We spent Monday (at Rio Raft RV Resort, aka Guadalupe RV
Resort) getting ready to travel to our final destination: Bay View RV Resort,
Rockport, Texas where we’ll spend the winter. Weather was in the low 70s so it
was a perfect day for the preliminary preparation, like emptying the tanks,
loading the motorcycle, etc. We found we have a problem with the onboard
battery discharging (12 volt lights are dim, and the refrigerator keeps
indicating that we need to do some checking),
so we need to diagnose whether it’s the battery of inverter. Good grief. We
have a battery charger that we’ve connected to keep everything charged until we
figure out what’s what.
Tuesday morning we had everything packed up and were on the
road by a bit before 10:00 a.m. it was a short driving day, only 172 miles to
Rockport, and the weather was mostly cloudy, dry, and about 80 degrees.
Perfect. We arrived at 1:30 p.m., and were set up and operational by 3:00. (We
spent quite a bit of time catching up with the office staff and neighbors, so
we didn’t get set up as quickly as we normally do.)
Our site, #514, is just as we left it last spring with the
exception of green grass and healthier looking live oaks due to the rainfall
they’ve experienced here in Texas. The ponds are full, which brings the
birds—and mosquitos! Oh, my! They’re voracious!
Later that afternoon we had happy hour at friend Lynda’s,
where we met up with 20-25 friends, most of whom are winter Texans like us, and a few new ones, too (John and Dolly from
Missouri). It’s almost like a family reunion with everyone laughing and sharing
stories from the summer. Good times!
We decided that laundry needed to be done, so Wednesday
morning we drove to the Laundromat to tackle that chore, then to Walmart to
pick up a few grocery items. Dick deployed our KING Tailgater satellite dish,
on the roof of our 5th wheel. We picked up all 3 satellites with
really strong signals. Yippee!
We took an afternoon walk along Fulton Beach Road, for about
45 minutes. Didn’t see many birds, only a few herons and pelicans.
That evening was happy hour at the club house, followed by
our first dinner of the year prepared by Chef Betty. She served chicken Cordon
Bleu, broccoli, rice pilaf, freshly baked rolls, and for dessert: our choice of
Dutch apple or cherry pie. YUM-YUM! All for $7.00 per person. Can’t beat that!
On Thursday our friends Karen and Steve arrived from
Wisconsin. Actually, they had been in the area for about a week, staying in a
motel until their “new to them” 5th wheel arrived. They had been in
an accident, in Illinois, on their way down that totaled their travel trailer;
thankfully, they weren’t hurt, nor were their 2 dogs, and they were able to
salvage almost all their belongings from the trailer. Knowing how tired they
would be, and how sick of restaurant food they were, I fixed dinner for them:
mac & cheese with kielbasa, salad, and rolls. Pure comfort food. They were
so appreciative, and it did our hearts good, too. Here's a photo of their new "home."
That evening we played our first Pegs and Jokers games of
the season. Three couples played that evening, men against the women. Not good
for the ladies. We lost to the guys 3:0. Oh, they were so proud of themselves.
Huh…we just hadn’t gotten warmed up yet! And, as I told the guys, we don’t get
mad—we get even!
Friday morning I tackled the camper windows, both outside
and inside. Whew! Climbing up and down the ladder, washing, wiping dry, and
applying a rain resistant coating took about 1½ hours. So glad that’s done. We
can see out again! While I did that Dick took the black truck for an oil
change, and stopped for a few items from Walmart. When he returned he walked along the water and got these photos of egrets and pelicans.
That afternoon was another happy hour at the club house,
with live music performed by park friends Steve and Tom: vocals and 2 guitars.
Good times, good music, good friends.
Girls day out was on the calendar for Saturday morning, as
Karen, Marty, Pam and I headed to Aransas Pass for “Christmas By The Bay” at
the Convention Center. It was pretty disappointing, as there weren’t as many
vendors as last year, and the selections weren’t as good as I remembered. We
had a good time anyway, and made just a few purchases. Our next stop was to the
water and Redfish Willie’s for lunch, where we noshed on fish tacos, a Philly
steak sandwich, an oyster poor boy, and a hamburger. Good food, but a bit on
the pricey side. From there we drove back to Rockport, to Castaways (similar to Goodwill). Then to Old Town Rockport to a used book store and a couple of
eclectic stores (so eclectic that we don’t really know what kind of stores they
are…ha!).
Saturday afternoon we took Gary and Pam (full-timers from
Oregon here for the winter) to the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, the winter
home of the magnificent Whooping Cranes and all manner of other wildlife. We
saw no Whoopers (probably too early) but found a large gator, turtles, deer,
and other shore birds including: egrets, spoonbills, herons, a couple ibis, turkey
vultures, cormorants to name a few.
On the way back to the park we stopped at a local place,
Pop’s, for a burger. We arrived at about 6:45 p.m., sat down and ordered our
dinners within about 10 minutes. We didn’t get served until 8:00 p.m.! We
decided we would not go back, even
though other friends rave about that place.
Sunday morning we attended First Baptist Church of Rockport.
The youth pastor, Jordan Mims, continued his sermon series from the book of
Hebrews, chapters 11 and 12, on “running the race.” It was good to be back
among friends there, too.
After lunch at home, and the ice cream social at the club
house, the ladies took on the men again, for another few rounds of Pegs &
Jokers. Remember how I said we would get even? Well, the gals took 2 of the 3
games that afternoon. We’re just getting started…
Dick took a 40 minute walk along Fulton Beach Road
afterwards (most likely to cool off from their loss…ha!), while I fixed dinner:
pork chops, baked sweet potatoes, Waldorf salad. Good stuff! He saw this guy on his walk.
That’s it for this week. We’re happy to be “back home” in
Rockport for the winter. More friends will continue to join us over the next
couple of months, or so. Stay tuned!
Hugs,
RJ and Gail
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