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!

Mushrooms, Bluegrass, track meets, and Krazy Joe's

Well we are home in Indiana and I am finally getting a minute to blog!
It feels really good to be home around family and friends. We are enjoying the grandkids and their activites. Our grandaughter Grace runs track and we have enjoyed watching her run and jump in the long jump event. It is hard to believe these kids are as old as they are! Two of our grandsons are now driving and have cars and that REALLY makes us feel old!
We got home to southern Indiana just in time for mushroom season and didn't even have to comb the woods to find them. As we were cleaning up the yard from winter storms we found them growing in the side yard and had a mess of them for the next day's breakfast! Nothing says welcome home like a 'fungus sandwich'!!
Where we live in Indiana is in an area of rolling hills,farmland, small towns, and the Hoosier National Forest. And it is very appealing at this time of year with everything turning green and in bloom.
Since we've been home,we have been going to some music jams near us and the most recent one was at the edge of the Hoosier National Forest at a little store/restaurant called Krazy Joe's Trading Post. This place has quite the personality.The restaurant part is in a corner of the store and has about 5 or 6 tables with cozy plastic tablecloths and I think it used to be an antique store because there are still antiques scattered throughout the place. It is located on the south side of Lake Monroe and just spitting distance of Hardin Ridge, a National Forest campground. The store is rustic and inviting and has supplies for campers and boaters and the restaurant serves hot meals and also hosts music jams every week. Very much country. Just our style. The owner, Krazy Joe met me at the door and when I asked if they served food he said "yep, it ain't good and the service is lousy but the beer is cold'! Well, the food was good as was the service but I don't know about the beer, whether it was cold or not since we didn't have any. It was a neat place and we enjoyed the drive through the forest.
Hopefully the ground will dry up some around here and we can get the garden out. Terry is getting antsy. He did put a few broccoli plants out since they need to be out early but the rest will need to wait on dryer soil. So I guess we will wait. Terry is not too good at waiting so maybe we will just have to scout around and find more music jams to keep him busy.

I have included some pictures of our wet but green yard and woods!

From Desert To Seashore

Well! I am finally updating this blog. We have been so dang busy there is just not enough time to do everything!

We left Quartzsite about 10 days ago and came to Aransas Pass, Texas which is in an area we learned to love a few years ago. Aransas Pass is on the mainland along Redfish Bay and just a short ferry ride to Port Aransas on Mustang Island.

When we wintered here previously we stayed on the island and would take the ferry over here for Wal-Mart visits, different restaurants, fresh seafood, a bigger full service grocery store, and different kayaking trails. Now we don't have to do that because we are here! We take the ferry over there to see old friends and go to the beach.

It has been 7 years since we have wintered here and there have been so many changes. The Conn Brown Harbor is just 5 minutes away from where we are parked and is in the throes of a big revamping phase. It is the homeport for dozens of shrimp trawlers who fish the Gulf of Mexico and have earned Aransas Pass the title "The Shrimp Capital of the World". It is fun to go there and watch the boats come in and out. A few days ago we took a picnic lunch and sat and watched the boats, the sea birds, and the fishermen. The weather was beautiful for that sort of thing because it was in the low 80's the first 8-9 days we were here.

Yesterday we started getting some much needed rain and since we couldn't do much outside activity we headed to Corpus Christi just 20 miles away. We enjoyed the day just checking out all the changes there and we also ate at one of our favorite restaurants The Bayou Grill and had some delicious jambalaya. We made time to go see our friend Shannon Taylor who we hadn't seen for years and had a great visit. So it was a great day even if it was rainy off and on.

Since we started traveling during the winters 12 years ago we have been looking at each area we stayed in to see if we would want to return there often. We knew we liked the desert and all the ATV trails it provided and we knew we liked this area with the Gulf and all the water opportunities. And now we think we are ready to leave the ATVs at home next year and come back here again and bring our kayaks! When we had our kayaks here 7 years ago hardly anyone was kayaking and now there are tons of kayaks out here! And lots more kayak trails we haven't been on and are anxious to try. So maybe we have found a "home" for a while!

I have posted some pictures I took from the ferry and from the fishing jetties in Port Aransas and will take many more. Our weather is supposed to get back to being sunny and in the high 70's by Monday so in the meantime we will be thankful for the rain that the area needs so badly.

Don't forget to click on the photo to get a better view and then click on the back button to go back to the post.

A wonderful week

We have had such a nice week! The temperatures have been in mid to high 70's every day and the sun bright. Just what we drove all this way for!!

We started the week off with a trip to Bakersfield, California, almost 400 miles from here , to get the bus tuned up. It may seem like a long way to go to get that done but Terry wanted to go to a Detroit diesel man that he trusted. It was a great drive to Bakersfield too. We started off from Quartzsite at 820 feet elevation and had to go thru the mountains with one of the passes being 3800 ft elevation. That was the Tehachapi pass and once we topped that mountain it seemed like we were in another world! Everything was green. Lush. It was gorgeous. Going down the other side of the mountain was like being in the Swiss Alps or somewhere.(I have never been in Switzerland butI am sure it looked like this!) Beauty everywhere. It had been a long time since we had seen so much green!

We stayed in Bakersfield for a couple of days and headed back on Wednesday. The bus ran great and we had made some wonderful new friends. We loved being around buses and other busnuts!

Back in Quartzsite we took advantage of the great weather to do some quad riding and geocaching in our mountains. We also stayed busy meeting up and eating out with friends and going to music jams. I will include a photo of one of our geocaches hidden deep in the mountains.

Yesterday Quartzsite had their 4th annual Bluegrass Festival and it was great entertainment. It is a three day event but we probably will only go the one day since we are preparing to leave.We took our lawn chairs and sat out in this wonderful sun from 9:30 to 5:45 listening to a lot a great groups from Arkansas to San Diago. At the end of the day we were sunburned, a little tired, but had an awesome day. We ended our day with our friends, Rose and Phil, that we may not see for another year or so. We are both pulling up and leaving Quartzsite in the next couple of days.

Today we will load up our quads, see some other friends and get ready to pull out tomorrow. It is always a happy/sad time. We are excited to get back on the road and see what other adventures await us but we are a little sad to leave Quartzsite and our friends Barb and Bill.

Hitch itch setting in.

We are still in Quartzsite but we are getting the "hitch itch" so we don't really know how much longer we will be here!

We have had nice sunny days but sometimes the temperatures have not been conducive to ATV riding. But we really really enjoy the sunshine. We keep busy riding in the desert and mountains when we can, going to music jams, playing our own musical instruments here in the bus, and walking.(that is....Connie walking, not Terry!!)

I think I am finally getting my dental work completed in Mexico. We have been there a lot this season. Yesterday I got some fillings. Algodones was VERY busy with it being a holiday so there were lots of people. We got ready to get in line to go through Customs around 3:30 and the line was backed up to where we knew it would be at least a 3 hour wait so we went to Plan B. We decided to just eat supper while we waited for the line to get shorter. My feeling in my face and mouth was starting to come back and I was getting hungry so why not. We had a good meal and got into line about 5:30. The line was still long but shorter than it was. We ended up waiting an hour and 45 minutes. And we didn't have any purchases! The wait went pretty fast though since we were visiting and joking with the other people in line. We usually meet some very interesting folks in line!

The desert and mountains are getting green...well, green for here and it really is very pretty. Some purple and yellow flowers are starting to show up along with the green follage. I did snap some pictures on one of our rides last week but I don't know how well the colors will show up. The cacti will start to bloom soon but we may not be here to see it.

Better go. I need to practice my guitar. I won't get any better if I don't! Don't forget to click on the photo to enlarge it and then just click on the back button to return to the post.

Lazy Days and Friends

What a nice relaxing day we had today with our friends Clark and Janet. We took off about 11:00 in their 4-wheel drive Blazer and headed for the mountains.

We drove south of Quartzsite a few miles before heading west toward the mountains near the little town of LaPaz Valley. I think it is actually just a little community, not a town, built in the desert. After driving through the desert for 3-4 miles we got to the bumpy, narrow and dusty mountain roads and it got a little exciting for Janet. I have been out this way many times on the quads so I knew what to expect and I was just enjoying the views and the steep hills were just 'old hat' for me. We had a lot of fun laughing at Janet even though Terry kept telling her we were laughing WITH her, not AT her! The trail across and through the mountains was pretty steep at times requiring 4 wheel drive. Pretty soon, though, even Janet got used to the hills because she was so in awe of the scenery and the views. I know this because she stopped squeeling!!I was so glad they got to see the area that gives us so much enjoyment.And they loved it. We showed them favorite places of ours and it was so nice seeing them enjoy the ride. We even had an unexpected surprise of seeing 4 mountain longhorn goats(or were they sheep?) up close and personal. Of course I didn't have my camera with me so maybe I can import the pictures Clark took providing I can figure out how to do it!

The trail ended a couple of miles east of the Colorado River and California at Interstate 10. So we just went on in to Blythe, California and ate lunch. We often eat at local eateries and not the chain restaurants but there is a really good Sizzler restaurant at Blythe and we were hungry so we stopped there and ate a very good lunch.

After lunch we drove north of Blythe to the intaglios which we had seen before but Janet and Clark hadn't . The intaglios are huge drawings on the desert floor and thought to have been drawn by ancient Indians to tell a story. We saw three of them but there were more that we didn't get to. They are fenced in and protected by the BLM. The intaglios themselves were worth the trip but the views from there were awesome.

We had a really nice day with lots of friendship and lots of laughter. And the 75 degree temperatures were pretty easy to take too!!

Show Time-almost over

Boy oh boy, this season is going so fast.

Here in Quartzsite, the big RV and Sportsman show is almost over. The town is crazy busy with thousands of RVs here. I walked a couple of miles this morning to the Hi Jolly short term area and it was packed! The other 4 short term areas are pretty full too but they just got busy in the last two weeks. When the RV show ends the Craft show begins shortly but the crowds usually reduce in number. We have had great weather this year with mid to high 70's being the norm. It wasn't like this last year! The cool temps and wind last year made it less enjoyable.

1,500 to 2,000 vendors come to Quartzsite to be a part of these shows. The vendors' goods range from rocks,gems,minerals,fossils, RV related items and everything else imaginable. It is touted as one of the world's largest open air flea markets. And we haven't seen even half of it. Some of it we don't go to if it doesn't interest us (like rocks) but we haven't even seen all the things that DO interest us!

We have been busy visiting friends that we haven't seen for a long time and catching up on all of their lives and running back and forth to Mexico to get all of my dental work done. So, that doesn't leave a lot of time to shop. But , that is ok. We love catching up.

We wandered over to a bus group last week-end where they had 97 buses for their rally and just walked around admiring all the buses. There were a large number of Eagles and Flexibles and some Prevosts and MCIs thrown in. They were having a great time. We got a few pictures of the conversions.

I will blog more soon.

Hi Jolly

Quartzsite had their annual Hi Jolly Parade, their 21st, actually and it was a big success. The parade actually kicks off the tourist season here. There were 24 assorted entries and locals and winter visitors alike had a good time. Ah, life in a small town.

Hi Jolly, a camel driver whose real name was Hadji Ali was part of a failed military experiment here in the desert in 1857. President Lincoln knew horses weren't holding up very well in the arid southwest and authorized the purchase of camels from Arabia. They were to transport military and large quantities of freight to the frontier. Long story short- it didn't work! The camels and mules were not compatible and the Civil War halted the experiment when all military and human resources headed back east to fight the war.So anyway, Hi Jolly stayed in Quartzsite until he died in 1902.A local celebrity, of sorts! There is a monument in his honor here in town.

Right after the parade we broke camp and headed to Yuma to be with friends who had had an accident with their RV on their way to Yuma. A driver driving behind our friends Janet and Clark apparently fell asleep and rammed into the back of their towed car traveling at a high rate of speed. The impact snapped the tow bar off, their car traveled(as they watched,horified)across both west bound lanes of the interstate, across the median, and across both east bound lanes and into the field through a barbed wire fence. It became airborn a couple of times before it stopped. Luckily and miraculously no one was hurt.The car was totaled. So now here they are a long way from Ohio with no car. Their nerves were shot, to say the least. We went down to lend moral support and any help we could provide in helping them get all the arrangements for another tow car, and any other needs they had. We stayed in the Escapees RV park just down a few sites from them.

We left the Escapees park after a few days but stayed in the area for me to have some dental work done in Mexico. I had an abscess situation going on and needed treatment. I looked a whole lot like a chipmunk! And I felt like a train wreck!

So! That is why I haven't blogged for a while but am feeling much better and back on track. The weather is gorgeous with 70 degree temps and sunshine.

Gotta go. Sunshine awaits!

Happy New Year!

We want to wish all our friends and family a very happy new year. We are blessed with good health, lots of friends, and a great family and look forward to a good year.

We don't bother too much with New Year's resolutions because we would probably break them anyway. So any bad habits we manage to break will just be a bonus!

We are having great weather and rang in the New Year with a long quad ride. We had constant sunshine, 68 degree temps, and blue blue skies. What more could we ask! We decided to try to find a geocache that was hidden at the top of a mountain. The name of the cache was Pyramid Point and had a difficulty rating of 4 out of 5 and the terrain was rated 4 out 5 but it should have been a 10!! The find involved a ride, preferably a high clearance vehicle, and a hike. A very strenous hike to say the least but we were determined to get to the top of this mountain. Well....... we didn't make it. Terry almost made it but decided it wasn't worth a broken leg-or neck! The cache was actually hidden in 2004 so I am sure the trail had changed considerably. So, bad as we hated to we had to admit defeat. Bummer. But we got to places on that ride that we hadn't seen before and had a fun day. We got home in time to sit out and enjoy the sunset.

Quartzsite is finally getting busier. We went down town today and noticed that the number of vendors had increased a bunch. Probably doubled. And the number of shoppers and visitors increased as well. I am glad of that for the businesses. My beautician told me today that her business was 1/2 of what it was the previous 2 years. That has to hurt.

Tomorrow is the Hi Jolly parade so I will blog on that tomorrow.... or soon anyway.