Days Eight Thru Fourteen.

Rockport Retreat RV Resort – 09/07/2021

Day 8

Today was a very quiet day spent mostly in the RV except for the usual dog walks which Sandy insists that we take twice and sometimes three times a day. Today was a three timer as she sat and looked at me with her big brown eyes which I tried to ignore. She was very insistent and if I happen to catch her glance, it involves an immediate tail wagging and a pleading look that says, “Come on Dad, it’s time to go”. We approached the street on one of these walks only to be accosted by three little “killer” Chihuahuas that live in the house down the road and according to the Park Super, are always running loose. Apart from a lot of noise from both sets of dogs, no harm occurred and I turned and went back into the RV Park instead. Turns out that there are actually five of those noisy little dogs as we found in a later walk.

I spent a part of the day researching our next stop and finally came up with Texana Park and Campground in a place called Edna here in Texas. It’s a little under a hundred mile trip and we have booked a two week stay. More on that later. I have decided that wherever possible, I am going to find campgrounds that have a lake or river and lots of trails in the future as I am not too interested in towns and cities other than for shopping needs. It’s amazing how much time it takes doing this research and then after locating a place of interest, there is always the possibility that it does not have any vacancies. When this happens, it’s back to the drawing board.

I have several programs that find campsites and work out a route. The one I am currently using is called RV Trip Wizard. What I do is to figure out what direction to go and then see what campgrounds are along the way. I am very flexible. The comments and write ups are what I use to see if the camp site is worth my time and that the place has full hook ups including sewer. I’m too old and picky to “rough it”.

Day 9

Today was pretty much like the rest so far, getting up late, walking the dogs, eating breakfast and reading the mail. I usually spend time tidying up the RV before settling down perusing the computer for the latest world and local news and following up on items that interest me.

Later in the afternoon, I decided to drive into Portland just for the hell of it and because I needed a Starbucks Latte feeling that I was missing something from my used to be, normal routine. Portland is about 20 miles away and a pretty straight shot according to the map but for some reason, the car mapping system was taking me all over the place and I had to rely on my phone which is not the best and a little dangerous. However, we made it safely and I rewarded myself with a venti sized Latte to make up for all of those I had missed these past couple of weeks. I also located a ginormous Walmart’s and did some grocery shopping before heading back to the RV. Funnily enough, the car mapping system worked fine on the way home. Must be like a horse, reluctant to walk away but always eager to get back to the stable.

Arriving back at the campgrounds, I was met by two very excited little dogs who helped me unload the groceries and put them away before we went out on our last walk of the day.

The countryside is so different here, very flat, not a lot of trees and somewhat depressing. So far, I still haven’t located a beach or come to that, not got very close to the Gulf. Although the campsite is clean and well taken care of, there are no places to walk so I have learned a lot as regards what to look for in the future. Our exercise consists of walking around the campground due to the lack of trails.

Day 10

Another late rising day not because of being lazy but because I am sleeping well and only waking for the call of nature. I somewhat reluctantly crawled out, showered, put on clean clothes and was ready to face whatever today would bring. It started in it’s usual way by taking the dogs for their first walk of the day and along the way, we ran into Andy, the Park Super so we stopped to chat. Turns out he is into Amateur Dramatics and they have their opening show this Saturday putting on their version of M.A.S.H. I wished him luck as we went on our way returning to the RV for a late breakfast. He had been putting out welcome signs as he had for us when we arrived and it looks like we have new tenants on their way in. If this park had more shade and and trails, I would stay longer but unfortunately, it has neither.

The rest of the day was spent in the usual way, writing, walking the dogs, feeding us all, watching TV in the evening and then bed for a long peaceful sleep. Incidentally, it is too hot and humid to spend much time outdoors.

Day 11

The new tenants have arrived and are directly opposite me. They look to be old hands at this camping thing as they very quickly parked and levelled their rig and unloaded their truck with other stuff. They do not appear to have any pets unless it is a cat which is one less worry for us when we go walking. I have to say that this park is laid out very spaciously with a lot of room between campsites. I don’t feel crowded at all here and there is no one on either side of me.

I decided to go back into Rockport to do more shopping this time to Walmart’s as I needed a SanDisk for one of my gadgets having lost the other one somewhere. While there, I stocked up on a few other things. This Walmart is huge and for the first time, I saw trucks parked in the lot on overnight stays, something I had read about but not witnessed. Compared to this Walmart, the ones in Austin are no more than large stores. Like I said, this one is ginormous.

I have chatted to a few of the neighbors but most of the time, people are off doing their own thing and you don’t get to see very many of them unless they are driving by or walking their dogs or maybe using the pool or laundry rooms. Many are full timers and have jobs that take them away on a regular basis. That is why so many people enjoy this life as they are able to live it their way. One couple I talked to expressed concern that I was leaving so soon as they considered me to be a good neighbor. Go figure.

Most of my days are spent in front of the computer either writing or following up on things. Walking the dogs takes up at least an hour or more every day. Yesterday, I worked on the pop out screen to the map system in the RV as it had quit working and managed to at least get it to pop out and work again. Now I need to work on the maps so it will work and not make me rely on my phone which although a good system, is a little more dangerous as the screen is so small.

I stopped and chatted to one of the neighbors, Cary I believe and she was asking about my accent. She has a Boxer that is just a big old baby and he and Sandy got along just fine, Mikey of course, not so much. He is a funny little dog as he does not want to make friends with anybody, dogs or humans. Maybe he was ill treated in the past. Either that or he is just plain possessive and doesn’t want to share me with another strange dog in case they join our household.

Day 12

I watched my new neighbor as he worked on his small boat directly across from me. No idea what he is trying to do and not nosey enough to find out. Quite obviously, they are here for a while, probably “Snowbirds” from up North wintering out in the warmer climes. After he finished with the boat, he set up some permanent wooden steps into his unit. They are pretty big and I have no idea where he carried them or come to that, I didn’t see the boat when they came in either. Maybe he triple towed and unhooked it when he came in so that he could set up.

Today it is cloudy and we have had some rain. Makes a change from the constant sun and heat as the temperature has dropped by several degrees. We need to time our afternoon walk or chance a soaking. I spent more time working on the Radio/Map System with not much success. The radio works but the map, not at all so it looks like we will be relying on the phone to show us the way. Dang thing is too small.

We only have two more days here as we leave on the 15th to our new site in Edna, Texas. So tomorrow will be laundry day and the day after will be packing inside the RV. The final thing before pulling out will be to empty the tanks, disconnect the hoses and finally the power chord which is the first thing upon arriving and the last thing prior to driving out.

I have not been watching the weather forecast and all of a sudden, my phone squawked with an Emergency message declaring that there is a possibility of a tropical storm with bad weather with high winds and a possible storm surge as high as 3ft. I sat there for a while considering what to do but it was too late in the day to make anything happen today. Depending on what happens overnight will decide what we do tomorrow.

Day 13

Another late rising day not by just being lazy although that does have a lot to do with it but it rained very hard in the night, enough to wake me up but as there was no imminent threat, I quickly dropped back off to sleep and used it as an excuse to not get up very early. It was raining very lightly when we went out for our morning walk but the dogs didn’t care and dragged me out anyway. There was a large Setter roaming free that I recognized from down the street. He was a big old friendly guy and just wanted to play so we directed our walk back towards his RV where his owner came out and he deserted us for her. Short lived friendship.

We continued on with our walk and checked on the comings and goings before returning back to our RV for a late breakfast. Then a check of the weather map to see what was happening with the storm. It is still out there but has not yet made landfall. We need to keep our eyes on it to see what may develop. This is a strange little town with a lot of RV parks a couple of which are no longer operating. There are a lot of very nice houses and then right next door, a junked up yard and house which detracts from the neighborhood. I don’t understand how those places are not made to clean up their yards and property.

I received a call from the next campground that I had called yesterday with a view of leaving here a couple of days earlier based on the weather. I chatted for a bit and decided to wait and see as my reserved spot at the next campground is ready and waiting for us even if we come in a day early.

The rest of the day was spent on important things like doing the laundry which takes about two hours altogether. The laundry room is always in need of a sweep out which I do when I am there but the machines are clean and cheap at $1.50 a load each to wash and dry. Today was bedclothes day which I don’t mind laundering but hate remaking the bed. I think I may have finally worked out a system as it went very smoothly with everything working the first time and no bottom fitted sheet coming unsprung and actually staying in place. The problem is that I can’t get to the top of the bed very easily due to the nature of the RV setup. This will be the last time I use this laundry facility as tomorrow is our last day here.

I spent the rest of the evening feeding dogs and then myself and watching the English Premier League on the television.

Day 14

Last day at this park.

We started off in our usual fashion of dog walks and breakfast followed by catching up with the news and latest events. The hurricane has moved up the coast and did not present us with any problems apart from a few wind gusts. It didn’t even rain to talk of. We will be following it as we drive to our next stop but hopefully it will have gone way beyond where we plan on staying.

Today was a very quiet day as I had nothing planned except to put away a few things ready for tomorrows trip. I can’t do much in that direction until we are ready to actually move as we still need to eat both this evening and tomorrow morning and then it will only be a case of storing any moveable objects. Last move, some loose things fell off the counter top and managed to get behind the big slide out which of course, I didn’t find out until I discovered damage to the woodwork by the refrigerator when I operated the slide. Nothing too serious but still annoying. I played around with the Truck radio in the hope of using it instead of my phone but to no avail. I even worked on my tablet but could not get that to project the route either. I can’t believe that Ford stuck such a useless piece of radio/view screen in an RV which is made to travel around. My Jeep has a far nicer unit that actually displays and talks out loud giving me turn by turn directions. For a $100,000 plus price ticket on the RV, scrimping on a $200.00 radio/map system does not make a lot of sense.

I took a few pictures of the campground for this post just after Andy, the Super stopped by to offer me a couple more nights if I needed it. I respectfully declined hoping to move on to a place that has some trails that the dogs and I can hike. The new place at Texana Park in Edna appears to have a couple of miles of trails. We’ll see. This park here at Rockport is a very nice winter stop over for those wanting to get away from the snow and cold up North as those just moving in already know.

So ends my stay here at Rockport Retreat RV Park.

Written 09/14/2021

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