Final Days in Port A

March 17th was my last working day, freed to enjoy the last few weeks we had left of our stay at Gulf Waters. Since then we've played tourist, partied with friends, had family visit the area and generally enjoyed ourselves. Thankfully the weather has turned much nicer for the most part.

All along we've been saying we were going to visit the USS Lexington in Corpus Christi, well the day finally arrived. One a beautiful sunny day we along with our friends Paul & Cindy, who are workampers here, finally headed to Corpus Christi to visit the Lady Lex. Our friend Al from  Live Laugh RV served on the USS Lexington and you can read about their experience.

The history of the USS Lexington CV-16 according to Wikepdia:

USS Lexington (CV/CVA/CVS/CVT/AVT-16), nicknamed "The Blue Ghost", is an Essex-class aircraft carrier built during World War II for the United States Navy. Originally intended to be named Cabot, word arrived during construction that the USS Lexington (CV-2) had been lost in the Battle of the Coral Sea. She was renamed while under construction to commemorate the earlier ship.[4] She was the fifth US Navy ship to bear the name in honor of the Revolutionary War Battle of Lexington.

Lexington was commissioned in February 1943 and saw extensive service through the Pacific War. For much of her service, she acted as the flagship for Admiral Marc Mitscher, and led the Fast Carrier Task Force through their battles across the Pacific. She was the recipient of 11 battle stars and the Presidential Unit Citation. Following the war, Lexington was decommissioned, but was modernized and reactivated in the early 1950s, being reclassified as an attack carrier (CVA). Later, she was reclassified as an anti-submarine carrier (CVS). In her second career, she operated both in the Atlantic/Mediterranean and the Pacific, but spent most of her time, nearly 30 years, on the east coast as a training carrier (CVT).

Lexington was decommissioned in 1991, with an active service life longer than any other Essex-class ship. Following her decommissioning, she was donated for use as a museum ship in Corpus Christi, Texas. In 2003, Lexington was designated a National Historic Landmark. Though her surviving sister ships Yorktown, Intrepid, and Hornet carry lower hull numbers, Lexington was laid down and commissioned earlier, making Lexington the oldest remaining aircraft carrier in the world.

On the second Saturday of the month Goliad TX has their market day; along with good friends Dennis and Bev we headed over to check it out. Dave and I had lucked into their December market back in 2013 so knew the town square would be full of vendors.

 Lots of vendors with some great food and treats

A very talented wood worker doing, intricate inlays and he made the smaller lazy susans for RV'ers. If I could have figured out a place I'd use them I would have bought one.

The town of Goliad is infamous for it's hanging tree which is in the town square.

Curt and Glenda from Camp Lowry:That's How We Roll stopped in for an afternoon visit. I guess our camera was on vacation as I have no pictures but check out the blog Curt writes and you'll get their take on the afternoon. We first met them in IL last fall, a short visit and new friendship was made. When I heard they were going to be nearby I invited them to come for a visit. We took them for a tour of our wintering grounds, then on a borrowed beach buggy we took them for a ride into Port Aransas. Of course spring break was going on so you can only imagine the sites we saw. A nice meal at Fins with great conversation made for an enjoyable time. It started misting when we got out of lunch so the ride home was a little wet. Plans are made for a meetup in IL, we both will be at Bo Woods in Sullivan at the same time and I imagine the smoker will make an appearance.

We got up early one morning to see Chevron's giant oil platform Bigfoot head out to deep water. My father spent part of his career working for Chevron so know he'll appreciate the picture.

Dave got some last minute fishing in and scored some big fish for one last fish fry.

We've shared some good meals out of Dave's Cajun Injector smoker, pulled pork and brisket were on the menu these past few weeks. Knowing our time with our good friends was winding down made them all the more special.

 Good Friends & Family

Great Times

Lots of Great Memories

Our last week at Gulf Waters Beachfront RV Resort coincided with my brother Andy and his families visit to their vacation home in Port Aransas. While he was here I got the opportunity to take a short sunset cruise with them on their sailboat.

I know this blog is quite long but wanted to get caught up for myself and our friend DuWayne who depends on me journal our doings at Gulf Waters.

To all of our friends at Gulf Waters; we'll  miss you and look forward to when our paths cross again.

 After a rough take off day yesterday, but that's a story for another day,  we are now on the road heading slowly east and northward. We're in Galveston for a few days then headed to Abbeville LA and to Betty's.

Until next time...

A Month at Gulf Waters

Oh where oh where did February go. The month did start about the same as January ended, exercise class and beach walks. By the middle of the month changes were happening though.

But first early on in the month we had visitors from San Antonio, Susan and Bob from the blog Travel Bug were in town for part of the day. You can follow the link to Susan's post about our morning walking around Port Aransas. We had a great time walking and we got to see a a few new places. We stopped at the  Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Center to see what we could see; birds, ducks, nutria and gators. Thanks Susan and Bob for taking the time to stop by for a visit, we had a great time walking with you, see you down the road.

 At Avery's Kitchen this sand sculpture is always a work in progress.

We've still been eating good down here, seems there is lots of great cooks in the park. Just a few of our recent contributions.

A party was held for the Daytona 500, opening day of Nascar season. Well some of these folks down here know how to hold a party.

 Feeling no pain by the end of the race.

The boys rubbing ribs

The park held a rib cookoff recently, Dave just forgot to take pictures of the ribs. He has lots of shots of folks from the park but none of the ribs. While the judges didn't choose our entry as the winner the peoples choice went to our team.

The 4 D team, Dave, DuWayne, Dick & Dennis with their better halves :)

When we first arrived here I purchased a kite, for one reason or another it was still hadn't been used. Well all that changed the other day.

In other news our resort here had to let go the current management, that being said the two workamper couples were being over worked. I sent our resume to the board of directors and soon found myself working. Campground Master is now on my resume. I've been working 4 days a week for the last few weeks, learning the reservation system and helping out in the rental office. So while I miss the happy hours I'm not missing the calories from all of the good food that accompanies them. My days off have been cold and rainy so the walking has been curtailed too, no more 10k steps a day. I've been working three weeks and looks like they will keep me on till we head out at the end of the month.

We have decided to head to AZ next winter and to rent out our site here at Gulf Waters. That being said we recently joined Workamper News. After getting our resume done on their site we kept an eye on job openings. We received an inquiry from the decor team for Cal-Am Resorts, after a few emails and a phone interview we have decided to join their team. We will be helping get decorations back and forth to and from the various Cal-Am resorts in the greater Phoenix area. We will be staying at Val Vista Villages next winter in Mesa AZ, we've never stayed in such a large resort so this will be a new experience for us. Our son and daughter in law live in Surprise AZ about an hour away, will be so nice to see a bit of them over the winter. We also have friends from the blogging world that call the Phoenix area home in the winter, some of our winter Texan friends are heading that way too.

March 30th the jacks go up and the wheels roll, heading to Galveston State Park as our first stop. 

Until next time...