TIME TO START TO TRAVEL AND TELL TALES AGAIN

ROCKPORT, TEXAS

4/30/2025

Well now we start back to regular style story telling as we progress back up to NORTH ALABAMA and POINT MALLARD CAMPGROUND during the month of May. This journey that is normally for four to six days is scheduled to run for a month. We are hoping to get the equipment back into first class shape for better story telling as well as making the content more interesting, The plan is to try a few changes on the way northward to see how they work out when used in real life.

The OFM is hoping we can generate better stories in the next few days. It will definitely be a significant effort on our part even if it really fails big time. Please feel free to make constructive comments to help better the blog.

Thank you everyone.

SURF IS UP

 ROCKPORT, TEXAS

4/29/25

It was a really extra high winds day around here all day. Here is the one picture we got of a surfer off their board in the rough unshaped lousy surfing wave systems came in to play.

 

TWO ANNOUNCEMENTS

 ROCKPORT, TEXAS

4/28/25

With sadness we announce that Pheebs of the Bayfield Bunch has passed away. She was a wonderful pup to read about for many years and is already missed.

We also announce that the OFM is having lots of troubles with his computer and everything is taking four times as long to get done for the blog these days.  We will keep banging keys until the program behaves better.

Thanks for reading.

Mobs Of Folks

ROCKPORT, TEXAS

4/26/2025

It was a very windy day and the crowds were huge. Even as we turned Sierra towards the Beach Park we could tell the parking was already incredible.  Sure enough the crowds were so large we rolled into the area and immediately left before they could block us in for the day. 

Here is a picture near the entrances to the first part of the fun area.

Gate area picture 

Then a few minutes later we had made it to the Saltwater Pool and here was the parking mess.

So after getting these two pictures we gave up on fighting the crowds and spent most of the rest of the day doing chores for getting ready to move to the state park in a couple of days.

Every one have fun next week.

Rusty Concrete Locations

 ROCKPORT, TEXAS

4/25/2025

It was a pretty nice day for being out and around the waterfront.

Let us talk about rusty poured concrete like walkways etc. Around here lots of the early concrete walks etc. were not well designed and are falling apart now days. For instance in this picture of a flat section of walkway has a brown line of steel corrosion in the concrete.

Well that crack transfers the corrosive salt water into the poured concrete where the salt water causes the re bar reinforcement rods in the concrete to corrode away over time until the rods break. Then the concrete that has low strength against pulling forces causes the concrete to start into breaking into small not so good pieces and let the concrete fall apart as shown in the next picture.

  

That is a wedge of drive way laying on the edge of the parking lot. Notice the three brown rebar spots of brown where the rebar rusted through and let the concrete break loose from the driveway surface. There are ways to make the service life last a lot longer but it turns the price into a sky rocket of cost most of the time. Next time you walk on older salt water concrete look for some of the failures like these of the driving surfaces.

Good Night.

MEAN RAINS THIS MORNING

ROCKPORT, TEXAS 

4/23/25

Yep the storms were bad. Very heavy hard rain for a bad time with flooding around our area. We piddled around with a lot of stuff getting ready to move to the state park in a few days. Some miscellaneous Amazon purchases were due today and they arrived right on time as the rains turned off. Out at the beach park there were a few of us foolish nuts looking around.

Driving at the beach park was not convenient with all the curb areas 6 inches deep in water.

However we got pretty good at dodging the deep puddles. 

Even the areas out on the beach where the shade shelters reside were frequently flooded about 6 inches deep also.

That's about it until tomorrow when we hope to be telling a story about rusty concrete.

FLOWERS

 ROCKPORT, TEXAS

4/22/2025

It was a nice day just visiting around town. The weather was decent with a reasonable number of folks out having fun. Here is a picture of a patch of hand sown flowers someone spread in the back of the camper parking area.

We think that is really nice when the evening sun hits it just right. And that is it for a peaceful nice day. Good Night.

Rainy Day

 ROCKPORT, TEXAS

4/21/2025

My roof repairing neighbor got moved out for Missouri today. They are headed back home. The recent heavy rains gave his roof work on the Castle a hard test and his work passed with flying colors. Good bye Ed and Beth and good luck in your new efforts.

A couple of loops through the Beach Park in the heavy rain gave us lots of room to park in the freshly washed concrete. We spent lots of the day just looking things up on the internet.

Nothing really hit the spot today but we plan to give it the dickens tomorrow.

EASTER WEEKEND MOBS

 ROCKPORT TEXAS

4/20/2025

We chose to combine Easter weekend all into one post.  The town was plain old overrun with visitors. There was so many folks that the OFM team could not squeeze through the crowds for photos most of the time. These next two pictures were taken in early morning. The crowds were horrendous everywhere. We definitely will not make it to any more of the big crowd events.

A different view at the far end near the bird breeding ground.

We tended to stay away from the area during this time this year. Just way too many folks for the OFM Team.

So we did some visiting with friends and dreaming about soon to be travels.

NEW OFM STYLE

 ROCKPORT, TEXAS

4/18/2025

I hate to do this again but last night again showed me I need to ease back some. At 78.5 years old pushing myself with too much vigor to have a daily blog for our readers of at least a bit of quality, is proving too much for my life point. All the demands of exercise, eating healthy, trying to keep my mind sharp and just living decently plus the daily blog hit a pause moment last night.

Talking with some older friends today who are younger than me convinced me I am pushing my limits too hard. So now what? That is the big question. My first effort will be to not push myself so much to meet self imposed deadlines. Another is to spend more time in relaxed efforts. Who knows what that will amount too. The blog will continue but not necessarily every night.  I enjoy producing the blog even if it is a stress producing effort. We shall see what an OLD FOOLISH MAN can figure out to keep on keeping on. Rest well.

SCENES FROM THIS DAY.

 ROCKPORT, TEXAS

4/17/2025

Various scenes from today to enjoy. A fool was busy making a mistake when he ran his ordinary pickup into the mud flat at the beach park. While we took the picture several more trucks came up to attempt to drag the truck truck out of the low tide area before the tide rose too far.

Later in the day we came back by and the stuck truck was gone. Still later in the day a park employee was reworking the area so wade fishermen could safely use the area again. Thank you park folks.

Next we encountered this huge cloud that did not seem to have a reason for existing out there over the water.

And now the computer has gone crazy for the last hour. See you tomorrow.

FIRST PLANS IN PLACE

 ROCKPORT, TEXAS

4/16/2025

We got off to a running start this morning and worked out the first two months of  plans. In about two weeks we will move to Goose Island State Park for two weeks. That is all we can stay in the state park at one stretch. During that time we will work out a good travel plan to get us to Point Mallard at the correct day of May 27. Hopefully we will hit up some new places to write about on that phase of the adventure.

Our site at GOOSE ISP is all paid for and will be awaiting us when our turn there happens. Texas State parks average $20 a night for nice water and electricity sites. This one we have reserved for us is heavily wooded with good shading for the Castle.

NEW TRAVEL PLANS MADE

ROCKPORT, TEXAS

4/15/2025

This morning was a nice morning and we got some important things arranged for our future travel plans. We are planning to leave for Decatur Alabama on May 1 and arrive at Point Mallard campground Alabama on May 27 .

The next thing we think we might attempt is to do some vehicle/motel trips to locations more suited for that type of traveling. Looking and discussing some areas with other travelers has brought to light other possibilities for our fun running around similar to how we travelled back when the OFM still needed to work at a job.

Then when the weather gets colder we can grab the Castle and head south to warmer climate areas and do some serious relaxing in the cooler desert  areas.

What this will give us is another chance to try another style of traveling also.

We are thinking the OFM is likely to start slowing down age activity wise in the next 3 to 4 years and we need to be ready to accommodate keeping on keeping on as he gets OLDER.  QUITTING IS NOT ON OUR MENU. Have a great night folks.

ARM RIP REPORT

 ROCKPORT, TEXAS

4/14/2025

We did get some arm damage pictures to show what is happening. The great news is the OFM arm damage is healing quickly in spite of the dangerous location the injury occurred in.

Here is the villain in this story.

The OFM spent a good while today trying to figure out how the damage was done. We know that the local wind slammed the door on the OFM as he entered the unit to use the facility.  The OFM's arm got slammed by the wind blown door which slapped the OFM into the facility like an over powered ping pong ball gone amuck. Quickly the searing pain of ripped flesh made itself very apparent we took care of the damaged arm immediately and settled the situation quickly. The obvious trouble was the unsanitary location of the event. Then the damage evaluation was a strip of skin torn loose of the arm meat on three sides. So we headed for safety and cleaning equipment.

Here was the best picture we could get at the time.

We got home and went to cleaning the cut and tear very carefully. After examination of the wound we trimmed most of the ripped loose skin from the wound area, washed gently again. That washing was some serious pain but we got it done and then smeared triple antibiotic cream on the open wound area.

Then for the night to help control the bleeding etc. we cut the toe end off a gym sock to cover and protect the wound. The pain had well resided so we had a good night. By morning the stripped meat area had dried enough that the pain was minimal.

From

From this morning through the day the pain has been very minimal and the redness has been dwindling. 

So for now we call it controlled healing and will be being very careful with the cleanliness for another week or so. We think the ripped skin area turned out to be only two inches by one inch But the first pains seemed like about three feet by ten feet

OK what next. The OFM turned in his notice of leaving today that we will be leaving Rockport by April 30 for country leading us toward Decatur Alabama where hope to get to stay until September to play with the grand kids. Be advised we do not plan on a direct path since we have until Fathers Day to get to their home base

This seems like enough talking for now so everyone have a great night. We are going to try really had to do that.

OUT HOUSE FALL

 ROCKPORT TEXAS

4/13/2025

The Old Fat man had a fall event in a  Temporary  toilet house at the Beach Park this evening but we should be fine tomorrow to give a better event report tomorrow. It removed about three square inches of arm skin but will actually be minor in the big picture of things. We are calling it a night and everyone have a wonderful evening and see you tomorrow in better shape, 

KITE DAYS

 ROCKPORT, TEXAS

4/12/2025

We somehow did not know about the Kiting Festival this weekend but we definitely got caught in the middle of it all. Our path was the usual route to the Beach Park to do some walking. However rather than a nice beach park with few folks in the morning we hit this excitement.

What is going on we gasped?  It is kite Festival weekend we found out. So it turned out we fought crowds everywhere this Saturday.

There were kites and vehicles everywhere we turned.

And it got worse all day long.  Right behind the camera handler in this pic was the Harbor Market place for fresh seafood that was also a big traffic jam.

We worked hard at staying out of the way today. For linner (lunch dinner) we headed out of town towards our favorite Tex Mex diner for a wonderful meal. Then we spent the most of the rest of the day just visiting friends not in the big hustle and bustle areas. It was definitely a " special " effort to stay clear of the traffic and mayhem. Good NIght Folks.

RV CAMPSITES AT GISP

ROCKPORT, TEXAS

4/11/2025

After thinking about it we decided that tonight 

We would show the three different types of campsites at Goose Island State Park  to help visitors be prepared for the different style of campsites available in the park. There is three different styles of RV campsites depending on where and style you prefer.

The first style is in the wooded area of the park. They are in heavy woods and brush with trail/road access to the rest room/showers. They are all similar in style to this site shown here.

Water and 120 volt electric is at each site. They are all sized to handle the biggest motorhome down to tents very nicely.

Now on over to the water front area there is water front sites with fresh water and electric next to the bay waters and across the street are other sites also with fresh water and 120 volt electricity plug ins.

Here is an away from the bay water site.

Then across the street from the above type of sites is the sites right on the salt water that get sprayed with saltwater frequently but are really popular for some reason. They have 120 volt electric and drinking water.

These bay side sites also have nice showers and rest rooms available. We hope that you enjoyed our little tour of the facilities tonight.

BEACH WALK MORNING

 ROCKPORT, TEXAS

4/10/2925

It was a very nice morning for walking and when we got to the beach parking location we prefer it was even nicer. So we opted for a slower longer walk of the beach with high hopes of great pictures. That did not happen but the walk was a lot nicer since the high winds had subsided mostly. So we headed over to the beach from our parking location.

A group shelter starts the beach on this end of the park and it frequently gets used gatherings with family beach themes. As we got onto the sand we found it pretty solid and the OFM did not sink much into it.

So we started our walk going to our right and noticed right away there was very little in the way of shells or other interesting things laying in the sand. Here is a picture of the sand on the beach.

Nothing exciting showed up for the whole mile we walked on the beach. We were hoping for more than nothing. When we got to the two story building at mid walk we went up on the balcony area and took this picture to get a better over all show.

Next we crossed the street to the backside of the peninsula the  Beach Park is located on. The first important point is the fish cleaning table. It is a new one to replace the worn out one that was there.

On to our right is another picnic area that is designed to allow boats to beach near the tables for having fun.

These are heavily used most of the time in warmer weather

From here it was a long walk near screaming gulls that are well into their mating season. We were glad to get away from all the noise.

We hope you have enjoyed this short walk around the area.

CRITICAL WINDSHIELD STICKER IN PLACE NOW

ROCKPORT, TEXAS

4/9/2025

The day started out dedicated to getting Sierra all finished with government junk to be legal rolling down the road. It was a big mess of government rules confusion causing all sorts of confusion.  When it finally finished fifteen minutes before quitting time we thought it had to be a hidden flaw somewhere. But we got the needed sticker after a week of government nonsense  and now that last hurdle is flattened and we can get started with loading and supplying the rig for travel.

However the campground in Alabama is having its second campground closing flood for this year so we do not know what is coming up next. If you want to see it in photos look up POINT MALLARD FLOODING on the internet. It is a mess for now. Supposedly there has been over two feet of water covering the whole place.

Now we are trying to make rational plans for when to get to north Alabama to visit the grands. And that is about all the excitement we have for you tonight.

WONDERFUL DAY AT THE BEACH

 ROCKPORT, TEXAS

4/8/2025

We had a wonderful day out and around today. The walking started at the Memorial Park for a mile and a half loop in chilly weather. The sunshine really was nice. Then we went over to the Beach Park just to have a look. It was so nice there we just had to meander around to check it out. The beach was almost totally deserted but very enticing as you can see.

We sat there and rested a bit just feeling contented for the time being. Then we decided to go to the other end of the beach at the Allegro Channel and check that area out.

We got parked and headed to the channel jetty to walk on the jetty into the bay a ways. As it worked out there was an early kayaker easing along between the jetties. It sure made the OFM reminisce about his thirty years of yakking before balance trouble hit him. That was a fun time in his life. At the far side of the picture you can see the backside of the barrier islands with the Gulf of Mexico on the other side of them.

As we turned away to our right to head back to the parking lot we caught sight of a large black drum meandering along the bottom looking for food we think.

That would be a pretty good fight we imagine. Yep they are good especially on the BBQ grill. The OFM guesses it to be near thirty inches long. The rest of the day was a great day of visiting friends and telling stories of other grand times in our lives. We certainly hope everyone had great day also. Good Night.

GOOSE ISLAND SP NATURE TRAIL

 ROCKPORT, TEXAS

4/7/2025

GOOSE ISLAND STATE PARK is located just east of Rockport and is a great park for the 55 years the OFM has been going to it. It has very good camping but is also very popular most of the year for visits during the day. 

Today we report on the nature trail through the wooded part of the campgrounds. We parked at one of the trail heads where the parking is excellent.

There is a good signboard showing you about the trail. The trail surface is packed shells and very easy walking and also good for wheeled vehicles like wheel chairs and baby carriages.

The trail starts gently and stays gentle the whole way. You can see in this  taken at the start of the trail.

All along the trail are information signs to let you know about what you are looking at around you. So keep your camera handy for all sorts of pictures that you might see.

One of my favorite scenes is pictures of the hundreds of huge diameter trees in the area. This area has experienced quite a few  rough hurricanes in its  years if existence.

The trees can be shaped all sorts of ways.

Good Night.

LATE QUICK REPORT

ROCKPORT, TEXAS

4/6/2025

The flags were whipping hard in the wind most of the day.

At the other end of the Beach Park the sea gulls were watching the gathering platform collecting the out put from the in the bay oil wells. Barges would come by later to get the gas oil and take it to the refineries on shore near Corpus Christi.

    

The gulls are happy the wells are working because then tourists can afford to bring more treats for the birds to eat. Have fun every one.

Lots Of Folks

 ROCKPORT, TEXAS

4/5/2925

We got a big surprise when we got rolling this morning. The town was rapidly filling with folks filling every nook and cranny with their families trying to have too much fun. The beach was packed and parking space near any fun location was at a premium. BUT it seemed everyone was having a great fun time.

All this fun times here got the OFM to thinking back when he was not free of jobs and other life responsibilities. Back then he did what he called cloverleaf travel because he had to be back at work within a few days and he covered a lot of territory back then.

So tonight we are looking into a modified style of clover leaf travels. For instance if we are in Grand kid land and they are busy for a couple of weeks (gone to see other grand parents)  and not available to run and play, the OFM can check out things within about a three hundred mile radius and make a fun loop without the Castle and use cheap motels for spending the night and cover a lot more ground without the Castle for the same cost. It sure looks like this epiphany is going to make this summer more interesting. 

Sleep well everyone.

CAMERA DYING IT SEEMS.

ROCKPORT, TEXAS

4/4/2025

We salvaged two pictures from the dying camera but it looks like the end for the Canon we have used for years. All day was a piddle around day as we were thinking about what actions to take next and when to roll. No decision was made but the Castle waited patiently in its camping spot all day.

Sierra is parked in front of the Castle above. And back behind us in this pic was a nice little plot of wild flowers for our enjoyment.

That was pretty much the big excitement for the day. Tomorrow we need to get busy deciding when we are going to start our way back to grand kid land in north Alabama for the summer. We do enjoy our very simple life style. Good Night.

 

MORE SERIOUS WINDS

ROCKPORT, TEXAS

4/3/2025

Wasn't any thing today that was very special except it was very windy again. The OFM did finally get the VA mail that has been floating around with UPS for several weeks going sightseeing around the country. His hearing testing is even more messed up now.

Good Night Folks.

MISERABLE WINDS

 Rockport, Texas

4/2/2025

It was a bad day of wind today for nearly all day. We tried to use the beach for pictures but nobody was at the beach park or in the bayfront wave action.

We switched to the smaller basin where the waves were much more manageable.  The solo sail board operator was having lots of fun with the whole ski basin to him self to play. We sat in the truck and watched for about four runs he made.

The winds were still to high for walking in this area so we headed to the Memorial Park where the dense trees got the winds under control and we had nicer walking weather and got in a bit over 1.5 miles of good aerobic effort.

That was about it for the day when it comes to excitement. The OFM did have a couple of long conversations with friends that are still in town. We are planning on being here until near the end of the month. Every one please have fun and be safe. 

PRETTY FLOWERS

ROCKPORT. TEXAS

4/1/2025

We had a busy day trying to clean up our computer mess from a failed effort yesterday. But here we are with some nice pictures of some of the neighbors decorations in their yard.

The first is some saguaro cactus with their hats on to protect them from the strong sun in this area. Pretty sharp looking cacti in our opinion.

Next we have an armadillo showing off his style for the sightseers.

Then the evening sky came on with an odd yellow for a few minutes of excitement.

And that lead to a pretty purple flower next to the tree.

And far from least there was a beautiful red flower nearby. 

And to make it better all these plant treats were made from metal. It was a nice treat to get to see them today. And even better getting to visit with the gardener.  Good Night Everyone.