Friday, Friday.....

A lot more women arrived on Friday. The afternoon was spent visiting, playing games, and a few from our group went fishing.

Later that day, we all met at the clubhouse for a baked potato dinner accompanied by sides we all made. The clubhouse is nice...the only drawback is that it is on the third floor. There is a ramp but it is still quite a walk up there.

After dinner, there was a movie "The Gods Must Be Crazy" while others played games.

I should mention that I am still dealing with my battery not staying charged up. Fortunately, Carolyn has a battery charger which I have been using to continuously charge the battery. Either I have a bad battery even though it is brand new. Or my converter is giving up the ghost. Speaking of the converter, we have been hunting for its location. We called Jayco who insisted it was under the fridge behind the fuses and circuit breakers. I finally convinced them that it was not there as I put my camera phone back there and took pictures in all directions. The woman on the phone said she would have to get with the technicians and get back to me in 24 to 48 hours. (two days later the woman called again, made one more attempt to tell me it was under fridge, and finally emailed me detailed drawings for electrical and water line.) It shows the converter in the room with the toilet which is not possible because there are no panels; however, I think it must be under the toilet room behind the wall in the storage area. Thanks to the drawings, I also know where the water pump is located.

Yes, it is raining again but not continuously.

On the Road Again.....

Mary Jane, Carolyn, and I rolled out of Wilderness Oaks RV Resort in Rockport about 9:30AM  We had a smooth trip east on Texas 35 which took us more or less along the coast. We were a little concerned about water along the San Luis Pass area due to all the rain in the area recently. The San Luis Pass Toll Bridge is interesting. The bridge is about a mile long and there is a little toll booth that charges $2......no change. The lane is 10 feet wide at best and the man in the toll booth sits much lower than my truck window so I had to pull past and open my door to deposit my $2 in the revolving bin. They have added a second revolving bin at the top of the toll booth window but it is still too low for me to reach. Here we are coming off the bridge.....me in front, Mary Jane behind me and Carolyn tailing us.

Right along the coast at Surfside, there was water across the road but not enough to be a problem. There wasn't much traffic so we could just cross over into the other lane. Next stop....Jamaica Beach RV Resort.. This is a large resort with a number of amenities.

There is a mini-golf course in the middle.

They have added a lazy river behind the fence sinc I was here last.

All the sites are pull-through.

We settled in Wednesday and then we set out on Thursday to do some sight-seeing after we got registered. We drove into Galveston and on towards the opening into Galveston Bay. There were lots of ships.

Lots of people along the shore, some fishing.

As you can see, the day was very overcast......on the verge of raining any moment.

This interesting Peanut Butter Warehouse apparently also houses Coffee Roasters.

Back along the main beach, here is the popular pier.

We decided to have an early dinner at Fish Tales. We ate there several times on a previous trip.

It was nice enough to sit out on the balcony across from the beach.

Carolyn talked us into a lovely drink.

This is half of a ribs and shrimp kisses dinner. Mary Jane and I decided to split a plate because we knew they were large. Instead of just giving us an extra plate, the waiter plated it separately. He was a great waiter.

Mary Jane was very happy with her half.

Carolyn was pretty happy with her dinner too.

One would think from the idealic scene that the next day was lovely but no, more rain was in store for us.

Final Days at the Rockport Flocking

Sunday we visited the Old Fulton Seafood Café and Deli for lunch. We were a little surprised when the GPS led us to a restaurant in a strip mall; however, when we went inside it was nice. They have a very high rating from several sources like Trip Advisor. Our waiter told us that they were located on the beach in Fulton until Hurricane Harvey. Everyone agreed the food was great and so was the service. MJ was the last one served, a bit after the rest of us....the waiter apologized and said he didn't like the way the first plate looked so he had them redo it.
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Next on our agenda was a visit to the Fulton Mansion. From this picture, you really don't see much damage.

But then, a view of the roof changes things. Hurricane Harvey occurred over a year ago but the Rockport-Fulton area is still recovering. The hurricane tore off several chimneys which opened holes into the roof. Right now, all the furniture is wrapped up in the center of each room. Walls had to be replastered and it was too wet to do that for some time. By then the first roof contractor was no longer available so new bids had to be sent out. The mansion is open and you can see more of the details of the walls and trim without the furniture blocking the view. Entry is free until the repair work is complete and it is definitely still worth a visit.

The Education and History Center along with the gift shop are in great shape. We had a great time watching two young girls dress this manikin from the skin out. They were shocked at how many pieces of clothing the ladies had to wear.

We also toured downtown Rockport. Almost all of the stores are repaired and open. This lovely mural is on the wall near the coffee shop on the main street.

Most of our group left on Monday morning but Carolyn, Mary Jane, and I stayed several more days before we headed east to another RV rally but that is another story. We gave the Apple Dumpling Deli a try for lunch and would definitely recommend them. Think about splitting a sandwich like Mary Jane and I did as they are huge!

Our last afternoon, we spent some time painting some rocks. Sorry, no pictures of those. We also tried one more time to have supper at Steer Burger. Once before during this rally, and once at a previous rally, we managed to catch them on a day they were closed. They have a really high rating and prices are reasonable. Their rating is very well deserved......great burgers. You order your burgers from the stand outside and they bring them to you inside a house with picnic tables.

Our goal for this rally was to get together with friends and have a good time while we helped the Rockport community in their recovery from Hurricane Harvey. Please visit.....you will find lots of businesses for shopping and great restaurants. They put their initial efforts into rebuilding their tourism areas. Residential areas still need work and recovery there is ongoing. We met a new member for our group....Marlene. She was in town to help with rebuilding efforts as a part of this group. They still need lots of help and you can work as much or as little as you want. And they can definitely make use of any skills you have from data input, answering phones, to carpentry, etc.

Another Day in Paradise

After we checked out the Big Tree in Goose Island State Park, we headed back toward Rockport. Goose Island State Park is open but only one of the campgrounds is in use. The one right along the beach is closed as is the big fishing pier thanks to Hurricane Harvey. Our destination was Paradise Key Dockside Bar and Grill. Two of our group didn't go to the Big Tree so they were waiting for us at the restaurant. Even though it was quite warm and humid (and buggy), we sat out on the covered patio where the fans and breeze off the water kept us cool enough and the mosquitoes away.

The food was great and so was the service. The restaurant has a very nice atmosphere.
 My success with selfies is definitely not on a par with many others but this is looking out at the bay.

 

Back at the resort, we had happy hour, potluck leftovers, and then played our own version of Bingo (everyone wins). Sorry but I didn't get any pictures. The resort activities director Jan and our own Carolyn Patin coerced us into karaoke.

 

Believe me when I say that everyone should be grateful I am just posting the picture rather than the video version.



Wild Time in Rockport TX

I picked the RV up from storage on Monday afternoon late. Tuesday we were off for a doctor's appt. Tuesday afternoon DH put the battery on the charger and checked the tires for the right air pressure. Hmmm, the battery didn't charge right so Tuesday night DH decided he needed to get a new battery the next day.  Of course, my plan was to have the fridge cool down Tuesday night so I could transport some groceries direct from the store into the RV.  Wednesday about lunchtime the new battery was on the charger and I was off to the store to stock up for DH at home and me on a trip. After grocery shopping, clothes and other miscellaneous stuff was loaded. I was dead tired and I was too tired to load up the fridge after 9 pm.

Willy chose Thursday morning to sleep in (very unusual) so I had to hustle to get groceries in the fridge, dog crates and food loaded and be off to meet MJ to head out to Rockport. We had a good trip down to Rockport, a bit of rain but not much. So we arrived at Wilderness Oaks RV Resort mid afternoon.  They were waiting to welcome our group. We had a rally here in April 2017 but Rockport was very hard hit by Hurricane Harvey.  I knew the RV park had been back up and running since about a month after Harvey hit but we weren't sure exactly what we would find in the rest of the town.

Resort Manager Diane is great to work with for a rally. Her staff is equally eager to help. The crew of guys hustles right up when you arrive and they can get anyone in to their site no matter how good or bad you are at doing it yourself.  We found this great welcome basket waiting for us in the clubhouse.

The park has a big building with game room, kitchen/dining, and separate big room that we could use. Since we were a small group, I told Diane we would just use the kitchen/dining area and please let any other guests use the other two rooms. We had a potluck planned for that night so things were cooking while we had happy hour and visited. Everyone arrived by late afternoon.

I only managed to get one photo. Now this is a women's group but occasionally we have a spouse that is along for the ride with our rally a stop on a longer trip so we make an exception to women only once in a while. Bob and Liz (in the middle) are newly weds and this was Bob's maiden RV trip so he got to join us.

 The next morning we were off to Donutsdatrock by special request of the "blue" flamingo.

They have quite a variety of donuts as well as other breakfast items.

So we all had different choices and they served us coffee in big old non-matching coffee cups. They even came out with the pot to give us refills.

We switched out our agenda and headed to Goose Island State Park to check out the "Big Tree". Our plans are always made in jello so making changes is no problem.  Keep reading.....these are not the big tree.

This is the Big Tree with a trunk over 11 feet in diameter and 35 feet in circumference.....it is huge.  It is 44 feet tall and is over 1000 years old so it has survived hundreds of hurricanes including Harvey last year.

The mosquitoes are pretty horrible around here with the over abundance of rain here the last few weeks but, fortunately, I stuck a bottle of bug spray in the car so we all sprayed and didn't let them drive us away.