Itchy Feet

Knew there was something up with me when I started thinking fondly of memories of dragging myself around hot and humid Kolkata streets!

So I set off for a day in San Antonio about 3 hours away from Rockport - site of The Alamo, a wonderful 2+ mile riverwalk that winds through the city, and other fabulous old buildings like the Spanish Governor's House....

I walked all around downtown in the heat & no Air Con. Bliss! Suffered a bit this morning from rusty joints.



Last week I went to an exhibition at the local surf museum in Corpus Christi, of South Texas women surfers since the 60s.


Very excited to find a star in the pavement outside the museum for Reverend Horton Heat.
They were inducted just the previous weekend into the Corpus Christi Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame. Can't believe my mistiming - it would have been so good to have heard them again. Heard them for the first time about 5 years ago at the East Coast Blues Festival.




Been touring around local landmarks lately too.

Here's Donna searching the shallows at Port Aransas, a local island surfing beach where we spent a lovely evening after work this week. This photo was taken about 7pm and there was lots of daylight still.


Liz and I went kayaking at Rattlesnake Point, the back bay, the next morning. We shared the canals and lakes with ducks, pelicans, and some black clouds that hovered but never quite made rain.



Apart from that, Liz and I have been having fun searching the internet for old buddies, waking them up with 5 am phone calls and being very proud of their achievements. Hope we don't lose touch again!

Dancin' in Rockport

Back again!I'm here in Rockport Texas which is a bit like Queenscliff but much bigger, with beautiful cranes and pelicans strutting, diving and generally swanning and flying around the bay. Hurricane season has just 'opened' - - Liz being Liz, is of course, well prepared for all emergencies and surprises.

I'm really enjoying staying in one place, although we are off for a short trip to Mexico at the beginning of July and maybe I'll head to Guatemala for a week or two after that.

Had a great road trip to get here. Drove across the Everglades then up the Florida coast and around the Gulf through Alabama, Missisippi to New Orleans where I stopped over.
It was so good to finally make it there but I missed having a mate, so on through Louisiana to Texas. Just great being here - we may be 27 or so years older but it feels like we're in the middle of the same conversation we were having then!

So dancing in Texas..did this great class at the local gym today - body jam in slow motion! a class of oldies led by an old girl who is a great dancer! I loved it and I will go again next week for sure. Not at all what I expected but I had a lot of fun. Many, many people in this country are obese, it really is frightening. It's good to be with people who aren't afraid to exercise.

Not sure what else I do each day but seem to be very busy helping Liz and hanging out with Donna - she's my main yoga, cooking and shopping buddy. Liz and I went to the annual Shrimporee in Aransas Pass last Saturday - here she is being cool - what you can't see is the C&W music stage that I think just blew her mind! I stuffed myself on shrimp and enormous 'pufftaloons'.

In the meantime I have now achieved certain lifetime goals:

Seen the Chrysler building up close,Been through the bayou ...crossed the Suwannee and Missisippi Rivers..
Ordered (but did not eat!) biscuits and gravy and grits for breakfast at the local diner....I have come across my first person named Lamar (from a distance only)
Passed a ten-gallon hat driving a pick-up truck
Eaten fried green tomatoes...cornbread...gumbo and oyster po'boys in New Orleans

Stay tuned for future ticks on the checklist - expect to add soda fountain and drive-in diner in the not too distant future.

Tomorrow I'm in Corpus Christi to go to the Texas Women Texas Waves photo exhibition at the Surf Museum - a pilgrimage for my mate Helen!