welcome to my morning

After what seems like months but really has just been weeks, the sun is back. You'd think that living in a 5th wheel trailer, one would just pick up the yard, tuck in the slides and get the hell out of Dodge. In a normal Arizona winter, we would. But we are at the Texas Gulf coast and it has taken a lot of years and a lot of miles to get here. So we are soaking it all in and loving it when the sun comes out (and even when it doesn't). It's great to be living among the palms, the shore birds and the friendly local Texans. It's even better to have had waterfront views since our arrival in mid-December.

This guy was fishing right out the back window.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/66809947/little-western-garnet-earrings-free

My new jewelry model. It sure makes taking pictures more fun!!

Be gorgeous!

winter weather

My friends and family don't have much sympathy for me when I whine about bad weather. And rightly so. It's rare that we have bad weather in our winter destinations for longer than a few weeks all winter. So I decided to stop complaining and instead talk about the exciting parts of the winter weather that we see. When your living space is 300 square feet, it's important to limit the amount of confinement time. We keep pretty close track of the local weather. A couple of weeks ago we got surprised with some severe weather. That flashing yellow or red box on the forecast page causes anxiety for me. About an hour before bedtime, Dick noticed that a large system was heading for us with warnings of severe thunderstorms which could include damaging hail, tornados, wind sheers and up to 5 inches of rain. Great. We woke up at 3am with Emoh being rocked by sustained 55 mile per hour winds. Hail and rain quickly followed with intense lightning and thunder crashing. It took a couple of hours to blow through and we woke up to sunshine and a rain washed campsite. We survived another exciting storm.

The high winds had the surf crashing over the jetty at Port Aransas, Texas. 

This 5 gallon bucket had 2 inches of water in the bottom before the rain. A foot of water in it the next morning. The flash flooding ran right where Emoh's legs were standing. We only sunk a couple of inches.





I've been having fun creating treasuries on Etsy. Here's this week's entry in the "non-team" treasury challenge.

journal entry

Dick and I have been keeping a journal of this RV adventure. And I'm thinking, why not put an entry here every once in a while?

Entry 3,183
December 30, 2010
Port Aransas, Texas

 

Boy oh boy. Life doesn't get much sweeter than this as far as campsites go. It's very busy here and yet we have all the privacy we care about. The channel provides constant entertainment. There's dolphins busy playing and finding food. 

There's deep sea fishing boats loaded with guys hanging on the side, peering out to the open sea and then seemingly empty when they return. Dick says the guys are all inside puking. There's people fishing on the sidewalk right out our window.

There's guys walking their dogs. There's guys riding their bikes. There's pelicans flying and fishing. There's great There's freight and oil ships with dolphins jumping on their bow wakes. 

There's sea turtles browsing on the bounty of the jetty rocks. The water is too cloudy to see them until they pop their heads up for air. There's pilot boats taking the experts out to the ships to guide them safely into the vast expanse of Corpus Christi Bay. And then there's the sweet light followed by tropical colored sunsets. 

Boy oh boy.

getting stuff done

Check out the brain on Donna ! ! !

I used to be pretty technical, but as the years go by I find that I'm not keeping up. So that makes me doubly proud that I'm getting a "For Those Who Believe" tab up on this fun little blog. It's in progress, but check out the new tab on the top of this page.

Be gorgeous ;-D

Our "yard" on the ship canal into Corpus Christi Bay

P.S. I might as well share a couple of Etsy treasuries that feature some of my jewelry...

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4d2eb3f24b318eef194bc12a/the-librarian-visits-the-city-and-has

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4d2ef9c152f18eef398eda11/earth-fire-water-air

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4d27561566d08eefeacc1566/turquoise-temptations

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4d27d0fd36b86d91b700bc7e/rusted-and-weathered-nonteamchallenge

luxuries

Ah, the luxury of power. We've been "dry-camping" for the last 4 weeks, which means that we have no hook-ups (power, water and sewer). We generate our power with a solar panel supplemented by a gas generator. That means the computer and the internet are not on all day. And usually when we are dry-camping that isn't a bad thing. It almost always means that we get to live where the views are magnificent, if only for a couple of weeks. And seriously there's lots of other stuff to do besides sit inside and work or play on the computer. We spent two weeks over the Christmas holidays at Padre Island National Seashore outside of Corpus Christi, Texas. This is our first time on the Texas Gulf coast. The locals call it America's third coast. It's such fun to explore new places. And I AM a beach girl after all.

Texas Tropical Trail holidays

Beach side camping at Padre Island National Seashore

A boardwalk to get you across the dunes.

The Gulf of Mexico

Cool little shells everywhere on the beach.

Speaking of luxuries...this is a set I made while inspired about luxuries and beaches.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/64810808/luxury-pearl-necklace-earrings-free

 Be gorgeous ;-D

inspiration

Mornings are good. Usually the trailer is cold or at least cool. I think that's the reason that our little dog is a lap dog in the morning. She will stay as long as I let her. Because it's the week-end our TV doesn't have a mind of it's own. I decide to settle in and enjoy the warm comfort of a little dog on my lap and browse the guide. What's this? We have a preview of Encore for the week-end. Julie and Julia is on! I only got to see half of it for reasons I won't go into and here it is just half over. I sit mesmerized by one of my favorite actresses, Meryl Streep. And come away with renewed inspiration for this little blog. And for my sweet life.

One of our favorite campsites on Lake Powell near Page, Arizona