Texas to south Florida to Indiana

Here we are at home and have been for 2 1/2 weeks. We had good weather for traveling and arrived at our son's home in Lehigh Acres, Florida 3 days after we left Aransas Pass, TX. And that was after a stop in Livingston.
It was so great to see our son and daughter-in-law and grandaughter. It had been a while! We had so much fun! Troy was able to take the whole week off and we ran every day,BBQ'd every evening and played cards and games every night!
One beautiful sunny day we all went kayaking on the Estero River. Now that is quite a feat for me because we have spent entire winters in Florida with our kayaks and I refused to get into those waters. I just knew I would become some big ole aligator's lunch! But when our son mentioned going I was all for it. There were even warning signs to not swim in the river because of the aligators but we didn't see any and had a great day. The Estero is a beautiful river, I am hoping you can see the reflective waters in the pictures. It runs along side of the Koreshan State park where we pulled the boats out of the water and ate our picnic lunches. We got a little sunburned but had lots of fun. We returned to Troy's house where we were parked and Troy grilled some scrumptious steaks. He said with us there and grilling every night it was like they were camping too.
On our 7th day there we pulled out with lots of tears all around. We drove to Bushnell, Fl where we were meeting some "bus nuts" friends for a cook-out at the SKP RV park. Our friends Tom and Fran were stopping there on their way to Ohio in their Eagle bus and Florida Cliff and his wife Julie came over from their home near Bushnell and we had a good evening catching up and talking about buses and everything else!
Here at home we have been really busy cleaning up from the winter, mowing and mowing and mowing! It looked like a hay field in our yard! We also had a surprise waiting for us...a roof leak. So Terry tore out and replaced the drywall and we got it and the walls all painted and now are just about ready to lay new carpet.It is nice to be here though and be able to see our daughter and all the Indiana grandkids. We really miss them while we are gone.
We have also been preparing to do some ATVing this summer. We ordered a new rack for the ATVs and Terry got it assembled and it looks like when we leave again we can take both the quads and the 2 kayaks! Ya gotta take your toys!
I hope to blog more in a couple of weeks(we'll see if THAT happens!LOL!)But for now had better get busy.

Happy Easter!

Wow. It's Easter already. We are still in Texas and soaking up the sunshine...finally! Our park is emptying out as our friends all head back to their summer destinations. Clark and Janet are back in Ohio, Bob and Linda in Indiana, Karen and Ed in Wisconsin, Kathy and Bob in Kansas and a whole bunch more...gone.
We have enjoyed the winter down here with them and everyone else. As soon as the weather got better the natives and Winter Texans took to the beaches, bays and the Gulf in droves.Due to the weather there hadn't been a lot of fishing so everyone was READY! When the waters warmed up and the fish we like to catch, Sheepshead, moved in we all got to fish! Woo Hoo!
I think we have finally got the boat to where we want it to fish. We have been out a few times but there are certain days that we don't like to go. Weekends, for example, are really busy on the water so we usually find something else to do.If the water is really choppy and the wind is gusting at 20 to 25 MPH we usually don't take the boat out either because we can really get tossed around. So... I guess you can say we are "fairweather fishermen"! We went out with our friends, Jerry and Mara the other day. They in their boat and us in ours and it looked like it was going to be a good day on the water. However, it was rough and none of us caught any fish. We couldn't even get tied up to anything but we enjoyed the day anyway. Jerry and Mara have been fishing these waters for many years and showed us good places to fish when the waters are calmer. And the live shrimp we bought for bait became our supper that night! Where else can you eat your bait when you come home with no fish!!
Speaking of shrimp. When Bob and Linda were here they had so much fun going around to the many shrimp boats in the area and stocking up on shrimp to take back home they almost ran out of freezer room! Oh they ate a lot here too. They would grill them outside and have all our mouths watering! And if one doesn't want to go to the shrimp boat there is a Shrimper who lives in our park and when he and his wife come in from the Gulf with their catch they just deliver however many pounds you want.That is so cool to have home delivery! They have been catching the really big ones lately, 9 to a pound. The last ones he brought us we froze. We are looking forward to grilling those. The ones we boiled(our bait)were smaller and nice and sweet.
We are probably going to be here for another 2 weeks before we head out. Our plans are in jello right now as to where we will go first but hope to be in Indiana at least by May 1st.

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!