New Solar Panel Ordered

Del Rio, Texas

Do solar panels pay for themselves on Comfort Castle? For all too long accepting the “consensus” of some RV forums instead of doing my own analysis has been costing me precious money. About a week ago the proper effort was started to make a dollar based decision about putting solar on Comfort Castle. My analysis showed the payout was about a year and versatility of places to stay increases several fold. The panel and controller were ordered today. This will be interesting to say the least.

Other than the solar stuff, most of today was spent riding around looking at places to try to have fun. With the lake up over eighteen feet, the shoreline is not anything like last May. Islands where the yak was parked for pictures last May are not in sight now. It is a whole new world out here yak wise.

On top of that the winds are continuing to blow too much for any boat to enjoy the lake. Earlier it looked like a range fire over in Mexico with a huge cloud of smoke. Nope it was a major dust storm headed at Comfort Castle. Now we have been severely rocking for a few hours.

This picture was taken at Diablo East boat launching ramp. This ramp has the parking way up the hill to the far left and behind me. Folks use this ramp less than Blackbrush Point ramp so they do not have the long arduous walk to get up the hill to their vehicles and trailers.

On a point sticking out into the lake is a nature trail that is new to me. It is a pleasant short trail with neat placards now and then explaining about the natural items in the area.

While riding around on an unpaved sort of road through the desert, a nice fishing pier was found. The area does not get much use. Likely because the road to it is so rough. It does not seem like cars could make it to the pier. Anyway a few casts were made, but the wind was too strong to fish properly.

There are several “new” places that a yak will launch easily during my attempts at having tooooo much fun. TheOFM.

1/4 " Short King

Del Rio, Texas

Got the chores and want to’s under control enough to go for a little fishing this evening. Surprise Surprise. There was even a catching. After about twenty minutes of casting and reeling, a really dumb large mouth bass bit on my bait. It was nice to find out that the new rod handles fish very well. The trouble is the nice FAT bass was ¼ inch to short to be legal. My title needs to be King Of The ¼ “ Too Short. That happened to me at Port Aransas also. At least it was a catching adventure for a change.

Groceries were purchased at the Wal-Mart. Once again it is amazing how nice and pleasant the folks are in this town. Some places the folks in the stores are not happy looking. Some places like Del Rio and Rockport the folks seem happier than at Walt Disney World. It was a new thing to me when the lady at the checkout in front of me paid in Mexican currency. The Wal-Mart here does the checking out and change in US dollars, but accepts pesos in payments. The cashier only has to hit a key or two and the payment is converted into US dollars for her ease of tally. The cashier told me Wal-Mart even gives the customer a slightly better exchange rate than the customer gets in Mexico. Boy that Wal-Mart really knows how to make folks want to shop there. That is why they are so successful. Provide what the customer wants to spend on. Works every time.

The golf course was checked out also. It looks like it will be a nice course and is not public play. Last time it was still a private country club. Contrary to the Sinton course that seemed to do things to make folks not want to play there, this one has special days where seniors over 55 get a nice percentage off. They also have several good deals for folks who want to save money by playing at the less popular times. It was closed today, but the operator of the course happened to see me looking around and pulled in from the street to give me the information. Once again SERVICE. It brings in customers. The fairways were ordinary, but the greens were first class. It will get some of my money at least once.

The lake is something like nineteen feet fuller than when the team was here last May. It is a whole different looking lake now. Maybe the yak will get to go play on it soon. Here are a couple of pictures snapped just to let my readers see how nice it is. Bright blue skies, 75 degrees, scattered clouds and then the rest of the week it is supposed to get nice.

The New China Buffet was the lunch spot while running around doing chores. When it was last tried in May it was pretty good. This time my lunch was smoked salmon, skewered chicken, stuffed shrimp, vegetable egg roll, long green beans, onion rings, fried rice, iced tea and scoop it yourself from the container chocolate chip ice cream. It was all good to very good. Total cost including tip was a bit under $10. As my waddling body exited the door, it was held open for the owner to fix the lock. He was a very nice fellow to visit with. WOW what a day today.

But we are not nearly finished with all the adventures. Several folks were ready to have nice conversations. Some folks from before and some new folks. This is a really good area for trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM

Wind Blown Trip

Del Rio, Texas

The blog entries of the last couple of days have been cleaned up and entered for all to read. Yesterday’s is pretty special thanks to the folks you can see in the blog.

Today was head out day. Folks still ask me where my plans are taking me. Today there was a decision made at the first highway intersection to head north to Zapata. That was easily accomplished. In Zapata at the main intersection a decision was made to head to Laredo because it had been many years since my eyes had seen Laredo. More on Laredo later. Just a bit north of Laredo at the State Of Texas visitor center, there were three roads to choose from. A phone call to a RV park one direction yielded the information they were full for the next two months. OK choose one of the other roads. More north travel was chosen since it was 86 degrees in the parking lot. North ought to be cooler.

The first town with a campground to the north was not appealing, so the truck kept on moving north. When it all settled down, we are in Del Rio at the American Campground again with a week paid for. Now how did the team get here?????

The trip today was very strenuous. The wind is extremely strong and was pounding the truck and trailer from the side. Since the rig is coupled with an Equalizer brand hitch, even the strong winds cannot cause sway like other brands allow. However every now and then the entire rig, trailer and truck in unison, would move around in the lane. From ten this morning until five this evening it was fight the wind every minute. That is very tiring.

Here is a picture of the campsite in Del Rio. It is an ordinary every body lined up campground, but with considerable more room between rigs than most places.

This is a high value campground. Water, sewer, electric, cable and fast WIFI is $145 for the week. Monthly is $200 plus electric. A quarter mile across the highway is excellent fishing. The place is not fancy at all, but things like the laundry are clean.

The wind has Comfort Castle thrashing about with too much vigor. Sleeping may be interesting tonight. But tomorrow will be great for trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM

County Park

Falcon Heights, Texas

Some days are interesting and other days are INTERESTING. Well today was SPECIAL AND INTERESTING. It was my fantastic fortune to me two very nice and talented folks. But first a story from my past.

In ancient history days my dad was a rock hound who frequented this area. Many times he told of an old church below the dam at Falcon Lake. Once many years ago it was found down the old dusty roads. About twenty years of bad memory have come between then and now. Today on a meander in the truck, the old church was found again.


The way into the back country was straight forward it seemed. The return trip out deposited me back on a highway known to me but not even near where the adventure started. Better lucky than good my dad used to say.

A fellow at the state park mentioned the county park near the entrance road to the state park allowed camping for fifty dollars a month. Something that cheap needed to be examined carefully. As the truck took me into the park, it was obvious that self sufficiency was the order of the day. There is a rest room with a shower in the park. It was minimally adequate to say the most.

The price is very good though. So more inspection of the facilities was needed. Water is supplied at many spots in the large area. You just pick a spot you like and set up. Very interesting. While traveling slowly on one of the dirt roads, there was hope to find someone to talk to about this place.

AHA A nice looking fellow is walking toward the road. As the truck got near he waved and said to my utter surprise and astonishment “Are you The Old Fat Man”. You never know who will recognize you and where it will happen!!!! Blogs are fun.

Jerry and his wife, Nancy, have been camping here for many days now. We visited for hours and hours and hours. What wonderful folks to talk with. WOW this is nearly tooooo much fun.

After a lot of visiting it came out that they are fabulous artists in their own right. Once again you never know who you will meet in the RV world. Jerry is a wood carver working in relief style art now. Nancy does the painting of Jerry’s carvings. Together they make a team that can hold their own with any that have ever crossed my path.

Here is Jerry with one of their works of art. He showed me a dozen and they were all excellent.

And now for Nancy and Sissy. She mostly uses water color on the boards and definitely does not need to take a back seat to any other artist.


We covered lots of subjects including places they have stayed and places for future stays. It would be a great time in my life to run across them in the future.

My great fortune kept on doing better. They have the exact solar system on their trailer that was what my considerations were leaning toward. Jerry ran me through all the information. Then he patiently answered a bunch of idiot questions to help me choose what to do. It is not known if a system would make smart economic sense for sure or not. It will be close. However the opportunities for more locations to visit would be significant. That leads me to lean toward putting out the money for solar on the trailer. A fantastic fortunate happening in my life. WOW again.

By the time the truck headed home it was headlights on time. This certainly turned out to be a great day for having tooooo much fun. TheOFM.

Two Blooms

Falcon Heights, Texas

Over six miles of walking today and only one nice picture of a yucca bloom.

The campsites are nothing to write home about either. They are not bad nor good. Just are.


The flooding from the lake is severe as you can see from this water top site.
The connection is very slow at best so the pic quality has been taken way down to minimize file sizes. The normal amount of hot air spent on writing is being wasted somewhere else.

Tomorrow an attempt at a pic or two of the dam. Then the next day it will be adios time for this place. Just about any place else will be better to try to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM.

No Signal report

Falcon Heights, Texas
After the Marina Beach folks finally go to work at 10:30 AM, you can finally get on the road about eleven. The sun was shining south and the clouds were dark to the north, so the truck automatically turned south toward the sun. Five and a half hours later we are in Falcon State Park. There were no electrical sites available for tonight. The water only primitive site is working out fine. Tomorrow Comfort Castle will get to move to an electric site for two nights. After that who knows?
Since this site is way down in a valley, there is no internet. This is being written 2-5-09 and will publish whenever it can.
The lake is way over full and the primitive sites across the street have lake water up to or in them. Pictures and a long walk are on the agenda for tomorrow. It seems the overfull lake caused a bit of problems here and there in the area.
The oil drilling boom that was going on when the park was visited last spring is still going very strong. At night now it is possible to hear the drilling equipment working.
The wind is ferocious today. This campsite is exposed to the brunt of the wind. Hopefully the electric site tomorrow will be situated such that the trees up on that hill will help reduce the wind effects. Excessively strong winds sure do get in the way of trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM

End Of The Beach

Port Aransas, Texas

After several days of adventures, today is a no adventure day. A month of being in one spot means that it takes more than a couple of minutes to get things ready for travel.

First order of business was clean out the back of the truck to make room for the yak. About sixty five and three eights cubic yards of beach sand were swept from the bed. Then the bike was put back into the traveling position. The fishing rods were removed, disassembled and stored into their safe carry location in Comfort Castle. A few more realignments of stuff and the truck is ready for loading the yak tomorrow and travel.

Next was the inside of Comfort Castle. Things have been put away. Laundry was done and the clothes put away. The vacuum cleaner got a good work out. The extra blankets that were brought out to fight the cold spell have been returned to their home spot.

Three times the truck has rolled toward the ferry to take me grocery shopping and three times the ferry line has been horrendous. Hopefully later this evening the grocery shopping trip will be successful. If not then it can be done on the way out.

Tomorrow should see me paying for the electricity for the month to the tune of about $45. Then tentatively the team will be in for a relatively short run up to the town of Goliad. There is a small municipal golf course there that might get some of my money and a re-landscaping too. It will be very nice to be back in some trees and out of the salt and sand.

Port Aransas is an ok town at best. Whenever the coast becomes a location for the team again, it will be inland on the bay area instead of at the beach. Now that the beach town experience has been had, it will not likely happen again. Salt water fishing is a blast, but salt sand living near the beach is not. It is my opinion that the Rockport/Fulton/Aransas Pass towns are the best locations in this area.

Now for a good nights sleep and onward to a new location for trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM

Thermos Treasure

Port Aransas, Texas

The time was right for a blood letting just before Comfort Castle leaves the area on Thursday. So after calling and verifying that the Coastal Bend Blood Center could do the deed, it was off to lose blood. This time it was to the central location instead of the mobile units. This is the beautiful building in northwest Corpus.

The folks there were a lot of fun. The lady doing my donation said that she could stick me with her eyes closed if I wanted to see it done. No Thanks, just the normal way would be fine. We had a great time and a new blue T-shirt went home with me.

While leaving there it dawned on me that there was nothing needing my return to Comfort Castle, sooooo a trip to Padre Island was made. It will have to last a while since my plans are to leave the coastal area for some where on Thursday.

At Bird Island Basin is the windsurfing business for the area. In the back of the building is this directions pole to show you which way is which.


The tides were way out again today in the strong winds. This provided an opportunity to wander some of the marsh that is usually too wet for walking. Now there is a firm crust that can carefully be walked by web footed fools like me. A distant sand dune looked attractive to me so off into the marsh my feet went. The “dry” lake bed seemed to go on forever and stepping had to be done with care.

As the far side of the lake bed was reached, it was possible to see the normal water flow channel. It curved around and headed out into Laguna Madre. Isn’t the water beautiful. Notice the torn up spot in the channel bed. No Photoshop work is ever done to my pictures. The colors you see are the colors that were there always.


When that spot was reached, it seemed odd. Immediately a careful look around was done to make certain no undesirable critters were about to pounce on me. The torn up area was odd. There were no especially discernable tracks leading to or from the spot. Whatever it was ripped it up pretty badly. See for yourself. If someone recognizes what did this please let me know.

A little bit past the mystery spot, the channel hits the bay area. This is the “beach” that is normally covered with water. It usually has about two feet of water right where this picture was taken.


My good luck held up well. A few feet along the beach was this odd shiny thing. When it was examined closely it turned out to be a very nice thermos jug. It was a little rusty from the salt water, but the stainless steel cleaned up very well. There were not foot prints anywhere close to it, so it must have fallen overboard from a boat and washed ashore. Inside was about a half cup of coffee.


My progress back to the truck took me past the boat ramp. Some fishermen were starting to come in. Some had caught fish and the pelican patrol was on hand to greet them. Of course the pelicans would be very happy to help clean up the residue from the fish filleting efforts.

For supper tonight two turkey patties and mixed vegetables were prepared. A premixed salad was put into a bowl with Zesty Italian dressing for flavor. A cheap diet Cola rounded out the evenings meal. This is pretty good stuff for someone trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM

Ghost of Paradise Pond

Port Aransas, Texas

It was a cold windy morning to be out early. The truck had an appointment for a fuel filter change. The deckhand on the ferry would agree it was a miserable morning to be on the water. He was trying to hide behind the upright pipe at the corner of the ferry.

After the filter change it was back home to Comfort Castle and warmth. Later in the afternoon the walls closed in and a walk around town was required. A small sign about a special pond caught my eye. So off down a narrow lane my shoes carried me. This is the first glimpse of what awaited.
This is Paradise Pond of Port Aransas for all to enjoy. The sign explained what is going on and gives a map of the special area.
As you wander down the sidewalk on the right side, the fence blocks your view of what is ahead. Upon turning the corner the fence continues a good way to some undeterminable items at the end. Meanwhile on the left is a drainage area with trees and all sorts of birdy brush.
At the end is the start of an elevated boardwalk. At first you cannot see where it goes because the birdy brush blocks your view. It actually winds around a bit and has three information stations. This is right in the middle of a commercial area and except for the noise, you could be miles out in the country.
This is taken from the end of the boardwalk looking back to the beginning of the board walk. All in all this is a very pleasant place to relax for a while.
There are three information stations. The first one is about hydrology of the area. The wet and dry cycle is needed for the health of the animals and vegetation.
We have a very special event today. While taking a picture of the vegetation sign, an image of the seldom seem and benevolent Ghost of Paradise Pond was captured. Many have sought it but only your Old Fat Man has actually captured an image of him. The sign is explaining about some of the brush and vegetation in this area.
And at the very end is the bird information sign. This is only a couple of hundred yards from the salt water, but no saltwater birds were seen here today.
The ghost proved to be a personable fellow and very friendly. He told me that folks are usually in such a hurry that he doesn’t bother to come out. They come and go too fast to enjoy the area and him. However when a meanderthall like me comes along, taking time to see all the details and beauty, he likes to come out and visit. It certainly made for a special day for me.

And there you have an honest and truthful account of a day of trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM

Crabman

Port Aransas, Texas

Excessive wind again. At least it is sunshine and nearly seventy degrees. Therefore a nice long walk is needed. Lighthouse Trails park is the chosen starting point.

After crossing the ferry and going a mile or so, a right turn takes me in to the parking spot. After locking up the truck to deter honest crooks, the walk started back to the channel that the truck had just crossed. A lot more water has come back in and large quantities of bait fish are running around looking for some red or trout to eat them.

This path ended quickly, so about face MARCH. As the truck was approached this shot of the old highway was taken. Those white buildings in the distance are the first goal. The truck is waiting patiently.

On the right in that picture is the channel to Aransas Pass. It is a main flow route for water and fish into the back bays. Along this walk several more good access points for bank fishing were found. You can stand on the bank and cast into the channel otherwise known as a fish highway. This is looking good was my thought.

The white buildings turned out to be the business known as

He has a good place to launch yaks with the proper sloped sand area. Very importantly is that he has a parking area that is under observation almost all the time. Cost is $2 to launch and park. The best part is in and out is ok all day. You can go out fishing and come back in and go get some lunch and return and go out again all for the one time cost of $2. Back at some other places yakkers park there have been some break ins. Windows for trucks are expensive.

From Crabmans business, a yaking fisherman was nearly visible. This is the normal view shot of him. This guy is out from the launch point a long way and about in the center of the picture. Click on the picture and find him.

This next shot is with a three power telephoto and the center section enlarged until it got somewhat fuzzy. You see there really was a red yak out there with a fellow wade fishing from it on the right.
He will be paddling back against the strong wind we have today. Oh Boy.

After all that excitement, the highway was crossed and the path back snuggled along the bay on the other side of the highway. In that stretch of walking several more good spots to put in and fish were noted. This is turning into a very productive walk and it is not even noon yet.

HMMMMM. Let the team go check out another spot or two. The next spots did not prove to be good locations. It is lunch time in Aransas Pass and the closest place to eat is a Tex-Mex place that does not look exceptionally good. However several cars and trucks are there already and some have Mexico plates. Ok Give it a try. A plain little place inside that is clean. The chicken fajitas were prepared to perfection. The guacamole was even better. The salad was fresh. The salsa delicious. The rice was ordinary good. The beans were not normal tasting and very worth having again. Drive out including tip $11.

A good thing for me is that the fishing gear lives in the truck. So over to the city swimming pool. Park on the back side and walk out to the salt water marsh. Cast you heart out for an hour and get one little nibble. Shucks.

The LARGE ice tea is making itself felt. So a stop over at the restrooms at the boat ramp and pier is taken. The water looks nice and almost up to normal. Bait fish and porpoises are running around in the ramp channel. Why not fish some more???? So out comes the rod and fish bites bait. Three hours later one piggy perch had hit the deck and that is all. A lot of small bait fish nibbles did happen. That means in the next couple of days it could be very good fishing around here.

The good part of the pier fishing was the couple from Taft that came by to wet a line and chat. Another fellow, from Alabama, happened by and we all talked fishing. That was great fun.

To top off the pier time, a really neat sailboat came out of the housing area and sailed right in front of us about fifty feet away. In fact this next picture had to wait until he got farther away from us to take it so the whole boat would show. This is a lovely boat.

And now the word processor just jumped to the third page for tonight. WOW that is a lot of hot air.

As the sun started to get low, it seemed like a good time to head back to Comfort Castle. The ferry warning sign on the highway told of a wait of at least a half hour. RATZZZZ. When the truck got to the ferry landing, they motioned us right on to the ferry. What a wonderful surprise! We did have to wait for a couple of sailboats to clear our path before leaving the landing. That is ok, they are nice to watch sail by.

It is rumored that the super bowl is being played tonight. However something else than watching it will be done in the name of trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM

Wind Sand Sculpture

Port Aransas, Texas

Repairs and modifications were the order of endeavor this morning. All good Rvs have properly sized small vents from the heating ducts into the holding tanks areas. Since an Arctic Fox trailer like Comfort Castle has all the water lines inside the living area, there is no need for exterior heating of water supply lines. My holding tanks are large for the size trailer but still could freeze if the weather is cold enough long enough. However Comfort Castle has a neat feature called wheels. They allow the movement to areas without long cold spells. The central heat wastes heat blowing it into the tank areas even when it is above freezing . The central heat has not been used since Washington was vacated a year and a half ago.

This morning was the time to block the floor vents so that vacuuming will be easier and dirt will stay out of the heating ducts that are not used. Some cardboard was cut and shaped to fit into the grill to block the airflow from the interior to the outside by way of the tank ducts This should also help save on A/C in the warmer months. The fix was like me---cheap and easy.

The second chore this morning was to reattach/relocate the latch for my cereal locker. It has gotten a little too wimpy for the roads the truck likes to travel. A slightly stouter installation and location will likely stop the door from getting too active again.

MAN this was a lot of work for a lazy bum fat old man Rver. A nap right after lunch may be needed to rest up for going to bed tonight.

One note of disappointment. The scurvy bums of the internet world managed to get my email into the mailing lists from my blog. Therefore my email was removed from the heading. Should you want to contact me, make a comment to that effect with a return email address for a response. Since the comments are moderated before publication, your email will not get out into the normal sight of the sorry garbage head solicitors.

For lack of anything else to do, a trip to look specifically at wind sand art at the state park beach was made. Now that they were particularly paid attention to, several different styles were noticed. Included here are several different examples of the sculptures.

Notice how the grass causes the wind currents to make odd shapes in the sand below.
This one was about three inches high is all.
These were furrows cut into the sand at the base of a dune.
These were on the near verticle face of a dune. They were about a foot long , two inches wide and an inch high out of the face of the dune.

They were mostly found by walking very close to the dunes, but in the looser sand on the beach side. A couple of exploratory trips were made into the backside of the dunes. Nothing of note was seen on the backside. The walk was about a mile one way and took about an hour. In reality there was a lot more to look at than just the sand sculptures. However the task at hand was carefully accomplished.

At one spot on the beach was a bamboo cluster. Who knows where it came from other than “the sea”? Several locations along the coast have folks who grow bamboo as decoration. However let us claim that it came from a Carribean land of beauty and wonderment.

Entwined with the root system were these shells of an unknown origin. If a reader happens to know something about them please post a comment. The shells were very pretty and colorful. The picture does not come anywhere close to the brilliance of the actual coloration of the shells. They actually looked a lot like irridescent butterflys all gathered together.

And for the grand finale tonight we have a nice picture of a dune scene that evolved during one of the backside adventures. Dune scenes have always been a desirable joy in my life.
Another month of life has been ripped off the calendar now. There are too many things to see and do and too little life to do it all.

For the first year my plan was to stay at a place about a month and take day trips of up to one hundred miles each way. My records on using that style indicates that that is not the most economical method. This year of 2009 will see Comfort Castle moving shorter distances more often. The clover leaf travel radius will be shortened as much as possible. Hopefully camping will be close to each location of interest. It appears that the extra fuel cost to roam so far from Comfort Castle far over rides the cost of camping closer to the locations of interest. My information seems to lean toward that the trips back to Comfort Castle are what runs the cost up.

With that in mind, the team will be pulling out of Port Aransas on February 5 toward the next location. Where will that be? We can find out together while trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM.

Pier Fishing

Port Aransas, Texas

In response to an inquiry about the wind sand sculpture. They have been seen this month as tall as two feet and as long as twelve feet. They are mostly under a foot tall and three feet long and last a couple of hours before wind erosion takes its toll. An hour of elapsed time can mean a whole different appearing work of art.

The other thing watched for carefully along the beach is an unbroken sand dollar. Many pieces are spotted, but not any whole ones yet. It turns out they are interesting creatures from what the internet searches found out.

Down at the state park bayside slough the water has come in a nice amount. In the picture below, all the water showing was a muck flat for the last two weeks. There was even bait fish running around in the new inflow. This is a good sign.

This evening a ride was done to Charlie’s Pasture pier to see what was going on. After walking around a bit, these two fellows and all their gear finally gave up and left the pier.
A bit later two more fellows showed up from Minnesota. In a couple of minutes they were catching small fish. After a half hour my rod appeared in my hands as if by magic. The bait called Fish Strips by Berkley was the bait of choice for me. It worked very well. Two croakers, one sand trout, and many many perch of various sizes were caught on the one piece of Fish Strips. None of the fish were large enough to keep, but it was wonderful to finally have some fish back inshore to catch. Catching them on light tackle was even more fun. By the time it was dark the temperature was down to the mid fifties headed to the mid thirties.

Earlier in this evening, a neat picture was taken. A few blogs ago was about the purple barnacle found on the beach. As luck would have it there were some growing on the pier pilings in view. Notice also a couple of small fish in this picture.
The way this weather is misbehaving with all this miserable cold garbage, it must be an amen to head farther south into the sunshine and warmth. However it is not desirable to get down into the Rio Grande Valley with the couple of million snowbird travelers that are there for the winter. The congestion in that place in the winter is worse than Houston and quitting time on a Friday. Me. My preference is somewhere less congested to try to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM.

Pepitos

Port Aransas, Texas

A morning of searching for warm weather on the West Texas future was in vain. After checking my records on the blog, it was certain that this winter is running too far into February. There is even freezing temps predicted for the hill country next week. Last year by then it was staying above forty on the cold nights. So the summation of the research is who knows where Comfort Castle will be spending the night after Feb. 4. Maybe something will happen to chose for us.

This afternoon a walk on the beach appealed to me. The view from the truck where it was parked looked pretty nice.


However the temperature was 53 outside and the wind was very strong. Upon embarking on the walk, a lot of powdered sand blasted my skin painfully. The powdered sand got into my clothes and on my skin. This was nasty conditions.

The wind was carving all sorts of art sculptures in the sand and dunes. This is one cute piece of wind work about six inches tall.

The conditions were too unpleasant to stay out very long. Soon the truck was headed home.

Finally tonight my frustration with finding locations warm enough to visit led me to run over to the mainland to a restaurant that usually has good food. Tonight the cook was in good form and the food was very well prepared. Pepitos is on Business 35 on the north edge of Aransas Pass. It is on the left side of the road when headed north toward Rockport.


After a nice ferry ride home, the lazy old fat man mode kicked in. Now being tired will not be an excuse to put off trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM.

Grab And Gulp

Port Aransas, Texas

A morning of shopping at Wal-Mart was interesting. There has been a run on items needed around Comfort Castle. It took going to three different Wal-Marts to get most of the things needed. The new calculator cost less than $10 drive out when it was finally in stock at the Rockport Wal-Mart. Since it was lunch time, the nearby oriental buffet place was the choice for dining. The food there is decent but not fantastic. A reasonable value is a good way to describe it.
There is a sea gull that supervises the ferry landing number one on the Aransas Pass side from a dolphin. Every time a crossing is made that same bird seems to be there. It has a funny “kink” in one knee, so it seems likely to be the same bird.

Later while walking the jetties, it was obvious that the human fishermen were not having any luck at all. In over an hour out on the jetty, there was not fish harvested by the humans. One human even decided to take it very easy.
In the world of non-human fishers the story was a lot different. There was a pair of pelicans that were eating very well. They were first noticed as they patrolled the jetty on the seaward side.
They slowly made their way to the rock area. Then they split up and went to work. Here is one of the hunters on the prowl.

They paddled along with the front inch or so of their beak in the water most of the time. Their path was so close to the rocks that they would occasionally bounce off a rock. Then suddenly a strike would happen. It was very quick. The beak would stay under the water for a long time. Look carefully and you can see the beak under the water.
After the beak was brought up above the surface, the swallowing process would begin.
One time whatever the pelican had caught was fighting back. The catch could be seen crosswise in the pelican’s pouch struggling mightily. However the pelican eventually got it headed the correct direction and swallowed it.

Another time the pelican caught a large ribbon fish. When the pelican brought it up, at least half of the ribbonfish was hanging out of the pelican’s beak. The ribbon fish was thrashing the pelican about the head and neck with enough force to knock the pelican’s head noticeably. It was quite a battle for at least a minute before the ribbonfish was able to knock the pelican loose and swim for it. That was actually fun to watch.

During the time that the hunting was watched, the pelicans were having great success at catching something around the rocks. It seemed that at least every other strike resulted in swallowing some catch. It was a surprise to me that no other birds of any type came over to participate in the feed. On top of that it seems that the two pelicans were of different species from each other.

Out on this jetty one has to be careful of waves breaking onto the jetty. When a larger than usual wave is coming toward you, it makes a distinctive “whispering or whistling” sound. When you hear it the first time, you will never forget it. When you hear it the first thing is to move away from it if possible. Look to see what is coming after you are moving. Well, during the pelican photo shoot, that “interesting” sound caught my attention and motivated a couple of rock crossings away and a glance back. My camera was quick enough to catch the last splash. Notice the wet area on the jetty surface where a certain old fat man had been standing.

Now it has all been reported like a good little blogger. Hopefully tomorrow will include some catching but no muck dancing while trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM

Muck Dancing

Port Aransas, Texas

WOW It was laundry day and the excitement was overwhelming again!!!! After waking late and napping as much as my bladder could stand, it was time to roll out of bed. The good part of my bed area is that there are walls on three sides of the bed and a narrow gap just big enough for my legs between the back of the couch and the mattress on the other side. That way no matter how much you try to stagger around, you cannot fall down.

Finally breakfast was finished and emails were done and everything else possible to do to put off doing laundry was done at least twice. Laundry is not really a big chore, but motivation of a fat body is a big deal. No one was in the way at the laundry room and in only an hour and a half the clothes were clean and put away.

A few items keep turning up needing replacement like my calculator. So a list of not normal things that need to be replaced or purchased was started. But suddenly for some odd reason my mind turned to fishing again. So off to do some fishing we went. During the night the tides had started coming back in. The water was now only about two feet low. This seemed promising.

Wilson’s Cut seemed to be the best protected spot from the winds. After trying my luck at a few spots along the way out to the end of the cut, this spot was chosen to be the final place. The thin water across the channel in the background drains out into the channel through the opening visible in the right side of the picture.

It is a very pretty area. Another good sign is all the bait fish running around in the water. It has been over a week since bait fishes have been present. So on with the mucking boots for the third time and get after dem feeshees. The shoreline was a little soft but manageable-----I thought. After a couple of hours of catching nothing but grasses, it was time for a rest.

As a turn was made to go back to drier land three feet away, my left foot found a spot of very soft mud. My foot disappeared into the muck about ¾ of the way up my mucking boot. My balance took off and left me for other places. My right foot stuck in place for a moment then released with a forward lunge. Splat it came down on a firmer spot and sank about three inches. Meanwhile the rest of me is trying desperately to stay upright and not fall face first in the muck. Another desperate lunge and my left foot came out of the mired boot.

Now my left foot sock is all there is between any broken glass or razor sharp oyster shells and me going swimming in muck uglier and more stinky than a wet pig pen. Fortunately the spot my left foot landed only sank about a half inch into the muck. Upright balanced was again in my possession. However to retrieve my left boot seemed to be an untidy job. Again my luck held out. A spot for my sock foot that was firm and allowed me to reach the left boot for retrieval was found.

YEA no muck swimming for me this time. Here is the site of the muck dancing event. It will be a miracle if there are not extra sore parts of my body in the morning.


The whole dance happened in a distance of only about three feet. It is not my idea of the best way to try to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM.

Sub-Tropical Texas

Port Aransas, Texas

After many hours of driving around in the south Texas brush country, the truck finally took me home well after dark. At least there was not any cold wet wind when we arrived back at Comfort Castle. Large areas of that part of Texas have been examined closely. This was the last of several exploratory trips in the area. Lots and lots of legal camping locations and commercial campgrounds have been visited. When it all came to a close at dark the decision was no thank you to that area for me.

It is not a bad area at all, but it does not hit me as especially good for my lifestyle. This pretty well rules out the area south of a line from Eagle Pass to Corpus Christi for my future travels. There are no good reasons, just not my style of area. Corpus Christi is not included in that area. Corpus is a place that has given me much enjoyment and will continue to do so.

One thing about the area is very positive. EVERYONE that has spoken with me during the trips to that area has been super friendly and pleasant. The food has been well prepared and good flavored. So if you have never been in the area, it is recommended for a nice experience on many counts. The Rio Grande Valley ( in the lower section) in particular is sub-tropical and an experience all of its own. South Padre Island has it’s own special charms well worth experiencing if you haven’t in the past.

This leaves me with wondering where my next travels will take me in the quest of trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM.

Miserable Cold Wet Wind

Port Aransas, Texas

The overcast day, cold temperatures and miserable wet wind really put a DAMPer on the days activities. This morning worked out well to get the regular oil change and lube for the truck done. The truck even got a new air filter in preparation for a trip into dusty Big Bend NP.

Then grocery shopping at the same Wal-Mart finished easily and the truck was back at Comfort Castle before noon. The main part of the afternoon was spent researching where to go when we leave this campground (Resort?????).

Finally in the mid afternoon my brain turned on and said to go to the educational attraction near the jetties. Good idea. Something to do outside. Into the thermal underwear and sweaters and coat and away we went.

It turns out this is a loop with stations to educate the visitor on coastal wet lands. It also turned out to be so such a miserable cold wet wind outside that pictures were taken in a hurry. At one station there was some incredibly nice folks from Iowa with a super friendly Bichon pup for me to pet. We talked some and maybe my information will help them have a better time in the area. A warmer day would have been fantastic.

After parking in the lot near the laboratory, you can walk up the stairs and have this view over to the exhibits.

As you wander down the hill to the exhibits, this is the overall view you can enjoy.
Since my shivering from the miserable cold wet wind got in the way of reading and viewing, tonight is mostly a parade of some of the signs along the way. Click to enlarge them and you should be able to read them.



Now we are at the small outdoor auditorium with the innovative shade screen for the seating area. Heat lamps would have collected a crowd today.
Onward to the next signs in the miserable cold wet wind.


This picture above is about the between the dunes mini eco systems. These mini eco systems are scattered all along the Texas coast. The little pockets of “fresh” water is what keeps the critters alive and nourished in the salt marsh. At this spot the dune was partially blocking the miserable cold wet wind so an extra three seconds were spent here.

These next three signs were in the wide open for the cold wet wind to slice the life out of you.

By now it was time to get back into the warmth of the truck. There were more places to see about in future trips. Many more opportunities for neat photos, but not in this miserable cold wet wind. Plan on seeing more about this place in the future.

Did it get mentioned that today had a miserable cold wet wind? But even that was not enough to stop me from trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM

Some Buildings

Port Aransas, Texas

A very early start this morning toward a big adventure was aborted mid morning by severe stomach cramps. When a return to Comfort Castle was made, there was very little activity the rest of the day.

Here are some pictures of a few buildings that have been sitting on the sidelines until a time like today and tonight came along.

Two universities here in Texas have some facilities for doing who knows what. The first one is by Texas A & M and is a very nice looking place.
The next is a facility with University of Texas brand on the front for doing the rest of who knows what.

Across the street from the campground is a fishing charter place. Next door is a restaurant of a special sort.

The restaurant serves the regular public as well as those who provide their own main course.

At the public use areas around town are facilities provided by the municipal government. This particular set of facilities is down by the pier at Charlie’s Pasture. A rather unique way to dress up the facilities in my opinion.


This is about all that can be reported today as it was not a good day for trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM.

A Walk In The Wild Side

Port Aransas, Texas

This morning the wind trying to peel the decals off Comfort Castle awakened me about seven am. My thought was “No yaking or biking in that wind”. That was a very correct thought. That leaves long walks for a possibility down here since golf is nowhere close by.

Ok time to head to Padre National Seashore and walk the beach. Sounds like a good idea with all this wind causing the surf to pound the beach and bring in special treasures. Reality was that the wind made it miserable on the beach and a million or so snow birds were running around at Padre like they had no sense. The beaches were so chewed up from all the vehicles that my time there was limited. Dozens of couples were walking the beach ooh and awwing at birds of all sorts. How many seagulls do you have to see before they are normal?????

On the way back home, a stop at Wilson Cut was made to scope out the tides. They are even lower than the last couple of days. This is setting up for a spectacular influx of water and fish when the north wind and the moon stop this nonsense. The fish catching should be something special right after that.

One event of note. A Midwesterner in his 4X4 go anywhere jeep found out that that a Texas saltwater marsh eats go anywhere jeeps for a snack. In consideration for his delicate feelings there are no pictures of his ignoble event of getting dragged out of the mud by a winch on another vehicle. Upon examination of the place he tried to go through, my thought was that an airboat would work pretty well. But then my years as a swamp rat taught me some things of importance when driving around.

Back in this blog http://ofmadventures.blogspot.com/2008/12/ranching-in-pins.html, the ranching was shown on Padre. Today was the explore the old ranch day. After parking at the gate, the road up to the buildings was a comfortable walk in and pleasant with many nice fragrances from the vegetation. However no flowers were evident. The building and the stables are in very bad repair, but typical for the salt air environment.

A bit of looking close at the building led me to believe it is not the anywhere close to the original building. Stainless steel hinges and power saw marks on the doors are not indicative of the early 1900’s. The road to the shack continues toward the dunes, so my feet naturally had to follow it to see what is out there.
The road led on into the dunes you see in the back ground. After winding around some, the park mowing ceased. But my experienced eyes could see the old road path on up into the dunes. There was a huge accumulation of evidence of rodent activity in the dune. Consequently a very considerable amount of attention was paid to the area of my walk to prevent disasters of the rattlesnake variety. A six foot long and three inch diameter rattler is nothing unusual in the dunes.

When the dune of choice rose in front of me, a path of less brush was chosen up to the top. This view was my worthwhile reward.
As my senses were marveling at the wonderful view and thinking not many folks come up here, my eyes caught the sight of a cut off metal signpost at the top of the dune. What would that sign have said??? Any way another path was chosen for the return to the ranch road. As my shoes carried me back, it occurred to me how wonderful this is as a way to try to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM

Stinky Beach

Port Aransas, Texas

My fingers ache, my shoulder aches, my entire right side aches. Several fishing lures are half the size they started out this morning. The erosion from being retrieved so many times through the water wore them down. For all this effort the result is not even one bite. These super low tides have run all the fish out into the Gulf. Four different places were fished in great detail.

At least some new education came out of today. Over at Goose Island State Park is Stinky Beach. Today a picture of Stinky Beach is available for my readers.


The park service even put up a sign to explain the situation. In case you need to know, it really does stink enough to send a septic tank running.


Getting back to Comfort Castle at a little after 5 pm and whopped to a fat man puddle means supper will be VERY SIMPLE and the blog short. It can be very exhausting work trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM

Wilson Cut

Port Aransas, Texas

A lot of fishing and no catching today, drat. Wilson Cut was the location of the first stop. It was a new location for me and fairly close to Comfort Castle. As you drive in through the pasture toward the water, the remoteness only a quarter mile from the highway is very noticeable. There was a yakker getting ready to head out from the opposite shore. He got going finally and very soon was out of sight.

Where the truck was parked seemed like a good spot to practice with the new rod. It works very well, but is slightly heavier than the previous one. My right shoulder can speak authoritatively about that fact.

My luck was holding, because a very nice young man drove up to go fishing. He is a relatively new transplant from San Angelo, Texas. Being a biology student is his job for now and fishing is his game. Kyle was a wonderful fellow to visit. He mentioned where he had caught several fish in the past at this area. Now that might be a good place to try tomorrow.

He is ready for some serious wade fishing. It turned out he has the same rod as the one recently purchased by some old drooling fat man at Wal-Mart. Kyle tells me that it is a very tough rod.
After about an hour more of thrashing the water to a froth, the Packery Channel was calling me.

A ten minute drive and the channel was at my truck’s front tires. There was not much fish catching going on there either. A walk out to the end of the jetties yielded this nice shot.


Since it was 5:30 pm when my meander got back to the truck, home was the next stop. This afternoon was a good one for trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM.

Purple Barnacle

Port Aransas, Texas

The maintenance folks had to come mop around where the fishing rods are displayed TWICE while the rods were being fondled by some old fat man. Drooling when around new fishing gear is an uncontrollable problem for me. After a long while, a new rod was chosen. For those who know fishing gear it is a seven foot two piece spinning UGLY STICK for 8-17 pound line. This is the next step stiffer than my current rod. Texas saltwater fish are naturally larger so a stronger rod is needed for them. It proved to be excellent in performance casting.

A few other supplies were purchased at the Wal-Mart and off to home we headed. The fried chicken that had been purchased demanded that a stop at Lighthouse Lakes park be made for lunch. That sure sounded good to me. There is a fantastic pleasure to eating out in a natural area designed by GOD. The water is extremely low. Most of the “land” you see here is normally covered in two to three feet of fishable water.

A fellow was across the channel fishing on this beautiful day. He did not catch a fish while lunch was being eaten. His location was perfect for trying to have fun, don’t you think?

This shot is the side of the channel where my feet leave footprints. The water is normally right at the vegetation line. From what the locals are saying this is the worst low tides in years.

One of the important things purchased today is a box to hold the leveling blocks and other stuff that is part of the RV lifestyle. This will keep the blocks from sliding all over the bed of the truck and being hard to retrieve. It is installed in the bed of the truck and tied in place. It should be a great addition.

During a walk on the beach after not catching anything again, this purple barnacle was found in abundance. This beach walking can be very addictive, especially in an area like this that has lots of different things hit the beach. Tomorrow might be a good day to look for a book on seashells.

My knowledge does not include what this really is, but it was a beautiful color. Padre Island get lots of more things and it is within thirty minutes away. This is turning into a great place to try to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM.

1-21-09 Correction after internet research. It is a purple barnacle, not coral.

Sideways???

Port Aransas, Texas
Oh Boy a new fishing rod is in the plans for tomorrow. But first the mundane daily stuff.

This turned out the day some experimentation was done in order to make an important decision for my future. For some time now, there has been blog entries or stories of folks traveling full time living out of the back of a pickup truck. After about two months of considering it, today was the day to see if that idea fit me. EMPHATICALLY NO. My soft old body likes getting clean and comfort too much.

It did turn out to be a good exercise to find out about an overnight trip if needed during a cloverleaf trip from Comfort Castle. Now that is reasonable, but many days in a row, no thanks. So now I know! If Comfort Castle does not go, the old fat man likely does not go.

During the experiment, the path took us to Goose Island State Park, GISP, and the fishing pier there. This visit turned out somewhat different than all the others in the past. Fishing was done from about one pm until dark. A neat fellow visited with me the whole time. His luck was catching and my luck was fishing, darn. The water in the bays is blown out to sea by all the strong north winds. In this following picture of the pier and bay, all the reefs you see usually have three to four feet of water over them.

There is a channel that the fellow showed me to fish in. He caught several $10,000 red fish. A $10,000 red fish is an undersize red fish that you did not throw back and the game warden catches you with it. Locally they are called rat reds. Bull reds are the ones over the maximum length allowed.

My current fishing rod is showing its over thirty year age. It has participated in many fish catches from Alabama through Texas and up to Washington state. Tonight at the pier the wear in the eyelets and general wear and tear were evident. It is neat when you actually wear out a fishing rod from fishing.

When the lack of light and cold wind of the evening drove me from the pier, this picture of the lights and pier was taken. In about a month the speckled trout, red fish and others will congregate under the lights at night for harvesting. Then things get very exciting.

This was the first time for me on the ferry at night. The landings are lit up very well. As luck would have it the truck was on the front of the ferry. This gave a great view of the landing across the channel.
Are you supposed to come into a ferry landing almost sideways. It may have been a new pilot on this crossing. We arrived at the landing somewhat severely askew. The deck hand threw his hands into the air and looked up to the pilot house with a “What are you doing” look on his face. Then he commenced to laughing. Eventually we connected to the landing properly and every one made it ashore safely. That was fun.

The day was bright and warm, so it was perfect for trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM.

Many Big Teeth

Port Aransas, Texas

Sometimes pretty weather has to wait on chores. By the time my old fat body got moving good the sun was out and the weather beautiful. BUT groceries needed to be purchased and laundry done. Alright groceries at Wal-mart and Wal-mart carries the new fishing rod that fits my spare reel. A good omen was getting to drive right on to the ferry for the trip to Aransas Pass.

The Wal-mart was looking good as it was not over run with folks. But my memory of the $500 wheel bearing and the $250 in optical costs this month went berserk and all it would let me do is fondle the rod. Now get over and get decent groceries for me my stomach commanded. OK OK OK So proper groceries were purchased instead of feel good food that gives you swell belly.

Back at Comfort Castle the food was all put away. Then the filled laundry basket screamed at me “ Get over here and get busy!!!” WOW tooooo many bosses around here. Laundry went well and all the clothes are put away and the bed has fresh sheets to welcome me tonight. That part sounds good.

About four pm a wild urge to go to the beach hit me between the eyes. So into the truck and down the road we go. Maybe my mucking boots will help when I start my training on surf fishing. After pulling the truck into the soft sand where it left very deep ruts, the mucking boots were put on and the fishing rod prepared. Off to the surf we go. In case anyone wants to know, every now and then an extra large wave washes up on the beach. It is also a fact of life that mucking boots do not drain well until they are removed from your feet and turned upside down. The beach was well occupied with folks, but his shot of the surf was made in between large groups of folks.

As the gear was being put away and the sun going down, this neat shot was taken.

Leaving the state park takes you past the road to the back bay. Since there was a few minutes before dark, a quick trip down the road to get in a few more casts was made. Since the surf had yielded no action at all except for occasional over size waves, nothing was expected here either. However on the third or fourth cast a 24” ribbon fish was hooked and landed. Ribbon fish have MAJOR teeth. This one was very active and getting it unhooked was proving to be a problem. Finally it lay still for a minute and a flip of the line got the barbless hook loose. The tail was grabbed with my pliers and the ribbon fish flung back into the water. Here is a picture of one from the internet. Notice the teeth.
By now it was nearly dark, the tide was coming in and the rough road needed to be navigated, so the truck seemed to understand that we needed to hurry a little bit.

My surf fishing education needs a lot of help. However it is a great place to try to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM

Tiburon Is Cute

Port Aransas, Texas

As the back bay behind Padre Island was being scanned from my lunch spot, a small dot seemed out of place. It is just to the left of the end of the right hand island and right of the green channel marker. What is it? Curiosity had me pounded to the spot.

After a long wait the spot turned out to be a yakker fighting the wind to head back.
After another long wait, the fellow was finally making it to the shore. My meandering path coincided with his landing location by my good fortune. After assisting him carry his yak up to the trucks, we visited. Of course, trouble had to visit while carrying the yak. My pants and a treble hook got very intimate. It took a couple of minutes to get me shed of the hook. Only minor damage to my clothing occurred.
This accidental visit allowed me to meet and visit for several hours with J.C. and Tiburon the pup.
Tib is part Lab and part Basset Hound. He is a wonderful pup of 14 weeks. He definitely belongs to the good guys group.

JC and this old fat man hit it off well. He is in his early twenties and a very sharp fellow. The rangers collared a man in the parking lot where we were talking. That was interesting for quite a while. We both stayed on the opposite side of his truck to be safe.

JC spent a lot of time educating me on a lot of changes since my last time swamp fishing over thirty years ago. Waders and shoes have made big changes. His information made good sense.

After a bit, it was noticed that one of his fishing poles looked odd. The eyelets were spiraled around the rod so that the line had to make a 180 degree twist from the tip eye to the reel. He allowed me to try it out. It was simply amazing how that idea made the line behave so well. With that arrangement, the rod tip faces the water like a spinning rod. This prevents rod torque when a fish is pulling sideways on the rod tip. This photo requires careful looking and clicking to see the eyes spiraling around the rod.

JC built up the rod himself and added some very fancy windings to personalize it. This winding is very attractive, don’t you think??
One of the surf rods was a creation of his also. Check out the size of this behemoth. But it was very light to my surprise.
The surf rod also had fancy windings that were forgotten during the picture taking session. RATTZZZZZZ.

JC does a lot of surf fishing and gave me lessons on surf fishing for over an hour. You better look out fish, this old fat man is coming to get you. During the course of the afternoon, several folks came by and stopped to chat. Before you knew it the sun was gone and we were still trying really hard to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM.

A BIG UN

Port Aransas, Texas

It was a cold, wet windy gray day and good for staying inside. Mid morning a call was received from the optical shop in Aransas Pass and my glasses were ready for pickup. Thanks to the ferry the nine mile trip took about forty minutes. However it was worth it to be able to see much better. Thank you, Jack at Bay Optical. Since there was nowhere to go in the nasty weather and a lot of time to get there, some riding around in AP was done.

From the looks of things the area needs some serious economic stimulus to help folks here. Jobs would be better than handouts. The next town south is Ingleside and the main employer there is the Navy shipyard. The shipyard is due to close this year. This area is getting some serious hits this last couple of years.

After staying inside out of the miserable weather, at least miserable for the area, a short drive was made over to Charlie’s Pasture park to see if it was protected enough to get in a decent walk. When the truck was parked, out hopped Mr. Rolypoly me. A few steps out into the weather and it was back to the truck to hunker down. Nasty. YUK.

OK back to the-------- wait a minute! What is that in the ship channel up near Corpus Christi? With the new glasses it was possible to see something in the channel. In fact it was possible to see the cranes and other stuff in the industrial area of Corpus. That stuff was not visible with my previous glasses.

After digging around to find my little hiking binoculars and getting them adjusted to my new settings, the thing turned out to be some sort of vessel moving my way. Here it is shot at maximum zoom.


After a good while, one could see it was obviously a piece of oil drilling equipment on the move. It is amazing that my vision had improved enough to tell something was out there far enough away that even with my eight power eye assistants, the object was not discernable. Curiosity had me tied to the spot. After MANY minutes, by using the eye assistants, it was possible to see the jack up legs on the vessel. Having been around this sort of stuff all my life, it was a puzzle that it was still not recognizable yet. When it finally got close, this beast is HUGE. Normally my camera has to zoom all the way out for pictures from this location of the ships and boats. For this beast, the camera was set to maximum wide angle and be taken away from the shore a long distance.

Although it is a drilling rig of some sort, it is a new style to me. Apparently the gray drilling rig floats in place held by the large anchors seen in the picture. The legs are very light weight for that size rig. The ship carrying it must be removed after placing the drilling rig some way. Looking at the draft numbers on the ship, the whole pile of ship and cargo was only drawing thirteen feet of water.

It was fun to watch the legs showing over the top of the town as the ship made its way on down the channel, around the bend and out to sea. It was visible across the top of the town for a long ways out to sea. Really kind of neat to see. That was good luck to happen there at that moment. It reminded me of when Thunderhorse went to sea and my job kept me from going to see it leave. Check out Thunderhorse on the internet. It was the largest offshore platform in the world at that time.

The wind has died down now and the temperature was sixty a few minutes ago. During the ship adventure the temperature was fifty one with a twenty degrees plus wind chill. Wind chill is a very serious factor down in the wet country of the Gulf coast. But even that does not stop me from trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM.

Gil Got The Girl

Port Aransas, Texas

A cacophonous tune was the melody of my life today. Everything seemed to go a different direction than the direction it seemed to head at first.

Putting a protection pad on the truck camper tailgate to protect the yak while carrying it did not work out at all. However in the process of working on the tailgate, my bike had to be removed so an impetuous bike ride turned out to be FUN.

The appointment for the wheel bearing replacement was at one thirty and the ferry has been stacked up the last two days for some reason. So the trip to Rockport was started a half hour early. Naturally the truck got to drive right on to the ferry and the ferry moved out in less than a minute. Call me an early bird, but it worked out well anyway.

The poor mechanic has been sick with a flu like sickness and only came in today to work on the truck. He did a fine job it seemed. The bearing was much worse than we had thought. The new one certainly helped the truck to handle better. From his shop a stop was made at Wal-Mart for some jig heads, groceries and cash. Then on back home. Of course this time the ferry wait was twenty minutes.

An evening drive to the beach turned out to be less than comfortable in the cool wet wind. A couple of neat pictures were taken.

This first is where the beach meets the jetty. The tides are so low the ferries are not carrying big trucks across for now. The rocks in this picture are normally covered with a couple of feet of water.

On up the beach a bit, the extremes of vacation housing struck me as funny. In this picture is a tent. Then to the right and back some is an RV. Finally in the back ground are some of the high $$$$$$ condos that abound in this area. Those condos rent for over a thousand a weekend and are one bedroom little places. And the folks still get to get wet and dirty on the same beach as the tenters.
After dark my feeble brain thought it might like to visit the local library. It nearly backs up to the campground, but the fence requires a walk of about five minutes around to get to the library. It was closed.

Another city building across the parking lot has a nice bird display in the lobby. Since it was about eight pm, the building was locked. This picture was shot through the glass doors.

In front of the building is a statue of a fish that used to be plentiful around here.
The plaque about the statue shows when it was put in place.
And finally on the way back to Comfort Castle, this picture spot was shot with the flash. This is a concrete statue set up for folks to get in and pretend to be surfing while their picture is being taken.
And finally my luck came in correct and the final episode of Gil Grissom on CSI was viewed. They brought his character to a close very well.

Friday is upon us, but so is the cool weather and high winds. Maybe this weekend will not be too crowded with weekenders. Then again maybe everyone will be out following me trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM

A Familiar Noi$e

Port Aransas, Texas

An easy starting morning turned into a very busy day before nightfall slowed things down.

Three or four days ago the truck started making a funny familiar noise when turning right. Finally this morning, my memory kicked in. That is the noise it was making when the passenger side front wheel bearing was failing. Out came the phone book and mechanic shops were looked up and tallied. Next was to drive around and check them out. One in Rockport was clean inside but a bit rough looking on the outside. However the shop had the working tools stored in an orderly manner and the floors were being kept swept clean.

Upon talking to the owner, we examined the truck closer and determined that the driver side wheel bearing was shot. Tomorrow at one thirty the work starts for replacing the wheel bearing. This will be a few hundred dollars gone quickly.

One of the things a lot of Rvers have is leveling blocks made from wood. Mine were getting very worn and cracking apart as you can see in this picture of the one under the jack stand.

One of the keys of my travels is to stay as light weight as functions well. The current blocks are cut from 2 x 12 boards. They have proved to be larger than needed. After careful measuring, it was determined that 2 x 8 boards should do just as well and save a little weight. The 2 x 8 was marked off in 12 inch increments and the sawing began in the bright sunshine and warm temperatures of the afternoon.

The hand sawing went well and the exercise felt good on my recovering body. Now there are eight new blocks for leveling. There is one old one that is still in good shape. This gives me more blocks than is normally needed, but sometimes the stabilizer jacks need a larger footprint so they do not sink into the ground.

About an hour before dusk, a ride to the jetty was taken. Some fishing lure wetting was done for the fun of it. Nothing bothered my baits at all. However there were several sea turtles coming in on the tidal flow in the channel. They were neat to watch swim by.

The next fellow down was about a hundred feet away. He was using shrimp on the bottom and catching small fish of some sort. He made the mistake of giving them to the pelicans. Pelicans are VERY PUSHY. Here they are crowding the fellow as he is trying to unhook a fish. The stupid pelican on the left had already dove into the water trying to get the fellows fish before the fish was landed. The fellow had to actually shove that bird out of the way with his foot. The pelican in front of the fellow was politely waiting for the fish to be unhooked. It got the fish for being nice.

The pelicans key in on several factors. One is a bent rod while landing a fish. My lure caught on the rocks and my heavily bent rod attracted eight of the pelicans. They all gathered within a foot or two of me. A couple got in the way of me getting the line broken so fishing could resume. VERY PUSHY.

As things were being put away, an odd item was noticed. The land mass across the channel is a private island. The beach in Texas is public property, as is the jetty. The only way to the island beach is by boat. In this picture you can see a tent on the beach. Tonight it will be calm and in the forties. The mosquitoes are out in force with the calm wind. This is what you would see with your eyes.

These are some tough fools.
This is an enlargement from a telephoto picture.

Even though tomorrow’s repairs will hurt my budget badly, it will give me more confidence that a trip into Wild West Texas around Big Bend and up to the Guadalupes should be taken this spring to try to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM.

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.