Sunday 1/25/15
What a glorious day.....sunny and 65 deg. Have not had many of these over the past months. Maybe our weather encounters are changing for the good. Current location is KOA campground in San Antonio Texas.

High Life......
Spent Jan 19 thru 22 in Tomball Texas (NW of Houston appr 15 miles). Reason for Tomball you ask (other than being able to say that I stayed in Tomball), there is a website that I utilize  http://www.freecampgrounds.com/index.aspx that gives free (or at least inexpensive, usually around $10) RV campgrounds for all states. It allows you to search within a radius of towns/cities for affordable campgrounds....deleting the walmarts and truckstops. Tomball county park "Harris Spring Creek Park" came up as a result of my Houston trip planning. This throws the old, "there are no free lunches" saying out the window. This place was great, 8 sites....clean, beautiful, quiet, safe, full RV hookups, cement pads for no charge. Unbelievable......we felt like we had stepped up our place on the social ladder while we were there. We actually had a lawn boy (grass had just been cut at our site and then they came around and blew the clippings off the pad) plus it was a gated community (the park gates closed at 10pm and re-opened at 7am. The toilets and showers were fairly new...and just across the street from our spot.

Harris Spring Creek Park (Tomball) Set Up

 

Restroom/shower facilities (right across the street)

 

The Tomball location allowed us to trip through Houston to the "Johnson Space Center". Expensive ticket ($23.95 each) but after the day I would say that it was worth every penny, I found myself regressing back to the old work days in a few areas.  I guess that is not a bad thing, does not hurt to revisit and recall the glorious and proud days of the past. Was able to share a few details of the early work days with Sue and how they related to what we were looking at. Will I ever be able to share some of the later really cool stuff.......I hope so......some day.  

 

Space lab training facility

Space lab module mock ups (for training)

 

 

Had 1 perfect weather day in Tomball (found that we could BBQ and picnic outside that evening). The day we arrived it was mid 60's with lots of sun, but that went to hell really quick. The next day was cloudy, rainy, breezy and cool. Luckily we were inside at the Space Center most of the day so no harm done. Then Thursday was a down pour with wind and cold all day long. Took the day to watch a couple of movies (RV redbox) and get the oil changed in the Vue. Want to share a personal encounter while having oil changed..........

I was reading when this gentleman approached me....asked what I was reading which lead into one of those religious encounters (the hat that read COP (Christian Officer of Prayer) I guess should have tipped me off....well maybe not) that I actually listened to. The reason being that this particular person had an explanation for the stock market crashes of the past and the one soon to come. It seems, according to this average dressed typical cowboy garb, person....gods word not only says that on the 7th day we are to rest, but every 7 years we are to take a year of reflection. Since no one seems to follow this guidance we have found that God has been making it rough on us....2001 (twin towers) and then 2008 stock market crash. Looking at 2015 as the next 7th year and stock market down turn to come. Although events do not cycle at the beginning of the year, usually towards the end. We chatted a little as I mentioned that was the first time I had ever heard anyone tie religion and stock market together. We were conversing on this when my time came up to pay my bill and checkout.

 

When we left Houston Friday morning it was still very cold, wet and windy. Eventually coming towards San Antonio we got out of the rain. Still cloudy and cool though. But.......when we woke up yesterday, we found an orange orb poking us in the eye for the first time in like forever. Great day to check off our San Antonio bucket list items......The Alamo and The Riverwalk.  

 

Found the Alamo interesting.........

construction began in 1724, originally named "Mission San Antonio de Valero", home to missionaries and their Indian converts for 70 years.  In the early 1800s the Spanish military stationed a Calvary unit there and renamed it the "Alamo" in honor of their home town (Alamo de Parras). Alamo is Spanish for "cottonwood". In 1835 the Texas Revolution found a band of Texas and Mexican volunteers forcing the Spanish from the mission. On Feb 23, 1836, Santa Anna was determined to take back the structure. The defenders held out for 13 days, but reinforcements never arrived....the rest is history.

............but rather hard to really suck up the history. I think it is simply because the city has been built up around the fort to the point that it will not allow the imagination to get past the many buildings, traffic noise and the touristy aspect. The battle fields of the Little Bighorn allowed a person to get lost in the many stories of the different characters and imagine the ghosts of the soldiers and warriors. Even as I was viewing the old Houston control center at the Space Center, I could go back in time and allow my imagination to take me back to the the point in time that the airwaves carried the "Houston we have a problem" radio signal from Apollo 13.

Guess who.......in front of the Alamo

 



 

The Riverwalk was very pleasant. Consists of many eateries and shops. Cannot believe that I am going to say this but, was a little disappointed in that it was not quite the touristy type of area that I was expecting. Thought that maybe there would be sidewalk vendors and have a little more of a circus atmosphere. Will say that it is very clean and well kept. You can tell that the city spends a lot of time keeping it up. Could imagine it being a kick ass place to hangout on those hot summer Texas nights. Lots of lights, atmosphere and coolness (being near the water).  Walking/exercise felt great.  

 Riverwalk

 

Will leave here tomorrow morn heading for Kartchner Caverns State Park in Arizona.

 

 

 

Road Rash.........

Nothing to mention, lifes good

Hi all.........
Present location is the "Hidden Lake RV Park" just west of Beaumont Texas. Settled in here this past Tuesday (Jan 13), not exactly as we had planned.....things change. Monday the 12th went as planned. Left our many friends at Lowes Creek and arrived at the Beaumont Freightliner truck depot as planned. A quick night of parking lot boondocking so that the service folks could do a quick radiator flush for us on Tuesday morning. Determined that to be some required maintenance that we have been avoiding. With our ship having set for some time prior to our purchase, I thought this something that should be done. Well........a temp sensor test found that the temp gauge was not reading accurately (assuming that the cruddy fluid had corroded the gauge) so it was determined best that the sensors and thermostat should be changed out (a conservative approach to ensuring that we have no issues down the road). It was necessary to order the parts so we found our current park just a block away from the servicing center. Well....after settling in here we decided that we liked it, so we stayed in wait for the parts. Parts are in and final work to be done tomorrow (Mon the 19th). Expecting to be on the road by mid day and settled in "Harris County Spring Creek Park" in Tomball Texas by tomorrow night. Will be there doing a couple of Houston things until Thursday, then heading for San Antonio.

High Life.......
Spent Thursday antiquing the local area. Once again nothing bought but....did come across a very interesting bit of nostalgia with a family twist. Another Rosie Burge, you have got to be kidding....right?? This new Rosie was born locally in 1937 and is known as a folk art painter. Paintings seem some what childish (I guess this is folk art) but very colorful and whimsical. Prices were from $500 to $750 so I guess she has a wealthy following. 
With the weather breaking (sun and 60s) we took Saturday as an excursion day and headed towards Galveston.
First stop was "Sea Rim State Park" following highway 87 through Port Arthur. Solved a riddle as we were progressing amongst the nasty oil refining infrastructure of Port Arthur......the stench that we had encountered and wondered about in Beaumont....was actually the same smell that now made our noses wanting to close up. I guess Beaumont is not far enough from the coastal refineries (50 miles) to avoid the pungent fumes as the sea breezes flow inland.
Luckily the park was far enough west that the refinery mess did not effect the sea air or the scenery.
Great little park (with RV electrical and water) that gave us a chance to walk the beach, enjoy the gulf sunshine and collect a couple of sea shells. Just a couple of small ones, have to be careful in what we are collecting, could lead to being over loaded.

Sue Silhouette

Looking Up the Coast

A Pretty Proud Fellow

 

Drove the coast (a bit of a detour envolved...ref road rash) with occasional stops to enjoy the day, until we ran out of road (no this is not in reference to the detour). We had reached the tip of the Bolivar Peninsula in which we could see Galveston across the bay. Now what, what's this line of cars for???? How about boarding the auto transport system (I refuse to say, "I rode the ferry").   

Fairy (???) Line

 

 

Eventually off loaded onto Galveston where we ran the island until we wound up at "Seawolf Park" which is located on "Pelican Island". The park is home to the retired WWII naval vessels, destroyer "USS Stewart" and submarine "USS Cavalla". Toured both.....do not see how anyone was able to allow themselves to be aboard a small metal tube with barely room to move while 300 feet under the ocean. Not only would clastrophobia be an issue, but my head would be nothing but bumps and bruises from the consistent bulkheads getting in the way. 

MySue with the Sub and Galveston Bay in the Background

 

Not sure why Sue wanted me to stand here, can't see the bay, only a bush......puzzling!!!

 

Then we eventually found parking on Strand street. This is a renovated historical section of Galveston that is now the trendy place to hangout. Kind of the typical touristy thing with the many shops, resturants and entertainment. This day found us in a mass of people as there was an ongoing chile and beer festival underway. We fought the crowd for some time until we found "Fishermans Wharf" where we pigged out on a shrimp poboy and crabcake sandwich....mmmmmmmm!!!!

 

Road Rash.......

As we sped down highway 87 towards "Sea Rim State Park", the trusty road atlas was to have us in Glaveston within a 45 minute drive along the coast after our park visit. Little did we know that our intended route as we were to leave the park turned from a 20 mile jaunt to "High Island" into a back track and around route that was in total more like 75 miles and an extra 1 1/2 hours of drive time. Our map lied to us as the rangers informed us that the highway past the park had been closed for several years as a result of past hurricane damage. The result of this was running out of time and daylight that was to allow us a trip to "Galveston State Park".

Getting close to move on time..........want to share plans ahead and a bit of a 2014 review.

Happy 2015 to all. Sue and I were fortunate to be able to close out 2014 with family and not so fortunate to once again experience the frigid weather that we have been trying to dodge. 2 deg with minus 21 wind chill in Nebraska, if nothing else gave us a slap of reality in that maybe the mid 30s in Texas are not so bad after all. Although the current Texas forecast has us once again in weather that is not exactly what we were expecting when we dropped anchor here a couple of months ago. This next Arctic blast has us down to 21 deg on Wed night with highs in the upper 30s for Fri and Sat with a possible wintry mix (yea.....snow) on Sat morning. Enjoy today......59 deg.
Christmas day was a very enjoyable 70 degs with the palm trees in Houston at Sue's nieces house where her brother / sister in law and mom were visiting from Minden Nebraska. A great visit and a Christmas dinner that was as always way more than any person needs at one setting.
Then the day after we headed north to Superior Nebraska where my mom and sisters families live. Very much enjoyed the family time, but again.....way to cold. Will venture back that way this spring.....like May, has to warm up by then.............doesn't it??

The past couple of months have proven to be valuable in the sense of better knowledge of our house on wheels. A few tid bits....
--A pulsating stabilizing jack does not indicate a problem, simply that we have been setting long enough that it is time to relevel/recycle.
--If the holding tank gauge reads 3/4 full, do not assume that you have a lot of head room left. Luckily this lesson was learned via the grey tank.....backed up shower and dripping drains.
--If leaving the awning out for any length of time, does not hurt to secure/stabilize with rope and tent stakes. Just in case of wild wacky winds.
--In humid environment the fridge will need to be defrosted occasionally. Cooling fins in back tend to accumulate heavy ice which will hinder the cooling capability.
--I actually have an operational mode in the transmission that is tagged as the "economy" mode. Found this thru one of the many RV web sites that I monitor. Was wondering what that extra button was for....have yet to try this new bit of knowledge. Maybe now I can get 20 mpg..........maybe not.
--At times when the tailgater satellite system is not working try relocating/disconnecting/reconnecting and then recalibrating the system "before" setting on the phone for hours with the techs that have no idea what the problem is......and won't admit it.
--Many other lessons learned that I do not recall at this moment in time

Prepping for a Jan 12 (next Monday) depart from Lowes Creek. Our Nov 1 arrival date seems not that long ago.
The Endeavor flight plan will be here and there as we head further south and eventually west as we pursue the warmer/dryer climate of Arizona. The next extended home port to be the Pioneer RV Park just a few miles north of Phoenix (forecast this week......70 deg days with upper 40s nights, sounds like heaven). Choreographing a route that will allow us to play Texas tourist.
--A couple of nights at Village Creek State Park just north of Beaumont. Planned trip to Galveston coast and beaches.  There are coastal beach RV state parks, but was warned of the frigid winter breezes off the water. Did not want to experience that.
--Then move to Harris County Spring Creek Park, located in Tomball Texas (just NE of Houston). Want to take in the NASA Space Center.
--Stone Creek RV Park in San Antonio. Definitely the Alamo and Riverwalk.
Have not scoped out past that at this time. Do know that we want to travel through Carlsbad and Roswell New Mexico in route to Phoenix.

High Life......
This is really easy, it is the many people that we have had the great fortune to meet. From quick acquaintances that we have crossed paths with in such places as Camping World that I still exchange emails with in pursuit of advice and experience as we try to figure out this new life style. This blog is a direct result of that helpful info (thank you Sherri).
To what we hope to be long term relationships from now and forever. This has resulted in a Texas family that we can not thank enough for all of the enrichment that we have soaked up over the past couple of months. Will always have so many memories......
--The 5:00 happy hours around the fire
--Never winning a single game of dominoes (playing for money...I plan on claiming Sheila as a dependant on my income taxes this year)
--The Margaritaville casino stay
--The Mardigras style Xmas parade
--Holding the gator...eating the gator
--The boat rides on the lake courtesy of Dale
--Kristina's cookie delivery on Christmas eve
--Lisa's Texas drawl. I love hearing that girl talk.
--Saturday night jamborees
--Looooooooong talks with Roger
--Larry's Bronco parties
--Larry's burn piles
--Miss B's always cheery personality (hope to see her and Sham in Salina Kansas some day)
--Helping build Aunt Sandi and Uncle Jerry's deck
--So many, many, many more!!!!

Road Rash......
This is also easy, found that Arctic blasts can extend farther south than I realized.