Southwinds Marina, Lake Amistad

Rocky set up at Southwinds Marina

My Sweetie and I decided to try out one of the many military campgrounds available to us as retired Navy. We picked one down near Del Rio,TX, which is part of Laughlin AFB's facilities. The air base itself is located on the northeastern side of Del Rio while the Southwinds Marina is west of Del Rio and situated directly north of the Lake Amistad Dam International Crossing and directly south of the Southern Pacific Lake Amistad Bridge (railroad bridge). For those of you who normally use highways to locate places [:)], it is located on Spur 249 south of US Highway 90.

Southern Pacific Lake Amistad Bridge

Enough of that useless information. By the way, did you know that the railroad bridge is a Warren through truss bridge on trackage of Union Pacific Railroad? No?

We picked up Rocky and Biker Bear Chick then drove the 250 miles, plus or minus, through the bustling metropolises of Stiles, Big Lake, Ozona, Sonora, and Alta Loma before skirting Del Rio to arrive at Southwinds Marina. Setting up Rocky didn't take very long and My Sweetie had enough time to get a bit of exploration in before supper. 

We took KR on the first off-road experience, driving down several rough bits of what could be described as former dirt roads. Having scoped out the area, My Sweetie knew where she would be fishing tomorrow but for tonight, we headed down to the boat launch to try her luck at drowning some worms. [Note: no actual live worms were hurt in the act of fishing this weekend.]

All 'pinked' out

First, the equipment. My Sweetie received some advice from my cousin, Gary, about what was needed to haul in large quantities of large fish-type critters. She listened intently, read extensively, and bought prodigious amounts of fishing tackle. As you can see, though, for some reason she felt that pink should be the way to go with pink tackle box, pink lures, pink fake worms, pink rod and reel, pink hat, and (not pictured) her pink dinosaur shirt!

First cast of the day

Then, she knew that she only had about an hour to fish before we had to be back making supper. Of course, it took her the entire hour before, on the "absolutely last cast of the day, honest, this is the last one," she called out, "I got one!" which brought me out of my semi-conscious state. 

Nice 4 pound bass!

Yep. Real nice one, too!

Finally, our adventure of the day ended up with Sweetie cleaning this really nice bass. (Actually, the real end came after getting back home and enjoying this delightfully tasting fish perfectly baked!)

Don't you know it's deer season?

We enjoyed out time at the campground where we were visited by several deer. Seems they were looking for handouts that we had no intention of providing!

The evenings got chilly and the nights were down into the 50's. For us, this was a very big change from the 100+ days that are, apparently, the norm for our camping trips. 

On Sunday, we headed to Sacred Heart for the 1100 Mass. The padre mentioned early on that the AC unit was out and that the service would be short - even the homily! But during the service, he called for all of the veterans to join him up front so Sweetie and I both walked up to receive his blessing. And the thunderous applause from the rest of the congregation! And Sweetie was the only woman who came up. 

After the Mass, we decided to have lunch and drove along US 277/US 377 (Veterans Blvd,I believe) and saw a bunch of folks at the Del Rio Civic Center. Afterwards, I found out they had a Veterans Day presentation and then a Day of Feasting presented by the H-E-B grocery store. On the other hand, we had a great lunch (Sweetie had a brisket sandwich while I chowed down on brisket, sausage, potato salad, cole slaw and iced tea!) at Rudy's BBQ.

 

Lazy BBC just chillin'

Biker Bear Chick missed most of the action as she apparently slept most of the time.

The campground was very clean and quiet. Of course, the winds were up on Saturday and it is November. The marina boat trailer parking area was pretty much filled on Sunday even though the day use area was empty (except for two cute little girls). I suspect this area is completely full during the long weekends during the spring and summer.

We both came back relaxed and recharged. Can't wait for our next trip! [Note: we are scheduled to spend a few nights at the Chisos Mountains Lodge at Big Bend in early December.]    

Sunset First Night

Sunset Second Night

Sunrise Second Morning