I booked a condo in the same complex that we vacationed at in June 2018 but on a higher floor. We spent the entire month of January at Solare Tower at South Padre Island.

This is the first road trip we have done in my car…. think small Honda Civic hatchback (cute as hell, but can we pack a month’s worth of stuff including the kitchen sink?) So far, so good! We did stock up on Mr Davis’ Dr Pepper … to the tune of 16 twelve packs! Plus we brought all of my painting/drawing supplies but we kind of short changed the clothes because it’s January …. It took exactly 3 days for me to regret not bringing my swimsuit … but mom flew down the next week and brought my swimsuit along with a couple of short sleeved tops for me because it is kind of warm here now πŸ™‚ which is much better than the snow they are getting at home.

Although it started out kind of cool, the weather has been fantastic for a January – seriously? Shorts, tank tops and sandals? This is the life! I walk the beach in the mornings in a sleeveless shirt and shorts. It does cool off in the evenings but the day time temperatures have been in the 60, 70s and 80s on a couple of days.

Mom flew down and spent about 10 days with us. One thing I found out about my mom that I didn’t know before is that she is a competitive jigsaw puzzle person! Who thought that jigsaw’s are competitive? Love you mom!

Jeff has become quite familiar with the dentist on the island. First he was having some pain and went in for an evaluation and she said he might have a tooth abscessing but she didn’t do root canals. She gave him a script for penicillin and referred him to an endodonist in Harglingen – about a 45 minute drive away. She seemed confident that the antibiotics would allow us to get home before having to get a root canal (we were about halfway through the month). A couple of days later, still in pain, he had a crown come off. Luckily it didn’t break and he didn’t swallow it so he went back to have it glued back on. We contacted the endodontist in Harlingen and they couldn’t see him until February (we will be home by then). They have another office in Edinburg and they could see him in two days for a consultation and had an afternoon cancellation to do the root canal if the dentist agreed. Well Edinburg is about a 1-1/2 hour drive away so we got up early (8am :-)) and headed over for an 11 oclock consultation. The dentist agreed to do the root canal but the appointment wasn’t until 3:30. What do you do when you have 3 hours to kill? You go to the mall! They have a very nice mall and we shopped and walked around. I had lunch in the food court and got Mr. Davis drank his lunch in the form of a milkshake. After the mall we found a car wash and washed my filthy car. Then went back for the root canal.

Jeff doesn’t get numb very fast and by 4:30 he still wasn’t numb. Long story shorter, we got out of there and headed back to the condo about 6 – another hour and a half drive before we’d be back to the condo. It was a long day but I’m happy to report that my hubby is no longer in pain and is smiling again.

On our hour and a half drive back there is a long stretch of Highway 100 that runs into Port Isabel. It is frustrating to take this stretch of road because you go through a couple of little towns and the speed limit changes from 65 to 55 to 45 to 30. There are also a couple of places where it gets really dark at night – no street lights and no moon. The most irritating thing about this road, at least this time of year, is that the majority of the people for whatever reason will not drive the speed limit … they drive like 10 mph under it. I was behind one such SUV who was doing 45 in a 55 and I finally managed to get around. About 10 minutes later I’m in one of those really dark areas and a vehicle comes up behind me and passes me going about 10 mph OVER the speed limit. Don’t you just want to talk to these people and find out WHY they drive the way they do? Much to my delight about 10 minutes later we come up on flashing lights and Jeff wonders out loud if it is anyone that’s passed us … and lo and behold, HELLO KARMA …. it was the slow/fast SUV.

The beach is literally littered with sea shells this time of year. We’ve found some different ones but still no elusive sand dollars … although I have found evidence of them – a few broken pieces. At a market show I talked to a woman that decorates with sea shells and asked her if she had “found” or bought her sand dollars. She said she finds them or her friends do and give them to her. I asked her what the trick was because I have been coming here for 40 years and never found one. She said low tide on the sand bar … I was like …. get into the water? Did you know the water is cold this time of year? Guess sand dollars will stay elusive this year cause I ain’t putting these feet in the cold water past my ankles πŸ™‚

After we dropped off Mom at the airport we headed out to Boca Chica beach to view the new Elon Musk spaceport. There was construction going on and a couple of radio telescopes are set up and a LOT of curious traffic. This part of Texas is probably seeing more traffic then ever. After viewing the prototype I can assure you that even if provided with a free ticket I would take a hard pass. It definitely looks like something a crazy scientist would build in their backyard and it looks like it is covered with tinfoil!

Rocket protype (by Elon Musk) at Boca Chica Texas

They have “market days” on one weekend in January at the convention center. We went and I would describe it as a very small version of “Affair of the Heart” that we have at home. There was even one vendor that we see at the Paseo arts festival who is from Oklahoma.

The longer we are here the more the weather has been up and down. We are still able to wear shorts during the day but it is fairly windy and too cool for shorts at night. Spent about an hour out by the pool this afternoon but heavy cloud cover moved in and we took it back indoors.

We checked out on December 31st and drove to San Marcos. They have an amazing factory outlet mall. We spent the second half of the day looking for bargains and then had dinner at a really cute local restaurant before calling it a day. Then it was up early and headed home. We made it safely, unpacked and went through a month’s worth of mail.

We are now enjoying the ups and downs of Oklahoma’s February weather. In the 70s today and supposed to be below freezing tomorrow. Oh well …. counting down the days until our next adventure. Stay tuned … we are headed somewhere warm and exotic!

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