Chillin’ in Galveston

Jamaica Beach RV Park, Galveston, Texas

Yesterday we left Houston and drove about 1.5 hours to Galveston Island. We’re staying at Jamaica Beach RV Park right across the road from the Gulf of Mexico.

This is quite a nice park. All of the sites are paved with 20, 30 and 50 amp FHU sites, free wi-fi and free cable TV. They have a brand new indoor hot tub which we haven’t had a chance to enjoy yet. There is also a nice outdoor pool, a mini golf course, and some playgrounds for kids.

Here’s the view from the front of our fifth wheel. We’re in the second row. Notice the nice utility pedestal at the site in front of us. All of the sites have these, and they light up at night.

It was quite chilly and windy when we arrived yesterday so we didn’t do much exploring. Today the sun was out, the high was 50 degrees and the wind had died down.

We drove to Galveston Island State Park, a few miles from us, and did some exploring. There were almost no birds around. I think it is just too cold for them. We did a little hiking in some of the marshy areas, but didn’t see much. Here’s a look at Galveston Bay from the park.

Do you see that dark spot in the middle of the picture? I first noticed this dark spot on my camera a few weeks ago. I’ve cleaned the lens, but it’s still there. I think there may be a scratch on my lens. Has anyone else had this happen? I’m wondering if it can be corrected, or if I should break down and buy a new camera. Sometimes I see it, and sometimes I don’t.

I have a Panasonic DMC-ZS3 point and shoot camera. I’ve had it for about four years, and I really like it. It has 12x zoom which comes in very handy, and it fits in my pocket.

After checking out the state park, we drove back home and then walked across the road to the beach. We spent about an hour walking along the sand and enjoying the view. These birds were enjoying the surf.

 

There’s a riding stable next to our RV park. We saw these people enjoying a horseback ride on the beach. There are signs that say no horses, so I’m guessing they must have a special permit. I found a nice shell on the beach. I’ve got an idea to have Kevin drill a hole into it and then I can use it as a Christmas ornament. I’m going to get a thin line permanent marker and write the date and place on the inside edge. We’ll see how it works out.

Almost every house we’ve seen on Galveston Island is built on stilts. I know they’ve had several severe hurricanes here, and I’m sure they know what they’re doing. But, to me it looks like a strong gust of wind will blow them right over. They just look so top heavy to me.

There’s a pond in the RV park. When we got back, there was a group of birds on the shore. I don’t know what kind they are, but they sure have very bright orange beaks. Maybe someone can help me identify them.

Tomorrow we’re going to explore downtown Galveston.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all of our readers. We hope 2014 brings good health, happiness and God’s blessings to all of you!

We spent the entire day Monday at the Johnson Space Center near Houston. We got there early, and it was a good thing. It got quite crowded as the day progressed, but that was to be expected as the kids are off of school. We had a $5 per person discount coupon from the RV park, so our entrance fee was $35.90 for the two of us plus $6 for parking.

The first thing we did was go on one of the tram tours. It took us to the astronaut training center and to Rocket Park. It was quite cold out (in the mid 40s), so riding on the tram wasn’t too much fun. The narration was hard to hear, but it was still a good experience. We saw lots of items in the training center, but they didn’t explain very well what we were seeing.

Much of the current astronaut training focuses on the International Space Station (ISS). There are 15 countries involved in operating the station. Eleven are from the European Space Organization, plus Canada, Japan, Russia and the United States.

There are lots of robotic components to the space program. Here are just a few examples.

They are currently developing a robot that has five fingers and can turn the pages of a book without tearing them. It can also type on a touch screen without any errors. Pretty fascinating stuff.

Outside of Rocket Park there were a few rockets on display.

If you want to see rockets, this is not the place to do that. The Kennedy Space Center in Florida has many more rockets on display. In fact, we felt the Florida tour is much better overall. But, we still enjoyed our day in Houston.

Several years ago private funds were raised to restore and preserve a Saturn V rocket. This is one of only three surviving vehicles built to launch astronauts to the moon during the Apollo program in the 1960s and 1970s. I definitely remember the excitement of those days! That is one giant rocket!!!

On the tour we also saw this grove of trees. Each tree has been planted in memory of a deceased astronaut, including those killed in the two space shuttle explosions.

Back at the main building we watched several movies about different aspects of the space program. We sure learned a lot. This is Curiosity, the rover that is currently doing experiments on Mars. It is the size of a Mini Cooper, and can do amazing things. It collects rock samples, heats them up to a gas form and then analyzes the gases so scientists on Earth can date them. Wow!

We saw a movie about the ISS. It’s amazing to me that fifteen countries can collaborate on this amazing engineering marvel, and our own politicians in Washington can’t seem to get anything done. They’re doing some awesome experiments on the ISS. The lack of gravity has led to some promising results including a possible vaccine for salmonella.

We watched a movie about the space shuttle program. It was in operation for 30 years. Many of the components of the ISS were delivered by the shuttles. They didn’t explain why the program was stopped. After the movie we toured the cockpit of a shuttle. Can you imagine sitting in there and looking through the little windows at the moon or the earth!

We watched another movie about the history of the space program. After that movie they let you into a museum with artifacts of some of the missions, including the largest display of moon rocks in the world. They were in a vault. Since it was billed as the largest display, I was expecting lots of rocks, but there were just a few on display. There is a whole building on the grounds of the center that houses many of the rest of them.

There was a sliver of a moon rock that you could actually touch. There are only 8 places in the world where you can touch a moon rock. So, now Kevin and I have had an out of this world experience :)

We spent about six hours at the center. It was an enjoyable and educational experience, and we would definitely recommend it. We did, however, feel that the Kennedy Space Center in Florida had a better tour.

Yesterday we met up with fellow bloggers Mike and Sandy who write the blog Phannie and Mae. We had a yummy lunch at Blue Water Seafood, and got to know this wonderful couple. Mike just retired this past summer. They have a house near Fort Worth, but have been traveling quite a bit in their motor home. They’re trying to figure out if they want to sell their house and become full time RVers. It’s a tough decision, and we wish them all the best of luck!

Their daughter is expecting their second grandchild any minute now, so they’re staying at a campground in Houston for a month for this blessed event. We wish the whole family all the best, and I’m sure our paths will cross again!

We’ve met a number of fellow RVers through blog reading. It’s amazing what an instant connection we have with these people. Mike and Sandy were no exception. We never ran out of conversation and had so much in common. What a great couple!

It’s that time of year to reflect on the previous year. 2013 was a great year. The most exciting highlight was definitely the wedding of our son Korey to his bride Cathryn. As great as the wedding was, it was also wonderful to have much of our family together for a couple of days. Another highlight was all of the different birds we saw in Texas in the early months of 2013. We are truly blessed!

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Relaxing in Houston

We had a nice but quiet Christmas Day in Dallas. We went to the matinee showing of the new Hobbit movie and then Kevin grilled some delicious rib eye steaks for supper. We tried to Skype with our son Eric who was at my mom’s house for dinner, but his cell signal wasn’t good enough so we talked with everyone there and wished them all a Merry Christmas.

We were able to Skype with our son Korey and his wife Cathryn. They spent their first Christmas as husband and wife in Moorhead, Minnesota with Cathryn’s family with below zero temperatures. I’m hoping next year our entire family will be able to be together for Christmas again.

The campground office in Dallas had a list of outdoor Christmas light displays in the area. I talked Kevin into driving to the nearest one to our campground. We weren’t quite sure what to expect, but we certainly weren’t expecting to wait in a line of traffic for almost an hour just to get into the subdivision.

It was a subdivision where many of the residents had nice light displays. Some of the houses had nothing. It was pretty, but not worth waiting for an hour. I took some pictures, but most of them were blurry. Here’s the best one I got.

Oh well, we didn’t really have anything else to do so it was fine.

The next day we left Dallas and headed to Houston. We are staying at Trader’s Village RV Park in Houston. They have three flea markets with campgrounds next door in Dallas, Houston and San Antonio. Both the campground in Dallas and Houston are nice enough with concrete roads and camping pads and very clean grounds. The hookups are good. However, I wouldn’t say either park is a destination kind of place, just a decent place to stay for a short stay in the area. The wi-fi is being upgraded at this park, so we haven’t been able to use it here in Houston. That’s a real disappointment. Good thing we have our mi-fi.

Also, the sites in both campgrounds were pretty tight. Not as bad as some places we’ve been at, but still a bit tight. To make things worse, lots of people have more than one vehicle and park in the road. As you can see in the picture, the people next to us on the left have two trucks, each one parked in the road on either side of their fifth wheel. They have a trailer behind the fifth wheel with a motorcycle, so their entire site is full of the camper and trailer.

Yesterday we walked over to the flea market next door advertising 1,500 exhibitors. The grounds have many storage unit type buildings. Exhibitors rent a storage unit and leave their wares inside and just open the door each weekend. The parking lot was full by afternoon. There certainly is a lot of variety of items for sale.

You can buy a used car; live animals including puppies, birds and snakes; live plants, produce, cell phones, furniture, appliances and all kinds of junk wonderful stuff. I even saw two of the storage units that were outfitted as hair salons. We did buy some new socks for Kevin at a good price and some produce. The puppies were really cute, but we don’t want to be tied down. They sure were cute though!!

Today we’re expecting a visit from a friend we first met while working at Amazon three years ago. We worked with Carol for two years. Last year she got a job selling real estate at an RV park in Texas, so she didn’t come to Amazon this year. She was going to be in Houston while we’re hear, so she’s coming for dinner today. It will be great to get caught up.

Tomorrow we’re going to the Houston Space Center and on Tuesday we’re meeting some fellow bloggers for lunch. On Thursday we’ll be leaving for a week in Galveston. The weather has been pretty nice. Today the sun is shining and the high is supposed to be in the mid 60s. Kevin is happy to be wearing shorts again!

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Merry Christmas!

We want to wish everyone a very

Merry Christmas!

Kevin and I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a new year filled with peace and joy!

This will be the first Christmas we will be away from all of our family members. I certainly miss everyone like crazy, but I’m handling it better than I thought I would. Most of that is due to the fact that I know our kids will be joining us in New Orleans in a month for a cruise. Also, we are planning to Skype with the kids tomorrow. That also helps a lot.

We made it out of Kansas yesterday morning around 10 am. It took some doing on Kevin’s part to get all of the ice off of the slides so they could be retracted properly, but he managed to get everything working without any casualties.

I was surprised how far we traveled before the icy landscape disappeared. We were almost to the Texas border before the ice was gone. Every once in a while the sun would peak out, and the scenery just sparkled.

As it got warmer, pieces of ice started falling off of the truck. There were quite a few semis on the road that were also losing sheets of ice. Hopefully, no one behind us got hit by any flying ice! It was a long (for us) 6-1/2 hour drive to Grand Prairie, Texas, just south of Dallas, but we arrived without incident. Always a good thing! We’re staying at Trader’s Village RV Park. It’s a pretty nice place. They have some cute Christmas decorations in front of the office.

There is a very unusual fifth wheel parked behind us. It has decals on it from Travel Units, Inc. and says Custom Designed. It looks to be well over 40 feet long with 3 axles, 8 slides and 3 air conditioners. It must weigh a ton. We’ve seen a few of these custom built units in our travels, but never one this big. What amazes me is how most of them don’t have many windows in them.

Today we drove into Dallas to check out Dealey Plaza where President Kennedy was shot. As a first grader, I clearly remember the principal coming on the announcements that day and letting us know the sad news. My teacher cried, and we were sent home early. I also remember watching the funeral coverage on our black and white TV with my parents. That event left a very lasting memory on an impressionable six year old.

The former book depository where Oswald fired the fatal shots from has been turned into a private museum. I didn’t feel it was worth $16 each to go inside. I really just wanted to see the area. It looks just like the pictures we’ve all seen hundreds of times.

Here’s the view from down the hill looking up at the book depository (building on the far left). The window Oswald fired from is the second from the top on the right side of the building. There are two x’s in the road where the bullets hit Kennedy. The lady in the pink (in the middle of the road) is standing on the second x. I was amazed how many people ran out into the road with lots of traffic to take a picture.

There are a number of plaques around the entire area describing the events of that horrible day. A very sad experience. This site was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1993. I’m really surprised it took so long to get that done. Fifty years later there are still people leaving flowers at the site.

Dealey Plaza is named after a prominent businessman in Dallas history. There is a large statue of him in the plaza. The plaza is built on the site of the first home, post office and store in Dallas, and is considered the birthplace of Dallas.

Across the street from the plaza is a beautiful old building called The Old Red Museum. It was completed in 1892 as the Dallas courthouse. It now houses a Dallas history museum.

A couple of blocks from the actual location of the shooting is a John F. Kennedy memorial. It was dedicated in 1970 and represents an open tomb. It measures 30 feet high and 50 x 50 feet wide. Kevin is standing in front for some perspective on the enormous size of it. In the center is a granite stone with Kennedy’s name engraved on it.

Dallas has an electric trolley car system that serves a large part of the metropolitan area. They trolleys were super long, kind of like three buses connected to each other.

This was our first visit to Dallas. The downtown area was clean, and the buildings looked to be in good repair. Unfortunately, there were quite a few panhandlers around which made me feel somewhat unsafe. Also, we stopped in a McDonald’s a few blocks away to use the restroom. They had their own security guard next to the counter. That doesn’t make me feel very good about the area. Maybe I’m just not used to being in a large city, and that’s how I like it  :)

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

A Blog Milestone

I started writing this blog for several reasons: to keep family and friends up to date on where we were and what we were doing, as a travel journal for myself, and to maybe help others considering the full time RV lifestyle by reading about our experiences.

When I began writing it on February 20, 2010, never in a million years would I have thought I would reach this milestone: over 100,000 page views and 100 followers.

I am humbled and amazed that so many people are interested in what I have to say. We have met several new people through this blog including fellow full time RVers. Some have become friends. It’s an amazing tool to keep in touch with family and friends and to meet new people with similar interests.

Thanks to all of you who take a few minutes out of your day to share in our journey. And, know that the comments you leave mean a great deal to me. Without comments, I don’t know who is out there. So, keep them coming!!!

We are still stuck in Kansas. We had over an inch of ice by the end of the day yesterday. Today Kevin spent quite a bit of time outside knocking the ice off of our slide covers. I couldn’t believe how much was up there. Here are a few pictures to show you what I mean. You can click on the pictures to make them bigger. Just look at the chunks of ice on the ground that came off of the slides!

Here’s what all of the grass looked like this morning.

Walking out there was super slippery. The amazing thing about this ice storm was that the roads did not freeze. Traffic on the highway behind the campground has been flying by at the same pace as always. From what we saw on the news, there were some accidents on some secondary roads, but driving was not too much of a problem. In fact, the media really didn’t make a big deal about it at all. The inch of snow we got a few weeks ago freaked everyone out so much more.

We’ve lived in Wisconsin all of our lives, and we’ve experienced all kinds of winter weather. This was different than what we’ve ever experienced. I hope we never have to deal with it again!!

The plan is to leave tomorrow morning if the slides and jacks cooperate. It’s supposed to get even colder, so we want to get out of here. Just a few hundred miles south, the weather is much better. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

I forgot to mention in my last post another advantage of working at Amazon. Although we were only pickers for three weeks this year, so we didn’t do nearly as much walking as last year; we both still managed to use the Amazon experience as a weight loss camp. I lost five pounds and Kevin lost seven. Now, to keep them off. That will be a challenge on the seven day cruise we’re going on at the end of January. I’m dreaming of warm tropical weather :)

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

I’m a Winner….. Again!!!!

Miracle of miracles, I’ve won another gift card at Amazon!! I’ve definitely been on a winning streak. I’m thinking I need to hit a casino :)

During the peak season at Amazon, they have been handing out scratch off “treasure token” cards. Each card has a number under the scratch off from 1 to 50 representing Coffeyville dollars you can spend in the Amazon store. Cards were handed out for meeting performance goals and perfect attendance. Between us we accumulated 30 points.

On Thursday we stopped at the Amazon store and got three t-shirts and a shopping bag for our points. Of course, all of these items have Amazon advertising on them, but free is good.

On the back of each token was a place to write your name to be entered into a grand prize drawing. Prizes included a 50 inch flat screen TV, Kindles, power tools, and gift cards ranging from $500 to $50. I won a $50 VISA gift card. Awesome!!!

Our plan was to leave tomorrow. The weather is not cooperating with our plans. Last night when we got out of work there was a solid sheet of ice on the truck. Amazingly, the roads are not icy. We can see traffic on Hwy. 169 behind us, and the traffic is moving just fine. The metal steps into the RV are treacherous though.

They sure take freezing rain in stride around here. A few weeks ago they were totally freaked out by a few inches of snow. However, freezing rain doesn’t seem to be a big deal at all. We’d take snow over ice any day!!

This is what the truck looked like this morning. I think that’s about 1/4 of an inch of ice on it.

Since the roads are fine, Kevin’s heading into town to fill up the fuel tank in case we are able to leave tomorrow, and to pick up some milk. He loves his milk. A true Wisconsin boy. Here he is scraping the ice off of the windows. Chunks were flying everywhere.

I’m so glad to be done again at Amazon. The money is great, but the work is demanding. I’m glad to have another year behind us.

There were a few new items this year that made me laugh. They have a variety of fake gift boxes to put presents into. The idea is the person unwraps the gift and the box shows something really crazy. Some of the ones I saw included talking coffee mugs, slippers with speakers in them and a video game called extreme chores where you do things like rake leaves. Too funny.

There is also 3D gift wrap for someone who is too lazy to put a bow on the package. It comes with 3D glasses and a printed bow on the paper. With the glasses the bow looks real.

And then for the serious drinker, there is The Beer Belly. It is a sling you wrap around your body under your shirt making it look like you have a beer belly for a guy or are pregnant for a woman. It holds 80 ounces. There is a tube that you put in your mouth. It’s advertised as an inexpensive way to enjoy beers at sporting events, etc. Don’t you think it would get warm from the body heat, and the ushers might notice you have a tube in your mouth? Crazy stuff.

I’ve made reservations for our stops between here and New Orleans. I was surprised how many campgrounds are full or near full over Christmas. I thought most snowbirds don’t leave until after the holidays.

We are staying in Dallas for a few days, then Houston for a week, Galveston for a week, another week split between stops in Texas and Louisiana and then arrive in New Orleans on Jan. 17th. I’m looking forward to getting out and having some adventures again!

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Shopping at Amazon

I’ve noticed over the last few years that some bloggers have links to Amazon on their website. They ask people to shop at Amazon through this link, and they get a small commission from it.

Since we like shopping at Amazon, I thought that some of my readers must also shop there. It’s especially convenient in this nomad full time RV lifestyle because you can have pretty much anything delivered to you wherever you may be.

So, I’ve added a search box on the right side of the blog just above our picture. If you search for your item through this box, it’s supposed to take you to my affiliate link. You can then search and order just like you would normally do on Amazon’s site.

Please consider using this search widget if you plan to buy something through Amazon anyway. It certainly won’t make us rich, but every little bit helps, right?

Thanks!