USS Lexington - Corpus Christi, TX

Friday, June 14, 2013

We drove into Corpus Christi this morning to tour the USS Lexington.  So interesting!  This aircraft carrier was built during WWII for the Navy.  It was to originally be named Cabot, but while it was still under construction, word arrived that (another) USS Lexington was lost in the Battle of the Coral Sea.  Workers at the shipyard made a request of the Navy Secretary to have it renamed Lexington, and he agreed.  It is the fifth ship to carry that name.

 

 

We headed out to the flight deck right away.



Some interesting planes..

This is one skinny--but deadly--little helicopter.  Can you imagine flying that thing around? 
It looks almost like a toy!

The F-14 Tomcat.  Max's favorite plane.  Mine for a different reason--Top Gun, baby. 
The closest I'll ever get to Tom Cruise! :)

Hi there, Maverick and Goose!

 
And then...walking the plank!

Disillusioned again.

 

Of course I found this bit of trivia interesting...

 





They had quite a bit of Pearl Harbor memorabilia, as well.

And regarding the sinking of the previous/fourth Lexington at the Battle of the Coral Sea, I found this really interesting.

Talk to you again soon!

Port Aransas, Texas

June 10 - 17, 2013
 
We left out early Monday morning for Port Aransas.  The trip was nice and uneventful.  It took us a total of about 7 hours to make the trip from Brownwood.  We are staying at the Pioneer Beach Resort.  It's a nice place, although the spots are crowded.  Certainly not going to complain, though, when we have this right outside our door.  If you can't camp on the beach, this is the next best thing!

Tuesday was spent exploring the area.  We came over the causeway from Corpus Christi when we came in, so on our day of exploration, we had to ride the ferry over to Aransas Pass a time or two just for the fun of it.  On the third trip, the ferry operators even said, "Weren't you on here before?"  Yeah...what can we say.  Of course Max struck up a conversation with him, and we learned all the "must see" places and best restaurants in Port A.

Max said if he stayed in the truck, maybe the ferry wouldn't sink.



Another one of those funny moments-- 
When we were kids, we came down to the coast fishing almost every summer.  Usually it was to Port O'Connor, but occasionally we would come to Port Aransas.  I remember riding that ferry then and thinking it took a long time.  It's really only about 5 minutes.  Did they move Port Aransas and Aransas Pass closer together since I was a kid?

Wednesday we had reservations on the "New Kingfisher" with Captain Kelly's Deep Sea Headquarters for a 12-hour deep sea fishing trip.  Max has been looking forward to it for weeks. 
 
The sunrise is my absolute favorite time of the day down here.  It's during these moments when I realize....now I can breathe.

 

 



The boat left at 6:00 a.m.  After three hours and about 40 miles out into the Gulf, we finally arrived at our destination--the fishing grounds!  There were 31 guests onboard, only four of whom were female--two teenage girls, an older lady and myself.  That poor older lady and her husband were sick as sick could be for the entire trip out there and then for hours afterward.  I felt so badly for them.  (And the captain told them to hang their heads over the side until they felt better.  My daddy and grandpa would have had a fit.  They always told us to sit down, cool off, and look at the horizon.  Hanging your head down was the worst thing you could do.  If we did that, we might soon find Grandpa throwing a bucket of water on us! But I digress...)
 
Just as we got to our destination, it started raining.  So nice to have a cabin to sit in and wait it out.  It didn't last long, though, and before we knew it, we were fishing.  First up--red snapper.  Everyone onboard quickly caught our limit of 2 apiece.

Then it was off to king mackerel fishing grounds.

The theme song to Titanic was playing in my head...

I didn't catch a king, but Max was one of only a handful who did.

Then we were off again to fish for vermillion snapper.  There wasn't a limit on them--except time and ability, of course.  I caught one; Max caught eight.

Just before we shut down for the day, a gentleman right next to us reeled this in.

Yes, that's a red snapper--sans the body. In one big bite.  Just a few minutes later, a gentleman on the other side of the boat hooked what turned out to be a 7-foot sand shark.  That must have been one hungry boy!
 
We reeled in our lines for the final time about 3:00 p.m. and headed for home.  The catch of the day--

And Max carrying our haul to the truck for cleaning--

We came back to the park for the not-so-fun part--cleaning the fish.  You know, when I was growing up, the boys always did the cleaning.  The girls did the cooking.  I still prefer that rule.  Max didn't buy into it.  Sad for me.  Gross for me.  Fish guts everywhere.  Had to bag up the guts to throw in the dumpster.  Bag busted.  Oh man, what a mess.  Gagaroni.  When we finally got that job done, we came back to the Gypsy and had leftover Mexican food for supper.  :)

Today was spent recuperating, doing paperwork, and planning our next adventure.  Finally took a break and walked over to the beach.  There's a neat little boardwalk over the dunes to the beach.

And then the water.  Ahhh...

We're here till Monday so I'm sure I'll have more to add before we mosey on down the road.  Talk to you then!

Family Time

May 31 - June 10, 2013

We said good-bye to Lubbock on Friday, May 31.  The Gypsy was in the way and we couldn't get a picture of it in our rearview mirror like the song says, but we did get a couple of good ones in the side mirror.

 

 

 

Karen and Greg fixed us up a spot to park the Gypsy any time we want to come by and stay for a while.  Can't get much better than that when it comes to moochdocking!  And what a beautiful spot it is.  We have affectionately named it the "IC Heaven RV Spot". 

 

 

 

 

"IC" for Indian Creek.

"Heaven" because it's heaven on earth.

"Spot" because it's one of a kind. 

 

The week went by quickly with time spent with family, cooking out, babysitting the grand nieces and nephews, doing some maintenance work on the Gypsy, and tending to the sheep and bottle feeding the orphans.

 



Fun in the "hot pool", as Tommy and Sunny call it.

Three little orphan babies get a bottle three times a day.

 



Terry and Ranita are building a new house there on the old home place. 
Here they are pouring concrete for some of the porches.




And then over the weekend, it was Richmon Reunion time at Lake Brownwood.  Always good times!

Some good ol' fashioned ping pong...

Tubing wars...

 

 

 

 

 

Lots of good food, of course.

 



Nap times and relaxing for those of all ages.

Uncle Jack, since you didn't have a blankie like Sunny with your name on it, we gave you the next best thing with the materials at hand.  Did you ever know we were messing with you?  :)

Max and baby Lynlee

 

"The Aunts"--Nancy, Geneva and Frances--and Karen, tending to the reunion business.

 

It was a grand week and very hard to leave it all behind.  But off for the next adventure we go!  We'll be back.  Don't let those babies forget us!



This Moving Stuff is WORK!

May 17-24, 2013
 
We finally officially moved into the Turtle on Friday, May 17.  My birthday.  Gonna make it easy to remember our full-timing anniversary!  It was a fun albeit stressful day.  I think I held my breath most of the day as we were unpacking, hoping we were going to find holes for all of the "stuff" we wanted to bring along.  It all worked out though.  That's not to say we don't have some things in funny places...but at least it's in here!  In one of Max's "past lives", he worked for a moving company, so he is quite the packer extraordinaire.  When I couldn't make everything fit, I called in the expert.  He never fails me!

Monday, May 20, was official moving day out of our house.  Byron Cowling Moving and Self-Storage showed up on Monday promptly at 8:30.  Justin and Logan were fabulous.  Justin has been with Byron Cowling for 11 years, since he graduated from high school.  Logan was a newbie with only 3 weeks under his belt.  Together, they made a great team.  Lots of youth.  Lots of energy.  Lots of muscle.  All things Max and I were running short of. 

 

 

Justin was just incredible.  He had been doing it for so long, you could just see him looking at what we had and figuring out how it needed to be loaded on that truck and then ultimately into the storage building.  Eleven hours later...a 10x20 by about 12 feet high...stacked from one end to the other and all the way to the ceiling...

I just couldn't see how they were going to get that last load in, but Justin could.  He said no need to pay more each month for another overflow unit; they could make it work.  And they did just that.  (He said he plays Tetrus in his spare time.  I'll bet he's very good at it.  Then again, having all our worldly possessions reduced to a Tetrus game is a bit humbling...)
 
I wasn't really prepared to clean the house that day but quickly decided they only needed one supervisor, and Max was the man.  So as they emptied rooms, I went behind them cleaning up and scrubbing from ceiling to floor in preparation for the new renters.  It worked out quite well and saved us an extra day or two at the house doing follow-up chores.
 
Tuesday morning I had a follow-up appointment with the orthodontist.  Sadly, they had to make me a new retainer and I am to wear it full-time for another 6-8 weeks.  Probably all those Tootsie Roles I've been eating, making up for the past 18 months, threw them out of whack again.  :) 
 
We spent time Tuesday afternoon organizing our "basement" (storage area underneath the Gypsy).  I had seen an organizing tip somewhere to use the see-through tubs and to make "labels" for each, listing the contents on a piece of paper and putting it inside each so you can see it when you open the basement door.  It worked out quite handily!
 
Wednesday we went to Sam's and bought new batteries for the Gypsy.  The lights have been cycling quite a bit--going dim and then brightening again when the converter kicks on.   Not only was it annoying and made it hard to see sometimes, but it was worrisome in anticipation of boondocking.  Max has been saying for quite a while he wanted to replace the one 12-volt battery we had with two 6-volt golf cart batteries, giving us more power for a longer period of time.  So we decided just to go ahead and bite the bullet and get it done while we had the time and a convenient Sam's nearby.  It seems to have fixed our problem.
 
Later that evening as I was preparing dinner for us and a friend who came to visit, Max opened the door and said, "Do you want to see what a trailer looks like that has a busted water line?"  Sadly, our very nice neighbors next door had water pouring out of their basement area.  A DPS officer, his wife and two children are staying in that trailer while their new house is being built.  Just as Max discovered the disaster, the wife and children drove up.  (The husband was at work.)  Max helped her shut the water off and start the draining process.  Unfortunately, they had not put any kind of water pressure regulator on their line, and for some reason it seems the park's water pressure spiked and their lines just couldn't take it.  We had an extra regulator and Max loaned it to them.  What a sickening thing to come home to.  The good news was it didn't get their battery wet so it didn't short out their electrical, and it didn't get into the living quarters upstairs.  It could have been a whole lot worse.  Thank the Lord for the blessings that come!

Later the same evening our neighbor on the other side of us experienced the same thing.  Yikes!  Maybe we should use a couple of those regulators just to be safe??!!

Yesterday we finally got my car sold.  Woohoo!  Big day.  Big relief.  Big blessing.

Today we were back at the house with the carpet cleaners, spent some time with Max's mom helping her get some things taken care of before we leave town, Max had a doctor's appointment, we ran more errands, came back to the Gypsy and took a little nap, and then evening and dinner was upon us.  Where does the time go?

We have things pretty much where we want them now, though, and that's a nice feeling.  We'll hit the road next Friday for Brownwood to spend about 10 days with immediate family and to attend a family reunion at Lake Brownwood.  Then it will be off to Port Aransas!

Note to everyone out there:  When I deleted my work email from my iPhone, it also deleted all my contacts and phone numbers.  That was a bad day.  If you have my number and you haven't heard from me this month, I would love a text from you giving me yours just to make sure I have it.  Thank you, and have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!

It's Been a Whirlwind!

It's been a whirlwind of a week.  I "retired" a week ago.  We haven't stopped since.  We signed a lease on the house April 30.  Woohoo--that was a big day! 

We had a reservation to move the Gypsy Turtle out to the Mesa Verde RV Park in Wolfforth on May 1 so we could run the slides out and pack it up.  The day before, we decided to give her a good bath and shine her up.  It was Max's first time to wash the roof.  What an experience THAT was.  It's a rubberized roof and pretty slick under normal circumstances.  Add Spic and Span and water and you have the makin's for some real excitement.

And then God decided to add an additional little twist...

Rain, sandstorm, winds 25-40 mph.  Poor Gypsy Turtle--she was turning brown again as fast as we could wash her off.  God is having so much fun with us...and the fun has only just begun!  Nevertheless, we got it done, she spent the last night at the storage place, and then Wednesday morning we moved her out to Mesa Verde. 

Since then we've actually spent very little time out there.  The majority of our time has been spent at the house packing up, sorting, throwing away, giving away and selling "stuff".  (Like the refrigerator last Saturday.  We were glad to get a buyer but boy have we missed it!).  But make do we have done.  

The house is a total wreck, but the biggest part is finished.  Those who know me will not be surprised to read that packing my books, my clothes and my kitchen have been the hardest days for me.  Books and clothes--it was all about making decisions.  Kitchen--yes, the decisions were a little hard to make, but packing away those dishes from Mom and Grandmas Richmon and Thomas also meant a lot of memories, and that day brought a few tears.  Arghhhhh--they told me there would be days like that, and they were right.  But...I shall take the memories with me.  And some day we'll have a new home for all those treasures.  All will be good.  There are many people who embark on this "full-timing" thing and get rid of everything they own that won't fit in their trailer.  That kind of deal is just not for me.  I'm too married to all those memories!  :)

We've had a few moments of, "Are you keeping that?" but not too many.  Mostly it's Max asking me.  He doesn't seem to be too attached to much.  (Except me.  I hope.  :))  After about the fifth time he asks that same question about something, I begin to realize he's not just forgetful, but rather he really, really wishes I would say no.  Sometimes by the fifth time I give in.  But sometimes I just say, "Y.E.S.--I am keeping that."  Thank goodness that's generally the end of the discussion.

Happy wife...happy life.  I keep reminding him.

We had our trailer weighed when we were at the rally in New Mexico in March, and we can only load on about 1200 pounds of "stuff".  That will leave us about a 600-pound cushion to load on water for boondocking (camping without hook-ups).  At first that sounded like a lot of stuff to me--until I heard that most full-timers carry about 2500-3000 pounds.  Gulp.  Max looks at the pile we've made so far to move out to the trailer and feels we're still on the safe side.  We hope, we hope.  We'll definitely have to get it weighed again when we're fully loaded to see how well we did. 

OK, off to bed.  It's midnight.  I used to NEVER be up this late.  Max said, "Welcome to retirement."  I guess.  And tomorrow is another big day.  The washer and dryer go out the door.  Gonna miss that washer and dryer. Then next week we move out the Gypsy Turtle!