Our Wandering Holiday

It is the middle of December, and we are getting ready for our celebrations. George has his tree set up. We have our stockings hung by the window, and I can assure you they were hung with great care! Amazon, FedEx, and UPS have been very busy schlepping our gifts here and there. We have already watched Prancer and Miracle of 34^th Street (in B&W, if you please). The XM/Sirius Holiday Music channels, as well as my own holiday mix, have been playing on Koko and Nakai. Several young kids have approached me, staring at my beard and white hair with expectant, hope-filled eyes. Unfortunately, my “Ho, Ho, Ho!” is not convincing. The holidays are progressing as they should for two wanderers whose life-long collection of holiday traditions and decorations are securely packed away in a storage unit in Houston.

 

Since we have been on the road, we have leaned into some old traditions that still work and have started others that fit our present circumstances. We do our best to spend the holidays with family. We still send gift cards to the older folks and gifts to the younger folks. However, we let Amazon do the wrapping. We also do our best to scope out the Christmas lights. We ensure that Santa knows where we are so our stockings will be filled on Christmas Morning. Holidays on the road are less about decorations and filling the tree with presents and more about staying in touch with family and friends and celebrating our faith. Mostly, it is about remembering our yesterdays and living in our today. As we move toward Christmas this week, I am glad you, my friends, are with us during the holiday season.

 

Our Grandson, Aiden, came to stay with us on Saturday. We spent a lot of time catching up. On Sunday, he went with us as we explored some of our favorite birding spots at San Luis Pass and the Brazos River's mouth at the end of Bryan Beach. I took my camera and loaned my old camera to Aiden for the day. It was heading toward storage. I had forgotten that I allowed him to play with the camera 4-5 years ago, and he seemed disinterested. But when I set him loose with the camera and my short lens, he went crazy. He outshot me ten-to-one.

 

I took my long, birding lens off my camera and put it on his camera. He went berserk. He found shots that I never saw. I loved listening to his shutter click and watching him focus and re-focus the camera on photo after photo. I ended the day with half a dozen pictures. He shot over a hundred. This is one of the greatest photography days I have had in a very long time. The shots below are a few that I took. But my greatest joy and memory of that day was offering to give my old camera to Aiden if he was interested and was willing to buy a used lens. He said he would think about it, but I saw the twinkle in his eye and knew my old, trusty 70D had found a new home. By the end of the week, I delivered the camera after he arranged for the lens. Yep, the best week of photography since I started shooting with an old Canon A2 that a friend gave me. I am sure he saw that same glimmer in my eye 26 years ago. Aiden, I can’t wait to see the photos you will take in the coming years.

A Least Sandpiper

The Bridge across San Luis Pass

The Brazos River

Where the River Current Meets the Gulf

A Ruddy Turnstone along the Intracoastal Waterway

Abandoned Docks on the Intracoastal

 

After we took Aiden home to ponder his photographic future, we started one of the projects for our time here in Galveston. Koko is comfortable when the temps stay in the 40 – 70 range. But when the temps go above or below that range, the closets and cabinets conduct heat and cold into the living space. According to the RV gurus on YouTube, this is a relatively easy fix with insulation applied to the back of the cabinets and closets. After a quick trip to Home Depot, where we picked up some foam insulation, we started cutting and installing the insulation. Like house projects, we had to stop halfway through to run to the hardware store for more Liquid Nails. The twisting, stretching, and unexpected contrary drawers made for sore muscles that night and the following day. All-in-all, it will keep us comfortable on the road. We are not facing any of those extreme temperatures in the near future, so I will not know if the gurus were correct. But preliminary impressions are good. The temps have held steady in the coach. Time will tell!

 

“We got ducked!” on one of our excursions to Target for supplies. Like the more commonly known Jeep Wave, ducking is a game that jeepers play with one another. The idea involves a bag of rubber ducks that are at the ready when we encounter another jeep. When discovering a cool Jeep, we offer a duck. Purists argue that they should only be for Wranglers and are awarded based on how “cool” they are. I tend to limit my ducking to Wranglers, but I have never seen an uncool Jeep Wrangler. We are on our second bag of ducks and have also received a fair share of ducks. They are paddling around in the duck pond as I write. (The duck pond is otherwise known as the sunglasses and coin holder in the center of the dash.) Generally, the ducks are left anonymously on the door handle, mirror, or hood. They are often handed out in person and become a mutual ducking. I have read where some give kamikaze ducks by throwing them in an open window when passing another Wrangler on the road. Regardless of the delivery method, ducking is part of the Jeeping experience and never fails to bring a smile to most Jeepers. Yes, a few Jeepers do not enjoy ducking and will toss the harmless creature on the ground before driving off. If you find a rubber duck abandoned in a parking lot, look for the nearest Jeep with ducks in their duck pond and leave the orphan on the door handle. You will have rescued a defenseless duck and brought a smile to a Jeeper who lives to be ducked.

 

Next week will be very busy. We will do many of the same things we have been doing this week: visiting friends, spending time with the grandchildren, keeping our traditions, and making new ones. The blog will likely be very short next week, but do not worry; after Christmas, we will head south and resume our physical wandering in the Rio Grande Valley. Have a wonderful week doing some Holiday wandering of your own. Celebrate the holiday that touches your soul.

 

Happy Holiday Wandering, my friends.

 

Bob

 

A Special Note: I know some of you are facing a difficult holiday season. Some are celebrating without someone who made their holidays more than special. Others are dealing with depression or other serious health concerns. Please know that I wish you a healing holiday time as you walk through these long nights with an enduring hope of the dawn that awaits you. You are loved, my friends. And you are not alone! RLD

 

 

The Ties that Bind

We continue the first stop of the Winter 2023 here in Galveston at Stella Mare RV Resort. It has been a busy week. We have enjoyed being with our Daughter and the Grands and starting on our Winter projects. Full-time RVing takes on a different pace from the months spent traveling every week. Living in the RV's small space is similar to living in an apartment. The most significant difference is the limited time to complete some of our annual chores before we hit the road in the early Spring. Planning and sticking to the plan are necessary to get everything done. After February 29^th, there will be no "later." We have less flexibility than we enjoy when we are on the road. But, again, this is all part of the adventure and can either be resented and resisted or embraced and enjoyed. But then, I have always loved checking things off a list. Hey, I take my fun where I can get it! So, here goes!

Much of RV life is about creative problem-solving. Last year, we bought the plastic containers in the picture to carry our bulk groceries like flour, sugar, beans, and coffee. They worked great, but they moved around when we were driving. We would have to rearrange them whenever we stopped and wanted to use them. We tried keeping other items in front on move days, but that was a real pain. This week, however, the fog parted, and the problem resolved itself. While unpacking an item from Amazon, I noticed several pieces of angled cardboard used in the packing material. These sturdy, lightweight pieces set off my hoarding instinct. They were too interesting to throw away. Unfortunately, this instinct does not go well with RV life, so I have to come up with an immediate use or toss them in the recycling. Then I put the bouncing canisters problem together with my need to hang on to the cardboard, and voila! A little black duct tape and some judicious bending allowed me to fashion a spice rack filling the space in front of the canisters. Moving our spices and seasonings to the new rack freed up some precious pantry space. In our 2,400-square-foot house, the cardboard would have gone onto a shelf somewhere. But here in Koko, necessity and opportunity came together, and we solved three problems with one little homemade spice rack. Yep, that is part of the adventure for a hoarder who lived in a 150 sq. ft. home.

Marlene and I lived in and around Houston for 26 years before we hit the road. She was associated with Houston Methodist Hospital for 23 of those years. We have maintained our medical support there at the Medical Center. Marlene has many former co-workers still working at TMH. Also, the last three years of our time in Houston were spent in an apartment complex within walking distance of the Med Center. Therefore, when we return for our annual check-ups, we get a room at a hotel and spend a couple of days on Main Street.

 

We cram 4-5 appointments over a couple of days. Before leaving each office, we set the week we will be back and back appointments for the following year. This works well unless the Doctor's schedule changes and they cancel the appointment. When this happens, we start Calendar Shuffling until everything is covered, one way or another. So far, it has worked until it doesn't. Sounds like life.

 

The second part of our annual pilgrimage to the Med Center is a homecoming for Marlene. She spent over two decades building professional and personal relationships with many people at Methodist. She always enjoys getting together with them, even if it is just a visit in the hallway. Maintaining relationships is always a challenge for full-timers. This is one way that Marlene scratches that itch.

 

One last reason we love returning to the area is to visit some of our favorite restaurants. One of our favorites is Miller’s Hamburgers in Scurlock Tower at the Med Center. This picture is from one year ago when we enjoyed the Guacamole Burger and Onion Rings. It showed up on our FB feed on the day that we ate the same meal in the same place this year. It would not be a trip to the Med Center without a stop at Miller's. Unfortunately, our travels have introduced us to better Guacamole Burgers, so the menu may be different in 2024. That is one of the risks of travel. It can really mess with our biases.

 

Does anyone want to make a guess as to why I am hiring someone to wash and wax Koko? Yep, they are standing on top of Koko. That should explain it! Generally, we wash Koko three or four times a year and wax once or twice, and he was due. When we arrived in San Marcos last month, we had several months of grime built up on Koko. I hired a young guy to come out and wash Koko. Most parks do not allow you to wash your own rig using their water. They require that you hire a service that brings their own water. This young guy did a great job, and we were ready to hit the road the next day. Unfortunately, the next day, we drove through an infamous Central Texas drizzle all the way to College Station. When we got into our new park, Koko was covered in road grime, even worse than three months in the desert and high plains. We had to get Koko washed and waxed for the second time in a month. But we decided to wait until we got to Galveston before trying again. This was the week Royal Detailing came out and did a great job washing and waxing. The fiberglass is protected from the sun, and we can see through our windows again. I hope this wash will hold us until we are ready to leave the Valley at the end of February. Koko looks great!

 

Our Daughter has been home-schooling the twins, who are 11 this year. Last year, I created a book of maps for the twins to help them follow along with us on our trip and learn a little geography along the way. Our Daughter reports that they used the maps, so I am creating another book for them for 2024. I am adding a few extras this year by encouraging them to calculate drive times and gas usage. I  provide the distances between stops and MPH and MPG, and they can do the calculations. I am looking for things they can explore on Google if interested. I hope this will help keep our connection strong while we are away. There are so many places that I would love to share with them, and this is one way that we can be Grandma and Grandpa in absentia. 

 

Our grandson, Aiden, joined us for the weekend. We spent the day with Melissa and had a mini-cousin's reunion. Anthony and Aiden discussed much while we ate at Russo's Pizza, where Sean works. It was good to see the grands laughing, talking, and teasing each other. Though, at times, they seemed to think it was funny to gang up on Grandpa. (Don't tell them, but Grandpa thought it was fun too.) Sean took good care of us and joined in when he could. I also watch Cowboys Football with Anthony via text and keep the family bonds strong. This is the one part of wanderlust that I do not like. I do not like being separated from my family for most of the year. But Marlene and I do what we can to stay connected and involved in our children's and grandchildren's lives. FB, texting, Facetime, and our annual visits help, but there are those moments when I would love to have them all with us as we wander around and see exciting places. Fortunately, the family has encouraged us to wander on, making the separation bearable.

 

Sean, our host for our family reunion at Russo's, does not like his picture being taken. But he deserves a lot of credit! Thanks for making it a wonderful evening!

 

We will be in Galveston for another few weeks before heading south to the Rio Grande Valley. We have Christmas shopping to finish and a few more projects to complete. I am glad you are hanging with us while we winter away our winter days. We have birds to see, grands to hug, and new experiences to enjoy as we head toward our March 1^st appointment with another year of wanderlusting after the next encounter on the road.

 

Happy holidays!

 

Bob

 
 

 

 
 

 
 

Winter Wanderland

Our winter wandering has begun. We drove down from College Station on Monday afternoon and are set up for a month here in Stella Mare RV Resort on Galveston Island. We stayed here last year for a month and enjoyed our time. (We have also booked it for two months at the end of 2024 and the beginning of 2025.) We look forward to spending time with our Daughter and Grandchildren and getting reacquainted with our favorite birding spots along the Upper Texas Gulf Coast. Marlene is really excited about getting some fresh shrimp and other seafood. 

Wintering is a fact of life for Full-time RVers. For me, we either winter up north, where I hunker down in our rig during lousy weather, or we go South and continue to enjoy the RV life inside and outside. We do the latter, joining the tens of thousands of Winter Texans in Galveston and the Rio Grande Valley next month. This is our second winter in the RV, so I have much to learn. This week, I am sharing what we have learned thus far and a few challenges we still face. But I know with absolute certainty that wintering is part of the challenge and adventure of our wanderlusting lifestyle.

 

The RV is the full-time RVer’s primary home. Some may rent out their house or have a house sitting empty somewhere. But most do not have any other place to live. This requires that the Full-timer find a way to get through the winter. Many join the "Snowbirds" in Texas, Florida, California, or Arizona. A few will settle-in for the winter in colder climates. Others will stay on the road. I greatly respect those who remain on the road and winter "up north," but I am not inclined to join them. For me, full-time wandering through winter is an opportunity to stay warm and take the opportunities that staying in place for a month or so has to offer. The wandering is not so much a wandering from place to place as it is a wandering through the holidays and wintertime.

 

Why do we do it? This is an easy answer. I DO NOT LIKE COLD WEATHER! I am sure that you are not surprised by this. I have often mentioned that I want to spend the rest of my life chasing 70 degrees. You can be assured that if I find myself in 30-degree weather, it is either a mistake in planning or an unavoidable and unfortunate circumstance. We are well-equipped to handle 100 to 20 degrees but prefer to avoid the two extreme 20-degree ranges on both ends.

 

I am unsure how we will handle staying in one place for so long. This year, we plan to spend a month on Galveston Island with the family and then move down into the Rio Grande Valley for January and February. Over the last year, I have discovered that I get itchy feet after a week in one place. I grow bored with the same-old, same-old that arrives after about a week. My challenge will be to see if the benefits of staying put will offset the wanderlust. I will explore what it means to wander through time when wandering through space is impossible. Some full-timers resolve this by heading South of the border and wandering around Mexico and Central America in the winter. I am not quite ready for that much adventure. So, while escaping the cold, I will explore a different type of wandering.

 

This wandering will allow us to take care of our annual maintenance on Koko and Nakai. Minor repairs can be addressed, and upgrades can be explored and completed. This year, we will get new shoes for Nakai and rotate Koko's. We are also looking at minor repairs and upgrades with a tech in Galveston whom I trust. We are exploring ways to better insulate and ventilate Koko and increase our safety and comfort.

 

 We will also use our time to do some needed maintenance on ourselves. While in Galveston, we will head to the Houston Medical Center for our annual exams and tests. This usually involves a couple nights in a hotel in the Med Center and back-to-back exams and tests. Unfortunately, we will have other tests that will require a drive into Houston. But spending the rest of the year on the road is worth it. While in Brownsville, we will have two months to take care of other things like eye exams. This makes the sedentary life more palatable. It will make life on the road that much better.

 

A third opportunity that wintering allows is the ability to rest up. We love our traveling, but it does take a toll on the mind-body-soul. The constant thinking about the next stop and the unknowns on every trip wear on my spirit. The stress is more than made up for by the travel. But it still wears on us. We love it, but we are completing our 7^th decade and do not bounce quite as well as we did 10 – 20 years ago. Our winter hiatus offers us time to kick back and let our body-mind-soul get back in touch with each other. I will read, write, explore, and relax. My greatest challenge will be getting out and walking to avoid gaining weight. This is especially true as we check out the local cuisines. But I digress! 

If you are curious about how we choose a spot for winter, this map will explain. I am a “hothouse orchid” when it comes to climate, so the Plant Hardiness Zones offers an excellent way to choose our wintering site. I prefer the orange tropical zone but can tolerate the two zones above it. The ideal place is Southern Florida, but we would join the 100,000 other Snowbirds, and, if you remember, I prefer to avoid crowds, too. Plus, the site fees in Central and Southern Florida are astronomical. The extreme Northern Gulf coast would also be possible, but I am no fan of the Deep South, and the weather is very susceptible to "surprises." California is perfect, but way too expensive. I would love Arizona, but Marlene is not a big fan of extended stays in the desert. This leaves Texas. I grew up on the northern edge of the zone we prefer, but the weather is prone to "surprises" there as well. Thus, we are left with the Gulf Coast. Fortunately, Marlene loves the beach, and we have family there. This isn't rocket science. We will enjoy our coastal lives on Galveston Island, in the Coastal Bend, and in the Valley. Next year, we are even considering Northern Florida. Stay tuned.

 

My theory of wintering has three working principles. These are only theories and will be tested by our time along the Texas Coast. These are 1) Be safe, 2) Take advantage of available rental discounts, 3) and Use our time well.

 

Being safe is our primary principle of wandering. My adventuresome spirit ends when danger and threats encroach on our daily lives. We have redundant sources of heat for Koko. But I do not want to push our gas or electric heat beyond reasonable limits. This picture shows a propane splitter that I installed on our onboard propane system that allows us to use a 20 lb. tank from Walgreens when our onboard system runs low. We can refill it without driving Koko to a fill station. This increases our safety when an unforeseen cold snap occurs. I also have redundancy in internet access and other vital systems. Safety also leads me to book our sites a year in advance since the wintering sites are the first to disappear, as we learned last year on Galveston Island. We had to stay at 4 different parks during our two months on Galveston Island because we could not book them far enough in advance. Safety is, and will remain, our essential rule number one!

 

A second principle we will test is taking advantage of monthly rental discounts. Most RV Parks offer discounts for weekly and monthly rates. Some will even provide a seasonal discount. If the daily rate is $50, the weekly will usually buy 6 and get a seventh free. The Monthly rate can get a 50% or more discount over the daily rate. For the $50 site, that will be a monthly savings of $750. (In the popular areas, the daily rate can be $80 - $120 with a corresponding increase in the monthly rate.) The seasonal rates offer more savings but require three or more months in the same spot. The monthly savings will give us more room in the budget for staying in nicer places during the rest of the year and booking more comfortable sites for the winter. We will see if all this thinking holds true.

 

The third principle is to use our time well. Wandering demands that we act when opportunity offers itself. During the year, we must put off some projects because they require more than a few days to complete. During the winter months, we can order unpredictable deliveries, take care of medical procedures that require multiple visits, or do some of the things that are easier in the area we are wintering. It is all about using the opportunities that offer themselves. This is a way of being present to ourselves and our time and place. Just as our travels give us many other unique opportunities, wintering does as well. We are not giving up our journey for the winter. We are doing it differently as each moment presents itself. This is the essence of wandering!

 

So, for the 23-24 Winter Season, we will enjoy our time in Galveston until after Christmas and then move on to the Rio Grande Valley for January and February. El Nino will throw some challenges our way. But we are prepared. We have three months of wandering, and I am excited about the possibilities that await us.

 

After arriving in Galveston, our first stop was a visit with our Daughter and Grandsons. There will be many more opportunities to visit over the next few weeks. But we also have quite a few old friends to see, so we set out with camera and binoculars for some of our favorite birding spots along Stewart Road and in Galveston Island State Park. Here are a few of our friends we met along the way.
 

 

 

A White Ibis foraging for soft squishy critters.

A Great Blue Heron hiding in the grass.

Killdeer relaxing in the mud.

Coastal Scrub

An Osprey checking out the visitors!

An Osprey sounding the alarm!

 

 

 

Thunderstorms are one of the facts of life along the Upper Texas Gulf coast. Fortunately, I enjoy rainy days! During the Fall, these sweep in with tropical storms and hurricanes, but generally, after December 1^st, they result from cold fronts sweeping down from the north that draw storms up from the South. These can be severe. Last year, we were within a mile of a tornado. One such storm came through on Wednesday, making for an enjoyable day of writing, reading, watching Christmas Movies, and being lazy. This year, El Nino threatens to make our winter wetter and cooler than usual. But that's okay. The birds don't mind. Besides, this is the same weather we enjoyed in California, Oregon, Washington, Montana, and Idaho. It feels like 2023.

 

We spent the rest of the week doing chores and visiting with the family. We had a Mobile RV Tech make some repairs that were beyond my ability, and I asked him to give us an estimate on installing another fan. Next week, we head into Houston for a couple of days of annual medical check-ups and visiting with friends. But mostly, we will take care of business as we live our lives on the road. I appreciate your hanging with us during our wintering. All I can promise is that I will share our journey just as it is. There will likely be pictures of Gulf Coast birds and perhaps an adventure or two. In the meantime, I hope you find something in these scribblings to feed your soul.

 

We continue the journey, albeit at a slower pace than during our winter wandering. I look forward to reading your comments and questions on FB or the blog. Enjoy your journey, even in the downtime. I firmly believe that the attentive soul will find joy and gratitude in some measure.

 

Bob

 

 

 

The Fruits of Gratitiude

On Sunday, we packed up after 10 days in San Marcos. We headed east to spend Thanksgiving with  Marlene's Brother, Sister-in-law, and Dad in College Station, Texas. We pulled into the 12th RV Resort after an uneventful drive. We will be here for the week before heading south to Galveston.

When we cross the causeway into Galveston, we will close the loop on our travels for 2023. We left there on February 6, 2023. Since leaving the island, we have traveled through 10 States and driven Koko 7,403 miles. We spent 330 nights in 52 different campgrounds and one night in a hotel. According to my iPhone, I have walked just over 900K steps. Marlene has surpassed 2 million steps. We have added 23 new bird species to our life list and checked off several bucket list items, including Multnomah Falls and La Brea Tar Pits. In addition, we rode the Durango-Silverton Trail, climbed the Moki Dugway (look it up), and drove HWY 101 along the West Coast. We visited Joshua Tree National Park, Glacier National Park, Capitol Reef National Park, Redwood National Park, Lewis and Clark National Park, Northern Cascades National Park, Minidoka Internment Camp, Bears Ears National Monument, and El Malpais National Monument. We have toured Tribal Cultural Centers for the Ute, Anasazi, Wanapum, Makah, and Yurok people. I have over 13K pictures in my archives from the year. This is just a fraction of our experiences.

It is fitting that we mark this moment during Thanksgiving Week. As I look back over the year, I am overwhelmed with gratitude. As I pondered the year, this quote kept echoing in my mind.

“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.” ~Epicurus

My cup is overflowing, and the tidal wave is too much to contain. What do I do with the abundance? The joys of traveling are not just about following our dream. Being grateful is not enough. To enjoy its full impact, we must go beyond gratitude. I ran across this quote from Robin Wall Kimmerer in her book Braiding Sweetgrass:

“But I think we are called to go beyond cultures of gratitude, to once again become cultures of reciprocity.”

Gratitude inspires us to embrace grace, good humor, openness, tolerance, respect, and patience with ourselves, others, and the universe. These fruits of gratitude are meant to be shared with every person we encounter along the way. In doing so, gratitude spreads from spirit to spirit, and we can leave a translucent wake of joy behind us. We have been incredibly fortunate to have traveled in the wake of others and hopefully created a wave of gratitude during our travels.

In this spirit, I share some photos of Marlene and me from our journey through 2023. Thank you for traveling along with us. I hope you have been inspired to get out and do a little wandering on your own. Please check in as we head to Galveston through Christmas and then to the Rio Grande Valley for the winter. I will keep posting and sharing the joy of wandering along our neighborhood along the Gulf Coast and in South Texas.

Grandma and "The Boys" before leaving Galveston!

With Good friends, Mark and Linda, at Texas Wine Cooperative in Stonewall.

On the Edge of Texas in El Paso

On the trail in Texas

At Chiricahua National Monumnet

Marlene at the wheel of Koko

A Super Bloom along Route 66

In Joshua Tree National Park

At the Graumann's Chinese Theatre

On the Friend's Couch at the Friends Fountain at Warner Bros. Studio

Strolling Pismo Beach

In the Redwoods

The Heart of San Fancisco

The Seattle Family at a Museum

Whale Watching in the Juan de Fuca Straits

Marlene yanks the alarm chain in a mine in Idaho

Along the trail in Montana

Glacier National Park

A Recovered river in Washington

A Lava Tube in Idaho

Zion National Park

On board the Durango and Silverton

With our nephew, Johnny, and his husband, Ben

Another Class on 71 grad from SMHS, Monty

Marlene's Dad and Brother

Our Nephew Will and Grandnephew, Jericho

On the trail above Bryce Canyon

Our 2024 Journey begins next week in Galveston. We will head out after Christmas for the Rio Grande Valley and then begin our loop through the Midwest at the end of February. I hope you will come along with us.

Happy Holidays, my friends!

Bob