Whooping Cranes in Rockport

We have spent some time trying to see Whooping Cranes while here in Rockport and finally found 5 of them in the Goose Island area.  There is a large field with a pond on it that they come to during the day to feed and then return to the Aransas Wildlife Refuge in the evenings.  We bought a large telephoto lens that we could afford (LOL - the good ones are $5,000+) so the photos aren’t as crisp as we would like, but we were able to get some fun pictures of them.  These birds are endangered, and at one time many years ago numbered 15,000-20,000, but were down to 15 birds in 1941.  They are now up to over 600 and that’s not a lot.  They breed in far northern Canada and migrate to Rockport in the winter, a trip of about 2400 miles.  There is an extremely interesting article about them at this site - http://www.nwf.org/wildlife/wildlife-library/birds/whooping-crane.aspx- and I strongly encourage you to read it.  A second small group of whoopers has been developed in Florida and, in trying to teach them to migrate, are led by a plane to a breeding place in Wisconsin each year.  Like I said, read the article.  It’s very interesting.

These birds are majestic.  They are about 5’ tall with a wing span of over 7’ and they put on a show for us.  They mate for life and can have 1-2 babies, but typically only one makes it.  So when we see them in Rockport we can see a family – Dad, Mom, and child. 

Life at 65!

Spoonbill John photographed

It’s been a while since my last posting.  We’ve obviously settled into life in Rockport and I find myself busy with lots of things.  The big event this week was my 65^th birthday – yep, I’m now on Medicare and hope it lasts.  I’ve been attending the weekly activity meetings and, as usual, finding it hard to keep quiet.  My mind is constantly ticking trying to come up with resolutions to problems the groups encounters and wham, up goes my hand!  I’ve been approached numerous times to run for Chair/President of the group but I’ve been very good at saying NO.  In the meantime, John and I did agree to oversee the setting up of tables and chairs for various events.  Although there are several, I think once we’ve done a few, we will find this a great way to serve and hopefully keep the stress level down.  The first event was a bit bumpy as it was a learning experience and we caught some flack but that’s okay.  Round two is Saturday and I’m feeling good that it will go smoothly.  What concerns me the most is setting up for Christmas dinner next year.  They had well over 100 people this year and the folks must go through a food line in a room that was packed. 

One of the things that I have found fantastic is that before any food related event, the group prays.  How awesome is that.  Before we start the activity meeting we pledge to the American flag!  This group is very God and country oriented. 

Pelicans waiting for food at a cleaning station

From the time John retired he assured me that I didn’t need to worry about him finding something to keep himself busy but that’s hard for me to do.  He can entertain himself all day on a computer and in front of the TV.  He eventually went and visited with the man that heads up the group that gets together and carves wood but just couldn’t seem to get excited about that.  Then he gave a lot of thought to doing something with photography and although that excites him, he didn’t want to just take pictures and not do anything with them.  This past month he finally decided to try working with stained glass again.  This is something he dabbled in before I knew him and what he wants to learn to make is stained glass figures with metal windchimes. So, the packages started arriving after he ordered all the items he needed online and then we made a trip to Hobby Lobby to select stained glass and to Lowes to get tension shower rods to make the chimes with.  He has done a lot of research on the chimes and is now getting started.  I’m excited for him. 

The photography hasn’t gone by the wayside though.  We both love to take pictures to share on Facebook and currently we are interested in getting pics of all the beautiful large birds here in the Rockport area.  Of course, our biggest desire is to find and photograph the ‘whoopers’ (Whooping Cranes).  We’ve been given a lot of info on where to find them during the day so it means a few trips to that location and just waiting them out.  We did finally order a very large telephoto lens that requires a tripod to hold it steady since it’s so long hoping that will help us when trying to photograph wildlife from long distances.  We’re still working on how to use the lens so I’m thankful John has had lots of classes in photography.

I’ve also been helping a neighbor learn to blog and organize photos on her computer, which is something I really enjoy doing.  She and I seem to have clicked as friends and it turns out that she doesn’t live far from my hometown in Minnesota.  We did have to enlist some help from John as she works on a Mac, which I have no experience with, so we could figure out how to organize her photos.  The file management system on a Mac is definitely different from a PC.  She seemed very pleased with her computer lessons.

Stock photo of whoopers

This week we finally made a day trip to north Houston to visit with my sister and her husband.  They are always so gracious about allowing us to bring our fur babies with us who are usually much better behaved than many children.  While we visited, they had a blast running through the house for a bit.  Bailey loves to run fast and doesn’t bet to do it very often since they both must be on leashes every place we go.  When I take her to a dog park she just smells and smells and smells but no running.  At least she will run when we are at our place at Cedar Blue.  We also played cards and then had a nice dinner out before heading back to Rockport. 

I hope to be able to post some pics of whoopers that we take soon so more to come.

We're Into the New Year - 2017

Spoonbills

The New Year has come and gone and we are started into 2017 and looking ahead to a new president soon and lots of potential changes in our country.

  I find myself excited but also wondering how things are really going to work out.  Both of us are pleased that we have finally made it to full retirement and able to enjoy it and with our faith in the Lord, neither of us are going to worry about what may or may not happen.  We plan to live each day at a time with our eyes on the Lord, enjoy all that He has created for us and remain sensitive to His direction.

Little boy petting the girls

As I sit here writing this I’m watching small airplanes fly over.  This park is right next to a county airport and if it wasn’t for the Naval Air Station in Corpus Christi, it would be fairly quiet as only small planes can land here.  BUT the NAS does touch and goes in small planes for hours on a regular basis here so lots of airplane noise.  I’ve heard these are pilots that are training to land on aircraft carriers.  You get used to it though and it stops before dark.  Sometimes they are so low you can see the pilots!

We have joined in on several activities in the park including bingo, live music they bring in, dinners, exercise, and Bible study.  I’m hoping to get started on beginning line dancing.  We’ve also been roped into overseeing the setup of tables and chairs for major events.  They have a sock hop coming up and they are going to play the not so newlywed game for Valentine’s Day.  The Bible study is mostly women and a great group.  It’s made up of numerous denominations and wonderful that we can all study God’s word together.

Last week we went to the movies.  Rockport has a small theater with 4 screens and on Tuesday nights the popcorn is free if you bring your own bowl.  We just brought a small popcorn bag with us not knowing what others bring in.  I didn’t want to stand out walking in with a large red plastic bowl and be the only one.  That would have been awkward.  Well as soon as we got out of the car I saw several others with multiple large bowls in their hands.  Almost went home to get my large red plastic bowl.  We enjoyed the movie Sing and the small theater feel.  It just felt safe and like a family place. 

Today we drove to Goose Island State Park and it’s really nice.  It sits right on Aransas Bay and you can actually book sites right at the water’s edge.  Yep, we book five nights for next year leading into our stay back at Wilderness Oaks.  They have this enormous live oak tree there that is said to be over 1,000 years old.  It’s quite a sight.  They have it fenced off and have put bracing under some of the limbs to give it stability.

Live Oaks, Palm Trees, Cutter Ants and Dogs

We’ve had about a month now in Rockport, TX and are enjoying it.  The temperatures are a bit up and down.  Other than a couple of very cold days in the low 40’s, the temps have ranged from the mid-60’s to the low 80’s for highs.  We’ve had nights where we needed the heater and days where we needed the AC.  Each day seems to have some clouds but we see sun several days a week.  The forecast frequently shows a chance of rain but often that is just some drizzle.  Any real rain still isn’t a downpour but just a gentle rain for a short time.  We also deal with wind here.  It can go from days with almost no wind to a pretty good clip for several hours.  We have also had lots of fog especially in the evenings.  Overall, we are wearing anything from shorts and t-shirts to long pants and sweatshirts which is my idea of how to spend winter.  80 is a bit warm for me in the winter but upper 60’s and low 70’s is perfect.   As I write this I’m sitting outside in about 70 degree temps, with sunshine and some wind under a massive live oak tree. 

The park and the entire area is filled with live oaks and various types of palm trees.  The live oaks are massive and would make great climbing trees.  You typically see multiple large trunks with them so I’m not sure if they are all one tree or several together.  The palm trees are interesting as well and I know nothing about them yet.  It appears to me that there must be several types as you see them in various shapes and sizes and with differing types of trunks.  Some seem to shed these large bark-like things from their trunks and others shed what appears to be clumps of palm fronds.

I’ve also learned about cutter ants and they are not a good thing to have around.  There can be up to 2 million of them in a nest!  We saw them marching back and forth along about a one block area at the front of the park and many of them had bits of flowers and leaves in their mouths.  Apparently, they can strip a small hedge in one night.  They haul the foliage into their nests and let it turn to fungus and that is what they feed on.  I must say, they are hard workers!

Our girls (Bailey and April) have made lots of friends with the numerous dogs in the park.  I’m guessing there are more RVs with dogs in them than without.  Misty and Riley are cute brown Dachshunds, Charlie is a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Samson and Goliath are huge Mastiffs that are gentle giants, Maddie is a Goldendoodle, a new red Standard Poodle has recently arrived, and Simon is a black lab mix.  There are so many I cannot remember all their names yet.  There is a pair of Shitzus, a Portuguese water dog, and numerous other mixed breeds.  There are also two ragdoll cats that are enormous named Gracie and Rags.  These two cats are much bigger than our girls and their Moms roll them around the park in carts!  What a life!  Our girls have not interacted with them.  Overall, our girls have met with most of these dogs with no problem at all, although April barks her fool head off when she sees one she hasn’t met.  The only issue we’ve really had to deal with is how to stop our girls (mostly April, the mouthy one) from barking when we are away from the RV.  They are used to being able to have the run of the place but even when we confined them to the back half of the RV so they couldn’t see out, they still barked a lot.  So, we have resorted to putting them in crates on the bed with the TV and sound machine going so they can’t hear outside noise.  So far this seems to have worked.  I don’t like to have to crate them for extended periods (4-5 hours) but I just remind myself that if we weren’t there and they weren’t distracted, they would be sleeping anyway.

We are slowly starting to make some friends and even friending each other on Facebook to stay in touch.  I’m getting to know a couple of ladies, Arla and Rene, a bit better and enjoy visiting with them.  Arla is Mom to Charlie, the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, and Rene is Mom to Misty and Riley, the Dachshunds.  Both ladies go to the exercise classes three mornings a week so I gave that a try yesterday.  They start with stretching and then do some yoga, which I had never tried.  Yesterday’s yoga was difficult and the rest of the class agreed so I think they are going to do some things that are bit less strenuous.  Then another lady comes in and does an hour of walking that is apparently very fast paced.  They do 4 miles!  Yikes.  I didn’t stay for that yesterday but will get started with that tomorrow and at least try to get 1-2 miles in and work up to the rest.  I found out in a very big hurry yesterday how out of shape I was.  I have no problem with walking but anything else was a real challenge so I need to continue with this!  Today I did feel better and less knotted up.  I hope with this and the massages I’m getting that this will loosen me up!

I’ll write again after the new year so I wish everybody a Happy and Safe New Year!

Christmas Has Come and Gone

Christmas has come and gone.  We watched a lot of Christmas movies on the Hallmark channel.  On Christmas Eve about 90 folks in the park got together and played Dirty Santa which was a great time with lots of laughs.  There were those two priceless gifts that showed up that all you could do was laugh but, of course, not something anybody really wanted.  On Christmas Day we went to church and enjoyed a nice service.  There was a decent crowd considering about 600 had showed up on Christmas Eve for that service.  About 1:30 pm over 100 folks piled into the rec hall in the park for a large Christmas dinner.  We were seated next to some Canadians that were fun to talk to.  They were from Ontario and have been coming to this park for nearly six years.  After a brief rest at home following dinner, we took the girls for a long walk at one of the city parks then came home and crashed.  Too much food.

Today we put up Christmas to get our RV back to some normal living conditions.  The weather here the past 2-3 days has been very warm (low 80s) and sunny.  It's been a bit of a challenge to get in the Christmas spirit with it so warm but that's what we wanted - no snow, no ice, no cold weather!  

On New Year's Eve there is going to be a park get together with finger food and music.  The Activity Committee frequently brings outside musicians into the park to provide music for us and it only costs $5/person.  Should be fun.  From the sounds of it, most of the folks are home by 10 pm. 

Getting Into the Swing of Retirement

We are finally getting into the swing of not only retirement but the lifestyle at the Wilderness Oaks RV Park in Rockport, TX.  There is so much to do here that we need to pick and choose activities or we would be going all the time.  We love the Saturday morning breakfasts!  For $3/person you get whatever you want from a selection of sausage, bacon, eggs, biscuits, gravy and yummy pancakes along with juice and coffee.  What a buy!  There is a group of men that cook this up and serve and they do a great job.  People gather together around tables to visit and you always feel welcome to join a group.  I’ve yet to see anybody sitting alone at an event.

We took part in their weekly bingo last week.  Ten games for each of us, with some popcorn and root beer floats costs about $6.75 for us together.  Really cheap entertainment.  There were enough people playing that night that winners were taking home about $13 per game won.  We are hoping to try out Texas Hold’Em as we’ve never played that but we keep having other activities interfere.  Last Friday the temp was about 71 so I tried out the outdoor heated pool and thoroughly enjoyed it.  It seemed very odd to me to be in an outdoor pool in the middle of December.  I hope to be able to use it many more times. 

I’ve been having lots of pain with my upper back, shoulders and arms for several months and my doctor suggested trying massage.  Until now I had never found a convenient, affordable place but boy did I find a great place here.  The owner and her therapists continue their education in massage therapy so they can to do more than just a massage.  This lady has found all my painful spots and is working hard to get rid of the pain for me.  I feel a lot of confidence with her.  It sure would be nice if this could be covered by health insurance. 

Since we’ve arrived here we’ve found a place to get the car fixed, a place for haircuts, and a dog groomer.  We also found a vet near the RV park with high ratings but hope we don’t need to use them.   Yesterday, while driving back from Corpus our windshield got hit by a rock and I found out that Safelite will come to us in Rockport from Corpus at no charge!  So they should come tomorrow.

 

Saturday it was 80 degrees, which was the high before the arctic blast, if you can call it that compared to the rest of the country.  Sunday and Monday were only in the 40’s but it’s headed back up to our norms now.  Since Saturday was such a nice sunny day, but very windy, we headed out to the beach at Port Aransas.  That beach is on the Gulf of Mexico and it was a fun afternoon.  The dogs really wanted to run off leash but that isn’t allowed.  The waves were rough with the high wind and there were two guys kite surfing in it.  Seemed a bit crazy in the rough water.  Not sure how they would have been rescued if they got into trouble.  You drive right down onto the sand beach and it is considered a street.  You can park all along that drive right on the beach. 

Yesterday the girls got a spa day and were groomed at a place in Corpus called The Paw Spa.  We were pleased with the shop.  The staff were courteous and seemed very caring.  We felt safe leaving the girls there.  While they were being groomed we got breakfast and then checked out the shopping in the area.  There is a nice mall (La Palmera) and lots of other stores in the immediate area of the groomer, which is convenient.

Today I plan to bake again making cookies for the caroling and hot chocolate event tomorrow in the park.

Our First Week as Winter Texans

 I wrote this at the end of the first week of December and forgot to post it so here it is a bit late.  I’ve included some pics of the Wilderness Oaks RV Park where we are staying from their website so you can see how nice the place is.  We have been here a week now and had several days of clouds and rain with a few sunny days interspersed.  Hoping to see more sun in the coming days and very happy that we are here and not having to deal with the freezing temps and winter weather up north. 

On Tuesday we had a glorious sunny, warm day so we took the opportunity to check out the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge.  It’s about a half hour drive and well worth the trip.  We used this trip to get oriented to the refuge for future visits.  While there we did see alligators and I must say it was a bit unnerving.  Having only seen alligators in captivity, it gave me pause to know that while out on a trail we could encounter them, but it hasn’t put me off on return visits.  They also have several types of snakes with three of the species being venomous.  There is a great display in the visitor center on each of the types of snakes and where they could be found.  This is probably not a place to take our girls for trail walks.  Between the alligators and the venomous snakes they could encounter, their safety is more important.  The refuge has an auto tour that is about 20 miles long which we will want to drive but what I really want to see are the whooping cranes that winter there.  Our next visit will include our good camera and telephoto lens as well as binoculars.  There are some nice observation towers to view from.

We have had to deal with the problem of our barking dogs when we are away from the RV.  After returning from the refuge I visited with a neighbor and found out that April apparently barked much of the time we were gone.  They girls are not used to all the people, traffic and dogs that come by our place and have found them to be a smorgasbord of things to bark at.  When we left, we would seclude them to the back of the RV with a doggie gate where they couldn’t see out the windows and turn on the TV but apparently, that didn’t keep them from hearing things and barking.  We tested putting them in dog crates on top of the bed, turning on the TV and the AC fan and shutting the door.  I drove the Jeep out to run errands but John remained behind in a chair outside and silent so the girls wouldn’t hear his voice and it seemed we were successful.  They didn’t make a peep.  We hope that method continues to work. 

The arctic blast that has blown over the country also hit us and we have had temps down to 40, rain and high winds but nothing like our friends and family are dealing with.  This is only supposed to last until this weekend here.  I used the time during the nasty weather to bake cookies and made some oatmeal raisin, shortbread and chocolate brownie cookies and all turned out very well. John says the brownie cookie is the best cookie he has ever eaten.

Last night was the weekly friendship dinner in the park.  I had to chuckle.  It was to start at 5:30 pm so we arrived about 5:25 and the place was full, all were seated and it seemed they were getting ready to start.  Hmmm – did I get the wrong time?  Nope – apparently, these retirees like to arrive early to visit, get a seat and above all get the dessert they want!  What a hoot.  The tables were set up in a U shape and everybody put the dish they brought on the table in front of where they sat.  Then, after having prayer, everybody stands up and walks around the tables filling their plates.  There was no lack of conversation with the people around you but as soon as they finished eating they all packed up their stuff and headed home.  The lifestyle is a bit different from what we are used to but we’ll get the hang of it.  We’ve been encouraged to come for the various games – Texas Holdum, Pass the Trash, Bingo and so on.  There is also a small movie theater in town that John tried out.  He said it is old but clean and we only pay $5.  On Tuesday nights, if you bring your own container, you can get free popcorn so you know that several folks head that way on Tuesday nights! 

I hope everybody is staying warm and looking forward to the holidays.