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Published: March 5th 2011
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Trip to Texas Plains & South Padre Island
This was an unplanned trip since we usually stay home for the winter and go away in April. I had been ill and had just had enough of winter!
We left Sunday February 13 and had a good 800 km drive to
Findlay Ohio. The crossing at Detroit is now so simple. You drive from the toll both directly to Interstate 75 south without having to find your way through some of Detroit’s worst neighbourhoods.
On the second day we drove 915 km over 11 hours. The reason for this was so that we could stay at
Microtel in Jackson Tennessee. Microtel has won many awards as the best hotel in its category for years and it has been our favourite for about 8 years. Unfortunately the Jackson Microtel turned out to be a real dog. If it had not been so late, we would have gone elsewhere. I guess every barrel has one rotten apple in it.
By the third day and 2400 km later, we crossed Texarkana and spent the night in
Mount Pleasant Texas. We found a car wash and got rid of the
grime and salt accumulated over the last 3 days. We also had the first (of many) Mexican meals.
We decided to bear down and put in a 4th day of 800 km or so and made it to one of our favourite places --
Fort Clark Springs at Bracketville, about an hour west of San Antonio. We have camped at Fort Springs since 1990 and it is one of my favourite spots in Texas. Fort Clark was once a military fort, but has been converted into a gated community with its own airport, golf course, motel, stables, theatre (2) fire halls, campground, hiking trails and a huge spring fed swimming pool. It is literally an oasis in the desert and there are more deer then there are people!
On this trip we stayed in the barracks that have been converted into very comfortable hotel rooms. Our three nights here were likely the most peaceful and relaxing. In spite of this being a “gated” community the people here are always very friendly and you are made to feel as if you belong. Like any community it has a mixture of trailers, small homes and grander homes.
There is lots of open space with wide roads and it is perfect for walking or biking.
As always, we visited the Bracketville Library and came away with a shopping bag full of free pocket books. Also got an oil change and managed to try out the 4 or so eating spots including the dining room at the golf course.
Our next stop was in
Del Rio just a short distance west and on the Rio Grande. Del Rio has usually being the staging area (stock up on groceries and gas) for our forays into
Seminole State Historical Park about 60 km west. We spent two nights at the Ramada Inn and it was the best motel on our entire trip. It is more like a resort than a motel. Excellent value and services.
Seminole Canyon is another place that we have returned to over and over since 1990 and more detail can be found in the other Texas trip blog along with lots of photos. We came here to hike the two trails down to the Rio Grande (which we have done more than 10 times! and are about as peaceful as
it can get on a hike. We also took a short drive to
Langtry and Judge Roy Bean’s “Law West of the Pecos” Two years ago I biked to Langtry and got a flat tire on my return trip on a 35’C day!
From Del Rio the plan was to go slowly along the Rio Grande to
Eagle Pass and
Laredo and explore a bit. This was the only part of Texas that we have not explored, so I was excited.
What a let down! It is desert scrub land just like the land west of Del Rio, but what stood out most was the amount of garbage by the side of the road and at picnic areas. One picnic area even had a sign warning against littering but there was no garbage container and the place looked like a dump. It was so bad we moved on. We found the same kind of garbage in the streets of Laredo, Alamo and Harlingen where we spent nights. So much for the Texas motto,
“Don’t Mess with Texas”. This part of the Rio Grande is a mecca for Canadians and Americans from the north. They
must over look the garbage to get the nice weather.
We crossed over to
South Padre Island where the temperature was not as extreme (we had 34’C in Laredo). South Padre Island is a sliver of a sand bar about 10 km long and rarely more than 1 km wide connected by a long causeway to the town of Port Isabel. In other words, a road down the middle and hotels and restaurants on the either side. In spite of this, the place does not look as gaudy or as tacky as some summer resorts that we have seen.
At the north end is the convention centre and a few km past that, the road ends (or runs into a sand dune) For the last few km there are no homes or hotels and the road seems to be in constant danger of being filled in by the sand. At this end of the island horse back riding and vehicles are allowed on the beach.
We looked at a number of hotels and finally settle on the
Travelodge near the north end. For $44.00 we got a big room fully equipped with fridge, micro, coffee
maker, hair dryer, iron, double beds etc. Complimentary cocktails and free newspaper daily. We discovered that many northerners come to SPI and spend 4 to 8 weeks in a hotel room. They just bring their clothes and eat out. Meals are very cheap and there are lots of restaurants to select from. Depending on the hotel, rates for a month went from $1200-$1500.00 per month.
We had no difficulty getting a dinner for 2 for $20 or less!
The beach is wide and clean and because of the constant onshore winds, kite flying is a popular recreation. We have never seen so many kites and such a variety.
We decided to take it a LOT slower going home so gave ourselves more days. We spent two days in
New Braunfels (northern suburb of San Antonio) where we ate German, toured a very nice park
(Landa Park) which has a spring fed river and a huge 300 year old oak tree. We also enjoyed the pool and hot tub at the hotel.
On to Athens Georgia (just west of Dallas – and nothing to report on here) and then to
Hope Arkansas, which we discovered was
Bill Clinton’s boyhood home. We toured his house of course!
Next stop was
Forrest City Arkansas. We went for a walk up the hill from our motel and we have NEVER seen so many beer and pop cans by the side of the road. You could collect the bottles with a rake. Obviously no recycling and no deposit on cans!
We spent the next night in
Bowling Green Kentucky at a
Baymont Hotel for the first time (and were very impressed) with hopes of touring the
Corvette assembly plant and museum. However, the plant does not offer tours on Friday and in the morning it was raining so heavily that we decided to just DRIVE!
We only got about 200 km, to
Louisville KY, where again we decided to try out a new hotel –
Courtyard by Marriott. What a disappointment!
Another long drive to arrive at
Lima, Ohio and again a new motel (
Wingate by Wyndham – very nice!)
Most of our 23 nights nights were spent at Super 8 motels. Whenever we travel we usually look for Days Inns, Howard Johnsons, Super 8, Microtel or Comfort Inn but always end up favouring the Super
8 chain. We also tried out a few
Ramadas, Quality Inns and Travelodges and they were all good, except for the Quality which were a bit old!
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