Christmas 2020

 Enjoyed a nice day, albeit quiet on Christmas. Finally caught a little bass to end my dry streak. Watched the deer play in the meadow from our site 336.

Lake Corpus Christi continued

 

 Enjoying a relaxing visit here lake side. No luck catching any fish but I keep trying. The lake is down quite a bit from March levels. I believe it is down about 4 feet and is around 51% capacity. Some heavy rains in the watershed would really help thing. A couple of photos of lake, pier and Christmas decorations.

more to come...

Christmas at the lake

  Way back in 2017 we spent Christmas at Lake Corpus Christi State Park. Was a welcome break from a lot of things happening. Fast forward to covid19 wrecked 2020. Cannot gather with family and wanting a change of pace we decided to return to same park. Park is nearly full like before. Even so it is easy to socially distance from others. Weather is perfect and we are enjoying our stay, more to come later.

Ever hopeful

 All our previous travel plans were cancelled due to corona virus pandemic. Wanting to be on the road we have plans to head out late August. Thought is other parts of country not as bad as the valley currently and we can easily social distance while camping. Along those lines i mapped out a journey of parks where we can roam and for most part avoid people/crowds. Have even been so bold as to make some reservations. Time will tell if we get to roam but as the blog entry title says, "Ever Hopeful" In the meantime perhaps a little wisdom from old Man river will help

Go with the flow

Go around the obstacles

Slow down and meander

Stay current

The beauty is in the journey!

Best laid plans

 Per the schedule we are in Stauton Virginia this week. A full schedule of visiting National parks, monuments and historic locations. Alas we are not there.

 Tomorrow brings a visit to cardiologist to be outfitted with monitor. Will wear it for a day or so to monitor heart. Thursday brings optomologist for the eye check. Not traveling provides time to review past travels. Mary came across this card we picked up in Charleston SC at Hyman's seafood. Enjoy a bit of humor as we take a look back to 2015.

carpe diem

Not per the plan

 If I look at my calendar it shows we left the valley on Sunday, May 3rd. Today we should be in Nashville with a full schedule having arrived yesterday. How did it go so wrong...

 Of course the main culprit is the shutdown due to Covid19 pandemic. Places we were going are closed per state orders. Darn, was so looking forward to the trip...

 Then just for good measure and really screw things up my body decided to attack itself. They tell me I had a ischemic stroke that affected the left side of my body. No major or lasting damage at this point. I continue to have strange sensations in arm and lips. My vision has changed and I have appointment with optomologist next week. While in hospital had no problems other than numbness in arm. The last several days have had bad dizzy spells and nausea. Drug caused or something more sinister? Creates fear/concern in your thoughts. Today brings appointment with cardiologist and tomorrow follow up with primary care physician. Probably will add neurologist to the mix. A lot of of time waiting for doctors. Not how we had planned to spend summer.

Strange Times

 Where we live in the RGV fills up with winter Texans during the winter months. By now most have returned north. Not this year. Park is near full, yet eerily quiet with social distancing. Travel by rv is not easy right now, even with cheap fuel prices. Restaurants closed, many parks not allowing new guest, Canadian border closed. Strange. What will the new normal look like when we begin to emerge? Time will tell...

Cancelled

 We have begun the process of canceling the first six weeks of our planned trip. No sense going to DC if everything is shut down. Plan is to hold on to plans past mid June. Disappointed to be sure, but safe decision.

Lake Corpus Christi State Park

 We end this little trip on the outskirts of Mathis. We have been here before and had reservations multiple times last year. Sadly we had to cancel those reservations. Our stay here was restful but was different than planned. The shutdowns caused by the corona virus pandemic modified our plans. Not to worry enjoyed our time and will return, partly due to proximity to home and partly due to fishing opportunities.

 As always I pay homage to the great work of the CCC's. Here we are enjoying the benefit of their hard work nearly 100 years later.

 Due to uncertainty caused by corona virus this may be our last trip for sometime. Hopefully life returns to normal soon.



carpe diem

Stephen F Austin

The trip from Tatum to San Felipe was uneventful till we reached Hempstead. It was there we experienced our first tire blowout. Several hours and several hundred dollars later we arrived at SFA state park.

 This is a large state park in a pretty setting. We did not do any hiking as we should have just relaxed. We have been here before and the ongoing corona virus pandemic distracted us I suppose. When passing thru Bellville last year we noted a store that interested us. We made a visit to it, enjoyed a nice lunch and picked up some smoked bacon.

 Now it is on to Mathis and Lake Corpus Christi state park, final stop on this two week trip. Then we try and adapt to the "new normal" as things close down. Summer trip will probably be cancelled in it's entirety.

What took us so long

 Our first visit to Martin Creek lake state park. This in spite of the fact we lived just 50 miles or so from here for 10 years. Oh well we have been now and probably will return. Henderson is on our short list as a future home town. Forgot how much we miss the tall trees of the area, not found in the RGV. Been fun but time to drift south, this time San Felipe and Stephen F Austin state park.

memories, eat what we can and presidents

 Spent a pleasant few days where our camping together began. Lake Somerville was our host in Yuega creek park. Back when first married we came here in our canvas tent and camped on weekends, always at Welch park. Welch is best suited for tents, not rv's so another campground was called for.

 In case you are wondering where Lake Somerville is it is located about 15 miles north of Brenham. If raised in Texas I do not need to remind you what is there. A rainy day provided the cover for a trip to creamery nirvana.

 While this close we also checked off number 4 on our list of visited presidential museum/library. No matter your political persuasion, a good and decent man, deserving of respect.

 This little two week journey continues from deep east Texas next.

My winter of discontent

 This has been the winter from hell for us. Ada was in the hospital and then moved to rehab. At the same time I had surgery. Mary was leaving her Mom in the hospital, driving to the valley to put me in the hospital. After coming home from surgery my body thought it would be fun if I developed a massive infection, (UTI, prostatitus and sepsis). Found this out after waking up with high fever and chills and trip to ER. This was a free standing ER facility and I asked doctor about when I could go home. His reply was there was an ambulance coming to transport me to the hospital. Glad it did because the next day I really got sick.

 Having entered 2019 never having had a surgery and having not spent a night in the hospital since 1975, boy what a change. Growing old is not for sissies.

  After being on what seemed like a merry go round from hell, at long last on January 13 I began my first timid steps on the way to recovery.

 Once recovery was truly underway we at long last were able to ride the Spyder. Two week trip planned for March, long weekend trip in April, then 5 months or so trip starting May 3rd. Stay tuned for interesting stops along the way.

gold Spyder is ours

friends and neighbors on lunch ride