Slow Day

We had a slow start today and really never got going any faster. One of the benefits of being retired is that it won't hurt us to have slow days. Generally, if we don't get something done today, tomorrow will be just fine.

It was supposed to be cold last night but I don't think it got much below the mid 40's, and the wind was calm. The day turned out clear, sunny and warm. We had a good walk this morning after breakfast. I needed to get a haircut so I went over to the WalMart. I did get a couple of shirts and 2 books, but no haircut as the wait was quite long. Across the street from WalMart I found a hair salon that takes walk ins. Finally, got an acceptable hair cut. One of the things I'd heard about what women miss on the road is their hairdresser. Well, it's true for me. I had a hairdresser who really did a good job on my hair, he'd been cutting it for several years. Lately I've had a couple of cuts that were more like scalpings. Now I'm starting to get the shaping back that I had before.

Jim wanted to get started on his maintenance checks that need to be done before we leave. Since we're going to be washing the motor home starting tomorrow, he went ahead and stowed the awning and all the little do-dahs from the yard. He also organized his tool compartment and got rid of some things that we don't need anymore.

He also wanted to get in one more fishing trip, so he packed up his tackle and went over to Fulton Harbor. While he was gone, I cleaned out my closet. I gathered several more bags of clothes to be donated. Living in a motor home sure does help me keep the clutter somewhat under control. For a pack-rat personality like mine, that's a big statement.

I also worked more on the trip planning. I've changed our stopping points for each day so that we may be able to spend a couple of nights in Tucson. I follow several other travel journals, and know that Sandra, of Nightly News, is in Tucson until the end of December. I'd love to be able to meet her. So, hopefully we'll be able to get together and we'll have a couple of days to rest.

That's it for today. I'll have some new pictures for tomorrow.

Conn Brown Harbor

Oh, it is Monday again. I remember talking to my Dad about some family history stories many years ago. He reminisced about the family's schedule when he was a child. Every day had its own task. One day was laundry, another was bread making, yet another was house cleaning, and, of course, one day was for bathing. I'm not sure why I thought of that to start today's entry, but it just came to me. During the week, I do tend to forget what day it is, maybe I need that kind of structure. Nah, I really think we'll just continue to take things as they come.

We did get laundry done this morning. It's good to have that out of the way. We also worked on our list of things that need to get done before we leave Friday. We had to schedule and pay to wash our rig. They actually give us 2 days to get it done. But it costs $5.00. At least they do allow rig washing, many parks do not. We also got a window card for propane delivery on Wednesday. Not much has been used here, but we are heading to a cooler climate for awhile, and I know the temperatures have been in the 30's and 40's at night and early in the morning. Our furnace will get more use while we're in Central California, and I suspect, on the way there.

Another bit of business was checking with Escapees Mail Forwarding to verify we can request priority mail service to a general delivery. I also clarified their policy about first class vs. priority mail. They go by weight -- if the packet is over 13.5 oz it is sent priority. Under that weight, it is sent 1st class. I guess that was one of those fine print details I didn't pay close attention to when we signed up. It's not a problem, usually, but we did miss a delivery once because we left before the mail came. Now, that shouldn't happen again, as I'll just request a priority mail delivery when we have limited time in one place.

We decided to eat out again today since it was still chilly and quite windy. Jim didn't want to get into cooking fish outside today. We went to a little place on Fulton Harbor, Moondog. I had a grilled chicken salad which was pretty good.

After lunch, we headed to Aransas Pass. Jim wanted to check out the fishing pier at Conn Brown Harbor. Plus, there were still a few geocacaches in that area to find. I've learned about being stealthy while geocaching, so today we were photographers while we hunted caches. Jim found one and I found the other, so we were two for two today.

Conn Brown Harbor is in great need of revitalization. I found an article on the KRISTV.com web site from July, 2007 that the city council voted to sell it to developers. I don't know the status of that transaction, but it could be a really beautiful place. Instead, all over the area are torn down buildings and rotting boats. I guess there are a lot of sunken boats as well. It was once a thriving fishing and shrimpers area. The article said it would be several years before many changes occur. We'll keep an eye on it when we come back.

While we were in the neighborhood, we revisited an RV Park, Ransom Road, we'd gone through once before. This time I wanted to see it with the idea of staying there instead of The Lagoons in the future. If we got one of the sites that is a bit larger, it probably would work out ok. We'll see. Right now, I'm not interested in planning very far ahead!

I didn't take many pictures today, but here are a few taken at Conn Brown Harbor.

We are both starting to get antsy to leave. Just three more days and we'll be back on the road.

Cloudy Sunday

This has been another one of those days that has not held a lot of excitment. Let's see, I cooked breakfast, something I don't do every day.

Both dogs got bathed. I didn't groom them, but they really needed cleaning up. Neither one of them is overly fond of the actual shower, but they both act happy when they're clean!

Karon and I spent a couple of hours looking for some birds and taking a few pictures. We saw a crowd of roseate spoonbills, but they were way too far away for pictures.

This is the big shell at the entrance to the Rockport Beach Park.

These white pelicans were all lined up in a row


This is the information sign at the observation area we frequent.


Here's Karon on the walkway to the observation deck


A nice tri colored heron



And the ever present laughing gull




Jim was going to cook some of his fish today, but it kept threatening rain, so we ended up postponing that.

I talked to son, Josh. He's going to be driving out to California to join us for Christmas, then he'll visit a friend of his who lives out there. We talked to Jim's aunt. She and his uncle are leaving tomorrow for their daughter's house in the central coast area of California, where we will meet for the holiday. Everyone is getting excited about our time together.

Other than that, I've continued to plot the trip out to California while we watched football. We will spend a few days in Austin next weekend. I'm just as excited about that, since it will be a chance to visit with my sister and brother in law who will be on their way home to Colorado Springs.

Just another great day!

Playing with Keyboards

I don't have a lot of news today. We didn't go out and have any adventures today, other than our usual walks.

Most of my day has been spent at keyboards. The first keyboard was my Yamaha PSR 172. I think I mentioned that I'd found a couple of music books in Corpus, so I've been getting my keyboard out to practice every couple of days. I set it up on a little table in front of "my" chair and plug in the headphones. That way, Jim and I can still co-exist peacefully while I practice my music. I spent over an hour doing that. One of the books I bought is Christmas music. The other is popular favorites.

Jim grilled a wonderful pork tenderloin for lunch. I baked one white and one sweet potato and heated some vegetables. A simple meal, but very good.

Then, I continued the planning and researching for our journey to California. I'm glad we're going because we'll have a chance to visit family, and I'll meet a cousin of Jim's for the first time. But, we should already be on the road. We didn't allow nearly enough time to make this journey, so we will be traveling every day for about 7 to 10 days on the way out there. We're going to spend 3 nights in Austin, but then it will be one night at each stop until we get to Santa Barbara. Then, if we haven't been delayed anywhere along the way, we'll have 2 or 3 nights at Lake Cachuma near Santa Barbara. We are limiting ourselves to about 200 miles a day, so at least we'll have a chance to have our morning walk and afternoon relaxation.

As we complete our first year of fulltiming, I realize we are still on learning curve -- learning to not think the way we did when we "went on vacations". Learning that the journey is the destination. Most of this trip will be through stretches of I-10 that we've been on before, but every time we travel I see and experience new things, no matter how many times I've been that way before. Well, we will do this, but we'll also be aware of planning our travel a little differently as we go into the new year.

Gee, I didn't get out and take any pictures today. I found a few more of the 350 or so we took the other day on our whooping crane tour that you might enjoy.

Until tomorrow then.