The week before Christmas at Rockport

Tuesday mornings at the park they have the "Stitch and Bitch' gathering for knitting, crocheting and quilting.  I've been working on a project that is way above my skill level.  The pattern requires my full attention so I decided to just do the bitch part.  I tried  and tried to do about 5 stitches and kept having to take them out.  Will have to stay on the road longer than a year for me to make one scarf.
In the afternoon we decided to take a practice run to Corpus Christi, we drove to Aransas Pass then took  a free ferry to Port Aransas, of course we couldn't pass up a brew pub after all it was lunch time.  After lunch we drove to Mustang Island State Park. We walked about a mile up the beach, Luci had the greatest time.  We broke the rules and took her off leash so she could run.  We drove down the island to Corpus Christi, the bay originally was landlocked, in the 1920' s the Army Corps of Engineers dug a ship channel making Corpus Christi Bay the deepest bay on the Texas coast.  Call me crazy but to me a landlocked bay would be a lake??  We wanted to find out where the USS Lexington and Texas State Aquarium were located.  It is quite  a bridge crossing the channel into the city, quite high and long.
Wednesday nights at the park is happy hour and dinner. We've met quite a few people, most of who are from Michigan and Wisconsin.  I played cards (Phase 10) later with a couple of characters, the lady from Nebraska, now mid to late 70's said she started smoking at age 10, she supplied stock for rodeos.  The lady from Arkansas was a barrel racer in her younger years. 
Thursday morning we dropped Luci off at the Salty Dog Doggie Day Care  so we could head back to Corpus Christi.  The USS Lexington, launched in 1943, built in Massachusetts by Rosie the Riveters.
The self-guided tours allowed you on 5 decks, the flight deck with several WW2 vintage airplanes, officers quarters, the galley deck, the lower engine room sick bay and the hangar deck.  Volunteers are available to answer questions.  It is located right on the bay, the waters must get deep quick, it was just a short trip up the ramp to the ship from the beach.  Just down the beach is the aquarium.  We were lucky, just as we entered the dolphin underwater viewing room trainers came in and worked with the dolphins.  Santa was in a large fish tank feeding the fish as sharks swam overhead.
After Friday night happy hour we went with 3 other couples to a "tav" for dinner, I got brave and tried the catfish.  It was a mild white fish, I'd always thought they would taste "muddy".
 
   Photos top to bottom:  Luci playing in the Gulf of Mexico; Gary on the flight deck of the USS Lexington; Texas Marine Aquarium with Harbor bridge in background; Gary walking the plank on the Lex; The Lexington; Santa feeding the fish at the aquarium and the trainers working with the dolphins.

Sunday after the Ice Cream Social we played a game called "pegs and jokers" with 4 other couples, men vs women, the men won just as I was ready to go out.  Our Seahawks lost, thank goodness they didn't show the game in our area.
This morning we woke up to 39 degrees, it was only supposed to reach 55 today, but it topped out at 58 with little wind.  Gary and I picked up 21 geo caches.  I finalized our plans to meet Dan and Charlene in Tucson in January.  We talked with Suzanne, Gary's sister who underwent a double mastectomy last week.  She is doing well, the doctors feel they were able to remove all the cancer.

Quiet week

This last week has been cool so we have just hung around the coach.  Just the usual mundane things, laundry, exercise etc.  We got some news on Monday that is pretty exciting.  Our grandson Nick got engaged to Sam, his sweetheart since middle school I think.  We will be going to the wedding March 22nd. in Salem.  We will leave the coach in Yuma to make a quick trip home.  While we are there we will see doctors and dentists.  Tuesday we got some bad news, Gary's sister Suzanne who lives in St. Clair Michigan has breast cancer, she will have a double mastectomy next week.
The weather started warming up on Wednesday, we took a walk on Copano Bay beach, it felt pretty good to be out and about without heavy coats.  I shouldn't complain, our cold was mid 40's vs Salem's 20's with snow and ice.  I hope our renter kept the place warm enough, our laundry room pipes are notorious for freezing.  No news is good news.  Wednesday nights are happy hour and dinner here in the park.  We are getting to know more people, the majority of them from Michigan and Wisconsin.  Friday we took a drive across Copano Bay bridge to see the 1000 year old tree.  Of course we left the camera home but trust me it was big, being held up by wires and posts.  The grove of live oak surrounding the tree are very big too, not tall but wide.  We did some geocacheing while we were there, one was in a cemetery with headstones dating to the early 1800's.  They are building a new bridge over the bay, as we were crossing over we saw a barge with 2 cement trucks on it, I said that I'd never seen that before.  Gary said maybe it was for the bridge constructions.  As we crossed the bridge back into Rockport, that same barge was heading back to port, Gary must have been right.
Friday was warmer yet.  We had a mobile repairman come to fix some wiring that coincidentally stopped working right after our water repair.  Poor Gary came down with my cold and to top that off he twisted his ankle.  Happy hour at the clubhouse helped.
Saturday warmed up even more!!!!  We took Luci for a long walk, there is a road within the park that isn't open for cars so she chased sticks, nothing like a tired puppy.  The walk really hurt Gary's ankle so he went to Urgent Care.  They weren't sure what the problem was but gave him some prescription strength IBO's.  After dark we went down to Little Bay in Rockport to watch the lighted boat parade.  There were only 8 to 10 boats, a little disappointing after seeing the parades on the Columbia, a bit warmer though.
Sunday we took a Whooping Crane tour out in Aranasas Bay.  We had a 3 hour tour with the Skipper and Christina.  I didn't need to take a suitcase, we were back in a little over 3 hours not years.  The Skipper is quite a "birder" he was able to navigate the boat and spot birds at the same time.  We saw over 25 different kinds of birds.  The Crested Caracara bird looked ordinary enough but when it flew over it is pink like a flamingo.  The cranes were almost extinct, but with prevention measures the flock is up to over 300.  Cranes mate for life, they migrate down from Canada, lay 2 eggs and raise the chick,. I said chick because one of them kills the other, talk about sibling rivalry.  One pair the skipper pointed out were interesting, the male was bitten by a water moccasin.  His head and neck quadrupled, lost feathers and almost died.  He survived but has a nasty scar on his head.
We had gorgeous weather.  As we were coming back to the harbor the skipper spotted an oyster boat stuck on a sand bar.  He circled around the pulled him off.  We asked how many times he'd done that, this was the first time.  I didn't realize the oysters were put in bags on the boats before they are taken to market.  We got home at half time to watch the Green Bay/Cowboy game.  With us it's ABC anybody but cowboys so we were rooting for GB.  Our neighbors here in the park are from Wisconsin and got to go to the game.  It was so exciting to watch the Packers come back from over 20 points behind to win. 
Monday morning I was leaving to go to Snap when my car told me I had a low tire.  Fortunately Gary hadn't left on his bike ride yet so he pumped it up enough for me to go into town.  Three of us at the park have had flats because of nails.  Walmart has a tire repair shop, pretty handy I got the tire fixed and shopped for groceries at the same time.  In the afternoon we took Luci to the dog park, a not so nice labradoodle decided he didn't like her and started to fight with her.  Poor baby was so scared, she didn't try to fight back, she kept trying to get away to get to us.  No harm was done.  After we walked around the park, found about 5 geo caches.
It is a little hard to think about Christmas  with the warm weather.

Photos top to bottom: Loading the Skimmer; all bundled up for the 3 hour tour; pair of cranes, one on right has scar from snake bite; towing the oyster boat off the sand bar; our  home in Rockport; hanging with Luci and our Christmas lights.

Merry Christmas to all,
Pam and Gary

 

Rockport, Texas

It has been brought to my attention that any comments sent to me from the blog itself are not showing up.  Since I am not a techie I don't know how to remedy the problem.  So, if you want to comment, you'll have to e-mail me.

For our last night in San Antonio we decided to go back down to the Riverwalk to check out the Christmas lights, since we were with 300,000 of our closest friends during the parade we didn't see a lot of things.  We took the same exit into downtown as the parade night, traffic was all tied up again.  There was a Spurs game, we just thought the congestion was due to that.  Wrong, there were crowds of people doing the same thing we were.  Kids had congregated in Alamo Square, so many of them in fact we had to "squeeeeze' through them.  When we finally made it down to the Riverwalk the crowds weren't quite as bad.  Fighting the traffic and crowds were worth it, it was really beautiful.  Of course we needed a beverage, we'd decided to go back to County Line BBQ and got a primo spot right on the river.  The river boats were speeding through, I suppose because of the number of people taking rides.  The ducks really had to scatter.  We were seated across the river from Dick's Last Resort, the place that made you wear rude hats.  The captains of the boats have running commentary all along the ride, they kept making remarks about the hospital located there was the first air conditioned hospital in the US, we thought that the hospital was no longer there.  It is still an operating hospital and the only one in the world with a bar in the basement.  Now that makes sense, you can go downstairs and relax while your loved one is having surgery. 

Sunday, Dec. 1st  We left Braunig Lake RV park for Rockport about 10:00, we took secondary roads all the way, giving us a feel for the rural life in southern Texas.  As we were leaving the small town of Goliad we spotted a mission, at the last minute we decided to stop.  The coach corners real well on two wheels!  Mission Espiritu Santo  was established  in1754  to civilize Indians and Christianize them to change them from cannibalism.  I'd never heard some of our  Native
Americans were cannibals. They stayed a while, then mission them turned to farming.  At one time they had over 3000 head of cattle. We pulled into Bayview RV park in the afternoon, there's no view but it does have a couple of lakes that used to have alligators.  The park it quite large, over 250 large spaces with mature live oak trees everywhere.  The park itself is a little "long in the tooth", needs a bit of work but is nice and quiet, no trains, no traffic and very few airplanes as opposed to Fort Sam, we were on the flight path to the international airport.  We got to drive around to pick our space, Gary asked around about satellite reception, before picking our new home.

Monday, Dec. 2nd  A stop at the visitor center is always the first thing we like to do when we arrive in a new town.  The gal there was very helpful, we left with a lot of brochures about the area.  Also finding a doggie day care is a must.  After a  delish lunch at Apple Dumpling Deli we checked out local parks for fenced dog areas.  Memorial Park is a lovely park, we did some walking and picked up some geo caches.  We came home and watched the Seahawks kick the Saints fanny.  Go Seahawks!

Tuesday Dec. 3rd.  Today is the third month anniversary of full-time RVing.  Neither one of us are ready to go back home.  The park has a nice activity hall, I visited the  "Stitch and Bitch" knitting and crocheting group in the morning.  I'm working on a scarf that is way above my skill level.  While I was there Gary rode 16 miles.  Later in the afternoon we went to the Maritime Museum. The gal I was sitting next to at the Riverwalk parade recommended we visit the Moon Dog restaurant, so of course we  had to go.  There were two barstools that had tractor seats and the back had curvaceous hips and legs. We had to have our picture taken, I asked "does this stool make my butt look big", no one answered "its not the stool" .The picture was taken with the camera phone so I can't put it on my blog but Gary posted it on Facebook.  Anyway the restaurant was a fun place, we had a snack and adult beverage.  The community was holding a free fish fry for winter Texans, so we decided "why not", let me tell you why.  The hall seats 400, all seats were full with a line about 100 feet long.  We went back to Moon Dog for dinner, met some fellow Oregonians also staying at Bayview.

Wed. Dec. 4th  Took Luci to the dog park to let her run, unfortunately there weren't any other dogs to play with.  Later we walked around the park, I have never seen to many turtles in one spot, probably over 100 in one pond.  At 4:00 we went to the activity hall for happy hour, met a lot of nice people, the majority of them were from Wisconsin and Michigan, afterward dinner was served.  The weather has really been nice, soon to change the weatherman says.

Thursday, Dec. 5th  I woke up with a pesky cold.  Dang!  I'd noticed a Snap Fitness in town earlier in the week, so I went to work out in spite of feeling crummy.  This is the first one I've been to since Spokane in September.  The weather has started to change, it dropped 10 degrees in an hour by evening it had gone from the 70's to under 40 with wind.  Canada can keep their Artic fronts up there.

Friday, Dec. 6th  Still cold, woke up to low 30's with wind.  Poor Gary has to walk Luci several times a day while I stay huddled inside.  We had several errands to run so we took Luci to day care to ease her cabin fever and spare is from her hyperactivity.  She always comes home very tired.  Aransas Pass is another small town about 15 miles from here.  After taking care of our business we had lunch at Redfish Willies, a cute establishment on the bay.  Food and service were good, we want to go back in warm weather, they have large garage type doors that open.  There is a small aquarium in Rockport that has free admission so we went there when we got back, the fish are all indigenous  to the bay and Gulf of Mexico except for "Marley" the moray eel from the Pacific.  Picked up a tired Luci and made it  home in time for happy hour at the club house.

Sat. Dec. 7th  It is still cold, 34 degrees with wind.  We laid low in the morning, we had bought tickets to the Historic Homes Tour so we braved the weather.  Glad we did, the five houses and two historic venues were worth it.  One of the houses was a Louisiana style cottage. restored but kept original including much of the furniture.  It is supposed to "float" but I never figured out what that meant, the pool in back wasn't original.  Another was a B & B, would be fun to stay there.  The houses were built in 1870 to the newest in 1949. The docents in each house were dressed in period clothing.  The last one we saw was right on the bay, just " weekender."  The drive is oyster shells, some were new but not so fresh.   I would never have thought this but I just love Texas, especially south Texas.  Who Knew?

TTFN Gary and Pam

PS If you'd like to send us mail the old fashioned by our forwarding address is 1115 Madison St. NE PMB 829 Salem, 97301

Photos top to bottom:  The mission; sanctuary; trying to keep warm (just a one dog night) the B & B on the tour; Louisiana style cottage; their pool and the view from the week-end cottage.