Lazy Saturday

Pretty sky and palm trees

Flower peeking through slatted fence

I did a walk around town this morning under cloudy, humid conditions and 65F (18C).

As the day progressed, it got cooler, our high was 67F (19C). We did have a little bit of sun this morning but it was fleeting.

I did a load of laundry this morning, did some reading and this afternoon made a trip to the local grocery.

Other than that, it was pretty boring.

Cancelled Plans and The Moochers!

I walked this morning in 59F (15C) weather with fog and mist to Roberts Point Park. There still weren’t a lot of birds around – saw 3 herons, a few pelicans flying around and a few dolphins doing their little dance in the channel but that was about it.

The sun came out late this morning. Since today was to be a nice day, our plan had been to go to Corpus Christi and take photos at sunset and go out for dinner. We had to dump tanks, shower etc. and by the time all that was done the fog had started to roll in so we decided not to go to Corpus Christi and instead drove to Roberts Point Park, the south jetty and the beach. By the time we got to the park the fog was gone again but we took some photos anyway and came home. Not a very exciting day but I did get to spend some time outside reading.

The temperature reached about 70F (21C) today but we’re supposed to be back into cloud and rain for tomorrow!

Saga of The Moochers

The two moochers wait as the fisherman catches a small fish

The successful moocher tries to swallow the fish

The successful moocher still attempting to swallow his fish

Still trying with the unsuccessful moocher close by

He's having a hard time - the unsuccessful moocher is still hanging around

Finally he swallows the fish - the unsuccessful moocher is not happy

Rain, Thunder, Wind and A Walk

We had lots of rain, wind and some thunderstorms overnight and it was still raining this morning so I stayed a bit longer in bed hoping it would stop. It didn’t and although it was 51F (11C) since it was pouring rain, no walk this morning.

By 2:00 p.m. the rain had gone and the sun was out so Gordon and I walked over to Roberts Point Park, me to do my walk and he to take photos. The little white egret was near the pier today. He’s never there when I walk in the morning but Gordon said he’s there earlier so I got a photo or two of him (or her).

It did reach 60F (21C) this afternoon but clouded over again later.

This it the egret at Roberts Point Park

This is a boat that belongs to someone in our RV park - note the name in Spanish -
in English it's Bullshit

Cloudy and Drizzly

I walked around the park this morning and then around some of the side streets. I counted 4 sites available out of the 14 from the other day. It was 59F (15C), cloudy and windy. As I walked through the park one of the gentlemen was walking his apricot standard poodle. What a beautiful dog! He came over and gave my hand a lick.

The high today was supposed to be 60F (16C) but at 9:25 a.m. it was 62F (17C) and I don’t think it got any higher than that.

Mid afternoon we did a grocery run to Walmart in Aransas Pass. We had to wait about 10 minutes to get a ferry. They were very busy today for some reason. It was a bit rainy with some fog over the water for our little trip there and back but not drenching rain, thank goodness. I bought a little fold up stool, hopefully it will help me to reach the top shelves in the kitchen cabinets. It’s such a pain dragging a dining room chair into the little space between the counter and the stove.

Gordon bought an Ohio State baseball cap at Walmart for $5.00. He was quite proud of himself (see picture below). For those of you that don’t know, Gordon’s daughter is a graduate of Ohio State but he’s always been somewhat interested in their football games.

An Uneventful Day!

I didn’t want to get up this morning but I know if I stay in bed I’ll have a headache that will last for the whole day so up I got, found out it was 51F (11C), got ready and walked to Robert’s Point Park. It was partly cloudy with a bit of wind and the walk was uneventful but the sky was pretty. Everyone has gone back to work today except for us retired folk! Even most of the birds were gone although I did see three herons hunkered down out of the wind.

After breakfast I got the laundry done. Luckily no one else was in the laundry room so I got the 3 washers and 3 dryers all to myself.

This afternoon I went out to the local grocery as we needed water and a few items and stopped in at one of the souvenir shops – mostly junk so didn’t buy anything there.

Our high today reached 60F (16C) but it was mostly cloudy especially this afternoon.

Another evening of TV. Sure will be glad when the new season starts!

Happy New Year's Day!

Today was bright and sunny again and 49F for my walk again to Roberts Point Park. The only thing I saw different this morning was a dolphin swimming in the marina area. They are usually out in the channel.

I stayed up last night to watch the ball drop in Times Square with Dick Clark. The good thing is that I only had to stay up till 11 p.m. to see it drop. I don’t think I would have made it to midnight! Poor Dick – he just doesn’t look or sound like himself anymore but you’ve got to give him credit for not just giving up!

Today we drove south to Padre Island making a couple of stops on the way, one of which was Nueces County Park. There were lots of shells on their beach and a reddish egret which seemed to be following this young couple around like a puppy dog. They said he had been following them for a while as they walked along the beach, when they headed for the road, so did he. We drove as far as the entrance booth to the Padre Island National Seashore but didn’t pay to go in as it’s just 55 miles of more beach and dunes and sea grasses.

This is the reddish egret that was following the young couple along the beach

Starfish washed up on the beach

This is the reddish egret again

When we got back, we got a new neighbour to the right of us. We haven’t had anyone there since one couple left two days before Christmas. The park is really filling up now. We counted 14 vacant spots on the weekend. I’ll have to go for a walk and count how many are left now.

Our high for today was 61F but it was very nice in the sun especially late this afternoon when I sat outside to call my sister and wish her a Happy New Year.

Our Year 2006 at a Glance!

New Year’s 2006 found us at Twenty-nine Palms, California. This whole area of California was enjoyed by both of us. We especially liked Joshua Tree National Park and saw one of our best sunsets there. On the 4^th we headed back to Catalina RV Resort in Desert Hot Springs as guests of members that we had met when we were there over Christmas. We really liked this part of California. Catalina RV Resort is a membership park meaning that you buy into it.

From there we headed to Yuma, Arizona. There are some amazing sand dunes around Yuma and lots of places for dry camping. The area around Yuma is mostly known for their truck gardens where a lot of our produce is grown. Other than the weather, there’s not much that’s interesting to us in Yuma. We also went to Lake Havasu and saw the old London Bridge then on to Quartzsite, AZ where we looked around the flea markets and the annual RV show. We stayed in Brenda at a really nice campground and only about 15 miles from Quartzsite. We then headed east and spent three weeks in Mesa, Arizona and had our best and warmest weather there. The park we stayed at was really nice and to make it better we had a coupon for a free week. There were people there from all over the U.S. and Canada. From there we went north to Camp Verde and used that as a base to see Sedona and the Grand Canyon, then south to Tucson then to Benson, AZ where we had a bit of snow!

From Arizona to Las Cruces, NM then on to Alamogordo where Gordon spent a lot of time photographing at White Sands National Monument. His photos of White Sands were Number One on his pbase.com site for eight days! From Alamogordo on to Albuquerque where we spent a week, then started heading home through the Texas panhandle where we stayed a couple of days in Amarillo, TX and discovered Palo Duro Canyon, a place where we want to spend some time.

We spent a few days in Branson, MO then on through Illinois and Indiana to Ohio where I ended up in the hospital overnight. I had been having breathing problems for a while so they checked me thoroughly, couldn’t find anything wrong with heart or lungs so determined it was related to my reflux disease. Increasing my medication cleared that up so we spent two weeks with Gordon’s family in Cincinnati, Dayton and Columbus and enjoyed seeing our new granddaughter, Lillian for the first time. She had been born two weeks after we left for home the previous April.

From Ohio we headed back to Ontario, staying a while at Rideau Acres at Kingston and arriving back in Ottawa for our medical and dental appointments in mid May. We found out then that our nephew, Nicholas planned to marry his girlfriend, Becky on July 28^th so we stayed in the area for the wedding. In August headed to Lindsay to spend the month there and see Betty & Garth and spend some time with them. They had their usual cottage weekend and Nick and Becky were able to attend as well.

On a very sad note, we had to leave our much loved little poodle, Bib behind in Lindsay. He got very sick and we had to put him to sleep.

In September, we had to return to Ottawa as Gordon had another medical appointment so after that was over we headed to Quebec City and Montreal returning to Ottawa mid-October to get things finalized to again head south. We enjoyed seeing Quebec City and the surrounding area but weren’t particularly impressed with Montreal. It’s just another big city with too much traffic and too difficult to find what you want to see.

After leaving Ottawa we stayed at few days at Mallorytown KOA waiting for the weather to be nice enough to travel and crossed the border into the US on October 30^th. We made the 11 hour drive to Columbus, OH in one day and met our newest grandchild, Luke. That makes a total of five grandchildren to date. While there we had truck problems and wound up staying longer than planned. Everything was fixed under warranty.

Onward on our southern trek to the Texas Gulf Coast through Tennessee, Arkansas and into Texas. We spent a week in Austin but unfortunately neither of us felt well that week having picked up some kind of bug. On to San Antonio where we spent 10 days enjoying the weather and touring the San Antonio sites. Riverwalk and the Missions held most of our interest. Gordon also visited The Alamo. From there it was south to Mustang Island State Park. We had a lot of favourite places in our 2005/2006 winter trip – the Oregon coast, San Diego, Desert Hot Springs, Mesa, Sedona, White Sands, Albuquerque and of course, the Texas Gulf Coast – all for different reasons!

Since January 2006 to present (December 31^st) we have put 7,341 miles on the RV and many, many more on the truck.

This winter 2006/2007 we are traveling less miles but are enjoying the Texas Gulf Coast. We were here in the winter of 2004/2005 for a while and as it’s much less expensive and not nearly as busy as Florida we decided to spend some time here again.

We spent a month including Christmas and New Year’s at the Marina Beach RV Resort at Port Aransas, Texas and will leave here on January 9^th.

It appears we’ve both got some wanderlust in our veins as after a month in one place, we’re ready to move on to somewhere different.

Happy New Year!

It was 49F (9C) but sunny and bright for my walk to Roberts Point Park. There were a lot of fishermen around this morning being a long holiday weekend consequently not too many birds except for this heron that’s hanging around the fisherman.

It was 49F (9C) but sunny and bright for my walk to Roberts Point Park. There were a lot of fishermen around this morning being a long holiday weekend consequently not too many birds except for this heron that’s hanging around the fisherman.

This afternoon we went into Corpus Christi and Gordon dropped me of at a shopping mall and he headed to downtown Corpus Christi to take photos. As it turned out this mall didn’t have many stores that were still open but I still managed 1 ½ hours of shopping and bought a T-shirt, a pullover sweater, a blouse (all 50% off), a neck pillow and jogging pants. I also found a GNC there so stocked up on items needed.

Gordon had a good time taking photos and wants to go back. I also want to go back but to the mall that still has stores open!

Tonight is New Year’s Eve so have a Happy and Safe New Year! We’re not New Year’s people so will just have a regular night. I’ll probably stay up to watch the ball drop but since I didn’t sleep well last night, that may change!

We drove part way back to Port Aransas on the beach - about 6 miles total - lots of traffic and people on the beach today! The surf was lapping at our tires in some places!

This is how the 'other half' lives. This is the backyards of some of the local Port Aransas folk.

December Expenses

Campground Fees - $388.55

Groceries - $408.81

Laundry - $16.00

Entertainment - $.25

Snacks - $1.46

Eating Out - $61.62

Fuel for Truck - $155.73

Propane - $19.00

Repairs RV/Truck - $0.00

Misc - $223.43

Insurance - $151.04

Internet/TV - $189.06

Cell Phones - $88.42

Medical/Dental - $0.00

Gifts - $92.95

Total - $1796.32

A good month for expenses! I don’t think anything needs explaining except the .25 for Entertainment. This was actually for parking in Corpus Christi. Next month I’m changing some categories and amalgamating some others to make it easier.