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!

Livin’ Life at Gulf Waters … Moving Day Again

Saturday, 1 March
Gulf Waters RV Resort (GWRVR) — Port Aransas, Texas
Temps: LO 58F (14C) / Hi 69F (21C)

Seems like I’m posting to this blog only on moving day.  Since I haven’t posted at all in February, let me first write about that month to make this blog whole again.

I know February is a short month, but the speed with which the days went by is really ridiculous!  I wish I could say that the fast passage of the days was due to being super-active, but no … we were just livin’ life, which is what we expected to be doing when we made plans to spend the winter in Port Aransas.

From what the locals have told us, the weather here in the Texas Coastal Bend this winter has been far from the norms.  Colder and not nearly as sunny.  Considering what much of the rest of the country has had to — and continues to — endure, we can’t complain.  We had more sunshine and blue skies than the weather chart I snipped from the Weather Channel website would seem to indicate — even if most of those days did include plenty of clouds.  We are grateful for whatever sunshine we enjoyed since a heavy marine layer often blanketed the area, reducing visibility considerably and leaving us with overcast skies most of the month.

Except for the coldest days, when it just didn’t get much above the 40F (4C) mark, we were out walking the beach, adding loops around the campground to increase our level of activity.  Other than that, runs into Corpus Christi to take care of routine medical appointments afforded us the opportunity to dine at various restaurants — some good; some so-so.

I had plans to do a boat trip to see the highly endangered whooping cranes, but frankly didn’t want to spend the money on it unless we had blue skies and sunshine as a background for photos.  Since the weather was so changeable and didn’t cooperate with those plans, we took advantage of what was supposed to be a day of sunshine to travel up to the Rockport-Fulton area to see the resident pair of whoopers there.  Following directions from Ingrid, a fellow-blogger, we found the two birds keeping company with a flock of sandhill cranes.  Even though they were quite distant, seeing two of what might be a population of 600 or so birds across North America was special, and I clicked the camera shutter a couple of times even though I knew the photos would be less-than stellar — especially since the sun had gone into hiding even before we left Port Aransas and the light was dull and drab.

The whooping cranes are the white ones; the rest are sandhill cranes.
[I took these photos with my Canon SX50HS, which is the equivalent of 1200 mm at full zoom.]

We were on our way to another field to check on some whoopers there when we spotted them taking to the air.  No time to get the SLR out, I just watched the three birds fly gracefully overhead and disappear behind some trees in a fenced-in area.  So, we switched gears and drove a short distance to see a coastal live oak named The Big Tree.  That we saw patches of blue in the sky while we were there gave us hope … alas, within minutes, the skies were overcast again. 

Signage nearby explained that the origins of this 1,000+ year-old tree dates back to when “… native people walked past it as they hunted deer and gathered blackberries and mustang grapes.  They also headed to the sandy shores near here to look for oysters and fish for black drum.”  That was back around 1000 AD.  Since then, the tree has witnessed many events, including the burning of nearby Lamar by Union troops during a Civil War battle, and survived hundreds of hurricanes, a fire, and worst of all, “branch breakers and root tramplers.”

By the Numbers: 11 feet [3 m] across the trunk; 35 feet [11 m] around; 44 feet [13 m] tall;
89 feet [27 m] across the crown; and over 1,000 years old.

From Rockport we went to Fulton, following the coastal road where we hoped to see birds at the ponds along the way.  There were no winged friends to see … zero, zip, nada.  Maybe another day we will have better luck.

We also stopped by the main portion of the Nature Preserve at Charlie’s Pasture.  Again, it was overcast and dull.  Except for some ducks hidden by reeds, and pelicans flying overhead, feathered friends were few and far between, and too distant to photograph.  We’ll go back when the spring migration is in full swing and see if our luck changes.

Back to today — 1 March

Today was moving day; and we didn’t have to go far.

When we first made plans to extend our time in Port Aransas, there was not a single site to be had here at GWRVR — spring break, and you know what that means.  So, we made reservations to stay at NAS Corpus Christi.  In the interim, we kept asking at the office if there were any openings for March.  They had a week here, a week there.  But we didn’t want to be moving every week.  Then, we got a call that a site had opened up for the entire month.  We jumped on it immediately.  And that’s where we moved today.

From site 756 (red arrow) in December-January, to site 461 (blue arrow) in
January-February, to site 451 (green circle) for the month of March.

But first we had to deal with a “check engine” light that came on just when we were ready to pull out of the site we were in.  It was solid yellow, and we knew it wasn’t as serious as the red warning icon.  Still, we wanted to be sure it wasn’t anything that would leave us stranded in the middle of the campground.

We called 1-800-FTL-HELP, the Freightliner helpline number that Mike Cody had drilled into our brains at Camp Freightliner last summer.  A mechanical voice suggested that we leave a message for a return call, so that’s what we did.

In the meantime, we dug out the instructions for checking for engine fault codes.  Within minutes, we had the code — SPN 97 FMI 3OC 1.  Just as we were getting ready to post a question on the Tiffin RV Network to see if anyone could shed light on the code, the phone rang.  On the other end was a Freightliner tech who identified the code within seconds — water in fuel!!!!

What?  No!  Can’t be … not again.  We’d had a similar issue after driving through heavy rain last August.  On that occasion, it turned out that the fuel/water separator filter sensor had gotten wet, and we’d had the whole thing replaced to be on the safe side.  This time, even with reasonably heavy rains a few days before, how could the sensor have gotten wet when the Phaeton was stationary in the campground?

Following the tech’s instructions, Mui drained about a teaspoonful of fuel from the separator filter (our Phaeton does not have the clear bowl on the bottom of the filter).  No water.  Whew!

Next step was to unplug the sensor wire and clean both ends.  Plugging the wire back in, we waited a few minutes.  When we started the engine there was no fault light!  Yay!!!  We’re suspicious that rain was the cause of the problem today, and think the culprit might have been condensation from the heavy marine layer that blanketed the campground several days in a row.  At least we know what to do to get rid of the fault code should it happen again.

Mui drained the fuel from the white piece at the bottom of the filter; and unplugged the wire (not shown) from the black piece, which is the sensor.

After that bit of excitement, I headed off to check us out of site 461 and check us in to site 451, a corner lot just a few sites down from where we were.  Mui, in the meantime, took the Phaeton for a drive around the campground before Marshall, one of the volunteers here at GWRVR, escorted him to the new site.

Site 451 — Home sweet new home at Gulf Waters RV Resort.

By the time we were settled in, it was well after noon and we were starving.  Even though the skies were overcast, we decided al fresco dining was in order to celebrate our home for the next month.

Site 451 comes with an outdoor kitchen/bar at the back of the site.
We hope to make good use of it while we’re here … provided the weather cooperates.

Thus the blog is once again caught up.  We’ll try to do more around the area in March, and I’ll try to post more frequently … if there’s anything newsworthy to write about.

Checking Out Birding Spots in Port Aransas

Tuesday, 28 January
Gulf Waters RV Resort (GWRVR) — Port Aransas, Texas
Temps: LO 34F (1C) / Hi 47F (8C)

You know there’s something wrong with the weather picture when your high temperature is just after midnight, and your low is around 3:00p.  Even the low of 34F (8C) isn’t quite right as the feel-like temperature in Port Aransas for anyone who went outside was actually 24F (-4C).

Rather than stay at home, we used this cold, blustery day to run errands in Corpus Christi.  Since I have nothing exciting to report from either Monday or today, I’ll go back one more day to a weekend outing instead.

Sunday, 26 January

With the sun out and the temperature at a comfortable 63F (17C) shortly after noon, we decided a long walk was in order.  Instead of our usual stroll on the beach, however, we headed into Port Aransas to check out two birding places Tricia at the visitor center had mentioned.  As serious birders know, the mid-day hours are the wrong time to go birding.  As serious photographers know, the mid-day hours are the wrong time to be toting a camera.  No matter; we were out on a recon with the bonus of a leg-stretching stroll.  I didn’t even take my DSLR with me.

Our first stop was the Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Center, which in addition to birds and waterfowl, is home to Boots & Bags, two resident alligators.  Alas, no sign of them while we were there, but I did capture a quick shot of the very rare Alligator Ahmetus Muhittinensis ;-)

Crunch, crunch, slurp, slurp …. Yummm!

The birding center is in the marsh adjacent to a Nueces County water treatment plant.  And the stink that assaults your nostrils when you first arrive let’s you know that you’ve found the right place!  Of course, how bad the smell is depends on the direction of the wind.  By the time we were on the boardwalk leading into the marsh, the smell was tolerable, and at times, non-existent.

The white pelicans stuck close together as they fed on the far side of the marsh.

9-second clip of pelicans feeding en masse.

Aside from the pelicans, the only wildlife we saw in large numbers were American coots and some ducks.  Most of them were hunkered down on a patch of reeds, but a few of them posed nicely for me.

American Coot
”Ooops!  I think I Had an accident!”

Northern Shoveler

Green-Winged Teal

Next, we headed over to Charlie’s Pasture.  Located off TX361, we had plans to stop by this nature preserve each time we drove into Port Aransas.  But we kept missing the turnoff, which is marked by a very small sign.  This time, we made note of a landmark on our way to the birding center so that we wouldn’t drive by the hidden turn.

The turnoff for Charlie’s Pasture is just past this ‘landmark’ when driving from Port Aransas.

There were no other vehicles in the small parking lot when we arrived.  Walking to the signage at the head of the trail, the first thing we learned was that the bigger portion of the 1,217-acre (492 hectares) preserve is accessed from an entirely different part of Port Aransas.  OK — we’ll go there another time!

Left: The preserve is named for Charlie Bujan, who was born on Mustang Island in 1906.
He used to run cattle on this land, which he leased from the State of Texas.

Right: We strolled the boardwalk at Charlie’s Pasture in the lower left section of the map.
the main section of the preserve is at the top of the map.  the Leonabelle Turnbull birding
center is in the middle of the map; there are future plans for a trail connecting the two.

[click either photo for a more legible version]

If we needed any evidence of the drought plaguing Texas, Charlie’s Pasture provided it.  Except for a few places where we saw narrow streams of water flowing in from ponds, the whole place was dry — mushy in some places; totally parched in other places.  The birds were practically non existent, except for a few tiny birds at the end of the boardwalk; some kildeer that were too far to photograph even with my SX50, which is the equivalent of 1200mm at full zoom; and a couple of lesser yellowlegs foraging at the edge of a distant pond.

The boardwalk straddles land that is, with few exceptions, quite dry,

Left: The observation tower would be a good place to keep an eye on birds; but not today.
Right: Yellow-Rumped Warbler [as confirmed by Judy].

Parched!

Lesser Yellowlegs

Next time we go to either of these places, it will be at a time that is more appropriate for birding and for photography.  In the meantime, we enjoyed our stroll — a change of pace from the beach.