IT'S JUST A SAD DAY

I just can't concentrate.  I have photos to share with you from a road trip to Rockport and a stop along the Gulf shore.  I have photos from our visit yesterday to the Lexington, a WWll aircraft carrier.  I have projects that are unfinished.....aprons, pieces for a quilt, fabric for a new kind of purse.  I have a stack of books, one written by my son's friend up in Alaska which I just received, and could be reading any number of them.  But I can't concentrate.

Am I homesick?  Yes.  I have four grandkids with birthdays in January and I'm not around for any of them.  Am I sad?  Yes.  A young woman who was a student at the college where I worked, and her husband who has been absent often because of military obligations, were blessed with their first child on New Year's Day.  Little Hazel was born with a heart defect,  is not doing well, and her young parents are preparing themselves to say good bye to her.  Check the site for Hazel here.  I am also sad about the horrible earthquake in Haiti.  I have several blogging friends who have adopted from Haiti, and their kids still have siblings and family in Haiti.  I cannot imagine the devastation and utter chaos in a land that is among the poorest on earth.

So I went for a walk.  In the rain.  I picked up some shells for granddaughter Jaden who asked for sea shells.  But we won't be walking in the rain tonight or tomorrow when the forecast says we are to receive torrential rainfall.  Possibly four to six inches.  Do you think my trailer will float like Noah's ark?  Do you think the sky is also sad and the raindrops are just tears?  Is the sky crying for Hazel's parents and for the people of Haiti?

OUR CAMPGROUND

We had a rocking rolling ocean, well okay, a rocking rolling bay on Friday when the wind was horrendous. As you can see below, the waves were hitting the sea wall and spraying way into the air.  If you look closely, you can see the breakwater in the background where the waves are creating huge sprays there, too.

 

Yesterday I walked the shore a bit, and found a lot of jellyfish stranded in the shallow waters.

 

 

And after experiencing the wind and seeing the huge waves, I can see why all the shells are broken along the shoreline..

 

What a long beak you have, my dear.

 

Thought I'd give you a little tour of the campground.  The building contains two restrooms and showers, and the campground laundry room.

 

The next two photos are of the scene we see looking out the side window of the RV.

  

The view of downtown Corpus Christi is almost directly out the back end of the RV.  This is several miles from us.

 

 And this is the wooded area of the campground!  Not quite like the forests we camp in back home in Minnesota.  These palms don't furnish much shade, but then, we certainly haven't needed shade in our first week down here!

 

SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE

I just don't understand the whole weather thing this last week.  We came to Texas to escape some of the freezing temperatures that are common to Minnesota in January.  And February.  And maybe March.  But what is really happening is that we are living in a poorly insulated trailer, on the very edge of a campground where the winds smacks us right off the bay, and it is freezing!  And when I say freezing, I really mean it.  Freezing as in the water pipes on the poorly insulated trailer sitting on the edge of the campground being blasted by the cold air in the 40 MPH winds!

Yup, when Ernie got up this morning the faucets would give forth no water.  Not good.  Water pipes are right out in the open air and if they freeze and burst, it can be mega bucks to get them repaired.  He attacked the problem with teakettles of boiling water and was able to remedy the situation.  Yay, Ernie! 

The sun is shining right now and the wind speed has lessened quite a bit, but the temperature is only in the 20's this morning, and forecasted to be the same tomorrow morning.   I guess we could experience the same fate in the morning.  Sure glad I married a fixer man!

HAPPY 75TH TO THE KING!

I  LOVED Elvis Presley!  I mean, I really, really LOVED Elvis!   Back in the day, I was a young teen,  living with my family out in the country in northeastern Iowa where my dad was the pastor of two small country churches.  I know, a PK (preacher's kid) shouldn't be crazy about a rock and roll singer, but I was.  I collected pictures of him and had them pasted to pieces of cardboard that I had set up on a table in my bedroom.  I saved every picture I could find of him in the Des Moines Register, Life Magazine, Saturday Evening Post, Newsweek, or the occasional teen magazine that I could convince my parents I just had to have.  I went a little overboard, I know, but I really, really loved him!

The radio in the kitchen was usually tuned to WHO in Des Moines so mom could listen to Arthur Godfrey and As The World Turns, but when it was my turn to do the dishes I would tune in WDGY in Minneapolis and catch the latest rock tunes, always listening closely for the sweet voice of Elvis singing my favorite Love Me Tender, or the playful Hound Dog or Don't Be Cruel or Jailhouse Rock.  And on Saturday night after we finally got television, I would watch Your Hit Parade with Russell Arms, Snooky Lanson, Gisile MacKenzie and Dorothy Collins, waiting to see if Elvis would again have more than one song in the top 10, and would yet another reach the coveted number one spot!

Please tell me that it isn't true that The King would be 75 tomorrow!  Impossible to think of that handsome young man as 75 years old. You notice I say 'that handsome young man.'  He stayed young and innocent to me.  I never liked the older Elvis, the fat blubbery man stuffed into a jeweled jumpsuit.  He remained as the picture above shows, young, clean and innocent, his mama's baby, singing Love Me Tender just for me.

Happy Birthday Elvis!

MY TUESDAY

This was our sunrise yesterday.  The day progressed into a lot of wind and coolish temps, but you can't beat the sunrise!

I went for a walk last night and found about thirty jellyfish stranded in the shallows of the little inlet as the tide went out.  You remember from Florida my fascination with jellyfish.  I think they are so cool!  These were pretty good sized, over a foot across and some a lot larger.

 

And grumpy here watched me the whole time but he never moved.  Just stood there on one foot and made sure I didn't go where I wasn't supposed to go.

 

 Today has dawned cloudy and still.  But that's only for a little while, as there is a forecast for rain and high winds.  Sounds like a sewing day to me!  What are your plans today?

Blogger won't allow me to post photos tonight.  I'll try again in the morning.

SOME OF OUR FELLOW CAMPERS

These things are the size of dogs!  Their ears are so funny!  And there's a lot of them around here.  Texas sized jack rabbits, I guess!

NORTH PADRE ISLAND

We took a quick drive over to North Padre Island this afternoon.  It was extremely windy, which is every day actually, and we didn't walk the beach for very long.  And then my camera battery died!  I guess I didn't recharge it after taking a whole bunch of photos the last couple of days.  So after the two pictures of the gulf the camera went dead.  Oh well, we'll go back.

 We stopped at the Visitors' Center and watched a short video about the area, then went for a short walk on the beach.  And I didn't get my feet wet, a first for me!

 

 Isn't this a neat picture of the water?

   

I love the water.  Love to watch the waves lapping on the shore.  Love the sound of the waves.

 

And I would have liked to have taken more pictures, but with a dead battery.........

Hope my family up north is keeping warm in their minus 25 temps.  It's only about 45 out now......thanks for sharing your cold front!  Maybe it will slow down those pesky mosquitoes.

GONE TO THE BIRDS

We went for a short walk along the shore in front of our trailer, and we met some new friends.  This is Herman.

I call this one Fred.

 

These are Fred's cousins.

 

I call these two Pat and Mike.

 

This is George.

 

And these are some pretty slimy moss covered rocks.

 

And our friends from Haggarstown, Maryland arrived just after noon.  We are having them over for dinner tonight so we can catch up.  We haven't seen them since we met in Florida at this time last year.

I'M SORRY

Happy New year!  This is the view we have looking out the window over our dinette set in the trailer.  It was a bit foggy, and it's windy......and we had a windchill this morning.  Temp of 44 and windchill of 28.  But it's 28 above zero, so not to worry!  We'll be fine!  I'm sorry if you don't have much of a view out your window.

WE ARE IN CORPUS CHRISTI

We set off in the fog again this morning.  In fact, it was foggy almost the whole way from Waco to Corpus Christi.  Very foggy.  I'm glad I wasn't driving.

Wouldn't you love to be playing dolls under these trees while sitting on a pieced quilt that your grandmother had mad?.  Or maybe just laying on your stomach, feet in the air, nose glued to a Little House on the Prairie book?  Or maybe having a little picnic of soda crackers and orange Watkins drink?  I thought this looked like the perfect place to spend a long warm summer afternoon.

 

And it did get warm today.  The truck said 73, but I think it was warmer by the time we arrived at out site.

This is the main street coming into the Navy Base here in Corpus Christi where we are staying.  Yup, those are palm trees and blue sky and green grass. 

 

Ernie was signing up for the campsite and I took a picture looking off towards North Padre Island.......the bridge takes you there. 

 

And I plan to get to know these guys better.  There are a lot of birds around here.  I know I will be able to see them from our campsite.  I may just sit and watch birds all day! 

 

All I can say is: Having a good time, wish you were here!

GREETINGS FROM TEXAS

Hello?  Hello?  Are you there Minnesota?  Anyone home?  I sure hope the last person to leave the state turned off the lights!  There are many campers, trailers, 5th wheels, motor homes, or whatever you want to call them, on I-35.  By far the largest majority of them are from Minnesota.  We also see many cars loaded down for a three month stay in the south, and many of them are also from Minnesota.  We just figured there was no one left in the whole state!

 

Is there anything missing from this picture?  Fish houses, maybe?   Some ice?  Maybe a snowmobile or two?

 

Look!  No snow!  Nothing white as far as the eye can see!

 

See the flag with one star?  What does that make you think of?  Yup, you're right......

 

It's Texas!

 

Texas has a lot of cattle.

 

Texas has green fields.

 

Ft. Worth, Texas has lots of traffic.  This was 3:30 in the afternoon.

 

Remember the song from eons ago?  Little boxes on the hillside, little boxes made of ticky tacky, and they all look just the same.  There's a red one and a blue one and a green one and a yellow one and they're all made out of ticky tacky and they all look just the same.  Well, these are big boxes on the hillside and they're all made out of ticky tacky and they all look just the same.  And they all are the same color too, no red, blue, green or yellow.  Just tan.  Tan boxes.  All alike.  How could you find your own house?

 

 And did I mention that Ft. Worth has a lot of traffic at 3:30 in the afternoon?

And how on earth do you find which road to drive on?  We made it though, and are almost at Waco.  From there we will turn off I-35 and take a different highway down to Corpus Christi.  We should arrive early tomorrow afternoon.  In time to get a few groceries.  I assume the grocery stores will be closed on New Year, right?

AND THE MORNING AND THE EVENING ARE THE VERY SAME DAY!

We left our motel about 8:30 this morning.  It had snowed during the night and it was sloppy and foggy.

However, by 3:30 in the afternoon, this is what the truck was registering as the outside temperature!

 

Hard to believe it was all within seven hours!

IOWA, SSOURI and KANSAS

This is the day that the Lord hath made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

We got on the road about 7:30 this morning.  The sun was rising in the east over the snowy landscape that was NOT being attacked by the fierce northwest winds this morning.  The temperature was right at zero, and the smoke from the smokestacks formed huge plumes in the eastern sky.  It was a beautiful morning.

The sun came out for awhile, quickly changing the frosty surfaces to nice dry roadways.

These guys looked happy!

Soon we crossed the state line into Ssouri, the show me state.  What?  You've never heard of Ssouri?  Well, look there, that's what the sign says, so that's what it must be.  Well, anyhow, we have been eating out of the cooler, which contains the stuff I cleaned out of the frig so we could shut it off.  It's been ham and cheese sandwiches, a bit of smoked salmon, crackers, cookies and oranges.  We were craving something warm so

we thought this Ma and Pa's Kettle sounded like a good place for a cup of soup or something from the grill.  Well, we were now in southern Ssouri, which Ernie counts as the deep south, so he had to order his very
favorite.......are you jealous, Glenn?.............

a small serving of biscuits and gravy.  Yes, the small, 2 biscuit serving.  Not a good way to start his plan to loose 20 pounds.  I don't think he gets the connection between biscuits and gravy and the pot belly behind the plate!  I had bacon and eggs, which was nothing special, but it sure beats another day of ham and cheese.

We're on the right road......35 South to Wichita.......

And here's Kansas! 

We saw quite a few oil pumps chugging away, pulling up the black gold.

And this is for my friend, Judy.  Enjoy!

I love windmills.  Love the wide open range country around the Flint Hills.  Love the fact that the snow is disappearing

and the color green is making an entrance!  Yes, Toto, I think we are back in Kansas!

PS:  We had ham and cheese and crackers for supper again.