Hey friends, welcome back to Grand Adventure!
I'm your host Marc Guido, and in this episode we are paying a quick visit to
the bayfront towns of Rockport and Fulton, Texas. So stay tuned!
So if you're one of our Grand Adventurers, you know that we don't stay
in RV parks very often, although on the swing through Texas, by necessity we've
definitely exceeded our average. However, this may be one of the prettiest parks,
definitely one of the best maintained parks that we've stayed in.
Look at this place, look at these beautiful crooked oak trees! This is
really kind of special. We're in a place called Drifters Resort RV park. Qe're
about midway between the towns of Rockport and Aransas Pass along the
Texas coastline north of Corpus Christi. We'll show you a little bit about the
park ,and we'll show you around the Rockport and Fulton areas along this
beautiful stretch of Texas coastline, so stay with us,
come along for the ride.
There are seemingly countless RV parks in the Rockport area and we've chosen
Drifters Resort. We're paying $35 per night for our stay and all sites include
20, 30 and 50-amp electricity, water, sewer, cable TV and Wi-Fi. Most sites are large
enough to accommodate a boat trailer along with your RV. Many folks seem to
leave their rigs here during the week and visit every weekend, so our midweek
visit to this Rockport RV park is very, very quiet. There's plenty of room
between sites, and the grounds are meticulously manicured.
There's an extensive and reasonably priced laundry facility, a beautiful
swimming pool, and a spacious grassy dog run all located on the grounds of
Drifters Resort.
Drifters Resort is only about a quarter mile back from the shores of Aransas Bay
on Texas's Live Oak Peninsula. It's separated from the Gulf of Mexico by San
José Island, also referred to as St. Joseph's Island. Resources such as
shrimp, fish, oysters and oil are found in or near the bay, and contribute mightily
to the local economies.
The Twin Cities of Rockport and Fulton line the western shore line of Aransas
Bay. Tourism is a prosperous industry, with visitors arriving to fish, bird or
sightsee. Given the location of Aransas Bay, shipping has always been a major
industry. Following the Civil War, the meatpacking industry became a major
source of income for ports on the bay, especially Rockport and Fulton where
numerous slaughterhouses were constructed. On August 25, 2017 Hurricane
Harvey made landfall near the city as a category 4 storm, causing one death in
catastrophic damage. About 20% of Rockport's population was displaced by
Hurricane Harvey.
In 1867, George Fulton and his wife, Texas heiress Harriet Smith Fulton, moved to
her extensive land holdings on the Live Aak Peninsula. Fulton also took an
interest in the development of Rockport, as well as creating the town of Fulton
further up the coastline. When the couple finished building their home in 1877,
known today as the Fulton Mansion State Historic Site, the residence dubbed
"Oakhurst" by its owners featured the most up-to-date conveniences for the time,
such as indoor plumbing reaching sinks in every bedroom, gas lighting and
central heating, along with three bathrooms and two built-in copper tubs.
In the 1950s the grounds of Fulton Mansion were actually an RV park, until
the state of Texas purchased the property in 1976.
We're disappointed to find the mansion closed during our visit, although the
state's free visitor center and museum remains open daily.
Looking for some fresh seafood, we're visiting Moondog, a charming eatery right
on the waterfront in Fulton.
We can heartily recommend Moondog's cajun-style crab cakes and fresh fried
Texas Gulf shrimp, as well as their house-smoked brat and brisket. Now, people say
that we can't come to Texas without at least trying Whataburger, so we took a shot
at this.
Whataburger was founded in 1950 in Corpus Christi, still owned by the family
of founder Harmon Dobson. Most of the company's restaurants are still in Texas.
We'll probably take some heat for saying this but after finally trying a
Whataburger we were left somewhat unimpressed.
So we truly hope that you've enjoyed coming along with us to the Rockport
area of Texas! Coming up next week we're going to be heading north to the Canyon
Lake area outside of San Antonio, so if you're not yet a Grand Adventurer now's
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from Canyon Lake, remember please ... life is nothing but a Grand Adventure! We'll see
you then.