February 8, 2013 by Rae

Checking Out Port Aransas

Thursday promised to be grey, not the best weather to go out gallivanting, but off I did go, leaving around 8AM. I got fuel and then drove straight to Aransas Pass to catch the free ferry to Port Aransas.

One of the goals of this trip was to see what it would be like in an RV and to scope out the boondocking spots. I’d already made the decision not to move Miranda there, but I wanted to know what I would be missing.

The ferry was very tight. I did see a ginormous fiver come off the ferry ahead of me, but I would not feel comfortable taking my rig on there as there is zero room for error.

Port Aransas is bigger than I thought it would be and full of colourful unique storefronts (see the gallery below). First stop was the Marine Science Institute, where there are a few free displays. They sometimes have free educational lectures and movies, too.

I met a wonderful lady traveling from Minnesota. We gabbed for ages and she was delighted that I’ve been through her state a few times and could easily point out her town on a map. We talked a little about my travels and she asked me if I’d ever been to Alaska, wondering how hard it is to get there. I explained that the Alaska Highway is super easy to drive and that there’s no need to over prepare to go north. She actually took some notes. I hope she gets up there some day!

Next, I came upon one of the many RV boondocking beaches in the area. You need to pay to boondock and you can only stay three nights out of every three weeks.

I drove out to another beach south of town. Both locations were lovely, but the ground was very soft and the tides more likely to come up very high. I really don’t feel like I’m making a mistake not detouring to Port Aransas to boondock, but I’m glad I checked it out.

I’d asked S for a lunch recommendation and she told me to try the pizza at The Gaff, so that’s where I went. Woah, what a place… It’s a shack (and that’s a kind way of putting it) with a pirate theme. It didn’t feel too clean and I’m not convinced the pizza maker washed her hands once between everything she was doing. That said, the experience was worth it and the pizza not bad! I was only able to eat a couple of slices and I took the rest with me. I knew it wouldn’t survive the trip to Harlingen, what with the truck sitting in the sun, but I was able to snack on another couple of slices and found that this is a pizza that’s best served lukewarm. I loved the sauce and cheese, the crust was so-so. The server had just started working there and had everything under control. We had a nice chat and she said that I should come on a Saturday night when they have beltsander races! I would never have tried this place had it not been recommended to me and I’m so glad I did!

It was coming on to 1:00 when I came out from lunch, so it was time to move on. Next stop, Corpus Christi.

Aim Low Insurance in Aransas Pass; the name struck me as funny.

Driving towards the Port Aransas ferry.

The road to the ferry is lined with instructional signs for using the ‘ferryboat.’ My favourite was ‘the ferryboat’s capacity is whatever it can safely carry.’

Good thing there is a little boat on the instructions, or I would have serious doubts about my GPS!

Waiting in line at the ferry. I was signaled to go ‘thataway’ with two fingers waving, so I deduced (correctly) that I had to go into the outer lane.

VERY tight squeeze on the ferry.

Leaving Aransas Pass.

Port Aransas

Ferry heading for Aransas Pass

Port Aransas

Desserted Island Ice Cream

Marine Science Institute.

Sculpture outside the Marine Science Institute.

I really enjoyed this display that showed the teeth of sharks that swim in these waters and offered humorous commentary on their diet.

There were a few aquariums with live fish.

Cute grumpy fish.

Nearly invisible flat fish.

Yummy red snapper.

You are so delicious smoked!

More hiding fish.

“Come on, inner peace. I don’t have all day!”

I had never heard of ‘sea beans’ before today. They are seeds that are carried to far away lands by sea currents.

More about sea beans.

A variety of sea beans.

More sea beans.

One of the RV boondocking beaches.

View from one of the RV boondocking beaches.

I missed a turn on the GPS and came upon this. Best store entrance ever.

Second best store entrance ever.

Another boondocking beach.

Sea turtles are endangered.

Rules for boondocking here, including have a permit and stay only three days.

The sand was a little soft in spots.

The Gaff Pirate Bar

I wouldn’t have ventured in this place if it hadn’t been recommended to me.

Decent pizza with good conversation.

January 27, 2013 by Rae

The Days Are Getting Longer

It’s lovely to be sitting here just past 6PM and for the sky to still be light. It gets dark very fast, but at least I don’t eat dinner in the dark any more! It also gets light earlier; the solar charge controller clicked on just before 7:00 this morning! And what a beautiful sound that is, might I add. The click off in the evening isn’t so nice. 🙂

The rain promised for today never came and I had a moderate charge coming in all day. I used my computer a lot, so my batteries are sitting at about 88% right now. Not great, but it’ll be sunny again tomorrow and I need to run errands, so the batteries will have a chance to get a good soak while I charge the computer in the truck.

One thing today made me realise is that buying a keyboard for my iPad wouldn’t be a frivolous idea. Most of today’s computer power consumption was spent on the writing of what might end up being my next ebook. I could have typed for twice as long on my iPad and still had plenty of juice left on it.

I’ll be heading out for a walk soon even though it’s windy and chilly out there. I didn’t get out much today, but an after dinner stroll to the trash bins is always pleasant. 🙂

January 27, 2013 by Rae

More Paint Touch Ups

Today, I decided to push ahead with the paint touch up project. The green in the office was the most pressing as there was a lot of damage to the walls from the installation of the new desk. I gently sanded the worst of the marks, then applied a couple of coats to the bad spots. There is still visible damage, but at least the colour is uniform.

Then, I pulled out the pink paint for the dressing room. Incidentally, that’s the pink that made me fall in love with pink. Until I fell upon that colour, I loathed pink. You’d never guess that now! I would love to repaint the dressing room in a shinier finish paint, but I’ll never be able to match the current colour exactly, so I prefer to do touch ups, most of which involved painting some of the new trim my mother installed. Most of the trim in the rig is brown, but if it’s on a coloured wall, then I paint it to match the wall.

Muuuuuuuch better.

The next colour I’m pulling out is the golden brown. That will be a rig-wide job that will warrant taking out a roller. And then priming the new wall. And then, the biggie, which is the yellow. I want to completely empty the front room, wash the walls really well, and do two coats over what’s already there and four coats over the new wall. I’m not touching the loft, however!

It’s only 1:30PM, so you’d think I could take the brown out today, but it’s just too dark in here to do a good job. The rain hasn’t come and I doubt it will, but the sky is very overcast. It’s windy out and quite cool. My after lunch beach walk was short!

The clouds were very dark this morning, but have lightened up.

I don’t think I’ll ever find anything more random washed up on a beach anywhere.

January 26, 2013 by Rae

Sunrise on the Beach

I was awake at quarter to six again this morning. I doubt I’ll be getting up this early once I am once again free to use my computer as much as I want and won’t be as motivated to go to bed early. At any rate, skirt, tee-shirt, and flip flops on, cup of coffee in one hand, camera in the other, and half an hour of watching the sky.