What are those Birds?

When we lifted the shades this morning, and I say that loosely because it was more like mid morning when we did, we saw our tenting buddies across the way standing around with their winter jackets on.  The temperature was about 4C and a foggy damp overcast sky, with the wind blowing about 25 mph.   Now I remember tenting in my day, and I could always handle the night in my sleeping bag no matter how cold it got, but it was the morning transition into my clothes and the chill that set in while waiting for the fire to warm my first cup of coffee that has made me decide to never ever tent camp again.

USS Lexington Aircraft Carrier Museum

One of the reasons we stopped in Corpus Christi/Padre Island was because I wanted to tour the aircraft carrier USS Lexington which is now a museum in the harbour there.  We headed in about 11 am and arrived just before noon.  Ed and Lessie joined us in our adventure.  Although it was overcast, it was actually a nice day to tour the carrier.

Running from the Cold

Well we finally got froze out of Magnolia Beach Texas.  Woke up to cold, windy and wet and decided we need to find some warmth somewhere.  It looks like farther south will be nice for Saturday and Sunday, but after that there is no where to hide.  Its going to be cold everywhere.

Big Buddy heater propane hookup

Today was the day to hook up my Buddy heater direct to the RV propane tank.  I will go through how I installed it for anyone looking to do the same.  You might ask why I didn't just run a hose direct to the high pressure propane tank and use the Buddy heater regulator that is there for the 1 pound bottles.  It is recommended that you should never run unregulated propane to any appliance inside an RV, in fact you may want to check if your insurance company would like it.  If you run an unregulated hose into your RV and something happens to the hose or a fitting,  you now have high pressure propane spewing everywhere.  Have you ever used a tiger torch?  This is what it would look like.

That is unregulated propane.  With a regulated hose it would just be a hiss of propane and if ignited would be like the flame in your BBQ.   Both are dangerous, but at least you stand a chance to get it under control when it is regulated.  The second reason is that you can't use a quick connect on unregulated propane so you would have to thread the hose fitting on an off each time you want to put it away.  Just not handy.

Santa got run over!!!

We were going to move today to try and escape the cold wet windy weather that is upon us, however the day was so drizzly and windy that I said the heck with it.  Lets just go to town and hang out in the mall.  So that's what we did.  Ed and Lessie came with us and we did some Christmas returns in Victoria.

Christmas story and a cemetery visit

Christmas Day

The wind blew fairly hard on Christmas Eve so I guess we didn't hear Santa come and go.  George of Our Awesome Travels gave me the idea to leave the roof vent open so Santa could get in and it seemed to work.  Thanks George.  Our stockings were full to the brim.

Merry Christmas

Christmas day has finally arrived and I can feel the stir of millions of children who have hopped out of bed and are staring in disbelief at the presents under the tree.  It is a magical time as their imaginations allow them to see the evidence that Santa has visited their house.

Christmas Eve with friends

It was a gorgeous morning on the beach to sit outside and have coffee.  Sue and I were there first and soon Ed and Lessie joined us.  It wasn't long and our friend Susan and her dog Champ showed up.  She has a really neat jeep painted up in John Deere colours.  We tried to buy it from her but she said we were about number 4 in line.

Stingray on the beach

Not much happening in our house today.  Charlie and I did a couple of walks and on one of them we spotted this neat trailer.  It is a Scamper 5th wheel.  Not a lot of them around.  Cynthia owns it and travels the country. She actually lives near one of our favourite Arizona Boondock spots in Cottonwood.

Christmas in the Park light show

Well the countdown to Christmas is on at our house.  Although we will not be with family again this Christmas, it looks like this year, we will be surrounded by good friends.  Ed and Lessie will be here and our friends Kevin and Ruth will be joining us on Christmas Eve.  This will make Sue feel so much better, because one of the things she didn't look forward to when we decided to take on this lifestyle, was being away from the kids and grandkids at Christmas.  We will make contact with all of them on Christmas morning via modern technology hopefully.

Rocks on the beach

It was a beautiful day today on the beach.  These are the kind of days that make us glad we are here.  A couple of oyster boats doing the dance today and some ships going in and out of the bay.

And the little tug that could was steaming back and forth going about his daily chores.  He makes me want to go out there with a new air filter and some fuel filters and fix his problem.

Friends on the Beach

The weather has certainly turned around for a few days.  With highs of 26C and lows in the high teens, it is back to shorts weather and calls for a lot of sitting on the beach soaking up the sun. Magnolia Beach is certainly a nice place to do that.

Nothing can be this much fun

On days when not much happens, it creates a special situation for a blogger.  It presents an opportunity to just give in and let your readers know you have nothing for them and post a couple boring pictures, or you can get a little creative and write a story about a couple of the real trivial things that happened during the day.  These stories can be factual or a little bit of fiction.  I opt today to do the story option.  You decide if it is fact or fiction. Enjoy!

Today was one of those do nothing days for us.  We got up late, again, and sat outside and drank coffee for most of the morning.  Not that there is anything wrong with that, because there are a lot of people we know who still have to head off to work on a cold morning and they would all love to be doing what we are doing.  And we would like to say thanks to them for continuing to pay into the pension funds so that we can still receive our monthly cheques. Your efforts are certainly appreciated.

After we got done doing nothing we headed into Victoria to do some more, shopping that is.  The Mall was our first stop and you could shoot a cannon down the isle and not hit anyone.  I don't know where everyone was tonight.

Everyone needs a Buddy

Last night was a perfect sleeping night.  The reason I know that is because it was almost 9 am before I even opened an eye.  The ocean air does wonders for a persons sleeping.  When I awoke I could hear a dull roar outside interspersed with some clanging, and some latin music.  The oyster boats were back and they were close to the Ponderosa.  There were about 20 of them doing the oyster dance, going in circles raking the sea bottom.

Have you ever seen a Roseate Spoonbill?

It is still raining this morning so we had to find something interesting to do today.  What could be more interesting than going out for lunch?   We have heard that Skillets in Port Lavaca is a good place to eat, so off we went to find out if that's true.

Rainy chore day

It rained most of the night last night and was still raining this morning.  Not a heavy rain but just enough to make it miserable to go outside.  The temperatures were around 12C so not freezing but the grey clouds are not making us very smiley people.  We can always look forward to tomorrow so we just got on with our day.  It was that favourite day for all RVers...laundry day.

Moved again!

Today was really windy and cool.  High today is about 12C which is 53F.  With the wind coming off the water it really chills you to the bone.  So we decided that we should do an indoor project.  Sue was wanting to do something with the front of her kitchen counter because it was just white.  While shopping yesterday she bought some old board type wall paper so she got ready to put it on to see what it will look like.

Shopping and off to the beach

We spent all morning and a bunch of the afternoon Christmas shopping.  Victoria Mall is a nice mall with lots of stuff to look at, but not without walking a lot.  My fitbit said about 12000 steps.  I was glad when we finally fired up and headed for Magnolia Beach.

Moving back north

We have explored enough around the valley for now.  Sue wants to go back to Magnolia Beach for Christmas again this year so today we are heading there.  We will go to Victoria Texas first and do some Christmas shopping tomorrow before hitting the beach. 

Awning fixed

Today we had nothing to do except wait on our Awning specialists (Top Hat Awning) to come.  Three guys arrived around 12:30 and in 15 minutes they had the awning rewound.  They tried to talk me into changing a couple of the support arms, but I knew I could fix them at no cost rather than the $100.00 they quoted me.  So I gave them $65.00 cash and off they went.  Great job for a cheap price.   At some point I will get my slide toppers redone and the price they quoted for that was $325.00 total installed for both toppers.  I doubt I can buy the material for that cheap.  If you are around Weslaco or Donna Texas and need awning work, look up Top Hat at the Wes-Don flea market.

Festival of Lights

We spent a lot of the day today doing what retired snowbirds do....nothing.  The weather is warm and the chairs are comfy.  The only bad thing is the continuous sound of traffic and sirens and loud motors.  Otherwise it is a nice park but because of the noise we could not last long here.  We are looking forward to going back to the beach where only the sound of the waves is heard.

Exploring the beaches of South Padre Island

One of the reasons we came down to this part of the country was to scout out some boondocking spots for future reference.   A lot of people have said it is tough to boondock down around South Padre Island so we headed out on the beach to have a look.  We drove over to Port Isabella and from there headed out onto the beach at beach access #5.

Look who we found!!

This morning on my walk I went by the pool house and noticed a couple bikes sitting out front.  Now when we checked in, the lady said that at every park owned club house or pool house there will be bikes parked.  These are for the use of the park residents.  They just ask that you park them at a park building when you are done.  It doesn't have to be put back at the same building so you can ride it over to the sister park and leave it.   I thought that is a nice touch for transportation.

SNOW!!!!

Last week when we looked at the temperatures around Brownsville they were in the 30's Celcius and we thought it was too hot.  Well this morning the unthinkable happened.  It SNOWED!!!  Yes siree when we woke this morning the ground was white.  It almost felt good because it reminded us of home and what we drove 2000 miles to escape.

A day at the mall

Have you ever had to do this?   I think we all have one of those RV parking experiences that we are not proud of.  I just saw this sign on Facebook and thought that it fit the bill for me a lot of times.  We all have to learn to relax and take our time when parking or we get into big trouble.

Hunkered down and Hooked up

After spending the night at Walmart we took our time getting mobile this morning because we had to wait a bit to check into VIP - La Feria RV Park. We headed over there about 10 am and in no time we ere there.  It was only 7.3 miles.

Moving farther south to ride out the cold front.

We decided it was time to venture farther south to explore some of the area where we are going to meet Pat and Harold in January.  So we decided to head for Harlingen Texas which is just outside Brownsville.  As a point of interest, Harlingen has a population of 65000 people and boasts the lowest cost of living in the United States!!!   It's in an area they call "The Valley" but I haven't witnessed a valley of any kind around here.  We were at sea level when we left Magnolia Beach and we are at sea level here so there wasn't a lot of up and down going on in our travels.

Our trip today

Turn at the Moose!!

A friend of mine saw this on a blustery morning and thought it was truly a Canadian sign.  Now I'm not sure how many of my readers can identify where this sign is, but if you know or want to guess, leave a comment.  By the way I would know exactly where to find this Tim Hortons!!!!  Just turn right at the Moose!!!

Not Again!!

Yup, thats right, just when I thought I was over it I got hit like a ton of bricks.  This is one nasty little bug.  Don't know what it is but it is in my stomach and won't get out.  Wrong terminology, it got out all right!!!!

Rare money

We are so fortunate that almost everywhere we go we meet such nice and unique people.  We met Angela and Chuck through a boondocking page on facebook when Angie asked if anyone knew what Magnolia Beach was like.  I responded that it was a great place to be and they came here.  We didn't have much to do with them for the first couple weeks except the odd chat and wave when I was out walking.  Well in the last week or so we have got to know them and I think there is a friendship spawning.  I think we should try not to scare them off. Ha Ha.  Their travels will likely be such that our paths will cross again this winter we hope.  Like I said in yesterdays post, they came to the football game with us and today they came over for a bonfire with us.

Chuck spent time in the Marines stationed in Hawaii and travelled all over the world.  In his travels he collected beer labels, cigarette packages, and money from various countries.  He obtained more after his stint in the marines and has quite a collection.  He said I could share some with everyone so here are the coins etc that interested me.

Beer labels and Cigarette packages

A new experience for us

Was up early today and I'm feeling quite a bit better today.  I must have caught a little bug somewhere and it really upset my stomach.  Today was housekeeping day and the Ponderosa got a sweep and vacuum from top to bottom.  One of the disadvantages of living on the beach is the sand everywhere.  Especially when the humidity is high, it tracks in real bad.  It even gets in the bed.

Sick Day

Thursday was a total day off.  I was sick all day and we did nothing of interest at all.  It was a beautiful day temperature wise and while I laid in bed all day, Sue enjoyed the sunshine.  I did see a couple ships go by and got one picture. 

A day with friends

Our friends Alan and Darlene from Manitoba are a long haul trucking team and one of their destinations is Laredo Texas.  They happened to be going by and had a day to spare so they spent time with us on the beach today.  They have not had the opportunity to see how we live in the winter.  We went and picked them up at a truck stop and brought them back to the Ponderosa for the day.  It was a beautiful day for sitting on the beach and I think they enjoyed it.

The small stuff 😎

This is Sue writing this, and it is my first attempt at doing my own blog post. I thought that maybe once in while I would try and give Lorne's brain a break from thinking of things for the blog. I do not proclaim to be a writer so please be kind..😜

Lorne and Charlie went off to do their thing this morning and I began to do a few projects I have been waiting to do for weeks now. One is to make low carb crackers for snacking, and the other was to make beef jerky, which by the way Karalee (our baby, 24) and I LOVE !!!!

I have been trying to stay away from grains, starches, sugars, pasta etc...basically low carb and high fat. I’ve managed to lose a bit of weight and reduce some of my medications. It’s a bit of an adjustment but I feel better and have more energy when I don’t eat those things. Sugar is sooooo bad...in any form ...

So I made these low carb flaxseed crackers this morning and had some for lunch...quite tasty...I’ll make them again. I also made a delicious onion cracker which you can see in the dehydrator below. Because I had to cut my time in the dehydrator short so a certain person would get off my case, I had to finish them in the oven. The onion crackers were amazing and we are very close to having to make a new batch.

Does anyone know how to keep parchment paper from sticking to your food..thought that’s what it was for -no sticking?-   Hmmmmm. Any hints would be great.

Happy Ho Day

We decided that although our spot is nice with the palm trees and grass, we are beach people so today we are going to move back up the beach to a spot close to the water.  We met some people up there earlier and maybe we can get to know them a bit better.

Our old spot

So we packed up all our stuff and moved.  It went well and because it was only a quarter mile down the beach I didn't have to take down the solar panels or remove Santa from the roof.  We will be happy here for a week or so before heading down to Padre Island.

A.A.A.D.D.

I found all the parts I needed to finish my part of the cupboard for Sue.  I concentrated real hard on completing this little project.  I think it is done with the exception of paint, which is Sues department.

Super Sonic

Another beautiful day in Texas.  The fishermen started their quest about 6 am and the generators started about the same time.  There was a time when we relied on a generator, but we only ran ours for like 1 1/2 hours a day especially in close proximity to neighbours. Lots of these people run their generators all day long for what reason I don't know.  These are the cheap generators that are loud and annoying.  That's about when Charlie and I go and find a quiet piece of beach to walk on.

Holidays on the Beach

The beach started filling up this morning with all of the weekend people who are on holidays due to the Thanksgiving holiday.  Lots of families fishing and crabbing and activity everywhere.  Susan and I sat outside and watched the festivities for a while drinking our morning coffee.

Happy Thanksgiving # 2

So us Canadian Snowbirds get to experience a very unique situation as we travel the southern states.  We get to have 2 Thanksgivings every year, and believe me we need 2 because we have a lot to be thankful for.  Our first one was on October 9th before we left Canada and the 2nd is today.  We thank God every day for our awesome family and friends and we were reminded again yesterday with the arrival of our newest little grand daughter Emma, that life is good and we can count our blessings.  We are thankful because we have the health to travel and experience the beauty of this earth.   It all comes with some drawbacks, and one of them is not being with family on special occasions.

Today we were reminded about how great the world actually is and how people who hardly know you care.  Texas is truly a friendly state.  We have mentioned in previous post a couple named Tom and Norma who we met through Brian and Gloria.  Tom has fallen in love with Charlie, so Charlie was invited to their house for thanksgiving.  Sue and I were allowed to tag along as well!!   They had a few of their friends over for a great dinner and we were thrilled to be there.  We commented that we have traveled 2000 miles to a place where we knew no one, and within 2 weeks were dining with some people who we now call our friends.  Thanks so much for including us in your gathering Tom and Norma, and we promise we will always look you up when we are down this way.

Galveston scouting trip

The winds were a bit nasty this morning and the temperature was around 10C so we decided it might be a good day to head up to the Galveston area to check out the boondocking on the beach for future reference.  This time of year is a wee bit cool in that area for us with day time highs around 20C instead of the 24C we are experiencing here. (with the exception of the odd storm rolling through dropping the temps a bit).  We headed up highway 35 and then down to Freeport TX where we met up with the beach again.

How much fun is having a baby!!!

Today was another milestone in our lives as grandparents.  Grand baby #7 arrived shortly before 7 pm tonight.  She is a happy healthy baby girl and her name is Emma Laurie Green.  We have known for a long time that she was a girl and that her name would be Emma, but we didn't know when she would arrive.  I may be biased but I think she is beautiful.  Derek and Nicole now have 3 children here on earth and one special angel Clayton, who is in heaven watching over all of these happenings.

Emma

Moving Day

This morning we said "see ya later" to Brian and Gloria and Luke the dog.  They have been good neighbours and we had some good talks.  They are moving down to Malakite campground on Padre Island.  They will be there until the end of the month so we may run into them when we head farther south in a week or so.  Gloria didn't want a picture very bad but I think this is a real good one, so sorry, I couldn't resist!!!  Thanks for your friendship!!!

Gloria, Brian and Luke

Attending Church

I always appreciated a little country church and say to myself that I must attend one down here.  It seems like we don't make the time for church anymore and I thought I would check one out this morning.  The Indianola First Baptist Church is just down the road from us and morning service is at 11.  What a friendly bunch of people.  The pastors wife played the guitar and led the singing. The pastor gave a message on caring, which challenged us to consider how much we care about others. I really enjoyed the fellowship, and if we are here next Sunday, will consider attending again.

A quick Texas Storm

Well we are about 2 days short of 3 weeks without dumping our waste water tanks, but we have no choice but to dump today.  Our Grey water always fills up first and we always know we are full when our shower won't drain any more.  Magnolia Beach has showers and washrooms, but because of some abuse in past years, they no longer offer a dump station.  We have to go to Port Lavaca, which is just 10 miles down the road.  When we got back we decided to park in a different angle to allow for more room for our neighbours.  We will only be here a couple days anyway, and Brian and Gloria are ok with sharing a front yard.

Excitement on the beach.

We woke up this morning an looked out our front window, and there were our new neighbours already busy fishing. I'm so glad I'm not a fisherman because I would hate to have to get up in the morning that early.

4th Annual Bloggerfest

I have been trying to make my schedule work to be able to attend Blogger Fest 2018.  I am not sure it is going to work this year, so I have contacted my blogger friend Paula (Shadowmoss) of In the Shadows and asked her if she would be around to set it up this year.  Of course she agreed and has got the word out there already.  George of Our Awesome Travels quickly made up the poster for this year and between the bunch of us we will make it happen.  If you can make your plans work around being there on January 27, it is worth your time to meet everyone.

Bloggerfest is a great opportunity for people who enjoy either writing (bloggers) or following blogs (blurkers) to meet in person to compare some notes and have a laugh or two.  The blogs you write do not necessarily need to be RV related, but it seems like because most of the people at Quartzite are RV'ers that is the general tone of the day.

What is blogging?
Blogging is a wonderful way of keeping a journal of your life whether it be for part of a year like we have been doing, or all year round like others do.  It is a way to compare what you are doing with what others are doing, and a great confidence builder, as you realize you are doing it right.  It is a great way to keep track of where others are and sometimes you can sneak up on them when they are parked out in the desert and park real close to them without them even knowing.  wink wink.  If you watch real close, sometimes other bloggers will even write about you and your travels, which is the ultimate compliment, and lots will comment on your blog from time to time.  Whatever the reason you blog, it is like a soul cleansing, and sometimes just a reminder about how much or how little you do in a day.

Whatever the reason you have for blogging, keep it up because I for one appreciate reading them and have learned so much from others via their blogs.

Scouting Mustang and Padre Islands

It was a beautiful day today so we decided we should go and scout out some spots for us to visit further south of here on Mustang Island and Padre Island.  Because of Hurricane Harvey, we were not sure how the beaches may of been affected.  When we got down around Rockport Texas we started witnessing some of the destruction in the wake of the storm.  It has been almost 3 months since the storm and there is still a pile of work left to do.  We started seeing odd things in the ditch along the highway, like boats and old RV's and piles and piles of debris.

Splash!!

We are really starting to enjoy Magnolia Beach.  We have good neighbours and because they have been here often they know a lot of local folk, who drop in from time to time.  We love meeting the locals. Today was no different when Tom and Norma dropped by with all their fishing gear to spend some time with all of us.  Sometimes we feel guilty just sitting around on the beach, but soon the feeling passes and we settle in.  Cheryl dropped by as well to share a story or two.

Body work is not my specialty, or is it?

Once again I have to mention ships, but this time it comes with a little story.  The bigger ships come in to harbour and I think they have a speed limit so they don't do a lot of damage with their wakes.  I'm betting if they are a little behind schedule they push that limit, and that was the case this morning.  The tide was fairly high as well at the time.  We saw this big ole ship coming in and I noticed there was a fairly large white water wake behind it.