A Short Move Down The Road

Tuesday we left Gulf Waters RV Resort, while we were very sad to leave we look forward to our return next winter. It was a cold day but we had done most of the prep the day before, by 10:30 we were on the road, 35 miles later and by lunch we were set up at Goose Island State Park in one of their bayside sites.Our new truck pulled just fine, even with  head wind the engine never knew the 5th wheel was there, think this was a great buy on our part. With the sites here we had to decide what way to pull in, we ended up heading in as that gives us the best view out our large door side window, we have a rear kitchen so there is no rear window to look out of, our connections are on the wrong side but it's not a big deal.

After lunch we headed back into Rockport to visit Camper Clinic in search of a valve to take care of an issue we've been having with our black tank gate valve not closing completely, hope this solves the problem. We found the local HEB and while it's a fine store with great stuff it's not as nice as the one in Corpus Christi we love.




Wednesday was bitter cold out, I never got out of my pj's and Dave had to wear two layers of sweat pants to go fishing, crazy man that he is. He fished on and off all day coming home to warm up, though he "says" he had one big enough to keep if he could have landed it.I spent the day inside working on our March and April campgrounds to get us back to VT, our arrival date there is around the 29th of April. If our campground isn't ready we have friends willing to let us park in their drive for a few nights, hope it won't be necessary but nice to have options.

We are headed through LA, MS & AL, then headed up to Lake Park GA to visit friends, our route has private and public (state & COE) campgrounds and in Lake Park our friend is a vet so he's getting us reservations at Grassy Pond which is a military campground.  Afterwards we are heading to Montgomery AL where we will stay at Gunter Hill Park, beyond that it's still up in the air.

Today has turned into a beautiful day, Dave spent the morning fishing catching his daily limit of 5 sheepshead I on the other hand went for an hour long bike ride. After his trip we took a bike ride to see the big tree and view some birds in the field across from it.

Big Oak - over 1000 years old,  what tales it could tell of hurricanes, fires, drought, floods and so much more.

 Oyster boats seen right outside our door.







We met friends from Gulf Waters for a late lunch or early dinner at Pop's Tavern just a few minutes from here. It was so nice of them to come out and meet us, like all of our friends we will miss them and look forward to seeing them again next winter. We already have plans for our first rib bbq, Dec 2nd so if anyone is around then come and join us.

Wednesday's sunset

Dave's off fishing again so no camel pictures :(

Until next time...

Easily Amused

Thursday early afternoon the temps took a tumble so no happy hour, instead the winds kicked up and we were rockin and rollin, this site had us positioned to take the brunt of the winds on the door side where our largest window is. This is where Dave usually sits to do his thing, well his thing that evening was watching the window flex with the gale force winds hitting us broad side. I spent the afternoon watching tv in the bedroom while the wind blew, surprisingly we didn't have to take the bedroom slide in that night, with the wind hitting the other side of the rv it wasn't affecting the slide topper too much.

Friday was a dreary rainy day that we spent inside, our evening though was highlighted with a dinner invite from our friends Jackie and DuWayne. After a wonderful dinner of homemade chicken noodle soup we decided on a game of spades to entertain us for awhile, I am happy to report the women soundly trounced the guys. While walking home we noticed that there was someone staying in the MH that has sat for 5+ years.

Saturday was a beautiful day which was spent sitting in the sun, Dave went fishing for a bit to no avail. Our group was entertained by watching the new owner of the POS MH get some prelim work done on the process of getting it out of the park.

Sunday came and it was another beautiful day, around 9am a truck pulled in, the big rig mechanics were here to get the MH. By 10am we had turned our drive into the cheering section, as the day wore on some progress was made, a slide that hadn't moved in 3 years was in, he fuel was changed out and other such things, but still there were problems. All day long we watched waiting for the big moment, around 5:30pm it was determined new fuel lines were needed, the boss headed to Aransas Pass but with a long wait at the ferry didn't get back till around 7:30 so finishing the project was put off until the next morning.

the hard way to get a slide in

WE ARE EASILY AMUSED, ANYTHING FOR
A REASON TO GATHER

our man in tights with his lovely wife

Monday morning Jackie and I had plans to head to Zumba class, we talked with the mechanics who said it would be a few hours before the POS moved, so off we headed to class. After class on we took a cool down lap around part of the park, as we get to the welcome center we see the POS MH driving out of the park. We joined Dave, DuWayne and some other friends in the blustery winds to watch the mechanics  load the MH onto a trailer for it's travels to Zapata.

And the crowds came back for the finale

The POS MH is out of there

The aftermath

She's off the Gulf Waters Property

The rest of the day was taken up with preparation for our imminent departure on Tuesday, with the temps suppose to drop over night we wanted to get as much done outside as we could. We took one last walk around the park saying goodbye to the many friends we have made here, while we are sad to be leaving most of them will be back next winter and as we all know time does fly so it won't be long till we see them again. Our evening ended with dinner out with some of the closer friends we've made, this wasn't goodbye time though as we are all meeting for another dinner out on Thursday in the Rockport area.

Our Gang

We are now ready for our shortest trip, 35 miles and we'll be to Goose Island Park.

Until next time...

Island Time

We have been kicking back and enjoying ourselves immensely, I don't usually know what day of the week it is just the date and only that because it shows up on the bottom of my screen. Nothing is preplanned here, if it's nice we do happy hour and sometimes a pot luck. Last night we shared ribs we had cooked all day with our group the 6th Street Posse, they turned out great and next year some of the guys are going to get together with Dave and enter the rib cookoff that takes place in Feb. I'm bad because I'm not remembering the camera so sorry there are no pictures.

Dave has finally had a bit of luck fishing.

We only have 5 days left here :( before we head down the road to Goose Island State Park in Rockport where we hope to get a bay side site.

Hope everyone had a good hump day this week too.

Until next time...

Major Decision

We have really enjoyed our stay here at Gulf Waters RV Resort, though the winds do blow a lot the warmer temps are nice. This year though has been colder than normal for the area but still so much better than being in VT. We have become part of the 6th Street Posse, almost every nice afternoon at some ones lot people start gathering, at times there have been upwards of 30 people. The one complaint I have about site 620 is the lack of sunshine reaching most of the lot, because of the layout our rv blocks all of the afternoon sunshine. A few weekends ago we were told our neighbors who were moving across the pond next year were staying in this neighborhood instead, well we decided to change sites too to stay in this neighborhood. The lot owner, Kathy told us though they might sell it and if so we might lose our site for next winter. When we first arrived we briefly entertained the thought of buying a lot but thought it was too soon to make that kind of decision, well we started considering it again. For us this is a great place to position ourselves for summer travels when we are no longer committed to going back to VT. When summers are our own we want to explore the western side of the country, we've done lots of stuff on the east coast so that holds no real appeal to us, someday though we do hope to get back to FL and the keys but for now that is still a few years away.

This an ownership park, if you choose when you are not here you can put your lot into the rental pool, back in sites are highly desirable for the summer rental program. Most of the summer guests are towing their rv not driving a motorhome, so the back in sites stay rented most all summer long. There is a moratorium on building rv parks on the island so no more will be built in this area, there is a water park being built in South Padre Island which will bring in even more weekend and summer families.

So we took the plunge, Kathy & Jay offered us a reasonable price and we will close on lot 623 the end of February.

  We talked with our neighbors DuWayne and Jackie about it, their comment was if we were your age we'd buy one too, after showing them the sites in the neighborhood that were also for sale they've contacted the owner of site 619 and will be closing soon too, they're just waiting for the owner to get the motorhome that has been sitting here for 5 years off of it. That should be quite the production, the gas tank is falling off, everything is rusted from the salt air, wonder if the slide will go in, should make for some entertainment when it happens.

The lots for sale here at reasonable prices tend to sale quickly, seems there is always folks driving through looking at them. If for some reason we would ever decide to sell I doubt it would take very long for it to sell. We will put the lot into the rental program, the income earned should pay for all the quarterly and annual costs.
 




Another plus in this area is my brother owns a rental property in Port Arasnas that he will be moving too in 6 years or so, as soon as his youngest is out of high school. So 42 years after leaving Texas I will be part of the state once again, so once we no longer have ties to VT looks like we'll become Texans.

We still plan on going to the Houston RV show but unless we run into a really great deal doubt we'll be buying any thing for awhile.

Other than that our days have been pretty much the same, riding on the beaches and fishing, happy hour on the nice days and now we have just one week left here :(

Until next time...

Belt Sander Races & Volksmarching With New Friends

Saturday was the start of some much nicer weather, on the second and fourth Saturdays of the month Belt Sander races are held at the Gaff a local bar. A number of us from Gulf Waters headed there to enjoy the festivities, we arrived about an hour before the races started and got some front row seats at the finish line.

The racers and their race track

The winning team Purple Passion and to the right the shirt from last years winning team :)

     


        Artwork at The Gaff

After the races we watched some folks try their hand at Hammerschlagen I didn't try is as my hand and eye coordination is never great. After watching a few rounds we along with two couples headed to Stingrays the bar next door for some appetizers, between the onion rings, nachos and jalepeno poppers we had plenty for all of us to enjoy.



Sunday I headed into Corpus Christi to meet Susan and Bob from Travel Bug and Erin and Mui of Two to Travel's Phaeton Journeys for a 10k Volksmarch. Since Dave isn't able to do that much walking he stayed home and of course the camera was with him. Sue and Erin have both posted about it, if you want to read about our walk here is Susan's and Erin's post of it. A great walk was followed by an enjoyable lunch, thank you ladies it was great meeting you both and your husbands, hope we can do it again sometime. Erin and Mui are in the same park we are so I'm sure we'll cross paths again before we leave here.

Faye, Erin, Mui, Susan & Bob, thanks Erin for the picture

Monday and Tuesday have been beautiful days, Dave has been fishing and I've been riding the bike, then of course there is the afternoon happy hours. We only have two weeks left here, while we haven't done much it seems the days go by quickly and we are still enjoying ourselves. It has been nice to stay in one place for awhile and get to know some great people.

Making Changes

In 2012 when we bought the rv and truck we knew if we liked this lifestyle upgrading would be in our future. Well we love the lifestyle and all the it brings to our lives, a sense of freedom and being in control, to some extent, of our future. Over the years Dave's work has had numerous layoffs which we have thankfully made it through, but we never know when that could change, without the house we would almost welcome a layoff.  We've always known we wanted to travel in our retirement but until our trip home from Key West in February of 2012 we hadn't figured out how we would accomplish that. With the purchase of our first rv and pull truck we have found the direction we want to take our life, we also know the equipment we have needs to be upgraded. We want a little more room in the rv and know our gas truck is at it's limit, we've had long discussions on whether we wanted a motorhome or another 5th wheel. While motor homes are nice we keep coming back to 5th wheels and their variety of floor plans and versatility.

With that decision made I decided to let the fingers do the walking at the local car dealers, last Sunday I came upon a 2012 Chevy 3500 HD DRW with less than 10K in mileage, the price was good if they would give us a decent trade in. Monday we headed to the dealer to take a look. Three hours later we had negotiated a deal we were all happy with so on Tuesday we took our GMC in and left it with them to have our hitch moved over. Friday morning we got the call the Chevy was ready so we headed back to finalize the sale, it was so nice of them to let us put everything on the credit card, we'll get a bunch of money back next month on our cash back card. The truck had never been towed with, one owner who decided it was more truck than he needed, so now we're ready to go anywhere. Just have to figure out what lanes to get into when we get to truck stops-any advice would be appreciated.

We have plans to attend the Houston RV show the first weekend of February, as our friend Mark would say Dave is cringing. Just yesterday was the first time I heard Dave change it from "Faye wants a bigger rv" to "we want a bigger rv", whatever happens there we're ready.

Until next time...

Wednesday

What A Year 2013 Was

For us 2013 has been one of many changes, with many different highlights. After a slow start to the year in the home sale arena, no showings by the realtor,  we listed our home of 20 years for sale by owner in April. On April 30th as we moved the rv to our seasonal site at Maplewoods Campground in Johnson VT we received a phone call to show the house that day. With high hopes of a sale by the end of summer we moved into our rv on May 1st, within days we had an accepted offer on the house. This led to some crazy days in May and June getting ready for late June closing and the beginning of my new job at the campground. As soon as the closing was over Dave asked for and was granted a six month winter leave of absence.

From this

 

to this

Our summer was spent living in our new home, spending time with old friends and making new friends, we also came out of the closet and into the blogging world. By the time the end of September came around we were ready to hit the road.







After visiting a number of state parks in NY, OH and IN we arrived in IL the early part of October. We had a great visit with my folks who also got their home in VT sold this year, it was also great catching up with some local family we hadn't seen in a few years. It was then up to WI to camp with friends we hadn't seen in 18 years, thanks Mark & Nancy for a great time. With cold weather bearing down on us we headed west, a few days of back to back driving found us in KS enjoying one of their beautiful state parks. With cold weather still in the forecast we arrived in Colorado Springs a week earlier than planned, this allowed us to spend Halloween with our son Tom, his girlfriend Krystal and my brother Andy and his family. Again trying to escape the cold weather we headed to NM where we spent a few weeks enjoying some beautiful state parks. It was the onto AZ where we spent a week in Tucson doing a lot of tourist things and enjoying some warm weather. It was then onto Phoenix where we enjoyed Thanksgiving with our son David and his wife Laura.

Wyalusing State Park-WI

      Some of our favorite campsites

Cheyenne Mountain State Park-CO

Elephant Butte State Park-NM

December 7th we were found us in our worst situation we've ever found ourselves in while traveling, you can read about it here. We found some nice TX state parks on our way to the Gulf Coast, from one we made a side trip to San Antonio to visit the riverwalk decked out for the holidays. By middle of December we had finally made it to the Gulf Coast where we found a gem of an rv park, reservations for a longer stay are already made for next winter.

Gulf Waters RV Resort-TX

We have enjoyed being on the road but in some respects wish we didn't have to go back to VT, but it will plump up the coffers and allow us to head out again next winter. If we weren't heading back we could slow down in stay places longer but there is always the sense that we need to be moving - albeit slowly . We've towed the rv almost 5000 miles and it will be almost another 3000 by the time we land in VT the end of April. We are grateful that we have been able to get out VT for the winter and for the first time in many years Dave isn't suffering from SAD, by now I'd have been tiptoeing around and looking forward to his work days.Now he's whistling and enjoying the days even the rainy cooler ones we've had recently.

one of my favorite sunset pictures

Between our travels and the blog we've made lots of new friends this year, we'd like to thank all of you who have found their way to our blog for your friendship and advice.To our friends back in VT we can't wait to see you but please get rid of the cold and snow before 4/29.

What a year is was, can't wait to see what's in store for 2014.

Until next time...