Rockport-Fulton, TX

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Today we move to Bay View RV Resort in Rockport, Texas near Corpus Christi.  I am a born and raised Texan that has never been to the Corpus Christi.  Tic is looking forward to sharing this area with me.

We were warned to ask for a site without trees, because they hang so low.  So we got what we asked for.  We are happy. The site is mostly level and plenty long for both coach and Jeep.  There is nice spacing between sites so you don't feel crowded.

It was 3pm before we got parked and settled.  We had a small problem.  The battery in our Jeep was dead when we tried to start it after arriving.  We realized we left the key on and ran the battery down.  I called our roadside assistance.  They jumped the Jeep.  We drove it a little and then to the grocery store.  Hurrah, the Jeep started after shopping. All is good.  We were tired after a long day, so stayed home.

Thursday, December 17, 2015
This morning we had a few chores to take care of before we could head out.  After lunch, we headed to Goose Island State Park in Fulton, TX where we are supposed to see lots of birds.

We are not sure what the name of this bird is.  It was walking through the shallow part of a pond.

From Goose Island we could see all this smoke.  We asked what was burning and were told there was a scheduled grass burn at a national refuge.  

This really long fishing pier was at the park.  We walked out to the hump.  We watched a man catch a fish.  Sorry no picture.

We did see these people out in the water.  Obviously it is very shallow a long distance out.  They are at the end of the pier in the picture above.

This duck looking bird seemed to have swim fins for back legs.  He used them to dive down for fish.

From the fishing pier we could see the causeway bridge we used to get to Goose Island State Park.

It is partly cloudy today and Tic got this beautiful shot of the clouds and clearing sky.  Beautiful!!

This seagull seemed to pose for Tic.

We saw a group of these white pelicans.  Tic got a close-up of this one.

We saw this man leaving the dock as we walked out on it.  We found it amusing to see the brown pelicans begging for scraps as he cleaned his fish.

Just behind the begging group were these 2 brown pelicans making sure the white pelicans did not come out of the water.

Not far from the Goose Island State Park we found the "Big Tree".  The Big Tree was about 1000 years old in the early 1900's.  It measures 11ft across the trunk, 35 ft around the trunk, 44ft tall and 89 feet across the canopy.  BTW, the "Big Tree" is a coastal live oak.

The coastal live oak are numerous around here.  Can you see Dusty standing beside another large coastal live oak.

Next we drove along the water's edge.  We were amused by the pelicans and seagulls perched on the posts.

We stopped at another fishing pier in Rockport, TX.  It is a little cool this afternoon and not many people fishing.

A little ways down the street from the fishing pier was this huge crab.  This is a good crabbing area also.  Lots of crabs served in the restaurants.



Then we found a part of the Aransas Pathways consisting of miles of hiking, biking and kayaking.  The little section we found was about the wetlands.

This blue heron was fishing at the water's edge.

There were lots of small fish jumping in the water.  We missed the fish but you can see the rings.

Tic also spotted some deer.  They drank at the water's edge.

This walking bridge crossed the water.

This view is from the bridge looking back toward the grey heron we saw.

This is a close-up of the green plants growing on the water.






We enjoyed the peacefulness of this place. 

Home to cook dinner now.  More excursions tomorrow.

Kerrville, TX

Monday, December 14, 2015

After 7 weeks parked in Weatherford, TX we are ready to be.......

"on the road, again"!

We headed to the Triple T RV Park in Kerrville, TX.

Here we are parked next to friends we met on the road in 2014.  We have kept in touch.  This is the second time in 2015 we have been able to connect.  Great fun!

 
 This park also has little cabins that can be rented. Last year there were only 3 cabins.  This year there are 15 cabins.

There is a nice swimming pool and spa.

  
There is even a picnic area with unique table and chairs and a bar-b-que pit available.

  

This is a closeup of the table and a couple of the chairs.

You can see me taking a picture of the RV parking area.  There are not any trees but all are pull-thrus with full hook-ups.

Look at this beautiful pyracantha bush we saw in our travels around the area.

The four of us drove to Bandera to see the Christmas display there.  I'm just going to put a few pictures.

   

God bless all our friends and family this Christmas and coming new year! 

Weatherford, TX Part 4 OMG it's already December.

December 1-14, 2015

Wow, I can hardly believe we are still in Weatherford.  We still have Tic's follow-up on his knee surgery.  Then hopefully we will be able to leave town.

Remember the last post said we had 4 days of rain.  As the storm starts to clear, the sky is filled with unique clouds.

The evening sunset was dramatic.  You can see the sun setting fire to the back side of the storm line.  Gorgeous!!

However, nope we cannot leave.  We discover the day after the rain stopped that rain was leaking through the chimney.
So we had to get the repair man out to seal the chimney. 

The House Doctor is from Weatherford and is very ethical and reasonably priced. We highly recommend his services.

  
Our metal roof is very slick, but these two worked to silicone seal all the cracks.  Then they sprayed the whole chimney with a waterproofing compound.  Another fix completed.

Another evening, the sky was soooooo pink at sunset.

This is more from the same evening as the previous picture.

This was an early morning sunrise one morning.  We have been very blessed with gorgeous sunrises and sunsets during our stay here.

I've been seeing Dr. Darcy Romine, a chiropractor in Granbury, TX.  She is fantastic!  In the waiting area they have a saltwater aquarium.  This short movie shows how this fish is truly enjoying massaging himself in a sea creature of some sort.  I'm not sure what it is.

Another of our adventures was a mini family reunion.  My sweet Aunt Mary put together a mini family reunion consisting of several of the family from the Austin, TX area and my Aunt's children.  She pleaded for us to come. We did go.  Above is my Aunt Mary with her cousin Clift.  They are the two oldest left in that part of the family.  We met relatives we had never met before.  We also got to see her 3 children whom we had not gotten to see in at least a year.  

 The picture above and to the right are a couple of pictures from the mini family reunion.
We were glad we went!

Since our church put on their Christmas program early in December, we were able to attend.  We arrived early so we could get good seats.

This is our adult choir.  They sang beautifully!  Great presentation.

Our church has a quilting group that makes prayer quilts.  This beautiful quilt was hanging so the church could tie knots and pray over this quilt assigned to go to a special individual.  Each quilt is unique.  No two are alike. Each note represents a prayer.  It is a special ministry!

We have gotten to see a lot of friends and family in addition to taking care of business.  After 7 weeks in Weatherford (our longest stay anywhere since we hit the road), we are finally heading out again.  Monday, December 14, we are heading to Kerrville, TX to visit with friends wintering in Kerrville.      

Weatherford, TX Part 3 (Foundation Repair)

Friday, November 20, 2015

We discovered another issue needing attention.  In the garage we could tell there was a foundation issue.  Texas is well known for its moving soil.  We hired a structural engineer to inspect the whole house and garage.  It was determined that the house was fine, but the garage needed 8 piers.  What fun-----NOT.

This is the garage part of the house.  They are digging holes around the outside.

 They even had to dig a hole in the concrete inside the garage.

 This shows 2 holes in the driveway just outside the garage.

 Each hole was dug deep enough for a person to stand in.  Can you see the head at ground level?

 Here he is using a hydraulic jack pushing the steel piers into the ground one section at a time.  Each pier is at least 10 sections down.

This shows one of the piers down just before the final supports are in.

Here are the final supports in place just before they fill in the holes.

They installed all 8 piers and cleaned up in about 5 hours.

All fixed.

 

Weatherford, TX Part 2

November 12 - 30, 2015

Well, I'm behind in my blogging.  Being parked next to our rock & mortar house for so long has allowed us to take care of several things.  

We've had lots of beautiful sunsets.....

and whispy clouds on some of the days. 

We got to have breakfast with some our Sunday school class one Saturday morning. 

One of Tic's doctors appointments revealed that he tore his meniscus in his left knee.  He had surgery to fix that.

The surgeon was 2.5 hours late.  Surgery was supposed to be at 10:30am and did not happen until 1pm.  Surgery went well and he made a speedy recovery!

2 days after Tic's surgery, we went to Boo Rays to celebrate Dusty's and Roxanne's birthdays.  Their birthdays are 2 days apart.

Here's our group.  Roxanne is sitting next to Tic.

Boo Ray's is a cajun restaurant here in Weatherford.  The chef came from New Orleans and is really fantastic.

 We were there at lunch time so not many people there yet.

 This restaurant bought new property last year just before we left.  This is their new building.  It's decor is festive looking.

One evening we had an extremely high wind storm come through.  Several people lost huge trees.

Thanksgiving weekend we had rain storms lasting for 4 days.  We had a total of 10.5 inches of rain.

All the stock tanks all around are full now.

The top picture is of our stock tanks.  This picture to the right is our neighbor's just behind us.  That is our barn and his tank just behind our fence.

The trees are finally turning here.  It has been exceptionally warm.

I took this beautiful sunrise picture from the coach the last day in November.