ANOTHER BUSY DAY

 ROCKPORT, TEXAS

JANUARY 31, 2025

WOW what a busy day it was. Beautiful weather and a big surprise a few hundred pounds in size. But now the first things first. We got in several walks of about a half mile each during the day and also got to have three great visits with new friends from the RVing world. We are really fortunate to meet all these new folks from all over North America.

Down in the Beach Park this morning the winds were a bit busy blowing the team around. Here is a picture of the clouds in the sky while we were getting beat-up on the walking trail.

More wild clouds down at the wooden fishing pier. 

On part of one walk the concrete barrier wall is inviting to walk on top of it along the boat channel leading to the open bay. So the OFM was lolly gagging along it when a porpoise surfaced right next to us and splashed us with water and caused the OFM to nearly jump out of his skin. We still think the porpoise did it on purpose. Here is a picture where we were at for this excitement.

That was definitely a heart rate increasing event!

We had another very nice sunset again tonight. It sure puts a great end to another wonderful day. 

Good night.

Very Busy Day

 ROCKPORT, TEXAS

JANUARY 30, 2925

The pace of things was fast and ferocious for the whole day until dark tonight.

Early this morning our supper meal was on my mind. We have food prepared and frozen as well as things to prepare. So the OFM chose homemade chicken noodle stoup for supper tonight. What caught us by surprise was the quantity of already prepared and frozen meals in the freezer. Twelve meals ready to thaw and eat were awaiting our choice for tonight. The OFM thought we had about four or five. The OFM needs to be careful about the meal planning in the future so we do not end up wasting food.

We headed out to the Municipal Park walking path in late morning when the outside weather was getting pleasant at 73F. As we strode along in beautiful weather we were thinking about if we want to change over our RV style to van life style. It has several nice features to it and we have been putting a lot of thought into deciding about moving away from the Castle. It was a November 2006 model and we have been living full time in it since July of 2007 and it has about 100,000 miles on it according to our records. We can see the wear and repairs and maintenance evidence in the unit.

As the OFM wandered along he looked up from the trail and saw this ahead.

We have been watching this pair of rving vans overnighting here and there in town. From the legal and free night spots that they have been choosing it has been obvious they know what they are doing, So when we got close the OFM deviated over to their parking spot and was able to get a huge amount of reasonable information from them about that style of legally camping,

It turns out it is a daughter and dad team. He is about 84 and has a huge long time of rving. They were very helpful and knowledgeable. He has lots of years of going out on the road for a few months often. They turned out to be a wonderful source of excellent information for the OFM.

Now we jump ahead towards sundown.  We wanted to try for a great sunset for a change so we went back down to the beach park early to get in some more walking exercise. This time we chose on the beach to see what junk is washing ashore.

The tide was way out and lots of the beach was huge.  Lots of the regular stuff was on the beach from the waves bringing it ashore.  We say one trinket lying in the sand all by itself and we got a picture of this 1 inch across item.  What is it?

Other than that trinket the beach was just the usual grass and some oyster shells.

Soon it started to get into sunset mode and we quickly headed to a spot at the harbor that we hoped would make a good sunset location. After we got there we had doubts about the spot but it was tooooooooo late to go any place else so here it it for your enjoyment.

After that effort was over we headed home to attack that chicken noodle soup with a vengeance. And then it was time to prepare the blog for tonight.

We hope everyone enjoys the stories tonight and we get some more for tomorrow. Goodnight.

LOTS MORE FOG

ROCKPORT, TEXAS

JANUARY 29, 2025

We got things going in a fog for most of the day. Virtually all day there were significant patches of fog interfering with blog efforts. The OFM is hard headed and kept on going. Frequently driving was a challenge due to the fog density in town. But we saw no wrecks due to fog.

When we got to the entrance of the Beach Park where the American flag is proudly flown, here is what we could see from about thirty feet away in Sierra.

We meandered the whole park this morning looking for photo opportunities but even the long main wooden pier was heavily socked in.

We did not see or hear of a fish being caught of any size.

Back over by the Saltwater Pool we grabbed this picture of a lady meandering the perimeter for fun. 

Activity around town was not very high due to the dampness and visibility being troubling.  Tomorrow promises to be a better day for pictures, but we will just relax and let it happen. A couple of long naps after especially good meals also sounds very inviting. Where is the Tex-Mex menu?

FOG

ROCKPORT, TEXAS

JANUARY 28, 2025

Fog was the trouble maker today. Driving required great care for most of the day. Here is a picture we got at the beach park boat ramp area.

The fog lasted pretty well all day in this density or worse. Not everyone slowed their travel speed down decently. The OFM Teams definitely took lots of evasive effort while on the road or in parking lots.

It was a very subdued day outside but inside we did get some cleaning done for a change.

The temps out side were in the mid to high fifties and the fog very wet. We hope every one had a great day and it gets better tomorrow.

 

Get The Story Right The First Time

 ROCKPORT TEXAS

JANUARY 27, 2025

The OFM thought he had the correct story earlier today when he was spreading stories about our water supply failure situation. Well late in the day we finally got the correct story. So if you are one of the folks that got a different story, this is the real story and not wild fables other folks were spreading in the area.

The campground had lost all water in the afternoon. The OFM asked around and got himself suckered into a wild figment of another persons concept of reality.

Late this evening while walking towards a plumbing truck working near the entry gate to the campground, the campground manager stopped me to let me know about what had been found and repaired. Upon personal inspection and doing some plumber talk between the OFM (plumber while paying his way through college) the plumber got the real story and it was simple.

The campground first valve coming from the city main had split yesterday effectively cutting all waterflow away from the campground.  This photo you are about to see is where the plumber moved the new valve to above the likely high water line of a hurricane flood. The old valve had been in the line buried in the salt laden slop mud for dozens of years.

With the newer metallurgy of the valve in the air instead of in the salt mud the OFM figures on at least fifteen years of service. That means that the OFM with 9.9 years left of life according to cohort charts he looks at will not get to see the replacement valve in 2035.

That was the big event in the area for today. Have a great evening.

PLAIN OLD DAY

 ROCKPORT, TEXAS

JANUARY 26, 2025

Today was just a nice day front to back. The OFM met, at different times, three very nice retired ladies new to the area and was able to give them information that helped their tour of the area. One of them is an RVer and got a tour of the Goose Island Fishing Pier and some fish getting caught.  Speckled trout and black drum were the stars of the show. Other than that it was a very relaxing day but incredibly foggy.

It appears the cold is pretty well over and warming began today. The forecast is for pretty nice warm weather for a couple of weeks at least. Now the OFM needs to figure out what he needs to get busy on for our future  Have a great evening..

Another Laid Back Day

 ROCKPORT, TEXAS

JANUARY 25, 2025

It was a wonderful laid back day all day. We went and visited a few old friends. Tim that lives full time on a houseboat in the harbor had some good stories to tell and we got in some good giggles at his place. We visited a few other locations around the area and looked at other places for potential living locations. All in all it was just a great kicking back time the whole day. We sure hope ya'll all had some good visiting's and funny stories. Good night. 

Wonderful Day

 ROCKPORT, TEXAS

JANUARY 24, 2025

We awoke to a beautiful sunshine filled day to go play in, so we did. Even thought the OFM was not feeling well for such joint activity, he headed down to the Beach Park for some good walking with short loops back near Sierra so it things went bad we could get back to Sierra easily. As it worked out his leg and hip joints limbered up and we made about a mile looking at the gorgeous water scenery littered with water birds of all sorts.

This got us over to another area where we put in about a half mile of walking just admiring the water and shore line. And then since the shoreline was so nice we headed to the Memorial Park inland to check out the situation over there.

It turned out to also be a great day and place for walking. However the OFM proved he needs a brain replacement because he left the camera in Sierra and did not get any more pics and the area was beautiful today.

Back home we hopped to and did the laundry without any error we think. We did a bit of housework while the laundry washing and had a few moments of Root Beer time to enjoy.

And all this was done before lunch.  So we hopped on over to lunch burger location (Whataburger) for a relaxed lunch. Since the OFM was doing so well we slid on over to a campground from a few years ago and visited with old friends and new friends. And it was a wonderful visit.

So when it was all said and done we had a WONDERFUL DAY. 

Hearing Help Request

 ROCKPORT, TEXAS

JANUARY 23, 2025

We finished off changing our sleeping arrangement for colder weather like we recently endured locally. Now we will add a rated sleeping bag to our sleeping gear. We feel that it will be a nice comfort for the occasional time we might need it when boondocking. So far that frequency has been about every third year since we got the Castle.

Then virtually all the rest of the day was spent putting together an attempt at filling out and filing an application for help with hearing loss due to service in Viet Nam in 69-70.

Texas has a group that helps American veterans file for possible financial assistance to repair or fix in some way damages the vet got during service for the country. They have agreed that the OFM has a reasonable case to file for assistance. It took up most of today because they are fairly thorough with the getting the information for the request in good order for success. The OFM request was put into the mail today. This means we will likely stay in the area for a few weeks while the mail and the VA does their job. 

Other than this effort we mostly just piddled around relaxing more than usual on an overly cool day. Have fun friends, we will be doing our best at it.

JUST LOOKING AROUND THE AREA

 ROCKPORT, TEXAS

JANUARY 22, 2025

Not a lot went on and not many folks were out messing around either. So we joined the folks goofing off and did not even trip a camera shutter all the day. The weather was decent and the bird watching was so what. The Chicken tacos were very good. Sleep well every one.

ICE COATING

ROCKPORT, TEXAS

JANUARY  21, 2025

We got a coating of ice last night to make things a bit slippery all over town for morning driving. The town leaders had done a pretty good job of blocking many of the slippery roads so the OFM and Sierra was able to safely move around town safely. Being extra careful on the driving probably saved us several truck body dents. Even the fishing jetty at the Harbor had a coat of ice on it. Notice the white layer of ice on the rocks.

Sierra's windshield and body had a solid layer of ice on it. We took our time de-icing Sierra before running around town having fun so we  would not get Sierra all banged up.

Next for tonight is a picture of the last floral arrangement the OFM has been working on. We consider this as finished for now as we have realized this painting needs a bit of technique the OFM does not know how to do yet. So it will sit in the storage box until I learn the new technique of what the OFM calls fading. He hopes to learn the proper name when he starts to study the technique.

Good Night Everyone.

COLD NORTH WIND

 ROCKPORT, TEXAS

JANUARY 19. 2025

It took a good bit of time to get the camera working again but we did it and after lunch we finally got to start planning tonight's effort at having a blog magically appear. But here it is.

Enough pictures and adventures happened that by the time we got into the blog production it was late in the day. But we did find a few nice interesting pictures to carry over to tomorrow.

Later in the afternoon we got on down to the beach to try out our "repairs" and found we needed to do some fine tuning. We never did find out why the camera went haywire but it did and now it works right again. ???????? Maybe.

The cold north wind was roaring for most of the day so we had no trouble getting a picture of the flag ripping wind working on the flag.

That flag is located just past the pay stations to drive into the beach area.  Walking in is free.

We just encountered another glitch and will publish this and get busy on the new  FUN.                    

Camera Failure

ROCKPORT, TEXAS

JANUARY 18, 2025

We spent most of the day checking out other campgrounds and their prices looking for a better place to be. Here is what we have learned. Nothing in the area is appreciably better.

Our camera has died and none of the pictures came out well or close to usable. Of course it is about ten years old had has had a lot of rough work to do not the least is a couple of salt water soakings. Time to shop  for its replacement. Canon quit making this model years ago to my regret. So there you have the exciting day we experienced in Rockport Texas.

Bland Day

ROCKPORT, TEXAS

JANUARY 17, 2025

We got off to a slow start in doing things this morning like checking other folks fishing. Nope nothing being caught. The OFM did get in about a mile of cold walking.  There were enough folks out to have a few conversations about the three days coming up with predictions for freezing temps in the mornings. The OFM will not be an early activity person those days. Other than that the OFM just laid around and messed with his computer. Ya'll have a nice night.

Too Many Pictures

 ROCKPORT, TEXAS

JANUARY 16, 2025

The OFM has more pictures to cull and get ready for publishing than we can do in an evening.  So tonight is a work night on getting pics ready to publish tomorrow night.  I hope it turns out to be worth the effort. 

A lot of the pics turned out to be not so good so we eliminated them. We also managed to get it down to four pics to show you nice folks. Here is the four we chose to show. Keep in mind this is the exact picture recorded except for cropping some excess from the pic for a better dramatic effect.

Mail Arrived

 ROCKPORT, TEXAS

JANUARY 15, 2025

It was a dreary day for sure and a loop through the beach Park showed that even the seagulls did not like it out there today. So we headed home to piddle around waiting for some mail we hoped would come in today. The light drizzle and 50F wind stopped any outdoor walking except inside Walmart with about a store and a half worth of folks filling it. OK back home to the warm Castle.

Shortly later we checked if the mail had come and it had. We got on over there, grabbed the package and made it home without tooooo much getting wet.

We were excited since it was supposed to have two new adult coloring books about National Parks. They were in the package. Close examination showed that the images will take a LOT more artist (colorist) work than what the OFM is used to doing. it is time to step up the coloring quality we guess. We did a careful guess and it seems that at our normal coloring speed we have about 3-4 years of work available now. At least we will have something fun to do for a long time now.

Every one have fun. I am going to play with my coloring stuff now. Good night.

Leaving Rockport Canceled

 ROCKPORT, TEXAS

DECEMBER 14, 2025

Today turned into a special day. The OFM got in touch with the Texas advocate that helps damaged veterans file claims for help due to injuries during service in the military. The OFM met with him this afternoon and discussed a few items of interest. The advocate said the claims have enough justification to file claims and see how it works out. So we started the claim process with the VA to find out if the OFM TEAMS should be getting compensation for hearing loss due to the events in Viet Nam he was required to participate in during combat.

We also had over an hour conversation about left overs from other undesirable events during during his service time. It looks like we will be here in Rockport for a good while while testing about the situation is completed. Hopefully all of it can be repaired or fixed is some way or another. We will see what things work out like.

Have a great night everyone.

Amazing Miracle

ROCKPORT, TEXAS

JANUARY 13, 2025

A miracle happened today. The OFM actually finished all the work on the Castle and it is ready to roll RIGHT NOW. We were wondering if this time would ever come again, but it is here. Of course the weather is acting up. Since the first idea we had about some changes to the Castle did not come close to working out, we scrapped the whole idea and went back to full boondocking mode of completion. And today to our surprise everything fell into place and was completed before lunch.

We now have January 21 as our last night in this campground, When we head out that day the goal is to wander our way to Falcon State Park in Texas down on the Rio Grande near Roma Texas by any route that suits our fancy at the moment as long as we get there by mid May.

As we practiced meandering to get back in practice we crossed paths with this wild sky to admire.

A few miles later we spotted these oystering boats working the oyster beds out in the bay. They run around in circles scraping the bottom with special baskets to bring the oyster shells up to the boat to be sorted (culled) and proper size oysters are harvested and brought in to the docks to be sold for eating. The OFM used to do this by wading out on the reefs in Galveston Bay with a garden rake.  It was a lot of work and the OFM never did like eating them. But some members of his family really liked them.

We plan on some serious rest tonight. Everyone have tooooo much fun.

SURPRISE ARRIVAL

 ROCKPORT, TEXAS

JANUARY 12, 2025

We got a nice surprise this morning when the battery box we were waiting on due in on next Wednesday showed up in the mail room about noon. Now we should be able to get the battery replacement project completed tomorrow. YIPPPEE.

Next on the agenda is to try to get the rest of the Castle organized for a short romp along the RIO GRANDE RIVER of about three months. We do not have any really fixed plans but to enjoy the freedom of rolling.

The really big news today is that New Mexico finally put their new high prices for State Park camping into practice. Check them before you go since they went up quite substantially.

And that is about it for tonight, Sleep Well.

Wild Color Beach and a Pile of Pelicans

 ROCKPORT TEXAS

JANUARY 11, 2025

We got of to a cool start this morning and headed to the Beach Park to scare up some wild morning excitement. The first pictures were the morning sun on the water and the color change we got shooting a few original pictures. We did not do anything to cause the color special effects so we have no idea how this effect happened.

Then a few minutes later we scared up a photo of a large bunch of pelicans just pelicaning around on the island in the middle of the ski basin. Looks like a very happy bunch doesn't it.

Before the day was finished we got to talking to Jeff about his camping van and ended up talking for a couple of hours. Jeff was a very entertaining man to talk traveling and RViing with. Jeff is based in Wisconsin and is making a big loop out west to see what more there is to see and experience. He quickly got out his yellow writing tablet and made lots of notes about places to check out. As it worked out we had some common great experiences in a few western states which made great story telling. Jeff take it easy and be safe. And yes you did get my feet to itching even more.

Goodnight every one and sleep well.

Back Is Mending Well

ROCKPORT, TEXAS

JANUARY 10, 2025

Not much excitement today. The OFM back had about a 85% recovery over night so it seems he will be ready for more battery play when the carrier gets here in the next few days. Then we can wrap this event up and be ready to roll maybe.

We seemed to be having a problem heating the Castle during this cold spell even though we were only seeing cold temps in the 40F range for the coldest. In the years before this rig handled 11F without any trouble at all. So we went to searching for an air leak. We found one about 3/8" wide and 20 inches long in a window seam. Repairing that made a huge difference in less than ten minutes. The electric heater had to be cut way back to keep us from being cooked inside. We are running it on the 500 watt setting and it is cycling on the thermostat. Yahoo for us.

A trip out to the Beach park after repair celebration was over netted us three picture so we could have something to talk about.

The American flag and the Navigation district flag on the same flag pole were having a flapping contest to see which one could flap the most in the stiff wind. We called it a tie but feel free to make your on choice.

The nice fish cleaning facilities were not being used today from the looks of them. The fish cleaning tables were dry. Usually there is residue from the cleaning activities if anyone is fishing around here. But today it looked like complete non use was the story. After all it was a day of a high speed very cold wet wind,

On the way out of the park a new to this area van dweller was spotted just outside the entry to the Beach Park.  Later in the afternoon the van was still in the same spot. The Navigation district does not allow overnight camping in the harbor parking lot so the van will be gone by 2300 to somewhere else in town.

For supper tonight we had some very good pork chop stoup and hot tea.

Well that is all the excitement for today. Every one please be safe and have fun.

Back Is Recovering

 ROCKPORT, TEXAS

DECEMBER 9, 2025

We awoke to a cold drizzling rain. We are going to bed tonight to the same drizzling rain. It has done that mess all day and it was not nice. We toured the area looking for a nice picture. What we have is a good shot representing the whole day. It is a photo of the pretty day over at the Saltwater Swimming Pool in the Beach Park. Ain't that some great color and yes it is a color picture.  We saw exactly two other vehicles in the park.

 
Good night and sweet dreams.

Sore Back For Sure

ROCKPORT TEXAS

JANUARY 8, 2025

We decide today was the day to tangle with the battery situation. So we started unpacking the bedroom and stacking stuff all over the place to allow the OFM to be able to work in the area under the bed where the batteries have lived for the last 15 years. It is a very cramped area to say the least.

One of the batteries has already been removed when this picture was taken. The next two shots were from the same spot but just turning around to show all the stuff stacked around to make room to get to the battery area.

One battery had ben removed already before the OFM remembered to take pictures. This area had to be squatted in to fit down into it to get to all the wiring. those 45 plus pound batts left the OFM with quite a sore back tonight. Ibuprofen is my best buddy tonight.

The new battery box will arrive in two days and we can start on the outside work that has to be done. We are feeling like moving the batteries to the tongue of the trailer will be better at this stage of our Rving life.

Now we have to be very careful to route the wiring carefully so we do not cause a short circuit fire to happen. We checked around and found that Walmart would take the old batteries for disposal at no charge even though we did not purchase the new batts from them. That is really nice. We also found out loading them into a shopping cart was a serious effort the OFM does not want to do ever again.

And that is about it for today. The OFM  is heading for a bowl of Ibuprofen for supper so hopefully he will be able to sleep comfortably tonight.

Changed Battery Plans

 ROCKPORT, TEXAS

JANUARY 7, 2025

Nothing went as originally planned but things went well but cold. We went to the beach park early this morning and it was totally empty. We opened a window on Sierra and the wet cold was way too much for the OFM to be running around outside. So we headed to Walmart to buy fresh vegetables to use for stir frying some thin strips of pork chops tomorrow. We haven't had a decent stir fry in weeks. That will get fixed soon. The small bell peppers looked especially tasty this morning. We shall see what tomorrow says on that subject.

The new house battery for the Castle arrived four days early this morning. The OFM found out that 47 pounds weighs a lot more these days than it did five years ago the last time we had to change out the house batts in the Castle. This is a group 27 size battery.

This is the battery still in its shipping box sitting just inside the Castle door. As it turns out we have decided to go back to having the house battery on the trailer tongue behind the LPG tanks like most travel trailers do it. The best we can recall we moved the batteries inside the trailer about ten to twelve years ago. There was a bunch of battery stealing happening to boondockers out in the deserts at that time that had tongue mounted batteries. So we have to do a little un-remodeling to the Castle to allow the relocation to happen. Then we will safely be able to use cheaper vented style batteries. Lithium seems to be the big target now days.

In the mean time the cold weather and the north winds blowing a lot of water out of the bays has made the fishing not very desirable for any fishing effort on our part.

Stay warm and relax for a few days is our big plan.

COLD DAY

 ROCKPORT, TEXAS

JANUARY 6, 2025

Twas a cold day to be outside for having fun with the wet cold strong winds we are having for a couple of days. We did go to the Beach Park to check out the weather and chose no thanks to that mess.

We piddled around with nothing much for a good while back at the Castle. Suddenly the OFM got the idea that maybe the Rockport Municipal Park might have enough trees to block the wind. So ZOOM off we went. When we got there it looked very pretty with the nice blue sky and nearly no folks out there.

So we hopped to and got a walk started towards the back of the park and the ponds.  Very quickly we realized that the wind was still a major player in the misery game and was winning the competition to get through the trees and brush. We pushed on to get into the ponds area in hopes of a good picture for today, Well here is the best we got.

Well where it was clear and pretty it was damp and cold. Back in the trees and brush where it was less windy it was less of a nasty feeling. So we grabbed a couple of pond pics and headed for the truck.

Back at the Castle we spent some more time figuring out where to go next and when to go. So now we still have no good idea of what to do until this serious cold spell is over. Historically this area has its coldest day of the year on January 19 and warming gets busy happening after that.

And that was as exciting as it got.

Tomorrow we plan to make contact with the Texas office that helps Texans file for compensations for things that happened while in the military like the OFM getting sprayed often with agent orange and many other nasty things.

We will see how that goes.

Have fun and sleep well. Good night.

Tasting A Lure

 ROCKPORT, TEXAS

JANUARY 5, 2025

The wind was very strong all day so our fishing and walking was horribly mutilated. Here is a picture of the wave action breaking over the bulkhead at the beach park. It was nasty out there and that is why we shot the picture at maximum zoom.

We have been having severe ant invasions in the Castle for some reason. A stop at Walmart got us a spray bottle of ant insecticide for the outside of the Castle. There are no trees or other vegetation over the Castle and nearly none at grade level either. Therefore we figured they are coming up the stabilizer jacks and the tire and axle assemblies to enter the Castle. So when we got the poison home the OFM spent a good bit of time spraying every surface that could be a route for the ants to enter the Castle. Of course the ants already inside will likely need their own treatment done separately. Insect invasions are a regular trouble when camping in places we go.

Our friend Hillbilly was out at the Beach park doing some fishing and found this lost lure near the shore line. The OFM asked him if it worked so he chomped down on it to find out.

One thing for certain he is a tough fellow to handle treble hooks so casually.

We did some grocery shopping this afternoon in preparation for doing a little bit of cooking to get back in practice before we roll southwest toward Falcon Heights in a couple of weeks. Wow groceries have screamed up in price in the last two weeks since our last serious shopping spree. 

Good Night.

Plans Change

ROCKPORT, TEXAS

JANUARY 4, 2025

It was an extremely busy day today but we are going to hit a couple of high spots and rest a bit tonight. The walk went OK but was only 1.7 miles due to lack of energy on the OFM part. He just could not get going well so we shut down after about 45 minutes and head out for other efforts. 

 The OFM decided to do a bit of art work as he let himself rest somewhat.  So he did some more on the flower arrangement from the adult coloring book. We made good progress and the end is in sight way down that looooooong hallway over yonder.  

We got notice that the place were are planning to go next down by Falcon Lake on the Rio Grande River has been put into a boil the water situation for the provided Roma city water. They have not announced how long they expect to have this in effect. We feel like it is best if we wait until they have the trouble under control and cleaned up.

Supper tonight was a great sub sandwich from Walmart with added vegetation and BBQ sauce by the OFM.

Now for the art folks we started the background effort on the next planned colored pencil painting. Here is all there is to it for the time being.

We do not have the whole thing planned yet much less executed but at least I am playing with the pencils again and it feels really good. We will get some rest tonight we hope and have a fun and busy day again tomorrow.

Black Drum

ROCKPORT, TEXAS

JANUARY 3, 2025

Now that the computer is working again we will have  blog tonight. The weather was pretty nice when we got to the beach park to walk and fish. Check out this nice place to mess around for a while.

On our walk around the area in nice temps and great sunshine we got to see several things like porpoise playing and fresh wildflowers blooming here and there.

Then a nice fellow came walking my direction with his latest catch. It is an average size for the area Black Drum.

After a decent bit of walking, the OFM went to fishing for about a half hour and did not get a bite of any sort.

We have three full time RVers in town who are van dwellers and they paid the fee to be inside the beach park every day for the year.  They get to take showers at the showers to get clean. They are careful to put trash in the dumpsters and in general just be good neighbors. At night they have to leave the beach park and move to somewhere that allows overnight camping. The Beach park is closed from 1100pm until 6 am to vehicles and those folks are careful to stay polite and legal. In other words GOOD NEIGHBORS.

According to the weather reports we are supposed to get very cold weather in a couple of days like 40F for two nights. That is really bad cold for down here in South Texas.

Everyone stay warm and sleep well.

Gray Wet Day

 ROCKPORT TEXAS

JANUARY 2, 2025

 A nasty drizzling rain and very grey skies was our day most of the day. We had a couple of outside chores to accomplish and we hoped to get in a bit of fishing. Nope weather was nasty all day and the OFM did not stand out in the drizzle and chilly WIND. We did put air in the left front tire. It has a slow leak that about every other month we add three pounds of air to be at the proper pressure for running around.

We went to the Beach Park to grab a pic or three and ended up renewing our park pass for 2025. That is unlimited use for a year. It is a pretty good deal we feel.

The day was nasty all day. Winds varied from nearly calm to a bit over thirty mph at times. Nope no fish were caught as best as we could tell from talking to a few folks.

Back inside the Castle we got out the art mess and put in a little time playing with the colored pencils. It will take some time and effort to learn to do several things differently that the OFM has been reading about for the last couple of months. Hopefully it will all make his efforts much better.

Tule Trail Report And Camera Report

 ROCKPORT, TEXAS

JANUARY 1. 2025

We begin with good news.  The phone was found in late morning after three diligent searches of the Castle and the Walmart we last had it inside and Sierra. After the third search as we were about to go inside the Castle in utter defeat, the OFM fumble fingered dropped his keys to the gravel parking surface around the Castle. And there deep under Sierra was the camera taking a nap with Sierra straddling it. We had pulled out of that spot and returned several times without running over the camera. It was a miracle and we smiled and accepted with glee.

Now on to the Tule Trail that we walked to get out of all the severe winds the other day. 

The Tule park starting point is adjacent to the SE corner of the Walmart property. There is a nice but small parking lot with picnic facilities but no rest rooms anywhere along the about 1.5 mile one way trail. The terminus is the beginning spot for the Rockport Memorial Park where we have been walking for years and it has full restrooms there with drinking water faucets.

The trail looks like this but the amount of trees and brush etc, varies along side the trail. The surface is nice wide concrete so there is easy passage of folks and bicycles. Lots of very friendly puppy dogs were on the trail this day and the OFM got lots of good pup pats in. On this day we were dodging winds in the 30 mph range and the trail made it pleasant walking.

A few spots along the trail, flowers grew next to folks yard fences and we got a decent picture of these in full bloom.

This would be a miserable summer trail with no wind to help fight the hot humid temperatures so plan your fun carefully.

Have a great New Year.