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Thursday, November 1.
We made it!! After a rough and rocky trip yesterday, today was relaxing and enjoyable. We drove south on US77 for most of the way and it took us through the beautiful rolling hills of central Texas, arriving at the WatersEdge RV Park in Rockport at about 4:30. The park staff helped us get into our site and invited us to join them for happy hour. We didn't take them up on their invitation today, just wanting to get settled.
The park is nice and clean, has a lot of live oak trees scattered throughout, but it is a parking lot. We have a small patch of grass behind the motor home, a patio area, and enough space to park the car. It is a short walk through the park and across the street to the dog walking area and a 50' pier that jets out into the gulf. The view is nice with a scattering of shrimp boats dotting the horizon.
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November 2 - 4.
Friday, November 2. It felt so good that we didn't have to move on today. We cleaned up the motor home a bit, put the awning down, and setup our patio to give us some extra living space. Frisco and I took a walk along the coast - he was a bit freaked by the waves coming in to shore. Mike and I walked around the park and stopped by the office to get some questions answered about trash, laundry, recycling, etc.
This afternoon, we had to take Frisco to the vet - he woke up again this morning scratching at his ears and whining. We found that he had a yeast infection and $60 later was treated and sent home with drops and wash. We also took a drive around Rockport, getting to know the lay of the land. Seems like a nice little community - lots of art galleries, cafes, and restaurants with a nautical focus.
At 5:00 in the park, people gather for happy hour, so we took our *bleep*tails and chairs and joined them. We had a nice time getting acquainted. When we got back, we grilled some sausages and enjoyed the cool evening on the patio.
Saturday, November 3. We took a drive to Corpus Christi this afternoon to see Gary and Judy, some friends from Monona that moved to this area a couple of years ago. Mike and Gary went to school together at Monona Grove. It was nice to see them and we had an enjoyable afternoon catching up, having drinks, and eating shrimp and burgers.
The drive back in the dark was a bit of a challenge. We took several wrong turns but got back on track and made it safely. It has become a lot harder to drive at night - guess I just don't see as well as when I was younger.
Sunday, November 4. It was a laid-back kind of day, spent having phone conversations with friends and family, going for walks, reading, fixing a nice dinner, and just plain relaxing.
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November 5 - 11.
Tuesday, November 6. It was a busy day, starting with a nice, long walk this morning. When I got back, I did the laundry and found the facility to be nice and clean; conveniently located just across from us. While there, I was talked to the manager, Lucy, who suggested I go to the office to talk with the owner. They are interested in having Mike and I work at the park. We haven't settled on anything yet, but it sounds like we might be able to work something out with them - neither of us want to work more that 24 hours/week (gotta allow time to explore Texas).
This afternoon, I got my 1st haircut since leaving SF and my favorite hair stylist, Jill. Initially, the cut looks ok, but will have to see when I style it myself. Such problems us girls have, trying to look our best.
The other day, Myron, the manager of the park offered me some redfish that he had caught. We cooked it up on the grill this evening, and it was delicious. I seasoned it with some olive oil, cajun seasoning, salt and pepper and had a fresh coleslaw with it. Very tasty! We might just have to do some fishing while here.
Check out the recent photos - finally got around to posting some from here.
Wednesday, November 7. Today was spent shopping for groceries and other miscellaneous stuff like flip flops and 2 extra lawn chairs. We had to throw out the ones we used in Pacifica because they were totally shot after 8 months of salt air exposure on the coast. We have 2 choices for grocery stores - Walmart and HEB - and we chose HEB.
A cold front came through last night and the temps dropped down closer to 70 - kind of refreshing, as we could leave the windows open. Lots of folks were doing projects around the house. I got started on doing a thorough cleaning of the insides of the windows, as they are kind of a mess from being on the ocean.
Thursday, November 8. Happy Birthday, Dan!! I had to go shopping again today, since I forgot the main ingredient for tomorrow's dinner. Don't you just love it when you do that - it's fairly common for me, as I usually realize that something has been forgotten when I get home from the store.
Lenore, the park owner stopped by this morning to offer us a job. We accepted and will be working 4 days on, 4 days off staring the 15th, in exchange for $600/month and free rent. Not the best pay, but not bad either.
Mike worked on cleaning the wheels so we could put protective covers over them. I cleaned up some more windows - have 2 more to go. One window actually had salt crystals built up on it, and I thought I kept them pretty clean while we were in Pacifica.
Friday, November 9. What a nice day! Gary and Judy arrived around 10:00 this morning and we visited for a while before heading to Rockport's 1st Annual Film Festival and Artwalk. At the Main Street Arts Center, we saw 6 short independent films, none of which lasted more than 15 minutes. All were enjoyable and entertaining.
From there, we walked to a small cafe in downtown Rockport, had some lunch and great conversation. We then walked to several art galleries and looked around, talking with some of the owners and artists. There was quite a variety of local art - paintings, photographs, jewelry, wood carvings, metal arts, and kinetic sculptures.
Returning to the motor home, Mike fixed us each an Old Fashioned and we sat around talking and had a sandwich before heading to the next series of 6 films. The subjects ranged from an animation of an artist's works, a story about a man who fears aging that gets a virus that causes him to age quickly, a horror film produced in Corpus Christi, and another about American ex-patriots living in Mexico. All of the films were entertaining. We all agreed that the chairs were uncomfortable to sit in for that long and the sound system could be improved.
After the films, we walked to Hemingway's Restaurant where we all had a spiced up coffee before heading home after a very enjoyable day.
Saturday, November 10. It's amazing what a day of activity does for us. The coffee that I drank before bedtime didn't help me any,as I was up several times during the night and had a hard time getting to sleep. We were both really tired all day and just laid around and took it easy.
I spent a couple of hours in the office with the park owner to learn the system. It is mostly a manual system here, although they do use a computer program for the occupancy. I think I will be able to catch on fairly quickly.
Sunday, November 11. I was asked to train in the office first thing this morning, to observe the opening process. While I was doing that, Mike got a tour of the grounds from Manuel, the owner.
In the afternoon, we took a short drive about 10 miles north to the Goose Island State Park where we sat the Big Tree, a 1,000 year old coastal live oak that is massive. We then drove through the park, a beautiful spot along the bay with very nice campsites, hiking, and picnic areas. We stopped at a beach along the roadside and went for a walk with Frisco. Heading back to Rockport, we checked out the area along Copano Bay, the easter side of Rockport. We are staying on the western side, bordered by the the Gulf.
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November 12 - 18.
Monday, November 12. When I got up this morning, I noticed an unfamiliar fan sound and I found it to be the fan on my computer. I couldn't turn it on or off, the screen was blank. There was no change when I unplugged it and when Mike took the battery off. After calling the technical service, there was no change, so its back to the repair shop once again. I checked my records and found that the same thing happened back in April, almost 6 months ago. My only options for repair, is to send it back to Toshiba.
What a way to start the day - now I have to watch the news on TV - what a drag!
Tuesday, November 13. We spent the day in Corpus Christi with Gary and Judy today and they showed us around the city. We stopped to visit the Art Center where Judy has several of her paintings for sale in the gift shop. Pier 99 was our destination for lunch, located at Corpus Christi Beach, near some of the many attractions of the city. Lunch was very nice, we ate at the outdoor patio. We now have a good feel for the layout of Corpus Christi, thanks to Gary and Judy.
Frisco had a great time in their fenced-in yard, running, jumping and playing. Its so good to see him so happy and playful. We didn't stick around for long, as I had one of my nagging pinched nerve kind of headaches again. The trip back home was uneventful - we didn't take any wrong turns this time.
Thursday, November 15. Our 1st day of work at this park. At the end of the day, we both feel that it will work pretty well for us. It is a pretty laid-back approach and the place is well cared for and well run. The people are friendly and happy to be here, so that makes it nice. Our schedules will be 4-days on and 4-days off, just like Pacifica - we got to like that schedule as it allowed plenty of time for short trips here and there.
Yesterday, we spent doing chores around the house and getting the laundry out of the way.
I bought our airline tickets for the Mexico trip - it feels good to have that out of the way. Naturally, the prices have gone up considerably since I first started looking in September - oh well, thats the way it goes. We debated if we should hold off for a drop in price, but it doesn't look good right now - oil barrel prices are close to $100 and gas at the pumps is almost $3.00/gallon, with rumors of it going to $4.00 soon.
Sunday, November 18. The last 2 days were spent working, but we switched a couple of days around and ended up with today off and will work on Tuesday with Lenore and Manuel, the park owners. We're both catching on, so they will trust us to work on our own starting on Friday when our next shift starts.
Yesterday, the shrimp truck drove through the park. On the recommendation of folks in the park, Mike bought 5 pounds for $20. I cleaned some up and we had cajun shrimp for dinner. Was it good!! They were jumbo sized and delicious - will definitely do that again.
Today has been spent just hanging around, relaxing, and talking to folks in the park. I took a nice, long walk this morning to the Fulton Harbor. The last 2 days have been cloudy and cooler, so we have been able to have the windows open and the AC off.
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November 19 - 25
Monday, November 19. This morning, after doing a few chores around the house, we ran a few errands in town.
We stopped at the Fulton Harbor because I had seen an unusual site and wanted to take some photos of it. It is a car with a mold of a car sitting on top of it, its been there for quite some time, as there is grass growing through it (see photo). I noticed it on Sunday when Frisco and I were walking by there.
Back at the park, Frisco and I took a walk out on the pier and I sat out there relaxing for a while. While there, I saw several dolphins swimming around. There was a man swimming from the pier next door - he got out of the water because he wasn't sure if they were dolphins or sharks.
I roasted a whole chicken on the grill tonight - it sure was tasty - I love that little Holland grill that was such a nice gift from Pat and Ben.
Wednesday, November 21. We worked yesterday and have the next 2 days off. Today is catch-up-on-laundry day. The weather is expected to change tonight, so I will try to take advantage of being outdoors today, starting with a nice long walk this morning.
We went to Rockport Beach this afternoon, hoping to take a nice walk with Frisco, but dogs are not welcome at the beach. There is a small area where they are allowed, so we walked along there for a bit. Later in the day, the temperature dropped and we were able to open the windows and enjoy the low humidity - not for long though, as it got too cold and we had to close everything down and put an extra blanket on the bed. During the night, we plugged in the electric blanket again.
Thursday, November 22. Happy Thanksgiving to all! It was 46 degrees this morning and Frisco was frisky and ready to go out right away. Bundled up, it was still cool and windy, so we didn't have much of a walk this morning.
The park is having dinner at the recreation hall today and the owners provided 4 turkeys and 2 hams, enough to serve 80 people. I volunteered for mashed potato duty, and showed up at the scheduled time but the potatoes were all peeled and cooking already. I felt real bad since now I wouldn't be bringing anything, but I was told they needed butter and iced tea, so that was my contribution.
Dinner was excellent, so many delicious salads and vegetables, the turkey was great and also the desserts. We got to know some more of the winter Texans, many who have been coming back to this park for years. After helping to clean up, Frisco got another walk and we watched movies and read - a typical, lazy Thanksgiving Day.
Friday, 23rd - Sunday, November 25. These were all workdays and it was pretty slow and boring. We worked with the managers, Lucy and Myron, and there hasn't been much going on - 1 or 2 checkins, a few rents, and a few people leaving.
The weather has been real cold, barely warming to 50 degrees. We kind of felt like we were back in Pacifica or Wisconsin for a few days. It is supposed to warm up tomorrow.
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November 26 - December 2
Monday, November 26. The last day of our 4-day shift and it is so nice to be off. We ordered a pizza for dinner, opened a beer, watched Antique Roadshow and called it a night. What a relief. Looking forward to doing some exploring on the next few days.
Tuesday, November 27. While my laundry was in the machines this morning, I helped the women in the park decorate the recreation hall for Christmas. I helped to assemble the Christmas tree, as it was identical to the one that I had and nobody else had experience. It was fun and it turned out looking very nice. One of the big differences in this place from the park in Pacifica is that the owners contribute a lot to making the place look nice.
After laundry, we took care of chores such as house cleanup, groceries, and car cleanup today. It was a nice day and felt soooo good to be off.
Wednesday, November 28. Today, we decided to take a drive through some of the small towns and a couple of lake areas near Rockport. We packed some clothes, toilet articles and food for Frisco hoping to find a nice place to stay the night and explore some more tomorrow. We chose a loop route recommended by the Texas Coast Bend Explore-it Guide.
It didn't take us long to realize that we had forgotten a couple of very important items - the camera and Frisco's crate (in case we decided to leave him in a motel room for a few hours). It really didn't matter because we didn't find any nice places to stay after all.
We drove northwest from Rockport through Refugio, west to Beeville and Three Rivers, south to Mathis, and back east to Rockport. The small towns were dumpy little farm towns and certainly didn't offer many points of interest, let along a motel. We wanted to explore the Choke Canyon Reservoir, picturing the area to be similar to Lake of the Ozarks, Truman Lake, or Table Rock lakes in Missouri. The lake was very nice, but there wasn't even a nice, little lake community nearby. I asked the unfriendly park ranger at the state park about residential/resort areas on the lake and were told there were none. When we took a drive through the park and stopped to give Frisco a breather, but he got so many sand burrs in his feet that he wasn't even interesting in relieving himself. We did see some wild turkeys and lots of birds while driving through the park.
Lake Corpus Christi was the second lake area that we wanted to explore. The park ranger and camp host at the state park were very nice and let us take a drive through the park to check it out. Frisco did get to take a short walk and relieve himself without sand burrs. We found the park to be very nice - an inexpensive place to camp and appreciate nature if we should ever choose to.
While there, we got to see the first Javalina we have ever seen. It is a pig-like creature, although not related to a pig, and is native to the southwestern deserts of the United States - check out the photo album.
Other sights of the day included miles and miles of cotton fields, flat lands with few trees, wild turkeys, Nolan Ryan's home town of Refugio, Nolan Ryan's restaurant, and small homely towns. It felt good to get back to Rockport, a small but attractive coastal town.
Thursday, November 29. This afternoon, we went to visit the local library, got our cards and checked out some books. It's a nice little library and will be a good resource for us while we are here. After that, we took a drive to see if we could find a park that had a fenced-in area where we might let Frisco run and play once in a while. We found that Memorial Park has several baseball fields and some tennis courts that might work.
Gary and Judy called this morning to invite us to come to Corpus Christi this evening for a wine tasting and to watch the Green Bay Packers play the Dallas Cowboys at a bar near their house. We got there at about 5:30 and went to the wine tasting. Judy had an immediate problem with an allergic reaction to the scented candles, so she and I went back to their house. We played a few games of Rummicube, drank some wine, and listened to music.
The guys went to a sports bar that was crowded with Packer backers dressed in their green and gold clothing, hats, cheese-heads, and other crazy stuff. The bar was packed, so they ended up going to Gary's friends house to finish watching the game. Unfortunately, Brett Favre was injured during the 1st half of the game and the Packers lost 37 to 27, their standings are now 10-2. It was close to midnight by the time we got home, but the drive was beautiful because of the moon and the cloud formations in the sky.
Friday, November 30. We spent the day just hanging around the park relaxing and doing a few chores. This afternoon, while sitting around, we heard the microwave come on, telling us it was cooking a potato. None of the buttons would work and it wouldn't come on when we tried to get it on. After some research, we found that there was a recall on that model just for that reason. Will have to make some calls on Monday.
We went to happy hour this evening and ended up going to Pop's Restaurant for dinner with about 20 people from the park. The food was good although it was the standard fried fish and french fries.
Many of the bars around here serve only beer and wine, so if you want a mixed drink, you need to bring your own booze and purchase the set-ups (ice, mixer, lime or lemon).
Saturday, December 1. Today was a work day, although an odd one all by itself. Lucy came in to help because it was the 1st and many people paying rent, several arrivals and a couple of departures. Not bad, though.
Sunday, December 2. It's the start of another 4-day off period. Yeah!! It was hot and humid today and it looks like we have another cool down coming our way. We fixed some chicken and baked potatoes on the grill tonight. Yummy! Yummy!
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Created on 11/02/2007 08:36 AM by bridge
Updated on 12/03/2007 08:00 PM by bridge
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