Charlie's Pasture

Port Aransas, Texas

This old fat man had a fairly good day. The “bug” seems to have lost it’s power and is on the run. There was even a short four mile walk taken this afternoon in the sunny but cold weather. It made for a nice outing.

Earlier in the day some “what ever is in the cabinets stew” was made. It turned out very well in my modest opinion. A can of hot dog sauce, one can each of two kinds of beans, one can of creamed corn, a double handful of cole slaw, some chopped carrots, brown rice and broken into small pieces spaghetti. Stir fry the slaw and carrots for a couple of minutes in the stew pot, then dump the rest in and hot simmer it for a half hour. Throw in whatever spices you like whenever you feel like it. Now there are four more meals of stew waiting for me in the freezer right next to the bait shrimp. Oh Boy Good Eatin.

Finally it is time to tell the tales of Charles Pasture. It is about a mile walk from here to the pier. The walk to Charlie’s pasture is pleasant and provides many items for future blogs. It is basically a municipal park that is strung out along the Corpus Christi ship channel from the ferry landing to the south for well over a mile.

The first mile or so is bulk headed with concrete. The top of the bulkhead is paved for a nice walkway right on the edge of the water. However a large boat wake can splash up on you if you are not paying attention. There are benches every now and then along the walkway. For almost all the way it is possible to back your vehicle up to the walkway. This makes for very convenient bank fishing. The water slopes from the bulk head out to the ship channel. The ship channel is nominally forty one feet deep. There are some huge fish caught from the shore here.
Also provide free of charge is a very nice fishing pier. In the following picture you will notice some newer wood in the pier. The T-head is large and can hold a lot of folks for fishing on the edge of the ship channel. The story goes that in warm weather the pier is very crowded. According to a fishing forum, sometime last year the pier was crowded when a ship went through the area too fast. In boating you are responsible for damage your wake does. The wake was washing peoples things off the bulkhead and causing damage of all sorts. When it passed the pier the wake was higher than the pier decking. The folks on the pier were frightened to say the least. The good part is that all the new wood you see was what replaced the part that the ship wake washed away leaving a good number of folks stranded on the T-head with over a hundred feet of pier missing in deep water.
No one was killed but there was some serious layering going on for a bit. The story says that the Coast Guard was on top of it quickly and the shipping company covered the losses. This was a bunch of very lucky folks.

The area of water that comes through the narrow portion of land here is huge. Many, many square miles of bay area gets its tidal flow through this spot. Frequently the tidal flow is too fast to fish. This is a picture of a wake the piling on the pier was making from the tidal flow near the end of the tide change a couple of days ago. It would be too much flow to paddle my yak against.

If you messed up and got caught in a seaward tidal flow in a yak, the next stop is the Yucatan in Mexico. That would be a thirsty and long trip.

Tonight is another bitter blizzard with temps in the thirties. Tomorrow is supposed to be bright and sunny for trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM.

Bugged

Port Aransas,

Apparently this old fat man has picked up a bug from someone recently. Today was mostly laying around feeling puny, sniffing and hacking.

A short visit to a fishing goods store was amusing. As my path went up and down the aisles, there happened to be a nice clerk doing inventory. For some reason a display caught my attention then my funny bone. As we stood there with the clerk looking at the fool laughing out loud, the fish measuring rulers were pointed out.

On the market is L shaped metal fish measuring rulers to make certain your catch is legal to keep.
The freshwater ruler started at 0 inches and went to 18 inches.
The saltwater ruler started at 12 inches and went to 36 inches.
My comment to the clerk just before he started laughing also was That right there shows why saltwater is my preferred fishing style. He agreed.

Ok everyone, while my body is misbehaving, the rest of you get out there and try to have tooooo much fun, TheOFM

Burned, Blasted And Burned

Port Aransas, Texas

There is a wind burned, sand blasted then sun burned face attached to my body tonight. A rub down with crèmes of different sorts should be a wonderful event.

Back to the beginning. Grocery shopping was first this morning. The local IGA store was entered in high hopes it would be not too high priced. WRONG AGAIN. After trolling through the entire store the items in my basket were put back on the shelves. There is an item that costs about $2.38 in most stores. In the IGA it was $3.59 and that is how the pricing went. On down the road to Wal-Mart and OFM type prices. As it turned out, the diesel was so much cheaper at the Wal-Mart 9 miles away that this one half tank of diesel saved me enough to run to Wal-Mart every four days for a month and still come out ahead. It seems to be price gouging here on the island. There is also some undesirable attitudes by the store keepers in this town.

On a short walk around town, this one store had some unusual “ornaments” out front to distinguish it from others. There are some net floats, a bouy, a Scott air pak and an odd yellow device of unknown use.

At another store, perched on the front porch was this crab trap on the bottom and a unknown on the top. The crab trap is a cage with a few inlets in it. Some bait is put in the trap and the trap dropped into the water. Crabs find the openings to get to the bait and then cannot find their way out. When the crabber comes back and lifts the trap from the water, he can open a trap door to drop the crabs into a container on the boat.


While being a lazy bum down near the Corpus Christi channel watching boats come and go, my eyes got to witness the Coast Guard going someplace in a hurry.

There was the boat above, a smaller boat and then ten minutes later another large boat all in a hurry toward the channel leading to the Gulf of Mexico. About thirty minutes later the largest boat came back up channel at a much more sedate pace than when they went by the first time. Since the Coast Guard has so many duties on the coast, you can never know just what the cause for the hurry was all about. The Coasties are patrolling here a lot, but usually at a slow comfortable pace.

Late in the afternoon after being a lazy bum got boring, some fishing was tried with disastrous results.

This is what is left of my newest rod purchased about a year ago. It is a Berkley Cherrywood rod. The tip had been broken once before and repaired. Today my fishing weight had hung on some oyster shells. As the line was tensioned to attempt to break the line at the knot, the rod snapped. This was not anywhere the tension it has had while catching fish in the past. Maybe this was a bad blank from the start. My other rod that is over twenty years old with lots of fish brought in with it seems to be working just fine. The rod was rated for two pound stronger line than was on the reel so the rod should not have broken. It is in the garbage can at the pier now.

After searching the internet fishing forums, it came up that the generally toughest rods out there nowadays are the Shakespeare Ugly Stick rods. Nobody said they were fantastic performers, but lots of folks told stories of how tough they are. Knowing my grace and agility and that the Ugly Sticks are on the lower end of price, it seems appropriate to put one in my tool box. OH DARN, now some fishing gear shopping needs to be done.

Since the weather folks have predicted a light freeze tonight, shopping might be a good way to try to have tooooo much fun tomorrow. TheOFM.

Surfing Balloon

Port Aransas, Texas

Checking out some things in Corpus and doing some shopping was the order of business today. The weather chose otherwise. It was a very thick fog this morning and the ferries were having lots of fun with their fog horns a couple of blocks away. About ten thirty the fog lifted and it was 75 and sunshine. Shorts, tee shirt and running shoes and off to Corpus.

When the truck was secure in the Academy store parking lot, an old fat man hopped out of it to a 59 degree surprise. The cold front got here early. Upon return to the truck after a successful shopping time in the store, we headed off to check on some other things before going to the beach.

One interesting thing was this store sign. Can you supply some stories to go with the sign????

As the day progressed, the temperature climbed up to 63 for a little while. My pass got me into the Mustang Island state park again. It was early afternoon and time for a beach fix. The beach was totally deserted except for me and a ranger on patrol. The white sand in the next picture was like powdered sugar. The wind was blowing it along the ground in little “streaming clouds”. My footprints in the sand lasted about five minutes before they were blown into oblivion. The roof in the picture is a casualty of hurricane Ike.
As a local paper was being read in the comfort of my truck, this green balloon came floating past in the surf. At first it seemed like a balloon that is used for dragging a baited hook around to catch fish. But eventually it bounced up in the air a few times so it was apparent just a loose balloon out for an exciting time surfing.
Notice the angry sea. King Neptune told me he is pissed with Mother Nature for letting it get cold again. The wind was blasting so hard the concrete barriers along the highway were flapping in the breeze.

We have a cold spell tonight and then another late next week. It is supposed to get down into the thirties both times. Basically a virtual blizzard of cold for this area.

All this wind and SEVERE cold is really cutting into my biking and yaking attempts at having tooooo much fun. TheOFM

Banshee Winds

Port Aransas, Texas

It was very obvious this morning that it was time to do laundry. All the gathering was done and off to the campground laundry. It takes laundry a lot longer to dry in this salty humidity than it did in the desert settings. Almost three hours later the clothing was put away and the bed made. Since my stomach was being a very irritable grouch, lunch was eaten early at 11:30 AM. Then a short nap until one pm was enjoyed.

Time for fishing. A short drive to the bay access at the state park was made. An hour later still no bites. The only other person there was a wader using live shrimp. Live shrimp is a never fail bait. WRONG AGAIN. The fellow never had to re-bait during the whole time. Oh well. Back to PA.

Time to hunt down the third free public pier in town. It is at the end of Station Street. It has a nice parking area with restrooms of less than the best shape.
The pier is a very nice pier set right where three ship channels come together near the inland base of the jetties protecting the entrance to the Corpus Christi Channel. The water was very turbulent and swift. Porpoises were abundant and playing with the boats coming past.

Still not a nibble even. Therefore it was time to try another spot. Around to the Charles Pasture pier. Not much but one small perch and a hardhead catfish. As the weather began to cool off and the King Kong mosquitoes came out, it was time to just quit for the day.

On the way back to Comfort Castle, this picture of a fancy condominium building was taken. This is the cheap one in town at $300,000 each condo and up. This town is either really expensive or a run down dump when it comes to housing.

The wind was howling like a rabid banshee today so the yak tryout will have to wait. Even the campground swimming pool had waves big enough to go surfing. That made the fishing miserable in reality. All options are open tomorrow for trying to have tooooo much fun TheOFM.

Yak Mods

Port Aransas, Texas

The yak modification time was here today. It always makes me a little nervous to drill holes in a perfectly good boat. However the tie points that were to be installed were badly needed. Installing custom tie points on a SOT yak is standard procedure. The only bad news is the paddle clips do not fit a Mini-X like mine. There was not any usable flat spots to install the clips where they would be of assistance. They will be saved for the next yak. There is always a different boat in mind for the future.

After the disappointment about the paddle clips, it was time to install tie points. First the items planned for tying down were placed in the yak. Then the optimum point of the tie down was decided.

Next the hole positions were marked and pilot holes drilled through the hull. Next the full size hole to fit the rivet tightly was drilled. They looked two feet in diameter to my nervous eye. The rivet was test fitted.
The hole was tight enough that the rivet had to be forced into the hole during installation. Hopefully it will be leak resistant. The two rivets were placed into the holes of the tie-down. Next the assembly was placed over the predrilled holes. A bit of force and the tie-down was seated in place.

Next was to apply the rivet tool properly to make the rivet splay out inside the yak. It was nerve racking on the first one. However it went very well and easy. By the eighth one the installation was well in hand. The installation was finished easily and with good results. Check it out in this next picture.
Four tie-downs total were installed.

All the tools were cleaned and put away. The area cleaned up and then it was lunch time. This time it took me about an hour to do the job. The next one probably will not take but twenty minutes. It is very easy.

By the time lunch was finished, the temperature was near eighty degrees. The extra bright sunshine required dark sunglasses to keep from squinting too much. After a bit it was decided to go down to Charlie’s Pasture and do some fishing. Charlie’s Pasture has a good tale about it to be told in a blog entry covering Charlie’s Pasture all by itself.

After around an hour and a half of getting no bites on every thing in the tackle box, it was time to try something else. It was notable that a person on the pier several hundred yards north was catching some fish and throwing them back in. OK now get over to the pier to see what is happening. He was a very nice young man of about 20. He was catching what are called Piggy Perch down here in Texas.

They are a small fish in the 8-10 inch size. Around piers they can be a nuisance or a lot of fun depending on the presence or absence of preferred fish. When a small kid is being introduced to fishing they are great because they will readily bite very quickly and are hard fighters for their size. It is easy for a small kid to have a bite every 20-30 seconds and land a fish every few minutes to keep the interest up. On ultra light tackle they are a ferocious opponent in the fishing world.

As the sun was going down and the temperature getting chilly, the BIG BUBBA MOSQUITOES came out to feed. They can bite through ½” steel plate and two of them can carry off a small child. Since my light saber was back in Comfort Castle, it seemed prudent to jump into the truck and leave the area.

Tonight is make up shopping lists night. This week had gotten away from me. It was a major surprise today when it turned out to be Thursday instead of Tuesday. The trip into Corpus for a couple of things needed for the yak outfitting needs to be done early in the morning before the weekenders come into town and create traffic. Just for the heck of it, tonight I stood in the center of the main street in town, Cotter St., while I finished a glass of iced tea. No vehicles at all at seven pm. WOW. It will not be that quiet tomorrow night.

This place is something else with all the ways to try to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM.

Beach Dog On The Run

Port Aransas, Texas
Marina Beach RV Resort

It has been a day of odd turns and unexpected events. The morning started late and lazy, otherwise known as perfect. By ten am it was getting time to decide to get out of the house to do something. WHY? Just cause.

Ok off to JerryB’s kayak place in Flour Bluff for a yak paddle holder. When paddling and a picture wants me to record it for posterity, it has been a pain to keep the paddle under control and take the pictures. Oscar of TKF had a set of clips on his yak to hold the paddle for just that sort of thing. Debi B. is the one to talk to if you are a soft old man instead of a hard body person. She understands our comfort desires and what it takes to meet that desire.

She knew exactly what was needed including the weird pop rivets that plastic yaks use to attach things. On top of everything else, she is outright fun to talk with. Those readers anywhere close to here that are thinking of a yak or wanting to try one out, they are having a demo day sometime around the first of March. Keep up to date by visiting their website http://www.jerrybskayaks.com/. Here are the clips and the rivets for these blow molded yaks.

After this wonderful time, it was time for lunch. The Whataburger on Padre Island got my business again. The best part was meeting a young man there and talking about traveling with him, especially Big Bend. He will have the time of his life when he gets over to the Bibe area.

Since my fishing equipment was in the truck, it seemed proper to stop at the Mustang Island state park and do some fishing. One good bite and numerous small nibbles yielded a grand total of zero fish caught in three hours. My back was starting to hurt from standing fishing that long. My mucking boots worked out very well as long as the heavy muck was avoided.

Since the beach was just across the highway and my pass let me in for no cost, some beach time was taken. The beach was nearly deserted as you can see in this picture taken this afternoon.

It was just warm and wonderful. Oh yeah, my sister wanted a picture of my toes in the beach sand as soon as it warmed enough to handle it. Well it was plenty warm today and here the beauties are, Sis.

The day was going very calmly and this old fat man was laid back in the drivers seat nearly asleep. A couple walking their Golden Retriever was approaching from my left. Suddenly there was a loud shout. As my eyes got focused, into view came a nice black Lab running down the beach dragging a leash. She was splashing the puddles and really having fun.

The man of the couple called to the lab and she came over to him to play. In the mean time the lady noticed way down the beach a man running toward us. The truck was started and we went down the beach nearly a half mile to pick up the fellow. He was in good shape as he was running pretty hard but not really breathing too hard. When we got back up to the couple and the dogs, he thanked me profusely and hopped out to get his pup back. Here is the happy reunion.

Don’t you love it when things work out nice!!

That was actually a great amount of fun today. What in the world will happen tomorrow while out trying to have tooooo much fun? TheOFM

Pushy Pelican

Port Aransas, Texas
Marina Beach RV Resort

This town is going to take a while to get it covered and reported to my readers. It has much more than Fredericksburg for the number things to do and see.

It was a short walk this afternoon, but a long talk at Roberts Park. The park starts about one block from the campground. To give you a little idea of the intensity of the area, each side of the street of that block will take at least one whole blog each to cover them.

Near the start of the park is a sign to give you some idea of the animals that are in the area for your admiration. In the couple of hours that the day light lasted, all the animals were seen. Some VERY close in fact.
In the middle of a grassy patch is this very nice kids playground. It is well done and well maintained. A couple of families were having a great time with soccer balls out in the grass. Lots of giggling and squealing was going on.
Near the start of my entry into the park was a fellow catching bait for fishing. He was using a cast net. My experience is considerable in using a cast net. He was also very good. His catch was finger mullet that make great bait for large game fish. A finger mullet is four to five inches long and about three quarters of an inch in diameter. He was catching about eight to fifteen per cast of the net. It was fun watching someone good with a net do the catching.

Every now and then a loud horn roars into the air. It is the ferry boat signaling a boat or ship in the channel his intentions so no wrecks occur. My jump is usually fairly high when the sound intrudes unexpectedly. It is not often but it is dramatic.

While walking on the rocks at the waterfront, a small bird flew right up to me and landed. Most likely it was used to getting a handout. After walking around looking cute for about two minutes, it wandered off in search of regular bird food instead of human food.

There is a good fishing pier based in the park. It goes out near the ship channel and on weekends is usually crowded.
Notice the fellow on the pier. His name is Leo. He and his wife of many years are here celebrating their wedding anniversary. While we were talking a brown pelican landed on the rail next to Leo. We pretty much ignored the pelican. After a couple of minutes the pelican took flight and whopped Leo on the head with its wing as it flew by. Then the pelican landed about two feet from me on the handrail. This was the evil eye from the pelican since we would not give it a morsel.
A beady eyed devil it seems to me.

The walk on back to Comfort Castle was filled with items in the block back that gave me lots of ideas for trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM

On The Island

Port Aransas, Texas
Marina Beach RV Resort

A new city. A new campground. New folks. New adventure await. This is the best part of full time rv living. A new set of adventures whenever you wish to get them started.

Today started with the morning rain waking me from my beauty sleep. Of course it is raining. It is the morning to pack up and leave. Fortunately the rain quit but the cold remained. After getting everything ready to roll, all that was left to do was wait for the mail to come. The mail came a few minutes later and off we rolled for the coast. About half way to the coast is a rest stop. It was needed for my curiosity about if an important letter had come in the mail packet was about to drive me nuts. It had not. It is only the money to get me through the next year that did not show up yet.

After that nice respite in Comfort Castle, it was onward. Crossing the ferry with the trailer had me a little concerned. How they handled trailers was unknown to me. It turned out to be easy. They put two vehicles in front, then gave the same side to me to straddle the centerline. Since this rig is so small they actually loaded two more pickups behind me. The Port Aransas ferries are amazing at how well they handle the traffic load.

From the ferry landing to the campground is about three long blocks. The new landing for Comfort Castle was waiting. Backing in was the easiest that has happened in quite a while. This is a “standard campground” for tourist areas. Actually slightly more side to side space than many. The sites are very long though. Here is the site next to the storage area. No neighbors on one side. How nice!

The scenery is very not scenic to say the least. Here is the “view” from my office/dining table.
Since this is a gulf barrier island, the “dirt “ is powdery sand. It gets into everything. Since my choice for positioning Comfort Castle left me with a sand patio, a trip to the home supply store was taken to purchase some patio stones. Here is a shot from the door down at the new patio. Notice all the sand and lack of vegetation. That door mat will get a lot of use. At least if one falls in the yard, the landing will be soft.

The cell tower is less than a block from the campsite, so good internet is available. It is 43 right now outside with a wet breeze blowing ice knives through your body. Tomorrow will be 65 and bright sunshine. That will make it a good day for trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM.

A Nude Sunbather

Sinton, Texas
Rob Bessie Welder RV Park

A beautiful walk around the lake in this park. It was a very pleasant day. Critters were out crittering around. One old fat man out for a stroll in the wonderful sunshine. The area is greening up very fast. The grass at my campsite needs mowing again after only a week since the last mowing. After all spring is due here in another two weeks.

As the stroll made it around to the backside of the lake, a beautiful view opened up. There was a surprise awaiting me up that slough in the back ground. Before the surprise, it provided a peaceful and tranquil site for our enjoyment.

One of the side trails leads you to this great gazebo for bird watching. Again a wonderfully pleasant and peaceful place to visit. Notice the undercurrent of green growth in progress.

As the stroll continued on around and along the slough, surprise, a friendly lady was sun bathing in the nude for our entertainment. She looked to be about eight feet long and had a cute grin on her face. At least she was on the opposite bank, coincidently just below where the picture of the gazebo was taken. It was nice that she was not bothered when the picture of the gazebo was being taken.

On the opposite side of the trail was a lot of grasses Some pretty red blooms attracted a butterfly. It took several shots to finally catch the butterfly still enough to not be blurred to badly.


Tomorrow morning is moving day. Talk about coincidences. Luella stopped and mentioned that this spot is already rented until late in 2009. A couple who are building a house in town needed a spot close to town. Luella was able to give this spot starting Monday. It would not have been available except for my same luck down in Port Aransas on getting the only spot coming available in that campground. What a large set of fortunate circumstances.

The adventures and trying to have tooooo much fun continues. TheOFM.

Watch Were You Step!!!!

Sinton, Texas
Rob Bessie Welder RV Park

The walk this morning resulted in a find that was not expected. A little off from my usual path is this set of cactus. According to my reference book, they are named “Horse Crippler”. The spines are claimed to penetrate a horse’s hoof. My shoe found out it will stick well into a running shoe. It was definitely a chore to pull my shoe off the cactus thorn. There are about ten of them in a small area near (of all places) the rodeo arena.

Chores occupied the rest of the morning and lunch was late. A trip to the beach at Rockport was started in hopes of folks being out and around for blog material. This nice bright sunshine day in mid winter was really cold. My truck thermometer on the way to the coast got up to enough temperature that the AC was turned on. Early January and running the AC, is that good???? YES!!!!!


Down at the beach, it was very windy as usual. Click on this picture and check out all the activities going on in this picture of the beach. Kite boarders playing, a lady walking her dogs, a couple playing with their dog, someone sitting in a chair reading, a couple walking the beach and a some swimmers way over to the left. Lots of nice outdoor activities going on.
On the way back home, an opportunity presented itself to try out my mucking boots that were purchased a couple of days ago. It is with special happiness to report that they do an excellent job. They were comfortable, did not leak and stayed on my feet in some mud. They allowed me to wade out a bit into the water to take this next picture of a returning gulf shrimper. They are fairly large boats. The little boat in front is a 22 foot boat to give you some idea of the shrimper’s size.
My excitement about moving to a new location is growing. Hitch itch can get very intense in the last day or two. Sinton is actually a very nice town. The RV park is excellent and Luella cannot be beat for a great manager and good friend. But the itch continues. Luella understands since she and Walt, her husband, also traveled for many years. A new location is always full of new chances to try to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM

Severe Sticker Shock

Sinton, Texas
Rob Bessie Welder RV Park

As usual my efforts did not work out a hoped. My re-found interest in fishing for saltwater species led me to consider a bait casting type of reel. After so many years of spinning reels, it seemed odd feeling to reel with my right hand. Naturally there are very few left hand bait caster reels made. So off to Academy for possible new equipment. Equipment prices have quintupled in the last ten years. This is major sticker shock even on the clearance tables.

Anyway the store had one reel in left hand and it was $100. That is way more than an experiment on fishing reels is worth. Time to re-think this situation. On top of that a decent cheap rod was in the $50 range. My plan had been to spend as much as $35 for good stuff. Maybe the gear in the truck will do for a long time more.

OK Plan B. Play some golf at the twilight time this evening. WRONG AGAIN. That phrase is happening so often it needs to be on speed type. The course was swamped with folks all the way till nearly dark.

At least one good thing happened. Luella was cleaning up the last of the Christmas decorations with my supervision. As we got ready to leave, the window in the door would not close. Since my abilities about mechanical things is well beyond genius level, it fell to me to fix the window. Maybe my volunteering to do it helped A squirt of lubricant and a large sledge hammer and the window was closed. Will it open again? Who Knows!!!!! But Comfort Castle will roll out Monday so maybe we can make a clean getaway before anyone tries to open it again.

And now you have an accounting of a day in the incredibly exciting life of an old fat man trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM

Things Change

Sinton, Texas
Rob Bessie Welder RV Park

This year has started with changes already. On my trip out to play today some important decisions were made and acted upon.

There is an opportunity that seldom comes along in front of you now. On Jan.5 this site in Welder RV Park will be vacated and available for another camper. Most years no site comes available between Jan. 1 and the end of March. Call Luella at 361-364-3147 if you want to spend the winter in a nice small Texas town with a golf course a few feet away. This is a recommended RV Park by me.

Today’s attempt at adventure certainly did not work out as planned. It was back to Mustang Island to do some more fishing. At the Corpus Christi Academy Sporting Goods store some rubber knee high boots were purchased. They are historically great for mucking around in the mud on the coast. A quick run on down to the island revealed about six hundred million folks out fishing in the bitter winter weather, of 75 degrees and bright sunshine. Ok new plan time.

On north on the island to just nose around. For some unreasonable reason, a stop was made at the choice RV park in downtown Port Aransas. It was reviewed heavily last spring as the only one on the island that interested me. “Do you have any monthly sites available?” “Yes, starting Sunday.” WOW Luck was with me again. Probably the only site on the whole island and here it is waiting for me. Now Comfort Castle will be moving on Monday to the new RV park.

This is very near the great yaking, fishing, beach biking and other things area of the coast. It is only a couple of blocks from the beach, grocery store, library and fishing piers. In other words, a bike will be great transportation. Padre Island National Seashore is about thirty miles away and Mustang Island State Park is ten miles away.

As some meandering was being done to get familiar with the city, this view down a street of a ship going by in the ship channel struck me as interesting.

In a couple of minutes, while waiting in the ferry line, the same ship came past the ferry landings.


While crossing the channel on the ferry, this view back toward the harbor and fishing piers, that is three blocks from my new home, was taken.


Notice how bad this dreary winter weather is in the pictures. This will be rough duty, but maybe an old fat man can handle it. Check out the bad winter for Port Aransas at weather.com. You will see why the move is being made. Hot and sweaty, YEA.

Port Aransas is a town of character and characters. It will likely provide much material for many blogs. Since my studies of the style of Granny J in Arizona, Port A, as the locals call it, will be interesting for a good while. Maybe all my years on the Galveston coastal area are coming back to haunt me. No matter what, there will be lots of places to try to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM.

One Month Winter

Sinton, Texas
Rob Bessie Welder RV Park

For the first time since this blog was started, there will be some outspoken straight forward comments about how I feel about an issue.

Tioga George, http://blog.vagabonders-supreme.net/, and I have both received comments from folks complaining that our blogs are not interesting enough any more or at times not worth the bother of reading. I am certain every blogger gets those emails on occasion. So let me put it to those folks very straight forward. Get off your couch potato backsides and create a blog of the type you like and let us enjoy it. At least George, TheOFM and many others, many who are listed on Hitchitch.com, are doing something. Maybe it is your turn to add some interest and value to this world.

End of rant.

Spring is trying its best to bust loose around here in south Texas. Our official first frost date is December 27 and the last frost date is January 26. Therefore winter is officially one month long. There is 27 more days but the flowers and trees are not waiting a moment longer than they have too.

On one of my walks around the park today, it was very apparent that Mother Nature is not piddling around about getting ready to burst loudly onto the scene at the first opportunity. The mesquite trees are setting small leaves and vigorous growth into action. The grasses in the area are greening up nicely and the oak trees have buds swelling.

Yesterday at Padre Island, the beach was fairly busy in spite of the cooler temperatures prevailing. There was a fellow in shorts and tee shirt riding a bike on the beach.

Folks were laying out on the beach enjoying the atmosphere. And TheOFM was wandering around looking at what ever happened in front of him.

A good bit of time was spent wandering the beach searching for a complete sand dollar. None were found. So a new idea came in from the fog of my simple brain. Check out the sand dunes.

While meandering, remember OF Bob anointing me one of the Meanderthalls, it was noticed that spring was imminent at the beach. These cacti had small bumps where they will be setting fruit in the very near future.
All along the couple of miles of dunes of meandering done were flowers blooming in anticipation of the coming wild flower party in Texas. It is a sight to be seen. The flowers are still small in quantity, but stubborn in blooming early. This shrub had small buds splitting the outside of the bud. It is awesome to watch nature at work.

There were over fifty pictures taken of flowers in the dunes. It was a labor to cull them down to these four. Please enjoy them.



For every flower seen there were thousands of buds straining at their restraints.

Another year comes to a close. With it comes a new year with more opportunities to try to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM.