Busy – and lazy – Texas days

Dec. 11 – 24, 2007

The only hustle and bustle appears to be the local Walmart and HEB supermarket. The RV park is relatively quiet. This can partly be attributed to the cold front that came through. Winter sweaters and scarves came back out.

“The way I see it, if you want the rainbow,

you gota put up with the rain.”

So wrote singer Dolly Parton.

So if I want warm winter weather, I must put up with it being occasionally cold. One chilly, cloudy day I walked to the beach and took this photo.

It got downright cold (high in 50s, low in 30s) a couple days, making them great days to hunker down inside Jeremiah to read. And in between the cold times, you could find the Winnies bicycling around in short-sleeved t-shirts! The Rockport/Fulton area terrain is fairly flat and there are lots of tree-lined streets allowing us to avoid Business 35 highway.

Fishing is big here and there many opportunities to buy fresh seafood, restaurants specializing in seafood, and some folks even buy from the boats as they return in the late afternoon.

Bicycling along the bay provides plenty of entertainment from the birds. Carol Rayburn took this photo sequence of a pelican.

Later she got this photo showing the pelican’s wingspan.

At the twice-monthly farmers market at Fulton beach, I got the most delicious head of cauliflower. And I got acquainted with the gal who has a vegetable garden – and got an invitation to come to her farm in January.

Dinner one evening was at Captain Benny’s where I had some delicious fish tacos. Another evening we ate at Moon Dog. This bay-front eatery has three areas: inside, outside in a sheltered patio and out in the open air alongside the water.

The Winter Texan fish fry I wrote about previously was just the beginning of activities. Fulton also held a 4-day Christmas in Fulton event at the harbor. Roberta and I went for three of the four evenings to enjoy the variety of musical entertainment. Cookies and hot chocolate also were served.

Each night the town former mayor and current town mayor (father and son) kept things lively. One evening the former mayor got volunteers to “make the mayor and the sheriff into snowmen/santas” using a roll of toilet paper. Lot of laughs. The next night as they promoted the Oyster (many locals pronounce it ‘or-ster’ or 'er-ster') Festival in February; and gave away cute oyster buckets – I was one of the lucky recipients.

On Day 4 of the Christmas celebration, Santa arrived on a fire engine with sheriff escorts. Here you’ll see the Fulton mayor leading Santa into the large tent where he handed out candy canes to children.

I discovered line dancing classes at Paws and Taws “convention center”. This facility on Fulton Beach was built by the local square dance community. It felt good to be back on the dance floor.

My current book, which keeps me entertained on cold days and long winter evenings, is a biography of Theodore Roosevelt (author is Edmond Morris).

Tonight’s Christmas Eve celebration will be dinner for park residents in the clubhouse. And tomorrow morning is a potluck brunch.

I’m certainly enjoying my time here. And that time is made sweeter by my Winter Texan Winnies. I am blessed.