Habs on the Road

On New Years Eve, we headed toward one of our favorite places to stay, which is Gulf Waters RV Resort, in Port Aransas, TX.  We’re looking forward to our first real trip (to warm weather!) in the new motorhome!

We always try to get a site in the 740-750s section, facing the pond, because you’re a very short walk to the beach.  This time we got site 756 (last time we had 752 – here is the post from that trip).  The sites are so nice – paver patios / parking spot, furniture, palm trees and other nice landscaping, super clean, and SO close to the beach that you hear the waves from your motorhome.  Also, the beach buggy rentals make it even more fun!  During the winter, there are almost no people on the beach.  The only things we don’t like (very minor) are the heavy winds this area is known for, and the sand is not nearly as soft and white as it is in Destin.

Another thing I like about this place is that they have a photo of every site, so between that and Google satellite imagery, you know exactly what you’re getting.

The blue circle is where we are staying this time…the board walk is just a few steps away:

Here we go!!

Thanks to Mom and Dad for taking a video of us crossing over into Oklahoma!

We love these kiddos!!

Carla is driving for a while so I am kicking my legs up like Tripp!

When you get fuel in the diesel truck lanes, the fuel pump asks you if you have a reefer or tractor. We didn’t know what that meant the first time we got diesel fuel on our way home from Indiana…so we turned to Google!  There we were, standing at the pump without a smart phone trying to figure out how to choose the right option. Pretty funny!  It turns out that reefer is for refrigerated trucks and the diesel is taxed at a lower rate if you choose that option, but it has a dye inside of it so that law enforcement can tell if you’re using a lower tax diesel fuel in your non-reefer tractor.  In other words, choose “tractor” if you are in an RV!

Beautiful night for driving.  Avin took this neat photo!

One problem that surfaced while we were driving is that the dashboard lights blink when you try to dim them, kind of like when you use a non-dimmable bulb with a dimmer switch. What’s weird is that they used to work just fine when we first picked up the RV.  Also, when you turn on the left blinker, the left camera does not automatically come on like it should. Another thing that used to work and stopped working.  So far, those are the only issues we’ve uncovered in over 1000 miles of driving. Not bad, compared to our last RV!

While the New Year’s Eve ball is dropping in the city that never sleeps, we are staying in the parking lot that never sleeps!

Well, there were some questionable people lurking around in the parking lot so we decided to camp at a nice local RV campground.  Much quieter!

And hey, we celebrated the New Year with New York City!

CURSE YOU DALLAS!!!!!  

We made it to Corpus Christi!  Hello palm trees!!

The next morning, the temperature was awesome!

All checked in!  77 degrees out!!

Work area setup!

And off to the beach we go!

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Avin loves jumping over the waves!

Tripp joined him and did some kind of awesome crouching tiger, hidden dragon ninja jump!

We drove the beach buggy up the coast to downtown Port Aransas to get some groceries.  We were too late to get one of their massive cinnamon rolls….maybe tomorrow!

It was neat to hear the boys talking in the back seat all the way there and back.  We love that they will (hopefully) remember these times years from now.

On the way back, we stopped to look at the stars – SO dark out and neat to see so many stars right down to the ocean.  So many stars that the Orion constellation was covered in other stars.  Tripp saw a shooting star!

Gorgeous day today!!

Avin found a big dead Cannonball Jellyfish washed up on the beach….and immediately started beating it with a shovel!  Ha!

Last night I tried out the new fire pit, which is connected directly to the propane source on the RV. Really cool! Works great!

The last couple of days have been pretty uneventful. The weather cooled off into the 50s so not as good for hanging out at the beach. I did spend the end of my workday working from the beach buggy. Crowded beach!

Carla got me this awesome shirt for Christmas!

We’ve been figuring out how the tankless water heater works. We’ve had issues with it not turning on all the time, and I finally figured out that it is due to not enough water pressure. So, today I picked up an adjustable water pressure regulator with a psi gauge.  It seems to have fixed the problem.  Add this to the list of must-have’s for RVing!

 

OK, so after some more testing, the new pressure regulator appears to be helping, but the water heater will still turn off once in a while when it shouldn’t (which results in a not-so-fun burst of cold water while you’re taking a shower!).  After talking with the water heater manufacturer, it sounds like the most common cause of this is too little flow (different from PSI). The hot water heater needs at least 1.5 GPM or it won’t ignite. Low flow shower heads (think Seinfeld here…) are the most common cause for low water flow. I started a stopwatch to see how fast the shower head can fill up a gallon jug with just the hot water turned on. It was a little less than 1.5 GPM, so we are headed to Lowe’s to get a 2GPM high flow shower head.  If this doesn’t do the trick, it might be the small diameter coil hose I’m using to connect to the campground water supply.  We’re learning… I can see why people prefer the old tank style water heater, though.  Unless you figure all of this out, you’re stuck with a very frustrating shower experience.  

[UPDATE: Atwood called me back and told me a recall has been issued for the mixing valve on our unit. The replacement valve only requires 1 GPM in order to kick on the water heater.  Supposedly, it only takes about 10 minutes to swap it out once a repair shop has the part

As we were driving into Corpus Christi today, Carla noticed there is a lane dedicated to hurricane evacuations:

The lane has a hurricane symbol painted on it:

We’ve had some very strong winds the pas 24 hours!  Had a few dead palm branches get blown down. 

Love my new mug Mom and Dad got me. It’s a good night for hot chocolate (38° outside!).

The sun came back out today. Cold out, but going to explore anyway!

350lb whale skull that washed up on the shore!  It’s huge!!

The kids went “dry fishing” today!

I walked further out than the kids and Carla, as it’s pretty creepy and very cold out!

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Creepy….waves crashing while hopping across crevices with ocean water gushing in and out.  Can’t walk on the flatter rocks unless you want to get covered in water!

Getting on the ferry!

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This was fun until they were told they had to stop (for a really lame reason). Between that, and I don’t think a lot of the snowbirds here like to see kids at this resort, not sure we will be coming back here next winter.

I feel like Frank Costanza moving to Del Boca Vista!

But we did have fun today!

It’s neat seeing Christmas decorations in town:

The next day we took a boat over to San Jose island, which is a privately owned island but there is nothing built on it. The public can walk on the beaches and it’s known for how many seashells get washed up on the shore, but we also found that a ton of garbage washes up on the shore as well!

We saw lots of dolphins while we were waiting for the boat to come back!

Here comes our ride:

This guy brought back a giant piece of bamboo!

Kids are exhausted from all the beach combing!

We roasted hot dogs over a fire on the beach tonight.  It was a perfect evening!  The moon lit up the beach.

The next afternoon we relaxed on the beach. 69 degrees is perfect when it’s sunny!

The kids love jumping off the dune:

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