Time off is a relative thing.

Over six months, that is the amount of time its been since Toie and I have had any time off that didn't involve having to rig up or rig down the RV. Not that we haven't tried to have someone come out and keep an eye on things while we take a little much needed time for ourselves, it just seems to be "that" time of year.  We started upon our quest for a bit of time away over a month ago and it seems that the stars have not been aligned to our favor, so we kept soldiering on, the days becoming a never ending blur of traffic and dust.

We actually had an ulterior motive for taking the time. Lacey (daughter) moved from Missouri and has been staying with us so we figured on taking her to the coast and getting all the paperwork done so that she could make a little money and cover for us when we wanted a "date" night.  After many failed attempts of getting coverage for ourselves we finally decided that the girls would strike out for the coast on their own to get all the details taken care of and spend some time at the beach.

Yesterday morning Toie and Lacey made the 100+ mile, 2 hour drive across South Texas towards Corpus Christi. Traveling south on Highway 181 gives a glimpse and feel of what travel was like before the federal highway system existed.  Overgrown and abandoned roadside gas stations along with other "attractions" now barely visible hearken back to a time that the journey was part of the adventure, not just an inconvenient intermission to the destination.

Below are a few photos from that trip.

Corpus Christi Beach

Windmill near Taft, Texas

USS Lexington

Shrimp Boat in the Marina

Along the Waterfront

Standing on the seawall looking for fish in the water below

Its been awhile.

Just taking some time to sit outside and enjoy the day before it starts to storm.  I find that it makes it easier to deal with the traffic and Toie isn't disturbed so much.  We have been here in the Yorktown area for a couple weeks now and it seems to be a nice area.  We aren't far from Cuero and Victoria is only about 40 miles away.
As I wrote earlier, I got my ham license last month and have been really enjoying the hobby thus far.  We are a little remote to be able to access some of the repeaters with the handi-talkie so I have been playing with a program called Echo link.  I can "dial-in" to repeaters all over the country and world using my android devices and internet and not need a bulky HF radio and miles of wire for antennae.
Toie and I have started going through the RV and cleaning out some of the items we thought we would use but haven't done so yet. Taking our time doing so gives us something to do when traffic gets slow.
We have also made a conscious decision to change our approach to food in our lives.  We have become much pickier about the products we buy and are incorporating more fresh foods into our diet.  We have both become heavier since starting this adventure and don't wish to continue doing so.

The wind turbine has been working pretty well. I had to order an Any volt 3 to stabilize the output so that the charge entering the batteries would be a bit more consistent, especially at slow wind speeds. I shouldn't need to use the battery charger when we are sitting for long periods time to top off the starting battery as much/anymore. I set the turbine up the other day and it immediately garnered a bit of attention from people entering and exiting. I even managed to score a few more stickers for the tail fin on it.