Still In Texas

Well! Here it is the 15th of January! Good Grief! Where did the time go!?

As most of you know we are having a much wetter and cooler winter here in the Coastal Bend of Texas but we are just learning to roll with the punches. We have not been fishing or kayaking yet but we stay pretty busy. There is a lot to see and do in this area even when it is not 70 degrees and bright sun.

Our friends Clark and Janet are still with us and Bob and Linda Pease got here shortly after Christmas so we are having a good time with all of them. We have to check out all of the eating places around so that takes a lot of time! Last week we ate out 5 days out of seven!

Right after Clark and Janet arrived we all went down to South Padre Island to The National Seashore and even though it was a windy and overcast day we had a lot of fun. We are looking forward to returning there soon since it is warming up. The beach there is so clean and very serene.It is the longest undeveloped stretch of barrier island in the world. There are 70 miles of sand-and-shell beaches on the National Seashore and I can't wait to do more beachcombing. I have included some pictures but will post more after we return there.

Closer to us is the Aransas Wildlife Refuge just north of Rockport where we enjoyed a day of exploring and seeing the wildlife. We even walked among the alligators! I am not kidding either! They were sunning themselves on the banks of pools of water we were walking alongside. It was actually kind of cool! And of course there were many seabirds which I love to watch. The picture above is Clark hamming it up for the camera!

Some days we just stay around our park. We do a lot of walking and visiting with the neighbors when the weather is good. I am teaching linedancing in our activity hall twice a week. I thought I was just going to be ATTENDING these classes but that all changed when our teacher and her husband sold their property here in the park and I got elected! I didn't have to do it but I like to dance so I will relearn and learn some dances and lead the folks that want to dance. Besides, it is good exercise. And we have a lot of fun.

Today is windy but the sun keeps coming out at times so I think I will get ole Terry and we will take off for a walk. Since we feel that it is our mission to check out all these eating places we must exercise!

Hopefully I will post next week.

Channel Watching And Coffee On The Beach

It has been a while since I have blogged so I will try to catch everybody up on our activities.

We are in Aransas Pass, Texas in the Coastal Bend of Texas and enjoying all the area has to offer.

After we arrived we stayed really busy cleaning up our sites here in the RV park. There is a pesty thorn that grows in the grass called "Goatheads" or "Puncture thorns" and they are awful. They are as hard as a rose thorn and will go through the bottom of a shoe quite easily. The best way to get rid of them is either concrete over them(as many of the people here have done) or keep a healthy stand of good grass. The grass thing is difficult to do unless you are here year round and can keep it watered and the weeds out. So, we have poured a lot of concrete and will have to pour more later as budgets allow!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with old friends over on the island in Port Aransas. In her RV, our friend, Ann Eddy, baked a big ham, pineapple casserole, corn, brussel sprouts, candied yams, cranberry salad, rum cake and pecan pie! What a feast! And we had a great visit with her and Ken and her nephew and his wife.

We still enjoy going over to the island on the ferry and sitting on the beach on the Gulf of Mexico and reading, napping, channel watching, and walking, too. A couple of mornings before we started our work for the day, we took our morning coffee and enjoyed watching the waves while we drank our coffee. It is a great way to start the day! We had nice weather for that sort of thing when we first got here. And we don't have to go to the island. Just 5 minutes from us is the Conn Brown Harbour and we go there to watch the boats go out and to watch all the sea birds.

Our friends, Janet and Clark have come for a visit and we are looking forward to showing them around but the weather is not too cooperative. A front moved in and brought lots of rain and cooler temps but today is nice and sunny so we will take advantage of it! We did take them to a big Winter Texan Welcome at Fulton, just up the road north of us. It was an all you can eat fish fry with baked beans, bread,fish,(of course)slaw and cake. All free! And there were many many Winter Texas there in spite of a rain that had gone on all day! We had a lot of fun. They gave away door prized and had a band to entertain everyone. I have never seen so much fish! The mayor was even there to welcome all of us.

Better go and enjoy the sunny day. More rain is expected tomorrow so we better enjoy the sun! Oh! I should add that we are very thankful that all we have is rain! Several times when Clark and Janet have joined up with us in the winter, it has snowed! Even in Tucson,Arizona! So, we are just glad all they brought is rain this time!

The Buffalo Camping and Canoe Outfitter

The Buffalo National River

We are out and traveling again! It felt really wierd to leave Indiana without our 4 wheelers! Usually we are headed to the desert trails of California or Arizona but this year we will probably not make it to the desert. So, instead of the ATVs, we loaded up our kayaks and took off!

Our first stop was in Branson, Missouri where we stayed at the Escapees park in Hollister and took in the sites of Branson and surrounding areas. While there we met a new friend, Pam Bristol, who had her kayak with her and invited us to paddle down part of the Buffalo National River with her and her dog, Mischief. Afew years ago we had paddled the upper river portion of the Buffalo where the white water is but never the middle portion.

The Buffalo National River is nestled in the, Arkansas Orzarks, which are bounded north, east, and south by the Missouri, Mississippi, and Arkansas rivers , respectively. The water is crystal clear and has high river limestone and sandstone bluffs.

We had a beautiful sunny day for floating and enjoying the scenery. It took us a little less than 4 hours to float 10 miles from Baker Ford where we put in and Gilbert, where we took out. The river is lined with authorized concessioners who offer shuttle service, rental canoes and kayaks, guided trips, and lots of information.

We started at Gilbert, Arkansas at Buffalo Camping and Canoes, an outfitter on the middle river. As it turned out we didn't need his shuttle service since both Pam and we drove our trucks. If we had only brought one truck, the outfitter would have shuttled us to the put-in and drove our truch back to the take-out for a fee, of course. The outfitter was more than happy to give us all the information we needed though even if we didn't need his shuttle service. We parked Pam's truck at Gilbert, along the river(the take-out) and threw all three kayaks in our truck and drove to Baker Ford (the put-in) where we unloaded the kayaks and our picnic lunches,and parked the truck. This portion of the river is a smooth ride with occassional gentle ripples and plenty of gorgeous scenery. I didn't get a lot of pictures of the bluffs since I had buried the camera in the cooler but I got a few before we started. We are so glad Pam wanted to go there or we might not have discovered the middle river.

We stayed in Branson for a few more days and then, after watching the weather forecast, left on a sunny day headed to Coffeyville, Kansas where our workamping jobs await us.

North to Michigan

Here we go again! Yay!

It all started when our friends Teresa and LeeRoy bought a 'new to them' motorhome and wanted to take a road trip. They had been campers years ago but never in a motorhome. They had camped in tents, motorcycle campers, tag a longs and fifth wheels but never a motorhome and they wanted company to travel with and show them travel tricks they hadn't learned with their previous modes of camping. We knew they would be fine but we jumped at the chance to take off.

We took off the Wednesday before July 4th headed to Eastern Michigan, a place we had not been to before. Since it was holiday time campgrounds along Lake Huron were full so we stopped in Northern Indiana for a few days to visit the Surplus and Salvage stores and enjoy the Elkart/Goshen area and all the Amish influence and great food.

We started in Elkhart at the Elkhart Campground for one night and it was good we did. As it often happens in this lifestyle, you run into old friends when you stop somewhere where RVers are. Terry and Nick Russell were staying at the campground and we had a nice visit before we moved on.

We moved to Goshen the next day to the Elkhart County Fairgrounds and based ourselves there while we took in the whole area. This is a huge,beautiful and well cared for fairgrounds and they had plenty of empty spaces and lots of area for long walks. We stayed there until Sunday, July 5th when we left for the Lake Huron area. We had lots of good food and good times while in northern Indiana and even took in a large car show in Middlebury and enjoyed the Bluegrass music being played there.

We stopped in Au Gres, Michigan, a quaint little town close to Lake Huron. We stayed in a city park for a couple of days while we explored. Terry and I usually try to taste the local foods when we go to an area new to us and so near Au Gres we stopped at a little seafood restaurant on Lake Huron where they served Smelt among other foods. Terry and LeeRoy chickened out but Teresa and I ordered the smelt. Well....hmm...let's just say maybe it is better when it is caught fresh! We ate it but it may be a long time before we order it again! But we tried it!

We visited the lighthouses in the area and found them pretty darn interesting. We enjoyed learning about them and the people who manned them. We will move on up the lakeshore tomorrow and see what sights await us.

Busy Spring

Wow! June 1! Where has the time gone!

Things are drying up around here, thank goodness. Our garden is out and the plants are growing very well as are the weeds! We are keeping them at bay though so it's not too bad.

With working in the garden and flowers we are also keeping busy getting ready for our county's Relay For Life. Our team, Team Chemosabies, is in charge of the concession stand again this year and that requires a lot of work, but we are up to the task! I have been out gathering donations and Terry has been cutting wood! Our daughter, DeAnne is over the concession stand and has already purchased 95 pounds of pork butt which we are smoking for pulled pork sandwiches. They went over really well last year so we are doing them again! There will be other food as well but the pulled pork is the main attraction.

Terry got up today at at 5:30 to start the smoking process and it sure smells good in this neck of the woods! He has our smoker and our daughter's going. We utilized both the house kitchen and the bus kitchen to prepare all that meat to smoke and it's a good thing we have two kitchens! This will be an all day process and then we have to do it again in a couple of days to get the rest of the 95 pounds done. The pictures show how much we are smoking today.

We have been going to a lot of Bluegrass jams and have one to go to this week-end where we will take the bus and camp there for 3 days as long as it continues to dry up so we don't sink! We had one over Memorial Day but it was too wet to take the bus so we just went on day trips. It was close to us as is the one coming up this week-end. The one this week-end is a Festival but there will be a lot of jamming too. I played along at the last one and really enjoyed the fun. I can't wait for the next one!

I had better check on Terry and take him out some lunch. Gotta keep him workin' on keeping those smokers up to temp!