Our TX Winter

December 25-February 14, 2023

We hope everyone has had a good start to 2023. We've enjoyed our time here on the TX Gulf Coast. Between family and friends, the time has gone by quickly and now it's time to head toward TN, but before we do I just want to catch up on our doings of the last couple of months. 

We have received many inquiries on our lot, we even had an offer but it was way too little. It will go back into the rental pool when we leave, hopefully, in the near future we will get an acceptable offer. If we don't we'll probably be back next winter for a few months. As of this writing, we have not heard of any work starting on our TN property. We've had a difficult time with communication from our contractor, we think he took too much work on but he has assured us he'll have it ready (crete pad and utilities) before we get there on 3/1, we do have backup plans just in case he doesn't. 

In January our friends Paul and Cindy came to visit Port Aransas, they stayed in another local park. We first met them when they were workamping here at our park, Gulf Waters, back in 214-2015. We've caught up with them a number of times in our travels, always a fun time.  We enjoyed a few meals together, we taught them Dave's game and they taught us a new game, Pegs and Jokers. 

Almost weekly we've caught up with our friends Vic and Phyllis, between fishing, a touristy outing, and card playing we've had some good times with them. We'll see them when we get back to IL since we are in the same campground all summer. 

Our weekly visits with my brother and sister-in-law have been fun, I haven't spent this much time with my brother since we were kids. We're all going to miss our Tuesday evenings of cards. We'll see them again this summer when they stop in to visit our folks.

Christmas Eve with my brother and family

Andy & Kati

Gulf Waters has a different feel to it this year, it could be due to so many of our friends not being here this winter, some of them now own homes in the area. Between medical issues and parents needing care some of our friends did not make it down. Our friends Denny and Joyce did though, at least for a while, they were our neighbors the first winter we were here and we have remained good friends since. Mid-January Denny wasn't feeling good and ended up in the hospital, we were called upon to do doggy daycare for their sweet lab Ellie. As it turns out Denny has cancer and they have returned to PA, with the help of friends that came and drove their trailer back to PA while they flew back. We wish Denny all the best and hope this is just a bump in the road. 

During our only happy hour, Dave served oysters
our friend Denny before he ended up in the hospital

Sweet Ellie

Paula & Steve-former Gulf Waters owners
who now own a house here in Port Aransas

Fishing hasn't been too good this winter, but Dave got out many days to try. He's turned into the go-to guy for those new to surf fishing in our resort. It seems his name comes up whenever anyone is talking about surf fishing and needing advice. Since this year could be his last for a while he has been piecing together his equipment instead of buying anything new.

We did get some spectacular sunrises and a beautiful moonrise.

Until next time...

Changes Coming, Friends & Enjoying the Holidays

 November 25-December 24, 2022

We have been enjoying a slow life down here on the TX Gulf Coast. Dave has been getting some fishing in, but the fish aren’t cooperating too much. I’ve been enjoying the alone time I get while Dave is fishing.

We’ve stocked up on shrimp since the Peggy Ann Shrimp boat won’t be going out again until February.

Friends have stopped in to say hi as they travel through the area. We last saw Joe and Brenda in IL last summer. They were staying down the road, Joe and Dave spent a day fishing while Brenda and I cheered them on.

We hadn’t seen Jan and Brandt since 2017 when we were in IN for a Grand Design national rally. They were visiting the area so we enjoyed a few hours of catching up in person.

We are enjoying our weekly get-togethers with my brother and his wife. It’s been fun teaching them our favorite card game...Dave’s game.

We see our friends Vic and Phyllis almost weekly, card playing and dinners, the same things we do when we’re all at Bo Woods on Lake Shelbyville.

After 3 holiday seasons of Charlie Brown trees and no decorating, we’re now enjoying our Christmas decorations. The home is decorated, the yard is all lit up and all the cookies have been made. I enjoyed wrapping the gifts a few weeks ago in anticipation of mailing them out, they've all reached their destinations thankfully. 

                            

Mr Picinicker in the Christmas lights

So nice to see my favorite ornaments again.

This one hung on our Christmas tree
when I was growing up

The lengths my Dad went to, to
find this one when the original broke.
He had quite a quest for years.

These two are from a favorite 

customer from my banking days

Some big changes are coming up. A few weeks ago we put our RV lot here at Gulf Waters Beachfront RV Resort up for sale. The area has grown way too much for us, once we had found our TN property we knew we’d be selling. It is bittersweet but for us it’s time, the river is calling and we’re looking forward to developing our property. We have had a handful of inquiries but no offer to date, at this time ours is the only lot for sale. 

Our son Tom and Kanik, his long-time girlfriend, are engaged, he said yes when she asked him. We look forward to Kanik being an official part of the family. 

We have survived the bomb cyclone, temps got down to 22 and we stayed below freezing for over 24 hours, we shall see how the plants have fared in a few days, some we know will not make it. 

We will spend Christmas Eve with my brother and his family, we haven't shared the holidays together since 1988. Christmas day we will be on our own but we've got a prime rib ready to roast so we'll be eating well. 

From my Dad

Until next time...

Merry Christmas!!!

Colorado to Texas-Not Quite The Trip We Had Planned

 September 24-November 24, 2022

Ona Saturday our 299-mile ride found us pulling into Cheyenne Mountain State Park for a two-week stay. Our ride had been great until we hit the Colorado border, from there it was a bumpy ride all the way into Colorado Springs. We had to do some rerouting as our normal route had long delays due to an aviation gathering at the airfield which was causing long delays.

Site 54

As we set up we realized we needed a welder, one of our slide brackets had broken. Later that day we found a welder willing to come out to the park, he would be out later in the week.

It turns out our son was currently sick so we were left to our own devices for the next few days. Before too many days though our friends Marv & Alice were pulling into the site next to us. We first met them when we volunteered at Cave Creek Regional Park in Phoenix AZ back in 2015. We’ve seen them in AZ in years passed but no matter how hard we’ve tried catching up in CO had never happened. They live outside of Denver but have never been to Cheyenne Mountain. We enjoyed a few days with them, sightseeing and catching up.

We decided to take a foliage ride to Bishops Castle, Marv and Alice used to camp in the area with their kids but hadn't been up here in 25 years. As we traveled along we stumbled onto the campground they used to come to.  Great place for tent camping but you'd never get our rig into Ophir Campground. 

Bishop's Castle

We had a great time catching up with Alice and Marv and hope we can do it again before too long. 

We finally saw Tom and Kanik on Sunday, and we enjoyed an afternoon of learning a new game, Merchants of Venus.

On Wednesday Tom came for a car ride with us in a futile attempt to find some fall foliage. We enjoyed our time out with him and his furson Alvin.

Thursday morning I woke to a sore throat, I guess Tom wasn’t over his viral infection. Our plans for a day of game-playing with Tom and Kanik came to an end.

Saturday was our move day and I’m glad we didn’t have far to move so we could take our time getting ready as I was progressively going downhill and feeling worse as the days went by. Our ride was only 50 miles to Lake Pueblo State Park where we had reservations for 5 nights. Our new weld had broke so since we weren't that far away the welder came to us, Dave talked to him about what he wanted to be done, and to date, the new weld has lasted. 

Arkansas Point Site 17 electric only

By Tuesday I had shared my sickness with Dave. So our first visit to Lake Pueblo was a bust, we managed to walk around the campground. We did have to go to the grocery store as we were running low on medicine. Tom did come down for a quick visit to say goodbye, so bummed we didn’t get to see him very much but alas that’s just the way things worked out.

Thursday was our next move day, thankfully Dave was still okay to drive but the 95-mile ride to Trinidad Lake State Park took a lot out of both of us. We had a week planned in one of the few full hookup sites they have. By the time we got set up, we were both done for, over the next week we both fought our viral infection, and we managed a few walks around our loop but that’s about it.

Site 6 FHU

Thursday was move day again and we were supposed to head to Amarillo TX that day but we both knew neither one of us was up for that. So instead we moved to another site, which was a water and electric site. By the time we got set back up, we were exhausted. The next day I did manage to get to Walmart as we were once again in need of a few things.

Site 32 electric only

With strong winds and storms predicted for Sunday on Saturday, we made the push to Amarillo TX, where we ended up at the Amarillo KOA Journey. We managed the 246-mile ride, once again on state highways which we find we’re liking more and more these days. Not at all impressed but it would do for 3 nights while the crazy weather went through and we rested some more.

Tuesday we felt up to moving on so off to Lake Arrowhead State Park near Wichita Falls was our next stop, only 236 miles again on state highways. We had a fabulous site, most are, with water and electric. Just what we needed after the yucky KOA we had just left. While we didn’t get out and about like we hoped we did enjoy walking around the campground and one of the trails, finally starting to feel a bit better but we don’t have much strength.

Site 28 water & electric

Thursday we moved again, 210 miles found us at Cooper Lake State Park-South Sulphur Unit near Sulphur Springs TX. We settled in for 5 nights. A very nice park just wish we were up for walking the trails, but we did get out when it wasn’t raining and walked around our campground area. We did manage to get out for our first meal out in about a month. 

Site 31 water and electric

Tuesday we moved 76 miles down the road to Purtis Creek State Park near Eustace TX where we only stayed 2 nights, we had planned 3 but with more rain on the way, we wanted to travel on a nicer day. 

Site 43 water and electic

A 238-mile ride on Thursday found us pulling into Spring Creek Park in Tomball TX a day early. Since we were early our first night was in site 5 then the next morning moving into Site 4 when the occupants left. The trees have bushed out up top since we started coming here, next time we’ll try for sites 7 or 8 for easier satellite reception. Once we were settled we headed over to Dave’s Uncle Ray’s home.

Site 4

We enjoyed our time with Uncle Ray and Aunt Beth, teaching them Dave’s game and crazy UNO, going to some great restaurants, enjoying the local farmers market, and walking around Old Town Spring.  

With more rain in the future forecast, we opted to head on into our winter home, we were still recovering from our viral infection and ready to be done traveling. Of course, our 238-mile ride wasn’t uneventful, in East Barnard TX we found a place to pull over. Our tire pressure monitor indicated we had a tire losing air so we found a place where we could pull off and change it, 15 minutes later we were back on the road.

Without further problems, we pulled into Gulf Waters Beachfront RV Resort in Port Aransas TX where we’ll be until at least mid-February.     

Site 623

 

         

To date, Dave has only gotten a few days of fishing in, and the weather has turned cold and rainy. We are slowly getting back in our groove, walking a couple of miles a day when the weather permits and both of us are feeling better every day. Our friends Vic and Phyllis have arrived at a nearby park and we're already getting our card games going again.     

Today is Thanksgiving and we are looking forward to it, and not have to sell Christmas trees today. The turkey is in the oven, the sides are all made and our friend Pat, Dave’s fishing buddy, is coming over to join us. We’re grateful for our family and friends near and far, the lifestyle we love and so much more. We hope you all have a wonderful holiday.

                                                    HAPPY THANKSGIVING      

  Until next time...