A foggy start to the day...

Looks like it should be cold, but it isn't... I went out in shorts and a t-shirt to shoot this.  No radar on Big Red, so we may wait just a bit to let this lift before we head out for the day.

Little Izzy settled into the travel routine again while on the road yesterday.  She was less than happy when I lifted the covers to get this shot...

And, back in the 5th wheel...

Yeah, it's comfortable. :-)

Online reviews...

Nice to be back in the RV again!  Seems that when we are enroute to a destination, we find a campground along the way, check the ratings on it, and if it sounds decent, call to make sure they have a site available.  We use our Passport America membership as often as possible, if there is a PA park on our route.  When getting to a destination, we are more concerned with location and making sure it is a nice park.

Not sure what is going on with the ratings for parks in the San Antonio area, but the online reviews were all over the place.  People giving the park a 2 (out of 10), because they were asked to not drive the wrong way on a one-way street within the park.  Really?

We used to rely on the TrailerLife Campground Directory - there are ratings given to each campground, done by TL representatives.  After seeing all the lousy online ratings for parks all over San Antonio, I think I'll go back to the TL directory.

We picked a park... with a bit of trepidation.  The last 3 online ratings were: 10, 2, and 1.  One?  We've stayed in campgrounds in Mexico that were pretty dismal, and they still got a 3.5 or 4 in the TL directory.  As we rolled into the park this afternoon, I breathed a sigh of relief... this place is really nice.  The sites are a bit close together, but there are level concrete pads, picnic tables, adequate room to park the truck in front of the 5th wheel, nice amenities in the park.  The lady at the front desk was friendly and helpful.  I asked her about the less-than-stellar online reviews... she said, "We had a change of management a few years ago, and some of our old time visitors didn't like the new rules.  There are a lot of reviews out there that simply aren't fair or accurate."

"I can see that by the look of this place - it's very nice."

So, another example of "anyone can give an opinion online... and some of it might even be correct." ;-)

Ready to roll...

Loaded up.  Just need to clean up, put the cat's "private restroom" onboard, hitch up, and we'll be rolling.  Mother Nature is supposed to be giving us a pretty day, and light breeze!  I am looking forward to some RV time.

Neighborhood Watch...

I've joked about this before.  When we bought a lot in this community, we were the youngest ones in our neighborhood.  Fifteen years later, not much has changed in that regard.  We are in a gated community, with 24 hour security... even better than that is our unofficial "Neighborhood Watch."  Everyone looks out for each other here.  If someone out of the neighborhood is poking around here, it will be obvious.

There was the time that we were gone on some business, and I had made arrangements for the local canvas shop to come to the sailboat we had at the time to measure for a binnacle cover.  My neighbors stopped the woman from getting on our boat.  Yes, really.

Oh, and there was the time that we were out on our sailboat and a thick fog rolled in.  We put out an anchor and settled in for the night.  As we were coming in from the Gulf the next day, we heard the Coast Guard calling our boat name.  When we responded, the CG officer on the radio asked, "Is everything OK with you folks?"

"Yeah, we're fine.  How 'bout you?"  I knew something was up, 'cause we've never gotten a call from the Coast Guard to ask how we are.  They asked me to call them on our cell phone.  When I did, I found out one of our neighbors had reported that we were "out in that fog..."  Yes, really.  (Hi, Mary)  ;-)

Then the time I was asked by our neighbor across the canal, "Are you feeling OK?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, thanks for asking.  Oh, and why are you asking?"

"We heard you sneeze when you were out on your deck last night - hope you aren't coming down with a cold."

Understand that this is not a bad thing; we really like our neighbors.  But, in a small community like this, you better not have any secrets.

Yesterday, one of our neighbors said, "Well, you must be heading out again.  You haven't been home that long."

"Yeah, we're going to get the RV out and go play for a while."

"Well, I knew something was up.  I can always tell when you're going to head out when you take that cover off your truck and scurry around," she said.

The woman has a point.  It's nice to know that the neighbors are looking out for you.

We took the truck bed cover off so we could get the 5th wheel out of storage.  Here, Joan is letting me know when I'm back far enough on the site...

This is the longest the "Love Shack" has been in storage since we got it.  Other than being dirty, it handled the storage fine.  It is a lot of work to pull that out - more than I want to do for a quick overnight.  We sure do enjoy being out in the RV, though.

Joan marveled at how tight the RV is - no dust inside, after 7 months being stored.  Can't say that about the exterior, though - I spent a couple hours getting her scrubbed up and looking nice again.

We'll put some food onboard, some clothes, Izzy's stuff, and head out.

I got the power...

Well, more accurately, she has the power.  Before you say, "Of course, she does," let me say that I am referring to something different.

This morning, I was playing my guitar... plugged into an amp and a PA.  Joan said, "This is so nice."  I thought she was referring to my playing... "I have the washer and dryer running.  The dish washer, too.  The coffee maker.  The air conditioner is running.  And, I have water running for the jacuzzi tub (being heated by a tankless water heater)."

I was thinking, "She must have bought stock in the utility company."

No.  "I have all that running at the same time.  After managing power all summer on the boat, and pretty much running only one thing at a time, I can run anything I want."

Of course, we don't have a washer/dryer, dish washer, or jacuzzi tub on the boat... if we did, I'd never leave it. ;-)

It never gets old...

Yesterday was our "winter weather"... well, that's the way they put it on the local weather - it only got up to 70º, it was overcast and windy.  I'll take that over snow and ice any ol' day.  It lasted a whole day... yeah, I am being a little sarcastic.

We woke up this morning to sunshine and a very light breeze.  It was moved and seconded: we'll be doing another beach and boat day.

The beach was as unoccupied as I've ever seen it on a sunny day.  When we got there, we were the only vehicle in the north parking lot.  It was after 10:30, if you're thinking we were way early.

We did see a few others on the beach: this seagull...

As many of these things that we've seen, I never noticed the spotted tail feathers.  And check out the V-tail in the shadow - kinda reminds me of an old Bonanza airplane. ;-)

And the PNW doesn't have an exclusive on crabs; well, the ones on this beach are a bit smaller...

If you haven't seen him in that image, look towards the upper right corner.  They run back into their little holes if you get anywhere near them.

Back at the parking lot, the crowd was beginning to build...

It was up to 4 vehicles.  Whew!

Some ice cream, then off to the boat.  The water from the causeway was especially inviting...

After the amazing dolphin show on Friday, I couldn't imagine that we'd get another... but, to paraphrase an old saying: same time, same station, er - place.  We ran into a playful pod in roughly the same area.  This time, Joan did the shooting while I positioned the boat...

They swam close to the boat...

Mom and baby...

We were the only boat in the area - they stayed and played for nearly an hour...

An absolutely beautiful day - love the color of the water...

A beautiful sailboat, not much sail up, though...

We missed all the frenzy in the stores this weekend... yeah, I don't think we missed a thing. ;-)

The Black Friday Experience...

Not the typical Black Friday experience: we weren't up at Oh-Dark-Thirty.  Joan made us a fine breakfast - it's important to be fueled up to take on a day like this.  I exercised one of the guitars for a while.  Joan set a goal for me: one new song per day.

Showered up and ready to head out, I asked Izzy if she wanted to come with us; this is her hiding posture...

That's OK, she may not be up for all the time on our feet we have planned.

Not "over the river and through the woods"; instead, it was over the causeway and through the palms.  On to the beach on South Padre Island.  This was as crowded as we've seen it since we've been back...

No pushing and shoving, no lines, but we did hear a few squeals of delight from the kids in the water.  Walking north... barefoot and in shorts.  Another day of upper 70s, but some hazy overcast today.  Almost no wind.  We have to enjoy it while we can - there is a cold front coming in tomorrow that may keep the high temp down to 70º or so.

We saw a few of these little guys on the beach...

That's a Portuguese Man o' War, a little one, alongside a penny for some size perspective.  It was a great day for beach walking.  Back to the pavillion at Isla Blanca Park...

Not much in the way of crowds there...

We sat for a while, enjoying the peace and quiet.  Off for a pizza lunch, then back to the house.  Time to psyche ourselves up for the real crowds we were about to face.  Joan prepared soft drinks while I prepped Wild Blue.  We shoved off and headed out.

Less than 2 miles from the house, we came upon the crowds...

While we were watching, we had some other visitors above the water...

If you've heard me talk about our neighbors who own a boat building company, this is Bill and Gladys.  Bill pointed at some activity on the water and asked, "Are they playing or feeding?"

"Umm, that would be dolphins being frisky," I told him.

"Being what?"

"Dolphins fooling around.  Maybe you shouldn't watch this."

They stayed around for a bit and then... "Ohhhhhhh."

We were going to head further, but the dolphin show (not just the foolin' around part), was too good to leave.  I shot over 100 images, but you won't have to look at all of them.  Here's a few...

They are social - they came right up to the boat...

Joan drove while I did the shooting...

They were close behind us, as well...

A short time later, we were joined by Scarlett; she and her husband run the Sea Life Center and do dolphin and bird watching trips...

They run a 35' pontoon houseboat, and also have a couple smaller pontoons - good platforms for getting up close.

Only another 75 or 80 images to go!  Yeah, I'm kidding.  The show was so much fun, I just kept shooting...

About that time, Scarlett pointed down the ship channel and said, "That is going to take them away..."

I expected Joan to let the ship pass... I was wrong: she put the throttle forward and set us up for some bow surfing photos...

That ship looks REALLY big up close!

As we turned for home, a small jet boat came up to us...

The driver said to us, "I love your boat - is that a Cape Dory?"

I haven't had to explain that in a while.  And then, the "No, it's a C-Dory..." discussion.  He told me that they have a 52' Grand Banks.

"Nice boat," I told him.

"Is that boat of yours trailerable?" he asked.

"Yep, it sure is," I told him, and then related a few of the many places we have had Wild Blue.

"Would you be interested in an even up trade?  Seriously.  The Grand Banks has been freshly repowered.  We have it on one of the T-Heads in Corpus right now..."

"You might be surprised to find out that you aren't the first one to offer something similar," I told him.

"I am serious.  I LOVE your boat.  I can see in the window that you are well-equipped - great chartplotter!  How much time have you spent onboard?"

I thought he was going to wet himself when I told him, "We just came back from 6 months on the boat; most of it in the Pacific Northwest, but we stopped at Lake Powell for a week or so on the way back."

We visited for a while longer, and he eventually asked, "I don't want to seem tacky, but can you tell me what those sell for new?"  Unlike most folks, he didn't flinch when I told him what they currently go for.  He asked about what we tow with, what kind of mileage we get on the water.  I think we made another C-Dory fan today.  "Seriously - that is a great boat!"

In a different place and situation, he may have had a deal.

We headed for home.  Nice afternoon.  Used up a grand total of 1.3 gallons of fuel in 2 1/2 hours... probably the majority of that when Joan ran us up to planing speed to catch the bow surfing.  A big portion of the dolphin show was in neutral - don't use much gas with that throttle setting. ;-)  You don't have to travel big distances to have big fun.

And, you don't have to fight the crowds on Black Friday to have "an experience."