goose island state park

 A nice day touring the area culminating in a nice meal with Mike and Cheryl.

A couple of lessons learned relative to shooting videos: the camera picks up everything on window, my 10 year old laptop struggles to process the videos. You try and shoot in high resolution for sharpness and clarity, then have to dumb it down to upload. The original of this video was 1.57gb in size, got it down to 900mb but still took 30 minuets to up load. I have a lot to learn...







 Rockport is a nicer little town than I expected. Nice shops instead of tourist traps and some nice restaurants. Tomorrow the plans call for a fishing trip, that means rolling out of bed in the 4:30am range. What the hell was I thinking...

carpe diem

palmsrv

Pardon my learning in real time. It is one thing to shoot multiple videos, combine them together, add captions. Then they have to be "shrunk" in order to upload with out taking for ever, then added to blog for viewing. Not complaining, but a lot of effort goes into making it happen. Hopefully as I learn more and get better it will become easier. And for you sharp eyed readers, yes I misspelled "between" but refuse to go thru steps to correct my boo boo.

Hope you enjoy my future efforts

Day 1

 Well Elvis has finally left the building. We left home this morning after our traditional IHOP going away breakfast. It was a relatively short travel day to Aransas Pass and we will be here till August 2nd. Mike and Cheryl arrive tomorrow and will be here till the second as well. Not much done today but getting settled in. Tomorrow we plan to go visit Goose Island state park then meet Mike and Cheryl for dinner HERE

 Our travel day looked like THIS

 Compare that map to our friends Steve and Judy little summer trip MAP

 Internet speed, or lack of, is frustrating me but will try and post more pictures and some videos along the way.

 Courtesy of Google Earth, our home for the next five days

we are back to gathering rosebuds. Was a great summer and will miss our friends but we are happy to be road warriors once again




carpe diem

Countdown time

Ten days to go before we leave.

 It has been a quick summer so far. We have learned a new card game and have enjoyed some great evenings playing it with friends. Mary has become a regular in the volleyball pool and has really improved. We play four days a week, two hours at a time. Full confession in that we do not play regulation volleyball in the summer. During the season it is predominately regulation play as preferred by the winter Texans. We play a version that we call jungle ball. No limits on number of hits, or same person hitting it twice. Just keep the ball dry, do not let it hit the water. Good exercise, good time spent with friends, and yes it gets competitive. Added bonus of being in the water keeping cool. Speaking of the heat, we find it milder here. Yes, it stays around 100 but with a breeze. Back in Alvord it would be 100 and not a breath of air moving. In fact Alvord has recorded higher temps than has Edinburg.

 I have purchased an action camera that shoots movies in 4k resolution. As part of that I have been learning video editing. Hope to present some to you along the way. Promise they will not be like your fathers home movies.

Life is good here in the magic valley but our wanderlust is calling us to the road.



"...gather ye rosebuds while ye may..."

Epilogue

 Tomorrow we make the final push to home, about 150 miles or so. That will make about 1650 miles over 19 days on this short little trip. Not so small when you put it in those terms


 Choke Canyon is a nice state park. Sites are spaced nicely and one does not feel crowded. When we got here Wednesday it was empty. Today it filled up quite a bit and will be full for the holiday weekend. Once again, joy of retirement allows us to be here midweek, quiet time. We will return many times I am sure as we like it here


 This travel blog will take a little hiatus during June and most of July. We leave July 28th embarking on a four plus month journey. I will of course document our travels then. In the meantime, preparations for that trip, some doctors and a lot of water volleyball.


 Thank you Wes for the feedback relative to the map. I will do it again this fall out of curiosity and record keeping. With 24 plus stops planned, I will far exceed the capabilities of the program. It may be divided into segments


until late July....


carpe diem

Choke Canyon

 Why Choke Canyon you might ask. Valid question

1.Never been here
2.Steve and Judy have stopped here several times
3. On the way home.
4.We do not want to go home yet.

 This little 19 day foray is fast coming to and end. Been fun and not ready to return to normal living. But return we must. Have seen deer, Javelina, plenty of birds and three camera shy wild turkey


 A few scenes from Choke Canyon

sorry,photo taken thru front windshield

Mary and the girls

May travel map


a few more rosebuds to gather

Kerrville

 The predicted monsoon never developed and we have enjoyed some decent weather. Once upon a time these small country towns along the river; Kerrville, Ingram and Hunt had a lot of charm. Small towns with rustic cabins or campgrounds where people came on vacation, or just the weekend. Well the people came and they forgot to leave. Kerrville has more arts and cultural centers than many places a lot larger. It is midweek and the traffic is non stop. Wait till holiday weekend crowd gets here. Still in a pretty part of the hill country, just not the quiet country setting. People fleeing Austin and San Antonio I am sure. A lot beautiful homes and several retirement/assisted living places. Who knows maybe our future home is here. In spite of the negatives we shall return again. Very different from the RGV and within a days drive.


  There obviously was a rip in the space time continuum. Easter Island meets Stonehenge!

 The camera in Mary's phone, a Samsung Galaxy S7, consistently takes better pictures than my Canon DSLR, especially in low light conditions.

 Some better photos of the park than those previously posted.

 Because we pretty much had the park to ourselves, we invited some guest to join us.

 Some times my partner does not want to be my model...

 If your mama looked at you like that, a whipping was probably coming!


 Tomorrow it is on to Bandera, dude ranch capital of the world and points south.



gathering rosebuds and making memories...