Keeping Entertained On The Beach

Life is a beach, or life is grand on the beach.

I picked up a paint by numbers kit last weekend when we went into town (Corpus Christi). It was time for us to leave the beach for 48 hours. Those are the rules, only 14 days at a time, then you have to leave for 2 days. So, we went into Corpus Christi, camping at the Walmart and restocking. We also took in a movie at the theatre next door. We saw the new Tarantino movie, Django Unchained. Great flick, Tarantino's version of the Spagetti Western. Blood and guts galore, need I say more!

We also took a ride down to the beach at Corpus Christi. They have a boardwalk as well as a huge aircraft carrier docked there as a museum. It is the USS Lexington. We took a walk up the pier to the entrance and just had a look at the outside of the ship. It is huge.

Ward and I hit the local shopping center and the hobby store. I got my paint by numbers kit, and Ward picked up a model car kit, a 1955 Nomad. We also picked up a game book which has instructions for every card game imaginable in it, as well as dominos, billiards, cricket, and pin the tail on the donkey. Neither Ward nor I can remember the rules for several card games we used to play. Altzeimers, I can feel it coming on. I have Ward talked into paying cards and dominos with me, as we lack a pool table and Ward keeps running from me every time I get the tail and pointy nail out, and I get that look in my eye as I peek from behind my blindfold.

I've spent a few days already working on my painting. It actually comes with two paintings, one practice version printed on the inside of the cardboard packaging, and the other on a thicker, more professional stock. It's the practice version I am working on, using the outside of the RV as my easel. I also picked up a book on water color painting, with a few stencil pictures and instructions on how to paint. Soon I will be a regular Rembrandt.

You can only collect so many shells. At some point another hobby had to appear, or the RV would be completely over-run with sand dollar segments, shells, and pink barnacles. Ward continues to converse with visitors to 'our' beach. Did I mention he talked to some folks from St Vital, and another couple from Elmwood? I mean really, who would have thought.

We also took a day trip up Island to Mustang Island and Port Aransas. While driving up the island, we stopped in at a few of the access roads to check on other possible areas where we could camp. Most areas are much more populated than the beach we are at, and most of the accesses have a lot of loose sand where I would not feel comfortable driving on the beach. I think we found an ideal location where we are. It is higher up on the island, a little more secluded, and the sand is not as torn up from vehicles.

At Mustang Island State Park we stopped for a picnic lunch on the beach and of course took advantage of the showers. I've said it before, and I will say it again, I love my State Park Pass.

Then we were off to Port Aransas, or Port A as the locals call it. Neither Ward nor I had any pre-conceptions of the town. But we were told by many that we should check it out, so we did. It is a nice sea side tourist town, filled with many brightly colored condos and large homes between the highway and seashore. Once we got right into town, we found many small shops and restaurants.

We stopped at one restaurant for a snack. It was located right next to a private dock filled with expensive private fishing boats.

We took a walk along the dock behind the restaurant and found a group of pelicans each perched on their own post. They seemed to blend in to the scenery. We almost missed them until one moved.

Today we drove the motorcycle down the beach to the Bob Hall Pier (about 8 miles), then into town to look around at the t-shirt shops and hook up with the all-important internet.
That's it for now. Ward is getting bored waiting for me to finish with my internet thing.

Life On The Beach

It's January. It's January and we are lying on the beach. We have to keep telling ourselves that. We have days when it is 50 degrees on the beach, with a strong wind coming in off the water. Then there are days when the temperature reads 90 degrees in the sun. Some days are clear, where you can see for miles down the beach, others are foggy damp and cool. On the cooler days we mostly have the beach to ourselves, well, us and Bill. He is from Washington State and has an RV a mile down from us. On the warmer days there might be 2-3 cars at a time on the beach, some stay for a couple of minutes, others fish or enjoy the beach for several hours. Then by nightfall the beach is our own again.
Ward continues to be the welcoming committee, approaching everyone on the beach, finding out where they are from, how long they are here, and their life stories. We take long walks on the beach, collecting shells, barnacles and photos.
At this time of year, when the water is cooler, many varieties of jelly fish wash up on shore, including the man-of-war, which has toxins in the tentacles. It is always best to wear footwear on the beach, especially on cooler days.
This is a very low key life we are having now. We park for a week at a time, without going into town. We have no internet, no cell phone service, and only sometimes get TV. Ward and I do try to catch the news each night, especially for weather reports, but are not too concerned if we do not. The rangers stop in to check on us, and chat, providing information on the tides and any bad weather coming our way.
We have managed to keep ourselves entertained with our walks, and talking with folks on the beach. We play cards and dominos. And this last time coming into town I got myself a paint-by-numbers and and Ward picked up a model car to put together.
When weather permits, we have a BBQ dinner on the beach, with tiki lights a-blazing. The tiki lights really only work when the wind is not too strong.
On cooler evenings we watch movies. We found DVD packs that have 25 and 50 movies costing $5-10, such as 'Swingin Seventies' and 'Classic John Wayne'. And we continue to watch our TV collections of Weeds, Deadwood, Breaking Bad and The Wire.
Sorry, no pictures this time, due to technical difficulties.

Free Camping On The Beach, Gotta Love It!

That's it, we're moving to the beach. I think we could do it, we could just live on the beach and become surfing hippies. Ward has changed his name to The Big Kahuna and he keeps calling me Gidget. We bought tiki torches and an umbrella, all we need are the surf boards, dude! Yes, I think we could get used to this.
When Ward and I first pulled into Corpus Christi, we went to the shoreline in town, drove around a bit, and started looking for an RV park. We figured there was no way we would be able to stay at the Walmart here, and would definitely be paying for camping. I was sure we would find RV parks along the shore in town, but alas, none were found. Google was kind enough to give us directions to the Sams Club and Walmart, so we got supplies and I spent a bit of time checking out camping in the area. There were a few RV parks in Corpus Christi, along the shore toward Padre Island, but I also found free camping in at the Padre Island National Seashore. All you had to do was buy a pass for $20, good for a year, and you could camp for free on the beach. Oh, and the Walmarts don't mind RVs staying overnight at all.
Our first night in town was spent at the Walmart. There was a fellow from North Dakota who had been there for a night already and was spending his second night while I decided where to camp.

The next day we headed to Padre Island National Seashore to check out the free camping on the beach. The ranger at the entrance told us we could camp anywhere we liked, and gave us a registration form to fill out. All we had to do was deposit it in one of the camping station deposit boxes to let them know who we were and how long we were staying on the beach.  We were told to stick to the wet sand because is was more hard packed and it was less likely we would get stuck. That was a good tip. The spot we found was on the North Beach inside North Padre Island National Seashore. It was just off the pavement and high enough on the beach that the high tides did not reach us. That is something to get used to when you are from the prairies. When we got to the North Beach we had the beach all to ourselves except for one vehicle from Minnesota. The fellow was tenting and had been there for several days already, but would be leaving soon.
On the beach there were people from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ontario and even Winnipeg. Some visits lasted only minutes, others are becoming daily visits, as we get to know the people coming and going from the beach area.

A few days ago the weather warmed up enough to take the motorcycle off the rack. We went for a drive back into Corpus Christi to get supplies, and did a bit of sight seeing. We stopped at the Bob Hall Pier, just north of the National Seashore. (That was actually where I stayed back in 1984 when I came down to the area, craving a beach in the spring.)

It turns out you could camp free on the beaches all up along the coast between the National Seashore and Port Aransas, about a 25 mile span. But you need another camping permit, which costs another $12. That will come in handy when we decide to head up further north on the seashore.
But for now, we are very happy on the North Shore of the National Seashore, watching the birds, and relaxing with the sound of waves. We have been taking pictures of the different birds we see along the beach.

Some fly away when you get close, but not the herons. They seem quite used to people. In fact, fly right up to the fishermen who come to the shore and cast their lines in. The herons just stand on the beach next to the fishing poles, waiting for dinner.

We named this heron 'Scruffy'.

The gulls are the most popular, and congregate in groups on the sand, and along the wood posts in the ground set up as a barrier for vehicles going south along the beach.

I tried doing laundry by hand on the beach, then hanging it to dry. Nothing actually dries out here, something about the humidity, so I guess we will be going to the laundromat with those wet clothes.
When we first got to the beach the temperatures were in the mid 50s during the day, with 30 MPH winds. Yikes, it was cold. Both Ward and I got our winter snowmobile suits out and put them on. It seemed a bit silly slipping into them and walking on the beach, but they stop the wind and help a lot with the humidity.

We found we were both quite comfortable walking out on the beach with our winter 'bags' on.

Others on the beach were also in their winter gear, keeping warm in the cold damp air.
In the mornings I would slip into my big brown bag and take my coffee outside to sit beside the RV, watching the ocean waves. Does it get any better than that? I don't think so.
It's been raining a bit since coming into the area, and last night there was a severe storm warning, with Thunderstorms and strong winds being predicted. Being from the Prairies we decided not to take any chances by staying on the beach. Besides, we were sure the Rangers would advise us to leave anyway. We made the decision to come into town and spend the night at Walmart. It turns out several other RVers made that same decision. There were several RVs in the parking lot for the night. We needed to get more drinking water, and could use some other supplies as well, so the trip to town worked out best all round.
The sun will be coming out this afternoon, with a high of 70 degrees, and the next few days are expected to go to mid 70s and as high as 80 degrees.  Maybe we'll venture into the water on the hotter days. Then cooler temperatures will return again for a few days. We go exploring on the warmer sunny days, and enjoy the beach rain or shine, hot or cool. And evening temperatures never go lower than 45 degrees, so there is no need for turning the furnace on.
Tonight The Big Kahuna will set up our new tiki torches, dig a pit in the sand for the tin foil charcoal briquette BBQ system, and we will enjoy an evening of BBQ'ed steak and potatoes, followed by s'mores by Gidget. Can't you just hear the waves.
Hang loose dudes and dudettes!

A Quick Stop At Luckenbach

With the weather turning cold these past few days, Ward and I made the decision to leave the area and head South to warmer climates. We left Fredericksburg around 4pm after a quick stop at the Walmart to get our New Years Eve supper supplies. The plan was to stop off quickly at Luckenback and get a photo in front of the Post Office, then head toward San Antonio and on to Corpus Christi. We were not sure how far we would get before sundown, but the motorcycle was put back on the rack, so we could drive through the night if that is what we decided to do.

Luckenback, Texas was not very far from Fredericksburg, just around the corner really. We left town on Hwy 290 and soon turned onto County Road 1376, following signs for the Luckenbach Dance Hall. Then down this tiny narrow country road called Luckenback Town Loop.

The road barely handled two vehicles passing on it.

We pulled into the parking area, which was a huge field with rows of fences marking parking areas.

There was an RV and a trailer already parked in the lot, so we pulled in between them and got out for our quick picture. Two young women came over, asking where we were from. They said we were just in time for the Sunday night picking circle, which was at the back of the post office in the bar. And they asked if we were camping. We were told it was $15, and we could pay at the post office. So, off we went, to find out what was really happening at Luckenbach.

There was a crowd in front of the post office, with people taking each others pictures in front of the sign. We pitched in and took several peoples pictures, then it was our turn. Another tourist was kind enough to take our photo.

We went into the post office to look around. It was a store full of tourist items, and had a nice warm wood stove going to warm the place. In the back was a door that led to the bar.

Inside the bar, we were greeted by a fellow who really looked like Jeff Bridges.

He said he got that a lot, his name was Rick by the way. He said he was an 8th generation Texan, going back to the beginning of the 1800. Now that's a Texan. He told us most of the people in the picking circle had CDs out, and there really are no picking circles happening anywhere except this one. Sunday nights was the best time to come, because the better artists are here at that time. They start at 5pm, and go until 9pm (they actually kept going until about 10:30pm).

Some of the artists stayed for the entire time, others played for a bit and left to give room for others to play.

The two women we spoke with in the parking lot were also sitting in at the picking circle, playing fiddle and guitar. Even one fellow behind the bar joined in, playing the harp.

Later in the evening, they played a song for us Canadians, it was 'Summer Time and the Living is Easy'.

The entire night was amazing. I don't know who anyone was, but there was so much talent in that room, it just blew me away.

One woman had a great growly blues voice, a young man plucked a violin with his fingers, then switched to spanish music on a guitar.

Another musician played slide with a beer bottle. It was amazing, amazing, amazing.

And we really only coame to get our picture taken at the sign in front of the post office. We came because of that song, you know the one, We're going to Luckenback Texas, to see Waylon and Willie and the Boys.

Who knew! And how did we manage to make it at exactly the right time for them to start the picking circle right then. It was the best kitchen party ever!

We signed the guestbook.

Then the next day, Ward and I took a walk over the bridge to see the 500 year old oak trees that Rick had told us about. He said when it is warmer outside the picking circle is out under the large oak trees or in other areas set up outside, and there are more artists as well.

That's my New Years story, and I'm stickin' to it.