New Years Eve 2013

Despite being a little disappointed with our time here in Rockport on the Coastal Bend of Texas, we have to take a look back and be thankful for the trip we have experienced so far. So many wonderful experiences and interesting people and places. It is hard to believe we have been on the road for almost five months.

Just in case no one believes what we are experiencing, this is the band of "moisture" we have been under for the last two days

It is a grey, dreary end to 2013. By 5:00 we have had our New Years dinner of Bbq'd rib eye steak, baked potatoes and veggies ....cooked outside in the rain....not too exciting but neither is the day.

To quote our granddaughter Jasmyne, "It's a new year. It's time to start again."...tomorrow we will begin to get organized for life on the road again. We have become accustomed here to water, both hot and cold on demand, unlimited electricity and power for all our electronics. Everything is a trade off but we know how to live off the grid and let the sunshine provide for us.

As you can see there is not a lot to discuss about what we should be doing...8 deg and rain, verses 22 deg and sunshine. Also I haven't been out taking pictures nor doing a lot of inspiring painting so my blog is about as interesting as the weather.

Day one tomorrow and we have a lot to be thankful for. We look forward to many new, exciting adventures ahead in 2014 and say Happy New Years and send all our love to our beautiful family and all our friends.

May the ball drop peacefully for 2014.

 

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Monday, Monday and also Sunday.....

Forgot about yesterday. Went to Port A (Aransas) on the mini "ferry boats" and drove the beaches south of town. It's the only time we have been down here on a weekend and it was really quite busy. I guess it is still Christmas vacation for a lot of people. The day was supposed to be sunny til late in the afternoon but the clouds rolled in late morning. The huge breakwater was filled with families fishing and out walking on perhaps the last nice day for awhile.

We stopped at ARK, Animal Rehabilitation Keep. It is part of the University of Texas and is a compound for sea birds, mostly pelicans as far as we could see that have been covered in oil from out in the Gulf. Unfortunately being Sunday it was closed so couldn't find out any more about it.

Even though it is winter and so much of the ground plants and shrubs are dry and dead we can always find a little colour hidden in the brush.

Stopped for lunch along the dock in Aransas Pass at Redfish Willie's. Had a good recommendation but unfortunately when your coffee comes cold and you have to wait for 3/4 hour for a burger, the quality of the food doesn't really matter. It was a good burger but......our tolerance level for this kind of service is very low.

Two days in one....

This day feels so much like being at home. It is windy, dark and and rainy. Bob checked the weather this afternoon and it is actually warmer in Courtenay than here right now. WTF!!!. I did two loads of laundry, dishes, sweeping, bed making. I have watched two episodes of Breaking Bad, the final season, a little painting, and all the games of Candy Crush I have lives for, just to keep ahead of Sherry. It is a race to the finish in the Dreamworld Saga. She is supposed to be packing for Mexico but is finding time to play and paint too. Six days til we leave but whose counting. I'm hoping Bob will survive the next few days.

Trying line drawing and wash but I always seem to have too much paint on for the image I'm trying to create. As mi hermana says, practice, practice....fun to have her to bounce painting and drawing attempts off of.

Sisters. Just can't get faces and hands right so I'm leaving them out for now.

View from our RV steps after a rain fall and the evening sunset reflecting in the puddles.

Please let there be sun again. Arizona seems like a dream. Blue sky, brilliant sunsets and sunrises and warm temperatures. We're on our way.

 

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Academy Sports

This is a huge sports clothing/equipment store that is primarily in Texas and parts of the south east. Bob is still on the hunt for shorts and as usual I am the ultimate successful shopper. I have been looking for light weight pack-able clothing for my trip to Italy in May. Capris and Tshirts, wickable and easy to hand wash and dry..good deals in a store that only opened a week ago combined with after Christmas "maybe" deals..

It is good to be out with the sun shining intermittently. We are home by noon, more ham buns for lunch and then I'm on to the soup pot. Bob is doing "Ford" repairs and RV duties and we have a hearty pea, bean and ham soup for dinner.

Padre Island for the day tomorrow...sunshine and beautiful beaches.

 

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iPad Problems

Woke up this morning and I couldn't seem to get any connections on my iPad. Freak out time. I'm always concerned about getting hacked....it is my greatest fear..to lose all my 'stuff '.....pictures, blog...emails and maybe even my identity and banking info....you can see where my priorities lay? Lie? ....one of those words that doesn't look right on the page.
We're eating our ham for lunch again then going out to get away from the 'house' ....Bob's on the hunt for more shorts and I'm sitting in the truck contacting ATT and from there Apple care to fix my 'problem'. Turns out Bob has a similar problem though it's hard to tell because he doesn't do IM or FaceTime but he is having trouble accessing his apps and Google. ATT contacts AppleCare on my behalf connecting me seamlessly. The Apple rep goes through it all with me and it turns out my problem is that my iPad is in the wrong time zone..who knew?? End result is I am back connected with my IM veeps. A very important success story. It even corrected Bobs issues. We are back connected with everyone and everything.
The rain has finally moved on and even though it is still cloudy you can see hints of blue sky and even a peachy sunset. Today we are talking of going down to Brownsville and South Padre Island from here. It is only about 150 miles south and we feel we would be sorry to not go the 'last' Texas mile. Bob is slowly feeling better regarding his neck and shoulders and feels he will be OK for the extra miles. He still has a long road to go before home.

As this trip will probably not be made again we are still feeling the need to keep moving in new directions. Even though it has rained quite a bit in the last two days it dries up very quickly as we can see in the few puddles left that reflect the sunset out our back door.

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Rain, Rain Go Away

Boxing Day or as it's called in the US, the 'Day after Christmas', everything is open, no statutory holiday here. For an excuse to get out for some fresh air Bob dropped me off at the library so I could print out forms needed for our medical benefits. He went grocery shopping and I spent the afternoon updating, printing and downloading the final Season of Breaking Bad. Now I can watch it on my PC. It takes up too much of my cel data plan to watch it on my mini.

It's a little disappointing that the weather is not normal for this time of year here. We will wait it out til all the Christmas vacationers, all 90 some million of them, have returned home before we hit the highway.

Really hoping some drier days are ahead. Tomorrow's rainy day plan is a batch of ham and pea soup. That should bring warmer weather. This is too much like home right now, pout, pout!!

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Christmas Day

A pretty quiet day for us. We have a ham slated for the Christmas pot so are not required to start dinner very early. Bob made a marinade yesterday and it and the ham are just sitting waiting for the roaster. I am practising doing one line drawings. You are not supposed to lift your pen from the paper...it has been my afternoon project and theme for my new little 10 page Sennelier accordion sketchbooks. Another Dick Blick Art Supply store order. I really have stocked up on supplies of sketch books, watercolour cards, pens and Tombow dual brushes. I don't think I will 'need' anything for the next year. What I may 'want' is another story.

We have had all our telephone calls and FaceTime visits with all members of the family. As much as it is a sad time for me missing everyone I am very thankful that they are all happy and together. That is my best Christmas present.

The day has been overcast and showery. We kept the door open til about 3:00 but now we are inside and Christmas day is almost over for us. Fortunately or unfortunately this kind of weather will probably be the deciding factor for us to move on. It's not a lot different from home some days. Granted it's warmer, but rain and cloud are the same everywhere and for the gypsies, I think the open road is calling and we are ready to feel the warm dry desert air of Arizona.

We're thinking maybe a month in Tucson to visit the February gem show, have good TV coverage to enjoy the Olympics and then move on to the Colorado River before turning north and home.

 

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Christmas Eve

A lovely Christmas Eve day. The weather is beautiful, wish you were here; an old Jummy Buffet line....or is it the weather is here, wish you were beautiful, lol...all is good in our world today as HSBC has come through and restored our Benefits Package. Merry Christmas to us.

Couldn't get motivated to do much painting today but thinking of all my favourite people I doodled my stick families as they are today. Everyone is excited and happy to be together and that makes me happy despite my little bit of sadness at not being with them.

Merry Christmas and much love to all our family and friends, from Bob and Karen, this years Winter Texans at Christmas.

 

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Images of almost Christmas

We had an early dinner so we could go out to see the sun setting over the Gulf and assorted bays around Rockport. It was a bonus of colours before darkness fell and the Christmas lights came on. Here are some images of our home for Christmas this year.

 

There are so many neat areas in this town. There are docks everywhere, park benches, museums, aquariums, art galleries, bronze statues and it's all free. You do have to pay for a fishing licence but you can fish anywhere. Off the docks, off the shore...anywhere there is water.

The day was cool and crisp, more of a Christmassy day than the warmth and humidity of the past few days. There are not many private homes decorated for Christmas, I think because of a lot of absentee residents. We enjoyed our drive around town....a small celebration of the unique southern season on the Texas Coastal Bend.

On a good note HSBC has decided to grant us an exception for our 2014 benefits. Unfortunately it took a few days of calls and emails and a little heartache. I'm sure everyone involved in this process, especially us, will now be able to enjoy their Christmas a little more. Sometimes gifts come from strange sources. We are thankful for this one.

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Soooo slowed down...

It's hard to believe we have been in Rockport for almost 4 weeks. We had plans for the day but as the morning slipped away so did our ambitions. We did manage to get out this afternoon for a walk on a pier that we often drive by. So, we aren't fishing and we aren't painting as originally planned. Here are some examples of the shore birds Bob photographed and my journal picture for today.

A Plover. I will try to paint this little guy.

A Sandpiper; a picture of beautiful colours that I have no intention trying to recreate. I just appreciate the quality of the photograph.

I guess we actually accomplished something. It seems hard to get motivated when we enjoy our early mornings with our coffee. So before you know it it's lunch time and then if we are planning to BBQ for dinner, we start getting organized so we can cook and eat before dark.
A discussion of when we will leave here happens everyday. We are getting concerned that we may not be able to get energized enough to travel more than 50 miles a day. If that happens we need to be on the road soon just to make it home before the end of March. It's a bit of a joke with us because it has taken awhile to unwind from the intensity of the previous three months. The stress in Bob's neck and shoulders is improving daily being off the highways and not pulling the RV.
Cleaning out the fridge of leftovers today in preparation for cooking a big ham. Then, like a turkey, we will have a couple more dinners, some yummy sandwiches and if I have the energy, lol, maybe some pea soup. There goes Sunday along with some football and maybe a nightcap of our special Louisiana find, Pennsylvania Dutch egg nog....real dairy with rum, brandy and whiskey. It is only produced for a couple of months over Thanksgiving through Christmas. Unfortunately we only bought two bottles (1.75 litres each)...so we will enjoy it while it lasts. It really does put a new slant on egg nog. And it is really this big!!!

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A quiet day

We are both feeling a little lazy today. We have nothing to prepare for Xmas. We have chosen to have a ham for dinner on Christmas as we just cooked a turkey for US Thanksgiving. A little puttering and a few hours on and off for journaling. Yesterday we went to a free aquarium on the waterfront that was interesting to see all the local fish and sea life for this area. I worked on my "Texas" home page and a "spotted trout".

It was a mixed bag of weather today, overcast, warm and humid again. It tried really hard to rain but mostly evaporated before it landed on us. A warm southerly wind that carries a lot of ocean moisture. I am getting more accustomed to the humidity and quite like the tropical feel. Heavy rain and even a tornado warning passed by just to the north of us moving northeast into the Ohio Valley. We seem to be mostly protected along the Coastal Bend from the worst weather this December has had to offer.
One quiet day and we are ready to head out tomorrow. Bob will take his fishing rod and I will take my paints. It may be our last really warm day for awhile.

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Disappointing day

After 35 years as an HSBC employee, I retired officially in April, 2013. Over the years as we have travelled to Arizona in the fall I have made my arrangements with Human Resources for my benefits coverage for the the following year. With all the paper work required to transition to retirement status last spring I thought I had everything organized. I explained that we would be leaving in August for at least 7 1/2 months and would everything be in order while we were gone. It seems nothing was organized and I missed the deadline to updated my/our health benefit status for 2014.

We are now in "default" status which means I have minimum coverage for health and no dental and Bob has no coverage what so ever, maybe not even MSP for 2014.

I have spent the last two days trying to sort through this dilemma between HSBC and Sunlife, the company that manages my retirement benefits. As of tonight I have not received a response from either company.

I am so disappointed with my life work's company, HSBC, that I have been treated with such little regard. I accept responsibility that I didn't follow up but to be dismissed with so little compassion leaves a very sad and bitter feeling with me.

We will survive and we are thankful we have our Provincial Medical coverage. But I will never be able to say that I have been a proud employee of HSBC. Sad to say, but true.

On a brighter note, nope, don't think there was a brighter note today...we had a less than steller lunch out trying to make something happier happen for the day ....a quiet afternoon back at the RV ...it is humid, warm and breezy with a somewhat tropical feel to the day.

It will be interesting to see what the responses will be from either company. This blog post is primarily for my own benefit. A little venting and also a written record of the situation I find us in.

 

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A Drying Day

The Great Blue Herons

We are now in a period of warm air for the next few days. We went out this morning gunk holing around to give our carpets a little more time to finish the drying process. There are so many docks to explore and today we met a few interesting characters hanging around. This little guy was not afraid of us at all. A step towards him and a step back by him...a little two step happening. These pictures are from Bob's camera with his 42 power zoom.

The waterways here are so shallow between the coast and the outer water of the Gulf that boats are primarily shallow bottomed, a whole different breed than we are used to seeing. Until you get into the boats that fish the deeper outside Gulf waters and they are really big boats. Today as we were busy with our herons we watched a Texas Ranger police car leading in a 35 +\~ foot patrol boat with 3 - 300hp motors come to the dock. They are a regular patrol boat monitoring the inland coast for drug and alien smuggling activities. They can travel at an average speed of 45 knots for about 4 hours on a tank of 330 gallons of fuel, valued at $1000. Very cool looking boat with three Texas Rangers aboard. I asked if they took ride alongs. He said sometimes but we were not invited to come along. Too old for the adventure, maybe, lol. Oh well!

Can't help but put more of these very cute birds on the blog. This guy blocked our exit from the wharf.....it seemed he was almost as interested in us as we were in him.

An afternoon back at the park, a visit with our landlords, Shorty and Tom...a gift of chocolates from them to us..(me), lol, and a painted card from us to them. It does feel like the right place for us to be. Good people, a quiet park, a sense of security and lots of exploration ahead of us.

 

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Half Way Point

Today is the day we have been looking for to do a wholesale cleaning on our home away from home. Bob has already washed the outside of both and now it's time to shampoo carpets, chairs and truck interior. Big job but needs to be done. We went out this morning and rented a shampooer from Ace hardware and cleaning supplies needed. We tried at Walmart but this store is so overwhelmed with Christmas shoppers buying and returning we couldn't get close to the equipment.

Being on-the-road gypsies I definitely don't have a hairdresser familiar to me, lol....so my salon of choice and convenience is whatever town's Walmart we happen to be near when needed. Normal shampoo and cut $14.95, Tuesday is $12 dollar day, my lucky day. With my hair being pretty short from before we left home I am just getting a cleanup and bangs trim. The luxury most enjoyed is having someone shampoo my hair. I get a little pampering while Bob does a little grocery shopping.

At home Bob starts on the truck shampooing the carpets and front seats. I am doing a vacuuming of all the inside of the RV in preparation to shampoo our easy chairs and the carpets in the morning. We have been having a discussion regarding the statistics of our truck and RV. We flew to Milford, Michigan in June 2008 to buy our truck. At that time it had a little over 7000 miles on it. Now we have 87000 miles logged. In September, 2008 we bought the RV. Of those 80000 truck miles we have pulled the RV for over 41000 of them and have lived in it for more than 3 years of the last five years.

Bob often refers to the RV as his 'Ford'....translated, means 'fix or repair daily'. But when we consider where we have taken this unit....the rough roads, bumps, twists and turns it is amazing everything is still connected. Sometimes we have to pick up the pieces after a few rough miles. Screws come loose, the propane heater sometimes gets bounced off its place on the side of the counter. We always have to make sure things are in their proper places before opening the slides.

All in all I think we have a very serviceable combination that satisfies our needs, wants and requirements. There are bigger and better Rvs and there are smaller and worse ones. We fit somewhere in the middle and 'most' of time we are happy.

After tomorrow we will be clean inside and out and ready for the second half of this years travel adventure.

We have pretty much decided we will stay here in Rockport til the end of January. When the weather is like today we can't imagine a more beautiful place to be.

 

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Padre Island

Another day away from home. We leave early again down to Aransas Pass and over the little ferries to Port 'A' on our way to CC, lol ....that would be Port Aransas to Corpus Christi.....as the locals say....

Some places use Uhaul, others use this...pretty colourful and I have seen these throughout the south. Finally was able to get a picture of one.

Our goal today is an appointment with Discount Tire to get the tires rotated on the truck. The last time was in Minnesota and the manager there, Jason Diaz, was going to try to find us new beauty rings for the back tires. Turns out they have been in Minnesota for the last couple of months and now he knows where we are they are being shipped down here by Fedex. It is such great service from Discount Tire and their employees and why we will continue to buy all our tires from them.

We drove south of Corpus down to Padre Island. The beaches are absolutely beautiful. It is a state park for about 60 miles along the Gulf of Mexico. There is a campground with water and sani and a couple of places where you can actually camp on the beach. We didn't go further into the 'Park' but will come back another day to explore further. If the weather cooperates it would be a beautiful place to spend time just looking out onto the gulf.

A day can disappear so quickly and as we head back north towards Rockport and home we order a Pizza Hut pizza for a quick and easy dinner after another busy but enjoyable day.

 

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Aransas Wildlife Refuge

It is Sunday morning, sunny but still cool as we head out for a day away from home. The Rockport area has so many interesting places to explore, most based on the waterfront, whether it is Aransas Bay on the outside or Copano Bay on the inside. There is always so much activity along the many marinas, wharves and docks. Everyplace has it's own unique fish and bait shop supplying fresh prawns for the consumer and live or dead bait for the fisherman.

Today we found the "Big Tree" in the far side of Goose Island State Park. It is believed to be over a thousand years old. There are so many of these magnificent old trees. They are called 'Live' oaks because their leaves never turn colour or drop...therefore they 'live' all year long.

We followed a road along the water discovering fishing and hunting camps. Small resorts that have probably been around for decades. Air boats take hunters out into the Bay Area to duck blinds along with their dogs, another place where everyone is in camo including the boats.

It is only 10:30am and they are mostly coming in. It must have been very early and very cold when they first headed out this morning.

We spent a lovely afternoon at the refuge both driving and walking the trails. We were in search or whooping Cranes and alligators, neither of which we saw unfortunately. There may have been 'something' that made a big rustling noise as it scurried away in the swamp bushes beside me. Whatever it was I almost jumped out of my shoes. The ranger at the Welcome Center said the alligators are actually quite timid of humans and do not see us as a food source. Very reassuring ...like Bob telling me that the black bears we might come across in the woods at home are more afraid of me than I am of them...NOT!! There was a nine mile secondary road through the parks grasslands that we planned to drive but discovered it had a length and height restriction. With the kayak still on top of the canopy we would have been scraping the tree branches, so unfortunately we couldn't drive that part.

Here is a sign I really liked....each state has it's own message for littering...Mississippi's was 'I ain't your Mama, pick it up'....this is Texas' with a little extra from the county of Lamar's women's group:)There were so many beautiful scenes throughout the refuge....it is very pristine and even for a Sunday not a lot of people, for which we are always thankful. There is nothing better than exploring beautiful places in peace and quiet. I finish with a few pictures .....

It really is a very beautiful area and we hope the weather continues to warm up so we can do more of the exploring we have planned.

 

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