Happy New Year

Odometer 27557

Trip meter 0

Rockport, TX

Happy New Year to all our friends where ever you are this first day of 2013.

As you can see from the header above, we are still in Rockport and will be most of January. It has been a week since my last posting, and several have called and e-mailed to see why I was not posting. (Thanks! I wasn't sure anyone would actually miss this) The reason for the interlude was that I really don't want to write unless I can keep it interesting. We have been reading, taking long walks, doing some light maintenance on the RV, chatting with fellow RVers, but nothing I felt I could commit to writing that wouldn't bore your socks off.

Last Sunday we drove to the local Ace hardware and bought some birch plywood to make a new shelf in the laundry cabinet. The Ace in Rockport has what has to be the very best marine boating and hardware selection I have seen this side of a marine supply house. Of course I had to see it all and Joan knowing me as she does, brought her Kindle and stayed in the car to read. What's my fascination with marine supplies? Turns out marine and RV supplies are very similar, and even overlap some. Any part or supply that will stand up to the marine environment will certainly work for us RVers. I got a very good look at every aisle and came out with lacquer, plywood, and a metal straight edge. I really wanted a plywood blade for my 5-3/8" cordless saw, and some edge banding for the plywood, which Ace did not have- so without too much pleading, talked Joan into driving down to Lowe's in Aransas Pass about 10 miles South of here. Aransas Pass is no larger than Rockport/ Fulton Beach, but it has attracted some of the bigger box stores, among them Lowe's. Long story shortened up a bit, this 16" shelf ended up costing us about $50. It did, however, keep me busy for several hours, and I love working with my tools. I am so glad that, at the last moment, I decided to bring a selection of wood-working tools with us, and secreted them into available spaces in the "basement". I cut and sanded and dadoed, and screwed and edged the shelves and after I was sure I had what I wanted, I lacquered them with some Deft spray lacquer.

The next shelf of similar size should be a fraction of what this one cost! Now we have a place for our tall laundry bottles and another shelf for clean towels and one for electronic what-not (scanner, chargers, camera dock, cables)

Joan and I have had a chance to take in some movies at the local theaters. We enjoyed Jack Reacher, staring Tom Cruise, and Lincoln, starring Daniel Day-Lewis. Lincoln was playing at a theater in Corpus Christi, so we decided on a matinee showing, given that it is a 45 minute drive and Corpus Christi is a fairly large city with 463,000 people.

On the way back home from Corpus Christi we tooled around the harbor and the downtown area. We happened onto a group getting a tour of downtown on Segway scooters.

In the background of this photo you can see the USS Lexington and part of the bay bridge going north towards Aransas Pass and Rockport

Yesterday we finally got the drive motor for our microwave oven and Joan couldn't wait to get it installed.

Yeaa! It works! No more fussing with the mico platter to get it to revolve.

The weather here has been a little iffy, with periods of rain and winds, but this afternoon we got a bit of a break, with the winds dying down and the clouds lifting. The RV Park sponsored a chilli feed at the clubhouse, we all donated some of the ingredients, and volunteers cooked batches of hot, medium and mild chilli. We all dined on chilli, cornbread, and pies and cakes for desert- Yum!

Tomorrow, if the weather holds, we will take a tour of the USS Lexington

Until then-

Jeff and Joan