Back on the grid!

 Whohoo! I am back again!

Boy, that was a long break. It took a while until I got myself a new charger and then – nothing. 

Well, actually two things happened. 

1: I experienced a writer's block. It suddenly seemed unimportant to write about mundane things happening around me.

2: overuse of social media drained too much attention from other things to do.

Bleeding Heart with Bumble Bee

And so: spring.....

Anja and Rolf

and summer....

Monarch Butterfly on Common Valerian

and fall came and went. 

Millcove Pond

And now winter – we are on the road again!

58m high "Rainbow Bridge", Port Arthur, Texas.        

This time hubby Peter decided to try a place in south-western Texas for our winter destination. 

His research showed an “average” daily winter temperature about 69 F (16.C). 

Happily forgetting in the equation that there might be wide deviations from an “average”. 

We quickly found out that the usual Texas winter weather seems to be cold, windy and damp for about 2.5 month (Nov 15 – Feb), interspaced with a few warmer, sunnier days. 

Canadian cold fronts pushing through on a regular basis producing high winds and lots of chilly days and drizzling fog.

I seemed we met the last warm day when we arrived in Magnolia Beach, TX on Nov 10. 

Brown Pelican and Gulls

We sat in the shade of the trailer in 82F (28C) and enjoyed the pristine white shell beach and the blue water. Beautiful!

The next day dawned with overcast skies and in the afternoon a stormy cold front swept in. Our trailer rocked for two days, the grit flying. Then it started to rain. 

Crested Caracara

OK, we thought, the Gulf Coast is not a winter destination for us 

and off we went towards Falcon Heights City Park, near Roma, TX. 

Falcon Heights City Park

Vermillion Flycatcher

We arrived in the evening in balmy 68F (20C) and sat up camp. Happy to finally be where we wanted to boondock (= without electricity, water) for the winter months, no? No!

The following morning arrived with clouds and cooler temperatures. Another cold front? 

Great Kiskadee

Unperturbed we went to check out the small "Salieneño Wildlife Sanctuary" where we saw some pretty colourful birds
and then did some necessary shopping and laundry afterwards. 

Altamira Oriole

Green Jay

That was the end of the good weather.

Yes, another cold front moved in, the clouds hung low and lower and a constant light rain drenched the area for 5 days in a row now.

 Our nice “sandy” spot turned out to be mostly clay. 

Clay roads after the rain

And wet clay sticks to your boots immediately. 

Clay sticking to my boots

Walking Dixie was no fun anymore. Not to mention that the place is chuck full of field-grass burrs that stick to the dog's paws and everything else. 

With 5 days of overcast skies our solar panels evidently have been almost useless, and we are just glad to have a generator that produces electricity for us. Our propane heating system works overtime to keep us warm. So what?

Bliss turned to misery. What had we done? Miscalculated our travel destination? Obviously we have to do some evaluating and rearranging. 

Cold and rainy days have arrived

Translation 

___________________________________________

Da bin ich mal wieder!

Hat ja ziemlich lange gedauert. Ich habe mein Ladegerät ausgewechselt und dann die Lust am Schreiben verloren. 

Oder so.

Nun sind wir aber wieder auf Reisen. Dieses Mal in Richtung Südwest Texas. Mal was Anderes als Kalifornien. Haben wir gedacht. 

Aber seit unserer Ankunft hat uns das gute Wetter im Stich gelassen. Oder, besser gesagt, wir haben uns verhauen. Wir haben herausgefunden daß der Winter in Texas meistens kalt und grau ist, ein paar warme Tagen nicht zu vergessen. 

Da haben zu viele kanadische Kaltfronten ihre Hände im Spiel. Bis Februar ist angeblich keine Wetterbesserung in Aussicht. Sandige Stellplätze verwandeln sich zu klebrigem Lehm. Winterstürme schütteln den Wohnwagen und kleine Kletten hängen an unseren Kleidern/ Schuhen und Dixie´s Pfoten.  Es wird ziemlich viel Propangas verbraucht damit wir es warm haben. Unsere Voltaranlage auf dem Dach ist sozusagen auch zu nichts mehr nützlich. Da muß der Generator ran. 

Das macht keinen Spaß mehr. Nach 10 Tagen miesem Wetter sitzen wir nun da und überlegen was für Alternativen es für uns gibt.