November - December 2011 Arizona - New Mexico - Texas

Tempe Travel Trailer Villa, Tempe, Arizona

10 days at $185.00.

What a beautiful state Arizona is!  The landscape is subtly different than the high desert of Nevada.  It’s very red for one thing.  The rocks are red and are different.  The plants are different.  Here you see an abundance of Saguaros, Cholla, Prickly Pear and Organ Pipe Cactus.  Traveling through the lower part of the state in November is the best time to visit as the weather is perfect—around 70 degrees every day with clear blue skies.  The Indian or Native American influence is just as strong as the Mexican-Spanish influence and you see it in the art, the architecture and the ambiance of the state.  There is also a strong cowboy presence here too.  Summer temperatures can reach above 120 degrees which would scare me to death!  I don’t understand how people can live in such intense heat.  Of course there is air conditioning but what if the power fails?

As we arrived in Phoenix we were debating on whether or not to continue down to Tucson, but then the front brakes on the truck went out and the decision was made for us.  We stayed in an RV park in Tempe, a suburb of Phoenix, where Pep Boys one block away did the work in less than 2 days.  They actually had to do several things to the truck and as a result it depleted our bank account almost $700.  The tires are worn too and need to be replaced but that will have to wait until the next paycheck.

Between gas for the truck and repairs from the chronic wear & tear on an old truck and trailer, it keeps us poor and we have to travel very slowly, literally from 1 paycheck to another.  Did I mention that we get 8 miles to the gallon when we pull the trailer?  That averages out to $100 per every 200 miles we drive.

So we stayed in Tempe for one week.  Weekly rates in RV parks are cheaper than the daily rate; and staying a month is the cheapest of all.  But if we stay a month in one place, it would take us forever to travel and get anywhere.

We liked Tempe and Mesa very much.  It’s very pretty and upscale and Tempe is a college town which houses the university.  Phoenix is rather a dump but has a few nice parts.

We ate out very little but did manage a nice evening at a sports bar & grill called the New Yorker.  Dan enjoyed watching the golf game on the big screen tv.  We ate breakfast one day at a café called Cracker & Company where I had the most incredible, fattening plate of French toast and Dan had blueberry blintzes.  We had to take home a box of leftovers which Dan finished over a 2 day period.

We went to the Heard Museum one day in Phoenix and there we were immersed in Native American history.  We really enjoyed it—the basketry, Navaho blankets & rugs and the Katchina dolls.  I wish I could have afforded one for the granddaughters but everything was too pricey.  A hand-made wooden flute cost $350.

One thing we enjoyed very much was a movie theater we went to.  It was very unique.  We chose it because it was the only one playing the new Planet of the Apes movie, which happened to be as good as I hoped.  The theater was one of those traditional 10 screen theaters, but it only cost $3 per person and it was decorated to the nines.  One side of the lobby had a very large, ornate Christmas scene and the other side had the entire cast of the Pirates of the Caribbean—with life-size mannikins.  All through the theater were these life-size Hollywood mannikins—Tom Hanks, the Rat Pack, Elvis, the 3 Stooges, etc.  There was even a glass display case with metal lunchboxes—also with celebrity faces.  I found out later the theater is privately owned so that explained its unique-ness.

Our RV park was managed by a very nice couple but the office and attached public bathrooms smelled terrible from their cigarette smoke.  There are too many smokers out there!  It’s one of the few chronic irritating things about travel.  The bathrooms also had no dressing rooms and nowhere private to dress and undress.  That to me is a deal-breaker.  From now on, every RV park we enquire about is going to be asked about privacy.  For the week we stayed here, we just used our own trailer shower even though it’s small and we have to unload all the storage from it every day.  The shower/tub is where we store our laundry hamper, our bathroom bags of wash stuff and clothes and towels.  It’s just easier to use the public showers.  I’ve also found that all the showers from every park we’ve gone to just isn’t quite as clean as I’d like.  Mostly my complaint is about the showers.  There’s always mold in the grout, in the corners and discoloration.  I don’t know why all rv parks don’t use a little spray bleach to whiten and kill the mold and bacteria.  I also wonder why they don’t install hand-held shower heads.  They’re cheap and make it easy for people to get a quick shower, plus it makes a shower stall easier to clean.  They spend money on other non-essentials, you’d think they could afford such a useful thing as these. 

11/20/11

Tucson Mountain RV Park, Tucson, Arizona

$25 per day

10 day stay

Wow, this is what I get for not checking out the park before we arrived, as I called the park after seeing it listed among others online and this one looked to be in the town so we decided to come here.  I’m going to get better about asking questions because the management never tells the whole truth. 

When we arrive in a town it’s actually difficult to pull the trailer everywhere to check on parks so I’ve gotten to where I research online and pick one before we arrive.  I call ahead to see if they have room and feel thankful when they do.  Because the southwest is where all the winter Snowbirds vacation, it’s not that easy to get an RV spot.  And some parks are out in the woods, far from town, making it expensive to drive around to explore the area.

For instance, here the bathrooms are private but are so rustic they border on absolute decay.  The old walls and floors are crumbling, the old, exposed pipes are filthy and in one shower, the first day, there was a huge wad of hair in the corner.  At first, horrified, I thought it was a dead rat.  I also discovered that even though there are 2 bathrooms, only one shower can be used because the other one only runs cold water.

I solve the bathroom problem by taking a bottle of spray bleach with me and I spray the shower down beforehand.

For toileting we use our own trailer bathroom most of the time and Dan is good about keeping the tanks maintained.

This particular park gets very few travelers because most of the people live here.  They cater to Vets and the Disabled so poverty is apparent.  However, what a nice group of people here!  All friendly, all helpful.  The spots are very crowded though and there is little privacy unless you stay in your RV.  Our spot is next to the bathrooms and laundry room on one side and next to a walkway on the other so people pass by within a foot or two all day long.  Somehow, these things don’t bother me all that much, maybe because we won’t be here long.  Living and traveling this way on a limited budget means that we can’t stay at 5 star parks and make demands.  So it changes ones’ attitude.

Payday is on the day we leave here but we are thinking about staying a few additional days.  That would allow us to do some more local exploring but we just aren’t certain yet.  Unfortunately, Thanksgiving fell on this week and that means days we couldn’t go do things.  Holidays always mess up our plans.

We’d like to take a couple of day trips without the trailer.  We’d like to visit Biosphere 2, Tombstone, and Bisbee before we leave.

We’ve noticed that RV people divide up into 3 groups.  One group, the largest, are the retired people who either live and travel on the road, or are out often or for extended periods of time.  The second group are the vacationers.  These are people with or without families who still work and go camping or rv traveling when they get vacation time.  The 3^rd group are the poor who hit upon hard times and found themselves without jobs, then went broke, lost their home and now all they can afford is to live in their run-down rv/camper/trailer and live in an rv park.  Some of these have struck a deal with the parks they live in.  Free or reduced rent in exchange for work.  Of these poor, some are permanently disabled, mentally or physically, and cannot work and have to get by on social security or disability payments.  And of these, many are veterans.

These poor are 1 step from being homeless.  If it weren’t for having some sort of rv to live in, they would be on the streets.

At one park we saw a man up on top of his run-down trailer, placing tarps over the roof just before a rain-storm moved in.  Another lived in a camper on blocks, and he must have had a wood-burning stove in there because we noticed smoke regularly coming from the pipe attached on the roof.  Some have wood tacked up over missing windows.

I have to say that so far, not one thing has been stolen from us.  That is something we worried about when staying where there are obvious poor people living.

It costs an average of $400-$500 a month to live in one of these 1 and 2 star rv parks.  That is not bad considering it includes utilities.  Sometimes, the electric bill is extra but most people don’t spend more than $50-$100 per month on electricity.  And people like us with a solar panel use only about $20 per month.

December 1, 2001

So, Dan wants to keep moving on.  He doesn’t really want to stay here any longer.  We’ll have to catch Biosphere 2 another time.  Today we head for Tombstone.  We’ll try to get an RV space at one of the 4 or 5 parks there.  We only plan to stay maybe 2 days and then head on to New Mexico. 

The 10 days here has flown by.  A couple of days we just stayed in—me writing, reading, watching tv and cooking; Dan doing his thing—playing online fake poker and enjoying walks and tv and doing maintenance on the truck and trailer.  He’s in charge of our money so he works on the budget and logs in the receipts for everything we spend money on.  That way we can budget and see where the money is going.  No matter what, it’s very hard to save while traveling.  Everything costs so much.  We often have to hunker down the last week before the pension or social security check comes, just to avoid spending money.

We certainly enjoyed ourselves here.  We always enjoy ourselves wherever we go.  Yesterday we went to high tea at Chantilly, a local tea house.  That was nice.  A bit of elegance from another time.  Sometimes I need a touch of civilized life—to drink tea from a china cup and saucer, eat delicate scones and finger sandwiches.  I’d like to go to a symphony concert soon too.

We took pictures, we drove around.  Enjoyed what beauty there is.  Tucson is very run down in many parts and there is poverty here.  But there is beauty and culture as well.  The Cathedral downtown and the southwestern architecture all around.  The mission, the historic buildings, the saguaros and the beautiful cactus landscape.  The clear blue skies.  And of course, the shops and stores we are familiar with.  In addition to sight-seeing and soaking up local history and culture, there is also the day to day mundane chores at home, and cooking and grocery shopping and general cleaning and maintaining.  Laundry, ironing.  I even had to buy buttons to replace lost ones on one of my blouses. 

The every day chores include filling our water filter and then bottling the water for drinking and cooking.  We empty the ice trays and fill them back up again.  We use a lot of ice in our drinks.  There are always dishes to wash, bed to make, floor to sweep and mop everyday.

Our neighbor next door is from Georgia and I love his thick accent, although he’s been living and traveling elsewhere for years.  His wife is a nurse so they travel now and then while she takes jobs.  He was sitting outside in his chair yesterday while cooking a pot of ham-hocks and mustard greens.  It smelled delicious.  I’m not sure I’ve ever seen mustard greens before.  I left my soda cans with him because I noticed one of the park residents, a disabled vet, makes the rounds every day looking for cans and this guy keeps a bucket next to his rv for that purpose.

Another old guy with plenty of wear on him and no teeth, stopped by to tell us someone put several boxes of yellow squash in the laundry room and to help ourselves to it.  He chatted for a while, something we all love to do around here.  He freely told us about his years in prison and parts of his life, laughing about the whole thing.  He seemed very nice although I can see his status in life is very low.  But, what an amiable guy!

While in Tucson, we managed to drive out to Sanctuary Cove, a place advertised on the Attractions of Tucson list online.  I was curious about it—it’s an interfaith meditation place.  It was very pretty there but nothing special and at least we got some photos.

We enjoyed a visit to Trail Dust Town—an old western village great for picture taking and there is a little restaurant there.  We got a few pictures but the batteries died in the camera there.  Dan obviously forgot to keep the batteries charged.  It’s one of the downsides of growing older—we are both forgetful of things we shouldn’t forget.

The Chapel of San Pedro was one of my favorites—an old street that is now residential and houses about an acre with little paths to walk and at the end of it is this little Spanish chapel that has been restored and maintained.  It was right in town and yet felt so far away.  We were the only ones there and it was very quiet.  I spied a cottontail bunny, who didn’t appreciate us invading his sanctuary.

We enjoyed a couple of nice restaurants but mostly ate at home.  The Blue Willow provided a tasty breakfast.  One of the bakery-coffee bars cheated me on a latte but it’s not worth it to complain about it here.  And of course, our tea room, my favorite.  We visited a Waffle House but were not impressed.  It’s simply a diner, a step up from a fast food and we didn’t think the food was all that special although the waitress was very nice.  We try to get a game of cribbage going whenever we’re out at a restaurant like that.

Dan, ever mindful of every cent we spend, enjoyed discovering that Costco’s food court has great fast food very cheap.  They had a special going—a hotdog and soda for $1.50.  He wanted to go there whenever we planned to eat out!  We went there twice but that was enough!  The food was good but still, it was Costco and didn’t reflect the culture of what Tucson really is at its heart.  Dan doesn’t seem to appreciate things like that.

We spent one afternoon in Old Town Artisans—the art section of town where we enjoyed a visit to the Museum of Art and the historic County Courthouse.  We walked a few blocks to a great little Mexican restaurant where I ate delicious food, but of a type different than back home.  Even Mexico has many cultures and the food reflects that.

December 1-4, 2011

Wells Fargo RV Park, Tombstone, Arizona

3 day stay @ $ 102.00

I’m so glad we were able to get an RV park downtown, next to the 3 block square of Tombstone.  It’s a historic and tourist town, much like Virginia City, Nevada, only smaller.  The economy has been hit hard here too—many of the shops are closed.  The little houses surrounding the town are very run-down.  We did have fun though.  We enjoyed the shops that were open but did not want to spend too much money.  We bought Brian a funny t-shirt.  We also got Arizona tshirts for the granddaughters with Navaho coloring books and a Christmas card with $50 in it for each girl.  We bought post cards.  All this we mailed out.

We found a nice little Pizza restaurant, housed downstairs in a motel.  Very plain décor but clean and good food.  We bought some fudge at the chocolate shop.  We visited the museum and a Magic Shop where spiritual and Wiccan things are sold.  It smelled so good in there with all the incense.   We got a kick out of all the men in Tombstone.  They have long beards and dress up in the old west style.  They really get into it!  Dan and I took a stagecoach ride through the town.  It was a simple town and we enjoyed the modest attractions they had to offer.  It wasn’t crowded at all while we were here.  And of course, we had our home chores to do—laundry and cooking and cleaning.  The usual.

The towns leading into Tombstone are nice too—Benson, St. David’s.  It’s a 2 lane, 24 mile long road into Tombstone, so it’s definitely out in the middle of nowhere.  That’s the way the old west was too—mining towns that boomed and then became ghost towns after the mines were stripped.  Dan and I read up on the history here.  Dan enjoyed it more than I did because Tombstone is one of his favorite movies.  He likes old westerns.  It was nice to see Wyatt Earp, his brothers, Doc Holiday and the other compatriots immortalized in this town.  Enjoyable to see the OK Corral and the Birdcage Theater. 

There are a lot of tourist things to do too but we didn’t do any of them.  The Queen Mine Tour, which was in its heyday, the most productive copper mines of the 20^th century.  The Tombstone Trolly takes you for a ride throughout the area and ends at the Boothill cemetery.  The evening Ghost & Murder Tours.  Bisbee, an old mining town, and the Kartchner Caverns State Park are within driving distance but because the weather turned so cold, we didn’t go there either.

December 6, 2011

The Hatch RV Park, Corpus Christi, Texas

1 month stay @ $350 + electric

We left Tombstone after a 3 day stay, on Sunday, Dec. 4, 2011 and it was snowing as we left and very cold.  We decided to head for Corpus Christi, Texas to escape the cold since the weather was no better in New Mexico.  It took 3 days of driving to arrive on the Gulf of Mexico in Corpus Christi. We were in Arizona for a few weeks but it turned very cold in Tombstone. The rain and snow followed us to San Antonio, Texas so we decided to head south towards the gulf to warm up. It's cold here too but warmer than up north and expected to continue to warm a little more. In New Mexico, we didn't even stop except to get a few post cards, and then down to El Paso and further down to a little town called Van Dorn where we camped for the night. We froze 2 nights because we have no heater when the electricity is off.  The heater is propane, but it has an electric ignition.  So for 2 nights we slept fitfully, fully dressed, wearing our coats.  We hadn’t expected such cold weather and so did not plan for it.  It snowed and rained the whole way to San Antonio, and it got down to 25 both nights. But we made it to Corpus Christi in record time because the interstate speed limit is 75 and even 80 in some parts.

The first thing we did when we arrived here was head to the Wal Mart and buy sweat suits, beanie caps and gloves!

We have decided to stay a month here in Corpus Christi for a couple of reasons.  For one, it’s cheaper to stay in an rv park by the month.  Otherwise it’s $30-40 per night.  We’re running a bit low on cash so this will help us buck up a little.  We need to be in a city to have some work done on the truck.  Dan thinks it needs back brakes and new tires.  On a Dooley truck, those 6 tires will run about $1000.  We also need some parts for the rv.  We need a Shear pin for the tongue jack on the ball hitch.  It will probably have to be ordered from the manufacturer.  We aren’t able to move the trailer until it gets fixed.  There are a few other things we need to do as well. The travel puts a lot of wear and tear on the vehicle so it feels like it constantly needs work done. We don't mind. We expect it to be like this sometimes. I'll spend some time getting further caught up on my blog and maybe get some walks in. We don't get much exercise traveling.

It’s nice to be here in a big city but also near the water.  We’re looking forward to getting a first look at the Gulf of Mexico.  We also hope it will be warmer here than up north, although it was 30 degrees the day we arrived, which did not reassure us much.

Some interesting facts—both Arizona and Texas do not provide toilet seat covers in public bathrooms.  The speed limit in Arizona and Texas is often 75 and in Texas it’s sometimes 80, especially on the interstates that drive through the middle prairie lands of the state.  We encountered very little traffic the past 2 days on these long interstates.

We briefly passed through New Mexico before heading south through El Paso into Texas.  The post cards from New Mexico are the funniest we’ve seen so far.  We also spied a funny sign in a tourist shop.  It read, “Shopping With A Husband is Like Fishing With the Game Warden!”

Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas radio stations mostly have 3 programs—Preaching, Country Music and Mexican Music.  Thank goodness we have an Ipod on those long rides to our destination.

The Freeways in Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas are decorated beautifully with art work.  In Arizona there is a lot of tile mosaics, in Texas there are painted scenes.  Nevada has a lot of bas relief and sculptures.  The patterns and designs in all these state freeways are very pretty but it’s not easy to pull over with a big rig and get photos.

We saw a lot of trains coming and going in New Mexico.  The interstate happened to run parallel to the train tracks.  New Mexico and Arizona have an abundance of great things for sale in the shops—things that represent the southwest.  Navaho blankets, turquoise, western and cowboy stuff, rocks & minerals, ponchos, Mexican pottery, Katchina dolls, Spirit and Dream Catchers, baskets, rugs.  I love it all!

In Texas we see a lot of saddles, rope, horns, tack and cowboy hats and clothing for sell in the shops.

We got a kick out of this sign in Texas.  We saw it twice on the freeway, “Don’t Mess With Texas.  Fine for Littering $2000.”  

We drove 2 full days through what I would term the Texas Prairie, vast stretches of nothing except scrub and chaparral.  We saw windmill turbines on some of the mountains, a lot of derelict buildings, oil wells and lots of tiny towns.  Because of the economy, we have learned to gas up the truck every time we come to a town that has a working gas station, since many of the little towns have their stations closed down.  Texas has these enormous cities in-between the little towns and vast stretches of highway—El Paso, San Antonio, Houston, etc.

In Texas we saw a lot of dead deer along the interstate, and lots of signs warning of deer crossing.  I even saw live deer running in the woods near the interstate.

I hate to admit this but….we just might be rednecks (somebody call Jeff Foxworthy)!  Here’s the definition of a Redneck Microwave:  putting the box of leftovers from the restaurant on the floor of the truck and turning the heater on!  Aaaagh!

The people here are very nice although when we first entered the border, it was dicey.

I've always heard about the famous good manners of Texans so I'm looking forward to someone calling me ma'm!  The border officer was obviously sick and coughed in Dan's face. He asked if we were both US Citizens in broken English, but I had my doubts about him.  What’s up with that?

Then the truck stop guy in Van Dorn had a harelip and was kind of mean to us. He looked like a serial killer. The McDonalds people got our order wrong and then tried to blame us. If they could speak English, they'd probably have gotten our order right.

But it got better the further we drove into Texas.

This park with full utilities (called hook-ups) is only costing us $350. Where else can you get rent and utilities for that? Of course, by the day they charge $30-40 per night so staying a month is always the best deal. But most places we can't stay that long or we'd never get to see the country except at a slugs' pace, which we are already practically doing now.

We'll hopefully get a chance to really see Arizona (Flagstaff, the Grand Canyon), and N. Mexico next fall--we'll go earlier to beat winter and see the northern parts. Our going to Oregon for a month is what slowed us up this year, that and staying in Las Vegas a month.

The park we are in is, as usual, in a sort of 'not so good' neighborhood, which is normal for rv parks. The hotels get the prime real estate, the rv parks get the leftovers. But no matter what, we never have any problems. Even when there are shootings around (Tempe), or if we are next door to a wastewater treatment plant (Morro Bay), or if we are in a run-down park on the outskirts of the “bad” side of town that mostly caters to the poor, disenfranchised, disabled, and vets (Tucson), we make the best of it all and we feel safe. The travelers band together and keep the peace.  People look out for one another.

This particular park is across from a high school and next door to a cemetery.  At least it ought to be quiet and the office woman assured me the dead next door have very nice, quiet ghosts. The Industrial section is fairly close by--that bothers me the most but we can't smell anything from the chemical plants which spew smoke all day long. We're not going to be here long enough to get poisoned, I'm fairly sure. We brought our Berkey with us--it filters all our water--so we won't get sick from that, at least.

We are mostly content, and we know this is the only way we can afford to travel and see our country.

Most criminals simply don't bother with rv parks. Too many people around keeping an eye out, plus most of the time the management is on-sight full-time.  In many ways, they are little utopias in the middle of chaos.  The only concern is the public internet network we use.  We do worry about getting hacked or having our identity stolen.

So, the park we are in right now is quite nice, definitely a 2 ½ to 3 star (out of 5).  We often make do with a 2 star and feel lucky when we can find a 3 star.  The condition of the bathrooms is what I really judge a place on.  We'll be just fine here, I am sure.

It's very social here. I met Elise, the social director at the clubhouse. There is something going on every day. She's very nice--from Quebec. Love her accent.  Have met a lot of Canadians since Nevada. They get tired of the cold and come here. There will be a Christmas potluck so we won't have to spend it alone although it wouldn't bother us if we did.

Everywhere but in Texas, northerners who live in the south during winter are called Snowbirds.  In Texas, they are called Winter Texans.

In the beginning we had thought we’d like to stay in state and national parks more, but they require reservations and we don’t always want to commit because we are not always sure if we will arrive on time.  They also often don’t have full hook-ups, making cooking and washing dishes difficult if there is no sewer hook-up.  We didn’t have room to bring much of our outdoor camping equipment either.  Many of the state and national parks are out in wilderness areas, miles from a town and that means spending a lot of money on gas driving back and forth.  So far, we’ve needed towns to get work done on the truck quite often.  Living and traveling with our trailer is just different than vacationing and city rv parks just make more sense.  Although, I won’t rule out the chance to stay at some state and national parks now and again, and do the camping thing.

We also have to be careful not to get stuck in real snow because we don’t have our tire snow chains with us.  We’ll pick up the chains and some of our stuff from storage when we go home next fall.  We are thinking that we’ll head back across the US towards home in Calif in early summer so that we’ll arrive at our sons’ house in fall and spend the winter with them before we head out again in late spring.  This country is just too big to see it all in the 6 months of good weather during the year.

December 12, 2011

We’ve been here in Corpus Christi a week now and it has rained every day but two.  It is supposed to rain for another week or more, which is great for the state but awful for us.  RV living is for good weather but we are making the best of it.  At least it is not that cold here.  In fact, with the rain, it’s quite warm and humid.

We discovered we still have a leak over the bathtub after 2 attempts to repair it.  Dan is going to talk to an RV place today and discuss how to fix it.  I think the whole roof is going to need to be re-sealed but it can’t be done until the rain stops and everything dries out.

It’s of concern because we also need to have work done on the truck—tires and back brakes-- and wonder how long we’ll need to be here to afford to fix it all.  Corpus Christi isn’t the nicest place to stay for an extended period because the town is so derelict.

Yesterday we went exploring a little bit.  It’s hard to do without proper maps.  Dan called the Triple A and they are supposed to mail us maps but we haven’t received them yet.  We drove out to South Padre Island which was nice, and we had lunch at JB’s German Bakery and Café.  It was good—we ordered the $5 lunch special—a cup of potato soup and Schweinebraten (roasted pork slice).  And we shared a piece of pineapple cake which was delicious.  We bought a little herb bread to bring home, which we had with our dinner chef salads.  I have to admit that we also bought a little box of cookies too.  Just couldn’t resist.  Getting me past a bakery without buying the pastries is much like getting a dog past a fire hydrant.

So, my impression of Texas is that it is a state of meat-eaters, and here in Corpus Christi they are also seafood eaters.  I’ve never eaten so much meat at meals in my life.  Back home, it’s too expensive to order meat in restaurants.  Here, the most common restaurant is a steakhouse.  But it is delicious.  Texas is definitely a low-carb state, which is good.  They probably have less diabetes than anywhere else, but higher cholesterol.

From what I have seen of Corpus Christi so far, it’s mostly run-down.  There are mansions along the shoreline drive and out on the island, but everywhere else is very run down with homes in disrepair and many are boarded up.  Yards and fences are a mess.  A lot of businesses are closed too.  We were in downtown after our scenic drive yesterday and was surprised to see whole sections closed.  What shops there were, were mostly closed.  We managed to find a great little coffee bar called Coffee Waves by the harbor but it too, didn’t have many people in it.  Next door was the surf museum and that was nice.  Around the corner an antique store was in the process of closing and had great sales going so we went in to browse and found 2 cups and saucers for my tea service.  But everything else was deserted.  I guess all the shoppers were out at the malls.  The big stores—Walmart, Target and the others are doing fine in this down economy.  The little private businesses are hurting.

In a way, the downed economy works for us.  The RV parks always have room and they aren’t as expensive as they would be if more people were out traveling, competing for space.  The roads have more room for us and we find parking easier.  And that it’s off-season means fewer people too.  Of course, the high class RV parks are probably full because the Winter Texans (people from up north) come here for the winter.

We went to the indoor flea market and I really enjoyed that although it didn’t look like they were doing much business there either.  It was divided up into stalls or cubicles—some quite large-- and we bought a couple of dvd movies.  I spied a doll exactly like the doll my neighbor had years ago when I was a young girl, a doll I had wanted so bad.  I’ve never been able to find a replacement all these years because I didn’t know the brand name of the doll.  The only difference with this doll is that it is a smaller version but I learned it was a Madame Alexander Puddin doll and when I went home I looked it up on the internet and there she was in the size I remember which was about 19-22 inches.  Back then, a doll that looked and felt like a real baby was rare.

The doll in this shop was $40 but the proprietress offered to let me have it for $25.  I declined because I don’t have space in my rv and I kind of think my days of collecting things are over.  If my granddaughters were at all interested in playing dolls I would have bought it, but they really aren’t.

The indoor flea market reminded me of when I was 12 years old in 1971 and stayed a week with my cousin Bonnie one summer in the commune she was living in, in Santa Barbara.  All the adults worked in a place called The Whole Earth which was a wood building with cubicles and hippies making leather crafts, selling incense and beads, and general hippy crafts. 

This town has a lot of restaurants and we even spied a large gym downtown, Planet Fitness.  We are thinking of whether or not we ought to get a months’ membership.  There is a little gym right here in our club house but they don’t have any hand weights.  Still, in a pinch, it’s better than nothing.  It’s just that it’s so cold in there.  The clubhouse feels like the walls are made of cardboard and I don’t see any heating.

The restaurants are the usual chains but there are some that are new to us.  The different Texas smokehouses and steakhouses.  They have a chain of fast food places called the Whataburger that we’re destined to try out.

With eating out yesterday ($25), gas for the truck ($85), and the few sundries we bought, the day came to over $100 so we have to be careful for the next 10 days until the social security check arrives.  Even with that we need to be careful until we get the work done on the roof and on the truck.  We may have to stay here an additional month.

Everywhere we go, the homeless, poor and panhandlers are asking us for money.  We’re getting hardened to them.  I feel it is hostile, manipulative and threatening for people to approach us this way, especially when I am sitting in my car by myself.  I never know if they have a weapon or not, or if they are mentally ill or on drugs and won’t appreciate me telling them no.  Dan and I are working on strategies for dealing with it.  I wish I could help them but we’re broke too and nobody is helping us out.

December 13, 2011

The days pass so quickly, even when we’re a little bored and so little money to spend.  I was up in the middle of the night again, but I’ve been writing and working on files.  I did some chores.  I emptied the Berkey water filter so we’d have clean water to drink, and filled the jug.  Then I refilled the Berkey to filter again, water for reserve.  I do this every day.  I emptied the ice trays and refilled them.  I cleaned the teapot and the coffee maker with vinegar.  I washed dishes.  I swept and mopped the floor.  And I’ve already had 2 cups of coffee and 2 scones and it’s only 5:20 a.m.  Yesterday I cleaned the bathroom and re-organized the bathroom shelves.  I re-organized my kitchen cupboards.  I have a small bundle of things to get rid of.  Extra aprons, a plastic container, a couple pieces of dishes—a glass sugar bowl I won’t use.  I have some extra bottles of booze.  Dan and I just don’t drink much.  I’ll put all this in the club house for any takers who want it.  Today I need to strip the bed and wash the sheets.  Dan wants to remove the mattress so he can repair the bed chest lid/platform.  I guess the screws get loose from time to time.  And I need to iron some clothes and mend a dress.  I also need to grocery shop but maybe I can just send Dan to the market.  I’ve been baking more lately, which isn’t necessarily a good thing, considering we eat what I bake, me eating far more sweets than Dan does.  I’m trying to use up the baking supplies in the cupboard and all the nuts.  We use the nuts in cereal and we eat them by the handful but I’m also trying to reduce their numbers by baking with them—scones, brownies, snack cakes, cookies.  This is what happens when we are low on money and have to conserve every penny—I start baking.  Except for going on a short walk around the park, I’m basically confined to the trailer, especially since it is raining almost nonstop.  I read, write, watch tv/movies, talk on the phone to family & friends back home, I do chores, I cook and bake.  Dan and I play board games—Cribbage, Scrabble and Yahtzee.  All very confining and sedentary.  I’d sort of like to work on self-improvement—go to a gym and go tanning but both costs money.  I need a pedicure too, and have to budget to get my nails done every 2-3 weeks.  All these things take a bite out of the wallet.

December 15, 2011

Enjoyed a day at the beach today.  Finally some sunshine and warm days.  We drove through the east side of Corpus Christi to cross on the ferry to Mustang Island.  We enjoy the ferry and it’s free too!  Our truck takes up so much room though, but still they accommodate us.  We like the novelty of it.  There are artworks aboard the ferry—simple ones like those of a child.  Texas and Arizona have art work everywhere.

We love Port Aransas—such a cute little beach town.  The bright colored buildings, nice people, the beach.  The wide expanse of the Gulf of Mexico.  All my life I would look at maps and see what I imagined these exotic places to be like—the Gulf being one of them.  And now we are here.  The beach stretches for miles across the island.  It’s wide and flat mostly.  Lots of little shells.  And baby clams thriving underneath the sand.  I saw these little air holes bubbling in the wet sad area, and dug one out with my flip-flop.  I uncovered about 6 little clams, the size of my pinky nail.  So that’s what it was!  Back home, we no longer have shells, nor clams either.

The surf is small here but perhaps that is because it is winter.  They do have a big surfing culture here but maybe it’s only for summertime.   I enjoyed watching children play in it. 

We saw that people were camping at the beach so we talked to a couple in a van.  They are from England originally but now live in Canada.  The woman was wearing an OM Yoga teeshirt and talking about organics and non-violence.  They were very nice.  They told us where to get a permit to camp on the beach.  I wish we could do that for a couple of days.

There are so many Canadians here.  Half of our RV park are Canadians.  What a lovely people too.  Many of them have no accent either, and seem just like us.  Most of the accents are those from the French provinces.

December 17, 2011

This whole travel thing is very interesting to me.  I think doing it for a long period of time is best done in an RV because it allows you to live as a native wherever you go.  After a week or so in a new place, you feel like a resident and over time you get used to the streets, the shops, the life and pulse of a city.  When one flies to a destination and then stays in a resort, you don’t really get to feel what it is like to live somewhere and experience it like a local.  Of course, flying in a plane to some exotic locale and staying in a fancy hotel—what’s to dislike about that?  It’s great for a vacation.  But to travel slowly and live as we are, well, this is why people own RV’s.

I’m not sure our little old trailer would be considered an RV even.  It’s a 2001 Terry Fleetwood, 26 feet, with no pop-out, no whistles and bells!  I like my little trailer but am thinking of doing some remodel on it when we go home.  I’d like a new floor and a new cabinet added, and perhaps the walls either painted or new wallpaper.

December 20, 2011

Elise and Guy, French Canadians who live here 6 months per year, are the clubhouse directors.  She works hard, preparing food and entertainment activities.  They are very nice, very lively.  They taught us to play basic backgammon and we’ve been playing it to keep it fresh in our minds.  It’s so easy to learn a new game and then forget because you neglect to actually play it.  I’d like to learn some of the variations of Backgammon, just to keep it challenging.

December 24, 2011

This RV park is the most social one we’ve been in.  About half the people here are Canadians or northerners who live here 6 months per year to escape the cold, and they are very sociable.  Tonight there was a feast of appetizers, cookies and finger foods at the clubhouse with games afterwards.  It’s nice to party and get acquainted with the other travelers.  Everyone is so nice.  People are relaxed and on their best behavior when traveling or living this way.

When we came back to the trailer, my phone was ringing.  Joe, my son was calling with the good news that they are pregnant again and due in July.  He wants us to come home for it and babysit if Stacee goes back to work.  They have lost 2 other pregnancies so it will be a wait and watch time to see if this one works out.  However, this changes things for us.  We had wanted to be on the road 1-3 years but I don’t want to be far from new babies so we’ll most likely head home for a while in July.  We can finish the trip at a later date. 

But what happy Christmas news!

December 25, 2011

Dinner at the clubhouse—potluck style.  The RV park bought the ham and the rest of us brought dishes to share.  I made a crockpot lasagna and steamed yellow and zucchini squash with just a light dusting of butter and seasoning over it.  There was so much food.  We sang carols, played games and generally had a nice time chatting with new people.

This is the first time away from home and away from our kids at Christmas.  I miss all of them but it was nice to spend the holidays with a group instead of alone.

December 31, 2011

More partying—leftover ham sandwiches and salads at the clubhouse and games.  We had a nice time re-learning to play Uno which is more fun with at least 4 people, and a new game called Skipbo.

January 1, 2012

New Years Day!  A nice, quiet morning and then we took off to take photos of the town.  We mainly stayed down by the harbor.  We visited the Selena Memorial and walked on the harbor.  It’s very pretty there.  We stopped in at the Yacht Club to have a drink at the bar—I had my first Bay Breeze and we shared a bowl of chips and quacamole, and chatted with the waitress.  Shopped at the Yacht store and bought a couple of pretty coffee mugs to commemorate Corpus Christi, and a funny fisherman’s tee-shirt for our family practice doctor back home.  He likes funny tee-shirts.  We got some great photos of the art district and the cathedral, all of which was deserted on this holiday, which felt kind of eerie. 

Selena was a young up and coming Tejano singer and was born and raised in Corpus Christi.  Seventeen years ago she was murdered here in Corpus Christi.  The grieving town placed the beautiful memorial of her at the harbor and there is a museum uptown as well.  The only real crowd of people we saw was at the memorial.  Mostly Hispanic people and their children, coming to see, grieve, and pay their respects.  It was quite moving, even after all these years, to know she is not forgotten.

We stopped in at Coffee Waves, a great little espresso bar near the harbor and next to the surf museum.  We enjoyed a latté and a game of cribbage there and yakked with the clerks.

For some reason, today just seemed to resonate with me and I had a very good day.  Just being near the water and harbor boats, the fresh sea air and sunshine, gives me a tremendous feeling of well-being.

There is so much water around Corpus Christi—the Nueces Bay, the inlets and waterways, and of course, the Gulf of Mexico, that fishing and boating are big activities here.  People pull their vehicle over just about anywhere and start fishing.

January 5, 2012

Tomorrow marks 1 month that we have been here in Corpus Christi, Texas and it is time to leave.  Dan is sick with a cold, and his colds often turn serious, requiring medical help, so we shall see if we actually leave or not.  Today he says we’re leaving no matter how he feels.

We’ve had such a nice time.  We didn’t expect to meet so many people and make friends.  I’ve learned that RV Parks which have clubhouses or recreation rooms are often the most social parks where people meet and make friends.  Yesterday was the first time someone invited us to their RV to visit.  John and Maria are from Australia and are quite the world travelers.  It was nice to see another RV and just talk about so many things.  Their RV is a large, newer 5^th Wheel and it’s like a small apartment with no clutter, as my trailer is.  Her countertops are clutter free and the bedroom has real drawers and closets.

If I knew then what I know now, I would have packed for this trip differently.  I brought so many non-essentials and left behind things I could have used.  We should have done a trial run of living in our RV before we actually left on this journey.  Then I would have had a better idea of what to bring and what to leave.

But every couple of weeks I get on a cleaning kick and purge more items which I just give away.  As a result, our trailer is looking better and is less messy.  Most RV parks have a place where you can dump your extra stuff for others to take.  At this park it’s in the Laundromat.  There is a table set up for just that purpose.

So we’ve had such a great time here.  The people are nice and it was great to have some social time and a group of people to spend Christmas and the holidays with.  While the town of Corpus Christi is quite run-down, there were still delights everywhere.  I’m glad we came here and got to see the Gulf of Mexico.

I was surprised not to encounter a lot of cowboys wearing boots and hats and very few people talk with a drawl.  Someone told me it’s because Corpus Christi is different than the northern areas where they still dress and talk like classic Texans. 

We enjoyed a few firsts here.  We ate burgers at our first Sonic Burger.  We ate at a Whataburger, and at our first Cracker Barrel.  We saw the Gulf of Mexico for the first time.  We rode on a ferry for the first time.  We saw our first Fox squirrels.

They have a Dollar Cinema here, just like in Tempe and we enjoyed seeing the film Moneyball there for a whopping price of $2!  The dollar theaters are nice too, not dirty, run-down and smelly like back home.

We like shopping at Thrift Stores and it is nice to see they are the same everywhere, same merchandise.  The only thing is, we don’t really buy much.  There is no place to put any extras in the trailer.  We usually just enjoy looking around.  Sometimes I look for funny tee-shirts to buy and send to the boys back home, or I look for clothes for me, which is rare to find anything really good in my size.  Still, it’s fun to look and browse.

Our next destination is to see an old friend in San Marcos which is located half way between San Antonio and Austin up north.  We’ll go there for a few days and then head on to Louisiana.