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Our Practice Run for Retirement
First, Happy Belated Thanksgiving!
Our Thanksgiving dinner was a potluck at the clubhouse in the RV park. The park provided 3 different styles of Turkey (baked, smoked and fried) and a Ham. The hundred or so people that came ensured a huge variety of tasty treats (at least 30 different dishes). Everything we tried was good, and we even managed to pile up plates for leftovers. Missed the family of course but we had a great meal.
Second, Dessa was skeptical about spending two weeks in Corpus. According to Trip Advisor there wasn't that much to do, so not super promising, but we kept to the plan and as it turned out we've had a great time.
As we drove into the RV park, we both thought "oh no, this does not look good". However, when we pulled in to our site we received a nice surprise. We were right on the bay with all our windows facing the water, the city, and the bay bridge in the distance. Turns out the first section of the park we passed was reserved for the long term residents.
This time we were wiser and made our to do list the day we arrived, setting up something interesting to do most days. It helped that the weather was very nice. We had some rain, but mostly it was sunny and between 65 - 75. Perfect!
We took 2 extended motorcycle rides: one around Corpus Christi Bay and one around Corpus Christi Lake. The scenery was pretty good, which made up for the less than fun roads (not much in the way of curves but at least there was very little traffic). The beach towns were mostly deserted for winter but just north of the RV park was a very large wind farm (several hundred turbines) which was cool to ride through.
Just for fun, we decided to take some country and western dance lessons. At Ropers we learned the quick step, and at Whiskey River the shuffle, along with some line dances. Even with Bill's 2 left feet we had fun and will likely do more of this as we travel around. Beer was cheap and there was no cover (a perfect activity for the unemployed). We also found free tickets to the Blues and Brews concert at the Brewster Street Ice House. The bands were great although it was a little loud (for us old folks as least). It was raining so they had to close the doors in the amphitheater which probably contributed to the volume problem.
We took a tour of the USS Lexington (a WW II Air Craft Carrier) and like NASA, I liked it much more that Dessa did – I’m sensing a theme here :-) They have done a great job with this tour mixing wandering throughout the aircraft carrier with extensive displays with lots to read.
Wednesday morning we visited the Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Center for the weekly "Birding on the Boardwalk" tour of a marshy area near Port Aransas. We saw numerous Herons, Ibis’s, Pelican’s and others but thousands of ducks. We watched as several hundred ducks flew in as several hundred others flew out. This happened a few times. Apparently this is a duck stop on their highway south. Bill had some serious lens envy over some of the camera equipment the other guys had (not really his fault – theirs were a lot bigger!). We discovered birding is much like diving ... everyone brags about what they saw and you can spend a ton of money on equipment.
Saturday morning we enjoyed the 14th Annual King Ranch Cowboy Breakfast. In spite of the threatening rain we drove about an hour to Kingsville to check it out. They were very well organized and we along with hundreds of others quickly had a great breakfast of eggs, beans, sausages, and tortillas. They had displays of the cowboy life including a calf roping competition, demo’s of branding (not on animals), leather working, and campfire baking (actually pretty tasty).
Given our location, Dessa required some seafood (in the form of fried catfish and shrimp and hush puppies with fries – she is Texan). Trip Advisor reviews suggested Catfish Charlie’s as a good candidate and they were right. We ate there twice.
Lesson learned... we won't pre-judge our destinations. Corpus has actually been really great!
Third, we’ve been loving the trailer but we now have a few minor items on the repair list for when we get back to Dallas including an on again off again leaky kitchen faucet and a sticky patio door between the living room and the garage. This past weekend we hung some Christmas lights in the living room and Dessa decorated our little potted plant as our Christmas Tree. Of course I also took advantage of the Black Friday deals to upgrade our living room TV and add an Xbox One to the entertainment options.
We're getting a lot better at packing up for travel but this morning we had a little extra unwanted help. A bird flew into the trailer while we were loading the bikes and it took us 20 or so minutes to chase it out (it hid behind and under the couch).
Next stop – San Antonio
Our Thanksgiving dinner was a potluck at the clubhouse in the RV park. The park provided 3 different styles of Turkey (baked, smoked and fried) and a Ham. The hundred or so people that came ensured a huge variety of tasty treats (at least 30 different dishes). Everything we tried was good, and we even managed to pile up plates for leftovers. Missed the family of course but we had a great meal.
Second, Dessa was skeptical about spending two weeks in Corpus. According to Trip Advisor there wasn't that much to do, so not super promising, but we kept to the plan and as it turned out we've had a great time.
As we drove into the RV park, we both thought "oh no, this does not look good". However, when we pulled in to our site we received a nice surprise. We were right on the bay with all our windows facing the water, the city, and the bay bridge in the distance. Turns out the first section of the park we passed was reserved for the long term residents.
This time we were wiser and made our to do list the day we arrived, setting up something interesting to do most days. It helped that the weather was very nice. We had some rain, but mostly it was sunny and between 65 - 75. Perfect!
We took 2 extended motorcycle rides: one around Corpus Christi Bay and one around Corpus Christi Lake. The scenery was pretty good, which made up for the less than fun roads (not much in the way of curves but at least there was very little traffic). The beach towns were mostly deserted for winter but just north of the RV park was a very large wind farm (several hundred turbines) which was cool to ride through.
Just for fun, we decided to take some country and western dance lessons. At Ropers we learned the quick step, and at Whiskey River the shuffle, along with some line dances. Even with Bill's 2 left feet we had fun and will likely do more of this as we travel around. Beer was cheap and there was no cover (a perfect activity for the unemployed). We also found free tickets to the Blues and Brews concert at the Brewster Street Ice House. The bands were great although it was a little loud (for us old folks as least). It was raining so they had to close the doors in the amphitheater which probably contributed to the volume problem.
We took a tour of the USS Lexington (a WW II Air Craft Carrier) and like NASA, I liked it much more that Dessa did – I’m sensing a theme here :-) They have done a great job with this tour mixing wandering throughout the aircraft carrier with extensive displays with lots to read.
Wednesday morning we visited the Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Center for the weekly "Birding on the Boardwalk" tour of a marshy area near Port Aransas. We saw numerous Herons, Ibis’s, Pelican’s and others but thousands of ducks. We watched as several hundred ducks flew in as several hundred others flew out. This happened a few times. Apparently this is a duck stop on their highway south. Bill had some serious lens envy over some of the camera equipment the other guys had (not really his fault – theirs were a lot bigger!). We discovered birding is much like diving ... everyone brags about what they saw and you can spend a ton of money on equipment.
Saturday morning we enjoyed the 14th Annual King Ranch Cowboy Breakfast. In spite of the threatening rain we drove about an hour to Kingsville to check it out. They were very well organized and we along with hundreds of others quickly had a great breakfast of eggs, beans, sausages, and tortillas. They had displays of the cowboy life including a calf roping competition, demo’s of branding (not on animals), leather working, and campfire baking (actually pretty tasty).
Given our location, Dessa required some seafood (in the form of fried catfish and shrimp and hush puppies with fries – she is Texan). Trip Advisor reviews suggested Catfish Charlie’s as a good candidate and they were right. We ate there twice.
Lesson learned... we won't pre-judge our destinations. Corpus has actually been really great!
Third, we’ve been loving the trailer but we now have a few minor items on the repair list for when we get back to Dallas including an on again off again leaky kitchen faucet and a sticky patio door between the living room and the garage. This past weekend we hung some Christmas lights in the living room and Dessa decorated our little potted plant as our Christmas Tree. Of course I also took advantage of the Black Friday deals to upgrade our living room TV and add an Xbox One to the entertainment options.
We're getting a lot better at packing up for travel but this morning we had a little extra unwanted help. A bird flew into the trailer while we were loading the bikes and it took us 20 or so minutes to chase it out (it hid behind and under the couch).
Next stop – San Antonio
- comments
Delynn McCash Loved getting this post. Sounds like y’all are having a great time. Keep us informed! Much love and warmest regards to both of you. Hope y’all consider coming up tennessee way some day to ride the dragon and have a visit with us. If you want some curves the dragon is the place to be! Stay safe have more fun
Betty Murdock Wow it looks like you had a great time. I am so happy for the both of you that you can do this. Have fun and be safe!!
Lori Young WOW! Gorgeous pictures! Looks like ya’ll are having lots of fun. Looking forward to seeing ya’ll at Christmas. Safe travels! Love, The Youngs