Kingsville, Texas

Mary is no longer available for RV traveling, but we remain good friends.
Because we have 5,000+ postings, I’ve invited her to continue posting entries on this blog.

I’m currently in my 23rd year of full-time RVing and my lifestyle is changing, For more info click Here

---

The motorhome is parked at Thousand Trails RV Resort in Chehalis, Washington. I expect to depart here June 4th.

 

Since my RVing life is changing (see above), I’m starting to re-visit previously visited places. So rather than constantly re-blogging past entries, I’ve decided to do something different.

 

In 2011-2013, Mary and I did a 682 day, 12,679 miles in the motorhome and 8,000 miles in the Bronco, circumnavigation of the United States, which I called The Great Adventure. I called it so because other than my oldest granddaughter’s high school graduation in June in Connecticut, I didn’t know where we would be going or when we would be there!

 

So, unless I do something really different and unusual warranting a new blog entry, I’ll be posting entries from that trip.

 

 

 

 

This entry was posted January 13, 2013…

 

 

 

Yesterday we drove the motorhome the about 120 miles from Brownsville to Kingsville, Texas.

 

 

 

 

 

As always you may left click upon an image to see an enlarged view and then click once again to see an even larger view…

 

 

 

 

 

About 75 miles North of Brownsville we passed through a Border Patrol Station with no problems…

 

 

Kingsville is the headquarters of the famous King Ranch which you can read about by clicking their website link…
http://www.king-ranch.com/legacy_overview.html

 

 

Here’s a Wikipedia link about King Ranch…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Ranch

 

 

 

 

 

Upon arrival we went to the King Ranch Museum…

 

 

The King Ranch Museum is one of those museums that I give a GREAT BIG BOO too because they do not allow photography. Once again and as always, I saw nothing in the museum that would make the World stop turning if a few photos were taken. Most uncommon for me, I did not care for this museum for I saw it as shamelessly flaunting its wealth which I have never cared about. It seems so funny for me to be saying I didn’t enjoy a museum.

 

 

 

 

 

After the museum we went to Elks Club #1926 where we parked for the night. The folks there were very friendly…

 

 

 

 

 

They suggested a location where we could plug into electricity so we ended up with this very colorful view from our dinette window…

 

 

Enjoying interesting museums that don’t flaunt their wealth is another joy of the full-time RVing lifestyle!!!

 

 

The red dot on the below map shows our approximate location in the State of Texas. You may double left-click the map to make it larger…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoying 65-75 degree temperatures most of the year is a primary joy in the RVing lifestyle!

 

 

The weather here in South Texas has been erratic lately. First it’s too hot like in the mid-80’s with high humidity and then it’s too cold with highs in the mid-50’s and mid-30’s at night with the wind …which seldom stops blowing…providing a really chilly wind factor. Like yesterday at 6:00 AM it was 78 degrees and this morning at the same time it was 54 degrees. Crazy!!!

 

 

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”…Albert Einstein

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you have not checked out my Ramblin Man’s Photos Blog, you can do so by clicking this link…
http://ramblinmanphotos.wordpress.com/

 

 

 

 

 

TWO FOR THE PRICE OF ONE! MARY WROTE A MANY GREAT BLOGS…SO WHENEVER SHE PUBLISHED A BLOG POSTING THE SAME DAY THAT I DID…YOU WILL BE ABLE TO READ HER BLOG BY CLICKING THE BELOW LINK! DO IT NOW!

https://otrwjam.wordpress.com/2013/01/13/kingsville-king-ranch-museum/

 

 

I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THE PHOTOS.

Forecast for today is rain and 60 degrees.

Enjoying nice weather is another joy in the life of a full-time RVer!

The red dot on the below map shows my approximate location in the State of Washington. You may double left-click the map to make it larger…

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoying 65-75 degree temperatures with low humidity most of the year is a primary joy in the RVing lifestyle!

 

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”…Albert Einstein

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My current travel rig is a 2006 Fleetwood 26′ Class A Motorhome and a towed 1986 Ford Bronco II, Eddie Bauer Model. This photo was taken in the desert at Slab City near Niland, California…

 

 

On October 27, 2012, I created a two-minute video titled America The Beautiful. The music America The Beautiful is by Christopher W. French. The photos, which I randomly selected, are from the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Tennessee, Washington and West Virginia (not shown in that order)…are mine. Yup, That’s me standing in front of the Post Office in Luckenbach, Texas…Y’all!

 

 

Click this link to start the video. Make sure you have your speakers turned on and go to full screen asap.
http://youtu.be/FfZUzEB4rM8

 

 

If you would like to see my YouTube videos, click this link… http://www.youtube.com/user/JimJ1579/videos

 

 

There are more than 700 photo albums in my Picasa Web Albums File. To gain access, you simply have to click this link… https://get.google.com/albumarchive/110455945462646142273?source=pwa

 

 

If you have not checked out my Ramblin Man’s Photos Blog, you can do so by clicking this link…http://ramblinmanphotos.wordpress.com/

 

 

For more information about my books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust

 

 

All original works copyrighted – Jim Jaillet -2018

KINGSVILLE, KING RANCH MUSEUM

Yesterday’s blog about Brownsville, I neglected to mention that the city does not allow plastic bags. When you shop, you must bring your own bag or carry purchases as they are. What a treat it is to visit an area without plastic bags clinging to every alley, puddle, barbed- wire fence and twiggy bush along the roadsides. Residents are aware of the huge conglomeration  of plastic bags that reaches the ocean and gets caught in a swirling ocean vortex often described as the size of the state of Texas. In windy country like South Texas, that ban is very meaningful. Thank you citizens of Brownsville.

From Brownsville, we drove North East along the coast. At one point a sign indicates -Sixty Miles To The Next Service Station. We figured we were probably driving across the King Ranch, or part of it. We saw a sign for Yburria Ranch, which is another huge ranch holder like King, Kennedy and others that acquired huge Spanish land grants at three cents an acre.

We parked at the  Kingsville Elks Club #1226, then went to visit the Kings Ranch Museum. On the drive over, we noticed the King Ranch Saddle Shop. The museum doesn’t allow photos, but is beautifully done, and well worth seeing. A family history is shown in a  23 minute video of the family.

One grand-daughter climbed a tower in the 1940’s and took pictures of the cattle milling,  the men working the cattle, and photos of life on the ranch. These photos blown up to one- story size are the centerpiece of the museum, viewable from below and a walkway above.  Other, bigger than life photos and a ranch buggy and car collection take up  most  of the lower story.  In the entrance, a rug  depicting the King Family holdings that once covered a floor in their office buildings, is two stories high.

Richard King ran away from home at age 11 as a stowaway and ended up eventually in South Texas. A hard worker, he lived frugally.  He met Robert E. Lee and Lee advised him to buy land and don’t ever sell. And, that is what he did. He bought the Santa Gertrudis land grant situated on a river. He went into Mexico just over the border from Brownsville and invited a whole village of people to move to his ranch and help him build it. They did.

I was impressed with King. He treated his help like family. They were family. They lived remotely and his children grew up side by side with his vaquero’s families. They ate the same food; he built a chapel and school for the children. And, some of the descendants of the vaqueros still work the King Ranch today. He dug wells and opened up the vast dry lands to productive pasture. He brought the first Brahma bull in to mix with his herd and began the Texas Long Horn tradition and better beef. There is much about this family you will like.

King died at age 60 of cancer and his wife and one son-in-law continued to build up the ranch.   She lived to age 92, basically unchanged by wealth. Down to earth, hard-working, kind and helpful. Her  daughter who succeeded her as matriarch of the family was the same. Subsequent generations have played with money, race horses, planes and politics. And, other  businesses, like a dairy that produced 1000 pounds of butter a day. Saddles,a Hardware Store; they became growers with orchards of citrus and pecans. They employ a lot of people and own ranches in Australia, South America and one in Africa.  They have become preservationists for wildlife on the ranch.

I especially enjoyed a beautiful saddle collection.  One car in the collection had built in holsters in the metal to carry hunting rifles. There are several very original cars in this collection if you are a car collection addict.

From the King Museum, we learned we had passed by the Kennedy Ranch Museum at Sarita, in that wide expanse of “no services”.

Jim and I repaired to the Elks Club bar for a drink before dinner.

 

 

Kingsville, Texas

Yesterday we drove the motorhome the about 120 miles from Brownsville to Kingsville, Texas.

As always you may left click upon an image to see an enlarged view and then click once again to see an even larger view…

About 75 miles North of Brownsville we passed through a Border Patrol Station with no problems…

Kingsville is the headquarters of the famous King Ranch which you can read about by clicking their website link…
http://www.king-ranch.com/legacy_overview.html

Here’s a Wikipedia link about King Ranch…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Ranch

Upon arrival we went to the King Ranch Museum…

The King Ranch Museum is one of those museums that I give a GREAT BIG BOO too because they do not allow photography. Once again and as always, I saw nothing in the museum that would make the World stop turning if a few photos were taken. Most uncommon for me, I did not care for this museum for I saw it as shamelessly flaunting its wealth which I have never cared about. It seems so funny for me to be saying I didn’t enjoy a museum.

After the museum we went to Elks Club #1926 where we parked for the night. The folks there were very friendly…

They suggested a location where we could plug into electricity so we ended up with this very colorful view from our dinette window…

Enjoying interesting museums that don’t flaunt their wealth is another joy of the full-time RVing lifestyle!!!

The red dot on the below map shows our approximate location in the State of Texas. You may double left-click the map to make it larger…

Enjoying 65-75 degree temperatures most of the year is a primary joy in the RVing lifestyle!

The weather here in South Texas has been erratic lately. First it’s too hot like in the mid-80’s with high humidity and then it’s too cold with highs in the mid-50’s and mid-30’s at night with the wind …which seldom stops blowing…providing a really chilly wind factor. Like yesterday at 6:00 AM it was 78 degrees and this morning at the same time it was 54 degrees. Crazy!!!

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”…Albert Einstein

If you have not checked out my Ramblin Man’s Photos Blog, you can do so by clicking this link…
http://ramblinmanphotos.wordpress.com/

All original material Copyright – Jim Jaillet 2013
For more information about my three books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust