Ugly News

 

Adventure Location: Rockport, Texas

Date: April 30, 2023

A trip over to the Rockport Beach in the beautiful warm weather produced some very nice pictures. The first one is some of the many folks here this weekend playing in the water at the beach. It sure looks like they are really enjoying the activities.

Then at the end of the road there was a working barge and boat taking Sunday off. We do not know what they are trying to do but it looks like something to with the dirt piled on the barge.

And now for the ugly news. All the great plans we thought were worked out yesterday for the OFM Teams are KAPUT. When we talked to the manager this afternoon, she asked

when we wanted to start being a “permanent camper”. Like yesterday when it was agreed that now was the time was our answer. She said nope she doesn't have a place. So she looked up all the way to January and the Teams still could not start the program. So effectively we are not part of and will not be part of this place in the future. We wish the information we were given yesterday had been accurate but it wasn't so it is officially recovery and move forward time now. The concept is really good but it will have to enacted at a different location.

Now we have a new important goal to accomplish for our near future. We will not let it get in the way of trying to have tooooo much fun.

Life Changes In Progress

 

Adventure Location: Rockport, Texas

Date: April 29, 2023

Due to gale force winds and balance troubles this morning we once again did not get out for a morning walk, although we did get in a good bit of random walking just being out and about after the wind storms checking things out. This was a common sight in the area for local fences.

Notice there are not any pieces laying around. We have no idea which way they went flying this morning. The fencing holes were not really frequent and our guess is nearly all the fencing was replaced after Hurricane Harvey a few years ago and have not rotted enough yet to get knocked down as easily.

When we were out and about checking out the crowds at the waterfront we got to see the Kite Flying Exhibition for a bit. There certainly are lots of different kites availability to have fun flying. Every kite picture we tried from the road came out very blurry so no pics.

When we went to Aransas Pass for lunch we found ourselves on the freeway and not allowed to exit at our normal exit due to police vehicles blocking the ramp. It seems that a prairie fire was burning across a bunch of land. After a few maneuvers we managed to get back to our original destination at the Whataburger and found out that the electricity to the Whataburger had been knocked out for a good while until a little before the OFM arrived for lunch. So our lunch went without any trouble and the fire stayed on the other side of the freeway in-spite of the high winds.

The last news for today is that the OFM went over and had a talk with the campground manager about the real changes to the way the campground is going to be run. To our surprise we found that the real changes fit into a plan the OFM was considering for his current retirement concept very well. Details on that issue will be forth coming as they are worked out. But for now we are signed up to be part of the new plan. We will use Rockport as a type of home base when we are not in Alabama.

Getting reservations for camping with facilities like elec, sewer and water now days is a very hit and miss happening.
Starting in a day or so, depending on the paper work, the Castle will have a dedicated campsite here in Rockport year round whether we are here or gone. We will be able to go or come back at any time day or night without having to worry about having a place to stay.

Additionally we feel that this is still the best fishing area on the Texas coast for land based saltwater fishing. So that is a good fit also.

Yep the OFM is having to change his retirement style to fit his REAL abilities.

We have also realized that the Grands are growing up and it was also time to adjust to their current interests during Granpa visits. So this gives us a good bit more freedom of best time for visits to Grandkid Land. Just like in the earlier life we are having to flex and shift to fit real world situations. This change should make it easier for trying to have tooooo much fun in the future.

CFS

 

Adventure Location: Rockport, Texas

Date: April 28, 2023

Due to creaky, stiff but not painful lower body joints this morning we took extra time getting going today. The OFM feels very lucky that nearly all of his less than perfect joints are mostly with out pain. We hit up the Memorial Park trails to take advantage of their smoothness to help with a bit of balance trouble. It turned out to be a very nice time at the park with nice temps and pretty nice skies.

After finishing the walking we hit up a couple of stores to just look around for nothing in particular. We did notice we need to take the camera back to the Walmart Garden Center to use it on the latest shipment of pretties. Our flower reference photo section could use some succulent blooms added to it. The desert sure makes pretty blooms.

More piddling on the computer about where and when we will leave here. The owners of this business want it to be a cheap housing kind of place where folks move an RV into it and it stays there permanently. So it seems we will not fit that mold and will need to plan on not coming back here again to the Quiet One Cheap Housing Place. We support the owners preference that it is his location and he should be allowed to have it be whatever legal style he wants it.

At the Market Street pier this evening We got to see a nice young man fishing from the loose boulders lining that pier catch a pretty but too small speckled trout. He had much better balance than the OFM. It was a couple of years ago that the OFM had to quit trying to get down to the water on those rocks and stay alive.

The next angler to the kid above was also down on the rocks wielding a nice long fly rod of saltwater strength trying for a few fish. The strong winds were giving him troubles but he was making it all work just fine.

This next picture is the end of the marina breakwater where the construction removed the 18 inch high wall that was on it.

The windy wave action would make the walking surface on that breakwater way to slippery with green growing stuff for the OFM to be on it. The new entrance light can be seen on a new metal post that has replaced the old wooden piling that had held the rusted to bits entrance light of the past.

We closed out the day with the Chicken Fried Steak Friday special at the Vallarta restaurant. It is good and we get it most Friday nights with a massive glass of sweet tea. It has proved a great way for the OFM Teams to finish a successful day of trying to have tooooo much fun.

Bayview Walkway

 

Adventure Location: Rockport, Texas

Date: April 27, 2023

Down in the Beach Park is what we consider a very nice place for those who need an easy access trail for gentle exercise. This trail is named the Bayview Walk.

The walk is shaped like two large separated ovals connected by a single lane path to make a very extended figure 8. At the end we started on is a small parking lot where wheeled items wheel chairs, buggies and other wheeled items can get onto the trail via a short paved path. Here is the picture looking into the walk area.

The trail surface is nice and smooth asphalt so kid and old folks toys roll nicely on it. You can see most of the trail in this next picture. At the far end is the boat ramp and docking area where you can turn around to head back to your start point very comfortably. It is nice the trail runs close to the Little Bay waters edge so the walkers get chances to see lots of bird activities just about all year long.

This dock goes between the fish cleaning table and the actual boat ramp and the trail goes on to a parking area serving the boat launch area.

And here is a pic at the far end of the boat ramp area looking back toward the starting point for this trail.

When it rains this trail does not normally flood and can even be walked easily in light rain. A lot of older folks and youngsters use this trail because of its comfortable walking surface under all sorts of weather and necessity spots are nearby. We find it a wonderful place to nurse sore muscles, sprains etc while doing healing of ooopsies to the OFM body while still trying to have tooooo much fun.

Breeding Time In The Marshes

 

Adventure Location: Rockport, Texas

Date: April 26, 2023

It was a busy day. We started the preparations for leaving for grandkid land. The first thing we are getting done is new brakes for Sierra. There is only 134K miles on Sierra but the brakes are worn and ready for replacement to stay safe while towing. The last 2500 Chevy truck had 299K miles on the brakes when we traded it in a few years ago. The brake job is scheduled for May 2.

Then next on the list is a Texas inspection on May 8 to have the paperwork all ready to pay for and order the other sticker we need for Sierra. Then we will be ready to roll in September when we think we will be leaving Alabama for unknown locations. Our current idea is to leave May 12 and roll gently to north Alabama and four months of fun.

As far as the sickness is concerned it is improving nearly every 6 hours or so. What ever got into the OFM digestive system is losing the battle it seems so we hope anyway. No more high fever was felt today but we did keep the ibuprofen flowing to help control the troubles.

During the storms a couple of days ago when lots of folks had serious water leaks, the Castle showed one small drip like near the front left of the roof line. You can see the near vertical white line along the corner of the siding joint where the OFM applied a care-fully pressured caulk layer into the small crack layer of caulk.

After another day of good sun and curing we will be be giving that new caulk a fresh coat of white sealing paint to help with the job at hand. That corner got a bad tree limb whack down in Big Bend NP about 14 years ago and has been our worst leak point since. Since the Castle is a 2005 model we think we are getting decent service out of it.

And last but far from least, the birds around here are definitely in breeding mode.

They are all gathered in clusters settling who is who to who and getting busy on the egg production. And maybe the mosquitoes will slow down on their production of the next bunches of blood suckers. Messing with mosquitoes never seems to be a good way of trying to have tooooo much fun.

Hot Body Day

 

Adventure Location: Rockport, Texas

Today Date: 4-25-2023

We were doing a lot of napping this morning so we went out for a marina area walk and ran into old friend Tim and his fantastic pup Gabby. We visited and walked the area where pups are allowed so Gabby could get in some fun too. But the OFM did not do well health wise. When we got back to the Castle the OFM pulled out an oral thermometer and took his temperature. No wonder he was feeling bad. His temperature was 102.5F. So we took immediate action with Ibuprofen and horizontal attitude. Several hours later he was feeling less miserable but still took it easy around the trailer.

A bit before sunset time we got our sunset hunting clothes on to go see what we were going to get this evening down at the beach park. Not much but here is what Mom Nature gave us for a sunset today.

And there you have our big exciting day today of fighting body fever with no idea of why we had it.

But we plan to be back at it tomorrow trying to have tooooo much fun.

Tree Limb Air Trimming

 

Adventure Location: Rockport, Texas

Today Date: 4-24-2023

We chose to head out for a good walk since the OFM legs were feeling pretty good. The cool air and strong breeze was a bit too fresh so the OFM needed a rain jacket to cut the wind. We hit the Beach Park for just long enough to get Sierra turned around and out of there. That high wet wind right off the bay waters was too much for the OFM. Other trails were checked but the final decision happened quickly when we went into the Memorial Park and found that the trees did a good job of knocking the winds down to reasonable.

It turned out to be a nice walk. The OFM put on a rain jacket and his winter fishing hat. That worked out very well and away we went. Yesterdays storms had blown a lot of park equipment around a bit. Some garbage cans had been relocated as well as a few of the staked down soccer goals. But nothing looked damaged. However there was a bit of cleanup work to be done as the winds had pruned a significant amount of small tree limbs from the trees. They needed pruning out anyway so it saved the maintenance folks from having to do the chopping off of the limbs.

We finished the walk nicely without any residual pains later and that was very nice.

On the way back to the Castle we swung by the marina to check on the concrete busting and found it well along since the last time we checked on it.

Back at the Castle this afternoon we got to hear many folks discussing the new leak spots the storm had found in their Rvs. It looked at something around half of them had new leaks.

That fellow was running around on his roof like it was the ground and no place to stumble and fall off. His balance is a lot better than the OFM. Listening to the conversations around us was interesting.

We are having difficult time with OUTLOOK again and communicating by email is again a chore right now. We have no idea about how to fix it, yet.

So tomorrow we will be attacking that trouble and see what we can do. That will not be a good way of trying to have tooooo much fun.

All Day Hard Rain

 

Adventure Location: Rockport, Texas

Today Date: 4-23-2023

The OFM was still sleeping well when the crash of the thunder roused him a bit. The the first of the heavy rain that lasted until about 4PM this afternoon started. Then the pine cones etc came down from the pine trees and bounced around on the Castle's roof and the roof mounted RV stuff up there. It did not take long for the cones and smaller limbs and other things to get all knocked loose and onto the Castle. It was nice when the falling items were finished and all there was to hear was the three gallon sized rain drops hitting the roof of the Castle. It was heavy steady rain all day until 1600 this afternoon. There was some local flooding here and there. While the rain was coming down hard the campsite had about three inches of flooding water on it. That all drained in about twenty minutes after the rains stopped.

The OFM just had to go see how the rain was effecting the Little Bay fishing. We pulled Sierra up to the normal spot at the head of the bay looking north. There are some nice benches here and a few palm trees for excitement. But today none of that looked very inviting.

For lunch we went to Whataburger in Aransas Pass so we could check out the flooding over in that direction. Highway 35 had several places where there was a few inches over the road to give you a reason to slow down. But it was drive able if you were careful.

On the way back the traffic on Highway 35 was moving a bit slower and more safely. We are glad they did learn to slow down and not get in any slip and slide activity.

During the afternoon the OFM did a bit of house cleaning. Then he started on a page in the succulents coloring book. Late this evening he called it time to stop and prep supper and write a blog entry. The supper was stoup from a couple of days ago. It was wonderfully tasty and the clean up went really quickly. Here is the progress report picture on today's coloring activity.

It will be interesting to see what we find for trying to have tooooo much fun tomorrow.

Wind and Mosquitoes

 

Adventure Location: Rockport, Texas

Today Date: 4-22-2023

First the foot report. The right foot is doing very well and allowed a slightly brisker 1.7 mile walk down at the Beach Park. The mosquitoes mostly stayed off of us due to the 20+ mph winds. We wrapped that walking off with a bit of time sitting watching the bird activities. Mr. Right Foot rewarded the OFM Team with nearly no more pain the rest of the day. Some swelling is still in the toes area but the pain is gone, at least for now.

However the mosquitoes were trying to be a miserable presence. Stopping to rest out of the wind was an immediate blood sucking attack. So we stayed very wind blown and only had about four bites for the morning.

That couple were trying to set up the umbrella to shade them for sitting at the bay front. Before they got it unfurled the wind flipped it inside out and we could see a couple of broken pieces dangling. After about ten minutes of fighting the wind they got it folded up in sort of a manner and stuffed in the trunk and slammed the trunk down. It looked like the windy fun was over so we moved on to other fun.

The painted foam for the door of the Castle sure looks nice instead of that filthy dirty dark yellow brown that it used to be.

This afternoon we examined our new coloring books and chose the seashells one to start our learning effort. We did two shells with Prismacolor color pencils. Then two shells with Gold Faber colored pencils. And finally for today two shells with Prismacolor water color pencils. All of the pencils worked very well but the pencil operator needs to practice a bit more.

The paper the images are printed on are as usual, less than the best for colored pencil art. This is definitely another education process we are in now.

The big Nautical Sale at the harbor is next weekend if we recall correctly. So we will do our harboring this weekend and during the next week and then go into exile from the harbor area. It is usually an incredible packed mess that we do not want to participate in. So we will find somewhere else for trying to have tooooo much fun.

Rough Water Morning

 

Adventure Location: Rockport, Texas

Today Date: 4-21-2023

First the foot report. The right foot is doing very well and we did some exercise walking in short sessions several times today. Our plan was to do a lot of pier/bank fishing today to give the foot a chance to be flexed frequently but not strained. It seemed to work well with that plan.

The winds were very high starting this morning making the shoreline fishing pretty messy. The bulkhead near the marina was getting waves over it frequently so we could not comfortably fish there. But by afternoon the winds had calmed so we did get in some fishing and one catch. Here is a picture of the bulkhead this evening when we caught the palm sized piggy perch. It had been most of the morning and afternoon getting wave tops washing across the concrete making fishing just not really feasible.

The after dinner drive into the beach park just to look around and rest the OFM Foot was pleasant and gently breezy. Little Bay was gently ruffled and making the sunlight reflections interesting.

When the mosquitoes got busy mosquitoeing we chose to leave and head indoors at the Castle.

So there you have a gentle day of fishing and just plain old living a nice life with good Mexican food and chicken fried steak to eat.

Some day soon is Nautical Weekend and the whole marina and beach area is crowded to worse than sardine can level so we have to find out soon when it is and make plans for us to be elsewhere at that time.

This was a nice day of being gentle on the rehab of the foot and moving around trying to have tooooo much gentle fun all over the town.

Family Fight Report

 

Adventure Location: Rockport, Texas

Today Date: 4-20-2023

The morning use of the bad foot was minimal but the pain was a lot less also. Our choice of medicine for initial treatment was 400 mg of Ibuprofen at breakfast. By 0900 we were walking around well enough to carry our laundry over to the machines and get our clothes washed, dried, folded and put away without much problem. That was an important chore done. We did something smart for a change and chose to sit and work on the computer for an hour or so while the foot rested. The swelling went down a large amount and the pain diminished so it must have been the right thing to do.

During the careful healing effort we roamed the marina area a bit just to get out of the house. Down at the far end of the marina they are still hard at work on demolishing parts of the breakwater that was failing. Here is a picture of the equipment tearing it apart.

From there we rolled over to the Beach Park and down to the Allegro Channel that feeds Little Bay. A working barge has been doing things along the channel but we could never see what. However today I was told that the bulk heading on the channel is being repaired and more dirt is bolstering the new repairs . Here is what we could see from the beach park bank.

The Castle entry door window has had two layers of .75 inch foam tied on the inside surface of the door window for insulation for over 14 years. We noticed that the tan desert fine sand had turned the foam tan. So we decided that we could clean that even with a bum foot. What we did not count on was the big mosquito hatch last night. Anyway we got the foam off the door and washed in the bath tub and set for drying. After the foam was dry we gave the visible side of the foam a good coat of bright white white acrylic paint. Then we fought the blood suckers to get it tied back on the door to behave like insulation again. It really helps in the bright sun. Here is a picture of it while drying.

We found out what the police were doing in the park the other day. There was an internal family squabble happened and they will be shortly leaving the campground. We are glad the manager does not tolerate much from trouble makers. In the mean time we are going to do some heavy duty resting tonight in hopes of getting in a little health walking tomorrow. We definitely will not be pushing it, so having tooooo much fun might be a bit lacking tomorrow.

Damaged Foot Mess

 

Adventure Location: Rockport, Texas

Today Date: 4-19-2023

We had a whole different day than we were planning for when we went to sleep last night. The right forefoot apparently got damaged during the day yesterday and today it proved to be a major interference for the Teams. Apparently the OFM jammed his right foot big toe and next two toes pretty substantially somewhere yesterday. It has been painful, bright pink and fairly swollen at times today.

Exercise walking is out of the question for now. Just getting to the truck and into stores has been the limit of our mobility. No bones seem to be broken but it feels like a lot of bruising and hyper-extension has happened. We are hoping that recovery is quick and complete.

In the meanwhile the OFM tried his luck with bait fishing again with no luck and bored to pieces with that type of fishing. So we emptied what little stuff for bait fishing we had left out of our tackle box and now we will stick with lure fishing. We don't catch any more fish but at least the OFM gets to run around while fishing. This also means we have simplified our life a good bit more again.

For the last few months we have been having a lot of pain in our joints like we had years ago. So today we stopped at Walmart and bought some glucosamine tablets to use again for the old leg joints. We will see if they work as well as last time we were recovering from joint damage.

And last for tonight we decided that we once again want to display our art work in the Castle. So we are working up how to do that. Here is one guess to put them on the wall behind the dinette seat.

We will have to work with this a bit yet. Whatever we do needs to handle road travel without getting damaged and be ready for travel very quickly.

We hope everyone has a good day tomorrow. We plan to hurry the healing so we can run around having tooooo much fun again.

Police In The Campground

 

Adventure Location: Rockport, Texas

Today Date: 4-18-2023

We had light rain most of the morning and then nice bright sun. So we started out from the campground and came upon two sheriff department vehicles with flashing lights blocking a road in the park. The two officers were out in the campground. One of the officers was talking with who we think was the campground manager. The other was hanging back near a lady standing by a camper. We have no idea what or why.

Amazon did a great job of getting the OFMs three new coloring books to us right on time. And the Teams are happy with the three books.

The books have a new to us style of layout for the pictures to be colored. We will get into that in a later blog when we have time to check it out in full.

On a wild whim the OFM decided to display some of his coloring work in the Castle. So it was off to Walmart to get a few picture frames for the walls. Now we need to work out some of the travel details for them.

Right after the first of next month we will be getting Sierra its state inspection and after that we will be free to roam as we happen to roam. Maybe even find somewhere to try to have tooooo much fun.

Well Computer Again

 

Adventure Location: Rockport, Texas

Today Date: 4-17-2023

The trouble with the computer and Outlook finally started to be resolved this morning. To shorten the story, by noon the computer was running back in the normal correct style but the system had several new features that are helpful. Our guess is the modifications started about five days ago when we noticed the malfunctioning. Since noon it has been a very helpful well behaving computer system and that takes a big load off the OFM about the near future.

We had a somewhat great walk of 1.5 nice miles in late morning. The weather was very nice but the OFM had a bit of pain in his right foot that put a slowdown in the speed. However the day and other walkers were so nice it was a very rewarding walk over all. The only slight detriment was the mosquitoes are starting to make there presence noticeable so the park will likely start the sprayig soon.

A stop at the marina to wet a line for a bit proved to not be fish productive at all. The wind was also very strong so we fished in the protected small area behind a marina building just for wind relief. Even the bait stealers were not working the area.

This evening was a stir fry great meal. The meat was sliced ham that the OFM bought a couple of weeks ago. The vegetables were one o the several assorted bags of stir fry mix that Walmart sells in the frozen foods section. A bit of the Lawlers Sweet Red BBQ sauce put just the right amount of ZING into the meal. Cheap root beer from Walmart was the wine for the evening. We really enjoy the fresh cooked stir fry foods we make.

We are working on a new to us idea on a coloring that we had planned to throw away. Erasing parts and other changes are in progress. We shall see if it does any good or not. We will soon have our answer for that question and publish the results.

Everyone have a great evening and be safe while trying to have tooooo much fun.

The Golden Bird

 

Adventure Location: Rockport, Texas

Today Date: 4-16-2023

It has been an interesting day of computer troubles. We seem to be unable to send email messages and so far have made no progress in getting that fixed.

This is the same opening statement from yesterday.

A lot of the day was spent helping some folks get their rig into place and set up for long term rental. The OFM has had it plainly explained to him that this park only wants yearly rentals for the occupants. We, of course, agree with them that they should have what they want so this location will be vacated at the end of this rental period and not returned to. Interesting end to a traveler that first rented a spot here in December of 2007.

Late this evening we went down to the Beach Park in hopes of some great sunset pictures. It was not to be. The sky was beautiful cloudless and the sun golden.

We managed two nice shots. The first one being a golden bird on golden water near the beach.

The second was a neat sunset with just an itty bitty part of the sun showing but some very bright coloring that made the OFM want to be doing more art work soon.

Everyone have a nice day tomorrow while trying to have tooooo much fun.

Sudden Unexpected Death

 

Adventure Location: Rockport, Texas

Today Date: 4-15-2023

It has been an interesting day of computer troubles. We seem to be unable to send email messages and so far have made no progress in getting that fixed.

Also the date of leaving for many of the winter Texans is coming up fast so we have been doing goodbye visitations. Each visitation seems to take at least two hours so we are using a lot of daylight for a very good cause. At the OFM Teams age, you never know if you will see those folks again.

The main fishing supply store here in Rockport, Tackle Town, had the owner die three days ago with no notice is an example. He will be missed for sure.

In the mean time it was a big day of events that kept ALL of the public places full of folks having lots of fun. We finally settled on the Rockport Walmart property to get in some walking without toooooo many folks in the way. The parking location at the southeast parking spot of the parking lot was our taking off spot. From there we followed the curb to the back of the lot and left to the next curb at the far corner of the lot and then left to the property line at the gas station. A moments pause there and followed the same exact path back to Sierra. According to Google Maps that gave us a .97 mile walk. Some where along the way we stopped and took this picture of some seed pods hanging on a fence. It was a lot nicer looking in real life with the many shades of browns and grays.

We will see what we can turn that into with our colored pencils some day.

This weekend is promising to be a busy one again with lots of festival type activity on the public locations around town. With a little luck the temperatures will get back down below 90f and we will get to stop running the AC to stay cool. Everyone try to be safe and happy while you are trying to have tooooo much fun.

Around The Ponds We Went

 

Adventure Location: Rockport, Texas

Today Date: 4-14-2023

We think we finally figured out that the pollen was back with a bad attitude today. From the first thing this morning it has been a BAD day and tonight it is still pretty miserable. We struggled with where to walk today and finally decided that the Municipal Park would be the least mess. And it was a good choice even if we felt really nasty bad.

We parked and actually got in a nice half mile walk around the big pond but that was about all the OFM could handle in spite of the dope inside him. (Loratadine)

Here is the picture of the nice bench at the east end of the ponds (old borrow pits or sand pits).

There is a nice section of the path near the parking lot and viewing pier that has an S curve and most of the time the bench here is really nice viewing. It makes a nice meandering view of the pathway.

This back portion of the park is allowed to be free growth and truly naturalized for now. Within ten years they are hoping to expand the trails by a few more loops and neat scenes for us visitors. We think it will be a great expansion if it happens.

In the natural part there are lots of entwining of limbs between all the vegetation types.

Here is an example of the oaks trees intermingling for control of the ground space available.

Then to get on a smaller scale here is a picture of the smaller shrubs and oaks fighting for right of way in the area.

We are headed for extra rest tonight we hope. Getting a GOOD fresh start on trying to have tooooo much fun would be good.

Late Night Literature

 

Adventure Location: Rockport, Texas

Today Date: 4-13-2023

The morning walk at the beach park went well and the paddle boarders were also getting an early start for their fun and games out on the water.

After the walk we were standing around looking at the area and we noticed a family coming out onto the sand beach with a kid and wow were they having fun from the sound of things.

We just watched the beach start to have visitors for a little while. A nice palm tree was nearby with a beautiful sky showing off its abilities of being gorgeous.

While still along the beach area we noticed a well cleaned flounder. The birds seem to have done an excellent job of getting all the edible parts off the fish before moving on.

When we left the beach area we went back to the Marina area and on the first cast we caught a 16 inch male speckled trout. It was unhooked and returned to the water to enjoy its day.

The rest of the day happened to get the OFM involved in several long conversations with others as well as starting to plan our next rolling onward. It is 2200 right now and the OFM is well ready for some solid sleeping tonight. So we wish everyone a great night and lots of sleep to help with having toooooo much fun tomorrow.

Sliced BBQ Beef Supper

 

Adventure Location: Rockport, Texas

Today Date: 4-12-2023

Another great day again. WOW we are lucky. For this morning the OFM legs were not in first class shape so we went to the Beach Park to give us more rest spots during a walk. Sure enough the leg soreness did interfere to some extent but by a couple of few minutes respites we still got in more than 1.5 miles but it was in several pieces with short rest periods instead of one long continuous walk.

Anyway the day in general was another fantastic sunny days.

Each year the authorities fence off a big chunk of the beach park back area to allow the birds a large nesting area and baby bird raising area free of folks and vehicles. To the OFM Teams it seems like a very worthwhile effort. Today was the day they blocked off the nesting section of the back area of the beach park. It will be blocked for several months until the new birds leave for other pastures.

Here is the front entrance blocked off.

Here is the back entrance blocked off

We find that it really does not cause significant bother to the general public, there is plenty of other park areas and the beach part is totally open.

Now for the important part of the report for today. This late afternoon the OFM caught the first fish of his stay here this year and it was a doozy. A 17 inch speckled trout that looks full of eggs.

We got her back into the water in a hurry. Now can we say the fishing is good again????? Lets wait until a few more are caught. But it sure was a good feeling to be fighting a nice size fish on our rod for a change. Our hopes are definitely soaring tonight.

And finally for supper we stopped at Mac's here in Rockport and picked up a sliced BBQ beef sandwich for supper. Yes the OFM did deserve it.

And the OFM will sleep well tonight.

Our mail from the last few weeks made it here tonight and we are all caught up on the mail from the boondocking time etc since we left Alabama. Now we will have to do a bit of planning on how we are going to be trying to have tooooo much fun in the next couple of months before we get to Grandkid Land for the summer.

Beautiful Clouds

 

Adventure Location: Rockport, Texas

Today Date: 4-11-2023

It was a nice and peaceful day to get things moving. The OFM walking team did get moving all right. The morning was just right temperature and otherwise to get the most out of the walk.

We walked at marching pace with not much trouble until after the 2.5 mile mark and a bit of a limp was starting about a hundred yards before the finish line. That slight trouble went away with just a bit of rest and did not return during the day. The weather all day was fantastic and mostly just a bit cool.

The rest of the day was spent messing around at outside play and just enjoying the fantastic cloud show that was presented for nearly all day. The cloud pictures you are about to enjoy were taken at different times during the day. Relax and enjoy the clouds.

The cloud show all day was a new to the OFM event he does not recall ever getting to enjoy before. But it was a neat adventure for today.

Then of all things the chicken taco salad tonight was uncommonly scrumptious and really hit the hungry hole in the OFM stomach dead on the button. And that is a wonderful way to finish a wonderful day as a full time Rver trying to have tooooo much fun.