Our Next Chapter!: January 2016

We have been in Rockport, Texas almost a month and one more month to go! We have settled in to the campground. I have been trying to do the exercise classes 3 times a week and we have been walking Sophie at least a mile or two every day! I actually used my phone and U tube to show a chair yoga video when one of the other gals was away from the campground. There are a lot of group activities most involve card games or food! We have been to a few, Taco night, soup and potato dinner and of course the ice cream social! We also went to the wiener roast last week! But it was so cold out no one stayed too long. One thing I have not been happy about is that the pool is not open. They say that it is under renovations and there is no real estimate of when it will open. I may try the heated community pool this weekend as we are supposed to be getting some warm weather.

Speaking of weather we have had to use the heat most mornings and sometimes in the evening, but a lot of the days here have been warm …60’s to 70 pleasant. There are lots of windy days and nights and you will see branches down all over the park, BUT NO SNOW! One night a thick fog rolled in and along with it the smell of a campfire somewhere; we could barely see our neighbor’s rigs! We went to the beach last week for some sun, while our friends and relatives in CT, PA and MA were cleaning up the snowstorm! Kristin got over 2 feet of snow! It was a bit breezy so it wasn’t like a real beach day, but it was beautiful! Dave went in the water saw some jellyfish and we sat and watched the people for an hour or so.

We have gone to Corpus Christi two or three times now. We walked the beach area one day, went to the South Texas Botanical Garden and then another day we toured the USS Lexington an aircraft carrier, which is now a floating museum. That was very interesting to see and tour. We took a lot of pictures of airplanes and made a little book and story, which we sent to Gavin! This RV park is near a naval training field so we always have airplanes going over! Gavin would love it!

We have found two great places to take Sophie one is a hike and bike path about 2 miles and the other is a park with a lake and lots of birds. We really only found the park this week so we will do some more exploring! All in all we keep busy and sometimes we just do NOTHING and it feels great!

There are many other things we intend to do in this area before we head up towards Austin in March. We should be wearing boots and hats and saying y’all by then!

Until I write again, stay warm and remember SPRING comes after winter! We need to get out of the south before it gets too hot!

orchid room at the botanical garden

a shrimpin boat

more orchids

some of the planes on the Lexington

deer on our walk

Sophie at the beach

following the guys as they hold the wires up for the tall and extra large load

look at Dave and some ducks
a tufted duck

OK I know I have not blogged in forever…..Last time we were on our way to Texas from Arizona! What a state! Not as big as Alaska but formidable in its own right. We drove through cattle land, more cotton fields and endless acres of ranch land. We saw many border patrol vehicles on the side of the road, we were stopped like everyone else and asked questions regarding our citizenship and what we had in the RV! Once the drug and people-sniffing dog had gone around the entire perimeter of the RV we were on our way! The biggest thing we noticed in Texas was the decrease in diesel and gas prices! It was wonderful.

We arrived at Wilderness Oaks RV Park around The 20^th of November and stayed for 2 nights. We used up all our food and drink, packed a lot of stuff under the RV and parked it in a spot for storage while we went on to the Northeast for the holidays. We didn’t have much time to take in any of the park activities but did meet some nice folks who will be here for most of the winter!

Our drive to PA was a blur…Thank goodness for Joanne helping us with our reservations, there were some nights we got to the hotel and couldn’t even think straight. We drove 1800 miles in the truck in about 3 and half days. This was after a thousand miles in 4 days in the RV. We only stopped for meals and sleep and to let the dog have a walk or two. Exhausting!

BUT we made it to Kristin’s the night before Thanksgiving and got to have a wonderful holiday with her and Rod! We stayed not to far from them and got to help a bit with the meal prep, but wow that’s a lot of work! We were glad Kristin did the cooking and we could sit back and enjoy! So many good times with all the Snyder’s for the dinner! It was also nice to see the cats, although I do not think they were happy to see us…..I think it had to do with Sophie! We didn’t do any shopping on Black Friday; we just hung out and had some fun!

Saturday we headed to Massachusetts to spend time with Korin, Brian and Gavin. We did so many fun things while we were there including the Polar Express, helping with the decorating and wrapping gifts. It is truly a magical time of year when seen through the eyes of a 5 year old. Listening to Gavin sing all the Christmas carols, teaching him new ones, watching the Christmas shows and reading the Christmas books! It was great. Hearing Gavin say things when opening his gifts like I wanted one of these my whole life…that is just priceless! I did get a bad cold early in our visit and that kept me from seeing everyone that I had wanted to see, but I was able to get in a lot of visiting and cookie making. We made our annual trip down to Essex to the Griswold Inn for a wonderful dinner with Cindy, Stephanie, Barbara and Charlie! Always a fun time there. Christmas Eve we went over to Kevin’s house and had a great time. It is so funny because now there are so many kids again running around and having fun, it reminds me of when Kristin and Korin were little and all the Eves we spent there! December in the Northeast was extremely warm and we were waiting for snow and cold. We did get a little bit of snow after Christmas. We stayed until New Years Day and then we were on the road again!

We had to keep watching weather reports due to all the flooding and storms but we finally decided we could go back the same way we came up! Our first day on the road we made it to Kristin’s in near record-breaking time and had a great afternoon! Rod had gone to NYC so we will have to see him again another time. We left Kristin’s and drove to near Harrisburg. The next day we drove to Virginia and saw Dave’s sister Debbie and his niece Jennie. We have not seen Debbie in quite a long time and it was great to catch up. We realized after she left, we didn’t take any pictures.

After that it was just driving driving driving, but we did make a stop in NOLA so that Dave could see the city, the French Quarter, and have a beignet. Even Sophie got in on the action! I know everyone raves about NOLA but I find it to be a very dirty city! I have seen it twice, once in the heat of July and now in January! I have found it that way both times. Sorry ….

We decided to make a push from NOLA to get to our RV the next day and although it was a long day and a lot of driving we did get to the Wilderness Oaks park on Tuesday eve a little after 5! Our RV was still here, no problems no leaks no critters and it felt good to be “home”.

Wednesday we spent moving to our spot that we will be staying on until March. We actually had an escort in to the site, he had to go get the chainsaw on a stick and cut off several large branches, but we made it in, met some of our neighbors and settled in a little. Since then we have been checking out some of the activities here. I have been going to exercise and we went to an ice cream social (defeats the exercise I guess) and last night we went to social hour. We met some more people from Kansas and Missouri. We have found a great walking path and Sophie loves going there so we have been walking nearly every day. The weather has been ok, we did have a few really cool nights in the 30s but it seems to be followed by some nice warm days! Yesterday was 62 and beautiful! We are finding our way around town, I found the church, Dave found a donut place and we have just been relaxing! Maybe I will get into blogging a bit more now that we are settled in again!

Happy New Year! 2016 will be a year of more fun places for us to visit!