Novvember 4 - November 16

Just a quick synopsis.

We're back in the swing of things here - most of our Winter Texan friends have arrived.  Karen and Steve from Wisconsin were only three hours from their home, hydroplaned and rolled their 31 foot trailer.  The truck did not roll but incurred $5,000 in damages, the back end was 5 feet off the ground.  Instead of getting here on the first, they arrived on the 11th with a new 5th wheel.  We've enjoyed happy hour around the park with neighbors and at the activity center.  BEST of all, Wednesday night dinners by Chef Betty.  We've enjoyed our walks and bike rides along Fulton Beach Road, always so pretty. So far we've only seen egrets, herons, pelicans and those nasty gulls.  Not all of their bird winter Texans aren't here yet either. 

On a nice rainy day we decided to go to Corpus Christi (about 30 miles down the gulf) to shop for some new area rugs and shoes for Gary.  Along the Causeway just before the bridge we ran over something, neither of us saw anything, we heard a "thump", then the tire sensor came on.  We pulled off on the last exit before the bridge.  LUCKY  After an hour wait AAA came, changed the tire, our next stop was the tire shop to fix the tire.  The full size spare we  have was still full after 116,000 miles on the Jeep, thank goodness.  After lunch at the Longhorn Steak house (thumbs down) we finally made it to the shopping center along with most of Corpus Christi.  We struck out on the rugs but Gary did get new shoes.  After a quick trip to the NEX at NAS Corpus Christi we headed home. 

The weather has been mostly nice, from the mid 80's to low 70's even in the rain.  Gary has started volunteering on the USS Lexington, nicknamed the Blue Ghost, a WWII era aircraft carrier that has been on Corpus Christi's bay front since being decommissioned in 1991 and now a National Historic Site.  Two other retired Navy men in the park volunteer there and have taken him under their "wing".

I've gotten back to exercising at Snap fitness, the first day back I over did, man did I pay for it for several days. 

Gail, Marti, Karen and I went to Aransas Pass for a Christmas Bazaar, went to lunch at Starfish Willies on the boat harbor in AP.  We have yet to go there when the weather is warm enough to sit outside. We had a great time visiting and overeating.   Next door is a 3 layer boat storage, It's interesting to watch them shuffle the boats in and out. Back in Rockport we checked out Castaways, the large local thrift store, you never know what you'll find there.  We went to "old town" to a few shops before heading home.  Around 4, RJ, Gail, Gary and I drove up to Aransas Wildlife Refuge.  We saw a couple if spoonbills, many egrets, herons and at the top of the observation about 20 buzzards were hanging out until we scared them off.  I don't think I've been that close to one before, big birds.  We saw several deer, a HUGE alligator and an amazing ant hill.  We had dinner at "Pops" just across Copano Bay from Fulton.  It was crazy busy, we had to have a couple of beers during the hour wait for our food.  We got back in time to watch the Ducks beat Stanford 38-36.  Wah Hoo!!!!

Yesterday we spent the morning cleaning.   Gary cleaned out the "basement", somewhere along the line we picked up a mouse (or two?) plus a bunch of ants from Tampa.  The mouse chewed up two of my sweaters and my polar fleece socks.  They must be able to make themselves very flat to get into the sealed containers.  After the ice cream social Gary played pegs and jokers, I stayed in the coach and nursed a sore back.  Our Seahawks lost to Arizona 39-32, they played miserably.

Sorry no pictures, we kept forgetting to take our camera with us, Gary did take the camera to the Wildlife Refuge, but the memory card was in the coach.

TTFN,

Gary and Pam

Belle Chasse, La., Galveston Island, Tx & Rockport, Tx.

We've come full circle, last January 7th we left Rockport for our trek to all the states east of the Mississippi.  We traveled 9,908 miles,  visited 26 states plus D.C., saw 4 more presidential libraries and visited 22 NFL stadiums plus the NFL Hall of Fame.  We used close to 1,100 gallons of diesel with the prices varying between $2.89 in Connecticut to $1.87 in Palacious, Tx., just up the gulf from Rockport.  When we left Whidbey Island in September of 2014  we paid over $4.00 a gallon.  Thank goodness the price of fuel dropped.

This last week has been pretty quiet except for the tornado warnings and torrential rain in Belle Chasse and Galveston.  While we were in the New Orleans area the remnants of Hurricane Patricia passed by dropping up to a foot of rain.  We did brave the rain one afternoon to see the movie "Bridge of Spies" starring Tom Hanks.  EXCELLENT, we recommend this movie highly!  The day we left to head toward Galveston the weather had cleared (as usual, our luck) we spent a night in a Sulfur, La., Wal-Mart arriving to a beautiful day there on Galveston Island.  Of course the next day the weather turned lousy.  The highlight of our time was the trip to the International Quilt Festival in Houston, the granddaddy of all quilt shows.  The largest quilt show in the world showcasing some of the finest works of art by the top quilters from all over the world.  It's like visiting an art museum.  Gary spent the morning with me looking at quilts, after lunch he escaped to the Husband's Lounge.  After seeing 100's of quilts I checked out the vendors, over 520 of them.  I did not buy one thing, Gary was amazed.  As we drove from Houston to Galveston Island it started raining, dumping up to 15 inches of rain in places, tornadoes hit a town between Houston and Galveston.  We had to pull in the passenger slide, the wind was pummeling the "topper".  The rain continued until Monday morning, our scheduled day of departure.  (Of course).

What a beautiful 165 mile drive from Galveston to Rockport, blue sky, sunshine and just a slight breeze.  We pulled into to Rockport around 2, it felt good to be "home".  We settled into our space, a new one for us, the other one was on one of the main "drags" for the park, at a little over 500 spaces it's a good size RV park, a little long in the tooth but the people here are so much fun we overlook it's shortcomings. 

Tuesday, Nov. 3 Happy 68th Birthday to Me.  How did that happen so @#$%^ fast?   A nice quiet day, 80 degrees and revisiting old friends.  We finished the day playing a few rousing games  of Pegs and Jokers.

Well that's it for this week.  Enjoy the pic's.

TTFN

Gary and Pam

Spoonbill by ditch Belle Chasse

One and only sunset on Galveston Island

One of many quilts that caught my eye

A paper piece quilt masterpiece

Best of show

Amazing

Gary's hang out

Gary thought this placemat was something

A view of quilts and people