The Savage Traveler: Winter Trip 2015: Goose Island

Wed. Feb. 11: Ann and Shelby packed up and got on the road by about nine and we followed after housecleaning the camper. We stopped by the headquarters/museum to watch their video and then turned right on US90 and drove, and drove, and drove. There is no good way to get to Goose Island State Park near Corpus Christi from Seminole Canyon so the GPS did the best she could to straighten out the path. This involved many miles of Texas FM (Farm to Market) roads that were sometimes narrow and bumpy but luckily had little traffic and went around most towns. We stopped for a Whataburger at lunch since we had heard so much about them. It was a big burger and pretty tasty but they didn’t have a side salad to go with it, which we would have preferred. We drove past a few highly irrigated and green produce farms but mostly passed by miles and miles of dry, scrubby ranch land. As we neared Corpus Christi the desert landscape became more coastal and green, with some wetlands with standing water as we passed the Aransas Bird Refuge and we saw more waterfowl. Arriving at the State Park at nearly 6:00 we were told that we could only have one night because they were reserved full for their big Mardi Gras celebration this weekend. They said we could take any open site and settle up with them tomorrow. Then if any reservation didn’t show we could move to a different site. We set-up on #130 and then drove to the nearby pier. Although the sun had set it was nice to walk far out on the long, long pier, greeting fisherfolk who were set up for an evening of fishing. There was a stiff breeze but the temperature was still about 70 so it was very pleasant. We had a good strong phone and 4G signal so we sat in the truck, turned on my phone as a hotspot, and went to the Texas State Park site where we found there were 5 reservations left for Goose Island. We paid for one for tomorrow night and planned to settle up in the morning. Back at the camper we made soup with veggies, and pretzel crackers with peanut butter for a light supper. Since we don’t know if we will have to move tomorrow we didn’t get much out and there is shaky phone and internet at the site so we read and typed until bedtime.

Thu. Feb. 12: Goose Island is all about the Birds so we made like Birders. First thing in the morning we went to the campground headquarters to see about our registration. Luckily the online reservation had gone through which allowed us to stay in the same site and they applied our 3^rd of 4 coupons on our Texas State Park Year Pass, assuring that we were going to easily pay off the $70 it cost us. Since we were already out we decided to join the 8:30 Shore Birds hike, led by a couple from Michigan who are the February Bird Hosts. They helped us identify dozens of birds we wouldn’t have seen otherwise, including a loon (they don’t give their haunting call while in Texas), a Caracara, and a flock of five Roseate Spoonbills that flew overhead. An hour and a half later the hike was going strong but we hadn’t eaten breakfast so we left early and had hearty pancakes at the camper. We hiked for about a mile on the two Birding Trails in the campground but really didn’t see a whole lot of birds now that it was mid-day. We then stripped the bed and loaded the truck with everything to do laundry in town in the evening. Near the campground there is the 1966 Texas State Champion Live Oak Tree, which they just call the Big Tree. After admiring it we drove around the cattle field across the street and, just as we had five years ago, we found a flock of endangered Whooping Cranes. There were 8 of them along with 8 or 10 Sandhill Cranes and we watched them for a long time, especially thrilled when two flew in and landed. They are beautiful in flight! We continued on to the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, which is nearby but the entrance turned out to be about a 35 mile drive. We stopped by the information center and then drove their loop drive, nine miles of which was one-way. Along the way we climbed their observation tower and took a couple of short trails. By the end we had seen a Mama javelina cross the road with three babies, a wild hog beside the road, and many deer. There were also two alligators in a small fresh water swamp near the entrance. It was much later than we had anticipated by the time we got to the small town of Rockford across the causeway. We did badly needed grocery shopping and eventually found a laundromat, around 7:30. We were pretty hungry by then but felt we had no choice but to get the laundry done, which finished up at nearly 9:00. When we were able to look for a restaurant, everything that had been recommended to us was closed. In desperation we went to a KFC where they were out of many things, despite being open until 11:00. It was a very disappointing meal but we suffered through and returned to the campground where we found ourselves locked out! A frantic phone call to the emergency number on the sign eventually revealed that the person who checked us in neglected to tell us that the padlock combination for the green lock (one of the three padlocks) was on the back of our windshield pass. We were absolutely exhausted by the time we got back to the camper and put away the laundry and groceries.