Winter Texans...

Well, I think we are officially "Winter Texans" although even we have not escaped these wonderful winter storms that have been plaguing us all.  Its been a while since I've posted so lets see if I can get us caught up.

At the end of January, we drove to visit our friends Jim & Sandie who are in McAllen, Texas and will be joining us here on SPI in March.  The area is much larger than we anticipated and it is estimated that the normal 100,000 population swells to over 300,000 due to Winter Texans.  So what exactly are Winter Texans, not quite sure, but we all seem to be hiding from winter in Texas so you can draw your own conclusions.

Matt has had several really good days of kiting and even some extremely windy days before the first winter storm in the first few days of February.  We had winds 30+ and temperatures in the 30's and spent about 18 hours without power.  Now normally, that is not an issue for us, but of course, when we needed it, the generator would not start!!  We did manage to have a wonderful ice storm that left us with several inches of ice all over everything. 

The truck was encased in ice.

The trailer with its ice sheets.  All morning and afternoon we cringed inside as huge ice sheets fell off.  We were a bit scared to walk anywhere near it.  Notice the open generator compartment where Matt was trying to fix it.

We did manage to warm up back into the 70's before this week's storm hit.  We visited the Kite Festival here on the island and the size of the kites were amazing.

That is a huge flying octopus!!!

Quite the variety of kites.

We decided to bypass the RV during this storm and drove about 3 hours north of here to Corpus Christi, Texas.  We hit the cold front about an hour north of here and were hit by 40+ mph winds and a drop in temperature from 67 to 33 in a few very short minutes.  We took advantage of several scrapbook and guitar stores while in Corpus on our first day.  While in Corpus, we visited the Texas State Aquarium.  It is a great facility and we enjoyed the great exhibits although we scurried through the outside exhibits due to the cold.

Here I am enjoying my favorite exhibit, the Sea Horses.

Matt enjoys his favorite exhibit with some very large fish and sharks swimming around.

Since it was so chilly outside, we watched the dolphin show from a showroom that gave us a view inside the tank.

After visiting the aquarium, we drove around Corpus Christi bay and visited the Padre Island National Seashore.  It is amazing to me that the Padre Islands (North and South) make up about a 150 mile long barrier island to the Texas coast.  After a great shrimp dinner at Snoopys, we drove back to our hotel for the night.

Yesterday was our last day in Corpus and we visited the USS Lexington, an aircraft carrier now located in the bay. It was an amazing tour with over 100,000 square of touring area with lots of steep stairs to climb up and down.

The USS Lexington where she now rests in the Corpus Christi bay.

The tower of the ship which includes the bridge and captains quarters.

Can you imagine landing fighter planes on this small little strip with a boat pitching and rolling beneath you.

Matt enjoying one of the exhibits.

Can you imagine sleeping in these quarters?  The sailors didn't just imagine it, they lived it.

The Emergency room on board the ship.

This is actually the sick bay in the hospital area.  Can you imagine being sick and having to climb into one of the top bunks?

Well, I think that just about catches us up.  We returned to SPI yesterday and the weather is gradually improving.  We should be in the 70's this week again, thank goodness....

Port Isabel - Texas

Wow, can't believe we have already been on the beach for 10 days.  Time flies when its warm!!!!  We've spent the last week continuing to settle into beach life and getting reacquainted with the island and surrounding areas. 

Lets see, what have we been up to:

• We fought off the old people (who don't know what a line is) at the Farmer's Market last Sunday to get the last container of new potatoes (Yummy!!!).  We also got our favorite huge bag of grapefruits for only $5.
• We've weathered several days in the low to mid 50's that were just down right chilly (yep, we basically camped indoors).
• Matt did get his first (and so far only) day of kiting in last Tuesday.  It was quite chilly and I sat on the beach in pants, long sleeve t-shirt, and a fleece, but it was bearable.
• Since Wednesday, it has been getting progressively warmer and sunnier.  It was in the mid 60's today and sunny so it was wonderful to be outside.  We did manage to hang out on the beach for some time yesterday and I of course am now sporting my first (and surely not last) sunburn of the season.

Today we decided to drive over the causeway to visit the small town of Port Isabel.  It is a very cute little town all centered around the causeway leading over to South Padre Island (SPI).  This shows the bridge leading over to SPI and the tall buildings in the background are SPI.

 We toured the historic lighthouse and climbed the stairs up to the top for a panoramic view of the town, bridge and SPI. 

We then walked around the waterfront piers and found many very large pelicans hanging out around the fish cleaning station.  There was quite the battle when fish parts were thrown out.  I can't believe how large these birds are. 

After a good lunch at the Pirate's landing, we headed to Wal-Mart to pick up a juicer so we can make juice out of the $5 bag of grapefruits from the Farmer's Market.

Much needed photo updates

So its been quite a while since I've posted photos on here so I thought I'd share some photos that have been living on my camera since we left Alaska. 

Here are some photos that I took the night that we left Haines in the snowstorm and also aboard the ferry as we traveled down the Alaskan inside passage.

Here is what the truck and trailer looked like when we arrived at the ferry terminal.  We would wait 5 hours for the boat to arrive and would have about 4 new inches of snow to scrape off when we finally got ready to drive onto the boat.

This is the ferry that we took out of Haines and into Bellingham, Washington (just north of Seattle).

Another view of the snowy ferry lot on the night we left.

Here Matt is relaxing in one of the bunks in our stateroom onboard the ferry.

Here is the truck and trailer on the car deck of the ferry.  Not any excess room anywhere.

This set of photos is from our recent Shetzer Family Reunion in Chicago.  We visited the Chicago Musuem of Science & Industry to tour the U505 German submarine exhibit.  During the war bond tours following WWII, Ted served on the  U505 during the tours of the boat.

Here is the whole family in front of the U505 along with our guide, Art.

The foreward torpedo room of the U505 - Look at the bunks, can you imagine sleeping in there?

Here Ted is in the control room of the U505.

Beach Life...

We made it to South Padre Island (SPI) yesterday afternoon after a 7 hour drive from Houston.  We arrived to sunny skies and temperatures in the 60's.  We were given an option of two spots and actually ended up choosing a spot that was 3 down from our original reserved spot.  Its great with a view out the back window of the beach and ocean.  We watched a beautiful full moon rise over the ocean last night.

Today started out cloudy and warm with highs around 67 so it was shorts and sandals!!!  Although about 3 this afternoon, we finished our errands in time for a nice cold front to come blowing in.  The winds have been averaging over 30 mph with gust over 40 mpg so we are rocking and rolling!!!  I have now chased shoes and of course Pinkie over our campsite and our neighbors.  Everything is safely inside now.

Included in our errands today was a search for a new wetsuit for Matt.  We had quite the comedy last night as Matt tried on his wetsuit from 15 years ago.  He got it on, but....  Needless to say, Matt is not an extra small anymore and after being stuck in the wetsuit for some time, we did manage to finally get him out without having to cut him out.  It was touch and go for awhile as he lay giggling and exhausted across the bed and I was giggling and exhausted after pulling on the head, arms and legs.

Tomorrow is forecasted to be cool and windy so we'll have another quiet day and hope to get Matt out kiting over the weekend.

Warm & Sunny Houston?????

Sorry its been so long since I've updated the blog, but with the holidays and all, its been a little nuts.

We enjoyed several weeks in Missouri with Angela's family for the Christmas and New Years holidays.  It was great to watch the little ones open their presents and be excited for Santa!!!

Here, Laura, Katelyn & I marvel that the Gingerbread House is still standing.

Yep...  I'd say she was very excited over Christmas!!!  She woke us up in the trailer bright & early Christmas morning.

Crazy for "Pun Bob" - That is Sponge Bob for those of you who don't speak toddler.

 More Christmas photos available here.

We have been in Houston for a little over a week now and enjoyed a couple of nice weather days before making a freezing trip to Chicago to visit the Museum of Science & Industry.  It was a great trip and the U-505 submarine was amazing.  I don't have any good pictures of it yet, but will post when I have one.  Click on the highlighted links for more information.

We will be in Houston until next Wednesday and then will head to South Padre Island again for several months.  We are ready for the warm weather as its been quite chilly here in Houston with lows in the 30's and highs only in the 40's & 50's.

Pinkie's new friend

We have spent the last week and a half frantically running around Denver on various errands and getting to visit friends.  Its been a lot of fun and we have definitely missed "home".  We will leave tomorrow to start the 12+ hour drive to Missouri to spend Christmas with my family.  We will be there for about a week and a half and then we will head to Houston to be with Matt's family for New Years.

As we returned to the RV this afternoon after running a few more errands and braving the huge Christmas shopping crowds, we found that Pinkie had gotten tired of being left alone and had made a new friend in the neighborhood bunny rabbit. 

Here she is with her new friend...

Ah... the joys of Colorado weather...

And the fun begins....  hopefully the weather will clear out for our drive on Sunday.

...WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 6 PM WEDNESDAY TO NOON
MST THURSDAY...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN DENVER HAS ISSUED A WINTER
WEATHER ADVISORY FOR SNOW...WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 6 PM
WEDNESDAY TO NOON MST THURSDAY.

* TIMING...LIGHT TO MODERATE SNOWFALL WEDNESDAY EVENING THROUGH
  LATE THURSDAY MORNING.

* ACCUMULATION/WIND...SNOW TOTALS WILL RANGE FROM 3 TO 7 INCHES
  WITH THE HIGHER AMOUNTS ACROSS SOUTHERN AND WESTERN SECTIONS OF
  THE METRO AREA. NORTHEAST WINDS 10 TO 20 MPH WEDNESDAY EVENING
  WILL WEAKEN AFTER MIDNIGHT.

* IMPACTS...ROADS WILL LIKELY BECOME SLUSHY AND POSSIBLY SNOW
  COVERED OVERNIGHT. BRIDGES AND OVERPASSES MAY ALSO BECOME QUITE
  ICY. MOTORISTS SHOULD PREPARE THEIR VEHICLES BEFORE WEATHER AND
  ROAD CONDITIONS DETERIORATE WEDNESDAY EVENING.

64 Degrees in December???

Wow, we had 64 degrees and sun today here in Denver.  Matt and I wanted to run around in our flip flops!!!  We figured it has been about 3 months since we have seen weather that warm.  Another 60 degree day tomorrow!!!

We have spent the last week running lots of errands and enjoying being back in civilization.  Well, maybe I should define civilization to mean "different restaurants".  I think we've hit just about every restaurant that we can think of in the last week.  As I was cooking dinner tonight, I realized it was the first time I've cooked in the RV since before we left Haines in November. 

We had a great weekend staying in the mountains with Jayme & Andy.  We were both surprised that we had a touch of altitude sickness with a nasty little headache.  I guess when you spend the last 8 months at sea level, its easy to lose!  We enjoyed visiting their beautiful new home and trekking around in the new snowfall.  Too bad our skis are in Missouri in my car!!!  Guess we didn't think that one through!!!

We are still hoping to leave next Sunday to start the two day drive to Missouri for Christmas but they are forecasting a bit of snow so we will be keeping a watch on it.

Ahhh... Sunny Colorado

We left Wyoming about 7:20 this morning and arrived into our campground in Arvada about 12:15 this afternoon.  The drive started out with more of our favorite freezing fog and slick roads but after an hour and a half, it cleared up and we actually saw dry pavement and that big bright thing in the sky.  We had a pretty short day with less than 300 miles to finish off the drive. 

We arrived to sunny weather and temps in the 40's in Denver and thought we had crossed the equator and should put shorts on!!!  In all seriousness, it is really good to see the sun and have a bit of warmer weather. 

Also, for those of you who have been replying to the email that you receive on the blog postings, I just discovered that I have only been receiving those for about the last week (I had no idea anyone was repsonding that way).  So if you thought we were ignoring you, I am so sorry!!!  I think I have it all fixed now so that you can just reply in a normal email and we will receive your comments.  If anyone is interested in getting the emails instead of having to check the blog, just email me and I'll get you started.

Here is a photo of our overnight camping spot last night among the big rigs in a travel stop.  We actually look small here but notice all the frozen stuff all around...  The trailer has been complaining that she misses her daily shower and is now really dirty.

Foggy Idaho, Utah & Wyoming

We left the Oregon/Idaho border at 8am and drove over 600 miles to Wamsetter, Wyoming. We have less than 300 miles to make it to Denver tomorrow. Today' drive was spent mostly in fog & freezing fog. The roads were definitely better. We are hoping for better weather tomorrow but not holding our breathe as the fog caused us to stop earlier than we wanted tonight.


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