Life In Texas Lately

After picking up our new 13' Scamp travel trailer in Minnesota in mid-December, we hit the road again and headed down South towards Texas to begin looking for our next sailboat. Here's what life has been like lately for us in Lone Star State.

The best thing about our time in Texas has to be our Scamp travel trailer, or Scamper, as we like to call her. Scamper is our new full-time home while we're on the road. With approximately 65 sq ft/6 sq mtrs of living space, this is some real tiny house living! Whenever the weather is nice, we've been enjoying expanding our living space outdoors. Although she is small, Scamper is adorable. I'll have to do a post at some point so you all can "meet" Scamper and see what she looks like inside.

Along the way, we've visited a few more National Park Service properties including three national parks - Big Bend in southwestern Texas along the Mexican border (amazing night skies and a meteor shower!), Guadalupe Mountains in northwestern Texas near the New Mexico border (our first experience "camping" in a parking lot) and nearby Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico (if you didn't know better, you would think you were on another planet). We also added a National Seashore to our list (that's Padre Island National Seashore in the picture above), as well as spent a night at a campground in the Amistad National Recreation Area - both of which are in Texas. Wow, this is one amazingly beautiful and diverse country!

As we were in Big Bend National Park over Christmas, we decided to pop across the Rio Grande River (by rowboat) to have lunch in Boquillas, Mexico. While we were there, we saw Santa handing out presents to the kids. So cute! After a few hours in Mexico, we headed back across the river to the States and had our traditional Christmas curry and screening of Monty Python's Life of Brian. It ranks right up there as one of the most interesting Christmases we've had - Mexican food in Mexico for lunch, followed by Indian food at a campground in Texas.

We're currently hanging out in southeastern Texas near Kemah on the Galveston Bay. The Kemah area is a perfect place to kick off our quest for our next sailboat - it is one of the largest boating centers in the States. We spent New Year's Eve day poking around some of the marinas and drooling over the sailboats. While there doesn't seem to be a lot of sailboats for sale in the area that meet our requirements, there are a few that I think we'll have a look at next week. (If you're interested, you can find a list of posts about what we're looking for in terms of our next sailboat here.)

Our laptop decided to stop working at the beginning of December which caused me to suffer from serious internet/blogging/social media withdrawal. While we do have an iPad, it just isn't the same thing as using our laptop. I was all set to cave in and buy a new computer when Scott suggested we try fixing it ourselves. We suspected that the issue was with the fan, so we ordered a replacement one for around $50. It arrived this week and, armed with some tiny screwdrivers, Scott took apart the laptop, disconnected all sorts of scary looking things and replaced the fan. Presto - problem solved! And, more importantly, a lot of money saved by not buying a new laptop. We're back in business! You should see us back to our regular blogging schedule - of course, provided we can get internet access while on the road.

That's what life has been like for us lately in Texas. What's been happening where you are?

Linked up with Bonnie Rose for Travel Tuesday.