Funky Texas Traveler

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    • Lifetime of fun at National Parks
    • Surviving Hurricane Harvey flooding – 8 practical ways to cope
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        • Breast Cancer – Think you might have it? What happens now?
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        • My Breast Cancer Experience – A Month at MD Anderson Cancer Center
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Oct 31 2017

Port Aransas post Harvey

How-Port-Aransas-is-surviving-Hurricane-Harvey Port Aransas post HarveyPOST MAY CONTAIN AFFILIATE LINKS- READ DISCLOSURE FOR INFO.

I drove south this past Wednesday with Joe Holley from the Houston Chronicle to see how Port Aransas post Harvey was faring. 

Admittedly antsy as I rode the ferry, I worried about my friends and favorite places in this beloved Texas town.  My anxiety ratcheted up when I heard from  a very good friend who didn’t want me to post on social media that I was headed down there.

“Please delete your facebook post. The last thing the poor island needs right now is people down here who aren’t part of the clean up.”  If I could have reversed direction in the ferry line, I might have done so but I am so glad I didn’t.

My friend’s frustrated reaction was completely understandable.  I should know.  My home in Houston flooded a few days before when Harvey paid us an unwelcome visit.  But I was compelled to come down.  Port A has always felt special.  As Dan Solomon said on a recent Texas Monthly blog, “People from all over Texas have strong, tender feelings toward the town, and have long used the place as a getaway from their day-to-day reality. “

[Read more…]

signature Port Aransas post Harvey

Filed Under: Attitude, Coastal Texas, Featured Post, Places, Popular Post, Port Aransas, Port Aransas pre and post storm, Spring Break, Texas · Tagged: Hurricane Harvey, Port Aransas

Jun 06 2017

San Antonio Beyond the Alamo

Summary: Discover fascinating and quirky things to do in San Antonio beyond the tourist traps around the Alamo

POST MAY CONTAIN AFFILIATE LINKS- READ DISCLOSURE FOR INFO.

Travel-Tips-For-San-Antonio-beyond-the-Alamo-and-Downtown-River-Walk San Antonio Beyond the AlamoThere are actually things to do in San Antonio beyond eating at a crowded restaurant on the downtown River Walk, dodging the street vendors as you make your way to the Alamo or waiting in line for a table at Mi Tienda restaurant in the Mercado.  All those things are great, but you don’t have to do the same things every time you are in the Alamo City.  Since my daughter moved to San Antonio at the beginning of the year, I’m getting a chance to “live like a local” on the weekend visits.

Other Things to do in San Antonio

On this trip we would visit the other four Spanish missions, and appreciate an artfully revived industrial area.  We would experience an ice cream and booze lover’s dream, rediscover a deep south treat at a farmers market and have a unique experience with reverse discrimination while we took a Comal river soak.   I may never return to my old tourist stops after this.  

We stayed in an older Hispanic area of small homes and fenced-in front yards.  It sat just two houses from the San Antonio River.  The gentrification that is slowing creeping in from Southtown and the Mission area has left this area between Probandt and Flores streets relatively unchanged.  But you can tell it is on its way. With the proximity to downtown, the Blue Star area, and I-10, this is a perfect location to live in and experience San Antonio.  If you don’t have family in San Antonio, find something similar to rent from great privately owned homes  We’ve always had great luck renting in neighborhoods. 

Update:  If you don’t have a lot of time to search for a place to stay, check out AllTheRooms.  I  understand they’re the largest accommodations search engine and combine sites like Expedia, Airbnb, and hundreds of other sites.  Sounds like a sensible way to maximize your choices. [Read more…]

signature San Antonio Beyond the Alamo

Filed Under: A cool time to travel Texas, Central Texas, Places, Popular Post, San Antonio, Spring Break, Texas · Tagged: Comal River, Mission Conception, Mission San Francisco de la Espada, Mission San Jose, Mission San Juan Capistrano, Prince Solms Park, San Antonio Missions, Southtown, tubing

Mar 02 2017

Visting Terlingua – Big Bend ghost town that refused to die!

Terlingua, a Big Bend ghost town refuses to die.

Like thousands of other little towns in Texas, Terlingua ghost town would have dried up and blown away were it not for Texans’ reverence for chili And the advent of our brand of outlaw country music.

JerryJeffWalkerVivaTerlingua Visting Terlingua - Big Bend ghost town that refused to die!
What was a Terlingua?  Jerry Jeff Walker

Jerry Jeff Walker’s 1973 live album, Viva Terlingua introduced Texas anthems like “Up Against the Wall, Redneck Mother” and “London Homesick Blues” with that unforgettable line about going “home with the armadillos.


Chili and Texas Outlaw Country Music saved Terlingua

I’m not sure Jerry Jeff had been to Terlingua at that time of the album’s creation.  Walker recorded Viva Terlingua at Luckenbach, another Texas town that owes its continued existence to Willie and Waylon and the Boys.  

But chili legends Wick Fowler and Frank X. Tolbert knew it well.  And in 1967,  they chose the town as ground zero for their impossibly ambitious Terlingua International Championship Chili Cook-off. [Read more…]

signature Visting Terlingua - Big Bend ghost town that refused to die!

Filed Under: Featured Post, Places, Popular Post, Spring Break, Terlingua, Texas, West Texas · Tagged: Blondie Calderon, El Dorado Hotel, High Sierra Bar and Grill, Perry Mansion, Terlingua ghost town

Aug 19 2014

Boca Chica Beach – Why you should visit before SpaceX lands

POST MAY CONTAIN AFFILIATE LINKS- READ DISCLOSURE FOR INFO.

Wish your kids or grand kids could experience how a day at the beach used to be?  Remember crowding into your parent’s station wagon with all your gear, looking for the perfect spot?  Spreading out for the entire day.  No t-shirt or fast food joints.  No crowds.  That’s exactly why you should visit Boca Chica Beach before SpaceX lands.  ‘Cause it is all going to change.

Boca-Chica-why-visit-before-SpaceX-lands-sea-turtles-nesting-ground-1-350x400 Boca Chica Beach – Why you should visit before SpaceX landsIs there anything special here?

Ever since 2014, when SpaceX confirmed plans to build a launch facility on Boca Chica, I’ve been worried. What will happen to this isolated gem when tourism takes over? 

Right after the announcement, three of us loaded into a Mini-Cooper to visit the area before those rockets arrive.  With a Civil War battlefield, nearly abandoned settlements, and a big open coastline, you want to see it now, before everything changes.  Or worse, before some things are completely lost.

[Read more…]

signature Boca Chica Beach – Why you should visit before SpaceX lands

Filed Under: Boca Chica, Places, South Padre Island, Spring Break, Texas · Tagged: beach combing, Boca Chica Beach, German American Northern Sympathizers, Mouth of the Rio Grande River, Old Baghdad in Mexico, Space X

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Just visiting someplace is boring – I dig around and roll in it. The people, the peculiarities and the hidden history that gives any destination its own unique story. Come excavate with me and let me know places I should go!

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