Port Aransas and Padre National Seashore

I am seriously behind in my blogging again.  Too much fun, I guess. But I'll try to start catching up and maybe not get so far behind.

After leaving Bandera, I headed south towards Corpus Christi area.  Besides Max and myself, there were 5 others headed that way, too.  For only $12 you get an annual pass for your vehicle to park (and camp) on the beach in Port Aransas and Corpus Christi.  We chose a beach in Port Aransas.  

Here I am looking out my front window.

And I just took my lawn chair down to the waters edge.  How relaxing!

Max found he like Patti's hammock.

Patti had the ladies out doing line dancing every morning.

Someone decided to decorate the posts.

Fancy always loved the beach.  Usually I could let her run and she would chase the birds and sometimes even end up in the water.

It was the beach and Max was determined to go swimming in the gulf, even if the water was frigid.

We did have a bad rain and I ended up in a lake.

Luckily, I was able to pull out without getting stuck and moved to higher ground down the beach.  They were expecting more rain and I didn't want my lake to get worse.  High and dry in our new location.

I'm not even in the true south, and here I am having my first of many fried bologna sandwiches.

Although Max and I left before it officially started, here were some people getting ready for the annual Sand Festival.  They have people from all over the world come here to build their elaborate sand sculptures. To see this years winners, click here

A fellow traveler, who attended the Bandera Dance Rally, lives in Port Aransas, and had us all over for dinner one afternoon.

He had a beautiful place and this was his view from his deck.

Another day, a group of us headed south to Padre Island National Seashore.

I have now visited over 140 National Park sites and many more that aren't counted with official cancellations.  I have filled up 2 passport books, and now keep track of my visits to National sites using an iphone app called 'passport'.

This was after the rain store and we found lots of beached Portuguese man 'o war lying around.

On the back side of the dunes (away from the beaches) were lots of swampy grounds and salt water marshes.

In another area of the park were a number of people sailboarding.

I always love my stay at the beaches, but it's time to head down the road towards Louisiana and cajun country.

Bandera Singles Dance Rally 2015

The Singles Dance Rally, sponsored by the SI's RV club, is held in Bandera, TX, every April.  It is 10 days of fun and dancing.  This is my 7th dance rally and it was just as fun this year as my first year.  Here are just a few examples of just how much fun seniors can have. 

Lyn drove all the way from Tucson with a bird nest in the basket of her bike. 

I wonder what the mother bird thought when she returned to where her nest had been and it was gone.

A number of people arrive several days early.  This year a group went out to Toucan Jim's to celebrate Blackbeard's Birthday.  Many of the group dressed as pirates.

I didn't dress as a pirate, so I got put in the stocks as a scallywag.

Below are the owners of Toucan Jim's.  Most of the bars, music halls and saloons cater to country music and cowboy ways, so this was a nice change of pace to hear Jimmy Buffet style music all evening.

Watching this rooster wander around reminded me of Key West.

The first day of the rally was on Easter.  We started with an Easter Hat Parade before we had a scrumptious Easter dinner

We always have several theme dances (who says costume parties are only for kids?), and this year we had Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves for one of our themes.  Maryjane's daughter graciously loaned us her Gypsies wagon.

Everyone tries to outdo everyone else when designing the costumes.

But it is all in good fun.

 

Our other major theme night was a pajama party.

What a motley group.

We even had a few jam sessions in the afternoon after announcements.  This was an impromptu addition, but it was so well received, it is now on the agenda for next year as well.

 

Whenever the Ricky Adams Band plays the 'Irritations' come out to help with the song "Ride, Sally, Ride".

We always have one dress up night.  Notice, Max is in his Tuxedo again.  

The Longhorn Saloon has its name for a reason, a real longhorn.  I even got to ride it this year.

And the Easter Bunny arrived on horseback.

And the Easter Bunny tried to crash the party by coming through the window.

We even had someone with a bunny tail and bunny ears dancing.

But, there is more than just dancing to do around here.  The wildflowers, especially the bluebonnets, were in full bloom.  This is up on Bluebonnet Loop north of Fredericksburg, TX.

What I really enjoyed was when it was more than just the bluebonnets.  The extra color of the red, yellow, white and red flowers were exquisite.

One weekend was the reenactment of Mayham on the Medina.  They had gunfights.

And they were camped just like in the old days on the frontier.  Bandera really was a cowboy town.  It was the beginning of one of the cattle drives up north and whenever the cowboys were in town, it did get a little rowdy.

You can check out some of the previous years dance rallies by reading my previous blogs:

Dance Rally 2014

Dance Rally 2013

More 2013 Dance Rally

Dance Rally 2012

I have many more blogs, just check out the previous years archive on the side and look for the dance rally blog found in April.

My last month in Arizona

I always enjoy camping out at Phoenix International Raceway when I am in town during race week.

For $60 you can camp all week in the unreserved section.

We were pretty isolated early in the week, but it filled in as the weekend got closer.

We had several beautiful sunsets.

   

When you are not watching the races, you can watch these guys do stunts on their dirt bikes.

And they had the Budweiser Clydesdale's there, too.

But my favorite time is the race.  As Michael Waltrip says, "Boogity, boogity, boogity, let's go racing".

During that week I had dinner with my grandson and his girlfriend.  We met at the Buffalo Wild Wings out by the Cardinal's stadium in Glendale.  As we arrived, we saw they were having a car show, which happens every Wednesday during the winter. It wasn't just a classic car show, they had some new cars and lots of corvettes, specialty cars and low riders and one car had over 20 TV screens of all sizes throughout the car. 

But we had to take a break to eat.  Next to me is my grandson, Joshua, and his girlfriend Caitlin, while across from me are Max's grandkids, Cooper and Carter.

I especially liked this car with the cut away and the light up engine.

I'm back in Mesa and it's St. Patrick's Day, so a trip to the Irish Cultural Center was on tap.  They had advertised live music and food and I assumed it was going to be Irish music, but the music was folk music, and although the food was traditional corned beef and cabbage, it didn't look so great, so we opted to go searching for something better.  But I did like the building which housed the Irish Cultural Center.  It is built like a castle and has a museum, gallery and library inside.

Back towards downtown, we found what we were looking for in front of Seaman McCaffrey's Irish Pub.  They had a tent set up with real Irish music.

And we found good Irish food.

And even a leprechaun.

Well, it's time to head to Texas and the SI Dance Rally in Bandera.    More on that in my next blog.