We are Heading North!!

WHERE ARE WE? Near Burlington TX.

We took our time getting ready to leave this morning.  We had a leisurely coffee with Ed and Lessie and took our time packing up.  We don't have far to go this morning.  We don't have to go far any morning come to think of it.  We have 3 days to do 1200 kms.  So about 12:30 we finally headed out but not before a couple ships went by.  It was like they were taunting me!!  One thing I didn't do was take any pictures of our departure or of Ed and Lessie.  Sorry guys!!!

If you remember a couple weeks ago I wrote about connecting with one of my grade school teachers, Mrs. Williamson.  Well about the same time an "old" friend of mine started following my blog.  David McGill was my first and best friend all the time we lived on the farm in Belmont, but our ways parted and we have not kept in touch.  Long story short, we lived in the country and we had 3 neighbours 1 mile apart.  Each of the neighbours had baby boys on April 17, 18, and 19, 1955.  I was the 17 and David was the 19th.  So I have known David for 70 years today!! Happy Birthday Dave!!  I don't remember the other kids name though but he lived in a yellow house with a big barn 1 mile east of us!!

Ok, enough reminiscing!!  First stop was Buc-ee's for fuel. $2.49 a gallon.  This is probably the cheapest we will get it on our trip.  Buc-ee's made me think of Fany and Jeff and wee Max.  They tell me they are having fun in New Orleans.   

Heading north from Magnolia the country side was a brilliant green colour.  The corn is knee high and the leaves on the trees are full.  I always enjoy this part of our trip.  

Sue was mentioning that La Penita and Guayabitos are crazy this weekend.  There is hardly a place to even put a chair to enjoy the beach.  I'm kinda glad we are not there in that hub bub!!

So we shut it down about 5 pm and had a wee nap before supper.  We are just on the side of the road in a roadside picnic area.  I read on a sign that Texas has 800 and sum rest areas scattered all over the state.  What a great perk to be able to pull off whenever you need a break.  You are allowed to stay 24 hours before moving on.  

This was our trip today!!  And the temperature today was 27C and will go down to 21C tonight.

We watched some TV for a while and then Archie convinced us it was bed time.  Good Nite!!!

I Could Have Been a Surgeon!

WHERE ARE WE? Magnolia Beach, Texas

Easter Weekend is sneaking up on us and the beach is filling up.  The campers next to us are set up for a party.  They do have kids so hopefully they don't party all night.  They are generator campers so I'm sure it will run all night.

Not much to report today although I did put my magnifying glass that I bought yesterday to good use.  If you remember a few weeks ago I posted about how I clipped the wires off one of the slide motors.  Well I have been checking and new motors run between $100 and $400.  So I figured maybe if I could see good enough, I could solder the 4 wires back in place and fix the problem.  The magnifying glass fixed the seeing problem, but there was still the problem of the shaky hands.  I took my time and believe it or not, I got them back in place and it works.  Yah for me!!! I should have been a surgeon!! So I saved $102.01 because I paid $4.99 for the magnifying glass.  

The cheapest motor I could find.  I won't need it now.

Can you see the soldering iron shaking?

4 wires all connected

Ed and I had to make a quick trip to Walmart in Port Lavaca to get some supplies.  It was a nice little break from the beach.

Another ship came in this evening and the waves from its wake rolled up on the shore.  I am always mesmerized by them. Good Nite!!

Birthdays Come Once a Year!!

WHERE ARE WE? Magnolia Beach, Texas

Well today is certainly a milestone in life.  70 years old!!  Older than dirt they say!!  I'm not sure that one should be celebrating birthdays at this stage in life, but on the other hand I am more than thankful to be here for this birthday.  When one has had a brush with death, you tend to cherish the time that has been given you kinda by default.  So today is a proud day for me, as is every day for me.  I am looking forward to a bunch more days hanging around this old world.  

Just kinda did normal things in the morning while Sue and Lessie headed to Victoria to shop.  Ed and I  headed to Victoria in mid afternoon where we will meet for supper.  To kill some time, we did some shopping ourselves at Harbor Freight.  Harbor Freight here in the US is like Princess Auto on steroids back in Canada.  I wanted a new tool kit for my birthday, but managed to find a few other things to go along with it.

My Birthday Present (9.99 on sale!!)

No I am not gonna be a Doctor

A long overdue soldering iron

And to help the old eyes with the small projects.

So Ed and I finished our shopping a bit early so we headed over to the mall to just hang out and wait on the girls.  The mall wasn't really that busy today.

I was reading somewhere that Victoria is seeing a lot of kids who left town to study or train for careers returning to buy a house and settle down in the area.  There is lots of work for all kinds of trades here with all the petro chemical plants around.  It is nice to see this happening in towns.  Our own town of Rivers has seen the same thing happen on a smaller scale, and when it does we think to ourselves that maybe we are doing something right.

Well after about an hour it was time to head over for supper.  I chose Golden Corral because that is where old people eat!!  My friend Harold who was a cattle man calls it the Human Feedlot!!!  That handle is quite fitting cause its just a bunch of people stuffing their faces. I got to admit it is really good food!!  And the dessert is crazy good.  And better still...Ed and Lessie bought our supper.  We owe them one.  Thanks guys.

After that awesome supper it was back home to watch Survivor and relax.  Its been a good day and like I said, I look forward to many more.  Good Nite!!

A Little Bit of Electrical Work Today

WHERE ARE WE? Magnolia Beach, Texas

Another ship this morning.  The shipping in this channel has been kinda slow the last couple days so it is neat to see one go by.  Great way to start a morning.

Project this morning was to install a manual transfer switch between the main power and the inverter because for some reason which I don't have the time or expertise to figure out, won't accept generator power.  This way we can just flip a switch and run generator power to the entire motorhome if we want it.  I won't go into any more details for now.  I just installed it in the inverter box for now but will move it later.  A few pics of the process.

Undo some wires

lift it out where I can work on it

undo some wires

wire in transfer switch.

Then up on the roof I went to clean up the solar panels.  The salt air sure makes a mess of them.

That was it for chores today!!  Time for some R & R!!  We got out the Play Nine Game and had a good round.  Lessie beat us all!  It was quite breezy so we used sea shells to keep the cards from blowing off the table.

After supper we went for a little drive to check out the area.  Archie loves going on adventures with us.

We managed to catch a nice sunset while we were driving around.  That was it for the night. Good Nite!!

Our Friends are Heading East

WHERE ARE WE? Magnolia Beach, Texas

So it's Tuesday!  We could look at this as a sad day because today Jeff, Fany and Max head out on the next chapter of their journey. 

We sort of bugged them as they were getting ready to leave.  Yes I know that's not something RVers do.  You generally leave them be to do their thing.  We made sure they paid attention to their respective jobs. 

It was time for an official group picture and they were off.  They will be heading for New Orleans to have some fun for a few days before heading farther on to Florida and Disney World.  We wish them a good trip and a fun time.

And then it was just Ed and Lessie and us here on the beach.

This afternoon we went to Port Lavaca to check out the Walmart.  We had a few things we had to get.  

Archie came along for the ride and loved it.  We even stopped at DQ and he had a pup cup which made it even better.

No sunset tonight, just a big ole spider in the corner of the bathroom here at the beach.  Glad he wasn't in RRV!!  Good Nite!!!