Florida to Arizona to Texas

The last two weeks Jim and I spent apart.  Jim wanted to work a Habitat for Humanity build, so I decided to visit family while he pounded nails.

Dade City

Jim and I made our way from Georgia down to Dade City, Florida, the site of the Habitat build.  Jim would be working with the Care-A-Vanners.  This is a group of people that travel with their RVs to various Habitat sites around the country to assist with building houses.  He linked up with this group through our FMCA membership (i.e. the rally we were just at).  As a result, he already knew two of the other participants from a previous build he worked on in Wisconsin.

This is the camping facility provided by Habitat.  It is in the middle of the neighborhood being brought back to life by Habitat.  It’s not fancy, but it had full hook ups, free laundry and WiFi…all for $12 a night.  That’s an excellent deal!

Left house – before Jim’s two weeks started.  Just a foundation.

Right house – before Jim’s two weeks started.  The building is waiting for trusses.

Both houses, after Jim’s two weeks.  The trusses are all up on the right house and most of the walls on the left house are framed in.

Jim thoroughly enjoyed the two weeks he spent on the build. He probably sweated off 10 pounds of water each day in the heat. But the crew worked well together and they really accomplished a lot. Jim would definitely do it again.

Green Valley

While Jim was hammering nails, I flew to Green Valley, Arizona to visit my Dad.  I’ve blogged about Green Valley before, so there isn’t much to add.  Dad is doing well.  I filled his freezer with crock pot meals, finalized his taxes, etc.  I did take a few pictures.

This is the view from my Dad’s front yard.  It never gets old.

From the backyard, you also have amazing mountain views.  No complaints from me!

The wildflowers were blooming outside the rec center.  I tried to look up what these were, but had no luck.  So we will just call them “pretty flowers”.

We needed to visit Costco and In-N-Out Burger is right next door. That is always a MUST VISIT place when in Tucson.  I’m only posting this picture so my brother gets jealous.

Galveston

After a week at my Dad’s, I then flew to Houston.  There I was met by Janelle and Callie (who flew in 2 hours before me).  The Goeke girls were in Galveston, Texas!!  Yahoo!  There I did take a bunch of pictures.

Our first task was to walk the beach!

Corinne, Callie and Janelle – soaking in the Vitamin D

We took a lot of beach walks that week.  Ahhhh!

Pay attention to the beach condition flags.  I never did see it green the entire time we were in Galveston.

I know the name of these dune flowers!  (Credit to Janelle for telling me).  Oenothera Drummondii – beach evening primrose.

There are reminders all over Galveston that this is a barrier island subject to hurricanes.

A house one street over from Janelle has this sign hanging.  Hurricane Ike hit the island in 2008.  Most of the houses (including Janelle’s) are built 10 feet off the ground.

I had Callie stand at curb along the Strand (aka Main Street).  The curb came up to her knees.  That is to keep the storm surge from coming in the stores on the Strand.

This really shows how high the curbs are.  It’s three steps from street level up to sidewalk level.

As long as we are talking about the downtown area, here are some street murals we saw.

It was a pretty low key week for us, we concentrated on family time. We did venture out to the Moody Aquarium to see what they had.

There were multiple tanks of Jellyfish.

Janelle enthusiastically stuck her hand into the touch tank.  This Sting Ray was checking out Janelle’s arm to see if it edible.  After a few passes, he gave up.  But Janelle was thrilled!

Here’s my scientist (who studies Mangrove encroachment on sea grasses) critiquing the museum’s signage.

No, these aren’t real penguins, but the humans are real.  I couldn’t resist taking a picture of Janelle and Callie.

One afternoon Callie needed to get some work done. So I had Janelle take me on the Galveston-Port Bolivar ferry.  This free car ferry takes travelers between Galveston Island and the Bolivar Peninsula.

The ferry goes from the east end of Galveston Island to the Bolivar Peninsula jutting off the mainland.  If you were to drive only on land to make this trip, it would take you 1 1/2 hours.

Here we are leaving Galveston Island while another ferry is arriving in Galveston.

This is the other ferry passing us.  The ferry ships can use either end as the bow, so the ferrys never have to turn around to dock.

Janelle took me to a jetty on the Bolivar Peninsula to see what was what.

This is a plot of dead salt marsh near the entrance to the jetty.  It took a real hit this past winter when Galveston had a cold snap.  The unusually cold weather killed it off.   It will interesting to see if it revives.

Janelle took a walk out WAY OUT onto the jetty to look for fiddler crabs (you can barely spot her).  She uses the crabs in her research.  This view also shows the the commercial ship traffic coming into the Port of Galveston.

Success!  Janelle found caught some fiddler crabs.

Fiddler crabs, up close and personal.

I shot some video of Janelle’s fiddler crabs. View below or use this link: https://youtu.be/-8KEYRWD1Xk

Once the crabs are caught, they need to go into the tanks at the Sea Life Facility at Texas A&M University – Galveston (Janelle’s graduate school, also known as TAMUG).

Here Janelle puts the crabs into their new home.

This sink and accompanying sign in the Seal Life Facility make me laugh.  When was the last time you got salt water out of a tap?

One of Janelle’s fellow grad students is studying alligators.  There were six of them in their own tanks.

Janelle uses sand in her studies.  Apparently some previous researcher was putting sand down the drain and plugged things up.  Janelle found a tire rut outside the loading doc and is putting her used sand there.  She should have this rut filled up about the time she is ready to graduate.

Our final stop at TAMUG was Janelle’s office.  She and her office mate both had rubber ducks when starting school.  Let the duck wars begin.  Janelle (on the right) is currently ahead. 

On our last full day in Texas, Janelle had to go up to College Station (main campus of Texas A&M University aka TAMU) and give a presentation at an Ecology Symposium.  So Callie and I joined her.

Janelle giving her talk on her research.  She did a great job!

The Texas A&M greeting is “Howdy”.  You find it everywhere.  Even the elevators say “Howdy” when you first enter them.

Believe it or not, this is the grave site for the still living President George H.W. Bush and Barbara Bush on the grounds of the Bush Presidential Library in College Station.  Even there you get greeted with “Howdy.”

The Bluebells were blooming!!!!  Jim and I arrived in Texas last year too late to see them.  This year they were in abundance.  This little gnome belongs to Janelle and her high school friend Laura.  It’s going to travel with us back to New York.  He is known for getting into trouble.  You’ve been warned.

That concludes our last two weeks. We are now slowly heading north. Don’t expect us to show up until it quits snowing in Rochester.  We’ve gotten used to the warm weather.

7 thoughts on “Florida to Arizona to Texas

  1. dominiquefeather

    Sounds/looks like both you and Jim had a good 2 wks. Wish I could tag along with Janelle!!! Perhaps she needs an assistant? I couldn’t do anything with the computer though. Hope you found some campsites for stops along the way north.

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