Happy New Year from San Antonio

New Years in San Antonio is amazing!  Here at the RV park they had a great party including champagne, drawings for prizes, dancing, party hats, and noise makers.  I had a great time fast dancing with the 'girls' while John and I slowed danced for the first time in years.

But the most amazing part was the fireworks in the city.  Texas hasn't had fireworks for the last 3 years (I think that's right) due to the drought.  With the recent rains, they lifted the ban.  However, it is still the law not to set off fireworks within San Antonio city limits.  Well, I have never heard this much fireworks continuously ever.  It started before dark and is still going after midnight (7+ hours).   It's 1 am and going strong.  I haven't seen any evidence of fireworks being set off in the RV park, but the whole area is smoky from neighborhood fireworks since around 10 pm.  I mean really smoky.  At midnight it was extremely loud with fireworks all around the area.

We heard that fireworks are big all over Texas.  I guess Texas churches sell fireworks as a money maker.  Fireworks can be seen on the 4th of July in Ohio, but nothing like this and very little for the new year.

Wow!

Hope you all have a wonderful new year!!!

River Walk in the Evening

Several years ago (2008?) I was in San Antonio for a conference.  Every day I walked a section of River Walk between my hotel and the conference center.  One of my final days, I had to go back to my hotel at lunch.  By that time in the week, I was exhausted.  As I'm walking back to the conference center, I heard a pan flute band play along the river.  I ended up sitting down and listening for several songs.  I may have missed some presentations, but it was worth it and one of the highlights of my week.

Today I dragged John along River Walk to see if I could find the spot.  Suddenly I heard the same Peruvian pan flute music!  It was so cool to listen to the group again, this time with Christmas lights glowing.  Wonderful!

We had dinner along River Walk.  As it got dark, the lights on the trees, restaurants, and arches turned on.  As I mentioned earlier, supposedly there were over 1.4 millions LED lights this year.  I can believe it!  You can see where they had to use a strand just to go around the trunk twice.  The lights just circled and circled the trees from the base then way up in the trees and out on the branches.  I found online that it costs the city $115,000 to just put up the lights every year.  Wow!

Hints for Living in Tiny Places

I am fascinated by the small house life style.  As an energy management consultant and closet environmentalist, the idea of keeping my footprint small by only owning what I need and reducing my energy use with a small home sounds great.  I’m finding out what this really means by living in an RV.  Some hints:

-       The cardinal rule is a place for everything and everything in its place.   Once you find a spot for an item, keep storing it there so you don't have to search for it later.

-       Question whether you need every item.  There are a lot of things sold for RV’s that you really don’t need.  Plus, while getting the 8 pack of paper towels is OK for a larger space, it doesn’t work in an RV.  You can always go to the store later. 

-       In most cases, if you buy something it means you need to get rid of something else.  For instance, John got a new skillet from Santa so the old one was trashed.

-       Hooks, lots of hooks for hanging things.  It keeps things handy and makes for more room in drawers.

-       Buy small or things that fold up.  That includes things like the coffee machine, small folding tables, and camp chairs.  Bigger isn’t better in a small RV.

-       Get rid of packaging.  It’s the first thing we do after coming back from shopping.

-       Learn every nook and cranny and use them.  We have things stored under the bed, inside walls, and under seats.  The other point, though, is not to forget where you hide items!

-       Layer clothes.  I have mostly short sleeve shirts then I add a jacket or long sleeve shirt instead of having a summer and a winter set of clothes.

Even though we cut back to 'essentials', after a few months of full-timing we plan to go back to our storage unit in Arkansas to store things we brought that we found out we don’t really need.  We’re still learning on all this. 

Fun Day

We've decided to spend 2 weeks in San Antonio.  There's lots to see here, the people are friendly, and we hear that they have great fireworks on New Years Eve.  We're not going downtown (250,000+ people!) but we can see the fireworks from the RV park.  Plus, they'll have a party here.  Nice not having to drive home after a New Years Eve party.  We've reach the point where there were years we didn't even stay up so this will be different.

John went golfing with a group from the RV park.  Mostly Winter Texans that come back to this park year after year.  Just a nice relaxing day of golf.

I did some laundry plus walked to the San Jose Mission again.  Fourth time there and I still found places I hadn't found before.  David's always happy just playing video games in the RV.  Everyone got to do things they enjoyed, so a good day!

San Antonio Missions

San Antonio is chock full of missions.  Well, actually five different missions.  The Alamo is the first one built.  Obviously, it's more famous for the battle than the fact it was a mission.  The second was the San Jose Mission that we visited last week.  Today we visited the other three.  In most cases, they are less preserved than the San Jose Mission, but there is more original coloring.  Plus, they are all being restored in some way or another.

Spain claimed Mexico along with a major portion of the southwest.  After realizing there was no city of gold, they began converting the natives to the Catholic faith and teaching them Spanish culture and technology (mills, masonry, looms, etc.) to make them Spanish citizens.  The missions were used to accomplish this.  Each of them had a church, a convent, and rooms for the natives.  Classes were held for the children and farms and ranches were outside the walls.   They set up an amazing system to irrigate the fields.

The missions are great to see.  It's hard to imagine what life was like before the Spanish came.  The Spanish conquistadors brought European diseases like measles and mumps that killed a majority of the natives.  Texas was full of grasslands.  Overgrazing by domesticated animals along with a change in burn techniques changed the landscape to scrub bushes and cactus.

Change is good?

Merry Christmas!

We just returned from Christmas lunch at the park.  Lots and lots of food!  We didn't know anyone, but that doesn't matter.  The people at our table were from all over, but we have in common RV horror stories and tales of the good places to visit.

Christmas in an RV

I’m not sure how Santa found us, but he still came to our RV.  We had a Christmas tree (well, a green curtain that we have separating sections) plus ornaments (earlier stored away in a small box) along with some Christmas cards we received (thanks!). 

This year our gifts were small and things we can use in the RV.  By the way, no Christmas cards or the traditional Belt Bulletin this year. Our blog is substituting for the Christmas letter.

The day before Christmas was cold and rainy so no caroling but it was perfect for sitting in our comfy RV watching movies.  For lunch today, we are joining the RV park for dinner.  The park is supplying turkey, while the rest of the meal is pot luck.  Not a bad holiday.

Our best wishes to you all.  Hope your holidays are relaxing yet exciting!

Mission San Jose

After Riverwalk, we picked up David at the RV and walked down to Mission San Jose that I had visited in the morning.  David’s not big into sightseeing, so the only way we talked him into it was because there was a Pizza Hut across the street.  Oh, and I also scammed both David and John.  It didn’t seem like a long walk in the morning, maybe ½ mile.  Well, it was more like a mile.  Both of them weren’t happy with the longer walk, especially when we returned after dark along a major road without many sidewalks.  Oops!

The mission was neat.  There were thick walls around it.  Though, as David told us, they were not very tall if they intended to defend the compound.  Inside were rooms along the outside wall for natives to live.  They had communal fireplaces built along this area along with wells in several places.  Inside the walls was a convent and a chapel. 

Outside the mission was a grist mill.  A guy there explained the system of making flour extremely well.  The picture shows the flour coming out into the wood bucket plus a sample of wheat and flour in the bowls.

And, yes, we enjoyed the pizza!

Interesting People

We met some fascinating people in San Antonio.  As we were walking down the streets of San Antonio, a woman walks up and in a querulous voice asks if we could give her a quarter since she was homeless.  She seemed like she was ready to cry.  I said no and kept walking on.  Suddenly we hear behind us in a strong voice, “F___ing b_tch.”   Yep, that’s the way to get people to give money to you!

At the Alamo, we saw an older man standing in the square talking away about how he found Jesus.  No one was near, but he kept on talking.  

As we got to the entrance to the Alamo, they stopped us to take a picture.  I’m thinking, what is this for…security?  Then they tell us we can pick up a copy inside for a fee.  OK, I expect this on a cruise or when riding a roller coaster, but they talk about this being a shrine and you’re hawking pictures? 

A good thing was when we heard a small group singing Christmas carols in front of a Christmas tree at the Alamo.  We also saw a mariachi band performing along Riverwalk.  Very cool!

Alamo and River Walk

We are so proud.  Today we took a bus from the RV park to downtown San Antonio and then back.  Figuring out stops, how to pay, and how to notify the bus driver when we wanted to get off were all a bit challenging.  OK, it’s probably not as hard as David flying for the first time by himself, but it was an accomplishment for us!  Much more exciting and interesting than just driving (though finding a parking space might have been challenging too).


John and I went to the Alamo today (David wasn’t interested).  It’s interesting to see the difference in points-of-view between the Alamo and the Sam Houston museum.  According to the info at Sam Houston museum, Houston had asked Jim Bowie to collect the weapons stored at the Alamo and return with the people to the main force.  At the Alamo they said Houston asked Bowie to investigate the circumstances and that Houston then ignored requests for help from the Alamo.  The Alamo said that Houston kept retreating then finally fought and won the war.  The Houston museum said that he strategically withdrew to stretch the Mexican resources so he could win.   Like I said…interesting. 

After the Alamo, we walked along Riverwalk.  It’s a neat walk below street level with restaurants along the side of the river with boat tours and arches over the water.  I’d love to go back to see the lights after dark.  The trees are just full of lights.  Heard a story that the city is having problems with squirrels chewing through the wires.  I'm not sure how much is damaged since there is supposed to be over 1.4 million lights.

Walking on the Wild Side

I love taking a walk in the morning.  I'm most awake in the morning, it's quieter, plus the lighting is great for pictures.  This morning I walked to the nearby San Jose Mission.  I'd tell you more about it because it is a national park, but the visitor center wasn't open yet.

Instead, I walked around the mission taking pictures from various angles.  It was wonderful to hear the chapel bells ringing in the morning.  Then I found an open door to the compound.  It was after 8 am and hey, an open door is an invitation.  So, I was able to get some pictures inside the compound.  But, no one else was around.  I'm not sure if a ranger left the side door open as he was walking in or what, but I really enjoyed having a quiet moment.  It's a beautiful place in the morning.

Old Age

Forgot an earlier story (old age?).  John is 64 while I'm 52.  I am always amused when he gets a senior discount, plus I'm cheap enough to make sure he gets the discount when we can.  When we stopped at one of the museums, I mentioned with a laugh that we could get a senior discount, meaning for John.  After we paid and left the area, John mentioned that we got 2 discounts.  Dang, my first senior discount.  I am highly depressed!!!

David is home!  The RV is feeling smaller than ever, but it's great to have him home.  We did some shopping today to get food and the last few Christmas presents.  Our RV is packed full.  Tomorrow we leave for San Antonio.

Sam Houston and Prison for us!

We spent the weekend at Huntsville State Park, which is a little north of Houston.  First, we attended the ranger program on alligators.  Even after watching “Swamp People” on TV, there’s a lot we didn’t know about alligators.  There are 40-60 adult alligators at the park, but since it was cool weather most were under the water in the mud.  The park had lots of signs about not harassing the alligators.  I’m good with that!

 We did a quick stop at a statue of Sam Houston.  This is right by the highway in Huntsville.  According to Wikipedia, it’s the largest free-standing statue of an American (John is standing below in  this picture!).  Our next stop was to see the Sam Houston complex.  If you’re like me, you’ve forgotten who exactly Sam Houston was.  We could remember he was somehow tied to the Alamo.  So, quick biography…he was first governor of Tennessee then later led the Texas militia for independence.  He sent Jim Bowie to the Alamo to remove the artillery since he knew the Alamo could not be held.  Jim Bowie went to the Alamo, but decided to fight instead.  They lost to Santa Anna, the leader of Mexico.  Sam Houston was able to beat Santa Anna soon after in another fight.  Houston became the president of an independent Texas.  After Texas was annexed to the United States, Houston became a senator and later the governor of Texas.  He was removed from office when he refused to take an oath to the confederacy.  We learned lots more, but that’s plenty!  The picture of the Steamboat House is his home when he died.

Our final stop was at a prison museum.  Huntsville is the site of the first Texas prison.  Much of the museum was creepy with exhibits about the death penalty.  Some things were fascinating.  There were samples of things the prisoners made either with permission (wood work, signs) or without (weapons, art, games).  Plus, Bonnie and Clyde were killed by a man sent by the head of the Texas prison system.  So there were several exhibits concerning them.

Tonight we’ll be in Houston to pick up our son David from the airport.  It will be the first time home from college.  I’m feeling sorry for him.  Most college kids can run off to see friends during breaks.  David will be stuck in a 26’ RV with his parents!

And now a word from our sponsor

Today we went to Gaido's, a Galveston restaurant that's been in business for 100 years.  For a restaurant to last that long is pretty amazing.  We had some very good rich and buttery seafood for lunch. Mmmmm!  It was recommended by our financial advisor Keith Lucas.  Theorectically, Keith (or our Ameriprise account) is sponsoring our trip, hence the title of this post.  Oh, and the restaurant had a cool sign. 

Over the last few weeks I've seen lots of dead fish due to red tide. I've seen plenty of dead jelly fish on several different beaches.  This time I found a dead dolphin on the beach.  Really sad.  No picture.  Seems sorta disrespectful for a dolphin.   I'm not sure what killed the dolphin.  One other thing that was weird on the beach was a lot of soapy foam.  I've seen foam due to the waves, but this heavy foam blew across the beach.

The last two days have been extremely foggy.  I'm used to fog that burns off by 9 am or so, but this fog was all day.  It was thick enough you could only see 100 yards at times.  So, we spent a lot of time at the campground.  John's been working installing the towbar.  He's so happy, he got to buy more tools!

Galveston Homes

Galveston is a unique town.  Within the same neighborhood you can see small homes and large mansions.  The style varies wildly between beautiful gingerbread homes, unique statement homes, and 50’s brick ranches.  The condition ranges from condemned homes from hurricane Ike in 2008 to new homes built since then.  There are lots of gorgeous ironwork, stain glass, and thick wood doors.

We toured the Moody mansion.  It had 10 bedrooms, 5 baths, a theatre, library, music room, sewing room, grand hall, greenhouse and more miscellaneous rooms.  Just like being in our RV!

On the way back to the RV park we saw the home below.  It appears to be made from half of a water tower, oil tank, or maybe the top of a silo.  Very unique!

Birds

At our stop in Houston, the RV park had a pond along with a flock of very spoiled and overfed ducks.  All day they would walk around the RV’s looking to be fed.  They didn’t attack or anything, but they were big enough to be intimidating!

Neither of us are big birders, but it’s interesting to see the different birds in the South during the winter.  Some are northern birds that have migrated down here while others are exotic birds for us but common to the coast.  I’m sure there have been rare smaller birds, but we don’t know enough to identify them.  With the larger birds, we’ve seen various varieties of pelicans, egrets, and heron.

Sunday’s walk on the beach in Galveston was extremely windy.  Walking one direction froze me as it chilled me through all my clothes.  Walking the other way felt like someone was pushing me back against my shoulders.  It affected the birds too.  This group was lined up head first into the wind.

Tuesday’s walk was rather funny.  First, I saw a large bird standing on a pier just like in “Karate Kid”.  No crane kick though.  The real ones just fly away.  Next, I was walking back and a seagull starting hovering in front of me.  Walking under a bird is a crapshoot… literally.  So I was trying to walk to the side but more birds started hovering in front of me.  I finally got away without being bombed from above.

Galveston

We are staying near Galveston now.  On one side of the town we saw a couple of cruise ships.  On the other side, there is a seawall along the length of the town.  It consists of large blocks of granite (~4’ cubes).  I was really surprised to see the amount and size of granite used.  According to some info online, these were put here in 1910 from a quarry in Texas.  Think of how many kitchens are missing granite counters!

We walked around town to see the tree sculpture tour.  Hurricane Ike destroyed many of the large trees around the homes.  Homeowners decided to change the dead trees into art.  It’s a great idea!  The walk is enjoyable to see both the art and the homes.  Below are a few of our favorites ("Venus on a Half Shell", “Tin Man & Toto”, “Great Dane, and “Spongebob”.

Occasionally, we’ve been able to see oil rigs in the ocean far off in the distance.  From the Galveston Island State Park, we can see 3 rigs.  The picture below shows 2 rigs on either side of the rising sun.  Every once in a while a helicopter flies low across our camp ground.  John thinks these are from the rigs.

Onward Ho!

Well, I'm back after consulting in Ontario.  The snow was minimal, but it was still a shock to scrape windows again.  The other 'opportunity' was driving again.  Since I'm too short to easily reach the RV's gas pedal (and a pretty bad driver), I haven't driven much in about 2 months.  So driving both to and from work in the dark was a bit difficult.

Houston turned out to be almost as cold.  Mostly it was in the lower 40's and rainy.  So, John wasn't able to work on the tow bar yet.

We're traveling tomorrow to Galveston.  It looks like it will continue to rain off and on but be warmer.

Working Week

We're staying near the Houston airport this week.  Cindy is traveling to Ontario to do some consulting this week while John is staying at a nearby RV park.  I'm not looking forward to snow after being at the beach, but I should survive.  John will be busy installing a towbar along with some other work.  Plus, hopefully he can fish and golf in the area.  So, no new updates until next weekend.

Island Life

Texas has a series of barrier islands along the coast.  We stayed for two nights at Padre Island National Seashore.  It’s a largely untouched 70 mile long park.  The bad part of this stay was red tide.  Red tide is a high concentration (or bloom) of a certain microscopic alga in the water.  This causes a lot of dead fish on the shoreline (see the picture) along with an aerosol in the air that causes irritation.  This meant a lot of coughing and congestion.  Early on, it wasn’t bad enough to leave but it made it difficult to do more than walk along the beach for a little bit before the irritation was too much.  Two days of exposure was too much.  The second night we were coughing all night.  It doesn’t seem to be long lasting since our symptoms disappeared over the next 24 hours. 

The good part was camping near the beach and going to sleep listening to the waves.  It was very windy most of the time, which makes it good for windsurfing and sailing.  Stars were also very bright since there is no electricity at the campground and it’s fairly far from the nearest town (Corpus Christi).  We’d love to come back sometime when the red tide is gone.

The campground had some exceptionally friendly people.  We met part-timers, full-timers, and from all over the U.S. and Canada.   Some camped in tents, vans, small RV’s, and large RV’s.   We found some ‘normal’ full-timers.  Normal is defined as people like us.  Perhaps that’s not a valid definition?

It seems that many full-timers end up traveling for years before they buy a home again.  There is also a sub-set of full-timers that live almost exclusively in Walmart parking lots. Full-timing is a popular lifestyle with more variation than I expected.

One of the weird things we found on the beach was a special type of coral (yellow wire coral?) that looks like wire. It has a yellow outside and an internal portion that looks like wire. Personally, I thought the ranger was crazy when he told me this was coral, but we saw a lot of it on the beach mixed with seaweed. 

Our next stop was an overnighter at a state park south of Houston.  The drought has really affected this park.  Docks on the lake were 10-30’ from the water.  Some sections of the lake were completely dry.  However it was still a good stay and we got to watch an armadillo at our site.  He even liked the water that was dripping at our faucet.