Willis, Texas

We pulled out of Rockport at 8:30 and arrived in Willis at 1pm. Driving through downtown Houston was not fun, LOTS of traffic and slowdowns. Worst of all was launching our trailer three time over hellashious bumps, we almost but our home into orbit! When we opened up we had new stuff messed up inside for the first time. Nothing broken! This afternoon we had the blue light on the TV dish repaired and decided not to have the software upgrade installed, if it ain't broke don't mess with it.
We both put extra clothing on this evening and turned the ceramic heater on, darn. We went too far north! We are staying warm and watching 2001: A Space Odyssey tonight.

Still in Rockport

Not too much to report. We spent the weekend just hanging out here. Saturday we did the Wal-Mart thing and filled up the truck with diesel. Judy played 31 in the club house in the evening. Sunday we went to church, same one as last week. It was a nice new ELCA church that was friendly. The weather has been nice, sunny and 80s. Today it was quite windy, 20 to 30 mph with gusts up to 40 so we decided to just stay here, we'll move to Willis tomorrow. When we leave we have a narrow mile plus bridge to cross that will be open to the wind. Nice thing about this lifestyle, changes are easy. Today Judy did the Curves thing and played penny poker, I waxed the trailers front cap so the bugs will wash off easy. For lunch we tried BBQ brisket again at a "quaint" roadside stand that's always been busy but were disappointed.

Zach Taylor slept here

Zachary Taylor, "Old Rough & Ready" was the 12th President of the US. In 1845 he camped under this tree, so it's said. In 1845 he was staging in Texas to fight Mexico in early 1846 in the Mexican War. How they know it was this tree I don't know. I also don't know why he camped by this tree, there are lots of houses and motels nearby.

Aransas NWR

Today we went to a new Chinese buffet for lunch, it was pretty good. After that we went to Aransas National Wildlife Refuge and on the way passed a large control burn that was being done on the edge of the park. Cactus Jack is checking it out in the picture. We spent two or three hours there walking the boardwalks, the lookouts and driving the long tour loop. We saw many deer, one wild pig, lots of birds, and one gater which Judy spotted on a boardwalk. We also got to purchase a seniors 62+ $10 forever pass to national parks. Take advantage of that age!!

I have to correct my post of last Friday, we did not see a large flock of Whooping Cranes as they are not here yet. What we saw was most likely White Pelicans, possibly Snow Geese.

It was windy today and in the low 70s, much more comfortable!

Big Tree

We washed the truck this morning and went with about 20 RVers from the park to Paradise Key for lunch. We both had shrimp and they were good. On the way home we stopped at the big tree on Goose Island. It's over 35 feet in circumference and OVER 1000 years old. It's an oak but not like the oak trees we have in Michigan, not as tall and the leaves are different. This evening we played Texas Hold 'em poker. We each lost $425. That was in chips that cost us $1 each.

Rockport, TX

Still here! Monday we visited and had lunch with another HitchHiker forum couple, Rudy & Linda Hingst. We met them first in person at the Escapee Rally in Gillette, WY this summer. We also received mail, thanks Randy & Kristi. Tuesday Judy went to Curves and in the evening played cards in the clubhouse. I made spaghetti sauce for supper. Judy made the devastating discovery that a critter ate her daisy's last night, plants and all. We did some routine maintenance on the inside this afternoon. Exciting huh?

Kohootz ride

Yesterday we did a little shopping, did some water & beach watching, and relaxed. This morning we went to church, came home to change and went to Aransas Pass for a ride on the Kahootz. We saw many dolphins, the port, pleasure and shrimp boats, the location of a sunken WWII transport that was torpedoed, and a light house. It was interesting watching the family boats anchored just off the island beaches and the people beach combing. We had our third ride on the ferry boats this afternoon.

The shrimp boat in the picture was made from a recycled water tower.