This year we made our first visit to the southernmost part of Texas-- the McAllen area. We found a campground in the little town of Donna, between McAllen and Brownsville. The area is a favorite winter getaway and no wonder why. The weather rivals that of Florida, being on roughly the same latitude as Miami.
Slow-walking across the country (compared to our usual speedy speed), we first stopped at Medina (Used To Be) Lakes RV Park, a little west of San Antonio. The lakes are dry as a bone these days. Apparently they were man-made lakes that man decided to unmake in favor of agricultural watering needs. Understandable in drought conditions, but sad to see. We stayed there a week and then made our way south to the very bottom tip of Texas.
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| Madina Lakes The boat ramp going down into what used to be a lake. |
Our campground in Donna, Victoria Palms Resort, was beautiful. It was more like a mobile home park than a campground. Our designated spot was at the very back of the park, but it was spacious and comfortable, with a cement pad, and easy to back into. While we were there, we took a day-trip in the car to South Padre Island, had lunch and sat on the beach a while. We were blessed with a beautiful day--warm and breezy, not too hot.
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| Victoria Palms RV Resort (Encore) |
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| Our campsite at Victoria Palms |
One of our "bucket list" stops was Magnolia Beach, a free public campground on the waterfront. We'd heard a lot about it from other campers who loved it, so we wanted to see for ourselves. I must say it wasn't what I expected. The "beach" is not a sandy beach. It's solid ground, which is why 30,000 pound RVs can park practically right next to the water without worrying about getting stuck. And we did.
Originally, the plan was to stay there for five days. That's about my limit for boondocking. But the weather didn't cooperate. Our first day was pleasant. Then in the wee hours of the morning, a storm rolled in, and boy was it wild. After about an hour of heavy wind and rain, Mark decided to put on the headlights and get a better look at the water. "We have to move the coach!" he declared in a near panic. The water from the sea was lapping at our front tires. So, with car and trailer still attached and both our slides still extended, he carefully backed up and slowly repositioned the RV parallel to the water and about thirty feet away. What an adventure! By morning the rain had stopped, but it was cold and windy and not at all pleasant.
The weather was showing no improvement over the next few days, so we decided to close up shop and head for our next campground, which was Lake Conroe, north of Houston. I don't know if we'll be interested in returning to Magnolia Beach. After gazing at the beautiful blue-green water of the Gulf at Padre Island, the dirty brown water in the bay was somewhat disappointing.
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| Magnolia Beach (before the storm) |
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| Magnolia Beach, the first day |
Tomorrow we hit the road again. We'll be stopping at Our Alfa Shop for some service on our A/C, then back to Shreveport (Hoffman driveway) for the month of April.
Until next time, safe travels to all!
More Pics...
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| Lunch on Padre Island |
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| Gulf of Mexico at Padre Island |
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| Padre Island. We drove to the end of the road, then took our blanket and sat on the beach a while |
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| Ocean theme... |
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| A new acquisition-- portable water softener. An effort to preserve our water-using appliances. |
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| View from Magnolia Beach. Port Lavaca is a fairly busy commercial port. |
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| The famous Texas Buc-ee's. We had to check it out. |
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| Lake Conroe is one of the few Thousand Trails campgrounds actively making improvements. The roads are smooth blacktop, and they've added two new sections since the last time we were here-- all with cement pads and full 50 amp service. |
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| Magnolia Beach |
