Wednesday, 11 February - Went to look at a vessel that a fellow had "spared no expense" repairing after he bought it on eBay and fixed it up for cruising. It had been damaged in hurricane Ike. Well it appeared that he had done a pretty good job repairing the rails, mast replacement, etc., but it still has a long way to go. He had put in some pretty impressive electronics. When he took me back to my motor home, which was parked right across the street from the Bay Yacht Club, he noticed that the present Commodore of the club was there and took me over and introduced me. The Commodore invited me to a dinner Saturday night at the club. Mardi Gras! Perhaps that will lead to some contacts for crewing or other boat for sale. I also asked if I could charge my laptop in their clubhouse for an hour or so and spent the time making some new friends.

Thursday, 12 February - I spent most of the morning online looking for boats to view and my computer battery got pretty low again. I've been able to charge the battery on my phone via the cigarette lighter socket in the motor home, but not my laptop or iPod. That afternoon, I remembered that I had an old 12v dc to 125v ac transverter on board from out of our garage at home. (See, that's why I brought so much stuff, I might need it). There was only part of the instructions on the devise, so I thought I'd better test the output. I needed a 9v battery, so I looked up the nearest electronics supplier via Google on my iPhone and walked about a mile over there to buy a battery. No such business exists at that address. One probably did years ago. I took another route back and happened upon an All-A-Dollar. Problem solved. I found out that the transverter actually outputs 132 volts, but figured that would be within tolerance. It charges my MacBook pretty fast. Now I don't need to stay at an RV campsite for electricity unless I'm not driving anywhere. I have an auxiliary generator, but I hate to run it just to charge a battery or two. If I am driving each day, I can charge my electronics off my automotive batteries and recharge the automotive batteries as I drive.
            I had noticed when I went to the trailer to get the transverter that a seam in the roof of the trailer had been leaking. It hasn't been raining, but we get heavy condensation on the outside of vehicles each night and it's been leaking into the trailer. I spent the rest of the afternoon taping up the roof of the trailer with aluminum HVAC tape that I brought along. (See, that's why I brought so much stuff, I might need it).

Friday the 13th - Again, researching boats for sale in this area all morning. After lunch, I had made an appointment to see a boat over in Aransas Pass on Mustang Island, so I set the GPS and headed out. It tried to take me through a military base, so I had to turn around and that really threw it out of whack. I have no idea how many times it tried to tell me to turn around. It sounded angry!...and I got that way, too. I shut it off.
                  I finally found the marina and as I got out of the motor home, the security guy for the marina approached me and asked if I needed help. He gave me good directions to the vessel, then, upon realizing that I'm looking for a sailboat, he said that he'll be working all night, go to bed about 7am, then get up around 4pm, but that I should get back to him on Sunday. He knows virtually everyone on the island and can probably give me some leads to boats for sale.
                  The boat that I was here to see has an absentee owner in Austin, so I had the whole evening to my self on the boat. No-one to answer questions, but no-one to tell me lies, either. I really got to look in all the nooks and crannies and see how everything worked, or didn't. It was another one of those boats that the owner "had spared no expense" making recent repairs. This one really was in pretty good shape and had lots of storage, but I realized after about 2 hours, that it really is set up as a day or weekend sailer; not a cruiser. The dead giveaway was when I realized that it had a microwave, but no stove or oven. Well, at least now I know that that model has potential.
                  I couldn't stay there overnight, but the security guy had told about a place on the beach only a few blocks away I could park for the night. I wish I had gotten here in daylight. It really is right on the beach and there are fishermen fishing by lamplight, kids (and adults) telling stories by campfires, boomboxes booming, and other guys doing doughnuts in the sand with their pickups. Quite the party! It will be interesting to see what it looks like in the morning. Maybe some sailboarding is in the wind! I get to meet a guy about a boat around 2:00pm tomorrow.

Saturday, 14 February 2015 - Wow! What a great beach! Virtually flat, about 100 yards wide and miles long. Lots of porpoises in the water. The sand is moist and very firm. Easy to drive on, even with this 20,000 lb. rig. Jean Labrie would like this; two minutes from the beach to the golf course. I cooked breakfast, walked the beach for a while, took a shower and headed out to view a boat. It was mentioned that the boat was parked in the back yard of the owner. I had presumed it was out of the water. Wrong. It was one of those posh developments that every house is on the water an your boat is parked next to your patio. I learned later that, as good as that sounds, it's really about 20 miles to where you can actually sail. That's a lot of canals to motor through. Anyway, nice boat, but not for me. These last two sailboats are rigged for day or weekend sailing, not living aboard.
                  I headed back to the mainland to go to the Mardi Gras party at the Bay Yacht Club. The food was prepared by one of the couples in the club and it was absolutely wonderful. Shrimp gumbo, crawfish cornbread, dirty cajun rice, and a couple of other items. Sooooooo Good. A casual, but very friendly group. I made some friends and found out about a couple of boats to look at. I also got invited to go to breakfast with a group of sailors on Sunday morning.

Sunday, 15 February - Up around 7:30, so I had time to kill before the 9:30 breakfast with the sailors, so I vacuumed the motor home out and cleaned up in general. After breakfast I went to the grocery store, then found a laundromat, but it was so busy that I decided to put washing clothes off a little longer. I'd never have thought than noon on Sunday on a holiday weekend would be a busy time for a laundromat, BUT IT IS!! As I headed back to my usual parking spot in a park across from the beach, I noticed a sign about a large swap meet, so I turned around and drove a couple of miles back to it. I've been wanting a bicycle to use for short trips, exercise, and getting to know an area when I arrive. It'll be better than driving around in this big rig, and will let me park in an easy spot that I know I can get out of, then ride the bike a few blocks to some store that can't handle my rig.
                  I actually found a pretty nice bike. A little small, but it has front and rear shocks, 15 gears, fairly fat tires for riding on sandy beaches, and is in fairly good condition. Small will be good. If I put it on my sailboat, I won't have much room. I'll just use it till it rusts up so bad it can't be used. I spent a couple of hours adjusting the brakes and derailleur, and oiling it up good, but it has a leaky front tire. I'll need to find a tube repair kit tomorrow. My back got tired leaning over working on the bike, so I walked over to the marina to look at the boats and had a brief encounter with one of the sailors I'd had breakfast with.
                  I had just gotten back to the motor home when a fellow came over and asked where to get gas. He'd already walked about a mile each way along the road beside the sea and had found a station, but it had no gas. We Googled the nearest gas station and he said that's the one he found. He said was tired, so he'd just sleep in his truck 'til morning, then try again. I told him I had a couple of gallons in gas cans in my trailer. We poured in the gas from one can and figured that would get him to a station. It wouldn't even get the truck started, so I returned and got the other gas can. He asked how much he owed me and I said "nothing." When you've run out of gas it's a great time to have something nice happen. He said "thanks" and that he'd be back to repay me. I knew he wouldn't, and he didn't.
                  It's pretty blustery out this evening. 66 degrees F. at 9:00pm and their predicting much cooler temperatures and some rain for the next few days. We'll see.
                  I hear fireworks....or a war. I think I'll go for a short walk on the beach. Lots of skateboarders on the beach-side sidewalk down here.

Monday, 16 February - Repaired the leaking tire on my "new" bicycle and spent time trying to figure out how iCloud works and putting images into it. Watched "Castle" on TV. I missed about 1/3 of the show because I couldn't figure out why I couldn't get electricity to my TV with the generator running. I'm such a rookie at all of this...still. It was windy and cold all day, now it's midnight and it is raining. We had a 20 degree temperature drop during the day today.

Tuesday, 17 February - I thought I'd go see the USS Lexington, but I had to go to the bank to get a document notarized. After driving around several blocks, I found a parking spot long enough my 48 foot rig, so I commenced parallel parking it. Well, since I can't see the trailer unless it is starting to go crooked, it's not easy to back up, much less parallel park. Because of the crown of the road and the height of my rig, 12 feet, I new I would be hanging over beyond the edge of the road and there was a sign pole and a tree very close to the curb. I was having to be very observant. I didn't want to ruin my roof or the awning rigging. The rig is so long that it is very hard to judge distance in the outside rear view mirrors, and there isn't an inside rear view mirror. The trailer would completely block that view anyway. The vehicle weighs so much, 17,000 lb. that I really can't tell what the 5,000 lb. trailer is doing by feel. Well, not only that, but I didn't realize how broken up the curbing was. I got the trailer wheels against the curb and ripped the sidewall out on one of them. The vehicle was leaning far too far to try changing the tire there so I drove a block, the tire was ruined anyway, and got lucky and found a business that had an area large enough to park out of the way and change the tire, then I walked up to the bank. Couldn't find my driver's license. Panic!!! Back to motor home and found it in my check book. Relief. It was so late that I decided to postpone the visit to the Lexington and go do something else exciting. I washed clothes.
                  After washing, I returned to my usual parking spot in the park and went bike riding along the seawall for about an hour. Dinner and some reading followed.

Wednesday, 18 February - I think I'll go see the USS Lexington today, but first I need to find a corner mailbox. They all seem to have disappeared. Are they passé?

            Until next time,
                        I hope YOU have a great day.