Road Tripping to Corpus Christi

Mark has been doing a lot of chaffeuring during our stay in South Texas. Denisa's Mother, Betty, is finding that fewer and fewer of her friends are driving--especially after dark and on the expressway--as they are getting close to their 90th birthdays. So Mark has been driving to evening concerts, and shopping, and eating excursions that are further away. Before we left her park in Mission, Texas, Betty was interested in an overnight road trip. She wanted to go to Corpus Christi, so we headed north for the three-hour trip.

This is where Denisa's family came for spring break trips to the beach when she was a child. We arrived at North Padre Island, and went straight to the National Seashore visitor center. The beach was basically deserted on this cloudy morning.

Aside from the group of junior ROTC students from an area school doing beach clean-up, we had the North Padre National Seashore to ourselves. 

Of course, there were a few locals at the beach. That would include this cormorant, scouring the shallow water for breakfast.

A less welcome local resident is this man-of-war jellyfish. Even though the beautiful color is interesting, we knew to stand clear of those long blue tentacles, that punch a powerful sting.

A large flock of pelicans flew overhead on this protected portion of Padre Island.

We were surprised to see that we could drive the car on the beach even on the national seashore portion of the island. It was odd to see a speed limit sign on the beach. Denisa and Mark enjoy walking for miles on a sandy beach, but Betty does not. She thought the "beach-combing" from the car was the best beach experience ever.

This line of posts separate the public beach from the protected national seashore.

We visited the displays at the visitor center, especially interested with the efforts to protect the sea turtles that come to shore here to lay eggs. Betty volunteered for this picture at the visitor center. We're not sure if we've seen a park ranger with bright pink nail polish before.

We continued north over the bridge and onto Mustang Island, until we arrived in Port Aransas. This area was hit hard by Hurricane Harvey, and we were interested to see its recovery. That storm came ashore on August 25, 2017, and there are still homes that look like it was just last week.

We saw that some buildings had messages spray-painted on them. We read, "Hazardous Chemicals--Keep Out" and "Harvey Won't Stop Us" amid the broken glass and missing roofs.

Even though there were lots of brand new roofs, many buildings still had blue tarps stretched over them with more messages. There was a menacing "Keep Out" right beside, "We will Heal."

The economic impact of the storm lives on, as we saw many businesses destroyed and still closed six months later. This large souvenir shop has been completely gutted, but it looks like it will return. We tried to help the economic recovery, as we ate a delicious sea food lunch before we left the island.

With all the destruction we see in-land, it's nice to see that the beaches look good. Here in Port Aransas, RVs can camp right on the beach if they have the proper permit.

The only way to continue north is on the car ferry that connects Port Aransas with the town of Aransas Pass.

The wait for the ferry can be long during peak season, but it was less than ten minutes for us this day. We were on the water for the short ride, with a front row seat of one of the drilling rigs that dot the shore.

We could also get a wide-angle view of Port Aransas, that looks healthy and untouched from this distance.

It's a five-minute ferry ride to the other side, where the sea-gull welcoming committee brought us back to the mainland and the town of Aransas Pass. 

With less tourism, we have to say that this tiny town looks sadder than the port. It looks like many businesses here will never return. We continued north to Rockport, Texas, where entire blocks were bulldozed after the destruction of Hurricane Harvey decimated the buildings. Even with the destruction, some of the most celebrated visitors continue to return to this area. We drove Betty to see these visitors.

The picture above looks like a tranquil pasture, with a few cattle grazing close to the pond. But look closer at those white dots in the background.

Those are the famous whooping cranes that continue to come back to their winter home here in South Texas. To give some scale to the these massive birds, there are a few coots in the picture as well. The average whooper grows to be more than five-feet tall, but some are seven-feet.

They are joined by some more common brown sand hill cranes. But it's the solid white birds that are the rare and endangered whoopers that we have come to see. In the 1940's, only 21 birds were living in the wild. That makes it one of the rarest, as well as the largest bird in North America. We are not alone in seeing this spectacle, as there is a line of cars on this country road. All the others have binoculars and long telephoto lenses to get a better view of this rare sight.

The whooping cranes aren't actually solid white. They have red on their heads, and when they start flapping, we see the black feathers  on the tips of those eight-foot wings. We are happy to report that this is a record-breaking year, with 431 cranes migrating to Texas. Another record was broken with 63 new chicks that made their first 2,500 mile journey from Canada to Texas this year.

It felt like we were on a pristine country road. But right beside the road was another pile of hurricane debris, still waiting to be cleaned up.

After that rare viewing of endangered birds, we travel just a mile to another rare sight. This is the Texas Champion Live Oak tree. Locals call it simply, "The Giant Tree." It is 11 feet across the trunk and 89 feet across the crown.

At over 1,000 years old, this giant has seen a lot of history unfold in front of it. But like many other senior citizens, it needs a little crutch to keep some of its limbs upright.

We've seen a lot on this road trip day, but we have one more stop. We found out that the local Oyster Festival is this weekend in nearby Fulton, Texas. We stood in a line two blocks long to get into the festival grounds. Locals that knew it would be shoulder-to-shoulder crowded on Saturday, have opted for the less-busy Friday evening festivities. It certainly didn't look like a small crowd to us in the massive tents that were set up along the coast.

Of course the star of the show are the oysters. We'll miss the Saturday events like the parade, and the oyster shucking and eating contests. But we can still experience some oyster eating on Friday night. The local firemen are manning the very popular booth serving all things fried--oyster, shrimp, and potatoes. Mark has made his way to the front of the line to purchase a sampler for the three of us to share.

We have to say that these friend oysters were tastier than the ones we tried on the west coast last summer.

Real oyster-lovers were standing in line at the fresh oyster stand. Here the shuckers were opening the shells to these "tasty" nuggets.

People were carrying these out by the dozens. A little too slimy for our taste, we didn't have the courage to taste them.

There was a local television station filming a segment about the festival right in front of the fresh oyster stand.

Mark was photo-bombing the telecast, hoping to make it on the local news as an interested oyster-eater. 

In addition to eating, we enjoyed the live music and walked through the arts and crafts. It was another fun festival to add to our long list of local favorites! Whew! This has been a full day and we've already had a good road trip. But we spent the night in Corpus Christi, as we have more things to see here!

A Long Trip for a 90th Birthday Party

We are still living at the very southern tip of Texas, basking in the warm temperatures as we hear of nor'easterner winter storms slamming another part of the country. But we made a very long trip to the Panhandle of Oklahoma this past weekend for Mark's Mother's 90th birthday. It was almost 90 degrees when we left our campground that afternoon. Less than 100 miles down the road, the temperature had dropped 50 degrees. We felt a little silly in our shorts and short-sleeved shirts as the temperatures dipped into the 40s. We made the 4.5-hour trip to San Antonio, to spend the night at Mark's brother and sister-in-law's house. We were glad to break up our journey into two days.

We were up early the next morning, even though we were getting winter weather reports in the area just north of us. We were supposed to drive through Abilene, Texas, in a couple hours. Our niece living there reported it was "pure ice" and sent pictures of her house shrouded in ice and snow.

Sure enough, the further we drove, the icier it got. We got reports of the icy conditions that had closed down the schools and businesses all around us. It seemed silly to continue when the reports were of even worse road conditions as we would continue north. Mark was in the front seat, but he's not as dedicated to taking pictures out the front wind shield as Denisa. He took just a few pictures of the ice on the plants beside the road before we got to the worst of the roads.

If Denisa would have been in the front seat, she would have caught the ice covering the fences and the ruts in the highway were the ice was forming. After 1.5 hours on the wet roads, we decided it was too dangerous to continue and we had to turn back to try this journey the next day. With temperatures dropping, that water on the road was becoming more icy. But when we called to report this news to Mark's Mother, she sounded so disappointed! So we continued north into the worst of the ice storm.

This made the 12-hour trip to Beaver, Oklahoma, even longer. But we made it through the rain and snow and sleet . . . just like the mail man. We were all stiff from a long day in the car when we arrived. We were joined by all of Mark's siblings and their spouses, six different grandchildren and their spouses, and a slew of great grandchildren. We were all there to honor the 90th birthday of a special woman.

We stayed for three days in the panhandle of Oklahoma, enjoying family time. We were glad that our son Blake and his fiance, Claire, also made a long trip for the birthday party. We all were there to honor the special accomplishment of turning nine decades old. Mark's Father will turn 92 in August, so we recognize that every birthday is monumental. We didn't get a picture of the two of them together this trip. After three days, we turned the vehicle back to the south for another very long trip back to south Texas. We read that this large state of Texas is 801 miles from north to south, and we got to experience each one of those miles. It was a 25-hour round trip in the car before we made it back to the motor home! But we only get to celebrate a monumental birthday like that once. Happy 90th Birthday to one of our most loved blog followers!

"Working" while we're Playing

We've been doing a lot of "playing" this winter, as we sit out the cold winter weather that the north is experiencing. We could report that Denisa is "working" to make glass jewelry, or that she is "working" on perfecting new line dances. We could even stretch it to say we are "working" to learn Spanish or "working" to improve our pickleball skills. But who are we kidding? All that is really play time.

But we do have a couple projects that do have some resemblance of work. Mark washed the motor home and put two layers of wax to protect the roof. That was work, and he has the blister on his knee to prove it. We've raked the leaves at Denisa's Mother's place, and mowed her lawn a couple times. That sounds like work.

But the biggest project of the winter has to be transferring all of our old video tapes onto a computer hard drive. For over three years we have been carrying around three old video cameras, a VHS tape player and several boxes of old video tapes. The memories captured on these old tapes are getting more fragile and the technology more outdated. We have VHS tapes, 8mm tapes, and mini-DV tapes. It was one of those projects we didn't have time for while we were working. We obviously haven't had time for it since we were retired either.

Mark has spent many hours right in this spot, monitoring the video as he saves it to the computer. Denisa doesn't even pretend to understand the technology that needs to happen to change that old VHS tape to digital media. In the picture below, Mark is watching the screen of the 8mm camera as the image goes to the newer compact camera--which transforms the analog video into digital--where it is then stored on the computer. (Denisa just typed all that as Mark tried to explain it to her.)

The good news is that now we can get rid of two video cameras, a heavy VHS player, and two boxes of tapes. We've been carrying them around in the motor home since we've been on the road, thinking we would have lots of time on our hands to do this job when we retired. Now Denisa is wondering what she can buy to put into that precious space that just opened up in the motor home.

We have also been working on projects at Denisa's Mother's house. We measured, shopped for, and then hung new drapes in her living room. We changed out all her light bulbs to more efficient LED lights. Mark installed roll-out shelves to make her kitchen cabinet space more efficient. We've worked on "honey-do" projects all around her house. She also volunteered Denisa to help host the monthly red hat luncheon at the park. That included decorating the tables for the meal. (We know you are wondering what that thing on Denisa's head is. We don't have room in the motor home for a red hat, so her Mother let her borrow one of hers.)

But most of the work for the luncheon was preparing for the entertainment. We played a version of "name that tune" with old love songs, since we were also celebrating Valentine's Day. Denisa gave the red hatters hints by reading the words to the first verse of a song, or playing the music of the less-familiar verse. Then the women could yell out the title as soon as they recognized it. For the song, "Let Me Call You Sweetheart" Denisa's Mother played the teapot too. On all the songs, the red hat women joined in to sing the more familiar chorus, and everyone seemed to enjoy the show.

Denisa also has a 92-year-old aunt that spends her winters here in Mission, Texas. We've been working on projects at her place too. Because she often gets confused on what day it is, Mark found this new clock for her. It's nice to be able to see the day of the week, as well as the day of the month. We're thinking we need one of these for us too.

Writing about all these work projects is certainly exhausting. But we have had the opportunity to do a little relaxing too. Mark snapped this picture of Denisa doing a little napping under the orange trees right beside our motor home.

We've even had a little time to stop and smell the roses. This bloom was on Denisa's Mother's rose bush before we brought it inside to enjoy it among the grapefruit on our counter.

We're guessing that even with all these work projects, we're not getting any sympathy from our friends still holding down real jobs. To tell you the truth, we don't deserve any sympathy.

It's tiring being retired! Our weekly schedule is proof!

We are still enjoying our time at Bentsen Grove Resort in Mission, Texas. We are into our second month here, and we're beginning to get into a schedule. On Monday, Denisa heads to line dance class in the morning. It's great exercise, as she can get her 10,000 steps in a three-hour line dance class.

We've been blessed with great teachers, who have an amazing number of dances memorized and at the tips of their toes! They have danced over 70 different dances in class this season. It's amazing that they know so many! A past teacher (pictured below in the jean jacket) is 87-year-old Marie. She's proof that line dancing keeps you young! We've been missing her in class because she is battling breast cancer right now.

Marie was leaving the park this week to head home to start chemotherapy, so we organized a flash dance in her honor. Just down the street, we were plotting our strategy to enter the dance from four different directions at the appropriate time. Our leaders found that organizing line dancers is a little like herding cats.

But we all made it to the right location, coming in to the dance at different times to give it the flash dance feeling. We were wearing different shades of pink and dancing to "Mama Maria" in honor and support of Marie's battle with breast cancer. She plans to be back next fall to continue dancing here at Bentsen Grove.

Whew! That story was a bit of a detour from the description of our weekly activities. On Monday, Denisa finishes line dance just in time for a little snack before heading off to Spanish class with Mark. We are learning key Spanish phrases and words, and our teacher hosted a pot luck fiesta this week. That's another example of great volunteer leaders here at Bentsen Grove Resort. Monday night is bingo night. But after 4 straight win-less evenings, Denisa has turned in her bingo dauber to go to card-making class for the evening.

Tuesday has the least scheduled activities. So it's a good day to catch some time in the pool at swim-nastics for a good workout without even sweating. Then it's time to head to the pickleball courts for some real exercise. Even in the new air-conditioned in-door courts, we are sweating.

We were here for the grand opening of this new facility. We've found that pickleball is a great sports for all ages. The ribbon-cutters in the picture below are Max and Clara--two of our favorite players. This year they are celebrating 90th birthdays, as well as their 70th wedding anniversary--and they are still very good pickleball players. Again, evidence that exercise keeps you young.

Wednesday brings intermediate line dancing, and Denisa works up a sweat in this fast-paced class. But she loves this aerobic exercise with fancy footwork to cool music. It's good exercise for the body and the mind trying to remember all the complicated steps. She then goes directly to card-making class, which is like "crafts on steroids." The group has all the stamps, die-cuts, and punches, and leaders that patiently show newbies how to use them. Below is a picture of some of the cards Denisa has made this winter.

Thursday has more line dancing, lunch at the rec hall, and more pickleball. That's followed with an evening in glass class. Denisa has tried different fused glass techniques--again guided by great volunteers that enjoy teaching newbies. We have access to the glass cutting tools and kilns that a professional shop would have. One of the easiest is the melted glass earrings pictured below. It looks like Denisa is trying to get a pair in every color.

Friday has fewer activities, so it's a great day for zumba and some more pickleball. But we have to be sure to make it to the produce truck that sells local fruits and vegetables right inside the resort. There might be time for more ball after stocking up on groceries for the week. But we can't wear out our legs on pickleball, because there is a dance every Friday evening. We love to two-step, but we are learning new couple's dances this year. It's also fun to visit with the many other dancers that look forward to this form of exercise as much as we do.

Saturday morning has breakfast and a park-wide activity, followed by lunch. We've found a festival most weekends to fill the rest of the day. 

Church services and bible study start off our Sunday, with over 200 people gathering in the rec hall. We usually finish the day with ice cream sundaes. Volunteers dip ice cream every evening, but we get toppings too for our sundaes on Sunday.

We are enjoying fun activities throughout the week here, and we don't even have to leave the park! We hate to complain, but it's hard to find time to fit in a trip to the pool, and we really need to juice some of the oranges off our trees. It's certainly tiring being retired!!

A New Solution to Protecting our Motor Home Carpet

We bought our motor home used, so we didn't get to make decisions about the details of its lay-out. Even though we really like our home, there are a few things we would change if we could. One of those is that the kitchen is in a slide out. That means that some very heavy equipment (like a residential refrigerator) is sliding in and out every time we set up camp. Also, the kitchen sink plumbing has to slide. Because slides need a soft cushion surface, all the slides floors are covered in carpet. From the beginning, Denisa has really disliked having that strip of light-colored carpet right in front of the cooking area.

So as soon as we bought the motor home, we started looking for a way to protect that carpet from the spills and drips that will always happen in a kitchen. We found this set of of carpets at Camping World that matched our colors, even though they didn't really match the size we needed. We were also disappointed in their durability, as we have purchased three sets and the binding has frayed on all of them.

Since we are staying in one location for two months here in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, we decided it was a great time to look for a better option. Mark found a guy that can make custom-designed rugs. Joe even has experience in working with RV owners. Armed with our Christmas present money, we went shopping for new carpet. We found our best option at Home Depot, where we could buy in-stock carpeting by the foot.

The next step was making a very precise template. In RVs, the carpet is laid, and then the cabinets are built on top of it. That means that we have a very jagged edge where the cabinets meet the carpet. We knew that being off just a quarter-inch any place would keep the rug from scooting in close to the cabinets. So we brought the just-cut carpet back to the motor home before Joe bound it. We were surprised at how well it fit! With just a little trimming, it went back to the shop for the final binding. 

Here's a close-up example of just how detailed the cutting and binding had to be to fit in close to the base of the kitchen cabinets.

We were excited to bring home the finished product and slide it into place. What a good fit!

The carpet roll at Home Depot was 12-foot wide. We had to buy a seven-foot length to get the three different rugs we needed to cover the slide carpeting in the living room. One went under the dining table to cover that light-colored carpet that is susceptible to spills while eating.

We had another one made for the strip of carpet in front of the sofa and recliner slide.

We even had enough carpeting to make a perfectly-shaped rug for the step in the bedroom. We think this has been a great home improvement project, and we would recommend Joe's handiwork! Sometimes it's good to stay in one place to get big projects accomplished, and we have found that this section of South Texas is a great place to find good work at a fair price.

Beaching It at South Padre Island

We always make the drive to South Padre Island at least once each winter for a little beach time. From our camping spot in Mission, Texas, we're about an hour's drive from the Gulf. Our first stop is usually at the visitor's center on the Main drag of South Padre. We've taken pictures of the massive sand castle in front of the visitor center many times, but today's picture looks much different.

After five years in this location, the sand castle is being demolished. If you look in the bottom right corner of the picture below, you can see the "message from the artist," that is a permanent part of the display. So it was fun to get to talk to the artist--Andy Hancock--in person. He described the process of tearing down the old sand castle, which had been preserved in place by coating it with glue.

Now he was chipping off that sand/glue exterior that had kept this masterpiece standing for five years. He plans to have the bigger and better sand castle completed in time for the spring break crowds. Because we were watching with such interest, he gave us a little piece of sand castle history. It's a sand falcon from the castle--petrified by glue five years ago.

After spending time with the sand castle process, it was time to hit the sand at the beach.

The water was a little nippy, but the air temperature was just lovely. The best part was that the usually gusty ocean winds were perfectly still.

When Denisa was taking the picture above, she was waiting for a nice big wave to come in for a good background. That wave brought the water up higher than Mark had planned, getting his rolled jeans wet. Yes, that Gulf water is very nippy!

Last year we discovered that the west coast has few sea shells, so it was good to be back on the Gulf of Mexico. We were glad to see a sea-shell-strewn beach once again! Nothing fancy and no sand dollars, but lots of delicate shells makes it look like a healthy beach.

Over the years we have come here for many windy trips, getting sand-blasted on this beach. So today it was nice to stroll on such a calm day. We left Denisa's Mother sitting on a beach chair while we got a mile walk in the sand.

Turn-about is fair play, and Mark caught Denisa trying to get away from an incoming wave that got her jeans wet as well.

While on our beach walk, Denisa picked up black and gray shells. She doesn't keep the shells, but enjoys using them in a picture. This was her tribute to our day in South Padre Island.

We drove back across the causeway, to the town of Port Isabel. Last year the lighthouse was shrouded in scaffolding while it was being refurbished. It looked fresh and well-cared for against the cloudy skies as we drove through town.

We usually eat at Dirty Al's, but we decided to try Joe's Oyster Bar this time. Good fried and grilled fish and shrimp for dinner completed our successful day. We stopped by the local fish market for several pounds of gulf shrimp for the freezer. We ended our day in the not-so-glamorous job of de-veining those shrimp, but we have a little bit of the Gulf to eat in the days to come. It was a good South Padre Day!