Jan 31: Bought a boat

At 10:00 we had a computer class. Nothing much new this time. We went and did several loads of laundry. Larry had ordered a radio controlled boat last week and we picked it up this afternoon. I went next door from the hobby shop and got a hair cut. The boat is 3 foot long and the sails are over 4'. The whole thing, from bottom of rudder to top is 5'9". Takes a tremendous amount of batteries but fortunately not much wind. Buster, of course, likes the box. Boys and their toys. I was happy with fishing stuff. I can bring home dinner - wonder what he can bring home with his - probably moss.

Larry is snorting and coughing and sneezing. I'm sneezing and have itchy eyes and ears. Must be something in the air. Larry's doctor yesterday said it was his asthmia but I think it's allergies. Maybe more humidity will bring down whatever is in the air - eh!

It was cold today - only got up to around 65 deg. Should be better the rest of the week. I hope so because we're going to start site seeing Saturday - the King Ranch. Hopefully fishing tomorrow. Apparently I need to sign off so I can help with the "some assembly required" steps of the sail boat.

Jan. 30: Doctor's day

Larry spent from 10:30 to around 3:00 at the local V.A. Clinic for his yearly physical. They were an hour late calling him in for his appointment and then he had to stand in line to get his new meds. Also had to have blood drawn for lab work. I spent the day exercising and reading - real quiet day for me. He was starving when he got back and I wanted a taste of home. We went to On The Border for dinner - always good.

We went to Academy Sports Store and bought some new stuff for fishing in the bay area. Wire leaders, 3 oz weights, circle hooks - stuff that I don't use in Kansas. We just need some dead shrimp and we'll be ready to go. I want a day when the wind isn't blowing and the waves aren't crashing so we can go out on the wave breaker wall (or whatever it's called) and fish out there. It's just beyond the marina area. You can walk out there from shore. Not sure what I'm fishing for, but anything will be fun. Also bought a year's fishing license for both the salt and fresh water fishing - $65/each. Hopefully, tomorrow (may be raining) or the next day, I can post how this experience went.

Jan. 29: Another day in Paradise

I almost hated to put these pictures on the blog but Larry pretty much insisted. He says that's what we came here for. One lady had been in the pool for about 3 hours and got a mild sun burn. Got up to 80+ today - only suppose to get up to the mid 60's tomorrow. Not as windy here as in the rest of the state.

Went an hour early to a photo editing class today so I could get caught up on the three classes I had already missed. Learned a lot of really neat stuff. Don't know how much I'll use because I'm not into screwing around with my photos - but it's nice to know how to take stuff out of a picture.

One year this camp ground had 87% Canadians here for the winter. I don't know what the percentage is this year, but there were 4 couples in the pool and 2 of us were American. Nice, friendly folk - just say "eh" a lot.

Jan. 26: Feeding the birds

Camp here at Corpus Christi.



Larry feeding sea gulls with his mouth shut.

Ate out at Fudruckers for lunch today with a group from here at the park. Seemed to be mostly French Canadians - eh! Came home and changed into SHORTS and went to the sea wall to walk our mile for the day. Took some bread and Larry fed the sea gulls. It was sorta eerie. Larry tried to feed some plovers that were along the shore. The wind was blowing about 20 out of the south. The bread that he threw to the east went back behind him on the sidewalk. We saw a sea gull sweep down to get it and we walked on. I heard one sea gull cry out and then another and then more and I turned around and it was sight right out of Hitchcock's The Birds. There was a whole flock just hovering over and behind us - we could have reached out and touched them. Larry stopped to feed them but I moved on because I didn't want to be in any lines of fire. Out of all those birds, he didn't get dumped on once. Got some fishing tips from a local fisherman while we were there. Now I just need a license, some wire leaders, some heavier weights and I'm ready to go. They fish for drum here. If I catch one - it'll get released. Haven't booked that sea fishing yet, but I will--soon.

Jan. 27: Still Here

Larry's new lighted flag.


The Corpus Christie pier area and skyline.

Had quite the scare. I haven't been able to get into my blog for two days. Finally worked. It may have been me logging in wrong but I don't think I could do that for two days. Anyway, we're still here and having a good time. Bought one landscaping light with a day/night sensor to light up the flat. Looks pretty cool - had a couple of nice comments on it too. Went to a pot luck dinner last night. The couple sitting with us were quite amazed that Larry could eat so much and still maintain his fine figure. Tomorrow we're eating out with the camp ground group at Fudruckers. We've eaten there before and they turn out a mighty fine hamburger not to mention the chocolate shake.
Walked a mile this morning before it got too hot or humid - not sure that ever happened but we did it anyway. Washed the truck. Drove to the Corpus Christi pier area. Strolled around the beach - took a few pictures picked up some sea shells for the grandsons. Talked to Henry on the ham radio this afternoon on 20 meters. He was mobile in the Mulvane area. Not a real good connection but enough that we could sorta understand each other. Will try again next weekend on 40 meters - maybe get to talk to all our PT Cruiser friends at Walts.

Jan. 24: Still Raining

Buster still like his space heater. Good thing it doesn't put out a lot of really hot air.


Our camp site at San Leon by Houston.






Still crudy weather here but I keep thinking of what it's like in Kansas and don't complain too much. Didn't even get up to 50 today. Drove around yesterday to find a camping place to make repairs. They were booked full and it would be $95/hour for repairs. Larry kinda thinks he can wait until we get back to Wichita and have it all done under warranty.

Today we went to the computer class. 4 women plus Larry and me. Our instructor is a lady who is retired from Zerox and had been the networking manager. She's been in computers for over 40 years and is versed in Vista - my operating system. While I was there, she showed me the slot for my camera's memory card - duh!!! Now I don't need that cd that Sony is sending me for $65. So, I have gone back and added photos to the Kemah Boardwalk and Johnson Space Center Blogs. Might want to re-check those out. Again, just hung out around camp today did some laundry. Tomorrow is game night at the club house - we'll see how that goes. Larry and I went to the exercise room today. Lots of equipent but most of it doesn't really work too well. We ended up playing ping pong. Then I had to cook supper again - this is starting to get old - but Larry's tummy is still a little on the rough side. I cooked up a Betty Crocker Complete Meal - Three Cheese Chicken - I recommend it.

Also, I am in the process of changing my web brower to FireFox and my internet e-mail to Thunderbird. I will also be changing my e-mail address to a .gmail account. Got the FireFox and Thunderbird downloaded. Our computer instructor is going to help me set up the e-mail account. She's the one who highly recommended these formats (along with Larry's brother, Wayne). I have already added everyone to my new address book so all you'll have to do is change my address in your book. I'll let you all know when that happens.

Along with not being able to control where my photos show up, I also can't control how the printing beside the pictures look. Also, I'm the writer/publisher; however, Larry is my editor. He reviews my blog, may be several days later, and fixes my typos. I've shown him the "edit" part so he can make the fixes. I'll try to get him to review my write-ups a little more often.

Jan 22: Moving day

Larry's job and my job while camped at Livingston, TX.

Camp site in Livingston - the Escapees Camp Ground.

It rained a little over night but the slides weren't too wet to pull in for traveling this morning. The Houston area got as much rain in the week we were there as our son, Greg, gets in Yakama, WA in a year - 4". I have found out that this is considered their rainy season but should start clearing up by the end of the month.

Drove about 5 hours thru showers (and it's still showering every so often) to new camp site here in Corpus Christie, Hatch RV Park. There were only two sites open that would hold our size camper. Temperature here around 75 deg with the humitity about the same. Larry's going around worrying about mold. We'll be here a month--maybe he'll find some. Lots to do here so we'll be busy but will try to do economical things. I plan on deep sea, or at least off shore, fishing while we're here. This camp ground is $300/mo plus electricity. They do have a pool and some planned activites - not as many as the Escapees camp did but probably enough for us. We have some camper repairs to do while we are here. Will probably set up the ham radio and see if we can contact friends back home.

I uploaded all three of these pictures in the same time it was taking me to upload 1 at the last site. Now if I could just get my new camera's cd so I can upload pictures as I take them and not be so far behind.

I did notice that Texas has a lot of new schools. Larry heard this morning that the Texas lottery is giving the Texas school systems $10 billion dollars. Wouldn't that be nice for Kansas.

Jan. 21: Johnson Space Center

Entry way to the Space Center and historic Mission Control - no longer used.

Well it was another cold (50's), rainey, windy day in Houston. I thought after 600 miles that we'd have better weather. I'm surprised that neither of us has a cold yet. Maybe another 200 miles will make it better. I hate to complain knowing that most of you are in 20's and 30's but I thought I had left that behind.

The Johnson Space Center was huge. They have a big museum/exhibit. We did three shows - two on the IMAX. Did a tram ride for about hour and a half in the cold, rain and wind. Stopped at three buildings (good thing - we were able to warm up). #1 Historic Mission Control: Did you know that every moon landing was accomplished with just 400k of computer and that filled up a whole room. Used slide rules a lot. Building #2 was the simulator room. They have every aspect of the space station and the shuttle in this building for the astronauts to practice on. #3 was a room housing the space capsule launcher, Satern. Really big laying on its side. Do you know what astronauts eat for lunch: launch meat!!!

There was a piece of the living facilities of the space ship on display and they showed how the astronauts have to tie themselves down to sleep; even their heads or the head will bob all night to the beat of their heart pulse. Even showed us how they potty; again, they have to strap themselves down on the seat and then turn on the suction. Somehow it doesn't sound like fun.

Ate Chinese tonight for Larry. He settled down to the table with his food heaped up on his plate with all of his food touching. I ate mostly American (Pizza, chicken, roll) but did get some sweet & sour chicken and some egg drop soup. Also didn't miss out on the fried donuts that all chinese buffets have.

Heading out in the morning. Another 230 miles to Corpus Christi.

Kemah Boardwalk

The Boardwalk.


Larry (front seat) on the Boardwalk Bullet.






Larry feeding the sting rays.

Camp site at Lake Cypress Springs, TX.

Drove over to the Kemah Boardwalk today. We were a little early but traffice picked up by lunch time. Road the train together. Then Larry rode the roller coaster - the Boardwalk Bullett. He thought it was great. Thought about riding the Inverter (which goes upside down) but decided that maybe he was getting too old for that kind of ride. Had lunch at the Flying Dutchman - an original eatery of the Boardwalk--which has been thru two hurricanes and still standing. Finally got a little exotic with my eating. I had a 7 oz orange ruffey coated in almonds and a jalapeno sauce over it. Laid on a bed of rice. You would think that the closer we get to fresh fish the cheaper it would be. But NOOOO it's still expensive. May have to eat at Windy's and McDonalds for a couple of days.

Larry got me home in time to watch the second half of the New England/San Diego game. And now I'm all settled in to watch the next game - complete with hot tea and chip and dip.

Sea Wolf Park

Close quarters!!!

The USS Cavalla in Sea Wolf Park

Went to Sea Wolf Park out on Pelican Island today. Cold and windy. At least the sun finally came out. I think the temp was in the 50's but it felt like 30's. The park itself is just that - a park on a windy point. However, berthed there are two WWII ships: a submarine, the USS Cavalla and a destroyer, the USS Stewart. The Cavalla is the only remaining ship from the WWII era that is credited with sinking an air craft carrier. The Stewart served in the Atlantic escorting convoys to Europe. I have a whole new respect for submariners - pretty tight quarters. You'd have to really LIKE your fellow ship mates to serve on those

Ate once again at a fish restaurant. We've had Mexican twice since stopping here in the Houston/Galveston area and fish twice. However, I had a hamburger. Larry had the $22 seafood platter. I did eat one of his shrimp kisses - a shrimp, stuffed with jalapeno cheese and wrapped in bacon and fried. Really good and I'm sure low in cholesterol. We went to Wal-Mart to get a CD made of my photos. While we were waiting, we walked the sea wall. Again, Cold and Windy. They were surfing on the little waves while we were there. Lots of families on the shores.

We stopped at Lowe's and I bought a 4" pot of pansies for the front of the camper and Larry bought a landscaping light for the flag pole complete with light sensor.

Our Anniversary

Houses on stilts.

This was "sit at camp and do nothing" day. We did do laundry and spent about two hours finding a place to stay in the Corpus Christie area. Most seemed to be full or too expensive. Plus, Larry has gotten spoiled and wants activities to be included. He also has seen that some places have hot tubs and spas so he now thinks that would be a good idea.

I did find some other sites that show that I'm not in Kansas any more. We've gone from snow routes to evacuation routes. We build a basement for protection from the storms. They build on stilts to protect from the storm surges. Even a brand new middle school on Crystal Island was up on concrete columns. It was sitting right on the coast. Beautiful homes and I can't even image building down here knowing that it's only a matter of time before a hurricane comes along. The trees are totally different. Palms, or course, but others as well. I do see an occasional cedar.


After Larry and I picked out a new place to stay, he kicked back in the easy chair to watch TV while I put in my walking DVD to exercise. He watched two episodes of Hanna Montana (Dolly Pardon was in the first one - I'm guessing he thought she'd show up in the next one). And, it's raining again. That's why we chose today to hang close. We'll start hitting the tourist pits again tomorrow. First stop will be Sea Wolf Park in Galveston; Kemah Boardwalk Sunday and NASA Monday. Heading out Tuesday.

Visited the Port of Houston Thursday. It was a cruise on the Sam Houston. A 95' x 24' boat that holds about 100 passengers. There were about 12 of us that day. We got a complementary soda and coffee. The Port of Houston is about 25 miles long and is the 8th largest in the world. About 7500 ships pass thru this waterway each year. This summer the Coast Guard stopped all photography of the area so I couldn't take my camera. Did some bird watching but nothing unusual at this point. More pelicans and blue herons - which are beautiful - but can be seen in Kansas. Different types of gulls and terns.

Trying to upload pictures but not very successful. Will try to add a couple more later.

Trip to San Leon and Galveston

We drove south, Tuesday, thru the piney woods of east Texas and arrived at San Leon RV park around noon. As we drove south, we were surrounded by the tall pine trees. It was like driving thru a wall of them. Obviously, lumber is a big industry in this area. About the time we rolled into Liberty, TX we drove out of the trees and into refineries. This is the land of oil. We left the piss elm of Kansas and settled under a piss pines in Livingston. We went from Mistletoe all over Oklahoma and into Texas and came to Spanish Moss. We did bring the wind with us to Lake Cypress Springs and into Galveston. And now we're dealing with lots of water. Bays, canals, bayous everywhere. I can't help but think that misquitoes will be a problem in the spring.

We parked in a drizzle and set up the camper. Had to move it a little because we were parked too close to the electric box and put a small dent in the side of our slide-out when we hit the electric pole. I hope someday we get this all figured out. As the afternoon moved along, it started raining. It rained all night. The report on this evening's news was around 2" overnight.

In spite of all the glumness of this morning, Wednesday, we packed up the camera and the binoculars and headed for Galveston bay. However, we took the long route - on purpose. We went north (Galveston is south of our location) and drove around the north end of Galveston bay and over to the east side of the bay and came into Crystal Beach from the east. Took the ferry across to Galveston. Drove up and down the sea wall and landed at Landry's for late lunch/early supper. We were too late for Sea Wolf Park where a Navy destroyer is parked. We'll go back maybe Friday.

Tomorrow we're headed into Port of Houston for a boat tour of the shipping lane. We still plan to get the Johnson NASA Space Center. Around Saturday we're going to the Kemah Boardwalk. Larry wasn't excited about it until I read to him all the eating places that are there. NOW we're going.

Getting ready to leave

Christmas at Rebecca and Willie's house.
Larry's brother, Dean, and his wife Lethia, have a bot bellied pig - Petunia. She will even sit if you have a cookie in your hand.

Well, the bon fire didn't happen - we got rain instead. So we went over to another camper to some new people we've met and learned to play uecher - pronounced u-ker. Apparently a German card game. Kinda combines pitch, hearts and pinochle. Only played with 9 thru ace cards and the jack and off-jack are the highest. Really hard to adjust to that theroy.

Stayed around camp yesterday. A neighbor came over and looked at Larry's ham radio set up. I finally finished a book. Takes about a month at this rate to get one read - used to take a week.

Still planning on leaving tomorrow morning and have to get camp somewhat organized. Larry's going to go play pinochle tonight. Pretty Woman is showing for the movie so I'll probably hang around home and start another book. Have some warranty work to be done on the trailer and Larry is wanting to get his yearly physical at a VA hospital so we may stay in the Galveston area a couple of weeks before moving on to the Corpus Christie camp grounds. This will let our mail catch up with us too. The bad thing is that I can see more chances of eating out in the Galveston/Houston area than I can sitting here in Livingston. Just have to control it some how. Plus lots more places to spend money on tourist spots.

First Blog

Well, I finally got some local help and got a blog set up. I'll try to update regularly but until I get my camera to talk to this vista program on my computer, the pictures may be few and far between. The one thing I have discovered is that I have no control over what order or where my pictures will turn up. So bare with me

I uploaded these pictures in order; however, the blog chose to turn them around. The first picture was at Ft. Gibson Lake by Wagoner, OK. Really back in the boonies. Larry said he hear the coyotes one night. The second picture was our camp at Blasi Campground. This was the first snow in December. I didn't go take a picture of the next snow with the two foot drift in front and back. The last picture is one camp site we had at Lake Afton. We were there for about 2 months. Had to change camp sites every 2 weeks.

So far retirement life is great. We talked to one guy who threw his watch up on the roof of his work as he left for the last time. Hasn't worn one since. We still seem to be on a schedule here at the Escapees camp in Livingston, TX so I'm still wearing a watch. So far we've done two tours - one of the mail facility (largest of it's kind in the country) and the CARE Center which is for Escapee members who need independent living or are just recovering from an illness. Really great facility - again, only one of its kind in the country. Larry went to a Blue Cross/Blue Shield meeting (not me); we went to an acoustic jam session; a computer group this morning after my line dancing class and that was after eating a great breakfast at the CARE center for $3/each. We have another breakfast tomorrow morning and then a Bon Fire tomorrow night. In between, we've washed windows on the camper and washed the truck. Gone for a couple of walks and, of course, eaten out twice - one Cajun and one Mexican. Sunday night is an ice cream social and Monday at 4:00 is a birthday party with cake and ice cream. Yes, weight watching is going to be a serious issue.

The temperatures here have gone from around mid to upper 30's in the morning, to upper 60's and lower 70's by afternoon. Humidity has been running about 30% but I hear it gets worse on some days, even in the winter. We're in shirt sleeves by afternoon. I was even thinking about getting out the shorts.

We plan on leaving here Tuesday morning and heading for San Leon on the Gulf coast south of Houston - close to Galveston.

P.S. For you WSU basketball fans, Mark Turgeon who now coaches Texas A & M is referred to as the Turgeon General. We get lots of Texas A&M news sitting here close to College Station. That TV station is the only good reception we have. The rest of the channels come in from Houston and aren't very good yet. Good thing we have Direct TV.

Our Story:

Larry and I will be married 33 years on the 18th of Jan. We've raised 3 kids and now have two grandsons. Larry turned 65 in December and decided he'd had enough and wanted to hit the road. We had an estate sale and got rid of all of our household and garage items (what the kids didn't want). Shortly after that, the house sold too. We were in our Hitchiker 36' 5th wheel for about 3 months before we hit the road.

Both of our companies gave us very nice retirement parties. We stayed in Wichita long enough to have Christmas with the family. We have not only left our family, we're also missing good friends from our work and our P.T. Cruiser group that we were so active with.

Left on December 27th between snow storms. First stop was in Wagoner, OK where Larry has twin brothers, Don & Dean. Don is in the hospital. We left there on Jan. 2nd and headed for Mt. Vernon to visit Larry's older brother, Wayne. He and his wife, Sharol, have a home on Lake Cypress Springs. We stayed at a campground there and had a really nice visit.

Left there on Jan. 8th and headed for Livingston, TX. Livingston is the home to the Escapee organization. They are a mail forwarding service and have several campgrounds throughout the south. There are lots in all the campgrounds that you can buy to set your camper on or, as in the campground, there are actual stick built homes for sale. They also have an independent residence area for those of us that are off the road but still want to live in our own campers. They provide laundry, 3 meals a day, exercise programs and assistance getting to your doctors. All for $1200 a couple. They also clean your camper every other week. Only one of it's kind in the nation.

The rest of our travels should be chronicled in the blog above.