Palm Trees in southern Florida

Thursday, November 28, 2013

Let the Holidays Begin!


The holiday season starts again.
For most of my life Thanksgiving Day was the start of the 'holidays'. This Year I saw a store putting out Christmas things next to the Halloween stuff.
Part of living long enough to see these changes I guess.


I saw a Christmas tree in a pick-up the day before Thanksgiving & wondered it that was too early. Then I thought some more and wonderd "why" that thought?

In Hawaii the boat with the Christmas trees came in around Thanksgiving. You either got one then or waited until later and got want was left, the boat had come in.
Since those days the family went out the weekend after Thanksgiving to cut one down. I guess I had a brain fart on seeing the first tree of the season, I guess it's not really too soon.

I'm going to smoke a turkey in the Weber this year, it's 10.5 lb bird. This is not the first time I've done a turkey on the Weber, smoked turkey is really good. I'm looking forward to it!
The plan is to make dressing in a dutch oven, there will be a lot of coals getting used out here!

This is the first time I've used the Weber in a year, it's been stored in a storage box on the roof along with the charcoal chimney starter. I took it down, put it together and saw I was missing  the grate that hold the coals.
Took some driving but Lowes had a box full of both the replacement grills so we are ready!
I did carry it around for a year without using it, that was not part of the 'plan' but I guess that's how it is...

Have a good Thanksgiving folks!


Roof top storage box

The Weber grill's home


The 'new' grate
Get the fire started
1st check & tin foil time
The dressing was cooked in a 10" dutch oven, 14 coals on top & 7 on the bottom
Sliced smoked turkey
Oh darn, too many leftovers! On the other hand not too worry about what to have for dinner for a few days.

Thursday, November 14, 2013

The RV as Housing & the end game

I was watching the guy across the road from me have deck built in front of his RV. It's a nice deck, almost as long as the rig & 12' wide. It sits on special bricks, nothing in the ground. Treated wood, rails & a ramp rather than stairs, I asked him about the ramp. He has a friend who uses a wheelchair and realizes that someday he might he might be on one of those powered scooters.
Someday... he was planning for the end game.

I looked around at other trailers that had decks & other additions to make their home more of a home and wondered about that. There are a number of people here who pay a year at a time, they have no intention of moving. They live here in the winter or come down once a month for a weekend of fishing, this is their 'house at the beach'.
There was a guy who took his deck apart and loaded the boards into the back of his pickup and left, later he came back and picked up his trailer, he was gone & the spot was vacant. A "house at the beach" that can be moved.

I think about all the other parks I've been to or noticed as I traveled, there are a lot of people who's home is an RV in a park. They own their own home and rent the land it sits on.

I got involved in a discussion about fulltiming on a forum, when to start and how to exit. I started thinking about it.

We started because there were places we wanted to go & things we wanted to try, someday.
We found ourselves in a situation where going full time was an option, it was not a pleasant situation but there it was. Someday was here.  We took it.

We needed a 'plan'. Part of 'the plan' was what we were going to do & what if we got tired of it?  The end game.
The "do" part solved itself as the days went on, the exit plan turned out to be simple.
We had our home, it has wheels and it was always going to be parked somewhere, if we got tired of traveling or we found a place we really liked we could just find a spot and stay there.

No matter where you are the Golden Arches at not far away


I have met a guy who has an RV in one park and another in a different part of the country, they drive between them as the seasons change. There is more than one way to stop full timing.

Beach access #5 on Padre Island, Texas
  I just added the photos because I can't see doing a blog without some photos

Thursday, November 7, 2013

Rockport

We arrived at a new place with nothing in mind but not being cold this winter, some new country to see and I'd like to see the sun rise from the water....
 
We went the 60 miles to Padre Island for the sun rise
There are a LOT of RV parks in the Rockport area. We are across the bridge from the Rockport/Fulton area, it's quiet.

I'm not sure what I was looking for but I did find friendly people and quiet. 

I found warm weather, warm water, a bit of humidity, grits on the menu, the cheapest gas I've seen in a long time, boats and more boats, oyster po' boy signs, flat, trees, a CG helo, a CG Falcon jet, off shore oil rigs, jelly fish, two used book stores, Portagee man o' war, birds, bait, fish & fees. 

Other things too...

Rockport beach from the pier
A smoker, they have smaller ones & regular grills too

Oil rigs

A giant crab sculpture

I've started buying drinking water from a machine again and ice from the 7-11.  Just to be different I had the heater on this morning and wore a sweatshirt when I went outside.


I think it's going to be a good winter.... I do have a question, which is the "best' Mexican restaurant in the 'area'?