Utopia in Central Texas

Last Monday we finally departed the Gulf of Mexico where the temperature was 69/80 and headed Northwest 200 miles to Lakehills Texas, about 40 miles Northwest of San Antonio where the temperature when we arrived was 30/70. Wow was it cold at night.

The road exiting the park was a little harry as we were not sure we would fit under the trees, but all went well.

We arrived at the Thousand Trails park and found a sight in the lower section near the lake with lots of light. Remember the word "lower".

After setting up we took a walk down to the lake and found that they had moved it. Notice that there is not any water around the sign.

Or any water around the dock. If you look closely you can see the light brown area at the top of the picture that was the beach on the other side.

We spent most of the week checking out the surrounding area. Jackie had her 6 month check-up (which went very well) and the weather forecast for Thursday was for heavy rain. Let us tell you that during the night the rain sounded like it was going to come through the roof. We finally got up around 7:00 in the morning to take the dog out for her morning walk. Dick put on his rain gear and boots, it was still raining hard. When he went out the rig was in the middle of a river and the water was up to the bottom step, and rising. I guess the "lower" area was the wrong one to pick. Dick took that first step out of the rig it was over the top of his boots and they filled to the top.

He found a spot for the dog to do her thing and then had to retrieve our shoes, mats and lawn chairs which were floating toward the lake. We spent the day reading, relaxing and making some jewelry. Saturday, when the swamp drained, we hooked up and moved to another location (in the upper part of the campground) and started to dry off.



Dick took the ladder off the back of the rig and the local deer thought he was getting feed and they came from all over the park. There are literally hundreds of deer running around here that all the campers feed.

C C wanted to play with them but I guess because of all the other dogs barking at them makes them a little shy of dogs. She was able to get about 2' away before the deer turned and walked away.

This is what it looks like when the deer corn comes out. Could not get all of them in the picture.

When talking to another camper we turned around to see a little dispute between two bucks going "head to head".

They pushed from one side of the road to the other until one pushed the other between two trees and got it off it's feet and just held it there for about a minute before releasing it to run off. Kind of exciting because this is the first time viewing something like this in person.

We drove to Lost Maples State Park for a hike in the hills today. The sun was out and it was in the high 60s so was a great day to hike. On the way up there we stopped to take a picture of the FALL colors. Yes it's late November, but the leaves are about finished changing color in this part of the world.

The maples were beautiful. This is a shot of one side of the tree.

On the return hike we stopped to take another picture of the same tree but from the other direction.

We crossed the creek several times and after this crossing turned around and got a shot of the reflections on the water.

One more stop on the way home, the only problem was that we felt the same when we left as when we arrived so we guess it's just a name and not a feeling.

To be continued...

Still in South Texas with water, birds and fish

We took the ferry to Port Aransas to spend a day at the Gulf of Mexico. We started at the beach next to the south jetty at the entrance to the port. The area was feeling the effect of a hurricane out in the gulf so the waves were quite high. We walked out on the jetty as far as we could go and watched this fishing boat coming in. We also gave CC a chance to run on the beach, and away she went! (There are no "beaches" on the bays close to where we are staying, mostly bulkheads and small "beaches" of crushed shells.)

As it got closer we realized that it had nets in the water and was still fishing into the harbor.

We went to lunch and then visited a County park that was just about on the Gulf beach. Lots of picnic tables right on the sand. Not sure what keeps them from being washed away except the tidal range is less than a foot but because of the lack of slope to the beach at low tide there is a lot of beach showing.

The county was putting in this burm to protect the RV park on the other side from the swell that was predicted to come in because of the hurricane. Then the sand would be put in a pile for the next time opening up the beach for driving and camping.

After spending most of the day in town and on the beach we saw the results of the surge. It came up over and destroyed an asphalt parking area that had just been put in. There it is under the water and the sand.

We spent another day at Aransas Pass checking out the local port. Very small town but every place you go there is a place to fish. Not sure we would venture out on this dock but the birds like it.

On the way back home we checked out a marine area that had lots of places to bring your boat out of the water and work on it. Dick got inside this storage shed to take a few pictures on the premise he was looking for a place to dry-store his boat. This was only one side of the building and there were three more rows like this.

We decided to depart the park where we were staying early and moved to Goose Island State Park, only about 7 miles away but as you can see we have a beautiful view out our window and a nice cool breeze blowing in off the bay. (Dick is exaggerating here--the wind is moist from the humidity and not-so-cool.)

Got up this morning to 75 deg. and 90% humidity and no wind, but by the time we came home from church a nice breeze came up and the humidity dropped a little.

This was our neighbor fishing at sunset next to us. Dick took him over a copy of this picture in the morning and he was just thrilled.

The next morning Dick caught this lad fishing before the rest of the family got up and active.

We took C C for a walk down to the boat launch and found several people cleaning their fish from a productive day. It was interesting to see most of the cleaning was done with electric knifes and they worked great for filleting.

Quite a few pelicans were waiting in the water and on the dock for the left-overs.

And they continued to fly in to see what was going on.

Or just waiting on the dock for their share.

And those in the water had to fight to get a share. The water boiled with large fish taking the big pieces.

Dick is sad that we are pulling out in the morning and starting our journey to Arizona. If we rush we should be there to share Christmas with his brother. And if we take it slow and easy we should be there by Christmas. We think we will take it slow and easy with a week or two stop in San Antonio.

To be continued...

Kodak did us bad

This is the third Kodak printer that we have had in about the last 18 months and they all went bad. They replaced the first two Kodak printers that went out, but after spending over an hour on the telephone they refused to warranty a 5 month old printer. So we went out and purchased an HP and decided to destroy the old Kodak.

To be continued...

water, birds, tree, boat and sunset

First a congradulations to Jen Kaufman and Dick Whitfield for solving the question of the last blog. While checking a pond for aligators we found a 30' by 2" wide track of ants going both directions. Heading one way to harvest the leaves and the other to deliver them back to their nest in the ground.

This was a first for us to see what we have seen on TV in the past. Only ants but still a very interesting find.

And now a new blog...

How about a long walk on a long pier. Every place you look around here there is another long pier for fishing and enjoying the bay. On our first day here we found the local park and took the long walk. No one fishing here today.

At the end we turned around to really see how far it was back to the beach. What a view from the end of the pier back to dry land.

As we said all up and down the beach there are areas of one pier after another. Everywhere you looked there was someone fishing. I think there are even fish in the mud puddles around here.

Birds everywhere you look, these guys thought we were going to feed them and weren't very happy with us as we just took pictures of them.

Careful of the drop zone under this light pole.

This guy was posing for Dick's camera.

These guys really had an eye for the sky. They stood about 10' tall.

On a trip to one of the local State Parks we found this Oak tree that was over 1000 years old, not high but really big.

We stopped here for about one minute because as soon as we exited the truck we were surrounded by at least 100 mosquitoes. A quick walk around, took two pictures and headed back to the truck.

This is not the "love boat" that we remember. Regardless of the condition this boat was still taken out every few days. Lots of larger boats in worse condition still going out every day draging for shrimp to sell as bait at the head of the docks.

We went out to a local bar and restaurant and sat on the deck enjoying a light dinner, a cold drink and a beautifull suset over Aransas Bay.

Same place still sitting and enjoying the 75 degree temperature and watching the sunset and the boats going out for some night fishing.

To be continued...

Contest...

Okay boys and girls we are now in Rockport Texas on the Gulf of Mexico and yesterday we took a trip to Aransas National Wildlife Preserve and saw lots of birds, deer, two wild hogs an alligator in the wild and what you can see in the pictures below.

Lets see if you can figure out what Dick has photographed, the winner gets a big kiss from C C.

Give up yet?

To be continued...

"Houston, we have a problem"...

Sorry for the long delay since our last post. We have spent the last two weeks at the Thousand Trails park on Lake Conroe, in east Texas. A very beautiful park, but although we made new friends and had fun line dancing, there is not much in the way of "tourist" things around here. And then there is the fact that we had two huge thunderstorms come through while we were here, one dumping 2 inches of rain, the other 3-1/2 inches in just a few hours and cutting the power for several hours. Luckily we are high and dry.

But, as you can see, on this last Wednesday we drove down to the Johnson Space Center, south of Houston. A very busy, interesting day. We spent the day touring the facility, and what a facility it is with over 14,000 people working here. There goes our tax dollars.

The pictures above and below are of the cockpit of the shuttle, above the commander's seat and below the pilot. Look at all the instruments! Sure wish we could get in and push some buttons and take it for a spin.


One of the tours we took was on a tram to the NASA area and into three buildings. We passed this building and wondered about the huge life-size picture on the outside. You'll see more in a minute.

And here is what was in that building -- the actual full-size Saturn V. It is HUGE. To get an idea of the size there is a person standing in the lower left corner of this picture. First Stage 1:

Then Stage 2:

Stage 3:

And the whole thing from the far end including the final stage. Talk about impressive.

The next building housed the control room for the early space missions including Gemini and Apollo. This was the room where the controllers on the ground heard those scary words, "Houston, we have a problem" from Apollo 13. I think you can still see the cigar smoke from after the first moon landing wafting through this room.

And the final building we entered:

This is a mock-up of part of the Space Station. We were on a balcony looking down through windows at the floor below. There is a full size mock-up of every thing that is in space in this building.

You can see the people working out a problem in the lower left of this picture. And more parts of the Space Station:

At the far end of the building was the mock-up of the shuttle. The nose:


The cargo section, which holds the items being taken to the Space Station.

After our tour we headed back to the Visitor Center where we saw several more exhibits including the museum. Well worth the time and money. Allow a full day.

Tomorrow we leave here for Rockport, which is on the Gulf Coast. Hopefully no more thunderstorms and great weather ahead!

To be continued...