2016 - 2017 Trip to the Southwest

Day 22

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Monday, November 21, 2016, Matagorda Bay Nature Park, TX, Day 2, 0 Miles, 2105.1 Miles For the Trip

An interesting day. I started out with my normal walk around the campground, made breakfast (well, made isn't all that accurate - I opened a tub of yogurt), then headed to the office to see if I could extend my stay. I like the park, and while there is time to head to the Rio Grande Valley for a week, it doesn't make sense to go & come back for the rally.

Unfortunately, my site is booked starting tomorrow, but site 47, a semi premium site that cost a couple dollars more is available tomorrow to Thursday. Nothing is available for the weekend. As far as I can see, the only thing that makes site 47 better than the site I'm in is that it is one row further from the road. Since the road dead ends at the Gulf of Mexico 1000' past the campground, the traffic isn't a problem, but since it is the only site available through Thursday, I took it.

When Reserve America sent me my confirmation I discovered that although I my Mastercard was charged for the entire three days, the receipt for the site showed I only made the minimum payment for one night, and I still owed $64.00. I went back to the office, and after a 1/2 hour of poking at the computer, the host couldn't fix it. He said he would call for help during the afternoon.

I also extended site 26, the one I'm in for the Matagorda Madness rally for an earlier arrival date. Because the additional days brought the stay to a week, it only cost $34.00 to add 3 days.

So, assuming the glitch gets solved, I'm here between now & December 4th, with the exception of November 25 & 26 when both sites were booked. I'll find a nearby campground for the weekend.

There is a Thanksgiving pot luck dinner at noon on Wednesday, so I drove into Bay City for some blueberries & pie supplies. Since I had an empty propane tank I took it along to get it filled. Unfortunately, they only fill propane tanks 8:00AM to 2:00PM & I got there at 3:00. Texas requires a license or certification to fill propane tanks, so not anyone can do it.

Other than that the shopping was successful, and when I got back to the campground I read for a bit, then made dinner, which was spaghetti, meatballs & sausage. I tried the "quick, one pot" spaghetti - you dump the box in a frying pan filled with 3 cups of cold water and boil it until the water is gone. I prefer the old fashion method, but I had to try it. Actually, for camping the old way is better unless you have very limited water. It is difficult to keep the spaghetti from sticking to the frying pan as the water boils away, and you use just about as much cleaning the pan as you would boiling traditional spaghetti in a pot. Plus the water used to boil the spaghetti works well for a pre rinse of the sauce pot. You do learn to waste little water when dry camping!

After dinner took a few sunset photos then headed to the bathrooms for a shower. They are clean, have a bench & shower curtains. Reduced water spray, but hot enough so it works. The biggest gripe is there is nowhere in the shower to put soap, shampoo, or anything. I did discover that the mosquitoes are here. I never noticed them yesterday, but I wasn't outside after dusk. The walk to the showers was spent slapping. The wind was against me on the way back & they weren't too bad.

Sunset Over the Park Sunset Over the Colorado

 

Until Tomorrow -

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Last Update: November 24, 2016