Evans RV Adventures

Leaving Aransas Pass

2009-06-19T21:00:00.002-05:00

'Vacation' over, time to head back to San Antonio. We drove the 180 miles back to Admiralty RV Resort stopping at a Love's Truck Stop to fill up with $2.57/gal diesel fuel (it was $2.55 on the way down). We got our coach back into our spot(#110) for our last two weeks, no problems, and then went about getting everything hooked back up. That done, we relaxed as Shelly has to work tomorrow. We had a nice dinner of baked Quail with squash, took a walk around the park, before heading off to bed.

Relaxing Day (Aransas Pass, TX)

2009-06-18T20:31:00.002-05:00

After yesterday, we decided to relax "at home" today. We slept in and then spent part of the day paying bills and working on information/updates for Shelly's travel nursing companies. Hopefully they'll find something soon. Either way, we plan to leave Texas when Shelly's assignment is over(July 3rd), as it's just too HOT(100 degrees everyday for the last 10 days or so). Although it has been about 10 degrees cooler here, so who knows, maybe we'd consider an assignment here (Hurricanes)?

A local waterman came into the campground selling fresh local large Shrimp for $6/lb, so we bought 3lbs for tonight's dinner, and a good dinner it was! Sorry no pictures, guess we got too excited and didn't even think about pictures! After dinner, another guy was in the park washing vehicles, so we had him wash our car for $15. He did a good job and it was nice to have the San Antonio bird 'presents' removed.

We took the cats for a short walk around the park before turning in for the evening. Heading back to San Antonio tomorrow.

Sightseeing on the Gulf Coast

2009-06-17T21:44:00.007-05:00

Got up early today to do some sightseeing.

We started off taking the ferry (free!) over to Port Aransas.

It was a very short ride, less than 5 minutes.

Once we got off the ferry we spotted a "Public Beach" sign, so we headed there first.

We parked our car on the beach (a first!) and then promptly kicked off our flip-flops to walk down to the water.

Ahhh...what nice soft sand...feels so good under your feet.

What a nice clean beach!

and once we reached the water, we could have kept going...if only we had our swim suits! So instead of swimming, we walked up and down the beach searching for 'treasure'.

We found a nice variety of seashells and a few things we couldn't identify - some blue inflated balloon looking items, as well as clusters of bubbles, some of which we found in a bluish colored seashell.

We also found more items on the north side of the pier where a lot more things wash up. We picked up clusters of pink barnacles and we saw what looked like a lot of yellow wires. We took a picture of our finds and then left all except for the cluster of barnacles.

We left Port Aransas beach and headed south going over Mustang Island and onto Padre Island National Seashore. Thanks to our National Parks Pass, we didn't have to pay the $10 entry fee.

Our first stop in the park was "Bird Island Basin". Good place where we could boondock, just pull the coach in and face out to the bay. The water here is calm and quite shallow until you reach the drop off. We walked out about 200 yards with the water never getting any higher than our knees. This "basin" has a nearly constant breeze and is one of the nation's top windsurfing areas. We walked back to the shore and then headed over to check out "Malaqiute Beach" campground. It had more sites (with water and dump station), but they were smaller and we would prefer the "Basin's" campground.

We then headed to the park's visitor center. There, we discussed our prior beach findings with the ranger on duty.

We learned that the 'blue balloons' were Portuguese man-of war!

The bluish seashells was a common purple snail, one of the man-of-war's few predators and the yellow 'wires' were actually a type of coral. Who knew we'd find such things on a beach?

After our Q&A session in teh visitor center, we walked out onto Malaquite Beach. However, the sand was so hot by this time that we couldn't stand to walk barefoot. So we put our flip-flops back on, walked down to the water for a temperature check (84 degrees!) and then headed back to the car and made our way back home.

Bridge across to Corpus Christi.

Once we were back in Aransas Pass, we passed the campground and went to Hamptons Landing restaurant for a late lunch. We shared a basket of fried flounder, shrimp, oysters and fries. Very good, fresh food.

What a nice day!

Vacation ;-)

2009-06-16T21:36:00.002-05:00

Decided to take a 'vacation' from San Antonio. So today we drove the coach 180 miles down to Aransas Pass, Texas, just north of Corpus Christi to "Ransom Road RV Park" for a few days while Shelly is off.

Very nice park with concrete roads and sites.

No big trees, just palm trees. Manager was very nice. We would come here again. There's no pool, but you're not far from the beaches.

We took our time setting up and then drove around a bit, checking out the area.

Got back, had slow cooked pork roast for dinner (Yum!), walked around the park, and then turned in for the night.

Group Bike Ride

2009-06-13T21:45:00.005-05:00

Bobby went for a group bike ride(@7AM) with some road bike riders (Team USAA) he had met up with last weekend while on a solo ride. He had a good work-out, as they rode up some mountains called "the steps", then to Rio Medina and back. He returned home and got his bike cleaned up and we had lunch together.

Since Shelly is working tomorrow, we went to church tonight. The service was great! Bruce Bowen, NBA star, was the guest speaker!

HOT (San Antonio, TX)

2009-06-12T18:18:00.002-05:00

It's been so HOT this week with high's in the upper 90's to low 100's and today was no different. Too hot to be outside, so we stayed inside and worked on laundry as well as continued our search for Shelly's next nursing assignment.

Dentist (again)

2009-06-11T20:58:00.006-05:00

Today we're off to the dentist. Bobby had his filling done while Shelly had a cleaning and two temporary crowns placed. Bobby's took about an hour or less, while Shelly's took over three hours. We'll go back in about two weeks to get Shelly's permanent crowns placed as well as repairing the filling to the 3rd tooth, as we will be leaving the area before they would be able to get a permanent crown made.

Dr. Tom(dentist) called us tonight before we went to bed to see how we were doing. How nice! We've NEVER gotten that before! We have been very happy with this dentist and would return if in the area.

Oh and confirmed with Norcold that our refrigerator (1200LR) is indeed included in the NEW EXPANED recall. Since our fridge had already been recalled in the past and the Cooling Unit replaced(before we purchased coach) we haven't been affected by the recalls until now. This morning Bobby drove down Wagner RV Inc. just down the street and they are ordering the "safety thermal switch kit"(7-10 days). Although we haven't had any trouble with our fridge and hate to 'cause' a problem, it would kill us if we didn't do it and burned up our beautiful coach.

Dentist Visit

2009-06-02T20:40:00.002-05:00

After paying for another month for our campsite here in San Antonio, we were off to the dentist, Thomas R. Watkins, D.D.S. & Associates. We've both had some partial fillings come out and we needed to get these repaired. Since this was our first visit and new clients to 'Dr. Tom', we got FREE full mouth ex-rays and exams. They were very thorough and saved us $185.00 each! Bobby's results not so bad, he only needs one filling(re-done). Turns out Shelly needs 3 crowns! She will have two done next week along with Bobby's filling. We aren't sure about Shelly's third tooth, as that one isn't in as bad shape. We'll have to wait and see, as this is all very expensive!

Met a new fulltiming couple here at the park tonight. Since Gary is also a road bike rider, we plan to go out for a ride tomorrow morning!

Slickdeals

2009-06-01T17:35:00.001-05:00

Went out today to pick up a few freebies that we found on Slickdeals, as well as look for some new sneakers for Bobby. We found a good deal at JCPenney, which would have been even better if we had remembered our $10 off coupon.

Church and Jasime update

2009-05-31T20:19:00.004-05:00

Since Shelly had to work Saturday and Sunday this week, Bobby went to Northwestern Hills United Methodist Church with Barbara and Dennis from the park today. It was so nice of them to take him as Shelly had the car.

Jasime(our female cat) continues to do well. She's putting weight on and hasn't gotten sick. She's been on meds and new food for 4 weeks now.

David Robinson (church)

2009-05-24T20:14:00.000-05:00

Went to church @Oak Hills, this time David Robinson from the San Antonio Spurs(NBA) was speaking. It was great to hear him profess his faith in Christ, as he encouraged up to grow in our Christian walk. It was a wonderful service and we enjoyed having a choir to help lead us in singing.

Bye Mom & Dad (San Antonio, TX)

2009-05-19T20:04:00.001-05:00

Today's the day for them to return home to Delaware. We helped them get packed up and then drove them to the airport. After a few tearful goodbyes, we separated, as we weren't allowed to go through security with them. We'll miss them and look forward to when we can see each other again.

After we left the airport, we stopped at Sam's Club to stock up on essentials. Think we did well to survive 2 weeks with 4 people and 2 cats in our 40' motorhome. We plan to do a whole lot of nothing over the next couple of weeks, having been so busy with Bobby's parents here.

Rudy's BBQ and more relaxation

2009-05-18T17:05:00.003-05:00

Another day to relax. We took this opportunity to sleep in for a change.

After a restful morning, we went to Rudy's BBQ for lunch. This was so much better than Bill Miller's, even if it was still cafeteria style.

The atmosphere was much improved, as was the food. We especially liked the creamed corn and the turkey.

Back to the coach, we played more Canasta until dinner time. Arlene and Shelly went to HEB to by more of their Sushi to eat. We all enjoyed it and relaxed the rest of the night until bedtime.

Relaxing Sunday

2009-05-17T19:42:00.001-05:00

Since Bobby's parents are going to be leaving in a few days, we decided we should relax instead of running around doing touristy things.
This morning, we went back to Oak Hills Church where we heard Max Lucado preach for our first time. He was finishing out his series on "The Story", his version of the bible, to be read like a novel. So the topic was Revelation. We really liked how he approached it, looking for basic themes and not getting so caught up in interpretation.

After church, we headed home and spent much of the day relaxing and playing Canasta(a card game).

Lyndon B. Johnson (Johnson City, TX)

2009-05-16T21:31:00.007-05:00

Decided that today would be a good day to head up to the Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ) Settlement and Ranch.

We started off in Johnson City where we took a guided tour of LBJ's boyhood home. We also watched two films - one on LBJ and one on Ladybird Johnson.

We then had a small lunch (of Chicken hearts and livers!) before driving the 20 or so minutes to the Lyndon B. Johnson State Park and Historic Site (LBJ Ranch) in Gillespie County, between Fredericksburg and Johnson City.

We first went to The Sauer-Beckmann Farm. This is a "living" farm, learning what life on a farm was like back in the early 1900's.

The employees on the farm actually produce and make their own food, care for the house, farm, and livestock as they would have back at that time!

We enjoyed their demonstration of the different products they made from milk, depending on what they did with it and how long they could let it sit out for.

Some of the "workers" were workcampers! Who knows, maybe we'll do something like this in the future!

Having spent so much time at the farmstead, our time to see the rest of the ranch would be limited.

So we made quick work on our drive over to President and Mrs. Johnson's home, the "Texas White House".

We thought we would be given a tour of the house, but the only room we were allowed to tour was his office (They hope to open more rooms in the future).

The living oak tree in the front yard is reported to be over 400 years old. The house sits on a hill facing a river. The river has a small dam with water flowing over it that LBJ used to drive his car over. Of course that is no longer a route that visitors can use.

Where the President is buried on the ranch with his family, including his wife Ladybird.

Tour over, we decided to head back home, however, we did stop at a winery along the way (that had a lavender festival wrapping up at the time).

Gardens & Museum Visit (San Antonio, TX)

2009-05-14T22:15:00.005-05:00

Headed to the Japanese Tea Gardens today, located near the San Antonio Zoo.

You may notice the gateway to the gardens read "Chinese Tea Gardens"? The name was changed in 1941 after the Pearl Harbor attack, due to fear and resentment by the public of all things Japanese. It wasn't until 1983, that the name was changed back to the Japanese Tea Gardens.

The gardens used to be a rock quarry until the city decided to beautify it, creating the gardens.

The gardens were completed in 1919.

The smokestack was a kiln that was used in conjunction with the rock quarry.

The gardens have a nice variety of plants and flowers, as well as a small waterfall, a large pond, and pathways and bridges....

Since it didn't take us long to see the gardens, we decided to stop by the Institute Of Texan Cultures museum, located in Hemisfair Park before going home.

It was a well done museum that really gave you a good perspective on all the different immigrants and cultures that came to Texas and how each influenced the other.

We enjoyed lunch in our car before heading back to the coach.

New Braunfels, TX Area Tour

2009-05-13T21:02:00.008-05:00

We decided today would be a good day to get out of the city and see some small towns. We started off by going up to Landa Park in New Braunfels, TX.

It's a nice park with many Live Oak Trees, one of which, called the "Founder's Oak" started as a seedling in 1700.

It also has natural springs that feed some small pools, as well as a waterpark complete with adult slides. We walked around and saw some of the Live Oaks and relaxed with our feet soaking in one of the springs.

We then drove to the Canyon Lake Dam. When you drive up to the dam (the side without water) you think you're looking at a large grassy hill. That is until you get to the top of the hill and see the lake on the other side.

The lake is currently about 24feet below normal levels, due to 18 months of no rain (which seems to have ended since we arrived in Texas). Hopefully, some of this rain that we've been getting will help to build up the water table in this area. We never saw any of the fields of Blue Bonnets and Indian Paintbrushes we were told about due to the drought.

After seeing the dam, we drove to the town of Gruene. Gruene (pronounced "green") prides itself as a town "Gently resisting change since 1872". They have a variety of unique shops but are most famous for their old water tower, dance hall and the Gristmill restaurant. We started off looking through the little shops, sampling pecans and wine, until our bellies told us it was time for dinner.

So where else to go, but The Gristmill River Restaurant & Bar?

The restaurant is built using the remains of the old brick walls left from the old water powered cotton gin mill that burned down on this site.

It's situated on a bluff overlooking the Guadalupe River. There are many levels of indoor and outdoor dinning, all with a good view of the river. We choose this outdoor area to enjoy our dinner.

The food was all good, as was Shelly's Margarita with hand squeezed limes.

We really enjoyed the service, as well as the experience!

Dinner over, we walked over to "Gruene Hall", reported to be Texas' oldest dance hall, built in 1878.

There's a bar up front when you walk in, and behind that is the large open area with long wooden tables and benches sitting on an old wooden floor that creaks and moves in spots when you walk across it.

Gruene Hall has free entertainment every night, except for special ticketed events.

Tonight's musical guests were "The Trisha's", a really good all female country band, and brothers Kevin and Dustin Welch, also country.

It was nice to kick back and enjoy good music in a laid back atmosphere with family.

Today was our Mother's Day celebration (May 10th) for Arlene and Shelly's Birthday celebration (May 11th), since Shelly was working both of those days. A wonderful day spent with loved ones.

San Antonio Zoo

2009-05-12T20:59:00.006-05:00

Shelly worked the last two days, so today we can spend more time sightseeing with Bobby's parents.

Our destination for the day was the San Antonio Zoo.

It's an older zoo, not only with a variety of animals, but plants too.

They had your basic zoo animals, but what we really enjoyed was their vast variety of birds.

Their bird collection happens to be one of the world's largest and we did our best to take many pictures of them! Check out the slideshow above. More birds, plants, and animals then we could ever name, all beautiful creations of God.

After seeing more than half the zoo, we went back to the car to get our lunch that we had brought to eat in the zoo.

We took our time eating, relaxing on benches in the shade, as it was turning out to be quite a hot day.

After our lunch, we continued our way around the zoo.

If was a nice zoo, but we were now heading home to cool off in our AC and later the park pool.

OH and please check our Bobby's Twitter page at http://twitter.com/revansCAAD8 or follow via the Twitter widget on the right sidebar!

Movie & Church

2009-05-09T18:09:00.002-05:00

Today we decided to have a more leisurely day. Arlene and Shelly went grocery shopping to replenish our pantry and then back home for a quick lunch. We then headed out to see the new Star Trek movie in IMAX! What a great movie! It was so nice to see them bring back Leonard Nimoy (the original Spock) and loved Zachary Quinto (Sylar from the TV show Heroes) as the young Spock. He played his role well. It was fun figuring out which characters were the yourger counterparts of the orginal Star Trek TV cast. A must see for any Trekie or Trekie wannabe!

After the movie, we headed off to church. We were attending a Saturday service as Shelly will be working tomorrow. The church we chose this time was Oak Hills Church. Nice big contemorary church whose preacher just happens to be Max Lucado (acclaimed Christain author). He wasn't here today, as he's off on the missionary trip, but he'll be back next week. We really enjoyed the service, the music, and we think we've finally found our church for this area!

Nimitz Museum (Fredericksburg, TX)

2009-05-07T19:38:00.006-05:00

Today we took a drive up to Fredericksburg, TX. This town was settled by German immigrants and you can see some of their influence in the town.

Our main stop was The National Museum of the Pacific War, AKA - The Admiral Nimitz Museum. This museum contains displays of articles and information about wars fought in the Pacific theater of WWII. They have both allied and Japanese guns, tanks, grenades and many other articles involved in these wars.

We started off in the Memorial Courtyard where over 1000 plaques are displayed on limestone walls honoring those who served and ships that served in the wars of the Pacific.

From there we went to the Japanese Garden of Peace, which was given by the Japanese people. We then went inside to the museum exhibits.

After touring a majority of the museum, we decided to break for lunch. We asked one of the museum staff workers where we should go. From her suggestions, we settled on an authentic German restaurant - Der Lindenbaum. They had good food and we especially loved their potato salad and cole slaw, made differently then we had ever had.

After our late lunch, we headed back to the museum, but to the "Pacific Combat Zone" area.

This area displayed the larger pieces of equipment (tanks, boats, and planes) used in the wars.

The museum was well worth the visit and helped us to better understand some of the history of our country and have a deeper respect for all those who made our freedoms possible.

Heading home, we took some scenic roads so Bobby could check them out for possible future bike rides :-)

The Alamo, The Riverwalk (San Antonio, TX)

2009-05-06T19:36:00.003-05:00

Even though they had a long day yesterday, Bobby's parents were ready to start sightseeing today. So we choose two of San Antonio's most popular attractions, The Alamo and The Riverwalk.

We decided to try taking the bus(short walk from our RV park) into the city, rather than having to drive. Wasn't bad, took almost twice as long, but at least we didn't have to worry with parking.

It used to be a mission, but was set apart because of the famous battle that was fought and lost there.

The grounds were nice with a good variety of plants. It was all self guided, but no picture taking allowed inside.

The Alamo was nice, and we weren't surprised to see it smack dab in the middle of the city, as many people had told us how much it disappointed them.

We then walked a few blocks to the Riverwalk, where we could have a guided tour in a boat.

It was nice, and we were thankful for any shaded area, as the temps were going to be in the 90's.

It was a nice tour and we looked forward to picking out a restaurant to eat a late lunch/early dinner.

We finally settled on Boudro's on the Riverwalk.

The food was excellent and we all enjoyed their famous table side preparation of their made from scratch guacamole.

Belly's full, we took the trolley to Market Square. Much less busy and not as much going on (a ghost town compared to Fiesta). We didn't stay long, as we were all ready to head home.

Their HERE!

2009-05-05T18:34:00.001-05:00

Jasmine (our cat) has been on her meds (Prednisolone) for about a week as well as eating prescription Royal Caynine - Rabbit & Peas cat food. She's doing great, and is already putting on weight!

Well today's the day! Bobby's parents are flying in to spend 2 weeks with us here in San Antonio. They were supposed to fly in around noon time, but their first flight was delayed, causing them to miss their connecting flight in Charlotte, NC. They ended up having to take a different flight, first to Houston, and then to San Antonio with another carrier. They finally landed at 4:54PM, tired, but very happy to see us. We exchanged hugs and kisses and then waited for the "luggage-go-round" to deliver their bags. Bags collected, we headed back to the coach and enjoyed beef brisket that Bobby had cooking all day. It's good to have them here, and hopefully all will adjust well to four people and two cats in our small home on wheels.

Trip to Austin, TX

2009-05-01T17:30:00.005-05:00

Today we decided to take a drive to Austin. Bobby had already gone up there with Kay and Dale (in their van) earlier in the week while Shelly was working.

Our first stop was the Whole Foods Market (since Bobby said it was a "must see"). WOW! What a place. They have such a variety of items and their produce was absolutely beautiful! We didn't buy anything, but we did sample quite a bit. It was the first grocery store we've been to that had it's own underground parking garage.

From there we went a couple blocks over to "Mellow Johnny's", Lance Armstrong's bike shop. Bobby bought a T-shirt and some chain lube for his bike.

We then headed to our main destination, The Texas State Capitol.

It was built in 1888 using "sunset red" granite quarried from just 50 miles away and no one can miss it's pink appearance. The workers/builders were paid in land instead of dollars.

It's a beautiful structure with detailed hardware.

The only capitol building larger than this one is in Washington D.C.

We took a free tour of the capitol and were even able to see the underground expansion (completed in 1993) that doubled the square footage of the capitol without changing it's outside appearance. It was cleverly done, with a large glass ceiling letting in natural light as well as giving one a good view of the capitol itself.

Wow a white/yellow squirrel on the Capitol grounds! I think we've seen all the colors now!

We had plans to tour the LBJ library as well, but time got away from us. Another time maybe.

Holt Ranch Bike Ride

2009-04-29T18:24:00.004-05:00

This morning Bobby went on another bike ride with the San Antonio Trialblazers. Although it was only cloudy in San Antonio, it was misty/drizzly as they drove north to the start point in hill country.

But after waiting to see if it cleared, 9 of us braved it and headed for the Peter Holt Ranch near Blanco, TX.

4 riders turned back early. Just after this picture was taken, Bill had a loud tire blowout. Other than that, it was a fun scenic ride. Bobby cleaned/lubed the bike and is ready to go again!

Austin, TX Visit

2009-04-28T19:33:00.004-05:00

Friends, Kay and Dale called and invited Bobby to go with them up to Austin:

Not a bad bike shop. Bought a cassette tool and tubes.

Lance Armstrong's bike shop! Prices were actually cheaper than Bicycle Sport Shop!

Lance Armstrong's bike shop!

Lance Armstrong's bike shop!

We also stopped by Whole Foods Market headquarter store at the corner of Sixth Street and Lamar Blvd. is the company's largest, at 80,000 square feet! This place was AWESOME!
Oh and almost forgot, we also stopped by D.L. Jardines, to sample and purchase salsa. Nice day, thanks Kay and Dale!