Splishin' and Splashin'

At KOA campground, South Padre Island, TX...

One of the benefits of being grandparents is delighting in the joy and excitement of your grandkids as they make new discoveries in the world around them. Schlitterbahn and the adjoining beach here on the gulf coast were met with wide-eyed disbelief, and the boys have had the time of their lives (as have their parents, I think). Worn completely out by the end of each day, the kids fall into bed unconscious but somehow manage overnight to rejuvenate for another breathless adventure the next day. Oh, to have such energy and resilience at our age!

Having a room at the Schlitterbahn resort entitles guests to a discounted pass to the water park and beach area during their stay and, although the hotel is a bit pricey, the convenience of having immediate access to your room at all times is worth the cost, in our opinion.

When I was growing up, these water parks hadn't been invented yet. Our "water park" was Crystal Lake, a small fee-based swimming spot near Carthage in deep east Texas. We used inner tubes, diving boards and platforms and a zip line, and we actually had to swim to avoid drowning! We had a great time, not knowing what we were missing in these elaborate parks.

 

A great time was had by all and, at the end of the day, we got to enjoy a beautiful sunset!

Thank you, Lord, for this wonderful life; please forgive me if I do not appreciate it enough each day.

We're All Here!

At KOA RV Park, South Padre Island, Texas...

We left Padre with plenty of time to spare before meeting Mindy, Tyler and the kids at the Harlingen airport. Ever on the lookout for good eateries where the locals eat, I did some research and found much local buzz about the Rio Grande Grill in downtown Harlingen. This would be a perfect opportunity for a couple of foodies like us to check it out and see if the reviews were justified.

They were! I had a brisket sandwich containing huge slabs of brisket that were smoked for 16 hours, according to Dan, the proprietor. It was really, really good! Dan certainly has brisket cooking figured out, and I wish I had some more right now!

Sandy, to the relief of cattle everywhere, opted for smoked fish tacos instead. While this fish taco dish was excellent, I was having a near-religious experience with the brisket, so I was not able to devote much of my attention to the tacos. That was probably a mistake, I think.



The Rio Grande Grill in Harlingen

 

After meeting their flight, we took the kids immediately to their hotel at Padre Island, some 45 miles away. We then set out on a tour of the Schlitterbahn water park and took a quick walk out to the beach. None of them had been here before, and they took a particular liking to the fine sand forming the beach, to say nothing of the beautiful blue green color of the Gulf of Mexico. From the photos below, it looks like a hit!

 

We had a quick and tasty dinner at Pizza Hut. (Oh, please...I can hear that tsk tsk from here; we just happen to like their pizza, so give us a break!) Besides, we find ourselves looking for kid-friendly places most often these days for some reason.

 

More about the hotel and Schlitterbahn park tomorrow!

 

Thank you, Lord, for this wonderful life; please forgive me if I don't appreciate it enough each day.

 

 



Padre Island - Keeping Warm Waiting on the Kids

At KOA South Padre Island, Texas...

Keeping warm is an understatement! When I stepped outside of Phannie's cool confines here in the KOA park, my glasses immediately fogged over and my clothes began clinging to my ample body. I found myself wanting nothing more but to complete the checkin and get back inside. I'm afraid Sandy and I don't do hot and humid very well. It was a lot different from our trip here last winter.

This was on the beach at Padre Island back in February. Although I was wearing shorts, it was quite cold that day.

The KOA is almost completely full here, but most of the RVs parked around us are of the very rudimentary variety--you know, mostly small trailers used by young families for weekend excursions. Phannie stuck out like a sore thumb among all of her much smaller brethren. We know, of course, why this is so: The snowbirds--the ones with the scratch to get the big rigs--fled north months ago. The owners of these small campers have brought their kids here for a fun weekend on the beach or in Schlitterbahn. That, of course, is why we are here, but I'm afraid Sandy and I will spend a good deal of time in Phannie, enjoying the frosty climate provided by her three air conditioners. Mason and Pryce, who will be captivated by the Schlitterban experience, won't miss our occasional absences a bit.

Still not having had our quota of fresh seafood, we motored over the bridge to Port Isabel to look for some. We usually go to Dirty Al's here in South Padre, having become aficionados after Ed and Marilyn took us there in recent years, but we decided we would see what is available across the causeway. Using Yelp to help us, we found Joe's Oyster Bar, a restaurant that became the offshoot of a local seafood market. The food here was wonderful, and the ceviche got our nod for the best we had ever had.

Joe's pretty well qualified as a dive, since we had to walk through the fish market to get to our table, and patrons ate their meals from plastic picnic plates. But we didn't care because the food was SO good.

Strolling around Port Isabel, we enjoyed visiting the historic lighthouse built here in 1852. Back then, Port Isabel was an important pre-civil war shipping point for cotton, and the old lighthouse guided many a ship safely into the harbor over the years.

 After dinner, we went to Wally World to pick up some treats for the kids to have on hand in their hotel room. When we finished with that, we stopped at an ice cream parlor near the old lighthouse and enjoyed a cone as we strolled out to a nearby dock to enjoy the sunset. It was a fine day, and we enjoyed all the new experiences.



Sunset at Port Isabel

We continue to pinch ourselves as we travel to all the places we go, enjoying scenes like the one above. Here's to retirement!

Thank you, Lord for the wonderful life you've given me,

and please forgive me if I fail to appreciate it enough every day. 

Heading for Padre

At Hatch RV Park, Corpus Christi, TX...

Corpus is a favorite stop on our way to the Rio Grande Valley, as it is about halfway between Houston and Harlingen and fits nicely within the 200 mile daily travel range that we prefer in Phannie.

Normally we would not be headed south in the summer here in hot Texas, but we've arranged a long weekend on South Padre for Mindy, Tyler and the boys, and we wouldn't want to miss being a part of that adventure.

While on the road, we usually pull into a rest stop around noon and fix a little lunch for ourselves and then try to find a new favorite restaurant for dinner once we reach our destination. Now since we are in Corpus, you can rest assured we will be after some seafood, and I read in Yelp about a real dive named King Seafood. 

I was pretty pumped to try this place because it was a mom-and-pop type joint with good reviews, and it fully lived up to its description as a hole-in-the wall. Walking in, we saw before us a small room with patrons at all seven tables. These folks appeared to be all locals who stared at us, seemingly in disbelief that someone from out of town would dare to try this restaurant which was anything but appealing to passersby.

But oh, was it worth it! We love fresh seafood, and although we are very fond of the much healthier grilled seafood, we sometimes just have to order it fried. We are from the South, after all.

We got a huge flounder filet, along with shrimp, fries and a drink for a little over nine bucks. What a deal! After we plowed into it, we agreed that it was some of the best and freshest seafood we had ever eaten--and I don't think it was just because we were hungry.

After recovering from this engorgement, we drove around Corpus for a while. At one point, we stopped and sat on a bench overlooking Corpus Christi bay, enjoying the cool breeze blowing inland from the gulf.

For those of you who are enamored with Whataburgers (and who isn't?), I just happen to have snapped a photo of Whataburger #1, built here in about 1950 and much upgraded since.

 

 

Earlier in the day, we stopped in Hillje, a little town on US 59 near El Campo, Texas to give Prasek's Smokehouse a try.

 

 

This huge place is a foodie's dream, packed with all sorts of smoked meats, cheeses and bakery goods, some of which we purchased and are working through to see which selections we like best. We'll give you a report on that later.

We will be in Padre Island tomorrow, and the kids will fly down and join us on Friday. Stand by for fun!

Thank you, Lord, for this wonderful life,

 and please forgive me if I don't appreciate it enough each day.

Summer Travel Begins

At Rayford Crossing RV Resort, Spring, Texas (Houston)...

After nearly floating away in the record-breaking spring rains, we finally have some decent sunny weather just in time to begin an exciting summer of RV travel. Our first adventure will be a long weekend at South Padre Island, Texas with Mindy, Tyler and the grands. Mason has been to the beach only once, and that doesn't really count, as he was having to dodge mounds of rotting seaweed that had washed ashore in the dishwater-colored waves at Galveston. South Padre, of course, will be a delightful opposite in terms of its aesthetic appeal. This will be Pryce's first real experience on the beach, and we're looking forward to his reaction. The boys will also enjoy the Schlitterban water park near their hotel, and we will be there to see it all.

Sandy and I are normally not what you would call beach people. We like to visit the ocean but have a very low tolerance for heat and sun exposure; however, where the grandkids are concerned, we will deal with it to be with them.

We are currently stopped at Rayford Crossing near Houston to celebrate Mason's sixth birthday and his "graduation" from kindergarten, complete with a mortarboard cap and the playing of "Pomp and Circumstance." Things are obviously quite different now in school, I guess.  I was telling Mindy that when I went to elementary school, not only was there no graduation program for kindergarteners, there was no kindergarten from which to graduate! Somehow, though, most of us managed to have some success in life; I'm just not sure how.

Tyler, Mason, Mindy and
Pryce on "Graduation" day.

As I mentioned in the previous post, we will be heading out after Padre on our trip to Alaska (RVing to Seattle, then via cruise ship). During a few days at home beforehand, Sandy will finally have to face the rigors of choosing her wardrobe. I'm not sure what kind of phobia describes a woman's fear of not having the right attire for every occasion, but she seems to have it. Given the length of this trip, along with the wild extremes in climate to be encountered and with limited closet space and the requirements of shipboard attire, this has become the perfect storm for Sandy. I'm sure she will need some Xanex before launch day.

I have begun some trip planning using My Scenic Drives website (I have no affiliation), a free trip planner that I rather like. It has some pretty neat features, and I can save my trip plan and return to work on it whenever I like.

As I contemplate what a wonderful experience our travels over the years have provided for us, I cannot help but be thankful for having been blessed with good health and the means by which we are afforded this opportunity, not to mention our appreciation and awe of God's creation around us. With this in mind, I thought it appropriate to include below just a few favorite photos of some of the inspiring locations we've visited in recent trips:



Estes Park, Colorado

Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado

Moab, Utah

Arches National Park, Utah

Canyonlands National Park, Utah



Monument Valley, Utah

Monument Valley, Utah

Sunrise on the Mississippi, Memphis, TN

Smoky Mountain National Park, Gatlinburg, Tennessee

Big Bend, Texas



Palo Duro Canyon, Texas

 

The Hill Country of Texas

Oh, my! This is such a small sample; there are so many more photos I could include, and each has a good memory on which a value cannot be placed. That's why I began some time ago to include this signoff on my posts:

Thank you, Lord, for this wonderful life, and please forgive me if I do not appreciate it each day as I should.

Chores Around the House and a High School Reunion

At home near Fort Worth, Texas...

We have finished the doctor visits, and I am now awaiting another appointment or two with my dentist, Dr. Philno Payne (get it?), who obviously has a payment due on his Mercedes, as he is working on a new crown for me. While my upper right third molar is under construction (my teeth are now officially worth more than Phannie), I have been busying myself taking care of chores around the house. I can testify that such activity continues to be w**k--about which I've already posted as being something that is really meant for someone else.

Since we have a number of friends who are fulltime RVers--a lifestyle we have contemplated ourselves from time to time--I thought I would throw them a bone and post a few photos of my performing these chores, in case they have forgotten why they jettisoned their stick and brick houses and became fulltimers.

Bear in mind that we designed the house and grounds to be as maintenance free as possible, but that doesn't mean there isn't any w**k to be done. I already posted this photo of my weed control technique, which is as close to "mowing" as I plan to get:

There are also cobwebs to be swept:

Hedges to be trimmed (I'm sort of smiling in this photo, but trust me--it's a fake smile):

I was so exhausted from all this w**k, I had to press the lovely Sandy into service cleaning up twigs that fell from the trees during all the rainstorms we've had:

While a good sport about it and smiling sweetly, she has some long held opinions about what constitutes "pink" chores and what constitutes "blue" chores. I can tell you that yard work doesn't fall into the "pink" category for her, and neither does anything on the exterior of Phannie, either. And that's fine with me, as she does the "pink" things inside our abodes very, very well.

Is it coming back to you yet, fulltimers?  Well, if that's not enough to validate your having simplified your lifestyle, maybe this will:

If you've followed this blog for a while, you are aware that we have been victims of burglaries both at home and in Phannie. That, of course, is what caused us to install a rather sophisticated security system and video cameras that watch and record the goings on in and around the house along with some other security features about which I don't need to elaborate here. I'm pointing to a couple of cameras that monitor the driveways:

When we're away, the camera feeds are not only recorded but sent via the cloud as video on our cell phones.

Well, there you have it, fulltimers; you should be feeling pretty smug by now. Do I envy your freedom from this kind of w**k and worry? The answer is yes, but even so, I don't think we will be able to give up what has become a perfect house for us as part-timers. I can't think of anything else we can do to lessen the upkeep and increase our peace of mind. The w**k? I whine a lot, but none of the chores above takes more than a half hour. I probably should just give the complaining a rest, don't you think?

We also made a quick trip to Nacogdoches, Texas to appear at my 50-year high school reunion. It was a fun evening, seeing whom I could recognize; this wasn't always easy, as the years have not been kind to some of them. Others hadn't changed at all, and I'm not sure where I fit in as being recognizable.

We did have the good fortune to be seated at the table of beloved friends Dr. and Mrs. Gerald Sitton and their daughter Pam, whom I have known for more than 50 years. Jerry was not only a high school teacher while I was there, but he is also a pilot. He was one of my instructors when I was learning to fly at age 16. In fact, it was he who signed off on a required instructor's recommendation to take my flight test for a private pilot certificate. A couple of years later, I obtained a commercial pilot's license and multiengine rating before I graduated from high school, and he was a part of that training as well. I thanked him for helping me prepare for what turned out to be a very rewarding career. It was great to catch up with these wonderful folks.


Mike and Sandy Visiting with the Sittons



Mike and Jerry Sitton

 I've also begun to do some planning--something I only do when necessary--for a long trip this summer up through Colorado to Yellowstone and on to Seattle, where we will be boarding a cruise ship to Alaska in July. But more about that later.


Thank you, Lord, for this wonderful life, and please forgive me if I don't appreciate it as I should each day. 

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things

At home near Fort Worth, Texas...

We find ourselves at home for a while, taking care of an unusually full agenda of chores that must have some attention from time to time. These have mostly included medical and dental checkups, except for Sandy's also seeking out an arthritis specialist to deal with some chronic neck pain. Additionally, my dental checkup revealed two cavities that will have to be taken care of with a couple of extra visits. I remain astonished at how much "maintenance" is required when our old bodies begin to wear out. And then there are the prescriptions; I think we are being held together largely by chemicals. 

We have also been using this time to perform a little housekeeping on Phannie. I removed and repaired a pantry cabinet door that had been left open and damaged by an extension of one of the slides. Yes, I know you know the sickening feeling when something dumb like that happens, especially since it could have been so easily avoided if I had only been a little more careful.

We also performed the yearly ritual of cleaning and oiling all of the wooden surfaces, of which Phannie has an overabundance.

Bob Tiffin really puts a lot of wooden cabinets in his motorhomes, so I'm surprised there are any trees left around Red Bay. I also gave Phannie another wash job, which is no small undertaking. I honestly can't explain why I have done this again so soon after the last one, given that it is so much like w**k. I normally avoid w**k at all cost. Speaking of cost...that's probably the reason, now that I think about it. I have to conclude that I am such a mercenary that I can be bought for $125, which is roughly the cost of a wash job around here. Am I becoming a cheapskate in my old age? Maybe so.

From time to time, I have included in these posts some shout outs about certain accessories or products that we use in RVing. Now, since we have a little time here between trips and I need something RV-related to write about, I thought I would fine tune these "must haves" to include a top ten list. So here is that list--the ten things we would not want to be without after ten years of RVing experience. (These are in no particular order.):

1. MCD shades. The relief we got from the frustration of the old accordion shades is priceless. The motorized MCD front and side shades for the cockpit are even more priceless. Getting those was a really good call, as they also serve as sun visors. I can't imagine how you would deal with a sun visor that is not motorized without pulling off the road. 

2. AT&T hotspot. Let me just go ahead and get this out of the way: I am a data hog. I'm not proud of it, but that's the way it is. With 30 gigs of data on a monthly plan, I am never a prisoner of an RV park's unreliable wifi, and it can serve all of my wifi devices at once. I can even stream to the TV if I like.

3. Third air conditioner. In Texas, we air condition everything, and I mean everything. Down here, having a frigid house in the middle of summer is a status symbol, and so it is with our motorhomes. When we purchased Phannie (it was in the summertime), it became clear immediately that the two factory-installed roof units were not going to do the job as we like it (being able to see our breath, that is) on the hottest days. So, before we even left the dealership, we had them drop in a third a/c unit in one of the skylight holes. Problem immediately solved; we can hang meat in there now.

4. LED Lighting. Replacing the old florescent fixtures in the ceiling and underneath the cabinets was a great idea, and it wasn't very expensive.

5. Power cord reel. Do I need to say more?

6. Surge Guard electrical power monitor. No more worries about funky shore power. This puppy is foolproof; it is very picky about power and won't allow into the coach any electricity it doesn't like. Good to know that I won't be frying any of my electronics.

7. The holy trinity of cooking: A Breville oven, an electric skillet and an induction cooktop. The best arrangement we have found to cook anything we want without having to press the rig's gas cooktop or oven into service. The Breville oven has no equal; don't waste your money on a lesser one.

8. The Winegard Traveler automatic satellite dish.  I don't know how we lived without this. Push a button and you've got satellite TV in about two minutes. Push the button again, and it stows itself, ready for the road. Nice.

9. Oxygenics shower head. I don't have any idea how it works, but this thing seems to make more water come out than goes in. Amazing.

10. Strongback folding chair. If you didn't know about a folding chair that also provides excellent back support, you do now. And once you try it, you will gladly toss the others. Just Google "Strongback chair" and order your own. You can't have mine. 

Limiting this list to ten favorites was not easy. You already know how much I like my Shurhold Industries flexible squeegee and my Pro-Fil battery filler, so I'll give those honorable mention. There are probably others, but these are clearly must-haves, in my book.

Thank you, Lord, for the wonderful life you've given me.

Please forgive me if I do not appreciate it enough each day.