Still in Port A … Still at Gulf Waters RV Resort … Still Having Fun

Monday, 7 April
Gulf Waters RV Resort (GWRVR) — Port Aransas, Texas
Temps: LO 65F (18C) / Hi 80F (27C)

I know I promised to try and do better, and post a little more often in March.  As you can tell from the archive, it didn’t happen.  Hey, what can I say?  We’re just living life here.  Perhaps now that spring is finally making its presence known, we’ll actually do some fun stuff that I can write about.

First, I need to set the record strait about something.  One of my readers left a comment on my last post that they didn’t think this area would be a good place to winter any year let alone this year.

The winter Texans who have been coming to Port A for years and years would beg to differ with that assessment.  As we’ve heard over and over again — both from the snowbirds as well as the locals who make there home here — this has not been a ‘normal’ winter.  They make the comment almost apologetically, thinking we’re unhappy about what we’ve found here weather-wise.  Not the case at all.  We came here this year not so much to explore what Texas has to offer as to chill after long months of traveling.  So, we’re quite content.

P.S.  By the way, as a friend pointed out, Port A (lat. 27.83° N) is actually south of Tampa (lat. 27.97° N).  OK, so it’s only a difference of a couple of minutes, but hey … don’t mess with Texans, as they say ;-)

Now for the March recap …

Compared to many parts of the US, we had decent weather here in Port A — so, don’t take the weather stats below as a complaint.  Our highs ranged between 44F and 74F (7-23C); and our lows ranged between 32F and 65F (0-18C).  On the few days that were on the low end of the temperature spectrum, we hunkered down.  The rest of the days found us walking the campground loops and taking long strolls on the beach — even when the skies were overcast … which was the case for most of March.  We had only two days of full sunshine, and eight days of partial sunshine during the entire 31 days of the month.

The RV’ers at GWRVR aren’t the only ones who come out in droves when the sun shines!

So, what else did we do during March?  Well, we made a day trip to Houston that would have easily made us members of the “PDD Club.”  Those of you who follow Paul and Marti’s R Sanity RV Adventures know exactly what I am talking about.  In our defense, we did the 414-mile (662-km) roundtrip drive in the toad, and not the motorhome … and we didn’t have a choice as the only visa we need for our summer trip had to be applied for in person.  The good news … the consulate agreed to courier our appropriately-stamped passports back to us, so we didn’t have to repeat the drive two weeks later!  And, the bonus for making the long trip … Mui got to soothe his Costco withdrawal before we left Houston!

Left: Great Egret
Right: Cattle Egret in breeding plumage.

We were in Houston when I got a message from fellow-Phaetonites Mike and Sandy saying that they were at GWRVR and asking if we could hook up.  I sent my apologies since I had no idea what time we would be back home, and asked if we could stop by to see them the next day.  As is always the case when we meet up with fellow-RVers/bloggers, there was no lack of conversation or laughter when we visited in Phannie.  I neglected to take my camera with me, but Mike was kind enough to send me a picture from our meet-up.

If you follow Phannie and Mae, you might think you’ve already seen this photo — not so;
there is a small difference … and it has to do with who is standing between the two gals.

Spring break here turned out to be a non-event.  The beach in Port Aransas was packed with youngsters, going crazy and having fun as only kids their age can, but the beach fronting GWRVR remained all but empty of any partyers.  Every site in the rental pool at the resort was full, but there was no party atmosphere to worry about.  This was indeed a good place to be during spring break.

These owner-sites that aren’t in the rental pool remained empty
and we enjoyed a pond-view during spring break from our interior site.

On 24 March, a home-improvement project began here at GWRVR.  Nothing to do with our Phaeton.  Rather, the boardwalk to the beach was torn down to be replaced with a wider one that will allow owners to take their golf carts on the beach if they so wish.  At first we thought this would curtail our beach strolls severely.  Not so.  We’ve been able to walk through the construction site after the worker-bees knock off for the day around 3:00p … and of course, the weekends allow full access since there is no construction work being done then.

The old boardwalk was torn down in a day or so; and by March 30, the pilings were in
place for the new boardwalk, which will be 4 feet (1.2 m) above the dunes.

 

April 7 … considerable headway has been made in the construction of the new boardwalk.

Taking advantage of one of those no-construction weekend days in March, I went for a 3½-mile (6 km) beach walk in the direction of Port Aransas.  This was to be an exercise walk, so I tried to keep my finger off the camera shutter to maintain my pace.  I failed a few times … but I consider it a success that I came back with only seven photos ;-)

A storm surge flattened out much of the beach.

Portuguese man o’ War … aka, Bluebottle

Willet

Storm Detritus

Campers on the beach — not sure I’d want to be this close to the water!

What was Mui doing while I was walking on the beach?

Washing the coach in preparation for our move to another site on 1 April.

One of the last things we did in March was to join fellow-campers for brats on the grill.  Maybe I should clarify that it wasn’t misbehaving kids that Steve grilled, but rather … bratwursts!  Delicious … as was the potato salad Sharon contributed.  The chocolate chip cookies and fruit cocktail that our hostess Vickie served for dessert made the perfect sweet ending to our meal.  Alas, no photos.

On the first day of April, we pulled up the jacks and moved from our corner pad to Site 740 overlooking the big pond — thus returning to the area where we spent our first month at GWRVR.

We’ll be in site 740 (circled in green) the entire month of April.
[map courtesy of the GWRVR website]

The first six days of April were mostly overcast, and windy — very windy, with gusts up to 44 mph (70 kph) on one of those days.  Which is why this post was delayed until today.  What does the blog have anything to do with the weather?  It wasn’t until yesterday that we had enough blue skies to take photographs of the new site.  At least that’s my story, and I am sticking to it ;-)

Site 740 … close-up …

… and from across the pond.

Aside from being happy that spring has finally sprung, we have a much better reason to be excited that April is here — our friends … and fellow-Phaetonites … the Z’s have arrived for a month-long stay.

MBZ and I became internet buddies long before we met for real for the first time in 2010.  Our friendship was born of a common-love of travel.  She read about our trip to Antarctica; I read about their trip to the Galapagos Islands.  We exchanged emails and DVDs of our respective trips, and the rest, as they say, is history.  I think they would agree when I say that despite having spent so little time together in person until now, it feels like we’ve been friends for a lifetime.

1 April was a travel day for both Phaetons — yeah right … we just had to move across the pond here at GWRVR.  So, in true RV’er tradition, we offered to feed them when they completed their grueling, 130-mile (209 km) travel day ;-)

The Z’s Beau (second Phaeton from the left) and our Phae
(mostly hidden by the hedge and palm trees) are separated by just two sites!

Left: Beau keeps company with another Phaeton.
Right: We have a Monaco as our neighbor.

We had promised to keep the meal simple.  And we did — although Mui couldn’t resist adding a few tidbits for everyone to enjoy with our pre-dinner drinks.  The only fly in the ointment was that the weather did not cooperate for an al fresco meal, so the Z’s took their beagle … His Majesty, The Duke … back to their rig before they joined us for dinner in our rig.

(Ooops … just realized I have no photos of Duke; will have to rectify ASAP!)

Benvenuto al Ristorante Faeton!

Adapting a recipe from the Grilled Cheese Academy, Mui prepared a hot caprese panini for dinner.

Since then, we’ve been enjoying happy hours and happy meals.  I can still imagine the taste of the homemade spaghetti and meatballs they served at Trattoria Beau, a charming bistro with a single table that is available by invitation only ;-)

Yeah, I know this post is very long … enough already.  But before I click the post button, here are some signs of spring from around GWRVR …

With the flowers blooming, could the migratory birds be far behind?  I hope not.  I’ll be keeping an eye out for them … with plenty of help from MBZ!