We're Busy Girls Here

We haven't posted anything recently because we've been busy. We had the Christmas Party at the club house. Everyone brought appetizers and and we had live music.

On Christmas day we had a pot luck luncheon. The park owners provided turkeys and ham. The food was wonderful.

On Monday nights there is a JAM session. That always draws a large crowd.

Tuesday night is Happy Hour. That's always a lot of fun.

Wednesday night is card bingo. We have won a few times.

Thursday night Happy Hour again!

Sunday night is Ice Cream social. fifty cents a scoop.

We mentioned at some point in conversation that we were once caterers and shortly after we were asked to put something together for New Years.

Dawn and I have been busy preparing for a the party. It should be fun. We are lucky enough to be able to use the club house kitchen.

Today we did the grocery shopping. I made over a hundred meatballs and we cooked seventy mushroom sliders. We are doing all that we can in advance since we don't have our tools of the trade as in the past. It fun
being able to plan a party and cook again.

We'll see how we feel on Saturday after the party and clean-up is done!!!!!

Merry Christmas to All

Wishing you and your family

Merry Christmas

Just Chillin

Here's Your Sign

We had this made yesterday while at a local arts fair. Dawn has been wanting one for a while and so now we have one.

Santa drove through the park here yesterday

Chores and More

Wednesday night is BINGO night here. It was our first time to play since we arrived. They play it with cards. It is a lot of FUN. Each game cost a quarter to play. There were 20 of us playing so the pot was five dollars each game. On the third game I won along with two other people so the pot was divided three ways. Dawn won the fifth game. She was the sole winner of the five dollar pot. Great news, we can now afford to do laundry!!!!!!!

Yesterday we ran errands. We went by WalMart and picked up a few things. One of the items we bought was a pair of awning deflappers. Another was the awning anchors. These are must haves here if you want to keep your awning out. The wind doesn’t get very high here but just to be on the safe side everyone here uses them.

We also visited HEB and bought groceries.

We arrived back at the fiver in time to unload groceries and put them away before Happy Hour started. I decided to stay home and set up the awning so Dawn went without me.

Happy Hour here is when everyone meets up with a chair in one hand and their drink in the other. Everyone sets in a big circle and visits for one hour. It starts at 4 and ends at 5.

The weather was cool and dreary today. We hadn’t made any plans for the day so Dawn and I went to the laundry mat first thing. It only took about an hour and we were done with that little chore. It didn’t seem like it took that long because our site neighbors were doing their laundry too and we visited the entire time.

We drove home put our laundry up and had a bite to eat. We then decided we needed to get out for a while. We drove to Padre Island. 

We took the ferry over. The fur kids went crazy. They were barking at everything. They barked at the ferry employees, the dogs in adjacent cars and the swarm of birds that were landing on the truck.

We drove around and checked out what they had to offer and then drove back home. 

A day in the Life at Rockport

Rockport, Texas

Weather Condition; High 74, Low 62,

We are really enjoying our stay at Coastal Oaks RV Resort. We are still newbies at being full-timers thing. We are learning as we go. We have learned that all parks are not alike. Here at Coastal Oaks, the residences make up a committee. That committee decides on what type of events are held at the club house.

Since we arrived here, they have had a Sunday Ice Cream Social (.50 per scoop, bring-your-own-bowl & spoon), Pizza Party (You call and order your own pizza and have it delivered to the club house), Game Night (cards or whatever).  $2.00 Bingo and Thursday night Happy Hour (bring your own drink and lawn chair).

We have learned that on Monday and Thursday the propane truck drives through. If you need propane, just set your tank out by the curb and attach your check. The propane man will fill it up and take your check ($24.00). 

You need to set your trash out at the curb before 9:00 a.m. and it will be picked up by maintenance.    

A premium site has a concrete pad twice the size of a standard site. You can use a 2x4 as a curb stop so not to get too close to you RV.

There are people that will complain about anything no matter where they are.

There’s sand spurs are everywhere. They are not dog friendly. Our fur kids have snagged their share of theses nasty stickers.

There are tons of jelly fish in the water here. Most are died. This is due to the red tide.  Red tide is a common name for a phenomenon also known as an algal bloom, an event in which marine, or fresh water algae accumulate rapidly in the water column and results in discoloration of the surface water. It is usually found in coastal areas.

Some red tides are associated with the production of natural toxins, depletion of dissolved oxygen or other harmful effects, and are generally described as harmful algal blooms. The most conspicuous effects of red tides are the associated wildlife mortalities of marine and coastal species of fish, birds, marine mammals, and other organisms.

We have noticed some dead ducks along the water’s edge too. The smell isn’t very nice either.

But with all that aside, we wore shorts and flip flops today. That’s nice for mid December!

Exploring Goose Island

Coastal Oaks RV Resort, Site 411

Rockport, Texas

Weather Condition; High 64, Low 34,

We have been taking care of a few chores

And we’ve also done a little more exploring. Yesterday we drove out to Goose Island State Park. Dennis and Donna (dennisdonna.blogspot.com) recommended we check it out. We’re so glad they did. It is a very neat state park.

Before we arrived at the park gate we came across a herd of deer grazing along the roadway. There were at least a dozen or more of them. They are so graceful.

We drove through the park to see all it had to offer. First of all, the campsites are beautiful. Most are nestled into the trees and isolated from site of the other campsites. The oak trees are beautiful. There are also campsites on the beach.

 This is what we learned about Goose Island State Park. The park consists of 321.4 acres. It is surrounded by the St. Charles and Aransas Bays.

They have a variety of campsites such as, open cabanas campsites with water and electricity. These sites are  located right on the beach overlooking the bay.

They also have campsites in heavily, tree-shaded areas. They consist of water, electric and BBQ grills. There are restrooms with and without showers located throughout the park. 

 They also have a fish-cleaning shade shelter, a double-lane boat ramp and a 1620-foot, lighted fishing pier. They also have a group recreation hall.

Goose Island State Park is located at the southern tip of Lamar Peninsula amid the bays and estuaries of the Texas Gulf Coastal Bend. The mainland portion of the park is comprised of a live oak, red-bay woods which contain yaupon holly, American beautyberry, coral bean and wax myrtle.

 They claim to have a Wildlife observation and photography opportunities include white-tailed deer, raccoon, armadillo, fox, squirrel, cottontail rabbit, and over 300 varieties of birds. The endangered whooping crane feeds on berries and blue crabs occurring in the coastal wetlands around Goose Island State Park.

We also went to see “The Big Oak”. This oak was named State Champion Coastal Live Oak (Quercus virginiana) in 1969, is thought to be one of the largest in the nation. Estimated to be over 1000 years old, the "Big Tree" has a circumference of 35 feet, is 44 feet in height and has a crown spread of 90 feet. 

We also drove along the Fulton Beach Road.

Coastal Oaks RV Resort, Site 411

Rockport, Texas

Weather Condition; High 79, Low 61,

We really like our new location. Rockport is a very laid back little town. The people are very friendly and the RV park is located in the middle of a residential neighborhood. But it has a country feel to it. We are within a quarter of a mile from the beach less than a mile from the HEB, Walgreens and Wal-Mart.

Everyone here at the park is very friendly. We are making lots of new friends. Most of the people here winter regulars here. This park has only been open for about 4 years and many of the people here have wintered here all four years. The guests here organize get-togethers at the club house. It’s just laid back here.

Today we got out a drove around and did a little exploring. We drove along the Fulton beach road. There are a lot of mom & pop shops and restaurants along the beach.

This afternoon we put up our Christmas tree. It is a cute lil 4 foot tree and fits our fiver perfectly.

 Today was the Rockport Tropical Christmas Festival. It started this morning at 10:00. They had Run, Chalk painting, giant kite flying, tree lighting, Sax Player, Polynesian dancers, birding seminar, whooping crane seminar, many different choirs, pet pageant, illuminated parade and fireworks display.

We went by the park this morning and checked out the kites. It was fun to see all the different types of kites.

We returned tonight to watch the illuminated parade and fireworks display. We sat in the bed of the truck to watch the parade.

It was warm enough that we wore our shorts all day. We are really starting to love it here.

Coastal Oaks RV Resort, Rockport, TX

This is a review of the Coastal Oaks RV Resort

Our site

The Office

Street view

Pool and Hot tub

Laundry Room

Rockport, Texas for Winter

Coastal Oaks RV Resort, Site 411

Rockport, Texas

Weather; high 82, low 70

We finally made it to Rockport, Texas.

We didn’t get to leave on Monday due to a family emergency and a sick kitty. 

We left Wednesday morning instead. Our little Squeaky has been sick off and on since September. The vet ran blood work and said he believed he had stomach cancer. He was on several medications and they were no longer helping. On Tuesday we had to have him put down. It was a very sad day for us. We have had Squeaky since he was born and he was 12 years old. We really miss him but we couldn’t let him suffer and longer.

We buried him alongside his dog brother Rocky.

We didn’t get to leave Rockwall as early as planned. It was 11:30 a.m. before we finally got on the road. 

We drove a little over 200 miles before we decided to stop for the day. We pulled into Rocky Branch Park in Somerville, TX around 3:30 p.m. We were told the park had just closed. The camp host told us to go back a few miles and check out Overlook Campground and Marina.  We pulled into that park about 4:00 p.m. Thank goodness; they had plenty of sites available. The sites were long enough that we didn’t have to unhook the fiver. We connected to the 30 AMP, hooked up the water and slid out the slides. We were exhausted. We made ourselves a sandwich and parked our butts in the recliners. We went to bed about 8:00 p.m. That’s right, 8:00 p.m.!!!!!

Know what happens when you go to bed at 8:00 p.m.????? You wake up at 4:00 a.m.!!!!!!

I made pancakes for breakfast and we watched the deer grazed. We didn’t have much to do in order to hit the road but we needed to let it get good and light outside before we hit the road. I’m NOT comfortable driving in unfamiliar territory after seeing soo many dead deer along the road side.

   

We pulled out of the park about 8:30 a.m. We did fine until we got to Victoria. WE first missed the loop and then we got on the loop heading in the wrong direction!!!! Anyway, we finally got it right and arrived in Rockport around 2:00 p.m.

The park is nice and the sites are close but not right on top of each other. Our neighbors are very friendly and several have stopped by to introduce themselves and invite us to Happy Hour.

We’ll give more information on the park in our next post.