Nov. 30: Thanksgiving Week

I worked three days this last week and the company I work for was nice enough to pay me for the holiday. A nice little surprise. I'll be on my own for two days next week so we'll see if I can keep myself busy. Ashley has a hard time doing her own work and finding things for me to do too.

Larry and I went swimming on Thanksgiving day and the day after. It's been a little cooler here since a cold front came thru late Friday night. Temps have been down in the 60's - too cold for me to go swimming. Larry went several times last week and today with some of the Canadians - temp. is 67. Another front is coming thru tonight and it should get clear down into the 40's overnight and 50's during the daytime.






Thanksgiving dinner was great. The owners fried two turkeys and provided a spiral cut ham. Larry got the honor of carving the turkey. He got to work with only the dark meat (the owners had already pulled the breast off and cut it up). Later, it was all put into aluminum pans and reheated in the oven. Everyone brought great side dishes. We had the mandatory green bean casserole, several dressings, mashed potatoes and gravy, candied sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce jello mold, couple of salads, rolls and turkey & ham. I brought the pumpkin dessert that I like to make - the recipe from P.T. Cruiser friends. The serving table is the air hockey game table. You can see the arch that goes over the top that keeps the score and time. They have special made plywood pieces to fit over the table and then we lay down sheets and a table cloth. Makes a good buffet surface.

There were lots of leftovers that we all got together the next night and ate again. Stuffed two nights in a row.

A couple more Canadians have moved in yesterday and I understand that the park will be full by January. Six of us (4 Canadians and us) went to the local hockey game last night - the Corpus Christi Ice Rays. About 4 of the 5 starters are from Canada. We played the Mississippi Riverkings. We girls all came away with free T-shirts so we'll be properly attired by the next game. They do play the Wichita Thunder occasionally - just not this year. I didn't take pictures at the hockey game because one hockey arena looks like another. However, I will take the camera next time because the mascot is really unique.


Almost every night, we meet our friends, Elise & Guy (pronounced Gee with a hard G) Cote (pronounced Kotae) and play Farkle and Queen of Spades. They're from the Quebec area. The other couple that came in yesterday, Tom & Rita, are from Prince Edward Island - more frequently referred to as PEI (home of Anne of Green Gables written by a distant cousin of Tom's). Rita said Texans seem to know about both Prince Edward Island or PEI as the Canadian locals call it. She said in Florida they kept asking what part of Rhode Island were they from? There have been other Canadians in the park but most move on to the valley after a day or two or a week at the most. By the end of January we'll be full of Canadians - which is good. Makes for different conversations on politics, food and traditions. It seems that our health discussions are about the same everywhere.

Nov. 23: Working around Working

This week has been a new experience for Larry and me. He's been left home alone and I've gone off to work - neither of us is used to that. Larry has gone swimming, attended the ice cream social and went to the dine out at a seafood place in Rockport where they dump the boiled shrimp, in the shell with the head, out on the table on wax paper. He did put in an application at the O'reillyAuto Parts store to drive a delivery truck but they haven't called back either.

My job in Alice (named after the King Ranch owner's daughter) is about 90 miles round trip. I work for National Oilwell Vargo which does sales, service and parts of oil rig equipment. I've been doing scanning, data input, and filing. So far it seems to be very interesting. Monday I get to learn a new copier already. Their old one was two years old. I'm replacing a lady who had a breast cancer tumor removed with full reconstructive surgery. Larry has not been called for any further assignments. We did complete a job application on-line today for Pet Smart. He thought maybe he could be a stocker.

We got the idea because we were in Pet Smart buying new kitty toys for our new cat and saw a sign that said they were hiring. The cat is a 2 1/2 year old calico that I named Gypsy. We bought Soft Claws for her nails but may eventually get them removed. So far her and Buster haven't seemed to hit it off. They hiss and growl at each other every time they get within eye sight.

Friday we went to the local roller derby - Hurricane Alley Roller Derby. We watched the Broads on Quads and the Black Eyed Bruisers - I think. They have a web sight: www.hurricanalleyrd.com. We sat on the front row. The front row gets giant fly swatters and when a girl gets an infraction, she skates by the front row and everyone gives them a swat. Then they either rejoin the pack or go sit in the penalty box. The fights that broke out were not very genuine. But it was loads of fun. My personal favorite was Side Show Sally. She's over 6' tall and quite hefty. When she blocked - you were blocked; when she was the one who skated thru the pack to make points - you got out of her way. This is a picture of her with her trophy of the year for best blocker skating past the fly swatter row.





Here's a short video of the fun that we had. The "arena" is just a small cord taped down to outline the track and the whole thing takes place in an old store located in an old strip mall. The area is about the size of a Goodwill Store.



Last Monday, we took the bikes up to Ocean Drive and rode along the coast. It was a beautiful day but probably didn't get much exercise because we just cruised. Went out on all three piers that are located here and rode around on them. One of the piers holds Joe's Crab Shack and Landry's Seafood Restaurant. The other has a boat ramp and a place to buy fresh fish. Took this picture of the USS Lexington and a shrimp boat that as coming in. Notice how calm the water is - no wind. We'd never been to the coast when the water was this calm. Totally different than when we were there last weekend.


Tonight we watched the Canadian Football Leagues super bowl - the Grey Cup. One of the Canadians here has Canadian satelite. They ran a cable from her camper to the club house and hooked it up to the TV in there. Some of us were rooting for the Montreal Alouettes; some for the Calgary Stampeders. There were 9 of us watching and Larry and I were the only Americans. Half of us were for the Aluettes and the other half for the Stampeders - made for a loud evening. We all brought snacks so we didn't starve. The Stampeders won. Canadian Football rules are different from ours: 3 downs, 110 yard field, 30 ft end zone, 10' wider field and 12 men. There were other odd rules but those were the most obvious - especially that end zone.

We've also been playing Farkle and Queen of Spades every night this week with our French Canadian friends who arrived last Sunday. Tomorrow it's back to work but it's a short week and Larry's going to do laundry. He's also going to apply at Auto Zone to see if they need drivers. Also going to go to another employment agency to see if they can keep him busy. He's done the dishes for me two nights but doesn't like messing with dinner. We ate out twice and I cooked something quick one night. He's going to BBQ tomorrow night.

Nov. 17: A beautiful week in C.C.

The wi-fi was down last night so I didn't get to put in my weekly blog until this morning. Good thing to do while I'm waiting 30 minutes for my thyroid pill to digest.

Our temperatures here have been in the lower 80's all week. A cold front came thru and now the day temp's are in the 60's. People are rushing to local retail stores to buy warmer clothes. Larry and I are still in t-shirts - Larry's still in shorts , I'm in jeans. Suppose to be in the 70's all this week with Thursday being around 81.

We both went into a local temp agency Tuesday and completed the paperwork and tests required. Larry got an assignment Wednesday morning to unload a truck. He and a couple other guys showed up but the truck didn't. He got paid two hours to do nothing. Today he's going to go to O'Reilly auto parts store by us to apply for a delivery job.

This morning I got a call to work 3 weeks for an oil company in Alice (about 50 miles west of here). I took it and it starts Wednesday. I'll have to get up at 6 am (that's in the morning--AAAGGGHHH), eat breakfast and drive west by 8:00. That will be an adjustment. I'll let you know how all that goes in next week's blog.

Saturday was a pot luck dinner at the club house. Not a lot of people but lots of really good food. I took a spaghetti casserole.

Yesterday we took the bikes over to Ocean Dr. to ride the sidewalk along the shore. Larry had to pump up my tire before we left and it was flat again by the time we got there. So we walked for 20 minutes and then sat and watched the kids in the skateboard park (and BMX bikes that weren't suppose to be there). Got up and walked some more.

Because it was my birthday, we went to Niko's Steak House. I had the Margarita Chicken (image that) which was wonderful. Larry had the usual prime rib. We both split a dessert of 1001 choc. chip 3 layer choc. cake. I'm not sure there were that many choc. chips in the icing but we definitely got our share of chocolate. Came with a scoop of ice cream too.

Then instead of exercising like we should have, we vegged out and watched Dallas finally win a game.

Since we're not doing too much new and exciting, I'll probably just wait until Sunday nights to update the blog. If something major happens between Sundays, I'll let you all know.

Nov. 9:

Thursday we spent some time with mineral spirits and rags cleaning off all the caulking around the trailer. The factory must have set it outside in a dust storm before the caulking dried. It's been dirty since we took delivery on it. While at the factory this past September, they told us how to clean it up so it's all pretty much back to white again.

Then we drove to the beach to see if we could detect any hurricane damage. Since both hurricanes split around Corpus Christi, there was none that we could see. Apparently a couple of the piers were lost due to some wind and mostly high tides but we didn't get that far north to see anything.



These pictures and sounds are from Mustang Island. We hadn't been there when the waves were that loud and the wind that high. It was a noisy afternoon.

Friday was a beautiful night for football. The temperature was in the 70's and palm trees were gently blowing in the wind. The local refinery was glowing just across the interstate like a small city. We both took sweatshirts (Larry in shorts)and walked across the street to attend the district 26 5A playoff. A team from south of San Antonio, Converse Judson, played Corpus Christi's best, Carroll. When we left in the third quarter, the San Antonio team was up by about 30 points. There was soooo much to see that I didn't get to see some of the game. We sat on the visitor's side because their ticket line was smaller. The home fans and visitors are divided by a chain link fence which begs the question "Why?". The home team had their band and what looked like the New York Radio City Rockettes cheering squad. They had pom poms and they all moved in sync with the band. The visitors brought a semi loaded with their band equipment. When half of the lights went out for about 30 minutes in the 2nd quarter, it sounded like a real battle of the bands. They finally figured out that they could play one at a time and actually be understood.

Saturday we drove west about 12 miles to attend a ham fest. While there, we attended a lecture on switching from analog to digital TV (I read NOAA fliers); and another one presented by the National Weather Service on hurricanes.

Came back from the ham fest and went swimming. The temperature was about 74 degrees and the pool was about 80ish. Not too bad as long as you stayed out of the slight breeze that came around every now and then. Larry even got in the hot tub. I didn't want to get heated up to 100 degrees and then step out into 70 degree air. I just sat in the sun and dried off.

I have also noticed that the locust are still in full voice down here. I even saw a locust shell today. And the ants are everywhere. We put down stuff around the tires and front jacks and sprayed the electrical cord and water hose to try to keep them out, but there are lots of them to fight. There was a whole trail of the larger leaf cutter ants but after I swept them off the patio, they haven't come back. There are smaller black and red ants and some of these are fire ants. We definitely want to keep them outside.

Today we watched football (can't get KC down here but always get Houston and Dallas) and took a couple of walks. Tuesday we'll be going to one or two employment agencies to see if thay can get us some temporary work while we're here.

Nov. 4: Election Day in Corpus Christi

I am so tired of all of this election stuff that we tried to run errands today and did laundry tonight. But here I am, back at the trailer, and Larry has CNN on. I make him watch Fox part of the time so he can see the bias on both networks. Kinda fun to sit back and watch them but I'm ready for this to be over.

Our camp site is along the west side of Hatch RV Park. We have shade trees and grass with a cement patio. The campers that come in for a week or two stay out in the middle of the campground with no trees. However, they get to put their campers on cement and have to set up their patios on the grass.





I have my own private grapefruit tree right in my back yard. Although I have been told that I have to share with the whole park. But it will be pretty cool to just walk out and pick my tree ripened fruit. Also, I think I have a Christmas cactus growing on the other side of the grapefruit tree. I'll get a local to verify that. It's getting ready to bloom out. Also, the mobile home next to us is owned by a retired pastor and his wife. She has a Poinsettia plant that is as tall as the end of her trailer. I should get a good picture of that this year.

Temperatures here have been running in the 80's during the day and down into the upper 50's at night. We're back to running the A/C day and night.

There are lots of workers in this park until the end of November. The local refinery is being rebuilt so it can produce low sulfur diesel. According to one guy Larry talked to, Valero is the only refinery producing diesel for most of the midwest area.

There is one couple that is slated to arrive any day, one middle of this month, one the end of December and another the middle of January. They were all here last year with us and we're really looking forward to catching up on all the news. All but the couple that will be getting here in January are from Canada.

This tree is one of those gorgeous oak trees that grow down here. They spread out short and squatty--like the Founders' Oak. This is the type that will grown a branch 20+ feet out before starting to grow up. I took this at our last camp ground in New Braunfels. These trees are everywhere. Now I know why Fredericksburg gave the oak tree pollen count all day long - it was always extremely high. They put out an acorn about the size and shape of a 9mm bullet. We are currently camped under one of these trees here at the RV park. I swept quit a few of those acorns off the patio when we set up yesterday. Don't know if they're edible or not - I'll have to find out.

Guess now I'll just sit back and see if I can stay up late enough to see who will be my next Commander-In-Chief. And as all the candidates say "God bless America".

Nov. 1: Wurstfest

Ya know, I love Myron Floren as much as the next guy, but after roughly 8 hours, I'd had all the German music I needed in one day (and if you don't know who Myron Floren is, ya all are not the accordion lovers I thought you to be). But I did have a great time and really enjoyed taking the short videos knowing that you all could share this fun music with Larry and me.

We took the River Road from Canyon Lake to New Braunfels. This lake crosses the Guadalupe River 5 times and follows the river most of the way. It was absolutely beautiful. We met the bicycle ride that was part of Wurstfest. About 1000 riders were registered and I think they all showed up. Fortunately, they were coming at us and we weren't behind them trying to get around. I got out on a bridge to take the picture on the right that I thought was showing some fall colors and Larry was saying I should check out the other side. When I turned around I saw lots of fall colors. We seem to be following the back side of the season. Not many trees turning colors yet around here.

We got to the park early (Wurstfest didn't open until 11:00am) so we went on a train ride that circumvents the park. Found out the squirrels have been conditioned to get food from the train. They came a runnin'. Even begged--as I captured in one photo.






The train also went by the Founders Oak. This beautiful tree was huge and fenced in so I'm assuming it's important. I could not find one piece of information on this tree on-line so I'm assuming it's a tree from olden days when the area was "founded". I should write for Wikipedia. These particular oak trees have a very strange growing pattern. They just send out branches where ever, some even along the ground. One home had steel cylinders up under the branches to support them for about 30 to 40 feet before the branch finally shot up into the air again. We've seen these supports under trees before but not for this long of a stretch.

Inside the gates to Wurstfest, the first thing I did, before the lines got long, was buy my beer tickets. You can only buy beer with tickets--$4 for one cup of beer. No place on the inside took credit cards, so about half way thru the day of feeding Larry, we made a trip to the on-site ATM. Photos attached of feeding Larry. Wurstfest is all about the sausage and he did them proud--even ate some sauerkraut. He had 5 sausages on a stick, a sausage & kraut bun and a sausage on a stick with a dinner roll. We shared the fried potatoes. I had potato soup, German Choc. Cake, pig in a blanket and German Choc. Pie. And, of course, one beer. My obligatory alcoholic beverage for the day.












There were 12 groups performing and some of them performed 3 times during the day. From 11:00 to midnight, you could listen to 24 performances. I've captured 3 of them here: The first group is the TubeMeisters. The second band is the Sauerkrauts. And the last guy was Kerry Christensen, Master Yodeler. He was extremely entertaining - even Larry enjoyed him.




There were bands and orchestras. The bands were in the "little tent" and the "big tent" depending on the size of your band. Both tents were always full. The orchestras were in Wursthalle. This is a very tall, long building that housed bars, picnic tables, a large dance floor and the orchestra. There is another 1/3 of the building behind me in this photo. People danced everywhere. At both tents where they could make room and especially in Wursthalle - the dance floor was filled. Let me tell you, there were people there older than me - much older - that I could not have kept up with. Probably why they've managed to achieve their age.

I now know why the Germans can drink so much beer. Not only do they dance A LOT, but it's an aerobic workout just sitting there. They have sing along songs, drinking songs (you have to learn in German) and move-your-body songs. You sway left and right, forward and backward and then stand up, sit down, stand up, sit down. And then you dance some more. One audience participation song was "Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken and McDonalds - kinda like YMCA. Enough activity to keep you sober.

The groups did try to branch out and play stuff other than polkas. I heard Ghost Riders in the Sky in German by the master yodeler (that will send tinkles up your spine). And I heard a remake of Alabama's "Ya Gotta Have a Fiddle In The Band". The words to this one went "If you're gonna play in Deutschland, ya gotta have a tube in the band. That bass guitar is hot but not in a German umpah band." It wasn't just all polkas, marches and waltzes. Cow bells were popular too.

The arts and crafts fair wasn't very big but if I needed to get my German outfit (there were many, many people there attending in their traditional German leather shorts, suspenders and hats), I could have done so there. Did buy a small package of choc. pecan toffee. Really, really good. These Texans really know how to make good food with their pecans.