Mar 17 - Rockport & Felton, Texas

  I went into Rockport this morning to try again to do a little grocery shopping, including getting the paper towels and anti-bacterial wipes.  I did get other items, but not those, at either the H.E.B. grocery store or Walmart.  The RV section at Walmart's was even out of RV toilet paper.  And, the lines were really long at the checkout.  Other than the grocery store, we are staying away from places with large groups of people.  I did find a place to print off my IRS & MA tax vouchers to mail them in. 
  After lunch, we drove across the bridge to the next peninsula called Felton.  There was a small State Park, that mostly had fishing access on the coast.  Not impressed with the area.  So we drove over to a place the park attendant mentioned- "The Big Tree".  Since all of the trees so far in this area of Texas are small and round-ish, we thought the Big Tree would be just a regular upright tree.  But, no, this tree was a Coastal Living Oak tree, that was 1,000 years old.  Still sort of short, but very large around and the branches spread out impressively.
  We drove back over the bridge and decided to drive the loop road around the northern side of the Rockport peninsula.  I was not impressed.  The map shows a really neat road, driving right next to the coast, with spits and spurs of land, so the map made it look really interesting.  However, like in Hilton Head, SC and some of the barrier islands in the Gulf coast, the road does go by the water, but has houses, condos, and mobile homes lining both sides of the road.  So that is all you really see.  And, there are NO public access to the water anywhere along the route. 
  We ended up driving back into the town of Rockport and going to the Rockport Beach and Park.  Now this was a very nice beach/park area.  It extends into the Aransas Bay, which was very shallow for a long distance out.  Due to the strong winds, there were white caps on the bay.  While we were sitting on a park bench, enjoying the pleasant, sunny day, some men and a teenager came with their KITE BOARDS.  This was really cool to watch!  They inflated the rim around their "kites" that to me looked like hang glider chutes.  Then they straightened out all of the long cords connecting the kite to their harness.  Finally, they picked up their Boards, which looked like snowboards, and lifted up the kite, and walked the kite into the water.  Once there, they took off.  I couldn't believe how FAST they went.  The wind was strong, and they ran it like a sail boat does--tacking to and fro through the wind.  Then they would jump into the air, and the kite would lift them up and they'd spin around.  If they fell, the kite would just pull them back up again.  If they dropped the board, oh well, they were just in 3 feet of water.  I kept thinking of Ann, surfing.  They didn't use wetsuits, they didn't need to wait for a wave, they didn't need to just go fast for the life of the wave.  Theirs was a continuous ride.
  Since it was late, and due to the Corona Virus alert, we decided to do Chinese Take Out for dinner.

Goose Island State Park, Felton, TX photos:

Rockport Beach photos: