Terra-bull times in Texas

Texas has been hard on our Terra trailer, Grover. Road construction in eastern Texas claimed all but four of our dishes as they fell out of the upper cupboard and shattered our cooktop cover. A tractor trailer cut us off on I10 in Houston, causing our french press

carafe to face a similar fate. As we leave San Antonio today, all glassware is wrapped in blankets and stored in what once was our shower but is currently serving as our closet.

We got to Texas Monday afternoon after traveling over the miles of raised road and bridges over the Bayou's of western Louisiana and Alabama.

Our overnight was scheduled at a Harvest Host, Frascone Winery in Oak Island, Texas between Trinity Bay (fresh water) and Galveston Bay (salt water). As we learned from our host during our tasting, this is the

Alligator Capital in Texas and the alligators have adapted to be quite comfortable in the brackish waters between the bays. Luckily, it's not baby alligator season yet so it was safe to walk across the field by the river from the winery to Grover!

Most of you know that Eric and I (and Linda too) love a good wine so were were excited to try Texas wine at a local winery. The esthetics of the tasting room is nothing to write home about, nor is it really blog-worthy but the wine maker has been there 20 years making wine from the Black Spanish and Tempranillo vines in the yard. The wine marker's wife provides a small menu so we decided order the specialty, alligator eggrolls, and a bottle of wine for dinner. It was not NOLA cuisine, but the experience was unforgettable. Post dinner fun included wack-a-mosquito in the trailer. Linda grabbed the spatula, I had a paper towel, Eric went at it with his bare hands.

Twenty minutes later we had beaten them down and it was clear enough to settle into our nightly game of Wizard. Occasionally, mosquito's tried to rally but humans prevailed!

I've now carried on enough about our first day in Texas, perhaps it should have been it's own post but everything is BIGGER in Texas, so I will continue...

Linda and I wanted to walk about a close by wildlife sanctuary Tuesday morning prior to departing to San Antonio so we loaded up the rig, Eric will work while Linda and I walk at the Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge. We picked the Shoveler Pond 2.6 mile loop with another mile each way to get to trail head. The paved trail path was easy walking

with no other humans around. We had a plethora of bird & ducks to entertain us around the pond including black egrets, American coots, a pintail of some sort, herons and a

number of birds we could not identify.

The first alligator scared us.

Nancy: "Alligator!"

Linda: "Where?"

Nancy: "eleven o'clock"

Linda: "Oh, I see him!"

I quicken my step down the path while Linda hangs back to take a picture...

This happened 8 more times on our walk and each time, I quickly moved away from the alligator while Linda hung back to get a good picture. All alligator pictures are courtesy of Linda!

I had no expectations for the Mission City however it was on Linda's bucket list so she owned the agenda for our 3 days in town and boy did she nail it! From the Riverwalk to

the Rodeo, Pearls and Hotel Emma to The Guenther's House, we ate, drank and played our way through this fun city.

Pictures are worth a thousand words, so I'll let you experience San Antonio through pictures.

See you on the road!