Goodbye Powderhorn, Hello Goose Island!

This morning it was only 35F (2C) and the wind was coming from the north so I again cut short my walk. Before leaving we did a bird run and even with the north wind we saw at least one of most of the regular birds and even our sandhill cranes down the street were out this morning. We also saw a cardinal and both Storm and Pyro came over to say goodbye. It's unusual for Storm to come to visit at all.

Pyro hanging around to say goodbye

One last photo of our little harbour



Coming back from my walk Delmer was just leaving the RV park to go home after his morning visit to the park and he wished us safe travels and thanked us for staying. They are such nice folks! I also went to the office and paid the electric bill $62.00 for 28 days) and said goodbye to Ginger.

Goose Island State Park is only about 45 minutes south from where we've spent most of this winter but it's still south! Since Texas State Parks have a 2 p.m. vacate rule, we weren't in a hurry to leave and pulled out at 11:30 a.m. - 46F (8C). The sun had come out by then contrary to what the weather forecasters had predicted, we didn't have rain this morning although it did rain some overnight. We arrived about 12:30 p.m., got checked in and paid for our two weeks. It's $20/day here (U.S. Funds). We don't have a sewer connection here so instead of conserving electric, we'll be conserving water! We got our water site so Gordon is happy. Here are some photos of our view.

Along the way

We're here!


We were mostly set up in about an hour today but it took some extra time to set up the satellites. After set up, Gordon headed down to the pier to take some photos and I went the opposite direction to the boat ramp area and the rec hall. It had warmed up to 62F (17C) so it was quite a bit warmer than forecast, thankfully.

Our site


View from our rear picture window


Close up of the pier taken from our backyard

Enjoying the day

The sun sparkles on the water

Our end of the park

On the other side of Stinky Beach


Tonight will be uneventful, I put some turkey cutlets in the oven, baked potatoes and corn and then some TV and maybe even a sunset!

Sunset taken from our side living room window

Trip to Houston and 25 Random Things About Me

Today was warm, low 69F (21C), high 81F (27C) but that won't last. A cold front should come through tonight. It looked like rain when I started out this morning so I just did the side streets. But it didn't rain and the sun came out.

Around noon Gordon called the Apple store in Houston. They said the new computers weren't in yet but was assured that they had the older ones for the same price. These are the same as I have. So we got in the truck and headed to Sugarland which is a suburb of Houston, 2 hours away and found the Apple store without a problem.

Looks like a burn going on Matagorda Island


Looks like a new railroad is going in along the route from Victoria to Houston


We were served by a nice guy named Alpha who checked and said that they didn't have any of the old model that we were assured they had on the phone. I could see Gordon was about to blow. He told Alpha that we had been assured they had the old model in stock so Alpha went to the back room to check for himself and after a few minutes he came back with the new model, straight off the truck! Lucky for Alpha as Gordon was not going to take this lightly!

One more stop at Whole Foods and we were home by 5:30 p.m. where I prepared breakfast for dinner.

Sunrays on our way home



Now to another subject.....

I was tagged by my friend, Linda on Facebook to give 25 random things about myself but due to bandwidth limitations, I don't upload any of the extra programs that Facebook provides so I decided to fulfill the 'tag' on my blog so here goes.

25 Random Things

1. I lived on a farm for the 1st 17 years of my life.

2. I went to a one room school for my 8 grades of elementary education and had the same teacher for those 8 years.

3. I am usually quiet and shy and am not much of a talker. I can’t make small talk!

4. I never really learned to swim properly but can keep myself up in an emergency (I hope).

5. I never had any children of my own but have 6 grandchildren thanks to my husband’s two children.

6. I took piano lessons when I was about 6 yrs old for 2 years.

7. I’ve been to England but no other country abroad.

8. We’ve been on several Caribbean cruises so have seen most of the islands.

9. Since 2004 my husband and I have been traveling full time in our fifth wheel and have been all over Canada and the U.S. Unfortunately due to the weather ‘all over’ basically constitutes the western and southern parts of the U.S., and some of the eastern states. We’ve been across Canada but not to the Northwest Territories.

10. I worked for 38 years before retiring.

11. I love Facebook and wish we had the bandwidth so I could try out some of the extras that they provide.

12. I have a niece and nephew of which I am very proud.

13. I love domesticated animals and hate to see them hurt.

14. I was born in early September and am pretty much a typical Virgo.

15. I need to sleep at least 8 hours every night.

16. I love to read.

17. I’m sort of crafty and enjoy painting sometimes and jewelry making.

18. I enjoy walking with some running sprints every day.

19. I enjoy birds but don’t consider myself a bird watcher.

20. I like to sit outside in nice weather and just enjoy the day.

21. I spend a lot of time on the computer. I have a daily blog which I haven’t missed writing in over three years (except for one night I was in the hospital).

22. I have a few TV shows that I don’t miss or if I do, I’m not a happy camper!

23. I enjoy being out in nature.

24. I don’t like to dress up and am not a party person.

25. I have never had an operation to remove any body organs.

OK, now I tag Dee to provide 25 Random Things about herself.

Some Problems Resolved, Others Not

It warmed up overnight and was almost 60F (16C) at 7:30 a.m. but still cloudy. I had one sunny break on my walk. I cut my walk a bit short today as we had tentative plans however they didn't work out, maybe tomorrow.

Below are the sucky problems and their status
Sucky problem#1 - computer - will probably be resolved in the next few days.

Sucky problem#2 - refrigerator recall - we called our dealer this morning and this was done when we were in in September.

Sucky problem#3 - Nortel - I emailed one of the guys I worked with that retired from Nortel when our group was sold to Breconridge and he told me that some retirees have joined in a class action lawsuit and sent me the information. Now I have to decide if I want to join it since the only thing I have with Nortel is the benefits having taken my pension money in a lump sum when I left.

Sucky problem#4 - eye tick - this seems to have gone away today.

The day turned out warm 77F (25C), mostly sunny and very windy. This morning we went out for a bird run. Here are a few photos.

Marsh grass against dark sky

Birds in the Bird Sanctuary



Oyster boats on Matagorda Bay

Kestrel on the post on our way home

This afternoon I did laundry in preparation for leaving for Goose Island State Park on Wednesday. Other than that I read and had a nap this afternoon.

Today pretty much sucked....

but not all of it - I had a nice long walk/run. It was cloudy all day 47F (8C) when I walked this morning and got up to 56F (13C).

Things started going wrong mid day when Gordon's computer died. He did various things to it and got it up long enough to back up all his photos that hadn't already been backed up but was backing up email when it died again so little by little he's coaxing it to come back to life so he can finish the backup. Now, what do we do? Buy a computer here and pay the Canadian exchange rate which is about .25 cents or so on the dollar by the time it goes through the credit card company or try to share my computer with the PC desktop as backup until we get home. #1 reason for the day to suck.

Next it was an email from my sister telling us that we got anothe refrigerator recall notice. Is it the one we had fixed in September or another one. We'll have to call our dealer in the morning. #2 reason for the day to suck.

Also in my sister's email she indicated that Nortel (where I retired from and who is funding our extended health care) has filed bankruptcy, their pension plan is underfunded and some pensioners did not get their cheques this month. Does that mean that our extended health care won't be paid? Not sure how to find that out but I guess we're considered unsecured creditors. #3 reason for the day to suck.

Then my eye has a tick in it since all that has happened and is driving me nuts. #4 reason for the day to suck.

For now we're doing okay and I expect things will fall into place one way or another.

Here are some photos I took on a walk around the park this afternoon.

A fine pelican specimen
Athena waking up from her nap in the straw

Another pelican with marsh grass in front

Shopping Trip

Today was quite a bit cooler than we've had lately. Our high was 59F (15C) but it was 52F (11C) when I walked this morning. There were two roseates really close to the bridge this morning as well as a tri colour heron but I don't take my camera when I'm walking so the only photos I got were on my phone and it doesn't take close ups. If I had had my camera, I could have gotten the whites of their eyes - if roseates have whites in their eyes.

We decided to go to Victoria today. Gordon has been looking for a camera bag to carry his new lens and they didn't have anything here in Port Lavaca. I also needed a back up battery for my camera. Since my new camera does a lot more stuff than my old one it goes through battery power like crazy. So, we were off before 10 a.m. First stop, Walmart - no luck with the camera bag. They had a worse selection than the Port Lavaca Walmart. We then stopped at Office Depot, no luck there but he was successful at Target. I also got headphones for my 'walking' radio as ear buds fall out when I"m running. So now I can listen to my radio again. We got my camera battery at Best Buy and I got a 6 inch sub for lunch at Subway at the Victoria Mall while Gordon went to Taco Bell just down the street. We also stopped at Hobby Lobby and I'm happy to say that I managed to not buy any beads even though they were all 50% off and there were some nice ones! I did buy a little thimble looking thing that has some velcro or something on it for picking up beads. When you have fingernails and the beads are tiny they tend to get under your nails so we'll see how this works. We also stopped at the HEB Plus store and I picked up a few things there.

We saw this train on our way out of Victoria. We haven't seen many trains this year unlike last year.

On to Port Lavaca, we took the back way in on FM1090, went to Walmart, filled up the water jugs. I wanted to get milk and didn't want to carry it from Victoria. I got some other groceries too. Gordon fueled up as Port Lavaca has the best diesel prices in the area but it has gone up to 2.09.9. He also took a few photos around town, then we headed back to our house on wheels.

Downtown Port Lavaca


This oil rig is getting set up between where we are and Port Lavaca

On our way home this fire truck fromt he Magnolia Beach FD was sitting on the road just cleaning up from what looked like a grass fire.



After unpacking the truck we went over to the office to see Ginger and got us tentatively signed up again next year beginning December 1st so we know we have a home to come to next winter and we'll be back on site 18!

A Laid Back Day & Fried Oysters

Today started out a balmy 60F (16C). I walked 2.2 miles this morning. I decided to try one of the routes that Ellie took. It seemed more like walks I took in the desert last year without the desert scenery. Instead I had herons and a kingfisher.

After breakfast and some internet surfing, I moved outside to my lawn chair to read. The wind had come up and it was blowing from the west so it felt cool even though it wasn't. I stayed till a while after lunch, then moved inside to read and have a nap. Yesterday wore us both out! And I finished another book. I've certainly read a lot of books this winter!

This afternoon Gordon went out for a walk with his camera so I took the opportunity to get the vacuuming done. Not every day in the life of a fulltime RVer is fun and games, work has to get done too.

We reached a high of 74F (23C) this afternoon. Except for the wind it was a beautiful day.

To read Gordon's blog from our trip yesterday and to see the photo that he took of one of our armadillos, click here. It is such a cute photo!

Tonight, Delmer and Bobbie had a fried oyster dinner at the rec hall. Here's a photo of my second plate. It was soooo good!

A Trip to the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge

Today was another gorgeous day here! We're sure having better weather than we had two years ago when we were at Rockport. I'm enjoying this very much.

It was 42F (6C) this morning when I went for my walk. I walked a bit further this morning and according to my new pedometer which I got set up yesterday, I walked 1.7 miles.

We reached a high today of 75F (24C). The decision was made this morning to go to the ANWR (Aransas National Wildlife Refuge) even though Gordon hasn't heard back about his photo sale. Glad we didn't stick around as he still hasn't heard about it but has another request from someone in the U.K.

We left around 11 a.m. and took about 40 minutes to get there. First up was to stop at the Visitor Center for Gordon to get his America the beautiful senior pass. There was some question about whether he would get it since he's a permanent resident of Canada but since he had a U.S. passport with a U.S. address on it, they went ahead and gave it to him. So we can now go into any National park or National historical site for free as well has half price camping at COE (Corps of Engineers Parks). It covers Gordon, me and two other people traveling in our vehicle. So that's taken care of.


Then it was on into the refuge. We stopped first at the alligator viewing area - no alligators. Bummer! The first half of the day didn't produce many results. We walked on a couple of trails but didn't see much other than some scenery on San Antonio Bay.


Sand bar in San Antonio Bay

Driftwood along the Bay - you can see how low the water is

One of the trails we walked

I had packed us a picnic lunch which we ate looking out at the Bay from a bench on the boardwalk near the observation tower.

Cardinal near the observation tower - Mom?



From there we did the auto loop but didn't see much there either so we decided to go to the Jones Lake viewing area which is near the observation tower. We had been there before and had seen 'gators and feral hogs. Jones Lake due to lack of rain is now more like Jones Pond but we did see four feral hogs, a great blue heron catch and play with a fish before eating it and several alligators although they were quite far away. Lots of photos were taken.

Blue heron with his fish

One alligator and three turtles


Feral hogs



On our way back through the park we saw an o'possum cross in front of us and continue along a side road. Then we stopped at the alligator viewing area. This time there was a small alligator there and as well an armadillo. Lots more photos taken. Further along we saw another armadillo, more photos taken. Then on our way out we saw more for a total of seven armadillos seen today!

O'Possum taking a hike


Me in front of a really big tree

Really ugly turkey vulture!

Alligator in the viewing area

Armadillo - isn't he cute?


We consider ourselves very fortunate to have seen so much wildlife today even though we didn't see any whooping cranes! For those that don't know, ANWR is the Texas home of the whooping cranes. We saw them last time we were here but only because we took the boat cruise that takes you right to them.

Laundry, Birding & Oyster Stew

This morning was only 40F (4C) but bright and sunny with no wind so it felt warmer. By the time I was half way around the loop I had taken off my wind jacket. It was a thoroughly enjoyable walk.

After breakfast we tossed around the idea of going to the Guadalupe River Wildlife Refuge at Tivoli but Gordon hadn't heard back about a photo that he might be selling so we decided to stay home. I wanted to change the bed and wash the mattress cover and the pillow covers anyway. Just too bad to waste such a beautiful day doing laundry but I got to sit outside and enjoy the day while waiting for laundry. Now we have a clean bed except for the electric blanket. I may have to do that at my sister's this summer as you're supposed to line dry it. Guess I could put it over the deck railing here but there's a tree there with lots of birds in it so it's apt to be dirtier than it originally was!

This afternoon we went out and did our birding tour. Since it was such a calm day we thought the birds would be out in full force. There were a few but not as many as we'd expected.

On our way out we saw these spoonbills with a great blue heron and some ibis.

Calm waters in Matagorda Bay today.

Ibis in the bird sanctuary

Oyster boat in Matagorda Bay

Reflection

Sunset at Powderhorn Lake RV Park & Marina

Delmer came over when he saw me in the laundry room this morning to tell me they're having oyster stew at the rec hall tonight. It's made with whole milk and cream. I didn't want to chance it but I sure love oyster stew! Gordon gave it a try but wasn't impressed. He's not a seafood fan but he's been enjoying the fish and shrimp. Delmer also said in a few days he's doing fried oysters so I'll go over for them.

I can't believe that we're only here for another week. We sure will miss it here!

We had a high of 70F (21C) today. The wind picked up around 3 p.m. but wasn't too bad and the first part of the day was absolutely gorgeous!

Another three hour Lost tonight!

To Port Lavaca for Groceries and What Not

Today wasn't quite as warm as yesterday. I saw 70F on the truck thermometer in town but 66F out here at the RV park. It was also a bit windy but the sun was bright!

This morning I heard a tractor outside the RV so I ran to get my camera and went to the bedroom as I knew that Delmer AKA Grandpa had told Ellie and Jim that he was going to move the deck over a bit. By the time I got there the deck had been moved and Grandpa was toodling away on his tractor. The palm tree is still there though. That's supposed to be removed.

The deck has been moved


And there goes Delmar on his tractor

I had my usual walk and went down to the pier to do my exercises for a change. After breakfast, I had a shower and went into Port Lavaca. I got my hair cut at Walmart. She didn't do a great job but it will do. I picked up groceries at Walmart and HEB and stopped at Dollar General for a few things.

Then I went to the post office to get some stamps. I had just gotten in line when a lady ran in and asked who owned a maroon truck. I indicated it was probably me and she said that someone had rear ended it. Oh great! I asked her if the person was still there and she said she thought he was so I took off outside, no person waiting to give me his information. I could only find a small dent in the bumper probably from a trailer hitch. The lady who saw it said it was an older man in a gold pickup truck with a ladder but by that time he was long gone. I'm just glad that it wasn't badly damaged. That would put a damper on our plans! I talked to a couple of other people in the parking lot but no one saw anything because of the bright sun.

From there I came home, Gordon unloaded groceries and I put them away, then sat outside for a bit to read but the wind was getting kind of cool so came in to do some interneting.

That's it for today!

Ellie and Jim Leave Powderhorn

It was 43F (6C) this morning, definitely colder than yesterday but still bright and sunny. I had a nice walk around the long loop. As the morning went on it got windier but not as windy as it has been.

Around 9:30 a.m. I heard the sound of a diesel engine next door so knew Ellie and Jim were about ready to leave so we went over to say goodbye. We'll see them again when we get to Goose Island.

Here's a photo of them pulling out of the RV park. Jim got to use his air horn as he pulled out to say goodbye!

Our high today reached 75F (24C) and although it was windy it was still a beautiful day. I sat outside and read for most of the day. So not much to report. Here are a couple of views from my lawn chair.

Beautiful, Warm, Quiet Day

What an absolutely gorgeous day! It started out warm so by the time I got back from my morning walk I was in short sleeves!

After breakfast we went on a birding run. I went next door to see if Ellie and Jim wanted to go but their car was gone so Gordon and I went out and did our usual tour as well as a couple of roads I hadn't been on before. Here are some photos.

Snowy Egret and a Tri Colour Heron

They dredged the sand out to make this creek reach the bay but Mother Nature had a different idea so it's now a tide pool.

This song sparrow posed for me on the fence

This cow was also posing

Great egret in a tree



When I got back it was just too beautiful to sit inside so I made my lunch and went outside with my book where I spent most of the afternoon. The sky was a clear blue and the sun was shining and only a bit of a wind. Just a perfect day with a high of 76F (24C)!