Get Ready, Get Set....

And Go! Our last day in Rockport is tomorrow - Saturday. I can't quite grasp that we've been here six weeks now. We've gotten into quite a routine: morning coffee, walks, sightseeing, shopping, cleaning, preparing and eating wonderful meals. We've so enjoyed the time we've spent here with Dortha and Mark, and now Karen and Donnie.

But time marches on, and now we're looking forward to new places, new sights, new things to do and people to see. On Sunday morning, we'll load 'em up and head 'em out to Kerrville, where we'll spend just over a week before moving on. We'll be at Buckhorn RV Resort with several other RV'ing friends we've met through the RV-Dreams community. Both Jim and I are definitely looking forward to reconnecting with these folks, and meeting some of them for the first time.

Getting ready to go involves making sure everything is working order and set just right. After these six weeks sitting here, Jim has checked the tires and will finalize all the rest of the checks tomorrow. Today, we spent the day washing and drying The Castle till it sparkles. We have a little bit left to finish tomorrow, and I need to finish my window washing and get the inside ready to travel.

Karen and Donnie prepared a great dinner tonight - grilled burgers and grilled chicken, a yummy pineapple banana salad, fresh veggies, and Dortha brought the most wonderful apple dessert. Yes, we counted the points and ate sensibly. We have agreed to eat out tomorrow night so there will be no dish washing or clean up our last night here.

We will miss Rockport, but we know we'll be back here again, so we're ready to move on to our new adventures!

A Visit to Port Aransas

To catch up a little of what's been going on the past few days, not a whole lot! The big news is that Dortha and Mark's friends, Karen and Donnie, arrived at The Last Resort on Sunday. They will be staying here for a week, and then we'll all be traveling to Kerrville. We've been enjoying getting to know these folks.

Our activities have centered around our morning walks, and the planning and cooking of meals. Just the usual, wonderful activities. We have also had several discussions about whether to go ahead and reserve a spot here for next winter. We have talked about going to Yuma, Arizona as well. I still have a really hard time making a firm decision about where I want to be in 3 months, much less a year from now. However, this is a really nice area, and we have loved being in this park. We can have a spot held for us, and then cancel if we change our minds. So, we have put our names on the list for January, February, and March of next year. We'll see!

Today we'd decided to go out to lunch and then do a little geocaching. Karen and Donnie had not yet been introduced to this fun activity. The plan was to go to The Big Fisherman for their Tuesday "all you can eat" special, but it was so busy with a long, long line that we changed that part of the plan and went to The Diner instead. It was pretty good, and we enjoyed it.

After lunch, we went to Port Aransas. Dortha and I had downloaded 4 geocaches located in the Roberts Point Park area, just across the Aransas Channel. The first cache took us quite a while to find, but Jim was the most persistent and had success. The next one was pretty easy, and Mark spotted it first, but didn't "claim" it, instead, he helped Donnie find it.

This is a view of the marina from the location of the first cache in Roberts Point Park:

While we were in the area, we were treated to the delightful view of these dolphins, surfing in front of a big freighter:


The third cache, unfortunately, totally eluded us. This one was marked as a "3 star" level of difficulty. Maybe it should be labeled a "5 star"!

This is the general location of the missing cache:

The last one was also very tricky. I kept walking around the general area with my GPS, which didn't want to settle on a specific location. After about 10 minutes, it finally settled. Dortha was the finder on this one.

A little shopping at the Islander rounded out the day's activities. Jim got one more T-shirt, but this time, I went after some jewelry.

We headed back home and got settled in to get some rest so we can be ready for whatever tomorrow brings.

A Rockport Saturday

I woke up this morning thinking about all the things that need to get done soon. In this lifestyle, I hardly ever stress about having too much to do, but for some reason this morning, my mind was racing all over the place. When I got up, I made a list of the things I needed to get done today, and the projects that will need to be worked on over the next few weeks.

Our time here in Rockport is getting short, and it's time to think about planning the next few months. We'll be here one more week, then on to Kerrville for the "gathering" -- stay tuned for what comes after that.

Jim and I got out for our walk about the same time Dortha and Mark did, although we didn't all walk together. When we got back, I started in on the cleaning and straightening. One thing about living in a small space is that it doesn't take much out of place to really get on my nerves. I just needed to get things back in order! That's quite a change for me, I used to be pretty laid back about a neat and clean house. Although it wasn't laundry day, Jim found a reason to need to go to the store, I think he just wanted to be out of my way for a while! I did get quite a bit of cleaning done while he was gone, including vacuuming the floors.

Dortha was making a pizza dish for dinner today and I made a salad. After we ate, we decided to go see if we could find some roseate spoonbills, as we'd been told they spend the night near a bird observation deck just up the road. Jim also wanted to go by the store again to pick up some items he forgot earlier. We found some pelicans, and we did see the spoonbills, but they were a long ways off so no pictures.

Today's white pelican:

And today's brown pelican:

When we stopped the car to get out and take pictures, these two dock kitties thought we might have some food for them. Sorry, guys!

We went on to the store and made it past the Dairy Queen on the way home with no whining! Jim's also doing really well; he's lost about 20 pounds now. He's walking most mornings and is eating much the same way I am. Great job!

Friday, So Soon?

It seems like it was just Tuesday, and here it is Friday evening already. Let's see if I can get caught up with myself a little bit.

Wednesday morning, Mark took the Jeep in to have the oil leak fixed. Jim followed him in our car, and they went to breakfast before coming back home. I dug around in my stored stuff while he was gone and found my old MP3 player. I wanted to see if it still worked after being neglected for about 2 years. I put it on the charger and turned it on, found that it seemed to be working ok, so I left it to charge. When Jim and Mark got back from breakfast, Jim took the laundry off to get it done. He got back from the laundry and soon Mark got the call to pick up the Jeep.


After Jim came back once again, we talked about getting him an MP3 player. We went to Walmart to see what they had. He found a Sony Walkman MP3 that he liked, so we got that one for him. He asked if I wanted to get a new one, but I told him I'd just as soon see how the old one held up before we spent any more money.

He spent most of the rest of the day messing around with it. Dortha came over to help him, since he was using iTunes to download his music to it, and I use Windows Media Player. By then, my player had charged, so I was trying to load some new music to it. Uh-Oh. It seems that planned obsolescence struck! The new version of Windows Media Player would not allow me to load new music onto the old player. I got a message that the old player is no longer compatible. When I checked around online to see if I could find new drivers, I found nothing. I asked if the offer was still open for a new player, so now I have the same model Jim does.


Fast forward to Thursday morning, when once again, Jim got up early. This time, though, it was to go on a fishing trip on the bay with Mark and Rod. They'd found a place that would take them out and furnish everything from poles to bait. They had a fun time, all except for the part where Mark's fishing pole somehow jumped out of his hands and landed in the bay. Unfortunately, they did not catch any keepers on their adventure:

Thursday, is of course, Weight Watchers day. Dortha and I headed out to our meeting. I lost just over 2 pounds this week, and Dortha lost some too. I'm very close to a 35 pound loss now. Not much more to go, and then it will be on to the wonderful challenge of maintaining the new weight. I feel so much better, with lots of energy and way fewer aches and pains. I've relearned good eating habits, and once again realize that I can eat what I want and need to be satisified without getting out of control.

After the guys got back and we got out of our meeting, we headed out to eat, as we usually do on Thursdays. This time we tried a Mexican food restaurant that we'd not visited before. It was pretty good. When we got back home, Jim immediately got to work loading up his MP3 with lots of music. But he ran into a snag when he tried to create a playlist - it just wouldn't do what he wanted it to. And that takes us to today....

To make a long story short, the end result of Jim not being able to create a playlist is that we started over with his player and now he's using Windows Media Player too, and all is well. I was able to get mine working just fine, knock on wood. But there is no other news for today, as it's all been MP3 stuff. Dortha and I did escape for a short time to get some groceries, but otherwise, we've been hard at work playing with our new toys.

I'm sure there are more adventures ahead though!

Visiting With Spoonbills, and Marathon Shopping

Yesterday morning was wonderfully routine - sleeping in, getting our walk done, enjoying coffee. We didn't have any particular plans for the day. The weather was windy and just a little chilly, with rain showers predicted. Eventually, someone suggested a run to Walmart, so off we went. Dortha needed to return an item, and I'm always up for shopping and people watching.

We decided to take a short drive after the shopping. I suggested going over to Port Aransas to check out the birding area, even though the wind was pretty high. We were pleasantly surprised to find quite a variety of birds, including my favorite, the roseate spoonbills.

This tri-colored heron was very vocal, but he wanted to stay hidden behind these reeds:

A pelican swallowing his catch:

A northern shoveler - it took some patience to get a picture of him without his long bill in the water:

This morning, Mark was taking their Jeep over to Aransas Pass to the dealership to have a leak checked out. He was going to call Jim for a ride home if they kept it to do the work. Since we needed to get up for Jim to be ready to go fetch Mark anyway, we decided to go see if the spoonbills were out feeding in their usual spot this morning. Yes, they were! We hung around for about 20 minutes or so, snapping pictures. The light wasn't very good, so most of our pictures didn't turn out too well, but we got a few we can share.

Yes, this is a sunrise, not sunset!

White ibis, great egrets, spoonbills, all busy getting their breakfast:

The roseate spoonbills are such interesting birds - they are both beautiful and strange looking, graceful and awkward. They wade along in the shallow water, sweeping their heads back and forth with their spoon-shaped bills, scooping up whatever they find to eat. They are pale pink to nearly red under their wings:

It's almost as if this great blue heron is encouraging the spoonbills to follow him around:

There are lots of snowy egrets around too:

We got back home to wait for Mark to call, but he showed up in the Jeep instead. The dealership needed to make some phone calls for all the proper authorizations to get the problem fixed under warranty. We had already talked about going over to Corpus Christi to do some shopping today. The four of us headed out and visited a variety of stores. We'd been through two or three stores when lunchtime rolled around, so we used our coupons for TGI Friday's and had a nice lunch before continuing the shopping marathon.

A stop at TCBY for a frozen yogurt treat was our last stop before starting the trek back home. On the way back, we made one more quick stop at a souvenir/T-shirt shop. Then we headed home with all our treasures! Mark and Jim were hungry again, but Dortha and I declined their invitation to go get a sandwich.

Now we're all settled in back at home for a restful evening.

Time Flies....

...When you're having fun, and we certainly are! The last few days have certainly flown by.

Friday was cleaning day. Per our usual routine, Jim took the laundry and I stayed home to clean. I sure needed to do some deep cleaning because it gets really dusty in here. We were expecting Janna and Mike (Tin TeePee-Log Cabin) for dinner.

We met them in Tucson last winter when they stayed at Doc Justin's Diamond J. They have a female black Schnauzer whose name is Jazz. She was quite ill at the time, and I met Janna when she and Jazz were out walking one day. At the time, our own Jas was also quite ill, and we were both going pretty slowly with our sick puppies. Of course, we had to stop and visit, since her Jazz looks so much like Mr. BoJangles. At one point during the winter, they were at the point of thinking they would have put their precious Jazz to sleep. But, they found a great critical care vet in Tucson who wanted to try one more antibiotic, and it worked.

We've stayed in touch with them through our blogs and e-mail, so it was great to know they were coming to Goose Island State Park for a few days. Dortha, Jim and I collaborated on a dinner of grilled pork chops, grilled pineapple, rice and veggies, and angel food cake with strawberries.

Saturday was actually a fairly quiet day. Mark wasn't feeling well, so we didn't see too much of him. Dortha, Jim and I went to Beall's to do a little shopping in the afternoon, but otherwise, we stayed pretty close to home. I baked chicken breasts for dinner, and Dortha brought over the leftover rice and veggies and we had dinner for three. Of course, it was Valentine's day, and Jim remembered with a bouquet of flowers and nice bottle of wine:

I also got my Valentine's day present to myself - a map program for my Garmin eTrex Legend GPS. I use this GPS mainly for geocaching, but it didn't come with pre-loaded maps so it has been fairly limited in it's usefulness. I ordered the North American Maps, which came on a mini-SD card about the size of my little fingernail. I spent some time playing with the new features, and I think this is going to be really handy when we're out on day trips, as well as making getting to geocaches a lot easier.

That brings us up to today. It was still cleaning time, only today, I got all the bed linens together, including the dog's beds, and piled it all in the car to take to the little laundry here at the rv park. While that was in the washer, I walked a couple of laps around the park. Then I got the laundry into the dryer and walked another loop. When all of that got finished and I was back at home, I was still in cleaning mode and got both dogs washed, then got my shower.

Mark and Dortha were heading out to Walmart, so we joined them for a quick shopping trip. Jim and Mark also wanted to check out the location for their planned fishing trip this week, so we rode the ferry over to Port Aransas and located the place they need to be on Thursday morning.

We got back home and relaxed for a little while before we met Janna and Mike at The Big Fisherman for dinner this evening. They are heading out tomorrow, so we wanted to see them one more time. We hope to get up to Montana for a visit with them this summer, if our jello plans work out. We had a nice dinner and visit, and wished them safe travels. It was great getting to visit with them.

It was time to head back home and feed our dogs and get settled in for the night. Tomorrow is another day!

Just a Short Drive!

Not really....as Deb said, "We're driving HOW long just to go to lunch???" Three hours. We drove three hours one way to cross the border to Progresso, Mexico, yesterday to have lunch and do a little shopping. There were 8 of us in two cars. Deb and Rod rode in our car and Jim drove. Terry and Randy rode with Mark and Dortha.


Jim and I decided to board the dogs in a kennel while we were gone, because we didn't know how late we might get back. We visited 2 kennels in the area beforehand, and picked the one we felt most comfortable with, even though it was a more costly option. I took them over to the kennel early in the morning, and we were all ready to go by 8:45. It was hard to leave them, knowing they were most likely going to be there overnight! But, I felt a little better knowing they were in good hands in a clean, professionally run kennel with plenty of room and lots of play and running time.


We arrived in Progresso just about noon, got the cars parked and walked across the bridge into Mexico. That has to be the most crowded street I've ever been on! We walked through the crowds for a couple of blocks to the restaurant, Arturo's, and had a delicious lunch with great service. Mark and Dortha had eaten here before and knew it was a good choice. Then we all walked around and looked in several stores. Dortha got some ampicillan and we got some omeprazol capsules at about 1/4 of the cost we pay at Walmart. I also bought a pair of silver earrings and Jim got a bottle of Crown Royal. That was it for our puchases.

The sign on the bridge, indicating the border between the U.S. and Mexico:

Arturo's, where we ate lunch:


Rod and Deb enjoy their beer:
Looking, looking....

After we came back across the border, we went to a large flea market in Donna, Texas. We didn't have much time to look around, but it reminded me of the markets we saw in Arizona a couple of years ago. We also stopped at a vegetable market. I got a few peppers and onions for a good price.

It was time to get back on the road for the three-hour drive back to Rockport. We had a fairly uneventful drive, except for the part where we had to go past a brush fire. The smoke was so thick that for a few seconds, we couldn't see a thing. It is so dry here that any little spark can set off a blaze. This one could have been started by someone throwing a lit cigarette out a window from a passing vehicle, it was very close to the road and had burned quite a few acres, from what it looked like.

And a beautiful sunset on the way home:

We got back a little before 8 and said our "see ya's" to Terry and Randy, who were pulling out this morning. We sure hope to see them again, down the road. They are great folks!

This morning I picked up the dogs from the kennel. We were all pretty happy about that, it just isn't the same around here without them underfoot. I know many people who don't have pets because they don't like the structure or the confining nature of taking care of them. Sometimes, I grumble about having to get up, get dressed, and take them out every morning, rain or shine, cold or warm, but when it comes right down to it, I love them and love taking care of them. Jim grumbles too, but he feels pretty much like I do.

Dortha and I went to our Weight Watchers meeting as usual. We both had a loss, also as usual. I didn't lose much, but any loss is good! After the meeting, we came home and waited for the guys, who'd gone to the store and stopped to have lunch at The Diner. From what they said, it's a pretty good place to eat. Dortha and I had already decided today would not be an eating out day, so it was ok with us that the guys went out on their own.

We made an afternoon trip over to the beach park, where Dortha and I took off our shoes and walked the beach. We also walked a loop in the park, so we got a lot of our steps in this afternoon. Then it was time to come back home so Dortha could make her shrimp and pasta dish. I contributed a salad, and we had another wonderful meal.

Now we're settled in for the evening with a new season of Survivor. Does it get much better than this? Wait and see!

Rockport Images

I had to get up early today to get my routine, fasting bloodwork done. The last time I had this done, the lab had problems interpreting my doc's orders, so this time I went to the lab a week or so ago and gave them my orders so they could be sure to have everything they needed when I walked in the door. Sure enough, they had to call my doc's office to get more information to do the test. I was also advised to make an appointment, since walk-ins just get worked in around people who have appointments. I'm very glad I did it this way, as I was in and out this morning before the cup of coffee I'd prepared and left in the car got cold. I was a happy camper!

When I got back home, it was time for a little breakfast and my 2 mile walk. Jim had already gone for his walk, but I was able to catch up to Mark and Dortha while they finished their last lap. Jim went to town then to fill up the car, check the oil and tires and get it washed. I stayed home and did my routine cleaning up and then read a few blogs.

This afternoon, Dortha, Mark, and Jim collaborated on a wonderful meal of grilled chicken, carrots, cabbage and cheesy potatoes. Dortha also made a delicious dessert of angel food cake and pudding with pineapple. Yum! We decided then to take a ride around town and see if we could find anything interesting to photograph.

A big truck caught a ride on a barge:

Great blue heron with an itchy spot on its neck:

A flock of gulls and black skimmers:

High water today, not many people out enjoying the park:

A black skimmer:

More of the flock of black skimmers and a few gulls:

An American oystercatcher - they have matching beaks and eyes!

A bicycle fence along Highway 188:

The entrance to our RV park:

And another day wraps up under the palms:

A windy, but warm and wonderful day!

And the Days Go By...

Yes, they say time flies when you're having fun, so we must be having a blast. Actually, these last few days have really been what we pictured in our dreams of "going South" for the winter. The lowest temperature we've experienced over the past few days was probably Friday afternoon when I was geocaching. The nights have been in the 60's and the days have been mostly in the 70's.

Saturday, we needed to go into Corpus Christi to pick up the ring Jim bought me for my birthday. It needed to be resized. We also wanted to take Dortha and Mark to Applebees for a late lunch. While we were at the mall picking up the ring, we shopped in a few stores. But it was pretty crowded and we ended up not buying much of anything.

I really like to go to Applebees because they have Weight Watcher's meal choices with the points already calculated. We'd been given a gift card for Christmas and still hadn't used it, so that was a good chance to do so. I thought our meals were pretty good.

We then drove over to Padre Island and down to the National Seashore to look around.

The Gulf of Mexico from the deck of the visitor's center at the National Seashore:


From the end of the road:


We then came back across on the ferry:


It was close to sunset as we came into the rv park. This is one of the palm trees at the entrance to our park:

Yesteryday (Sunday) was a stay-at-home and get caught up with things day. We all went for our 2 mile walks in the morning, then I got a crazy idea and ironed a bunch of clothes. I also made a batch of chocolate muffins and a bowl of caramel apple salad.

Terry and Randy Guiler (Guiler Travels) arrived in Rockport yesterday, and we met them at - where else? - The Big Fisherman for dinner. The food was not as good as it usually is, but we really enjoyed the company! They came with Deb and Rod as they're all staying at Big D.

Today was almost rainy. It actually sprinkled a little this morning during our walk. I took my time doing my Wii workout this morning and tried some of the more challenging strength exercises. I also worked on doing the shoulder stand in the Yoga section, which I've only been able to do within the last few sessions. I still can't hold it very well, but at least I can get into the position now, that's quite an accomplishment for me.

By the time I finished my workout and regular cleaning, it was time for lunch. We had an appointment to take the dogs to get their distemper and parvo booster shots this afternoon. When we got back, Mark and Jim once again talked us into going out to dinner and we went to Alice Fay's. The food there tonight was actually better than The Big Fisherman was last night. One thing about Rockport - there is a limited choice of good restaurants! After dinner, we stopped by Walmart to check out their selection of capris. Dortha mentioned that she'd seen some new capris there earlier today, and we wanted to see about them. I found a pair that will work for me, but Dortha didn't see anything she couldn't live without. After a little shopping, we headed back home.

Yes, we've been having fun, and the time has flown by!

Girls Gone Geocaching!

After our usual morning routines, including Jim and I going for a walk together, I got ready for today's geocaching date with Dortha, Sandra and Deb (Keeping Up With the Kendalls). The plan was that Deb, Dortha and I would meet for lunch at The Apple Dumpling and then meet Sandra. Unfortunately, The Apple Dumpling is closed! So we went with Plan B for lunch and headed to Jalisco's, a local Mexican eatery. The food was ok, better than some, not as good as others.

We then met Sandra at the Bealls store. While we were waiting, I noticed they were having a big sale and spied some T-shirts that were under $10 and a style I like to wear. I quickly picked out 2 and paid for them, then we got on to the business of the day.

Today was Deb's first day of geocaching, and we'd picked out 6 caches to find. Sandra, Dortha and Deb all have Garmin navigation GPS units, and I have one that I use only for geocaching, as it doesn't have street maps loaded in. It was pretty entertaining riding around with 3 GPS's talking at once!

We got to the first location and Deb was the designated finder, with a little help from Dortha. This one is part of a series; and Dortha and I found one of these the last time we were out geocaching in Rockport. So we knew right off where we'd find the cache, once we got close.

Below are Sandra and Dortha looking on as Deb gets ready to sign the log:

Dortha found this one, it was a pretty clever hide! Deb and Sandra record the moment with their cameras:

Somewhere in this picture, there's another one that I found today:

Here's one of my favorite birds, the long-billed curlew:

And of course, the ever-present great blue heron:

We found our six caches pretty quickly, so we decided to see if we could find a few more. Dortha had a couple more loaded into her GPS, so we found one of those, then took Deb and Sandra to one we found last week. That one was a quick find for Deb. I knew of another one that I thought was interesting, so we went there as well. All in all, we logged 9 finds today!

It was getting chilly with the wind blowing pretty hard, so we called it a day. We dropped Sandra back at the Bealls store and took Deb back to her RV at Big D. We thought we'd take the quickest way back to our park, but got waylaid by a fire and found the road closed. We backtracked and got home without further adventure.

Jim and I made flatout pizzas for the 4 of us for dinner. They turned out pretty good! These are pizzas made with Walmart's Flatout Wraps as the crust and lots of healthy veggies as toppings, along with some Canadian bacon. They are very Weight Watcher's friendly!

Tomorrow we'll be going to Corpus Christi again. My birthday present from Jim, a beautiful Garnet ring, had to be resized, and it's ready to be picked up. What a great day it's been!

Just Enjoying Life

The past two days have not been brimming with excitement, but they have sure been enjoyable! Yesterday, we spent the morning at home, getting caught up with a few things around here. Then in the afternoon, we decided to take a ride with Dortha and Mark, and check out a boarding kennel, in case we decide to take a long day trip one day and want to leave the dogs here. The kennel was closed for the afternoon, though, so all we got to do was take a look around. We'll need to call them to speak to someone.

Then we drove over to the Rockport harbor area and took a couple of pictures.

This is one of my favorite places, and I think this picture expresses the things I love about this area - the birds, the water, the clear blue sky, palm trees - well, you get the idea:



For supper Dortha made vegetable beef soup with some of our leftovers from the Shrimp Boil on Sunday, and I made a pan of cornbread. She baked a crustless pumpkin pie and we had a great meal!

Today was our Weight Watcher's meeting at noon. We like this meeting, there are lots of people attending, and the leader is a very energetic, fun woman. We both had a good week, showing a continued, steady loss. I will be back to the point where I can attend meetings for free again when I lose 4 more pounds. I still want to lose a little more than that, but I am getting closer to where I want to be.

After our meeting, we went to lunch at The Big Fisherman with Dortha and Mark. I had Cajun Grilled Shrimp, yum! Then we all took a drive back over to the Corpus Christi area to take some more pictures. When we were there a few days ago, we saw a few Roseate Spoonbills, but it was very late in the day, so we wanted to go back and see if we could find them again. We also wanted to try to get some better pictures of the replica ship, the Nina.


We saw this fellow and several of his friends while we were at the harbor:


We then visited a couple of shops, and Jim was able to find a gift for one more grandchild. It was time to see if we could find the Roseate Spoonbills. We'd seen them near the bridge, in the marshland around Indian Point Park. Sure enough, there were 8 or 10 of them, huddled in the bushes, staying out of the wind, taking their afternoon naps. We were quite a distance from them, so it was hard to get good pictures. This is the best of the ones Jim and I took:


I got this picture of the Corpus Christi Skyline:

We then headed back home to a quick supper of leftover soup and sandwiches with Dortha and Mark. Did I say we're really enjoying our time here?