Camping Basics For Us

Tuesday.  Left TTN Conroe RV Park and headed for my Doc’s nearby office for an 8:15 appointment.  We got there and I got to see the Doc immediately.  This & that, a shot and some blood tests afterwards.  He will call me with the results. We left there and headed for Padre Island.  Along the way we stopped at Church’s Chicken and got their chicken fried steak special for $3.99.  It was good.  Then we went into Dollar Tree where everything is a dollar.  For $8 bucks it felt like we bought out the store.  We drove the northern part of Padre Island (rt 361) thru Port Aransas and even a free ferry.  Then down Padre Island just below Corpus Christie.  Nice drive next to the ocean.

We arrived on Padre Is National Seashore Park at Malaquite NP campground around 5 PM.  It was pretty full especially the sites facing the ocean directly.  About 40 total sites.  We got in one row (the only other row) behind them on slightly slanted asphalt with an ocean view.  The camp host was in front of us which was what we wanted.No hook ups and $4 bucks a night with the disabled veteran old fart pass.  The camp host was amazed that my pass was 20 years old.    They do have toilets and showers here. We didn’t turn on the inverter or generator because there was no real need to.  No Sat TV (forgot the do hickey), no antennae TV reception, very poor Verizon and sometimes none, no internet, damn – we must be camping!  We did some night walking on the boardwalk down to the beach.  It was nice…..just a slight hummming of generators.  The waves covered up the little bit of noise.  I slept a straight 8 hours.  I can’t remember the last time I did that.  Carol slept pretty good too.

Wednesday.  We woke to the pounding of the nearby ocean waves hitting the beach.  It’s been a long time since we heard that.  Interesting morning without 110 power and on battery (2) power.  We’re at 12.3 volts if anyone is wondering.  Still dark out but the sun is coming up at 6:45 AM.  I went down to the showers to take a shower but changed my mine.  Why? No hot water!  Sorry, not that basic of a camper when there is no need to.  We got a gas fired hot water heater and I used it for sure.  The temps outside are 66 degrees and the same in the camper at 7:30 AM.  Not to shabby.

We moved closer when we saw this site become available.  It’s the best site (16) here.

The waves got bigger throughout the day and the temps were falling.

Thursday.  About 1 AM Thursday somebody turned on the wind machine.  Yes we knew about the gale wind warnings of 20-40 mph with sustained winds of 60 mph.  That little camper rocked and rolled all night long and the temps really dropped.

In the morning the wind was really howling and the waves were bashing down on the beach now.  OK, I’m a little slow.  It was now time to leave.  Now we got about 300 miles to get back to Livingston.  We had a strong head wind all the way.  Poor fuel mileage.  We got back about 4 PM and now they are calling for temps below freezing.  We got “stuff” spread out between the camper, the RV and the mobile.  Guess what?  19 more days and we head West.

Well, the little camper did pretty good and we did too all things consider.  No major screw ups for us.  Our maiden voyage to seek out any problems was accomplished with none found.  The camper is ready for Alaska and we are too!

See ya…………….