Christmas in Palacios

Palacios, Texas is the only place around that welcomes Santa Clause in a style of its’ own, upon a shrimp boat.

‘It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas’ in our beautiful ‘City by the Sea.’

Everywhere you go you will see and feel the holiday cheer and all are invited to welcome Christmas with Palacios’ Chamber of Commerce’s unique Seaside Holiday this Sat. (Dec. 5).

‘Have yourself a merry little Christmas’ by witnessing Santa Claus’s arrival on the North Pole Express shrimp boat.

The evening festivities on the lawn of the Historic Luther Hotel begin at 6 p.m. with the playing of Christmas themed music.

Santa Clause is expected at 6:30 p.m. upon his North Pole Express shrimp boat and children will enjoy their free picture with Santa, stockings filled with goodies and taking home a new First Book.
Kids of all ages will enjoy this community event with festive cheer while photos with Santa begin and people sway to the tunes while eating, drinking and being merry. Palacios is the only place around that welcomes Santa Clause in a style of its’ own, upon a shrimp boat.

Fishing License

Nancy and I got our Texas fishing licenses today and I got her a new Abu Garcia fishing reel for her birthday. Now for some serious Texas Gulf Coast fishing.

Palacios sunsets

Palacios at sunset. Too bad we're not doing sunset cruises here... yet.

Palacios, TX

It's been a long journey but we finely made it to our winter destination where we are staying at the Serendipity Bay Resort in Palacios, TX. This is our view out our front bay window.

Matagorda Bay

Nancy and I took off on a drive today having lunch at the Blessing Hotel Cafe in Blessing, TX finely ending up on the the beach in Matagorda.

Palacios, TX

We left Del Rio Tuesday morning around 8:30 heading to Palacios, TX where we are staying at Serendipity Bay Resort. It's been several years since I've been to Palacios. Serendipity Bay Resort is a nice little RV park overlooking the bay and marina. Barb and I first found this place in 2007 and then we spend a couple of winters here in 2009 and 2009/2010. Nancy and I will be here until February 13th then we're heading to Galveston, TX for a week.

When we first came here we had our StarBand satellite internet system that worked great at the time. The winter of 2009/2010 we had changed to Verizon Wireless for internet. After Barb and I stopped traveling full-time we discontinued our Verizon account. When Nancy and I started our trip I looked for RV parks to stay at that had Wi-Fi. This time coming back to Palacios the Wi-Fi system here at the park didn't work very well so I went to Verizon Wireless in Victoria and purchased a new Jetpack 4G LTE 6022L MiFi system that works great. Now no more having to stay only at RV parks that have a Wi-Fi system.

Getting ready to travel

We'll be leaving Palacios, TX next Thursday, Mar 11th, heading to Abbeville, LA for a month before heading north for the summer. We'll be staying at Betty's RV Park.

We also got word yesterday that we will be able to park our motorhome for the summer season at the Oconto Yacht Club in Oconto, WI. This will be the first time the club has ever done this so this year will be a temporary trial. Our cost for the whole season, including electric and water hookups, is $700. There is a pumpout near by for our black tank. If everything works out ok, they will consider open it up for 3 member owned RVs. We also have a boat slip there for the Shangri-La costing us $625 for the season.

Back to Palacios, TX

We left Biloxi at 6:15 this morning on our return trip to Palacios, TX. We stopped in Lake Charles, LA for a crayfish lunch and arrived back to Palacios at 5:15 this evening. While in Biloxi, we checked out 4 other RV parks and found one that Barb and I both liked to stay at next winter season.

Indian Point R.V. Resort

Getting off the road

Barb and I have been on the road now going on our 7th year. We (I mostly) keep thinking about settling down some place and be like most of the other people here in America, glued to a community and a small piece of land. This is our second winter in the small coastal town of Palacios, TX and we like it here, during the winter anyway. We even found ourselves a nice little house here in town that we both liked and obtained a pre-approval from a mortgage company. I even got estimates of what it would cost to have our boat shipped down here from Oconto, WI. Being on the bay, the low cost of living, and the better weather down here most of the year, this would be an ideal place for boating. We could go out to the GIWW (Gulf Intercoastal Water Way), turn to starboard (right) and it's 200 miles to Mexico. Or we could turn to port (lift) and it's 200 miles to Louisiana.

We got the paperwork from the mortgage company today and then asked ourselves, "what are we doing?" We love our lifestyle on the road and are not ready to give it up. We are rebuilding our boat to live aboard for several months at a time then cruise the Great Lakes and maybe even the Great Circle Route. That's the rivers and waterways the form a continuous 6500 mile loop around the Eastern USA including the Great Lakes, Mississippi River, the Gulf of Mexico with the GIWW to Key West, up the Atlantic coast with it's Intercoastal Water Way to Hudson Bay and River, through the Erie Canal and back into the Great Lakes.

Well, we came to our senses and canceled the loan and we are going to continue with our adventures. If we do decide to buy a new home someday, it will have a big diesel engine in the back and 8 tires on the ground.

Palacios, TX

We are at Serendipity Bay Resort RV Park & Marina in Palacios, TX,

Bird's eye view of the Port of Palacios.

Home of the largest shrimp fishing fleet in Texas.

Our motorhome overlooking the Serendipity Bay Resort Marina.

Robinson, TX

We left Choctaw, OK around 11:30 this morning on our way to Palacios, TX, stopping enroute for the night in Robinson (Waco), TX.

Out of the hospital

Our friend was released from the VA hospital this evening. He's doing much better. We'll spend New Years with him before heading back down south where it's warmer. Our camping friends from Sheboygan, WI has finely made it down to Palacios for the winter. They want us to go down there for a month or so because Jill will be going through kemo therapy and wants Barb to be there for her.

In the Shop

We left Palacios last Saturday morning heading to Buddy Gregg Motorhomes in Lewisville, TX for services and repairs on the coach. When we arrived here at the dearship, there were 3 spaces left and someone pulled in just after us. The dearship has 14 spaces with hookups available at no charge for customers coming in for services. We will be here for about 2 weeks. Our services and repair to our air conditioning system was completed by Tuesday but we have an insurance claim in for repairs to our bathroom floor. After flooding out our bathroom about 4 times, and a small leak in the toilet, the sub-floor as started to rot out. They finely looked at our floor problem yesterday and they said the rot may have spread up into the galley area. Hopefully they will be able to start work on this project and have it completed within a week.

Valentine's Dinner

Last night Barb and I had an early Valentine's dinner for two at the Outrigger Restaurant here in Palacios.

Our friends Frank and Jill were at the table next to us.

El Campo, TX

We took a side trip to El Campo, TX today to check out the town. We had lunch in a small seafood restaurant where I had a big bowl of seafood gumbo and Barb had coconut shrimp. The town also has a HEB grocery store, a Super Walmart, a 3 screen theatre, and we found a restaurant where we can get boiled crayfish when in season. El Campo is about 35 miles inland from Palacios.

Blessing, TX

We went to the Hotel Blessing Coffee Shop in Blessing, TX today for lunch. We seen this little restaurant featured on RFD's Texas Country Reporter and the Travel Channel. For $7.50, we had an all-you-can-eat buffet like grandma used to make. Blessing is about 12 miles inland from Palacios.

Happy New Year from Palacios, TX

Well this morning we've seen everything and now we can get off the road. Maybe we seen too much. As we were packing up and getting ready to continue our trip, we looked across at another travel trailer at the RV park and there was a couple walking their pigs. Two of them. They were not small pigs, they were huge. They had a leash on them and everything. Maybe this couple was from the back woods of Kentucky or Arkansas, or maybe they were from California. There's a lot of weird people we see from California. See the picture below.

Well after the strange sights, we were on the road by 8:30 AM this morning on our last leg of our trip to Palacios, TX, were we are staying at the Serendipity Bay Resort. We'll be here for a couple of months anyway.

Change of Scenery

Come the end of this month, we will be changing our scenery from a desert environment in Far West Texas to one overlooking the Tres Palacios Bay at the Serendipity Bay Resort RV Park and Marina in Palacios, TX. Palacios is 110 miles southwest of Galveston and 110 miles northeast of Corpus Christi on the Texas Gulf Coast. We stopped there 2 years on our trip between Presidio and Brandon, FL.

I took the above picture on our stay here in January 2007. Our motorhome is the green and white class A in the center of the picture.

We came to Presidio this year to meet up with our friends Frank & Jill Welti from Sheboygan, WI. But due to delays in their travels, they won't make it down here until the first of the year. Right now they are stuck in Denton, TX with transmission problems on their motorhome. Hopefully we will be able to get them to change their winter destination to Palacios too.

After spending 4 winters here in Presidio, we have run out of things to do. In Palacios I will be able to go saltwater fishing and Barb will be able to get together with other women sewing quilts and making other crafts.

From Presidio, TX to Brandon, FL

This is my first post to our new travelogue. We have the OWFISH parked at our daughter Angel's house in Brandon, FL. We arrived here on Friday Feb 2nd after a 28 day trip leaving from Presidio, TX on Jan 6th. Our stops along the trip included an overnight stop in Ozona, TX where we had to have a fuel line repaired The next day we had to have the fuel line repaired again when we stopped for fuel in Junction, TX. On Jan 7th we arrived for a 2 night stay at the Puerto del Sol RV Park in Corpus Christi, TX. While there we toured the USS Lexington.
Our next stop on Jan 9th was for 2 weeks at the Serendipity Bay Resort in Palacios, TX. We had a site right on the marina with all the boats behind us. The first 5 days were nice then it started to rain and rain some more.
After 9 days of cold and rain we traveled to Bayou Shores RV Resort in Galveston, TX arriving there on Jan 23rd for a 2 night stay. On Jan 25th we traveled to Maxie's Mobile Valley RV Park in Broussard, LA for 4 nights. While there we toured the Tabasco Pepper Sauce Company.On Jan 29th we stopped at the Martin Lake Resort in Biloxi, MS for 2 nights. While there we toured the coast highway going through Biloxi and Gulfport. A year and a half after Hurricane Katrina the cities along the coast are still in shambles.

Before & After Pictures

This is how the SS Hurrican Camille looked when we came through here in May 2005.

The SS Hurricane Camille that was washed ashore in 1969 is still standing, although quite battered and her wheelhouse a little cockeyed from Hurricane Katrina. The gift shop, however, was completely washed away by the tidal surge, leaving behind only the slab upon which it rested.

Note: The SS Hurricane Camile was demolished by the City of Gulfport on May 7th, 2008.

This was the White House Hotel in Biloxi. The other buildings look the same.

An American flag at the White House Hotel pictured above.

The Gators Souvenir City in Biloxi.

Sign below the building pictured above.

On Jan 31st we headed to the Pine Lake RV Park in Panama City/Fountain, FL stopping in Mobile, AL along the way to tour the USS Alabama.The USS Alabama was listing 8 degrees on her port side after Hurrican Katrina. It took 3 months to level her out again.

From there we continued until we arrived here in Brandon. We'll be here at our daughter's house for about 2 months then will start heading up toward Wisconsin in April.