occupies a fair chunk of land. It is possible to tour the ranch itself, as well as two locations in Kingsville - a museum and saddle shop. I already had low opinion of the desirability of looking at Texas scrub land and get enough of riding undersized school bus seats working shutdowns. So when I overheard somebody in a buffet line in the Weslaco, Texas ranting about the sixty dollars they paid and seeing “nothing but a bunch of bush” the ranch got scratched off the “things-to-see” list. The saddle shop (free) and the museum (modest charge) still held promise.

One of the challenges of a combined truck and rig length of 53 feet is finding parking. While it is technically possible to cut and fill for an hour or so to turn around in an amazingly small area, it is not typically something you choose as your first option. Usually it is something you are blunder into and the experience heightens your avoidance systems for sometime afterwards. Kingsville conveniently provided an RV parking area across from the railroad museum and near the King Ranch Saddle Shop and only a four block walk to the King Ranch museum. Thank you, Kingsville.

The saddle shop had a good selection of quality furnishing, Western style (mostly) clothing, saddles and other leather goods for sale. They were priced for the discerning buyer with much less price resistance than me, but it was a pleasant amble and smelled great! Two saddle makers were industriously working on making more and the high class shop folk were classy enough not to be pushy. There was a stuffed Nilgai on display. These animals from India had been introduced to the ranch. They bred so successfully that they had to be culled by hunting which soon made them distrustful and jumpy around people and vehicles. Don’t know how many there are now, but the vocal critic from the buffet line didn’t see any.

We walked the blocks to the museum and stored our water bottles with the receptionist (”no food or drink”) and stowed the camera I my pocket (“no pictures”). It was an interesting collection of ranch vehicles and artifacts with displays and a movie about the ranch history. As we were leaving we encountered another SOWER couple, Ron and Dorothy Mixon. We had first met in Northeast Texas in March 2006 and worked with at projects in the Valley in January 2007 and 2008. We chatted a bit. After their tour they were headed for Palacios and wanted to get there a few days early to get information on the area to hand out to the SOWER group they would be leading. After the chat they started their museum tour and we walked back to the rig and headed north to our stop for the day – Mathis, Texas.

It is embarrassing to admit that one of the reasons we stay at the Mathis RV park is the Mexican restaurant across the street, but I felt better after visiting a bit with the couple from Kansas City parked in the next site. That why they stopped there, too. They were headed south to Harlingen so we told them about Chapitas in Harlingen, but they were already patrons there on their frequent stays in Harlingen.

After getting situated and visiting with the neighbours we went into town to the library. After signing up for a library card we checked e-mails and updated the family on our whereabouts. Then it was back home to our rig and the restaurant across the street.


Image: 
Corpus Christi

Our first stop in Corpus Christi was Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History . Actually that tells part of the story. We (I) missed the turn, because I didn’t understand the shorthand on the directional sign. So we ended going over the harbor bridge that you may recall that I tried to drive the truck over the edge of last year on our way to the USS Lexington museum. Well this time I didn’t try and help take pictures so the trip across was uneventful and we drove out the causeway a ways and stopped for breakfast at one of the 22 Whattaburger restaurants in the greater CC area. Goodness knows why there are so many. It must be because they started there. It can’t be because of the food or the alignment between their menu and their cash register (if you order something using the words on the menu board there is a distinct possibility that the clerk can’t find it since it is called something else on the readout, but I digress). Well, after crossing the bridge back I still misread the signs and after a short trip on the cross town freeway and an exit and a trip through a gas station parking lot and back on the freeway and before you knew it we were there.

The museum has displays of local flora and local recent history as well as a history of Spain in the New World and in that area in particular. They have a large selection of sad irons as well as complete set of replicas of Columbus’s three ships: the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria. The sad irons fill a large display case. The ships are full size so two of them take up a bit of the grounds and the third, the Nina, is in the local harbor.

The ships were built to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Columbus’ “discovery of America” voyage in 1492. They were built in time for them to do a tour of European ports and then to sail to North America in 1992. They were built with the same sort of wood as would have been used originally. Their state of relative deterioration less than twenty years later illustrates the short term service expected of ships of the day. If they made the voyage successfully they were often stripped and disassembled to use the materials in building things at their destination.

There was a display of the design and making of the pavilion and statue for Selena the Corpus Christi singer that was shot by a fan. The pavilion is just ashore from the dock where the Nina is tied up.

Rather than give a blow by blow account of the museum’s contents. I’ll just give an impressionistic account of the highlights as they stuck in my peculiar brain.

The main impression of the ships is that they were tiny. Notice that the Nina barely takes up three parking spots on the dock. Hard to imagine getting on one and heading across the ocean to “the Indies”. No wonder the sailors were close to mutiny on that first voyage. One other item of note was that there was no ship’s wheel. There was a tiller in the rear under deck area. The helmsman received instructions be somebody on deck yelling to him. Except on the Nina where there was so little head-room that he looked out through a hole in the deck for his head.

There was an account of the aftermath of a shipwreck near Corpus Christi and an account of the attrition form Indian attacks as the survivors tried to work their way south along the coast. There was only one that made it to a Spanish settlement to tell the account of the others. I mentioned the inhospitable nature of the area in the update on the Big Feed 2007 outreach.

There was one accounting of how Spain lost money on the New World. It had so much gold flowing in that it borrowed more than it had to fight wars and expand its European territory. At the end of it all the bankers made out like bandits (is that redundant?) with the interest they charged and Spain itself was destitute. I have seen this numerous times with people’s personal economies either in boom times or when they suddenly fall into an industrial job. The big numbers of their gross pay soon entice them into borrowing beyond their means and there is a real pinch when the overtime cuts back.

After the museum and ship tour we headed south through Corpus Christi and out to the Gulf where we drove the road along across Padre Island and Mustang Island and took one of the three or four tiny ferries from Port Aransas. After stopping for supper in Aransas Pass we completed our circumnavigation over the CC Harbor bridge and took the freeway to Mathis.

On the Thursday we got an early start to Palacios to travel before the predicted winds got too strong. As we arrived at the RV park in Palacios we met the Mixons leaving for the encampment (GL’s (group leaders) arrive a day earlier than the rest of the SOWERS). On the Friday we joined them and the rest of the 10 couples. Juanita rode through the entrance to the encampment on top of the fifth wheel trailer so she could trim some low hanging branches. What a woman!


<< PREVIOUS

NEXT >>

Copyright Paul W. Alton 2006 through 2025 All Rights Reserved
Pages on this site contain Amazon affiliate links
Amazon sells everything from soup to drones.
   Amazon Link 
As an Amazon Associate i earn from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you.