Monday, December 24, 2012

Friends and Summer Job


Rockport, Texas
Saltwater Flats RV Resort
Weather Condition; High 81 Low 63, Sunny

We have been busy this week. On Wednesday we went to the post office to mail a few Christmas gifts and had lunch at The Shack - Bar B Q in Fulton.

Friday we attended a 60th wedding anniversary for our good friends Charlie and Carol. WOW! Sixty years, that’s a life time. They are a wonderful couple.

On Saturday we did laundry and ran to the grocery store to pick up a few last minute items.

Sunday a group of us met for lunch. We went to Butter Churn. It’s a buffet with home style cooking. We all stuffed ourselves and had a good visit. 

Later that afternoon we drove our friends Charlie and Carol to the Corpus Christi International Airport. They’re flying to Amarillo to spend Christmas with their daughter and family.

I did skip a day there, Thursday! I skipped Thursday because that was an interesting day for us. We decided last summer that we would try our luck at bidding on a gate attendant job with Our Lands and Waters Foundation. We requested to be placed on the bidders list for summer 2013 season. We received our bid packet on November 27th.  The deadline for bidding was December 18th.

Can I just say that it covered a lot of information? It was 61 pages that contain information covering the job description and a lot of legal jargon!   

We’ve never bid on a job. This was a new experience for us. We didn’t expect to get the job but at least we would have knowledge for future bidding.

We read the bid packet and talked about it. A week or so later we read it again. We discussed it and dropped it. A week later we discussed it some more and sent emails to the contact asking for clarification on a few items. We read the packet again and had a lengthy discussion. This time we decided to go for it.

We submitted our bid for 3 different parks on December 10th.  We planned on getting a response sometime after the first of the year.

Thursday morning we received a call informing us that we were awarded the bid.  We couldn’t believe it! We have a summer job near our home turf.

The job is gate attendant at a Corps of Engineers lake. This park has 23 RV sites, day use pavilion and 2 boat ramps. The hours are 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. 4 days on and 4 days off. Our contract dates are April 1st to September 30th. We are looking forward to the experience and the extra cash will be nice too. We will be paid for our hours and provided with an RV site with utilities and storage building.

We were going to spend most of our summer in the area anyway due to a few events that we were planning on attending so we’ll be getting paid for being in the area, how sweet is that?! 

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Christmas Party Time

We had a Christmas party at the park club house. It was a nice party with a gift exchange too.







This a sign at the entrance of a neighborhood.


Sunday, December 16, 2012

Progreso Mexico


Rockport, Texas
Saltwater Flats RV Resort
Weather Condition; High 82 Low 60, Cloudy

Yesterday we drove to Progreso Mexico with our friends Bob and Pauline. We woke up early to leave by 7:30 A.M. We stopped off at the Bakery Café for breakfast in Aransas Pass before getting on the road.

The drive is about three hours. We didn’t see much because there isn’t a lot to see between Corpus Christi and the Mexican border.

We arrived at the border a little after eleven. We parked on the Texas side and walked across. We didn’t encounter any lines.


Street vendors lined both sides of the sidewalks. It was almost impossible in a few places to walk thru the crowds.

We slid into a bakery so Bob could have a pastry and a coke. We listened to the mariachis play. 


Afterwards we were back out on the sidewalk maneuvering thru the crowds and vendors.

Dawn found a T-shirt and we picked up a few things for a friend.  We were back at the truck by two or two-thirty.

Bob drove us to Donna to the flea market so we could get some fresh produce. We bought grapefruits, oranges, limes, cilantro and watermelon.

We had intentions to walk thru the flea market and look around but we were all tired. We returned to the truck and headed back to Rockport. Bob stopped in Kingsville and we had dinner at Whataburger.

We arrived home a little after seven.

Our fur kids were really glad to see us. Several of our neighbors took turns checking on them throughout the day.

Our neighbor Marsha came over shortly after we got home. She brought over a bottle of margarita. She and Dawn sat outside until ten talking and laughing. I took a shower and went to bed!

Saturday, December 8, 2012

Loss of a Friend


Rockport, Texas
Saltwater Flats RV Resort
Weather Condition; High 87 Low 67, Sunny

The mood here has been very sad since Tuesday. That’s when we found out our friend Colette passed away. She was only 70 years old.

Colette and her husband pulled out of the park a week ago Wednesday morning driving to Irving, Texas so she could have noninvasive back surgery. Her back surgery was on Friday. The word is that the doctor wasn’t able to get it all done in the first surgery so on Monday she was back in surgery. We were told that during her second surgery her heart stopped and there were complications. Colette was moved to ICU. On Monday we were told things didn’t look good. Colette died Tuesday evening.

It's just so surreal. We thought she'd be returning here in a week or so. Everyone's in shock.

Colette’s family held a memorial service for her on Friday in Irving.  Unfortunately that’s 400 miles from here.

Colette and her husband started full-timing this past spring.

We will all miss her.

We spent yesterday in Corpus Christi with our friends Bob and Pauline. We walked around the mall and had lunch at Golden Coral. We all stuffed ourselves to the gills!

Monday, December 3, 2012

Looking Like Christmas Here


Rockport, Texas
Saltwater Flats RV Resort
Weather Condition; High 87 Low 67, Sunny

We’ve been doing our usual housekeeping things and we’ve been trying to help with Christmas decorations at the clubhouse.

Someone mentioned we needed to find a Christmas tree and decorations for the clubhouse. Dawn and I took her old recliner to the local thrift store and noticed a Christmas tree box lying on the ground beside the dumpster. Dawn asked the gentleman unloading the recliner from the truck, if the tree was going to be thrown away. The man said it was not all there and we could have it if we wanted it.

Dawn grabbed the top of the tree out of the box and she also snagged some of the tree branches.

When we got home, I found a block of wood and used my drill to drill a hole in the block. This block is now a tree stand. The little tree is only a couple of feet tall, but it will work for now.

 With the extra limbs I made two large wreaths for the door. We left the wreaths lying on the table and told everyone that the wreaths needed some decorations.

The past couple of days we have been busy building a couple of Christmas light trees for the outside. Our friend Bob has one and we wanted one too. When we were leaving to get the supplies, our friends Peter and Judy asked if we would get enough supplies to make them one too.

First day we built wooden base, painted and cut PVC.



Day two, we installed the hooks and strung the lights. 


 It looks so nice. Thanks Bob for all your help and patients.

 Our neighborhood is looking festive.

More winter Texans pulled in the past couple of days.  

Monday, November 26, 2012

Watching Dolphins

Dawn and I drove over to Port Aransas this afternoon. We parked at the city park at the ferry and watched the dolphins playing in the wake of the big ships.












Friday, November 23, 2012

Thanksgiving and Recliners


Rockport, Texas
Saltwater Flats RV Resort
Weather Condition; High 85 Low 62, Sunny

We had a great Thanksgiving here at Saltwater Flats RV Resort. We had a pot luck lunch. About twenty people showed up and there was a lot of really good food.



After lunch there was a Hen Party!

There aren’t very many winter Texans at this park.  A few of the winter people didn’t join us for lunch. Some had other plans and some stayed in.

Seems like most of the sites are weekenders. There are a few sites that are still empty. Some winter Texans don’t migrate until after the holidays.

Today was the left-over luncheon. Almost as many people showed up for the left-overs.

Dawn and I drove over to Corpus Christi today. We wanted to check out the half price recliners at World Market. You looked at them before and liked the fact they are small recliners with low backs. World Market was having a black Friday sale and the recliners were half price.

We got all geared up to fight the crowds and the traffic. We left around 8 this morning.  We arrived at World Market about 8:45 and parked right in front of the store. We went in and there at the front sat the floor display for the recliner. There was a couple looking at it.  We finally got our chance to try out the recliner and we both thought it was comfortable.

We went straight to the cashier and paid for 2 recliners! The cashier said it was funny that we were buying 2 because they only had 3.  Glad we got there when we did!

We tied the 2 large boxes in the bed of the truck and drove back home. They look really nice and are very comfy too. 

The forecast is calling for rain, so we currently have 4 recliners in our living-room. It’s tight but we can manage until tomorrow morning.

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Lookout! It's Raining Ducks


Rockport, Texas
Saltwater Flats RV Resort
Weather Condition; High 84 Low 58, Sunny

There is never a dull moment here at Salt Water Flats RV Park! Saturday morning Dawn and I were walking the dogs when we noticed our next door neighbor walking ahead of us. As we walked down the street we saw a Redheaded duck fall from the sky and almost hit our walking neighbor in the head. That’s right! A duck fell out of the sky!

The duck landed on the pavement hard. It laid there a second and then sat up. It tried to walk but fell over. After a few minutes it moved a few feet and sat back down.

A short time later a crowd of people gathered around and discussed what should be done for the duck. One of our neighbors got on the phone and made several phone calls. It’s the weekend and no one wants to be bothered with a wounded duck. Finally, a call to the game warden did the trick. A game warden showed up and when she approached the duck it struggled but moved into the woods behind the park.

The game warden looked around in the woods but couldn’t find the injured duck. She explained that maybe it needed time to recuperate and might even survive.

The following afternoon we were sitting outside when we saw the redheaded duck flying just above the trees. It flew out of the park back towards the bay.

Dawn has been playing cards almost every evening with some of the other ladies. On Wednesday nights we play card bingo.

I spent Monday morning washing the fiver. It was just begging for a good washing. It looks so much better without the bugs, tree sap and road grime.

The awning also got a good scrubbing. It’s been 6 months since it was washed. I was being supervised while I worked.

Yesterday we drove to Lowe’s and picked up 3 rubber stair treads for the fiver steps. Our steps get slick when they get wet. I also glued a rug on the extra step I bought a while back for Dawn.


This morning I took full advantage of the beautiful weather and cleaned the windows and put a coat of waxed one side before it got too warm for waxing.

And people think full-timers are always on vacation!

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Birthday Happy Hour!!!!


Rockport, Texas
Saltwater Flats RV Resort
Weather Condition; High 73 Low 58, Windy

We’ve been taking care of housekeeping chores. Our friends Bob and Pauline pulled in on Monday. It’s great having our winter family together.

We have a few more people yet to pull in. We’re really looking forward to having everyone here for the winter.

Dawn put together a Happy Hour at the clubhouse for my birthday last night. She went all out and made dips and appetizers for the party.


Yes, I'm now 52. Wow, where has the time gone?

As you can see, I got all dressed up for the party!


Our friend Pauline made a twinkee cake. Boy that was good!

She invited everyone to meet at 4:00 at the club house. We had a good turn out and lots of laughs.

This is everyone singing Happy Birthday.

Thanks Dawn for a great birthday get together.  

Friday, November 9, 2012

All Settled In


Rockport, Texas
Saltwater Flats RV Resort
Weather Condition; High 81 Low 68, Sunny

We’re all settled in here in Rockport. Our RV repair man came by on Monday and replaced the propane line to the stove. Dawn was so excited to be able to cook indoors again.

Daryl is a really nice guy and most of our RV friends in Rockport use him for repairs. He is working on an estimate for the repair of the other damage. We’re just glad to have our stove back in working condition.

We have been spending time visiting with our winter friends. We’ve enjoyed a few happy hour’s and played some cards.

We really like the larger sites here at Saltwater Flats. The truck is parked completely off the street. The grass is really nice too.

The owners are slowly getting the club house sit up for winter Texans. Yesterday they installed a counter top with a double burner stove and microwave. They moved the mail boxes to the club house area.  They have bought a dozen card tables with chairs for us to use for cards and get togethers.

Everyone has not made it in yet. Friends Marsha and Jim will be here on Sunday. Bob and Pauline will be arriving on Monday. There are a few others that won’t be arriving until after Thanksgiving.

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Winter Home - Rockport,Texas

WOW! We've been busy since we arrived back in Rockport.

We pulled into the park and there were a group of our friends sitting at our site. We tried to back into our site but Oak tree limbs were hanging over too far and they had to be trimmed. Our friends made sure they were trimmed back right away.

We finally got the fiver situated and visited with everyone before getting sit up. It was late afternoon so we did the bare essentials and chilled.

Yesterday morning we hit the floor running. We were to our favorite place for hair cuts. If ever in Rockport and need a hair cut, stop by Visible Cuts (Walk-ins only). Tom or Nga will treat you right. We get the best haircuts there. Visible Cuts, 1940 Hwy 35 North, Rockport,TX.

Dawn getting her hair cut

After hair cuts we stopped by the car wash and scrubbed 2 months of dirt and sap off the truck.

From there we stopped by Wal-Mart and picked up a few supplies.

From there we stopped by Subway for a sandwich.

From there we returned back to the fiver. I pulled out the awning, put out the rope lights and applied a coat of wax on the truck before dark.

This is our site

View down the street


Friday, November 2, 2012

Return to Rockport Texas

We arrived in Rockport yesterday afternoon. When we arrived at our assigned site we were greeted by a group of our winter friends.

We have been busy since we have arrived.