Texas RV Travel blog

Texas Water Safari stories have reached the level of urban myth, but most are true.

When you paddle in the Texas heat for up to 100 hours without stopping–except to take on water and get encouragement from your road team–you are tired, dehydrated and probably delusional. When you add paddling an unknown river at night, dodging alligator gars that jump into your boat, surviving attacks by mosquitoes and fire ants, navigating log jams or bypassing them by walking through alligator infested swamps, worrying about nests of water moccasins in the river and stingrays in the bay, you have a classic tale of horror. Read a tale or two of horror here.

Why would anyone canoe over 260 miles, portaging at least 20 obstacles, paddling through numerous rapids, and, finally, fighting the currents and chop across San Antonio Bay? There are many reasons. Extreme sports folk enter the race because it exists. Cancer survivors enter to celebrate life. Teams race competitively, year after year, to keep their edge. Families do it to teach their children survival skills. Women race to compete in a man’s world. What is your reason? Think of one and come to Texas the second weekend in June.

Eileen

No Comments »

Are you a skilled angler? Perhaps you catch and release for the pure fun of fishing? You could become a member of the Coastal Fisheries Bay Team and help Texas Parks and Wildlife catch spotted sea trout and flounder for its hatchery breeding program.

To become a member of the Coastal Fisheries Bay Team call Robert Adami at (361) 939-8745 or send an email with your name, address, daytime phone number, and dates you can fish to robert.adami@tpwd.state.tx.us.

Fishing for Spotted Sea Trout

• South Padre Island, April 8, 2006, Sea Ranch Marina
• Corpus Christi, April 22, 2006, Marker 37

Fishing for Southern Flounder

• Sabine, October 21, 2006, S.A.L.T. Club
• Aransas/Corpus Christi, November 4, 2006, Conn Brown Harbor
• Texas City, November 11, 2006, Boyd’s One Stop
• Port O’Connor, November 18, 2006, Froggie’s Bait Doc

Each Coastal Fisheries Bay Team tournament is open to 30 two-person teams. Registration takes place on-site the day of each tournament. First-come, first-fish!

No Comments »

The most grueling canoe race in the world, the Texas Water Safari, will start at 9 am on June 10, 2006 in San Marcos, Texas. This year, a class has been added to allow boats, not just canoes, to compete in the Safari. Solo entrants are also allowed.

Since 1963, thousands of canoeists have started the 260+ mile race. The course of the Texas Water Safari (TWS) begins in the headwaters of the San Marcos River, flows past the confluence of the San Marcos and Blanco Rivers to the convergence of the San Marcos and Guadalupe Rivers, and then follows the length of the Guadalupe River to the Gulf coast.

Safari entrants must pack all provisions–food, equipment and items of repair–in their boat or on their person before the start of the race. Nothing may be purchased or delivered to a team during the race except water and/or ice. Teams must arrive at mandated checkpoints by specific times to remain competitive and finish within 100 hours to win the coveted Safari patch.

This is not a race for beginners. It is a tough, dangerous, exhausting world-class race of up to 100 hours. The Texas Water Safari is the grand finale to several marathon canoe races held in Central and Southern Texas each year.

Keep your provisions dry,

Eileen

1 Comment »

IFest is a world music festival that will be held in downtown Houston the last two weekends in April. Come Back to Jamaica, Come Back to Downtown features Reggae music this year, but all music genres will be heard.

The incredible line up of artists for IFest includes:

Burning Spear, Robert Cray Band, Joe Ely Band, Steve Marley, Bobby “Blue” Bland,Yerba Buena, Billy Joe Shaver, Brave Combo, Gena Delafose, Buckwheat Zydeco, Ivan Neville, Carol Fran with special guest Marcia Ball, Shake Russell

. . . and those are just the bands or performers I know!

IFest takes place on the weekends of April 22- 23 and April 29-30 from 11am to 8pm in downtown Houston (Bagby Street, Upper and Lower Sam Houston Parks, Tranquility Park, Allen Parkway), rain or shine. Enjoy free lunchtime concerts at City Hall Plaza each Festival weekday (April 21 and April 24-28).

I grew up in Houston, and I believe that the RV parks listed below are close to IFest. Please use Mapquest or other mapping service to verify locations.

ABA Travel Park
1711 Jacquelyn Dr., #42
Houston, TX 77055
(713) 682-0557 / (888) 459-5017

All Star RV Park / Houston
10650 SW Plaza Ct.
Houston, TX 77074
(713) 827-2819 / (800) 385-9074

Lake View RV Resort
11991 South Main Street
Houston, TX 77035
(800) 385-9122 / 713-723-0973

Rivers Inn RV Park
3602 Rivers Rd. CR 905
Pearland/Manvel, TX 77578
(866) 989-2600 / (281) 489-2600

Roll on down the highway to Houston!

Eileen

No Comments »

After the Roman Empire devolved into the Dark Ages, barbarians sacked and burned the cities of the civilized world. As the libraries, the temples and the churches burned, the collective history and the great scientific and mathematical advances of past civilizations went up in smoke.

Meanwhile, a Roman living in Britain named Patricius was captured and taken to Ireland. He escaped from slavery to become a priest. He returned to Ireland, bringing with him the word of God and the knowledge of the ancients. Thus, Ireland became the sanctuary for the thoughts and dreams of Western civilization.

Patricius founded a network of seminaries and libraries in Ireland that protected, preserved and advanced the knowledge that had been lost everywhere else. Patricius died long before Europe emerged from the Dark Ages. His legacy, however, lived on in the Irish intellectuals who became known after the Dark Ages ended.

These learned Irish–girded with the knowledge of the ancient world, bearing illuminated manuscripts written by hand, and with the intellectual fervor of scholars–went forth to spread the word of God and to plant the seeds of scholarship that later founded great universities in Paris, Oxford, Rome and Bologna.

Did you guess that Patricius was later to be known as Saint Patrick? Not all Irish are drunken louts in green hats wearing Kiss Me * I’m Irish buttons.

Eileen

1 Comment »