YeeHaw...

Well, just as Pinkie is really settling into her Texan life, we decided that we will leave here on Sunday morning to start the 26+ hour drive to Zion National Park in Utah.

Ahhhhh….

I wanted to share a photo we took during dinner a couple nights ago at Louie's here on the island. We've finally starting having some warm evenings so we took advantage and decided to sit outside on the deck overlooking the Laguna Madre and a beautiful sunset. 


Here our twin margarita's are also enjoying the sunset before they disappear.

This thing leaks like a sieve....

Never say...  "I think we have got everything all fixed on the RV"....  Its bad luck...  and its never true!!!

This thing seems to spring a new leak every day so we have really started to dread the rainy days ...  Lets see if I can count all of the various leaks we have discovered since we began living in this thing a month ago...

1.  I discovered that our bedroom slide leaks when it rains.  Lets just say that getting out of bed and going "Squish" in the middle of the night is NEVER a good thing.  In Missouri, it only happened on my side of the bed, however down here, its now Matt's turn.  After several unsuccessful attempts with duct tape to fix it, we have now resorted to sliding in our bedroom slide when it is predicted to rain.  Makes for an interesting climb over for Matt as we can't walk around the bed when the slide is in.  Score #1 for the RV.
2. In Missouri we also discovered that the basement (the under bedroom storage area) leaked quite a bit.  Matt tightened all the locks on all the exterior doors and now they seem to be dry. Wohoo-We won one battle!
3. I discovered a phantom water puddle in the toilet area in Missouri.  It has never repeated itself nor did we ever figure out where it came from (and no, no one went to the bathroom in the floor).  Score 2 for the RV....
4. I discovered a small amount of moisture in the upper cabinet of the dining room slide.  Thank goodness, my scrapping stuff is all encased in plastic so no damage done.  This also has never repeated itself, however see #5 below.
5. The very corner of the dining room slide was wet under all the camera gear.  It has only done it once and we have no idea where the water came from.  We are continuing to watch it and move the camera gear when it rains. Yep... another score for the RV.
6. I went searching for something in my computer bag that I store in the front bedroom closet where the washer/dryer connections are.  Imagine my surprise when I pulled out the bags and found them soaking wet and mold growing on the carpet, GROSS!!!  I immediately yelled for Matt and he found that the water connections for the washer were so loose that he could tighten them quite a bit with his bare hands.  Of course, he had to work in a very small closet with only two small openings to tighten and re attach all the connections (see picture below).
7. Matt was working outside the RV and when he went to get into his toolbox that is stored in the "basement", he found quite a lot of water inside it.  After emptying out ALL of the tools and drying them off so they don't rust, he went in search of the leak.  He could see a drip, drip coming from the area just above.  It could either be from the shower pipes, the water pipes running into the bathroom or the shower itself.  We conducted a few tests consisting of me running water in various place and Matt looking for the drips.  We finally had a pretty good idea that the actual shower was leaking.  After inspecting the shower, there was no caulking ANYWHERE... Ugh...  Off to the hardware store, again.  Matt spent the afternoon caulking every square inch of the flooring, doors, everything.  Then we read that you can't run water in it for 36 hours...  No showers yesterday, yuck!!  We tested with showers today and no leaks...  yeah...  another one for the Shetzers...

Doesn't he look just so happy to be all folded into the closet....  This was the offending water connections in the front bedroom closet.

All in all, even with all the new leaks this week, its been pretty quiet.  Matt has kited for 3 days of the past week.  The other days, we spent exploring Brownsville (with stops at the Guitar Center for Matt and Michaels for me), revisiting the Birding and Nature Center (pictures to follow in a post later on) and of course fixing each new leak as it decides to show itself.

Happy Travels,
Angela

Rainy Days Continue

We've had a pretty quiet week.  The weather has been cloudy and rainy almost all week.  No new pictures, but I hope to have some this weekend of the birds and hopefully of Matt kiting as well.


Saturday - April 10 - Happy Birthday Sis!!!
We spent the afternoon at the North Flats and Matt got some kiting in. 

Sunday - April 11 

We started out the day by finally finding the Farmers Market here.  We picked up some great carrots, onions, pita bread, banana bread and the best tasting fresh grapefruit juice ever!!  We then headed to the North Flats and Matt was able to get in some kiting again.  We needed to restock food so we headed back over the bridge to Port Isabella to visit the local Wal-Mart.  Overall, great prices and found everything we needed for the coming week.

Monday - April 12

We have needed to wash the RV since we set out.  Between snow and Mag Cloride from Colorado and good ole Missouri mud, we were quite dirty (not to mention over 2500 miles of driving grime).  We set out in the morning to wash both the truck and the RV.  The clouds were threatening rain but we thought we could sneak it in.  Of course, as soon as Matt climbs up on the roof with bucket, hose and brush, it starts to rain.  By the time he finished the roof, it was a downpour.  We decided that we would be wet anyway so we continued to wash both.  We were quite wet and cold by the time we were done (of course, Matt has vowed that I don't get to hold the hose to rinse anymore).  After coming in and getting warm, we didn't leave the trailer for the rest of day as it rained.  We decided not to risk a leak and rolled in our bedroom slide.

Tuesday - April 13

A better day with only intermittent rain showers.  Matt decided to brave the weather and go kiting (like he doesn't get wet anyway).  I decided to stay at the RV and get some scrapbooking done.  I was able to get 4 pages done but since I'm only in 2007, I'm not in any danger of running out of pages to do.

Wednesday - April 14

The weather was pretty yucky again today so we decided to take the day to do our laundry and clean the RV.  This was my first time in a laundromat that I can remember.  I thought it was sort of expensive at $1.50 per wash and $1.25 per dry, but guess I have to get used to it.  Thank goodness it was all empty and we could do all 4 loads at once - I do have to say that doing that much laundry in an hour and a half is pretty nice!!  We came back to clean out the RV and continue our never ending battle against sand and these horrible little sticky burrs that hurt when you step on them and they attach themselves to your feet.  In the evening, I did my first attempt at Cajun boiled shrimp.  We had our neighbors over for dinner and I think my first attempt was pretty good. 

Thursday - April 15

We woke up to beautiful blue skies this morning but very little wind.  We had a quick little lunch outside and Matt learned a very valuable lesson on why he should not feed the local birds.  He decided to share his BBQ Pringle with the little begging bird.  He was quite cute, but then he got a little greedy and tried to land on Matt's arm to get more food.  When birds attack!!!  Needless to say, no more feeding the local wildlife.  I needed to do some work today so Matt decided to head over to the North Flats to wait for the wind to come up.  His patience was rewarded as he did finally get to sail around for a couple hours. The clouds and wind came in this evening so a quiet night in the RV for us.

I think that catches us up on a pretty quiet week.

The island is gone!

My island disappeared today :-(

Guess Matt was right.

Sent from my iPhone

There's an island out there!

Ok, lets just start off by reminding everyone that I was born and raised in a very land locked state so I am constantly learning more and more about the ocean and our coastlines.  Let me back up a bit to give you some updates from the last several days before I continue this thought...

I think I last posted on Sunday with the thought that both Matt and I would be working the first few days of this week.  We only ended up having to work long hours on Monday so we have had the rest of the week to relax and play a bit.

April 6 -  Tuesday, we had great wind so Matt got to kite.  We parked at our normal area on the North Flats and after Matt helped me setup the sun shelter, he was off to kite on the Laguna Madre (very flat water and no waves).  We met several people down at the beach and one of them had a kiting surf board for sale.  I had promised Matt that when we left Cabarette two years ago that on our next kiting vacation, he could have a surf board.  So needless to say, we are now the proud owners of a new surf board.  We also met our neighbors, Jim and Sandy, and planned for dinner on Wed night.  Below is Matt's guitar and office setup in the back of the trailer.

April 7 - Wednesday's wind was a little lighter so Matt was thrilled to be able to try out his new toy on the Laguna Madre side of the island.  He's trying to figure out how it all works before tackling the waves on the Gulf of Mexico side of the island.  We went with Jim and Sandy for dinner to Steamers here on the island.  Matt and I both had fantastic coconut fried shrimp.  They also took us on a tour of Port Isabel to a great Sports Bar, DoubleDay.  The fascinating thing about the bar is that all the memorabilia were from one man's private collection.  I can't believe there was so much.  Nothing like coming home and saying, "Hi Honey, I'm home from the races and I brought along two hoods of race cars...".  We also found a very good place to buy fresh shrimp so we can do a shrimp boil in the future.  We slept very little as a cold front came through about midnight and we weren't too sure if the trailer was going to stay put or not.  Its a bit hard to sleep when it feels like you are in a rocking chair (thank goodness, I'm not as motion sick as I used to be).  Below is my scrapping area at the dining table - I've done 4 pages so far since we've been down here.

April 8 - Thursday's weather started off unbelievably windy and after a night of little sleep, we decided to take it easy and run a couple of errands.  We were finally able to get caught up on a lot of stuff that we had put off since the house rented in March (like taxes, yuck).  We did do a quick walk down to the beach and it was so windy and the sea was so confused with waves crashing into each other, we decided to seek shelter in the RV.  Below is a picture I took from the public beach pavilion across from us (It was blowing too much to go out onto the beach).

April 9 - Friday:  So now back to the story at hand...  This morning, we are sitting at the dining table having breakfast and I look out the large window next to me and exclaim, "There's an island out there!".  Now remember, that we are on an island and I have been looking out the same window for the past week and viola, an island magically appears today...  Ok, well maybe not an island, but possibly a barge.  In my defense, it was not moving and it sits there even tonight.  Look at the picture below and let me know what you think....

Since the wind was light this morning and afternoon (by the way it is picking up as I type this, another sleepless night...), we decided to pay a visit to the South Padre Island Birding and Nature Center (LINK HERE).  It was a great site with lots of boardwalk, birds and a couple of alligators.
 

This was a very cool looking crane that we saw.  Not sure exactly what type he was though.

 

The resident alligator.  I believe they said that they had 3.  He didn't move much.

Yes, the alligator and the crane were actually this close together.  They each seemed to ignore the other.

 

The view from the water looking back at the museum building.

Well, I think that brings us up to date.  More to come in a couple of days....

Take care,
Angela

Welcome to Isla Blanca, South Padre Island

We arrived on Saturday afternoon to South Padre Island.  We fought the Easter weekend traffic to finally get across the bridge and into our RV Park, Isla Blanca.  We had our choice of a couple of spots for our month long stay so we finally decided on one that gives us quite a bit of room and no close neighbors, #C104.  We had forgotten how busy the Easter time could be on the Texas coast so we have only ventured for a couple of quick walks on the beach just about 100 yards from us.  It has been filled with several hundred if not thousand people who think the beach is their personal trash can, YUCK!!!  We'll be glad when things clear out tomorrow and everyone returns home.  

I wanted to share a couple of quick pictures that I took yesterday as we were settling into our spot.  We were not too sure what to think of the RV park as it is actually a county park.  The park is in a great location as it takes up the entire southern most tip of the island.  We had read mixed reviews with some commenting on how some spaces are "improved" by those who stay long term in a spot.  Ours is definitely one of those as you can see from the great flowers planted in our spot below:

Pinkie was definitely glad to get out of the closet where she has been riding safely since we left Denver.  She was a bit cranky after being in the dark for so long, but she is quite happy now in the flower garden.  Of course, it doesn't hurt that Matt might have shared his crown and coke with her.

We spent most of yesterday getting everything unpacked and ready to be able to live in for a month.  Today we ventured out on the island with the truck to scope out the kite spots for Matt.  Not only did we find them, but he was able to sneak in a couple hours of kiting.  Me and my white (well, maybe beyond white) legs decided that the sun shelter that we brought with us and SPF 50 sunblock were the highlights of the day.  I really hate it when you miss spots on your feet, but boy am I glad for that sunblock...

We both are most likely working the next couple of days so I will have another update for us in a few.

Bridge to Padre Island

We made it into Padre Island earlier this afternoon. There was quite
the traffic jam as we crossed the bridge. More pics to come later
tonight.