Beachwalk Magnolia Bay a few days before 2012 Christmas

These are some of the prettiest pictures taken by Lisa,  mine kind of suck but I included them anyway,  enjoy.

'

What do you think Sheila, this one?

Christmas Day 2012 Magnolia Beach 2012

We are about one hundred miles from Houston on Christmas Day.  The following videos are self explanatory.  That night the little popup Castle withstood crosswinds of at least sixty miles an hour of which I am sure of.  There were tornadoes spotted in the area.  Anyway a very memorable Christmas for Lisa and myself.

W

Sunset over marshes at Magnolia Beach Texas

My woman at Magnolia Beach

Yup were in texas

The Castle

Gulf Coast baby

First mobile post from the Beanery coffee shop in Columbus TX

Columbus, Texas bike ride

Set out on a Rideabout yesterday in the kind of beautiful town of Columbus Texas and took the following pictures.  Very cool, this being Colorado County is where the very first Texas Rangers come to be in the 1820's  Ten of them to be exact.  You will just have to read on.

Oh, and by the way the reason we are here is to visit the Sister in Law, Linda Johnson.  And a nice visit it has been.  Complete with BBQ

So these next pictures came at a rather significant blow to my self esteem.  After standing on the Bridge for fifteen minutes or so, bending over the railing taking many informative and beautiful pictures, this IS the Colorado River by the way.  Unbeknownst to myself a number of folks had called, or so the Coppers told me later, that there was a jumper on the bridge.  About twenty minutes of constant interrogation and me having to  tell them over and over that I had no idea where I was staying, let alone the address, nor could I remember Linda's last name. ( It is Johnson, I was later told).  Anyway, after running my Drivers License, which I was fortunate to have on my person, they decided that I must be telling the truth and cut me loose.  I guess the dead body that was found a week earlier speculated as a drug or gang thing didn't have anything to do with it.  Anyway enjoy my beautiful pictures of Large Turtles swimming and sunning that you can hardly see.

Next day bike ride

                                These monster turtles are everywhere on the river in central Austin

                                                   Really need to take a lot more pictures

Gorgeous view from both sides of the pedestrian bridge.  Short ride of  about eight miles.  Austin is
absolutely a cool and beautiful city.

For fun I set out with the camera one day and played around with Windows Movie Maker.  I shrunk about an hour and a half of video into a little over four minutes.  It shows the cool lakeside trail in Austin that I have come to enjoy riding on as well as the drive back.  Don't look for Spielberg or Lucas here.

Just a sidebar

December 11, 2012 Decided to take a break and go bicycle riding in Zilker park in Austin Texas, on the Zilker park Hike and Bike trail.  Started out looking like this.

                                                             Really?

I slogged for two and a half miles of this doing more walking than riding and yes imagining what a fall might do to a fifty eight year old guy with a beat up old body like mine.  And yes, there were young guys blurring past me on mountain bikes.  Makes you  want to cry.

Early preparations

When we decided to do this some months earlier we took inventory of what we had.

Our raw materials included a 1982 deteriorating popup tent trailer that I had purchased from my brother six years earlier but had sat parked outside in the weather, the tires allowed to go flat. It had been used only a couple of times over the years but mostly just sat. A new battery, tires and safety chains and some internet time to see what  could be done for modifications, specifically a neat little site I found called popup portal. I figured  how to lubricate the cables. The converter and furnace were tested and although decades old, have been working great.   Alittle bit of glue here and there some, new screws and a smoke and carbon dioxide detector. The floor has been fortified (was getting a little soft in the middle). The sink broke but was able to be repaired by an eclectic number of plumbing parts from Home Depot. We made some purchases of some fairly neat equipment. One, a Coleman brand stove and oven combo. Two a table BBQ and three, a Coleman Power Chiller purchased from Wal Mart that seemed an impressive little gadget until it died after only a couple of weeks use. Pulling the trailer is a 2002 Sport Traq that is also holding up well to date. We have had a number of mechanical issues but we seem to be able to stay on top of them so far.