Time flies!!

Wow! Time flies when you're having fun! You all know that we are in Texas, on the Gulf, at an RV resort on the beach. We have been asked to stay another season, and took them up on their offer. We are going to be here until at least April, 2011. We are thinking that we may even end up staying a bit longer, but we will see at the end of April.

While this wasn't our original intention, to be in one place for this long, we have been able to take care of a lot of stuff, and upgrade many things on the rig. Things that you just aren't even aware of, until you are living in it full time. Like replacing that crazy expensive, and incredibly tiny refrigerator with a residential one. Yes, this means that we can't use propane to run it, but we are on solar, and have been running it on that just fine.

Anyway........ the beach is beautiful now. We haven't been down there all season, just because there were so many people, and seaweed everywhere. It's so nice right now. The puppies have been down there with us twice this week, and have a ball!

There isn't a lot to do in Corpus Christi........ actually reminds us of Jacksonville. It's not nearly as big, just looks like parts of Jacksonville.

Here comes the summer!!

Ok, so you know we are working in a Rv resort, on the Gulf............ Our resort has has like 380 sites........... 200 rvs are coming in, between today and tomorrow! Most are staying for the summer!

I just saw that this is predicted to be one of the busiest hurricane seasons since 2005........ which is when Katrina hit New Orleans. I never expected to have to worry about hurricanes again, once we left Florida........ but now, we are right in the middle of the target area!

In other news, Lupe went back to the vet today, and is now on 2 months of antibiotics. Hopefully, this will be the end of this. I don't even want to tell you what the next step is, if this doesn't work.

This is our new back yard........

So this is our new back yard, this pic was taken the day we got here, Friday April 30. That day was very hazy......... but you get the idea. :)



In other news, on Sunday we took the ferry to Aransas Pass, which is about 9 miles from here including the ferry. We were driving around, just checking out the little town, when we drove by this................



How in the world did they get it up there?!?!?! I mean, I suppose it's much safer being on stilts, with the hurricanes and all............ but wouldn't it just blow the trailer away, or is that what the tires on the roof are for?

Met some of the other workampers today....

They are all super nice, and very inviting. We shook everyone's hand, except for one woman, she wouldn't shake our hands, had to have big hugs from both of us! :) One thing that they all said is how much they love it here. One even said, and I quote, "If you are going to workamp, this is the best place to do it!"

What a change from, "Oh, he is a tough cookie to work for", that is also a direct quote, about the owner in Ft. Stockton, from the owner of an rv store that we visited while in Ft. Stockton.


Another good thing that happened today, is that we discovered the ferry. :) Yesterday, and Friday, when we went shopping for supplies and groceries, we drove 25 miles to the Super Walmart, in Corpus Christi, (we also tried the Super HEB, pretty much hated it). Today, we drove 4 miles, took a ferry, and then drove 5 miles to the Super Walmart, and Lowes, in Aransas Pass. Yay!

We got the puppy fence up, and now they can just walk out, without the leashes and harnesses on them. Of course, I will always have to pick up Emma and take her down the steps, but still..........

Life is good. :)

We made it!

I haven't written on here in a bit, because there wasn't anything in Fort Stockton to write about. This is, of course, until last thursday night. The owner of the Rv park, decided to pull a "Dr. Jekyl/ Mr. Hyde" act on us, and then again the next morning at his "meeting of the minds", so we left. Even though we had everything in writing, he still went nuts when we asked him when we could expect to work the amount of hours he promised us, (me in particular). I have to say though, his wife was a delight, and she was very upset when we left. But, you simply can not pay us enough, to treat us like that.

Two days later, and we secured jobs in Port Aransas, Tx, working at an Rv Beach Resort. Yay. :)

So here we are. We got to Corpus Christi, Tx last night, and drove on in to the resort today. We are in the middle of Mustang Island. So far we are very happy here. Of course we don't start working until Thursday, with a few hours of training on Monday and Tuesday.

I think the one thing that we have learned, like my friend Tara said, private Rv parks can cause maniacal owners. We won't completely rule out private parks in the future, but will certainly only go to those who have actual reviews from other workampers.

I hope everyone is well................... will have pics soon.

Our new home...........

We finally made it. On the way to Ft. Stockton, about 10 miles south of El Paso, a semi had a blow out, which just destroyed the fiberglass on that side of his rig. Unfortunately, hubby was behind him, and ran over some of it. Some how, it cracked the starter cellanoid, so when we stopped 20 miles later to check on everything, it wouldn't start. GOOD SAM ROAD SIDE ASSISTANCE to the rescue! They are awesome! They sent out two tow trucks, one for the truck, and one for the 5th wheel. They towed us to a camp ground in El Paso, (38 miles that we had already covered, but who's complaining?), and then came back the next morning and towed the truck to the repair shop.
So, what was supposed to be a 7 hour trip, ended up being two days, but that's ok. We are finally here................

This is our new home for a while..........

I am going to put up a fence in the middle of the yard, measured it yesterday and need 85ft, so that the puppies can hang out without being leashed, and of course to keep Emma from running into the cactus. I think we are going to like it here. We have met many of the current workampers, and they are all very nice, and say lots of wonderful things about working here. So Yay!!!! We don't need no stinking South Dakota!

It's made out of trash!

Yesterday, on our way back from Mexico, (which by the way, has the best baked goods and cheese!), we went over to Las Cruces to see the WORLDS LARGEST ROAD RUNNER. Unlike the one on Ft. Stockton, this one doesn't seem to have a name. But it is known as the "recycled Road Runner" because it is completely made out of garbage. If you decide to go check it out, it is at the rest area, going east on I10, right before entering Las Cruces. This is a link to more information about it, but it is mostly just entries from people that have been to see it. Still interesting. Las Cruces Recycled RoadRunner

Texas, Here we come!!

So our plans to go to South Dakota were blitzed a week before we were supposed to go there, and we had no "plan b". So we scramble, renew our membership to workamper.com and refresh our resume to get ready to start sending out to places needing workampers for the summer.

(Now, a bit of history here, while we have been volunteering at the Bosque del Apache, we have fallen in love with the roadrunner, and have adopted it as our mascot. ........on with the story)


We got a call yesterday morning from someone in Ft. Stockton, Tx offering us a job in their Rv Park, in exchange for 10hrs work each, we get full hook ups, free wifi, free laundry, and two meals a day in the cafe that I will be working in. What is the name of this cafe, you might be asking yourself? Well, nothing less than the "ROADRUNNER CAFE", AND Ft. Stockton is home to the largest Roadrunner statue in the world! I'll add photos of Paisano Pete who is 11 feet tall, 22 feet Long, when we get there, so I can post photos of my own. :) Anyway, we get everything we were looking for, and they have roadrunners....... it's a good sign. :)

So we are on our way to Ft. Stockton, Tx. Everything we work over the 10hrs each, will be earning a wage, so this is exactly what we were looking for. Oh, and now, we are only driving a few hours! Of course, we will be going to a state that we had already filled in on our map, but we only drove through it, this way we can truly say we were there! :)

"HOME IS WHERE YOU PARK IT"

Ok, Plans Change.........

Most of you have heard that we were planning on spending the summer in South Dakota........ well, plans change, and I am now very excited! :)

We are revamping our resume on Workamper.com and while I was going through pics from our travels, I came across a few that I haven't shared on here that I think are great. :)


This was our first stop, (home), Murray, Ky. That's my brother on the right, Joey. :)


"Don't know what's going on, so we'll just nap."



Not sure where we were, I think just leaving Texas, entering NM, but that's him pulling the rv, and I'm driving behind in the little truck.


first morning in Albuquerque, NM for the Balloon Fiesta










Don't poke the bees sir


"schmello"


"WE MADE IT!!!"


getting ready for lift off


our balloon landed on the reservation, and you can't lift off from there, or they will shoot you down, so while we were packing up, this was the view coming over the ridge.


took this while we were having breakfast


getting ready for the "glow"


New Mexico car alarm. When the owner came back, both dogs jumped down, and into the truck.


Lupe` loves to go for a ride.


Bosque del Apache Sunset


Three rivers petroglyphs


"nobody said it would be cold in the desert!"


I think they said this was called a sundog. it is a sign that the crops are going to be good this year, or something like that. Just looks cool to me. :)


Chipmunks like our birdseed


On the job.



Helping process a Western Diamondback Rattle Snake.

and tonight...................

I showed you our sunrise from this morning............... this is our sunset from this evening! :) I swear, the sky here is amazing................

Foggy start of the day.

This was the view today. When I saw the view with all of the fog this morning, I just had to share. :)

Gonna miss this place.

So, today was officially my last day on roving maintenance. That doesn't necessarily mean I won't be on it again if they need me to before we leave, just that I'm not assigned to it after today since next weekend is our last on a team.

These are a few of the pics I got while out today .............

Entering from the South

Mule Dear and a SandHill Crane

Cool view of a pond....

Prairie Dog Town

...... and again

A Cormorant and a Harrier

Red-Tailed Hawk

Same Red-Tailed Hawk taking off

...... and again.