I’ll get to Goose Island in a second – bear with me.  We are headed to see our kids, and we are jazzed!  They moved away.  Now we go to them.  You can run, but you can’t hide from your parents.

Our trip to see our son in Denver begins in Atlanta and heads towards Theodore, AL, a little bit south and west of Mobile, where Johnny’s RV Resort beckons us for our first stop.  It feels like Johnny’s is where the lounge singer from the Holiday Inn would go to retire.

While the traffic noise of Theodore certainly made us want to stay, we decided to soldier on and head west towards our next evening in Beaumont, TX.

We took I-10 west through New Orleans, but as soon as we could, parted ways with the interstate and caught the southern route along Highway 90 through bayou country, and decided to take a lunch break.

We stopped on Bayou Black in Gibson, LA.  How awesome!  Right across the bayou was an assortment of shrimp boats, and one egret having a little lunch itself (one less snake).  To be honest, I think both Karen and I could have spent the day here.

In Beaumont we stayed at another resort – Gulf Coast RV Resort.  Again, I am sure it was a lovely resort with all kinds of amenities, but all we really wanted was a place to crash for one night.

Our first real stop, and hence the subject of this post, was at Goose Island State Park in Rockport, TX – along the gulf coast and just a few short miles north of Corpus Christi – or Corpus Crispy as Karen seems to want to call it.  This place is fabulous.

The campground is superb (water and electric), the sites are private and shaded, although they also have sites on the water – we will try those next time.

Dottie seemed to enjoy her stay here, but I do believe there were others interested in her as well.

Maybe 20 minutes away by car is the Aransas National Wildlife Preserve where we took our bikes to explore.  There are hiking trails, and there is a road/bike trail that runs between 9 – 18 miles that we peddled.  Quite literally, we were the only ones we saw while biking.  From an observation platform you could look out over Mustang Lake and the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway.

We saw beautiful sights, javelinas, deer, an alligator, turtles, turkey vultures and a variety of herons.  The area is known for its Whooping Cranes, the rarest bird in North America we are told, which use this area as a winter destination after summering in southern Canada.  You can spot their human analogy on I-75 or I-95.  We didn’t see any cranes this trip because they have already departed, but we will come back here in season at another time.

Just south of Goose Island is Port Aransas and the Palo Verde National Seashore.  A short drive and a ferry (the free ferry easily handles RV’s) will get you onto the peninsula where you can drive (and camp in some areas) for miles on the beach.  You can stay for up to three days on the beach with a permit.

While the idea of camping right on the beach is appealing, the reality is there is an endless wind (maybe 10-15 mph) that constantly blows sand.  I would worry a bit about the sand pitting the side of the RV, but that’s just me.  There are other (state and other) campgrounds that are just off the beach that might be less windy.

This is definitely an area of the world we are likely to return to… and if you like fishing (I like fish, not fishing), this would seem like Mecca.