2022-07-14 TRR Rockport Rally Meet and Greet

 Several Roses were already on site at Wildernoess Oaks  several days early even though the rally didn't start until Thursday afternoon.  Since Elaine and Teresa had not been to this area before, we took advantage of our free time and headed over to Goose Island State Park to see The Big Tree.

The tree is actually much more impressive in person than this photo taken from a distance. Did I mention that it was very hot and humid?

While no one is allowed near the Big Tree, there are other trees in front that are available for photos and even for kids to climb. This one had a branch resting on the ground.

We also drove through the rest of the state park. Fishermen were busy fishing and cleaning their catch. There were plenty of cranes and other birds waiting to help clean up the remains.

The park has sites right on the water's edge that have a covered picnic area along with great views and an ocean breeze but no other shade. The pier has all been redone since the last hurricane and it is really long. There are plenty of sites in another area with lots of shade and most sites have good separation. There were lots of available sites on this weekday.

We had an official Meet and Greet late Thursday afternoon. Everyone brought appetizers and hors d'oeuvres to share so dinner was pretty much out of the question as we were full. A couple of our full-timers drove over from Port Aransas to catch up with friends.

We had pulled pork sliders, ham and cheese sandwiches, chicken and bacon pinwheels, deviled eggs, and a host of other goodies. We also had a birthday cake for Jimmie and Judith.

A number of us decided to hit the pool after we were done. It's a salt water pool which everyone loves. No pool pictures were taken, lol. The rally was off to a great start.

2022-07-13 Headed to Rockport Texas

Time for another Texas Ramblin' Roses Rally. My sister-in-law Elaine drove down to meet up with me in Schertz TX. This is her first time out in her travel trailer and her first rally. The trailer has been in storage for about three years due to covid so she was very smart and replaced the tires before leaving Abilene. She came to our house for dinner and then spent the night in a nearby RV park to get a feel for RVing on her own. We met up at a nearby Walmart parking lot and headed out together. We didn't have to go through San Antonio at all because we took back roads which is actually the shortest distance. Unfortunately, we ran into about 3 different road construction sites. Other than Texans hard at work repairing/replacing roads, the trip was uneventful.

This time the Roses are meeting in Rockport Texas at Wilderness Oaks RV Resort. I'm hosting and this is my fourth or fifth rally here. It's a great park and they treat us really well. We arrived to see this sign on the front of the office. We checked in and, while I was unhooking my toad, a camphost escorted Elaine to her site and spotted her while she backed in. He came back to escort me and Elaine was already unhooking her trailer. We both hooked up electric right away for A/C to cool things down and left the water and cable for later in the evening.

We took a little drive to see a few sites nearby once we were settled in.

Wednesday morning, four of us arrivals headed out along the coast. We took the ferry between Aransas Pass and Port Aransas. A lot of people don't realize that this is actually part of the highway system. I have taken my last RV, a 31' fifth wheel across several times and it isn't unusual to see semi-trucks on the ferries. We had a little wait to get on but it wasn't too bad. We headed over to the channel first.

A ship was on the way into the bay and on to Corpus Christi.

Elaine and Mary couldn;t wait to get their feet into the ocean.

That ship was coming in faster than you would expect.

Next we headed on down the island past the Mustang Island State Park and on to Padre Island National Seashore. Both Elaine and Barb got their one year America the Beautiful Senior pass. If you buy an annual senior pass for 3 years, the fourth year you will get the lifetime senior pass. It is a great deal which allows you to spread the cost of the lifetime pass over a four year period.

I think it was a first visit to the national seashore for everyone but me but I always enjoy it. I thought there used to be a place to get something to eat here but there isn't now. 

We had to take a couple tourist shots.

The beach looked so inviting but it was really, really hot and we were short on time so we had to settle for taking some pictures.

We checked out some exhibits inside the center. Almost looks like live doesn't it?

This is a ridley turtle nest. They were having a turtle release the next morning at 6:30AM which would have been wonderful to see but we were staying too far away to make it there on time.

We had a great day but we had to hustle back so a late lunch ended up being a Whataburger because we had 3 dogs waiting for us at home. Harley is a seasoned RVer and used to staying on his own for a reasonable amount of time. The other two dogs are new to staying alone and their "moms" are new to leaving them for very long. They were all just fine when we got back.
 

2022-06-18 TRR Abilene Rally Part 2

Saturday was a busy day. We started with coffee and visiting. Oh, should have mentioned we did that every morning. It was so hot that the rig christening was moved from afternoon to morning. Anyone with a new or new to them rig can have it christened. They tell everyone about their rig and wish their future travels all be safe and fun. Balloons filled with water used to be used but now the president of the chapter uses a water gun. It's just a fun thing to do.

Next we had a cooking demonstration from Olivia. She loves to cook whether at home or in her RV and she is a great cook. She shows how easily everyone can eat well while traveling. Saturday's demonstration was spaghetti with meat sauce all cooked in an Instant Pot. She has the umbrella sitting there on the table to simulate how you can cook in quite a small RV kitchen. She browned hamburger in avocado oil and added half a cup of water before scraping the bottom free of any meat that was stuck. She advised using lots of seasoning when cooking with a pressure cooker which is what an Instant Pot is. Then she added the jar of spaghetti sauce. Next she added half cup of water to the spaghetti jar which was shaken to get all of the sauce and poured into the pot. 

Finally, the pasta is broken in half and arranged like pickup sticks pointing in all directions. then the remainder of the water is added. The pasta can be pushed down but should not be stirred.

The pressure is set on high manually and the timer set for 8 minutes. The 8 minutes starts once pressure is reached. A quick release at the end of the cooking time left us with delicious al dente pasta. Olivia stirred it and let it site for a couple minutes so it thickened to just the right consistency. We all had healthy sized samples and it was delicious.

Later on we all met back at the rally room for the group picture followed by a potluck dinner. THe Hosts provided fried chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy while everyone else provided sides or desserts. It was all delicious. My sister-in-law Elaine joined us for the potluck as well as the rousing game of jeopardy we played after. this was one of our smaller rallies which was a nice change.

Brenda's homemade jeopardy categories and questions are always challenging but everyone ends up with a prize after the winning team gets done gloating.

After the formal part of the evening was over, some of stayed to play Rummikub for a while.

I know the group had a good time Sunday but I got up at 5:45AM and pulled out of the park at 6:15AM to drive home in time for a late lunch on Father's Day. I had the car all hooked up on Saturday night and the water unhooked so I just had to run the car program, put things away inside, and bring up the jacks. The trip home went very smoothly and lunch with the family was great.

 

2022-06-18 TRR Abilene Rally Part 1

 I wasn't in any hurry to leave Hords Creek in the morning because it was only an hour to Abilene and check-in wasn't until afternoon. My GPS sent me on back roads, really back roads instead of routing me back through Coleman. Except for one short gravel section, the roads were good but had no shoulders at all and almost no traffic which gets you thinking about what you would do if you had a blowout. Stay on the road with flashers on I guess because there was no place to pull off. I won't do that route again if we rally in Abilene again next year. 

The rally was at the Whistle stop RV Resort where we also had a rally last year. It's a newer park which means very few trees but it's nice and they take very good care of us when we rally there. since the rally didn't start until Thursday, those of us that were there on Wednesday went to Heff's Burgers fo. r dinner. The burgers are great and the portions are so large that you really want to order off the kids/seniors menu. I remembered that from last year. They had a huge staffing snafu with only one woman working there. We told her we weren't in any hurry so she took our orders and then she cooked them too. By the time she was done with us, a second person arrived to rescue her.

On Thursday we had brunch at Cracker Barrel and then we went to see the new Topgun movie. It's nice and cool in the theater and the movie was good. If I was Tom Cruise, I would have been very unhappy with the dye job they did on his hair, lol.

 

I spent the afternoon visiting with my sister-in-law and got back just after the Meet and Greet started.

Friday morning was set aside for siteseeing on your own. Some of the group went to the National WASP Museum in Sweetwater. It is well worth your time to visit.

Since I went to the WASP Museum, I talked my sister-in-law Elaine into going to the Frontier Texas Museum with me. She has lived in Abilene for 30 years and has never been there. Seems like you often see more when you visit someplace than when you live there as you keep thinking you will go another time.

The Frontier Texas Museum was great. We both really enjoyed it.

The lobby had some really great sculptures and scenery typical of Texas.

The first thing you do is see a movie telling you about the old days. It was narrated by a character acter that many would recognize if they watched old westerns. Next we walked around and listened to various "actors" giving us their version of what the old west days were like. They were holograms set in natural settings for the particular well-known person. They werre all good but some were amazing lifelike.

the killing off of the huge herds of bisons was featured in many different ways.

Many of the props had ben featured in well known movies.

There were many settings where you pushed a button to learn all about that particular area.

The Butterfield Overland Stage was a very prominent means of travel.

This particular character, an actual person, told us her whole life story. she was married 4 times and lost every husband through some terrible mishap from Indians to accidents. Her husband, daughters, and a son were killed by Indians during a raid. One horrible thing after another happened to her but she just kept persevering. It was an amazing story of fortitude and courage.

The final part of the museum was a theater where sate on stools that turned around. The whole story happened all around you with storms and stampedes and stories being told. It was really amazing. I definitely recommend a visit to this museum.

2022-06-15 Hords Creek COE Park

 I was on my way to a Texas Ramblin' Roses Rally in Abilene and just wanted to get away a day early. I checked and luckily found an opening at the Hords Creek Corps of Engineers park near Coleman Texas. It's a wonderful park with lots of RV sites with 30 or 50 amp electric and water. They also have a few hookups with sewer hookups. Some sites have screened shelters and they also have a number of group buildings with hookups for RVs.

I picked a pull-through site since I knew I would only be there for one night and I didn't plan on going anywhere after I arrived.

It was a nice site with a water view and shade trees although my RV was next to the trees rather than under them. 

Hords Creek Lake is a small lake and, unfortunately, right now the lake is so very low that some water front sites no longer have water in front of them at all. It was low when I was there a year ago but is worse this year. We need rain desparately.

This is one of the swimming beaches. The colored strips you can see beyond the granite blocks are actually the lines marking the far end of the protected beach area.

I had some lovely views when Harley and I took a walk after it got cool enough on the pavement for him.

And then, it was time for bed.